OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Yes. That is even more relevant and correct sorry. Even if someone is trying to serve short, if they serve spinny and it isn't backspin, almost all the serves will come long. And even if not long, they can usually be attacked over the table if they aren't backspin.

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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

Thanks for the comments! It's a habit I picked up playing as a teenager in Germany. iirc, my coach at the time even encouraged it. he often said, "fallen lassen" which means "let it drop."

Dr. Pivot, my coaches at the TT school (and now you) commented that I hit the ball a bit late. I recently started trying to hit it earlier, but I am still in the beginning stages of learning this. That said I managed to hit 2 FH topspins vs block earlier than usual in a recent match which I lost 0:3 (I'll upload the two rallies later).

Coaches many years ago taught to take the push late. Then a swedish player started to take the ball early and the coaching advice changed over time.
At my low level no one short pushes. It's not really needed. This gives me a big advantage as when I short push they are totally suprsed and are late to the ball. It usually pops up for me to attack.

It is always good to have options IMO and being patient enough to take the ball later in its flight allows you to generate your own power with less fear. But playing that way all the time is limiting, especially when you play someone who will stay close to the table and move you around. I have never been truly mobile enough to consistently back off the table to loop. But even in your game, especially important since you use Chinese rubber, you block on the forehand when you probably should be more actively looping many more balls than you currently do, you would just have to learn to loop over the ball more often, not up on the ball like you currently do.

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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 agree that it doesn't hurt to have more options. Blocking on my FH has been my default since forever. I just recently started trying to counter on the FH side, but making changes is a step-by-step process and it takes a long time, especially reaching the final step of being able to perform certain shots in match conditions.

Here are the two rallies I mentioned before.

https://youtu.be/DLpI7ByEb7Y

The opponent mostly served long to my BH with topspin to get into a rally early. He was more consistent than me on won 3:0 (9,8,6). Being able to counter consistently with my BH and FH would make this matchup even imo.

The first stroke looked perfect. The second one was very good for a ball where you were jammed or where you needed to use your upper body to get the ball to a place that you felt was open and would likely win the point outright.

Practicing looping more like that will help your game a lot. As you rightly point out, it is a process. No easy shortcuts to improvement in table tennis. You may also find that you can still loop with a similar stroke when you want to even a few steps off the table if you don't let the ball drop so much. Nothing wrong with letting the ball drop so much (other than giving the opponent time), but as we agree, the options are valuable. The advantage of the alternative is that taking the ball at an earlier point also means you can likely give a lower arcing faster ball to the opponent. . Doesn't always work our that way but often does. Isn't always the best option but it all depends on the opponent.

_________________
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

Changing to a tacky backhand is probably the best thing I've done recently (changed at the start of the year). My backhand has improved drastically and I'm feeling more confident than ever with it!

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

_________________
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, people still play table tennis?

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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

You mean ping-pong?

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Tactics Enthusiast

Harimoto diving more now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTiSNSq75vU

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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

Harimoto Dive training below. It's encouraging to see him getting annoyed when missing during the most simple multiball. There is hope for me yet.

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

I can start again on Tuesday. There were 30 about cases of covid over the last 2 weeks and that caused all indoor sport to cease. There are now zero cases per day, so life goes back to normal in Adelaide.

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

People are still sending through video with their robots/partners at home. All members are always invited to do so.

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

We officially have ~80 new cases every day in the city I live (population about 1 million). Unofficially probably a lot more. The local healthcare is overwhelmed and most doctors seem to get covid at some point. Yet there are tournaments and people are playing. Some events were canceled due to bad outbreaks, though.

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Tactics Enthusiast