Are you a real man?
http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001093.cfm
Encourage ppl to read this, and see how they measure up!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
continued
About my non-study life, I've been involved heavily with the Navigators, which is a group of people on campus trying to transform lives through the plain simple message of Jesus. We have Saturday potlucks where we invite ppl to our home to have dinner and have some really deep and great conversations around. The friends and social interactions are just simply awesome.
Friday is basically a Bible study within the group. Although the group does have its flaws and is not perfect, it's just becoming so compelling for me to be involved in it. I've been foregoing table tennis club meetings on friday nights, which is quite a powerful statement coming from me... :D (You know how much I love table tennis...:D)
The more I now continue to grow, the more I realise how simple yet profound is the message. I've been re-reading the Gospels now, up to John 6 today. And I'm seeing things differently. I'm constantly amazed at how full of grace and love Jesus was. He spent time with the untouchables, the lower classes of society, the despised people, etc. And accepted them for what they are. Which completely removes any reason for pride in ourselves. I hope I can really let down this pride of mine.
I'm also trying to get involved with a choir group who's inviting ppl from all types of backgrounds, like homeless ppl, blind ppl, etc. but I'm not very sure about how much time I can spare in the next semester, cos I do have my study obligations. From my conversations with 2nd yr engineering ppl, 2nd yr onwards seem to be much harder than 1st yr. But so far I trust that God is faithful to those who are working for His kingdom.
About piano I'm practising a lot of Chopin Etudes now. Op.10 no.1 and no.12, Op.25 no.11 and no.12. Love those. And of course Bach's Chaconne. It's just so epic. I'm starting to compile my compositions together. And i'm still trying to get lyrics for some of them.... hahah.
Table tennis I just went for a team competition. Won 4 lost 2 matches. Many ppl have problems with my serve... muahaha, but then, I make too many mistakes myself, especially in looping long balls to my backhand. My backhand's too inconsistent due to lack of practice...:(. And I have problems receiving short serves on the forehand side. If ppl get these 2 weakness of mine I'm just toast. Slow footwork is another problem as well. I miss too many opportunity balls.
Anyway this is all will post later
Friday is basically a Bible study within the group. Although the group does have its flaws and is not perfect, it's just becoming so compelling for me to be involved in it. I've been foregoing table tennis club meetings on friday nights, which is quite a powerful statement coming from me... :D (You know how much I love table tennis...:D)
The more I now continue to grow, the more I realise how simple yet profound is the message. I've been re-reading the Gospels now, up to John 6 today. And I'm seeing things differently. I'm constantly amazed at how full of grace and love Jesus was. He spent time with the untouchables, the lower classes of society, the despised people, etc. And accepted them for what they are. Which completely removes any reason for pride in ourselves. I hope I can really let down this pride of mine.
I'm also trying to get involved with a choir group who's inviting ppl from all types of backgrounds, like homeless ppl, blind ppl, etc. but I'm not very sure about how much time I can spare in the next semester, cos I do have my study obligations. From my conversations with 2nd yr engineering ppl, 2nd yr onwards seem to be much harder than 1st yr. But so far I trust that God is faithful to those who are working for His kingdom.
About piano I'm practising a lot of Chopin Etudes now. Op.10 no.1 and no.12, Op.25 no.11 and no.12. Love those. And of course Bach's Chaconne. It's just so epic. I'm starting to compile my compositions together. And i'm still trying to get lyrics for some of them.... hahah.
Table tennis I just went for a team competition. Won 4 lost 2 matches. Many ppl have problems with my serve... muahaha, but then, I make too many mistakes myself, especially in looping long balls to my backhand. My backhand's too inconsistent due to lack of practice...:(. And I have problems receiving short serves on the forehand side. If ppl get these 2 weakness of mine I'm just toast. Slow footwork is another problem as well. I miss too many opportunity balls.
Anyway this is all will post later
Monday, July 13, 2009
hello i'm back
Hello guys, I think it's a really really long time since my last post, so this is probably going to be a very very long one....
My life's been very fruitful in Melbourne... got to know a lot a lot of friends, and more importantly i'm starting to open up to people, instead of keeping a lot of things to myself. Studies has been quite good, with a lot of interesting stuff happening.
In engineering structures(civil eng) we've designed a truss bridge that's made of paper. It successfully withstood 2kg worth of weight quite easily(You can put a textbook on top of it)
Our truss is the first one below
It was especially fun but very tiring. We spent almost some 10-20 hours making this thing work, from design to construction.
Some of the other bridges on display.
Otherwise civil engineering is heaps of fun! There's also a song competition where the winner actually changed the lyrics of Hey There Delilah to Hey there you structure. It was hilarious. We've learnt a lot of teamwork skills from these few projects this semester.
Electrical was not so fun cos I really hate the small tiny wires and components going around and around, especially during labs. I even soldered my finger at one time( it really hurts).
Did this at the end of the semester. It's a very simple digital thermometer.
Back. Shows why I'm not going for electrical engineering. I suck at dealing with small stuff.
front
Computing is basically learning MATLAB which is very fun as well. You can really do a lot of stuff there.
The other subject i'm learning is boring maths.... but then it's a prerequisite, what to do....
Anyway going to post about other aspect of life soon...
My life's been very fruitful in Melbourne... got to know a lot a lot of friends, and more importantly i'm starting to open up to people, instead of keeping a lot of things to myself. Studies has been quite good, with a lot of interesting stuff happening.
In engineering structures(civil eng) we've designed a truss bridge that's made of paper. It successfully withstood 2kg worth of weight quite easily(You can put a textbook on top of it)
Our truss is the first one below
It was especially fun but very tiring. We spent almost some 10-20 hours making this thing work, from design to construction.
Some of the other bridges on display.
Otherwise civil engineering is heaps of fun! There's also a song competition where the winner actually changed the lyrics of Hey There Delilah to Hey there you structure. It was hilarious. We've learnt a lot of teamwork skills from these few projects this semester.
Electrical was not so fun cos I really hate the small tiny wires and components going around and around, especially during labs. I even soldered my finger at one time( it really hurts).
Did this at the end of the semester. It's a very simple digital thermometer.
Back. Shows why I'm not going for electrical engineering. I suck at dealing with small stuff.
front
Computing is basically learning MATLAB which is very fun as well. You can really do a lot of stuff there.
The other subject i'm learning is boring maths.... but then it's a prerequisite, what to do....
Anyway going to post about other aspect of life soon...
Sunday, May 3, 2009
baptism today
I'm very very tired after today...but it was a very rewarding day for me, the day when I'm baptised!
I'll just copy & paste from the text I read yesterday... video coming soon....
I’m here to share my rewarding journey with God.
I was born in a Christian environment as my brothers and sisters were all professed believers as I grew up, or so far as I recall. I was acquainted with the Bible as my siblings told me Bible stories. I even went to Sunday School a few times in my life during my childhood, but I didn’t like it at all, because I never felt any warmth inside. All those Bible stories may be true, but I felt that they don’t really apply to me. I was ‘ever hearing, but never understanding; ever seeing, but never perceiving’. (Isaiah 6:9) Throughout my whole childhood, maybe up till now, I’m not really the socializing type. I don’t mix well with others. I get easily offended by people and I remember things that people have done and don’t forgive them easily. True friendship eluded me for many many years. The only genuine love I’ve experienced in my life was that from my family. The outside world just seemed so cold and unfriendly towards me.
God has given me many talents, but I always thought they were a curse to me. The primary reason why I didn’t mix around easily was that I liked to share things about my life to others. And those things made me somehow hated. I was rather good at studies as I always maintained the top 3 positions in the whole level. I went for many competitions, interclass, interschool and international and won numerous prizes. In fact, after Form 5, my file containing all my certificates was bulging so much that I discarded those that were not as significant. As for piano, I passed Grade 8 with a very high mark when I was just 9. Besides that, I often participated in class lessons very actively, asking all sorts of questions and eager to learn further.Now you can see why my classmates didn’t like me a lot.
Together with one of my class teacher for 4 years, I was constantly booed and rejected by all my classmates, and quite a few of them were in fact self professed Christians. I had literally no friends at school. Nobody could ever understand how hard those years were for me. I became quite a hardened person. I harboured no trust in people at all. Of course I totally forgive them now, seeing how Jesus forgave all my sins on the cross. But returning to that point in my life, in the end I just withdrew from any social interactions and focused my full attention to competitions, studies and piano.
After that, I worked very very hard to achieve my aims, and sometimes hardwork is rewarded, and sometimes it is not. I was using achievements to try to fill the gap in my heart. But I can assure you this type of lifestyle is very tiring, and doesn’t satisfy my heart. For you can never have enough achievements. And it is especially very frustrating to see all your efforts go down the drain.
When I was in Form 4 to Form 5, I finally found some good friends. I had 3 very good friends during those years, that I will always be grateful to them for. We studied together, shared our thoughts together, and spent happy and sad times together. Although only 1 of them was a Christian(the other 2 are still unsure about their beliefs), I felt that God was working to soften my heart.
This year, everything changed. When I arrived at Melbourne, I started joining the Navigators. Although it’s not perfect with still many flaws, it encouraged me a lot. For the very first time in my life, I’m accepted genuinely for who I am, not because of what I wear, or what I achieved. For this is what the Bible says: For my yoke is easy and my burden is light(Matthew 11:30). I know that God does not require any effort from me to please him, because He loves me just as I am. This is the key to true self-esteem, knowing that you are so valuable in God’s sight that He sent his only Son to die for you. I started going out with friends, where in the past I would consider it to be a total waste of time. First time ever, that I've been able to make so many friends and feel at home, especially within the cell group, whereas normally I would be making 0 friends, and feeling cast out. I know the feeling of not 'belonging' so I tend to be very concerned about all those people without friends.
Then after that, I hurt my wrist tendon seriously from overpractising piano. It was so painful that it became impossible to even move my wrist an inch. I tried Perskindol, Yoko-yoko, and nothing worked. I was thinking of going to a doctor, but before that, I decided to try something out. That night, I deliberately prayed to God that I'll definitely believe in God if He heals my wrist miraculously after I woke up. Surprisingly, God answered my prayer! My wrist was indeed healed the next day.
After that I witnessed God's power at last, saw people really changed. Jack had 4 friends over at his home. Then somehow the topic changed to their belief in God. They were initially very resistant and cynical of the Gospel, but then I saw their faces changed so much throughout the 2 hours when Jack and my brother shared about it.
I did some surveys for Navigators that day during orientation. I can't believe I had the actual courage to approach total strangers to do surveys! My perspective of people has finally been changed by God.
I’ve just seen something very encouraging from Ken Duncan the photographer on how to respond to people’s praise. “ I’m an average photographer with a great God”. This is what I’m going to tell people when people say that I’m good. When now I consider my gifts and talents, I hope I have to courage to declare like Paul did ‘I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’(Phillipians 3:8). For nothing compares to what Jesus has did for us, dying on our cross to save the sins of us. But this does not mean that I’ll stop working hard on my passions, which are currently music and table tennis. However, I will be trying to glorify God through them instead of glorifying myself.
PS: I'll try to post videos of the concert as soon as I'm able to get them.
and I'll start singing lessons soon
I'll just copy & paste from the text I read yesterday... video coming soon....
I’m here to share my rewarding journey with God.
I was born in a Christian environment as my brothers and sisters were all professed believers as I grew up, or so far as I recall. I was acquainted with the Bible as my siblings told me Bible stories. I even went to Sunday School a few times in my life during my childhood, but I didn’t like it at all, because I never felt any warmth inside. All those Bible stories may be true, but I felt that they don’t really apply to me. I was ‘ever hearing, but never understanding; ever seeing, but never perceiving’. (Isaiah 6:9) Throughout my whole childhood, maybe up till now, I’m not really the socializing type. I don’t mix well with others. I get easily offended by people and I remember things that people have done and don’t forgive them easily. True friendship eluded me for many many years. The only genuine love I’ve experienced in my life was that from my family. The outside world just seemed so cold and unfriendly towards me.
God has given me many talents, but I always thought they were a curse to me. The primary reason why I didn’t mix around easily was that I liked to share things about my life to others. And those things made me somehow hated. I was rather good at studies as I always maintained the top 3 positions in the whole level. I went for many competitions, interclass, interschool and international and won numerous prizes. In fact, after Form 5, my file containing all my certificates was bulging so much that I discarded those that were not as significant. As for piano, I passed Grade 8 with a very high mark when I was just 9. Besides that, I often participated in class lessons very actively, asking all sorts of questions and eager to learn further.Now you can see why my classmates didn’t like me a lot.
Together with one of my class teacher for 4 years, I was constantly booed and rejected by all my classmates, and quite a few of them were in fact self professed Christians. I had literally no friends at school. Nobody could ever understand how hard those years were for me. I became quite a hardened person. I harboured no trust in people at all. Of course I totally forgive them now, seeing how Jesus forgave all my sins on the cross. But returning to that point in my life, in the end I just withdrew from any social interactions and focused my full attention to competitions, studies and piano.
After that, I worked very very hard to achieve my aims, and sometimes hardwork is rewarded, and sometimes it is not. I was using achievements to try to fill the gap in my heart. But I can assure you this type of lifestyle is very tiring, and doesn’t satisfy my heart. For you can never have enough achievements. And it is especially very frustrating to see all your efforts go down the drain.
When I was in Form 4 to Form 5, I finally found some good friends. I had 3 very good friends during those years, that I will always be grateful to them for. We studied together, shared our thoughts together, and spent happy and sad times together. Although only 1 of them was a Christian(the other 2 are still unsure about their beliefs), I felt that God was working to soften my heart.
This year, everything changed. When I arrived at Melbourne, I started joining the Navigators. Although it’s not perfect with still many flaws, it encouraged me a lot. For the very first time in my life, I’m accepted genuinely for who I am, not because of what I wear, or what I achieved. For this is what the Bible says: For my yoke is easy and my burden is light(Matthew 11:30). I know that God does not require any effort from me to please him, because He loves me just as I am. This is the key to true self-esteem, knowing that you are so valuable in God’s sight that He sent his only Son to die for you. I started going out with friends, where in the past I would consider it to be a total waste of time. First time ever, that I've been able to make so many friends and feel at home, especially within the cell group, whereas normally I would be making 0 friends, and feeling cast out. I know the feeling of not 'belonging' so I tend to be very concerned about all those people without friends.
Then after that, I hurt my wrist tendon seriously from overpractising piano. It was so painful that it became impossible to even move my wrist an inch. I tried Perskindol, Yoko-yoko, and nothing worked. I was thinking of going to a doctor, but before that, I decided to try something out. That night, I deliberately prayed to God that I'll definitely believe in God if He heals my wrist miraculously after I woke up. Surprisingly, God answered my prayer! My wrist was indeed healed the next day.
After that I witnessed God's power at last, saw people really changed. Jack had 4 friends over at his home. Then somehow the topic changed to their belief in God. They were initially very resistant and cynical of the Gospel, but then I saw their faces changed so much throughout the 2 hours when Jack and my brother shared about it.
I did some surveys for Navigators that day during orientation. I can't believe I had the actual courage to approach total strangers to do surveys! My perspective of people has finally been changed by God.
I’ve just seen something very encouraging from Ken Duncan the photographer on how to respond to people’s praise. “ I’m an average photographer with a great God”. This is what I’m going to tell people when people say that I’m good. When now I consider my gifts and talents, I hope I have to courage to declare like Paul did ‘I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord’(Phillipians 3:8). For nothing compares to what Jesus has did for us, dying on our cross to save the sins of us. But this does not mean that I’ll stop working hard on my passions, which are currently music and table tennis. However, I will be trying to glorify God through them instead of glorifying myself.
PS: I'll try to post videos of the concert as soon as I'm able to get them.
and I'll start singing lessons soon
Monday, April 27, 2009
ok update abt concert and competition part 1
The concert on saturday went quite well. There was a duet singing "If I loved you" from "carousel".
I think they actually sung it even better than the video. Both of them sung full with expression and with powerful emotions. I played the rachmaninov prelude op.23 no.6
also i played the Chopin polonaise no.3 in A major, and 2 Brahms Hungarian Dances no.3 and no.6, which I think I managed to play very excitingly and convincingly. Actually I had a finger injury that day which amazingly disappeared the moment I went to play. I actually prayed to God about that beforehand.
About the competition I just went for fun, played the 2 Hungarian Dances but way worse than when played during the concert. The grand piano is very very hard to control. Got the encouragement prize for $20, but anyway it's good enough for so little practice. I have a bigger one coming up next monday which is going to be screwed up cos of lack of practice. Playing the bach prelude and fugue in C minor, Beethoven Appassionata and the Rach prelude again. Anyway I'm not going to care abt pleasing judges anymore. I'm going to play the bach prelude rock style,(deliberately accenting every beat), which makes it way cooler. I'm going to play the 3rd mov of the Appassionata the same way too. muahahah, and shock them out of their seats....
Anyway have many things upcoming, like an electrical systems test on wed and project 2 bridge competition for engineering structures, due on friday. It's quite interesting, as you have to design and build a paper bridge and there'll be prizes for the bridge with the minimum weight/most innovative design. Going off now
I think they actually sung it even better than the video. Both of them sung full with expression and with powerful emotions. I played the rachmaninov prelude op.23 no.6
also i played the Chopin polonaise no.3 in A major, and 2 Brahms Hungarian Dances no.3 and no.6, which I think I managed to play very excitingly and convincingly. Actually I had a finger injury that day which amazingly disappeared the moment I went to play. I actually prayed to God about that beforehand.
About the competition I just went for fun, played the 2 Hungarian Dances but way worse than when played during the concert. The grand piano is very very hard to control. Got the encouragement prize for $20, but anyway it's good enough for so little practice. I have a bigger one coming up next monday which is going to be screwed up cos of lack of practice. Playing the bach prelude and fugue in C minor, Beethoven Appassionata and the Rach prelude again. Anyway I'm not going to care abt pleasing judges anymore. I'm going to play the bach prelude rock style,(deliberately accenting every beat), which makes it way cooler. I'm going to play the 3rd mov of the Appassionata the same way too. muahahah, and shock them out of their seats....
Anyway have many things upcoming, like an electrical systems test on wed and project 2 bridge competition for engineering structures, due on friday. It's quite interesting, as you have to design and build a paper bridge and there'll be prizes for the bridge with the minimum weight/most innovative design. Going off now
Thursday, April 23, 2009
more updates
This sat I'll be performing in a concert! I'll also be participating in a piano competition next monday and the monday after that, and most of my tests are next week. Stress stress stress....but anyway I'll trust God to give me the strength to deal with it.
On a lighter note, ping pong competitions might be soon I think! But I think I need to train much more... especially on footwork, and serve receive. I don't know why but my 摆短 sucks now, especially on my backhand. I can't really translate reading the spin in my head to adjusting the bat angle in my hand, and I can't control the placement of the ball well enough. Often my bat is open on a top-spin serve or closed on a down-spin serve, without me knowing it. So in the end I'm using my forehand to receive everything, using 撇 or forehand flips to either end of the table, even from the backhand side. Whenever I use my backhand it's to perform a chiquita flip. And about chiquita flips when you see people preparing to 侧身 just direct the ball to the other side. And there are 2 versions. One with more spin/less speed, one with more speed and less spin. Judging whether your opponent is far away/close to the table use these two varieties. That's what makes the chiquita flip so dangerous, it's not really the power, but the easy manipulation of placement.
My backhand is much much improved from last year, and I can pull most balls with a rather dangerous backhand loop. It looks a bit like Kreanga's one, but it's just the motion, and maybe only half the power. Haha, can't wait to show it when i'm back in malaysia...lol
I'm also learning how to 抢冲 balls half out of the table(i.e the 2nd bounce is just right over the edge) with the forehand. Basically you have to step into the table with your right foot, then there's a special forehand movement for this. Move your bat way back and here's the special part.. imagine this wrist position. Move your wrist up without moving your hand, then turn it to the right. That's the optimal pre-tension wrist position i found for producing the most power.
I also learnt a new serve, something like chen qi's one. I'm just slow practising it a lot, but the motion is still not fast enough.
What I'm learning most is footwork. It's not easy at all, in fact I think it's the hardest part of table tennis. Now practising a lot of forehand backhand exchange, all forehand from the table, and the hardest of all is the 侧身抢冲. That's extremely hard, but well worth the effort, cos you can finish almost all serves with the 2nd bounce beyond the table, providing you read the spin correctly.
One thing to notice is the distance you are from the table. When counterlooping it's quite important to back up a bit from the table, so that you have time to execute very powerful shots. I find that my rallying power has increased by a lot by backing a bit away.
When playing against lobbers/defenders sometimes even the hardest smash may not win the point. A more useful tactic is to loop it as usual, but create a lot of sidespin, either to the left by brushing the ball at the right side instead of the front, or wiping the ball to create sidespin towards the right. This would create very wide angles for the defender to handle. Then just block/smash the ball to the other direction. Though it may cause them to hate you....cos it makes them look bad :D.
Defending is now possible here cos of the court size. It's quite fun actually, and is a very good test of your footwork. But when possible, always counterattack. You'll never get the point if you keep defending.
On a lighter note, ping pong competitions might be soon I think! But I think I need to train much more... especially on footwork, and serve receive. I don't know why but my 摆短 sucks now, especially on my backhand. I can't really translate reading the spin in my head to adjusting the bat angle in my hand, and I can't control the placement of the ball well enough. Often my bat is open on a top-spin serve or closed on a down-spin serve, without me knowing it. So in the end I'm using my forehand to receive everything, using 撇 or forehand flips to either end of the table, even from the backhand side. Whenever I use my backhand it's to perform a chiquita flip. And about chiquita flips when you see people preparing to 侧身 just direct the ball to the other side. And there are 2 versions. One with more spin/less speed, one with more speed and less spin. Judging whether your opponent is far away/close to the table use these two varieties. That's what makes the chiquita flip so dangerous, it's not really the power, but the easy manipulation of placement.
My backhand is much much improved from last year, and I can pull most balls with a rather dangerous backhand loop. It looks a bit like Kreanga's one, but it's just the motion, and maybe only half the power. Haha, can't wait to show it when i'm back in malaysia...lol
I'm also learning how to 抢冲 balls half out of the table(i.e the 2nd bounce is just right over the edge) with the forehand. Basically you have to step into the table with your right foot, then there's a special forehand movement for this. Move your bat way back and here's the special part.. imagine this wrist position. Move your wrist up without moving your hand, then turn it to the right. That's the optimal pre-tension wrist position i found for producing the most power.
I also learnt a new serve, something like chen qi's one. I'm just slow practising it a lot, but the motion is still not fast enough.
What I'm learning most is footwork. It's not easy at all, in fact I think it's the hardest part of table tennis. Now practising a lot of forehand backhand exchange, all forehand from the table, and the hardest of all is the 侧身抢冲. That's extremely hard, but well worth the effort, cos you can finish almost all serves with the 2nd bounce beyond the table, providing you read the spin correctly.
One thing to notice is the distance you are from the table. When counterlooping it's quite important to back up a bit from the table, so that you have time to execute very powerful shots. I find that my rallying power has increased by a lot by backing a bit away.
When playing against lobbers/defenders sometimes even the hardest smash may not win the point. A more useful tactic is to loop it as usual, but create a lot of sidespin, either to the left by brushing the ball at the right side instead of the front, or wiping the ball to create sidespin towards the right. This would create very wide angles for the defender to handle. Then just block/smash the ball to the other direction. Though it may cause them to hate you....cos it makes them look bad :D.
Defending is now possible here cos of the court size. It's quite fun actually, and is a very good test of your footwork. But when possible, always counterattack. You'll never get the point if you keep defending.
Monday, April 20, 2009
couldn't resist posting this
I know it's a long long time since last updateeee...
Anyway just found out a new stroke, which is the forehand sidespin stroke.
Look towards the end starting at 3:12, it's totally crazy... the ball actually curves so much in the air, sooo spectacular.
Anyway just found out a new stroke, which is the forehand sidespin stroke.
Look towards the end starting at 3:12, it's totally crazy... the ball actually curves so much in the air, sooo spectacular.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
finally some updates on tt
Today in the table tennis meeting there was a guy who's visiting the table tennis club. Lost to him 4 matches.... wth.. i was thrashed 1 game 11-2 and the others rather close like 8 or 9.... but he exposed all my weak points and all the things that work. Also it's the first time somebody has no trouble with my serves but i have so much trouble with his serves( though i've not really shown all my serves yet... :P) And really he has a gayyy rpb stroke. It's 10x better than my backhand. The real problem with him is that I lose 9/10 rallies. I'm not that good at rallies. He said that I should work on counterlooping more instead of blocking.
I should work more on my angles, my backhand which has basically not enough power to deal with heavy down-spin pushes to my backhand, and it's time to train a very powerful 侧身抢冲 to finish slightly long balls exiting the left side of the table. Smashing slightly high balls is a problem for me as well. I make really a lot of mistakes smashing high balls, especially on the backhand. :((( Also, I discovered that I really have to return to ready position after every single stroke.
The chiquita backhand has not enough power, though it's useful(especially the one going straight instead of diagonal). There's a version I developed with the same starting motion with sidespin going the other way. I should use these more in fact, except that I don't really like to receive serves with my backhand now. There's a new technique I've learned called 撇。 The ball curves towards the backhand of the opponent, it can carry topside or downside spin. It's useful to cause the opponent forehand to go unprotected. Besides that you can still use the same motion to drop it short, or even flip the ball for some added deception. It's really useful especially against those with overpowering forehands but weak backhands. I met somebody like this today as well. Basically if he manages to attack with his forehand you have no chance at all. The attack is so hard it's almost like a smash.
What works beautifully now is my backhand punch. It's basically to deal with high loops with plenty of spin. You basically punch the ball forward at the highest point of the bounce. The ball goes really fast like a smash. It might be a bit hard if the ball is low, or if it has strong sidespin, which you'll have to compensate for.
Also there were a few times I managed to do a reduced energy block like Waldner though his actually produces a double bounce...It's basically moving your bat to the back/side/top depending on the spin on the ball. It's useful to deal with ppl who still attack even if they're really out of position.
Today I also learnt how to throw balls properly according to the rules. It's pretty hard at first but you really need to throw it with an open palm with no-spin on it. I copied He Zhi Wen's style of throwing. It is actually a very important key to serving consistently.
Blah its 12:24 now should go to sleep like nowwwww
I should work more on my angles, my backhand which has basically not enough power to deal with heavy down-spin pushes to my backhand, and it's time to train a very powerful 侧身抢冲 to finish slightly long balls exiting the left side of the table. Smashing slightly high balls is a problem for me as well. I make really a lot of mistakes smashing high balls, especially on the backhand. :((( Also, I discovered that I really have to return to ready position after every single stroke.
The chiquita backhand has not enough power, though it's useful(especially the one going straight instead of diagonal). There's a version I developed with the same starting motion with sidespin going the other way. I should use these more in fact, except that I don't really like to receive serves with my backhand now. There's a new technique I've learned called 撇。 The ball curves towards the backhand of the opponent, it can carry topside or downside spin. It's useful to cause the opponent forehand to go unprotected. Besides that you can still use the same motion to drop it short, or even flip the ball for some added deception. It's really useful especially against those with overpowering forehands but weak backhands. I met somebody like this today as well. Basically if he manages to attack with his forehand you have no chance at all. The attack is so hard it's almost like a smash.
What works beautifully now is my backhand punch. It's basically to deal with high loops with plenty of spin. You basically punch the ball forward at the highest point of the bounce. The ball goes really fast like a smash. It might be a bit hard if the ball is low, or if it has strong sidespin, which you'll have to compensate for.
Also there were a few times I managed to do a reduced energy block like Waldner though his actually produces a double bounce...It's basically moving your bat to the back/side/top depending on the spin on the ball. It's useful to deal with ppl who still attack even if they're really out of position.
Today I also learnt how to throw balls properly according to the rules. It's pretty hard at first but you really need to throw it with an open palm with no-spin on it. I copied He Zhi Wen's style of throwing. It is actually a very important key to serving consistently.
Blah its 12:24 now should go to sleep like nowwwww
Friday, March 27, 2009
blog
I feel that this blog is starting to die.... it's just that I no longer can find the effort to respice the blog with interesting stuff as b4. My schedule is now pretty full, with the already busy schedule for engineering faculty, navigators stuff, piano and table tennis. Surprisingly table tennis has taken a step back from my life now. But this is not to say that I'm giving it up. I'm still learning new stuff regularly. It's mostly really subtle things like 摆短 or dropping short.
I'm starting to learn how to control the dropshots, and how to control them and how to deceive ppl, not only with variations on spin, but on positioning as well. The trick is to make every single starting movement exactly the same， even for flips. It's almost the same thing as serves but 10X harder， cos you need to know the spin on the ball almost exactly. I'm starting to get the hang of it. Dropping short for top-spin serves can be a little difficult but workable. If you do it properly you can even adjust the spin to your liking. I feel that dropshots can be equally devastating as a weapon when compared to the chiquita flips.
Also, I'm learning more and more serves. I've recently improved the backhand tomahawk aka Kong Linghui's version that won him the 2000 Olympics. It now has a proper down-side variation, instead of the top-side variations I only had last time(It managed to trick ppl again and again last year though for some reason... :D, kept giving me high balls to smash). Ma Lin's serve are more and more ingenious the more you look at it.
I'm starting to learn how to control the dropshots, and how to control them and how to deceive ppl, not only with variations on spin, but on positioning as well. The trick is to make every single starting movement exactly the same， even for flips. It's almost the same thing as serves but 10X harder， cos you need to know the spin on the ball almost exactly. I'm starting to get the hang of it. Dropping short for top-spin serves can be a little difficult but workable. If you do it properly you can even adjust the spin to your liking. I feel that dropshots can be equally devastating as a weapon when compared to the chiquita flips.
Also, I'm learning more and more serves. I've recently improved the backhand tomahawk aka Kong Linghui's version that won him the 2000 Olympics. It now has a proper down-side variation, instead of the top-side variations I only had last time(It managed to trick ppl again and again last year though for some reason... :D, kept giving me high balls to smash). Ma Lin's serve are more and more ingenious the more you look at it.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Another table tennis post
Just one of the few cool videos around
Chen Qi's serve... Did you think it was topspin + sidespin?
I have studied Ma Lin's serve, Waldner's serve and Hao Shuai's serve as well. They all use this same principle now. It seems that this is the most effective serve available now.
Chen Qi's serve... Did you think it was topspin + sidespin?
I have studied Ma Lin's serve, Waldner's serve and Hao Shuai's serve as well. They all use this same principle now. It seems that this is the most effective serve available now.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
uni life!
Few updates on uni:
Went for jazz club audition but didn't make it as expected.
Signed up for the dandenong piano competition, playing 2 hungarian dances and appassionata, bach prelude and fugue and rachmaninov prelude op.23 no.6, but now regretting it, I simply don't have enough time to practise. Probably wouldn't get them all done by mid april.
Can only practise table tennis on wednesdays. But I made quite a lot of progress on my serves. Now I'm trying to make the initial motions for all the different serves the same. I'm now rather confident of doing Ma Lin's pendulum serve, Ma Long's pendulum, as well as Ryu Seung Min's serve. I now have an excel chart keeping track of all my serves. I'm trying to use my upper arm more in strokes. It's very very stiff, something I discovered in piano playing as well.
I'm learning 4 subjects in Monash, engineering structures(civil eng basics), electrical structures(electrical eng basics), computing(which is basically a MATLAB course, have to learn programming and stuff), as well as maths for engineering, which has its first six lectures on 3D vectors learnt in spec maths. I don't really like the class structure. Everybody has different subject combinations and different timetables, so it's quite difficult to arrange meetings with friends.
The natural environment here is very nice. Even in uni I sometimes just take a stroll around to relax myself. The views, especially near the medicine/science faculty are the best.
The internet infrastructure here is seriously good. I download things at 800KB/s from my home computer, most shops have websites, the whole uni is wireless enabled, and the computers in engineering labs are 2.8 GHz core 2 quads with 4GB of memory and 512Mb graphics cards. Unfortunately we're not allowed to install games on them... :(
Anyway, will be going off now.
Went for jazz club audition but didn't make it as expected.
Signed up for the dandenong piano competition, playing 2 hungarian dances and appassionata, bach prelude and fugue and rachmaninov prelude op.23 no.6, but now regretting it, I simply don't have enough time to practise. Probably wouldn't get them all done by mid april.
Can only practise table tennis on wednesdays. But I made quite a lot of progress on my serves. Now I'm trying to make the initial motions for all the different serves the same. I'm now rather confident of doing Ma Lin's pendulum serve, Ma Long's pendulum, as well as Ryu Seung Min's serve. I now have an excel chart keeping track of all my serves. I'm trying to use my upper arm more in strokes. It's very very stiff, something I discovered in piano playing as well.
I'm learning 4 subjects in Monash, engineering structures(civil eng basics), electrical structures(electrical eng basics), computing(which is basically a MATLAB course, have to learn programming and stuff), as well as maths for engineering, which has its first six lectures on 3D vectors learnt in spec maths. I don't really like the class structure. Everybody has different subject combinations and different timetables, so it's quite difficult to arrange meetings with friends.
The natural environment here is very nice. Even in uni I sometimes just take a stroll around to relax myself. The views, especially near the medicine/science faculty are the best.
The internet infrastructure here is seriously good. I download things at 800KB/s from my home computer, most shops have websites, the whole uni is wireless enabled, and the computers in engineering labs are 2.8 GHz core 2 quads with 4GB of memory and 512Mb graphics cards. Unfortunately we're not allowed to install games on them... :(
Anyway, will be going off now.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
scholarship
I finally got a scholarship, after so many twists and turns! Thank God for being so gracious to me, especially these few weeks in Melbourne(not only this, but many other matters as well). It's been a rewarding journey with him. I'm going to post a testimony soon, in case I forget His goodness in the future.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
updates
I joined exactly 2 clubs this year. MoJo(Monash Jazz Orchestra), sounds like mojojojo from powerpuff girls and hopefully I'll be able to join it. I have approximately zero experience in jazz other than listening, it'll be a miracle if I was accepted in the audition...lol. Of course I also joined the table tennis club, trying to get a place in TeamMonash.... have to train hard for that.
I just got a rather bad wrist injury, so I can't do table tennis or piano for maybe a few days more until it gets better.
Anyway, Timo Boll won the Qatar Open 2009 finals against Ma Lin. Ma Lin integrated his new RPB style in his game already. It worked wonderfully well against Wang Liqin which he downed 4-0. It's really different from Wang Hao's version. Timo Boll benefited a lot from the speed glue ban as his first attack isn't strong but he's so good in rallying. As the ball speed reduces he was able to block a lot of Ma Lin's attacks. He has also improved on 摆短, but it's still far behind Ma Lin's capability. Joo See Hyuk in fact won Wang Hao somehow and snatched 2 games from Wang Liqin. Joo See Hyuk now uses a block on his long pimples which is fast and without topspin. And he can somehow attack using his backhand now. Haha, I'm impressed by their ability to change! It'll be a very interesting 2009 ahead for table tennis.
I just got a rather bad wrist injury, so I can't do table tennis or piano for maybe a few days more until it gets better.
Anyway, Timo Boll won the Qatar Open 2009 finals against Ma Lin. Ma Lin integrated his new RPB style in his game already. It worked wonderfully well against Wang Liqin which he downed 4-0. It's really different from Wang Hao's version. Timo Boll benefited a lot from the speed glue ban as his first attack isn't strong but he's so good in rallying. As the ball speed reduces he was able to block a lot of Ma Lin's attacks. He has also improved on 摆短, but it's still far behind Ma Lin's capability. Joo See Hyuk in fact won Wang Hao somehow and snatched 2 games from Wang Liqin. Joo See Hyuk now uses a block on his long pimples which is fast and without topspin. And he can somehow attack using his backhand now. Haha, I'm impressed by their ability to change! It'll be a very interesting 2009 ahead for table tennis.
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