OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Equipment discussion time! I am lucky to have an opportunity to practice regularly with a very good chopper, who plays with "grippy" LPs Butterfly Feint Long III and thick sponge, which does not yield a lot of spin reversal. Especially when pushing backspin: it usually results in just less backspin, but not topspin.

So when I play somebody who has something like Tibhar Grass D.TecS, which do reverse backspin into topspin after pushing, it takes me a while readjust.

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Yeah always touch the pips first too. Often with short pips I can play against them like inverted and all of the usual stuff works.

Agree with wilkinru about consistency, LP players want you to miss. The more safety your shots have, the harder that becomes for them to do. They exploit lack of things like patience and footwork, so have to keep those in mind.

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I want a TTedge shirt I can wear while playing.

Does anyone else?

I want at least several of them!

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I recorded a bunch of slow-mo clips from the Swedish Open. The quality isn't the best but I think it's good enough to see what's really going on. Hopefully it's useful to some of you.

I was mainly interested in Niwas serves, I find them very difficult to read. Both the pendulum and his version of the punch.

Koki Niwa vs Kristian Karlsson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n46i_WEKfIA&t=
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRczQuM8pvs&t=

Fan Zhendong vs Liang Jingkun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejQ_Fz-8ZQQ

Fan Zhendong vs Xu Xin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X6kT3MEZ7A

Fan Zhendong vs Matthias Falck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkXn8wlRKIs&t=

Xu Xin vs Zhou Qihao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5xhTawCuoM

Xu Xin vs Jang Woojin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=340vb71rly4

ETTS50 is now available on ttEDGE.com https://ttedge.com/videos/etts50-execut ... counterhit

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How do you recover from a sudden loss of the feeling of the spin in the game? Imagine you are playing a best of five match. In the first game you have a good feeling for spinning the ball and keeping it on the table. Then in the next game you suddenly start missing against the same standard balls. It feels like the spin on the ball is doubled and your rubber has no grip, the ball just slips down or goes way off the end of the table. You also collect all sorts of silly mistakes, like hitting the edge of your racket and totally missing the contact with the ball. It is probably somehow related to the emotional level thing, but often it happens without any seeming change in emotions, it is just not there. I am pretty sure it is a common scenario. How do you recover from it?

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It also sometimes goes the other way, like no feeling first and then you are on a roll. I remember very vividly a doubles match I played in a tournament in May. In the first two games I landed around 30% of my forehands on the table and we lost them miserably. Then in the next three I landed 99% on the table and we won them like 11-1 or 11-2. After the match I was scratching my head for quite some time trying to understand what just happened.

I had a similar experience recently also in a doubles match, except that we lost. We lost the first two games due to a poor strategy, then won the third, mostly because the forehand landed on the table. In the fourth I missed four semi-high balls in a row, we took the time-out, but could not recover.

A total mystery.

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I'm sure that everyone, in every sport, has had similar experiences. There is clearly no simple answer or else we'd all play optimally throughout every match. LTT57 & 58 are my best responses to your questions. You can program yourself to play a little more consistently.

I'd also say understanding that TT is a game of variance is important. If you expect to play perfectly throughout every match, you are in for some depression. Sometimes you are going to play well, sometimes the ball just doesn't go on the table anymore. It's the nature of sport and you have to expect it. Having good pre-point routines can help, but it's not going to eliminate all the bumps.

In the long run, learning to play correctly will be your greatest asset. I know you don't agree with this (it says so in your signature), but the most obvious difference between the top 1000 players in the world and your average garage player is technique. I've coached in prison and some of the inmates train a lot over many year. The problem is they have poor technique and they play all wrong. Their level is relatively low despite the massive amount of hours they've put it. Why is that?

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Woah, way to bury the lede... Please do tell.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

In my younger days, I'd occasionally go to prison to coach the inmates. The Australian Govt is big on prisoner rehabilitation and they often get "experts" to teach various skills within the prisons.

What's interesting is that these inmates would sometimes be training more pros and they were very good at what they did, but it was all the wrong stuff. It was the sort of technique used in the garage. Without understanding something about technique, it's very difficult to play better than 1500, no matter how much you train.

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That's pretty cool. I remember someone saying that "practice does not make it 'better', practice makes it 'permanent' ".

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

It's a common saying which I use all the time.

If the inmates had been taught ETTS50 from day 1, they would've had good backhands after their 10 long years of training. Their backhands looked nothing like Randy's in ETTS50 and he got their very quickly by just watching a few videos.

BTW, there is no better place to see quality racket throws than prison. BRS would be an amateur by prison standards.

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I think the biggest problem of prison inmates was that they were playing against each other all the time. If they were consistently exposed to better players, they would have a much better chance to take their game to the next level. It is actually a common problem for many club players. How many TTEedge subscribers live in TT deserts? And from my own experience, I would never underestimate what a tournament-tough "garage" is capable of.

I am not saying technique is not important. I just think that concentrating 100% on the technical side creates a very lopsided view of the game.

P.S. I started reading "Winning ugly."

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