Butterfly Michael Maze ALC vs Hurricane Long V

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The thing is , she does not want to play that game , she wants to play a looping game . She prefers to loop than drive on the backhand so I figure she cannot do that and not have a powerful loop on the forehand side , otherwise she loses advantage on the forehand side ..

Okay. So, our picture seems more complicated. Do your best to explain as many of those details, as you understand them, as you can.

- Her BH could be used from mid-distance because she loops.

- Her FH close to the table has a bit more drive and not as much spin. Like many women players.

- From further back she loops with her FH.

- ¿She wants to loop from closer, but is having trouble generating more spin?

- ¿And she wants to shift her game to be more like the men's game power looping from mid-distance?

Are those correct?


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You have put your finger on the problem NextLevel .... I will get her to practice blocks first whenever we drill ....
The thing is that too many people learn to topspin without learning to block. It is possible but difficult to develop a close to the table topspin without a proper understanding of a close to the table block. She doesn't know how to play a forward topspin and she probably thinks it is a good thing because her game looks more like the men's game but the problem is that she can't play close to the table.
 
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Yes Carl, all of these are true ... also she has this habit of keeping on increasing the power till the blocker misses and I told her that she needs to focus on consistency and the objective of drills is to get a handle on spin and placement with 60-70% power and not to go through the blocker ... and as NextLevel pointed out she does have problems with blocking , in fact she has a habit of falling back to chop blocks on the forehand the moment she is concerned about the incoming spin instead of trying to loosening the grip and taking it off the bounce ...
Okay. So, our picture seems more complicated. Do your best to explain as many of those details, as you understand them, as you can.

- Her BH could be used from mid-distance because she loops.

- Her FH close to the table has a bit more drive and not as much spin. Like many women players.

- From further back she loops with her FH.

- ¿She wants to loop from closer, but is having trouble generating more spin?

- ¿And she wants to shift her game to be more like the men's game power looping from mid-distance?

Are those correct?


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says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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Yes Carl, all of these are true ... also she has this habit of keeping on increasing the power till the blocker misses and I told her that she needs to focus on consistency and the objective of drills is to get a handle on spin and placement with 60-70% power and not to go through the blocker ... and as NextLevel pointed out she does have problems with blocking , in fact she has a habit of falling back to chop blocks on the forehand the moment she is concerned about the incoming spin instead of trying to loosening the grip and taking it off the bounce ...

Well, as NextLevel said, your experiment will be interesting. Sounds like a lot of things to try and change at once. I will be interested to hear how things go. Thanks.
 
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Thanks Carl , you know I value NextLevel and your opinions ... but she has to agree to make the changes and want it, we can only suggest ...
Well, as NextLevel said, your experiment will be interesting. Sounds like a lot of things to try and change at once. I will be interested to hear how things go. Thanks.
 
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You have put your finger on the problem NextLevel .... I will get her to practice blocks first whenever we drill ....

Practicing blocking is not as easy as it sounds. Many people thinknthry know how to block but they really don't. You have to work on eliminating the urge to spin and keep her from lifting the ball. In other words, she has to hit the ball relatively flat with her counterhit. It's counterintuitive but understanding how to do this correctly will raise your ability to topspin at the table.
 
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Thanks NextLevel, the biggest problem I have seen with her is that whenever the ball is spinning more than she is comfortable handing , instead of using softhands and following through , she tries to take the bat face away from the ball , either back or side ways , kind of like sidespin chop blocks .... you think we should work on fixing that first ?
Practicing blocking is not as easy as it sounds. Many people thinknthry know how to block but they really don't. You have to work on eliminating the urge to spin and keep her from lifting the ball. In other words, she has to hit the ball relatively flat with her counterhit. It's counterintuitive but understanding how to do this correctly will raise your ability to topspin at the table.
 
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Thanks NextLevel, the biggest problem I have seen with her is that whenever the ball is spinning more than she is comfortable handing , instead of using softhands and following through , she tries to take the bat face away from the ball , either back or side ways , kind of like sidespin chop blocks .... you think we should work on fixing that first ?

Well, soft hands is not as critical as proper hitting or blocking technique but both can go together especially if the player holds the bat too tightly in general (I like to believe that my hands are always soft). So yes, try to replace the stuff she currently does with proper blocking technique. But I will stress again that proper blocking is not about soft hands. I know people with soft hands and very consistent blocks who have bad blocking technique. They block with topspin so their balls are always arcing so even though they don't miss, you can have trouble looping their blocks consistently unless you adjust to their kick topspin. Blocking flat is an underrated skill. There is a young lady coach who has a new video series who has a decent video on the proper technique.
 
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you mean yangyang ?
Well, soft hands is not as critical as proper hitting or blocking technique but both can go together especially if the player holds the bat too tightly in general (I like to believe that my hands are always soft). So yes, try to replace the stuff she currently does with proper blocking technique. But I will stress again that proper blocking is not about soft hands. I know people with soft hands and very consistent blocks who have bad blocking technique. They block with topspin so their balls are always arcing so even though they don't miss, you can have trouble looping their blocks consistently unless you adjust to their kick topspin. Blocking flat is an underrated skill. There is a young lady coach who has a new video series who has a decent video on the proper technique.
 
says Spin and more spin.
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I think we are now on a subject that could help her game more. Playing with different equipment is still fine. It certainly could be that a blade as fast as a Garaydia ZLC is not right for her and plays a factor.

But the techniques to work on that could be central to the issue seem much more important than the equipment.

I think I have seen footage of your friend play. But I have not analyzed it that closely.

But if these are skills she needs to work on to improve her close to the table game, then they may be a good place to start.


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Agree completely with you Carl , but its difficult to work on somebody game unless we are able to slow it down , now if we feel that her touch is not good enough to slow it down and retain her current skills , I was thinking may be a change of equipment is the first in order of things before we start working on her game ... I will tell you my observation of the reason , with ZJK ALC even with my Hurricane 8 or Karis H , my ball feeling is there when I am flat blocking the ball, however when I meet the ball with an angled blade , looping, power looping , there is less feeling , however with Long V I can clearly tell whether I am contacting the ball in the right spot or not, simply put I am projecting my experience on her and see whether it helps her .... after all we understand the world through our own experience ...
I think we are now on a subject that could help her game more. Playing with different equipment is still fine. It certainly could be that a blade as fast as a Garaydia ZLC is not right for her and plays a factor.

But the techniques to work on that could be central to the issue seem much more important than the equipment.

I think I have seen footage of your friend play. But I have not analyzed it that closely.

But if these are skills she needs to work on to improve her close to the table game, then they may be a good place to start.


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Agree completely with you Carl , but its difficult to work on somebody game unless we are able to slow it down , now if we feel that her touch is not good enough to slow it down and retain her current skills , I was thinking may be a change of equipment is the first in order of things before we start working on her game ... I will tell you my observation of the reason , with ZJK ALC even with my Hurricane 8 or Karis H , my ball feeling is there when I am flat blocking the ball, however when I meet the ball with an angled blade , looping, power looping , there is less feeling , however with Long V I can clearly tell whether I am contacting the ball in the right spot or not, simply put I am projecting my experience on her and see whether it helps her .... after all we understand the world through our own experience ...

You just want her to get a flexier blade. Garaydia is very stiff. It might sound crazy to you but for me, Viscaria and ZJK are too stiff. I keep hoping it will change so I hope I will be wrong some day.
 
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I agree with you that Viscaria and ZJK are too stiff too , may be a little less than Garaydia with that hugely thick inner ply ... thats why I did not want her to get a Viscaria/ZJK , I was wondering which one to get on the flexier options ... I had her test out Long V , but as you know its unnecessarily expensive, I was lucky to get it when there was big thanksgiving sale going on PaddlePalace , so all in all what would be next best flexy blade with some hint of carbon which she can use when she is away from the table ... to keep her competitive ...
You just want her to get a flexier blade. Garaydia is very stiff. It might sound crazy to you but for me, Viscaria and ZJK are too stiff. I keep hoping it will change so I hope I will be wrong some day.
 
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thanks flash ! I heard the same thing from somebody at the club that Fang Bo 2 and HL5 are very similar ... does anybody have actual playing experience on the two blades and Michael maze , it will be great to hear their point of view ...
Get the Fang Bo 2, for her, construction wise it is same as HL5 and only 40 dollars from TTnPP.
 
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