Yesterday I had a game of singles against a pretty good player. It's been a while since the last time I've played against him. Suffice to say it was pretty difficult. 1) my fitness is much poorer 2) my shots are not as consistently good 3) and thus the quality and effectiveness of shot is poorer. It was pretty tough going making all those mistakes and him getting back loads of my shots. We had a chat about some weaknesses. Here's a rundown: In the past, by playing a good shot, I could limit the options of shots that the opponent could play. i.e. it is easier to predict what the opponent will play. Thus, I can move accordingly. But in yesterday's play, becuase of the inconsistency, I am unsure of the shot. I have to wait for the opponent's reply. Since he now can play a wider variety of returns, that means I have to cover more of the court, with greater uncertainty. I think we can bring this analogy over to doubles as well. When we play with a different partner, we may not cover the court as well as when playing with our regular partner. We don't know the choice of shots that are going to be played and the game gets more difficult to win (or easier to lose! )
Excellent conclusion Cheung. I just had a chat with another guy after playing a game with him. Mentioned that sometimes I serve too short too low to seduce the opponent to smash This works when I know that the reciever will take any chance to smash and also know where (s)he will aim. Ususally I can just anticipate the smash and block it in a counter attack that gives me the initiative. With better players, like this guy, it doesn't work since the smash is too good both in speed and variation/placement. And I also have to cover both the drop and fast clear, which never is the case with less skilled players. Also played a tourney two weekends ago where I lost to an opponent I'd seen the weekend before. When I played him he was only playing drops or wrong footing me with fast clears when I played a short/weak clear, but the weekend before he was smashing mad at everything......So I was a victim to responding to what he did, not forseeing his possibilities as I should've if I'd been the stronger player. The classical case of "reacting instead of acting". /mats
Hmm... your profile says you're from Uppsala... and played a tournament two weeks ago... I am guessing that might have been Eken Cup, which my club organizes. Correct? (Sorry for going off topic, I'm just curious!)
Yes, the tournaments I was talking about were Eken Cup and Storslaget. Played in HSC, lost in the quarter (Eken Cup) resp. semi (Storslaget). /mats
