OOAK Table Tennis Forum

It just hit me. You guys umpire/score/ref your own matches. It's on YOU to make sure you serve legally. It puts you in a moral dilemma.

Every very important match I've played had an umpire who was getting some money to be there. I admit that they didn't always know what was going on, but I felt that they were responsible too. In every other match I played, someone else was umpiring unpaid. I've literally never scored my own match, besides training matches.

Zhang Jike never plays without a paid ref. He will change his serve when he starts getting faulted at the Worlds. People will comment online or whatever, but that's not his concern.

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ttEDGE.com Professional online coaching
YouTube table tennis videos by Brett Clarke

BTW, in the last two tourneys I played in the US, I reached a final, and there were certified officials (I think they did get paid) umpiring the match. Felt like a kind of a big deal to play there.

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"Bad technique doesn't work when you need it most"

I'd actually appreciate if somebody gave me some technical feedback on the serves I used in the match I posted a few pages ago. Brett said "develop a heavy backspin serve", but that is what I've been doing in the last several years or so.

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"Bad technique doesn't work when you need it most"

Nobody is going to be able to intelligently evaluate your spin production off a match video. Opp is touching the ball before spin can catch on the table. And we don't know his level. Brett can look at your technique, but doubt he can tell you how heavy the spin was.

Low is more about getting your (tall) vody down to make contact at net height. Close or far from your body seems more about quality and disguise than height.

As far as heavy backspin, what level usatt player will pretty much always push your first couple backspin serves in the net and look at their rubber like WTF? For me it's anyone below 1800. For NL it's more like 2100. That is a sure-fire way to rate the backspin.

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11 points ends very quickly. Repeating a pattern you are not confident with is very unlikely to win.
-- bbaerong-e yorong-e

I'm coincidentally in the process of making ETTS47 which highlights some of freeagent's good backspin serves. Evan's serve in ETTS47 is exactly the serve which I recommend for everyone. It's just great to have a heavy backspin as a base serve. NextLevel worked hard to have a heavy backspin and I believe it helped him a lot.

I went back and watched your serve from the match. If you can combine LTT45 with LTT96, you should have a pretty good serve. I feel like your arm isn't exactly making a whip pattern with your forearm stopping just before impact. You need to get your elbow back in behind you more and get some LTT45 into it.

BRS is right. I can't see exactly how much spin is on the ball, but I do know that the technique can improve. I'll try to get ETTS47 out asap because I think it's relevant and motivating.

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ttEDGE.com Professional online coaching
YouTube table tennis videos by Brett Clarke

Probably 1300 or something.

My most effective serve nowadays is the long reverse pendulum junk spin (I am trying to serve side-top, but it has something weird on it, I have no idea what is even the result) into the elbow.

I rarely use straight backspin serve in matches, but I will try to practice it and make some video.

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"Bad technique doesn't work when you need it most"

If you don't have a heavy backspin, which I don't really, one thing you can do to still make it effective is start by serving straight low short no-spin two or three times. If your opponent pops them up and gets killed, after that he will try to keep the receive low, or flick. Then even moderate backspin will force an error.

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11 points ends very quickly. Repeating a pattern you are not confident with is very unlikely to win.
-- bbaerong-e yorong-e

ETTS47 is now available on ttEDGE.com. It's in 'Standard Videos' for non Platinum members which means it's free for everyone.

As I've said above, this is a great serve to have and it's not that hard to get.

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ttEDGE.com Professional online coaching
YouTube table tennis videos by Brett Clarke

If you can get a serve backspin ball to second bounce near the end of the table then come back to the net that is good backspin? Heavy backspin the ball comes back with energy?

Maurice, it depends on the ball and table texture. Some tables have a lot more friction than others and the reactions can differ dramatically. On a DHS table, you probably want the ball coming back fairly often. On a SAN-EI table, it may just skid through, especially if you are using a G40+ ball or something similar.

The LTT96 / ETTS47 body action tends to add some speed to the ball making it less likely for it to come back towards the net. Your chest is whipping your arm up and then down and it makes the serve faster. Often LTT96 will require your racket to be more vertical which also adds to the speed.

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ttEDGE.com Professional online coaching
YouTube table tennis videos by Brett Clarke

It's pretty important to have a no spin variation to induce direct errors when serving backspin.

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ttEDGE.com Professional online coaching
YouTube table tennis videos by Brett Clarke

Hello everyone!

During last month I have completely focused on improving by forehand topspin technique, my main focus being getting some body rotation into the shot and having stable elbow in golden point position with stable, precise swing path.

I watched and rewatched all the latest FH videos, got one of those spin devices (probably my best investment after ttedge) and practiced couple thousand shadow swings and in next step took it to ball drops and lately some easy shots vs return board:

https://youtu.be/IV2TNnGbnqU

My consistency has improved a lot and I seem to get some spin on the ball but something still seems off, my finishing position is still often elbow above my shoulder no matter how much I try to keep it stable and my face of the rubber is facing the camera instead of the floor:



Brett finishing position from last video for comparison :


Any ideas or drills how to improve further?

Would going back to shadow swings be a good idea?

Also, I have seen on another forum tip to use the small ball or towel under the arm to force yourself to keep elbow stable and get instant feedback when your shoulder and arm flies away - worth considering?

Barefly have you tried hitting the ball a bit further away from your body? I got a feeling if you try this your elbow could stay further out to the right and I think that you could finish more in Bretts finish position?? This could allow more more effortless whip around the elbow as it slows more out wide giving a faster racket speed.

IMO your elbow is great, def close enough to Brett's. It's the orientation of your bat that is very different. It looks like you may have rolled your wrist over forwards as you made contact. Can't tell from a still of the ending position, but that seems the likeliest way to achieve that finish.

So I would say, don't do that. Don't roll your wrist forward over the ball, if you are. Set your bat ar a reasonable angle and maintain that angle through the entire swing. That will get you a finish position like Brett's. Then all you

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11 points ends very quickly. Repeating a pattern you are not confident with is very unlikely to win.
-- bbaerong-e yorong-e

I am not sure I agree with you Brs. If you look at the video shot that leads to the still shot I feel he hits it too close to the body. He then raises the shoulder in the follow through. Brett mentioned to me in a lesson raising the shoulder is a no no as it can lead to shoulder injury. I totally agree with you about setting the swing path etc. I feel it needs to go more forward. Check out how high the bat is at the end of the follow through in most shots compared to Bretts. Perhaps going more forward in the swing path would greatly improve spin and consistency. Then adding a more dynamic right hip forward movement would add even more zip. (all this from an adult learner in the low grades!)