How Did I Win or Lose a Match?

[Der_Echte]

True... and also true is that Next Level knows the pleasure of holding a bound book and looking at what you want when you want with the weight in the lap.

 

[Brs]

Richie and anyone struggling with hitting high balls out. A couple things usually go wrong. Position not far forward enough and/or bat is not high enough pre-swing. You hit in front of zone, ball will go out. You do not have bat high enough before swing, then you bee swinging u and ball goes out. Another common one is players wait for lob/fish to bounce high, then come down... difficult to discern exact path/position of ball, then player is often out of position trying to attack strongly with reduced vertical angles. You see a lob, especially if it is not gunna land near end line... MOVE FORWARD to the side and catch the ball ON THE RISE at a comfortable height, like say shoulder or nose/eyeball level where you can see it well... you are now quicker, have better vertical error angles, and much better postion/leverage.

One helpful coaching I got about high balls is not to aim deep on the table. That makes the ball go out more, and it makes a worse ball. Smash down as close to the net as you safely can and the ball will bounce higher when it gets to the opponent. And excessive height is much harder to deal with than speed.

As far as training against high balls the best, most fun way is to play lob/fish vs smash games. One player can only lob the other can only smash, no serves just straight into lobbing, and play normal scoring to 11, then switch roles. Doesn't even feel like training it is so much fun.

 

[Der_Echte]

Come to Sacramento and play many matches vs James Therriault. Training mission accomplished.

 

[LDM7]

Come to Sacramento and play many matches vs James Therriault. Training mission accomplished.

True that 🤣

 

[LDM7]

One helpful coaching I got about high balls is not to aim deep on the table. That makes the ball go out more, and it makes a worse ball. Smash down as close to the net as you safely can and the ball will bounce higher when it gets to the opponent. And excessive height is much harder to deal with than speed.

As far as training against high balls the best, most fun way is to play lob/fish vs smash games. One player can only lob the other can only smash, no serves just straight into lobbing, and play normal scoring to 11, then switch roles. Doesn't even feel like training it is so much fun.

BRS, are you living in the Christmas Island (the indian ocean)?

 

[IB66]

https://youtu.be/zQsrXz52NPk

Hi,

latest video from a match last night.
rushed to post this, off to work now!! More about opponent later.

 

[LDM7]

https://youtu.be/zQsrXz52NPk

Morning IB66,

Thanks for the video post, N!CE W!N

Rai is a BH dominant plyr, taking balls at his middle with his BH (even during warm up). Also (3:35) your BH serve to his FH, he leaned to his right taking the ball with his BH and hit the ball way off your end, a pattern throughout the match

Perhaps the first game you were figuring out his game (not sure if you played him before), you declined opportunities

IMO Rai is a candidate for balls (your FH) dTL to his BH, then run him (i didn't see many evidence he moves well)

Your FH let you down in this match, were you warmed-up? eyes off the ball?

Your FH scoop backspin serve is deceptive & effective. By the middle of game 3, stick a fork in him. And nicely done with the side-top that got him to pop the ball out setting up game point. He miss his serve (third of the match) and lost thiis game

Game 4 Rai took the offensive (to come back), you retreated and blocked more. He also figured out (or at least more comfortable) with your FH scoop service series. This showed in game 5 even you won

Your serve (once again) won the day IB66 💪

QUESTION: do you have a dead in your FH scoop serve series?

LDM7

 

[IB66]

Morning IB66,

Thanks for the video post, N!CE W!N

Rai is a BH dominant plyr, taking balls at his middle with his BH (even during warm up). Also (3:35) your BH serve to his FH, he leaned to his right taking the ball with his BH and hit the ball way off your end, a pattern throughout the match

Perhaps the first game you were figuring out his game (not sure if you played him before), you declined opportunities

IMO Rai is a candidate for balls (your FH) dTL to his BH, then run him (i didn't see many evidence he moves well)

Your FH let you down in this match, were you warmed-up? eyes off the ball?

Your FH scoop backspin serve is deceptive & effective. By the middle of game 3, stick a fork in him. And nicely done with the side-top that got him to pop the ball out setting up game point. He miss his serve (third of the match) and lost thiis game

Game 4 Rai took the offensive (to come back), you retreated and blocked more. He also figured out (or at least more comfortable) with your FH scoop service series. This showed in game 5 even you won

Your serve (once again) won the day IB66 💪

QUESTION: do you have a dead in your FH scoop serve series?

LDM7

Hi LDM7

I played Rai about 1 month ago, (the club he plays for has 2 teams in the division, he was playing 'up' for their 'A' team this time) last time out I beat him comfortably 3-0, didn't feel pressured at all during that match. Rai was my 2nd opponent of the evening, 1st opponent was a flat hitter on FH, LP on BH, higher ranked player. During this match I was playing a lot of no spin / light spin balls to the guys BH and then trying to pick a ball to attack.
Sometimes it's difficult to 're set' your game back to how you normally play!!!
As I said in an earlier post I have not been playing well for the last 2 - 3 weeks, seems that I've taken a backwards step!!! this is shown by the 3-2 win against Rai last night when compared to the 3-0 win a month ago. The ONLY reason I came out on top was because he struggled with the hook serve. Rest of my game is lacking confidence, movement, consistency, shot quality and direction/point planning.
It's not all bad though!!!!!!!

 

[IB66]

LDM7 - oh yeah, I forgot, I do have a dead no spin hook serve.

 

[LDM7]

LDM7 - oh yeah, I forgot, I do have a dead no spin hook serve.

N!CE

I think that's a winning combination - heavy backspin, dead (low spin), side-top ...

i particularly like the way you disguise backspin with a little racket upward motion after contact is trick!

For Christmas, I am gifting myself a hook service sequence 🏓

 

[NextLevel]

Hi LDM7

I played Rai about 1 month ago, (the club he plays for has 2 teams in the division, he was playing 'up' for their 'A' team this time) last time out I beat him comfortably 3-0, didn't feel pressured at all during that match. Rai was my 2nd opponent of the evening, 1st opponent was a flat hitter on FH, LP on BH, higher ranked player. During this match I was playing a lot of no spin / light spin balls to the guys BH and then trying to pick a ball to attack.
Sometimes it's difficult to 're set' your game back to how you normally play!!!
As I said in an earlier post I have not been playing well for the last 2 - 3 weeks, seems that I've taken a backwards step!!! this is shown by the 3-2 win against Rai last night when compared to the 3-0 win a month ago. The ONLY reason I came out on top was because he struggled with the hook serve. Rest of my game is lacking confidence, movement, consistency, shot quality and direction/point planning.
It's not all bad though!!!!!!!

Serves a part of the game, I am so happy you won, I would have been depressed if you hadn't. The 3-0 makes more sense

My recommendation might not make sense, since I think a lot of your misses were partly because you treated like topspin or backspin a lot of balls that had no spin (he just patted the ball at the bottom). But I think that you should sometimes practice looping in practice hitting the side of the ball but with a circular stroke. You sometimes do it well when the ball is a high easy ball but you should use it as a variation. There were lots of balls I felt that if you just rolled them while making contact with the side, you would have had a safe put away, but trying to crash aggressively into the ball put pressure on your timing and your stroke.

 

[NextLevel]

In general, I encourage practicing looping with different contact points as a practice adaptation. As I tell people all the time, the stroke that puts the ball off the table against one ball puts it on the table against another ball. But I think adjusting your contact point would make your loops more consistent- you seem to crash directly into the ball, and given your great serves, I think you could do a lot more with slower and easier strokes and get better result against the lower level opposition as long as you play shorter and wider balls.

 

[IB66]

Tonight at coaching, after the 1st hour of coaching the youngsters, I was paired with Jason, he’s one of the better adults that attend. It was just what I needed!!!
We did some good routines, especially FH and BH open ups v backspin. Consistency improved as the session went on, started to move better and properly, also as I was moving better without any issues with my knee, I started to get down lower and stay low for the last 5 mins of the session.

Still no twinges with the knee. Now back home, no tightening up of calf muscles. Hopefully this will continue to be the case!!!😁
OK, I’ve always been too upright, I’d been lowering my height pre injury when training, but not as low as tonight, what I thought was low, wasn’t !!!!

WHAT YOU SEE CHANGES.

The perspective you get is just better!!!
incoming ball seemed clearer!!
Those last 5 minutes are going to have a big effect on how I am going to train my TT posture, ( if back and knee remain injury free)
So goal one “is to get low and stay low” proof of the pudding will be in future footage!!!
Goal Two “is to get low and stay low” !!!!!!!!!

 

[Der_Echte]

LDM7 will likely reply soon... total over two hours... let's say this was a very physical, exerting night. It is not like LDM7 does his practice half-azz, he always goes for it... but tonite, his level of exertion got seriously elevated. Just ask his 4 shirts. He got to watch the team of Spin Wins and Pound it with Pips go 3-0 vs Russian brothers Quarter Pounder squad. Truly, spin production is important to win points... unless you got short pis and an unlimited supply of balls over net height and go smash happy.

 

[Wrighty67]

Tonight at coaching, after the 1st hour of coaching the youngsters, I was paired with Jason, he’s one of the better adults that attend. It was just what I needed!!!
We did some good routines, especially FH and BH open ups v backspin. Consistency improved as the session went on, started to move better and properly, also as I was moving better without any issues with my knee, I started to get down lower and stay low for the last 5 mins of the session.

Still no twinges with the knee. Now back home, no tightening up of calf muscles. Hopefully this will continue to be the case!!!😁
OK, I’ve always been too upright, I’d been lowering my height pre injury when training, but not as low as tonight, what I thought was low, wasn’t !!!!

WHAT YOU SEE CHANGES.

The perspective you get is just better!!!
incoming ball seemed clearer!!
Those last 5 minutes are going to have a big effect on how I am going to train my TT posture, ( if back and knee remain injury free)
So goal one “is to get low and stay low” proof of the pudding will be in future footage!!!
Goal Two “is to get low and stay low” !!!!!!!!!

100% - what a difference it makes! One of my focus areas to achieve this is to make sure I take a wider stance as this automatically pushes me lower and improves stability.

I tend to forget in matches and stand tall..

 

[LDM7]

So goal one “is to get low and stay low” proof of the pudding will be in future footage!!!
Goal Two “is to get low and stay low” !!!!!!!!!

So what's goal three IB66? 🤣

 

[LDM7]

100% - what a difference it makes! One of my focus areas to achieve this is to make sure I take a wider stance as this automatically pushes me lower and improves stability.

I tend to forget in matches and stand tall

your next footage Wrighty - I'll be looking for stance (get down), in-between shot flow & balance

here's to our Next Level 🏆

LDM7

 

[LDM7]

In general, I encourage practicing looping with different contact points as a practice adaptation. As I tell people all the time, the stroke that puts the ball off the table against one ball puts it on the table against another ball. But I think adjusting your contact point would make your loops more consistent- you seem to crash directly into the ball, and given your great serves, I think you could do a lot more with slower and easier strokes and get better result against the lower level opposition as long as you play shorter and wider balls.

NL,

what do you mean by "get better result against the lower level opposition as long as you play shorter and wider balls?"

how do shorter & wider balls relate here ... ? tks,

LDM7

 

[NextLevel]

NL,

what do you mean by "get better result against the lower level opposition as long as you play shorter and wider balls?"

how do shorter & wider balls relate here ... ? tks,

LDM7

The main elements of quality shots: power (spin/speed), placement, deception. For winning points/rallying, I would add control(defense/counterattacking), consistency and timing to the first three.

Most players focus on power (getting heavy speed or heavy spin or both) for shot quality, but training placement and deception can yield equally powerful results and sometimes with less risk. But sometimes, these things are level dependent. As a strong player (2500) I once worked with told me, at a certain level, if they can touch the ball, it usually comes back, so going all out to win with one shot without the right kind of preparation will not get the job done. That said, the lower the playing level, usually the less the opponent anticipates and moves well, so you often have a few more options to win points.

If you hit a ball with less power but more angle or sidespin, depending on how you play, it forces the opponent to move wider. Hitting through the table usually makes the ball go towards the opponent - hitting to break the sidelines makes the opponents move wider. Opponents without the footwork/anticipation to run these down will have no chance or may just give up from the get-go. Obviously, when you are playing 2000+ level looping juniors, this may not work as well, but arguably the skills for hitting the ball this way will translate into other things. Just don't assume that the only way to win a point vs every opponent is to hit it as hard as you can. In fact, if you are a one trick pony, once the opponent can handle your trick, if you can't try plan B or plan C, you won't enjoy playing a lot. At the top levels, the ball quality is such a given that timing and deception take on a whole new level. But we aren't top level players so we shouldn't always play as if our opponent is Timo Boll, though it can be helpful to understand how Timo Boll plays to understand the kinds of thing that will survive in your game as you play better players and the kinds of things that will not.

 

[LDM7]

LDM7 will likely reply soon... total over two hours... let's say this was a very physical, exerting night. It is not like LDM7 does his practice half-azz, he always goes for it... but tonite, his level of exertion got seriously elevated. Just ask his 4 shirts. He got to watch the team of Spin Wins and Pound it with Pips go 3-0 vs Russian brothers Quarter Pounder squad. Truly, spin production is important to win points... unless you got short pis and an unlimited supply of balls over net height and go smash happy.

A fun, yet productive session at the church last night

One of the highlights was a conversation der & i had about quality vs landing %. he led me to answer my own question after i noticed my consistency was increasing but ball quality decreased (i was not pressing him). After thinking, at this moment - I CHOSE CONSISTENCY

i believe as i stop admiring my last shot, get-busy keeping my feet moving, get low (good for possible next BH, practice paying attention to the other's racket (& body), my own body proximity to end table ... quality (speed, spin, location) will come

i heard der's warning loud & clear, that when i focus on consistency, the decreasing quality allows half of the plyrs at my level pound balls past me ... to which i am thinking A) these plyrs are at my level for a reason (they're equally un-consistent or less), let's play a game of attrition then (especially if i get good at a dead loop). B) It's not like i cannot increase the quality of my shots, it's jst that at this moment, i would like to (practicing) get more balls back on the other side, preparing myself mentally hitting 10, 15, 20 shots is normal business as I train for the Next Level (punt intended) 💪

LDM7