Feedback on my League games

[Zezima]

Hello guys,
I have been busy trying to find different trainingspartner lately to improve my game (in my club its hard ).

1)
Currently I feel like my opening loops is good.
a) Loop to Block mistake <-- Big Problem. I slowed it down and I seem to hit it at 2 o´clock. To me it sounds fine. yes 1 o clock would be better but also I see pro players hit a countertopspin at 2 o clock how do they do it?

Basically I force my opponent to block me the ball back but I can´t hit the next ball hard with spin because it flys over the table. Do I have to contact the ball more thinly?

b) Another mistake trying to spin the ball
How can I hit these balls "harder" without it going out? I have enough time


2)
a) Countertopspin mistake
I don´t understand this at all. Sometimes I make it and it´s an instant point winner and sometimes like this it just goes into the net even though my stroke goes forwards (and hips rotate)
b) Good example where it worked - but it looks almost the same. I just need to understand better why it worked here and it didnt work there( 2a) ).

3) Another mistake trying to go hard on a ball I want to end
How do Pros hit those balls(at the end) with a more open racket even? and bring it back on table even.


Highlight of the day:
Here I feel like it only worked because I attacked from mid distance.
vs Noah 1st Set


I think my mistakes are repetitive. I feel like I am still moving very bad towards my "wide" forehand and push a lot of balls with my FH that I should open up instead.
I liked my backhand a lot and the fact that I open up with it a lot without being scared. Not many mistakes opening up either.
Seem to struggle alot vs block balls.

What are your thoughts? Here is the link for all 3 games:
Feel free to suggest me Drills (started with Falkenberg last week) or any other Drills and especially how to fix those "stupid" mistakes I keep doing especially after I force my opponent to block.
All 3 games

 

[pong99]

you loop against underspin and then use the exact same loop stroke when the opponent blocks, of course it will go long

pay attention to/anticipate the spin coming back

when the block comes back, you can loop drive or just hit it, pick the one that works for you

drill: you serve underspin, partner pushes, you loop, partner blocks, you loop drive/hit 5th ball

 

[vossi39]

Loop against underspin -> Arm and racket coming from bottom top top (vertical motion), ball is hit at table height.
Loop against block -> Arm and racket coming from behind to front (horizontal motion), ball is hit above table height.
This is true for FH and BH.

You need to practice the change. The drill mention above is the closest to game. You may start with multi ball. One underspin, one topspin.

In general. Try to stay lower (especially if you need to move), stay closer to the table and hit the second ball earlier. Your arm motion needs to be a bit more explosive. Your upper body is too lose.

 

[Aizen]

Hi @Zezima your angle mostly seems fine, which could be closer in forehand maybe.
But I've realised all the missed shots are hit by lower end of racket, while successful ones are mostly on top or middle. I don’t believe fully that but coaches generally say spin with top, push with bottom of paddle for more area to brush ball.

1-A

1-B

2-A

2-B

3)

1st highlight

2nd highlight

 

[AutomaticBackhand]

I'd say increase the quality of the Forehand loop so that it doesn't even come back.

Training that is simple:
You Serve -> Partner pushes 70% of the table -> You try to loop and make it better each time.

Even if you partners aren't good enough to block it, you can probably judge how good your forehand loop is yourself.

The more you practice, the easier the movement will feel.
Try to go for a lot of spin each time, and it you have time, go for placement.

It's simple, but not easy to do.
To consistently apply this in games you need good serves and decent footwork to set it up.

 

[Amayzde]

I would say to lower your playing stance when playing rallies. As low as you are standing in your receive position is how low you should be the entire rally.

This will make is easier to play closer to the table and will fix 80% of the mistakes you are pointing out. Against faster balls you will be able to play more forward, so there wont be as many balls flying off the table. And those slower balls won’t go in the net as you are in a better position to pull the ball up.

 

[Zezima]

Loop against underspin -> Arm and racket coming from bottom top top (vertical motion), ball is hit at table height.
Loop against block -> Arm and racket coming from behind to front (horizontal motion), ball is hit above table height.
This is true for FH and BH.

You need to practice the change. The drill mention above is the closest to game. You may start with multi ball. One underspin, one topspin.

In general. Try to stay lower (especially if you need to move), stay closer to the table and hit the second ball earlier. Your arm motion needs to be a bit more explosive. Your upper body is too lose.

Exactly technically I can hit it more explosive but not if whenever I do I hit over the table. But I guess I was practising too much on opening my practise partners are struggelong with the Block because in training I put more effort in spinning it. So I don't have the chance to keep going against block. But yes noted and will practise that drill more

Is loop drive the same term that is used when warming up (not applying spin to the ball very minimal atleast with a "hit" motion forwards?)

What do you mean by upper body too lose and how to fix it?

Do I focus on hitting the ball thinly with the rubber only when going for a hard shot against block? Or hit the ball more with the blade?

 

[Zezima]

I would say to lower your playing stance when playing rallies. As low as you are standing in your receive position is how low you should be the entire rally.

This will make is easier to play closer to the table and will fix 80% of the mistakes you are pointing out. Against faster balls you will be able to play more forward, so there wont be as many balls flying off the table. And those slower balls won’t go in the net as you are in a better position to pull the ball up.

I think I need to understand the concept of slow vs faster balls aswell. Because currently if the ball comes slow to me ( even a block) I keep thinking that I need to lift the ball. And I also struggle to get the feel to spin the ball against a faster ball and have easier time spinning a slowish long backspin ball. The Former is very inconsistent and I struggle to correct it myself.

 

[Zezima]

Loop against underspin -> Arm and racket coming from bottom top top (vertical motion), ball is hit at table height.
Loop against block -> Arm and racket coming from behind to front (horizontal motion), ball is hit above table height.
This is true for FH and BH.

You need to practice the change. The drill mention above is the closest to game. You may start with multi ball. One underspin, one topspin.

In general. Try to stay lower (especially if you need to move), stay closer to the table and hit the second ball earlier. Your arm motion needs to be a bit more explosive. Your upper body is too lose.

Will do. I was focused on serve and 3rd ball attack + footwork drills like Falkenberg lately. But as you said opening up and then continuing against block is what I should focus on next.

 

[vossi39]

Exactly technically I can hit it more explosive but not if whenever I do I hit over the table. But I guess I was practising too much on opening my practise partners are struggelong with the Block because in training I put more effort in spinning it. So I don't have the chance to keep going against block. But yes noted and will practise that drill more

Is loop drive the same term that is used when warming up (not applying spin to the ball very minimal atleast with a "hit" motion forwards?)

What do you mean by upper body too lose and how to fix it?

Do I focus on hitting the ball thinly with the rubber only when going for a hard shot against block? Or hit the ball more with the blade?

As mentioned. If you go faster, your swing needs to be more horizontally and less vertically. Close your bat and spin the ball more one top. If you flat hit, the ball is more likely to shot over the table. Spin will force it into an arc, which make it land on the table.

Your upper body needs to be firm and stable. Tighting your abdomen (like try to hide your belly), when you hit the ball.

No thin brushing. Go through the ball, with closed bat angle.

 

[Tembel]

Don't be too hard on yourself! I think you play really well. Nice technique and sprin on 3rd ball attack, especially BH. You also chose the right ball to attack on. If I was to point out an area where improvements can be made, then it would be your defence. When you do not get to attack your counters are a bit too passive and weak.

 

[Amayzde]

I think I need to understand the concept of slow vs faster balls aswell. Because currently if the ball comes slow to me ( even a block) I keep thinking that I need to lift the ball. And I also struggle to get the feel to spin the ball against a faster ball and have easier time spinning a slowish long backspin ball. The Former is very inconsistent and I struggle to correct it myself.

Not necessarily, its not that complicated.

A slow ball is pretty much any ball where the opponent doesn’t increase the speed of the ball and put pressure on you. So it can either be a push, a block, but also a spinny half-long/long serve or a slow spinny topspin. On all these balls you have to wait and let the ball come to you, take a longer backswing and spin the ball accordingly. Spinning the ball (doesn’t matter against what spin it is) is easier to do if you have a lower stance.
1 bonus tip I can give you is against slow heavy topspin balls is to hit a bit around the side of the ball. This will make it less likely to make the ball fly out, and make it dip more.

Here is a video of Heming Hu demonstrating how to counter by letting the ball come to you instead of taking it off the bounce;

On fast balls its the opposite. When you opponent attacks with speed, you don’t have time to take a swing at all (so you wont have to think about whether this is a fast ball or not, because you wont have time to think about it 😉). All you have to do is put your bat behind the ball and direct it back to the opponent. Because the ball is already fast, you don’t need to generate any extra power. Just borrow the pace of the incoming ball. Im talking about close to the table here by the way. When further away and the ball is already falling down you will have to add power and spin accordingly.

 

[Zezima]

As mentioned. If you go faster, your swing needs to be more horizontally and less vertically. Close your bat and spin the ball more one top. If you flat hit, the ball is more likely to shot over the table. Spin will force it into an arc, which make it land on the table.

Your upper body needs to be firm and stable. Tighting your abdomen (like try to hide your belly), when you hit the ball.

No thin brushing. Go through the ball, with closed bat angle.

So basically the same kind of movement I do on a backspin ball hitting at 3 o clock I should do hitting at around 1 o clock and just forwards? This kind of stuff is really hard to understand through text. I gotta try and experiment more.

But its definetly harder to spin the ball forwards(eg a block or slight topspin balls) than to spin a long backspin ball for (me atleast).

 

[Zezima]

Also what I want to understand is when do you use ur wrist to generate Topspin on an incoming ball.
As you can see the balls I get are quite slow. When I watch pro players they (most of the times) dont add wrist acceleration on an incoming topspin ball but just "drive" it back (with a thick contact and just the appropiate closed racket angle)

I get the feeling that when I try to accelerate I keep lifting the ball which gives the ball a high arc and makes it go over the table. But if I would do the same stroke as them the ball would have tempo but not much spin -> easier to block for my opponents. So basically I want to give a lot of spin on an incoming block ball instead of working with tempo.
The reason for that beeing that the speed hurts my playstyle if they block it back -> I am quite tall so I need time to get ready for the next ball - Thats why I try to spin the ball.

 

[pong99]

couple of tall guys teaching how to hit BH

 

[Zezima]

@pong99
Good Videos. My Backhand is the best in this League no doubt.

Today I trained against backspin into block. With Multiball and then with a practise partner who blocked a bit high. Anyway I felt really good today. Like physically and also mentally actually. My shots very really fast and spinny. I dont even remember the last time I hit this many topspins hitting the white line. I was playing in a different Hall with different trainingballs, so that can be the reason aswell I can't tell. Anyway my stroke was good with fast acceleration with a good arc.

I also practised countertopspin and it was really controlled after I took a few steps back let him loop wait as long as possible and then just trust my gut and go for it. I would say 8/10 would come back on the table with an instant winner.

I also eat very healthy today and felt I had so much energy also no pressure like in an actual game. Never the less I thought maybe my equipment is worn out but that seems not to be the case (yet) so I got confident in my setup again and feel good for the Tuesday game (one last training session tomorrow before).

so TLDR: I seem to perform much better when I don't take the ball too early and when I take a few steps back and let the spin die out a bit. Eat good -> Feel Good -> Good Energy for the training???

Also there are too many things to train. Should I focus on one particular thing in the training session or just do Drills that uses most of the strokes I do in an actual game? And how can I train getting under pressure with trainingspartner 200P lower than me? I feel like I practise many bad habits like pushing long balls back or where I am like I can do a more active block but for the Drills sake I gotta do a passive block. I see that in actual games that I do the same "too" passive strokes because I didn't practise it at all in the training sessions.

 

[Table10Ice]

I have been watching a lot of your Youtube content, great channel!
Really interesting and educating to watch "normal" players (just as myself) on club level, as a contrast to the pros on the WTT-tour.

The thing I would suggest you to practice more is your footwork, or to be frank; to introduce more footwork. One of the most visual and distinct examples of a active footwork is that of Bernadette Szöcs. Compare her footwork in this video

with your own footwork. Can you spot a difference?

She is constantly on the move, on her toes, bouncing around and never standing still. You could imagine that you are standing on a hot tin roof or stone floor and that your feet will burn if you don't move them around all the time. Try that!

 

[Table10Ice]

@pong99
Good Videos. My Backhand is the best in this League no doubt.

Today I trained against backspin into block. With Multiball and then with a practise partner who blocked a bit high. Anyway I felt really good today. Like physically and also mentally actually. My shots very really fast and spinny. I dont even remember the last time I hit this many topspins hitting the white line. I was playing in a different Hall with different trainingballs, so that can be the reason aswell I can't tell. Anyway my stroke was good with fast acceleration with a good arc.

I also practised countertopspin and it was really controlled after I took a few steps back let him loop wait as long as possible and then just trust my gut and go for it. I would say 8/10 would come back on the table with an instant winner.

I also eat very healthy today and felt I had so much energy also no pressure like in an actual game. Never the less I thought maybe my equipment is worn out but that seems not to be the case (yet) so I got confident in my setup again and feel good for the Tuesday game (one last training session tomorrow before).

so TLDR: I seem to perform much better when I don't take the ball too early and when I take a few steps back and let the spin die out a bit. Eat good -> Feel Good -> Good Energy for the training???

Also there are too many things to train. Should I focus on one particular thing in the training session or just do Drills that uses most of the strokes I do in an actual game? And how can I train getting under pressure with trainingspartner 200P lower than me? I feel like I practise many bad habits like pushing long balls back or where I am like I can do a more active block but for the Drills sake I gotta do a passive block. I see that in actual games that I do the same "too" passive strokes because I didn't practise it at all in the training sessions.

Hi Zezima,
I found a really good video on footwork. Please watch it and leave a comment!