Troublemaking at the 2017 US Open

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I played 8 sanctioned tournaments in 2017 (the ones that count for USATT rating) and 2-3 unsanctioned ones. That was more or less typical year for me, but I suspect most of my club mates play a bit less.

Also, I play in our weekly club league, so that's ~40 sessions ( can't attend them all because of holidays, vacations, travel etc.) , with average 5 matches per session. This counts towards league rating (also maintained by USATT) but is separate from the 'real' tournament one. Oh, league is also free for club members. So, plenty of competitive matches.

Ok, so not too bad actually. 8 tournaments times 5-6 competitive matches is quite close to our league system (19 x 3). Besides apart from the league I also participate in a series of tournaments (open "private" ones held every Monday) also 3-5 matches. Well it depends - it's a Russian system up to two losses. Anyway the amount of competitiveness even with our "seem to be more structured" leagues is about the same ...
 
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Ok, so not too bad actually. 8 tournaments times 5-6 competitive matches is quite close to our league system (19 x 3). Besides apart from the league I also participate in a series of tournaments (open "private" ones held every Monday) also 3-5 matches. Well it depends - it's a Russian system up to two losses. Anyway the amount of competitiveness even with our "seem to be more structured" leagues is about the same ...

Actually quite a bit more than that (121 matches in 8 tournaments to be exact), mostly because I tend to go to ones that run over 2-days, and even at 1-day tournament I usually sign up for several events (whether I should do it in the first place, it's another question...). Plus at Teams you get to play plenty of matches too, so it all adds up.
 
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don't know if I would post this.
If there are trash cans burning they
will probably look for the troublemakers first .
thank you for posting
 
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don't know if I would post this.
If there are trash cans burning they
will probably look for the troublemakers first .
thank you for posting

I tried to read it many ways: backwards, crosswise, clockwise ... I've found everything, only the point was missing ... ;) Could you elaborate ..? :)
 
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Yes, it sure can suffer from the issues you describe (closed community), and there is a widespread belief (somewhat justified, I think) that players in California are rather underrated relative to the rest of US, because they have these very successful junior training programs, but they tend to play each other a lot, so few points can be had (somehow this problem is less pronounced for juniors on the East Coast, but that's another topic). Not a huge difference in the end - there is always a bigger issue of someone who trains A LOT, but plays few tournaments (*cough* kids *cough*) - these cases are treated through adjustment procedure, so no big harm either, besides some hurt feelings from unexpected loss.

US Open/Nationals help in that regard, because a lot of cross-play among regions happens there, and thus creates opportunity to re-calibrate.

Hurt ego as well. TT is the only sport where grown men must fear 10 year olds
 
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