July 20, 2015

Tip of the Week

The Tricky Side of Table Tennis.

Get to the Root of the Problem

One of the things that always exasperates me is coaches or players who try to fix problems by fixing the symptoms. In many ways, this is what separates a good, experienced coach from, say, a top player who knows proper technique but isn't that experienced in coaching it. When you've coached over 35 years (yikes, that's me!), and pay attention, you learn all sorts of things.

Here's an example. Recently I've coached several players who tend to fall back as they loop forehands. The "simple" solution, of course, is to tell them to focus on rotating around and forward into the ball, i.e. "don't fall back." And I've seen coaches try this many times, and it doesn't work – because they are treating a symptom of a problem rather than the root of the problem. The real question is why is the player falling backwards – and the answer almost every time is that he's too far from the ball, with his left leg too far from the table. And so he's forced to reach a bit forward. The falling back is to keep his balance. Solution: Have the player stand closer to the ball, with the left leg closer to the table. Then he'll have a natural rotation into and through the ball, with no falling backwards and off balance afterwards.

Here's another. Some players struggle to rotate their body backwards (to the right for righties) on the forehand. The more they try, the more awkward they look. I've seen coaches struggle with this, not being able to figure out why the player has so much trouble with something that's so easy for others. And so they'll keep telling the player to rotate more on the forehand. But the player simply can't do the rotation comfortably – the symptom of a problem – because they haven't fixed the root of the problem – which usually is their knees are facing forward. If you watch top players, the knees point somewhat outward in their ready stance, which allows easy rotation in either direction. Here's an example – see how the knees point somewhat sideways, not forward?

And here's another. Often players struggle to get great spin on their serves. Rather than converting most of their energy into spin, and getting slow but super-spinny serves, their serves go long, with only moderate spin. Often they are told to graze the ball more, but when they try, they are unable to do so – because the inability to graze the ball is a symptom of a problem, not the root of the problem. The root of the problem usually is they are contacting the back of the ball, often toward the top. If they want to graze the ball more, they need to contact more under the ball and more on the side. If the player doesn't change his contact point, he'll continue to struggle to graze the ball as his racket will be approaching the ball too directly to graze the ball, resulting in a flatter contact. You can still get moderate spin this way, and many players (and coaches) settle for that, never realizing how they are limiting themselves.

Senior Maryland Couples Star at US Open

Here's the article from the Baltimore Sun featuring Dave & Donna Sakai and Charlene Liu & Changping Duan. The Sun has been very good about featuring table tennis over the years – you just need to send them press releases.

Pan Am Games

They are in Toronto, with the table tennis July 19-21 (Sun-Tue). Here's the USATT Pan Am home page, with lots of info. Here's a USOC article on the USA table tennis team. Here's an ITTF press release. Here are photos taken during Pan Am Processing by USA Men's coach Stefan Feth. Here are USA Day One results.

Control Versus Leverage

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao.

Serve Return: Learn it to return it!

Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

Matt Hetherington Training in China

Here are three blog entries and two videos he's put online of his training at the Zhengding National Table Tennis Center in China.

Ask the Coach Show

Episode 156 (16:05) – "Our Worst Show to Date" and other topics

Using Various Implements to Develop Deep Serves

Here's the video (74 sec) as players use different items on the table as targets.

Dimitrij Ovtcharov Training

Here's video (3:03).

Surprising Applications of the Magnus Effect

Here's a video (3 min) that shows how spin effects a ball, using a spinning basketball dropped off the Gordon Dam in Tasmania as an example. This is the same effect that causes a ping-pong ball to curve when spun, such as topspin pulling the ball down.

US Open Marriage Proposal

After the Men's Final at the US Open, the winner, Wang Jinxin, proposed to his girlfriend – right there at the table, in front of the crowd! His girlfriend was overcome with emotion at his upset victory, and so he carried her onto the court, and then announced that he didn't have a ring but could use the trophy instead! She said yes. Here's video of the entire match (49:23). At 42:12 Wang steps over the barriers and carries her onto the court. At 47:22 he says he forgot the ring, and then asks if he can use the trophy in its place, and asks her to marry him.

Voters are Turning to Table Tennis to Decide the Next President

Here's the article from MSNBC. Leading the poll is Hillary Clinton at 32%. (Here's a picture of her and Bill playing table tennis.) In second place at "almost a quarter"? Donald Trump. (Sorry, no ping-pong pictures, but I'm guessing he'll get great spin if he uses that thing on his head as a racket covering.) So there you have it – it'll be Hillary vs. the Donald in the general election. The (ping-pong) polls have spoken.

Wang Hao Tutorial: The Penhold Hook Serve

Here's the video (4:44).

Zhang Jike Kicked Out of Chinese Super League?

Here's the article from Tabletennista.

Ping Pong Concerto

Here's video (2:07) and some really great photos from the world premiere of this concert on July 18 (Saturday) by Andy Akiho, which combines music and table tennis on the Shanghai stage, and stars American table tennis players Ariel Hsing and Michael Landers.

Soccer Players Take on the Chinese

Here's video (3:45) of Thomas Müller and Philipp Lahm (members of the Bayern Munich Football team – that's soccer to Americans) take on Chinese stars Ding Ning, Wang Hao, and coach Liu Guoliang.

Great Under-the-Leg Counterhit

Here's the video (35 sec).

Ping-Pong Canoeing

Here's the picture. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Ping-Pong Ball Monster

Here's the picture! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

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.)

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