Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[NextLevel]

I have the same feeling when I'm using way too much BH chiquita - the forearm gets tired and my %s goes down. I've been trying to implement upper body weight transfer as a power mechanism in the backhand chiquita too but it's still a work in progress. The idea is that you shift your upper body centre of gravity clockwise so that you end up leaning slightly over your right leg at the end. I found that it makes the chiquita physically easier for me at least. There's also the traditional BH flick which is not as tiring as the chiquita so there's that.

The other way that I can recommend to push these short topspins and no spin ish balls and not pop them up is the BH sidespin chopblock movement. The idea I got from Truls Moregardh - I think it's the only way you can push short against topspin balls. Basically push with a 90 deg racket angle and push it to the sides directly at an angle to the ball (for eg if ball is coming to you at 1 o clock your blade can maybe move towards 10 o clock direction). I'm also working on this a bit because D05 is a pain to push short with compared to Hurricane - I lost almost all of my FH short game when I switched to D05 fml. There's a TTD video recently with the Truls chopblock - he doesn't emphasize it but notice how he uses mostly the body to control and power it - not so much the arm.

One of my biggest fears leaving Golden Tango for Dignics for a trial period...

 

[blahness]

One of my biggest fears leaving Golden Tango for Dignics for a trial period...

Lol yeah D05 is horrible in the short game - I used to be able to push even half long heavy reverse sidetopspin back short with Hurricane with tons of sideunderspin making it almost a trap for the opponent. Now anything that's not short or not underspin is a nightmare to push back short. They were popping up like balloons and getting killed 😭. The amazing thing is that players like Harimoto and Truls Moregardh still have amazing short games even with fast bouncy rubbers.

But I like the D05 flicks and the counter/loop game so much though - I'll just need to work harder on the short push I guess.

 

[NextLevel]

Lol yeah D05 is horrible in the short game - I used to be able to push even half long heavy reverse sidetopspin back short with Hurricane with tons of sideunderspin making it almost a trap for the opponent. Now anything that's not short or not underspin is a nightmare to push back short. They were popping up like balloons and getting killed 😭. The amazing thing is that players like Harimoto and Truls Moregardh still have amazing short games even with fast bouncy rubbers.

But I like the D05 flicks and the counter/loop game so much though - I'll just need to work harder on the short push I guess.

That Harimoto can do it (Truls obviously isn't using D05) means there must be an approach... but maybe he just flicks topspin lol...

 

[blahness]

That Harimoto can do it (Truls obviously isn't using D05) means there must be an approach... but maybe he just flicks topspin lol...

Yes, it appears that Harimoto aims for the flick first, and only pushes when he can't get a flick in due to too much underspin or bad positioning. Maybe this is the type of game that D05 encourages.

 

[JJ Ng]

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Stroking gives you cred,
But don't forget your service too.
View attachment 25671

I think the most important part of practicing serve is spin. I remember practicing serve growing up. I missed a lot of balls outright. But that was because I was figuring how to brush the balls lightly.

In the beginning if you are trying to practice service, and you "hit" the ball every time, then you need to rethink if you are serving correctly.

If you end up missing 50% of the ball completely, then I think you are on the right track about how to practice serve.

So the first thing about serving is about brushing.

Second thing about serving is timing. You have to toss the ball up at least 16cm and let it drop before you brush the ball. So again, if you are not missing 50% of the balls that way, you are NOT tossing it high enough. I like my high toss serve because when the ball drops, two things happen: 1) the ball's velocity is high at the contact point so my motion has to be quick and makes the serve harder to read and 2) the momentum of the ball falling from a high enough distance generate more force (either speed or spin).

Third thing about serving is where the first bounce is. That first bounce determines the place where the ball will go. Will it go to the right or left? Will it go long or short? That first bounce is very critical.

Then the rest just falls into place once you get the first, second and third things right.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

I think the most important part of practicing serve is spin. I remember practicing serve growing up. I missed a lot of balls outright. But that was because I was figuring how to brush the balls lightly.

In the beginning if you are trying to practice service, and you "hit" the ball every time, then you need to rethink if you are serving correctly.

If you end up missing 50% of the ball completely, then I think you are on the right track about how to practice serve.

So the first thing about serving is about brushing.

Second thing about serving is timing. You have to toss the ball up at least 16cm and let it drop before you brush the ball. So again, if you are not missing 50% of the balls that way, you are NOT tossing it high enough. I like my high toss serve because when the ball drops, two things happen: 1) the ball's velocity is high at the contact point so my motion has to be quick and makes the serve harder to read and 2) the momentum of the ball falling from a high enough distance generate more force (either speed or spin).

Third thing about serving is where the first bounce is. That first bounce determines the place where the ball will go. Will it go to the right or left? Will it go long or short? That first bounce is very critical.

Then the rest just falls into place once you get the first, second and third things right.

JJ,
50% miss rate = U Noob! JJ, Ok ok, I'm just kidding, don't cancel me pls! OK? We can still be friends.

Jokes aside, the angle which I took the video just highlights how bad the angle it is. One cannot see the spin ( the curving arc ) and also the ball placement, be it on the right corner + left corner + at the centre line etc...
The visual is very two dimensional.

No wonder there are so many haters with regards to WTT events' camera angle. Their hate is legit!

 

[Der_Echte]

Did a local league for the second time this month on my road to get back my competition level... won my table, but lost to the 3rd rank player in group, just didn't make shots and he did, simple.

Won vs a visitor from Hong Kong... that young man must be a strong student of the hidden serve, every damn serve was blatant hidden, ZERO attempt to remove arm. I wanted practice vs illegal serves and got it, and it didn't go as well as I wanted, but I got enough back good enough to win some points and won majority of my serve points. Won at deuce in 5th on an attack error.

Won vs a player who always troubles me, this match FELT like I lose every game not reading serve well, making errors, and making it easy for opponent on 3rd ball. I did come back from 6-10 to win game one 16-14 and won second game 12-10. Game 3 felt same way, got a huge lead 9-3 and nearly coughed it all up, but won 11-7. Even THAT game felt like I was behind losing points the same way.

Had to win ugly and I won enough points to win each game, even if it felt like i was gunna lose big time.

That match and the one vs the HK dude gave me good reps at mental aspect stay strong.

I think in 3 more months of this (and another local league with trouble making trips to bay area) that I will be in a position to see my tourney results go back up.

There is a tourney this weekend at Sacramento, in the singles at my level and one above (1875/2000) and a 3600 doubles with a dude who had no partner.

I do not expect me to show a strong tourney performance as I need more time to get it all back working, so some crazy stuff could happen. Either way, I will deserve what I get and the tourney will be another step on the way to get the momentum even, then increasing.

 

[SleepyMaster]

It is hard to argue with the person who knows everything about what he should do so I will stop doing it.

I’m not trying to arguing at all, I’m taking it as friendly small talk about TT. And giving my thoughts on things, from the point of only my view and experience. I’m not trying to offending anyone. Maybe bc English is not my native language, you can take it as arguing. Sorry, I didn’t have anything to arguing about with you. Only friendly vibes.

Everyone is a different, and has its own way how to understand things, and how to progress. I’ve seeing people became master of sport in TT in 3 years with proper coaching, I’ve know a guy that did the same in like 15 - without coach at all - and he beating famous masters of sport like Zhmudenko and others. So everyone has its on way in this beautiful sport of TT

 

[NextLevel]

I’m not trying to arguing at all, I’m taking it as friendly small talk about TT. And giving my thoughts on things, from the point of only my view and experience. I’m not trying to offending anyone. Maybe bc English is not my native language, you can take it as arguing. Sorry, I didn’t have anything to arguing about with you. Only friendly vibes.

Everyone is a different, and has its own way how to understand things, and how to progress. I’ve seeing people became master of sport in TT in 3 years with proper coaching, I’ve know a guy that did the same in like 15 - without coach at all - and he beating famous masters of sport like Zhmudenko and others. So everyone has its on way in this beautiful sport of TT

The thing is that you have competed at high level in other sports, so I can't completely disregard your viewpoint, maybe my view on video is too reflective and pro-coaching/learning and not focused enough on competition in the moment. But as you get better, when you play challenging matches, even your balance and movement in response to specific situations can be technical, and partly because in TT, there are many solutions in a playing style, and because you can compensate for so many things with specific abilities, it is hard to display awareness of options under pressure. So even if you know your mistake, unless your game is mature and you have accepted your level, you are not aware of some of the options you have or how your technique is limiting your options. Even the result can blind you to some of the mistakes.

Even till today, I am still working on my blocking technique on my backhand, I am so used to blocking with my hand that I don't do the right preparation so my hand usually blocks by itself. So sometimes, I need to look at footage to tell whether I am improving my block. And it is not about hitting the table, my blocks have hit the table even when the technique is terrible. But being able to play more aggressive blocks with my current technique vs good players is too difficult.

 

[NextLevel]

This video brings a smile to my face as this is a shot I am notorious for as well, even though I doubt anyone would call it unstoppable lol...

 

[SleepyMaster]

The thing is that you have competed at high level in other sports, so I can't completely disregard your viewpoint, maybe my view on video is too reflective and pro-coaching/learning and not focused enough on competition in the moment. But as you get better, when you play challenging matches, even your balance and movement in response to specific situations can be technical, and partly because in TT, there are many solutions in a playing style, and because you can compensate for so many things with specific abilities, it is hard to display awareness of options under pressure. So even if you know your mistake, unless your game is mature and you have accepted your level, you are not aware of some of the options you have or how your technique is limiting your options. Even the result can blind you to some of the mistakes.

Even till today, I am still working on my blocking technique on my backhand, I am so used to blocking with my hand that I don't do the right preparation so my hand usually blocks by itself. So sometimes, I need to look at footage to tell whether I am improving my block. And it is not about hitting the table, my blocks have hit the table even when the technique is terrible. But being able to play more aggressive blocks with my current technique vs good players is too difficult.

Everyone makes an mistakes, that’s okay. You can’t be best at all the aspects. But should strive to be. Someone is better at blocking, someone at topspins, another one is struggle at anything, so he goes to the pips and then progresses more quickly.
Or you can record your matches on video - and if it’s helping to you, I’m not seeing problem with that.
Anyway, I’m not seeing any problems if your backhand block didn’t look like from TT handbook, if he hits the table and you get points from it. Some time being out of position or the speed of the game didn’t allow you to perform all the strokes with perfect form - some times you just need to put it on the table, and this is the part of learning process and progress too. We are not the pros, so we can’t nonstop top spinning like Ma Long, or blocking everything like Samsonov.

Technique should be clean on a training, when we are doing drills - then you should strive for the most perfect form (I’m talking about all the strokes: topspins, blocking, counterlooping) - in a match is little bit different. When you playing match the goal should be to the one - it’s a win, not how good it will look on a camera. Play to win - this is how some one is told, but technically, and tactically correct game as much as you can.

There is a lot of unorthodox guys in TT, that one guy that became master of sport in 15 or even more years, have little few training when he was young and after that he played by his own.
His name is Naplyokov, from our club, his playing two sides pips, and as I told he has win over Zhmudenko and other well known masters of sport, top 1-5 of our country. From the first sight his technique is nothing special, and even clumsy, just a defender guy, and if you reading comments under his matches on YouTube, there is a lot of people that telling how bad he is. But results are telling the opposite. So does it even matter so much, how it looking on camera, when you are 2500+ like him, or 2000-2100-2200?

For example his game against Andrej Gacina in our Super League - Gacina is barely winning it, with a ton of a struggle, and he is pro player and was Europe champion in doubles, rated 48 in the world

 

[NextLevel]

Everyone makes an mistakes, that’s okay. You can’t be best at all the aspects. But should strive to be. Someone is better at blocking, someone at topspins, another one is struggle at anything, so he goes to the pips and then progresses more quickly.
Or you can record your matches on video - and if it’s helping to you, I’m not seeing problem with that.
Anyway, I’m not seeing any problems if your backhand block didn’t look like from TT handbook, if he hits the table and you get points from it. Some time being out of position or the speed of the game didn’t allow you to perform all the strokes with perfect form - some times you just need to put it on the table, and this is the part of learning process and progress too. We are not the pros, so we can’t nonstop top spinning like Ma Long, or blocking everything like Samsonov.

Technique should be clean on a training, when we are doing drills - then you should strive for the most perfect form (I’m talking about all the strokes: topspins, blocking, counterlooping) - in a match is little bit different. When you playing match the goal should be to the one - it’s a win, not how good it will look on a camera. Play to win - this is how some one is told, but technically, and tactically correct game as much as you can.

There is a lot of unorthodox guys in TT, that one guy that became master of sport in 15 or even more years, have little few training when he was young and after that he played by his own.
His name is Naplyokov, from our club, his playing two sides pips, and as I told he has win over Zhmudenko and other well known masters of sport, top 1-5 of our country. From the first sight his technique is nothing special, and even clumsy, just a defender guy, and if you reading comments under his matches on YouTube, there is a lot of people that telling how bad he is. But results are telling the opposite. So does it even matter so much, how it looking on camera, when you are 2500+ like him, or 2000-2100-2200?

For example his game against Andrej Gacina in our Super League - Gacina is barely winning it, with a ton of a struggle, and he is pro player and was Europe champion in doubles, rated 48 in the world

One of my favorite chess books when I played was "Decision-Making in Chess" by Viacheslav Eingorn. He points out a style reveals itself no less in it strengths than in its limitations. Being Unorthodox in many things gives results just because it is unorthodox. But sometimes, being unorthodox also tells you why no one does it the way you do it. I mean, I have seen Naplyokov before, and I have seen other players like him.

Sometimes, when I coach, I see things that are "wrong", but I tell the player not to change them, that when we have time to train, we can see what the tradeoffs are and I will let the player decide. But some things are not just unorthodox, they are technically wrong or at least, they do not optimize performance or have compensating benefit beyond personal comfort. Developing a stroke with feeling is one thing. But whether you can get better feeling with a more conventional stroke is an open question. OR even better, adopt some conventional concepts to improve your consistency with the unconventional.

Of course, such unorthodox conventional like Truls, Alexis, etc. exists. Even some things regular players like Dima and Timo do are sometimes considered unorthodox, whether it is pushing with the backhand on forehand side, or switching grips and finger position on shots. As long as it is working, no one really minds.

So balancing conventional with unconventional, orthodox with unorthodox is not easy. There are levels to this. After all, Quadri is still top 20 without modern backhand at a reasonable level. But you can see how it exposes him against a certain kind of player. And you can see how it limits his options on certain balls. So that is going back to what Eingorn wrote.

So while chess is not a beauty contest, you probably more than most can appreciate how form can affect the ability to produce power. If you have inefficient form, that can be unconventional style in some cases. But in some cases, it isn't. No magic answers, but that is what I look for when I record my games - patterns of things that I can improve with awareness. Because if the only time you practice reading the game is at the table, you may not be making optimal use of your time away from it.

But ultimately, it is a hobby, so it is all as long as I enjoy it, including the recording. But the awareness of self I gained from watching myself was extremely valuable to me. Some things I fixed, some things remained the same. But the opportunity to be a neutral observer of myself and being able to revisit and give different context to experience that may not have been pleasant when it happened, that has been very helpful to me.

 

[SleepyMaster]

One of my favorite chess books when I played was "Decision-Making in Chess" by Viacheslav Eingorn. He points out a style reveals itself no less in it strengths than in its limitations. Being Unorthodox in many things gives results just because it is unorthodox. But sometimes, being unorthodox also tells you why no one does it the way you do it. I mean, I have seen Naplyokov before, and I have seen other players like him.

Sometimes, when I coach, I see things that are "wrong", but I tell the player not to change them, that when we have time to train, we can see what the tradeoffs are and I will let the player decide. But some things are not just unorthodox, they are technically wrong or at least, they do not optimize performance or have compensating benefit beyond personal comfort. Developing a stroke with feeling is one thing. But whether you can get better feeling with a more conventional stroke is an open question. OR even better, adopt some conventional concepts to improve your consistency with the unconventional.

Of course, such unorthodox conventional like Truls, Alexis, etc. exists. Even some things regular players like Dima and Timo do are sometimes considered unorthodox, whether it is pushing with the backhand on forehand side, or switching grips and finger position on shots. As long as it is working, no one really minds.

So balancing conventional with unconventional, orthodox with unorthodox is not easy. There are levels to this. After all, Quadri is still top 20 without modern backhand at a reasonable level. But you can see how it exposes him against a certain kind of player. And you can see how it limits his options on certain balls. So that is going back to what Eingorn wrote.

So while chess is not a beauty contest, you probably more than most can appreciate how form can affect the ability to produce power. If you have inefficient form, that can be unconventional style in some cases. But in some cases, it isn't. No magic answers, but that is what I look for when I record my games - patterns of things that I can improve with awareness. Because if the only time you practice reading the game is at the table, you may not be making optimal use of your time away from it.

But ultimately, it is a hobby, so it is all as long as I enjoy it, including the recording. But the awareness of self I gained from watching myself was extremely valuable to me. Some things I fixed, some things remained the same. But the opportunity to be a neutral observer of myself and being able to revisit and give different context to experience that may not have been pleasant when it happened, that has been very helpful to me.

Yeah, its good to be unorthodox and winning by it. But if it limits your grow by becoming bad habit - that already the opposite story.

And of course the form is important, those unorthodox exceptions, usually have gifted by nature abilities that allows them to compensate ''not an ideal technique'' - such as feeling, precision, power, speed etc. And most of us, amateur players, are not "gifted" in TT - that's the sad truth. So we need to perceive clean technique in order to became better players.

In all sports, that I did, i always telling myself, that im the least talented guy in the room, so I need work 3x harder than others, to achieve something in future - and its always works.

Today I was able to win a guy with about 30 rating, I guess its about 2100, with anti spin rubber on backhand in bo3 match. With the score 11-6 12-14 11-7

After the game, our administrator, that usually lose to that player, was saying to me, that he was not playing on his full (as always when I win higher rated guy with decades of playing), but the amount of my opponent sweat and volume of arguing from him about last set (I was counting it like 8-8 then winning 3 points in a row, he argued that this is 7-10, so we restarted it from 7-10 his serve I loop and its 11-7) telling me that he was trying pretty hard.

Coach was telling me ''u surprised me again'', im telling him "I like giving surprises to people"

 

[NextLevel]

Yeah, its good to be unorthodox and winning by it. But if it limits your grow by becoming bad habit - that already the opposite story.

And of course the form is important, those unorthodox exceptions, usually have nature abilities that allows them to compensate ''not an ideal technique'' - such as feeling, precision, power, speed etc. And most of us, amateur players, are not "gifted" in TT - that's the sad truth. So we need to perceive clean technique in order to became better players.

In all sports, that I did, i always telling myself, that im the least talented guy in the room, so I need work 3x harder than others, to achieve something in future - and its always works.

Today I was able to win a guy with about 30 rating, I guess its about 2100, with anti spin rubber on backhand in bo3 match. With the score 11-6 12-14 11-7

After the game our administrator, that usually lose to that player, was saying to me, that he was not playing on his full (as always when I win higher rated guy with decades of playing), but the amount of my opponent sweat and volume of arguing from him about lest set (I was counting it like 8-8 then winning 3 points in a row, he argued that this is 7-10, so we restarted it from 7-10 his serve I loop and its 11-7) telling me that he was trying pretty hard.

Coach was telling me ''u surprised me again'', im telling him "I like giving surprises to people"

.

My game used to be much less orthodox (I used to block mostly dead or with backspin, play mostly backhand and drive forehand). And a lot of time, when I beat a player better than me, they felt it was a bad loss. I guess now my strokes look regular, they find the losses more respectable. Nothing I find more annoying than people refusing to accept that anyone can lose to a good player, you always have to play the game and respect the matchup. Many times, I will be in a group with a junior and a long-pips player, the junior will beat me but lose to the long pips, but I beat the long pips.

 

[SleepyMaster]

.

My game used to be much less orthodox (I used to block mostly dead or with backspin, play mostly backhand and drive forehand). And a lot of time, when I beat a player better than me, they felt it was a bad loss. I guess now my strokes look regular, they find the losses more respectable. Nothing I find more annoying than people refusing to accept that anyone can lose to a good player, you always have to play the game and respect the matchup. Many times, I will be in a group with a junior and a long-pips player, the junior will beat me but lose to the long pips, but I beat the long pips.

Yeah, TT teach me pretty fast, than you can lose about to anyone, with some proper understanding of a game, and ability to return balls on the table.
I remember, at one of the first tourneys, I win 3-1 at one of the strongest guy in our team (classic topspin player), and the next game was against a girl that mostly blocked, and played flat and super fast, that is considering like one of the easiest of an opponent in a team. And I was expecting already how easy it would be. And she beating me 3-0 In that moment I realised, that this is normal and okay, I need to respect everyone who’s in front of me - this is part of the learning process and i need a looooot to learn and to do. I shake her hand with a smile on my face, thankfully happy for that experience I have made an huge progress since that times, and have taken it as a lesson

I always played powerful tennis with a hard topspins from the beginning, and variety of spiny serves, that kind that even masters of sport admitted that quality and power is very good (before the war we have about 10 consistently training or coaching masters in our club) , but those "better, higher ranked player" still trying to find an excuse when loosing - like it matter so much... Anyone can lose, this is the game

I was hearing like one of the players telling to his coach - “this guy is good”, and his coach admitted ''its okay for a guy that trained for 6 times in a week, only time will give us full picture" And im agreeing on that. Im not find something special in my game, I train a lot, i have some strokes - it should be strange if I didn't. Only time will clear - does I able to progress to real good player or not

 

[Jslick89]

Did a local league for the second time this month on my road to get back my competition level... won my table, but lost to the 3rd rank player in group, just didn't make shots and he did, simple.

Won vs a visitor from Hong Kong... that young man must be a strong student of the hidden serve, every damn serve was blatant hidden, ZERO attempt to remove arm. I wanted practice vs illegal serves and got it, and it didn't go as well as I wanted, but I got enough back good enough to win some points and won majority of my serve points. Won at deuce in 5th on an attack error.

Won vs a player who always troubles me, this match FELT like I lose every game not reading serve well, making errors, and making it easy for opponent on 3rd ball. I did come back from 6-10 to win game one 16-14 and won second game 12-10. Game 3 felt same way, got a huge lead 9-3 and nearly coughed it all up, but won 11-7. Even THAT game felt like I was behind losing points the same way.

Had to win ugly and I won enough points to win each game, even if it felt like i was gunna lose big time.

That match and the one vs the HK dude gave me good reps at mental aspect stay strong.

I think in 3 more months of this (and another local league with trouble making trips to bay area) that I will be in a position to see my tourney results go back up.

There is a tourney this weekend at Sacramento, in the singles at my level and one above (1875/2000) and a 3600 doubles with a dude who had no partner.

I do not expect me to show a strong tourney performance as I need more time to get it all back working, so some crazy stuff could happen. Either way, I will deserve what I get and the tourney will be another step on the way to get the momentum even, then increasing.

our visitors from HK took a lot of losses last night Maybe JZ over-rated them?

 

[OldUser]

With the video's, I am just hoping to help people realize when talking about USATT rating, how it translates to other playing levels in, say, France or Ukraine.

Yes, US (and Canada) are not exactly the hot bed of table tennis talents.

I hope to reach USATT 2000 level one day. I have been stuck at 1700 for a long long time already!

I gave you the answer, your rating translates to 1200 here, I've been 1300... and never played higher than Regionale 4, tier 9 league... considering I was young at that time, the old 40+ veterans rated 1200 mostly play Départementale 1, tier 10 and very local league.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Stroking gives you cred,
But don't forget your service too.
View attachment 25671

Roses are red, violets are blue,
1,000 serves and two hours later,
the back is stiff and sore,
Play game worse than before.

This serve as self reminder, going to extreme is a bad-bad idea. 1,000 serves takes me about two hours ( including picking up balls time ).

As I personally find out, it is bad for one's game because during this serve practice I did nothing else but stand in one place to serve which translate to during game the next day, I have forgotten how to move my legs and lost all my practice game. Performance is worse than usual.

N/B: A club veteran told me ideal should be around 200 - 250 balls per session. 300 balls is pushing the limit already. 1,000 balls is too extreme. Silly ole me not knowing anything better...

 

[blahness]

Roses are red, violets are blue,
1,000 serves and two hours later,
the back is stiff and sore,
Play game worse than before.

This serve as self reminder, going to extreme is a bad-bad idea. 1,000 serves takes me about two hours ( including picking up balls time ).

As I personally find out, it is bad for one's game because during this serve practice I did nothing else but stand in one place to serve which translate to during game the next day, I have forgotten how to move my legs and lost all my practice game. Performance is worse than usual.

Yes - I found out earlier that these serve practice without recovery reset can only be done by pros because they already have the recovery reset built into their brain. Otherwise you cannot recover in time to attack the 3rd ball.

The way I do it now for FH serves is to start with weight on my left foot. Use the transfer to the right foot to throw the ball from the left hand, then when I serve I use a forceful transfer to my left foot at ball contact, and you use that momentum to rotate into the ready position with both feet landing at the same time. PechPong had an episode about this.

After I started doing this I was far more ready for most returns my opponent can do.

 

[JJ Ng]

Roses are red, violets are blue,
1,000 serves and two hours later,
the back is stiff and sore,
Play game worse than before.

This serve as self reminder, going to extreme is a bad-bad idea. 1,000 serves takes me about two hours ( including picking up balls time ).

As I personally find out, it is bad for one's game because during this serve practice I did nothing else but stand in one place to serve which translate to during game the next day, I have forgotten how to move my legs and lost all my practice game. Performance is worse than usual.

N/B: A club veteran told me ideal should be around 200 - 250 balls per session. 300 balls is pushing the limit already. 1,000 balls is too extreme. Silly ole me not knowing anything better...

I don't consider serving practice is ever too much or too long. You will rip the benefits later. The benefits may not be immediate.

The only ball you can control in the while match of table tennis is your serve. You have 100% control over that ball. After that, no more control over the ball.