OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi, I'm brand new to this forum.

I've played table tennis recreationally for years. I was gifted what I believe to be a pretty decent paddle last Christmas and began playing daily at my new school that has ping pong tables set up in the common area at school.

I don't do much casually, I like competition and I have looked up all the official rules for table tennis and bought 40mm balls to play with instead of the provided 38mm balls.

I don't know much about terms but I am able to do a pretty decent forehand loop, understand spin counters and usually left or right spin my backhand since I'm weak at backhand looping.

Daily I play with players i consider skilled and we have good matches, however, occasionally a very recreational player, the kind who uses the provided cheap heavy paddles and dont care if we use 38mm or 40mm balls will make me feel like i practice all these techniques for nothing.

The paddles they use are hard/crappy and whether I drive with spin or defend its like they are just playing tennis with me. Spin serves don't work and my shots seem inconsistent. It's pretty frustrating.

I've even considered picking up the crappy paddle myself just to compete with them but my logic says "professionals don't use those paddles".

Any advice or techniques would be great, I'm not a sore loser but I feel like I'm legitimately more skilled.

Your situation is not uncommon, especially during the beginner to intermediate stage. Part of your development as a TT player is to learn how to handle all different types of players who use all different types of equipment. Some players who use crappy bats can play pretty well! It's a good though that you have learnt a valuable lesson early - equipment doesn't win matches, players do.

For advice on technique and other stuff the 'pingskills' clips on youtube are excellent. Study them and practice and you will do fine. Good luck!

Yeah, i had the same problem when playing against people who uses cheap paddles/hardbats. Based on my experience the recreational players don't know how to read the spin, so the advice i can give is:
a) If they see a high ball they'll try and smash it, so luring them with high balls with heavy underspin (backspin) deep on the table is usually a good choice.
b) Keep changing your serve, use a heavy underspin serve at first, your opponent will throw a couple of balls to the net and try to adjust, when u notice he's "getting it right" change to a fast heavy top spin serve and u'll get a couple of high dead balls for easy kills.
c) They'll have a weak spot, that's why they are recreational players after all, it's usually their backhand so play your spins to that side.

I hope my advice is useful and good luck.

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Blade: BTY Primorac Off-
FH: Yasaka Mark V
BH: LKT Pro XT.

Post a video? We'll be able to help a lot more if we have an idea of your level, etc. And a description of the bat you were bought would also be helpful.

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Stiga Rosewood XO (FL - Legend) | FH: Calibra LT Spin Max | BH: Calibra LT Sound 2.0

Some players are indead decent players with crappy equipment,often a crusty looking old, decrepid looking dude who casually bets for a full box of KFC chicken on the match. As a player using normal inverted equipment accustomed to how the opponent using similar equipment returns certain shots... well you get used to that once you start using that kind of common equipment for a spell. THEN, you run into a decent player using a crappy OX SP bat or whatever and does NOT respect your spin and hits through it or whatever. This happens a lot. Many who use LP are lumped into the same category.

There are many things that can be at work here.

It could be...

1) You are not acuustomed to how the same stroke with OX SP comes off hte bat as opposed to inerted rubber for the same stroke.

2) Your timing is way off vs this surface.

3) The opponent does not strike the ball the same way or use the same timing as you, so the ball comes at you all "wierd" and messes you up.

4) The opponent is playing with less spin, so the ball that should "Kick" one way does not and this also interferes with your timing.

5) The opponet using this surface which is not so sensitive to spin can hit through it in a manner that is difficult with inverted rubber, which confuses and puzzles you, causing you to mistime and miss. Often the fast drive coming at you has little spin, but you expect it to be loaded.

6) The opponent can use a much different stroke to create a much different ball. (Think OX LP forward open bat punch vs an underspin)

7) The crappy bat player can use a very unorthadox stroke that with inverted would be a miss or net or out, but lands, usually in an awkward spot making you rush and miss.

More reasons exist but I leave it at that.

Solution is to learn HOW the ball does what, how to read spin better, and to play more and more with players whose styles or serves or shots trouble you. I notice you said you use side spin for BH. That usually results in a highish ball with little underspin or topspin, so that is a prime target for these players who can pick-hit.

_________________
FC Bayern in the driver's seat on its way to rule Bundesliga and Europe.

BTY M. Maze Tibhar Aurus
Primorac Carbon Aurus/755 OX LP (LP Scout bat)
Nexy Calix THIN OFF with Tibhar Aurus and Dawei XP 2008 (Test Bat)

Shitloads of Tibhar and Nexy Jerseys and Shorts and Shoes!

President, Korea Foreign TTC
http://www.facebook.com/koreaforeignttc

Add continually out of position to this list.

If an inverted player is accustomed to another inverted player striking the ball to make it go so far deep, that player gets used to that and naturally positions himself appropriately deep to hit or block or chop. With these crappy bats, the ball never makes it as deep as it seems. The result is the inverted player suddenly finds himself with an attacking chance, but is positioned a bit too far back to do much to it. Usually the inverted player goes for a shot off balance lunging or off-balance that is invariably a failure.

That scenario happens a lot as well.

So does the same with a crappy bat player staying close to the table blocking, but the block either goes by inverted player or the block has different spin than expected, which inverted player goes apeshit trying to attack and also fails on next attack.

_________________
FC Bayern in the driver's seat on its way to rule Bundesliga and Europe.

BTY M. Maze Tibhar Aurus
Primorac Carbon Aurus/755 OX LP (LP Scout bat)
Nexy Calix THIN OFF with Tibhar Aurus and Dawei XP 2008 (Test Bat)

Shitloads of Tibhar and Nexy Jerseys and Shorts and Shoes!

President, Korea Foreign TTC
http://www.facebook.com/koreaforeignttc

Just play that guy over and over till you beat him...
when you do play him more till it's a huge fluke when he beats you.

you will be better at reading spin, and the moment another player who plays similar to him comes up to you in a tournament you will crush him and take the rating points of those who did not do the work that you did to learn how to play. Not play against crappy equipment. Play. IF you cannot play against all kinds of equipment then you are incomplete. Once you realize that you are an incomplete player you now have another goal which you should always have.

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-Teddy

Blade: Donic Perrson Seven FH: Tenergy 80 2.1 BH: p1r ox

Coming soon: Hellfire ox

tbsms made the excellent point. Don't give up, play with as many styles and equipment as you can and become the school yard bully at the table. Thoroughly defeat your enemies, see them driven off before you, listen to the lamentations of their coaches and take home the spoils of war.

_________________
FC Bayern in the driver's seat on its way to rule Bundesliga and Europe.

BTY M. Maze Tibhar Aurus
Primorac Carbon Aurus/755 OX LP (LP Scout bat)
Nexy Calix THIN OFF with Tibhar Aurus and Dawei XP 2008 (Test Bat)

Shitloads of Tibhar and Nexy Jerseys and Shorts and Shoes!

President, Korea Foreign TTC
http://www.facebook.com/koreaforeignttc

Look at it as a great opportunity to learn about reading spin, developing your shots, and learning how to figure out how to put together points to beat an awkward style. Those are all lessons that you'll continue to learn as you get better and better.

I've found over the years that a lot of players like that can't handle heavy sidespin. Try giving them a lot of deep sidespin serves to see how well they handle those.

_________________
"Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try."
USATT Rating: 1915
Blade: LKT Instinct-Plus, FH: Juic 999 Turbo 2.0 mm Red BH: Giant Dragon Dragon Talon OX
Just For Fun: LKT Toxic 3, FH: Air Illumina Black 1.8 mm BH: Xiying 979 OX

yes lots of options for you and some great advice, I had two mates play one had a $400 bat with Tenergies etc and the other a $2.00 bat and the $2.00 man won partly because he was more skillful, (maybe the wrong story to tell lol)
anyhow
casual players are used to serves coming long and will do big arm tennis swings because they have time, so mix up the distance and length of you serves

Sometimes do no spin serves as those cheap bats deal with spin quite good

Don't rush but look for their patterns and attack whenever the time is right

Have fun by just keeping the rally going (that's all they do )

also look at joining a club and getting coaching as it looks like you want to improve

_________________
Blade Ulmo Duality| FH Xiom Sigma Euro11 Black, Globe Ma wong11 red OX
Blade |Stiga Allround| FH Tibhar Evolution EL Red | BH Tibhar Grass De-techs ox black
My Blog here
Table Tennis abbreviations, and acronyms

Simple tip - They are recreational because they lack control. Play control game - put as many balls as possible back on the table and you will win. Aggression is not the only way to win against such people. Choose the ball you are going to attack and attack with 80% power (because whether its 80 or 100 its a point to you more or less)

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Butterfly Timo Boll ALC FL, FH - Tenergy 05, BH - Tenergy 05
Buying equipment is like getting into a relationship. One night stands are great but you get the most out of it when you work at it for a long time.

I've been trying a lot of the suggestions mentioned here. I play around 4 times a day and have been improving but I still remain unable to beat on of the recreational players. I am going to ask if he would be alright with a film of our game so I can post it to see what my weakness is.

The recreational players won't play me by tournament rules, but many of the more skilled players really enjoy it. Even when playing recreational players I do my best to follow tournament rules as I'd rather follow the rules of the game. I mean I wouldn't suggest a baseball game with 4 outs so why play table tennis wrong?


The paddle I have is a STIGA OPTIMA WRB. Does anyone know anything about this?

What type of shots does he use to beat you? Describe what a typical point is like.

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I would say he just returns anything.

I will serve, he will return. I will push right to his backhand trying to work a hard angle, he will return to my left and i will hit straight down left line. He will then overhand and if i defend he really pushes driving deep over and over. If i push in return its about a 50% chance of getting that point due to my own level of error and his amazing ability to return almost anything.

The guy is highly athletic and very quick with great reflexes and accuracy.

If I can get a serve with enough backspin deep it gives him a lot of trouble, especially if i rotate every few with a topspin serve to throw him off.