OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I think every table tennis enthusiast should go and see a World Championships at some stage. It's amazing how much better these players look live than on video. I watched FZD, ML, XX, and ZJK etc play in KL last year and I was kinda surprised by at how hard they are hitting the ball. I've been watching international table tennis live for decades, but these guys have something extra.

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I am surprised at how hard people hit the ball in general. All I want to do is block and yet some people hit it back harder. It makes me feel like my brain is missing something about how this sport works.

If anyone can explain to me the physics of hitting a hard ball back hard, I am open to it. Might give me the courage to do it. I am tired of losing points wimping out with blocks that get me into trouble.

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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

Brett, I completely share your curiosity and passion about the technique of Chinese forehand. Moreover, I am sure that this is the most discussed topic among table tennis players both online and in real life. Maybe only discussing equipment is more popular But I am not sure about the action plan for myself. I will probably try to improve my ability to maintain the correct distance to the ball in the next four weeks by playing fixed drills 99% of the time and filming myself. If I will see improvement in this aspect, I will try to adjust my swing further.

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Tactics Enthusiast

This is my favorite forehand loop to copy aspects of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr_ZUeSbvKM

Not quite there (and my lower body will never be) but I do better on some days than others. Most days, I look even more like fastmover.

https://youtu.be/2TKIV7Hb8P0?t=395

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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

Yes, I like Fan Zhendong's loop very much. Actually my loop against robot somehow resembles it. What puzzles me is that Fan was looping a topspin ball, but I was looping heavy backspin. I don't know how it is possible. Maybe the reason is the low throw of their or Hurricane rubbers, or Fan Zhendong generates so much topspin that he does not care what is on the ball.

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Tactics Enthusiast

Your loop is far more vertical than Fan Zhendong.

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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

It took me forever to figure this out. Many people have great form with a robot or in static drills and then revert to bad technique in matches and get frustrated. But if your body position relative to the ball doesn't allow you to touch the ball with the rubber using good form, your body makes it happen any way it can. Maybe coached juniors in that situation would still use their proper form and flat out miss the ball, but adults don't.

Perhaps fastmover's training for a little while should focus on getting into position as much or more than changing the stroke, because opponents can't be relied on to constantly place their shots to the full extension of your arm.

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This is typical with adults. Trying to do everything at once rather than learn to do one thing well then later things on top of it. I posted those videos because the backswing remains in line with the ball.

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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 point about leaning is a good one. When I watch Chinese mega-forehand players, I notice that often they demonstrate almost acrobatic flexibility and adjust their body in unimaginable ways to play their best forehand shot. However, I have no idea how to practice this.

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Tactics Enthusiast

If you do defending your elbow drills, sometimes it is inevitable even if not optimal. But having a wide stance helps a ton. I can't bend my knees consistently but I try to keep my legs at least shoulder width apart as much as possible.

The one thing is that if work on something and make it work, like you are doing with your forehand now, the better it gets, the more you get an idea of how other things should fit in and how they should feel.

I am doing footwork drills now. I use my coaching sessions as an excuse to practice 5 to 10 mins of shadow footwork under the pretext of teaching my students and giving them a work out. But without decent strokes, it felt like a waste of time to get to the ball only to put it into the sky or into the net. But now that I have good strokes, I want to move well enough to use them at least once, maybe twice in a point, bad knees be damned.

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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

Don't know whether the actual footwork chosen is correct but at least I moved... when I can't walk anymore, I am going to sue Brett for teaching me all this footwork...

https://youtu.be/9uRUM3DpiM0?t=712

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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

Funny grip, looks awkward, knows his style. Hate playing those blokes, you play a shot and what you get back is nothing like you expected.

Sent from my SM-T210 using Tapatalk

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm

Looks like the classic Seemiller grip. Or a close variation thereof. Remember that a couple of people who played like this dominated US table tennis for a decade or more.

Iskandar

Right or wrong, it looked pretty impressive. Tight match with some heat at the end. I like it.

I have taken steps to significantly improve ttEDGE. Ben from LTT62 is joining us and we have already mapped out a further 120 videos to add to ttEDGE.com over time. Our aim is a minimum of 2 video uploads per week. New content will begin to appear in 2 weeks.

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BTW, fastmover, looking at your last video(s), I notice your right foot is not pointing outwards enough relative to your left foot. It is extremely hard to rotate the core sufficiently over bent knees while keeping balance if the feet are not pointing outwards at almost 90 degrees to each other (angle can be less the further apart the feet are, more the closer they are together). That minor detail left me unable to play a decent forehand for way too long if I wasn't in a forehand stance.

_________________
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