June 28, 2016

How to Boost Your Table Tennis Rubber
Here's the article from Expert Table Tennis. This is one was a tough decision on whether to post, so I've decided to let readers to decide on their own on this one. The reality is that boosting is "illegal." However, it's also one of the most unfair rules as it's essentially undetectable, with the result that those who are willing to "cheat" have an advantage over those who will not. At this point, boosting is almost a protest against such an unfair rule – but only if others chime in publicly.

I blogged about this on Aug. 18, 2015 and a few other times. I proposed the Racket Testing Rule to address the issue, but (predictably) it was ignored as the officials in our sport continue to ignore the two big elephants in the room that lead to rampant cheating in our sport – boosting and illegal hidden serves. At this point I doubt if there's a single player in the top 20 in the world who doesn't boost (with the possible exception of outspoken boosting critic Jun Mizutani, though I'm betting he is by now), and the same is true of the top players in the U.S., with the notable exception of Sampson Dubina, who has also been an outspoken critic (along with me) of this continuing problem.

Unlike hidden serves, where you can learn both legal and illegal serves, and use the latter only when the opponent does so and the umpire allows it (and so you aren't serving illegal to gain advantage, which by definition is cheating, but only to take away the opponent's illegal advantage, which I don't consider cheating), you can't just boost when an opponent does – you either boost in advance or you don't.

Powers That Be, boosting isn't a health problem (like speed gluing), and it is essentially undetectable, making any ban silly, so just make any racket that passes the racket testing procedure at a tournament legal, and so level the playing field. Until we do that, we'll just continue to wink at each other while allowing all this rampant cheating in our sport, where we honor the cheaters and cheat the honorable ones who don't. Great message for our kids. (Note – I use the word "essentially" undetectable because I'm told that if we are willing to pay huge sums of money which neither USATT nor ITTF can afford, we can get equipment that would detect boosting.)

The irony is that I've never boosted myself, and don't even know how to – I haven't even read the entire article, though I likely will when I have time. But I've hit with others rackets that were boosted, and there is that extra 10% boost in bounciness as the ball just shoots off your racket with extra spin. I actually consider illegal hidden serves to be an even bigger problem, but it's time we shoot both elephants in the room.

Ping Pong Rabbit Trailer
Here's the video preview (65 sec) of the upcoming animated rabbit ping-pong movie – mark your calendars for July 29 - this looks great! It opens in China on that date, but hopefully in the U.S. as well, or soon afterwards. (The preview is in English, with Chinese subtitles.) The video is labeled as "PingPang Rabbit Trailer," (and I believe "Ping Pang" is a Chinese variant spelling of the sport) but I believe it's actually "Ping Pong Rabbit," as shown in the IMDB entry, which describes it as follows:

"From the animators that brought you The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Corpse Bride With dreams bigger than his small stature, a rural rabbit named Robb hurls himself in pursuit of his province's biggest prize, a storied 'Jade Table' awarded annually to the finest ping pong player in the land. Standing in his path is the fact that rabbits don't play ping pong, and the province's perennial champion is a ruthless monkey who uses the Jade Table to amass power and wealth, with no plans to relinquish either. Robb must prove that rabbits will no longer run scared, and that his improbable ping pong dreams will change not only his future, but also the fate of his entire province."

A New Drill
Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina, which starts with the following questions:

• How can we get both players engaged during a drill?
• How can we transition from offense to defense and defense to offense during drills?
• How can we get more effective practice during a three-hour session?

Chinese Coaching Site
If you're Chinese, here's pingpangwang.com and its Shakehands Grip Coaching page. (Is there another page for penhold?)

Ding Ning vs. Liu Shiwen – Point of the Match
Here's the video (46 sec, including slo-mo replay) from the final of the Korean Open this past weekend, with Adam Bobrow doing the commentating. That's Ding Ning getting the edge ball back.

Playing Ping Pong with Rafael Nadal
Here's the video (2:01) from last year, but I don't think I saw it then. He's playing doubles with his coach/uncle Toni Nadal, against WSJ's Ralph Gardner Jr. and former Swedish women's champion Malin Pettersson

Animated Strokes
Here's the repeating gif image, from Steve Worthington, the guy who brought us the new Table Tennis Car Sticker Kickstarter!

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