OOAK Table Tennis Forum

.[/quote] On slower blades, the trajectory tends to be higher which is bad for my game as it makes it easier for my opponents to attack my blocks.. My blocks must be low..[/quote]

I agree, and will ad that on slow blades, the ball can deflect slower then on a faster blade, giving the opponent more time to react to the block. Low trajectory is important, and faster speed is equally important when using quick ball placement to force errors.

James

good analysis! Shot selection and making that decision in the fraction of a second is the main issue.. Sometimes, I choose the wrong shot and miss.. Yesterday at the club, I did great and made the right decisions but it seems that at the last tournament, I did not do that well.. Yesterday, I played 7 matches at the club and won all of them, mostly against players rated from 2120 to 2180.. Beat my strongest 2180 rated opponent in a best of 7 match 4:0.... He did videotape the match.. I wonder if I can get a copy...

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2010 Florida State Champion
Dr. Neubauer Firewall Plus with DHS G888 1.8 mm and Giant Dragon Dragon Talon OX National Team

I think that during the critical matches, I was able to focus pretty good.. It was mostly the match against the #11 seeded player (who had a GREAT tournament) that I lost due to lack of focus.. I was mentally so worn out from all the long matches I played before and did not have any focus and my opponent also played good.. I did beat the same guy however about 6 out of the last 7 matches at the club..

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2010 Florida State Champion
Dr. Neubauer Firewall Plus with DHS G888 1.8 mm and Giant Dragon Dragon Talon OX National Team

On slower blades, the trajectory tends to be higher which is bad for my game as it makes it easier for my opponents to attack my blocks.. My blocks must be low..[/quote]

I agree, and will ad that on slow blades, the ball can deflect slower then on a faster blade, giving the opponent more time to react to the block. Low trajectory is important, and faster speed is equally important when using quick ball placement to force errors.

James[/quote]
Faster blades also make my attackes more effective.. The only time I played a slow blade was when I played the Grubba Variant blade which was fairly slow but other than that, I usually played ALL+ to OFF- speed blades.. The blade that I used for the longest time was the Stiga Offensive Classic.. Loved that blade. However, after I went to balsa blades, I never went back to other types of blades.. Balsa just has too many advantages for my type of game. I'm actually even considering going with a even faster balsa blade in the future.. The Dr. Neubauer High Technology is tempting.. I've played with a friends High Technology blade before and loved it. A friend of mine who is about 1800 rated plays it with HALLMARK Phonix on one side and some offensive rubber on the other side.. I played against him using his blade and he was using mine which worked out good for both of us as we play similar styles with similar equipment. I was able to beat him pretty easy using his setup.. The blade feels very good with unbelievable control considering the faster speed..

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2010 Florida State Champion
Dr. Neubauer Firewall Plus with DHS G888 1.8 mm and Giant Dragon Dragon Talon OX National Team

Played pretty well at the club today.. After losing my first match to a approx. 2300 level player, I played a 2070 rated looper which I beat fairly easy (I did only win 3:2 BUT I experimented with attacking a lot and lost 2 games because I'm still not as good attacking as I'm blocking). In the 5th game I played the way I usually play and easily won the 5th.. Then I played against a approx. mid 2200 level player who usually beats me. I ended up beating him 3:0 and I was attacking almost every 2nd rally and I found a good rhythm against him and hardly missed at all.. He got frustrated as I beat him fairly easy... 11:3 in the 3rd game. I have to say, I don't think that I have ever played that well.. I would estimate my level in this match well into the mid 2300's. Then I ended up playing chopper88 who is a mid 2100 level chopper.. We always go back and forth and beat each other as we play each other very frequently at the club (usually once or twice every Friday). My playing rhythm was still the fast paced game of my previous 2 attacking opponents and I lost game 1 badly.. Then I adjusted my rhythm to his slower paced, more control oriented game and won 3:1. I had to adjust my timing completely to be able to deal with his excellent spin and tempo change.. His variation is excellent.. I played really good and won.
Then I played another 2 matches against the 2200 level player whom I beat 3:0 earlier and I just could not find my rhythm anymore. I wasn't able to adjust my timing back to the faster based game of that opponent and lost 1:3 and 0:3 against him.. I made tons of unforced errors and my pushes weren't aggressive enough to set up attacks, so I hardly attacked at all and lost both matches. I tried to focus but I could not adjust to the way I played our first match of the day. Another frustrating experience.. I killed my own game with too many unforced errors.. I could not get any shots in at all in those 2 matches.. My attacks were timed badly unlike in our first match as were my blocks.. I blocked long, off the side etc. etc.. It was like night and day and all within 1 hour.. I went from playing great to making tons of unforced errors..

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2010 Florida State Champion
Dr. Neubauer Firewall Plus with DHS G888 1.8 mm and Giant Dragon Dragon Talon OX National Team

Nathanso that's exactly how I play the game. I try to use every weapon I have to begin with and find what may get me early leads. Then, I tend to lay off one of them to keep it in reserve for the tight position should it arise.

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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.

Played at the St. Louis open 2 weeks ago and had more close losses. I did win a 5 gamer against Parviz Mojaverian (2256) but lost close matches to Austin Preiss(2288), Ahmed Hendawi (2265), Andrew Peterson(2088) (lost 3:4 in a best of 7 match) and Andrew Louvier in 5 (2168)
if I would've won most of my 5 game losses in the last 12 months, I would be rated well into the 2300's yet I'm stuck at mid to upper 2100's..

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2010 Florida State Champion
Dr. Neubauer Firewall Plus with DHS G888 1.8 mm and Giant Dragon Dragon Talon OX National Team

I have playing with the same set-up as you Push-blocker
many times, and I have to say this, when I play 2200+
players, FW+ is not the best option. Pushes and blocks
often went too far off the table. I know, seeing many of your videos,
that you never back off and defend from the table, sometimes
it really helps you, making this new strategy maybe.

BUT, I really do think that Tachi is a much better choice for you,
pushing and blocking at the table and for me, SST Cross is
a looping rubber not hitting direct winners. So I think there
is better options.

I only see this "problem" when you face pretty good players.

I can tell you that I had the same problem.

Cheers

Geddk

I have had a Tachi and the trajectory on the blocks was too high with it and I could not accelerate the ball with the pips as much as with Firewall Plus. With the Tachi, many opponents were able to kill my blocks and pushes as they were too high.

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2010 Florida State Champion
Dr. Neubauer Firewall Plus with DHS G888 1.8 mm and Giant Dragon Dragon Talon OX National Team

I play better using Tachi and grass dtecs OX against higher level loopers. My FH is terrible during the match and using Tachi make it worst. I am ordering Re-Impact Smart now. It is also balsa blade with specification could generate 240% spin from the original rubber spin spec, whilst the Tachi is rated can only generate 100% spin from the original rubber spin specification. I don't know what is the exact meaning, somehow the EJ virus inside my body told me to order the Smart.

Perhaps, you Pushblocker need to consider the Re-Impact Smart as well.

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BTY Amultart, BH: Superblock red OX, FH: Tenergy 05 2.1mm

I'm actually looking for a faster blade.. I like speed, especially on the pips side as longs as the pips have the braking effect to take the pace off the ball when blocking. I have a Giant Dragon balsa blade with carbon in it's way.. I'll see how it will work for me.. It should arrive tomorrow according to tracking. The most important 2 properties of long pips rubbers are "low trajectory" and "huge braking effect" when blocking hard shots.. I also want a rubber and blade that is able to create very fast acceleration when pushing aggressively against underspin. My current combo is great but I need more speed on both sides without losing much control. After testing material for many years, I came to the conclusion that on the forehand side, the best combinations for me were fast blade and thinner sponged inverted rubber.. For example, while a DHS G666 with 2.2 mm sponge is the same speed on a slow blade than a DHS G666 with 1.5 mm on a fast blade, the setup with the thinner sponge and faster blade always has more control.. I've gotten consistent results over and over again when testing different combos. I can't play with anything over 1.8mm sponge as I lose too much control with it..That's why I prefer thin sponge with fast blade. Most of the years that I've played tt, I played ALL+, OFF- and OFF blades.. Only for about 2 years, I played a slow blade (ALL-)

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2010 Florida State Champion
Dr. Neubauer Firewall Plus with DHS G888 1.8 mm and Giant Dragon Dragon Talon OX National Team

Hi PB:

Look forward to your review of the GD Balsa Carbon. For what it's its worth I totally agree with you...you have the right rubbers already, your trusted sst and talon ox...I hope the new blade brings out the desired qualities of huge breaking effect and aggressive pushes against backspin - you really need the speed to keep those high quality attackers on their toes! I am willing to bet that with the new faster blade, that you can even revert to the same passive game you played before (of course not many can play it at your level, must be the natural strength in your arms and wrist) because the speed of the new setup in combination with your early over-the-table blocks will really pressure their reaction times...

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

I'm actually trying to change my forehand rubber as the new batches of SST Cross are different than they used to be.. The surface used to be sticky and shiny and now it's only grippy but no longer sticky. It also plays different and I prefer the way it was before.. So, I'm experimenting with new rubbers.. One of them is the DHS G666 which I really like. I also have a G888 on it's way and if I like the G888, I might go with that one. My competition blade right now has G666 on it. I will try the Balsa Carbon after I get back from the Meiklejohn tournament later this week. I'm leaving to California on Thursday morning and will be in California until Monday next week.

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2010 Florida State Champion
Dr. Neubauer Firewall Plus with DHS G888 1.8 mm and Giant Dragon Dragon Talon OX National Team

Maybe you could give globe liqin a try, tried this rubber for the first time that and I'm very impressed. Sticky, generates a lot of spin and the sponge is a bit less dead/hard than dhs 666.

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Competition bats:
Win-tec power def Tibhar 5Q sound Power Update 1.8 * Spinlord Agenda ox
TSP Balsa 3.5 Tibhar Genius+Optimium sound 1.8 * Grass D-tecs ox

Put to rest:
Galaxy T10 Bluefire M2 2.0 Palio Ck531a ox
Victas Koji Matsushita Tibhar Genius+Optimium sound MAX * Spinlord Dornenglanz ox
Donic Defplay Senso Tibhar Aurus Sound Black max * Grass D-tecs ox

Check out my quest for my new blade here: http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=23241
Current standings:
Butterfly Matshushita powerdefence * Joola Chen Weixing * Nittaku KVU * Nittaku Shake defense* Tibhar stratus power defense * Victas Koji Matsushita * Yasaka Sweeper * Win-Tec power defence

Olivier,

here is my 2 cents. Speaking from experience of my own (One year ago I have just had 18 months and approximately 14 tournaments in which I played about fifteen 5-set matches and LOST THEM ALL) I should say this

a) Problem is always mental (Larry Hodges said that recently in one of his blog posts and I wholeheartedly agree)
b) You have to work on your mental state in the fifth set by making your brain to forget the "super importance" of this particular set; otherwise you get tense
c) before every point do a quick shake-up relaxation exercise (2 seconds) to loosen your knees, elbows, shoulders - see any video of Vladi Samsonov to see him doing that before virtually every point
d) since almost always you are playing a more passive style than your opponent, then you have to be more patient and you have to set your expectation accordingly; never get frustrated if the point goes on forever let your opponent do that; keep your cool

In my case the problem just gradually fixed itself. I stopped thinking about the issue and then at some point realized that I have won two 5-set matches in one tournament (in the last one I was leading 10-3 in the fifth set when my opponent hit the side and claimed it as edge; since there was no umpire I conceded the point and didn't let it bother me even though after that it went up to 10-8. I then did a BH flip receive which didn't go well, and at 10-9 I shook myself off, relaxed my shoulder-elbow-wrist, prepared myself mentally and as my opponent did the same serve I went for BH flip again which quickly ended the point). Moral is: keep your cool and you will be rewarded. Even if you lose you will end up feeling better about the loss in any case.

Good luck to you, and perhaps we will meet in Washington in November!

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Rubber: cheap, hard and fast
Blade: something a bit off the beaten path