Help me imrove my play :)

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Hello guys, i am a young player from slovakia ..... but i started playing late :( anyways i know i woulnd't be able to replace those missing youth years but i enjoy the game a lot nevertheless, and i want to be the best as i can. Through summer i am playing 4-5 times a week 2 to 3 hours sessions. I am offensivly oriented player, playing with avalox p500 and Rakza 7 fh and bh both looking mainly for third or fifth ball attack. My opponents, even much higher rated than me ussualy have lots of trouble returning my serves well. I know my footwork sucks, and i am pretty big for a TT player as i work in a gym 176 lbs at 5ft 7. But i am making progress in that area... as i try to jump rope and such a lot. Here are 2 unedited videos of me playing..... and one edited.... i will try to upload more overtime...... i'd be greatfull for every and any advice i get :) Thanks in forward.
Btw i am the guy wearing glasses

 
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Judging from your games, i recommend that you maybe move your feet a bit more to get better in position when getting ready to attack. Also, your serves all seem to be long and fast (Okay but also bad). When you serve long and fast like that, people can easily smash that. I recommend to try to make your serves shorter and try to move your feet a bit rather then just staying in one place the whole game.
 
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To me your game looks pretty solid already. What I noticed is that sometimes your footing is not balanced/stable and your backhand attacks are sometimes a bit weaker than they could be.

If you maintain a slightly lower stance you will have better balance and stability. Contact to the ground is one of the most important things in table tennis so try to minimize the moments your feet leave the ground.
For the backhand attacks it's really just the stroke that you need to adjust. When you get a ball that you think you can attack very aggressively on you should use a wider swing to generate more force. My swing is usually from my left hip all the way to having an almost outstreched arm. If you brush over the ball with that kind of swing your attack will be very fast and very difficult for your opponents.
 
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Gotta echo what DDF2 is saying. You start the point with a stance that is low and wide enough, but once the point is underway, you play too upright. This does makes some other aspects of your game suffer. When you go for a BH topspin, you tend to bend backwards to generate your torque to make the shot. Sometimes it doesn't land, and when it does, you have to take like two steps to recover and you are in a bad position to continue the attack. When you are too upright, you cannot move to position at all, when you do move it will make you off balance, out of position, and off time - three strikes against you for consistency already. Playing upright makes you want to go for balls that are not really good chances. The result is way too many unforced errors and I think a lot of your issues come from this with some other things. You got a grip on combination shots, like a BH topspin and a step around to do a FH finish, but the lack of balance and poor stance interfere with a lot of this making it even more inconsistent for you.

What can you do to fix this? There really isn't a quick fix ! You prolly already know you are upright, so you probably got awareness, so it is a matter of being conscious of it and continuing to use practice and practice matches as a way to reduce and later eliminate this. You will likely not get to the point where you want to be in this the first few months, some take a few years, some never get it and remain an average or poor level.

Another thing I see you can control is your shot selection. Vs the second opponent USAK who appeared to use pips or at least a Balsa blade and blocked a lot, you chose fast attacks right in his blocking zone instead of slow, deep spinny attacks on 80-90% of your first attacks. He blocked you down on a lot of those as your balance issue from bad stance showed often. You also were expecting a better result from your attack and were not in position or good enough stance to continue the attack and when you tried it wasn't a good result most of the time. Some points you were able to keep balance and make several attacking shots in a row and that is good, but you were not making that your normal standard. You know how to make a slow topspin, you did some of them. Maybe he was giving you some balls that looked like you could fast loop for the point, but you hit it to where he was prepared. Try vs USAK for a slow topspin and then make a strong smash or loopkill to end the point.

You got a long way to improve you level on serve area and that is good, it just means it can only get better. When you are able to use the same motion (also have several different motions) and make every spin, break, depth, and pace possible, that will help your 3rd ball a lot.

For now I keep it short, the big three things you can get to payoff for you if you improve these are STANCE, SHOT SLECTION, and SERVE / SERVE RECEIVE areas.
 
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Like i said i know my footwork sucks :) and i am doing my best to improve it, will definitelly try to keep my core lower, as for serves .... i don't have any trouble serving short but serving like this was just tactical decision and against those opponents as you can see the right one cause they were just unable to recieve them right... and yes bh is my weakness that's also why i try to play them as much as possible and also the reason to write this :) i am self taught and your advice is just invaluable to me because it takes me a lot of time to figure the stuff you would tell me right away.
btw echte you are right .... he is using short pips. i'll try to record matches against the variety of opponents where i need to serve better and also against the one attacking mostly me.
 
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When doing BH try to involve your legs more and do not go up with your elbow. You should try to start with your elbow closer to the body and go more towards right like Kreanga does. The first times it will be strange and very different but once you get more confident you'll get much more power.

 
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Personally I think what everyone is saying has merit, but it all comes down to how you're training. For me multiball is essential since I'm out of shape and also need work on my footwork. Your strokes look to be a bit too big which really hurts your recovery time for the next shot which is why you tend to block more often.

I think your serve is very good, but in the event that your opponent returns it you often make just as many mistakes as they do.

I would try throwing in more lower serves with less spin to help you develop your feeling of your attack. Then crank up the spin and go for it again and again until you understand how to attack passive returns from your serve.

As for footwork try drills or multiball that move you from the right to left and vice versa. This will help your timing and feeling I think.

For the most part your game is there it's just not all balanced your more advanced in some shots and very inexperienced in others. Keep practicing and keep training, but most importantly learn what you're doing well and what you need to improve on. You need to remember what shots work off of your serve so that your serve can be used efficiently instead of giving away a point because you don't know what to do with your own spin.

Hope this helps.
 
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says Spin and more spin.
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One thing I notice is that your left arm is all over the place. You look like you need to get that under control. Sometimes it is dropped to your side. Sometimes it is flailing around. But it is not coordinated with what you are doing with your strokes and it should be. I would practice shadow strokes with a mirror to see what your whole body is doing when you are doing practice strokes. You don't want to have to think about what your left arm is doing but it should be coordinated with what you are doing in your stroke. The left arm compromises your balance and affects your recovery time as does the size of your strokes as Mr. Richard already said.

Also, two things about the serve: 1) most of those serves look way high, which, to me means you might not have complete control of your placement with the serves. Whether they are long or short, the serves are too high. But all of the ones I saw, against 3 different players, were long. This leads to the second thing: 2) It does not look like you are trying to set yourself up with your serves and it actually does not look like you are even thinking of what you might possibly get back from those serves. There were plenty of returns you could have crushed if you were thinking about your third ball at all but you seem not to be set for much of anything when your serve comes back. And when it comes back your shot on the third ball is not all that powerful. I suggest that you try to think of using your serves to set up an attack and try and take control of the points with your third ball more effectively.
 
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Forehand is good but only from Fh side. Bh you do not use your wrist at all, the shots you make with while arm and you move too much up instead of forward, especially in second or next shot.
i suggest you training with Russian system, it helps a lot. The idea is that you make all your shots to your opponent bh side, while he blocks you to different place
1. Your bh ( you play bh)
2. Middle ( you play Fh)
3. Your bh ( you play bh)
4. Your Fh ( you play Fh)
5. Start all over again

it will help you a lot to improve your footwork.

i hope it is clear and helpful
 
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Although he (the OP) could jump up a full level if he improves his serves and follow up shot, he stands to gain a lot more solid improvement by correcting his stance, balance, movement and recovery along with shot selection. It isn't like he NOT aware of many of his problems, or isn't aware of what shots he needs to do well to setup and win points. No, he appears to know that, but being aware only doesn't him there to where he wants to be. He has to practice being aware with consciously doing it effectively in first practice, then practice matches with someone who can remind him when he is not "doing it right" and tell him what to do and give him friendship/motivation to keep with it.

Majority of what OP is not doing effectively stems from not staying down, balanced, well timed, and enough recovery. One problem of thee leads to another for him from these areas and addressing these will really help him out when he decides to get his serve/receive game together and figure out for himself how to construct his points as an attacker.

Once he gets these sorted out well enough, he can profit from a better approach to what we have been suggesting to him.
 
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Der Echte i couldn't thank you more :) you are right i am aware of the misstakes and that is exactly why i asked for help..... i try to record all of my sessions and watch it afterwards.....there are lots of things that could be improved but it s nearly impossible to be mindfull about all of them all the time so for now my focus is on serving, keeping my center of gravity lower and right bh stroke .... i know this is going to be a longer process and i might loose some matches i wouldn't have untill i get used to this but i really don't care about the winning rather playing to my satisfaction :) and thanks all for the suggestions.
 
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