Know Your Equipment
Being totally familiar with your table tennis gear has two main areas:- You should realise that in general, antispin is easier to control and attack with than long pips, at the expense of "tricky" effects such as ball wobble and sidespin kicking of the ball when bouncing off the table.
- You need a very good grasp of what your particular equipment can do. You should be well aware of your equipment's advantages and limitations. For example, if your particular type of long pips is not very good at lifting heavy backspin balls, then attempting to topspin with your long pips against heavy pushes is not something you should be doing very often - you should save it only for easier balls.
Stick With What You've Got
To the above two points you could also add a third suggestion - don't change your equipment too often. If you keep swapping your long pips or antispin rubbers, you'll find it hard to learn exactly what you can and can't do with your funny rubber. Before each season begins, find a rubber that feels pretty good for your style and stick with it for the entire season - after a few months you'll know the rubber and what you can do with it inside and out. This can be of crucial importance when you are under pressure during a rally, and have to react on instinct.Know Your Style
It's important to have a good grip on the style you are looking to bring to the table. While every point must be played on its own merits, having an overall game plan will help keep you on track to play your best table tennis. For example, you may decide that you will stay close to the table wherever possible, using your long pips or antispin to slow down the speed of the rallies, and looking to set up your inverted rubber forehand loop or smash with intelligent use of the junk rubber on your backhand.Choosing an overall game plan will help you in your decision making during the rallies that you play. A player who has decided that he will attack every suitable ball strongly, regardless of where the ball is played by his opponent, will know that he will swing aggressively at any loose ball played to his long pips or antispin. In contrast, a player who wants to use his long pips and antispin to set up his inverted rubber attacks will be more likely to use tricky pushes and slower-paced topspin rolls to break his opponent's rhythm and create attacking opportunities for his inverted side, while avoiding hitting too hard with his junk rubber.
Keep Pressure on Your Opponent
Aggressive play with combination bats requires the maintenance of pressure on your opponent. Taking the ball a little earlier in the short game, and pushing and flicking with more pace will cut down the time your opponent has to decide which side of the bat you have used, and what spin is on the ball. Attacking any loose balls will prevent your opponent playing safer, slower and higher strokes, thus removing his safest option when he is unsure of what spin is on the ball.However, it is important not to ramp up your offensive game to the point where you make too many mistakes yourself. Good offensive play is about taking calculated risks, not insane ones. If you give your opponent too many free points by being overly aggressive, you will reduce the pressure on him, not increase it.
Use Your Favorite Patterns
Unless you have the genius of a Waldner to improvise on virtually every point, you should have some favorite patterns to fall back on to help you win more points. Every player should look for their own favorites, but here's a few for close to the table players to get you started:- Your opponent loops the ball into your long pips or antispin. You chop-block the ball with a loose grip, absorbing some of the pace and returning the ball quite short over the table, so that it is difficult for your opponent to loop again. Your opponent then pushes his return to your junk rubber again to prevent you attacking with your inverted rubber and you:
- push the ball with your junk rubber into your opponent's playing elbow, killing the spin so that although it looks like a heavy push, it is actually a float ball. Your opponent then pushes his return higher than he expected, and you can attack his return with your inverted side.
- topspin roll the ball with your junk rubber into your opponent's playing elbow. The change of pace makes it hard for your opponent to keep his rhythm, and his natural return to your roll is to block it back, which will give you a soft return which you can then attack with your inverted rubber or junk rubber as desired.
- twiddle your bat and open with a spinny attack with your inverted rubber. Your opponent's block is likely to go a bit higher due to the extra topspin, and you can then follow up with a more powerful attack with your inverted rubber, or a change of pace attack by hitting with your junk rubber.
