Ping Pong

Chace

Hall of Fame
Yeah. I do. We have a table at the office and usually play a few times a week. Lots of fun.
 

mikeler

Moderator
Last year, I played a lot of doubles ping pong with some co-workers at lunch. I started playing again when I had bad Golfer's Elbow in my right arm, so now I play tennis righty and ping pong lefty.
 

thug the bunny

Professional
Asian genes - a natural. I use the Korean claw grip or western grip. I can put sick spin on the ball in any direction. I do a skidding backspin serve that very few people can get back over the net.

I just joined a CC that has a nice table so I'm going to play alot this winter and see if my wife and my boy can pick it up to give me a challenge.
 

hollywood9826

Hall of Fame
I had a table in my basement before I even had furniture in my house.

I crushed Zapvor big time, but he wasnt very good.

I actually have not played in a while. I gotta start back up once I find some competition.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Great reaction sport.
Short low sliced serves mixing a few heavy deep topspin serves in when the returner starts to cheat forwards.
Stay to the backhand until you get an attacking high forehand.
Bring them IN and off the side of the table.
Attack with both tops and slices, with wide shots mixing in sidespins.
Try it with clipboards, rolled newspapers, and 3x5 cards.
 

Tammo

Banned
Play Ping Pong just like tennis. my brother and I play alot, and we are really equal to each other. He is the offensive one, and I have to make all these impossible shots, and I even dive on the linolium.
 

Leelord337

Hall of Fame
yes, i finished 2nd in my univ's tourny last year. I use a butterfly senshu paddle

i wish i had the amazing 1hbh i have in tabletennis in my real tennis game :) (2 hbh in real tennis)
 

MarinaHighTennis

Hall of Fame
yes, i finished 2nd in my univ's tourny last year. I use a butterfly senshu paddle

i wish i had the amazing 1hbh i have in tabletennis in my real tennis game :) (2 hbh in real tennis)

I have a friend who uses that paddle and I hate him. hahaha
It makes the serve impossible to return with all that spin, but I can't use it because I can't take a full swing with all that padding

It doesn't look like Moya. My arm is too straight
 
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LeeD

Bionic Poster
You do realize you're standing too tall, you only hit easy medium speed forehands, and you move back on lots of your easy forehands. Oh, YOUR forehand are fine, it's the incoming shot from your practice partner that is "medium" speed.
A smart player would slice short to your forehand, keeping it short of the table, and play your backhand much more often. He would test your slice forehand, and your defensive abilities by probing short to your forehand, then deep to your backhand, and it appears, hit lots of balls right into your right hip pocket, which you take too casually and seem to completely whiff on a few.
Not knocking your table tennis skills, as you would beat most players here, but have no chance against any of the tournament test players.
 

MarinaHighTennis

Hall of Fame
You do realize you're standing too tall, you only hit easy medium speed forehands, and you move back on lots of your easy forehands. Oh, YOUR forehand are fine, it's the incoming shot from your practice partner that is "medium" speed.
A smart player would slice short to your forehand, keeping it short of the table, and play your backhand much more often. He would test your slice forehand, and your defensive abilities by probing short to your forehand, then deep to your backhand, and it appears, hit lots of balls right into your right hip pocket, which you take too casually and seem to completely whiff on a few.
Not knocking your table tennis skills, as you would beat most players here, but have no chance against any of the tournament test players.
Its fine I don't play ping pong tourneys. The fact that I use a two hand backhand and a semi western grip makes me very vulnerable. And yes I hate short balls in ping pong and I didn't whiff the ball it hit my hand.

I have experienced good players and got thrashed because I couldn't even return their serves. Yikes!
 
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Power Player

Bionic Poster
or rotation? don't want to be too wristy and hurt myself

Yeah your form is way off for pong, but that's ok. You finish like You are hitting a tennis shot but in TT you will not be able to hit like that against good players. Your follow thru should stop in between your eyes, and not across your body.

It's much much more compact in TT due to the speed.
 

Sid_Vicious

G.O.A.T.
I hate ping pong. I am terrible at it. I am always trying to run around backhands and trying to swing through my body on every shot.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
But you still rally very well.
The goal in competitive table tennis is to force your opponent to give up a medium deep, 9" high ball so you can smash it, forcing him to move back and defend. Oh, that was the goal in 1964, the last tourney I played, semis in Men's Open, SanFrancisco Chinatown.
You do this by slicing a very short, spinny serve that bounces and dies 3" off the table, well INSIDE the table, forcing your opponent to slice upwards over the net, so you both keep slicing short until one of you gives up that deeper higher ball, which immediately get's whacked with topspin into the weaker side (of the opponent), then the smashes begin.
I think that's still the methodology today.
 

hollywood9826

Hall of Fame
But you still rally very well.
The goal in competitive table tennis is to force your opponent to give up a medium deep, 9" high ball so you can smash it, forcing him to move back and defend. Oh, that was the goal in 1964, the last tourney I played, semis in Men's Open, SanFrancisco Chinatown.
You do this by slicing a very short, spinny serve that bounces and dies 3" off the table, well INSIDE the table, forcing your opponent to slice upwards over the net, so you both keep slicing short until one of you gives up that deeper higher ball, which immediately get's whacked with topspin into the weaker side (of the opponent), then the smashes begin.
I think that's still the methodology today.

Yea thats pretty acurate.

The spins started to get to much and the serve was setting up the smash so the went to the 40mm ball to invoke rallying again. But thats the general principle.
 

Power Player

Bionic Poster
Yes pretty much. I learned the slice real fast from a coach since those shallow serve returns are key to master.

But you will see dynamics in terms of serve depth. Many times you can throw in a deep DTL serve for an ace if you catch your opponent cheating.

That is why pros toss the ball far past the 6 inches they are supposed to. Higher toss means more spin, which means shallower bounce and maybe a very slight forward kick off of it.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
I used to win a few points each set by starting with the short low skidders, and when the opponent starts to read them, I'd blast a topspin deep fast serve into the body, or into the slower reacting (usually opponent's wide forehand side) side to surprise them and force them to play neutral again.
But some guys are just too quick, and I just lose to them.
 

goober

Legend
I played in high school with a bunch of friends some of whom played semi-competitively. I did pretty well among that group. Then I went to college and played in a tournament and I got smoked by players that had pretty high rankings. It was like a 3.0 King of the community courts entering an open tournament in tennis. :)
 

chrischris

G.O.A.T.
^^^lol luckily I haven't played that version of the game yet


You should give it a try.. me and some buddies had a blast .
Rule 1: Beer must be taken by those who fail in order for them to loosen up and get out of the loser mode.
That way things get even more spin .Lol.

We had a bunch of old school rock tunes playing to give the game more 'depth' and add some bite to the whole thing.

Aerosmith 'Round and round' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA7711eRE-A

Ratt 'Round and round' ( totally different tune) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG51nwQsfAA
 

mdjenders

Professional
loads of fun, just very different to tennis... in tt the level of spin is far greater than most other racquet sports, so precision and touch are very important, and the game takes very quick thinking and reflexes. service return especially can be VERY frustrating to someone new to club/tournament level play. good tennis players generally have the coordination and ball tracking ability to be successful at pong, but lack the proper strokes, footwork, and quickness that are unique to the table game. to be any good, you need to learn the basics from a good coach and practice them ad-nauseam several times per week. good equipment (try to avoid preassembled rackets) is also necessary to develop proper form... a good, custom racket can be had for the price of inferior preassembled stuff. i make rackets that outperform stuff like the "senshu" by leaps and bounds.

i am 2000 rated, nothing too special but good enough have lots of fun and to appreciate the nuances of the game. a great thing about tt is that there are many styles of play that can be successful. i like to play defence from a distance from the table ala my favorite player, koji matsushita!

here's a video, not the best match but a fun place where i play almost every day...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX9P9eJBCW0
 
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rk_sports

Hall of Fame
Love TT... used to play a lot before getting the hang of tennis
One of the reasons I cant hit a true flat forehand is because of my loopy topspin from TT

okay.. question for all you ping pong fans...

we know how tennis has changed lately... string technology, modern strokes, player athleticism, etc..
now, how has ping pong changed lately (apart from player athleticism)?
 

SuperDuy

Hall of Fame
Love TT... used to play a lot before getting the hang of tennis
One of the reasons I cant hit a true flat forehand is because of my loopy topspin from TT

okay.. question for all you ping pong fans...

we know how tennis has changed lately... string technology, modern strokes, player athleticism, etc..
now, how has ping pong changed lately (apart from player athleticism)?

Not nearly as much as tennis has, I guess the changes in the rubber and blades technology.
 
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