How did I play today?

I concentrated today on backspin serves, pushing game to opening loop, 3rd ball attack with a cross court forehand, and being more aggressive with my backhand.

Backspin serves are interesting. I've been trying to cushion one of my backspin serves and in theory I should be able to get more spin with this motion than with just following through the ball. In practice I have more experience with the other serve and thus get more spin with it. I still don't get heavy backspin with my other service motions. On the reverse pendulum it's enough to get people at my level to push, but against better players they can flip of loop it. My tomahawk serve doesn't have enough backspin even against players of my level. They both need a lot of work and a little experimentation.

Pushing needs a lot of work. I made a lot of errors when playing Siggi, both on the forehand and backhand side. I also need to recognize a touch quicker, which pushes I can loop, when they're hit at me. That way I can step around (if played at my elbow) or step backwards to loop (if played at my backhand.

Trying to play my 3rd ball attack towards a righty's forehand has been tough, when the ball is on the left half of the table. I'm still having a lot of trouble with this either hitting the ball wide or long. I think the biggest problem is that I'm almost trying to hit it to the backhand side as I'm more comfortable with that. It also might be that the table is shorter in this direction. I should also think about looping inside out down the line, when the ball is played to the forehand side. I'm guessing this would have been a better opener against Hilton as he was blocking my cross court opener fairly easily.

When I'm watching the ball, I do OK with my backhands and can counter hit cross court with everyone except Hilton. Unfortunately this shot isn't very natural yet and if my concentration slips I end up making errors. On this I just need many more repetitions.

I played all five people that were there tonight.

Against Nathan I still cant seem to win a game. I feel like I'm very close, but near the endgame he pulls out a few serves and I end up behind. Not sure what to do about this. Getting better at backhand service return could help.

I won against Siggi 3-2. I feel that when I serve mostly backspin I force Siggi out of his comfort zone and he then can't hit consistently. This also sets me up for easy third ball topspin winners, when I need a point. However if my level slips a little bit or I don't serve enough backspin, then I lose games to Siggi. He really needs to learn a backhand loop to raise his level.

Against Margit I lost 3-1. I was trying to work on my backspin game a little too much against her to win, but no worries. I could have used a more dangerous mix of serves to have won the match, but I would say that we're pretty close in level.

I lost 3-0 to Ivan. I was close in the first two, but when he got in trouble he would start hiding his serve. It was also tough because I couldn't always keep the ball short, when I went to a pushing game. He has a pretty good loop and I would lose these points when he looped them. To win I should have pushed more at his elbow.

I played two matches worth against Hilton and only won the second game. I did well and am getting better at looping when he fast pushes to my forehand side. It still needs a lot more consistency. I typically did better when I looped hard to his forehand side rather than backhand. He would never try to counter loop and had a good controlled block with his backhand. When he looped I was usually done. I should have tried to push more to his backhand side.