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I watched Miu Hirano playing Chen Meng recently.
It really looked like a beatdown. What happened?
Price of my "shounen raketto" probably skyrocketed after this tournament . All thanks to medical staff of Japanese team (and Miu Hirano ofc). One person from their medical staff saw me carrying the volume in which Miu Hirano gave an interview and suggested she should sign it. It was still before World Cup and Miu looked suprised after hearing it, but when I Asked nicely she agreed, so here it is:
http://imgur.com/a/3CWcL
Price of my "shounen raketto" probably skyrocketed after this tournament .
Hahah, then it's good for people like me who are at broken Japanese baby-speak level.I couldn't find it online also. I was in Japan some time ago and bought 4 volumes (it just started being serialized, so it was all that they got). I think there are 10 or more volumes written already. It is no problem if You can't read kanji, because it is shounen manga, so for young readers. Every kanji has hiragana above it.
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I'm not moving well and i lack confidence on my FH side still, but my serve/receive is getting back in place. a guy which is 1-2 levels above me trashed me 3-0 last week something like -5 -5 -5, still trashed but "only" -8 -8 -8, because i served and received correctly and thus i forced some errors and i had more opportunities. My last match was against another good player, i was overall dominated in rallies but serve/receive i was better than him. He was a leftie, but my tactics worked well and i could attack / counterattack a few good times too. I had problems though for blocking his spinny FH topspins.
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Overall, I start to understand the tactics with this serve, and thats a good sign. On the other hand, with the classic pendulum serve i'm struggling on 3rd ball attack.
Was practicing my backhand serve this morning. Always wanting to try to make my variations look similar. Discovered something I've never thought of before.
Backhand serve. Fairly open face, the swing forward & under the ball. Where as in the past, my angle of my blade would be slightly different. Slightly more open & under the ball for side/back. Slightly more vertical and through the ball for side/top.
However, I discovered you can have exactly the same angle & swing but depending on where you contact the ball on it's decent from the toss, changes the spin. This I think can be huge for players who watch your blade in how it swings.
So if I have a pretty open face blade and i contact the ball earlier in it's decent from the toss, I naturally hit more under the ball... Heavier backspin.
But if I use the same swing and blade angle but this time letting the ball drop closer to the table height, I found because I literally can't get under the ball, it's more pure side on the serve.
In both cases, the exact same blade angle & swing..... Interesting.
Today, i played 1h30 with another TTDaily member, the young Freddie Mercury. It was nice. He had not played for a while, still he managed to hit the ball quite well. And TT is not even his main sports !!! well done !
Hit for 2.75 hours straight last night at about 80% power/speed. Did not play any matches, just hit. I have challenges with the Nexy Amazon and seem not able to return the ball. Either my time off, the MXP is dead, or my partners at the time or a combination A night of experimentation.
Hit with the American Hinoki CPen with Tenergy I received as a prize from NextLevel's Christmas contest almost the whole night. I'm behind the times on technology/products... 42andbackpains informed me that Tenergy are $75 each and it's very fast and bouncy.
Am surprised that I hit very decently with this combination:
- given in the past I couldn't adapt to a bouncy rubber (German Adidas)
- the AH blade is noticeably smaller than other CPens I've used - thinking the smaller blade demanded precise technique from me which I lack
- my wrist/hand strength couldn't handle the weight of 2 inverted sheets - hand/wrist didn't hurt last night ... guessing the smaller blade plus the hinoki wood were huge factors
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* Hit with a member I've never seen before, 'B4' (no pun intended), who played SH. He has good FH and good FH loop. Pretty steady. He claims he has no BH, but it seemed to me he was ok with it, perhaps not as steady as his FH. We hit for 1.75 hrs straight. No games, just FH-FH, BH-BH, and FH loops.
Throughout this session, i changed from PH to SH. Am very surprised i was able to return the ball consistently enough as a SH on both FH and BH. Tried the modern RPB - did not watch vids yet to learn how to hit with the RPB yet ... am not sure if i was doing it properly, but the balls were landing in - used my oldschool PH curled fingers ... and my RPB was not a punch or block, but I turned my wrist a bit and the balls landed in ... probably the Tenergy and not me lol ... didn't try any RPB loop
* Hit with "Mommy" next for 30 mins. We always have fun hitting together. She likes my steady returns enbaling her to groove her strokes.
* Hit with my arch-nemesis, 'K', next for 15 mins - he was about to leave but saw Mommy calling it a night. He saw the new blade I was using and wanted to test out the Tenergy. I used the Nexy Amazon/MXP to block. I was able to hit and block with the Nexy perhaps because K was going 90-100% ... his comments: Tenergy is fast and bouncy. Great for looping and bad for blocking. He liked it.
* Hit for 30 mins with a regular member - we know each other by face, but generally I don't have a chance to hit with him. He plays SH but has an unorthodox FH but he is steady with it. Despite what K said about the AH/tenergy not being good for blocking, I blocked just fine with the combo.
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It was 8:45 pm and getting late. As I was about to head out, 'MH' was free ... chatted for 30 mins, reminiscing on old times ... last week, he saw me and recognized me from 30+ yrs ago from the old firehouse club in Chinatown we used to play at. 80 yr-old Thomas was there too and also played at the firehouse. Great chat amongst the 3 of us. I didn't recall Thomas, but we talked about the old league and I recalled him.
Dead tired from almost 3 hrs of TT... i generally take 22 mins to walk home. Am surprised once i started walking, was able to walk at a brisk pace and set a new PR - walked home in 19 mins. I didn't do much physical activities during my time off recuperating ... surprised i was able to do that.
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I am meeting 42andbackpains this Sunday - 2 hr drive to a mutual friend's house ... the old TT crew we were a part of meeting up - at least 5 of us. Expecting a lot of trash talking amongst old friends, reliving our youths, bragging rights and ~6 hrs marathon TT matches. May or may not have video.
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Since receiving the American Hinoki from NextLevel, didn't get a chance to test it as I took the recuperation break ... after 2 sessions with it, i will begin my sanding of the wings. Have not served with it yet nor played matches.
I think you should seriously think about changing to Shake hand with tenergy , it might not be such a bad idea . Knowing you are making a comeback and with the current physical issues you have , if you have the patience, you might be back to your 80% in a year or so , with a backhand , it will be easier to also adopt the smaller strokes with forearm snap