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?
I thought about you a lot since you posted … and then I saw your video. you are talented. to be playing like this, after one year - amazing … and after reading your posts, you also have good working ethics. that is very important.
but … yes, there is aways a but.
your footwork really sucks. you say you are practicing serve a lot, but it is still rather mediocre. so this is what I would do.
forget about the numbers. they’re just numbers. I play with 12-14 year olds a lot. the other day we had kind of a tournament in the club. 11 years old and 12 years old played against each other. 11 year old beat the 12 year old. then the 12 year old beat me and I won against the 11 year old. they are both doing well in their categories, both being top 10. but USATT means shit. it gives you a sense of a progress, maybe, but what counts is how you play, how you handle pressure and how you win under pressure. and USATT won’t tell you that.
further more - double the practice time. basically you are practicing supervised 3 times a week which is not even remotely enough. when I was your age I practiced cca. 7-9 times a week. before every afternoon practice I did 1 hour of serve practice. when I was your age I was a regional champion, national vice-champion single, doubles and mixed doubles, and national team champion. and at that time I started to practice even more, got invited to the national selection practice camp … but then got into unlucky streak of injuries and that was quite a stopper for my development, unfortunately. I took me a looong time to get back on the same level, which just shows how much playtime means.
my biggest advantage was that my dad was a coach. one of the best, actually. he was one of the best players of his generation so I also had a great sparring partner. that was my biggest advantage. and I still needed more than a year to get back where I was … and just as I was starting as a junior my dad got sick and was moving from a club to a club in search for the best possible practice environment and that’s where basically it all ended for me as in the Junior category you develop the most as a player.
so practice hard. don’t forget about physical part of the process. and try to stay healthy. and take every possible moment to be behind the table, playing.
