Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Gozo]

Many a times many players say T05 is difficult to control and not the rubber of choice for noobs. However, we see T05 is used extensively by pro players. So there is something about it that is intriguing about it, no?

An epiphany moment occurred to me last Thurs. I slapped a piece of T05 on my BH in lieu of my usual Donic Bluefire M1. In my opinion, what makes T05 so ideal for BH use is that she is very grippy and if you can tame it, you can control the ball with spin. It has a better grip / bite that allows you to greatly manipulate the ball.

Manipulate the ball. What does that mean? For me, it means many gears, I can topspin the ball fast or slow & spinny just to break the rhythm of the game and mess up the timing of my opponent. Now I am slowly re-discovering T05's potential.

p/s oh! btw, I have just beaten a better player than I: 5-2. There is one set I won him with an 11-2 scoreline. This player whom I 've seldom beat in my many years with the club. Maybe once or twice out of the many hundreds of games I've played with him. I think this may be due to the T05 and my new found ability to tame / control T05 that is making a difference. Really excited to play with a new or rather with an old toy but discovering its new unused feature.

p/s/s I feel like a little kid in a candy store again. I am all warm and fuzzy inside.

 

[JeffM]

So pleasing to watch this video. Dream forehand.

 

[Gozo]

So pleasing to watch this video. Dream forehand.

I find the key is getting low, real low....

 

[JeffM]

I find the key is getting low, real low....

Yep and the weight transfer!

 

[blahness]

So pleasing to watch this video. Dream forehand.

Everyone sees something different. I see the two bounces now clearly - one for recovery and one to prepare for the shot.

 

[JeffM]

Went to gym today, first time after returning to rural in 2 weeks. Just did everything but cautious of injuring myself. So I did most stuff but at a slightly lower weight in my first set. I wanted to finish with cardio but there was someone using the recombent bike, so I gave it a miss.
I will go back tomorrow, probably do some legs again and will try for cardio again.
Then I will have a break for 1 day before the comp.

I did a bit of shadow strokes since I miss TT too much. But I didn't want to do too much as I am not holding my racket and I don't want to do anything too much before the comp.

I watched Dima's comeback. It was great. Funny when everyone in the youtube chat is like Dima is a great player but he is old so he cannot compete with the young with power, then he came back haha.

 

[OldUser]

And Can is over the Top 50... Dima is not aging that well...

 

[Gozo]

So pleasing to watch this video. Dream forehand.

I see the YT and I want to emulate FZD, but in the end, I ended up looking like .... me.

This sheet ain't no Dunning-Kruger, it's the real McCoy.

 

[Gozo]

This is something new my coach had me drilled today. He says my BH open up sucks so he had me loop against long-pimple block to help me practice my BH open ups. Very ingenious way to teach one to improve BH open ups.

Just for completeness sake, the below is my FH open up against long-pimple blocks.

 

[Wrighty67]

This is something new my coach had me drilled today. He says my BH open up sucks so he had me loop against long-pimple block to help me practice my BH open ups. Very ingenious way to teach one to improve BH open ups.

View attachment 25331
Just for completeness sake, the below is my FH open up against long-pimple blocks.
View attachment 25332

Those open ups look great on both sides to me Gozo, compact and good spin and control - very nice.

 

[Gozo]

Can a 10.5mm mega-thick shakehand blade with two pieces of max thickness super-duper ultra fast rubber perform BH flicks, aka chiquita against short underspin ball? Well, folks... let's find out. Shall we?

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

in the last couple weeks, it looks that finally i have made a "breakthrough" in my game recently. Yes i've felt for a while that i've been improving a lot of things here and there, but the match results were not changing that much.

its mainly got to do with the serve. great thanks to @NextLevel for the tip of keeping the elbow high when serving the pendulum serve. changing that detail has helped a lot, especially for serving fast long with backspin. a 10yo kid showed me this serve (my coaches had given up to teach it to me ?). but adding the elbow stuff is making it really the serve more consistent, probably because by not using the upper arm it removes one parameter, and it makes easier to serve low and stay low during and after the serve. My motion is fast and it's easier to disguise spin and placement too.

my serve% is not very good yet, but the serve quality is up a lot. Even players which are several levels above mine are struggling against that serve when it's well executed.

I've not found out yet a way to be consistent at serving fast down the line with this serve.

of course, that the long serve is so much better than before makes the short serve (to FH side) much more effective.

another detail i've added is that now the right foot is now a bit behind the table instead than on the end of table line while serving. it helps me recover faster and get that couple 10ths of seconds to react, and not to stand too close to the table after receiving.

My BH serve has also improved a lot. i've found a mistake that I used to do with this serve: sometimes my elbow was going a little bit in front of me while after practicing a lot i find out that keeping the motion in a line parallel to my body gives much better control. I've also given up on trying to throw the ball high. i make it up by having a faster motion and trying to hit the ball low. it's much easier and more effective for me. I'm getting lot of cheap points with this serve, essentially long but i can place it on both corners and serve with no spin / backspin / topspin. Many players struggle against this one.
---
in a connected technique, also, i finally found a way how to make better and more spinny BH pushes while receiving, against the pendulum serve. The idea is to use a similar motion than with the BH serve, so in its perfected form, it's like the "strawberry". I hit the ball tangentially to its trajectory, on the right side.
the difficulty is to see well the trajectory and be close to the ball. the main mistake is when the elbow goes forward which happens mostly when im late, panicking and reaching to the ball / or the upper body too high.

Like the BH serve the motion is parallel to the body, so to execute i have to twist a body a bit to the left side when i prepare for the shot. Quite a few choppers do that. i find it easy for long pushes, but it's also possible to do a short and spinny one. Sometimes the ball goes even back towards the net, i was never able to do that with another technique.

i find its also easier to become more unpredictable with this technique.
somehow when i receive short with FH I feel the opponent reads very easily where I'm putting the ball. it must have to do with my bat angle and/or body position.

---
to sum it up with various coaching advice, they told me that given my game, it is better:
- to serve mostly long (I'm not very good at opening loop)
- when receiving, as I'm struggling against long serves, wait for a long ball. if the ball is short on 2/3 of left side of table push it long. Only if i have time and/or the ball is easy, i can try another receive (try receiving short or chiquita)

Before an important competition, at least 1-2 weeks before, just practice only that. In between of course work on weaknesses and other patterns (serve short, try to loop) so that in the future i can play more like that in match.

At least i have less to think about tactics and can focus on other things.

 

[JeffM]

I've been trying the elbow up with the pendulum serve as per NextLevel. I can now do light topspin. It works quite nice, where I have been able to get a few popped up receives and works as a deception as follow through after a backspin one too.

 

[JJ Ng]

Can a 10.5mm mega-thick shakehand blade with two pieces of max thickness super-duper ultra fast rubber perform BH flicks, aka chiquita against short underspin ball? Well, folks... let's find out. Shall we?
View attachment 25335

I really really like your backhand loop.

For your forehand loop, there are two things: 1) you leaned back on your right leg/foot too much. I don't think weight transfer is totally necessary but you lean on your right leg/foot too much, when you loop the backspin (or counter topspin), you are like flat footed. So at least keep your weight equally on both of your legs and lean forward on your toes. Squat low. Then loop. I am sure you will feel more comfortable that way.

2) you are loop to the right side of your body. Yes you should start your paddle there but as you swing up and forward, your paddle should contact the ball in the front of your body, and then the paddle ends near your head. Your backhand loops are very good because you are contacting the ball in front of your body. But when you loop your forehand, you contact the ball on the side of your body.

I agree about T05. There is a reason why many world class players use it. But to me, maybe I am too lazy to tame the beast. I have to change my bat angle completely to tame T05. I like my bat angle just fine with my 5-ply wood blade with Chinese rubber on the forehand side.

I started playing in the 38mm ball era so my set up was to loop backspin. Now I have to remember to keep my right hand higher because the ball no longer has as much (if any) back spin like before. So T05 is good in forehand to forehand quick counter. You can basically be lazy and just half-a... hitting the ball and the ball will go over. With Chinese rubber whether it has back spin, no spin or top spin, you should still brush and hit through the ball (but obviously adjust your bat angle depending on the spin coming at you) but that feeling of total control is exhilerating.

 

[Gozo]

JJ Ng,

Aesthetics versus Functionality.

You says my BH loop looks pretty but my coach says it sucks. Perhaps it is nice to look at but my percentage in worse than my FH loop. My FH loop looks not so pretty, but it sends more balls onto the table and my coach praises it. He looks at percentage, not aesthetics. Oh well, such is life... keep on practicing. Keep on practicing...

 

[NextLevel]

My tournament report is long but I will try to keep it short.

Couldn't get too much practice going in and that is not a terrible thing. Just hit nb on Wednesday as the last practice day before Saturday.

I had deuce in the 5th games against two lower rated players and managed to still win. I hit allot of backhand topspins against no spin pushes long and I need to figure out how to.read and adjust because I think that will gain me a.lot of points. But I was up 10‐3 in the 5th against one of them and managed to lose 7 points without calling a timeout.

I lost to the tournament winner in both events though I did lose to the second player in my group in both round robin stages for the U2150 and the Open. The tournament winner was a bit of a ringer who worked his way through the tournament rating circuit slowly rather than playing at his true level. While it means little, I actually scored better against him than the people he played in the later stages.

In the U2150, I was paired with a lefty who I play and hit a lot with. My camera misbehaved so I am not sure what quality of footage I have but at least his exists. He went up 2‐0 pretty quickly. I won the next two games at deuce and then went up 5-3 in the 5th but failed to sustain the momentum after switching sides. I noticed he was just letting me miss so I served backspin and then attacked the push as I usually get my best results if a player is going that and not keeping the ball short.

I played doubles and it was really funny. So When I originally registered, the u2150 was full but the lefty told me I could email the organizer and get in. The organizer then wanted to play doubles with me and I was like I suck at doubles but if you want sure. So my partner is an older gentleman, under 1200 on paper, and I am limited mobility man. So in the first match we get a team with two experienced 2000+ players. My partner chops every ball. The serve comes long he chops it. If the opponent loops, he runs back to.chop it. I was like how does a penholder chop so much, can he hit a topspins? So we lost that match 0‐3 and people watching the match were like this guy(me) is obviously not invested in playing.

Those 2000+ players beat a couple of other players who were nb in our group on the A vs B matchup and we now had the B vs C(me and partner matchup) to determine who gets out since 2 advanced. Since B had taken a.game of A while we lost 0‐3, I assumed it would be quick loss. Then the match started and the B team started missing all those chops, smashing them.long or into the net at a 50% plus clip. And sometimes they actually put a shot on the table that I could open against and while I suck in doubles, I can attack backspin and high balls and even lower rated topspin balls. At 9‐9 in the first game, they pushe my partners side topspin serves twice and let me opening with my forehand. At 9‐9 in the second game, my partners chops were hit long on game point. In game three we were down 5-9 and won 6‐points in a row and the 9‐9 points were eerily similar in the 3rd game to the first game. So for the first time I can remember, I had advanced playing doubles lol! And as the player kind of carrying the team.

We played the #2 seeded team in the semis, which had a 2300 player. His topspins were really heavy but I blocked his most powerful one on the best point of the match. After that sinning that point we somehow won a game but don't ask me how. Lost that match 1‐3, and then.plaued the 3rd place match. The 3rd place match was a mixed doubles team with the lady using anti on her backhand and it got us into trouble as I sometimes forgot on serve return. And my partner chopped her pushes which popped up for her partners forehand. And her partner had a forehand.

So the doubles was fun. 4th was much higher that we deserved I think lol.

I actually beat a player at 0, 8 and 2. Was a bit weird but it was funny how that happened. Even when he was hitting good shots, holding my paddle out there miraculously put the ball on the table.

Unless I can find some miracle treatment for my.knees, my game.is somewhat maxed out. Maybe I should consider learning pips or anti and then twiddling to reduce my mobility demands. But the main thing is still to get more consistent. I think I will try to find a higher level player to get a multiball or practice feed once a month with coaching. Just to see what is possible. And to get some structure around my game. I mostly know what to do, but I need someone to keep me to it and keep me motivated when the improvements are not visible and to point out what the low hanging fruits are.

On the EJ front, I am going to try Dignics 05 on both sides since I now have two Trinity' blades and see whether I should be Golden Tango forehand with Dignics backhand or Tango both sides. But I might also try another rubber on backhand like the Stiga Platinum H or even a regular Joola rubber. I like tacky stuff but I do want to remind myself why I use it so that I can stick to using fast blade with sticky rubber with conviction since I haven't used hard non-sticky rubber in a while. I mean, I might even be able to get away with G1 on my current blades for all I know.

 

[JeffM]

Nice one NextLevel!
Good work getting 4th on doubles too, especially when your partner is significantly lower ranked than you.
Be interesting to see your footages.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

https://video.tv-tokyo.co.jp/takkyu-juku/episode/00098406.html

watch this with a VPN with location set to Japan

enjoy !

Jun MIZUTANI v JPG TTTC

 

[NextLevel]

in the last couple weeks, it looks that finally i have made a "breakthrough" in my game recently. Yes i've felt for a while that i've been improving a lot of things here and there, but the match results were not changing that much.

its mainly got to do with the serve. great thanks to @NextLevel for the tip of keeping the elbow high when serving the pendulum serve. changing that detail has helped a lot, especially for serving fast long with backspin. a 10yo kid showed me this serve (my coaches had given up to teach it to me ?). but adding the elbow stuff is making it really the serve more consistent, probably because by not using the upper arm it removes one parameter, and it makes easier to serve low and stay low during and after the serve. My motion is fast and it's easier to disguise spin and placement too.

my serve% is not very good yet, but the serve quality is up a lot. Even players which are several levels above mine are struggling against that serve when it's well executed.

I've not found out yet a way to be consistent at serving fast down the line with this serve.

of course, that the long serve is so much better than before makes the short serve (to FH side) much more effective.

another detail i've added is that now the right foot is now a bit behind the table instead than on the end of table line while serving. it helps me recover faster and get that couple 10ths of seconds to react, and not to stand too close to the table after receiving.

My BH serve has also improved a lot. i've found a mistake that I used to do with this serve: sometimes my elbow was going a little bit in front of me while after practicing a lot i find out that keeping the motion in a line parallel to my body gives much better control. I've also given up on trying to throw the ball high. i make it up by having a faster motion and trying to hit the ball low. it's much easier and more effective for me. I'm getting lot of cheap points with this serve, essentially long but i can place it on both corners and serve with no spin / backspin / topspin. Many players struggle against this one.
---
in a connected technique, also, i finally found a way how to make better and more spinny BH pushes while receiving, against the pendulum serve. The idea is to use a similar motion than with the BH serve, so in its perfected form, it's like the "strawberry". I hit the ball tangentially to its trajectory, on the right side.
the difficulty is to see well the trajectory and be close to the ball. the main mistake is when the elbow goes forward which happens mostly when im late, panicking and reaching to the ball / or the upper body too high.

Like the BH serve the motion is parallel to the body, so to execute i have to twist a body a bit to the left side when i prepare for the shot. Quite a few choppers do that. i find it easy for long pushes, but it's also possible to do a short and spinny one. Sometimes the ball goes even back towards the net, i was never able to do that with another technique.

i find its also easier to become more unpredictable with this technique.
somehow when i receive short with FH I feel the opponent reads very easily where I'm putting the ball. it must have to do with my bat angle and/or body position.

---
to sum it up with various coaching advice, they told me that given my game, it is better:
- to serve mostly long (I'm not very good at opening loop)
- when receiving, as I'm struggling against long serves, wait for a long ball. if the ball is short on 2/3 of left side of table push it long. Only if i have time and/or the ball is easy, i can try another receive (try receiving short or chiquita)

Before an important competition, at least 1-2 weeks before, just practice only that. In between of course work on weaknesses and other patterns (serve short, try to loop) so that in the future i can play more like that in match.

At least i have less to think about tactics and can focus on other things.

Going down the line, you have two options. The lyrics both require you to face the table a big more at contact as the sidespin will pull thr ball towards the middle of the table. If you serve the sidespin or side back version, some people practice spinning the ball and letting go out and bend back into the table. But you can also just flatten out the serve and serve it down the line. If I want to serve to the short forehand. I tend to serve more like Samsonov and with a less high elbow. One of the small tricks I have learned is that is you snap across the bottom of the ball parallel to the table, it tends to keep the ball shorter on side backspin serves even if the backspin is not as pure. I might show what i mean on video as it might not make sense in words.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

my question is more about the LONG serve down the line. basically not surprisingly my ball ends up flying over the table most of the time.