OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hello everybody! With the U.S. Open coming up in my hometown of Milwaukee, I thought this would be the perfect time to start a blog, where I'll give you my experiences both as a player and as a volunteer during the event. I will try to update this during the days that I am there, but at the least, at the end of each day.

The Open officially starts on Thursday. Up to now, there has been a great deal of planning and excitement locally. It really has instilled a new spirit of competitiveness and passion for the game in our area, both in newer players and people who have been playing their whole lives. It runs Thursday June 30-Monday July 4, but the set-up at the venue officially starts on Tuesday the 28th, and take-down happens on Tuesday July 5. The venue is the Frontier Airlines Center in downtown Milwaukee, our large convention center with many hotels and restaurants in walking distance. The weather this year has been cool and wet, but the upcoming week looks much nicer. Not that I'll get to see the outside much.

On Tuesday, a Para training camp for players arriving for the Para Open begins, and continues through Wednesday. Having a Para Open in conjunction with the U.S. Open is a real honor. Those players and incredible to watch and inspiring. If they can overcome the major physical hurdles in their lives to play this sport, we can certainly overcome any limitations on our physical conditioning as well.

Things start for me on Wednesday night, with a training session at the venue on how to use the new racket testing machine, as that is the task that I will be performing as a volunteer. That should be a great experience, as it will likely put me in contact with many officials and players. I just wish that if someone's racket fails, that I got to snap it over my knee. But, I'll be good.

Later that night is the opening party at Spin, with a special Dirty Dozen for players over 2000 with a first prize of $400 and second prize of $100. I've heard that many of Killerspin's stars will be there, including Biba and Georgina Pota. Very nice. If I can find parking in the area that isn't too expensive, I will stop in.

Then, the action starts in full force on Thursday! Just to give you an idea of how busy I will be, I'll give you a rundown of my schedule:

Thursday:
Racket testing 2-8:45 pm
U-2100 Round Robin: 6 pm

Friday:
Racket testing: 8:30 am - 2:45 pm

Saturday:
Racket testing: 8:30 am - 2:45 pm
U-2250 Round Robin: 3 pm
Racket testing: Post-dinner - 9 pm

Sunday:
U-1800 O-40 Round Robin: 9 am
U-1950 Round Robin: 6 pm

Monday:
U-1800 Round Robin: 9 am

I will try my best to post quick updates during the days, but I will likely be very busy. My wife is also being nice enough to offer her time and volunteer as a greeter and registration desk worker for 3 days.

If anybody is coming into town, I hope that we can meet. Good luck everybody!

_________________
"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

Nice start to your blog Doug

You are going to be an expert racket tester by the end of this

You'll need a holiday after the week is done.

_________________
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.

Are you doing any friction testing on pips?

_________________



The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

Great stuff dwruck I particularly look forwards to hearing about the racket testing... like how many you test, how many negative readings you get, how many are doubtful, any issues with the equipment, etc.

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
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sorry all I read was Biba lol
please get some pic's of the machine, and where a OOKT name badge so members may notice it

What happens if players submit a blade but use another? do you mark them somehow?

_________________
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I would like to know how many request a blade be tested.

Sounds like a lot of interest in the racket testing! I should know a lot more Wednesday night about the process of how it works and how rackets get selected for testing. I imagine an opponent can request that a racket gets tested too. I'll give you as much detail as I can!

Yeah, I'm already feeling a bit tired just thinking about that schedule. Originally I was supposed to help with take-down too, but they had enough other people so they don't need me for that anymore. Gets me a day of vacation from work back, which is nice.

_________________
"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

Well, it's Tuesday night and I'm now anxious for the tournament to get started. One more full day of work, then training on the racket testing and maybe a visit to the Spin pre-party.

I'm feeling really confident in my name, but I have to admit that, for the first time in a very long time, I'm actually a little nervous. Very excited, but a little nervous. I've played in a ton of tournaments over the last 15 years, including many 4-star level tournaments, and played in the finals of many events. But this is something different. I look at this as maybe my best opportunity to ever win something at the U.S. Open. The odds of me going to another one in the near future are quite slim, just due to the cost and time off involved. So, while I'm still relatively young and playing well, I'm feeling a bit of nerves, especially in regards to the events in which I feel like I could compete for a high finish (U-1800, U-1800 O-40, U-1950).

The good thing is, I'll have the U-2100 and U-2250 prior to those events, so I will have time to get familiar with the venue and how the tables play there. However, in those events, I really have nothing to lose. In the other three events, I am expecting to do very well and hopefully make a long run in at least one of the events. To win an event at a U.S. Open would be a dream come true, and the highest honor I could probably achieve as a player, so it's a big deal to me. I will need to draw on my experience in past tournaments and stay "in the moment" in order to play my best.

On Saturday, for the U-2250, my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, father-in-law and nephew are coming down to watch. I said to them sure, you come to watch the event where I'll probably get my butt handed to me by some really good players. But it will be fun to have a rooting section anyway. My father and mother might also come one of the days, and one of my friends since college (who doesn't play) might also come. That might make me even more nervous. I just need to forget about them being there. Having the experiences at Spin with co-workers and my wife showing up to watch me play in the Dirty Dozen will definitely help me to remain calm and focused when that happens.

I'm looking forward to getting things going, and hoping for the best in terms of results!

_________________
"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

Do you know if there is any players registered from outside the US Doug? Or is it only open to US players? I wouldn't expect he would, but just for examples sake, could someone like Timo Boll compete?

_________________
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.

Yes, Boll could compete if he wanted to. Amelie Solja is in this tournament, for example. Somebody please get some video of her matches.

_________________



The MNNB Blog has had some pretty amazing stuff lately. Just click this text to check it out. | My OOAK Interview
Table Tennis Video Links: itTV | laola1.tv | ttbl | fftt | Challenger Series | mnnb-tv

My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

U.S. Open means just that, open to anyone.

There is a U.S. closed also. Must be a U.S. citizen.

How do non-US players get ranked for it without a USATT rating? Or can they not compete in the events with a rating ceiling?

_________________
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.

I think that they have some sort of conversion system to use for foreign players who have some sort of rating in their home country. I know there's a way they do it for Canadian players, not sure for players from, say, Europe or Australia.

_________________
"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

Had the racket control testing tonight. It should be pretty simple. Each racket that gets tested will be tested for the thickness of the rubber, how flat it is, and then for VOC's. The new machine is called something like a "Rae". There is no box that it gets put in. Rather, you start it up, it takes a reading of the air to set a standard, then a small circular part that is attached to the machine by a couple of tubes is placed down on the rubber for 20 seconds, where it smells for VOC's. In the end, you get a rating, which is subtracted from the rating of the air, and you get a final number. The racket they had there as an example tested out at 0.1 of whatever the reading means. If it's 3.0 or less, it passes. There are a couple of different ways that testing occurs. One is if a player voluntarily brings it over. A second is prior to the match. For every event, from the quarterfinals on, the plan is to test every racket. Then, there is also random testing, some of which will occur after the match. Apparently that's a new ITTF thing, to test after the match. I think it's dumb, someone could play a match, not knowing their paddle is illegal, and get it taken away from them after the match. That seems unfair.

There are about 100 tables, 82 for regular matches and about 20 or so for Para events. Most use the concrete flooring, but some will have special floor mats. The venue has white walls and ceiling, so orange balls will be used. Everything was set up by noon today, thanks to some great volunteers from UPS. Many of the vendors were setting up as I wandered through. It should be a great venue for play.

The best part of the night might be that the draws were already posted. I wrote down the names of my opponents and came back to check out if any had gained a lot of ratings points since the deadline (like I had). From what I can tell, there really wasn't anyone in any of my 5 round robin groups who gained points like I had since the deadline. So maybe I'm that under-seeded guy that everyone will curse.

The guys I'm concerned about are the ones with the 1500-1600 ratings who haven't played a tournament in a year. They could very well have gotten a LOT better and are coming to the tournament, looking to poach ratings points from people like me. It's my job to make sure that doesn't happen, at least not against me!

In U-2100 (my event tomorrow) I have a players rated 2000, 1873 and 1586.

In U-2250 on Saturday, the ratings are 2091, 2078, and 1759.

These first two events are my best chance to build up some ratings points before I play a lot of people at or below my rating level.

In U-1800 O-40 on Sunday: 1659, 1570 and 1364 . This is one event where I expect myself to go far. I face a potential semifinal matchup against one of my teammates from the Rockford event, the same one whose rating has gone up to the 1920s and beat me 3-2 in Wheeling. But we've got a number of matches to get to that point.

In U-1950 on Sunday: 1844, 1631 and 1446. The 1631 player seems like a younger player from Canada, so I'm wary of that match. This round robin group is also winnable for me if I play well.

Finally, in U-1800 on Monday, I have 1657, 1532 and 1310. Again, this is an event where I expect to at least get out of my round robin group.

I'm anxious to get going. It will be fun to play a lot of different players. There is only one person in any of my groups who I've played before. He's the 1873 player in my round robin tomorrow, and he generally struggles against my style, although he's beaten me the last couple of times that we've played. The great thing is, my style is unorthodox, which generally gives me a significant edge at the beginning of matches. I can't wait to get underway!

I did not make it to the pre-party at Spin. Our major lakefront music festival, Summerfest, kicks off tonight with a fireworks show. So, parking is slim down there, and the lots were charging $15-$20, which I wasn't about to pay and then go in to have drinks for a couple of hours. This way I'll be well rested for tomorrow.

_________________
"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

Holy cow 100 tables! That must be a huge hall!

I'll be interested to hear what sort of readings you're getting on that machine, and how many come close to the 3.0...

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide