OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Please read Starting Strength.

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The reason why you want to get strong is so you don't get injured/sore/tired so easy. Then you can actually train TT properly. We interact with the planet via strength. The fastest way to get strong initially is to lift as much weight as you possibly can using correct technique of course. If you aren't lifting as much weight as you can, whilst maintaining great technique, then you are wasting your time.

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ETTS59 is now available on ttEDGE.com. https://ttedge.com/videos/etts59-execut ... mprovement

Perhaps there is nothing new in part 59 however I like showing members who are serious about improving.

Next week will be a LTT about transitioning between forehand and backhand. Some of the biggest mistakes in TT occur when you are reaching for a backhand after playing a forehand. I'll do my best to explain

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Thanks. Good point. I never considered it as injury prevention. I'm relatively fit so that has never been a big consideration. But as I get older, I definitely need to look after myself to prolong my playing life. My wrist has been getting pretty bad recently. But I don't think it's something that can be fixed through strengthening anymore. Probably need to see some specialists about it.

Great video once again!

Rich has made some real progress there! After you made ETTS57 about his left leg collapsing, I've been paying attention to my own videos to see if I was doing the same. I didn't think I was, but there were some points where I did. I found my leg would collapse as I swung up when I failed to move into a good position and needed to wait longer than I'd want to for the ball to "come to me", which meant I suddenly had to take the ball lower than I anticipated. Having better movement or when you're out of position, getting down lower before starting the swing up are probably key for me in those situations.

Any tips from my last training session? It was from nearly 3 weeks ago because I've been too busy to go. But generally, when I'm not busy, I've been going once a week for over half a year now.

I was also planning to record some serve practice the next time I went, which was supposed to be last week, but something came up

As we all know, fundamentals are really important. I'm especially not a fan of my backhand. I feel like my elbow is higher than my hand during contact. I feel like it should be the same level at most. Also lacks power. Too much of an upwards swing without enough impact to get a good amount of quality. Need to use my body better I think.

They're all short, like 20 balls multiball. That's how the session usually goes. 1 or 2 sets of 20 balls, then move on to something else.

This one was random to the FH or BH, same spots but random.
https://youtu.be/mVzw4jg6WfE
This one was one in the middle, then one random to the FH or BH.
https://youtu.be/_khPovvKb6g
This one was random, anywhere on about 70% of the table from the backhand side I think.
https://youtu.be/gVHnmxejpsQ
My regular FH drive against underspin. The first 10 or so balls were normal. Then I tried to add power, which lowered the consistency a lot.
https://youtu.be/Wmv6oWx0xq0
My regular BH loop, I guess. I didn't have a BH opening against underspin about 6 months ago before I started coming here, so it's still a work in progress.
https://youtu.be/AqVj2KsYgmk

I also had a tournament the other day, but it was a team event, and my team is pretty lowly ranked. If I was to guess, I'd say my opponents were like USATT1000-1500. I'll post some of those too because I think it's important to have your technique hold up, especially when you're not under heavy pressure.

Thanks guys!!

When you play BH against a regular ball you take the ball very early, which is fine, but it seems that you lack a real two-step swing with the body. I'd take a half-step back and make sure you lead your BH with your body rather than your arm.

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@mickd,

Everything looks good. Everything can be better. You are doing enough for the quality of ball you are facing but not accentuating the elements required to have a higher quality ball, which are usually the use of hips and the back/torso to enable the swing. I feel the latter should be the focus of multiball exercises like this rather than putting the ball on the table.

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@fastmover Thank you. Anything to improve my backhand. I remember you, or maybe someone else, talking about the two step swing, but I'm not familiar with it. Could you elaborate? Or was there a video on TT-Edge about it?

@NextLevel Thank you. I really feel I lack using the body for the backhand. To be honest, it probably looks like I'm just putting the ball on the table, but... I actually feel quite pushed and barely making it in time to even do that. I'm thinking I need to redo my backhand technique to make it lead with the body so that I can do a better shot in the same amount of time (or maybe anticipation will get better?) I have years of bad technique to undo, though every year my technique changes quite drastically from the previous. I'll try get some time in to do easier, non-random drills so that I can really focus on the body. By the way, do you think my forehand lacks the hips, back/torso too? Is it something I should also concentrate more on now? Or would it be better to focus mainly on the backhand?

What about the FH and BH drive against underspin? I'm not sure if I'm just imagining stuff, but when I see my forehand drive against underspin, it always look like the shoulder is so stiff during contact. I don't think I'm tightening the muscles there, but it looks like it. Backhand drive looks like it lacks whip. The ball goes in, but maybe if I can't get the whip down, I'll never get the consistency up? To me it looks like my backhands against underspin are more like, solid impact, but without the benefit of speed. It looks like I'm just hitting the back of the ball, but the end result is a slowish ball with a decent amount of spin, but lacking power.

The two-step backhand is described in LTT80, as well as in some other videos. I think against backspin you do use some body, but you can do more. Just exaggerate folding the body on the backswing as much as possible and feel it. Also try to do the same when playing against topspin at mid-distance, and you will feel the power. Whenever you feel you lack the power on BH, do more body.

You also have to do the fold-unfold on the close to the table backhand, but it is harder to do due lack of time.

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mickd, I agree with the thoughts of fastmover and NextLevel. I think that LTT116 (coming this weekend) is something for you to look at too.

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@fastmover Thanks! I remember watching that video awhile back when Brett said I should watch all those videos around there! It was a good reminder. So yesterday when I was doing backhand rallies down the line with one of my playing partners, I was paying attention to the bow/unbowing movement. I felt a good amount of quality on the balls.

I'll still need to work on it because multiball is very different to rallies. Rallies usually have more spin so it's easier just to lightly whip into the ball and send it back. For multiball, the ball usually isn't as spinny, so if I did the same, it would likely just fall into the net (will need to adjust for it). Also, the random aspect of the multiball I was doing gives me less time to get ready.

@Brett I'm looking forward to it!

LTT116 is now available on ttEDGE.com It highlights one of the most common mistakes in tt, all the way up to elite level. If I had this knowledge when I played, I'd have been better for sure.

If you've been following the LTT series, 116 should be obvious. For the vast majority of standard club players, this lesson is critical.

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Nice video, Brett. I watched it a few times. I, and many others I know, have the same issues that you demonstrated in that video. The general response has always been to stop reaching and to wait for the ball. I'll keep it in mind going forward

I got a chance to train a bit, so here are some videos.

Backhand loop:


Random blocking:

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