Defensive Player

I'm a defensive player, have hard time to win against other players, but I fight and have close scores with other playes like 10-10. I like to play against very attacking players - my chops put the opponent into trouble. My backhand chops are pretty good, and I return my opponent's top spin and also his smash 75% in a game.

My friends are advising me to go offensive half of the game rather than 100% defensive. I have weight and food problem which has effected my foot work. I can smash or return top spin with top spin loop, but I'm so hesitant to smash the ball come with underspin.

What you guys advises for me. I will be participating in the USA Championship (rated and unrated) at Las Vegas next December. I'm contemplating whether to go or not.

I was born in India, and started playing in 1989. I earned the reputation as a college top until 1992. My brother got me a very good Chinese paddle, and a training book. The paddle helped me a lot because it generated a lot of spin � I don�t know where that paddle is now.

Then I gave a break until 2000. I started going to Portland TT club after came to the US, but I could not further continue because of my job situation, high cholesterol and back pain. I started again in 2001 going to a different TT club. I had to discontinue again because of cholesterol and lack of experience. All this while, I did not have any training, nor had education.

In 2005 I took this as a challenge, started playing at the work place. I improved the game, and came 4 th in the city corporate tournament. I played against 5 players, and defeat them because of my tactical spin defense. When I lost to the third person because of his attack, I decided to further improve my game by playing with good players like him.

From this year April, I have been practicing at least 2 days for 2 hours each at a local club. The kind of paddle I bought from Robbin Tennis (high spin) could not withstand any kind of hits from my opponents - before I try to hit the ball, the ball already drop suddently. So after a month I decided to change my paddle, that�s how I ended up in a Bryce Tackifire combination. At that time I did not have any idea about different rubbers. Though I have a lot of players at the club, they are not good at giving advices � the reason also they don�t want others to know the tactics.

In July, I started practicing chops surprisingly, which put my opponents to trouble. That�s when I realized I can make my opponents to make mistakes through my chops. After watching Joo see, I realized I�m a classic defensive player.

I think I want to move towards to become a modern defensive player. I�m going to practice hard to become one. Now I ordered a Tackifire Drive & Long Pimps rubber with Joo�s blade from butterfly.

I�m overweight with 235 lbs, but still I have good body flexibility.

I would appreciate if you have any comments.

varghesep wrote: I�m overweight with 235 lbs, but still I have good body flexibility.

i dont think overweight is much of an issue... if you are passionate enough in tt give it one month of a good workout and a balance diet, your body will be much leaner and fitter that ronaldo of real madrid.

varghesep wrote: sluskas, I play very similar to the young guy. I have a very good backhand chop, little lower than he does. I play close to the table also, against chineese players. The chineese players are my favorites because they have a very quick 3rd or 5th ball attack, and I make them crazy sometimes . I do underspin (chops) from the top of the table also, but sometimes it does not generate as much spin because of the opponent's spin, and that has caused my opponent to attack fast . If I have enough room, I can return those shots also.

iam the blue one the defender

I received my new butterfly Joo paddle. I had an error in the order, which caused them to put Red Long Pimp instead of black. Then I have a Tackifire-D which is black. I did not like this, but works for me.

I played against the anti-rubber opponent 4 games. Out of that 2 games were close games 3-2. He had hard time returning my chops, also he could not return my aggressive smash and loops. He told me I'm becoming aggressive. I also confused him by switching the side.

Another good news - I lost 13 pounds. I controlled my food - I stopped eating rice.