OOAK Table Tennis Forum

The best NextLevel post for June, 2019.

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I know that NextLevel has responded to your post, but I haven't read it. I'm going to post first and read his after to compare the differences.

I think what you are doing is really good. The key to this exact situation is to jump into the squat position. This technique saves you from having to think about "footwork". The good new is, you are already do it. Maybe I should make a video on jumping into the backswing. I did quite a bit of it with you guys in Florida.

People could say that the swing it too big or something. I know what it means, but I don't really mind what you are doing. You'll have to adjust if the ball is going to come back.

I believe you did well in your exam. I'm giving you a B+.

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I've been practicing the new timing for my serve whenever I get the chance. I haven't been able to play much recently, unfortunately. But I think I'm confident enough now to use them in matches against people I'm favoured against.

I'm in this weird zone right now. I "forgot" how to do my previous short serve, and I still lack the touch with the new one to consistently get it low.

That said, how does it look now? Any suggestions for the next step? Is the timing better here?

The video is only 15 seconds showing me doing it in practice and once from a match I had today.

Thanks again for the suggestion. This was/is a fun one to work on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hyy3G30SlA

That serve is beautiful, both of them. Is dorsn't look too high, but would be intersting to see an opponent try to flick it.

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Thanks BRS. The ones in the video were low enough that my opponents probably wouldn't attack. But when I tried the serve on better opponents, they flicked it pretty hard when it went high (and it went high too often since I'm still practicing it).

The opponent in the video, who is probably 1300 at most, dumped it into the net like 10 times. Since I knew I could beat him, I exclusively practiced the serve.

But for anyone who was probably 1500+, I did mostly long serves. I need to keep practicing my new short serve for a few more weeks I think.

It was actually a great 'for fun' tournament because a guy who lives in America came to visit. He's been playing table tennis for 30 years there. He said he's about 1700 and I beat him 2-1, then 2-0 (it was only best of 3s for the matches). That said, they were quite close. He said he thinks I'm about 1800, maybe 1850.

Very nice and friendly guy!

Here are some of the points I kinda liked from the tournament.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM3x5nj3m14

I got a TSP towel for winning the men's singles division and everyone got a free pair of table tennis socks. They also provided a free bread snack and drinks. The entry fee was only $5 per person too.

Great work mickd! The whip movement is correct.

Try to contact the ball a little further back towards your left chest. This means your elbow will be behind you slightly and you'll snap into the ball with your forearm more.

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Thanks Brett!! That was actually going to be my question if I should work on that next!! I've been told by a few people to get the contact closer to my body, which means getting my elbow behind my body. I tried it this week but with the new timing and trying to get it closer I was missing every serve ha.

I'll definitely attempt to get that in. So far the feeling of having my elbow and upper arm behind my body during the swing is extremely unnatural. My upper arm muscle feels really tight when I put it there. I'm not sure if I've got the positioning wrong or if it's just because I'm not used to that positioning yet.

A lot of high level table tennis is unnatural especially if you didn't learn in China in the womb. Getting the elbow back will take the serve to another level in a few ways that are extremely valuable. The reduced visibility of the racket will give people less information on racket head speed and angle and the positioning will fit more properly into the mechanics of a good pendulum serve. You will so be able to sync up the body with the swing better as your body usage gets more advanced and have more control over the finer elements of the serve. Finally, people will dump the serve into the net much more.

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

Yep...read this a couple of times!

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ETTS61 is now available on ttEDGE.com

I'm continually trying to find the fastest way to teach strokes and this video is an example of where I'm at today.

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Thanks Brett. I really like seeing videos of actual coaching taking place. I hope you'll release even more videos like in the future A small and simple change that has resulted in a huge improvement!

I have a question. Once Igor is consistent enough with that, what would you advise him to do next to take his backhand one step further?

This really is the million dollar question.

He needs to continuing training this new movement until he is incapable of doing the old one. He can't be thinking about how to move his body correctly in a match, so he needs to drill it til it's all he knows.

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I had an interesting conversation with an international boxing coach yesterday. He talked about the problems with coaching in boxing and how most coaching is worse than nothing. I asked him what the biggest misconceptions in boxing are and he said:
- coaches believe you must step into a punch and they take moving forward out of context.
- coaches believe you must transfer your weight during a punch.
- coaches believe that your body weight must be coming forward when punching.

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Makes sense. A lot of throwing is rotational/circular so it is really the left side of the body moving backward while the right side comes forward or vice versa. You can't send the whole body forward without losing power and balance for the most part.

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

The uppercut is the most interesting technique and the coach said it's the most misunderstood. It actually has a lot of similarities to the backhand topspin because the shoulders must be coming up and back to initially drive the arm up and forward. Apparently almost no one teaches it this way.

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