Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Alright, alright guys, you convinced me. I tried the 37 for a day and I just can't do it. I'd probably land more balls with it, but like master @Gozo Aruna, I'm in it for the fireworks and the H3 37 is just an airsoft

I used H3 37 before on my W968, I thought it'd be different with a stiffer blade and improved technique but nope, it's the same mushy, slow feel as before. I'm back to the H3 38 rocket and it feels so much better. The rubber has apparently expanded a little, allowing me to trim a little off, and I used half the glue, so the weight balance is also more reasonable.

Thanks guys for reminding me what I'm playing this game for. I love winning, but I can't live without rockets!

wha....??? what just happened? Why was my name mentioned? I did not get the memo...

 

[dingyibvs]

wha....??? what just happened? Why was my name mentioned? I did not get the memo...

You're an inspiration to fireworks-lovers around the world, so get used to it

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

You're an inspiration to fireworks-lovers around the world, so get used to it

firework = FH bomba?

 

[dingyibvs]

firework = FH bomba?

Bomba everywhere! I saw your recent videos, I know that BH WMD is coming along nicely!

 

[NextLevel]

All good things come to an end, some unfortunately earlier than others. I am traveling back to TX this morning at 6am. A but disappointed with my Saturday performance. But I have to br honest, playing once a week and being overweight is not going to enable me to compete sharply with good players. I am much too slow and predictable and I am not longer getting exposure to the kinds of things that would keep me sharp. What does keep me competitive is my tactical acumen, but it isn't enough to make up for lack of ball feeling. That said, until I get a job again, the priority has to be finding a job and TT is going to take a back seat for sure.

But back to the tournament. We are in division 3 and unfortunately, probably as a result of a caffeine overdose, I am unable to sleep. This likely impacted me throughout the day as I didn't physically recover from the prior day and your sharpness is somewhat compromised when you don't sleep.

First match was against a team which my one of my best friends played for. My friend and I were unfortunate enough to play each other in the first match. Luckily for me we had exchanged texts at night so I knew for whatever reason he hadn't slept either.

We both largely know each other's attack patterns, but he seems to have been trained to play faster but other than his serves, he has lost a lot of his subterfuge. I lost the first game at deuce, but one of the things I have improved is my stability to backhand to backhand exchanges by using side top kaitai counters to confidently return attacks. He also loat his ability to keep the serves short with his main serves and got into a big hole in the 4th. He managed to find a short serve but the gap was too large and it was too late for his comeback. I won 3-1.

The next match was against one of his teammates. The teammate surprised me quite a bit as he remained consistent under the attacks I gave him and I ended up falling part before he did and he had a 7-3 lead. It then became 6-9 and I kept chipping away and got it to 8-9. My friend tried to call a timeout but my opponent waved it off and I won thr first game at deuce. While a timeout might not have changed the result, and I was on paper the lower rated player, they all knew that I was in reality the significantly stronger player and what my friend was trying to do was get the first game. I lost the second game at 9, and I just decided to simplify my game by slowing down the ball and increasing the spin or moving the ball around slow and dead. I won the last two games at 3 and 4.

I then faced the last teammate who was a LP chopper with.a ferocious forehand. He switched to LP because he didn't really like his backhand topspin and found chopping a good fit for his mobility. Excuse making time for me: one of the things that sucks about playing once or less a week in part time clubs is the lack of opponent variety and quality i am getting. That said, the biggest credit I will give my opponent is that I hardly scored any free points off the serve, which for me is very unusual against LP players. Regardless of result, I tend to get more than my fair share of netted serves. He won the first game 11-9, and I then went on a tear and won the next game 11-2 and had a massive lead in game 3 which he tried to overturn but still lost 11-8. However , I lost my concentration and he started putting the ball more and more on my forehand and with what became a theme for the day, I kept forgetting with long pips that I was dealing often with a dead balls after I pushed the ball to the pips. He got a good lead in the 4th and won 11-6 and despite my taking a lead in the 5th of 5-2, he got to match point at 10-8. I won the 9-10 point but looped a slow backhand off the table to give him the match and my first competitive loss of the weekend.

What was interesting about this loss was that my lowest rated teammate beat my friend 3-2 to seal the team match. It was a huge win for him and if I had won my match, my teammates victory would not have counted. And because of that, I had two teammates kinda hoping I lost. Should there be a rule against sending negative vibes to your teammates lol? Please share thoughts.

One team match down, three left in a long day.

 

[NextLevel]

So on to match 2. We are playing a team from Austin TX, led by the coach who is a former African women's singles champion now retired from club league and international competition and coaching full time in the USA. Two juniors were with her, one a lefty girl and the other a lefty boy.

First match was against the lefty boy. The biggest problem was that it was just hard to see the contact on some serves and that took me out of the backhand corner and led to errors on a lot of returns. He also had massive strokes when given chance opportunities and I just couldn't generate enough spin to keep him off those balls. Getting pulled wide to play forehands often hurts me when I reach out because of shoulder issues and this became a recurring theme because he was a lefty. I had my chances but ended up losing 11-8 in the 5th.

I was extremely irritable because of my lack of sleep. And his teammate clapping wasn't helping me. So when my LP teammate played his teammate, I was loud. My LP teammate played his best match of the event and got a win. One funny sequence happened at the end of the 3rd game with the match at 1-1 and the game score at 9-9. My teammate played a great points and got game points at 10-9. Now his opponent argued over the game score but ultimately we agreed it was 10-9. I think the possibility of losing to someone 250+ points lower than her was making her nervous. So my friend had gotten her to net his short backspin serve repeatedly throughout the match. So I was thinking in my head the serve choice is obvious. He then serves a long float serve which she loop kills for a winner. I almost lost it. But then, he amazing wins a long rally point against her and gets game point again. And I told him, you know what to serve don't mess this up. And he serves the short backspin serve and she pushes it into the net. We laughed about it during the break. He went on to win the match 3-1 and his opponent was in the usual tears (but I am sure she took it out on future opponents).

I then played the African champion and I tried really hard to fetch the first game but lost at deuce. After that, it was all down hill as I was way too slow and not deceptive enough to get her to pause and she beat me easily in games 2 and 3. Our team lost the match 5-1.

So on to the next match. I am now on a 3 match losing streak and looking for a palate cleanser. My next opponent is on a team from Houston (what is up with our playing all these Texas teams) and he is a sneaky blocker in Harimoto style trying to take you off balance. His teammates gave him a lot of energy so I was lucky that my teammates were available to give me some as well. I won the first two games and his teammates looked surprised but encouraged him with comeback dreams and he started attacking. The change in play completely surprised me and I went down big in game 3. I tried a few tricks just to see what possibilities were open but lost that game 11-6. So now with my opponent now bringing out his game, I now had to bring out more of mine. Step back topspins, loop kills of long returns. Running around with a bad knee is never fun and I am never sure if winning and exercise make it worth it. But I won the last game comfortably to put our team in the lead.

Unfortunately, the lead did not last. Their short pips player beat our ace and their chopper beat our #3. So I got to play the chopper in my next match. The chopper had one of the most interesting games I have seen on a while and I consider it really well constructed around his strengths. While he did net some of my backspin serves and hit off some of my floats, in general he would wait for long serves or half long serves to come of the table and guide them relatively low over the net with his pips. Then he wound try to bait you into coming with powerful shots into his forehand but his forehand had a powerful looping and lobbing game. He used a lot of sidespin on some lobs and heavy and power spin on his loops so going there was often suicidal as you would get unusual balls to hit and for someone dealing with shoulder issues, that means a lot of missed contact. I lost the first game 11-9, won thr next 11-2 using a strategy that became clear with hindsight but whose power I underestimated. I got the results by going into the short forehand and then getting a ball which he would hope I would loop into his forehand where his lobbing game was waiting but I would loop it down the line for a winner. I didn't grasp this until later. I lost a close third game and early in the 4th, we had a mild controversy over a let but in the absence of an umpire, I lost that one because I didn't find it worth fighting. The idea that people need to stop play to acknowledge lets is to me ridiculous, the point should juat not count. I am going to start getting this agreed to before the match starts. I saved 3 match points in the 4th game and won 15-13, but went down badly in the 5th game missing a lot of forehands. For those who cared, I played this match with the HAL to stay more consistent and I think it largely helped. 10-4 down, I got it to 10-7 and they called a timeout. I then missed a forehand loop into the net and the match was over for me. Our #1 played the chopper and he usually beats choppers but his knee was as bad as mine and he couldn’t do it.

So I am 3 wins-4 losses on the day with one team match to go.

 

[Der_Echte]

Wow NL, I get it, sometimes, if the work/rest/relax cycle is Scheize, then match play is also scheize and we get what we asked for.

What you did is almost exactly how I rolled in US Open... I played way too many matches away from schedule with friends, got next to zero sleep, and then played tourney matches expecting to win, but that is not a winning formula.

Still, I bet you would never regret your decision to compete nor your truth telling to us.

 

[NextLevel]

So our last match of the day and my last match of the event is against a team with three players. I am up against their worst player in first match and I struggle with some of his cheap trick illegal serves. The placements are annoying (extremely short forehand with float, punch backspin where you sometimes dont see the contact. You complain once but without an umpire, complaining would stop the match so you just play through it. I fought my internal dialogs a bit, was annoyed that he had his teammates cheering him but my teammates were watching other matches. I guess it shows faith in me, but irritability and being cheered against can have consequences in close matches, everyone can lose with momentum switches and emotional rides, especially on poor sleep. I won thr first game 11-5, but then after a somewhat close start to the second game, lost it 11-7. I called out my teammates and switched serve strategy to the short forehand with backhand serves. I had to run around more and take the ball later because of this opponents flat ball drives on loose balls. I also jumped on the short serves more aggressively with decent success because I do have long arms. I won 3-1 and got our team the lead.

The next match i played their best player, he was playing out of slot. He had this kick topspin pendulum serve that stated relatively short but was extremely heavy so attacking it kept popping the ball off the table. And then he had an illegal low toss tomahawk serve as backup. Clearly a good player but another player I would need an umpire to play with all the illegal serving. He won the first set easily. I got a lead in the second game but couldn't maintain it as I went for too much amd he was extremely consistent blocking. He won the last point with a long illegal tomahawk backspin serve into the forehand that I put into the net (before that it had been topspin to the backhand). The third game, I managed to deuce but could not convert my game point. Lost the match 0-3 and was mad at myself but it is okay, you learn what to work on.

The last match was against a guy with a very wrist style. Again, some dubious serves but not as bad as his teammates. But if you gave him a loose ball, it might seem tricky but he had great wrist action ans could pick up some balls. But because he wasn't alwaus physical, he wasn't always consistent. We traded the first two games which made me angry as I really wanted to win 3-0. It anger changed the match as I started attacking his topspin serves. I got big leads in the last two games and won easily to close out the team match at 5-2.

And that was it for my weekend. Went 5-2 on day 1 and 5-5 on day 2 for an overall 10-7 which was probably a 10-4 in realistic matches. Went out with the team to have dinner and left a day early. A lot to work on but a lot to be happy about. Thank you for reading. Thats all folks.

 

[Tyce]

Holy smacks NL, that's a lot of matches in a short period...

 

[dingyibvs]

So after gluing the H3 38 back on my Q968, I had some BH opening loop practices in my garage against the robot, then took it to the club to try it out again. Everything started out incredible. Caveat it was against some lower level players, but man was I ripping that BH. Backspin or topspin, I was just killing it. But then after a few misses, I started adjusting, then doubt creeped in, and even against the same lower level players I was having a lot more trouble. It was mainly a timing issue. My timing was perfect to start the day, then as I started second-guessing my shots and tried to "aim" it instead of just reacting to the ball it all went to crap. I guess that's not unusual with a new blade + rubber.

After that I played against some higher level players. Didn't do well in terms of match results, but my focus was on using my BH and especially aggressive service receives with the BH. That was something I struggled mightily the last time I used this setup, and today it went heck a lot better. Overall I'm pleasantly surprised by the improvements on the BH side over last week, especially since I spent the week switching between rubbers instead of just focusing on getting used to the H3 38. I think if I keep practicing the shape I started the day with will become more the norm.

 

[yamagata]

Had my first club training in over 2 months. I went there confident that my new skills (learned from Youtube) would push me a couple of levels higher compared to before. Only to realize that I did not even reach the balls, and that that had to be all my focus, and my "new" technique could not be used...

Not a total mishap though. For the first time I could tell some differences between my blades. For example, that my 5 ply walnut blade sent out the ball faster then my 7 ply limba. Huge difference close to the table, further from the table the walnut blade lost some control, and even power, or so I felt.

My playing partner tried it as well, and even if his technique is not the best the ball came at me much faster with the walnut blade.

And that I hate the hexagonal shape. I cannot confidently push with it, I never know if one of the sharp edges will hit somewhere. That is a feeling I don't want to experience again, and I am happy that I can leave all thoughts of playing with cybershapes behind me now

 

[NextLevel]

Holy smacks NL, that's a lot of matches in a short period...

Haha..... my one day max is 20, this was in 2011 when i entered 5 events oe so and won 4 and was a finalist in the last, my one day max as a serious (1600+) player is 18 and it wqs in the last year or two. At that event though, and the other one on Thanksgiving weekend, getting close to 30 matches over three days is not unusual if you are on a strong team with only three players. That's why that format is loved by so many players. Not healthy for the old folk so we usually have teams with 4 or 5 players. But since I was playing only 2 days, they also put me in every match on day 2.

 

[Tyce]

Of course there was no way I could resist trying out that innerforce alc and hot damn!
This is the best honeymoon feeling ever. I'm completely convinced that this is by far the best blade I have ever had. It's good for placement, excellent feeling, telling me exactly what I did wrong. It's nimble, quick to manoeuvre and the moment the alc kicks in is extremely well tuned.
I do have to get used to the right timing for the spin to really bite, as it's easy to send balls long. But I've also made really short dropshots with it.
The provincial H3N 39d feels very good on it. But at the same time it feels like G1 would also fit very well on FH.

It's exactly what I hoped it would be. A more nimble and better feeling inner type than the Yinhe Pro 05. A very good touch blade with an overdrive gear. And, a blade that works with Chinese and Euro rubbers.

Because when you get to play multiple rallies that end in a FH smash, getting it back and effortlessly throwing out a blistering BH smash, into the opposite corner, that just makes me feel awesome.

 

[OvrChkn]

So after gluing the H3 38 back on my Q968, I had some BH opening loop practices in my garage against the robot, then took it to the club to try it out again. Everything started out incredible. Caveat it was against some lower level players, but man was I ripping that BH. Backspin or topspin, I was just killing it. But then after a few misses, I started adjusting, then doubt creeped in, and even against the same lower level players I was having a lot more trouble. It was mainly a timing issue. My timing was perfect to start the day, then as I started second-guessing my shots and tried to "aim" it instead of just reacting to the ball it all went to crap. I guess that's not unusual with a new blade + rubber.

After that I played against some higher level players. Didn't do well in terms of match results, but my focus was on using my BH and especially aggressive service receives with the BH. That was something I struggled mightily the last time I used this setup, and today it went heck a lot better. Overall I'm pleasantly surprised by the improvements on the BH side over last week, especially since I spent the week switching between rubbers instead of just focusing on getting used to the H3 38. I think if I keep practicing the shape I started the day with will become more the norm.

Do you find that you get exhausted quicker on the H3 for BH? I tried the 37 OS for a few months and while I think having a tacky rubber suits by BH, as soon as I get like 5% tired, I'm useless with the rubber. I switched to an old Xiom C55 for now, but I'm still in the rally with it and looping backspin is easier. I do miss having the tack and my counters felt so insane on the H3.

Edit: Pushes, flicks, and the short game felt so good with the H3 on the BH that I wish I could find an alternative that doesn't wear me out.

 

[dingyibvs]

Do you find that you get exhausted quicker on the H3 for BH? I tried the 37 OS for a few months and while I think having a tacky rubber suits by BH, as soon as I get like 5% tired, I'm useless with the rubber. I switched to an old Xiom C55 for now, but I'm still in the rally with it and looping backspin is easier. I do miss having the tack and my counters felt so insane on the H3.

Edit: Pushes, flicks, and the short game felt so good with the H3 on the BH that I wish I could find an alternative that doesn't wear me out.

I think it's not so much that I get tired quicker, it's that H3 is just really demanding so when you do get tired or if you're just not super focused for whatever reason it becomes a lot harder to use. It requires really explosive, well-timed movement when attacking or you don't hit into the sponge. What happens then is that if you're doing a more brushing stroke it'll stick to the rubber way too long and go too high/long, or if you're doing a more hitting stroke it'll just drop from the blade into the net.

I think I'm starting to get used to it, and really, having well-timed explosive movement is a good thing for any equipment. Maybe I'll switch to something easier to use later, then you'll really see a boost in your abilities. For example, D09c has a fairly hard sponge and is rather difficult for some people to use. I found that to be accurate initially, but after using H3 for a while on my FH, when I try out D09c it felt trivial to activate the sponge.

 

[OvrChkn]

I think it's not so much that I get tired quicker, it's that H3 is just really demanding so when you do get tired or if you're just not super focused for whatever reason it becomes a lot harder to use. It requires really explosive, well-timed movement when attacking or you don't hit into the sponge. What happens then is that if you're doing a more brushing stroke it'll stick to the rubber way too long and go too high/long, or if you're doing a more hitting stroke it'll just drop from the blade into the net.

I think I'm starting to get used to it, and really, having well-timed explosive movement is a good thing for any equipment. Maybe I'll switch to something easier to use later, then you'll really see a boost in your abilities. For example, D09c has a fairly hard sponge and is rather difficult for some people to use. I found that to be accurate initially, but after using H3 for a while on my FH, when I try out D09c it felt trivial to activate the sponge.

Yeah, I really like H3 on BH, but it's just too difficult to use, especially during long events. If there was something easier with similar properties, I'd jump on that easily. Probably the best value rubber that I've tried.

Doing the step-out on a wide angle here definitely gave me such a good counter attack:

 

[dingyibvs]

Yeah, I really like H3 on BH, but it's just too difficult to use, especially during long events. If there was something easier with similar properties, I'd jump on that easily. Probably the best value rubber that I've tried.

Doing the step-out on a wide angle here definitely gave me such a good counter attack:

Yeah, I'm trying to incorporate better footwork into my BH as well. Focusing on side-to-side right now against topspins with my coach, and when practicing against the robot I'm focusing more on in-and-out against backspins.

For topspins, my coach noted that you should try to avoid the wide step outward if possible, as once your legs spread too wide it's harder to move quickly laterally, and if a rally is fast you might not have the time to narrow them down again. You can see in the video you posted that Fang stepped out only for really wide shots, and he noted that the right leg must follow, which would keep the stance narrower than if you just stepped out with the left foot.

This is some of my work during the last coaching session:

 

[NextLevel]

Yeah, I'm trying to incorporate better footwork into my BH as well. Focusing on side-to-side right now against topspins with my coach, and when practicing against the robot I'm focusing more on in-and-out against backspins.

For topspins, my coach noted that you should try to avoid the wide step outward if possible, as once your legs spread too wide it's harder to move quickly laterally, and if a rally is fast you might not have the time to narrow them down again. You can see in the video you posted that Fang stepped out only for really wide shots, and he noted that the right leg must follow, which would keep the stance narrower than if you just stepped out with the left foot.

This is some of my work during the last coaching session:

The backhand footwork doesn't look quite right, maybe it is because of table proximity but you should be preparing the backswing with a bit more hip action by bowing a little even vs topspin.

 

[NextLevel]

Do you find that you get exhausted quicker on the H3 for BH? I tried the 37 OS for a few months and while I think having a tacky rubber suits by BH, as soon as I get like 5% tired, I'm useless with the rubber. I switched to an old Xiom C55 for now, but I'm still in the rally with it and looping backspin is easier. I do miss having the tack and my counters felt so insane on the H3.

Edit: Pushes, flicks, and the short game felt so good with the H3 on the BH that I wish I could find an alternative that doesn't wear me out.

There are no obviously right or wrong answers for equipment choices but given our suboptimal use of the body on most strokes as adult learners, unless you are gaining a heavy premium in consistency/control and to a lesser degree spin using H3, it is better to use a hybrid and even better to just use European rubbers which tax the arm less, especially on backhand. You want to play this game for a while and without optimal activation of the body for power, using H3 demands a lot that you need real strength to support. Unless again, you are playing some style that H3 makes you extremely consistent at executing that isn't trying to just beat the opponent on shot quality.

 

[dingyibvs]

The backhand footwork doesn't look quite right, maybe it is because of table proximity but you should be preparing the backswing with a bit more hip action by bowing a little even vs topspin.

Oh there's a lot more than just that to fix lol, it's just really hard to fix more than one thing at a time. That one is just focusing on moving with both feet to get to the ball. I had another session today, and the focus was more on the arm/wrist movement. I'm trying to keep the elbow a bit lower, and cock my wrist back a bit more during the backswing but not snap it forward too much during the forward swing.

The multiball session was especially exhausting, the most exhausted I've been doing any sport in a long time. It's kind of odd because my HR was only peaked in the 170's, but it felt much more exhausting than playing soccer when my HR is sometimes over 180 for 4-5 minutes at a time and peak in the low 190's.