OOAK Table Tennis Forum

If you want to improve, stop watching YouTube match highlights, or even even YouTube matches where all the points are shown, just the bits inbetween points edited out.

Why? Simple.

Watching highlights gives a false perception of the game, especially around shot selection and how points are won. That fantastic rally of 20 shots, with fast loops, excellent counter loops, blocks, drives, lobs and smashes. It's not common. In fact, more points are won from opponents mistakes, often off serve return or third ball attack. Even worse, it creates the perception that you have to hit the ball hard and early. Control and placement will win more points than outright power.

If all you do is watch highlight reels, you'll probably get bored of real match play or lack the patience or ability to work a point, keep pressure on and keep the ball on the table longest.

And even when you watch matches with all the points, "just" the bits inbetween points edited out, you miss masses of useful information, particularly around the mental aspect of the game, the composure, how players slow things down, reset themselves, calm themselves down, plan their next point.

If you want to be entertained by "action" then yes, watch highlights. If you want to learn about match play, give them a miss and try and find the "whole match" to watch.

What do you think?

Benjamin Franklin
— Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy; and he that risen late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business..

I think you make a very good point Debater...it's so easy to get carried away and focus on the wrong parts of your game to improve.

Even when thinking about my own game after a night of competition, I tend to remember the more spectacular points that I made or missed, not all the free points I may have won or lost from serves.

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I always try to watch full matches,warts and all. Apart from anything else, I find edited matches quite boring, and rarely watch all the way through.
Because the real drama and interest is in the bits in-between, as the players react to the points and set themselves to do better, when they realise that they know how to change the play, or sometimes, you can even see the point at which they give up.

I remember watching the 1975 Wimbledon final live on TV. OK, not table tennis. But my strongest memory of that match was the feeling that Ashe beat Connors while sitting in his chair in the breaks, with his calm, still recovery. Whether this was a deciding factor, I don't know. It was a talking point at the time, although we found out later that Connors was nursing an injury. which possibly had an effect. But you see none of it in the edited version.

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Arthur Ashe talking about the mental approach to the game
Very interesting.