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says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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Could be a grade 1 strain, you would feel it by now if it was grade 2. Grade 1s heal up in a few days to a few weeks, unless it is exactly the fibers you use every day to bear weigh and bear it away from body, then those take longer.

I had a small scare a couple weeks ago, felt like a small grade 1 next to a nerve, bugged me the whole session, had to go low throttle... concerned me as it was rotator cuff, but a different part than I had torn in 2015.

I took 4 days off and I do not feel it at all.

At my age over 50, trying to move some weight the wrong way, like opening a window reaching, or lifting a large rock boulder can rip a part of the rotator cuff.

So many O40 or O50 end up with perpetual grade 1 rotator cuff tears from normal everyday life activities.
 
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So I played the NA Teams on Thanksgiving weekend. Travelled to the tournament with my wife in Thanksgivinf day, ate at a restaurant, checked into the hotel and went down to check in the team and myself. Usually I expect to have fun table tennis and crappy logistics. I spent over an hour in a line for checking in my team because people don't try to fix stupid processes. I warmed up with some friends.

Before the event I had kinda given up on trying to win events. My buddy who I expected to partner with primarily had a hernia so he couldn't play. Another guy who usually plays about my level gained a few pounds. We had another guy who was a pleasant surprise but we replaced my buddy with a lower rated guy who was young and added another younger junior. This left a gap between me and team in skill level though the pleasant surprise was close enough. Next year I will balance out the team better so that sitting out a match doesn't leave the team weaker.

On day 1, the teams usually play 4 matches to see where the team should be seeded. Because that day determines he average rating of your opponents and because I was the team's best player, I tried to play all the matches to ensure we had our best result. We beat the teams below us and one of the teams above us. In doing so, I went 7-0. Then the last match was against the team above us and it was a tough battle, but I lost two matches I could have won and admitted won one I could have lost to end the day 8-2.

So we ended up moving to a division where we were by any standard the worst team. Potentially, if we didn't have a democratic approach to playing matches or we had fewer players, we *may* have won a match, but the democratic approach (after all everyone paid) and the fact we went up a group made it hard to find wins. That said on Saturday, I had tough losses against two of the highest rated players in the group and then won my other two matches to finish 2-2 and close the tournament at 10-4. I let my teammates play the other matches as I has accumulated as many matches as everyone else (winning matches does that).

Some of the things I learned - I need to train serve return even more. I also need to work on my movement as best I can. I have good equipment that i mostly trust but i need to use it against better players. I also need to work on being able to flip any ball so I can focus on topspin and leave pushes only for short backspin. Finally, I need to work on killing easy balls with the backhand so I can pivot less.

All in all this was a great tournament, crappy logistics notwithstanding. Good stories, and the finals match for the first time since I have attended these things went the distance and the final game was deuce in the 5th with chopper Wang Xi scoring 5 points in a row to beat Eugene Wang 12-10 and clinch the match 3-2 for Team Joola.

Will be back next year and it is worth coming to North America for Thanksgiving to play if you can.
 
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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Crappy logistics... bahahahahahaha triple haha haha.

You pounded the wooden tent stake with the oversized wooden mallet on that one, so true.

Why would it take 1 to 2 hours to do something that should take a couple minutes. No one can ever figure it out.

It is tough to be a team leader, you are responsible to make winning squads and ensure everyone on the team gets their money's worth of matches. If your team isnt the juggernaut of the group, that is a fast ending mission impossible.

There will be one or two Team Trouble Makers there in Nov 2020.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 
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Crappy logistics... bahahahahahaha triple haha haha.

You pounded the wooden tent stake with the oversized wooden mallet on that one, so true.

Why would it take 1 to 2 hours to do something that should take a couple minutes. No one can ever figure it out.

It is tough to be a team leader, you are responsible to make winning squads and ensure everyone on the team gets their money's worth of matches. If your team isnt the juggernaut of the group, that is a fast ending mission impossible.

There will be one or two Team Trouble Makers there in Nov 2020.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Yeah you should make it. Unfortunately I lost my camera on Saturday but I played one of our classic "backspin and no spin serves" to the pips matches. Now I have to work on sidespin serves.
 
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Could be a grade 1 strain, you would feel it by now if it was grade 2. Grade 1s heal up in a few days to a few weeks, unless it is exactly the fibers you use every day to bear weigh and bear it away from body, then those take longer.

I had a small scare a couple weeks ago, felt like a small grade 1 next to a nerve, bugged me the whole session, had to go low throttle... concerned me as it was rotator cuff, but a different part than I had torn in 2015.

I took 4 days off and I do not feel it at all.

At my age over 50, trying to move some weight the wrong way, like opening a window reaching, or lifting a large rock boulder can rip a part of the rotator cuff.

So many O40 or O50 end up with perpetual grade 1 rotator cuff tears from normal everyday life activities.

i played on Tuesday for 3 hours after a 1 week rest, no pain at all.

but i trained today (Friday) for 2 hours with the coach, and towards the very end of the session, my shoulder started to feel pain again. I could still do FH topspin but I felt that if i continued, i would hurt it badly. Fortunately, we just finished our match and we packed up.

It sucks.

I think the pain is due to the fact i've changed a bit my FH topspin technique when a step away from the table, i'm trying to hit the ball a little bit more forward than before, so the arm is more extended than before at the end of the shot. It is way more effective but if my body can't take it... :-/
 
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
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Will be ponging at Boston ttc tonite with a large crowd. Likely forum legend Heavyspin and many players show up.

I am beat down physically but am gunna have such a blast meeting friends and drinking water.

Will prolly pong until 2 AM.

I intend on buying both the water and later the pizza.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 
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Der_Echte getting water ...
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Will be ponging at Boston ttc tonite with a large crowd. Likely forum legend Heavyspin and many players show up.

I am beat down physically but am gunna have such a blast meeting friends and drinking water.

Will prolly pong until 2 AM.

I intend on buying both the water and later the pizza.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 
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I haven't filmed myself for a while because i lost a lever of my tripod. So i bought it as a separate item, only to discover i hadn't lost it, it was just being attached to another lever . LOL on me.

Here is myself at the end of my 2H training session with my coach last Tuesday. I think I'm improving a bit especially my posture.

In the 1st half of the vid, i'm practising receive, then we play a match.

 
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I haven't filmed myself for a while because i lost a lever of my tripod. So i bought it as a separate item, only to discover i hadn't lost it, it was just being attached to another lever . LOL on me.

Here is myself at the end of my 2H training session with my coach last Tuesday. I think I'm improving a bit especially my posture.

In the 1st half of the vid, i'm practising receive, then we play a match.


It is only my opinion but it is a pity you can't do multiball I think you are under utilizing the coach. I would not even try to return his serve, I would focus on reading it. Then I would do multiball and push to him so he can open and I try to counter. You played some amazing points but not sure whether that is the way to build your game. It will be interesting to see the result of practicing with such a player , dealing with his speed and ball quality has to raise your level.
 
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i love to do multiball as well. I love to do that. But its just not very practical here. As you can see there is a lot of space and people around. But i will try again.

Ive done a few multiball sessions with him but not a lot. Actually i prefer to do multiball with lower ranked coaches or even a teammate because anyone can feed. there is a school where i still go from time to time to do multiball but i've not been there for more than a month. Also in the last month, my physical condition is a bit down, i used to go jogging once a week, and do a little bit of gym as well. I've started to run again (went out yesterday) but my shoulder is still hurting; When i feel better i'll resume multiball sessions.

With this coach compared to other ones i've had, the focus is less on technique, and more on playing a lot. Sakamoto would not play that fast against me. he would want me to focus more on basics. Here i need to adjust a lot of things just to get the ball back. I corrected my posture, improved my overall balance. I can't say i've improved much my FH or BH technique or serves with him.

what I like with this coach, is that obviously he is also enjoying. The one i had before was I think an even better player, and with a better technique but he was obviously bored doing his job and thats not very pleasant

anyway thanks for the feedback.
 
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i love to do multiball as well. I love to do that. But its just not very practical here. As you can see there is a lot of space and people around. But i will try again.

Ive done a few multiball sessions with him but not a lot. Actually i prefer to do multiball with lower ranked coaches or even a teammate because anyone can feed. there is a school where i still go from time to time to do multiball but i've not been there for more than a month. Also in the last month, my physical condition is a bit down, i used to go jogging once a week, and do a little bit of gym as well. I've started to run again (went out yesterday) but my shoulder is still hurting; When i feel better i'll resume multiball sessions.

With this coach compared to other ones i've had, the focus is less on technique, and more on playing a lot. Sakamoto would not play that fast against me. he would want me to focus more on basics. Here i need to adjust a lot of things just to get the ball back. I corrected my posture, improved my overall balance. I can't say i've improved much my FH or BH technique or serves with him.

what I like with this coach, is that obviously he is also enjoying. The one i had before was I think an even better player, and with a better technique but he was obviously bored doing his job and thats not very pleasant

anyway thanks for the feedback.

When I say multiball, I don't mean him just feeding you. That is also a waste of his time and qualify. I mean playing out specific sequences or patterns repeatedly. The biggest one is letting him open and you defend. It is just hard to get repetition using only one ball. I would push long to start the drill and let him open.

I like the focus on playing but I think that drills where you play are the right balance. Completely random play just seems too fast.
 
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ah I see what you mean !

don't worry for this. Sessions are 2h long and we do maximum 10-15 mns of free play at the very end of the session.

usually 1st hour (and a bit more) is drills / footwork. Then we do sequences/patterns or perhaps some receiving or serving or practising flicks for example then a small match at last
 
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The standard-issue 44mm ball kind of game over there is supposed to be required to use some very not-so-spinny and not-so-fast bats as well. Think of rec hall short pips sponge...

That doesn't make for lighting shots or 10,000 rpm action, but it does give much more of a chance for a rally to last more than 2-3 touches.

As chance will post number 10000 hast the number 10000 in it :D
 
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Now that the college semester is over I had a chance last night to play for myself, rather than train with the University club. I'm slowly learning to just have fun with the game, which is leading to me playing a lot better, with more mental strength to fight back from behind. I'm also learning how to change tactics to throw off opponents and adapt to their game, but definitely have many shortcomings.

I served for the first 15 minutes to work on spin generation on short serves - nobody is ever good enough at this.

1st match was an older gent club rating ~1600 that goes back and forth between Seemiller grip (inv/anti) and regular shakehand (2x inv), without much discernible difference in level. I first played him shakehand 2 weeks ago and won, then he beat me with Seemiller grip last week. He attacks well on both wings regardless of grip, gets good spin and can loop some half-long serves/pushes that are pretty ludicrous at our level. Today, I felt pretty good and was able to get him 3-1. I came back from 2-8 in the 2nd game to beat him 11-9, which is a huge achievement for me. He tightened up his game and was much more aggressive in the 3rd and 4th games, forcing me to really shorten up on my serves and be more aggressive in my attacking as well. I still got a little smash-happy at times, but overall I reminded myself to stay relaxed, move to the ball, and spin it.

2nd match is a younger guy, way under-rated at 1100, that has a lot of power in the open game but is unpolished in serve, receive, and tactics. In an open rally we're pretty evenly matched, maybe he even has the advantage. I knew I couldn't let him attack, and that my attacks needed to be higher and spinny. So that's what I did and it worked well. A couple times I'd attack flatter than I should and he'd smack it past me, and a couple times he'd do a fast serve to my wide forehand that I would either not even get to (poor positioning), or would have to try and smack back, and get clobbered. Overall won 3-0.

3rd match was against a rec player that just came to the club for the first time Friday after playing as a kid and stopping. He had a Stiga pre-made from Wal-Mart that was dead as a doornail and did a pretty good job using it. He kept the ball on the table and did very well for only ever playing ping pong and not table tennis. Seemed eager to learn, I hope he gets coaching and stays dedicated.

4th match was against a new learner, just 1 game since he had to leave. He's been getting lessons for about 6 months and is learning well, but just hasn't played enough to have game sense yet. I worked on my weaknesses and tried to attack everything with spin, even stupid shots, and won 11-8.

5th match was against a dude I've played probably 30 times and have a dead-even head-to-head score with. Older Eastern European guy that's a complete wall and can also slap the crap out of loose balls. He likes to serve and play fast and dead and I, quite frankly, freaking struggle with it. I think my biggest issue is that I don't do well spinning his fast, dead shots, and play right into his strong suit by driving the ball back to him. He jumped out to a 7-2 lead first game, then I calmed down and remembered I need my heaviest spin to keep him from blocking/slapping me to death. Got to 9-7 and he beat me 11-8. 7-11; 16-14; 13-15; 11-9. He had the better, more stable game today.

Happy about:
  • Footwork - finally relaxed and moving to the ball. Still get jammed in the middle sometimes, but I don't feel like I have cement shoes
  • Forehand spin and power
  • Backhand loopdrive vs dead/top

Need to work on:
  • FH vs flat/dead/fast
  • BH opening loop
  • Choosing between FH flick and FH push. Still trying to flick some stupid low serves and netting about 80%. The 20% that go over are winners, but I don't like those odds.
 
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