[Video] vs. my training partner

He isn't really my training partner, not now at least.  We started out our lessons together but we just went our own ways to training plus we got busy with school.  But for the past half year, he surpassed me after beating me many times and started beating others rated significantly higher ~300 points.  But today we had a chance to play and I got it on video.

Before you watch the video, I will say that my serves were really sloppy, much sloppier than usual as I'm in a transition phase with serves.  Learning a new serve so cut me some slack on that.  Everything else...go ahead and criticize.  I believe I counted having my bh touch the ball only once in this match, and it was a push

BTW, I played mostly control in this match.

http://youtu.be/xmm2uO_-ryA

I feel that you have an idea of what you want to do, but your execution is too slow. By being slow in the first move you're already late for the second. Try to up your pace in your movements, as in getting to the shots and immediately pull back for the next one. By having a much faster arm speed to get to shots (pushes, blocks, loops, everything), you'll give the opponent less time to react and consequently you'll have more time to react.

If you do this, all your shots should improve significantly and what you plan out in your mind will actually happen on the table. Your mind's concept of your moment is much faster than what your body is actually doing. A lot of time this timing difference is what makes those horrible playing days where you want to break your paddle in half and just never want to play again. But if you know this, then all you have to do when you're playing horribly and nothing's going in is just to up your movement pace (obviously if your body is super tired that's not going to happen lol)

Well, just a theory. Let me know what you guys think.

glassmaple wrote: I feel that you have an idea of what you want to do, but your execution is too slow. By being slow in the first move you're already late for the second. Try to up your pace in your movements, as in getting to the shots and immediately pull back for the next one. By having a much faster arm speed to get to shots (pushes, blocks, loops, everything), you'll give the opponent less time to react and consequently you'll have more time to react. If you do this, all your shots should improve significantly and what you plan out in your mind will actually happen on the table. Your mind's concept of your moment is much faster than what your body is actually doing. A lot of time this timing difference is what makes those horrible playing days where you want to break your paddle in half and just never want to play again. But if you know this, then all you have to do when you're playing horribly and nothing's going in is just to up your movement pace (obviously if your body is super tired that's not going to happen lol) Well, just a theory. Let me know what you guys think.

If you are talking about some of the 3rd balls that went into the net from being too slow, then it makes a lot of sense.  I feel that mainly my timing has gotten a bit slower as I don't have anyone to practice my big shots with.  When my coach was here, he would consistently block back my kill loops with good control so I can keep going and going.  I don't have that luxury anymore, plus still being full from dinner doesn't help either...

I think your friend is to slow and flat footed but is capable if he would put in some effort, but both of seldom landed any good shots and if 1 of you did the other the other 1 seldom expected it or didnt do much to try and move to get the ball back,

IMHO you guys are trying to copy pro players too much!

I only watched the first game. You guys really strike a good pose. But it all breaks down after the serve. As others have said, it looks as though you simply need loads of practice.

safe loops need more spin....that's all i can say =)

It's very painful watching you two "practice".

Both of you are too advance for your own good. I agree with the poster above about copying the pros too much. Lay off the youtube videos for a while.

Around 4:12. Good serve form. Kind of reminds me of some Chinese players. You hit both serves in the net. Change serve. Your opponent has an even better serve pose. Ala-Liu Guoliang. He serves into the net.

Too much emphasis on looking good and not on actually making a proper contact and putting the ball ON THE TABLE. That is the objective of the game.

Go back to the basics. Do all the basic stroke drills and footwork drills. Repeat. Repeat some more.

... or you can try bowling.

do this - play with money on the line. That will quickly trim down the fat and frills from your game. 

what are you talking about? That other  guy was estimated at 1100 and he himself admitted he's close to 1100.

If you called him on all of his hidden serves, you definitely would win every match :)

It is clear from these games that you both have had the same coach. Your conditioned responses to certain balls are very similar. You both strive to loopkill underspin with a similar stroke. However, your opponent occasionally "scales down" his attack and puts one more ball on the table for the point. He also occasionally opens with big strength from his backhand side. Luckily for you he also makes plenty of unforced errors. Across the match, I think you won all three points when you opened with medium topspin. Oddly enough, during one of the games almost almost all of the points that you won came from the placement and strength of your pushing. in that game, you managed to hit one solid winner, and your opponents unforced errors got you to 11 first. It absolutely terrifies me that you consider him a "control" player!

At some point in the development of one's game it becomes necessary to engage in an honest appraisal of how much time and what quality you are willing to invest in practice. I recommend setting realistic goals based on what you are willing to invest. Because it simply hubris to think that you can play points styled after the professionals without putting in the "10,000 hours" of quality training required to do so.

For example, if your goal is to play short game and 3rd ball attack, wouldn't it make sense to put all of your eggs in that basket?
e.g. have a partner feed you thousands of multiball pushes? And rather than do it blindly, shouldn't the spin patterns and placements of multiball mirror the likely results of what your opponent's second ball would be against your corresponding serves?  Also, you could do lots of push and serve receive drills. I'll leave the specifications of those drills to others, but it would seem that if we only have a limited amount of time to practice, that deliberate practice will serve us better than random practice.

Ooops, mistake about 1700.  

ohhgourami wrote: LOL I would do these fh practice things, but I got no one that can block correctly!

i always find your videos funny. you seem to always make the same mistakes and you never seem to take anyone's advice. i'm pretty sure the "2000" player from your other video is more than qualified to practice with you. it's not like you're landing many shots on the table anyways.

i think you are very disillusioned regarding the strength of your loops. you obviously aren't putting much spin on the ball otherwise they'd be hitting the table. also, i feel like anyone playing against you will gladly let you loop the ball past them knowing that you only make about 1 out of every 7-8 loops at best. almost any player can beat you just by pushing the ball

icontek wrote: If you called him on all of his hidden serves, you definitely would win every match :) It is clear from these games that you both have had the same coach. Your conditioned responses to certain balls are very similar. You both strive to loopkill underspin with a similar stroke. However, your opponent occasionally "scales down" his attack and puts one more ball on the table for the point. He also occasionally opens with big strength from his backhand side. Luckily for you he also makes plenty of unforced errors. Across the match, I think you won all three points when you opened with medium topspin. Oddly enough, during one of the games almost almost all of the points that you won came from the placement and strength of your pushing. in that game, you managed to hit one solid winner, and your opponents unforced errors got you to 11 first. It absolutely terrifies me that you consider him a "control" player! At some point in the development of one's game it becomes necessary to engage in an honest appraisal of how much time and what quality you are willing to invest in practice. I recommend setting realistic goals based on what you are willing to invest. Because it simply hubris to think that you can play points styled after the professionals without putting in the "10,000 hours" of quality training required to do so. For example, if your goal is to play short game and 3rd ball attack, wouldn't it make sense to put all of your eggs in that basket? e.g. have a partner feed you thousands of multiball pushes? And rather than do it blindly, shouldn't the spin patterns and placements of multiball mirror the likely results of what your opponent's second ball would be against your corresponding serves?  Also, you could do lots of push and serve receive drills. I'll leave the specifications of those drills to others, but it would seem that if we only have a limited amount of time to practice, that deliberate practice will serve us better than random practice.

He is a control player when he plays other attackers.  His consistency at blocking is better than people ~1500 so he will win.  But both learning tt together, I know his weaknesses as much as he knows mine.  His shortgame is weak so I exploit that to its fullest.  To be honest, I was lazy while playing him so I didn't make the effort to do too much attacking.  BTW, my opening loops have a lot more spin than it may seem.  And against an opponent is just waiting for you to open big, it is not the best idea to give a big drive when a spinny loop that he can't block back on the table is 10x better.  He knows where I land my big loops while 2000s don't.  Funny isn't it?