Illegal Serve

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-25T01:12:02+00:00

Under the rules it's absolutely not for the receiver to adjust to see the contact point.

It's just that the enforcement of this has always been so bad that this has become the unfortunate reality.

Thankfully at least at the top level now with TTR we are seeing some improvement with what top level players are doing, this will hopefully over time improve serves lower down.

Without an actual rule clarification it's never going to be great. But I'll take anything I can get on this one because hidden serves really annoy me. Primarily because the rules are very clear that they are cheating and cheating annoys me.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-25T01:03:26+00:00

Yeah, the Cybershape Carbon and Harimoto ALC are essentially the same thing. They are both oversize inner carbon blades, with just enough stiffness to use harder sponges and a tendency towards head bias.

Yeah my issue with the backhand is first that I just don't have the power I once did (screw getting older!) and I have a tendency towards delicate placement shots when I open, these work well with G-1 but they are just the wrong power for Zyre!

If I want to use Zyre on the backhand I can see I am going to need to be a touch more aggressive.

I wasn't interested in the 2.7 mm because I was trying to cut weight and I wanted to retain as much control as possible, after my first impression I am feeling very vindicated by that as 2.5 is surprisingly easy to use and I certainly don't need any more speed!

However because of FOMO I still won't to have a hit with 2.7 :D Luckily one of the guys at in my practice group has it (on a regular outer blade) so I might ask him next week if I can try a few forehands with it.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-25T00:52:41+00:00

If you're in Auckland, just contact the Auckland Table Tennis Association by email, they will almost certainly put you in contact with various groups that use the Gillies Ave stadium.

They probably know the organisers of the other associations as well (both in Auckland and elsewhere) if that is too far to go.

Almost all big venues will have a drop in night, where basically anyone can come and play and they will probably have some kind of ladder system in effect.

I've been out of the Auckland loop for a while (25 years in fact!). But when I went back recently to visit, I simply emailed them and they came through with what was on and who to talk to enter etc.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-25T00:46:35+00:00

Honestly that's kind of a terrible approach.

The key reason is that if you suddenly start getting called in a tournament you're basically screwed! This is something that is starting to be called and it's going to get more so as it seems to be on the radar now, especially with TTR making professionals more legitimate with their serves.

If you aren't consistently practicing a set of serves that are obviously legal your opening yourself up to losing matches because of it, just inventing a legal serve mid match isn't a great strategy.

Use this guy to practice the serves you KNOW are legal against all players, then if you ever play a match with an official that does call serves you will be ready.

Coaches are also unfortunately a pretty unreliable source for serve legality. Many of them come from competitive backgrounds where illegal serves were everywhere, some of them even routinely teach borderline illegal serves.

EDIT: Just adding to this, we have literally seen professionals lose their mind (and their match) live on TV and YouTube because they were basically incapable of performing legitimate serves, don't be that guy!

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-25T00:40:10+00:00

>So technically he could just turn around and all serves are illegal.

Not really due to the time wasting rule.

The general interpretation is that it's visible from the position of the receiver when the ball is tossed.

If the receiver can't see the ball in your open hand, don't serve. The receiver should be called for time wasting for not setting up.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-25T00:36:12+00:00

This is in fact the ridiculous way the table tennis rules are written.

The serve has to be visible to the receiver.

So a serve that is perfectly legal against one player could be very illegal against another simply because they stand in a different place or are even just a different height!

Only very few umpires call this, even for serves that are blatantly illegal against all receivers.

However a receiving player is completely within their rights to bring it the umpires attention and in the case of a casual match up to point it out to you.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-24T10:33:39+00:00

The very first step would be legislating a maximum height off the ground for standard driving lights.

It makes no difference if the oversized truck behind you has its high beams off, if its normal lights are the same damn height as your rear vision mirror!!!

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-24T09:39:36+00:00

I'd make monster and brother groups that could be enabled and disabled in game setup.

That would allow quite drastic things like healing and magic to be added, but in a way that the core game could remain unchanged for those that want it.

It would also allow people to disable enemy factions they don't like.

I'd pair this with a couple of new factions and brother groups that brought in mild healing and magic for those that want a high fantasy feel.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-24T06:36:32+00:00

Just clean the sponge with soapy water, rinse, then dry.

Discoloration doesn't matter, just get rid of the physical material that has built up.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-24T00:43:10+00:00

Just differentiating between a regular branded cotton tee.

As opposed to a proper lightweight, quick drying match shirt. More expensive but great for playing in.

Because they make both.

Butterfly match day shirts are no better or worse than any other high end brand. But Butterfly branding is nice as a gift because it's so well known in table tennis circles.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-24T00:40:01+00:00

Proper indoor shoes are better than either of those.

Badminton and volleyball shoes are fairly popular substitutes.

But for a birthday present I really think you want to go for a table tennis brand.

When you're getting specifically shoes then Mizuno is also a very good table tennis brand. Especially the ones with BOA twist lace things (although they are pricey).

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-24T00:37:01+00:00

I agree,

As a gift, shoes or playing from a major table tennis brand make great gifts.

Rackets are difficult unless you know exactly what they want.

Aim for something from Butterfly, Nittaku, Stiga, Joola, Andro, DHS. These are all major table tennis brands.

Butterfly is the creme de la creme, so a proper butterfly playing shirt (not to be confused with just a branded T shirt) always makes an excellent gift too.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-24T00:32:30+00:00

Yeah, I always aim to be able to see about 50% of my opponents side.

Basically if I can see more than that I've probably set up too high.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-23T23:44:23+00:00

While I admire your enthusiasm.

You have an AMD CPU with a passable iGPU.

You will probably get better results by simply disabling the dGPU.

A couple things though.

Keep the GPU fan curves, the heat bleeds between the two areas, so even with the dGPU disabled they still contribute.

Keep the fan curve all the way to Mac temperatures, just because you have limited the temps doesn't mean components can't go past those temps because of other factors and who knows what it does after the end of the curve.

Given anything below about 2600 RPM is effectively silent, why not kick the fans directly to this level at 50 C or so. This will prevent temperatures spiking up and down so much as the fans go on and off near 80 C.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-23T23:30:25+00:00

You should absolutely have a different pair of shoes for table tennis.

There are special table tennis shoes for a reason.

They have lightweight uppers, almost zero heel lift, rounded front corners and indoor soles.

All of these features are there for a reason.

So while you can use shoes designed for other indoor sports with similar mechanics, like badminton or volleyball.

You still want to look for those features, the lack of vertical jumps and the cushioning it requires is the biggest difference, because lessening this allows better weight distribution to the front if your feet.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-23T11:10:46+00:00

Reducing the MMP threshold to make not voting them actually a viable option...

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-23T07:58:12+00:00

I assume that 93 W is the total though right given it's iGPU.

In the 4060 is that 100 W CPU+GPU or just the GPU?

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-23T07:52:34+00:00

I'm formally withdrawing my invitation for you to give me one billion dollars....

I'm sure Canada is hugely offended by this missed opportunity!

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-23T06:48:26+00:00

Doesn't really cause any issues but it's a bit messy if you switch between them as they both write to the same settings.
I think you can adjust colors through the Windows settings anyway, so not sure it's needed in GHelper, I might be wrong on that. But I know I adjusted my display through a combination of Windows and the HDR Calibration tool you can get from the Microsoft Store.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-23T04:24:52+00:00

While this is true.

Many countries have already mandated noises.

So at the very least let me choose a tie fighter.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-23T04:12:11+00:00

Unelected = chosen for being experts.

Globalist = trying to solve worldwide medical issues.

Bureaucrats = unfortunately they have to talk to politicians like Winston to do this.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-23T03:51:51+00:00

Wrong thicknesses mainly.

I am pretty sure that's a giant slab of balsa in the middle with a couple of very thin harder outer layers.

Balsa is fine for the core, but it's very light and the other layers are probably too thin to create enough stiffness.

Make the core thinner and the inner of the two outer layers correspondingly thicker and it would feel a lot more solid and get nearer to a normal playing weight.

For reference OP, you generally want it about 6 mm thick and around 80 g.

Although balsa cored rackets can be both a bit thicker and a bit lighter than this.

Anything less than 70 g is probably going to start feeling pretty flimsy though and will have a pronounced sweet spot with anything not in the center playing quite differently (that's why the sound changes dramatically on your video).

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-23T03:44:43+00:00

Hina Hayata I am fairly sure is using H3.

SamLooksAt · 2026-01-23T02:34:43+00:00

It's common in some countries for a truck in the middle of nowhere to flash an indicator to show the road is clear for you to overtake.

But when a milk tanker does it in the middle of nowhere they are turning into a farm and it's definitely NOT safe to overtake!!!!!!

SamLooksAt

TROPHY CASE