OOAK Table Tennis Forum

So I've been a member (not very active) of the ooak quite some time. (I have an account for two years but I've started reading this forum much earlier.
I finally decided to start a blog so I can track my progress/changes cause it's pretty hard when you don't have a coach.
This may be the first reason, but the second and even more valuable reason - I bought a camera and started filming more of my matches/training sessions with friends. So I think having a blog with a timeline, videos, my thoughts, someone else's thoughts, will be great for the future me
About me and my game:
I'm from Bulgaria but I've lived and studied in Russia and that's where I started playing TT. About 6-7 months with a coach in a group, after that with some training with friends, some training in a group again.. Everything accompanied by 2-3 tournaments a week. After some time only tournaments, experimenting with equipment (originally double inverted, 2-3 months with LP, finishing with SP on the BH side). So after that I came to Bulgaria (home, sweet home.. But no weekly tournaments and just 2-3 clubs in the city (not comparable to Moscow ) )). Here I started training with a coach individually (cause it's cheap) and after some time returned to LP just fot fun and to teach my clubmates how to play against long pips.. And so I stayed with the LP, it's been 5 years since then.
I play an allround game with a lot of twiddling cause I like using my BH for attack/counters/blocks/pushes. Sometimes I go into deep defence, sometimes I try to play near the table.. I twiddle a lot and I do it without even thinking about it sometimes, I've just gotten very used to it.
Main problems as I see them:
1. I'm too passive. I prefer some funny pushing with different spins, strange shots and all of this kind.. And this doesn't help at winning points most of the time.
2. My game plan is either too complicated or too simple. Now this is what I want to fix and this is what I'm working most of the time now. Having so many options (shots with the LP on BH/FH and shots with the inverted on both sides) because of my twiddling sometimes doesn't help. It's hard for me to decide in some matches what kind of play should I choose: should I use the pips more, should I receive with the inverted on the BH more, should I chop, should I block with the regular rubber or with the pips, etc., etc..
3. I'm slow
4. still slow
5. and still slow
...
n. I don't like the routine training (oops, I think it's a serious problem ))

So in this blog I'll try to post some of my videos, describe my feelings about them, maybe discuss with somebody (if somebody decides it's interesting) and try to improve.

Currently I'm using Joola Toni Hold White Spot with a Tibhar MX-S max and Galaxy Neptune 0.7. I don't like changing the equipment a lot and if I change something I stick with it for a month minimum even if I don't like it at first(this is a rule I decided to follow if I try something new).

I'm not training with a coach right now cause she can't provide what I need anymore (I'm speaking about my coach who was 5 years ago) - her elbow hurts if she plays against chop and she doesn't have enough strength. And there are no more coaches in our club.

As of now my friend and I started training with each other using multiball. Neither one of us had experience in fetching multiball so the training sessions are not of the best quality but I'm sure will get better at it. Here's a video of a part of one of the last years training sessions where my friend feeds me a two point multiball. I'm the guy in the red shirt. We haven't trained a lot after that because of the different holidays and I had some trips and he had some work.. But we'll start again in march (and that's also a reason why I'm starting the blog now).

Here's a full sparring session(it's cropped and the camera dyed after around an hour and a half cause I didn't take a powerbank with me) with my friend who's trying to be a modern defender. There's a lot of topspinning(it's pretty boring I think) here and after about the 25th minute we change ends and I start chopping. I'm the guy in the red shirt here too

And finally (for the first post) here's a video of a friendly match after about 2 hours of sparring so both of us were tired and not very concentrated on the game. But still some good shots and .. well a match video for future comparison (yep - I'm in the red shirt)


I think this is it for now. I'll try to update my blog every at least every week. I welcome everyone who wants to comment/ask/critique( in any kind, about my English too - if something is hard to understand it will be better to point it out to me, cause, obviously, English is not my first (or second) language).

_________________
My ooak blog.

Thank you for starting your blog (from a fellow blogger, but without a camera).



1. This is not being passive. Just straight pushing to get the ball back in play without a strategy is being passive.
2. Having options is good. Being able to select the best option is hard. Often the first game in a match can be treated sacrificially. Try a bit of everything - see what comes back past you and what sets you up and what doesn't come back.
3. Multiball with the right attitude
4. Footwork drills
5. Fitness, weightloss , sprint training
...
n. I don't like routine training either. Just do it.

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

Thanks for the thanks and for your thoughts
I'm not sure about the passive thing. I'll try to put it this way. Let's say I play a good heavy underspin serve to my opponent's FH, i know my opponent and I'm sure that he won't be able to receive it too short but instead of getting ready to attack I prefer to try to take the ball as early as I can with the inverted and push it with some side/side-top to some part of the opponent's table. In some matches this can be good, but when the opponent is a little better(or way better) then this funky push is like an invitation to win the point or to have a very serious third ball attack. And I've experienced this quite a bit and I've also compared that in those cases(when the opponent is fast/strong enough) most of the times opening with a slow and spinny loop is much more preferable to the "funky pushing". I'm not saying I should stop doing that, I just think that I should get ready for the more complicated option that I have(cause for a loop you need to prepare more in terms of movement compared to a touch play) and then decide which option to choose.
But instead I, most of the time, go for the passive shot even before doing it. This takes the pressure from the opponent and that's not good.. And that's what I meant I'm too passive - I'm skipping a lot of opportunities.
About all the other points - you're totally right there.. It's just that, well I'm sure you know, sometimes you want to enjoy the game more after a hard work day, sometimes you don't have the time or the partner doesn't.. That's why those things are not done on a regular basis. I can very much say that I don't have the ambition to start doing all those things, so I do some of them sometimes.
Pretty much another reason for starting the blog is to push myself a little harder cause I think I want to, but I'm not sure I want

_________________
My ooak blog.

You're pretty flippin' good at chopping m8, join the darkside and be a defender I'm just kidding, but I think it's important to know what you want your game to look like first. Do you know what kind of style you want? Or perhaps, is there a player out there that you want to emulate? Those were my starting points for playing TT, although I will admit they were slowing me down, because no mortal can play like Joo Sae Hyuk xD

_________________
Blade: Victas Koji Matsushita Offensive FL
FH: Victas VS > 401 2.0
BH: Victas Spectol S1 1.5

Rating: Recreational Player

Thanks for the kind words..
About the style - that's the most complicated question for me
As a result, as of now - I decided to adopt two styles: modern defense and an allround near the table style with a lot of twiddling and variation. Which style to use pretty much depends on what opponent am I facing. For now I see that if I play against a stronger and faster opponent - I have better results with defense and occasional twiddling/pushing rallies(cause I have more time). If I see that the opponent plays well when he has time against the chopped ball but makes errors when there's not enough time - I try to stay closer.
Joo is my first favorite player. He was my inspiration when I first started learning how to play when I was about 20 years old(I'm 28 by the way). And the second best guy for me is Samsonov. It's just brilliant watching any of them for me.

_________________
My ooak blog.

So a lot of things happened for the last 8 days..
Because I have some back issues I started practicing some yoga back-strengthening exercises. Two times a day for about 15 minutes each time. Nothing hard, not fast, most important is the breathing.. But as a result - a lot of my back muscles hurt and I can't really play well(for now). I feel that something's wrong with my strokes cause something's changing ( But I feel much better now after a whole day sitting in front of the monitor in comparison with before practising). The change is good, but it feels strange when I play. For now my FH is struggling - not enough power - some mismatch in the motion of the back and the hand, I even don't hit the ball at all sometimes when I'm sure that I should. But I just need to be patient cause I know that this is for my own good.
The second thing is that I found a very interesting chinese light novel(a typical wuxia) and I just can't stop reading it and it somehow influences me for now. I don't read a lot, but when I start - I fall into another dimension - the book dimension, and untill the book is finished - I'm somewhere there.
So, on Friday I went to the qualifications of the National Championship. This is my second time of participation. The last time I didn't win a match in the groups This time the championship was in a big arena which is used for the Bulgaria Open. I have little experience playing in such big venues and I always find myself either too far from the table and not reaching the ball cause it hasn't come to me or just loose it in the light when I try a high toss serve. All in all - very awkward for me.
So this time the group consisted of four players, I was seeded 4th, I knew only one boy cause he is playing in the same league with me (we'r the 4th league in Bulgaria (there are 6 overall), I have about 90% winning rate in the league but as a team we just can't progress to a better league for 3 years now).
So I lost to the first guy - A lefty. I have problems with playing lefties and he was much stronger and faster. So after the 1st set I decided to concentrate on a more quality return of serve so he wouldn't have a very strong 3rd ball attack. Ok, 3:0 for the guy although I was leading 8:4 in the 3rd
The second guy was obviously with better technique then me but, strangely, he played very poorly the first two sets - a lot of errors from my pushes, some strange mistakes.. But there was a moment when I was leading 8:2 in the second set and I became too careless and he started playing much better.. And it became 10:8 for him! But somehow I managed to take the game. So 2:0 lead but the opponent was starting to play much better. In the third I had the serve at 9:9 but couldn't capitalize and lost. He took the 4th 11:7 and the fifth 11:8. I was disappointed but I didn't play well at all. I just missed so much easy balls that I don't miss in our club (but the venue here was a lot bigger and it felt very strange to me, and, the back didn't help then too). The main disadvantage for me was the fact that I couldn't use high toss serves and those are my strongest serves. The light was too bright for me and after trying a couple of times I understood that after looking at the ball while it was in the air I just didn't see it well after it landed on the table. I think that's another problem of my little experience of playing in different places. So I lost 2:3.
After that the 3rd guy won over my second opponent 3:2 although he was leading 2:0. Just like me, but he won the decider.
After his win I needed to win over him 3:0 or 3:1 and then I would be able to proceed to the qualification round. I've played this boy before this year and won 3:1 but it wasn't easy. But I had the belief that I can do it
So I started strong and took the first set, then lost the second and took the third. But the I lost the 4th and.. another decider. I understood very well that I'm not playing well - a lot of missed attacks and a lot of bed serve receives. So it was 10:7 for him in the decider. In the 5th set I decided to stay in defensive mode(I almost don't chop from my FH side - I counter) and attack only when it was a 100% ball. Cause I made too much mistakes in the previous sets. 10:7 for him, his serve, I receive it to his BH but half long and low with the pips(chop, not a push). He tries to force a strong FH attack from the BH side but hits it into the net. So now there were my two serves. I knew he was weaker at the BH side and his BH receive was weaker two. So a short underspin serve to his BH, he pushes to my pips but I twiddle and make a long push to his BH and start to move to the left corner preparing a FH attack. I think this movement added some pressure to him and he forced an attack from his weaker BH side. But he made a mistake cause my push was fast but with almost no spin So 10:9 and a second serve for me. The same serve, the same situation but he pushes the next ball and I take the attack and win. 10:10. After that he has another match ball but after that I had about 4 match points on my serves and could capitalize only on the 4th. So a 3:2 win for me.
As a result in a group of 4 players three had 1 win and 2 loses. And all the wins between them where 3:2. So the judges calculated the points(in the sets) ratio between us and the boy that beat me continued cause he had the best win to lose points ratio.
I wasn't disappointed cause I didn't like how I played So this was my second experience in the National Championship. The first I had no wins, the second - one win - much better
After that on Sunday I played a local amateur tournament in my city and finished second. Didn't play well again but that as enough for the second place.
All in all I'm pretty happy cause I still feel very awkward with my back and my FH is struggling.
I had some very good rallies at the championship but didn't shoot the matches cause I felt very bad about my perception of the arena.
So for now the goals are - work on my back and get my chopping partner chop me some balls so I can feel my FH better

_________________
My ooak blog.

So last week we had another tournament in our club. It's on a monthly basis - it has a restriction so no players that are playing in the 1st and 2nd leagues of our country can not apply. I finished second. I'll post a match here - a quarterfinals match against a very interesting opponent. He's a veteran and plays with Dawei 388C-1 using traditional PH grip. Playing against him is not very easy cause there's not a lot of spin on the ball and if I play more defensive he just kills me on my pips side with occasional shots to my FH. I have a very negative tournament score against him (maybe 1 or 2 wins against 6-7 loses).
And because I knew all this I tried to play with a lot of variation. A lot of twiddling and using my regular rubber on my BH and some shots with the pips on the FH. After watching the video(and editing it) I understood that the tactics was right - cause even on easier balls he hesitated - and that means he felt too uncomfortable facing all those different spins and trajectories that came from my side of the table. Even though it may seem like nothing special but I was(and am) very happy about how I played (I'm in the red shirt )

After that I won the semifinal and lost in the final having a match ball in the 4th set. But I have a video of the final and I'll write about that when I watch it again and edit it..

_________________
My ooak blog.

Edited the final from the tournament from the previous post..
Ok, I can clearly see that after the 3rd set my concentration dropped by a level. A lot more easy mistakes, my serve receive started to fail a lot and some more FH mistakes. All in all - lack of concentration as I see it. Maybe if I had a coach in my corner he would take a timeout and open my eyes with the fact that my performance has dropped(maybe tired) and that I should adjust my game and try not to give so much easy points, but that's an if The opponent played safe with aggressive blocks and only long serves. If my topspin wasn't with good quality then I found myself in a difficult situation. So I needed good placement or high spin or high speed - meaning more risk when attacking, but that was the way to go, as I see it.
Still experimenting with the camera angle (how high should it be).. I'm the guy in red.

_________________
My ooak blog.

Just watched a second time the highlights of a recent match between Filus and Burov at the German Open 2018.
Burov played with such variation in his spin and placement that Filus was not comfortable during all the time in the match. Burov fed him a lot of no-spin balls to the BH with a lot of short balls to the forehand mixing it with verry spinny BH loops and some stronger FH loops.
All in all the tactics from Burov was really deadly for a pips player. Filus should be very delighted with this victory cause in terms of tactics he was on the loosing side as I see it. But in terms of execution he was a touch better.
I think this is an incredible match to watch for pips players cause it illustrates a lot of the weaknesses or problems that we have to somehow cover because of our equipment in modern era (can't say it was the same with the old ball, cause with the old ball executing Burov's tactics would be even harder).
Burov is currently ranked 200 ITTF and Filus is 19..
And while finding Burov's ranking on the ittf site I found out that when choosing the country there's not only Russian Federation but also Russian Empire Although there are no players representing it.

_________________
My ooak blog.

Yesterday played in our weekly tournament. It's a traditional tournament in our club with no prizes etc. It was created just for the sake of playing with friends without some rotations of the matches but with some organization.

So before that I played a couple of matches against stronger opponents and found out (again) that I'm playing much better against tougher opponents while defending. As I see it - my current style lacks.. style. When I play as a defender then even stronger opponents have problems. So, if my chances are higher like this.. Why not play defense?

So after these thoughts and after understanding the fact that my FH rubber(Evo MX-S) is 5 months old and is not in best shape I decided to change it with something slower and better for defense. Cause with the MX-S I can't chop well with the FH side. I either twiddle and chop with the pips, or loop/throw the ball with the regular rubber, or chop with it (but always not very sure if the chop will land). So, because of my rich history playing with chinese rubbers - the Friendship Battle 2 is on it's way from Germany

So, yesterday played in defensive mode. Ran a lot, chopped a lot, attacked not so much but enough to not let the opponent feel safe.
So when defending what where the key points yesterday for me. (many things may pretty obvious)
1. When receiving get some distance between me and the table so it'll be easier to receive long serves with the pips and easier for me to get ready to defend from a 3rd ball attack.
2. Placement and ball speed when pushing with the pips is very crucial(cause there's less spin on the ball).
3. Twiddle in pushing rallies but don't always push with only the regular rubber or with only the pips. Variation is key.
4. Pushes should vary: some with more spin, some with less spin, some with more speed and depth, some with less. On many occasions, when in pushing rally, I found it very useful to push short with the pips after some long pushes cause the opponent was not ready and often gave me a predictable ball after that.
5. When defending - be patient.
6. When attacking - be patient.
7. If the ball I want to attack is high - kill it with not a lot of spin. If it's not so high - make a low but very spinny topspin and be ready to continue the rally.
8. I prefer serving short or half-long so that the opponent won't attack. If he attacks some type of my serves - change the placement of this serve or think of a combination.

All in all I played really solid yesterday and won all my matches, felt good, but, I understand that all my opponents are my friends there so we know each others game very well so I had an advantage here(I played not comfortable for them but I already knew their styles).

So now I'm waiting for my new rubber, hoping to remember that great sensation when crushing the ball with a tacky rubber

_________________
My ooak blog.

So played a local tournament in a small arena today..
It was very humid and sometimes I felt like I was skating..
As a result - I fell very bad and broke(cracked) some little bone in the wrist
So no TT for me for now..

_________________
My ooak blog.

Them's the breaks. Rest up, don't try to come back too soon.

You can still do some footwork exercises on a reasonable floor. (much as you don't like it )

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

Now this is nice..

Nice music, nice footage, nice lyrics.

_________________
My ooak blog.

So I've been playing now with the 729 Battle 2 for some time(I feel totally fine, the wrist is good now).
A superb rubber. I haven't played with tacky rubber for quite some time(2-3 years now) and I've already forgotten how cool it was Also the Battle 2 is very dynamic(I expected it to be more dead).
So here's a game I lost to a young boy. He totally overcontrolled me
As I see it I was too passive and my chop placement was poor - his FH was very lethal(H3 Neo) but mostly from the FH corner so I should have chopped to his middle more I think. I would say that it's not easy for me to say what I really did wrong here, so I'll be vary happy for some help/thoughts.

_________________
My ooak blog.

Cannot seem to view embedded video.