Nostalgia - The Top Players of Today and Yesterday

Mondays is usually my day off. However, since I'm going to be away at the Veep taping on Wed and Thur (see yesterday's blog), I asked my five students on those days if we could reschedule, and all five obliged. So yesterday I did two hours coaching, the first time I've done so on a Monday in a long time. I've also got two extra hours today, so I'll be coaching almost non-stop from 2:45-8PM. (Fortunately I'm over my arm problems.)

I was coaching on one of the front six tables. (We have 16 tables, sometimes 18 for training camps, but the front six are extra-large.) During the first hour I looked around at the other five tables, and couldn't help but reminisce. I remember back when I was starting out at the old New Carrollton Table Tennis Club (in Maryland) in the late 1970s. Between matches I'd watch as the club's star players played on the tables on the far right - we had something like 9-10 "great" players, all in the 1800-2000 range! Wow! This was back when I was about 1100, and to me they were the greats of table tennis - Herb Horton, Bob Kaminsky, Jim Verta, Carl Kronlage, Jim Mossberg, Ron Snyder, Gary Akinsette, Tim Ang, Barbara Kaminsky, Donna Sakai, Yvonne Kronlage - wow, were they good! Not to mention up-and-coming juniors Brian Masters, Mike Shapiro, Curt Kronlage, and Phil Shaw. Oh, and me, though I didn't start until I was 16.

But the world has changed, and I'm now a coach at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. I still have that same sense of "Wow!" when I look about. And now back to the present, and those five other tables.

Tip of the Week

Covering the Middle with the Forehand. (Note - here's a related Tip from a year ago, "Covering the Middle.")

Veep

My chances for winning an Emmy just went up a million times, from one in a quintillion to one in a trillion. Yep, a million times better.

On Friday I got a call and emails from one of the casting directors for the TV show Veep. This is the high-rated HBO comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus (of Seinfeld fame) as the constantly befuddled and out of her depth vice president of the United States. A few weeks ago she won the Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy. I've watched most of the episodes - it's pretty funny.

It seems they are doing an episode that at least partially features table tennis. They need 6-8 high-level table tennis players, aged 18-30 but all appearing in their 20s, of varying diversities. They also hired me, even though I'm outside their age range at 53. The filming is this Wed and Thur, at University of Maryland. We have to be there all day both days. It is paid work.

From what I understand from a very brief description, the players will be dressed in regular business attired, and the scene takes place at some techie place like Google. At some point the workers get up and play table tennis, and they're all great. That's all I know, or think I know.

If you fit the profile for this, and are free all day Wed and Thur, and would like to join us, email me and I'll put you in contact with the casting person.

Table Tennis & Academic Afterschool Program

MyTableTennis.com

Over the last few days I've joined in discussions at the MyTableTennis.com forum. I've been in several threads, but the one I was most interested in was one titled "How should I coach someone in a match." I have a lot of experience there, so I posted some notes there, starting on page 5. (For a time the thread was basically hijacked by someone who put a "Hex" on it, but that person has since been banned, both for those postings and numerous postings in other threads.) Below are three postings I put up. Much of the discussion is on whether you should coach technique in a tournament match - which I consider a very bad idea, as my postings explain.

To learn to win close matches means playing lots of close and/or important matches where you develop the habit of tactically using all of your tools to win. To do so takes certain mental skills that can only be practiced at such times. So it's a highly effective time to develop tactical and mental skills, and not a very effective time to develop or fix technique. Some technique problems can be overcome indirectly in the course of a match - I gave examples in my Tip of the Week ("Mid-Match Technique Adjustments"), which was linked to above - but mental and tactical skills are what need to be emphasized in such matches. Hopefully you have far more time at the practice hall to work on the mechanical skills (i.e. technique) - and it is in important matches where you often find out what techniques you need to work on. 

MDTTC Newsletter

I'm the editor of the monthly Maryland Table Tennis Center Newsletter, cleverly titled the MDTTC News. Yesterday the October issue was emailed to MDTTC members and those on our mailing list. (If you want to be on the list, email me.) Here's the archive of past issues.

Each issue covers a number of topics. The key is to make it interesting, informative, and link it to the club's programs. The last item is key - there's little point in a newsletter that features interesting stuff but doesn't link to programs that the club is trying to create interest in. Below is the table of contents for this issue. (I'm especially looking forward to the new afterschool program where I get to switch from my table tennis hat to my tutoring hat. I can tutor in just about any school subject outside foreign language.) Each issue also has a feature picture at the top. This issue has a group picture from one of our summer camps.  

Does your club have a newsletter? Why or why not? It's a great way to promote the club and its programs!

• NEW! Afterschool Program
• Upcoming Butterfly MDTTC October Open (Oct. 26-27)
• Fall Sales - Passo Butterfly track suits
• North American Teams - Discount available till October 23rd ONLY
• Adult Beginning Class
• Ongoing Programs

  • Junior Classes
  • Group Sessions
  • Private Coaching
  • Leagues

• Ernie Byles - Saved by Table Tennis
• Rental Space for Corporate and Private Events
• MDTTC Web and Facebook Pages
• Tip of the Month: Real Tactics vs. Parroting Tactics

Arm Problems and Novel Sequel

Wider Stance

Because of my arm problems (see below), I only gave one lesson yesterday, and it was an all-multiball session. The 12-year-old player (hi Sameer!) has a tendency to stand up too straight when he plays. This leads to some awkward strokes. At first glance some would say he needs to loop more forward, or use less arm, or something similar, but that would be treating the symptoms. The problem was how straight he tends to stay, with his feet too close together. So much of the session was focused on not just staying down, but on keeping the feet wider. This gives extra stability and power. The results were good - his looping form was perhaps the best ever. It also helped when he took the ball a little later so he wouldn't be rushed. As he gets used to the wider stance he'll get quicker with it, along with the increase in stability and power. (Stability increases both the consistency as well as the recovery from the previous shot.)

This is true for most players. Watch videos of the top players and see how wide their stance is when they play. It does take some leg muscle, but not as much as you'd think; it's more a habit you have to develop. Once you get in the habit, I think it's actually less tiring as the extra stability means you aren't tiring yourself recovering from shots over and over.

Here's a video (5:37) of the Chinese team training earlier this year before the Worlds. Watch the very first drill sequence, and see how wide the players keep their feet - both the player moving and the one blocking. A few key things about a wider stance: feet should point slightly outward. Knees should be bent. Body should be bent slightly forward at the waist.

USATT Taking Over U.S. Government

With the U.S. government shutting down, there's a huge power vacuum. So USATT is stepping in to save the day. Obamacare will now distribute health insurance and a wide variety of ping-pong products. Social Security now means that if you are 65 or older, you no longer have to pay membership at your ping-pong club. And the NSA will no longer spy on Americans; they are now secretly taping the Chinese National Team as they train.

Mike Babuin, chair of the USATT Board of Directors, has been sworn in as the new U.S. President. CEO Mike Cavanaugh has been sworn in as Vice President.

The rest of the USATT Board of Directors replaces congress as the Legislative Branch of the U.S. government. They are Anne Cribbs, Peter Scudner, Jim Kahler, Kagin Lee, Edward Levy, Attila Malek, and Han Xiao.

USATT pro bono lawyer Dennis Taylor has been sworn in as the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The President's Cabinet has 15 departments - and by a strange coincidence, there are 15 USATT Committees. Effective immediately:

Tip of the Week

Mid-Match Technique Adjustments.

Arm problems

Old, tight muscles strike again. Alas.

On Friday night I was a practice partner in our Elite Training Session. I played a practice match with a 2000 chopper. Going into the match I felt a bit stiff, but what else is new? But I was even stiffer than usual. I lost the first game. Bearing down, I won the next three games pretty easily. Many of the points I'd serve no-spin or light-spin to his long pips, or roll his serves back soft to the pips, and in both cases I'd usually get no-spin or light backspin returns, and then I'd win the point with an explosive, off-the-bounce loop to the middle or extreme angles. The tactic worked, but it apparently took a toll on my arm, which afterwards felt extra tight. I played one more match, where I struggled a bit as the arm felt like it had a broken arm cast on it. Then I stopped for the night.

On Saturday I spent the morning wearing the arm down feeding multiball as I ran 2.5 hours of junior programs. That afternoon I had a two-hour private coaching session - and literally minutes into the session I was grabbing my arm. I had to stop playing 15 minutes into the session, and we switched to multiball. However, at this point the arm was so inflamed I had to stop feeding multiball after maybe 15 more minutes. We spent the next hour working on serves, and then I got Raghu Nadmichettu to do the last 30 minutes. I went home and iced it several times that night.

On Sunday I had four hours of private coaching scheduled, but I had to cancel them. I did a 90-minute junior session, feeding multiball, and it probably aggravated the arm a little bit. I did more icing.

Bring Balance to Your Force

I can never stress enough the importance of balance in table tennis. It's both for the shot you are currently doing and (perhaps even more important) for recovery for the next shot. Over and over players move to a ball and hit while slightly off-balance, and never realize it - but this subtle lack of balance leads to variations in their stroke and thereby a loss of control as well as power. Even more subtle is the loss of recovery for the next shot. Over and over players hit a shot and then are unable to react to the next shot if it goes to a wide angle. They blame themselves for being too slow when the real problem was they were off balance on the previous shot (or went off balance during the follow through), and that kept them from recovering for the next shot - not just a lack of foot speed. Even at the higher levels when a player is unable to get to a shot it is often because they went off-balance on the previous shot.

As I've gotten older I've become more and more aware of this. When I step around to play my forehand from the backhand corner (since my forehand attack is much stronger than my backhand attack), I often leave my wide forehand "open." I put that in quotes because if I finish my forehand attack balanced, I can recover quickly enough to cover that wide forehand shot. If I am late in stepping around, and so end up following through more to the side (as opposed to being there early enough to follow through more balanced with the same power), then I'm going to lose precious time recovering balance. And that's why I can't cover the wide forehand sometimes - not because my feet are too slow in covering the wide forehand, but because they are too slow in stepping around the backhand corner, leaving me off balanced and unable to recover for the next shot.

As I said yesterday to a student who was going off balance whenever he hit a powerful forehand, "Bring balance to your force."

Daniel the Lobber

One of my students, Daniel, age 8, has an amazing ability to soft loop, fish, and lob from off the table, with both topspin and amazing amounts of sidespin), as well as sudden counter-kills. His lobbing may be the best I've ever seen of a kid his age. I even suggested they put together a video for the ITTF Trick Shot Competition of him sidespin lobbing from way off to the side and then perhaps counter-killing - his age and size might give him an advantage. (On the forehand he lobs both ways - racket tip down, the conventional way, and racket tip up, the extreme sidespin way.)

The problem with Daniel is he absolutely hates to play at the table. Every rally he wants to back up and soft spin (topspin and sidespin, usually from nearly off the floor), fish, lob, and chop. (He's a pretty good chopper but doesn't want long pips since that'll take away from his lobbing.) He'd rather go to the dentist than stay at the table. When he loops it's always from way off the table. Some kids are successfully trained this way in Europe, where the idea is that it's easier for the kid to learn to loop if he lets the ball drop down to his level, plus you are learning a topspin contact from the very beginning. (I've coached a few players this way.) However, it's about as non-Chinese as you can get. Chinese coaches mostly have players stay at the table. First they learn to hit and counter-hit, bang-bang style. As they get better, the hitting is extended into looping, again without backing up too much. As they get older and they face more powerful opponents, they back up some to counterloop, but usually not as much as European-trained players. Against blocks they loop over and over within a step of the table. It's all about close-to-the-table power, and it's a highly-proven way to develop players.

Examples of Saturation Coaching

My Tip of the Week on Monday was on Saturation Training, where a player focuses on developing one aspect of his game. I thought I'd give some examples of this.

Probably the most famous example was Istvan Jonyer. He made the Hungarian National Team in the early 1970s mostly by blocking. While on the team he developed his powerful forehand loop and became Hungarian National Champion. But he had a weak backhand, and couldn't really compete with the best players in the world. Then he spent six months up in a mountain training, where he did essentially nothing but backhand loop. When he finished, he had a great backhand loop - though other aspects of his game had deteriorated, and he had to practice them to get them back. About two years later he became the 1975 Men's World Champion, and was #1 in the world for two year and a dominant top ten (usually top five) player for over a decade.

Another example is Todd Sweeris, who just yesterday was selected as one of the two inductees this year into the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame. (See my blog yesterday.) Todd made the 1996 and 2000 U.S. Olympic Teams - but through much of 1995 it didn't look like he had a chance. Only the top three U.S. players would make the team, and he couldn't even get games off the top three U.S. players: Jim Butler, David Zhuang, and Khoa Nguyen. He figured his best chance was against Khoa, and that the main thing he could really dominate in would be receive. (That was my suggestion!) So he spent nearly all of that year training overwhelmingly on receive, and with practice partners who copied Khoa. (Sorry Khoa!) He became one of the best serve returners in the country. The strategy worked as Todd beat Khoa 3-0 to make the team. (Fortunately Khoa would, after years of tribulations, make the Olympic team in 2004, and would be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006.)