How does one become a training partner for national team members?

[lightspin]

Here in America, there are some very decent players who absolutely cannot feed multiball. They have no clue what they are doing and it is almost an absolute waste of time doing multiball with them.

I also disagree with blasting the ball past a pro to impress them. Do the drill. Do what they ask you to do in the manner they ask you do. If they ask you to serve underspin to practice their dropshot, and you serve topspin to try to trick them over and over, the pro is going to wonder why the hell are they wasting their time playing with you. I have seen this happen live. The idiot player wanted to impress the pro by trying to be clever and trick them, the pro killed the ball and said "serve underspin like I asked or I will kill everyball past you" and then that the was last time they practiced together as the pro has lots of options of who they can play with and the normal high level player doesn't.

Also if you are doing some footwork drill with a pro and you angle them wide then rip the next shot so they cannot get to it, you are just going to irritate them, They are the pro/national team player, not you. Do the drill in the manner they ask or expect to never practice with the player again. If the pro wants you to wide angle/rip then fine. Just ask what they want, do it to the best of your ability and pros will consider you for practice. Your goal is not to be cheap and make them miss, your goal is to help them practice.

I have seen this first hand at my club. A few players cry "why don't the pros practice with me?" and when they finally get the chance they do idiotic things to annoy the pro. Then they are never asked again to practice. Winning cheap points by not doing the drill correctly doesn't make you look good or impress a pro, it makes you look like an annoying idiot and worthless to train with.

 

[NextLevel]

Two things you can do to greatly increase your odds:

1) Learn to feed multiball
2) Learn not to be a moron during practice. If your partner wants to do a drill, do it to whatever specifications they want and try not to upstage them or make it unnecessarily more difficult than what they want. You don't impress a pro by blasting the ball past them. You impress a pro by doing exactly what they want so they can get better when it is their turn to pick the drill.

This is true at all levels of play, especially those that are above USATT 1800. But for some reason, aspiring players don't understand you don't impress better players with your power, you impress them with your control, accuracy and precision.

 

[NextLevel]

Here in America, there are some very decent players who absolutely cannot feed multiball. They have no clue what they are doing and it is almost an absolute waste of time doing multiball with them.

I also disagree with blasting the ball past a pro to impress them. Do the drill. Do what they ask you to do in the manner they ask you do. If they ask you to serve underspin to practice their dropshot, and you serve topspin to try to trick them over and over, the pro is going to wonder why the hell are they wasting their time playing with you. I have seen this happen live. The idiot player wanted to impress the pro by trying to be clever and trick them, the pro killed the ball and said "serve underspin like I asked or I will kill everyball past you" and then that the was last time they practiced together as the pro has lots of options of who they can play with and the normal high level player doesn't.

Also if you are doing some footwork drill with a pro and you angle them wide then rip the next shot so they cannot get to it, you are just going to irritate them, They are the pro/national team player, not you. Do the drill in the manner they ask or expect to never practice with the player again. If the pro wants you to wide angle/rip then fine. Just ask what they want, do it to the best of your ability and pros will consider you for practice. Your goal is not to be cheap and make them miss, your goal is to help them practice.

I have seen this first hand at my club. A few players cry "why don't the pros practice with me?" and when they finally get the chance they do idiotic things to annoy the pro. Then they are never asked again to practice. Winning cheap points by not doing the drill correctly doesn't make you look good or impress a pro, it makes you look like an annoying idiot and worthless to train with.

Tony was joking, it is almost impossible to blast the ball past a pro if you are drilling with them, so he was saying that if you can even do it, they will be impressed. But I know your main point is that your power is not going to impress pros, it is your ability to control the ball and keep them sharp that does. If you can control your power and you are pretty much a pro/semi-pro, of course, your power becomes meaningful. But if you can't control the ball, your power is meaningless, no one wants a ball that is just sprayed to random spots, it is very likely once the ball comes back to somewhere other than where you expect it, you have no clue how to sustain.

Enzo posted a practice session (not a lesson) with a player much lower rated than him that shows the kinds of things required in the odd case that you actually get called into duty as a lower rated player.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

Tony was joking, it is almost impossible to blast the ball past a pro if you are drilling with them, so he was saying that if you can even do it, they will be impressed. But I know your main point is that your power is not going to impress pros, it is your ability to control the ball and keep them sharp that does. If you can control your power and you are pretty much a pro/semi-pro, of course, your power becomes meaningful. But if you can't control the ball, your power is meaningless, no one wants a ball that is just sprayed to random spots, it is very likely once the ball comes back to somewhere other than where you expect it, you have no clue how to sustain.

Enzo posted a practice session (not a lesson) with a player much lower rated than him that shows the kinds of things required in the odd case that you actually get called into duty as a lower rated player.

yep

but we need to define pro, lets say the 1900 vs 2800
the 1900 will never get a blast past a 2800
if he can, he isn't 1900.

and it is another way around, the 2800 will attack and the 1900 will block the ball off, just no control with that kind of quality.

but if we are talking about proper training partners for national team members, one would assume the quality is much higher.

but then again, are we talking Taiwanese national team member, USA national team member or Australian national team member (in order of strongest to weakest). Clear definition is required.

if we take Kanak Jha for example, I don't think 2400+ players will behave like what lightspin's example is, or is it possible? you got some high level, "why pros don't practice with me".

 

[lightspin]

Without outing anyone, it is possible lol. I asked one former province level player what would happen if someone on their province team acted like that and they said the coach would just kick them off the team.

I think my advice is just geared towards a worse player trying to find a way to practice with a better player. I know of a few reasonably skilled players who complain nonstop "Why don't the better players want to hit with me?" and it is simply because the better players don't want to waste their time hitting with someone who acts like an idiot in practice.