Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[ttmonster]

Love at first sight man love at first sight !! what about some "whip" with "circular strokes" on top ? ... well after this conversation I don't think Sacramento is on my places to visit anymore ...

First time NL and Der met, they talked for about an hour about grip pressure.

 

[NextLevel]

I recommend a good amount of the time devoted to game simulation drills with a particular goal like:

1) attack third ball.
2) read spin on third ball and respond to it intelligently.
3) keep ball on the table in the face of random placement.
4) go for wide angles on attacks.
etc.

If a lot of the work you do with the person is getting them to develop specific game skills in the course of drills that simulate game play, the person will improve much faster even if he does not look like he is developing the classic strokes.

And the good news for you is, you won't have to try and do those drills where the person does hundreds of loops while you block it back to the same place. But, those actually are helpful for something too. Not everything. But something: consistency.

This is an all time great post.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

This is an all time great post.

I figured, it might be helpful info since Der is g-d awful at counterhitting to the same spot or blocking to the same spot for block drills. But he is an amazing randomizing machine. hahahahaha.

Okay, maybe he can do that stuff. But he refuses to do it because he is The Original TroubleMaker.

 

[FruitLoop]

5. Attack the elbow.

Whole swathes of players including me just don't do this deliberately pretty much ever. And yet I see player after player who can't do a thing with balls hit there. It's like if a player can't return backspin serves at all but you don't have a backspin serve in your arsenal. Just a gaping whole in exploitative ability. I think it's good to get people used to going wide and at the elbow early on. That's where nearly every shot should be going in the end.

Also the number one thing I wish someone told me at the start and got me used to was holding the bat like it's a swans neck and you don't want it to get away but don't want to choke it either, rather than throttling it. Beginners throttle. It can take a long time to work out not to and even longer to fix the strokes that couldn't work due to it. Due to his aforementioned grip pressure obsession I doubt this was going to be missed out though.

 

[NextLevel]

I figured, it might be helpful info since Der is g-d awful at counterhitting to the same spot or blocking to the same spot for block drills. But he is an amazing randomizing machine. hahahahaha.

Okay, maybe he can do that stuff. But he refuses to do it because he is The Original TroubleMaker.

This is in part how I learned. But I think I went a bit too far to the technical side and have been thinking about how to reintroduce balance. When I resume coaching I will think more like this.

 

[NextLevel]

5. Attack the elbow.

Whole swathes of players including me just don't do this deliberately pretty much ever. And yet I see player after player who can't do a thing with balls hit there. It's like if a player can't return backspin serves at all but you don't have a backspin serve in your arsenal. Just a gaping whole in exploitative ability. I think it's good to get people used to going wide and at the elbow early on. That's where nearly every shot should be going in the end.

Also the number one thing I wish someone told me at the start and got me used to was holding the bat like it's a swans neck and you don't want it to get away but don't want to choke it either, rather than throttling it. Beginners throttle. It can take a long time to work out not to and even longer to fix the strokes that couldn't work due to it. Due to his aforementioned grip pressure obsession I doubt this was going to be missed out though.

Grip is an infinite nightmare. You aren't even at the point of inception. Just enjoy the nightmare.

 

[FruitLoop]

Grip is an infinite nightmare. You aren't even at the point of inception. Just enjoy the nightmare.

Haha, maybe true but at least I can get the feeling of whipping the ball now at least.

 

[mart1nandersson]

Another great evening at the mini camp hosted by Spårvägen. I had the table next to the elite player Satoshi Aida and his friend Kazuhiro Yoshimura (WR60) who was visting from Germany. Amazing to see them practice. Really friendly guys. The tempo and consistency was just insane. It was quite hard to focus on the drills as I kept looking their way.

They left this ball behind (which has got a crack). It feels like a G40+ on the surface.

 

[Lula]

What bh rubber does aida use?

 

[mart1nandersson]

What bh rubber does aida use?

I asked Robert who was the coach and he said that Aida uses inverted rubbers. Aida was fully kitted in Butterfly clothes so I it must've been Tenergy as he did some very aggressive BH loops even though he chops a lot. Very exotic style of play.

 

[Richie]

Pretty sure Aida uses Mark V on both sides.. correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[mart1nandersson]

Pretty sure Aida uses Mark V on both sides.. correct me if I'm wrong.

You may be 100% correct but it was just that he had one of those Butterfly pro shirts on with matching shorts and shoes. Probably just my uneducated guesswork. Still a very entertaining style of play.

 

[FruitLoop]

I saw him play British league this year and it was Mark V both sides, not sure which version though. He was amazing to watch btw, lowest spinniest chops I have ever seen and then he would also attack all over the place especially with backhand flicks. Nightmare to play against. If any of you are members of TTDAcademy there's a video of Tom Maynard losing 3-1 to him in a British league match.

 

[Richie]

I saw him play British league this year and it was Mark V both sides, not sure which version though. He was amazing to watch btw, lowest spinniest chops I have ever seen and then he would also attack all over the place especially with backhand flicks. Nightmare to play against. If any of you are members of TTDAcademy there's a video of Tom Maynard losing 3-1 to him in a British league match.

Yeah he seems like an incredible player, I would love to see him live. When I was visiting Spårvägen in Stockholm one of the guys told me he's very humble too. One of them just went up to him while he was practicing serves and asked if he could try receiving, which he was fine with.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

5. Attack the elbow.

Whole swathes of players including me just don't do this deliberately pretty much ever. And yet I see player after player who can't do a thing with balls hit there. It's like if a player can't return backspin serves at all but you don't have a backspin serve in your arsenal. Just a gaping whole in exploitative ability. I think it's good to get people used to going wide and at the elbow early on. That's where nearly every shot should be going in the end.

Also the number one thing I wish someone told me at the start and got me used to was holding the bat like it's a swans neck and you don't want it to get away but don't want to choke it either, rather than throttling it. Beginners throttle. It can take a long time to work out not to and even longer to fix the strokes that couldn't work due to it. Due to his aforementioned grip pressure obsession I doubt this was going to be missed out though.

A separate but related issue to attacking the switching point is watching the player as you attack. I cannot tell you how many times I have been setting up for a shot, seen my opponent move to where he thought I was going and hit the ball at where his body would be as he moved, or hit the ball to the opposite side instead of the side the opponent was breaking towards. Waldner was famous for that. If you watch his rallies, if an opponent ever breaks early trying to predict where Waldner was going to go, he punished them for giving him that information.

 

[brokenball]

A separate but related issue to attacking the switching point is watching the player as you attack. I cannot tell you how many times I have been setting up for a shot, seen my opponent move to where he thought I was going and hit the ball at where his body would be as he moved, or hit the ball to the opposite side instead of the side the opponent was breaking towards. Waldner was famous for that. If you watch his rallies, if an opponent ever breaks early trying to predict where Waldner was going to go, he punished them for giving him that information.

I think I know what you are trying to say.
I do that too. I have heard that called hitting behind the momentum. This is where you get the opponent to move one way then hit so he must move the other wide.
I crowd people's FH so they move to their BH to hit the ball with their FH. Then I hit the next ball very wide to their FH.
OR
I hit the ball to their BH and as they are recovering to the center I hit the next ball even wider to their BH.
This works most of the time. There are some people that are so damn fast it seems they can get anything back.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

I was talking about when you get someone who thinks they know where you are going and starts moving to that spot just before you hit. And while hitting, adjusting your shot so you hit counter to where they started moving.

For example. I am setting up a shot to the wide FH. As I am about to hit, I see the opponent start to move towards the wide FH side, and

a) I hit to his middle so he is jammed as he is moving,
or
b) I hit to his BH as his momentum has already started moving towards the FH side.

 

[mart1nandersson]

Yeah he seems like an incredible player, I would love to see him live. When I was visiting Spårvägen in Stockholm one of the guys told me he's very humble too. One of them just went up to him while he was practicing serves and asked if he could try receiving, which he was fine with.

Spårvägen is playing Eslöv in the quarter finals next(?) week. I will be fun to see him against Truls especially since Truls has been playing really well during the past two weeks in both Safirs International and in the league.

 

[Lula]

It must be a really really difficult playing style. He need to be good at alot of shots if he want to play that way.

 

[FruitLoop]

One other thing about him, he warned up for literally hours. He did like an hour of stretching, he even used golf balls to massage the soles of his feet. Meanwhile one of his opponents warmed up with a cigarette outside. Very professional in his preparation.