Some of my today training footage

[UpSideDownCarl]

Good to see these cross court drills and the arc on the ball. It is easy to see that you are spinning the ball well.

It would be nice to see some match play or match simulation where you are playing as if playing a match without counting points (either would be informative). Seeing how you handle the transition from short game (serve and receive) to random offensive tactics would showcase skills that can't be seen during set training patterns.

That being said, I know, in Ukraine, where you are, this might be easier said than done. So, just that you were able to film and post footage is really great.

 

[ander999]

I’m pretty sure Roman is from Odessa, our hall is in Kyiv - and it’s one of the best here. We have players of all calibers in it.
After the war is over, we will be very glad to see all the TT enthusiasts in our beautiful city. I was in a lot of cities: from New York to Tokyo, but there is something special and magical in Kyiv. Trees, nature, people and food here is really awesome. And TT lessons with a really good (national level coach) can be pretty affordable 🏓

Parents are from Odessa, but wouldn't mind visiting both . Hopefully soon!

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

I'll just parrot what my coach say to me. Maybe it is helpful, maybe it is not, but anyway, you be the judge:
BH stroke:
1. Gozo! Stomach in. Suck em in! Hold them in, don't let it hang and wiggle. I want a taut and strong stomach in!
2. Protrude your arse out. I want to see those big arse of yours out there!
3. Bend your knees, Your eye level around the net height, this is how low you should get.

FH Stroke:
1. No use hand. Twist your waist
2. Knees lower!
3. Shift weight from right to left. Rocking motion!
4. Move your feet. No stand there like Great Wall of China.
5. Don't wait for ball come to you, you must go get to the ball. Pretty girls will never come to you, you must go chase your pretty girls!
6. Swing forward not upwards.
7. Bat angle close all the way. 90 degrees / parallel to the table.

No wonder my FH sucks! There are so many darn things to remember. My brain only capable of remembering one thing at a time. Too linear.

p/s Hmmmm I just realise translating our conversation into English is more wordy. Our original conversation exchange in our native tongue / lingua franca is more direct and with fewer words.

 

[JJ Ng]

Thank you for sharing your videos from Kiev. Hope all is well (despite bombs going off here and there even while you were playing).

Your forms look great! The training videos I see seem to suggest you are just a bit rusty. The balls were not consistent due to timing and angle issues with the blade. But other than that, the form looks great. The weight transfer looks good. I think you just need more time playing at the table, which is hard considering the war going on over there. You will eventually get your timing back.

The only feedback is you are very tall. You need to squat down lower.

 

[SleepyMaster]

Good to see these cross court drills and the arc on the ball. It is easy to see that you are spinning the ball well.

It would be nice to see some match play or match simulation where you are playing as if playing a match without counting points (either would be informative). Seeing how you handle the transition from short game (serve and receive) to random offensive tactics would showcase skills that can't be seen during set training patterns.

That being said, I know, in Ukraine, where you are, this might be easier said than done. So, just that you were able to film and post footage is really great.

My coach is telling me, that spin is everything, and I’m trying to doing what he saying. Other coaches talking that if you not started from the childhood - you should play flat until you came to about 2000 usatt ( it’s about 15-20 in our Ukrainian rating, but soon we will change it to the same as USA, ELO system, I guess) - we disagree with that, but everyone has its own vision.

I might try to record some more, since the video get a lot of friendly reactions, but with close to the game drills or actually some of my games. I hope I will able to do it, since the ruzzia launched 130+ missiles, and 400+ shaheds on Kyiv only in May

 

[SleepyMaster]

Thank you for sharing your videos from Kiev. Hope all is well (despite bombs going off here and there even while you were playing).

Your forms look great! The training videos I see seem to suggest you are just a bit rusty. The balls were not consistent due to timing and angle issues with the blade. But other than that, the form looks great. The weight transfer looks good. I think you just need more time playing at the table, which is hard considering the war going on over there. You will eventually get your timing back.

The only feedback is you are very tall. You need to squat down lower.

Thank you, you points is right. I’m not in the best shape of my life, and a bit rusty. And I’m a little bit tall - about 182cm.

Last month I was not able to sleep normally, because of rockets shelling every night and sometimes in day. But regardless of it I’m still trying to keep training, but the feeling of the ball, after continuous sleepless nights is reminds me the one, I have after hard jet lags when I come back from USA. And in TT feeling is everything

 

[JJ Ng]

Thank you, you points is right. I’m not in the best shape of my life, and a bit rusty. And I’m a little bit tall - about 182cm.

Last month I was not able to sleep normally, because of rockets shelling every night and sometimes in day. But regardless of it I’m still trying to keep training, but the feeling of the ball, after continuous sleepless nights is reminds me the one, I have after hard jet lags when I come back from USA. And in TT feeling is everything

I am 178 cm so I understand what you are saying. Yes squat down a lot lower. It is hard to do anything if you don't get enough sleep!

 

[SleepyMaster]

The weight transfer and arm movement is all there on both wings which makes it quite good and relaxed (amazing for 2 year experience!! I was an annoying pusher and blocker for my first few years lol). The thing I think could be improved is to widen the stance (distance between feet) and that would allow you to bend more on the hips and knees to store more power from the lower body and thus generate more of it in the loop. But more importantly the wider stance allows for more flexibility and reach and also lowers your centre of gravity which makes your eyes closer to the ball and thus more accurate.

Thank you, the main playing part of the TT player is legs. And more wider stance will give me more benefits for sure - coach always saying me - go lower. Actually when I do drills, some times I tend to stay higher (dunno the reason mhy), but when I play a real game or doing drills on a score i automatically getting lower. So, sometimes, coach forcing me to doing drills on a score - that helps with concentration and makes me to stay little bit wider and lower.
But this mistake is much more obvious from the video than it feels for me while I’m casually training, and I need to get lower every time for sure 💯

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

My coach is telling me, that spin is everything, and I’m trying to doing what he saying. Other coaches talking that if you not started from the childhood - you should play flat until you came to about 2000 usatt ( it’s about 15-20 in our Ukrainian rating, but soon we will change it to the same as USA, ELO system, I guess) - we disagree with that, but everyone has its own vision.

I might try to record some more, since the video get a lot of friendly reactions, but with close to the game drills or actually some of my games. I hope I will able to do it, since the ruzzia launched 130+ missiles, and 400+ shaheds on Kyiv only in May

GM,

This part that I bolded, " Other coaches talking that if you not started from the childhood - you should play flat until you came to about 2000 usatt "

This statement is so unusual. It is against conventional wisdom. But I find it an extremely interesting concept. GM, if you have a chance, could you ask that same coach to elaborate this concept?

I, too, came from a flat-hitting play style ( my natural un-coached form ). I was indoctrinated that I must spin everything in TT. But to hear this from a coach as you mentioned, has triggered my curiosity.

 

[JJ Ng]

My coach is telling me, that spin is everything, and I’m trying to doing what he saying. Other coaches talking that if you not started from the childhood - you should play flat until you came to about 2000 usatt ( it’s about 15-20 in our Ukrainian rating, but soon we will change it to the same as USA, ELO system, I guess) - we disagree with that, but everyone has its own vision.

I might try to record some more, since the video get a lot of friendly reactions, but with close to the game drills or actually some of my games. I hope I will able to do it, since the ruzzia launched 130+ missiles, and 400+ shaheds on Kyiv only in May

How old are you? When did you start playing.

I am 100% disagreeing with other coaches who say, if you did not start from childhood, you should play flat until you are rated 2000 at USATT level to start spinning. That is completely incorrect.

I agree with your coach that spin is everything. The issue with table tennis is, at the lower level (and even at the higher level), you need to keep the ball on the table. It is as simple as that. Do whatever you can to keep the ball on the table and you will win. And the safest way to keep the ball on the table is to loop topspin so the ball has that curvature. That is, as your coach says, table tennis 101. So whether you start at the age of 7 or 14 or 21 or 28, you have to learn how to spin the ball and impart topspins.

I started training when I was 14. My coach did not teach me top spin until a year later. But he is old school.

If the other coaches do not want to teach topspin loop until the players are 2000 USATT rating, when why the heck do they even ask their students to play with inverted rubber? Might as well start every adult student on short pips if they don't want to teach you how to loop and impart topspin until, say, 5 years later.

 

[SleepyMaster]

How old are you? When did you start playing.

I am 100% disagreeing with other coaches who say, if you did not start from childhood, you should play flat until you are rated 2000 at USATT level to start spinning. That is completely incorrect.

I agree with your coach that spin is everything. The issue with table tennis is, at the lower level (and even at the higher level), you need to keep the ball on the table. It is as simple as that. Do whatever you can to keep the ball on the table and you will win. And the safest way to keep the ball on the table is to loop topspin so the ball has that curvature. That is, as your coach says, table tennis 101. So whether you start at the age of 7 or 14 or 21 or 28, you have to learn how to spin the ball and impart topspins.

I started training when I was 14. My coach did not teach me top spin until a year later. But he is old school.

If the other coaches do not want to teach topspin loop until the players are 2000 USATT rating, when why the heck do they even ask their students to play with inverted rubber? Might as well start every adult student on short pips if they don't want to teach you how to loop and impart topspin until, say, 5 years later.

I was starting at 32 I’m 34 now. I was playing full time (six time per weeek 3-4 hours a day with a coach, some times two times a day) for 8 months, then war is started, and I was off for 4-5 months, then i coming back to training.

I totally agree, that “people who start not as youngsters should play flat until 2000” is little bit of a misquote. Because when you get to 2000 by flat hitting, why you should change something at all?

Plus, I see that people that were trained by such coaches, having similar technique problems - bad understanding of how to use a rubber topsheet (they really maybe benefit from shortpips), bad spiny serve receive, bad underspin openings. But they block, they hit - that’s it 👌🏻

The point of that coaches - this is what you need, to play as amateur, and there is no need to make it more complex 😄

 

[SleepyMaster]

I'll just parrot what my coach say to me. Maybe it is helpful, maybe it is not, but anyway, you be the judge:
BH stroke:
1. Gozo! Stomach in. Suck em in! Hold them in, don't let it hang and wiggle. I want a taut and strong stomach in!
2. Protrude your arse out. I want to see those big arse of yours out there!
3. Bend your knees, Your eye level around the net height, this is how low you should get.

FH Stroke:
1. No use hand. Twist your waist
2. Knees lower!
3. Shift weight from right to left. Rocking motion!
4. Move your feet. No stand there like Great Wall of China.
5. Don't wait for ball come to you, you must go get to the ball. Pretty girls will never come to you, you must go chase your pretty girls!
6. Swing forward not upwards.
7. Bat angle close all the way. 90 degrees / parallel to the table.

No wonder my FH sucks! There are so many darn things to remember. My brain only capable of remembering one thing at a time. Too linear.

p/s Hmmmm I just realise translating our conversation into English is more wordy. Our original conversation exchange in our native tongue / lingua franca is more direct and with fewer words.

That mostly a joke, am I right? So I will keep it as joke too. Pretty girls actually come to me by their own desire, but I’m a loyal husband and a family man😉 If we talking bout TT balls there is a different story 😁

As I can see from your videos, I spin the ball levels above you. So I can give you a friendly advice how to do it, if you interested to actually start to spin, just let me know 🙂

 

[JJ Ng]

That mostly a joke, am I right? So I will keep it as joke too. Pretty girls actually come to me by their own desire, but I’m a loyal husband and a family man😉 If we talking bout TT balls there is a different story 😁

As I can see from your videos, I spin the ball levels above you. So I can give you a friendly advice how to do it, if you interested to actually start to spin, just let me know 🙂

Lol, I think Gozo's coach likes to joke with him and Gozo simply passes on the jokes to you. I get what Gozo's coach is saying but it does not need to be said in such a complicated manner!

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Lol, I think Gozo's coach likes to joke with him and Gozo simply passes on the jokes to you. I get what Gozo's coach is saying but it does not need to be said in such a complicated manner!

JJ,

I have to translate the conversation from my local language to English, it may lead to mistranslation. I will say in my local language, the conversation is much less wordy / long-winded / 囉唆.

@ GM,
Thanks for the offer to coach me over the internet. Unfortunately I learn poorly from internet, otherwise I would learn much from just watching Youtube videos. I need real human with real tactile feedback and lots of mollycoddling / hand-holding to learn effectively.

 

[NDH]

Just to add here, there is a downside to posting video online......

As far as I can see, GM hasn't asked for any advice, and has simply posted his own video for everyone to see what level he is at - Something many forum regulars recommend to be able to contribute in a more effective way.

To be clear, it would be extremely unlikely that any internet advice would be better than an in person coach.

Both Gozo and GM have in person coaches, and they should absolutely listen to them 100% of the time, and take very little from what people comment - Certainly around technique.

Equipment is a different matter, but again, if the coach has an opinion, I would go with whatever they say.

 

[JeffM]

Thanks for sharing the videos. It helps to put a face to a name on an online forum

 

[Richie]

Just to add here, there is a downside to posting video online......

As far as I can see, GM hasn't asked for any advice, and has simply posted his own video for everyone to see what level he is at - Something many forum regulars recommend to be able to contribute in a more effective way.

To be clear, it would be extremely unlikely that any internet advice would be better than an in person coach.

Both Gozo and GM have in person coaches, and they should absolutely listen to them 100% of the time, and take very little from what people comment - Certainly around technique.

Equipment is a different matter, but again, if the coach has an opinion, I would go with whatever they say.

To add to what you said, even if 100% accurate and useful advice is given, it's still hard to implement and often takes a long time to solidify and make improvement happen. Sometimes there's some low hanging fruit that can make some quick improvement, but it still usually takes time.

I'm more skeptical than most people with in-person coaches but that's probably because I've never found one that can relate to the TT journey I've had and I've often been given ambiguous advice. There does exist in-person coaches who don't make people improve and even damage their players progress. I have some examples to draw from. That said, there are of course coaches who are really good and those you should listen to 100%. But not every single coach suits the player. I've seen many comments here, from NL, Carl, Echte and others that have helped way more than in-person coaches. However, I'd still say training environment is the most important. It's harder to apply coaching advice if you don't have other decent players around you. Plus you get to see how they apply their technique and you'll get exposure to spin that you'll never learn to deal with if you only played in a lower level environment.

 

[SleepyMaster]

I’m agreeing with you guys, there is nothing bad trying to find something new or interesting about TT on internet. Many can find some really good insights and parts of the TT puzzle that will work for them.

But nothing will beat qualified coach, his advices, and a good competitive team mates that will pushing you further.

And TT is so technically hard, that even knowing what exact spin on the ball, amount of it, how to properly deal with it - you need so much time to practice how to execute correct stroke against it and with stability, that random advices from internet barely helping to do it. Practice, practice, practice, playing matches, analyzing mistakes with your coach and partners, and then all over again - that what works the best, in most cases

 

[Brs]

grandMast3r, cuts faster,
than any known,
soul to the bone,
full grown,
he's one of a kind,
and Flash is gonna rock your mind.
<break>

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

grandMast3r, cuts faster,
than any known,
soul to the bone,
full grown,
he's one of a kind,
and Flash is gonna rock your mind.
<break>

Kicking it Old School.