Always Slower to Get on the Offensive Than the Pro Kids — What to Do?
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column in a question-and-answer format. The mystery figures answering are two former national team members, both now veteran coaches. So the “Reaching the Summit” column was born.
When the younger Lebrun serves, placing the index finger that way — is there any point to it?
More power, deeper ball-grip, gripping closer to the head for a clearer feel, using the strength of the thumb-index web. A normal penhold serve mainly uses finger and wrist strength, not the web; he uses it all. Similar in principle to Waldner’s serve.
Against a hook serve with a bit of masking, it is hard to judge topspin, underspin or no-spin, and even well-served weak top/underspin — how do I judge?
For weak-topspin and weak-underspin short balls, if you cannot judge clearly: for penhold, the receiving method is to squeeze. For shakehand, mainly receive the side of the ball — keep the wrist still, hold a bit of tension in the wrist, brace the ball with the center of gravity, and side-slice with the forearm. If you can side-flick, even better. Weak spin can all be flicked — you can ignore top or under, because it is not very spinny anyway; just contact the side of the ball, where the spin is weaker, and flick treating it as no-spin.
When I get hot-headed in a match, I just want to fire and rip the opponent dead, with no variation. Should I add some high hangs? How to play with more variation, and how to control it?
If you fire but cannot rip the opponent dead, with no effect, your attack is ineffective. Two possible reasons. One: you err a lot, with poor continuous loop-driving ability. The other: the opponent defends very steadily. A steady defender has several necessary conditions: one, he can defend with the center of gravity; two, he is very adapted to your spin and rhythm; three, your lines are not open enough, the angles not wide enough, so his center stays stable while moving; four, you have no wobble moves to interfere with him; five, your rhythm and spin variations are too few. To win, you must either solve your poor continuous loop-driving, or break these five conditions of the opponent. Left-right, long-short, fast-slow, drive and hang, straight and cross, real and fake loops, plus the wobble-drive — the opponent cannot defend it all. Scoring does not necessarily rely on power. Especially against an opponent you know very well, who judges your lines, power, spin and rhythm very clearly and defends with ease. The more familiar the opponent, the easier to defend, because the lines are too familiar — which also shows you lack variation.
Now I cannot beat the pro kids; though win rates are about even, I am always slower to get on the offensive and can only stall. What do I do?
Because you have not practiced in a fine, very specific way. You can only get on the offensive against familiar balls. The pro kids are different — after passing the fundamentals, they all do multi-ball practice, practicing serve-and-attack and control-then-attack. The skilled ones get on the offensive straight off the receive; weaker ones get on the offensive after one transition. So they have the upper hand in matches. Even when they defend one ball, they transition the angle a bit and counter-loop or counter-attack on the next. Second, their attacking awareness is very strong — they get on the offensive with the slightest chance, while your play is unstable and you cannot get on the offensive. That is the difference. If you want to win, first rely on control. If the opponent gets on the offensive fast and attacks fiercely, let him get on the offensive, but do not let him produce quality, then suppress him with the power of your counter-loop or counter-attack. The kids are relatively fast, but their ball quality is not too high. Mainly vary the rhythm — fast-slow, long-fast-penetrating — so the opponent cannot produce quality. Pair it with an angle. With a wide angle, the opponent’s next ball’s quality will be lower, and then you can back off and counter-loop or counter-rip. First, rely on serve-and-rip, settling it in one shot. If receiving, you can only keep the opponent from producing high quality, then counter-loop or counter-attack.