Random Non-Sanctioned tournaments.

[Shuki]

Today I wen't to a local, non-sanctioned tournament at school (I take online classes at a community college), I knew ahead of time I was going to win, guaranteed. Though the tournament was easy, people got pretty annoyed that I was there and started complaining that it wasn't fair. Is it messed up to go to these types of tournaments? I felt pretty bad and the 1st place prize was just 3 movie tickets, a soda, and a 6 mini games in a box type thing (including mini table tennis and bowling). I ended up giving away all the prizes to players that stuck around, except the soda >=], since I had no use for them.

Also a general question, I played this low level tournament the same way I play high level players, with footwork and looping and a lot of sweat. By the end of the tournament I was exhausted. I have my first sanctioned tournament in about 2 months, and I realize I entered WAYYYY too many events. U1500 (because I wanted the easy wins, dont judge me), U1700, U1900, U2100. Already pulled out of the U2100 because its out of my league, I just entered because I knew some players over 1900 that I can consistently beat and I wanted a higher starting rating. Should I drop out of the 1500 too, I can play the games in an energy conserving manner but I'm nervous about this because I don't play even close to the same level when I'm tired.

Also endurance will be worked on hard over the next couple months.


Pro tip: Keep a bottle of honey in your TT bag for a STICKY situation. When you're running low on steam or even blood sugar it will help out a lot. It's almost pure sugar so your body doesn't need to break the sugars down and can use it almost immediately. 1 Table-Spoon is enough. Just make sure to keep it in a ziplock bag or a different pocket in case things go wrong.


Won't be able to reply for a couple hours, this exhausted body is actually going to lessons now

 

[Xylit]

I knew ahead of time I was going to win, guaranteed.

I would not participate in such tournaments if it is not for VERY convincing prizes I'd like to have. No fun for you or your opponents.

 

[Shuki]

I would not participate in such tournaments if it is not for VERY convincing prizes I'd like to have. No fun for you or your opponents.

I had fun, I'm always willing to play with low level players. Also I knew some people that were there, that's how I heard of it.
Most of all, One of my favorite parts of table tennis is experiencing play against different styles. Learning to apply my style against all styles is very important for me to get better. And learning to capitalize on a return that wasn't great is also important, otherwise when those chances come against a good player I won't be ready for it.

But then again, definitely not fun for my opponents I presume. I'm an ass

 

[pgpg]

Today I wen't to a local, non-sanctioned tournament at school (I take online classes at a community college), I knew ahead of time I was going to win, guaranteed. Though the tournament was easy, people got pretty annoyed that I was there and started complaining that it wasn't fair. Is it messed up to go to these types of tournaments? I felt pretty bad and the 1st place prize was just 3 movie tickets, a soda, and a 6 mini games in a box type thing (including mini table tennis and bowling). I ended up giving away all the prizes to players that stuck around, except the soda >=], since I had no use for them.

Also a general question, I played this low level tournament the same way I play high level players, with footwork and looping and a lot of sweat. By the end of the tournament I was exhausted. I have my first sanctioned tournament in about 2 months, and I realize I entered WAYYYY too many events. U1500 (because I wanted the easy wins, dont judge me), U1700, U1900, U2100. Already pulled out of the U2100 because its out of my league, I just entered because I knew some players over 1900 that I can consistently beat and I wanted a higher starting rating. Should I drop out of the 1500 too, I can play the games in an energy conserving manner but I'm nervous about this because I don't play even close to the same level when I'm tired.

Also endurance will be worked on hard over the next couple months.


Pro tip: Keep a bottle of honey in your TT bag for a STICKY situation. When you're running low on steam or even blood sugar it will help out a lot. It's almost pure sugar so your body doesn't need to break the sugars down and can use it almost immediately. 1 Table-Spoon is enough. Just make sure to keep it in a ziplock bag or a different pocket in case things go wrong.


Won't be able to reply for a couple hours, this exhausted body is actually going to lessons now

I don't know how I feel about entering recreational tournament if you KNOW you have no one even close in level to you - no glory in beating your overmatched opponents. You did not enter U800 in your first sanctioned tournament, I presume - same thing.

As far as picking events - if these are in the same day, 4 events is going to drain you. I did it once and had to stop playing by defaulting everything, since I really had no juice left. If you really feel you are well above 1500 (how do you know?), I'd rather drop that one, but it's not a clear cut case - you are likely to go deep there and just might run into underrated junior or unfamiliar style. Plus, dealing with pressure when playing the final is a useful skill to master.

Playing U2100 is nice in its own way - you get to see higher level players, and you are more or less guaranteed to have someone close to you anyway, even if you are a D player - C player might not be that far off from you, so it won't be a total blowout, one hopes.

But yeah, 4 events in one day is too much.

 

[Ilia Minkin]

I don't think that you have to be worried since next time they will 100% not let you in

 

[Shuki]

I don't know how I feel about entering recreational tournament if you KNOW you have no one even close in level to you - no glory in beating your overmatched opponents. You did not enter U800 in your first sanctioned tournament, I presume - same thing.

As far as picking events - if these are in the same day, 4 events is going to drain you. I did it once and had to stop playing by defaulting everything, since I really had no juice left. If you really feel you are well above 1500 (how do you know?), I'd rather drop that one, but it's not a clear cut case - you are likely to go deep there and just might run into underrated junior or unfamiliar style. Plus, dealing with pressure when playing the final is a useful skill to master.

Playing U2100 is nice in its own way - you get to see higher level players, and you are more or less guaranteed to have someone close to you anyway, even if you are a D player - C player might not be that far off from you, so it won't be a total blowout, one hopes.

But yeah, 4 events in one day is too much.

I haven't done a sanctioned tournament. First one is this april. You asked how I know I'd win it fairly easily. For this it's not just the players I play, but we have a league at a local club with approximately 25-35 players playing every week. I fluctuate between 1650 and 1800. Right now I'm at a fall of 1650 due to some kids >.< read below for that

In the league if you come in with a rating you start at that. If no rating, a better player will hit with you and decide your rating start point. These two brothers that keep knocking me down a peg, came in at 1250ish. (they hadn't competed in over a year but still trained). Then they went to another tournament and were adjusted all the way to 1750 (the younger brother) and 1700(the older). So every time one of them wins against someone, they're moving up about 50 points and the person who lost moves down about that much.

We can't just put them in the group that their league rating reflects because they would steam-roll everyone and not gain many points quick enough to move out of their group. So for a couple weeks we're letting them play with 18-1600 type players and they're bringing us down a good bit.

A better solution would have been to just adjust their league ratings to their new real ones but that's the solution we went with

 

[Shuki]

I don't think that you have to be worried since next time they will 100% not let you in

This is funny but I also think incorrect. They have other tournaments as well, not just table tennis, and the only regulations to enter is by being a student. It's not run by the school but the school gives them funding. I don't think they can deny students

 

[ttmonster]

... depends on your endurance. Tournaments are way more energy sapping than actual play. There is also the whole deal of being warmed up just enough, taking enough rest etc etc. I would not register for more than two events. Preferably , one warm up event before the actual event where you want compete. Always remember , its essential to win the lower rated events , believe me winning an event final of an underrated event would help you learn more things about your game than winning a couple of games against a 2100 player. Its human nature to play better when you are down in points and ratings. Hence the real test comes when you are actually in the same rating category as your opponent.

 

[Shuki]

... depends on your endurance. Tournaments are way more energy sapping than actual play. There is also the whole deal of being warmed up just enough, taking enough rest etc etc. I would not register for more than two events. Preferably , one warm up event before the actual event where you want compete. Always remember , its essential to win the lower rated events , believe me winning an event final of an underrated event would help you learn more things about your game than winning a couple of games against a 2100 player. Its human nature to play better when you are down in points and ratings. Hence the real test comes when you are actually in the same rating category as your opponent.

As someone without a rating I think I'd be okay losing to some pretty low rated players. It would give me a lower starting rating, and when you have no rating you can't get out of round robin. A lower start rating would allow me to play and win the prize of a lower tournament in the future. So losing isn't really my issue here. The main concern is, I don't think I'll be able to play at my level if I exhaust myself too much. Not just this, but I'm fairly certain that my style takes a lot more endurance than MOST other players around my level.

We've also had non-sanctioned tournaments here where I've entered 1800 and below and I won. But nobody that I played was over 1620ish I think until the final, and I came against a 1730 Antispin on one side player. I play better against these kinds of players. I had a lucky bracket because I knew the other side a few of the players would have beat me pretty badly. This was about a year ago. At this time I didn't have a need for higher endurance either with my playstyle. I've come quite a long way with my form but having to last through the energy drain is going to be tough.

 

[Der_Echte]

Shuki, it is simply an appearance fee for you. Use the opportunity to further organized TT on any level.

I did those kind of tourneys in the military in Korea all the time. My wife really liked all those PX gift card to shop for perfume.

Some of those tourneys would give out 100 dollar cards if we could muster enough players.

You are the bad-azz at that event, and when you do sanctioned tourneys, there will be 50-100 bad-azz players moar bad-azz than yourself. Mo power to you.

 

[Shuki]

moar bad-azz than yourself

Lets not get ahead of ourselves here ;\


On a serious note, I do gain a lot from playing at these types of events, learning how to deal with non-quality balls is just as important as learning to deal with low, fast, spinny ones. If you don't practice on capitalizing on lesser quality balls, when one comes in a game you may miss them. Keeping your focus against people that aren't as consistent can also be tough since you aren't used to them hitting a really good shot, working on focus is another thing players can work on against lesser players.

And always, no matter how good you are, remember, you can always improve by playing anybody. You just need to find out how. Even a 2000 rated player can learn from a 1500 player, everyone has something that they could be better at.

What I was working on, and a big reason they probably weren't too happy and felt it wasn't fair, was not backing down and taking it easy when I felt I was better than my opponent. Quite few times in the past I've played someone where I'd win 11-3 then 11-5 or something rediculous, and then let off the gas knowing I was better than them and I'd try to just play an easier game to conserve energy. They would then gain momentum and end up winning the entire set, the only person I could blame is myself.

That's why I was working on keeping the steam-roll going. Cobra blah blah no mercy.

 

[ttmonster]

I completely agree with what you say here, its very important to play players who are lower rated. Not just getting used to ball , also to try and get out of the mirroring syndrome . When you play somebody with a bad form, its tough retaining your form because the brain starts copying what you see on the other side

Lets not get ahead of ourselves here ;\


On a serious note, I do gain a lot from playing at these types of events, learning how to deal with non-quality balls is just as important as learning to deal with low, fast, spinny ones. If you don't practice on capitalizing on lesser quality balls, when one comes in a game you may miss them. Keeping your focus against people that aren't as consistent can also be tough since you aren't used to them hitting a really good shot, working on focus is another thing players can work on against lesser players.

And always, no matter how good you are, remember, you can always improve by playing anybody. You just need to find out how. Even a 2000 rated player can learn from a 1500 player, everyone has something that they could be better at.

 

[Shuki]

When you play somebody with a bad form, its tough retaining your form because the brain starts copying what you see on the other side

If only this would work the other way around ;[. Playing someone with perfect form and mirroring would be nice.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

If you don't have a rating, you will only play round robin in all 4. So,
Maximum 3 matches per event: 3x4=12 matches max. I don't see a problem with that since you can't advance, in any of the events, past the round robin. It will give you a decent idea of what you can do.

But I also think, from a long term strategy standpoint, it is better to be underrated than overrated. If you are underrated your rating will climb fast enough. If you are overrated it will fall in a way that will be much less pleasing than climbing will be.

Plus I would way rather be 1400 and kick some 1800's azz than the other way around.


Sent from Deep Space by Abacus

 

[Shuki]

If you don't have a rating, you will only play round robin in all 4. So,

They're actually leaving it up to the tournament committee to whether or not a player can leave round robin without a rating, not all sanctioned tournaments use this rule. If they see you blowing opponents away they won't let you leave

 

[pgpg]

As someone without a rating I think I'd be okay losing to some pretty low rated players. It would give me a lower starting rating, and when you have no rating you can't get out of round robin. A lower start rating would allow me to play and win the prize of a lower tournament in the future. So losing isn't really my issue here. The main concern is, I don't think I'll be able to play at my level if I exhaust myself too much. Not just this, but I'm fairly certain that my style takes a lot more endurance than MOST other players around my level.

We've also had non-sanctioned tournaments here where I've entered 1800 and below and I won. But nobody that I played was over 1620ish I think until the final, and I came against a 1730 Antispin on one side player. I play better against these kinds of players. I had a lucky bracket because I knew the other side a few of the players would have beat me pretty badly. This was about a year ago. At this time I didn't have a need for higher endurance either with my playstyle. I've come quite a long way with my form but having to last through the energy drain is going to be tough.

Sounds like the idea of sandbagging is appealing to you - why not sign up for U800, U1000 and U1200 events in your first tournament - that will for sure maximize your prize winning opportunities in the next tournament. And as far as going full throttle against overmatched opponents - I guess Cobra Kai dojo would approve, but they were kind of bad guys in that movie, IIRC.

Purely my subjective opinion, of course.

 

[Shuki]

Sounds like the idea of sandbagging is appealing to you - why not sign up for U800, U1000 and U1200 events in your first tournament - that will for sure maximize your prize winning opportunities in the next tournament. And as far as going full throttle against overmatched opponents - I guess Cobra Kai dojo would approve, but they were kind of bad guys in that movie, IIRC.

Purely my subjective opinion, of course.

I figured since I estimate myself around 1700 that I should do the u1700 and u1900. If I were going to sandbag on purpose I would definitely just only do lower rates events but I'm not doing it on purpose. I would try to win. I'm just saying if I lost I don't think I would mind.



As for the cobra Kai, yes they were the bad guys. But no mercy is a great rule to follow with table tennis. If you're playing with someone bad or your friends frequently and they hit a high ball at you, always show no mercy and smash that thing. If you get into the habit of just dinking it back since you know they wouldn't return the smash, then when you get in an actual game you'll have a bad habit of trying to place the ball in a dink manner rather than smash it. Muscle memory doesn't stop developing just because you aren't trying.

 

[ttmonster]

It does work for me , atleast when I am playing a player who is just a little bit better than me and perfect form, I usually start playing my best. Yesterday I played a guy probably between 2000-2100 , and with very nice form, automatically I started playing the way I should , with a lot of footwork and reset movements after each shot, and compact swing. I started taking the ball early and also doing over the table loops to balls marginally high.

If only this would work the other way around ;[. Playing someone with perfect form and mirroring would be nice.