OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Gracias!

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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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0T41qtGoHM

You forgot to tell him about the Indian gangster music as part of this, Brett.

I'm currently at the Swedish Open and once again amazed by what these top players can do. It feels like I'm playing a different sport to them. It's like all their shots are so "clean". Perfect timing and contact with the ball. And I'm seeing ttedge stuff everywhere I look..

I'm jealous of you Brett, getting to watch beautiful table tennis all the time (well, most of the the time).

League is starting again next week so hopefully I'll get some match footage to share again.

Come be a top 10 coach with me in HELL

I'll be coaching him next week at the German Open. I'll have a word to him about gangster music stuff. I'm sure that will help.

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Where do I sign? I'll sell my soul .

What a shame you weren't at the Swedish Open Brett, unless I missed you? Would be fun to watch you and the indian players live in action.

What a shame you weren't at the Swedish Open Brett, unless I missed you? Would be fun to watch you and the indian players live in action.[/quote]

No, I wasn't there.

It's not that far to Germany from where you are. We will have 14 players there and just one coach, so you will get to see my run around the hall

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Apart from LTT47, what are the situations when playing a sidespin loop is an absolute must? In other words, not playing it is very disadvantageous.

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Theoretically, not side spinning the ball is always disadvantageous...or, without the double negatives, sidespin always gives you an advantage. Sidespin is hard to deal with and very few players are hoping you put a lot of sidespin on the ball. Do you want to play against someone who always loops with heavy sidespin?

The problem is, you won't always have time to use sidespin. The faster the oncoming ball, the less chance you will have to use sidespin. Therefore, the more time you have, the more you should think about using sidespin.

At the highest levels, players don't give opponents many opportunities to use sidespin. Xu Xin plays away from the table, so he gets to use more sidespin because he is creating time.

Left-handed players tend to use more sidespin than right-handed players. I'll give bonus points to anyone who can explain why this is the case.

In LTT47, I have a lot of time, so I always use sidespin.

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Brett, thank you for your answer! That is quite interesting. When I tried to integrate LTT47 into my game, I noticed that playing a fast hook against a semi-high ball is a lot more consistent than just playing it straight, no matter how much time I have (which is not the case against a regular ball). I have no explanation for it, I guess I just hook more naturally.

I am currently experimenting a bit with looping sidespin serves. What I notice, for example, is that if I hook (with my BH) a backhand sidespin-topspin, the ball lands on the table a lot more consistently than if I play it straight. Does it mean that if I face a sidespin ball, I have to always play another sidespin shot?

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No, you can play straight against a sidespin ball. In fact, sometimes if you play directly straight against sidespin, you can make the ball break off the opponent's side of the table because of their residual sidespin.

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Because most players (including left handers) are used to the natural sidespin (mainly on forehand loops but also on the backhand) produced by right handed players, since most opponents are right handed. The forehand loops of a left hand player have the opposite sidespin and are confusing (especially to players at the lower levels - personal experience). So increasing the amount of sidespin will throw off the opponent more, and they consciously or unconsciously have learned this. The way to overcome this weakness is to regularly practice and play against left handed players.

Iskandar

Counterlooping or attacking heavy straight spin balls extremely early or extremely late. Sidespin is extremely helpful here. It lets you use a bigger stroke than you would be required to play if you had to hit the ball with straight precision.

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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

Hi guys. I'm sure you guys are training hard for the teams event. I know this post isn't really about technique, but perhaps it is.

I've gone pretty hard in training since the camp in late May. In early July I started wearing the tennis elbow brace. I wore it off and off, having good and bad weeks but eventually in mid/late September I was unable to pick up anything of reasonable weight (more than a few pounds) by grabbing down and picking up.
A couple weeks ago I finally shut it down as I could not transition to a backhand without pain and my backhands were more and more becoming all body and no arm (interestingly this is probably a good thing long term). I never really felt pain while doing the stroke, I just felt pain in the transition.
Today I'm able to lift my test weight (5 poundish) with no pain but I still "feel" it, so not quite healed yet but I'm hoping for a shorter recovery time. I'm sure heavier weights would be unwise at this moment.

So I'm pretty sure this is an over use injury. Is there some flaw in my technique? My #1 theory is that in an attempt to not do shallow forehands I try and snap the forearm up. I also think my backhand serve can contribute to this as I'm trying to bend the wrist and engage the muscle but the volume of forehands is much higher. Here is a picture of my arm, the larger box is where the muscle feels strained on usage and the red area is where I can press and feel pain (tho getting much better). NL said muscles matter too and I think this is where perhaps I can improve to avoid this injury in the future.

Just to answer this question: my elbow joint does not hurt. Lifting things like a "shovel" and not a "crane" results in no discomfort.

wilkinru, did you visit a doctor/physiotherapist?

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