I have been following the advice you guys gave me, and been training my smash defense for about a week. Frankly, I recently played him again, and I actually could catch around 50% of his smashes. They aren't that impressive really, they just make a tremendous sound which leads people to believe that his smashes are powerful.
This is very possible he is using a loud string a low tension(ex. BG-85 or something at lower then 20 lbs) to use a a intimidation factor. I wold follow the advice of the previous commenters and do a bit of mental training, if the sound of this guys smash scares you or you get nervous and get anxiety will playing your playing a mental game and you have to work that too. good luck
I've noticed my smashes seem to be frequently loud yet moderately slow in speed, does that mean my tension is too low for me?
I thought the loudest sounds come at around 22-25lbs tension (I think, dont' quote me on this), and as you get higher, you get more high pitched pings instead of lower booms.
