August 13, 2013

MDTTC Camp and The Pongs of Power

There are lots of younger kids at the camp this week, which is Week Nine of our ten weeks of summer camps. It's the youngest group of the summer, maybe ever. We have about 30 kids, with about 20 of them under age 10. I'm in charge of the beginning under 10 crowd. In most past camps I pretty much worked with them on my own, but this time there are just too many - 12 of these under 10's are beginners - so coaches John Hsu and Chen Jie ("James") are helping me with them.

The focus yesterday was on the forehand. There were the usual problems - many want to put their index finger down the middle, don't turn their shoulders, lunge for the ball, try to take the ball too quickly, stand up too straight, and above all, won't close their rackets. (I probably said "Aim lower" five hundred times.) I'm always amazed that until about age 8 or 9, most beginning kids don't really understand that the ball is going to go where their racket is aiming. They understand it when I point it out to them, but it's something that doesn't really occur to many of them on their own.

We ended the day with the ten-cup challenge, where I set up a pyramid of 10 paper cups, and each kid had 10 shots (fed multiball) to see how many they could knock down. Several got 7 or 8, but four missed all 10. They now have something to work for. By the end of the week they'll be the terror of paper cups everywhere.

I called this week's beginning under 10 group "The Pongs of Power." What does that mean? I don't know, and neither did the kids, though they debated it. But it has a ring to it, and would be a great name for a music band.

We have a large collection of beginning sponge paddles. However, the rubber on about 2/3 of them was starting to come off the sponge, and so would flap about as they kids rallied. About half were essentially unusable. So yesterday during lunch break I took about 20 of them and glued them all back on. Most came out okay, though a few had bubbles, since I had to glue them wet and then flatten out the sponge by placing them on the table, some with weights on top. But most are now usable. This is what table tennis coaches do - they glue rackets, lead expeditions to 7-11, come up with group names, stack paper cups, and every ten seconds yell "Aim lower!"  

I've had one day off since June. I'm coaching Mon-Fri 10AM-6PM (with a two-hour break in the middle), along with about one private coaching hour per day. Weekends are even busier, and are mostly private coaching, which is physically more tiring. My hair, fingernails, and toenails are the only parts of me that don't ache. But I have this Friday off. (I did leave for that nine-day writer's workshop in July, but that wasn't "time off" as I was pretty much writing and attending workshops and classes all day. Somehow those aren't great for the back either - when I returned to Maryland, my back was solid neutronium.) After our summer camps end next week, I'll catch up on rest and life will return to normal, or as normal as it can be for a table tennis coach and writer.

World-Class Serve Training

Here's a video (5:01) that demonstrates a number of advanced serves.

Why Ping Pong Just Might Be the Elixir of Youth

Here's the article, and here's the opening paragraph: "Table tennis, ping pong, wiff-waff: call it what you will, it's increasingly popular in the UK, with 2.4 million players. Now there are suggestions it could even help with conditions like dementia."

Table Tennista

Periodically I like to list the current international articles at Table Tennista - and there are a lot of good ones right now! Here's a listing.

Country Ping-Pong Showdown

Here's a video (1:57) of Ariel Hsing on the CMA Musicfest last night on ABC TV. She plays two men from the music group Lady Antebellum.

Top Ten Hand-Switch Shots

Here's the video (6:01).

Ping-Pong Strike

The most powerful loop ever - at a bowling alley? Here's the video (14 sec)!

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