OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I've just finished reading Alex Polyakov's book, Breaking 2000.

One of the comments made by Alex refers to the need to play a variety of different styles / standards of player.

1. How far do you travel to play table tennis
2. How far are you willing to travel to play table tennis
3. How often do you travel to different clubs / venues to find new players to play
4. Do you have many "travelling players" turn up at your club to play or is it the same people over and over

Ta

The nearest club to our club is 100km away but we never go there. Or nearest tournament is about 350km away and I'm the only one in the club that goes. Our Country Carnival which is a tournament for players in rural areas is also 350 km from us and this year we attended for the first time in 4 years and we had 15 people go. Other clubs travelled further. Rarely do we have a visitor at our club as we are so remote.

Forgot to add that being in a country town, our club is 5 minutes from everyone.

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Compared to some on this site I suspect I'm quite well off for playing opportunities.

My nearest club is 5 minutes away from my home and all the clubs in my local league are within 20 minutes drive.

There are six more leagues within a 30 minutes drive and probably half a dozen more within an hour's drive. I play / have played in four or five of those and will play in another this season that's about an hour away from my home. An hour is probably the maximum I'd travel for a regular competition although I'll travel up to two hours for a one-off tournament.

11km – about 15 to 25 minutes' drive, depending on traffic. Usually closer to 15.



Maybe twice that far for pennant play, hypothetically. A lot farther for tournaments.

Outside of tournaments, I've only done this once, taking an evening at an unfamiliar club during an interstate vacation. I'll do it next time I go on a long-ish vacation, though (Kuala Lumpur next March/April!)

The club I go to is a big one, so there are new faces reasonably frequently. And I know that several players at the club are also regulars at other clubs. Also, I play pennant on 2 to 3 nights a week, and get to play mostly different groups of people on those nights.

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In terms of regular play:

- My club is 5-10 mins from my home, depending on traffic.
- In the league I travel up to about 20 mins to venues.
- I sometimes train in a club which is 30 mins away.
- I play in national competitions throughout England - the furthest I travelled last year was about 300 miles.




I travelled to Portugal in June, specifically to play TT. I'd travel throughout Europe for camps / competitions. I may yet go to Las Vegas in the summer for the veterans world championships.



There are plenty of clubs where I can practice within 30-45 mins from my home. One club has a decent supply of players I don't know well. Locally I know most players, and have played them competitively.

I always take my TT stuff with me wherever I go, so I can play different people, and I go to camps / competitions.



Very very rare that we'd get visitors passing through.

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Try from Sydney to Perth for example for the national Veterans tournament one year (3300km one way)
Pennant, last night from northern beaches of Sydney to Rydalmere also in Sydney, nearly an hour in the car in peak hour (30 km 1 way)

See above.

Having a life and a wife, not very often - playing in pennant after some time away am playing different players.

Just recently we had a couple of guys turn up from the other side of Sydney, and now one is playing pennant for us.

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1. How far do you travel to play table tennis
Most clubs are within 30 minutes. Whenever I visit a new area I make sure to play some TT. I've played in England, Australia and will be playing in Japan in Oct.
2. How far are you willing to travel to play table tennis
For just table tennis? Not really. For training perhaps. One unique part of being in Las Vegas is having a chance to play new people every 6 months at the major tourneys.
3. How often do you travel to different clubs / venues to find new players to play
Occasionally. We have 4 major clubs in town. Some of them tend to have a different quality of players.
4. Do you have many "travelling players" turn up at your club to play or is it the same people over and over
Every 6 months we do have travelers for the major tourneys. Often it's the same people, but I'm okay with that too.