May 13, 2016
Footwork Drills by Stefan Feth, and Attacking the Middle
Here's the new video (1:23) from Butterfly. Note how, for this drill, Stefan stresses that the he's putting the ball to his partner's middle. Far too often players just drill to the corners, and then wonder why they have trouble attacking an opponent's elbow, usually the weakest point – if you don't practice it, you won't do it very well. I've often faced this as a coach – I'll tell a player to attack the opponent's middle, and he'll get this pained look as he knows he's not comfortable doing so since he's so used to attacking the corners. And then he'll go out there and continue to go to the corners, since that's what his muscle memory wants to do.
Think about it. Any coach or top player will tell you that your attacks should go to three spots – wide forehand, wide backhand, and the opponent's middle (roughly his playing elbow). Most will agree that attacking the middle is usually the best spot for the first attack – here's my article, Attacking the Middle. Here's an excerpt:
Why is the middle so weak when attacked? There are five (yes, five!) primary reasons.
- The player has to make a decision on whether to play forehand or backhand, and often hesitates. When the ball goes to the forehand or backhand there is no such decision to make.
- The player has to move in an uncomfortable direction. Most players find moving wide to cover the forehand or backhand an easier move since you are moving into the shot. Covering the middle means essentially getting out of the way of the ball, which is usually a more difficult move.
- When you attack the middle, it forces your opponent to move out of position to cover it. This opens up the corners. One of the best one-two combos is an attack to the middle followed by an angled attack. Or you can go to the middle a second or third time as your opponent struggles to cover it.
- Attacking the middle takes away the extreme angles for your opponent. If you attack a wide corner, your opponent can return at an equally wide angle.
- Players don't get much practice covering the middle, both because opponents don't give them this shot much until the higher levels, and because most don't practice against it. (Here are three Tips on covering the middle: Covering the Middle; Covering and Recovering From the Middle; and Covering the Middle with the Forehand.)
And yet, what percentage of our practice do we practice attacking the corners, vs. to the middle? I've been pointing this out to coaches for years, usually to no avail.
Note that when you attack the middle, the ball should be arriving at the opponent's elbow area as the ball approaches where he'd contact it. So, for example, if attacking from the backhand side, the ball would actually hit the opponent's forehand side first as it bounces toward the elbow area. In a drill, your partner would cover this area by blocking either forehand or backhand. (In the video shown, she's blocking with the forehand, but if the balls were coming slightly more to her left, she might block with her backhand.)
A variation of this is to start the drill with a serve and attack (usually server serves backspin and receiver pushes it back long), with the server then attacking to the middle, and playing out the point. The receiver has to decide whether to return the shot to the middle with his forehand or backhand – but shouldn't over-anticipate it, since in a game he wouldn't know it's going there. If he does start to over-anticipate, server should attack one to the corners to keep the receiver "honest"!
Friday the Thirteenth
Here's my annual link to a table tennis-playing Jason Voorhees from the real Friday the Thirteenth!
USA Nationals Online Entries
I'm told the link to entering online will go up later today soon at the USA Nationals home page.
Table Tennis Could Face An Increased Net Height!
Here's the article from Matt Hetherington. In other news, in order to make the game more exciting for spectators, ITTF also plans to change the scoring system to one-point games; outlaw spitting on the ball before serving (but of course not enforce it); and go back to celluloid balls, with the new 60mm balls lit at the start of each point for more fiery exchanges.
The Best Table Tennis Robots
Here's the article from Expert Table Tennis.
State Championships
This weekend is the New York State Championships and the Alabama State Championships!
Kanak Jha in the New York Times
Here's the video (20:35) of the junior star, the first USA Olympian born in the 2000's. The video takes place in Sweden. That's former Swedish star Ulf "Tickan" Carlsson he's hitting with, the 1985 World Men's Doubles Champion (with Mikael Appelgren).
Behind-the-Back Shots!
Here are two new ones.
- Mohammed Al-Saad vs. Li Ping (26 sec, including slo-mo replay). Note how Li doesn't even react to the shot by Qatar's Al-Saad – his muscle memory isn't programmed to respond to such a shot! (Li is the 2009 World Mixed Doubles Champion, who later immigrated to Qatar.)
- Tao Wenzhang vs. Jinxin Wang in the Men's Singles Final at the 2016 California State Table Tennis Championships. (Video is 38:04, but link should take you straight to the 3-1 point in game two.)
Become Eligible to Win Free Entry into the US Nationals
Here's info from Butterfly – "Subscribe to In The Loop by May 27th and become Eligible to Win Free Entry into the US Nationals!"
Pope Francis Receives Table Tennis Equipment
Here's the article and picture. Here are three additional pictures from ITTF. (That's Killerspin's Robert Blackwell talking to the Pope.) Here are two other pictures of the Pope receiving table tennis gifts, from Polish players: photo1 and photo2.
International Table Tennis
Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.
Crazy Ping-Pong Stuff
Here's the video (3:40) – not sure what's going on, but lots of crazy ping-pong stuff going on. Is that a waffle or a sandwich he's using as a racket? I'm not sure what language they are talking.
Crazy Cats Love to Play Ping Pong
Here's the video (2:20)!
A "Little" Ping-Pong
Here's the picture! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)
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