Utah Valley Open Results

On Saturday Austin, Jacob and I (along with my coworker, David To) went down to Pleasant Grove for the Utah Valley Open. This was a USATT sanctioned event so I was eager to go. There were about 40 people in the tournament.

Austin and Jacob played their age division matches. Austin took second place and Jacob took fourth. There were 6 kids in the division (14 and under). Austin was pretty upset at taking second. He lost to Jason. Jason and Austin play all the time at the club and this was the first time Jason had ever beaten Austin. Jason has a very nice stroke and looks better than he actually is. The technique I keep offering Austin to improve his game is something that is not even related to Table Tennis, but in mental conditioning. When he misses a point, he doesn't stop and think about how to improve the shot. He whines and complains and is on the verge of tears.

I've discussed this before with him. I don't know how to reinforce the importance of visualization, relaxation and being positive with him. I'm about to ground him from the sport because it only distresses him and I when he does this.

Jacob on the other hand is very upbeat, even when he is losing. It is important to him because he simply shines and beams when he wins, but when he loses he doesn't cry and is able to rebound for the next match.

Here is some video of Jacob and Austin's games.

After the kids played, David started his 40 and over age division. He quickly noticed how well the players in his division were. Here is some video of his games. In the Open he played in the C Division and took second place.

Then Austin and I played Doubles. There were only two divisions: Open and A. Austin and I were in Open. We actually won our first two matches. But then we went up against Merrill and Carlos and lost 3 - 2. (Merrill and Carlos kept winning and took first place in the A division).

Then we all played in the open. Austin didn't last long. His attitude had already suffered significantly and it was seriously affecting his game. Jacob didn't last long either. The open is available to all ages. They were both in the C Division and lost to several other older people.

I was in the B division, which was probably a little too low for me. I went undefeated until the last game (which was the gold medal round) with Carol Davis (rated 1446). She won the first match 11-6, I then won the second 11-8, She won the third 11-8, I wont the fourth 11-6 and then she won the fifth 11-4. I took the silver medal. Here is some video of the match I had with Matt Misbach (1376 rating) (which I won) before playing Carol.


While Jacob and I had fun, it was a very long day and the tournament was very rushed for the open because of the lack of planning and organization. The Tournament director was threatened with getting kicked out since we went beyond the scheduled time for the facility and he scrapped the lower end of each bracket. I overheard someone complain to him, I waited five hours and only played one match? How is that one match going to affect my rating?

I agreed. John needed some assistants. He was often running around like a chicken with his head cut off. I assisted after he was already in a panicked state.