In my quest to actually have strokes, i.e., use some sort of technique rather than lashing out at the ball like a crazed, wounded animal, I've lately tried a new method which I call "spinning the ball."  Actually I didn't call it that, I got the term from coach Kurimay's web site.  It's possible that a few million other people may have used the term as well, I haven't done the research, ok?  Moving on.  The idea for this goes back to my tennis playing days where I had mad, or at least mildly insane, strokes.  In particular, on heavy topspin shots my main focus was on getting as much spin on the ball as possible.  Specifically, my mental image of the stroke in that split second before executing it, was of brushing violently upwards on the ball.  Note: not through the ball, not forward, but up.  The mental image was spinning the ball up, not hitting it forward.  Of course violence is violence and the result of this was not only a very spinny shot but also a very powerful one as well.

The opposite is the drive, where your mental image of the stroke is forward, through the ball, focusing on driving the ball forward with as much velocity as possible.  In this case the main product is speed with spin being a byproduct.

Now you may say, what's the big deal?  In both cases you get a fast, spinny ball so there's no difference at least as far as the poor ball is concerned.  However, my experience is that there's a huge difference as far as your perception of the stroke is concerned.  And that perception, that image in your mind of spinning the ball rather than driving it, changes your execution of the stroke drastically.  Case in point: my sad forehand.  It has been primarily drive oriented for some time.  The result being a fairly flat stroke where I try to brush over the top of the ball.  [How I got this way is another story but let's just say I was using Chinese rubbers for a while.]  Lately I've tried to change my mental image to spinning the ball and without thinking about technique (i.e., how the elbow bone connects to the wrist bone, etc.) my stroke became more vertical with a follow through ending over my head.  That is to say, I'm not thinking "follow through with your racket high, donkey-boy"  (again, not my term) my thinking is just a mental image of putting spin on the ball, of spinning it up as much as possible.

The result is a much higher arcing, slower, and loopier loop than I previously had.  Sounds great but it takes time to execute since for one thing I'm not used to thinking that way and for another the stroke feels less secure because I have to get under the ball, way under, and stroke up the back instead of over the top.  It feels less secure because my racket initially is not in line with the flight of the ball so it feels like I'm going to miss it entirely until I pull up at the last split second.

In tennis the latter was not so much of an issue because the time it takes to execute a fh stroke is much smaller than the time it takes for the ball to cross the length of the court.  In table tennis that's not the case, everything happens much faster and the feeling is like you're taking every shot "off the bounce".  In any case, I kind of like it so far, not least because for the first time in a long time I get to forget about feet, waist, legs, shoulders, forearms, wrists, all that stuff that coaches love to go on and on about.   It's just about the really fun part: hitting that little ball.

I hate to say it, but not good!  I played with one of them yesterday at work, the 91g blade which has a hollower and lower tone than its brother.  The blade is medium to low speed, not fast at all and emits a very loud "doink" sound when hitting the ball which I personally find very annoying.  Control wise it is above average, feeling for the ball is good but not great.  Aside from the sound though the really bad thing about it is the lack of flex in the blade.  There is no springiness in it at all so it noticeably lacks power away from the table.  I struggled to produce decent amounts of spin on loops. 

The handle however, is quite nice.  Overall it's a disappointment and my hopes for the other blade are not much higher.  It will most likely be slightly faster and less doinky but probably not much.  Ah well, it was worth a try.  The search continues...

Its much better, having abstained from playing over the w/end, I feel things are looking better. I had a session with 'Dave the chopper' he was rightly concerned about it, but happily there was no problem, we had a real good session. Dave is in my team next season, he got about 30% last year, I am willing to predict he will get 50+ next season. For a guy his age, Dave shows remarkable enthusiasm, and in his favor, he's quite fit.

Nick Permonie has won a silver in the mens singles at the British transplant games in Bath, well done Nick, i'll post more on this when I've seen him.

Not a good one for me, but as usual, lots to take out from it.

Band 6:

1st game on against this irish lad, had alot of support with him. I don't know what happened here I just went in really confident and blitzed the 1st 2 games. I think I 'woke up' in the third which he took. In the 4th I found myself at 3-3 and then lost the next 4 points. Took a timeout and then came back to win the end. I was really pleased with this. It was a nice clean win and a good game.

2nd game against a kid with pimples on his BH. In the knock he was still happy to hit BH to BH topspin (with his reverse side) so I knew he was going to be a class player.  He could even loop with his reverse side on his BH, but in the match he kept his pimples on his BH. Maybe he's being coaching so as in the future he can twiddle?! I lost to this kid 3 straight, but close games 10,10,9.  This kid ended up being the eventual winner of the whole band, and he didn't drop an end the whole way according to the ETTA report. Makes it even more frustrating. My BH serve was annoying him and I should have nipped the 1st end, who knows what could have happened then.

3rd game turned out to be the battle for 2nd place. Had such a slow start here and went 2-0 down. Got back to 2-2 though. In the 5th he took a timeout when I was 8-5 up. I then lost the next 3 points before taking my timeout at 8-8 with him serving. I then lost the match 13-11 . I really regret not taking my timeout sooner at 8-6 up on my serve would have been ideal, just to ensure I won at least 1 of my service points. I bottled it.

Band 5:

Same pattern as band 6 here. Lost in 3 to the clear group winner, beat in 3 the clear group loser and then had a 5 set battle for 2nd place. I even went 2-0 down again and clawed back to 2-2. I lost the 5th. Just looked at the points though and this would have been a maximum win for me too, he was 3rd seed in band 5. So close.

Overall, I am still getting there. Experience has to take time to acquire, just because I know I'm 'capable' of winning doesn't mean I'm going to win automatically. Got to work for it. I just showed determination at the wrong times. There will be more chances in the future. Just found there are 2 GP's in October (Peterborough and Newcastle), so hoping to make both of them. Hopefully I'll be able to play both days. If I want to get to where I want to be I'm going to need the experience of Sundays to increase my playing level.

I still can't work out why, but ever since Doncaster in July I've really found my BH serve to be a weapon against many players. Loads of people don't like it. Perhaps this is what makes me 'unorthodox'. I can't decide whether it is simply because its a rare serve, or that its good, or its simply just because I make every one a little bit different.  It's a good sign. My BH punch is getting better, but I really need to step in to punch after I've spun the ball up. All about footwork, if I'm in the right place, it all works. I'm finding myself about 1ft too far back quite often.

I really did not like the feeling, it was not like sp/glue really, and it made my rubbers and set up really heavy. I'm still struggling to find a real replacement for tenergy05. I also have got a really bad case of tennis elbow atm, playing is just antagonising it, it only hurts when I f/hand loop but the pain is enough to stop me playing at full potential, even playing with a tubular support and inti inflammitories.

I received the new blades yesterday and they look as nice as in the picture.  The handles are a good size, perhaps slightly thinner than what I wanted but very close.  The blades are about 5mm thick,  significantly thicker than the original (which was around 3 mm!).  They look identical but differ in weight (91 and 95 grams) and tone, one (95g) being slightly higher in pitch than the other.  The plies are basswood (core), mahogany (primary), and koto (outer).

They both have a somewhat hollow, boinky sound when bouncing a ball on them, which is something I used to really dislike because I associated that sound with high speed, low control factory made blades.  Prior to my recent experiments with Xiom blades I used to think a good blade had a flat "tic" sound when bouncing a ball on it but I now realize that this is the sound of a blade with low levels of vibration. Vibration damped blades sound nice when hitting the ball but the level of feedback is too low for me.  Most of the Xiom blades I've tried (Amadeus, Ignito, Stradivarius) were of this type: a nice crisp "tic" sound when bouncing a ball on them which translates into a "crack" sound when hitting the ball with rubbers on.  However it also means low vibration and low feedback, sometimes to the point of barely being able to feel the impact at all (as with the Amadeus).

Both blades are higher in pitch and have very different tone than the original Borko so I should expect them to play differently.  My experience with the original however was that it played very differently than what I expected so I'm not sure what's going to happen when rubber meets wood with these two.

In any case, they need to be sealed before I can play with them and then tragically I'm booked up this weekend and can't get to a club.  So Monday at earliest!

I have some real problems here. I use Tenergy 05 on both wings, and I really like it, it suits my game. Butterfly have just increased their prices, a sheet of Tenergy has just leapt from around £32 to £50. That is just too much, I cannot consider spending £100 Every time I need new rubbers. SO, I've started experementing with Boosters/tuners, even though I still feel that their use is cheating. What do I do? I need to change my rubbers about 4 times a year, at TENRGY prices that amounts to £400. I just can't afford it. Dawie inspirit was costing me £6.oo a sheet, and I was happy with it, before the glue ban, I'm going to consider buying it again and boosting it with Baby oil. I've actually got two sheets on my Kitchen table at this moment, I'll let you know......

Ray is out of action, he needs an operation on a torn ligament on his left shoulder, he's left handed of course. I'm hoping the NHS wating list is not too long, and he can play at the start of the season in early October. Tony has just had the same Op, but the results are mixed, he's got a bigger tear than they thought. John has entered the Medway GP next week and I will keep everyone posted as to his results. Sunday's training camp was a big success, plenty of good players turned up, and myself as one of the coaches, Jim, Karl and Nick all travelled together. Nearly a disaster though, i went for a shower, and when i came out, found that everyone had left the sportshall and i was locked in! Its a good job these guys were travelling with me, or it would have been a long night.

Borko let me know today that the new blades are finished and he's going to ship them out tomorrow.  Unfortunately I won't be able to play with the until next week!  In the meantime he kindly sent me a few photos of the finished blades.