OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Kees wrote:
"Smashing with pips you have to avoid making large gestures; no upswing, just get behind the ball and accelerate very fast over a very short distance"

This is the main thing that is hard for me to adjust as I tend to brush loop a long push or a chop.

I think the main reason why I hated the SP with the balsa blade was the weight. It was so light that it was like weilding a wand rather than a bat.

I switched the SP to a carbon blade and it has more weight now and I can really feel the ball hitting. But the angle of using the SP is giving me a lot of trouble.

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BTY Timo Boll Spirit
FH: Tibhar Aurus 1.7mm
BH: Tibhar Aurus Soft 1.7mm

Be patient, it took me awhile to adjust as well.

Consciously focusing on keeping the bat open, letting the rubber "bite" through a thicker contact as Kees described and not taking too hard a swing when the ball is lower than elbow height all helped me. I can still brush loop heavy underspin pushes and chops, but a roll is more consistent and effective, so that shot is definitely worth learning.

I noticed when I watched Toshio Tasaki do drills on video he almost always rolled the low balls, though it is a little hard to see the difference with some players. Chen Longcan seemed to roll almost exclusively, while Jiang Jialiang used more of the "small topspin" that Kees described. That shot uses more elbow and wrist and is better played against balls slightly after the top of the bounce.

My opening against underspin is kind of a hybrid right now, but learning new things and perfecting your techniques is a good portion of what makes this sport interesting to me.

I found the biggest adjustment was in blocking as I automatically closed the blade. Now I keep my bat more open and am more active, but again it's something I'm still working on.

A nice thing about the heavier racket is that once you get it moving you can impart more force with a quicker motion. I used to use a lighter racket, but the heavier one is definitely more stable when I block.

Still, I can understand who people like light rackets and you do have to be careful to take time to get used to the heavier weight by not doing too many repetitive drills at first or playing too long for example.

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-- Andrew

Spintech All Around Penhold blade
Spinlord Keiler II 1.5 black
Nittaku FastArc G1 red

729 all around blade
Tibhar Grass D-Tec S Red
Nittaku FastArc G1 black

Thanks Andrew for the input.

I am a patient person and when I do get the hitting angle right it is a joy. I just have to work on the consistency and I am at the stage where I am still not confident to completely switched over.

Right now there are a lot of tournaments to go to and Pennant competition as well. I will probably take the SP on full time by December, as table tennis activity in this part of the world winds down by then.

Cheers,
Arlene

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BTY Timo Boll Spirit
FH: Tibhar Aurus 1.7mm
BH: Tibhar Aurus Soft 1.7mm

Arlene, there are various top women players who use SP on their backhand. Wu Jiaduo is one (that I can remember off-hand) using exactly your kind of set-up. There are vids of her around (http://com.martinspin.ch/, for instance). It may be worth studying these. You don't have to copy her completely, mind you, but it is well to have an example, to get the general idea of a certain style of play.
About trying out your pips in competition - yes, that is risky, of course. But if you'd do it with a what-the-hell-I'm-going-for-it sort of attitude, I think you would learn very quickly. You'ld lose a few matches, certainly, but that would tell you right away what it is you do wrong and right, and you might unexpectedly win a few others. You are no beginner, so at this stage analyzing your matchplay would get you further, in my opinion, than analyzing your practice-sessions. Pips play is not for the timid, anyway, and you sure don't seem timid to me. Why not go where the heart takes you?

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Without opponent, no match.

Kees wrote:You are no beginner, so at this stage analyzing your matchplay would get you further, in my opinion, than analyzing your practice-sessions. Pips play is not for the timid, anyway, and you sure don't seem timid to me. Why not go where the heart takes you?

OK Kees, I'll do it Thanks for the encouragement. Anyway one has to think long term in this game. There's a lot of matches and tournaments ahead and I am aware that I will lose some and win some but the goal is to improve my percentages of winning.

Learn the strokes, apply the footwork, work on tactics, keep physically fit and mentally positive. Everything will come together.

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BTY Timo Boll Spirit
FH: Tibhar Aurus 1.7mm
BH: Tibhar Aurus Soft 1.7mm

OK, Arlene, brave thing to do! I hope you'll enjoy every inch of the way you'll go!

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Without opponent, no match.

I learned (the hard way) that being too tentative with SP is a recipe for defeat. My games really picked up when I took some risk in initiating the offense. There were a lot of misses (usually I hit too long and miss by inches - a vestige of my inverted days when topspin was expected to bring the ball down) but I enjoyed every minute of the excitement of all out hitting. But the end result is that I now have a better awareness of the proper ball height, racket angle, and the force and speed required.

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TSP Spectol Soft - 2.1 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
Stiga Clipper CR WRB
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TSP Spinpips 21 - 2.0 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
BBC 9-10-9

Amateur 101 wrote:


I understand how it did that, and I am all for taking some risk, but this is not quite what I intended to say to Arlene when I suggested she go for it with all her heart. What I meant was that in order to make a style in table tennis your own, you have to commit yourself to it. Fully! Whereas it is in fact possible to learn different styles, even more or less at the same time, it is impossible - in my opinion - to learn any one of them really well that way. The different types of stroke, different kinds of tactics, different sets of footwork, and different serves will interact with one another and this is detrimental. You have to get a clear picture in your mind of what it is you do; you have to specialize, to find your own, singular, clear-cut way of playing. For a time I tried to pick up all the styles there are in table tennis, because as a trainer and a coach I wanted to be able to explain perfectly what every type of stroke was about as well as perform it. Although this got me to know a lot about different aspects of table tennis, it messed up my own play. For this reason I have of late made an end to all that and started to focus on my own pips out style. Even although I knew beforehand this turn would be for the best, it actually surprised me how fast I made progress after that. So when I suggested to Arlene she go for it, I meant to incite her to commit herself fully to playing with pips (on her backhand), not necessarily to go for a fast and risky hitting game; for although the latter certainly is one of the options with pips, in my view one would learn the most, initially, when starting with a somewhat more moderate allround block/drive&hit style of play.

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Without opponent, no match.

I agree with you on this point. I started out as a chopper when I was young and moved on to develop a more offense oriented game. I evetually settled for an all around style but tried to go into more offense since everyone else seemed to be doing that. Somehow it did not seem to settle comfortably with me. My looping is average but my coach said that my blocking and smashing were great. After a hiatus of 5 years, I decided to switch to all pips hitting which to me is more fascinating to play. There is only one other all pips player at my club and we always marvel at the uniqueness of this style. You are right that one needs to be commited to the pips style of play.

_________________
TSP Spectol Soft - 2.1 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
Stiga Clipper CR WRB
--------------and--------------------
TSP Spinpips 21 - 2.0 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
BBC 9-10-9