Club Etiquette
General
Cihan Unknown Asked 15 years ago
Hello Alois,
I have a question about how to handle a certain situation at table tennis clubs. Whenever I go to the club, a player who is reasonably weaker than me always wants to play me. I'd like to play players who are not as good since I get myself very frustrated when players refuse to play against me. However, the problem is that if I start playing against this weak player, I get stuck wtih this player - nobody challenges the table (you start playing a game and switch opponents when someone challenges the table), arguably because they don't want to play this player (and also perhaps me - I'm not that good either.) And now I'm stuck with this guy because now if I stop playing, I know nobody will want to play him and so I just feel too bad about stopping. And I don't want to be stuck the whole session because as you wrote, "perfect practice makes perfect" and this is hardly perfect practice for me.
Don't get me wrong. I want to play and help players who are not as experienced but I just don't want to get stuck playing them. So I have two questions from this.
(1) What should I do about my particular situation? How should I handle it?
(2) For the general case, what should the attitude of good players be for inexperienced players? Should good players reject practice requests from those who are not as good? What do you think?
I'd also be happy if other players (Ji-Soo, are you there? :-) ) could weigh in through comments about their particular situations on this issue.
Alois Rosario Answered 15 years ago
Hi Cihan,
This is a commmon problem isn't it.
I find the easiest way is to organise to hit with a player and say we can hit fpor a few minutes and then play a best of ?? games. This has a conclusion to it.
Don't feel too bad about stopping hitting with that player. You shouldn't be expected to play with them for the whole time. i think it may be something that you could talk to the organiser of the club about. Perhaps they could organise a training time where you practice with someone for say 10 minutes and then rotate around so you get different partners.
I think in general if there is an attitude in the club of everyone playing with different players then everyone is happy becauce you will get some better and worse players to play with.
Ji-Soo do you have any ideas here?
Thoughts on this question
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andrew brand Posted 15 years ago
Ji-Soo Woo Posted 15 years ago
Hi Cihan :o)
just my 2 cents.
In terms of your first specific question, I guess there is a skill to moving on from a practice partner who is trying to hog you - not unlike the skill of schmoozing /networking at a cocktail party. You want to spread yourself around and not have to spend the whole night talking to the same person. Some of these cocktail skills are transferable to your situation.
1) the hand pass (you notice someone you know walk into the centre, you greet him loudly and add "hey, why don't you warm up with XXX?" and make your exit. Your friend glares at you angrily but has no choice but to take your place).
2) the excuse (normally in a cocktail party this involves saying something along the lines of "gee these dips are good, I'm going to go for a second helping". Since this doesn't work as well at a table tennis centre you can think of your own variations. You could always have an extended toilet break, or say you need to rest a bit, or have to call someone etc...)
3) double the fun (in a cocktail party this means getting other people involved in your conversation, moving it on from a 1-on-1. In table tennis, this would normally involve inviting other people to join, possibly making it into a doubles game. This doesn't extract yourself immediately, but it at least means the weaker player is now only 25% of the rallies, also it is easier to leave because they can play american doubles or something and you feel less guilty about leaving someone alone)
4) dear friend (in a cocktail party, it means saying "I'd better say hi to the host" or "that's John over there, haven't seen him in ages, better go and say hi". In table tennis, this involves saying something like "Hey that's John over there, I actually promised him a hit...thanks for the practice though."
In terms of the second general question, I have to admit some hypocrisy. I was always pretty peeved when the top players could not be bothered to have a hit with me, but at the same time I myself try hard to find partners that I feel I can get something out of if we have a hit. No harm in having a hit with weaker players, though, as long as that doesn't hurt your own training plans. It can sometimes even be quite rewarding if you take a weaker player under your wing and give a lot of guidance.
Cihan Unknown Posted 15 years ago
Hey Ji-Soo,
Yeah, I usually go with the second suggestion. (I say, "let me take a break for a while" but this is getting old, so I'll give the others a try.)
The trouble with my particular situation is that there are not many people who want to play this particular person. So if I don't play, all the lifeline has been cut off.
And I get very annoyed when other people don't want to play me too - so I'm trying to do something that's reasonable.
The problem is, where I play, there are very few i-m-a-beginner-i-can't-loop type of players. And overall I'd say I'm below average for this club, though not that bad. So I get "hogged", as you put it, by these players.
In the future, I'll be more ruthless, as I think this interferes with my training plans.
It's too bad that you have to worry about all this stuff. I try to play once or twice a week (I'm a student - I really can't find more time) to get some exercise and relax. It's just frustrating that my relaxation time is being consumed by all these irritating issues.
I do hope I can find a stable partner that's slightly above/below my level.
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 15 years ago
Mike Ivanov Posted 15 years ago