Alright, I'm in one of those moods again. Now I have to go for it. I don't know how many of you will take me seriously, I also don't want to be an attention grabber of any sort, I don't want to be someone who only asks for favours but never gives back. I want to share my story with table tennis. I hope I can write something nice, I don't know if it's going to be messy (excuse me then, I'm writing this planlessly), but I'll try my best. I'll add some personal things too, not sure if it's the best thing to do but it's the best way for me to describe how I feel.
I'm a 19 year old boy/man from The Netherlands, named Maurice. I've been playing TT for 5 years approximately (I hate this, I'll come back to this probably several times). Before table tennis I played football/soccer for a while, since I was a kid. Obviously as a kid, I couldn't ever imagine what kind of feelings I could have for a sport. That table tennis would be the thing I'd live for.. Anyways, I used to play football for a while since I was a kid. I always played in teams with some friends, never at a high level really. Matches were fun but going to trainings was incredibly boring. I used to be a goalkeeper (roots of my defending love).
Couple of years ago, me and my neighbour friend were playing some unserious TT in his garden, and we both liked it alot (I really wanted to do something else), so we went ahead and went to a free training in the small village I live. He ended up not joining the club but I did (THANKGOD) and one friend of mine. This is where it all started. Obviously club level is nowhere near high level. When I saw the seniors play back then I couldn't ever imagine me being that good. Well things changed. In the beginning it went slowly for me. I played for like 3 year without any interest (club didn't contribute to that). Just a little bit of ping pong.
Sadly I don't have a rating reference unfortunately, but I was playing in a team of 4 playing in very low leagues. At a certain moment I was winning 100% of my matches, my team was behind with 10-20% winning rates. So we even went down a league. It was also around this time, that I started to realise what table tennis really means to me. MAYBE some of you will look at me and think: 'man he's a rookie how can he think this way about a sport he's barely been into?'. Well sometimes I do feel this way too. Seeing this forum has existed for such a long time too, and many of the same forum contributors are still around, the dedication is awesome (I love it). I hope you won't see me that way though, because I don't want to be a rookie. In that time I started watching table tennis, and suddenly I came across videos of my biggest Idol in history for always and ever: 'Joo se Hyuk'. I saw that, and it was at that moment I knew that this was IT.
Now a different part of me. I'm certainly not a guy with the ladies. You could laugh about this, but this has been the reason for the darkest period in my life. The result from this, is me realising chances of me ever getting a girlfriend are 0,1%. This is because of 2 things: who I am (obviously), and yes, that's why I'm on this forum, table tennis. Many people live their life, to finally reach their goal of finding their significant other (and get kids). For me, I started realising that it is table tennis which is my absolute final goal. It is more important than ANYTHING else to me. For this reason I obviously regret never playing this sport earlier, but you can't regret what you didn't know back then..
It was around the same time I got LP's for the first time and joined my second club. I asked around on this forum 2 years ago, caring about equipment too much probably, but I already was endlessly motivated, I knew what I would want to do for the rest of my life as an innocent 17 year old boy. Yes I understand that someone like Harimoto is only (just became) 16 years old (has been in the scene for a while already too), and that many players already knew it when they were 10 years old. But was it really them who knew, or the ones who were raising them? I played 3 years of not really interesting table tennis, and suddenly I knew it was it. A decision I made on my own, out of the blue basically. I really didn't know how to express it (honestly, I still don't know if this really expresses it), but I was sure nobody around me could take me seriously. YES, my family does know I'm serious with table tennis, and they know and support that I would want to go to a different country purely for training, but I know they don't REALISE what I would give to actually be a pro. I definitely don't blame them, I never told them about the girl problem (I can't).
For the last 2 years I’ve been mostly getting experience with LP’s, and getting to know their mechanics. In the second club I could actually play youths competition at a higher level, and we became champions three times in a row, with me only losing 2 games in the last season, still having the highest percentage of the season. In the meantime I never stopped watching table tennis, following everything that was going in the TT world. Another thing bothering me was school. I found it such a waste of time if I really wanted to become really good. I finally graduated from High School, and I immediately decided not to go to a follow up study. (For now, so that I can focus on this)
This leads me to this: I want to go somewhere else. I want to go to a place where they can teach me anything, where I can train 10 hours a day, every day. Where there are many good players. Where I can follow my dreams. Maybe just maybe you or someone you know could help me with this. I would love to send the first message, and put the most effort into it. But the hardest part is finding the people who actually know where to go, and who know where it is available for me to go. Who know everything about the sport. I’m also planning on messaging many coaches, professional players, ex-professional player, and well firstly this forum. I think I’m going to use this same story, because it’s hard actually writing something like this big about yourself, and to keep going and finish the story.
Having that said, let me go to the next phase. My playing style and my awareness. Okay so I’m playing with a Chinese rubber on the fh + LP’s on the backhand. I’ve read that Chinese philosophy covers that importance of the blade is 80% while the rubbers are only 20%. It was good getting used to everything with the Sword 309, but it lacks consistency with same shots (reviews and I experience it too), so I’m planning to switch to VKMO blade with the same fh and TSP p1r curl 1.0 on the backhand. For the last 2 years it was mostly me standing closer to the table, making it really hard for opponents to read what I was doing, and stepping around quickly after weak receives from the opponent. But it was definitely not the game I would want to play later on, as I don’t see it being effective later on and it’s ugly. I’m not someone who cares for attention, but I do want to be someone people look at and think: his playing style looks awesome! I’ve always wanted to ‘impress’ people. Maybe like a shining star in the darkness?
Anyways, I find myself a pretty smart guy, it’s just whenever I start playing my smartness vanishes. I know that I’m very good at strategical and tactical games and situations in life (I always think analytically, also when I’m walking on the street for example
), so I know it’s there. I’m also convinced there is MUCH more in me, I just know it. I know it is possible for me, and with the ambition I have, with the dedication I have, if I can find the right place, I KNOW IT”S POSSIBLE. For the upcoming long time I’m willing to dedicate ALL my time into table tennis, because it’s my life.
Specifically with chopping, when I’m practicing I’m finding the lack of consistency of other players not helping with chopping practice. They can’t make the same shots a couple of times, then suddenly a weird ball comes and I would have to make a crazy stroke with the LP’s to get the ball back, but that’s not effective training. When I’m practicing chopping, I know what I need to do, and when I execute the chop, I still sometimes make a wrong movement even though I know what I need to do. It’s mostly because I feel like I need to ‘correct’ a little bit so that the ball would actually come back (mostly because of lacking spin, so I feel like I would need to open up more but this definitely isn’t the solution, but it still happens because of automatism). When practicing I’m really trying to purely focus on chopping in the right way and I know that there are many things that could be useful to me (definitely because the lacking advice of people around me, there is no experienced chopper here), so I have to get the knowledge from the internet (which sadly doesn’t go over chopping almost at all), and definitely from this forum. That’s also a reason why I’m writing this huge message. Another thing is, when people play, the amount of spin they give on the ball is not massive, so if I would try to chop the ball it would actually never go over the net (hypothetically). Like knowing there is not much on the ball but still having to chop vertically, that is confusing. I have many more questions but asking them all at the same time as sharing my story doesn’t seem the way.
I think this as a whole is a good combination of everything I wanted to put into a message. There could definitely still be things I’m forgetting, because it’s alot.
If you have questions that could clarify things, or you wondering about something or just ANYTHING, please feel free to ask it!
If you can help with anything, that is already greatly appreciated. Sometimes the smallest advices help the most. It feels like I’m asking for many favours or something, I hope you don’t see it that way. I mean it’s a fact I’m actually asking many things but I don’t want to come across as someone who only takes but doesn’t give (sadly there is not much else I can do)
If you read all of this, I really want to thank you alot, it means alot to me!
Sincerely,
Maurice