Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[NextLevel]

Here are the official requirements to be a master of sport in Ukraine (taken from https://tt-pro.com.ua/ua/articles/ukrainskie-normativy-po-nastolnomu-tennisu):
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Pretty sure this would require one to be much much higher ranked than usatt 2000. 2500 could be even too low. Someone like that would not ever play at 1600 level unless post crippling injury.

Liar liar pants on fire?

 

[vvk1]

Liar liar pants on fire?

Yup, that's the most likely case, sadly.

 

[Richie]

Liar liar pants on fire?

Lol, I think this is relatively common. Many of us have seen this with basement level players who are the best among their friends etc and talk up their game, then show up at a club and get humbled.

When people have only played in a limited environment and have success there it's easy to think you're on top of the world.
I had a similar experience when I did well in a local league in England and also won the local singles championships where I first started playing, then I came home to Sweden and was quickly humbled through a couple of experiences.

I guess, this kind of exposure among other things is required to gain better insight into ones game. So it's not some attempt to be deceptive. Often one just doesn't know better.

 

[SleepyMaster]

Lol, I think this is relatively common. Many of us have seen this with basement level players who are the best among their friends etc and talk up their game, then show up at a club and get humbled.

When people have only played in a limited environment and have success there it's easy to think you're on top of the world.
I had a similar experience when I did well in a local league in England and also won the local singles championships where I first started playing, then I came home to Sweden and was quickly humbled through a couple of experiences.

I guess, this kind of exposure among other things is required to gain better insight into ones game. So it's not some attempt to be deceptive. Often one just doesn't know better.

But this dude has a really high self esteem, master of sport with 1600 USATT

Im a master of sport in mma, and seeing many people that telling me that ´´mma´´ isn't a real fight and they probably will kick my ass, then I invited them to my dojo, and they getting submitted 15 times in 5 minutes. So I agree, that this is pretty common issue, when people having no clue what they are talking about, or they are the best in their back yard or a basement with a couple of friends

 

[NextLevel]

Dunning-Kruger, guys. It even happens to people who are experts at some field but just don't realize it doesnt translate to another field the way they think it does. You have to have some philosophical and teal life reflection to know the true limits of your perspective. Just being a good boxer for example doesnt make you a good MMa fighter and vice versa. There are limits to general ability when it goes across specialized fields.

 

[loerting]

We had a chance to play a doubles set against Stefan Fegerl (ex european champion) and the president of the Austrian table tennis association. Here is how it went:

 

[Der_Echte]

I'm not talking bout practice, i'm talking 'bout real game....

Yup, PRACTICE. We talking about practice.

My Ukrainian TT buddy Sergey and I always get a good laugh about PRACTICE and the famous youtube vid.

 

[SleepyMaster]

Yup, PRACTICE. We talking about practice.

My Ukrainian TT buddy Sergey and I always get a good laugh about PRACTICE and the famous youtube vid.

Cheers to you, and your buddy. I hope he is doing well. My younger brother is living in US, just finishing studying there, and get his first job. This baby faced young gun is him 🤣

 

[blahness]

Finally won against my nemesis the twiddling LP/inverted penholder over the course of many games.

Glad to see my work paying off especially on footwork and recovery, the FH flick, and also the addition of some new serve types (almost pure topspin with the opposite sidespin with a hook movement and the heavy underspin/no spin).

 

[blahness]

I found a very interesting shot by Ovtcharov in the final - it made me realise why my BH smash against high balls sucks in general - my racket is always same height as my elbow during preparation - for higher balls the racket should actually be higher than the elbow like Ovtcharov illustrates perfectly here. This is so that the force can be transmitted solidly downwards

Backswing:

Followthrough:

 

[NextLevel]

Finally won against my nemesis the twiddling LP/inverted penholder over the course of many games.

Glad to see my work paying off especially on footwork and recovery, the FH flick, and also the addition of some new serve types (almost pure topspin with the opposite sidespin with a hook movement and the heavy underspin/no spin).

We got one of these at the Korean club in Dallas on Saturday. Guy came in and held the table without losing once. Beat a lot of good players too. I tried once, lost 1-3 which sounded much better than the match looked, and I had never seen someone give the dead ball so consistently in my life before against all kinds of spins and then loop the ball you got loose. The best club regular fought some hard battles but only got to 2‐3. I would estimate the guy at around 2250-2350 given all the people he soundly beat over the course of 4 hours.

 

[blahness]

We got one of these at the Korean club in Dallas on Saturday. Guy came in and held the table without losing once. Beat a lot of good players too. I tried once, lost 1-3 which sounded much better than the match looked, and I had never seen someone give the dead ball so consistently in my life before against all kinds of spins and then loop the ball you got loose. The best club regular fought some hard battles but only got to 2‐3. I would estimate the guy at around 2250-2350 given all the people he soundly beat over the course of 4 hours.

Extremely difficult to beat them. I used to win only 20-30% of games against my partner. Guy would randomly twiddle to LP during serve receive to completely mess up his opponents, and sometimes even during the rally itself. Somehow the LP also allows him to bring a lot of long balls very short so it's always a positioning nightmare. Any loose balls, even pushes etc will get destroyed by a consistent and powerful FH loopkill. Also it doesn't help that the penhold serves are always aimed towards extreme corners and quite well disguised and also has decent spin variations. Short game and FH flicks complete the package.

Fast long to extreme BH (preferably exiting the sides of the table) is a weakness of this playstyle because there is no RPB, and TPB with either inverted or LPs are a lot weaker in handling large spin variations, but it's always a fight still.

Imo at the amateur level this is one of the best styles for penholders. Ni Xia Lian also plays this style in deadly fashion at the top levels.

 

[NextLevel]

I spent maybe 11 hours at TT clubs from Friday to Sunday and didnt get a minute of footsge. Have to do better. Some lessons learned:

1. Need a solution to short forehand serve return. The right leg needs to function or the hole is too big once someone figures it out. Many are really deceptive topspins drifters but I keep forgetting this- maybe I should tattoo it on my wrist or tape it to my racket or something.

2. Need a speed/flat shot during rallies, maybe a dead ball switch. My spin gives me time but I sometimes need to take away time from the opponent. I see a lot of players having success with flat hits so I just need to practice them.

3. Serves are getting better, I need to complete the strategy set and define it so that I stopped thinking during matches or acting puzzled. Also need to expand the placements on popups/passive returns.

4. Need to accept that I can't play physical and try to lose a lot of weight to improve my speed.

On the positive side, I got my spiral backhand loop back. I need to get the same back in the forehand. It will make my third ball and serve return much more consistent.

 

[Ghostzen]

But this dude has a really high self esteem, master of sport with 1600 USATT

Im a master of sport in mma, and seeing many people that telling me that ´´mma´´ isn't a real fight and they probably will kick my ass, then I invited them to my dojo, and they getting submitted 15 times in 5 minutes. So I agree, that this is pretty common issue, when people having no clue what they are talking about, or they are the best in their back yard or a basement with a couple of friends

There's quite a close connection to table tennis and MMA/Fighting arts I think. Both require extreme discipline, good technique and power, along with hours and years of hard work and dedication to get to the top or even close to it. Both are great sporting events and to see people going at it in a controlled way is amazing. A true sporting arena and spectacle for the people 100%.

There will always be the guy/girl who walks onto the table/mat/ring with an ego or over estimations of what they can do. Normally it’s the ego that’s the problem not the person. Being humble doesn’t come to everyone easily I think. Kudos on the hard work you are putting in grandMast3r loving the videos of your progress in TT.

 

[Jslick89]

Tournament week!!! How do you all prepare for the week leading up to a tournament?

I'll be playing tonight (RR), tomorrow (robot, and then RR), rest wednesday (but still practice serves), open play thursday, then robot / serves on friday. tournament on saturday.

Going to drink a lot of water this week. Aiming for 8 hours of sleep every night. Cutting out all processed sugar. Also at least 30 minutes of mobility exercises every day. Going to use my thermotex heat pad every day on my back and wrist.

I wish i could train with a partner every day, but when you're married you have to get your TT approved by your wife (am i right or am i right, men?).

Anything else?

 

[SleepyMaster]

There's quite a close connection to table tennis and MMA/Fighting arts I think. Both require extreme discipline, good technique and power, along with hours and years of hard work and dedication to get to the top or even close to it. Both are great sporting events and to see people going at it in a controlled way is amazing. A true sporting arena and spectacle for the people 100%.

There will always be the guy/girl who walks onto the table/mat/ring with an ego or over estimations of what they can do. Normally it’s the ego that’s the problem not the person. Being humble doesn’t come to everyone easily I think. Kudos on the hard work you are putting in grandMast3r loving the videos of your progress in TT

Yes, I’m myself, finding a lot of connection between this, for most people, so different sports. TT and boxing or mma.

Actually, when I first came to table tennis club, coach asking what kind of a base a had, because of my good physical build, and I told about boxing, mma, wrestling.
He smiled, and telling me, that many people calling TT - “Jewish Boxing”, I smiled back with a reply “now I know why I like it so much”

Very glad to hear, that you liked my videos, it’s a pleasure that some one is enjoyed it.

I need a lot of work to do. It takes ten years to became master of sport in mma. So I used to joke with a coach like “it’s only first ten years is hard in TT” and he is telling me, that this is words full of wisdom.

Even I don’t have a lot of experience in this sport, I understand that this is hard sport that requires a lot of skill and practise - the same as boxing or mma on a high level. And if you want to progress, you should spend as much time on the table as possible, and playing matches as much as possible, bc you can be best at training drills and worst at playing. Same with mma/boxing some one is looked like a pro when hitting pads or a bag, but then a lion became a little mouse when getting into the fight or a sparring - same thing in TT.

 

[NextLevel]

Even I don’t have a lot of experience in this sport, I understand that this is hard sport that requires a lot of skill and practise - the same as boxing or mma on a high level. And if you want to progress, you should spend as much time on the table as possible, and playing matches as much as possible, bc you can be best at training drills and worst at playing. Same with mma/boxing some one is looked like a pro when hitting pads or a bag, but then a lion became a little mouse when getting into the fight or a sparring - same thing in TT.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Why is TT called Jewish Boxing? Sorry I don't get the context.

 

[SleepyMaster]

Why is TT called Jewish Boxing? Sorry I don't get the context.

Because jewish, are mostly considering as a smart people, and in TT you exchanging with each other’s with shots and punches, you need to move a lot, distance is matter a lot, but you didn’t ate those shots by your own head, like in real boxing. And your didn’t get brain damage from it, actually even the opposite

 

[Der_Echte]

I spent maybe 11 hours at TT clubs from Friday to Sunday and didnt get a minute of footsge. Have to do better. Some lessons learned:...

Hi NL,

You might remember, some of the best moments of learning or discovery happen right when the camera is NOT rolling. It is completely OK. You have a great mental camera.