Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[SleepyMaster]

So maybe some of you guys know the answer to this, but why the hell do my quads fatigue so easily? Between soccer and TT they can get trained heavily, it's almost constantly sore, yet even with some rest when I play soccer it's my number one limitation. Just a few minutes of playing and my quads start going weak.

I'm thinking that maybe I don't have enough aerobic capacity, and that I need to do some zone 2 training. That's really hard though, as exercises that keep me in zone 2 feel so monotonous, so boring. I tried doing TT for zone 2 but I zoom past it with less than 10 FH shots or involves any decent movement.

Maybe you need slown down a bit, too much high intensity can be. If you will keep such intensity an injury can occurred.

Try to use some sort of sport nutrition for better recovery ( if you still don’t ) - creatine + protein should help a bit in this. Also massage and stretching will speed up the recovery too. Me for example I use all the tools that can help to train as much as I can. Zone 2 training can help, but I’m not sure that tt and soccer are zone 2 sports, anyway it’s not a jogging. Also you can add a day or two of recovery sessions per week to adjust your training volume for your today conditions

 

[SleepyMaster]

Some of against long pips training matches

 

[dingyibvs]

Maybe you need slown down a bit, too much high intensity can be. If you will keep such intensity an injury can occurred.

Try to use some sort of sport nutrition for better recovery ( if you still don’t ) - creatine + protein should help a bit in this. Also massage and stretching will speed up the recovery too. Me for example I use all the tools that can help to train as much as I can. Zone 2 training can help, but I’m not sure that tt and soccer are zone 2 sports, anyway it’s not a jogging. Also you can add a day or two of recovery sessions per week to adjust your training volume for your today conditions

I haven't taken creatine in a long time, but I do consume a lot of protein, including with protein shakes, hydrate very well, and use my massage gun after training. I've certainly improved a lot, but it's frustrating that even after months of training this still happens. In the beginning, I would literally fall over due to my quads becoming weak. While this had happened before when I was really out of shape, about 10 years ago when I was last playing soccer and TT I did not experience this. I was cardiovascularly limited but not quad fatigue limited.

It's a limitation for when I play soccer, and it's also a limitation for when I do TT training. Playing TT is no longer an issue, I've improved enough where my legs can handle it just fine. But in a training session, even just for FH training, I'd be more limited by my quads getting fatigued than anything else.

 

[dingyibvs]

Hi @dingyibvs given your activities, does not sound like a lack of aerobic fitness to me. Have you considered the possibility that it might be overtraining?

I do have a day or two of rest each week, it's basically built into my work schedule, so I feel like I should be getting enough rest.

 

[SleepyMaster]

I haven't taken creatine in a long time, but I do consume a lot of protein, including with protein shakes, hydrate very well, and use my massage gun after training. I've certainly improved a lot, but it's frustrating that even after months of training this still happens. In the beginning, I would literally fall over due to my quads becoming weak. While this had happened before when I was really out of shape, about 10 years ago when I was last playing soccer and TT I did not experience this. I was cardiovascularly limited but not quad fatigue limited.

It's a limitation for when I play soccer, and it's also a limitation for when I do TT training. Playing TT is no longer an issue, I've improved enough where my legs can handle it just fine. But in a training session, even just for FH training, I'd be more limited by my quads getting fatigued than anything else.

Interesting condition - I never hand such a problem neither in soccer or in tt - but maybe your giga quads are naturally tend to overcompensate by stealing all the tension from other muscle groups. It happens time to time to an athletes with big/very strong arms or shins/calves for example. Basically almost any muscle group can be. Or you slightly overdoing it 🤓

 

[dingyibvs]

Some of against long pips training matches

Does your coach do off the bounce blocks with the LP too? I see a lot of LP users do that, kind of a chop block right off the bounce. That might be something to practice against as well.

 

[SleepyMaster]

Does your coach do off the bounce blocks with the LP too? I see a lot of LP users do that, kind of a chop block right off the bounce. That might be something to practice against as well.

I mostly having troubles against such block when there is no spin on the ball/dead ball than regular chops so yeah there were a lot of long pip blocking with sometimes chopping
And he is not a pip player - we just starting to working on long pips at one day of the weekly training


Today was regular inverted for example

 

[NextLevel]

So as I have said before and posted in previous videos, we have a few fellow African players in Dallas. We are hosting a tournament in August on the 31st in Austin and are hoping players of all stripes will attend. We are working on bringing in an international player as well (Quadri was taken so we couldn't get him).

I am going to get into coaching again. But I also have to get Safesport compliant again as well - recent events have made me more sensitive to what Safesport is trying to accomplish and I will take it very seriously. I have picked up a new student and will work with her for a few months starting in late July.

We had our bimonthly league event which had a break because our desired venue was not available for use. But we managed to get together. MY lefty training buddy has moved to Houston for family reasons, but he was replaced in this event by a stronger player who hadn't attend in the past. He outranked us all by about 200 pts so he was a clear favorite. There were other grudge matches in play - a player from out-of-town who now lives in Austin also attended - I had beaten him last weekend in friendly matches so he was out for justice and after the last tournament where he had some interesting results, he was the #2 seed. My goal is to continue to work on my movement so that I can build more things into my game.

For the bimonthly league (we last had it in February, so you can say we skipped April, we had 8 players - one couldn't attend, but he was replaced by someone who saw us practice and just wanted to join. By seeding, I was now the #3 seed when in the past I was usually the #1 or # 2 seed.

I won my first two matches against the #6 and #7 seeds and was scheduled to play the #1 seed, who had just beaten the #2 seed in a close 3-2 match. I have never beaten the #1 seed and today wasn't the day - I lost 3-2 despite his playing on one leg. Well I was playing with one shoulder but since it was the shoulder for my racket I have no excuse .

I then started my match against the #2 seed - two balls to the forehand, both on points I won, exacerbated my shoulder pain to the point I became wary of continuing and defaulted the match. That said, I was happy with my movement broadly. One of the things I have gotten better on is flat play with the Hurricane BS so my blocks and flat hits are now better and I can play control slow shots to keep the rally going when out of position, which are not always venomous but which can throw off the timing of the opponent if the ball is low as they don't really kick.

Got a Viscaria SALC - not show how the blade is designed but the vibration of the blade is really good for a blade that fast. Will test it later this week.

 

[NextLevel]

So I have played on Monday last week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and today. The first time i have plaued on seven straight days in years for sure.

And almost immediately, I am seeing my level come back before my eyes. The movement is a huge part of it but just as critical is the ball feel and consistency. The biggest thing now is that I can play out of position shots that are flat and just put the ball back on the table. In fact, I recently concluded that such flat shots are a level-relative strength of better players, they can just keep the ball in play with dead shots off their equipment and beat you down with control play when you are looking for spin to use against them. I have started to expand my defensive play against players who don't hit the ball hard and fast enough to threaten me and am also hoping to get to the point of countering a bit from distance as well.

I keep hoping to try Codexx EF 54 from Gewo but I hit with it, then get faced with someone I am playing for the first time and then decide not to risk new equipment or I will never hear the end of it when I lose lol. Hoping to meet up with and try it on a Viscaria SALC vs my training buddies tomorrow. Then we will go from there...

Played 6 matches today (3 each) vs 2 opponents at a cement floor Asian club 25 minutes away. Went undefeated but it was tough, beat the first opponent 3-1,3-1, 3-0 and them played the club owner and won 3-2 (deuce in the 5th) , 3-1 , 3-2 (deuce in the 5th). He played with long pips with sponge and mixed up attack and placement and them brought the forehand in and twiddling at weird times. Never found a rhythm. He claimed the sponge pips made him inconsistent that he usually plays with OX so it will be interesting to play him with OX (which I tend to prefer to play against because it is very predictable).

 

[NextLevel]

Not edited but here are some marches from the event on Sunday.

ATTD Meetup 20240630

Table tennis meetup at Wesleyan June 30

youtube.com

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

got sick 2 days ago, ahead of the ITTF Worlds Vet in Rome
https://rome2024.org/
next week but it should hopefully go away

my elbow still hurting, it was really uncomfortable last Monday. the pendulum long serve and sudden (big swing) power attacking with FH is the most affected by the injury, and that used to be a strength of my game.

but anyway, im not happy with my overall TT level. I still haven't solved my problems with serve/receive and without improving that in line to the rest of my game i'll keep losing many matches even i look rather good in rallies.

But reflecting on the serve game, and the pendulum serve, i realize that i improved a little bit. the toss is a bit more stable. also when i tossed a bit high, i often just missed the ball when serving. Now i make this mistake much less often, the next problem is to avoid the net miss... when i do and i serve low i can make really good ones especially short to FH or side-underspin to the BH short corner i often get aces in matches or easy 3rd balls.

But I want to believe. fingers crossed . I hope that with the adrenaline and the right mentality i can play (above) my best TT on the day which matter. my initial objective was to win more matches than i lose
but i could check a bit on Google + YT on my opponents and they all look (much) higher ranked than me.

So the only objective is to play my best TT.

 

[Tyce]

This Monday I finally managed to recapture the looooong lost feeling of hitting a proper fast, lower, spinny FH loop. Something that I lost simply by the missing confidence in myself and my gear, well before I quit TT.
Combined with a Sanwei 75 inner that feels quite good (yes, I budged and got a fiber blade) and a lot of youtube tips and videos (PechPong had some really good ones for my FH!) it started to click. Also, I had the right setting, free matchplay, to just try it out rather than being in a structured training with drills that may or may not involve me regularly swinging a FH loop.

What I really missed was the feeling of getting the ball to bite into the rubber. No idea why that didn't want to click before, but visualizing that really helped me to get the right contact.
Now I can finally start developing a proper dangerous FH rather than only having a slow, high loop.

 

[latej]

Not edited but here are some marches from the event on Sunday.

ATTD Meetup 20240630

Table tennis meetup at Wesleyan June 30

youtube.com

NL, I know you didn't ask for advice, so please bear with me. I want to mention one point, which is just one point, not necessarily so important, but I think it could help you to improve your FH a bit. And that is the usage of the non-playing hand. Imo, often you don't use your non-playing hand enough, which leads to the impossibility of using the body rotation, simply because the body is not rotated to the right (enough), so it can't rotate to the left (enough). The end effect is that you sometimes play the FH largely just by the hand. If you'd use your non-playing hand to "point" to the right prior to the hit, that would also force your body to rotate to the right. And then, during the forward phase, it would more or less automatically rotate to the left. Now how far to the right to move the non-playing hand depends on the stroke you want to play and also on the time available. There is no single answer. But the point is to simply try/play with it, and it would reveal to yourself. It's also likely you know this, so as I said, bear with me. The intention is what matters...

 

[NextLevel]

NL, I know you didn't ask for advice, so please bear with me. I want to mention one point, which is just one point, not necessarily so important, but I think it could help you to improve your FH a bit. And that is the usage of the non-playing hand. Imo, often you don't use your non-playing hand enough, which leads to the impossibility of using the body rotation, simply because the body is not rotated to the right (enough), so it can't rotate to the left (enough). The end effect is that you sometimes play the FH largely just by the hand. If you'd use your non-playing hand to "point" to the right prior to the hit, that would also force your body to rotate to the right. And then, during the forward phase, it would more or less automatically rotate to the left. Now how far to the right to move the non-playing hand depends on the stroke you want to play and also on the time available. There is no single answer. But the point is to simply try/play with it, and it would reveal to yourself. It's also likely you know this, so as I said, bear with me. The intention is what matters...

I have tried it a few times. For me the real problem with my forehand is my arthritic lower body and overall joint pain which prevent me from using the body the way I would really like to. Using my legs to play forehand causes pain. The lack of rotation is not always a bad thing, it makes my forehand down the line almost impossible to track and predict for many players. I suspect using my hand and getting more rotation would telegraph it more. That said, it is an eternal war/battle to get better and it is something I should revisit.

Also using the hand more actively affects balance in players who don't use it so it is a delicate thing. But all in all it is something I should look at again. But if my core cannot support it, it will probably take up more time than add efficiency.

 

[Jslick89]

I haven't taken creatine in a long time, but I do consume a lot of protein, including with protein shakes, hydrate very well, and use my massage gun after training. I've certainly improved a lot, but it's frustrating that even after months of training this still happens. In the beginning, I would literally fall over due to my quads becoming weak. While this had happened before when I was really out of shape, about 10 years ago when I was last playing soccer and TT I did not experience this. I was cardiovascularly limited but not quad fatigue limited.

It's a limitation for when I play soccer, and it's also a limitation for when I do TT training. Playing TT is no longer an issue, I've improved enough where my legs can handle it just fine. But in a training session, even just for FH training, I'd be more limited by my quads getting fatigued than anything else.

Thats very interesting. You can also look into glutamine. You can get it pretty cheap on amazon.

I'm an ex soccer player...I used to play both sports and never really had this problem. In fact, for a time, i would play sunday morning soccer indoor, then go play table tennis for 3 hours, then cap the night off with my outdoor game. My back and hips were always the first thing to go out (of course, I have dealt with chronic back pain for about 6 years now from an old bouldering accident).

 

[NextLevel]

Anyone know how Paris works in terms of clubs? I will be there for a 9 days, probably with no time to play on family business, but as a TT nerd/addict, it would out of character to not investigate the possibility of playing somewhere....

 

[AutomaticBackhand]

Hi Everyone,

I recently got myself my newest premium racket ( Stiga XX + 2x Battle 3), which I am really happy with.

But there is a problem, which the racket cant cover up for.

Which makes me think I might end up not using it.

-

To state it upfront:


My offense is really strong.

So are my serves and thoughtful decisions, which allow me to
win more "simple" and "unspectacular" points.

Often by being "smarter" and spinnier than my opponent -
rather than outlasting him in rallies, moving quickly or counterlooping till the end.


If I manage to get a good loop on FH or BH, I usually win the point right away.

At my club, I built up a reputation for my strong Forehand and Backhand Loops, on balls which seem "unloopable".

But if I don't, it gets hard for me

-

With the increasing level of play of my opponents and myself,
winning these "simple" points gets more and more difficult.

So, we often end up in more rallies.

And in rallies - You can't think or intentionally make decisions!
In rallies, you depend on footwork, reactions and instincts.

How do you get good at that?
With practice - particularly Volume.

And this is where my problem is.


My training options are limited - no coaching, rarely good players to consistently train with and "only" 2-3x training per week.

Yet, I managed to learn good looping techniques and decent footwork.

I basically Self-Coached myself to where I am now -
Getting the most out of my training time at our club and even from home.


But I always struggled with faster rallies, where we largely rely on footwork and instincts.

And to train those I would need to regularly drill and train with partners who can keep up with me.

Which, unfortunately, isn't the case.

-

What now?

After some thinking and contemplation,
I am considering permanently switching to a semi-defensive chopping / attacking style.

Pushing, blocking and being annoying by being "smart" has always been one of my favorite aspects of the sport for me.


My playstyle has been relatively similar to that of classic penholders like Ma Lin and a little bit of Ma Long.

But without the rallying skills or the reactive footwork.


I do want to switch to a less full offensive style and play more like Muramatsu,
but obviously still do my own thing.


Yes, this style needs more footwork, but a different kind of footwork.
A kind of footwork that I like and one that I can handle.


And unlike most pips players, I do have a good backhand and I twiddle very often.

So I do think that this could work and get me further.

To come to a conclusion:

No more full offensive for me, most likely.

Medium/Short Pips + Chinese Rubber on a good blade.

Avoiding fast modern rallying, doing my own thing.

Still looping - Just not every long ball and only when I think it's good.

A bit of a long post, but I just wanted to get this off my chest.

Maybe I'm not the only one...


PS: I'm not Chinese nor live there, I just use the flag.

 

[dingyibvs]

Yesterday I played at the Alameda club, it was super humid, not great for my performance, but the H3 handled it a lot better than the D09c used to so I didn't do too badly. My ability to adjust to things is still rather poor, whether that's to different styles or play conditions, but that's getting better.

One of the players there has a pretty sick fast long serve. It's fast, low, varies from dead, backspin, to topspin, and well-covered by his off hand . I've gotten a lot better at reading it, but still had a lot fo trouble returning it with quality...until yesterday. I made a small adjustment to my BH grip and stroke midway through the match, gripping a bit higher up, use my thumb more for control, and used a smaller motion. I was then able to return the ball to any location on the table at will with speed and spin. It was a shockingly big and fast improvement!

I've practiced that way before, and I've found it to be useful in practice, but never really used it in games because my FH grip is a bit lower down the racket and at a different angle. When the rally is fast I simply can't switch such different grips quickly enough. When I tried to stick to this BH style, as expected my FH suffered greatly. With how much better the BH is though, I think I'm gonna switch my FH grip.

I'll have a training session tmr, and I might do some robot work tonight as well, with a focus on the new FH grip. I'll still maintain a slightly different grip on the FH side, but I won't let my hand slide down the handle as before. I'll sacrifice a bit of worst flexibility and power on the FH side, but I think it's worth the trade off.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Anyone know how Paris works in terms of clubs? I will be there for a 9 days, probably with no time to play on family business, but as a TT nerd/addict, it would out of character to not investigate the possibility of playing somewhere....

hi i recommend for you to go to this place

Ping en Tong 2024 *** C'est parti !

Le Doodle de réservation est en ligne.Les infos sont accessibles dans le menu "Planning/Ping en Tong".

www.paris13tt.org

its one of the biggest halls in Paris and one of the few open to everyone (instead of club members only) in summer while most clubs are closed

players from beginners to very high level amateurs play here. sometimes they come in group and try to squeeze tables for themselves but the etiquette is that you have the right to challenge anyone and if you win you can stay at the table

apart from that there is a brand new place, which is a bit expensive and trendy, but where you can book online tables and you can also book coaches from junior coach to ex-French team players like Quentin Robinot or Antoine Hachard. I had a session with Antoine during Easter holidays he is a very nice guy

Ping Pang Paris | Play better Ping Pong

Ping Pang Paris est une jeune marque française qui ambitionne de redessiner le paysage du tennis de table au travers de: - Ping Pang Paris, le Club, club de ping-pong nouvelle génération. - Ping Pang Paris, marque de vêtements et de produits techniques design. - Ping Pang Media, magazine...

pingpang.paris

finally the last place that i can recommend to you is a bar called Gossima, the owner is JP Gatien and Christophe Legout among others. they organize events etc, check their SNS

Gossima Ping Pong Bar - 4, Rue Victor Gelez 75011 Paris

La Gossima Ping Pong Bar à Paris vous accueille le Lundi de 16h à Minuit et du Mardi au Samedi de 16h à 2h. Venez déguster nos cocktails de création autour d'une partie entre amis.

gossima.fr

if you are really motivated, you can go to the French forum

Le Forum du Tennis de Table

Forum de discussion sur le tennis2table

tennis2table.com

there are some threads giving information on summer tournaments which are all open. you may need to take a train to go to the suburbs of Paris, the good thing is usually they have several draws so you can play 2 or 3 of them.

 

[Novarac23]

hi i recommend for you to go to this place

Ping en Tong 2024 *** C'est parti !

Le Doodle de réservation est en ligne.Les infos sont accessibles dans le menu "Planning/Ping en Tong".

www.paris13tt.org

its one of the biggest halls in Paris and one of the few open to everyone (instead of club members only) in summer while most clubs are closed

players from beginners to very high level amateurs play here. sometimes they come in group and try to squeeze tables for themselves but the etiquette is that you have the right to challenge anyone and if you win you can stay at the table

apart from that there is a brand new place, which is a bit expensive and trendy, but where you can book online tables and you can also book coaches from junior coach to ex-French team players like Quentin Robinot or Antoine Hachard. I had a session with Antoine during Easter holidays he is a very nice guy

Ping Pang Paris | Play better Ping Pong

Ping Pang Paris est une jeune marque française qui ambitionne de redessiner le paysage du tennis de table au travers de: - Ping Pang Paris, le Club, club de ping-pong nouvelle génération. - Ping Pang Paris, marque de vêtements et de produits techniques design. - Ping Pang Media, magazine...

pingpang.paris

finally the last place that i can recommend to you is a bar called Gossima, the owner is JP Gatien and Christophe Legout among others. they organize events etc, check their SNS

Gossima Ping Pong Bar - 4, Rue Victor Gelez 75011 Paris

La Gossima Ping Pong Bar à Paris vous accueille le Lundi de 16h à Minuit et du Mardi au Samedi de 16h à 2h. Venez déguster nos cocktails de création autour d'une partie entre amis.

gossima.fr

if you are really motivated, you can go to the French forum

Le Forum du Tennis de Table

Forum de discussion sur le tennis2table

tennis2table.com

there are some threads giving information on summer tournaments which are all open. you may need to take a train to go to the suburbs of Paris, the good thing is usually they have several draws so you can play 2 or 3 of them.

I don’t think I will have time but we will be in Nice and that region during the olympics. Any recommendations for that region?