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Well I couldn't resist to make another tactical review, based on errors and winners. The two of you have a similar style, backhand oriented, relatively aggressive with that backhand, spinny serves. While you are making a similar number of errors (21-23), Joseph has more winners (6-15), his reward is higher for same risk taking. The majority of your errors is on return or on 3rd ball. As said previously, return errors are to be expected, if the opponent has good serves. But your 3rd ball error rate should go down because that's where you are in command. (The same is even more true for Joseph, who had 11/23 errors coming from 3rd ball). You didn't get any reward from risky 3rd ball, 1 winner. While you did get reward from consistency: Joseph made 4 errors on 4th ball. Watching your game from that perspective again, I noticed a pattern. During your recovery, there's a lot going on, especially after a backhand serve (which is your standard). You have a long follow through, then you are twiddling your bat a little, and then the fingers are busy as if readjusting the grip. As the other commenter has pointed out, the hand often goes below the table too. So I'd a gree this is the focal point in your next training: recovery, especially after serve, into neutral position, that very same position which you consciously take upon return. 1. serve with backhand, reducing the follow through so your bat ends up in front of your body 2. get the whole body into "receving mode" 3. bring the bat in front 4. try reducing any superfluous motion; in particular there is no need for the hand to go down before coming back to neutral 5. as a 2nd point, be more active with the feet than with the arms; put your weight on the front of the feet, so that you can quickly move about

This match really exposed how your bad FH form was losing you a lot of points. You were able to put away like one or two out of the many chance balls that went to your FH. A lot can be written about what can be fixed but the main points are : 1. Too big backswing 2. Elbow too far from body and rising during the shot 3. Using your shoulders instead of your body to hit The one decent one you did was around 5:15. The reason it was successful is because it was close to your body and you had a little less time to perform your stroke. Making your stroke more compact increased its effectiveness because you had less time to implement your bad form like you used in other FH smash attempts. To fix this you want to keep your elbow close to your side (maybe two fists away). Depending on how high the ball you lift your shoulder and your elbow. Backswing doesn't go to more than few degrees past 90 in relation to your sides. When you hit, use your legs and twist your hips and generate power into the ball. You want to feel a connection from your legs, hips, to your arm. Right now you're just trying to swing the racket arm using your upper body and shoulders, and it's incredibly hard to find a correct hitting point when your shoulders and elbows are so unstable with such a big swing. Also keep your eyes on the ball the entire time until contact. Actually train high ball and lob smashes. You don't get good at strokes without practice. For some reason people think because these are supposed to be easy balls, these smashes don't need to be trained. They absolutely need to be trained.

Hi Ben, I'm glad to see you marking your best points this time! The unfortunate reality is that to improve, we have to criticize. But this always needs to be put into perspective. And we're going to use at least one of those happy points in the end, if only just to drive today's point home. To be honest, I would REALLY like to use the opportunity to blabber about table tennis chess now. Getting unexpected returns would be a prime opportunity to do just that. Unfortunately, upon closer inspection of this match, we don't get to the point of discussing chess yet, because as we may have already hinted at in past videos, there are major major technique issues that prevent you from playing the 2nd or 3rd balls anyways, and there's actually no need to strategize if the ability to turn any strategy into reality is missing. So let's get to work on the first and this match's most egregious issue, one that prevents you from playing forehands, backhand AND return Joseph's serve receive properly all at once. Let's get the productive to-do out of the way first: My recommandation for next match is simple: Ignore serve length, ignore push length, ignore tactics, none of that matters at all, play however you want, have fun. But your mission next match day should be to focus, at all times, in every point, after every serve, on every receive, between every ball, without exception: To NEVER NEVER EVER let your racket drop below the table. --------- Let's watch the "ideal" first: ruclips.net/video/YiEDQR0--BM/видео.html The match is between Bernadette Szocs, offensive/allround strategy, and Han Ying, a modern defender. It's a great match in general, but I want you to watch this and focus on one thing, and one thing only: Watch the position and elbow angle of their right (racket) arm after serve and in general between every strike, and when they are standing ready to receive serve. Because Han is a defender, there's ample time to watch them remain in their "ready" position between strikes. ----------- Now let's watch you (tension building...) after serve, shall we: let's set our youtube to 0.25 speed and go to... 1:43 Pause the player exactly when the ball hits Joseph's racket. Look at your right arm position. Look how outstretched the arm is and how low the racket is. Resume play, and watch how low the start of your strike begins, and how you are forced to move the racket upwards during contact to barely hit the ball in time, and how your whole racket motion goes high forward up due to the low start, predictably making the ball fly out. 1:49 Pause the player exactly when the ball hits Joseph's racket. Look at your right arm position. Look at how the super low racket position influences your push. Instead of being able to tightly chop beneath the ball from above for maxiumum backspin, your arm has to move up all the time, leading to just lifting it high. 2:11 Pause the player exactly when the ball hits Joseph's racket. Look at your right arm position. Look at how it influences your following return. Your racket has barely time to rise to softly touch the ball, instead of being able to drive through the ball from back to front and adding speed and spin. 2:23 Pause the player exactly when the ball hits Joseph's racket. Look at your right arm position. Look at how it influences your following push. Your racket has to move up all the time, barely able to stop before the ball is already near, and unable to do a proper backspin-inducing chopping motion from above, again sending the push long. 3:21 You know the drill. Pause EVERY TIME Joseph hits the ball. Notice a pattern? Heck, let's look at 4:23 (I'm just clicking randomly on the time bar by now tbh) Joseph serves. Pause on his ball toss. See how nice and high you are holding the racket to receive Joseph's serve? You know that the serve is the slowest ball you'll receive the whole point because it has to touch the table twice, every ball that follows is likely much quicker? Pause when Joseph contacts the ball the second time. See your stance? Your racket arm? Why aren't you AT LEAST as physically ready as on the serve to receive this likely much faster ball? See how your racket has to go up again, making the ball fly predictably high/long? Okay, let;s finish this, just one last time. Let's go to 1:15 Notice how when you can strike directly from a high racket position, you can play pretty awesome attacks? :) ------------------------------ The whole point of the game is to keep the ball ON the table, not UNDER it - and the most foundational, basic, and important job of your racket is the be ready where the ball likely is, and not be where the ball definitely isn't. If your king isn't covered by your pawns anymore because you always shove them all under the table immediately after your opening move, Joseph can just take it anytime he wants, and your opening gambit doesn't matter. So keep your racket (and head) high, and maybe we can maybe actually talk about table tennis chess next time. Just maybe though. :) PS: Kudos to Joseph too, he played really well this time.

Hi Ben! The next time you are editing a video, I'd like to see you put your favorite positive emoji on at least 5 of your strokes or decisions you liked! Putting emphasis on what you did wrong (that applies to the self-scolding during match as well, it also applies to calling yourself a 'dummy" in the intro) reinforces doing the wrong things. Putting emphasis on what you did correctly tells your brain that it might want to repeat the thing you did right more often. This might be counter-intuitive since people tend to think that self-flagellation of some kind would be some kind of punishment that leads to not repeating the action criticized. But it isn't. If self-loathing would be something to be avoided, we would just not self-loathe so much, right? You don't see anyone running around slapping themselves, right? Actual pain would work, but noone does it, because it actually hurts... Your brain knows that you screaming "attack that!" or letting your body slump in disappointment at yourself doesn't cause any physical pain or damage. Instead, it has learned that doing this is a positive social interaction. Expressing this may lead to positive interactions with other human beings who observe it, and then help, give tips, encourage you with many nice words. With every such scolding, your brain reinforces that doing wrong things is good, because it gets it more "positive" social interactions in the end. It's how toxic relationships work - getting mistreated by someone is still way better for our social brains than having no socal interaction at all. Don't drift into a toxic relationship with yourself (or your youtube commenters, for that matter). Even if your brain perceived it as a capital self-punishment, that wouldn't work either: Making a good movement or decision in table tennis is not a conscious decision. It is a result of having figured out a "good" movement once, remembering the feeling, and then chasing that rewarding feeling for a thousand times until it becomes second nature, by doing drills. Table Tennis is simple in theory, but very hard in execution. For every "correct" movement or decision, there are a thousand terrible movements or decisions, PLUS also a pesky opponent who tries to make every decision as hard for us as possible. Even if you punished yourself so terribly for one bad decision that your brain will refrain from ever doing the same thing again, there's still 999 other bad decisions it has not taken yet. And if you do not know the "correct" thing yet, your brain may get to feel like it's getting punished for everything it does without reason. Do you know why so many pro athletes shout "Chooooo!" so often, yet you rarely see them slump? It's not because they never make mistakes anbd only produce brilliance. They make plenty of mistakes. They just know that emphasizing their mistakes doesn't help them to avoid them. If you're not the type of guy to scream Cho!, do a silent fistpump instead! Keep your spirits up during a match, don't just focus on your mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes! At 7:52, you make a serve error. Watch your reaction. In this match ruclips.net/video/QKXSayRNGJ4/видео.html at 4m41s, Felix Lebrun makes a serve errors vs Timo Boll. Watch his reaction. (at 10m58s, Boll makes a serve error too) It happens because you're tense. If you laught about it, the tension goes away, you shake a little to regain focus on the next point, and go win that match. If you get angry at yourself, you respond to an error due to tension and impatience by adding even more tension and impatience. -------------------------------------- These are things you did this video that I liked very much: 0:00 When faced with a short or half-long serve by your opponent, your decision to push and the way you approached it was great! What was missing and the reason you were too late for the push was that you don't do a "start", a small jump or step forward, on the opponent's ball toss. See this video explaining it: ruclips.net/video/o0cK3GUmQbM/видео.html Also an example: 0:35, or 6:11. It's not your fault! You weren't taught that! But rejoice! This is VERY easy to fix, you're just missing one small step or jump and you'll be in position much quicker mand all of those pushes will land! In contrast, at 6:04 when Devins serve was long and you didn't have to move into position, and I like how quickly after the bounce you received that. A push received early in the rising phase of the ball will fly short and have a crapton of spin. So if you practice/drill just making a little step forward on the opponent's ball toss (before hit), you can play all pushes on all locations of the table that quickly off the bounce, and you'll be a master pusher! Big improvements incoming! 0:40 The deception on that serve was great! 0:53 I'm both impressed how confidently you were able to punish Devins risky reverse hook serve, as well as that you went for it again just after missing it the previous point! That's metal fortitude! 1:18, 1:43, 2:18, 2:24, 4:56, 5:20 You set up an attack either by serve or great pushing, and went for it! That was perfect! You don't have the forehand technique to reliably make a point yet, but the serve was great, and the decisionmaking was immaculate! With a few forehand drills (I'll write you all about forehand sometimes soon, but want to get all the mental stuff out of the way first), we will see the rate of winners you hit improve vastly in the near future, I'm sure of it! You are at the point where this is the main problem stopping you from winning matches, and it's practiceable! 1:28 I loved the pushing! Devin is pretty good compared to your previous opponents, he serves and pushes short or half-long quite often, and you can go toe-to-toe with him, not giving him any attacks he could reliably go for. There are many other points in this match where the length of your pushing was absolutely great. 1:35 We get a glimpse of a glorious future as attacking player by you attempting a pivot attack on a long serve! A great decision, the movement was a bit too tentative, but that can be fixed! The mindset is great! 3:55, 4:12 Another taste of glorious things to come. In a few months, with fixed hard-hitting less-brushing relaxed-but-stable forehand and backhand techniques, you will be playing every rally at at least this speed or higher. Very good hitting sound out of your rubbers. This sound is what all the other forehands are missing. You can do it! 4:33 I like a lot that you did not retreat from the table too far and stayed attentive and in a low position throughout all of Devins attacks! Very often, I've seen you retreat too far or give away a point before its over - not this time! 4:45 Loved the slow loop played directly on the long serve and that you took a step back immediatelyt after playing it.

Fun match Ben! Thanks. Was just able to eek out the win. If anyone has suggestions, coaching, or criticisms about my play I am open to hearing it!

Remember to close the blade a little and swing forward on those high balls. I understand the desire for safety vs backspin but when they are very high, all you need to do is make sure the ball crosses the net fast enough 😁

2:39 😂 I liked how you figured out his serve during game 1 and was able to take the advantage in games 2 & 3. It can be hard to switch between opponents, especially if they have widely varying styles... Remember! As you adapt, he's trying to do the same to you! When you're ahead, keep experimenting every few shots and look for more weaknesses to exploit and save those for when the opponent adapts to you.

------------------------------- IT'S STATS TIME: Control of point (Initiative): ------------------------------- - If a player is in obvious control of their destiny, errors are theirs to make and points are theirs to lose. - That means if a player scores very high in controlling points and loses the match anyways, the reason they lost the match are overwhelmingly likely their own mistakes, and less the quality of opponent. - There were a LOT of switched serves / miscounts in this match... --- Game 1 (Won) --- Ben remained in control of point on own serve: 6 of 9 Ben gained control/initiative of point on opponent's serve: 8 of 10 Control rating: 14-5 Predicted result based on Control: 11-4 Actual score: 11-9 --- Game 2 (Loss) --- Ben remained in control of point on own serve: 3 of 6 Ben gained control/initiative of point on opponent's serve: 4 of 6 Control: 7-5 Predicted result based on Control: 11-8 Actual score: 1-11 --- Game 3 (Loss) --- Ben remained in control of point on own serve: 2 of 5 Ben gained control/initiative of point on opponent's serve: 5 of 6 Control: 7-4 Predicted result based on Control: 11-6 Actual score: 1-11 >>> switch of tactics here <<< --- Game 4 (Win) --- Ben remained in control of point on own serve: 7 of 10 Ben gained control/initiative of point on opponent's serve: 7 of 10 Control: 14-6 Predicted result based on Control: 11-5 Actual score: 11-9 --- Game 5 (Loss) --- Ben remained in control of point on own serve: 8 of 9 Ben gained control/initiative of point on opponent's serve: 4 of 10 Control: 12-7 Predicted result based on Control: 11-6 Actual score: 8-11 What this statistic would tell me: - Ben should have won every single game because he always had control over the majority of points, but he can not convert "control of" a point into "winning" a point, sometimes disastrously so (set 2&3). That means practicing a switch of serve tactics isn't necessary to win, it just dilutes training time and repetition/mastery. Practicing converting controlled points into won points is universally useful and will win with any tactic that provokes the most opportunities. Remaining unable to convert control into scoring will lose no matter the tactic (as can be seen, the change didn't lead to winning). - The switch dramatically increased Ben's control over his own serves, which was slipping, but did not influence the winning predictions (or ultimately the outcome of the match) at all, because he at the same time lost the ability to gain control over his opponent's serves. This, to me, would be a hint that not only the serve length has changed, but the entire mindset on how to play reverted to something more passive, reactive. What this looks like to me: You spent a lot of mental energy on your game quality in the first set, getting a win, but then your mental reserves started to drain/slip, and your game quality dropped like a rock. To fix the lack of mental energy, switching to an erratic but very well trained (for months) style that could be played from muscle memory eased the mental burden and felt better, but the lack of paying attention to the points in the last two sets transformed the game from a competition of two players for control of points to an inability to wrest control from Logan, and it became a game in which whoever got the initiative by the rules mostly remained in initiative. Initiative/control wasn't earned by player skill anymore, it was given and taken by the rules. So the rules started to determine the outcome, not skill, and since the rules were not followed due to not paying attention due to lack of mental energy, Logan got a lot of free extra serves, and hence he won the game and match.

Fantastic games Ben! I think that's the best match I've seen you play yet. Few unforced errors, and you kept the ball low and controlled. And yes, I think it all stems from your half-long service.

Good job trying to adapt mid-match. Remember to consider the opponent's position (and which side the pips are on in this case) before serving. When you're deciding which serve to use, consider what the most likely return will be and prepare for it. What kind of spin do you want to receive and how do you force him to give it to you? Other than stuff from LP weirdness, looks like the feeling carried over well from your game with Kelvin 👍 Btw, what kind of ping pong balls do you use? Strangely enough, you can actually feel a difference between brands!

Special RUclips thanks indeed... 😂

First off Ben, REALLY well done. You can use this match already as an example how this length and the strategy in general works and if you like it or not. I think it's worth looking at your last match vs Kelvin again and compare it against this one. The thing is: If you liked the high-octane aggression and defense of last match better / was more fun for you, long serves it is. If you like this match's more deliberate, controlled aggression style and pushing-with-purpose more, half-long or short it is. So for the thumbnail question: Do half-long serves work? You decide! But here's what the numbers say about your service performance: ----------------------------- Serve Stats: ------------------------------ - This statistic is meant to focus purely on the immediate effects of your new serve length, not on the "attack first" idea, and not on receives at all. That means I'm using 3rd ball literally here. - I'm only counting "opportunities" as attacks that I consider to be executable at your current level with your current techniques. - "Pressure" gets ticked when Kelvin either attacks directly or makes a return with enough quality that it puts you visibly on the backfoot for the remainder of a point (you retreat from the table or play passive/defensive shots like blocks or lobs). - Sometimes a point is counted as both pressure and 3rd ball attack opportunity. That's the case when you made a strong emergency/reflexive counter because he attacked the exact location of your racket hand. That is still a quality of a serve when the opponent's attacks land exactly where they are best for you to counter. ======================================================================= Serves in the LAST match vs Kelvin (ruclips.net/video/_ExnWLlNN4I/видео.html): ======================================================================= Serve errors: xxx (3) ---------------------------------- Short (3 or more bounces): xxx (3) Pressure by Kelvin directly after short serve: xx (2) 3rd ball attack opportunities after short serve: xx (2) Short aces: - (0) ---------------------------------- Half-Long (1-2 bounces, 2nd bounce or ball drop close to the end of table): x (1) Pressure by Kelvin directly after half-long serve: x (1) 3rd ball attack opportunities after half-long serve: x (1) Half-long aces: - (0) ---------------------------------- Long (1 bounce, ball drop away from the end of table): xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxx (19) Pressure by Kelvin directly after long serve: xxxxx xxxxx xxx (13) 3rd ball attack opportunities after long serve: xx (2) Long aces: xxxxx (5) ---------------------------------- 3rd Ball attack opportunities total: xxxxx (5) 3rd ball attack opportunities used: xx (2) Direct winners by used third ball attack: xx (2) ======================================================================+ The Half-Long Experiment ======================================================================= Serve errors: xxxx (4) ---------------------------------- Short (3 or more bounces): xxxxx xxxxx xx (12) Pressure by Kelvin directly after short serve: xxxx (4) 3rd ball attack opportunities after short serve: xxxxx xxx (8) Short aces: - (0) ---------------------------------- Half-Long (1-2 bounces, 2nd bounce or ball drop close to the end of table): xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx (15) Pressure by Kelvin directly after half-long serve: - (0) 3rd ball attack opportunities after half-long serve: xxxxx xxx (8) Half-long aces: xxx (3) ---------------------------------- Long (1 bounce, ball drop away from the end of table): xxxxx (5) Pressure by Kelvin directly after long serve: xxx (3) 3rd ball attack opportunities after long serve: xx (2) Long aces: x (1) ---------------------------------- 3rd Ball attack opportunities total: xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxx (18) 3rd ball attack opportunities used: xxxxx xxx (8) Direct winners by used third ball attack: xxxx (4) You played a very representative match for this style with GREAT serves this time, and Kelvin is a fairly experienced opponent. As result I think these numbers are relatively representative of the "general vibe" of the 3 serve lengths in general in table tennis, independent of the opponent. - The numbers of 3rd ball attack opportunities each serve generates can be improved by working on the spin and placement and deception of the serve. - Your effectiveness in attacking the 3rd ball can be improved dramatically by practicing it. - The pressure you usually get back even on great serves for each of these lengths cannot really be reduced and is directly related to serve length and its interactions with the geometry of the table, and independent of spin and placement.

Great job! I feel like 0:47 and 3:23 were really good examples of setting up the serves and playing positive shots afterward. If you compare this with a few weeks ago were you had a "wild' backhand swing trying to put so much spin on the ball, this is significantly better because you are ready for the follow-up and the ball you are getting back is more attackable. You were also measured and seemed quite calm...which is especially good when playing a 'better' opponent. I would say keep up with this strategy, expect the balls to be returned (so I don't stop playing after the 3rd ball), and be mentally ready for each point take it point by point. Once you start taking a few of the close games from Kelvin, things will definitely start to get interesting!

What do you mean "turns out, advice in the comment section was spot on" like it's some sort of surprise... How rude! (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Really good play! Don't forget this feeling and try to play like this all the time! Good pushes, controlled attacks, and natural movement. If you could clean up the unforced errors (especially on service), you might have been able to claw a victory! One thing I noticed is that you didn't serve long to BH very much. Long backspin to the BH is a pretty good skill check to do on your opponent. Might have been a tactical decision on your part, I dunno... If I recall, the 2nd bounce usually landed between the middle line of the opponent's table to his FH side so you're giving him the advantage of not having to move too much during his receives. Remember to bend your waist *a little* to keep your center of gravity forward and on your toes naturally. You don't want to feel like you're falling forward though, just enough. So you feel like your heels are a paper-width off the ground 1:14 - when you don't attack when you're supposed to, just imagine I'm standing behind you in the coaching corner, staring at you with crazy, bulging Samuel L. Jackson eyes...😂

Win or lose, relax and play some shots. You're playing an open game with attacking shots and there's nothing better than hitting a few winners! Get a bit of coaching and balance practice with match play. The journey is what it's all about, so I'll keep an eye on how you're doing.

I love the name of your channel Ben! As previous commentator said, his entire game seems to be based of his serves - if you'd manage to take them he gets pushed back cause he's standing straight up and tabletennis is a lot of keeping yourself low to the ground to be prepared!. Keep at it! We will follow your journey! =)

Looking forward to your continued progress! RUclips ate my reply to your previous question but luckily someone else covered it 😁

The side he contacts the ball the the side you put your racket. If its on the left, you counter by putting your racket to the left. Downspin and topspin are decided by the direction of the motion. If he contacts moving his paddle downwards then its downspin, and vice versa for topspin. Try not to be aggressive, and play it safe. Ben over like you are typing on a computer when playing. It is very important to lower your center of gravity. This will always help you see your opponents serves. On topspin, drive to ball more directly, and focus on hitting the your opponent's middle or corners. You can also play soft and change the pace to mess him up.

Nate's game is based on superior serve. When he meets players who can return it he'll face the issue of standing upright, observing the game, rather than be in a ready position. Ben was visibly frustrated but the basic flick return is actually the right strategy against serves with side-topspin. I had a little fun with stats :) Ben - errors 31 Serve 1 Return 11 3rd ball 9 4th ball 6 5th ball 3 rally 1 Ben - winners 9 Return 3 3rd ball 2 (1 lucky) 4th ball 1 5th ball 2 rally 1 Nate errors 8 Serve 1 return 3 3rd ball 1 4th ball 1 5th ball 2 Nate winners 2 4th ball 1 rally 1 From the stats we can see how you got more winners in than Nate (9-2) but made way more errors (31-8). The majority of those were returns indeed but you shouldn't ignore the ones coming from not being ready for 3rd or 4th ball. His returns or 3rd balls weren't as tricky as his serves. Let's also acknowledge his 3 return errors. Your serves are not as spinny but they are good enough for the level of play. So I wouldn't say your serve is the main point to develop 1) continue developing the flick return 2) readiness for 3rd and 4th ball 3) overall footwork 4) it seems like you are backhand oriented, sometimes going for a bh on the fh side; so working on a reliable forehand? I won't always post this long pieces of obnoxious advice :) Enjoy the game!

haha. Your channel name is the best. keep chipping away, bud. You'll eventually upgrade to "Ben'sMediocreAtPinpong"

Any stronger spin will override the spin that's on the ball. Otherwise you have to account for the spin. But really... you need to develop your own serves, yours are super weak. Serves don't need to be deceptive, just strong in their pace, spin (or no spin), and placement, so you can play the point your way on the return. The better you will be at serves - the better overall play will be as well. Also I see very poor anticipation and footwork, you are not getting to the ball/into a position.

That was good, especially considering the opponent is playing pretty wild and unpredictable AND has long pips to boot. Just go to the loo next time. You can't keep track of the spin of the ball when your mind is spinning around your balls.

What I see in this match, is: 1. High risk shots aren't a problem at all, you already lose basically every point on serve or on serve receive. Nothing afterwards matters in any way. 2. As lt.kettch mentioned, you're not supposed to / can't focus on stuff like footwork during a match anyways. 3. Forehand blocks aren't a problem at all, the actual blocks you can hit during this match are phenomenal. When you don't manage to block, it isn't the block's fault - you already lost the point beforehand, the predetermined result just happened to fully manifest when coincidentially you also happened to try and play a block. 4. Kelvin doesn't have a 3rd ball attack pattern. In this match, you have a pattern of not just enabling, but basically encouraging him to attack you every time you touch the ball, by both placement and length of your shots. When he serves he can attack on 3rd ball since you touched the 2nd ball. When you serve he attacks the 2nd ball because you touched the 1st. He does nothing to encourage you to do this. He does not have a special tactic or spin that would set up a 3rd ball attack from him. 5. Kelvin wasn't in control of this match, you were. He was just reacting to you. To win this (unless Kelvin is holding back), you don't have to pay any attention to Kelvin at all - he took no decisions or actions that were any relevant to the outcome of this match, except making a ton of unforced errors to give you some points for free. If you see any patterns in him, that means that you have a pattern in you that he always reacts the same to. So you first need to pay attention to your own patterns. I think that'll level up your game way more and easier. How to begin fixing it: -------------------------- Terminology: "long" = a shot that bounces once on the opponents side of the table before crossing the endline. "short" = a shot that bounces three times or more on the opponents table before crossing the endline. "half-long" = a shot that bounces exactly twice on the opponents side of the table, the second bouce ideally being close to the endline. -------------------------- I do recommend that in the next match, and training leading up to the next match (no matter the opponent), you focus on these things: A) If you serve, always fully focus on your serve being half-long. Never long or short. A2) Whenever you push, always fully focus on your push being half-long. Never long or short. B) Whenever you counter or attack, always fully focus on placing it on the centerline of the table, preferably long, close to the end of the table. During match, only focus on the above. Practice footwork only if it's necessary to help you play half-long, or aim attacks down to middle. Only focus on length when serving or pushing for now, you can place it left/right/middle however you feel best in the moment. (When you watch this match, you can see that your placements in this match are the anti-patterns to these "recommended" patterns: - You always serve long to his forehand side, enabling him to easily attack all the serves, since he LOVES attacking long balls with his forehand. - Kelvin always serves diagonally to your backhand, you again almost always receive long to his forehand side, despite this not being necessary or easier than just pushing back diagonally. Again, long forehand = he LOVES it and easily attacks every one of your receives. - When you manage to attack on your own, you almost always place it diagonally to this forehand side, which you can see him anticipate easily every time, because its highly repetitive. Whenever you accidentially play to the centerline, you make the point. (This is not unique to Kelvin, every player except maybe penholder players (or Leanne...) will have the most trouble with placement at the center of their side. The corners are really easy to react to and only effective if you play extreme angles / risk a lot or have moved them out of position before.)

Wow... What kind of crazy ping pong deathmatch club are you a part of where a timeout is required to use the bathroom when there's a need??? 😮 He didn't let you go even after the match was over 😂 Even though your BH felt off, you FH seemed to be doing well. Given the situation, you didn't do too poorly. With regards to losing the lead in game 4, I think a timeout would have helped; try to arrest his momentum. Relying more on your FH over your BH because it was showing to be more consistent. Taking advantage of the innate properties of long pips: the inability to significantly impart spin, predictable spin reversals, difficulty attacking short/low balls. Also taking advantage of the fact that most pips players try to receive serves with their pips side, sometimes even at the cost of positional advantage. Lastly... call time and go to the restroom...

I think your observation for point 2 is correct... Ideally, a player would focus on one aspect of their game during training and it will manifest naturally during gameplay. Diverting too much attention to any one thing (except maybe watching the contact point during an opponent's serve?) will probably slow a player down to their detriment. For now, just play relaxed and try to implement broader strategies (be more aggressive vs adjust your paddle angle to 35.75353° when looping).

Not much you could do but good job hanging in there! Something to study: Watch the way he accelerates his paddle on contact during serves. Even though the motion is small, there's good acceleration which translates to good spin. A lot of people get distracted by the ball toss during the serve. Keep your attention on the opponent's paddle and watch for subtle motions during contact. Is contact early and cutting down? Is it late and pulling up? Is the contact at 6 o clock (directly under the ball, pure backspin) or at 3 o clock (almost completely sidespin) or somewhere in between? There are 2 general ways to deal with sidespin: go against the spin or go with the spin With regards to serves, it's easier to return short if you go with the spin. For long returns, it's fine to use either. For example, if the serve is a regular pendulum serve, contact is on the right from your pov and looks like it's spinning clockwise from top down view. Going with the spin means brushing to the left (clockwise), similar to the concept of loop in a backspin, but sideways. To be honest, this is my preferred way of dealing with sidespin and it feels easier for me to control the position of the ball. Going against the spin in this situation is hitting on the *right* (edit: correction) side of the ball, using blade angle to mitigate the effect of the spin. This is like playing topspin vs topspin. If you block a topspin ball, it'll want to jump off your paddle, just like a pendulum serve makes the ball want to jump off your paddle to the right from your pov. Nate seems like a good player, one of the best I've seen on your channel at least in terms of service quality. To be honest, he wasn't playing to his full ability so I'm just estimating based on the quality of his serves, his footwork, the mechanics of his swing, and the way he reacts to your good attacks. That being said, I don't think his level is too much out of reach for you.

Agree with the observations in your description: quality of the pushes were generally good, overall play was a little too passive. If you watch some of your recent games vs Joseph, you did better when you were asserting controlled aggression. Ideally, you can finish the point before he gets the chance to attack. Something I noticed, your pushes were losing quality starting the middle/late of game 2 and was on and off during game 3. It looked like you were trying to be more aggressive game 3 but was vacillating between attacking and pushing into the late game, causing you to hesitate for a split second, showing you down. If your going to try to change the tempo, commit and go for it! Remember to favor hitting forward (sometime forward and a little down) instead of brushing the high balls. Your black side looks like it could use a cleaning ha ha. I can see the sweet spot in the middle of the rubber was a different sheen than the rest of the rubber. Remember to maintain your rubber between games and after sessions to keep as much consistency as possible! Try to hit through or brush over the top of those spinny high arc FHs early in the bounce. A patient block is (as you've experienced) going to fly off the table. When you see him wind up and pull back, it's going to be a lot spinner than usual! You got some good attacks in when you committed, be courageous and attack!

Remember to "pull" with the BH when you're closer to the table. A lot of misses were because of too much "hit". Remember to slow down before you serve. Lots more unforced errors and lets than usual. Decide when your first bounce will be based on where you want your second bounce to be. Better offense compared to the game with Joseph (comments are turned off for that video btw). When you block fast attacks, try not to add force and hit it, rather, try to gently "guide" the ball back. Lastly, be careful not to get pulled into your opponent's pace. Overall, nice game, hopefully more wins as you get more comfortable with the stuff you're working on!

======================================== 3rd ball attacks ======================================== Player: attempts (successful) --- set 1 --- Joseph: 4 (2) Ben: 1 (1) --- set 2 --- Joseph: 5 (4) Ben: 0 --- set 3 --- Joseph: 3 (2) Ben: 2 (1) 3rd ball attacks total: Joseph: 12 with a success rate of 66%, out of 26 serves, took initiative/control on 46.1% of their own serves Ben: 3 with a success rate of 66%, out of 24 serves, took initiative/control on 12.5% of their own serves 5th ball attacks in total (only occurred in 1st set): Joseph: 2 with a a success rate of 50% Ben: none How successful were the players in using their service advantage to set up an attack opportunity, and how often did they capitalize on it? - Both players have the same potentially match-winning success rate when being aggressive (making a point with 66% likelyhood on attempt is clearly a winning move), so the player who simply only attempts this move more often is likely to score more points and hence the match. - For both players, the success rate per set is never lower than 50%, so none of them could possibly lose a set by playing this move every time. - Joseph executes this move with 400% the attempt rate of Ben, with more attempts than Ben in every single set. - If a safety push was played on the 3rd ball (which is frequent and entirely normal / okay on this level) Joseph is infinitely more likely to retry gaining the initiative on 5th ball. If Ben doesn't attack on 3rd ball, he never attacks (or gets another opportunity to) again. - Ben plays an entire set without ever even attempting to attack on his own serve once (New rubbers are no excuse, you can't learn them if you don't even attempt to attack with them once.)

This was painful to watch. My 2 cents: 1. Instead of 50 ml Free Chack (or any other "table tennis glue" by any other brand), you can get a 1000ml bottle of Liquid Latex for the same price, ya know the milky-white natural sap of the rubber tree. It's literally the exact same stuff. 2. Try to "clean" your glasses by rubbing your hands/fingers all over them instead of using a microfiber cloth. That's what you are doing to.your blade. You're just giving it a thick anti-stick coating of skin-protecting fat, symbiotic bacteria and dead skin particles, and the glue won't stick well to that peculiar human/wood composite material. Trust me, been there done that. Just use some dry kitchen paper instead. 3. Wet glueing is not the intended way to use that... you're meant to let all the water evaporate instead of eternally trapping it inside your sponge and wood. Think of applying two dry layers of velcro, and then sticking them together at the end. This is a video I usually recommend: ruclips.net/video/bYBOo8vOSVw/видео.html 4. If you look at exactly the 5 minute mark of your video, there are already two bumps starting to form on the top edge, really visible in the reflection - that 's the rubber seperating from the blade again, which would be logical, because you applied strong pressure at the edges away from the wood by pressing a definitely-not-sharp cutter into the sponge while the glue right next to your cutting location wasn't remotely fixed yet. 5. No matter if wet or dry, either way you used waaaay to much glue, like ten to twenty times the amount you'll ever need. Always have a little bowl and some kitchen paper on your table to press excess liquid out of your application sponge or remove some from your blade. Never push puddles of liquid latex around the edges onto your topsheet or between topsheet and sponge, as can be seen at 2:40. Also, you don't even need to put enough glue on to even reach the corners of the rubber sheet, because by the way: You're cutting those off anyways... 6. When using a cutter, always make sure it's actually sharp (test cut one of the rubber's corners and feel if there's much resistance to your blade), then always go fully around several times: First one pass very lightly to simply get a thin starting cut through the glue layer into the sponge, a second pass through the sponge, a third to carefully cut the topsheet. It will look more like lasercut by an inhuman machine and much less like torn to shreds by a raging Godzilla. I still also like curved scissors too because of speed and ease of use. tho 6.b) Don't use a stupid thin cutting mat, use your local table tennis shop's biannual print catalogue and really let the cutter dig in. That's what they get printed for. 7. May I ask why you got these rubbers and think they're an "upgrade", and what are they upgrading exactly? Like, how will you know if they "work" for you, what's the measureable metric of success? I'm not protesting, these are made in a factory not far from where I live, so thanks for supporting the local economy of my count(r)y by buying our notoriously over-engineered luxury products, we appreciate that a lot, just wondering why the devil people recommend these to you specifically over, say for example, a small stack of solid tried-and-a-billion-times-proven 5$ chinese ittf-approved training rubbers (Say Yinhe Mercury 2, Loki Rxton 1, Sanwei Ultraspin, DHS PF4, 729 Cross, Reaktor Tornado V5, and sooo-many-more) with which you can practice glueing with much less financial risk, are durable to last a long time, and at the same time help people exactly like you all over the world practice basic playing techniques very effectively?

you should be trying to target leannes forehand, as you can see she tends to try to drive the ball with her backhand istead of using forehand. reasom being is because shes hardbat reliant, so targeting the forehand makes it a whole lot harder for her

OH DEAR... Um... I don't know exactly what the instructions were for free check but... Usually with water based glue you need to wait till both sides dry (you can tell when it turns clear). If you put it together when it's wet, it won't stick well and you'll have patches of unevenness which will affect the consistency of your hits (usually manifesting in dead spots on your paddle). On the German forums, there are people who are proponents of wet gluing, but you need to press it with consistent pressure over a long period of time.

When you pull a rubber off, it might be safer to pull it off at a diagonal but not along the grain which might cause splintering. Some blades come lacquered or sealed from the manufacturer and that protects the top ply but some do not and, if it is a soft wood like limba, it is more prone to pulling up pieces if you pull the rubber off along the grain

There's some really good stuff going on! Did you notice the effectiveness of serving to zones 1 3 7 and 9? 1:14 2:31 3:16 4:40. Conversely, note what it's like when people do it to you, your reaction, and what you can do with that info. Occasionally they pop high though i.e. 3:00 3:43 4:13. At this point, if you have to choose between height and placement, choose height! Good pulling feeling starting mid way through game 1 though you seem to be on and off during the second half of game 3. Take a breath to reset and remember what you were doing before. Stay collected and don't rush! Some good blocking sprinkled throughout. 👍 Pushing looks smoother in general. I'll admit I was looking at mostly the ball quality/height (which seemed much better for the most part) more than your footwork or contact timing. 5:56 - so cruel dealing psychological damage here... For your friend, his timing on his off the bounce attacks is a little too early. In general, if he waits slightly longer (7:25 vs 7:34), his percentage of success should increase without much loss of offensive pressure. All in all, a nice win with good application of principles 👍

Inspiring to watch. Keep it up!

hello. been a while huh. youve gotten a lot better, but now you tend to sometimes move too far back. so try not to do that too much, instead at most maybe half a step back. like for example at 2:42 you mobed back for no apparent reason. another thing is that when you block with your forehand, you tend to flick it down a little bit, which is why its so inconsistent. imstead, you should try to keep it firm at one spot, as if you were lining up to hit a golf ball

I just noticed Kelvin alternates placing the ball left, right, or to your elbow. So he makes you move around a lot, not giving you any comfortable shots. It looks like he is careful not to give an attackable ball to your forehand, so he will hit it short to your forehand, or move you closer to the backhand side before attacking the forehand. It's a really good strategy that maximizes consistency and game control.

As a side note, make sure your serves don't dip below the table level. It could just be the camera angle though.

Tournaments are such a different experience from regular play. There's the pressure of winning, and you will likely play someone for the first time, and often using a room and table you're unfamiliar with. It's the ultimate worst-case scenario, which makes it the greatest test of your skill. All things considered, you did very well!

Nice to see you continuing to add to your repertoire. Fast, no spin serves are great for clutch situations, especially when you've been serving half long or short most of the time. Good idea trying to use your pushes to limit his attacks. Against strong players, they'll usually attack long pushes (maybe with the exception of pushes to their transition point) so short, wide, short & wide pushes are more effective in limiting their attacks. Good job stepping forward more on your pushes. Remember to keep your elbow pretty close to your torso so you're pushing straight and not from the side. That should help consistency a bit. Also, remember what the proper push timing is! Movements and swings are looking more and more natural and comfortable so that's good. It's hard to judge improvement when you're playing against a very good player but the fact that you look relaxed is a good thing. I liked that you still attacked when you had the chance... Sometimes it's hard to do that vs a strong player so you did well

Do you remember our discussion regarding having a loose wrist and how squeezing the fingers naturally moves the wrist? It sounds like that's what your friend is trying to work on right now. Maybe you can pass him our notes. It might be the case that my eyes aren't fast enough but it looks like he's pulling his wrist up and down (it makes his paddle look like it's standing perpendicular to his forearm 0:07 0:24 0:47 1:08 3:58 4:27). From what I was taught, from a relaxed forehand where the paddle is at rest in line with your forearm, adding wrist is more like twisting open a bottle of soda where the wrist rotates the hand and the thumb applies "downward twist" and the index finger applies "upward twist". Not sure if that makes sense... Combined with breaking, it is a very small but quick motion and makes the paddle look like it is arcing/hugging/covering over the top of the ball. The quick motion over a small distance adds acceleration and that adds more spin... In addition, at 0:05 0:28 2:31, etc, if you play back at 50% speed, you can see his elbow is not stable and rises up quite a bit (sometimes higher than his wrist, a hooking down motion during follow through). This is indicative that he's using a lot of shoulder to generate power, which can lead to injury! It also introduces a lot variables and can lead to consistency issues He keeps his elbow more stable and in line with the plane of his swing at 0:22 1:51 2:47 although the wrist action still looks a little strange. In any case, he's a good player with lots of experience so I'm sure he'll be able to execute what he's trying to learn in no time.

One more thing: as you work on placement, take note of where the opponents typically return for each zone and start trying to anticipate their returns. Use your serves to try to force returns to where you want the ball to go. One more place to serve to is their transition point but these should be fast or it'll be an easy return for them

Keep at it and don't get discouraged! A lot of players think practicing service is boring but good quality serves are essential. As the level of your opponents improves, aces are going to be less common but a good serve will set you up for the third ball attack, prevent opponents from taking the offensive, and (incidentally) improve your serve receives through increased understanding of service mechanics. Take a second to run through your mental checklist before you serve. Spin, speed, height, placement, opponent. Don't rush your serve. It's the only time in a game where you have 100% control

GGs, Ben! Looking forward to our rematch.

Nice W!

Nice match, a well deserved win due to mental fortitude. Good job persisting and working out your FH. If you review the video, you'll see he starts avoiding you FH a lot more and start placing to you BH. Something to analyze: The general correlation between where you place your serve and where he places his return, especially prior to your FH fix. We know that he's going to try to push to your forehand as much as possible because he perceives that as your biggest weakness. So why, on some returns, is he unable to push to your FH? That's the power of serve placement! After a big match, it's probably best to relax and play for fun but if you HAVE to work on something, here's a few things but try not to do too much at once: 1 - continue working on controlled aggression. Attack when you see the chance but not at 100% power (80% max or you're control suffers!) 2 - don't reach for the ball. Remember the strike zone is in 3 dimensions. Move it to the ball or wait for the ball to come to it. 3 - service. Aim for zones 1, 3, 7, and 9. After you toss the ball, wait for it to drop to as close to net level as possible before hitting it. That will help keep them low. Be mindful of where the first bounce should be for the serve you want to do. 4 - a big part of serve receive is mobility. Make sure "staying low" doesn't detract from your ability to move to the ball. Stay loose. If you're too tense, you can't move quickly All in all, a good match! It's showing that the potential is there and you're gaining the tools to tap into that potential.

Nice one, Ben!

In our group match, Leanne beat me, I beat Josh, and Josh beat Leanne. This led to a 3 way tie in our group. Because I won the fewest games, I was eliminated and didn't advance to the single elimination tournament, unfortunately. However, Josh advanced all the way to the finals and won 2nd place! He won the U1500 tournament and 2nd in the U1800. He text me and told me he only lost two matches this day. This match you see here, and the finals match of this tournament. That made me feel pretty good!

"Dont get cute with it, stay handsome". This is a new favorite quote haha. This was a fun match to watch. Good win ben.