OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi everyone, first time posting here.

I'm in a mild dilemma at the moment. Basically, I've only ever played recreationally - started when I was in year 7 and played through to the end of year 8, at which point, I moved schools and didn't really have as great an opportunity to play as often as I did. I think you could probably count the number of times I had a hit from year 9 to year 12 on one hand.

So now that I'm in first year uni, my timetable is mildly better and I don't have such a great imperative to do well - as such, I've picked up the bat again and have played semi regularly this year. Now, while I have the fortune of being friends with two ex (Australian) national reps who are my age, I don't get to play with them overly often, and apart from about 4-5 people who I play regularly (one in particular), I don't really have *access* to many others I can play. I feel like this would be less of an issue if these 4-5 people didn't play very tennis inspired basement styled tt. It'd be ok if they were willing to experiment and bring in new shots once in a while, but they don't. The one I play with regularly, I taught to serve, loop and block to a basic degree, but then, my teaching is limited by my ability and lack of experience.

Basically, the issue is, I want to improve, seeing as I don't really feel much better than I was at the this year. I would join a club, but I'm now living interstate (for uni) and the uni table tennis club is somewhat small; this and the fact that, being away from home, I lack forms of easy transport to particular places, is a bit limiting.

I think the point of this post was to get an idea of what I could perhaps try to do with my main hitting partner to see some more tangible improvement.

FYI, if this makes any difference:

I play righty shakehand, both sides inverted. Mostly play a midrange game:
FH, *I think* wavers between Chinese and Euro loops depending on ball trajectory, though leans towards Euro. I'll throw in sidespin loops reasonably often. Occasional chop, but I tend to overuse it against people who have no understanding of spin.
BH is a bit of a weird one. For the most part, I hit in front of my body, more as a blocker than a looper, but I'm working on an effective loop. As a tennis player with a one handed BH, if stretched to my left a little, I can slam the ball just about anywhere I want it to go, and often to great effect. If pushed further, however, I tend to go for a chop, much like I would in tennis with a slice -- with the chop though, I come under the ball much more than I would in tennis; bat is almost horizontal and it almost feels like I'm cradling the ball. Occasionally I'll throw in an attacking chop just to mix things up a bit - I chop on BH a lot more than on FH.
In general, my push/close to the table game is terrible, and something I'd really like to work on.

Serve: I usually mix up between pendulum, rev pendulum and tomahawk, all with side, side/back and side top; all generally from BH/left corner. I tend to use pendulum side and side/back, rev pendulum all, and tomahawk side more than the others, simply based on effectiveness or unintentionally using one of them when trying to do another. Placement tends to depend on my perception of my opponent's strengths and weaknesses.
I lack a no spin serve that actually comes out with no spin. The single biggest thing lacking, I've found, is probably my inability to vary pace, mostly because I have a complete lack of speed on my serves.
Ball toss is also something I probably need to work on.

Serve return has become instinctual, so it's a bit hard to say exactly how I return things... I tend to backspin slightly on returns and nudge or just have my bat angled in whichever way will take care of sidespin. I chop sometimes, opponent depending. While it is instinctual, I don't aim my returns overly well and I run into trouble against heavily backspun serves.

In general rallying, people I play with regularly seem to find I'm fairly balanced between FH and BH, and find it difficult to get any ball past me on either side (this is more about their standard rather than mine. They occasionally have some impressively fast smashes). I find in a match situation though, I tend to chip my BH back and really make room for my FH to take over, often getting to be well past my left side line. I'll usually only go for a BH loop if I think I can get the point in one to two more hits, or pushed out of position. I don't have a huge wingspan of anything, I just find the FH side that much easier to cover.

It's hard for me to gauge my standard, but I played intercollege a few weeks ago and a fair few played club. I was around even with someone who'd been playing for a fair few years; lost about 10-12 15-13 11-6 or close to that. I can *vaguely* keep up with my national rep friends when rallying provided they don't play overly aggressively.

Sorry for the masses of text and if this seems a bit redundant. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

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Bty Primorac 2000 AN: FH Bty Tenergy 05 2.1/BH Bty Tenergy 64 2.1
Tibhar Killer FL: FH DHS Hurricane 3 2.2/BH DHS Hurricane 3 2.2
Sunflex SH-1 AN: FH DHS Skyline 2 2.2/BH DHS Hurricane 2 EX19 2.2

The best thing you can do is probably scour the net for coaching advice videos. There are plenty of threads here that reference them. Ping Skills is a good one.

Are you in Australia? If so which state? Or are you in another country? Have you moved away from your ex-rep friends that you don't play often with them? Are you able to tell us the ratings of your rep friends? It doesn't tell us a heck of a lot I must admit, given you can only keep with them if they don't play too aggressively, which means they may be lollipopping the ball to you or you may be handling reasonably pacy loops (although I suspect something in between). Unless you know and describe what they are doing, its impossible for us to know. It sounds to me like you have a level something just above basement player perhaps, but its just reading between the lines.

Try finding a club nearby the uni if possible. Visit there often as you can and see if you can play members and see how you size up against them. Assuming they are better, playing them (if they will) will help you improve. And try to hit as much with your rep friends when you do see them and ask them for advice. They should have some useful info to pass to you.

Use your regular mate to best advantage by bringing his skills up to at least your own. Watch coaching vids and teach him all the skills you learn. The better he gets the better you get. If he gets better than you, be glad. It means he has just taken things on board quicker and will bring you up. You can force each other up, which is the best you can hope for if you don't have a coach or many other better players to play.

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm in Australia; I live(d) in Melbourne, but I'm going to uni in Brisbane (where I am 8 months of the year).

I couldn't really tell you ratings of my ex-rep friends, but:
I've known one since year 7, having gone to school with him. I don't really know that much about his tt achievements as such, apart from that he was Victorian no 1 at least one year since I've known him.
The other, I only met this year because we're in the same course at uni and have virtually all the same classes. She won the U18 Oceania doubles and got bumped in the quarters or semis in singles a few years ago. At the time she was eligible for U15s and I believe she did fairly well in that too.

For the guy, I seem to be able to return his serves with relative ease, but I get progressively more outgunned the more hits past the serve return I get.

For the girl: I've played her a little more extensively, though not in a game situation. As far as rallying went, I was tending to mid-long distance loop with an occasional chop, she was very close to the table, looping with the occasional push. She wasn't playing her hardest clearly, but neither was I - but that's not to say it was lollipopping by any means; I didn't really have much time to think about the type of shot I was going to hit, not that I was really trying to at the time (I find I enjoy myself more when not competing in some fashion if I'm thinking about it less and just relying whatever I come up with on the spur of the moment). I suppose if pushed, I would win an average of 6-7 or so points per game against her?

Also, if it's of any significance, I also played someone on my uni's Australian Uni Games team and lost 11-4 11-4 at the intercollege event I mentioned in my previous post. I basically just found myself heavily outclassed in serves (especially - in pace, spin, everything) and close to the table game. Most of my points were from 3-5 ball exchanges, or off my serve.


I'll look into finding clubs around here. My other issue, besides transport, is time, due to the accelerated nature of the undergrad component of my degree (I'll find ways to work around it). I'm also looking into going to a club regularly while I'm in Melbourne over the 3 month holidays.

Thanks again.

_________________
Bty Primorac 2000 AN: FH Bty Tenergy 05 2.1/BH Bty Tenergy 64 2.1
Tibhar Killer FL: FH DHS Hurricane 3 2.2/BH DHS Hurricane 3 2.2
Sunflex SH-1 AN: FH DHS Skyline 2 2.2/BH DHS Hurricane 2 EX19 2.2

For the club in Brisbane, contact SuperHappyFunSlider on this forum. He is not much older than you and is heavily involved with the Brisbane club.

For Melbourne (where I am), I'd need to know which part you live when you are here to recommend a club. If its anywhere in the South East, there is my club Dandenong. It shuts down for 4 weeks around Xmas (about last week of December and 3 into January).

No. 1 Victorian Junior? U13, U15, or U18? That's a heavy hitter any which way you spin it. I know a few who have been, so maybe I know him. I know one guy who went to uni games from Victoria (from Melb Uni), I wonder if you ran into him. His name is Matt. PM me some names of people you played and your 2 ex-rep friends. If you can score 4 points against some of the uni players, you're not doing too badly.

So you are not handling serve return well. That's a common issue. What was the main problem? Dumping in net? Sending long, wide?

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

If you have trouble getting coaching or getting to a club then I would ask some more help of the two ex reps, ie
they could draw up a some drills for you and the other players
pay them a small amount for some one on one or group training
advertise for more players at the Uni and this could lead to expantion and more tables being bought
there maybe oppertunities to go to clubs in the weekend
the key is to practice for a reason and to play as many different people as possible

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Blade Ulmo Duality| FH Tibhar mx-p Black, Dawei 388D-1 red OX
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Bob,

You can not improve significantly by drills alone. You have to apply them and play top level players. Find a way to seek them out.
You can only improve your service return if you will practice receiving! For spin and drives, you can practice this using multi ball but positioning and timing can only be perfected when in real play.

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Enjoy the game. It is a never ending learning experience once you play and keep the ball on that 45 sq ft of space or should I say half of that space.