What’s in a blade?

I’m not sure if I’ve talked about this before, but I really hate how little information websites/catalogs give you about blades!  Usually, you just get average weight, number of plies, maybe thickness, maybe some head/handle dimensions, and some made up number (or term) to classify its speed/control/hardness.  Why can’t they tell you what kind of wood is used in each ply?  Or how thick each one is?  I don’t think it’s because that information is top secret or anything.  Other companies can easily just buy one of the blades and take it apart to see exactly how it’s constructed (I’m sure they already do this).  Maybe it’s because people won’t experiment with blades as much, leading to lower sales.  I think that’s definitely the case with me (and something I already do).  However, I guess it could also work the other way.  Right now, I can pretty eliminate 95% or more of the blades on the market based on construction (not a fan of all wood or ALC), thickness (I very rarely try anything more than 6mm), and head size (BTY’s 158×152 is the biggest I can handle).  In fact, I picked out my MJ this way.  It basically fit all my requirements, and had a very comfortable (and beautiful) handle, so I had to get it.  Lucky for me, that turned out to be a great decision on my part, as I can’t imagine playing with any other blade right now.  Anyway, if the TT companies would release these specs on the blades, maybe I would be more tempted to try some, if they had similar constructions to blades I’ve liked in the past.  I guess the most likely reason they don’t disclose that information is because people will be like, “oh, both these blades are limba-spruce-kiri, so I’m just going to buy the cheaper one.”

Oh well, I guess you can’t have everything.  With rubbers, it’s probably unreasonable (and unhelpful) to list the composition.  Aside from natural rubber, how many people are actually going to recognize the sorts of polymers they put in, much less know how they serve as TT rubbers.  In the end, it seems it’ll always come back to guess and check.  Actually, I want to do some guessing right now!  There’s just one rubber that caught my attention at the moment: Palio Thor’s.  It sounds… really good, actually!  Something like what I expected Spin Art to be (although I still haven’t gotten a chance to try that).  A 55 degree ESN sponge (hopefully close to a 40 degree DHS sponge) with a tacky topsheet, so it’s comparable with classic tacky rubbers when it comes to touch shots, but still provides some catapult when you step back.  Of course, that’s what it sounds like, and probably not how it’ll actually perform.  Still, for $35 a sheet or something, it’s worth checking out!  Normally, I’m very wary of ESN products, but so far, I’ve actually been fairly impressed with Palio stuff (ironically, I found them better than their more expensive European counterparts).  Maybe a year ago, I tried a friend’s Macro Era, and that seemed to be a good BH rubber (along the lines of Pryde), although I thought it was a little soft to be used on FH.  And just recently, my friend started using the new Blit’z on his FH, and although it’s no Tenergy, I think it’s the closest thing I’ve tried in terms of overall feel.  Definitely haven’t tried it for long enough to really make a fair comparison, though.  In any case, if I can get a rubber fairly close to Tenergy for half the price, I will certainly make the switch.  To be honest, I can probably play more or less at the same level using H3 or TG3 (since I stay fairly close to the table when playing competitively), but it’s just not as fun as being able to loop from anywhere, against anything, and having everything land.  In the end, it’s just about how happy I am when playing, and T05 has been keeping me happier than anything else so far.  Now… should I get a sheet of Thor’s…?  I really wish more people around here used Chinese rubbers, so I wouldn’t have to do all the experimenting by myself!

P.S. Another week or so has passed since my last update, and HPB is still as beautiful as ever.  I love this topsheet!

Back!

Hi all, I’m back from Vegas!  I’ll be a little slow getting this updated, as I’ve been busy since I got back, and I think I will be pretty busy until after this weekend.  Also, I didn’t play ANY TT, so that’s pretty sad.  Hope to change that starting tomorrow.  In short, the shows were awesome and the food was awesome.  I’ll go into more detail later.  The only thing that could’ve made this trip better is… TT!

Anyway, here’s the video for today.  I’m surprised Chinese singers are so popular in Japan.  I thought this performance was pretty good, so I opted for this instead of the CD recording.

Impatient

I’m impatiently waiting for my TBS to arrive, although I don’t expect that it’ll come until Monday at the earliest.  I played at a friend’s place today, and in the limited space, I have no doubts about my pips.  Love them in every way.  But when I have more space to move back (and be lazy), I get the urge to use smooth backhand (and be lazy).  Well, first I’ll have to see how the TBS pairs up with my Spectol.  I’ve never met anyone who played pips with the TBS.  We shall see how it goes!  Waiting is the most painful thing, but receiving the package is the best feeling in the world.

Anyway, while I’m waiting, I figured I should play some piano.  Found the sheet music for this song, and it’s pretty nice!  I really like this song, even though I don’t really get what it’s about.  The melody is really nice.

Random Update

Sorry about the lack of updates.  I simply haven’t had much to write about.  But today, I do!  Even though it’s not too interesting.

My H3 Neo topsheet was getting really worn out, not because I played too much, but more because I think I somehow rubbed it too hard.  Sometimes, I would accidentally get some glue on it (residue on the table or something, and I’d lay the rubber face down on it without realizing), and I would have to rub it really hard to get it off.  Also rubbed against the table a couple of times while pushing or whatever.  Anyway, it was starting to look really bad, which is why I got the H3 Neo Provincial and all.  Well, that one turned out to be pretty bad (too mushy), and I wasn’t really sure if it was due to it being provincial, or if it was just because it was 39 degrees instead of 41.  So I took that off immediately, and put my old sheet back on.  Then, I ordered a couple of sheets of the commercial stuff in 40 degrees (since it was on sale, and the guy didn’t have 41 degrees).  Played with it today, and it’s fine.  It’s not quite as crisp as the 41, but is not mushy like the provincial, so I think I’m going to stick with it, especially since I ordered another sheet to use after this one wears out.  I’m really glad it ended up working out.  I think some of the difference in behavior is also because it’s not worn in yet.  Chinese rubbers definitely have a breaking in period (the Neo ones not nearly as long as the old ones, and the change isn’t as drastic either), so after a couple more sessions, I should be perfectly happy with this one.  I just hope the gym isn’t humid!

Ok, so aside from that, I also have some news unrelated to TT.  Having nothing to do at home, I started watching these TV shows on youtube.  I have to say, 天才衝衝衝 is pretty much the best show ever.  Besides the TT, watching this is the highlight of my week.  Unfortunately, it only airs once a week, so I’ve had to watch some other shows to pass the time, including 超級星光大道.  Apparently this show is pretty famous, but I didn’t really know about it.  But remember that Chinese guy who sang Whitney Houston’s song?  It was huge news (the next Susan Boyle, etc.).  This is that show where he sang!  He’s not actually a contestant, but he was invited to PK the contestants, along with some other very talented singers.  It’s strange that they would invite such incredible people to the show, because honestly, it just makes the contestants look really bad.  Not that they suck or anything, but it makes me wonder, if these people are already so much better, why aren’t THEY the ones on the show?  Well, putting that aside, there are a couple that are actually quite good, and I’m rooting for this one guy, because I really like his voice.  Nice and rich, and his style is closer to the old school singers, I think.  Nothing fancy… just, clean music.

So yeah, if you’re bored, check out those shows.  Definitely worth watching.  I’m hoping to have more TT news, but since I’ve settled on a (more or less) permanent setup, I don’t have anything to review.  I will say that I’m trying to work on my game a little bit (mostly footwork), so I’m hoping I can report some epiphanies or something in the near future.  I am VERY tempted to try BTY Spin Art (tacky + spring sponge, and harder than Tenergy… sounds perfect), but at $65 a sheet or whatever here, it’s just not worth it.  I’ll have to see if anyone I know is ordering from overseas (like Japan, where it’s priced the same as Tenergy… instead of ripping people off even more) if I want to get a sheet.  Also, even though I say how much I love my setup, I’m still incredibly tempted to get a Violin or Acoustic (never tried Acoustic, so probably Violin since I had good impressions of it), just because all wood blades (that aren’t super hard) have a lower gear that I can’t really utilize with the MJ.  That is, playing soft shots is safer and more controlled.  However, I have a feeling that I’m going to miss the crispness of my MJ if I ever switch to all wood (which feel mushy, comparatively), so luckily, that knowledge is keeping me from spending quite a bit of money on another blade.

Coaching?

On Sunday, I played with some new guy at the club.  Well, I guess he’s not really new to the club, but I haven’t seen him before.  Anyway, he offered to pay me for some coaching.  That’s really unusual.  Of course, I didn’t feel qualified to coach (much less for money), so I told him just to come to the club more, and I’d give him some pointers and hit around with him.  This got me thinking — what’s the value of a coach?  Since I’ve never had a coach, it’s something I always wanted.  It’s really surprising what one little tip here and there can do to improve your game, and it’s often very hard for you to recognize your own imperfections.  And, of course, having a coach means having a great training partner!

Apparently, this guy has been playing for at least a decade (most likely 2 or 3 times as long as I have), and the experience shows.  That is, he seems to be very set in his ways, and has managed to develop some unorthodox techniques that work for him.  Anyway, I find it a little strange that many experienced players look for coaching, as they also seem to be very set in their ways.  Of course, this isn’t always their fault — older brains are harder to rewire.  But I just can’t help but think that some simple self-coaching will end up working out a lot better (and cheaper) for them.  It’s good, of course, that they’re motivated to find a coach to help them improve.  However, that motivation should at least be enough to do some simple self-evaluations.  Watching videos on youtube or whatever will give you a guideline of how to perform the basics.  It’s not a substitute for a real coach, but you have to be willing to make some changes if you’re going to ask people to help you improve!

That reminds me — watching videos of yourself really helps.  It’s a humbling experience, for sure.  You might think you’re bending enough, but it becomes evident that you aren’t once you see it on tape!  Well, that’s just one of my problems.  It always amazes me how bad I look when I play, although it really shouldn’t come as a surprise.  This is probably why you think you can beat many people by watching their game, but then when you actually play, it’s much harder than it seemed!  Well, anyway, I’m really not sure where I’m going with this.  Just thought it was about time for a new post.

Tomorrow morning, I’m driving down to bay area!  I hope the tournament this weekend goes well.  My paddle still smells highly illegal, and the smell never seems to disappear.  Oh well, it’s just doubles, and it’s not even for prize money.  I hope nobody will mind.  Or notice.  Preferably the latter.

More Service Thoughts

Just a couple random things I’ve thought about while practicing serves at home.

First, I’m starting to get some underspin on my reverse forehand serve!  It’s not heavy underspin, and honestly, when I look at the trajectory and everything, it looks like basically pure sidespin.  However, if opponents think it’s side or side/top, it WILL sink down into the net.  I guess that’s good enough for me!  It seems almost psychological, actually.  I mean, I can make it definitely topspin (with ease), but to make underspin, I seem to just have to “think” underspin as I serve.  If I don’t really focus on it, even with seemingly the same motion, it becomes side/top.  Strange!  I have found this to be true with the normal forehand pendulum serve as well (with penhold, at least).  I’m sure it’s just my body adjusting to do what I want, but I seem to just have to really think about which spin I want it to be, and usually that’s what it is!

Second, I’m not really sure why, but it would appear that my pure underspin (or as close as I can get to it) at home isn’t necessarily pure underspin when I get to a table.  I’m not quite sure why it is.  It could be that at a table, I adjust my stroke for ball length/height/etc, so that the stroke changes enough to impact the spin significantly.  But seriously, many times, I serve what I think is (almost) pure underspin, but it’s evident by the subsequent balls (either the return or my 3rd ball) that the serve was very sidespinny (or, at least, much more so than I had thought).

Now, I have made a strange observation that may or may not explain these things.  When I serve a side/top or side/under ball, and watch the trajectory and how the ball is spinning, it’s clear that the axis of rotation of the ball changes with time.  What does that mean?  Maybe it means that depending on WHEN you decide to receive the ball, the spin will be different.  Of course, I doubt that a side/top will ever produce even the tiniest amount of underspin (especially considering the limited time you have to receive the ball before you lose the point).  However, perhaps if you take it early, it’ll be more topspin, and if you take it later, it’ll be more sidespin, or vice versa.  For example, have you noticed that when a sidespinny loop (definitely has topspin as well, so it’ll be a side/top to the receiver) hits the net, and spins there, by the time you go and pick up the ball, it’s basically pure sidespin?  Thinking about that just makes everything seem too complicated.  How will you ever be able to receive a serve well?  But that’s what the ball seems to do!

Well, that’s it for now!  Let’s see how well my serves hold up this Sunday.  Can’t wait for the giant RR!

Chopping

Ever since I learned about table tennis (which, I guess, has only been a few years), I’ve been more fascinated with choppers than attackers, with the exception of some of the more unique offensive players (Ma Lin, for instance).  Nowadays, I love watching Joo.  That guy is incredible, and his backhand chop is a work of art.  However, I think I’ll always like Matsushita the most.  I guess there’s a “Japanese” way of chopping, since Shibutani’s style has many similarities, but Matsushita is just incredible.  Very athletic, and able to get such impossible balls back.  I’m not really sure how to explain it.  Joo’s chopping is to defense what WLQ’s forehand is to offense.  Stable, powerful, clean, efficient — really beautiful.  Matsushita’s chopping is more like Ma Lin.  More variety, adjustments, all sorts of strange strokes.  Yet, he somehow has such great feeling for the ball that these crazy shots keep landing.  It’s sad that defenders are really a rare breed these days.  What’s interesting is the lack of european choppers.  There was one Greek guy, as I recall, but his chop was so ugly!

Anyway, if I were able to play with long pips, I would become a chopper.  I already have a tendency to back off and do random shots as the ball is dropping.  Maybe I’ll be a short pips chopper!  Oh well, maybe after the next couple tournaments I’ll start learning how to chop.  My forehand isn’t too bad!  Not very consistent, but pretty dang spinny.  Unfortunately, my backhand can’t seem to chop hard enough with the short pips to prevent people from attacking hard.  Eh, we shall see.

Tennis, and other random stuff

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted!  I went down to California for a week.  Anyway, on my flight down to LA and back to Portland, I watched the Australian Open (Tennis).  Now, I’m not a fan of tennis.  I barely know anything about the game aside from the basics.  However, what really caught my eye was this Czech player.  I think his name was Karlovic or something.  Well, I saw him playing against Nadal (really dang good… even non-tennis people know his name), and it was a really interesting match, in the sense that it changed my overall view of tennis.  What I thought of tennis (based on the very little exposure I had to it) was that it was pretty close to European TT.  Long rallies, not much variation, and everyone plays essentially the same style (pretty much always topspin and power).  I saw Nadal playing some other player, and it seemed to be true.  Nadal was just more athletic… ran faster, hit harder, so the other guy didn’t have a chance.  Now, this Karlovic guy had a massive serve.  He rarely faulted at all, and aced Nadal over and over again.  I’m sure it helps that he’s 6’10″ (seriously), so the ball is probably easily 10 ft off the ground at the point of contact.  I can’t say if his serve was faster than others, but his precision was remarkable.  You think TT was bad when hidden serves were legal?  This is even crazier.  There was just no humanly possible way to get this guy’s serve back unless you predicted where it was going and moved there ahead of time.  It was pretty ridiculous.  But that’s not the only reason this guy was interesting.  He was a chopper!  He would move to take balls with this backhand, and just chop them all back.  However, I think choppers in tennis are pretty much opposites of choppers in table tennis.  This guy definitely wasn’t as consistent in rallies compared to topspin players, and his main strategy consisted of moving Nadal in and out, instead of side to side (which worked very well).  This strategy is usually used AGAINST choppers in TT.  Anyway, he had a very unique game plan, which I think can only pulled off with someone of his height.  As I said, he would use his backhand to chop balls back, varying the depth very well.  Some would go really deep, and some would fall right in front of the net.  When he dropped it short, he would run up to the net, and because nobody’s fast enough to run in and pull off a great return, they would weakly get it over, and he’d smack it right there (not a strategy for TT since you don’t have to wait for the ball to bounce in tennis).  Maybe this kind of player is more common than I thought, but it’s just the first time I’ve seen anything like it.

Well, what does this have to do with ping pong?  Nothing, really, except reinforcing my love for it.  As far as I can tell, height is only an advantage in tennis, and a really big one at that.  In TT, there is good and bad that comes with being tall.  After all, Deng Yaping was a midget and she still owned everyone.  Also, people complain about 3rd ball kills, and how rallies in TT should be longer.  Give me a break!  At least there aren’t 1st ball kills like in tennis!  That Karlovic guy seriously got games from Nadal in 4 straight aces.  Granted, not everyone is that good, but even the best servers in TT can’t pull that off.  I do think that making hidden serves illegal was a good move for the ITTF.  It definitely made serves look more elegant.  Well, I might also be biased since I didn’t start playing until all the most recent rules were in effect (aside from the glue ban).

As far as my recent TT experiences go… I played a couple times down in LA, and I sucked.  I have two theories about that.  First, I don’t think I can play well in the mornings.  Maybe because I’ve only been playing in the evenings lately (actually, I’ve very rarely played in the mornings aside from tournaments).  But it just felt totally wrong.  Secondly, my rubber seemed to have much less grip in the cold weather.  Or maybe it was the humidity.  I’m not really sure, but I wasn’t able to generate much spin, and I could feel the ball slipping off.  In any case, I can tell I’m not playing nearly as well as I normally do (even without those other two reasons), so I need to make sure I start improving before the tournament!

Muscle Groups

I’ve always said how I think penhold was meant for hitting and shakehand meant for looping.  That is, when you swing at the ball naturally, the angle created by penhold makes it much more open compared to shakehand, so that it’s very easy to hit through the ball, while it’s very easy to graze the ball playing shakehand.  Well, aside from just that, I’ve also noticed recently that I exercise different muscles playing the two different styles.  I’m not really sure how to explain it (I know virtually nothing about anatomy), but in general, it seems that playing SH requires more upper arm strength, whereas playing PH really works out your forearm.

Even when just talking about table tennis players, my right forearm is MUCH bigger than my left.  I attribute this to playing years of penhold.  Well, it could also be due to my lack of coaching, leading to improper form, resulting in me using the wrong muscles.  In any case, I guess I should give some reasons for my belief.  Playing PH requires a lot of finger strength (playing SH requires virtually none)… when hitting forehands, there is a strong emphasis on the thumb, and (traditional) backhands put a huge strain on the index finger.  On an interesting side note, drilling tons of backhands with PH made me really sore in one very small, specific spot on the front of my shoulder (where arm joins torso… front of the body).  Maybe the tendon leading to the index finger starts there.  As I said, I know nothing about this stuff.  Back to the point, just by bending your fingers, you can feel tension in your forearm, so I think that has something to do with it.  Secondly, it’s accepted that PH is superior over the table, and I certainly felt that way.  Whether pushing, flipping, or whatever, the PH forehand is extremely versatile on playing short balls.  For those short balls (over the table), you really don’t have the space to move your large muscles, so they tend to all be very forearm-dependent strokes (or am I doing it all wrong?).  Well, I find myself almost never flipping balls aggressively playing SH now, because it’s just really hard to get power.  No wrist flexibility means my balls go everywhere, except where I want them to go.  Lastly, and this really might just be me, but it seems very unnatural to do the “elbow snap” with penhold.  It just doesn’t create the right kind of angle.  Instead, for hits (especially with pips), it’s just a very quick elbow pivoting movement, which is a forearm stroke.  For looping, it’s mostly a shoulder stroke (also true in SH).  After playing tournaments, I did feel sore around my shoulder/back.  Also, watching pros like Ma Lin or Xu Xin, it seems like they also put a heavy emphasis on shoulder strength and not so much on the elbow movement… but this could also be due to Chinese training, as the Chinese SH players exhibit the same sort of stroke.

Moving on… now to analyze how my SH strokes have been.  Well, actually, most of it has already been covered.  My forehand is mainly looping now, and with SH, the forearm moves in the same plane with the paddle and everything, so that you can utilize the “elbow snap” to add spin very easily.  However, this technique seems to use mainly upper arm strength (it’s like pulling on something), so I feel like my forearm is going to waste!  But it really seems like everything that’s a strength for PH is a weakness for SH.  While flipping, the wrist feels like it has no flexibility, and while hitting, it feels too wobbly.  The only thing I can do well is loop (which is so fun, so at least that’s a bonus).

Oh, now that I think about it, in one case, I much prefer SH, and that’s the backhand flat hit.  I’m probably doing it wrong (as with everything else), but I use a ton of wrist and forearm in this stroke.  It’s so natural to hit low balls really hard down the line (cross court is harder for some reason).  I don’t have much of a BH loop (it was actually better with RPB), but I really like smacking it more than looping it.  Oh yeah, speaking of backhands, when rallying with backhand, the underside of my upper arm gets really tired.  Never had that problem with penhold, but that’s probably because I never warmed up with RPB.  It just takes so much energy holding your arm up!

Anyway, this was basically just some pointless rambling.

Wii Sports Resort

A few days ago, I bought Wii Sports Resort. Overall, it’s a great game! As expected, some of the sports were much better than others, mainly due to the responsiveness of the motion detection. Maybe I just don’t know how it works, but the jet-ski game and the biking game seem VERY hard to control. Well anyway, this blog is about table tennis, so I’ll just talk about that one.

I was pleased to discover that the table tennis game is actually one of the better ones!  It’s not perfect, but I think it’s better than the older table tennis game for the Wii.  You actually make spin by changing the angle of the remote while you swing… but it seems that you can’t really win using spin, as in, you’ll never eat the opponent’s spin.  It’s useful just to change the pace/trajectory of the ball.  Anyway, I thought it was pretty easy, but then when you hit a rating of 1500 or so, the “champion” appears.  This girl is crazy!   It really seems like the computer can move much faster than you can (you can’t control the movement on your own).  I just can’t seem to beat her, and it’s really frustrating.

Well, that’s about it.  Just wanted to rant about that.  This is a pretty awesome game, though, and worth buying if you have a Wii.