March 5, 2018

Tip of the Week
What You Should Be Watching.

Busy Weekend!
Even though I'm taking time off from private coaching for my shoulder to heal, it was still a way-too-busy weekend. On Saturday, where I'd normally have five hours of private coaching, instead I spent much of the morning and afternoon at the Maryland Table Tennis Center booth at the annual Lake Forest Mall Summer Camps and Activities Expo. Wen Hsu was there the entire time, with Todd Klinger (just turned 13) helping out all afternoon. For insurance reasons, the mall wouldn't let us bring a full-sized table, so we brought a mini-table instead. (We used to do annual exhibitions there, where I'd bring a bunch of our top juniors and give exhibitions all afternoon, but apparently those days are past. The cover of my book Table Tennis Tales and Techniques is from a Lake Forest exhibition where I'm using an over-sized racket.) Despite my shoulder injury I was able to talk to and hit back and forth with those passing by, playing backhand only. When Todd arrived he took over the hitting duties. 

Here are three pictures from the Lake Forest, by Carolyn Klinger.

On Sunday, Tim Boggan arrived at 9AM, and we went straight to work on Volume 21 of his History of U.S. Table Tennis. I had to leave to coach at 3PM, so we worked for six hours. We managed to do 42 pages, including the front and back covers. He expects it to be about 460 pages, covering 1994-1995. It'll take about 12 days, working most days from 7AM-5PM - Tim has early-morning habits. (Three times a week I meet with a physical therapist, normally at 4:30PM, so we only lose 30 minutes on those days. Plus I have to do various shoulder stretches three times/day, each time taking about 20 minutes - I do them early in the morning, just before dinner, and just before bedtime, so the last two don't interfere with our work.) 

Then came my Sunday 90-beginning junior class, where we introduced them to looping for the first time. We had three new players, so we got them started even though it was week eight out of the ten-week session. Then we had the two-hour advanced Talent program, where I mostly helped with serves and fed multiball. Several of them are getting pretty good at tomahawk serves.

And then I raced home, just in time to see the start of the Academy Awards! I wrote the blog above during commercials. Normally I do the blog in the morning, but while Tim is here I'll be doing the bulk of it the night before, then looking for any breaking news items or articles in the morning while Tim yells, "C'mon, Larry, let's get to work!"

US Prodigy Attains World Junior Number One Status
Here's the USATT article featuring Kanak Jha, by Matt Hetherington. 

Timo Boll Becomes the Oldest Ever World Number One
Here's the article. 

How to Improve Power of Forehand Topspin
Here's the article from EmRatThich.

Chinese Kids Train in Table Tennis
Here's the video (56 sec), where on player does the multiball while the others shadow-stroke behind them, with the players rotating. We do this type of training at my club as well. 

Ma Long and Fan Zhendong: Power, Speed, Consistency
Here's another video (3:38) of the two training at the World Team Cup. 

Olympians Top Proceedings at First National Ranking Tournament
Here's the USATT article by Matt Hetherington. 

Will Fan Zhendong be the Next Grand Slam Champion?
Here's the USATT article by Ray Huang. 

National Championships Take Centre Stage Across Europe: Stars Battle It Out for Glory
Here's the ITTF article.

ITTF World 2018 - Championships Division Draw Ceremony
Here's the video (55 sec). 

I Was Going to Be an Engineer, Table Tennis Found Me
Here's the article featuring Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.

Arnold Classic Results
Here the results, care of Omnipong. 

Arnold at Arnold Classic
Here are videos!

2018 ITTF Team World Cup | Magic Tricks with Japanese Women's Team & Leon the Magician
Here's the video (2 min).

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