Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Der_Echte]

@Jslick89 as for having a day job, I thought I would never have to work again in my life after 20 yrs in military... but before I got out, I learned it was damned little to live by... so I ended up doing 30 and it still isn't 1/2 of what is needed to take care of a family to any respect... so I have a day job too - full time day job doing government over-reach.

Only difference with my day job is that it can be mostly if not all done away from the outfit HQ over a VPN and issued laptop... and since I got the trust of management, I have flexibility in the hours I work so long as I complete the required 80 hours every two weeks and can show I get everything done leaning forward in the foxhole.

That means I can cut out at 4 PM to arrive at TT at 5PM if I need to and yes, it is a game changer.
yet... it will not be a game changer until I can fully retire and live of my saving, investment, and defined benefits... and move to where living is somewhat affordable next to TT action... which means pretty much I need to move to Korea at age 65... but can I still play a physical athletic TT game at that age and weight?

 

[Jslick89]

First things first... I voluntarily help Daniel... and that means one thing at a time.

What he asked was to make his BH grow from a weak liability into something he could pressure opponents or win points from. In three weeks and maybe 5 times averaging 20-30 minutes each he went from pissing away points on BH nearly 100% of the time to being able to use it for opportunity to win or pressure to win... he will still piss away the point being out of position or too early when going for some power...

...but in three weeks, his improvement in BH is way beyond the results of improvement comparable with those of Shake and Bake seasoning on a Kosher Pork Chop.

If and when he indicates to me he wants to improve serves, it is gunna have to start with his toss (get a higher toss to give him some more time to prep bat and arm/swing plane)... and it is not gunna be instant results. There is a LOT going on with developing an arsenal of good quality variety on serve... it takes learning/understanding of concepts, then learning/understanding of your body, then also of mind... and a LOT of practice.

You would not wear out my bike battery moving out to hit in your garage, I use it mostly to go to Antelope Tennis courts 12km away... your new place is gunna be 7km away max, maybe closer.

... on the front of beating players, I would ask you your approximate date where you would be beating C-Pen Albert like a bongo drum. I have expectations for you on that table in league... I am trying to move down, you are trying to move up.

back to Daniel's overall performances and evaluation of his strengths/weaknesses... He came out of Sac Open tourney with mid 1300s Cali rating, not terrible, but players his level, your level, my level, and that of also @NextLevel all have deficiencies that can be exploited.

You showed good tactical awareness and tactical intelligence vs Dainel those matches by not immediately pissing away the point needlessly with excessive risk. Why go apeshyt on a ball you will land only 14% of the time... just bump it back slow, let him pop it up and you do the cracking on a higher percentage ball. it is like flipping houses and letting the other guy mess it up.

Many Many Many (did I mention MANY ??) adult learners at, below, and above your level get Dracula blood lust kill syndrome trying to crack at the ball first chance hell or high water regardless of landing percentage expected or position leverage. it is like they cannot help themselves... which is an indication of self discipline and character.

You are not falling into that trap 1/3 as often of others around you, but you need to develop more ability to spin the ball in more situations at all speeds (but mostly learn a slow heavy or a light slow and low ball) to help yourself vs opponents who do what you do well but better.

You are a generous man for helping Daniel. I have also been on the receiving end of that generosity, thankfully!

Per your question with Albert- I'm beating him in 80% of the rallys now. His only advantage is his serve these days, but so long as i take a step back, stay low, i am getting a pretty good read on his serves now too and i'm winning about 45-55% of his serves depending on the day. last match i beat him easily in 4. the match before i got up 2-0 and then pissed it away when i lost my mental after he called a couple un-necessary lets.

My next target is Dean. Definitely a few levels above albert. I've taken him to 5 games several times now. he can exploit deep, down the line shots to my backhand consistently so it's giving him the edge as of right now. Brian can do the same thing. Once i fortify this weekness with some well places backhand blocks, i should be able to handle them both (except brian keeps evolving in his own way).

100% agree on the heavier spin balls. i've been practicing those more and more since the last sac open tournament.

 

[Der_Echte]

Dean another beast for you... Strong hitter and not much else... but that strengths trumps a lot of things if you feed the animals.

Dean's push is very poor, so if you get him to not attack, then you can topspin his poor push (or hit if high)

Dean's serve receive is poor as well, so long as you keep it LOW... you can serve pretty much what you want and be ready to go on attack.

Dean's hit is streaky... he cannot make much spin, so he needs the ball a little high... or with weak spin, his drive will make enough spin vs a weak push.

He can block or counter some, so you need to be ready to hit again.

Many people misread his serve or are sloppy returning it... and do not attack first vs him and get into push rally where Dean gives dead push you pop it up and the lights get turned off.

Good thing to look towards amateur players above your level and grow things to defeat them.

 

[Jslick89]

@Jslick89 as for having a day job, I thought I would never have to work again in my life after 20 yrs in military... but before I got out, I learned it was damned little to live by... so I ended up doing 30 and it still isn't 1/2 of what is needed to take care of a family to any respect... so I have a day job too - full time day job doing government over-reach.

Only difference with my day job is that it can be mostly if not all done away from the outfit HQ over a VPN and issued laptop... and since I got the trust of management, I have flexibility in the hours I work so long as I complete the required 80 hours every two weeks and can show I get everything done leaning forward in the foxhole.

That means I can cut out at 4 PM to arrive at TT at 5PM if I need to and yes, it is a game changer.
yet... it will not be a game changer until I can fully retire and live of my saving, investment, and defined benefits... and move to where living is somewhat affordable next to TT action... which means pretty much I need to move to Korea at age 65... but can I still play a physical athletic TT game at that age and weight?

True true. Plus we live in california so it makes it doubly hard to afford a good quality of life. i am in management now too and thankfully its flexible, but almost all of my flexibility in my day job has been given to my side hustles to pay the mortgage...and for the PING PONG PARADISE!!!

 

[blahness]

I have been testing going more forward with my FH loop so that I finish with the elbow in front of me rather than it still on the right side. So what this does is it increased the quality of the loop quite a bit especially in terms of the speed. This allowed me to put more pressure without compromising too much on positioning. Practiced this a lot today and when I tested it in matches against my training partner I won a few 5 setters. I felt like my FH was less of a liability (although it is still a liability compared to my BH). In continuous topspin rallies this felt better because I could exert even more pressure from the FH loop, which is what I really need. Although it's not the most consistent yet I'm pretty happy with the progress.

 

[Wrighty67]

I have been testing going more forward with my FH loop so that I finish with the elbow in front of me rather than it still on the right side. So what this does is it increased the quality of the loop quite a bit especially in terms of the speed. This allowed me to put more pressure without compromising too much on positioning. Practiced this a lot today and when I tested it in matches against my training partner I won a few 5 setters. I felt like my FH was less of a liability (although it is still a liability compared to my BH). In continuous topspin rallies this felt better because I could exert even more pressure from the FH loop, which is what I really need. Although it's not the most consistent yet I'm pretty happy with the progress.

I’ve been trying to do the same (on both wings) If you e seen any of the ZjK videos on YT that look like AI (but good content) he says the same - using more power and fwd motion to create spin.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

today in a team competition i ALMOST played the best game in my career so far.
it was in division 2 (bottom = 6) of our City League.
played a young chopper (with LP on BH). if there was a ranking he would be 200-300 above probably.

usually if i can receive well i always feel confident i can be a threat to choppers because I practice regularly with a coach chopper (I saw him last month for 2h)

G1 lost 7-11. I was making too many mistakes: 3rd ball, receive, topspins, but there was seemingly hope as i won many proper attack v defense long rallies mixing speed, spin, placement, and using dropshots too.

G2 i started getting in the zone, which i know because i start choooing louder and more often. The opponent is getting good cheering from his teammates and so do I. Many other players were watching as the tournament was crowded. I like this atmosphere. But despite very good spectacular play and getting game point(s?) i lose 10-12 and I get this feeling that i already did my best and played over my usual level BUT wasn't being able to convert as is often the case against better players

but I promise my teammates that i'll give it all and try my best. and i play better and better, and choo louder and louder to pump myself up. I really take as much time as i can between points to relax and think about the next point. My focus is extreme and G3 i win it 11-8 !

But I fear that i will unconsciously feel that the job is done winning just a game against the higher ranked guy. i don't start well G4, and also i have a "hole" abandoning 3 points in the row making it 4-7 including a missed serve. I manage to recoup my focus but its still 7-10. somehow, i am realize im indeed in the zone when i win this game 13-11 saving 4 match points. Strong mental !

now the guy has a wry smile, he seems a bit like a boxer who received some hard punches and doesn't know what to do because the few times he attacks, i am ready, and despite the quality of his ball and him moving me, the rallies just get better and better. I take the early lead in G5, we change sides 5-3, and i keep the lead until 10-8 with my serve to complete the big comeback.

Alas there is no happy end for me to this story. I will lose this match 12-14. i didn't choke. it was good till the end, but i couldn't get this extra point. i had many chances. i will always regret not having tried one of my "secret" serves at 10-8. it doesn't always work but its always worth trying and IMO the good tactic. I could read defeat on his face. I was 100% sure i would win when i was serving and confident it was good to just do the serve which worked best till then...
i don't remember if i had 2 or 3 matchpoints. I missed that last smash after another long spectacular rally.
after I congratulated my opponent, i sat and started crying. I can't remember ever crying after a match, in 35 years in this sport, even when i was a kid. [surely as a kid i must have cried once or twice though LOL]

i had given it all, been in the zone almost the whole match, totally immersed in it. but it wasn't enough. instead of being an epic victory, it hurts and im still totally shattered, many hours later. Friends tell me they never saw me play so well but i find absolutely no solace in it.

 

[blahness]

I’ve been trying to do the same (on both wings) If you e seen any of the ZjK videos on YT that look like AI (but good content) he says the same - using more power and fwd motion to create spin.

Yep saw those too.

Anyway I've thought about it and I think I'm gonna rethink my approach to the FH a bit. Maybe it's better to have a big bazooka FH rather than a smaller FH that is focused more on continuity. I can't keep up with all the tricky spin changes from these penholders, might as well just loopkill the shit out of their 1st few balls just like how @dingyibvs recommends. At least after blasting a few bazookas past those pesky penholders they'll think twice before sending all those balls to my wide FH.

 

[Boogar]

Hey everybody
So finals are over and hopefully i can start to train again... However, should I really?
The last real knock i had was in the beginning of december. Since then i changed racket and played a few matches....
Now i won every match I played and did that by playing as good as i never have in comp.

It was so much fun to play, i was smiling the whole time and just having a great time. It felt like I found just the spot between being fired up, focused and loose, having fun!

My rating is going up fast now, and i feel like it wile rise even further if i can keep playing like this. At the moment i am starting to do Powerlifting like train cycles and with that i am reading more and more about recovery. I never really looked at tt training like this, as there isnt that much physical burden as with weight training. However, the coordination part of training might still need recovery and if i dont pay attention to that i might not get the benefit of the super compensation (meaning overtraining and getting worse).

What are your thoughts and experiences with recovery benefits in tt?

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

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[dingyibvs]

Had a great training session with my training partner today. He's been making tremendous progress since we started training together, I think he'll catch up to me within a month or two. Since I started playing at the Concord club, he's been mostly stuck in the 2nd group, but over the past month he's made the leap into the first group and even won the group on Sunday!

His improvement is helping me improve faster too, I hope soon we can both start shooting for 2000 For the time being, what helps us both is for him to improve his loops, and for me to improve my defense, so that's what we've been focusing on. I'm now so much better in defense, and he's made even more progress in continuous looping. When he's tired, I loop as well (I get tired a lot faster lol), and I've gotten some really good FH and BH loop practices.

Going forward, we need to work on his BH quite a bit, both the opening loop and the topspin loop and drive are not great in practice. Mine is getting pretty good at least in practice setting, and opening loop is pretty solid now in games as well, but still need to work on both the loop and drive vs topspin in game settings. I have some ideas on settings on the robot to help improve that. I think I've been using the lowest ball setting too much, so now I'm much better attacking what should be much more difficult to attack balls. I'm gonna raise the robot up to higher settings and get better at attacking higher as well as slower balls.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

I still can't loop-drive properly

#Hinoki4Life
#Smashin'it4EVA

 

[Lazer]

View attachment 28375
View attachment 28376
I still can't loop-drive properly

#Hinoki4Life
#Smashin'it4EVA

It's because You played (are playing?) with You super fast (1 ply hinoky + T05) blade too long.
You need a slower blade to learn how to brush properly.

Cheers
L-zr

 

[NextLevel]

View attachment 28375
View attachment 28376
I still can't loop-drive properly

#Hinoki4Life
#Smashin'it4EVA

It's a technical and timing adjustment with a focus on spin that you need to practice, but which you have not shown much interest in making when it was discussed prior. Those are pretty tough smashes so if you can make them consistently against quality balls, keep doing them. But if you want to topspin, the first thing is always to learn spin timing/contact and then go from there.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

It's because You played (are playing?) with You super fast (1 ply hinoky + T05) blade too long.
You need a slower blade to learn how to brush properly.

Cheers
L-zr

Now you know why I praise ESN-type rubber and love the trampoline effect of it.

 

[Lazer]

Now you know why I praise ESN-type rubber and love the trampoline effect of it.

But You know, there is one guy in my club who always smashes or semi smashes, and that is pretty darn efficient. As NL said, its not a bad idea if You can pull it off, but with more spin the ball will land on the table more often.

Cheers
L-zr

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

It's a technical and timing adjustment with a focus on spin that you need to practice, but which you have not shown much interest in making when it was discussed prior. Those are pretty tough smashes so if you can make them consistently against quality balls, keep doing them. But if you want to topspin, the first thing is always to learn spin timing/contact and then go from there.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. There are various ways I deal with these stroke.

• If the ball is high and seem save, I'll smack it till kingdom cometh using pure shoulder / arm swing. Go full HULK Mode like in the video above.
• If the ball is slightly lower than I what I am comfortable, then I'll add waist power and pray that it go over and land on the table.
• If the ball is low with backspin, I'll add more even more waist power. If the backspin is too great, I'll choose the safest option, that is, a push over and wait for better opportunity.
• If the ball is is ambiguous, like half long or I cannot determine the spin, I'll safely push over and wait for another opportunity.

 

[dingyibvs]

Went to the club yesterday, played mostly doubles. I'm finally feeling more comfortable with my BH in the doubles setting now, went undefeated for the night while paired up with the weakest player there.

After ~11PM the club became way too humid, my rubbers looked like the bathroom mirror after a shower. I wiped it on my pants between every point and only used small motion loops, and drive when the ball is a bit higher.

I think I found out why I'm more sensitive than most others with humidity. I loop very hard, with a big motion and a lot of core involvement. That kind of shot just doesn't work, the rubber doesn't have enough friction under very humid conditions. My second to last match was against a pair with a guy who also loops pretty hard. I gleefully watched him tank loop after loop into the net

After I got home, I decided to try out what @blahness was saying about D05. I just glued new D09c's onto my W968, so I glued the old black D09c onto the FH of my old TBALC, and my D05 onto the BH. That ended up being a very, very interesting experiment, but not because of the D05.

The D05 felt alright, it's fast and direct, I definitely see its appeal, but when I flipped the bat over the D09c just felt really comfortable the way it eats up the ball and spits it out. What was really interesting was the TBALC. When I last tried Viscaria, which I think is ~93 grams, it felt like a brick. I figured the TB ALC would feel similar, as most claim it's stiffer than the Viscaria. However, my 85 grams TBALC had waaaay better feeling and flex. It felt like a mid point between the W968 and the Viscaria. Balls didn't tank into the net like Viscaria, but it had way more crispness and it was way easier to activate than the W968. It was also much lighter than my W968 which even after shaving down the head a bit still required some counter weights, and is almost 197 grams. The TBALC setup currently is 184 grams. With rubbers that fit properly it'd still be under 190. I don't care too much about weight but it's still a nice change.

Now, I'm actually tempted to change. I'll try it out against some human opponents and see how I feel, but initial feelings are overwhelmingly positive unlike the give-and-take feeling I had with the Viscaria. I ended up peeling off the D05 and put D09c on both sides, so perhaps I'll be going full Timo Boll setup?

 

[blahness]

Went to the club yesterday, played mostly doubles. I'm finally feeling more comfortable with my BH in the doubles setting now, went undefeated for the night while paired up with the weakest player there.

After ~11PM the club became way too humid, my rubbers looked like the bathroom mirror after a shower. I wiped it on my pants between every point and only used small motion loops, and drive when the ball is a bit higher.

I think I found out why I'm more sensitive than most others with humidity. I loop very hard, with a big motion and a lot of core involvement. That kind of shot just doesn't work, the rubber doesn't have enough friction under very humid conditions. My second to last match was against a pair with a guy who also loops pretty hard. I gleefully watched him tank loop after loop into the net

After I got home, I decided to try out what @blahness was saying about D05. I just glued new D09c's onto my W968, so I glued the old black D09c onto the FH of my old TBALC, and my D05 onto the BH. That ended up being a very, very interesting experiment, but not because of the D05.

The D05 felt alright, it's fast and direct, I definitely see its appeal, but when I flipped the bat over the D09c just felt really comfortable the way it eats up the ball and spits it out. What was really interesting was the TBALC. When I last tried Viscaria, which I think is ~93 grams, it felt like a brick. I figured the TB ALC would feel similar, as most claim it's stiffer than the Viscaria. However, my 85 grams TBALC had waaaay better feeling and flex. It felt like a mid point between the W968 and the Viscaria. Balls didn't tank into the net like Viscaria, but it had way more crispness and it was way easier to activate than the W968. It was also much lighter than my W968 which even after shaving down the head a bit still required some counter weights, and is almost 197 grams. The TBALC setup currently is 184 grams. With rubbers that fit properly it'd still be under 190. I don't care too much about weight but it's still a nice change.

Now, I'm actually tempted to change. I'll try it out against some human opponents and see how I feel, but initial feelings are overwhelmingly positive unlike the give-and-take feeling I had with the Viscaria. I ended up peeling off the D05 and put D09c on both sides, so perhaps I'll be going full Timo Boll setup?

I actually like 09c a lot and it definitely has a higher ceiling, but 05 is just cheaper (due to longer durability), and also I don't like playing push games (I barely push these days), and 05 is just less spin sensitive than 09c in aggressive receives.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

反手创造机会，正手抢分！

Backhand create the opportunity, forehand grab the points!

Not gonna play footsie-footsie, opps I mean loopie-loopie; prefer to play whoop yer arse / one shot one kill style.