thats a bit mean ^ Id like to see you play mate. Poor effort^.... maybe you should upload?. But imo the only way to beat players who are a lot better than you birdy is a simple strat called "cheesing". Trick shots / deception / low percentage shots, to throw them off guard, attacking their weaknesses isnt really going to work if there better than you lol. Just my take. xxo
When playing players who are noticeably better than me, I adopt a mindset of "forcing them to earn their points". Therefore, I make my lifts/clears a little higher, take a bit off my smash to get better accuracy & generally avoid playing anything 'loose'. My attacking bias moves slightly more toward keeping the attack rather than hitting winners. Don't expect to blast better players off court. You'll need to string decent shot after decent shot to win a point. Personally, I feel that too much variation/trick shots loses more points than it wins. Finally, I try and remember to enjoy it. Most of the people on this forum want to improve & playing people better than you is a good way to do that.
I don't like to turtle at all when playing better players (singles or doubles). I try to take every half chance I get. Oftentimes you can surprise your opponents by being super agressive.
turtle strategy was obviously a joke so that birdy can read something he wants to read here in his 20.000 threads about things one shouldnt care as long as one is not supergood yet
Not sure I'll agree with this. A player's performance will drop in competition. Two players of the same skill level may drop to a different extent. The one that drops less should prevail. Same reasoning with two players of different skill levels, and the presumably weaker one "could" win if his mental is much stronger, strange as this might sound. Also, given two players of the same skill level, the one that uses tactic correctly, while the other doesn't, could win easily. Same reasoning with two players of different skill levels, but the technically weaker one is much savvy in tactic, he "could" also win.
if you know for sure that you're the weaker pair, then there's no other way than taking control of the pace of the game by clearing a lot and make them bored, so hopefully they can be careless and makes mistakes. what you said was correct in regards to not playing into their rhythm and try to throw them off.
Not sure what gives with OhSearsTower's statement. I think psychology has a big effect in all sports at any level and especially when you play in competitions.
Hahaha. I see your point, but I think it's a limiting belief to underestimate the role psychology can have on a player during a game. I agree with your part about how psychology plays a very little role when skill differences are huge between you and opponents, but my point is that understanding the psychology that goes on during a game can always play to your advantage such as in the case of this video. Skill wise and physique wise, the young players should have easily dominated that game, but for them to have such a hard time and even lose a set is support that there's something else going on. It is given that one must hone their physical skill, but I think if you neglect the psychological aspects going on during a game and your own psychology, you will not progress very far. It's like playing/training like a zombie. I will only be consulting my book after and before a game to maximize winning chances but during a game I will focus on the game. Your points are taken, but do note that I'm not here to say that psychology is very important, but just to speculate and your response offers an opinion on that for me.
You mentioned throwing them off guard. This could be anything correct? Are there reasons why the TPE pairs here are wearing skeletons shirt? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-udZhbnbguw
I feel that variation is important as it stops them from anticipating your shots. It needs not be anything fancy. For example, instead of your usual straight net, you can go for variations such as a little wider straight netting (aiming at the tram lines), a straight netting, or a straight netting aiming at the centre of the court. Depending on your level of play, such shots can be more deceptive because it's no longer going straight. Or it could be a mixture of smashes, then some pushes and netting. All of it would disrupt the play rhythm and allow you to gain some points and make it as tough as possible for them to win it. It might make it a close match.
Did I offend you at some point in our thread discussions? If so, it was not in my intention to. I just can't keep track of who I'm replying to so if at some point by asking questions made it seemed like I doubted your experties, I apologize. I am simply here on this forum to learn, but I would suggest that even you yourself are open to that.
A very famous figure in U.S., Yogi Berra (a baseball player): "This game (baseball) is 90% mental, and the other half is physical". He's other funny quotes also: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yogi_Berra. While his math is off, he's trying to tell us how important mental game is. Brad Gilbert, a top tennis player (Agassi's coach) described in his book "Winning Ugly" how he managed to beat those other top players that were supposed to be stronger than him "on paper" because of Brad's mental and tactical ability. You can read the pages/paragraphs on the early chapter "McEnroe: A Master Loses Ugly". Here's an example of how one can beat supposedly technically stronger players. While you may think it's not possible a "weaker" player beats a stronger one, there're examples of just that. And people refer to them as "seed upset". When a player has mental issue that he can't perform, he's said to suffer from "choking". So, this phenomenon isn't that odd.
Ofthe keys is to strengthen the basic, I think. the best way is to consolidate your basic, including the technique mixed with the hands and the feet.
to me this is just simple playing better than usual! no strategy no psychology..its playing better.. if you are able to vary your game more..to play closer to the lines..why not just make it always?! i think your point in disrupting the rhythm of your opponent IS a possibilty to throw your opponents of, but you dont do it in simply playing better what disturbs me in all those strategy/psychology threads recently opened by birdy is that it sounds like thats an area one should work on i guess the width of skill in this forum is very wide, and maybe 90% of guys here should focus on technique..physique..thats much more effective! you squeeze out the very last edges of your game with psychology, and i think the vast majority here has way bigger issues to take care of! only the best 10% are so good and are not able to improve their game anymore (due to lack of time, agening etc.) so they might think about psychological strategies to beat players here and then who are a tiny bit better of course this is a free forum where it can be discussed about absolutely everything - and should be! but i see a felt dozen threads about questions how to manipulate the tiniest things that are pretty irrelevant if one is not already at a very top level edit: just counted..its even one more than a dozen threads edit 2: to make a distribution to the original thread question: my approach against a better pair is that i tend to play higher risk shots and just hope to have a good day if i play normal and "safe" i lose anyway, so i play riskier, tougher shots and hope they work better than usual worse opponents definitely threw me off in the past by talking nicely..beeing chatty and friendly...so i lose focus and play worse older people like to do that but thats a thing that cant be done so easily by anybody..you must actually be friendly and loose and also look somewhat harmless while yourself playing well
Saying that you lost focus is psychological if anything. Or does this too have anything to do with strength and technique? Unless you are one of the 10% of the best players, you have just contradicted yourself
of course it is psychological, how do you think i think its not??? there is a clear seperation between my first part (general stuff about the psychology threads) and my second part (referring to the thread itself) so would you suggest to make yourself old and limping and loose/joking and playing weak to throw better opponents off and win? good luck with that strategy lol it might work if you are actually old and weak and dont care about the game as i wrote already...
First of all, there is no need to get so heated up. All the replies you made so far basically says that: technique and physical strength comes before psychological problems. This is what I've understood from your replies in this thread. About other threads, I have no idea because I've not read them. Second, no one is saying that one should mimic an old man (when did I ever do that by the way?). What we are talking about is how to play against better players. One idea is to exploit the fact that they actually are better and that they may take for granted that they are the ones to win. If this works or not is another matter.
Just enjoy the game and try to play some good rallys and score a few points, that would be my approach when the other team is undisputedly better in all major departments e.g. tactics,physical and technical. It that is the case there is simply no way you can beat them.
