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PostPosted: 04 Sep 2017, 23:17 
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Great effort Wilkinru, keep it up. Hope you are feeling good.

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PostPosted: 30 Sep 2017, 04:56 
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Cobalt wrote:
Great effort Wilkinru, keep it up. Hope you are feeling good.

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I didn't see this until now. Thanks!!!!!


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PostPosted: 30 Sep 2017, 05:03 
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End of Sept Update
Weight loss continues, a little slowed by a mild cold I've had for a little too long now. TT has too but I'm still making my weekly practice on Saturday mornings.

I'm pretty sure much of my game has improved since the last update including the forehand. For the first time I could tell the difference between Tenergy (used) and Baracuda on the forehand side. While i don't think I added much power or spin to my forehand I am not shanking or outright missing nearly as much.

I've noticed my loop off of heavier backspin is suffering. Need to get lots of that in right away and correct that issue.

About 2.5 months until the US Open here in Vegas but only about 10 days until a trip to Japan. I hope to play some in Japan and just enjoy the vacation. When I return it's time to get more into match readiness and I'm going to switch to doing more match specific drills and more return of serve.

Once this cold is over I need to do a little interval training. My game is as good as it's ever been but after an hour or so my sharpness falls off due to fitness. I'm not going to win an all day tourney in that condition.

So for 2017 my goal is to win the U1500. I feel like I have the skills to do it...but there will be other players who have also improved or have a mis-rating and going deep into the tourney will require a new level of fitness. In the past I've tried to snipe players for points - but this time, for fitness, I'll try and win that tourney.


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PostPosted: 02 Nov 2017, 09:06 
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End of Oct update:
Didn't play nearly as much as I wanted :|
I got a massage on my legs but my back locked up soon after early in Oct. I had to play it very safe before the Japan trip. Lesson: don't let the massage person just work one body part, make sure you get the other side worked out too.

On the trip I got sick and never played much TT. I did hit a tiny bit against a lady working in a TT store mostly because they had a cool sensor thing that gave me the speed of the ball. The highest reading was around 60 k/h. It often didn't register my bigger shots. Backhand was only around 33 k/h at best.

So I returned around the 20th of Oct and got back to it. Weight loss has stalled but diet is restored, at least no damage from the Japan goodies (oh was I in carb heaven!). I'm playing pretty darn well actually. The rest was good for the body and I've put in a few more hours than usual the last week and a half or so.

Getting kind of close to the US Open in Las Vegas so it's time to set some short term goals and do some match specific training
1. Lose 5 pounds.
2. Focus on shorter strokes vs half long top spin/side spin serves/shots. I tend to whiff or over hit these balls.
3. Work on footwork and back swing to the backhand - I'm not able to move outside of the table on the backhand side and hit a backhand. I can do a pivot forehand but not "move feet to backhand and execute a weakish loop".
4. Daily serve practice. Serves are coming in pretty good right now so it's a good time to push it to the next level.

It'll turn into even more point winning exercise as Dec starts. I'll work much more on 3rd ball attack and return of serve then.


I've got new rubbers ready on a blade - when should I switch over to that before a tourney? 2 weeks? 1 week?


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PostPosted: 17 Nov 2017, 02:54 
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Doing a weekly tourney and needed a place for notes. This seemed like a reasonable spot.

Flick issues were less bad, recovery was much better. Work on power. Continue on footwork practice for the backhand side and make sure the forehand starts lower with bent knees. Warmup is key.

When nerves kick in, do standard serves and do not get too creative.

Was able to return pretty much every side-top spin that I read. Need to start adding a little power to the return, instead of 40-50% try 60-75%. Also stop watching the return. Get READY!!!

Used a lot of backhand for the second week in a row. Seems like the standard of the club is to try and return there. Just be sure to warm up the backhand also.

Heavy backspin pendulum vs long pips and anti deep to the backhand seemed to work, but use it lightly.

Start wider to the backhand on return vs the good serving penholder and take a half a step back and be ready to move. Was jammed many times with a deep top/side. His serve is always deep and still having trouble reading it.

Solid player "A" has a very good forehand serve. Will need to move with both feet and get it deep to give time to get back, usually backspin. Pendulum serve deep is fast and difficult to read but is side/top.


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PostPosted: 23 Nov 2017, 15:52 
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While it's fresh in my mind from the tourney tonight.

Successes and failures tonight, but I should not be too hard on myself.

Success:
Handled the half long dead serve well - won the match with return of serve.
Handled the side or back + side spin serve to the forehand with power. Good blocks back lost me a match but I'm happy with that progress.
Blocking a player who has good top spin won me some points - best blocking I've ever had in a match.
Play over the table wasn't great but I also think I had better feel and I won some points with it.
Players who retrieve or lob did not have much luck at all - I was all over them. This has been one of my major goals.
Side top spin to my backhand is no longer a nightmare for me - I'm sure I'll see better serves and have issues but at least I've got a base to work off of. Felt somewhat natural even.

So those were some pretty good items...and as usual new challenges appeared.

Issues:
1. Losing many matches when ahead to players I haven't beat. Obviously I don't have the confidence to finish them. I was extremely close this time on many upsets. It'll happen just need to keep working at it.
Solution: keep trying and believe in yourself! Really buckle down and keep moving too. Got caught hoping the serve would win the point a few times.

Played someone who gives low/deep/heavy backspin serves. He could loop the 3rd ball extremely heavy. While my push back made him loop up, the spin was too much and I couldn't block it on the table except a couple of times.
Solution: Practice blocking loops from backspin - I've not really done this in a practice against a player that good. Other long term solution: work on looping backspin more. I think I would need to really improve my backhand in order to loop those balls well. They were most often going out the side of the table and very deep. However if I improve this a little I might be able to beat other players with just a little weaker of a serve.

Forehand had some issues under pressure.
Solution: Continue to work on forehand and remember to keep low and focus on the ball, not the point or whatever else is going through my head.

I lost a match up 9-3 in the last set. 2 of those points were trying to loop that heavy backspin. That's what practice matches are for I suppose. It's frustrating as it would have been an awesome thing to have won but in the end maybe it's best I lost. I now am being critical of my play instead of thinking how good I am and have some action items to work on.


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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2017, 03:12 
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Weekly tourney started poor and ended strong. I think overall I'm going in the right direction.

Finally able to handle top spin serves to my forehand or even the middle. I'm not attacking them very well but they do end up on the table and I'm not getting huge attacks against me.

So I've been unsure on the level of players I've been up against. As the US Open draws near the tourney players start showing up. I played and beat a guy who is 1675 USATT. He in turn barely beat another guy who I'd consider #2 on most days. The top player hovers around 2000.

So that gives me a gauge on ratings and all of that. They're just practice matches and 2 out of 3 matches but now I'm aware of the quality of player. It creates a bit of a problem because there is basically no one 1700-1950 ratings who plays there on a regular basis. So I will need to start looking for that level of player.

So again I lost to this penhold player who seemingly is a bad matchup for me. He does three things extremely well: pushes low and early, seems to read my body language as to where I am going to place the ball extremely well and takes pace off the ball rather well. That's not to say I cannot beat him but the margins are pretty slim. He also serves with side spin that I still struggle against (but this has improved) and I leak 2-3 points each game. There was one forehand where he was in position before I was half way done with my swing. I tried to put it down the line at the last instant and missed it. Maybe I'm just that easy to read.

Plan for next time: Attack a little more (50-60%) on the return and keep close to the table after return as it will likely come back fairly dead.
Attack the middle considerably more. Harder to read angles if none are given.
Mix of half deep and half short serves. Serve some dead ones and serve the middle. Still give some sort backspin serves. If you want to win (yes talking to myself) then push the 3rd ball deep and loop a good ball. You hate to do this and it's bad practice but in a tight match may be required as your attack off of backspin isn't good enough for that return all of the time.

The last major hurtle is the 2000 player. Antispin on the backhand and a strong forehand counter. I'm never in the match against this guy. Serving to his forehand seems to be more effective but in order to beat him I need to solve the antispin. He's literally the only player that I have played with antispin and obviously it would be easier to start with a player say around 1500 to work on it.

Things to try next time: slowish dead balls to his backhand on serve, keep close to the table and loop it. The forehand is your best weapon and is getting points. Must master the crouch and explode backhand technique to beat this guy.

So crouch and explode is my new term for the backhand hip/body movement. Right now I can do it in practice and against slower balls. It feels really natural and I hope that it will translate into my game ASAP. Continue to work on this and really focus on doing it in matches against slower balls.


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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2017, 05:31 
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So again I lost to this penhold player who seemingly is a bad matchup for me. He does three things extremely well: pushes low and early, seems to read my body language as to where I am going to place the ball extremely well and takes pace off the ball rather well. That's not to say I cannot beat him but the margins are pretty slim. He also serves with side spin that I still struggle against (but this has improved) and I leak 2-3 points each game. There was one forehand where he was in position before I was half way done with my swing. I tried to put it down the line at the last instant and missed it. Maybe I'm just that easy to read.


Please feel free to disregard anything I say, as you are almost certainly more experienced than I. But when people seem to know where you are going with a shot, it is not only body language they are reading. The percentage shot is to prepare for the cross-court drive. So your opponent should know that if he places a ball to your BH, you are most likely to return to his BH and vice-versa, assuming both RH players (but the principle holds). This is especially the case with a penholder, who may assume that you assume his BH is his weak point, so he will always prepare to receive your cross court return on his BH and position himself accordingly. Working on a down the line shot which you are able to make look like a cross court loop during the back-swing will be useful.

I know that when I am able to actually think during a match (not very often :oops: ) and take this into account, I have more success. But penholders are rare around here.

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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2017, 05:38 
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I think your right and to some degree his block placement allowed his reading to occur. He was reading my backhand down the line pretty well too. I'll try down the middle and see what happens next time.

Thanks for reading my mumblings :)


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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2017, 05:45 
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It's things like this that make me ask for TTEDge to teach strategy - it's hard to redirect a shot if you do not do it often in practice.

Your body position might be tipping him off but you need to practice making shots to two or more locations with very similar body positioning. When you turn your body, you give away information if you cannot redirect the shot on demand.

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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2017, 05:57 
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NextLevel wrote:
It's things like this that make me ask for TTEDge to teach strategy - it's hard to redirect a shot if you do not do it often in practice.

Your body position might be tipping him off but you need to practice making shots to two or more locations with very similar body positioning. When you turn your body, you give away information if you cannot redirect the shot on demand.


Yeah I've done it a few times over the last month but it is very new for me and just happened when I saw someone move in the corner of my eye, all on high balls.

I was really frustrated with my inability to go to the wide forehand and instead kept putting it in a much easier spot. My timing was just off and it's something on the list to practice next session. Not sure how to go about it just yet. Something like 'get into a position that looks like inside out and then go down the line'. That should stress my timing and give me more options.

One thing I know is that I do not practice going to the middle of the table as much because of my robot's physical location. It's right in the middle and usually pings off at me and can damage the ball. Need to start moving the robot around. BRS would tell me to throw the robot in the garbage, I know :)


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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2017, 07:30 
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You can't aim for the wide forehand. You can only hit a relatively slow hook that bends away from the forehand or drive a ball that lands short. It's much easier to be able to hit to two different spots, usually cross court and down the line.

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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2017, 07:39 
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wilkinru wrote:
Weekly tourney started poor and ended strong. I think overall I'm going in the right direction.

Finally able to handle top spin serves to my forehand or even the middle. I'm not attacking them very well but they do end up on the table and I'm not getting huge attacks against me.

So I've been unsure on the level of players I've been up against. As the US Open draws near the tourney players start showing up. I played and beat a guy who is 1675 USATT. He in turn barely beat another guy who I'd consider #2 on most days. The top player hovers around 2000.

So that gives me a gauge on ratings and all of that. They're just practice matches and 2 out of 3 matches but now I'm aware of the quality of player. It creates a bit of a problem because there is basically no one 1700-1950 ratings who plays there on a regular basis. So I will need to start looking for that level of player.

So again I lost to this penhold player who seemingly is a bad matchup for me. He does three things extremely well: pushes low and early, seems to read my body language as to where I am going to place the ball extremely well and takes pace off the ball rather well. That's not to say I cannot beat him but the margins are pretty slim. He also serves with side spin that I still struggle against (but this has improved) and I leak 2-3 points each game. There was one forehand where he was in position before I was half way done with my swing. I tried to put it down the line at the last instant and missed it. Maybe I'm just that easy to read.

Plan for next time: Attack a little more (50-60%) on the return and keep close to the table after return as it will likely come back fairly dead.
Attack the middle considerably more. Harder to read angles if none are given.
Mix of half deep and half short serves. Serve some dead ones and serve the middle. Still give some sort backspin serves. If you want to win (yes talking to myself) then push the 3rd ball deep and loop a good ball. You hate to do this and it's bad practice but in a tight match may be required as your attack off of backspin isn't good enough for that return all of the time.

The last major hurtle is the 2000 player. Antispin on the backhand and a strong forehand counter. I'm never in the match against this guy. Serving to his forehand seems to be more effective but in order to beat him I need to solve the antispin. He's literally the only player that I have played with antispin and obviously it would be easier to start with a player say around 1500 to work on it.

Things to try next time: slowish dead balls to his backhand on serve, keep close to the table and loop it. The forehand is your best weapon and is getting points. Must master the crouch and explode backhand technique to beat this guy.

So crouch and explode is my new term for the backhand hip/body movement. Right now I can do it in practice and against slower balls. It feels really natural and I hope that it will translate into my game ASAP. Continue to work on this and really focus on doing it in matches against slower balls.



The key to the antispin guy given his level is to find a serve he cannot attack, preferably with minimal sidespin. Or to find a serve he will rarely attack but return long.

Serve this single serve throughout the match or the game, no matter the score. Try to figure out what the returned spin is and adjust your stroke to it. You can try straight backspin, straight topspin and straight no spin. After you learn to attack behind the serve, you should have an idea what spin is on the ball. You can also learn through adjusting your angle on the push but pushing long balls is not the way to go unless you are using the push to reset your position.

When you practice reading the spin that comes off his pips in response to your serve and strokes, then you can then be more versatile in how you approach him.

You've said all the right things, and you have to use him to learn so that at some point you can deal with him, but also the guys beneath who don't play as well are sitting ducks for you.

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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2017, 08:19 
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NextLevel wrote:
You can't aim for the wide forehand. You can only hit a relatively slow hook that bends away from the forehand or drive a ball that lands short. It's much easier to be able to hit to two different spots, usually cross court and down the line.


The hook would have been great because it would have opened up the backhand for the kill shot. I've already got the guy a little off the table at that point, just needing to create difficult angles.

Also I like the scientific method you are proposing against the antispin. I will commit to one and see what happens. I was able to get him to dump a couple of backspin balls into the net previously so maybe i'll start there but start with a little less spin.


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PostPosted: 04 Dec 2017, 12:50 
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I put some goals down for before the US Open so let's see where I'm at just 2 weeks away from matches.

1. Lose 5 pounds. Only lost 2 or 3. Not the worst thing ever.
2. Focus on shorter strokes vs half long top spin/side spin serves/shots. I tend to whiff or over hit these balls. Yeah I think this has improved. I'm using more wrist on some of these shots now.
3. Work on footwork and back swing to the backhand - I'm not able to move outside of the table on the backhand side and hit a backhand. I can do a pivot forehand but not "move feet to backhand and execute a weakish loop". I'd say this is a no. I have worked on it but it has not made a ton of progress. What has made progress for good or bad is my wide backhand reaching.
4. Daily serve practice. Serves are coming in pretty good right now so it's a good time to push it to the next level. This is going well. I'm adding one new serve - a very heavy deep backspin ball.

One thing about my fitness is that I'm pretty good now for my level of play. I'm able to play considerably more without getting exhausted. I think I'm slowly getting lower too. Weight needs to come off but strength needs to increase.

I'm already thinking towards 2018.
Some items that are more long term and are not terribly obvious:
Backhand crouch and explode - very difficult to do live still.
Continue weight loss and overall fitness. Add in some core exercises.
Backhand and forehand flick - and in general over the table play. I had none before 2017 and it's poor at best right now. Doing this in a point also would be huge (not just the return)
Taking the ball off the bounce more.
Reverse pendulum serve and/or punch serve.
Try a harder sponge on my forehand.
Find better competition.
Focus on blocking to less known locations.
Play more pips. Pips players really show up for tourneys.
One huge concern of mine is the US Open is the only tourney I will play this year. It isn't enough. I need to do the two in Vegas and add 1 more somewhere in Cali next year. Injuries pending of course.

So in 2 weeks I'll play 10-16 people and that will determine if I've improved. The truth is I might play really badly or end up with some really tough draws which may not show my improvement.
Let's say I improve my return against deep heavy top spin. There is only a certain percentage of player who serves that - my efforts may likely go unnoticed in a tourney. Out of the 10k players who I couldn't beat in the USA, maybe now it's only 9800. It's unlikely one of those 200 will show for my matches! That's why everything needs to improve.


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