OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Don't listen to them Different styles add so much to our game, and makes it so much more enjoyable!

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I think its size not style that PRW is referring to with the rugby comments Haggisv! C'mon, get with the program!

Mind you, you are correct at least. Different styles in this game makes it so awesome!

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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.

Different styles make the world go round.

I can remember playing another defensive player who may have had anti on both sides. I didn't give him anything to work with, and neither did he give me anything. Not being a spectator, I can only imagine how deadly dull it was.

Retriever (sometimes golden,but often leaden).

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Next instalment: How table tennis works in my neck of the woods.

I play at & for the Harbord Diggers Table Tennis Club, which is a sporting sub club of the Harbord Diggers Memorial Club (which is owned by Mounties, but that is another story), a licenced club. Traditionally this was how many local TTCs existed, although this is changing.

I play, representing Harbord Diggers, in what was originally Manly Warringah District Table Tennis Association but is now Sydney Northern District TTA, in weekly pennant competition in 2 comps a year, Autumn and Spring in various grades. In the middle of the year both the club & district hold championships for various grades. Originally they were D, C, B, A Reserve & A, and still is at the club level. District is now 4 divisions, 1-4. I am an A grade Division 1 player and we play a 2 person comp, and have been for a number of years.

In the past I have played in the Vets Challenge where teams of 3 play in various divisions mostly for practice for those who want to go to the Australian Vets, although a lot play for their own sake. On average this entailed on Sunday per month, and 2 team matches were played per day. I was playing in the top division there although to some extent I was really in between 1st & 2nd division IMHO.

Then there are weekend tournaments - with yet a different grading system - I think I am B grade there. There are also a couple of Vets only tournaments - NSW Vets 0pen & Closed.

Because my son for a couple of years was in the NSW junior team, I also went out to Homebush for training on a Tuesday night for the larger part of the year.

Next instalment - coming back after 15 months away.

Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Retriever I wonder if you ever played our departed friend MetalMonkey (see the "In Memory of" link top right of page). I'm sure he mentioned playing at the Mounties. I don't think you were here on the forum while he was alive, but you may have met him in person??

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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.

Reb,

No. I can't remember MetalMonkey's mundane name off the top of my head, but vaguely remember reading it some time ago, but it didn't ring a bell. I do know the guy who runs Mounties table tennis from when he ran state tournaments years (decades?) ago - Lester Vibert.

Our club did play one social match with the Mounties club, but I couldn't play. There was an attempt at a second one earlier this year but that fell through. We are a fair distance away from Mounties. We are on the northern beaches of Sydney - if we play in daylight we can see the sea from a window in the gym room where we play. Mounties is in the western suburbs - I remember someone mentioning 50 km as the distance, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Ah I see. So the Mounties and the Diggers are 2 different places. I thought they were one and same. Monkey came from Cabramatta area, so what you are saying makes perfect sense.

_________________
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.

Whoa my post here has gone or I forgot to press the submit button..

Talking about retrieving without chopping, Japanese youngsters are great example
Jun Mizutani and Kenta Matsudaria are extremely good at returning the ball to the table.

Samsonov is also a legendary retriever

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GFoT |Blade : Timo Boll ALC • FH : DHS 3 Neo Provincial MAX • BH : Tenergy 64 MAX
Crossover to Takeover!

Hi Yosua Yosan,

I can chop, but my game is not that of a "classical chopper".

One of my team mates in the local comp is a chopper - inverted rubber on the forehand & pimples on the backhand, but she doesn't twiddle, nor does she hit with her pips. My other team mate in the local comp is also a combination bat player who does twiddle. I wouldn't exactly call him a chopper, but we all defend ...

Also, I remember playing a chopper from the ACT in a teams match at the Aust Vets 2 years ago in Sydney. After going down 2-3 in best of 5 (all us vets are supposed to play ), he pretty much invited me to the dark side. His words were something like "Why don't you go the whole way and get pimples on your backhand?" Almost needless to say I did not take him up on his no doubt kind offer.

Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Next installment - A couple of championships at the club

OK, after a practice session at a local community centre, I lobbed up (excuse the pun) at the club to play in our annual handicap championship. Now remember that this is probably the 3rd time I have had a bat in my hand in around 15 months.

Time for an administrative interlude. The TT club, since before 1982 has been run by a husband & wife, up until the end of last year when they stepped down to go travelling. Grey nomads anyone? The club has been in caretaker mode since. Back to the action.

Normally the h'cap championships are 1st to 31 points no advantage with players starting on their handicap in either knockout or small roundrobin format then semi, final depending on numbers. This time it was 1st to 21 no advantage playing everyone then the handicap applied after all the shooting is over. This was OK as there was around 10 entries. Usually there is doubles as well, but not this time.

I was second back marker, the former Australian junior champion being backmarker. As alluded to in another thread there is a difference when you know from the score that you have points to make up, as against thinking that winning on the table is enough. Anyway I played one guy who had never seen me play before. Hitting up I kept it reasonably orthodox, hitting his forehand to my backhand topspin counter etc. When we started the match I dids my usual vary the spin & placement, put up sucker balls (high but loaded with spin, sometimes spinning into & away from him) and accounted for him quite easily. I lost to the backmarker 14-21 on the table, which I thought was OK as I popped up quite a lot of balls and missed quite a few "easy" shots. Oh yeah he was playing well too. In the handicapping I made it up to be level with him, however both of us didn't manage to beat a couple of lower graders by enough to win - we came equal 3rd.

3 weeks to a month later we had the A grade or club championships. There were only 2 of us from A grade there so we got seeded and played in 2 separate roundrobin groups along with players wanting the experience. By now I think I had I had played half a dozen times. Luck would have it that the same guy who played me in the handicaps got to play me in the A Grade, with much the same result. Former Australian junior champion & I won our respective groups (played to the best of 5 games, I don't think we lost a game) in a best of 7 games final. He beat me 4-0, including an 11-0 drubbing. Previously he was using pimples on his backhand, but since I was away had gone to inverted. Of course I tried using heaps of spin to his backhand, but to no avail. My story was that I was still getting my eye in, my touch back and ... and ... As a former player used to say at our club "Table tennis was the winner!". Still I was runner up.

Next installment - Back to Competition

Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Back to competition

After paying to be a member of the club, in the District & affiliate with TTNSW, I was ready to play in the "local" District home & away weekly Spring competition. Ready that is except for a decidedlack of match pracxtice on my part

On 19th August I arrived at Hornsby PCYC to play. The guy who captains their team is the state coaching director, so I was expecting to lose to him and maybe have a chance against whoever was playing with him on the night. While hitting up with my chopper team mate, he told us that we were instead playing a lady who recently represented at the Commonwealth Games (in TT of course) and an O/40 NSW A team player. Oh well, there went that idea.

The way things went I played the CG rep first & lost the 1st game to a very low score. Nothing I was doing seemed to phase her, although my chopper team mate thought she should have been smashing me all over the place more than she was. Second game was very much a repeat of the 1st. As we play the best of 5, I was expecting to lose 0-3, but in the 3rd game I managed to block a couple clean past her and make her hit into the net or off the table, so I got the 3rd game in a fairly close tussle. The 4th game went the same way as the 1st 2 so I went down 1-3.

My team mate played the O/40 NSW player (she herself represents in O/50s BTW) and duly lost. He is a lefty, with a strong spinny loop.

Next up I played the O/40 NSW player and lost as well in much the same manner.

My team mate then played the CG rep and lost in 3 straight. I think her "more orthodox" chopping game suited the opposition a lot more than my "unique" game.

The doubles was pretty unforgettable, with both of us missing easy shots and setting up the opposition when we didn't miss.

So we went down 0-5.

Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Round 2 of competition - against a new team at Cherrybrook

Chopper team mate & I arrive at almost the same time from different directions, and we watch the opposition warm up. They're doing the usual forehand to forehand coiunter stuff, then really going for it. Both are playing inverted one side and pips the other. I think, oh no, we're in for it tonight. Then they pull out a plugin electronic scorer. Well, even when I played at the Australian open I never played with one of those.

Anyway we get under way. The first guy I play gets off to a good start & is up 2 games almost before I know it, although the 2nd game became quite close towards the end. He was beginning to be tentative in his shots, or overplaying them. In the 3rd game I make him doubt himself even more and win that one. The 4th game was more of the same. The 5th I am comfortably ahead at the change of ends, and the match ends with him netting a loop.

My chopper team mate then played the other guy. I don't think he had played too many choppers as she managed to account for him reasonably comfortably.

Then she played the guy I had played, and he displayed quite a good backhand pips smash which she couldn't handle, so lost.

Then I played the last singles. Now this guy played me on his inverted for the first few points, then changed to take as much as possible on his pips backhand, which I took as a sort of backhanded compliment Even so, i was prepared to rally with him doing the old over, under, over, under to the pips until something came up and I could really put some spin on that wouldn't rebound on me. I managed to beat him 3-0 in the end.

Then we played the doubles and we couldn't take a trick. My team mate complained that the previous night she had been playing against much faster players at Canterbury Leagues club championships, and that our opposition wasn't giving us anything to do stuff with. Ah well it was a win, 3-2.

Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

I can testify after many years of playing against and with Retriever that he does indeed Retrieve 'defend' remarkably well, is often very deceptive with his spin variations, has a good eye and feel for the ball, and, can be downright frustrating to play against. We have played doubles together in countless championships and performed extremely well against 'favoured' opposition on many occasion, winning matches that were thought by many out of our league! I believe we won our local club championship doubles title too many time to count. Retriever is almost famous on the local circuit as the perfecter of the 'edge' ball. .........Roadrunner.

Welcome to the forum Roadrunner!

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Oh, and Maze is also a great retriever

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GFoT |Blade : Timo Boll ALC • FH : DHS 3 Neo Provincial MAX • BH : Tenergy 64 MAX
Crossover to Takeover!