I don't know about 3 months, I wouldn't put a time on it,but the most important thing is not so much training as to expose yourself to 2000 level competition on a regular basis especially in leagues so you can figure out how you win and lose points against them and gain the confidence to handle their ball quality on a regular basis. If you are in the right competitive environment. It is much easier. Looking for drills relies on this idea that winning points is about playing fitter table tennis. Winning points is about causing your opponents bigger problems with placement, ball quality and deception, returning your opponents stronger balls whether they are serves or returns or attacks and putting the ball on the table one more time than the opponent. How you do this is up to you and is not the result of abstract drills. It is the result of what you need to do to get better at winning points and no one can tell you what you need to improve to get there fastest without seeing your game.
While such shots are cool, no one gets an improved rating from hitting trick shots. You do it by getting better results in matches against players at the level you are trying to reach.
This is exactly correct, and the good thing is that it is possible to play better using this approach without working on all the issues in your game - in fact, your game can have major issues and this approach will still largely work at improving your performance. I wouldn't say strengths and weaknesses so much as things that give you points and things that cost you points. In fact, you can have a weakness that never gets revealed if you never play a sequence that forces you to reveal it. IF you serve mostly long fast serves, no one will ever test your short push or short game on your serve, to give an example.
IT's one point in a match. Your rating is not based on one point in a match. In fact, I once asked a 2250 player who hit a cool around the net shot on a 2550 player whether it was better to hit the coolest shot or to win the match. He said he wishes he had done both, but he had to settle for what he could do. lol.
It's a good point that you should start playing some tournaments if you haven't. Record and analyze how you win/lose most points. Because training with the same group of people would make you get used to each other, which hinders improvement I think. That's why tournament matters if you have a big goal.
I’m playing two this month and I’m playing westchester next month
This is where most matches are won and lost at every level. Most club players don't focus nearly enough of their practice on the first four shots to maximize their competition level. If you do, you'll have a significant advantage. Even better is to be more specific. Record your matches (remember to bring a tripod along with your cell phone camera to your tournaments) and you'll see exactly how you tend to win and lose points against players at your target level. This will give you the information and motivation you need to work on exactly those things.
First all, you need to play some tournaments where there quite a few 1900 to 2100 rated players to serve as your step stones, of course, you need to beat a few of them. U1900, U2000, U2100 events are the main avenue you need to target. Don't play U1850, U1800 events as playing against players at or under your rating, you win tiny and lose big as long as rating is concerned.
This is terrible advice - even if one gets lucky in the short tern, the long term mental stability damage is incalculable. Rating points can always be earned back and it is easy to get adjustments from a lower rating. What is more important is to take a process mindset and continue to improve by looking at how you lost and closing out the gaps exploited. I have played many experienced players with similar strength to mine but once I am lower rated, some of them start thinking about the points they are going to lose and play much worse. Or they have no experience competing in events where they are the favorite and only feel comfortable playing upwards. You need the mental resilience to play whoever is at the table. Let the opposing player demonstrate they should win with good shots, no matter what their rating is.
Simon Gauzy being the exact opposite of your point.
You like to troll don't you? Simon Gauzy wins points. Many players who play trick shots don't win points. You can win points playing trick shots. You don't post one point and then say that means that is how you win matches. Even Simon if you watch a whole match, less than 10% of the shots are trick shots.
if you have a few more of that and winning extra 2 to 3 points in a game, and throwing away 2-3 less points every game, then you would gain that 200 points
