OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Our club's giant round robin tournament (a 2 star sanctioned tournament) is running tomorrow, there will be local players and players from the region coming to play. From what I've heard, I will be in Group A for the first time ever, thanks to my now 1951 rating. If that's the case, then JimWeiland and I will be in the same group and will get to play each other again! I'll be sure to get some videos of that match. The good news is I will be in the bottom part of that group, so there will be plenty of chances to get more rating gains. It sure would be awesome to finish the season above 2000, but that would mean I'd have to pull off a few upsets against some very good players. I'm pretty excited and hope to do well, which for me means being competitive in every match that I play, with a chance to win. To warm up tonight, I'm playing the Dirty Dozen at Spin tonight.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

Good luck Doug. Have fun. If you play Jim, may the best man win! Actually go easy on him cos he broke his DG remember.

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Ha ha ha, thanks. I found out some 2300-2400 players from Minnesota came into town for the tournament too. So, if I am indeed in Group A, I must be the #7 or #8 seed out of 8. I'm just wondering if I got bad info, because I know of 6-7 guys rated higher than me who are playing. Oh well, I guess I'll see how it goes when I get there in the morning.

I'll need to turn around my mojo. Tonight in the Dirty Dozen, I lost to a guy rated 1190 who I've never lost to before. Yes, 1190. He's probably better than that, but still only about 1400 level. I was awful and lost 3-2. It's going to be tough to get that out of my head, but I've got to. Tomorrow's a new day and I need to get my "swagger" going.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

Awesome, I got the draw I was hoping for. They are now 9 person groups, and I am ninth! JimWeiland and I are the only sub-2000 rated players. If I can manage 2-3 wins in thus group it will be a good day. It will also be a great learning experience about what it's going to take for me to become a consistent 2000 level player.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

Exceptional Sir You will gain lots of experience I presume. (and rating points )

Round robin system sure is awesome, got none here

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GFoT |Blade : Timo Boll ALC • FH : DHS 3 Neo Provincial MAX • BH : Tenergy 64 MAX
Crossover to Takeover!

Well, it was quite a day. I was indeed the #9 seed, JimWeiland and I were the only sub-2000 players, the ratings went all the way up to 2400.

I ended up going 1-7. I lost my first 7 matches, only winning two games total. Then I beat a local 2020 rated player who I've never beaten before, 11-9, 11-9, 14-12. I can't wait to watch the videos, it was a great learning experience for me, and a measuring stick of where I'm at, and I learned a lot about what I need to do to get to the next level.

My biggest weakness against those better players was serve return. Their serves are not only better in terms of placement and spin, but especially deception. There were so many times when I mis-read a serve, that cost me many points today. I need to get better not only at reading serve, but being more aggressive against them as well.

Also, I need to impose my will and attack sooner. Against 1800 and below, I can generally play a more conservative, tactical game, using pips pushes to set up my attacks. Against these players, they jumped on those balls much more quickly and hit their attacks with much higher percentages. As the day wore along, I started getting more and more aggressive and it really helped. I just missed too many attacks. Finally, heading into the last match, I figured I was going to go all out in terms of looking to attack and moving in and out, and that really made a difference. I blocked, hit with the pips more, moved to loop with the forehand more, and even moved back to chop on occasion, and all of those things helped me to win the close match against a very good player.

I feel like it's obvious now that I have work to do to get to 2000, but that it is something that is reasonable for me to work towards. I need to bring the aggressiveness and movement to every match, against every skill level of player, so that it becomes natural and something I can do against the better players. So, while I didn't quite get the 2-3 wins and being as competitive in the others as I hoped, I am happy that I hung in there even though I was having a rough day, and I discovered a lot about myself and my game.

Oh, JimWeiland was playing very well today. He beat me 3-1, beat another very good 2000 level player and had a number of very close losses against 2000-2100 levels. He's improved since we last played and was really impressive to watch. I have videos and will upload a couple.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

I look forward to the videos. You are sure getting a good number of tournaments in-that is great for improving your play and skills-congrats.

It is great experience, you are right. Now that I've moved up pretty quickly to the 1900 level, I'm learning what I need to do to get to that next step. While I feel pretty good about my game, I know that I've got a lot of work to do if I'm going to consistently compete with 2000 and above. I don't know whether I will make it or not, but it's going to be fun to try, and all of this experience has really exposed me to the differences in level. I need to work on every part of my game. I'm hopefully going to watch the videos today, get reinforcement on those things, and maybe post a couple of them later.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

Looking forward to the good matches and congrat to your upward movement throughout the year.

I agree with you that we long pipers need to be more aggressive and attack first if we want to beat better players above 2000. Unless we want to stay back to chop, the in and out movement will be more tiring for us older pip players and is a losing proposition.

I have watched your last few match videos and liked your pip attacks. However, if you can be more aggressive on serve returns with your pips, it might make your life easier and put more pressure on your opponents. Remember, any slower balls are attack-able, and certainly, even a fast serve, no matter whether it is fast no spin, fast side-under or fast side-top is much slower than a fast looping third ball.

Tat, you are exactly right. I just finished watching my videos from the tournament and I'm far too passive on serve return. I need to grab the initiative of the point far more often and that will help a lot. Guys over 2000 generally don't let me push them around with the pips until I get a weak ball to hit or loop. Go figure.

I did well against a 2250 rated chopper, he beat me 3-1 but it was close the whole way through and playing the slower, more tactical game allowed me to take more control. He was using Hallmark Frustration, I think, with a thin amount of sponge. He was impressed by the Dragon Talon and its ability to create uncomfortable wobble balls, which I took as a compliment.

I'm going to try to post some of my better games later today, and a couple of my games against JimWeiland. I was far too aggressive in trying to loop against him. His blocks are so good, that's the one match where I should have been more patient and conservative.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

Generally, a pip hitter should play well against a LP chopper, if they don't attack on their LP side. I have practiced with a 2100+ chopper several times (he even played in "the garage" once); he stayed a few feet back, looped and chopped very well on his invert forehand and chopped beautifully with his LP (with a thin sponge) on his backhand. When he chopped, I hit or roll with my 755 OX, the sometimes dead or minor top spin balls resulted a lot of opportunities for me. Unfortunately, lately, he kind of like practicing with those pure loopers than me. Can't blame him too much, he has much more fun practicing with them.

Looking forward for the video against Jim.

Doug I don't mean any disrespect to you by this, but I just watched your game against the 2022 guy and his game looked pretty shaky. Not the sort of strokes I would have expected to see of someone of this rating. I know your pips must have upset him and caused him grief, but if he played like that all 3 sets he must be on the way down or something (perhaps hasn't played much lately??). The only good shot he played was a block he pulled off on your loop-smash. He hit a lucky loop deep to your FH that got you, but to me he had very little control over anything.

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

The 2022 guy typically plays much more consistently than he did against me. I don't know if fatigue had a major effect on him (he played a lot of 5 game matches, while I had mostly gotten beat 3-0 all day long), but the Talon pips really seemed to throw him off too. We talked a bit after the match, and he did comment on how he was pretty tired at that point, but that he was more disturbed by my pips game than in the past, and how I was better able to take advantage of the weaker shots than in the past too. If we were both fresh, at the start of the day, it's possible there might have been a different outcome. But you can only play who is in front of you at that time, and I've been on the losing end a few times due to fatigue, so I'll take this one.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

Yep, thats right Doug. Its not only who's in front of you at the time, but how both players have coped with what ever has been dealt to them in the draw too. I played the guy who beat me in the Div 3 Vets in September on Sunday. In the Vet tourney I met him after 29 sets in 7 matches I'd played end to end immediately prior to the 5 setter I had with him, while he had over an hours break waiting to play me. On Sunday, when we were both fresh we played and I beat him very easily in 3 sets. He claimed there was nothing riding on it so he hadn't put all in. So I gave him another best of 5 later on to give him the chance to go "all in". Again I beat him 3-0.

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Ha ha ha, nice that you got the second win, it will really give you a mental edge over him the next time you play in a tournament.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5