OOAK Table Tennis Forum

If I didn't play when I was tired I'd never play again.

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Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

Had a realization of how important it is to reset the legs after each shot fast for good footwork and how power from the ground effects this. If you do not push off the legs for forehand and backhand so your legs straighten a bit then this allows them to unbend a bit at the end of the stroke. This allows an immediate jump to a new position for the next shot. So there is a distinct feeling of a flowing up and down motion a bit like skipping. The women pros do it so well. Compare this to the feeling of static footwork where the feet seem stuck on the ground.
The bad habit of watching the ball and not expecting it to come back for me is to rise for the stroke and forget to come down fast to reset for the next stroke.
I have been working on power from the ground and resetting fast by using a mini hop between shots using slow robot or training blocking.

No no no. Reset hops don't exist. I have been told that many times already earlier in this thread. You *think* you see pros doing them, but it is a hallucination.

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Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

You missed the point. I am talking about a flowing up and down motion in the stroke kinetic chain so at the end of the stroke you store energy in the legs allowing the next footwork resulting in fast footwork. Pros actually do mini hops in some cases. Serve, see a flick coming and mini hop back etc. Short push, see a flick coming and do an extra mini hop back etc
The exercise I suggested teaches you to do this kinetic chain motion. Its an exercise and I'm not suggesting at all to do a mini hop between every point.
If you got slow footwork, try the exercise and report back. I know the Jananese coaches use this exercise and suggest 2 or 3 mini hops. This forces you to reset fast from a stroke.

Moreover, there is no footwork in table tennis. How can reset hops help with something that does not even exist?

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Tactics Enthusiast

And if there is no footwork and tactics in table tennis, then what actually exists in table tennis? Is there even a ball in table tennis? What if table tennis is just a synonym for the state of existential emptiness?

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Tactics Enthusiast

This would explain a lot actually.

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Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

"Nihilistic Table Tennis Club"

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Tactics Enthusiast

I have not posted a full match in a while, so let's break the trend of decadence and nihilism. A 5-gamer from the recent Cary Cup.

Disclaimer: a lot of forehand pivots.

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Tactics Enthusiast

Dr Pivot,
Have you tried a lower stance?
You look quite tall and tall players really need to bend the knees.
I see a lot of forehands where I think your body is too upright. The result is that this can make your shots go long. If you start from a lower stance with more forward bend when rotated for the forehand your body will be learning more to the right. Opening up you need more lean to start the bat lower.
I must admit this is one of my issues too.
I feel this could help you improve 10%.

I watched the first 1:00 and so far you win every point when you play to this guy's fh, and lose when you play to his bh. Not sure how this went five sets.

Let's go to the videotape!

9:09 You are down 0-2. He does have a fh, it just took a while to show up. Your reverse serves are really good, giving him fits. Still feels like you are letting a bh-dominant player play too many bhs. Might think about serving your reverse from the middle of the table into his wide fh just to move him off that spot.

Going a bit further afield, aren't you tempted to really commit to this style, go full RSM, and switch to Jpen? That would make your decisions so fast in the game, bc there is no decision. And any training/coaching time you devote to bh could be shifted to footwork (or whatever you want to call what RSM did to cover 200% of the width of the table with his FH), serve and receive. It's the build an overwhelming strength theory taken to extremes.

Back to the videotape!

Ah, in the 3rd set you decided to play some bh topspin, starting at 11:00. Nice ones.

Note: I think you should bounce the ball on the floor more times before you serve.

On to game four!

Wow, that was boring. He can't handle your reverse at all still. Like, figure out any way to just put it on the table. Average shots per point was maybe 1.2 for the set.

Time for the Decider!

I sincerely hope at the changeover your coach is telling you to serve reverse into his fh every point.

0-2, he got an edge, and you pushed a high serve. Your fh flick is good, use it. And his fh is crap, flick into his wide fh.

C'mon Dr. P. VAMOS!!

Good comeback from 1-3 down. You broke out the netballs, my own favorite tactic. And you used a fh flick, and the guy can't play that pretty bh of his while moving to his left. All good for you. But aren't you changing ends at 4-3 up? Maybe I kept score wrong.

Anyway, you have the momentum, close it out.

I miscounted somewhere, nothing unusual about that. Nice one!

Maybe you could have made this guy move more. It doesn't look like you use sidespin much on your fh. Or break the sidelines or even hit the corners. I don't either, but when I play people who do that it sucks. Especially with him being mostly a bh player, moving him over would open a huge hole on his bh side.

Nice match! How was the final?

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Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

Standing up straight has been a pet peeve of mine for years. I try to be conscious of my stance in training. Unfortunately, when playing out points when I have to react, it all goes south. I keep trying, but I don't know how to fix it completely.

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Tactics Enthusiast

I try to "go full RSM" when I am in good physical condition and playing an important match. Unfortunately, I cannot do this in every single match I play. If I do, I will be too exhausted by the time I reach (if I ever do) semis or finals and it will take me a ton of time to recover after the tourney. Been there, done that. Also, sometimes my opponents' serve and return are too good, so they jam me if I try to commit to FH on every single ball. Usually happens when I try to play 2000+ crowd. So I do need a BH as an option.



Thank you! I lost to a kid from MDTTC in the finals 0-3 easily, he blocked me out. Interestingly, I beat 3-2 him the day before in the preliminary round, mostly because he struggled with my service. But it seems that Larry Hodges gave him some very valuable tactical (and technical) advice, so I was not even competitive.

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Tactics Enthusiast

Oh that's funny. I read Hodges blog yesterday for the first time in ages, and he mentioned you in his Cary Cup recap. At the time I had no idea it was about you, obvs.

"One of our juniors was in the quarterfinals of Class D. ... In the final, he played a player he'd played earlier. In that match, I had missed the first game, and arrived only in time to see game two. He was already down 0-2 before I talked to him. With a few simple tactical changes, he won the next two games, and was up 7-3 in the fifth - but alas, lost when the opponent got red-hot. But in the final, applying those same tactics, he won 3-0, at 2,7,3."

You got red hot! Any idea what the few simple tactics were? I guess he just blocked you down? In a different paragraph Hodges said the below [classic NL tactical advice] about receiving long serves, but you serve short a lot so it may not be about you. He coached 30 matches or something altogether.

"Two matches were won by a simple tactic. Both players were having trouble with deep, spinny serves. The answer? I told them to take the ball as late as possible so they'd have more time to see the serve, and to just topspin them back soft and easy. Such a simple thing, and it worked both times."

Can't wait to hear Brett's technical analysis of your game. I predict he will say "More power Scotty!! We need more power!!"

Making the final is an awesome result win or lose. And it takes balls to play tournaments at all, so good for you.

I may play a Friday night GRR at Broward at the end of May. And if my regular doubles partner wants to join we can play the U-3600 teams on the Sunday. We're 3570 combined. Will post video if I do. This really livened up the thread.

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Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

He mostly served long and dead, waiting then to counter hit. He was a leftie and he could move his serve well, so it was hard for me to attack it strongly right away. In the first match, I compensated it with my service that he just missed. In the finals, he pushed my serve and waited for a loop he could block/counter. Tactics or not tactics, I still cannot attack most long serves strongly (and put returns on the table). I am constantly working on it, but it is damn hard.



Good luck at the tourney! And let's make this thread great again! I really like playing doubles, I wish there were more events to compete at.

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Tactics Enthusiast