Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Nuke Skywalker]

Did not mean to imply that - it's just when I read your posts here and elsewhere they seem to be more focused on defensive aspects. May be I should read them more carefully

Out of curiosity - how frequently do you practice with a coach?

No, you are probably correct, I do probably focus on defensive strokes in my posts because I’m better at it, and a defender.

The progress on the forehand attack is so much slower than everything else, so it’s not anything to write about I guess. Ha! It’s all relative. I either hear how bad my FH is, or how much better it is than I think.



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[songdavid98]

I played at NCTTA Regional Team Championships today. My team got third overall, so we directly qualify for nationals (YAY)

I played really well today. I had no bad losses, and I managed to beat two 2300+ players today.

I also managed to play Adar Alguetti today (-7, -7, -6). It was a pretty good experience.

Tomorrow I have to play singles. I hope I get into the top 8 to qualify

 

[Der_Echte]

ttmonster, met your countryman, Rocketman22 from MyTT at the new Sacramento TT Gym. Dude can play, you gotta see him in action.

Here is a pic with him and the new club owner.

 

[ttmonster]

nice !! thanks for sharing the pic Der_Echte !

ttmonster, met your countryman, Rocketman22 from MyTT at the new Sacramento TT Gym. Dude can play, you gotta see him in action.

Here is a pic with him and the new club owner.

View attachment 15700

 

[Der_Echte]

Did you challenge the restaurant owner to an arm wrestling match for desert or otherwise cause international trouble ??

 

[ttmonster]

Oh we ended up gorging down too much food , it was delicious and David was over the moon !

Did you challenge the restaurant owner to an arm wrestling match for desert or otherwise cause international trouble ??

 

[Der_Echte]

Anyone on the forum not knowing who we were talking about, David plays on his national team. I met him in Korea years back and we did a tourney or two together for Korea Foreign TTA.

David is on left, pic with the amature TT legend Greg (2300+ in NYC now)...

 

[Der_Echte]

... and another pic of David from the DMZ Open tourney on our team...

 

[songdavid98]

Hi guys. To be clear, I’m not the David that the above posts mentioned.

Today, I had a pretty crazy day. I played in the NCTTA Regional Individual Championships. In order to directly qualify for nationals, I had to make the top 8 spots (make it to quarterfinals).

My day started off in the round robin. In my round robin, I had Wu Tinglei, an old friend of mine who I met in my Coach Li/NYITTC club days. I didn’t think I had much of a chance (since he was 2400+), but I managed to get a 2-1 lead on him (winning the third game 22-20). Unfortunately, I started messing up my service return and lost, but it nice knowing that I can play at a 2400 level.

So I made it into the single eliminations as the B player in my group (number two in the round robin), I didn’t think I had much of a chance to qualify, since I would now have to play the A players, since all of them were 2300+.

I looked at the draw, and I saw that I would play Michael Wang, who played well yesterday in the team tournament. And then I saw that the winner of our match had to play Adar Alguetti

So, I play Michael and won, 3-1, surprisingly. But then, I had to play Adar again, who beat me yesterday without much trouble. I got trashed by him today, (-5, -4, -4).

After my loss, since the only other way to qualify for nationals was to get a ‘wildcard’ spot (higher rated players who didn’t qualify get spots for nationals to replace those who can’t go and to fill in the bracket for nationals), I thought I had to get consolation matches from other players to boost up my underrated rating. That is until someone pointed out that I already qualified. My match with Adar was the quarterfinal. Beating Michael Wang already made qualified. I turned into a happy little child waving his arms around for about 10 seconds, saying “omg, I made it to nationals”, about one hour after my match with Michael.

So, I’M GOING TO NATIONALS!

 

[NextLevel]

Congrats, David. Well done.

 

[42andbackpains]

Hi guys. To be clear, I’m not the David that the above posts mentioned.

Today, I had a pretty crazy day. I played in the NCTTA Regional Individual Championships. In order to directly qualify for nationals, I had to make the top 8 spots (make it to quarterfinals).

My day started off in the round robin. In my round robin, I had Wu Tinglei, an old friend of mine who I met in my Coach Li/NYITTC club days. I didn’t think I had much of a chance (since he was 2400+), but I managed to get a 2-1 lead on him (winning the third game 22-20). Unfortunately, I started messing up my service return and lost, but it nice knowing that I can play at a 2400 level.

So I made it into the single eliminations as the B player in my group (number two in the round robin), I didn’t think I had much of a chance to qualify, since I would now have to play the A players, since all of them were 2300+.

I looked at the draw, and I saw that I would play Michael Wang, who played well yesterday in the team tournament. And then I saw that the winner of our match had to play Adar Alguetti

So, I play Michael and won, 3-1, surprisingly. But then, I had to play Adar again, who beat me estersay without much trouble. I got trashed by him today, (-5, -4, -4).

After my loss, since the only other way to qualify for nationals was to get a ‘wildcard’ spot (higher rated players who didn’t qualify get spots for nationals to replace those who can’t go and to fill in the bracket for nationals), I thought I had to get consolation matches from other players to boost up my underrated rating. That is until someone pointed out that I already qualified. My match with Adar was the quarterfinal. Beating Michael Wang already made qualified. I turned into a happy little child waving his arms around for about 10 seconds, “omg, I made it to nationals”, about hour after my match with Michael.

So, I’M GOING TO NATIONALS!

Congrats David!!! Now you have to train harder to bring back some glory!!!

 

[Nuke Skywalker]

I played at NCTTA Regional Team Championships today. My team got third overall, so we directly qualify for nationals (YAY)

I played really well today. I had no bad losses, and I managed to beat two 2300+ players today.

I also managed to play Adar Alguetti today (-7, -7, -6). It was a pretty good experience.

Tomorrow I have to play singles. I hope I get into the top 8 to qualify

Very impressive.

 

[Nam Tran]

Hello. This is Nam, a friend of Der_Echte. We play TT at the new Sacramento TT club.

I will be adding pics and vids of the action at our club and the Bay Area.

Der_Echte will make sure I post all the action.

See ya around.

 

[Der_Echte]

Hi guys. To be clear, I’m not the David that the above posts mentioned.

After your outstanding performance in the tourney, you are a knuckle sandwich or two away from knocking on the door to the national team.

 

[Shifu]

Last Thursday I was at the training facility of Borussia Düsseldorf (German table tennis center where Timo, Dima, Samsonov and many others train, same as in Dan's vid) because I had booked a private training lesson with a Chinese coach of the table tennis school there. I was a bit early so I could watch some pros practice there although most of them were not there because of the Qatar Open. We did a lot of footwork and then he checked my game and told me what to improve, not so much in strokes but especially in tactic and placement. Was lots of fun and I really liked it.
Yesterday I trained in my club, played 5 singles and 1 doubles and won them all. Sure it was only practice but I could use some of the stuff I was shown.

 

[Garrison]

I have changed up my forehand topspin motion a bit. I used to have problems evaluating the power needed to counter topspin away from the table since I switched to the harder Bluefire version.

From watching pro training videos, I realized that players like Timo Boll or Marcos Freitas do not have a straight motion like the chinese, but a bit of circular motion in their arm as well. I tried it out and it really helps me getting over the ball making it much more consistent.

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Sir,

Great match! Congratulations!!

Anyways - my best match from Monday is probably this one, with their best player:

5:40-5:42 - if my old man eyes are not seeing things ... nice behind the legs catch LOL

13:09-13:17 - EXCELLENT!

16:08-16:13 - ZING!

9 points please!

 

[42andbackpains]

Played Songdavid98 yesterday. He game me 5 points. I was trashed 3-1....Dam lefties...i will be back for revenge!!!

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

This past Tuesday night:

Went to my regular club. Hit with my regular training partner with my American Hinoki CPen and Tenergy on both sides ... he has a FH stroke which closes too much that he is trying to correct ... so we slowed down our FH to FH. I flat hit/stroke, he sometimes adds a little spin. He repeatedly asked me to slow it down. I'm thinking I am slowing it down, I'm not FH stroking anywhere near 50% or more power/speed.

As I was thinking it over at home, I think I know why I'm 'fast' to him. I have no video to check, but I may be unconsciously meeting the ball earlier!

On FH loops though, I am pretty sure I HAVE NOT been meeting the ball earlier yet. Muscle memory still needs a lot of conscious effort to overcome.

My regular hitting partner, a coach and I rotated on the table and we hit with each other. When it was my turn with the coach, we had hit together 2x or so in the past. He knew I was able to block steadily so he FH looped progressively amping it up. As he had already hit for 90 mins or so before I showed up and was tiring, he then started blocking for me.

The coach is a few levels higher than me and I worked my flat-hitting progressively upping the speed/power as he blocked. Felt good, not going to lie, I love smashing.

Then I worked some FH loops, I tried to consciously stay close to the table and short-stroke loop, but I think i may have been undisciplined/wild and started to back away from the table a few steps and had long stroke loops. It was fun though.

I believe the coach is a PH that can play both TPB and RPB. He uses a SH blade though. He wanted to practice SH chopping, so I continued FH looping. I have lost confidence in my slow spinny loop, or have not trained it enough. I have jedi-mind tricked myself on chops to respond with fast loops. We generally go 3-6 balls before one of us misses, mostly me though.

Thanked my friend/partner and the coach profusely.

Sadly no video, but it felt really good to just sometimes let them rip! LOL at me

This past Wednesday night:

Went to my new club. My friend, who is a coach there, helped me restore an old racket a 1980's friend/brother gave me... his old beat up Butterfly Taksim carbon blade.

Edge




restored back

old back


NextLevel's Tenergy 2017 Christmas contest prize


New Xiom rubber for the backside


He thought i was going to stick to TPB, because in the past I didn't try any RPB with him, choosing to use TPB to be steady blocker/partner. Plus he knew or knows of my first coach, Alex Tam, a former CNT member in the 1970's who played TPB pips and was a 2-winged attacker ... his BH smash was fearsome back then. So my friend thought i would stick to TPB punch and BH smash. Told him i have no BH smash and I was trying to learn the RPB on my own. Hit with him for 30 mins, trying to get used to the weight. As an oldschool penholder hitting with one side/rubber, my main concern was that my wrist will not be used to the weight of 2 rubbers.

Hit a little FH, had a few FH short-stroke loops, but then he worked with me on the RPB flat stroke/hit. His main advice for me:

1. Commit to the stroke, don't half-heartedly stroke - doesn't come back as a block, punch or stroke ... and goes over weakly. The times these happen, i was not in position to RPB properly. Footwork, footwork, footwork.

2. When I was positioned properly and went for the RPB flat-hit/smash, 2 reasons why i was not successful: a) too slow to get to my set position and b) timing on hit was too fast - caught ball too low and netted my shots... need to let the ball bounce higher and be in set position prior to that high bounce point and hit

Hit with my friend "Mommy" next ... as we were hitting in an enclosed table, she encouraged me to really 2nd ball RPB smash the ball and she would also be doing the same. There were times I didn't think i rushed my shot but netting the ball proved me wrong. On the times I was consciously thinking of waiting just 1 second more, i was able to RPB smash successfully.

Thanked Mommy and Coach profusely for their help, encouragement and time.

*** I have my old Avalox P700 CPen all wood blade... slapped on new Big Dipper on FH and new Xiom on BH. will use both the Taksim and Avalox to see which I'm most comfortable with. however, as the Avalox is all wood and a tad heavier than the Taksim, I probably will be using the Taksim more.


p.s. CONGRATULATIONS SONGDAVID98!!!

Played Songdavid98 yesterday. He game me 5 points. I was trashed 3-1....Dam lefties...i will be back for revenge!!!

As 42andbackpains kills me .... spot me 2 games in a 3 out of 5 game match with 9 points please on the rest of the match

Seriously, excellent work! Now ya gotta NYC/Flushing/Queens/Penholder REPRESENT!!!!!!!!!!!

p.p.s. suds, see I'm still PH for now and for an oldschool PH, am surprising myself I am trying RPB. am really glad to have used the light/fast American Hinoki CPen to self-learn SH BH stroke and RPB stroke.

*hums Journey's Don't Stop Believing* monster, it ain't over 'til it's over. I may still convert to SH at some point.

 

[NextLevel]

Decided to get out of the sport (coaching and playing for at least a month and then reassess). Work is getting busier and health is not as good so I need to find a new balance.