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Probably one of the worst sessions that I have played tonight, as I have no one to warm up with.

Played the no. 3 player first up. Wanted to warm up but he was just hitting left and right, so we just start the match.. My record against him has been very good, but today it dropped, possibly due to no warm up and also the camera effect. Whenever the camera is on, I always (subconsciously) want to make great shots so that it is captured. I was down 1-3 then came back to win 4-3. But there is a comp coming up and it is only best of 3, so I would have lost if I played like today. My backhands were just terrible and my forehands were not steady enough.
He seem to only have 2 serves: reverse back spin and reverse side spin. I have not really found any good way of receiving it.

I will post the full ugly video as I intended to gain feedback.

Please let me know how I can do better against him. I think if I warm up before the comp then my chances will increase again but perhaps there are something that I am not seeing.

I then played another guy but he was nowhere near the level, so it was a 4-0 win.

Then I played the first guy again, and I won 4-1 (without the camera).

I still didn't play well and I am not happy about having such a bad start, but I think I really need a proper warm up to get the feeling and to improve my steadiness of the backhands and forehands to stand a good chance.

Was it not possible to warm up with your teammates?
 
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Probably one of the worst sessions that I have played tonight, as I have no one to warm up with.

Played the no. 3 player first up. Wanted to warm up but he was just hitting left and right, so we just start the match.. My record against him has been very good, but today it dropped, possibly due to no warm up and also the camera effect. Whenever the camera is on, I always (subconsciously) want to make great shots so that it is captured. I was down 1-3 then came back to win 4-3. But there is a comp coming up and it is only best of 3, so I would have lost if I played like today. My backhands were just terrible and my forehands were not steady enough.
He seem to only have 2 serves: reverse back spin and reverse side spin. I have not really found any good way of receiving it.

I will post the full ugly video as I intended to gain feedback.

Please let me know how I can do better against him. I think if I warm up before the comp then my chances will increase again but perhaps there are something that I am not seeing.

I then played another guy but he was nowhere near the level, so it was a 4-0 win.

Then I played the first guy again, and I won 4-1 (without the camera).

I still didn't play well and I am not happy about having such a bad start, but I think I really need a proper warm up to get the feeling and to improve my steadiness of the backhands and forehands to stand a good chance.


First of all, the opponent has a weird ball (doesn't topspin) and he is reasonably consistent (which is what TT is really about). It is common to struggle against these players until you get used to their game and adapt and one should be proud but not arrogant about it, especially if one doesn't have a history of playing such players on a regular basis. The pride is just meant to encourage you to dig into your toolkit and figure out how to expose them. Arrogance just tells you you are the better player, but it doesn't explain how you should prove you are better.

The stroke below (windmill topspin) is a stroke I recommend people learn and understand, it has a good place if one is healthy enough to use it to follow the shape of the ball with power, as playing upwards can send the ball long under pressure. Here are some samples from the master:


For example, you made this shot, but this kind of stroke requires a precise ball read:


Here is a ball that you could easily have made if you have deliberately followed the shape and hooked it a bit more:


Here is a ball you should have hooked and gone up and down on. Play over the ball. Playing upwards will get you into trouble over time as you hit more and more powerful shots if you play close to the table or over the table.

https://youtu.be/JHZGV6UUMOo?t=558

Another thing - playing power backhands against weird spins is good if you practice it, but if you don't, you are setting yourself up for trouble. Use your footwork to get into position while a ball is in the air so you can play a good shot with your forehand. It is easier to adjust against the weird ball with the forehand once you have the right windmill approach. You hit quite a few good backhands with windmill technique, but it is not the norm.

You have to realize that these weird players, they struggle with heavy spin or extremely flat more often than not, so you want to load up the ball on your terms, not on theirs. I usually serve heavy backspin, let them push. and then slow open with heavy spin, extremely short, not trying to hit the ball past them, but trying to keep them at the table so their weird strokes are relatively ineffective and they have to make racket angles they are not used to making. Then I may throw in short topspin and sidespin as variations or short no spin, but they sometimes chop these pretty heavy so I need to be sure that the ball is high enough for me to hit through. Again, against the players, it is counter intuitive if you haven't played them, but spinning the ball short to keep the close to the table and keeping the ball slow is usually more effective than trying to blast the ball by them and getting it blocked or chopped back weird.

But for me, the biggest thing here is that you haven't lost to enough of these players to respect their game, I have, so I don't lose sleep over it, I just try to find strategies that make it more likely that I will contain what they do well.
 
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Probably one of the worst sessions that I have played tonight, as I have no one to warm up with.

Played the no. 3 player first up. Wanted to warm up but he was just hitting left and right, so we just start the match.. My record against him has been very good, but today it dropped, possibly due to no warm up and also the camera effect. Whenever the camera is on, I always (subconsciously) want to make great shots so that it is captured. I was down 1-3 then came back to win 4-3. But there is a comp coming up and it is only best of 3, so I would have lost if I played like today. My backhands were just terrible and my forehands were not steady enough.
He seem to only have 2 serves: reverse back spin and reverse side spin. I have not really found any good way of receiving it.

I will post the full ugly video as I intended to gain feedback.

Please let me know how I can do better against him. I think if I warm up before the comp then my chances will increase again but perhaps there are something that I am not seeing.

I then played another guy but he was nowhere near the level, so it was a 4-0 win.

Then I played the first guy again, and I won 4-1 (without the camera).

I still didn't play well and I am not happy about having such a bad start, but I think I really need a proper warm up to get the feeling and to improve my steadiness of the backhands and forehands to stand a good chance.

Your return of his serve looked reasonable to me - maybe could be taken a little earlier and played a little shorter but he wasn't attacking you.

Generally, when you were intentional and confident with your FH you were well on top, but when you backed it off a little then his pushes led to you making errors (or when you waited longer before opening up)

Your serves looked like they cost you a lot of points and maybe could be an area for improvement?
 
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Was it not possible to warm up with your teammates?
Yes, it is surprising, but there is literally no one there tonight that can hit some constant forehands for me to warm up. The no 2 player (cap) did not turn up, and I am no 1 player..
 
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Your return of his serve looked reasonable to me - maybe could be taken a little earlier and played a little shorter but he wasn't attacking you.

Generally, when you were intentional and confident with your FH you were well on top, but when you backed it off a little then his pushes led to you making errors (or when you waited longer before opening up)

Your serves looked like they cost you a lot of points and maybe could be an area for improvement?
Thanks Wrighty.
I blame the camera effect..

It makes me do unusual things which are no good.

I have not missed so many serves in the past few weeks.. So I find this very unusual for myself as well.
 
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Thanks Wrighty.
I blame the camera effect..

It makes me do unusual things which are no good.

I have not missed so many serves in the past few weeks.. So I find this very unusual for myself as well.
Totally get that - I find the same thing (sometimes this makes me move better as I anticipate what my coach will say...)
 
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First of all, the opponent has a weird ball (doesn't topspin) and he is reasonably consistent (which is what TT is really about). It is common to struggle against these players until you get used to their game and adapt and one should be proud but not arrogant about it, especially if one doesn't have a history of playing such players on a regular basis. The pride is just meant to encourage you to dig into your toolkit and figure out how to expose them. Arrogance just tells you you are the better player, but it doesn't explain how you should prove you are better.

The stroke below (windmill topspin) is a stroke I recommend people learn and understand, it has a good place if one is healthy enough to use it to follow the shape of the ball with power, as playing upwards can send the ball long under pressure. Here are some samples from the master:


For example, you made this shot, but this kind of stroke requires a precise ball read:


Here is a ball that you could easily have made if you have deliberately followed the shape and hooked it a bit more:


Here is a ball you should have hooked and gone up and down on. Play over the ball. Playing upwards will get you into trouble over time as you hit more and more powerful shots if you play close to the table or over the table.


Another thing - playing power backhands against weird spins is good if you practice it, but if you don't, you are setting yourself up for trouble. Use your footwork to get into position while a ball is in the air so you can play a good shot with your forehand. It is easier to adjust against the weird ball with the forehand once you have the right windmill approach. You hit quite a few good backhands with windmill technique, but it is not the norm.

You have to realize that these weird players, they struggle with heavy spin or extremely flat more often than not, so you want to load up the ball on your terms, not on theirs. I usually serve heavy backspin, let them push. and then slow open with heavy spin, extremely short, not trying to hit the ball past them, but trying to keep them at the table so their weird strokes are relatively ineffective and they have to make racket angles they are not used to making. Then I may throw in short topspin and sidespin as variations or short no spin, but they sometimes chop these pretty heavy so I need to be sure that the ball is high enough for me to hit through. Again, against the players, it is counter intuitive if you haven't played them, but spinning the ball short to keep the close to the table and keeping the ball slow is usually more effective than trying to blast the ball by them and getting it blocked or chopped back weird.

But for me, the biggest thing here is that you haven't lost to enough of these players to respect their game, I have, so I don't lose sleep over it, I just try to find strategies that make it more likely that I will contain what they do well.
Thanks for that analysis NextLevel.

I first played him first week of Feb, and I lost to him 3-4. Since then my second match was 4-3 (win), then it became 4-2, and then 4-0, 4-1, 4-0, 4-0. So his style is not foreign to me. And my forehands usually win me the point but he has also improved quite a bit since 2 weeks ago when I played him, and he seems to get some of my forehands back.

Like I said, when the camera is on, I tend to try hit flashy shots, and this is a terrible combo with no warm up.

Perhaps I should not film during my comp just so it does not affect me in a bad way.

I am going back to the city this weekend and will have alot more chance to play tt for a week, against players of higher standards so I can warm up and get the feeling back.

I wil try to get some warm up on the actual comp day and do my best.
 
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Thanks for that analysis NextLevel.

I first played him first week of Feb, and I lost to him 3-4. Since then my second match was 4-3 (win), then it became 4-2, and then 4-0, 4-1, 4-0, 4-0. So his style is not foreign to me. And my forehands usually win me the point but he has also improved quite a bit since 2 weeks ago when I played him, and he seems to get some of my forehands back.

Like I said, when the camera is on, I tend to try hit flashy shots, and this is a terrible combo with no warm up.

Perhaps I should not film during my comp just so it does not affect me in a bad way.

I am going back to the city this weekend and will have alot more chance to play tt for a week, against players of higher standards so I can warm up and get the feeling back.

I wil try to get some warm up on the actual comp day and do my best.
Well, don't blame it on the filming, filming is important to learn from and has zero impact on the match other than your mental awareness of it. Try to figure out what about your mindset the filming is adjusting and then adapt to it. The human brain is a correlation engine, it is easy to get superstitious about things that are irrelevant to the quality of your play. But it is important to avoid becoming superstitious so unless you have good data that it is worth it to be superstitious, and without filming, you can't get the data reliably.

You are letting your recent results against him affect your view of what it takes to beat him, of course he will be especially motivated to beat you given it is a competition. My main point here is that the way you described your play, one would think that the guy had no business playing well against you, but now it comes out that he beat you the first time you played less than 3 months ago. It is better to reframe as realizing that the opponent got ready for this match, and you need to look more precisely at what troubles him, as being imprecise might lead you to play to his strengths on a day that you can't afford it. It is also important to look at what sequences worked and which ones he has more good variation against and which ones he doesn't. As my late coach used to say, "If they don't change, you don't change." Because a lot of the balls you missed were on plays where the ball came back and you didn't adjust to the ball even though it wasn't a straight ball. 4-3 results are definitely on the table when the opponent has a good day and you have a bad day. Remember when we had this discussion about handicap matches and how the match length being longer favors the better player?
 
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@JeffM I think you have the same problem I have - not recovering well after a push which causes problems in attacking the next ball. After a push you stay there and go back in 1 big step, instead of using an intermediate step. Especially against weird players you need to adjust your feet all the time with small steps to get to the right position to attack.

Tbh his serves are mostly long and I wouldn't have pushed those - he loves pushing with weird spin and can't really receive heavy opening loops - you might as well just loop those rather than playing safe. If you misread the serve it's equally likely that you'll miss regardless of whether you push or loop.

Btw his serve is highly illegal (no toss) and I would call it out in a tournament lol...
 
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As previously mentioned, I will be playing in a small inter-club friendly this weekend.. Winning or losing for me in this competition is immaterial, either outcome I still get free curry with rice, chicken wings with hot-sauce and beer. Did I mention beer?

However, on a personal development field, I hope to achieve three objectives. What are they?

1. Move away from over reliance on flat hitting with my FH and do more FH drive / topspin. I need to spin the ball more. IF I have to make mistake and look bad on YT video, so be it.

2. More beautiful open ups with my BH to create opportunity for the drive / counter-drive playstyle that my coach and I have been drilling for the past few lessons. I need to put those lessons to good use in real match play.

3. Move my darn f3ck1ing legs more. Not up to those Aruna / Ryu Seungmin level, but a least a decent few more inches of movement. More pivoting and use of waist twist and not over-reliance on pure shoulder muscle. More elegance, less brute.

I'll YT the game play, and if it appear terrible, I apologize in advance for not putting up a good show.
 
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As previously mentioned, I will be playing in a small inter-club friendly this weekend.. Winning or losing for me in this competition is immaterial, either outcome I still get free curry with rice, chicken wings with hot-sauce and beer. Did I mention beer?

However, on a personal development field, I hope to achieve three objectives. What are they?

1. Move away from over reliance on flat hitting with my FH and do more FH drive / topspin. I need to spin the ball more. IF I have to make mistake and look bad on YT video, so be it.

2. More beautiful open ups with my BH to create opportunity for the drive / counter-drive playstyle that my coach and I have been drilling for the past few lessons. I need to put those lessons to good use in real match play.

3. Move my darn f3ck1ing legs more. Not up to those Aruna / Ryu Seungmin level, but a least a decent few more inches of movement. More pivoting and use of waist twist and not over-reliance on pure shoulder muscle. More elegance, less brute.

I'll YT the game play, and if it appear terrible, I apologize in advance for not putting up a good show.
I don't think it makes sense to apologize for how you look on video, the people who mock how others look on video are people who have never recorded themselves or people who are mocking other people who like to pretend they are pros on videos. Recording yourself creates self awareness of how much you really suck and is the ultimate harbinger of TT humility. Without it, memory is always delusional and you tend to think you did things that were far more amazing than the video shows (and of course, the camera can record amazing things but the memory always makes them more amazing than the camera does).

Good luck with the matches and enjoy the chicken and beer!
 
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@JeffM I think you have the same problem I have - not recovering well after a push which causes problems in attacking the next ball. After a push you stay there and go back in 1 big step, instead of using an intermediate step. Especially against weird players you need to adjust your feet all the time with small steps to get to the right position to attack.

Tbh his serves are mostly long and I wouldn't have pushed those - he loves pushing with weird spin and can't really receive heavy opening loops - you might as well just loop those rather than playing safe. If you misread the serve it's equally likely that you'll miss regardless of whether you push or loop.

Btw his serve is highly illegal (no toss) and I would call it out in a tournament lol...

Yeah he does not toss the ball at all.. Luckily I haven't lost much points directly from his serves. Yeah I wonder if I can call it out, but probably no one at the club does a legal serve except me. By legal, I mean toss it up to a certain height.
I suppose I can try to loop them but I just feel I will break my bat /hand. He doesn't really attack me often, so I seem to be able to get away with it, otherwise yeah, would have to do someting different.
 
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I'll be heading to the city for a week, and I hope that I will be able to get my skills polished up for a bit with good practice partners etc. Not sure if that is going to hold until the comp as the comp will be 9 days after my last possible session in the city and I just simply cannot play any tt after leaving the city until the comp day due to work schedule clashes. But it is what it is. Hopefully I can have a proper warm up on the day. But I really cannot take anything for granted here.
 
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So I am currently in Philly, went to my old TT club, met up with some old friends and hitting partners and did a lot of hitting/training. Played two matches against tough opponents, got lucky in winning them both, but since I have to travel light in the era of paying for bags, carried no filming equipment.

One of the guys I hit with was a guy who started training about the same time I did, but at a younger age, but still an adult. Very fit and powerful, good technique as a self-taught guy (self-taught is a difficult term, but I know his background and if pushed on it I can explain a bit, he and his friends tried to model advanced players as role models for technical development, but of course, in this game, given all the matches and training and hitting sessions with better players, no one does it alone). Could definitely be 2200+ with an advanced service game.

He talked about how much better he looks on video now vs when he reviews his old footage. I laughed and concurred, and trust me, even when I was a decent player, I looked bad on video (blocker and driver, mostly topspinning vs backspin and hitting everything awkwardly) and today, people still talk about how it makes no sense that I can stand so tall and hit the ball. I would be lying if I said I didn't train/try the alternatives, but my limits are my limits. But even now, if you compare my game with what it looked like in 2015 or even worse 2012, you will see lots of changes. I remember even when hitting with Carl in NY before the pandemic in 2019 (and I think he last hit with me in 2016 before that), Carl was like, you used to move so much worse to cover the forehand and I am like, well, everything gets better with work, it is still a weakness, but it takes more work to expose it than before :D. And the right knee is compromised so if you play me, you know where to put the ball :D.

Adult learning is full of things like this, the only people that are arrogant when criticizing other players are people who are delusional about how difficult TT is. Unfortunately, they exist in large numbers, but it is no different from the people who look at the small ball and the big goal posts and think it is easy to put the ball in the net at the professional level in soccer. People who improved at an age where conscious thought and language interferes with the learning process will not go out of their way to make fun of anyone who is not delusional about his level of play. It's when you are delusional about your level of play, thinking you are doing Ma Long strokes or Timo Boll topspins or Harimoto counters or things like that that you expose yourself to harsh criticism - it is almost always the people who never record themselves who engage in this delusion. Of course, we all think we do the comparison thing, but the original player's technique is the way it is after years of evolution and days of training many hours every week for a reason. We don't put in that time or effort, so no need to desire such results, just be proud of what you have been able to do with your game starting so late in life and putting in all those hours at the best form of relaxation in the universe (IMHO). In fact, I suspect some of you would be more focused on your own technique if you put in that time from childhood because you would be proud of what you do, not necessarily be look at what a top player does.

No TT today, will play at the company after party tomorrow at SPIN.
 
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Tonight I brought my 10mm weapon and try hitting with it. It has MXP on FH and T05 on BH. I didn't realise prior, but MXP is slightly tacky. In contrast, T05 is completely non-tacky.

The 10mm of course is OK'ish in this 40mm++ ABS ball era, and I concur with SFF_Lib, 10mm is the minimum standard with regards to these new ABS balls.

This 10mm also allows me to have slightly more dwell time ( relative to my other 10.5mm ) and I feel I have more brushing contact due to this. Not sure if this is placebo effect or real, but it is a perception of mine.

I'll try hitting with this 10mm again this Friday and if it feels right, might use her during this weekend's competition.

Since more topspin is what I have in mind for this coming competition, so I am hoping this placebo effect can help me psychologically.
 
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Tonight I brought my 10mm weapon and try hitting with it. It has MXP on FH and T05 on BH. I didn't realise prior, but MXP is slightly tacky. In contrast, T05 is completely non-tacky.

The 10mm of course is OK'ish in this 40mm++ ABS ball era, and I concur with SFF_Lib, 10mm is the minimum standard with regards to these new ABS balls.

This 10mm also allows me to have slightly more dwell time ( relative to my other 10.5mm ) and I feel I have more brushing contact due to this. Not sure if this is placebo effect or real, but it is a perception of mine.

I'll try hitting with this 10mm again this Friday and if it feels right, might use her during this weekend's competition.

Since more topspin is what I have in mind for this coming competition, so I am hoping this placebo effect can help me psychologically.
1) You talk about the 40+ era. Did you play in the 40mm celluloid era to be able to compare? Or are you just repeating something you heard others say because they were comparing their experience now to back when the ball was 40mm celluloid? Clearly, this does not really matter. I am just curious.

2) Can you feel the 0.5mm thickness difference in your hand? Even though that is small, that difference also may make certain actions while holding the racket easier.

I know for me, I like the feeling of a blade that is 5.5mm-5.8mm thick. Holding shakehand you can do a lot more wrist manipulation and use a lot more whip mechanics with a thinner blade. To me, even 6.5mm-7mm feels thick and clunky.

Does that slight bit thinner make the blade feel like you can manipulate the racket more freely while playing?
 
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