Today I played against a player who was probably 50%-50% in terms of topspin rallying with me, and then when we played a match it was just terrible... Over the course of 8 games or so, he failed to even receive my serve (ie put it on the table) I think 80%-90% of the time because he wasn't used to the spin variations and elaborate disguises. And I just abused my new pushflick receive when I received his standard looking serves, and he too was completely bamboozled. I didn't even loop much unless to punish high opportunity balls... it was completely one sided and not even close (I initially thought he was similar in level to me?!)

I felt so bad for doing it, there was none of the beautiful rallies we had during practice and I feel like I was winning in a super ugly and unsportsmanlike way :(  

But sometimes this happens with me as well when I don't have training for a while.

Then I become such a king)))

This is EXACTLY what I aspire to!!! I want to win most of my points on serve or serve return. This is 67% of the game!!

It's quite easy to look like a god when playing someone a lot weaker.

It's like playing a different game a bit.

Nice that you managed to beat him so easy mind. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7jq0NiLDAQ" rel="nofollow - Don't train like this! - YouTube

So Very Very Very true!!!!!!

You can't be good at anything you don't practice.  And in terms of serving, a lot of players never learn what a good serve even is, so have no idea even WHAT to practice.  

However, if you do it all the time you lose valuable practice opportunities.  If you do not get returns or 3rd balls in practice matches you can get lazy with you footwork and preparation.  Then when you play someone who can return balls you are in a lot of trouble.  

It is also good for your opponent to sometimes have to deal with difficult serves and returns.  If he does not see them, then he can not get better at returning them.  So use a mix of serve/return domination and playing into opponents strengths in different matches and you will both benefit.

Mark 

Tell the guy to get anit/long pips for serve receive and get to the rally game easier

It's a waste of time to win all the points on missed returns.  I end up giving them a lesson on serve return.  

Lmao I practice my serve movements in front of the mirror so that the variations look as close as possible. And I can serve everything to everywhere (2 types of pendulum, reverse pendulum, 2 types of hook serves, tomahawk, no spin/heavy under), all from the same preparatory movement. 

To those who never seen my serves before, it can be really disgusting to receive them lol.... Every single one of them has some fake movements.

Damn you're such a gentleman.... that's so nice :)

Hmm yes it makes me super lazy on my footwork and looping.Honestly looping is the most difficult way to win a point I feel.Most players I play are beasts at topspin to topspin rallies and it's at best 50%-50%. I prefer to load up on the quality of the first ball (especially spin) so much that it doesn't get returned at all, but found it quite tiring to do it across an entire match. 

Sometimes like what you said, having a good serve and receive can really conserve energy in matches

Did he at least serve you long to start a rally when he served?

I used the pushflick and some chopblocks even for the long serves haha...it worked amazing tbh even better than looping as he was a good blocker.

Honestly it's definitely the latter, my open play is very much weaker than my serve/receive and opening loop... For eg I can't reliably do consistent mid distance strong loops like most two wing loopers can at my level. I can do close table topspin countering quite well though, but that usually can't get the point because it seems like everyone and their dog can counter like madmen lol. So my attacking pattern is very different from other people,  normally people open with medium quality and increase the quality as the rally goes on (the loops get spinnier and faster). Due to my weakness in continuous looping I start with loading up the opening loop, then move closer to the table to try to change the direction or do a quick counter. 

Tbh I wanna be able to get to the point where I can loop continuously from mid distance, but definitely lack the training to be able to do that. One potential problem like what you mentioned is that when I start loading up my topspin, the people around me aren't very good at blocking that so I never get to train the second and third shot, which is a bummer.

You have perfected weapons that matter more than the shot you opponent has mastered. Zero shame.

Tennis analogy, you occasionally run into players who "just want to rally." And they are great at it, very steady. But when they play a match, they have two serves, one that is really fast but never goes in, and a second serve with light underspin that pops up short and is easy to hit for a clean winner. These people aren't tennis players! At best they are rally partners.

Same with table tennis, if you totally ignore certain elements of the game you get what you deserve.

Do you have the opportunity to do multiball? I would just ask my partner to feed me multiball against topspin.

I've been doing some multiball recently haha, it's helped quite a bit. I also realise that a lot of my problems are caused by my weak and slow legs, haha...

So for eg after a few backhand to backhands, when faced with a ball to the wide FH, instead of doing two wide steps to place my right foot as close to the ball then play a balanced FH topspin, I always never manage to land my right foot close enough so I have to do a big cross step to hit it while  airborne, which takes up a lot more energy (as I found out), and also leaves me unbalanced for the next shot. 

Honestly some of it is laziness in moving the feet and bad habits (of reaching and not moving). I've been trying some shadow footwork exercises at home away from the table to try to program my mind to move first, and move faster, then hit the ball 

Weighted squats and leg raises could also be good. 

I think basically this requires 3 steps. First is reaching with the right leg and shift the body weight towards the right, and then follow up by the left leg and then the right leg again to the final position. Did lots of shadowing to drill it into my mind, and surprisingly I started to be able to reach the balls in position and even counterloop them. It is significantly more stable and controlled and high quality compared to the version where I had to use crossover footwork and hit it while airborne. That said it seems that this 3 step footwork for wide balls also doesn't exclude doing crossover footwork for even wider balls. 

I'll need the reverse exercise too (stand in the forehand corner, serve, and then get back to wide BH to loop). 3 steps for the win haha. I use this 3 step combo for short balls too.