Hey Guys,
Just joined the website, thanks Dan for creating a site that allows table tennis enthusiasts like myself to talk and meet with other like minded people.
I am 24, male, live in North Carolina/ Virginia, United States.
I have played on and off for a good portion of my life. Stated probably when I was like 13-14 when I went to a Chinese school in Boston, where one of the activities was table tennis, played some there. But I only really got serious when I entered the sophomore year of high school. I began to play a lot with my friends, watch videos online, etc. I even took a week of lessons in China while I was visiting. Since then, I have started or help start 2 table tennis clubs, one at the undergrad university, and one at my grad school university. It was only really until this past summer that I really played regularly at a city table tennis club, which really helped my improve my skills. I went from probably a 1500 rating to now roughly a 1700-1800 rating, which is based off the US table tennis rating system. I can't say for sure since during the summer I didn't get a chance to play in any tournaments, but I am now able to beat 1700 players at least 50% of the time, as well as taking our two 2000+ players to 5 games in a best of 5. Because I watch so many videos, and concentrate on short game and short services, I find that I tend to do really well against players who actually follow that kind of game player, whereas some other players who maybe just got good from playing and have more of an "unorthodox" give me more trouble.
The next level that I am hoping to reach, is to be able to consistently loop back my opponents beginning spinny loop, if I am able to do so on a regular basis, I think I would be able to reach 2000+ relatively quickly after that.