OOAK Table Tennis Forum

That would be an awesome idea - show up in the full suit, crush everyone with the force of the pips, make them bow to the dark side, and leave unrecognized.

Yeah.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Had another visit to the club today, this time using main setup exclusively: Defplay+Baracuda+Dornenglanz. Had a pretty good success with it, which is not a huge surprise, since i spend more than 90% of time with it.

Don't think I lost a match - well, I probably would've lost to TK, our resident hardbat expert, but we practiced instead. 5 serves each, no score keeping. Pretty effective drill - since nothing is on the line you have freedom to 'go for it' and experiment with different serves, receive options, 3rd ball attack etc. It was fun.

Did the same with T, but we also played a couple of matches when challenger for the table showed up. T is improving quickly, but still makes too many unforced errors (he did better in the practice, though, so I guess it will transfer to matches eventually).

Played W, a penholder, and won easily. He told me afterwards that he's a bit puzzled and frustrated by my 'style' - he plays other pips players in the club much better (and one of them, 'J', is ~2150, so it's not like he did not see LP balls before). I really did not know what to say - I'm more of a defense-minded player on BH, so I don't attack much with pips, plus I keep trying to get into chopping rallies. But thats pretty much it - most of pips players here are also playing with OX, and may be my blade is quite a bit slower, so his timing could be messed up more.

Did get another go at DN (lost to him on Wednesday, I think, pretty badly) - he had LP/Inverted then, but now put on either really old dead rubber on FH or may be it is/was a true antispin at some point, and a hardbat BH. Anyway - awkward as hell. Fell behind 0:2, but managed to scratch out a win in 5, mostly by sending LP balls to his BH. I think.

Finally played V, who was trying out new setup and was killing everything during warmup. Somehow I actually won 3:1, even after losing first game badly.

Was trying to stay low, especially for attacking backspin on FH - and it actually worked (who would've thought - coaches and Internet was right about this!). Now my quads hurt.

So, it's one of those periods where you have warm and fuzzy feeling about your game. Which probably means disappointment is just around the corner

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Wow, DN and TK are like dynamic duo of hardbat 2000, but DN can play inverted, SP, or has been dabbling with LP.

You are certainly improving level.

One day, I will be in Boston to cause trouble, but mostly close out a bank account in person.

You might show up to league and wonder why there is so much Pizza in the club...

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Goof-off chopping bat
Gambler All Rosewood
Aurus Soft / Gambler GXL .6 sponge

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter

Yeah, DN is having back problems, and his knees are busted too, so it's quite amazing what he's still able to do. He told me he's going through different combos to find the one that would put the least amount of stress on his body - double inverted is too much work for him these days.

If you are in Boston, give a bit of an advanced warning - I usually don't miss Tuesday league, but want to make sure I'm there when you are with a stack of pizzas .

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Went 2:4 in the league tonight, mostly due to the strength of the opponents, but did cause one upset. Could've made fewer mistakes on both wings, though.

Played with new DHS D40+ - to be honest it felt very similar to NP 40+ fresh out of the box. Will see how it ages, Nittaku gets 'shiny' way too fast for my liking. Gave a spare ball to one of the better players - he immediately said that it feels 'true' in the bounce etc.

Now need to figure out whether I put a new sheet of DG before the tournament (this coming weekend) or stay with the ratty sheet I have on now (pips are intact, but there is an area along the edge where it just disintegrated, with blade showing). Probably will put DG on the spare setup, making it Defplay/DG/Bluefire M2

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Might be able to give warning, but what the heck, Der_Echte just loves showing up in TT halls and causing trouble.

Buying the club pizza or fruit Korean style and cheering points by flexing bicep and kissing or thumbs upping it is my kind of trouble.

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Goof-off chopping bat
Gambler All Rosewood
Aurus Soft / Gambler GXL .6 sponge

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter

Took second in U2000 at Westchester Open today, my best finish in the tournament so far.

Went 3:0 in the RR group (as an A seed) - against a bunch of underrated juniors . Lost a couple of games, but was not pushed too hard (was unusually nervous early on, though).

In QF got to play a guy I met once at RI tournament and lost 2:3 then. Very athletic lefty, could probably cover 2 courts the way he runs. Brings everything back and I think is quite underrated at ~1600. Super consistent too. Pulled off a win in 5 at deuce, in a match that went back and forth. I was losing game 1 badly, then came back only to lose at deuce. Won games 2 and 3 pretty easily and then got crushed in 4th. Fortunately did not miss much on FH in the final game and got a couple of timely nets and edges.

In SF got a penhold twiddler with OX LP on one side (~1650?). 'Won' warmup comfortably, and then got destroyed in first two games 11:3 and 11:4 - dude was crushing everything on FH and his LP balls were nasty too. I have very little idea what I did then to change it. I think I started sending most of LP pushes to his BH and his pips-to-pips shots had issues. Also served no-spin from then on. Did take 3 straight games to win in 5.

In the finals it was a top seed, another penholder, who quickly took care of me - did not have magical tricks to turn the tide there, and he told me afterwards that he plays choppers a lot in his club. Still, played well today, I thought - never got angry or panicked.

Also played a handicap event, and realized that I'm not good at it . Tough to win against uncomfortable opponents with plenty of points to give. I ended up playing 800 guy with LP (7 points handicap) and 1500+ lefty (4 points). 800 dude ended up winning it all, upsetting 2650 player in the final, so I don't feel too bad about my loss

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Waiting to hear what happened today...

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Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

Right. So, Sundays are always tougher at Westchester, and no trophies were won. Did not play that bad, but somewhat underperformed.

Failed to advance in U1900 ( I was an 'A' player...): beat 1600+ 'C' player who was probably somewhat better than that (3:1), then proceeded to lose to a 'D' kid in 5. Could've been avoided, by failed to put away easy popups on several occasions, and it ended up being costly. Lost to B player in 4, he was smart to play me softly, essentially refusing to attack, and I made more mistakes. Interestingly, when I tried to do the same to him in game 2, I won easily. Somehow I did not follow the same plan later on and lost the match.

In U2200 I went 1:2 as a 'C' player - did beat a 'D' guy pretty easily (penholder with a good FH smash who was troubled by pips a lot, juts like in March). Top players were at least 220+ points above me, so did not make many mistakes, but I made them work for their 3:0 wins.

Advanced in U2050: lost to A player (kid with estimated rating of 2040) in 3, beat a ~1250 kid rather easily and then did the same with a young ~1790 lady (got like 4-5 non-returnable nets and edges against her ). Got bounced in the first SE round by former clubmate Bradley, who played me very strategically, floating low-spin balls to my BH over and over. Annoying...

So, not too disappointed - losses were deserved. Need to do something about a few things:

* Soft balls to BH - need to create a weapon there.
* Slow spin loops to FH - lost quite a few points.
* Better consistency overall
* These 'easy' smashes that go into the net or sail long, mostly because I could not get to the right spot in time

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

From what it sounds like to me, you are still understanding how you play. One of the things you need to do with your game is define how you win points. Some people chop or use pips because they want to force their opponents into errors, some chop or use pips mostly to set up their inverted attacks, and then some pips players just want to take advantage of the "control" of pips and do all kinds of things to the ball to set up their game including chop and attack.

If I used pips, I probably wouldn't chop, but most of my game would be either 2 or 3, probably 3 since my forehand attack is not the best part of my game so I would mostly be setting up stuff and moving people around in the short game with the pips. But since you like to chop, you have to decide if you want to be an attacking chopper or an all round chopper, and even as an attacking chopper, you don't have to put away the easy ball all the time, you just have to do something that will likely get you an easier shot. The attitude that easy balls need to be put away for winners is one that gets people in trouble at all levels.

In TT, without knowing your strengths and plays, you can be often playing in ways that don't set up how you win points If you are going to be an attacking chopper of sorts, then you need to complete your forehand and develop the forehand of an offensive player. But if you decide you are going to be a chopper or defensive on loops, just take the ball on the drop and you always have options, you just have to get so low enough to take it.

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Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

Yup, wise words.

In an ideal world I would play like Jian Li . That would be lovely. In reality I need to beef up my FH to make it much more consistent and dangerous AND have an answer for the people who refuse to attack and simply abuse my BH. Forgot to mention that at the last league one guy basically beat me without a single attacking shot, so it's an issue.

As far as deciding how to win points - that kind of depends on the opponent, no? Loop-happy folks are different from blockers, who are different from choppers, anti players etc. I am probably in the same boat as Japsican, who also dislikes 'soft' players.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

pgpg....get out of my head! Read my latest blog entry.

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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 did read it before I wrote my last post, so no ESP was involved.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

I remain unconvinced.

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

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

If you leave how you win points entirely on adapting to the opponent, it leaves too open the question of how you play.
I also adapt to my opponents but within the framework of my game. My strengths are my serves and my backhand, my weaknesses are my receive and my movement, with my forehand and blocking being on either side depending on the weather. I built up my forehand in order to enaure that my backhand play would be harder to avoid on my terms. If I play a good receiver, I cannot stop trying to beat tbem with serves. I just have to adapt my serves to their quality of receive.

If you decided that you want to have a monster forehand, then practice more third ball, backspin looping and counterlooping. You already have a decent swing, you just need to practice against different levels of spin until you can subconsciously and quickly adapt the swing plane and racket angle to the ball. You probably need to work on your blocking game as well. I suspect though that having the quality of forehand you desire would require a change of identity to your game that you might not be willing to support.

The thing ia that if you look at Jian Li, how does he win points? No, the answer is not that he has a monster forehand, he usually is more consistent than his opponents and uses their unfamiliarity with his game to provoke errors. But he also has a well built forehand third ball game and a decent counterlooping and fishing game for the right cuatomer. But it is really about being more conistent than his opponent, which is the first rule of defensive play.

If soneone could beat you without taking an offensive shot, it calls into question your consistency, your deception and asks you how you win points. Soft players are like other players, you need to draw errors from them. If your game style is too different against different playing styles, you really need to think it through unless you thoroughly enjoy it. Too much complexity needs too many training hours. You need to have set plays that give certain results and leave the chopping rally as the reward for those who survive the set plays. If You define your game by ypur rally style, it is hard to get better as you are always winning pointa on rallies. It is better to look at the opponent and identify a structural weakness in their gsme that you can take advantage of with spin variation abf ball placement. Even soft players have these issues in spades. You are looking for the spin variation pattern or the ball placement pattern they struggle with. No matter the opponent's style, these are universal things, that you can get better at any level.

_________________
Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus