OOAK Table Tennis Forum

That is very funny!

BTW, I'm turning into a bit of an EJ. NL will be so happy! I'm boosting extremely cheap Chinese rubber and everything! I'm even buying stuff for other people.

Yes, Jesse is a good athlete. He was in our National Junior Team 7 years ago when I was National Head Coach. He's recently started his comeback and he's probably playing at 2350 right now. He could quickly reach 2500 if he continues working on his game.

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Simply curious: is Jesse featured in this video?

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[quote="fastmover"]Simply curious: is Jesse featured in this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5OtcmQE0aQ[/youtube]

That was Jesse quite a few years ago.

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It is always encouraging to hear about people returning to the sport, especially at that level.

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I'd like to hear more about this. I've hit with a lot of borrowed setups recently with h3/n/p, skyline 2 & 3, cj8000, ta3 & 5. But most of them aren't boosted, and I want to boost the living daylights out of it. Going to buy a couple sheets and a bottle of cheat juice and experiment in my off-season starting October. But there are too many choices. Share your newfound expertise, please.

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Okay then BRS. Please consider that I don't play table tennis and I just coach. Boosting is controversial as the rules say you can't alter the rubber, or something similar. This doesn't impact me as I don't compete. In my experience and opinion, 0% of elite players actually care about the rule. Boosting isn't dangerous in any way and it's virtually undetectable. It shouldn't be banned by the ITTF...it should be encouraged!

Anyway, I went down to Woolworths and purchased a 500ml bottle of baby oil (no fragrance) for approx USD$2. This will boost about 1 million rubbers. Baby oil is almost 100% mineral oil which is the key to boosting. Then I purchased Yinhe Mercury 2 rubber from Aliexpress for approx USD$5. It's a wonderful rubber for the price, especially when you boost it well. Like all Chinese rubber, it's a little heavy.

So, I applied a very thin layer of normal white glue to the sponge and waited for it to fully dry (15 mins). Then, with a sponge, applied a very thin layer of baby oil onto the sponge. Then I applied another layer of baby oil every 24 hours for 2 straight days (Don't use baby oil on the surface of the rubber). Then on the 4th (or even 5th day), I just glued the sponge and the blade with normal glue, waited for it to dry, and stuck them together.

This is not newfound expertise. I was using this technique in 2008.

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And the million dollar question: how does this compare to the amazing T05?

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One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
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"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

We have to prevent this thread from slipping down into the EJ abyss! So here is my reverse serve. It is wildly inconsistent, but I hope that at least the spin is OK. The next step is to do some training to make it short, low and less faulty under pressure. What adjustments should I do before cementing it?

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It's a long discussion. If your technique is fantastic, especially on the forehand topspin, then Chinese rubber is probably the way to go. If your forehand topspin technique is slightly flawed, then Tenergy is much better. The more you play with your arm, the more you'll like soft/medium rubber. The more core rotation you get, the more likely Chinese rubber will be best because of the hidden benefits mentioned below.

Your technique also evolves around the type of rubber you've been using over a long period of time. For example, if you've always used very soft (30-35H) European/Japanese rubber, then you probably think you "like" it. The problem is that the rubber has capped your technique and level. Of course you won't be able to loop well with Chinese rubber as you don't have the physical mechanics or the ability to strike the ball close to the top.

Soft rubber is horrible for serving/returning and looping against chop. Hard rubber is horrible for flat smashing. Hard rubber is best for looping against backspin and serve/return. Medium rubber is good for looping against block and it's just okay for everything else. That's why great players use medium rubber on their backhand.

Medium blades are best. Hard blades are the worst. You can tell the speed of a blade by the pitch it makes when you bounce a ball on it, not what the company says about it. The higher the pitch, the faster it is. IMO, Viscaria has a good pitch. Find a blade with a similar pitch and don't worry about how little it costs, even if it's 5-10 bucks. The price of the wood is irrelevant. Henzell played the last 2 years of his career with a cheap wooden Adidas blade. He couldn't even tell you the real name of the blade.

I've never really commented on equipment, so I don't think this post turns the thread into an EJ thead. I'm not really up for debate on the above points though. If someone wants to teach everyone more about equipment, please find another thread.

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I think this is a fantastic serve.

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In terms of spin generation or control (keeping it short/low) or both?

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Both. You need a hard sponge to support thin surface contacts.

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I have a bit of a dilemma regarding my backspin serve racket angle and keep switching back and forth between two slightly different ways I execute the serve and wonder which is a better default and a way to practice in the long run:

1. Racket almost completely open and parallel to the floor and very thin brushing contact - the downside being here is that I am forced to have a smaller and slower backswing or my error rate goes through the roof, but the ball seems very spinny and short (can't get much much speed though)

2. Racket tilted a bit (guess 10-30 degrees) so thicker contact but I can swing much more dynamically since I whiff lot less with a tilted bat, still seem to produce good spin with better speed but harder to keep the ball short

Really appreciate any opinion on this, thanks

So that would also mean a harder sponge is better for slow spinny loops?

Sent from my SM-T210 using Tapatalk

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I'd go with option 2. With the first one it will be also difficult to keep the ball low.

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