OOAK Table Tennis Forum

With your limited hobby time of 2-5 hours per week, the best way to learn to loop is by shadow stroking at home 5 minutes every day.

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Panda Drive / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH Xiom Omega IV Elite Max / Play right-handed
XVT balsa carbon 10mm / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH Globe 979 Long Pips OX / Play Left-handed shakehand
Stiga Def Wood / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH GD CC LP OX .. Play Left-handed
Cpen SOS Wood / 4H 729 802-40 2.0 / BH GD Talon use righthanded shakehand grip
HARDBAT / Shakehand Hock 3 ply / Friendship Dr Evil OX .. Play Right-handed

Just 5 minutes?

Iskandar

Yes, a person can do a 100 reps in 5 min. That will build stroke memory.

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Panda Drive / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH Xiom Omega IV Elite Max / Play right-handed
XVT balsa carbon 10mm / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH Globe 979 Long Pips OX / Play Left-handed shakehand
Stiga Def Wood / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH GD CC LP OX .. Play Left-handed
Cpen SOS Wood / 4H 729 802-40 2.0 / BH GD Talon use righthanded shakehand grip
HARDBAT / Shakehand Hock 3 ply / Friendship Dr Evil OX .. Play Right-handed

I will give that a try.

I watched a few YouTube videos and then played at a friend's house for 2 hours today. I learned a lot between the 2 of those.

Yep, agree

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

Do you have particular videos that you would suggest I watch so I can first learn the correct form?

Have a look at the pingskills stuff, it is generally pitched at a basic level. Table Tennis edge and Brett Clarke also have some good stuff often explained in a novel way.

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

Those are good, concentrate on the 4H technique vs backspin, your body twist, backswing starting with paddle below the table. Try to get a fluid motion. You will feel awkward at first but gradually improve over time, as you play in Club with your home shadowing, your stroke will evolve.

Since your playing with inverted rubber on both sides, make sure you are using a proper grip, a common mistake made by a lot of infrequent players.

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Panda Drive / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH Xiom Omega IV Elite Max / Play right-handed
XVT balsa carbon 10mm / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH Globe 979 Long Pips OX / Play Left-handed shakehand
Stiga Def Wood / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH GD CC LP OX .. Play Left-handed
Cpen SOS Wood / 4H 729 802-40 2.0 / BH GD Talon use righthanded shakehand grip
HARDBAT / Shakehand Hock 3 ply / Friendship Dr Evil OX .. Play Right-handed

Yeah, probably best to get the shadow swings correct - don't want to be building the WRONG muscle memory!

By the way.. just had a look at the OOAK Shop web site, the description for Yinhe Big Dipper got truncated (on the "Rubbers - inverted" main page) as follows:

"With Build-in tensor effect from Yinhe`s MAX TENSE technology, Big Dipper takes the Chinese tacky rubber to new heights by fully exploiting GOD..."

Iskandar

I've just realized the original poster here is the same one who posted the video. After watching the video, I'll have to say:

1) Forget the advice above about shadow stroking (though I think some shadow stroking with a TENNIS racket would help develop the proper way to bend the wrist). You need the learn the proper strokes first, otherwise you're shadowing the wrong strokes.

2) Get thee to the club and take some coaching!!!!! If they charge money, then so be it if you want to improve. If the people you play with now are at the same level, then you can't really learn much playing against them. This is, at best, 800 level table tennis.

3) Forget about the expensive rackets from now, and stay away from fast blades like the Avalox or Clipper clones, get that M8 blade I mentioned earlier. Perfect for learning basic strokes, and it'll still be perfect when you break 1800.

Iskandar

Yeah, I definitely have some work to do!! Just watching the video I could see how off I was. I have watched several videos since and have been practicing shadow strokes. I feel like I am fixing my form. I will practice a few more days and then record myself again and see if I have had any improvement.

As for coaching, I have tried to contact them multiple times with no success. There are 2 older gentleman that coach at the local club that are affordable, the others are $35-50 an hour!! Thats a bit out of my price range. I plan on going down the club and just playing and see if anyone is willing to coach for a bit. Until then I will keep watching video's and practicing the best I can.

As for blade/rubber combo. I got caught up in all the hype and probably got a little fancier than I needed. If I could do it again I would go cheaper. I had the idea that getting a nice blade and then slow, control rubber and then later when I progress I would just upgrade the rubber. Anyway, enough stalling, I ended up getting a Donic Waldner senso carbon blade (All+-OFF-) with donic desto f4 1.8 bh and 2.0 fh. It is a slower rubber than Mark V with more control supposedly. I land a lot more on the table now then I used to. At this point I will just keep using it and get used to it. I definitely don't believe its overly fast or anything so I don't think it will hold me back much but I am sure I could have accomplished a similar feeling paddle for quite a bit cheaper. Oh well, lesson learned.

Nice purchase, sounds a great bat, well done. I'd love to have a hit of something like that.

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

There's formal coaching and there's playing against or watching people play. Both have value. If the coaching is too expensive then perhaps do an hour every two weeks and do other sorts of practice in between. Sometimes they have group lessons which is cheaper. In your case you have some bad practices you need to get away from and some proper strokes that need to be learned, and I think some formal coaching early on would be good to have. As I said, it doesn't have to be individual coaching, see if they offer group lessons (hey, drag all your friends along and split the cost! ).

As for the bat - can't say I've tried those blades and rubbers but the word "carbon" bothers me, as does the Desto. Looking it up, it's a Tensor, these have "speed glue effect" and tend to be faster than "normal" rubbers. Desto does seem to be among the slower Tensors, so it might be OK, and besides, the "speed glue effect" wears off after a couple months.

Iskandar

Thanks for all the advice. I emailed the facility yesterday asking if they had other coaches that weren't listed on the site or if they have a better way to contact the ones I can't get a hold of. I also asked if my brother and I could do a group style training and I even asked if they had group lessons ha ha. So I am waiting to hear back.

The carbon blade is said to feel like a wood blade and is a bit flexy and soft feeling. Supposedly has great control. The rubber is said to be a good mix between older style and new style rubber. It has great control and spin and not so much speed. Desto f1/f2 are both really fast rubbers. f3/f4 are much slower and more of an all around rubber. When my brothers have tried my paddle they both say it has really good control and they were both impressed.

Oh, I played last night again. I worked on keeping my knees bent, my upper arm closer to my body, and I straightened out my wrist. I also really focused on my footwork. My FH felt much better and in control. I didn't reach for any of the shots, instead I shuffled over into position. I will continue working on it. BH still feels awkward, it is where I think a coach will help me the most.

I think even if you don't get coaching right away, playing at the club will help a lot. You get to watch people play, you get to talk to people and you get to play against others who have had coaching and can at least give quality returns. You'll be exposed to a larger variety of serves, and can watch to see how people deal with them. Not to mention playing conditions are usually better than you'll find in most rec rooms and basements - more space and better lighting at least.

Iskandar