How long does a player stay intermediate ?

says Spin and more spin.
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How long where you an intermediate player for ?

I would say that the answer really depends on the person, their talent level, the kind of training they have access to and a whole host of other things that make it so everyone is going to be different.

But I also think it depends on how you define "Intermediate".

My definition of an intermediate player is any player who is a decent club level player, who knows all the basic strokes regardless of what style they play, has facility with those stokes, has decent game skills and at the top level of "Intermediate" would be just below the level of a Semi-Pro player.

So, based on that definition, 97% of the forum members are "intermediate" level players or lower; And....very few people ever get passed that level. :)
 
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I've got about ~8 years of playing time. Pretty confident I'm in the intermediate group. Also pretty sure I'll never break beyond that group ;). Having spent time in China, I might even have to relegate myself to "upper-beginner".
 
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This all depends on your situation. You can climb above the intermediate level if you put the time in training with a help of a coach (maybe even a very good training partner), attend camps, and gain a lot of exposure against better players during tournaments.
 
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I was also going to say that you stay intermediate for life unless you are particularly blessed with talent, time, the right environment etc., but since you've already got that answer I'll go the opposite direction: 4 to 5 years of good coaching and then you are an expert. Nothing to do with being professional but in terms of how you understand the sport you should now have reached expert level and know more and play better than 90% of all people who've ever played the game.
 
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It seems to me that the status of intermediate is too wide ranging and doesn't tell us enough about a player. I would be interested in thoughts on this.
It seems that in the US they have a numerical ranking which gives, those that know the system, a pretty good idea of the standard of a particular player.
UpSideDown Carl - what numerical ranking in the US covers Intermediate players and how much difference is there between the upper and lower levels?
 
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I have seen over the years on forums where some member "Identifies" self as intermediate, then later you see video of that one playing, then you see that player is such a newb beginner level it is silly.

Very often, the "Intermediate" self-classification just means that they are better level than a player who cannot recieve even 2 of 10 serves with a sandpaper bat.

In USATT terms, very often this intermediate player is not even 200 USATT California level. Just about any 8 yr old rated under 300 in a West Coast bay Area TT club would smoke the living daylights out of the intermediate player and dominatte that player in a match. The resulting loss of pride and ego would lead to severe tramatic mental problems resulting in the "intermediate" self classified player becoming SO DEMORALIZED to the extent that would NEVER DESIRE to step foot within 10 miles of a TT table ever again for the rest of their lives as they make a mad dash to the social welfare center to file for lifelong disability insurance benfits.
 
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Having said what I said in my above post, some players have started TT at even lower levels and advanced to skill lelvels that can be easily stated as top ten percent of their nation.

Such development from a low level to a top ten percent level can happen, but it almost NEVER happens by telling a forum one is "Intermediate" and procede to ask a parade of dumb-azz questions (and NOT pursue professional coaching help/training) (often because it is not available or costs too much or is too far away to be practical) that would cause a reasonable person to question whether the person is playing the forum members.

Even having said that everyone starts somewhere and the kind of questions they ask, if recorded, then viewed later by the same person who achieved that top ten percent level would both embarrass and make the player LOLROFL hysterically at how newb dumb those questions were... but players at that level start somewhere and that in itself is not embarassing, at least at the time.
 
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I hate an "intermediate" level name. It says very little. For me, it says I am not a total newb and I know how to hold the bat but I am not a pro. That level spans a very very large amount of players. I would prefer a more if people stated "I am a hobby player" or "I am a club player". Most people I know who are training regularly in a club are much better all-round players than those who play regularly but without any coaching.

It would be a fun thought experiment to list some milestones each of us had reached at some point (or some of us has yet to reach). For me those which meant most of me, milestones that made me think that I leveled up would be: learned to loopedrive, to slow loop and overcome an opponent with spin, loop underpin balls, loop with sidespin both wings (backhand is much more fun), etc.
 
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Remember Ben Larcombe's 'Expert in a Year' challenge, he defined an expert as someone who is ranked in the top 250 in their country. So whilst it might be very, very difficult to become an expert in the US, in a smaller country like, oh... let's pick Scotland... this is definitely achievable. :D
 
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Remember Ben Larcombe's 'Expert in a Year' challenge, he defined an expert as someone who is ranked in the top 250 in their country. So whilst it might be very, very difficult to become an expert in the US, in a smaller country like, oh... let's pick Scotland... this is definitely achievable. :D

Yeah. I think the intermediate label people use is relative to the playing level around them. Some people call themselves intermediate because they're a bit better than their average garage level play friends.
 
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