Intermediate Player Dilemma!

BRS wrote: How old are you?  Can you bend your knees 100s of times in a day of playing?  A guy I play with wants to loop, but he is tall and old and can't bend his knees.  He switches equipment every so often but it never makes loops from his straight-up stance. OP is the Unstoppable EJ Madman so you must have tried T05. Can you loop with tenergy?  If not, an equipment change probably won't fix your loop.   If you just want to loop for the fun of it and not to win more points, then do it anyway.  If you want to win more then develop your stengths, even if that is hitting or LP.

Edited by NextLevel - 03/10/2014 at 1:42am

tommyzai wrote: BRS wrote: How old are you?  Can you bend your knees 100s of times in a day of playing?  A guy I play with wants to loop, but he is tall and old and can't bend his knees.  He switches equipment every so often but it never makes loops from his straight-up stance. OP is the Unstoppable EJ Madman so you must have tried T05. Can you loop with tenergy?  If not, an equipment change probably won't fix your loop.   If you just want to loop for the fun of it and not to win more points, then do it anyway.  If you want to win more then develop your stengths, even if that is hitting or LP.    Well, legs and/or age isn't my looping problem. For me, it's nerve damage/partially paralyzed. In short, I do not have the muscles that a player normally loops with. I don't know if it's worth trying to find some sort of loop compensation via blade, rubber, and an unorthodox style or try to cancel out my spin and the opponents.

If a player like myself moves to SPs, which SP? Just like inverted, there are many kinds of SPs. I would hate to spend a few years buying and trying them all . . . even though I would . . . I am an EJ Madman.

tommyzai wrote: If a player like myself moves to SPs, which SP?

I would rather go for the very best performance, highest rated SP and suffer through the transition if I pip it. It's not the smartest way to go, but all or nothing is my MO.

Edited by tommyzai - 03/10/2014 at 6:44pm

Don't worry about looping you can be a very good player without one, save the shoulder for other activities

We all have to work around what's best for us. There was a kid at my club who doesn't even hold the handle of the blade and uses anti (old dead rubbers) both sides, everything about the way he played was "wrong". I used to think, the poor kid, someone needs to coach him. One thing he did very well was counter hit with very intelligent angles.

One day I couldn't resist anymore and had a hit with him, my goodness!!! he was such a pain in the ass to play against it made me feel sick in the brain. I decided to not interfere with something so strange and special. He was only playing low divisions so wasn't dealing with much spin. Once he does get to play better players they won't I like it, at all!

Edited by bluebucket - 03/10/2014 at 9:21pm

tommyzai wrote: I'm actually surprised by the advice. I expected members to be giving me looping advice with the usual frowning of pips, but that's not the case. Tuco has hit with me for hundreds of hours and he, and our various coaches, have suggested SPs for me. Yet, I want the ability to loop and never thought about using the BH for that. Hmmmmm. I would have to re-learn reading spin and give up LPs, however. Hmmmm.

Pips are a legit part of this game. Hitting is a harder way to play than looping for most people because the margin for error on most strokes is less. The good thing is that our lovely sport has a huge mental and spin read component so if you play enough with any equipment, you will often be close to the same level if your spin read s sophisticated enough.

jt99sf wrote: puppy412 wrote: even if you only do flat shots and never loop I would recommend to use inverted because 1- it's easier to do flat shots with inverted since you need to apply less force and the rubber helps you guide the ball. 2- if one day in 5 years you wish to start looping you can do it, with pips you can't 3- pips are difficult for other players to handle so when training on top of all the natural errors you also need to add the errors due to the pips (the errors that the other guy will make). so trainings will be less satisfactory. You can't loop with pips ? You're kidding...

you can do opening loops but they still don't have the spin or speed of inverted.
with inverted you can loop basically any ball you choose.

also, this is a personal thing, but I found flat hitting with inverted easier than with short pips.
short pips are nice for hitting really close to the table and with the ball rising.
after that it only becomes more difficult.

I played long time with short pips and the only advantages I found were
1- return of serves are easier because of less spin sensitivity and the general deadness of the rubber compared to say a tenergy
2- ball sinking after blocking, but in order for this to work you need to actually be there to block.
against most players blocking once will not win a point so you need to be prepared to block at least 3 or 4 balls which doesn't seem like a very clever strategy.


Edited by puppy412 - 03/10/2014 at 11:54pm

I like the idea of inverted on BH, but I would have to sacrifice the LP that I use now and become an all out attacker . . . exciting thought, but of course there would be a learning curve and I would need to start paying more attention to incoming spin.

Tommy Zai goes to the extreme dark-side and puts LPs on both side of his blade.

Edited by tommyzai - 03/11/2014 at 1:41pm

NextLevel wrote: Saw a guy with medium pips forehand, long pips backhand this weekend.  He took down many loopers until he faced an allround player in the U1950 who just gave him a dead ball/push rally until the allround found balls to smash and loop.  Games were close though.

the only problem with this style is that it's like in footbal/soccer when they throw the ball out for time to pass.
or in the nba when they did the hack-a-shaq

it's like no intention of playing whatsoever, just there to win a point, nothing else

tommyzai wrote: I wouldn't be happy just standing square or in a defensive position the whole time; however, you are right . . . it does point out "there are many ways of winning matches in TT." If I could use pips to set up my attack I would be happy . . . or attack with pips!

Edited by NextLevel - 03/11/2014 at 3:16pm

Learn the basics with the limit of what you can control, which may take a few years, then when you have mastered footwork and stroke play, move up, but don't ever do it too soon.  ( 99% of players do and spend the rest of their TT careers frustrated, not knowing why)