Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[jk1980]

had two revealations in todays trainings. First was me playing against somebody who played much in the youth and now with 50 returns to the sport (she is actually already playing for 4 or 5 month again) and one can see how many things are intuitive to her. He can hold herself in most rallys if there is not too much spin.
My main serve (long backspin to the opponents backhand) is a construction site if somebody returns it diagonally to my backhand. I can forehand loop it, but i am just so used to it that i am totally out of position if somebody blocks it down the line after than. This is why i want to get acustomed to backhand loop it. I have trouble doing the backhand loop because i instinctly go back from the table and have the right foot a little forward expecting the ball and in 50% of the cases the ball drops earlier than i expect and i miss. I think i go back from the table instinctively to have more room and not to blast me wrist against the table when trying to do a more forward swing. Now i tried to simply expect anything coming to the backhand to be too short to loop and flick it with the backhand. This worked very well and even when it was longer i could backhand flick the ball without risking breaking my wrist

The second revelation was playing against an old guy with long pips. to be honest anytime he asks if i wanna play a match against him i sigh and just do it to get it over with. I just felt that there is no point for me to find a strategy against long pips if my regular opponents only rarely use long pips effectively. Today i even asked that guy to play a match because i wanted to test a theory. That theory came from me playing against a younger dude that wanted to change to long pips on the backhand and i played him a few days ago. It was a nice introduction to a not skilled long pips player and i grew in confidence attacking his balls.
I did a long backspin serve, sometimes even heavy backspin ball to his backhand where the long pips were. He did his backhand long pips block which made the ball come back with slight topspin (but shorter than one would expect) i had that in mind stayed close and just counter looped it. My counter loops where not very dangerous because they were quite high, but aiming at the middle (basically his elbow) forced him to quite some errors. Now i even look forward to playing against long pips, because it is very consistent what comes back and it is always attackable, because it is topspin. Once i even simply smashed his return. This really changes my mindset and i am not afraid of playing against long pips anymore.

it's not like i won against that longpips old guy but the mere fact that i looped many of his returns made him insecure and try to return the ball lower which netted quite a few points for me when he played my not really spinny serve into the net. Of course i dont have it right when the rally is longer and i don't focus on what side he played the ball with, but it is a encouraging start for me. I always felt that if you don't do the first silly mistake against long pips players in the lower leagues often enough they don't have much clue about what to do when their odd balls come back either.
this realization made me brave enough to even attempt to smash his returns, because they were topspin and i would not really risk it hitting the net.

 

[dingyibvs]

After the recent weeks of practice, I think I'm starting to get pretty good with the whole BH stroke. I can whack the ball pretty nicely now, with solid timing, footwork, and overall form. When I do drills with the robot I would start by just pure hitting, it's kind of like if you were to backhand slap someone with a racket. Then I add a little bit of brushing over motion. That seems to end up with the correct motion. I'm basically trying to follow ZJK's teaching, which is counter to some other teachings. He says that you should develop quality first, consistency afterwards. So I'm trying to get high quality shots first, then tune down my power gradually to the lowest possible so I can develop the entire range of power.

One thing I still have a lot of issue with is just the overall aim. I just don't yet have a great association between my stroke and the trajectory of the ball. I'd loop the ball, I'd contact it exactly the way I wanted to, and then be like whoa, that went way higher/lower than I thought it would. I guess that would just need more practice, gonna need a lot more reps. Too bad I'm quite busy this month, and soccer's started back up, so I won't have nearly the practice time I'd like to have.

Still, I'm making steady progress. The better contact, footwork, timing, etc. carries over to loops against backspin as well. My defense is improving significantly too. I'll starting to get into a bit better shape, so hopefully even with soccer starting back up I can still practice a good amount each week.

 

[Archosaurus]

Another session today. Amazingly some aspects of my game have improved, and my physical conditioning is much better. I did make sure to take very frequent breaks in order to not wear myself out.

In terms of improvements, my stroke is fuller, although the contact is still only about 20-30% (subjective nonsense number) sponge activation and the stroke is still stilted without correct whip and kinematic chain intergration. I do read the ball better and I managed to perform some brushing tospins onto slow, dead balls, a shot that I missed basically every time last time. I also move in and out a little bit better although I'm often caught too close.

I also bought some actual table tennis shoes, and the difference from even decent athletic shoes is immense. I can actually perform some decent footwork for the first time. They're also much lighter and more breathable, so I got less fatigued.

The sessions are very casual and I don't think anyone wants video, so I have nothing to show, but I'll try to get some in the future once I'm a bit more established.

 

[Archosaurus]

Did one more because my body was feeling good. We see if I regret it tomorrow. Drills and some games at the end.

Fared alright in the games, better than I'd expect. Nothing of note, too rusty. Lots of very weak serve receive from me against heavy and deep serves, typical stuff.

In the drills, I had a lot more success looping fed heavy backspin than before. Maybe 30% were a quality shot. Also started developing more brush onto my backhand flick. Block improving slowly as the game slows down again but I'm still not really used to looking at the ball in motion, so most of them fail.

 

[dingyibvs]

Another session today. Amazingly some aspects of my game have improved, and my physical conditioning is much better. I did make sure to take very frequent breaks in order to not wear myself out.

In terms of improvements, my stroke is fuller, although the contact is still only about 20-30% (subjective nonsense number) sponge activation and the stroke is still stilted without correct whip and kinematic chain intergration. I do read the ball better and I managed to perform some brushing tospins onto slow, dead balls, a shot that I missed basically every time last time. I also move in and out a little bit better although I'm often caught too close.

I also bought some actual table tennis shoes, and the difference from even decent athletic shoes is immense. I can actually perform some decent footwork for the first time. They're also much lighter and more breathable, so I got less fatigued.

The sessions are very casual and I don't think anyone wants video, so I have nothing to show, but I'll try to get some in the future once I'm a bit more established.

It's probably timing that's messing you up the most at this point. When I came back from my leg fracture I felt that was the most difficult. I had my first couple sessions just against my robot, felt I got the timing back, then I went to the club and it was another huge adjustment. For every shot, I seemed to do the action correctly, but when the racket is about to contact the ball I realize something is off. I'd then have to adjust on the fly and soon every shot was timid. I was only away ~4 months, so it'll probably take a bit more time for you.

Today I went to the club and forgot to bring my primary racket. I had to play with my previous racket which was the FZD ALC. I was able to find the feeling on the FH side reasonably quickly, but I couldn't quite find the feeling on the BH side the whole session. I think the thinner blade with its very different weight distribution probably caused more trouble than the differences in play characteristics. I also think the reason I adjusted much quicker on the FH side is because my technique on that side is much more complete, so when something went wrong I knew exactly what went wrong. I ended up utilizing a smaller motion, also accelerating closer to contact than usual, and that worked fairly well.

I'm actually kinda glad I didn't bring my primary racket. I was thinking about switching back to the FZD, as I kinda figured it might be a bit harder in the short game so I could use that to practice the service/receive game, which will be my next step. Now I realize that it'd take me at least a couple weeks to get used to it, which is kind of wasted time. Plus, I've recently come to realize that a good, deceptive, and varied long push is just as important as the short game in service receives. So as long as the setup is within reason, there isn't really a net advantage to the slower setup.

Now, I do wonder if it'd be best for me to get a backup Q968.... There really isn't much of a second hand market for it, so I might have to buy a new one. It's kind of an expensive purchase, so maybe I can just make do with my W968 as the backup instead?

 

[Archosaurus]

It's probably timing that's messing you up the most at this point. When I came back from my leg fracture I felt that was the most difficult. I had my first couple sessions just against my robot, felt I got the timing back, then I went to the club and it was another huge adjustment. For every shot, I seemed to do the action correctly, but when the racket is about to contact the ball I realize something is off. I'd then have to adjust on the fly and soon every shot was timid. I was only away ~4 months, so it'll probably take a bit more time for you.

Yep, I think so. There's a lot of "huh what the fuck" moments where I have to suddenly snap the racket in some weird way because I was way too late or early or close or whatever. I paid a bit more attention at looking at the ball clearly through the whole flightpath and it helped, though. I think in the previous sessions, I was taking my eyes off the ball a bit before it hits my side.

 

[dingyibvs]

I went back to the same club today, this time brought my regular racket. Near the end of the session played some singles. First against a guy who's been a bit better than me, I think I beat him once 3-2, but lost a few times 3-1 and 3-2. I beat him 3-0 this time and it felt pretty easy. I then played a Cpen player who's been a solid level above me. Never beaten him before, best I've managed has been 3-1. I beat 3-0 today as well. The improved attacking consistency on both sides really helped, and my recent advancements on the BH side has barely begun to seep into my game! With my history of development, it'll probably only be another 2-4 weeks when my new BH upgrades become the norm, and I should take another level up.

 

[dingyibvs]

To expand on the technique changes on the BH side, I've found that the most useful is all the hitting practice. I used to start my motion as sort of a windshield wiper motion, trying to brush from behind the ball, then add more hitting as needed. Now I'm starting my motion more like a backhanded slap, then add more brushing as needed.

The last video I posted was when I first started trying the new motion out. In the beginning just trying to hit the ball against the robot and in the video I was starting to do it in basic BH rally practice. Afterwards I had my first BH flick practice, and my coach was telling me to do something similar with my flick. That's when I realized that maybe it should be the case for all BH shots, so the last couple of weeks I've been trying to convert my BH loop vs both topspin and backspin to this motion as well.

Starting with a brush makes timing very difficult and results in very inconsistent contact during real game scenarios. I think the new motion should pay great dividends. Another big problem I've had on the BH side is when the ball comes to my middle. I knew I needed to backswing a bit more and let the ball come into my body a bit more, but recently I've found that it really helps to turn my body a bit to the left as well. Obviously stepping up with my right foot helps too, but in real game situations I often don't have time to do that. So I'm spending some time with random placement balls to get a sense of when to turn, when to turn + step up, and when to pivot. Sometimes just a minor adjustment in body position can help the shot feel heck a lot more comfortable.

 

[Tyce]

Last night I was able to play for the first time in almost two weeks after some weird foot injury (probably overload related). Since the end of season is almost upon us, I decided to bring almost every bat I own and try to figure out where to go from here in order to regain my confidence.
I played several singles and doubles practice matches totaling around 2,5h.

By far the worst feeling on FH was H3N blue sponge on Ma Lin Carbon. Compared to when I had it on Innerforce Layer ALC I just couldn't get any power on. So even though I love the feeling of this rubber, it needs a highly elastic bat (for me). This is also why I would consider a Viscaria, because I know I would love it with H3.

Shared second worst, both of my IFL ALC's, one with G1 and the other with (old) T19. The G1 combo was expected because it's basically why I started to look for a better option. T19 felt OK but I overshot about 90% of the balls. As in, I can feel the rubber engage on almost every shot, the outcome is just too much.

Next, G1 on Korbel. That was quite OK to be honest. The absence of ALC really helped to get good spin on the ball.
To compare, if IFL ALC gives me a feeling of securely engaging the ball on a non-perfect position of 50%, Korbel takes that to more like 2/3rds. Of course it helped a lot that I know the rubber well, but there's no carbon so no gear switch involved on the blade.

And the best feeling... Once again, my old, thin, small, flexible Appelgren Allplay. even with a dead sheet of T05 on it, I could loop almost everything and land it, make crazy angles, you name it. It was shockingly slow with a shockingly low sound to it but there was just soooo much time to make a loop and so much freedom to really move hard through the ball. It's so weird how this quarter century old blade with its tiny sweet spot still manages to perform so nicely.

On BH I honestly just played well with both T05 and C-1 on any of the bats. I think if you merge those two you get Glayzer, approximately, so when I do make a decision on the blade to go for next season, that's what I'm going to put on it on BH at least.

I think I should steer clear of my Innerforces and probably just sell them in order to finance something that works for me. I also think that the feeling and sheer dwell and looping capacity of spring sponge rubbers is something I want to move forward with. I know I've said before that I didn't like that feeling of super long dwell time, but my grip change, orienting much more towards the thumb and index finger, has brought me so much more feeling of bat control that it doesn't feel like I'm losing track of my stroke halfway through anymore.

I gotta sidetrack the Hurricanes for now though. It doesn't mix with moving to a more controlled blade (again, for me) having to put out much more power to get the ball on.

The feet held up quite well through the evening. A little bit sore this morning, but nothing too bad. I will be fine by Thursday when we have to make real good points to maximize our chances of winning the league next week. I'm a little pessimistic about next week also because I can't play, so I guess we gotta do what we can this week and hope the main competitor spills a couple of points.

 

[dingyibvs]

Went to my regular club today, had another solid day. Won all my matches, but most importantly, won a lot of points with my BH. People were surprised, they were like "whoa, you're using the red side now?" I got progressively more comfortable as the night went on, and my BH shots got progressively more aggressive. Time and again I'm like, wow, I actually made that shot? I think that's what I'm gonna work on in practice matches from now on. I'm gonna focus on footwork and try to play more aggressively. I think I have the basic skills to do it, but I need to apply it more in matches.

Applying FH training to matches is going frustratingly slow. It's always slow on that side. Since I started reinforcing my recent learnings I've made a lot of progress in training, now able to execute the more hip driven motion, less sidespin shot quite consistently. Once the game starts though, I go often go back to swinging my arm wildly, with a rather side-spinny shot. I've also been practicing a more compact, concentrated loop vs backspin, but in matches I still do the all out forward leaning shot. I guess I'm gonna need to practice more and focus on applying these techniques in matches as well.

 

[dingyibvs]

Last night I was able to play for the first time in almost two weeks after some weird foot injury (probably overload related). Since the end of season is almost upon us, I decided to bring almost every bat I own and try to figure out where to go from here in order to regain my confidence.
I played several singles and doubles practice matches totaling around 2,5h.

By far the worst feeling on FH was H3N blue sponge on Ma Lin Carbon. Compared to when I had it on Innerforce Layer ALC I just couldn't get any power on. So even though I love the feeling of this rubber, it needs a highly elastic bat (for me). This is also why I would consider a Viscaria, because I know I would love it with H3.

Shared second worst, both of my IFL ALC's, one with G1 and the other with (old) T19. The G1 combo was expected because it's basically why I started to look for a better option. T19 felt OK but I overshot about 90% of the balls. As in, I can feel the rubber engage on almost every shot, the outcome is just too much.

Next, G1 on Korbel. That was quite OK to be honest. The absence of ALC really helped to get good spin on the ball.
To compare, if IFL ALC gives me a feeling of securely engaging the ball on a non-perfect position of 50%, Korbel takes that to more like 2/3rds. Of course it helped a lot that I know the rubber well, but there's no carbon so no gear switch involved on the blade.

And the best feeling... Once again, my old, thin, small, flexible Appelgren Allplay. even with a dead sheet of T05 on it, I could loop almost everything and land it, make crazy angles, you name it. It was shockingly slow with a shockingly low sound to it but there was just soooo much time to make a loop and so much freedom to really move hard through the ball. It's so weird how this quarter century old blade with its tiny sweet spot still manages to perform so nicely.

On BH I honestly just played well with both T05 and C-1 on any of the bats. I think if you merge those two you get Glayzer, approximately, so when I do make a decision on the blade to go for next season, that's what I'm going to put on it on BH at least.

I think I should steer clear of my Innerforces and probably just sell them in order to finance something that works for me. I also think that the feeling and sheer dwell and looping capacity of spring sponge rubbers is something I want to move forward with. I know I've said before that I didn't like that feeling of super long dwell time, but my grip change, orienting much more towards the thumb and index finger, has brought me so much more feeling of bat control that it doesn't feel like I'm losing track of my stroke halfway through anymore.

I gotta sidetrack the Hurricanes for now though. It doesn't mix with moving to a more controlled blade (again, for me) having to put out much more power to get the ball on.

The feet held up quite well through the evening. A little bit sore this morning, but nothing too bad. I will be fine by Thursday when we have to make real good points to maximize our chances of winning the league next week. I'm a little pessimistic about next week also because I can't play, so I guess we gotta do what we can this week and hope the main competitor spills a couple of points.

Yeah, Hurricanes really need for you to commit on every shot. It's pretty tiring to play with it. But the plus side is that if the incoming shot has a lot of energy it becomes much more controllable in comparison. I counterloop way better with Hurricanes, the extra dwell really lets you control the trajectory of the ball more.

 

[Tyce]

Yeah, Hurricanes really need for you to commit on every shot. It's pretty tiring to play with it. But the plus side is that if the incoming shot has a lot of energy it becomes much more controllable in comparison. I counterloop way better with Hurricanes, the extra dwell really lets you control the trajectory of the ball more.

As much as I love the feeling of it, I have to admit that I don't have the age, physique or hours of practice to consistently generate enough power to make good shots with it. Who knows how things will evolve over the years but it's certainly not for now.

 

[jk1980]

had a game against a long pips backhand, short pips forehand guy who is rated around 130 points higher than me.
the instances where i used that "long backspin serve to the long pips" were quite successful, enabling me to attack pretty much 80% of his returns. Reviewing the footage it seemed important to put quite enlugh backdpin into my serve, because ktherwise the balls would be returned semi empty which makes it harder for me to loop . i feel more and more comfortable against long pips when i serve. Being mindful enough inside an open rally is a different thing obviously and there i don't always notice what rubber the opponent returned the ball with

 

[Tyce]

Important league match tonight! Two rounds left and we're sharing first place. Tonight we really need to rake in the points, and hope the direct competition spills a couple. Next week is the finishing round vs that direct competitor and I'm not available, so every point we score over them this week is one point advantage for next week...
I'm actually getting nervous. We're playing the bottom team, but they have been improving a lot over the course of the season. Could really use a clean sweep!

 

[Tyce]

Oh man we dropped the ball. Or specifically I did. Lost the first singles, and doubles too. I just couldn't get into a fluid state. I can count the amount of successful loops on my two hands. What a sh*t show.
It wasn't until the last game of the last singles that I started to feel even remotely close to OK. I ended that one with the wildest, hard FH kill possible in an attempt to let out the frustration of the night.

We won 3-2, meaning we dropped 2 points. The direct competitor plays tomorrow. If they win 4-1 or 5-0 our chances are really, really slim.

 

[NextLevel]

So I have always been up to something but it has hardly been table tennis. Lots of raw middle age life lessons being learned the hard way. But not going to delve too deeply into them here, this is table tennis lol.

I played a tournament today. MY expectations going in were really now, I have played twice or less a week and pretty much always against lower level opposition for the last few months. On the flipside, I have played enough tournaments to know that they and my rating are not a big deal to me. In the end, all I want is to fight reasonably well, and if I am so inspired, to make sure that my opponent had to play good shots to win.

Had three events. In the first one, I was the B player and the C player was an up and coming junior I had beaten the last time we played, but I felt it was a bad idea to play him immediately after the A and D player hadn't show up. The A and D player still hadn't come after we waited a few more minutes, so the refs said they would likely be defaulted and we should play. I then lost 0-3 and then the A player showed up lol. Lost 0-3 to him as well and that was the end of that event.

Second event, I was the A player, the B player didn't show, the C player was a player who had beaten me at another tournament and the D player was a girl I had not seen before. I played the C player first, and he won the first game 11-8 and was up 10-6 in game 2. I was already dreading the climb back but decided to fight to build some momentum and did long backhand serves. And somehow, I managed to win the points of his serves to get it to deuce and won the game 13-11. That changed the complexion of the match, but at some point during all that, I also did something that made my hip hurt. The funny thing was that I managed to finish the match and win it, but now every forehand was painful.

I then played the girl, who I found was was a former national team junior who had quit for years but had resumed playing a bit recently. I wish I didn't know that nonsense honestly. I played decently, but the girl had a ridiculously heavy push and played fairly slowly but that wasn't the worst of it. What really sucked was that she had a really spinny opening forehand, and I don't think I blocked a single one of them. It took me forever to realize that I really had a much better backhand than she did and that I could win those rallies if I entered them. Lost the first game badly and the second game at 9. Got from 6-10 to 9-10 in the 3rd game and then she did a spinny opening loop and that was all she wrote. She is going to have to be at a higher level if we meet again to win. That loss got me a match against a junior I have beaten in league matches and never in tournament matches. That was a pretty decisive 3-0. I was up 9-5 in game 2 and lost 11-9 and that was as good as it got. And that event was over. And my forehand was still painful.

In the last event, I was the B player, so I had to play the D player first, a lady junior who I have not yet lost a tournament match to, but whose style drives me nuts. I won a close first game, and after it went to the wall and started walking backwards into the wall. As insane as it might sound, suddenly my hip pain started feeling much better. She won a decisive second game, but my forehand got better and better and I won the last two games fairly comfortably. The next game was against the A player, who was one of the college players at a local university with a really strong table tennis team. He came with the good player attitude from winning the last match (well, he was a nice guy, I am just making up the story in my head), so I tried my best to make him play hard. I attacked every ball that came long and some that didn't and I won the first game 11-8. I lost the next three, but between using backwards wall walking therapy and doing a lot of shots, it was worth it. In fact, I think I am going to do this backwards wall walking every day as I think it will help my wall sits (which I have always hated) and might even help my biggest current issues, which is my inability to move towards the table or chase the ball for fear of hurting my knees even more. That was the biggest takeaway. I really didn't want to play any more TT, but I felt it was fine to lose to the last junior, who had beaten me the last time we played, so I lost to him 0-3 as well. And that was all she wrote for the day of TT, I watched the finals of a few events and went home after.

Lots of lower body work to continue!

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

you had to finish first of your group to play KO ? no consolation event ?

tough to go to tournaments in those conditions. Its the perfect recipe to lose and get frustrated

 

[dingyibvs]

So I have always been up to something but it has hardly being table tennis. Lots of raw middle age life lessons being learned the hard way. But not going to delve too deeply into them here, this is table tennis lol.

I played a tournament today. MY expectations going in were really now, I have played twice or less a week and pretty much always against lower level opposition for the last few months. On the flipside, I have played enough tournaments to know that they and my rating are not a big deal to me. In the end, all I want is to fight reasonably well, and if I am so inspired, to make sure that my opponent had to play good shots to win.

Had three events. In the first one, I was the B player and the C player was an up and coming junior I had beaten the last time we played, but I felt it was a bad idea to play him immediately after the A and D player hadn't show up. The A and D player still hadn't come after we waited a few more minutes, so the refs said they would likely be defaulted and we should play. I then lost 0-3 and then the A player showed up lol. Lost 0-3 to him as well and that was the end of that event.

Second event, I was the A player, the B player didn't show, the C player was a player who had beaten me at another tournament and the D player was a girl I had not seen before. I played the C player first, and he won the first game 11-8 and was up 10-6 in game 2. I was already dreading the climb back but decided to fight to build some momentum and did long backhand serves. And somehow, I managed to win the points of his serves to get it to deuce and won the game 13-11. That changed the complexion of the match, but at some point during all that, I also did something that made my hip hurt. The funny thing was that I managed to finish the match and win it, but now every forehand was painful.

I then played the girl, who I found was was a former national team junior who had quit for years but had resumed playing a bit recently. I wish I didn't know that nonsense honestly. I played decently, but the girl had a ridiculously heavy push and played fairly slowly but that wasn't the worst of it. What really sucked was that she had a really spinny opening forehand, and I don't think I blocked a single one of them. It took me forever to realize that I really had a much better backhand than she did and that I could win those rallies if I entered them. Lost the first game badly and the second game at 9. Got from 6-10 to 9-10 in the 3rd game and then she did a spinny opening loop and that was all she wrote. She is going to have to be at a higher level if we meet again to win. That loss got me a match against a junior I have beaten in league matches and never in tournament matches. That was a pretty decisive 3-0. I was up 9-5 in game 2 and lost 11-9 and that was as good as it got. And that event was over. And my forehand was still painful.

In the last event, I was the B player, so I had to play the D player first, a lady junior who I have not yet lost a tournament match to, but whose style drives me nuts. I won a close first game, and after it went to the wall and started walking backwards into the wall. As insane as it might sound, suddenly my hip pain started feeling much better. She won a decisive second game, but my forehand got better and better and I won the last two games fairly comfortably. The next game was against the A player, who was one of the college players at a local university with a really strong table tennis team. He came with the good player attitude from winning the last match (well, he was a nice guy, I am just making up the story in my head), so I tried my best to make him play hard. I attacked every ball that came long and some that didn't and I won the first game 11-8. I lost the next three, but between using backwards wall walking therapy and doing a lot of shots, it was worth it. In fact, I think I am going to do this backwards wall walking every day as I think it will help my wall sits (which I have always hated) and might even help my biggest current issues, which is my inability to move towards the table or chase the ball for fear of hurting my knees even more. That was the biggest takeaway. I really didn't want to play any more TT, but I felt it was fine to lose to the last junior, who had beaten me the last time we played, so I lost to him 0-3 as well. And that was all she wrote for the day of TT, I watched the finals of a few events and went home after.

Lots of lower body work to continue!

Sounds like not the best week for us TTDers

I had a bad day at the club too. Went to the club with Butterfly tables, and I just can't adjust to it quickly. So many whiffs, and even against blocks I have no confidence to re-loop, which is usually bread and butter for me. Lost every doubles and singles match! Last Sunday I did well there, but that was my second straight day playing there, so I felt a lot more comfortable with the table.

I guess the all we can do after days like that is to look for some silver linings. I think I started doing better at the end by really looking the ball in and really pay active attention to timing on both the BH and the FH side. I'm already a bit weak with the timing on my BH side, playing a sticky table gives me even more trouble. Oh the FH side I don't usually pay much attention to the timing, but perhaps I should, and perhaps even on more familiar tables I can get better timing doing that. When FZD loops you see him swinging his head right and left as he looks the ball in and out, maybe I should do that too.

 

[NextLevel]

you had to finish first of your group to play KO ? no consolation event ?

tough to go to tournaments in those conditions. Its the perfect recipe to lose and get frustrated

First 2 out of 4 advance. If you are the A player, you have to play bad or get unlucky with the other players in the group not to go through. But I was the B player twice and failed to advance, and was the A player once but lost to an underrated D player, who I probably should still have beaten if my form was straightened out with proper practice.

 

[Tyce]

Turns out our direct competitor also did a 3-2, so we're going into the last round tied on points. Not a comfortable position, and I think they have a slightly higher chance, but it's not impossible either. It's out of my control and that's the worst part I guess.