OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I get up way too early, usually have sparse sleep, work long, and play way too much TT daily. It can pile up without you noticing what is really wrong. You don't feel THAT tired or whatever during a practice or a match, but the that little bit of explosion that is missing is easily enough to wreck havoc on your movement, timing, and spin on your shots.

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Goof-off chopping bat
Gambler All Rosewood
Aurus Soft / Gambler GXL .6 sponge

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter

Again went to the Thursday night handicaps at my club, and again lost to the guy 1 or 2 grades below me, this time 15-21. I was pushing/chopping to his forehand too deep where he was teeing off with a loop which I wasn't returning very well at all. I tried to keep it off his forehand and made up some points, but not enough. The other games wrere pretty comfortable, and I was happy to beat the new Norwegian guy 21-18. This time his game had very definite cracks in it, and he admitted that he used to play much better with speed glue and a faster blade and more running around to his forehand. He wants to play in our top team in the upcoming local comp, and this should get him up to speed (and probably beating me pretty easily). There were a couple more new people there as well that we got signed up.

Next up is to negotiate with the powers that be at home to umpire at the OOQT (Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament) 5th - 8th March at the State Sports Centre, Sydney which will be airconditioned.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

I think your whole reason for becoming an umpire is so you get to watch top class matches in the box seat!

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Guilty as charged, sir.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Played again at our Thursday handicap night. This time, I told myself, I wasn't going to push / chop to my nemesis's forehand (did I mention he is left handed?) and it worked. I defeated him comfortably. I lost one match 18-21 to a player half to one grade below me, who plays the most elegant game, but is slightly inconsistent and falls for enough of my "sucker balls" that I can mostly beat him. Well that night he was a lot more self-controlled. In the end I tied for winning the night. Next time my handicap will be 15 points further negative.

In late news, I just received the email confirming that I will be helping umpire at the Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament, being held here in Sydney in an air conditioned venue (State Sports Centre), as against the Australian Olympic Qualifying Tournament which was held at the normal TT venue at Sydney Olympic Park Indoor Sports Halls. We are to be there tomorrow morning at 11:30 am for the Referee's briefing. It will go from tomorrow till Thursday, supposedly 12 noon till 9 pm so that there will be some matches to be seen in the evenings for those that have to work. The format is in the prospectus that is available on the TTA website under the London Olympics drop down. I believe that there will be 4 tables used. I am pretty sure there will be no live streaming, but I could be surprised. Again I am amazed that a lowly state umpire (actually there will be more than 1) is allowed to umpire at essentially international level. Well maybe I shouldn't, as there is no pay as such for doing it, just kudos and OOAK surveys notwithstanding, "the best seat in the house".

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Umpired at the Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament. A common comment among umpires was "You should have given him/her a card". There were quite a few matches that went over the 45 minutes allowed for, which was not helped by some particularly slow play by a few players.

You know, pretty much ready to serve, take up the stance, bounce the ball, look at opponent, bounce the ball some more, reverse the stance from forehand to backhand or vice versa, bounce the ball some more, then get given a yellow card for timewasting. In the meantime the receiver may have taken up their stance then at some point gotten tired of the server's antics and held their hand up and walked in a circle around behind the table and back to their ready position.

I am still astounded that the powers that be allow state level umpires to officiate at an international event that is only one level below the Olympics. However, if those powers that be are relying on volunteers, then they get what they pay for.

Played a couple more Thursday night handicaps, still as the backmarker (most negative handicap). Have lost to a different player each time, but only by one or 2 points. Apparently I still lead the cumulative points score, and have a couple of others on handicaps within 4-5 points of mine. I have had to declare nonavailability for comp matches on the following Friday for the past 2 weeks. Hopefully this week I will get to play both.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

OK. The only TT to report, apart from lurking here and making the occasional comment, has been another 2 Thursday evening handicap outings. Again unbeaten on the table , but not putting the screws in enough (read not beating the others to under 5 or less in a game to 21). Have now played the 1st 10 of these. The rules are that there will be 12 of them, and the 2 worst results can be discarded. For this week I will skip the handicap and hopefully play pennant comp for my team for the 1st time this season, on Friday evening. Of course, Real Life (tm) can still intervene ...

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Have played 2 comp matches the past two Friday nights, both away, both with similar results.

Friday a week ago played against 2 fairly offensive PH players, losing 0-3 & 1-3. My team mate, I, lost his 2 singles , and we lost the doubles fairly comprehensively. As this was my first comp match for the year, I was not too disappointed, and showed glimpses of form. In the 1-3 loss, I won the 3rd game with a combination of rolling the backhand and jamming the opponent. I was expecting to possibly win the 4th game as well, except the opponent seemed to adapt better & play a more patient game.

In last Friday's match, first up I was up against a shakehand Chinese immigrant who coaches as his day job. I lost the 1st game pretty easily. The 2nd, however was a different story. I found myself up 10-8 and on serve. Unfortunately, I served a fault into the net, going for too much spin and too little depth. He won the next point to go to deuce. We went point for point to 13-13, then he won the next 2 points and the game. He then won the 3rd game with little trouble. Interestingly he is actually stronger on his backhand, but still puts the ball away with his forehand.
Next up I played a NSW O/40 Vets rep, a lefty shakehand. He had beaten my partner (again I) fairly easily, so I was not expecting much. He won the 1st game fairly easily, but in the 2nd game I got quite a lot of nets and edges. I played pretty well as well. I then lost the 3rd & 4th games fairly easily. It seemed that when I pushed/chopped my lowest and shortest, that was when he punished the ball the most.

In other news, an electronic missive was sent to all officials at a recent event, warning that any further infractions against the handbook for those that officiate would be punished with the full force of ... something. A post made by me in a different thread was cited. I am being deliberately vague here as even the search engines have ears. Reference in that post was made to some summarised results (I believe the individual ones are supposed to be c o n f i d e n t i a l but weren't already in some cases anyway), the actions some people took, and that a particular contraption was found to be working incorrectly. As a result, in the future I suppose that about all I will be able to say on this board will be match results. Interestingly, either anonymity here has been preserved, or the powers that be deem that sending the electronic missive was sufficient wrist slapping. I have an opinion on this but ...

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Wow, snoops are out there huh? Sounds like we'll have to develop a code only understood by forum members

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

I was considering a post in the experimental section that is only available to members but remembered that we do have at least one extremely notable member from the establishment with his own thread ...

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Played in the local comp last Friday night.

It was at a venue where they play basketball at a fairly serious level at other times (proper scoreboard, swing away hoop & see through backboard), so the floor is good. The lighting is better than average, but could be brighter. All tables have surrounds, but there could be more room both behind the table & at the sides.

I was running late, but still managed to arrive before both opponents. We could have called for a partial forfeit by the letter of the rules, but of course we all just want to play, and what goes around comes around, karma's a female dog etc.

IF played 1st up. He was playing against a right handed shakehand player who has only come back to the game last year after a few years away. Anyway, IF uses Joola Tango on the forehand & Grass D Techs on the backhand, and his opponent was not handling the pimples at all well, either hitting shots into the net or less often off the end. IF won that one 3-0, although the 1st game went to deuce.

My 1st match was against an ex junior (well he may still be under 21). He had represented the state at the National Juniors a few years previously, but was now at university and not playing very much. I had some real trouble with some of his serves at first, and when he hit the ball on it wasd pretty much unreturnable. However, as I usually do, I slowed the game down on him, and also varied the amount of backspin. I win that one 3-0. At the end of the match IF told me he thought the opponent was trying to hit the ball too hard, but hadn't told me as I was doing quite well as it was and didn't want me to take that into calculation.

I then played IF's opponent in the 1st reverse singles. He did not like my spin game, although I only eked out the 2nd game 16-14, but I did win the 3rd 11-2.

IF then played my opponent. IF had previously coached this young man at the National Juniors a few years previously. I hoped that IF would bamboozle him similarly to IF's 1st opponent, but it was not to be. IF went down 1-3. Perhaps the opponent had realized that he was trying to hit too hard, but he also got a number of nets and edges at crucial times in the match as well.

We then played the doubles. Well that was a tale of two games. We lost the 1st game 5-11, won the 2nd 11-9 (though it felt more comfortable than the scoreline indicates), lost the 3rd 6-11 then won the 4th 11-6. This set up the 5th as verrry interesting. We turned ahead. IF receiving then receiving again. We managed to take this game out 11-8, again feeling that the score was closer than the play.

We got our 1st win of the season, and hopefully are now no longer equal cellar dwellers.

We play again tonight, though if the opposition play their strongest player we are unlikely to win more than 1 singles each if that.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Which round was this Retriever? Out of how many in the whole season, and how many wins and losses have you had so far?

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

The comp is up to round 7. I have only played the last 3 rounds. In singles I am now 2 wins out of 6, doubles 1 win out of 3.

The 1st few rounds I was busy playing the summer handicap comp at my club. I found out last Friday night that I had won. I didn't turn up for the last 2 rounds of that, with the worst 2 results being removed. My main rival, who also largely organized it, only had to turn up for the last round to win, but he couldn't make it. It was he who told me this and congratulated me for winning.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Dear Mr. Retriever....!

I (and I'm sure many others) want to see another video of you playing! That 23 second video at the beginning of the post was only a tease!

Dear Mr. Glennholder,

I don't video myself. The video to which you refer was taken by PRW a few years ago at the Australian Veterans Open either just before or just after I lost 2-3 to the ultimate winnner of the Aust. O/40 Mens Singles. In the whole week including teams, I was the only one to get 2 games against him. From memory I had an even record against PRW. He won one & I won one. I am not aware of any other videos of me kicking around the 'net. Pingpongstephen (sp) may have one as in the past I have played him in the local league comp fairly often.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74