October 30, 2013

Table Tennis is a Dangerous Sport

How many other sports features killing and smashing and chopping? But that's not what I'm writing about. I'm writing about arm and knee problems, illnesses, and concussions.

Recently my students and I have been coming down sick or injured. I've blogged about my recent arm and knee problems (now all better, for now). I normally have four hours of coaching on Wednesday nights. But two students will miss tonight. Daniel, age 8, hurt his arm a week ago (did he catch it from me?), and seems to have aggravated it. He saw a doctor, and his arm is now in a sling - no table tennis for at least two weeks. Matt, 12, accidentally got hit in the head by a door (!), and has concussion symptoms. He said he won't know for sure if he has a concussion until next week (he's seeing a specialist), but can't do any sports activities for a week. I've had a couple other students miss sessions over the last few weeks because of illness.

On a more serious note, knee problems in table tennis often come from playing on cement floors. MDTTC had cement floors its first 12-15 years or so, and toward the end I was having severe knee problems and had to wear a knee brace. After going to the red cushioned flooring, I had zero problems until eleven days ago, when I simply pushed off the foot wrong while stepping around to forehand loop, but that's mostly better now. Knee braces are excellent in preventing further injury. They not only keep the knee warm, but keep the injured part pressed together, so it doesn't injure further if you don't overdo it.

Arm problems usually come from technique problems, though not always. I had serious shoulder problems before I ever played table tennis, from throwing baseballs "like a girl" (i.e. not turning my shoulders - here's a graphic that shows this, see bottom image). I later developed arm problems in my forearm, which I think came about from having a somewhat short and jerky forehand loop stroke. Ironically, once injured from looping, it is actually the backhand that hurts and aggravates it. (Looping stretches the forearm muscle in question; backhands contract it and is what makes it worse.) When I do have arm problems, I tend to over-protect it, which leads to re-injuring the shoulder.

Illnesses in table tennis often come after tournaments, where you spend lots of time with strangers, often shaking hands, as well as time in airports and buses, where your hands are constantly in contact with surfaces grabbed by others. If your goal is to gather a large collection of germs on your hands, go to lots of tournaments. Solution: make sure to wash your hands (with soap) regularly at tournaments and when traveling or you'll likely catch something, and pay for it a few days after the tournament. (I always harp on this with our juniors at tournaments. If you pick up something while traveling to the five-day U.S. Open or Nationals you'll come down sick halfway through.) 

Concussions come from getting slammed in the head by doors and getting hit by extremely heavy ping-pong balls. Since table tennis doesn't have extremely heavy ping-pong balls, avoid getting hit in the head by doors and you should be fine.

New Wheelchair/Standing Rules

Here's a relatively new rule about playing doubles when one of the players is in a wheelchair.

2.08.03 In doubles, when at least one player of a pair is in a wheelchair due to a physical disability, the server shall first make a service, the receiver shall then make a return but thereafter either player of the disabled pair may make returns. However, no part of a player's wheelchair nor a foot of a standing player of this pair shall protrude beyond the imaginary extension of the centre line of the table. If it does, the umpire shall award the point to the opposing pair.

At the South Shore Open this past weekend referee Kagin Lee pointed this out to me and asked what I thought of it. We went out on the table to test it, and guess what? I can stand on the left side of the table and still reach short or long balls to the wide forehand. (I'm right-handed.) What does this mean? It means that according to the rules, I can play doubles with a wheelchair player and play the rallies essentially alone, with the wheelchair player off to the side, perhaps ready to occasionally cover any shots that get well angled to my forehand that I can't reach. When it's my turn to receive, I can receive while standing on the left side, thereby allowing me to play from that side the rest of the rally. Since I'm limited by not being able to put my foot to the right of the center line, I'm somewhat limited, but it sort of defeats the purpose of doubles. I'm not sure how they can fix this rule, but it's definitely problematic. Fortunately, this won't come up very often. To date, in all the doubles matches I've played, I've faced exactly zero doubles teams made up of a standing and a wheelchair player. I've seen it only a couple of times.

Mike Babuin's Thoughts on the New Polyethylene Ball

Here's his blog. He's the chair of the USATT Board of Directors.

Matt Hetherington Page

Here's the web page and blog of the New Zealand player, with lots of interesting stuff from a top player's perspective. Yesterday he blogged about Vladimir Samsonov defeating Timo Boll at the Men's World Cup, "Samsonov Ends Boll's 5-Year Run." Includes a link to a video of the match (39:15).

No Table? No Problem!: 3 Solutions When All Training Tables Are Taken

Here's an article from Table Tennis Master on training with three or more players on a table.

A Game Nobody Knows (Ping Pong Song)

Here's a video (3:48) that's shows Wally Green in action as he raps (or Hip Hops?) to music.

Colorful Table

Now that's colorful!

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