Table Tennis (Ping Pong, the Sport Version)

[rkim291968]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

My instructor is a pen-holder. So is Mung, who owns the asian restaurant a few doors down from GE.

I don't know if it's really going out of style, but I'm not at all tapped in or care much about the upper ranks. Is it dwindling there?

I haven't kept track of this recently but penhold style players were dying breed in top competitions. 

[Golfingdad]

Bumping this thread as we have just recently purchased a ping pong table for our office a scone ourselves playing all throughout lunch and for a bit after work.

Ive gotten fairly decent (relatively speaking, mind you) fairly quickly, and me and one other guy are now interested in upgrading from the cheapo rackets to something a little nicer.

Im also in search of any YouTube teaching videos I can find. :)

[dennyjones]

One of the local pros here in the area holds tournaments every month.   He use to coach the USA team back in 1986.  I recently retired and my table tennis days have almost died.   I use to play competitively but haven't played in quite some time.   It's a game you can't put down if you expect to be good.    

[Golfingdad]

So after a little research online, and mostly based on this guys thorough reviews: http://www.experttabletennis.com/best-table-tennis-bat-for-beginners/

I'm leaning towards trying out this as my first racket: https://www.amazon.com/Palio-Expert-Table-Tennis-Racket/dp/B016BQTCFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472658443&sr=8-1&keywords=palio+table+tennis

Anybody know anything about these?

[iacas]

It seems fine.

Honestly, you likely want a medium speed with reasonable spin characteristics and control, inverted rubber, and… a medium weight. Just go basically "medium" on almost everything until you figure out what kind of player you are on the forehand and backhand.

[dennyjones]

2 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

So after a little research online, and mostly based on this guys thorough reviews: http://www.experttabletennis.com/best-table-tennis-bat-for-beginners/

I'm leaning towards trying out this as my first racket: https://www.amazon.com/Palio-Expert-Table-Tennis-Racket/dp/B016BQTCFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472658443&sr=8-1&keywords=palio+table+tennis

Anybody know anything about these?

That looks like a defensive paddle.    The speed is on the slow side but it will help you with control and spin.    Iacas summed it up correctly.    After you have played for awhile, you will probably run across competitors that have their paddle custom built.   It's not expensive and you can vary your game based upon the blade and rubber used.  

If I can give you one piece of advice when playing, "spin is king, speed is queen".

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

If I can give you one piece of advice when playing, "spin is king, speed is queen".

Yeah, no kidding. You can spin the crap out of the ball and beat a LOT of people, and then you can beat even MORE people when you learn to vary the amount of spin. Especially if it's sidespin, but even top or backspin will have them hitting the net or flying the table all day.

[nevets88]

Watching the Olympics, they put so much spin on the ball, when you see them serve and they stomp their foot on the ground, it's a wonder they don't get RSI injuries. If the best in the world whiff occasionally, you know there's massive spin on the ball. When they put underspin on the ball, it's almost like it's floating, takes forever to get across the net.

[iacas]

39 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Watching the Olympics, they put so much spin on the ball, when you see them serve and they stomp their foot on the ground, it's a wonder they don't get RSI injuries. If the best in the world whiff occasionally, you know there's massive spin on the ball. When they put underspin on the ball, it's almost like it's floating, takes forever to get across the net.

The stomp is to mask the sound so the receiver doesn't know exactly how or even when the ball was struck.

(I'm not assuming you didn't know that, @nevets88, but others might not know.)

[Golfingdad]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

The stomp is to mask the sound so the receiver doesn't know exactly how or even when the ball was struck.

(I'm not assuming you didn't know that, @nevets88, but others might not know.)

I didn't. :)

[nevets88]

8 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

I didn't. :)

Neither did I. When watching on tv, I don't know if it's the angle, but on the serve, you can't see the ball come off the bat. I guess they mask the delivery too?

[Golfingdad]

1 hour ago, nevets88 said:

Neither did I. When watching on tv, I don't know if it's the angle, but on the serve, you can't see the ball come off the bat. I guess they mask the delivery too?

Yeah, they kind of block it with their body, huh?  I think I've learned that you can't hide the delivery with your off hand but the rule doesn't apply to your body.  Pretty sure that's why they do that.

I went ahead and bought that racket last night off of several good reviews.  Should get it this weekend. :)

[nevets88]

Another thing is if someone has never seen top level table tennis before, puts on the Olympics and is like, is that at normal speed? Can you put it back to 1X, it looks like 2X. It's almost cartoon-ish the way they move because it looks faster than humanly possible.

[Golfingdad]

55 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Another thing is if someone has never seen top level table tennis before, puts on the Olympics and is like, is that at normal speed? Can you put it back to 1X, it looks like 2X. It's almost cartoon-ish the way they move because it looks faster than humanly possible.

Completely agree.  I have watched a few youtube videos and it's just insane the speed at which they rally sometimes.

[iacas]

5 hours ago, nevets88 said:

Neither did I. When watching on tv, I don't know if it's the angle, but on the serve, you can't see the ball come off the bat. I guess they mask the delivery too?

They do. Illegally.

4 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

Yeah, they kind of block it with their body, huh?  I think I've learned that you can't hide the delivery with your off hand but the rule doesn't apply to your body.  Pretty sure that's why they do that.

You can't mask it at all. With any part of your body. They cheat.

http://tabletenniscoaching.com/node/2176

He's written about it extensively.

[Golfingdad]

18 minutes ago, iacas said:

They do. Illegally.

You can't mask it at all. With any part of your body. They cheat.

http://tabletenniscoaching.com/node/2176

He's written about it extensively.

Interesting.

[Golfingdad]

On 8/31/2016 at 11:12 AM, dennyjones said:

If I can give you one piece of advice when playing, "spin is king, speed is queen".

 

On 8/31/2016 at 11:15 AM, iacas said:

Yeah, no kidding. You can spin the crap out of the ball and beat a LOT of people, and then you can beat even MORE people when you learn to vary the amount of spin. Especially if it's sidespin, but even top or backspin will have them hitting the net or flying the table all day.

So, we just got our new paddles over the weekend and tried playing with them for the first time today.  Definitely a humbling experience.  They will take a little getting used to, to say the least. :)  Balls flying all different directions.  As an example, the first few serve returns of serves with backspin, the ball not only didn't clear the net, many times it bounced on the table before reaching the net.

[iacas]

4 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

So, we just got our new paddles over the weekend and tried playing with them for the first time today.  Definitely a humbling experience.  They will take a little getting used to, to say the least. :)  Balls flying all different directions.  As an example, the first few serve returns of serves with backspin, the ball not only didn't clear the net, many times it bounced on the table before reaching the net.

Yep.

Now, begin calling them "bats."