Which was/were your biggest achievement(s) in table tennis?

We've has such a thread before... but why the heck not again?

I got a lot to be happy about in my 4 years of TT here in Korea that are about to end.

#1 thing I am proud of is that I actually got to train a little over here and arrived as a USATT 1600ish (German 1300???) Div 4 city player and in 2 years made Div 2 City. If I stayed here anymore, I could be Div 1 right now, not dominant in the Div, but I would belong there. That is a lot of improvement for 2 years. I see all kinds of players I started out with still never make it past Div 5 or Div 4 city. Getting into Div 1 is a HUGE difference from Div 2, almost as hard as the previous two levels combined. What might be noteworthy is I am a solid 87 KG dude starting this TT in Korea when I waz 43. Doing that as a teenager is one thing. Current USATT rating I can only estimate. Lower end of City Div 1 is 2100 USATT minimum. I will do a few tournyes right when I get back to the States in a couple weeks, how fortunate there are tourneys in the East right when I get back...

#2 thing is I got to co-found the Korea Foreign TTC, A TT association for serious amature players in Korea. We evolved into either meeting as elite amature players and going to (and winning) national tourneys, regional and local tourneys, but number one thing we do is help TT players new to Korea get organized and find other players, other clubs, or roll up here to meet and face off vs me and go out for food & beerz. Now that I am leaving Korea, I have friends to help that part out. It was and still is a blast being sponsored, despite not being the top amature around, not even close to that level.

#3 thing is I won the National Military TT championships the three consecutive years it was held. Also won a ton of local tourneys, got 3rd in singles in some regional tournyes.

Just playing for my country, can't beat that achievement until I become World Champion

Got to meet Jorg Rosskopf and Chen Weixing after they came to London for an exhibition.

Took them to Bounce (a London bar with table tennis tables in it) for some food. Beer for me, sparking water for Jorg and orange juice for Chen.

Following day helped run a coaching session for some local players with both of them involved.

Genuinely nice guys.

Belisar said:

Got to meet Jorg Rosskopf and Chen Weixing after they came to London for an exhibition.

Took them to Bounce (a London bar with table tennis tables in it) for some food. Beer for me, sparking water for Jorg and orange juice for Chen.

Following day helped run a coaching session for some local players with both of them involved.

Genuinely nice guys.

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Wow amazing story! I hear they are both very nice, funny people especially Chen

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Aha yes we have had this sort of discussion before on TTD but it sure is a great one to see users experiences/ achievements. And for the new users to get involved to

For me in Table Tennis, I won a silver medal at the 2007 European High School Championships with the Bristol Table Tennis Academy representing England! Such a great experience! We were at the same hall as the world championships and our practice hall was the same as all the stars!



I am now a table tennis coach and I hope to make lots of achievements for many players in the UK.

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Dan said:

For me in Table Tennis, I won a silver medal at the 2007 European High School Championships with the Bristol Table Tennis Academy representing England! Such a great experience! We were at the same hall as the world championships and our practice hall was the same as all the stars!

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Dan correct me if I am wrong, but this must be in Zagreb, Croatia. I had a lot of tournaments in that sport hall. It's awesome.

MDanielCRO said:

Dan correct me if I am wrong, but this must be in Zagreb, Croatia. I had a lot of tournaments in that sport hall. It's awesome.

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Haha your spot on Daniel! Great sports hall I loved the stands. Lots of room to hang out in Great conditions!

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Actually now that I think about it meeting Werner Schlager and Susan Sarandon are probably both pretty big achievements for me, both through the world hopes programme where I was the national coach for New Zealand and later Yang Lun Zhao after he made the World Hopes Team.

Dan you look so youthful in that photo

PingPongPom said:

Actually now that I think about it meeting Werner Schlager and Susan Sarandon are probably both pretty big achievements for me, both through the world hopes programme where I was the national coach for New Zealand and later Yang Lun Zhao after he made the World Hopes Team.

Dan you look so youthful in that photo

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Epic Matt! Great work on your progress with the NZ team, your doing a good job Aha I know I look so young dude! I think one of my biggest achievements was having a 30 minute conversation with Richard Prause! It was so inspiring! Don't think I've ever learnt so much in such a short space of time!

Dan said:

I hear they are both very nice, funny people especially Chen

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Rosskopf was over for a couple of days so got to spend a couple of lunches with him as well as the evening. He was happy and patient enough to answer all my questions (I am sure the same ones he gets asked everywhere) and happily chatted football as well as table tennis.

Interesting he said he found Liu Guoliang harder to play than Waldner.

Dan said:

Epic Matt! Great work on your progress with the NZ team, your doing a good job Aha I know I look so young dude! I think one of my biggest achievements was having a 30 minute conversation with Richard Prause! It was so inspiring! Don't think I've ever learnt so much in such a short space of time!

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Haha yea Prause is a knowledge house man, Peter Karlsson is quite similar.

Belisar I'm not too surprised that he found Guoliang harder to play than Waldner. Remember Rosskopf was a 'power looper' by label and Guoliang was horrendously fast, I imagine Waldner gave Rosskopf a lot more time to be aggressive and attack which would probably be more comfortable for him Guoliang was a freak haha

Belisar said:

Rosskopf was over for a couple of days so got to spend a couple of lunches with him as well as the evening. He was happy and patient enough to answer all my questions (I am sure the same ones he gets asked everywhere) and happily chatted football as well as table tennis.

Interesting he said he found Liu Guoliang harder to play than Waldner.

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Sounds so cool! And yeah as @pingpongpom mentioned I can imagine that! Liu Guoliang was ruthless! He took no one lightly! Whereas I guess you would of had a bit more time against Waldner. Haha this era of table tennis was so cool! How good did Rosskopf get in his prime do you know?

Dan said:

How good did Rosskopf get in his prime do you know?

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"Rossi" was apparently a member of the vintage generation of male European players, that arrested the balance of power away from China and towards Europe (nice quote from the ITTF web site).

I think he won Euro doubles and singles titles, Olympic silver and bronze and various world cup medals (including a winners). He started at 5 years old.

I have read an interview he did where he said the best player ever was Waldner but when I chatted to him he said he only ever won a handful of games against Guoliang and won more against Waldner (as noted perhaps it was styles).

Even at about 37 he won the North American Team Championships and European Team Championships. Not sure of his world ranking high (looks like it was 4) but he took over from Prause as German coach to the national team. His son seems to be more into football than table tennis and apparently is quite promising.

The interview I read asked him to describe some players in one word...

Waldner = Gambler

Persson = Nice person

JM Saive = Fighter

Boll = Talent

And people need to practise their serve more. He told me the German team probably hit a few thousand serves a week.

Belisar said:

"Rossi" was apparently a member of the vintage generation of male European players, that arrested the balance of power away from China and towards Europe (nice quote from the ITTF web site).

I think he won Euro doubles and singles titles, Olympic silver and bronze and various world cup medals (including a winners). He started at 5 years old.

I have read an interview he did where he said the best player ever was Waldner but when I chatted to him he said he only ever won a handful of games against Guoliang and won more against Waldner (as noted perhaps it was styles).

Even at about 37 he won the North American Team Championships and European Team Championships. Not sure of his world ranking high (looks like it was 4) but he took over from Prause as German coach to the national team. His son seems to be more into football than table tennis and apparently is quite promising.

The interview I read asked him to describe some players in one word...

Waldner = Gambler

Persson = Nice person

JM Saive = Fighter

Boll = Talent

And people need to practise their serve more. He told me the German team probably hit a few thousand serves a week.

Click to expand...

Oh, I was wondering why that interview was sounding familiar then I got to the describe the players bit and realised it was my interview hehehe

Took them to Jump (a London, uk bar with ping pong platforms in it) for some meals. Alcohol for me, leading to water for Jorg and lemon juice for Chen.

For me, it is just a start.

Achievements to date is starting Tony's Table Tennis

Besides the free coaching I've done, got 11 players sponsored, sent a player to Paris, getting Shaanxi provincial team to South Africa, got TT started in 3 schools, got radio and online news to have TT on there.

Main aim - to start a full time academy.
Any sponsors/donations welcomed

My biggest achievement until now was winning the Championship title of my district. I done this one month ago!