Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Archosaurus]

I'm surprised you don't see it. I do.

Think about what the name implies.

 

[NextLevel]

which exactly is the salute shot ???

The one where the racket finishes on the same side of his body as where it started, closer to his forehead. Usually, Legout finishes across his body.

 

[Der_Echte]

Did a tourney today, was hot garbage. Couldn't pick up the ball in that venue, blends in with floor and background. Need young eyes to succeed there. I had a few good matches, but overall, made a huge ratings gift to lower rated players. I will not do a tourney at that venue until I figure out a way to see in those conditions. There was a game where I mode loops to the FH corner crosscourt, I was 4 for 4 on those. Same game, I tried going down line and swung and missed on 5 balls. Incredible. I have to let the ball come into my impact zone some more to do that shot. It will cross past table and blend in with floor.

I shoulda brought an LP racket and played a close to table pushblocking game.

 

[Shuki]

ever want to burn more energy, look silly, and still lose a point? play like me. Jump shots are important.

 

[Boogar]

We also had a game yesterday. Even after a good start with a 4-0 lead, we still had to work pretty hard to finish winning 9-7.

The exact same could be said about my first singles match in this game.
Starting strong with 2-0, then made a lot of unforced errors. I then lost the next two games and was down 8-4 in the 5th.
Thankfully my teammate suggested a timeout by shouting from the other side of the hall @8:19

Somehow I'm not a fan of taking a timeout, because of the low level we are playing, but this time it did really help.
Played the next balls much saver and did catch up 8-8! Then I lost the next two points with a bad fh top spin and a push error. 10-8 behind. Managed to remember a serve variation I didn't do all game and really kept fighting up to 10-10. @9:30

My unboosted Hurricane H3 NEO and mainly my reaction was too slow to return the ball from half distance, so trailing 11-10 @9:55

Then the best rally in the whole game @10:00, 11-11. Started shaking from all the adrenaline.
Did some safe pushing and counters and suddenly I'm leading 12-11!
Managed to win the next point with a short spiny BH service and won the game!

I really need to work on learning a softer less risky forehand top spin and wait for a good ball to do those power/smash spins I'm always trying to do.

Cool! Why didn't you mention that you have a youtube channel as well. And with this much content!

 

[Boogar]

here's the full vid of my last match

but really, i think its a very poor performance from me, much below my usual level, apart the final result. In the 1st set i try to attack but miss all my FH mainly because of my slow and messy footwork. Then i lack overall confidence during the whole match, become static and passive and the only thing i can rely on is my blocking game and my fighting spirit (especially in the 5th)...3rd and 4th set are a disaster

only the endgame from 22:50 is really worth watching a bit

Love the ending hahah

 

[Boogar]

Had a big tournament yesterday. Unfortunately i dropped out in the group stages as I ranked third in a group of six.

In this tournament i played the best match of career followed by the worst.

I played against the favorite of the group (he placed second overall in the tournament). He is a chopper and i had the most insane chop looping rallies! Was so much fun, squatting to the ground like crazy I lost the match in 4 games, but every game was very close and lasted into overtime.

After that I played the match for the second match. It was awful the guy only pushed, and he was very good at it. Every time I wanted to step around and pivot he pushed wide into my forehand. And he did not smash high balls he like chopped them downwards. With such a strange angle that i had problems to attack... Also the light was veery bad and on one side you could not see the ball at all. I ended up on that side for the last part of the game with 5-5... and lost it in the fifth.
Oh it was such a bad performance and i ended up depressed not even being able to be happy about my good game with the chopper.

 

[NextLevel]

Had a big tournament yesterday. Unfortunately i dropped out in the group stages as I ranked third in a group of six.

In this tournament i played the best match of career followed by the worst.

I played against the favorite of the group (he placed second overall in the tournament). He is a chopper and i had the most insane chop looping rallies! Was so much fun, squatting to the ground like crazy I lost the match in 4 games, but every game was very close and lasted into overtime.

After that I played the match for the second match. It was awful the guy only pushed, and he was very good at it. Every time I wanted to step around and pivot he pushed wide into my forehand. And he did not smash high balls he like chopped them downwards. With such a strange angle that i had problems to attack... Also the light was veery bad and on one side you could not see the ball at all. I ended up on that side for the last part of the game with 5-5... and lost it in the fifth.
Oh it was such a bad performance and i ended up depressed not even being able to be happy about my good game with the chopper.

Losing tends to bring about these feelings, but it is unreasonable to complain when you lose to a style you do not have experience playing.

I think Der Echte wrote somewhere that there is silly idea that when someone is pushing, and not playing a modern looping game, you are supposed to be able to just loop through ball and win points. But it doesn't work that way and the guy plays this way at this level for a reason. It is up to you to figure out reasonable ways of beating such players and without experience playing them, and a coach to tell you what to try, it is hard to do so under the pressure of a competitive match in a limited time. It's not like you were so good at looping backspin that you beat the chopper.

 

[NextLevel]

ever want to burn more energy, look silly, and still lose a point? play like me. Jump shots are important.

Do it like this guy - jumping off the bounce backhand counter loop Zhang JIke style.

http://i.imgur.com/j24D0S6.gif

 

[StehTischtennis]

Cool! Why didn't you mention that you have a youtube channel as well. And with this much content!

Yeah, I'm trying to record every game I'm playing, just to see if I'm improving and maybe to see some patterns/movements I need to fix.

 

[Shuki]

Do it like this guy - jumping off the bounce backhand counter loop Zhang JIke style.

http://i.imgur.com/j24D0S6.gif

Fzd style, I want this! Next shot to add to my arsenal for sure! Who needs fundamentals when you can just have fun. Drop da mental and what are we left with


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Der_Echte]

Losing tends to bring about these feelings, but it is unreasonable to complain when you lose to a style you do not have experience playing.

I think Der Echte wrote somewhere that there is silly idea that when someone is pushing, and not playing a modern looping game, you are supposed to be able to just loop through ball and win points. But it doesn't work that way and the guy plays this way at this level for a reason. It is up to you to figure out reasonable ways of beating such players and without experience playing them, and a coach to tell you what to try, it is hard to do so under the pressure of a competitive match in a limited time. It's not like you were so good at looping backspin that you beat the chopper.

I hope you meant that Der_Echte wrote that the IDEA of MANDATORY loop through every chop was a silly idea.

Personally, I think the loop everything mindset and execution is gunna get a player in trouble vs balls they do not read properly, which can also make them out of position, off time and impact in wrong part of strike zone. Executing tactics that way leads to a lot of lost points, games, and matches. I am talking about amature players who are not yet good enough to overcome spin with impact, and yet even then, many pros lose points where they mis-read the underspin.

Still, it might have a value as it may force a player to figure it out. Yet, if the player does not somehow realize what/how they did wrong, it is a very bad thing going forward.

I try to strike a balance of being aggressive and just keeping ball in play and try to minimize or funnel opponent's attack. I might have spell where I am brain dead and not realizing what is on the ball, but in general, I try to setup attacks where I know what will be on the ball and where. That really helps the chances of success.

 

[NextLevel]

I hope you meant that Der_Echte wrote that the IDEA of MANDATORY loop through every chop was a silly idea.

Personally, I think the loop everything mindset and execution is gunna get a player in trouble vs balls they do not read properly, which can also make them out of position, off time and impact in wrong part of strike zone. Executing tactics that way leads to a lot of lost points, games, and matches. I am talking about amature players who are not yet good enough to overcome spin with impact, and yet even then, many pros lose points where they mis-read the underspin.

Still, it might have a value as it may force a player to figure it out. Yet, if the player does not somehow realize what/how they did wrong, it is a very bad thing going forward.

I try to strike a balance of being aggressive and just keeping ball in play and try to minimize or funnel opponent's attack. I might have spell where I am brain dead and not realizing what is on the ball, but in general, I try to setup attacks where I know what will be on the ball and where. That really helps the chances of success.

He was complaining that he had a good match against a chopper and lost to someone who mostly pushed. In fact, if I had to guess, the match against the chopper wasn't that special, what probably excited him was that he managed to loop chop and get into loop vs chop rallies. But my point is that if he couldn't loop backspin well enough to beat the chopper, then he shouldn't complain that he couldn't do it well enough to beat the pusher.

FWIW, until I broke 2000, I used to avoid loop vs chop rallies religiously. I would wait until the chopper proved to me that they could loop the ball I pushed past me before I wasted my time relooping their chop. And usually when I opened at the U2000 level, my opening was often good enough that the chopper could not rally. I often used to play choppers with my backhand sometimes as well so I was just a different animal I guess.

I find that people who play for rallies tend to take a long time to get better at table tennis because they aren't focused on being precise about their third ball play and serve. I am not saying they have to win the point on serve, but they have to focus on serve and third ball attack and stop thinking about just getting the ball on the table. Of course, they also need the opportunity to play rallies if the rallies are forced on them. But to win, they have to look for patterns that win points, not get happy when they get into extended rallies unless they truly believe there is no other way.

I remember at the 2014 NA Teams, I played a chopper girl who is probably now one of the top junior girls in the country though not national team level, and I beat her 3-0 because I basically pushed to her until she either missed her attack or I found a juicy ball to loop or smash past her. I had to leave to make a phone call and when I came back, my teammate, who was up 2-0, lost to her when he started going into loop vs chop rallies. He could not explain to me why he did it, other than that it was fun to do. Yet I am sure that this girl could not loop a single ball past him. It shows you the difference in priorities sometimes. Had we won that match, we would have been securely in the finals. We still had a chance to make it, but lost another match we could have won and ended up playing for and winning third place.

 

[ttmonster]

Which events did you play at Sacramento , William ? One of my friends grabbed 2nd place in the U1800 ...

Did a tourney today, was hot garbage. Couldn't pick up the ball in that venue, blends in with floor and background. Need young eyes to succeed there. I had a few good matches, but overall, made a huge ratings gift to lower rated players. I will not do a tourney at that venue until I figure out a way to see in those conditions. There was a game where I mode loops to the FH corner crosscourt, I was 4 for 4 on those. Same game, I tried going down line and swung and missed on 5 balls. Incredible. I have to let the ball come into my impact zone some more to do that shot. It will cross past table and blend in with floor.

I shoulda brought an LP racket and played a close to table pushblocking game.

 

[Der_Echte]

I played all I qualified for, U2400RR, U2100A, and 6100 teams. I saw the ball in exactly two matches, won both. Sucked total rox in the rest.

 

[Der_Echte]

BTW, great performance of Ur friend.

 

[ttmonster]

Ya I told him too , you should really plan for the next ICC tournament , you will like the conditions there and really enjoy it . Thats why when I was playing tournament , ICC was the only one I would play , tried Berkley once , the lighting was bad , tried San Francisco once and the flooring for some events was concrete which I don't like because of my knees .. however , the events in the basketball court was really good , great floor and lighting ...

BTW, great performance of Ur friend.

 

[Der_Echte]

Haha Basketball court is part of problem, shiny surface, especially if pine wood blends in with ball and camouflages it to make it difficult to see. Some are not so bad, depends on venue. Also, if tables are old, the bright lights shine on it and make a white-out zone you cannot see the ball. Sac gym was real bad on those counts.

Still, I never saw a tourney with so many scheduled matches run so close to schedule as the Sac tourney. Young eyes fared better.

 

[Loopadoop]

Can't see the ball

Many years ago, living in rural America, it's the weekend so decided to travel to a major Metro 200 miles away. The TT Club was in an old gym. We started at 10 am . There was a king of the hill table in the middle of gym, winner stays up. I challenged the table about 11 am, still up at past noon when the high windows near the ceiling were letting in the sun. It was like a lotto pick to see the ball on that table. A new guy challenges me and he loses with neither of us seeing the ball much. After the match, he put his bag on the table, takes out a new box of Nittaku 3*, takes a brand new one out and smashes it on the table into several pieces. I thought WTF ? I had played the guy a few months previous and beat him two X easy.

 

[Gene Tuttle]

Played in the Austin club Saturday. Played a lot of games against a penhold (which I seldom face) chopper (which I seldom face). He has a heavy spin chop and a good crosscourt/forehand smash when I let the ball get up short or medium which he seldom hits off or into the net and is difficult to return. His serves were generally lots of backspin short with some side or were a lot of side with a little backspin. At first hard to read for me due to my lack of practice against a penhold style but better than I used to be due to all the recent practice and matches I have had this year. In all the games he almost never gave me any side/topspin. We initially played 11 games of which he won 7 and I won 4. With most of my wins coming in the last games.All close games with the worst loss of either player being 11-7 and I was slow to catch on that if I got into a looping only game with him then eventually he would wear me down and win the game when I misread the amount of backspin on the ball and missed low or high with the loop. He would chop to both corners and move me back and forth and front and back with alternating blocks and chops.
I then took a break for 15 minutes to re-hydrate and think about what had happened. He came back to me and suggested a rematch . We then played another 11 game match. This time I used the same tactics he had used on me and varied my spin and speed more rather than trying to rip every loop so he couldn't get into a groove on a steady diet of fast and spinny loops. I tried to move him onto the corners with quality deep and high percentage shots and would occasionally try to drop a push short when he was trying to stay back for my loops. This time the game totals were flipped with me winning 7 games to 4 with the winning margins on my wins larger and my losses were a lot of deuce games. This was surprising to me how much difference this simple tactic change made considering that I was also very tired in the second set of games due to my poor conditioning. Smooth, spin varied loops versus Rambo type had gotten me 60-70% more total points than before and I had used less effort. The change had come 11 games too late but was due in a large part to advice Der Echte and Next Level had put in these forums before about stroke quality and placement. Hopefully in the future since the lesson has been learned I can change and adapt faster in a match.