OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Here we go... This man literally just walks out of a desert and he's all over my forehand.

Okay, I'll be serious for once. These are all good questions.

The crack sound on the ball is an indicator. The racket speed at the end of the backswing is another indicator. The speed and spin of the balls produced are also indicators.

Yes, on those slower balls, I'd prefer more leg rotation than just a longer backswing.

The stepping forward with the left leg is probably an issue too. It happens a lot on the slow balls because I'm expecting a fast ball and I react early. It would almost be better to step in with the right leg and twist into like a pivot. I'd guess I'd prefer to wait for the ball and do everything standard. In general, I don't think I get enough force from my left leg push on my fh. It's a tough exercise because of the speed variation but I see this everywhere.

During multiball, I treat all forehands like a micro semi cross. It's a bit hard to explain here but this is one reason why my left foot always taps the ground after each shot. It's doesn't happen if someone blocks to me at a standard pace in the warmup because it's easy to conform like a robot. Having someone block to you at a standard pace has underrated issues because it mostly forces blind and accidental correct timing. This is what stuffed up my backhand over the years. The fix is to single out each balls and play it perfectly.

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I'm too busy trying to hit the ball and I just don't have time to make bird calls during my training.

Speaking of bird calls, I'm slowly learning to speak Emu. About twice a week, I visit 2 emus and I use a very deep sound and they seem to react and come to me...I did get bitten once trying to feed them grass, but I really blame myself for that.

If you ever have a chance to befriend some emus, I highly recommend it.

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From Emu to Backhand Topspin

If you go to 00:47, you'll find my backhand topspin https://photos.app.goo.gl/4Uym7KP7JabhEpTm7

It's more a dive than a shove. I'm trying to start the backswing against the force of the leg trust because all backswings should go against leg force (serve, bh, fh). I'm trying to create a large letter C shape with my arm so I have somewhere to swing back into. I'm trying to use my fingers to make the backswing. I'm trying to wait for the ball before using my fingers. I'm trying to make the shot feel like a serve. I want a blurry backswing as a result of delay. I'm trying to make my backhand more like Harmeet's.

Whether you've just walked out of a desert or wherever, you are welcome to comment.

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I was going to mention this but I did not want to be too critical.

220 km walk in the desert means my mind is table tennis staved!
I was too tired to even shadow swing each day.

The family across the road from my Mom has an emu. It was feral, just showed up one day in their pasture with some goats. That was about 20 years ago and the same emu is still there looking the same as ever.

Once in a while we bring it some chicken scratch as a treat. Maybe try that instead of grass. Cracked corn seems to make it happy, as much as you can tell with an emu. They aren't very expressive. You'll never hear one cho, for example.

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Brett, your BH video technique looks really very good.
Only difference i can see to a Harimoto BH is your free arm which is very close to your side, he has his free arm almost is an opposing C shape, perhaps this may impact on his shot stability with some equal tension across the top of the shoulders and giving the appearance of being more balanced.

Re choing, I think as much as it is to boost oneself there is an element of also putting off the opponent, example receiver makes an error reading serve, pops the ball up, server smacks the easy ball away and then cho's loudly. Receiver already knows they stuffed up and feels bad, the loud cho is just extra salt on the wound, it's not like they did a great shot, just put away an easy ball yet many still loudly cho that. Perhaps they are choing their good serve and the overall point, many times it wasn't even that good a serve just a silly mistake by the receiver, still they cho. I only shout at end of match where the opponent has been an ass and cho'ed their head off the whole match, then they deserve the extra salt. Often times i can remove/limit any show of emotion and play each point as they come, but we are all human, perhaps more important is being able to redirect the emotions that come towards better play outcomes.

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I have a long history of meditation and started when I was 21.

I feel playing in the zone is a meditative state where you are totally focused on the ball without any distractions or any thoughts of the game score etc.

You play better than you have ever played totally without effort.
The ball seems to actually slow down.
Table tennis becomes an easy game.

I have only been able to achieve this state in training for short periods of time.

Deep meditation states you have a witnessing quality to reality.
Has anyone achieved this state of mind playing Table tennis.

Probably we have all felt like that for short stretches. Then a thought pops in like 'Wow, I'm making everything.' and POOF! no more zone.

EDIT: This is why in competition, if your opponent is killing you with a particular skill, one of the most insidious tactics you can use to stop them is to compliment them on that skill. Like you just say "Wow, your [whatever it is] are amazing. You are killing me with those."

This is way more evil than CHO!ng. Only a player with real mental strength can shrug off the sudden attention you have placed on their performance. And if you are playing someone who has both good skills and mental strength you are toast anyway. Try it, see what happens for yourself.

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What if playing "in the zone" has nothing to do with your psyche? What if it is actually when your opponent fades out and plays poorly? This way, you don't miss and everything is easy for you because your opponent cannot increase the pressure, not because you reached some inner state. I tried to recall matches when I played well, especially against higher-rated opponents, and it almost always was when the opponent was visibly afraid or too high on the emotional scale.

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Good conversation.

Dr. Pivot has a valid point although I don't fully agree with it. I think that playing in the zone occurs when the correct parts of your brain are fully operational. There is a distinct quieting of the mind and images seem unrealistically sharp and defined. You honestly believe that you won't miss another shot. Sometimes you don't even want to beat your opponent anymore because it's more fun playing than winning the match and taking a seat.

The problem is someone can stop you from playing in the zone if they just stop missing and begin to outperform you. This means that playing in the zone is a bit of a two way street. Clearly it's not just about you.

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There is a lot of truth to this. I'm much more likely to pull out this gambit than choing at someone. These "compliments" seem to interrupt the opponent's concentration flow and bring the analytical mind online.

This compliment gambit is a little less likely to work at the highest levels because you aren't directly striking at a player's confidence. It's better to just hit 10 straight winners... or start serving them off... or blocking them down.

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I believe that doing some form of meditation before a match may lead to playing in the zone. I've achieved this quite a few times over a number of decades. It's definitely better than sitting there and panicking about the upcoming match. During my best years, I chose meditation between games over having a strategic bench coach. After all tactics don't help one little bit

Meditation doesn't directly lead to confidence. It leads to a heightened state of awareness which is helpful when performing difficult tasks. It may get you off to a good start in the match which can lead to an increase in confidence. If you then play in the zone, you may attribute your mental state to the amazing meditation you did before the match. It's a half-truth again.

I have tried just watching the ball to get into the zone. If I'm just watching the ball, I'm essentially meditating, right? It has worked a few times, though it's definitely not the holy grail of zonenessing. Deliberately watching the ball doesn't directly lead to confidence. Watching the ball is just another form of meditation.

I'll tell you what directly contributes to getting you into the zone...success. If you start beating people and making all of your shots, you'll eventually get into the zone as your confidence blooms. Confidence is a lack of concern. You'll start seeing the ball like a football, whether you want to or not. You don't have to stare at the ball because it stares at you. The ball fills your vision. It's slow and big. You start to believe just like Neo from the Matrix.

I played in zone in my last ever overseas international tournament in 2005. I probably meditated before matches, but my wins started to pile up and I started to believe. I beat national singles champions from Russia, Finland, Estonia and every other former USSR country that you can't pronounce. After 8 or so straight wins, the ball was big and slow. I was confident in my skills and believed I was going to win more matches. I wasn't trying to watch the ball. My biggest concern was that the magic would stop.

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I can take this criticism under one condition - You agree that you should have bought a camel at some stage, rather than walking the entire 220kms through an Australian desert.

I'm thinking that the 20km mark or thereabouts should have been camel purchase time. Then you could have done some delayed backswing shadow swings and meditation before sundown each day. I understand that the used camel market has experienced inflation during the pandemic, but a couple of your Tesla shares would have easily covered the cost.

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Its funny how there is such a big gap between what you think your body is doing and video evidence. I was sure I was doing a good squat for the backhand topspin. Video shows heaps less than that my mind was telling me. I think I have to video all my training sessions now. What a drag.

Videoing them isn't bad. Watching them is what sucks. The only amateur I know who actually watched his recorded trainings was NextLevel. The rest of us just can't take the cognitive dissonance that you pointed out.

And having read Brett's posts about confidence I'm not at all sure watching yourself train would help anything. It might make you worse. Watching video real-time *during* a training session imo could help a lot. But to go home and watch it after seems like it could hurt your confidence without any opportunity to change anything atm. It might be a better and less painful use of the time to go home and visualize yourself doing everything right for however long you would spend watching video.

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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