OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Another Monday has come and gone...Ah Monday, the start of a work week, and for me, another league night full of good times (humming the OWL CITY tune off key) and a littl added chaos. Sorry no film footage of me playing yet guys. There is a guy at the club who does that sort of thing, with camera and tripod...lots of work...he like me volunteers a lot but I havent seen him on Mondays yet...

Anyways all teams showed up tonight, hurray! We have into our second week of the new season and my job this year is two fold - div secretary and team captain. The compromise was to be put in a higher div which would surely mean execution by looping to death.

Well I got the score cards out, one for each table, had one of the other captains tell me where to put each card too, ANAL CITY! I was thinking WTF was I voltunteering for if this guys wants to do it go ahead! It was like that the whole evening, I dont even recall playing all three matches which I won with my setup below. I am liking the lp/lp combo and getting used to its characteristics and abilities one of which is the837's counterhitting - superb for an lp! No need for inverted anymore this thing counters, chops, blocks and is insensitive to spin too! Very weird for my opponents tonight to the extent that one of them actually complain about the equipment I was using. He was asking really noob questions about the thinness of the blade, the blades speed being too slow, the rubbers being lp's...it was like he didnt know anything about defensive equipment OR he was trying to rattle me...either way it didn't work as I kept calm and kept calling out the scores, aloud and mentally...

Weird evening! Lot's of firsts for me which include using excel spreadsheets for updating, filling in the score cards (sounds easy but all I see are tonnes of numbers so dont bother hiring me as an accountant, it will be a sure loss), distractions from the opponent whether genuine or deliberate like faintly writing in the scores, and finally, competition.

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!

Time for another update in the trials and tribulations of my sophomore year in div 2 at my club. This year I got double duty as both player/captain and coordinator. Sounded great at the start but I didn't think about the responsibilities and of course no one told me about them...

Aftr three weeks there have been no shows and team attendence has been a major issue. Two of the 6 teams do not have a full team and one team was totally awol. Needles to say that something has to happen - that is the entire league has to be reorganized and a new schedule has to be made up. We could either go with less three man teams or more two man teams. Also, people that had indicated months ago that they would commit are nowhere to be found while those who have not even showed up to the club are only now showing interest in joining the league.

I purposed to the league captains that we start again using two man teams made up of dependable players who have already been playing...don't really know what else to do to fix up the mess...

gladt to say that after three rounds of play that I have not lost even though I'm pushing the reset button...

next year if all goes well I'll probably join div 1 hl as a sub to test things out before fully commiting as a team player...

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!

Sounds very messy indeed, but it's good to hear it's not affecting your play!

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
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Thanks haggisv...of course it's the blade and not me

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!

Of course!

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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

Red Knot... it's an Australian wine that I received during the holidays and I am putting it to good use tonight after losing 2 of my three matches. I have found that after consuming half the bottle, together with some left-over lasagna, that the combination of food and drink, have given me the courage to spam the net about my losses during houseleague tonight.

Yes, losing was the main lesson tonight as well as handling the loss with some wine. I lost to to team E's second player, 3 games to 1, and also to the third player, 3 games to 2. Ironically I beat the captain 3 games to nil. The second player was an older gentlemen who outskilled me. He had the experience of playing against pips ( and probably better lp players than yours truly) and just took his time. The scores were close though and I had a 10-6 lead in the fourth but he came back to take it in double-digits. No shame to lose to him - he was the better player.

The other guy was a penholder who took a game off of me at the start of league and really should have beat me that evening. Good looper and pips blocker. well he got his revenge tonight. That was an even longer sweaty match.

Well that's the news for tonight...better sign out while I still have the dexterity to and before my head hits the keyboard...

Ironically, it was a night that i could have skipped with like some of the other guys because of the freezing temperatures, -15 or something like that...also ironically the club admin wants me to reorganize the entire division from 3 man teans to two man teams because of attendence problems. After getting beat by these new guys I now have to inform them that we are going to restart the league... well time for another sip of Red Knot!
good night and happy new year ooak nuts!

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!

Two blogs in one night...ah what the heck.

I've been preparing for the rematch against the two new guys (actually they're both older and one is a former club member but both are new faces for me) who beat me last time.

My regiment included practice against other players in singles and doubles, practice against the robot, practice on the table on my own, and blogging on OOAK.

Also, and most importantly, I had to analyze my loses just simply using what I could recall that fateful night. With the physically stronger player, I rationalized that since the match was very close, that the over all gameplan was to play the same and no equipment change was necessary. I have found that sometimes a quick change in blades makes a huge difference like using an inverted/LP setup for doubles instead of LP/LP. The adjustments that I would have to make were due to these flashbacks:
- he has an outstanding kick serve, that's the best I can describe it; it really kicked into my oxlp and it had sidespin so it went wide off my paddle. Assuming that this was a very strong top-side serve I would return with my 837 1.0 sponge to absorb some of the spin and shock instead of my oxlp which allowed the vibrations to shake my arm
- We played really tight sets so that just means that I should continue playing the same style which was a few steps behind and chopping or off the table blocking. One variation here is that I could come up and play closer to the table, pushing with backhand and blocking as well. I probably will mix these two strategies up.
- against the robot, I have praticed returning everything from crazy spin serves to smashing low spin balls, to looping.
- serving against eg spin is still a factor and I practiced my delievery and twiddling; I would also work out mentally what to expect after the serve which was a typical high ball. I would need to smash yhose

- one last note as it's really getting late, lots of practice vs the robot and concentrating on my fh; I had problems with the fh chop before...I hit every stroke vs. the robot to improve my fh (well for a few minutes here and there);

- mock situations with the robot; this dude actually baited me to attack sometimes by giving me high balls; I will counter that with chopping those floaters to a low level AND also my pushblocking game, getting really close and pushing it back. The robot placed off the table on an angle gave similar balls.

- smash practice with robot and on my own; bounce a few balls high on the table and smack'em AND with the robot on low speed; really have to mix in a few smashes in the game to keep him honest

- mental prep; when playing matches I purposefully kept the scores close as a kind of mental toughness because I suspect that the matches would be tight again. I got to keep calm and optimistic despite a bitterly fought out battle.

Just wanted to point out that the above was a collection of table tennis moments over the last couple of weeks. Robot training was like a few minutes here and there and playing against other people just occured as part of my regular agenda nothing special was arranged just for a rematch (Dimitri wasnt flown in or anything like that). It was more or less just getting used to the blade!

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!

Wouldnt it be great if someone video'd your every game for u so u could remember it for the blog better lol. I often wish i had more than just a replay in the grey matter lol

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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
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I hear you loud and clearly Reb.

Here are my reservations about video taping:

If someone is going to do it for me than all the better but if I have to bring a camera in my bag or dig up a cell from my fanny bag than it's an extra step in addition to the regular stuff.

Now if I am doing the video tape, it's gonna look out of the ordinary when no one else is shooting (Dont know about you guys in OZ but no one really shoots anything in our club most nights its got to be important like a final match or a tourny and even then)... but really it comes down to this: I actually have to ask for permission from the owner of the venue (like i did in the summer ha ha) and most importantly the negative consequences of putting myself on the net and having it come back to haunt me in ways that I can't imagine...

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!

The thing about smashing with lp. I have noticed you don't have to hit it hard for the opponent to mess up. Hitting with lp makes the ball wobble when smashing so you just have to place it until you have a juicy one. Also when the lob is a fishing stroke (kinda lower lob) and has some top spin and it gets kinda close to the net you can halfchop/half smash resulting in a backspin shot that comes out decently fast.

With your robot set up some higher ones and test out the difference between hitting with both surfaces. Maybe if they get a bead on your hit with one lp, they will surely be confused if you twiddle. Also you could literally block off the bounce with your p1r on the second or third lob if they are still off the table.

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-Teddy

Thanks for the tip tabesamis. Not overhitting and playing at a "normal" pace is also the reason why I chose to stick with a relatively slower blade. I have a bomb blade that I really like for pushing hard and deep but that would lead to faster rallies and probably more mistakes as it would put me into an attacking position. I find that for me there is a ceratin slow pace that I need to draw the other guy into and as the pace increases, it either gives him the opportunity to work with the pace (his advantage if he is an attacker) or it puts me into the driver's seat and I might push long or overhit.

I find against these guys that I play that the lighter I can hit the ball, the more it frustrates them because they are making adjustments to the slower pace. I can clearly tell you that at my small club that they are not use to this and that is why that when I play guys with more attacking experience and skills, I play these guys either very easily or it is very close and sweaty for them and it comes down to a few points...they just dont have enough experience playing slow guys like myself ...of course that totally worksto my advantage playing at this lower level:lol:

And also about twiddling, I totally agree. It does make a difference if they get use to one side like the slow spinny p1r ox side and then I switch and chop with the faster sponge side but use the same motion it recoils right off their blade also for reasons that you outlined above re spin reversal...

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!

I've found the two best winning shots with pips are a topspin off the pips or several, followed by a flatter shot. Or a topspin or three from the pips followed by a twiddle and the same shot with inverted. I know this is bad usage of pips but whatever . Grippy ones can do it.

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Donic defplay senso
Haifu whale soft (grips-euro)
Nittaku pimplemini 1.0mm

I'll try that tonight! Thanks foam.

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!

REVENGE...Sweet revenge!(Not that I'm the vindictive type )

I'm pleased to announce that I have evened the score with the guys who beat me a weeks ago and I have to thank the forum and its members for their advice and past topics and posts. Just reading old posts gave me enough pointers to really mount a counter-offensive when the chips were down.

To put it in perspective, this is my second year of houseleague, and I have the double duty as player/captain AND division secretary. Basically there is alot on my plate and sometimes it can get distracting but thats what i need this year...its got to be more challenging, and I can honestly say that it is.Its like i just can't focus on the game anymore...its about collecting fees, writing down scores, sending emails, etc.etc.etc...

I played the penhold guy with the pips first and that was a four setter. what was memoreable about that match was that in terms of pip versus pips, I had a slight ad here in terms of defensively just putting the ball on the table. He was pushing and giving me alot of variety with his air upupup pips but he had the skill of surprising me wih quick run arounds and he would loop with the inverted. He makes alot of these shots but I lowered his opportunities with better placed returns using my ox pips. I really pushed hard and low.

And finally it was the older but stronger guy with the really good spin serve and killer fh. He hit a few decent 3rd ball attack eg serve, my return, then he loops for a winner.
Also against his serve, it really helped to use pips on both sides but he did catch me off guard with really spinny serves off my sponged pips side. it came down to his attacks and conversions AND my ability to stay alive. It was like night and day compared to last time...and it felt like he wasn't trying. This dude sprayed so manny of his attacks and made so many errors...I took this match straight sets.

I feel like celebrating (but it's not really about celebrating winning per se) it's more meaningful for me to just hear other players say nice things about my level of sportsmanship and humility, win or lose.

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!

forgot to add that I took a million precautions before geting to the club...

these included:

- not stepping on cracks
- not walking under a ladder
- buying takeout for the old guy who puts away the tables and then asking him to wish me luck
- praying and more praying

You can't go wrong if you follow the above.

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!