OOAK Table Tennis Forum

G’day all! My name is Vinnie, age 28, based in Brisbane Australia – welcome to my blog :~)

I used to be a regular poster here a decade ago when I was playing as a teenager. After rediscovering the joy of table tennis and starting back playing as an adult in late 2021, I’m taking it seriously to try and compete at a high level and represent Australia in Para Table Tennis.

My condition is a shorter left leg (8cm), a small foot with two toes and limited lateral ankle mobility, and consequential limited upper-back and shoulder mobility. As a result, I chose to use long pimples alongside my inverted rubber to have a bit more control of the ball’s pace. Despite this, I play a quite active & aggressive game close to the table, moving back to chop and counter-loop when needed.

I hope to use this blog as a bit of a diary of my journey, posting new match footage when possible, and inviting any feedback and tips from you along the way! Join me as I attempt to rise through the ranks in the Australian scene, and hopefully inspire a new generation of disabled youth to get into the best sport in the world along the way <3

For the statistic motivated individuals, you can follow my progression through my RatingsCentral profile here: https://www.ratingscentral.com/Player.php?PlayerID=37560

My first entry: my silver medal in my state’s biggest annual tournament – the Para Singles event in the Queensland Open!

Watch the commentated livestream of the event here:

I went into this tournament as the #1 seed, and had a pretty clear pathway through the group stage and semi finals, defeating all my opponents 3-0 along the way. In the final I met an absolute legend of the sport, Daryl Sterling, who has represented USA internationally before moving to live in Australia. Him and I have already made great friends, and will actually be playing doubles together in a few weeks time at the National tournament in Sydney!

For those not in the know, the Para sport is split up into 11 different ‘Classes’ based on the condition, with a lower number indicating a higher level of impairment:
- Class 1-5 is for players who are seated
- Class 6-10 is for players who are standing
- Class 11 is for players who have an ‘intellectual impairment’

Since there isn’t a massive cohort of Para players, aside from the bigger tournaments that have the entry pool to facilitate splitting players into their respective classes, it is often split up into a Standing and Seated category; or even all combined into one. In this tournament, all players were combined in an Open Para category.

My ‘Classification’ is yet to be confirmed, but will probably be an 8 or 9. Daryl is a Class 7 player.

In this Finals match, I took a strong lead to win the first game, but ultimately Daryl’s experience and tactics won out – giving him a well deserved 3-1 win for an upset against the #1 seed (yours truly).

Lots to learn from this tournament, and lots of other tournaments coming up, so I’m excited to grind hard and hopefully see success over the next month of playing and beyond. Stay tuned!

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You can read more about the different Para Classifications here: https://www.paralympic.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/PA_Para_table_tennis_Information_Sheet_Nov21_rebrand23.pdf

Very nice Vinnie, great to see you in action!

I have a question... is there any restriction on serves, like there is with wheelchair TT? Like could you serve a really short or wide ball?

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Great match to watch and enjoy! Well played both. Thanks for sharing.