Which Division should I play?

Hi Alois, 

I've been playing table tennis for about two years now and I've been having a problem in competitions and league matches where in the division that my team plays in i am winning nearly all of my games but I have not played well in one match. But when I have been playing 2 divisions higher I have played well and won nearly as many. But when it comes to playing 1 division higher i only win 50% because like the division I play in I dont play very well, but the difference is in this division I cant play badly and win as many games as I could in the other. So what I wanted to ask was should I just play higher all the time or learn how to beat the worse players, I think the latter for tournaments etc. but need your help on how to do it.

thanks 

Hi Alex,

This is a problem I hear often.  I don't know but I am assuming that in the division 1 higher, there may be a lot of awkward players that don't hit the ball 'cleanly'.  They probably don't play orthodox strokes.  If you have learned strokes and are used to players that hit the ball well, this type of player may be difficult to combat.

I think you need to play these players in a division 1 above yours to learn properly the game of table tennis.  This will help you with your touch and understanding of spin.

It can often be frustrating but it is something that we all have to go through as we learn correct techniques and strokes.

To learn how to play against these players, you need time.  There are too many variaitons to explain, so you just need to get used to adapting to variations of spin and speed of their strokes.  It is actually what makes our game so interesting.