Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Boogar]

Played the tournament this Sunday. I was so hungover.... and still trippin on some space cookies. Playing a ping pong tournament is not a good excuse when your friends ask you to come and party >.<

Only got to play two matches dropped out in both series I played in... I am really not good with tournaments. in The Gents E series a upcoming kid beat me. in the gents D a women who has about 300 more points than me beat me 3:1 :-/

EDIT: Woha i just noticed.. a guy i beat last years won the series E

 

[Der_Echte]

4 to 5 Hefeweissen usually helps.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[Archosaurus]

Played a bit today after a week away from the game. During that time I did maybe 20 hours of footwork shadows and shadows in general.

I noticed that I swing really slowly in games compared to what I can, so I tried swinging faster. I think Carl called this "poking at the ball". I also got a comment based on my last video that I change my blade angle during my swing. I also noticed myself that in my shadows I use my core and legs well, but in games, I try to do it mostly with the arm. I also tried to keep my wrist and arm more relaxed, for now consciously trying to make it a habit.

I tried to correct those today and yesterday.

Yesterday consisted of hitting the ball out and into the net, today was quite good. I even hit one loop that I think could be considered bordering on pretty heavy spin: I don't think I'd swung so fast at a ball before. Although I still do not have the confidence to always swing as fast as I probably could, I did more good shots today than usual. I think I succeeded in being more relaxed, and my movement is a little bit better.

The footwork shadows really helped. I'll keep doing them. I can do a 3 point forehand shadow without falling out of rhythm too badly or tripping up, so it's a beginning. It's also got me used to playing a little bit lower than usual, and I think my ankles and calves have also strengthened a little.


I think it's better for me that I've stopped trying to write a How To Play Table Tennis handbook all on my own and instead just kept an open mind and focused on the beginner's basics. I've improved a lot more that way!

 

[Yecats Encerwal]

Played a bit today after a week away from the game. During that time I did maybe 20 hours of footwork shadows and shadows in general.

I noticed that I swing really slowly in games compared to what I can, so I tried swinging faster. I think Carl called this "poking at the ball". I also got a comment based on my last video that I change my blade angle during my swing. I also noticed myself that in my shadows I use my core and legs well, but in games, I try to do it mostly with the arm. I also tried to keep my wrist and arm more relaxed, for now consciously trying to make it a habit.

I tried to correct those today and yesterday.

Yesterday consisted of hitting the ball out and into the net, today was quite good. I even hit one loop that I think could be considered bordering on pretty heavy spin: I don't think I'd swung so fast at a ball before. Although I still do not have the confidence to always swing as fast as I probably could, I did more good shots today than usual. I think I succeeded in being more relaxed, and my movement is a little bit better.

The footwork shadows really helped. I'll keep doing them. I can do a 3 point forehand shadow without falling out of rhythm too badly or tripping up, so it's a beginning. It's also got me used to playing a little bit lower than usual, and I think my ankles and calves have also strengthened a little.


I think it's better for me that I've stopped trying to write a How To Play Table Tennis handbook all on my own and instead just kept an open mind and focused on the beginner's basics. I've improved a lot more that way!

Good stuff Archo! Shadow play/footwork is really effective as long as you bring that into your game, which it seems as if you are doing from what you said.

Keep up the hard work!

 

[Archosaurus]

Good stuff Archo! Shadow play/footwork is really effective as long as you bring that into your game, which it seems as if you are doing from what you said.

Keep up the hard work!

Which is what I'm trying*



Without a coach and serious practice partner, this is very difficult. I have to basically force myself to play at a much higher standard than my body would like to, and I have no one correcting me. I make many mistakes even when I can probably do it better in shadows, and I make many mistakes in the shadows too!

However I've made some progress, so that's all that matters.

 

[Jirrex]

Better luck next time Boogar. At least now you've experienced that it isn't a good idea to go party the day before you have a tournament

I have similar experiences with partying and mountainbiking the day after, not a great succes either.

Played the tournament this Sunday. I was so hungover.... and still trippin on some space cookies. Playing a ping pong tournament is not a good excuse when your friends ask you to come and party >.<

Only got to play two matches dropped out in both series I played in... I am really not good with tournaments. in The Gents E series a upcoming kid beat me. in the gents D a women who has about 300 more points than me beat me 3:1 :-/

EDIT: Woha i just noticed.. a guy i beat last years won the series E

 

[Yecats Encerwal]

Which is what I'm trying*



Without a coach and serious practice partner, this is very difficult. I have to basically force myself to play at a much higher standard than my body would like to, and I have no one correcting me. I make many mistakes even when I can probably do it better in shadows, and I make many mistakes in the shadows too!

However I've made some progress, so that's all that matters.

I'm lucky in the sense that I have a twin brother who enjoys playing just as much as I do and so he is a perfect practice partner. I have also had coaching since I was 10, which has helped. However I also take it upon myself to practice outside of my usual coaching and look up videos etc to help me learn and improve. I think your motivation to learn and improve is a key factor to reaching a high level and I wish you the best of luck in doing so. Do you have any goals that you want to achieve? Its good to set short term and long term goals, technical and result based goals. Its okay if you don't, I'm just curious!

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Last night:

1) My friend helped me order a RITC 837 Topsheet (Long Pips) last week and it is in... however, won't be able to hook up with him until tomorrow night.

2) Got out of work late Got to club 6:30 pm. Unlike last week, club was full of members! Waited about 30 mins, played/hit for 90 mins.

played 2 matches - vs "T" and vs "K" (my arch-nemesis) - both are defensive in nature, to date, i've always lost to both ... win or lose is inconsequential to me, however, with the losses, i am my own worst enemy ... still inconsistent - my younger self would have a field day with T and K ... my current playing after 30+ yrs layoff and playing again for a little over 1 yr, i move them side to side and attack generally 3rd to 7th ball ... and i have had more missed shots than winning shots... the losses indicates to me, i'm for whatever reason, inconsistent. they are defensive, they generally do not attack nor counterattack... frustrating for me to control the ball well and then miss my attack, be it smash/punch or block

K just lost to T, my turn was up ... was not really warmed up even after hitting for 10 mins, K was rushing me to start... had some decent punches, smashes and ball control, but my inconsistency was the death of me

K was next, he lost to T again, T had to leave, I played K next. Had some nice 2nd ball power loops, some great 3rd smash winners, some excellent ball control yet again but ... i'm my own worst enemy lol

vs T, Amazon felt light, so vs K, i added a short pips to weigh it more, but couldn't so much, took the SP off.

3) next, on another table, fortunate to be able to hit with "S" ffor 30 mins - young SH, power looper, steady, ~2000. the combo of MX-P rubber on Amazon Nexy CPen has been awesome for blocking for me vs players my skill or lower ... but as both blade and rubber are still new for me to adjust to, even after a month of 3x a week play, i'm finding vs players above my level i still haven't quite adjusted yet for their power/speed.

think S realized/knows i'm not his level, despite my initial BH blocking on my FH side of his FH loops, he started lobbing ... not sure if he knew i loved smashing ... i started off 33% speed/power and he kept lobbing ... universal language of TT hitting ... it meant i could go faster/harder ... i cranked it up to 80% or so... he was steady lobbing it back... no trickery with spins, just straight lobbing, i only smashed to his FH side ... then he passively close to the table FH block ... meant i should FH loop, not quite finding my stroke ... Amazon felt light ... got some loops in, but I didn't force it... S reverted back to lobbing

then he BH looped and i BH blocked ... some power loops, some spinny loops, difficult to adjust for me ...

S then worked his serves... deceptive big motion and i'm expected long and fast but he served short ... great serves ...

thanked him for his time ... called it a night.

4) chatted with M2 and he mentioned i should stick with the MX-P instead of using the DHS H3. Der slapped on the MX-P. kind of agree with Der and M2 that the MX-P is probably the rubber for my game/style.

42andbackpains has in passing called me an equipment junkie ... i'm not quite an EJ ... more like after my old blade died, looking for rubber/blade combo best suited for my game. think the Nexy Amazon + MX-P will replace my old blade nicely.

thank you TTD CCers!

 

[Archosaurus]

I'm lucky in the sense that I have a twin brother who enjoys playing just as much as I do and so he is a perfect practice partner. I have also had coaching since I was 10, which has helped. However I also take it upon myself to practice outside of my usual coaching and look up videos etc to help me learn and improve. I think your motivation to learn and improve is a key factor to reaching a high level and I wish you the best of luck in doing so. Do you have any goals that you want to achieve? Its good to set short term and long term goals, technical and result based goals. Its okay if you don't, I'm just curious!

I'm not gonna be reaching a high level anytime soon just by myself, so I focus on specific, short term things.

I've taken the approach of "big ideas -> small ideas".

So, right now I am working on fully accelerating the bat in all my strokes. Once I can do that, I will start working on getting more forearm snap in. Once I can do that, I move to the wrist.

Of course, fully accelerating the bat requires quite a lot of things to be right, so I need to break it down into smaller sections. At least I know what I need to work on, and have some idea of how.

 

[NextLevel]

I played and coached again yesterday, largely using a relaxed version of a grip I used earlier last year as well as a focus on fading rather than hooking the forehand on practice shots. I worked with my temp student on relaxing his shots. I am not so much trying to change his game as trying to help him realize that you can only be consistent if you are comfortable playing at your own pace and not expecting the world to fall apart if you are late to the ball. You need to mostly play shots that let you see your opponent while you are making them. I tried to get him to hit a lot of forehands but with more spin and a better finishing position. The same for the backhand. For me, ultimately, one needs to get to a point where TT is less about powerful shots and more about ball control and placement. Others may differ but when I am looping, I am less making a stroke than trying to make the ball do something specific. Reality often does not mirror intent but I try. Using this control, I try to construct points.

So I am trying to convince my temp to take two steps back in order to take 3 steps forward. While he has a decent power game, I want him to free up his wrists so that he can get more spin (he says he locked them up to improve his control of the ball he returned - he gets great spin for someone who locked them, which isn't saying much). I also want him to develop a game on the forehand and backhand in between the two extremes he has of just pushing or just opening hard. You have to trust the coach you work with to go through these kinds of changes as they might not even bear fruit for months. And he is a temp. Hopefully, it will work out for the best.

I keep thinking my grip change is going to help my forehand but it took by backhand back two years. And it was like my backhand took anabolic steroids. My backhand down the line came back to me. The less sustainable part is probably my forehand down the line - my fade change made me more comfortable hitting that than going cross court when I was late to the ball as I almost always am on my forehand, but opponents will soon figure this out. Yesterday, they didn't so I Went undefeated as they were probably sitting on old patterns.

All in all, a good set of matches for the change. Will see what happens in the league tonight.

 

[Suga D]

Played the tournament this Sunday. I was so hungover.... and still trippin on some space cookies. Playing a ping pong tournament is not a good excuse when your friends ask you to come and party >.<

Only got to play two matches dropped out in both series I played in... I am really not good with tournaments. in The Gents E series a upcoming kid beat me. in the gents D a women who has about 300 more points than me beat me 3:1 :-/

EDIT: Woha i just noticed.. a guy i beat last years won the series E

My old coach would probably rephrase that as the following:
A party is no excuse for not participating in a tournament...
[Emoji2]
Well after that kind of party, I probably now still would be lying in bed sleeping...
[Emoji15]
Though i know a friend who's always dabbing before matches. Especially important ones.
He says it calms down his nerves and his overexcitement.
But i probably just would be able to sit there and stare holes in the walls, but somehow he manages to even win many of his matches.
Would that be considered as doping?
Great you managed to still participate after that eve.

 

[Suga D]

I'm lucky in the sense that I have a twin brother who enjoys playing just as much as I do and so he is a perfect practice partner. I have also had coaching since I was 10, which has helped. However I also take it upon myself to practice outside of my usual coaching and look up videos etc to help me learn and improve. I think your motivation to learn and improve is a key factor to reaching a high level and I wish you the best of luck in doing so. Do you have any goals that you want to achieve? Its good to set short term and long term goals, technical and result based goals. Its okay if you don't, I'm just curious!

Bingo!!
Powerpost! Where is that Super-Like Button again?

Excellent, Yecats!

I'm not gonna be reaching a high level anytime soon just by myself, so I focus on specific, short term things.

I've taken the approach of "big ideas -> small ideas".

So, right now I am working on fully accelerating the bat in all my strokes. Once I can do that, I will start working on getting more forearm snap in. Once I can do that, I move to the wrist.

Of course, fully accelerating the bat requires quite a lot of things to be right, so I need to break it down into smaller sections. At least I know what I need to work on, and have some idea of how.

Archo, i think Yecats advice is one of the best i've read lately.
I read an excellent blog by a sports psychologist about this.

You probably wouldn't believe how many good players do that.
But it helps a lot to write down those goals. Make a short list of it. And make copies of it
Good players put these copies next to their bed, next to the mirror, on the toilet, basically anywhere helpful.
It helps a lot to keep your focus.
But:
make it in three different categories and try being a bit realistically.
That will save you from to many disappointments, But also try to challenge yourself at the same time.

I'm sure i don't need to explain, but just in case:
-short Term - The ones you want to make in the near future.
-middle Term - the ones you want to reach after about 6 -12 months
-Long Term - the ones you would like to reach in a year or a year and a half

I think 10 realistic goals will be enough for the beginning.
It might sound stupid, but some of these goals can be reached almost by themselves.

Keep it up, buddy. Sometimes things can change within a minute.

 

[NextLevel]

So I left off yesterday saying I was going to play the league today. Well, work kept me in late and I kept wondering whether it was worth the 45-50 min drive to get late and not warm up well before playing. I went back and forth with myself and just decided to bite the bullet and play. I wanted to see people open and topspin my topspin - in my club, the junior who does this is too fast and other people do not topspin my topspin - they just block or miss entirely.

So I get to the club and immediately I get there, I have to play a match - I warm up for about 5 mins but that doesn't save me - my opponent is too good and I go down 1-3. My fade backhand doesn't quite do what it is supposed to do and my opponent is now reading my serves better.

Then I play the big Russian looper. I go down 0-3 with hardly any fight - he says that I am not warmed up and we can play after all the matches are done. At this point, my knee is acting up and I am wondering why I am here. But I notice that one of my special opponents, who I haven't beaten in a while, is still around. So I am not going to go home.

Then I play a guy with short pips ( he has inverted mostly for serving and backhand, but can twiddle) who is now in his 60s. It's really funny because when I was in college and he was in his 40s or so, he used to come to the Student Center and play people. I was so raw then that I didn't fully appreciate how far ahead of me he really was. I would try to play him and he would play me with some irritation (I can understand why now and remember, this was in the days of 21). Now he is older and has slowed down a little, and I have turned the tables for a while now - I sometimes almost feel he has given up when he plays me these days because I have decent opening shots off both sides and I don't miss his pips shots. This was 3-0 for me.

Then I play the special opponent - he is medium/short pips penholder. He has been blocking and hitting me down recently and I have lost maybe the last three matches or so. So I was extra motivated to play this one. I actually elected to serve first, which I usually do not. He pushed my first two serves into the net, which he hasn't done in a while. I was extra pumped up after that. I then went on to win in 3 straight. I am not sure what changed - maybe I was just in the right mood or his block was off.

Then I played a girl with a medium pips backhand. She pushed my first three serves into the net. I felt I was always going to lose this match (negative thinking, I know) after I won the first game so easily because I was laughing too hard inside and I knew that once she adapted to my backspin, I wouldn't adjust. And she eventually did, started killing my serve when it went too high, and at 2-0, 10-9, she saved match point and came back to win 11-9 in the 5th.

Then I played the big Russian guy a couple more times - my camera died during the first match. I lost both matches pretty badly too, though I had one or two nice points in the final game of the second match. I then asked for tips - he said that I missed too many of my own serves, which I mentally concluded meant I let myself feel too much pressure because of his return game. He also commented on my poor forehand rotation, which of course is common knowledge. But something he said after that I found intriguing because I had never heard it before. He said that when looping on the forehand, you need to use your shoulder to cover the ball. I guess he largely meant counterlooping, but just him saying that made me think about what might be wrong with my forehand loop differently. I will try a few new ideas with that comment he made in mind.

All in all, it was worth it because of the win over my special opponent. More coaching this week and then tournament play on Sunday.

BTW, the matches are all on youtube if you really want to put see what happened.

 

[Yecats Encerwal]

Bingo!!
Powerpost! Where is that Super-Like Button again?

Excellent, Yecats!



Archo, i think Yecats advice is one of the best i've read lately.
I read an excellent blog by a sports psychologist about this.

You probably wouldn't believe how many good players do that.
But it helps a lot to write down those goals. Make a short list of it. And make copies of it
Good players put these copies next to their bed, next to the mirror, on the toilet, basically anywhere helpful.
It helps a lot to keep your focus.
But:
make it in three different categories and try being a bit realistically.
That will save you from to many disappointments, But also try to challenge yourself at the same time.

I'm sure i don't need to explain, but just in case:
-short Term - The ones you want to make in the near future.
-middle Term - the ones you want to reach after about 6 -12 months
-Long Term - the ones you would like to reach in a year or a year and a half

I think 10 realistic goals will be enough for the beginning.
It might sound stupid, but some of these goals can be reached almost by themselves.

Keep it up, buddy. Sometimes things can change within a minute.

Thanks Suga, I'm glad my advice comes across as useful haha My definitions of Short term/middle term/long term are slightly different, but it Is completely unique to everyone and no one is right or wrong when setting personal goals!!

To add to what you said about goals, and I'm sure you know this already, but for Archo's info:-

You should ideally have a good mixture of technical and result based goals which are:

Technical goals: A goal based on technique/training that can often be measured i.e. hitting 9/10 serves that bounce twice on the opponents side or hitting a rally of 200 shots.

Result goals: These are purely "outcome" goals and can be anything from winning a set off an opponent of a higher level to winning the Olympics (and anything in-between!) These can also involve qualifying for certain events and achieving a certain ranking.

Result based goals usually motivate you to achieve your technical goals!

I hope this helps

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

my battle damaged blade

1) i chipped the rubber in a freak accident - went to get a ball and hit the net post
2) chipped the back from pushing
3) my curled fingers are starting to dirty up the back
4) no sandpaper - filed the wood filler

View attachment 11140View attachment 11141View attachment 11142

 

[Yecats Encerwal]

my battle damaged blade

1) i chipped the rubber in a freak accident - went to get a ball and hit the net post
2) chipped the back from pushing
3) my curled fingers are starting to dirty up the back
4) no sandpaper - filed the wood filler

View attachment 11140View attachment 11141View attachment 11142

It really is one of the worst feelings when you damage your bat/racket (whatever terminology you prefer).

Are you going to replace it or try to fix it?

I hope it all gets resolved soon so you can return to battle accordingly.

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

bad upload in previous post

these are pix for my 1-3 in my previous post

 

[Boogar]

Ouuuch Im sorry OPH !

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Yecats,

In the health of a bat/paddle/racket/blade, my damage is very minor, but it was brand new, hurt all the more because of that.

I put on wood filler and had no sandpaper, used a metal file and smoothed it best i could.

Will be slapping on the Longpips OX tonight and test it. Hopefully with the LP on, i won't be such a klutz

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

I read an excellent blog by a sports psychologist about this.

Please PM me the url if you still have it or post here. TIA Suga D!