OOAK Table Tennis Forum

So last thursday I had an interesting lesson. My coach Paul hurt his back the same day so his practice partner Jeff stepped in to give me a lesson. With Paul I was working mostly on things that I could do off the table. Mostly Chopping and Fishing. Jeff decided that we should work on mostly short game.

He is probably around 2000-2100 and is a power looper. His forehand is more dangerous yet less consistent, but he is still much better than myself.

We work on hitting, blocking and pushing in the beginning.
Most of the lesson was spent on serve and serve return.
Also we took a good 20 minutes to spend on my forehand loop which was good because I was able to really get a good workout in, and am starting to feel very comfortable with a sheet of h3 neo provincial that I am currently trying to break in.

Here are some short clips of the some of the lesson:
http://youtu.be/s4WQCHOvzxM

http://youtu.be/9ULMobLb87Y


A really big step forward for me was my pushblock. I never really had a decent pushblock and the stroke is becoming better by the week. I'm very excited about the possibilities of this long pip.
One thing I notice when trying to return Jeff's serves was that I really needed to white line the push block or put it in a position that he did not expect or it was toast...

Once I made a bad push block I could see it and I immediately would have to retreat from the table in order to put a chop on the ball. Jeff pointed out that once I can establish deep pushes off backspin it will most likely make my opponent second guess where I will put the ball thus making short pushes or drops way more effective.

I think the pushblock is a great asset to have however I know it won't work on all opponents. Thus I still practice returning serves to my backhand and forehand with inverted.

Overall my time taking lessons have proved to be exciting, and a much better way for me to train. I will probably take a week off in order to get some regular match practice before our state tournament next month. I will be attempting to do well in the under 1900 and under 2100 category. I would play in the open division, but I would have no chance to advance past the round robin so I will work had to win as many matches as possible in divisions where I can at least be competitive in.

_________________
-Teddy

Thanks for the Videos tabesamis!

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I finally had a chance to watch the videos, looking good. I like the speed when you loop drive and move to your left more. I always said that your game would get much better when your footwork would alow you to not be to dependant on your BH and slip around to attack with your FH. Very nice. Your attack on BH on chops also look good. Have you tried attacking or lifting with your pips yet on dead balls?. I am almost ready to give up on the balsa blades and switch to a regular Off- blade and go from there. I will try one more blade in the balsa series and then see what happens. I am sure I would need something a little more compact to work with and not so bulky as my Kris is. I am finding that since I took off the big slam, my wrist is a little sore and hand is just near its pain point. Meaning I still need to stay with a light set-up I can manuver quickly. I am going to set-up my light spare Kris with the sheet of H3Neo and I have a cut piece of GD giant long I will put on as a spare blade if my hand is bothering me during the States. Your game is coming along great from the vids I see. I also have been trying to play better people to work my game out. from what I am seeing in your game, you will get to 2000 before I get to 1800...congrats on the hard work.

Peace GIG

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*IT IS NOT LOGICAL TO PLAY WITH LONG PIPS*
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.


New blade set-up... Nittaku Monophonic with Dawie 388d-1 ox and Big slam max ( really like this one) down to FH rubber selections--I like it better than talon
flaired handle and 90 grams

Very impressive tabesamis - you are very talented! I agree with michiganbob that you won't take long to get to 2000. I would be very interested to see your modern defence game in action. Any chance of some match clips against say a 2000+ ish player?

Just a technical point: when you loop your back is usually too straight and as a result you often follow thru under your eyes. Try to bend your back more and finish your swing above your left-eye without your bat going under your eyes during the stroke. Despite this however your contact is excellent and you are well on the way to developing a very effective loop.

Keep up the good work.

I also agree Carbonman, I have played Teddy at our club and he has become one of our best most improved players. I also would like to see him use his legs more on his powerloops. He often plays up-right and does not bend alot, But I am glad he is moving more and creating more options in his game. I cant wait to hit with him soon.
Have a great snowing day in Michigan.

Peace GIG
* keep up the good work Teddy

_________________
*IT IS NOT LOGICAL TO PLAY WITH LONG PIPS*
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.


New blade set-up... Nittaku Monophonic with Dawie 388d-1 ox and Big slam max ( really like this one) down to FH rubber selections--I like it better than talon
flaired handle and 90 grams

thanks for the kind words and feedback. I definitely need to get lower. 2000 is a benchmark I would love to hit however to be honest with myself I predict it will probably take at least a year. I train once a week and maybe 2 hours of total robot time on top of that. Service and return are huge parts of my training along with footwork on and off the table. I have a family and may have to put in extra work time plus I just got accepted to grad school for an mba. Thus my realistic goal is to be solid 2000 once I finish my degree. I however am playing the best I ever have and will work towards doing well next month at states in the u1900 and 2100. Also I would like to get past my u1900 rr at the us open. Those should be all attainable short term goals.

Looking forward to trying out my new skills tonight at club. If I get a match with a 2000+ player I will record.

_________________
-Teddy

Agreed - more legs and body rotation would be a good idea as well.

The offensive BH's in the second clip looked pretty good. Have you considered being a inverted FH/short-pip BH attacker tabesamis? Modern defence is a tuff gig, especially if you don't have sufficient practice time. Also, the few glimpses of BH chopping I saw didn't look all that fluent (I could be quite wrong about this however - there wasn't much on the clips),

Smackin' forehand, Sir!

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

I had considered being a short pips bh attacker... However the style never took... Short pips are much harder to use than long pips. Also the only short pips I seemed to have any success with was challenger attack, which takes time to get and is very expensive in comparison to the long pips I use.

I just figure if Chopping is the weakest part of my game then that can be worked on. Plus modern defense keeps me moving which is the main reason why I do it. I will never be a world or probably never even a state champion, but I can keep in shape and enjoy the game while improving. I just figure If I chop for 3 or 4 more years and try to improve my technique then I will improve to my goal of 2000-2100. It's kind of a personal challenge. I may try 802-40 one day in the off season or get another sheet of challenger attack to put on my defensive blade. Who knows maybe the blocking and hitting will get better and I'll change my mind or I may end up chopping with short pips (which is probably not going to be the case) At this point I gotta stick with what I have till after the US OPEN (which is July and the end of my season).

_________________
-Teddy

Modern defence is fun and I can apprecite its allure. Remember that if you don't get your Bh chop sound you are gunna be easy pickings for a reasonable looper. The other thing is that most/many modern defenders Fh loop from mid to back court with a fairly long swing. Your loop is coming along really well but presently it appears better suited to close to the table play.

Have you tried medium-pips at all? It could give you the best of both worlds. I have tried Globe 888 1.8mm and found it fine for both chopping, blocking, flicking and counter-attack. It's also very cheap. just a thought...

In the meantime keep trying to benza back.

Where do you get globe 888? I was thinking about trying curl p3 alpha after the season.
Air upupup is pretty fast for chopping so I will go back to p1r in 0.5
I have over a year experience with p1r so I'm confident that I will adjust fairly quick.

As for my loop I actually am better from 6 feet out. H3 NEO is better from close but grip s is awesome from all ranges.

Will Work on bending more, and after the season reconsider a mp.

_________________
-Teddy

A friend gets it off ebay for around 10 bucks a sheet. i think the ebay seller is in china.

I had a hit session with Teddy last night. His game is really going very well. His speed and spin on his FH is really up there and closing in on 2000. His short game has also improved as well as his LP play closer to the table. His open service has also improved and I had trouble with one of them. Teddy's LP play away from the table is what we discussed once before as "work inprogress". Should he stay as a LP chopper away from the table?, or a LP, Med, SP, BH attacker.?? not sure. My idea is to play in the states here, and try to video the important matches that you know will challange. Make an assesment on the points you lose. How many FH drives do you miss or out of position on because of being LP dependant. How many LP points do you give up. ETC.... I would not consider using me as a benchmark to your game play. I would rather see what you do against a solid 1900+ player. start there. I also want to thank Teddy for making me look so good when we played some games last night I hope the video is cool, we did have a few exciting points..LOL
Great job the extra training has paid off.


Peace GIG

_________________
*IT IS NOT LOGICAL TO PLAY WITH LONG PIPS*
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.


New blade set-up... Nittaku Monophonic with Dawie 388d-1 ox and Big slam max ( really like this one) down to FH rubber selections--I like it better than talon
flaired handle and 90 grams

So I have to say that chopping is not my best game. It works against players under 1900 but above that it's too difficult to sustain at my current ability... I however Learned to counter fairly well with long pips so I decided to play attack and twiddling on both sides to getting a forehand attack. I will have to improve my blocking however I block decently... I also switched to a donic burn all+ blade... It gives my forehand more power without losing control and is still slow enough to chop if I need it. I ordered a few sheets of globe 888 to try and will be experimenting with medium pips after our state tournament which I will be using as a tuneup and assessment of what to work on making the us open in July my season goal.

Vids coming this week of bob and I doing some training. His chicken wings pips shot is really becoming a weapon... Bob may turning pushblock 2 the quite rentable sequel... Or he'll change his game. Bob keep trying the long pips... That's my vote for you.

Will post some of this week soon and some footage of my next lesson.

_________________
-Teddy

I am enjoying your posts.

One thing about the defender style is that it is all about match-ups and less about USATT rating. I was playing a player rated 50 or 100 above me this week who has some clear weaknesses and he just destroyed me. While another player who is over 200 above me and I had a few good matches an great points. I find the match-ups to be a big factor-certain players with certain skills give me problems. Others not so much. That said I can reasons for trying the MP or SP options.