Tip of the Week
Where to Contact a Push.

Weekend Coaching, Shoulder, Cataracts, and Writing
It always amazes me how fast kids can mimic shots. The key I’ve found is to make sure they have a good grip and proper foot positioning. If you get both of those right, and you show and guide them through the stroke, the rest falls into place as if you were holding two ends of a rubber band. Get either wrong, and the rubber band (the player) gets twisted. (Here’s my Tip from almost 13 years ago on this, Grip and Stance.) Once they can do the stroke correctly, then you do a lot of multiball with them until they can also time it. And work from there until someday they can beat you!

I had a group of four junior players rotating with me in one session, mostly doing forehand footwork drills. None had ever done over 100 in a row before. By the end of the session, all four had done 200 or more. They are learning that (to paraphrase Yogi Berra), the game is 90% mental and the other half physical. The math might not work, but the gist of it is true – and with proper focus, getting one or two hundred in a row becomes easy. And it’ll pay off later on in matches.

Tip of the Week
Contact the Bottom of the Ball When Serving Backspin.

Weekend Coaching
I coached in three junior group sessions over the weekend, each 1.5 hours. One issue that came up a few times was balance. Many really don’t understand how important it is – but many top players and coaches consider it one of the most important things. If you are even slightly off balance, then before you can move the other way, you have to recover your balance, which is time you don’t have in many rallies. It’s especially important after you move to the wide corners, which is also when most players do go off balance – which is why they don’t recover in time, and then call out, “I’m too slow!” No – they weren’t too slow, they were off-balance. Here are eight Tips of the Week I’ve written over the years on balance and recovery.

Tips of the Week
Here are links to the last two, since I was out of town last week and didn’t have a blog to post the link from.

• Feb. 17, 2025: Forehand-Backhand Grip Changes
• Feb. 24, 2025: Eight Quick Tips for Quicker Footwork

2025 US Junior National Ranking Tournament I
They were held Feb. 13-17 at the Westchester TTC in New York. MDTTC had ten junior players there and five coaches. Since players in different age groups never played at the same time, we had more coaches than we really needed. Result? I didn’t coach as many matches as I normally would in big tournaments or trials. Fortunately, the tournament director, Vlad Farcas, let me use one of the tables behind the control desk as a mini-office, and I spent my free time there, writing both table tennis tips and working on a pair of science fiction stories. (As many readers know, my world these days is equally split between TT and SF.) The good news – I now have Tips of the Week through May!

No Blog on February 17, but There Will Be a Tip of the Week
I’ll be out of town, coaching at the US Junior Trials, July 13-17. Next blog will be Feb. 24.

Tip of the Week
Why Are You Attacking Heavy Backspin Into the Net?

MDTTC Open and the US Junior Trials
Here are the results of the MDTTC Open held this past weekend. For some, it was a warmup for the upcoming US Junior Trials next week. I coached and watched a number of matches on Saturday, focusing on the players I may be coaching at the Trials. I’ve spoken to some of them on their preparation, especially the sports psychology aspect.

Tip of the Week
Tactical Observations for the Subconscious.

Weekend Coaching
I think one of the most important aspects of a junior training program is to make things interesting. It’s very easy for the coach to just send the players out to the table and call out the same old drills, session after session, focusing on rote learning and discipline. But kids aren’t robots. You have to make it interesting so they want to improve.

Why would a kid want to work hard to improve at something they are not interested in? They may go through the motions, but if their heart isn't in it, then they aren't going to improve nearly as fast as one who really wants it. 

Tip of the Week
Do You Serve a Lot of Net Serves? Good!!!

Weekend Coaching, Tips, Eyes, and Shoulder
Over the last few weeks several new players have joined our junior training program. I’ve worked a lot with each of them, working on developing their fundamentals. I think one of the key things here is focusing on grip and stance – if you get both of those right, the rest often falls into place as if you were holding two ends of a rubber band. Get either wrong, and the rubber band (the player) gets twisted. (Here’s my Tip from almost 13 years ago on this, Grip and Stance.)

On the forehand, it’s also important to focus on the idea that you rotate the shoulders back, thereby giving yourself a big hitting zone to the side. Once that becomes a habit, the rest becomes easy.

Tip of the Week
Practice Each Aspect of a Technique Separately.

Weekend Coaching
I did four group sessions over the weekend, 6.5 hours. Sunday seemed iffy because of the predicted snow, but it came about five hours later than expected, so we got both sessions in. Because of the snow, I couldn’t get my car up the hill outside our club! But one of the parents literally got behind my car and pushed, and we managed to get to the top (fifty yards at most) though it took about five minutes.

I had one session with our top junior group, rated from 1800 to 2550. One of our best players was having trouble covering his wide backhand when blocking – I pointed out that it was a ready position problem, that he was holding his racket to far out in front and so didn’t have time to bring it back against deep attacks to his wide backhand. I also got another of our top players to better disguise his serve – he was setting up differently for regular and reverse pendulum serves. You need to always set up the same way, and hide which you are doing until the last possible moment.

Tip of the Week
Why Lobbing is Good For You, Why Lobbing is Bad For You.

Weekend Coaching
I coached in four group sessions over the weekend, totaling 6.5 hours. I spent about half of them feeding multiball, half as a practice partner/coach. I think I blocked about 10,000 shots over the weekend! If I block like this in tournaments, I’ll never lose. I also had some good counterlooping duels with some of the more advanced players – my training of the last few months has made this a bit easier. Ryan Li (age 9, rated 1568, moving up fast) did a drill with me where I blocked one to backhand, one to middle, one to backhand, one to wide forehand, and he alternated backhand and forehand – and did 600 in a row without missing at a pretty good pace. (The drill actually started with him serving backspin, I push to his backhand, he backhand loops, I block, and then the footwork drill begins. But because he wasn’t missing, he only had to do two backhand loops – yes, I missed one block along the way, but his count continued.)

Tips of the Week (since my last blog)

Next Blog – January 6, 2025
I’ll be out of town the rest of the month, leaving for the US Open on Dec. 15, and then Christmas with family in Sonoma, CA (near San Francisco). So, I’ll go back to weekly blogging on Monday, Jan. 6. However, a Tip of the Week will still go up every Monday. Happy Holidays, and see you next year!

Tip of the Week
Off-Speed Blocks.

US Open, and Elite League, and Weekend Coaching
This Sunday, Dec. 15, I’m off for the US Open Dec. 16-21. I’ve been to every US Open and US Nationals starting in 1985 (plus several before that, starting with the 1976 US Open when Gerald Ford was president). So, this will be my 39th US Open in a row, to go with my 39th US Nationals in July. It would be 40 in a row for each except they canceled both in 2020 due to Covid.