Update 2026 May

[Zezima]

This is my trainingsession(2h) from today. I picked drills that I think I need to work on.

This is my matchplay. There is a more recent match aswell where I almost beat the 1750TTR again (I am 1594 as of now) but I need to edit first before uploading.

This is a match vs another 1700TTR player losing to -9 -10 -9 I think was my 12th match on that day so was kind of exhausted. I beat this same player 3weeks or so before this match.

Some big problems as of now:

\- if the ball jumps high on my side my timing seems off so I lift my elbow a lot when trying to topspin

\- I cover my bh hardcore so once the switch to my fh happens I am very late

\- I generally hit the ball late on my fh

\- if the incoming ball is not low my chaining (technique) breaks down a lot when fh topspinning

\- bh I sometimes use too much wrist when ball flys out?

\- Standing too high up still.

 

[NextLevel]

Your anticipation of sitting balls, especially when returned on your serve, and your getting into position to kill them or place them to wide angles/into the elbow is slow. You probably also need to develop a kill shot for some of those balls. If you improve that, you can shorten a few points and put more pressure on your opponents early in the point.

 

[Zezima]

Your anticipation of sitting balls, especially when returned on your serve, and your getting into position to kill them or place them to wide angles/into the elbow is slow. You probably also need to develop a kill shot for some of those balls. If you improve that, you can shorten a few points and put more pressure on your opponents early in the point.

Good point. Only thing I realized is it looks much better vs much weaker players. Obviously I get more of those balls to attack. But also my mindset is much different. I remember playing vs a 1300TTR and telling myself to set the goal to put away any high ball I get. If it doesn't work out I can default to my normal playstyle and win anyway. So depending on how good it works I could practise that shot more or less without risking losing maximum points.

With 11.may the TTR points are set which will be used for the upcoming season. So I plan to play more relaxed now. Atleast 1-2sets. I have been also practising hitting at an earlier timing on the fh side. Once I get more practise I should be able to lower my error rate more so I am more willing to take these shots in actual games aswell. Right now I am much more comfortable taking it at a later timing.

Anyway approved and noted your feedback!

 

[dingyibvs]

This is my trainingsession(2h) from today. I picked drills that I think I need to work on.

This is my matchplay. There is a more recent match aswell where I almost beat the 1750TTR again (I am 1594 as of now) but I need to edit first before uploading.

This is a match vs another 1700TTR player losing to -9 -10 -9 I think was my 12th match on that day so was kind of exhausted. I beat this same player 3weeks or so before this match.

Some big problems as of now:

\- if the ball jumps high on my side my timing seems off so I lift my elbow a lot when trying to topspin

\- I cover my bh hardcore so once the switch to my fh happens I am very late

\- I generally hit the ball late on my fh

\- if the incoming ball is not low my chaining (technique) breaks down a lot when fh topspinning

\- bh I sometimes use too much wrist when ball flys out?

\- Standing too high up still.

You're late on FH during games because your FH form remains the same, too much of an arm-based motion. Specifically, too much of an arm-based backswing. You're kicking forward with your hip just fine during the forward swing, but for backswing you need to just relax your arm and let the hip turn bring your arm back. It may not seem like it, but it will save you a TON of time! But I think it's even more than that.

When you're motion is not dependent on your arm backswinging to a certain position, you start getting used to hitting the ball at a certain position relative to your body instead. When the ball comes quickly, your backswing just cuts short, sometimes way, way short, so you still hit the ball at about the same position relative to your body. And because you're doing everything with your body instead of your arm, the quality of your shot will still be high. Right now, you need to hit the ball after your arm has backswinged to a position you like, which is often too late, but if you don't do that then you'd have no quality on the ball.

Your issue with hitting higher balls is also an old problem that you've yet to address, which probably contributes to your hitting the ball late as well. Your loop is too brushy, not enough hitting. A brushy loop requires the ball to drop to really loop it with quality, so for a high ball that means waiting a long time, often with the ball past you unless you move back. That's one of the reasons I prefer using equipment that's a bit harder to activate. I think the feedback is very helpful for physically capable players who want to improve. You mentioned before that you couldn't get the sensation of hitting into the blade/rubber with your 968/D09c setup, and that's because you weren't hitting into the racket enough. You didn't fix the problem, you just changed equipment that allows you to hit into it with far thinner contact.

With that said, the change probably allowed you to play better, and using harder to activate equipment has plenty of downsides as well. Besides most likely negatively affecting game play, amateurs without proper direction often try to activate the equipment using brute force, which leads to other bad habits and even injuries. It's important to note that the issue is technique, that someone as physically capable as you can activate equipment like 968/D09c with just as much effort as you're looping now in practice with the right technique.

 

[biaxialerzug]

Just curious…what’s your equipment?

 

[NetProphet]

Just curious…what’s your equipment?

Noooooooooo!!!
There's an entire separate thread for that 😉

 

[biaxialerzug]

Noooooooooo!!!
There's an entire separate thread for that 😉

Link please 😅

Found it. Never mind….using these kind of setups with this level ist…. I don’t know. Try something more controlled setup like Primorac Off- and two Rozenas. I bet your level will increase drastically.
But I think it’s the wrong thread.

When I look into your matches I feel like your tactics need some improvements and your sense of playing.

 

[sebi]

Link please 😅

Found it. Never mind….using these kind of setups with this level ist…. I don’t know. Try something more controlled setup like Primorac Off- and two Rozenas. I bet your level will increase drastically.
But I think it’s the wrong thread.

When I look into your matches I feel like your tactics need some improvements and your sense of playing.

Please, we don't have to start all over again. He won't listen anyway

You're late on FH during games because your FH form remains the same, too much of an arm-based motion. Specifically, too much of an arm-based backswing. You're kicking forward with your hip just fine during the forward swing, but for backswing you need to just relax your arm and let the hip turn bring your arm back. It may not seem like it, but it will save you a TON of time! But I think it's even more than that.

When you're motion is not dependent on your arm backswinging to a certain position, you start getting used to hitting the ball at a certain position relative to your body instead. When the ball comes quickly, your backswing just cuts short, sometimes way, way short, so you still hit the ball at about the same position relative to your body. And because you're doing everything with your body instead of your arm, the quality of your shot will still be high. Right now, you need to hit the ball after your arm has backswinged to a position you like, which is often too late, but if you don't do that then you'd have no quality on the ball.

Your issue with hitting higher balls is also an old problem that you've yet to address, which probably contributes to your hitting the ball late as well. Your loop is too brushy, not enough hitting. A brushy loop requires the ball to drop to really loop it with quality, so for a high ball that means waiting a long time, often with the ball past you unless you move back. That's one of the reasons I prefer using equipment that's a bit harder to activate. I think the feedback is very helpful for physically capable players who want to improve. You mentioned before that you couldn't get the sensation of hitting into the blade/rubber with your 968/D09c setup, and that's because you weren't hitting into the racket enough. You didn't fix the problem, you just changed equipment that allows you to hit into it with far thinner contact.

With that said, the change probably allowed you to play better, and using harder to activate equipment has plenty of downsides as well. Besides most likely negatively affecting game play, amateurs without proper direction often try to activate the equipment using brute force, which leads to other bad habits and even injuries. It's important to note that the issue is technique, that someone as physically capable as you can activate equipment like 968/D09c with just as much effort as you're looping now in practice with the right technique.

To much arm, but elbow is mostly correct now.

Weight transfer is still compmetly wrong
Instead of going from right to left leg you go from left to right.

Maybe have a look at how anton kallberg stands, he has also very long limbs. He has a very wide stance.
You should try to adaot that.

 

[Zezima]

You're late on FH during games because your FH form remains the same, too much of an arm-based motion. Specifically, too much of an arm-based backswing. You're kicking forward with your hip just fine during the forward swing, but for backswing you need to just relax your arm and let the hip turn bring your arm back. It may not seem like it, but it will save you a TON of time! But I think it's even more than that.

When you're motion is not dependent on your arm backswinging to a certain position, you start getting used to hitting the ball at a certain position relative to your body instead. When the ball comes quickly, your backswing just cuts short, sometimes way, way short, so you still hit the ball at about the same position relative to your body. And because you're doing everything with your body instead of your arm, the quality of your shot will still be high. Right now, you need to hit the ball after your arm has backswinged to a position you like, which is often too late, but if you don't do that then you'd have no quality on the ball.

Your issue with hitting higher balls is also an old problem that you've yet to address, which probably contributes to your hitting the ball late as well. Your loop is too brushy, not enough hitting. A brushy loop requires the ball to drop to really loop it with quality, so for a high ball that means waiting a long time, often with the ball past you unless you move back. That's one of the reasons I prefer using equipment that's a bit harder to activate. I think the feedback is very helpful for physically capable players who want to improve. You mentioned before that you couldn't get the sensation of hitting into the blade/rubber with your 968/D09c setup, and that's because you weren't hitting into the racket enough. You didn't fix the problem, you just changed equipment that allows you to hit into it with far thinner contact.

With that said, the change probably allowed you to play better, and using harder to activate equipment has plenty of downsides as well. Besides most likely negatively affecting game play, amateurs without proper direction often try to activate the equipment using brute force, which leads to other bad habits and even injuries. It's important to note that the issue is technique, that someone as physically capable as you can activate equipment like 968/D09c with just as much effort as you're looping now in practice with the right technique.

You are stuck too much on the equipment part. The change happened around 6months ago.

On faster balls I see even FZD not using hips and just reacting with his arm. Obviously he would be able to use his legs more vs opp I face. My initial backstroke is not initiated by my arm. But I do agree I like a larger swing that is suboptimal in my matches.

I am also happy with the quality on the ball if I land the topspin on the table. Maybe 2-3% it gets punished by a smash. I would rather work on my unforced errors atm than adding even more quality.

I want to fix the elbow rising way too high under pressure if possible.

 

[Zezima]

Link please 😅

Found it. Never mind….using these kind of setups with this level ist…. I don’t know. Try something more controlled setup like Primorac Off- and two Rozenas. I bet your level will increase drastically.
But I think it’s the wrong thread.

When I look into your matches I feel like your tactics need some improvements and your sense of playing.

Ok I am all ears give me your tactical knowledge

 

[biaxialerzug]

You are basically playing a long serve every time and your opponent doesn’t have to move at all. It’s nearly the same each ball. Long serve, he plays it active and you try to play from behind the table.
What about a short serve? What about playing wide in the corners? Look at the footwork of your opponent. Sometimes he just moves once at that’s when he finishes the point.

 

[dingyibvs]

You are stuck too much on the equipment part. The change happened around 6months ago.

On faster balls I see even FZD not using hips and just reacting with his arm. Obviously he would be able to use his legs more vs opp I face. My initial backstroke is not initiated by my arm. But I do agree I like a larger swing that is suboptimal in my matches.

I am also happy with the quality on the ball if I land the topspin on the table. Maybe 2-3% it gets punished by a smash. I would rather work on my unforced errors atm than adding even more quality.

I want to fix the elbow rising way too high under pressure if possible.

Sure, if it's really fast you'll just have to react with the arm, but you're not facing that type of speed yet you're still late. You're missing half of the point here. It's not just backswing with your hip, it's also to minimize backswing with the arm.

Maybe a different way to explain this would be better. Try to always hit the ball a certain distance from you, particularly in terms of how far in front of you. If the ball is fast and you haven't finished your backswing, just start swinging forward and make sure to hit the ball at the same spot relative to your body. That should result in pretty quick improvement, and through that there's a good chance that you'll naturally develop a backswing with minimal arm use because it's very difficult to execute otherwise.

 

[Archosaurus]

You are quite tall, so you often take the ball relatively low, sometimes even below the chest. A lot of those shots are at upper abdomen and sometimes even navel height.

I'm quite short, and I find I get the most shot quality if I strike the ball around lower chest to mid shoulder height. Some shots I've hit at shoulder height, usually short strokes vs topspin.

For you perhaps it would be slightly lower relative to your body, but you will need to find that out.

I think you will be able to feel better than anyone else what is correct, but I would suggest to perhaps widen your stance and just go slightly lower by bending the knees slightly more. It will of course feel wrong and it will tax your fitness more, but I'd still try it.

Unflattering example on a ball that you struck too forward from you because it bounced a little shorter than expected. Most of them were cleaner than this.

 

[Lula]

Just watched some minutes of the first match.
I think you should look at tacticts and strategy more in match and technique in training.
You need to have more of a strategy.
I feel like you seem better when you are attacking yourself. So should try to serve and return so you get to open yourself. Now you get the long push but push back. I think the openings looks fine when you open up so why are you pushing? nervous? need more training at opening up so feel more safe?

Seem to hit harder with forehand so maybe good practice going around the backhand corner sometimes. Also got playing multiball and practice looping harder from both sides on dead balls. Multiball played on a bare blade is good for this.

But power is not everything. If you play hard, hard and hard, with the same tempo the opponent can block well.
Also try to play more towards the pocket.

I suggest:
- think about your strenghts and how to get there, practice this the most
- start exercises with opening up
- do a lot of moment exercises, or what you call it. Like short serve, push short then long and opening op
- multiball: practicing looping harder
- Falkenberg drill with as many backhands as you like, learn when to step over
- Play almost all exercises against the middle so you learn to play against the pocket
- not good to decide before hand but can be good to practice two point drills and play one soft and one hard to learn to change the tempo

The technique itself i think look pretty okey.

 

[Zezima]

You are basically playing a long serve every time and your opponent doesn’t have to move at all. It’s nearly the same each ball. Long serve, he plays it active and you try to play from behind the table.
What about a short serve? What about playing wide in the corners? Look at the footwork of your opponent. Sometimes he just moves once at that’s when he finishes the point.

Damn I guess its my fault for expecting something useful.

 

[Zezima]

Sure, if it's really fast you'll just have to react with the arm, but you're not facing that type of speed yet you're still late. You're missing half of the point here. It's not just backswing with your hip, it's also to minimize backswing with the arm.

Maybe a different way to explain this would be better. Try to always hit the ball a certain distance from you, particularly in terms of how far in front of you. If the ball is fast and you haven't finished your backswing, just start swinging forward and make sure to hit the ball at the same spot relative to your body. That should result in pretty quick improvement, and through that there's a good chance that you'll naturally develop a backswing with minimal arm use because it's very difficult to execute otherwise.

Sounds nice in theory and you technically say nothing wrong but I am far from achieving all that.

First of all we don't have reaction time like pros or just better players. So during play it's how fast we can react to the ball. Sure it might get better over time but not by much especially not if I keep training with weaker players where the pace is super slow in comparison to matches.

I also don't like to hit that ball late but I guess I keep thinking I have the time atleast on those balls where I backswing long. On the other balls where I just react I have to hope that it gets better over time so I can react faster.

I can practise playing matches where I only focus on hitting the ball in front and with always a short swing (at the beginning atleast)

The question I now have what is more important hitting around the same spot in front of the body. Or is the ball height and the timing of the ball (rising, peak, falling) more important?
Right now more than timing I struggle most with the height of the ball at contact point. The lower my opp players an active drive or block the easier it gets for me to attack. The higher and slower he plays the ball back the harder it is for me. But from videos I learned that if I want to hit a faster shot against those non spin highish balls that drift long the timing has to be exact at peak. It gets really difficult to think about those little details in matchplay.

 

[biaxialerzug]

Damn I guess its my fault for expecting something useful.

Okay good luck then with overthinking your technique and not using proper equipment.

 

[Zezima]

You are quite tall, so you often take the ball relatively low, sometimes even below the chest. A lot of those shots are at upper abdomen and sometimes even navel height.

I'm quite short, and I find I get the most shot quality if I strike the ball around lower chest to mid shoulder height. Some shots I've hit at shoulder height, usually short strokes vs topspin.

For you perhaps it would be slightly lower relative to your body, but you will need to find that out.

I think you will be able to feel better than anyone else what is correct, but I would suggest to perhaps widen your stance and just go slightly lower by bending the knees slightly more. It will of course feel wrong and it will tax your fitness more, but I'd still try it.

Unflattering example on a ball that you struck too forward from you because it bounced a little shorter than expected. Most of them were cleaner than this.

View attachment 41623

Timestamp would have been nice. But the contact timing seems about right. I don't get to hit this early in my matches I think.
I also perform much better if the ball is lower. I guess maybe thats how I got this technique in first place. Let the ball drop and because I am not that low I usually brush more upwards.

Idk about going lower. In training thats the lowest I like to go. Any lower makes me stuck at one place.

I will just aim to not let the ball drop as much. Just need to figure out if the ball is in front of me but around my shoulder level. Topspinning is way too hard then.

 

[Zezima]

Just watched some minutes of the first match.
I think you should look at tacticts and strategy more in match and technique in training.
You need to have more of a strategy.
I feel like you seem better when you are attacking yourself. So should try to serve and return so you get to open yourself. Now you get the long push but push back. I think the openings looks fine when you open up so why are you pushing? nervous? need more training at opening up so feel more safe?

Seem to hit harder with forehand so maybe good practice going around the backhand corner sometimes. Also got playing multiball and practice looping harder from both sides on dead balls. Multiball played on a bare blade is good for this.

But power is not everything. If you play hard, hard and hard, with the same tempo the opponent can block well.
Also try to play more towards the pocket.

I suggest:
- think about your strenghts and how to get there, practice this the most
- start exercises with opening up
- do a lot of moment exercises, or what you call it. Like short serve, push short then long and opening op
- multiball: practicing looping harder
- Falkenberg drill with as many backhands as you like, learn when to step over
- Play almost all exercises against the middle so you learn to play against the pocket
- not good to decide before hand but can be good to practice two point drills and play one soft and one hard to learn to change the tempo

The technique itself i think look pretty okey.

This match is not a good example actually. I was playing my 12th match that day. So super exhausted. And I do like to open up with my fh not so much with my bh.
The rallys pace gets much faster once I open up aswell. And when you are exhausted like me you don't want to start the rally on the backfoot getting blocked left and right.

Forget multiball. I have noone atm summer break and if we train we train with drills. These players don't know what a multiball is and they find it boring.

 

[Archosaurus]

Timestamp would have been nice. But the contact timing seems about right. I don't get to hit this early in my matches I think.
I also perform much better if the ball is lower. I guess maybe thats how I got this technique in first place. Let the ball drop and because I am not that low I usually brush more upwards.

Idk about going lower. In training thats the lowest I like to go. Any lower makes me stuck at one place.

I will just aim to not let the ball drop as much. Just need to figure out if the ball is in front of me but around my shoulder level. Topspinning is way too hard then.

Tall players with more experience can probably advise further; but I don't see how you'd be able to get good mechanics contacting that low relative to your torso. I may be wrong, though.

Here is a forehand shot performed by Omar Assar onto a ball past the apex and in the falling phase. He is 1.96m? IIRC, so probably a good representation of tall people.