RND
Some random notes & observations
Updated March 2020
(Please clear your browser
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1. “Ping-Pong” is a sad
derogatory misnomer for the modern athletic “sport” of “Table-Tennis”
2. Ping-Pong refers to a
silly mindless basement “game” (played in North American basements / bars)
whereas Table-Tennis is an athletic Olympic sport, indisputably (for
better or worse) the
most complex individual sport due to very high technology rackets, very
individual playing styles due to orthodox & unorthodox stroke mechanics all
happening at obscene spins at insane speeds.
3. Informed people will not
use the phrase “Ping-Pong” in the context of Table-Tennis &
look clueless.
4. Is it “table tennis” or
“TableTennis” or “Table-Tennis” ? Is it “short
pips” or short-pips” or “shortpips” ? Suggested Phrase conventions:-
Due to Internet search engines returning inconsistent search results (such as
returning Lawn Tennis related items) , the following format for Table-Tennis is
suggested :- Please use phrases such as Table-Tennis or Long-Pips
etc instead of “long pips” or table-tennis or short-pips etc. This would help
everyone to retrieve accurate Table-Tennis related search results. Yes internet
search is case insensitive by default but I am suggesting phrases like Table-Tennis & Long-Pips
& not Table-Tennis or Long-Pips just for visual ease of identification
of phrase with two words in the phrase. (of course please have your brain
surgeon wipeout the phrase Ping-Pong or Ping-Pong etc from every cell in your
brain if you are a Table-Tennis athlete).If there is a method please email so this error can be corrected
here
5. Table-Tennis was played
with rackets with pips out rubber without sponge before 1952. These bats (or
paddles) or now known as hardbat. HardBat is still legal in tournament play but
it is almost like coming to a fight with a knife where your opponent has laser
weapons
6. SandPaper was NEVER EVER
legal in ITTF tournament play. Children should never start playing the proper
sport of Table-Tennis using SandPaper or HardBat.
7. Basement “Ping-Pong” may be
played just using your backhand but “Table-Tennis” is primarily a forehand dominant sport. Yes backhand is equally
important as you get better Table-Tennis but backhand in itself nowhere close
to a sufficient & necessary condition to get to be decent Table-Tennis
player. You are highly unlikely to walk into a LawnTennis club & ask the
coach just to teach you backhand only. Likewise thinking that you can dominate
in Table-Tennis just with your backhand is just an absurd mentality of what I
would refer to as Backhand buffoons of Ping-Pong. Even if you happen to be
maybe 5% to 10% of the humans who have a better backhand than forehand, you are
not going to get anywhere in Table-Tennis just with your backhand ONLY.
8. Modern Table-Tennis is
mostly played with rackets that have smooth TopSheet with & sponge
underneath.
9. Since almost every player
in Table-Tennis (more like in basement Ping-Pong) is somehow a professional
Table-Tennis athlete & a legend in their own mind ( or champion of their
state or old country etc) , we will use the definition of a player as being
over USATT rating of about 2600 for men & about 2300 for women &
classify the rest as amateur TT athletes, when references to professional &
amateur TT athletes are made going forward below . Note that rating is not
the same ranking (Ranking is sort of inverse of rating). The higher the
ranking, the lower your rating number & vice-versa. The World ranked #1 is
rated about 2950 (about 3000 being perfect) & on the inverse, a non-player
is rated 0 & a beginner about 200. The higher your USATT rating the more
skilled you are. just as lower your ranking number, the more skilled you
are.
10. There are three types of
pips (or pimples) . Using two pre-dominant defining
parameters, Short-Pips are the oldest type that existed before
arrival of sponge in 1952. Short-Pips are so known obviously because they are
also the shortest of all 3 pip types. But Short-Pips are also the stiffest of
all three pip types. The Short-Pips are for all out attacking type hitting TT
athletes known as the block & smash style almost extinct now on men’s side.
The Long-Pips were the next to arrive in 70s. They have pips that are the
longest of all pip types & also the least stiff (or most flexible) of all
pip types. The Long-Pips have 2 subtypes. The chopping Long-Pips (or
cLong-Pips) are for away from the table chop defense type play. The blocking
Long-Pips (or bLong-Pips) are for close to the table blocking type
play. The third type of pips are the Medium-Pips which have
characteristics in between Long-Pips & Short-Pips. There are many many
other parameters that define the behavior of pips rubbers and explored in detail
in another article at this website
11. Smooth surface rubbers
(relatively new & recently purchased & not the rubber on your racket
“cooked” in your attic for 30 years LOL which is now actually anti-spin rubber)
create lot more spin than pips-out rubbers
12. Smooth rubbers are for
(mostly) “spinning” the ball; pips-out
rubbers are mostly for “hitting”. Unfortunately more
than 60 to
70% of TT athletes are forcing the issue by using the wrong rubber for wrong
irrational reasons (such as hero worshipping fantasies or intense robotNazi
peer pressure to use only smooth rubber regardless of reason), such
as mostly trying to “hit” the ball using smooth rubber. &
conversely, yes, there are a few TT athletes (but far fewer cases) who use
PipsOut rubbers for spinning the ball but these are usually TT athletes not on
the Table-Tennis club / tournament scene & are not are aware of the fact
that better spinning rubbers such as smooth rubbers exist.(Usually the
robotNazis convert them the same day to smooth rubber in a hurry as soon as
they show up at a club LOL)
13. A professional player using
smooth rubber instinctively
knows when to hit instead of spinning (& a professional player using
Short-Pips instinctively knows when to spin instead of hitting). But from a
transference viewpoint , a low level TT athletes obsessed with a specific
professional player assumes the pro is hitting the ball most of the time whereas
the pro is really not (the ball travels with both so much speed & spin but
only the speed is visible to the amateur) .Therefore a lower level smooth
rubber player must initially sacrifice hitting & must focus almost
exclusively on spinning, as this is the simply nature of smooth rubber by
design.(Conversely however, even lower level pips-out hitters should spend
significant amount of time learning to TopSpin (loop) the ball, since “hitting”
(or in more crass Ping-Pong terminology “smashing” or “slamming”) the ball is
more natural at first for more humans until they learn to (top)spin the ball.
the biggest mistakes that lower level TT athletes using spinny rubbers make, is
to go for speed (watching professional TT athletes) .Smooth
spinny rubber is mostly for “spinning” just
as Short-Pips rubbers are mostly “hitting”
or chopping type Long-Pips are for “chopping” or blocking type Long-Pips or Medium-Pips rubbers are for “blocking” or chopping type AntiSpin rubbers are for chopping
or blocking type AntiSpin rubbers are for blocking) . When you start learning
to play with smooth rubber, goal should be to maximize spin at minimum speed.
You speed will improve as your level improve but don’t push it but let it come
to you as improve.
14. On the flip-side, once you
have reached closed to your saturation consistency, you may want to revert back
to learning to flat-hitting using smooth rubber or spinning (looping) with
pips. This is extremely effective because one subconsciously expects heavier
incoming (top)spin from smooth spinny rubber or expects no spin or little spin
from (short)pips.
15. Going forward blocking type
Long-Pips will be referred to bLong-Pips & chopping type Long-Pips will be
referred to as cLong-Pips whenever needed. bLong-Pips are usually used by close
to the table blockers (almost exclusively on backhand) & is an unintended
somewhat by product of original intended invention of cLong-Pips used by away
from the table classic chop defenders. The cLong-Pips usually have very rough
pip tops & lot more friction compared to bLong-Pips which have lot less
friction possible pip tops as allowed by 2008 rule change (which drastically
limited the minimum friction allowed).
16. Medium-Pips rubbers are
great for blocking at the table but also for attacking. Medium-Pips rubbers are
far more effective for attacking with maximum thickness sponge rather than OX
(no sponge) since spin is not the dominant factor as much as speed. It is
always far better to use a thick sponge Medium-Pips rubber if it is the
secondary rubber rather than Short-Pips with sponge (usually the primary rubber
is the forehand rubber which is mostly smooth rubber & very few cases
attacking Short-Pips rubber) . A extremely rare case of using
Medium-Pips on forehand & smooth spinny rubber on backhand was
10 time US women’s Champion InSook Bhushan; but in this the smooth rubber on
backhand was chopping almost exclusively but on the forehand she both chopped
& attacked with Medium-Pips. The Medium-Pips rubber she used was Butterfly
Magnitude (probably the best all around defensive / attacking rubber in the 38
mm ball era) & though listed as ITTF LARC legal, is not available in USA.
More interesting story about Butterfly Magnitude was that it was
used on backhand with smooth rubber forehand by 1985 World Women’s
Singles Finalist Geng Lijuan.
17. Smooth rubbers
provide more control (better error margins) via spin
18. Most of the time the
contact angle with the ball is near orthogonal for Short-Pips (with sponge) for
hitting. However for TopSpin loops the racket is more open & upward (90
degrees to 60 degrees up from the table) using short-pips but more closed &
forward (45 degrees to 5 degrees up from table) using smooth rubbers.
19. Most of the time the
contact angle with the ball is closed tangential for smooth rubbers
20. Most of the time the
contact angle with the ball is open tangential with Long-Pips rubbers
21. Smooth spinny rubber is
ONLY for younger TT athletes (who loop like mad from both wings)
22. Smooth spinny rubber is a
huge liability for older TT athletes (who don’t loop). You are wasting your
time in Table-Tennis. Huh ! Why is that ? Because almost
everyone knows how to play against smooth rubbers, as it is the most used
rubber type (in most cases for wrong reasons). Therefore unless you topspin (loop)
like mad most of the time, your other strokes using smooth rubber, such as your
pushes or lobs or blocks or smashes etc etc (any stroke other than topspin
loops) will be handled easily or in most cases responded with a merciless
attack leaving you wondering why your fantasies of being a Waldner or Ma Long
etc are sadly psychotic. If you are using smooth rubber for irrational reasons
such just because it is fashionable & every one else who uses it says you
also must use it, then you are just “attempting” to play the sport for all the
wrong reasons.
23. Older TT athletes are much
better off using short & (medium or long) pips (ideally long or medium pips
on backhand & Short-Pips on the forehand).
24. Pips-out rubbers provide
more control via pip design.
25. Peer pressure (&
bullying) to
use just smooth spinny rubbers (half out of sheer ignorance & half out of
calculated bigotry) regardless of individual style is the biggest
disease infesting Table-Tennis due to lack of diversity education (needed from
ITTF).
26. For most TT
athletes forehand is very different from backhand for many parameters such
as consistency, style. Player A may have a great forehand loop but a hitting
backhand. Player B may have a chopping forehand & looping / lobbing
backhand Player C may have slow looping forehand & power looping backhand.
Player D may have looping forehand & a blocking forehand
. etc etc etc. Every single player in Table-Tennis is unique.
(Try for example playing with your wrong hand (even if you are ambidextrous)
& you will see how different your forehands & backhands are for
different strokes, it is like two people in your body). If you cannot identify
your style & match your racket design (forehand & backhand rubber types
which will be most likely for most TT athletes) you are wasting your time
playing Table-Tennis unless you are just playing for pure exercise &
mindless fun rather than to play to your maximum potential.
27. Don’t choose your
grip (penhold or shakehand or American style grip etc) just
because everyone thinks this grip is superior to that grip or whatever today’s
fad is. You are born, cursed or blessed with your grip. Generally most shakehanders cannot
switch to penhold but most penholders can also play
decent shakehand.
28. In some parts of Asia, the
shakehand grip is referred to as the horizontal grip & the penhold grip as
the vertical grip. Some others also refer to the shakehand grip as European
grip & the penhold grip as Asian grip
29. With the development of
reverse penhold technique, Chinese Penhold (or cPen) is
clearly the superior grip if you are lucky to have been born with
it. (Reasons discussed in another paper at this
website). If you are a c-pen player you may want to consider
switching to reverse penhold style if you are now using traditional
old school c-pen grip (This is not to suggest everyone switch to c-pen because
unless you are born with it it is not going to work for you.
30. I have noticed many coaches
not paying much attention to the grip. Whatever grip comes natural to the
student, the coach must correct any issues with the student’s grip well before
starting to teach any proper strokes. It is not the issue of what is the natural
grip for the student, whether it is penhold(vertical) or shakehand (horizontal)
or American grip. Many student develop bad problems with their grip and later
on down the line after few years, it becomes a big problem and much harder to
correct. One example is what I call the Hasegawa syndrome in which the student,
who uses a shakehand grip, will have his or her finger towards the middle of
the backhand side. Hasegawa may have become the world champion despite this but
for 99% others it is not going to work. There may be other problems with
penhold as well regarding issues such as whether to use an old type grip or the
modern RPH (Reverse PenHold) grip. The American grip may be even more difficult
to choose early though because some players may prefer the forehand dominant
American grip (Seemiller grip) or backhand oriented grip (Boggan grip) or other
variations.
31. Every player is blessed (or
cursed) with their unique style. Don’t try to imitate a professional player
unless you are a fun & exercise player. To realize your maximum potential
you need to identify the best racket design that matched your style that you
are born with & there is no way around it. This means that your backhand is
most likely very different from your forehand. Only a small percentage of TT
athletes at the lower levels are capable of being two-winged loopers yet most
of them not only fantasize about being one but also irrationally try to
pressure their peers into a carbon copy of them. Here is a glaring
example from (lawn)tennis. Imagine if (lawn)tennis had ever passed a rule that
two-handed backhands are illegal ……more than 80% of TT athletes (may be like
90% +) theses days use two-handed backhands. Why ? Only a handful like Federer,
Sampras, Becker & McEnroe are blessed with the skill to be able to play
one-handed backhand.
32. It is psychotic to believe
that Table-Tennis will return to days of hardbat Table-Tennis as most rational
TT athletes understand that sponge domain Table-Tennis accommodates better to
individual styles by choosing almost exact racket design to match a unique
style given that every single player is unique in Table-Tennis. Time has come
for older TT athletes living in the past & worse interfering with the
development of children & let children move on.
33. Most amateurs spend most of
their training working on their strengths. This is a HUGE mistake. An amateur in NEVER going
to reach the consistency level of a professional (this is a pipe-dream).
Amateur TT athletes must still spend some time trying to improve on their
stronger strokes but bigger focus should be on diversity of stroke production. Learn
as many strokes & serves as possible, which is not only beneficial but also
makes playing the sport more enjoyable, even if you are playing only for
exercise & fun. Every human has a saturation point of consistency and for the amateurs it is
never going to be anywhere close to a talented gifted professional athlete. So
identify *YOUR* saturation point for each stroke and don’t try to push it
beyond unrealistic limits. Instead work on reaching *YOUR* saturation point for
each specific stroke on backhand & forehand, which is different for each
human. It is more fun learning & improving on new strokes (& more
importantly) new serves ANYWAY
34. Obsessing over what racket a
professional player uses &/or trying to imitate their playing
style is borderline psychotic, mostly because in most case your
natural playing style may be totally different. Also, you are not going to find
the same exact racket that a professional player uses because in most cases it
is probably highly customized though it looks like stock equipment for
sponsorship purposes. So find a racket that matches your own playing
style not a professional player.
35. If using smooth (spinny)
rubber, your primary mindset should be all about spinning the ball (by
“brushing” the ball) like mad , not “hitting” the ball. If
you don’t loop & use smooth spinny rubber it is a huge liability especially
if you are older. Yes you can definitely ALSO hit using smooth rubber but that
is not the primary purpose. If you mostly hit, switch to Short-Pips.
36. Basement game of
“Ping-Pong” may be played just
using your backhand but “Table-Tennis” is
primarily a forehand dominant sport. Yes backhand is equally important as you
get better Table-Tennis but backhand in itself nowhere close to a sufficient
& necessary condition to get to be decent Table-Tennis player. You are
highly unlikely to walk into a tennis club & ask the coach just to teach
you backhand only. Likewise thinking that you can dominate in Table-Tennis just
with your backhand is just as absurd. Even if you happen to be maybe 5% to 10%
of the human who have a better backhand than forehand, you are not going to get
anywhere in Table-Tennis just with your backhand ONLY
37. If a ball crosses your
end-line, the error margin gets worse & worse if you are using smooth
rubber. So unless the ball is VERY high, you want to loop (TopSpin) your
return.
38. If the incoming ball is
very high & you can reach it inside your end-line, you may want to
chop-kill the ball rather than straight-kill. This makes it harder for your
opponent to counter-kill.
39. If you are learning to loop
first, you will initially miss 90% to 95% of your tries. This is normal as this
is the nature of the stroke, since the contact angle for “brushing” the ball
the ball is very acute & tangential (as opposed to “hitting” the
ball where the contact angle is vertical. Even the professional TT athletes
miss up to 5% of their loops, which can be identified by them hitting
the ball straight up with the racket edge, 30 to 40 feet straight up into the
air (in tennis 50 to 60 feet).
40. It may not make too much
sense to go very wide against tall shakehand TT athletes, their
weakness is towards middle inside of forehand near the body. On the other hand,
penhold TT athletes maybe stronger in the middle & weaker wide to the sides
especially if they are not playing reverse penhold
41. If you are using
(short or medium) pips your primary mindset is all about “hitting” the ball ,
not spinning it
42. Any (smooth) rubber that
produces more spin will also react more just as equally to more incoming spin
43. There is no universally
perfect rubber that can provide everything : spin, speed & control
44. Control is very relative
concept. It means different for a professional compared to an amateur
45. No such thing as the best
rubber for all styles. No rubber can do it all as marketing gimmicks claim
46. You racket is mostly open
if you use pips or anti ; mostly closed if you use smooth rubber
47. In terms of Table-Tennis
speed, closing back & forth forehand to backhand is a major consideration
48. Lighter rackets allow for
quick hand movements but less speed
49. Heavier rackets give more
speed & better control
50. Carbon (or composite)
rackets have bigger sweet spots & more speed but produce less spin
51. With other things equal all
wood blades provide more spin & less speed
52. Control is provided by
different mechanisms in all wood or composite blades
53. All wood blades provide
better control by feel & more spin (with other factors being equal)
54. Composite blades provide
better control via material design & larger sweet spots
55. If your rubber & blade)
does not closely match your playing style, quit playing Table-Tennis
56. Don’t use a rubber
(especially smooth) just because everyone else is using it or says so
57. Start with smooth rubber if
you are young & then move to pips if your style dictates
58. Start with (short or
medium) pips out rubber if you are much older & move to smooth if your
style dictates
59. If you are older &
don’t loop , smooth rubber is a HUGE liability
60. If you are young &
don’t hit , (short / medium) pips is a HUGE liability
61. Forehand & backhand
skills are VERY VERY different for almost all humans. This is where
sponge domain Table-Tennis enhances human skills by allowing proper choice of
rubbers for your backhand & forehand. & yet 60 to 70% Table-Tennis TT
athletes waste away their whole lift sheepishly choosing the same (or worse
same type) rubber for both backhand & forehand & 90% coaches never
bother to fix this issue either
62. You can (MUST) use VERY
different rubbers on your backhand & forehand if your style dictates so.
63. To loop you need smooth
rubber ; to hit you need short/medium pips rubber; to chop you need Long-Pips
64. It is psychotic to think
you can chop with smooth rubber both sides in modern Table-Tennis. The last
great spinny smooth rubber chopper was Norio Takashima in the 70’s when
cLong-Pips was invented to handle the heavy TopSpin loops Oddly, just before
Takashima, another great spinny smooth rubber chopper was European Champion
Zolan Berczik, who went on create the greatest trio of TopSpin loopers (Jonyer,
Gergley & Klamapar) in the late 70’s.
65. There are 100s if not 1000s
of TT athletes on this planet who can beat a (long) pips player of more or less
equal rating . So if you lose to a (long) pips player of more or less
your equal rating, you only have yourself (or your technique, your wrong racket
not matching your style, you paranoia etc) to blame. So if you think
a Long-Pips player at your level (whom 1000s of TT athletes in this at your
level can beat) is pathetic , I guess that makes you even more pathetic
66. Learning all types of
blocking is essential : simple touch blocks, muff clocks, power
punch blocks & SideSpin blocks
67. If you have trouble keeping
heavy TopSpin returns on the table (& they shoot off the end), switching to
American grip just to block may be a solution.
68. The shape of your handle
(straight, flared, conic, anatomic etc) and the size (diameter etc) are far
more extremely critical than you think for playing at your best. One can write
a book on various grips etc.
69. Almost every player (even
at professional level) has a problem style that is his / her nightmare
70. If everyone can just
win using (long) pips, everyone would be using Long-Pips but it is just not for
everyone.
71. Table-Tennis is not
figure-skating. No style points for your pretending to be a
two-winged looper.
72. Consistency is probably the
biggest myth for an amateur player (hacker) .
73. Long-Pips have a virtual
“amplification” effect when returning (but only when returning) a looped
ball. The total spin is the reversed spin of the opponent’s TopSpin
added with the choppers’ s backspin but most importantly the amplified
(back)spin created by the storage of energy due to long dwell time of the
ball due to bending of the Long-Pips. This heavy spin can seem very deceptive
to a new looper who has no prior experience playing against Long-Pips
which in most cases may be due consciously avoiding practicing against
Long-Pips ending up clueless in a tournament.
74. The heavier the TopSpin of
the incoming loop, lot lot more heavier is the returned
BackSpin from a long-pip chop (as compared to a return from smooth rubber),
because this is the nature of Long-Pips by design (there is a actually a virtual
spin “amplification” due to the Long-Pips getting bent (actually sort of
crushed) & then straightening releasing the stored energy in the form very
heavy BackSpin. If you can twiddle your racket & chop with the two
different sides (Smooth & cLong-Pips) from either forehand & backhand,
that would make the attacker extremely tentative because of excessive
differences in amounts of BackSpin. At amateur level this has not been fully
achieved because the defenders (using Long-Pips) usually do not have enough
attacking skills. Curiously at the professional level this is not happening
much especially in men’s side because of the very high speed
75. When using a combination
racket with cLong-Pips & smooth spinny rubber, the returned BackSpin is
much less from the spinny rubber side (usually forehand in most cases) compared
to from Long-Pips side (usually from backhand). Maximizing the effectiveness of
a combination racket to achieve this effect is exceedingly difficult & has
rarely been seen at any level.
76. Returning a loop with
Long-Pips with even slight wrist action creates lot more amplified BackSpin
compared to wrist action
77. Thin slicing of the chop
with (0 degree to floor racket angle) can produce tremendous BackSpin even with
non-Long-Pips rubbers but requires a perfect stroke & foot-work &
positioning. If you observe closely you can note this difference chopping techniques
between the top 2 choppers Joo Sehyuk & Chen Weixing.
Then again every chopper is different as is any Table-Tennis player compared to
another.
78. OX rubbers (or no sponge
rubbers) give lot more control at lower levels. OX Long-Pips can also be more
deceptive. However OX rubbers may not of much help at levels above about 2100
level (master level), because the incoming loops carry such heavy TopSpin that
the ball will dig in deep past the rubber & may bounce off the wood
uncontrollably & this is also why higher level TT athletes use maximum
sponge under their Long-Pips….. even then the ball may sometimes dig deep past
the even heavy sponge & bounce off the wood due to the excessive glued
& boosted up illegal TopSpins of incoming
loops
79. Diversity of strokes &
serves (not consistency) is the only salvation for an amateur player (hacker).
80. An amateur must recognize
their saturation point of consistency for each of their best strokes &
spend least time on those strokes & move on to maximizing consistency on
other strokes that they are not as good as much as possible because
attempting to maximize your consistency on your best strokes is an exercise in
futility if you are an amateur player, because you will never ever achieve the
consistency of a professional player, however hard you try & that is
reality……so move on to diversifying wide arsenal of strokes in Table-Tennis
& have fun learning. A sad & glaring example of failure in this context
is when two TT athletes spending hours mindlessly counter-driving for hours,
fantasizing to be professionals. If you are an amateur player it is ok to do
this for a few minutes but then move on to learning or improving (your
consistency) of your less consistent strokes.
81. Playing for fun (&
exercise) is great but is not the same as playing to your potential which is
far more complicated.
82. It’s ok to play for fun
(& exercise) with wrong racket / rubber mismatched to your style but don’t
whine about losing.
83. More than 50% tournament TT
athletes are using rackets / rackets mismatched to their style but whine
84. If you are a coach &
allow to a young player to start with pips (first) , that is coaching
malpractice
85. If you recommend a smooth
rubber for an older player who cannot loop, that is coaching malpractice
86. If a coach recommends to a
classic chop defender to use smooth spinny rubber both sides, that is coaching
malpractice
87. Pips with rough tops /
sides create more spin & least deceptive
88. Pips with smoothest (as
legal) top & sides create less spin & are more deceptive
89. Pip rubber deception is
based on a combination of several factors not just one though one may dominate
90. Professional defenders
prefer the least deceptive (meaning most controllable) Long-Pips not most
deceptive (meaning least controllable)
91. Two amateur TT athletes
with Long-Pips don’t play against each other to pleasure your royal highness,
that is the job of professional defenders
92. Racket acceleration is the
key to achieving maximum spin for smooth rubber loops or long-pip chops or for
maximizing your speed for any flat-kills (known crudely as smash or slam) with
short-pips (any rubber for that matter). You want to accelerate your stroke and
reach maximum acceleration of you racket-hand at contact. If you approach the
ball with same hand velocity (meaning no acceleration), you will probably look
graceful & stylish but your stroke effectiveness will be far from optimal.
93. The highest probability of
an exciting match for spectators is when a professional defender plays an
attacker
94. Highest probability of a
dull match with fewest rallies is when 2 loopers face each other, more so at
lower levels.
95. A match between 2 loopers
at lower levels is more error prone & dull than a match between 2 long-pip
athletes.
96. A professional player can
beat a top amateur with any rubber or a shoe but that does not prove a
professional player can beat another professional player (at about same level)
with any rubber. Point being, every player can play their best only with rubber
/ racket that best matches their TOTAL playing style (backhand & forehand)
97. Short-Pips is NOT
designed to be a chopping rubber. Short-pips is a block & smash
style rubber. Smooth rubber is a looping rubber NOT a chopping rubber. Simply
because it is possible to chop with smooth or short-pips rubbers, it does not
mean they are the best for chopping. IT JUST is not possible to have any one
rubber surface to do everything (except that manufacturers will advertise that
each of their rubbers can execute all strokes perfectly LOL)
98. To maximize your potential,
60 to 70% of TT athletes need to use synergistic combination of two different
type rubbers that matches their exact & total playing style.
99. For a shakehander (who has
what is known as the shakehander disease) the cross-over decision point whether
to play a forehand or shakehand against incoming balls close to your body is a
gray area. Faster players can get out of their body (like a cat falling from a
tree always making a perfect landing !!) and execute their powerful
forehand in most cases (or backhand if that is your strength). In general to be
safe, you want to learn to play the backhand against balls close to your body.
100. RobotNazis, who cannot play
using pips do NOT want you to use pips either because most of them
cannot play against pips or have developed a mental block over time due to
endless brainwashing by other robotNazis.
101. Ball diameter increase was
meant to speed up rallies but rallies now are actually faster due to far more
powerful (composite hitech material) rackets.
102. Lowered aspect ratio of
pips, 40 mm ball & plastic ball had reduced BackSpin significantly for
defenders while unenforceable glue & booster fake rules provide ever
increasing spins for defenders.
103. For long (& TopSpin)
serves, the server must drop the ball on server’s side nearest to the server’s
end-line
104. For short (& BackSpin)
serves, the server must drop the ball on server’s side nearest to the net (on
server’s side)
105. If you can read the logo on
the incoming ball (especially incoming serves) , then the ball has minimal spin
106. Good foot-speed with bad
reflexes > you may be an away-from-the-table-style (lob, chop) player using
smooth rubber &/or Long-Pips
107. Good reflexes > You may
be able to play at-the-table-block-&-smash-pips-out style rather the away
from the table
108. Coaching malpractice >
Trying to coach every student to be your mirror image when not a single student
will ever be your mirror image because every single player in Table-Tennis has
their unique style
109. Unless you are defensive
player you may want to TopSpin each & every single serve or ball. Even if
it is extremely short on your forehand, the new trend is to step around &
banana loop it. This is because if you are an attacking player, you want to
prevent the opponent from initiating the first (big) loop.
110. Every return you make must
have a purpose even if you are caught out of position. Don’t just try to lob
the ball for instance. Try to lob deep . Try to lob with SideSpin. If
you are blocking or chopping see if you can block with SideSpin.
111. As the saying goes, not
taking any risk at all may be the biggest risk you take. An example of this is
when you see defensive TT athletes attack all out when it is deuce.
112. Unless you are K-Pen
(Korean penhold with extreme emphasis on forehand) player with
ridiculous foot-speed+reflexes, everyone has moved on to using an equal
backhand whether shakehand or C-Pen (with reverse penhold). Even
at amateur levels it is no longer to play the K-pen style that even some top
C-pen or even shakehand player played (stepping around to play like a
penholder).
113. TT athletes at the amateur
level mostly play for their own exercise & fun & not to entertain any
spectators, which is the job of professional TT athletes. So it is absurd to
argue that it is boring to watch two amateur Long-Pips TT athletes. On the
other hand at the professional level the likelihood of far more entertaining
match is when a Long-Pips defender is involved , while more often
than not. a match between two third-ball attackers even at
professional level is a comedy of errors & boring to spectators.
114. It is childish to argue
that any player can use any rubber as long as they have the proper technique
(they just can’t) just because a professional player can easily beat an amateur
player with any rubber (or a shoe or frozen fish). That proves absolutely
nothing because when you compare two TT athletes (of different styles) you need
to compare them at more or less equal skill levels (not an amateur against a
professional etc). A professional player being able to beat a high
level amateur player using a frozen fish for a racket does not prove the same
professional player can beat ALL professional TT athletes using Long-Pips etc
for example. Yet this is the childish & silly argument presented
by robotNazi hatemongers to justify their disgust for any pips
etc.
115. If I am an amateur player,
learning all possible strokes (diversity) is my only salvation over making my
dominant strokes more consistent but you also tell me I am born
with my style. So how does it matter what rubbers (racket design) I use
? Very good question . My point is that you should FIRST choose
a racket design that matches your dominant style & THEN learn all possible
strokes & serves using that while also spending some time (but not a lot)
maximizing your stronger strokes, if you are not already at saturation point of
your consistency. As an example it is quite difficult to loop using Long-Pips ;
however every time you do (a fake loop with minimum spin using Long-Pips,
especially from the same side where you loop using your spinny smooth rubber)
you will most likely win the point because the ball has little spin (dummy loop
or fake loop) & all the table blockers will put the return in the bottom of
the net. On the flip side, it is relatively harder to chop these days against a
powerful loop using smooth rubber but if you can chop with variations using
smooth rubber , the ball will float long. & yes you can loop with
Short-Pips effectively or hit effectively with smooth rubber but you have to
choose your racket design before you get to the issue of working on your
diversity (of stroke production) over wasting minimal time striving in futile
for consistency on your stronger strokes.
116. You can also execute fake
or dummy loops (loops with minimal spin) by contacting the ball just like you
would do to execute a no spin serve, which is to contact the ball as close to
racket handle as possible. The dummy loop is very effective against at the
table blockers, who take every ball right off the bounce and redirect the ball
to the opposite corner and torture you.
117. Don’t just throw the ball
up there on the table hoping the opponent will somehow miss. Examples
:- If you lob , lob deep . If you push or block , place the ball
to points where the opponents cannot attack easily but feels awkward. Most
important, add SideSpin to every stroke if possible such as a SideSpin push or
side-block or fade-loops or hook-loops etc as straight spins are usually
easy to handle even at lower levels but SideSpins are not.
118. The types of spin &
ball travel are very much identical to an ElectroMagnetic wave (EM wave) which form the
basis television & other telecommunications etc . The EM wave is described
by a 3 dimensional model of analytic geometry.
119. The EM wave itself travels
in the Z direction. The most fascinating fact about an EM waves is that (though
they are all around you & everywhere), it seems to contain
neither an electric energy by itself such to electrocute someone nor contains
magnetic energy such as in a strong magnet that can viciously pull certain
elements like iron towards it…….& yet amazingly together they carry the EM
energy to long distances & can be used to transmit information for all
telecommunications).
120. The Electric component of
the EM wave is located in the Y direction & the Magnetic component in X
direction. Using the same principle, the Table-Tennis ball travels in +z
direction from striker to receiver. If the ball has TopSpin, both the ball travel
& spin occur in Z direction (spinning towards the receiver). If the ball
has BackSpin the ball is spinning in –Z direction (towards the striker) but
travels in +Z direction towards the receiver. If the ball also has SideSpin it
occurs in the X direction (about a plane parallel to the ground or table) . It
can spin towards the left or right of striker (same as towards left or right of
receiver). The third component is referred to as CorkScrew Spin which occurs on
Y axis (about a plane perpendicular to both the table or ground as
well to direction of ball travel) . Looking from the striker CorkScrew Spin can
occur in either clockwise or CounterClockwise direction. The ball cannot have
both TopSpin & BackSpin or theoretically in other words if they do, it is
the 5th type of spin or NoSpin situation where the ball simply
travels from striker to receiver without spin of any three types
whatsoever as in
purely “hitting” at the ball with a pure vertical contact & imparting zero
spin on the ball (in this case the ball travels the shortest distance at
maximum speed from point A to B in a pure straight line trajectory, compared to a ball with
any type of spin in which case it takes longer to travel the same distance
equal to as in the hitting case above since the ball travels in a curved
trajectory).
Unfortunately however, what makes Table-Tennis such a complex sport for even
master level TT athletes (exclusion being professional TT athletes
…….mostly) is the fact that either TopSpin or BackSpin can get
combined with BOTH SideSpins & CorkScrew spins by various strokes &
racket angles of strokes, because usually there is no such thing as pure
SideSpin or pure CorkScrew spin & they seem to come as a package but of
varying proportions & this usually gets combined with either TopSpin or
BackSpin.
121. The above 3 dimensional
mostly linear model is not entirely valid at slow speeds (mostly serves &
returns coming to you from Long-Pips) since in this case has little spin but
“wobbles” or “vibrates” about the direction of travel. This
sort of follows an n-dimensional non-linear model & this is what drives
many paranoid robotNazis to mental institutions. When you try to attack these
low speed returns or serves the ball wobbles off the axis of travel if Z
direction & your returns are completely off from where you expected it to
go. This effect is far less with cLong-Pips as compared to bLong-Pips. At
higher speeds however, this low speed effect is very minimal & returns from
cLong-Pips are normal chop returns (except that the returned BackSpin against your
heavy loop TopSpins is amplified & extremely heavy) & smashes from
bLong-Pips are just dead ball with no spins.
122. If you brush the bottom of
the ball by moving your racket from your right to left(or brush on top of the
ball moving your racket left to right), you create clockwise CorkScrew spin
123. If you brush the bottom of
the ball by moving your racket from your left to right(or brush on top of the
ball moving your racket right to left), you create CounerClockwise CorkScrew
spin
124. If you brush on the back of
the ball (the side closest to your body & farthest away from receiver)
moving your racket from your right to left you create SideSpin towards the
receiver’s left; If you brush on the left-side of the ball (the side closest to
your body & farthest away from receiver) moving your racket forward towards
the receiver, it is the same as above, you create SideSpin towards
the receiver’s left;
125. If you brush on the back of
the ball (the side closest to your body & farthest away from receiver)
moving your racket from your left to right you create SideSpin towards the
receiver’s right; If you brush on the left-side of the ball (the side closest
to your body & farthest away from receiver) moving your racket forward
towards the receiver, it is the same as above, you create SideSpin
towards the receiver’s right
126. Generally if the server
ends FINAL contact with the ball with rackethead moving upwards, it is
primarily (but not entirely) some sort of a TopSpin serve combined with either
CorkScrew spin & SideSpin or both) . By FINAL contact it is meant that the
server will likely move the hand downwards to create drama to confuse the
receiver
127. Generally if the server
ends FINAL contact with the ball with rackethead moving downwards, it is
primarily (but not entirely) some sort of a BackSpin serve, combined
with either CorkScrew spin & SideSpin or both).
128. To maximize spin during
serve, ball contact should be made as close as possible to the tip of racket
farthest away from the hand
129. To minimize spin (as in no
spin) contact should be made on the racket closest to the hand
130. While blocking against a
heavy TopSpin loop, make initial contact of the ball closest to the hand as the
ball will ride up the length of the racket for better control. If you contact
the ball farthest away from hand at racket tip, the ball will most likely shoot
off with minimal control
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