Introduction to my YT Channel

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But the problem is that you don't really appreciate how bad you are - these guys are beginners as well. That's why people laugh when you post certain things.

And yes, it includes free insurance. Since that doesn't exist.

Yes, because after praising the gentlemen for their achievements and actually expecting more based on how good they look compared to me, I still don't appreciate how bad I am. :rolleyes:


Boogar, your videos are private.
 
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Boogar, every thing looks good. But you have to work on increasing the friction between your bat and your rubber and taking that to the promised land. You need to trust your spin level. You don't yet.

Thank you for your advice :) !
Trust your spin, thats a good one.

Not that it really matters, but in my defense this is the first time i played with such a bouncy rubber.
 
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Spin isn't the most important thing out there, I know a 2100 level player who uses less spin than you. He was also only around 1600 level player a year ago. But he's got a fantastic training partner (and spouse) that he can play with every night to improve himself. He's also a short pip traditional penholder so there's that.


A big issue here is you're playing other players around your level. Finding someone that you can't dream of beating would be extremely helpful. The quality of balls you get from a better player are just impossible to compare, they make you feel helpless when you felt well rounded before. I can play beginners and look fantastic with my form and strokes, and then go play someone my level and look alright and then go play someone 100-200 points higher than me and I look like a beginner with my footwork and strokes.

There's a player at my club between 2200-2300 that I play with on about a weekly basis these days. He often had let me start with 6 points in each game and would then beat me 11-8, 11-9, 11-6 or something like that. The more I played with him though I started to adjust to his style and get the wins. Even though he's ridiculously better than me he started lowering the points he'd let me start at because I was getting so used to him. Then once he lowered the amount of points I'd start at he played riskier shots and I realized even more-so how great a player can be.

Even though I'm nowhere near or can ever even see myself getting near this level of play, I improve and learn more playing him in one match than playing 4-5 other players in matches.
 
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Spin isn't the most important thing out there, I know a 2100 level player who uses less spin than you. He was also only around 1600 level player a year ago. But he's got a fantastic training partner (and spouse) that he can play with every night to improve himself. He's also a short pip traditional penholder so there's that.


A big issue here is you're playing other players around your level. Finding someone that you can't dream of beating would be extremely helpful. The quality of balls you get from a better player are just impossible to compare, they make you feel helpless when you felt well rounded before. I can play beginners and look fantastic with my form and strokes, and then go play someone my level and look alright and then go play someone 100-200 points higher than me and I look like a beginner with my footwork and strokes.

There's a player at my club between 2200-2300 that I play with on about a weekly basis these days. He often had let me start with 6 points in each game and would then beat me 11-8, 11-9, 11-6 or something like that. The more I played with him though I started to adjust to his style and get the wins. Even though he's ridiculously better than me he started lowering the points he'd let me start at because I was getting so used to him. Then once he lowered the amount of points I'd start at he played riskier shots and I realized even more-so how great a player can be.

Even though I'm nowhere near or can ever even see myself getting near this level of play, I improve and learn more playing him in one match than playing 4-5 other players in matches.

Now if you could actually hit with him for 15 minutes instead of playing with him, you would learn so much more with so little stress. But I guess the handicap keeps it interesting for both of you.
 
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Spin isn't the most important thing out there, I know a 2100 level player who uses less spin than you. He was also only around 1600 level player a year ago. But he's got a fantastic training partner (and spouse) that he can play with every night to improve himself. He's also a short pip traditional penholder so there's that.

Yes, sure, learning to read and play better players is part of it, but the fastest and easiest way to get better with the least amount of playing time is to increase your ability to read, generate and manipulate spin. Even penholders with short pips are spinning the ball - spinning is as much about timing as it is about friction.
 
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Now if you could actually hit with him for 15 minutes instead of playing with him, you would learn so much more with so little stress. But I guess the handicap keeps it interesting for both of you.

I've hit with him quite a bit, usually about 10 minutes before we start our sets, I realized how much this helped me too late though. At first I felt honored to even get a match with a high level player like him, so I wouldn't want to warm up for very long and wouldn't want to both asking him if he would just hit with me. I felt like I was a waste of his time, so I would spare what little time I could give him.

Now that I hit a bit first I can relax quite a bit during gameplay, not only this but what I actually learn from hitting with him is ridiculous, and difficult to even explain.

I think a big problem with low level players playing with higher level players is that the low level player is trying to prove themselves. They want to show the higher level player that they can hit good shots, but this doesn't mean anything to the higher level player.

You're not going to impress a higher level player if you miss more shots than you hit. The only way you can impress them is if you actually beat them. What will improve a player's game and make the higher level player enjoy the play more. Would be if the lower level player just relaxed, went through their strokes and tried to hit the table against them. Nobody has fun with someone smashing every ball on them and just missing. If you can prove to the higher level player that you can just block onto the table, they'd much more likely want to play with you again

Whenever I say "you or your, I'm not referring to Next level even though my response is quoting him. I'm referring to anyone playing with a higher level player.
 
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I've hit with him quite a bit, usually about 10 minutes before we start our sets, I realized how much this helped me too late though. At first I felt honored to even get a match with a high level player like him, so I wouldn't want to warm up for very long and wouldn't want to both asking him if he would just hit with me. I felt like I was a waste of his time, so I would spare what little time I could give him.

Now that I hit a bit first I can relax quite a bit during gameplay, not only this but what I actually learn from hitting with him is ridiculous, and difficult to even explain.

I think a big problem with low level players playing with higher level players is that the low level player is trying to prove themselves. They want to show the higher level player that they can hit good shots, but this doesn't mean anything to the higher level player.

You're not going to impress a higher level player if you miss more shots than you hit. The only way you can impress them is if you actually beat them. What will improve a player's game and make the higher level player enjoy the play more. Would be if the lower level player just relaxed, went through their strokes and tried to hit the table against them. Nobody has fun with someone smashing every ball on them and just missing. If you can prove to the higher level player that you can just block onto the table, they'd much more likely want to play with you again

Whenever I say "you or your, I'm not referring to Next level even though my response is quoting him. I'm referring to anyone playing with a higher level player.

Jea playing with better players is very good. The poblem at my club is that all the really good players dont train with us, they either come together and train together or train somewhere else or not at all.
We have a guy being one of the best players in the country and he hasnt trained at all for the last two years... he just shows up for league matches.
 
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I think a big problem with low level players playing with higher level players is that the low level player is trying to prove themselves. They want to show the higher level player that they can hit good shots, but this doesn't mean anything to the higher level player.

You're not going to impress a higher level player if you miss more shots than you hit. The only way you can impress them is if you actually beat them. What will improve a player's game and make the higher level player enjoy the play more. Would be if the lower level player just relaxed, went through their strokes and tried to hit the table against them. Nobody has fun with someone smashing every ball on them and just missing. If you can prove to the higher level player that you can just block onto the table, they'd much more likely want to play with you again.

I was very lucky that a player told me this when I was 1200. It helped me get opportunities to hit with many better players over and over throughout my playing time - I was a 1200 player hitting with 2000 players just because I could return their strokes over and over. I actually wrote an article on it as a post/thread on mytt and a link to it made it into Larry's blog.
 
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Even penholders with short pips are spinning the ball - spinning is as much about timing as it is about friction.

"even penholders with short pips are spinning the ball"

I don't know if I believe this is always the case, this player doesn't have a transition stroke and doesn't really seem to spin the ball at all. If the opponent pushes/chops and it's above the net he smashes, that's what he's known for is his "shot". Most his pushes/chops are about placement and keeping the ball low going through the ball with the correct stroke. He waits for his opponent to loop so he can counter, or block you out of place.

His long and short chops/pushes have the same spin and it's not varied, only the placement and speed of his shots is varied. His timing and footwork on his strokes is fantastic, no matter what is sent at him it seems, but I don't think he can actually spin the ball very much if he wanted to.
 
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Jea playing with better players is very good. The poblem at my club is that all the really good players dont train with us, they either come together and train together or train somewhere else or not at all.
We have a guy being one of the best players in the country and he hasnt trained at all for the last two years... he just shows up for league matches.

This happens a lot, but there are ways to make it change. One of them, and probably the most important, is to not do the same thing when you become really good. It's one of the reasons I will hit with anybody at any rating level at any time as long as I am not preparing for a tournament match within the next one or two hours (in that case, I have to exclude absolute beginners or people with uncontrolled strokes even at a higher level, but I can still hit with experienced beginners or people who are trying to put the ball on the table).

The other is to learn the lesson that Shuki gave - you need to learn to control the balls of higher players with proper technique, not to hit the ball hard. Once people know you push and block well, you will get a lot of practice time with people who know you know how to push with good backspin and block back topspin balls consistently for good practice. For blocking, always aim in the direct center of the cross court of your opponent's side, no matter how hard or soft your block. That will always give your opponent a chance to loop the ball as deep balls or badly placed balls are what create the problem. You can block ANYONE's loop in practice once they are looping properly for training (not deep) and you have good technique (in the beginning, you may miss a few but you will adjust if you have good technique). In a match of course, all bets are off...
 
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"even penholders with short pips are spinning the ball"

I don't know if I believe this is always the case, this player doesn't have a transition stroke and doesn't really seem to spin the ball at all. If the opponent pushes/chops and it's above the net he smashes, that's what he's known for is his "shot". Most his pushes/chops are about placement and keeping the ball low going through the ball with the correct stroke. He waits for his opponent to loop so he can counter, or block you out of place.

His long and short chops/pushes have the same spin and it's not varied, only the placement and speed of his shots is varied. His timing and footwork on his strokes is fantastic, no matter what is sent at him it seems, but I don't think he can actually spin the ball very much if he wanted to.

It would be interesting to see his blocking technique then. Or even his serves. But you may be right - maybe it is more the manipulation than the generation.
 
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It would be interesting to see his blocking technique then. Or even his serves. But you may be right - maybe it is more the manipulation than the generation.

It won't be hard for me to get video of him, I'll try to get it within a week. (hopefully this isn't an empty promise that I'll forget about)
 
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I know there are some short pips that can generate spinny serves like the ones that Liu Guoliang or He Zhi Wen used.
My Penholder trainingspartner has ordered some pips like this and wants to try them out.
Like this we try to train against different styles, for example i recently made myself a long pips racket :)
 
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I know there are some short pips that can generate spinny serves like the ones that Liu Guoliang or He Zhi Wen used.
My Penholder trainingspartner has ordered some pips like this and wants to try them out.
Like this we try to train against different styles, for example i recently made myself a long pips racket :)

Do keep in mind that Guoliang's serves are absolutely ham. He could get heavy spin with a block of ice.
 
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Do keep in mind that Guoliang's serves are absolutely ham. He could get heavy spin with a block of ice.

You are probably rigth about this :) That man is a beast. Rumors say he can beat the whole woman nationalteam with him playing shakehand.

OFc all of them at the same time.
 
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So i got myself an early birthday gift and bought a new racket.

Its the Xiom Vega Pro blade with a Xiom omega V pro forehand and a vega pro backhand :)

I am very satisfied with it so far, the backhand feels absolutely great. I feel that opening up off a backspin push with a backhand topspin has gotten alot easier.

The change from H3N to the Omega on the forehand is quiet a big one, i need to get a feel for the different racket angels, especially on counter topspins. But i think there is alot of potential.

I recorded a little topspin session. Was quiet a bad one :)
 
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Here is the video

In the most recent video it's clear your blocker doesn't have nearly the level of skill to give you some decent blocks. But you're also making it rough on him with how inconsistent your forehands are. Once you hit one or two, you seem to put a lot more into the next one with worse placement making it very difficult for him to adjust to let alone give you another ball to deal with. Try laying off the amount of spin and speed until he can block 10+ in a row and you can both place it consistently
 
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