OOAK Table Tennis Forum

well, tomorrow (sunday) I take part in my clubs anual tourny. this year is kinda odd for me, after becoming the comps orginizer, i had a bit to do...well...collect the forms, I wasnt given both handlebars yet, only one. It means a quite nice 11:30, i have to get there for 11:30, set up all the tables, we will start at 12:30. i know, its odd, 6 tables and barriers to put up in a hour...well...clean the tables, make sure they're regulation, and the nets, blah blah blah

this year, the tourny has a real meaning for me

since i went shakehand, ive taken the "play as good as you can" mode, well ive decided to go full out for tomorrow, im in the best possition i could be for a long time, im starting to play focused, usally its a laugh and bit of fun, last few weeks ive shown little emotioin a match, even coming to stages where i dont speak, and its working. This is a tourny where I need to go far, because I feel like an NFL rookie at the combine, I need to show the league teams what they have missed...tahts right, yet again no league team has asked me to play, so this tourny is to prove what people are missing

well i hope so


in my singles group, im playing 2 guys, one is a kid, but from what ive seen and heard, is not to be taken very lightly. the other, is s*** hot, if he comes to club, he'll play with his dad for the whole session, and ive seen him play a league game. well, im not scared, caus they're not better then me, they're my skill...thats my mind set for the matches

and the doubles couldnt be better...well it can but its good as i could get this year. Im playing with a boy who was picked last year to be in the county's u15 team (at first it was his eldest brother who in our club ladder is 18-0 but i got the names mixed up). I believed i beat him in 5 last year so i know what can happen. ts gona be odd, becasue it means im the eldest in the team, so what do i do? try and encorouge or let him take the handlebars? either way, i have a feeling we might make it all the way

so watch this space tomorrow, because i'll try and let you know what happens

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aka Craig

Set Up: Butterfly Balsa Carbo X5 Stiga Calibra LT Sound and Butterfly Tenergy 05FX

Goooo Skull, take 'em apart! Good luck, hope it all works out for you. Glad the tips I gave you months ago are still in the pipes and paying dividends!

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i'll sum it up like this:

when your 2-1 down, its 9-10 and your trying to save match point on your serve, never say your gona win it to your self

twice i did that today, and lost.

it started with my doubles, all i was gona do was push and play it safe, if anything came, i'll let my partner do it, after all he did play for county juniors last year. so we face his brother (the one who is 17-0) and his partner, we managed to win 3-1 which i was chufed with. right away we had our next match, against a good player who i strugle to beat (and get his serve back), sadly his partner wasnt good so we won 3-1, should of been 3-0 but when you lose one game 13-11 you cant realy do much.

so i managed to have a small break, umpired some kids matches, then I went into my singles. our group was of 3 people, only the top would go through. I got hammered in the first game, 3-11. what annoied me was this was the first time the guy played me with my SH combo, he then saw the pips and didnt like that, so that kinda pumped me up. I fought back and got the 2nd game, couldnt win the 3rd, so its 2-1 down. 4th game was sloppy, I was 8-10 down, my serve, first serve gets him, my fast pips serve gets everyone. so im starting to say "one point, its yours", decent serve, he loops it back, i put it right into the net with my pips.....F***

i was quite gutted, yes the guy was better then me, but I knew if i got to 10-10, and won, the pressure would be on him because she should easily beat me. well my last game in the singles was against a kid who wasnt that good, so i won in 3


sadly, I had to wait about 1-2 hours for my doubles semi, luckly i had my powerball with me to keep my mucsels warm. finaly I got to play my semi, oh man it was hard. the first game got me, the guy who was serving to me (who played in the singles final and lost) had a heavy chop serve, I couldnt get it, my pips was doing nothing, just dropping, we lost teh first. we won the 2nd game quite easily, but it was the 3rd that turned it for us, i got back everything he choped, in fact i was begging he play his chop, caus i knew his partner couldnt react to a no spin ball, 2-1 up. the 4th was one of those games you wana forget, and i will, 10-9 down and the kid serves a pie dropper, should of put it away, but im always playing the return on my BH, so i had no choice to play it with my BH and the pips...i need to work on it lets just say that, 2-2. we went 5-4 down at the change over in teh final game, but after that it was all us, we did it, just, to the final we go.


and to the final i go back to what happened in my singles game I lost. first game we won. lets just pause, we were playing my partners younger brother and a guy who used to be a natonal player for a small soviet country, hes quite rusty, and it showed. so after winning the frst, I had to face the soviet's serve, I couldnt get it all day, just couldnt read it, and it got to me, 1-1. they won the next game, close again, so its 2-1 down and its a tight game, we're 10-8 down I have to serve, being confident "we'll get these two back", i serve, ball returned, my partner chops, the soviet loops it 2 miles away from the table, 10-9, this was our point, same thing happens again, but the guy gets the loop on the table, i couldnt get it back, bugger, lost in the semi's in a close game

oh well, im quite happy, apart from my singles loss i played how i wanted to, and if I made a few heads turn, then im happy

_________________
aka Craig

Set Up: Butterfly Balsa Carbo X5 Stiga Calibra LT Sound and Butterfly Tenergy 05FX

Great job. I take it that you took videos? Or remembered which particular problems you encountered so that you can work on them?

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

i dont have a video recorder, so all i know what i did wrong was the service returns, ok, ive never faced that heavy chop but the serves that guy in the final did got me aswell. ive always said sidespin is my weakness, it still is

_________________
aka Craig

Set Up: Butterfly Balsa Carbo X5 Stiga Calibra LT Sound and Butterfly Tenergy 05FX

Hear hear, I also have the same weakness as you do. Funny that I watched an on-going collegiate tourney and saw that even the young guns receive side spin service variations well.

Oh, how I envy them.

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

its soo funny, because I can win a point thanks to my sidespin, but i lose one so easily to sidespin. I wish i ahd a vid of the final caus that former natonial guy was good, but like i said, he wasnt hard, becasue he was rusty, but when it conected, F*** hell it was lethal

on a side note, during that singles match in the 2nd game, i slightly rolled on my left ankle, i believe first time ive done that in a game, it hurt at first, but i just shook it off, kept focused. 8pm at home, it was killing, still a little bit bad but it wasnt bad so its not too bad

_________________
aka Craig

Set Up: Butterfly Balsa Carbo X5 Stiga Calibra LT Sound and Butterfly Tenergy 05FX

Oi, oi, that's a bad thing. If there's no medical help immediately available, try an ice pack on the injured area.

You do wear TT shoes, right? Must have been diving for one of those hard balls...

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

i ware basketball trainers, its the first time this has happened with them but it was my fault, anyways, its not as bad as it was first thought, I cant feel any pain in my ankle now, just a slight tingle when walking in college yesterday, but 2-3 days of rest for it will do it good

and i wasnt diving for any ball, the ball was hit wide right and I went left, went to react quickly to get the ball and just sliped and rolled lightly, so i guess thats even more stupid

_________________
aka Craig

Set Up: Butterfly Balsa Carbo X5 Stiga Calibra LT Sound and Butterfly Tenergy 05FX