OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I plan to visit Palo Alto over the weekend in early December - I know there are several clubs in the vicinity, so I was wondering:

* Which one is best to visit on Friday night and/or Sunday afternoon? Should have a car, so distance is not a big deal. I'm ~1700 (see my signature).
* If I want to take a lesson focused on BH chopping technique - can someone recommend a coach in the area? I don't speak Chinese, if it helps

Appreciate your advice.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

I once played at http://www.pong-planet.com/. Nice and friendly people and atmosphere. Decent tables. I enjoyed it. If you phone or mail in advance, they might be able to arrange for a coach or same level player.

Have fun.

Searching my BH

I got recommendation for Pong Planet on another forum as well, with someone pointing out that one of the coaches (Amy Yang) is a chopper. So I probably will start there.

Other honorable mentions for someone interested in a lesson/chopping included WCTTA and SVTTC.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

As an update: I did spend a long weekend in Palo Alto in early December and managed to visit a couple of clubs.

PongPlanet was my first stop on Friday night, where I scheduled a 2hr lesson with coach Amy. Showed up an hour earlier hoping to hit a few balls with locals. Nice facility and friendly owner - he did not charge me a drop-in fee since I already paid for the lesson and was kind enough to match me with someone to play while I was waiting for a lesson to start. I managed to hit with a couple of guys close to my level for ~40 min, no matches, just free play.

Lesson was good, I thought - I spent 2 hours chopping on both sides. As a takeaway, I mostly learned that I should start my chopping stroke with paddle much higher than I currently do, should use body rotation and pay a lot of attention to getting into neutral ready position between strokes. I thought it was money well spent (58$/hr is pretty much what I would pay locally as well) and would definitely go back.

Got also a chance to visit Topspin club in San Jose on Sunday, this time with a friend. Quite large facility (~15 tables) which was not very busy on Sunday afternoon - there were ~7-8 serious players, 5-6 recreational types and a coach doing the lesson. Since I had a partner, we pretty much hit for ~2 hrs and played a few games. I did not get a chance to play locals, but from the looks of it I'd hold my own against quite a few of them (and would not have much of a chance against others ). Prices were reasonable - 8$ daily fee, and I really liked that you could rent a decent paddle for 2$, which my friend did.

Overall, Silicon Valley does have a vibrant TT scene - there were easily 5-6 clubs within 30-40 min of driving.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

For situations like these, I created ttRadar.com. Please do add the club you found in Palo Alto onto http://www.ttRadar.com so others can benefit from your knowledge of the club.