UpSideDownCarl Looping In NYC's Chinatown

Here is some footage from Thursday night. I actually got someone to take a few clips of me training with an older guy who is really just a treat to play against. He is a penholder and he is about 70 years old but he is probably still about 2100. Every ball that comes back, he is putting a little something different on it. So it is fun because I have to adjust to each shot and he is so consistent.

If you watch the footage though, you can see that this floor is pretty slipper so I can't use my legs quite the way I would on a good floor: it makes my hips look stiff on a few shots where I try to use my hips but my feet won't let me.





Been a long time since I have seen footage of myself. And I do see plenty that needs to be worked on. Always good to have a reality check.

I think, not much changes during match play in terms of my looping. My counter looping has gotten pretty good, so, if someone else loops at me during a match, if I catch up to it, I can return a pretty nasty counter loop. And my FH opening off backspin is pretty decent. In the videos I am playing with dropping back and taking the ball while it drops, being at mid-distance and taking the ball at the height and moving forward to time the ball on the rise.

In ways, what this guy is giving me is more tricky than most of what I get in a match because I am hitting it right to him and he is changing what he gives me on every single shot.

That being said, one thing I see on this video is something NextLevel and I have talked about which is how my wrist seems to stay locked in that position on a lot of the strokes where on my follow through it has not moved out of that hooked position.

It was nice for me to see several angles on my loop though.

That is actually a good point. I wasn't thinking about that but in looking the racket drops down instead of back. I have been told that. But I never really thought about it. Now I see it.

phamster said:

Carl!!! dude.. your weigh transfer is great... our legs and knees snapping together is good to.. i am working with another player (training him) and your video will be used to explain the concept of pulling from the left and the right side of your body will then trail and the final can be more explosive... your small shifts and pulling from your left side is a good example..

i also like the example your showing about how your head is very steady and your watching the ball into the impact zone very well...

keep up the great work on the floor and here with your insightful comments..

what shoes are you wearing? the floor looks slippery there..

pham

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Thanks for the comments.

Yeah, that floor is super slippery. Terrible for table tennis. When I go there I actually don't even bring my TT shoes (indoor soccer shoes really). Those are actually hiking boots. On that floor it makes no difference what shoes you wear. The floor is plastic and if you really dig into the ground you slide and end up falling.

I am going to see if I can get some footage of me looping someplace with a good floor to see what that looks like. But I had someone there who was willing to film from several angles. And the guy I am looping to is really like a machine. Plus the versatility of this old penholder. He is switching from inside out spin to hook, to heavier top and every so often slips in chop blocks to make me really have to watch and focus. It is great to train with him.

But you can actually also see my movements from my legs are a bit stiffer than they would be on a good floor because of how slippery the floor is.

Good eyes phamster. Good to hear from you. It's been a while.

Archosaurus said:

Do you not strain your wrist with all that cocking action going on?

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For whatever reason, that wrist position feels very natural to me. It doesn't bother me at all; in fact I don't even notice I am doing that. It seems to be good for hooking the ball. I get A LOT of sidespin on my loops when I want to. However, I know it is not ideal to keep it like that.

But, still, I know I can spin most people around my level off the table because my loops have a pretty decent amount of spin. In fact, the guy I am hitting with is several levels higher than me. He is from China and has been playing his whole life. Even though he is almost 20 years older than me--I am 51, he is 70--and, he is still really good. But I still spin his ball off the table often enough.

I will take the Boll comment as a compliment. But I don't watch or copy anyone for technique. I am not playing for a year and a half and trying to learn from videos. I am playing long enough that the stroke is mine. When my FH sucked and needed to be rebuilt. I didn't watch videos either. Someone (Edmund Suen with the help of Damien Provost) made me start from the beginning because my forehand needed to be completely rebuilt. The forearm snap wasn't in there at all. But it was rebuilt by working with people who knew what they were doing, by doing be work with discipline myself, and by understanding body mechanics enough to fix all the things that were wrong with it.

Control and placement has never been remotely an issue for me. I am a control player. If anyone sees me hit the white line on the BH corner when I hook the ball around the net, or sees me get the ball to slide when I go around the net, they know placement is not something I struggle with.

42andbackpains has seen me tattoo the ball around the net. In a match where NextLevel and I were playing Ilia Minkin and Matt Heatherington on New Year's weekend, I got an around the net shot during the match which was caught on one of NextLevel's famous videos.

But NextLevel nails the actual issues with that wrist position in his comment. He had said to me it may be my grip and at first I was skeptical. But looking at the footage where I can see myself loop repeatedly, I can see he may be right.

My switching from FH to BH is very good. My switching from BH to FH used to be terrible but now it is solid. Not half as good as the other way. But from FH to BH is really better than I can understand.

However, opening the grip for receiving serves and hitting fade loops is something I need to work on. That is where that grip is problematic in game skills.

So, I actually need to train and work on exactly that.


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Giangt said:

Nice vids, Carl! Can see you have improved since your old vids.
That wrist has WLQ written all over it.

Just a question... Have you tried to straighten your arm more when you are rotating backwards? I this could give you more power in point of contact.

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I actually think this is a great comment. For this training I am actually just trying to keep the ball in play for the sake of the rally. So I am not going for it. But I think if I combine this with NextLevel's idea of a bit more of a back to forward orientation, my stroke would have more pop.

And the straighten the arm issue, it is funny, how I actually think about it when I loop, when I take the ball closer to my body, I keep my arm more bent. When I take the ball farther away my arm straightens out more on my backswing. And that has a lot more power with only a little more effort. So it will be worth me working on being more comfortable taking the ball farther away. I do it in matches when I want to. But I need to train it more so it becomes more in my looping vocabulary.

Der_Echte said:

6 - it gets valid comments from those who know and want to help

7 - it gets comments from trouble makers and Carl secretly likes to fight

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I gotta say, I was entertained by everything the Der_Meister has said. But number 7 particularly made me laugh.

I am indeed an instigator and I do love to cause a bit of trouble so long as it's all in good fun. Or, at least, as long as the trouble entertains me.

But I wouldn't mind having Der_Echte's technique; and particularly his BH, his FH fade, his serves, his serve receive, his skillz in reading the game, and especially, his raising a ruckus and winning chicken and beer bets. Hahahahaha. Now those are the important things.

In thinking about these vids, I am torn. With a better floor, I can do more, but where I usually play that has a good floor, my training partners would be much lower level so I may end up with footage that is no better or perhaps, not even as good.

But I might as well try for some footage on a good floor. The guy I will train with today has very little control so I will get run all over the place: almost like a random footwork drill. Let's see if I can get some footage. Or maybe I will record some serve and receive drills.


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