Are you a lefty in table tennis? I mean, left-handed player. If yes, congratulation! You have a great advantage in table tennis! How to profit from these advantages?
Let’s talk about the “Lefty-Righty” matchup in table tennis. There are 4 main advantages for left-handed players in table tennis.
Table of Contents
4 main advantages for left-handed players
- Number 1 – Unfair familiarity
- Number 2 – Aggressive crosscourt backhands to the wide forehand
- Number 3 – Advantage when receiving serve
- Number 4 – Wide Angle Forehand attack
Otavio said, “coach, I miss your videos about techniques and tactics”.
Yes, me too. I miss my videos about techniques and tactics. This is the main focus of my channel.
Daniel asked me “how should I play against the left-handers?”
Ivan asked, “I am a left-handed player, how to play with a right-handed player”.
So today, let talk about the tactic to win more when you are a left-handed player.
Number 1) Unfair familiarity
Based on the statistics, 10 percent of the world’s population is left-handed. That means in 10 persons, 9 persons are right-handed, and only 1 person is left-handed.
But look at the ITTF World Ranking. However, there are about 40% of the lefty in the top ranking.
Xu Xin
Lin Gaoyuan
Lin Yun Ju
Timo Boll
Jun Mizutani
Hao Shuai
Michael Maze
Chen Qi
Koki Niwa
Marcos Freitas
Patrick Baum,
etc
I will use Zhou Yu as a good illustration to show you the modern tactics in table tennis. These tactics are widely used by professional lefty table tennis players.
So, it’s not a bad idea to be left-handed in table tennis. You will get a huge advantage. Why? Why there are so many lefties in table tennis? Because of this “unfair familiarity”.
As left-handers, you spend a lot of your time training with right-handed players. Lefty players know exactly how to play right-handers. Left-handed players know very well the weaknesses of right-handed players. However, right-handed players don’t have much occasion to play with lefty because they mostly play righty-righty matchup. The rally, the shots, the placement which works on right-handed players won’t work on the left-handed player.
Due to this point, “unfair familiarity” gives lefty a superior advantage over righty.
Watch this video for the full analysis:
Number 2 – Aggressive crosscourt backhands to the wide forehand
Since most lefties are used to training and playing with righties, you are familiar with your backhand shot to the opponent’s forehand.
Many lefties have developed powerful backhands to attack to the wide forehand corner. This put righty players under a lot of pressure.
Timo Boll, Michael Maze, Mizutani, Zhou Yu have excellent backhand shots to attack to the wide forehand corner.
Hint for the righty players: If you wait until the last second before counter-attack, then it’s too late and you will often miss the ball. The ball will break away due to sidespin from the shot.
90% of the population is right-handed, so you don’t have a chance to play lefties. When you play with lefty, you are surprised.
Number 3 – Advantage when receiving serve
This is the main advantage of Lin Yun Ju’s playing style. Lefty will stand a little more towards the middle of the table than usual.
There are 3 reasons for this. First, lefties will use a backhand flick for most of the receiving. This will put the righty under huge pressure.
Second, it can be easier, for the lefty, to see the contact of the ball rather than being blocked by the opponent’s body.
And third, lefties have more of an angle to attack. Lefty can attack to the wide forehand. This will give the left-handed a much better receiving angle.
Hint for the righty players: To deal with this style, try sometimes deep serves, especially to both corners.
Number 4) Wide Angle Forehand attack
As I explained above, lefties have a very wide angle to attack. This forehand attack will put the opponent on the run or off-balance can give you a huge edge in the point.
This is the most important and most basic tactic is that in a lefty-righty matchup. This should be exploited whenever possible.
A typical example is Xu Xin’s forehand. Xu Xin is left-handed, and his forehand is crazy, with a lot of sidespins. It’s very hard to get used to this shot, and it is very difficult to block.
If you are lefty, then practice some of these tactics the next time you find yourself in a lefty-righty matchup.
If you are a righty, you want to know the Key Ideas for Playing Left-Handers? If you struggle playing against the lefty, then practice with a left-hander as much as possible. I will explain the best ways to counter lefty players in another video.
Please comment below what is your main problem playing against a righty, lefty playing style.
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