OOAK Table Tennis Forum

... when your opponent apologizes for a net court, edge ball, or miss-hit thinking the point is over and you still get the ball back ... and this happens on a daily basis

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VKM
Tenergy 05 2.1
Feint Long III .5

townhousecrackers said
Yup. Never say die I say.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

This has happened twice this summer. Apparently I don't play table tennis, I play ping pong!

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Woodnut Dead Slow | DHS 651 | Spinlord Dornenglanz
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - soon entering its 10th year!

RebornTTEvnglist wrote:


LordCope wrote:


What this really means is that your opponent is not as good as they think they are. I have had many players play me after watching me and thinking that they would beat me effortlessly, and it either not happening at all or taking real effort.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Hmmmm.. We're talking lob defence here, right? Or is it something else?

Iskandar

iskandar wrote:


Sometimes lob defence or fishing or chopping or ...

Always get the ball back or die trying. Make them hit the extra shot. Make it look easy to them, while in reality it isn't. Try not to hit "straight" balls into their hitting zones. Don't play the expected shot. Try to have the same looking shot with different amounts of spin.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

So what exactly is a "fish"? A low lob? A high block? (If so, I think tennis players would call this a "dink".)

Lob defence is a strategy used by a lot of people (attackers) when forced back from the table. It is described in many books, even the early ones. But I suppose "retrievers" use it as a primary tactic rather than a fall-back option? I must admit, this is one of my biggest deficiencies in my game - I have, in essence, no defence other than blocking at the table. I can't lob or chop worth anything, so I make a point to spend some time lobbing every time I practice. Getting slightly better at it (at least most of the lobs now hit the table). Problem is there aren't any reliable hitters to practice against where I play!

Iskandar

Hi iskandar,

From about.com, here is a definition of fishing:




My feeling about a dink in tennis was that it wasn't what you said - according to Wikipedia it is a loose drop shot.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Sounds like a low lob to me. Can't remember which book it was that described lobs, you're supposed to put a fair amount of topspin on them for the most effect.

About dinks and dinkers - I heard this stand up comic routine on a flight once - he was talking about strategy in tennis. In essence, keep it simple - hit balls long, until you get a short return (and you will surely get one because your opponent isn't on the Pro Tour), which you attack (I think, in tennis, this means approaching the net and hitting a sharp-angled return). He made the comment that "dinkers" win a lot of tournaments - the As and the Bs, etc. (not sure what he meant, but it was in response to some guy wanting to know how to defeat a certain dinker who was beating him all the time). From this I gathered that dinkers were the tennis equivalent of retrievers - get everything back, give lots of "easy" shots that invite mistakes..).

Iskandar

Where I have mostly been playing recently, the table is positioned so that the net is directly under a fluorescent tube that is hung from the ceiling with chains at either end. I think that it is about 3-4 metres above the floor (not 5 ). Every now & then in play I will attempt to lob the ball over the light tube and get it in. I usually put a bit of top spin on it to bring it in. Last time I did that, it caught the far edge of the table for my point. That was one of my attacking shots .

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

I would say that "fish" is when you just put the blade on the way of the ball that is falling away from the table. Often with bit of arm or wrist movement to add top spin. Fish could be low or bit higher depending on the purpose or just luck.

In the "lob" player purposefully tries to get more higher ball, so he don't aim straight to the table, but more up to get high bounce. In lobbing high bounce is the goal, in fishing lower bounce might be better.

A Fish could be somekind of "long distance block".