So I played on Friday night and played some good table tennis. I think I have finally come to grips with my best forehand and I have committed to using it as best and as long as I can. I just have to integrate it with my backhand. I can loop just about any ball with it, I can counterloop with it and I can kill high balls with it. I just have to remember that this is it, and stop all the stupid experimenting that has taken me off track over the last 6 months. I am not trying to be a pro - I could have done some serious damage if I had stuck with this forehand for the last 6 months.
I got a new student on Friday as well. It seems that work I did with the former temp is getting people to want to work with me a little.
On Saturday, I Wanted to see how my play would bear out. Also, there is a Butterfly Teams tournament this month and the tournament on Saturday used the Butterfly G40+ ball so I wanted to play it as prep for that reason. I went 1-4. I liked the way I played and made some good shots, but I was really unhappy to lose to Rich DeWitt 0-3 after having decent chances in every game. The one thing that is interesting here is that I played him largely as a looper so it will be worth reviewing the video tape to see what I need to fix that might just change the tenor of the matches completely.
Here are links to my only win and to my match vs the 2500 player (who messes around too much). I played some great points in every match.
After the tournament was over, I played around with a couple of lower rated players. One of them, after losing to me, said he couldn't play a rematch because he couldn't even return my serves so it wasn't any fun so I spent about 20 minutes or so serving to him and explaining how I get certain things to happen. I think he gained an appreciation of what goes into the trickery after I ran through just about my whole serve arsenal and showed him how I use sleight of hand to mix up the spins.
Since I lost to Rich and wasn't that happy, I Went to Princeton Pong for more punishment. I borrowed a Viscaria from a friend to test it (of course, I am going to use it, complain about its feeling, go back to my all wood blades or whatever... I did call the guy who I gave my Look King to modify for me today - reduce head size and put more weight in the handle so we will see).
I played a guy who likes to smash a lot and of course, he had issues with my serves. Then I played a kid with medium pips on his backhand (who I lost to in the last tournament I played at Princeton) and beat him 3-1. The medium pips tend to bend when I serve or push to them so I have to attack the next ball without lifting it as it is not a backspin ball. I finally came to grips with this and it improved my results. I then played the kid's father (a penholder that is one of my special opponents) and I beat him 3-2 in an exciting match with great shots and blocks made by both sides. Again, despite some errors, learning to see that the pips bend on my backspin balls was critical to making accurate loops.
Then I had my first loss at the club that day to a guy who has been out with a sprained ankle for a while but is getting back in. He plays with an Innerforce T5000 and has a hard smash on easy balls. He won two close games and went up 2-0. I won the 3rd but feel to far behind early in the 4th and failed to make a come back. He just seemed to blocking everything I threw at him and I missed quite a few of his serves.
Then I Watched my friend play him and my friend, after winning the first game, lost as well. But that first game opened my eyes and helped me see why I used to beat the smasher so easily in the past even when others complained about him and why I lost the match. You see, I like to play with heavy slow spin brush. But I was looping the ball hard and the smasher was making blocks that were challenging my ability to reset and reloop. But when I was beating the smasher, I used to play with slow topspin most of the time and it would allow me to get an easy ball to challenge him with. And now, the smasher is blocking and looping even better, so I have to be more patient with the slow spin. But my new forehand is versatile enough to produce the slow spin at will. So I won the rematch 3-1. MY friend played slow the first game, but when he started looping harder and harder in the subsequent games, the blocks came back faster and faster and he got frustrated. By looping slowly, I handcuffed the smasher a bit as he had to time the balls better, which is not always easy when you are using a fast racket.
Then I played some matches with a few other friends - lots of good blocks and forehands and serves. In general, I am playing well - I just hope I stay healthy enough this month for all of it to bear fruit.