Oh wise ones!! Help me understand where I'm going wrong.

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Hey guys, here's a practice session with me and my friend from college. Pls tell me the little mistakes I'm making and how to overcome them. Hopefully I'll be able to get a better camera angle the next time. I'm the guy in blue. Enjoy :)

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Hi Gourav

Thanks for posting.

Two obvious areas of improvement for me:

1. Your backhand

Your game is quite unbalanced - very strong forehand and weaker backhand. If I was coaching the other player in the video, I would tell him to keep playing to your backhand. He does actually do this more as the match progresses and then you made more errors. So you biggest area of development is to make your backhand much stronger. I think you need to work on all backhand strokes - BH flicks, BH topspin vs backspin, BH rallying. If you can make your backhand much more consistent, then you'll be a stronger player.

2. Recovery after opening FH topspin attack

You have a good FH topspin. It was working very well in the first game. He was playing to your FH a lot and you were dominating. However, you have a habit of playing a strong opening FH topspin and then ball watching a little bit (i.e. you're not getting ready for the next ball if it is returned). Most of the time you were playing one FH topspin and winning the point without the ball being returned. But in the final game, the ball was being returned more and you struggled to play two attacks in a row. So you should work on this combination: FH topspin vs backspin, FH topspin vs block.

You have plenty of good things about your game, so if you can address some of the weaknesses, I'm sure you could be a very good table tennis player.

Tom
 
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Oh ok thank you so much!!! I'll take note of these points. Really good to get feedback from a coach as I've never trained under a coach. Tysm again :)

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You are obviously very talented :) and in you game there definitely can be seen youtube influence.
You have somewhat mastered big shots but basics are lacking. But with the great talent you are showing here I am sure with a coach or and advanced player to show you the basics you will pick them up in no time.

1. stay low ( when you are doing forehand topspins your legs are going in opposite direction, down instead of up, legs should help you lift the ball up and also be the starting point of your strokes, weight transfer should produce most of the power on strokes)
2. learn proper forehand & backhand drive/push ( and try to learn to differentiate when a loop or drive stroke is needed )
3. try not to side spin on every forehand loop but to learn bot side and normal topspin and wary those, if an opponent has a very spiny topspin its hard to get the ball on the table if you are "taking over" his rotation with side spin

Disclaimer: I am not a TT coach or a pro just an enthusiast and these are some pointers that I picked up so far on my TT journey so take all with a grain of salt
 
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You are obviously very talented :) and in you game there definitely can be seen youtube influence.
You have somewhat mastered big shots but basics are lacking. But with the great talent you are showing here I am sure with a coach or and advanced player to show you the basics you will pick them up in no time.

1. stay low ( when you are doing forehand topspins your legs are going in opposite direction, down instead of up, legs should help you lift the ball up and also be the starting point of your strokes, weight transfer should produce most of the power on strokes)
2. learn proper forehand & backhand drive/push ( and try to learn to differentiate when a loop or drive stroke is needed )
3. try not to side spin on every forehand loop but to learn bot side and normal topspin and wary those, if an opponent has a very spiny topspin its hard to get the ball on the table if you are "taking over" his rotation with side spin

Disclaimer: I am not a TT coach or a pro just an enthusiast and these are some pointers that I picked up so far on my TT journey so take all with a grain of salt
Tysm for your feedback!! :) I'll definitely keep those points in my head the next time I'm practicing. Thank you again.

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Gaurav, you are really playing well considering you have never had any formal coaching ... you are young and atheletic and you have a lot of time to catch up on the game and get even better...

TBH, I saw bits and pieces of your video ... here is some stuff I keep working on , considering that we are in similar levels or so , might help you as well ...


1. Practice some random footwork drills , this is to build in the safety where the serve return does not come to where you are expecting it to come ... when you play other players ... I am assuming this guy is your regular partner and you are used to his responses to your serves .. this happens to me a lot since I am in a similar situation ... and it becomes a little challenging when you play some body new ... also remember to flex the knees just before you make the decision to move before a shot .. . it helps in good footwork , you can also do the reset hop after each shot , if that helps .. .thats the best way to do it ...

2. Try to take the ball earlier , as much as possible and it will help you make your technique flexible , that is more compact when closer to the table and bigger swings away from the table when required ...

3. Focus on spinning the ball on the backhand ..

4. put some time in to practice over the table shots like pushes and blocks .. the block you are doing especially on the forehand side is pretty prevalent and most of us resort to that when we are surprised or because of habits we made when we were younger ... the better way to do it is with a similar paddle position like a close to the table counter only with a smaller overall motion and follow through ... with adjustment in hand pressure ...

5. your serves are pretty good , but when you have time you can always work on your serves to add more deception ... by creating different spins with similar motion ...
 
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Gaurav, you are really playing well considering you have never had any formal coaching ... you are young and atheletic and you have a lot of time to catch up on the game and get even better...

TBH, I saw bits and pieces of your video ... here is some stuff I keep working on , considering that we are in similar levels or so , might help you as well ...


1. Practice some random footwork drills , this is to build in the safety where the serve return does not come to where you are expecting it to come ... when you play other players ... I am assuming this guy is your regular partner and you are used to his responses to your serves .. this happens to me a lot since I am in a similar situation ... and it becomes a little challenging when you play some body new ... also remember to flex the knees just before you make the decision to move before a shot .. . it helps in good footwork , you can also do the reset hop after each shot , if that helps .. .thats the best way to do it ...

2. Try to take the ball earlier , as much as possible and it will help you make your technique flexible , that is more compact when closer to the table and bigger swings away from the table when required ...

3. Focus on spinning the ball on the backhand ..

4. put some time in to practice over the table shots like pushes and blocks .. the block you are doing especially on the forehand side is pretty prevalent and most of us resort to that when we are surprised or because of habits we made when we were younger ... the better way to do it is with a similar paddle position like a close to the table counter only with a smaller overall motion and follow through ... with adjustment in hand pressure ...

5. your serves are pretty good , but when you have time you can always work on your serves to add more deception ... by creating different spins with similar motion ...
It's true, he is my regular partner. And yes I do have some trouble when playing other ppls serve.Thanks for the valuable points. I'll practice the random footwork drills with him the next time we practice.

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Gourav,

TT Monster is talking out hiz azz and knows nothing about TT or Indian culture...

Of course anyone reading the forum for a while knows none of the above is true and that I am a certified trouble maker... but so is TT Monster... and I like the way he makes trouble... helping people out !!!
 
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Gourav,

TT Monster is talking out hiz azz and knows nothing about TT or Indian culture...

Of course anyone reading the forum for a while knows none of the above is true and that I am a certified trouble maker... but so is TT Monster... and I like the way he makes trouble... helping people out !!!
Uhmm..... Ok

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Hi Gourav,
I can't really say new things, just heighten the importance of a lower stance. Often when you do a FH counter from your BH corner you don't pivot really. If there is enough space move your body and loop like from the FH side. You're fast, use your speed.
Lower stance would help your backhand too. Your wrist action is pretty good when you have time to prepare your stroke, so practice BH-BH counters more.
On FH openings you let your arm up in the air. And try to stay close to the table after the openings.
Good luck!
 
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I agree with the most if not all the comments but one more thing I noticed is that your loop against backspin is way to high, playing against better players they will kill every loop like that. To solve this problem it's more a angle thing, the racket little more closed it will help.


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