Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

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I am switching to a 4 days a week schedule excluding coaching days. Coaching days will be exclusively for coaching with no training.

Yesterday was league night but I was not in the mood to drive an hour. So I went to my regular club. I was also committed to Eternity VPS V + Hexer but I hadn't used it before. My spin came back to me and I was impressed with the Eternity. Felt like a smaller SPW. But when I played a match, the loss of blocking speed hurt me as I missed my T5000s. A guy I have been beating recently won the first match 3-0 but I asked for a rematch and adapted and won the next 3 matches. The smaller head size of the Eternity shows promise and I like its handle. I will be playing with it and coaching with it and may do a more direct comparison with the SPW soon.

I looped chop and my consistency came back, but I also felt the slower speed of the blade. This might mean Tenergy 05 or 80 at some point in the the future or even Omega V Tour but right now, Hexer it is. A player at a league I play at beat a former Olympian with Hexer. I really should stop wasting so much time on equipment.
 
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says I am just looking for someplace to play during a week...
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In Austin visiting my buddy. Played with a couple of junior players for a while which always is fun as they always seem to want to try something wild they saw on a video. Then I took an hour long lesson. Went super. We worked on my backhand service return to take the ball closer to my body and brushing the ball. Worked on my footwork a lot also. Did not realize the hour was up until he called it.
 
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I went for my regular hour and a half at my regular club on my way back from work.
One of my friends was visiting. He came in late. I was playing my old coach , who kept messing me up with his pushes using old tenergy . I figure out a strategy after I was down 2-0 , started serving long side and side top and try to smash the return. But I was already tired from my intense warm up and the first two sets , kept overhitting the smashes , it was also because the guy is pretty good at fishing from behind. Anyways it was too late by then and lost 3-0. My friend came in by now and we wanted to play , went over to a table where a young kid was standing already , after losing his last match, out of courtesy asked him to play my friend and it turned out to be a mistake :) . Same old, no warm up , I am too good for you , misplaced ego , my friend was pretty riled up after that session. By that time I was playing singles against my regular partner, was quite warmed up and motivated to beat him. Went up 2-1 and then had a match point, I had driven him off the table with my loops and got an easy put away near the net , tried to chop smash it but missed it :( . He came back to beat me in the 5th :( :( . Somehow, I am not playing good in clutch any more , not sure why, need to figure out, may be my body is tensing up and I am not thinking right ....

Had a few fun doubles to end the night... it was good fun , just feeling bad for my friend. He ended up getting one of his older partners from another club and seemed quite happy rallying against him by the time I left , I hope he had a good time ... lessons learnt :) .
 
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I'm peaking at the moment and taking full advantage of it. The regular players at my club that are at or slightly above my level I demolished 3-0 yesterday. I then asked a former professional player who now has a lot of fun with long pips If he'd bless me with the opportunity to hit against them. He told me he didn't bring them but would gladly hit with his regular rubber with me. He's lefty btw, if that matters.

We had a short warmup as I didn't want to waste his time, he's between 2100-2200. As we started our match (he supposedly has fantastic serves, but since I don't watch contact of the ball on serves they didn't bother me). I won the first game I want to say 11-8 but it may have been a steeper win. The second game he had won 14-16. I was feeling great, looping everything just feeling fantastic in general, playing way over my usual level.

The man was dripping with sweat, he proceeded to saying "I need to change paddles, I'm getting too tired" and low and behold, he switched to the long pip raquet I wanted experience against. He beat me handily the next 2 games 11-7, 11-9. Although the scores were close they were convincing wins on his part.



Today, the day after this event occurred I wen't to my coaches house for lessons. Her husband (the second best player at our club) congratulated me upon walking in the door. I had no idea what he was talking about but he explained. Apparently the guy that I played was scared sh!t!ess and was talking about how he was certain if he didn't change paddles he was going to lose. This made me feel pretty good about myself and how I played that night.





Now came lessons. All my strokes took very little change to get down. My coach has finally decided I'm well rounded enough (to her this means able to do all strokes, whether it be loops, hits, smashes, chops, off table chops, and place them wherever I want at will comfortably). Now she wants to work more on tactics and enhancing my better strokes to a higher degree.

Needless to say, it's been a good couple days of table tennis.
 
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It happens to everyone until you get used to that level. Don't give it any mind.

On the match video clip you shared of your best pointment, I noticed some non-standard fOrmond and technique which you could probably refine. Learning standard technique and using it all the time till you can control the balls of good players is the simplest way to gain confidence. Otherwise you will be forever experimenting when certain questions should be closed in your mind on how to approach certain balls correctly. I tell people that in practice it is better to block one way and produce a consistent ball than to have 5 blocks that don't really change the quality of the ball. That one block will adapt itself over time to different spins based on your read and it will be able to handle better balls under pressure. Your five blocks will cause confusion and uNess they produce radically different spins, the confusion will be mostly yours.

Thanks for the encouragement. I haven't been trying to block the ball in different ways apart from forehand and backhand haha, and that forehand I did in my 15 second video is not the typical forehand that I would do. But fair points though.
 
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I'm peaking at the moment and taking full advantage of it. The regular players at my club that are at or slightly above my level I demolished 3-0 yesterday. I then asked a former professional player who now has a lot of fun with long pips If he'd bless me with the opportunity to hit against them. He told me he didn't bring them but would gladly hit with his regular rubber with me. He's lefty btw, if that matters.

We had a short warmup as I didn't want to waste his time, he's between 2100-2200. As we started our match (he supposedly has fantastic serves, but since I don't watch contact of the ball on serves they didn't bother me). I won the first game I want to say 11-8 but it may have been a steeper win. The second game he had won 14-16. I was feeling great, looping everything just feeling fantastic in general, playing way over my usual level.

The man was dripping with sweat, he proceeded to saying "I need to change paddles, I'm getting too tired" and low and behold, he switched to the long pip raquet I wanted experience against. He beat me handily the next 2 games 11-7, 11-9. Although the scores were close they were convincing wins on his part.



Today, the day after this event occurred I wen't to my coaches house for lessons. Her husband (the second best player at our club) congratulated me upon walking in the door. I had no idea what he was talking about but he explained. Apparently the guy that I played was scared sh!t!ess and was talking about how he was certain if he didn't change paddles he was going to lose. This made me feel pretty good about myself and how I played that night.





Now came lessons. All my strokes took very little change to get down. My coach has finally decided I'm well rounded enough (to her this means able to do all strokes, whether it be loops, hits, smashes, chops, off table chops, and place them wherever I want at will comfortably). Now she wants to work more on tactics and enhancing my better strokes to a higher degree.

Needless to say, it's been a good couple days of table tennis.
Congratulations Shuki.
 
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Gathering information that is probably not going to do much. Don't pay me much mind - it is my way of berating myself and saying that I really need to work on my plays.

You seem to be pretty good at assessing what gear will hlep you with different aspects of the game. Like how you were able to generate so much spin that you could loop from under the table and get the ball to arc back down, onto the table with the Stratus Power Wood.

In testing faster blades you have been researching whether a faster blade can help reduce stress on your shoulder. You have more things to consider in playing with the health of your joints and mobility issues than most people do. And your technique is solid enough that you can use any kind of blade or setup and use it productively.

So the information you are gathering does help you with valuable information like the tradeoff between spin/control/placement and more power from the equipment to protect your joints. But the important thing here is, not only is this something that helps you, you are also in the rare position to help other people with all you have learned, through experience, about table tennis equipment.

So, I would just say it is more to put on the TT resume.

I mean, how many people on this forum understand and get me when I recommend a Stiga Allround Evolution to one player and an Innerforce ZLC to another.

It is more rare than you realize when someone can put information in context and help people based on what their actual needs are. What most people do goes like this:

Q: I'm a beginner, I'm just starting out. What should I get?

A: Get TB ZLC and T64. It's the best.
A2: I use ZJK SZLC and T80, it's better get that.

Sensible Respondant: show us some video and we may be able to help you figure out what will be best for you.

Not many people would be able to think that someone else may need something different. Most people if they saw the video footage would still be clueless as to what the person needs. You are one of the rare people who would be able to tell from footage what kinds of setups would be useful for different players of various levels.

That is because you keep testing theories and different equipment. So don't sell yourself short. [emoji2]


Sent from Deep Space by Abacus
 
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Dear everybody, thank you for the congradulations.

Today was another great day. very little drills primarily games. I hadn't played a single player under usatt 2000. I played 5 matches. I won every match first 3-2, then 3-2, then 3-0, then 3-1 then 3-0 again. I feel like I'm peaking hardcore since I have never and still do not feel like I'm even close to that level. The game is becoming quite exciting for me again and hope I can milk this peak as long as I can until I fall back into my next rut. This was one of those days where I had quite a crowd watching and cheering my on in hopes of playing me next.

Never in my table tennis career have I felt so loved with other truly wanting to play with me. I'll be doing a tournament again soon (july 10), a very small one. 0 stars. I'm currently just a measly 1696 rating. So I'll be competing in the U1700, U2000 and the open.


Lately, I'm not sure if it's the processing speed we've all talked about, but it really seems like the ball is coming in slow motion, have any of you experienced this phenomenon?
 
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Yesterday, I broke my rules and played a couple of matches on a rest and coaching day. Here is the video tape. IT's a guy I usually beat - I beat him easily in the first match, then I started experimenting and junking around and lost the next game 1-3. In the rubber, I messed around a little and thought I could pull it out 0-2 down, but I missed a lot in the 3rd and he became more aggressive and I lost 0-3.


I looped to block after the matches vs another player and practiced my ball control. I figured out a few things about my technique that were not easy to implement with the SPW because of its larger head size that I should be able to do with the Eternity. This blade is really going to help a lot.

No videotape today.

The first thing I did was add grip tape - I think my fingers are addicted to it. Today, I played a guy who has been getting better and beat me 11-8 in the 5th the last time I played him. Today, we played with a ball I hate (chinese seamed butterfly) while I used my Eternity +Hexer+ Grip tape. With seamed Chinese balls, my flat hit game often goes into the tank and up 10-6, I missed a lot of flat hits and lost 10-12 in the 5th. Could have won with a little more focus so I am happy with how I played.

I then played a man who used to be 2300 in his youth. He is now in his 60s and his eyesight and mobility is not what it was. He is still a mean player and when I used a T5000+ Hexer, I was down against him 8-10 in the 5th and came back to win at deuce. We were using one of those terrible balls. This time we used a NP40+ and the matches were not even really close. I was pretty much blocking all his loops to all the most annoying places and it's hard to play when you don't have the health to be consistent and your opponent is.

I then played a guy who has had my number in tournaments. He beat me 3-2 in the first match, I then beat him 3-0. Then he beat me 3-1, then I beat him 3-1 and 3-0. But against him, I write off all these until I win in a tournament.

But the Eternity era has come. Like an SPW but with a smaller head size. Great balance. Great for smashing too. The last was the best surprise.
 
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Drilled my forehand for a solid 90 minutes on friday. Just forehand because my regular practice partner was busy attending guests and I found the only guy available was our penhold forehand specialist in the club. He has a tournament this weekend and hence did not want to spend any energy. I started by warming up my forehand using flat strokes and then moved to loops. Experimented with different timings and different level of bends for the knee. My main aim was to take the ball at the waist level so that I keep my shoulders low. It seemed to help for the most part and I seemed to get a lot of easy power. Its difficult to tell the quality but I felt it was definitely better than trying to bend down too low and intuitively seemed to more helpful in transition from fh-> bh and vice versa. I guess time will tell.....

then we moved to counterlooping for a while but he was trying to stand close to the table and counter off the bounce, which even though was a good practice for me in terms of footwork and retrieval loop , I felt it was a bit lopsided because I was having to generate all the power :) and continuously move . So after a while I asked him if he was willing to do the same of a third ball attack which he also seemed to find more practical. Spent the last part of the evening serving forehand short under spin and opening to his forehand , so that he could counter the loop. He was finding it difficult to begin with because the amount of spin was more than before but we slowly got adjusted to it . I tried doing it off both wings but did not work out that well because the ball quality is distinctively different because of different techniques and rubbers on either side. Anyways, something to work on , and the next plan is to do it of a fifth ball after dropping it short on the third ball. I love this exercise , seems to help on both footwork and feeling both.

Anyways, had the cut the session short because I started feeling pain and tightness on my left shoulder and arm for some reason, it was even getting difficult for me to toss the ball , woke up today with a swollen right palm and painful right wrist which is understood but the whole left side pain was a little werid , any ideas why that might happen , have you guys experienced something similar .. ? I feel I might have put pressure on the left neck muscles which started working its way down to the shoulder and the arm .... I will see if strecthing the neck on that side helps.
 
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Long and tiring session today, my body is exhausted and mind reinvigorated.

About three hours of drills with some specific training against LP/SP with our coach. Tennis elbow somewhat under control, I was going back and forth between SPW (all wood head heavy) and DPPC (balanced carbon blade) and it didn't make a difference to my elbow, but looping against LP chops where a LOT easier with SPW.

Still had problems against short pimples, my tempo is so out against it and I have also problems reading the amount of spin and positioning myself against it, I'm doing a lot better against LP something expected since I use to play against a couple of LP players every now and then.

Didn't play a lot of matches because I'm taking care of my elbow, but the drills went fine.
 
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Monster,

looks like you got a nerve or three irritated somehow. Could be bad sleep position straw on camels back, could be you do something repetitive and straw happened, maybe you carried something or lifted something wrong, could be a lot of things. Some stuff to look at to figure out your cause and get it away.
 
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I won league Spring season Open division with 81% winning record. Haha, owner is 100% and wont list himself as winner. Area has several 1700+ players capable of defeating me and it sometimes happens. I have played so much TT the last 4 months I have been taking a day or two off purposely a week. Body tells me when I broke that rule.
 
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Drilled my forehand for a solid 90 minutes on friday. Just forehand because my regular practice partner was busy attending guests and I found the only guy available was our penhold forehand specialist in the club. He has a tournament this weekend and hence did not want to spend any energy. I started by warming up my forehand using flat strokes and then moved to loops. Experimented with different timings and different level of bends for the knee. My main aim was to take the ball at the waist level so that I keep my shoulders low. It seemed to help for the most part and I seemed to get a lot of easy power. Its difficult to tell the quality but I felt it was definitely better than trying to bend down too low and intuitively seemed to more helpful in transition from fh-> bh and vice versa. I guess time will tell.....

then we moved to counterlooping for a while but he was trying to stand close to the table and counter off the bounce, which even though was a good practice for me in terms of footwork and retrieval loop , I felt it was a bit lopsided because I was having to generate all the power :) and continuously move . So after a while I asked him if he was willing to do the same of a third ball attack which he also seemed to find more practical. Spent the last part of the evening serving forehand short under spin and opening to his forehand , so that he could counter the loop. He was finding it difficult to begin with because the amount of spin was more than before but we slowly got adjusted to it . I tried doing it off both wings but did not work out that well because the ball quality is distinctively different because of different techniques and rubbers on either side. Anyways, something to work on , and the next plan is to do it of a fifth ball after dropping it short on the third ball. I love this exercise , seems to help on both footwork and feeling both.

Anyways, had the cut the session short because I started feeling pain and tightness on my left shoulder and arm for some reason, it was even getting difficult for me to toss the ball , woke up today with a swollen right palm and painful right wrist which is understood but the whole left side pain was a little werid , any ideas why that might happen , have you guys experienced something similar .. ? I feel I might have put pressure on the left neck muscles which started working its way down to the shoulder and the arm .... I will see if strecthing the neck on that side helps.

Go see a doctor. Symmetrical irritation is a dangerous arthritic symptom so get that possibility eliminated asap.
 
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Thanks @Der_Echte and @NextLevel.

NL , thanks for the pointers , please don't think I am ignoring your advise, I will give it some rest and if it happens again one more time I will surely consult a doctor. Just want to make sure its not a freaky occurrence , it happened for the first time yesterday.

I do have a habit of not getting any sleep unless I sleep on my side , so its sometimes difficult to separate out the root cause . I will try nonetheless ...
 
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Wednesday I had group lessons with my coach and there's a player that I often a little tension with. I like to conserve my energy for the multi-ball drills and the footwork drills, and we got to a point where (there were 3 of us) coach doing multiballs with one player and the other 2 on another table practicing games. This player gets very frustrated with me because he's seen how I play people when I'm trying hard. The balls I was giving him were pretty weak, just returning it, sometimes high, knowing he struggles with highballs, as well as not giving him my real serves. He got pretty livid and I didn't tell him it was to conserve energy. I told him I play everyone differently and this is the kind of stuff that works on him. If it didn't work I would be trying something different.


So long story short after a bit of argument over facebook messenger later that night, he tells me that I think I'm a lot better than I am, and that on Saturday (today) he's going to bring some players from work who will kick my butt and put me in my place. I thought this was a pretty funny accusation since I consider myself only 1600-1700 level. Just a balanced player. I sometimes have good days where I play above my level, and sometimes I play at my level. (I only feel like I play below my level if I'm planning on the loss working on something in games that I wouldn't I'f I were truly trying to win.)


Lucky for me, I'm still peaking. Today I played his work friends... they were 1800'someting and 1950'something. I beat both of the 3-0 whilst not trying in a way that I would consider trying very hard.. The better of the players said "he's definitely legit, pretty even on both wings, I couldn't find a weakness".

I still think these players a better than me, maybe I had a good day and they had a bad day. Maybe it was just a matchup. But I think it finally got this guy to stop saying arguing with the way I play with him. Especially once he saw how I played each of these players so differently from each other.
 
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