another table tennis update (8 months later)

Its been around 8 months since my last table tennis update so its time for another one!!!

I did a tournament in Walnut Creek the beginning of March this year (my second USATT tournament) and achieved a rating of 1716. 

Although this is a significant improvement from my previous USATT rating of 1446, which I got from a tournament in May of last year, I still feel like I under performed at the tournament, and my true level is closer to 1800 or 1900.  There were 2-3 close matches in the tournament that I ended up losing due to lack of preparation.  Had I won those, my rating would have been closer to 1900.  Oh well....

Here is a nice graph that I created, which tracks my improvement over time.  The blue line is my rating, averaged from my USATT and club ratings, and the red line is a rating projection that I need to keep up with if I want to reach a rating of 2000 by beginning of year 2020.  So far I am exceeding expectations!!

Main things that I improved on over the last 6 months:

- better forehand consistency
- better backhand consistency, being able to attack with the backhand instead of just blocking most of the shots
- footwork (staying low, and being in the right position to receive shots)
- game psychology, getting into the right mindset before each point (taking deep breaths, etc etc)

Main things that I need to improve on going forward:

- service return.   I think that this is probably one of the weakest aspects of my game, relative to my other skills.  I struggle against people with unorthodox serves so I need to work on reading their serves and returning them better.
- footwork and technique.  I still have a lot of awkward and inefficient movements in my play.  To improve on this, I should record more of my matches and analyze my movements.
- ball placement.  Moving the opponent around, hitting wide angle shots, varying tween down the line and cross table shots.  

Some thoughts on equipment:

My current equipment is the following:

• Forehand rubber: Hurricane 3 Provincial (~$50)
• Backhand rubber: Mark V M2 (~$40)
• Blade: Ma Lin Extra Offensive (~$55)

I'm pretty happy with the Hurricane 3 Provincial for my forehand.  I like the linear feel of the Hurricane (as opposed to tensors).  The durability of the rubber is good, and typically lasts me 3-4 months before becoming unplayable.  I've also used the Hurricane National (~$65).  Its more expensive, but it feels pretty much the same as the Provincial (maybe slightly slower).  However, the durability is much worse.  The rubber lasts only two months on average, so the Provincial the better overall when considering playability and durability.

I'm liking the Mark V M2 for my backhand.  I like having a "control" rubber, as my backhand isn't really good enough to use a more powerful rubber yet.  As my backhand improves, I'll start looking into more powerful rubbers to use.  Some candidates that I have narrowed down to include:

• nittaku fastarc g1
• yasaka rising dragon
• mark v hps
• xiom vega europe/pro
• xiom omega v pro
• xiom omega v asia
• good- bluefire jp 03
• tibhar aurus soft
• tenergy 05
• tenergy 05 fx

Tenergy 05 seems like a very popular choice among pros, but its too expensive ($80) due to the butterfly brand and sponsorships with a large percentage of pros. I'm currently leaning towards using the nittaku fastarc g1, which I heard performs like a mix of hurricane 3/tenergy 05 (like a tenergy 05 but less "catapult"). I'm concerned that it might be too fast of a rubber for me but I think I should at least try it out to see what is it like.

to be continued...