OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Jens Gester Germany
Style: shakehander, anti BH
Blade: Dawei Crystal Carbon
FH: Galaxy Milky Way 3 Star II
BH: FS 804 Anti (1mm evs version)

Here´s a short Jens Gester vid from our Regional Championship, the angle of the cam is really bad. Jens plays a FS 804 Anti with a special sponge (~0,5mm), before the ban he played frictionless pips.

http://www.tt-total.tv/video-seiten/tur ... vid-2.html

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Antipower
FH: Waran or Hexer PS
BH: fl Antispin

Interesting video. Do you know which sponge he uses?

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
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My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

Unbelievable the way he plays that anti, and like MYNNB it does look interesting. The 804 is very cheap and this guys is probably the only guy I have seen that can use it effectively... I guess if it's 0.5mm it would a chinese sponge at the bottom??? Friendship sponge??? HRS might be too fast to use.

One thing I noticed is that this guys has a massive FH as well

How did he go in the competition Mr. Black?
... once again I thank you for posting some great footage of german/european players.

metal monkey

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the re-evolution of war
Bty Gergely Palio Macro Era 42.5 Max DHS H2 Max

Thanks for the video.

I am not sure though that he/Jens used the anti very well. It was IMHO not very effective (in the clip) and he didn't seem very comfortable or convincing with it (not sure if that is why he twiddles and try to block with his inverted sometimes). To block the way that he did at at 1:25, 1:14 and then at 1.04 (as opposed to 0:32) is to my mind an issue that he has. His main point gathering weapon is still his fh but I suspect his anti is/will be his achilles heel. Perhaps he is still transitioning from frictionless to anti. Not to take anything away from him but what a break at 9:9 in the decider.

Anti can be an incredible weapon in the hands of a skilled player, but it is very difficult to master (or to understand the nuances of the rubber to begin with). That perhaps explain the lack of top players and tha lack of its popularity at a decent level. Over the last 30 years or so, only a handful like John Hilton, Carl Prean, Cai Zhenghua and Lin Zhigang (Deng Yaping's hubby btw) have played anti to a very high level.

If one cannot bring forth the "flavor" and characteristics of the rubber (be it anti or LP), then it will be very difficult to progress to the next level. 1 of the cardinal rules for anti and LP remains that he needs to be able to generate pace where there is little or none. So, if you are always passive on the anti/LP wing, even if you have a better than average defence (which to my mind and with respect Jens does not have), then you are always going to be exposed.

Carl Prean played anti?????? I thought he played leggy and now inverted?

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Yasaka Dynamix 17
Tibhar Q 50
Butterfly Raystorm

Hi Kinetic,

You forgot to mention Dan Seemiller and Eric Boggan, both world rated anti players.

I don't think Gester handled the anti badly. At the higher levels, the object of these "funny rubbers" is to keep the ball in play in an uncomfortable way, hopefully causing an error or creating an opening for an attack, which he largely did. Too bad we didn't get to see the entire match.

He's 16-8 this year in league matches.

http://wttv.clicktt.de/cgi-bin/WebObjec ... &club=7764

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

Jens was eliminated in the next round, so he didn´t reach the round of the final 64 players. Anyway he was the only Antiplayer at that level.

About his sponge: I was told it´s a selfmade special design (burnt) sponge not available in any shop (basing on China sponge?). But it is obviously very slow and supporting reversal of the 804. Accordingly his Anti can´t be that grippy.

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Antipower
FH: Waran or Hexer PS
BH: fl Antispin

Thanks. I knew my list of 4 anti players would not be exhaustive so I said "only a handful like ....". I am aware that Dan and Eric had successes, particularly before the 2 color rule. Thanks for highlighting their names.

Whilst I am not knocking Jens in any way (not with my limited abilities), I am not sure that of the anti shots I had seen, they were played to keep the "ball in play in an uncomfortable way". Rather, I had the impression, again from those limited clips, that he was in fact mostly playing them in an uncomfortable way, particularly when he was defending using his anti from his fh wing.

Thats right leggy -> 837 -> now inverted. He speedglued pips too. To play the way he did with pips required superb fitness.

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Tibhar Grass D.techs OX | Donic BigSlam 2.0mm .
Re-Impact Medusa (balsa / 1-ply cherry wood)
Frictionless strokes | Attacking pip strokes | Greggy's advice | Bollsbrother | Sebastian Sauer . . . . . .

I think those chicken wing shots were intentional. It's a good way to keep from being moved around used by former frictionless players.

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

Just to make it complete: The final match of Jens at this tournament.

http://www7.tt-total.tv/video-seiten/tu ... vid-3.html

@kineticexplorer
I agree, mostly passive backhand Anti-blocks even from FH-side of the table might be too predictable there's no variation (ok he's twiddling sometimes). Although this guy might be limited at defence (btw I wouldn't call him a defender) it's interesting to watch and his opponent seems to have his problems. Regarding the ban of fs pips I think this guy has kept his former level. If he moved away from good old fs-style (attacking with a 0.5 sponge should be possible) there could even be some progress.

BUT spin reversal is amazing, I've tried 804 last summer and didn't get any reversal like that. Dead balls most of the time. .....

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Antipower
FH: Waran or Hexer PS
BH: fl Antispin

Mr Black,

Thanks for posting. Gester is fun to watch.

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The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

Thanks Mr Black. It would be good to see his play when he had frictionless. Did he attack more with his bh then?

Not really, but those pips were basically not good for attacking. Here are 2 small clips from the pre-ban period.

http://www2.tt-total.tv/video-seiten/re ... vid10.html

http://www2.tt-total.tv/video-seiten/re ... -vid5.html

In my (limited;) eyes there is no big difference to his technique of playing with Anti now. And that´s interesting. Many of the better fs-players who changed to TT-Master, Palio and so on had to deal with some problems to stay successfull. And compared to them Gester's technique appears rather poor. But this guy simply puts an Anti on his BH ...and wins again. Funny.. and perhaps a proof for Speedplays theory that the world goes Anti.

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Antipower
FH: Waran or Hexer PS
BH: fl Antispin

Thanks for the clips. Actually, he had slightly better control on his frictionless lp, particularly on the chops, but his blocks are more or less the same to me. To me, based on those clips, his game was better with frictionless but again, the difference is probably not significant for him with frictionless or anti simply because his BH is probably only about 10-15% of his game. To my mind, he had less adjustments compared to other players who turned to TT Master etc because he actually had not adjusted much....if at all.


If I had to guess, I think the main reason he went to that anti was because of the speed (or the lack of it) which his blocks come off a defensive shot. He was used to the reaction that his frictionless came off on his blocks so he wanted to keep that pace and touch. Just my 2 cents.