OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Here is the serve return video for short pushing. IMO, this exercise opened my eyes to the importance of being able to vary your grip pressure. I feel that my blocking level went up as a result of this exercise almost unconsciously as it is now easier for me to move my racket quickly to a ball without gripping my racket tightly.

Usually, most of us move our arms to a ball in a tense manner because we use all our muscles to grip the racket tightly while moving to block and then try to relax closer to impact. If one is late to the ball, then there is no time to relieve the tension, so being able to move in a relaxed fashion and then add the tension is preferable on some/most shots. Varying grip pressure isn't always instinctive as well, but this drill naturally trains it, because you see the effects on the ball if your grip is too tight.

I still can't control the ball but I am getting there. I want to get a more exact double bounce depth on the short push - my short pushes are too short and high.

I have issues with the reverse backspin to the short forehand. Maybe I should do a pendulum backspin to the short forehand and see how that works and then contrast to get a better idea of what my options are.

_________________
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

From the side it looks like your backhand push is more straight ahead with a semi-closed paddle, where on the forehand you are actually lifting the ball up with a very open face. Don't take technique advice from me, but that forehand stroke seems like it will always produce a higher ball than you want.

Slightly off topic, can you tell me what settings you are using to make those serves?

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Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

The open paddle is part of my struggle to deal with the reverse sidespin. It just goes into the net so often that I am struggling to figure out how to approach it. My theory is that I am not close enough to it. When the robot serves straight, or not so wide, my forehand push is usually more natural even if inferior.

For the settings, Will have to to check in detail on Monday or so when I next take the robot in. Robot head height is about 3 rings out (2 rings clearly visible, lined at 3rd ring).

For the serve to the middle, trajectory is at the lowest, spin at -3, speed at 7 or so. Placement to the middle.

For the serve to the right, it is trajectory at the lowest, spin at -4, -60 degree right side spin, speed at 7 or so. Placement to the right but not extreme right (I read somewhere not to use extremes to serve if you ever want to randomize).

_________________
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

You are using heavier spin than I am, with a much slower speed. I'll try that. Does the spin at -4 feel real to you? I thought it was 'robot spin' that could lead to wrong strokes. But I had the speed in double digits.

_________________
Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

I think all the spins on the Amicus are realistic. They may not be realistic for a particular drill but I think they generally are TT playing level spins.

I think that the -4 setting is not beyond pros. I don't think my serve is that far off based on how it reacts with the table. I did some -2 and it felt like a joke. -2 is what you would usually get off a long push as opposed to a heavy backspin serve.

_________________
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

BTW, the slower balls in TT tend to have higher spin for the same stroke speed. So a short serve, given how short I am making it, is a good candidate for a high spin stroke. So is a fast or slow chop. A long push, *maybe*, but unlikely unless the ball is high and it was well chopped.

_________________
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

One of the recommended tips for improving your service return game is to learn the serves that give you trouble. It isn't fool proof but it does help. Also helpful is videotaping and watching your serves. Here are some of my recent serve practice sessions.

I have always felt that my pendulum contact is superior to my reverse pendulum contact in terms of spin quality. It's probably a practice thing as well as the mechanics of the arm. So I try to do both alternately so that my hand will continue to seek better contact on the reverse pendulum serves. Please forgive me the dead time during which I pick up balls.

_________________
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

After losing a few matches on Thursday last week, I realized that my serve game had become too predictable in my club and that I need to switch things up with something different. Then I remembered that I used to have some of the best long fast serves in my club but I stopped doing them for no reason other than that long serves were harder to control and easier to attack. But now I realize that I need to get my long serves back to a high level or people will be all over my short serves all the time. I now have a goal to successfully complete two quality long serves in every game of every match I play for the rest of the year.

Here is the practice and a couple of matches where I miss a lot of long serves because I am not serving like I practiced... but the ones I made were often pretty good. Both videos are pretty long and serving practice has periods where I am picking up balls, so just move around and look for some serves. I try some forehand serves, then some backhand serves, then some forehand serves.

_________________
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

A tip for defusing the fear of losing

I generally am not so much concerned with actually losing, which is inevitable, but the effect that being scared of losing and the fact that the thought is no longer avoidable has on your game. Many players get tense and play worse because they are scared of losing, the key word being "Scared". The fear causes a rush of emotions that end up leading to them playing worse.

People can combat these in various ways - by breathing more, trying to be relaxed etc. IMO, the best way is to tackle the fear head on through some kind of meditation or mental preparation. Keep the fact that you can lose in your mind for about 30 seconds to one minute before the match and note how you feel. If your reactions are strong and uncontrollable, consider seeing a therapist of some sort. However, most people, when they bring the though to mind and allow it to stay there, tend to be able to handle it and not get as affected by it during matches. Sometimes, perpetually banishing a though from your mind tells your mind it is a terrible thing, and when that terrible thing approaches reality, it causes your mind and body to panic.

Losing is a fact of life. The key issue is that you shouldn't let it make you play badly.

_________________
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

Thanks for posting this, NL. The highlighted point is so important to me and it is probably the bigggest mental mistake that I made throughout my TT career. I tried to run from my fears instead of facing them head on.

One of the things that I think we should all do before every tournament is sit down and ask ourselves the question, "What is the absolute worst case scenario that could possibly happen to me in this tournament?" And I mean really sit down and analyze it in excruciating detail for about 30 minutes, 60 minutes, however long it takes. Face each and every single one of your fears head on:

"I could lose every match at 11-0 or 11-1."

"I could lose 300 points off my rating."

"I could disappoint my coach and my friends. They might even talk behind my back or make fun of me."

Whenever I do this, I always come to the realization that the worst case scenario is never as bad as we think it is. I am strong enough to handle the worst case scenario. Even if all the above things happened, my family and my dog would still love me, I'd still have a steady job, there would still be hot girls in the world, etc. etc.

Really there is nothing that can possibly happen to us in sport that is worthy of our fear. It is, as you say, the fear that we cannot control or face our fear that consumes us.

I really like the story that Gallway tells on page 110 of The Inner Game of Tennis. It basically relates how he came to the same conclusion that you're stating in your post.

I tried this at a tournament yesterday. It did seem to help a bit, in that I played somewhat less tentatively when trying to close out matches. It's still so incredibly difficult to block out extraneous thoughts and stimuli, and limit my attention to the ball, table, and opponent.

I'm probably one of the ones who needs therapy.

But I will keep doing these visualizations of both winning and losing, before every tournament from now on. Anything that helps balance my mental state however slightly will make playing tournaments that much more fun.

_________________
Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

Larry Hodges has written about the right and wrong times to think (about anything) while playing. Even when the thoughts are relevant and useful, for example telling myself to flick a serve next time, they really detract from playing the point. Same with thinking about anything when in set position to serve or receive.

So while thoughts of outcomes -- feelings of winning or losing, or counting rating points -- are the most powerful disruptors, any thinking while playing is bad. Thinking relevant thoughts between points and games is good, maybe essential. How to turn it on and off is the challenge.

_________________
Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

Exact same problem with me. If I spend significant time thinking about tactics in between points, then I often find myself still thinking once the ball gets put into play. Maybe it would help to start singing a song in your head as soon as you present the ball to the receiver on your serve, or when the receiver presents the ball to you on his serve?

I wish I had a good solution, because I can't seem to turn on and off my thinking either.

First of all, it affects everyone. Tahl Leibovitz wrote about it. I could cite other examples but let's just agree on that.

The key is really that both of you probably don't train enough. That's why I stress repeatedly the importance of acceptance. If you don't practice something, you have to accept that you will likely do it worse in matches than you could with real practice. This applies to any TT skill, whether it is looping, playing junk rubbers or moving to hit the ball. I can tell you how to play pips in excruciating detail but it will likely be useless if you don't train it.

The real issue is how you think about points you lose. The desire to win makes acceptance hard in those moments. Ultimately, it is whatever mindset that enables you to play your best or how you practice. And trust me, playing your A game can cost you a match so you can't eat and have your cake all the time. You just have to compete. My point is that the result is not supposed to affect how you play. Strategy should, but not the score.

_________________
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

In that respect Lily Zhang's tip is gold. I tried it yesterday evening and for me it works: The score is always 0-0.
http://espn.go.com/espnw/athletes-life/article/13429606/lily-zhang-6-tips-improving-your-table-tennis-game



Even though you know it's nonsense, once you connect 0-0 in your head with "relax, focus on ball, act accordingly", the 0-0 mantra has a calming effect and puts you back into the "zone". At least, it did for me
The first game I played with this mental trick, I went up all the way to 17-17 with many counter-matchpoints and came out on top with continous full effort i.s.o. "chicken-play", as often happens around that level of score.

Sure, I'm going to give this a try in the upcoming season

PS: I combined above mantra with the 4R method from the "Game Face" routine (Dora Kurimay) and it seems I'm well on my way of building a sound mental attitude during the game.

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All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
sun tzu