OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Yes, it was prompted by seeing a guy from Shaanxi up close at the Teams. I think I got the same impression from Earl Alto too, at last year's US Open. Neither Jian Li or Wei Wang chop that much on FH from what I saw, and Jian's BH chops with OX are definitely not 'silent'.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Yes Alpha is discontinued,I didn`t find it flexy it`s almost 6.5 mm thickness,heavy oversized.Alpha plays very flat which is good for chopping ,not so good for topspin,there is a big dwell which dosn`t help attack,I could chop as well with a Defplay with much better f/h attacking possibilities,of course this was in the celluloid era

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Tsp Black Balsa 3.0 Tenergy 05 1.9 388d ox black

Results from Teams tournament got processed - picked up ~30 points and am again ineligible to play U1750 . Looks like many forum members had a successful tournament: NextLevel, Japsican, fastmover, heavyspin, Pushblocker et al. picked up quite a few points, so all these posts (and may be even some training) did pay off in the end.

Also, it looks like a lot of my club mates, especially the ones who do not play USATT tournaments that often, got a nice ratings bump as well, so me consistently losing to them at least makes more sense now.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Nah.. It’s all about making sure you play with the correct equipment... and choosing the blade and pips that give you the best feel

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Attackers: "All pips players are cheaters who can't loop, move, or read spin"
Me: I beg your pardon?

All the underrated juniors that owned beat me were really underrated and got adjusted. The ones I beat gave me a ratings boost.
You know how some tournaments you lose rating points but feel good about your performance? And then there are some tournaments where you feel you performed poorly but somehow gained points? I still feel toward the latter. For me the highlight was seeing everyone.
How were you physically after the tournament? My back still hasn't recovered.

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

I think my body was more or less fine, may be my knees would disagree somewhat, though - all these matches added up. Did pick up a low level cold, I think, but it's almost gone by now.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

So, it's been a while, time to update the blog...

While visiting friends in Chicago couple of weeks ago, played in a tournament there (Aurora Cup) - only two events and did OK but not great. Lost a couple of 5-game matches, ran into a ringer in one of the groups (it did not help that they only advanced one person out of RR group, not a fan of this system...).

Played a bit of basement ping pong with friends (crushed them! ), and traded one of my VKM (flared, with Rasant and DG) for Butterfly Matsushita Pro of his. Somehow he ended up with it a few years back - PaddlePalace set him up with it, and it even has Feint Long II(0.5mm) on BH to boot! He liked my VKM/Dornenglanz better, especially after I showed him a few LP tricks. He's now buying a robot - need to convince him to play a tournament next year...

As always after the tournament, going to EJ a little: want to try out BTY Mat Pro, also ordered Sword 309 from Ali Express (looks like package is already waiting for me at home, 6-day shipping is not bad at all!) together with couple of semi-obscure LPs (Sanwei Code and Scylla Sword), plus DHS PF4 and Palio AK47. Also making its way from tt-japan is a Nittaku Best Anti and TSP SuperSpinPips Chop 2. That should round up all 'dark side' options, I think.

Club play is in a reasonably good spot: had a couple of first time wins and very close losses against few folks I've always considered to be a level above me. Mostly trying not to rush things, stay low/crouched, watch the ball, and not go for hero shots. Need to beef up attack on BH with LP too, missing quite a few high balls lately, and in general putting more pressure on opponent with faster LP returns.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Heh, I'm really intrigued on how you find the TSP SSCP2's performance to be.

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Blade: Victas Koji Matsushita Offensive FL
FH: Victas VS > 401 2.0
BH: Victas Spectol S1 1.5

Rating: Recreational Player

EJ loot from AliExpress arrived - didn't get a chance to glue any rubbers on, but took Sword 309 out of plastic wrap and waved it around a bit.

It weighed in at 87g (90g with plastic...) - just from holding it I did not get a feeling that 'wings' are too low, so perhaps it won't need any sanding down. But then I did not try to play with it yet, especially twiddling.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

What?! Highway robbery. VKM for Mats Pro? Clearly didn't get on ebay to see how much those are going for...assuming the condition is similar.

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

I had no idea what it is going for (looks like ~140$ or so) - was mostly looking at it from 'I never tried it, and heard Jian Li uses it, plus I already have 2 VKMs' perspective. It's not 'Mat Pro Special', by the way. Condition is normal, not pristine, but not beat up either. I guess I owe my friend a bottle of nice cognac or something

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Haha, nah.

The price isn't that different, but the rarity is a hard to quantify. Does Jian use the Pro Special? I thought it was the normal PRO.

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

Put together few setups to satisfy EJ urge:

Sword 309 + Scylla OX + Palio AK47 blue
Matsushita Pro + Feint Long II (1mm) + DHS PF4

That Sword combo is REALLY good. Somehow FH feels comfortable, fast enough but nice control and placement. Scylla for me appears to be somewhere between Cloud&Fog III and Dornenglanz - pretty fast, lots of backspin on chops, easy to hit backspin with. Really pleased with this setup.

I don't feel discomfort from low wings on the blade so far, but handle is not the most comfortable, almost developed a blister at the base of a ring finger. May be will try a grip tape.

Matsushita Pro combo is quite different (duh!) - much slower, more of a 'thonk' sound, especially on FH. Blade feels closer to VKM in feel (surprise...). PF4 is very tacky(?), protection film sticks to it very well. Very nice pushes and FH chops, good controlled loops. Did not get to play with it much, but BH chops when they cleared the net were quite pleasant.

Will put Sword through more matches tomorrow.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Played a bit more today with Sword combo and still love it.

At one point I had this ~5min stretch during warmup where I thought I actually did most of my strokes right (on FH) - at least in my mind I was pretty agile on my feet too, bouncing and moving between strokes. That sh*t is exhausting! You have to move, crouch, all these micro movements etc. 'Potted plant' approach to TT is much more energy efficient...

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Apparently we are not the only ones who are deeply interested in ratings/rankings:

Ranking in Super Smash Bros Melee (very popular video game by Nintendo):

http://planetbanatt.net/articles/ambistats.html

Discussion on HackerNews:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16255910

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887