Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[NextLevel]

Yeah, but how often is someone ready for a BH down the line from the FH corner?

It actually depends on your body position, but you and Takkyu must mean inside out, as down the line means playing into the backhand while inside out/cross court is playing into the forehand. When I had no forehand or didn't trust my forehand against better players, this was how I played often, entering a backhand stance on third ball, playing a backhand into the backhand from anywhere on the table and letting the spin or the power do the rest and living with the results.

 

[Archosaurus]

It actually depends on your body position, but you and Takkyu must mean inside out, as down the line means playing into the backhand while inside out/cross court is playing into the forehand. When I had no forehand or didn't trust my forehand against better players, this was how I played often, entering a backhand stance on third ball, playing a backhand into the backhand from anywhere on the table and letting the spin or the power do the rest and living with the results.

I was talking specifically about playing into the backhand. I have this image that most people will want to flip/loop crosscourt into the forehand, but not necessarily move into the FH corner to play a fast/very spinny BH down the line, into the backhand.

You used to do that, and it worked for you? Why do you think it worked? I feel that it's very sudden and somewhat unexpected especially if you line up for a cross-court shot but go down the line.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

It actually depends on your body position, but you and Takkyu must mean inside out, as down the line means playing into the backhand while inside out/cross court is playing into the forehand. When I had no forehand or didn't trust my forehand against better players, this was how I played often, entering a backhand stance on third ball, playing a backhand into the backhand from anywhere on the table and letting the spin or the power do the rest and living with the results.

yes i mean playing down the line, so to the opponents BH (assuming he's right handed)... so a risky shot, easy to miss the table

----

today i went to the club, and i performed very solidly. Good short warmup (with a nice J-girl), then a match with a veteran with long pimples; I had some problems to get the right pace in the 1st set, I came from behind and won only at deuce 15-13, but won the next two easily. Then i played a junior player, which caused me several problems in the past, but i won last time 3-1. This time to be honest, he didn't play well, many mistakes from this side. I was dominating in short/receive and in the short game. No mercy, i had my best win ever against him 11-3 11-8 11-5...

Then i played his buddy, whose level is more steady, and he's slightly above me, usually its like 25%-30% chance of winning for me (which is a very good improvement for me cause 1.5 years ago, it was more like 5-10% and he's improved since !...)

A very entertaining game, my buddy filmed a bit so maybe i'll post it later. this time I lost 11-13, 9-11, 11-8, 10-12. We both played well. My serve/receive was good, i recovered quite well and there were some nice rallies. He got the victory thanks to a new tactic (that i often use, today included, but he used it for the first time against me !!!) of blocking a (not too long) ball going in the middle with his BH to my wide FH. We know each other well, I didn't expect that kind of play from him, that earned him some good points at the right time, including match point... well somehow i'm happy he became an even better player thanks to my tricks...

Overall a good session

 

[NextLevel]

I was talking specifically about playing into the backhand. I have this image that most people will want to flip/loop crosscourt into the forehand, but not necessarily move into the FH corner to play a fast/very spinny BH down the line, into the backhand.

You used to do that, and it worked for you? Why do you think it worked? I feel that it's very sudden and somewhat unexpected especially if you line up for a cross-court shot but go down the line.

Because I am tall and I am a backhand player. It's actually a good shot if you commit to it. If you do a basic loop, you run into the problem of a counter or a block wide, but if you loop the ball properly, most people will block the ball back to you.

For example, here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pukpUYg_3Tc&feature=youtu.be&t=73

And if you want to see me mostly committing to the backhand, this was the kind of match I used to play:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G9t7xTFR8q4

Here you see me trying to open with my backhand or chop the backspin ball as much as reasonably possible.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qkD39d_DC5g

I should never have gotten rid of those braces... I have more backhand oriented matches than this, but few that are this bad when I go in and realize that the only chance I have is to take everything with the backhand and backhand serve etc until it changes the game.

It was a way of life for many years, I started trying to bring more balance to my game around 6 months before the second match, but I think the time has come to return to the old ways a little more as I had a very good backhand opener over the table which I lost when I changed to focus on forehand strokes.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

@NL

didn't see the whole video, but a good part of it, good job against Park...yes, your BH is very good, deep spinny and fast, that was why you won for sure. thats the first time i see you in a competition. you have a good fighting spirit as well !

 

[NextLevel]

@NL

didn't see the whole video, but a good part of it, good job against Park...yes, your BH is very good, deep spinny and fast, that was why you won for sure. thats the first time i see you in a competition. you have a good fighting spirit as well !

Lots of my matches are in competition, we just don't have score keepers in the US. That day, our assigned table was used so they moved us to a main table to speed up the group.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

There are some smart phone apps to do score keeping

 

[NextLevel]

There are some smart phone apps to do score keeping

Yes. In that particular club, the owner and main financer was the person keeping our score in the beginning of the match (Will Shortz). He has two large screen TVs installed with Ipads for keeping score and relaying to the screens as those are the two main show tables you see in that video. There are maybe 20 tables or so in the club, most of the others have tables closers to each other . But if you play on those tables on a tournament day, your score will be relayed to everyone. Was a weird experience but I couldn't find a good camera angles to capture the score as well.

 

[Boogar]

Hey guys, i am going to have my rematch against this guy:

Any ideas how i can beat him, do you see any obvious weaknesses i can exploit?

 

[NextLevel]

He is tall so keep the ball low with heavy spin.

 

[Boogar]

Good idea

Btw had a breakhrough today. Backhand and forehand topspins finally came together. Also i figuredout how to loop halflong/long serves. I now get why so much pros stand almost on the side of the table when receiving serves. You get a much better angle with the forehand to just loop everything!

 

[ttmonster]

But you should have good enough footwork to cover the fast long forehand down the line serve ...

Good idea

Btw had a breakhrough today. Backhand and forehand topspins finally came together. Also i figuredout how to loop halflong/long serves. I now get why so much pros stand almost on the side of the table when receiving serves. You get a much better angle with the forehand to just loop everything!

 

[Boogar]

But you should have good enough footwork to cover the fast long forehand down the line serve ...

Jea I alrdy learned that the hard way But against opponents who never serve fast it works wonders!
Or i can step into position when i see the right serve coming.

 

[NextLevel]

Yeah, it is not so much how you start but how you want to approach the ball and then working backwards to your ready position to make the option available.

 

[Der_Echte]

@NL

didn't see the whole video, but a good part of it, good job against Park...yes, your BH is very good, deep spinny and fast, that was why you won for sure. thats the first time i see you in a competition. you have a good fighting spirit as well !

You will see it when you meet him for sure, it is evident, a more focused calm fighting, as opposed to me a Rambo wounded on a mission.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[Archosaurus]

Practiced a lot of loop vs block yesterday.

The blocker is a newbie I'm training with, and his block is sometimes good and consistent, sometimes all over the place. Sometimes there's a bit of sidespin on the ball, sometimes it's half-long. So I really need to move around. He is improving though.

Maybe I can get footage at some point, but at the time we play at, there's usually nobody else there. So it'll have to be some kind of crap angle, probably.

 

[Der_Echte]

Did 6 real physically demanding days out of 7... At 110 Kg, I am prolly playing my best level ever.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[Archosaurus]

I got a little bit of footage of loop vs block a few days ago. Little bit being two shots, because it was a test to see a quick thing.

I didn't try to whip my arm or anything, just swing normally, so I can see how my "real" stroke is. Using shadow strokes to judge timing etc. is a bit pointless.

The Koki Niwa / CCY match had a really nice angle at one point of loop vs block, so I did a comparison.

http://imgur.com/a/NOzpE

I'm not at all surprised that the main problems are a serious lack of timing in the body rotation and overall not enough body rotation, and a complete lack of whip. My shoulders are also a bit tensed, it looks like. I also noticed my right leg is very, very back during the backswing. I know it's like this vs backspin, but I never noticed I do it vs block. I feel that having the leg this back hinders my body rotation.


It's not like I didn't know these things already and wasn't working on them, but it's good to see a comparison to something more correct. I'm surprised just how much I really need to turn the body: that's some 45 degrees more just before contact.


EDIT:

Back from today. About 4 hours of TT today, a bit on the light side.

I'm really putting 2 and 2 together in terms of footwork and topspin contact. I now feel that I "get" it and I'm purposely doing things how I want, contrary to half a year ago. Staying lower than usual all the time and squatting has really conditioned my legs and back, it's not nearly as hard anymore. Part of it is mental too: I've just got used to "harder work".

What do you guys think about Stiga Allround Classic with Friendship 729 Super FX on both sides for a beginner setup? My friend I train with has used my setup and can do okay with it and is used to the rubber, so I'm thinking of staying with the rubber that is familiar and affordable to him, but a slightly slower blade. He is a beginner of a month or maybe two soon. We drill together and I instruct him.

It's his birthday soon, so I might even pay the sheets for him so it'll be a nice deal on his part I think.

 

[NextLevel]

A lot of winds are blowing in similar directions which might lead to my playing and coaching far less table tennis this year. Not all of them bad, BTW. But the latest blow has been struck by the landlord of my club informing our club owner/manager that they have found new tenants willing to pay full price for our space and that we will have to move out soon. None of the proposed locations are as good as our current one (either fewer tables or a distance and location that is not as pleasant) and I am not sure what that will mean for my playing and coaching.

Of course, work is getting more hectic, as are other things in my personal life, though right now, those things are for the better. Health is not much better but that is a good reason to at least play less competitively. So I will be looking at how all this evolves over time.

 

[Oscar Pollard]

hey everybody