A Tip of the Week will go up every Monday by noon.

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Published:

04/24/2023 - 12:55

Author: Larry Hodges

There's a famous song, "Dumb Ways to Die," that one of our top juniors use to play endlessly as a fun way to relax, often before a big match. (Years later and I still can’t get it out of my head.) Maybe someone should do a song, "Dumb Ways to Lose"? Over the years I have seen so many players find dumb ways to lose that I've concluded that losing was, in fact, their goal. If your goal is to lose, I am here to help! And so, here it is . . . "Dumb Ways to Lose," i.e. Larry's Guide to Losing. 

  1. Spend the week before the tournament on your sofa watching TV, eating potato chips, and drinking soda or beer. Do the same the week afterwards to console yourself.
  2. Use old, worn-out sponge and playing shoes.
  3. Show up at the last minute so there's no time to warm up. Warming up is for sissies.
  4. Eat a big meal just before your big match.
  5. Always figure out the right tactics to beat your opponent after it's too late.
  6. Actually, why worry about tactics at all? Who needs to think? It's not like you're playing chess or something. Just play and if you play better, you'll win, right?
  7. Try to be highly emotional, with a full panorama of negative emotions: Anger, Disgust, Sadness, and for the emotionally talented, Complete Hopelessness. Practice these emotions on your friends while you still have them.
  8. Just before your most important match of the tournament, discuss politics or religion with someone, or just watch the news.
  9. When you miss an easy shot, that's all you should think about for the rest of the match. I mean, seriously, you should have made that shot, right? It was so easy! Keep telling yourself that.
  10. Constantly think about your opponent's rating, how many rating points you are risking, and the score. These things are important!!!
Published:

04/17/2023 - 15:14

Author: Larry Hodges

Before a drill, players often ask, "Who's doing the drill?" The answer is, of course, both players. And that includes a player who is blocking. But it's more than that - some would say one player is doing a footwork drill while the other is blocking, but that's totally wrong. They are both doing a footwork drill. Good blocking takes good footwork. If you don't move, then your blocking can fall apart like a crumbling wall.

Like all strokes, you block better when you have one basic technique, instead of having to reach to the left or right and alter your blocking stroke to adjust. The problem is that, when faced with a hard-hit ball, that's often what a player reflexively does. But that's the point of practice, so you can develop proper reflexes. Just as with other strokes, the proper reflex is to move to the ball, so you can block each ball with essentially the same stroke, with minimal reaching.

This doesn't mean you never reach for a ball, only that you should train your reflexes so you start by moving to the ball, as well as reaching if necessary. For a righty backhand blocker, this means moving right to cover the middle, and moving left to cover the wide backhand. A key to this is not waiting to see if you have to move - assume you have to move, whether it’s an inch or a foot or more, thereby getting a quicker start once you see the direction to move. This should involve a slight "hop" between shots as you prepare to move - watch videos of top players to see this.

You also have to be able to move in to block. You should normally be positioned so as to block deep attacks, but if a loop lands short on the table, you should move in and block it aggressively.

How do you develop these reflexive habits? Practice! In this case, perhaps have someone loop over and over to one side, backhand or forehand, but intentionally moving the ball around so it sometimes goes wide, sometimes toward the middle. (Below the elite levels, this will likely happen regardless of where they are aiming as they might not have the control to hit these spots - meaning you get good practice moving!) Focus on stepping to each shot and catching them just right, over and over.

Once you do this, you'll find blocking easier and more consistent. And then your blocking will become a wall!

Published:

04/10/2023 - 14:59

Author: Larry Hodges

How can you best prepare for a tournament on the day before? Here are some ten tips.

  1. Practice. Younger and athletic players recover faster and so should train more the day before. Older or less athletic players should practice if possible, both to get used to the tournament conditions and to fine-tune the parts of their game that need fine-tuning. But don't overdo it - you don't want to show up to the tournament with tired or sore muscles. Do at least one footwork drill to get your feet going.
  2. Tune-up Your Shots. Regardless of how much you practice just before a tournament, the point is to tune up your shots, not to change your technique or learn new ones. If you want to do that, then you probably shouldn't be playing in tournaments until you've changed or learned those techniques. (The exception is if it's something, like a serve, that you are working on but don't need to use in the tournament.)
  3. Strokes. You don't need to practice them all, just the ones you want to work! (Yes, that includes pushing.)
  4. Serves. Always practice your serves before a tournament. Make sure you can keep your serves low, accurate, with lots of spin and/or deception. (That includes no-spin that looks like spin.) Probably most important just before a tournament is to practice your fast, deep serves, the ones that are so easy to miss under pressure - and so players either don't use them or serve them slower and weaker. If you practice them the day before, you'll be able to use them with greater confidence and consistency in the tournament.
  5. Receive. If there's a specific serve that gives you trouble that you think you might face in the tournament, now's a good time to ask someone to serve it to you.
  6. Practice Games. Along with practicing your serves and tuning up your strokes, this is the most important thing to prepare for a tournament. You don't want to play your first tournament match where you haven't played any for a time. If you have the energy, play lots of practice matches just before a tournament.
  7. Food and Drinks. Plan your food out in advance. Bring drinks unless you know they will have water or sports drinks.
  8. Practice Partner. If possible, arrange a practice partner for both the day before (for warming up before playing practice matches) and at the tournament before your first matches.
  9. Check equipment. Racket, shoes, playing clothes - make sure it's all ready! Make sure to clean your racket surface.
  10. Sleep. Get plenty!!!
Published:

04/03/2023 - 14:44

Author: Larry Hodges

Does one need to be a top player to be a top coach? The question often comes up, and there's an easy answer. No.

However . . . and this is a big HOWEVER . . . it's difficult to become a top coach without being a top player first. It's a matter of opportunity. If you are a member of a National Team, you train for many years with other top players and top coaches, and if you are really paying attention and become a student of the game, you gain the experience necessary to be a top coach.

It's possible to be a very good basics coach, one who can train new and intermediate players very well, without being as experienced working with top players. But the key problem to watch for here is that many coaches who teach basics teach them in a way that will later hurt the player. For example, some hold back on teaching the loop in rallies, especially the backhand loop, for so long that hitting becomes ingrained, and so looping never becomes ingrained or comfortable. Or they have the player use beginner's sponge so long that their development is held back because they develop a game around beginner's sponge instead of a modern game based on modern sponges. So even coaches of beginning and intermediate players need to have enough experience with top players to see how they develop so they can teach players a foundation that leads to becoming a top player.

Some believe you can be a self-taught coach, and there's some truth to this. But there will always be major holes in your coaching if you don't have the opportunity to spend lots and lots of time with top players and coaches when they train. Even tactical coaching is limited if you haven't spent a lot of time with the player you are coaching when he's practicing. You might be a good tactical coach from personal experience and from watching top players on video and analyzing what you see, but you have to see what the player is doing in practice to see what he can really do. You might see him have trouble with a shot and not know if he normally has trouble with that shot or if he's just off or nervous. You might see a weakness in an opponent that seems to play into your player's strengths, but if the player hasn't practiced that type of sequence, he might not be comfortable doing it. So being around top players and coaches when they train is important if you truly want to be a top coach. This doesn't mean you can't be a decent coach; but to be a top coach you need the full experience.

Suppose you were not a top player, but somehow spent years watching top players train and work with top coaches, and really paid attention? Then you could also become a top coach. However, it's difficult to find such opportunities unless you are a top player. If you aren't a top player and want to be a top coach, you have to find opportunities to be around top players and coaches when they train, even if it means volunteering to help in some way, or just observing, perhaps for years, as you learn what top players learn in the many years they train to become a top player. This means showing up to watch their training sessions or attending training camps, where you observe, analyze, and ask questions.

There’s also the problem that you can’t really train one-on-one with a top player if you aren’t also a top player, but you can still hit with non-top players, feed multiball, run group sessions, and perhaps block for top players in some drills. (One key thing for non-top players who want to be top coaches – become an expert in feeding multiball. How do you do this? First, watch top coaches do it – both their technique and the drills they do. And second, by practicing, not just with players, but on your own, by yourself, with a box of balls. And then volunteer to do it in group sessions.) There are numerous examples of non-top players, or players who were good but never national team level, who became top coaches.

You want to be a top coach? Start attending training sessions and camps, but not as a player, but as an observer or assistant coach (possibly as an unpaid volunteer), and that’s where you learn. If your level is high enough, most coaches would gladly welcome an assistant coach who can be a practice partner (if an odd number of players) or feed multiball – and while doing this, you learn from that coach and from the top players in the session. Do this long enough, and become a student of the game, and you’ll start really seeing the sport differently – and you’ll be on your way to becoming a top coach.

Published:

03/27/2023 - 15:14

Author: Larry Hodges

Technically, a match begins with the umpire tossing a coin to see who serves first. In reality, most matches aren't umpired, and so they "hide the ball" under the table, and the other player chooses. Whoever wins gets the choice of either serving first, receiving first, or choice of side. (Once you make your choice, the other player gets next choice, and so on.) It should be 50-50 who gets first choice - but for an experienced player, it isn't really. Here are a few completely honest ways to increase your chances of winning the first choice.

If you are hiding the ball…

  1. Watch the opponent's other matches and see which hand he typically chooses.
  2. Put the ball in your left hand against a righty player, and vice versa. For some reason, most players are more likely to point diagonally with their playing hand. The exception is if they are holding their racket, in which case they will more likely point diagonally with their non-playing hand.
  3. Slightly flex the muscles of the hand not holding the ball and hold that hand a little lower. Subliminally, opponents pick up on this and choose that hand. Make sure to do the hiding in a nice, smooth motion. If you do it slowly or with obvious care, he'll think you are being tricky and choose the other (correct) hand. Which means, of course, that sometimes you can hide the ball slowly with obvious care and do everything opposite of the above! (I do this sometimes successfully.)

If you are choosing the ball…

  1. Watch the opponent's other matches and see which hand he typically hides it in.
  2. Players tend to hide the ball more often in their serving hand, i.e. not their racket hand.
  3. You can sometimes see a slight flexing in the arm holding the ball.
  4. Players tend to hold the hand with the ball slightly lower.
  5. Watch out for experienced players who cross you up, especially on #3 above!

When I hide the ball and let the opponent choose, using all the tricks in part one, I'm pretty sure I get first choice nearly 2/3 of the time. When the opponent hides the ball, I'm pretty sure I get first choice 3/5 of the time. Of course, this comes with practice - and I've been doing it for 47 years. And, of course, none of this works if the opponent knows you are doing it!