Video Footage Safe Thread

says Spin and more spin.
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There have also been a hundred TT forum debates over the black shirt guy's rubbers being more than a little wore out, which is said to make it much easier for him to play with next to zero spin. I have played vs him twice in official tourneys (lost 1-3 both times) and confirm his rubbers are not ridiculous wore out to anti levels... they are worn uniformly... and not very worn. Why do players lose vs him? Answer is, he knows how to play TT very well, it is not his equipment.
Two interesting/fun facts about Richard Dewitt: .

1) I think it was in the early 1990s, but it may have been in the late 1980s, when Sweden was really #1 or #2 in the world, Richard spend a year or so, training in Sweden. Back then he was a two winged looper. .

2) One time I watched Richard play a series of games vs a 2500 level woman (I will leave the name out because it does not matter). They started with the 2500 level player spotting Rich something like 5 points and the deal was, every time Rich won, the spot would get lowered by a point and every time the 2500 level player won, the spot would go up a point. I think the 2500 level player won one game somewhere in there. But by the time they got to no points spotted, Rich had gotten so far inside this woman's head that she could not beat him without the spot.

That happened at a club in Manhattan that no longer exists. .

One more detail on what Der_Echte was talking about about how Rich creates dead balls so easily with Classic Offensive rubbers (Mark V).....Rich has amazing touch. Amazing.

 
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says Rozena! You complete me.
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Here: can you tell me what level these guys are: you don't have to give a rating. Just are they decent, high or low level players:
Carl baited me with this video and I took the bait. I understand your point completely Carl, i.e., a video is not an effective means to gauge a player's USTTA rating. I completely get it Carl. Thanks for your lesson.

Oh by the way, in my untrained mind, a 2,000 rating would have been like this, as below:
 
says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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Carl baited me with this video and I took the bait. I understand your point completely Carl, i.e., a video is not an effective means to gauge a player's USTTA rating. I completely get it Carl. Thanks for your lesson.

Oh by the way, in my untrained mind, a 2,000 rating would have been like this, as below:

And those guys (I know them both and both have given me coaching), both of them have been pretty close to 2500 and I believe Tahl has been over 2500 many times. Dora, at her best was not in US but was on the Hungarian National Team. So probably at that time she would have been well over 2500. But she stopped playing at 19 years old for several years and started again after a something like an 8 year layoff.

 
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says Spin and more spin.
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Here. This is not a bad video for seeing someone progress up from lower levels to higher levels. It lists his level through the progression. And there are some videos where he is in the 1500s that make him look better than in some of the matches where he is higher level if you don't know how to see the spin on the ball.

Also, not how good he sometimes looks at when in the 1300 range. 1300 can look good sometimes and 2300 can look not so good. TT is deceptive.
And, again, I really was not trying to trick anyone. Before I posted that footage I did say that just don't look like they are good who are nevertheless VERY VERY GOOD. And I posted that first video of Richard and Philippe right after I said that. So, I was telegraphing that those guys were damn good even if it did not look like they were anywhere near as good as they were.
 
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OMG! The player holding the black & red bat does not toss the ball at all 100% of the time. His serves are all non-ITTF compliant.

Huh? That looks like a toss to me. I am not sure what you mean. Can you show what you are talking about?

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Carl baited me with this video and I took the bait. I understand your point completely Carl, i.e., a video is not an effective means to gauge a player's USTTA rating. I completely get it Carl. Thanks for your lesson.

Oh by the way, in my untrained mind, a 2,000 rating would have been like this, as below:

My guess is that the woman rating is 2275. The guy could be 2440.
 
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And those guys (I know them both and both have given me coaching), both of them have been pretty close to 2500 and I believe Tahl has been over 2500 many times. Dora, at her best was not in US but was on the Hungarian National Team. So probably at that time she would have been well over 2500. But she stopped playing at 19 years old for several years and started again after a something like an 8 year layoff.

Both Dora and Tahl have written books about different aspects of the mental side of competitive table tennis and I highly recommend that anyone who is serious about competing should read these books.

Dora Kurimay - Get Your Game Face On! Table Tennis (amazon kindle edition)
Tahl Leibovitz - Ping Pong for Fighters (amazon kindle edition)

 
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If I ever lose to someone wearing trousers, I will throw my bat at that player and never play again. How rude!!

I know your comment was tounge-in-cheek, but I'm glad somebody else noticed the attire...Not to mention a collared shirt and long-sleeved sweater.

To each his own of course, but I would never take somebody who knows nothing about table tennis, to watch this guy playing. It would reinforce the stereotype (in the US, at least) that table tennis is not an athletic sport. (I've had people laugh, subtly, when they ask what I do for exercise, and I tell them table tennis).

Don't get me wrong... that player obviously has skills, he may be athletic, but it's not demonstrated in his play. He resembles more a pinball player than a table tennis athlete (although when he uses his forehand it does appear good and consistent).
 
says Spin and more spin.
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Takkyu_ga_suki

No I really would throw my bat at him!

😁

Are you talking about the guy with the sweater on or the guy with the green BH rubber? :) It must be cold in the club since they are both wearing long pants, the umpire is also wearing a jacket, and the people in the adjacent court, when the pop into the frame are also wearing long stretch pants/tights. But the LP player with the sweater is wearing Adidas warm up pants. The looper is wearing something like khakis. So, the guy who is playing the more "athletic" style seems to be wearing the more restrictive material.

 
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If I ever lose to someone wearing trousers, I will throw my bat at that player and never play again. How rude!

I have played in this round robin a few times over the years visiting the area. This is north of downtown LA.

Given that this is California, especially LA, where it rarely or never gets to 0 Celsius... over there, if temps get anywhere near 20 Celsius, then the elected local supervisor declares a county-wide emergency, instructs his lieutenants to break the glass on the war stock warehouse entry system, and begin issuing ski parkas, foot warmers, and full-face balaclavas to panic-stricken citizens.

​​​​​​​I would say that is why everyone be dressed the way you see.
 
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😂 He looks like how I imagine every internet table tennis troll!

Also.... and I mean no disrespect.... But that other guy does not look like a 2215 rated player......

(I know I know..... videos can be deceptive!)

2215 guy is/was known as pushblocker on forums. I don't know if he's still active but years ago he was somewhat "controversial" due to his play style which didn't suit many jealous lower rated players. They were accusing him of having no skill etc. 🤣 But rating doesn't lie.
 
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Pushblocker not so much into competing these days...

At the time of that vid (many yrs ago) PB was correctly rated.

People would be surprised at how inconsistent even a 2100s class player is against off the bounce LP blocks to uncomfortable locations.

PB Made a lot of 2000-2100 look like newbs.
 
says Spin and more spin.
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The other thing to understand about video footage, especially if you are used to seeing video of top players, the video footage seems to amplify mistakes and inconsistencies.

So, if you saw two 2500 level players (top 50 in UK) play a match in person, you may think they look amazing. And if you saw video of the match, it is possible you might think they looked way worse than what you saw in person.
 
says Spin and more spin.
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Gozo;363333
OMG! The player holding the black & red bat does not toss the ball at all 100% of the time. His serves are all non-ITTF compliant.
Gozo;363333
Darn it! Wrong call. My bad. I blame my eyesight. I had to put it at 0.25x speed to really see it clearly. Apologies.

The correct place to do this would have been in a comment quoting my post so people know what you are talking about. Where this is placed, since you edited the original post to delete what you originally said, looks a bit like you are trying to hide what your initial comment was.

It is easy to make mistakes though. And no harm in seeing things more clearly after, when you do miss something. I just don't want people new to the thread to read your comment and have no idea where it came from or why I was posting screenshots of the guy's toss.

That being said, I am not quite sure how you see any of the rally content if you can't see that toss with it being in front of a highly contrasted color though. Eyes that bad would make it very hard to see what the LP guy is doing to mess with the spin. In that scenario, the looper running all over the place and having so much trouble while the LP guy just stands still and makes the looper run around must look like a total mystery.

And not being able to see details like spin during a rally on video would make it very hard to see the difference between a 1200 level player with nice looking strokes and a 2200 level player with good strokes. That also would mean it would be impossible to tell the difference between a 1200 level player who plays a traditional offensive game with a 2200 level player who plays an unconventional game where a lot of what he is doing has to do with giving awkward balls and unconventional spin on those awkward balls.

For improving it is very important to be able to see and understand spin. Higher level play is very much about handling higher levels of incoming spin. For that you need to be able to read what is on the ball and see through the deception that makes it look like it is something different than what it is.

This is also why I posted that video where it shows one player go from 500 to over 2000. Some of those rallies he does while in the 1300 range look like 2000 level if you don't know what you are looking at. And some of the rallies at 2000 look like sub 1500 range if you don't know what you are looking at.

You need to see the path and flight of the ball to be able to read the spin.
Huh? That looks like a toss to me. I am not sure what you mean. Can you show what you are talking about?

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