Milestones!

[Spongebob!]

To mark a key milestone in TTT (100 posts by Spongebob! :woho: - I trust my prize is in the post...!), I just thought I would start a new thread which I think is very apt - what ever could it be I hear you ask...!

Well...as in all walks of life, sports and hobbies there are a number of key milestones (marking progress) or a lucky break or eurika moment when all of a sudden all the hard work, effort and practice suddenly comes together and you think maybe, just maybe, I might be getting somewhere - all of a sudden you never look back and just blossom...!

So...out of interest, I was just wondering in the world of table tennis or life what your key milestones have been - or, if they haven't happened yet what your ambitions / targets are in the near future.

Spongey :laola:

[Highside]

Nice idea Spongebob, well im currently sitting here thinking if ive passed any milestones or even achieved any success in a particular direction but sadly not up to date. The single most satisfying achievement would be that my eldest son made football trials for liverpool a short while ago and will hopefully achieve more than i did.

Great subject

[Spongebob!]

Nice idea Spongebob, well im currently sitting here thinking if ive passed any milestones or even achieved any success in a particular direction but sadly not up to date. The single most satisfying achievement would be that my eldest son made football trials for liverpool a short while ago and will hopefully achieve more than i did.

Great subject


Waaaaaahey...that's brilliant for him - it should be graaaaate for him as they say in Liverpool. Well done to him - having said that the way they're playing at the moment he might get called up to the first team - now that would be a key milestone!!!

I'll watch out for their match on Tuesday hopefully they'll beat Inter Milan.

Cheers Spongey! :dance3:

[DaveR]

Hey you didnt say what your milestone was and your aspirations ?

The posting amount is worthy of a prize so yes lets have a competition !

[Moggy]

My first key milestone was someone telling me the difference between a chop and a topspin after I had just lost a couple of games in my first league match - the next milestone, a league game win, followed quickly after :snigger:

[FantasyCheeseBasin]

key milestones for me are every day..........1..get out of bed before 10am
massive milestone,if i make it i reward myself with a packet of hobnobs:popcorn:

[DaveR]

My first key milestone was someone telling me the difference between a chop and a topspin after I had just lost a couple of games in my first league match - the next milestone, a league game win, followed quickly after :snigger:

Nice one Moggy keep the wins up !

[Moggy]

Forgot to say this was 30 years ago :thumbsup:. Now I don't care if it's chopped..... try returning that looooooooop......

[DaveR]

lol ............... the older one gets the longer the loop becomes...............and obviously slower as it goes!

[Spongebob!]

Hey you didnt say what your milestone was and your aspirations ?

The posting amount is worthy of a prize so yes lets have a competition !

Well....looking back my key milsestones in the table tennis world would have been:

- progressing from my Ladybird Book Bat (see earlier threads) to my first proper TT bat - Slazenger I think is was!
- then after practicing at home starting to play at Youth Club and realising I was quite good and beat everyone in the mini tournaments (first prize - some sort of chocolate bar - now there's a thread in its own right for FCB!)
- Coaching lessons in my Senior School with a proper coach - quality!
- Then playing for the School Team, a local Team (St. Gabriel's), Town, County, Regional League and ultimately to British League
- In between all of those stages there was endless coaching sessions which incrementally took me to a higher level, i.e., school coaching, local TT club coaching, centre of excellence, Friday night practice sessions at Eldon Square and Sunday sessions at Catholic Club (Sunderland)
- Another key milstone for me was learning to win and lose graciously, I think I have always achieved this - I am very proud of that fact actaully. I'd like to think that everyone who has played me win or lose have thought...he's a good lad / good sport etc
- In between all of that I managed to play for four local football teams each weekend, the milestone being learning to comprimise and priortise accordingly - looking back I probably should have made sacrifices to either excel at one or another. But regretfully didn't and as a result I don't think I have achieved as much as I could have in either sport - but I've don't alright..!

Despite all of the above my proudest moment without doubt were the birth of my beautiful children (must take after my wife...!).

Aspirations for the future - continue to play both sports for as long as I can, do my best, continue to be a good sportsman - that will do me..!
:laola::laola:
:danceman: :danceman:

[The Windmill]

lol ............... the older one gets the longer the loop becomes...............and obviously slower as it goes!

The older I get, the better I was

[Moggy]

It's strange how my loop has changed over the last 30 years. Having never been coached, I developed it in the lower divisions where I could play it slow and high over the net almost using a straight arm (windmills come to mind). At the time a lot of 'premier' players were doing the same and the method was to block it back - circa 1980s. I also always played a heavy chop prior to the loop to get the ball chopped back and thus increase the spin.
Players then started flat hitting the loop back passed me :thumbdown:and so the loop became a heavy top spin drive to counter that.
I now find that as the speed of bats and rubbers has increased, the most effective shot is still the loop but with less speed, kept very low but with a much wrist spin as possible.:shhhh: