Learning in spurts
Recently I have started twiddling. I have been doing it off an on for about 3 months now but recently I have been doing it more. When I twiddle with my Samsonov Alpha+T05+802 1.5mm I am playing in a similar way to Barkj. The SP makes it easy to return chopped balls with a fraction of the effort.
Twiddling is cool. I have reallized for a long while that the only way to play with anti is to twiddle but know I do it to return chopped balls that I know will be difficult to return.
Another discovery. One day I was feeling good so I was really swinging hard and fast at the ball. My hand speed was much higher than usual. I can't keep it up for long but what I found out is that I can control the ball and the top spin keeps the ball on the table. Now I know I can have faster and spinnier loops when needed but not all the time.
Comments
Hard?
Hard? EasY just smash it...
twiddle
I miss the twiddle and wish I had a long pimple here to show Ed how much devestation I could cause him.
Ultimately I don't really enjoy winning that much when I win by the elma fud factor. a win is a win. I never got good enough to beat the good players with pimples or anti spin.
I did however still have a pretty good win ratio using 1.2 on one side -doing the same sorts of strokes but with large differences in what they were used to, and a lot more "control in the flat hitty sense.
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It should be easy to find something mean and nasty.
755 0X is cheap and easy to play with. It seems to work well on any paddle.
I would love to see you play with 755 0X and watch you do one of your BH loops. You can loop sort of with 755 0X.
Spin reversal is no fun for the opponent but they soon get use to it when you just block but when you punch block, chop block, chop, top spin drive etc then the opponent gets bewildered.
The spin reversal rubbers are good if you just like to play the blocking game. I can't see you EVER doing that but I can see you top spinning with 755 0X.
Very few people can return LP attacks well. This is where I get my points. Most of the LP players at the club are LP attackers. There isn't any of this push blocker pitter patter table tennis.
If you want to get a spin reversal type of LP get Pogo 0X. It works best on a low dwell time paddle like the 729 Bomb. However, I know from previous post you don't like Balsa.
I played well at the club Sunday, while energy lasted.
I can see that the quality of my play is directly proportional to the amount of energy that I put into it. I was looping like crazy but I got very tired quickly. While I was looping well the balls would bounce of the table and jump out low under the opponents paddle. At first I played an person that must be about my age but he isn't that good. He is mobile though. I would hit slow spinny loops that would bounce close to the edge just behind the net. He would lob them up and I would finish them to his back hand. Surprisingly he was fast enough to start getting to those that I hit to his back hand. I then had to change my play book and hit the second ball to hit FH as he over committed to his BH.
The younger super looper was having troubles with my loops until I got tired and fell back into blocking mode. The younger super looper has mean and nasty serves though. I still have problems with serves especially at the end after I am exhausted. I know I can pull out an anti or LP and get these back but I played with my Ball Whacker for the evening.
I have a new sparring partner at work. This one was a real athlete at one time but now he as as old as I am. He still has the moves but it just getting back into TT after a many year layoff. He has a very smooth motion for his loops. He has a brush BH loop. Right now I have the upper hand but that will even out as he gets his TT mojo back.
So now I have two sparring partners at work. One plays Mondays and Wednesdays most of the time and the other new sparring partner plays Tuesdays and Thursdays. There is no need to go to the club on a weekday any more and fight the traffic and do the 50 mile round trip.
won't bother
I won't be putting in orders for the chop style, just for fun..
as for balsa I proved that I could play well with it yesterday.
http://tabletennisyoutube.com
energy
I tend to play hard until I get exhausted or Ed starts hitting nets and edges frequently, I then shift into dribble mode, just kind low spin blocky positioning shots.
It gives a chance for him to practise attacking more too.
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Nothing ticks me off more than those .....
edge balls and balls that hit the top of the net and just fall over. It seems I am always on the losing end of those. I will get one for every 2 to 5 my opponent gets and I lose too many games by two points because of it.
The last hard bat tournament I played in the opponent had 3 of those in one game that either hit the net and fell over or hit the edge.
I haven't changed anything on any of my paddles for 2 months now. Wow!!!!
nets edges pips
I do get some nets and edges but Ed seems to thrive on getting his more than fair share.
Not much you can do really but smile and say good shot.
Good to see the EJ is slowing, after having lost worst to only combination players recently I have a tickle in my head about trying out the twiddle again. I have been there too many times and always gone in too more serious level matches with my new combination style and just got whipped worse than ever.
I know I shouldn't go there as a result but always want to have a dabble in it again?
Ed if you read this (buy me the cheapest no sponge long pimple you can get in Bangkok!)
http://tabletennisyoutube.com
I have two regular sparring partners now. They are different
One plays Mondays and Wednesdays. This is the one I have had for quite a while and he basically waits for me to make a mistake. He lobs, fishes, side spins and under spins and attacks high balls. The new one plays Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. He is a looper with the foot work to match. He is getting MUCH better each time we play. He hasn't played for a while but we can tell he was probably much better than any of us at one time. Maybe even better that Boz. He can brush loop with his BH using 729 2.1 OEM. He doesn't seem to care about no stickin rubber. He just loops away and he can chop too. This will be good for me as now I have to extremely different sparring partners.
Also, the word is getting out that one can play TT in Battle Ground, WA. ( where I work ). I seem to be collecting new players but my to main sparring partners are the best so far. Now I am scheduling people so there aren't more than 3 playing at a time.
nets and edges
You got more than me today John Bozi!
Twiddling
Interesting reading about the twiddling. This is a difficult thing because I find it is all I can do to hit the damn thing without having the extra distraction of changing the side of the bat. Even doing a reverse pendulum serve is made difficult because as by the time I have regripped the sevice return is long gone.
Twiddling isn't so hard.
One guy I play with never twiddles while playing but twiddles constantly without thinking about it. It is a nervous habit.
I simply took a TT paddle home and twiddled it while watching TV. You only need to do that for a little while and you can do it without thinking.
The hard part is thinking about doing in a rally and doing it in the middle of a stroke. I usually twiddle my FH rubber to make a BH kill shot and lately I have twiddling my BH pips to my FH to save energy returning chopped balls.
Like everything it just takes practice but this doesn't require much practice.
" Even doing a reverse pendulum serve is made difficult because as by the time I have regripped the sevice return is long gone."
Twiddling after a serve should be easy because you know ahead of time that you are going to do it.
agree with everything you
agree with everything you said Pnatchewey,
1. Ed - just hold the bat in your hand and change a million times from service stroke to normal stroke while your watching tv or walking down the street, it really becomes totally subconscious eventually, bit like winking and breathing.
2. as for twiddling - I asked Ed to get me the cheapest chinese pips he can get, so will see.
My forehand has improved greatly over the last 2 years and I like to try to use it solely as much as I can sometimes. So I think the pips on one side will not change things to much, except for players who aim to most illogical points.
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