OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Perfectly done shots by Ma Long!

I don't agree with him on this but I do find a lot of value in his advice. A little bit of background. He's a good player. He's also over 60 but still one of the best players at my club. Of the regular members, I'd say he's the strongest. I've never played with him before but last week he actually asked me for a game. I think it's because he likes my willingness to improve and for the last 5 years or so, I've consistently greeted everyone at the club as they entered and said bye. To every single person individually. I'm that type of guy haha. Also I'm slowly getting better. Anyway, we played a game and I got owned. I got like 2, 3 and 4 points I think.

This week he asked me if I'd like to warm up with him, and so we did some FH and BH warm ups. He identified a big problem in my game. And that's how I always "leap forward" into shots and "leap back out" which kills my consistency because I end up reaching for the ball too much and my recovery isn't fast enough to play against the top players because of this. He helped me improve my smash against lob, which was atrocious at best.

The best part of his advice and the practice I got was to not "leap into the shots". Get my feet into position so I can transfer my weight and use my waist rotation without jumping forward. When I did this, I could feel the smoothness of the shots. That's where I found value in his advice. But he still wants me to stop rotating my knees, which I don't think I will, but getting my legs into a better position will give the illusion that I'm not bending, which might be enough.

He also gave me advice on smashing lobs, having my arm higher so that my shoulder and arm create a straight, diagonal line up. And on contact, smacking the ball and finishing with my racket low. It felt nice when I got it like that. This is a really bad explanation haha sorry.



The context above But that said, he is a firm believer that the knee should not rotate. He literally pointed to them and I even asked about it. The whole hip shouldn't rotate. The only way I could turn my shoulders in a way that he was satisfied I was doing it right was to rotate the top part of my spine only.

I generally try to be very respectful to anyone who gives me advice. But a post NL made awhile back got me thinking more about what people really mean when they give advice. It was something about how people giving advice usually have a reason for what they're saying, even if it seems wrong or they're not able to explain what they really want to say.

Here are three points I played surprisingly well last week. I'm posting these because all three of them have something in common that I'd like to comment on. And it's not just that I hit winners haha. Something about each of those points caused me to hit these balls that I'm rarely ever able to hit in matches. What do you guys see?

First one was an extremely aggressive BH dive. I don't think I've ever used my body so aggressively for a BH dive before.
https://youtu.be/_4lsS1MGORY

The next two are both big forehands (big by my standards).
https://youtu.be/mRQm8ofo8jQ
https://youtu.be/65TQKx0Kft4

Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot from the local folks and they are very good players. But sometimes following their advice given in good faith (no doubt about it) would be very, very detrimental to my game. So when I politely say that I would rather stick my to guns it results in a kind of awkward situation.

I generally try to be very respectful to anyone who gives me advice.

o arguments with your local coaches is a waste of time and energy. You should just save it for the forums.

I decided to stop arguing on forums to save energy for arguing with local coaches.

Just walk into the hall tonight and tell all the coaches that there is no such thing as footwork and tactics suck. You may as well just shove all-in if you really want some conflict.