Full match - comments welcome

Hi guys,

This is my match of yesterday in the league (third division):

http://youtu.be/jed8KfUrXcA?t=32s

I am the one in black.

I wonder what my US ranking would be. What do you say?

I am playing in the third division in my country, but hope to be in the second next year.

My equipment: fh: aurus max. Bh: sigma europe max; blade: clipper wood 96 grams.

I think I should increase the blade speed because my loops were too short.

Also I think I need more arc on fh. I am going to try m2 and m1 instead of aurus.


Anyway, comments are welcome. :)

Edit: What I notice: my opponent was good at varying the amount of bh backspin in push. So some of my opening loops went long. I did not realize in time some of the pushes were almost flat. Second , he quickly discovered my main weakness: responding to short flat service on fh. I need to learn to respond with bh flip, or to keep them low and short with fh. Third, I seriously need to improve my bh loop.



Edited by seguso - 02/18/2013 at 7:15am

fatt wrote: You definitely can loop with your fh and I watched some crazy cool rallies; recovery is great. If I have to criticize I would say this (are you ready?): when your buddy is looping hard you just block putting your blade in front of you like you respect him and do not want to counter loop him; the fact is I saw you many times having enough time to snap your fh on his fh loops and even more:

only maybe 2% of players on the forum are good enough to really critique your game. You're far better than most on here.

dalamchops wrote: only maybe 2% of players on the forum are good enough to really critique your game. You're far better than most on here.

Really? Very well, I can quit then.


Edited by seguso - 02/18/2013 at 8:47am

thank you tabten5, your suggestions are interesting. there are a couple of things I need to explain.

as for my fh opening loop, the problem is that the guys I train with have a heavy push, so my opening loop barely passes the net. Another problem is that I was never sure how much backspin was in the push of my opponent, as I don't have a lot of experience, so I lifted a lot more than I should.

more in general, I tend to play safe in opening loops because I am not good at reading the amount of spin of the ball. (I have been playing table tennis for 3 years only).

as for the blade: I chose a heavy stiff 7-ply blade because it is the only one which gives me enough power to finish the point against slow balls, without being too hard (and therefore bouncy). For example, if I were to use a lighter blade, or a more flexible blade, it would also have to be much harder, and then service response would become a problem. in particular bh over-the-table flip, which I am still developing. service response is still my main weakness.

In other words, my heavy clipper wood is slow when you want play safe, because it is soft. But it has (barely) enough power to kill against dead balls, assuming I do a full-arm swing.


Edited by seguso - 02/18/2013 at 9:43am

Sucmy jagon wrote: fatt wrote: YOU SUCK MAN!!!!  sorry just kidding I am just waiting for the final ml/zjk; I'll be watching your game and brb to comment; ciao. Why would you post that? Just say nothing wtf. You guys around 2100-2250

I would lean towards the higher end of your estimate. We have a few 2200 level players in my club, and in my opinion, and he plays a little bit better than them.

JacekGM wrote: Seguso Okay, that is an interesting exercise - I am a little weaker than you, in my club (Eastern US) I think you would be around 1800-1900. I wonder how you like your: (a) ready position, (b) footwork, and (c) focus level when attacking? I don't know, it is easy to become critical, but that's what we wanna do here, right? Cheers.

Thank you. I don't like the footwork and my focus level when attacking. In particular, as I said, I am slow to realize the spin on the incoming ball, that's why my third ball is weak I think. I think this will come with experience. About the slow footwork, I think it might be due to the fact that I still think a lot when playing. As for the ready position, I don't see a problem; I sit ready to respond to long flat service on bh with a loop; if the ball is short, I move the right foot forwards and try to bh flip.

JacekGM wrote: Seguso Okay, that is an interesting exercise - I am a little weaker than you, in my club (Eastern US) I think you would be around 1800-1900. I wonder how you like your: (a) ready position, (b) footwork, and (c) focus level when attacking? I don't know, it is easy to become critical, but that's what we wanna do here, right? Cheers.

I think he is a bit stronger than your estimate. I am over 2000 and I don't think I can beat him. Except maybe a fast rising overly under rated junior, I haven't seen an 1800-1900 level player loop consistently, forehand and backhand like him.

Edited by bonggoy - 02/18/2013 at 2:39pm

pingponger wrote: Side question: I often see those wooden racks on the wall in many European TT videos held in gyms.  What are those for?

Seguso, 

NextLevel wrote: Seguso,  You are a better player than myself, so I have little to say.  I would place you at 2000+, with the potential to be higher if you have more diversity to your game than you've shown here and the potential to be lower if your opponent can exploit aspects of your game not shown.  The one thing that was not shown was your within the table game.  Your opponent never forced you to use it.

Let me think... what you didn't see in the video is basically:

short push against short service: good but not great. I can't take the ball early enough.

forehand flip on flat ball: I'm not very good but I am starting to do it.

forehand flip on backspin ball: I cannot do it at all.

block: I block fairly well, but I am not an active blocker like my opponent.

volley: I can do it very well but for some reason the umpire always gives the point to the opponent.




Edited by seguso - 02/18/2013 at 3:23pm

Hi mate i think overall you have a nice smooth game, you seem to be able to spin up/ roll up most serves to your backhand, I would guess at your current division others don't attack that shot but higher level players will be waiting for it, so keep working on faster and more variable returns on that side

dalamchops wrote: only maybe 2% of players on the forum are good enough to really critique your game. You're far better than most on here.

how you know?

I like your backhand a lot. Nice consistent controlled loops. Footwork and athleticism are your slight downfalls. I think you would have some difficulty keeping up with the pace of friend of mine that is 2100, but if you played him strategically you could give him a run. Your backhand is more consistent than his, but his forehand is a rocket launcher. He's real atheltic and young so he works around to use his forehand beautifully. You would beat the handful of 1700 to 1800 guys that I play with handily. If it's safe to say you would fall in the 1950 to 2150 range. Somewhere in there.

Edited by Toprank - 02/18/2013 at 3:55pm

From a non-playing amateur photographer :) here's what i see *remember you asked on an open forum*

Edited by The Shakehander - 02/18/2013 at 11:31pm