OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I doubt USA can be called "an emerging table tennis powerhouse"

Were you talking about the USA here? You don't have to answer.

I was thinking about the backhand a little bit. Previously I was trying to play backhand using the logic of LL Beary's forehand: the body propels the body back on the back swing, and then forward on forward swing. If I apply the same thing to backhand, than it makes sense to push the shoulder back and down as it follows the body back and down. To create the "arm structure" and keep the elbow forward I have to actively resist the body movement with my shoulder, which is a bit unnatural.

It is easy to make a teddy bear play a very good forehand topspin. Now try to imagine it playing a backhand...

Were you talking about the USA here? You don't have to answer.

I was thinking about the backhand a little bit. Previously I was trying to play backhand using the logic of LL Beary's forehand: the body propels the body back on the back swing, and then forward on forward swing. If I apply the same thing to backhand, than it makes sense to push the shoulder back and down as it follows the body back and down. To create the "arm structure" and keep the elbow forward I have to actively resist the body movement with my shoulder, which is a bit unnatural.

It is easy to make a teddy bear play a very good forehand topspin. Now try to imagine it playing a backhand...

Federer is amazing. But I always preferred Henin's backhand. I love Joostine more than any other team or athlete.

All the other women were baseliners, every one. And she was alone playing this beautiful all-court game, chip and charge, like they did before racquet technology ruined tennis.

https://youtu.be/6hxDfRvo-NA

But the rotation of your torso on the bh is only a fraction as far as the fh. Unless you are doing some massive, full-arm bh stroke. If LL Beary only turned 10 degrees on the backswing instead of 90, maybe his little fluffy elbow would stay forward.

Interesting club night tonight. I got there early and invited a guy to play first match. He's a chopper, around my same level. He is also a guy who starts the warmup on tilt. He is cursing half under his breath about net balls that don't even count.

So it's a good test of mental toughness dealing with him. I failed it tonight, mirroring his tiltedness and getting frustrated with myself. But the interesting part was, at a critical moment, he said, nominally to himself but loud enough, "All he's got is his serves. Just return the goddamn serve. That's all he's got."

How should I feel about this?

It's clearly some gamesmanship on his part. But objectively it was also true, I was winning maybe five points a set off missed receives. And he could receive with LP all over the table, he's a chopper.

So maybe I should feel great? I have always considered my serve a weakness. It would be really good if the disguise and spin/depth variation has improved that much.

But I lost most of the rallies. I couldn't see the spin well enough to respond properly, and my first attacks didn't win enough. Also my bh wasn't a weapon, just passive blocking. He was right, I had nothing else working except serves. So maybe I should feel terrible?

These type of players ruin the game for me. Fortunately it happens very rarely, but they really leave a print in my mind. This type of behaviour just makes me want to stop playing, the game becomes boring, I don't feel like moving or playing properly. It's strange but winning against them doesn't do anything for me either because I just remember how crap I felt during the game. All enjoyment is stripped from me regardless when I play against these types of players.

I've been quite inspired by the posts about travelling for TT. I feel like I need a change in training scenery. I've been on a bit of a low the last few weeks and playing very poorly, so I've had to take a bit of a break (plus I'm moving in to my own apartment and have a few other things going on). I've started to question what I'm playing for. I played in England for 6 years, mostly in the local league and casual match play.
A year ago I moved back home (to Sweden) where I've been doing drills and training as much as I can. I've seen the most improvement this last year for sure but now I'm starting to miss the more casual play back in England, travelling to some old church or a barn and having tea and biscuits during the break, it was great. The matches I play now are much more competitive and I think I'm under more pressure because I'm now "supposed" to be a better player. I love playing to improve but I'm really not enjoying the competitive side as much as I thought I would.

On a brighter note: I really enjoy the positive vibe this thread has and how everyone is just out to improve themselves and their game.
Also really enjoying your training vids Brett, great to see you play.

Hoping to get back to training soon and I want to record myself more so I can really understand what it is I'm doing wrong on certain shots. I also haven't forgotten about LTT100, I need to give it another go.

Oh, he says a lot worse stuff than that. He gets so angry over nets and edges it feels borderline physically threatening. This is independent of how many lucky balls he got himself. Anger management issues.

That doesn't bother me. Like I said, I asked him to play. What upset me was my failing to convert enough opportunities to completely send him over the edge to where he would lose it and not be able to play any more. That's always my goal when an opponent gets upset. So getting upset at myself was a major fail on my part.

I made some in-game and between match adjustments (we played twice and he won 3-1 both times). Very quickly I flipped my short-long serve ratio from 80:20 to 20:80. He's a defender, so why expose myself to funky lp returns over the table. Then between matches I decided I should play mostly down the middle. He is tall with good reach, and playing wide wasn't helping me. But I couldn't solve the problem of not seeing the spin.

I rarely make playing conditions an excuse. But there are three choppers in this area at my level, whom I have played multiple times in different venues. At a Saturday daytime club in Virginia that seems well-lit to me my combined record vs them is 6 - 0. At two other clubs with darker conditions (and weeknights), my match record is 1 - 9. So either I suck vs chop at night after work, or I need blazingly bright lighting to have a chance. Either way choppers have long been my favorite style to play against. They are so rare now. And I like the challenge they apply to my movement, spin awareness, and decision-making. After losing twice to Mr. Anger Management I played the next four matches really well.

My new favorite style to play against is one-sided jpen. If choppers are rare, fh-only jpen is non-existent. I played one lots of times in Portugal (Miguel, a great guy), and then an older asian guy last night. What I love about jpen players is they absolutely punish any lousy softballs. If I put back a low-quality ball anywhere on the table I might as well turn around now and start walking to the barriers. Excellent discipline for trying to win every point, and not just hoping he will miss.

Hopefully this may help but it is often a mistake to serve long to defenders if it gives them a chance to dig into the ball as that is what causes you to be unable to see the spin. Serves to the short forehand which put the out of position are often better. Yes you may get a pip shot but that is where your backspin should limit the options and give you a topspin or no spin ball to attack. And most pips players can't push short if you keep the serve low enough.

But seeing the ball is mostly about making sure that the first ball is what you think it should be. And if you serve too long, it is harder to see whether he puts no spin or backspin.

May not mean much to you but I find as I played choppers it got more important as many of them were no spin choppers.