OOAK Table Tennis Forum

the best set up for me is : 802-40 with quatro sponge 39deg by cole...i get sinkballs with this but if you look for a sinkball rubber try tyrano TSP, a rubber that makes sinkballs will also be hard to control and you will miss a lot and for what i read you re a kinda a newbie with pips, you gotta try with 1.8 2mm thickness, stiff blades also helps

I'm just going to stick with my inverted and long pips combo and see if I can improve my game with it by developing quicker reactions, better touch and a few new shots.

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--- Push/Chop or Attack ---
USATT 1684 left, Lost it all by playing sick and hurt.
No legs left, no more backing up, just smash it!
Blade: TTPiet OFF-/ALL custom
FH: Spinlord Waran Short Pips
BH: Joola Badman Reloaded 0X

Yeah, you were right there. I just never read the spin well enough and fast enough to adjust my returns for the incoming spin. No different than the lower level inverted players I run into so much when they play against my long pips. The better ones that are getting it back well and beating me are reading and adjusting to the spin. I've spent lots more on rubber and lots on coaching, too, but its hard to change as I get older, and I still don't read and adjust to the spin.

I played terribly yesterday, for that same reason again. It was so depressing to go 12-0 on Thursday, and then not be able to hit the ball back yesterday. So badly that I started looking at switching to short pips for the forehand again, and told the team I'm playing so badly that I can't play today. To be fair, I never gave the short pips on forehand enough of a chance. I only played with Spectol for a week or two, and was playing close to my normal level at the time (ie before I destroyed my legs), so if I had given them 3 months or 6 months, maybe I'd have adjusted to them a lot better.played a lot better. Not sure where to go from here, but as always, its mentally painful to play badly.

_________________
--- Push/Chop or Attack ---
USATT 1684 left, Lost it all by playing sick and hurt.
No legs left, no more backing up, just smash it!
Blade: TTPiet OFF-/ALL custom
FH: Spinlord Waran Short Pips
BH: Joola Badman Reloaded 0X

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I think it was Einstien that said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results".
Yeah, you were right there. I just never read the spin well enough and fast enough to adjust my returns for the incoming spin. No different than the lower level inverted players I run into so much when they play against my long pips. The better ones that are getting it back well and beating me are reading and adjusting to the spin. I've spent lots more on rubber and lots on coaching, too, but its hard to change as I get older, and I still don't read and adjust to the spin.

I played terribly yesterday, for that same reason again. It was so depressing to go 12-0 on Thursday, and then not be able to hit the ball back yesterday. So badly that I started looking at switching to short pips for the forehand again, and told the team I'm playing so badly that I can't play today. To be fair, I never gave the short pips on forehand enough of a chance. I only played with Spectol for a week or two, and was playing close to my normal level at the time (ie before I destroyed my legs), so if I had given them 3 months or 6 months, maybe I'd have adjusted to them a lot better.played a lot better. Not sure where to go from here, but as always, its mentally painful to play badly.[/quote]

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My experience is similar.
I have quit the game for a year or more at a time out of frustration that in my head the "light never came on" regarding reading/reacting to spin.
(However, I seem to keep coming back. )

In the same way that it usually takes thousands of repetitions of a physical action (e.g. a stroke) to get good at it,
it seems to take me millions of repetitions to improve the thought process of dealing with spin.
I often figure out what I should have done 5 seconds after the point ends,
which is an improvement over the 10 seconds it used to take.

I use un-spinny equipment, which reacts to spin in a muted degree.
(1) This helps me get lots more return-of-serves back into play.
It is way more fun to be beaten by 3rd ball attack than by failing to put return-of-serve into play.
(2) I can have fun hitting thru spin when I get the short, high ball.

Good news: I think I am improving in my ability to deal with spin.
Bad news: The rate of improvement is glacial.

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Blade from Juic Smasher pre-made
FH and BH: Yasaka A-1-2

Yeah, I play so badly against pips that I didn't even want to play a game today.

The guy had the same rubber as me.

Over and over I went into the net, even chopping. LOL, he went into the net and off the back, too. The winning shots were usually quick placement shots when the point wasn't decided by one of us going into the net.

Yeah, a long time to learn...

_________________
--- Push/Chop or Attack ---
USATT 1684 left, Lost it all by playing sick and hurt.
No legs left, no more backing up, just smash it!
Blade: TTPiet OFF-/ALL custom
FH: Spinlord Waran Short Pips
BH: Joola Badman Reloaded 0X

I know this may be too fundamental for your level, but this is how I was working with a player who wanted to try long pips last weekend. Maybe it will help someone even if it is too basic to be of help to you. Maybe try getting someone to feed balls to you (one at a time) to start with. Just one ball the same spin, over and over... Ideally you hit it back to him (to the same spot), he catches the ball and feeds it back to you again. Notice I don't recommend he return your shot back to you. The idea is to give you the same ball, same spin, same pace, to the same spot again and again. As you gradually get more confident, you are allowed to choose a second spot to place the ball. If for instance, you begin by hitting cross-court, then the next spot would be down the line, more advanced would be hitting the same type ball to multiple locations and different depths. Next, you would take the step of introducing a different spin. So if you started out with chop, you would introduce topspin. Next dead balls. Then maybe sidespin.

What you are working towards is recognizing the incoming spin...so the final step is for your partner to introduce different spins, alternating, beginning with just 2 different spins. It is important for the partner to be consistent, and to make it visually easy to see what he is doing (no hiding the serve techniques .) The purpose if to create confidence in your ability to 1) see what he is doing, 2) react appropriately, 3) repeat this (especially after the partner is mixing up spins). At first it may be all you can do to get the ball back, but as you practice try to keep the ball in a specific target area at the appropriate height...pace on your return will vary with the type of return you are trying to execute.
Once this is mastered to with a fair degree of success you will begin to play out points.

Standard stuff applies as with any TT training, you need to have proper stance, grip, and all that stuff, in advanced training with this you can incorporate twiddling and use both sides of the racket. A good robot can substitute for a human partner if one is not readily available.

It's really just the same thing as topspin players warming up before playing a game, and can be done in a limited fashion as an alternative warmup if you can get someone on the other end to cooperate. Note: this is just a variation on multi-ball practice, specifically for pips players, or those learning to read/react to spin with any surface.

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Donic Waldner World Champion 89 FL; Donic BlueStar A2 (Red) Max; DMS Firestorm (Black) 1.8

you mean spectol speed?

I got to the point where I just couldn't back up anymore so have switched to short pips forehand which does much better up close than the inverted did. Its been about 6 weeks now. I am slow to adjust because I don't move to the ball and use the same shot like people are trained to do, and as I get older it gets even tougher to move.

I'm winning about as many as I did with inverted now, because even though my shots are less reliable (caused by not adjusting to sink effect), my opponents shots are even less reliable. And yes, that seems to be regardless of if it's and old ball or a new plastic Joola, Butterfly, Nittaku or whatever. Chopping seems to always work, but maybe that's just me.

From another thread, Hookshot described how to hit the ball with short pips....

hookshot
PostPosted: 13 Oct 2008, 09:25
Do you feel lucky (young) punk?
The other main difference is to start your stroke just a "little" lower than the ball. Go into the ball. Think drive, not brush. Trying to use a loop stroke is about like trying to use a cheap, no spin premade. If you can't break away from the inverted strokes, pips will not work.
At lower levels, twiddling and doing a super loop with 802-40 will usually get put in the net. Won't work against players that understand.

I have noticed this working, but never nailed down how or exactly what, especially the low entry point and need to concentrate on hitting this way...

_________________
--- Push/Chop or Attack ---
USATT 1684 left, Lost it all by playing sick and hurt.
No legs left, no more backing up, just smash it!
Blade: TTPiet OFF-/ALL custom
FH: Spinlord Waran Short Pips
BH: Joola Badman Reloaded 0X