February 8, 2016

Tip of the Week
Looping Against Backspin Drills.

Attacking the Middle
Today's blog is really simple – I'm assigning you to watch the final of Day Three between Crystal Wang and Angela Guan. (With apologies to Angela and choppers everywhere, we're about to let a huge cat out of the bag.) Here's the complete video (2hr 23 min), with Crystal vs. Angela starting about 10:30 in, followed by the Day Three men's final between Kanak Jha and Krish Avvari. (You'll have to register to watch it, but it's a simple process. You can watch video of the men's and women's finals for all three days of the USA Olympic Trials at the USATT Olympic Trials Page.)

I wrote about how to play choppers in a Tip of the Week, appropriately titled Playing Choppers. The second paragraph begins, "A chopper is weakest in the middle, and that is where you should focus most of your attacks." And that's today's subject. Crystal, who is only 13 years old, already knows this, and as you watch the video, watch how she relentlessly attacks the middle (the opponent's crossover point, roughly the playing elbow). She did the same thing in the semifinals in upsetting the 2545-rated Lu Ying, also a chopper. Crystal does have an advantage – she grew up training at the Maryland Table Tennis Center (my club), where she regularly trained with chopper/looper Wang Qing Liang ("Leon"), a 2600 chopper during most of that time.

By attacking the middle, you accomplish five things – and these are true not only against choppers, but against nearly all players.

1. You force the player to have to make an instant decision between forehand and backhand, leading to many mistakes.
2. You force the opponent to move out of the way to make room for an often awkward forehand or backhand, forcing misses and weak returns.
3. You take away extreme angled returns. (This is true more against blockers than choppers.)
4. You force the player out of position, opening up the corners for the next shot. A forehand from the middle may open up the wide forehand, while a backhand from the middle may open up the wide backhand. Conversely, players often rush to get back into position and end up opening up the other wide corner. If a corner doesn't open up, attack the middle again.
5. You force the opponent to do a shot he's not used to doing. Most players drill to the corners, rarely to the middle, and so when faced with a shot to the middle in a game, he's not comfortable. 

Over and over one of the biggest tactical differences between average club players and top players is the latter's understanding of the huge weakness in the middle. It's not as easy to play into as the corners, since the opponent's middle is a moving target and is a smaller target than the corners – if you miss it by six inches, you might just be playing into the opponent's middle forehand or backhand, where he's strongest. But it's the biggest hole in most players' games. Go for it!

U.S. Olympic Trials
Here's the USATT home page for the event, held this past Thur-Sat in Greensboro, NC, with complete results, articles, video, etc. Four USA men and women have now qualified for the final North American Trials in Toronto, April 8-10, where they will compete against Canada for the three spots allotted to North America. The USA players are made of the men's and women's singles champions from the past Nationals (Feng Yijun and Zheng Jiaqi), and the three men and women who qualified in the Trials (Men: Timothy Wang, Sharon Alguetti, and Kanak Jha; Women: Chen Wang, Lily Zhang, Crystal Wang). Congrats to these eight!

2016 ITTF Europe TOP 16
Here's the ITTF home page for the event, held this past weekend in Gondomar, Portugal, with complete results, articles, video, etc. Congrats to Champions Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany and Shen Yanfei of Spain. Here's the ITTF press release.

Brazil Dominates Latin America Championships Ahead of Rio 2016
Here's the ITTF press release.

Table Tennis Punch Serve - Like a Boss Part 2!
Here's the new video (3:12) from Brett Clarke.

Massimo Costantini - Part I: The Physical Side of Table Tennis
Here's the video interview (27:48) by Samson Dubina.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #219 (15:10) - Blocking Speed in Training (and other segments).

Table Tennis for Seniors – You Just Might Be One
Here's the article from Coach Jon.

MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: Two Weeks to Go!
Here's the new blog entry from Matt Hetherington.

$4559 Raised for Parkinson's Research
Here's a picture of Navin Kumar and Jimmy Pelletier (with paddles) after their three-hour table tennis exhibition/fundraiser Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research at Beltway Plaza Mall this past Saturday. Here's a picture of Navin next to the fundraiser poster. (Navin has Parkinson's and a partially mechanical heart.)

Seth Pech Interview
Here's the interview by Samson Dubina.

MDTTC Newsletter
Here's the February MDTTC News, the monthly newsletter I do for the Maryland Table Tennis Center.

Ping Pong Fever
(I ran this last week, but had a bad link, so I'm rerunning it.) Here's the article by Steve Grant, about the Norwegian humorous documentary about the 1902 Ping-Pong craze, which was largely based on Steve's book, Ping Pong Fever: The Madness That Swept 1902 America. (Here's my review of the book.)

ITTF Legends Tour 2016
Here's their new promo video (1:36). Here's the final (5:18) of their most recent event, this past weekend, where Persson defeated Waldner this past weekend in their most recent event, reversing their previous result. Here's an amazing point (45 sec) between the two! (They mostly play for real, but they mix in exhibition now and then.) Here's the ITTF Legends Tour home page.

Ding Ning's Tricky Serve
Here's the video (26 sec) as Eliza Samara struggles to return this serve – but Ding has just as much trouble with her own returning sidespin! (Ding of China is world #2, was #1 for 24 months, including most of last year. Samara of Romania is world #23, formerly #13.)

World Championships Favorite Moments

• Dimitrij Ovtcharov (46 sec)
• Marcos Frietas (29 sec)
• Feng Tianwei (43 sec)

Incredible Rally!
Here's the video (48 sec).

Prison Pong?
Here's the video (48 sec)!

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