JOOLA USA

I am trying to get better at ping pong. This year I have set my goal to become a 2000 player soon. I want to win more events next year. Watching the World Junior Championship inspires me a lot and gets me energized.

Hi! I'm not going to Las Vagas but I'm gonna hit it next year! I really enjoy training at Palo Alto. My favorite stroke in ping pong is my loop. Wow, I really love ping pong!

 

I helped in the world junior championship last week with the opening ceremony! It was an eye opening evnt to see so many top players competing against each other.

Hello,

I am really glad my dad took me to Baltimore. I  played  good and had a rating jump of 341 points.  I hope I can do good in the Nationals too.

 David Gong

 

For the last couple of days I've been thinking and analyzing this quote above, and really just thinking and depicting it and how it comes to play in my life and my game of table tennis. And in the end, it is true. I've come to realize this with Nationals coming up and Baltimore already in the wind. How much effort you put into training and practicing, even just focusing on the strong andweak points of your game really shows through when the pressure is on. Its all about the work you put in, and now that I've realized this, Im just really understanding how my game is put together and what I need to do to fix it up a bit. But just consider this when you're down and out, really. Because it's not only the truth, but its also a great motivator. Keep going guys, even when it gets tough; it'll pay off in the end.

Baltimore was great fun though. Even if my team and I didn't preform to our...lets just say, optimum abilities, we still played quite decently and did good. My team held the great players of Natalie Sun, Ellen Hwang, Jasmine Nguyen, and myself. I'll have to admit that we played kind of badly (or really badly depending on who you are..or who's parent you are..) on Friday we still managed to kick butt on both Saturday and Sunday. Plus I was able to see my old friends from the school in Shanghai that I attended with Ethan this past summer. It was really cool to see an all girls team totally beat down the Canadian men's team. I learned a lot watching them as well.

Besides this, as I mentioned before, Nationals is less than three weeks away now. Its crazy how time goes by, it really is. Just morphs into anything else and flies into the future. But Im excited for Nationals, but who isn't? Its the one time of the year that all of us crazy table tennis folk gather up in Las Vegas in a convention center and prove to others how much we've improved and how much (good) damage we can do now rating wise. Practice at Grace Lin's club is getting more riggorous as the biggest tournament of the year rounds the corner. I have a good feeling though, that "Oh man, Im so in the zone for this" feeling. Which, by the way, is a great one to have.

So, after all of this babbling: Keep practicing, practice hard, and see you at Nationals.

Yes, there are times when players have their moments of glory, but what about their moments of defeat? What happens to them when they simply have no motivation or when they feel bad after  match that they knew that could've done better, I have had many experiences when I had cried quietly. It is rather hard to write about failure, especially when you are younger.
   ThisBerkeley tournament was not the best for me, especially towards the end of the day. I was somehow under pressure and it made me nervous and I was already nervous to begin with. I played 5 events; one age event and four rating events. I started out playing alright but not too well. I had already lost all my matches of the event, but I tried pretty hard. But you can't linger on the past, so I looked forward and played on. The rest of the day was fine until I met this under-rated guy.
   His forehand was strong, he was tall, he was also a lefty. I felt little and helpless. I couldn't do anything except play to his backhand and he was waiting there. I played and tried until I gave up, and I knew I shouldn't have, but it's hard when you are down 2-0 losing by 3 or 4 points. Immediately I knew that I was going to be lectured, and I was right. Then I still had 2 more matches to go. Thankfully, I either won or lost a good match, so I wasn't worried after that, but the next day was basically a disaster from head to toe.
   Some people told me that I didn't play that bad, but I had a feeling that I did. Perhaps I was playing alright, until the last match. I had to play the lefty again. I must say, I did go nuts.I was scared already although I was told not to. I played and lost the match tired, and wanted to just quit,and say that I quit forever. But I knew I couldn't so I played on. I played terrible. I played like the first match with him; simply terrible. Thank goodness that Ariel and Lily were there. They helped me up again, and eventually, cheered me up. Then I had to think a little while watching the semifinals and finals. I even forgot to clap because I was thinking. I was thinking why I was playing that badly and why I gave up before entering the court. I was tired and troubled but wanted to relax so I forgot all about it and decided to enjoy the match while both the relaxation with my friends and the match lasted.

Baltimore was pretty fun. My team consisted of 4 players: Jasmine Nguyen, Ellen Hwang, Marielle Chua, and I. Our team did pretty well, all except on Friday. On that day, my team lost all team matches so we ended up in division 11. In division 11, we were the highest rated-group, and the only higher rated person in the whole division drppoed out when it was our turn to play him. Luckily, we played at our level the next 2 days. We met thsi really good group that we lost to 4-5. We ended taking 2nd  because the other group that was supposed to play the group we lost too was defaulted. Overall, my first time going to Baltimore is a lifetime experience. There was more than 250 teams that participated at Baltimore. Yet, it was rather chilly there; in the high 30 degrees. Brrrrr.

Hi Joolausa,

In the Baltimore Teams Tournament my team and I placed 3rd place in divion 9. My team had three players: Justin Nguyen, Erick Shahnazari and myself. We did pretty good, I had a lot of fun. In the end we did very well and I cant wait till next year to play again.     

Sincerely,

Ethan Chua       ;                              

Hey everyone, its me again.. Baltimore teams was a pretty good tournament overall. For me, well i got.. destroyed.. like really badly, but even though i lost all of my matches(except for the one i lost) this was a good learning experience for me and i hope that ill learn for these experiences and improve my game. i stayed for the semifinals and finals. They were filled w/ amazing rallies and awesome shots. For anyone who missed it, East China university beat Canada 2(i think its canada 2...) Anyways now that NA tams is over, its time to get ready for US Nationals...
later everyone

Hey yall. I dont know why I'm talking in a southern accent but oh well. So the last tournament I went was the Knoxville tournament. Olena Sowers was there as well as Amanda Dubina. I did okay almost beating a 2000 and a 1900. They were all 3-2.=). My current rating is 1770. I hope to raise it above 1850 by the end of the Nationals. I am eleven so I have a lot of school things as well. And Iwrote this. not the my dad so peace.

Ethan JIn

i dont know wht to talk about

umm hi .. this is charlie, the original dumbass.. just updating blog.. yup.. anyways for the past few weeks ive been getting getting ready for Baltimore and Nationals.. yesterday the joola club in Rockville was open and i decided to go take a look, although the RED FLOORING hasnt come in yet, it still looks pretty good.. umm yea.. thats about it.. i guess.. so yea.. i update next time, maybe afterBaltimore.. hope to see lots of people there!! =p