How can I think or make strategy during a match

What is your style? There are different strategies for each style

In the middle of the rally there's only 3 *simple* options: 1) get it back on the table safely 2) try to jam your opponent by hitting at his or her's center/elbow 3) hit it away from your opponent so as to put them out of position. Those are three split second decisions  that should be somewhat dictated by the circumstance of the rally.

Then during match time, you would need to find out what is your opponents strength and weakness.

I suggest you start with the basics. It is a lot harder to play properly when your opponent is serving if you have no idea what to do. So start with the points where you can begin to teach yourself to teach to think through your matches.

Before you serve, you have a few basic things you need to monitor and establish.

1. You opponents responses to the serve ( will the opponent push, loop, bump, flip or roll the ball )
2. You need to depend on your strengths to win the point on weak return.
3. Monitor opponent's behaviors to notice WHERE the opponent will place the next ball. WHAT shot he prefers to take. HOW does he move after taking the shots.

These basic points allow you to quickly evaluate what is going on during your service and establish a strategy - meaning what can you use from this information in order to create an opportunity to win the point.

Once you can set yourself up to win the point on your serve. Then you can use the same analysis to determine your plan of action on your opponent's serve.

1. What serve does your opponent prefer.
2. Where does he place it.
3. What kind of shot does he prefer to use to attack the service return.
4. What makes the opponent uncomfortable or make him hesitate.

Now you have info you can use to build strategy. Things that opponent does great is a strength, and things the opponent does poorly is a weakness. You goal is to build a strategy ( or sequence or shots ) that will force your opponent to keep taking shots that he does poorly, while you take shots that you do well.

Over time, you will begin to notice that your opponent will start to change his approach to the shots he does not so well in order to take a shot of the same ball with a stroke that he does very well. Depending on the level, you will need to monitor when your opponent makes the adjustment that is WORKING for him and apply your own adjustments to your overall strategy.

Hope this helps.

I have bad news for you

It is not unfair.

Edited by figgie - 05/01/2012 at 5:32pm

Leshxa wrote: While I agree with you figgie, this is a very unrealistic expectation in an amateur TT tournament. We don't always know all the people in the tournament, our sections, and our groups.

Lol just saw your reply after I posted 

figgie wrote: Leshxa wrote: While I agree with you figgie, this is a very unrealistic expectation in an amateur TT tournament. We don't always know all the people in the tournament, our sections, and our groups.   Sorry about that but I will use this statement as I think this is actually important.   You don't have to know what the other player is doing. The strategy is usually around your own self.   Ie I am going to third ball attack if the opportunity is there. I am not going to let balls hang of the edge of the table without looping them.     tatics are used to get your strategy to work ;)   ie if playing a chopper how can you get a third ball (or x ball) attack? You vary spin and depth until a lose ball comes up. ie if playing a two wing looper, if he loops you will have to loop and/or vary placement by blocking.   Those are tatics to implement the aforementioned strategy. ;)   No need to know the other player. Yes at the upper echelon they do because, well they play one another A LOT. Us, outside of our local leagues we rarely play the same people twice.

I understand what you are saying.

To me this is not strategy per se. It is general knowledge in a way to approach a player of a certain style. This knowledge is very generic and it is a good start, but it is nowhere near the initial question of this post - How do I learn to think during the match?

The fact of the matter is that no two players have the same game. Their shots and approaches to shots will all be different and hence even the general knowledge may not be sufficient in dealing with another players game. Plus, you will need to also evaluate your own strengths.

Here is an example. The book says against a chopper you want to move him in and out, not side to side. Well that sounds good, but if you are unable to loop hard enough and make the chopper retrieve back enough to use a drop shot or a push, what good is it to play by the "book". Its best to use another strength of your own to win, and that takes an understanding of strategy overall.

lol Leshxa, you covered what I wanted to say!! lol

You know, Ive been away from the game for 5 years, came back, but fallen ill and still recovering.
Hit the table first time in 2 months yesturday.
All these TT talk make me miss the old times. At peak I was doing about 35 hours a week.
These 5 years gap, I loss a lot of "strategies" as well as executions, need time to earn it back.

ZApenholder wrote: Figgie, yes, we all need to come to the game with some form of plan. So lets say you VS me. How you going to study me like your example above? So to use professional is unfair and untrue for us. Agree with coming to the game with a general one, or maybe you had experience playing against me, or maybe you heard from other players on my strength and weakness, else if no information your Heats vs Lakers is a big question mark when talking pregame strategy. Imo Leshxa shared some decent information to Nagatito for in game "observing". Some times the coach or spectator can see more than the player themselves, that is why we are lucky to have good coaches to provide us strategy during times outs or breaks. I once was coaching (during game) a training partner of mine. He is national player and went to Sweden for a few years to play league. He is much better than me. At a crucial stage in the national champs, I called time out as he was loosing. I told him to serve long into the body - for both service. He won those 2 points and help him overcome from loosing to winning.

Edited by figgie - 05/01/2012 at 6:16pm

Figgie,
I think better would be to reword it with my broken English like:

You must have a pregame strategy, it can be on your opponent and/or on yourself.

If you know/have information about the opponent even better, if not then be alert and start establishing what you can or can not do and adjust strategy accordingly during the game.

Can we go off work now? time to eat?

Why can't we just go to all of them?
Why bother making such a difficult decision in the first place?

Lets go to all of them, and worry about the "after/side effects later.

btw, this just might be my pre-game strategy before I play you, lol

If service return is one of your weaknesses, a smart opponent will recognize it and will attack this very weakness immediately. Why should one even give you a chance to enter the rally when a serve will score immediate points and lots of pressure? Work on service return! That's why its the one of the most important skills in table tennis.

Again to go back to the previous discussion on strategy. All the general knowledge does not matter if you do not possess a technique to allow you bringing your own strength into the game. What is even worse is that if you walk around the club and ask players 2 questions, you will hear "I dunno" from almost everyone.

Try it. Ask these two questions to players in your club and see if they have an answer. I bet most won't.

1. What is your number one strength?
2. What is the #1 shot that allows you to win your points?

See if these answers match. :) Those with matching answers understand the strategy!!!




Edited by Leshxa - 05/01/2012 at 11:46pm