September 9, 2024

Tip of the Week
Plan Your One-Minute Break.

Weekend Coaching, Playing, Aching, and a New Player
COACHING. . . In the Beginning/Intermediate session, I spent a lot of time as a practice partner, with the players rotating so I hit with many of them. As usual, we did lots of footwork drills. I always explain the purpose of a drill, something many coaches don’t bother with. Kids are curious, and letting them know why a certain drill is important gives them a reason to work harder at it. A good example is the 2-1 drill, also known as the forehand-forehand-backhand drill or the Falkenburg drill. That’s a three-shot drill as follows: Backhand from backhand corner; forehand from backhand corner; forehand from forehand corner; and repeat. As I explain, this covers the three most common moves in table tennis – covering the wide forehand, covering the wide backhand, and the step around forehand from the backhand side. (The drill usually starts with the backhand.) We also did a lot of serve practice.

PLAYING. . . I went to the Potomac TTC last Wednesday and played three matches, against players rated 1600, 2050, and 2050. As noted in last week’s blog, I’m getting back into playing shape. I’m still struggling to rally as I used to and still miss easy shots. I won all three matches, 3-1, 3-1, and 3-2, and then had to stop out of exhaustion. I wanted to continue for fitness reasons, but I was feeling great strain in my back since my legs were dying, and so I was playing forehand shots with mostly my upper body, a quick way to get injured.

I also played in the MDTTC Elite League on Saturday. This was only the third set of matches since I started playing matches again a week ago, the first serious ones in many years, other than a few played at various camps. I played five matches. In the first one, I struggled to do anything in the first game, missing easy balls. But then some of my game began to come back, and my serves dominated, and I won my first three matches relatively easily. The key here, however, was serves – all three were junior players rated between 2000 and 2100, and they simply couldn’t figure out my serves. Alas, I’m still way out of shape, and after that my legs were dead and I was out of breath half the time, and I lost the last two against players about 2100.

ACHIING. . . I’m a bit disappointed in my fitness level so far, but I guess it takes time. On Aug. 1, I weighed 210; this morning I hit 196. I’ve been weight training three times a week since Aug. 20, but so far the only effect seems to be exhaustion. In fact, I’ve found myself having to lower some of the weights as my muscles are just too tired to lift some of the weights over and over that I was able to do last week. But hopefully the effects will show up soon. But the muscles are aching all the time, and I often have muscle cramps. (Yes, I'm drinking lots of water.) Perhaps the dieting affects this. A week before any serious competition, or when I get to around 185, I’ll go back to a normal diet. 

A NEW PLAYER . . . I spend a LOT of time eating and writing at Panera’s, usually going there for around three hours almost every day, typically 2-5 PM (i.e., a late lunch) or 6-9 PM. (Sometimes I’ll stay longer, eating lunch and dinner there.) Due to my dieting, I’m mostly getting soups, salads, half-sandwiches, and Diet Coke instead of my previous Dr Pepper.

On Sunday (yesterday), I went in around 2PM. As I walked over to a booth, I heard a voice saying, “You play table tennis?” I look over and it’s a boy, age 11. He’s sitting with his father and another boy his age. I say yes, and ask how he knows. He says he recognized the warm-up suit I was wearing as the ones the US Team wears, and the Butterfly logo. It turns out he’s a table tennis fanatic – plays constantly in his basement with friends and constantly watches it on YouTube, which is how he recognized my US Team warmups. But he’s never been to a table tennis club, never had coaching, and didn’t even realize there were table tennis clubs and coaches! I gave them the web address for MDTTC (www.mdttc.com) and told them about their programs, including the junior program. He was incredibly excited to discover there was a FULL-TIME TABLE TENNIS CLUB just a few miles away!!! Anyway, his dad said he’d take him there. (Demographic note – the boy and his father were white, his friend was black. Our junior program is dominated by Asian players, mostly Chinese and a number of Indian kids.)

Articles and Blogs
I did some accounting on my writing. As of today, I’ve had 2,294 published articles (this includes 21 books) and 2,017 blogs (including this one), so 4,311 published items in all!

Player’s Playbook - Winning mindset on and off the field from a basketball and table tennis perspective
Here’s the info page for the Friday, Sept. 20 (5-6PM) seminar by Dora Kurimay and Keith Drysdale. “We will share inspiring stories and perspectives on developing a winning mindset in sports and life. We will explore how to choose your path (know what motivates you), stay dedicated, and achieve your goals.”

  • How to reach your goals and develop a winning mindset on and off the court.
  • We will share our stories as learning experiences.
  • Understand your motivation and create a path that you want to follow.
  • What’s your current situation? What’s holding you back?
  • How to master your commitment and motivation.

Major League Table Tennis
Follow the action!

Butterfly Training Tips

Short Topspin Serve with Robert Gardos
Here’s the video (2:16) from PongSpace.

Basic Forehand Underspin (Backspin) Serve
Here’s the video (11:10) from Ti Long.

New from PingSkills

The Voice of Table Tennis Adam Bobrow
Here’s the video (31:24) as Table Tennis Daily interviews the Voice of Table Tennis.

Alexis Lebrun DESTROYING Players For 4 Minutes Straight
Here’s the video (3:58) from Taco Backhand.

We Challenge African Champ Quadri Aruna!
Here’s the video (12:11) from Table Tennis Daily.

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

The Evolution of the NCTTA App
Here’s the article.

USATT News

New from ITTF

Table Tennis King Throw Pillow
Here’s where you can get one from Amazon!

Monster Pong
Here’s the crazy cartoon image!

Extreme Hill Bowling Challenge
Here’s the video (8:18) from Pongfinity! They mix table tennis with other sports (not just bowling), such as, “Ping-pong on a badminton court with tennis rules.”

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