OOAK Table Tennis Forum

It feels kinda good to not have the EJ flame burning inside me anymore to be honest as I feel like I've tried it all pretty much haha. The only spark that's still left is some curiosity about the Victas Koji Matsushita Offensive. I've been wanting a solid handle Defplay for so many years now and it seems like the VKMO isn't that far off in speed, hardness and so on. I might try it, haven't decided yet.

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I copied your equipment and it's working quite well. At teast with the old ball. Shots are landing with good percentage both from the FH and BH. And FH is very spinny for loops.

You had tested lot of equipment and I seemed to be on the same wave lenght of thought in reading your posts, so why not to follow your lead? It worked. Easy way to choose equipment and usefull way to use this forum.

Have you tried the new ball? You are forced to use it next "gathering"....

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
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Good to hear it's working well for you! IMO this setup gives very good allround possibilities. It works for pretty much anything, blocking, chopping, attacking, you name it. I've tested a few other setups, especially regarding the blades, that plays just as well for me but the feeling of the Defplay is unlike any other blade and I've grown so fond of it that I feel off when using something else, especially on the FH.

Also I think that your way of picking equipment is excellent, much better than just using what the pros are using. To be honest I think we have more knowledge about equipment than the pros do and taking advice from a fellow member here with similar taste is usually a recipe for success, if not it's at least a good place to start.



I'm still in denial mode haha, I actually haven't hit with it yet. There's a couple of guys in my club that got a few packs of the plastic balls so I've been thinking about asking them for a hit in the near future. Have you hit with the new balls?

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I tried the seamless plastic ball XuShoufa or whatevere its name is. Horrible. Odd arc, low spin, awful sound. We are waiting for a new plastic ball from Yasaka, wich is our main supplyer of material. When we have tried that one we will settle for the ball we feel os good enough to a reasonable price. Training balls are also an issue... Most new plastic balls will have seams, and that will probably make them more like the celluloid ball.

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Oh well, I guess it's like always, we just have to adapt as good as possible when the ITTF gets bored and want to make a change.

On another note I had a session tonight, the first since the gathering last weekend and I tried the H3 on FH. I'm pretty sure I won't go back and I will probably persist with the Rakza or jump to Tenergy 64 which I've used quite a bit before as well on the Defplay. I did try the Hellfire again on my spare Defplay since I was debating between Hellfire and Dornenglanz right before turning modern defender. When I went back I just went straight to DG since that's most familiar but after tonight I actually think that I will make the switch to Hellfire. Sure, I get more easy points and pop-ups against the lower ranked players when using DG and that makes it nice and easy but I also make a lot more easy mistakes. Against better players I definitely play better with Hellfire since I don't miss nearly as much and also can be more aggressive on returns. Attacking is easier as well. I'll definitely use Hellfire over the weekend to evaluate it some more.

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So, I played a small tournament this weekend at home soil and sadly the attendance was pretty abismal. It's a new tournament and being this early in the season it was expected. I played pretty good actually, sadly I couldn't capitalize on my opportunities, had 6-1 in the decider and two match points against a player that last year had a winning ratio in Division 1. This player also happens to be very good against LP. I also played pretty close with a couple of other players that I usually are pretty far from beating but sadly I couldn't take even one of these 3 matches and I can feel that more practice and more competing is needed to get to 100%. The rest of the matches I won without dropping a set so I felt pretty solid against players I should beat, which is always a nice feeling.

I played with Hellfire the whole tournament and I'm really pleased with how it played, I feel I'm a bit safer with it compared to DG at the table and it's easier to be really aggressive as well. Chopping needs some work since Hellfire's got a bit higher throw compared to DG, I'm still popping up some chops and/or placing them long.

I used Rakza on the FH on saturday but that sheet was on it's last bit of breath last weekend and just felt completely dead now. On sunday I put an old sheet of H3 on FH instead and it felt pretty good. I've always loved H3 close to the table but not so much when I get forced on defence a 6-7 feet back from the table. However, when I'm really fired up and play more aggressively there's no better rubber for my FH, I just love hitting through backspin with it. BAM!

I can feel the spark lighting again and I'm already looking forward to the next session.

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Sounds good to be able to play that well when changing material like that . Keep up with competing, that is the best way to keep the pace up 'til next gathering and that way day to day practicing feels more motivated.

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Yeah, I was a bit surprised myself actually but this is the same situation I've been in before when choosing between LP's. I usually go with the more dangerous one, which for me have been D.Tecs. However, I've always shown better results when going for a more controlled LP that reduces my unforced errors, even if it's on the expense of some spin and disruption. My results went up after the switch to DG and I expect it will with this change as well, Hellfire most certainly works better for me against better players, that's for sure.

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Read about my adventures to perfect my style and the ever-present battle against the evil EJ virus!

I bought a back up Defplay and transfered old rubbers there. It was lot faster in the BH department with DG... It also felt harder with more crispy sound. Less spin sensitivity and wristy BH smacks worked well - they are fast as hell when they land. I sensed that a lot of overshooting and control problems might be on the way...

I didn't see eny visual difference on the blade. It could be, that glue residue dampened the old blade, as my Palio glue won't come off. Now I glued with Finezip and gluejob was much more even. FH worked well and I can't find the difference.

I tried some Chinese Higher-rubber and 0.5 mm 755 on the other blade. Higher was slow as hell, maybe 3/10, if Rakza is 8/10. Sponged LP was weird to play - again. I never learn...

I ordered Hellfire and Cropcircles ox versions to see, if they are any good.

Had another league gathering this weekend and it went pretty well, this was the first time I played with the new plastic ball except for a 30 second hit earlier this fall. All I can say is that I frickin hated it. The ones we used were the Donic ones and I've heard that these are among the worst rated of the new balls so let's hope for that being true, I don't remember the Xushaofa (spelling? haha) being this bad, I actually remember thinking that one was pretty good. The Donic ones felt egg shaped and would behave unpredictable in the air, it was very hard do get decent spin on the ball which made the trajectory A LOT (!) flatter when going for a loop/drive. Heavy backspin bounced different as well, some just laid down and some bounced up high, probably due to the not so round shape.

Playing wise I didn't really feel comfortable, the LP side felt okay but still a bit weird, had trouble really bending the pips with the new ball. The FH side felt even worse and had me thinking twice before going for my winners, and that's never a good feeling. All this is mostly because I'm out of shape and adding the new ball on top of that made it even worse of course, I'm just lucky a lot of the others had the same problems as me haha.

On another note I've decided to move away from Hellfire, I just don't feel good with the difference in batches I've been experiencing. I have a sheet of Agenda ox coming my way and I will give that a shot, otherwise it's Dornenglanz time to shine again. I had a session yesterday with Dornenglanz and this time I put it on my spare Defplay with Rakza on FH instead of H3 and I immediately remembered why I didn't use the H3 when I was playing with Dornenglanz. I'm sure that most ox players have experienced this, especially with thinner blades, that the characteristics of your LP changes based on your FH rubber. With H3 on the FH the dwell time is a lot short with DG, as well as it being faster overall, and thus I have trouble controlling my shots. With Rakza this problem goes away completely. it's just sad though that H3 works a lot better for my FH, Rakza feels a bit soft. I will try Calibra LT (an old friend), a new sheet of Rakza 7, Acuda S1 and also a Pryde I have lying around and then I will make up my mind.

Live long and prosper!

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Read about my adventures to perfect my style and the ever-present battle against the evil EJ virus!

Nice to hear from you again. I would say Donic is in the middle or lower half of badness. Stiga is worse. Yasaka is in some ways worse because they break more easily and bounces wrong more often. We use Cornelliau from the same factory as Donic but we feel C is a little better than D for whatever reason. They are more round and don't break as often.
XuShaofa is a little bigger and heavier I think, at least it behaves like that. Could also be that the new ones are better, I have mostly used the old one from this summer.
Interesting to hear what you think about Agenda (what a boring name BTW). Is it made for plastic ball?
Perhaps you should try Stigas rubber made for plastic ball (can't remember its name right now)?

Just continue to play with the plastic ball, don't look back. You will learn its different tracectory and bounce after some 10 sessions or so. And you will learn to make spin with it, you just need to work a little more. But on the other hand, with the slower tempo you will be able to chop or lob returns that you couldn't before.

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Sadly my club actually don't have the funds atm to buy more plastic balls than we need for our competitions and league matches so I will be practicing with the old ball at least for a couple of months longer.

I don't think that Agenda is made specifically for the plastic ball but it might be, not sure on that one. I just read that it was supposed to be slower and softer than Dornenglanz which is probably what I'm looking for, if anything, compared to Dornenglanz. I was hoping for smooth pip tops just like Dornenglanz but sadly they seem textured. Still it will be very fun and interesting to test, I have huge respect for SpinLord, have liked every LP I've tried from them and they seem to be the inovative ones when it comes to pips. They also keep the prices at a reasonable level which is always welcome.

Ultimate I think I will stick to DG though, it's probably gonna be better at the table and the chopping is in no way flawed, but let's see what Agenda can bring to the table!

I assume you are talking about Stiga Airoc? If so, I had a hit with it on a buddys blade and didn't really like it that much, Calibra feels better to me. I've never tried Acuda S1 though and that is a bit intriguing. I've always liked Donics rubbers in the past (played many years with the old Coppa JO Platin) but moved away from them after Bluefire which didn't suit me at the time. I know that Calibra works well for me since that was what I used at my peak, so that is what I'm aiming for, I just want to make sure there aren't better options out there.

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Read about my adventures to perfect my style and the ever-present battle against the evil EJ virus!

Played another day of league matches this past weekend and didn't play too well, we still won our team matches though and have pretty much secured the top spot for this season.

I'm starting to realise something though, I feel that I've hit my skill ceiling with the playing style I have now. I haven't made any progress at all in 5 years, it's more like the other way around. It's a nice style to have when facing lower level opponents since I can relax more and play more on deception when my FH is failing me but when I face a stronger opponent it's really hindering me. I play the best, and can beat the best players, when I get to attack as much as possible with my FH but sadly I don't have the footwork and speed of Fabian Åkerström to be able to cover the table sufficiently. This results in them locking me in a defensive mode where I just can't keep up.

I'm now at the same point I was last year when starting this blog and thinking that I have two paths, either I go for SP/inverted BH and play attacking style table tennis or I change my BH rubber to sponged LP or SP and try to develop my defensive skills more so that I can play more like a modern defender against the better players. I'm also thinking that in the beginning I will keep my main OX setup in the bag and play with that against lower level players or against players I know it works against.

Really not sure what to do though since I haven't had good luck with these quests in the past, most of the times I've just given up after a few weeks and other times it hasn't yielded any fruit.

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Read about my adventures to perfect my style and the ever-present battle against the evil EJ virus!

Is the problem that you don't find it fun enough to play with current setup or any setup for a time? That you need some sort of change or challange that drives your will to practice? I can feel such a feeling, that is one of the reasons I changed to SP. What you could do is try a faster setup, more offensive oriented. But perhaps use the same rubbers. The new ball slows things up quite a bit, so there should be a mariginal for such increase in speed. I haven't seen Fabian play in a while, so I don't know how his game has developed since the plastic ball. But I have the feeling that he is trying to reconstruct his game (why he is playing in a lower division for the moment). If I was you I should try to get in contact with either Fabian or his coach (Hans Thalin, perhaps via Lars Borg at Japsko) and see if you can get some guidence/help/inspiration.

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