Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Dominator Or Are You an Explorer
Just like any other sport, you need to be mentally prepared for every ping-pong match that you intend to play. It is a big help if you start out early and watch your opponent play so that you know what their strengths and their weaknesses are. It is not entirely necessary to prepare like that though, as you can determine what their strength and weaknesses are simply by being the “Explorer”.
Your main tactic as the Explorer, is to get a feel for your opponent by sending them at many different types of shots. If you wish to be an effective explorer, you are going to have to use many different types of shots, such as loops, counter drives, drives, blocks, pushes, spins, and other types of shots. By using this tactic you can figure out quickly which shots your opponent is weakest against. Try varying the different speeds at which you get the ball, and used many different types of serves as well.
As mentioned before, you will be able to find out what your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses are with this method. By doing this, you will be able to avoid giving them balls that they are strong at and concentrate more on their weaknesses. For instance, if you notice that your opponent can’t ever hit the ball from your backhand, try to send them more hits from the backhand.
That isn’t the only strategy you could use the, you can use another strategy in which you control the game right from the get-go and bring it onto your opponent and adjust as you go. This is known as the “dominator” trait.
A dominator won’t show any mercy and they will come to the table throwing their best shots straightaway from the beginning of the game. You control the gameplay this way by forcing your opponent to make the adjustments to your style instead of the other way around. As you can see this can be a really good position to be in, but you also need to know how to adjust to your opponent as well. Being unable to make adjustments to your opponents gameplay in many instances will cost you the game.
Being a dominator means that you need to start the game with your best shots and adjust according to the response of your opponent to your shots.
You now need to make the decision on which type of player you are, either an explorer or a dominator. Really good ping-pong players are able to combine both methods and are able to make adjustments to their opponents shots very quickly. So it really doesn’t matter which type of player you are, in the end that you need to learn how to adjust your opponent so that you can come out the victor at the end.
These are great tactics you can practice, and if you need an ping pong table to practice on you can find some really great deals at http://outdoortabletennisables.com
