OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Solid performance at Nationals for Jayden. When I looked at Jayden’s events. I knew I was going to have to have “the talk” with him and explain that with him entering so many high level events he should not expect to win very much, as he would be facing very difficult opponents. Things got busy, and I forgot to have the talk, so Jayden forgot to lose! Even with the tough opponents he faced, he went 30-7. His best win was a 2226 player. Worst loss was a 1933. He is now 2063 and still 11 years old.

He came very close to advancing in cadet boys, where he beat the 2226 A player, but lost to the B player, and in U2200 where he lost to the 2164 A player 14-12 in the fifth. It is difficult to bring your best to the table when you continually play strong opponents, but Jayden stayed very focused, and composed upsetting a number of higher rated players and rarely losing to anyone under his rating.

Biggest disappointment was in the Hopes event. He had a very good draw and should have been in good medal contention. Unfortunately his father did not wake him for his 9:00 am match. I noticed he was not in the hall at 8:05 and called his father who told me he was still in bed! His hotel was a 20 minute walk. So he was in time for his match, but did not have a good warm up. Hence he suffered his worst loss of the tournament and ended his run in his best event in the round of 16. Many months of work flushed down the toilet with one careless morning. I am pretty upset about this, but will say no more.

The video is a game from his win over the 2226 A player in Cadets. You won’t see much chopping here, as his opponent was an older boy with a strong attack. Our game plan was to disrupt the opponents strong third ball attack and to avoid getting into ralleys where he would be overpowered. I think Jayden did really well to disrupt his rhythm.

Actually, throughout the tournament it was a struggle for me to get him to chop more. I think he played so many matches against larger, stronger opponents, that he felt he needed to attack with his backhand as they had the power to loop through his defense. It is nice when you have the ability to choose to attack or defend on the backhand side.

We changed his inverted rubber to Joola Golden Tango PS 2.0 about 6 months ago. This is really working well for him. His pushes are absolutely savage with it. His opponents put so many of his inverted pushes into the net. Really good for spinny opening and sidespin loops as well.

Game from match with the B player in Cadets. Jayden was the C player.

What long pips does Jayden now use? Also are they OX? If sponged what thickness?
Good twiddling and attacking. Brilliant play overall

I started Jayden on Pogo .6, because it is an allround pip that is easy to use.

When it was time to focus more on his chopping we changed to Double Fish 1615. Before long I realized that he did not have the patience, or disciplined footwork, to chop several balls in a row and manipulate the spin.

I then changed him to 755 1.0. This allows him to return serve very aggressively and play some chop block type shots. He will then then flip, or use his forehand to counter attack off those balls. Also when he does push inverted / push pips, the difference is very pronounced and tends to get him weaker balls and errors. Although he cannot vary the spins that effectively, he chops much more stably and has an easier time keeping the balls low with the 755.

Good old 755 Seems to be working well as the weaker balls and errors are very obvious when he flips on pushes and attacks. Best Wishes with his further development and progress though his game seems pretty good at the moment

Game 5 with Derrick. A couple chopping rallies in this game.

Nicely done!

_________________
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

And the winner of the 2019 LA Open 12 and under is -

Maybe now he can buy the ice cream for a change.

That music though...

Iskandar

Congrats! and enjoy the ice cream

Is there something about ice cream in the video? (I only watched a little of it.. with the sound turned off.. )

Iskandar

I guess I should explain. Often when one of our juniors has a challenge ahead, I will tell them, "If you can do this, it's worth an ice cream." So as they are competing the mantra becomes, "Come on. Ice Cream!" I am cheap and don't like to spend all my money on ice cream, so I don't normally don't make the offer unless the achievement is very improbable. Somehow they still have a knack for making me buy a lot of ice cream. For example at nationals "If you medal, I will buy you an ice cream." seems pretty safe. After all it is not so easy to medal at nationals. Then 6 out of 7 juniors medaled, and I still had to buy an ice cream for the other, because I told him he could have one if he could beat the 14 year old 2200 A player in his Cadet group. (He was only 11 and 1900).

So with a $150 check in his hand, I think it is about time he buys the ice cream!

Great effort!

Hey, if the Ice Cream works, why not!

_________________
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

And how about an ice cream for each loyal supporter on OOAK forum too?

Alphapong, what a great journey Jayden & you are on I will keep looking with interest, well done

_________________
Setup 1: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Tibhar Grass D.TecS acid green OX BH
Setup 2: Setup 2: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango PS black 2.00mm FH & Tibhar Grass D.TecS red OX BH
Setup 3: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Spinlord Gigant anti-spin red BH
See the ball, be the ball...