May 11, 2015

Tip of the Week

Covering the Wide Backhand.

Beetle Baily Cartoons

Beetle Bailey ran a table tennis cartoon yesterday (Sunday). Cartoonist Mort Walker has long had a partnership with table tennis, regularly running cartoons, often featuring epic matches between Beetle and Sarge. In the early years, apparently Sarge would win, but in recent years it's been all Beetle. Below are all the times they've featured table tennis that I can find. Considering the cartoon has been running continuously since 1950, I'm pretty sure there are plenty more, but they didn't start putting them online at beattlebailey.com until 1996. I'm determined to find them all!!! I found mention of a cartoon from Aug. 25, 1975 that is titled, "Blast it! I lost to Sarge in Ping-Pong Again!", and described as "The Chaplain counsels Beetle on his anger...and his ping-pong game," but I can't find it online. So I just ordered the 1975 Beetle Bailey collection (only cost about $7, including shipping), and will scan and put that online when it arrives. (NOTE added later - I received the comic book in the mail, but it was the wrong one, so I still haven't found this one.) (Yeah, today's blog is a bit short - very busy on various USATT and MDTTC issues, and editing the new coaching book by Samson Dubina. But I think there's enough here to keep you occupied.) (NOTE - I'll likely update this periodically with newer ones.) 

Here are other Classic Comics featuring table tennis.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's a day late, since I don't blog on Sundays, but better late than never!

North American Cadet Trials

Here are the results - Sharon Alguetti won Cadet Boys, Crystal Wang Cadet Girls. Here's the ITTF page, which has three articles at this writing.

Blocking

Here's the new coaching article from Han Xiao.

The Expert Table Tennis Playbook

Here's the newly updated TT Playbook from Expert Table Tennis, 33 pages. Here's what he wrote about it: "I created The Table Tennis Playbook, my FREE eBook, a couple of years ago now and it has been downloaded thousands of times by table tennis players the world over. However, it was clear to me that it needed a serious face lift and a bit of updating. It's now received that and looks 10x better than before."

Ask the Coach

Episode #122 (21:25) - What Strokes to Learn First.

Mr. Nice Guy: Three Reasons to Improve Your Club Reputation

Here's the article from Samson Dubina.

How to Glue Table Tennis Rubber on Your Racket

Here's the video (3:23) from Samson Dubina.

Chinese Training - Fan Zhendong

Here's the Facebook video (2:27).

Interviews with Liam Pitchford and Tetyana Bilenko

Here are two new interviews from MH Table Tennis.

Zhang Jike: Bedridden after the Worlds

Here's the article from Tabletennista.

Back in the Game - Pam Fontaine

Here's the article on the star wheelchair player.

Pope John Paul Receives Table Tennis Paddle in 1979

Here's the picture.

Suzhou Worlds 2015 (Part 1 - Men's Singles)

Here's the video (5:23).

How Oregon's 15-year-old table-tennis star Judy Bochenski thawed the Cold War in 1971

Here's the article and pictures from Oregon Live. Judy's a USATT Hall of Famer and owner at Paddle Palace.

How to Float a Ping Pong Ball on Air - the Coandă

Here's the video (87 sec) - I do this all the time just blowing the ball in the air with my mouth.

ITTF Commentator Adam Bobrow vs. Jiaqi Zheng

Here's the video (73 sec) of his great point - with a little dancing mixed in!

Ping Pong Dash - Japanese Table Tennis Cartoon

Here's the page that shows all 15 covers from 2006-2010.

More Mike Mezyan Pictures

NOTE - If you are unable to see these pictures, all you have to do is join the Table Tennis Group - it's easy! Here are all the past, present, and (soon) future pictures he's collected. (I pick out his best ones for here - he has more.)

***
Send us your own coaching news!