October 6, 2015

Adventures in Serving

  • Fifty-foot serve games. At MDTTC, I run most of our classes in the back tables. There's a spot near the robot table where I can stand about 50 feet away and perpendicular to a table, so that I'm lined up with its net. I've always done the infamous "50-foot serve" in my exhibitions, but I've done it from that spot so often I can almost do it in my sleep. I serve the ball with an overhead tomahawk serve, so it goes high and with sidespin and backspin, and it curves around, hits the table on the right-hand court, and bounces over and hits the left-hand court. At the end of classes I often let the beginners stand on the left side of the table and challenge them to return it – not easy since the ball has a lot of spin. When I'm feeling energetic, I'll sometimes challenge them to a game, where I have to serve and then sprint to the table, jumping the barriers along the way – I can just get there in time to play the point!
  • Come-back serve. Once, when playing a tournament match against Sunny Li, then the top ten-year-old in the country and rated over 2000, I was up something like 20-14 match point. (Back then games were to 21, and you served five times in a row, so I only had one serve left.) I threw the come-back serve at him – serving it high with backspin so it hit first my side and then his side of the table, and bounced back directly to my side. He reached over the table but of course couldn't reach it – an ace!!! I've always felt sort of bad about that one, but it wasn't exactly a close game, and I was a regular hitting partner for him and one of his part-time coaches. (I coached him in tournaments many times, including many of his national junior titles.)
  • Fast serves down the line galore. I once played a 2100 player from Canada who had an insanely good backhand, but a very weak forehand. (This was when matches were best of three to 21. I was about 2270 at the time.) I served fast down the line on the first point, and rather than attack it, he just sort of blocked it back, and so I smashed an easy winner. I did it again, and again he just blocked it back, and again I smashed. And so I decided I was going to use that same serve every point until he attacked it. He never did, and I ended up serving fast down the line every single point of the match, following nearly every one of them with a smash. I won easily, holding him to about ten points each game. Afterwards, he was very angry, wouldn't even shake my hand, claiming I had tried to show him up! Nope, I had simply found a winning strategy against a good player who posed a threat except for this huge weakness in his game.
  • Forehand tomahawk serve. The second player rated over 2000 I ever beat in a tournament was a guy named Benfield Munroe, rated 2048, circa 1979, when I was about 1850. We split the first two games (two out of three to 21), but he led 20-15 match point in the third. Until then I'd been serving all forehand pendulum serves, and perhaps a few backhand serves. So I brought out my experimental forehand tomahawk serve, where I hit the top of the ball toward the right, and serve a sidespin-topspin serve, but follow with a big downward motion to fake backspin. He put it off the end five times in a row! (After the last two he started screaming at himself.) I won the next point on his serve, and then I gave him one more tomahawk serve, and for the sixth time in a row he put it off, and I won!
  • Hand serves. Twice in my 39 years of play I've served off the back of my hand in a tournament. This is perfectly legal – the racket hand below the wrist is considered part of the racket – and so it's just a no-spin serve. Both times my opponent caught the ball thinking it was an illegal serve. Both times I should have claimed the point, but I didn't bother, and gave them lets both times.
  • Edge serves. Want to change the sport as we know it? Perfect the down-the-line edge serve. I once spent some time practicing this, where you serve backhand from the backhand corner down the line, trying to hit the edge, making it a very difficult return for the receiver. I reached the point where I could do it almost 1/3 of the time. The problem was I was also serving off the side about 1/3 of the time.
  • Changing service position. (This one I'm cut & pasting from Chapter Seven of my book Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers, "Tactical Examples," where I give numerous such examples.)

    At the North American Teams one year I was playing with slightly lower-ranked players as a player/coach. I was one of the three undefeated players in the division. [Note – this was the "B" Division, the second highest one.] The other two were a pair of junior players from Canada. Our teams played in the final. Both of the Canadian juniors played the same style, which had created havoc throughout the division: big forehand looping attacks, but medium long pips on the backhand which they used to flat hit shot after shot. They quick-hit every short serve with their backhands (spin didn’t take on their pips), even short ones to their forehand, and followed with their big forehands.

    As I watched them play, I realized that they would have little trouble with my best serve, a forehand pendulum serve I do from my backhand corner, which sets up my forehand. No matter where I’d serve it, if it was long, they’d loop it; if it was short, they’d backhand hit it. I could use a tomahawk serve to their forehand, but that would take away my big serving strength. What to do?

    When I went out to play the first of the two, I set up like I normally do to serve, in the backhand corner. Then I took two steps to my right, and spent the whole match serving forehand pendulum serves from my forehand corner. This gave me an angle into his forehand so that he’d have to receive with his forehand (or risk me going down the line to his open backhand side if he tried to cover the short forehand with his backhand), and so I was able to use my pendulum serve to his inverted forehand, something he had probably rarely had to deal with. Since he couldn’t return it aggressively, I was able to move back into position after each serve to attack with my forehand. The same strategy worked against the other Canadian junior, and I won both matches. (Ironically, before the last match, the perceptive Canadian coach took the other junior off to a table and mimicked my serve over and over from the forehand side so the kid could practice against it, but it wasn’t enough.) I won all three of my matches, but alas, we lost the final 5-3.

USA Men's and Women's Team Trials

Here's the prospective and entry form for the 2016 Trials for the USA Men's and Women's Teams. They will be held on Sunday and Monday, Dec. 20-21 in Las Vegas, starting the day after the USA Nationals. (The Junior and Cadet Team Trials will be held during the Nationals.) I'm going to have a long stay in Las Vegas, flying in on Saturday, Dec. 12, for the USATT Board Meeting on Dec. 13-14, then coaching (and playing?) at the Nationals, and then staying over to watch (and possibly coach) at the Team Trials.

Zhang Jike on His Dispute with Jang Woojin, and His Playing Condition

Here's the article.

Jim Butler Training and Upcoming Return to Sweden

Here's the video (3:45) that shows him doing multiball and talking about going to the World Cup in Sweden – his first time back in twenty years, after living, training, and playing in the pro leagues there from 1989-1995. The 2015 Men's World Cup is Oct. 16-18 in Halmstad, Sweden.

Incredible Rallies from the European Championships Men's Semifinals

Here's the video (1:23).

Interview with Badger Open Director Linda Leaf

Here's the video (2:40) by Barbara Wei.

How Samara and Ovtcharov Celebrated Winning European Championships

Here's the video (1:25).

The Smallest Table Tennis Player?

Here's the video (6:42) of this dwarf player.

Matt Kuchar Plays Table Tennis

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

Table Tennis vs. Illegal Drugs

Here's the humorous video (7:18) that compares the two!

Two Dogs Play Table Tennis

Here's the animated gif image!

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