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I'm that old myself, but I do spar with a number of players around 20. (I actually am pretty insisting that (a) everybody should play everybody and get something good out of it and (b) that to lead properly is to set an example. So I play everybody, as a matter of principle, and regardless of...

I noticed this to at the club I joined when returning to the game. Exactly this. After a while I turned that around, first for myself -- setting up the robot, shadow excercises, off-table footwork training and so on. Then I involved a few of the free-stylers that I'd been playing against, and...

Played against a very high level player that used it recently. His loops were very controlled and immensely spinny. I don't think he made a single unforced error the entire game, even though playing very actively offensive. So that's what a class player can do with it.

And rise to it he did! “I'm 41 years old and I think that it’s great that I can still compete!”, yessir and tip-o'the-hat to you sir!

Kudos for that patronym! I didn't know twas Victor.

Excellent list! Fully subscribe to it. #1 anecdote: lost a beautiful match to an 82-year old (former) high-level player after winning the first two games with ease — and then he adapted, changed tactics, turning the game around entirely. Never stood a chance after that, leaving me in awe of...

Whoa. The CNT took 6 of the 8 WQF slots. What might.

“You don’t come here to lose. If you come to a tournament you do everything you can to win.” — Vladimir Samsonov FTW!

H3 National over H3 Provincial over H3 for the masses! Even if the rubbers were physically identical, your mind would still make them different. Top-brand peanut butter tastes better, even if the jars come from the same production line and just received a different label. Not saying there's...

I'd love to see a match twixt Yevgeni Ščetinin and Li Jie; wonder whose attack would make the difference in the and. After a very, very, very long exchanges of BH pushes.

I would be surprised of there were such a thing as a monolithic "the china government", speaking in a single voice and acting with rational consistency. On the contrary, I would suspect — like in any large organisation — that what looks like a single organisation in fact turns out to be an...

I bought a few large bags of Kinson balls for training. The old stock isn't depleted yet, I'll be able to share my impressions shortly.

Rasant is fast, it's a beast at 2.1; a little thinner might work out better. Carl does not agree, and his point about not differentiating BH and FH makes sense to me. Barracuda is a fine rubber, with moderate speed and great spin; for me, it suited better for looping/pushing/chopping than for...

Byl CRUSHING them with his HUGE STACK of BARELY PLAYED TENERGIES?

I'll be rooting for Samsonov rising to the occasion. Yet I also think that Mizutani will be keen to assert himself, and the latest plays I've seen from him show him on fire. If he keeps that form I think he'll take this tournament. On the women's side of things: Zhu Yuling is clearly the most...

That's a choice.

Agreed. But I don't think profitability matters. That invisible hand the free market believers worship just isn't all that good in deciding what's important. I run a club. I keep it alive. Yet the things the club does is driven by other motivations than profitability. (I also happen to have a...

Maybe tou don't, but the thing is: the burden of proof lies with the one making the claim. So if somebody claims that some change is a survival necessity, that person needs to prove that there is no possibility of survival unless the proposed changes are made. That is a strong requirement to...

I think that notion of "survival" deserves a close examination. What does it mean? Does it mean it has to be prime TV real estate? Does it have to produce monetizable clickbait for web scavengers ("advertisers")? Does a sport really need highly paid superstar professionals in order to...

They weren't suddenly deprived of the one father figure they had developed a deep trust in, affection for and mental dependency on.