Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

Thanks for the advice guys! An example: One of the guys that I have a real hard time playing against is a former national level tennis player (in Germany). I usually win the point easy if I manage to execute a spinny slow loop but the issue is that I quite often misjudge the spin on his chops as some of them are pretty much no-spin and my loop ends up 1m too long. He's really tricky since he has a great mind when it comes to playing for placement (which I guess comes from his tennis background) so it's not that easy to get the chance to execute the loop. On top of this I don't think that I've ever seen him miss a chop. They may be crap but they still land on the table. He's actually got a quite nice drive/smash which he pretty much only uses on service returns so serving a long topspin serve is a really bad idea. Frustrating as hell.

I think that I've avoided training with these guys as I've been very focused on learning certain things like the BH loop and it's so much easier to train such things with players who have a more "standard" technique.

Hi guys I had a 2 hour training session with young coach M today. When i arrived there, I realized I forgot my bat at the sports center yesterday :-( [hope nobody stole it, and someone gave it to the general desk]

So I used my spare bat, a Korbel with T80 + SpinArt instead of my upgraded setup Acoustic Inner Carbon + same rubbers.
With the new and faster blade, I had to adjust my BH technique, because I used to have a tight grip when looping to put a lot of spin, but with the ACI all those balls would go over. So I relax much more my grip and use more my body. Whats interesting is that getting back to the old bat, i keep the new technique but I have much better results than with the old one.
I didn't know I could get as much power and spin from that Korbel.

Which shows that changing technique is more important than changing of a setup. But with the setup upgrade, I was FORCED to improve my technique and thats a very good thing !

Interesting, I have used both and I found the Acoustic Carbon Inner to be slower than the Korbel. Depends on the specific model though.

In general the acoustic models are conservative in speed for carbon blades and slower than BFLY ALC ones.

the feeling of both blades is similar but the A.C.I. is definitely faster and gives more power, especially when stepping away from the table. I'm using exactly the same rubbers so there is absolutely no doubt for me.

Both are excellent blades. So given its price, the Korbel is a steal !!! Its still a bigseller in Japan, #3 according to http://world-tt.com/ps_goods/goods_ranking.php
while the A.C.I. doesn't make it

Team tournament today. Played 3 singles and 1 doubles. Only won one singles. The first guy I played I should have beaten him, but i wasn't warmed up properly, i was feeling some pain in my knees.

2nd guy was stronger, but I could move better, and i won 3-2 a very good game with a bit of luck.

3rd guy was too strong for me, I couldn't handle his serve so that I lost easily I got fooled by the sidespin. Most of the time, i wasn't even hitting the ball because i got the timing wrong...

Here is the video of my only win of the day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kMk_p3-Tbg

The Korbel is great

I also played a tournament today. 1 win and 3 losses. Still quite happy since it was in a higher ranking class compared to my normal class. Nothing wrong with the equipment just the complete lack of footwork. At least I’m beating players that I would’ve lost to 6 months ago. Not too shabby for someone who has only played in a semi structured way for 1 year. Things will improve. 1h multiball booked tomorrow.

Played a veteran's tournament yesterday. There were a few setbacks recently; my old neck hernia acted up again, whiplashed calves ditto, and an attack by stray dogs that deeply tore into my quadriceps. So play suffered for a few months. But last week was a good week, which made me eager to play.

The veteran's tournament was a wonderful event. A lot of people having a lot of fun. Participants were divided into pools by rating, and I entered into the highest-level pool of six. Five of which considerably higher rated than me, and playing two, three levels higher. One player higher rated, but within my level.

Games were played using the old rules: best of three, sets of 21, five points a service turn. I started out playing pretty much OK after a good warmup with a team mate. Turns out my first opponent (a leftie, playing offensively with anti on the BH) would later become later tournament winner. I took the first game, then he adapted and managed to derail my game and kept me locked out of it smartly. A tight loss in three.

The second match was a catastrophe from the start. A cunning defender figured me out quickly once I had stormed into a 7-1 lead, and then turned the table; I didn't stand a chance afterwards. Messy serves, messy pushes, but so tight, fast, spinny and deep that I just had no good response. Some of them I couldn't even open. There is much to learn.

The third one was against the highest-ranked player (that would later lose to my first opponent). The rallies were pretty much mine, once I got to take initiative. However, he was such a strong server that I think over the entire match three out of five of his serves were outright winners, or immediate third ball kills. I kept up for a bit, but when trying to get in charge over his service did not manage to read them properly in time.

After that, two solid wins, in matches in which I consistently took initiative, did not rush to finish the point. I finished them quite comfortably, feeling pretty much in control all the way. So I ended in fourth place, slightly better than I'd have expected.

Had a lot of fun, and the best part of it: played unimpeded by pain and strain. First time I've been able to hit a deep FH spin in months, and quite smoothly to boot for the entire day. Looking forward to more of this.

mart1nandersson said:

The Korbel is great

I also played a tournament today. 1 win and 3 losses. Still quite happy since it was in a higher ranking class compared to my normal class. Nothing wrong with the equipment just the complete lack of footwork. At least I’m beating players that I would’ve lost to 6 months ago. Not too shabby for someone who has only played in a semi structured way for 1 year. Things will improve. 1h multiball booked tomorrow.

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It was a fun tournament! Did you play anyone from Safir?

I was the blonde Guy with short hair and black overall running around trying to coach my players. Coaching is tough, you get tired!

Takkyu_wa_inochi said:

Team tournament today. Played 3 singles and 1 doubles. Only won one singles. The first guy I played I should have beaten him, but i wasn't warmed up properly, i was feeling some pain in my knees.

2nd guy was stronger, but I could move better, and i won 3-2 a very good game with a bit of luck.

3rd guy was too strong for me, I couldn't handle his serve so that I lost easily I got fooled by the sidespin. Most of the time, i wasn't even hitting the ball because i got the timing wrong...

Here is the video of my only win of the day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kMk_p3-Tbg

Click to expand...

Do you not run before the warm up? Found it verydisturbing that my players Did not run before the warm up in yesterdays tournament. We Do this on every practice But they choose not to Do it on the tournament day. That made me a bit angry.

Do you Do rock paper scissors for the serve? Never sen that before. Cool!

Is tournaments in Japan always this like messy? Proably the wrong Word, lack of good english. I mean there are people sitting in the court while you guys are playing and your coach follows you into the court while coaching. Find this strange.

Not a tabletennis question. Is it easier to catch a cold in Japan or are people more afraid of it? I see that they have masks on.

Back to tabletennis. Did not have time to watch the whole thing so migth not be correct.

The few Times you miss i felt you Did not read the spin of the ball correctly so you Did not change the angle or motion. Always try to watch What the opponent are doing.

I also feel you seem to have a strong backhand. If you always try to play them in bh bh and win, then you are better in bh bh and should keep them there. This could proably be more effective against penholders that only play one side since they often have a weaker backhand.

Lula said:

It was a fun tournament! Did you play anyone from Safir?

I was the blonde Guy with short hair and black overall running around trying to coach my players. Coaching is tough, you get tired!

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Yeah I met a little chubby kid from Safir (unsure how old... 10-12?). I lost something like 11-8 14-12 11-8 to him. He won a lot on my frustration... i.e. push-push-push... then I eventually get frustrated and try to open up which sometimes goes a bit too long. Still quite happy with the fact that I won the majority of my points on offensive initiatives as opposed to him making mistakes. 6 months ago I wouldn't have scored more than 2-3 points per game against him so I'm ok with the progression and the NSK youth coach thought that I looked much better than before. I guess that I will need to find a balance and play a bit more clever.

mart1nandersson said:

Yeah I met a little chubby kid from Safir (unsure how old... 10-12?). I lost something like 11-8 14-12 11-8 to him. He won a lot on my frustration... i.e. push-push-push... then I eventually get frustrated and try to open up which sometimes goes a bit too long. Still quite happy with the fact that I won the majority of my points on offensive initiatives as opposed to him making mistakes. 6 months ago I wouldn't have scored more than 2-3 points per game against him so I'm ok with the progression and the NSK youth coach thought that I looked much better than before. I guess that I will need to find a balance and play a bit more clever.

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Okay, proably Ebbe or Einar. It makes me very frustrated to see them being afraid to make the opening loop. We practice opening loops every practice, but yet they do not feel secure to make the shot and miss a lot when they do.

You need to change your tactics then. Try doing a sidetopspin, topspin serve so they are forced to flip or loop, or the ball wil be high and you can kill it. We are going to go home and practice alot short sidetopspin serves. There is not much flipping on that level, much pushing on short serves so if you can do a good short sidetopspin the ball will be high and you can kill it. We also need to learn all serves, and be able to do all placemnet. It is hard to coach when you can not tell them how to serve because they do not know the serve.

Maybe you can train opening loops at the multiball, a good way to practice it.

Lula said:

Okay, proably Ebbe or Einar. It makes me very frustrated to see them being afraid to make the opening loop. We practice opening loops every practice, but yet they do not feel secure to make the shot and miss a lot when they do.

You need to change your tactics then. Try doing a sidetopspin, topspin serve so they are forced to flip or loop, or the ball wil be high and you can kill it. We are going to go home and practice alot short sidetopspin serves. There is not much flipping on that level, much pushing on short serves so if you can do a good short sidetopspin the ball will be high and you can kill it. We also need to learn all serves, and be able to do all placemnet. It is hard to coach when you can not tell them how to serve because they do not know the serve.

Maybe you can train opening loops at the multiball, a good way to practice it.

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Don't get me wrong. He did open up a few times but it was a lot of pushing (even when I executed a few aweful returns). He did seem to struggle with long pure topspin serves but attacked my long side/top quite aggressively. But then again you can't really blame them for pushing a lot if their playing style wins them matches but I guess that they will need to play more aggressively in the higher ranking classes.

Topspin serves is a fairly new thing to me. I've only been practising this for about a month but I'm already seeing some good results in matchplay. The thing I'm really struggling with right now is to produce a short and LOW top / sidetop serve. I see a great potential in this against these destructive players.

mart1nandersson said:

Don't get me wrong. He did open up a few times but it was a lot of pushing (even when I executed a few aweful returns). He did seem to struggle with long pure topspin serves but attacked my long side/top quite aggressively. But then again you can't really blame them for pushing a lot if their playing style wins them matches but I guess that they will need to play more aggressively in the higher ranking classes.

Topspin serves is a fairly new thing to me. I've only been practising this for about a month but I'm already seeing some good results in matchplay. The thing I'm really struggling with right now is to produce a short and LOW top / sidetop serve. I see a great potential in this against these destructive players.

Click to expand...

Okay. try aiming close to the net on your side for short serves.

Lula said:

Do you not run before the warm up? Found it verydisturbing that my players Did not run before the warm up in yesterdays tournament. We Do this on every practice But they choose not to Do it on the tournament day. That made me a bit angry.

Do you Do rock paper scissors for the serve? Never sen that before. Cool!

Is tournaments in Japan always this like messy? Proably the wrong Word, lack of good english. I mean there are people sitting in the court while you guys are playing and your coach follows you into the court while coaching. Find this strange.

Not a tabletennis question. Is it easier to catch a cold in Japan or are people more afraid of it? I see that they have masks on.

Back to tabletennis. Did not have time to watch the whole thing so migth not be correct.

The few Times you miss i felt you Did not read the spin of the ball correctly so you Did not change the angle or motion. Always try to watch What the opponent are doing.

I also feel you seem to have a strong backhand. If you always try to play them in bh bh and win, then you are better in bh bh and should keep them there. This could proably be more effective against penholders that only play one side since they often have a weaker backhand.

Click to expand...

Thanks Lula for watching and your comments.

No we had a warmup at the table for 30minutes, but we are at least 8 on each table; playing in diagonal only, one ball at a time , alternating with at least another pair. Then while my buddy was playing his single, i ran for 5minutes and did some shadow ping. But thats not the same than being on the table. I also think my sleep was too short and that didn't help

Yes it is the tradition here to decide with rock paper scissors (JAN KEN PON) who will serve first, instead of tossing a coin for example.

This was a team event, i think there were 140 teams of 2 or 3 players attending, and only like 32 tables max (4x8 ?)
There is a seating area upstairs but players like to keep their things downstairs near the tables. We had 3 blocks of 4 teams playing for each 2 tables... Central Tokyo is quite a dense city ! lots of people here...

Thats also why before the match begins, there is time only for 3 balls to warmup at the table, there is no time out system at our amateur level, and thats also why the point is never called to be replayed if a ball comes into the playing area. It really needs to fly over the table, or hit a player for that to happen...

Its winter here and pretty cold. You will see plenty of people in the streets or metro wearing masks, both to prevent becoming sick - or - to prevent spreading the sickness if one has a cold and is coughing already... The pollen season is also soon starting so people wear that for this reason as well.

----

as for reading the spin, yes i can get fooled, especially between no-spin and backspin. My Receive gets worse when i get tense when trailing behind usually. Also i am fighting the tendency to decide what shot to play when receiving BEFORE EVEN the server has served ! because it means i won't be even looking at the spin.

Thanks for complimenting the BH. I feel more secure on the BH side. On a simple drill BH to BH compared to FH to FH, i will be much better on the BH side, able to play at higher speeds with no mistakes even against much better players. FH is improving though. I am usually happy when my opponent wants to attack my BH. Only on BH receiving i feel not so confident.

I am more afraid of people attacking me my FH straight from the BH side, whether its pivot attack or even an agressive push. Fortunately i don't tell that to my opponents before match. The better players get soon notice of course, but the others don't and find me a tough nut to crack

Another great evening. I crashed the academy/cadet training session and got to play there for 45 min. Then 1h practice with the normal amateur group mainly against an LP player where I was told to loop-push-loop-push-etc. Then 1h multiball with the coach where the main focus was BH to FH transition. Random multiball is sooo tricky.

FruitLoop said:

Interesting, I have used both and I found the Acoustic Carbon Inner to be slower than the Korbel. Depends on the specific model though.

In general the acoustic models are conservative in speed for carbon blades and slower than BFLY ALC ones.

Click to expand...

It depends on whether you engage the carbon or not. It is very hard for a wood blade to compete with a carbon blade on power shots.

So as I try to come back, the main frustration is that after I play, I feel as if I need to put my knees into a cryogenic chamber. How long I can keep this up I don't know, but my ball quality has mostly returned and I actually think my strokes are better now even as my footwork is shit.

I really like Fastarc G1 and I credit the rubber with some of my enthusiasm to play. It does what I need to do without fuss. It has also made me hate the softer plies like limbs and hinoki that I once really liked.

I love the Akkad... but... I need a carbon blade. I don't have the quality of movement to get into position and play power shots. And I need to be able to block off the table. The Akkad helps, and I can beat players under 1900 reasonably well with it. But when I need to put the ball by a 2000 player or even block a ball back with pace, it just doesn't work if I step back and against better players I need to buy that time. I wish I had found this blade 2 years ago but back then the balls were still shit so something else could have affected my choice of equipment.

So when it comes to blade the search continues. I have settled on harder outer plies which makes my repertoire of blades shit (almost all hinoki or limbs except my Timo Boll T5000). I did have a Qabod that DerEchte sent to me as part of a trade and I used it today. Will continue to test but my brain has changed a bit. I thought it was a brick the last time I used it (likely the outer plies and a not so great rubber). Now I like harder outer plies so I am going to use it for a week and then review.

NextLevel said:

So as I try to come back, the main frustration is that after I play, I feel as if I need to put my knees into a cryogenic chamber. How long I can keep this up I don't know, but my ball quality has mostly returned and I actually think my strokes are better now even as my footwork is shit.

I really like Fastarc G1 and I credit the rubber with some of my enthusiasm to play. It does what I need to do without fuss. It has also made me hate the softer plies like limbs and hinoki that I once really liked.

I love the Akkad... but... I need a carbon blade. I don't have the quality of movement to get into position and play power shots. And I need to be able to block off the table. The Akkad helps, and I can beat players under 1900 reasonably well with it. But when I need to put the ball by a 2000 player or even block a ball back with pace, it just doesn't work if I step back and against better players I need to buy that time. I wish I had found this blade 2 years ago but back then the balls were still shit so something else could have affected my choice of equipment.

So when it comes to blade the search continues. I have settled on harder outer plies which makes my repertoire of blades shit (almost all hinoki or limbs except my Timo Boll T5000). I did have a Qabod that DerEchte sent to me as part of a trade and I used it today. Will continue to test but my brain has changed a bit. I thought it was a brick the last time I used it (likely the outer plies and a not so great rubber). Now I like harder outer plies so I am going to use it for a week and then review.

Click to expand...

Dude, kudos to you for fighting your way back despite your body being as beaten up as it is. Cool to see someone enjoy the game to that degree and I (let's be honest here, the whole forum as well) hope you can figure out a way to play to a level that makes you happy again.

I played tonight at uakron and really had a blast. Warmed up with their #1 JV player and did serve-push-loop drills the whole time. It was nice for me to work on pushing wide to the corners and fast to the middle. He ended up making quite a bit of progress in the drill, but, as always, it was harder for him to use that sequence in a game.

Next, I played with the Varsity #2 guy. He wanted to work on varying his serves so I got A LOT of sorely needed serve return practice. I tried some flips if he served loose or if I read his top/no serves early enough. He doesn't get insane spin but he varies well enough to keep you off balance. After that drill we played a best of 3. He won in 2 but the games were close, which I'm thrilled with because he's a solid level, possibly two levels better than me.

That was most of the highlight, I sent the rest of the time with a complete beginner, teaching him how to hold the paddle and contact the ball. Honestly, I know I'm not qualified to coach someone that's so new, but he needed some help and I tried my best. We finished up practice with doubles and then got some bad news...the #2 varsity player is ineligible to play this semester because he is on co-op (internship for engineers) and does not have an official GPA this semester. Tough break for the team, but we're going to try and bring up a guy from JV and work really hard with him so he might be able to contribute a win or two in February's division tournament.

TTD member "erm" game me two each Stiga Intensity Carbon blades... 88g and 84g... with dynamic rubbers.

Got to hit 2 hrs today.

Gotta say these things are spin machines. I like me some spin.

Practiced 45 minutes with 2150-2200 level Scoobie Doo Sergey and touch with short receive is there, flipping is even better.

I conclude I could play this blade, the Persson Power Play, the KJH, or Akkad and not lose a thing in the critical shots I do the most.

NL MIGHT like this too, but the top end isn't overwhelming until you really whack it.