Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Der_Echte]

Well Gene, there are a lot of 1800+ jokers who can smoke a 2000 posse, a few 2000 level ones with pips. Most of them don't have super deceptive serves but they work for their level.

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[Der_Echte]

We gotta give Ilia a nickname... maybe professor Sherman or Wolverine...

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[JeffM]

Here are the movements for while it is still a little wonky:

You can do a few 100 of those at a time. Make it really gentle. Like you don't have to straighten all the way and you don't have to bend all the way.

When your knee no longer has swelling you can do it more like the next version.

Hope this helps it get better faster.


Sent from Deep Space by Abacus

Thanks Carl. I can see with the first video, it is about getting the range of motion of the knee without causing pain. How about the purpose of the exercise in the 2nd video?

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Thanks Carl. I can see with the first video, it is about getting the range of motion of the knee without causing pain. How about the purpose of the exercise in the 2nd video?

When your knee is healthy the second video gives you as full a range in the knee as possible. For your purposes the directions about breathing are not important. But the knee getting hugged in and going all the way to straight, there are no movements we do in our life where the knee goes from as bent as it can possibly get to as straight as it can possibly get. Worth doing that sometimes. The arm movement is also good for your shoulder joint.

 

[NextLevel]

Trying to clean up my strokes again - I have been experimenting a bit too much trying to get whip and these are still my best forehand and backhand strokes. I should just try to get more consistent using them.

 

[Shuki]

What impresses me most about NL. Is that he's able to consistently hit his loops whilst standing so upwards. I need to get so damn low to consistently hit my loops. I can't imagine having to adapt to being as upright as he is and still hit the ball. I'd simply wiff and hit the edge of my raquet every time.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

What impresses me most about NL.

What most impresses me about NextLevel is how, on video it doesn't look anything like what the real thing feels like! In a match, when you loop hard at NextLevel, it doesn't matter which wing, when the ball comes back, and it will, it is freakin' fast and heavy. It feels like you are trying to return a golf ball because of the combination of pace and spin. Like he's hitting it with a Thor's magic hammer: Mjölnir.

NL has done a great job adapting technique to the needs of his joints; using technique that will allow him to play despite having Rheumatoid Arthritis. And, man, he hits the ball with power.





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[ttmonster]

For some reason, I could guess as much , I think he has figured some stuff about timing on all his shots that we don't get ... IMO ...

What most impresses me about NextLevel is how, on video it doesn't look anything like what the real thing feels like! In a match, when you loop hard at NextLevel, it doesn't matter which wing, when the ball comes back, and it will, it is freakin' fast and heavy. It feels like you are trying to return a golf ball because of the combination of pace and spin. Like he's hitting it with a Thor's magic hammer: Mjölnir.

NL has done a great job adapting technique to the needs of his joints; using technique that will allow him to play despite having Rheumatoid Arthritis. And, man, he hits the ball with power.





Sent from Deep Space by Abacus

 

[NextLevel]

What impresses me most about NL. Is that he's able to consistently hit his loops whilst standing so upwards. I need to get so damn low to consistently hit my loops. I can't imagine having to adapt to being as upright as he is and still hit the ball. I'd simply wiff and hit the edge of my raquet every time.

It's partly long arms and partly a wide stance that isn't obvious unless you look closely. In match play, my feet I usually even wider apart during rallies unless I am really mailing it in.

 

[NextLevel]

What most impresses me about NextLevel is how, on video it doesn't look anything like what the real thing feels like! In a match, when you loop hard at NextLevel, it doesn't matter which wing, when the ball comes back, and it will, it is freakin' fast and heavy. It feels like you are trying to return a golf ball because of the combination of pace and spin. Like he's hitting it with a Thor's magic hammer: Mjölnir.

NL has done a great job adapting technique to the needs of his joints; using technique that will allow him to play despite having Rheumatoid Arthritis. And, man, he hits the ball with power.





Sent from Deep Space by Abacus

Thanks for the kind words - not sure if they describe my play but they are complimentary. In match play, I do often hit the ball with a bit more abandon and with larger strokes which compromise my recovery. I also throw my body around a bit more. In practice, my focus is getting in the reps and getting good spin. In matches, I try to too hard to be a one punch man.

 

[Shuki]

What most impresses me about NextLevel is

Let's just agree that he's impressive

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Thanks for the kind words - not sure if they describe my play but they are complimentary. In match play, I do often hit the ball with a bit more abandon and with larger strokes which compromise my recovery. I also throw my body around a bit more. In practice, my focus is getting in the reps and getting good spin. In matches, I try to too hard to be a one punch man.

From the matches we played at LYTTC, I have this vivid memory of a rally where I had you a little out of position, I blasted the ball with my FH to your BH side. I totally did not think you were going to get there but you did. And the shot that came back was hard as all get out.

There were quite a few times I hit the ball hard and it came back harder. But that one stands out in my memory.

And your ball quality is very high. Like, I have hit and played with lots of players your level. Your ball quality is higher than the average ball quality of guys who play at your level.

Which sort of makes sense to me. You have to be that good to get to that level since other things that a 22 year old who is healthy and 2000 level could take for granted.


Sent from Deep Space by Abacus

 

[NextLevel]

Cool point of the day.

youtu.be/q4VQhAMnCq4?t=656

 

[Shuki]

Just curious NL, do you work on placement a lot with your loops? Or are you the kind of player to just use enough force to try and break their paddle? A break through the wall kind of player.

 

[Der_Echte]

I do often hit the ball with a bit more abandon and with larger strokes which compromise my recovery. I also throw my body around a bit more. ... In matches, I try to too hard to be a one punch man.

Hahahaha. Der_Echte syndrome must be contagious. Sounds very much like my match antics, but much less extreme. I am often out of position, but still dead set on spinning the cover off the ball, even if off balance position and lack of squat makes me spin my body on follow through so it stops in the next county without a chance to recover. Usually, that is not a problem for Rambo as his first shot often kills, but when he runs into that mean county sheriff, things get rough.

 

[Der_Echte]

Shuki, sometimes NL is much like Der_Echte Rambo who tries to use brute force and ignorance, but NL is much wiser about how to read the ball and give back a troublesome ball.

Carl said it good when he said NL hits many more quality balls than it looks like on vids. We can debate what is quality, but we can all basically agree that it contains language about the ball being troublesome, difficult to attack or counter, might win the point, and leads to errors or much risk-taking by opponent to get upper hand. That little stuff NL does with his shots adds up. NL can do ONE STEP very well, and if he knows where you are going the ball likely wont get by him. You can try to hit it THROUGH him, but good luck my friends. Better to setup and hit your shot, but that too is not as easy as it looks, unless you are 2200+ level who is simply better.

 

[NextLevel]

Just curious NL, do you work on placement a lot with your loops? Or are you the kind of player to just use enough force to try and break their paddle? A break through the wall kind of player.

It's a good question. I use to use slower equipment and work more on placement. I also used to rely upon tactical spin to win points. But now two things have happened - my health is not as good, so I can't practice as much, and I don't play as much competition anymore. I went to faster equipment to get more pace but I still haven't fixed my blocking and hitting technique. It's been hard trying to replace a game dominated by blocking and hitting with looping and I still can't counterloop consistently on my forehand side.

Let's put it this way - I don't move and recover well enough to produce my best topspin loops in a match against another topspin player - it is the blockers and pips players that I usually go through because they don't challenge my recovery as much.

That said, I have gotten so good at looping wide that I need to either go back to slower equipment so that my loops are wider than they are now or get better at looping to the middle of the table as people are getting better at waiting back for my wide loops.

 

[NextLevel]

From the matches we played at LYTTC, I have this vivid memory of a rally where I had you a little out of position, I blasted the ball with my FH to your BH side. I totally did not think you were going to get there but you did. And the shot that came back was hard as all get out.

There were quite a few times I hit the ball hard and it came back harder. But that one stands out in my memory.

And your ball quality is very high. Like, I have hit and played with lots of players your level. Your ball quality is higher than the average ball quality of guys who play at your level.

Which sort of makes sense to me. You have to be that good to get to that level since other things that a 22 year old who is healthy and 2000 level could take for granted.


Sent from Deep Space by Abacus

It was probably 75% your pace with 25% my pace and timing. Hitting the ball hard is really overrated at the lower levels. All you need is someone with good touch and movement to bring the ball back. Being able to place the ball is much more important, though as the levels of athleticism get higher, both become extremely important. What I need right now that is missing from my game is a 75% shot that I can recover from on my forehand side with good balance. I am playing around with some ideas and I think I have one that might work.

 

[NextLevel]

For some reason, I could guess as much , I think he has figured some stuff about timing on all his shots that we don't get ... IMO ...

It's really whip mechanics and some long limbs. I can't overemphasize how much you can get out of whip mechanics if you focus on them. Right now, I need to build in some better recovery as well.

 

[Archosaurus]

Hey, I have a quick question.

Up to a point, I can brush loop nowadays. However only with a fairly conservative swing.

If I attempt to swing faster, the ball won't go out nor is the pace high, and there will be spin, but it will be lacking. On impact, I can hear a instantaneous tire-screeching sound. It doesn't feel too good.

What is happening here? Am I not sinking into the sponge enough? Is the angle of impact simply too sharp and it's like a ricochet? It feels like the topsheet is getting overloaded and letting go halfway.


Progress with my normal loops is going great. A lot of pieces are falling together. I just don't entirely understand how I could improve from this and why it happens. Thanks.