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Zen of chopping
https://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=27372
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Author:  pgpg [ 23 Dec 2018, 10:19 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

Continuing with EJ/setup 'audition' :D . None blew me away, but both Barricade and BTY Defense Alpha actually were VERY solid.

The thinking behind all this: pick one now and stick with it for a year, just updating worn out rubbers. Should be interesting...

Meanwhile, among other things I was trying lately, somewhat successfully:

* Avoid pushing any serve that comes to FH, unless it's a truly short double bounce one (and I suspect 95% of them aren't)
* Go for softer, non-spectacular shot that lands on the table, preferably with decent spin.
* Move and breathe :lol:

Author:  pgpg [ 29 Dec 2018, 04:48 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

New Year resolution :party: : no changes to current setup (Defplay/AK47 blue/Dtecs OX) for a year. None.

Can't play a single match (tournament, league, club...) with anything else. Occasional hit with something else is fine, but no matches.

Should be interesting. Keep me honest - I know there are few folks from the club reading this ;).

Author:  ziv [ 29 Dec 2018, 04:57 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

pgpg wrote:
New Year resolution :party: : no changes to current setup (Defplay/AK47 blue/Dtecs OX) for a year. None.

Can't play a single match (tournament, league, club...) with anything else. Occasional hit with something else is fine, but no matches.

Should be interesting. Keep me honest - I know there are few folks from the club reading this ;).

Wow, that's a big statement to make. Good luck with fulfilling your pledge! ;)

Author:  pgpg [ 29 Dec 2018, 05:04 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

ziv wrote:
pgpg wrote:
New Year resolution :party: : no changes to current setup (Defplay/AK47 blue/Dtecs OX) for a year. None.

Can't play a single match (tournament, league, club...) with anything else. Occasional hit with something else is fine, but no matches.

Should be interesting. Keep me honest - I know there are few folks from the club reading this ;).

Wow, that's a big statement to make. Good luck with fulfilling your pledge! ;)


I know... But worth trying, I think. Should change focus somewhat.

Author:  notfound123 [ 29 Dec 2018, 14:27 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

pgpg wrote:
New Year resolution :party: : no changes to current setup (Defplay/AK47 blue/Dtecs OX) for a year. None.

Can't play a single match (tournament, league, club...) with anything else. Occasional hit with something else is fine, but no matches.

Should be interesting. Keep me honest - I know there are few folks from the club reading this ;).


I think this is definitely worth trying but maybe leave yourself some wiggle room. Looking back at myself I see that I end up making incremental equipment changes every 6 months. First it was moving to slower pips, then the blade, and most recently my inverted rubber. I don't really do it intentionally but I sort of observe how I feel over weeks and months, analyze it all, and then make a small adjustment.

Good luck with your NY resolution.. и с наступающим!

Author:  pgpg [ 30 Dec 2018, 01:56 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

notfound123 wrote:
pgpg wrote:
New Year resolution :party: : no changes to current setup (Defplay/AK47 blue/Dtecs OX) for a year. None.

Can't play a single match (tournament, league, club...) with anything else. Occasional hit with something else is fine, but no matches.

Should be interesting. Keep me honest - I know there are few folks from the club reading this ;).


I think this is definitely worth trying but maybe leave yourself some wiggle room. Looking back at myself I see that I end up making incremental equipment changes every 6 months. First it was moving to slower pips, then the blade, and most recently my inverted rubber. I don't really do it intentionally but I sort of observe how I feel over weeks and months, analyze it all, and then make a small adjustment.

Good luck with your NY resolution.. и с наступающим!


That was a very specific challenge posed on another (non-English :P ) TT forum, and they did not bother with wiggle room.

For the record, last year I used ~4 setups in tournament competition, more or less equally. In chronological order:

BTY Defense/Rasant Beat/Cloud & Fog III OX
Sword 309/T05(fx)/Dornenglanz OX
Dr. N Barricade/AK47/Air Upupup 0.6
Defplay/Ak47/Dtecs OX

So, yes, equipment theme is the same, and so is play style, but more or less quarterly changes.

Edit: OK, there is *some* wiggle room. You can try other stuff, just not for long and not in matches. I also will have a spare setup that has ST handle Defplay and reverse rubber colors (club did not have black Dtecs in stock).

Author:  Der_Echte [ 04 Jan 2019, 01:21 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

No one will be able to change the Rambo instincts of a longtime Equipment Junkie. It is what they are. No use fighting it, they just learn to live with it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Author:  pgpg [ 04 Jan 2019, 03:12 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

Der_Echte wrote:
No one will be able to change the Rambo instincts of a longtime Equipment Junkie. It is what they are. No use fighting it, they just learn to live with it.



I think of myself more as an 'Equipment Explorer' 8) - it was useful to get first hand experience with a decent range of blades and rubbers, both LP and inverted. Helped to figure out stuff I don't really appreciate: heavy setups, grippy LPs with sponge, slow defensive rubbers with thin sponge etc.

I now find that I'm thinking more about how to do things differently in the match and less about which combo to audition next :devil: . You never know, perhaps structured practice and multiball is next.

Author:  pgpg [ 05 Jan 2019, 23:54 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

I keep re-discovering :?: simple things that work: won a match last night after being down 0:2 by switching to more aggressive pushes with LP. Don't know if that changed spin enough to trouble my opponent (most likely), or it also made them deeper and took away some reaction time, but turnaround was remarkable. Annoyingly, I 'discovered' it few months ago already...

Same with serve receive: just aiming chop returns of long serves that come to my BH towards opponent's FH side was enough to get few easy points. The moment opponent had to move a bit to their right in order to loop, suddenly he was missing.

Author:  pgpg [ 07 Jan 2019, 10:40 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

One thing I need to fix: dealing with heavy deep push to my FH. Losing very high % of these...

Another one: relaxing after a good shot and not expecting it to come back (they do, from better players...).

Author:  Japsican [ 07 Jan 2019, 14:24 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

pgpg wrote:
Another one: relaxing after a good shot and not expecting it to come back (they do, from better players...).

This! My worst habit!

Author:  pgpg [ 09 Jan 2019, 22:32 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

Last night's league: ended up with 2-3 record. 4 matches went to 5, and I lost 3 of them :(.

Noticed that my BH chop went AWOL, even when I was in reasonable position, it somehow became a jab/block with pretty much nothing on it. Close to the table blocks were not that dangerous either - they did mostly get on the table, but since there was not a lot of chop-blocking downward motion, not much backspin... May be it's hard to have both chop and chop-block in the arsenal.

Author:  pgpg [ 14 Jan 2019, 01:14 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

Came across this blog post: "How I finally broke 2000 and improved my rating by 200 points in 16 days" :P

https://www.trapezemobile.com/2019/01/1 ... n-16-days/

It's about chess, though... :rofl: I guess 2000 rating has special significance there as well (USATT ratings are ELO-based, so not a huge surprise that scales are similar).

There were some interesting nuggets in there, however, which I thought were applicable to TT as well:

You make more blunders than Grandmasters less because they recognize tactical patterns faster, but more because you put yourself in precarious positions. - improve shot selection, recovery, and footwork!

Sticking to a few openings is better than knowing a variety of openings. - master few serves and 3rd ball.

What worked for the blog post author in chess game improvement in general and might also be relevant for TT:

* Try harder to win every game
* Analyze your own games ;)

Author:  Beerzy [ 14 Jan 2019, 10:08 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

pgpg wrote:
Came across this blog post: "How I finally broke 2000 and improved my rating by 200 points in 16 days" :P

https://www.trapezemobile.com/2019/01/1 ... n-16-days/

It's about chess, though... :rofl: I guess 2000 rating has special significance there as well (USATT ratings are ELO-based, so not a huge surprise that scales are similar).

There were some interesting nuggets in there, however, which I thought were applicable to TT as well:

You make more blunders than Grandmasters less because they recognize tactical patterns faster, but more because you put yourself in precarious positions. - improve shot selection, recovery, and footwork!

Sticking to a few openings is better than knowing a variety of openings. - master few serves and 3rd ball.

What worked for the blog post author in chess game improvement in general and might also be applicable for TT:

* Try harder to win every game
* Analyze your own games ;)


If I ever get out your way pgpg we'll have to play some chess. ;)

Author:  pgpg [ 14 Jan 2019, 10:15 ]
Post subject:  Re: Zen of chopping

Beerzy wrote:
...
If I ever get out your way pgpg we'll have to play some chess. ;)


Heh, I'm actually horrible at chess - gave up on them may be 30+ years ago after computer beat me quite badly, and pretty sure it will be only worse now. I'll stick to TT, I guess :P

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