Struggling Against Unfamiliar Opponents? Here's How to Adapt Fast
Struggling Against Unfamiliar Opponents?
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column in a Q&A format. The mystery experts answering your questions are two former national team members (both seasoned coaches) who prefer to stay anonymous.
Q: Often when I face an unfamiliar opponent, I need a full game to figure them out, then a few days of reflection before I understand what happened — the second match is much easier. Is there a secret to adjusting quickly the very first time? I remember Jan-Ove Waldner once said he spends the first game scouting, then sets his strategy from the second game onward. I feel my in-match adaptability isn’t strong enough.
A: This is really a mental game. In the first game, you can’t be focused on your own style — you need to observe the opponent: what are their strengths? In the second game, avoid playing into those strengths. That means you need at least two different tactical systems of your own.
The ideal state is to stay relaxed, both mentally and physically. After a game, think about how your opponent scored most of their points — once you know that, you basically know what to avoid giving them in the next game. In other words, the first game you were too fixated on your own game plan, too determined to make your opponent follow you. But a match is like chess — your opponent has their own system too, and they also want you to follow them.
So when people talk about “probing in the first game,” they mean testing your opponent with different angles, spins, speeds, and rhythms — as many variations as possible. Power you don’t need to test; everyone is afraid of power. What you need to remember is how the opponent scores and what their patterns are, so you can be targeted afterward.
Q: Isn’t sidespin-backspin harder to receive than pure backspin? Easy to pop the ball up high.
A: Pure backspin on its own has no real force — you just need to cancel the backspin. Sidespin-backspin requires you to judge “how much side and how much back” — two rotations to read simultaneously. Get it wrong and the ball either goes long or pops up.
Q: When I face a short pips expert, everything I serve gets flicked or looped to a winner. The ball feels fast and heavy. I can’t handle the next shot.
A: What is the characteristic of short pips? Speed. It doesn’t grip spin and can’t generate much spin either. The ball feels “heavy” only when you’ve popped it up first. Serve a fast long backspin to the baseline — what can they do with that? A weaker player pushes it back; a stronger player lifts it. Either ball coming back gives you easy options, right? If you can’t handle those returns, that’s a skill issue on your end. If they’re flicking aggressively, that’s because you kept serving short. No wonder you’re losing.
To beat a short pips player, your best weapon is heavy topspin loops — kept low and aimed deep to their baseline. If you loop to the mid-table, they’ll kill it. The moment you put topspin on it, they can’t generate pace. Short pips hates rhythm changes — slow one moment, spinny the next, and they’ll be overwhelmed. The prerequisite is always keeping the ball long.