Have you ever played a pro?

yesss, they are a class act especially if they are anywhere near the world top 200

rustyfo wrote: I ran into Li Moding (rating = 2748) who is the best player in the Danish league atm (a Danish club just bought him from China) at an open tournament 2-3 weeks ago. He's beaten Finn Tugwell+Allan Bentsen both 3-0 a month or two ago (they are Danish national team players, world ranking between 60-80 I think). He has not played against Maze yet though. Obviously he was waaay better than me, but he turned out to be a nice guy, so he gave me a chance to play some of my game instead of owning me with his serves+short game. I ended up grabbing a set which was quite a fun experience even though I am fully aware that he was only giving like 50% :P

I think i played in this tourney : ) in Brabrand?

I got to hit with the ex-pro again yesterday for 90-minutes doing drills. Playing much better players is the way to go. The problem is . . . much better players have to play us.  Our challenge is to make it worth wild for them. I am trying to rally as long and hard as I can and blast enough winners to keep him on his toes . . . at least in his "B" game. He agreed to hit with me again next Sunday at 3PM.  

http://server2.usatt.org/organization/halloffame/bozorgzadeh.html

I can say that I am lucky to get to play a couple of legends from the Chinese National team (70's) almost every week. Husband and wife, Former World Champions Li Zhensi and Zhang Li. They were US National team coaches in the 90's. They were also coaches in China after they retired from competitive play.

I take lessons from them. They really helped me improve my game a lot.

We never really play a game or match. We do play out points, pretending it's deuce, as part of my training. Every so often I think I hit a brilliant shot and their instincts kick in and I'm just left standing there admiring the shot.

The best part is when we talk about the game and I get their insights.

zrrbiteDK wrote: rustyfo wrote: I ran into Li Moding (rating = 2748) who is the best player in the Danish league atm (a Danish club just bought him from China) at an open tournament 2-3 weeks ago. He's beaten Finn Tugwell+Allan Bentsen both 3-0 a month or two ago (they are Danish national team players, world ranking between 60-80 I think). He has not played against Maze yet though. Obviously he was waaay better than me, but he turned out to be a nice guy, so he gave me a chance to play some of my game instead of owning me with his serves+short game. I ended up grabbing a set which was quite a fun experience even though I am fully aware that he was only giving like 50% :P I think i played in this tourney : ) in Brabrand?

Yeah Brabrand in �rhus right? :) how did you know which tournament I was talking about? :D I met him in the group stages of the U21-Elite series. I randomly found this video of him warming up against the worst player in our group lol: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=e-toaQgljFo
That guy was a totally crap LP player though, I thrashed him 11-3,11-4,11-4 or similar.

What series did you play?

Tawny Banh and Wei Wang many years ago.  It was just club play and not real tournaments.  Sometimes, they get in a mood to challenge all the tables in the club.  They beat everyone at the table (nicely, of course) then move on to the next table.  Two main differences I've noticed is that when they serve short, it's REALLY short like they force you to step one leg under the table.  And two, the spins are much heavier so there were many times when I dumped balls into the net or if they reduced the spin slightly, I would pop it up.  Fun times!

Swiffers wrote: tommyzai wrote: Yesterday I had the opportunity to play a former member of the Chinese National Team. He's over here visiting his son, who's in college and was looking for someone to hit with. He heard, "Tommy Zai plays." Apparently, he was having trouble finding someone in this area to play with. I'm very happy he found me. You know how this sport is . . . not much fun playing someone way below your level, so that was what I was worried about . . . him feeling like it was a waste of his time. He wants to hit again next Sunday so I guess I wasn't a total waste. Luckily for me he mostly flat hit . . . I'm pretty good at power+angle blocking and playing fast. He also did a lot of lobbing and letting me smash away. That was a blast . . . literally. Don't ask how I did when he practiced his serves! I just wanted to share this and ask if anyone else has had this kind of opportunity and what it was like.       I get a chance to play one heck of an ex-pro every couple times a month, he's one of my fellow club members.   He won the world championships in, I guess, the late 30's early 40's.  His name is George Hendry and he's now 88 years old.    I'm guessing he used to play offensively, but now, because of his age he does almost all blocking and awsome placement.  Alot of the higher rated players at my club still can't get the ball by him.  He's a living legend in my eyes.

I was coached by the national champion of our country. I played with him a lot. But couldn't really touch his level. He did have some pro level experience. In asian qualifying round he played Ma lin!!!! He said he was destoyed completely. Whatever he did was killed with brutal force. I felt scared hearing the story.

ohhgourami wrote: I played with Steven Chan.  He's actually kinda my coach too and its awesome.  we played a few games and i got raped but it was an eye opening experience.  He's also why im using Joola equipment too.

LOL I WAS JUST HANGING OUT WITH HIM AT NA TEAMS AND HE WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW THIS ONE GUY SWITCHED TO JOOLA TO BE LIKE HIM (referring to you probably)


Originally posted by Swiffers

Originally posted by tommyzai Yesterday I had the opportunity to play a former member of the Chinese National Team. He's over here visiting his son, who's in college and was looking for someone to hit with. He heard, "Tommy Zai plays." Apparently, he was having trouble finding someone in this area to play with. I'm very happy he found me. You know how this sport is . . . not much fun playing someone way below your level, so that was what I was worried about . . . him feeling like it was a waste of his time. He wants to hit again next Sunday so I guess I wasn't a total waste. Luckily for me he mostly flat hit . . . I'm pretty good at power+angle blocking and playing fast. He also did a lot of lobbing and letting me smash away. That was a blast . . . literally. Don't ask how I did when he practiced his serves! I just wanted to share this and ask if anyone else has had this kind of opportunity and what it was like.

 


lol swiffers who are you i must know you i see george like every wednesday, i can pretty much pwn him 3-0, but thats cuz hes pretty old now, but he still has great control, my names raymond, i usually play at shootout tables, 16 years old, do you no my friend kerry? i usually be with him

ANYWAYS, i usually go to china every year to train, i've played with zhang yinings old coach, ive played (for 3 minutes) with chen qi, and a bunch of 2800+ provincial players for jiangsu province team, so yea im pretty loaded in the playing with pro depatremnet

International players...
Christian Hotz (Sui)
Gilles Michely (Lux)
Mike Bast (Lux)
Zoltan Fejer-Konnerth (Ger)

Local players/coaches...
Wei Wang
Stellan Bengtsson
Angelita Rosal Bengtsson

All of them could take me 11-0 if they wanted, but they're nice people and didn't make me look too bad!
When I was hitting with the Luxembourg players, their coach came over and help me with blocking! It was difficult to stay on the table and control the ball properly.

Will like LuckyBob