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random TT diary of sorts

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bozbrisvegas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/01/2022 at 11:24pm
Back before the Youtube days, I was mad about TT and that's the first and only set of DVDs I bought.  

Classic tournament in my opinion.  The days of speed gluing Kreanga swinging. 
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bh: tensor MAX
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/03/2022 at 3:56am
Lol i ended up ordering the Cybershape blade + Xiom Tau II on FH and Victas V15 extra on BH. Not sure why there's so little stock of everything around....
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/03/2022 at 7:40pm
Originally posted by bozbrisvegas bozbrisvegas wrote:

Back before the Youtube days, I was mad about TT and that's the first and only set of DVDs I bought.  

Classic tournament in my opinion.  The days of speed gluing Kreanga swinging. 

Haha that must be quite the sight. I came in much later - my first TT memories was with the huge Wang Liqin FH which was the most awesome thing to watch - like the hammer of the gods. Maybe that's why my BH really suffered a lot in development - I just wasn't as motivated to develop it back then....

Funny how everyone has much smaller strokes now and there's almost none of this wild big swings these days. 
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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/03/2022 at 7:53pm
Did a lot of BH focused and footwork training yesterday... the free arm movement (lat pull with both hands rather than just with the playing arm) really helps a huge ton in terms of accuracy, stability and power. When the timing is right, some of my BH loops with D05 were even faster/spinnier than my FH loops with the crappy D09c. The strange thing is that my D05 is actually older than my D09c - it's been like 8 months and still going strong!

With the BH, timing is really everything - sometimes it is even worthwhile to jump towards the ball to get to the correct timing - missing the timing window (especially being late to the ball) results in much lower shot quality in general especially if it's not hit in the ideal strike zone in front of the body or even slightly to the left. 

Also did some serve and receive footwork training, focused mainly on making the recovery after the serve and receive faster. I noticed that sometimes I kinda delay the recovery rather than doing that immediately. Basically the recovery has to be part of the stroke movement too - can't be lazy during training!
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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bozbrisvegas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/03/2022 at 10:35pm
Looks like some EJing fun ahead.  My friend really likes that blade.  That FH rubber sounds and looks cool on the packaging.  Look forward to hearing about them.
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bh: tensor MAX
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/04/2022 at 10:23pm
Originally posted by bozbrisvegas bozbrisvegas wrote:

Looks like some EJing fun ahead.  My friend really likes that blade.  That FH rubber sounds and looks cool on the packaging.  Look forward to hearing about them.

Can't wait to test it out!
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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/05/2022 at 9:59am
Made some breakthroughs today. Although my FH rubber is just absolutely terrible, what worked was not going for the powerloops, but trying to go for max spin like Timo Boll...so apparently that still works for the D09c. It's just not spinny enough to bring the powerloops down to the table anymore ...  Unfortunately as I won't have any replacement rubbers anytime soon, I will have to live with not able to powerloop hard on the FH....which sucks Dead

With this strat and an improved BH (thanks to the free hand movement), I was able to stand my own in the rallies and win some games off this rally player playing aggressive table tennis instead of trying to win ugly lol. I still lost a ton of games in the beginning before starting to take over, so adding all of them up it was rather even. There were a huge ton of exciting topspin rallies going on (even loop to loop from mid distance) which must have drawn some spectators haha....
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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/07/2022 at 8:45am
I boosted the D09c with olive oil and it came back to life roaring lol. My FH powerloops are all back :O 

Played some doubles today and it was so fun... the games were somehow always quite close regardless of the pairing and doubles really punishes passive play - because the aggressive player doesn't need to worry about recovery - the partner can easily take over even if the shot is out of balance. With doubles I was doing mostly FH whole table (as it is the most efficient strategy) as it is the hardest shot to return by far, most flexible and consistent. My newly learnt FH flick became super useful because I could even punish most of the short no-spin and side-top serves, and still be ready to loop most of the long serves. The problem with using the BH receive/chiquita is that if the serve turns out to be long I'll have to make it a full fledged BH loop which is just not as strong as the FH loop - it is extremely hard to transition from a chiquita preparation stance to a FH loop. Also did a lot of quality short pushes which I normally don't get to do much in singles play - it is actually highly effective at shutting down a good player coz if you push short with quality they pretty can't do their high quality topspin opening loops. 

I don't think the receiver is at that much of a disadvantage in doubles as it is in singles because the available service placements is cut by half. Felt so much better in the serve receive compared to singles tbh. 
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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bozbrisvegas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/09/2022 at 3:55am
So the tackiness is still there, just the sponge lost its flex/liveliness.  Cool if all it needs olive oil.

yup, serving for doubles has got to be tight.  I receive both ways see which works better with their serves, especially if my partner is strong FH... that way I'm out the way with bh receive.




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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/10/2022 at 10:39pm
Continued more BH training yesterday night - I did a lot of BH mid-distance "slow spinny looping" to improve my feeling for spinning up the ball and general moving towards the ball to further ingrain the non-playing arm movement into my consciousness. Felt really good and I reckon I should do more of these although my BH is still mainly a close-table BH - it really improves the spin feeling which is extremely critical to success rates. Mid distance looping is a real treat for the legs tho, i think it's as intense as leg days in the gym...

I played with a player who wouldn't practice properly, he was a penholder who goes RSM kamikaze smashing during practice, and even during BH to BH he's doing all sorts of nonsense (intentional imo) like going super wide on blocks, chopblocks and suddenly increasing the power.... So in the end I got fed up and just loopkilled the ball whenever it came to my side of the table, and I think he actually enjoyed picking up the balls all the time lmao.... Swear I'm never gonna practice with that guy anymore... 


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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bozbrisvegas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/10/2022 at 11:00pm
LOL there's always someone unhappy about what 'warm up' or 'practise' means.  I generally just tell the partner I want to practise this shot (hence I brought a lot of balls).  But if they intentionally (clearly) don't play to it for a half share then I do it back to them too.  In which case I just say play a game (because you obviously can't do anything else.)  Looking for another player....
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/11/2022 at 12:27am
Originally posted by bozbrisvegas bozbrisvegas wrote:

LOL there's always someone unhappy about what 'warm up' or 'practise' means.  I generally just tell the partner I want to practise this shot (hence I brought a lot of balls).  But if they intentionally (clearly) don't play to it for a half share then I do it back to them too.  In which case I just say play a game (because you obviously can't do anything else.)  Looking for another player....

Yeah, unfortunately there's always a few players here and there with antisocial behaviour.... happens in other sports too Dead
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/12/2022 at 9:13am
Trained a lot of short game with my partner (especially short pushes - both against topspin as well as underspin serves) today. I tried some of the Truls Moregard movement (fencing lunge style short push) and it is damn hard due to the precision involved, but boy does it produce a super high quality short push which is both super short and low (even off half long serves). I trained the short push while he trained more of the FH flick (off my short push) - turns out he's a natural, he already achieved better quality in his FH flick in 1 day of training than what I've managed to achieve in like a week plus wtf... 

Also did a lot more BH mid distance loop training which I was quite happy about, I'm starting to getting really good spin quality now, but in general still need to move better and co-ordinate the thumb press and the "deadlift" timing better with the stroke (it makes a huge difference to shot quality when the timing is right). But it's starting to come together. 

Once the short push against topspin is mastered, I feel like it has become an extremely valuable tool as even if you misread the spin somewhat you tend to pop it up with some underspin or have it go a bit longer, and then you still have an opportunity to defend. It also makes the long pushes and flick's and sidespin swipes much more dangerous as the range of placements suddenly becomes that much larger.... 

Generally against sidetopspin serves flicking or sideswipes are always the preferred and more aggressive option imo, but having some surprises is always really useful.


Edited by blahness - 08/12/2022 at 9:21am
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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bozbrisvegas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/12/2022 at 4:16pm
Sounds like my last day.  Shame we aren't in the same town...

I find that at least 50% of players who attempt backspin serves generally can only side spin mostly the ball which makes pushing the ball back not my favorite thing to practise from a logic point of view.  Instead of pushing meaning countering backspin I think countering side spin much more effective in such cases... or if they are far to my left enough then continuing the sidespin / looping it with very little topspin even more effective since the big action looks like topspin and they block it into the net.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/12/2022 at 6:37pm
Originally posted by bozbrisvegas bozbrisvegas wrote:

Sounds like my last day.  Shame we aren't in the same town...

I find that at least 50% of players who attempt backspin serves generally can only side spin mostly the ball which makes pushing the ball back not my favorite thing to practise from a logic point of view.  Instead of pushing meaning countering backspin I think countering side spin much more effective in such cases... or if they are far to my left enough then continuing the sidespin / looping it with very little topspin even more effective since the big action looks like topspin and they block it into the net.  

The standard for short push is the ability to short push everything including topspin or sidespin serves haha... Same with flicks, the standard is to be able to flick everything including heavy backspin. This provides a lot of options during the receive. The trick is to use the body to absorb the momentum and with the racket going forward and sideways. Imo Truls Moregard actually has one of the best timing/technique here as he's short pushing with bouncy af rubbers lol (short push with tacky rubbers is cheating imo with much lower skill required). There's a few videos on the internet showing ex CNT players like Fang Bo short pushing high "lobs".... It is actually quite a good exercise (I tried it with my training partner too to improve the feeling). The action is actually exactly like how Ma Lin drops Maze's lobs short. If you can make a high ball short, low with backspin then short serves would be easy (the hard part is actually reading the spin)


Edited by blahness - 08/12/2022 at 6:57pm
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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/14/2022 at 7:33pm
Had a bit more fun with practice and games today, won 2 and lost 2 best of 3s against the rally player, even when I was playing attacking TT (usually I get destroyed if I play attacking TT). The BH short push training actually is super useful because now I don't always need to chiquita that often and can pick and select which balls I actually feel are easier to attack, and makes the opponents less used to the chiquita when it comes. Dignics 05 is horrible for short game though - the rubber is just oh so bouncy and easy to pop up, you really need quite a bit of precision in the short push to keep it tight. Also if I chiquita all the time, I realised that the rally player was already at mid-distance waiting to counterloop on both wings, so by chiquita-ing his short serves I was pretty much playing right into his game plan. Short pushes really messed up his defence because now he has to come in for the short ball and often with his positioning he would be late to the ball and pop it up for an easy kill. And then when he's trying to come closer to the table, I do the aggressive chiquita and he doesn't have enough time to counterloop it, I get an easier block which I can finish off. 

Next on my list is to learn the short and spinny chiquita (mostly spin but landing short) to allow myself this short to long variation (didn't realise that this can throw off opponents so much) 
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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/19/2022 at 5:22am
Getting too tired for TT, the gym sessions are just taking way too much from me especially on the legs. Not sure how to balance like 2-3x gym sessions with 1-2 TT sessions per week lol...

Edit: still managed to squeeze a 3.5 hr session in... Was practising topspin vs topspin against a very good blocker. My BH feels a lot more controlled and spinnier now with the addition of the emphasis on the free hand movement as well as wrapping the ball much more comprehensively. It is extremely useful for higher balls, in the past I would be forced to FH pivot because of too many errors if I took those higher balls with my BH. Now I can stay with my BH, or pivot which gives me a lot of options. Also practiced transitioning between the BH loop and the BH block as well as the FH sidespin block (very underrated tool, the angles that this creates usually is a killer against the BH down the line from the opponent)

More spin is better compared to less spin - to me it's like a crutch of sorts, with more topspin I can get away with less precise blade angles etc.... 


Edited by blahness - 08/19/2022 at 9:23am
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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/21/2022 at 1:42am
Did another 3 hr session today with the rally partner. I can now quite comfortably BH counterloop his chiquita which felt like a huge advantage - coz I already can counterloop strongly on the FH. Previously I could only do placement blocking with the BH against the chiquita which usually landed me in trouble as he could then attack the block easily with both wings putting me in a really disadvantageous position. 

I think now I'm even starting to get the upper hand rallying against him, because I generally have more spin in my strokes (he is generally a bit more powerful though I have to admit)

A lot of the BH practice is starting to pay off. 

I also tried the short chiquita and it was kinda useless lol, I just gave him lots of opportunity balls this way. But it is quite the safe stroke, so maybe against players who don't like playing topspin to topspin it could be a good way to transform the game.


Edited by blahness - 08/21/2022 at 2:48am
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Viscaria
FH: Hurricane 8-80
BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bozbrisvegas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/21/2022 at 5:45am
Sounds like both of you are finding strategies against your usual openings.

Do you guys count game scores or just play out points?  Or should I say have you got the upper hand most the time?  

I find playing the same really strong player great as long as I don't forget that they have got used to my strong skills which I should use against others that haven't had the time to find the solution to the puzzles. 

Similarly, I recently finally got my quite 'standard' FH pendulum serve consistant, that one that I'd say a lot of people use and are used to.  I probably got real bad at it because I stopped doing it, most people read it well as a 'standard'... but it's still dam excellent when they only see it rarely and are expecting my others...   

Your openings are becoming standard to each other it sounds like...  always gonna be something that is a little looser for the oppenent... 

Sorry I started rambling. LOL
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/21/2022 at 6:14am
Originally posted by bozbrisvegas bozbrisvegas wrote:

Sounds like both of you are finding strategies against your usual openings.

Do you guys count game scores or just play out points?  Or should I say have you got the upper hand most the time?  

I find playing the same really strong player great as long as I don't forget that they have got used to my strong skills which I should use against others that haven't had the time to find the solution to the puzzles. 

Similarly, I recently finally got my quite 'standard' FH pendulum serve consistant, that one that I'd say a lot of people use and are used to.  I probably got real bad at it because I stopped doing it, most people read it well as a 'standard'... but it's still dam excellent when they only see it rarely and are expecting my others...   

Your openings are becoming standard to each other it sounds like...  always gonna be something that is a little looser for the oppenent... 

Sorry I started rambling. LOL
 

Yes we play a lot of practice games to test out what we have learnt to improve together. Somehow he still struggles against my serves tho after all these while LOL but he knows all my loop placements that I'm often forced to loop one extra ball (good habit to form anyways). In the rallies he is very, very strong, especially with his defence like a wall, BH-FH transitions and footwork. The longer the points go on, the more it goes in favour of him. I think he has a stronger BH while I have a stronger FH in general. 

I would say I have an advantage in games usually because of my serve/receive and spin quality on my loops, but he's also developed a nasty short game and flicks thanks to the training we have been doing. I think the short push training has benefited him a lot more than it did myself. Tbh the advantage isn't that big, I can lose to him all night long if my form isn't great...

On a side note, I kinda hate FH pendulum serves tbh, it always gets received really well be it pushes or flicks or chiquita, I'm almost exclusively serving hook serves these days as everyone seems to struggle against them. Even FH no spin/heavy underspin is a better choice than the pendulum as it at least jams the chiquita hard. 


Edited by blahness - 08/21/2022 at 6:18am
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FH: Hurricane 8-80
BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/24/2022 at 9:36am
I finally found out why I play amazing in one place which I play regularly and like crap in another. The table bounces are different! So in the table with the newer table, the surface is smoother and the ball doesn't lose a lot of spin or speed after it touches the table, while on the other place the tables are older so it's not so smooth and the ball loses quite a bit more spin and speed. So the stroke timings are completely different, and I have to adjust to it somehow. I actually play much better on the "slower" table because it allows me more time to see through all the variations of the other player while I still can generate a lot of pace on the ball with a full stroke, whereas on the "quicker" table it's so easy to get jammed because of the incoming speed - it gives a lot of benefit to those playing close to table with lots of variation (read - most higher level penholders). 

Edited by blahness - 08/24/2022 at 9:37am
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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/26/2022 at 9:21am
Tired af tonight but still played 3 hrs coz my friends were there too. 

I know why my BH push is much worse and unstable compared to my FH push now, because I'm using too much of the wrist - the most important part is still the action of straightening the forearm, and using the body to either absorb or add power to the incoming ball, if enough momentum is absorbed then it'll be a dropshot, if power is added then it'll be a deep long push. Basically using the wrist to add spin makes it a lot more unstable, the wrist should be relatively fixed and just used for minor adjustments. Learnt this from a Fang Bo tutorial video. His short push tutorial is gold - I learnt so much from it! 

Trained a lot of pushing and managed to get a lot of direct points just by some nasty placement pushing during doubles. I'm starting to see the push as a weapon, not just to get the ball across the table. 

My legs were super dead and I couldn't do any good loops at all the whole night, so I was mostly pushing and blocking, which strangely also reaped lots of dividends. Lol it's an ugly style but what can you do when you have no energy left to loop?


Edited by blahness - 08/26/2022 at 9:22am
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FH: Hurricane 8-80
BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/28/2022 at 5:32am
Played again today and adjusted my BH loop receive off a serve to be way less aggressive and just focus more on controlling the trajectory. 

Didn't drop a single set against the rally player (first time I've done that) after many sets, and also won most sets against another quality attacking player who has one of the highest quality topspins on both wings I've ever seen. 

Basically I'm doing mostly safe controlled playing (topspins, chiquita and pushes) and just not going for risky shots, focusing more on placement instead - a bit of the Timo Boll approach. They were complaining that my shots were so slow today that there was no energy to borrow Tongue  Usually I kinda kill myself with overly aggressive play. 

The huge benefit of playing slower is if you misread the spin a bit, the loop goes a bit shorter or longer but it'll still landing on the table for the most part. Especially with serve receive where there's way too much variation, it's in general better to play it safe and slow first, and then play the topspin rally out until you get an opportunity ball to finish off. And also if they're used to the slower loop, when you're sure of the incoming spin you can add power and it'll usually surprise them. No need to go for the outright winners.

Maybe it's a better playstyle than going for all the wild topspins and outrageous winners.


Edited by blahness - 08/29/2022 at 6:39pm
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Viscaria
FH: Hurricane 8-80
BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/29/2022 at 6:49pm
Played some tennis recently (2nd time in my entire life) and was pleasantly surprised how close it is to TT (except for the sun!!). I'm doing two handed BHs and two handed FHs and felt like all the weight transfer, body mechanics and footwork transferred quite well lol, I was already not that uncomfortable going for some rallies. The effect of the spin is crazy - the ball kicks a lot more than table tennis, positionally speaking. I didn't feel comfortable doing 1 handed anything, it seems like a recipe for injury given how heavy the ball is and the racket, plus my TT habit of pronating/supinating hard to spin the ball lol. Two handed strokes feels a lot more stable and controlled imo

Serve and serve receive in tennis is insanely difficult though....even harder than in table tennis imo. I tried smashing the ball down to the court and could only land it in the box like 10% of the time wtf... probably will have to do like underhand serves for the time being....and receiving serves is also crazy - my friend did like a sidespin serve to the sidelines (kinda like a tomahawk smash in TT) and i couldn't even reach the ball yikes....


Edited by blahness - 08/29/2022 at 6:53pm
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BH: D05

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/31/2022 at 7:57am
Wow I think I may have played my best table tennis ever tonight. Played with a pretty decent penholder (my worst matchup in general) and I made so many crazy shots that the other player was completely gobsmacked... Won like 10 straight games (including one set down from 2-8 and winning 9 straight points to win 11-8)

I think I was feeling super relaxed like in a zen-like mode...not rushing any shot but having a super relaxed hand especially on the BH did some wonders. The strange thing is that when I'm in this relaxed state I probably generated a lot more spin than usual. I'm fairly sure I'll lose this feeling soon but I think it's a good reminder to consciously relax the hand as much as possible (only tensing at ball contact) especially during serve receive (the worst feeling to have is the feeling of preparing to loopkill all incoming serves lol, I think the correct mindset is to prepare to intercept the ball and do a small consistent loop - it is hard to go from preparing a big loop to go smaller, than it is to go from preparing a small loop to exploding into a big one)


Edited by blahness - 08/31/2022 at 8:12am
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FH: Hurricane 8-80
BH: D05

Back to normal shape bats :(
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bozbrisvegas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/31/2022 at 10:55pm
Sounds similar to my last session bar the results.  But yeah the zone, finding the zone, believing and letting go as you know you should till it just flows unforced.

cool!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08/31/2022 at 11:35pm
Yes exactly! I think you nailed it - it's also about believing and trusting in the technique, and then letting go. Tensing up is a great way to destroy ball feeling...

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/02/2022 at 10:31am
Trained a lot of BH pushing to ingrain the new movement into my mind. My main issue was not relaxing the grip and following the ball after the push. With this new movement I have tons more control of the short push, but it's still nowhere near my FH short push level. Confused It's also much harder to push well with D05 which is just bouncy af. 

Basically the more you short push the more the ball loses spin, and with each push you have to gradually adjust the angle to be less open to maintain good trajectory control.

I also did some chiquita training after neglecting and taking it for granted for so long. I tweaked the stroke from a more smooth movement with arm to a more explosive pure supination stroke (without so much forearm movement), and actually it becomes a much more dangerous stroke, because now the preparatory movement can start from a push and the opponent now can face anything from a short push to a deep push or the chiquita. Also this increased the ball quality significantly - especially against underspin.

Played with a super advanced player and got two sets off him for the first time ever, thanks to the short push training I've done - it really caused him a lot of trouble trying to attack them. His FH pendulum serve is just insane tho, I so hate receiving it Dead  it's almost a guessing game in terms of what spin he is producing and the spin is just sooooo heavy yikes... Also his defence is just like a brick wall, even when I had the first loop often it was just blocked or countered with interest and eventually he would take over just from superior footwork and placement. 



Edited by blahness - 09/02/2022 at 11:12am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote blahness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/07/2022 at 8:44am
Trained a lot of BH topspin against one of the super blockers at the club, am getting happier with the results because I feel like there's a lot more "easy" power at my disposal. What I really improved is the timing of the grip tightening and application of finger power at ball contact and the free hand movement which made recovering and balance much easier. I also trained short push + full table opening loops which was surprisingly not so difficult for the BH. I feel like my FH opening is now even worse than my BH in terms of success rates (maybe because I've been focusing a lot on BH loop improvement).... Didn't help that I did heavy barbell squats at the gym just on Mon... Somehow my FH loop is quite brute force-ish which really gets affected a lot if my legs are tired or sore. Also there's some issues with how I'm adjusting for the length of the incoming shot. I feel like this is probably one of the more useful exercises to train (short pushing and then attacking all long pushes or any higher short pushes). 

I'm surprised that some of the lower skilled players have excellent short game too especially the penholders (shakehand ppl are usually quite crap at it lol, I have to "short push" their long pushes which makes my life quite difficult!). It's a joy to train short push with them rather than trying to do some low quality topspin rally training (their ball quality and consistency for those just ain't challenging enough)




Edited by blahness - 09/07/2022 at 8:46am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bozbrisvegas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09/08/2022 at 4:53am
For sure playing the widest variety of players and a mix of levels is beneficial.  I got a couple of weird lower level players that have some strange shots and serves I haven't seen before.  The more of that the better to strategize about.  Fast to get bored of the predominant push/chop style of lower levels though.  I tend to beat most of them at 'it' anyway because I usually sidespin push creating errors where they push straight of the side of the table. 

You seem to have some good blockers.  Lucky you.  


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