Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[NextLevel]

Thank you for your insights!

Indeed, we are often very self focused.
And we overestimate ourselves.
Obviously my opponent also tried to win, but mostly through my errors and incapabilities.

The second we chose who gets to serve I felt an internal switch turn on which caused my change in play.
Once we got into the rallies and I had no time to think I was feeling it again.
There I would hit those Forehands that make me feel like Ma Long.
But before every service there was a lot going through my head.

Without video to tell whether you are being objective or not, you do sound very confident and don't seem to have much respect for your opponent's game. Our game of table tennis is a game of spin, and the ability to read spin can challenge one as much as athletic ability, sometimes even moreso. At every level and with every player, shot selection is as important as skill in determining performance. Being able to build weapons into your game that enable you to adjust your risk level and strategies to match different scenarios is part of the growth process. Making it all about you can hinder that process, though it is not a necessarily bad thing if you accept that this is how you want to play and you don't mind whether you win or lose doing it.

 

[JeffM]

I feel that and my coach also told me that, that I need to work on it. I can serve decent by BH maybe not like as Ovtcharov but short, long, backspin, sidespin, topspin.
I can’t serve by FH almost at all. I struggle with short serves, maybe can sidespin but no underspin and topsin (I mean pendelum). In terms of reverse pendelum it is even worse. For me it’s like rocket science. I watched many videos and am struggling with technique. Don’t know from what should I start, how to stand when hit what if I miss the ball, etc. I’m sure that I need someone who masters it and to guide me first steps and on what should I pay more attention, what should I avoid etc…
I should have more weird serves and tactic. If serve this I can receive here and can play something like this. At this moment it’s like roulette, I serve and don’t know what I got and I adjust to the ball I receive w/o any tactics.
Those who watch me during the training and then in the matches told me that it is not matched each other, should do a lot higher result.
I can’t play matches 🤷‍♂️🙁

How do you do bh backspin serves? I have trouble putting backspin on my bh serve yet I have no issue putting backspin onto my fh serves.

 

[NextLevel]

How do you do bh backspin serves? I have trouble putting backspin on my bh serve yet I have no issue putting backspin onto my fh serves.

You have to come up the front of the ball just like you do with forehand serves. Some people do it with grip adjustments (taking the finger off the blade so that can make the blade angle up more by rotating the blade in the hand) but once you understand what you have to do and you are flexible with your grip, many approaches are possible. Serving is fundamentally creative.

 

[IB66]

How do you do bh backspin serves? I have trouble putting backspin on my bh serve yet I have no issue putting backspin onto my fh serves.

Got a video of your BH serve? that would help loads!!

 

[IB66]

 

[blahness]

Played at a new venue today with ultra sticky floors that had way too much grip. Coupled with my newish butterfly shoes I almost couldn't lift my shoe off the floor with any kind of sideways movement - wtf lol. My footwork was a complete mess ugh. Next time I'm in that venue imma gonna wear my super worn out old slippery shoes to balance the grip out. My footwork is already not the best - this is making it way worse.

The good thing is that I started tinkering with a new serve pattern which seems to work amazing. It's the FH serve from the FH side. Be it short FH pendulum or FH hook, it was so easy to target the FH short of the opponent without much fear of serving long (as its a longer distance on the table). It pretty much forces the opponent to use their FH receive which typically is way less aggressive. If they use their BH receive for this FH short ball, their wide BH is wide open. If they use FH receive its usually more passive compared to a BH receive and much easier to attack off especially using the BH (which is my stronger wing anyways). FH flick is a very difficult shot which a lot of players can't execute well (I used to be in this camp until I discovered a few secrets too)

If you catch them prematurely moving to the middle to cover this corner you can simply serve long down the line to their middle or BH, it works wonders lol.

It feels like enjoying the benefits of a lefty serve without being a lefty!

 

[z0uLess]

I am making assumptions around how you want to play (two-winged looping) and how you should optimally develop (trial and error with a focus on spin). To get good pace with slower equipment, people feel the need to swing harder and this can compromise technique. It can be just as efficient, probably more so, to just learn to catch the ball with faster blade and let the rebound of the blade do some of the work for you and you focus on adding spin to the ball with fast wrist and forearm action. This of course requires you to have and develop the ball contact skills that control the ball when people are hitting the ball at you with power, but there are ways to do this if someone realizes that missing the shot is feedback and not failure. Hope that helps.

I think this is solid advice, generally. I have seen the development go fast on other players in the club that did start with tensioned rubbers, but it will be exciting to see if they hit a plateau. However, the path I have allready taken is a different one, and I think its even more important to not fall into the "equipment junkie"-trap where you change your equipment instead of working on developing your gamesense. I certainly have a large swing, and often fall back into a defensive game if the ball comes back because I dont have the time to recover to counter it (honestly, even Ma Long does this).

I guess there is just different paths. The first racket I got custom made for me in a specialist shop had very soft and very bouncy rubbers (Yasaka Rigan 2.0) which were not of good quality. On top of that, they were glued on a flexible blade that had hard outer layers, which made my first impression of these types of rubbers not so good because the rubbers would bottom out too easily, making the timing very hard. I struggled for a long time to control this setup, but I do think they gave me a sense of spin, and my blocking ability against flat smashes were good + I would have a lot of control on my own smashes.

Trying DHS Hurricane 3 Neo on forehand for 4 months was also very difficult, but I believe it taught me to hit with the body, even though I would overcompensate by "punching" the ball some times instead of bringing the forward force that is going into the ball from the rotation of the body. This is a common beginner mistake, as I have seen. Therefore, my attempt at Yasaka Rakza Z was a somewhat of a revelation for me.

Since my backhand stroke was simple -- I only did backhand drives and barely dont do much more to this day -- I stuck to the Yasaka Rigan because I could punch through the ball and soft rubbers like that works well with smash type hitting. Switching to Yasaka Mark V on backhand has been doing wonders for me to lift backspin balls with my backhand, chopping balls that go wide and deep, pushing very accurately and I am now learning how to chiquita flip. I also love serving with this rubber and my serves are actually my strongest suit because I do maybe 20 min serve practice 4-5 times per week.

The moral of the story is that there is a lot of history here. Since I started playing table tennis without having played any racket sport before at the age of 38, things go a bit slower for me, but there are definite progress in my game. I can see this from filming myself. This december I will have played table tennis for two years, which is a stretch of time that is difficult to grasp and to retell in an online forum.

Maybe you can see the trial and error pattern I have gone through with slight adjustments on equipment by this overview on equipment ...

Equipment history (2 years):
Stiga Offensive Classic, Yasaka Rigan, Yasaka Rigan
Stiga Offensive Classic, Hurricane 3 Neo, Hurricane 3 Neo
Stiga Offensive Classic, Hurricane 3 Neo, Yasaka Rigan
Stiga Offensive Classic, Yasaka Rakza Z, Yasaka Rigan
Stiga Offensive Classic, Yasaka Rakza Z, Nittaku Factive
Stiga Offensive Classic, Yasaka Rakza Z, Yasaka Mark V
Avalox P500, Yasaka Rakza Z, Yasaka Mark V

Training game 16. october 2023:

I am the dude in the white shoes

 

[NextLevel]

I think this is solid advice, generally. I have seen the development go fast on other players in the club that did start with tensioned rubbers, but it will be exciting to see if they hit a plateau. However, the path I have allready taken is a different one, and I think its even more important to not fall into the "equipment junkie"-trap where you change your equipment instead of working on developing your gamesense. I certainly have a large swing, and often fall back into a defensive game if the ball comes back because I dont have the time to recover to counter it (honestly, even Ma Long does this).

I guess there is just different paths. The first racket I got custom made for me in a specialist shop had very soft and very bouncy rubbers (Yasaka Rigan 2.0) which were not of good quality. On top of that, they were glued on a flexible blade that had hard outer layers, which made my first impression of these types of rubbers not so good because the rubbers would bottom out too easily, making the timing very hard. I struggled for a long time to control this setup, but I do think they gave me a sense of spin, and my blocking ability against flat smashes were good + I would have a lot of control on my own smashes.

Trying DHS Hurricane 3 Neo on forehand for 4 months was also very difficult, but I believe it taught me to hit with the body, even though I would overcompensate by "punching" the ball some times instead of bringing the forward force that is going into the ball from the rotation of the body. This is a common beginner mistake, as I have seen. Therefore, my attempt at Yasaka Rakza Z was a somewhat of a revelation for me.

Since my backhand stroke was simple -- I only did backhand drives and barely dont do much more to this day -- I stuck to the Yasaka Rigan because I could punch through the ball and soft rubbers like that works well with smash type hitting. Switching to Yasaka Mark V on backhand has been doing wonders for me to lift backspin balls with my backhand, chopping balls that go wide and deep, pushing very accurately and I am now learning how to chiquita flip. I also love serving with this rubber and my serves are actually my strongest suit because I do maybe 20 min serve practice 4-5 times per week.

The moral of the story is that there is a lot of history here. Since I started playing table tennis without having played any racket sport before at the age of 38, things go a bit slower for me, but there are definite progress in my game. I can see this from filming myself. This december I will have played table tennis for two years, which is a stretch of time that is difficult to grasp and to retell in an online forum.

Maybe you can see the trial and error pattern I have gone through with slight adjustments on equipment by this overview on equipment ...

Equipment history (2 years):
Stiga Offensive Classic, Yasaka Rigan, Yasaka Rigan
Stiga Offensive Classic, Hurricane 3 Neo, Hurricane 3 Neo
Stiga Offensive Classic, Hurricane 3 Neo, Yasaka Rigan
Stiga Offensive Classic, Yasaka Rakza Z, Yasaka Rigan
Stiga Offensive Classic, Yasaka Rakza Z, Nittaku Factive
Stiga Offensive Classic, Yasaka Rakza Z, Yasaka Mark V
Avalox P500, Yasaka Rakza Z, Yasaka Mark V

Training game 16. october 2023:

I am the dude in the white shoes

The most important thing is that you have good mentoring/coaching, I "fell" into the equipment junkie "trap" and I am not entirely sure it hurt my game - it definitely helped me see the psychology of choice. But this was in the 40mm cell ball days. As long as you are happy with your game and you see yourself on a path to playing the way you intend to play, then all is well. You seem to know how best to develop yourself, and that has its good sides and bad sides. Good luck with your training.

 

[Mikey_TT]

Today was weird, forgot my socks so had to play barefoot.
I played against the best player in my club who’s also a coach, i noticed something about my game, when I am under pressure against someone who blocks well and puts pressure i often start using the bh punch.
I dont understand the problem since my backhand stroke close to the table is not long, i think the problem was i stood to close to the table..
What do you all think could be the other reasons?

 

[JeffM]

Got a video of your BH serve? that would help loads!!

Good point! I will try to get one and upload it.

 

[NextLevel]

Today was weird, forgot my socks so had to play barefoot.
I played against the best player in my club who’s also a coach, i noticed something about my game, when I am under pressure against someone who blocks well and puts pressure i often start using the bh punch.
I dont understand the problem since my backhand stroke close to the table is not long, i think the problem was i stood to close to the table..
What do you all think could be the other reasons?

What you select is under pressure is usually some combination of what you think will work and what you have practiced doing over time, and flat shots are always more instinctive to produce than spin shots unless a lot of training has been done. Without video, I am not sure what quality of answer you desire, because we are not familiar with how you play or how you train. Shot selection is very often about the details and the training, and rarely something that relies on abstractions.

 

[OvrChkn]

Played at a new venue today with ultra sticky floors that had way too much grip. Coupled with my newish butterfly shoes I almost couldn't lift my shoe off the floor with any kind of sideways movement - wtf lol. My footwork was a complete mess ugh. Next time I'm in that venue imma gonna wear my super worn out old slippery shoes to balance the grip out. My footwork is already not the best - this is making it way worse.

The good thing is that I started tinkering with a new serve pattern which seems to work amazing. It's the FH serve from the FH side. Be it short FH pendulum or FH hook, it was so easy to target the FH short of the opponent without much fear of serving long (as its a longer distance on the table). It pretty much forces the opponent to use their FH receive which typically is way less aggressive. If they use their BH receive for this FH short ball, their wide BH is wide open. If they use FH receive its usually more passive compared to a BH receive and much easier to attack off especially using the BH (which is my stronger wing anyways). FH flick is a very difficult shot which a lot of players can't execute well (I used to be in this camp until I discovered a few secrets too)

If you catch them prematurely moving to the middle to cover this corner you can simply serve long down the line to their middle or BH, it works wonders lol.

It feels like enjoying the benefits of a lefty serve without being a lefty!

I have to march and lift my knees up in place when getting used to grippy floors lol. Super dusty ones are fun cause I can just slide to get momentum.

 

[blahness]

I have to march and lift my knees up in place when getting used to grippy floors lol. Super dusty ones are fun cause I can just slide to get momentum

Lol I discovered it the hard way too... yes you have to lift your knees before you push off the other foot. You also can't directly push sideways with both foot (normally the more efficient way), it has to be one foot on the ground and the other one in the air....

 

[blahness]

Today was weird, forgot my socks so had to play barefoot.
I played against the best player in my club who’s also a coach, i noticed something about my game, when I am under pressure against someone who blocks well and puts pressure i often start using the bh punch.
I dont understand the problem since my backhand stroke close to the table is not long, i think the problem was i stood to close to the table..
What do you all think could be the other reasons?

Maybe you just subconsciously trust the BH punch. It's not a bad strategy by any means if you're consistent with it. For me I almost never punch or flathit the ball for the most part because I subconsciously view it as a risky shot and I generally hate missing.

 

[OvrChkn]

Lol I discovered it the hard way too... yes you have to lift your knees before you push off the other foot. You also can't directly push sideways with both foot (normally the more efficient way), it has to be one foot on the ground and the other one in the air....

Yeah, it's definitely different to get used to. I spend the first few minutes feeling like I've stepped in mud.

 

[blahness]

Yeah, it's definitely different to get used to. I spend the first few minutes feeling like I've stepped in mud.

Same here except I never really adjusted lol. My ankles just hurt the day after...

 

[JeffM]

After 6 hours, I am back in the city.

Ready to train tmr, have a hit with friends the day after, then comp the next day.

 

[Mikey_TT]

oh no i think i know the reason, i have been recently learning the bh punch and i do the action the whole day with my wrist😅💀

 

[Mikey_TT]

shadow practing randomly everywhere helped me a lot though, i learn the half long loop, forehand flick, banana flick and the bh punch because of doing it.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

How do you do bh backspin serves? I have trouble putting backspin on my bh serve yet I have no issue putting backspin onto my fh serves.

easier when you put also (a lot of) sidespin with it.

the key is that be it of long or short serve
1) the swing should be fast
2) brush the ball
3) the elbow should go up while you swing
4) close your wrist (hand going perpendicular to the arm) and contact the ball (for rightie) on the right side and under the ball (over for topspin)
5) if you are afraid of making the swing too large it must be compensated by a higher throw
6) aiming a bit on the right, and letting the sidespin do its job will help to keep the serve short
7) posture (for righties): left foot in front. stomp the RIGHT foot as you serve for balance and recovering

if you try to make a shorter swing for more control, you will end up with a no-spin, and high ball too easy to attack for the opponent.