OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Not at all. Welcome to this forum, Jorge! Rest assured that the game you have been playing is considered by some to be the "proper" TT. Much of the basic strokes, placement and footwork, and overall tactics are the same regardless of whether you play "orthodox" (hardbat) or "modern" (sponged, sandwich). However, technique and equipment plays a greater role with sandwich rubber, and you need to spend some time learning the technique for spinny strokes and serves.

With hardbat the ball will easily slip on the rubber if you angle the bat for "thin" strokes, but sponged inverted rubber will almost never slip, regardless how thin the stroke impact is. Sponged pips-out will be somewhere in between. However, if you want to learn good technique for sandwich rubbers use inverted first, then when you feel that you master the technique you can determine if you want to use pips-out on one side (or both...).

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My blog of failures, etc., also containing ...
equipment list at "resurrection" (referred to in a few of my early posts), and ...
my current lineup

I'm Robert and I got the idea for my corny name from seeing australian television. I have been playing for four years of (improving) and currently am in Adelaide. I play
winter pennant div 5 and I am not the best because I have to deal with studying.

My playing style is a left handed looper.

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victory loves preparation

Good to have another from Adelaide Robert!

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Hick town for the win

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victory loves preparation

It's still a good name and probably better than "She'ell be right mate" playing in these local league's will help your game anyway

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Hi,

I'm VJ from San Diego, Senior in High School.

I like playing sports from basketball, tabletennis, and the like. I've been tabletennis for at least 6 years and have competed on some local tournaments. I stopped playing tabletennis since I've moved here in the US. I got motivated recently by the Olympics to try again and take tabletennis as a competitive sport. You can say that the Olympics refilled my hunger for tabletennis, and I can't wait to to get on the tables again.

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"you reach, I teach"

Welcome to the forum and good to hear your getting back into table tennis.

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victory loves preparation

Yeah I am too. 3 years of break was pretty long, and I'm gonna start to practice 3 hours a day in the morning in our local tabletennis recreation center. It's sad how there's only 4 tables, but I'm still pretty excited to get back and play. And, I'm pretty sad about the results today about Ariel Hsing. She seemed like a very motivated kid, I was hoping she would force the deuce today on the 6th set and make a big comeback.

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"you reach, I teach"

Yeah it is definitely hard to get back into table tennis as you are in your final year of high school and will have to find time to play it as well as your other commitments.

Is table tennis big in the US?

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victory loves preparation

Yes that's true I might have to feel it out once school starts again, but right now it's gonna be my morning thing during summer before I do other things. Not sure about the US, but in my town it's barely known and have only seen a few play it. It's mostly because it's overshadowed by outdoor sports like basketball, and football,etc. Heck, I haven't even seen tabletennis on TV until the Olympics.

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"you reach, I teach"

Best advice I could give you is get to know the people who play table tennis at the community hall. Hopefully one of them is a player that can help you improve your game, if not your going to have to train yourself up.

Your going to have to start working out at a gym and finding a player who can be your hitting buddy. It would also be wise to get a pair of indoor shoes and maybe new rubbers for the blade.

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victory loves preparation

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. I'm planning to go play and try to meet some people in the tabletennis rec center sometime this week. I already work out 'cause I play basketball. The only problem is trying to find a hitting partner, heh should be a good week.

**edit**

about my paddle, hmm seems like I can't find my old paddle from 3 years ago (it had a nittaku blade and red donics and black andros)
now I might have to build a new one. Any recommendations for a sub $70 custom paddle for a shakehand offensive player (would rather buy them individually, rubbers/blades i mean)

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"you reach, I teach"

Good luck then.

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victory loves preparation

The blade is a choice on the consumer to he or she is most comfortable with. For a 70$ blade you could squeeze in for a good Nittaku or go for a Andro supreme kinetic OFF- or OFF. if your looking for something a little cheaper go for a Yinhe/Galaxy n10. OOAK has a shop and you could ask for his recommendation.

For the rubbers, many beginners start off with Chinese and if you like chinese use the DHS hurricane series. From my observations the best rubbers for beginners or intermediates would be the Andro hexer powersponge, Rasant or HD all by andro. If you want to move up to tenergy's which a lot of players do be sure they will suit your game.

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victory loves preparation

thanks alot! I'm about to order a Galaxy n-10 for 12.99 but I'm not sure what handle I should choose if straight or flared. I'm buying from megaspin and they only have the dhs tg skyline 3, should I just go for andros? **edit nvm i found the hurricanes**

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"you reach, I teach"