Some of my today training footage

[NDH]

Great videos!

I don’t think people realise just how different the game can look on camera compared to how you think you play.

We are all so used to seeing pros, and semi pros like Dan/Tom etc, that you forget they are the 0.000001% of players.

I record myself, and feel like I’m playing like prime Ma Long at times.

When I watch it back, I have to check that it’s not in slow motion!! 😂

Yes, they are just drills, but what phenomenal progress in a short space of time.

I don’t know about others, but the key for me is always “spin”.

It doesn’t always work this way, but I find that the people who can spin the ball well, will end up becoming good players.

You can see from your serves (and the way your coach returns them) that they are very spinny. Likewise with your backhand opening, a really good trajectory.

All in all, awesome progress.

How do you find your level in match play? I’d expect you to get frustrated that you can’t consistently replicate the level of your training, and that would be absolutely expected at this point.

It’s similar to the really good juniors I see - The training and shot making in practice is much better than their match play.

But in time, their match play catches up….. and then it’s a nightmare for the rest of us! 😂

Either way, I hope you posting your videos encourages others to do the same.

I’ll never stop beating that drum - it adds so much context to the entire forum.

Bravo!

 

[SleepyMaster]

Great videos!

I don’t think people realise just how different the game can look on camera compared to how you think you play.

We are all so used to seeing pros, and semi pros like Dan/Tom etc, that you forget they are the 0.000001% of players.

I record myself, and feel like I’m playing like prime Ma Long at times.

When I watch it back, I have to check that it’s not in slow motion!! 😂

Yes, they are just drills, but what phenomenal progress in a short space of time.

I don’t know about others, but the key for me is always “spin”.

It doesn’t always work this way, but I find that the people who can spin the ball well, will end up becoming good players.

You can see from your serves (and the way your coach returns them) that they are very spinny. Likewise with your backhand opening, a really good trajectory.

All in all, awesome progress.

How do you find your level in match play? I’d expect you to get frustrated that you can’t consistently replicate the level of your training, and that would be absolutely expected at this point.

It’s similar to the really good juniors I see - The training and shot making in practice is much better than their match play.

But in time, their match play catches up….. and then it’s a nightmare for the rest of us! 😂

Either way, I hope you posting your videos encourages others to do the same.

I’ll never stop beating that drum - it adds so much context to the entire forum.

Bravo!

Thanks a lot. My coach is the one, that all about the spin, all his students have pretty clean topspin technique. And I’m not the best in drilling - but I have an advantage over them in power, amount of spin in my strokes and serving. There are guys in our team that are drilling like a national level players, and when youth national team trains near by, you will not see too much of a difference. But then they badly lose to some weird technique amateurs, that almost didn’t train properly, and almost never doing drills.

I have trained my serves almost every day, and I have the spiniest serves among all the amateurs that i have played and met. Somehow amateurs rarely giving so much attention to it.

Even when I play against guys with league experience they often complimenting my serving game, and sometimes I win the matches just over the serving. But again often it’s not about amount of spin, but about finding the one or a few that leads you to win, and about your ability to execute strong move after it.

Coach saying, that i implement my drilling in game better than others, even I have less experience. But we came to conclusion, that my previous years of competitive experience helping me here. I always play calm, not showing emotions - trying to think strategically, while another guys often tilting or loosing the sense of a game because of emotions, or something else.
But again, my game - it’s far from i would call good and strong game - it can be better. All drills that I can do - I can do it in game pretty stably. Only exception is backhand flick - I can do it in drilling but not in game situations, need more time to adapt

 

[Kopp]

.. decent amateur level. Which I did, ..

May I ask, what is your definifion of an amateur?

 

[Jslick89]

Thanks a lot. My coach is the one, that all about the spin, all his students have pretty clean topspin technique. And I’m not the best in drilling - but I have an advantage over them in power, amount of spin in my strokes and serving. There are guys in our team that are drilling like a national level players, and when youth national team trains near by, you will not see to much of a difference. But then they badly lose to some weird technique amateurs, that almost didn’t train properly, and almost never doing drills.

I have trained my serves almost every day, and I have the spiniest serves among all the amateurs that i have played and met. Somehow amateurs rarely giving so much attention to it.

Even when I play against guys with league experience they often complimenting my serving game, and sometimes I win the matches just over the serving. But again often it’s not about amount of spin, but about finding the one or a few that leads you to win, and about your ability to execute strong move after it.

Coach saying, that i implement my drilling in game better than others, even I have less experience. But we came to consider, that my previous years of competitive experience helping me here. I always play calm, not showing emotions - trying to think strategically, while another guys often tilting or loosing the sense of a game because of emotions, or something else.
But again, my game - it’s far from i would call good and strong game - it can be better. All drills that I can do - I can do it in game pretty stably. Only exception is backhand flick - I can do it in drilling but not in game situations, need more time to adapt

I agree. Tactics are so important in this game. There is always going to be someone who has "better technique" but do they have better tactics? Can they perform those tactics in a match setting? This is how i believe you are upsetting higher ranked players in matches. It's how i do the same. I am a student of the GAME. not just the techniques. Although I am always trying to improve my techniques (ive only played this sport for 2 years now, but i've made a great deal of progress, just like you).


cheers.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Golly! You do spin so well. VERY NICE! VERY NICE INDEED! I am refering to YT video No. 2

I would just have the tendency to smash it rather than take time to topspin.

 

[SleepyMaster]

May I ask, what is your definifion of an amateur?

There is a different levels of an amateur.
Amateurs that playing for decades, almost can’t spin the ball at all, have a weird looking technique. Almost never doing drills, playing with one or two friends only.

There is an amateurs like me, that playing with coach 20 hours a week, playing matches with everyone, participating in tourneys. Having decent spin, practicing serving, tactics, all aspects of the game, having pretty clean technique. But didn’t have decades of experience.

And there is an amateurs, that doing the same as second group, but playing for decades. And they became very good at TT. By it I mean that they can became champions of Ukraine, playing in our super league. They can get an master of sport degree, getting wins over many ex champions, till the point that those didn’t even wanna play with them at all in the training hall. They get to really good level of playing

So all they are amateurs, but there is a level to this 🙂

 

[SleepyMaster]

I agree. Tactics are so important in this game. There is always going to be someone who has "better technique" but do they have better tactics? Can they perform those tactics in a match setting? This is how i believe you are upsetting higher ranked players in matches. It's how i do the same. I am a student of the GAME. not just the techniques. Although I am always trying to improve my techniques (ive only played this sport for 2 years now, but i've made a great deal of progress, just like you).


cheers.

Yeah, when I upsetting those guys. It’s their underestimating, plus I take advantage on it immediately. Usually they didn’t expect that serves from an amateur would have so much spin, making three/four sloppy receives - that gives me a good opportunity to attack - and till they get to conclusion that is all serious, am already in a lead. Then they did a few strong openings and I give the ball back - that surprised them again. And at some point, they just stop fighting.
And after the game they saying - you have good serves, I’m not going 100% blah blah blah, but who cares - I’m already winning 🫡

 

[SleepyMaster]

Golly! You do spin so well. VERY NICE! VERY NICE INDEED! I am refering to YT video No. 2

I would just have the tendency to smash it rather than take time to topspin.

My coach teach me to rather spin this medium high lobs to the backhand side - gives me more stability, smashing this one’s gives flatten trajectory and often leads to missing the table. High lobs that’s the other story, it’s okay to just smash them

 

[IB66]

HI,

As a lot of others have said it's great that you are improving quickly and are really dedicated.

20 hrs training a week with a coach is a lot of training!!
To put this into some form of context its about 1000hrs per year, compared to some juniors that we coach, they have maybe 5 hrs coaching a week, 4hrs in group coaching sessions (2 x 2hr sessions), and maybe 1hr 1 to 1 coaching.
So they would need to continue this for about 4yrs to equal the amount of training that presently you undertake!!

if I were to do 1000 hrs of 1 to 1 sessions with my coach, It would cost £30000/year (about 34000 euros)!!!!!!! This is more than the average yearly wage in the UK!!!!

Also it would be great to see some footage of some match play.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

I realised that you top spin the ball slighty later. On the contrary I tend to rush in to smash. Your YT vid has given me the insight I need to try to topspin instead of smash. Perhaps I should emulate your timing, that is to say, delay my ball contact rather than earlier.

 

[SleepyMaster]

HI,

As a lot of others have said it's great that you are improving quickly and are really dedicated.

20 hrs training a week with a coach is a lot of training!!
To put this into some form of context its about 1000hrs per year, compared to some juniors that we coach, they have maybe 5 hrs coaching a week, 4hrs in group coaching sessions (2 x 2hr sessions), and maybe 1hr 1 to 1 coaching.
So they would need to continue this for about 4yrs to equal the amount of training that presently you undertake!!

if I were to do 1000 hrs of 1 to 1 sessions with my coach, It would cost £30000/year (about 34000 euros)!!!!!!! This is more than the average yearly wage in the UK!!!!

Also it would be great to see some footage of some match play.

As I already told, the prices on a private coaching here in Ukraine, and for really good one, are much cheaper than other countries. Many good coaches are flying away, for this reason, the son of my coach, national level player, are now living and coaching in Dubai. That’s why guys like Kou Lei living and coaching in US right now - they making some money there by coaching and winning prize tournaments.

I pay about 15$ per hour, so it’s about 300$ per week. 1200$ for a month. Club membership is about 35$ for a month as well. Not a really big amount for a hobby, that I enjoy.
But again when I’m telling 20 hours, it’s including sparring games, and a tourney one time a week - I don’t need to pay for that. Usually my session with a coach is about 2-3 hours maximum. And after that I play a matches with available partners.

I will try to record some games if I can. There is some reason, that many people in TT, are against the recording while playing a match. But it’s just a matter of time, when I will able to do it

 

[NDH]

I pay about 15$ per hour, so it’s about 300$ per week. 1200$ for a month. Club membership is about 35$ for a month as well. Not a really big amount for a hobby, that I enjoy.

$15 per hour is CRAZY good value for an hour of 1 to 1 coaching!

$35 per month just to be a member seems expensive for most people - But given how much you play, I would say it was still very good value for money.

To put it into perspective, most UK clubs would cost $50-150 for the entire YEAR.

But those clubs would only have 1 or 2 days per week where the club was open, and most of the time it would just be 7pm to 10pm......

 

[SleepyMaster]

$15 per hour is CRAZY good value for an hour of 1 to 1 coaching!

$35 per month just to be a member seems expensive for most people - But given how much you play, I would say it was still very good value for money.

To put it into perspective, most UK clubs would cost $50-150 for the entire YEAR.

But those clubs would only have 1 or 2 days per week where the club was open, and most of the time it would just be 7pm to 10pm......

For 35$ per month I have unlimited amount of visiting, and playing in the club. There is cheaper version, like 20$ for 8 times trainings in a month. Also you can rent a table to play and pay just for an hour

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

wait! what currency are we talking about now! USD? Euro?

 

[SleepyMaster]

$15 per hour is CRAZY good value for an hour of 1 to 1 coaching!

$35 per month just to be a member seems expensive for most people - But given how much you play, I would say it was still very good value for money.

To put it into perspective, most UK clubs would cost $50-150 for the entire YEAR.

But those clubs would only have 1 or 2 days per week where the club was open, and most of the time it would just be 7pm to 10pm......

Yeah, I know. One young guy, from our team, went to London for studying, and he is saying that he was finishing his TT story because of a few things: road to the TT club from his university takes about 1,5-2 hours in one side, and the price of private coaching is about 40-50$ for an hour. So he just goes for lifting weights, but he was very promising young, athletically gifted guy

 

[SleepyMaster]

$15 per hour is CRAZY good value for an hour of 1 to 1 coaching!

$35 per month just to be a member seems expensive for most people - But given how much you play, I would say it was still very good value for money.

To put it into perspective, most UK clubs would cost $50-150 for the entire YEAR.

But those clubs would only have 1 or 2 days per week where the club was open, and most of the time it would just be 7pm to 10pm......

It’s not an easy job, it should cost more. I know, cuz I was full time coach myself. I always trying to complement my coach with some $ tips, and a gifts because he invest so much time in my TT growth

 

[turbozed]

You guys should come visit Vietnam if you want some inexpensive coaching. It's about $10 (sometimes less) per hour.

You won't get Ti Long to train you for that rate, but there are many good quality coaches here.

 

[Kopp]

There is a different levels of an amateur.
Amateurs that playing for decades, almost can’t spin the ball at all, have a weird looking technique. Almost never doing drills, playing with one or two friends only.

There is an amateurs like me, that playing with coach 20 hours a week, playing matches with everyone, participating in tourneys. Having decent spin, practicing serving, tactics, all aspects of the game, having pretty clean technique. But didn’t have decades of experience.

And there is an amateurs, that doing the same as second group, but playing for decades. And they became very good at TT. By it I mean that they can became champions of Ukraine, playing in our super league. They can get an master of sport degree, getting wins over many ex champions, till the point that those didn’t even wanna play with them at all in the training hall. They get to really good level of playing

So all they are amateurs, but there is a level to this 🙂

I strongly agree! In addition, Cambridge also defined amateur as

• taking part in an activity for pleasure, not as a job
• relating to an activity, especially a sport, where the people taking part do not receive money
• someone who does not have much skill in what they do

So, based on your definition and the dictionary, we all amateurs here.

Since the definition is already implied to us, why not use a beginner, intermediate, and advanced level? These terms are clearer to someone who is new to TT, like me. We may add sublevels to each one, such as beginner intermediate or beginner advanced.

I ask this because I want to put a benchmark for myself since I am also learning TT. It is perplexing, what level are grandMast3r playing? Is that a beginner, intermediate or advance level?

Just because someone can spin a ball does not mean that they are intermediate or advanced. Top spin is only one of the many more techniques.

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.

I couldn't agree more with Carl. You should be playing rallies with your coach, let us see you in action. You also mentioned that your coach is so good that he could beat you with his left hand. We would love to see him as well.

 

[SleepyMaster]

I strongly agree! In addition, Cambridge also defined amateur as

• taking part in an activity for pleasure, not as a job
• relating to an activity, especially a sport, where the people taking part do not receive money
• someone who does not have much skill in what they do

So, based on your definition and the dictionary, we all amateurs here.

Since the definition is already implied to us, why not use a beginner, intermediate, and advanced level? These terms are clearer to someone who is new to TT, like me. We may add sublevels to each one, such as beginner intermediate or beginner advanced.

I ask this because I want to put a benchmark for myself since I am also learning TT. It is perplexing, what level are grandMast3r playing? Is that a beginner, intermediate or advance level?

Just because someone can spin a ball does not mean that they are intermediate or advanced. Top spin is only one of the many more techniques.



I couldn't agree more with Carl. You should be playing rallies with your coach, let us see you in action. You also mentioned that your coach is so good that he could beat you with his left hand. We would love to see him as well.

I have already told in some treads, that team that i play in is advanced amateurs, but many people here pointed that this quote not making any sense, bc advanced amateurs in China is so good, so my “advanced amateur” didn’t describe anything. And there is no even one percent of a chance, that growing man, can learn TT in a year for such a level.

So I decided to describe myself as an amateur - but with descent amount of training - for better understanding of other forum members.

I get, that you wanting to see me humiliated by my coach left, but his left is about 1900-2000 usatt. And as I told already I will upload some games in near future - i always keep my words, so no worries, just wait a bit 😆

 

[jk1980]

So why I should stay low for the lobbing balls? There is no need to it. They should be played differently. The sense of an advice like "you should mostly low" almost not giving any sense.

Your coach could have told you and it is very easy to understand if you take the analogy of the "short push" practice.

The practice is you stand in the neutral position, the coach plays a very short serve and you step into the table with your right leg under the table to get closer and you push short or flip.

If you would just stay like that with the right leg under the table already bending over the table the coach (if he is a proper one), would tell you to go back to the neutral position before he played the next ball, because the movement from neutral position to close to the table with the right leg under the table is a very important part of the whole move/stroke.

Now try to do the thought transfer.
If you stay upright/tall on those smashes because you know the next ball will come high you are missing the crucial transition from neutral position to the smash/kill position and you will make lateral movements while standing tall instead of moving like you are supposed to.

Don't get me wrong, footwork is probably also the thing i have the most potential to improve upon (that is a nice way of saying my footwork is shit), because it is super important for table tennis. My coach estimates footwork to be at least 70% of table tennis. He always says "If your legs dont make it to the right position, your hand will not stand a chance to make up for it". We are talking about players that played 1. Bundesliga in Germany, so perhaps they know a thing or two about the sport.

I have not even had a 10th of your coaching lessons, but i know that these are the things my coach would tell me to take care of so it is easy for me to spot in others.

And you didn't even watched the video, but pointed something - that makes again no sense at all. But I get it, this is the forum, and it is created for a people to giving an advices, on a things that they mostly have no clue

You are pretty judging for somebody just a few weeks ago crying about not being taken seriously even though nobody saw how you actually played (which we are all still very keen to see you perform against those long-term players that you beat).

In this case, sorry, but you have no clue, if you think executing the strokes from the neutral position is stupid, because you already know how the ball comes in a drill.

how dare you imply i had no clue even though you never saw me play or do a drill ?

But let's leave it that way. You think you have it all figured out and your non polite cocky way of putting others down comes from the illusion that you are a very unique talent, but tbh what i can see in the drills you posted the level of technique i see is exactly what i would expect if somebody played that much table tennis and got that much coaching.

You are not that special. I have seen people with more table tennis experience have worse technique definitely, but i also know players with less coaching but better technique and skill after 2 years.