Recent content by McSmasher

I haven't used the Loki K5, but looking at its composition (limba-spruce-ayous-spruce-limba), both the Mk2 and Yinhe U2 will be faster and more direct... however the Loki K5 would be easier to spin the ball. Also, the Loki K5 would be a fair bit lighter than the Mk2/U2. With the rubbers you're...

I have the Double Fish Mk2 (with Volant Phoenix 1 forehand and Volant Phoenix 2 backhand), and for the low cost, it's a pretty good blade. It's super stable and linear, so all shots should feel predictable. The speed is ok, and works well when playing closer to the table, but it's a bit slow if...

yep, my intuition was incorrect... from a non-maths level, I noticed that when people go on a decent undefeated streak, the standard deviation goes higher, which affects how much the rating goes up (and how much it goes down in losses). Either way, you've developed an excellent points system...

To be clear, the 5% per 200 ratings points is for Ratings Central, not USATT, so hard to compare. At the end of the day, table tennis is a competitive sport. If I'm playing someone 200 ratings points higher than me, for the 15-30 minutes that I'm playing I'd be expecting my win % to be 100%...

yeah it's really tough to gauge how likely an upset would be based purely on the rating. For instance, both Anders Lind and Dima Ovtcharov have recently played in the German league, so their ratings are on Ratings Central: Anders Lind is rated 2663. However, since his standard deviation is 61...

Long pips reverse the spin, so if you want to train for the simplest strategy (i.e. topspin, then backspin, then topspin, then backspin etc), then you can set your robot to alternate between topspin and backspin (if your robot is capable of doing this), and you simply topspin vs the topspin and...

Theoretically, the win % would be similar... however, as Dr Evil mentioned, there's no factoring in for volatility... besides the examples he gave, there's also the case where lower ranked players have more obvious weaknesses that mean some matchups don't suit them (e.g. not handling pimples or...

This is what I like about the Ratings Central ratings. It has some consideration to this volatility (measured as a standard deviation for those maths gurus) such as: Juniors / quick improvers that are consistently beating players with a higher ranking Players who don't often play leagues /...

I think physical attributes also play a part... If you're tall with long arms, then playing a compact game close to the table can be harder than someone short with chicken wing arms (like me lol).... conversely, if a tall player is further back, they are more likely going to reach balls that...

Specifically for slow and spinny loops, brushing upwards when the ball is on the way down will give you that effect, similar to this video (obviously a pro's slow loop is a hobbyist's quality loop, but the concept remains the same): I play with a guy who opens up every rally with this slow...

I had similar issues, where I would occasionally have a tense arm (from forearm all the way to my shoulder), that would make my shots feel like I'm hitting with a brick lol I did a few things to fix this: Made some changes to my grip: only use the little finger and ring finger to hold the bat...

I think the elbow position looks ok, and it's stable (i.e. not moving around everywhere), which is most important. As for whether you're waiting enough or not, the answer is.... it depends. Your current contact is off the bounce (early ascending), which is good for warming up or redirecting...

I also struggled big-time with side-spin serves, especially from penholders, but this video helped me more than any other: Essentially, to help control and neutralize the sidespin, you can hit the same side of the ball as the server, with the same racket angle. Sounds complicated, but it's no...

He's from New Zealand, which is Australia's neighbour and very similar culturally (similar to USA to Canada I guess... I hope I'm not offending anyone with this lol)

Henzell spent a lot of his younger years in Sweden, some of the history is stored in Ratings Central: https://www.ratingscentral.com/PlayerHistory.php?PlayerID=5653 As soon as he started senior competitions in Australia, he was dominant, winning the Australian Nationals 13 of a possible 15...