Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

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In Table Tennis, the terms TOUCH and FEEL refer to the art of how you contact the ball and how you feel the ball while it is on the surface of your rubber and blade face.

Below is a video. It shows Marcos Freitas doing some technical exercises that require a high degree of touch and feel. If you practiced the one where Freitas his hitting the ball against the edge of the table, except, perhaps started by doing this hitting the ball against a wall so you had a bigger window for success, this would help you improve how you touch the ball, because, for sure, how you touch the ball is absolutely an area you could improve:

Any of the other exercises would also help you gain control over the blade face. But probably, where you are at, the one that would be most useful for you to try and practice would be the first skill.

So Carl introduced to me Marcos' special training, sure will make my short game go ballistic. No problem. Hitting against the edge of the table is hard, I get it. I respect that, but against a wall? Too easy, I'm gonna nail this. Easy Peasy.

Until reality sinks in. I tried doing the first drill on a wall. It was surprisingly very difficult. The window of success and failure is so thin. Too soft and the ball limps away and too hard, the ball bounce away. I tried it until 10.30pm at night until my family complained to me saying they can't sleep while hearing the sound of ping-pong ball.

 
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The bat and ball skills, yes, it shows the feel of ball, the control of ball. It is the thing making me frustrated. When I was using penhold grip many years ago, I was able to play it as long as I wanted not to have the ball fall onto the ground, but I can't do it now with Shakehand grip. It sounds telling me 'you shouldn't have changed your grip'.😑
 
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"Gozo;376527"

So Carl introduced to me Marcos' special training, sure will make my short game go ballistic. No problem. Hitting against the edge of the table is hard, I get it. I respect that, but against a wall? Too easy, I'm gonna nail this. Easy Peasy.

Until reality sinks in. I tried doing the first drill on a wall. It was surprisingly very difficult. The window of success and failure is so thin. Too soft and the ball limps away and too hard, the ball bounce away. I tried it until 10.30pm at night until my family complained to me saying they can't sleep while hearing the sound of ping-pong ball.

And learning that control of the blade face where you start being able to do it will skill, against the wall, and then, with enough skill to do it within a very small area of the wall, and then, on the edge of the table, that will make it so, when you are touching the ball in short game, you have much more control and the ball does not fly up and away on you. But it also should start improving your looping skills to have more control of how your blade face touches the ball.

At the level you are at, it is hard to realize this, but having more precision and control of how the racket touches the ball is really very important to how you are able to handle and adjust to incoming spin.

When you are trying to do it, pay close attention to how much your blade face moves around, like wobbling side to side or being unsteady. Also watch how steady MFreitas's hand and blade face are while he is doing it. Watch closely to what he is doing while doing it.

 
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7-9 week update on crash recovery.

Been playing reduced striking, but full movement to ball for the last month. MCL is in the past, but if I do tennis too much consecutive nights, it creeps back, but goes away after a few days. maybe I need different tennis shoes or need to learn to levitate to position. Shoulder and neck still bothersome, but 1000% better. I think I can start going at it more intensely on FH now. I have a small niggling hip deep tissue tear trying to nurse, too much training with the Russian Church trying to go to balls on wide FH, plant and strike with short hip. This is always on and off injury overuse the last 5 years, I am closer in age to 90 than I am 18, so this is not a mystery.

I am doing the China TT Diplomacy tribute tourney in TT America and will try to play vs a couple 2100 or 2000+ to see if I will get back some rating points, I may have a good matchup, I may have crappy matchup. I want to get back 50+ points so I can be on same team as Scoobie Doo in the 2 player 888 teams - the top and bottom player must be within 150 ratings points. Maybe sum young-uhn will get Scoobie and he drops to 2050 and I get on squad anyway, who knows>

What I know is I need to peak mentally and physically for this tourney in 2 weeks... not much time left for physically, so I better be mentally tough and start my calm and menace protocol. I know my base level is there, but I really need to sync both phys/mental and not have bad luck with court/light/opponent... not worried overly too much though, with time it will show.
 
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Then there is the most important team event in Sacramento coming up... the China Day National Foundation Teams... normally you form a 5 player roster with the top 3 players' club/usatt rating not exceeding 5500... There are ALWAYS a few teams super under-rated and also have some great 4th/5th players. We won it last year wearing the best looking lettered team uniforms in the history of the city and maybe state. Somehow, even though the tourney was held in a gym where I NEVER can see the ball well (bad glare and poor light distribution plus white wall background/shiny floor) I managed to win all my matches and help us win.

There are likely 4 teams or 5 teams who will be ready for our blood this time... repeating is not easy. If we can field the same team, maybe our 3rd player will win more matches for us... another friend from Ukraine he is - Bogdan a lefty Long Pips BH wielding defender slash FH crusher attacker.

I hear NO ONE trying to get ready for this, it will be sneaky, the tourney is traditionally held in Oct... which is not that far off.

I know my friend HATES it when I say something that glorifies him... OK, I will officially announce that it is only mentioning his ACHIEVEMENT... TTD member erm, who is also the undisputed world's largest EJ, also won Tourney MVP the previous tourney (in 2019), so TTD members have won MVP the last two years running.
 
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And learning that control of the blade face where you start being able to do it will skill, against the wall, and then, with enough skill to do it within a very small area of the wall, and then, on the edge of the table, that will make it so, when you are touching the ball in short game, you have much more control and the ball does not fly up and away on you. But it also should start improving your looping skills to have more control of how your blade face touches the ball.

At the level you are at, it is hard to realize this, but having more precision and control of how the racket touches the ball is really very important to how you are able to handle and adjust to incoming spin.

When you are trying to do it, pay close attention to how much your blade face moves around, like wobbling side to side or being unsteady. Also watch how steady MFreitas's hand and blade face are while he is doing it. Watch closely to what he is doing while doing it.

Allright TTD members and lurkers... listen up and pay attention when Carl discusses touch or biomechanics... he will express it technically to a high enough standard, but will choose English words that will cause your brain to focus on the important aspects well...

...well... that is almost saying he is hypnotizing you... well, Carl IS good at hypnotizing... how else would he so consistently get the circus Goon Squad enticed to fall into his trap door for extended stays in his basement septic tank? (Hint - he has tightbody stockings/heels/mini-skirt lipstick wearing hired help assisting his efforts along with his advanced iphony spy phone tech on his side.
 
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I have tried boucing the ball against the edge. So difficult! Have anyone mastered it? Earlier in my coaching career i thought "having fun" were a waste of time. Nowadays i think loop loop, chopblock, smash against fishing and things like that could really help with the feeling of spin and touch.

Hope you recover well der echte. You seem to be a nice man 😃
 
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Thuls Early Coach said:
Hope you recover well der echte. You seem to be a nice man 😃

I am recovered enough to go at it again more intensity. Gunna be another month or two before this is totally behind me. but due to age and activity (I play tennis 2-3x a week too) it will be new niggle injuries... but bike riding mitigates a lot of that, just ask Upsidedowncarl, bith phys/mental.

As for being a nice man, there are two sides to the coin. By nature, I have both sides very active and strong, but anyone who has been around me long term KNOWS that I am more incline to be supportive of people and look for their best interests, whether that is getting in their face and chewing them out, or coughing up time and resource to ensure they succeed. Secretly, I AM a nice dude, but that isn't in the best intertest of my public persona, it might damage it if it leaked out that I am actually inclined be nice most of the time.

Also, the standards of what is considered nice is subjective. Add to the mix that I underwent the mental anguish of learning languages in not the best of circumstances, that was humbling too and makes me extra too nice and considerate where I should be ruthless. Even with that, you Lula are NOT a native English speaker, yet you function well on a minimum professional level in English, which is remarkable regardless of your years/decades of training, whixh is even more remarkable in the light that my own country of America if they go oversees RARELY tries to fnction in the language and even DEMANDS that everyone caters to their English language. You and hundreds of others have earned a lot of respect.

Acknowledging that is prolly why people think I am nice... and it is true for that particular circumstance, but let's not get carried away. I have my own perks that are not accepted by everyone.

Why overall redeems me IMO is that I am highly inclined to cheer for others where no one wants to cheer for them.... Mission support comes to me naturally for an odd reason.
 
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Then there is the most important team event in Sacramento coming up... the China Day National Foundation Teams... normally you form a 5 player roster with the top 3 players' club/usatt rating not exceeding 5500...

What kind of tournament is this ? I don't see it listed on USATT Tournaments webpage or OMNIPONG
Unless this is some private tournament ?

 
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What kind of tournament is this ? I don't see it listed on USATT Tournaments webpage or OMNIPONG
Unless this is some private tournament ?

Hi wahon... this CDNF teams tourney is held in the fall each year and is not a USATT sanctioned tourney, but nonetheless, a very important local tourney. Last year had 6 teams that were stacked and could go all the way. Our team won last year in battles of ringers. Here are the tourney historical results below.

China National Day Foundation/TT Tournament

If you are an out of town ringer, they are still welcome... I named our squad one year OUT OF TOWN TROUBLE MAKERS

 
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If you look close enough at the all-star team selection for 2021... you will see Sergey Scoobie Doo there, who we STILL need to get registered on TTD, (he needs major help registering !!) I named the squad for Sergey (his favorite nickname TSOS means something like THE SAUCE) you gotta ask him about it. We had professionally lettered jerseys.
 
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whats that got to do with Table Tennis ? it has nothing to do on this forum

I guess my post was already on the borderline for you, and then Gozo's was off-chart.

You're right,
Daily Table Tennis Chit chat
is not
"Table Tennis Daily" Chit Chat
:)

I'll keep that in mind. Such thread should be started though, there is also the "What are you listening" thread. Would you agree? Cheers.
 
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2 month update on post crash... knee cuts to bone almost completely healed, just some purple under the cuts no infection. Left shoulder still some grade one remaining, but I can sleep and cough and sneeze without pain, so good enough to call it good enough to go for heavy loads. Been testing MCL with 2-3x a week tennis, if I play 2-3 sets on consecutive days, will feel a weak grade one on MCL that goes away after a day or two off the pedal. Basically body is healed enough to get back to tourney prep and tourney play.

Registered for the Aug 13 China TT Diplomacy Tourney at TT America - in two rated singles events, should be able to face 2 players in 2000-2100 range, if I win one and defeat the one lower rated player I will face, then I should gain enough ratings points to qualify on ratings points to join Sergey Scoobie Doo Tsos for the important 888 TTC Two Player Teams Championship in October.

I played league in Citrus Heights gym this week, where I often suck so bad with the lighting I could lose to players 8 levels below my level - no joke I sometimes lose real bad in that gym. Won group Two 4-0 and was encouraged by winning last game to win the table after being down 5-10 vs an opponent I am 50/50 at best. Winning in a gym I do not like after not playing competitively for what seems like almost 6 months was huge. I should have enough fitness to play 4-6 matches next Saturday. Just got to get my mental state to peak for that day.

Will hang around day 2 of the tourney to cause trouble for LDM7's opponents' coaches. I hope he does well, it is damned difficult to show improvement on things in a real tourney in short time frames... but there is data gathering and data mining potential at a minimum that will help him down the road.
 
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Well, the tourney to get back enough ratings points to play in the all important 888 TTC Teams Championship is in 24 hrs. Building up mental state. Will get up relatively late - 6 AM and drive a couple hrs to venue to be there a couple hours early to get used to lights and sounds. This will be a 50/50 proposition, not guaranteed to have the opponents playing range I want, but will likely happen +/- a little. Gotta deal with it and as long as I have the right mind frame, I should be fine.
 
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I didn't get the results I wanted in the tourney.

Vs 2200+ lost 0-3 was only competitive in small stretches.
Vs Mid 2100s lost 1-3 had chances in every game
vs mid 2100s lost 0-3 he played me before and I was totally unfit by the time this match happened
vs 1800s under rated bomber won 3-0 had to really take charge and attack first, this guy is a real crusher. I showed my level in this match, but there will not be a ratings gain to get on Sergey's team after this tourney.

I will need to lose another 30 lbs to be able to sustain a crouch in a match and throughout match day.

Overall, I got the expected results... how I player was very encouraging vs the lower rated and one of the higher rated. I gotta drop wieght so I can stay crouched and play the explosive offensive style I have settled on.
 
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