Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Jslick89]

No, I went to the Oakland Chinatown one. I actually requested this weekend off intending to play in the ICC one, but then I got invited to this one by my teammates so I went to this instead.

oh man....did you see my buddy Sam Roberson though? OG short pips player? pushing close to 70 years old if I recall but still has a surprisingly good backhand? Probably only 1300 USATT now though but was a lot higher back in the day.

 

[dingyibvs]

oh man....did you see my buddy Sam Roberson though? OG short pips player? pushing close to 70 years old if I recall but still has a surprisingly good backhand? Probably only 1300 USATT now though but was a lot higher back in the day.

Not sure, at least in the 4 teams in my group as all of them were Asians

The beginner group had some hardcore sandbagging going on. I saw one guy who I know has been USATT 1900s rated the past couple of years. He played in the beginner (<1700) group next to my group's table and he lost both matches I saw him play

Technically I have a higher USATT rating than 1700 as well, but that was from 10+ years ago after one tournament and all my local league ratings are in the 1600s or 1700s. I think he's rated ~2000 in one of the local leagues.

 

[Der_Echte]

Sam is a true hater of the colors of red and black.

haha, all you ever see him wear are redm black, or red/black uniforms.

Call dud Yosemite sam and he will like you.

Give him sum Yosemite Sam stickers and he like you moar.

 

[blahness]

Sharing some more stuff I learnt recently. Basically forward lean management (the angle between thighs and upper body) is actually quite important and is not so straightforward. A few scenarios:

1) the action of reducing the forward lean is very important in lifting heavy underspin for both wings (BH or FH) as it uses the powerful glute muscles. It is not just straightening at the knees (which activates the quads only) or at the feet (only the calves).

SImilarly, when preparing to loop heavy underspin one must increase the forward lean to store more energy in the glutes first.

A lot of ppl say to go low when looping underspin but then they dont clarify how they are going low (a lot is with the hips, not just the knees). The knee bend is really quite overstated in most tutorials.

Of course, after straightening at the hip you need to recover fast back to the default ready position with some forward lean. This can be done by using gravity to fall back to the forward lean, and then tensing the core hard to rotate the body back to ready position. This is actually physically not easy at all (requires a lot of core strength) and almost nobody teaches it well.

So for eg when shadowing the FH loop against underspin, one needs to start from ready stance, do the loop and immediately recover back to the ready stance as part of the stroke. Otherwise after doing a powerloop against backspin and it gets blocked back you're screwed coz you're completely not in the correct stance and position.

2) before receiving a serve it is better to have less forward lean, because going into the forward lean when the opponent contacts the ball actually gives a downward force which makes it easier to move faster (similar to batsuju step principle).

3) it is super important not to reduce the forward lean (ie going upright) after receiving a short serve. Because you will then need to go back into forward lean mode when you prepare the next shot. This wastes a lot of time unnecessarily. Instead, maintain the forward lean and rotate the upper body clockwise (for right handers) to recover fast back to position (ie right foot out of the table).

4) Against heavy topspin one can control it by increasing the forward lean during the stroke. This provides a large downwards momentum which you can use to manage the spin.

5) this also works with pushes on short balls, you can use for an increase in the forward lean to really press the ball down when needed to prevent pop-ups (for eg pushing against topspin serves), and you can straighten a bit to lift extreme underspin. Same concept with other receives.

TLDR: The degree of forward lean is an extremely useful tool to lift or press the ball down in various scenarios.

 

[OvrChkn]

After playing on a rubberized floor for a few weeks now, I can definitely say that I don't have the aches and pains that I get from playing on a harder surface.

2) before receiving a serve it is better to have less forward lean, because going into the forward lean when the opponent contacts the ball actually gives a downward force which makes it easier to move faster (similar to batsuju step principle).

I'm having a hard time visualizing this. Do you have a video example?

 

[blahness]

After playing on a rubberized floor for a few weeks now, I can definitely say that I don't have the aches and pains that I get from playing on a harder surface.



I'm having a hard time visualizing this. Do you have a video example?

Check out the original comment by turbozed here:

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/bounce-with-the-ball-split-step.30960/post-449010

 

[NextLevel]

So this is my third match of the day and the best one that was played against an adult - it was the B vs C matchup to decide who qualified second in the group for the U2150. I tend to post the ones with kids less because they are young and don't need the visibility. Also was early enough that exhaustion after playing lots of kids wasn't yet a factor lol. And for people who are curious, this is what passes for 1800 in Texas. I kid you not...

 

[OvrChkn]

Check out the original comment by turbozed here:

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/bounce-with-the-ball-split-step.30960/post-449010

This is the exact video I was looking for last week!

 

[Ghostzen]

So this is my third match of the day and the best one that was played against an adult - it was the B vs C matchup to decide who qualified second in the group for the U2150. I tend to post the ones with kids less because they are young and don't need the visibility. Also was early enough that exhaustion after playing lots of kids wasn't yet a factor lol. And for people who are curious, this is what passes for 1800 in Texas. I kid you not...

Looking pretty sharp NL! Nice match

 

[netdriver]

my coach thought that my forehand loops arent powerful enough for a penholder so hes been trying to teach me how to do the straight arm loop like ma lin, wang hao and xu xin

its pretty damn difficult and frustrating so far, while my shots are more threatening than last time i also overshoot the table quite often than before. i dont know nor have the feeling to brush and spin the ball correctly, it feels like im just smashing the ball.

before the attempt to change my stroke ive been pretty reliant on whipping my forearm with the strength of my body. now that im not supposed to snap my forearm that much anymore, spinning is much more difficult than before.

occasionally i revert back to my old stroke out of frustration just so that i can spin the ball better, but i guess i should persevere and keep on practicing the new stroke until it clicks one day.

i should try experimenting using my wrist and fingers more to compensate for the small forearm action

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

🤣🤣🤣

Chad is an expert EJ too.

 

[Der_Echte]

my coach thought that my forehand loops arent powerful enough for a penholder so hes been trying to teach me how to do the straight arm loop like ma lin, wang hao and xu xin

its pretty damn difficult and frustrating so far, while my shots are more threatening than last time i also overshoot the table quite often than before. i dont know nor have the feeling to brush and spin the ball correctly, it feels like im just smashing the ball.

before the attempt to change my stroke ive been pretty reliant on whipping my forearm with the strength of my body. now that im not supposed to snap my forearm that much anymore, spinning is much more difficult than before.

occasionally i revert back to my old stroke out of frustration just so that i can spin the ball better, but i guess i should persevere and keep on practicing the new stroke until it clicks one day.

i should try experimenting using my wrist and fingers more to compensate for the small forearm action

After reading your first sentence, my response would be something similar.

If you are not making good power on FH power shots, it is a matter of not getting enough bat speed at impact or the firming at impact is poor or both.

A number of things are in play, but assuming bat speed is OK, it is a matter of power transfer to the ball. That is often not timing the firming of grip at impact. You will HEAR it distinctly when you get it right.

If bat speed is poor, there can be a lot of things going on... often, the player simply is not in good position good posture good leverage good biomechanics.

Another frequent thing that saps power fr adults is they TIGHTEN UP TOO SOON before impact... often they tighten their shoulder, so the power really slows down there. Sometimes the player death grips the wrist arm too early when they want big power.

Getting bat speed is all about position/leverage... staying RELAXED in all muscles and activating them in sequence to generate, amplify, and deliver power to ball with firming right at impact.

This is a difficult thing to teach and learn... players have to feel it. Players I teach do not want to slow down their power to isolate a factor. The few times I get players to slow down their power, they can feel how to deliver power to the ball and not tighten up. Repeating this later using more power is tough, the same too early tightening tendencies re-appear.

TT is very mental.

 

[Der_Echte]

@netdriver Often, constantly hitting ball long is sign of impacting the ball too early hitting too far in front... or coming out of crouch too early.

Another way to say this is that the player perceives the ball to arrive at the strike zone earlier than it actually does.

Another way to explain it is the player selected a position a little too far back.

The two ways to correct it is to move forard a little more.. or WAIT for the ball a little longer.

YOu often hear Korean coaches telling amateur players to wait more for the ball and strike it a little later.

 

[Jslick89]

@Der_Echte are you going to tell them my new nick name?!

 

[Der_Echte]

@Der_Echte are you going to tell them my new nick name?!

I was waiting for you to mention that...

Let's field test ur new moniker.

Mad-Dog Jumping Jack Flash J-Slick.

That is a mouthful, eh?

 

[Jslick89]

I was waiting for you to mention that...

Let's field test ur new moniker.

Mad-Dog Jumping Jack Flash J-Slick.

That is a mouthful, eh?

As long as i can keep serving up mouthfulls of forehand smashes.... lol

 

[NextLevel]

my coach thought that my forehand loops arent powerful enough for a penholder so hes been trying to teach me how to do the straight arm loop like ma lin, wang hao and xu xin

its pretty damn difficult and frustrating so far, while my shots are more threatening than last time i also overshoot the table quite often than before. i dont know nor have the feeling to brush and spin the ball correctly, it feels like im just smashing the ball.

before the attempt to change my stroke ive been pretty reliant on whipping my forearm with the strength of my body. now that im not supposed to snap my forearm that much anymore, spinning is much more difficult than before.

occasionally i revert back to my old stroke out of frustration just so that i can spin the ball better, but i guess i should persevere and keep on practicing the new stroke until it clicks one day.

i should try experimenting using my wrist and fingers more to compensate for the small forearm action

My coach is trying to do the opposite in theory but not really. I haven't seen you play, but I am surprised if the issue is the size of your arm usage. Moreover, even a straight arm loop requires forearm snap AFAIK. That said, my coach has been trying to teach me to shorten my backswing with the arm and get more power from the ground/lower body. And his idea is that I should play more like Timo when out of time and just kick spin the ball with my wrist and stop trying to get more power into the ball with a bigger arm swing. And when I have more time, use a bigger follow through and the lower body to get more power as opposed to a larger backswing.

It's driving me nuts as you might guess, but I will give it a few months.

Finger usage should definitely help you, in the end, we are just trying to figure out ways to improve our tools.

 

[blahness]

my coach thought that my forehand loops arent powerful enough for a penholder so hes been trying to teach me how to do the straight arm loop like ma lin, wang hao and xu xin

its pretty damn difficult and frustrating so far, while my shots are more threatening than last time i also overshoot the table quite often than before. i dont know nor have the feeling to brush and spin the ball correctly, it feels like im just smashing the ball.

before the attempt to change my stroke ive been pretty reliant on whipping my forearm with the strength of my body. now that im not supposed to snap my forearm that much anymore, spinning is much more difficult than before.

occasionally i revert back to my old stroke out of frustration just so that i can spin the ball better, but i guess i should persevere and keep on practicing the new stroke until it clicks one day.

i should try experimenting using my wrist and fingers more to compensate for the small forearm action

Not sure why you wouldnt snap your forearm even in a straight-arm stroke. For me if that doesnt happen there is a massive loss of spin. The benefit of going from straight to bent is that it increases the rotational speed of the bat which all acts to increase spin generated. Even if the snap magnitude is small it is always still there.

For me I actually went the opposite way. I went from straight arm technique to bent arm for topspin rallying because it links better with my BH, but I'm retaining the straight arm loop for opening loops because imo it is more dangerous.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

my coach thought that my forehand loops arent powerful enough for a penholder so hes been trying to teach me how to do the straight arm loop like ma lin, wang hao and xu xin

its pretty damn difficult and frustrating so far, while my shots are more threatening than last time i also overshoot the table quite often than before. i dont know nor have the feeling to brush and spin the ball correctly, it feels like im just smashing the ball.

before the attempt to change my stroke ive been pretty reliant on whipping my forearm with the strength of my body. now that im not supposed to snap my forearm that much anymore, spinning is much more difficult than before.

occasionally i revert back to my old stroke out of frustration just so that i can spin the ball better, but i guess i should persevere and keep on practicing the new stroke until it clicks one day.

i should try experimenting using my wrist and fingers more to compensate for the small forearm action

@netdriver
I remembered you to be a Singaporean, but you changed your flag to Malaysia. What happened? Our Hainanese Chicken Rice is better right?

NB: Singapore and Malaysia has this on going rivalry regarding whose street food is better that has gone on for decade.

NBB: Current Prime Minister of Singapore's father is a Malaysian. Imagine the President of US father being a Mexican or Canadian. Something like that.

 

[NextLevel]

So I am preparing for another event this weekend. I worked with my coach on some things. We are trying to shorten my stroke. One of the interesting things that came up was my Karate follow through (heel coming off the ground) on some of my forehand strokes. He said he wanted the weight transfer to mostly be in the hips and that both feet should be planted. When I got closer to what he wanted, it felt like transferring weight over the inside halves of my feet. Which brought me back to a comment that Dubina once made that if you check where high level players wear out their shoes the most, it is on the inside halves of their feet. If the movement doesn't hurt my knees, it might affect my footwork approach and insights in a significant way. It's far more shoe indifferent than what I used to do before, that's for sure.

Also probably going to switch to D05 on the forehand but I have decided to delay that after this weekends event. The problem is just that short stroking without a dynamic sponge is hard and the only dynamic sponge for Skyline 3 (3-60) isn't hard enough for what I like to do with my forehand. It will mean a lot of work on short play and spin handling, but regardless, the Dignics series is still relatively slow ball release compared to the Tenergy series, even without the 09c tack.

So tomorrow, I go to Austin and start to take on the friendly bets/wagers from fellow members of the crew that I am a part of that is organizing the tournament on Saturday. Hopefully my body will perform under the pressure.