Greetings from osp from nyc

OldschoolPenholder · Aug 22, 2016

Hello TTDers:

*salutes with left palm to right fist*

I'm 51 yrs old, back in my teens (late 1970's-early 1980's), I used to play a lot. As you can guess from my nickname, I play traditional penholder style. I learned from Alex Tam and Richard Ling at an old NYC Chinatown club in the firehouse on Lafayette St. NYC oldtimers may recall those 2 names. Played when Guo Yuehua was world champ and Cai Zhenhua was #2.

Played until the firehouse club closed down late 80's. Played on and off since then. "Retired" in 90's, as friends got married and moved, I got married and had kids. Concentrated on family and career. Old and fat, doctor said I needed to lose weight. Got more active again by playing TT again since last June.

Last Saturday, I had the honor and privilege to hit/play with UpsideDownCarl, Der_Echte and PingPongHolic. I thank my old friend 42andbackpains for the invite and informing me of TTD.

Alex Tam started me off with pips penholder. .. I couldn't master the backhand smash, so I went to smooth penholder. About a month ago, "Excalibur" (my old Double Happiness 08 blade (7-ply, good for smashing; lost my Double Happiness 032 5-ply, good for looping) died, 35+ yr old blade

RIP Excalibur

Currently getting used to an Avalox P700 with Double Happiness Hurricane 3.

I also am into martial arts, self-defense, comics, movies, tv, and reading, mostly non-fiction.

Very truly yours in TT,

~osp

The Omega Man · Aug 22, 2016

Welcome! I also came back to TT after a 12 years long hiatus, same reasons too, work, family, kids etc.
I started again last year and I felt in love with TT again, I played during my teenage years and into my 20s for a local club, since I came back I've been training hard (2 to 3 times a week) and I am proud to say I feel in a better level that I was before I retired.
It's never to late for TT, never!

UpSideDownCarl · Aug 22, 2016

OldschoolPenholder said:
I learned from Alex Tan and Richard Ling at an old NYC Chinatown club in the firehouse on Lafayette St.

Richard Ling is AWESOME.

Good to see you on the forum OldSchool.

Me and this guy made Der_Echte and PingPongHolic have to work for and earn their win in doubles against us. Even though the odds were stacked in their favor.

Sent from Inside The Chamber of Secrets by Patronus

ttmonster · Aug 22, 2016

Too bad there is not footage !! I am still kind of waiting for the table tennis version of SNL footage to come in ...

UpSideDownCarl said:
Richard Ling is AWESOME.

Good to see you on the forum OldSchool.

Me and this guy made Der_Echte and PingPongHolic have to work for and earn their win in doubles against us. Even though the odds were stacked in their favor.

Sent from Inside The Chamber of Secrets by Patronus

Suga D · Aug 22, 2016

Greetings osp, a very warm welcome to the forum.

Cai ZenHua & Guo YueHua... That name dropping made you already appear sympathetic

Guo YueHua also used to play a while in Germany, so I'm quite familiar with the name. That blade you have now is very nice, but there is a website that sells two versions of the old classic double happiness 08 7-ply blade:

http://www.prott.cc/Product-Details.aspx?productcode=classic08

and also the 032 blade.
http://www.prott.cc/Product-Details.aspx?productcode=classic032

A close friend of mine owns the 08 blade, which i believe he has got from Master Guo (or should i say sifu Guo) himself from back in the days. I don't think he wants to ever sell it, but i can ask him next time he's around.
Last time he was here, we took a photo and posted it in this thread right here:

http://www.tabletennisdaily.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?10666-Share-your-Racket-s-Photo/page13

So anyhow, have a good time here.

Suga D said:
My buddy was diggin' in his crates again...

The saga continues...

There was no DHS to that time... just Double Happiness!

And i think "tenis table sports" wasn't purposely...

PHP:

View attachment 8283

It's got the old corporate design logo on the handle..

View attachment 8284
View attachment 8285

It's a 7ply with a nice sound. Hard to tell what kinda wood though.

View attachment 8286

This was from the days before RPB... No BH rubber...

View attachment 8287

UpSideDownCarl · Aug 22, 2016

ttmonster said:
Too bad there is not footage !! I am still kind of waiting for the table tennis version of SNL footage to come in ...

I do wish we had footage of that first match. OldSchool and I really gave them a lot of trouble. Second match they figured us out and it wasn't quite as close.

But the funniest stuff was when Der_Echte and I were teammates. I have to say I am terrible at doubles and never move out of the way how you need to in doubles.

So there were at least three different occasions were Der_ and I collided. All of them were totally my fault. And on two of them I almost took Der_'s arm off by not getting out of the way when he was trying to rip a crosscourt return of serve after I did not move back and out of the way after my serve.

There were even a few shots that Der_ made in spite of me being in the way.

Hahaha.

One of them, we were surprised Der_'s racket was still in one piece.

Footage of that would be priceless.

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OldschoolPenholder · Aug 22, 2016

Very cool The Omega Man that you are playing better than before!

I have not gotten back to my previous level yet. My timing and touch/feel are still off. And now getting used to my new blade/rubber is an added challenge for my unretirement after a 30 yrs layoff.

Thank you and yes! TT 4eva!

OldschoolPenholder · Aug 22, 2016

Thank you Suga D for the welcome as well as the links! Your friend is very lucky to have a blade Guo sifu himself!

I'm going to stick with the Avalox for awhile however if I can't get the hang of it I will look into the 08 and/or 032 again. Thank you again!

OldschoolPenholder · Aug 22, 2016

UpsideDownCarl,

Thank you for the training! Yeah too bad we did not have the foresight to vid the doubles matches or the prior training hour.

I definitely was the weakest link as 42andbackpains said that night, was fun and an honor to play with you 3!

Thank you!

Suga D · Aug 22, 2016

OldschoolPenholder said:
Thank you Suga D for the welcome as well as the links! Your friend is very lucky to have a blade Guo sifu himself!

I'm going to stick with the Avalox for awhile however if I can't get the hang of it I will look into the 08 and/or 032 again. Thank you again!

Thank you, too. Your blade is also very nice, shouldn't take long to adapt to.

BTW: I came back to the game five years ago after a 18 year hiatus, so welcome to the club.
[Emoji2]

UpSideDownCarl · Aug 22, 2016

So, this video of me warming up, that I posted in the goon squad NYC thread, my training partner giving me the good feed and the warmup is OldSchool.

Here it is for reference:

And you were not the weakest link in the doubles matches. 42&backpains just likes to give you a hard time. What are friends for.

Your crazy punch pushes set me up for a lot of good shots. And when my serves gave you a ball that was even 2" higher than the net, you smacked the ball into next week like you were doing the slapadelic. We were a great doubles team in spite of how bad I am at doubles.

Sent from Inside The Chamber of Secrets by Patronus

OldschoolPenholder · Aug 23, 2016

UpSideDownCarl said:
So, this video of me warming up, that I posted in the goon squad NYC thread, my training partner giving me the good feed and the warmup is OldSchool.

Here it is for reference:

You are a great training partner! As I am still getting used to my new racket, you are so forgiving/understanding when I didn't feed to the proper area! You exhibited great footwork also to get to the balls where i erringly hit to the FH side.

And you were not the weakest link in the doubles matches. 42&backpains just likes to give you a hard time. What are friends for.

I am the weakest link. I couldn't read serves well and everyone capitalized on it. Need further proof? Each team i was on lost the match ... lol at me!

Your crazy punch pushes set me up for a lot of good shots. And when my serves gave you a ball that was even 2" higher than the net, you smacked the ball into next week like you were doing the slapadelic. We were a great doubles team in spite of how bad I am at doubles.

There was one smash i felt bad about, it hit der_echte square in the chest!

I had a lot of fun and learned some things that i still need to work on lol You were great as a doubles partner, shots I normally wouldn't have been able to make, you were able to make.

THANK YOU!

OldschoolPenholder · Aug 23, 2016

Suga D said:
Your blade is also very nice, shouldn't take long to adapt to.

You don't know how bad I am!

BTW: I came back to the game five years ago after a 18 year hiatus, so welcome to the club.
[Emoji2]

18 only?! i'm at 30 yrs if not a tad more !!!

OldschoolPenholder · Aug 23, 2016

UpSideDownCarl said:
Richard Ling is AWESOME.

Did you ever train with him? 42&backpains and the rest of our crew back in da day owe a lot to Richard Ling!!

I neglected to add to my initial post, I also learned from Rey Domingo. He was 2400 or so back then and was a very steady lobber, he helped my smashing game tremendously.

It was a joy to watch Alex Tam play Rey Domingo back at the old firehouse.

UpSideDownCarl · Aug 23, 2016

OldschoolPenholder said:
Did you ever train with him? 42&backpains and the rest of our crew back in da day owe a lot to Richard Ling!!

I neglected to add to my initial post, I also learned from Rey Domingo. He was 2400 or so back then and was a very steady lobber, he helped my smashing game tremendously.

It was a joy to watch Alex Tam play Rey Domingo back at the old firehouse.

Richard used to coach at NYTTF back when it was open. He was the main coach there.

UpSideDownCarl · Aug 23, 2016

OldschoolPenholder said:
You are a great training partner! As I am still getting used to my new racket, you are so forgiving/understanding when I didn't feed to the proper area! You exhibited great footwork also to get to the balls where i erringly hit to the FH side.

Saturday night I tried to explain to you why I liked your feed how it was better than if all the balls when to the exact same spot. Here I am going to give another go at why I like having the random element in the training:

Watch this video and see if you can figure out the reason:

OldschoolPenholder · Aug 23, 2016

Awesomeness!!! Thank you!

I'm still in the Technique Acquisition phase on some strokes, so I need to "grease the groove"/muscle memory, so block practice may help a bit more u til I get "the right stroke" but I definitely get what you and vid means by the random practice.

Do you know about Col John Boyd? The Read-Plan-Do is very similar to his "O-O-D-A Loop. Although he didn't call it that, others called it.

Observe -Orient-Decide-Action

Given it is TT, a sport, we don't have to Orient ouselves. To a degree, do its Read-Plan-Do.

Great stuff, thank you!

OldschoolPenholder · Aug 23, 2016

Ah cool, idk that.

Wonder how he is doing.

Der_Echte · Aug 23, 2016

UpSideDownCarl said:
Richard Ling is AWESOME.

Good to see you on the forum OldSchool.

Me and this guy made Der_Echte and PingPongHolic have to work for and earn their win in doubles against us. Even though the odds were stacked in their favor.

Sent from Inside The Chamber of Secrets by Patronus

When I saw OSP practice and also the first game, I thought the odds were stacked AGAINST us.

OldschoolPenholder · Aug 24, 2016

LOLOL

again, thank you for your gracious words!

Greetings from osp from nyc

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