Club Competition
From TableTennisTraining
For most players, the local table tennis club is where they get most of their practice. Because of this, you shouldn't be afraid to experiment with new techniques when playing club matches, even if it costs you an occassional match. Generally any significant change in stroke technique, for instance, will take a couple of weeks before it starts to click and you will probably play worse at first, since you're playing outside of your normal comfort zone. But if you don't take chances in club play, you're missing your best chance to improve your game in the long run.
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Finding a Club
Starting a Club
If there's no club in your area, you might want to investigate starting up one yourself. Limits on available tables in public locations is probably the biggest barrier to the expansion of table tennis as a professional sport, but many public recreation centers are open to the idea of reserving a room a few nights a week where tables can be setup.
Find a few regular drilling partners
It's often a good idea to find one or two players who are willing to drill with you on a regular basis. This usually works out best with a partner who is somewhat close to you in skill levels, but defensive players who can keep a ball in play are usually popular partners even for higher level players.
Starting A Table Tennis Ladder
If you're interested in operating a ranking ladder at your club, here's a free site I found recently where you can keep track of ladder challenges and rankings. The software was developed for squash, but works well for table tennis also.
For an example of a table tennis ladder (one for Blacksburg, VA), see:
