Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Archosaurus]

It's hard to read spin visually and via audio even when you are playing the opponent live, unless maybe you have been playing the game since you were 5. But if you play enough at a certain level, you pick up cues to read it. I know you are kinda complimenting my game, but other than my opening backhand loop, which really borrows the spin from the serve/push that came before it, my spin is within the reasonable range for my level and maybe one above.

Yes, however there is more spin to a 2000-some player's game than there might appear to be.

A 1800+ player isn't exactly bad, and he kept on netting your pushes. There has to be quite something on them for it to keep happening.

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Have not been playing well overall since my 'unretirement' ... at times, i show my old form (of 30+ yrs ago - LOL at me) and at times i show i'm old LOLOL ... so inconsistent... easy shots - i make as well as miss. Not going to lie, very frustrating. But it's challenging and humbling.

Last night, after 4 days off, get to club at 6pm and it's jammed packed already. Guessing everyone else, like me, wanted to work off the Turkey LOL

1 - I called next on a table where K and T were playing. I have never taken a match from either. They both generally just play steady and return my shots and let me make mistakes. K said he never beat T 1 single game before ... K was on fire last night however, lost 3-2. I played T, not quite warmed up, but someone called next and we started. I jumped out to early lead and took first game. then proceeded to lose 3 straight, 2 at 8 and 1 at 5. Story of my life. Not the wins and losses, but the games/matches are a gauge for me to see how I'm coming along from my 30+ yrs absence from TT.

2 - i waited about 15 mins and then hit with a gentleman has an unorthodox FH. After 20 mins or so, he sat down and I hit with D, he is the gentleman that hasn't played in 10 yrs or so, wears a backbrace. 1 or 2 weeks ago, he finally changed rubbers and he said he was 1900. His strokes are still there... like falling off a bike and getting back on ... we hit for 20 mins or so and i took a break.

3 - hit with a gentleman who has good FH loops ... we hit ~2 months ago, a long practice session, we both felt was productive. last night, i wasn't looping consistently but counter-looped a little. On longer rallies, my timing or body placement may be off... i'm trying to loop the counter-looped balls and it's way high ... my instinct is to smash the ball when it's THAT high ... but i'm not a counter-looper ... another aspect of the game to add to my List.

A gentleman was sitting on the side and it was his net, he wanted us to start a match.

In the department of a player with good practice strokes but has no game ... it turns out my partner has no game. Not dissing him but he only served a BH topspin serve 90% and 10% a sidedown pendulum. I should have had an easier match but i won 3-2, 1 or 2 games at deuce. I won the first 2, struggled and lost 3rd, started gassing out in 4th game and lost at 4 (deciding to conserve energy for the inevitable 5th game). I was very inconsistent ... missed so many easy shots. Some i was delirious though, i tried to smash a ball 1 cm off the table LOLOL

No video sadly of this match as i miraculously made an around the net shot and placed the ball 1-2 inches from the net on my partner's FH side with him deep in his BH side ... I scrambled over to deep in my FH and looped his down the line shot.

4 - B2 called next. I was tired. It was late. I asked if he wanted to start a match immediately and if not, i would rest and leave. We started.

I jumped out to early 2 game lead and starting to gas again. Won 3-2. To date I have played B2 2x before. He uses LP Ox as a crutch to return serves he can't return regularly. He's a traditional PH with a BH smash and has spinny serves at times which i sometimes eat. Not dissing B2, but i should have an easier match vs him. Just goes to show me how much more work I need to do.

----------

I saw the coach who helped me out last week. She had her regular student. We greeted each other. Not sure if last week's session was a one-off or not. Felt with her tips, I was looping better. Also something Boogar, Shuki or Archo mentioned that NextLevel said to wait a tad longer to loop the ball. With her I did that last week and seem to loop better. Regardless if she hits with me in the future ... great... if not... I'll show up to hit and/or play others. Take it one day at a time.

Tonight, either i'm meeting a friend who is in town from Toronto for dinner, or going to my martial arts class. TT scheduled for Weds/Thurs

May all the net and edge balls go your way!

 

[NextLevel]

Yes, however there is more spin to a 2000-some player's game than there might appear to be.

A 1800+ player isn't exactly bad, and he kept on netting your pushes. There has to be quite something on them for it to keep happening.

My first coach was a chopper and unfortunately, he never discouraged me from pushing serves and never worked hard enough with me on reading them. One side effect is that I push too many serves, but the other is that my real push even if it pops up is heavy, and unless you have good technique (excess racket head speed), you have to address the spin on the ball with a good contact point before addressing the height. Most players above that level tend to have enough whip to go through the ball without hesitation. But even coming up, many players netted my high pushes repeatedly or just used smarter serving to avoid them.

 

[yuri.saldon]

Hi everyone, can you please send feedbacks about my game??
thx

 

[yuri.saldon]

More videos soon ...

 

[Jirrex]

Today I cut rubber for the first time. I'm not really happy with the result. At certain points the knife got too far away from the blade's edge because I was trying to avoid cutting into the blade. So I tried to correct that afterwards which wasn't a good plan. Next time I know that I should focus on staying really close to the edge. Here's a picture:



On the picture it might not look that bad, but at some points the sponge doesn't look very pretty. Anyway, with edge tape most of the flaws will be covered.

The glue job on the other hand, I'm really satisfied with that. Eventually I had to sand the blade's surface lightly (used grit 240 sanding paper) to let the rubber stick properly. I tried sanding with grit 600 sandpaper before, but I guess it made the surface too smooth, thus rubber didn't stick very well. I sealed the blade with a thin layer of Polyurethane and used Copydex as glue.

 

[yuri.saldon]

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

And I forbid OSPH to say anything mushy! [emoji2]

But maybe this would be okay:

[emoji2]

Friday is always a half day for us, the day after Thanksgiving, however, my boss told me to take it off. Finally caught up with this thread...

I will have you know Carl, what i say is NOT mushy... it's just me! You all interpret it as mushy, what is an oldschool penholder to do then?

Glad you got to play some! I ate like a pig about to be slaughtered... didn't play until last night... felt fat and sluggish lol

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Catching up on this thread ... THERE'S SO MUCH GOLD IN THIS POST!!

I agree. When I coach a player who is weaker vs a stronger player, I don't even bother with tactics or footwork per se. All I stress is proper attacking table tennis and a relaxed mindset. Proper table tennis is to look for the first opening, play the ball outside the power zones and test both the long and the short games. You will rarely be able to do it at the level of a higher opponent but sometimes miracles happen. I have experienced enough of those miracles to know.

The first thing that people need to get over is labelling people by rating, seeding or ranking. I am in the Butterfly teams tournament and I went 6-2 I think on day 1, winning my first 3 matches, losing my next 2, and winning my last 3. My last opponent was supposed to be a 2200 career player who is high 2100s now who I got my best win ever against last year. This year, he just defaulted rather than play me.

But to make my point, I played at least three matches, maybe more, where I lost the first game to a lower rated player. Lost convincingly too. But the thing that has changed my life is that ever since I lost to a 1500 kid when I was 1900, I got better at accepting when when my opponent was playing well and that it was my responsibility to make him play worse. The kid made some great loop kills, and I kept stressing as if the result was more important than the quality of his play. I revamped my serves a bit after that loss.

Today, I was playing a 1590 chopper. I had seem him chopping vs a power looper and was surprised by his low rating. Literally, the kid goes up 7-1 on me or something like that. When you go down like that, your job is to figure out why the opponent is playing well and what you can do to win points. Don't throw away the game. Test strategies that you have not tested because you can still come back and even if you do not, you may find something that makes the next game much easier. I think I pulled back to an 11-8 loss but I realized that I had to keep him closer to the table and be more consistent, even if it meant floating the ball or popping the ball up occasionally. After all, there had to be a logic to his rating. But let us assume he beat me - some of the shots he made were so good to me that I am okay if a 1000 player beats me playing that way. All I just say is forget the rating, he played well and didn't miss. But the mistake is to get so caught up in rating that you don't want to credit your opponent for good play. I basically beat him at 5, 5 and 7 or something like that.

Then there was a lefty that I had beaten 3-1 before and again he won the first game today. He has really good serves with great action and movement. Again, lower rated than me. I lost the first game. One of my teammates told me that when in doubt, go to the middle. But even the last time I played him, I just decided to rally more and it changed. You see, he is a middle aged guy, almost 60, so making him play more shots brings down his level as long as you don't give him the power to work with. Playing to the middle requires him to move to make a good shot as well as playing wide when he is off balance. He played fantastic when set especially with his pips. The next games were easy, though I didn't close out the last one smoothly as I wanted to test something for my vanity.

So the first thing you have to do to relax is to accept good players always have a reasonable chance of beating you. After that, you just play the game point by point the way you intend to play it and make adjustments. If you don't win, just convince yourself that your opponent played a correct game to deserve to win because you mostly executed by making the first opening, doing quality serves and returns, and doing reasonable shots but that your opponent just made better ones. Even if you played to their strengths, it is okay. It just means something you have to learn or develop a new dimension to counter. I was blocked down by a girl that I think I should have beaten given that I had the lead against here a few times but lost the match 3-1. But she blocked heavy openers well. If I had moved better I could have done better but I didn't and it is okay. Just reminds me that my movement to and my placement is more important than I give myself credit for.

So in the end, don't let winning and losing drive you crazy on the basis of ranking. Just ask yourself whether you executed your plays in terms of making first opening, quality serves and okay returns in balls you read. If you did that, the result will work out in the long term. But even if you want to win today, you gave yourself the best chance. No matter how good you are, there is always someone better than you on any given day and you have to accept that.

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Hello yuri.saldon:

Just curious, you always wear a white shirt when you play TT?

~osph

 

[yuri.saldon]

Hello yuri.saldon:

Just curious, you always wear a white shirt when you play TT?

~osph

Hahahahahaha all these three videos were recorded in the same day, today I will play ironically with the white shirt too

Sent from my 2014819 using Tapatalk

 

[sspark80]

Hi, Next Level.

Would you mind elaborating on this sentence a little? I'm curious what contrasts you notice between them.
"It helped me see the difference between limba and anigre once more."

Thanks.
S

 

[NextLevel]

Hahahahahaha all these three videos were recorded in the same day, today I will play ironically with the white shirt too

Sent from my 2014819 using Tapatalk

You know it is against the rules with a white ball, right?

 

[NextLevel]

Hi, Next Level.

Would you mind elaborating on this sentence a little? I'm curious what contrasts you notice between them.
"It helped me see the difference between limba and anigre once more."

Thanks.
S

Limba is softer, anigre is harder. It might sound crazy but in some ways, the IF ALC has better feeling than the YE.

 

[NextLevel]

BTW guys, I beat Big M for the first time in over a year with the IF ALC. Those Nexy blades have work to do.

 

[JeffM]

Hi guys, haven't posted here for a while, but today I have finished my exams for the year! (unless I have to resit them..)

I am very keen to play table tennis again! But I don't know if my finger has healed, and would like to hear what you guys think.

So what happened 3 weeks ago (22 days ago), I played one match, then in my 2nd match I felt a deep pain in my index finger where it contacts the bat whenever I hold my bat tight. But I kept playing and played 2 more matches.

This is how it looked that day:


As you can see, there is a redened spot and a bump there. The few days after, as soon as I grip my bat with normal force, I feel a deep pain at the bump area, like not on the surface, but its somewhere beneath.

This is how I hold my bat and where it contacts with my finger.


I have since then rested it for 3 weeks, and today I have taken 2 photos again.
This is how it looks today. I did pick up my bat today and have a few shadow swings, and it hasn't produced any deep pain so far, but I don't know if I am fit to play again.


I have seen a GP twice, first time she said just rest it. Second time, she gave me an X ray, which shows no fracture.
From the grip, it seems like it is more to do with my RPB than my forehand. When I do RPB, I may unconsciously loosen the grip, which allows the racket to move slightly into the joint as it swings out.

 

[Shuki]

Limba is softer, anigre is harder. It might sound crazy but in some ways, the IF ALC has better feeling than the YE.

Do you know how heavy your IF ALC is? I have 4 of them, one is 85grams while the other three are over 90grams. The 85 gram one has terrible feeling. I was wondering if weight and quality of wood are correlated

 

[yuri.saldon]

You know it is against the rules with a white ball, right?

I know, but my club mates don't care about it and it's a practice match. In tourneys I play with another shirt

 

[Jirrex]

Hi guys, haven't posted here for a while, but today I have finished my exams for the year! (unless I have to resit them..)

I am very keen to play table tennis again! But I don't know if my finger has healed, and would like to hear what you guys think.

So what happened 3 weeks ago (22 days ago), I played one match, then in my 2nd match I felt a deep pain in my index finger where it contacts the bat whenever I hold my bat tight. But I kept playing and played 2 more matches.

This is how it looked that day:

View attachment 11501View attachment 11502
As you can see, there is a redened spot and a bump there. The few days after, as soon as I grip my bat with normal force, I feel a deep pain at the bump area, like not on the surface, but its somewhere beneath.

This is how I hold my bat and where it contacts with my finger.
View attachment 11503

I have since then rested it for 3 weeks, and today I have taken 2 photos again.
This is how it looks today. I did pick up my bat today and have a few shadow swings, and it hasn't produced any deep pain so far, but I don't know if I am fit to play again.
View attachment 11504View attachment 11505

I have seen a GP twice, first time she said just rest it. Second time, she gave me an X ray, which shows no fracture.
From the grip, it seems like it is more to do with my RPB than my forehand. When I do RPB, I may unconsciously loosen the grip, which allows the racket to move slightly into the joint as it swings out.

Hello Jeff,

Hopefully all your exams went well and good to hear that you have the time to play again

About the injury, I don't know the medical term for it, but I can imagine that the sharp edges of the blade contribute to that. To prevent this to happen in the future, I think sanding the edges of the blade could be a good idea. A round edge where your index finger goes over the blade, I think that would be more comfortable and less sensitive for injuries. I think Xu Xin's blade also has rounded edges, but I'm not entirely sure if it was him.

I know that this won't get your current injury healed faster, but it might be something you want to consider for in the future.

 

[NextLevel]

Hello Jeff,

Hopefully all your exams went well and good to hear that you have the time to play again

About the injury, I don't know the medical term for it, but I can imagine that the sharp edges of the blade contribute to that. To prevent this to happen in the future, I think sanding the edges of the blade could be a good idea. A round edge where your index finger goes over the blade, I think that would be more comfortable and less sensitive for injuries. I think Xu Xin's blade also has rounded edges, but I'm not entirely sure if it was him.

I know that this won't get your current injury healed faster, but it might be something you want to consider for in the future.

I think this is spot on and pretty much what I would have said. I have similar issues when my very large index finger wraps around some blades. IT might also be in part grip pressure and some people just change their grip if the sanding doesn't make it better. Some people also carve things into their blade to ease the finger placement.