OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Yup, my league rating now is a whopping 2045

Won't last for long, but hey, achievement unlocked!

FH does look good in warmups, at least, keep getting comments from opponents that there is more spin on it. Hope it trickles into matches eventually.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Congrats,

You can take my old league ratings points when you play me in League in 6 weeks from now. You are 1-2 levels above my league level there.

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

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter

Cool - 6 weeks takes us to what, end of October? I should be around. Looking forward to it.

Edit: to be fair, I suspect by the time you roll into town, most of my points will go back to other clubmates. I already 'donated' quite a few today (but did have a quality win as well - beat a very FH-oriented player by targeting his BH, especially on serve return).

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Played quite a bit of TT over last few days (wife was away on a business trip ). Mostly good, with potentially the only 'bad' is my re-discovered weakness against players who tend to smash the ball.

In the same vein, had trouble against a club mate who changes his equipment almost daily - his setup with MP on FH was rather unpleasant. First game was a painful loss, with me putting every other ball coming from his MP into the net, but I adjusted later on for the win.

Did go to a local tournament on Saturday - played pretty well, but tournament itself was very poorly run.

<rant>

I *bleeping* refuse to attend any future tournament which is run on the principle of "we are going to announce every match one at a time because our software 'requires' us to do so". You know damn well that every player in RR group is going to play everyone else - so just get all players in the RR group, point them to a table, give them a match sheet, and ask to bring it back when all matches are done. Yes, you'll need to enter results into your precious program later before SE brackets are generated (more on that later), but you will have plenty of spare time to do that, since not all groups will finish at the same time. Not a rocket science, plenty of other tournaments figured it out, some of them don't even use the damn software.

Instead, you have a scenario where 10 out of 13 tables are idle, while everyone who is not warming up (on tables that should have RR or SE matches going on) is just milling around well past the event starting time, waiting for their name to be called over barely functioning PA system for one match at a time.

Oh, and speaking of SE brackets: I finished 1st in my group, but did not get a bye in the first SE round, while the guy who finished 2nd in our group miraculously got one. I'm told that "software told us so and we'll look into this. Later... ". Which probably means 6 months from now. I was quite peeved about that, so played my assigned match against a good friend, beat him (he was very tired by then, he usually has an edge against me in tournaments...), and then defaulted the next one just to be done with that event.

At least one event (edit: make it two, including the Open) did not even get to finish, because gym simply turned off the lights at 10 pm (as they told organizers in advance).

</rant>

Ah, feel slightly better...

Traveling to Westchester Open this weekend - thankfully they run it much more smoothly over there. Got an email from them that they are switching from XSF to a new ball, GEWO Select Pro 40+ ABS, which apparently is closely related to the latest ABS version from DHS. Will try to use DHS (don't have any GEWOs lying around) in the next few days.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Got a few orange Huichuan ABS 3* balls from colestt.com and played for a bit with one last night. It is not ITTF approved, but felt reasonably good - too bad it got cracked after 20 min or so. Probably because of an unfortunate contact with an edge, hopefully it's not an indication of their overall durability.

After it broke I had to switch to a white one and immediately felt that it was semi-invisible .

Struggled last night against 3rd ball of a very FH-oriented opponent. Could not return his serves to my BH (either half long wide or deep long backspin), well, I returned them, but it was immediately followed by a loop-kill. I used to do better against these, mostly attacking with pips into his BH - he could not step around fast enough. Yesterday, though, all I could master is a push to his BH that he was able to rip most of the time. Probably should've tried receiving with inverted too.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

I should be around for league on the 6th and should also be at the club on Sat night before that. Hide the serves and the rating points !

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

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter

Did you mean October 2nd or 9th? Boston TTC League is on Tuesdays

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Played Westchester Open over the weekend - did not win any trophies this time (or that many matches ).

Saturday: signed up for U2000 and Handicap events. Mostly wanted to 'take it easy'. Warmed up a bit before the start to get a feel for the new ball they had (GEWO Pro ABS, clone of DHS D40+). They do feel similar, I thought, with GEWO having a bit of a more yellowish tint. Not bad.

Was a #1 seed in my U2000 RR group with everyone else being 200+ points below me. Won all matches 3:0, with a couple of games being close. Somewhat surprisingly did not get a bye in first SE round again (but 2nd place finisher did, go figure...). Got matched against a guy with a great loop on both sides. It was fun, but he cleaned my clock in 3 straight sets.

In Handicap I got placed into the same group as the looper who bounced me in U2000 SE above (in fact we played 2 matches back to back) - I did not have to give/receive any points and lost again, this time at 1:3. The other two dudes sported ratings under 700 USATT, so I had to give them 7 handicap points! Margin of error is kind of thin with handicap like this, and both actually had decent rally skills during warmup, so things did not look too promising. Both had issues with backspin serves to their wide FH though, so I simply had to exploit it as much as I could and hope they did not learn fast. Won both 3:1 and advanced.

In the first SE round got matched with a 2100+ club mate, who had to give me 4 points. I played him pretty close in friendly club matches, but it was real now. Blew first game hopelessly, then made it much more competitive: won 1 easily, but lost 2 at deuce, so that event was over.

Sunday: decided to play in U2200 and U2050.

Was a D player in U2200 and it ended that way (lost everything 0:3). First it was a 2000+ mirror image of myself, a rare lefty chopper who was MUCH more consistent than me, so I basically defeated myself. Then it was a SP penholder who was rated very close to me, but blasted through every ball he saw from me for a super easy 3:0 win. Then it was another 2000+ guy who lost a close match in 5 to a lefty chopper, but did not have much problem with me, expect may be for a single game. Kind of a humbling experience.

In U2050 I was a C player and again finished that way. Had a close but not really 1:3 loss to an A player (anti blocker), then defeated a junior D player, and lost 0:3 to another junior who did feel quite a bit underrated.

Overall record 1:5 on Sunday, which is nothing to brag about.

Had a bit of a chance to think about where my game is: it's best described as somewhere in between close to the table LP game and chopping (mostly on BH), but without too much strategic thought put into any of it. I saw the way 'lefty chopper' played (mostly chop everything on both wings, twiddle, softly spin up on FH whenever feasible, very consistent, playing mostly away from the table), and also got to see a 2300+ woman pro from Poland who was using OX LP to chop-block/push off the bounce and had a very solid FH to attack when possible.

I, on the other hand, am kind of in between: not really dropping back to chop effectively (perhaps because space is limited in the club and/or I actually can't move that well to support it), but then not consistent or effective enough to play close to the table either - perhaps my returns with LP are not confusing enough or are placed badly, so opponents can blast them away with ease or I make stupid mistakes before they do. Watching this Polish woman was very useful to realize that her LP strokes were much more active, almost guiding and directing the ball to the place that was as uncomfortable as possible. Something to experiment with, I guess.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

You are on the right track. I have same problem, as I am not not good enough in chopping or blocking, but decent at both. As opponent level goes up, you must must be very aggressive with pips use at table, taking lot of the bounce, fast rolling, short pushing and stuff. As I remember your videos, you got quite "lazy" style and not very aggressive "killer mindset" like - fast push to the corner and full force FH to follow...

So I would say that you might develop your aggressive of the bounce play with pips. Like fast push/roll against backspin and if that get blocked to you, then short block of the bounce to the FH pocket and after that fast push wide to the BH...

That sounds about right - I would also add 'mindless' to 'lazy' for my style definition. My FH is more aggressive lately, but I suspect now LP shots need some attention.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

November, when the temps finally get manageable.

I take it Jay Lee has an ample supply of water, but it wouldn't hurt if I help.

Are B.Robbins, Kasha, T. Kelley, Don, and some others still doing it at the club?

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

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

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter

I am always reminding my lp of friend in doubles that he is so much better when he stays at the table and takes the ball off the bounce.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

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

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter

Yes, but most likely not on the same day. Brad and Kasha are mostly to be seen on Tuesdays for the league, and perhaps Friday nights. Don/TK are probably more of a Friday/weekend visitors. So, stop by more than once

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Yes, that is my full intention. Prolly Sat, Mon, & Tues.

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

Status - Out of Business Janitor/Babysitter

League last night was not crowded (bad weather?), so I got to play a lot, 9 matches in 3 hours. Finished 3-6, which was decent, since I went in with the idea that I'l play close to the table, trying to take balls off the bounce as much as I can, results be damned.

It worked reasonably well on players I expect to beat, and not so much on folks above me. Definitely needs more practice - watching some of the pros (Manika Batra etc.), they somehow are able to do it against pretty much every ball, backspin or topspin. In my case backspin frequently went into the net and topspin went long, not a big surprise there. I actually don't have OX LP on current Barricade, so that might be a factor, will try with DG tonight. Since Barricade is very slow, had to really go forward on some strokes to make sure ball landed deep - takes some time getting used to.

Tried to stay calm as well (with much more success) - at Westchester saw Amy Wang up close, she has very few reactions after lost point etc. I want that.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887