OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Chopper Leo from pgpg's club is at all time high of 2040...

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Nexy Batos ALC - FH Tibhar MX-K - BH Tibhar FX-S
President, Korea Foreign TTC
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Heh, knowing how these things go, I might make it in ~3 years or so... May be.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Yup, now I don't feel as bad losing to him most of the time (although it's usually quite close).

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Setubal Day 2.

Group session in the morning, 4-5 adult players, some coming from Lisbon, I'm told. I practiced some drills with David: short FH push, 2 FH loop, cross-court or down the line. Then played couple of matches with an older guy with OX setup. Split them 3:1 and 2:3, he had a decent FH to put away loose balls and moved quite well too.

In the afternoon it was more about FH drills - not surprisingly, I have quite a few flaws: not staying low (bobbing up and down), not taking ball in front of my belly button, being tense, and in general not generating much spin . Had some interesting drills to start fixing few of them. Got compliments on my LP play, though.

In the evening it was more of a match practice with club players (better than me) and the coach - not surprisingly I lost them, with some fight, though. David also picked out my crappy pushes on FH against heavy backspin - pretty sure there will be a drill for that soon.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

I didn't realize you changed your LP and I didn't realize you used that new setup at the teams!

I think I'm going to try to stay closer to the table as my new change of style. What about the Dtecs/Defplay combo did you like so much? I have a sheet still. Why not DG?

I only ask because I have DG on my defplay, but I mostly chop with it, and do at the table pushing. I find it squirrelly at times when chop blocking or passive blocking against lots of pace. Is that it?

And again, congrats on the rating!

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

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This is very good stuff!

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

I did not really 'change' LP, more like swapped the entire combo (was using Barricade before). I 'auditioned' some of the combos I have two weeks before the tournament and Defplay/Dtecs/AK47 felt most comfortable. I think it's not too fast on FH (although might promote flat hits, I think), so lets me land more shots. It was pretty consistent at the table on BH - I spend most of time there anyway, only with occasional emergency chop.

Plus I watched quite a few videos by Park Hyun Mi, and she uses Dtecs OX ,so I guess I was swayed that way too .

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Setubal Days 3 and 4 ( I guess I'm getting lazy or perhaps local wine is too good)

Training more or less settled into routine: multiball of various kinds spread over morning and afternoon sessions, more match opportunities in the evening. Various drills that mostly make you move in a different way, mixing and matching short/long, FH/BH, push/topspin etc. Pretty educational. And yes, we practiced FH pushes.

I was told immediately that I should breathe during multi-ball - sounds obvious, but when you are tense and keep thinking where the next ball will go, you actually forget, which obviously makes you tired very quickly. It's also easier to relax once you are breathing . I found that it takes me 2-3 attempts at any multi-ball drill to figure out how to do it, and after that it becomes quite a bit easier once you settle into more or less mindless routine, which I guess is the point.

Most important distinction between this club and my home one: people come to practice here, with coach watching over, telling who is plying with whom, and somewhat guiding what they should be focused on. Couple of times I was paired with various juniors who were practicing their serves and I was doing receives, sometimes in a specific way, like using FH only, or in free format. Folks are very friendly - got to play with couple of gents like myself, Herman and Pedro, today. Juniors are very well-behaved and nice too. Most speak at least some English, so not a lot of language barrier.





Took coaches and their families to dinner last night - we went to a restaurant they suggested that is famous for the local specialty 'Choco Frito': deep fried cuttlefish. Very tasty, especially when coupled with a local white wine:

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Setubal Day 5 (the last, but still in progress)

Taking it a bit slow today - David and the rest of the team are flying out to Azores for a league match. Practiced in the morning with another club player (Nuno?) under David's supervision. Did beat him in the end in 5, so I'm not doing too badly .



Pic with both coaches (do I look fat? ) :



Acquired club shirt for my collection as well:



Most likely will have one more low intensity practice session tonight and then will venture out to a nearby restaurant to try some steaks with local red wine (which is very good, by the way).

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

The rest of the day played out somewhat in a different way: David and the rest of the team managed to miss the flight to Azores (massive traffic jam caused by an accident), so they'll have to go in the early morning instead. Since both coaches were gone, not a lot of training happened.

Got a chance to explore a bit of Setubal in the evening - nearby steakhouse was fully booked (it's a low season, but Friday night, so having a reservation would've been nice...), instead headed to waterfront to get a decent meal at a seafood restaurant. It's a port town, after all.

It was a blast - I can cross off 'living in TT club' off my bucket list now. May thanks to coaches David and Domingos Diniz, their lovely wives, and everyone in the club: Rafael, Guilhermo, Pedro, Duarte, Arturo, and I'm pretty sure I forgot many others.

I'm bringing back a bunch of memories, perhaps somewhat better understanding of the game, new TT club jersey, 3 bottles of wine (so far), and a new paddle: Andro Fibercomp Def with Rasanter V42 (LP is TBD, I have several idle ones at home). I also will need to finish 1st season of 'Narcos' we've been watching during our lunches at the club.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Went 1:4 in the league last night, could've been easily 3:2 since I lost few close games, but oh well... No miraculous breakthroughs.

It was interesting how alien club conditions felt after a week in Setubal: floor, tables, lights, ball, space available - everything was just different enough.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Haha Peter, carbon copy of my league and I lost 2 close ones I shoulda won. I went 1-4 instead of 3-2...

Better to fail at home club vs familiar players than to fail that way in an important tourney.

I credit playing vs a Ukranian 2200 and Romanian 2200 2x weekly and such failures at home club for my improvement of 1.5 to 2 levels over the last year.

There is certainly value there. You have also benefitted similarly in your tourney performance.

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_________________
Nexy Batos ALC - FH Tibhar MX-K - BH Tibhar FX-S
President, Korea Foreign TTC
http://www.facebook.com/koreaforeignttc

Hit us up on FB or the Forum

Janitor at Nexy USA
http://www.NexyUSA.com
http://www.facebook.com/Nexyusa/

I'm beginning to suspect that I'm not breathing during the point as well - which is obviously not good

Went 1-5 in the league last night. Did not play that badly and actually thought I was doing few things right, but it did not translate into better W-L record yet.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Look what Santa (ok, colleague at work) got me. Oops, you can't actually see it, since I'm getting a message "Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached". Huh, what does it even mean?

Anyway, it's a DHS A1002 paddle . But wait - it's autographed by Zhang Jike .

Edit: looks like attachment quota is by number of attachments? Deleted one image from a very old post and now it seems to work.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

A bit of experimentation (a.k.a. EJing). On Tuesday played one match with Andro Fibercomp Def/Rasanter V42/Dawei 388-d1 (0.5mm). Kind of a weird vibe on that one - feels more head heavy than I used to. FH appears 'softer', and BH lost consistency right away. Will try again later.

Today also finally got to try a Galaxy T10/Gambler Zero/Dawei 388d-1 (OX), combo I ordered from colestt few weeks ago. T10 is a thick balsa/carbon blade (quite light and fast per description) and is supposedly more of a hitting one. I kind of view this as my attempt to imitate 'Achuma' setup Der_Echte described few times in the past.

What can I say - it's definitely different. Feels fast and slow at the same time, somehow. Nice BH with wonderfully weird balls. FH is a bit strange, but intriguing. Just for fun tried to twiddle and hit with pips on FH and it actually worked almost on first try ( I checked, and I still can't do it with Defplay/Dtecs)! Discovered a weird BH attacking shot with it too, looks like hitting with pips is easier. Makes very strange sounds overall .

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917