Physical vs. Mental Stiffness, USATT &USOC Coaching, Sidespin/Backspin Serves, the Christmas Rush, and I Do Not Have A Cold

How’s Your Big Breaking Serve Into the Backhand?
I had an interesting “comeuppance” recently when I was explaining to several players the importance of including deep serves in your serving arsenal, and going over the more valuable types – fast down-the-line, no-spin to the middle, and big breaking serves to the backhand. One of them finally asked me, “Larry, what’s a big breaking serve?” Turned out at least two listeners had no idea what I meant.

A “big breaking serve” is one that curves a lot. Probably the most successful and most commonly used is deep into the backhand, so that it breaks away from the receiver. This is most commonly done with a forehand pendulum serve from the backhand side, crosscourt, between two righties (or two lefties). For righties against lefties, and vice versa, it's most commonly done with a forehand tomahawk serve from the forehand side. 

One of my regular demos when I talk about serves in a clinic is to show the difference between a fast topspin serve and a big breaking sidespin serve. I’ll have a volunteer – someone who’s not too strong – return my serve. When I give him a fast topspin serve, he has no trouble returning it. But then I throw the big breaking serve, and he’s caught off guard, reaching for the ball, and his return goes flying off the side and way past the end. I did this demo in a private session yesterday with a junior player to instill in her the importance of learning to put spin on the serve.

Knowing When to Change Serving Tactics
In the German Open Men’s Final (4:42) on Nov. 12, Timo Boll faced Dimitrij “Dima” Ovcharov in the final. Timo had already defeated China’s Lin Gaoyuan in the quarterfinals and Korea’s Lee Sangsu (who had defeated Xu Xin in the quarterfinals) in the semifinals. Dima had defeated China’s Fan Zhendong, world #2, in the semifinals, and so it was a rare non-Chinese final – in fact, an all-German final in the German Open. At the time Dima was world #4, Timo #5, but both moved up one spot since.

Dima went up 3-2 in games, and took a 4-0 lead in the sixth, with Timo to serve. Up until then Timo had been serving I believe all forehand serves. So what does he do? He switches to a rarely-seen backhand serve for his next eight serves. Here’s the video (17:36) starting at 0-4 – note how surprised commentator Adam Bobrow is at this. The umpire stops the point on the first serve and warns Timo on his toss, which is apparently too low – he’s probably not used to using this serve often. He increases his toss and gives a low, no-spin serve, and follows with a winner, 1-4. He again serves backhand, has a shot, but misses it, 1-5. He then scores the next two points on Dima’s serve, 3-5. Timo continues to serve backhand, and wins the next six points on his serve in a row with it to win 11-7 – with Dima missing three of the last four outright!!! The lesson here is that you shouldn’t be afraid to try out new things against an opponent if other things aren’t working.

Injured a Lot?
Someone recently asked me why I seem to be injured a lot. And it’s true – I have a revolving door of injuries, including problems with my right knee, upper back on right side, right shoulder (two spots), and right arm. Those with right-minded thinking may have rightfully noticed an outright pattern, and they are right. (We’re not talking rightwing politics, though I am a right-winger in table tennis since I am right-handed . . . in case you hadn’t figured that out.)

Years and years of long hours training, playing, and coaching have led to these problems. Somehow I don’t think any doctor ever saw an injured patient and prescribed, “Rest and twenty hours of table tennis per week.”

The knee problem has its roots in the fact that MDTTC, which opened in 1992, had cement floors for a number of years before going to red rubberized flooring. Playing on cement regularly is like banging your knees with a hammer. My left knee used to bother me at times as well, but not in recent times.

However, the simple reality is I’m 57 (gosh that sounds old…), and the muscles aren’t as tight as they used to be – they’re tighter. I’ve always been way too stiff, and now I’m older and stiffer. Worse, when I do have minor injuries, I have to keep going and continue coaching, because, you know, it’s my job! And when the minor injuries become not-so-minor, I still have to continue, because, you know, it’s my job! It’s only when they become rather severe that I take time off. The result, of course, is that minor injuries sometimes turn into no-so-minor ones.

Tip of the Week
How to Mess Up Your Opponent When Forced to Make a Weak Shot.

Weekend Coaching
Here are some highlights.

Ball Madness
There used to be a debate about whether there really was a difference between Nittaku and a Butterfly 3-star balls. But there really wasn’t a serious debate – every top player and coach knew that the Butterfly ball was slightly lighter than the Nittaku. The real debate was whether the difference was enough that you’d want to train with the ball to be used in your next tournament. I was firmly on the side of using that ball, since even a very slight difference made a difference to your timing – but the difference was so small that it was more psychological, where you wanted to use the same ball so that you’d know that it would play the same.

That were the good old days of celluloid, when the difference in balls was so small as to be almost a non-issue. These days, with the ITTF’s rush to adopt plastic balls, and with every tournament I know of now using them, you have to adjust to many different types of balls, and unlike before, the differences are much larger.

I’ve taken to buying a dozen or more of each major type that’s used in tournaments, plus of course we have three types of training balls at the club – the old celluloid ones, plus two types of Butterfly training balls. Keeping them separate is like cooking chili and then trying to separate the ingredients afterwards. So here’s my current ball situation.

Big Tournaments are Like a Month of Training
I’ve pointed this out in past blogs (not recently), and it really is true – if you play in a big tournament, where you are playing intense matches all day long for two or more days, when it’s done it’s like you’ve been training for a month.

The huge tragedy here is that the best time to play a tournament is when you are at your best – which is usually right at the end of the big tournament you just played in. Which is why it’s sometimes best to schedule several tournaments in a row, or at least in close proximity. (This can be taken to an extreme. I once played tournaments nine consecutive weekends. At the end I had my highest rating of my life.)  

Think about it. Imagine yourself the last time you played a tournament (assuming you have), where you played lots of matches. Didn’t you most often play your best near the end, at least until and if you got too tired to play well? Isn’t that the way you want to play at your next tournament?

That type of play doesn’t go instantly go away. When you hit that high level after lots of matches at a tournament, it stays with you for a time. Make sure to play some that week to keep your touch, and guess what? The following weekend, with a proper warm-up, you’ll likely pick up right where you left off the previous weekend, when you were at your best near the end. It doesn’t always work, but it works this way the majority of the time.

A lot of locals played in the North American Teams this past weekend. By the third day many had hit breakthroughs and were playing the best they’d ever played, except of course where exhaustion took over. But the exhaustion goes away soon, while the level of play reached does not. So many of the smart ones are now looking to follow this up at other tournaments, whether local (there’s one at the Washington DC TTC next weekend) or at the U.S. Open in December.

Rules Questions at the Teams
A number of rules questions and issues came up at the North American Teams this past weekend. Here’s a rundown. (I coached two junior teams during the tournament, one with four players, and one with three.)

Tip of the Week
The Non-Playing Arm.

JOOLA North American Teams
I spent all day Fri, Sat, and Sun at the Teams in Washington DC, coaching two junior teams from MDTTC. It was my 42nd consecutive year at the Teams, starting in 1976 when I was 16. That year I played with Mike Shapiro and Jackie Heyman. The next year I played with Jim Mossberg and Mort Greenberg (and I think someone else – can’t remember) – and both of them were in action at the teams this year! Most of those years I played, but in recent years I’ve just coached.

Here are complete results. There were 963 players on 238 teams on roughly a zillion tables. Because I was busy coaching the whole time, I didn’t get to see any of the big matches, but here’s the excellent article on the tournament by Matt Hetherington, ASV Grunwettersbach Top the Field in World Class JOOLA Team Championships, with a link to a video of the final. Matt also created a “High-Speed Tour” of the tournament (35 sec)!

As usual, there were lots and lots of tactical things going on. I could write about this for hours. Here are just a few.

Off Until Tuesday, Nov. 28
I’m off tomorrow (Thanksgiving), and then I’ll be coaching at the JOOLA North American Teams (Fri-Sun, 960 players on 238 teams), and taking a rest day on Monday, though I'll likely put the Tip of the Week up that day, since it's already written. (Here’s the USATT page where you can livestream the Friday Bundesliga match on Friday, starting 1PM – see segment below – and here’s the USATT article.) Have a Happy Thanksgiving, and see you next Tuesday!

New ITTF World Tour Standings
Here are the new World Tour Standings, using the new ITTF ranking list. This is the new ITTF ranking system that will take over on Jan. 1, 2018, from the current ITTF ranking system; here is the ITTF explanation. The biggest difference is that the new system takes participation into account, so that a player who plays many ITTF events will tend to get a higher ranking than one who does not – and often higher than a less active stronger player as well. The main advantage of this is that it gives incentive to play more ITTF events. The disadvantage is that it is less accurate overall.