Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[kindof99]

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.

I can see that you missed many balls in your practice and your match. One thing I saw is that you started your right shoulder to bring your arm to hit the ball, which is one reason that you missed all the shots. Starting with your shoulder, your paddle can hit anywhere. Watch some online tutorial videos. Focus on pushing your leg forward (for power) and the head of your paddle (ban tou) for contact and spin.
It is hard to understand just from the text. I guess it is always better to ask someone in your club that understands the technique to help you.

 

[Archosaurus]

I can see that you missed many balls in your practice and your match. One thing I saw is that you started your right shoulder to bring your arm to hit the ball, which is one reason that you missed all the shots. Starting with your shoulder, your paddle can hit anywhere. Watch some online tutorial videos. Focus on pushing your leg forward (for power) and the head of your paddle (ban tou) for contact and spin.
It is hard to understand just from the text. I guess it is always better to ask someone in your club that understands the technique to help you.

Let me just confirm I'm understanding right. You say I started the swing from the shoulder, but I'm not so sure about that. What is pretty clear is that I end it with the shoulder. There's also for sure a lack of drive from the legs, particularly the right leg.

Ridiculous comparison aside, I'm only using arguably the best forehand as a model because you can be pretty sure there's no major technical mistakes:

This is the shot at 3:50 in the match video that I whiffed completely.

To me it looks like I should just focus on keeping my right leg a bit out wider so I can push off it, and to not do that shoulder raising stuff. I also kinda "cartwheel" sideways a little, exaggerating the load transfer, which is perhaps not so bad for a learner, but I can't help but think it's unnecessary and just adds complexity to the shot.

If I got it all wrong then go ahead and correct me.

 

[NextLevel]

So one last time, I will be doing a blade giveaway. This will hearken back to old times, though this time, as a fix to what happened in previous times, the blades will all be quality blades. No exceptions. Unless you want to a lower quality blade... I definitely could sell them and probably should... I considered donating as well and if you win a blade and decide to donate it to any cause, that is fine. I will probably donate others.

So the desired parameters are to post a video of yourself doing two of the tricks in the old Marcos Freitas skills video. Any of them will qualify. The video must be at least 1 minute long with whatever skills you choose.

The prize blades - 2 Xiom HAL blades , 2 Andro Wosik Legacy blades, and 2 Joola Trinity Vyzaryz blades, all used or almost new but in quite playable condition and worth something reasonable. As the dictator mod, I judge the entries. I will cover postage. When you post your video of your skill and I say it qualifies, just let me know which blade you want. First 6 videos get the blades. The end date for this is August 31, 2026.

Still a few days left. Have sent out one Xiom HAL. Not sure why people are reluctant to submit entries. Maybe I should give out Butterfly blades lol...

 

[Archosaurus]

Still a few days left. Have sent out one Xiom HAL. Not sure why people are reluctant to submit entries. Maybe I should give out Butterfly blades lol...

To be fair, when all the courts are full until late into the night, it's pretty hard to do the table side bounce one.

We get maybe half an hour of "everyone has sat down already" time, so if I remember I'll film some for fun. There's no way in hell I'm able to do the catches, though.

 

[jonol]

Let me just confirm I'm understanding right. You say I started the swing from the shoulder, but I'm not so sure about that. What is pretty clear is that I end it with the shoulder. There's also for sure a lack of drive from the legs, particularly the right leg.

Ridiculous comparison aside, I'm only using arguably the best forehand as a model because you can be pretty sure there's no major technical mistakes:

This is the shot at 3:50 in the match video that I whiffed completely.
View attachment 43004
View attachment 43005

To me it looks like I should just focus on keeping my right leg a bit out wider so I can push off it, and to not do that shoulder raising stuff. I also kinda "cartwheel" sideways a little, exaggerating the load transfer, which is perhaps not so bad for a learner, but I can't help but think it's unnecessary and just adds complexity to the shot.

If I got it all wrong then go ahead and correct me

Well from the photos, you can clearly see that your swing is lifting the elbow and shoulder significantly, whereas Ma Long is keeping his shoulder/elbow aligned and rotating through the ball, rather than pushing the arm/elbow/shoulder up and forward the way you are.

This is a very limited context but at least based on this example, envisioning how the swing looks based on the 2 starting points and endpoints, they would be quite different.

Just as a disclaimer, this is also something I sometimes do and my coach corrects me on. No judgment here.

 

[Archosaurus]

Well from the photos, you can clearly see that your swing is lifting the elbow and shoulder significantly, whereas Ma Long is keeping his shoulder/elbow aligned and rotating through the ball, rather than pushing the arm/elbow/shoulder up and forward the way you are.

This is a very limited context but at least based on this example, envisioning how the swing looks based on the 2 starting points and endpoints, they would be quite different.

Just as a disclaimer, this is also something I sometimes do and my coach corrects me on. No judgment here.

It's definitely a thing, but it's a followthrough component, at least against balls which are there for the taking. If you look at the swing you'll notice I don't do it until after contact. You don't need to envision it.

That tendency messes up a lot of swings, though, if it happens during contact, which is a lot of my swings against topspin. I should fix it regardless because it's probably a symptom of something else.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Hey Grok, can you make Ma Long look like Archosaurus ?

 

[Archosaurus]

Hey Grok, can you make Ma Long look like Archosaurus ?

I swear if I ever post video of me playing well, only good old fraud was used, but no AI.

 

[jonol]

It's definitely a thing, but it's a followthrough component, at least against balls which are there for the taking. If you look at the swing you'll notice I don't do it until after contact. You don't need to envision it.

That tendency messes up a lot of swings, though, if it happens during contact, which is a lot of my swings against topspin. I should fix it regardless because it's probably a symptom of something else.

Ah, didn't see the video. I see it was posted a bit further back.

Looks like you're opening your stance and taking the ball really late, it's almost in line with your hips. You're lifting the shot with your shoulder, instead of taking the ball earlier and hitting through it. I don't think you can get meaningful weight behind the shot when your contact point is so far back.

Taking the ball earlier means you can get a lot more momentum/speed in the swing by the time you contact the ball.

 

[Archosaurus]

Ah, didn't see the video. I see it was posted a bit further back.

Looks like you're opening your stance and taking the ball really late, it's almost in line with your hips. You're lifting the shot with your shoulder, instead of taking the ball earlier and hitting through it. I don't think you can get meaningful weight behind the shot when your contact point is so far back.

Taking the ball earlier means you can get a lot more momentum/speed in the swing by the time you contact the ball.

I think know what you mean, assuming "early" and "late" means swing timing and not fall timing.

For whatever reason I can do that against heavier backspin. I'll see if I can get my partner to chop for me and I'll film it some time.

Topspin no chance, light-ish backspin/no spin most of the time I lift it too vertical and to my side. Especially against lighter backspin.

Fundamentally I think it's a lack of leg drive, but I'll need to experiment next time.

 

[jk1980]

watching the video instilled some questions, because of the mixed "quality" of your play, @Archosaurus
So did you ever have technical training in the youth ? Some parts look like they might have been coming from past youth training while others (like timing and coordination) look so abysmal like you are only "playing" for a maximum of one year. There are techniques that look like quite decent but then they are glaring holes that one would not have i one was playing as a teen. As a very late beginner i did have "similar" holes in my technical repertoire at the beginning as well, but what is odd that at that stage i would not have tried some advanced techniques if i did not have the coordination to hit the ball yet.

The one thing that i do see with late returners to the game that probably played casually in the past is this sideways swing through on a loop where your bat will end up at your left shoulder instead of your forehead. this is killing your placement and will probably will make playing exercises with you hard for people on your level. If your horizontel right to left movement of the bat on a loop is so vast you can not properly control if you hit the opponents backhand, middle or wide backhand because depending on the splitsecond you hit the ball your ball direction changes a lot inside the hit window.