OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Saturday has come and gone, and I do believe it was a very good evening - in terms of enjoyment and exercise, if not results.

Equipment and Style:

Perhaps one of the first things to be noticed is, is I flipped my grip back to a penhold - but I didn't flip my style back to the hyper aggressive hitting that had been how I would use it in the past. I'd been toying with this idea for a bit, ever since the first time I stumbled across David Kang videos here on the forum, and I'm glad that I tried it.

It's certainly not conventional, and I understand that there are probably some hardships that come from this that wouldn't be present otherwise, but I'm still currently of the mind to continue with this for a bit until I can better feel out how those limitations actually effect me.

The forehand for me is much more 'natural' at this point, though early in the night my stroke was a mess, and while I can see that chopping on the backhand requires more time and isn't so nice a stroke as the shakehand - it's basically just trading one wing for the other. I'll get into how some of that effected me through the night in the video breakdown below.

Currently I'm still rolling the Alligator Combi, and I might continue to do some for some time, but longer term a switch to a penhold blade again is probably in order. I am quite fond of my PG8 but I do think it might be a bit fast for what I'm trying to do here. I've heard so many good things about Appelgren Allplay on this forum, and I notice that I can get it in a penhold style, so I'm heavily leaning going that route (if I go for this play-style.) The other big change is I don't think there's anything to gain from keeping shortpips on that RPB with this, and there should be plenty to gain from inverted both in the service game, and in the ability to work on the twiddle and mid-distance game. (Not to mention resting the fingers against pips is a quick recipe for sore fingers.)

Overview:

Throughout the doubles I never really got my feet under me, it was a short warm-up and I hadn't quite figured out what kind of positioning I needed to make myself a good team-ate. Eventually I broke out of my habit of sliding to the right and focusing on backhands, and then my play improved, but I also didn't spend much time working on doubles serves this week, so I wasn't able to set anything up in that manner either. Those are the two biggest trends, game by game there are some other things that crop up, and I'll address those in the video section.

The singles were very interesting, all of my video is matches against the same person, as usual. I did, however, play two other matches for a total of six on the night. Late in the videos you'll see me make some very real changes to what I'm doing with my free arm, and I think that body balance is going to be a key focus in my next week of practice. I don't think the arm solution I used is the best, but it definitely helped. It's very easy to become lazy with that awkward backhand chopping motion, but I also feel like it 'can' be a good shot if done well. I will say that it seems a lot of them turned into more of a push on plenty of points, and it's not something that I can do quickly yet, but I'm not yet convinced that it's not possible to do consistently.

It was fun too! Which continues to be important to me. Shoulder isn't as sore today as I expected either!

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I highly advise not listening to the audio, my phone has something broken internally so there's an incredibly annoying buzzing to all of these videos. (Phone replacement in transit, should be fixed by Tuesday.)

Doubles:



First match of the night, and in all the worst match of the night as well. Neither I or my partner were able to put anything together in this match. Quick and brutal losses don't usually have as many key points to hone in on, as basically 'play better' is the biggest key. I do feel that my strokes weren't nearly flat enough in this game, its almost like I completely forgot about using the sponge. The positioning and movement problems mentioned above show up here as well, and I just generally didn't feel focused. Hips often coming up too high.

I need to find a better way of getting into the first game of the day/night. Once I get my body moving I usually move much better and with far less straight-legged movement. Maybe I should push myself harder in warm-up to get my body thinking about scrambling around. Maybe jogging to wake up the legs? I'm unsure.




We had a strong start in this one, and in many ways I feel like we could have won it. A majority of the worst errors came off of me leaving shots that were easily killed back to my partner. I also struggles with my returns and still hadn't fixed my swing plan at this point.

On the flip side our opponents were able to hit into my partner a number of times, which is just something that's going to happen in a match like this.

Mostly satisfied with my toss height and focus, and I think I moved in and out of the table well. One thing that I did in this match, and most of the night, is leave balls high after moving in for that short push. It's not enough to get to that ball, I still have to use my wrist to get good action on the ball and not get my partner blasted as a result of being content just to hit the table.




This was a challenging matchup, with one person whom can seemingly hit a powerloop out of nowhere, and the other a very flat hitter. Looking at this match, there are many similarities to the last. I think I ended up flat footed too often. I think that stems from being content to watch and react, but ended up on your heels is never a good thing.

I took a number of chances, and missed the table with strong frequency. Lots of poor footwork moving around backhands to attempt forehand hitting.

I don't see anything different enough from the previous two doubles to really need to say anything further on this match. Maybe future viewings will reveal something I'm not seeing now.


Singles:



I worked on a serve for two or three days this week, and tonight I tried it. It was extremely effective! So I used it to storm my way through game one. In hindsight, I should have mixed my serves better instead of letting him learn the serve by using it so many times right away.

Once we changed sides, the fact that I'm a bit of a headcase started to show. The table is a bit skewed, as was the net, because we have a bent bolt (we hope, because that's easier to fix than a number of other things.) Looking back at it, I should have taken it on myself to adjust, instead of blaming the table and getting frustrated. My immaturity as a player is something I'll have to work on.

After the first game I wasn't really in the others. I moved well enough, but I couldn't put it all together.





Match 2! I attempted to make some adjustments and mix in different serves, but I still wasn't able to keep any momentum going. When I could get him to be aggressive early I was able to do well in the point, but mostly I just get run around left and right and his consistency was better than mine.

After this match I watched the video while waiting to play again, and this is where I noticed that my tosses were starting to drop and that my left arm was just... all over the place. I would use this information to make adjustments for the final two matches.




Right off the bat, my choice to focus strongly on where my free arm was seemed like a good choice. I was able to capitalize on hitting opportunities, and keep my weight forward to keep my chops and pushes lower. Still some oddness in where that arm went at times, but I felt like it was a move in the right direction.

The tossing was much better as I was thinking about it, but my service wasn't quite as strong as a result. That'll continue to be a work in progress. Finding a good balance and figuring out the best timing to attack, and stop attacking, will be crucial.




In this match I tried to continue working on the points from the previous game, but at this point I realized my night was basically over. I no longer did a good job resetting after hits, my legs felt mostly like led, and it became a case of flail ball. I moved well enough in spurts, but I didn't have enough to play the way I wanted, and I couldn't think of a good way to adjust to tired legs.

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Final Thoughts:

I need to be careful about not hurting my groin with the amount that I'm playing recently. I'm fairly certain that table tennis wasn't what caused the initial hernia, but I do know that the scar tissue is usually very angry after a long session such as this. I had to work pretty hard to get back to being able to drop into the squat position with and without weight, and I'm fully a year removed, but it's not something to make light of. I'll want to listen to my body, and not force anything. Especially next weekend.

I won't be playing today due to some family commitment, and that's for the best, but I should be playing against on Thursday, and then Saturday, in preparation for Sunday.

Feedback greatly appreciated!

Until then!

Hi,

Had a quick look through some of the videos. It definitely looks like your FH is much better with penhold and you move better in general compared to shakehand. I can't see a lot of difference with the BH chopping. Either way, you should pick a style and stick with it.

Generally it's easiest to stick with the style that you first got exposed to playing TT, penhold or shakehand. Muscle memory and such. I've tried to convert to SH and while I did pretty well in practice and doubles, I couldn't keep up with the speed in singles. Some say they required a few years to get back to their earlier levels after the switch.

It looks like most of your serves don't have much spin, more of a flat hit. This is something that penhold can get an advantage on pretty quickly if you practice.

I would also suggest developing some TPB/RPB for when it's not appropriate to chop. It seems just fishing/chopping with penhold BH has a lot of limitations.

Sounds good. PG8 is a good blade for your style.

Since you haven't done much TPB, probably best to practice RPB and use it for winners against semi highs. It also works against backspin and when you're not super close to the table.

I don't have much experience with defensive styles, just my thoughts: you can play an "all-around" penhold game, where chopping is used for variety to unsettle the opponent and keep them guessing. But due to the limited reach, it's tough to play defensively like SH. I can imagine a power loop going to your BH and chopping with either side of the paddle is awkward. You also shouldn't play far from the table in this "all-around" style.

Not sure what you have in mind but I would recommend double inverted.

On that last video - It's pretty common against young trained kids not being able to cope with odd styles. Especially against lobbers.

It's sort of, too much training and not enough playing.

I am new to your blog and I haven't been keeping up the whole time (have to go back and read). But your last couple of posts were very interesting. I enjoyed them quite a bit.

And...am I reading this correctly? You are a penhold chopper with ANTI??!! That is one seriously unique style. You would be the only one I know of. I know some penhold attacker/pushblockers with anti, but no choppers. Very cool!

I too started out as a JPen player, and switched to SH to chop. I can't play penhold worth a crap anymore. I do so for fun only. But it looks like playing PH is working out for you.

Keep up the good work.

It looks like you miss more than him when the shot is not very threatening. IMO you move better than most people. Not sure how you perceive it. Probably moving around a little too much sometimes and missing the timing. I tend to move less than I think I do, but I'm still hitting mainly FH when I play that style. You can probably become a good FH-dominant player if you choose to go that route.

Your FH is excellent against high balls. Against normal balls tho your stroke doesn't look like either a drive or a block, so it misses. Practicing this every time (preferably with multi-ball) to build muscle memory is probably the quickest way to up your play.

The BH chopping tends to just give him high balls that he can smash. I've noticed this in earlier videos too. I'm not sure if the way you chop with penhold pips or anti can result in strong spin or good depth - since he flats, there's no spin to reverse. I can be wrong here. Maybe someone else can chime in.

The TPB is not bad, it just looks a bit like a chop and the ball tends to pop up. You'll need to keep the blade angle closed. Watch some videos on that - the index finger needs to apply pressure while the thumb relaxes, opposite of a FH stroke. Also, it doesn't work well once the ball starts falling, because TPB is more of a passive stroke.

Your RPB looks fine. It goes into the net because of the anti. Happens to me too when I try it.

Good to hear about the inverted choice. Hopefully your attack can become more balanced on both wings.

Sorry about the truck. I think you're on the right track TT-wise though and know your own strengths/limitations well. Keep up the good work.

One thing I didn't realize was that since we're using anti or LP now, the blade angle in TPB can't be closed like inverted. Probably around perpendicular or slightly facing up. It actually makes TPB more useful also, since you can block forward hard against backspin turning it to topspin, etc.