I didn't watch too much of the video (and I don't really understand USATT ratings since it seems to be impossible to even get an estimation of how they translate to ratings central) but surely your estimation must be just a bit generous here?

Rocketman,

Where you play at, neither player would get or hold a 1700 rating if they did 3 tourneys. Both are around same basic level. They MIGHT make an 1800 rating in a weaker zone of USA, but debatable.

Light blue shirt player - serve and receive is very weak. Serves are sloppy, high, not varied, predictable long, easy to attack, do NOT assist with an attacking strategy. Receive is also sloppy, easy to open against, almost like player is inviting opponent to attack and hope they miss.

Dark blue shirt (Adidas) - very weak serve and receive.  Serve not too varied, because amount of spin is not much. Same block and hope tactics on receive, but what the heck, they work sometimes at this level. Fallback on rallying if needed. Overall a little better plan, but not by much. Serves - look at vid, nearly every time, dark blue shirt player dips hand with ball BELOW the table after presenting the ball. Any certified umpire would call a fault. Clear cut easy to spot. Also easy to fix.

Both players seem to give easy balls to opponent to attack and get into a flashy rally or power or high spin rally. Maybe both players are strong there. Neither player seems to be able to open vs heavier underspin much, only light.

I would win vs either of these players 11-5 (and I am in the same rating band rocket estimated and live in the same zone as rocket) just by keeping serve return low with some spin and keep serves short, low and spinny first, then vary it. I would push long and deep often to invite them to attack and miss, neither player shows much patience. If they wisen up and do not take the bait on long pushes, I would push one dead suddenly and attack next ball. I would open with real heavy topspin, neither player is generating a lot of toppsin.

At this level, many points are won ugly from mistakes, so the flashy stuff may not be an indicator like at another level, and even then that tells only a part of the story. The better tourney players playing this style know how these points are won and play the percentages.

BTW, in my area, there is a player from your country here, he just put LP on his BH, his level is around 1750 USATT +/- 50. His serves are a lot more varied and he can make it short when he wants. His landing percentage on attacks better, spin heavier. Stays close to table, punishes mistakes. Just his serve and attack, or his return and if opponent pushes, then he attacks... just that part alone got him most of his level.

The one of whom I speak would win vs either player in the vid 3-1 on average.

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That's what I feel - about 1500.  Don't think they worth 1800-1900.

The guy in the light blue shirt has a good loop and he did try counter looping with the right action, so I still think they are around 1800.

Mike, I haven't played a tournament in more than a year+, however I think these guys are playing pips, which at 1800 level doesn't look as impressive, and hence they look much lower, even if they are not 1800 CA, they are easily 1600.

-200 for not wearing butterfly gear at ICC

I'd say 1000 would be about right for the cameraman's video taking abilities...

As for the players, I don't know. I was going to guess about 1200 based on the first minute or so of the video, but by the end black shirt was looking much better. So maybe I'd give him up to 1500, and maybe 1400 for the other guy, but I only skipped through the video.

I think I could beat them, but I also don't have a rating, so I guess that doesn't mean much.

P.S. I also don't know what I'm talking about :(

I've looked at all the estimates above and you are a ..........

1000,1100,1200,1300,1400,u1500,1500,1600,u1700,1700,1800-1900 rated person

not too bad at all

The pips definitely make it more of a challenge.

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This is your second video.

My estimate of your level in this video is about 1400.

The little girl, who beat you 4-0,  worth about 1600.

I'm going to skip the part about guessing ratings, which is a fun game but won't help you.

First problem is that you need how to chop properly.  You do a very short stroke and most "real" chopping involves a much longer stroke.  Look at some videos and see if you can find a consistent looper to practice with.  Or use a robot.  You really need to train that chopping technique for hours and hours.

Aborted chops (short swings) don't do much and force you to play an 'in between game": not quite a true defender, not attacking either.

Second problem is footwork.  Footwork is critical to chopping n order to get in place properly.  You need to have the footwork to be move, then be balanced for your stroke so that you can move again.  It's each to cheat on footwork (up to 1700 level) if you're just hitting topspin near the table.  But if you're chopping from off the table, footwork means everything.

It's hard to worry about anything else while you have those two issues.  It will take time to improve both stroke and footwork, so be patient with yourself.  I would worry less about playing games right now and more about just putting in the hours at strokes and footwork.

Good luck and Merry Christmas!

For the OP/chopper? Not from that video, not even close.

I'll be the first to admit that videos make us look much worse, so I don't know that I could really guess his level from these videos.  But we have a low-level chopper in our club whose footwork and strokes are much superior to OP and our guy's rating is around 1500.

This long and boring story is given here to illustrate that at lower levels it is possible to play a fairly good match (darn, I never record...) that is a far distant from your usual level. If you record that, and then publish, well... you may not get the type of criticism you actually need.

I remember when one of my students was first learning to cut, she was doing this exercise to help with going close and away from the table.

Simply put, it was just her being in the ready position, taking a step back, chopping a ball fed to her by another student, then stepping in back to the ready position. She repeated that over and over, quicker and quicker.

What I liked about how they did it was that she had her towel on the table in the middle on the back edge. Whenever she went back into the ready position, she physically touched her racket head on the towel.

I would recommend that if you can get someone to feed you balls or consistently loop balls to you. If they're looping balls, you can ask them to push one then loop, push then loop. That way you can practicing getting back into the table and stepping out. My student loves that exercise and it's one she does every day.

Have a look at the video below, where ~2200 (or even higher?) chopper (forum member 'leatherback', at least on OOAK) is practicing with ~2800 coach. Not exactly your situation, but I suspect Eugene Wang does not necessarily know  a lot about LP strokes either, but he's VERY good against choppers (find his match against Jian Li, whose videos you probably should also watch). It might give you some idea on how fast 'multiball' should be with your coach, and also what LP strokes should look like (I find watching non-pros more useful in general).  

P.S. Did you use black rubbers on both sides in your second video, against 10-yr old girl? That probably helped you here somewhat (well, you still lost )

You probably are at disadvantage somewhat, but so are many aspiring modern defenders that don't have good defense specialist coach nearby to show them proper strokes, footwork, tactics etc. You are not screwed, though - it sounds like you have plenty of good players to practice against, and quite a few folks here probably envy you already. 

Keep looking for videos on YouTube, especially for drills aimed at defenders (I know I saw some). Video yourself to see how your strokes look in reality, and iterate. This forum and OOAK are pretty good at giving advice - I suggest you make your own blog thread at OOAK (not many 'blogs' here, somehow).

Huh? Seeing someone playing with same-color rubbers is HIGHLY unusual these days, I'm actually surprised no one mentioned it before in this thread. And it is providing some advantage in the match, since opponent has no visual cues to go by.  Kind of amused by your reaction, but OK.

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Oops, I did watch the video, but missed that the guy used same color of rubber (black) on both sides.  Thanks for pointing that out.

Interesting anecdote: a week before the US Open, I played in a warm-up tournament.  There was one match I lost to a penhold player in five games.  Afterwards, two different people came up to me and ask me why I didn't complain.  It seems my opponent had black on both sides and was twidling.  I never noticed it.  I did check the rubber on one side before the match but never checked the other side.  After the match, I asked the tournament director about it, but he didn't want to make a deal out of it, so I let it go.

Since you have a coach, I'm confident you'll be able to fit a lot the issues people have mentioned. When I watch my own videos, I always get disappointed when I see myself off balance during shots. I definitely think you should concentrate on staying balanced, especially for backhand to forehand transitions.