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PostPosted: 12 Feb 2017, 23:08 
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Practiced with Ricky for an hour. Put 651 on the FH as the rubber least forgiving of non-sp form, to discourage me from long strokes and trying to roll or spin the ball.

Did some drills and after a brief adjustment, was soon hitting the ball nicely, and accurately.

Played a bunch of practice matches, I won about 50%, which was a good performance.

Attacked serves to my FH, and played my usual lift and drive game.

Best news: arm didn't hurt too much.


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PostPosted: 13 Feb 2017, 04:16 
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Encouraged by this morning, I decided to go to Sunday practice. Odd one... Trained with PW for a while, working on flicking short serves - went well. Played with PW2... beat him 3-0. Then played a best of 3 with RP and won 2-1. Best I've ever done against RP - played superbly!

Then in top table, started well, but suddenly started playing hopelessly, and got what I call "nihilistic" - basically just not trying and not taking it seriously - disrespectful to my opponents too. Then managed to pull out of it, and finished off playing well again.

Maybe I was tired... but either way, I'm prone to these mental dips, and I need to get on top of it.

Elbow hurt a little bit, so probably take it easy tomorrow. Physio in the morning anyway, so we'll see what he thinks.

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PostPosted: 14 Feb 2017, 07:40 
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Match was cancelled so I got to train. Trained with RV and YV and a new player from the university, who's very good indeed. Then played two practice matches.

- Blocked for RV and then did push/lift/push/lift dril - was getting in early, fast and hard, and effective.
- Chopped for YV - still struggle to pick the optimal distance and position, so find myself reaching, or tucked up.
- Did service receive and blocking to random places with LP for new player, and then serve and attack drill - again, getting in early and fast.

Played C, who's a good div 2 player - beat him 2-0. Lost 2-0 to YV, but got 7 and 7 and played some good shots - again - in hard, early and fast is the key.

Training tomorrow, match wednesday, training thursday, few days rest, and tournament on Sunday.

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PostPosted: 16 Feb 2017, 18:12 
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Spent two hours training with Hannah yesterday. Worked a lot on bh - esp. chop blocking and other near the table shots. She is of the view that if I'm not playing a FH I need to be a lot more varied. Add in side swipes, come under the ball sometime, add a bit of pace, try to roll/flick, and above all watch what's on the ball rather than passively trusting the pips to work magically. She says her motto is that we are the master of the pips, not the other way round.

Worked on taking the ball early, and also on twiddling to push, flick or hit with the other side, just to keep the opponent unsure.

We talked a lot about psychology and mental state. Finding a balance between energy and aggression, confidence, but without getting unpleasant. And about watching ones state of mind and self talk. It was reassuring (although obvious) to learn that she has had very similar mental challenges.

Worked on FH hitting against spin and float. The idea being to learn that with good timing and a crisp clean short stroke one can get a lot of power! Key points for me are to keep my elbow high, as this helps prevent me from hitting across the ball, and to keep the action short and fast, from the wrist / elbow.

Finally worked on serve and return. Building confidence to touch and push on the FH. And some very interesting stuff on service. We looked at learning to do a short or long serve with the ball still landing near the start of the table. Also practiced some devious LP serves.

Hannah's convinced that inverted is the way to go but that getting there gradually is a good idea. And that my SP strokes will be of benefit with inverted too.

Good session. Always learn a lot from training with her.


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PostPosted: 16 Feb 2017, 18:24 
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Match last night against one of the teams in contention for 2nd place in our premier division (in the smaller league).

They fielded a strong side of two very strong players and a third decent and improving player.

Against their strongest player, DL, I lost in 3 but managed 7, 10 and 5. Service let me down - I served four faults, and in the third game by serves were too easy to attack, which is often the case against much better players.

Against their #2, TC, I managed 8, 11 and 3. Service again was a problem in the third. And my opponent played very well.

The third player was DA, with whom Ive trained for years but never played competitively. Last training match he won, and his FH has massively improved - he now spins the ball very effectively as well as having one of the hardest hits in the league. He's also left handed, which adds a challenge.

I managed to scrape the first two - 13-11 16-14 but took the third more comfortable. A good and important win, that gave our team a vital point that keeps us in 2nd place.

Played well in doubles with my team mate, and we're playing together in a tournament on Sunday. We lost, but it was pretty close.

Match score was 3-7, which I was pleased with, and very pleased with my win over DA.


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PostPosted: 19 Feb 2017, 08:17 
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Trained on Thursday. Small session - hit with AF, JS, and S.

S was the first person I ever played at the Thursday session. He's come on massively - looks like an actual player, and plays confidently. I beat him comfortably, but it was nice to see him playing better.

With AF I worked for a long time on chop blocking and chopping against loaded topspin. AF is a top top player, currently ranked uk #75, and gets a stupid amount of spin on slow loops. When I found the right position and relaxed my wrist and chopped with a fluid action and plenty of bat speed, my chops were loaded, and not easy to hit back a third time.

Closer to the table I didn't have the touch or control - the ball was just too loaded, and i could't easily get the ball on the table.

Played a series of matches with JS. He used to use LP but now uses 2 x inverted. His touch is lovely and serves good. Again, he's very quick, and can generate a lot of spin, rapidly. I needed to get back quickly and chop. My close to the table blocking wasn't up to the task. Once I got back and chopped I was in better shape, but once more getting to the right position is tricky. I lost all the games, but got to deuce a few times.

Trained again last night. First Fri session at the club where I go on Thu. It was packed, and full of the strongest players, and visiting players. Had an excellent session, playing with mostly div 1 and premier players from the strongest league. Played well - winning games against div 1 players and strong juniors. Good warm up for tomorrow's tournament.

Camera charged, tripod packed, memory card empty, I should get some decent footage tomorrow.

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PostPosted: 19 Feb 2017, 16:54 
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The inverted rubber dilemma continues. For background: I've decided that the long term direction to take my game is a more traditional modern defence, and less pushblock/hit. Many reasons for this, which I can unpack later. I tried and liked thin inverted, because I could hit, block and chop, but brush looping was really hard to get right. I tried Hurricane 8, which was a big improvement, but very very heavy, and so much heavier than I was used to, I hurt my elbow, and have returned to SP for now, to avoid injury, and because I have a few weeks of very important matches for the club.

However, I've been looking into options for a FH rubber to use from about Easter onwards, and maybe to experiment with in a social setting. I have a few sources of advice - my coach, Hannah, my good friend (~UK 250), a few other highly ranked friends, and chums from here. And, naturally, I get as many opinions as people I ask. Of course, if someone in my position were to ask me my advice, I'd almost certainly say: it doesn't matter -- pick something sensible and stick with it.

In general, the options put forward fall into one of four camps:

- Use Tenergy (probably 05, probably 1.9mm)
- Use a modern Tensor Tenergy equivalent (probably 2.0mm, pick your brand; my club gets Donic stuff cheaply)
- Use some kind of Hurricane, but boost it every 2 weeks
- Use a "classic" non-tensor or early, less quick tensioned rubber (maybe in max)

I've used T05 in 1,7mm before, and liked it a lot. I tried it on a very slow blade and on my current one, and didn't find it too bad, but this was nearly a year ago, and I'm a much better player, and I'm playing better players. The concern I'm hearing is that it's so responsive to spin it can become too difficult to control versus strong players who generate a lot of spin, leading to half-hearted shots and timid play. The counter argument is that the key to improvement is learning to read and handle spin, and jumping in with what is arguably still the #1 rubber in the world is not a bad idea.

I had a hit with Donic Bluefire M2 in 2.0mm on an all+ blade on Thursday, and M1 Turbo on my coach's blade last week. Both seemed very quick, but felt nice. I used Hexer Powersponge in (iirc 1.8) on my current blade, and liked it, but preferred Tenergy. M3 seems like a good bet, as it's soft, not as fast, and light - all of which seem to be good qualities for my purposes.

My recent feeling with Hurricane 8 was that it was remarkably heavy, which discouraged me. Also compared even to my coach's M1 Turbo, it felt hard, and strokes were easier with the M1 Turbo. However, I played with a friend's 39 degree Hurricane 3 Provincial, boosted with Dian Chi on Friday, and it was gorgeous. Lovely for everything, loads of spin, and soft and responsive. However, that's a lot of hassle, and also gets us into the grey area of boosting, which I'd rather avoid.

Finally is the idea of using eg Sriver L, Mark V, maybe Roundell Soft, or a Chinese rubber, such as LKT Pro XP. Good all-purpose rubbers.

Of course, if I read this post as a first post from a new forum member, I'd be all over it with "it depends", "show us a video", "what's your level", "do you have a coach", "just pick anything and work on your technique", but most of that is within this very thread.

There's no hurry, and to a degree I can try each of the options, as I have spare identical blades with the same LP ready to receive FH rubbers.

My friend is going to give me some T05 and T64 (a few months old - he changes every 2-3 months) to try out. I can get some M3 pretty easily, and cheaply, as the club is Topspin sponsored, and I could get a "classic" rubber to try out. I'm skeptical about the fuss and faff of the fortnightly boosting of Hurricane, but I must admit it delivered good results.

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PostPosted: 20 Feb 2017, 03:52 
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LordCope wrote:
The inverted rubber dilemma continues. For background: I've decided that the long term direction to take my game is a more traditional modern defence, and less pushblock/hit. Many reasons for this, which I can unpack later. I tried and liked thin inverted, because I could hit, block and chop, but brush looping was really hard to get right. I tried Hurricane 8, which was a big improvement, but very very heavy, and so much heavier than I was used to, I hurt my elbow, and have returned to SP for now, to avoid injury, and because I have a few weeks of very important matches for the club.

However, I've been looking into options for a FH rubber to use from about Easter onwards, and maybe to experiment with in a social setting. I have a few sources of advice - my coach, Hannah, my good friend (~UK 250), a few other highly ranked friends, and chums from here. And, naturally, I get as many opinions as people I ask. Of course, if someone in my position were to ask me my advice, I'd almost certainly say: it doesn't matter -- pick something sensible and stick with it.

In general, the options put forward fall into one of four camps:

- Use Tenergy (probably 05, probably 1.9mm)
- Use a modern Tensor Tenergy equivalent (probably 2.0mm, pick your brand; my club gets Donic stuff cheaply)
- Use some kind of Hurricane, but boost it every 2 weeks
- Use a "classic" non-tensor or early, less quick tensioned rubber (maybe in max)

I've used T05 in 1,7mm before, and liked it a lot. I tried it on a very slow blade and on my current one, and didn't find it too bad, but this was nearly a year ago, and I'm a much better player, and I'm playing better players. The concern I'm hearing is that it's so responsive to spin it can become too difficult to control versus strong players who generate a lot of spin, leading to half-hearted shots and timid play. The counter argument is that the key to improvement is learning to read and handle spin, and jumping in with what is arguably still the #1 rubber in the world is not a bad idea.

I had a hit with Donic Bluefire M2 in 2.0mm on an all+ blade on Thursday, and M1 Turbo on my coach's blade last week. Both seemed very quick, but felt nice. I used Hexer Powersponge in (iirc 1.8) on my current blade, and liked it, but preferred Tenergy. M3 seems like a good bet, as it's soft, not as fast, and light - all of which seem to be good qualities for my purposes.

My recent feeling with Hurricane 8 was that it was remarkably heavy, which discouraged me. Also compared even to my coach's M1 Turbo, it felt hard, and strokes were easier with the M1 Turbo. However, I played with a friend's 39 degree Hurricane 3 Provincial, boosted with Dian Chi on Friday, and it was gorgeous. Lovely for everything, loads of spin, and soft and responsive. However, that's a lot of hassle, and also gets us into the grey area of boosting, which I'd rather avoid.

Finally is the idea of using eg Sriver L, Mark V, maybe Roundell Soft, or a Chinese rubber, such as LKT Pro XP. Good all-purpose rubbers.

Of course, if I read this post as a first post from a new forum member, I'd be all over it with "it depends", "show us a video", "what's your level", "do you have a coach", "just pick anything and work on your technique", but most of that is within this very thread.

There's no hurry, and to a degree I can try each of the options, as I have spare identical blades with the same LP ready to receive FH rubbers.

My friend is going to give me some T05 and T64 (a few months old - he changes every 2-3 months) to try out. I can get some M3 pretty easily, and cheaply, as the club is Topspin sponsored, and I could get a "classic" rubber to try out. I'm skeptical about the fuss and faff of the fortnightly boosting of Hurricane, but I must admit it delivered good results.


Try something from the new Japanese factory like Regalis Blue, Karis M or Mantra M. Their rubbers are extremely linear and intuitive.

That said, it is easy to overthink the impact of equipment. As someone who enjoys playing with different stuff, it is hard to convince you to that you should just address the weight issue and adapt to whatever you choose for a long period.

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PostPosted: 20 Feb 2017, 12:00 
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LordCope wrote:
The inverted rubber dilemma continues. For background: I've decided that the long term direction to take my game is a more traditional modern defence, and less pushblock/hit. Many reasons for this, which I can unpack later. I tried and liked thin inverted, because I could hit, block and chop, but brush looping was really hard to get right. I tried Hurricane 8, which was a big improvement, but very very heavy, and so much heavier than I was used to, I hurt my elbow, and have returned to SP for now, to avoid injury, and because I have a few weeks of very important matches for the club.

However, I've been looking into options for a FH rubber to use from about Easter onwards, and maybe to experiment with in a social setting. I have a few sources of advice - my coach, Hannah, my good friend (~UK 250), a few other highly ranked friends, and chums from here. And, naturally, I get as many opinions as people I ask. Of course, if someone in my position were to ask me my advice, I'd almost certainly say: it doesn't matter -- pick something sensible and stick with it.

In general, the options put forward fall into one of four camps:

- Use Tenergy (probably 05, probably 1.9mm)
- Use a modern Tensor Tenergy equivalent (probably 2.0mm, pick your brand; my club gets Donic stuff cheaply)
- Use some kind of Hurricane, but boost it every 2 weeks
- Use a "classic" non-tensor or early, less quick tensioned rubber (maybe in max)

...


I don't think it matters that much which of these options you are going to put on your FH (with possible exception of Hurricane, but that's based on my non-familiarity with it and my general laziness: boosting every 2 weeks? Yeah, right...). I suspect your technique is going to mostly determine quality of your FH shots, and don't forget the tactical adjustments you will have to make as you migrate to a canonical modern defense. Also - serves.

I usually prefer to work backwards here: start with the style you enjoy and make sure your equipment and training supports it. It's a hobby...

P.S. M2 is fine (on Defplay in my case), feels a bit faster compared to Baracuda, at least to me.

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PostPosted: 20 Feb 2017, 19:07 
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Played in the Hampshire Closed yesterday - Veterans, Singles and Doubles.

Veterans

Apart from my friend and sometime team mate RL, everyone else who entered was one or two divisions above me - ie senior and veterans british league players, and the top level in the county. My group included the winner of the competition last year (RM), a decent division 1 player (55%) whom I have played before (GS) and the awkward evil pimples twin (AG), who now plays in division 1 (35%).

I played RM first. He made me look pretty ordinary, and won easily, with some lovely control and placement and good serves. Against GS I played as well as I've played against him, and although I lost in straight sets, I was pleased with my performance. I beat AG 3-0, although it was very close. This was a great win - he's a very awkward player, and beat GS in the group. Thankfully I had played against him on Friday, so had worked out a plan, which was to serve with the LP to his LP, not give him much to work with, and attack when I had the chance.

I didn't get through the group, as GS scored better, but this was a really good performance.

Doubles

My team mate DL and I played as a team. Our opponents weren't that strong, but one of them had LP on his BH which my opponent struggled with. He missed far too many shots, and I was probably a little passive. We lost fairly closely, but didn't play well.

Singles

Between the announcement of the singles groups and the end of our doubles game, somehow I managed to... lose my bat. This is quite utterly ridiculous. I've never lost my bat at a tournament before. Furthermore, usually I have several spare bats of identical or near-identical spec, but I purged my kit bag the night before, and took only a blade with an ancient and too small T64 glued to one side, that wasn't fit for serious play.

Thankfully one of my friends from the vets and grand prix circuit has a load of spare setups, so I picked something to make do.... a VKM with 0.5 P1R and MX-P. Bear in mind a) I've never used a VKM, b) I've only used P1-R in 1.3mm sponge, and c) I've never used MX-P.

I checked the group and..... group of death. I had to play, yet again, the winner last year 9WP), my #250 UK friend (ES), and GS again.

I spent 20 mins practicing with the owner of the VKM, and took a couple of games off him, which was promising. This is the same chap I played on Fri, against whom I got no games. He was of the view that my serves and FH attack were much more difficult to deal with.

Then plunged into the group. I lost in straight sets to both WP and ES, but did play some decent shots. The P1R was a little more responsive to spin than my OX Dtecs, and I didn't have the confidence to attack serves, but it was nice to use. For my taste the MX-P felt a little hard, and perhaps a little fast, but I coped well enough. Against GS I played ok in the first, terrible in the second, and closed the third to 10-9 before serving a fault to end. Most points against GS were serve return errors owing to lack of familiarity with the P1R. GS said he thought I played better and was harder to play with the borrowed setup.

So that was my tournament. I was disappointed with the draw, especially the singles, and it was a shame to have to play GS twice. It was silly to lose my bat (which I later found under somene else's bag!), but it was a good experience to play with a completely new setup.

I recorded all 6 of my matches, which I will edit and post.

I also had a chance to try out a few inverted rubbers:

- MXP on VKM: as above - felt ok, a bit hard and fast
- Sriver L Max on DHS Hurricane - felt superb - lots of spin, lots of control, and great for hitting
- T64 (crap old) on my hiloom - promising, perhaps a bit fast, but not a fair test as the T64 was way past its best
- Calibra (some sort) on Timo Boll Spirit - very fast, a bit springy, but I liked the handle

ES also gave me two sheets of Tenergy -- T64, Black, 2.1 and T05, Red, 2.1 to try out. 2-3 months old, in good condition.

And, CB gave me a Primorac OFF- to try out, just in case I decided I wanted a slightly slower blade.

I've glued the T64 to one of the Hilooms (OX Dtecs on the other side), and The T05 and an OX Dtecs onto the Primorac. I'll spend a little time testing these out today.

This week will be an intensive training week. It's half term, so my coach (who teaches during the day) is free to train during the day all week, plus there's a training camp on Sunday. I'm inclined to use this as a chance to push through the inverted barrier. I have a cup match on Tuesday, but we should win that comfortably. No other matches, and training on Monday and Thursday evenings.

NL: I looked up the rubbers you suggested. I remember reading a review about the Regalis, and it sounded good. I've obviously seen good comments about the Nexy, and the Mantra M sounds promising too. I get 40% discount on Stiga, so I might give that a try!

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PostPosted: 21 Feb 2017, 02:13 
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Had an hour practice with AF this afternoon. Tried the T64 on the Hiloom. It did feel very quick indeed. Not easy to control and topspin to topspin shots often went long. After about 5 mins I thought I'd change to the T05/primorac combo. What a difference. Much more feeling and control, didn't feel too fast, and easily managed 100 FH-FH shots.

Did some FH blocking against topspin. Seemed very pleasant.

Tried moving in and out playing topspin away from the table. This seemed to go well also.

Then tried chopping with the dtecs on the primorac. It may be my imagination, but it definitely felt much much more controlled, and my chops seemed to be more loaded.

Added in a twiddle and bh block against very strong topspin, and was able to get the hang of the angle and touch needed to control the ball.

Finally tried topspin opening against heavy push. This was the most difficult, and I struggled, but was making progress.

Shall continue later tonight.


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PostPosted: 21 Feb 2017, 02:45 
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If it doesn't hurt your LP play, you might want to try t05 on an even slower blade. I like it a lot on an ALL Yasaka sweden classic.

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PostPosted: 21 Feb 2017, 03:04 
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Yeah I'll definitely try that. AF uses an ancient stiga all round. He reckons there is literally no need at all for a blade faster than ALL.

Since I'm not trying to rely so much on reversal on close to the table blocks, there's a case for a slower blade. I shall investigate.


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PostPosted: 21 Feb 2017, 16:30 
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BH: DHS C8 OX
Went to the "new" club again tonight. Let's review my club experiences:

When I started playing again, I joined KVTTC, which is a local club mostly focussed around providing the facilities for teams to play in the local league, They have four tables, two nights a week, teams in the top local league, and a generally "older" membership - no juniors, the majority retired or near retired. I've played for this club in two local leagues for four seasons. It doesn't have a formal practice regime, and isn't very club focussed - teams of friends use the club as a means to play - there's no real governance process where teams are picked strategically to encourage player development, or to attempt to win a competition. It does provide an enjoyable social session on a Tuesday which I often attend. One of the challenges for me has been finding a team in which I can develop, and get consistently high-level matches. In the larger league that the club takes part in, I had no opportunity to play in a team above division four, and in the smaller league I put together my own team based mostly around friends from other clubs, to build a team of sufficient strength to challenge for league. I'm not sure how sustainable this is next year.

I've also been involved with and periodically a member of G2TTC, which is a bigger and more organised club, with scheduled training and practice evenings, teams in three local leagues, and senior British league. The upper end strength is much higher than Knowle, and the club has a well-developed coaching and youth programme. I've never played for them in the local league, partly because in the larger league, they only have three teams, all of which play in the top division, and I'm only now getting to competitive at this level. The club isn't short of players at this level, so I wouldn't be guaranteed a regular place. My children have sometimes gone along to practice, but have all favoured music over TT, so that has tailed off.

I currently play for SCTTC in the larger league. This was a chance occurrence, and gave me the opportunity to play at division 2 level. Again, this is a very small, community club, with no formal training or development program. I play in the top team, and am currently the top performer, but for various reasons, our team is in danger of being relegated. It's imperfect in many ways, but I have a sense of loyalty to the club.

PTTC is a large local club, with regular training sessions, and youth development. They only play in the larger of the two leagues, and have won the title for the last few years. They also play at a high level in the senior British league. My coach is head coach here, so I have tended to train here on Wednesday evenings and sometimes Monday evenings. The trouble is I can't play for PTTC because I already play for SCTTC, and I'd feel rotten about leaving SCTTC after one season, especially when they gave me the chance to play in divison 2. Looking longer term, their SBL side is very strong and established, and it'd be a very long time before I could think about challenging for a place. There's not currently an appetite, or enough players, to enter a second SBL side. So even though this is pretty near (15 mins away), and I know and like the people, it's not an ideal base for me going forwards.

WTTC is in the next city, maybe 25 mins away. It's where I met my coach, and where I have trained on Thu eve with the strongest local players. It's a big club with excellent facilities, regular training and youth programmes, and lots of teams in the local league, which is the strongest league in the area. They have two sides in SBL and an appetite for more. I played in their summer league last year, and know a few people there. The club is run very professionally, and is ambitious.

I went to WTTC on Friday and again last night, and the tournament was held there on Sunday. I'd already been thinking about what to do next year, but I've decided to focus on WTTC as my primary base. It has everything I need in terms of opportunity. It gives me access to the strongest local league in the area (one of the strongest in the country), and access to SBL beyond that. There's a wide range of strong players of different styles, and opportunity to train most nights. Importantly, it's also a different set of people to the ones against whom I've been competing for the last few years.

So next season, I plan to play for SCTTC because I don't want to desert the club. I simply won't play for a KVTTC team any more, and will play for WTTC as my main focus.

With that in mind I've joined the club formally, and plan to train there when I can. It's quite exciting - it feels like a new era!

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Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!


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PostPosted: 21 Feb 2017, 16:55 
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Blade: Yaska Sweden Classic
FH: 802 OX
BH: DHS C8 OX
So, at WTTC, I had a chance to train with one of their top players BH (76% Prem) - plays in their A team, and in their top SBL team. He's a strong and consistent player. Not as good as AF or my coach, but very good. He's been very welcoming and helped me to meet people, and is keen to train with me at the club. Last night I think he mostly wanted to get a sense of my current standard and shot portfolio.

We started with FH drive - FH drive. This went well, and I demonstrated control and consistency. then FH topspin -> FH block. My FH blocking with inverted is coming along, and I did pretty well. My FH topspin is in ok shape - training I did last year obviously helped - my technique was ok, and I generated good speed and spin.

Then we did the same of the BH. My BH-BH drive was fine, once I remembered to drive rather than spin the ball. BH blocking was very good, and BH topspin to his block was good too.

Then we did chopping against his FH topspin. Here I was amazed at how well I played. I've been very very skeptical about the significance of equipment changes, but the change in blade (plus perhaps a little more weight on the other side?) has made a truly huge difference. Suddenly I have control and spin. I was able to regularly chop back three loaded FH shots, and often my chops were too loaded for him to continue. My positioning is improving too. We did this for a good while, and I can honestly say this was the best I've ever chopped. If you'd watched you'd have thought this was really a player who can chop down a premier league player.

We then added in a push after three topspins, which I can to loop. I managed this sometimes, but this needs a lot of work. We also did some push -> push after three loops, and I started to get the feel for this.

Then I trained with JD (44% div 2), serve, push, open up. I'm trying to get used to a quick, whippy topspin opener. I did ok... we also played a match of pushes, because I wanted to get the feel of the inverted. It was close but I wasn't consistent enough.

Played a match with IW (22% div 1). Left hander, 755 on his BH. Lost 11-9 11-9 11-9, mainly owing to mistakes on the FH, and a slightly passive approach. Plus some tactical errors, because he's left handed.

Knocked a little with SF (70% div 3). He's a useful player, with good FH and BH hits.

Finished with a load of smashing practice against BH. I did remarkably well. Lots of smashes landed, with fierce bounces. This led BH to question whether my FH was boosted (it isn't). Also did some topspin counter hitting - here I struggle because this isn't something I've ever done before, and I'm not used to the bounce. When I get to the ball and play a stroke, I'm ok!

Good session, and lots of positives.

Tonight I have a veterans handicap pairs cup match for SCTTC. We ought to win, as my handicap is very generous, because I've improved quickly. We shall see. I'll probably go to Tuesday social, so I can see my dad!

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!


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