Today I played alot of TT at the state center.
First I played with a guy which I played against 3 weeks ago in pennant. That time I won with difficulty, 3-1. Today I played him, and won relatively easier 3-0.
Then I had training with a coach. He tried to teach me to use my forehand to loop those balls that are barely bouncing off the table. I still haven't got it yet, because I am too scared of hitting my blade and my hand against the table edge. Then I told him that my backhand sucks, and he gave me multiball to try to improve my backhand. I am still very unhappy with my backhand, I don't know how to improve it faster....
My forehand however, was quite smooth, and was praised by a grade A player as well as the coach.
After the training, there is a handicap tournament. Based on our ranking, we get different number of points at the beginning, and we play until 31 points. So grade A players will start at 0, as my rating was based on my penhold, I only get to start with 4 points...
First I played against a grade D player, who is probably between C and D, and he get to start at 16 points while i start at 4... I won finally 31-27.
Then I played against a young grade A player who is improving very fast. While I get to start at 4 points, i still lost very badly, 17-31... There were some good rallies when I get to use my forehand.
Third match, I played against another grade A player, this one changed from penhold to shakehand 1 year ago. This time I nearly won, but lost 31-30. I was quite happy with my performance, but he was also very strong, he would let me open up with my spinny loop, yet he will back off the table and then counterloop hard on my super spinny loop.
Fourth match, I played against a Grade D player, and won quite easily from 4-16 (starting point) to 31-20.
Fifth match, I played against the player that I played at the very beginning, the one that I won 3-0. Because he had a rating of a C grade player, he starts at 12 points while I start at 4. I lost 27-31. I felt too tired at the end of all those matches, and my shoulder was starting to feel tired.
Things I learnt today:
1. I really need to improve my backhand so I don't just rely on my forehand to gain points. I really hope I can have a backhand that is at least as good as my RPB if not better, so it can create more opportunity for my forehand. If anyone has any ways of improve backhand, I would love to know.
2. If someone can counter loop my spinny loops, I should not always loop to their forehand, and instead loop to their backhand areas.
There are probably more that I learnt, but right now, I am too exhausted to think of more. Time to have a rest before playing more tomorrow.