Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

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Worship at the altar of spin generation for a year. You won't be disappointed. After that, your options will expand and you can decide whether you want to focus on speed or spin.
I've played a few 1400-1500 level players recently and I'm adapting faster to them that before, so I think getting to that level is pretty obtainable next year for me. I think the focus on spin might be something I want to lean into more if I get past that level.

I have a version of this and I've been practicing with it on my off days.:
 
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So we played two more teams matches. Unfortunately I broke my tripod so I couldn't record anything. Wil ln try to find glue and see whether I can fix it tonight.

The first was against a 2 girls and a boy, likely all below the age of fourteen. The girl I played was rated 2008 and has long pips on backhand. She liked to hit with the pips more than chop block but she couldn't reliably read my backspin no spin combination and I drew a lot of errors. I got the first game 11‐8 and the second game a close 11-9. I could feel the girl improving so I had to step up my game and got to 10-9 match point. I then lost that match point and the game 11‐13. I started running into problems because she would serve and if I pushed to her backhand she would hit and I backed up to topspin those balls or fish them and then she would use the pips to drop them double bounce short for a winner. Lost that game 11-5. Checked up the team scores and found out my teammate our #2 had lost to their #3 girl. So I knew there was a good chance that if I lost this match it would cost us the match. I fought really hard and got a lear at 9-7. I forced myself to attack her serve more often than push it. But she tied it up at 9-9 and now I have to continue to pump myself because she is pumping herself.

More later...
 
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Wrote a long edit to the post above but lost it. Basically I managed to win that match 14‐12 in the 5th there by keeping my team in balance as i wasn't favored against any of the kids but our #2 had lost to one of them and we needed to give our #1 two wins to add to his three. I also played a close match vs their #1, a young kid who I managed to tactically suffocate for teo games but with coaching and tactical changes he broke out of it and I failed to adapt quickly enough.

I also played some kids from yesteryears now grown up with big ratings, it is the way of the world lol. Now this weekend, to the degree I have free time, I should mostly be playing matches against hihger rated opponents. As today showed me, this can suck (the first and last team matches were against players who just showed me that without the athleticism to move and the speed to mentally process the game, don't waste time trying to compete.) That said, I am watching and seeing there are styles I need to explore, our team #1 plays an extremely solid off the bounce style. While being a lefty helps him a bit I will continue to study and take some notes.
 
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I did some fun training to see if I can learn Lin Yun Ju's fade chiquita (chiquita with the opposite sidespin) - which is best executed against reverse pendulum type sidespin serves to the short FH. Well the answer is that it works amazingly - much better than my usual way (contacting left side of ball) - again spin continuation is just superior for chiquita strokes. The resulting ball is fast and curves extremely wide off the opponent's FH and is often a direct killer move because the angle and sidespin makes it really hard to reach for the opponent.

The really hard part is actually moving fast enough to catch the hitting point, especially if the opponent is constantly making you guess with serve placements. But I think it's not impossible - just need to train more. I tested it in practice matches and only had like 30% accuracy lol (even though they were all direct winners which were badass af). I gave up and went back to my usual FH receive (combination of short/long push, flat flicks and sideswipes) - which I think results in a more balanced game.

The other boring technique improvement I implemented is how to control pushes against heavy af FH pendulum sideunderspin - my practice partner recently learnt that with my help, and I have been netting way too many pushes for my liking. The right to left sideswipe movement is the key here as it neutralises a lot of the backspin allowing for easier control of the ball for short or long pushes.
 
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The really hard part is actually moving fast enough to catch the hitting point, especially if the opponent is constantly making you guess with serve placements. But I think it's not impossible - just need to train more
The way the Lin yun ju does it is not through guess work, the opponent will always serve to his forehand so he has to move round. In local league level, that doesn't happen, so the flick is harder to achieve.

The opponent does this so they can hit it to his backhand when he is out of position, but his flick is so good that this rarely happens.
 
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The groin injury is still persisting. Still feeling some discomfort when I walk.
I am now not optimistic that I can play on Tuesday, or even this week..
I have however booked to see a physio on Tuesday instead to see what I can do about this.
What an annoying injury, not even TT related.
 
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Yesterday was a tough day. It was insightful to be reminded of my strengths and weaknesses. One pain point is that the Teams is played on concrete floors with the sticky matting and I haven't played on that in a while since I moved to Texas. It does make a big difference for my movement.

Regardless I played a lot of players, making some smart and stupid decisions with regards to equipment. I got one win of maybe 7 matches, in my second match of the day. But I was playing good players, often out-rated by at least 100 points. Camera fell apart again so I couldn't record a lot but I got a few of the embarrassing losses and will post what I can at some point.

The scheduling yesterday was a mess. I suspect the organizers will lose a lot of good will for what happened yesterday, many matches ran over and we finished close to midnight starting from 8am. And there were still many matches going on.

I decided I had too much work to go play today but even with that, I heard our first opponent defaulted. My tournament is over, back to crazy deadlines. I will make this work far better if I return next year.
 
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The groin injury is still persisting. Still feeling some discomfort when I walk.
I am now not optimistic that I can play on Tuesday, or even this week..
I have however booked to see a physio on Tuesday instead to see what I can do about this.
What an annoying injury, not even TT related.
Groin injuries are tough, hope you recover soon! I pulled my right posterior oblique with overly aggressive stretches of my left hamstring :cautious:, speaking of non-TT related injuries, a couple weeks ago. The good thing is that I don't feel it unless I attempt the exact stretch, so hasn't really affected my daily life. I even still stretch, but I stead of trying to reach my hand forward I just try to reach my head to the knee and that seems to only mildly aggrevate it.
 
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The way the Lin yun ju does it is not through guess work, the opponent will always serve to his forehand so he has to move round. In local league level, that doesn't happen, so the flick is harder to achieve.

The opponent does this so they can hit it to his backhand when he is out of position, but his flick is so good that this rarely happens.
I don't think LYJ does it via guesswork too, he's just fast af on his feet and I'm not lol...
 
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Tuned a H3P 40 degrees for the first time, 2 layers of Seamoon impressive dome.
20231127_014546.jpg


Plays very impressive. A tad bit slower than my pretty worn 09C, but more dwell and tremendous spin. I can actually see the difference in jump after landing on the table, so I can only imagine how disconcerting it would be for the opponent. I glued it on the W968, they're really made so well for each other.

I've been thinking some more about what @NextLevel and @blahness was saying about speed of racket. I won't always be able to hop around for a forehand as I get older. I need to really develop a two-wing game, and the W968 is a good compromise for that. I think I'll be too lazy to keep re-boosting and regluing H3s despite how fantastic a boosted H3 is, so I'll probably stick to D09c.

I also haven't really trained my FH since I came back from my injury. Before the injury I was in the midst of BH trainings, so I just picked off there, so I really haven't had FH trainings for 9 months now, so it's very possible that if I put some time into it I can get a lot better at it reasonably quickly.
 
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Tuned a H3P 40 degrees for the first time, 2 layers of Seamoon impressive dome. View attachment 27559

Plays very impressive. A tad bit slower than my pretty worn 09C, but more dwell and tremendous spin. I can actually see the difference in jump after landing on the table, so I can only imagine how disconcerting it would be for the opponent. I glued it on the W968, they're really made so well for each other.

I've been thinking some more about what @NextLevel and @blahness was saying about speed of racket. I won't always be able to hop around for a forehand as I get older. I need to really develop a two-wing game, and the W968 is a good compromise for that. I think I'll be too lazy to keep re-boosting and regluing H3s despite how fantastic a boosted H3 is, so I'll probably stick to D09c.

I also haven't really trained my FH since I came back from my injury. Before the injury I was in the midst of BH trainings, so I just picked off there, so I really haven't had FH trainings for 9 months now, so it's very possible that if I put some time into it I can get a lot better at it reasonably quickly.
Boosted H3 is the king of all rubbers indeed. Unfortunately it's just a pain in the ass to boost. :(
 
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Yay! Yippee Kay Yey!

Last night got my chance to play with my Nation's newly minted Veteran Silver Medalist ( Men ) at a new club I visited. And before you guys say anything, he is not 125kg using pips out rubber. No, sir! He uses neo H3 37 degree on BH and neo H3 hard on FH on a Yinhe W968 clone.

He was very obliging to play with a complete noob like me and we had a five set game starting a zero-zero starting position. In all the five sets, I got beaten under five ( no surprise ).

The point I wish to make is playing with him is ..... difficult. He is able to place the ball in areas where I find it difficult to play a strong shot. Somehow I made more unforced error due to the unexpected area he returns the ball. If I am ready to play a FH shot, somehow he will return the ball to my awkward BH side and if I am in a ready position to return a strong BH, he will place a wide FH shot that is just of reach for me. Even if I manage to return the shot, it will be a weak one for him to get a winner from me. It is just like he knows and sees it all, knowing and seeing things with premonition.
 
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Yay! Yippee Kay Yey!

Last night got my chance to play with my Nation's newly minted Veteran Silver Medalist ( Men ) at a new club I visited. And before you guys say anything, he is not 125kg using pips out rubber. No, sir! He uses neo H3 37 degree on BH and neo H3 hard on FH on a Yinhe W968 clone.

He was very obliging to play with a complete noob like me and we had a five set game starting a zero-zero starting position. In all the five sets, I got beaten under five ( no surprise ).

The point I wish to make is playing with him is ..... difficult. He is able to place the ball in areas where I find it difficult to play a strong shot. Somehow I made more unforced error due to the unexpected area he returns the ball. If I am ready to play a FH shot, somehow he will return the ball to my awkward BH side and if I am in a ready position to return a strong BH, he will place a wide FH shot that is just of reach for me. Even if I manage to return the shot, it will be a weak one for him to get a winner from me. It is just like he knows and sees it all, knowing and seeing things with premonition.
Yinhe has a W968 clone? I thought they are about cloning Viscaria.
 
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I am really planning to order the National version of H3 [BS] instead of Prov specially during this Black Friday or discount sales going on, but i don't know what differences i might see between National and Provincial rubber anyway, and i am thinking about boosting the rubber by myself for first time ever as i can't trust others to replace the rubber if i gave them to boost it for me or glue it on my blade.

So for National version NEO blue sponge, how many layers of boosting i should apply [Haifu Seamoon]?
 
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Theres this, but it aslo might be something else, unknown to non-asian mortals.
I saw clones from many brands Chinese 3rd parties, i feel they are not the same as original definitely, so they just promoting them by using the DHS versions names or Butterfly, i have the close of Long 5, it is not the same, but not bad as well, I feel those clones are very much like original Yasaka or Yinhe than clones of DHS, i mean i like this clone from Stuor more than my Yasaka and Yinhe blades.
 
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I have a flight coming up soon, and would like to bring my paddle with me to try to get a day or two of practice in. For those in the US, do you pack your paddle on your carry-on or check-in bag?
I almost never check in so hard to say. Stuff like that I prefer carrying on if I needed to choose.
 
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So my old pair of Mizunos are 10+ years old (only played ~3 yrs on them, but still) and needed replacing. I thought about getting a pair that's of the best price/performance ratio, but then I just YOLO'd and got this:


20231129_172727.jpg

20231129_172745.jpg

20231129_172758.jpg


I have no idea how they're gonna perform as TT shoes, but they're gonna look pretty fly on the court :LOL:
 
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So my old pair of Mizunos are 10+ years old (only played ~3 yrs on them, but still) and needed replacing. I thought about getting a pair that's of the best price/performance ratio, but then I just YOLO'd and got this:


View attachment 27589
View attachment 27590
View attachment 27591

I have no idea how they're gonna perform as TT shoes, but they're gonna look pretty fly on the court :LOL:
Looks great! What brand are they? How much did you pay?
 
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