OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Great LordCope.

Please explain what you are doing and how you got there. I like what you are doing and I want to know if you understand the things you are doing well?

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ttEDGE.com Professional online coaching

Wow! Really impressive LC. You look very fit and your position and movement shows it. Super fluid twiddle as well. Love that you are able to take the ball on the rise, and the way the fh is hit with your whole body and not just arm. The pickup on the one random ball he sent to your middle was brilliant too. Good stuff! Would love to see this in a match sometime.

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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

Thanks Brett!

It's a great pair of questions. I'll try to answer them:

1) What am I doing?

I'm guessing you mean what, in terms of technique am I "consciously" (or perhaps by now unconsciously) doing? I would suggest the following:

- Trying to keep space between my elbow and my body
- Trying to maintain balance, especially across shoulders
- On FH, trying to include core and shoulder turn, not just arm/shoulder
- In general, trying to keep things compact to aid quick recovery
- In general trying to take the ball on the rise (even more so on bh)
- In general trying to move to a point where my stroke will hit the ball
- On bh, trying to have all of my body behind the ball, and shoulders pointing where I want the ball to go

2) How did I get here?

OK this was my FH in 2014 (inverted):


And this was my BH in 2014 (inverted):



This is my FH in 2016 (inverted), when I first started as a ttedge member:



And here's my BH in March of 2016 (SP):



Here's my FH in Jan 2017 (SP):



The journey has been long. I tried to understand basic technique from ttedge, but as there aren't many videos on SP or LP, I had to try to work things out myself as well. I've also had help from several coaches - two have worked with me more on technique - helping me to become lot less stiff and jerky, and lighter and more fluid in my footwork. The other (the person in all these videos) has done a lot of exercises and multiball. There's a lot of work to do, but when I look over the journey it's quite interesting!

I'd be interested to know what you like, and what you'd like to see improve.

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

Here's a five second video. There is nothing particularly good or exciting about this point except that I reset my feet and balance ever so slightly after the receive. It's so small as to be nearly invisible at full speed. If it can be done once, it can be done.

https://youtu.be/ZlTzEdm88os

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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

here is a short clip of my new backhand technique. Been working on this since I switched to short pips in 2018 and I think I finally found the right stroke.

https://youtu.be/OumvcywbIOs

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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

Like a Boss.

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Tactics Enthusiast

The table tennis journey is a long one. I think about how much I've evolved my views over the last 10 years and it's quite remarkable. I just can't believe some of the coaching methods I used 20 years ago.

Everyone who has played TT for 5+ years understands that it's a very long-term sport and, at best, you should expect small incremental improvements.

LC, you have learned to move your body correctly on both backhand and forehand. That's what I liked.

4 years ago, you were just jabbing at the ball with your arm on the backhand and your body was falling into the shot. On the forehand, you were mainly using your arm (as you pointed out) and now you are using your legs/hips. I believe that these 2 issues are the majority of what most players reading this thread need to learn.

Here is what it all means in 2 videos. The first is on ttEDGE.com and it's free for everyone https://ttedge.com/videos/etts49-execut ... counterhit

Here's the second one:

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ttEDGE.com Professional online coaching

All you have to do is serve a fault first. Clearly it puts you in the right frame of mind to totally launch your new backhand.

How is Tyson going? Is the club working out?

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Get your 3 wishes here today!
ttEDGE.com Professional online coaching

It is growing slowly. Tyson was able to move to a much better space with six tables. He runs a group class three days a week and is a Butterfly and Joola dealer. Those on top of memberships mean he makes a bit of profit. The cheap mall location is crucial, without that no club.

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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

The death of malls shall be the birth of table tennis in the USA? Probably just more pickleball.

When shall we get the next video? I think it should be on pivoting or using the body for blocking or learning how to adapt to using the back swing as part of every shot.

Those are the topics I'm either teaching or trying to do better myself.

The back swing as part of the shot is a very big one that I'm seeing as a limitation to many sub 1500 players now.

Training a bit more these days though I mostly hide my video sessions. My latest loop to random backhand block session:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQcJotAjrb0

I tried Tenergy 05 Hard onf the forehand for the first time today and I have never used a rubber that had such raw power before - felt like I was taking steroids. It made me feel less crappy about better players hitting the ball past me - if they are using that to do it, then it is not my fault or technique etc. As for joining them, that will require an experiment...

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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

What are your thoughts on the MX-K?

PM me if you want my extended opinion. But I used it in the video above and for all my recent tournaments and I find it very reliable.

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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

Indeed, I am about to run out of popcorn.

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Tactics Enthusiast