horrible!!!!! what kind of 1800 swings are those?!?!?  they look more like 2000 to me.....

really nice recovery on the fh and i'm glad that i'm not the only one who has a bit of trouble with the bh. but still  much better than mine =(

Very nice! I'm jealous of your backhand. 

You seem to get some good hip rotation on your forehand too. Keep up the good work, and thanks for posting.

You guys are too kind!  Thank everyone for the comments and input!

Your technique is very text book..
Will be interesting to see you in a match though.. you can't really tell only from training videos.. good technique, though you can still add some power to the FH.. maybe you are just training so don't go full power..

Jeff(ATTC) wrote: @ohhgourami: the FH timing is so hard.  It took me a month just to move contact of the ball from my hip, to where it is now!  Hopefully in one more month it will be where it should be.

A start would be to stand closer to the table just by a little bit.  You would be forced to hit earlier or you would get jammed.  So once you feel comfortable move another bit closer.

I never play without trying to get a proper fh counterhit warm up.  Start off a bit slow but take the ball off the bounce and try to get the feel for that day.  Slowly speed it up and do ~30-50 nonstop and I should be good.  If I cannot get a proper warm up that day on fh, I don't even bother to play seriously or it will screw up my timing.

I'll add this comment, then look at the vids and see where he stands.

net is low!! 

all I can say is you must do your backhand that you did against the robot in real games, you must do it at every opportunity to give yourself the confindence that we see in your ability (don't worry about missing a few) because once you start landing them it will improve your whole game

These videos are were from October.  I started multi-balling in December, hopefully the footwork works a little better.

http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=39387&title=new-video-edit-of-myself

Serves, need to be more consistent. Some are too high. Try to link them to your game.
Your FHs look great when you pull it off in matches. Too slow in anticipating the return ball though. You need to read where the opponent is going to return the ball to by working out the angles between your ball and the opponent's position where he returns them. Move into the position then you will have more time to ready the next shot. Anticipation is a part of Footwork.
On opening loops, concentrate on placement and spin unless you are confident you can power drive them. If you lift the ball with power you might hit it long (you can do this but adjust the blade angle). You hit many long opening.
On BH like smackman said, you need to have confidence in taking them. It looks different than the one on your vid. Do the same thing but adjust the followtrough (higher for backspin balls).
One more note, you rush too much to end a point. Take your time. You don't always have to attack the 3rd ball. Try to work out the ball until you have a chance ball you can attack.
You have a good basic, you can go far.

Jeff I think those 9-9 practice games would have complimented these videos a good deal. Your accuracy has really improved and when you're in a comfort zone it is hard to get a ball past you. Someone mentioned you should move closer to the table but I think you shouldn't. when you have more room you have more velocity and power on your strokes. I noticed when you were closer you were holding back to avoid going off the table. When you take that half step back, your new loop motion is very powerful and it is a no fear/doubt stroke. 

roundrobin wrote: Jeff(ATTC) wrote: Thanks again guys!  I was doing some frame by frame analysis  of my FH vs. WLQ FH.  One thing that I noticed is that: he takes it earlier (duh); that my forearm snap is happening too early whereas WLQ's forearm snap is occurring at contact.  So by the time I'm hitting the ball, my arm has already slowed down a bit. Something new to work on!  I will try to put up some current videos of me playing, but here are some from last October.  You may notice that my strokes are not as nice (to be expected), footwork is off.  Hopefully when I post some new vids you guys will see a little progress.  Just to say though, my practice strokes are not the same as my game strokes... Jeff(ATTC) (1779) vs. Oliviu Vasilca (2143) 0-3 Video taken by JyeChen Jeff(ATTC) (1779) vs. Julien Holtz (1787) 2-3 Video by johtogirl Your forehand and backhand loops and counters have a nice form, but your forehand and backhand pushes against underspin still need a lot of work... They are -to be honest- lazy and lack quality... Low and precise pushes loaded with spin are as essential as the best serves and topspin drives to become 2000 and higher.    I suggest you set your robot to underspin and try to push the balls back as close to the end lines as possible to: 1. Right corner 2. Center 3. Left corner.  Try to push the balls back as low as possible, keep your wrist very loose but always be mindful of the form... Precision is the key.  Try to add as much backspin as possible by feeling the ball digging into the rubber (very important).  Do this for your forehand and backhand at least 15 minutes each time.  Once you are very comfortable with this drill for both your forehand and backhand, try to push one and loop one to opposite corners.

smooth mechanics. nice weight transfer. i have loads of envy :)

yttl wrote: Just my 2 c worth on your forehand.   The turning of the waist, blade angle, closing of forearm and contact with the ball are all excellent.  This contributes to the nice solid sound you hear (and the sound gets better and better towards the end!).  Chinese will say you have "explosive force", that you are hitting it, not brushing it.   I suppose you are practicing forehand countering or smashing against the machine.  The ready posture however, looks more like forehand loop driving.  If foreward direction is 0 deg and right side of your body is 90 deg., the starting postion of your hand is about 110-120 deg.  In height, the starting postion of your hand is just above your knee and below the table service, i.e. you have dropped your right shoulder in preparation (for loop driving).  In countering or smashing, I believe the hand should be at 90 deg and forearm should be parallel to ground with hand slightly above the table.  Then the arc of your arm in execution will be flatter and contribute even more "explosive force".  Your swing is smaller and you will have more time in preparation and hence be more accurate.  When you start your hand below the table, you will tend to lift the ball and overshoot the table on the other side, which happens a few times in the games you show.  (For loop drive, starting with the hand below the table is OK because the topsin will prematurely bring the ball down on the other side of the table).

  So you noticed!  I was trying to get more arc towards the end of the FH video.  I did some frame-by-frame anaylsis of this FH vid against weiTTTube's WLQ FH video.  I discovered that my forearm snap is happening before I hit the ball.  So by the time I do hit the ball my paddle has already slowed down.

Right after the tournament, I watched these videos frame by frame and I realized several things (much of what you guys have kindly pointed out- which confirms that I'm working on the right stuff!):

• My pushes were more like "bumps"
• Foot-work is iffy (who's footwork isn't iffy right? maybe except the Chinese national team? lol)
• In my looping I took the ball from my hip instead of in-front of my body and the my elbow went a little high sometimes.
  
• Anticipation/ball sense = no bueno.  I frequently made up my mind of where my opponent was going to hit the ball before they even hit the ball.  I usually moved before the opponent touched the ball.  This resulted in me sometimes hitting great shots, but missing a lot of the other shots (especially since the better players can change the direction of the ball, after seeing me move before they even stroke the ball).
  

After realizing these issues I thought about each of them individually and tried to think of solutions:

• The FH loop: My coach helped me iron out my FH loop form wise by getting me to: keep my weight low, keep my elbow in, use forearm snap, and taking the ball earlier (it took almost a month to move my contact point from my hip to where you see it in the video!!!).
• Pushing: I have managed to get pushes lower after some experimenting after suggestion from my coach.  She said: "Use your fingers to generate the spin."  By doing so, if timed properly, I can get flat pushes.
• Footwork:  lots of multiball, my coach emphasized the use of my FH to force me to move
• Anticipation:  this is a tough one because it's linked to experience and playing time- so I tried to accelerate the process by thinking .  These series of questions/solution came to mind: 

Q: Why do you not know where the ball is going?
A: You're not watching the opponent.
Q: Why don't you watch the opponent?
A: Because I'm watching how pretty my shot is and not my opponent.
Q: What should you be doing then in terms of observation of your opponent?
A: Watch the incoming ball, stroke it, immediately after contact forget about the ball and turn your eyes to the opponent.
Q: Great, so now you're doing that, what should you be observing on the opponent?
A: His/her paddle, direction head is pointed and other body language.
Q: Ok great, now when should you react?
A: Once you are sure your observations are confirmed by contact of the ball
Q: Should you rely on observation alone?
A: No, I should have a combination of observation and anticipation (keeping in mind the percentages of the shot I just made and where it might go).

Now... even after thinking about this, implementing it was difficult because I had to control myself from "wanting to hit the ball."  Even when I got to the right place, this would result in me moving too soon and mistiming my shot.  I have to force myself to not want to "pounce" on the ball and spend more time observing.  More time should iron out this issue...

A few weeks ago, I went to a tournament and realized that I should focus more on spin and placement.  Lots of players like myself focus on power (watching too much youtube and trying to copy what we see).  But from what I noticed at the tournament was that all the 2300-2400 players did not power the ball, they spun it.  It was not a battle of: "Can I blast the ball past you?", but "I'm going to out-place the ball from you".  They spun balls in at a moderate pace and moved their opponent around.  They rarely "blasted" balls past each other unless it was real juicy.

After these mental sessions with myself over the past month, I have tried to implement these ideas during training. Hopefully it will pay off.



Edited by Jeff(ATTC) - 01/29/2011 at 5:10pm