OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I have sometimes shown some of the larger city tourneys, but not so much a smaller club tourney with a description. So... for anyone interested in how Koreans rol at the small-time club tourneys, read on. for anyone wanting to hear how the pros roll, wait until I cna get to go to the next Korea Open or other ITTF tourney in Korea.

Went to this months version of Sky TTC RR Open tourney. The format, typical of Korean tourneys, (except most tourneys have 3 player groups where 2 advance) is a RR qualifier of 5 player groups, which 4 in each group advance to the knockout stage and the 5th place in each group go into their ouwn knockout tourney for a 6-pack of *** TT balls. (My Favorite prize as they cost $10 here) The main draw has prizes for hte top 4. those who crash out in the semis get a 6 pack of balls and the finalists get a sheet of quality rubber, like Andro Hexer/Rasant/Omega II or whatever. 1st place gets a better rubber than 2nd place. (I always trade away the rubber for *** Balls!) (Last time, I traded away a Tenergy 64, gave to the 2nd place doubles player, an O40 female OX LPer)

Koreans classify you by divisions. That can vary depending on if it is a city, regional, or national event. This club is pretty consistant with Seoul city standard and that is how that club owner slices it. He has been around the TT scene in seoul and locally, so he knows how everyone stacks up. I play div 2 Uijengbu city and div 3 seoul, so div 3 it is for me at Sky. There are often div 7 ringers, who are supposed to be around USATT 1000, but can run much higher. If one of these ringers advances and goes to finals, they get bumped up a division. if they get bumped up in city div standard, they get bumped up at Sky as well. The club owner keeps the booklets on the local tourneys and knows if the player moved up in city div standard.

There are 5 tabels at Sky, 4 for play and 1 for training, which is removed for the tourneys there. space is cramped and there are balls and bodies flying everywhere making a huge ruckus. It pisses me off to have to endure a let situation (not ever called) every 2-5 seconds, but I wouldn't trade away playing here for anything. The owner prints out the groups, which each use one table for their round robin. Each group goes to the tables to do battle. 2 players play, one keeps score, teh other two in hte group sit on hte bench behind one side of the tables. The owner calls in for delivery Kimbap and many players bring in a boatload of fruits (expensive here). I usually bring in peanuts.

It costs just under $10 to enter this tourney. I rarely walk away without a pack of *** balls, my cherished prize. I get enough rubbers or order enough rubbers to keep me going, so a rubber is not something that motivates me to win, avoiding to agony of defeat is MORE than enough motivation for me. I hate losing. Yet, I know someone has to lose and if it ia never me, I would be a pro and that will never happen. Heck, I will be lucky to become a div 1 city player before I leave Korea. That would be prety much a top player in any club locally. That is reaching for it as a goal.

I went 4-1 in group play, which put me into the winners' tourney (the crossovers) as 2nd seed of group, which made me play an extra match. Only 1st place gets a bye.

In the crossovers (an American term for the knockout phase of the tourney), I drew a div 5 player who is an excellent shakehand attacker and plays above his level. It was my lucky day vs him as he kept giving me long underspin serves or pushes to my BH expecting me to push them back. (like most Korean SH players at his level would) I have a very strong BH opener vs underspin that he would always block out or it would go by him for a winner. I was ready for those BH balls and was able to block most of his attacks. I advanced 3-0.

Next match, I drew a 65 yr old preacher (Div 5, who i had to spot 3 THREE!!! points) who uses C-Pen thin sponge SP and OX LP. The preacher decided to use the OX LP vs me. He didn't know I love playing vs OX LP players who love to block with LP or simply bump with LP, instead of using it agressively. This guy took out a div 4 and a div 3 player along his way to the crossovers. He made the same mistake of serving long with his SP or LP to my BH corner and i opened with heavy spin to get a block out or pop-up to crush. What? Crush a ball vs a preacher??!! heck yeah. He is an able body player on the other side trying to defeat me. as long as I don't CHO, its all good. He gave me soem balls ot FH, which I spun up deep and fast, many blocked long, some were easy high, candy FH put-aways. This guy gave fits to a lot of the 2 wing attacker crowd, but I thank the practice with my club's O40 women for moments like this. They play more agressive than him, but this guy can give you some funky balls if you do not spin the crap outta the ball. I never gave him a chance to use his strengths.

I made it to the semis to play a div 4 J-Pen player from Hyundai, my forst Korean club i still visit monthly. He is really a player equal in actual level and record vs each other to me, but never made it to the finals in this club tourney to be in my division. I had to spot him 2 points each game. I BH opened and FH crushed my way to a 1-0 and 9-7 lead, before I go unlucky with a couple of my shots and he got lucky with his. went down hill from there. He learned how to adjust and I failed to make my shots. if I could do a better job at reading when he killed the spin on my passing shots, I would be in a better position (a little more forward) to make shots. He advanced to finals winning 3-1 in tight sets and lost 1-3 in the finals. If I only could stay mentally stronger in game 2, it would have gone a long way. Those are the breaks in our sport, sometimes I get the short end of the stick, sometime I make my own short end of the stick.

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