Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

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DTTCCers!

Hope all are healthy and safe!

I didn't update on my gear change. I don't recall the exact name(s) and when I have a chance I will post pix.

Stopped using my Taksim carbon blade and went to a Stiga wood CPen. Don't recall name, it had a hollow handle. Some kind of technology making it faster or something like that. I used it maybe since Feb 2020 until mid-March. Started gettting used to it. Using BigDipper as FH and one of the Nittaku sheets for RPB ("SpinArt" ... "Spin" ...???) Put my new blade in temporary storage. Out of sight, out of mind, spare me the agony of missing TT :(

~osph
 
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says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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Hey Old-School, I had thought that either you couldn't find your way out of Carl's secret hideout basement or that a famous LP defender/fashion model had kidnapped you, held you hostage, and when no one could pay ransom, had you wash dishes and do housework for those months to equal the price of ransom.

I lost 10 lbs since Oct by hiking... hey, only another 20 to lose before I get down to the size you saw me last... then another 30-40 after that to get close to any kind of weight accepted as recommended by whoever.
 
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About 3 and a half years ago I came back to Sweden after having lived in England for 6 years. I got to meet Nicky (the one with the dark hair) who's been a damn good training partner since then, always having a fun practice and great games. We have probably played a million sets against each other. I remember at the start we would just play set after set, like 10+ sets in a row.

Nicky is an around the net master, it's a shame the camera stopped recording last week just as he hit an insane backhand around the net (almost looked like it went under the net). Fun fact: Nicky hit 2 around the net shots in a row against Kanak Jha's sister, in a match. We always tell ourselves to record but rarely do. Hopefully we'll record more and capture some of those shots in the future :D

The clips with the red floor are 1-2 years old now I think. We are fortunate that we've at least been able to practice a bit during these times, the government owned halls are closed so we rented tables in a privately owned hall. Have to make the most out of it and enjoy every minute while we can :D

Nicky put together this highlight video, I think he wants to do some review type stuff later on.

 
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says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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Hearing the sound of impact from Nickie's bat, it sure sounds like a slower more vibrating bat, almost like a DEF+, but it just could be a faster bat glued a little looser. Either way, he controls the ball like he wants, so there is that to to the haters out there.
 
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I'll take 9 points handicap from either of you :)

Too many ;)

Hearing the sound of impact from Nickie's bat, it sure sounds like a slower more vibrating bat, almost like a DEF+, but it just could be a faster bat glued a little looser. Either way, he controls the ball like he wants, so there is that to to the haters out there.

He uses a clipper, I tried it the other week and it did indeed vibrate a hell of a lot! I think you're right about the gluing, from what I remember his rubbers usually come off easily :D. That's some ear you have there, amazing observation haha.

Indeed, Nicky has great control, he's sick at chop-blocks too. I will never come close to Nicky's creative play. I feel like I'm more of a brute force player, I try to open with a lot of spin as soon as I can and try to counter hard.
 
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Health is decent - knees suck badly, but bigger fish to fry. Have kids now. After being in great shape in August, I have now lived it up a bit with the stress and combined that with bad sleep and not training has led to me dropping a lot of form. Will need to training to get sharp. And will need to drop 10lbs likely.

Wow Congrats on that man! I guess that puts things into perspective :) Still i am sure you are going to come back strong!
 
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Recent training with Nicky.

Trying to retrain my backhand for the 1283465th time. Originally I had problems overusing the wrist. Much later a coach told me to use more forearm, then I tried to use more forearm, but my body movement was all wrong and I stopped involving the wrist at all, or when I did I used it too consciously and would angle it in some strange way. Then I tried to add body movement and only used forearm.

A very good player last week showed me that the elbow should be pointing pretty much down at the end of the swing, this is the result of the the whole movement being completed. I think I often keep my elbow pointed a bit to the side and often wouldn't complete the swing. I've never seen it before because when good players do it the elbow points down for a fraction of time and the backhand side of the racket from pointing down instantly snaps back to the side. In this vid I was trying to complete the swing, but I still think I can snap my wrist back more on the backswing this close to the table.
 
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Trying to retrain my backhand for the 1283465th time. Originally I had problems overusing the wrist. Much later a coach told me to use more forearm, then I tried to use more forearm, but my body movement was all wrong and I stopped involving the wrist at all, or when I did I used it too consciously and would angle it in some strange way. Then I tried to add body movement and only used forearm.

A very good player last week showed me that the elbow should be pointing pretty much down at the end of the swing, this is the result of the the whole movement being completed. I think I often keep my elbow pointed a bit to the side and often wouldn't complete the swing. I've never seen it before because when good players do it the elbow points down for a fraction of time and the backhand side of the racket from pointing down instantly snaps back to the side. In this vid I was trying to complete the swing, but I still think I can snap my wrist back more on the backswing this close to the table.

I want to live in paradise!

I can't comment on the elbow in BH. What I noticed is that it helps me to hit the ball little bit more on the left side (which for you means right side) in compare to the BH drive (which is more in the middle of the body). Then the (rel. small) waist rotation better "propagates" to the arm. Still your BH is more consistent than mine.
 
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latej;338919I want to live in paradise!

I can't comment on the elbow in BH. What I noticed is that it helps me to hit the ball little bit more on the left side (which for you means right side) in compare to the BH drive (which is more in the middle of the body). Then the (rel. small) waist rotation better "propagates" to the arm. Still your BH is more consistent than mine.
I don't think this is what Richie is talking about when he says that someone told him his elbow should point down at the end of the followthrough.

If you hold a racket in your hand, extend your arm and make it so that the blade face with the BH rubber on it is facing down, you may see why this direction was given to Richie.
 
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Recent training with Nicky.

Trying to retrain my backhand for the 1283465th time. Originally I had problems overusing the wrist. Much later a coach told me to use more forearm, then I tried to use more forearm, but my body movement was all wrong and I stopped involving the wrist at all, or when I did I used it too consciously and would angle it in some strange way. Then I tried to add body movement and only used forearm.

A very good player last week showed me that the elbow should be pointing pretty much down at the end of the swing, this is the result of the the whole movement being completed. I think I often keep my elbow pointed a bit to the side and often wouldn't complete the swing. I've never seen it before because when good players do it the elbow points down for a fraction of time and the backhand side of the racket from pointing down instantly snaps back to the side. In this vid I was trying to complete the swing, but I still think I can snap my wrist back more on the backswing this close to the table.

Richie, to me, those BHs do look fine. But, if you were more relaxed and had a fuller followthrough, what this player was telling you about the elbow pointing pretty much down at the end of the swing (end point of the followthrough), your elbow would point down. I am pretty sure of it. What is happening is that you are not following through fully.

But I have a feeling, for what you are doing, that might be okay. And in the context of taking a fuller swing, that might just happen to you for you naturally.

As I said to Latej, you could also take a racket in your hand and extend the arm out as though you had done a complete BH followthrough and see where the BH rubber is pointing and you may see why that is a natural followthrough position for the BH: it is entirely consistent with the biomechanics of extending your elbow joint (moving forearm from 90-degree angle [or more] to straight position [full extension]).

But what I am seeing is you adjusting to a variety of shots and angles and making choices. Which, I think is fine in the context of what you are doing. However, if you were more relaxed and got more whipping action from your forearm (bent to straight as described above), you might get more power. Where would that be most useful? Probably further from the table.

And I bet if you played around with making your BH really relaxed and whippy, what he was telling you would happen. Again, when would that be most useful? The relaxed part is always good to play with. But your BH looks pretty decent in spite of the fact that it could be more relaxed. :)

 
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follow through.png

UpSideDownCarl;338926

Richie, to me, those BHs do look fine. But, if you were more relaxed and had a fuller followthrough, what this player was telling you about the elbow pointing pretty much down at the end of the swing (end point of the followthrough), your elbow would point down. I am pretty sure of it. What is happening is that you are not following through fully.

But I have a feeling, for what you are doing, that might be okay. And in the context of taking a fuller swing, that might just happen to you for you naturally.

As I said to Latej, you could also take a racket in your hand and extend the arm out as though you had done a complete BH followthrough and see where the BH rubber is pointing and you may see why that is a natural followthrough position for the BH: it is entirely consistent with the biomechanics of extending your elbow joint (moving forearm from 90-degree angle [or more] to straight position [full extension]).

But what I am seeing is you adjusting to a variety of shots and angles and making choices. Which, I think is fine in the context of what you are doing. However, if you were more relaxed and got more whipping action from your forearm (bent to straight as described above), you might get more power. Where would that be most useful? Probably further from the table.

And I bet if you played around with making your BH really relaxed and whippy, what he was telling you would happen. Again, when would that be most useful? The relaxed part is always good to play with. But your BH looks pretty decent in spite of the fact that it could be more relaxed. :)

Yes Carl you're spot on! In an older bh vid I posted here NL and Echte told me it looked like I was hitting the ball too far in front, I was scratching my head over this and wondering why and how I could fix it. I now wonder if the reason for that was because I wasn't following through properly and I somehow compensated so that I could still hit the ball. I've always had in my mind that the elbow shouldn't point down and always be up, but if I watch any good player hit BH's, even on blocks and counter hits, very often the bh rubber and elbow points downwards for a very brief second. Stopping the follow through also makes me look tense. And yeah indeed further from the table there'd be more drawback of the forearm and more use of the body. In the vid above I felt like I was on the right track and maybe I have done the right thing before but I didn't understand it so I've gone back and forwards with stopping the motion because I thought that was the right thing to do.

In the first pic which is from an older BH vid it doesn't look like I've followed through properly, right? It's a small difference but I think it's there. I was quite amazed that that player spotted this.

 
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Hi Richie... I do not obsess exactly where my elbow is. For the BH shots, I worry more about being in position on time... and being sure ball is coming to the strike zone. I can make a small adjustment in all directions... but it better be a small adjustment.

I worry about position and getting my upper arm in motion to set it in place to use for pivot... so my lower arm can impulse close to table or I can whip lower arm further away. I move upper arm to position if I need to adjust a little, but I keep upper arm still. It is a rotational pivot along axis of elbow to shoulder with elbow point relative same position through swingto contact.

Close to table doesn't require much backswing. The stroke isn't very long either. I might strike ball 25 cm in front of chest and follow through another 15.

A step or more away I can take a longer backswing to my left hip and a long swing that finishes with arm extended... and yes, elbow points down after the swing.

I think worrying about that will mess you up.

If you focus on being in position loose to impact ball in prime area of strike zone, then you will likely make a better bh shot.



Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk
 
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says Spin and more spin.
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Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words and since not everyone is an anatomy or a biomechanics geek, but that is part of my profession.....

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That is William Henzell. He has a pretty whippy BH. Part of what I was hinting at with the idea of taking the racket and holding it with your arm extended and your elbow pointing down was that, if you try it, you will see that, if you do that, the blade face will be closed like it should be at the end of, and through the heart of, a BH topspin stroke. If you are closing your racket and you followthrough far enough, to keep the racket facing down, your elbow will have to end up pointing down as well.

Otherwise you end up with what sometimes happens to beginners who don't know how to close their racket that, they start with the racket facing down and by the time they are hitting the ball the blade face is at a vertical angle and not at all closed.

The idea of taking the ball closer in actually makes a lot of sense. You would have a lot more power if you did that because you would be contacting the ball from a point where the arm is actually more fully loaded [has more leverage] so the kinetic energy of the stroke would transfer more power to the ball.

But I still think your BH looks darn good, particularly since you are really using it dynamically in quite a variety of ways. Those spinny opening loops with a lot of arc look sweet. Also, one of your friend's over the table FH rips looks monster: totally evil. :)

What would it look like if you posted footage of you doing block training where someone is feeding you multiball backspin and you are just ripping the hell out of the ball? I have a feeling you would see some of the stuff you are saying you need to change in your BH if you did a drill like that where every ball was the same and your job was to rip the cover off the ball. :)

Probably if the footage was multiball topspin and your job was to rip it, you would see a slightly different variation on how you were performing the stroke but you would also see some of the elements you think you need to work on. :)
 
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