Tip of the Week
Trick Serves and Third-Ball Serves.
Mikael Andersson at Lily Yip TTC
Asif Hussain emailed me about a clinic held last week at the Lily Yip Table Tennis Center in New Jersey. With Asif's and Lily's permission, here are excerpts from his email.
Mikael Andersson, ITTF Director of Education and Training along with former Chinese National Team member and coach Zhen Yu San came to Lily Yip's club for a one-hour free coaching class. I of course got caught in traffic and missed the first half hour so I'm not sure what happened in the first half. When I got there, Mikael was wearing street shoes, jeans, and jacket and walking around the court with a microphone. Tina Lin (2200) and Michele (13-year-old around 2000) were doing drills with Mikael directing the drills and providing his observations. The rest of the club members stood around the court and took in his information.
The girls were doing a countering drill involving both FH and BH, then played a single game to 11. For the game, Mikael added a point to a player's score in case she made an exceptionally good play (even if the ball missed as he wanted to reward/reinforce the idea of the right shot selection or good/smart play.) He also deducted a point from a player's score if they made a poor choice (e.g., pushing a ball back that was deep enough to be looped.) Some of his points: