July 25, 2011

Tip of the Week

In this morning Tip of the Week, I write about the importance of serve variety.

Looping against the block

Almost nobody loops a block into the net; when they miss, it's almost always off the end. Part of this is because they are attacking the ball, and so driving it deep on the table, and simply drive it too deep on the table. Part of it is because they drop their back shoulder, lifting the ball as if it were a backspin. (I wrote a short article about the proper use of the back shoulder for smashing and looping.)

Since most players learn to loop first against backspin, when they start looping against a block (or an incoming topspin), they tend to drop that back shoulder too much. While dropping a little is okay if you are away from the table - key word is "little" - most do it way too much. Instead, you want to keep the back shoulder mostly up, and loop almost the top of the ball. It helps to hook the ball a little as well, dropping the tip down so it contacts the ball on the far side.

And yet players often have trouble doing this, especially right after looping a backspin. And since a disproportionate number of rallies start with a player looping against a backspin, invariably players find themselves looping a backspin and then a block consecutively.

The standard way to practice for this is with multiball. For example, the coach would feed a backspin ball to the middle backhand, and player forehand loops; then the coach feeds a topspin ball to the wide forehand, and again the player loops. And this is great if the player can afford a coach to do this endlessly until they have it down, and then still more to keep it tuned up.

Here's a way a player can practice this on their own. Suppose they already can loop against backspin pretty well but are having trouble following that by looping against the block. Have the player hold a ball in his non-playing hand. He then shadow-practices a loop against backspin from the middle backhand. He then steps to the wide forehand, tosses the ball backward (to simulate a block), and loops that ball, keep the shoulder mostly up and looping near the top of the ball. A player can practice this over and over on their own. (They might want to have a supply of balls on hand so they don't have to keep fetching the ball!)

When's your next tournament?

I always tell students they should plan well ahead, and practice for specific tournaments that they should be looking forward to. Ideally, look for one or two major tournaments that are held within a few weeks of each other and plan to go to both. Even better, have one or two smaller tournaments that come before the major one(s), which helps get you tournament tough. See the USATT Tournament Schedule. To find the big ones, click on "Major Tournaments." Then take your pick! The two biggest are the North American Teams (Baltimore, Nov. 25-27) and USA Nationals (Virginia Beach, Dec. 13-17). However, there are also large ones (4-star, sometimes 3-star) coming up in New York City; El Monte, CA ($45,000 LA Open); Waukesha, WI; Berkeley, CA; Highland, Indiana; and Milpitas, CA. Plan your season around these big ones, and find at least one or two smaller tournaments to lead up to the major ones.

Transcending Table Tennis

I think I posted a link a while back to Transcending Table Tennis, Part 1 (5:50). Here's Part 2 (4:37)! Both videos show great table tennis action in dynamic slow motion, where you can really see what's happening.

***

Send us your own coaching news!