Also check out the rankings everyone is 50+ years old. Tabletennis will die out here soon I guess
You are having more competitive experience and are playing table tennis for longer than me, so what i will tell you might or might not apply to you.This Friday I tried a setup I got gifted by a teammate. Harimoto super ZLC with D80 both sides. TBH I could play it as well as with my own blade. Or atleast very close to. But then again I was playing with players way below my playlevel.
The only other Racket I would try would be theNo need to focus too much on equipment, but have you tried Tenergy 05 on FH? I haven't tried it myself, but everyone says it's considerably more forgiving and easier to use than Dignics 09c.
If you want to continue within DHS rackets, I can heartily recommend either 301 Z or Hurricane AcB, both should be slower and more controllable than your current Long 5.
idk maybe because both blades are about the same in terms of speed? I was probably even better when lobbing. But then again everyone plays better when not under pressure. Its hard to simulate to be under pressure. Then it will truly show if you are better with the blade or not.You are having more competitive experience and are playing table tennis for longer than me, so what i will tell you might or might not apply to you.
If you can play with a very different blade with different rubbers nearly as good a the blade and setup that you played with for more than 6 month then something might be off.
When I went on my inner fibre equipment junkey tour I did switch often between Xiom AZXi, TMXi, HAL, HL5 and thought "hey this is just as controllable as the blade before" as well. I guess because pulling a "'BOMBA" always feels nice and works with fast equipment easily. Unfortunately the consistency did not differ much, but also did not improve much until I went back to 5 Ply acoustic noticing more and more what I was missing out on and improving in aspects that I just thought were "too hard" for me.
only very old sheets. So not worth mentioning. Overpriced for an old rubber imhoNo need to focus too much on equipment, but have you tried Tenergy 05 on FH? I haven't tried it myself, but everyone says it's considerably more forgiving and easier to use than Dignics 09c.
If you want to continue within DHS rackets, I can heartily recommend either 301 Z or Hurricane AcB, both should be slower and more controllable than your current Long 5.
Maybe Tenergy 19 then? A newer development and has got good reviews.only very old sheets. So not worth mentioning. Overpriced for an old rubber imho
No its fundamentally different. If I would do the same stroke as him my balls would definetly fly out every single time. He hits the balls from the back and it curves right back on the table still. Meanwhile I have to hit the ball at almost 12 o clock to do the same. But my margin of error is very slim compared to his stroke.The Long 5 is already as close as you would come to Ma Longs Blade within a reasonable price.
The W968 would not be that different that it would be justifying playing more than 300 € for a "cheap" w968.
If you think about it in terms of an investment as your new primary blade, a w968 could make sense and you could keep your long 5 as backup.
The biggest change would rather be the rubber and i dont think that you would like to play hurricane 3 blue sponge and then boost it (especially since you would need to boost the rubber quite often compared to how long you can keep the dig 09c on your racket). The w968 is not very slow, but of course if you have the feeling of ma long of course he can do incredible things in the short game, but he probably could do similar things with a viscaria (if he got accustomed to it).
Man, if you're worried about the equipment being the problem then just get a good 5 ply wooden blade and 2 Rakza 7s and put 100% of your focus onto your technique, decision making and match tactics for the next year and give zero more thoughts about equipment during this time.No its fundamentally different. If I would do the same stroke as him my balls would definetly fly out every single time. He hits the balls from the back and it curves right back on the table still. Meanwhile I have to hit the ball at almost 12 o clock to do the same. But my margin of error is very slim compared to his stroke.
I actually got pissed against the blocked that my spin didn´t bother him at all. All the other players were struggeling against those kind of balls. I guess it´s also because he starts with a topspin serve - so it has generally less spin compared to when I would loop against long backspin serve.
Compared to the first D09c these new D09c sheets on the same racket just feels way harder aswell.. I remember the feeling back then was much softer. Could it be the glue? because I used a different glue back then. It was from Contra I am not sure if its even legal. And now I have been using the butterfly one but I hate it (kept getting off on the edges had to reglue 3rd time already..)
Just feels weird that my margin of error is so slim while my opponents on that day brought balls on the table with a worse form/technique. Just generally it feels like I have to play atleast 40% better than them to win games. The lefty played really well but even he played some strokes where I was like what how can he loop the ball back on the table with that stroke.
Anyway I currently don´t have the trainingspartner and don´t train as much as I should be to move onwards with this setup. somethings gotta change thats for sure. And I really don´t mind giving up on speed for more margin of error. I actually don´t want speed. I want to work with placement and spin.
For Game C, if you wanted to cause a bit of trouble, you could have called him out for his lack of ball toss lol3-1 GAME A
2-3 GAME B
2-3 GAME C
Game B:
Two games lost in the 5th set. One because I was too much under pressure with his serve. I really don´t know how to deal with this type of serves at this level. Because if I just hold the racket or push back they get to attack.
So mainly I was pushing with the backhand if I was mentally prepared for the FH stroke and he placed the serve it into my bh. Not sure I mean I was feeling weak (body) didn't eat dinner + the hall was very hot. I thought I was sick.
He smashed our pips player in the previous game each set to 3. Smashing and looping everything so he had big confidence going into my game.
Game C:
Unfortunately, my opponent showed very unsportsmanlike behavior. He kept making comments like, "You're just lucky," or similar remarks. Then, at 1-1(set) 6-5 to 7-5, I had a net and edge ball. I did apologize for it, but he refused to accept it and kept arguing, which disrupted the flow of the game—both ours and the one happening next to us. Additionally, he often didn’t apologize for his own net or edge balls, though that didn’t bother me as much. Funny he had as much or even more than me. But if he has it no comment. And even when I apologized he was like now you don´t have to apologize for it in angry manners. I just hate his phsychological distruptions... Just want to focus on my game
The hall was so hot that I felt like I had a fever—clear home advantage for the opponents.
Especially in this match (just right before it started), I already felt very sluggish, couldn’t build up any body tension, and my opponent blocked really well, barely making any unforced errors. Still, I’m very satisfied with myself. I tried to attack more, even with spin variations. Unfortunately, I was often not ready for the next shot after my attacks.
So in the end, despite my opponent’s unsportsmanlike behavior, the loss was fair I think. You can see his body language in the 4th set when I was 2-1. He just didn´t give a fuck anymore. He was angry he played very "loose" so I thought I have this win in the bag and since I was feeling weak I just didn´t focus anymore? Meanwhile his angry shots kept landing a bit later x)
How would you play against this type of player? Felt like his playstyle is "effortless" but quite effective and mine is very energy consuming and riskier.
Also had to reglue my Blade previous evening after my training session because the rubber went off on the sides. Didn´t want to destroy the rubber by accident so I just reglued with 1 sheet of glue on the 4th glue layer that was on it already... Shouldn´t be an excuse though
I just realized I had the video links messed up.For Game C, if you wanted to cause a bit of trouble, you could have called him out for his lack of ball toss lol
There are a few things that would have helped you:
1) Serve shorter, with variation, and mainly to his forehand. Almost all your serves were long, and he was sweating on anything that he could attack, especially on his backhand. He has a pretty decent backhand loop / flick for this level, so I would probably stay away from that on serve (except maybe a quicker one as a surprise). Also, try and get your serves short enough where they would bounce at least twice on the table. His short game doesn't look that strong, so most of the returns should come back deep enough to attack the third ball. If you can do this short serve with various spins (topspin, backspin, no-spin) with a similar serving action, then you should get plenty of attacking opportunities on third ball.
2) Try to read his serve better to neutralize his third ball attack. Many of your returns popped up, making it easy for him to murder the third ball attack. His tomahawk was topspin, but besides the first one you faced (which was a good return), you pushed at them, and they popped up for him to attack. Returning with a good quality topspin would have put him under much more pressure, making it hard for him to attack back. His backhand serve is a bit trickier, because he had a backspin and topspin variation with a similar action. Closely watch his contact point on his serve, if it's contacting the bottom of the rubber, it'll be backspin, otherwise it's topspin.
3) Attack his pivot point. When you do get the opportunity to attack, some of your forehands were going straight to his backhand, and his backhand block is pretty stable. Since he's a left hander, try and target his left elbow, which is much harder to defend than a ball straight to his backhand. You could even hit some forehands down the line, as his forehand defence was much less stable than his backhand.
Anyway, hope this helps, your game is looking pretty good!![]()
I just remembered that I weighted the new D09c sheets aswell. My Rubbers weigh the same. Maybe 1 or 2g +-.so while the dignics 09c is also relatively hard if we compare it to ESN tensors, it is still a different beast to what Ma Long plays on the forehand.
To put it bluntly, the boosted hurricanes are indeed better for the larger and longer swing that Ma long does, while dignics 09c is more effective using shorter strokes like Timo Boll or other europeans.
This already can make it seem like the angles Ma Long uses are not working with your blade, while it is more the rubber that is "at fault" here.
You might have gotten a light dig 09c the first time around and now your current one is probably a heavier and harder one. This can happen, if you dont select the rubber by at least letting the vendor weigh them with packaging to get the weight you want.
IIRC you got to dignics 09c on your long 5 and if you are really adamant in changing something, i would not change blade and rubbers at the same time. You could buy a new blade like the w968 and move one of the dignics 09c to that blade. That opens up the possibility to try a new rubber on your known blade and on the w968 and you could compare the behaviour of the rubbers between the blades. My prediction is that you would have expected a bigger difference comparing the two blades.
If you ever plan on visiting north west germany, you can ping me and you can try my provincial w968 and i might even be inclined to let it go for 200€ if you like it.
No. Then I would lose even more. Unless as you said I only want to focus on tactics. But I am not that good of a player to learn that by myself while playing against my opponent. I am mostly focusing on getting some quality topspins on the table. With that setup you recommended they would have no trouble at all to block. And that would exhaust me much more having to loop all day to end the point. Right now 95% can´t block my spinny topspins. Game C is the rare time and I guess Game B he did some good ones aswell but not so much.Man, if you're worried about the equipment being the problem then just get a good 5 ply wooden blade and 2 Rakza 7s and put 100% of your focus onto your technique, decision making and match tactics for the next year and give zero more thoughts about equipment during this time.
I'm not going to comment on every mistake you made in those matches but they are mostly technical problems and in many cases you weren't even under big pressure from the opponent.
You have these videos so they are a great tool to helping you improve but I cannot figure out how you watch them back and think you need Ma Longs Racket 🤷
Fair enough but I really think you are wrong here. You don't think your opponents are beating you because of their equipment right.No. Then I would lose even more.
I didn't say only tactics, I said technique, decision making and tactics.Unless as you said I only want to focus on tactics.
There are numerous books and online things you can read to help with tactics etcBut I am not that good of a player to learn that by myself while playing against my opponent.
You're wrong because again you are equipment focused.I am mostly focusing on getting some quality topspins on the table. With that setup you recommended they would have no trouble at all to block.
Ok.And that would exhaust me much more having to loop all day to end the point. Right now 95% can´t block my spinny topspins. Game C is the rare time and I guess Game B he did some good ones aswell but not so much.
I don´t want to lose the spin I just want to keep the same spin for a slower speed.
Fair enough but I really think you are wrong here. You don't think your opponents are beating you because of their equipment right.
A good player at my club (at least as good as you and perhaps even a bit better) bought a FZD ALC with D09c and D05 and tried it for 9 months. It made him worse!
He replaced it 2 months ago with a Donic Senso, Rakza 7 and Rakza X.
He's playing better than ever.
Its mostly because he trusts the racket for every shot. You are doing exactly what he was doing, needing perfect or specific balls to attack.
I didn't say only tactics, I said technique, decision making and tactics.
Technique: you need somewhat forgiving rubbers and blade as you focus on fixing it. This includes getting lower and using your legs properly for shots.
Decision making: recognising serves and other shots for their trajectory and spin EARLY and knowing the % shot to play so you don't have to wonder about it in the split second when you have no time.
Tactics is linked to this as after you can get the ball on the table you then choose the shot the opponent won't like or a shot to build the point and set up your next shot.
There are numerous books and online things you can read to help with tactics etc
You're wrong because again you are equipment focused.
Give me my old racket with Rakza 7 and my new one with T19. Little difference when we play against each other I assure you. The T19 is just quicker in passive blocks and all out full blooded looping, which I haven't seen you do once in your ten matches I've watched.
Ok.
But remember:
1) you're frustrated at your own lack of progress and at losing to blockers and smashers
2) are equipment focused on how you think you'll overcome this.
I hope someone else chimes in soon because I believe fast equipment has nothing to do with your solution and is likely holding you back.
Beating blocker/smashers at your own level is a tactics thing but to implement tactics you have to be able to execute basic shots with confidence and a degree of accuracy. You're not playing against 2000+ players, the speed from Rakza 7 on the 5 ply Ma Lin EO would be MORE than enough!!!!