Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[J-fed]

Focusing on the weight transfer, and using a stable pivot point trying not to buckle/collapse the knees has really brought back that feeling that in the end, equipment matters a lot less than some of us EJs make it out to be. And the main useful thing in Amateur space is being able to control the ball when you're NOT in proper position.

Funny also how there are different philosophies, essentially just based on whatever the player feels comfortable with. Talked a bit with @NextLevel about this, and he feels comfortable being able to put quality and speed on the ball, taking over the attack, powering through the opponent (without necessarily applying all that much physical power). This comes at the cost of pretty much not playing balls short except for some serves, but it works great for his game.

Personally, I have always been about control-first. I have also played those setups that make it feel incredibly easy to attack the ball and I get it. It just feels too scary to let go of the safety net of having a stable, controlled, easy placement option. Takes a leap of faith, really, as well as practicing exactly that, of course.
The local club environment honestly isn't all that rewarding to players that want to learn to attack basically any ball. People will straight up say to not take the risk. But then, when you chug on and start hitting like faster BH openers more reliably, people do get impressed


Where did I want to go with this? I guess mostly saying that the experience of being around completely different players, with different ideas, and re-evaluating some basics has seemed to have opened the door for more (controlled) offensive playing, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna need to build on that in order to make more progress. Being able to access these things honestly makes me feel that there's more headroom in me than I figured, and it makes me positive about what I can achieve in the current season.

Great post. I can relate to all of it and agree that finding your style is way more significant than nervous equipment tinkering. That is a luxury to be enjoyed after you establish who you are as a player. So long as your bat is not egregiously inappropriate, focus on the footwork, technique, tactics, mental fortitude and fitness.
Practice push for the opening more than you practice drive on drive and engage in varied practice more than cross table unmissables.
These are not absolute rules but they would improve most average players in the same way focusing on the short game would improve most golfers (they prefer irons and drivers).

 

[Tyce]

Are those balls slow, no spin, or both?

I have two separate problems with dead balls. Faster balls that have much less spin than I expect is one, but I can get used to those relatively well. When I get it right, I will usually return those with a topspin stroke coming over the top of the ball, like a soft, easier version of a counter.
Or step back and get a harder attack in, but backing off is usually a disadvantage against players that give me this kind of ball. They will be sticking to the table and block me wide.

The worst ones are basically lobs that completely lose their speed mid air, they behave a little bit like a pips chop. They don't dip down from topspin but from no speed

To attack more confidently, you need to attack more consistently. And the key is to have a consistent loop/pace. So it is not just the mentality, but the technique is more important.

Exactly. And I think the most important technical point for me is to properly brace myself against the ground, so I can bring a solid force to the ball and engage the sponge.

I'm doing pretty much all of this training in practice matches by the way, so I have to adapt to the individual balls which is great and will help transfer this to competitive matches.

 

[Haito]

I have two separate problems with dead balls. Faster balls that have much less spin than I expect is one, but I can get used to those relatively well. When I get it right, I will usually return those with a topspin stroke coming over the top of the ball, like a soft, easier version of a counter.
Or step back and get a harder attack in, but backing off is usually a disadvantage against players that give me this kind of ball. They will be sticking to the table and block me wide.

The worst ones are basically lobs that completely lose their speed mid air, they behave a little bit like a pips chop.

I had something similar, I think I am pretty good with those balls these days. The video above presents a lot technical information about the mechanics of the BH drive. I basically took learnings from it and practiced and recorded myself playing a robot set up to imitate those balls. I saw improvement after 3-4hrs or so. Random practice is the key.

 

[Tyce]

One day you will be able to return my drunken balls. And when you are ready, I will have improved and won't be giving them anymore

Gotta figure out a good way to set up the (simple) robot so that balls don't get all over the living room.

 

[RPB Enthusiast]

Day 1 Update on Viscaria Super ALC CPen with Boosted Zyre-03 2.7 and Boosted Stiga Helix Platinum 55°:

This setup played like a total beast today compared to my Xuperman Super S1 w/Xuperman rubbers and W968 w/ Boosted Trinity Charged/Dynamic rubbers. The speed difference is huge, which made my high-skilled partner have so much trouble blocking, which the other two set-ups mentioned he could block easier. Zyre-03 seems to have a flatter trajectory with a decent amount of my shots skimming the net on the SALC. Helix 55° was decently slower than Zyre-03, but when I looped with my backhand, the ball had lots of speed and power where my partner couldn't react to it. With serves, I only used Zyre-03, but I was able to get lots of spin as well as speed when I would do long hook serves as I don't really do fast long pendulum serves. Honestly, I feel I got much more spin than I did with my Xuperman and JOOLA rubbers, but the Xuperman and JOOLA rubbers seemed better when doing short serves due to the tackiness. When playing with my high-skilled partner, I completely changed up my game where I would basically attack everything on FH and BH, unless I absolutely needed to push the serve when it was low and short. Overall, this setup made a very good first impression on me and I can't wait to see how good it gets. This setup played very good when playing extremely aggressive.

 

[Haito]

One day you will be able to return my drunken balls. And when you are ready, I will have improved and won't be giving them anymore

Gotta figure out a good way to set up the (simple) robot so that balls don't get all over the living room.

If you think about a decent app controlled robot is about equivalent price of fzd alc and set of glyzers price, so...

I do not regret buying that infinity joola. I think that a decent robot is good investment that will pay itself over super quickly.

 

[Tyce]

If you think about a decent app controlled robot is about equivalent price of fzd alc and set of glyzers price, so...

I do not regret buying that infinity joola. I think that a decent robot is good investment that will pay itself over super quickly.

If I had the space for a good table, there would be one with a robot. But I can only use the dinner table so I don't do that much. The basic ball shooter was a cheap fun second hand buy

 

[Haito]

If I had the space for a good table, there would be one with a robot. But I can only use the dinner table so I don't do that much. The basic ball shooter was a cheap fun second hand buy

I just rented the table for 2€ per hour with multisport discount. Might be worth for u to look at those options.

 

[Archosaurus]

Hit a bit today, no usual partner so no video, I was supposed to film some serves but I ended up playing to the end.

Losing sets vs player I shouldn't lose (low-medium level pips chopper) but it is what it is. I kept hitting the label part of the forehand on most wide balls. It's so super consistent there's probably some technical issue there.

My average shot quality has increased A LOT in the past month or so and the haircut really did unfuck a lot of my form. I'm not doing any more that weird followthrough where the racket face is open and pointing towards the opponent, it's now edge towards opponent. Will be interesting to see how it looks on film.

 

[J-fed]

Hit a bit today, no usual partner so no video, I was supposed to film some serves but I ended up playing to the end.

Losing sets vs player I shouldn't lose (low-medium level pips chopper) but it is what it is. I kept hitting the label part of the forehand on most wide balls. It's so super consistent there's probably some technical issue there.

My average shot quality has increased A LOT in the past month or so and the haircut really did unfuck a lot of my form. I'm not doing any more that weird followthrough where the racket face is open and pointing towards the opponent, it's now edge towards opponent. Will be interesting to see how it looks on film.

Not sure about that hitting the label thing. All I can say is watch the ball all the way to the bat. It's a real basic but if you are having such miss-hits maybe it's necessary to have a period of doing that really deliberately? Or maybe you are also overestimating how far you need to shuffle right? Some footwork drills seem appropriate for that.

 

[J-fed]

Wins only today. Playing high school players and one university player. I was able to confuse them with service variation and long pip nastiness and also to counter loop cross table into wide open spaces or at leat fine touch over the ball when they attacked to my forehand.
I sucked in the 1st hour practice sessions but gathered my form for the 2nd hour matches. It's a good sign I guess.
Was bloody hot on 2nd floor of a sports hall. About 90 degrees and no fans. The free sauna was a bonus. I went through a litre of green tea and a 500ml Pocari Sweat.
My 8 yr old daughter comes with me and learns to play too. She can't play much yet but doesn't get bored and never gives up so I'm really happy about that.

 

[Archosaurus]

Not sure about that hitting the label thing. All I can say is watch the ball all the way to the bat. It's a real basic but if you are having such miss-hits maybe it's necessary to have a period of doing that really deliberately? Or maybe you are also overestimating how far you need to shuffle right? Some footwork drills seem appropriate for that.

It's probably a mix of those. The opponent's ball is extremely inconsistent and has whatever spin, depth and height on it, but it's pretty consistently an issue with the wide forehand. Even if my forehand swing is very long, I often over-move towards the forehand side, so I probably need to adjust my mental image of where the contact point is. I'm probably a cm or two too close and it ends up low on the bat face.

Oh yeah; I tried the G-1 as well. Surprisingly on the forehand side it's almost H3 levels of spin at least brand new, although not quite. I wouldn't mind if it was a bit harder there. On the backhand side it's well balanced and pretty easy to play slow and thin and fast and thick shots with, but I think I still prefer a little bit softer feeling sponges there.

It's not a super exciting rubber, though, plenty of much cheaper rubbers will do the same thing it does on my backhand, so more long-term benefits will decide if I buy another one in the future. It'd probably benefit a lot from heavy boosting but one of the reasons I'd buy an ESN tensor for the backhand is so as to NOT boost it and just have something on there for a long time without replacing it.

Something tells me I'm going to just go towards Tenergy/Rozena because they had the feel I want on the backhand (Dignics a bit too thick and G-1 feeling although very performant). Cost be damned.

EDIT: For the concerned/disturbed:

Nittaku Fastarc G-1 2.0 Super Thick
Topsheet 29.0 - 31.0 A / 50.0 - 51.0 O
Sponge 28.5 - 31.0 A / 47.5 - 48.0 O

 

[Tyce]

G-1 excels at keeping that performance level for a long, long time.

 

[Archosaurus]

G-1 excels at keeping that performance level for a long, long time.

Yeah, I am quite fussy about my forehand rubber performance, but for the backhand I'm totally okay with a minor gradual decline and not replacing it for a good while. I'm willing to give up some high-end performance for stable performance.

I will still try a few more because of course I will, but the "best" BH rubbers on a performance per dollars basis for me seems to be a matchup between G-1, Tenergy 05 and Rozena, and G-1 is winning to now.

EDIT: Honorable mention to Yinhe Moon Speed but the performance just isn't to the same level and it degrades noticeably.

 

[jonol]

I think Yinhe Moon Speed/12 are fine if you are willing to replace once the factory booster wears off (seems about 6-8 weeks) but otherwise I'd pick a rubber that lasts longer.

 

[Archosaurus]

I think Yinhe Moon Speed/12 are fine if you are willing to replace once the factory booster wears off (seems about 6-8 weeks) but otherwise I'd pick a rubber that lasts longer.

I think reboosting them is pretty viable but I'm not really on a budget so there's no need to do that. I don't mind doing it; but I will rather donate my sheet to someone who needs it and doesn't mind it being slower.

One guy at my club has been using AFAIK the same G-1 sheets for half a year and they still play well, so it seems as durable as they say. Probably only Hurricane and Battle rubbers are more durable in this kind of performance range.

 

[Tyce]

Battle durable? I admit it stays the same for a long time but that's after oxidizing immediately

 

[J-fed]

It's probably a mix of those. The opponent's ball is extremely inconsistent and has whatever spin, depth and height on it, but it's pretty consistently an issue with the wide forehand. Even if my forehand swing is very long, I often over-move towards the forehand side, so I probably need to adjust my mental image of where the contact point is. I'm probably a cm or two too close and it ends up low on the bat face.

Oh yeah; I tried the G-1 as well. Surprisingly on the forehand side it's almost H3 levels of spin at least brand new, although not quite. I wouldn't mind if it was a bit harder there. On the backhand side it's well balanced and pretty easy to play slow and thin and fast and thick shots with, but I think I still prefer a little bit softer feeling sponges there.

It's not a super exciting rubber, though, plenty of much cheaper rubbers will do the same thing it does on my backhand, so more long-term benefits will decide if I buy another one in the future. It'd probably benefit a lot from heavy boosting but one of the reasons I'd buy an ESN tensor for the backhand is so as to NOT boost it and just have something on there for a long time without replacing it.

Something tells me I'm going to just go towards Tenergy/Rozena because they had the feel I want on the backhand (Dignics a bit too thick and G-1 feeling although very performant). Cost be damned.

EDIT: For the concerned/disturbed:

Nittaku Fastarc G-1 2.0 Super Thick
Topsheet 29.0 - 31.0 A / 50.0 - 51.0 O
Sponge 28.5 - 31.0 A / 47.5 - 48.0 O

I fancy trying the C-1 as an alternative to the Rakza 7 I’m currently using. Sounds like it would be.a bit better in the short game. Not that Rakza is terrible. It’s a a good rubber just I struggle to serve and push short with it.
Gotta use it for 6 months first though. No way I’m chucking out a good rubber. Adjusting to them is part of the challenge.
Alright; the $5 Yinhe long pips on my BH might get ditched. Not good for sweeps. That is frustrating.

 

[J-fed]

I think Yinhe Moon Speed/12 are fine if you are willing to replace once the factory booster wears off (seems about 6-8 weeks) but otherwise I'd pick a rubber that lasts longer.

Does it wear off regardless of whether you play frequently? I only play once or sometimes Twice a week

 

[jonol]

Does it wear off regardless of whether you play frequently? I only play once or sometimes Twice a week

Since the factory booster is a chemical and slowly wears off, it will still lose performance over time.

In terms of durability and price to performance ratio, I think rubbers like G1/Rakza7 are hard to beat. They've stood the test of time for a reason.