OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Finally played again last night. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any videos of my playing...hopefully it'll happen soon.

I really like the acoustic. I put dawei inspirit on the FH and LKT pro xt on the backhand.

One thing I kinda noticed was that it rewarded more active play. I needed to actually hit into the ball to get it to go. Probably good for my game By the end of the night, my FH loops against pushes were getting pretty consistent.

I actually managed to beat the best player in our club one game, if not the whole match. He is a cpen player, probably somewhere in the USATT 1800-1900 range. He loops a lot, but sometimes goes way back and lobs. It's quite impressive.

I also managed to get a pair of asics gel rocket 7 for about $26 after shipping via a discount site + a Black Friday deal! For anyone who doesn't know (I don't know how international black Friday is) Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, where most stores in the country have enormous sales on their products. My wife got a camera for $600 that is normally $1100

I was definitely playing better a few matches in. It takes me a while to warm up.

On the short pips topic, I think I depend a bit too much on my loop and such on my FH to try them out. That said, I did notice that I virtually never loop on my BH. I only hit, push, block, chop-block, and VERY occasionally emergency chop. Might try some short pips on my BH eventually. For now I'll play with what I've got on the acoustic.

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Happy Holidays 'round the world!

I forgot to mention:

Previously our club was still using the 40mm celluloid balls.

Last night was the first time I have seen them bust out the poly balls...one table was still playing with celluloid. Man...Jumping back and forth between them really threw me off. They are different...subtly so, but definitely different.

I just want to consistently play with one type

One think that irks me is the lack of orange poly balls. I prefer orange.

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Happy Holidays 'round the world!

My return to TT was finally successful tonight. It seems the community in this town is quite small, however...we had 5 players including myself. A Cpen player, 2 SH attackers, and a "spin-doctor" type defensive player. Here I am trying to get back in with modern defense. There's not much room unfortunately, as it's held in a classroom in a senior center.

Honestly, I'm wondering if I should not go the modern defense route considering the limited space. I don't plan on driving far regularly for a larger venue, so this is probably my long term situation.

Decisions decisions...

As expected, I performed rather poorly, especially with my backhand (I glued up some Neptune LP on my Applegren Allplay to try chopping). That's what 4+ years of a break will do to you I suppose!

Unfortunately my old TT back pain came back again. Mid back on the right side. Hopefully some regular core exercise will help with this.

Anyways, not too crazy of an update, but hey, I'm back.

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Happy Holidays 'round the world!

Bonus pet picture. We got several pets during my TT hiatus. This is Pippin

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Happy Holidays 'round the world!

Got to play again tonight! 4 people this time including me. I was getting back a little bit into the groove. I just picked up my acoustic with double inverted and hit with that tonight. With the restricted space, that definitely felt better. I also was making an effort to play lower to the ground (I am ~6'2"/188 cm) which definitely helped my consistency. However, I got tired pretty quickly. Since we only have 4 players, I was playing almost the entire 2 hours (kind of a short time slot if you ask me, but I'll take what I can get). The altitude here (~7000 feet) makes cardio harder, so I gotta get back into better shape for sure! One of the older guys made fun of me for tiring out since I'm so "young" Well just you wait until I actually get the motivation to get regular exercise!!!!

Future plans include putting new (i.e. NOT 4-year old) rubbers on my acoustic, possibly with short pips on the backhand. Probably Rakza 7 soft on the forehand. I am unsure which SP to get. I am considering RITC 802, 802-40, and Moristo SP (I'm falling in love with Mima Ito's playstyle and I already have an acoustic, so...). I was landing some decent backhand drives/flat hits tonight so I think SP might suit me. Once I've picked a rubber and settled into a style, I'm going to try to kick the EJ bug.

I'm also considering looking into coaching in one of the nearer larger towns. If I only went a couple times a month, the drive wouldn't be intolerable. That would honestly be the best $$$ investment into my play over equipment!!!

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Happy Holidays 'round the world!

Bonus pet pic. This is Yoshi. He is a goblin. But he's cute, in a dorky sort of way.

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Happy Holidays 'round the world!

Tonight I got to try the short pips (I went with Moristo SP) on the BH. Definitely has some good hitting with it on high pushes, but I gotta figure out/get down counter hitting topspin with it.

Yet again, we didn't actually play any matches, which I would prefer, but just hit with each other. I'm hoping the local club is just in a low spot right now as far as attendance and that it might pick up a little more.

My knee is giving me some issues, so depending on how it feels, I may need to take things a little slower picking back up racket sports (I also played pickleball for 3 hours Saturday, which is fun, but not table tennis).

I think my primary focus right now will be staying lower to the table, which is putting a bit of strain on my knees, so getting into shape in general should help. Maybe I shouldn't be hitting the ice cream so hard...

Goodnight!

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Happy Holidays 'round the world!

Only me and one other person tonight...lol. we mostly just hit FH back and forth, he practiced a little chopping. I was having a very hard time with lifting those over the net. My footwork and stamina are improving, I think, though. My knee hurts a bit still, so I may give it a rest over the weekend.

My FH rubber was coming off the blade a bit. I attached it last Tuesday with butterfly free chack. It's Rakza 7, so maybe the doming was too much? It's old glue, but it worked fine for other rubbers. I may just give up and go back to rubber cement.

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Happy Holidays 'round the world!