which coach is right

[hallohallowhatuwant]

Hi all,I went on a tri to china last summer for tt training. The coach there was very good, instantly spotted flaws in my technique and corrected them and taught me far more in 3 weeks than I learnt in 6 months in the Uk.
Now I have a better coach in UK.
For fh loop open up, my uk coach says I should do slow spinny loop. Yet my advanced china coach taught me to open up with thicker contact, resulting in deadlier, faster loops with a lower arc. My question is, in your opinion, which is right?

 

[Pe-ter]

Imho it depends on what kind of a level you play and what kind of a player you are.
If you're playing in some low league, even a slow yet spinny loop can get you a straight point.
In higher leauges against better players this could result in preparing the perfect ball for you oponent and then get shot at.
But I might be also wrong here 🤷...
I'd try to work on the stuff from the chinese coach..more of a surprise shot that can put your oponent under pressure.

 

[TTFrenzy]

Hi all,I went on a tri to china last summer for tt training. The coach there was very good, instantly spotted flaws in my technique and corrected them and taught me far more in 3 weeks than I learnt in 6 months in the Uk.
Now I have a better coach in UK.
For fh loop open up, my uk coach says I should do slow spinny loop. Yet my advanced china coach taught me to open up with thicker contact, resulting in deadlier, faster loops with a lower arc. My question is, in your opinion, which is right?

both of them are good, its one has its own purpose. Slow spinny loop is good for surprising an opponent who falls back, and you get even more points when u can also change the placement along with the tempo. Fast loop is also good cause it puts pressure immediately

 

[Dominikk85]

I think the slow loop is still a great shot against lower level opponents because when they block it they can either make an outright mistake or they hit a high arc block that you can kill with they next shot.

Against pro players the shot is a dangerous shot because they are great at counter looping and with plastic ball that is easier than before but most lower level opponents are still not great at counter looping.

 

[banbekas]

Opening up the blade with thicker contact is what I would go to in a comfortable situation.
Slow loop is what I would do in a tense condition. So, you can do both depending on your situation and condition.
If I have to pick one, I'd take the opening up a bit more.

 

[ander999]

It all depends on you... I have the old classic European technique and prefer it much more than slap attack chinese rubbers

 

[Gozo Aruna]

Hi all,I went on a tri to china last summer for tt training. The coach there was very good, instantly spotted flaws in my technique and corrected them and taught me far more in 3 weeks than I learnt in 6 months in the Uk.
Now I have a better coach in UK.
For fh loop open up, my uk coach says I should do slow spinny loop. Yet my advanced china coach taught me to open up with thicker contact, resulting in deadlier, faster loops with a lower arc. My question is, in your opinion, which is right?

This my good man, you have just discovered the difference strategic approach to TT between the China and Europe. European style vs Chinese style, pardon my parlance.

Chinese style: Bom ba da bing ba da boom! One shot, knock-out punch. Why waste so much energy?

Euro style: Let's us rally! Duel like two fancy dressed pompous musketeer of old, en garde gentlemen!

If you can do both then it is the best as it will put pressure on your opponent by keeping em' guessing. Will it be a bazooka coming or will it be a continuous barrage of machine gun fire?

 

[Sims]

Hi all,I went on a tri to china last summer for tt training. The coach there was very good, instantly spotted flaws in my technique and corrected them and taught me far more in 3 weeks than I learnt in 6 months in the Uk.
Now I have a better coach in UK.
For fh loop open up, my uk coach says I should do slow spinny loop. Yet my advanced china coach taught me to open up with thicker contact, resulting in deadlier, faster loops with a lower arc. My question is, in your opinion, which is right?

Well if you can do both with consistency then that's great because both shots have their uses. The slow spinny loop is a brilliant shot to throw in from time to time as it changes the pace of the game and most opponents will struggle with the first one. Give a decent player enough of them and you'll be punished if course. But that applies to the lower arc faster loop also, if they become predictable a good player will start blocking them back with better quality or countering them.
As part of your development strategy you want to be able to do both.
As part of a tactical match strategy you have to choose when to use them.

 

[NextLevel]

Timo Boll plays a lot of slow spinny loops - where is this suffering against better players that he is supposed to experience because he mostly opens with spin and placement?

The correct answer is to do whatever suits your game.

 

[PhoenixTT]

Hi all,I went on a tri to china last summer for tt training. The coach there was very good, instantly spotted flaws in my technique and corrected them and taught me far more in 3 weeks than I learnt in 6 months in the Uk.
Now I have a better coach in UK.
For fh loop open up, my uk coach says I should do slow spinny loop. Yet my advanced china coach taught me to open up with thicker contact, resulting in deadlier, faster loops with a lower arc. My question is, in your opinion, which is right?

Slightly off-topic, can I ask:
- How did you find out and enrol in TT training in China?
- Do you speak Chinese? (Does it work if I can only speak English?)
Just in case I want to do something like this in future.

 

[Brs]

For fh loop open up, my uk coach says I should do slow spinny loop. Yet my advanced china coach taught me to open up with thicker contact, resulting in deadlier, faster loops with a lower arc. My question is, in your opinion, which is right?

How high is the ball?

Is it half-long falling at the edge of the table?

Let the ball tell you what is the right thing to do.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

I wish to add: If you rely only on one type of shot, your opponent will adapt and get familiarized. That is why variation is key. You need to keep your opponent guessing and have second thoughts & self-doubt.

 

[blahness]

It is best to learn all variations. There is even fake opening loops, sidespin loops (hook, fade), etc... variation can be killer especially vs good defense. Some ppl are super good at blocking loopkills but are terrible at handling opening loops. Some ppl are really good at handling opening loops but terrible against loopkills. Some are just absolutely terrible against fake opening loops, etc... you need to sniff out their weaknesses and pounce on them.

 

[Brozi]

My take on it is that if the spinny loop is really low and deep (bounces below the net near the white line) it's really hard to counter it, much less with power.

But both loops are viable, it depends on your style really. In my book, every player needs to have something they can back up to, once everything fails, and there's no reason not to develop more of a hit loop to be really consistent. It might be harder, but still perfectly doable.

 

[Sims]

Timo Boll plays a lot of slow spinny loops - where is this suffering against better players that he is supposed to experience because he mostly opens with spin and placement?

The OP isn't Timo Boll though.
And he does vary his placement and spin, I mean, it's Timo Boll!!!
I took the view that the OP was new to this so what I meant (although I didn't express it) was that if you give too many of the same shot, opponents will usually figure it out.
Varying the placement and spin is necessary imo to make it work, which makes it a more difficult shot as you have to practice/perfect different variations of it.
I could do them for ages but always landing short over the table. Getting them to land deep is much more difficult, at least that's my experience.
I play V some players who can flat smack my SSLs so well that I don't use the shot against them unless I know it's going deep to a corner that forces them to move.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Timo Boll plays a lot of slow spinny loops - where is this suffering against better players that he is supposed to experience because he mostly opens with spin and placement?

The correct answer is to do whatever suits your game.

And what suits the circumstances in the game. Ideally, a good player can do either if he wants to. I know you can. So, agreeing with you and adding.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Hi all,I went on a tri to china last summer for tt training. The coach there was very good, instantly spotted flaws in my technique and corrected them and taught me far more in 3 weeks than I learnt in 6 months in the Uk.
Now I have a better coach in UK.
For fh loop open up, my uk coach says I should do slow spinny loop. Yet my advanced china coach taught me to open up with thicker contact, resulting in deadlier, faster loops with a lower arc. My question is, in your opinion, which is right?

i don't see why you can't do both

 

[JassaTableTennis]

The answer is fairly simple in Chinese they have a concept of both of these loops one is called 拉冲的 (Loop fierce) the other is 拉砖的(loop spinney)
in China, they would often teach you the loop face one first this is because this is actually despite being faster the most safer of the two shots. If the ball is over the height then if you loop it means you can go through the ball and safely get it on the other table however if you learn to loop spinney depending on the amount of bhen or whether the ball is no spin you can often get the ball outside of the table. Looping firstly when the ball is fairly high if you can break through the rubber and into your carbon layer even if the ball has a medium amount of backspin or no Spinnin or liar backspin these bullshit all this is why they teach you this fast. Afterwards for more half long balls they will teach you how to loop spin you or any balls with heavy back spin for example playing against choppers but that is more natural feeling the ball up and stroking it up so instead of making you learn this fast and now this is your hobby it’s safer to make you learn that looping forward looping more facely fast and then for the higher ball for the less spin ball you can hit the safely and then you can adjust depending on whether the ball is not too high, but the ball has a lot of backspin.

I am guessing as you were in China for only three weeks you didn’t have time to learn the loopings with a lot of spin so instead he just taught you the first part which is very common.
zhang jike when playing against choppers exhibits both types of looping very well and very distinctively.

 

[lightspin]

You need to learn both and use both in matches. Even Aruna who can loop faster than 99% of the pros will slow loop from time to time to throw off his opponent. I know some professional players who vary the spin of their loops while the motion of the stroke and speed of the ball look similar. This can cause nightmares for the opponent. Just make sure you can make the ball do what you want it to do for the appropriate situation.

 

[Tony Funk My Racket]

Hi all,I went on a tri to china last summer for tt training. The coach there was very good, instantly spotted flaws in my technique and corrected them and taught me far more in 3 weeks than I learnt in 6 months in the Uk.
Now I have a better coach in UK.
For fh loop open up, my uk coach says I should do slow spinny loop. Yet my advanced china coach taught me to open up with thicker contact, resulting in deadlier, faster loops with a lower arc. My question is, in your opinion, which is right?

These are two different types of topspin shots required in different situations. Here we can see Fang Bo demonstrating the slow spinny loop vs the other which I call the forehand kill shot (they call it the "rip" shot in the video). He is showing this at the 08:08 minute mark.