OOAK Table Tennis Forum

It's probably wrong to extrapolate from a limited data, but:

* In the last 5 years only 1 person from my office came to my club (and did not come back).
* In the last 5 days 3 co-workers decided to show up - more or less with the same effort on my part (almost none). It was them reaching out with "Hey, I want to come back to TT" (everyone played at some point in the past, one even had coaching while at school). At least two of them will make repeat visits, I'm quite sure.

I guess TT in the US is about to break through, at least among older crowd! Club has been quite busy lately, which is somewhat annoying, since it's harder to get on the table. Bigger club (or another one in the area) would've been nice, although I'm also scared of the scenario where one club could be doing great, but two would collapse due to split demand.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

You've inspired me. I will not change from this setup all year: JSH/Hurricane 3/DG2 (ox). I told myself that when I finally beat my training partner 2 sets I would keep that setup. I finally happened (after like several months) so I am now stuck with it...

I don't spend enough time practicing or playing these days to fiddle with equipment...my level has really gone into the tank, so maybe this will help. That and dealing with my bad knees...can't get low at all suddenly.

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Good luck, Japsican - and I think it's actually pretty easy to do. As I mentioned before, it changes your focus dramatically: you start thinking more about technique, tactics, and other game-related aspects.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Played a tournament in Chicago, while visiting friends.

Day 1: Giant Round Robin

That's the first time they offered it, and while it's a great idea, I think they overestimated how many people can make it to the tournament on Friday (that is willing to take a day off). They planned for 100+ players to take part, but only ~48 signed up and some of them could not make it. Since original plan involved half of participants taking home a very cool-looking trophy, it became 'everyone gets a trophy' scenario

I was in Division A, 2nd player in my RR group at the seeding stage. Top seed did not show up (2700!), so I managed to win my group with 4-0 record - although had to come back from 0:2 deficit against ~1400 player. Had to stay calm and hope that strokes would come back (and they did). This put me into a top group in the 2nd stage: 2550, 2450, 2250, 2100, 2050 or close to that.

Somewhat predictably went 0-5, but it was fun:
* Almost took a game off Samson Dubina - he actually took a timeout when I was up 7:3 in second game. I did have a game point after that, but lost at deuce.
* Was up 10:4 against 2200+ junior and still lost the game. Should've taken a timeout...
* Lost a VERY close match against #5 seed.

https://imgur.com/a/YDfjgVD

Day 2: O50 and U2000

Went 1:2 in O50 - had a very close 1:3 match against top seed (2150, and I blew 10:6 lead in the first game again!), got destroyed by 2nd seed, did beat 4th guy easily.

U2000 group was very weird: I was a top seed, but 2nd player was a junior very close to me, plus 2 more players around 1600+. Things looked very dicey against #3 seed, I was 'losing warmup' very convincingly - but then had a very comfortable 3:0 win, he suddenly started missing everything. Meanwhile #4 player crushed #2 seed 3:0, and then proceeded to do the same to me - VERY deceptive pushes, sometimes quite heavy, sometimes empty. I probably should've used my FH more, but instead tried to take everything with BH and it did not go well. There is a 2100+ older gent in our club that can do this to me, but I did not expect it from that dude. Tried a few things in the match, took a timeout, but nothing worked. Oh well, have a new hole to plug.

In the last match I was playing #2 seed, and it was a bit of see-saw. Probably for the first time I took a timeout that actually worked: was down 1:2 in games and 6:8 with opponent serving. Just decided that I will receive more aggressively with pips and go after his middle as much as I can. It worked like a charm: won 4th game 11:8 and then 11:5 in the 5th. Meanwhile the #4 guy managed to lose to #3 somehow, so we ended up in 3-way tie and I finished 2nd by game tie-breaker - if only I lost 1:3 instead of 0:3, I would've advanced.

From a near tournament experience: ran into 'Pushblocker' on Saturday - we hit for a bit and played a friendly match, which I managed to win 3:1. Afterwards PB told me that he has a problem with players who don't give him spin to work with (I can relate). It also helped that I practiced quite a bit against pip players in the club.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Fun tourney, I take it that was Aurora tourney.

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Nexy Batos ALC - FH Tibhar MX-K - BH Tibhar FX-S
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Yep, it's the third time I played it. Nice tournament.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

I have several TT friends I need to see in Chicago, they all speak the same language as Jay Lee.

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Nexy Batos ALC - FH Tibhar MX-K - BH Tibhar FX-S
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Went 4:3 in the league last night, somewhat helped by an easier 'draw', but did have a really nice comeback win and played somewhat decently (although made my share of stupid shots and general mistakes). Again was abused on my BH with no-spin balls.

Tried a new serve, prompted by this video (with English subs now!):



It actually worked reasonably well - the only gotcha was that I had trouble controlling placement and distance, it was mostly going into opponent's BH, somewhere between long and half-long. I was getting some misreads on it early on, presumably alternating between backspin and sidespin, but later in the day it became mostly backspin (although a decent amount of it).

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Was Barbara Wei a 5 set victim by you? I saw a FB post saying she had 3 each 5 set losses.

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Nexy Batos ALC - FH Tibhar MX-K - BH Tibhar FX-S
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No, she played higher level people (assuming the new girl who showed up this week was indeed Barbara - she came with David J.). I did not get a chance to talk to her.

Edit: Yup, it was indeed her. She did lose to Desmond, Murali, and Joe in 5, but these are solid players, and you could see she was a bit rusty. It was also obvious that she had lots of training at some point .

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Played at least half a dozen matches against Leo, double inverted chopper/defender, won most of them.

Few weeks ago aggressive pushes with LP worked against him the best, but not this week. Now it was 'mudflap' shot that was very effective - perhaps because he really likes to give backspin and it is much easier to control backspin that way. Even balls that were not particularly low or fast were causing enough problems, and it's quite easier to get higher ball over the net and onto the table (at least against this opponent).

Oh, and this new '45 degree BH serve' worked really well too

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Leo is a tough player and no chump... plus he recently achieved his highest ever rating low 2000s USATT...

I bet you bumped those LP shots to his FH... he likes to attack from FH sometimes, but with mixed results. It costs him points and wins him points.

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Nexy Batos ALC - FH Tibhar MX-K - BH Tibhar FX-S
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My bumps/mudflaps went to both sides and middle actually - he did miss several FH attempts long against them, true, but these are also hard to chop/push on both wings, as he likes to do, since they are not really heavy topspin (lots of defenders I play have issue with adjusting to it). I'm sure he'll adapt, though

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Played quite a bit in the last few days (wife is traveling again...) - won some and lost some, just the way it is.

A guy showed up in the club today, who used to play locally 4+ years ago. Back then I was looking at him in awe, essentially thinking that I will never get to 'threaten' him. Today I lost a match against him in 5th at deuce (OK, second one was 0-3, but still competitive). It kind of puts things in perspective.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917

Got destroyed in the league last night: 1-5. Pretty much nothing was working, especially BH: mostly going long all night. The only match I won was a pretty decent upset against an attacker, but even there it was mostly a fluke - I manufactured at least 7 (!) non-returnable net dribbles. Must be my personal record. Could've used some of them in other matches.

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USATT: 1818 | League: 1917