I'm going to be in NYC (54th and 6th) from superbowl sunday until thursday morning for work. I was hoping to find a welcoming place to play once or twice in the evening when I was there. Where would you suggest I go? If it helps, my rating from 3+ years ago was in the low 1600s though people have said I'm playing above that now (not sure how true it is). I will be on my own so I'll have to find people to play.
Join Table Tennis Daily, get a subway card, link up with UpsidedownCarl and Co to visit some clubs, and record the mayhem.
Just google "table tennis clubs in nyc" and a number of them will show up. If you drive I suggest going to Westchester TTC in Pleasantville, the friendliest people and best facilities.
I liked Lily Yip's club, it's professional and the league is competitive for all.
Westchester was my home club back when they were Rivertowns Table Tennis Club and I was a member there for quite a while. Great people and place. I just don't want to drive up there (or take the train) from midtown and back on a weeknight after work hours. It just takes too much time.
Part of the reason why I asked is to make sure I go somewhere where I'll get to play with a variety of people. You never know which places have a good turnout during the week.
Take train to Queens (Flushing), there are couple of clubs within walking distance from the last stop (I went to Robert Chen's one). It was good.
That's a bit too far considering the timing. I figure I can't head out anywhere until maybe 6pm and want to be back by 11-11:30 so I'll be good for work in the morning. I don't want to spend more time commuting than playing.
Here you will have a lot of different people to play matches with. I think it is usually too crowded to actually spend time training so you warm up for 2 minutes and play matches.
You could also try SPIN NYC but it can be pricey and unless you prearrange to play with someone, I am not sure how successful you will be finding someone.
Depending on when you go, there might not be anyone to play. It is usually best 3-6pm or 9-10pm on weekdays or 1-4p on weekends. You can also post on their facebook page and ask to see if anyone would like to play. Here you can actually spend a lot of time on a table training or playing matches.
If you are willing to go to Flushing then NYISC or Rober Chen's clubs are also good options however they are quite a trip from midtown.
Thanks, this was the type of thing I was looking for. I was thinking WCTTC and didn't notice NYTTA. I can get to either of them in under 30 minutes which is a huge plus.
I was under the impression that for SPIN you had to arrange to play someone there.
I have had so many successful visits to NYC and TT clubs with my TT friends who live there.
I was in NYC in Nov 2018 and visited Robert Chen's club and did a team tourney at NYISC.
If you get friends with Carl, he will get you into SPiN for free, he teaches yoga to the staff.
come visit me in brooklyn!
So I ended up at NYTTA on Monday evening. It wasn't crowded so I played almost non-stop. Strangely I didn't play too many people but there was good competition and fun was had by all. Because of the setup, I played 1 guy like 4 matches in a row because nobody was waiting. They were good matches, but looking back I should have tried to play more people to get more variety.
A number of people thought I was rated around 1800 (I'm not, though it's been a while since I played a tournament), so I'm pretty happy even though I didn't feel like I played my best.
I've clearly been playing n the same small club too long as I had a lot of trouble returning some serves. There's only a couple of guys with good serves at my club so that's probably the hardest thing for me to work on.
Who operates the club? Is it Ernesto Ebuen?
That's what I read, but he wasn't there that night.