Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[Tyce]

Tough league match tonight.

My teammate with just 3y TT experience is now consistently out performing me. I'm losing games simply due to being disconnected between my head and body. I'm thinking of the right things, but not executing them.
I feel I should be miles, miles better with my experience, ball feeling and all, but I don't capitalise on anything.

I also think playing Hurricane in lower leagues is just a gimmick. Sure, I win points by the high spin/speed ratio, but as soon as I hit slightly higher opponents this is worthless.

 

[NetProphet]

I also think playing Hurricane in lower leagues is just a gimmick. Sure, I win points by the high spin/speed ratio, but as soon as I hit slightly higher opponents this is worthless.

Ah.
I'm going to guess at what's going on here because I had the same feelings before Christmas, higher level competition was smothering me...
The higher level players, means you can't hit as many direct winners. Not first time anyway.
This is the level where you have to try to apply tactics in every point or you're screwed.
Cos if players are not stressed they can return almost everything.
But even basics can help man!
Simple like, hit their crossover and with the nxt shot hit whatever they covered crossover with.
You have to move them out of position by anticipating the predicted return from a wide serve then going wide to the other side with your next shot and THEN (after they've scrambled a bit twice) you might hit your winner. Or just hit the table again and force them to again hit while moving until they miss or you get the obvious ball to go for the finish.
It's hard as f##k cos you have to watch their movements even more than before and build it into your shot selection.
You need deception in your serves.
You need to be mentally alert from point 1 in game 1 and probe for any weakness.

I beat a player better than me a month back simply because I discovered every short backspin ball to his FH was a safe ball. He didn't push with angles, he didn't flick, he didn't push fast/deep. Almost every time he just pushed back short where I could attack first with my BH.
Without noticing that I'd have lost 3-0 (I was already 2-0 down!).

Sorry for all the ramble but I don't think H3 is the issue, it's just that to hit one shot winners anymore you need to do other work beforehand.
Kinda took the fun out of it for a while....
I've largely been getting hammered by better players all season long (my 1st season at this higher level) but I'm starting to see what I need to incorporate beyond technique to even get close. I've lost so many sets 11-9 cos when it comes to crunch time these players just have more ideas, more plans, better execution are better at finding weaknesses and unfortunately I have more than them.
I know what to work on though.
A bit more awareness and your H3 can still be a weapon!
If I'm way off the mark in why you wrote that then sorry but I'm glad I got to vent a little, I lost my singles again this week 1-3, 1-3.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Ah.
I'm going to guess at what's going on here because I had the same feelings before Christmas, higher level competition was smothering me...
The higher level players, means you can't hit as many direct winners. Not first time anyway.
This is the level where you have to try to apply tactics in every point or you're screwed.
Cos if players are not stressed they can return almost everything.
But even basics can help man!
Simple like, hit their crossover and with the nxt shot hit whatever they covered crossover with.
You have to move them out of position by anticipating the predicted return from a wide serve then going wide to the other side with your next shot and THEN (after they've scrambled a bit twice) you might hit your winner. Or just hit the table again and force them to again hit while moving until they miss or you get the obvious ball to go for the finish.
It's hard as f##k cos you have to watch their movements even more than before and build it into your shot selection.
You need deception in your serves.
You need to be mentally alert from point 1 in game 1 and probe for any weakness.

I beat a player better than me a month back simply because I discovered every short backspin ball to his FH was a safe ball. He didn't push with angles, he didn't flick, he didn't push fast/deep. Almost every time he just pushed back short where I could attack first with my BH.
Without noticing that I'd have lost 3-0 (I was already 2-0 down!).

Sorry for all the ramble but I don't think H3 is the issue, it's just that to hit one shot winners anymore you need to do other work beforehand.
Kinda took the fun out of it for a while....
I've largely been getting hammered by better players all season long (my 1st season at this higher level) but I'm starting to see what I need to incorporate beyond technique to even get close. I've lost so many sets 11-9 cos when it comes to crunch time these players just have more ideas, more plans, better execution are better at finding weaknesses and unfortunately I have more than them.
I know what to work on though.
A bit more awareness and your H3 can still be a weapon!
If I'm way off the mark in why you wrote that then sorry but I'm glad I got to vent a little, I lost my singles again this week 1-3, 1-3.

Guess you guys are looking at those one hit wonder. Serve, 3rd ball attack... BOOM! One easy point. No rally, no need to move around. Where is the fun guys? You guys sounded like you wanna be Ojisan / Boomers with pips.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Haha. Nice try, Gozo. You will find that if you don't continue to consciously improve it, you will still stagnate. It's not so much cause and effect but the only way to get better at modern table tennis especially when you can't get to the ball early all the time.

I have an AWAY inter-club friendlies this coming Sunday. Wanna see more SHOW & TELL from me?

 

[blahness]

At this point I'll be happy if I can even find time to play once per week..... and get some juicy FH loop whole table going. After doing some badminton I reckon my footwork improved a bit lol.

 

[backspacer]

So as a penholder, I've been a long time fan of Kaii Yoshida. That's how I've always known him.

I've recently stumbled upon (I think it's the same league) that always mentions him as Kaii Konishi.

Did he change his name or is this just some sort of strange translation thing? Doesn't matter all that much I suppose but was just curious if anyone knew.

He changed his name. His family name is 小西 now instead of 吉田. I don't know when he did it and why though. Maybe zeio can dig it up.

Edit: okay, did a bit of digging myself. Looks like he took on his wife's family name. Maybe because of the student mother thing to draw less attention?

 

[Tyce]

Ah.
I'm going to guess at what's going on here because I had the same feelings before Christmas, higher level competition was smothering me...
The higher level players, means you can't hit as many direct winners. Not first time anyway.
This is the level where you have to try to apply tactics in every point or you're screwed.
Cos if players are not stressed they can return almost everything.
But even basics can help man!
Simple like, hit their crossover and with the nxt shot hit whatever they covered crossover with.
You have to move them out of position by anticipating the predicted return from a wide serve then going wide to the other side with your next shot and THEN (after they've scrambled a bit twice) you might hit your winner. Or just hit the table again and force them to again hit while moving until they miss or you get the obvious ball to go for the finish.
It's hard as f##k cos you have to watch their movements even more than before and build it into your shot selection.
You need deception in your serves.
You need to be mentally alert from point 1 in game 1 and probe for any weakness.

I beat a player better than me a month back simply because I discovered every short backspin ball to his FH was a safe ball. He didn't push with angles, he didn't flick, he didn't push fast/deep. Almost every time he just pushed back short where I could attack first with my BH.
Without noticing that I'd have lost 3-0 (I was already 2-0 down!).

Sorry for all the ramble but I don't think H3 is the issue, it's just that to hit one shot winners anymore you need to do other work beforehand.
Kinda took the fun out of it for a while....
I've largely been getting hammered by better players all season long (my 1st season at this higher level) but I'm starting to see what I need to incorporate beyond technique to even get close. I've lost so many sets 11-9 cos when it comes to crunch time these players just have more ideas, more plans, better execution are better at finding weaknesses and unfortunately I have more than them.
I know what to work on though.
A bit more awareness and your H3 can still be a weapon!
If I'm way off the mark in why you wrote that then sorry but I'm glad I got to vent a little, I lost my singles again this week 1-3, 1-3.

My problem isn't necessarily about playing vs better players, I'm losing against the same level of players that I've been winning confidently against last season. I'm at about 1/3rd win rate now, where I was comfortably doing 80% in the same level.
I feel like I've slowly been losing sharpness and compensating for it with the gimmick of being able to play shots that have a deceivingly large amount of spin.
What is confronting right now is I'm playing vs players that don't really have a problem with that. If that was purely based on skill I'd be OK to lose, but we're talking guys who just started TT and are playing with stuff that doesn't do much spinwise, as well as old guys with pimples who just bump every ball back.
It opens a glaring hole: I don't have much of a flat drive (anymore?) and even my active placement level has turned to sh*t.

Sure, by the end of the night I'm getting somewhere, but that's way too late. Before that I've been doubting my posture, my bat, my training, the fact that I'm thinking of the right things but not doing them...

 

[Tyce]

In addition, I'm having symptoms similar to a low level Golfer's Elbow now. Had a worse patch of that last summer/fall but that was also more to the Tennis Elbow side. Maybe I've been overcompensating.
Either way I really should stop using gear I need to swing hard with. Can't handle it.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Haha. Nice try, Gozo. You will find that if you don't continue to consciously improve it, you will still stagnate. It's not so much cause and effect but the only way to get better at modern table tennis especially when you can't get to the ball early all the time.

Continuous Professional Improvement ( CPD ) sounds like those corporate jargon one often hear during corporate conference / presentation.
Anyway NL, my ultimate goal, my end game is to be able to loop and counter-loop. That will be my end-game target. Work-in-progress, work-in-progress,

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

He changed his name. His family name is 小西 now instead of 吉田. I don't know when he did it and why though. Maybe zeio can dig it up.

Edit: okay, did a bit of digging myself. Looks like he took on his wife's family name. Maybe because of the student mother thing to draw less attention?

He might revert to his Yoshida name because he was caught in a scandal where he has been accused of harassing the mom of one of his students

He lost his spot in his Tleague team, his sponsors.

I didn’t follow up if he lost his TT school and his family

 

[backspacer]

He might revert to his Yoshida name because he was caught in a scandal where he has been accused of harassing the mom of one of his students

He lost his spot in his Tleague team, his sponsors.

I didn’t follow up if he lost his TT school and his family

Can you change your family register just like that multiple times?

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Can you change your family register just like that multiple times?

I guess so

Have googled for news about KONISHI, I’ve seen nothing so life must be going on.
I don’t know if kids are now accompanied by their dads instead of their moms though

🤡

 

[NextLevel]

Continuous Professional Improvement ( CPD ) sounds like those corporate jargon one often hear during corporate conference / presentation.
Anyway NL, my ultimate goal, my end game is to be able to loop and counter-loop. That will be my end-game target. Work-in-progress, work-in-progress,

I mean continuously improve at spinning. Not continuously improve at hitting the ball harder. Hitting the ball hard against good players has an athletic limit. Spinning is what brings consistency. It is tempting to think I have gotten to spin, I can stop working on it but you will see that there are are levels you need to get to. You still don't really spin on your backhand and your spin placement on both sides is very predictable. But you are at least finally in the queue.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

Lost again today 2 long pips (no sponge) penholder. I think it’s the at least the 5th time in a row in tournaments. Last win was against one of this 5 guys but a very thin margin. I had 2 very close losses against another one.

Last year i practiced regularly with a girl with this style I had better results…

Today was too difficult. First guy played with almost no warmup at all and he was quite good, disastrous for me.

2nd guy was less strong and no warmup excuse. I should have won if I kept my nerves but it wasn’t happening. 1-3 games were close.

 

[blahness]

Practiced quite a bit of FH loop today against the nightmare blocker in the club (he blocks using tacky rubber randomly with no spin, sidetopspin and even sideunderspin which makes the 2nd loop really difficult). Because he uses slow af tacky rubber, he can even randomly block short which is super annoying.

I was forced to really watch his bat and be ready to adjust my footwork accordingly and to aim for different parts of the ball depending on what he produced.

This was a really good exercise and I looped till my legs gave out at around the 2hr mark (I probably looped like hundreds of balls already) then switched to BH which was physically far easier lol.

In the past where I probably used more arm, I will tire out much faster. With more of the legs powering the shot, I felt much easier but the limiting factor was my shitty cardio, I was just out of breath.

I felt pretty good towards the end of the session in terms of the connection between my legs and the ball, I could really feel the power from the legs and body combining to produce a high quality topspin to the opponent.

So the main difference between this and my older stroke is that the elbow goes more forward during the stroke (powered by legs of course) which increases the dwell time/distance significantly. It feels more like throwing a ball now. I think this uses the shoulder a bit. But it actually feels better for the shoulder somehow compared to limiting it.

The big benefit is a huge increase in spin and shot quality. I feel like even from far distance i can really load up the spin/speed and stay dangerous. This means I can more comfortably camp in the BH corner and still pose a significant threat for those who are looking to exploit my wide FH corner.

 

[blahness]

Slow tacky rubber is really amazing in the hands of a good blocker, I would definitely recommend it to older players who don't want to switch to pips.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Lost again today 2 long pips (no sponge) penholder. I think it’s the at least the 5th time in a row in tournaments. Last win was against one of this 5 guys but a very thin margin. I had 2 very close losses against another one.

Last year i practiced regularly with a girl with this style I had better results…

Today was too difficult. First guy played with almost no warmup at all and he was quite good, disastrous for me.

2nd guy was less strong and no warmup excuse. I should have won if I kept my nerves but it wasn’t happening. 1-3 games were close.

It's ok bruh! We understand...

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

It's ok bruh! We understand...

LOL ! but IRL it's worse worse than that

 

[blahness]

Lost again today 2 long pips (no sponge) penholder. I think it’s the at least the 5th time in a row in tournaments. Last win was against one of this 5 guys but a very thin margin. I had 2 very close losses against another one.

Last year i practiced regularly with a girl with this style I had better results…

Today was too difficult. First guy played with almost no warmup at all and he was quite good, disastrous for me.

2nd guy was less strong and no warmup excuse. I should have won if I kept my nerves but it wasn’t happening. 1-3 games were close.

The thing about this is that with penhold there is no positioning weakness, you can literally cover the whole table with LP easily. Whereas with shakehand BH LP this is impossible, there are still ways to force him to defend on the non LP side which is usually the big weakness, and defending on the middle with LP is a lot less smooth than penhold (no middle weakness).

With inverted on the other side they can also have amazing serves and FH loopkill attack if they so choose, which is even more of a nightmare lol.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

The thing about this is that with penhold there is no positioning weakness, you can literally cover the whole table with LP easily. Whereas with shakehand BH LP this is impossible, there are still ways to force him to defend on the non LP side which is usually the big weakness, and defending on the middle with LP is a lot less smooth than penhold (no middle weakness).

With inverted on the other side they can also have amazing serves and FH loopkill attack if they so choose, which is even more of a nightmare lol.

my opponents who play this style use BH to attack with spin. (or occasionally turn the racket).
usually the A plan is not to turn the racket(unless ball is easy) but they will follow up a good serve with the same inverted side, they'll do this to surprise at key moments
--
maybe in 10 years time ill switch to this when i can't move as much..