Table Tennis
Playing Levels - What Level are You?
Beginner,
Intermediate, Advanced - What's the Difference?
In
many table tennis communities, it's common to separate ping-pong players into
three broad groups - beginners, intermediate players, and advanced players. But
what exactly do we mean when we say that Fred is an intermediate player, while
Jim is only a beginner? And at what point does an intermediate player become
worthy of advanced status?
In this article, I'm going to touch
briefly on the ten main attributes that separate these three main groups. For
each of these attributes, think of a sliding scale, with the beginner level at
one end and the advanced level at the other, with intermediate status in the
middle.
You can then assign a fairly accurate
standard to a particular player by deciding where the majority of his
attributes lie on the scale.
·
Beginners
will have a majority of beginning level attributes, with maybe a couple of
intermediate level.
·
Intermediate
level players will have mainly intermediate level attributes, with maybe a
couple of beginner level attributes (for lower level intermediate players), or
a couple of advanced level attributes (for higher level intermediate players).
·
Advanced
level players will have mainly advanced level attributes, with maybe an
intermediate level attribute or two.
Ten Beginner Level
Attributes for Table Tennis
1.
Mistakes - beginners make the most mistakes, especially
unforced errors. Their level of consistency is low.
2.
Points - most points are won from an opponent's unforced
mistakes, instead of being won by pressuring a mistake from the opponent.
Beginners who play safe and try to avoid errors will tend to defeat beginners
who attempt to play attacking strokes, due to the amount of mistakes their
opponents make.
3.
Strokes - beginners often make poor stroke choices, attempting
strokes with a low percentage of success, when better options are available.
4.
Strengths/Weaknesses - beginner players tend to have
more weaknesses in their ping-pong game than strengths.
5.
Footwork - new players often move too much or too little. They
reach for balls instead of taking a small step, and move too far and get too
close to balls that are far away.
6.
Spin - in the beginning level game spin is a magical and
frustrating element. Beginners have problems using spin and adapting to an
opponent's spin.
7.
Tactics - are limited at best. Most of the player's focus is
on himself and successfully playing strokes, rather than on what his opponent
is doing. Beginners also have difficulty executing tactics successfully due to
lack of consistency in their strokes.
8.
Fitness - the level of play is less dynamic than advanced
levels, so fitness plays much less of a role.
9.
Rallies vs Serve/Serve Return - beginners
tend to view the rallying strokes as the most important, and prefer to train
these strokes over serve and serve return, which are viewed simply as ways of
starting the point.
10. Equipment -
interestingly, equipment is one area where beginners are often closer to
advanced players than intermediate players. To a beginner, just about all of
the blades and rubbers are much faster and spinnier than they are used to, so a
beginner player is usually happy to use what other players recommend, instead
of obsessing about their equipment.
Ten Intermediate
Level Attributes for Table Tennis
1.
Mistakes - the number of unforced errors is less, but still
significant. Intermediate players will also make more mistakes under pressure
than advanced players.
2.
Points - the ratio between winning points by forcing mistakes
and from an opponent's unforced errors becomes more even. An intermediate
player who plays a safe game, taking few risks and making few mistakes, and
only attacking easy balls, will rise quickly from beginner status towards the
top of the intermediate level players. More aggressive players who take more
risks and attack more often will rise less quickly in general, improving in
level as their attacking consistency gets better.
3.
Strokes - intermediate players will make better stroke choices,
choosing the correct stroke most of the time. Their ball placement is still not
so good though.
4.
Strengths/Weaknesses - this is much more even at
intermediate level. Most intermediate players will have a couple of strengths
and a couple of weak points in their game.
5.
Footwork - improves as the intermediate player learns the
importance of balance and recovery in allowing multiple attacks. Footwork is
faster and used more often, but the player is not always as good at knowing
where he should be moving to in order to best prepare for his next stroke.
6.
Spin - intermediate players have got past the frustrating
period, and can now apply and adapt to most spin variations. They will still
struggle with unusual serves or players that can use good deception when applying
spin.
7.
Tactics - are getting better, as the player needs to
concentrate less on his own strokes, and can now spend more time focussing on
his opponent. There can be a tendency to try to copy tactics from high level
players that the intermediate player does not have the ability to consistently
execute. As the player continues to improve, the ability to plan tactics, then
adapt his tactics as required during matches also improves.
8.
Fitness - will become more important over the course of a day,
if several matches are played, as fatigue builds up. Often the player will be
much worse in standard at the end of the day, as his body tires and mental
focus slips.
9.
Rallies vs Serve/Serve Return - intermediate
players recognize the importance of serve and serve return. They just aren't
generally willing to due the necessary training to improve it! Those that do
work on their serves clearly stand out from the rest at this level. Most of the
intermediate player's time is spent training the flashy rally strokes, such as power loops and smashes.
The short game is often neglected.
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