TT Day 10 - 8.11.15

Last day. More people showed up today and we had 3 people per coach.

1. FH-FH
2. BH-BH
3. Middle Fh, Left Bh, Middle Fh, Right Fh 
4. Serve, bh push, forehand loop against backspin, backhand, forehand
5. Multiball - Forehand chop, backhand loop against backspin, backhand topspin, forehand topspin

TT Training Day 9 - 8.4.2015

With wang shuai single ball.

FH-FH - 30 in a row

FH-FH - 2 normal hits, 1 spinny fast loop

BH-BH - 30 in a row

BH-BH - 2 normal hits, 1 spinny fast loop

1BH, 1FH - For topspin balls, brush the top of the ball.

Serve, forehand loop, repeat 1BH,1FH - snap forearm on forehand loop and turn body upward and forward.


Stuff to practice:
1. Snap forearm on forehand loop
2. Brush hard on top of topspin balls on smash.
3. Sidespin serve on regular pendulum position with red side of rubber.

TT Training Day 7 - 07.28.2015

Tough day with zhe wang. Need to bring towel/water next time. :P

• FH-FH - For shorter shots, move both feet in: right foot then left foot. Hit forward and spin the ball instead of hitting it.

• BH-BH - Hit forward.

• Forehand topspin in middle, backhand, forehand topspin in middle, forehand topspin on forehand side: On step around, move right foot then left foot since I have trouble maintaining my stance balance when moving all at once.

• Serve backspin, he short push, I short push, he push to my forehand, loop the backspin, random while I return to his backhand: Stay leaning forward. Make sure to rotate on forehand. I did a good job on keeping paddle up. Need to return to ready position after the forehand loop on the backspin. Did this for about 30 mins.

• Serve backspin, he push long to my backhand, backhand loop, then I hit backhand, forehand on backhand side, forehand on forehand side: Had trouble with my backhand loops. Spent about 5 mins on technique. Need to work on this in future.Spent about 5-10 mins on this.

• Serve backspin, he push long to my forehand, forehand loop, backhand, forehand on backhand side, forehand on forehand side: I was pretty tired at this point but during some rallies I was in a zone where I could see and hit the ball really well. Last 10-15 mins felt like they lasted forever.

Overall: Did a good job on forehand loops against backspin today. Probably 85%-90% on the weak drill backspins. Two points to forever remember: rotate body and not use just arm. And hit the ball at the peak of the flight path.

Work on long backhand loops. Stay leaning forward. Remember to brush the ball.

TT Training Day 6 - 7.21.2015

Coach Mark today.

FH-FH - He was hitting the ball to me and it was strangely tough to get it back on the table just flat hitting. Got used to it after a few misses.

FH looping vs block - Graze top of ball to make the looping sound vs the hit sound. Remember to stay low after consecutive loops to get better brushing contact on ball. Try to use legs and torso on loop. Don't drop paddle too much and generally keep paddle high!

BH-BH - Nothing specific comes to mind.

BH looping vs block - I have a bad habit of lowering the paddle after the loop. Keep it high and contact closer to body without reaching. Work on this in future! Graze top of ball - should make looping sound.

Serve, chop, loop the backspin then play out (FH then BH) - On opening loop, put more spin to keep it on table instead of driving the ball. After the first topspin, back up a little bit to have more room to react. Remember to keep paddle up! On wide shots, you can take time to rotate torso but on middle shots keep stroke shorter to get a better shot. Aim to loop each ball.

Serving - placements, mixing spins, same motion - different placements. FH pendulum, reverse pendulum, backhand serves. Note to self: On Friday, I will work on reverse pendulum and backhand serves. Especially reverse pendulum focusing on getting backspin and serving to their forehand side.

Receiving serves: Watch elbow and follow thru to figure out spin. Spent 10 mins receiving Coach Mark's serves. Probably returned about 15% (probably generous) and scored on about 5%.

Notes: Keep paddle up, even on looping. Backup half step after first topspin shot. Work on backhand looping contact point topspin and how to loop backspin backhand. Work on serving reverse pendulum backspin and to forehand. Aim to spin loop each ball.

TT Training Day 5 - 7,14.2015

Not really liking the new blade still. Will try an experiment with different rubbers on old andro blade and new blade this Friday.

First 30 mins with zhe wang. 

• FH-FH - I need to stay leaning forward after I hit. Some of my forehands are more vertical and my body follows so need to keep my stroke forward.

• BH-BH - Move to ball, don't reach.

• BH, FH on bh side, FH on FH side - I need to move after I hit the ball and stay moving. Focus on top spinning on the second forehand and stay leaning forward. Need to move faster too...

• FH in middle, BH on bh side, FH in middle, FH in fh side - Remember to hit middle shots with forehand! My forehand backhand switching is slow. 

Second 30 mins with wang shuai - multiball.

• He serves shot backspin, I push long, he will either push to my fh or loop it. If he loops, I block to his bh and random multiballs come and I topspin smash the forehand shots. If he pushes, I loop and multi-ball randomly comes and I topspin smash the forehands. - I need to move my body instead of just using arm for forehand. Make sure backhands are pushing forward and that my blocks are also moving forward. I'm having trouble blocking the second loop...need to practice this.

• He sidespin/no spin short, I BH flick it to bh, BH to BH until random forehand where I topspin smash. - Make sure to spin the ball on the flick.

• Same as above except long serves are mixed in. - I need to work on returning those long serves. He added some side-topspin serves at the end that I'm having trouble contacting. Got one good one at the end though.

Notes:

1) Work on blocking loops correctly, especially second loop.

2) Forehand moves with my body.

3) Stay leaning forward and increase stamina...

4) Maybe switch back to old paddle... :( ask wang shuai about this next week. Also come 15 mins early to warm up.

TT Day 4 - 7.7.15

Got put into wang shuai's group today. All single ball drills. The multiball coach was late so one person got assigned to mark hazinski (lucky!) and they worked on serve and serve receive (double lucky!). Day 1 playing with new paddle. Previous one was andro temper tech off- with calibras. New one is ai fukuhara zlf with mx-p. The weight is actually pretty average but much heavier than the featherweight andro paddle I had before so will take some adjustment time.

• FH/Fh- Began with forehand warmup counterhitting. Next we did 2 controlled forehand strokes, then one power shot with focus on snapping of forearm and rotation of torso to generate speed and spin. Then repeat.

• Bh/bh - Backhand counterhit first. Then we did 2 controlled backhand then one small loop focused mainly on wrist rotation and having a small stroke. Main purpose is to change the timing of the ball with more arc and spin.

• 1 FH, 1 BH - Similar to previous days. Focus on keeping my paddle up. Don't need big strokes for topspin shots. I need to work on my movement and timing for different balls (long/short/wide).

• Serve short backspin to left, return backspin to my FH, loop the backspin to right, return to my middle, FH topspin to right, return to my forehand, FH topspin to right, return to my left, BH topspin to right, then play out - 

I missed a lot of opening loops (maybe due to paddle?). It got better when I focused on snapping my forearm. Aim for 80% on opening loops on forehand! I feel like I move right a bit too slowly but coach didn't say anything about it.

• Coach serves short to my BH, BH push to his bh, he short push to my FH, BH push to his BH, he long pushes to my FH, FH loop the backspin, then play out -

Again, focus on getting 80% of my FH loops in the table, snapping forearm, and hitting forward. To do this, it is necessary to hit the ball at the top of the bounce instead of waiting too long.

Conclusion:

1) Need to improve my coordination - moving and hitting balls that are slightly different (long/short/wide) with better timing (and footwork).

2) Remember to snap forearm on FH strokes. Continue making sure I rotate my torso on FH shots.

3) Practice the 2 control 1 power shot this Friday. 

I wanna get better. (time to quit my day job? lol)

Day 3 - 6/30/2015

It was raining in the evening and not as many people showed up ~4 people. So among the 3 coaches (or is it 2 coaches and a multiball guy?), I got to get individual training today.

FH warmup - I'm leaning forward now. Still need to add spin? by using a little bit of wrist I think. Still don't fully understand.
Edit 7/2/15: I think this may address what I was not understanding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J10WMtibEZk

BH warmup - Need to move for differences in length. I have a tendency to reach for short balls rather than moving.

1 FH, 1 BH - need to move better by taking small steps laterally and make sure I hit the balls in the sweet spot on my forehand rather than reaching. Make sure to move to bh shots as well. Spin the ball on fh to get it on table however: My backswing is sometimes too far back. Keep paddle up and don't backswing farther than body.

Serve backspin, short backspin, short backspin, long to middle, loop backspin, then BH topspins, then random forehand:
I had a lot of trouble with this, especially on the random forehand. I tend to just use my arm and need to rotate my torso on the forehand shot. I found it became easier when I'm leaning forward. I tried to stay on my toes but it didn't help much.

Serve backspin, get long push to backhand, backhand loop to bh, backhand topspin to bh, forehand on bh side, forehand on fh side:
On the backspin loop, keep arm loose/relaxed and keep stroke small and moving forward. A mistake is that my stroke was too vertical/stiff. On forehand on backhand side, my feet should be more vertical. On the long movement from fh on bh side to fh on fh side, need to shuffle there (crossover if the distance is very large only). I need to focus on keeping my balance/weight transfer on my strokes. I tend to over transfer weight and my movements tend to become very stationary because of it.


Focuses for next time:
1) Rotate on bh to fh shots.
2) Stay relaxed/short quick stroke on bh loops vs backspin
3) Transfer weight on shots but keep my balance so that my movements don't slow because of it --> footwork --> move faster!
4) And contineu working on the new backhand over the table loop.

Other notes: Continue remembering to stay leaning forward to make movement easier. Racket on backhand topspins started becoming more upward facing....hmm.

TT Day 2 - 6/23/15

Today was half single ball and half multiball. Less people showed up than day 1 - roughly 7 people split into 2 coaches/tables. I've improved on my things from last week although unfortunately without practice due to working on hospice training and med school apps. and anime/manga.

Began with single ball drills similarly to last week. Coming in, I focused on last weeks points of staying closer to the table and hitting in front of my body.
1) FH

2) BH - need to stay low and not stand up vertically after certain hits.

3) FH/BH - make sure to rotate on fh and not to stay with weight forward. Make sure to add spin on the fh to get it over.

4) serve into short chop into fh backspin loop into bh, fh on bh side, fh cross table. I think my longest was getting 2.5 rounds in. I'd like to be able to do it 5 rounds by end of summer. I need to make sure to take my backspin loops earlier instead of getting into the habit of spinning them up.

Notes: Something about snapping (wrist? or elbow) on fh hit to add spin.


Next came multi-ball stuff. Overall, it was much more complicated than what I was used to and I got to learn some things.

1) bh chop to short right, ball gets chopped long to my fh, loop the backspin, fh topspin in midde, fh in fh side, bh down the line to finish. - Same as above, I need to take my backspin loops earlier at the peak. Rotate body slightly left for bh down the line shots instead of only changing the racket angle with my wrist.

2) backhand flick to bh, bh topspin to right corner, bh topspin to left corner, fh smash to finish. - Make sure to get enough brush on fh smash to get on table. This is my first time trying to bh flick with this technique - bending my wrist far enough that the racket faces me (similar to the pro videos) and rotating my wrist and elbow while keeping elbow in place.

3) fh chop in my short right corner, bh loop on my bh, fh smash on my fh side. Although this is probably the easiest of the drills, I had the most trouble with this at several points - transitioning from fh short chop to backhand loop. And again having troubles not getting enough brush on fh smash.


Summary:
To work on - fh smash, fh to bh loop transition, new short bh flick technique.
Remember - stay on same plane and rotate horizontally.
Random thought before I sleep - returning no spin serve with a side spin return instead of my typical weak chop or weak topspin.

Table Tennis Training - Day 1 6/16/2016

Summer Table Tennis Camp at X-treme Table Tennis - once per week, 1 hr.

 Today was mostly technique work. I was put into a group of 2 other people. The coach was the tall, soft voice guy that speaks kinda fast. The training group did single ball practice rotating every 5 balls. Doing the drills, I'm doing well looping the long backspin balls and having trouble looping the shorter backspin balls. On short high balls, I need to step forward w/ left foot and attack. My overall reaction time (or movement?) is too slow but I'm probably not used to someone blocking that well for me. Overall tiredness level: Low. Also, Mark hazinski has an amazing bh.

 Notes - things I need to focus on:
1) Hit in front of body
2) Keep paddle up, especially when switching from fh to bh I tend to drop my paddle.
3) Get closer to the table (1 paddle off). I always thought to stand one arms length from the end of the table but apparently thats too far.

 Other notes coach told training mates:
1) rotate on fh
2) keep elbow relatively still close to body

 Questions:
1) Shuffle, small steps, or crossover?
2) Something about using wrist on backspin looping that I didn't understand b/c my chinese is poor.

 Drills to improve in Friday TT:
1) Bh/Fh
2) Serve backspin, chop, forehand loop vs backspin, then bh, fh on bh corner, fh on fh corner
3) Same as above except random after loop vs backspin