OOAK Table Tennis Forum

ETTS62 is now available on ttEDGE.com

I really like this concept and it's something I'll practice if I ever play TT again. There will some extremely good players trying this out over the next few months.

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Thanks Brett. I've been refreshing a few times a day waiting for that one

I like the idea a lot. I'll have a look at my own videos and try it out next time.

I've still been trying to get my serve closer to my body. The last time I had time to practice, I felt like I was contacting the ball very close to my body, but after watching the video, it was still quite far.

It's more challenging for me than adding the whip.

I'm working on your backhand banana flick video now.

If you need a job done, give it to a busy person.

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Thanks Brett. I look forward to seeing it!

I don't even think I have a banana flick, so thanks for calling it that ha. I'm been slowly working on it every now and then.

I can still only do soft flicks during actual games.

I recently saw on an instructional video where a coach was instructing to "tense up" and grip the paddle harder just before contact on the backhand top spin.
Go from relaxed to tense, just before the contact point.

I probably do this a little bit naturally (or watch the blade fly out of my hands). Should I be focusing on this more?

No. Unless you are arthritic like me and have carpal tunnel syndrome or something like that. What you are doing is fine as long as you don't grip the paddle too tightly and stress your fingers.

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Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

Any tips/ideas on getting my left leg to engage first when moving to my right? I'd be happy to just be moving better with good balance against slower balls.

I've been doing basic left right exercises (no ball/blade) to work on this - just moving left to right and right to left using my feet correctly. I can actually feel the awkwardness of moving my left leg first here when I do a pause in the middle.

I also have been doing one drill (as it seems to be an obvious point leak for me): partner gives short backhand backspin ball, I push down the line and partner then pushes wide to my forehand. This forces me to move my right leg in to push the first ball and then get back and move my left leg first while I get ready to loop the backspin.

So those are my two things I'm working on to improve moving to my right. Any other suggestions?

The arm should swing in a natural way with energy from the body. Hold your arms out to the side and twist your body and feel the energy in your arms. That's how it works.

I've told players to relax their arm a million times and the refunds are in the mail. Telling someone to tense their arm is completely wrong and verging on incompetent.

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Do lots of LTT 42 with an eye on using it for shorter distances as well (it becomes semi-cross footwork). I find it easier to chase a ball to the forehand with semi-cross than to try a two step.

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Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

Does it ever happen to you that you come to the club, start hitting or playing a match, and suddenly realize that you aren't able to play today? Like, at all: your topspins go long, pushes go into the net or sideways, you're making an insane amount of service errors... Despite that you might have been playing your best TT yesterday, today nothing seems to work.

My best approach to such situations is to leave the club immediately, telling myself that it's just today, tomorrow my game will be back and everything will be fine again.
But that's merely a hope, in reality, I don't know what I should do (or avoid doing) in order to get my game back, or what ruined it in the first place.

How do you deal with it?

Been there, done that. I usually play through, since, well, even bad TT is better than no TT. May be switch to your B game (for me it would be more of chopping away from the table or pure defense/stop attacking/safer shots).

Sometimes your opponents have something to do with it too.

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It is why I tell people that in practice, develop a spin game an practice varying your range of speed and spin and contact points on the ball.

It is not hard to adjust to keep the ball.on the table if you understand how changing your stroke affects the ball. But if you learn to always block fast or always hit the ball hard, you have no backup plan when the ball stops hitting the table.

When I learned to play with different ranges of speed and spin, those days of missing the ball and wondering why my game was bad simply went away. I have had days but they aren't as out of control as they used to be.

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Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

I think one question is: are you tired or not feeling well or hurting? These things happen. I realize that for me to actually improve I have to do a lot more than before. I have to get enough fluids, I have to eat reasonably well, no drinking and take care of my body with massage and stretching before and after. While I still look like crap out there I need to act semi-professional just to get a chance to improve.

Brett once mentioned that a player he knows had a disaster morning session and then the best afternoon session of his life. I've had this experience in the same day too.

I played a rated match couple of weeks ago where I knew I could win but then I was going long with every loop. I knew I could win because I knew I was going to get a chance to attack a lot of balls. I had to think about it and tell myself to slightly change the shot. I never just thought 'it's not my day I guess'. After 4 or 5 errors I corrected and eased on to victory.

With that said I did default in the last day of the US Nationals. Too many physical problems plus I was simply exhausted. I warmed up and decided that I wasn't right physically. I felt like I was the hunted.

I feel like this is a big contributor for a lot of people for having extremely good or bad days! I see this a lot.

I rarely have extremely good days, but the style I play usually means I rarely have extremely bad days too.

By the way, I've still been working on getting the serve closer. Here's my latest attempt. This is only the 3rd time I've practiced it since. Each time is usually like 15 minutes of free play with me serving. I generally ask my partner to return to my backhand since I'm more confident in my forehand.

The first time I couldn't even hit the ball. Second time I thought I had it close to the body, but when I saw the video, it was WAYYYY off still. And this is the third attempt. I think it's decently close but I can still get it closer for sure. I'm also losing a lot of control while practicing this (less spin, whip, higher ball bounce, misses, etc), but I'm confident I'll get those back with a few more practice attempts!!

Anything you guys see I should consider during my next practice session next week? So far I'm planning to force my elbow further behind my body to get the contact closer to the body.

Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63CoNICWst4

I'm just happy you are going down this path of changing your serve and also experiencing similar issues I'm having. A few more practice attempts? Cmon now. Maybe a few months of 7 hours a week practice.

Back to picking my left leg up on the backhand serve...