July 2, 2015

Our (okay, My) Long National Nightmare is Over

I jumped the gun yesterday in trying to coach all day at the MDTTC camp. When I went in I was still tired, and my voice still slightly hoarse. When I came out I was tired ^100th power, and my voice was back to a croaking whisper. Note to self: After spending four days lying in bed feverishly sick, it's not good to go straight to six hours of coaching. (As noted previously, I had a suspiciously simple-sounding sinus infection, but that came off as bad or worse than the flu.) 

I've been on the following medications. They are:

  • Antibiotics: Amoxicillan and Clavulanate Potassium Tablets
  • Guaifenesin AC Syrup (for cough)
  • Eye drops: Gentamicin Opth Solution
  • NightQuil. I was taking DayQuil as well but the doctor said it wouldn't really help, but thought the NightQuil would.
  • Lots and lots of liquids, on doctor's orders.

Today I'm only doing the afternoon session, 3-6PM. This works out well as it gave me plenty of time to do the blog and other things. (Next on list of things I've put off that need to get done: MDTTC July Newsletter. Also a few zillion unread emails.) Overall, the kids in my group are more advanced than normal – all of them are able to play points, and so we were able to play a lot of Brazilian Teams yesterday. (Many kids simply aren't ready for that, and so we do more target practice games.) Only one is actually new; I've worked with the rest before.

I think the kids were happy to see me back. Actually, I think poor Coach Jeffrey was even happier to see me back, since he'd been the one assigned to take my place with the younger kids. Working with a pack of kids might be fulfilling, but mentally it's a million times harder than working with a 2500 player. Here's a comparison.

Working with a 2500 player:

Coach: "Let's do the 2-1 drill."
2500 player: "Okay."

Working with a group of 7-year-olds – and the following is a highly sanitized version. In reality, every other sentence is to remind the ones on ball pick-up to pick up balls, advice the two on the robot to take turns, tell another not to smack balls at another, run over to stop two from chasing each other, and perhaps run to the office for a band-aid for the latest scraped knee. Okay, it's not always that bad – it depends on the group. But the sequence where Arnold Schwarzenegger meets his students in Kindergarten Cop is highly accurate – it really is. But good coaches learn to turn chaos into organized chaos. Here's a typical exchange:

Coach: "Let's do forehands."
7-year-old: "I wanna do backhands!"
Coach: "But you have a good backhand, we need to work on your forehand."
7-year-old, stamping feet: "I wanna do backhands!"
Coach: "We worked on your backhand already. Don't you want to have a forehand too?"
7-year-old: "I like backhands! I don't like forehands!"
Coach: "That's because you don’t practice forehands and so don't have a good one."
7-year-old, suddenly grinning: "Can we do backhands?"
Coach, sighing: "Okay, we'll do backhands. Hey, where'd you go?"
[Several minutes go by as 7-year-old is now crawling under table, quickly joined by the 7-year-old who was supposed to be doing ball pickup. Finally, after getting them back into position, they begin again.]
Coach: Okay, are you ready for backhands?"
7-year-old: "Can we play the cup game?"
Coach: "I thought you wanted to practice your backhand?"
Chorus of 7-year-olds: "Cup Game! Cup Game! Cup Game!"
Coach: "How about if we do two minutes of backhands first?"
7-year-old: "One minute?"
Coach: "Fine"
[30 seconds of backhand practice interrupted by three other 7-year-olds who have dragged huge stack of paper cups to the table, where they proceed to build a pyramid. After raising eyes to the sky, coach shrugs, and picks up balls as they make their creation. Then they line up and the coachfeed them balls as they knock the cups over – never realizing they are now practicing forehands!!! Coach wins!]

Using Your Fingers Effectively

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao.

McAfee's Mechanics – Ask Questions with Your Serve Placements

Here's the new coaching article.

Improve Your Forehand Loop by Relaxing Your Wrist

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

Back Injuries: 7 Ways to Keep Your Back in Top Shape

Here's the new article from Samson Dubina.

Ask the Coach with PingSkills

Drill Your Skills with China National Team – Part 11

Here's the video (5:59).

Lloyd Gregory: Coaching Theory and Practice

Here's the podcast (27:19) from Expert Table Tennis.

Ma Long Reverse Serve Training

Here's the video (68 sec).

ITTF Level 2 Course in Austin

Here's the write-up of the course held recently at the Austin TTC by Richard McAfee.

2015 World Police and Fire Games

Here's the article. They were held locally, with table tennis at the SmashTT club in Virginia.

Puzzler Will Shortz Plays Ping-Pong 1000 Days Straight

Here's the article and video (73 sec) from USA Today on the famed NY Times Crossword editor and owner of the Westchester TTC.

10 Questions with Paralympic Medalist Tahl Leibovitz

Here's the USATT interview.

11 Questions with Angela Guan

Here's the USATT interview.

USATT Athletes of the Month for June

Here's the article – Tahl Leibovitz, Angela Guan, and Paralympic doubles champions Jenson Van Emburgh & Jesse Cejudo.

Ito & Hirano's Record Recognized by Guinness World Records

Here's the ITTF press release on the two youngest winners ever of an ITTF World Tour event.

USA at the Para Romanian Open

Here's the USA page.

Some Crazy Points at the Japan Open

  • Here's the video (30 sec) of the point between Xu Xin (lefty on far side) at Yoshimura.
  • Here's the video (38 sec) between Hiroshi Sato and Zeng Jian, where Sato thinks she's lost the point and turns her back, and so doesn't return or even see Zeng's push.  
  • Here's the video (55 sec) where Xu Xin is lobbing against Fan Zhendong, and Fan creams one – but accidentally lets go of the racket, and it goes flying. Xu makes the lob return to win the point.
  • Here's the video (34 sec) as Shang of China misses an easy shot that any hacker could make, showing that even pros are human.

Ask a Pro Anything: Xu Xin

Here's the video (1:40) with Adam Bobrow and Japan Open Xu Xin. You'll learn about his hobby, who's the best singer on Chinese team, and most of all, his surprising girlfriend!

The Men of Menil Table Tennis Show

Here's the video (1:42) featuring professional table tennis showman Scott Preiss, Jimmy Butler, David Zhuang, Eric Owens, and Mark Hazinski.

Newlyweds Mickey Rooney & Ava Gardner Play Ping Pong in 1942

Here's the video (3:41).

The Secret Life of a Racket

Here's the video (64 sec) by the cell phone used by Tiago Apolonia as he rallies with it!

The Coke Opening Ping Pong Trick Shot

Here's the video (50 sec).

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.)

Peek-a-Boo Pong

Here's the picture!

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