Applying Your Tactics While In The Match: Being The Explorer Or The Dominator

By Author: Miodrag Trajkovic
Total Articles: 96
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A ping pong match is something that you should prepare for whenever you are going to play. It helps if you prepare early on days before the game starts by studying your opponents and finding out what their strengths and weaknesses are. However, if you didn't prepare like this, you can easily find out their strengths and weaknesses by being "The Explorer".

An explorer's tactic will normally feel the opponent out by giving him or her different kinds of shots. By being an effective explorer, you must use all kinds of shots once the game starts, such as blocks, loops, drives, counter-drives, spins, pushes, and other shots. By doing this, you will be able to adjust quickly and determine what shots are your opponent's weakness. You should also hit the ball at various speeds and try out different kinds of serves.

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 example, if you observed that your opponent is weak on his or her ...
... backhand, you should try and give him or her more backhands.

Another strategy is by forcing your game to your opponent right at the start of the game and adjust your plays or tactics as you go. This is the traits of a "Dominator".

What a dominator does is that they will use their best shots at the beginning of the game. By doing this, you will force your opponent to adjust to your shots and not the other way around. Although this can be advantageous for you, you have to remember that you also need to adjust to your opponent's shots as you play. Not being able to adjust will mean losing the game and many errors.

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.

Now, try to figure out whether you are an explorer or a dominator. A good ping pong player will have a mixture of both and one that can adjust to their opponents quickly. So, whatever kind of player you are, make sure that you know how to adjust to your opponent in order to beat them at their own game.