OOAK Table Tennis Forum

For people who just can't stomach Chinese style rubber, my gut tells me this one could be a winner https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3276647 ... b201603_55

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I should add that I boost Mercury 2 with baby oil. I put a layer of baby oil on the sponge and let it simmer for at least 2 days. Then I just glue it on like any rubber.

I should also add that I have never had any quality control issues with the stuff I mess around with on my racket. 30 years ago the equipment out of China was a disaster. Now they've kinda got the hang of it. It's all very decent quality.

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Yinhe rubbers are great indeed, especially considering their price. I played with Big Dipper for some time and massively enjoyed it.

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Tactics Enthusiast

The K3 has 5 wood plies and 2 inner carbon plies, like the Nittaku Acoustic Carbon Inner, Butterfly Innerforce and Donic WSC V1. Speed is probably ALL+/OFF-. It's lighter and several times cheaper than those other blades.

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible

I put a sheet of Nittaku Fastarc C-1 on my backhand, with my usual worn in T05 and I'm doing a solid amount of missing long on the backhand. I have to admit this is the first time a change in equipment felt significantly faster.

With just the flick of my wrist I can create power and spin that is just going right past people who normally would at least get the paddle on it. The top sheet is extremely grippy and slightly tacky. It's also a bit heavier than my usual backhand rubber which makes even the forehand have a bit more power behind it (and again more control issues but less obvious).

I'm going to continue at it on the backhand side to see if I can control it. All I could think of was Brett saying we use stuff that is too fast.

While we're talking about the backhand I've been experimenting in not breaking my wrist much in all shots which are long. I have a habit of hitting the top edge of my blade with these shots. While my wrist will move some and be flexible, I am no longer pointing it down. In testing I found I could still lift backspin if I used my body enough but the shanks went down in all shots and against top spin it is a lot easier to control. Sometimes even seems to have more power since I'm often hitting the ball thicker and a bit less brush (or was just mistiming).

Anyone else experiment with wrist bending vs not?

Any conscious use of the wrist will slow down your shot and hurt your timing in my experience. For me the first principle is to focus on making contact with the ball with as much racket face as possible to minimize whiffing. Once you do that, you use the swing trajectory to add spin while minimizing whiffing again. If you are avoiding the ball to produce spin, rethink your technique. You should be able to go into the ball with a set swing trajectory and get spin as long as the racket is turning through your swing. Your angle should be mostly set with a focus on the swing path.

Make slightly thinner contact for more rotation and arc but again don't avoid the ball. Using the wrist is fine as long as it isn't done in a way that slows down the overall swing and use of the body. I find that for most people this is not the case so I have to coach them out of it. Moat of what people think is wrist is really something happening proximately at the elbow that they don't see because they are looking at the wrist.

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One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
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"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

The second paragraph made more sense to me.

Once I learned how to use body on both BH and FH loops, I just stopped worrying about the wrist completely. The only time I consciously use it is when I try to banana something, but I do not do those very often anyway.

BTW, I used to play with a fast tensor (MX-P) on my BH, but then switched to a slower one (Vega Pro) and it feels soooo much better.

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Using language to discuss TT concepts has its dangers.

Some people when they try to spin try to brush the ball so thinly that they miss. So they avoid making solid contact but then end up whiffing the ball. Their strokes are designed to curve around the ball. Better to hit the ball solidly while continuing to a finishing position that adds spin. I would say that for the most part, try to hit the ball with decent contact for most of your strokes. Just keep pronating your forearm/elbow through the swing to add some wrist usage and spin. It should be very subtle, well timed and not excessive. Watch Ma Long loop in matches.

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Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

Ma Long is one I looked at when coming up with less wrist motion as a possibility. Using the body more actually helps with making more solid contact too as the wrist isn't as needed. I suppose if the wrist is used it's optimal but it's really difficult to time. I would say it's easier on slower shots but I struggle on those too when I go too hard with the wrist.

Your explanation is great here.

The wrist is hard to use when you are trying to hit the ball in a way that is different from the trajectory of your swing. If you have a solid counterhit, adding spin is mostly using the body more aggressively while pronating the forearm/elbow very slightly to a finishing position. If the wrist is mostly moving in the plane of your swing as it should, it doesn't create the same timing issues as when it is used to trap/hit the ball very aggressively. When people use the wrist actively, what usually happens (in addition.to hurting the wrist) is that they have to slow down their swing to time the ball with whatever special notion they want to hit the ball with. Make your full swing what spins the ball not some trick with the wrist.

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Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

I actually ordered one of these when Brett mentioned it the last time. The listing on AliExpress says "7 Ply (5+2 Carbon) Super Lightweight Ping Pong Racket Blade":

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32960191205.html

I'll have another look at it tomorrow, but judging from the photo posted:



I agree with Brett that the only carbon in the blade is in the wood.. there are no carbon fiber layers. The only place carbon is ever mentioned is in the title of the listing - everywhere else they say it's a seven ply all-wood blade. They say the two face plies are "lymph" (probably limba ) and the other plies are ayous.

"Super Lightweight" also turns out to be untrue, at least in my example. It weight a whopping 95 grams IIRC. Maybe I'll use it as a hardbat.

Iskandar

Maybe they’ve changed it since I bought mine in late 2017. It weighs 75g and has 5 wood plies and 2 inner carbon plies. These are photos of the one I bought:


Don’t want to derail the thread any longer, I’ll shut up now!

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible

Hi, I started working with Brett towards the end of last month. Here is an introduction of myself: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=431&start=2355

Until now I have been communicating with Brett by email, but I plan to post some stuff in this thread as well. Last week, I recorded my BH block, which has too much topspin (https://youtu.be/RMMtfa20ExQ). Brett suggested looking at LTT32 (again) and LTT69. Since I didn't have a chance to do multiball this week I didn't do the exercises in LTT69. Instead, I tried to copy the stroke that he demonstrates in LTT32 yesterday. (https://youtu.be/JwTEpoVHW-8)

My initial reaction was: "Too much topspin. Don't send it to Brett." However, after comparing it to the video from last week, there are some improvements imo. E.g., I keep the racquet higher than before and some blocks might be even fairly flat.

I am not sure I posted the URLs correctly.

Good improvement. That said, I am firmly of the opinion that unless you block a few balls into the net, you are condemned to lifting the ball during practice. Don't try to make every ball, try to keep the ball arc lower and lower and if it goes into the net so be it, you can just try to get it a bit higher. Not pushing your range during practice is a common mistake but it leaves you not understanding how your stroke really works.

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Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus