I used to love to play ping pong as a kid in my basement. I knew some
others who had tables as well, and it seemed that home court always had
an advantage.
In high school I could beat most of the players I played...
at least on my own table.
While attending college part time at UNH, I found
that they had a table tennis club.
The most surprising thing for me was
finding out that all the club members were better than me, and it wasn't
even close.
That is the difference between real table tennis and basement
ping pong. I've been playing now for about 26 years.
My highest USATT rating
was 2061, but most of the time I float around the 1800's.
Here is my rating history since 1994