Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Tyce]

Interesting particularly on the lower v upper fingers grip strength. I feel like even penhold would be less stressful on the afflicted area right now and that's a very wristy grip in general.
As for tennis/golfers elbow, yes this is probably the next chapter of that book. The elbow part is much better nowadays but I still feel like my arm is stiffer on my playing side and it's probably pulling on the wrist side of the same tendon now.

 

[NextLevel]

Interesting particularly on the lower v upper fingers grip strength. I feel like even penhold would be less stressful on the afflicted area right now and that's a very wristy grip in general.
As for tennis/golfers elbow, yes this is probably the next chapter of that book. The elbow part is much better nowadays but I still feel like my arm is stiffer on my playing side and it's probably pulling on the wrist side of the same tendon now.

It's something you can test, it's really that the three lower fingers are connected to elbow/forearm in a way the thump and the index finger are not. Penholders who press with the lower three fingers have some of the same issues. While I am commenting without video, the main things are to get stronger throughout the motion and make the plane of motion in play smaller with better timing and technique. Sometimes, getting a faster blade helps as well, because a lot of power seeking is by making the blade somewhat stiffer and that is what leads to grip tightening, when the blade is lighter and stiffer, you can get speed without gripping as tightly. In fact, I wrote about a knot in my elbow recently that led to a default, it was because I had switched to a Hugo blade from the Wavy I had trained to use prior to that to be more consistent in the matches I was playing, but that meant that I need to squeeze a bit more to get power. So after that, I switched to the Viscaria SALC and had no problems anymore. Now I am trying the faster Cybershape Carbon with mixed results lol...

 

[dingyibvs]

So I reboosted my current rubbers for a 2nd time (so 3rd overall boost). Usually when I reboost I apply 2 thin layers, but this time I decided to do 2 regular layers. Big mistake. Now the rubbers feel soft and bouncy. It's quick, but feels like there's no dwell. In many ways my H3s feel like D09cs, except with longer trajectory and worse dip, resulting in a rather flat trajectory. Worse is that it doesn't seem to work very well with my blade anymore, like with anything but the hardest loops the ball will bounce away before the blade is fully engaged. I won't be playing at the club again until this weekend, so I decided to just start boosting 2 new rubbers.

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

Sunrise SPINDEX Challenge League Night #3 is in the books! 25 players across 4 divisions.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtube.com

 

[IB66]

Bl, I see the merits of your argument supporting the hook or "shovel" serve and support your opinion. The serve can be difficult to pickup at impact and the basic motion more difficult to read - easier to change the bat and impact to achieve variation.

That serve is also easier to hide with body (over the FH pendulum) (because ball is closer to body at impact) (and still easy for server to see the ball) and easier to consistently impact the ball if one does it with a bunch of body twist.

The Bay Area TT Academy where I part time coach is using the serve almost exclusively. The head coach (Shashin) teaches this serve early to his best developing players for the variation and difficulty to opponent components. The kids at his academy are not trained to hide the serve. I suspect some individual players or other coaches might go to this area from what I have seen since moving to the area.

Either way, I would strongly advocate for all players to learn this serve and invest serious time getting good at it.

FP Pendulum, BH short toss, BH High toss, FH pendulum all have a place and the more a player can serve with control and placement, the better that player's situation becomes in a number of ways.

Yeah, having a number of different serve actions, WITH the spin variations and CONTROL can be very advantageous!!
Sometimes you meet a player that can handle your ‘regular’ serves. Perhaps the 2 forms you may generally use.
Last season I had a tight 5 set match against a higher ranked player. During the 4th game, early on, I threw in a reverse pendulum serve and got a poor receive, 3rd ball winner. Served again and he dumped the ball in the net. After this I served reverse pendulum 80% of the time and he really struggled. This change of serve action won me the match.
Occasionally a player struggles with / cannot read a certain serve action. Even though he handled my BH serve and hook serve well.

 

[golden_son]

In Atlanta for the African diaspora TT tournament. We try to have it every year. Last year we did it in Austin but I sprained my foot before I could play a rated match. This year I will be playing u2100, U2300, O45 and U4000 doubles. Will try to share pics ans update results. Should be a blast

It's a shame I had another event that weekend; I missed a chance to meet a TTD legend. Hope Atlanta treated you well, 'grats on the finishes!

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Yeah, having a number of different serve actions, WITH the spin variations and CONTROL can be very advantageous!!
Sometimes you meet a player that can handle your ‘regular’ serves. Perhaps the 2 forms you may generally use.
Last season I had a tight 5 set match against a higher ranked player. During the 4th game, early on, I threw in a reverse pendulum serve and got a poor receive, 3rd ball winner. Served again and he dumped the ball in the net. After this I served reverse pendulum 80% of the time and he really struggled. This change of serve action won me the match.
Occasionally a player struggles with / cannot read a certain serve action. Even though he handled my BH serve and hook serve well.

very important when things are not working is to try something else.
One senior Chinese coach (who is one of the key person behind Anna Hursey success from when she was still single digit age) has told me and also many of his players to serve long and fast during crucial stages. Serve and attack/counter attack.
So for that, I also practice a good deal of long fast serves (not so accurate nowadays).

Each player should have they "go to" and also "get out" serves.
and personally, players do not practice serves enough.

I remember when I was a kid, I heard Deng Yaping used to do x amount of serves a day (I can't remember the number). I used to practice my serves 7 days a week, each for 1 hour in the evenings. That equates to about 1000 serves in that hour (have over 300 balls in the container and serve over 3 loads and have ball catch net to save on time).

 

[IB66]

People definitely don’t practice serves enough, myself included these days!!
for 1 serve form

very important when things are not working is to try something else.
One senior Chinese coach (who is one of the key person behind Anna Hursey success from when she was still single digit age) has told me and also many of his players to serve long and fast during crucial stages. Serve and attack/counter attack.
So for that, I also practice a good deal of long fast serves (not so accurate nowadays).

Each player should have they "go to" and also "get out" serves.
and personally, players do not practice serves enough.

I remember when I was a kid, I heard Deng Yaping used to do x amount of serves a day (I can't remember the number). I used to practice my serves 7 days a week, each for 1 hour in the evenings. That equates to about 1000 serves in that hour (have over 300 balls in the container and serve over 3 loads and have ball catch net to save on time).

people don’t practice serves enough, myself included these days!!
just take 1 serve form, FH pendulum, short - under, top and no spin, add positioning rh,centre & left so just for a short back spin serve you have 9 different feels to master, these may only have a slight difference but different they are!!
multiply by 3 ( adding 1/2 long and long ) that’s 27 feels, then add some speed variations, and toss variations ( changing from a low toss to high can throw your opponents rhythm ) so for one serve form alone there are loads of things to practice!!

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

People definitely don’t practice serves enough, myself included these days!!
for 1 serve form

people don’t practice serves enough, myself included these days!!
just take 1 serve form, FH pendulum, short - under, top and no spin, add positioning rh,centre & left so just for a short back spin serve you have 9 different feels to master, these may only have a slight difference but different they are!!
multiply by 3 ( adding 1/2 long and long ) that’s 27 feels, then add some speed variations, and toss variations ( changing from a low toss to high can throw your opponents rhythm ) so for one serve form alone there are loads of things to practice!!

that is exactly what I say to adult students, especially when they want to learn a gillion different serves.
i told them to focus on the one, and then factor in the variety and get the quality out.

I also remember when I was a kid, a coach would tell me, it is only 2 serves you need to learn. A spin and no spin, but same action.

 

[IB66]

that is exactly what I say to adult students, especially when they want to learn a gillion different serves.
i told them to focus on the one, and then factor in the variety and very get the quality out.

I also remember when I was a kid, a coach would tell me, it is only 2 serves you need to learn. A spin and no spin, but same action.

True, but it depends how far you want to go with your serves!! Craig Bryant aka the service guy has taken his serves to the next level !!

 

[IB66]

It's interesting that Mr Bryant has been working with Duda and Duda's form is looking pretty good.
At that level ALL aspects of your game need to be at peak levels.

 

[NextLevel]

It's interesting that Mr Bryant has been working with Duda and Duda's form is looking pretty good.
At that level ALL aspects of your game need to be at peak levels.

Don't forget Rassenfosse lol...

 

[TheProfessor]

very important when things are not working is to try something else.
One senior Chinese coach (who is one of the key person behind Anna Hursey success from when she was still single digit age) has told me and also many of his players to serve long and fast during crucial stages. Serve and attack/counter attack.
So for that, I also practice a good deal of long fast serves (not so accurate nowadays).

Each player should have they "go to" and also "get out" serves.
and personally, players do not practice serves enough.

I remember when I was a kid, I heard Deng Yaping used to do x amount of serves a day (I can't remember the number). I used to practice my serves 7 days a week, each for 1 hour in the evenings. That equates to about 1000 serves in that hour (have over 300 balls in the container and serve over 3 loads and have ball catch net to save on time).

I agree, back when I was serious about playing I also did 1000 serves per session for around 20 days straight or so. My racket hand's wrist got a thick callous because the serve I was practicing then kept hitting my wrist maybe when I have time I'll get back to it...

 

[NextLevel]

Played an event at a local club today. I was supposed to play the U2000 but my rating went over 2000 so I became ineligible and I was offered a chance to play the Open without paying extra. I accepted this and went to play. I have not hit a ball this week prior to today so I have no expectations. Just wanted to defend my play for the most part.

First match was against a kid who beat when I played at him at his home club. Because he is young, he inconsistently generates spin on the ball but to his credit, aggressively goes for his shots. So if you don't keep spin on the ball he is very hard to rally with. Today his serves had also improved tremendously and I was giving him third ball chances over ans over again in the first game and he converted them. I think I went down 1-7 or something likr that before losing it at a more respectable 11-5 or 11-6. The biggest thing that has changed about mental game is that because i cant move well, I accept it when opponents hit good shots to beat me. But I do everything in my power to push the opponent. I will serve long backspin, I serve short forehand, I will open with slow spin, push you around, just try to make sure you are not hitting shots standing in one place. And the kid had his coach there as well so I found some motivation to fight. And just like that, my shors started working and I won the next two games 11-3 and 11-4. The last game the coach was telling the kid go get it to game 5 and it would turn around. And in my head I am saying nope. Ans I go down 1-5 lol. But I win the next two points on serve and my opponent calls a timeout. He keeps a 2 point lead until 9-7. He serves a loose serve to my forehand which i loop kill 9-8. We play a rally and I survive and it is 9-9. I am almost there, gotta close it out. Then I backhand serve a dead ball, get a pop-up to my forehand and kill the serve long to give him game point. I hadn't served forehand the whole match and my heaviest spin serve is my forehand backspin serve. So I decided to use it and he dumped it in the net. Had third ball opportunities and match points at 11-11-10 and 12-11 and he saved them. He missed a third ball for 13-12 my match point again. So I decided it was time to reintroduce the forehand backspin serve and he pushed it into the net again.

Played against a guy who was estimated at 2250 and lost with only one game getting to 5. I have played lots of 2250 players that felt more like 2400 to me but what do I know. Then I played a kid I lost to the last time wr played 0-3. He was C, I was B. It was a more competitive game, but I kept giving up big leads and climbing back and I didn't have enough lives. But I competed, lost 3-1 with close games and that was it.

Spend the rest of the day testing Zyre 03. It felt like glass. Reminded me a lot of hard sponge rubbers with hard topsheets I remember Tronix ZGR. They play great if you get a drive opportunity but if you are looking for a chance to slow things down and spin, you feel like you are playing with glass. Will probably use this longer than I should because of the price tag but my initial position is very negative and Tronix ZGR is much cheaper.

 

[blahness]

Played after 7 months of inactivity lol. Felt like a sloth on the table and I couldn't even get my FH pendulum serves from working in the beginning but later got the hang of. Paired with a very speedy and fast player who I found very hard to rally against. In general I had more spin, he was way more speedy on the court.

Then we played matches. Surprisingly I was doing quite well and won most games which exceeded all my expectations. Had to thank all my service variations especially the hook serve. He had to resort to long fast serves (alternating between mild underspin to no spin to sidespin to sidetopspin) which took me some time to adjust. I had to take a slight step back to allow more time for me to loop those with the BH because of how sluggish my movements are. At the end I varied my opening loop to force some mistakes out of him so that this didnt become too much of a point winner for him. Otherwise this forced the topspin rally which I think i was at a disadvantage in because of how fast he was moving. He also had a great BH down the line and a fast FH topspin to my middle which is very difficult to deal with.

I controlled the serve/receive game solidly and made sure i got the 1st attack most of the time. Once I got the 1st heavy spin attack I was deeply favoured.

Honestly it was ugly but sometimes TT is just about serve/receive, getting that 1st loop in accurately and then following up on that.

 

[NextLevel]

Played the U2200 today at the Texas Open. It was at 1pm, I decided against missing church to play earlier in the day and i think that hurt me as players were already warmed up while I got there late. I tried to use Zyre on a Hugo but I have concluded that the rubber is sh*te for my style, how Butterfly got its spin numbers will be a subject of conversation in future months. I will continue to break it in, but right now, my review is crystal (stay qway).

Played the first match with the Cybershape and D80 like I played yesterday. Unfortunately I couldn't get physical. I lost 0-3 missing a lot of offensive shots without really getting into the match to a player almost 250 pts lower. That effectively knocked me out of the next round if I couldn't beat the B player. Even just winning a game or two would have given me an opening. So figuring out how to handle playing and not be so flat or lifeless will be critical.

The B player. I put in much more effort and actually played some good rallies. We traded close games in the first 4 games but I had control at the end of all four games and threw away critical points. Including a match point at 10-9 in the 4th when his push hit the net and rather than push it softly, i looped the ball off the table.

In general lots of illegal serves in both matches. I try to play through it but I have to get better despite it.

I played the last match against the D player. It was a good reminder of how heavy Dignics 09c can be. He had beaten the C player so if i had done better against the C player, I would have had a chance but having lost 0-3, I couldn't make a difference. I did beat him 3-1, the main issue was that while he had large strokes that were effective against slow balls, he was prone to mistime his forehand topspins in fast rallies.

So I will spend the next few weeks/months on a weight loss program and work on fitness since I wont be able to play much until I get a job. But my topspin rally game as definitely improved despite poor leg health, I hope losing weight will give me a few more options.

 

[TheProfessor]

Played an event at a local club today. I was supposed to play the U2000 but my rating went over 2000 so I became ineligible and I was offered a chance to play the Open without paying extra. I accepted this and went to play. I have not hit a ball this week prior to today so I have no expectations. Just wanted to defend my play for the most part.

First match was against a kid who beat when I played at him at his home club. Because he is young, he inconsistently generates spin on the ball but to his credit, aggressively goes for his shots. So if you don't keep spin on the ball he is very hard to rally with. Today his serves had also improved tremendously and I was giving him third ball chances over ans over again in the first game and he converted them. I think I went down 1-7 or something likr that before losing it at a more respectable 11-5 or 11-6. The biggest thing that has changed about mental game is that because i cant move well, I accept it when opponents hit good shots to beat me. But I do everything in my power to push the opponent. I will serve long backspin, I serve short forehand, I will open with slow spin, push you around, just try to make sure you are not hitting shots standing in one place. And the kid had his coach there as well so I found some motivation to fight. And just like that, my shors started working and I won the next two games 11-3 and 11-4. The last game the coach was telling the kid go get it to game 5 and it would turn around. And in my head I am saying nope. Ans I go down 1-5 lol. But I win the next two points on serve and my opponent calls a timeout. He keeps a 2 point lead until 9-7. He serves a loose serve to my forehand which i loop kill 9-8. We play a rally and I survive and it is 9-9. I am almost there, gotta close it out. Then I backhand serve a dead ball, get a pop-up to my forehand and kill the serve long to give him game point. I hadn't served forehand the whole match and my heaviest spin serve is my forehand backspin serve. So I decided to use it and he dumped it in the net. Had third ball opportunities and match points at 11-11-10 and 12-11 and he saved them. He missed a third ball for 13-12 my match point again. So I decided it was time to reintroduce the forehand backspin serve and he pushed it into the net again.

Played against a guy who was estimated at 2250 and lost with only one game getting to 5. I have played lots of 2250 players that felt more like 2400 to me but what do I know. Then I played a kid I lost to the last time wr played 0-3. He was C, I was B. It was a more competitive game, but I kept giving up big leads and climbing back and I didn't have enough lives. But I competed, lost 3-1 with close games and that was it.

Spend the rest of the day testing Zyre 03. It felt like glass. Reminded me a lot of hard sponge rubbers with hard topsheets I remember Tronix ZGR. They play great if you get a drive opportunity but if you are looking for a chance to slow things down and spin, you feel like you are playing with glass. Will probably use this longer than I should because of the price tag but my initial position is very negative and Tronix ZGR is much cheaper.

Sounds like you played well. Congrats! What rubber do you use on your forehand? Hope to see a video of your heavy backspin serve, sounds intriguing!

 

[NextLevel]

Sounds like you played well. Congrats! What rubber do you use on your forehand? Hope to see a video of your heavy backspin serve, sounds intriguing!

Thanks for the kind words. As for playing well, not really, lack training time these days and losing to players I think in my head I should compete better against. But I have learned that sometimes, accepting poor results when you are under prepared is part of having a stronger mindset. I use Dignics 80 on my forehand.

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

i assemble rackets for some friends and the variation on some of these pips is crazy. total scam and the rubbers are not correct

 

[Der_Echte]

@NextLevel never let me down a comment about equipment after an outstanding relative performance made me smile big time.