Recent content by FuryToMax

Sadly, it really is a long drive from Manila :( I'll be rooting for coach Richard Gonzales to win, though! :D He's an amazing defender; extremely hard to get a ball past him. :P

He's a long pimples player on rubber, but he also plays at a local club as part of their liha (Tagalog term for sandpaper) team. In June last year, Bojan Tokic came to the University of the Philippines for a visit, and one of the funniest matches was when coach Richard played Bojan on sandpaper...

In this tournament, they use rackets with sandpaper on both sides instead of rubber. It's really amazing how much grip they can get on the ball without digging into any sponge! :p It's actually a very common thing here in the Philippine table tennis scene, as rubber tends to be quite expensive...

My coach is playing again this year :) If I'm not mistaken, he made it to the last 16 or last 8 last year! Go Richard Gonzales! :D

You could actually read their names at the bottom, since they're in traditional Chinese characters :) and yes, it's Ma Lin (马琳), Wang LiQin (王励勤), Wang Hao (王皓), and Liu GuoLiang (刘国梁)

As a long pips player myself, I enjoy the easy returns for my opponent's service, but I've also learned to vary receive with forehand. As with what Der_Etche said, at some point, there will be players who have learned how to play lp, so it becomes increasingly difficult to trick them with spin...

Blade: BTY Joo Se Hyuk Forehand: BTY Tenergy 80 2.1mm (Red) Backhand: TSP Curl P1-R 0.3~0.6mm (Black) :)

When I was in Beijing at Wangfujing (王府井) road, I was looking for an equipment shop to buy rubbers that were cheaper there than here in the Philippines. I stumbled upon a pretty strange blade that was in a glass display case. The price tag was insane, at about 20,000 Yuan or roughly $2100. It...

I'm a chopper on both sides with a pretty steady fh counter-topspin. I also attack with lp on my backhand and twiddle to chop and block with tenergy on bh or chop and topspin with curl on fh. I love going to the back and playing those really weird shots once in a while :D I like playing against...

That's a very interesting way to train chopping! I should try that for myself! :D It's also pretty cool how they speak in Chinese at home :)

I think in the Men's event Ma Long will win.

I think in the Men's event, Ma Long will win. I think in the Women's event, Liu Shiwen will win.

What kind of exercises do you do for your footwork and for chopping with either side? How do you return a smash or a powerloop using long pimples from near the table?

Hey, guys! Just a heads up for this tournament :) My coach made it to the round of 16 with another one of his teammates, while one other teammate lost to the defending champion, who is Russian. Here's a video I found, it's our local news channel, so you might not understand it...

My coach said that he won't be the one training us for some time in early January, and he mentioned that he'd be going off to London. His name is Richard Gonzales, as daxx101 posted, and his normal competitive racket has a long pimpled side. He participates in Liha racket tournaments (liha is...