What is the most important area to jump from 1900 to 2100?

[TensorBackhand]

1) Fitness and stamina
2) Serves
3) Receives
4) Topspin strokes
5) Counter loops

Question for 2100+ players. What area do you think is most important to improve from 1900 to 2100? How would you rank them in order?

 

[Jslick89]

I can't contribute to the answers because i'm only around 1700...but don't you think tactics would also be an important category as well? I feel like at a certain level, the physical and techniques are so close that the real separation comes from the mental aspects of the game. I could be totally off basis though!

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Serve and receive and also making sure your first opening percentages are good. I think any player who can make the first loop against any long or half long ball with good quality can make the jump up over 2000 and towards 2100.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

1) Fitness and stamina
2) Serves
3) Receives
4) Topspin strokes
5) Counter loops

Question for 2100+ players. What area do you think is most important to improve from 1900 to 2100? How would you rank them in order?

number 1
stop ejing

 

[Attitude]

For me non of them.
Being able to play it safe, keeping the ball in play was way more important. Then constency.

For your list i would rate it like this:
1. Receive, because serves get better and you have to be able to bring back almost everything.
2. Serves, because having serves beyond your own level will give you so much, that this could be at position one.
3. Topspin, because you will need them more, more consistent, more powerful, better placed... And so on.
4. Fitness and stamina help you being more consistent longer and can make your shots stronger.
5. Counterloops, yeah not useless but they make less than 10% of the shots overall. And most of times a more easier well placed block will give you the point anyway. So why bother taking the riskier shot.


Speaking of which, i would rate something like shotselection way higher as well.
Knowing and reacting accordingly what shot to take on what situation makes you a whole different player.


And to prove my point these were several aspects i trained last season and added around 100TTR in one season because of that which brought me above 1700 german TTR.

 

[kapahoo]

Footwork

 

[Attitude]

Footwork

True i forgot that actually. That especially trasitions to get more consistent, more powerful and for better actions overall.

 

[piligrim]

And to prove my point these were several aspects i trained last season and added around 100TTR in one season because of that which brought me above 1700 german TTR.

In another thread you said it because you using LAC

 

[Tyce]

number 1
stop ejing

Jokingly as it may sound, I was going to write the same thing:
Get quality gear, then stick with it.

 

[mamedium]

consistency

honestly 1900-2100 range is not a big gap
2200 is a different level

 

[TensorBackhand]

Jokingly as it may sound, I was going to write the same thing:
Get quality gear, then stick with it.

I actually haven't bought any gear in 6 months. Haven't seen anything new or interesting. I took about 4 months away from TT and just starting to get back into playing a bit. After beating the 2150 LP Chopper guy, I felt like I had achieved much more than I ever imagined when I started playing in 2022. After that I lost motivation and stopped playing.

Regardless, I know my body and I know what I can do and can't do. It has nothing to do with the gear. Actually a lot of times I like to train with worse or more demanding gear. It kinda acts like a extra weight and forces you to hit cleaner and better shots to overcome. Recently I have been training with the very cheap Sanwei Gears 2.0 (I actually find it much better than the more marketed and expensive Gears Hyper)

 

[TensorBackhand]

consistency

honestly 1900-2100 range is not a big gap
2200 is a different level

Consistency on what shot or situation? i kinda think consistency on receive is most important.

But is there a specific way to improve consistency?

 

[Creek]

You mean usatt Rating, German ttr, or which one?

 

[NextLevel]

I can't contribute to the answers because i'm only around 1700...but don't you think tactics would also be an important category as well? I feel like at a certain level, the physical and techniques are so close that the real separation comes from the mental aspects of the game. I could be totally off basis though!

Not really, usually the tactics that get you to level as high as 1700 USATT are already in your style, the key is usually to improve their quality and application. While the mental aspects are clearly important, I think most of them still show up in play as technical issues or inconsistency etc. It takes me back to something that Sabalenka's movement specialist said, he said that if your technique is right, your mental game tends to improve and when you choke under pressure, it is often because your mechanics are not optimal enough to produce even when your mindset is tense. His main point even if I am not properly expressing it is that people often tend to blame mindset for technical/movement issues.

For example, let's say you don't loop the ball deep enough consistently, is that a technical issue or a mental issue? Or if your serve depth and spin vary too much, is it a technical issue or a mental issue?

 

[TensorBackhand]

You mean usatt Rating, German ttr, or which one?

USATT.

 

[NextLevel]

For me the biggest gap I feel between the players who I struggle to beat at the 2000 level is that they are consistently athletic and physical so they don't fall apart when forced to move and they hit the ball with interest. IF you can make and recover to hit two or three shots with quality, or can defend/counterattack quality shots, you are almost inevitably going to be a threat at the 2000+ level because speed/power kills at that level.

 

[mamedium]

Consistency on what shot or situation? i kinda think consistency on receive is most important.

But is there a specific way to improve consistency?

specific way. there is no short cut. but to improve quickly, try practicing with 2300 levels (or pay them, bribe them, threaten them, beg them… whatever you can)

the high level players are very consistent at what they do - practice w them will improve your tolerance and coordination

how to know when you move to the next level? Well, this is my experience: when i play against 1900 I can see their moves a bit slow. Against 1700 almost like I am watching slow motion movement.

 

[Jslick89]

Not really, usually the tactics that get you to level as high as 1700 USATT are already in your style, the key is usually to improve their quality and application. While the mental aspects are clearly important, I think most of them still show up in play as technical issues or inconsistency etc. It takes me back to something that Sabalenka's movement specialist said, he said that if your technique is right, your mental game tends to improve and when you choke under pressure, it is often because your mechanics are not optimal enough to produce even when your mindset is tense. His main point even if I am not properly expressing it is that people often tend to blame mindset for technical/movement issues.

For example, let's say you don't loop the ball deep enough consistently, is that a technical issue or a mental issue? Or if your serve depth and spin vary too much, is it a technical issue or a mental issue?

hmmm those are good points and I actually agree with a lot of what you said, but I think you could also flip the scenario just as easy. For example, in practice, my serves are almost always low and spinny. In a match, when the mental aspect comes into play, I tend to make more errors on my serve (serving high, or not as spinny, or not in the exact place I want). For serving, it definitely has to be mental because it's not like my opponent is giving me a quality ball and throwing me out of position, you're literally starting the point.

But once the point has started, it's different. Is your inconsistency due to bad technique? quality of opponents ball? bad mental game? Seems like there's a lot of nuance.

I do agree though that at my level, most of my problems are still from technical or movement inconsistencies that could be improved.

I still would assume that at a certain high level, the mental aspect takes a front seat. Like in the NBA, all of those guys are physical FREAKS, tall, fast, perfect shooting motion. However, There are players that are levels above other plays when it comes to shooting daggers when the game is on the line. Kobe wasn't physically levels above other NBA players but he had the most supreme mental game. Drew Brees was definitely not the most physically gifted QB, but his mental game was solid gold.

Even taking it back to table tennis, Ma Long was still winning many matches, even after his physicality diminished because he was strong mentally (WQC on the flip side?). Of course, talking about pros is not the same comparison as us HOBBY players lol.

 

[Dr Evil]

First three shots. Receive is the hardest and I think tracks most directly with competition level. Blocking and countering gets more consistent in the 2000 range, and so shot selection and placement become increasingly important.

 

[NextLevel]

hmmm those are good points and I actually agree with a lot of what you said, but I think you could also flip the scenario just as easy. For example, in practice, my serves are almost always low and spinny. In a match, when the mental aspect comes into play, I tend to make more errors on my serve (serving high, or not as spinny, or not in the exact place I want). For serving, it definitely has to be mental because it's not like my opponent is giving me a quality ball and throwing me out of position, you're literally starting the point.

But once the point has started, it's different. Is your inconsistency due to bad technique? quality of opponents ball? bad mental game? Seems like there's a lot of nuance.

I do agree though that at my level, most of my problems are still from technical or movement inconsistencies that could be improved.

I still would assume that at a certain high level, the mental aspect takes a front seat. Like in the NBA, all of those guys are physical FREAKS, tall, fast, perfect shooting motion. However, There are players that are levels above other plays when it comes to shooting daggers when the game is on the line. Kobe wasn't physically levels above other NBA players but he had the most supreme mental game. Drew Brees was definitely not the most physically gifted QB, but his mental game was solid gold.

Even taking it back to table tennis, Ma Long was still winning many matches, even after his physicality diminished because he was strong mentally (WQC on the flip side?). Of course, talking about pros is not the same comparison as us HOBBY players lol.

Serve consistency is probably the biggest signature of a strong player, but I suspect (projecting a bit here) that in practice you give yourself too much credit for your serves being low and spinny in the absence of a strong returner (in fact, my serves are been relatively high for a long time and I usually relied on heavy spin and I am now trying to to make them lower and faster because too many players I face regularly that I am trying to beat have gotten better at pushing them fast and attacking them depending on their mood when they are high). and don't think enough about the circumstances under which you practice vs those under which you play.

In fact, one of my coaches used to encourage me to jog/sprint in between serves sometimes (and Par Gerrell said something similar) to see whether you could produce good results when interruptions/exhaustion were introduced into your practice session. Table tennis is a beautifully complicated sport, there is so much stuff you can work on to get something to a reliable level, we don't do it for money so we often only scratch the surface. When the new club opens I will create distractions and try to play through them, it is not good to be able to play well only under ideal conditions.