October 12, 2012

Topspin Rallies

One of my beginning/intermediate students in a session yesterday kept pushing my topspin and sidespin serves, and of course they popped up or went off the end. This same junior is all over the ball in "normal" topspin rallies - he's primarily a hitter, though he loops against backspin. You'd think that he'd want these topspin and sidespin serves since he can use his regular forehand and backhand drives both to start and continue the rally, not to mention ending the point with his big forehand. Many players, especially juniors, are almost robotic (in a good way) once they get into a topspin rally, hitting and countering with ease as this is exactly what they do in most practice drills.

And yet, given the chance to immediately go into these comfortable topspin rallies, this student and many others choose to push the serve back. Why is this?

I believe it's the mindset when returning serves. They do get a lot of backspin serves, and so they find pushing the safest return. And so their mindset is to push the serve to get into the rally. Except, of course, when you push a topspin or sidespin serve, there is no rally. (At higher levels, of course, players can chop down on these balls as a variation, more of a chop-block than a push, but that's a separate issue.)

At most levels, when returning serves, you have to make a quick decision: Does the serve have backspin? If yes, then you can push it. If no, then you stroke it.

You don't have to push the backspin, of course. If it's short, you can flip it. If it's long, you can loop it. You can also drive it, whether it's short or long. And you use the same strokes if the ball doesn't have backspin, except you stroke mostly forward.

There is, of course, more to returning serves than judging whether the ball has backspin or not, but judging that, and actually looking for those topspin/sidespin serves to attack rather than relying on pushing, is a giant leap forward.

$100,000 World Championship of Ping-Pong

After a long, arduous search, and after finally sending an email to the organizers (Matchroom Sport), I have finally located the home page (still under construction) for the $100,000 World Championship of Ping Pong, to be held in London on Jan. 5-6, 2013. It's the same address as the one for the one held in 2011 in Las Vegas except it ends in .net instead of .com.) This is a sandpaper tournament, so no counterlooping. (Well, you can do sort of a counterloop with sandpaper, but it's really just a fake loop with little topspin). Get ready for lots of hitting and chopping! I'm tempted to go - I'm pretty handy with sandpaper, though I'm not a serious contender with the best sandpaperers - but it's a bit too expensive for me to fly to London, not to mention taking time off from my coaching practice.

Smashing Poverty in the Philippines with Ping-Pong

Here's a 25-minute documentary "Smashing Poverty" on Ernesto Ebuen (former Philippines star, now a top coach in New York - he's Michael Landers' coach) and his efforts to use table tennis to "smash" poverty in his home country.

Wang Liqin vs. Ma Long

Here's a great match to watch (7:02), with the time between points taken out. It took place in the Team category of the Chinese Nationals, which are going on right now (Oct. 6-14). Three-time World Men's Singles Champion Wang (2001, 2005, 2007) is down to #9 in the world, but since the world rankings went online in Jan. 2001 was ranked #1 52 months. Ma Long, currently ranked #2 in the world, was ranked #1 for twenty months (Jan. 2010 to Dec. 2010 and Oct. 2011 to May 2012).

The Biltmore Ping-Pong Table

Want to see the ping-pong table in the largest privately owned home in the United States at 175,000 square feet, with 250 rooms? Yes, it's the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC, built by George Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895. Here's a picture of the Biltmore House (and the Wikipedia page about it), and here's the Biltmore ping-pong table.

Hermann and It's Kind of a Funny Story

Hermann Luechinger has a really funny story to tell about his inadvertent table tennis meeting with a music superstar. I don't want to ruin your surprise by telling you who the superstar was, but if you really want to know, it's this guy.

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