Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

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Hiii!
I had to take a break again because of the university and distance-study.
I have some videos but I will only upload them next week. I will edit them probably beacause I am shy and don't want you to see the amount of Donkeys I made :rolleyes:. This Friday we will have our second match in the league and I will reecord that and post it unedited. The first match was a 10-8 win for us. I won 2/4. Overall I am satiesfied. First two matches were clean 3-0s, no set worse than 11-7. In the third match I lost to a long pips pusher, which is I think fine because it was more of the fault of my bad hand-coordination rather than rushing. By the time I get to play the 4th match we already won so I lost defending, chopblocking and sneaking around, having fun.
 
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Heres a video of my multiball training on Sunday.
my left knee has not receovered yet from it, it has been clicky.
It isn't what I want my form to be, but I am happy at least I can hit some balls.
I need to work on my left arm, so it doesn't slow the body down but adds to the rotation / balance.
Comments/ advice welcome.


 
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Heres a video of my multiball training on Sunday.
my left knee has not receovered yet from it, it has been clicky.
It isn't what I want my form to be, but I am happy at least I can hit some balls.
I need to work on my left arm, so it doesn't slow the body down but adds to the rotation / balance.
Comments/ advice welcome.



You are working hard on your game - that is the good part. You are also moving to the ball on many of they strokes .The ball quality is good but aspects of your approach are going to make it hard to improve long term.

When you practice movement, the focus should be moving into position to prepare the shot (a friend and coach calls it "jumping into the backswing"). For you, the forehand in general has better form than the backhand. Since you have clicky knees like me, I can see that it makes it harder for you, but don't try to hit the ball so hard, try to get into position to play the shot with the legs and body. Power should not be the focus per se in movement drills. On the backhand, try not to swing the racket as hard or straigihten the arm too much - try to use rotation from the back and lower body to thrust the lower arm forward over a controlled distance in a circle to get spin. As you play better players, while power matters, what matters is whether when the ball comes back from the first shot you can follow it up with another one to keep the rally going, or whether you get into perfect position to make the first shot count. Right now, you would have major problems after playing a forehand if a ball surprised you to your backhand because your shot is arm driven and doesn't have the right foundational footwork to get into position with preparation.

TLDR: focus on getting into the right position for preparation, not on trying to hit the ball hard in the movement drills. You might need to rework some of your technique to achieve this. But right now, if you continue like this, it will take a while for any improvement in your game to show up as relaxed and improved ball anticipation in matches because very little of it is driven by consistent use of the legs to get into position and be ready to play a good technical shot in balance.
 
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Had a chance to try out a new blade that I strangely enough won from Gambler in a contest.

I've previously played with the Gambler Fire Dragon Fast as a penhold dual inverted blade. I've said for some time that blade has passed up my Clipper as probably my all time fav blade.

We have a new challenger. This Balsa Knight is really, really nice. It's a beast though. 8.9mm thick !?!

Also 6 plies which is unusual. Carbon on the FH, wood on the BH. IMO a blade begging for a combo setup. So I've done that and I think it really suits my style given I've always been more of a TPB guy anyways.

So here's some video of me hitting with hit along with a short stint of a much better player USATT 2228 hitting with it of which he said it's really nice.

 
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You are working hard on your game - that is the good part. You are also moving to the ball on many of they strokes .The ball quality is good but aspects of your approach are going to make it hard to improve long term.

When you practice movement, the focus should be moving into position to prepare the shot (a friend and coach calls it "jumping into the backswing"). For you, the forehand in general has better form than the backhand. Since you have clicky knees like me, I can see that it makes it harder for you, but don't try to hit the ball so hard, try to get into position to play the shot with the legs and body. Power should not be the focus per se in movement drills. On the backhand, try not to swing the racket as hard or straigihten the arm too much - try to use rotation from the back and lower body to thrust the lower arm forward over a controlled distance in a circle to get spin. As you play better players, while power matters, what matters is whether when the ball comes back from the first shot you can follow it up with another one to keep the rally going, or whether you get into perfect position to make the first shot count. Right now, you would have major problems after playing a forehand if a ball surprised you to your backhand because your shot is arm driven and doesn't have the right foundational footwork to get into position with preparation.

TLDR: focus on getting into the right position for preparation, not on trying to hit the ball hard in the movement drills. You might need to rework some of your technique to achieve this. But right now, if you continue like this, it will take a while for any improvement in your game to show up as relaxed and improved ball anticipation in matches because very little of it is driven by consistent use of the legs to get into position and be ready to play a good technical shot in balance.

Thank you for that, NextLevel. I do notice that I am using too much of my arm, so my shoulder muscles are still aching today.
I saw a physio for my knee. He said the clicking is not degenerative, but likely from the fatigue after training so my muscles are not working. He said if I increase the resistance training, then it will improve.
 
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Thank you for that, NextLevel. I do notice that I am using too much of my arm, so my shoulder muscles are still aching today.
I saw a physio for my knee. He said the clicking is not degenerative, but likely from the fatigue after training so my muscles are not working. He said if I increase the resistance training, then it will improve.

Yes you are. Usually, trying to time the use of the body and legs better will initially lead a drop in shot quality on both forehand and backhand. It is worth it, but as amateurs, we lack the time and the patience. But try to find a balance if you are trying to beat really good players because if you don't have that ability, it will never happen.
 
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Hi!
Unfortunately my videos are broken (my phone as well, but that's not related). I uploaded them to my goodle drive I didn't notice that the files are damaged and reduced to 0b.
However, since I promised a video, so here is an older practice match, which I played this summer.

I don't know why it's only 480p, I choose 1080 during export. EDIT: I reuploaded it.

You can notice it's a practice match because I used only slight variations in the same serve and received mostly to the forehand side.
My training partner recently changed his FH rubber from T05 to T05 Hard and his loops became significantly spinnier.
Last week my performance was very weak. I played against a player who was nearly 100% last year. He crushed me. My conclusion is that I have to practice against looping and practice serve receive. He served nearly always only short dead serve to my forehand side, which is a great way to kill my game. I can't attack hard with my FH flick and it's hard to push a dead ball without popping it up. The guy was very strong when he could attack first. He always produced decent spin, though not very heavy, but most importantly he was extremely precise and very smart. BH flicks from the FH side would be a wise choice but it's easier to say after the match.
 
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Hi!
Unfortunately my videos are broken (my phone as well, but that's not related). I uploaded them to my goodle drive I didn't notice that the files are damaged and reduced to 0b.
However, since I promised a video, so here is an older practice match, which I played this summer.

I don't know why it's only 480p, I choose 1080 during export. EDIT: I reuploaded it.

You can notice it's a practice match because I used only slight variations in the same serve and received mostly to the forehand side.
My training partner recently changed his FH rubber from T05 to T05 Hard and his loops became significantly spinnier.
Last week my performance was very weak. I played against a player who was nearly 100% last year. He crushed me. My conclusion is that I have to practice against looping and practice serve receive. He served nearly always only short dead serve to my forehand side, which is a great way to kill my game. I can't attack hard with my FH flick and it's hard to push a dead ball without popping it up. The guy was very strong when he could attack first. He always produced decent spin, though not very heavy, but most importantly he was extremely precise and very smart. BH flicks from the FH side would be a wise choice but it's easier to say after the match.

I don't know which player you are in the video, so I'll comment on both

It looks like red can just push blue's serves to the extreme angle, wide to backhand. Instead, red commonly pushed half long to the middle, which blue can loop.

Blue is actually receiving red's serves quite well. Blue just needs to practice returning flips / flicks from red.
When blue forehand pushes long to red's backhand, it LOOKS like blue can afford to add more spin to that push, but it's hard to see.

Use landscape view instead of portrait view next time.
 
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I don't know which player you are in the video, so I'll comment on both

It looks like red can just push blue's serves to the extreme angle, wide to backhand. Instead, red commonly pushed half long to the middle, which blue can loop.

Blue is actually receiving red's serves quite well. Blue just needs to practice returning flips / flicks from red.
When blue forehand pushes long to red's backhand, it LOOKS like blue can afford to add more spin to that push, but it's hard to see.

Use landscape view instead of portrait view next time.

Yeah, I will change the view, it was just hard to put my phone into a stable position without a tripod. I guess I will invest in one. I am the red player. I deliberately used the same serves and returned to my opponents FH side, because I wanted to create a situation where I can practice against opening loops. It's true that my partner usually don't push aggressively and prefer to push instead of flicking because he prefers a safe return. Actually it would be good for me as well, because my BH opening are way less stable than my FH ones.
Tomorrow I will record a new match. Thank you for the advices!
 
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@ajtatosmanos

its a bit of a short video so its difficult to comment too much

(+) I think the general stance is good.
(+) FH drive has good power, gets you the point when you have a good ball to attack.
(+) you did 2 good FH flicks in the vid. As the pushes were not so good, i think you could have tried this shot more often.

(-) you're playing too quickly a bit too far from the table, its forcing you to move more, but the footwork is not fast enough to cover all angles
(-) BH side is much weaker than FH side. for BH drive it looks like you are forcing too much the shot. Maybe just you were late on these balls (because too far from the table). Personally i'd try to shorten the swing, get closer to the table and play with a quicker timing. The BH that went in were mostly blocks, not much spin on them

(-) you can improve your pushes; FH push is too high, and you always wanted to play straight. BH push was not consistent. There are different techniques but i feel the main problem is that you must have your weight on your legs when pushing, while youre executing the push while moving and upper body too high. Also a reason why FH push was high, is I think the ball was long and more difficult to push and its better that you should return with topspin drive.
 
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@ajtatosmanos

its a bit of a short video so its difficult to comment too much

(+) I think the general stance is good.
(+) FH drive has good power, gets you the point when you have a good ball to attack.
(+) you did 2 good FH flicks in the vid. As the pushes were not so good, i think you could have tried this shot more often.

(-) you're playing too quickly a bit too far from the table, its forcing you to move more, but the footwork is not fast enough to cover all angles
(-) BH side is much weaker than FH side. for BH drive it looks like you are forcing too much the shot. Maybe just you were late on these balls (because too far from the table). Personally i'd try to shorten the swing, get closer to the table and play with a quicker timing. The BH that went in were mostly blocks, not much spin on them

(-) you can improve your pushes; FH push is too high, and you always wanted to play straight. BH push was not consistent. There are different techniques but i feel the main problem is that you must have your weight on your legs when pushing, while youre executing the push while moving and upper body too high. Also a reason why FH push was high, is I think the ball was long and more difficult to push and its better that you should return with topspin drive.

Yeah, my BH side is considerably weaker than my FH. I am constantly working on it, but it's inconsistent from session to session. Sometimes pretty stable, more often not so. Having a rubber older than a year does not help either.
I tend to play far from the table, which is not a bad thing in itself, however automatically retreating is really bad. It probably comes from my weaker BH, so I can use more my FH far from the table. This is something you can't practice with drills well, you have to play practice matches where you focus on the problem.
Pushes: I deliberately popped up balls and played for the FH/middle for the sake of practice. I am not saying I am great at pushes, I am worse in this area than looping. I just wanted to anticipate where the FH opening will come and make an open point from that.
 
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Does anyone have any experiences of tennis elbow and the effect of grip tape?

I'm doing the drills provided by the physio and it's improving but I still can't FH loop. Not a major issue as I pretty much can cover the entire table with the pips and smash with the FH. Not the game I enjoy playing but my win/loss ratio is pretty much the same. My coach told me to try grip tape in order to relax my grip. Is it snake oil?
 
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Does anyone have any experiences of tennis elbow and the effect of grip tape?

I'm doing the drills provided by the physio and it's improving but I still can't FH loop. Not a major issue as I pretty much can cover the entire table with the pips and smash with the FH. Not the game I enjoy playing but my win/loss ratio is pretty much the same. My coach told me to try grip tape in order to relax my grip. Is it snake oil?
No it is not though it isn't the whole story. You need to grip the racket harder to create a normal force that prevents it from slipping if you don't have grip tape as handles that are smooth have less friction than the tape. The flip side is that you may grip into it more if it feels too soft and end up in the same place. So you have to experiment a bit with it.
 
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We had a team tournament this Monday.
We were in a block of 4 teams this time. Each match is 5 singles. We can put 4 or 5 players on the playing sheet.
Played twice (1st and 3rd team match). Opponents were better than me, especially the 1st one who was at least 2 or 3 levels above. But I produced 0 TT content in this match and hardly more in the 2nd against an opponent who was within reach.

Its disappointing because i was playing very well lately in training and training matches. I wasn't tired, slept well, ate well. Its just i'm a slow starter (even in training matches).

I should run a bit do rope jump or ghost play just before playing because warming up at the table just last 30 seconds and i never perform well in these conditions. But its difficult to stick to that plan in a competition when you're refereeing a match just before etc... I need to find a solution.
 
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When you are faced with on 1/2 minute at the table before match starts, you will benefit from doing a few things.

- Use shorter stroke, a little looser grip, and go for less the first few points until it is obvious you can connect stronger or longer swing or finer graze

- make good use of your serve

- use looser grip and jam opponent or make him/her move with an underspin off the bounce deep until you can better see the serve and rhtym

Those things will reduce your errors while not giving away too much at the start.

Another benefit is you gain CONFIDENCE from SEEING THE BALL GO IN.
 
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Anoher thing... it is NOT a capital crime to lose game 1.... I see SO MANY better players NOT put themselves under pressure right away in game one and use game 1 to discover a lot of things about opponent so that the ADJUSTMENTS they make are not guesses.

Maybe they sacrifice game one, still trying, but it is not the requirement to win game 1, then adjust and become 2x better as match goes along... and their opponent is out of their best play and has no answer and adjustment to your new adjustments.

I know that concept is not very flashy or "Feel Good Story" or macho or whatever, but it is a small thing I see many players way better than me do. There could be something there.

I have heard some better players say that TT is a game of adjustments.

I would also argue and support that idea - adjustments and the ability to do the big and litle things that contribute to an ability to adjust - observe, collect data and figure out things without over thinking it are very valuable for match play.

My samctioned match play improvement of course had some technical and consistency improvement, but I think the majority of it is gaining a better grip on how to play a match by being around better players and improving my mental performance... at least that is what I attribute that too... and a lot of us can still improve a lot there...

Losing game 1 isn't the end of the world and can be a longer term strtegic improvement thing.
 
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well for me losing game 1 in my second match was like getting a big punch on the face. So far my opponent wasn't playing very well as well, I had been always in the lead in game 1, and I was 10-8 up with my serve. I did something I usually NEVER do that late in a set, I CHANGED my serve to surprise him. It backfired. I got nervous and choked to lose 4 in a row and 10-12.

I mentally didn't recover from that :-/ and lost 0-3 (-10 -8 -7)
 
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