Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[OldschoolPenholder]

V is easy 2000 east coast. He is likely 5-6 levels, but who is counting?

YES!!!!

That makes me 1400!!!!!!

Told y'all so, no one believes me ;-)

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

I could be wrong, but I don't know any Wally at SPiN other than "THE INFAMOUS WALLY GREEN". Perhaps this guy got confused by the fact that there is a Wally at Spin even if it is not the one you meant.

Although Thomas is 80 yrs old, i don't think he would mistake Wally Green from the Wally we were reminiscing about. It's possible he heard wrong that Wally was coaching at SPIN.

An aside, from your FB, reconnected with E.C. ... not sure if he asks you to call him "F.O.B." - back in college, he told everyone to call him FOB lol

 

[Der_Echte]

OSP, you would rate as 1200 to 1700 depending on where/who you play.

 

[ttmonster]

I think it will depend on how may points he decides take as handicap .... if he takes 9 points he might even play with a rating of 100 - 300 ... LOL at me

OSP, you would rate as 1200 to 1700 depending on where/who you play.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

I've played again this morning (4th time this week). My usual partners didn't show up so i had to play with an old lady which must be at least 4 levels below. Still i had a decent workout as she was able to drill FH to FH and BH to BH reasonably well, and even better, she was able to block ok on her BH side, so i sent everything there.

I like to play sometimes lower rated players because it gives me confidence again. The pace is slower so i'm able to focus on my technique and placement, it feels good to have 85+% of 3rd ball attacks on the table. It feels good to be able to move in rhythm, feel i have time to get back in neutral position then play the 3rd ball etc... I mean, if i can't do it at that pace, i can't hope to do it against stronger players... So its good to have a session to focus on basic things.

I could also focus specifically on my FH and the points I posted above, always trying to have my weight on the forward part of my feet (but not the toes). Not surprisingly it helped me a lot to execute much better topspins, and I felt that even in some circumstances where i felt a bit late to the ball, "miraculously" i made "good" shots which came back nicely on the table, and that would have been a 100% miss if I hadn't corrected my balance. Trying to keep the balance on long incoming balls was also key to landing good shots.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Although Thomas is 80 yrs old, i don't think he would mistake Wally Green from the Wally we were reminiscing about. It's possible he heard wrong that Wally was coaching at SPIN.

An aside, from your FB, reconnected with E.C. ... not sure if he asks you to call him "F.O.B." - back in college, he told everyone to call him FOB lol

That was my point that he may have heard Wally, and not the rest of the name and just assumed it was one Wally when it was another. But I am really not sure. I have not been around SPiN much lately. I actually have not played in at least 5-6 weeks.

As far as EC, he is awesome but he never asked me to call him anything other than a shortened version of his first name. And I know EC through RC.

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

OSP, you would rate as 1200 to 1700 depending on where/who you play.

YES!!!

1200 it is then!!!

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

As far as EC, he is awesome but he never asked me to call him anything other than a shortened version of his first name. And I know EC through RC.

Very cool!

EC asked me, "Are you that wicked Penholder looper from college?"

I had to lolz. .. funny how I think of myself as a smasher, loop one and smash/punch block everything else

He remembered me as a wicked looper lol

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Hours before I get together tomorrow with 42andbackpains for a whole day with our old TT crew

By "old" I mean over the hill, bunch of 13 yr old minds in 50 yr old bodies reliving the glory of our youth

Trash talking and bragging rights here we come!

Last year we got together I gave one friend 9 pts and lost 3 straight ... all shutouts ... Lolol at me!!

IIRC I was 1 and 7 or something like that lol

 

[Der_Echte]

YES!!!

1200 it is then!!!

Your option, but you would be higher than 1200 in most places.

 

[Archosaurus]

So, I haven't touched a table tennis table in weeks, and of course, the symptoms start to take effect. I'm doing footwork shadow drills with my kitchen table.


For a long time now I've understood that with my forehand stroke, my body rotation is too late, or my arm is too early, or some kind of combination of that. So I've been doing a lot of shadow strokes and filming them to try to figure something out.

I've managed to nail down the feel of dragging the arm "behind" my body, or "after" the rotation, so that it looks much better. My arm is more in-line with my shoulders on the "contact point" as opposed to being way in front of my body. But oh man does this feel strange.

Well, now that I have the feeling down and I can replicate it on will, when my partner comes back, I'll hit the table and try to see if I can do something similar with a real ball. Then we will see if what I'm doing makes any sense.

It feels very, very strange, not bad or uncomfortable, just strange and unfamiliar, but I remember a quote from Greg Letts I believe where he said something along the lines of "Don't do what feels right, do what works, and it'll start to feel right".

I'd like to note a thing about this, too:



If I lean forward and wind up to the point where I can feel a tightness in my abdomen, it's easy to just rotate out and the arm will very easily follow the right path and timing. I don't need to try to "force" my arm to drag behind. If I try to force it, without that winding up, my stomach comes out during the swing so I don't think it's very right.

Is this "winding up" for power?

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Yesterday, "42andbackpains" and I went to a friend's house in NJ (with traffic ~2hrs drive) to meet up with our old TT crew ... 6 in total, with 1 friend, not part of the original 1980's crew.

Let's get this out of the way first, I played everyone once and played 2x with the friend that is not part of the original crew.

*MENTAL DRUMROLL PLEASE*

i went 0-6 ............. LOLZ at me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My, er, um, ah, *ahem* 'excuses':

1. IIRC, only my 3rd time playing since i took a few months off to recuperate from shoulder achiness
2. My shoulder is a little achy, way better than a few months before - I didn't play at 100% seriousness, only at ~75%
3. I could not make my shots with my regular setup of Nexy Amazon CPen with MX-P for whatever reason
4. Only my 3rd time in using NextLevel's contest prize of American Hinoki CPen with 2 Tenergy rubbers
5. I played some matches SH and some CPen, trying some of the modern PH style

FTR, 42andbackpains went 4-1 IIRC, with the 1 loss a result of not going 100% due to the concrete floor and not risking hurting his bad back as well as the table reacting differently than what he is used to.

I have video of our match but didn't have time to edit out 'fluff' last night. If i have time, i will also post highlights of my warmup as SH with the others for the DCC TTDers giggles. All of my friends LOL me when I hit and played SH.

Great and fun time had by all!

 

[ttmonster]

Looking forward to see the videos OSPH , get them out soon please !

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

To my astonishment, I was able to direct the ball at my will as to whether it goes down the line or cross court, so I was happy, as I have never had that feeling before, and I always had the problem of only getting the ball to go down the line instead of cross court (fh side to fh side).

Do your best to remember this feeling! Some athletes have described this feeling as 'in the zone' ... they feel they can do no wrong, everything is going their way, they feel great as they perform their action. In future play, do your best to recall that day when your rpb banana flick worked perfectly.

I was too careless and too comfortable that I will win it

Easy to say, hard to do sometimes ... don't think of the past, be in the present, be in the moment. Never underestimate the opponent ... never understimate the randomess of edge/net balls going your opponent's way.

Down from 0-5, it progressed to a 1-7 deficit. I tried to clear my head, managed to level it back to 7-7.

Great fighting spirit!!

When I re-watch the video, I realized at game 3 9:9, I lost the 2 points in exactly the same way, and I mean, the balls were directed at the same place, in the same manner! He serve, I chop, he chop, I chop, then he attack... So instead of my 2nd chop, I think I will definitely need to change it to attack with either my rpb or my fh loop.

In general, i don't push more than 3x ... because of this though, sometimes i rush on the ball that would've been my 3rd push ... i'm not a pusher per se, but as i push, i'm generally looking to angle it to set up an attack ... sometimes i 'get in the zone' and can somehow sense that an incoming ball can be angled/touched to an extreme angle.



Remember a loss is never a loss when you learn something about yourself and your game... aspects of your game to look to improve on ...

Hope these help si-hing!

 

[Suga D]

Remember a loss is never a loss when you learn something about yourself and your game... aspects of your game to look to improve on ...

Hope these help si-hing!

Wow. That's deep! Awesome! Ancient wisdom!

Hey OSPH,

I finally managed to get a little footage while i was working on the robot. It's rather short, but better than nothing. I'll try to get some matchplay if possible. But our season is over now. So maybe all i might get might be just a little footage from the practice hall.
Well, anyway. Here are the vids.
I hope now you can understand why i want you to spot me nine points. Pls try to not look at my overweight.
[Emoji6]
First one is my best Buddy, the other one is me.

 

[Archosaurus]

Suga, first Der_Echte ruins my image of him being a small Korean guy who can talk BIG GAME, and now you ruin my impression of you being a rastaman.

What next?





Good swings, though.

 

[suds79]

Does anybody have an idea for league play at our table tennis club?

Some players have expressed interests in having a league. But I'm thinking, how do you run a league where people sometimes show up to play & sometimes don't.

We could do an individual league but honestly that's probably not going to be that exciting. Everybody kinda knows who the top players are 1-4. Sometimes they show. Sometimes they don't.

So I'm thinking some team drafting thing would be fun. Would it be you win more points for challenging someone & winning and very little positive points even in losses? I figure there's got to be some incentive for players showing up to play, even if they lose, compared to players who never make it to club.

Anybody have ideas or do something similar at your club?

 

[Suga D]

Suga, first Der_Echte ruins my image of him being a small Korean guy who can talk BIG GAME, and now you ruin my impression of you being a rastaman.

What next?





Good swings, though.

Thanks mate.
[Emoji2]
A wise man once told me:

 

[ttmonster]

How many people do you have ? What is the spread over the rating levels ? I think that will help in giving you suggestions ... the kinds I have seen are handicapped leagues , where people are divided in to groups irrespective of their rating and then hadicaps are assigned to the lower rated players based on the point difference , the other one is where the players are divided into groups of rating ranges and the top player moves on to the higher group and the lowest player moves down . Based on the people in each rating group , they are again sub divided into individual sub groups where they play round robin , with semis and finals at the end ... hope this helps ...

Does anybody have an idea for league play at our table tennis club?

Some players have expressed interests in having a league. But I'm thinking, how do you run a league where people sometimes show up to play & sometimes don't.

We could do an individual league but honestly that's probably not going to be that exciting. Everybody kinda knows who the top players are 1-4. Sometimes they show. Sometimes they don't.

So I'm thinking some team drafting thing would be fun. Would it be you win more points for challenging someone & winning and very little positive points even in losses? I figure there's got to be some incentive for players showing up to play, even if they lose, compared to players who never make it to club.

Anybody have ideas or do something similar at your club?

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Wow. That's deep! Awesome! Ancient wisdom!

LOL nah, people know this, but may need reminding from time to time ... instead of sulking after a loss, analyze/reflect and use the loss to improve on ... after all, all the inventors/creators/scientists etc all 'lost'/'failed' before they succeeded ... a loss is only a loss if nothing is gained from it ... build off of the loss, glean what you can ... the Way to Self-Pefection

Hey OSPH,

I hope now you can understand why i want you to spot me nine points. Pls try to not look at my overweight.
[Emoji6]

So i'm sitting here thinking dayum Suga D got the strokes ... if i ever play him i gotta ask for 9 points !!!!!!!!

Maybe clean your glasses before you watch vids of me ... you are not the only one who is overweight!!

Thank you for sharing the vids!! Looking good!