OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Today I spent the better part of 8 hours working in my barn to transition about a third of it to a table tennis practice space - and I'm extremely excited about it. In the process I learned that I'm very bad at leveling gravel, and the end product isn't particularly perfect as a result - though I hope in time some it will will settle better in use, and if not I can always revisit the leveling later, at the end of the day it's just time.

Tomorrow I'll be making a radical switch, maybe? With coaching comes.. the need to respect and listen to coaching and so tomorrow we'll be making a grip change to see how it goes and maybe start working in a new direction, I'll probably leave that update for afterwards so I can see how it ends before digging into it overly much.

Underlay and tiles went down fairly smooth, on a truly level surface I imagine there are very few things that install easier.

Table was the easiest to put together of any that I've been part of to date, so that was very nice.

And the 2055 seems like it's going to be a lot of fun as long as I don't let it become a means to drill a poor stroke!

Between the new club and coaching, the new space, and also finding someone whom I think I can practice with in said space I should be building up to a strong 2021 of table tennis. I guess that'll be my 2020 silver lining, when all is said.









(These images might not load in right, they didn't in preview, I could certainly use some help figuring out the best way to do photos!)

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

Well! Today went well enough I suppose, I had been nervous because I went out to hit with the robot for a bit prior to going today, and that didn't quite go well at all - maybe due to not having the heat set up yet, just felt dead on the inverted and deader than dead on the anti.

From here on out we'll be moving back to full-time Seemiller! I believe the direct comment was "Now you look like a player where before you just looked like a bunch of strokes" and while I don't entirely know what that means, I'll take it. Got some strong pointers on the backhand and forehand, and I have a base understanding of the three positions for the grip itself.

I'm running a SpinLord UltraSpin with Tanuki max in black, and Gigant II in 1.5 red now. I'm not super sure how I feel about the Gigant II, if I could have found somewhere that carried Tanuki and Ellen I likely would have kept using Ellen. I also bought a sheet of Gigant in 1.5, but when I was discussing which anti to use it was decided that may be just a bit -too- slow.

With the best possible coaching for the grip, and the ability to record reps with the robot, I hope to only experience a very temporary setback as I adjust, and then of course hopefully some continuity will help me keep growing still.

Depending on when my heating unit arrives I'll either get practice in this week, or pick up where I left up at club on Thursday. Only time will tell.

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

Ok! We're now safely one week into the change, which gave us a night of league play, an additional afternoon with coaching, and some four or five hours of practice on my own through that time.

In the early week I focused primarily on adjusting to the forehand stroke, and working on the grip transition with alternating drills. Nothing especially fancy, used video to identify if I thought I was doing things well, made small adjustments, and felt at least some improvement with each day. Still, as Thursday approached I wasn't feeling particularly comfortable but tried to remind myself that this was going to be for the long term good.

League night was... rough. There's no other way to describe it, as I adjust to the new timing I find myself rushing and it turned into a fairly ugly string of matches where I ended 0-5 in a round robin where I might have had a fighting chance at 5-0 playing as I had been. That was certainly demoralizing and at times throughout the night the temptation to change back had already cropped up - still I didn't do it and was able to identify a few things I was doing especially poorly and used them as my late week training focus.

Using that I finished out Friday and Saturday with more video form check and further simplified my drilling options to just try to build up the foundation more. I'm more comfortable with what I put on video in those last two days for sure, but it sure will take some time.

Today I got finer points to work on, elbow position and follow-through, as well as using my wrist less on the backhand, and patience and timing on the forehand. Opening up strongly against underspin is to be my main focus for the next week in any match play I maybe find myself in, and having that simple one rule mindset should help clean up my game in the short term. In my one practice match today I was able to win against someone whom I had handily lost to on Thursday - the stakes are slightly different at practice, but it was far less of me beating myself.

Sunday is also hardbat league now, and I've been doing that for the change of pace and absolute fun of it. I'm playing that pen as to not negatively impact the strokes I'm working on that are still quite new. Certainly hardbat is a fun place to chop and run around.

With the US Thanksgiving on Thursday there won't be any league, so it should just be me in the barn unless something super odd happens, and then another round of coaching and open play on Sunday. Given that, it'll probably be around two weeks before I feel the need to update this again. Which, as an aside, I still have no heating in the barn and the cold is quickly moving in - I might have to just bite the cost increase and cancel the order I placed that's been continuously delayed so I can find a local product in stock.

Overall it is still an exciting change to be making and I absolutely believe in it and look forward to what's to come~

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

Well, turns out I found something worth noting sooner after all~

First, the second to last stage of my barn setup is complete, as I now have a nice 80k BTU heater that can in theory heat the whole thing slowly, but should be quite capable of heating up the section for table tennis once the tarps are hung. I might additionally put in some ceiling insulation if it still proves difficult to maintain a reasonable temperature, but honestly if I can just get above something like 50 I should be able to at least get good practice in - give or take some cold sponge weirdness.

Second: The big focus of coaching on Sunday was the backhand and how to go for a smooth, full stroke, vs just using a small punch and block motion. One thing that came to light as a result was that I was shifting the blade just a touch too shallow down my thumb - I had been resting it on the knuckle vs the deeper grip I've moved to. This makes a world of difference on my ability to close the blade through the stroke using my index finger. I'm still struggling at times to start with an open enough blade angle at times, and I'm still reaching for balls rather than letting them come into me - both of which I tried to make focal points today when I had some time to practice.

Today I maybe only hit for around 30 minutes, but I can feel my consistency getting better on both wings, and I can physically see evidence of it as well. I'm keeping enough balls back on the table now that I can comfortably keep the robot running for 10+ minutes, which is an amazing step up from a week or so back where it all felt so foreign that I would shank every other ball.

I'm back on track with fitness as well, I trawled the forum here for good recommendations on sport specific strength, but have opted to keep with my full body plan, though I have shifted my agility style work to using the table and doing different footwork drills I've seen. I'm trying to keep to a pretty aggressive schedule in terms of fitness and table time. My rough estimate, if I got to club twice a week, and also keep to my general fitness, is that I'll have anywhere from 16-19 hours a week into it all. I think maybe 8 hours of that would be table time... a decent amount of it is dead time waiting on matches and the like on the club days.

Another thing of note is that I finally wore all the way through the ASICS Split Second that I've been using for a few years. I had the option to just order the newer model of the same shoe, but instead decided to head out to the local sporting goods store and try some things on. This has me moving into the ASICS Matflex 6, and I'm pretty excited for it. I thought the old shoe was nice, but since I had gotten it second hand it was already fairly worn down - though it wasn't until I experience the new shoe bliss that I realized just how different that little bit of padding could be!

The week ahead has my old training partner coming up to help me finish out the tarps, so I should get a few extra days of live ball play in addition to my normal club and robot time - fairly excited for that, especially as having two people playing in the barn will let me see if I designed the space large enough. Fingers crossed!

I'm gonna continue to hold off on video until the one month mark of the transition, that feels like enough time to maybe be at a point where there's more to see? Maybe it's pointless to wait, unsure.

Oh! And I've placed my first Gambler order after reading about the rubbers here, having them recommended to me by a club member, and just overall finding that it looks like it could be a really good value. They don't have an anti, so I've opted for their GXL with .6 white sponge and a 2.1 Burst on that new Oh-toro sponge. I'm not 100% sure that'll work as an anti alternative, but I do know at least one other local Seemiller player using long pips, so it's not unheard of. Oh, it's also a combination blade, their new Balsa Knight. It's supposed to be OFF/ALL which feels like a huge difference. The Alligator Combi that I love so much is only what.. ALL+/ALL- ? Exciting either way. Someday if I can be consistent enough and good enough, it might be interesting to try a bunch of the Gambler rubbers and review them, as I think I read that's kind of an info void - especially given they seem to have just overhauled their lines.

Though I'm going to absolutely stick with Seemiller for at least the short and medium term, basically unless coach says to give it up, I don't think I'll ever shake the EJ in me now. Just slowly and surely collecting a bunch of blades and rubbers, and now curiosity itself kills me. I don't really think I can find a rubber based competitive advantage, I just like trying things.

Man, this turned rambly and long - oh well!

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

Alright! One month into the change:

In league matches in that time I am 8-7, which at face value looks respectable enough, but comes with a caveat that I've not yet had a victory in a truly competitive match. The nature of being low on the round robin means I get paired with true beginners from time to time, and no grip change could cause me to lose those matches. I'd say of my eight losses, the first six were complete blow outs in week one of the change, the next two were fairly quality losses in terms of my ability to play the match, try to work my own game, and getting meaningful repetition out of it.

In this month I've had five training sessions, and in the first two weeks I definitely was getting the same feedback, more or less. From there I think I've made some steady progress on getting a new tip each time, working on a new point of emphasis, and showing continued growth. I can especially feel this in the way my counter-drives feel off of both wings. The backhand I still have a tendency to take too early and that's causing a lack of top spin and creating more of a swipe than a stroke - but it's still steady improvement.

In terms of Gambler and their products - I like them! I got the Burst and the GLX, and I might switch to the GLX over anti moving forward. Soon I'll have Mech-tek and Big Gun to try, also in 2.1. I'm hoping to find that the Mech-tek plays similarly to the Tanuki I use, as I don't love the throw on the Burst, I do enjoy the tack - which is why I'm thinking maybe the Big Gun could also be neat. It's a company I want to support, so I will surely keep trying things they have. (I have a GSX blade coming tomorrow, in fact, which I won't really get to use, but wanted to see how that short pip felt.) If I like the GLX and I like either Big Gun or Mech-tek, I'll get getting their Fire Dragon Touch blade to put them on. The big issue I ran into with the Balsa Knight was the thickness is just too much and it becomes unwieldy with the Seemiller grip shifts - the Touch is a similar thickness and weight to the UltraSpin I use now. Time will tell.

This is probably where I come clean about my fanatic want to have my blades and rubbers match brand. It's a really peculiar thing, but it absolute drives me. I feel much happier when it all matches, so that's another big reason to go through the process.

Hardbat is going better each week, still using pen for that. It gives me my pip fix in a sense. I think my lifetime record is like 2-9? Something around there. Certainly not going to focus overly much on it, just a nice way to end out the Sunday session.

Since coach hasn't told me to give up on it, I believe it remains full steam ahead on the Seemiller, and I'm hoping to be back to competitive matches in that 1100-1300 club rating range by the end of the year. In part that will come down to how many league nights we're able to fit in with the holidays, and how many I'm actually available for as well.

Ah, a last note for when I look back on this: My feet have been lazy, it's not a fitness issue, it's a mental issue - I'm going to try doing more footwork drills to make the movement feel more natural and see if that helps me stay engaged better. Hopefully it helps!

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

Alrighty! Bring on 2021!

While there is ample evidence to suggest that 2021 is still going to be weird for a bit, I can at least say with confidence that my TT year is off to the best possible start.

Last Sunday I was very happy with practice and coaching time, not exactly a light bulb kind of day but more or the pieces of the puzzle clicking just a bit. As I get more and more repetitions with this forehand I start to have faith in it more, which in turn has me hunting for forehand chances and moving much more naturally that I had been. I also really feel like I'm gaining stability on the backhand side, the timing has improved and I'm getting more true topspin and less hookspin. The newest focal point will be improving the timing and severity of my push on both wings, which is absolutely something that isn't consistent right now.

Coming off of Sunday I was really looking forward to today, even more so considering some of my takeaways from the prior week. Unfortunately, but also fortunately, we had enough players for three groups today, which will almost always slide me firmly into group three, and almost always coincides with having at most one or two meaningful matches. This was the case, as out of my four matches, only one was 'in doubt' - usually I'm not mentally strong enough to come away from playing learning games with new players and settle into the real match mood. Today I was able to overcome that, and came away with my first meaningful win since switching grips. It was a tightly contested 3-2 win, but finally getting one is like a huge weight off my shoulders.

Unfortunately I'll be missing this coming Sunday with some familial obligation, but it sounds like the club is ramping up to three days a week starting next week. The idea is to focus on the junior program on the additional day, but as that isn't quite up and running yet it will instead be open play for a time. I will certainly at least scope it out the first few weeks, best case scenario I get good additional live reps, worst case scenario I can still help with things around the club. It's good to be involved, especially as I'm hopefully joining the BOD soon.

Video is for sure coming soon, for my own sake mostly. The delay was worthwhile because I no longer feel shame on tape review, ahahaha.

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

It's been a while, again!

I think we're roughly at 3.5 months since I switched, and I feel like I can safely say I'm at least caught up to myself. Maybe a month or two behind where I wanted to be, but that's ok - my expectations might not have been all that realistic anyway.

I finally took some video! Below will be matches from 2/25 and then below that I'll write my own key takeaways. There's certainly still a long long way to go!









Key Takeaways:

* Be more aware of backswing lines
* Pushes and service return still ugly
* Too. Much. Anti.
* Lazy vertical blocking

That's of course the condensed version, my own notes have about five or six times that in short quips, but picking a few things to focus on always seems to make more sense to me (since I know the whole game needs work)

Another note, my attitude in match 3 was pretty horrible and that's no good. I came into it frustrated because there was a sizable delay before that match started and while he's improving, his inability to counterhit well for warmup got to me. That's unfair of me and I regret it. Last week I got super frustrated from trying too hard and over-emphasizing winning, so I really wanted to come into this week loose and carefree. I'll have to apologize I think.

Anyway, gonna try to get some practice video on Sunday as well to see if I look any better in a training setting. I definitely feel like a head case and like I never quite play as well when the points are real, ahaha.

Until then!

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

Alright! I was able to get a decent portion, though by no means all, of Sunday's mid afternoon practice.

The day started a bit slow, I helped a newer player work on stroke fundamentals (to the best of my ability) and then showed him how to serve something other than just weak topspin. Following that I got some help to work on attacking medium high, short balls. That was one of my points of emphasis after all! I also played an 'off grip' match with a club mate and won the battle of the penhold - which I should, because I played it for so long and that gives me the edge, ahaha.

After all of that, we get into the video below.

Useful time stamps, for those so inclined:

Forehands: 0:00
Blocks: 1:55
Random Counters: 3:42
Pushes: 7:15
Push to Loop: 9:52
Loop off Block: 14:34
Forehands: 17:32
Practice Match: 21:28
Loop off Chop: 30:35



For the first six sections I'm working with coach, and then following that is another member of the club with a club rating of 1796.

I noticed again that even in practice I'm not taking great backswing lines. That's a pretty big issue in my opinion, because if I can't even take the time and get the swing right when practicing I certainly can't expect to make the adjustment on the fly during a point. I'll try to really work through this in the coming week, maybe mostly via robot? I never know if the robot is going to help but I think this type of muscle memory work might be well suited for the type of consistent ball feed you get from a robot? Unsure.

Right now I'm at the club four days a week, which has been really nice for just not losing the feel of the ball, though two of those days I'm actually there to help work with our juniors so I don't necessarily work on things those days~

Anyway, I suppose that's all for today, I'll try to get more matchplay vide come Thursday!

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

Took a bit to get to video review this week, but at last we've got some things to focus on for the coming week, which I guess we're already a bit into~

I played five matches out of a six match slate last Thursday, one of the people in our group had to leave early so I didn't get to play that match. Of the five I played, I got video on four, and much of what I had been working on, I still should be. Go figure!

Below will be the videos, my thoughts on the match, and my points of emphasis.



This is a rematch from last week and I fared much better this time. It's our third overall time playing and after last weeks video review I came in with what felt like a pretty solid gameplan that let me quickly go up 2-0.. before eventually falling 2-3. I was also up 7-3 in the 5th, so a decent chunk of this loss has got to fall squarely on my mental weakness. There are errors thorughout, as is normal in my matches, but a tentativeness crept into my game as I was trying to win. Coach says playing to win will almost always lead to a loss, definitely something I should work on.

* Points of emphasis *

short table forehands
backswing line
service footwork
block technique



This matchup is interesting, on paper and in reality I don't usually struggle against this player, and yet I came into this and more or less didn't have the right energy level or focus, and so it took me five games to get the win. He's growing as a player every week as well, and I need to respect that and come at it with the same gusto I started my first match with. I think I had lingering tentativeness after losing the previous match as well.

* Points of emphasis *

focus and energy



This matchup is against someone I hit with in warmups fairly regularly, as close to a friend as anyone I know at the club. The points of emphasis from the first match apply to all matches, but in my video review of this one I decided I'd seen enough of some other issues to note them as well. Part of what I feel I did wrong in this matchup stems from previous losses and how I feel like I need to quickly start playing defense rather than using my own offense. I was happy to get one game in this matchup, and maybe that's part of the issue too, did I beat myself before the match started?

* Points of emphasis *

full swings
push wing choice
falling away too quickly



This is a matchup that I had been winning, then I'd been losing, and on Thursday I got another in the win column. It doesn't feel good though, as it was very ugly. In every match to this point I used the anti too much, but this one was particularly terrible. I like some of my game five adjustments in terms of service return and aggressiveness, but overall it's a fairly hollow 3-2 win.

* Points of emphasis *

use of antispin
play for improvement over wins
high backhands

--------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday was open play/drills and I didn't actually take any video, but I did work on my pushes more and also worked at resetting to neutral better between swings. An issue I have is that I tend to like to stay in position two and favor looking for the backhand, and this makes the finger work and timing on my forehand poor. Coach stressed really looking forehand first at all times. I worry I can't transition to the backhand fast enough if I don't cheat like I have been, but the reality is it will be better in the long run if I work through it now and force my fingers to move faster. Practice and repetition will of course be key.

I also worked on service receiving and my own service patterns. Nothing too much more to add in terms of what Sunday was. I practiced hard, moved around more than a normal Sunday practice if my Garmin can be trusted about such things.

Tonight I have a private lesson here at my home, and I'm really looking forward to seeing if spending some time really focusing in on my own game in a different setting will be of great value. If so I might do every other Monday night in the same manner, or very close to. I believe I'll take video tonight as well, so maybe there will be a second post incoming sooner rather than later.

This is day two of five straight days of table tennis for me, which is pretty cool. Sunday was open, Monday is a lesson, Tuesday/Wednesday I help train the juniors, and then Thursday will be league. Starting next month we're adding another juniors day on Saturday as well, and possibly looking to start up a team based Saturday league for adults. Busy busy!

(I am forever grateful my wife allows me to be so invested in TT)

Anyway! Maybe another update tonight, and if not then sometime after Thursday!~

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

I somewhat feel like I've hit a wall, and not the kind I was expecting.

In that last month or two I've really transformed my life to where table tennis is actually a very key cog in my week to week. I show up to play myself two or three days a week, I help train juniors two days a week, with an additional two on the horizon, and when I'm not physically at a table a solid chunk of my day can still end up going to BOD tasks. That's all fantastic, honestly, and I couldn't ask for a better situation in terms of ability to grow and play.

At the same time, it's created a new kind of stress that I hadn't thought enough about and the combination of factors has led to some truly poor outings for me from the perspective of mental wellness. With coach I've had conversations about where my ceiling might be, and how that ceiling is likely higher if I continue working on playing the Seemiller style, but it feels like an extra spot of stress that I'm just not sure I need.

How likely am I to hit 'any' equipment based ceiling anyway? In some ways time is on my side, but I'm also not young anymore. When I play Seemiller there's so much more that's still active thought, and it's easier to feel like I'm failing myself, my coaching, and my time investment when it doesn't go well. When I play any other way, I still lose just as much, but the mental beating from within just isn't as bad. Shouldn't that factor in?

I also have to admit that I absolutely idolize the pips pen playstyle, and have since I started playing the game. Even if it isn't an optimal way to play, I can't discount the fact that I strongly -want- to play that way. It weighs heavily on me at times.

So yeah, I'm trying to figure out where the line between 'playing for fun' and 'playing to get better' might be, and if they have to be mutually exclusive in the way they've felt the last month or so. I think at the least I'll try to play with my pen setup the next week or so while I wait on some of the additional stressors in my personal life to relax.

Just a frustrating thing to have happening, and to be hung up on I guess.

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

Maybe this is when I really start keeping track of this again!

I had to look back and see when I last posted, and reading it I can vividly remember that time period.

I was certainly listless for a while there, I flipped back to using pen, alternating between jpen and cpen seemingly by the day, going back to short pips on the forehand, and just generally not thinking too much about improvement.

That period likely lasted around a month and a half, and as I got into early May I decided to switch to a shakehand paddle and try some OX pips for the first time.

Upon doing so I realized quickly that I vastly preferred the feel of this to the feel of any sponged long or medium pip I had tried to that point, and I was able to make a number of personal best performances at the club in short order. This encouraged me to carry the style into my next tournament where I entered the U900, U1000, U1100, U1200, U1300, and U1450. I certainly had high expectations for myself in the lower two events, hoped to play well in the mid events, and had basically no expectations in the U1300/U1450 - but thought it could be a neat experience.

Well, by a mix of draws, long layoffs, luck, maybe even some of my own ability, I won the U900, U1200, and U1300 while taking second in the U1000 and U1100. I didn't make it out of the U1450 RR, but was able to experience some really good matches that helped shape what I wanted to work on moving forward.

I would be amiss if I didn't note that in the U1200 RR, the U1000 and U1100 final I lost to the exact same person. I was fortunate in the U1200 that I performed better against players he struggled with. He had all the answers to how I was playing, and that was a very important humbling I took away as well.

I have continued with this same Marder IV/Blitzschlag setup in the months since, working to move from playing shakehand to a Shake/Seemiller hybrid to help myself have more options without the need to twiddle - I don't really enjoy the twiddle and I have maybe the worst shakehand backhand you could dream - and that's led to more quality wins in the club setting.

With our junior program ramping up I had less opportunity to get good feedback from coach, though in the recent weeks that has flipped a bit and I'm pretty grateful - but despite this I feel the transition and growth are coming along nicely. In the club setting I was able to score a major night of upsets, which catapulted my rating into the 1500s and gets me matches on Table 2 at worst, and Table 1 at best depending on turnout. While this is certainly leading to more club losses, the experience is pretty darn valuable!

By my math we're just over three weeks out from the next major tournament that I'll be playing. I'm entered in the U1200, U1350, U1500, U1600, U1625, U1750, and I'll also be doing some D3200 with my long time training partner from my previous club. I've actually been pulling double duty on Saturday every other week to travel to my old club and play doubles there after our afternoon session here ends. It turns into a day of about seven hours of table tennis and seven hours of driving. Tough, but hopefully worthwhile!

Not sure what to expect of the coming tournament, other than to have a good time. If I play well and lose I'll be content, but I really hope I don't just run into a rash of bad form. It's a paranoia that always lingers because of how different tournament atmosphere can be.

Maybe in the coming weeks I'll get some video from league play for the fun of it?

The other interesting thing I can talk about here is that I've transitioned fully to minimalist shoes in my life, including for TT, and this has actually proven to be a really nice change within TT. I feel like I'm getting the low to the ground feeling of the wrestling boot, with the side durability I seek in a show meant for hard lateral court movement. I couldn't be happier with it, even though the transition was a bit challenging at first. I can't really say I'd full out recommend the switch to anyone else who wasn't already interested, but for me it was the right place where shoe styles met for a good TT experience.

Anyway, if I don't fall off the wagon once more, I'll post soon, and if not I'll probably at least remember post tournament! We shall see!

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

And thus the 15th Si & Patty Wasserman is in the books!

What a truly interesting weekend it was, due to the nature of my role with the club I think this is the most time I spent at a tournament where I wasn't actively playing the whole time - and as I result I got to watch quite a bit more excellent table tennis than normal.

I didn't get any video of myself, but the reason is pretty good I think, seeing as we used my recording setup to do the live feed of the top tables. That went.. ok? I think we'll do even better moving forward now that we have some experience with the setup.

My biggest takeaway from this weekend is that I've grown more mature and better at dealing with adversity. I was sickly for the entire weekend (with enough faith that it wasn't contagious, else I would have withdrawn from playing - though I'm not sure I could have withdrawn from my background work) and despite this I kept a positive outlook, and just really enjoyed the experience.

I'm not feeling as caught up on results, maybe as a result of lessening my expectations automatically in response to knowing I couldn't give 100%?

Within that though, I still managed to win the U1200, and U1350 - which I really did expect to win, played well in the U1500 including maybe my favorite match ever (even in a loss!) and still picked up quality wins and losses in the U1600, U1625, and U1750.

Ah, it is also worth noting that my best friend and I are still far from ready for tournament doubles, but I'm glad that we at least tried it!

Elsewise, new colors of rubbers are alive and well, I got to see some of the new blues and violets in person, but sadly nothing in the pink and green.

In a similar vein, I'm almost tempted to get some grass just because I want the color - the next few blue pips coming from SpinLord don't seem like they'll suit me, though I will probably try some blue Ibris just because.

I think that's all I have for now, we'll be moving locations for our weekly league this week and I think we'll begin live streaming that as well now that we know we're capable.

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

Another week has come and gone, or has it? I'm not truly sure when the table tennis week starts and ends the more I think about it. Our scheduled days are Thursday/Saturday/Sunday for adults, so do with that what you will.

The results from the tournament have come and gone, and I'm surprised in a pleasant way with the numeric outcome, though I do recognize it as mostly of little consequence.

This tournament will forever hold some sadness now, but for similar reasons will also be one I hope I don't forget. A bright young man I played against was the victim of senseless gun violence this week and has passed away. The state of the world at large doesn't leave me very optimistic, and table tennis as a refuge can't hold up in the face of something so close to home.

We streamed our league for the second time ever on Thursday, and it was our first night at the new location. There's room for improvement in the quality, but I think in time we'll be able to actually do something nice with it.

I played well enough, still slightly low energy as I'm not 100% after the illness, but I was satisfied more or less. Seeing video of myself for the first time in a while it does make it clear that there are many areas still in need of work.

In no particular order: Stamina and consistent energy, footwork discipline, arm level on backswing, recognizing backhand attack opportunities, push variation, and serve depth are what stand out the most. It's only been a year and maybe a month of working with coach, but I've come so far so quickly compared to every other year combined. It's almost maddening still to think of all the time I could have spent better.

I will very likely travel for one more tournament this year in order to support another club that always turns up for our tournaments.

Having said this, I'm considering this my small window to play around a bit with things as well. For the bulk of the last nine months I've used the exact same setup, which is great! Now though I want to mess with these new colored rubbers.

I considered trying grass in green, but ultimately decided that I would rather not mess with my pip and instead will be trying Rasantar R48 in green. I've got a blade, the same UltraSpin that I now I 3.5 copies of, ready and will be pairing it with my usual Blitzschlag. My expectation is that it'll be way too fast for me, but it should be fun in any case.

I should get to hit with that for the first time this coming Sunday, as it looks like I'll be missing Saturday play due to having something to attend with my wife.

Weird week overall, onto the next.

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598

I was going to offer some tips from some earlier videos on this page. Until I saw who is coaching you. I will keep my mouth shut, lol.

Enjoyed catching up on this page. Keep at it. Better yet enjoy it!

Saturday open play, just the one regular and myself and a bit of a late start. Still, we got to play a solid hour of games after a short 15 minute warm up or so.

There's plenty of reason for me to wonder if I would be better served with taking breaks every so often, as I can see myself visible lesson in energy and enthusiasm as the duration piles on. Yet, I also think maybe this way of doing it might help me deal in situations that are less than ideal? It's tough. In a perfect world I would just keep a nice constant effort throughout and this would all be moot.

I play this person regularly, probably about an hour a week just like this is the norm? There aren't many secrets left between us so to speak, I usually get the better of him early, and then he gets the better of me in the back half. This was true again today, though ultimately I still look to that first window of games as important because they're more 'match play' indicative, or at least I think so.

Was a bit chilly, maybe that's why I looked so utterly stiff in warmup, though honestly if I take even a day or two without playing it always kinda feels that way. Like a 'What is this thing in my hand again?' type thought.

Games start at about 15:10, and some of the big keys I noted even in the early run were:

Much too much vertical paddle blocking
Too much circular nonsense in backswing
Too much height on my serves
Too often stepping wrong footed to push
General lack of footwork following a smash

These probably stand out because they're all things that I know to look for anyway, and there's more, there's always more, aha.

As for the rubber: By my count this might actually be my 13th inverted rubber of my playing career.

While I had said above I wasn't overly concerned about inverted, I didn't realize I'm a super duper liar. I've been chasing the ideal on that side as well, I just wasn't fully aware of it. I know the characteristics I'm looking for now. Usually I go for the newer tacky top euro sponge type hybrids, but I also care a bunch about not being low throw for ease on the backhand side. Using one rubber on both wings somewhat means a compromise in tears of what I'm looking for, I guess.

Having said that, what I want is good feel in service, good spin in the push game, stability on the backhand with easy small topspin, and good speed for forehand finishing.

The R48 seems like it could be a really good rubber for my game, all in all. I'll need to play with it more, but compared to the Marder IV I could certainly feel more finishing potential in my forehand, and I was very consistent in the push game. The warmup backhands felts amazing, I didn't feel like I had to fight nearly as hard to get a small topspin on each stroke, and seldom did I just launch one. The serves felt ok, but I did lose some touch because I wasn't ready for the speed. I think with more time this would fall into place ok. Blocks were surprisingly good, the extra speed wasn't too much for me to control, at least against this particular player, and I felt that the added speed even on a touch block helped me move my opponent around more easily - though they did get more long balls and more chances in that sense as well. One thing I didn't do particularly well with this rubber in this session was loop against underspin, that's usually a strength in my game, I think I couldn't control the safe roll loop I would usually do, and maybe didn't come at these with enough intent. They were few and far between.

To summarize:

Block/Counter; crisp, with good spiin
Top v Top; controlled, maybe good for someone who plays that style?
Top v Under; sailed more than normal
Push; crisp, harder to keep short
Serves; speedy, spinny, but with less touch and placement
Seemiller BH; stable, rewarding on controlled strokes

I believe I'll keep using this for at least the month, including I think the next tournament in December. My understanding is that you need to give these types of rubber time to see how quickly they change in characteristic, so maybe it'll be completely different in a few weeks!



Thanks for stopping in! I can kinda see why you might feel that way, but I will always appreciate more eyes and more thoughts - ESPECIALLY in the pip game. Coach doesn't love the pip game, so there's just not as much technical advice for that set of strokes~

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Blog: Thinking Octopus Thoughts
USATT Tournament: 1443 - USATT League - 1680 - Club: 1598