I want opinions on my chances of pro

[KTableTennis]

I started playing table tennis at the age of 11 in August of 2024. After just 11 months of training I achieved a usatt rating of 1807. In my previous tournament I came close to beating a 2130 and a 2048 taking them both to the 5th game. One of my biggest wins is when I beat a 2000 in a match. My goal is to reach the top 50 in the world for men’s table tennis. My coach says I am already playing like a 1900 and I beat most if not all 1900s that I play. I have a lot of support from my club and I have so much love and passion for the sport. Here is what my training is like!

Monday: 30 minutes of serve practice before school, then a 2.5 hour training session with my training group of other kids a little better and more experienced than me

Tuesday: 30 minutes of serve practice before school. 45 minutes of consistency practice with my robot at my table at home

Wendsday: 30 minutes of serve practice before school, then a 2.5 hour training session with my training group of other kids a little better and more experienced than me

Thursday: 30 minutes of serve in practice before school, then 1 hour of drills at home on my robot at home.

Friday: 30 minutes of serve practice before school, then a 1 hour training session with my training group of other kids a little better and more experienced than me then a 1.5 hour private lesson.

Saturday: 3 hour training session with a 2000+ partner

Sunday: rest day and meditation

Note-every day I run for my track team and every night I do some positive thinking and visualization/meditation

What are your opinions?

 

[songdavid98]

might be late to become the next Ma Long, but anything else is still possible.

make sure your saturday partner also improves.

youre going to get stuck if your Saturday partner gets stuck too.

but if you both learn and teach each other, almost anything can happen.

EDIT: the group training isn't bad, but that's usually not where real improvement happens. Might be better to find more friends to do 3 hour sessions.

I do notice a lot of serve practice. That is good. But you need to do a lot of serve return practice too.

 

[BlopChock]

Firstly, congrats on your rapid improvement in less than a year!

Recommend watching our esteemed Tony'sTableTennis' video about a day at Cathay TT Center:

Which reminds me: I'd definitely add some core strength training (eg planks, leg raises, etc) to your physical regimen.

Best wishes on achieving your goals, K - have fun, and keep us posted on your journey to the top!

 

[pong99]

How do you do in age group tournaments? Did you play in the US Nationals?

The under 13 boys winner was over 2300. This should give you an idea of where you stand relative to other kids your age in the US.

Years ago I played a 12 year old kid who ended up representing team USA in international tourneys and peaked at over 2600. His parents took him to China every summer to train. These are the kinds of kids you will be competing with.

You will need the funds to access high level training partners in order to reach elite level.

Good luck in your journey and remember to always have fun

 

[lightspin]

Some advice:

1) Practice as much as you can.
2) Do not worry about your rating at all. Look at your opponent and try to beat them. They are an opponent, not a number.
3) Work on what you are bad at now. You want to be able to do everything reasonably well. Because if you are 2600 and still have a weakness pros are going to do everything to exploit that weakness and it will be hard to fix.
4) You are off to a good start. Keep training hard!
5) Don't worry about top 50, top 100, breaking 2860 or 2200. Just play as much as possible and don't let losing bother you. Play., play and play more. All of the guys in the top 50 played 10s of thousands of hours.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Agree with above, definitely don’t get obsessive with ratings. Seems like great early progress so keep going, the US is fairly competitive in the youth age categories so plenty of milestones to chase and I think in the next couple of years you will probably have a better idea of where things are heading. Great to see you putting in the work early, no regrets later!

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Firstly, congrats on your rapid improvement in less than a year!

Recommend watching our esteemed Tony'sTableTennis' video about a day at Cathay TT Center:

Which reminds me: I'd definitely add some core strength training (eg planks, leg raises, etc) to your physical regimen.

Best wishes on achieving your goals, K - have fun, and keep us posted on your journey to the top!

thanks for sharing.

Taiwan hosts a lot of USA players, so I have a good idea of what it takes to get somewhere in the USA.
I am also involved with quite a few players trying to break into world rank 50.

firstly - congrats on the improvement,
secondly - you are on a catching up game. You need to over take those in front of you, but when you speed up, they are also speeding.
thirdly - the older you get, or the higher level you get, the growth will be slower.

with those 3 in mind.
your hours are not a lot - so this is based on 2nd above.
if you do 3 hours, and your age group competition does 6 hours, it will be very difficult to catch up.

first thing you need to do is get a coach to plan your goal and if you want to reach WR50 (which is close to impossible, you be working very hard and have very rich parents/financial support to be WR100~150), you need to have full time training for the next 10 years, which means finding a way to home school and focus more on training and put in school in gaps/free time/recovering time.

Taiwan is light years ahead of USA in the junior levels.
and we can't even get more than 3 players into WR50.

I have a 2200 level 13 year old training full time in Taiwan, and he is struggling to break into the U13/U15 junior US team.
Maybe you are talented, but you still need the $$ and hours to make it happen.
so either you become full time in USA, or move to Asia and you need to start now, and not let your time go by as growth will be slower every month you become older (and your competition becomes stronger)

good luck.

 

[TensorBackhand]

I started playing table tennis at the age of 11 in August of 2024. After just 11 months of training I achieved a usatt rating of 1807. In my previous tournament I came close to beating a 2130 and a 2048 taking them both to the 5th game. One of my biggest wins is when I beat a 2000 in a match. My goal is to reach the top 50 in the world for men’s table tennis. My coach says I am already playing like a 1900 and I beat most if not all 1900s that I play. I have a lot of support from my club and I have so much love and passion for the sport. Here is what my training is like!

Monday: 30 minutes of serve practice before school, then a 2.5 hour training session with my training group of other kids a little better and more experienced than me

Tuesday: 30 minutes of serve practice before school. 45 minutes of consistency practice with my robot at my table at home

Wendsday: 30 minutes of serve practice before school, then a 2.5 hour training session with my training group of other kids a little better and more experienced than me

Thursday: 30 minutes of serve in practice before school, then 1 hour of drills at home on my robot at home.

Friday: 30 minutes of serve practice before school, then a 1 hour training session with my training group of other kids a little better and more experienced than me then a 1.5 hour private lesson.

Saturday: 3 hour training session with a 2000+ partner

Sunday: rest day and meditation

Note-every day I run for my track team and every night I do some positive thinking and visualization/meditation

What are your opinions?

My guess is you will end up 2400-2500. People tend to peak around 2400 who dont have more systematic dedicated training.

You might be the best player in your city.

 

[mocker88]

We have a 10-year old boy who played for about 4 years now. He practices almost all days of week, and sometimes both morning and evening. In my opinion the thing is to get a lot of hours of really high level practicing with multiple high level coaches, and the variety in match play with many different play styles. Combined with training camps all over the year, and to have 100% support, help and understanding from your parents to get help with all practical things like driving (all the time) to practice at our club and other clubs, ordering material, assembly, arrange contacts for practice, money for all this extra practice etc.

Today he plays about even with me and he will play in my team in the leagues this autumn, at a "medium" Swedish level (Div 3). This year he has been called to participate in several national camps and he is representing Sweden in the Euro Mini Champs in the end of August

I think this is similar to how you need to live your table tennis life...

 

[GOAT 🐐]

Don’t wanna be mean but very very low chance. A lot of people are already 2300 ish that are younger than you. Sorry, but it’s prob true

 

[Ghostzen]

Kudos on a good start.
Work hard, then harder and see where it takes you.
Best of all... enjoy your journey.

 

[Tyce]

I'm gonna tell you, but you already know.

You have the confidence, discipline, passion and a good foundation of people around you who support you.

You don't need random forum people's opinions
You don't need different types of (good) advice

What you need is to keep up what you're doing, use that dedication to live and breathe TT, keep challenging your coach as to what you need to get further and further even if that means different coaches. You need to be a mean, lean, table tennis machine.

...and still, that doesn't mean you'll ever break into Pro territory. You need connections, financial support, and even then, you'll also need luck.

My best advice is to read that last bit, stick it in the back of your head but never make that doubt your ways. That's your best chance of making it.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

A lot of people believe that to get to the top you must have a lot of money. And you have to have more training than everyone else. But that’s not true. The only things you need is passion, discipline, dedication, determination, drive, and support. You need to be able to keep going even when people push back at you and when it gets the hardest. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. If you reach the top of the mountain, find a bigger one

thats great.

when you ready to tour the world, you need around 5000 USD per international event for you and your coach.
you will need about 15~20 events a year, so if you don't have a budget of 100k USD per year just on competition, it is impossible to break into top 50, no matter how good you are now or how much passion or discipline you have. You need a solid funding plan, so either your parents or someone needs to be planning towards that. So it is very important your family have the same view of getting you to the WR50 than just you thinking of such goal.

Some players parent had to sell houses to fund their kids pathway to WR50.

I know you still young, but real life, you need to pay bills.
and you need to hire coaches and travel internationally to training camps.
you can only get so far with your current crowd, after that, you need to find other coaches to rise your bar further.

remember, climbing mountains cost money!
you changing rubbers every 2 to 3 weeks won't be cheap too.
once you get to 2600, we can talk again

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Yeah I prob got the tournament money covered . I do a lot of side hustles, and most of all I do drop shipping which I make a LOT of money of of and I have a good car detaili Business with my table tennis training partner. So I will probably be set for that because that’s not for a little while

you 12 years old with a business
lovely

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Haha, yeah. I’m on track for making around $10-$15k a year as of right now

if that is true, then give up trying to become a TT Pro, and rather just focus on your business, and maybe join a sport that is way easier to turn pro.
success rate for table tennis is just too low, especially starting at such a late age.
most that have hit WR50, started before 7 years old
you got a better base to be a successful business man
so put your energy on what is possible.

 

[boretennis]

please post a video of you playing

 

[pingpongpaddy]

A lot of people believe that to get to the top you must have a lot of money. And you have to have more training than everyone else. But that’s not true. The only things you need is passion, discipline, dedication, determination, drive, and support. You need to be able to keep going even when people push back at you and when it gets the hardest. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. If you reach the top of the mountain, find a bigger one

HI KTT
plenty of good advice here already
You have made a good start and seem to have a good handle on what's needed.
I note that you have a well planned weekly schedule, including a rest day which is good.
Just make sure that your development as a rounded human being matches your technical improvement
good luck

 

[XpingpingpongpongX]

I think the best player in the US is ranked about 50th in the world. It is achievable. To reach that level, you need to practice a lot with players of different styles who are at that level. This means, after you reach like 2600 USATT, you will probably need to go and train frequently in Europe or Asia, where you can find more elite players. But reaching 2600 is extremely challenging.

 

[mamedium]

lol this seems like a troll to me
12 year old with a car detail business
12 year old trying to break into W50

could be a 48 year old man playing at a community center with reliable internet

but hey so many good advices and insights already

i am eager to see the video of the OP

 

[XpingpingpongpongX]

lol this seems like a troll to me
12 year old with a car detail business
12 year old trying to break into W50

could be a 48 year old man playing at a community center with reliable internet

but hey so many good advices and insights already

i am eager to see the video of the OP

Having a business at 12 is unusual, but this can be real. It probably comes from the influence from family and friends.

TT is fun and competitive, and the OP is in a fast improving stage. So he's in a enthusiastic mode and set a goal for himself. Very understandable. And I wish every enthusiastic player can improve everyday.