OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hm.. you're right.

There just isn't enough time in the day or days in a year for me to just do general practice... I should probably be more specific if I train with Rawle regularly with a focus on the most important things... serve, return of serve, third ball attack when serving, and fourth ball attack when receiving...

I am wondering what stroke I would like to emphasize--part of me wants to just focus all on forehand. Footwork and forehand is always the answer right? Just ask Ryu Seungmin... ... But... another part of me wants to really get a good backhand because... let's face it... we all need a good retirement plan and I don't think I'll be able to run around hitting forehands later in life.

Decisions decisions.

Here's my two cents:

1. Most coaches who play at a high level coach people as if they want to become 2400 players.
2. 2400 players need strokes and footwork.
3. Lower level players tend to have problems hitting the ball properly even when they get to it.
4. Therefore, lower level players get more bang for the buck from learning to hit the ball properly than from learning to move to it.

If you want, you can spend your time trying to improve your footwork and forehand. Many people enjoy the hard ways of playing TT so I can't say you are alone, so go for the footwork and forehand route if you like it. IMO, it is much easier to build your strokes and then incorporate the footwork over time because if you know how to hit the ball, you will make every attempt to get to it. But if you know how to get to the ball, but you have the wrong stroke, it won't matter if you get to it.

_________________
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

How does the sponge density compare with those rubbers and with Bluefire?

I have slowly weaned myself off of Chinese stuff--that's where I started when I started taking this seriously. I used to use 729-08 no the forehand and IQUL on the backhand or something along those lines, then H3Neo on the FH with something comparable on the backhand. My main reason to switch off of Chinese stuff was that I felt like I needed a really high quality stroke to get a good shot whereas ESN stuff is more forgiving (although more expensive )

I've been using Bluefire JP1 Turbo after switching from Bluefire M1 Turbo and I think I will stick with this for now (JP1Turbo) that is, on the forehand. For the backhand I am contemplating using Bluefire JP03--I do like this rubber despite the recent negative feedback from the Westchester pros, I think I like the "cake-y" sponge... does Victas V>15 Extra, Rakza X, Evo MX-P also have this type of "cake" sponge? What about the hardness/density?

How would you order those rubbers you recommended me in this list of my most recently used sheets softest to hardest:
Mark V HPS Soft
IQUL SV
JP1 Turbo
M1 Turbo
H3Neo
729-08

Also, any particular qualities in the topsheet worth mentioning? I think what I like about the JP series of Bluefire is that the softer topsheet allows easier access to the sponge. I think in the future when I have a better stroke I should be able to play with something harder/faster/spinnier but I will probably just stick with Bluefire ... damn you EJ bug.. damn you...

Another possible approach with a professional coach like that is to ask him to help you best different types of players that you run into a lot and have troule with. You have mentioned LP blockers. I'm sure that coach could take a set of LP and help you learn to beat them at your level. That way your level can go up.

The one thing I remember from the book Breaking 2000 (a really good book, btw, just my.memory is bad) is he said if you want to get to a level -- 2000, or 2400, or 1400 -- you have to beat everybody
below that level. You can't say i lose to him cause he has lp, or nasty sidespin serves, or goes bsck and lobs, or nothing. Everybody below that level.

So picking out a section of players you can't beat at your current level and learning to beat them will move you up. Plus it gives some concrete evaluation criteria to the training. When you get the wins you used to lose, time to move on.

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

Yoko Ono

thanks for your comment BRS--I agree with it.

the problem is Neil (junk player) is technically better than me... so the seldom times I have beaten him I would consider I played above my level.

my new computer is finally up and running to crank out edited videos, and after going back and doing just that to my matches with Neil--I realized my warmups with him I play very lackadaisical... I can only imagine what it has been looking like when I warmup with him... which could be one of my main problems why I lose to him so much...

Learn to take the ball earlier. You don't have to do it all the time, but the reason why your backhand tends to be more consistent against him is that you have to take the ball earlier with it. You keep dropping off the table instinctively even when you are not in danger. Learn to play at all distances.

_________________
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

Hey guys, this is breaking off-topic a little bit, but does anyone have experience with wide angle lenses ? I am contemplating buying one for the camera because at times it seems like I need to put it farther than I can to get a good view of the court....

I might be messing up what a wide angle lens actually does though--so say I set up my camcorder but i can only barely see the whole court (aka the camera is too close and can't see everything) would a wide angle lens help with that?

If your camcorder has threads you can attach a wide-angle adapter, but I was told it might act a little weird. I didn't have that choice on my Canon, so I got the cheapest Sony with a built-in wide angle, the cx-405. It was Black friday and I got a kit for less than $200 from Adorama.

I'm very happy with it, no more trouble with getting everything in frame. You can see the videos on my blog here, everything the last few months is with the Sony.

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

Yoko Ono

I decided to splurge and get a .43x wide angle lens for my camcorder--hopefully it works well haha. Also bought another battery, because 1hr30min of battery life just won't cut it... Probably should have done more thorough research on my camcorder before buying it but oh well.. it was on discount during last year's holiday season

In other news... I found that I make this crappy forehand shot every now and then. I liken it to a chicken wing loop and wouldn't care to fix it if I were actually making the shots, but when I do this shot more often than not I over-shoot the table... I really need to remind myself the forward component of the forehand is more important than the upward... or at least that the upward component cannot exist without the forward component.

okay, so I always thought and it always was the case that my backhand is weaker than my forehand but recently I have been noticing some limitations on my forehand too ...

I am crappy at topspinning with the forehand--I hit the ball too much and don't spin (usually versus a semi-popup that I hit through for a winner or hit through for a loser ... the latter is still happening too frequently), or I spin the ball too much and don't put any pace (stroke too vertical...)

I did some analysis on the forehand and I notice my elbow finishing position is almost never in front of my body but it's always in-line with the my shoulder/torso ... I am guessing this is bad and I should have a more forward stroke

Join TTEdge. Then I can point you to all the right videos.

_________________
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

also... i violate the golden rule of leaving the elbow pointing down a lot ...

damn this sport

Your finishing position is actually fine if you know what you are looking for. Leaving the elbow pointing down is supposed to help with something that you are not getting wrong in that picture (overusing the upper arm). Whether your stroke is good or not depends on how much power you got since you are out of balance.

_________________
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

The chest facing the ball principle in this video is helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ScVK0M6hMk

_________________
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

so yesterday at club during warmup I could tell that I was playing well, especially the forehand. I guess you can say that it was "on" Maybe not so much the backhand but for the forehand definitely--I was able to get really good feel on the shots and knew it would be high percentage landing on the table.

But then I had the opportunity to play against the 4th league Bundesliga German dude and I got pummelled into oblivion. Wednesday nights are pretty bare-bones, we usually have 6 or so people but that's enough for us.



After my 0-3 defeat against Uwe who said he would only chop the previous game, I even had the opportunity to play him a second time because everyone else was still playing matches...



Needless to say... after that beating I did not feel like anything was "on" anymore. Honestly it sucks that he can play so lackadaisical against me and win ... it is probably better for me to introduce some sort of handicap. In the past, I played him with an 8 point handicap and won but it is still somewhat obvious he let me, and after that he was not shy about whipping me around with hardbat--but both of those matches were more valuable to me than playing him head-on like I did yesterday because frankly it feels like I stare into a black void and there is no hope in anything I do to win At least in handicap matches I have a glimmer of hope of making it out alive haha... It's also unfortunate he does not want to coach or train, bribing him with money did not work. He told me he went to Buffalo and played at their club, lost to a 2300-2400ish traditional penholder 3-2, deuce in the 5th.





Recently I've been experimenting a lot with tomahawk and backhand service, since people can get me on those serves, I figure I could try them as well. In this match versus Richard I can still see I "love-tap" when I am playing too safe and keep the ball on the table but I shouldn't be doing that. He really likes to back away from the table and kind of flat hit or fish it back, I think that also causes me to hit more flat.



For my last match of the day, I really wasn't feeling it and I knew in order to win I would need to play my attacking game, but after a few points in and mising a bunch of attacks I ended up trying to win off of just pushing against Mike (who I called in some previous posts a pseudo-blocker, soft touch player).



To me his style is kind of the opposite of Richard's who likes the open play and that plays to my strengths, but Mike's style sort of plays to my weakenesses (he plays a lot of close to the table, service is usually heavy no spin, pushes with decent backspin). Unfortunately my push was not good enough to beat his push. There were times I was thinking of switching back to just attacking but I really wanted to commit to just trying to win off the push, but alas... that was the first time he 3-0'd me in a long time.

When everything goes right for me when I play my normal attacking game this is probably the best result



More often than not it's 3-1 or 3-2 because of unforced errors on my part--trying to go for hard-driving winners that clip the net and go out when I could control the shot with spin and placement instead...