Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[NextLevel]

Ah gotcha. I've been doing a lot of random BH/FH drills, haven't actually recorded any of it so I'm not too sure how it looks like. I'll take a look.

I've been doing a good bit more of the single location BH practices as well. I find that when I try to do a hard counter the consistency is rather lacking even for single location. The robot when serving at max speed has a lot of variations and that amount of variation is able to give me a ton of trouble. I'll still do the BH/FH drills to get me ready to counter things quickly on both wings, but until I get better at single location BH drills I don't anticipate much quality from my BH quick counters.

Counter spin with backhand is risky but the backswing with the bow and the wrist positioning is incredibly important. Otherwise there is very little to give to the ball over a short distance and you are better off just flat blocking or punch blocking as those are far less risky.

It is really weird but if I had to teach someone backhand looping, it would probably be controversially. wrong but I would start with the Chiquita. I Feel that that stroke trains some good things that help backhand topspins universally.

 

[Wrighty67]

Thanks for sharing. Ttlondon2012 posted some Kallberg and Truls highlight videos throughout the tournament. What happened to Karlsson and Falck? Truls has an interesting semifinal vs Persson but not sure who Kallberg faced....

I got YouTube alerts for the French and Felix went down 0‐3 to a chopper before coming back to win 11‐9 in the 7th. I think it is Alexis, Rolland, Felix and Gsuzy, though I could be wrong about Rolland. I sometimes get mildly excited about this national table tennis tournament weekend in Europe. Heck I got posts on here to the British feed and there was TT11 posting the Estonian feed... too much good TT out there lol.

Mixed doubles was won here yesterday by Mollie Patterson and her Nigerian partner Ismaila Akindiya - taking out Pitchford and Ho!

 

[Richie]

Mixed doubles was won here yesterday by Mollie Patterson and her Nigerian partner Ismaila Akindiya - taking out Pitchford and Ho!

Wow, that's incredible!

 

[Richie]

Thanks for sharing. Ttlondon2012 posted some Kallberg and Truls highlight videos throughout the tournament. What happened to Karlsson and Falck? Truls has an interesting semifinal vs Persson but not sure who Kallberg faced....

I got YouTube alerts for the French and Felix went down 0‐3 to a chopper before coming back to win 11‐9 in the 7th. I think it is Alexis, Rolland, Felix and Gsuzy, though I could be wrong about Rolland. I sometimes get mildly excited about this national table tennis tournament weekend in Europe. Heck I got posts on here to the British feed and there was TT11 posting the Estonian feed... too much good TT out there lol.

We were wondering the same about Karlsson and Falck. I don't know why they didn't play.

Källberg played against Elias Ranefur in the semis, Elias did very well to get there and pressured Källberg well. Anton won 4-3.

 

[blahness]

Counter spin with backhand is risky but the backswing with the bow and the wrist positioning is incredibly important. Otherwise there is very little to give to the ball over a short distance and you are better off just flat blocking or punch blocking as those are far less risky.

It is really weird but if I had to teach someone backhand looping, it would probably be controversially. wrong but I would start with the Chiquita. I Feel that that stroke trains some good things that help backhand topspins universally.

I started off with chiquita and it did some bad stuff to my BH loop, namely the tendency to keep the elbow too high which is a hindrance to power generation and stability imo... but it taught me how to create a lot of spin with pretty much just the fingers and forearm which probably made my BH loop what it is now.

 

[dingyibvs]

Counter spin with backhand is risky but the backswing with the bow and the wrist positioning is incredibly important. Otherwise there is very little to give to the ball over a short distance and you are better off just flat blocking or punch blocking as those are far less risky.

It is really weird but if I had to teach someone backhand looping, it would probably be controversially. wrong but I would start with the Chiquita. I Feel that that stroke trains some good things that help backhand topspins universally.

Yea when I do those drills I do more of an active block rather than a loop with my BH. I'm trying to be able to loop or do more of a ML style super aggressive active block instead.

I do two levels of spins with my random BH/FH drills. The less spin one is more like a block while the more spin one is more like a loop. Against the block one I'm now trying to do a BH loop as the return while against the loop one I'm trying to develop an aggressive active block that's kind of like a hybrid between a punch block and a loop.

On the FH side I just loop everything.

 

[Egon]

The other day I was playing in a very humid room and had a lot of backhand problems with Vega Pro. I have several rackets with the same set of rubbers, but with different blades - from control to hard and fast. Vega Pro did not play normally on any blade - it was fast and lacked grip, although I treated the topsheet with Renovator from Revolution before the game and during breaks. Yes, the rubbers are not new, maybe they should be replaced, but literally yesterday they worked and today they don’t.
There would be no happiness, so misfortune helped. I have never played with a sticky rubber on the backhand, because I thought it would be slow, and no matter how many times I tried it, I did not like it, but I reluctantly turned the racket and, miraculously, the sticky Jupiter plays the backhand well! Yes, you need to change the technique of the block, yes, you need a 37-38 degree sponge, but it works! Now I'm thinking about what kind of sticky and fast rubber to put on the backhand.

 

[hclnnkhg]

The other day I was playing in a very humid room and had a lot of backhand problems with Vega Pro. I have several rackets with the same set of rubbers, but with different blades - from control to hard and fast. Vega Pro did not play normally on any blade - it was fast and lacked grip, although I treated the topsheet with Renovator from Revolution before the game and during breaks. Yes, the rubbers are not new, maybe they should be replaced, but literally yesterday they worked and today they don’t.
There would be no happiness, so misfortune helped. I have never played with a sticky rubber on the backhand, because I thought it would be slow, and no matter how many times I tried it, I did not like it, but I reluctantly turned the racket and, miraculously, the sticky Jupiter plays the backhand well! Yes, you need to change the technique of the block, yes, you need a 37-38 degree sponge, but it works! Now I'm thinking about what kind of sticky and fast rubber to put on the backhand.

I don't think Chinese rubbers will get much faster than J3 without boosting (J3 comes with factory tuning). So if you want something even faster you may have to look into what hybrid rubbers can offer.

 

[dingyibvs]

Had a very meh practice yesterday. I mixed in some BH powerloop vs block practice yesterday after services and before random BH/FH drills. Made some progress there, but my muscles (legs and shoulder) got very tired very quickly during the random topspin drills. Really had trouble finishing sets of 40 by the last sets. I think working the previous night was an issue. I was mentally fatigued too, was regressing on BH loops vs backspin, and was very slow in diagnosing the issue (bad timing).

Today I made some more progress in the BH powerloop, utilizing it much better in the random topspin drill as well.

Switching gears. Thinking back to last week's league play, it was very humid and my fine brush loops were slipping almost every time. I'm always aggressive with service receives, and this was especially an issue looping half-long serves. By the end I switched to an over the table loop motion, very forward going and hitting into the sponge a lot more. I had surprisingly (to me) good success with it. Now thinking of Ma Long's play, he seems to loop half-long services similarly, over the table rather than waiting for them to drop off the end of the table. Maybe I should do that more.

Switching gears again. There's another fast improving player in our club. He's taking a very conventional approach and developing a really solid conventional game. Spinny loops with moderate power on both wings, solid blocking, and gradually improving services and receives. He also switched from Viscaria + T05s two weeks ago to a slower outer carbon blade made by Charlie + Z2's. The equipment switch has really turbocharged his growth. He was slowly becoming a more regular presence in group 1, but I think after the last couple of weeks he's gonna be a regular. His topspin attacks are just too consistent now for most of the club players.

The previous time I played (3 weeks ago) him he surprised me with his growth already, but I was focused on applying new techniques so I wasn't too surprised. I ended up coming from 10-4 down in the 5th set to beat him 12-10. Last week I was applying now much less new and much better developed techniques, and I was still down 9-7 in the 5th before winning 11-9.

It's very exciting watching the growth of another member of the club. Hardly anyone else is improving at a decent pace (we fill 10-11 tables each night) or seems willing to work to improve. I'll probably see if he wants to do some practices. I want to help him improve which should help me grow as well. I try to discuss with him after each match to go over what helped me win, so hopefully next time he can adjust and make it more difficult for him. He's obviously so close, just needs to sharpen a few things each time. But I keep improving as well, and I'll try my hardest to keep moving the goalpost for him.

 

[Dan]

Hey guys so just got back from a crazy weekend with Team Sweden! Some crazy content to come 🔥🏓

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

amazing... i wonder if Team Sweden won the Donkey

 

[Dan]

amazing... i wonder if Team Sweden won the Donkey

Hehe 😁🐴

 

[Der_Echte]

Looks like a LOT of TROUBLE MAKERS there @Dan

 

[Der_Echte]

@dingyibvs

You gunna be at Table Tennis America 2023 Bay Area Open on April 2 ??

@Littledragonman7 will be there competing and we gunna be full decked out in pro-looking pro lettered Donic gear.

Don't know about the pro performance, but we gunna present a professional team appearance and cause trouble.

Come on out and cheer against us, maybe we can bring you along on the next mission to the Vancouver Open.

If you hate on us for the $10 cost of a spectator pass, I can buy you an after tourney cheezebugger or let you win the left handed thumb wrestling match.

For real, though, come on out and I will comp you for the entry pass and have a hit with your BH. You will see why I say what I say about BH shots.

 

[dingyibvs]

@dingyibvs

You gunna be at Table Tennis America 2023 Bay Area Open on April 2 ??

@Littledragonman7 will be there competing and we gunna be full decked out in pro-looking pro lettered Donic gear.

Don't know about the pro performance, but we gunna present a professional team appearance and cause trouble.

Come on out and cheer against us, maybe we can bring you along on the next mission to the Vancouver Open.

If you hate on us for the $10 cost of a spectator pass, I can buy you an after tourney cheezebugger or let you win the left handed thumb wrestling match.

For real, though, come on out and I will comp you for the entry pass and have a hit with your BH. You will see why I say what I say about BH shots.

Oh nice! What time will you guys be playing? My FIL is visiting from the east coast later this week through the weekend, so I'll probably have some lunch obligations, but I can head over there afterwards.

 

[Der_Echte]

Oh nice! What time will you guys be playing? My FIL is visiting from the east coast later this week through the weekend, so I'll probably have some lunch obligations, but I can head over there afterwards.

Haha, your Jang-In visiting, cool. My Jang-In is over 90 and still kicking.

LDM7's events are at 3 pm and 6 pm. I will comp your Jang-In sum fire water or barley tea for allowing you to cheer a friend or enemy/frenemy.

 

[Der_Echte]

@dingyibvs U gotta get sum BH action... Carl and NextLevel can vouch, but my BH is now tons better than even what they saw and know.

 

[blahness]

fml I lost even more matches to my training partner who somehow improved so much. He now has the nastiest reverse pendulum serve to my short FH which is tricky AF to deal with. Previously I was winning like 80-90% of games against him. Today was more like 60% winrate

But there's some good stuff. My BH fade receive is getting some really good results and also I discovered that chiquita from the FH corner isn't all that scary at all once I tried it. I was already standing sort of in the middle (left leg at left corner, right leg at centreline) so it really wasn't that insane of a receive. I won a few games with chiquita alone lol.

I also tested having the FH bent arm during the backswing (straighten only just before forward swing) - it is amazing actually - I definitely could feel the increase in explosiveness with this modification.

But I was soo tired from work and other gym exercise that I was just sore all over and moved like crap. Even got humiliated by a few blocks after my powerloops just because my legs were simply refusing to move. I also felt like puking during the games. Maybe it's the shitty Melbourne weather changes....

 

[Der_Echte]

Looks like all the Donic gear I ordered from TT11 will get here today, so I try to get it lettered Friday... so, with the stuff LDM7 got me from Paddle Palace, we will now have at least 4-5 Donic uniforms and 2 track suit jackets professionally lettered ready to go be available for use. (and a paddle palace jersey too)

LDM7 is doing a tourney this weekend and next weekend as well, so we hope to post sum pics looking good before matches... hopefully smiling after sum good match results.

 

[dingyibvs]

fml I lost even more matches to my training partner who somehow improved so much. He now has the nastiest reverse pendulum serve to my short FH which is tricky AF to deal with. Previously I was winning like 80-90% of games against him. Today was more like 60% winrate

But there's some good stuff. My BH fade receive is getting some really good results and also I discovered that chiquita from the FH corner isn't all that scary at all once I tried it. I was already standing sort of in the middle (left leg at left corner, right leg at centreline) so it really wasn't that insane of a receive. I won a few games with chiquita alone lol.

I also tested having the FH bent arm during the backswing (straighten only just before forward swing) - it is amazing actually - I definitely could feel the increase in explosiveness with this modification.

But I was soo tired from work and other gym exercise that I was just sore all over and moved like crap. Even got humiliated by a few blocks after my powerloops just because my legs were simply refusing to move. I also felt like puking during the games. Maybe it's the shitty Melbourne weather changes....

Well, unless your skills regressed, it's a good thing! I'm trying to help the fast improving guy in my club to beat me. Thr way I look at it, it's not like we're both contending for the same spot on Team USA, we're just trying to become better players, maybe get a nice rating one day. To that end, the better each of us is, the more likely that's to happen.

I had a good practice session with him last week. We first did some typical FH/FH and BH/BH drills, then I had him do some alternating FH/BH drills while I blocked from my BH side. He needed more help with continuous attacks, I needed more help with blocking.

Then we moved on to push practice, we're pretty bad at it, but got a bit better later on. Then we practiced some flicks. Lastly we did a more complex drill where he serves a backspin to my BH, I push a bit high or a bit long, and he has to decide between flick or loop. His flick was no good, needs some flick focused practice, so later on I just changed to push long vs half-long with an occasional short push mixed in to his FH.

He improved his FH opening loop quite a bit at the end, it was very low, spinny and with solid pace. It was too tight of a loop for me to counter loop, and he was even hitting some down the line shots which is a major weakness of his. I mostly blocked, and he still needs some work with his continuous attacks, but the alternating FH/BH drills I think helped him quite a bit there too.

As for me, I got quite a bit more comfortable blocking. I think if I can block the first, powerful loop and force a less threatening reloop then I should be able to utilize my counter loop against even higher level players. That's a part of my game I'm trying to develop.