When you thought you were good.

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I thought my level was decent, maybe too many mistakes and not enough training.

Just saw a local competition and my rank shows that I am a beginner level. <1000 RC level.

Oh the feels.... :'(

when will i even get to 1500 level if ever.
 
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It's always like this whenever you go to the club or play a tourney-granted if you playing in a tourney i'd assume that you go to the club enough to know how the whole thing works out.

I started as a garage player 6 years ago and only went to the club last year. I've improved leaps and bounds but there is more to improve upon. Keep at it! I always took it as motivation to improve whenever i saw better people around me.
 
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I've been a french league 1200 at best, equals a 1700 RC level. But I was younger and was training A LOT to get from a beginner level to that 1200, at least 10 to 12 hours a week, and 2 differents leagues (Uni league on wednesdays and french federation team leagues and tourneys on saturdays/sundays). I had a national level coach at Uni, a 1900 ( = 2400 RC) for 5 hours a week. I was playing a lot with him, at least one regular game of 21 pts (it was in the 90's) or a 50 pts game with 3 pts lead per rating difference each session, so from 1000 at that time to 1900 I had 9 x 3 pts = a 27 pts lead to start the game ! I won only once in the second semester ;) , needless to say: he was highly motivated to win from that 0 - 27 start !!! and I was too of course.

But that's how I climbed from 1000 to 1200 in a single year of training with him. Before that I've been training with a 1600 in my local club ( = RC 2100) at least 2 hours a week as a beginner for the first year, that how I climbed from 500 to 1000 (RC 1500, your goal then) in a single year too. So I went from total noob to RC 1700 in 2 years with RC 2100 and 2400 coaches.

There's no secret: you won't get better without hours of training with a proper coach, but also with the proper racket. As your infos shows, your racket has way too much speed and not enough control to me. Control matters first to get consistency and to avoid those amateur mistakes. I've been using a Tibhar IVL and ALL+ tacky rubbers to learn how to play for the first year to get to that 1000 (RC 1500) rating, Then switched to a Tibhar IVS and Mark V, then to a Clipper with 2.0 mm Mark V, then added speed glue at the very end of the 1st Uni year as my 2400 coach suggested.

But I soon switched to a regular glue set-up with a more gentle OFF- 7 ply all wood blade with Donic Vario 2.0 mm rubbers by the end of the 2nd Uni year, and this is what I still use now with Stiga DNA Pro M rubbers: to me after that P ball introduction and being nearly 50 of age, the new ball only required 3 to 5 ° more for sponge hardness with the same 2.0 or 2.1 thickness. The DHS 301 to me is way too much harder, stiff and fast to start with. If you don't train that much and want to keep the rubbers you use with a DHS blade, go for the DHS Wind Series W3010, or any ALL + 5 ply all wood blade like the Butterfly XStar V, the Maze Advance if really the Xstar is not enough speedy. The Tibhar MX-P might too much bouncy too ... ? why not switching to an EL-P rubber ?
 
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Try being me. Playing beside some of the best players in Beijing. I never had a thought that I was good.

Sounds like you need to go overseas to a different country and play tabletennis. You'd definitely be a high level player, and you could coach too. Or you can tough it out there in China, although i can assume competition is tough.

 
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Sounds like you need to go overseas to a different country and play tabletennis. You'd definitely be a high level player, and you could coach too. Or you can tough it out there in China, although i can assume competition is tough.

I never said I could play them! 🤣

I usually tremble in fear watching them blast the balls back and forth. Never dreamed playing them!
It does help me improve a lot faster though, you literally have 5 coaches playing right next to you who are good friends.
On second thought, immigration doesn’t seem so bad.😆

 
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I never said I could play them! 🤣

I usually tremble in fear watching them blast the balls back and forth. Never dreamed playing them!
It does help me improve a lot faster though, you literally have 5 coaches playing right next to you who are good friends.
On second thought, immigration doesn’t seem so bad.😆

I used to warm-up with coach-level guys (in France it means being at least RC 1800), not playing a whole match for sure, but warm-ups with those semi-pro to pro guys are very rewarding even if it's 15/20 mn only ;)

France is very chinese friendly you know ;) our n°1 women is born in China and married a chinese player playing in the same club since 16 years, he's ranked n°6 and has already won the top Pro A league and the european ETTU Cup. Li Samson is also on of the the french team coach, If you come in the mid west region (Mayenne - Maine et Loire - Vienne departments) you could meet them ;) there are opportunities to make a living as a coach there: you have to be 1300 (RC 1800) at least, then graduate in the FFTT federal coach diploma, the first level, not a big deal only 2 weeks total of theory and practice, paid by your club ;)

Good news is: in France it costs almost nothing to play table tennis in a registered club of the FFTT, only 150 € more or less ... a whole year ! if you play that well then only a year of team and single competitions would get ou to that FFTT 1300 / RC 1800 level required to graduate for the Entraineur Fédéral exams and then start a business or even better be hired by a club full time to train their youth players.

 
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I used to warm-up with coach-level guys (in France it means being at least RC 1800), not playing a whole match for sure, but warm-ups with those semi-pro to pro guys are very rewarding even if it's 15/20 mn only ;)

France is very chinese friendly you know ;) our n°1 women is born in China and married a chinese player playing in the same club since 16 years, he's ranked n°6 and has already won the top Pro A league and the european ETTU Cup. Li Samson is also on of the the french team coach, If you come in the mid west region (Mayenne - Maine et Loire - Vienne departments) you could meet them ;) there are opportunities to make a living as a coach there: you have to be 1300 (RC 1800) at least, then graduate in the FFTT federal coach diploma, the first level, not a big deal only 2 weeks total of theory and practice, paid by your club ;)

Good news is: in France it costs almost nothing to play table tennis in a registered club of the FFTT, only 150 € more or less ... a whole year ! if you play that well then only a year of team and single competitions would get ou to that FFTT 1300 / RC 1800 level required to graduate for the Entraineur Fédéral exams and then start a business or even better be hired by a club full time to train their youth players.

Merci bien!
By coincidence I had been learning a bit of French as a third language😁
Sounds like a good backup career option. I’ll train hard for now!

 
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If you in Asia, especially the far east, you can never be good.
even a national level player can face some aunty or uncle (some retired elder) and make you earn each point as like you are a little kid.

Other than maybe the elder was a former top player themselves, or they have "street" skills, that is uncommon to the rallies the top players are used to.

as the Chinese saying goes, one mountain will always be higher than another mountain.
So don't think you are a high mountain :)
 
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If you in Asia, especially the far east, you can never be good.
even a national level player can face some aunty or uncle (some retired elder) and make you earn each point as like you are a little kid.

Other than maybe the elder was a former top player themselves, or they have "street" skills, that is uncommon to the rallies the top players are used to.

as the Chinese saying goes, one mountain will always be higher than another mountain.
So don't think you are a high mountain :)
In China, elder is not an adjective, but a title.

 
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Hello Elder Bird, would you consider flying down here to Indonesia and have a match with me? 😂

I would never dare to dream of such a title on myself!
I am a genuinely terrible player, I would probably get destroyed by you and most people here.

 
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Feel you... I also thought I was better than I really am, it hurts.So I'm trying a feel things, I got a little bit better, and I hope it can help you too_One awesome trick is to keep the score in your head even in practice, like every second of your training session is a match. That way you try to become consistent, and keep maximum focus during practice.Without proper coaching it's so difficult to get better, so I'm trying to get good coaching tips online: PechPongTT is awesome, also YangYangTT, Coach Lin and EmRatThich have nice tips too. On the reading side, Larry Hodges articles are pretty good. And books too. Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers by Larry Hodges is a MUST. I'm reading for the second time now.Improving the tactics part, I am thinking about getting one of those robots and practice technique like hell, to become more consistent and have better shots.
 
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