Daily Table Tennis Chit Chat

[blahness]

Hi everyone.
Here’s a situation I ran into: I was playing a match against someone who turned out to be much weaker than me. Since I’d never played him before, I went in fully prepared for a tough fight. It wasn’t until the score reached 8–0 in my favor that I remembered hearing somewhere that you shouldn’t win 11–0. I tried to concede a point by serving with less spin, but that just seemed to confuse him even more. Anyway, at 10–0, when he was serving, I simply smashed the ball into the net—to which he remarked that I should have just gone for the winner. Has anyone else experienced something like this? If you do need to give away a point, what’s the best way to do it—in a way that’s, I don’t know, more... respectful, perhaps?

I never give mercy points. It is even more disrespectful to the opponent to give mercy points imo. In tennis you see 6-0, 6-0 games all the time and no one bats an eye over it.

 

[dingyibvs]

Hi everyone.
Here’s a situation I ran into: I was playing a match against someone who turned out to be much weaker than me. Since I’d never played him before, I went in fully prepared for a tough fight. It wasn’t until the score reached 8–0 in my favor that I remembered hearing somewhere that you shouldn’t win 11–0. I tried to concede a point by serving with less spin, but that just seemed to confuse him even more. Anyway, at 10–0, when he was serving, I simply smashed the ball into the net—to which he remarked that I should have just gone for the winner. Has anyone else experienced something like this? If you do need to give away a point, what’s the best way to do it—in a way that’s, I don’t know, more... respectful, perhaps?

I usually go for a pretty wild shot and intentionally miss it. That's usually the most believable since 1) I'm up 10-0 so it's reasonable to attempt a high degree of difficulty shot, and then 2) since it's difficult, it's reasonable that I'd miss it. Then it'd just look like I was trying to show off a bit and failed.

 

[jonol]

I've lost games 11-0 and won games 11-0. I don't see a point in the mercy rule, it is what it is.

 

[Archosaurus]

Hi everyone.
Here’s a situation I ran into: I was playing a match against someone who turned out to be much weaker than me. Since I’d never played him before, I went in fully prepared for a tough fight. It wasn’t until the score reached 8–0 in my favor that I remembered hearing somewhere that you shouldn’t win 11–0. I tried to concede a point by serving with less spin, but that just seemed to confuse him even more. Anyway, at 10–0, when he was serving, I simply smashed the ball into the net—to which he remarked that I should have just gone for the winner. Has anyone else experienced something like this? If you do need to give away a point, what’s the best way to do it—in a way that’s, I don’t know, more... respectful, perhaps?

I would just win 11-0. It's up to the tournament organizers to schedule a fair fight.

If you give away a mercy point or suddenly play very badly, it festers doubt in the opponent's mind whether you were actually playing seriously or not.

 

[RPB Enthusiast]

Hi everyone.
Here’s a situation I ran into: I was playing a match against someone who turned out to be much weaker than me. Since I’d never played him before, I went in fully prepared for a tough fight. It wasn’t until the score reached 8–0 in my favor that I remembered hearing somewhere that you shouldn’t win 11–0. I tried to concede a point by serving with less spin, but that just seemed to confuse him even more. Anyway, at 10–0, when he was serving, I simply smashed the ball into the net—to which he remarked that I should have just gone for the winner. Has anyone else experienced something like this? If you do need to give away a point, what’s the best way to do it—in a way that’s, I don’t know, more... respectful, perhaps?

Honestly, people think giving a mercy point at 10-0 is "respectful", but it's actually disrespectful since you're essentially saying that you have no shot getting a point, so here's a free one. If you want to respect your opponent, just play your game and if they can't get a point, then they need to work on a new strategy to get more points. I've only been 11-0 ONCE, and this was when I was about a year into my table tennis journey. I didn't get mad when I didn't win a single point, I just understood I need to make adjustments to get points on the bored, and I respected my opponent for not giving me a mercy point. Tbh people need to stop doing this mercy point crap because you're only disrespecting your opponent, even though you're trying to do a good gesture. That's just my opinion since I try my best to give all my opponents the highest of respect when playing.

 

[NextLevel]

Honestly, people think giving a mercy point at 10-0 is "respectful", but it's actually disrespectful since you're essentially saying that you have no shot getting a point, so here's a free one. If you want to respect your opponent, just play your game and if they can't get a point, then they need to work on a new strategy to get more points. I've only been 11-0 ONCE, and this was when I was about a year into my table tennis journey. I didn't get mad when I didn't win a single point, I just understood I need to make adjustments to get points on the bored, and I respected my opponent for not giving me a mercy point. Tbh people need to stop doing this mercy point crap because you're only disrespecting your opponent, even though you're trying to do a good gesture. That's just my opinion since I try my best to give all my opponents the highest of respect when playing.

IF you have only been 11-0ed once, you need to play stronger players more frequently lol... just kidding but you get my drift...

 

[Archosaurus]

I can usually steal one or two points by doing some stupid serve, but otherwise I'd definitely have been 11-0'd quite a few times. Some of my partners don't fuck around...

 

[RPB Enthusiast]

IF you have only been 11-0ed once, you need to play stronger players more frequently lol... just kidding but you get my drift...

Probably the only person who might be able to constantly 11-0 me if he actually played 100% is the club owner I go to, but he also has 30+ years of experience on me and his pendulum serve is hidden, even when I stand at the end of the left side, you still can't see it lol I've played a few people that are significantly better than me, but I always get points off them each set. I just know I'm much better than how I was a few years ago and I'm happy about that progress without getting coaching.

 

[Archosaurus]

Probably the only person who might be able to constantly 11-0 me if he actually played 100% is the club owner I go to, but he also has 30+ years of experience on me and his pendulum serve is hidden, even when I stand at the end of the left side, you still can't see it lol I've played a few people that are significantly better than me, but I always get points off them each set. I just know I'm much better than how I was a few years ago and I'm happy about that progress without getting coaching.

Is this competition or practice matches? People are pretty happy to just try to blow a hole in the table in competition.

 

[RPB Enthusiast]

Is this competition or practice matches? People are pretty happy to just try to blow a hole in the table in competition.

Practice matches. Every other serve he does is legal, except the pendulum serve. All he has to do is just move his arm more before he makes contact and it would be legal. I rarely play him since he always has his students when I go, but he's fun to play and it definitely shows the gap between skill levels.

 

[Archosaurus]

Practice matches. Every other serve he does is legal, except the pendulum serve. All he has to do is just move his arm more before he makes contact and it would be legal. I rarely play him since he always has his students when I go, but he's fun to play and it definitely shows the gap between skill levels.

I meant playing people who are much better than you and still getting points off them. In competition they might just 11-0 3-0 to get it over with.