Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Tyce]

Oh no our league system and ratings are pretty solid. This is all me.
I am slowly starting to think that I'm playing

@NetProphet I agree it's not about the equipment they use, and maybe that comes across too strong. It's about my reliance on overpowering through spin, or any other means. I get flustered by unexpected returns, by people who are not playing the pattern I expect. I feel like my game is paper thin and I've been filleted thoroughly this season to show me I need a much better base if I am to really feel like I can win any game at this level.
If anything, these opponents are showing me I'm sloppy.

I can't outplace these people because I don't have the feeling to do that well. I end up giving sloppy balls in the right place, or sharp balls that miss.

 

[NextLevel]

Oh no our league system and ratings are pretty solid. This is all me.
I am slowly starting to think that I'm playing

@NetProphet I agree it's not about the equipment they use, and maybe that comes across too strong. It's about my reliance on overpowering through spin, or any other means. I get flustered by unexpected returns, by people who are not playing the pattern I expect. I feel like my game is paper thin and I've been filleted thoroughly this season to show me I need a much better base if I am to really feel like I can win any game at this level.
If anything, these opponents are showing me I'm sloppy.

I can't outplace these people because I don't have the feeling to do that well. I end up giving sloppy balls in the right place, or sharp balls that miss.

You have to have a minimum commitment of 6 shots to win the point when playing with slow spin - anything less is a lucky point and you will take it, but be willing to grind. Be willing to back up and reloop if they are mostly blocking. Learn to add sidespin to make the blocks harder. I haven't seen you play so I don't know what level you are discussing, but while everyone has good and bad days, the bottom line is always to use the matches to look for things you might need to add rather than take them as hard evidence of what you will never be.

 

[blahness]

Had another hard experience in league tonight, but I think I'm seeing a pattern here.
I have trouble against certain people, one profile being someone playing with classic rubber (Sriver or equivalent).
There's enough grip on it to produce actual backspin, and not enough to have a problem with my spin. Also, when they attack with it, there's less speed and spin than I expect, so I dump the return in the net.
Now if it's dead rubber, I can handle it. Don't like how I have to play then but I'll manage.
But actual working, relatively fresh classic inverted, I honestly don't know how to impose my game on.
Last season, there was one woman, not particularly strong at anything but her backhand which she could just slam through any spin or speed I gave her. That was Sriver.
Today, I lost to a guy who I had a lot of trouble with in the home game earlier, he plays Vari Spin and almost completely ignored my spin.
The guy who I basically dumped all my blocks in the net against the other week, classic rubber.
The guy who I lost against without a chance last week, but gave a lot of trouble in the away game? He changed one of his rubbers to something slow and thin, basically a classic rubber.

I can't match these players in this game, I don't have the ability to outplace or overpower them, and my slow loops are useless. I honestly hit one or two extremely nice spin loops, and got them both back like it was nothing. Guess I'm not good enough to get out of this level, regardless of whether I can compete with the next level up.

If they use rubbers with terrible spin production, they basically can't produce quality backspin pushes. So you don't need to respect the backspin as much as you would against spinny rubber players. Why not just do drive loops (going forward) instead of taking the ball late and slow looping it?

If you demonstrated the ability to have a strong drive loop, they have to respect it by taking half a step back, then your shorter slow loop will really kill them. Otherwise they know you are limited to slow loops, and can just wait for it closer to the table to smother it with blocks until you give up looping or make a mistake. It is a bit like badminton, if you can't clear to the back line opponents will just wait in the front court to kill your drop.

Personally I like playing against ppl with these rubbers coz I don't need to respect their spin production and can just do whatever I want. If they can't even produce good backspin on their short serve, they are getting attacked directly on their receive pretty much.

 

[Tyce]

If they use rubbers with terrible spin production, they basically can't produce quality backspin pushes. So you don't need to respect the backspin as much as you would against spinny rubber players. Why not just do drive loops (going forward) instead of taking the ball late and slow looping it?

If you demonstrated the ability to have a strong drive loop, they have to respect it by taking half a step back, then your shorter slow loop will really kill them. Otherwise they know you are limited to slow loops, and can just wait for it closer to the table to smother it with blocks until you give up looping or make a mistake. It is a bit like badminton, if you can't clear to the back line opponents will just wait in the front court to kill your drop.

Personally I like playing against ppl with these rubbers coz I don't need to respect their spin production and can just do whatever I want. If they can't even produce good backspin on their short serve, they are getting attacked directly on their receive pretty much.

Actually strong backspin serve is probably the only thing they do well with it, I've netted quite a few serves even after noticing that there was a good amount in it.

You have to have a minimum commitment of 6 shots to win the point when playing with slow spin - anything less is a lucky point and you will take it, but be willing to grind. Be willing to back up and reloop if they are mostly blocking. Learn to add sidespin to make the blocks harder. I haven't seen you play so I don't know what level you are discussing, but while everyone has good and bad days, the bottom line is always to use the matches to look for things you might need to add rather than take them as hard evidence of what you will never be.

Yeah commitment to the rally and reducing the idea of having magic weapons that kill the point.

I used to be a "service cannon" in the celluloid era (not my words) - got me a lot of points on that.
Nowadays, less spin in the ball, less spin sensitive opposition, it's still a strong point but no longer a lethal one.

I also used to have a very hard slap that just didn't come back on the table.
Nowadays, less speed in the ball, they come back a lot more.

Also, I loved sharp placement with sidespin, but it feels like I just get most of that sidespin back which hurts my accuracy for the next ball.

My level isn't high, but I'm no starter either. I have been wanting to get out of this quicksand puddle of a league but I see my game degrading and I'm fearful of never making it out.

 

[OvrChkn]

Actually strong backspin serve is probably the only thing they do well with it, I've netted quite a few serves even after noticing that there was a good amount in it.

Yeah commitment to the rally and reducing the idea of having magic weapons that kill the point.

I used to be a "service cannon" in the celluloid era (not my words) - got me a lot of points on that.
Nowadays, less spin in the ball, less spin sensitive opposition, it's still a strong point but no longer a lethal one.

I also used to have a very hard slap that just didn't come back on the table.
Nowadays, less speed in the ball, they come back a lot more.

Also, I loved sharp placement with sidespin, but it feels like I just get most of that sidespin back which hurts my accuracy for the next ball.

My level isn't high, but I'm no starter either. I have been wanting to get out of this quicksand puddle of a league but I see my game degrading and I'm fearful of never making it out.

I rely on my serves a lot, so I know how you feel. I've started to take a lot of pace off of my serves and focused more on placement, so I can not get my crazy spin back to me.

If my opponent uses a pre-made or lower spin sensitivity rubber, my usual serves get me nowhere. I mix it up with fast dead and side/side-top serves, both pendulum and backhand serves, to the long or wide backhand to see what response I get. I'll also place serves more short to what I consider their middle to be to see what side they like taking the serve. I want the ball to pop up against these players on dead balls, so I have the option of doing slower, shorter loop -> get a lower quality return if they don't come in fast enough -> mix my placement for the next shot depending on positioning. On sidespin, I try to wait until the ball gets to the top of the bounce and drive it parallel to try to get them to go cross table.

I don't typically like doing short backspin to the forehand side against these players cause they can just outplace me to my wide forehand if I'm not expecting it and I'm out of position expecting a short push back.

If they decide to push and it is short, I send it back to their long backhand as well. Overall, you have to be pretty patient with what you see returning back to you. My biggest weakness is anticipating where to go based on what my opponent is doing and having my footwork cover for how slow I am in this processing, so having an overall system against opponents like this helps. Just keep practicing on getting into the rally and you'll be able to get that consistency to start climbing up.

 

[Tyce]

I've "forced" myself to an hour of training tonight and really focused on consistency, placement and regaining that feeling. Tried playing most balls under 60% power and it was good.
And hour even with brace is the max though. Silly elbow stuff.

 

[NextLevel]

I've "forced" myself to an hour of training tonight and really focused on consistency, placement and regaining that feeling. Tried playing most balls under 60% power and it was good.
And hour even with brace is the max though. Silly elbow stuff.

Don't underestimate the value of strength training especially physical therapy to keep the right muscles working.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I've "forced" myself to an hour of training tonight and really focused on consistency, placement and regaining that feeling. Tried playing most balls under 60% power and it was good.
And hour even with brace is the max though. Silly elbow stuff.

dont under estimate a 60%

I know some coaches who doesn't want players to do certain drills at more than 70% power.
he prefers quantity (consistency + number of shots) - as many shots on as possible, than oppose to quality (power, spin).
and when you get tired, the quantity, even at 50% feels like a huge mountain to climb

 

[Tyce]

Oh I agree, so much more shots just going on with me having time and space to place them correctly and use pretty much the correct movement

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

my nightmare opponents decided to congregate and have a tournament among them

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Too funny not to share...

Give it up for Ronny, everyone!

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

MS No. 1

Just got back from a local tourney.

Format of tourney:
Team of 3 or 4 pax with round robin style. Each game consist of S-S-D-S where S = singles, D = doubles. The matches are gender neutral. Winning team gets 3 points, Draw gets 1 point whereas the loser get zero points.

My team was tie in position 3 & 4 but ultimately we were placed at position four based on the number of sets won.

On a personal note, today my result is 2W2L. I won a 1S + 1D and lost 2S.

In total, for this tourney, my win record stands at 4W+ 4L ( win rate of 50% ). Win 2S2D; Lost 2S2D.

 

[staysmart]

Two days late but I made it to the finals of the tournament on Saturday it was in the lowest division but still! I had a good time. I finally had a plan going into a match, executed on it and did my best to stay relaxed. Still lots to improve on like spinnier serves, footwork of getting in the position after the serve, stepping a twoish steps away from the table after the opening loop to give myself space for looping, BH to FH transition, looping with less tension in upper body etc etc.

View attachment 35687

Congrats. Looking at the photo, I also love the handwriting on the envelope.

 

[Novarac23]

Congrats. Looking at the photo, I also love the handwriting on the envelope.

Haha thank you! I am actually not sure who wrote that but if I had to guess it'd be the owner of the club

 

[Tyce]

Lots of development since last week. The fact that I have been playing very insecurely has had me both thinking and playing.

On the thinking end, I've been overcompensating towards an attacking game. I have been recognising this on and off before, and have been reacting on it well enough last season to tone it down and start winning on a good allround game.
The pitfall here has been that a large amount of opponents could simply be overwhelmed by my level of attacking even if it is hardly my strong suit.
I will take the experience with me, as it did bring me a lot of welcome improvement on my FH. But I need to play a more complete game again if I am to be more confident and consistent.

Yes, we're also going to talk about equipment. I've been mulling a lot over whether to switch to one of the carbon blades I have, but the premier quality I want in a blade is excellent feeling. As such, any blade I have besides Korbel will be a compromise on that point. I have felt that Rakza 7 on my old super-feely Appelgren was too muted at the time, it's just mushy and unclear compared to classic rubbers. Harder rubbers gave a better feeling, but at the expense of control. Since I tried Fastarc earlier in the season, I've just replaced my dead ak47 BH with C1 and it's so lovely. When the season is over, I will also be taking off the Hurricane and moving back to Euro, probably G1. I'm prepping my backup Korbel with a leftover sheet of Rakza 7 on FH so I can get used to playing Euro on FH again.

Onto the playing end, I've been using the elbow brace for matches, but on training it seems like I can get on without it. I'm feeling minimally sore after last night, which is probably more helpful to recovery than basically blocking circulation to the affected tendon area. It feels promising, and probably not coincidentally connected to me lowering a certain medication that caused muscle tightness in the higher dose I have been taking.

All in all I'm happy about current developments. Now all I need is to get the rest of my life together

 

[Amaken23]

Went to training today. 2 hours + some games later.
I think I am slowly getting back into form, although my forehand still leaves much to be desired....I am just NOT able to win a point with powerful forehand topspin, just backhand one. Majority of points I scored in matches tonight were from backhand : punches, drives,chops, cuts....but not forehand. I really try during practice my forehand loop and stronger attack during warm up and training and for most part, it succeeds. Even my training partners say it looks really good : low arc, quite fast, etc...but during games it looks like my skill on forehand just evaporates xD....More practice it is...
Won 2 and lost one match : First one 4-1 against a person I lost 0-4 last time. I am proud of myself especially during the set I lost, since I was losing 4-9 and managed to claw my way up to 9-9 before losing 11-13. Didn't get pressured to finish quickly, stayed my hand a little for more control and shots on the table. Although I need to practice not getting into those kinds of situations to begin with.... oh well. Second one I lost 1-4 to really good junior in our club : he really progressed on his spin an power. I try to slow him down to set something down for myself but he just manages to quickly turn the tide. Need to rematch him next time . 3rd match was against the same person I played against in 1st match. Won that 4-0 with more blocking this time, keeping relatively close to the table and patiently waiting until I could pressure him back with a slow spin and then finish with good backhand...( that forehand problem again). Need to watch some videos about forehand basics. Other than that, I was content with how I played today : wasn't afraid to attack, tried to loop with backhand when available instead of simply pushing it back long and just being calm even when losing in set badly.
Also, my 2 new blades I ordered from Ali arrived : 729 Friendship Yellow ALC and Blue ALC. 70 PLN each, so about 17 euro each....quite a steal. Wanted to buy myself an ALC blade to finally try since I never played with ALC blade. Sadly, my Yinhe Big Dipper and Moon rubbers didn't arrive Need to wait for next week to glue them on. Don't know if they are genuine or not, though...comparing with pictures from Revspin, they look genuine. Although Yellow one has way different sound than blue one. Not to mention handle for yellow is little thinner than for Blue. I am including some pictures, perhaps someone has/used them and would be kind to check . Would be grateful.

 

[dingyibvs]

Hurt my foot playing soccer last week, so have been out of action. So many things still to work on...really eager to come back quickly! It's been improving pretty quickly the last couple of days, so hopefully I can start doing some stationary exercises soon.

 

[Jslick89]

Hurt my foot playing soccer last week, so have been out of action. So many things still to work on...really eager to come back quickly! It's been improving pretty quickly the last couple of days, so hopefully I can start doing some stationary exercises soon.

thats why i retired from soccer bro. I am still in good shape in my 30s, but a lot of my opponents on the field were having way too many burritos. It was dangerous playing soccer with a bunch of chunky soccer players LOL.

 

[NetProphet]

thats why i retired from soccer bro. I am still in good shape in my 30s, but a lot of my opponents on the field were having way too many burritos. It was dangerous playing soccer with a bunch of chunky soccer players LOL.

Haha!
My experience was opposite, I used to love running rings around the chunky ones, kick me if you can as it were.
But mid 30s and within 3 yrs I needed an op on each knee so that was that for football!
Thank God for the miracles of modern surgery....and physiotherapists, and Table Tennis, which for me all added together = sanity! 😂

 

[Jslick89]

Haha!
My experience was opposite, I used to love running rings around the chunky ones, kick me if you can as it were.
But mid 30s and within 3 yrs I needed an op on each knee so that was that for football!
Thank God for the miracles of modern surgery....and physiotherapists, and Table Tennis, which for me all added together = sanity! 😂

i loved running past the slow pokes too lol. but i figured, i'm 32, never had a serious knee injury after 15 years playing soccer. i figured i was playing with house money and quit while i was ahead. Table tennis is more fun anyways!