OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Lobbing and chopping are excellent exercises to develop your touch. Among other things these drills will help you return weird net balls that end up cutting the sidelines of the table.

Trying to revive the thread... I had an opportunity to practice with a really good chopper. I could lift his "regular" chops, but as soon as he chopped heavy, I was out. Any comments?

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Tactics Enthusiast

Only comment is the spin is increasing with every loop-chop exchange. Hard to tell from 9 seconds, but I think after two or three loops you have to push to reset the spin at a manageable level.

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

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Also it's very funny to have a billboard-sized announcement for a curling competition behind you.

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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

Also see the double-size table next to the one they are playing on - for chopper training (heard Ma Te did this) ?

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Ok, here is more video. In the last rallies I almost literally hit the wall when trying to loop his chops.



A few words about the venue and why it looks quite bizarre. It is a temporary training hall in my Alma mater in my hometown. The story is that the university once had a top-notch training facility, but then a huge crack in the building was discovered, so the whole structure had to be abandoned. They found a temporary hall and moved all the tables there. Because the hall is small, it is packed with the tables, with very little distance between them. We were the only people in the hall, so we moved the tables out a bit to get more space (not because somebody wanted to play on two tables simultaneously lol). This hall is used for physical education classes, and my partner is the coach (he is probably 2200-2400 USATT). He chops with inverted and can generate an insane backspin with his smooth rubber. I will play him next Friday again. I don't know the story behind the curling banner, but I will ask next time

I will probably play a tourney here next Sunday and post some footage as well.

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Tactics Enthusiast

A five-gamer I should have won. Tried playing a very BH-oriented game.

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Tactics Enthusiast

I think it looks really good! Making that many loops in a row iagainst a quality chopper is great. Just keep trying to lift the heavy ones and you'll get better with experience.

The use of your body is right. You could however get away from the ball a little more, which would give your a straighter arm and better leverage. It's easier said than done because players feel comfortable being close to the ball.

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ttEDGE.com Professional online coaching

Thanks for editing and posting. Your strokes and technical understanding are way more advanced than your opponent but that doesn't necessarily convert in winning as you are moving up.

Here's my thoughts:
- You need to play more forehands. I have no idea why anyone would want to play a "BH-oriented game" against this guy, and many others. If you have time, play forehands.
- Develop a heavy backspin serve. Players at this level hate good serves, especially when they use this style.
- You are getting better all the time.
- Getting better is more important that receiving tips. Getting better mostly happens through more play.
- Your technique is in a range where you can continue to improve from here.
- Never forget the amount of time your opponents have been playing for. So many learning adults want to crush guys who have been playing for 30+ years. It takes time to overcome these guys, no matter how good your strokes are starting to look.

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Yeah, I also notice that I get too close to the ball when playing against the chopper. From my perspective, it happens because I don't recover quickly enough. Looping the first heavy one requires a very big stroke, and by the time I finish it, the ball is usually on my side, so I have very little time to adjust my position. Probably the only way to improve it is to become stronger physically so that I can reload quicker.

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Tactics Enthusiast

I played the same guy a year ago and I had no chance at all: he was counterdriving from the bounce and moved me out of position all the time. So from the beginning I decided to play more backhands to stay balanced. Only then I realized that I can actually play a lot more forehands and stay in the point.

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I have a question about the service return though. I try to loop all long and half-long serves, and when doing so, I try to accommodate the biggest body turn possible to generate heavy spin. The result is that sometimes I win the point outright by looping heavy, and sometimes fail to recover for the next shot due to the big body motion. The proportion depends on the opponent's ability to block heavy spin. Another coach here told me that when returning such serves I should not try to loop as heavy as possible. Instead he told me that I have to mostly guide the ball back low over the net to stay in the rally and prepare for the next shot. Especially on the forehand, he just asked me to loop the ball with forearm snap with "the feeling", rather than the force of the body. So what is the best option then?

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Tactics Enthusiast

IMHO this is coming from you "fixing" one technique but the other is still in progress. you've got the big motion because you're using your body AND your arm. if your swing is more compact but you're still generating all that spin andp ace with your body, your arm will naturally fall after your stroke quite close to the resting/ready position ready for your next shot.

This is something I'm actively working on for myself and with the Juniors leading up to nationals. if you feel like you're not "ready" enough after that first one - when practicing it helps to exaggerate, so drop your right leg a little bit further back to enable you to twist MORE, and then scale it back. I use the good old "tennis ball under the elbow" for the kids that don't get it .

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"slappy slappy slappity slap"

There is a lot of conversation about this over on mytabletennis.net - http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=83224&PN=1&title=li-sun-say-no-to-waist-rotation. This is part of a broader discussion about a growing trend towards close to the table, off the bounce counter hitting a la Harimoto Tomokazu and Mima Ito, which relies upon the ability to recover much more quickly than is possible with huge body rotation.

For the record, I'd love to hear what Brett Clarke has to say on the whole body rotation thing, but I'm starting to wonder if he's disappeared from the forum.

birchamboi wrote:


From a previous post he and / or HH are on or have started up a separate, nameless, forum. He has made a couple of comments here in the last couple of days. I am also not sure whether his commitments to TT Australia may be a drag on how much time he spends here and also the pace of new eponymous videos he announces (used to announce?) here.

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