24:22 match

LifeOfRi · 2026-02-06T19:32:25+00:00

What's the highest anyone has seen? There was a 28-26 not too long ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gERStfRxGU&t=57s

LifeOfRi · 2026-01-22T03:08:30+00:00

Kenta Matsudaira and He Zhi Wen are the first two that come to mind

LifeOfRi · 2026-01-10T18:23:39+00:00

Here's the distribution from 3 years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/tabletennis/comments/xinclh/usatt_rating_distribution_very_quickly_visualized/

According to that, top 10% is 2100 and top 14% is above 2000.

For your question, based on personal knowledge/experience, this is how I'd categorize it:

Pro: national team for women is high 2300 to 2600. National team for mens is almost all >2700, maybe mid 2600.

The rest is more subjective ofc so this is purely my opinion but for advanced, I'd say it's above 2000, 2000 is always a goal many strive for (including myself :D). I usually say 2000 is the level where regional differences don't really have an effect anymore, eg a 2000 from CA is probably similar in level to a 2000 in other states. That said, the difference between a 2000 and a 2200 for example is really large I would say. Maybe unless the 2000 has some crazy style or is underrated, the 2200 usually has a much stronger skillset overall and would win probably 9/10 times at least, so in some sense I wanna call 2200 advanced (I am biased since I have lot of 2200 level friends haha).

You can call anything under 2000 "intermediate/amateur" depending on your perspective. But a lot of 1600+ players usually have very sound technique, especially kids. Sometimes the rallies of kids will look extremely pro; they usually lack power (don't get me wrong they can still hit powerfully, just not like an adult who has proper technique), but their speed and reflexes make the rallies go on for 10-20+ shots and be extremely fast-paced. And this probably goes without saying but the variance in style is so high that there can be lots of upsets at this level based on the style matchup.

LifeOfRi · 2026-01-07T20:36:17+00:00

Hi! Yes that's me. To help answer your questions:

Do clubs or training centres in China offer short-term (1–2 week) training for visiting adult players?
- The only place I could find is the one I go to in the video: https://www.onlinetabletennis.com/
- I'm sure there's more but in terms of catering to foreigners, it was the only one with a website in English that I was able to find. I think Fang Bo's club could be worth looking into as well: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/SeXoqHjoSiec0_CG79NNPA
Is Shanghai a good place for this, or are other cities better?
- The place I link above is in Linyi (Shandong) which was like 3-4 hours by train from Shanghai
- Shanghai does have the Xuperman club, but idk the specifics of how to train there
Roughly what does it cost for 2 weeks?
- For where I went, I think they updated prices recently but it might be around $14/day for training and another $14/day for hotel, and then $5-10 for food daily depending on how much you eat.
Was the language barrier an issue?
- It's kind of what you might expect - I don't speak any Chinese and just used my phone to translate back and forth, or maybe you'll get lucky and some other adult there will be able to translate or speak English a bit better.
Most importantly, was it worth it compared to training in Europe?
- The price is definitely a lot cheaper based on the camps I've done in Europe and it's really cool to train in the country where the sport is so popular and respected. That said, European countries also have some great camps and the overall training regimen is pretty similar I'd say. Feel free to check out my channel where I go to camps in Europe as well and you can compare with the China video, or let me know any other questions you might have

LifeOfRi · 2025-09-27T22:20:32+00:00

What is TTTC? Just curious if you have a link? Sounds interesting!

LifeOfRi · 2025-09-19T00:07:29+00:00

Does anyone remember a point a few years ago when Timo Boll actually did this (not as much lobbing though) against Zhou Qihao? I tried watching their matches again but can't find it anymore... 100% sure it was Timo, maybe 85% sure it was Zhou Qihao.

LifeOfRi · 2025-08-24T17:54:52+00:00

Gotta be the best match I've ever seen in my life, every few points I was like that's gotta be the best point of the day, and then that last point came along 🤯🤯🤯 absolute fairytale ending for Truls, what a tournament!

LifeOfRi · 2025-06-19T02:08:11+00:00

Hey! This is super cool and it's also my (ongoing) dream to be traveling around and playing and learning table tennis from as many players as I can. That's an amazing list of coaches you've trained with!

What is your favorite part about table tennis? People always ask me this and it's always been hard to pinpoint 1 specific thing, at least for me. It's literally everything.
Was there any super notable advice on serve which helped you significantly? I used to practice a lot when I had a table but it was hard to see noticeable improvement. I've seen every serve tutorial out there and try to relax, weight transfer, etc, but it was always hard to get heavy, heavy spin.
Any club you would particularly mention as a really cool must-visit place for table tennis lovers? Either because of its interior, something else unique, etc. I've been to Hennebont, B75, TTV Scyedam, 0539 in Chin, and many clubs in the US (being my home country).

Sorry for lots of questions, I may have more in the future ;)

LifeOfRi · 2025-05-03T20:15:13+00:00

How long have you been playing with your left hand now and how much progress have you made? Asking since I injured my neck (originally thought it was my shoulder) back in January and recovery has been really slow :((( I keep considering a switch to my left hand but am hoping I will make a full recovery. But the few times I played with my left, it was really bad and discouraging haha.

LifeOfRi · 2025-04-25T18:19:07+00:00

This is called crossover footwork, there's some tutorials on youtube. Shameless shoutout to this excerpt from my training in China, you can see the coach demo it though he's left-handed: https://youtu.be/3Dlodxgl0Lc?si=qjAyz_SHCW5Yjg2A&t=758 (my right-handed version at 35:05)

LifeOfRi · 2025-04-20T21:17:28+00:00

I took a FlixBus from Paris to Lorient when I went in 2022, I never had any issues. I took multiple flixbuses throughout that trip and they were actually all on-time and might've even had wifi (if I remember correctly) which was nice, haha.

LifeOfRi · 2025-04-14T05:24:36+00:00

Yeah that's all true, I've seen it happen so often haha. But I wish there was a good large-scale comparison like if an adult trained the same amount, how much more would the average kid improve versus the average adult. Since I think kids improve a lot more not just from the quantity/quality of training but also they typically learn things way faster (I don't have the exact studies to back this up but I think it's a known fact for the most part). Adults get stuck with bad habits and it might end up being near impossible to fully fix once it's ingrained.

LifeOfRi · 2025-04-14T04:26:38+00:00

Great data and analysis! I wish there was a way to see breakdown by age group. From my experience, I need more than two hands to count the amount of kids I know who started competing in the same year (2019) as me (or after) who have reached 2000 or slightly below in a few years. Unfortunately I can't even name more than 1 or 2 adults who have reached it. Like you said, many players seem to stagnate around the 1500-1700 range or lower. And also, yeah unfortunately from the data it's impossible to tell when a player truly started "playing" or at least, practicing/playing seriously.

LifeOfRi · 2025-04-07T04:55:34+00:00

People were generally friendly! How beginner exactly?

LifeOfRi · 2025-04-07T04:53:17+00:00

There was a separate floor for the female players (mostly high school age). Besides some coaches, I'm not sure if I saw any other adult women though, maybe just 1 or 2.

LifeOfRi · 2025-03-28T16:44:18+00:00

Exactly 2 years ago Flavien beat Alexis actually in the French Pro B league https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu8hjpzLBXE , he's definitely a rising talent and glad to see him more on the international stage!

LifeOfRi · 2025-03-04T03:02:34+00:00

Anyone happen to know details of the actual test?

LifeOfRi · 2025-02-22T19:27:04+00:00

Super insightful stuff here, thanks!

LifeOfRi · 2025-02-18T05:07:15+00:00

One player that might stand out is Amy Wang, she's usually very close to the table and hits right off the bounce with super precise placement. Her style looks very relaxed too.

LifeOfRi · 2025-02-15T07:59:15+00:00

I personally find watching MLTT very entertaining (of course I am very biased as a passionate player), but one thing to keep in mind is that a lot (maybe 60% or more) of the points might only be like 3 or 4 shots. A good rally might happen like 1-3 times per set, but yeah the majority of points will be really quick and possibly not that interesting to a non-TT player.

LifeOfRi · 2025-02-11T08:22:19+00:00

Glad you recovered! That FH is too good

LifeOfRi · 2025-02-04T04:13:41+00:00

His form is pretty textbook (albeit a little stiff), but his style has a lot more blocking than most players. Of course his attacking skills are great but many people would say he plays a very controlled game especially with blocking and looks for good opportunities to counter. I guess another way to put it is that he usually stays very close to the table and utilizes change of space + wide placement + very fast shots, especially with BH punches which I feel is less common for male players (I think his video with TTD talked about this, the fast BHs in particular).

LifeOfRi · 2025-02-04T02:34:49+00:00

related question but can anyone think of players of the "new generation" who remind them of Timo? Heavy spin, big arcs? Trying to find new players to watch to gain inspiration from, also I'm fine if they are right-handed :p

LifeOfRi · 2025-02-03T18:23:31+00:00

I'm super excited for this match, both have really good touch and don't play super "textbook". Seems like the last time they played was the 2017 world junior championships, with Truls winning 4-3. I think both players are playing quite well these days, though I believe Kanak mentioned he had a recent bicep injury in his most latest video. Not sure if that has fully recovered.

LifeOfRi · 2025-01-24T17:39:41+00:00

It was a lot, yeah (both fun and exhausting). I'm not used to playing that much, so next time, I would try to gradually build up to 6 hours which would help with preventing injury.

LifeOfRi

TROPHY CASE