The importance of feel

Rumor has it that what separates players of highly different levels is really feel for the ball. Surely there is technique, power, spin, consistency, tactics, but there is also such a different touch on the ball. Once we played our youth trainer who is like five divisions above or rather he was toying with us. His feel for the ball was so way up that all our hitting seemed so crude. He was just comfortable in any position from the table that he could still come up with some counter or keep the ball in play.

Do you have similar experiences? Or would you rather say it's only one of many factors?

And if you agree that it might be something important, how do you think you can improve it? By training a lot of touch play really focusing on the feel with each stroke... or do you will just acquire it by hitting the ball your 100.000 times, like anyone will become expert in a topic she studies her 10.000 hours? - Or is it even a matter of talent and might not be acquired so easily?

Lightzy said:

Feel for the ball is nothing mystical.
It's just you being able to judge the speed and spin on the ball more accurately by sight.

It's not some mystical 'I feel it on my racket when I touch the ball'. I think that's bullshit. when you touch the ball it's after you've already felt the ball, meaning that you've decided how to hit it and you are now at the force application part of the hit.

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Yes, anticipation is so important. - In a short comment on service tactics Boll talks about how he will pre-plan what returns he will probably receive and what bat angle to use against according to its spin. So there could even be something like pre-anticipation before the point is played? - In the game however personally I observed it is better no conscious planning, because that is just too slow. Instead it works better when I do not try to "think" too much, but let my subconscious "muscle mind" play on its own. (Like: Movement of opponent looks like ball might pop up a bit, so maybe turn to smash - if you do not interfere with planning, next thing you see is hopefully just the ball hitting the opponents side how your inner eye saw it before hitting).

Lightzy said:

After you hit the ball you can feel if you spun it properly or how you reacted with the opponents spin, but that's already way too late to mean anything.

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But even if it's too late for that particular stroke you just did, you could adjust your next strokes accordingly, couldn't you? Would something of "feel" not still exist from the vibrations in your blade, the sound of the contact?

I am still split on it - maybe like the responses here. Is it really something that exists or matters, or is it just more mind tricks we play on ourselves, as an extreme EJaist might believe he can distinguish different regions his Hinoki layer came from?

langel said:

I think Feel means a lot.
One may put in it nothing, something, or everything.
And whatever the choice, one may be right, depending on one's mood, shape, condition, style and expo.
I suffer of a progressive anisometropia.
Some 20 years back I used to expo speed and strength with needle point accuracy. Feel was felt fead with aplause.
Now I think I start to really feel, and that means a lot.

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'Progressive' means that it is worsening? - I have extreme myopia that's also still getting worse, like -21 dioptres already. Sometimes I worry if it gives me some disadvantage because they were usually not able to correct it entirely. Only last year I had an optician who produced lenses that gave me 100% eyesight, but now it is already getting a bit blurred again.

If Lightzy is right, then this could even affect my "feel" for the ball, when can't see that precise anymore.

langel said:

Well, your case is really bad, let the force be with you.
In my case the anisomtropia makes me see very well at long istance with the left eye and very well at short distance with the right eye. Thanks god I'm a righty.

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Thanks, it's actually not that bad. Somewhere there is a boasting video about Timo Boll's optical super powers where he claims he can actually see the rotating stamp on the ball. Never even tried such things, instead I found that also a blurry ball gives me enough information from speed, angle and trajectory to estimate the incoming ball well enough. - So for you the diagonal to your back hand would be kind of optimal? Your right eye can see the ball on your table side accurately and you can observe the details of your opponents motions in the distance with the left eye? Probably does not works that simple though.