OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Recently, I have been playing as many tournaments as possible trying to perform the shots I honed during practice in match conditions. Overall, I am happy with the level displayed. The tournaments I participate in are round-robin format without KO stages. I like these because you are guaranteed to play 4 or 5 matches (depending on the venue) in 3-4 hours.

4 October: 4-1 (I was the 2nd seed in the lower-rated group).
18 October: 3-2 (I was seeded 9th out of 10 in the higher-rated group).
25 October: 2-3 (I was seeded 4th in the lower-rated group).
1 November: 4-0 (I was the 1st seed in the lower-rated group).

Below are two matches from the tournaments:

(1) https://youtu.be/eDCwkPBYuts -- Tight loss. Received feedback from Brett on what to work on and what to improve going forward against this player.

(2) https://youtu.be/shX7JF_50to -- Tight win. Games 2 and 5 were probably two of the best games I have played this year. The opponent made it somewhat easy in game 2 by playing far away from the table with his BH. But I was happy/relieved that I stopped his momentum in the fifth.

Good stuff!

Watching 15 seconds of both I had ideas.
1. You are a bit slow on recovery off the serve.
2. Many of us can lift the backspin but we don't go forward enough and often this is the cause of the ball going into the net. There's a sweet spot where you are going forward with lift This is a new one for me.
3. On the forehand I think you can get more bat speed by accelerating more into the ball. You do this against backspin but didn't seem to happen against block. Brett might disagree but I think all of the body rotation work ends up in an acceleration at or near the point of contact.

Thanks for the feedback!

1. There is most room for improvement after the BH serve imo. After the punch and tomahawk serve the recovery is okayish, but it could be better and I am working on the recovery for all of them.
3. Can you give an example of one?

Nice play.

Here are some points that I see that could improve your game.
I am working on the following points in my own game too.

I feel your your play is a bit too passive and not aggressive enough. However that could be your style of play.

I feel you push far too much on your backhand and with low quality.
A good open up on your backhand if well placed will win 70 percent of the time or get a block to attack again. You could raise your standard to the next level if you attacked all pushes.

I would work on opening up on your backhand as the main training goal.

Also I feel you need to improve the quality of pushes.
Your pushes seem high and seem to lack good spin allowing your opponent to take the initiative.
If you played an opponent at a higher level all your pushes would be attacked for winners.
Taking the ball off the bounce could be a key for improvement as I feel you take them too late.
Learning a fast push off the bounce would be more of an attacking option if you can't open up.
Heavy spin at an angle is another option.
My coach as a aggressive push. Its very fast to the corners or too much spin to open up easily.
He stresses taking the ball off the bounce in the push.
Brets got a good video on the fast push shot.

I think your forehand needs more bodywork to support a faster swing. I would suggest to load up more on the right leg so you have more of a lean. (left leg action helps here too) Then more of an aggressive push of the right leg to get the right hip to explode forward and being relaxed in the swing could take the racket head speed up 10% or more.

This has been my main focus on in training lately.
Let me know if my feedback seems relevant.

Thanks for the feedback!

I agree with some parts and disagree with other parts. It's a conscious decision to focus on attacking third balls with a FH topspin vs backspin. I can do it well in training/practice matches and I am working on getting to a similar level in tournaments.

I have been practicing BH topspin vs backspin as well, but my technique is not where I would like it to be. In drills where I know that the ball will be pushed long to my BH the success rate is 60-70%. However, in match conditions, I would probably land less than 50% on the table making it a losing proposition. Currently, my focus is to win matches and apply the FH in match conditions.

Of course, there are instances when I am late to the ball, misread the spin and the ball pops up -- receiving is the most difficult part of the game. That said my push is decent imo. A few examples from the match vs Mikuni

- 0:18 (good quality)
- 0:33 (high, but it had enough backspin)
- 3:48 (okayish)
- 3:53 (good quality)
- 4:24 (good quality)
- 6:09 (misread the spin and the ball popped up)

https://youtu.be/shX7JF_50to?t=35
This point right here shows both. You explode up into the ball against the backspin. The next shot is mechanically looping the block. The last shot you finally let things relax and get some power. It was probably nerves because you can relax your forehand and attack. You did them all in that single point

Cool. If your open up is less than 50% in match play then a quality push is needed.
Just out of interest, do you agree with me that you do not push on the rise?
My coach tells me to only push when the ball is falling if you are late to the ball.

my guess is i didn't have as much time preparing for the first FH topspin vs block. it could also be the case that moving/jumping to the left is more difficult for me or that i wasn't relaxed on that shot. in short, i don't know.

yes, this means that i push when the ball is falling. since i am late to the ball often i am actually following the advice of your coach

sure, ideally, i would like to be able to push straight after the bounce, but i tend to be late and correctly reading the spin is difficult (i get slightly more information by waiting a bit)

If you go up a level or two, a short push is needed. This shot you have to take off the bounce.

I doubt I will ever reach a level where a short push is actually needed.

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Tactics Enthusiast

You don't play people who can loop backspin consistently? Or you have a killer long push.

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Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you'll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

His point is that with a good/decent long push, you don't have to fear openings even at the 2000 USATT level. Dropping the ball short in my experience causes more problems if you can't read spin as you keep giving the opponent put away opportunities over the table. I find it easier to make the opponent move with a deep/wide push and then defend the opener. Dropping the ball short only works if you read the serves really well.

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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

Like the matches. You move well and cover a lot of court and that bodes well for your game. Also like the fact that you seem to be able to dictate the pace of play and don't go for too much. I would encourage you to learn to take the ball earlier as an alternative. You are patient and mobile enough to take the ball late for sure, but taking the ball earlier would enable you to play closer to the table and make the opponent move a bit more and let you move a bit less. When playing a chopper, letting the ball drop a bit is fine. But when playing topspin, you do want to be able to redirect on the rise or play some strokes at the top of the bounce as opposed to being forced to wait for the ball before loading it. I suspect you will continue to improve massively regardless.

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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

Yes. In addition, most players at the local scene are not even trying to serve short. The level where the short push is really needed is local pro or semi-pro (2300+), which is unreachable for me unless I train full-time. And all my training now is shadow practice.

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Tactics Enthusiast