Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Archosaurus]

Greg, your views are appreciated. Clear and to the point, I think. Ramble all you want.





Yesterday I mentioned that I had worked on getting lower. Well, I still play like a tree. Lower than before, but I've progressed from "Very tall tree" to "Still quite tall tree". But, I can go lower nowadays. I've done the physical training and my legs don't shake anymore, nor does my back hurt.

I took a good look at what height I hit balls from. It's somewhere around lower to upper abdomen. Shockingly high. I tried hitting at around shoulder/chest height, something I really haven't done enough. What a change it made. Night and day. It feels good to be able to stay at this height and have it take a reasonable time until I get winded, too. I'll really have to start making this a habit. Who knows how long that will take to really sink in to my game play.

Shuki mentioned that he is impressed at how NL can hit so well while being so high. I understand that a bit better now.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

This thread is always a lot of fun to check out every day, it's nice to see tt players just shooting the breeze. I've got a spare couple of minutes so I might just chip in my 2c worth.

I've played now for just over 30 years, most of it at a reasonably high level, and I can say with reasonable assurance that many of the high level players wouldn't actually know or care about stuff like topsheet overloading, bottoming out, throw angles, dwell time etc. They pick a rubber that feels fairly good when they put it on their favorite blade, then go out and practice heaps with it. Mainly the basics just over and over. With attention on fixing problems straight away.

Internet forums are the right place to come and talk about everything and anything related to table tennis. But if you are spending your time in the training hall obsessing over minor details when you can't hit a loop against a push with any consistency, you are worrying about the wrong things. If your technique doesn't allow you to put the racket through the hitting zone with speed, stable racket angle, and fast recovery, then you don't need to worry about topsheet overloading or which rubber to use, you need to be working on fixing your technique up. That's where a good coach and video feedback (especially slow-motion) can be very useful, in conjunction with hitting a ton of balls.

Remember, if you are under 2000, you have a lot of basics in your game that you need to work on. Focus on them in the training hall, them come to the Internet and chat about whatever you like regarding table tennis. Maybe even post a video of your basic technique for evaluation, you might learn something useful. Heck, after 30 years I learned that I was hitting my forehand too far in front of me, once I changed that my forehand went from being mediocre at best for 30 years, to a real powerful weapon. But I never thought of making that change myself - I had to talk to another coach to discover that.

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble, so I'll sign out here. Cheers all.

Awesome post. Thanks DTop.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

BTW: Archo, I really was just clowning around yesterday. I do hope you are getting to play and have fun. And, I am sure, you are working on stuff and improving. I am confident that is what would happen if you are getting table time.

 

[NextLevel]

Shuki mentioned that he is impressed at how NL can hit so well while being so high. I understand that a bit better now.

If you watch the video I posted with the pips penholder, you will actually notice that for that point and many points, I was low with a wide stance and knees bent while looping. So don't let some of practice clips fool you. I know the importance of getting low, especially to make opening loops or rally close to the table. It's just that my knees are so crappie that it is incredibly difficult to sustain and this is without even getting into the muscles required to move laterally in such a stance, so I leave it to adrenaline or inspired days. I have played long enough and seen better days.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

On a different subject of my own, on Wednesday night, leaving work, something happened to my wrist. Not sure what. It was bugging me all yesterday. I am pretty sure it is nerve impingement. If I put my hand in certain positions it hurts like hell. The weird part is, it happened while I was actually doing....well....nothing.

But all yesterday I was thinking I would not be able to play because it is my right wrist. But I figured I had the time and I should give it a shot anyway. The worst thing that could happen is, I would hit for minutes and stop because it hurt. But as soon as I started playing my wrist felt totally fine. Playing actually made my wrist feel like there was no probable at all, except for 2 or 3 backhands as I was warming up. But after that my wrist relaxed and felt great the whole time I played.

Then when I stopped playing and was on my way home, it started bothering me again. But it is nowhere near as bad as it was last night.

Funny. Interesting. It kind of reminded me of a character from the Get Smart TV series: Ironic Side. He was a spoof on Iron Side. Ironic Side was in a wheel chair and couldn't walk. But somehow, HE COULD RUN. hahahaha.

Well, I am sure my wrist will get better and I know what to do for it. But, how strange. And the wrist definitely makes my job way harder at work.

 

[Archosaurus]

Carl, I think this is a severe case of table tennis addiction. You're getting withdrawal symptoms. You either play, or suffer from pain that will just keep increasing.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Carl, I think this is a severe case of table tennis addiction. You're getting withdrawal symptoms. You either play, or suffer from pain that will just keep increasing.

Hahaha. Good one.

I am actually sure that work is the underlying problem. Right now my hand really does not like me being in plank and I have put my hand in that position for work quite a lot. Yesterday I actually did poses where my hand was supposed to be in that position with my fist instead.

 

[Cornel]

On a different subject of my own, on Wednesday night, leaving work, something happened to my wrist. Not sure what. It was bugging me all yesterday. I am pretty sure it is nerve impingement. If I put my hand in certain positions it hurts like hell. The weird part is, it happened while I was actually doing....well....nothing.

But all yesterday I was thinking I would not be able to play because it is my right wrist. But I figured I had the time and I should give it a shot anyway. The worst thing that could happen is, I would hit for minutes and stop because it hurt. But as soon as I started playing my wrist felt totally fine. Playing actually made my wrist feel like there was no probable at all, except for 2 or 3 backhands as I was warming up. But after that my wrist relaxed and felt great the whole time I played.

Then when I stopped playing and was on my way home, it started bothering me again. But it is nowhere near as bad as it was last night.

Funny. Interesting. It kind of reminded me of a character from the Get Smart TV series: Ironic Side. He was a spoof on Iron Side. Ironic Side was in a wheel chair and couldn't walk. But somehow, HE COULD RUN. hahahaha.

Well, I am sure my wrist will get better and I know what to do for it. But, how strange. And the wrist definitely makes my job way harder at work.

Maybe hitting the like button when someone is writing about his pain isn't the best thing to do, but I've had something similar this month.

Here we are having fun tournaments on both Saturdays and Sundays, but in different clubs. I was planning to take part in both tournaments, but was waiting more for the Sunday one, as at that one are more players in general, and more players better than me in particular. Before the Saturday tournament started I've decided to practice some serves till I have someone to warm up with. I warmed up my legs, core, hands, but I didn't have the habit of warming up the wrist. While serving it seems that I overloaded(hope this is the right word to describe the situation) my wrist and I had started having some discomfort in my wrist, but I was still playing OK, only I avoided doing backhand flicks and working too much with the wrist on backhand loops. Till the evening the discomfort was constantly getting more noticeable, but I thought it should be ok the next day. So I woke up early on Sunday planning to go to the other tournament, but now it was quite a pain in the wrist so I decided to rest that day. On Monday when I went to my usual training I was still feeling something like a subtle discomfort in the wrist, but on Tuesday it was already ok - no discomfort, no strange feeling, nothing. Since then, I'm always warming up my wrists before playing.

 

[NextLevel]

Today an old member of our club came back after a 3-4 month hiatus. This is a penholder who plays short pips and doesn't spin the ball much at all but will find a kill shot where it seems like the kill is impossible. I got to talking to him for a while and mentioned hi his footwork is fantastic so what made him decide short pips on his paddle.

He responded saying that he never learned to brush the ball well, and it there's a very spinny ball when he's using inverted he simply can't adjust and learn to brush instead of flat hit.

I find it odd that a player can get to a high level like him(2100-2150) without ever learning to deal with spin. Especially in a game where spin is so important.


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Is it this guy?

 

[baumschule]

Folow-up post from yesterday:
My usual partner for multiball practice was unavailable and nobody else was either willing or good enough to feed me some balls for a couple of minutes (btw does the expression "feed me some balls" make any sense to native speakers?). So instead I recorded 10 minutes from the session. Firstly I'd like to say that my stroke is not what you would call perfect technique and I know the loop is supposed to end more in front of the head rather than the way I do it. I started with the most basic forehand loop against block drill to get a better feeling for the rubber and then switched it up to a basic 3rd ball attack drill. I guess it went better then yesterday but I'm still not that convinced of the quality of the end product. Except for maybe a few strokes I felt I could produce the same amount of speed and spin with a Roxon wich may simply be due to the fact that the T05 is already used. I also felt like I needed to put in more effort to get the same amount of speed wich may be because Roxon is super light compared to T05 and I was still not used to the heavieness. With all that being said this is obviously far from matchplay so I'm not quite sure how representative this video is.

Also, what do you think about the camera angle? It's the first time I recorded myself and I was not quite sure where to place my phone. I think it's a bit to close to the table.

Oh one last thing: At about 7 minutes the light goes out for a few seconds but we continue after we managed to get it on again so don't think the rest of the video is just blackness

 

[NextLevel]

The expression "feed me balls" is correct in English. I was going to comment on your technique but you already know it is non-standard. Some good club players use similar technique all over Europe and your racket head speed is excellent.

I haven't used Roxon but if you don't feel that Tenergy 05 has a larger ball arc that follows the stroke almost perfectly, then you are missing half the surprise. The other thing about Tenergy 05. The other thing about Tenergy is that the best effect is when looping and not when driving. Maybe you need harder sponge - your swing is pretty fast.

Camera angle is okay. You have to know what you are looking for to get the camera angle you want and this lets us see what is happening with your technique.

 

[baumschule]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm debating with myself for a long time now if I want to change anything with my forehand stroke. I can do it the correct way somewhat decent but I always feel like the ball is lacking so much pace compared to the way i normally do it. Roxon has a kind of unique combination of traits. While the durability is pretty bad its has a medium to soft sponge, is very light and has a low throw angle. So you think I am driving too much and looping too less to get the full benefits of T05?

 

[NextLevel]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm debating with myself for a long time now if I want to change anything with my forehand stroke. I can do it the correct way somewhat decent but I always feel like the ball is lacking so much pace compared to the way i normally do it. Roxon has a kind of unique combination of traits. While the durability is pretty bad its has a medium to soft sponge, is very light and has a low throw angle. So you think I am driving too much and looping too less to get the full benefits of T05?

Yes. T05 responds very precisely to the path of the spin trajectory. What is your TTR?

 

[baumschule]

Yes. T05 responds very precisely to the path of the spin trajectory. What is your TTR?

Ok, I'll try to change that on monday. At the moment around 1620. Used to be at 1660 though before I went to university. How does that translate to the USATT rating?

 

[NextLevel]

Ok, I'll try to change that on monday. At the moment around 1620. Used to be at 1680 though before I went to university. How does that translate to the USATT rating?

You are about the same level as I am give or take a few points.

 

[Boogar]

Nice video Baumschule Your topspins have a lot of dip and probably a great deal of spin as well. However i felt like those shots were all kill shots and not control shots. So can you do those shots in match conditions?
Also how is your recovery with this somewhat low and across the body end phase of the stroke?

 

[Shuki]

Is it this guy?

Nope, that guy is zing zing. Very unorthodox penholder. Self taught, 6 years of play. Very smart. Every ball he gives has some odd spin on it. Can't warm up and give a consistant call but he's damn good. Sorry for butchering his name I think it might be spelled Zheng zhang or something like that.

But that player DEFINITELY uses spin. H3 neo on fh side and long pips with no sponge on backhand side.


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[Shuki]

That game with Danny, never seen zing zing shaking so much with nerves, his rating is technically under 2000, but we are all pretty sure his levels above that. That match was zings only game facing someone over 2000 in that tournament. And the tournament he did before that was quite a while ago.

He's one of our clubs best players but according to rating he's not even in our top 10


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[JeffM]

Probably have to skip another TT session today. I think after acupuncture, my vastus lateralis muscle is too sore. Like as if I have teared the muscle or worked it hard. I do not want to play again to prolong its recovery. Does anyone have any other strategy to make muscles heal faster apart from rest? Thanks.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Nope, that guy is zing zing. Very unorthodox penholder. Self taught, 6 years of play. Very smart. Every ball he gives has some odd spin on it. Can't warm up and give a consistant call but he's damn good. Sorry for butchering his name I think it might be spelled Zheng zhang or something like that.

But that player DEFINITELY uses spin. H3 neo on fh side and long pips with no sponge on backhand side.

Shuki, that is you in the background watching though. Right?