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Today I played with my lefty penhold friend for the final time. (yes I have mentioned its the final time a couple of times, but it is because we both think it is due to our busy schedules, but our love for tt is too great, so we keep making time for it, but trust me, this is the final one as I'm flying back home soon).
Since it is our last time playing, I booked 2 hours instead of 1 hour, so we can have more time to practice other stuff afterwards. After warming up, he suggested that we play a best of 7 instead of 5, as he watched the Finals of Aus Open where Federer won, and that reminded him that usually finals are played to best of 7. I complied as we have plenty of time.
I had a good start, taking 1st set 11-3. Then I was leading 2nd set 7-0, but somehow only managed to win by 11-9 as he made some incredible comeback. I took the 3rd set 14-12, but lost the 4th set 11-4. In the final set, I took it 11-8, with the last point being a net from my loop that bounced 3 times on his side before leaving the end edge. I had a lot of lucky balls (edge balls, nets) throughout the match, and I felt a bit bad for him. But he said I had great touch of the ball today, and he said my fade hit and loop (i.e. where I dorsi-flex my wrist at the last moment of contact while playing a fh so the motion looks like im playing a diagonal shot but the ball goes down the line) was good, especially against lefties as they are more likely to stand on their backhand side (i.e. the diagonal side). Now that I'm home, I thought it was funny, because before I play the game, I didn't watch Carl's video of his forehand fade video, but he mentioned it to me that I was using it today and it worked well.
After the match, we continued to practice looping balls off backspin as well as for the other player to block or maintain the ball on the table. It wasn't easy for us, but something clicked for him. Then in a subsequent match (best of 3), he basically smashes through my high-ish spinny loops off backspin. He seem to have suddenly grasp the idea of how to do so, and it was actually amazing to see the change, as I loop then I watch as the ball flies back so fast back on to my side and I was then on the defense (if I am even able to save it).
He also made a change to his receive, as he is finding it very hard to receive my serves with inverted. He changed to the medium pips, forcing a loop from me as a 3rd ball, but I wasn't fit at that time to make strong enough attacks, so he just smashes all the 4th balls. It worked surprisingly well for him. This means that next time I play with him in 10 month's time, I will have to figure something out to counter that strategy, or improve my loop dramatically so that it can be super spiny with consistency to avoid them being smashed back.
Since it is our last time playing, I booked 2 hours instead of 1 hour, so we can have more time to practice other stuff afterwards. After warming up, he suggested that we play a best of 7 instead of 5, as he watched the Finals of Aus Open where Federer won, and that reminded him that usually finals are played to best of 7. I complied as we have plenty of time.
I had a good start, taking 1st set 11-3. Then I was leading 2nd set 7-0, but somehow only managed to win by 11-9 as he made some incredible comeback. I took the 3rd set 14-12, but lost the 4th set 11-4. In the final set, I took it 11-8, with the last point being a net from my loop that bounced 3 times on his side before leaving the end edge. I had a lot of lucky balls (edge balls, nets) throughout the match, and I felt a bit bad for him. But he said I had great touch of the ball today, and he said my fade hit and loop (i.e. where I dorsi-flex my wrist at the last moment of contact while playing a fh so the motion looks like im playing a diagonal shot but the ball goes down the line) was good, especially against lefties as they are more likely to stand on their backhand side (i.e. the diagonal side). Now that I'm home, I thought it was funny, because before I play the game, I didn't watch Carl's video of his forehand fade video, but he mentioned it to me that I was using it today and it worked well.
After the match, we continued to practice looping balls off backspin as well as for the other player to block or maintain the ball on the table. It wasn't easy for us, but something clicked for him. Then in a subsequent match (best of 3), he basically smashes through my high-ish spinny loops off backspin. He seem to have suddenly grasp the idea of how to do so, and it was actually amazing to see the change, as I loop then I watch as the ball flies back so fast back on to my side and I was then on the defense (if I am even able to save it).
He also made a change to his receive, as he is finding it very hard to receive my serves with inverted. He changed to the medium pips, forcing a loop from me as a 3rd ball, but I wasn't fit at that time to make strong enough attacks, so he just smashes all the 4th balls. It worked surprisingly well for him. This means that next time I play with him in 10 month's time, I will have to figure something out to counter that strategy, or improve my loop dramatically so that it can be super spiny with consistency to avoid them being smashed back.
