OOAK Table Tennis Forum

EDITED intro to what has become my TT diary/blog.

Here you will find mostly my thoughts of how I played, equipment thoughts and other generally related to TT stuff on a daily basis. I like people commenting on anything I say. Don't be shy to share helpful bits, or ask questions about something related.

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2011 was the first post in this thread and is as follows

Not sure where to post but here is a good start.

A few years ago I did buy tons of great priced equipment and watched the olympics from the best place ever in Bangkok.

Now I live in Pattaya, not famous for table tennis to keep it clean.

Fairtex sports centre about 200 baht per couple of hours when you play with a few people. Price is weird because I haven't played alone before. It sucks there because 1. too hot 2. too expensive on my wage there 3. space and lighting pretty average.

playing at a friends room is small space too but at least free and air con and same end of town.

ANYONE COMING TO PATTAYA AND WOULD LIKE TO PLAY LET ME KNOW. cheers.

Always looking for more people to play and meet.

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Been a while since we heard from you and now we know why Boz.

What are you doing living in Thailand (besides it being a lovely cheap country to live in lol).

Doesn't sound like you are getting heaps of TT. I imagine your game might suffer some. How long are you planning to stay there?

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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
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The Australian dollar has destroyed the industry I work in, although I didn't choose Thailand to make money because as you know it is cheap it is also very poorly paid.

My game suffered for sure in the first couple of months but a slight come back in the last month or so with more practise, but a lack of partners to play against is crippling my service return and also playing away from the table since I play in a condo.

suprisingly after the first couple of nights playing back here in Australia I feel like I am still killing just as well as before - have changed to t25 on forehand which I think suits my new over the table attack style perfectly.

I am staying there probably about another 6 months.

thanks for the interest.

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I am James lee and Korean.
I also live in Bangkok.
But I am staying in pattaya now.
I want play table tennis .
Do you know some place?

Hi. I live in Pattaya. I am an player with good technique. Who wants to play table tennis? Write to me on line

My Line id: Mr.Fixy

Yeah, that's expensive. In Bangkok you can play all evening for 30 baht, in Chiang Mai the club charges 25 per visit.

Just realized - this is one of those resurrected zombie threads - most are from 2011, and one from 2014. Boz seems to have moved back to Australia.

Iskandar

Sorry just came across this. I haven't been getting notifications to email.

Returned to Brisbane. Had about 10 years off the sport totally. Till my now new interest over the last year.

My level basically fell from about 2008 gradually and then 2012 monstrous drop.

I think a real big difference to my game today is the lack of having a robot. The robot used to allow me to train up any weakness I spotted. Now I just go to the club and play whatever. I predominantly have a weak FH kill. I can return the ball no problems but it is a gaping weakness to not be able to kill it.

Then age doesn't help. I tend to constantly be sore and or injured, usually around the shoulder but also every other part of my body...

bla bla. Still fun!

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I have been running a TT return diary at Mytabletennis which I have enjoyed, but will probably just house here from now on. The main reason is the 2 or 3 layers of advertising that keep popping up. Just got tired of encountering it...

Anyhow, just for continuity, my 'diary' of thinking out aloud comes from here: http://mytabletennis.net/forum/topic910 ... ml#1131599

I should also say if anyone wants to play in Brisbane at BTTA drop me a line. My TT level has taken a plummet and is kind of balancing out on the ratings central to about 1200.

Currently, I play:

Still quite rarely, substitute possibly for fixtures: Monday Tuesday nights. These are my most important nights but am finding it really hard to get used to playing at that time since I'm usually following my kid's sleeping patterns.

Generally, I play:

9-12 M-F / Sometimes Friday night 6-9 instead
2-5 weekends

I have random amounts of work atm and usual parenting responsibilities that come first. Generally, I get about 15 hours per week at the table. More than that I'm a walking zombie with sore ankles, back, shoulder etc.

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I didn't put my name down soon enough so didn't get on a team for the current season. Just as well because I refuse to pay a full $120 at the end of the year for TTQ membership. I am serious about starting from 2023 though.

I also would love to play the superleague at South Brisbane (never been) but prices ($22) and distance (almost an hour drive from North Brisbane depending on traffic / halfway to the Gold Coast) are also too off-putting for my current level. Maybe when I feel my game reaches what I remember it to be 14 years ago... and I need more exposure to higher players.

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Currently, $12 for a 3-hour session of play or $8 as a substitute at BTTA which is a 20-minute drive is too hard to beat.

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Got 2.5 hrs in at the club.

2 hours with Shane. He has in my mind the perfect killer shots but just doesn't get the time in to practise to fine-tune that 1% of degree that makes him consistent with them. Not far off from beating extremely high players IMO.

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Background:

Yesterday I took the MXP off the Stiga off classic, put a teaspoon of baby oil for the first time on it, mostly in a circle in the centre of the sponge a couple of cms from the edge... and then just softly rubbed any excess toward the edges... I don't want the edge 1cm to be hard to glue down. And it domed well overnight.
I finally bought some glue and glued the MXP onto my Grubba variant all. Wow what a difference. It was very loose on the last blade so felt controllable, but now well glued and slightly stretched and on a slightly dwellier blade the throw angle and catapult were huge. Took a long time to get used to and frankly, I played less consistently with my bh (which is my strong attack side).

The Grubba didn't feel slow at all! Which throws a few equipment ideas out the window.

I had been waiting a week for my order of the Adidas challenger off- blade from Pinky. Only to find out it is not in stock (discontinued too). That's the second blade in a row I have ordered and not got.

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So we spent 1.75 hrs practising till last 15 minutes we played a best of 5.

I beat Shane 3:2. Basically I could only get in a few winners but played slightly awkward positioned shots that I knew he would go for the kill. I was more consistent at that defensive strategy than he or I was in the kill shots so that's how I beat someone that is a couple of hundred points more highly ranked.

And in practice, it is pretty clear who lands more = him. In the game situation, I tend to back down a notch from my best serves, best shots etc... and that puts an off timing and rotation on things. Trying to hard makes it easier to see what things will be I reckon. Compared to a kind of unlabored stuff.

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Anyhow. I won't talk about my weaker bh because it is unfair with a new combination... (it'll easily improve with more hours)

My FH is always a topic because it is more like a year in the process.

Of course, I go for a fair share of my counter loop kills and they are getting better but still ratsh*t.

The main thing I have been focussing on is driving with FH, and trying to do it harder and harder. Sounds simple to most I am sure. But I have never been a flat hit, driver, or smasher, especially from 2-4 metres from the table.

I think it is because with Chinese rubbers the drive somehow feels safer, and oddly it seems like what you are supposed to do with the rubber. Somehow it almost seems like a loop but I know full well it is not the forward graze I am used to... Anyway, this is my new FH stroke really. It is much safer because the face is very open. It is getting much better and the idea is not to overthink getting the ball to the table with anything on it. It just naturally does with my quirky feel for doing it end up coming back with sidespin or topspin or hardly anything.

This is now becoming a big extension to:

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Today I spent probably 10 minutes chopping with the Chinese rubber, chopping with right and left sidespin was the most effective and I enjoyed jokinlgy yelling out XU XIN! Shane missed a lot of kill shots against my chops. To be honest I felt very surprised that I chop with hard Chinese probably as well as with LP. So for what it is worth not having a good FH counter kill shot, I have got a lot of weapons to substitute.

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I tried using the Chinese on BH to chop what I thought might be harder serves but the following topspin with ch bh were not that great... so this is a new area that I should remember to practise up. Chopping with MXP sucks for me. too bouncy. Service return with Chinese is 100% control = hardly catapult and the tackiness helps do whatever you want.

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In the last 15 minutes, I played an older fella with an extremely small bat face. He could loop and drive OK with it but ultimately he couldn't return most of my serves.

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So now it's back to thinking of the blade I want again.

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3 hours at the club.

My FH was on fire today. Probably 2nd time in the last year of the return to TT it felt spot on.

Probably 2 hours with Shaun who I practise with the most these days. He is a good gauge and often commented the same, that my fh is absolutely improved. Played best of 7 at the end, beat him 4:1.

About 30 mins with Eric, and it was clearly the same, the first time I remember ever doing 4 each all out 100% power counter loops at each other on the FH.

About 30 mins with Dennis LP only ch grip. My worst control was MXP being too bouncy, but then again I ripped some high speed shots with it to make up for it.

I stuck to the same equipment as yesterday:

Hurricane 8 (think its 39*)
MXP
grubba variant

And the main reason my FH was so good was that I was using 1 of 4 different grips that I use which is the loose extreme FH grip 80% of the time. This grip sucks at anything but a bh block.

I only spent about 10% on BH loop grip, 5% on controlled fast flat fh grip (good for drive and smash control) and 5% on the traditional equal grip (defend till can spot a kill).

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I just felt a real flow in both my feet moving before the FH and finding the right timing to take it a touch earlier than I usually would... not too early unless its a kill of serve.

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MXP was still causing some unforced errors with its over-bouncing at times. Sadly its the only red rubber that I have at the moment that I like (better than rasanter r37.

When I get the couple of red Chinese rubbers I ordered I will be able to choose either of my black MXS or FXP on the bh.

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I have given myself by the end of the year to stop EJing and then stick to one setup.

I know I am pretty close to ultimate:

5 ply wood gives me so much knowledge of which part of the blade is hit. Depending on whether I put a finger behind the impact point or not really changes the speed, throw angle and spin. Thinner medium softness outer ply, all up around 5.5mm seems optimal for this flex, at about 80g offering greater arm speed, not feeling tired in the arm too.

FH: The non neo Hurricanes with normal commercial sponge are great for price, strong topsheets, durable tackiness, and boosting ability. Currently I am leaning on Hurricane 8 39* as the optimal but I'm still open to trialling h2 and h3 since I have not trialled them on this blade in particular.

As far as I am concerned, once my stroke mechanic hits its peak there is nothing slow about any Chinese rubber on an all-round blade.

BH: The only reason I can't settle on Chinese for BH is the trade-off for punching speed, the variable spin produced with ESN-style rubbers (dam tricky to play against) and the more passive lower trajectory returns, can basically fish from anywhere on the court against high power.

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Still haven't spotted a replacement blade.

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Ordered the Yasaka Sweden classic this morning. It should play almost identical to the Grubba variant, except for the anegre 2nd ply of Grubba is another limba layer. I am guessing possibly softer, but marginally bouncier?



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About 2 hour hit with Eric today. I am playing a good strong level as yesterday except Eric is tougher to receive on serves and he has very strong returns on my more conventional pendulum. I beat him 2:0 at the end in the only two games.

It was much harder to get to my FH with him since he positions the ball more awkwardly. I practised many strategies for service return. Killing the first ball is not the best solution. I found my best option was my neutral standard grip against him because of his wide possible range of serves: wide left wide right fast serves. Easiest to just gently drive block those back and take a couple of steps back and wait for an open attack or just hop in for a first soft return.

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I also for fun toward the end pulled out my grubba carbon because it has H2 on it.

It is ultimately slower than Grubba variant. It is faster initially with more control afterward.

I can't tell if it was the H2 or the blade or both that clearly had a much better/lower throw angle both in active and blocking.

This throws a spanner in the works again since I was thinking I would stick to the H8 next year. I'd be dam happy if H2 works out to be a better rubber for this blade because it is cheaper and seems more durable and is even more control in the table game.

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Still waiting on 3 rubbers from Aliexpress:

red H3 38*
red PF4 (I think 39*)
black H3 41*

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All the Chinese rubbers I have now that I stored well play pretty mint. Durable as F&^K. Except for any that are with that crappy new age red sponge on the H350 H880 their topsheets are zero tack and the glue to the sponge super weak.

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Tried playing with the MXS on fh for a few shots and man the ball just fell of in my graze loops to the ground. It would seem I have really adapted to Chinese rubber on the FH now. My BH I could use either CH or EURO/JAP but FH seems now I can only use CH.

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Not sure why my serves with the H2 today were insanely perfect. Maybe because the H2 was super clean and or the super thin 4.9mm grubba carbon felt more whippy and comfortable? All I know is I could do countless pure backspin short serves that Eric repeatedly dumped into the net. I am leaning to believing it is because the H2 being less bouncy and more tacky than anything else.... but I do love super thin and the grubba carbon felt lighter for some reason. Maybe because there is less handle in FL? so the action is more snappy...

Still, I am not entertaining sticking with that blade, overall it just feels artificial. Can't explain it much.

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I'm trying to calculate throw angles.

When I used H2 in comp it was on the stiga classic off (feels harder with the spruce) and I remember clipping the net more often. Similar to the michael maze. Similar to why I always used carbon blades with tenergy 05. To equalize the throw angle. (fine tune it)

Changing to the Grubba variant is to shorten the throw (not send it long)but it was very noticeable (negative to some point) the higher throw by far. It's the dwell that requires the opposite in the rubber (not less spin though). I am now for the first time in my ej life looking for lower throw rubbers. Is it possible to keep the same insane amount of spin but with a very low trajectory in counter looping?

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Great session of TT tonight. First 2.5 hours with Saive/Ting and then 30 mins with VB. Didn't lose a game to either.

Stuck to all night grubba variant MXP Hurricane 8.

FH is not perfect but feels good enough to not complain about it at all. So much so that by the end of the night, I started trying to get my BH to start catching up to the level. That's weird because I have been always stronger on BH.

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Saive penholder style is generally slower than VB's more aggressive loop style, but I managed to control VB even though the first game he was beating me like 6:1. We had some amazing 3 or 4 big counter looping rallies which I generally lost because I was tiring and not giving full power by the end. But that is not bad at all for me, I was ecstatic still that my FH has gotten that good and I know with more energy I could have counter looped all day with the Hurricane 8 sending off so many beautiful side spin topspin loops all over the shop.

THIS IS THE MAGIC.

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Moments of clarity. I remember just dropping the ball onto my blade thinking DAM that is so much dwell. SO MUCH VIBRATION. A perfect amount. I would never have liked this blade before... Something about this dwell amount is just right. Still, enough speed to send off a bomb, but not some carbon stiffness high speed which is great at times but makes you lose out on so many other advantages in the spin department.

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I felt my serves really tighten up with variations tonight. I gave a lot of heavy backspin as the modus operandi that I would only slightly lower the amount on and of course, wreak havoc on the push or loop of my opponents receive.

Just can't do it without such a classic Chinese rubber on such a dwelly blade.

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I did think to pull out a different blade at the end for fun but nahhh.. too perfect. Instead, I often tried playing with the hurricane on BH as well.

Dam, it the Hurricane 8 beats MXP for everything except for the occasional time I want low-effort speed and the occasional gunshot piercing backhand killer.

It's hard to give up on the MXP for that. So I will have to work out whether twiddling might help my win ratios or not.

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All else, I'm dam happy with my equipment and how my return to TT is going.

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When I ordered the Sweden classic, I asked for the lightest Straight handle in stock and if they coulld let me know the grams.

My blade will be 82 grams. All good. I would say that ST is always going to be heavier and that weight in the handle is essential.

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The Sweden Classic is a nice blade, it's really well sealed from the factory as well, which is a bonus.

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Thanks Hag, that is actually a really big BIG bonus because I am going to try a lot of rubbers on it, and the VOC can get a bit sharp on there.

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I reckon I won the top of the table unofficially today. Started at the bottom and went through everyone not losing a game and beating the top players twice each.

Then someone sat out at the top and things got all messy and I just lost interest a bit and lost by 1 point one each to the top three... (they ring a bell so we all change suddenly)

Bit peed off because I was not included as a winner. But I am happy I beat many people I hadn't for a while.

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Can't say my game is perfect but it's up there right now. Even in my hay day I never had absolutely perfect form. I tended to have a mix of winners, a few ugly shots, and a lot of defensive fishing to get around some weak service receive. Much like today.

I missed quite a lot FH kills especially as I started getting more tired. But I was focused more on BH and it was really producing some lovely shots and helping me stabilize the game.

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I have been finding that the more I try hard to do power winners the more I miss. When I just relax and do more of the 'get it on the table as low as possible and in a more awkward angle with a bit of weird side I tend to win the point more often. Obviously, a mix is important because the other player's level will decide whether or not I get punished for not putting on enough pressure.

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All up I am totally happy with my setup. All round wood Hurricane + an evolution bh rubber is growing on me and becoming more an extension of my hand. I can see myself staying with this with only minor tweaks. The longer I play with this the more confidence I have to go for it. And the truth is that the rubbers and the blade offer so much room to grow into. All three of them have a huge range of gears. I'd argue I have access to ultimate high speed, high spin and tons of control and the ability to do very very slow short touchy stuff too.

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Cool links
Great information about pip dimensions https://ttgearlab.wordpress.com/2017/02 ... n-rubbers/
great visualisation of pips by butterfly https://www.butterfly-global.com/en/pro ... gy/19.html

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No TT today but it's never far from my mind. I was reflecting a bit today.

1. There was a period in my life around the 2000 somethings, I just needed to escape from. I really was mind f*&d in relationships and somehow luckily I got brought into the TT fold briefly enough for it to reveal itself. TT was then soon enough my meditation. It was my new strongest drug. TT was the answer to everything really. Nothing in my life could consume me enough to think about sh*t. & I didn't care what anyone thought of me being a TT player at all. ZERO. TT really is life-changing. And life confirming. While I played, I thought of nothing but the ball. Zen was there. I knew it. It knew me. That's as sexy as gets. All other points are only bystanders. For example:

2. Passively a lot of other stuff gradually changes as a TT addict. Losing weight / looking leaner. Less time doing harmful stuff. You are fit time.

3. The demeanor gained from 1. and the body of 2. makes a new you which you slowly realize from the way you get perceived. Happy healthy-looking passionate people attract other happy healthy people etc.

Sure I missed something...

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