Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

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your club probably has a mirror in the bathroom or something, then you can shadow stroke on a table before gameplay, so your feet will be going the correct distance and you're doing your shadow strokes right where your real ones would be.

I LOVE shadow strokes.

When playing table tennis heres the order in which I do stuff.

1.dynamic stretching
2.Shadow strokes without footwork away from table
3. footwork near to get blood moving down in my legs. touch one net post, shuffle around to the other net post, touch. repeat.
4. start fh-fh warmup, then bh-bh warm up, then chopping warmup. usually after warming up chops me and my training partner will start off with a chop game.
5. Now I can move on to games.
 
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I think I am in my first ever camp, so to speak, possibly because I am the organizer at my home club. Brett has been trying to fix our games for the past 4 days of camp. We've worked on serves (of course), short game (flicks and pushes, especially with the forehand), proper forehand footwork and a million other subtle things that I probably will have to review the video for. High level table tennis is incredibly technical. The number of times that I have performed two superficially similar motions and had Brett say "wrong" and "right" is ridiculous. Whether you put a foot down first before or after you swing changes everything about the stroke and footwork!

We did some forehand footwork yesterday. Right now, I am exhausted and we didn't even drill for that long in the big scheme of things (maybe 30 minutes of just the forehand exercise itself, though about 2 hours of table work is reasonable). Makes me wonder what those guys in China who do this for hours are made of - they must rotate drills.
 
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your club probably has a mirror in the bathroom or something, then you can shadow stroke on a table before gameplay, so your feet will be going the correct distance and you're doing your shadow strokes right where your real ones would be.

I LOVE shadow strokes.

When playing table tennis heres the order in which I do stuff.

1.dynamic stretching
2.Shadow strokes without footwork away from table
3. footwork near to get blood moving down in my legs. touch one net post, shuffle around to the other net post, touch. repeat.
4. start fh-fh warmup, then bh-bh warm up, then chopping warmup. usually after warming up chops me and my training partner will start off with a chop game.
5. Now I can move on to games.


Great routine ... thank you! Sadly i play at a club that is usually overcrowded. We do not have the luxury of a table to warmup and NOT hit balls. Someone that has next will see it and says I'm not playing and try to take my spot LOL

But i'll adapt your routine somehow minus the chopping. Generally players at my club do fh-fh, maybe loop-block next, maybe loop-counter loop, bh-bh and then game starts. Generally 10, maybe 15 mins warmup.

There's an area with no tables, i'll incorporate the shadow drills there.

Thank you again!
 
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Makes me wonder what those guys in China who do this for hours are made of - they must rotate drills.

We as players/fans on the outside see their games and marvel at their skill (any world-class competitor, not just China's) but some of us sometimes don't think of the hours upon hours of training they do.

The road to greatness is paved with hard work.

Thank you for the service video you were able to post and for the AAR. Sounds like a great investment on your part!
 
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Last night, had my gear with me, intending to hit the club after work. Wife calls and says we have to go do something. So after we finished, saw it was only 8:30, i went and hit for 45 mins.

My friend M2 weds night reglued for me. Last night i hit with him, he wanted to see me loop to see if the regluing helped. I was not warmed up, and all spastic with my loops :( He saw i was too wild. Another player finished on another table and M2 suggested i hit with him. Same spastic FH and loops. As i knew club was closing soon, chose to just block so my partner can practice his fh loops. do some minutes of FH and then we did bh-bh. I think i'm getting used to punching/push-blocking and blocking on bh side with my new racket.

Not sure if anyone knows of Chuck Knoblauch, former 2nd baseman for Minnesota Twins and NY Yankees. Towards the end of his career, he had a mental block and couldn't throw to 1st base. I feel like Knoblauch, too self-conscious, mental block on the short stroke loop.

Perhaps like Carl said of his friend, maybe i'll just decide the big stroke loop is me and not forcing the short stroke on me. But i'm not giving up yet, will keep at the short stroke loop for some time.
 
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Perhaps like Carl said of his friend, maybe i'll just decide the big stroke loop is me and not forcing the short stroke on me. But i'm not giving up yet, will keep at the short stroke loop for some time.

Sometimes repetition helps. Here is what I was actually saying. If you are not warm and in a groove, working on something that you don't do well, will not lead to good results. So if you are having trouble with looping with a different or a short stroke, you definitely should not be trying it when you simply are not warm.

If you have done the other loop many times and the ball is doing what you want and you feel in sync and you have time, and you have shadowed the stroke you are not used to several thousand times, then working on it at the table is okay.

But trying to do the one you are bad at doing when you aren't warm, have not shadowed it enough yet, and are pressured for time, will probably not produce good results. It is the hardest thing to change the mechanics to a stroke from big to small. You have to try at right time, in the right forum for working on that kind of thing.

When we hang out, I will show you some tricks to get the motion while you are not on the table.
 
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Sometimes repetition helps. Here is what I was actually saying. If you are not warm and in a groove, working on something that you don't do well, will not lead to good results. So if you are having trouble with looping with a different or a short stroke, you definitely should not be trying it when you simply are not warm.

If you have done the other loop many times and the ball is doing what you want and you feel in sync and you have time, and you have shadowed the stroke you are not used to several thousand times, then working on it at the table is okay.

But trying to do the one you are bad at doing when you aren't warm, have not shadowed it enough yet, and are pressured for time, will probably not produce good results. It is the hardest thing to change the mechanics to a stroke from big to small. You have to try at right time, in the right forum for working on that kind of thing.

When we hang out, I will show you some tricks to get the motion while you are not on the table.


LOL I'm a dunce at times... I totally get you and thank you for spelling it out!

At work, as i leave the desk and go to the men's room, i do the stroke, as i walk in the streets, i do the stroke --- lol at me.


BTW, I blame 42andbackpains for jedi mind tricking me!
 
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LOL I'm a dunce at times... I totally get you and thank you for spelling it out!

At work, as i leave the desk and go to the men's room, i do the stroke, as i walk in the streets, i do the stroke --- lol at me.


BTW, I blame 42andbackpains for jedi mind tricking me!

"Somewhere in a far off land. In a mountain side cave, a barely visible figure sitting crossed legged motionless like a buddha statue. Suddenly the slumbering statue closed eyes open with the brilliance of a burning sun. Instantly he smiles with a evil smirk and says, "OldschoolPenholder your time for regret has come, your slandering will no longer be tolerated"
 
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"Somewhere in a far off land. In a mountain side cave, a barely visible figure sitting crossed legged motionless like a buddha statue. Suddenly the slumbering statue closed eyes open with the brilliance of a burning sun. Instantly he smiles with a evil smirk and says, "OldschoolPenholder your time for regret has come, your slandering will no longer be tolerated"

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

The Sleeping Dragon has awakened!
 
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You wouldn't believe how long it took me to learn to actually block with the proper posture and blade angle. Let's not even talk about the evolution from driving to looping.


I wouldn't sweat it too much, if you haven't completely changed your stroke by tomorrow. ;)

LOLOLOL not truly sweating it (well, physically sweat as i exercise lol) -- just progress report for the Chit Chat thread. I have what i call the 'new video game' attitude. Brand new video game, I expect to 'die' many, many, many times until I finally get the nuances of the video game and 'live'.

Kind of funny about blocking ... I've gotten to a point that when I block i adjust racket angles for what i see of the incoming shots... more often than not, the block returns successfully and volley keeps going, but i sometimes wonder if i adjusted a degree or 2 would i really miss? Actually, thinking about it now, as I type this ... I will miss, as some I've misjudged the speed/power/spin of the incoming shot.

Sometimes I marvel at the Human Body ... it makes so many adjustments subconsciously ... I don't have a "dead blade" - i don't block with the same form. I make adjustments, sometimes to the point of a vertical angle instead of horizontal! Didn't really think of it, I'm just zoned in to block and make micro-adjustments. Carl posted a vid 1 or 2 weeks ago of him hitting/looping to me and I noticed my block angles varied.

Deepest gratitude to TTD's daily chit chat thread!
 
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Today I went to the club shortly after some afternoon sleep. I felt my reaction was slower in the beginning, it was quite hard to focus and choose a ball to attack. Right when I entered the club my coach asked me to play a man I would've beaten easily in any other day, but today I lost overall 5-2. I actually played bad almost until the end when I had some very good counterlooping with my chinese friend.

It seems that another bubble is appearing on my Hurricane. I felt recently like the ball was slipping on the rubber and the son of my coach has also tried my racket and said he didn't the rubber spinning the ball. But I asked my friend about the spin on my loops and he said it was still good. I won't hurry to change something and will see how the rubber behaves in the near future.
 
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Since tony's post is his 2000th, with a bit of nonsense to go with it, I'd like to make my own post that has no table tennis talk in it.

I would like to thank OldschoolPenholder. The reason I'd like to thank you, is that it's rare to find new members that are as active as you are. Usually the ones who are as active when they're new are spouting their pro tips (dinosaurus), and other random posts just to get those post counts up and be recognized as a regular forum member. I love the way you came in, with long posts, friendly, trying to improve while helping others. Just talking the game and putting your personality into your posts. You're not overly serious about things and in my short time on this forum I haven't seen someone join with such force and acceptance. it is well deserved and I thank you for joining.

Just remember, don't let the goon squad get to you. If they approach, run.
 
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He's already been given some goon squad bait and capture drills and training without even realizing it. And remember, he played doubles with me/against Der_Echte + PPH, and against me and Der_Echte with PPH the day before he jumped on this crazy rollercoaster ride of a forum. And on that occasion, 42andbackpains was the instigator and the camera man. [emoji2]

So I doubt he will be recommending techniques he does not know how to perform or making videos of himself belly dancing shirtless to post on the forum.


Sent from Inside The Chamber of Secrets by Patronus
 
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I would like to thank OldschoolPenholder. The reason I'd like to thank you, is that it's rare to find new members that are as active as you are. Usually the ones who are as active when they're new are spouting their pro tips (dinosaurus), and other random posts just to get those post counts up and be recognized as a regular forum member. I love the way you came in, with long posts, friendly, trying to improve while helping others. Just talking the game and putting your personality into your posts. You're not overly serious about things and in my short time on this forum I haven't seen someone join with such force and acceptance. it is well deserved and I thank you for joining.

Just remember, don't let the goon squad get to you. If they approach, run.

Hello Shuki:

Whoa! I'm deeply honored! THANK YOU! *taps microphone* Is this thing on?

Back in the early late 70's and early 80's, I played 3x a week. 42andbackpains and I were part of a group of friends who practiced a lot together. 42&bp came back to the game ~2 yrs ago, I've been back for a little over a year now (since June 2015). We both had about a 30 yr absence. Had my annual physical last year in Aug and the doctor said i had to lose weight. Too busy with Life with raising a Family and work, I somehow ballooned like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man/Ghostbusters.

I have a few physical activities I'm passionate about: billiards, martial arts, and table tennis. I figured I'd get back into TT and MA as billiards is costly as I don't have my own table. Most importantly I needed to be more active after a sedentary lifestyle if I was to lose weight. I needed to do something physical I enjoyed doing that I would not feel like I was forced to do because I had to lose weight. I enjoy TT and have fun with it. Since June 2015, i've been playing 1x/week. Since June 2016, I've been playing 2-3x/week. August of this year, had my physical and the doctor told me I lost 17 pounds, ~1.5 lbs a month. Need to lose more, will have fun with TT and MA :)

Sometime in June 42&bp invited me to play with UpSideDownCarl and him. I did and had fun. Although during the 2 matches, most points were over in 3 shots... only a handful saw 5 ball volleys. Didn't play well, I had many unforced errors.

Then Der_Echte made the call about the Goon Squad assembling. 42&bp contacted me and said Carl and some friends were going to get together... interested? I joined in.

Reflection of that night re: doubles ... I used to play in a Friday night League ages ago... 11 matches - 9 singles, 2 doubles. Sometimes I would also play doubles in tournaments. Singles - i didn't play enough tournaments. Would choke here and there. At best I peaked at 1300+. My playing level is probably 1400. Somehow, I don't recall how or when I picked up on some doubles tactics, but Der_Echte and Carl articulated perfectly how a doubles team should play and it dawned on me, I did some of what they said.

As the club was closing down, 42&bp and Carl informed me of this site. So I joined and learning some things.

Anyway, I'm not an attention whore, i know what i know, pay it forward when I can. I call Alex Tam my 'sifu'... he taught me penhold pips basics. I couldn't master the bh smash which he was known for. He had me work with Richard Ling, whom I call 'Dai Si-hing', he worked with me quite a bit when i transitioned to penhold inverted. I also had a lot of help from Vicky Wong, Doon Wong, and Rey Domingo (here was a 2400 player lobbing to me and try as I might smashing his lobs, I couldn't penetrate his defense... he helped me out tremendously). So indebted to others before, I pay it forward. Help out when I can. I know what I don't know and I won't pretend to know it just to speak.

So I sincerely thank the members of TTD on the Daily Chit Chat thread offering advice and posting their sessions. Gives me focus, ideas, and continued drive in my sessions. For anyone that read through this FRAT post, thank you sincerely! I can be long-winded/long-typed-posts LOL

Very truly yours in TT,

~Oldschool Penholder

p.s. I'm camera shy, so huge Props and Respect to NextLevel for consistently posting videos of his sessions/matches!!
 
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He's already been given some goon squad bait and capture drills and training without even realizing it. And remember, he played doubles with me/against Der_Echte + PPH, and against me and Der_Echte with PPH the day before he jumped on this crazy rollercoaster ride of a forum. And on that occasion, 42andbackpains was the instigator and the camera man. [emoji2]

So I doubt he will be recommending techniques he does not know how to perform or making videos of himself belly dancing shirtless to post on the forum.

Really sad we didn't remember to video the doubles ... some great shots!

Yeah, I'm not the type to speak on stuff I have no knowledge of. I know when I should shut up and just listen and be a sponge and soak in the wisdom of TTD.

If I think I can help, I would chime in ... I'm just a 1400 player who is 51 yrs old and trying to recapture some of my youth LOL

Thank you Carl!
 
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