"How to get to 2000 with No Talent" - an online guide by Marco Borrillo
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Physical Fitness
Chapter 3 - Serve
Chapter 4 - Return of Serve
Chapter 5 - Forehands & Backhands
Chapter 6 - Footwork
Chapter 7 - Mental Game
Chapter 8 - Video Demonstrations
Chapter 2 - Physical Fitness
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This may be one of the more controversial areas we are going to discuss. Does an athlete need to be "fit" to reach 2000? In short- the answer
is "no." However, it sure helps if you are.
The problem with most athletes is that they train hard because they want to make sure they can perform their best. However, their hard training
damages their bodies. And so they are caught in a struggle, they must train hard to win but in training they compromise themselves. Most
athletes do not compete in peak physical condition. Most are either under-trained or over-trained at the time of competition. As an athlete it
must be your goal to be in great touch with your body, to know yourself very well both mentally & physically, and to be able to bring yourself into
peak physical condition on the day that you compete.
We can discuss many exercises, many drills. However, what is more important than pushups or situps or running up and down mountains or
doing thousands of stroke & footwork drills is that you understand this extremely important concept: you cannot perform your best if you are
tired and injured. Therefore, you must design your physical goals with that mantra in mind.
The new athlete is at the most risk. The new athlete must do a lot of repetitive drills in order to learn the strokes and footwork of this sport. It is
difficult to both learn this sport and compete in it at the same time. Maybe this is why the Chinese developmental system works well. There, kids
spend reportedly up to 5 years in developmental training without ever playing a real match in a real tournament. Only later on, when their
strokes are perfectly grooved, do they begin to play matches and focus on the "winning" aspect of the sport.
In contrast the older athlete has a little bit of an advantage here. An older athlete doesn't need to do hours of drills, as he has already done so
years before. The older athlete can afford to preserve his body and make sure he is fresh for the tournament. I like the saying "If you don't
know it by Thursday, you aren't going to learn it by Saturday." So don't bother killing yourself with hard footwork drills and relentless
looping drills the day before the tournament. REST! Sleep much, maybe stretch a little, give yourself 48 hours of pure relaxation in the days
leading up to the tournament. In this way you guarantee yourself that you will be ready for what is usually a 5-8 hour marathon 2 days in a row.
Now that you understand the most important concept of physical fitness, we can move on to the lesser important concept of how to get yourself
into good shape for this sport. I'm going to focus on 4 concepts:
#1: Health
#2: Strength
#3: Speek/Agility
#4: Flexibility
So you want to get to "2000?" Most Table Tennis enthusiasts do. What does that really mean by the way? And where did we get
that rating system? USATT borrowed that rating system from Chess. It is a relatively simple mathematical equation whereby people
gain or lose points based on who they beat or lose to. So you see right from the start it is not a consistent system that accurately
rates your ability. It is more like a "floating" system that really all it tells you is who you have either beaten or lost to recently. Get a
couple of lucky wins in a row and your rating gets high. Get a few bad losses in a row and you are immediately reduced down into
the lower ranks of shame & embarrassment. Beat a guy who stinks but who may have had some lucky wins and you'll benefit from all
those points. Beat a great up & coming star who happens to have a low rating and you get nothing. That's the way it goes in most
USATT tournaments.
Many people feel the rating system is bad for our game. Many feel it discourages people from playing in as many tournaments as
possible, and from playing in their correct events. A lot of athletes play in the highest events they are allowed to enter with the hopes
of getting that 1 lucky win. These same athletes will then stop playing tournaments after they get that win, to protect their unnaturally
high rating. Some of these folks even quit halfway through an event, for fear of losing the precious "points" that they just acquired.
These same athletes would never enter an event where they might be the top seed for fear of losing to all the lower players that are
gunning for them. Because of all of this, these athletes never really learn the mental toughness that is necessary to be a TRUE
champion.
A real champion enters an event not with the hope of getting that 1 lucky win, but rather with the goal of making it deep into the event,
to get all the way to the finals, and to hopefully win the whole event. In doing so a true champion understands that he/she will need to
win about 7 matches in a row (Initial Round Robin, Round of 32, Quarter Finals, Semi Finals, & Final), against a variety of players
and styles. To do this, a true champion knows that they must be physically and mentally tough, as well as have a great strategy, and
the ability to play with pressure. This is the REAL sport of Table Tennis. This should the goal of all of you. But let's get real, I know
you all want that high rating, which is why I wrote this guide. So let's get on with it....
But first- my "qualifications." First of all I reached a highest rating of 1976. While that is not 2000, it's pretty close. Next is the fact
that I have no talent. Though I am talented in other areas of life (such as Piano & Power lifting, & in that order) I have no real talent in
Table Tennis. I have met people with talent in Table Tennis, and I assure you that I am not one of them. I have heard talented people
say things like "I can read the label on the ball after a server servers it" or "I just use my serves to get out of trouble against a 2300
level player" or "I just watch the trajectory of the ball after it is served and I know what spin was on that hidden serve" and it just keeps
going on and on. But for most of us without talent, our eyesight is poor, our own serves get handled easily by sub-2000 players, and
we have no idea what spin is on those well-disguised serves. In addition, we miss a lot, we make the wrong choice at the wrong
time most of the time, and we tend to figure out after the match is over what we should have done, or not even then. If this sounds
familiar then read on- because you are my target audience.