EJ dust spraying is killing off valuable TT forum contributors

This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Sep 2013
7,259
6,225
15,295
Read 3 reviews
I agree that coming to a thread to help answer some coaching relating questions, then come back the next day or two, the thread is over 100 posts.
I don't bother reading all the pages, and I move on

Some times I get in late, and the thread is over 30 or 50 posts, I won't bother replying

my suggestion is for a player to find a coach and work on it for few hours
no forum member (even coaches on forum) can truly help one out technically.

as a coach/sales man (I have a ttshop), the last thing I want is for beginners to use high end gear.
but over time I came to accept that it is not possible, as people over estimate they abilities.

I as a sales man try and sell more entry level (its lower revenue, but I know the player can benefit from my sale)

At times I will ask questions to make sure I know the level of the "customer"
some times they will reply, they are above intermediate, former provincial player (yet I have never heard of them name in South Africa - and I know everyone here) then I was like, oh okay, so you a pro, but then I will use the example of 9 time South African champion does not use a carbon blade.

let me add one more example.
one top u18, now u21 player uses zlc + t05 etc
I gave him one of my samples - a basic Clipper + Mantra rubbers
he took it 3 days before a tournament and played his best tournament ever.
till this day, he still have my sample and his coach will get his university to purchase it from me
 
Last edited:
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Active Member
Nov 2015
543
816
1,977
I agree that coming to a thread to help answer some coaching relating questions, then come back the next day or two, the thread is over 100 posts.
I don't bother reading all the pages, and I move on

Some times I get in late, and the thread is over 30 or 50 posts, I won't bother replying
...

One possible way of dealing with it (I know at least one forum using this approach) - creating a dedicated thread for someone like you: all questions are addressed specifically to you and they are yours to answer as time allows. There are probably other established coaches on this forum who should get their own thread. Then it's up to forum participants to make sure that all unrelated discussions (and I'm sure there will be some opportunity for that) are kept out of it.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Feb 2018
1,088
754
2,410
Read 2 reviews
One possible way of dealing with it (I know at least one forum using this approach) - creating a dedicated thread for someone like you: all questions are addressed specifically to you and they are yours to answer as time allows. There are probably other established coaches on this forum who should get their own thread. Then it's up to forum participants to make sure that all unrelated discussions (and I'm sure there will be some opportunity for that) are kept out of it.

That is a great idea. Both Tony, Lula, etc are adding so much value to this forum that it's unbelievable.
 
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
Well-Known Member
Sep 2011
12,822
13,211
30,390
Read 27 reviews
Korea seems to have passed such an invisible national law like this. It seems as collectively, some time before I arrived in Korea in 2009, no amateur club coach in the city was teaching new players Penhold. There were maybe 20% holdouts from the O40 vet crowd, but the whole nation was Shakehand…

As a Friggin' RECREATIONAL PLAYER, I had the spinniest BH topspin in the city. That sure shouldn't happen. I've been gone 5 years now and I would reckon things have changed and improved a lot.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Jan 2016
4,021
4,580
19,083
A good way to stop EJing is to get a serious coach because he/she will to tolerate this. The 1 to 1 hours will also seriously decimate your TT budget. This has almost cured my addiction. 10 weeks and counting with the same setup.

I'm the contrary of an EJ.
original setup Played for 5+ years with Sriver + Mark V (then Mark V GPS) on Tibhar 4L

i changed my blade only twice, moved to Korbel for 16 (!!) years. had to buy a new one since but still have the old blade. and moved to Nittaku ACI last December only....

As for rubbers, Forehand changed from Mark V to Roundell, that I kept for 8 years, and since then I've been with Tenergy 80 for more than 3 years now. BH changed from Sriver to Tackiness V that i kept a few years, then I moved since to SpinArt i've been playing with for what ? 10 years ? i can't remember exactly...

As mart1andersson says 1 hour of 1:1 coaching is a much better investment than a new blade or rubber if you are serious to improve your level.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Oct 2017
240
85
564
So a friend of mine which is a seller of tt equipment and remembered my play, suggested I should play with a Donic Baum Esprit (5ply+2carbon) with Donic Baracuda. I took his advise and it was total disaster. Too fast and with no 'feeling' of the ball. 4 months I could not get any satisfaction from my play and I changed to the safe choice of stiga allround classic with hurricane 2 Neo FH and Donic Baracuda BH. Everything changed from the first day I used this combination and I probably keep this for many years.
I suppose that the Baracuda rubber was not a total disaster since you kept it on BH? Or maybe it was in combination with the carbon blade. Besides this, I also keep the same setup for years once I find something that works. It usually just gets better and better the more you get familiar with your equipment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Der_Echte
says The sticky bit is stuck.
says The sticky bit is stuck.
Well-Known Member
Jan 2017
2,764
2,607
8,135
Read 8 reviews
Echte, i think that players and coaches that know alot is the opposite of the know-it-all-attitude because they have been around for so long so they know that tabletennis can be played different ways and that technique is pretty subjective. So i can imagine these guys are pretty humble, while beginners have not understand this yet so they have more of a know-it-all-attitude.

That is a well known phenomenon, known as the Dunning–Kruger effect, "a cognitive bias in which people of low ability have illusory superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is. The cognitive bias of illusory superiority comes from the inability of low-ability people to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, low-ability people cannot objectively evaluate their competence or incompetence."

Well-known it may be, but no less sad for all that.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
Oct 2016
1,883
1,583
3,807
That is a well known phenomenon, known as the Dunning–Kruger effect, "a cognitive bias in which people of low ability have illusory superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is. The cognitive bias of illusory superiority comes from the inability of low-ability people to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, low-ability people cannot objectively evaluate their competence or incompetence."

Well-known it may be, but no less sad for all that.

Cool stuff! Are you a psychologist? Or something like that?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Suga D
says The sticky bit is stuck.
says The sticky bit is stuck.
Well-Known Member
Jan 2017
2,764
2,607
8,135
Read 8 reviews
Cool stuff! Are you a psychologist? Or something like that?

No, I'm not. My father was. I'm a simple philosopher, mathematician, computer scientist and network security specialist - but first and foremost I'm curious and tend to read up on things that pique my interest.

At one time in the not so distant past my curiosity was tickled by something I later got to understand as interplay between the Dunning-Kruger Effect and Confirmation Bias ("the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses") and Selective Perception (" the tendency not to notice and more quickly forget stimuli that cause emotional discomfort and contradict our prior beliefs").

Human cognition is full of exploitable bugs. I grow humbler by the day.
 
Last edited:
That is a well known phenomenon, known as the Dunning–Kruger effect, "a cognitive bias in which people of low ability have illusory superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is. The cognitive bias of illusory superiority comes from the inability of low-ability people to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, low-ability people cannot objectively evaluate their competence or incompetence."

Well-known it may be, but no less sad for all that.

Yes, yoass, earlyer in the thread I tryed to clarify that this effect works on all levels, which means that Everyone, no matter his level, is affected, and Everyone can be situated on iether side of the equation.
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
May 2015
3,238
3,924
27,424
Read 5 reviews
Yes, yoass, earlyer in the thread I tryed to clarify that this effect works on all levels, which means that Everyone, no matter his level, is affected, and Everyone can be situated on iether side of the equation.

That vid you've posted was too good.
But did you notice that there were a few mistakes in the subtitles somewhere in the middle around 1:30?
That was funny too.
[Emoji2]
You're right though, everyone can get affected. And not everyone is aware of his/her imperfections that we all carry along.
 
  • Like
Reactions: langel
This user has no status.
Yes you are right. It was the combination a disaster but also any carbon blade I have tried so far, none of them had the 'feeling' i wanted. And that is not only a issue with the modern blades but it was the same 20 years back. I believe for someone to use a carbon blade must practice at least 4-5 days a week, for 3-4 hours per day. The baracuda in Stiga offensive in my backhand is something i can handle. The only thing that will make me to change the bat now, is if I find the Infinity in a good price and keep the same rubbers.
I think that for new players the word 'carbon' hear as something exotic that will solve all the problems at once and will make them pros.
The same thing we discuss here, happens at every other sport. Take skiing for example. Many recreational skiers use boots and skis that are far for their level. They pay a lot of money to something that they use only the 30% of what the equipment can actually do.
 
says Shoo...nothing to see here. - zeio
says Shoo...nothing to see here. - zeio
Well-Known Member
Jan 2018
7,227
9,317
18,297
Levels of Amateur FH Explained.
HzM5s45.jpg
 
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Feb 2012
158
158
408
On this topic, I find it interesting to watch how the different forums respond to EJ questions. Of course, these are purely my uninformed opinions and others are likely to disagree.

ooakforum largely ignores inverted EJs. On the other hand, they're all over the pimples gear. There is a difference, however, at least to my mind. Pimples EJs are searching for "the magic bullet" but their approach seems to be more conservative; they look to carefully evaluate rubbers on the basis of the rubber's compatibility with their playing style/level rather than it's "magic" powers. Progression appears to be slow and steady along a consistent trajectory, rather than mindlessly chopping and changing. There is also less of the "fanboy" ejing. It does happen, but seems to be less compelling than elsewhere.

it's also interesting to note a focus on serious attention to professional advice. The single biggest current thread is entirely devoted to question/answer/discuss with Brett Clarke. It focuses its attention on technique, with a side selection on strategy/tactics (although that can be summarised as: "at your level, you should be attempting to loop everything"). There are 4554 posts on that single thread, adding at least one page a day - that is a huge percentage of the traffic on the forum and out-paces anything I've seen elsewhere. Of those posts, less than a hundred are on equipment!

MyTableTennis.NET is an entirely different story. Traffic there is sluggish, but there is quite a lot of focus on equipment. Currently 15 out 45 topics are equipment related. A lot of the focus is on the kind of equipment that wise heads here suggest is inappropriate for the average hacker, e.g. SZLC vs ZLC. The other big area of focus is on USA related matters, cf. with ooak's more Australian flavour.

Here at TTD, currently 16 out of the 30 latest topics are equipment related! That's >50%! (And I'm not including this thread in that count. ;) ) As has been pointed out, we don't have anything remotely equivalent to the thread on ooak, where a professional coach interacts with forum members, dealing with video footage and discussion of average players playing average strokes in average situations. Yes, we have lots of advice offered. Some of that advice is well informed, but other advice is from the depths of amateur ignorance. Strangely enough, the nonsense EJ threads rarely bother me; that's because I ignore them. I know they're a waste of time, not just for me but also for the well meaning contributors who actually know what they're talking about.

Instead, I come here to read the other interesting stuff: serious discussion of what's happening on the world stage (apart from some appalling fanboy offerings). It's currently a little slow, but MyTT seems to have the best coverage of the best players and competitions in the world. I'm regularly mystified by ooak's apparent lack of interest in what's happening at the top of the game, although I can find out all about the player ranked 754 in the world, because he uses pimples!
 
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
says 2023 Certified Organ Donor
Well-Known Member
Sep 2011
12,822
13,211
30,390
Read 27 reviews
I got a few posts at OOAK and some love for that forum. Haggisv is good people.

Pips EJs are hardcore EJs... and there are many more of them than inverted... and there are too many inverted EJs.

Still, pips play has its place in TT and should be vigorously defended, we need every possible player in our sport. OOAK does talk about inverted technique, but yeah, pips are part of combo bats and naturally should dominate discussion there.

OOAK, MyTT, and TTD did not stay around a decade or more for nothing. If you are at MyTT, tell that no-good BH-Man to go lick a sandpaper bat.
 
says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
Well-Known Member
Super Moderator
Dec 2010
16,146
17,685
54,747
Read 11 reviews
UpSideDownCarl, i think it is okay to give critique as long as it is helpful and not in an hurtful way. It sure would be fun to see how good everyone is! but i do not know if thay say so much. I do not think you need to be that good yourself to be able to know what you are talking about. A lot of coaches can not play so well but know alot about tabletennis. I also feel that some very good tabletennis players do not know much about technique or equipment, so they are not good coaches. I think we all can help eachother despite the level, as long as we have a nice attitude and try to be humble.

Lula, I agree with everything said here. I don’t think posting video is about level. It is about empathy.

Often when someone has done the work to get to a decent level they do post with empathy, kindness and compassion and they post in a constructive way when giving a critique of someone else’s play. Not always. But often.

And often, when someone is giving weird, unhelpful, overly critical or, sometimes downright ridiculous commentary, on someone else’s skills shown in video footage, they have never seen themselves play.

Frequently, once one of those people who tends to give mean or crazy commentary has everyone else see their own skills from video footage, their commentary has more compassion and tends to be more constructive. Not always. But it makes that much more likely to be the case.

But it is also about understanding who is giving the criticism.

A few years ago there was this kid giving all this crazy coaching feedback. It was things like: your stroke needs to be much bigger like Ma Long’s,” while critiquing a fairly adept touch shot. And he would start these comments with things like: “back when I was as bad as you are....”. When we finally got him to post video, it was actually clear that he did not even have the technique to have strokes. He was pushing his racket straight forward instead of taking a swing. He may have watched Ma Long videos. But he had no idea what he was and was not actually doing. He thought he was doing a perfect replica of Ma Long’s FH and really he was doing a very strange pushing movement.

Not that that really matters. Everyone has to start from somewhere. But if you heard what he said and thought, “maybe he knows what he is talking about,” a lot of what he said could have been dangerous and caused injuries. [emoji2]

There was another guy who was explaining the physics of looping backspin. And when he posted footage of himself “looping” backspin from a robot, it was clear he was just making direct contact and it was not a loop.

Seeing the footage helped people put what he was saying into a more complete context.

So, for sure, someone who is not at a high level can give good advice to someone at a higher level. But the anonymity that the internet can foster has its usefulness and its downsides.

When everyone knows what someone plays like and....sort of....who they are, the person is more likely to behave well when giving feedback. When someone is completely anonymous it sometimes allows certain people to think they have the cover to behave badly.

And that was the behavior Der_ was explaining keeps a lot of higher level players from staying on forums like this.
 
Last edited:
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Well-Known Member
May 2015
3,238
3,924
27,424
Read 5 reviews
There was another guy who was explaining the physics of looping backspin. And when he posted footage of himself “looping” backspin from a robot, it was clear he was just making direct contact and it was not a loop.

Seeing the footage helped people put what he was saying into a more complete context.
unforgettable... Man, funny how time flies.
[Emoji2]

The delusional level must have been far above 9000.

Usually when somebody acts up like that, there is just one correct answer to give.
[Emoji23]

And that was the behavior Der_ was explaining keeps a lot of higher level players from staying on forums like this.

The German forum tt-news.de had the same problem.
Guys like Schlager used to post there and also answer fan questions and requests.

But some guys started showing him an attitude and knew stuff about him better than himself did.
So he reduced his participation to almost non-existent.
And there were a few more pros that made the same unwelcome experience.
Dima still posts there every now and then, but it used to be many more.

Sad when people are traffic blocking their own way....
 
Last edited:
This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
Oct 2017
240
85
564
I believe those who give mean or crazy advice are definitely a minority and not a huge problem overall. I may be wrong of course. Maybe a video can be used in those cases to out someone, but I think the main purpose should rather be as a tool to give someone much better feedback than using it as some kind of evidence either now or in the future to establish where someone's place is. Unfortunately this happens from time to time, and in certain cases it can be established forum members that cross this line too. Some personalities do not like each other for whatever reason, and in other cases a group of people go against a single poster (yeah, it is easy for anyone to become part of this too). But then again this also happens in real life and a forum is probably just a mirror image and reflects human mentality. I think it can be easy to forget that new or unknown members can bring in both good advice and maybe a different view, rather than being stuck in whatever is the adopted truth.

The EJ threads do not bother me too much, as mentioned before, they can be ignored. I myself like to read a little about equipment, without thinking about it as a magical bullet to solve any technical issues. It is good to have threads about different topics, just like varying your shots in a game.

There are a lot of good threads on TTD. It can be sometimes difficult to find what you are looking for, but usually there are very nice threads with excellent technical advice, or discussion of technical videos. I really love those threads, they are very valuable! Discussion about the top players or competitions is great too.

My opinion is also that creating huge Q&A threads do not bring much to the table. You get a thread with thousands of posts that is almost impossible to find anything in. Before you know it someone will tell you to read entry #3985 where this was answered before, or to keep posting in whatever thread where your entry drowns. Sure, it can be difficult to browse 100 threads about the same topic too, but I rather get some repetition and repetition is usually good to learn something.

I notice though at least 3-4 spam threads on the front page every day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Der_Echte
Top