Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

SUH made two quick errors on the last two points

 

[Archosaurus]

I watched Miu Hirano playing Chen Meng recently.

It really looked like a beatdown. What happened?

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

I watched Miu Hirano playing Chen Meng recently.

It really looked like a beatdown. What happened?

its Hurricane Hirano...

 

[Vrael]

Price of my "shounen raketto" probably skyrocketed after this tournament . All thanks to medical staff of Japanese team (and Miu Hirano ofc). One person from their medical staff saw me carrying the volume in which Miu Hirano gave an interview and suggested she should sign it. It was still before World Cup and Miu looked suprised after hearing it, but when I Asked nicely she agreed, so here it is:
http://imgur.com/a/3CWcL

 

[Shuki]

Price of my "shounen raketto" probably skyrocketed after this tournament . All thanks to medical staff of Japanese team (and Miu Hirano ofc). One person from their medical staff saw me carrying the volume in which Miu Hirano gave an interview and suggested she should sign it. It was still before World Cup and Miu looked suprised after hearing it, but when I Asked nicely she agreed, so here it is:
http://imgur.com/a/3CWcL

AWESOME. Love when life lines up

 

[Vrael]

The funny part is I didn't even realise that I had exactly this volume in my hand at that time and Miu Hirano was the only player there. I probably would have realsied it sooner, but I was helping players to get from airport to hall and hotel all day (and day before), so my brain wasn't really working too well.

It may sound easy, but it really isn't. All the players, coaches, doctors etc. coming in the span of 3 days (it was pro tour) and some flights were coming earlier, some were delayed, some people were coming in different planes than they said they will.

Logistical nightmare and I am just simple computer science student that volunteered to help and I had to try to communicate with people of 45 different nationalities, find a way to send them to the hotels when I had only 1 bus and 1 minivan at a disposal (and they were living in different hotels), and everyone of course wanted to rest as soon as possible (some players were flying for more than 10 hours and had to change the plane).

Good thing that there are only 2 exits and I had a friend to help me gather all the players... well we managed to lose Ai Fukuhara (it was night and the coaches said we can go), but fortunately found her when she was ready to get into the taxi

- wait... is it her ? (it was really dark, after midnight)
- nooo, can't be, why would she go outside ? But we can check, noone is waiting here (At the airport) anyway.
- *still can't see anything* sumimasen. *oh great she turned around, so it must be Ai chan*

Of course during the next pro tour I volunteered again, cause it was a lot of fun... well, most of the time, losing a player or coach is pretty nerv wracking and there are also many things that I just can't control as a volunteer, but I need to somehow deal with them. For example angry players that don't want to wait and can't speak any language I can speak.

How do I explain to them that there are more people coming in 10,20 min and next group after them will be in 2 hours, so it is better to wait 20 mins now than 1h 40 min later with 2 big groups. And then the flight that was supposed to come in 20min has delay ><

 

[Archosaurus]

@Vrael

The big question to ask is: what's the title of the manga?!

 

[Vrael]

Price of my "shounen raketto" probably skyrocketed after this tournament .

But I have bad news for You Archo, it was not translated and noone thinks about translating it, so if You couldn't read the title from the cover You might have hard time trying to read it.

 

[Archosaurus]

@Vrael

Searching with "少年ラケト" brings up a bunch of pixiv illustrations and whatnot, but I can't seem to find anything about the actual manga itself, so I figured that's not what I should search with. Seems it's just obscure on the non-Japanese speaking internet.

I can't read kanji past the bare basics, so I guess it doesn't really matter. I wonder why no one has attempted to translate it.

 

[Vrael]

I couldn't find it online also. I was in Japan some time ago and bought 4 volumes (it just started being serialized, so it was all that they got). I think there are 10 or more volumes written already. It is no problem if You can't read kanji, because it is shounen manga, so for young readers. Every kanji has hiragana above it.

 

[Archosaurus]

I couldn't find it online also. I was in Japan some time ago and bought 4 volumes (it just started being serialized, so it was all that they got). I think there are 10 or more volumes written already. It is no problem if You can't read kanji, because it is shounen manga, so for young readers. Every kanji has hiragana above it.

Hahah, then it's good for people like me who are at broken Japanese baby-speak level.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

my 3rd session at the club since I'm back from holidays. I'm not back to my previous form, but its much better than last week. I'm still losing some players that i shouldn't lose, but I've had one good win today (with some luck involved), and a good tie (doors closed b4 the end of the match)

I'm not moving well and i lack confidence on my FH side still, but my serve/receive is getting back in place. a guy which is 1-2 levels above me trashed me 3-0 last week something like -5 -5 -5, still trashed but "only" -8 -8 -8, because i served and received correctly and thus i forced some errors and i had more opportunities. My last match was against another good player, i was overall dominated in rallies but serve/receive i was better than him. He was a leftie, but my tactics worked well and i could attack / counterattack a few good times too. I had problems though for blocking his spinny FH topspins.

why was my receive better ? maybe i was waiting slightly farther from the table, and everytime there was a short serve, i came to the ball, and when attacking, naturally the form was more horizontal than when i'm waiting too much; when pushing, going to the ball and taking the ball early gives me more control and better pace for the rally as well.

I'm using BH serve and Hirano-like serve, and i've noticed that its better for me to come back to a position a bit close to the middle while getting prepared to attack with BH first. If i serve from the BH corner. Because of the spin, the ball should go to the FH naturally, but good players know that, and aim often to my BH.

If I serve from the middle of the table to the short FH, because of the sidespin, it is more likely the opponent will aim for the FH. Then its about playing next a FH but covering just in case a bit the BH side.

Overall, I start to understand the tactics with this serve, and thats a good sign. On the other hand, with the classic pendulum serve i'm struggling on 3rd ball attack.

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

...

I'm not moving well and i lack confidence on my FH side still, but my serve/receive is getting back in place. a guy which is 1-2 levels above me trashed me 3-0 last week something like -5 -5 -5, still trashed but "only" -8 -8 -8, because i served and received correctly and thus i forced some errors and i had more opportunities. My last match was against another good player, i was overall dominated in rallies but serve/receive i was better than him. He was a leftie, but my tactics worked well and i could attack / counterattack a few good times too. I had problems though for blocking his spinny FH topspins.

...

Overall, I start to understand the tactics with this serve, and thats a good sign. On the other hand, with the classic pendulum serve i'm struggling on 3rd ball attack.

"Progress not perfection."
~Robert McCall (Denzel Washington in The Equalizer)

Excellent Sir! Unlike Shuki who plays better with some time off, I'm like you and lost my rhythm, touch, well lost everything!

In short time, you will be back to your prior form of 3 weeks ago!

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Today, i played 1h30 with another TTDaily member, the young Freddie Mercury. It was nice. He had not played for a while, still he managed to hit the ball quite well. And TT is not even his main sports !!! well done !

 

[suds79]

Was practicing my backhand serve this morning. Always wanting to try to make my variations look similar. Discovered something I've never thought of before.

Backhand serve. Fairly open face, the swing forward & under the ball. Where as in the past, my angle of my blade would be slightly different. Slightly more open & under the ball for side/back. Slightly more vertical and through the ball for side/top.

However, I discovered you can have exactly the same angle & swing but depending on where you contact the ball on it's decent from the toss, changes the spin. This I think can be huge for players who watch your blade in how it swings.

So if I have a pretty open face blade and i contact the ball earlier in it's decent from the toss, I naturally hit more under the ball... Heavier backspin.

But if I use the same swing and blade angle but this time letting the ball drop closer to the table height, I found because I literally can't get under the ball, it's more pure side on the serve.

In both cases, the exact same blade angle & swing..... Interesting.

 

[NextLevel]

Was practicing my backhand serve this morning. Always wanting to try to make my variations look similar. Discovered something I've never thought of before.

Backhand serve. Fairly open face, the swing forward & under the ball. Where as in the past, my angle of my blade would be slightly different. Slightly more open & under the ball for side/back. Slightly more vertical and through the ball for side/top.

However, I discovered you can have exactly the same angle & swing but depending on where you contact the ball on it's decent from the toss, changes the spin. This I think can be huge for players who watch your blade in how it swings.

So if I have a pretty open face blade and i contact the ball earlier in it's decent from the toss, I naturally hit more under the ball... Heavier backspin.

But if I use the same swing and blade angle but this time letting the ball drop closer to the table height, I found because I literally can't get under the ball, it's more pure side on the serve.

In both cases, the exact same blade angle & swing..... Interesting.

I discovered that while learning the reverse serve from Brett. I immediately transferred it to my backhand serve and sometimes use it on my pendulum serve as well. The swing is never exactly the same, but as long as the receiver thinks it is, good things will happen. It's not that hard to see if you are not the receiver though. That's why I often tell people that you should not expect to be easily deceived by a serve if you are not where the receiver is. The deception is intended to take advantage of the perspective of the receiver.

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Today, i played 1h30 with another TTDaily member, the young Freddie Mercury. It was nice. He had not played for a while, still he managed to hit the ball quite well. And TT is not even his main sports !!! well done !

Always awesome to hear of forum members get-togethers!

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Hit for 2.75 hours straight last night at about 80% power/speed. Did not play any matches, just hit. I have challenges with the Nexy Amazon and seem not able to return the ball. Either my time off, the MXP is dead, or my partners at the time or a combination A night of experimentation.

Hit with the American Hinoki CPen with Tenergy I received as a prize from NextLevel's Christmas contest almost the whole night. I'm behind the times on technology/products... 42andbackpains informed me that Tenergy are $75 each and it's very fast and bouncy.

Am surprised that I hit very decently with this combination:

- given in the past I couldn't adapt to a bouncy rubber (German Adidas)

- the AH blade is noticeably smaller than other CPens I've used - thinking the smaller blade demanded precise technique from me which I lack

- my wrist/hand strength couldn't handle the weight of 2 inverted sheets - hand/wrist didn't hurt last night ... guessing the smaller blade plus the hinoki wood were huge factors

-------------------------------

* Hit with a member I've never seen before, 'B4' (no pun intended), who played SH. He has good FH and good FH loop. Pretty steady. He claims he has no BH, but it seemed to me he was ok with it, perhaps not as steady as his FH. We hit for 1.75 hrs straight. No games, just FH-FH, BH-BH, and FH loops.

Throughout this session, i changed from PH to SH. Am very surprised i was able to return the ball consistently enough as a SH on both FH and BH. Tried the modern RPB - did not watch vids yet to learn how to hit with the RPB yet ... am not sure if i was doing it properly, but the balls were landing in - used my oldschool PH curled fingers ... and my RPB was not a punch or block, but I turned my wrist a bit and the balls landed in ... probably the Tenergy and not me lol ... didn't try any RPB loop

* Hit with "Mommy" next for 30 mins. We always have fun hitting together. She likes my steady returns enbaling her to groove her strokes.

* Hit with my arch-nemesis, 'K', next for 15 mins - he was about to leave but saw Mommy calling it a night. He saw the new blade I was using and wanted to test out the Tenergy. I used the Nexy Amazon/MXP to block. I was able to hit and block with the Nexy perhaps because K was going 90-100% ... his comments: Tenergy is fast and bouncy. Great for looping and bad for blocking. He liked it.

* Hit for 30 mins with a regular member - we know each other by face, but generally I don't have a chance to hit with him. He plays SH but has an unorthodox FH but he is steady with it. Despite what K said about the AH/tenergy not being good for blocking, I blocked just fine with the combo.

------------------

It was 8:45 pm and getting late. As I was about to head out, 'MH' was free ... chatted for 30 mins, reminiscing on old times ... last week, he saw me and recognized me from 30+ yrs ago from the old firehouse club in Chinatown we used to play at. 80 yr-old Thomas was there too and also played at the firehouse. Great chat amongst the 3 of us. I didn't recall Thomas, but we talked about the old league and I recalled him.

Dead tired from almost 3 hrs of TT... i generally take 22 mins to walk home. Am surprised once i started walking, was able to walk at a brisk pace and set a new PR - walked home in 19 mins. I didn't do much physical activities during my time off recuperating ... surprised i was able to do that.

------------------------

I am meeting 42andbackpains this Sunday - 2 hr drive to a mutual friend's house ... the old TT crew we were a part of meeting up - at least 5 of us. Expecting a lot of trash talking amongst old friends, reliving our youths, bragging rights and ~6 hrs marathon TT matches. May or may not have video.

--------------------

Since receiving the American Hinoki from NextLevel, didn't get a chance to test it as I took the recuperation break ... after 2 sessions with it, i will begin my sanding of the wings. Have not served with it yet nor played matches.

 

[ttmonster]

I think you should seriously think about changing to Shake hand with tenergy , it might not be such a bad idea . Knowing you are making a comeback and with the current physical issues you have , if you have the patience, you might be back to your 80% in a year or so , with a backhand , it will be easier to also adopt the smaller strokes with forearm snap

Hit for 2.75 hours straight last night at about 80% power/speed. Did not play any matches, just hit. I have challenges with the Nexy Amazon and seem not able to return the ball. Either my time off, the MXP is dead, or my partners at the time or a combination A night of experimentation.

Hit with the American Hinoki CPen with Tenergy I received as a prize from NextLevel's Christmas contest almost the whole night. I'm behind the times on technology/products... 42andbackpains informed me that Tenergy are $75 each and it's very fast and bouncy.

Am surprised that I hit very decently with this combination:

- given in the past I couldn't adapt to a bouncy rubber (German Adidas)

- the AH blade is noticeably smaller than other CPens I've used - thinking the smaller blade demanded precise technique from me which I lack

- my wrist/hand strength couldn't handle the weight of 2 inverted sheets - hand/wrist didn't hurt last night ... guessing the smaller blade plus the hinoki wood were huge factors

-------------------------------

* Hit with a member I've never seen before, 'B4' (no pun intended), who played SH. He has good FH and good FH loop. Pretty steady. He claims he has no BH, but it seemed to me he was ok with it, perhaps not as steady as his FH. We hit for 1.75 hrs straight. No games, just FH-FH, BH-BH, and FH loops.

Throughout this session, i changed from PH to SH. Am very surprised i was able to return the ball consistently enough as a SH on both FH and BH. Tried the modern RPB - did not watch vids yet to learn how to hit with the RPB yet ... am not sure if i was doing it properly, but the balls were landing in - used my oldschool PH curled fingers ... and my RPB was not a punch or block, but I turned my wrist a bit and the balls landed in ... probably the Tenergy and not me lol ... didn't try any RPB loop

* Hit with "Mommy" next for 30 mins. We always have fun hitting together. She likes my steady returns enbaling her to groove her strokes.

* Hit with my arch-nemesis, 'K', next for 15 mins - he was about to leave but saw Mommy calling it a night. He saw the new blade I was using and wanted to test out the Tenergy. I used the Nexy Amazon/MXP to block. I was able to hit and block with the Nexy perhaps because K was going 90-100% ... his comments: Tenergy is fast and bouncy. Great for looping and bad for blocking. He liked it.

* Hit for 30 mins with a regular member - we know each other by face, but generally I don't have a chance to hit with him. He plays SH but has an unorthodox FH but he is steady with it. Despite what K said about the AH/tenergy not being good for blocking, I blocked just fine with the combo.

------------------

It was 8:45 pm and getting late. As I was about to head out, 'MH' was free ... chatted for 30 mins, reminiscing on old times ... last week, he saw me and recognized me from 30+ yrs ago from the old firehouse club in Chinatown we used to play at. 80 yr-old Thomas was there too and also played at the firehouse. Great chat amongst the 3 of us. I didn't recall Thomas, but we talked about the old league and I recalled him.

Dead tired from almost 3 hrs of TT... i generally take 22 mins to walk home. Am surprised once i started walking, was able to walk at a brisk pace and set a new PR - walked home in 19 mins. I didn't do much physical activities during my time off recuperating ... surprised i was able to do that.

------------------------

I am meeting 42andbackpains this Sunday - 2 hr drive to a mutual friend's house ... the old TT crew we were a part of meeting up - at least 5 of us. Expecting a lot of trash talking amongst old friends, reliving our youths, bragging rights and ~6 hrs marathon TT matches. May or may not have video.

--------------------

Since receiving the American Hinoki from NextLevel, didn't get a chance to test it as I took the recuperation break ... after 2 sessions with it, i will begin my sanding of the wings. Have not served with it yet nor played matches.

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

I think you should seriously think about changing to Shake hand with tenergy , it might not be such a bad idea . Knowing you are making a comeback and with the current physical issues you have , if you have the patience, you might be back to your 80% in a year or so , with a backhand , it will be easier to also adopt the smaller strokes with forearm snap

I have no SH 'game', no serves, my mind is still fixated and abides on FH only or BH only - am not fluid to flow/switch between the 2

Just for the heck of it, this Sunday, will play a match SH and may post video.

LOL at me ... THANK YOU ttmonster.