OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I finally grabbed a TT-bat after about 6 months. Back in March i tore my acl and meniscus in my left knee. (The torn meniscus was removed, but acl was not reconstructed.) I did a lot of rehab and biking, and my knee seems to be working surprisingly well - so far.

I did a video about my pendulum serve, and basic backhand, forehand, etc. I see some issue and there must much more i don't see. Which ones should i focus on?
serve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXs5PVpJuVs
forehand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXs5PVpJuVs&t=0m51s
backhand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXs5PVpJuVs&t=1m35s
fh,bh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXs5PVpJuVs&t=2m06s

I hope that i'll have a bit more time for TT later, then i'll try reverse again.

I also have a question about teaching smaller kids. Out of my 4 kids only the smallest is interested in TT, but he's only 4.5 years old. And while i can see his timing improving, i cannot really get him to use a proper grip, etc.

Here's a recent video of him. Sometimes i can get him to hit the balls with more feeling, but not that time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwa9EVSNuws

Shall i press him more to use proper grip, and technique in general and risk him loosing interest in TT? Or shall i let him play the way he likes and suggesting proper technique every now and then but not pressing, with the danger of picking up bad habits that will be hard to unlearn?

Miklos, did you orginally hurt the knee playing TT or was it something else? Anyway, it's great to see you back and hitting some balls again.

Here's some thoughts re your footage:

back/side pendulum - It's basically good. Your are timing the backswing and stroke correctly and you are making contact towards the back of your body. There is a nice triangle at the finish meaning your are using your arm like a 'pendulum' and you aren't just pushing at the ball with your upper arm. You should stand in front of the table slightly with the corner touching your left thigh. You could also make a better whip pattern, but it's pretty good considering everything that's happened.

forehand topspin - There is nothing majorly wrong. Your index finger seems to move up onto the backhand rubber, so you'll need to keep that down.

backhand topspin - This shot needs work. There is too much upper arm happening and not enough movement in your wrist. Also, the elbow needs to be further out in front and used as a pivot. If you're like me, these words won't help you very much so I'll try to make a quick video soon.

footwork - It's okay for now.

I'd be getting your son to hold the racket correctly, if possible. Start with backhand, get the elbow out to the side of his body and then play straight to his stomach. Let him grove this shot and don't play randomly to him. I'd also be introducing some fun activities such as trying to hit targets on the table or counting how many balls he can hit in a row.

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Thanks, much Brett the feedback is very usefull, i agree that my backhand has fundamental issues, i'm reviewing LTT08, and backhand topspin related videos, and will work on the whip. As for my knee it was hurt while skiing.

Made some footage recently of my attempts at snake & punch serves. Feel free to critique me if you like on any of this.

Enjoy.

Snake Serves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvOl_TemNqE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_7MojIqmtQ

Punch Serves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kztI173C--I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abOadCn ... e=youtu.be

JC,

I have never seen a Snake Serve that master snake liked, but usually, you would have to do a few reverse pendulums first so we can contrast your reverse pendulum action to your snake serve action and see whether the illusion is stark. I like the serves personally.

For the punch, I like the turning action but I am not sold that the serve is deceptive. Is that really backspin? Or were you varying the spin throughout the serves? All the variants I have seen of the punch are based on one illusion or the other. In the TTEdge App, you can see that Brett's version has a topspin bias, but he serves backspin with it then has a topspin follow throw you off. Yours should be similar but the key is how heavy the backspin is. In the TTEdge app, Trevor's and William's actually have a backspin bias, but they have topspin variants by coming up on the ball with a kick on their topspin versions or letting the ball just roll off.

So I guess at some point you need to come round the bottom of the ball and it is not clear you are doing so.

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"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

What is wrong with this pendulum serve? How do I fix it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv1c47N2Kn4

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"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

I had the same problem as in those snap shots from your video: your elbow is too low and tucked behind you instead of high, upfront and static. It seems that you are doing more of a backspin than pendulum serve which is especially evident on the backswing where the bat seems to be completely in backspin serve mode.

Here is Brett's elbow position by contrast:


Note the elbow position and a large triangle between his arm and the body and he maintains this position throughout the swing.

Hope that helps a bit.

Barfly,

You TTEdge guys are too sharp - you have been coached to see everything.

I will probably post the fixed version tonight or tomorrow. I think I understand it better now (I used to even get where I put the elbow wrong when I raised it in the past).

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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

Your practice swings are way different from your swing when you hit a serve. In practice the paddle tip points to the floor. On the real swings it's practically pointing at the camera. So to fix it I'd say use your practice swing when it's for real too.

Unfortunately that's a lot easier said than done.

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The practice swings also have a bad elbow position. That's why I can't use them correctly to hit the ball and I keep changing. I think I have a different way of thinking about it that will work. Let's see...

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Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

JC, your Snake Serve is the closest I've seen to what Master Snake showed me back in Northern Thailand. You're definitely creating the intended illusion. I need to see the finishing position from front on though. It appears that you sometimes straighten your arm instead of keeping the racket inside the line of your elbow.

The punch is great action. I'd like to see a heavy backspin version from front to make sure you have that serve in your range.

I think I'll be seeing JC on Saturday to take a closer look at these serves.

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NL, The shadow swing is a lot better than the serve. When you introduce the ball, you start with your elbow in a straight backspin position (almost) and then suddenly lift the elbow to Pendulum position around the point of contact. This interrupts the whip pattern as it doesn't allow for maximum racket speed on the downswing. The elbow needs to be up early. We went through this in Philly.

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I agree it looks better - the problem is that I can't serve with it. I think I have found something that works. But the shadow swing while it looks better, I completely can't hit the ball with it.

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Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
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Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

It's tough to change something that is well grooved, especially if you can't get immediate feedback from a coach. Use your cellphone video so you can quickly replay each serve. Get M. Brock to hold the phone and record for you.

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I'll be running a free serving session at Croydon TT on Saturday, Oct 1. Here's some information about the session for those in Vic, Australia. https://www.facebook.com/groups/5425892 ... 721526919/

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