says
ok, I will go back and make sure you have access.
Be...
That's true, but professional means the main mean of income. You don't have to play world tours. And I am not sure how stronger Brazilian table tennis is (other than Hugo and Tsuboi and Ishy).
What about Keenan Southall? He started late, or not? How does he play now?
And I believe many people underestimate how important talent is. If he's talented and trains hard and smart I believe he can be a pro. Without talent...it's not so likely, but we don't know if it's possible. I guess most of the "I wanna be a pro but I started late" guys are giving up too early or they didn't practice smart and hard enough. enough. So we never see how far can someone get when he starts late.
Sadly people who are that rare prodigy with exceptional talent usually get noticed and thus wouldn't be asking on a forum.
And Keenan Southall is nowhere near a professional level, it is concerning that you mention that in conjunction with your own goals to go pro, the bar may be a lot higher than you seem to think it is.
I asked about Keenan, because I didn't know where he is now, but remembered that he decided to go pro late.
ajtatosmano2 said:I asked about Keenan, because I didn't know where he is now, but remembered that he decided to go pro late.
Sadly people who are that rare prodigy with exceptional talent usually get noticed and thus wouldn't be asking on a forum.
And Keenan Southall is nowhere near a professional level, it is concerning that you mention that in conjunction with your own goals to go pro, the bar may be a lot higher than you seem to think it is.
I asked about Keenan, because I didn't know where he is now, but remembered that he decided to go pro late.
If by "going pro" you mean training and playing full time, sure, unfortunately he is nowhere near the pro level so that probably isn't a very encouraging example.
Do we know of greats, past and present, that started at a later age?
I vaguely recall Werner Schlager might qualify, but can’t think of any other.
"Schlager began playing table tennis when he was six years old, learning from his father, Rudolph Schlager and brother, Harald Schlager who were also top Austrian players, making them ideal training partners" Quoted from the wikipedia.
One thing about usa ratings too is they are not linear really. Going from 2000 to 2200 is probably easier than 2400 to 2600.
Listening to Americans referring to USATT ratings is bit like Kenyans commenting on the state of world ice hockey.
How ?
I've seen 12 year olds with a Swedish rating of about 1400 beat the crap out of USATT 2000+ and I've also seen USATT 2000+ stand their ground pretty ok against Swedish division 3 players (5th tier national level who usually has a Swedish rating a bit north of 2100). The rating in the US doesn't seem to be very consistent and the average level seem to be very poor.
I've seen 12 year olds with a Swedish rating of about 1400 beat the crap out of USATT 2000+ and I've also seen USATT 2000+ stand their ground pretty ok against Swedish division 3 players (5th tier national level who usually has a Swedish rating a bit north of 2100). The rating in the US doesn't seem to be very consistent and the average level seem to be very poor.