December 30, 2024 – Experiment and Learn

Once you have reached a certain level, it’s easy to rest on your laurels. That doesn’t mean you don’t work hard to improve your game. It means that you work hard only to improve the parts of your game that you have already developed.

Instead, be a learning player. You should experiment and learn something new every time you play. If you don’t, then you are stuck in a rut and will find it difficult to improve as fast as you could if you kept learning. Experiment! Try out new things. In particular, try out different serve variations, different receives, deceptive moves on a shot, changes of pace, and different placements. I played a much stronger player recently and got a game off him for one reason only – I discovered that if I occasionally dead-blocked to the middle of the table, he got soft, while if I did it to his forehand or backhand side, he was all over it. Guess what I did? But I wouldn’t have learned that if I hadn’t experimented, and now I have a new weapon against him – and probably against other, similar players.

Experimenting doesn’t mean you spend most your practice time trying out all sorts of shots. There’s a time and place for everything. In most drills, you need to focus more on repetition so you can perfect the shots. But mastering a shot doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also be experimenting, especially in game situations.

So, what are you experimenting on and what have you learned?