Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[ThePongCommenter]

The return might not be that different in speed, but my ball will be... I guess I'm overthinking this already it feels like it's not as convincing as I initially thought it was.

I think you may be overthinking it but if it feels like it works for you then that's great. A lot just depends on the variable that is standing on the other side of the table and how you communicate your training goals to them (if they are even willing to cooperate in the first place).

 

[dingyibvs]

I really don't see any match play benefit to practicing with different equipment since match play is guided by making things work and adapting to each shot with the feeling and technique you've developed with your given equipment and the limitations/characteristics of that equipment. Even if you feel better in training with a 968 backhand or whatever, if you're in the middle of a match with FZD, that all goes out the window when things are happening live, so time is better spent just seeing which blade yields overall better results and practicing through the limitations rather than trying to eliminate the problem in practice.

I think you misunderstood me. When I switch I switch full time for a few months at a time to focus training on a particular aspect of my game.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Mrs. Calderano approves!

 

[NextLevel]

Played an unrated tournament on Saturday. First round was a round robin of 4, I won the group and went into a single elimination. Only competitive match was against a kid that lost to last month (or I think really in June) partly because it was his hoke club and partly because in addition to lacking good practice, i got frustrated with the humidity. I didn’t have any problems this time in my former home club that has wound down TT to focus on badminton. I have resolved in general to stop pushing serves and I think this has helped a lot because it has kept me popping up pushes less. And since most kids don't serve real backspin, it simplifies my decision process, and since they are used to people pushing their non-backspin serves, it makes me less fun to play against.

In general today was a decent revenge tour. I played a guy I lost to at the last tournament in my former home club in the final of the O-40. I lost 0-3 then, I won 3-0 today. I guess the experience from the previous time and hitting with him once in between made me slightly less susceptible to his variation and kick game. We also played with tables around us this time so I could focus better.

Then I played the #1 seed overall, a 2100 player who hits the ball hard and who had beaten me badly the last time we played at the State Champs in 2024. However, the main difference this time was that I am fitter and sharper in general a year later and even though I am not training much because the main club is too far from me, I tend to attack pushes that drift over the table ans while this guy punishes loose balls, he isn't really a counterlooper so getting the opening in mostly puts him on the backfoot. I won on an edge at deuce in the 5th.

Then came the semis against a guy that when I first played him completely massacred me. He basically made me give up Rakza Z lol and go to Non sticky rubbers. Since then I played him in minor league TT and got a better feel for how to control his game. During the warmup I thought to myself that his forehand technique was really bad. I went down 8-0 or something like that in game one, I racket edged all his hook topspinnl serves into my forehand and he got into rallies where he could attack repeatedly into my backhand. A friend of mine who had played me a lot told me that I needed to serve away from his forehand a year ago (the friend has moved to another state). So i started to backhand serve into the short forehand and the game dynamics changed sharply. Even though i lost the first game 11-8, I won games 2 and 3 comfortably. I was comfortably on my way to winning game 4 as well but he did some funky shots and serves and I missed some kill shots. And so I lost that at 9. I was determined not to fall apart like that and won thr last game at 5, the dynamics hadn't really changed I had just been too sloppy. Its really interesting that he serves to people the precise location he hates to return from lol.

So onto the finals where I play a kid who usually beats me and who I haven't played in a few months. I go with my best chance and attack hard and go up 6-2. And between careless points and good defense. He gets it back to 6-6. My last moment of daylight was having game point at 9-10. Unfortunately I lost the next three points and it was mostly downhill from there.

All in all, it was fun, no regrets. I just need tonfind somewhere close to home that I can play and train again.

 

[Der_Echte]

Next level must have read Suffer No Fools from Walt Williams before he entered the venue.

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

STTC x MLTT: Sunrise SPINDEX Challenge League Night - Round Robin Table Tennis Tournament

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtube.com

 

[dingyibvs]

Fine tuning went well the past week, managed to get better rotation/weight transfer, shortening the activation sequence, and a less forward swing. It was too difficult to implement the stance change at the same time the rotation/weight transfer so gonna work on that next. Also still need to increase weight transfer. I've been focusing on transferring to the left foot at the end of the stroke, but here I'm starting to think that the key is actually to load the right foot at the beginning of the stroke more.

Surprisingly the change that made the biggest and most immediate difference was in shortening the activation sequence. The full sequence just takes too long, especially during match play, and this change allows me to hit the ball much more on time. More than that, having shorter swing overall also means that I can initiate the swing with the ball closer to me, which gives me just a tad more time to judge the ball, resulting in significantly improved consistency. This applies to both rallies and opening loops.

 

[nzbloggs]

He basically made me give up Rakza Z lol and go to Non sticky rubbers.

Can you explain more about this please? I'm learning and don't yet understand why non-sticky rubbers could be a good thing, or how it affects play style

 

[NextLevel]

Can you explain more about this please? I'm learning and don't yet understand why non-sticky rubbers could be a good thing, or how it affects play style

Sticky rubbers require more effort to get speed.

 

[Larshos]

For a TSPW, which of these would you choose as a FH rubber?

J3 Asia 38/39
Big Dipper 38/39
Apollo 5 38/39

?

 

[dingyibvs]

My practice partner is gonna take a scheduled hiatus, so this week is gonna be the last garage practice in a while. I'm getting close to reaching a desired form on my FH side, so thinking about switching back to the Q968 since that's my intended ultimate equipment. I decided to use the last home practice for a while to give the W968 one last chance before the switch (probably in a couple weeks when booster effect is gone from my FZD setup).

Overall, the BH still just doesn't feel great on the W968. When the rally gets fast the ball just stays on the racket too long for short/fast movements. I even took off the H3 38 OS from my Q968 and glued it on the W, just to see if it was the H3 37 that was the issue, but I think it's just the blade. FH feels amazing, of course. Even having not used it for like 6 months and having a different rubber (H3 40 BS 2.15 instead of 2.1) that's completely off boost the FH just clicked right away. I think the W just doesn't suit the BH game I've developed.

Anyhow, here are the last 2 garage matches in a while. First match I played with my regular setup, the FZD/H3/D09c, second I played with the W968/H3/H3. Aside from trying out equipment I was also trying to do more FH pivot receives of long services, which did not go too well lol.

 

[boretennis]

i started to play TT again a year ago after a 38 years break. i was so removed that i didn't even know that the sets are not to 21 anymore and that the ball is bigger. i had some memory feeling for the play, but never really learned proper technique of strokes, movement etc, it was more of a hobby recreational club i guess. so i actually started from scratch a year ago. i made quite some progress and there is room for some more, but after one year i feel like i'm trapped in the "what i think i'm doing / what my friends think i'm doing / what i'm actually doing" meme. in free play training at the club i feel and do sort of great (in my perception), enjoy to mimik proper topspin rallies, i think i manage to sometimes do some quality shots, brave effective flicks and clever serves (as per the first part of the meme mentioned above), but as soon as it comes to matchplay i get a reality check and lose against the worst basement junk players. my mental game is non existing. i can be way ahead in aassumed easy match with a much shittier player and then still manage to lose for some stupid mysterious reason... but mind you i still enjoy playing even those matches, i get annoyed but not too disheartened, losing doesn't take away my joy of playing, and i am eager enough to learn to one day flick the fuck out of those garage choppers. but i have to admit it is hard to accept that my headroom for growth is much smaller than i anticipated and would like it to be. there are still some things i am able to & going to learn, sure, but one year after picking up playing again i come to realize that all this systemic training in my club and all the 1:1 lessons i had with a coach are mostly lost on me. i wouldn't dare to take a video of my play, it would look quite different from how i feel & perceive myself. i am soon 52, i smoke, i like to drink, etc. i made quite some progress in the last year, but i have to learn to accept that i will more or less stay on my 1400 TTR or whatever level and enjoy TT without some authority telling me that i don't recover fast enough, that my strokes are too upwards, that my footwork sucks, that i don't have enough variety in my serves, etc etc. and this is all not because i didn't find my defining rubber yet. it's not easy to find the balance between putting effort to learn what you can learn, but accepting that it's not only too late in life, that i might even just not have the talent, that my play is actually below club average, that it will more or less stay that way, but still keep on enjoying playing. i guess it's not easy to enjoy any competitive sport if you are just average in it, even if you love to do it, it just nags...

someone else trapped in the "what i think i'm doing / what my friends think i'm doing / what i'm actually doing" meme? are you a beginner inquiring about player edition blades as if it makes a difference? are you boosting your hurricanes to play with your mates in the school cafeteria? are you very close to show your real potential if you could just find this one gamechanger BH rubber on aliexpress? who else is an aspiring below average player? it's confession time!

 

[dingyibvs]

i started to play TT again a year ago after a 38 years break. i was so removed that i didn't even know that the sets are not to 21 anymore and that the ball is bigger. i had some memory feeling for the play, but never really learned proper technique of strokes, movement etc, it was more of a hobby recreational club i guess. so i actually started from scratch a year ago. i made quite some progress and there is room for some more, but i after one year i feel like i'm trapped in the "what i think i'm doing / what my friends think i'm doing / what i'm actually doing" meme. in free play training at the club i feel and do sort of great, enjoy to mimik topspin rallies, manage to do some quality shots, brave flicks and clever serves (as per the first part of the meme), but as soon as it comes to matchplay i get a reality check and lose against the worst basement junk players. my mental game is non existing. i can be way ahead in a match with a much shittier player and then still manage to lose for some stupid reason... but mind you i still enjoy playing even those matches, i get annoyed but not too disheartened, losing doesn't take away my joy of playing, and i am eager enough to learn to one day flip the fuck out of those garage choppers, but i have to admit it is hard to accept that my headroom for growth is much smaller than i would like it to be. there are still some things i am able to & going to learn, but one year after picking up playing again i come to realize that all this systemic training in my club and all the 1:1 lessons i had with a coach are mostly lost on me. i wouldn't dare to take a video of my play, it would look quite different from how i feel & perceive myself. i am soon 52, i smoke, i like to drink, etc. i made quite some progress in the last year, but i have to learn to accept that i will more or less stay on my 1400 TTR level and enjoy TT without some authority telling me that i don't recover fast enough, that my strokes are too upwards, that my footwork sucks, that i don't have enough variety in my serves, etc etc. and this is all not because i didn't find my defining rubber yet. it's not easy to find the balance between putting effort to learn what you can learn, but accepting that it's not only too late in life, that i might even just not have the talent, that my play is actually below club average, that it will more or less stay that way, but still keep on enjoying playing. i guess it's not easy to enjoy any competetive sport if you are not great in it, even if you love to do it.

someone else trapped in the "what i think i'm doing / what my friends think i'm doing / what i'm actually doing" meme? are you a beginner inquiring about player edition blades as if it makes a difference? are you boosting your hurricanes to play with your mates in the school cafeteria? are you close to show your real potential if you could just find this one gamechanger BH rubber on aliexpress? who else is an aspiring below average player? it's confession time!

I think the important thing is to just identify your goals, and the important thing in identifying the goals is whether you'll have fun in the journey to reach them. If your goal is not a higher TTR then what is it? Make more whacky shots? Making more beautiful shots? Finding that next magical rubber or blade? Develop a beautiful form? Or simply playing the game with your friends?

We're all hobbyists here, none of us is ever gonna come anywhere near even a semi-pro in playing level. We're all driven by things other than reaching the "top". I think it's better to find what drives you and let that shamelessly take over than chasing goals others set for you.

 

[NextLevel]

i started to play TT again a year ago after a 38 years break. i was so removed that i didn't even know that the sets are not to 21 anymore and that the ball is bigger. i had some memory feeling for the play, but never really learned proper technique of strokes, movement etc, it was more of a hobby recreational club i guess. so i actually started from scratch a year ago. i made quite some progress and there is room for some more, but after one year i feel like i'm trapped in the "what i think i'm doing / what my friends think i'm doing / what i'm actually doing" meme. in free play training at the club i feel and do sort of great (in my perception), enjoy to mimik proper topspin rallies, i think i manage to sometimes do some quality shots, brave effective flicks and clever serves (as per the first part of the meme mentioned above), but as soon as it comes to matchplay i get a reality check and lose against the worst basement junk players. my mental game is non existing. i can be way ahead in aassumed easy match with a much shittier player and then still manage to lose for some stupid mysterious reason... but mind you i still enjoy playing even those matches, i get annoyed but not too disheartened, losing doesn't take away my joy of playing, and i am eager enough to learn to one day flick the fuck out of those garage choppers. but i have to admit it is hard to accept that my headroom for growth is much smaller than i anticipated and would like it to be. there are still some things i am able to & going to learn, sure, but one year after picking up playing again i come to realize that all this systemic training in my club and all the 1:1 lessons i had with a coach are mostly lost on me. i wouldn't dare to take a video of my play, it would look quite different from how i feel & perceive myself. i am soon 52, i smoke, i like to drink, etc. i made quite some progress in the last year, but i have to learn to accept that i will more or less stay on my 1400 TTR or whatever level and enjoy TT without some authority telling me that i don't recover fast enough, that my strokes are too upwards, that my footwork sucks, that i don't have enough variety in my serves, etc etc. and this is all not because i didn't find my defining rubber yet. it's not easy to find the balance between putting effort to learn what you can learn, but accepting that it's not only too late in life, that i might even just not have the talent, that my play is actually below club average, that it will more or less stay that way, but still keep on enjoying playing. i guess it's not easy to enjoy any competitive sport if you are just average in it, even if you love to do it, it just nags...

someone else trapped in the "what i think i'm doing / what my friends think i'm doing / what i'm actually doing" meme? are you a beginner inquiring about player edition blades as if it makes a difference? are you boosting your hurricanes to play with your mates in the school cafeteria? are you very close to show your real potential if you could just find this one gamechanger BH rubber on aliexpress? who else is an aspiring below average player? it's confession time!

The most important thing if you care about improving is a bit hard - it is to find someone who managed to improve under similar circumstances to yours and get him to mentor you.

1400 TTR is about 1700 USATT and to me that is a serious and respectable amateur and often a person off the street in the US won't know the difference. That said there are often enough gaps in mastering and adapting to spinless balls that junk players and beginner paddle users can pose problems without certain things in place. I think you have done well as long as you are having fun and as long as you enjoy working on stuff there is always fun ahead of you. No memory of the days when you didn't suck so you can always enjoy improving.

 

[latej]

someone else trapped in the "what i think i'm doing / what my friends think i'm doing / what i'm actually doing" meme? are you a beginner inquiring about player edition blades as if it makes a difference? are you boosting your hurricanes to play with your mates in the school cafeteria? are you very close to show your real potential if you could just find this one gamechanger BH rubber on aliexpress? who else is an aspiring below average player? it's confession time!

Couple of years ago I was in a similar situation, I also returned to TT late. Initially everyone is better, and you can see many levels, each with many people, above you. As you say, initially you're overwhelmed with too many things to possibly make better, and there is so many, that the "underlaying unifier" is not visible ;-) But it can manifest in questions like "what am I doing here". For me, most important is that you like to play and practise...

To cut the crap, I simply say "just do what feels right". I mean concretely and during practise. E.g. if standing low and wide feels right, do it. If not moving after each ball doesn't feel right, then do it, move after each ball. If the hit feels like it was done by arm only, and it doesn't feel right, find out how to do it so that it feels right. If focusing on getting points during the match doesn't feel right (even if you should win), then focus on something else which does feel right, like e.g. stepping back after serve or something. The peace after the practise, with a beer, already does feel right, we know that... For me, setting goals doesn't really work, I agree with @dingyibvs about everything else though. Cheers.

 

[Tyce]

Improving in a field of mostly junk players is hard. I'm trying to make a jump for a while now but I keep playing with players who are worse. If I really want to make that jump work, I have to get myself into the situation where I am not the better player.

The coming season I'm playing in the same league, again. If I really want to go up, either we have to promote on merit, or I need to pump my rating up with tournaments so I'm not allowed to play this level anymore.

In training, I need to grab the opportunity and squeeze myself into the better group. Just ask, pull myself up, and improve.
Thing is, the lower players are much better company

 

[Marvinn8686]

i started to play TT again a year ago after a 38 years break. i was so removed that i didn't even know that the sets are not to 21 anymore and that the ball is bigger. i had some memory feeling for the play, but never really learned proper technique of strokes, movement etc, it was more of a hobby recreational club i guess. so i actually started from scratch a year ago. i made quite some progress and there is room for some more, but after one year i feel like i'm trapped in the "what i think i'm doing / what my friends think i'm doing / what i'm actually doing" meme. in free play training at the club i feel and do sort of great (in my perception), enjoy to mimik proper topspin rallies, i think i manage to sometimes do some quality shots, brave effective flicks and clever serves (as per the first part of the meme mentioned above), but as soon as it comes to matchplay i get a reality check and lose against the worst basement junk players. my mental game is non existing. i can be way ahead in aassumed easy match with a much shittier player and then still manage to lose for some stupid mysterious reason... but mind you i still enjoy playing even those matches, i get annoyed but not too disheartened, losing doesn't take away my joy of playing, and i am eager enough to learn to one day flick the fuck out of those garage choppers. but i have to admit it is hard to accept that my headroom for growth is much smaller than i anticipated and would like it to be. there are still some things i am able to & going to learn, sure, but one year after picking up playing again i come to realize that all this systemic training in my club and all the 1:1 lessons i had with a coach are mostly lost on me. i wouldn't dare to take a video of my play, it would look quite different from how i feel & perceive myself. i am soon 52, i smoke, i like to drink, etc. i made quite some progress in the last year, but i have to learn to accept that i will more or less stay on my 1400 TTR or whatever level and enjoy TT without some authority telling me that i don't recover fast enough, that my strokes are too upwards, that my footwork sucks, that i don't have enough variety in my serves, etc etc. and this is all not because i didn't find my defining rubber yet. it's not easy to find the balance between putting effort to learn what you can learn, but accepting that it's not only too late in life, that i might even just not have the talent, that my play is actually below club average, that it will more or less stay that way, but still keep on enjoying playing. i guess it's not easy to enjoy any competitive sport if you are just average in it, even if you love to do it, it just nags...

someone else trapped in the "what i think i'm doing / what my friends think i'm doing / what i'm actually doing" meme? are you a beginner inquiring about player edition blades as if it makes a difference? are you boosting your hurricanes to play with your mates in the school cafeteria? are you very close to show your real potential if you could just find this one gamechanger BH rubber on aliexpress? who else is an aspiring below average player? it's confession time!

I think I have some example to share of my colleague from local training group I attend. He is an older guy doing coordinator job in our community sometimes addressed as coach. He was playing football in local clubs for many years, later mixing job of being PE teacher in regional school and being a coach to football team he used to play. When his knees gave up at 50, he found new passion in table tennis. He hasn't really play it before seriously except some basic knowledge he acquired studying for sport science to be a PE teacher. Nonetheless, he learned as lot and is a truly great opponent to play. As he as already over 60, his movement is limited due to back nad knee problems, yet his tactical thinking and awareness are supreme. Even his technique is quite good and he clearly does good strokes for a guy who started training so late. So he is kind of inspiration for me.

I am now close to a year into my TT journey so it is also a time for some thinking and summary. I think I went into some kind of monotony into my development in my local group. Initially I raised my level, but then I reached plateau and got stuck in. The certain guys and ladies in group I always win, other, better I always lose. Not many people on similar level to get competitive matches where you can win only if you focus and give 100% of yourself. So using summer break I enrolled into hobby league and tournaments into bigger city. Drawback is I have to commute there longer distance. But rivalry is great, I found there a lot of guys on similar or not that much bigger level. Beside matches I found few guys who like just do a training with similar-level opponent what is great. Really refreshing experience. So I would suggest you to just try to find for some time a different training/match environment to see yourself in different perspecitve. Of course if it is possibly from logistics point of view and availability of such training groups.

 

[dingyibvs]

Couple of years ago I was in a similar situation, I also returned to TT late. Initially everyone is better, and you can see many levels, each with many people, above you. As you say, initially you're overwhelmed with too many things to possibly make better, and there is so many, that the "underlaying unifier" is not visible ;-) But it can manifest in questions like "what am I doing here". For me, most important is that you like to play and practise...

To cut the crap, I simply say "just do what feels right". I mean concretely and during practise. E.g. if standing low and wide feels right, do it. If not moving after each ball doesn't feel right, then do it, move after each ball. If the hit feels like it was done by arm only, and it doesn't feel right, find out how to do it so that it feels right. If focusing on getting points during the match doesn't feel right (even if you should win), then focus on something else which does feel right, like e.g. stepping back after serve or something. The peace after the practise, with a beer, already does feel right, we know that... For me, setting goals doesn't really work, I agree with @dingyibvs about everything else though. Cheers.

I think maybe goal is the wrong word for what I tried to convey. I really just meant knowing what you want out of TT and don't let other people tell you what you want.

I remember once my wife gave me advice to not just try to copy the pros' form as it may not suit me, be too difficult, and doesn't lead to the best results. I told her my number one goal is to look good and make pretty shots, winning is just a nice bonus. She was like "are you kidding me?" Well, no, I was very serious

So I've been playing at the club the last couple of days, played numerous matches against this very good CPen player. He's higher level than me, but really likes playing against me 'cause we both like to talk and I'm an all out attacker which is very rare in a club full of Chinese uncles. He really gets to show off his short ball control and blocking against me. He has this wicked soft block that somehow takes all spin and speed off the ball, but he can also block back with good power, and of course he's quite good at controlling the direction of the blocks. This really forces me to move and adjust my feet to get to the ball, recover, and transition fluidly between FH and BH.

I feel like I've gotten so much better just in 2 days by playing against him. I'm not used to so many of my loops coming back as real blocks, and I have to adjust my position and timing constantly to deal with his variety of blocks all over the table. Luckily he's not a great attacker while I attack just about everything long or high, or else it would never even be a contest against him. His ability to vary his receives, not just length and direction but adding all sorts of sidespin to it, also forces me to really watch the ball with my opening loop and move my feet and shorten my backswing or else I might not even touch the ball.

BTW, I got some compliments on my form, usually followed up by I need to adjust some details to actually win more points. Just the way I like it

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Helppppppp! Gozo needs help!

Long Pips monster!

Dear friends,
Just watch the first 3mins & 30 secs will do. I keep missing my FH and I have no idea why. Pls help. Opponent is the type that uses Long-Pips on his BH and uses 90% long-pips even on the FH side. He hardly use his smooth rubber side.

 

[Scarfed Garchomp]

Helppppppp! Gozo needs help!

Long Pips monster!

Dear friends,
Just watch the first 3mins & 30 secs will do. I keep missing my FH and I have no idea why. Pls help. Opponent is the type that uses Long-Pips on his BH and uses 90% long-pips even on the FH side. He hardly use his smooth rubber side.