April 4, 2016
Tip of the Week
Remember the Feel of the Good Shots.
Backspin/No-Spin Serves
We did some practice on this in my adult training session yesterday, 6:30-8:00 PM. Most of the players there could serve good backspin serves, but that becomes passé at a certain level – it needs variation. If you switch to sidespin or topspin, it's rather easy to attack. But a very low no-spin serve is hard to do much of anything with – and if it looks like backspin, it can be devastating.
When you serve backspin, at most levels you will most likely receive a long push return, and so you likely set up to loop, forehand or backhand. For some, that's enough. But why not get some "free" points as well? A low, heavy, short backspin serve is difficult to attack, and that's why it's usually pushed back. But it's also easy for the receiver to push it back low and heavy, and so while you get to loop, you don't get a really easy ball to go after. That's where no-spin comes in.
When you serve no-spin, there's a higher chance the receiver, if he reads it properly, will attack it. But most likely, if you've set him up by serving backspin previously, will push it back. And if he doesn't adjust by chopping down, the ball will tend to pop up, giving you an easy ball to put away. It'll also have less backspin, as there's no incoming backspin to rebound with backspin.
How do you serve a no-spin serve? With spin, you contact the ball with a grazing motion toward the tip of the racket, since that's the fastest moving part. For non-spin, do the same motion, but contact the ball near the handle, the slowest moving part. You might also pull back slightly at contact to really lighten the contact. But fake like it's heavy spin – I even like to grunt sometimes! There's a reason why a good no-spin serve is called "heavy no-spin" – you fake heavy spin (usually backspin) with a big motion but give no spin. If you just pat the ball over with no fake motion, it's just no-spin, and easy to read.
When serving no-spin, you should be prepared for the receiver to try to attack, but if you serve it very low to the net – that's imperative – it's actually very tricky to do so. If they do push it, be ready for it to be slightly high and with less backspin – and so be ready to rip! When you serve backspin, be ready to loop. When you serve no-spin, be ready to loop hard! Some players almost telegraph this – when they serve backspin, they look to loop from either side, but when they serve no-spin, they cheat to their backhand side and look to for an all-out forehand. I'm probably guilty of this, but most opponents are a bit too busy receiving to notice.
Here are four Tips of the Week related to this – some redundancy.
The Real Rules of Table Tennis
Here's the hilarious new video (8:24) – you don't want to miss this! I usually put the humorous items at the end, but I'm putting this first.
Dima Ovtcharov Backhand Tutorial - Part 2
Here's the video (5:13). Here is Part 1 (5:38), from a month ago.
Tomahawk Serve Preview
Here's the new video (1:47) from PingSkills.
The Amazing Serve of Kenta Matsudaira
Here's the video (69 sec) of the world #28 from Japan.
Table Tennis Serves in Slow Motion at the 2015 Swedish Open
Here's the video (2:01).
Bohan Zhang Wins 2016 Butterfly Cary Cup
Here's the home page for the event held this past weekend in Cary, NC, where you can get results, pictures, and video. (See "Results & Photos" for Days 1-3.) Here are articles by Barbara Wei.
Good Sport
Here's the article on USATT Hall of Famer Dr. Michael Scott, subtitled, "94-year-old medical alumnus has traveled the world as a physician and table tennis champion."
MDTTC Newsletter
Here's the April issue. (I'm the editor.)
Tom's Table Tennis Newsletter
Here's the April issue from Tom Lodziak.
Different Levels but Level of Enthusiasm Same for Back to Back Indian Courses
Here's the ITTF article on USA's Richard McAfee's latest coaching courses in India.
15-Year-old Diaz Secures Historic Olympic Qualification
Here's the ITTF press release on the first Puerto Rican table tennis Olympian.
The Drinkhall Family on BBC Saturday Sportsday
Here's the article and video (2:29). Paul Drinkhall of England is world #65.
Incredible Around-Net Shot Leave Ma Lin Speechless
Here's the video (26 sec, including slow motion replay).
Sidespin Counterlooping Double-Bounce Shot
Here's the video (60 sec).
Table Tennis Head Shots
Here's the new video (40 sec) where the pair from PingSkills try to knock cones off each other heads.
Legos Pong
Here's the picture!
Non-Table Tennis: Interview with Larry Hodges [science fiction writer]
Here's the interview with me at the Aspiring Writers Unite! Web page, where I talk about my new science fiction novel, Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions, and other writerly things. I do mention table tennis several times. (One small problem – I had about 15 links in the interview, but they were inadvertently taken out. I've emailed asking if they can put them back in.)
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