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Are you just doing Falkenberg, or does the cross table FH actually require a cross-over step? If it's the latter then this video really helped me: It's a bit unnatural to turn and face perpendicular to the table but doing that along with the skip step really makes the difference. If you're...

Were you the guy on reddit I tried to convince not to get a Donic Burn about 4-6 months ago? Anyway, go for a OFF- all wood. Skip the thin 5 ply blades like Stiga Classic and go for either thicker 5 ply blades (6.0mm+) like Tibhar Stratus Powerwood or Xiom Offensive S, or get a thinner 7 ply...

Never go full Gozo! Hahah jk. I think we just found a great new phrase for switching to the fastest rubbers

Thanks for taking the time to demonstrate and describe what you're talking about. I'm going for a different type of FH drive technique since I'm using hard Chinese rubber and am trying to hit through the ball more with a late brushing motion. I don't want to get too much into the details since...

Mercury 2 is supposed to be 36-38 on Yinhe's scale which should track with Shore A somehwat. At least according to conversion charts I've seen, 37.5 A is 50 O. My new M2 medium is exactly 50d. Here's a chart: I have Mercury 2 soft, and that is 47.5d from topsheet and 45d from the sponge. I...

Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback. I film my training sessions and then write a note in a spreadsheet for what to focus on next time and you pretty much hit on all of the things I've written down. Looking at it now, I see "focus on salute" very often, "keep elbow closer," and "focus on...

This is Mercury 2 medium. I haven't seen M2 hard on sale on any Aliexpress or any of my local retailers.

I like the idea of actually visualizing the ball coming at random directions when doing the shadow training. It's probably helpful in approximating the timing of the preparation bounce like you mention (even if there is no substitute for table time for this). I also agree with the idea that...

I only have Loki Rxton 1 Plus which features a different sponge (pink in my case). With one light layer of Seamoon it measured 49d from the topsheet and 50d from the sponge. So I'd guess that it comes out of the box at 51d sponge hardness (I only got my durometer after I had boosted and glued it).

I measured from the topsheet for the 50d reading. I imagine if I remove it from my blade and measure from the sponge it'll be harder. Loki Rxton 1 Plus was slightly harder when measured from the sponge. I don't the booster (baby oil in this case) will change the hardness by 5 degrees. For...

You'll see for yourself in a couple of weeks but just FYI, I measured both the Rxton 5 and Rxton 3 Blue with a Shore O durometer. Measured from the topsheet: Rxton 5 (lightly boosted) was 50 degrees. Rxton 3 Blue was 52 degrees.

I actually don't know what's optimal tbh. TT is such an outlier sport that most points are over within 15 seconds. A good chunk are even completed within 5 seconds. I don't think the researchers considered a sport like TT in their protocol. So I'm not sure whether it's better to shorten the...

Recovery Reset Shadow Training Protocol A while back @blahness brought up the idea of using shadow training to help ingrain the recovery reset. I'm calling it a recovery reset now because (as @blahness just mentioned) sometimes recovery involves a big movement like a split step, and sometimes...

Consistency and shots look good! Does your robot have a setting for random placement? I find that I get the most benefit from the bounce/recovery on random drills. When I know where the ball is going next, I tend to fall into a rhythm and find the most efficient way to get from one ball to the...

I use wipe on poly. 2 very very thin coats. Hasn't changed the pitch frequency or weights of any of my blades so far. Also very easy to apply.

I'd trust the reviews by table tennis Gan on Youtube. He seems to be an expert and makes sure to compare all the blades he reviews to Viscaria and W968. He's usually using H3 or some sort of Chinese rubber though so it's more reliable if that's what you're using too.

Yinhe Pro 01 is supposed to be a notch slower than the Viscaria despite having the same construction. I've also heads the same about the Sanwei 75 ALC.

I've tried a Donic Appelgren, Yasaka Sweden Extra, Nittaku Acoustic, and Sanwei Fextra 7. The Fextra is by far my favorite and I'll probably stick with it for a while. But after a lot of research, some other blades I've been wanting to try are the Tibhar Stratus Powerwood and Samsonov Force Pro...

SYS proved to be a bridge too far, but Hayata showed a lot of fight in the last half of that match. Not getting blown out was maybe the best we could've expected. Sometimes it's easy to forget how amazing SYS is because she's consistently winning everything and that narrative is less compelling...

We've got some geat storylines in this WTTC Finals with guys like Anders Lind and Omar Assar making unlikely deep runs in the tournament. But Hina Hayata is the biggest story so far pulling through in a MOTY candidate to solidify herself as the ace for the Japan women's team. I guess most...