TABLE-TENNIS/PING-PONG TOURNAMENT TIPS - ADVANCED PLAYERS

What are my table-tennis player styles?

PIPS-OUT ATTACKER - Pips-out Attackers generally stand within three feet of the table. The contact point on all strokes is as early as possible, top of the bounce, or on the rise. This is a forehand-dominated style with the player exhibiting a strong quick pivot move to use the forehand from the backhand side. The success of this style is based on speed, not spin, thus pips-out rubber is ideal. Example: David Zhuang
POWER LOOPER - This is a forehand-dominated style featuring a strong point winning forehand loop stroke. Players of this style end each point as quickly as possible. They will use a backhand loop to open a point, but then step-a-round and use their forehand loop to end the point. Example: Brian Pace
ALL-ROUND ATTACKER This athlete typically exhibits a wide variety of attacking strokes executed with almost equal strength from both sides, and the ability to adapt his game to attack the opponent's weaknesses. Players of this style can produce topspin attacking shots from any position or distance from the table. Example: Cheng Yinghua
COUNTER DRIVER - Often referred to as "walls", this style plays close to the table. Using forehand and backhand counter-drives and blocks, this style seeks to force their opponents into making errors. Example: Geng Lijuan
MID-DISTANCE AGGRESSIVE LOOPER - This style prefers to stay within six to eight feet from the table. Their longer topspin strokes carry considerable power and spin, from either the forehand or backhand. Example: Zoran Primorac
ATTACKING CHOPPER - This style can best be thought of as an attacker who uses underpin to set up their attacking shots. Players of this style most often use two different racket surfaces and will flip the racket to produce great variation in their defense and their attack. Example: Derek May
CLOSE-TO-THE-TABLE DEFENDER This style is built around a chop/blocking game executed from close to the table. Players of this style use underpin blocks to force weak topspin shots from their opponents. They will then attack the weak topspin with a well placed drive or loop. Example: Gao Jun
DEVELOPING PLAYER- This person has not yet played long enough to develop a set style. However, he/she wishes to purchase a Professional Quality Racket to give him/her the best opportunity to advance. We recommend starting out with a medium speed blade and a mid-level rubber. This combination will allow you to learn any style. The rubber can be upgraded in the future as necessary

Tip: "How to find out your opponents weakness?

It's wise to approach a match with the idea of using your strengths, but don't forget to test your opponent as well. You don't want to lose a match because you didn't find a glaring weakness in your opponent's game! Often you can win a match by matching your weakness against an opponent's even bigger weakness. So test your opponents – serve long & short, test their forehand, loop at different speeds, try pushing, etc. Don't risk not knowing your opponent's weaknesses!

Tip: What sponge thickness should I choose?

2.5mm - The maximum thickness allowed under the rules. The term 2.5 is often used in a general way to express the maximum thickness of sponge allowed for a rubber sheet to maintain a total rubber/sponge thickness that is within the total allowed under the rules. Depending on the particular rubber sheet the actual maximum thickness of sponge will probably be something more like 2.15mm or 2.3mm.
2.0mm-This is the most popular thickness. 2.0mm combines offensive power with more control than 2.5mm. 2.0mm is also preferred by some spinning or attacking players who use light, medium fast "quick attack" blades, particularly for close-to-the table attacking.
1.0, 1.5mm- Thinner sponge rubbers provide maximum control and "touch" for players emphasizing steady all-around play or a defensive style. 1.5mm is sometimes used by quick hitting or blocking players.

Tip: How to lock up your opponent?

The easiest and simplest way of beating a player is to "lock him up." This basically means forcing him to do what he doesn't want to do. The classic case is to force a player with a weak backhand to go backhand to backhand. Another example would be take away an opponent's strong loop and force him to instead block by getting the first loop each rally. How do you "lock someone up"? Often, the best bet is to base much of your tactics toward this goal. It often takes a lot of thinking and a lot of work. You've got to figure out what your opponent want to do. Then you have to figure out how, using your own weapons, you can force him to do what he doesn't want to do. Too often players think only about what they want to do, and forget about forcing their opponents to do what they don't want to do.

Tip: How to serve a long ball?

There is a particularly good pattern for serving long to most players. Try these two combos:
Serve long to the wide backhand, and following with an aggressive shot right back at the wide backhand;
Serve long to the middle (opponent's playing elbow), and follow with an aggressive shot right back at the middle.
In both cases the opponent will often be caught moving back into position after the first return, and will be going the wrong way when you make an aggressive shot right back to the same spot.
When serving to the wide backhand, it helps if you can serve a sidespin serve that breaks into the opponent's wide backhand.

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