Debater wrote:
"Was a hardbat player for years - Yasaka Cobalt Alpha OX both fh and bh"
Good to see you back Snowman89. Why the change from OX both FH and BH - your answer could shed some light on the question?
As for tennis, i like variety and there are many reasons for the increase in popularity of Tennis which have nothing to do with styles. Better TV coverage, more hype TV coverage, more emphasis on stats, Hawkeye, faster turn around times between points, not as many change of ends, changes in the scoring of matches, the use of high speed cameras, coaches being allowed to visit players during matches and the TV audience being allowed to listen in to what is being said, spin rates being calculated, better analysis of the games, zones hit, where players stand for first and second serve, ball placement and TV, mass coverage on TV, TV that tells us how great tennis is and if it says it often enough we will believe it and of course money, lots of it.
Yes, in my experience, which is not the top level, defenders are a dying breed.
Until TV finds a way to demonstrate defenders don't "win" because of poor attackers but "win" because of disguise, effort, placement, tactics and immense hand to eye co-ordination and physical stamina and until the coaching system looses it's "there are no defenders in the top 10 in the world so don't teach anyone how to defend" mentality defenders will be few and far between lost among top spin everything youngsters and push and chisel older players. It would also help if attackers actually came off the table and admitted their opponent played very well rather than looking at themselves and believing "they lost it" rather than their opponent "winning it".
On a brighter note, I'm booked on a Continuing Personal Development workshop in May called "Defensive Table Tennis". It's the first time I have seen an official Table Tennis England workshop dealing with the defensive aspects of the game. I'm really looking forward to it and good on TT England for putting it on.
Good to see you back Snowman89. Why the change from OX both FH and BH - your answer could shed some light on the question?
As for tennis, i like variety and there are many reasons for the increase in popularity of Tennis which have nothing to do with styles. Better TV coverage, more hype TV coverage, more emphasis on stats, Hawkeye, faster turn around times between points, not as many change of ends, changes in the scoring of matches, the use of high speed cameras, coaches being allowed to visit players during matches and the TV audience being allowed to listen in to what is being said, spin rates being calculated, better analysis of the games, zones hit, where players stand for first and second serve, ball placement and TV, mass coverage on TV, TV that tells us how great tennis is and if it says it often enough we will believe it and of course money, lots of it.
Yes, in my experience, which is not the top level, defenders are a dying breed.
Until TV finds a way to demonstrate defenders don't "win" because of poor attackers but "win" because of disguise, effort, placement, tactics and immense hand to eye co-ordination and physical stamina and until the coaching system looses it's "there are no defenders in the top 10 in the world so don't teach anyone how to defend" mentality defenders will be few and far between lost among top spin everything youngsters and push and chisel older players. It would also help if attackers actually came off the table and admitted their opponent played very well rather than looking at themselves and believing "they lost it" rather than their opponent "winning it".
On a brighter note, I'm booked on a Continuing Personal Development workshop in May called "Defensive Table Tennis". It's the first time I have seen an official Table Tennis England workshop dealing with the defensive aspects of the game. I'm really looking forward to it and good on TT England for putting it on.
Hi Debater
. How are you these days?Quick answer to your question: sponge helps to increase the amount of backspin on my chops, and in the case of my forehand rubber, it increases my power dramatically (it even increases hitting consistency because of the slight change in trajectory).
Yes, of course there is never just one reason as to why something is the way it is. It is the accumulation of many different things. There is no doubt in my mind though that tennis is more entertaining now than it was in the 90s, though I'm not saying I wouldn't love to watch Sampras and Agassi play again
. String technology and slower courts in general have helped improve rallies, though it has gone too much the other way now I think, as serve and volley has practically died. Defenders in table tennis are actually doing better I think than serve and volleyers in tennis (though Federer has certainly shown us that it can still be ultra effective). Late last year, after being mostly absent from table tennis for a while, I reevaluated my game. I was losing interest in the sport. Hardbat had failed to really come back like I hoped it would. Many players who took up hardbat seemed to forget or ignore the whole point of it, the bring back a balance to offense/defense. I think that's probably why Marty Reisman started focusing on sandpaper in his later years (a second chance perhaps at restoring the balance that he felt, and I feel, has been lost).
This reflection made me rethink my equipment and I realized I wasn't doing myself any favours using short pips OX on both sides. Merely adding 1.5mm sponge on short pips on my forehand has increased my power and spin, and I haven't lost much control. I kept my Yasaka short pip OX rubber on my backhand until very recently, but it was a weakness next to my forehand with the new rubber. Now I'm experimenting with various long pips on my backhand for extra forgiveness on my backhand side when defending, which is why I think most pro defenders use long pips on their backhand. Defenders need to stay in rallies, and short pips with no sponge means I had to get it 100% right every time when up against hard top spin hitters, much like when using a really small tennis racket head. It was brilliant when I was on fire and terrible when I wasn't.
I've taken off Feint Long II and I am currently trying Feint Long III, which so far is pretty good. Feint Long III is great for varying the levels of backspin from a dead float to a heavy chop (one of the great greatest weapons a defender can have in my opinion), without needing spin from your opponent (which many long pips need), which I like. It also seems to have the forgiveness of long pips, helping me to consistently chop back top spin shots; there's also plenty of grip to hit with top spin.
Attackers, as you say, tend to believe they lost the match if they lose to a defender. That's not necessarily the case. A good defender will set traps throughput the point to win in the long run while withstanding your offense. Winning could come in the form of simply outlasting the attacker, or it could be getting the attacker to misread your strokes (amount of backspin on the ball) and therefore make a mistake. I think of a table tennis defender as being similar to how Mayweather boxes. Mayweather looks like he's running and being passive, but he's not. He's baiting you, feinting shots, and waiting for the right time to counter. Most table tennis players seem to want to be the equivalent of Joe Frazier or Tyson. I don't like Mayweather's personality, but his boxing is beautiful! Add something to gloves that increases the power dramatically and you would practically shut out defensive boxers, as the reward for single strikes would be that much greater. That's basically, in my mind, what has happened in table tennis.
The defensive table tennis course you are going on sounds interesting. When you have a smaller pool of talent you will get less stand out results, and I think this is also to blame for the lack of defenders at the top level. If more people played defensively and were coached to play the style at a high level, we would surely see more defenders around the top. I remember in my first year or so playing table tennis my parents put me on a coaching course. In my first session, the coach got me to hit everything, not even push, despite that I was developing even at that point a defensive game and made him aware of that. My parents told him, if I remember correctly, that I played a defensive game. He basically tried to make a fool out of me in the next session. It's things like that I don't like. Respect is very important, and I think defenders don't get enough of it. It's a hard style to have success with, so I really look up to guys like Joo Sae Hyuk and Panagiotis Gionis who have done so well at such a high level.
That said, a defender in the modern game becoming world number 1 seems highly unlikely with the way things are now. In that sense, it's logical to teach an attacking style. I'm not sure if I would teach my kids a defensive style, but if that's what they naturally wanted to do, I would encourage them.
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