Extreme Table Tennis

Ping Pong ball used in a girl's surgery

admin@tabletennisnetwork.com — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:32:00 GMT

Hinoki with DHS Hurricane III

admin@tabletennisnetwork.com — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:50:00 GMT

I had a chance to hit XIOM RSM Athena Platinum JPen today. I’m not a JPen player, but I was trying to get the feeling of the hinoki blades. I had DHS Hurricane III 2.2 Regular version on the blade.

I was really surprised at the great feel of Hinoki with a hard rubber like Hurricane III. I have tried RSM Athena with Omega III before. I’ve never had that kind of touch and feel with any other wood like this one. It’s a great blade to put a lot of top spin without much effort from the forarm. I’m sure this blade may not be suitable for shake handers because it has so much power, so will make the forearm movements unnecessary.

I was noticing also so much curving of top spin ball in the air than any other wood. I’m not sure how this is happening - a simple touch on the top of the ball can generate very curvy balls. I’m still to figure out this behavior.

I grabbed 3rd in the BLUEHOST tournament

admin@tabletennisnetwork.com — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:28:00 GMT

I was little confident that I could perform well in the tournament, but not to grab a medal though. There are few preparations I had to do to raise my confidence level at this tournament. (1) On Friday at the Salt Lake club, I’ve tried hard to make sure my forehand and backhand are working okay. I was pretty happy. Everyone here in this region knows my game, and they all resort to push and drop shots to get points against me - nobody would like to take the risk of looping. That strategy has worked against me long time ago. I hate to be a victim to that anymore. Things have changed. Being a modern defensive player, I have taken any defensive posture of my opponent as an opportunity to get point. So, a stable forehand countering and looping were very important. That has finally worked well in this tournament. (2) Everyone is familiar with my serves – they know where I’m going to serve. That’s where I have worked on three days this week. I have made the serves unpredictable. It was amazing to see how some of the third ball attacks worked well when the opponents can guess where you are going to serve and you can move well to finish the point. (3) I had to make sure I have good footwork. I know I will kill myself if I don’t have my footwork of backhand and forehand working. Throughout this week, I’ve practiced some exercise for quickness. I’ve also practiced some multi ball practice with my Butterfly robot. The preparations paid very well.

I have used TSP Yanagi Alpha table tennis blade in this tournament. In the last tournament which was in April, I’ve used the TSP BalsaPlus 3.5 blade. Although I like TSP BalsaPlus 3.5, the Yanagi Alpha has low throw angle which I have liked it well recently. On the backhand I’ve played with TSP Curl P1R 1.3 mm which is my favorite rubber and the XIOM Omega III Euro Max on the forehand.

My first match was against Dennis. He creates a lot of trouble to me at the club. Recently he plays defensive game against me. He cuts top spin and no spin ball very good. It is hard to push such spinny strokes with long pips. He smashes very well which has caused me problem in the first game. I’ve tried to keep the ball low but his cuts were getting into the pips and the balls were popping up. In the second game, I’ve tried to keep the ball low and that worked well. When that has worked well, I’ve got into looping his cuts. That required a close to the table play and that has caused problem for me while chopping his smashes. I had to step in and out for looping and chopping but that paid well for a win 3 to 2.

James is a trouble maker too with his Hinoki JPen. He is a very good pusher and hitter. He is one of those players who play from the center of the table to the center of the other side. It is a very hard style to play. How hard I try to push the ball to the forehand or backhand of James, he pushes me into the middle of the table. My chops are less effective against him because he does not loop but directs the spin back to me. The strategy I have against such players is looping with heavy top spin as soon as the opponent goes into push. Against Dennis and James, I have taken the opportunities to attack for any pushes and that has worked well.

Ryan is the top player in Utah. I was his student a year ago. He is a good looper and plays very strategically. I hate to upset good players like Ryan and I plan only to give competitive game. Things went wrong this time and I had to grab the win by 3 - 2. The serves have helped me well in this match and gave less predictability to Ryan to loop - he loops any loose ball. I have also played my new serves which have helped my third ball attack. Ryan defended and I’ve taken those opportunities to attack. One major strategy used by some higher rater players is to push forward my chops which don't have any spin sometimes and redirect the spin back to me to handle. I would love to loop those shots though it takes a little work. I have found less weakness in my forehand to such shots. I have to agree that some of my loops have gone out against the no spin balls that he has pushed back to me, and all the time I was in a very bad position and had to react faster - short loops would have helped me in thouse situations.

The match against Noel was terrible. He beat me 3 to 0. He uses hard bat and is the master of ball placements and a very good hitter. He was the Hardbat doubles champion at the US Open last year. He plays both defense and offense, so it requires a lot of footwork from me. There was something which worried me throughout the match was the light condition. There was a wall on side of the table and that paused me when I wanted to move to the backhand side to loop. The depth perception I had about the table was lost whenever I’ve tried to loop – the ball went long. A loose ball to Noel means a sure win for him. I’ve tried to avoid that but I’ve made so many mistakes when I've tried to keep the ball low. There is another area where I have struggled is looping the no spin ball from Noel which he carefully places at the center court. I should have looped those balls with forearm lowered rather than raised – the depth perception took me for a ride. I have written before in a blog about the difficulty in looping against no spin balls with tensor rubbers. I was stupid and did not bring to my mind this thought.

The semi-final match against Ryan happened at the same table where the match against Noel happened. As the practice started, I had hard time figuring out the wings of the table. Although I have noticed a change in the speed of the ball from Ryan, I’ve tried to adjust to the speed to hit at the wings of the table. I was not successful. In this match also, I’ve made the same mistake I’ve made against Noel – the loops against no spin ball went long.

In all the tournaments I’ve played before, this is the first time I’ve received a cash price. Matt is a wonderful guy who has helped to promote table tennis in Utah. We play each other every week if possible except he is away on his business – one of the best leftie looper I’ve seen. He uses XIOM ZETA on his forehand and XIOM Yanus DF on his backhand. To read his blog go to http://www.mattheaton.com

Nittaku Willtria Table Tennis Blade Review

admin@tabletennisnetwork.com — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:29:00 GMT

My favorite among Nittaku products is their 3 star ball. An year ago, I bought one of their Haneyoshi defensive table tennis blade. That was not a suitable blade for me.

For a while, I have been looking blades made of willow and came across Nittaku Willtria. My expectation of Willtria was less speed than Butterfly Defense II and more rigidity. As usual, I prefer weight less than 85 gm. Unfortunately, the Nittaku Willtria could not give me anything that I was looking for.

The weight of Nittaku Willtria is 95 gm. The Nittaku catalog says the weight is close to 85 gm, but it really surprised me why this blade weight so heavy. That itself brought a notion to me that they blade will be faster than Butterfly Defense II. That is true. The Nittaku Willtria is faster than Butterfly Defense II.

The blade face size is the same for both the Butterfly Defense II and Nittaku Willtria. Another important thing I have noticed is that the wood that has been used in both the blades are different. The willow wood in Butterfly Defense II has more dark color while the willow wood in Nittaku Willtria is slight yellowish.

When I compare both the blades, the Butterfly Defense II can absorb heavy impact while Nittaku Willtria not. Whatever rubber you use on Butterfly Defense II, it has more dwell time and you have more control. The Nittaku Willtria simply throw the ball out so fast. The throw angle of both the blades are high. But the Butterfly Defense II throw angle is deceiving for the opponents because the ball can suddently drop its flight path. I have not seen that with Nittaku Willtria.

I have tried TSP Curl p1R long pips on both the blades. When I have tried TSP Curl P1R 1.3 on Butterfly Defense II, I had the best control. When I have tried the same on Nittaku Willtria, the ball was just jumping so fast from the blade without any control. Then I have tried the 0.5 mm version of TSP Curl P1R. The Nittaku Willtria behaved very badly with that sponge combination. With the 0.5 mm version, you will lose a little chopping ability against short balls, but the Butterfly Defense II did a good job.

I would probably consider Nittaku Willtria as an all round blade rather than a defensive blade. I don’t think it is fair to put this blade under defense +. If someone wants to use this blade as a defensive weapon, they need to go for very slow long pips and slow forehand rubber.

Long Pips rubber with soft sponge and hard sponge

admin@tabletennisnetwork.com — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:51:00 GMT

To test the effect of sponge hardness on long pips, I have selected XIOM Guillotine 1.3 mm and TSP Curl P1R 1.3 mm. Both are best selling long pips rubbers and being used by professional players.

The TSP Curl P1R has more like a dead rubber feeling. The sponge is very hard – the hardness is close to 60 degree. The XIOM Guillitine has a very live feeling. It is built of tensor technology. The sponge of XIOM Guillitine is soft – the hardness is close to 45.

The hard sponge rubbers are very hard to control, but it has the best effect while the soft sponge rubbers are easy to control. When you compare these two rubbers, the TSP Curl P1R requires longer time to master. The XIOM Guillitine does not have a long learning curve.

The TSP Curl P1R is slow compared to XIOM Guillitine. I have felt the TSP Curl P1R gives me a great amount of control while chopping away or close to the table. I would like to keep the ball low. The TSP Curl P1R can do better job in chopping balls at the table height. With the XIOM Guillitine, the chopper has to wait for the ball to fall a little – the Korean Chopper Joo Se Hyuk style.

The soft sponge can absorb a great amount of spin from the opponent, so returning is easy. The hard sponge rubbers like TSP Curl P1R does not absorb the heavy spin easily. A 100 mph travelling hard top spin can be easily blocked or chopped with XIOM Guillitine while it is hard to do with TSP Curl P1R.

The tensor technology has given a different dimension to the long pips. The tensor makes the pips more flexible to bend. The ball can be cut or chopped easily than a rubber with a hard sponge. The roots of the pips are flexible also which makes the pips to spring back. This does not require you to do a longer chop stroke to generate spin – short stroke is okay. There are choppers who would like to do chop at their hip level will like XIOM Guillitine.