OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I had the pleasure of playing PGPG again today during his visit to London and the improvement is very marked to his visit last year....improvement in pretty much every department. From what I understand of usatt ratings I would have put him in the 2000 region, although of course would need to see him play against a variety of styles.

Afterwards we had a beer....the englishman drank some american ale and the american enjoyed some english ale!

I look forward to our next game.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

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Timo Boll ALC ST
FH Tibhar Evolution MX-P Max
BH Tibhar Evolution FX-S 1.8
185g

Thanks for the kind words, so_devo, and for hosting me once again - too bad LordCope could not make it, hope he had a successful match tonight. Don't think I'm at 2000 level yet - only if I avoid blockers and play 'happy loopers', perhaps.

We did hit around for an hour or so and then played a match (only had time for one as some martial arts people showed up in the gym). I forgot how nasty so_devo's down the line FH is, and also the amount of spin he was putting on his shots in general. Could be an illusion, but I thought balls kicked out a lot and dived low much more than I'm used too. Match was quite a bit closer than last time, I lost 2:3 - pretty sure whoever was on the side facing the basketball hoop won every game, for whatever reason.

Had a very short hit with Karis on so_devo's spare paddle - really not much time to draw any conclusions. I'm crap at reviewing rubbers anyway - I'll say that it was different from what I usually play with (Baracuda)

And yes, beer was excellent (cheaper than in US too) - I think it's kind of cool that people stand outside of every pub I've seen in London, holding a beer - sure beats bumping into each other inside a packed bar.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Baracuda was the most dominant rubber during my TT development years. The rubber could still be in my future. So I can say that it is far much unlike Karis, probably similar in average speed but more spinny and spin reactive as well as more non-linesr.

I remember a friend trying to compare Karis to T05 and I remembered DerEchte on Karis and told my friend - with T05, most people focus on attacking. With Karis, you let them attack and attack if you feel you want to, but you really want to counter their attack.

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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

Great Mission Summary Report !!

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Goof-off chopping bat
Gambler All Rosewood
Aurus Soft / Gambler GXL .6 sponge

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter

I finally got the Karis in, and before I test directly vs. the Regalis, I wanted to put it on a bigger defensive blade and see what it is like there first. Of course, due to the size difference, I can't go the other way around.

My first impressions vs. a robot were...."HOLY CRAP!" :o . More on that in the Karis thread after I play with it against humans tonight and this weekend. For now, better to refrain from hyperbole and biased impressions until I really get to know this rubber. This will most likely change, but I already want to declare this the best smooth rubber I've ever tried after a few hours vs. a robot.

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

I really love this rubber...but it's only one day vs. real humans, and I'll need more time.

It is very linear. I am blocking off the end of the table however as I don't have the blocking angle dialed in yet, but most of my blocks are on the table and good. My loops are far more consistent, very similar to regalis, with lots of spin. Same reason, very good feel and very good feedback. Intuitive. Power is enough.

Both Regalis and Karis are great for chopping, i think the Karis is a tad slower...but hard to say because it's been a while since I played the Regalis on the defplay. I like the karis on the defplay so much, that I'm hesitant to put in on my standard sized blade which has the Regalis for an accurate comparison....

I think most people might feel like the karis on the defplay is too slow, but don't forget that I'm a chopper. For chopping, it is VERY good. I mean, excellent. I can really rip the chops on that side without too much fear of losing control due to tensor bounciness. Short pushes are excellent, and forgiving of my attempts to really dig into them...and therefore they are short and spinny.

Also, in unrelated news, I tried 388D as a chopping rubber on the Defplay for the frirst time in OX. BRILLIANT. I love the feel and the underspin, both passive and active. It was designed for my stroke type, because I didn't make any adjustments and it did whatever I wanted it to do, with the exceptions of the chop block. More on this in my blog later.

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

Visited Hilversum TT club in Netherlands (vacation!) and had a pre-arranged lesson with a coach Hans there. Nice facility, 10 tables in one hall and few more in the next one they share with a school gym. They have ~300 members and 26 teams in the leagues .

Spent most of the lesson working on FH - still too vertical and not enough body rotation . But Hans had plenty of compliments too.



Important part of the club - wish we had one:

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Got back to the league last night, finished 3:1. It was unusually busy, plus I am still somewhat jet-lagged and did not want to go deep into the night.

Played reasonably well, getting wins against uncomfortable opponents (K, a tricky penholder, and C - a carbon copy of myself). For the first time beat BP. Lost final match to my nemesis blocker, but played well, losing 1:3 and two of lost games were at deuce. Managed to stay calm - I get easily frustrated against him.

Have not chopped a lot - mostly because my opponents did not loop much.

Decided to stick with OX for the next few months - bought 3 sheets of Dornenglanz OX to make sure I have spares, plus also grabbed Cloud and Fog III in OX - to emulate Jian Li, of course .

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Have you tried the VKMO yet?

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Attackers: "All pips players are cheaters who can't loop, move, or read spin"
Me: I beg your pardon?

Yes and no . I glued on P1-r it came with, and then put TSP Triple Spin or something in 1.5 mm on FH side just to try. Played one match with it before I left on a European trip and it felt very weird, especially on FH. I chalked it up to the rubber and decided I'll try it later with something more conventional (I think I have Rasant lying around somewhere).

So, will revisit it this weekend.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Tenergy, MXP, Rasant, V>15... I feel like anything spinny and bouncy would work on it. Of course my opinion is slightly biased since I've been using various Tenergies for over a year now.

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Attackers: "All pips players are cheaters who can't loop, move, or read spin"
Me: I beg your pardon?

It's probably going to be Rasant. I will also put Dornenglanz OX on BH - I think I only used Dornenglanz on Defplay till now, curious how it will play on a different blade.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Went to the club on Wednesday (wife is traveling, so I have flexibility ). It was half empty, but I ended up playing people I have not seen in a long time - looks like people's schedules are orthogonal, so unless you show up every single day you are going to miss plenty of club population.

Hit and played a match with B for the first time ever - he's not playing the league and/or tournaments, AFAIK, but is at least a couple of levels above me. His loops were terrifying - way too much spin and pace, I had trouble blocking them on FH (and I am usually decent there), and BH chopping was an adventure too. Did reasonably well in the match, though, taking a game and putting up a fight later on. LP bumps helped.

Then hit for a bit with a G - I remember him from a couple of years ago when he was a total beginner, and I mean that - for quite some time he was rated around 200. He improved A LOT. Much more consistent, has good block and reasonable FH. Would happily practice with him (and heard another player telling him the same) - glad he stuck around and was able to improve.

Finally played few matches with L, lefty double inverted defender. Got crushed in the first match, but then I started to hit his underspin balls with my LP into his BH and that changed the dynamic quite a bit. Split the rest of the matches, I think. Made too many mistakes on FH, had problems with attacking backspin.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Dressed up VKMO with Dornenglanz II OX and Rasant Grip (2.1 mm) - this definitely works better, especially on FH. DG II feels a little different from the original DG, but it's hard to pin down what exactly the difference is. Less backspin on chops, perhaps, and may be less funky balls on bumps? Pretty hard to compare new sheet against well used one too.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

I saw the first four words of your post and thought you were saying "Went to the club dressed up as Darth Vader"

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Goof-off chopping bat
Gambler All Rosewood
Aurus Soft / Gambler GXL .6 sponge

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter