OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Day 1 report: Singles

Good news - everyone in my group showed up, so I got my 3 matches. 'Bad' news - they were better than me today, so 0-3 and straight route to consolation bracket. But it was interesting and fun.

German and Swiss dudes get into a nice 5-game match, with German (backhand SP) coming on top. Swiss guy looks 'beatable' from my POV

My first match is against Lithuanian guy - I literally got 1-3 points per game. Nothing mind blowing, just can't find any way to win them.

German takes Lithuanian in 5 games. I think I know what's coming.

Get to a quick 2-0 start against the Swiss dude. Proceed to having at least 3 match points at deuce, but can't close it out. Lose in 5 a very close one...

Swiss dude then proceeds to destroy Lithuanian guy 3-0, by slow spinny shots... and I lose to German guy in 3, but in a somewhat respectable manner, at least judging by the scores (after the match he says that he's very good against pips. Yup, I noticed...)

Everyone had fun, though. Souvenirs and phone numbers exchanged ("When you are in Frankfurt/Boston - please call!"). I am handing out little plush lobsters as a memento from Boston this year .

Since I played at 9 am, had plenty of time to kill until my club mates played later in the day. Watched quite a few games (mostly women, as there are more defenders there). Played an impromptu match with a Brazilian player in practice area (nice 3-0 confidence builder).

Tomorrow is doubles, almost at 8 pm. Got random pairing with an Italian guy, hope he does not have high expectations...

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USATT: ~1700

Hey thanks for the report. You had me reading closely after "the next one is in Korea"... Assuming it's 40+ not 50+ ... I should be eligible

How many singles matches can one expect to play, assuming one doesn't make it out of the group? Any consolation RRs going on?

It is 40+, IIRC, so you should be good.

In singles you are guaranteed 4 (assuming everyone in RR shows up) - the system is:
* RR groups of 4
* Top 2 from each group go to SE championship bracket
* Bottom 2 go into consolation SE bracket (I'm in the round of 256, which sounds impressive )

Same applies to doubles, and this year they also had mixed doubles, but since there were fewer women participants, I did not get picked

This translates into 4 guaranteed days of play, although SE brackets can be pretty quick affairs, since it's one loss and you are out. But you can watch others after that

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USATT: ~1700

Day 2, Doubles

Since I didn't arrange a doubles partner in advance, I got assigned one by organizers, an Italian guy, Claudio. We met about 5 minutes before event started, exchanged pleasantries, and discover that my Italian is at the level of his English (not very high), so we do have a bit of problem. My wife helps with communication (she does speak decent Italian by now), but is a bit hamstrung by not being that familiar with TT terms . In the end it didn't matter much, given the level of competition we faced.

We had teams from Sweden, Korea, and Germany in our group. All of them did have quite a bit of experience playing together, had at least one lefty, and a Swedish lefty also played with SP/LP combo, which is when my partner promptly expressed dislike for pips . Both Germans were 1850+ TTR (I asked afterwards), which puts them about 2200+ USATT, I think.

We played Swedes first and got about 4 points per game. Since I don't play doubles much, it was obviously hard, figuring out what to serve, where to move, etc. On a plus side I was reasonably positioned to chop a few times, but I did not get too many points (but some), given the opposition level. Also, sent quite a few of them into the net, as I suspect I was a bit too far, compared to my usual distance.

With Koreans it was more or less the same, may be ~6 points per game. By the time we played Germans, we started a mini game for ourselves, trying to get at least 6 points, then 8, and even got to the deuce in last game, but could not get it. My partner was a good sport about the experience - I don't think his level was that much higher than mine, to be honest. We plan to play consolation bracket on Friday.

In retrospect I probably should have put more effort in finding a partner I know (e.g one of the part time coaches in the club ended up with the same situation, and we probably would've done slightly better together). But then there is something in meeting players you wouldn't get a chance to play with otherwise.

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USATT: ~1700

To complete the playing part - on Thursday I quickly lost to a guy from Canada in SE consolation bracket. Was unusually nervous and nothing really clicked (pretty good summary of the whole tournament, the 'clicking' part at least). Spent next couple of hours cheering for my club mate in MS65 consolation, he won 2 matches that day before losing a close one in 5.

Saw my doubles partner who told me he can't make it on Friday, so no doubles consolation match on Friday.

Will be back at the venue on Sunday to watch finals, and then flying back home on Monday

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USATT: ~1700

Small EJ update - I got back from Rome with a feeling that something is still missing in my setup, so took another pass through what I had lying around. The one that clicked for me was the Donier Defensive blade with Meteor OX on BH and Tibhar Genius on FH. Felt closest to BTY Defense Alpha, but Donier had FL handle...

Donier is no longer stocked by TT11, but I found one in ST somewhere in UK. Also ordered a bunch of Cloud & Fog III in OX from TT11 - just to get closer to the old setup. Put together new combo this past weekend (glued really old Tenergy 05 on FH, not a perfect size fit, but will do for a bit) - and it actually worked quiet well! Forgot that T05 has this different feeling...

Encouraged, also replaced Dtecs with C&F on one of my Defplay Senso bats (with H3 Neo on FH) - and yes, BH does feel better with my familiar pips, what a surprise.

Will see how Donier works longer term - I'm also trying to be more active on FH, so that I'm not covering FH with weak LP blocks just because it's easier...

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USATT: ~1700

And as a quick follow up: I loved this new Donier setup over the weekend, HATED it on Monday, and was happy again on Tuesday... And I have no good idea why, besides different styles and opponents, of course. But then I was missing lots of BH chops on Monday as well, and it was back to normal Tuesday

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USATT: ~1700

That certainly makes it hard to choose!

I've never tried C&F in OX, Expect it to be somewhat similar to Dtecs, is that right?

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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

I think C&F is slower than Dtecs, and has less 'disruption' or whatever we call it these days. I don't block much, though. I do find it easier to chop with, with shots having lower trajectory.

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USATT: ~1700

I keep re-discovering that Tenergy and other lively FH rubbers make my short game vulnerable (my FH pushes are not that good with T05: mostly high and are easily killed). So, back to Defplay/C&F III OX/H3 Neo combo.

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USATT: ~1700

Both Defplay and T05 are very "bouncy". That is why the H3N suits you better. You should try a less "springy" rubber, like Sieger PK50 or Mantra Pro M.

Edit: Now I understand that you tried T05 on Donier. Ignore my comment above.

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current setup: blade: Yinhe 980 | FH: Palio AK47 Blue 2.1mm | BH: TSP Curl P1-R 1mm
looping setup: blade: Yinhe W-6 | FH: Palio AK47Red 2.1mm | BH: Palio AK47Blue 2.1mm
@work setup: blade: Yinhe 980 | FH: Yinhe Mercury2 2.1mm | BH: Yinhe Neptune 0.7mm
to-be-used setup: blade: DONIC DefPlay Senso 3 | FH: YASAKA Rakza 7 soft 1.8mm | BH: TSP SpinPips Chop 2 1.4mm

Yes, but - your T05 part of the comment still applies, I think.

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USATT: ~1700

Played a shortened version of Westchester this past weekend: Sunday only, U1900 and U2200 events - was trying to finish earlier to get back to Manhattan, where I was staying that time as part of a longer visit to NYC.

It felt a bit different getting to the venue via train - about an hour ride from Grand Central. Saw some familiar faces on the train - in general it works reasonably nice as a way of getting there.

U1900: was a B player, played the chalk, losing to higher rated very consistent (but beatable) penholder with not much pace on his shots. Beat C and D, who were 200 points lower without too much trouble. Advanced to face junior (after group play in U2200, where his support team had lots of time to scout me). We were about the same rating, but I learned by now not to trust junior's ratings too much - I think he had quite a few nice wins that weekend. Lost a very close one in 5 - made too many mistakes on BH close to the table and did some questionable shot selection here and there. Not too upset, thought I played well, but stars didn't align.

U2200: D player (what a surprise...). Lost to A(~2070) and B (~1970) somewhat respectably, and managed to beat C player (~1850) 3:1 - a junior girl I think I played before about a year ago(?) and also won. She did not feel too comfortable with pips, but did hold her own against A and B in offensive rallies from what I could see, so probably inexperienced against pips.

Played this time in casual shoes (didn't pack all my TT gear for the trip) - light slip-ons with gum sole. They worked REALLY well, I probably need to invest in proper (lighter, compared to my volleyball Asics ones) TT shoes, now that my home club also has sports floor.

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USATT: ~1700

Picked up a new annoying habit, rather unexpectedly - trying to do forehand push from BH side, at least couple of times per match . Works about as well as you can imagine.

I suspect it's my brain deciding to go for a shortcut: "yea, pushing with smooth would work better here, but twiddling is too hard for you, so do this reverse chicken wing stroke instead...".

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USATT: ~1700

Can't say that's ever happened to me, but of course I also have plenty of bad habits that I don't seem to be able to shake off.

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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