March 23, 2015

Tip of the Week

Macho or Tricky?

Adult Beginning/Intermediate Class

Yesterday, from 6:30-8:00PM, I taught Week Four of the ten-week class. There are 19 in the class, with Raghu Nadmichettu and Josh Tran normally assisting. (Yesterday John Hsu subbed for Josh, who was at Cary Cup.) Here's the group picture I linked to last week.

Yesterday we started right where we'd finished last week, with pushing, with the emphasis now on the forehand push. I explained that you have to learn to do regular forehand pushes, but as players advanced, they mostly only do forehand pushes against short balls, since it's better to loop any deep backspin ball to the forehand. (This is also somewhat true on the backhand side, but not quite as much since you are more likely to get jammed on the backhand side, and because you have an angle into a righty opponent's backhand with your backhand push.)

I harped on the idea that you have to step to the ball, both side to side and in and out, not just reach. I showed how beginners should learn to take the ball on the drop, letting the ball fall on their racket, but as they advanced, they should learn to take the ball quicker, right off the bounce. I went over the six main things you want to do with a push, and explained why it's better to be pretty good at all six than great at most but weak on one or two Here's my Tip of the Week, Pushing: Five out of Six Doesn't Cut It.

Then we did some regular forehand and backhand practice, 7.5 minutes each. And then it was on to footwork, everyone's favorite most hated part. After the demo, everyone did forehand 1-1 footwork, where one player alternated forehands from the wide forehand and the middle, hitting each ball to his partner's forehand, and the partner tried to alternate hitting the balls to those two spots. Two very important points on this were 1) both players were doing the drill - one practicing footwork, the other practicing consistency and control; and 2) all drills are footwork drills, since you assume you have to move, and so flex the knees in preparation.

We finished with a demo and lecture on fast serves. I explained the importance of these as variations to other serves, and showed how some fast serves are easy to return, while others are not. When I served my bullet topspin serve to the backhand, few had great trouble with it. But when I gave it a sidespin so it broke away from them, everyone had fits. Similarly, fast topspin to the middle wasn't too effective, but when I switched to a very flat, dead ball, they put it in the net over and over. Down the line was effective with topspin because the topspin allowed you to serve with maximum speed (since the topspin pulled the ball down), so the focus on those serves was to keep your racket aimed crosscourt until the last second, and then smack it down the line with maximum speed. Everyone then practiced their serves, with the option of serving fast or serving with spin.

USA Today - American Crystal Wang Turning Heads in Table Tennis at age 13

Here's the article from USA Today! It links to a 31-sec video. (And Crystal only turned 13 less than a month ago.) Special thanks to USATT Media Consultant Richard Finn for helping put these together.

Cary Cup

Butterfly Online has some basic results, pictures, and articles from the 4-star Butterfly Cary Cup held this past weekend. Here are articles by Barbara Wei. MDTTC, my club, did pretty well, as you can see from one of the articles! It's a five-hour drive, but a contingent of 21 went down. Here's the MDTTC picture, with four players missing.

  • March 22: Jishan Liang Takes Championship Title in Impressive Style at 2015 Butterfly Cary Cup
  • March 21: Maryland Table Tennis Center Dominant at 2015 Butterfly Cary Cup
  • March 21: Top 16 Decided for 2015 Butterfly Cary Cup
  • March 21: Outstanding Elite Competition in Top Division at 2015 Butterfly Cary Cup
  • March 19: New Venue, Diverse Players, Same Excitement for 2015 Butterfly Cary Cup

German Open

It was held over the weekend. Here's the ITTF home page for the event, with complete results, articles, and video. Here's the ITTF video page, where you can see interviews and lots of matches and highlights, with the time between points often removed. Check out the Quotes section under Media, with quotes each of the five days. Here's the ITTF press release, Mima Ito Becomes Youngest Ever World Tour Champion. Here's video of a great point (52 sec) as Zhang Jike wins game four, 16-14, and then leaps the barriers as he goes go up 3-1 in the final against Ma Long. But (Spoiler Alert!) Ma Long would come back to win in seven, 9,-7,-8,-14,6,12,8.

Junior Class Picture

Here's a group picture of the Thursday Night Beginning Junior Class I teach, taken last Thursday. I'm on the far right. Assisting are John Hsu and Raghu Nadmichettu (on far left) and Jeffrey Xeng Zun (next to me).

Tomahawk Serve

Here's the coaching video (5:12) by William Henzell.

Physical Training for Table Tennis

Here's the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis.

Could Red Help You Win?

Here's the article by Ben Larcombe. I'm seeing red - so many blue shirts in my closet!

Early Specialization

Here's the article by Ben Larcombe of Expert Table Tennis. "While there is no doubt that early specialisation increases the likelihood of a child experiencing burnout, chronic stress and a decrease in motivation and enjoyment, that still doesn’t change the fact that it is becoming much tougher to succeed without it. In the majority of fields it’s the ‘early specialisers’ that are reaching the top."

44-Year-Old Table Tennis Champ Jimmy Butler Eyes Rio Return After Unbelievable Rebirth

Here's the article.

Pongstarz CEO Kim Gilbert and Kipp Smackdown for Bay Area Schools

Here's the USATT article, with links to a pair of videos.

Bay Area a Hotbed for Table Tennis

Here's the article from the San Jose Mercury News.

Paul David Interview

Here's the USATT interview.

SPiN Opening in Chicago at Marina City

Here's the article.

Can a European Become World Champion in 2015?

Here's the video (30 sec) from the ITTF. "Take a look back at Werner Schlager becoming the World Champion in 2003, the last European to do so."

The Best Return of Serve in History?

Here's the video (16 sec, with slow motion replay) of Ma Long's around-the-net looping receive of Dimitrij Ovtcharov's serve.

How to return a net ball with forehand from backhand side at one inch from the floor

Here's the video (21 sec) as Xavier Therien demonstrates against Antoine Bernadet.

A Great Rally and a Face

Here's the video (31 sec) of a great rally, but you almost don't notice it because of the guy's face!

Poor Baby Technique

This picture is an outrage. As is obvious to any coach, the baby is using a hammer grip rather than a proper shakehands grip with index finger on the paddle. He's not keeping his eye on the ball. He's clearly in an extreme backhand stance - what if the ball goes to the forehand side? And if the ball is white, his clothing is clearly illegal. However, at least his non-playing hand is up for balance.

Dodgers Ping Pong Finals

Here's an article about the Dodgers ping pong tournament, with a link to the video (2:52) where Clayton Kershaw and Corey Seager square off against Justin Turner and Daniel Coulombe in the Dodgers Ping Pong Finals.

CZ Ping Pong Stars

Here's the new humorous music video (6:24) as two players prepare for the big showdown and then have it out, all to the music of "Ping Pong."

Woodpecker Pong

Here's the picture!

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