Critique my game!

It just seems that way because it's only half a stroke... You never return your arm ready for the next forehand, then you run out of time and cant do anything but hit a jabbing backhand :). This means you wont ever have time to hit two attacking forehands in a row near the table and it's making you play much further from the table than you should need to.. which then gives you less angles and less chance to win the point.

yeah bluebucket is right As if you stopped in the middle of each stroke and didnt finish it fully. One more negative thing :) Receiving serve seems to be bad. Now some positive thing :) When you were in an open rally it was nice to watch Seemed consistent from both sides Nice forehands as well as backhands I wouldnt mind to watch more than you uploaded 

I thought that you had a nice fluid style on both sides. In fact I was surprised when I realised that you lost the game.

Definitely back off too often. One point you backed off for no reason and then lost the point. If you can add some power, you can be quite deadly. It might be physical limitation though?

You play for Germany or for Russia?

At the risk of running contrary to everyone, I don't think your problem was your forehand -- I think it was your backhand.  It is true that you tend to leave your arm extended at the end of FH loops, but since you're playing mostly at mid-distance that shouldn't be a problem.  I saw a lot more errors from your BH side.  Also, I saw where you got stuck in a BH mode, hitting repeated backhand shots from mid-distance.  Once you're that far aware from the table you should be able to step around to your forehand.

If I were recommending changes, I would say: don't back off the table quite so quick, don't get so stuck on using your backhand, and practice your backhand more.

Both players seemed to really like reversing from the table into what I would consider to be long (rather than medium) range. It seems your opponent reversed even faster than you! Most long range players need fast footwork to cover everything with the FH, but for you physical limitations may force you to use your BH. The intelligent opponent will therefore aim at your BH, and you will find yourself doing many long range BHs. Any strategy involving many (esp low, impacty, short-stroke) backhands is quite unreliable and makes things really difficult for yourself. I must congratulate you on your landing percentage though :P! So I doubt it was the shots that were the problem, they were actually really nice, mainly the strategy.

Also, your opponent was also far from the table, but if he had camped the table more, you would probably have had serious movement problems because he can have better angles.

The other thing I noticed was a lack of third-ball direct winners (this looks like a full, not highlight vid?). Maybe both people backing off fast made a difference, but you seemed to loop at similar mediumish pace into his FH most of the time, and he was ready for it and counterlooped, and then you both duked it out long range. This is great fun, but possibly not the way to go about winning points.

So varying the pace and position is best. Perhaps you can try a slower spinny loop (say to his BH), then when this particular opponent auto-reverses, he will have to take it lower and spin it up more (kinda tricky on the BH), and then you can stay at the table and nail him.

If you are doing into both-sides long range rallies, I personally find that sidespin really ruins opponents. The pros tend to use angles, but not all of us are accurate enough to hit the short angles. But all of us can hook! Fade is trickier, unless the ball is too close and you do the falling over thing, but I doubt you want to do that.

You just need to be more aggressive (just get some caffeine in your system and get a little bit angry then you will stop backing up from the table).  The way you swing now, I think you can swing a lot faster without hurting your consistency.  The added spin may even help your consistency.  By the way,  you should not be fare from 1680, or even higher, compared to the people I play with.

Here's a critique. Your forehand is fine. It's not textbook Chinese style forehand developed after hours and hours of training, but it works for you. I WOULDN'T change anything. Your forehand, backhand works well together. Plus you move really well and gets to the ball.

Work on tactics. Maybe staying a little closer to the table. But I wouldn't worry myself on the latter if it screws up your timing.

Does Parvis play in your area? If you know or have seen him play, he doesn't have a textbook forehand loop. Some would say ugly looking. It's not pretty, but it works.

On a side note. There is something wrong with that video. It looks like the video speed is a tad faster. Compare that with your other video, http://youtu.be/SibhRphLo88, everything seems to be a lot slower.



Edited by bonggoy - 08/01/2011 at 4:15pm

You do use your legs and waist when you loop. Maybe not as much as someone who is in a better physical condition or who trained specifically for it.   

I have the same problem like you now. I am little older and slower. I can't the loop that I was thought to do 20 years ago. I can't even play the kind of game I was thought back then. I have to make do.

You have your answer in your previous post. Work on angles, placement and spin. Take off a little speed. You will get better results that way without drastically changing your mechanics.

Your initial distance on your first two shots are fine. It's when you keep backing up. There were several instances where you totally whipped your backhand because you were too far from the table by that time.

Your side to side move is pretty good. Maybe work on coming forward? We know you've mastered the going back part. :D

How do you plan on working on relaxing your arm when looping?

Edited by bonggoy - 08/02/2011 at 9:50am

From a technical aspect:
Just a preference on the FH but I'd want to use more hip. I believe that agressive arm looping is just asking for an eventual shoulder injury. I also believe that you get more spin using a more relaxed arm and driving with your hips and shoulders rather than arm.

Other than that, you have a tendency to freeze after making a FH stroke. Faster recovery would help you a bit.

Your timing is good, you wait for the ball to dip a little and then really load on the spin.

From a strategic aspect:
Seems like both of you enjoy loop-to-loop a little too much. Most shots go down the center or directly to your opponent. Try to get better angles even if it means sacrificing a lot of speed. Don't be so eager to back off the table. I'm a strong believer that the short game is incredibly important, especially when setting up your first attack. If you can force an opponent out of position AND return a long ball using a good push - then your attack has a higher chance of zipping right past them.