2nd half of Season January-March

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Here I will post my games after the games. Goal of this post is more about the tactical and position, shot selection etc aspect more than technique.

The first video is very short since my opponents were way out of my league (+300points all of them) the 3rd one is not on the footage. It was against a younger player who has a deadly fh same as the thicker guy that appears in the 2nd part of the video. He is also the best player currently just came abroad from germany around 1800-1900RC. Both players had really really good serves.

Against the bh dominant player (1st in the video) I tried to flick his serves since if I push to his bh he would just kill the ball even though I knew he was gonna place it to my bh.

2nd player was playing with me as if I was his cheap food. I took a set because he was making lots of unforced errors. Strangely when I was ahead I was also willing to loop and get some points myself.

I had cramps on the right and leftside of my hips when playing. Never had such a thing in my 8years. So moving hurt more than usual. Got better vs these 2 players but it was terrible in my 1 game. Yes I did dynamic warmup before the games

Today my left side was stone hard like a medium sized stone big. I tried to massage it a little it got better but it hurts still. My next game is tomorrow. Another hard opponent. Vs 2nd best team. But after tomorrow we will start getting opponents where I have a chance to win some games.


Oh against the 1st player in the video I was up 9-5 in the first set. I just fucked up my receives mostly. My teammates only told me to not go back after I hit 1 ball. Which I didnt comment. I can see the point but it just doesnt feel like me. I just can't make any active strokes when I stay closer to the table let alone when I am further away.
 
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1st Match vs Robert:

He served very well. I guess the fact he serves in a way where I can't properly read the amount of back/topspin makes me question my stroke and I default to not looping them in the beginning. But why? just try out use first set as a playing ground..

At 5:37 I did a serve return I only practised once for like a minute or so. I saw it in a youtube video on how to receive backhand serves. It was still a bit high but maybe that was needed for him to try and attack it instead of pushing it back and me not knowing what is on the ball 😂
5:52 very relaxed diagonal 3rd ball attack.
6:11 maybe I should Build more on this playing style. Reminds me some of waldner clips how I use his pace and direct it to open spaces I see.
9:29 is another point like that but ball kicks the way I didn't expect before contact.

6:29 whyyyy. It feels like I dont even time to loop again. I don't know how to get better at seeing the ball "slower" it feels very fast during ball exchange..
6:38 all good until I scoop to his fh for no reason. Its not even the scoop but the fact I am not in position to loop again.
7:45 3rd ball attack good
8:02 no clue why it went into the net prob not enough gripping the ball.
8:45 clearly not looking at his elbow that it has slight topspin
12:08 After my fast bh I wonder if I should train to jump to the left more. If he blocks wide to my bh I still have my bh else I jump and pivot and take it with my fh instead of freezing like this standing still.
12:26 not fast but super consistent with good spin (not too spinny still a thick contact) and I grind the point with continuous attacks finishing parallel. Also super relaxed since its start of set..
12:57 feels better than with d09c topsheet to do this stroke. With d09c hard to get the feel on how hard its gripping the rubber.
13:43 I don't understand what happened. Maybe it's something that worked with d09c only because the ball slipped entirely.
14:12 again. My guess is I try to hit the ball with topsheet only.
15:07 when I topspin fast my recovery is bad and I lose intitiative a lot.
15:51 same stroke as yesterday with robot. I lean too much back and this stroke only works against heavy backspin not vs light.
16:04 one of the best rallys for me where I attack from the get go. Also perfect bh receive I think. He spin blocks which makes it awkward for me to keep looping as someone who stop after 1 loop usually its even harder.
16:57 good countertopspin but bad placement. I loop faster than my recovery allows.
18:14 why am I missing these. I seem to be late prob cuz of his block again..
20:30 same..
20:10 again slippage I dont understand

Last 2 points me trying to brush too thinly and missing the ball completely. And after his timeout I take a huge risk rather wanting to lose with an attacking stroke then letting him attack and win. And since I am tense I use my old closed racket technique and do a very uncontrolled stroke above my current skillevel trying to end the point immediately.

2nd Match:
3-0

This player is weird in terms of playstyle. It looks as if she does many things right but misses one bit and then she would explode in the rankings. I think her rythm is what holds her back the most.

4-3 good fh topspin while having to move "into" the ball
8-4 I hate my technique but still thumbs up that I opened up spinny and then went forwards even if the technique looks wrong. Mentality also counts
rest not worth talking about lots of unforced errors, I am never under pressure.

1-0

1-2 good bh topspin receive. I used to loop those slow and more upwards. Nowadays I seem to go more forwards but still applying topspin

4-3 not the best receive but it works. I don't know if I should focus on hitting more or if this type of receive is "fine" to keep thinking longterm.

6-6 good 3rd ball attack with a long BS serve into her bh. I realized people get scared if I toss the ball higher than usual.

7-6 good counterattack after she attacks with the bh. I am sometimes baffled myself when watching the replay. Because I even didn't expect me counterattacking that.

2-0

1-2 I think tactical mistake looping to the fh here. I should have looped to the elbow/BH side. I am here at an advantage and only way of losing that advantage is me looping to her hitzone on the fh.
4-3 This is how my training session looks like. I honestly shouldn't get away with such an "easy" point. Technique is wrong even it's just spin. 9-3 is the same
8-3 I let her attack with bh and I countertopspin with the fh. Again I am just lucky I get the ball into my hitzone. I don't have to move to get into position first. I guess her weakness is also looping very predictable and into my hitzone too many times with not much spin or pace. (I love this pace).
3-0
Actually the only match where I just didn't have to work to win. I also couln't really showcase anything that I was practising other than a few countertopspin on a badly placed ball by her.

3rd Match:

She plays short pips on the fh. I couldn't really warmup against her fh so I switched to the bh asap and prayed that my fh will come in the game instead.

1.Good first point blocking wide long to the fh after bh exchanges
No clue if I had backspin in my serves when she missed both.
2:20 good short bh swings

I do it with scores from here on.
4-2 good 3rd ball attack
other points not worth talking about lots of receiving and attacking errors by her
1st Set 1-0

2-3 I lob not too high. I don't really practise this stroke ever only did it for 10min in the trainingscamp 3months ago. I actually think it's not a good lob but it was enough.

3-3 very good backhand attack waiting for a slightly slower ball. Very snappy this is how I should hit the ball more frequently. I also get more confident the longer the rally goes. I get a good feel of the ball.

4-4 I only get the ball back by reacting. It just happened that I put some backspin in it. She missed and got frustrated(very loud turn down speaker volume).

5-4 Prob top 3 rally in that evening. Very good bh topspin into very good fh topspin. I can't exactly tell what I did right compared to my other loops but this one just looked right. I definetly think I need to hit more of those.

6-6 very good fh ts receive. I think I can hear it from the sound of the rubber even in the video. It makes a "click" . It's not slow and also not fast and risky.

7:55 looool I wonder who that was.

7-8 I need to practise these shots more the ones over the table. I did a different stroke vs Robert in the last point and also missed. I need a safer but still an active stroke so these stupid mistakes happen less.

7-9 good compact strokes with the bh. If you remember my old match videos I would lift these type of balls more instead of hitting through like I do here. I definetly see improvements here.

9-9 again over the table attacking mistake with the fh.

9-10 Ok this Point also makes it into the top 3 points of the day. What the fuck was I thinking. (prob nothing and was in the flow) she attacks with the short pips. Which is already hard because of the weird ass spin I get. And I am pretty sure it's harder to hit a no spin ball. Anyway I didn't even think about the spin of the ball and not only that I just counterwhip it to her and win the important point when I was in a worse position. I don't know how I got the courage to counterloop with the bh. I never do this stroke really. Wow I am very proud of this shot.

10-10 very spinny slow opening to her fh. She misses. Not sure if that was a good idea but here it worked out. I still don't understand what short pips hate. But my aim was to loop long atleast since I know they like to hit the ball at the highest timing and it's harder for them if I loop deeper.

2-0

0-0 Very good start again. Changing to fh topspin parallel same as in the first set but this time as a Topspin.
3-0 no clue how I landed that fh shot but I guess I just got overconfident
4-2 I safe myself with a high block/lob to also buy myself more time.
5-4 I really need to do these sidetopspin serves more. I definetly used it more on this day than I have been using in the past.
7-4 very good backhand attack into fh loop to finish the point. Technique wise not happy with the fh loop though.
9-7 good spinny opening fh and follow up against block to end the point.
I get very mentally overloaded I don't know why. Very slow in the brain. I am not even thinking about the score or got nervous or anything. Brain just wanted to regenerate for a while. Maybe it was best to take a timeout after 10-7.
Also she did 2x good fh blocks and won the set.
This set is a good example that I am very inconsistent with my playstyle throughout the set.

2-1

1-1 again that nice clicky sound when the contact is right (fh).
2-3 Funny this shot is something I didn't practise prior to this day. I was trying to teach a senior how to brush the ball and just showed him the hand motion only without using body. I guess it somehow got into my own subconscious that I used that stroke here. Super short and snappy
4-3 Technically it looked picture perfect I think atleast from this angle (fh). Stroke length and the fact it goes forwards. Really happy that what I practise "new technique" comes into matchplay slowly.
6-3 cmon why am I playing on "energy saving mode" so dumb
7-4 good attack after topspin serve. I will definetly do this serve more until I face someone who can consistently punish it with a fast receive.

--- Short sidenote: She was serving 98% short not even halflong with mainly backspin and sometimes no spin. That's the biggest tactical change I realized in this set.
I was talking in my earlier threads how everyone was serving long to me and that I couldn't punish it. And how frustrating that was because my short receive was drastically better. Now seeing someone changing from long serves to only short serves makes me proud that I also made progress here.

9-5 "energy saving mode"
9-7 playing super scared instead of opening up with the bh. Still get the point even though I do what I shouldn't be doing (giving her a free fh attack)
10-7 again over the table missed attack. I should really turn down the pace and focus on placement and safety first.
10-8 again lobbing but this time she is super calm (prob gave up the game? points ago) so she automatically played better in that relaxed state making no mistake.
10-9 clutch sidetopspin serve into my 3rd ball attack.

3-1

-----
Progress is there but it's could be more. This week I also played a lot of tabletennis. My hamstring on my right side is "annoyed" (translated it 1:1 from german I hope it has the same meaning) Tournament with 12 games on Sunday. League games on Monday. Tuesday upper body workout. Wednesday roboter training Thursday these 3 league games.
 
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Against Ess (again). This time I played much better. Sadly many whiffs. I think he likes giving me these no spin no tempo openings higher arc and giving me my sidespin back so I get doubtful of how to hit the ball.

Some really nice exchanges and especially the points I won with my BH (parallel) and a few with my fh.
I really like my fh power now. But in this entire game I had that good feeling once or twice I believe during rally. That is not a lot...

Happy with my bh except for those higher no spin? a little sidespin? slowish balls with higher arc. Kind of felt forced to take it at the rising point and idk why they still landed in the net. Racket seems appropriate open and the movement goes forwards.. Happened many times.

Entire game was about me getting that good feeling with my attack no matter with the bh or fh. Once I got the first topspin on the table I felt very confident in the rally. But many times that rally didn't happen because I was too scared to loop such a ball or he get to play these shots from the get go since he liked flipping my serves with no spin.

And this is from nationals:


a younger more aggressive player who spins the ball very well.

Two different players and the game (especially the way I play) looks soo different. If I didn't knew these 2 games happened within the same month I would say that there is atleast 1-2 year apart.

I seem to have no consistent "playstyle" and more like adapting to my opponent.

And filming and watching my games feel so worthless atm I do the same especially technical mistakes over and over. I do a shadowstroke inbetween points or sets that look beyond different from what I do in the match. I don't want to force myself to think about my technique during the rally either. But even in training I look like a different player with how I loop etc. I don't even trust myself how I am gonna play against my next opponent.

One positive thing I took away from the game vs Ess especially was my return against backhand sidespin serve. I didn't even practise this with multiball or anything (still not feeling 100% confident) but basically going with the spin and chopping it sideways and then the ball goes with backspin sidespin into their fh. Wheneever this was a success they either gave a very weak ball to me or made a mistake.

In germany I beat a 1700TTR another 1680TTR almost beat a 1670 14y old kid lost in the 5th set to 9. And weakest player I lost to was a 1560TTR long pips attacker in the 5th set to 9. Right now my RC Rating is around 1480 (the last update happens next week I assume I will be around 1500) Season ended with yesterdays games I went 2-1 losing to Ess only.

in Germany my Rating is around 1580TTR it will go up with each tournament I play there. From now on I will also only play in those tournaments since nothing will be going on here in Austria till october. But driving 1-2,5h just to get there is a bit painful so hopefully my motivation holds up.


My training goals for the next month:
Footwork:
1. Drills like 1-1-1 all FH 2 Rounds max 3rd Round I go try to end the point after a few minutes I will try to end the point in the 2. Round

Power:
2. Open up backspin balls "harder". Right now I only know slow spinny open ups which because of my technique makes me sloppy for the next ball. So work on this and also on recovery with either playing forwards with bh or fh the blockball

Anticipation:
3. Let my opponent loop anywhere and I will try to drive these balls safely back using their tempo. If they give me a very weak loop I will try to kill / countertopspin - Focus for me is on footwork and anticipation and standing "perfect" to the ball instead of reaching and leaning too much. Always moving for the next ball.

Serve:
Work on Placement and Spin variation of my Reverse pendulum serve. Make it more consistent. I seem to like this ball a lot if my opponent pushes it to the middle or into my fh.
Trainingsmatches only use this type of serve to win matches vs weaker opponents and attack the next ball.

Serve Receive:
Loop every serve. If by rare chance I think the serve is long but the serve was short then they get the point - no big deal. If they then consistently serve shorter work on variation of my receive with placement and also add in long pushes. In matches I need plan B and C if one particular receive is not working out against an opponent.
Goal: Get more variation and more "power" against long serves
 
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