Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[dingyibvs]

I've been filming mostly everything with my usual partner and analyzing it then coming up with drills to fix the issues. My play level is going up maybe half a division a month right now, so I think it's working.
There's a few guys at my club who can block for 30, 40 shots and that's where I get my fix on that, but I'm really using it more for random ball reading and footwork practice than anything to do with the stroke. I'm also training my partner to block better so we might be able to get 10 on the table soon and get some use out of it.

My experience in coaching beginners and intermediates in another sport is that you can't simplify things, because different skills are different. Why do you think so many people feel they play well in practice but then they're "off" in games? Everyone says it's nerves, but in my experience it's almost completely unrelated and just has to do with lack of skills.

Maybe you don't believe it, but I'm sure that if I did what the forums tell me to do, I'd still not be able to 100% consistently put away high backspin balls or half-long balls to my middle. I wouldn't be able to in a few months, nor in a few years, maybe never, because it's just not the same skill. Feel free to disagree and post your reasoning, though.

I do agree that it's almost never nerves, it's stability and adaptability of one's strokes. You're at a level where you SHOULD be improving rapidly, as there are no "key" things to focus on right now. You still have low hanging fruits everywhere. Most adult beginners hit a wall somewhere in the USATT 1600-1800 range, and then it's a grind on your way to break 2000.

The problem with all the pro players talking about keys to a stroke is that when they discovered the key thing that helped them breakthrough, they already had 99% of the rest down pat. When we amateurs hit a wall, we usually have a good feel for the ball, but are still missing a lot of pretty basic stuff. At that point, everything is "key", as you need to grind your way through one key after another to incrementally improve, one small step at a time.

Most of the advice you're getting is probably good, it's just none is gonna be a game changer. Everything will help you improve a little bit, and you need to do all of them right to see a significant improvement even just one stroke against one type of ball. Then rinse and repeat with another stroke, another type of ball, without losing what you learned earlier. Only then will you see a steady increase in your play level even after picking all the low hanging fruits.

 

[blahness]

Some casual practice today. Playing really badly compared to monday, but it is what it is. I think my racket head speed and accuracy is slightly higher, but there's a ton of blindspots still overall, especially in transitions and in judging the ball. Today especially felt very heavy and slow and I couldn't really play my game. Serves absolute dogshit so I will have to disappoint the people who wanted to see some nice ones.

Setup is Dianchi D and Mantra-M, I'd say Dianchi D is honestly close enough to H3 you can use it mostly interchangeably. Mantra is fine too but a bit rapid. I'll use them for the honeymoon period then go back to H3 on both sides.

The really cheap Dianchi D version is interesting; if it really is a close-enough-to-H3 sheet but for half the price of even a commercial H3, then I might compromise with that. I'm sure there's some catch though, like bad QC or topsheet adhesion or whatever LOL.

Have not found anything else this close to H3 though. It feels more like orange than blue sponge. I didn't boost mine and just used it how it came with the factory boost. I would guess it's slightly less spinny and slightly faster, with maybe a flatter arc on blocks. Hardness tolerance on my sheet (mid-grade "Pro" version in the blue vacuum sealed package) is basically as good as H3 Provincial.

STIGA Mantra-M RED
Topsheet 29.0 - 30.0 A / 48.5 - 49.0 O
Sponge 28.5 - 30.0 A / 48.0 - 49.0 O

Dianchi D Pro blue packet 40A 2.20 BLACK
Topsheet 29.0 - 29.5 A / 53.0 - 53.0 O
Sponge 39.5 - 40.5 A / 58.0 - 59.0 O (Glue layer still on, probably not really that stiff once it gets put on)

I would highly recommend to not serve so many varieties of serves in casual games against relative beginners to work a bit more on your rallying skills. Sure the easy points are great for your ego but you just wont develop as a player. For eg just serve underspin and train yourself to be able to attack the returned push wherever it comes and play out the rally. Or just serve no spin and do the exact same thing. This also gives yourself a 'handicap' and force yourself to work harder and is also probably more fun for the other player.

In terms of practice it is way more time efficient to get a box of balls and a ball picker. Otherwise most of the time is just spent on literally picking up balls.

 

[Archosaurus]

I do agree that it's almost never nerves, it's stability and adaptability of one's strokes. You're at a level where you SHOULD be improving rapidly, as there are no "key" things to focus on right now. You still have low hanging fruits everywhere. Most adult beginners hit a wall somewhere in the USATT 1600-1800 range, and then it's a grind on your way to break 2000.

The problem with all the pro players talking about keys to a stroke is that when they discovered the key thing that helped them breakthrough, they already had 99% of the rest down pat. When we amateurs hit a wall, we usually have a good feel for the ball, but are still missing a lot of pretty basic stuff. At that point, everything is "key", as you need to grind your way through one key after another to incrementally improve, one small step at a time.

Most of the advice you're getting is probably good, it's just none is gonna be a game changer. Everything will help you improve a little bit, and you need to do all of them right to see a significant improvement even just one stroke against one type of ball. Then rinse and repeat with another stroke, another type of ball, without losing what you learned earlier. Only then will you see a steady increase in your play level even after picking all the low hanging fruits.

I wouldn't really agree that everything has the same importance when learning. If nobody tells you that you need to move your feet and that it's generally a good idea to have your eyes open when you play, you're going to have a hard time hitting any ball no matter how good you get your power generation, and so on.

Of course when you're at a low enough level, it's not difficult to improve, because being at a low level usually has more to do with knowledge checks than anything else. My technique and abilities aren't improving that much, I'm just getting better at actually using them in the right place and time. That being said I think forums somewhat under-rate my abilities just because of the super casual videos I post; the people I play neck-to-neck with are coached competition players who have usually been playing for 5-10 years, so I give myself slightly more credit than people who see 1% of my playing do.

At least in motorsport, you really need to do things in order. If you don't place the car right on the braking zone you won't be placed right on the turn-in, so the apex will be off and the exit will be off. You can grind any later part of that process as much as you like but you won't improve at all meaningfully until you correct the earliest sticking point. Blanket advice like "Beginners should get good at exiting corners, while entering corners fast is for professionals" is extremely harmful and has done immeasurable damage to hobbyists and enthusiasts over the years, and I see a lot of similar advice in TT.

I and a few other experts have online-coached mid-level motorsport beginners and rocketed their technique and situational abilities to objectively top 5% level in a week or two just by putting things in order. Their jerky and oscillating technical inputs also become a lot smoother and more linear and it seems like they gained years and years of experience suddenly. All of the years of watching online tutorials and grinding laps was almost worthless compared to just doing the right drills and practising the actual important thing. I've even taken a *complete* beginner and got him to average ability in about 3 hours, which usually takes people more like 500-1000 hours.

Not that it's directly related to TT at all (I think coaching in other individual racket sports is a lot more transferable because the skills are more similar) but I am just explaining why I believe what I do about improvement and drilling.

I would highly recommend to not serve so many varieties of serves in casual games against relative beginners to work a bit more on your rallying skills. Sure the easy points are great for your ego but you just wont develop as a player. For eg just serve underspin and train yourself to be able to attack the returned push wherever it comes and play out the rally. Or just serve no spin and do the exact same thing. This also gives yourself a 'handicap' and force yourself to work harder and is also probably more fun for the other player.

In terms of practice it is way more time efficient to get a box of balls and a ball picker. Otherwise most of the time is just spent on literally picking up balls.

I agree with this and it's one change I'm gonna make for next session. My partner isn't too bad at pushing short medium backspin, so I'll probably just only serve that and then deal with his inherent randomness. Even if I don't vary it, it pops up occasionally so I'll get practice on those too.

He's started looping some long serves so it will keep me honest as well. Maybe a good rule would be that I only serve to his forehand, and everything long is looped and everything short is pushed.