OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Came across this video of a couple of days ago between two Aussie players competing in something called the Sunbury 2012 Summer Final. Looks like one player uses an LP. I wonder what his equipment is and what level of league these guys are playing in? Also I'm surprised these types of serves are allowed in competition over there.

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Well I know the answer to this in local Vic terms (and can roughly equate to US terms), but I will wait to see some comments and opinions before remarking on that further. Sunbury is a suburb of Melbourne, in its outer west. So this is at the Sunbury TT club. This is the final of their "A" grade summer season, but the Sunbury club is set up in such a way that they have allocated teams I believe with the strongest A graders made team number 1's and then number 2's and 3's. I have a feeling they only have number 1 and 2 players in each team this particular comp though. I also am of the belief the video is of the number 2 players.

As for the serving quality of the LP player, well its pretty typical of a lot of club players over here. Some will take serving advice to improve and some actively deny they do anything wrong. Some get so upset about it that its not worth pursuing as its likely to result in very ill-will if you know what I mean. There's probably as many reasons for not calling a player on illegal serves as there is ways of serving illegally

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I figure I'll be the first one to bite (and will likely take lumps for doing so), but I can't realistically put either of these players over 2000. Neither player shows the type of tactics that a 2000 level player would employ.

The attacker doesn't seem to have much of an attack on either wing, but seems to employ soft loops so that he doesn't have to deal with spin on the return. He is fairly consistent given the type of player he is playing against, but none of his shots seem very high quality. I would rate him to be about mid 1800.

Now when it comes to the blocker, it is very difficult to estimate his level given the level of the attacker he was playing. Some of the negatives that I saw were:

He missed a lot of serves.
There was very little depth variation (almost all were short or middle of the table).
A few of the blocks were high, and would have been killed by a better attacker.
He played 98% of the balls side to side, something that is extremely dangerous to do against a good attacker.

However, I will say that his blocks were quick off the bounce and seemed to have good quality to them. I think it would be reasonable to put him in the mid 1900 range unless I see him blocking against a much stronger player.

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USATT rating - 1971

Bob, that's a club pennant night which is basically the only table tennis most people in Australia play. It's not a tournament. It's where all non tournament table tennis players live instead of a garage. I know it might seem like the world championship to you guys because there is an umpire in a seat but it's just not the case . Think of it more as a competitive social event, this is the normal weekly event at any table tennis club in the country and these players are fairly normal players you would find at any club.

As for these guys I don't know them and they are not active tournament players at this time. I do know of the captains of both teams that you can see coaching them between games and they are both definitely over US2000. These two featured must be the second players in the team so should be near that level and look to be about typical for a club player of their age.

I'd be cautious playing either of them because good form vs winning doesn't always add up like it should with these kind of non serious but competitive players. They would both be in Division 3 anyway which is better than the average player (and average for their age and experience). Most players in Division 3 should be near US2000 or a little over depending on where in the division they are. I'd back that pips player to beat most of the loopers from the states just on US2000 that I've seen videos of. The other guy is not quite at that level, or perhaps he just doesn't play well against pips.

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Donic defplay senso
Haifu whale soft (grips-euro)
Nittaku pimplemini 1.0mm

My guess would be lower.
Take away the illegal serves by the blocker and the other guy would have killed him.
The attacker does not have a good opening loop.
The attacker does not have a powerful loop.
The attacker does not have a good kill shot.
The attacker does not have good serves.
The pip player would give people problems if they have little experience against pips.
Most 2000 level attackers would put many balls away that this attacker just returned with a weak loop.

I think pipprodigy has the US ratings of these guys about right, I just have the feeling the pips player maybe much harder to play against that it seems, you would need to see how he handles a powerful looper to know.

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Donic defplay senso
Haifu whale soft (grips-euro)
Nittaku pimplemini 1.0mm

It is always hard to tell from video, but I would guess 1000-1300 USATT.

We are talking USATT so the first thing you have to do is take away the illegal serves. Those serves would not be tolorated in any USATT event. Without those serves, go back and see how his advantage when serving dissappears.
The attackers game would be 1500 here. No power, no serves, no opening, no tactics.

I just checked with two 2000+ players and they both gave the attacker about 1500. The blocker about 1700.

Another estimate from a good player,
Attacker, 1400 to 1500.
Blocker, 1650. And he also said, "without the illegal serves".

Another observation, 2000 level players do not give away so many serves.

He's won every game in his life via his serves and got whatever rating he has with them so it's pointless to say if this if that. In this case of if if if, then I'll rate him 1000US without the serves and without pips . Neither these guys are tournament players, so he can pretty much serve how he wants and use frictionless pips while he's there.

Those serves would be tolerated at ALL US events because there are no umpires

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Donic defplay senso
Haifu whale soft (grips-euro)
Nittaku pimplemini 1.0mm

I would have rated 1950 for the blocker, 1800 for the looper to start if they came to my tournaments...

Foam,
You have not played Hookshot! LOL. If I get someone serving like that, I start doing worse serves, finger spins, bounce the ball on my side 2 feet high and smash it, etc. I do not tolorate that bad a serve. Usually, a ref is assigned when I make an issue.

Usually most tourneys do not have a ref or scorekeeper but most will supply a scorekeeper or ref if requested.

Not tournement players but they have a rating? As soon as there is a scorekeeper, it is a match worth winning.

Most clubs enter the local results each week into the database, so most players who participate in weekly team competitions have a rating. They can use this to enter tournaments in the correct divisions. At the larger tournaments you will have official ITTF umpires that will give you some treatment on serves, condition of your bat/rubbers angry language etc. All up sooner or later they will have a word with you about something. I don't consider myself someone that swears but I've had a talking to by an umpire inbetween games that he may or may not have heard me mumble sh*t at some moment after losing a point, which I probably did lol but that's not counted as swearing in this part of the world. Just an example about how serious the official tournament umpires take it.

At weekly pennant it's different, no one cares how you serve, ok finger spin would get pulled up . But you can play with bats that have rubbers totally falling apart. Most players at most clubs serve slightly illegal one way or another just because they have never learned a certain way is required so you just don't worry about it, that's part of the challenge of club play. No one cares how much you swear or how many bats you break or how many walls and floor you punch or kick. It's all much more fun than tournament play . The ratings still keep going in though and every single match has an umpire or should we say a scorekeeper since they don't enforce the laws in the strictest sense

The data entry person from each club does the results entry online after the nights table tennis has been played, then each month the rating list is released.

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Donic defplay senso
Haifu whale soft (grips-euro)
Nittaku pimplemini 1.0mm