OOAK Table Tennis Forum

For the third straight time I've gone to Spin Milwaukee on a Friday night, I've come away the winner, and with some prize money! Tonight they held a "pro-am" tournament, where each team had a higher rated player and a lower rated player. I was paired with a solid 1200 level player who didn't have any big shots, but was pretty consistent in being able to keep the ball on the table. He also took instruction/tips well, which helped us get through a couple of the matches. In the final match we beat a team that had a 1700-1800 level player paired with a 1300-1400 level player.

It was a good session for me, because I was very aggressive in looking to use my forehand and loop kill most things that came to our side, and I played great. I was hitting a lot of winners, just going for my shots, trying to finish the point off every chance I had. I think it's something I can take into my singles matches, it gives me the confidence that I can play that way successfully.

Another thing that helped a lot was always giving up the serve to start the match, so that I could set up the matchups that I wanted in the first game. That ended up being big, as the favorable matchups ended up winning us some close games and matches. I always wanted to make sure that I was returning the shots from the better player on the other team, because once I got my pips on their spinny shots, the lower rated player on the other team had all kinds of problems. And I was generally able to get a lot of easy points off my pips serve and my heavy side spin serve.

Anyway, this is great confidence for me, with just over a week until my final tournament of the year. The only drawback was, I got off balance trying to move out of my partner's way after hitting a loop and I went crashing into the bleachers. Ended up bruising my calves, which are a bit sore now, hopefully it will go away quickly.

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"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

Congrats on a great evening and having fun at an awesome TT venue!

Good win, nice deal.

How are the bleachers faring?

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Goof-off chopping bat
Gambler All Rosewood
Aurus Soft / Gambler GXL .6 sponge

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter

LOL, I think they moved a little bit when I crashed into them. I also broke a glass that a patron had sitting on them and some of the soda that he was drinking got on him. I offered to buy him a new one, but he said he was enjoying the entertainment so it was no problem. I'm lucky I didn't land on any of the broken glass, or my rear wouldn't be feeling so well.

_________________
"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