OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Nice to hear that you play against your dad... that must be great fun. It seem like yesterday that my dad and I used to go to the club together, and now he's in his late 70's and with limited mobility and lots of complications. Treasure these days and I hope they last forever for you.

I have a bomb too and I really like it. I have P3a OX on the bh and it slowed it down considerably.

Do you find switching from penhold grip to shakehand gives a sore hand? I experimented with penhold and I discovered that although I could hit certain kinds of balls at specific locations relative to my body, that really I needed more strength in my thumb and first finger which mean starting from bottom up strength-wise.

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!

My brother, father and I all play together, in the same team. Sorry to hear about your dad... my thoughts are with you on that. My father's in his late 50s now, and in ok shape, so I do hope for a long innings. As I've mentioned, there are two chaps in their 80s and half a dozen or more in their 70s at my club. It's one of the things I like about it. Of course it's tricky getting fond of these folk, but I love how our sport allows people to play at a really decent level right into their 80s.



No, it's fine for me. It doesn't seem to impact my normal shakehand game either... if anything it's good for my footwork!



What I do find is that the way I hold the bat, I tend not to curl my fingers, but have them fairly straight and spread out (as you can see from the marks on the back). That does restrict clockwise rotation of my right hand/wrist for BH blocks. That means I need to alter my fingers for that shot, which is a bit awkward, but in compensation my FH shots are much more controlled with my fingers out. Be interesting to know other people's thoughts on that.

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

So - match on Thursday. First match with my father back, so the team was me, my brother and my father. Playing one of the stronger teams - div 2 / div 1 players.

My father played really well - varied on serve a great deal, and seemed to get some pretty serious spin on his chops despite mostly taking them early and high. He plays anti on one side and generic inverted on the other. He didn't win any matches but got to deuce a couple of times in a couple of games. Great performance,

For my part, I played really badly. I must have given away 8 points on my serve. First match, again, my opponent knew my game, and just played patiently, putting nothing much on the ball. I lacked the confidence to attack it, and as soon as I gave a loose push it was dispatched. He won failry comfortably.

Second match was against a tricky player with a very unorthodox style. He was able to open up nasty angles and kill me down the other corner. I wasn't getting enough spin on the ball to trouble him, unlike my father, who gave him much more of a game. I was pretty pissed off afterwards - felt he'd basically taken the piss and made me look like a fool. After a few minutes I calmed down, and realised I'd played a few decent shots, and that he's a much much better and more experience player than me, so I should expect him to beat me comforatably.

My final game I played much better. I relaxed, reduced my serves to safe dead certs, no errors. Footwork was good, and I played a good few chops and drop shots. I still lost in straight sets, but felt I'd done a decent job.

Then tonight - no matches, just training at my 'home' club. Only six of us turned up, and I got to play games against people I've played in the league recently. Against the first chap I reported as doing not much with the ball, I played more aggressively against his short pushes. He coaches for the club, and suggested I should take the ball earlier, hold the bat higher, and chop quickly and early rather than wait for the ball to drop. I tried this, with good impact. He also said I need to attack anything a bit high, so opponents know they can't just push loosely. I'm not sure that's in keeping with the classical defender approach, but I gave it a go. I played the same fellow as the last match on Thursday, twice, and felt I didn't do badly. I also trained a bit with one of the stronger players - a blocker/counter hitter. I was concentrating on BH attacks of short balls, with LP and Inverted. Pretty effective. Finally I played against one of the league's classical defenders. He does nothing other than chop, and uses an ancient SP hardbat. He's amazingly consistent, and I enjoyed sparring with him, but lost 11-4 11-4 11-4.

1 week off now... how shall I manage!

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

So - having picked up some Skyline 3 for a bargain price, I've slapped it on the reverse side of the bomb. Makes a big difference to the weight, and he ball no longer makes a light popping sound when it hits the pips. I haven't got the hang of twiddling yet, but had a quick knock on the kitchen table just now with son #1, and I can do some evil spinny serves with the Skyline side.

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

First practice night with the SP/LP combo. I must say I'm *very* impressed!

Firstly - the FH (105 Legend). Exceptional control. Able to get considerable amounts of spin with a short, sharp, fairly high chopping action. Blocks gave a little spin reversal. Plenty of spin on serves. Good on longer, deeper chops from further away from the table. Took me a couple of games to get back into SP flat hitting, but once I adjusted, I found I could hit higher balls very well - through spin, and hard and fast. Overall an really excellent combinatiom.

The BH (DG OX). Lovely to work with. Blocks and chop blocks were excellent. I could chop high fast and close to the table and deeper back. Great spin reversal, and continuation. No 'disruption' effect to speak of, but that's to be expected I think. I found it had excellent control, and was much better than by 755 0.8 - no popping up. I made a few efforts to hit with it, but didn't feel this was its strength.

All in all I felt this was a much better and more consistent performer than my LP/Inverted combo. Really pleased and impressed. One observation - I didn't feel a need or desire to twiddle (other than for serve).

For fun at the end of the evening I gave 'The Bomb' an outing, now with the Skyline on the reverse. This adds lots of weight. Blocks with the LP side (which is all I use) were solid and gave a tonne of spin reversal. Hits were more solid and tended to fly off the table much less. I can't get my head around twiddling Cpen, so I gave up on that. Still a lot of fun for a social game.

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

So had a couple more practice sessions with the new OX LP // SP combo, and still very happy with it, although the LP is peeling away a bit around a few edges, so perhaps I need to touch it up a bit?

Anyway - generally observations, now I've played for a few more hours:

- I'm not missing the 'disruption' effect of the LP with sponge
- I'm playing fewer passive FH blocks with pimples
- I'm twiddling a lot less
- Generally control on the BH is sublime - I'm able to play some really deft drop shots and angles, and slightly aggressive angled blocks

However, I'm noticing that against serious loopers (I played against one of the very strongest players in the region today) I'm struggling to get the second chop back, on either FH or BH. Partly because I'm taking it earlier and higher than I used to, rather than waiting for it to drop and chopping it back, and partly because the OX LP on my slow blade is really really slow, so I'm not yet used to judging the power required - sometimes by chops don't quite make it over the net.

I'm getting used to SP chopping, which seems to be a much quicker, wristier action, with an almost entirely vertical bat. I can get a surprising amount of spin on these, and good accuracy. FH SP blocks are also a treat, and a great way to change the tempo of the rally. My confidence with the FH hits is increasing, which leads to an observation that many of my opponents have made: be more aggressive.

I'm quite capable of unleashing a venomous FH hit, but I lack confidence, and my BH hits always go long, so any offensive BH shot tends to be an accurately placed LP block rather than anything else. However tonight I played one of the players from the top club in the league, and he observed that on occasions when I chose to attack, I was attacking what he perceived to be quite tricky balls, and just hitting through the spin. Interesting. Similarly, players from my 'home' club are mostly tutting and wishing I'd play a more 'conventional' game.

That said, most people I've played in the last few sessions have all agreed I've given them a fair few problems - deceptive spin, good retrieving, and spin reversal. I'm getting a reputation as a tricky person to play. Of course, it's immaterial - I still lose in 3 straight sets, but I'm getting up to 8 or 9 points against some strong players, which is jolly encouraging. I wonder if it's a few years before I start to take sets and win games...

Another practice tomorrow, and then a match on Thursday. Overall I'm pleased with this combo, but really need to be able to get 3, 4 and 5 chops back against heavy loopers.

Thoughts? Questions? Observations? Advice? It's been a bit quiet on the reply front... am I boring you, dear readers?

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

I had a dream! I think because I've been reading 'The Hunger Games', in which there's a team of stylists and PR experts following contestants around, making their image spectacular... anyway - my team suggested rebranding from the rather humdrum 'learning log' to something a bit more exciting.

I did suggest that content trumps image, but they reassured me that this is packed with fascinating action, and recommended a racier title!

The jury is out...

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

hi LC,

I've just read through some of your posts, and the theme that runs through them is that you seem to look for an equipment solution to many problems -- even to the extent of switching blades mid-match (which is actually not allowed, but probably nobody cared too much). It's as if you are mentally saying to yourself, "Ah hah! THIS is the perfectly conceived secret weapon that will vanquish this particular foe". The thing is, it doesn't really work that way. You will never develop a consistent feel for the ball if your setup is not consistent. One day you play with a blade that demands X, the next day with one that demands Y. Too many things are changing at once, too many free parameters. People learn pretty much everything from sports to math to music to new languages to navigating their local enviroment, from repetition and to some extent trial and error. Not just humans, it is one of the basic laws underlying most forms of learning. Trial and error can't work for you if the racket is always changing. It makes it about ten times harder to develop the visual and muscle memories you need for things like racket angles, forces, all kinds of things. Please accept this as an honestly offered suggestion with the best of intentions (from someone who has been playing for a long time and at a point at a reasonably high level). You are not alone in going down this patch. But it doesn't take you where you want to go.

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

First off with this blogging business mate...replies come and go, peak and wane with who has time, who is inspired and general motivation. Trust me, I've been doing it for years here and sometimes you get lots and sometimes you get none. I know it makes your own blog more fun when someone makes a comment on it, but don't let it deter you if you don', or you'll quickly lose interest in it yourself.

Second, Baal makes a really valid point. Don't expect to hone up your game totally whilst switching equipment. But, at the same time, when you are fairly new to the game, IMO, its well worth the losses and delays to improvement to find equipment that suits you well. It doesn't need to be perfect (cos there is no such thing) to stop and "smell the roses" with it, but it needs to feel like you can work with it. As your skill increases and your results improve, if you feel there is an aspect that might benefit from a change (and we're basically talking one of three things - BH or FH rubber or Blade), then try it out (after some serious research and thought). But keep the stable setup going until you find something else worth bedding down and only change and bed down one of the 3 at a time. You may go months or even years with the same setup, or just changing one thing here and there. And you may feel at a certain point you have taken the setup as far as you can go with it and it needs tweaking. As an example, I settles with my setup with Gergely, Rasant and Pogo for about 3 years. But, I found I wasn't getting any further mainly due to the impotency of Pogo as an LP. It had served me well bedding my LP strokes, and when I switched to Dtecs (which I'd found unmanageable during those 3 years) I started to gain improvement and momentum again as I could take advantage of the LP's characteristics without losing much control (and anything I had lost I regained as I developed feel and touch with the new rubber).

Anyway, keep up the blogging. For me, its as much about reflection and contemplation about my own game and what progress and achievements I make, as it is about getting readers and discussion. But I know its also nice to get some feedback at times also. Just enjoy the whole process and whatever comes from it.

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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.

+1 Have to agree.

When the blog gets readers or comments, it's fun. But if you get hooked by that, as Reborn said, you'll lose interest after a while. Try to simply think about it as a personal journal that you happen to be making public. For me that works at least.

I think the nice thing about blogging, even if nobody were to read something, is that you're documenting ideas and experiences you had that you might later forget. What a great tool to be able to look back a year from know and have documented where you were at, what you were doing/thinking, etc.

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Stiga Clipper Classic
FH - TSP Spectol Red 2.0
BH - Dawei 388D-a 1.5

Thanks for the replies chaps! Really appreciated! I hadn't lost interest, but been rather busy. I suppose an update is in order!

Firstly, I think Baal's comments ring true, and as this update will show, the issue is still present... but first, where were we before...

So the equipment journey up until mid January went like this:

1) As a child (a long time ago) - generic cheap bat, penhold. Never played at a good level.
2) As an adult, one league season, 10 yrs ago - generic inverter starter bat, shakeholder, before buying first bat: Tibhar Grass Devil and some kind of european/japanese inverted on an OFF- blade. Played as a 'classical defender'.

--LONG BREAK--

3) Summer 2012 - started to play again: using same OFF-, Grass Devil, Inverted combo. Quickly replaced the rubbers (as old, and told Devil was banned) - replaced with something DHS/Chinese - Memo / Skyline or something. Although I wanted to play defensively, what coaching I was given was very much along the lines of: learn your FH and BH drives, play with your OFF- and inverted combo. Worry about the rest later.
4) Winter Season 2012/2013 - my first season back. Started with my OFF- bat, but then lost my kit bag, and had to replace it. At this point I was starting to feel conflicted about "style of play". I've always felt an inclination towards classical defence - the thinking, wearing down, and beauty of the style intrigues me. However I was very impressed with Miao Miao, and her 2 x SP (maybe one is MP) game. I read the seminal article by Kees about revising the 2 winged pips out attacker game, and went ahead and bought a fast blade, with 2 x Donic Baxster. I played fast and aggressive. My first season was predictable - I lost everything - didn't even win a set. That was fine - I was learning, but I wasn't entirely happy with the style, but did like the unorthodoxy of not being a simple double inverted player.
5) Summer Season 2013 - same kit, same style. No wins, not much joy. Towards the end of the summer a friend at the club lent me a couple of his spare bats as a change. He basically said: stop playing that double pips style and kit, and try this out. I did, and because I wasn't trying to be a two-winged attacker, I automatically dropped back to my defensive instincts, only with inverted. I decided I needed to buy a new bat.
6) Winter Season 2013/14 - this season. So I decided to buy a bat. Having decided I wanted to return to a classical defence game, I sought some advice, and decided a LP/Inverted combo would be a good start. However the person at the tablentennis store (online) advised against it and recommended a different setup. I wasn't convinced, so ordered two bats - the one she recommended (Andro Fibrecomp, Tibhar Defence 40, Geospin Tacky) and the one I fancied: Tibhar Defence Plus, 755 0.6 and Super FX. As expected I was feeling the desire for some LP action, and this is the point at which the blog started. I had a crack at OX 955, but just wasn't into it, and in the end I got rid of that bat. I played with the Defence Plus / 755 / SuperFX until Xmas, and at Xmas, as you'll have read, treated myself to a second Defence Plus, because I wanted to try something else out. I also got a penholder blade just for fun.

This brings us almost up to the point of my most recent post. So we have three blades on the go, and two styles - madness! I rationalised it by saying I only used the penhold bat for a laugh, and that was fair enough, so that brings it down to two - the newly obtained OX Spinlord DG with the 105 SP on the other side. As we rejoin the story, this was the preferred option.

However, a few practices and matches later, and I found myself with a problem. I loved the feel of the OX LP - a complete convert. But I wasn't doing as well with the 105 - I couldn't get enough spin, my FH shots were going awry. I switched back to the other setup - the 755/SuperFX, and my FH sprang back to life. But I was missing the OX LP, so I took off the 755 and whacked on the Sanwei Code OX... this has been my "main" blade since then.

Results wise, I've won a few games against weaker opposition. In practice I've been improving - chops and blocks with BH LP have been fairly effective, and the inverted FH has been a good weapon, and I can twiddle and use it aggressively on the BH. All seemed to be on the right trajectory. The second setup didn't come out at all, not did the pen hold.

Then at half term there was a training camp at one of the clubs. I went along. This is at one of the main training clubs in the area, with a large junior contingent, and some top players and coaching. However, as you can imagine, it was very much mainstream, fast FH and BH drills - the typical modern player machine. I found that I couldn't really join in... I'd have to twiddle every shot if we were doing FH/BH combos, which messed up my timing and concentration. I started training more at this club in the evenings, and was encouraged to be a bit more aggressive on my FH, which was kinda helpful but did cause a deterioration in my performance in competition, as I was being much less risk averse, and making mistakes rather than provoking them.. basically I was becoming more of a modern defender. I wasn't sure about it, but went with the flow.

Then a few weeks ago, I played a match against the aforementioned hardbat player. After the match we got chatting about hardbat, and he ended up lending me his spare - a Juic Euro Chopper with TSP Militail... I played with it for a few hours, and really loved the way it felt. I loved the fact that I could play a natural FH or BH shot without having to correct for LP. I loved the feedback and feel of the OX SP. I could chop and retrieve well, and I found that for some reason my footwork came alive. I don't think I was necessarily playing any better, but I was enjoying myself, and it felt nice. So I went ahead and ordered myself a hardbat setup - a cheap ALL blade with 2 x Dr Evil. I've played with this in practice for the last couple of weeks. I'm getting the hang of it, and while it has issues, as do all setups, I like it a lot.

Fast forward to last week. I was practicing at the club with the coaching, and again felt that my hardbat wasn't an appropriate tool to join in, so I borrowed one of my children's palio starter bats for the night and used that. I played pretty well - I could chop, drive, loop etc. I was hopeless at returning spinny serves, but I figured I'd get over that. Then later after coaching, I switched back to the hardbat, and played a hit for about 30 mins with one of the top players in the club (Jpen, SP). I thought I played really well - good retrieving and good fun. But the coach walked up and said he questioned the logic of my choice. He wasn't about to forbid it, but he advised against it.

Two days later was last Friday. Another coaching session at the club, and I decided to take the coach's thoughts to heart. I ripped off the CK531 from the 729 bomb, stuck the Geospin from the original Andro blade on the other side, and wrapped a load of badminton grip around it to make a fairly fat but straight and short handle. I took this and used it on Friday.

For training it was great - did what I expected. I played a few matches against some of the juniors - mixed results, but not bad. I couldn't easily play my defensive game and ended up playing more like them, which of course they practice for... but interesting all the same. There followed a few days soul searching on the hardbat section of this fine forum... and at practice tonight (at a different club) I stuck to the hardbat.

That brings us up to tonight. Two other fellows to practice with - my father and the chap who lent me his spare bats at the start of the season. As I was knocking up, one of the other club members, playing a match came up and made remarks about the distracting noise of the bat. He also said it was a waste of time - I should chuck it away. He'd used crap like that as a kid, 50 years ago - put it in the dustbin and be done with it. I smiled and ignored this, and proceeded to play.

I played a few games, practices some serves, and got some really useful feedback from the other chap (not my Dad) about hardbat strategies. He encouraged me to play real strokes, not just stick the bat in the way, and showed me how to hit short or midlength serves. He also pointed out that I was consistently hitting across the line of the ball, and that I needed to move and get in line with the ball's trajectory and hit back down it, until I could do that consistently.

I played a load of games against my father, winning a few, and generally had a good time.

So, I came home, and decided I'd update the blog... and then I saw the recent comments. So we're right up to date. I *think* I've pretty much decided that I'm going to play with the hardbat setup for the summer and see how it goes. The spare Defence Plus blade is naked. The bomb has been made into double inverted. The challenges on the horizon are as follows:

1) I'm mighty tempted to find a slower and less high-pitched bat for the Dr Evil. I could try the Defence Plus... or I could pick up something like an LKT Toxic 3 for peanuts. But of course, this is just more fiddling with kit....

2) I like going to training, and I feel it's probably good for me, but I think this pretty much forces me into a double inverted mode, which will confuse me, and if I want to stick with hardbat is kinda pointless. This makes me think that perhaps I just need to play matches and practice with my Dad / others with the hardhat.

3) I've got one more match this season - I expect I'll use the old faithful Sanwei Code // Super FX combo for that. Then for the summer league, use hardhat. But there is an end of season closed tournment. Not sure if I'll stick with the old faithful for that too.

4) All this adds up to exactly what you've all been saying. Quit dicking around, and pick something and stick with it. That could mean starting right now - bugger the last match and the tournament, the bigger/slower/lower blade... hide everything else, stick with one thing, and don't touch it for 12 months. I think I'm hearing cheers of approval... so.... which one??

a) The OX LP // Inverted, that I know best...
b) The double inverted that makes going to training easy
c) The hardbat, which is fun and quirky

My instinct is (c) but I'd love to hear the view of you, fine readers....

Thanks for a long read... more soon!

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

Oh one other thing! The chap who said to chuck away the hardbat came back later and said sorry - he could see I was being pretty effective with it. Then he challenge me to a match. He's a pretty strong player - 43% in division 2 this season. He won in 3 sets, but the first two were 11-9. I served mostly fast and long with some side to his BH, varying with underspin short. I hit a few fierce flat hits, and retrieved fairly well.

After the match he said he thought I'd played well, but that the setup did nothing for my game. It might give me some advantages against weaker players, but in the long run was probably a waste of time, and would be limiting.

I'm inclined to disagree. If it's good enough for wturber, and he can play up to 2000 level USATT, it's good enough for me. Sure I won't get up to British national standard... but I doubt I ever will... I've been playing for 3 seasons, I've got an average of about 10%, and I'm in my late 30s. I don't think I need to concern myself about holding myself back...

Anyway - that's us bang up to date! Fingers crossed for some feedback!

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

So it's practice in just over an hour. I've been thinking hard about the right way forward. I know the right thing to do is pick any setup and then just jolly well stick with it for 12 months, and see what happens.

The downside is that the dicking about with equipment is just such fun! And along those lines, just for fun, and almost in the spirit of the alcoholic who promises himself one last drink before he gives up for real, I've made up a silly bat just so it's not sitting there tempting me, and just to see how it plays:

- Tibhar Defence Plus (spare)
- CK531A (red, 0.7mm)
- Scylla Sword (black, 0.5mm)

Today I shall play with all four setups, one at a time:

a) Inverted
b) Hardbat
c) LP/Inv
d) LP/LP

I shall report back findings, and then hopefully we can make a decision. Of course (d) has disadvantages, but I'm curious to see how it works.

_________________
Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

Hmmmm, if you aren't playing hardbat tournaments, then you aren't limited to hardbat on both sides. I think you lose a lot of potential for variation playing the same rubber on both sides.

Why not play your favorite hardbat rubber on one side and your favorite inverted on the other?

I would guess you like to chop on both sides, so I would suggest trying an inverted with thinner sponge but very spinny, and not too fast, so it can chop as well as attack. I have been trying Yasaka Rakza 7 and the soft version of it in 1.8 mm sponge (as well as other spinny thin inverted and sp previously) with LP on BH for chop or attack on the other side. Maybe you would prefer something tackier instead, but again, I'm saying if you're going to want to chop, try thinner sponge so the chops fly lower. I make a point of mixing up taking balls with the two rubbers, regardless of where the ball is sent, returning them to mixed up locations, with of course mixed up speed, trajectory and spins, and its very effective against all but the really good players. You can't do that with the same rubber on both sides, and the thing I really notice is that the greater the difference between my two rubbers, the more effective the setup and strategy is. Of course, when playing against people that are capable of reading and adjusting to the spin on each ball, its pretty hopeless, but they have high ratings and I have no chance against them anyway.

I also think you need to find "your" setup, whatever it is, and stick to it long enough to really be able to use it effectively almost on autopilot, without thinking, to really see the benefits.

That said, I've also played a guy that plays hardbat dr evil once that is about 1900 and lost to him. I'm not sure I wouldn't find a hole in the setup though if I played him often.

_________________
--- Push/Chop or Attack ---
USATT 1684 left, Lost it all by playing sick and hurt.
No legs left, no more backing up, just smash it!
Blade: TTPiet OFF-/ALL custom
FH: Spinlord Waran Short Pips
BH: Joola Badman Reloaded 0X

Well.. a rather inconclusive practice session I'm feeling rather discouraged and confused.

Tuesday afternoons is a good opportunity - I know all the players well, and there's a range from people around my strength to very strong, including my Dad, with whom I play and practice often, including last night.

As I walked in, I was approached by one of the chaps that I like very much. I'd describe him as a defender. He uses some very old, low-friction SP with thin sponge on on side, and a very slow chopping inverted rubber on the other side of a slow blade. He's very consistent, and mostly moves the ball around, occasionally hitting with the FH. We play together pretty often. He asked me: so what's the plan? Are you going to use the hardbat throughout the summer league? Or what?

I told him I was at a position where I wanted to settle on one setup and stick with it. He asked to see my various options, and offered to lend me his backup back to, if it was informative. I showed him the collection, and he said he reckoned the double inverted made the most sense, but lent me his backup bat - DF 1615 OX on one side, tackiness chop on the other. I had a hit with it - didn't like the inverted side, but was able to hit a straight forward drive with the DF side. Didn't really learn anything, and picked up the double inverted. We played with this for a bit. It was apparent that against his game it was a powerful weapon. I could spin and hit him off the table if my footwork was right, and he couldn't generate enough spin to trouble me. I found myself playing rather aggressively. We played a game, which I lost, as he's a very clever player and my footwork wasn't up to the job, and then he moved on.

At this point I felt I knew what I already knew - I can hit powerful topspin shots on FH and backhand with that combo. Next I played against one of the players I am quite close to - the retriever-style person, against whom I've won a few games, but usually she comes out on top. We played a 3 match set - I thrashed her in the first, but lost the next two fairly closely owing to too many mistakes. But again, the conclusion I reached was that she didn't have anything in her arsenal - I could just overpower her defence. Not my usual style, but kinda effective. Next I played another player of my standard or a bit weaker, and won comfortably.

Next I played doubles, against the first fellow, and another player of about my standard. Same stuff - I could hit powerful shots when needed, but also some nice chops and pushes, and spins were nasty. I played well. So far so good.

Next I played against my Dad. With the same bat. He won quite easily - he could chop and put enough spin on the ball to make things hard for me, and with me playing more aggressively this played to his strengths. I switched to the double LP setup and did much much better. Now, of course he wasn't used to playing against double LP, but straight away I was more relaxed, less tense/anxious, and able to move around, block, chop, push, defend. It worked really well. I lost to deuce but should have won. Finally I switched to hardbat, but this was too much of a change and I couldn't hit anything and lost 11-0.

Next I played against the top player. When he was hitting top spin shots I could counter hit, and did very well. But as soon as he switched to chopping I was in a mess. I hit everything into the net or off the table, and I was feeling really annoyed - he was defending and I was attacking, and I didn't like that one bit. I switched to double LP, and played really well, losing 11-9, and then 11-7. He told me after that I played really well, and he'd had to adjust his game completely. At this stage I was feeling quite pleased with the double LP setup, and found I could hit a flat skiddy shot on the FH too if needed.

I then played against the weaker player again - the one I'd beaten comfortably. But this time with the double LP. I didn't play very well... maybe he lacked consistency? Maybe he wasn't putting enough spin on the ball for me to use against him. I also lost the ability to hit with the FH, and started playing very passively. I lost in 3, closely.

Finally I played against one more fellow of about my strength, or slightly better. I faired a little better, winning one and losing one, before time was up.

So... what did I learn?

1) When my positioning is right, and the ball has topspin or not much spin on it, I can kill it, with FH or BH, very effectively, with the double inverted.
2) Against strong spin, either in play or on serve, I really struggle with the double inverted.
3) With the double inverted I play much more aggressively, which doesn't seem to suit my temperament.
4) Losing with double inverted was much nastier that with anything else... I think I've mentioned this before. When *i* make the mistakes - hit the ball in the net, or off the table, it upsets me. When my defence wasn't clever enough or solid enough, and I'm hit off the table, I don't mind nearly as much.
5) Hardbat is so radically different, I can't really mix and match on the day to compare.
6) Against weaker players, the double inverted was more potent, and the double LP less potent.
7) Against stronger players, the double inverted was more of a liability, and the double LP much more of an asset.
I largely enjoyed playing the double LP game.

So I fear I'm not much better off. I mentioned at the start that I feel a bit gloomy. It's a difficult game, I know, and equipment won't ever change that. It's one trade against another, but really this just served to show me how far I have to go.

Right now I'm feeling like taking a break from playing... I guess that'll pass, but I'm all confused and a bit sad.

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
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