August 24, 2016
Washington Post Reporter and Choppers
The reporter came in yesterday morning. It was a cause of great excitement for the kids. One of them tried to convince the reporter about how he'd floated across the Pacific in a raft with his parents as refugees from China, and that he'd learned to play table tennis with a makeshift table his parents made from a shark, with the net made from shark fins and the ball sculpted from a shark's tooth. (Full disclosure: I came up with the raft story and put the kid up to it. He drew the line at telling the reporter that he was the secret child of Trump and Clinton.)
The reporter interviewed me for 40 minutes, with a tape recorder and taking notes as well. He followed that with similar interviews with coaches Cheng and Jack. He'll be coming back later in the week with a photographer and to interview our top juniors. Main topics we discussed were:
- How MDTTC came about in 1992.
- How other full-time clubs copied MDTTC, leading to full-time clubs all over the country.
- Cheng and Jack, and their history as former members of the Chinese National Team and why they came to America. He was especially interested in how the Chinese coaches made Cheng into a practice partner because of his playing style, though he clearly was as good or better than some of the players who were played ahead of him.
- The differing styles - especially loopers, hitters, and choppers.
- Our top juniors and their performance at the recent Junior Olympics.
- MDTTC Olympians and other current and former top players.
This is our last week of camps, and we had a smaller turnout, perhaps 25-30 kids. Since I wasn't needed - we have eight full-time coaches - I was able to watch the session. One interesting thing I noted - we now have four junior choppers. I had thought we had two, but this summer two of our beginning kids have become choppers. One of the new ones is about 1200, the other (a girl) under 1000, but they are both about ten, so who knows how good they'll be someday. (Our #1 junior chopper is Eric Li, 14, rated 2027.) All of our coaches can teach chopping, but our primary chopping coach is chopper/power looper Wang Qing Liang ("Leon"), who used to be over 2600 and made the semifinals of Men's Singles at the 2012 U.S. Open.
Detraining: How Long Breaks Can Destroy Your Progress
Here's the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis.
Targeting the Transition: Check out these new drills!
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina, focusing on attacking the middle (playing elbow).
Footwork Exercise Tip to Improve the Forehand and Backhand Strokes
Here's the video (1:33) by Eli Baraty.
2020 Summer Olympics: Team USA Names to Know for the Tokyo Games
Here's the article from The Bleacher Report that features Kanak Jha.
New York City Table Tennis Academy Grand Opening
Here's the article on this new full-time club's opening on Sept. 2, 2016.
Liu Guoliang Leaving the Chinese Team?
Here's the ITTF article.
Ryu Seungmin Elected for the IOC Athletes Commission
Here's the article.
Invitation List Released for Liebherr 2016 Men's World Cup
Here's the ITTF press release.
11 Questions with Klaus Wood
Here's the video (3:52). Klaus, 14, is a member of the USA Cadet Boys' Team, and trains and plays at both MDTTC (my club) and the Baltimore TTC.
Olympian Timothy Wang's Welcome Back in Houston
Here's the picture. (Here's the non-Facebook picture.)
How Timothy Wang Trains for Table Tennis
Here's the podcast (1:39) from a radio show. "J Mac checks in with Olympian Timothy Wang to find out how he trains for Table Tennis."
How to INTIMIDATE in Table Tennis
Here's the video (3:14) from KGW-TV in Portland.
Lava Table Tennis Room Smart Phone Commercial
Here's the video (30 sec) of this commercial for Lava Phones, a new type of smart phone made in India. It features table tennis.
Hot Rod Pong
Here's the picture of Kim Gilbert Ponging in her red hot rod! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)
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