OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Wonderful Russ!

Keep your elbow tucked back behind you for longer on the backspin serve. More left knee twist on the second ball.

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I'm going to go out on a controversial limb here and say that 99% of US club players have never played a single point with this much technical accuracy.

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Yeah, it is still a knee issue. I try my best but I am hoping that the muscles will build up with practice.

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Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
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

I looked at the video again and I do feel I am jumping into place. However, my stroke is still far from being propelled by my lower body. Wonder if there is any chance in hell of resolving that.

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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

I looked at your video again too. I really don't want you to hurt yourself and my advice is more general for everyone else who is following. I'm just writing what I see without considering your knees etc.

Because it's more like a shuffle into position, you aren't creating the opportunity to straighten up your knees and hips early enough to get the arm propulsion, as you've pointed out above. It brings me to my question of why are you doing this exercise? Your backhand is good enough to just stand and play it in open rallies until you get a very easy ball to pivot on.

If I started playing again, I wouldn't do this exercise because of my physical condition along with my desire to work on my backhand. Footwork is way overrated imo.

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It's mostly curiosity and learning as well as pushing the limits of my current state. And maybe I Can get to a modified version that doesn't look perfect but is functionally equivalent. Because I didn't do so many traditional TT drills, I want to just experience them as a TT player so I am a bit better informed about what they do.

Totally changing topic, do you have any sample video of someone practicing the loop/open one to the middle and one to the corners drill?

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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 hear you.

No, I don't have an example of that exercise. I probably prescribe that exercise at camps, but honestly can't remember.

Playing faster balls to the middle is in my top few "best tips" in TT. "Best tips" is a bit of an oxymoron but let's play anyway. Before someone asks, here is an appropriate order these days:

1. Serve short to the forehand
2. Push short to the forehand
3. Play the first topspin to the middle
4. Return with the banana flick to the backhand/middle
5. Play your forehand down the line when the ball is directly in your forehand corner

Adjustments clearly need to be made depending on tonnes of variables such as my player's skills and the opponent's tendencies.

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Where is "spin heavy" ?

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Good question.

A very high percentage of my "best tips" are against the top 100 players in the world. Heavy spin is assumed, so it's not exactly a tip. I assume that form will follow function at this level. A player will use the correct spin/speed ratios depending on the exact situation they are facing, so there is no need for discussion.

Heavy spin is mostly technical, not tactical. If I'm bench coaching for a slightly lower-ranked player and they aren't using heavy spin at the appropriate times, I will sit them down after the match and explain the mechanism for making the shot. In other words, I'll teach them how to get heavy spin so they start to use it at the appropriate moments. I'm doing this more than you can imagine and I teach them the same way I'd teach you.

The above is all about professional table tennis. Professional means that someone plays full-time and gets paid for it. If table tennis isn't your full-time job, learning to spin the ball heavy is a license to free points, providing you get it right and practice it.

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I'm getting sick of the bad coaching/advice being seen on youtube lately. It really is getting out of hand.

Some of it is pretty decent but I know a lot of it is garbage.

Brett is there any way to add small descriptions/what to look for on your google photos page thing? You add things but sometimes I'm not sure what exact technical thing is so good that I'm seeing.

The 7 second videos seem to be more useful than most on youtube tho...ugh!

I don't know about that, but I do know that in general, I can see 2000 written into Russ's play since June last year. The funny thing is that I don't know whether he works on his pushes, but I see a lot of room for improvement there. His offence anf countering on both sides is top notch escpecially if he works on his blocks. I think the offenive side if his point winning is set but I think the tools to prevent people from getting in at the lower levels need a bit more work.

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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 make outrageous comments all the time. This one doesn't even show up on my charts.

When the time is right, I'll tell you the most outrageous claims that I've made to people recently. I may even throw in the ones that go through my head which I'm not ready to say for the fear of being labeled certifiably insane.

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I'll tell you what I really like about this forehand. The arm isn't locked to the body and it's swinging independently. The arm is driven by the force of the twisting and dipping legs, but it's not locked to the torso. It is most noticeable on the first topspin against the push. For most people in TT they'll be able to identify it because they think that the swing is too big and they are 100% sure of this fact. The arm is straight and it swings back behind Russ. On the second topspin, Russ' swing is much smaller because form followed function.

Xu Xin almost always has this happening and most players don't. Here is a very clear example of what I mean https://youtu.be/AxZfbsz6NU8?t=388 Xu Xin has all the time in the world, so the size of the swing is extraordinary. The purpose of his shot was to never see the ball again and he had endless time to look at the ball. Xu Xin probably has the world's biggest swing "range" on his forehand. It means his swing can be micro small or humungous, depending on the context.

The pic below is the end of his range. How many people can do that? How many people have Russ' range? How many people truly "swing" their forehand?

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I think as long as the ball is going on the table with quality and without causing Russ any injury, it works. And I think Russ is twisting his torso sufficiently that whether his rotation is driven by his core or his upper arm is not an issue as long as he is not hurting himself. If he gets hurt in the shoulder swinging like that or gets really fatigued, then we may have to re-evaluate. Because there are times look at his shot from the back that I can see a movement of the upper arm that is out of sync with the body. If he swings like that for years and feels no injury, then the extra shot quality is worth it. If he starts feeling pain in his shoulder, then he will have to determine if TT pays him enough to continue swinging that way.

The amount of torso twist Xu Xin is getting and the synchronicity of his upper arm movement with that twist makes it almost moot, but for him, he makes his money doing this. How many players would lean over the ball on what looks like a counterloop? To hit that shot though, his shoulder joint would travel over a large distance. IF your shoulder joint is being moved over a large distance, that is what I mean syncing the upper arm with the body. If you move your upper arm a little bit with that, nothing special. But for someone like me, my upper arm is like a ridiculous amount of my shot. And I am pretty much stuck with it.

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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