Cracked 1200 last night...

May not seem like much, but a big milestone for me.  Had a great night at league play last night, improving my rating from 1175 to 1255. Had a few big wins against opponents with significantly higher ratings.

Something clicked last night, a revelation of sorts… for my game, anyways:

- When playing a superior opponent, you must go for shots. Playing timidly and defensively will not win the match. You must attack.

And yet...

-  Don’t be over-eager to attack the ball. Doing so results in a lot of errors. Exercise patience, wait for your openings.

These two points seem to be a bit contradictory, yet they need to coexist.  The key seems to be to find the right balance between the two.  Last night I seemed to find this balance better than ever before.


Edited by djnelsen - 04/25/2012 at 9:13am

Finding that balance is EVERYTHING in order to win matches. It can also be difficult to force yourself to play differently in club/practice play vs tournament play. The best way to improve quickly is to always play as aggressively as possible, attack every possible ball, and when you hit a defensive shot, place it perfectly with max spin -- don't just put it back on the table.

However, if you play this way the majority of the time, it can be difficult to adjust to conservative, win-at-all-costs style play. I usually pick 1 or 2 matches a night where I play to win, not to improve. This is also practice for me... practice for serious tournament play.

But even then, I think I often play more aggressively than needed. One night, I played an opponent who I felt was just slightly below me in skill... I started off playing all-out-attack/improve style. I went down 2 games to 0. I decided to switch to win-at-all-costs mode, and split the next two games 1-1, losing the match. Later that night, when I was more tired, the same opponent challenged me. I played a much more relaxed, defensive, conservative style, mainly because I was lazy and worn out. It was a blowout, I won 3 games in a row, with scores like 11-4 each time. So, lesson learned, against some opponents, conservative play is the best way to go, it just depends how your offensive/defensive skills match up.

Congratulations on achieving this.

Your 2 points hit the nail on the head tbh.
This goes for any level, being to passive will give the opponent to many oppurtunities, being to aggresive will lead to being error prone.

I noticed when playing my Acoustic I am more passive then ever, but winning alot of matches because of the control and placement I have. However when using my Mizutani, it is easier for me to score points and attack. So it all depends on what you play and who you play aswell, I like both styles but they give me different feeling. 1 of getting every shot on the table and having a superb feel, the other one of being able to counter or attack all balls with a verocious spin.

Here's a trick I figured out is so simple yet incredibly effective. This is nothing new, but I never really tried it before:

When I start to feel frustrated, I just pause and take a very deep breath. Inhale slowly, exhale slowly.

That's it. Just concentrate on the deep breath, don't think about anything else.

Amazing how well this works. Try it.


Edited by djnelsen - 04/25/2012 at 10:30am

Congrats on breaking 1200! My son is 11 just cracked 1200 too after the last tournament a week ago.  His rating was in the 900s, but he's been training and taking lessons but just kept losing close matches in tournaments.  Finally he beat a 1500 player, a 1200 player, and lost 2 very close matches in 5 to another 1500 player and another 1200+ player (deuce in 5th).  He also went 4 close games with a 1600 player.  His rating went from 934 to 1218. 

Originally posted by AcudaDave Congrats on breaking 1200! My son is 11 just cracked 1200 too after the last tournament a week ago.  His rating was in the 900s, but he's been training and taking lessons but just kept losing close matches in tournaments.  Finally he beat a 1500 player, a 1200 player, and lost 2 very close matches in 5 to another 1500 player and another 1200+ player (deuce in 5th).  He also went 4 close games with a 1600 player.  His rating went from 934 to 1218.  The big improvement I noticed was that he was able to get into rallys with his opponents with a controlled offense.  Previously he would go for big shots and make too many mistakes, but I could see it all finally started coming together.  Great job and keep on improving.

how long has he been training?

I agree with Der_Echte.

League participation is the core of competitive TT in any state.

I've watched one of the leagues I play in grow by 75%-100% in 2 years (from 6-8 active members to 12-14 active) and another shrink by an alarming percentage (from 26-30 members to 10-14 members). I'm not sure why exactly, but would be glad to speculate :)

Re: Ratings - I'm confused.

I assume you are part of RITT, who used to used to use Ratingscentral.com for ratings, but haven't in years.

And I don't see them using the USATT League site.

What are ya'll using for league software?

We use USATT League site.  Our league play is steady - neither growing nor shrinking in the past 2 years.

I agree with both of your points as well. Sheesh, I hate to agree with people. I feel like I'm losing blood that way : ) But I have realized that playing safe against a better player means setting yourself for a sure loss. He will always outplay you in long, low-risk rallies. You have to push him around a little, throw him off timing, mess with his head, and you will need a little luck in the risky shots. But at least you will be in a position where luck can help you. With passive game against a better player luck cannot help you. And of course, you have to push it to a point, don't blindly smack everything.