Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

Originally Posted by Gozo

This evening during my coaching session I did for the first time this drill which I find it to be most awesome. It goes like this, which is a set basically:

1. Coach serve a short underspin to my FH side and I have to step in to push it back.
2. He then push a long underspin ball to my BH side which I must open up using BH loop.
3. He then blocks it randomly to either my BH or FH which will commence the FH & BH drive until the one of us wins the point.

I find this drill to be most satisfying and really build my confidence. I luv it!

Coincidentaly I practise (and practised yesterday evening) the almost exact same drill on the robot.

1. short underspin serve to FH
2. very long underspin to FH, so that I am forced to jump back
3. fast block (drive) to FH or middle

And the BH side variation

1. short underspin serve to BH
2. very long underspin to BH, so that I am forced to jump back, and in my case I pivot
3. fast block to table middle

If I play this with setting 65 balls/minute, it is quite fast. If I don't jump/go back enough, make enough space on the BH side (during pivot, make space with left leg going wide), I still can play the FH topspin somehow. (So called beggar shot.) But it is slow and I am not in a good balance, and I miss the 3rd ball. So this forces me to really make enough space, finish in good balance to be able to follow with the 3rd ball.

I want more of such drills.

Some highlights from yesterdays training match. I tend to have some pretty epic matches against my teammate/friend here. We practice a lot together and I don't kill the ball that well which makes for some long rallies sometimes 😄.

Originally Posted by OldschoolPenholder

Sir,

I am sure in the past I've asked this before... will repeat... 9 points please! LOL at me

You both are awesome to watch! Thank you for sharing!

Again, too many . Showing the highlights is a bit deceptive of me.. 😁. Glad you enjoyed!!

Originally Posted by Gozo

Superb play Richie. Are you the player in black or red t-shirt?

Either way, both the players are playing very very very high quality TT ( within amateur level ). I wish I could play like you guys.

I have a question for you Richie. The player in black seems to prefer looping ( topspin ) most ball even when his opponent block the topspin shot. Wouldn't it be easier to drive-kill sometime refer to as smash the ball for an early point? That is what my veteran players in my club tells me. They said to me, why Gozo do you keep looping the ball, just go in for the kill already!

NB: I am just plain curious and by no means am I critic your play style.

Thanks Gozo! Yes I'm the leftie in black.

Well spotted! I have always had some issues with high balls and it's true that I sometimes loop these when I should be doing something different.. but I'm not actually sure how to execute that technique. I have some idea but I struggle to do it, From what I've learnt from Brett I should kind of fold my torso so that I come down on the ball. But my muscle memory is so ingrained. My torso has always been quite static.

This session I was trying to take the ball earlier against the lobs as I sometimes even lift these high balls which is no good.
If you or anyone have some tips on how to execute the drive-kill technique I'm happy to hear it.. maybe with some experimentation I can get something to click.

Originally Posted by Richie

Thanks Gozo! Yes I'm the leftie in black.

Well spotted! I have always had some issues with high balls and it's true that I sometimes loop these when I should be doing something different.. but I'm not actually sure how to execute that technique. I have some idea but I struggle to do it, From what I've learnt from Brett I should kind of fold my torso so that I come down on the ball. But my muscle memory is so ingrained. My torso has always been quite static.

This session I was trying to take the ball earlier against the lobs as I sometimes even lift these high balls which is no good.
If you or anyone have some tips on how to execute the drive-kill technique I'm happy to hear it.. maybe with some experimentation I can get something to click.

Hi Richie,

Since you asked, and I wish to make a disclaimer, Richie is a much higher level player than I am, but in the spirit of sharing I will say my piece here.

But first allow me to show you two short video clip for illustration purpose:

Video No. 1

Video No. 2

Commentary:
Video No. 1 shows my kill-drive after a FH open up loop. My opponent blocks back high and I went for the kill-drive. Video No. 2 is similar but from a front angle.

Just for sharing, I prefer to give myself ample space to get ready for a big arm swing. The contact is rather high, almost at the height of my shoulder and the bat angle extremely closed and is almost parallel with the table.

I hope this is beneficial to you.

I see what you mean, so also on some pushes you mean I could go for a kill. I am struggling a bit with an injury in my right hip and also now knee and when I especially loop harder against backspin it feels worse after training. Like in the video below. So I've tried to avoid that movement. Could be a technical issue as well though. I guess on the higher balls I could follow through more on some shots, maybe I'm stopping my movement too much. But that would also make me recover slower for the next shot. Thanks for your feedback 😄

Originally Posted by Gozo

Your shots in the video above are very powerful and looks like those executed by the Chinese elite players. However, if you say you are injured, perhaps these shots are not so great at your current state with injury especially these power loop-kill type.

There are three loops seen at the 2mins 40 secs to 2mins 50secs duration that are very wonderful and looks much much less strenuous. You could perhaps go for these type for the time being. Also, these three loops look much more safer than the hard loop-kill ( in terms of percentage landing on the table ).

To recap:
1. These looks safer in terms of percentage landing on the table
2. Less strenuous to the body ( knees )
3. They are just as fast and spiny and dangerous to your opponent from my perspective. I mean they don't seem to loose their potency!

What a compliment lol. Yes later on in the video when I was feeling more tired I just tried putting it on the table with spin, which I guess is what I am trying to do more these days. But I hardly practice opening with FH anymore because of the injury. But right now the hip is not too bad so I think I will practice it again in some sessions.

Also in that video I was using chinese rubber (Hurricane 8). It was fun to use but it was not good for my body at the time - though I don't think the injury came purely from TT. I have severely underestimated the importance of strength training, if I knew what I know now I would've cut down on practice and slowly started strength training. I'm doing rehab for the injury now though. Shame some lessons are learnt the hard way.

Originally Posted by Richie

Some highlights from yesterdays training match. I tend to have some pretty epic matches against my teammate/friend here. We practice a lot together and I don't kill the ball that well which makes for some long rallies sometimes 😄.

Your friend has such a fun way of playing! He plays like he is good at other racket sports? is he a tennis player aswell?

I think you can win the ball easier if you change the tempo more. I think many players think it is good to play "hard" so you play hard all the time. After the hard stroke your friend finds a comfortable distance and can stay there forever haha. If you start playing like first hard 10, then hard 7 or hard 12 you will win the ball much easier.

Keep up the good work!

Originally Posted by Lula

Your friend has such a fun way of playing! He plays like he is good at other racket sports? is he a tennis player aswell?

I think you can win the ball easier if you change the tempo more. I think many players think it is good to play "hard" so you play hard all the time. After the hard stroke your friend finds a comfortable distance and can stay there forever haha. If you start playing like first hard 10, then hard 7 or hard 12 you will win the ball much easier.

Keep up the good work!

Yes, it makes for some fun games! He doesn't play tennis but he is good at padel and golf as well.

Originally Posted by Der_Echte

That is some serious dedication and a good example of how spread out TT action is in USA, a large country. Gene doesn't have an everyday club within a 3 hr drive I think. Many areas of USA like that right now.

wow, that's dedication gene. i will stop complaining about my measly 50 min drive (one way) to-and-fro one of my three local clubs 🚗