I need more warmup

[hclnnkhg]

Hi all, I have been training more seriously than before in 2023, and I found that

1) I need a long time (>=30 minutes) to feel properly warmup. Before that I felt ready for matches after 5 to 10 minutes of knocking

2) I am less tolerant of random feeds during warmup. I am moving my feet and getting them back, but I am really annoyed if my partner/opponent can't block consistently

Do these happen to you? Is it related to my level going up (I'd hope that happened after 6 months!)? Any way to get around this issue?

 

[blahness]

Lol at my place everyone loves to make you as uncomfortable as possible with their blocks, no one ever blocks nicely. There's a shit ton of assholes in TT (you can also see such characters in the forum's lol). I've faced anything from short blocks to sidespin blocks to chopblocks to sudden punch blocks lmao, and not always to the same place but to the middle, wide, etc... and I had to adjust to every single one of these.

And against some ppl regardless of what you want to do they topspin against you like crazy, so the only way to really warmup is to take a step back and just do loop to loop.

Its annoying but getting used to all these variations and adjusting for them will make you a better player.

 

[Scarfed Garchomp]

When I'm playing towards the top of my ability, esp when I'm feeling really light on my feet and athletic, I feel like I don't need all that much warmup. But it's the times sandwiched inbetween the peaks and the lows where my performance can be good but is mostly inconsistent, that I find I need a really good warmup to tune my sensibilities in order to play really well. It's usually when I am either getting back into playing more frequently/seriously after taking a break or when I am trying to practice new stuff in matches

 

[netdriver]

i can relate to that

sometimes i need more than 30 minutes bc i just can't get the proper feeling for topspinning the ball

 

[gordonluvsu]

Same, i play my best after playing with a Partner for at least 30 minutes, doing many different shots, the more exhausting the better. When I dont have to think about the shots and they Come automatically is when I play really Well.

 

[BaRanchik]

Lol at my place everyone loves to make you as uncomfortable as possible with their blocks, no one ever blocks nicely. There's a shit ton of assholes in TT (you can also see such characters in the forum's lol). I've faced anything from short blocks to sidespin blocks to chopblocks to sudden punch blocks lmao, and not always to the same place but to the middle, wide, etc... and I had to adjust to every single one of these.

And against some ppl regardless of what you want to do they topspin against you like crazy, so the only way to really warmup is to take a step back and just do loop to loop.

Its annoying but getting used to all these variations and adjusting for them will make you a better player.

I feel your pain. Some players at my club would start smashing every ball back when we do drive-to-drive, or even worse -- when we do an actual exercise. I always go slower when it's my turn, and so the ball is on the table much longer. When their turn comes, they seem to enjoy the little bit of dopamine from hitting a "winner" more than anything.

 

[NextLevel]

Hi all, I have been training more seriously than before in 2023, and I found that

1) I need a long time (>=30 minutes) to feel properly warmup. Before that I felt ready for matches after 5 to 10 minutes of knocking

2) I am less tolerant of random feeds during warmup. I am moving my feet and getting them back, but I am really annoyed if my partner/opponent can't block consistently

Do these happen to you? Is it related to my level going up (I'd hope that happened after 6 months!)? Any way to get around this issue?

It's essentially your problem. I definitely don't play my best after 5 mins of hitting, but I make up my mind to be ready to play after 5 minutes of hitting and accept the results. If I absolutely think I need 30 minutes with the right quality of practice partner to be match ready, it is my job to make it happen because that is a significant demand in preparation time. Some consideration about whether you should need your best game to win many matches should be considered as well and whether you can't get warmer just playing. Finally, from a practical perspective, having good serves makes it a bit easier to get into a match when you aren't warmed up.

As for being less tolerant, that is also understandable and again, it is essentially your problem. Many players don't know how to warm up because they play for fun and never seriously learned practice or warmup etiquette. If you need more than they can give you, you need to plan for it.

Ultimately, the goal is to get used to being ready to play based on various scenarios of time and warmup partner. Of course if you need the idea, set it up to make it happen by getting your preferred partner to hit with you before the big match. But in TT, mindset affects so much that you need to avoid ruining your mindset in competition by tying your results to strongly to perfect preparation just before you play and discounting a lot of the great work you have done on other days and at other times. Ans you can warm up during the match against the right level of player. There is danger in always desiring tur best game when you want to compete.

 

[JJ Ng]

I really don't practice anymore because my strokes are fine. It is my footwork and reading of the spin that is bad. And unless I play a match, I don't move. It is toooooooo easy to get into a lazy forehand to forehand exchange. And it is easy just to stand there to do a backhand to backhand exchange.

So now I play match pretty quickly into the warm up. And I don't care if the players are better than me, or my level or lower than me.

I play a lot of matches where I don't care about the results. I only care about if I get to practice what I want to practice. For example, one game, I will try to use my forehand loop everywhere on the table including my backhand side. The next game I will try to push the ball back until I get a chance to loop backhand to practice my backhand loop.

That way, even if I lose, I don't care. I am playing matches to get better, not to win. So I know my results will suck for a while but that's ok.

When my level is up, then I will get some coaching lessons to fix a couple holes in my stroke. But that's pretty much it. I have been playing table tennis since I was 13 or 14. I know the strokes. It is about whether my footwork is good enough so I can be in the right position to execute the stroke with correct timing. I know what my problem is. Warming up more sometimes get my feet planted, dead, in a single spot and it is not the best thing for my game to do that.

 

[blahness]

I feel your pain. Some players at my club would start smashing every ball back when we do drive-to-drive, or even worse -- when we do an actual exercise. I always go slower when it's my turn, and so the ball is on the table much longer. When their turn comes, they seem to enjoy the little bit of dopamine from hitting a "winner" more than anything.

If they refuse to block properly, just take a step back and start looping everything. Even when you're doing high arc balloon loops out of position it is still warming up your topspin mechanism. Even lobbing with spin is still a way to warmup.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

In warming up I need a few minutes for serves receive and third ball openers both sides . Warmup is most of the time very short in Japan. 30 minutes before the tournament but you typically to share a table with 8 people or more…worse if you come alone to a tournament you’re likely to not be able to warmup at the table at all