Some recent Korean TT adventures

[Der_Echte]

I live here in Korean as a foreigner and either play every day or if I am in Seoul, I visit a new club or re-visit one where I have friends.

The last few days are typical of my week, whether i stay at my club all week or manage to get around.

Recently, I had to drop off the car to get worked on a couple days, which coupled with a smart phone a few hours of time on my hands netted me a random visit to a club run by a former Korean Team player Baek Seung Chang (37) not to far removed from his pro days. He is the one in the white "Le Coc Sportif" jacket.



More to follow in the nex couple posts...

 

[Der_Echte]

I went to my equipment sponser for a visit after a long time (Tak9.com) Korean brand Nexy. Picked up the Blue jacket shown later and a blue Tibhar Team Jersey also shown in a later pic for free. (Good to know some Korean as a foreigner) Bought a Nexy Oscar with Tibhar Aurus both sides. Bought a pair of Nexy shorts and a Morning Breze jersey.

 

[Der_Echte]

Did a tourney over the weekend at Sky TTC with my fellow Korean foreign TTC member Neil.

 

[Der_Echte]

Found myself in seoul on a Friday evening for a company event, then when it waz over, I dashed off tot he train staion to visit former Korean National Player Lee Jae Chul (active on team 1967-1979) I try to visit him a lot whenever I find myself near the main Army camp in Seoul. His club is only 3 km form the camp. Took a couple pics of teh Seoul metro as well.

 

[Der_Echte]

Did another tourney at my club where we fight for tournement balls, yes, tourney balls. Cost of the com is cheep at under $5 USD and the fun factor is high. We are all into uniforms obviously...

 

[Der_Echte]

I do not normally take a lot of pics, but I though I would give everyone a taste of what Korean amature TT club life is like as a foreigner. ^-^

 

[Steven]

Wow, looks really cool. Better than most clubs here haha.
By the way, what are those blue Donic things under the tables for?

 

[Der_Echte]

The little things under the table deflect the ball so it doesn't stay under the table.

 

[Anders123]

The little things under the table deflect the ball so it doesn't stay under the table.

Never seen or heard of them before, but it's actually a really good idea!

 

[WiWa]

Really cool Der_Echte!! Nice to have a look in one of the clubs there

 

[d@vid]

Wow! It looks good! I'll be doing an internship in Suwon from October to April and I hope I'll be able to dedicate some time to some training and games.

 

[Der_Echte]

d@vid, maybe you would be interested in doing a few tournaments. I am President of the Korean Foreign Table Tennis Club and we foreigners here in Korea usually get together and go to tourneys on the weekend. Sometimes I get them to come north of Seoul and do tourneys with my local club, or sometimes we do stuff around Seoul on weekends. One of our KFTTC members is French. Look at Ronan. There is more TT action over here than you can shake a stick at.

https://focusedpursuit.com/usattkorea.html

 

[Der_Echte]

Some more pics from another tourney I played in last Sunday, a 2 player team event, which we won vs a strong field.

 

[Der_Echte]

More Pics from the tourney.

 

[Der_Echte]

Last set of pics. I won a Tenergy 64 Rubber, but gave it away to the second place team female member. I defeated her in teh semis last year in this club's singles tourney and I also traded an Andro rubber I won for some tourney balls. Bad trade? No, good trade, I got enough TT rubbers, I get two new rubbers every two months, that is enough, and I like them (Aurus and Calibra LT) better than Tenergy anyway.

 

[Der_Echte]

One vid. This game one of the finals where I win game one, but lose match 9, -15, -9, 9, -8 with a 3 point handicap as I played div 3. We won the doubles 3-0 to win. This opponent is a division one player and the son of the Korea Table Tennis Gym manager. That TT gym is one of the best places to play in Seoul. Huge place high ceiling, tons of high level players and an elite league. TT is a blast here and I am glad I get to enjoy another year of it.

[video]http://s125.photobucket.com/albums/p69/Der_Echte/Sky%20April%201%202012/?action=view&current=MVI_3667.mp4[/video]

 

[WiWa]

Looks like there are quite a lot of penholders, that's cool I wish penhold was a more common style among European players as well, it is pretty exciting to watch.

 

[d@vid]

Hi Der_Echte, I'm definitely wanna participate in some tournaments with your club! Because I don't speak Korean at all, I think it'll be a good way to have some contact with Korean people (outside of work of course). Do you participate in a league or tournaments only?

 

[Der_Echte]

Korean amature table tennis doesn't really have leagues like you are accustomed to. The largest TT center in Seoul (Korea TT Gym) has a high levelweekly tourney that you can call a league. There are regional and national tourneys going on in various seasons. The local and national circuits will be going on soon. My city's tourney is in two weeks. I usually have some of the KFTTC come play for our club. That was all fine and OK until our players started to dominate div 1 and div 2 in many of our regional tourneys, which pissed off the top local players complaining that only players who actually live in the region and play daily in the region should be allowed.

I play every day in my club. Our club has an end of month tourney and some other clubs also have various tourneys. Seoul has a number of national level tourneys that draw a few thousand players. There are some special tourneys as well, like TAK9.com's (my sponsor) yearly tourney with 4 players winning a weeklong trip to Germany to train. I go to just about every tourney my club goes to as a whole and several as an individual or as part of some or all of our Korean Foreign TTC. We are more of an association of foreigners. We do not own a building or have a club TT hall. A few of our members play/train for free near Seoul Uni and sometimes I pop in to see them, or I meet them at TAK9.com and go out to a new club to hit. Sometimes, if I have business in Seoul and am finished, then I either visit some ex-national player clubs, or go to a new one.

This week, I will likely attend a friend's piano recital at Korea Natl Uni and then go find a nearby TT club I have never visited before. Most of the Koreans know who I am within several minutes of entering the club. I sometimes post on the largest Korean TT board and others have made vids including me (playing vs them). There aren't exactly a lot of foreigners speaking near native Korean hanging around TT clubs over here, so the Koreans spot me pretty easily. Last week, I was in a new club and after I finished a match, this pastor came to me, called me by name, and told me one of my KFTTC members told him a lot of good stuff about me. (I shall have to buy that lad some dinner) It goes pretty much like that for me. Mostly everyone is excessively friendly. Even if you do not know any Korean, you pop into a TT hall, play even half decent and show you are trying, like say eating Kimchi, they will simply LOVE you.

 

[felixsum]

Hi Der_Echte,

What is the playing style of that former Korean Team player Baek Seung Chang ?

Does he play the long-pimple or defence style ?