OOAK Table Tennis Forum

After a long time of hesitation I have finally decided to try out a blog! I have been hesitating since I really do not have time for this (hmmmm.... OK, how did I have time for all those other posts I have written.... ).
Anyway, a few weeks ago I hit a "wall" (soft, but still a wall) in my game. I lost to a few persons I should have beaten. I felt a little tied to strings in my game, like something was missing, like I had wings but couldn't fly . I thought about it and got to the conclusion that I missed my BH attack. I have a good BH block and a really good BH drive/smash with inverted. This was when I started to flirt a little with short pimple on my BH, since I am terrible at twiddeling. But this flirt was a dead end. I know now what I need to do:

This blog is about me trying to implemt a new part to my basic game pattern - the use of attacks with inverted on BH. This blog is about progress and failure in my attempts to find a better balance between my defense and my attacks.

Now, a little about me: I am turning 40 later this year. I have been playing table tennis since late 2008, and some three years between 1987 and 1990. I normally practice at least once a week, 2 hrs. Most weeks I also play some league match or a tournament or just add another practice session. I would guess that, in average, I play TT twice a week. I started aout as a double inverted player with FH attack and BH block/drive as my main weapons. I changed to LP in middle of 2009. I have been changing both BH and FH rubbers like 4 times a year until a year ago. This setup I have now is the first one that I have kept for more than 4 moths I think. And I am not planning to change it (yet).

I am also the chariman or president (or whatever it is called) in a small TT-club in my home town Göteborg (second largest town in Sweden). We have about 50-60 members, about 30 seniors and 20-30 juniors. Of the seniors I would guess that almost 10 uses some kind of LP, MP or SP on BH. I also have a whife and two kids (6 and 8 years old) and I work full time as a traffic planning consultant with focus on sustainable transportations (that means making it more easy for people to use public transportation, walking and cycling instead of using private cars). This is the reason for my initial hesitation - there is alwas a lack of time in my life (except for today, when I am at home with a cold).

This is how I picture my practicing and my blogging:
I will try to document, analyse and discuss my training sessions and matches with this specific focus on learning to twiddle and implement twiddeling and BH attacks with inverted as a part of my basic game plan. I will write about ot, film sessions and matches, I will be frustrated and probably try different rubbers, and so on... In think it will be like my posts in the Forum Member Videos section, but more gathered together and more focused. And of course I will need a lot of help.

About learning to twiddle: The first thing I need to do is learning to do it without fumbling. I need to practice with my bat as often as I can. Sometimes I don't get the bat in the right position after a twiddle, especially when I twiddle back to inverted on FH and is about to attack with FH. This is in progress.

The next step, also in progress, is to figure out some good drills for helping me decide when to twiddle in matches (and when not to). I tried out one last session, aginst a left handed player. I served fH (most back spin) long diagonal to his FH, he looped to by BH and I twiddled and smashed (or blocked, or sometimes bnacked away and chopped). I learned that if I serve with a lot of back spin it is difficult to counter or block with inverted, better to back away and chop. If I serve with no spin or top spin I get a better (and often higher) return that I can put away by twiddeling. I will also try the Falkenberger with only inverted (I've done that before) for getting my feet going. This is the first steps... I need more drills.

The next step, partly initiated, is to force myself to twiddle at specific circumstances in practice matches, like when I serve long to BH with my pips. Also when I push with my pips to opponents BH (right handed) and I get a push back. At this point I seek opportunity to step around and FH loop. But some people places the pushes very well to my BH and lock me up at that position. This where I most need a BH attack. I will make a fake push with my pips or inverted (no spin) and hopefully get a higher return that I can smack away with inverted on my BH. Another situation is when people loops very loose and slow to my BH, but too far away from my FH side so that I can't step around. Then I will take a step forward and attack. All these moments is about me forcing my opponnet to be more aggressive - I need to put more preassure to my opponent in order to get faster and harder returns to defend against, and then get better opportunitys to turn the game around with an attack. Sound a little contra productive, but I think it actually works that way . Anyhow, the next step after implementing twiddeling into practice games, is to use it in "real" matches. We'll se how long that takes....

Of course I will also have some focus on other issues of my table tennis, like footwork, sloppy serving, lazy chops, inconsistent FH attacks, etc... And I will also discuss other players that inspires me, like Ruwen Filus (very good at twiddeling), Yuto Muramatsu (also a good twiddeler), Gionis (who actually is twiddeling more and more these days), Adam Pttantyus, Joo, Wang Xi, Wang Yang, etc. And I am of course very interested in what you have to say about this .

Well, down to buissness. This is the a video of me playing (last week, right after doing the twiddle session I mentioned above) against a very good twiddler. He is a classic defender who often attacks or blocks or pushes with inverted on BH. He doesn't have a killer BH but he places the ball well and against me he wins lots of points when I loop frm my BH corner with my FH to his BH side and he just twiddles and blocks it away. I often catch the ball but can rarely do any creative with that return... I am aiming at something like what he is doing, but I think will do more of BH attacks diagonal I think. We'll see.

Now I've put the ball into motion... I'll be back

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
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I look forward to this blog.

Its uncanny how much I can relate. Been working on the twiddle since my last tournament. I have even considered going to inverted for a while! Gasp.

Vanjr, OMG! Whassup!

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube

I'll be following this one I feel your pain. I also hit that wall with long pips except I had an opposite problem. Chopping...
Anyway. I think twiddling will definitely give you an edge. Maybe you could twiddle while watching television. After a while it becomes second nature.

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-Teddy

I thought about that... I'm not sure the rest of my family would approve. A bit too geeky perhaps But perhaps at work

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube

My twiddling thoughts-
I actually do OK with inverted on my BH. My primary problem is if I twiddle I either try to twiddle to back to my normal LP on BH too quickly and yet am at the table and do not have time. My other problem is when I twiddle and make a good attack but the player returns to my FH with LP. I am absolutely horrible with my close to the table FH LP block or chop. I MUST learn how to hit with LP on my FH side. My way to work on this will be to either twiddle more or play whole games against weaker players with inverted on my BH.

Why not treat the inverted backhand as a one shot deal?
A. Push to a place where you most likely will get a fh
B. the bh you hit w inverted is a bh loop and you will attack the next ball even if it means bh lp hit.

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-Teddy

I agree, best thing as a newbie is to allways twiddle back immideately after.

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube

The problem with twiddling is that it makes you slower and less consistent for a precise FH-attack. It might change the balance towards defence. Unless you're reeeally good in it....

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I don't think twiddeling is the answer to everythig, it should be a complement to your game. Don't twiddle just for twiddeling itself, only when neccesary. Not every point, I think. But I might be wrong...

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube

Have a look at Mikutis perfect BH-attack against Chtchetinine at 0:22. There are many more well-timed twiddles in that match from Mikutis. I "stole" this vid from MNNB's blog.

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube

I totally agree with you, you should twiddle to compliment your game or to even further increase your advantages or to fix some "black hole" in your game.
For example I was forced to twiddle in the good old days when I was playing with mat pro, tackiness and C8. I could not push underspin with C8 and all best players got used to it, so they just killed all my pushes from C8.. (All they had to do was to pin me down to BH). At the same time I had sick underspin on my pushes with inverted from BH.. Being able to twiddle at will at any given moment improved my game by a huge margin. I felt like I regained control over my game

I bet that most of you agree that even attack from LP is really scary to opponent of almost any level, shots with LP are 50/50 in consistency. After some shots you don't even know what the hell just happened, they are just too risky in my opinion to use them all the time. So twiddling to inverted for killers is a great skill to add to your arsenal.

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#1 thing to think about while twiddling...

...what the heck are you gonna do if they see you twiddle and change direction to your forehand....

1+!!!

The video that Def Attack posted shows A LOT more twiddling that I would ever do or want to do.