OK, here is the OOAK post I made. USATT 1500 is average USA or Korean TT club player. 2000 level will get you into div 2 in my city of strong div 4 national level in Korea.
Many players under 1500 rating can have practice strokes that look 2000, but some thing(s) is/are keeping their game performance from being close to their practice strokes.
There can be a lot of reasons for this. I list some of them, they overlap a lot of what is said already. I see a ton of players here in Korea on the rise who can bang FH to FH all day long and not miss, but come game time, it is a different story. I have asked some new players at our club with some good looking FH drives to play doubles, only for the coach to advise against it as their game is not game-ready yet. Of course not every 1500, 1600, 2000, 2200 level player is the same or does the same stuff, but some general things apply to most.
A few reasons why players do not crack 1500. A lot of what I write applies even to some 2000 level players, but they are obviously further along the path to correcting the deficiencies. Last post, I kept it simple, here, I expound a little bit.
Some reasons why TT players do not reach 1500, 1800, 2000 levels.
1) Cannot properly read spin
2) Cannot be in position for shots
3) Strike the ball out of their optimal strike zone
4) Cannot receive serve
5) Have little spin variation on serve or it is too obvious
6) Do not control depth of serve, nor the height, nor the break, not the location of bounce on serve
7) Make a nice attack, but are unprepared to continue the attack. One block by opponent wins the point.
8..Try for too much power by lifting their elbow or bending backwards, that creates an attack that might land, but player is way off balance to do anything afterwards.
9) Poor balance, stance, and play too upright
10) Try to make power shots (without max spin) when ball has dropped below table
11) Reach for balls
12) Do not step in on serves that are short
13) Do not have courage to step in and flick, even if they know how to flick
14) Make poor decisions on which balls to attack
15) Do not make quality pushes - their push is attacked easily for a point
16) Do not make passing shots that carry light topspin, clear net low, and are difficult to attack and setup an attack for the next shot
17) Do not stay calm in match, easily distracted or upset, bothered by every noise
18) Do not construct points, have no plan how to setup their strong shots
19) Do not take advantage of the serve as a means to create an immediate offensive advantage
20) Grip the bat way too tight in a close point or juncture in a match
21) Use a grip that is difficult to transition form FH to BH and back to FH
22) Move too early before opponents hit the ball, open themselves to a ball hit by where they just were
23) Commit to a FH or BH return by moving arm and blade before opponent strikes ball, which gives away easy point
24) Do not stay close to the table to block to take advantage of time pressure and angles
25) Do not block off the bounce, reach for the block, do not adjust bat angles, do not block to difficult spot, do not know how to block soft, hard, or active
26) Do not have good depth on offensive shots, lands too shallow and allows opponent to easily counter attack
27) Do not generate heavy spin, spin they make is too weak and easy to counter or block
28) Do not know how to vary the spin on attacks and do not attack at different speeds
29) Land attacks, but not at a high enough percentage, inconsistant, lose too many points attacking balls that should be high percentage
30) Attack the "wrong" balls, make poor decisions on which stroke to use
31) Do not have a trained sequence of combinations to attack or block. One block from player's attack or one continued attack from players block is the end of the road - no further plan on how to continue.
32) Do not use enough wrist in loops, lose too much spin. Do not use the whole body. Often raise playing elbow our scrunch shoulder instead of lowering waist and exploding throught the strike zone.
33) Do not know which serves will get which kind of likely return.
34) Do not adapt as match goes on. Try to win using the same tactic or shot, even if opponent has proved he can handle it.
35) Does not have a dependable BH loop opener or BH power shot (shakehand players)
36) Move too far from table to counter
37) Do not move in to hit balls that do not kick towards players, such as a slow, very light underspin or a no-spin ball
38) Too scared to attack, even when presented with a good attacking chance, push balls they shoul loop, then find themselves defending a strong attack.
39) Do not learn what troubles an opponent or what shots give the player a better ball to attack
40) Do not stay crouched in point, do not make a good first step
41) Do not use 2 step or crossover footwork with balance, cannot move to the wide FH to attack, then bounce back towards nuetral position to cope with the return
42) Get scared when they see opponent use heavy topspin, instead of using it as an opportunity to block or counter to disrupt his timing
43) Do not seek to play vs a variety of styles. Ex, can play OK vs a similar attacking topspinner, but fail vs Short Pips BH or LP players
44) Very indecisive or overdecisive
45) Frequently move the hitting elbow forward before impact, reduces power, spin, landing % - that uses mostly shoulder which is too weak compared to using whole body
46) Do not observe strengths/weaknesses of opponents beofre match
47) Do not have an understanding of where to strike the ball (back of ball, top of ball, slightly under the ball) for diffenent incoming balls
48) Backswing pusts racket way too low for an incoming topspin ball, causes player to swing upwards and often long/out
49) Can open vs underspin with an upwards lifting stroke, then use the very same stroke to attack the block, which is usally a light topspin. Result is fail
50) Use the wrist wrong. Use too much slap, (the part of wrist motion that can have a 90 degree range instead of wrist pivot (the part of wrist that has a 30 degree range in each direction
51) Try to wrap around the ball, instead of simply using a consistant swing plane and explode through the ball.
I'll stop at 51 beofre any of you throw a frypan at me.
haha
