Video Footage Safe Thread

[Ghostzen]

You're more than qualified unless you don'twant to for misgivings about the thread design. I can fix that. Would appreciate any input you havw on anything.

Thanks NL 👍.

 

[Ghostzen]

Also would be grateful if can have feedback on couple of training clips, getting help from a very good player at my club who plays SBL uk and also plays in French league. Been having 1:1 with him for 3 wks or so now which I find is helping but more feedback would be great.

This was irregular drill first open then from his attack which I block or counter and then 3rd exercise from my serve and bh open up and then irregular.

This was just multiball feed for open ups and he would feed anywhere either bh, middle or fh.

I think I need to shorten the fh swing and following through and u will notice the same case in matches even though its working and I do get good spin on the ball but shorter faster stroke will only help recovery, my bh technique seems better but my fh is more consistent.

All help and feedback will be very much appreciated guys.

Thank you so much.

Oh side note I look young and handsome but I do turn 51 next wk 😂😂😂
But age is just a number and I strive on wanting to constantly improve.

Hey Deep,

Really nice training videos, you are hitting some really powerful strokes.

Agree on shortening the forehand stroke a bit in the faster feeds as dropping your racket excessively with a extra long stroke can lose you time. At times it looks a little bit ragged on the forehand, even with your speed/power you sacrifice stroke production quality and smoothness along with spin. If you could keep your frame and core on the stroke it will aid with stability more allowing you produce that extra reliability and spin on the ball. That can also aid in recovery to the next ball which will help keep you on balance.

All the best.

GZ

 

[Deep74]

Hey Deep,

Really nice training videos, you are hitting some really powerful strokes.

Agree on shortening the forehand stroke a bit in the faster feeds as dropping your racket excessively with a extra long stroke can lose you time. At times it looks a little bit ragged on the forehand, even with your speed/power you sacrifice stroke production quality and smoothness along with spin. If you could keep your frame and core on the stroke it will aid with stability more allowing you produce that extra reliability and spin on the ball. That can also aid in recovery to the next ball which will help keep you on balance.

All the best.

GZ

Hi GZ

Appreciate the feedback and definitely need to work on that fh, even tho I’m matches it’s my strength but I know shortening it and using body for speed and power rather than big arm movement will help a better stroke and more so recovery. Playing a comp today and this morning did relatively well may better than expected, rewatching matches there were moments where I hit a good fh which was blocked but due to the big swing I didn’t recover to keep the pressure on and follow up ball was significantly lower quality.

I am focussing on the shorter stroke in training but in matches old habits still creep in so it’s just going to be me constantly training the right way so new technique can transfer into matches automatically/

I guess recording matches will help identify common errors and issues of which recovery is definitely one of them. Recording has helped identify the areas I have also improved which I have been working on.

Hope to keep improving slowly.

 

[z0uLess]

So I can't fully tell what is going on here, but I will give my perspective which might be projection but I find that this particular projection applies to a lot of players. You don't believe in spin and control as real weapons on offense, you are overly enamored with speed. Like I said, you have enough to play good table tennis but you either whack the ball or push and almost never use spin as a weapon or loop the ball to interesting places to put pressure on the opponent with your placement. When you spin ans your opponent blocks, if you cant smash, you are not ready to continue to the attack with another topspin. All of this is typical for a certain level of play. To go beyond it, you have to focus for a while on playing topspins on almost every ball and learning how to adjust your swing to the spin on the ball. Focus on following the shape of the ball and adding rotation not on making the ball go faster initially. Feel as if you are trying to brush every ball. Not upwards but to follow the shape in a way that controls and adds spin, especially with the feeling of the fingers. Over time, you will be able to add speed to this with more forearm and body. But right now unfortunately, your speed based play is going to leave you unable to attack too many balls that you should be consistently attacking and it might be partly that you play a bit too close to the table when the rally opens up.

In any case, focus less on making the ball go fast and focus on trying to use topspin to keep the ball on the table. Let the opponent hit 3 to 5 shots to win the point. When you can do topspins consistently, then aggression becomes about shot selection. But when you can't, then aggression becomes luck and determined by your mood and timing on that day.

Long story short, brush much more, slap much less. It is not how you will play forever, it is to introduce a dimension to your play to keep you consistent against all kinds of balls.

None of this doesn't mean you have not improved a lot. It is just my way od explaining how to get much better really fast.

Or I can start playing with short pips and stick to the table, right? I feel that the source of me not wanting to back off from the table is that the movement require so much out of me ... I am almost 100 kg of muscle

 

[NextLevel]

Or I can start playing with short pips and stick to the table, right? I feel that the source of me not wanting to back off from the table is that the movement require so much out of me ... I am almost 100 kg of muscle

Well there are different approaches and everyone gets better in different ways. I am heavier than yoj are but that is not the point everyone is different. Short pips do not necessarily solve your problem because they have a technique and limitations of their own. At your level and to some degree mine, one can hold the table with smart play and decent blocking skills. The reality is that you need a coach who is not feeding you generic drills but who is willing to watch you play, give you a playing style and solve the limitations you have winning points with that playing style. Unfortunately, most older adult beginner players get stuck in group coaching doing generic hitting and footwork drills outside of the point context and therefore fail to develop sharp serve and attack or serve return approaches. But those approaches begin every point and are even more fundamental to TT success than generic rally strokes. There is some gray area with playing level but ultimately, there needs to be fundamental stroke framework for every skill, drills to improve it in the context of quality and stability and drills to improve it in the context of winning and defending points.

The last part (drilling how you win and defend points) is the key to improved match success. Improving your stroke framework is to enable two things ‐ improve shot quality and improve how well one reads and adapts to balls especially those similar to the ones you will get in a match.

Topspin doesn't need to be added by backing off the table - you can play mini topspins close to the table if you are guided by the right coaching.

 

[z0uLess]

Well there are different approaches and everyone gets better in different ways. I am heavier than yoj are but that is not the point everyone is different. Short pips do not necessarily solve your problem because they have a technique and limitations of their own. At your level and to some degree mine, one can hold the table with smart play and decent blocking skills. The reality is that you need a coach who is not feeding you generic drills but who is willing to watch you play, give you a playing style and solve the limitations you have winning points with that playing style. Unfortunately, most older adult beginner players get stuck in group coaching doing generic hitting and footwork drills outside of the point context and therefore fail to develop sharp serve and attack or serve return approaches. But those approaches begin every point and are even more fundamental to TT success than generic rally strokes. There is some gray area with playing level but ultimately, there needs to be fundamental stroke framework for every skill, drills to improve it in the context of quality and stability and drills to improve it in the context of winning and defending points.

The last part (drilling how you win and defend points) is the key to improved match success. Improving your stroke framework is to enable two things ‐ improve shot quality and improve how well one reads and adapts to balls especially those similar to the ones you will get in a match.

Topspin doesn't need to be added by backing off the table - you can play mini topspins close to the table if you are guided by the right coaching.

There are some parts of this I dont understand, but ...

I am not quick enough (good enough game awareness) to apply topspin to a ball when I am close to the table ... or I dont have the short stroke forehand technique developed ... I have struggled hitting topspin vs topspin on forehand for maybe three years. I am hoping its partly because I have tried different rubbers and never really gotten the proper feel for anything, but I have decided to just stick with H3 now and see if becoming real familiar with one rubber will help. Stepping away from the table does give me enough time to swing and add quality to the ball.

At the moment, I work on doing drills that switch to my forehand unexpectedly ... there may be a problem of me having a habit of not switching from BH to FH efficiently (indirect path of the racket or something). I also have a comfort zone on my forehand where I hit above my right leg, kinda like how Darko Jorgic hits his forehand and stand parallell to the table, but I have tried to do some forehands where my parallell backhand stance is broken by me jumping backwards with both my feet and then stepping into the ball with my left leg. Right now, it feels like I have no system at all with the movement of my feet. I do much better in doubles when I have time between each ball to get into position.

Lastly, I think I just have to say that, yes, I do slap a lot ... but I also do slow spinny balls. The real base of my style is varying things to make my opponent uncomfortable ... and since I have a strong and explosive physique, power is one of the tings I am able to vary the most. I hate long rallies because they are predictable -- I feel that I am not trying by just placing the ball on the table with the same shot again and again ... its not creative, which I see as a core personality trait of mine (and probably also why I am not able to hold down a job ).

 

[joshmak10]

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...&key=RS1iZ1pzZ3U1OXN6SkdUUGtJLUtIb01MMUxPWjhR

Was scrolling randomly and found the last drill I did during a 3 hour practice session. For context i’m a bum level player, rated around 400 TTCan rating (so around 1200-1300 USATT), and i have been playing around 2 years now with zero coaching, full self taught. Therefore should be plenty things to improve on technical wise and I was pretty tired in this clip, but I’d love to hear any feedback!

 

[NextLevel]

There are some parts of this I dont understand, but ...

I am not quick enough (good enough game awareness) to apply topspin to a ball when I am close to the table ... or I dont have the short stroke forehand technique developed ... I have struggled hitting topspin vs topspin on forehand for maybe three years. I am hoping its partly because I have tried different rubbers and never really gotten the proper feel for anything, but I have decided to just stick with H3 now and see if becoming real familiar with one rubber will help. Stepping away from the table does give me enough time to swing and add quality to the ball. That said, it was wanting to win that forced me to do this, if there was an easier way I would defonitely

At the moment, I work on doing drills that switch to my forehand unexpectedly ... there may be a problem of me having a habit of not switching from BH to FH efficiently (indirect path of the racket or something). I also have a comfort zone on my forehand where I hit above my right leg, kinda like how Darko Jorgic hits his forehand and stand parallell to the table, but I have tried to do some forehands where my parallell backhand stance is broken by me jumping backwards with both my feet and then stepping into the ball with my left leg. Right now, it feels like I have no system at all with the movement of my feet. I do much better in doubles when I have time between each ball to get into position.

Lastly, I think I just have to say that, yes, I do slap a lot ... but I also do slow spinny balls. The real base of my style is varying things to make my opponent uncomfortable ... and since I have a strong and explosive physique, power is one of the tings I am able to vary the most. I hate long rallies because they are predictable -- I feel that I am not trying by just placing the ball on the table with the same shot again and again ... its not creative, which I see as a core personality trait of mine (and probably also why I am not able to hold down a job ).

That's fine, the most important thing is to find someone who is willing to work with you, figure out what you are good at and help you build your game around doing it to win points. If you are mostly happy with your level and your limitations, just continue to have fun working on stuff. If you are not happy with them, avoid defending the way you currently play and look for someone to give you ideas on how you play. Of course it is natural to defend your limitations. But it is far more important to go and try something different and see what happens. That said, if you are happy with your game or have limitations that prevent you from playing differently that has to be accepted as well. They do have to be challenged because sometimes they are mental and this is where coaching and external systems can help. But I coach people who sometimes think something is impossible and then are surprised they are executing better in 30 minutes. I surprise myself at least once in every TT training. Life is like that sometimes, if you allow your self narrative to defend itself without the right challenges, or do things that do not allow yourself to accumulate skills to build on, everything becomes harder. But everything has limits, mine has always been my legs. I hope you can find a balance between being creative and grinding structure in building skills because I can't see a proper path to TT improvement without it. Ball feeling without technique cannot create a good level unless you are going to master retrieving (which is somewhat your current path and which is probably the hardest path in all of table tennis). Maybe you should just take pride in taking the hardest path.

 

[Matteones]

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...&key=RS1iZ1pzZ3U1OXN6SkdUUGtJLUtIb01MMUxPWjhR

Was scrolling randomly and found the last drill I did during a 3 hour practice session. For context i’m a bum level player, rated around 400 TTCan rating (so around 1200-1300 USATT), and i have been playing around 2 years now with zero coaching, full self taught. Therefore should be plenty things to improve on technical wise and I was pretty tired in this clip, but I’d love to hear any feedback!

Hi Josh! Nextlevel has told me to look in this post and give some advice if I want, so I took the last video uploaded . It's a very short video and you are the first one to say that you were tired (which shows quite clearly, if you are tired I would take a break instead of doing half-hearted drills, just my opinion on this), but as far as I can see your forehand and backhand technique doesn't look like it has anything wrong with it!

Maybe consider uploading a full match (if edited to cut the dead moments when picking up the ball even better) so that we can give a more comprehensive opinion?
Also, I think technique is very hard to correct on a forum as it needs a very hands-on approach, while tactics and strategies can be perfectly discussed and analyzed through video .

 

[Matteones]

Also would be grateful if can have feedback on couple of training clips, getting help from a very good player at my club who plays SBL uk and also plays in French league. Been having 1:1 with him for 3 wks or so now which I find is helping but more feedback would be great.

This was irregular drill first open then from his attack which I block or counter and then 3rd exercise from my serve and bh open up and then irregular.

This was just multiball feed for open ups and he would feed anywhere either bh, middle or fh.

I think I need to shorten the fh swing and following through and u will notice the same case in matches even though its working and I do get good spin on the ball but shorter faster stroke will only help recovery, my bh technique seems better but my fh is more consistent.

All help and feedback will be very much appreciated guys.

Thank you so much.

Oh side note I look young and handsome but I do turn 51 next wk 😂😂😂
But age is just a number and I strive on wanting to constantly improve.

Hi! I arrive quite late to this but maybe I can add a little something.

You nailed it when you said you need to shorten your fh swing, just keep in mind that everything you do after you touch the ball is quite useless, so maybe try to put more quality in that short moment before you contact the ball and then come back in neutral position as fast as possible (because you have a fast arm with good spin and speed, if the ball comes back, it will come back fast at you in a real match and you may be in trouble with that after swing).
As for your backhand, you are hitting it nicely and cleanly at the beginning, but what I notice when your coach drills it more throughly is a lot of wrist usage, which may contribute to that inconsistency you were talking about. Wrist usage is not bad per se, but if it makes you inconsistent I would limit it to a more natural following of the upper body and forearm movement in opposition to trying to get all your spin with it.

 

[joshmak10]

Hi Josh! Nextlevel has told me to look in this post and give some advice if I want, so I took the last video uploaded . It's a very short video and you are the first one to say that you were tired (which shows quite clearly, if you are tired I would take a break instead of doing half-hearted drills, just my opinion on this), but as far as I can see your forehand and backhand technique doesn't look like it has anything wrong with it!

Maybe consider uploading a full match (if edited to cut the dead moments when picking up the ball even better) so that we can give a more comprehensive opinion?
Also, I think technique is very hard to correct on a forum as it needs a very hands-on approach, while tactics and strategies can be perfectly discussed and analyzed through video .

Thank you for the kind words man! Yeah I will try to record a full match when I have time.

 

[NextLevel]

Hi, @Matteones , @NakiMaki clearly wants your comments on his post but in order to discourage duplicate posting, I have linked to it here - can you please take a look.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/video-footage-safe-thread.26467/post-552771

@NakiMaki , feel free to link to the post and alert a specific user if you would like their comments. But please don't just repost stuff over and over. Thank you.

 

[Matteones]

Hi, @Matteones , @NakiMaki clearly wants your comments on his post but in order to discourage duplicate posting, I have linked to it here - can you please take a look.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/video-footage-safe-thread.26467/post-552771

@NakiMaki , feel free to link to the post and alert a specific user if you would like their comments. But please don't just repost stuff over and over. Thank you.

Ok, here it is!

I may repeat something other people have already commented as I did not read all the advices.

Things to work on in training and things to lean into whilst playing a match you want to win are very different.

First match against the left handed player: it looks like you were very comfortable blocking and moving him around during rallies and used your game and services to get there, where it was an even game, and you have beaten a player that (at least to me) seems to have a more complete technical baggage (for now), so very well done to you!

Technically your transition backhand to forehand needs working, as does your transition from defense to attack. Drills with a partner for this, you can find tons online (example: opponent attack crosscourt to your backhand - middle, you block crosscourt until you decide to change down the line and take the initiative).

Your forehand needs refining, I imagine you know it, shorter afterswing and more balanced (again, drills drills drills, remember to keep your racket high and try to not "overdo" it when you want to kill the ball, smooth is always the way to go.

You look so much more comfortable with the backhand, remember that you don't have to switch to forehand when you want to attack, you can do it with your backhand too!

I saw exactly 0 short serves from you here, which was a good strategy in this particular match, but it is not always this way, so if you don't have them you'll need to learn them.

If your short game is not on par with your rallies, in competition, keep on serving long (sidespin, topspin and no-spin especially), but work on your short game to come on par with your rallying.

I like your tomahawk and backhand serves from the middle of the table as that sidespin (if you learn to vary backspin, topspin and no-spin with the same sidespin even better) is what you should lean into if you favor opening up with your backhand. Dare open up more with your backhand too to enter rallies.

I'll watch the other match(es) later or tomorrow and see if I have something to add!

 

[Novarac23]

Hey y’all,

I was doing 3rd ball attack the other day and here’s a snippet of me doing that:

Some of those I think are decent and some of them are 💩. I feel like for me to execute a solid 3rd ball attack everything has to be perfect: my position after the serve, my core has to be tight and I need to be low and light on my feet.

What I’m finding really difficult is figuring out the right distance away from the table after I serve, I think I generally “hug” the table too much and then don’t rest quickly enough for the next shot. I think I need to step away a tad bit from the table after the serve. For the context I’m super tall for a table tennis player (6’5”).

Another thing that I’m finding difficult is being relaxed in my upper body while also being tight in my core and lower body “tension”. I have been practicing a lot being tight in my core and being ready to move and it has helped me a ton move faster but as a side effect my upper body is kinda stiff. What do y’all think? Any recommendations on resolving these issues? Or any other feedback?

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

I'm struggling a lot as well on 3rd ball.
Whatever your level it will always be challenging and something you'll be working all your TT life.

Its important to understand for 3rd ball attack and training that
- serve is very important. If your serve is too low quality, you'll get difficult receives. The opponent will be able to attack it. Or push with unpredictable placement and a lot of spin variation (heavy underspin or no spin), or flick it if its short but too high etc...

- you MUST have a stable serve to practice 3rd ball attack. able to make the exact same serve (same placement, same speed and spin), and then you can memorize the different possible answers from your opponent, and work on it.
If there is too much randomness on your serve because you don't control it, then the receive becomes more random, so its more difficult to attack consistently and more difficult to remember.

- of course technique is important but being able to put a good serve, and come back quickly in position while being focused on the ball with the mindset of attacking is equally important. I think its important also to look while serving at the opponent with peripheral vision and quickly shift to normal vision on his racquet.

- in practice try to make the same serve, but also ask the opponent to do the same receive. or maybe just limit himself to 2-3 receive after you can attack with no problem when you KNOW whats going to happen with the receive.

====

I think you're on the right track with your practice. On the video, your timing is good. the receive is not great but you don't rush and wait instead with good preparation with legs. My advice is not try to play the ball faster but try to be in position faster, body even lower (you're tall) and try to put ever more spin in your 3rd ball.

 

[NextLevel]

Hey y’all,

I was doing 3rd ball attack the other day and here’s a snippet of me doing that:

Some of those I think are decent and some of them are 💩. I feel like for me to execute a solid 3rd ball attack everything has to be perfect: my position after the serve, my core has to be tight and I need to be low and light on my feet.

What I’m finding really difficult is figuring out the right distance away from the table after I serve, I think I generally “hug” the table too much and then don’t rest quickly enough for the next shot. I think I need to step away a tad bit from the table after the serve. For the context I’m super tall for a table tennis player (6’5”).

Another thing that I’m finding difficult is being relaxed in my upper body while also being tight in my core and lower body “tension”. I have been practicing a lot being tight in my core and being ready to move and it has helped me a ton move faster but as a side effect my upper body is kinda stiff. What do y’all think? Any recommendations on resolving these issues? Or any other feedback?

You are working on the right things, it will get better. I am not as big as you and I never managed to tighten my core but it all worked out. It will be fine regardless and you will get better at it. Remember that bracing/tightening your core is not the same as holding your breath. It's more like pushing your stomach out than holding it in.

In the end though, the most important thing is first and foremost to have a good enough serve that for the level you play at, the opponent has relatively limited options. Then out of those limited options, cover the most aggressive options the opponent has in training and then the less aggressive ones. For your serve placement you need to make sure you can cover the wide forehand, both push and flick. Once you have addressed that, then you cover options to the backhand and middle. Ideally good footwork will make you flexible but the ability yo read and anticipate and then get into position and then do something that works is what is most important for match success. Being technically correct and flexible is more about growth so if you get really good, you don't have to make too many changes to play at that level.

If you are jammed (and you will be to some degree at any playing distance, work out something that opens or puts pressure on the opponent even with compromised quality. If you usually open with quality spin, flatter ahots can get blocked into the net. Spin can be hard to predict so don't think your shot must be perfect just see what it takes to open. Good luck

 

[Novarac23]

I'm struggling a lot as well on 3rd ball.
Whatever your level it will always be challenging and something you'll be working all your TT life.

Its important to understand for 3rd ball attack and training that
- serve is very important. If your serve is too low quality, you'll get difficult receives. The opponent will be able to attack it. Or push with unpredictable placement and a lot of spin variation (heavy underspin or no spin), or flick it if its short but too high etc...

- you MUST have a stable serve to practice 3rd ball attack. able to make the exact same serve (same placement, same speed and spin), and then you can memorize the different possible answers from your opponent, and work on it.
If there is too much randomness on your serve because you don't control it, then the receive becomes more random, so its more difficult to attack consistently and more difficult to remember.

- of course technique is important but being able to put a good serve, and come back quickly in position while being focused on the ball with the mindset of attacking is equally important. I think its important also to look while serving at the opponent with peripheral vision and quickly shift to normal vision on his racquet.

- in practice try to make the same serve, but also ask the opponent to do the same receive. or maybe just limit himself to 2-3 receive after you can attack with no problem when you KNOW whats going to happen with the receive.

====

I think you're on the right track with your practice. On the video, your timing is good. the receive is not great but you don't rush and wait instead with good preparation with legs. My advice is not try to play the ball faster but try to be in position faster, body even lower (you're tall) and try to put ever more spin in your 3rd ball.

Yeah I agree! Very good points. THank you!

You are working on the right things, it will get better. I am not as big as you and I never managed to tighten my core but it all worked out. It will be fine regardless and you will get better at it. Remember that bracing/tightening your core is not the same as holding your breath. It's more like pushing your stomach out than holding it in.

In the end though, the most important thing is first and foremost to have a good enough serve that for the level you play at, the opponent has relatively limited options. Then out of those limited options, cover the most aggressive options the opponent has in training and then the less aggressive ones. For your serve placement you need to make sure you can cover the wide forehand, both push and flick. Once you have addressed that, then you cover options to the backhand and middle. Ideally good footwork will make you flexible but the ability yo read and anticipate and then get into position and then do something that works is what is most important for match success. Being technically correct and flexible is more about growth so if you get really good, you don't have to make too many changes to play at that level.

If you are jammed (and you will be to some degree at any playing distance, work out something that opens or puts pressure on the opponent even with compromised quality. If you usually open with quality spin, flatter ahots can get blocked into the net. Spin can be hard to predict so don't think your shot must be perfect just see what it takes to open. Good luck

Agreed with all the points! Thank you!

To be completely honest I am not practicing my serve as frequent as I should be but I do think that I can place my simple underspin serve anywhere and to certain extent with varying amounts of spin. I’m still working on getting more spin but I have gotten much better about placement. In a match that usually translates to me being abe to put it short BH side for example, oponnent pushes back half long / long and I open up with my BH. This actually happens 9/10 at my level (oponnents don’t flick and if they do I adjust). On top of 3rd ball I’ve been working on being able to attack the 5th ball after open up because in a match I think I just get excited that I had a good open up lol

In the video serve does look very mediocre and I think its just because I was focusing on other things there, but I should have the same serve quality regardless of the exercise. This is also something that happens in a match, a few serves would be very nice quality and then a few would be not great. So I need to work on consistency there Though.

 

[NextLevel]

Yeah I agree! Very good points. THank you!

Agreed with all the points! Thank you!

To be completely honest I am not practicing my serve as frequent as I should be but I do think that I can place my simple underspin serve anywhere and to certain extent with varying amounts of spin. I’m still working on getting more spin but I have gotten much better about placement. In a match that usually translates to me being abe to put it short BH side for example, oponnent pushes back half long / long and I open up with my BH. This actually happens 9/10 at my level (oponnents don’t flick and if they do I adjust). On top of 3rd ball I’ve been working on being able to attack the 5th ball after open up because in a match I think I just get excited that I had a good open up lol

In the video serve does look very mediocre and I think its just because I was focusing on other things there, but I should have the same serve quality regardless of the exercise. This is also something that happens in a match, a few serves would be very nice quality and then a few would be not great. So I need to work on consistency there Though.

I think the serve was fine for what you were doing, I didn't have any major issues with it. Serve practice though does give its own reward, if you have serves that are truly at or above your level, it makes you immune to losses against certain lower level players and makes you able to box certain players. But the main problem with not have a consistent serve is that it becomes harder to place the opponent in a box on receive. But serve quality is level relative, there are serves I did 10 years ago, I look at them now and wonder what I was thinking... but the opponent returned them without killing them, which is more than I probably deserved.

One of the sneaky goals of having short/half long double bounce serves is to be able to load the ball with energy and create serves that actually go long but which look short but are actually very half long/long but because they look short, the opponent will try to push or flick etc. and the ball energy will create errors. Also improving your ability to spin your serve will improve your ability to spin on your loop/push as well. The game is synergistic like that.

 

[Lando]

A friend started recording his matches, and he showed me one where I played against him.

Turns out, I think my serves are highly illegal, but no because I want to, my fat belly blocks the contact lmao.
What are the ITTF rules on being fat?

 

[pedro.dantas]

Is this stroke good?