Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[blahness]

He brushes more underneath the ball than behind it and it's a very wrist action with little arm usage. It works really well against my backspin serves even when I serve half long, so I started serving topspins more to him which helps.

Hmm that makes sense if its against backspin. I'll be quite surprised if it works against sidetopspin for a short push. Imo going right to left (similar to a Truls chopblock) is the only reliable way to short push against sidetopspin on the BH side.

 

[JeffM]

Going to have a hit with old coach later today. Very excited as I haven't played since last Tuesday since my injury. I also want to make sure that my injury has completely healed, but it has been fine during the last few times I went to the gym.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

i could play again this week. far from my pre-injury form, but at least it wasn't painful today.
i had a double injection of corticoid last week and it seems to have worked.
i hope its not just a temporary relief

 

[NextLevel]

Now that I've improved my BH a bit, I do wonder if something that activates a little easier, like the T05 may work better on the BH side. My BH issue right now though is primarily technique, specifically timing, so I'm gonna focus on that first. When I start looking for more quality I think I might look around a bit more.

Ultimately, it has to feel right. But the main thing is that if you like slower equipment that forces larger strokes, you do. It has its strengths, but for relatively higher level play, especially if you back off the table to play high level opposition, it has significant weaknesses as being able to rally with opponents is harder if they can control your power which is inevitable when players start taking a step back and using their faster blades to remain consistent or launch fast attacks. It happens in stages since you have to get to those players but it is extremely hard to accept the need to adapt which is why I encourage people to go faster relatively early (not extremely fast but definitely not HL5 slow). But that said, if you know a good player using the HL5 at the level you desire to achieve, ignore me and keep using it. For context, the Hurricane Long V is slower than the Szocs Signature 1 or the Samsonov Force Pro Black edition. It is virtually the same as the all wood Korbel if you trust the ttgearlab statistics, just slightly faster. I wouldn't buy or use a carbon blade to get that quality IMHO, but everyone is different.

 

[NextLevel]

i could play again this week. far from my pre-injury form, but at least it wasn't painful today.
i had a double injection of corticoid last week and it seems to have worked.
i hope its not just a temporary relief

Shots with steroids handle inflammation for a while so it is a temporary effect. If you can manage with carb control, look into the keto or low carb diets. Doesnt mean the underlying condition will be fixed with either, but I an not sure steroid shots have benefits if used repeatedly unless you can find a way t ok address the underlying cause. The keto diet at least reduces diabetic process but it is hard to do without carbs or reduce them for many. Good luck and happy to hear you are playing again

 

[JeffM]

i could play again this week. far from my pre-injury form, but at least it wasn't painful today.
i had a double injection of corticoid last week and it seems to have worked.
i hope its not just a temporary relief

Last time I asked what it was about but I don't think you replied.

I am assuming it is tennis elbow.

NL is right, steroids can calm the inflammation down but it will wear off, and unless the underlying issue is addressed, it will recur when you start increasing the intensity of the load back to where you were.
I hope you are seeing a health professional for rehab, like physiotherapist.

 

[JeffM]

I had a good hit with old coach today.

My bh flick inside the table is getting consistent. I am doing a small movement only, just to flip the ball with bit of side/top spin, not really to win the point straight off, but it is getting alot of short balls back onto the table.
Then I was able to get some good BHs in, with power, this was something that I didn't feel I could do with shakehand grip whereas I felt I could do better when I was using penhold with my rpb. So getting the feeling of ripping the bhs makes me feel happy.
My FHs were ok today but they were missing a bit when the ball wasn't loaded with backspin and sort of mid popped up. Once I focus a bit more, they go back onto the table.

After the hit for an hour, we stood outside the gate, chatted for a while. I enjoyed this little chat, and I think he enjoys it too. Living alone at this old age, I think (and I hope) that he views me as a friend. I asked him about his past, how he picked up table tennis, and then he told me about his past, how it was tough, he couldn't do what he wanted due to shortage of money in family etc.

All in all, my highlight of the week so far.

Tomorrow I will go to the club to play the doubles session. I don't think I will be getting much practice, but more just so I can hit the ball.

 

[blahness]

Last time I asked what it was about but I don't think you replied.

I am assuming it is tennis elbow.

NL is right, steroids can calm the inflammation down but it will wear off, and unless the underlying issue is addressed, it will recur when you start increasing the intensity of the load back to where you were.
I hope you are seeing a health professional for rehab, like physiotherapist.

I injured my wrist a long time ago and completely changed my BH technique to use much less wrist and way more fingers. But for tennis elbow BH excessive wrist usage is often the culprit. I feel it's better to play more solidly on the BH using more of the fingers, forearm, back muscles and most importantly the body itself. Imo the wrist is the amplifier and shouldn't be relied on as the primary mover of a stroke which should always be the body regardless of stroke in TT.

 

[NextLevel]

The thing about the body is this (and this is why I recommend that everyone watch kneesovertoesguy or anyone of the YouTube muscle and movement specialists):

I used to think resistance training was just for people who wanted to build muscles. In fact it is one of the most important things you can ever do for your health, especially if you eat carbohydrates because you need muscle to increase your resting metabolism amongst other things. You don't need to bulk up or do things that hurt to get stronger, just eat enough protein and do the right exercises. Even yoga is a form of resistance training as is taichi, it's all relative. But cardio doesn't really build muscles so even if TT is good exercise, you won't get the benefits of building muscle from it the same way. I do a lot of my TT movements with weights now just to get stronger.

I am globally arthritic because of my rheumatoid issues but I haven't had tennis elbow in years. The main thing that causes acute tennis elbow is that the muscles in either the lower arm have tightened because they have been overloaded and they are yanking on the tendons in your elbow. The long term solution is to get stronger in every part of the body surrounding that complex so that everything is easier to execute. The short term solution is to get the muscles in to relax so they stop yanking things. But if you don't improve the muscle strength across the board, it will recur again even after you rest, becaus you always want to di more but you aren't building the foundation to support it.

Patient Progressive overload is always the safest way to get to your limits.

 

[dingyibvs]

I've started working out again since September, and it does feel good. The muscle gain isn't so great for my weight or my flexibility though. With that said, I used to focus only on glamor muscles, but now I'm training the whole body so it has def helped with some pains, especially back pain. I never did deadlift before, for example, and man is it good for my back and posture.

Another thing I've found very helpful is hanging. It's been very good for my shoulder pain, and it's been incredible for the back. The first time I hanged and managed to fully relax my back I felt such a relaxing pain in my lower back and buttocks. This is def something I'll keep doing.

 

[JeffM]

I went to play in the doubles session today.

Nothing really special apart from getting remarks from so many people about, "congratulations" or "I saw you on the paper".

Got some pain around the groin again. It seems to be of a slightly different spot, it is more to the outward aspect rather than medially at the groin site, this makes me feel it is more of a ligament/tendon pain. It is worse if I am bending over with my knees up close to my chest.
Will need to rest and see how it is next Tues.

 

[blahness]

I've started working out again since September, and it does feel good. The muscle gain isn't so great for my weight or my flexibility though. With that said, I used to focus only on glamor muscles, but now I'm training the whole body so it has def helped with some pains, especially back pain. I never did deadlift before, for example, and man is it good for my back and posture.

Another thing I've found very helpful is hanging. It's been very good for my shoulder pain, and it's been incredible for the back. The first time I hanged and managed to fully relax my back I felt such a relaxing pain in my lower back and buttocks. This is def something I'll keep doing.

I'm also getting back to gym work! Do you do pullups? I found them to be really therapeutic in general.

I'm starting to hate leg training in the gym - TT already makes my legs sore af these days....

 

[dingyibvs]

I'm also getting back to gym work! Do you do pullups? I found them to be really therapeutic in general.

I'm starting to hate leg training in the gym - TT already makes my legs sore af these days....

I only do pullups occasionally because I mostly work out with my wife and I try to match our exercises. She can't do any pullups so I haven't been doing much. I just do hanging every day which helps with pullups as well.

I work out my legs after TT, if I work out before TT I won't be able to move at the table lol. Some strength training really matters IMO. By strengthlevel.com I'm close to intermediate level for most things, but not even at beginner level for deadlifts No wonder my back hurts all the time, and oftentimes when I play TT the most sore muscle is my back! This is definitely one of my focus right now. I'm also trying to get a bit of extra work in for the left side of my body, with TT my right side has gotten a lot stronger than the left side, so some balance is good too.

 

[disaster3]

I feel you all, recently I'm struggling with muscles and tendons after tennis session. Once upon time I really trained hard, there wasn't any single day I did not do something, running, cycling, gym, swimming all the time and my body was used to it. Within time and some breaks caused by health disorders when I came back to sport activity I'm struggling with my body and can not understand it and for sure to deal with it .After every 2nd training session something pops up. Last Sunday early morning after the breakfast I started feeling pain at the back below the shoulder blade (left). 1st thought wtf!!?! 2nd thought maybe it kidney (I suffer from kidneys stones and after my last ultrasound exam. there is 1 small stone and thought maybe this is it). But after 3rd thought, no the pain is to high and appears when I bend/twist. Then I recalled... hmmm on Friday with my coach I tried to adjust my FH top spin strokes to be more deadly with more body rotations, weigh transfer to have a real power..... and noooooo it's impossible it was on Friday, if it was the case I should have felt the pain on Saturday not on Sunday.... but it was true Bengay warming ointment, hot bath on Sunday, Monday, everything has gone.
Last Tuesday training, was really hard, was cold but who cares 2 hours session when I was coming back to home, I started feeling pain in my wrist on the wheel when was driving car.... No, this isn't really happening!!!WTF!?!?!
Wednesday, went to orthopedist (sports doctor) and was telling the story (describing everything) .... he started smiling, Dear Sir (he said), I also play table tennis and know the wrist moves. You are 44!!! and train with teenagers, is cold now, maybe you did not warm up properly, hit few times too strong and overload your wrist tendons.
He suggested to take dietary supplement for tendons with collagen and other additives, ointment, to rest until the end of this week (w/o training), do some exercises strengthening my wrist.
It is really sad and I can't digest it now.
If you are older, warm ups, stretching, strengthening your muscles and tendons is more important than you were younger and recovery was twice or even more faster!!!! It is sad but true.

 

[dingyibvs]

Ultimately, it has to feel right. But the main thing is that if you like slower equipment that forces larger strokes, you do. It has its strengths, but for relatively higher level play, especially if you back off the table to play high level opposition, it has significant weaknesses as being able to rally with opponents is harder if they can control your power which is inevitable when players start taking a step back and using their faster blades to remain consistent or launch fast attacks. It happens in stages since you have to get to those players but it is extremely hard to accept the need to adapt which is why I encourage people to go faster relatively early (not extremely fast but definitely not HL5 slow). But that said, if you know a good player using the HL5 at the level you desire to achieve, ignore me and keep using it. For context, the Hurricane Long V is slower than the Szocs Signature 1 or the Samsonov Force Pro Black edition. It is virtually the same as the all wood Korbel if you trust the ttgearlab statistics, just slightly faster. I wouldn't buy or use a carbon blade to get that quality IMHO, but everyone is different.

Well, I'm just trying to reach 2000 level right now, so blade speed is probably not that important lol. I mean, Korbel himself still plays with his blade, and The Captain on the TTD team plays with an all wood blade I believe! Even Ma Long moved from the TB ALC to an all wood blade (HL3 construction, I believe) for a while which propelled him to new heights before switching to the old W968, which I think has similar construction as my old HL5 (mine's from like 2014 or 2016).

Speaking of the Korbel, that's actually the blade that set me down this track. My very first time playing TT after coming back, I went to this coaching session with my DHS inner composite blade with T05s on both sides, and it didn't feel great. I tried one of the rackets they had lying around, a Korbel with T05s on both sides, and it felt fantastic. I immediately switched to the HL5, but felt it was too fast for my stage at the time, so switched YEO, which I felt was similar in speed, and then settled on the YSE to work out some basics before moving back to HL5.

I think TTgearlab's measurements are remarkably accurate, which I suppose shouldn't be that remarkable since it's based on actual scientific measurements lol.

 

[NextLevel]

Playing at the NA Teams. Always a reminder of how slow I am. Lost to a lefty who was too good. He had dubious serves but no ppoint in complaining, I was toast regardless. Better luck next time....

 

[Der_Echte]

Hey @NextLevel say hi to Tyler Spesick (A local player here) tall old 20s dude who plays SP single side C-Pen slap you upside ur face TT player - that ball gunna have flames trailing behind it.

 

[OvrChkn]

Got a lot of compliments on my increase in spin generation last week. Doing some multiball and coordinated practice and that's helped me figure out the positioning I needed for my forehand.

 

[NextLevel]

Played a really experienced 2000 Indian guy with good touch. Won the first game then started returning his serves really awfully and went down in 4. Beat a 1400 lady teammate of his 3‐0. The day continues.

 

[NextLevel]

Got a lot of compliments on my increase in spin generation last week. Doing some multiball and coordinated practice and that's helped me figure out the positioning I needed for my forehand.

Worship at the altar of spin generation for a year. You won't be disappointed. After that, your options will expand and you can decide whether you want to focus on speed or spin.