Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[TampaBayTableTennis]

The dictator/moderator judge, after consulting with the inner voices of his conscience and judgment, proclaims you a winner!

Please PM me your name and address and your choice of blade.

OMG, amazing! Thank you so much : )

 

[Archosaurus]

The dictator/moderator judge, after consulting with the inner voices of his conscience and judgment, proclaims you a winner!

Please PM me your name and address and your choice of blade.

At least the inner voices are multiple and I assume they need to have consensus, so is it really a dictatorship?

 

[J-fed]

Finally arrived
SDC #1159 by Sergio. Looks gorgeous and can't wait to glue the new rubbers on it next week
It is slower than 729 Friendship Blue ALC I currently have, so perfect for my all-round/controlled attacker type of play. Have second blade already ordered for traditional defense blade so can't wait for that either.

Cool. I play that style too. What rubbers are you using? Pips on BH?

 

[Amaken23]

Cool. I play that style too. What rubbers are you using? Pips on BH?

No, both inverted
FH : Double Fish Volant Phoenix 1 (39°)
BH : Yinhe Moon Mid-Hard

I'll glue Yinhe Neptune 0.7 LP on the defensive blalde, though.

 

[J-fed]

No, both inverted
FH : Double Fish Volant Phoenix 1 (39°)
BH : Yinhe Moon Mid-Hard

I'll glue Yinhe Neptune 0.7 LP on the defensive blalde, though.

Oh nice. I really want to try that. How is it? Just put 955 on my bat and it’s a good rubber but not for sweeps and nasty short blocks that I like to fluke. It’s mainly for playing in straight lines as far as I can tell atm

 

[Larshos]

Is it possible to not get a millimeter of separation or so, between rubber and blade, when trimming the rubber flush with the edge of the blade after gluing? I use a sharp 9 mm "snap off" utility knife, but unless I cut with some overhang on purpose it always seem to be a bit of separation.. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

 

[latej]

Is it possible to not get a millimeter of separation or so, between rubber and blade, when trimming the rubber flush with the edge of the blade after gluing? I use a sharp 9 mm "snap off" utility knife, but unless I cut with some overhang on purpose it always seem to be a bit of separation.. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

I also use 9mm, and I don't cut through immediately, this imo creates too much tension, so I do it on 2 or 3 "rounds". Also I don't do like 1 round around the blade and then the second, I do more like per partes, each part 2-3 rounds, because the pressure point remains the same... This is unrelated, but I try to keep the knife a bit bent, so I can achieve like 0.5mm overhang of the rubber over blade, which is how I like it...

 

[Tyce]

This, and also use plenty of squeeze to adhere the edges. I roll until I can see the outline of the blade through the rubber and after that I squeeze everything between my fingers all around the perimeter.
I'm back to scissors though, 90% of the results in 10% of time, no need for a cutting board so it can be done anywhere.

 

[jonol]

Scissors is the way, especially if you only change rubbers when necessary (3-6 months presumably), it's just so much easier to get a pretty decent result for very little difficulty.

When I did use a knife though, I agree that making 2-3 passes is the best way.

 

[Larshos]

I also use 9mm, and I don't cut through immediately, this imo creates too much tension, so I do it on 2 or 3 "rounds". Also I don't do like 1 round around the blade and then the second, I do more like per partes, each part 2-3 rounds, because the pressure point remains the same... This is unrelated, but I try to keep the knife a bit bent, so I can achieve like 0.5mm overhang of the rubber over blade, which is how I like it...

Scissors is the way, especially if you only change rubbers when necessary (3-6 months presumably), it's just so much easier to get a pretty decent result for very little difficulty.

When I did use a knife though, I agree that making 2-3 passes is the best way.

I also use several passes, the first being the critical one when you cut through the glue layer on. It seems like the separation happens here..
I have the Rev. no. 3 scissors, issue with those for me is that the blades' top ply tend to chip slightly from the rubbing of the metal on the blade edge.. Trying to keep the scissors away from the blade edge, freehanding it, just gets me a ugly, uneven result.

 

[Archosaurus]

Well, here's some video. I'm the guy with the mop in the blue shirt. Yes I will cut it. Yes I am fat as fuck nowadays. People who have seen my really old videos are free to make fun of me for one (1) post.

This is after about 4 hours of drills, so we're pretty hammered, but luckily a lot of the common mistakes show up due to that. I don't think I play a lot better at peak form, though, I lose all the same, just to better players.

Testing out LAC on the forehand and I didn't feel super confident with it like I do with H3, but I like it, it's not bad. Will need to use it more for a fair evaluation. The topsheet isn't as good pretty obviously but it's a nice rubber.

Feel free to give your thoughts, I have mine but I don't want to influence what The People will say. We forgot to hit backhands but I'll see if I can't do it next week.

In the match I'm not really serving as good as I could, otherwise it'd just be a collection of receive errors, so yes I know they're mostly all light, long backspin. Feel free to talk about tactics, but I'm more interested in shot mechanics and footwork. Especially all of those net and whiff balls.

Apologies for unedited garbage, I have timestamped the starting times at least.

EDIT: No I don't know why the 2nd video has a scanline effect and is so grainy. Sorry. Will try to figure out for later.

 

[kindof99]

Well, here's some video. I'm the guy with the mop in the blue shirt. Yes I will cut it. Yes I am fat as fuck nowadays. People who have seen my really old videos are free to make fun of me for one (1) post.

This is after about 4 hours of drills, so we're pretty hammered, but luckily a lot of the common mistakes show up due to that. I don't think I play a lot better at peak form, though, I lose all the same, just to better players.

Testing out LAC on the forehand and I didn't feel super confident with it like I do with H3, but I like it, it's not bad. Will need to use it more for a fair evaluation. The topsheet isn't as good pretty obviously but it's a nice rubber.

Feel free to give your thoughts, I have mine but I don't want to influence what The People will say. We forgot to hit backhands but I'll see if I can't do it next week.

In the match I'm not really serving as good as I could, otherwise it'd just be a collection of receive errors, so yes I know they're mostly all light, long backspin. Feel free to talk about tactics, but I'm more interested in shot mechanics and footwork. Especially all of those net and whiff balls.

Apologies for unedited garbage, I have timestamped the starting times at least.

You backswang your hand way too early. I would say slower your pace much more for serve and return. Use your legs to move and backswing your hand only when getting to good spot. Swing forward only after the ball bounces from your side of the table.

Your loop was good, but the timing and pace can really get improvement.

 

[Archosaurus]

You backswang your hand way too early. I would say slower your pace much more for serve and return. Use your legs to move and backswing your hand only when getting to good spot. Swing forward only after the ball bounces from your side of the table.

Your loop was good, but the timing and pace can really get improvement.

I'm really limited by what the partner can get back FWIW, although I realized that a bit later and put a little bit more into the shot. You're right though that I shouldn't struggle as much as I do with the timing.

I don't know what slower pace for the serve means; my contact is too fast? From my perspective the contact is already very slow and not obscured for the purpose of my partner's learning.

For the receive, sure, I will take a closer look at it. I'm definitely not stepping in enough overall.

 

[kindof99]

I don't know what slower pace for the serve means; my contact is too fast? From my perspective the contact is already very slow and not obscured for the purpose of my partner's learning.

You were quickly backswing almost the same way regardless how your opponent returned your serves. I think after your serves, the first thing is to recover to ready position while looking at how your opponent returns your serve, then move for push/loop.... In your match, you put your hands down too early even when your opponent returned short to you.

 

[Archosaurus]

You were quickly backswing almost the same way regardless how your opponent returned your serves. I think after your serves, the first thing is to recover to ready position while looking at how your opponent returns your serve, then move for push/loop.... In your match, you put your hands down too early even when your opponent returned short to you.

Yeah, makes sense.

 

[kindof99]

Yeah, makes sense.

Your serves are good, but you missed a lot of 3d ball attacks (not even touch the ball?). Bad timing/pace is one thing, also you swing back too much with your hand alone. To increase your accuracy rate and power/spin, backswing/swing with your hip/body, your hand only create curve/spin. Basically, think of using your whole body to catch/stop the ball before doing any hand motion.

 

[Archosaurus]

Your serves are good, but you missed a lot of 3d ball attacks (not even touch the ball?). Bad timing/pace is one thing, also you swing back too much with your hand alone. To increase your accuracy rate and power/spin, backswing/swing with your hip/body, your hand only create curve/spin. Basically, think of using your whole body to catch/stop the ball before doing any hand motion.

If you want to demonstrate the proper body backswing then by my guest. I'm rotated pretty far already, my chest is pointing more "rearward" than my right knee is. Of course there's plenty of shots where I under-rotate on the followthrough.

 

[latej]

Hi @Archosaurus, this is not a critique, just mentioning what I think can/will be improved soon.

First, when you do fast/hard shot you tend to freeze for a moment. The ball comes back faster, so any freezing, esp. here, is not good, but I think time/practise will force you not do that. However, I do think that the tending to freeze is also related to the next point.

So, you do rotate your body, that is good. But what imo is not optimal yet, is that your left arm and right arm rotate in-sync. It should be so that the body rotates first (and left arm automatically with it), but the right arm shoots with a delay, and thus makes up for the delay by moving faster. Imo, you need to feel the delay. The stronger the shot, the more pronounced the "delay" (or the more the body rotates, before the playing arm shoots)...

This will also make it so that you playing arm will naturally continue after the strong shot. Now it is harder because both arms arrive at their end position at once, and it is hard to continue with both. Cheers.

 

[jonol]

I also use several passes, the first being the critical one when you cut through the glue layer on. It seems like the separation happens here..
I have the Rev. no. 3 scissors, issue with those for me is that the blades' top ply tend to chip slightly from the rubbing of the metal on the blade edge.. Trying to keep the scissors away from the blade edge, freehanding it, just gets me a ugly, uneven result.

I had the rev no3 scissors, hated them. Try a small pair of straight tailoring scissors. For me, they work much, much better.

 

[Archosaurus]

Hi @Archosaurus, this is not a critique, just mentioning what I think can/will be improved soon.

First, when you do fast/hard shot you tend to freeze for a moment. The ball comes back faster, so any freezing, esp. here, is not good, but I think time/practise will force you not do that. However, I do think that the tending to freeze is also related to the next point.

So, you do rotate your body, that is good. But what imo is not optimal yet, is that your left arm and right arm rotate in-sync. It should be so that the body rotates first (and left arm automatically with it), but the right arm shoots with a delay, and thus makes up for the delay by moving faster. Imo, you need to feel the delay. The stronger the shot, the more pronounced the "delay" (or the more the body rotates, before the playing arm shoots)...

This will also make it so that you playing arm will naturally continue after the strong shot. Now it is harder because both arms arrive at their end position at once, and it is hard to continue with both. Cheers.

Yeah, you're right. I tend to not do it as severely against strong players, though, mainly because you just can't. The problem is when I'm not rushed, I tend to be late for the next ball because I'm just looking at the old one. So I should definitely just eliminate that.

My right arm is a bit ahead of my body, not even in sync. I haven't really found how to do the "whipping" or "roping" motion without also putting a ton of quality on the ball and making the shot a bit less consistent. I'll film a few of those next time too, though; maybe they're correct and I just need to make it my default shot.