June 15, 2011

Supernova or brightly burning star for many years?

The next time you enviously watch some kid who's improving at about 300 rating points per year, here's something to think about. The younger you start, the better your ultimate potential because the brain simply learns better at younger ages. However - while those of you who started late may never reach the crowning glory of some kid who started at age 7 with a professional coach, you may have something as good or better: a longer, more enjoyable journey. And don't they say it's not the destination but the journey that counts? Sure, that kid might become a U.S. team member by age 20. But by age 25 he's already pretty much at his peak. Meanwhile, while you may never make the U.S. team, you can keep improving for many, many years. The physical demands of table tennis at the higher levels are just too high to really improve much past age 30 or so, but at the more mortal levels, experience and training can more than make up for the gradual physical decline. Plus, the demands of high-level table tennis are such that you really need to train hard to keep it up; at lower levels, you can practice at a more relaxed pace and not only hold your level, but improve.

Rick Carlisle, champion of something?

Head coach Rick Carlisle of the Dallas Mavericks, a team of tall people that recently was in all the headlines for winning something in some sport, had earlier visited (back in December) the Broward Table Tennis Club (and the heat in Miami) in Florida and Coach Brian Pace of Dynamic Table Tennis. Here's the timeless video! (9:16)

Carlisle is pretty good, can hit forehand to forehand rather well, which they do at 1:30. However, he stands a bit too square to the table and doesn't rotate his shoulders much. He also tends to block at the ball rather than stroke it, partly because of the slight forehand grip and because his index finger is well up on the racket. (Advanced players sometimes grip the paddle this way, but only after perfecting the stroke with a more neutral grip. If you learn the strokes with a forehand or backhand grip, you'll often end up with poor strokes.) He also tends to stand too straight - when you're 6'5" (thanks Wikipedia), you need to try to get lower by bending the knees some (unless you have knee problems) and with legs farther apart. This allows more explosive power and quicker movement because it lowers the center of gravity.

His backhand technique is actually pretty good (they start this at 3:30), with a good topspin contact, though he has a bad tendency to open the racket as he's contacting it, which cost him some control He is still standing too straight, which on the backhand makes it difficult to hit with power. Here's an experiment: hold a paddle in front of you as if you are about to hit a backhand. Now lower it. Hold the paddle with your free hand and push out on it. Notice how little leverage you have? Now raise the racket so you are hitting almost in front of your chest or head (meaning that in a real game, you'd have to get lower to compensate), and again push out on it. See how much more leverage you have, and how much more forward-snap you can generate?

Carlisle demonstrated an ability to hold 15 balls in one hand at 4:40. Don't try this at home or at your club; Carlisle is a professional. Make sure to listen to the great interview that starts at 5:10.

More professional athlete table tennis wannabes

Here are tennis stars Andy Murray of England (left, world #4, three-time Grand Slam Finalist) and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France (world #19, 2008 Australian Open Finalist) going at it in table tennis (1:14).

Around the net receive

Yesterday I showed some videos of players making around the net returns that unreturnably rolled on the table. But this tops them all - an around-the-net roll-on-the-table receive by Adrien Mattenet of France (31 seconds, including slow motion replay).

ITTF Coaching Seminar in the Philippines

USATT Coaching Chair Richard McAfee recently ran an ITTF Coaching Seminar in, oh, just read the headline. Here are two articles on the ITTF webpage about it, on June 5 and June 12. As noted in yesterday's blog (look below this one), there are five upcoming ITTF seminars scheduled in the U.S., including two by McAfee.

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