Power Pong September

Went 3-3. I'll probably lose 30 or so points. I played three lefties and struggled against all of them. The first one I played I beat, but struggled more than I should have for his level. The second I beat in the finals of the 1250 before, but this time lost in 4. I lost one game I was up 9-5, 10-8, which was really bad and a sign of things to come all day. I struggled to finish out games I was leading near the end. I also fell too in love with my long serves in this match. I should have served shorter more. The third lefty I played was also someone I played before. I partly lost because of a ton of nets and edges, but also I had trouble as before of reading what spin was coming from him. This kept me from using my strongest shots. He would pseudo chop the ball, which would come back randomly as topspin, backspin, or no spin, depending on how well he struck the ball. I should have used the drop shot a ton. He would back off the table very quickly, and when I tried this in the last game I had good success.

I beat a 1200 ish level penholder in five games. This was the first match of the night I really felt comfortable. I was able to use my forehand loop like I like to. My last match of the day was against a 1400+ player. I played him before, when I was completely exhausted and did horribly. This time I played much better, but was still unable to win. I felt that I had a chance if I played near my best, but ended up making too many backhand errors.

There were four things I took away from today. One, I really need to shore up my backhand. I know I'm capable of playing much better on my backhand, but I end up over hitting especially on backhand openers. Two, I've lost my edge for finishing matches. There were way too many games today where I was up 8-6, 8-8, 10-8, 9-9, ect, that I lost. I should be able to finish out these games, especially when it's my serve. Three, I should learn to loop forehands from lower. I was watching some of the better players and they were covering the wide forehand by looping the ball at knee height. Four, I suck at playing lefties. I need to find some lefties near my level to play. I just don't understand the angles a lefty can find and left spin, especially on serve.