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That's my teammates mother
I beg to differ. I've been a player with atrocious technique. But I've always thought I've had quite good feeling for the ball.
I’m nowhere near yogi_bear’s level and yours to say but I “feel” like you’re just “mechanically” elaborating his point rather than disagreeing. That’s the strange thing about language.
“Feel” is very broad. Feel like you’re syncing your stroke with the ball, so you are feeling both the ball and your body. Although we tend to shorten it to “feel the ball”.
"What is wrong with you guys? By the time you feel anything the ball is long gone."
Irony!!! I am reminded of the infamous Coefficient of Restitution thread at MyTT, which was actually how I became a moderator there. That flame war was possibly the longest in TT Forum history. It started with someone talking about blade "dwell time". BB (using a different name in those days) jumped in with arguments about the physics of the blade (undoubtedly correct, heavily infused with expositions on the Coefficient of Restitution). He was very upset with me when I pointed out that human ability to perceive a ball hitting the blade requires more than two orders of magnitude more time than what some people had measured for actual racket dwell times.
BB was angry at everybody, not just me. But definitely mad at me. His demeanor on this thread is VERY polite and reserved by comparison. People started to demand that he should be banned along with the notorious AgentHex, who was far more aggressive than BB). But, a moderator at the time (who also posts now under a different name) defended BB and AgentHex vigorously. (It turns out that he and AgentHex were clubmates). I told the moderator he was doing an incredibly crappy job of moderating the thread. The mod got pissed off and said, "ok, I've had it, I quit! You think you can do a better job, you do it!".
And so I did. I was definitely stricter about stepping in to stop flame wars.
Now I wonder if it was a mistake. In fact I'm quite sure of it. Several of the chronic flamers stopped posting. One in particular, who went by Assiduous, stopped posting. BB and AgentHex were banned permanently (both have been banned at every major English language forum at least once). Things are generally more civil.
And it is boring as hell.
Now I pretty much only intervene to stop for sale scamming, spammers of various sorts, and to eliminate grossly racist or homophobic comments.
It turns out, people like the flame wars. Its a bit like watching professional wrestling. You can think of BB as like the villain in a WWE match (I'm pretty sure he takes himself a lot more seriously than that).
Is there even a thing as bad technique? If it suits you style of play then it is basically good? And is functional?
Is there even a thing as bad technique? If it suits you style of play then it is basically good? And is functional?
"What is wrong with you guys? By the time you feel anything the ball is long gone."
baal said:Irony...
.....and it is boring as hell..
....
It turns out, people like the flame wars. Its a bit like watching professional wrestling. You can think of BB as like the villain in a WWE match (I'm pretty sure he takes himself a lot more seriously than that).
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Speaking as a former mod on Denis TT more than a dozen years ago ,[italic] have mixed feelings. Flamers wasted a lot of my time back in the day. There were one or two nasty sobsOn the other hand, there was good interaction with some interesting intelligent people.
I always enjoyed the nerdish science posters best.
but my favourite posters were Wiggy63 (AKA apw46) and Speedplay
because of their energy and love of the game. However they did create chaos like nothing else. Hilariously wiggy eventually became a very good mod
In the end forums need a mixture of boring, (me) unhinged(speedplay), the real deal playing wise (wiggy) and not too much political correctness
Those were the days!!
Is there even a thing as bad technique? If it suits you style of play then it is basically good? And is functional?
I think there are technique that are better than other, but also feel that many good players play very different. Would they have become as good with better technique?
Schlager looks pretty stiff, and proably some coach has told him to relax more. I was a coach for Truls when he was young. If he hold the racket then like he did now i proably would have corrected it. Same with Seemiller. Would proably also told Boll to not change grip so much and use the body more in forehand. Waldner would proably have been told in China to play a little more mechanical? Not many coaches would have thought short pimple on Falcks forehand was a good idea? Maybe some coach told Gatien to get a better backhand and he should not play so close? and so on
I agree that there are more correct ways of playing but still think many players become good with not so good technique? Have been on some eduactions with the headcoach for a Swedish tabletennis school and i asked him about this. He was thinking in terms of instead of changing their technique he tried to make them as good as possible with their current one. better to change their technique or the way he was thinking? Maybe better to work around it? Know another international coach that thinks alot about strengths, and not not believe in making weakness so much better, better to focus on strengths and how to use them.
Alot of other things aswell that is important than just good technique.
Interesting discusssion this!
"What is wrong with you guys? By the time you feel anything the ball is long gone."
======
Speaking as a former mod on Denis TT more than a dozen years ago ,[italic] have mixed feelings. Flamers wasted a lot of my time back in the day. There were one or two nasty sobsOn the other hand, there was good interaction with some interesting intelligent people.
I always enjoyed the nerdish science posters best.
but my favourite posters were Wiggy63 (AKA apw46) and Speedplay
because of their energy and love of the game. However they did create chaos like nothing else. Hilariously wiggy eventually became a very good mod
In the end forums need a mixture of boring, (me) unhinged(speedplay), the real deal playing wise (wiggy) and not too much political correctness
Those were the days!!
Wiggy is a very good friend of mine. Once on a trip to UK I spent a few days with him in Lincoln playing every day for hours at a time (and pubs at night). It was great. I came close here and there but never won a match (we probably played 25x 3 out of 5s). It was so much fun I never got tired.. He is at least 150 USATT rating level above me.
Speedplay was a great forum member. It may be that flame wars actually drove him away.
And then there was (and remains) the infamous sjan troll.
I think perhaps the biggest common factor for top players is their differenceI think there are technique that are better than other, but also feel that many good players play very different. Would they have become as good with better technique?
Schlager looks pretty stiff, and proably some coach has told him to relax more. I was a coach for Truls when he was young. If he hold the racket then like he did now i proably would have corrected it. Same with Seemiller. Would proably also told Boll to not change grip so much and use the body more in forehand. Waldner would proably have been told in China to play a little more mechanical? Not many coaches would have thought short pimple on Falcks forehand was a good idea? Maybe some coach told Gatien to get a better backhand and he should not play so close? and so on
I agree that there are more correct ways of playing but still think many players become good with not so good technique? Have been on some eduactions with the headcoach for a Swedish tabletennis school and i asked him about this. He was thinking in terms of instead of changing their technique he tried to make them as good as possible with their current one. better to change their technique or the way he was thinking? Maybe better to work around it? Know another international coach that thinks alot about strengths, and not not believe in making weakness so much better, better to focus on strengths and how to use them.
Alot of other things aswell that is important than just good technique.
Interesting discusssion this!
Really agree with Carl's point. More or less efficient is probably a more useful term than good or bad.