Hello TTDers!
"All the best laid plans of mice and men ..." Intended to only serve sidedown to force myself to 3rd ball loop
Last night's AAR:
1) Chatted with P. last week. Didn't hit with him for some time. He usually is training on a side table with his coach, an older woman with a bad back.
SIDE NOTE: sometimes I don't get other members, they just kick the ball to her, knowing she has a back brace on. If I'm on an adjacent table and her ball comes to my table, I pick up the ball, walk over to her and hand it to her. She always thanks me. Last week, she spoke Mandarin to me, which I don't understand. She then motioned that I should kick the ball to her ... LOL at me ... I nodded, however, I refuse to do that. I will continue to hand her the ball.
Hit with P. for about 20 mins until he had to leave to meet a friend. When I first joined the club, he was training the modern PH style. A few weeks ago, I've noticed he went to SH. As we hit, I asked him about the change. I commented he had good strokes and footwork and steady RPB. He said he's starting all over and SH is easier to learn.
We hit FH-FH, then he hit FH to my BH and I punch back, then he blocked my longstroke loops. I have never seen P. play games. He asked me to serve to him, and I served my pendulum side-down as well as BH side-down. He is 50-50 on service returns.
Then he had to leave.
2) An older woman whom I've never seen before at the club, jumped on the table next. She spoke Mandarin and I spoke in my broken Mandarin that I don't speak/understand Mandarin. We conversed in English. She told me she didn't hit in a very long time. I thought she was using pips, but after checking her racket, it was a modern PH racket with dead rubber.
She had good FH strokes as well as a good punch. With the dead rubber, and her punch technique, some downspin coming at me. Was a challenge for me to punch back, ended up more of a slight BH and/or angled up punch back. She fatigued after 40 mins and I took a break.
3) Sat at a table watching the higher-level players hitting. W. was hitting with R. W. peaked at 1950, a modern PH... played him once in the past and he crushed me. Has an excellent punch AWAY FROM THE TABLE. Always marvel watching him do that as I can't do it and I'm always close to the table. He and R. were counter-looping. Always fun to watch.
M1 and M2 were sitting at the table also. I asked both of them about JP, the player Carl mentioned in another thread. Both of them said they beat JP.
Me having only 5 mins of rest, W. says he's done. Both M1 and M2 said get on the table. So, tired as I was, I got up. The 4 of them have already hit/played with each other earlier in the night.
R. is like a coach at the club and plays SH. Generally the higher level players hit with him. Steady counter-looper, tricky/spinny serves, very steady. I asked him once, he said he thought he was 1600 or so. I think he's higher. Played him 2x in past and he killed me. Generally don't see him play games, big guy with perhaps a bad back.
He started lobbing to me and i started smashing. Got some good hits, but R. is one of my worst nightmares, steady lobber who puts spin on the ball under the table and I sometimes don't pick up on it until it's too late. I had some "quick attacks" - hitting the ball right after it bounced to change tempo/rhythm.
I then started longstroke looping. After a few, R. starts to chop. Have looped steady enough in the past vs F., a woman SH chopper with longpips. R. plays inverted both sides and heavier spin coming at me. I was maybe 50/50 on my loops.
M1 asks me if i was better in my old days or better now. I replied that I was better then. Used to my old racket and rubber, I had more game, didn't lose the points that I am 50/50 now. Timing and touch not quite back yet. M1 mentioned that I probably shouldn't use a chinese rubber, unless I like to block. Mentioned that i do like to block ... LOL at me. He countered that times change, the ball changed, I'm doing too much work and i should let the rubber do the work. With a chinese rubber, I will do a lot more work. Didn't remember to ask him for his reco, partly cos I didn't want R. to wait on me. MENTAL NOTE: ask M1 next time.
R. then started serving to me. Didn't ask for him to serve pendulum sidetop, but I'm sure he recalled from our previous times that I ate his serves. I was able to 'pick' (my term, perhaps modern/correct term is "flick") some of his serves. Some I was able to "angle block" (my term) to his FH.
He then says, good, let's see how you do against them in a game. Bears mentioning again. Although games we have to keep score, not so much into seeing if i can win or not, although it would be nice to win, but i can gauge my progress or lack thereof lol Lost to R. in the past mostly 6 or 7. Lots of unforced errors.
Last night lost 3 straight mostly at 7 or 8. He took it easy on me. Thinking he has a bad back or perhaps bad knees, I didn't play my full game of make the opponent move with blocks/punches and serves. I surprised him with some shots and he of course surprised me with many serves. After the set was over, I was about to thank you for his time and he says let's continue!
So before we started the next set, I said I won't take it easy on you this time and we both chuckled. He cranked up his game a notch or 2. Started serving wicked pendulum sidedown and down. I 'angled/touched' (my terms, think it's called 'float') to his bh, sometimes the heavy downspin i didn't compensate enough for and it goes straight into the net. Surprised him that i was able to return. He mentioned that the safest place to return to is the bh for that serve. It got predictable though, one point, i touched it back to his bh and he went for a 3rd ball fh loop down the line for a winner. Next time he served it, i touched it back to his fh and missed. Another time, I was able to get it to his fh. Not easy. Surprised him with it, I mentioned I had to try to his FH as he was going to 3rd ball loop me from now into next year!
Good games, I lost them all mostly at 8... iirc, may have had 1 deuce game. I think we played 5 or 6 games more since first set.
R. was able to adjust for my fast sidedown pendulum serve, so i served some slower and to the middle of the table as well as mixing in sidetop and fast no spin down the line. The first fast nospin down the line caught him looking. He said it's a smart serve. I didn't want to tell him I didn't use it much as I didn't want to risk of hurting his back/knees. On a point, he purposely positioned himself extremely squared away at the corner of his bh, baiting my down the line serve ... i accomodated, he FH looped it and I waited for the loop ready to smash it, but mistimed it. I didn't rush my smash, i waited and still wasn't able to hit it... LOL... we both chuckled at his mind games
Overall was a little fatigued. Didn't smash nor looped well. There were points when I looped instead of smash and vice versa. We had a lot of fun pushing ourselves to better our game.
Played about 1 hr 15 mins with R.
4) Hit with a partner next that wasn't at my level. As R. was leaving and it was his net on the table, we started a game shortly.
I don't know know if my partner knows I'm intermediate or not, but I'm not the type to have no mercy on beginners. Although I was fatigued, I didn't play my game, i played mostly defensive so he can work aspects of his game. Although i believe in Iron sharpening iron, i believe if i played my game, my partner would not get much out of it.
Sometimes I wonder though if my partners in these cases think i'm belittling or condescending to them. Not my intent. Trying to help their game.
Rested 10 mins and forced myself to walk home ~2,200 steps/25 mins.
As always, thank you TTDers for reading my progress (really lack of progress LOL) reports.
Have an awesome day!
EDIT: phone in shop, so no videos from last night... for the record, ordered a Joby, a magnetic tripod octopus thingy to hold phone in place.
I think the Chit Chatters have a flavor of my TT sessions, will shorten my posts going forward, or should I just start my own thread? Will be posting videos sooner or later.
