Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Der_Echte]

Coach Barney has a badge and is a Coach there, verified. The club is just one of the things Google doing for their employees.

Wood floor, bends. More than 3.5 meters between tables. Lighting is bright enough, well distributed, not direct strong glare. Tables have zero glare. Only minus was light bounces off floor like any other place with a wood floor. Coach Barney told me Google would approve a 60 to 70 Thousand USD red sports floor, but Google is uncertain if they will keep that building or keep that room for TT. (Prolly got plans to have a larger facility)

You gotta look a long hard while to find fault with Coach Barney, his facility, or his players. Small Korean kind of sized club, large enough to have room, easy to meet new friends and play your potential best.

 

[Der_Echte]

Our team of assorted Trouble Makers is now 17 wins vs 5 losses. Very likely we are among the 8 of 28 teams who advance to playoffs round robin group. Still, we need to make sure we win our remaining 5 matchups to be sure. All in all, it is likely we advance as no 4 or 5 place. Other teams with outstanding records still need to play a lot of matches, maybe they were putting them off to ensure the ones they played had their top players... We will see.

Need some more barking from TTD and anywhere to support us with your CHEERS.

Spin heavy mi amigos...

 

[ajtatosmano2]

I caused trouble at the State Championships. I treated the match like a show and light like we were in league playing. I will not play like that again in a tourney again. I hope. I did not make the owner feel well doing that, so i will cut that out going forward.

Won U2000 and Open doubles. Doubt I will change the rating much. I doubt I will win next year if I am still U2000. The owner's son already has a strong record vs me in the last 10 league matches, by next year I will prolly be his water boy if I am still in these parts.

I wouldn't be so happy if I would play like in league matches in a tournament. I don't say that people usually wipe the floor with me in league matches, because I play in a league lower level than the league I should play in. Still, league matches are annoying, and I struggle to play well. Probably the reason is that I can't feel the pressure.

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

I would strongly suggest you try to loop vs choppers , thats the best way to learn on how to generate heavy spin .. .of course you need to ensure you don't injure yourself ...

There are 2 legit choppers at my club, one is 2000+ AND 80 yrs old! I don't want to insult him to have him hit with me as I'm not a steady looper as well as not waste his time. Although even if i wanted to hit with him, all the good players in the club are hitting with him.

There is another, she is perhaps my level or a little better. But I haven't seen her in some time due to my breaks as well as showing up to the club 1x a week. In time, I will go 2x and perhaps 3x a week like I used to prior my breaks. Odds are I will see her then.

And yeah, injury is on my mind as of late hearing about NL and about Der. The older we are, the longer it will take to recover necessitating playing smarter for the long term.

Thank you as always monster!

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

Congratulations to the Troublemakers!!!!

WAR Troublemakers!!

WOOT!!

 

[Boogar]

It's been a while since I have posted a video of me playing. Reason being I lost my phone and the new one has a very poor camera.

So here it is its a match from today's inter club league. I played TWO tournaments this WE and i can barely walk
I started out okayish but then I lost all confidence in my strokes. Usually the backhand open up is my strength... but while playing the tournament this weekend I lost my confidence in that stroke as well... which leaves me with only steparound forehands which aren't my strength as I am not good in following up with a second forehand.

I saw two major problems: I start too low with my topspin against blocks or topspins and I am not using my strengths, being my backhand open up.

 

[Der_Echte]

I wouldn't be so happy if I would play like in league matches in a tournament. I don't say that people usually wipe the floor with me in league matches, because I play in a league lower level than the league I should play in. Still, league matches are annoying, and I struggle to play well. Probably the reason is that I can't feel the pressure.

Well, we make the pressure, we talk the noise and back it up, with play and UNIFORMS and TTD Posts !!! I see ya, a regular league can be average, but we took it to the next level and way past that. This is fun for everyone, we try to get fan involvement too.

 

[ttmonster]

I think it all boils down to personality , I play way better in league matches than in actual tournament ... being in a team motivates me to focus and play a lot better than when I would play in any other situation .. but I guess thats just me ... and also other than all that, playing with a team is a whole lot fun , everybody is involved and trying to support their team mates ... there is a lot of talk on what combination to put out there ... etc .. makes it a lot more exciting for me ... and even team mates playing well and winning gives a lot of satisfaction ..

I wouldn't be so happy if I would play like in league matches in a tournament. I don't say that people usually wipe the floor with me in league matches, because I play in a league lower level than the league I should play in. Still, league matches are annoying, and I struggle to play well. Probably the reason is that I can't feel the pressure.

 

[Der_Echte]

It makes a huge difference if Der_Echte is on your team cheering you for your powerful FH finished by rolling up sleeve, showing bicep and violently rolling sleeve back down with a thumbs up that requires zero utilization of vocal cords.

 

[NextLevel]

It's been a while since I have posted a video of me playing. Reason being I lost my phone and the new one has a very poor camera.

So here it is its a match from today's inter club league. I played TWO tournaments this WE and i can barely walk
I started out okayish but then I lost all confidence in my strokes. Usually the backhand open up is my strength... but while playing the tournament this weekend I lost my confidence in that stroke as well... which leaves me with only steparound forehands which aren't my strength as I am not good in following up with a second forehand.

I saw two major problems: I start too low with my topspin against blocks or topspins and I am not using my strengths, being my backhand open up.

You have improved a lot. The only thing I would say is work on taking the ball earlier. The stroke adaptation you need to make to do it consistently will help your overall game. You are letting the ball drop way too often and it is not allowing you to take advantage of your athleticism.

When you reach a certain level, once your hips get tired, your strokes are done. That said, you need to realize that backhand openers are a very limited shot for a very limited situation unless you have a backhand like Karakasevic where you move your shoulder to the ball to play everything. One way to lose confidence in your backhand opener is to not use it on the right balls or by setting it up improperly. Basically, you don't serve long and fast to play a backhand opener, and you don't use your backhand opener on balls that take forever to get to you. Backhand openers work best over the table and against half long pushes because the timing is easier to work out. So being able to tell when to play backhand and when to pivot is an important issue for most players and some players think their backhand is falling apart when the real issue is that they are getting balls that should be dealt with by pivoting.

 

[yoass]

So. Played a doubles tournament last saturday, after playing a competition match in the small hours of friday night. The doubles tournament used the so-called Swiss system, in which everybody starts playing everybody but as things progress you get to meet opponents with about the same win/loss rate. There's an overall tournament winner, and each participating class has its own final. Me and my partner won last year's 5th class final. This time we participated in the 3rd class, promoted after winning two competition championships.

I didn't feel that good, and in fact ran up a fever during the day. Nevertheless, we came quite a long way, ending near the top of the overall tournament (all classes mixed), and winning our own class final.

We played a total of nine matches. I have footage of the deciders of the last two. Fatigue had kicked in, or course, as had the fever.

Game 8, pre-finals:

https://flic.kr/p/CTsu6b

We came to this game after first gaining a comfortable 2-0 lead and pissed away a comfortable 10-6 in the third. We did not regain balance in time to win the next game. So we didn't go into that decider with good momentum, but we crawled out of the hole anyway. I'm the slow old geezer in the black/green Joola shirt — that did some good anyway.

The finals

https://flic.kr/p/CTsu6b

The finals followed the same pattern. 2-0 lead, losing a closely fought 3rd, trouble recovering in the 4th, so: into the decider. The opponents: cunning material players giving a very tough game. Half-long pips, strange floats dropping dead in strange places, we had trouble finding rhythm. IIRC we were 2-5 behind when changing sides, and it even got to 3-7 before we managed to turn the tide and steamed towards an 11-9 win.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

hi played at my club today.

hit the ball with my usual partner, a stronger player than me. Last time he was in a bad day and I trounced him 3-0 for a very rare victory but this time it was a more normal 0-3 (1-3 is the "average" score) but with very heavy scores -3 -5 -3. I didn't feel i played particularly badly, except at the very end where i gave up, there were some very good rallies but I was always on the losing end of those. He was much better than last time. I think i made the right shot selection overall but I felt slow though, lack of sleep these days and a lot of stress as well.

Then i played the usual long pips PH blocker. Never won once against him although i got close on a few rare occasions. I tried to think hard and focus, in the first 2 sets I was in the match and close to him but lost -8 and -9. just one or two miss that i could have avoided and the tables would have be turned. However i collapsed in the third. -3

Then I played some teenagers, a high school kid which was quite good with a very powerful FH. I felt really slow and was outclassed -7 -3 in the first 2 sets. It looked like a disaster but I decided to fight for everything and I managed to come back from behind in the 3rd and 4th and even save match point. I made less mistakes, played more positively and took more time to think about what i should do. I started to be better in serve/receive and 3rd ball and it affected his confidence. I also tried to play as many FH as possible except for receive. Unfortunately i got a bad start in the 5th, and lost -6. But it was a good reaction from me. I believe I can win next time if I play from the start like I did from the 3rd.

The last game was against another teenager who is improving a lot, but he's only beaten me once when i was in a very bad day. This time, I played solidly and won 3-0. I think he saw his friend win and put too much pressure on himself. He made too many mistakes making the match easy for me.

not a bad session but not the best. The most positive thing about today is that recently i forgot too much about taking the time to THINK about what I'm doing. and today I've managed a little to think more at times and that clearly helped a lot.

on the technical side, seeing ZYL at world cup made me also understand that i should always try to go to the ball even when blocking or playing a soft shot, and sometimes I applied it well and clearly it was helpful.

 

[Boogar]

You have improved a lot. The only thing I would say is work on taking the ball earlier. The stroke adaptation you need to make to do it consistently will help your overall game. You are letting the ball drop way too often and it is not allowing you to take advantage of your athleticism.

When you reach a certain level, once your hips get tired, your strokes are done. That said, you need to realize that backhand openers are a very limited shot for a very limited situation unless you have a backhand like Karakasevic where you move your shoulder to the ball to play everything. One way to lose confidence in your backhand opener is to not use it on the right balls or by setting it up improperly. Basically, you don't serve long and fast to play a backhand opener, and you don't use your backhand opener on balls that take forever to get to you. Backhand openers work best over the table and against half long pushes because the timing is easier to work out. So being able to tell when to play backhand and when to pivot is an important issue for most players and some players think their backhand is falling apart when the real issue is that they are getting balls that should be dealt with by pivoting.

Thanks NL! I will try to record more footage, its just the best way to improve!

In the other two matches ( which i did not record >.<) I lost lots of points against long serves into my backhand. I think today i will do backhand receiving training. Inspired by watching some of your matches NL Your backhand topspin is stunningly good.

 

[NextLevel]

Thanks NL! I will try to record more footage, its just the best way to improve!

In the other two matches ( which i did not record >.<) I lost lots of points against long serves into my backhand. I think today i will do backhand receiving training. Inspired by watching some of your matches NL Your backhand topspin is stunningly good.

Thanks for the kind words.

If you want to loop serves with your backhand, it is very important to carry your shoulder, either by moving your legs or by turning your upper body, to where the ball is so that you can have your elbow in the right position to loop the ball properly. You can even loop over the table.

The other thing is the backswing, if you can hold the racket with it pointing towards you at the end of the backswing or even pointing a bit towards the right wall, then you have enough backswing to loop any ball anywhere. The rest is patience and timing.

 

[NextLevel]

So this weekend, me being the EJ I am, I got my backup True Carbon and Tibhar Genius rubbers on Friday night so I could not train with them. I did get my favorite Donic VarioClean glue which I have not used for a while. So I build the paddle on Friday night. I had a tournament on Saturday and was going to use my True Carbon plus Baracuda but the Baracuda just didn't feel great throughout my coaching session on Friday where I was working with my student.

So I put the Genius and True Carbon in my bag and headed to the club on Saturday. For me, I felt that this was a home club tournament, I was likely to be one of if not the top seed, and that my familiarity with the environment should make me play well so it should be easy money. But still which paddle to use? I got to the table and decided to practice looping with the Genius. It felt like Genius - the topsheet felt soft so I was grabbing the ball unlike Vega Pro where the ball looked great but I just never felt the ball was holding. The glue job wasn't great around the edges but I said what the heck, I like the way this feels so I am going to play with it. I was the #2 seed so I could do what the hell I Wanted.

Even for an EJ, it was the first time in a while that I felt that feeling that I want to feel when I am using a rubber. Karis is close when new, and some of the Evolutions are like this. Baracuda feels a bit too hard and Hexer feels a bit too soft. But this is where I wanted to try Genius because Genius is in between Baracuda and Hexer in feeling. I don't think I have *Felt* that confident when pushing in a while or when brushing the ball. In fact, I stopped brushing the ball for a while because brushing has not felt as good - Vega Pro sometimes came close but it never felt perfect. Okay, I will stop now.

I personally thought I would prefer TBS to True Carbon - maybe it is weight, but it is to me thinness, I preferred the True Carbon. I prefer thinner blades for how I loop. The problem is that thin blades usually bend too much, but the True Carbon has found a good way to fix that.

I am playing with Genius for the rest of 2017. I won the tournament (I can't post the final because my opponent doesn't like his matches on youtube), but you can see my other matches. Of course, it is easy to say that I outclass my opponents and it is true, but the matches are never as easy as they look and sometimes, you have to be ruthless because the instant you give an opening, people will get the confidence to start playing winning shots.

 

[ttmonster]

Congratulations NL !

So this weekend, me being the EJ I am, I got my backup True Carbon and Tibhar Genius rubbers on Friday night so I could not train with them. I did get my favorite Donic VarioClean glue which I have not used for a while. So I build the paddle on Friday night. I had a tournament on Saturday and was going to use my True Carbon plus Baracuda but the Baracuda just didn't feel great throughout my coaching session on Friday where I was working with my student.

So I put the Genius and True Carbon in my bag and headed to the club on Saturday. For me, I felt that this was a home club tournament, I was likely to be one of if not the top seed, and that my familiarity with the environment should make me play well so it should be easy money. But still which paddle to use? I got to the table and decided to practice looping with the Genius. It felt like Genius - the topsheet felt soft so I was grabbing the ball unlike Vega Pro where the ball looked great but I just never felt the ball was holding. The glue job wasn't great around the edges but I said what the heck, I like the way this feels so I am going to play with it. I was the #2 seed so I could do what the hell I Wanted.

Even for an EJ, it was the first time in a while that I felt that feeling that I want to feel when I am using a rubber. Karis is close when new, and some of the Evolutions are like this. Baracuda feels a bit too hard and Hexer feels a bit too soft. But this is where I wanted to try Genius because Genius is in between Baracuda and Hexer in feeling. I don't think I have *Felt* that confident when pushing in a while or when brushing the ball. In fact, I stopped brushing the ball for a while because brushing has not felt as good - Vega Pro sometimes came close but it never felt perfect. Okay, I will stop now.

I personally thought I would prefer TBS to True Carbon - maybe it is weight, but it is to me thinness, I preferred the True Carbon. I prefer thinner blades for how I loop. The problem is that thin blades usually bend too much, but the True Carbon has found a good way to fix that.

I am playing with Genius for the rest of 2017. I won the tournament (I can't post the final because my opponent doesn't like his matches on youtube), but you can see my other matches. Of course, it is easy to say that I outclass my opponents and it is true, but the matches are never as easy as they look and sometimes, you have to be ruthless because the instant you give an opening, people will get the confidence to start playing winning shots.

 

[Der_Echte]

Hey TTD:

Team Trouble Makers plays Facebook soon!!!

We need triple cheers, I think one of my ex-Korea Foreign team players is on their squad !!!

CHEER - CHEER - CHEER

Beat FB ! Beat FB ! Beat FB !

Fighting !!!

 

[Der_Echte]

Hey thanks everyone for not cheering in public, we won vs Facebook tonight. Der_Echte won the singles for the team to win 3 to 1. I had to play vs a better player... someone will cough up the vid.

TT Monster can give details.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[Der_Echte]

I also lost singles first match to a German dude I need to call Der bessere Spieler...

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[42andbackpains]

I have not posted in a while. So i will give a short 3 month summary.

I have been playing about twice a week. Lightly practicing during midweek and a 2 hours coaching session on Saturdays.
Developed inflammation on the outside of my lower right wrist. Picture doing a forehand push and you try to flex your forehand for the push. And all you feel is a lot of stiffness in the effected area. No stiffness in a backhand push though. My doctor said i dont have a fracture, just need to rest it. So i rested for about a month and half. I am back to normal now. One of my coaches told me since i liked to practice serving a lot on my midweek practice, i may have caused the inflammation. She told me she use to see this alot back in her China provincial training days. Great, so know instead of practicing regular pendulum serves, i will concentrate on reverse pendulum serves....lol

After the wrist injury, i have been feeling better and playing for about a month now. Then i feel the dreaded achy back problems slowly giving me signals my cortisone shot is wearing off. I usually take one every 6 to 12 months. Low and behold this past saturday, i was feeling good and went hard with my coach for 2 hours. Then rested for about half a hour and one of my friends i have not seen in a while asked me to play. He is about 1500, so i took it slow and easy. Up 2-0 and leading 9-5 in the 3rd game....Bad luck strikes!!! Went to do a reverse pendulum serve, just got into the serve position without any movement. I get the dreaded back spasm and was done for the day. Luckily it wasn't major spasm, so i could still walk. Why couldn't my back last another week because i previously scheduled a cortisone shot the upcoming week.

I am writing this message after my cortisone shot, so i will be not playing this weekend. In 2 weeks i have another epidural steroid shot for my left lumbar. (I have left side sciatica)

Then a MRI next month or so. Then my first Stem Cell injection. All this just to play my beloved Table Tennis. Alright, enough ranting and back to your normally scheduled Chit Chat.

1. ZYL was correct on the edge call.

2. Very used to MXP now after 6 months, but i still miss H3 Neo. The spin for me at least is easier to create with Chinese rubbers. EJ in me is driving me nuts.

3. With all my injuries, should i switch to a carbon blade. In theory it would be less taxing on my body, but i love the feeling of my all wood 7 ply OSP custom made blade.

Henry