OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I never speedglue Raystorm. When I did, something was not quite right. Not sure what it was.

This is very important: With thicker sponge, when blocking, remember to let the rubber and sponge work for you. Resist the temptation to try to add much extra pace to the ball by swinging hard (something you can get do easily with thinner sponge). Let the rubber do a lot of the work, and you will be amazed at how consistent and deadly your blocking will be. More consistent than with the thin sponge, and you will be good even when you have to reach very far to get the ball. And the ball will go very fast even with the small stroke!

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Butterfly Viscaria Black tag
2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH

Didn't it feel too mushy? I mean, you're probably pretty used to the regular feel of Raystorm, after all.

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

Now that I’ve played a few matches with the new thicker sponged set-up (Friendship 802 on 2.2 mm orange sponge, Stiga WRB oversized all-round blade), I’m convinced that thicker is better, or at least that this combination offers more possibilities. I’m also convinced that it needs more speed than I’m able to produce with the Stiga.
There are some striking differences compared to the set-up with 1.8 mm sponge I played with before, and they all seem to originate from the fact that a thicker sponge increases the possibilities to produce spin. First thing I noticed was that returning a back(/side)spin serve was much more easy. Flipping is easier because you can really pick up the ball with this thick sponge; just bring the tip of the blade down, catch the ball in the sponge and flip (mostly upwards). Instead of a more or less dead ball, as with the 1.8 mm sponge, I got a moderately spinny one that would land short. After a while I felt confident enough to go for the side-lines with these returns; with the 1.8 mm sponge I never felt quite at ease doing that, because there was a risk the ball would go over the table. Pushing also proved to be much easier; because the ball will bite into the sponge, I could open my bat more and generate considerably more my own backspin. The risk of pushing a ball that goes high is much less with the 2.2 mm sponge. Over the table this set-up played more or less like one with inverted rubbers, but still the 2.2 mm wasn’t much more affected by incoming spin than the 1.8 mm. I think it actually is affected a bit more, but this effect is canceled by the ability to generate your own spin, be it topspin or backspin.
Returning long balls is definitely different with the 2.2 mm. I had expected that I would have to close my bat slightly more, but instead I found that I hit and blocked going both more through the ball and more upwards, especially following through upwards more when hitting, and that I had to get my body more into the hit. It’s more aggressive, really. The resulting balls carry much more spin, land earlier and have more speed than with the 1.8 mm. With the latter I had got used to flat-hitting almost anything; with the 2.2 mm strokes have to be more varied. Blocking is different because the balls will land much earlier, so you have a larger part of the table to use. Stop-blocks are more difficult, of course, and that fact in itself sort of steered me away from controlled attack to all-out attack. That is great, but (at my age) pretty tiring too!
After two or three matches I had no doubts about the virtues of the rubber, but I concluded the Stiga frame was too slow for this kind of play. Quick-attack near the table needs more speed than an all-round frame will give you. So now I have glued the 802’s on a Tulpe 7007 Carbon frame, which is very fast compared to the Stiga (speed almost 10 compared to the Stiga’s 8 or so). I have practiced with it and it kind of frightened me! The combination of speed and spin is wonderful, but decision-making, footwork, and reaction-time all have to match that. It left me breathless. It made me wonder whether I am really up to playing matches with this set-up. I am used to playing a fast game with my single-sided penholder, but that kind of game actually is only fast on the right side and controlled or even slow at the left; two-winged quick attack is fast on both sides and that’s a pretty big difference! I have always admired Johnny Huang, who plays in this fast style seemingly so effortlessly - now, my respect for his brilliance has become even greater. I really miss him among today’s professionals.

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Without opponent, no match.

Does anyone have news on Johnny Huang?

Where is he and has he completely stopped playing?

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TSP Spectol Soft - 2.1 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
Stiga Clipper CR WRB
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TSP Spinpips 21 - 2.0 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
BBC 9-10-9

Kees' observations have opened my eyes to a more varied style of play. Previously, I had religiously adhered to the purely flat hitting style. Spinning was intentionally kept to a minimum. My game was solid but somehow I could not seem to make headway against better players who could give consistent and heavy underspin balls.

After a few days of thought, I decided to review the videos of the master of SP - Johnny Huang (and also Liu Guoliang). I realized that both these SP players do spin or "loop" back spin balls well and also use topspin in their hitting.

Thus I decided to just let go and spin (or "loop") more, thereby adding a topspin component in my hitting style. I was now free to utilize components of old inverted strokes and felt less restrained. The result was amazing. Suddenly my opponents commented that I was more difficult to play against and shots were more consistently landing on the table.

This development had its downside. I got carried away last night and used topspin a lot. Unfortunately, my opponents found it easy to block or return my topspin balls. Previously, my flat hits made them uncertain in their returns. Topspin, it seems, makes the ball's behavior predictable.

The lesson here is that there is need for variation of shots. One does not spin willy nilly. There has to be sound tactical decision for such shots.

Huang usually uses topspin or "loops" (in the SP sense) to initiate the offense/start the rally and from there proceeds to flat hitting. Topspin is used to mix up his shots, especially when he places the ball low very close to the net on the extreme left or right sides (not the corners btw) of the table. I assume the topspin is needed to bring the ball down quicker in view of the shorter distance.

Finally I also observed that out of habit I would previously flat hit almost all balls, covering even those that had already gone passed their peak and had now descended (usually involving balls that come in low and somewhat half long or shorter than I had estimated). Thus I was was forced to hit with less power to ensure that it would land on the table. This slower and "safe" return usually gave my opponents the opportunity and time to attack and thus gain the upper hand. A topspin shot would have sustained the offense (again going back on having to make the right tactical decision).

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TSP Spectol Soft - 2.1 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
Stiga Clipper CR WRB
--------------and--------------------
TSP Spinpips 21 - 2.0 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
BBC 9-10-9

Great post there, amateur101 -- I always thought that for a 'good' offensive, ball speed and rally pace are equally important. For shorter distances, I needed to use topspin to bring the ball down; for the diagonal, sometimes flat hitting suffices.

Hitting the ball earlier (or later) requires a little topspin to help the ball arc over the net nicely; flat hitting usually clips the net or goes out because of the ball arc.

Playing medium pips has taught me a lot of this hitting ideas; hence I'll probably go back to short pips as I really don't play a controlled hit and block game at which medium pips are good at.

I seem to go for more of a hit and counterhit game, and could use a bit more spin which 563 couldn't provide.

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

I use a backhand loop on occasion, out of the blue so to speak, that with Raystorm is slow and very very very spinny. It often wins a point. But you never wanrt to get predictable with it, because it is easy to attack when the opponent figures it out.

Yuzuki, yes, I found that speed glued Raystorm was too mushy.

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Butterfly Viscaria Black tag
2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH

With using short pips, I also noticed that the spin game is quite effective. Just a slight variation in your hitting stroke, you can easily fool your opponent. For me, with 802-1 SP, you can make top spin from backspin serves on your serve returns and most of the time, your inverted opponent would loop it back to you and you can just flat hit the incoming ball. When they counterloop, most of the time the ball would miss the table. Mixing spins(back/top) with flat hitting is quite a reliable game plan.

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Attack, attack and attack, if not, defend, defend and defend until you can attack, attack and attack. Rinse and repeat.
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Current:
Blade: Sword Apollo-3
Rubber: RITC 802-1 2.2mm

Hibernating:
Blade: Globe Whirlwind
Rubbers: RITC Cross(FH)/RITC 755/Globe 889-2(BH)

I think that learning to loop or roll the ball on the table is the #1 thing that helped me improve my level. By slowing my stroke down and putting some spin on low balls, more rallies get to the fourth or fifth ball when I can flat hit with a much greater margin of error.

Earlier I would tend to flat hit from the first or second ball meaning I was great when the ball was high and my timing was on, but lost consistently to people who could keep the ball low and was very streaky. Now I might be a little bit less devastating, but I'm a lot more consistent.

Since switching to short pips, I've noticed I can vary the spin more which throws off blockers as they aren't quite sure what spin is on the ball.

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-- Andrew

Spintech All Around Penhold blade
Spinlord Keiler II 1.5 black
Nittaku FastArc G1 red

729 all around blade
Tibhar Grass D-Tec S Red
Nittaku FastArc G1 black

Good point Andrew!

Attacking the low balls often gave me problems because I try to flat hit all the time.

I have consequently stopped forcing the issue and expanded my repertoire of shots to include spinnier and thus slower balls to extend the rally so as to get a better attacking shot later in the rally.

Last week I played against a regular opponent with whom I usually win games about 45% - 50% of the time. I had been practicing my flat hitting with my now faster Speed 90 blade for about 3 weeks and it was a good opportunity to test my skill.

I won the first match 3-0 handily and he was shocked. The next match I lost 3-2 and lost 3-1 in the third match.

Looking back, I realized that he had adjusted by trying to make his returns quite low and well placed. He refrained from making high topspin balls and focused on consistent blocking well and countering. Eventually, my incessant attempts to attack every single ball resulted in a number of errors that cost me the match.

On a sidenote, I have positive comments on the Darker Speed 90 (despite its high price ). It is very fast and added the power that made my shots tougher to handle. The blade despite its thickness is very light. The feel is soft and excellent control. Vibration is very minimal.

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TSP Spectol Soft - 2.1 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
Stiga Clipper CR WRB
--------------and--------------------
TSP Spinpips 21 - 2.0 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
BBC 9-10-9

Good to hear about your progress, I've also managed to start to consistently beat players I was 50/50 against before. Now I'm working on tow other holes in my game, my serves and my blocking.

I liked the one play blades when I played Japanese penhold, even when I played with short pips. I now play with a harder carbon Chinese penhold blade, but I should consider trying one of the softer ones again, like the American Hinoki blade. One of my coaches, Shigang Yang (#9 U.S., former temmate of Wang Liqin), played with a very soft Avalox 700 and thought my Joola carbon blade was far too hard for good control.

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-- Andrew

Spintech All Around Penhold blade
Spinlord Keiler II 1.5 black
Nittaku FastArc G1 red

729 all around blade
Tibhar Grass D-Tec S Red
Nittaku FastArc G1 black

Never did think Avalox P700 was very soft -- but then again, coming from a carbon frame, I can see your perspective.

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I'm still working on the roll, especially against low, long, and well-placed fast pushes, and the regular balls when taken later than can be flat hit. Any tips?

I got this Carl Prean pimples demo video, and it seems to me that he starts a bit lower than ball height to start his (unique-looking) topspin stroke.

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

I have seen the video but the Wang Tao's BH strokes in his instructional video seem easier for me to follow and comes more naturally.

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TSP Spectol Soft - 2.1 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
Stiga Clipper CR WRB
--------------and--------------------
TSP Spinpips 21 - 2.0 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
BBC 9-10-9

Good serves are very critical to short pips players. Long rallies are not advantageous to pips play and so the third ball attack is so crucial. No wonder Liu Guoliang focused on having the best serve in the world.

In most of my victories, my serves were usually spot on and these gave me the opportunity to immediately initiate the flat hitting and the subsequent killer blow.

The are times when we are too impatient or too tired to focus on serving well. You will soon realize that this is a recipe for disaster.

_________________
TSP Spectol Soft - 2.1 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
Stiga Clipper CR WRB
--------------and--------------------
TSP Spinpips 21 - 2.0 mm - FH
TSP Spectol 21 - 2.1 mm - BH
BBC 9-10-9

True, quite similar to my stroke as well. I haven't gotten the complete hang of it, however -- maybe a thousand balls later, perhaps it'll stick a bit.

Thanks amateur101!



Right now I've only focused on making one good pendulum service with some variations as I'm trying to narrow down the best responses to particular receives. Makes me quite predictable, however.

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.