Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

driversbeat said:

This gives me hope. I feel like giving up TT sometimes after playing for many years and not seeing results. But I always come back to it because I love it so much.

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Maybe you should reconsider how you are training?

driversbeat said:

This gives me hope. I feel like giving up TT sometimes after playing for many years and not seeing results. But I always come back to it because I love it so much.

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Getting a coach is really beneficial. A good coach can say what you're doing wrong but a VERY good coach can tell you how to improve those issues.

I've improved a lot lately by solving the small issues (not getting enough spin on serves, not following through enough on FH loops) but I've still got some major issues (footwork / resetting properly, not using enough wrist when chopping). I would not have identified these by myself and my previous coaches have either ignored this or been incapable of identifying the issues. You don't need that many hours with a coach if the quality is very good.

My 0.02€ as a novice.

mart1nandersson said:

Getting a coach is really beneficial. A good coach can say what you're doing wrong but a VERY good coach can tell you how to improve those issues.

I've improved a lot lately by solving the small issues (not getting enough spin on serves, not following through enough on FH loops) but I've still got some major issues (footwork / resetting properly, not using enough wrist when chopping). I would not have identified these by myself and my previous coaches have either ignored this or been incapable of identifying the issues. You don't need that many hours with a coach if the quality is very good.

My 0.02€ as a novice.

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absolutely. I have been getting coaching on a regular basis. But even if you can't afford it on a weekly basis like I do, even if you do once a month with a good coach, and he tells you what you do, you can then work it with highly motivated friends, especially multiball. It would still help to play from time to time, like at least once a week with (much) better players than you as well to try to put in practice against them what the coach told you. Of course you also need to play with players of your level and below your level when training

The final of the most recent U2000 at Princeton. If my health continues to improve I might make a sincere push at training for 2100 again. But that assumes a lot about married life....

https://youtu.be/xbRVOrmnnsE

NextLevel said:

The final of the most recent U2000 at Princeton. If my health continues to improve I might make a sincere push at training for 2100 again. But that assumes a lot about married life....

https://youtu.be/xbRVOrmnnsE

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excellent win , congratulations, excellent attacking playing in the last game, the guy was completely helpless, he had no chance at all

NextLevel said:

The final of the most recent U2000 at Princeton. If my health continues to improve I might make a sincere push at training for 2100 again. But that assumes a lot about married life....

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You could come on over to the LA and see some first rate sandbagging, you achieve and maintain a 2100 rating there, you earned it.

On one hand, performing the loosened wrist soft counter-topspins vs incoming young gun loops from mid distance will warp time and young/old minds alike.

NextLevel said:

The final of the most recent U2000 at Princeton. If my health continues to improve I might make a sincere push at training for 2100 again. But that assumes a lot about married life....

https://youtu.be/xbRVOrmnnsE

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Glad to see you playing AND playing well, NL. What's made the difference in your health? Seems like you're moving better than I've seen since I joined here.

thekleifheit13 said:

Glad to see you playing AND playing well, NL. What's made the difference in your health? Seems like you're moving better than I've seen since I joined here.

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Quitting playing last year in some ways was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I started gaining weight rapidly and having a visible recalcitrant fluid buildup in my right leg after I stopped. That fluid build up kinda freaked me out. So trying to address that led me to intermittent fasting and low carb diets and a completely different approach to healthy eating vs what I was taught before that (for some context, I was a vegan for a while). The changes managed my autoimmune issues better and I have lost about 28 lbs and counting in the year and a half or so. The lighter weight helps me move better though my trashed joints are still shit. Maybe if I knew this 5 or 6 years ago, I could have preserved my health much better.

NextLevel said:

Quitting playing last year in some ways was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I started gaining weight rapidly and having a visible recalcitrant fluid buildup in my right leg after I stopped. That fluid build up kinda freaked me out. So trying to address that led me to intermittent fasting and low carb diets and a completely different approach to healthy eating vs what I was taught before that (for some context, I was a vegan for a while). The changes managed my autoimmune issues better and I have lost about 28 lbs and counting in the year and a half or so. The lighter weight helps me move better though my trashed joints are still shit. Maybe if I knew this 5 or 6 years ago, I could have preserved my health much better.

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Sometimes the shock/fear is what it takes. As always, super impressed at your ability and desire to keep tweaking and find ways to manage your symptoms.

I was an IF/low carb guy for about 5 years through college and traveling my life away at my first job. It kept me lean and helped my stomach issues but I often felt strung out. Recently I've been eating breakfast and have been going higher carb/lower fat (still 90-95% healthy food) and have been feeling better. Still throw 1 fasting/low carb day in, though, to let my digestive system catch up.

thekleifheit13 said:

Sometimes the shock/fear is what it takes. As always, super impressed at your ability and desire to keep tweaking and find ways to manage your symptoms.

I was an IF/low carb guy for about 5 years through college and traveling my life away at my first job. It kept me lean and helped my stomach issues but I often felt strung out. Recently I've been eating breakfast and have been going higher carb/lower fat (still 90-95% healthy food) and have been feeling better. Still throw 1 fasting/low carb day in, though, to let my digestive system catch up.

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The most important thing IMO is that you have the knowledge and the flexibility to make the choices. Many people don't and have been completely miseducated by the commercial and ideological interests driving the "one plant based diet with 3 or more meals a day fits all" paradigm to dominate the airwaves. I am grateful that I at least had a chance to relearn all this. Given how this stuff is beginning to affect many people I come into contact with who either don't tie lifestyle to medicine or have been introduced only to the vegetarian paradigms, I get the opportunity to help a lot of people.

NextLevel said:

The most important thing IMO is that you have the knowledge and the flexibility to make the choices. Many people don't and have been completely miseducated by the commercial and ideological interests driving the "one plant based diet with 3 or more meals a day fits all" paradigm to dominate the airwaves. I am grateful that I at least had a chance to relearn all this. Given how this stuff is beginning to affect many people I come into contact with who either don't tie lifestyle to medicine or have been introduced only to the vegetarian paradigms, I get the opportunity to help a lot of people.

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Agreed, wholeheartedly. There's a lot of people making way too much money hawking fad diets that have no emphasis on actual health and performance. The same is true with people making exercise programs as well. There's a few people doing it right, but nowhere near enough. Best we can do is work with people on a case-by-case basis and get them to understand how health, appearance, and performance all tie in together.

In Next Level's vid, I could hear Richard D in the background supporting Larry calmly in the right moments.

I played last night with the UAkron team at Samson Dubina's new club. Can't say enough good things about Samson and what he does for the sport. His club is phenomenal and is open 6 days a week so I no longer have an excuse not to play

Quick backstory: I took some time off from April to October so that I could focus on getting healthy and planning my wedding. The wedding was awesome and the honeymoon in Iceland was even better still. Once I got home I started playing again and my game has come back pretty nicely. In the last 2 weeks especially I've played the best TT of my life. It seems that the extra focus on physical training made a big difference as I don't get anywhere near as worn out and beat up when I play. Other than that I'm focusing on having fun and it's working out well.

I got to the club right at 4 PM when they opened and it was just me, Samson, and the young guy that works the desk. I practiced serves for awhile and then Samson came over and hit with me for a short time, then did a 1 backhand, 2 forehand drill where the first forehand was spinny and the second was aggressive. It served as an awesome warmup and helped loosen up my footwork.

Then I played the guy that works the desk. He's just returning to TT after a long layoff (stopped at 14 and is 18 now) and is around 1100 or so. I beat him 3-0 and focused on a relaxed attacking strategy, trying to link consecutive attacks since he did a good job blocking.

At 5 the University team starts practice. We warmed up (they warmed up, I had already sweat through my shirt), then spent the whole practice working on serve strategies that play into our strengths. The team did some great work and I think they all made big improvements in the short time we had. I mostly helped them develop better serves, since that's my strong suit, and worked on keeping my serves tight and spinny. I also worked on a short FH pendulum with side-top which is gonna be a learning curve but would give nice variation. All in all, fun day and left me excited to go back next Monday.

OldschoolPenholder said:

There are no secrets, no shortcuts, only hard work.

May or may not work for you ... I practiced more than playing matches. When i played a match, I forced myself to use whatever stroke i was focusing on all the time ... my RPB and FH loop have been the last 2 strokes I focused on. Looking at footwork now.

I did not care about winning or losing... only if I was able to execute the stroke properly or not during game play. I have a 9-90 record vs 1 friend ... lol at me.

Good luck in your SH journey si-hing! I still like you, you "faan gwat zai"

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Good to hear from you again OSP!

Strong FH in your videos! Your practice partner could not block some of your FH loops!
Good progress on your RPB too! I notice the impact of the RPB is quite flat, not sure if that is what you are aiming for, it has good power, but the trajectory is flatter hence it becomes a more risky shot if the incoming ball is low near the table.

I've been working on my backhand with more emphasis recently, trying to make the stroke more natural.
Over the last 3 weeks, I've been to Melbourne and Sydney, actually just arrived home from Sydney 3 hours ago.
I managed to visit several local clubs and played with various different people, and some old friends too.
Of note, I played against a guy who is training to get on to the national team. I actually met him 3 years ago when we were both captains of different teams in university games. I lost 11-2, and 11-1. The other thing I can be happy about is he didn't 'give' me any free points, I had to earn them by blocking some crazy attacks that both of us were surprised that I can manage to put them back on the table. He is very agile and trains quite regularly, and it does highlight the importance of having good agile legs.

P.S. I see Si-Hing is spotting Carl 8 points in their next encounter. I'm expecting 9 points from you OSP when we ever meet, if you ever go to Perth or if I end up in U.S. (unsure which city) for a conference.

https://youtu.be/fIfQNRtie88 What Do these guys use? I thought hardbat But my friend that play that alot tell me it is not possible. Bigger ball? Short pimple with very thin sponge?

Lula said:

https://youtu.be/fIfQNRtie88 What Do these guys use? I thought hardbat But my friend that play that alot tell me it is not possible. Bigger ball? Short pimple with very thin sponge?

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A very large ball?

yes its 44mm balls. There are a lot of competitions with large balls here, its quite popular, especially among the elder TT players. the game is slower, even if you hit very hard, the ball won't go that fast...

I hit with a 44mm ball once. It was kind of fun. You can have crazy rallies with a 44mm ball.

The standard-issue 44mm ball kind of game over there is supposed to be required to use some very not-so-spinny and not-so-fast bats as well. Think of rec hall short pips sponge...

That doesn't make for lighting shots or 10,000 rpm action, but it does give much more of a chance for a rally to last more than 2-3 touches.

Post 10000!