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Continuing Adventures of GITTTC - 5 |
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mjamja 
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Joined: 05/30/2009 Status: Offline Points: 2765 |
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 Topic: Continuing Adventures of GITTTC - 5Posted: 04/16/2022 at 7:21pm |
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I will be using this thread for posting all of this year's Goose Island Traveling TT Club adventures. So if you see the tittle pop back up to the top of the "latest posts" list it probably means there is a new post from a new area. I will also update the number in the title to indicate a new location.
GITTTC's first stop on this years tour was Lake Whitney and the nearby Waco TT Club (Waco, Tx). The first adventure was having to take a 300+ mile detour on my Tue route to avoid a massive line of severe thunderstorms that featured softball size hail in some locations. I managed to dodge the storms but did not get to play at the club on Tue as planned. I did play on Wed and Sat and had a great time. I went 2-1 on Wed. I lost in 4 to one of the top 2 players. I got killed in the first 2 games, won the 3rd, and lost the 4th 11-9. I beat the other top player in 5 with most of the games close. I am told these 2 players are about 50-50 with each other. My other win was a rather easy on against one of the middle level players. Although I beat him easily in the match, he was a very steady warmup and practice player and was great to hit against. I did a little coaching with one of the lower level players. On Sat I felt like I was playing much closer to my level. I went 4-0 in singles and 1-0 in doubles. I won 3-0 against the player I beat in 5 Wed, and had 3 wins against the player who beat me Wed. Two of those wins were 3-0. I would guess they are both in the 1600, but I am notoriously bad about estimating ratings. I also did a coaching session with the same player from Wed. The club is extremely friendly and welcoming. They have 7 tables (one is a robot table). The courts are a little small and the ceiling is very low. The lighting is good and the dark walls provide great visual contrast to the white balls. They play in a large church owned recreation center (pool, gym, weight room, etc) that is open to the general public. It is $5/day to the center and $2/day to the club to play. The club has cheaper monthly dues and the center offers a $10/month "TT only" membership. I think they play 6 days a week but sometimes turnout is not that great. Below is a very short video showing the TT area. I am planning to go back Monday if the weather is not suitable for kayaking on the lake. Next stop is Palo Duro Canyon and Topspin Amarillo (the local TT club). Mark
Edited by mjamja - 05/21/2022 at 10:47pm |
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mjamja
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Joined: 05/30/2009 Status: Offline Points: 2765 |
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Posted: 04/27/2022 at 12:02pm |
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2nd stop on the tour was Topspin in Amarillo. Nice 4 table facility in a new metal building that looks like it was originally built as some industrial shop or warehouse. High ceilings, very good lighting, and laminated flooring that had pretty good cushioning underneath. Really friendly players. Top rated player is mid 1700's. We split 2 matches and I think he playing better than his rating. The next player is rated high 1600's but seems like he is playing over 1900. He told me he recently beat a 1800 and 1900 player at another club. He beat me easily twice. The other 5 or 6 players ranged from 1500 down to estimated 1200. I won all my matches with them. Normally they are open on Tue, Thur, and Sat. I was leaving on Tue morning so they kindly opened on Mon so I could get in an extra day of play (played 3 days total).
Palo Duro Canyon was great. Biked and hiked. Other than 1 really hot day weather was nice. There was a scary 5 minutes when the edge of a severe thunderstorm dropped some ping pong ball sized hail along with 40 mph wind. So glad the main part of storm missed the park.  About midway down canyon. I am about 1/3 way up SW wall looking across canyon to the NE wall. It is a big canyon.  Edited by mjamja - 04/27/2022 at 12:36pm |
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vanjr
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Joined: 08/19/2004 Location: Corpus Christi Status: Offline Points: 1275 |
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Posted: 04/27/2022 at 4:09pm |
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Love the addition of photos and videos.
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BH-Man
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Joined: 02/05/2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 5018 |
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Posted: 04/27/2022 at 5:46pm |
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Bravo.
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Korea Foreign Table Tennis Club
Search for us on Facebook: koreaforeignttc |
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mjamja
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Posted: 05/02/2022 at 5:39pm |
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GITTTC is going to be out in the wilderness for a few weeks. So there will not be any serious TT updates. In order to satisfy the great demand for GITTTC information I have convinced Mountain Man to make a couple of his shadow stroking in the wilderness videos. Here is the first from Guadalupe Mts. National.Park (Tx/NM border) near CarlsbadCaverns.
Note the new Dr Pepper with Cream Soda net system.. Extra carbonation from Cream Soda prevents nets from just dribbling over and being unreturnable. This national park has the latest in outdoor TT tables for senior citizens. Note the reduced width which reduces the need for athletic footwork. Also it has built in seating so you can rest between points while your Sr opponent is slowly walking to pick the ball after a point. Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Tx is right behind Mtn Man in the video. Here is a pic of the full peak.  Hiking up canyon between Guadalupe Peak and Hunter Peak. End of canyon is known as Devil's Hall.  Edited by mjamja - 05/02/2022 at 7:25pm |
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mjamja
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Posted: 05/15/2022 at 3:31pm |
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Heading into Albuquerque, NM on Mon for 2 weeks. Have places to play on Mon, Tue, and Sat. Hoping to find some place to play 3 more days per week. Had some good biking at Bottomless Lakes SP (Roswell) and kayaking at Conchas Lake SP. But it has been 3 weeks without TT and I am ready to hit some balls.
Will try get some match video so you guys can have a good laugh. Picture of kayaking on Conchas Lake  Edited by mjamja - 05/15/2022 at 3:34pm |
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mjamja
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Posted: 05/21/2022 at 10:23pm |
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Finding some good competition in Albuquerque, NM. Albuquerque TT Club plays once a week on Mon evenings. Also found a private 2 table venue in persons garage which plays Tue and Sat and has even better quality players than the official club. Pretty nice set up in that garage with added lighting and blue tarps for better background. Only problem is long wait between matches as lots of players show up (even coming down from Santa Fe.
Video of Albuquerque TT Club Video of private garage club. Shot at end of day. Did have about 10 players most of the day. Owner is Don on the camera side of the table.
Edited by mjamja - 05/21/2022 at 10:44pm |
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DonnOlsen
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Posted: 05/22/2022 at 7:39am |
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It's fun to watch a survey of illegal serving from around the country. This is one of our trademarks.
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Muhammad Ali reacted to light in 150 milliseconds, near the theoretical limit of human visual reaction time.
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vanjr
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Posted: 05/22/2022 at 8:46am |
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I assume you refer to the first video. The second video serve is as legal as it can be.
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kindof99
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Posted: 05/22/2022 at 9:54am |
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That is for sure a huge garage for two tables.
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DonnOlsen
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Posted: 05/22/2022 at 4:08pm |
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At the Private club, I would not judge the serve of the gentleman closest to the camera in the red headband to be serving legally. But this is America! Thanks.
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Muhammad Ali reacted to light in 150 milliseconds, near the theoretical limit of human visual reaction time.
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mjamja
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Posted: 05/22/2022 at 4:45pm |
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To Don.
I think I saw 2 potential issues with that serve. 1. Not tossing from stationary position. He is stationary with hand up high, but then has a down and the up motion such that the hand is really not stationary before toss. 2. Hand and ball dropping below table before toss. It is close, but I think it did go below. Is that what you saw? Just a note on American TT etiquette. When someone lets a stranger come over and play at their nice private facility, the stranger does not call any serve illegal. In fact the stranger will bring over pizza for all the players when the owner graciously opens up for play on an extra night. Mark - Who found out that Dion's makes really good pizza
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DonnOlsen
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Posted: 05/22/2022 at 7:06pm |
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Yes those are my observations too. Pizza has a great sports' tradition in America, with table tennis pizza competitive with all the others in stories in the food's lore, perhaps, in fact, leading all others. Few sports have all the ingredients as ours to promote a hot slab or four brought to the venue, including the one zillion that also, secondarily, serve as family homes. Certainly not ice hockey or pickleball, for goodness sakes! Bowling has too much beer to remember to order pizza and cornhole people don't look like pizza people to me, plus I question their exertion level to organically motivate the ordering. Though we American table tennis people don't always serve so well (Long ago a Japanese national coach made the observation at a U.S. Open to me that all Americans play differently from each other), we know food. Onward!
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Muhammad Ali reacted to light in 150 milliseconds, near the theoretical limit of human visual reaction time.
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DonnOlsen wrote: