December 9, 2014

Ringers at the Open and Nationals

I've had a few people email me about this problem. At every Open and Nationals most of the rating events are won by "ringers," i.e. players who are way under-rated. Most, though not all, are rapidly-improving juniors. Because of these ringers, some of the fun is taken out of competing in these tournaments. After all, when you play, say, an Under 1500 event, you expect to play players whose level is under 1500, or at least not that far over it. The reality, of course, is that to win a rating event at the Open or Nationals usually you have to play well over the rating cutoff. To have a chance of winning, you probably have to be at least 200-400 points over the rating cutoff of an event. (The lower the event, the more volatility and the more you have to be over the event's cutoff.)

I considered putting this down as one of the issues in my "Other USATT Issues" portion of my USATT Election Page and mailing. But in contrast with the other issues I did put there, there is no easy solution to this. All we can do are find "less bad" solutions. But we really do need to address this.

There are three main types of "ringers" at these tournaments. They are:

  1. Up-and-coming players - mostly juniors - who are playing tournaments regularly but have recently improved dramatically.
  2. Players who haven't played tournaments recently and have improved dramatically since their last tournament. Again, these are often juniors.  
  3. Players who intentionally dump matches to get their rating down for big tournaments. These are low-life scum.

There is little you can do (or perhaps should do) about players in Category One. They were legitimately under the cutoff, are playing tournaments regularly, but due to lots of practice have suddenly improved a lot, and now they are reaping the rewards. Congrats to them! Perhaps you can allow the tournament director or staff to rerate such a player once they realize how under-rated they are - but be somewhat lenient. If a 1000 player is playing an estimate 1500, perhaps let them play Under 1400 or even Under 1300, while taking them out of Under 1200 and Under 1100. Estimates are only so accurate, and you do want to let players compete when you can. Even if they are playing 1500 level they are going to have a tough time winning Under 1300 - they won't be the only ringer.

But there's a weakness to their new level, which experienced players can take advantage of, even if their level is no longer as strong - these rapidly-improving players are new to this level, and so under pressure are not always so good. They get nervous, they aren't sure what type of tactics to use, and they often either fall back onto old habits when it's close or begin to play wildly, as they aren't confident of their new level yet. Stick with them and keep it close (not always easy), and you have a good chance against them. (The downside is these players, mostly kids, usually have coaches - such as me - and we're pretty good at guiding them through these close matches. Sorry!)

What can be done about those in Category Two? There are several options.

  1. You can have rules that don't allow players to play in their lowest rating event if they haven't played a tournament in, say, six months. Or perhaps add 100 points to their rating for eligibility purposes (but not for seeding). The downside is many long-time players with legitimate ratings don't play that many tournaments, and so may object to not being able to play in their best events at the Open or Nationals. I tend to like this one. Perhaps require a player to play at least a certain number of "competitive" matches in the last six months, i.e. players rated within 100 points, so as to get a more accurate rating.
  2. You can run the rating events in reverse order, highest to lowest. If a player wins one event, he is no longer eligible for another. There are several problems here. First, it's a scheduling nightmare, and probably not feasible. (If not in sequence, you can still take players out of lower events, but then eligibility is often based on the order of events, which is somewhat arbitrary.) Second, suppose someone rated 1000 wins Under 1500 - then he can't play any lower events, and is out of U1100, U1200, U1300, and U1400? Suddenly it's not much of a tournament where he's taken out of four of his five rating events, and so not much is left for him to do in a five-day tournament. And third, suppose he loses in the final to some other ringer - he's obviously better than 1000, but by losing that final (because of an even better ringer) he gets to stay in U1100, U1200, U1300, and U1400. Suddenly it's sort of arbitrary, with eligibility for four events based on one match. (Strong incentive to dump even!)
  3. You can allow tournament directors or staff to rerate players who are obviously under-rated. They should be somewhat lenient here - when in doubt, let the player play an event. But if a 1000-rated player is beating 1800 players, at least rerated to 1600 or 1700.
  4. You can use a rating system with standard deviation, and not allow a player in their lowest events if their SD gets too high. This would be a complete revamping of the system, a possibility but not something I'm thrilled with. There are strengths and weaknesses to such a system, and which have been debated extensively - and I have no desire to get into another such debate.   

What can be done about those in Category Three, other than immediate expulsion from the human race? (I'm against execution, but it's a close thing.)

  1. You can use a player's highest rating of the past year for eligibility. But what about the poor player rated, say, 1350, who has one great tournament, gets to 1601, then drops back to 1400, and suddenly can't play Under 1500 or Under 1600?
  2. You can require that a player cannot drop more than 100 points from their highest rating in the past year for eligibility purposes. So if a player dumps matches and drops 200 points, he'd effectively only go down 100 points, and so wouldn't be able to really dominate that event. (Most likely he'd lose to a ringer from categories one or two - yay.)
  3. You can simply give the tournament director (or a tournament committee) the power to rerate a player they believe has been dumping.

You'll note that allowing a tournament director or staff to rerate a player is in all three categories, and I believe this should be allowed - but as noted, it should be applied leniently. But overall, there are no easy solutions. And yet, the current situation is worse than some or most of the above. I think the USATT Tournament Committee (and perhaps a much-needed USATT Ratings Committee) needs to really address these problems, with the understanding that there is no perfect solution.

Monday's Coaching

Once again we had the headache of keeping the various balls separate. Fortunately, with the World Junior Championships (Butterfly plastic balls) and the North American Teams (JOOLA plastic balls) both over, we're mostly down to players training for the USA Nationals next week (Nittaku Premium plastic balls, very limited supplies) and celluloid. I still have eleven of the dozen Nittaku Premiums I ordered a few weeks ago and I'm religiously guarding them. When I coach someone going to the Nationals we combine our balls and usually have over 20 - almost enough to do some quick multiball! I've taken to using the two tables in the far back corner, which are barriered off separately, so as to keep these balls apart from the rest of the club.

One of my students came in about ten minutes late. While waiting I was sitting on a sofa, with one of the cubicle shelves used for players to store their bags blocking my view of the door. I kept leaning forward and craning my neck so I could see the door to see if my student was coming in. I finally commented to others that their putting the cubicle there was going to cause me to wrench my neck, which would lead me to being unable to coach, which would leave me unemployed, leading to my living in the streets, penniless, hungry, and shivering in the cold. Sure enough, I did wrench my neck - I think I hurt it a bit while trying to watch the door, and aggravated it while coaching. So all last night my neck was stiff and hurting. I think I'll be okay - I only have one hour today, so I can mostly rest it. I've got a busy schedule Wed-Sun, and then I leave for the Nationals.

Christmas Stocking Stuffers

Looking for Christmas stocking stuffers for a table tennis player - or yourself? Here are a few suggestions.

Full-Time Coach Wanted

Here's the help wanted notice. "Full-time coach opening at Fremont Table Tennis Academy starting at the beginning of 2015. FTTA will need another coach to join its coaching team."

Coaching Articles by Samson Dubina

Here are two new ones.

Giving Advice During a Match

Here's the coaching video (7:27) from PingSkills - I don't think I posted this previously.

Ask the Coach

Episode 44 (13:46) - 10,000 counterhits

  • Response to Yesterday's #PQOTD  - 1:07: How many counterhits can you do in a row?
  • #PQOTD  - 4:04: In what year will a Non Chinese player win a World Mens singles championship?
  • Question 1 - 4:26: I see lot of discussions here on footwork but am not able to understand why it is required cus I have seen many players in my colony not using efficient footwork but can play very well. Chandrachur
  • Question 2 - 7:26: When using long pips what is the proper stroke to use against another long pips no spin ( dead) return assuming you are not going to twiddle to the inverted side? Should this stroke be only defensive or can it be use more offensively? Jeremiah
  • Question 3 - 9:48: How many sets are required to win a match? I thought that the game is 3 of 5 sets till 11 points, but now i see matches with 4 of 7 sets. Is it fixed value or depends on tournament or judges? Or rules are changed? Dimitar Dimitrov
  • Question 4 - 11:31: l bought a Grass D Tecs rubber last year and l am very happy with it , After playing a match this week my opponent was not happy , and produced a list of legal rubber which he stated it was not on his list and declared my rubber illegal. Robert Atwell

Barbara Wei Profile

Here's the feature on her from Butterfly. Barbara practically grew up at MDTTC, my club, starting at age 7, and eventually traveling the world as a member of the USA cadet and then junior team.

Great Rally

Here's video (28 sec) as Kalinikos Kreanga of Greece plays a great point. Among world-class players, I think Kreanga is the best at playing spectacular points.

Another Great Rally

Here's video (34 sec, including slow motion replay) of a great rally with a great finish between two kids.

Go All In - This is Table Tennis

Here's the video (1:42) of mostly junior training at a club, set to music.

Fundraiser in Florida

Here's the video (48 sec) "PongUniverse and The Florida Grassroot Table Tennis Association at the Pinellas County 2014 Annual Tennis Shoes and Tie fundraiser. Tropicana Field. Tampa, Florida."

World Chess Champion Plays Table Tennis

Here's the picture of Magnus Carlsen of Norway, care of Alberto Prieto.

Ping-Pong Balls in Mouth

How many? (Kids, don't try this at home; he's a trained professional. I think.)

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