Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

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oh no !! now we have to put up with this for the next 4 years !!!
Today I had a 2h 1:1 session with a young coach and we end up doing a match. I win very surprisingly 4-3 playing my best ever TT and I tell him at the end : it’s impossible to beat France !!!

LMAO
Allez les Bleus !!!
 
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Hello all,

New member here from Southern California, USA!
In Germany for two weeks on business...
Anyone in the Stuttgart area want to play? Or can anyone direct me to some friendly local clubs?

Cheers,
E


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I've already replied to your other post with the same question.
Didn't you see it or just didn't like what i wrote?
 
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says Footwork footwork footwork
I've already replied to your other post with the same question.
Didn't you see it or just didn't like what i wrote?

Hey, no sorry I didn’t see it yet! I’m just checking everything now...and I am quite new on here. :)

Sorry for the double questions, I’m just very excited to play.


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Hey, no sorry I didn’t see it yet! I’m just checking everything now...and I am quite new on here. :)

Sorry for the double questions, I’m just very excited to play.


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Ah i see. No worries.
Weĺl, welcome to the forum then. Have a good time while here.
I''ll reply to your post in the other thread again.
 
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I finally decided that after 4 months the H3Neo rubber on my forehand was finished (there is a worn spot with the pips showing through, but the fact it no longer smelled of rotting fish when I took my bat out of the case really should have been a giveaway!) I have ordered a sheet of Yinhe Jupiter 2 to see how that goes.

In the meantime I have a black sheet of Palio AK47 blue (which I like on my backhand), and I put that on to see how I would go playing a soft, non-tacky rubber on forehand. Oh my goodness, it is unplayable and feels awful. I understand what people say when they talk about vibration in a rubber-blade combo. I'm hating it so much, I actually went and got some Johnsons baby oil and started boosting that old H3Neo, just to try and keep it alive until my new stuff arives from AliExpress.

I was hoping to be able to glue it back on in time for club session tonight, but it's still drying, I'll have to use the AK47. Seriously, who has time for boosting rubber, in between work and chores and actually playing!? Even waiting for two layers of glue to dry is kind of a hassle.

(This impatience is probably why I could never be a defender.)
 
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Played an excellent, close match last night in my club's monday night competition. I won, though as I'm a beginner my opponent had a handicap (the club uses its own complicated handicapping system)

Afterwards the president came up and gave me a prize. It turns out it was the final. I actually had no idea, I thought I was still in like the quarter finals, as I never think I have a chance! The guy I played complimented me on my strong mental game, as I was still playing loose risky shots for the match point. Well, it helps if you don't know you're playing in a final!

Even better, I was discussing the match with my opponent afterwards, and mentioned that my pendulum serve was a strong weapon as a left-hander. He said "Wait...you're left-handed!?" He somehow played the entire match against me without realising I was left-handed! I'm not sure if that's extreme concentration, or no concentration at all!

Anyway I won a prize to the value of $8, and I think my handicap is getting reduced for sure next week.
 
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Played against one of my teammates today. Won again a hard fought match against him 3-2. I played well throughout the match. Got the 1st set 11-9, i was leading 9-5 but i let him get back 9-9 before finishing with 2 good points. Won the second easily. Had that 9-5 lead again but didn't let him come back. In the 3rd and 4th he played better and won 8 and 9. But in the 5th I was on fire, and made some incredible shots (for me) to win it 11-6.

He's the better player for sure, and beats a lot of players who beat me hard while the converse is not true (anyone I beat, he can beat). But in the last months, i'm sure I'm well ahead in our face-to-face encounters. Its a bit of a strange situation. I am used to playing him, so his serves are not very effective against me, and I know well his placements so I often anticipate and able to do "combo" moves, like 1 BH to his BH followed by pivot and attacking FH down the line (to his FH). I know his weakness is his BH and pin him there, i dominate the BH diagonal. I think he should serve more (short) to my FH, and attack my FH to win, but he still doesn't do that so I'm the one winning - and he hates it [because it's weird and SHOULD NOT happen !!]
 
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Another excellent good training session again.

Beated as usual my teammate (same as above) 3-2.
Beated for the first time an experienced lady. Last time we had a match was 1 or even 2 years ago, and she's not getting younger for sure. Obviously she cannot move well but she has a solid game, takes agressively the ball early especially with her BH, flat hits any high ball, and unusually has soft pimples on FH. Until now I had no solutions to her fast serve + hit combo, but today i was very consistent in rallies, got used to her serves quickly, and because i figured out she was not testing me in the short game, i played a bit farther from the table than usual so i could deliver stronger and spinnier attacks. a 3-1 victory -10 +10 +9 +4 , i couldn't even get ONE set from her before.

One small but important detail I've changed very recently is my posture where i have the feet less on the same line, and the left foot more forward, so more european style than Japanese style. I feel I have a better balance, especially for receiving on the BH side, and even on the FH side because I have the bad habit to step with my right foot towards the ball so i end up trying to loop with the right foot in front of the left foot which is very bad and makes me miss a lot those FH receives. With my new waiting position, this doesn't happen anymore.

I also played with a small kid. He's there every Tuesday like me. He's still in primary school but already so good !!! very good technically, looping from both sides, he can flick both sides, excellent serves... I can still beat him, but a few months ago it would be rather easy, now i really have to play my best, and he can get 1 or 2 sets out of me if I am not 100%. Surely next year or next next year he will beat me bad !!! What impresses me even more is how positive he is. He is always smiling, whether he wins or loses. I never saw him cry when losing (training or tournaments). He is just enjoying TT. I hope for him he will become really good at it and enjoy it till he's 90 or more !!!
 
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Things didn't go as well as they could, but at least I didn't lose to opponents which would be unacceptable to lose to. Last week I noticed a strange slipping-like feeling while looping, so yesterday was also like a test for my Hurricane if it's playable or not. Unfortunately, it seems that it's not quite. I had a small bubble on the rubber which wouldn't affect me in too many shots but last week I noticed another one right on the sweet spot so it seems this is the reason of the feeling the ball slip on the rubber.
 
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says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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Resting up for the LA Open.

Last year Aruna and Joo Se Hyuk were there.

We have altogether five of us who will pile into one car and drive down to LA a couple days early for Mayhem and Korean BBQ. Many of us are in doubles events, which is our main competitive goal.

One of the crew (Scoobie Doo, where are you Serge, when U gunna register for TTD?) should be real competitive in his division. I do not know what to expect from myself in the singles. I am playing the best TT level I have played, backed it up a bit in my last tourney, (ttmonster knows him from Team Facebook, the German guy) and will have a few more chances to show improvement in this huge tourney.

Either way, this will be a Trouble Making mission on a grand scale over a very long weekend.
 
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played yday with a semi-pro player from China, teammate from Fan Zhendong !

We just did some drills, and i felt quite proud to be able to be a somewhat decent sparring partner, I managed to block for him while he was unleashing his powerful (BH and) FH drives. Of course, he was always playing in my racket (BH), if he changed the direction to play to my FH, i would have absolutely no chance to block it, it was too fast, too spinny and too difficult to read the direction before the last moment.

However, I was surprised that in the BH to BH drill (in straight line, he's a lefty), i was very decent, and actually it seemed he was the one having more trouble, he said he was trying a new rubber, and he was not used to it !

We did some other drills, and after 1H30 i was totally exhausted but happy :)
 
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tournament last Sunday

in 40-49 category, i beat easily the 1st guy 3-0. I focused to play very well in the 3rd game
The next guy was 1 or 2 levels above me, but i didn't play well. 1st game was a disaster. 2nd one has some good bits, i score some very good points, and i have almost always the initiative, but i make too many mistakes. The 3rd set looks more like the 1st one. 0-3.

Open category, i play a young student, a leftie. He's about the same level than me, maybe 1 level above. We were both attackers and the 1st one to attack most often scored the point. I think its one of my best matches in a tournament. I filmed it and can see my improvements in the video, notably the posture (upper body not upstraight too much like before). I did some really good combos attacks and good counter-initiative/blocking points. However a bit slow in my footwork, especially behind my serves (a big problem for me I've been working on or after 2 attacks). The guy had an ace in his sleeve. His leftie long lateral serve going off the table on the right was a problem for me the whole match. I was always late on the ball and didn't read the spin well (ball popping off when it was no-spin or top spin) and i didn't control at all the side spin, so i could only receive on his FH side from where he always made a powerful FH straight attack, I can't remember blocking even once that attack during the whole match. When i tried to loop it, he blocked it aggressively with his BH. Thats how he won it, hats off to him.

I won the 1st game at deuce, but he won the 2nd easily, he was cruising ahead 8-4 in the 3rd but i managed to come back and win it in deuce after a big fight. In the 4th i was always behind. In the decider, i had the better start and lead 6-5, but from there, I choked ? maybe ? anyway he played very well and he scored 6 in a row, and that's life. It would have been an encouraging result if I could have won this match. Because I feel i can beat those guys, i do (sometimes) beat (even stronger ones) at training, but I NEVER beat them in tournaments, I hope beating the FIRST one will boost my confidence and unleash the beast !!

 
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says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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My deep cover got blown full open at the LA Open. I was embedded right in the middle of the Fat/Fifty crowd written off as harmless, washed up, and over the hill...

I am waiting for the Intel report to get posted by usatt.

I will be forced to allow the Goon Squad to wipe me out, then start a new identity 6 months later.

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