Beginner to Expert

MSchaffer

MSchaffer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Just watch a cool little video about table tennis.

Ben Larcombe is a 25-year-old professional table tennis coach in London and believes that anyone can become an expert in this sport. He believed in this so much that he developed the Expert in a Year challenge. And, a young guy by the name of Sam Priestley accepted that challenge in 2014.
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Do you believe (with the right coaching) the same can be achieved in our beloved sport?

Table Tennis
 
In my opinion:: Anyone sufficiently motivated to learn and play 8-hours a day 365 days a year, can become pretty good (SL7:: C+-to-B-) in a single year with a good coach.

With talent SL7 could be raised to a solid B.
 
Absolutely

MSchaffer said:
Just watch a cool little video about table tennis.



Do you believe (with the right coaching) the same can be achieved in our beloved sport?

Table Tennis
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I absolutely believe that you can learn ways to aim, then with spin and those things are key to developing correct position play.

First you must be a shot maker when that happens the rest will come to you if you have a way to practice the right skills as well as banking and kicking.

In a year with a motivated person who can stand correctly and stroke straight...Absolutely.

I don't believe you have to hit a million balls either. I think with proper education excellence can be achieved in just about anyone's normal playing game and much sooner than what people consider as customary.
 
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If you have an instructor, and can work on the game for 20 hours a week, yes you can become a pretty good player in a year. If you were given a cue, shown basic stance and how to hit the ball correctly and left on your own, will take several times longer unless the player has some natural talent (like he/she was able to find his proper stance / alignment / aim line on his own).

About being an "Expert", I think that will take longer unless the player is always in tournaments or gambling every week since you need to learn position, speed, strategy for different games, safety play, etc...

There are not many games like billiards where there are so many different ways to play a shot or apply spin to the ball. In fact, many games you only have ONE correct way to do something, in pool you can have 3-4 that are more or less equally good.
 
Thanks for posting that link.

I thought the video was really cool and even though the table tennis player didn't quite meet his goal, he improved tremendously and in the process showed us all that we are capable of so much more than we sometimes believe.
 
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Not much strategy in Table Tennis. You can nail down the mechanics of pool, but an expert in a year?? I doubt it. Anyone with two eyes and hands can move pieces on a chessboard, but understanding the strategy is a different sort of learning process. Cheers to the guy in the video though. I've always enjoyed table tennis, and he seemed to improve pretty rapidly.
 
MitchAlsup said:
In my opinion:: Anyone sufficiently motivated to learn and play 8-hours a day 365 days a year, can become pretty good (SL7:: C+-to-B-) in a single year with a good coach.

With talent SL7 could be raised to a solid B.
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8 hours a day, every day, for a year, with coaching and only a C+ to a B-? Is this hypothetical player blind?
 
Yes, but not just anyone can do it.

One-in-a-million people have a natural talent that enables them to become an expert within one year with proper coaching. They just "see" the angles, the ball-spin, etc and it all makes sense to them...intuitively. Their hand/eye coordination enables them to make shots on day-three that most of us struggle with even after years of practice.

The problem is that since pool isn't popular, we're not seeing those one-in-a-million kids. We see a dozen of them in music every year; they can pick up any instrument and play at top professional level within a year. And an instrument has many more choices/nuances than pool.

It isn't popular among the "normal" people in any field to recognize that there are prodigies who could outperform them after such a short time...but they do exist.
 
bdorman said:
Yes, but not just anyone can do it.

One-in-a-million people have a natural talent that enables them to become an expert within one year with proper coaching. They just "see" the angles, the ball-spin, etc and it all makes sense to them...intuitively. Their hand/eye coordination enables them to make shots on day-three that most of us struggle with even after years of practice.

The problem is that since pool isn't popular, we're not seeing those one-in-a-million kids. We see a dozen of them in music every year; they can pick up any instrument and play at top professional level within a year. And an instrument has many more choices/nuances than pool.

It isn't popular among the "normal" people in any field to recognize that there are prodigies who could outperform them after such a short time...but they do exist.
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I'm not really trying to start another nature vs. nurture debate (or am I?) but I'm always curious when it comes to child prodigies.

Who are a couple of these one-in-a-million kids in the music field that you speak of? I only ask because every time I read about one of these kids I find that they have been practicing diligently for years, if not from birth -- especially in the music field.
 
BasementDweller said:
I'm not really trying to start another nature vs. nurture debate (or am I?) but I'm always curious when it comes to child prodigies.

Who are a couple of these one-in-a-million kids in the music field that you speak of? I only ask because every time I read about one of these kids I find that they have been practicing diligently for years, if not from birth -- especially in the music field.
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My mother was her church organist at 9. She didn't have brutal daily lessons til her fingers bled or anything. My grandmother was a mediocre keyboardist at best. My mom took to the keyboard like fish to water, more naturally the walking. There was a need for an organist; she filled it.

Freddie <~~~ proud son
 
BasementDweller said:
I'm not really trying to start another nature vs. nurture debate (or am I?) but I'm always curious when it comes to child prodigies.

Who are a couple of these one-in-a-million kids in the music field that you speak of? I only ask because every time I read about one of these kids I find that they have been practicing diligently for years, if not from birth -- especially in the music field.
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There is a YouTube video of a girl singing opera during some talent TV show, the girl said she just tried to sing like what she heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEMR3A4WLC8
 
a powerful synergy that can be directed to any reasonable goal.

MSchaffer said:
Just watch a cool little video about table tennis.



Do you believe (with the right coaching) the same can be achieved in our beloved sport?

Table Tennis
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Yes, a player willing to dedicate themselves and truly train can accomplish miraculous things. I've trained a lot in the martial arts and it was the key to my development, not practicing pool all the time.

To be a champion one must balance the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of their lives. This creates a powerful synergy that can be directed to any reasonable goal.

I don't believe anyone can improve much unless willing to accept new ideas, beliefs and behaviors. The physical part of pool is the most important, followed closely by the mental and spiritual aspects.

Any of these components by themselves are not enough, however, when the are systematically blended together a "C" player can become an "A" player in well within a year.....becoming championship level will take longer only because it takes a few years of competing against the very best to rise to their level. (imho)
 
BasementDweller said:
I'm not really trying to start another nature vs. nurture debate (or am I?) but I'm always curious when it comes to child prodigies.

Who are a couple of these one-in-a-million kids in the music field that you speak of? I only ask because every time I read about one of these kids I find that they have been practicing diligently for years, if not from birth -- especially in the music field.
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I'm sure there is a lot of practice involved, but these child prodigies usually also have absolute pitch. It really aids the development, especially in singing, and often allows for quicker development.
 
BasementDweller said:
I'm not really trying to start another nature vs. nurture debate (or am I?) but I'm always curious when it comes to child prodigies.

Who are a couple of these one-in-a-million kids in the music field that you speak of? I only ask because every time I read about one of these kids I find that they have been practicing diligently for years, if not from birth -- especially in the music field.
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Yes, by the time you see them they've practiced for years. But they performed at a professional level within the first year.

Twenty years ago a friend of mine who teaches guitar had a 19-year old student who had never played a musical instrument. Within six months he could have sat in with any professional jazz ensemble. It just came as naturally to him as breathing does to us.

The sad thing is that many of these ultra-talented people don't stay with it. It comes so easily to them that they don't develop a love of the instrument/game/process that comes from hard work.
 
MSchaffer said:
Just watch a cool little video about table tennis.



Do you believe (with the right coaching) the same can be achieved in our beloved sport?

Table Tennis
Click to expand...
For sure. Maybe not a superstar but to a professional level. One example is how most pro's who have children if the child decides to play plays very good.

The same with room owners. They often have children who play and become very good players. This is due to nothing more the exposure and an interest.
 
Proficient in one year ----- yes.

Expert in one year ----- no.

But that's just according to my definition of 'expert' which involves wisdom that takes more time to develop than mechanics.
 
Expert Level/Close Call

FranCrimi said:
Proficient in one year ----- yes.

Expert in one year ----- no.

But that's just according to my definition of 'expert' which involves wisdom that takes more time to develop than mechanics.
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I have to agree with youe definition of expert on your time analysis.

I do think that a young person with good depth perception with organized practice 3 times a week minimum for at least 2 hrs a time that you could make a good center ball shot maker for most shots in 2 months give or take and begin on pre-shot routines and stroke, afterwards you could start working on spin for another 2 to 3 months intermittently and start them moving the cue ball. Somewhere around 7 to 8 months I think you could have them start on the moves, while you tweak their fundamentals as you go, towards the end you could hit strategies and the different games.

True Mastery...probably not in a year, but mastery of the skill sets to build up to the level you speak of...it would be a close call provided the person had some athletic ability and good depth perception. You are probably right on true mastery but if you had a year and several evenings a week to work with someone who was interested....wouldnt it be exciting to see how far you could get them?
 
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