OOAK Table Tennis Forum

This weekend I played the Spring Open in Schaumburg, IL. Pre tournament, my rating was 1659, but that was essentially meaningless, because said rating was gained with sponge and long pips many months ago. With my new hardbat style (and old hardbat) in hand, I entered the U1900 and U2150.

First up was the U2150. First match was vs. a 2000 penholder. First game, I go up 10-8 by attacking the serve (almost always top/under + side to my bh) and playing to his bh. Then I completely blew the two game points, missing fairly routine forehand putaways. Lost 12-10 and went mentally AWOL after that, getting trounced in the final two games, mainly netting serve after serve. I need to work on returning heavy sidespin serves to my bh. Next match I played a 2050 allround type player with short pips on the forehand and inverted backhand. He liked to back off the table, which made for some really great points. My strategy was to be very aggressive to limit his forehand opportunities near the table, which was a good one, but I lost first game 12-10, again missing some doable shots at the end. Second game lost 11-7 after leading 7-5, got nervous for some reason. With nothing to lose, played a great third game to go up 10-8, then had a reflex backhand block clip the net and drop back to my side , then missed a pretty easy backhand. Lost 14-12.

Final match in the group was vs. an 1830 lefty (double inverted) who had been 2000 late last year but dropped lots of pts with close losses lately. Anyway, this one was surprisingly routine. The winning strategy was to attack his serves and to serve long forcing him to attack on my serve. I was able to block most of his return attacks, giving me the advantage. Had some nice chopping points in this one, coming up to smash for the coup de grace. All in all, it was a decent showing in the group, proving to me that the hardbat has potential for 2000+ if I continue to develop, mainly confidence in my forehand attack to put away points.

Later on was the U1900, first match ugh, our group is stuck on the crap table way in the corner where it is all dark with little space. To make matters worse, we get to the table, and the infamous air conditioning in the venue is directly over the table, blowing with gale force crosswind right on the table. damn it I hate playing conditions in this game, and I am VERY particular about such things. Warmed up with first opponent, an unrated guy who looked pretty mediocre, but the WIND was really nasty. One side it was tough to even get the ball over the net into the wind, and spin on the ball was seriously messed up. We start the match, and it was honestly the worst experience I have had playing any sport. The play quality was horrendous, as I missed 4 of my own serves right into the net in the first game, and kept hitting easy high balls into the net due to the goofy wind.

To make a long story short, it should have been a very easy win for me, but the conditions turned this into a tight 4 game match that I pulled out barely just by pushing every shot and going for nothing. I walked off the table ed and made the decision to withdraw from the event. One more match in those conditions would have resulted in some sort of breakdown or expletive-laced tirade, and tt is nothing to get that angry over. Mediocre dude ended up beating the top guy in our group, so this was a missed opportunity. So, that event was pretty much a waste, which is too bad, because the draw later on included a 1900 chopper that I would have loved to try to chisel up with the hardbat . Definitely a missed chance to play a winnable event, but I really have no regrets about the withdrawal.

In summary, I basically learned that playing with the hardbat is not a crutch for my game vs. 2000+ competition, which was really all I wanted to accomplish in this tournament. Mission successful!

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blade BTY Photino ST/Palio HengDa #1 ST, fh Palio Macro ERA 42deg MAX, bh Palio CK531A OX

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any videos?

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Chasse Patate

Very interesting game you have there. Ditto Silver's 'Any videos?'.

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Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

I was at the tournament with mdjenders and he isn't kidding about the wind conditions on that table. I advanced out of a 3-way tie in my U-1900 group to play in the quarterfinals, only to get stuck on the table that he's referring to. If you set the ball down in the middle of the table, it immediately got blown off the side of the table. I lost a close match, 3-2, missing some easy kill shots because right as the ball was sitting up, waiting for me to hit it, it would get blown to the side and throw off the shot. I also netted a couple of serves because you just couldn't serve short due to the breeze.

mdjenders' game with the hardbat is really impressive. It throws so many people off, even up to 2000 level players, to have that radically different of a pace on the ball, you just can't adjust in time if you've never seen it before. And he's getting more and more consistent with hitting ball after ball, with the option to go back and chop. He's right that he's easily a 1700-1800 player right now, with a lot of room to improve. I'm starting to feel the same way about my game, given that I lost 3 really close games to a guy rated over 2000 and two 3-2 nail biters to guys who were almost 1800. We have our local state closed tournament this weekend, I'm hoping to take some points from some of our local guys.

It's fun to feel like you haven't hit the "ceiling" of your abilities yet!

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"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

Mike - I can't give advices because I don't see the match and I don't play much hardbat.

One thing I know is that what you lacked at the tourny was experience. Those 2100+ was quicker, make fewer mistake, make more good shots so overall they put more pressure to you than those 1700+ can do. I think that's reason of "I lead 9-6 and lost 13-11" or "lost at deuce" kind of thing. I have the same problem with 2400+ too. You just need to play more tournament just to get used to those higher level players and to make your game tighter(no silly mistakes, getting familiar to speed and spin).

Hope to see you break a 2000 mark soon.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6tyNTO7 ... ure=relmfu
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dARovqP9tT0#t=64

Bogey, no doubt that has a lot to do with it. In our area, the absolute best players are in the 1800 to 1900 range. Typically, when we play, we're playing a lot of guys in the 1800 and below range, so we don't get that practice against that 2000 level player. I guess we'll just have to keep improving so we can be the 2000 level players in the area!

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"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

That is EXACTLY right on the money. I am just not tournament ready to face that kind of competition. The guys in the U2050 group were probably the three best players I have played since switching to hardbat. Late in games I found myself doubting which serves to use or what strategies to pick, when a more experienced player would have these things come naturally. I got a little nervous at times, which really was disappointing, but in retrospect I should have expected that. Those close games were very intense, and I wasn't used to that.

Dwruck and I were talking at the tournament about how it is so difficult playing those 2000+ players when we have ZERO of them to face in our home clubs. Can't just flip a switch to 2000+ mode when the body is trained to play lesser competition, because I learned this weekend that a whole different game is needed to beat those guys. Lame things that work normally for me get celluloid smashed into my face at higher levels. The precise serves, strategy, and sheer power of the forehand kill are things not seen below that level. It WAS pretty cool though, when I got on a roll against the good players. I felt myself playing so well and doing things that I never really had to do before (because of the competition), and that was pretty amazing.

Dwruck and I conjectured that what we have to do to make the best of our club play is to remember the things that worked vs. the top players, either things we did, or mostly things we saw them do, and practice USING those tactics and shots in play vs. lesser players. I have to treat my forehand like a confident weapon for it to turn into one eventually. Then hopefully there will be no more times when I roll back a shot to my backhand when the play is step around and hit a big forehand to take control.

Also, sorry, no videos yet.

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blade BTY Photino ST/Palio HengDa #1 ST, fh Palio Macro ERA 42deg MAX, bh Palio CK531A OX

TT Armory, N. America Palio distributor. Macro ERA Tensor, Biotech rubbers, and more.