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This is an evolving website and Table Tennis Community. Your suggestions are welcome.

Want a daily injection of Table Tennis? Come read the Larry Hodges Blog! (Entries go up by noon, Mon-Fri; see link on left.) Feel free to comment!

Want to talk Table Tennis? Come join us on the forum. While the focus here is on coaching, the forum is open to any table tennis talk.

Want to Learn? Read the Tip of the Week, study videos, read articles, or find just about any other table tennis coaching site from the menu links. If you know of one, please let us know so we can add it.

Want to Learn more directly? There are two options. See the Video Coaching link for info on having your game analyzed via video. See the Clinics link for info on arranging a clinic in your area, or finding ones that are already scheduled.

If you have any questions, feel free to email, post a note on the forum, or comment on my blog entries.

-Larry Hodges, Director, TableTennisCoaching.com

Member, USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame & USATT Certified National Coach
Professional Coach at the Maryland Table Tennis Center

Recent TableTennisCoaching.com blog posts

Friday, May 17, 2013 - 13:18
May 17, 2013

Table Tennis Protocol

There are many aspects of protocol in table tennis. Most players lean these things at their club, and so know to act "properly" at tournaments. Here are some table tennis protocols, and how it varies depending on the circumstances.

  • Handshakes vs. High Fives or Fist Bumps. Players are supposed to shake hands after a match. At tournament, this is standard. However, between practice partners, friends, and often among juniors, players sometimes give a high five instead, or even (occasionally) a fist bump. In practice, it's even more common. For myself, in tournament I essentially always shake hands. In practice, against players I know well, I usually give a high five. I do this with all our junior players, who I play regularly as a practice partner. I also make it clear that they know the difference, and that they should shake hands after a tournament match.
  • Nets & Edges. Always say "Sorry" or raise your hand in an apology after getting a net or edge. It's an acknowledgement that it was a lucky shot, and doing so is considered proper, even if...



Thursday, May 16, 2013 - 14:15
May 16, 2013

Coaching Updates

I had some interesting coaching sessions yesterday. Here's a rundown on three of them, with their permission - plus a fourth who just won three titles!

  • Audrey Weisiger - She's the former USA Olympic skating coach I've blogged about before. She is determined to win against some of her fellow skating coaches, with one in particular in mind. As I blogged about recently, she's gone to long pips on the backhand, no sponge, and it's working really well. She is getting pretty good at keeping the ball in play, can block loops and drive back pretty consistently now, and can return my spinniest serves. (The coach she has in mind has a spinny serve, both forehand and backhand.) She also can do a consistent push-block against pushes, which comes back with topspin. She needs more work on the forehand. She can hit forehand to forehand pretty well, but her stroke tends to be too long, and she tends to wander off the table, which doesn't work well if you are blocking with long pips on the backhand. Also, since her backhand will tend to have backspin, many of her opponent's shots will be...



Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - 13:44
May 15, 2013

Play With Creativity - Do Something Different!

In my blog yesterday I wrote about how some of our players had trouble with Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy's serve. It was a pretty good forehand pendulum serve, but there wasn't anything seemingly special about it. He actually used less wrist motion than he should, and had just two versions - side-top and side-back - though he did vary the depth well. As I watched it, I began to see why they were having trouble with it, and there were two reasons.

First, he wasn't changing his grip to unlock his wrist, and so he had less spin than he could have. But because he has such quick wrists and a good grazing contact, it was sufficient spin to make it effective, and the different grip seemed to give players difficulty in reading it.

Second, he served it over and over from his forehand side. We're all used to players serving forehand pendulum serves from the backhand side, since that allows a player to more easily follow up against a weak return with a forehand attack. And so when the same serve came at them from the forehand side, crosscourt into their forehand, they struggled. It wasn...




Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - 15:11
May 14, 2013

J.J. Hardy and Brady Anderson at MDTTC

J.J. Hardy is the star shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles. (He's the reigning gold glove winner with 52 homers the last two seasons and a former All-Star.) Brady Anderson was the Orioles star center fielder for 13 of his 15 major league seasons, where he was a 3-time all-star, and once hit 50 homers in a season. They are true baseball stars.

But they are also pretty good at table tennis! With the Orioles having a day off from playing, they spent four hours at the Maryland Table Tennis Center last night, 4-8PM. I gave them a private coaching session the first two hours, and then they hit with our local juniors. I knew in advance that JJ was the Orioles best TT player - they have a table in their clubhouse, and NOBODY beats JJ. Brady is their #2. But how good could they be, considering they hadn't had coaching? I was expecting "basement stars," perhaps 1200 level at most. Boy was I wrong! Both came with their own sponge rackets in racket cases.

JJ's around 1850. Strengths: fast rallying and good serves, and adjusts quickly to opponents. Weaknesses: return of serve and against spin...




Monday, May 13, 2013 - 14:36
May 13, 2013

Tip of the Week

Beat Weaker Players with Fundamentals.

Coaching Opponent to Victory

I had an interesting practice match with one of our top juniors this past weekend. Going into the match he appeared irritated and tense. Against someone like that all you have to do is vary your shots like crazy - placement, depth, spins, etc. - and watch him fall apart. He was too irritated to even think, and served short to my backhand over and over, which isn't smart - I'm very good there, where I can push short or long, and flip either regular or banana flip (with extra topspin or sidespin). I often messed him up by faking a long push to the backhand and at the last second dropping it short to his forehand. When he guarded against the short ball to the forehand I'd flip to his backhand, taking his service game away. I won the first game 11-3. (I'd also beaten him I think 3-0 the last three times we'd played.)

Between games I went over and asked him what was wrong. He said he'd just lost to someone else and was playing poorly. I told him...




Friday, May 10, 2013 - 14:17
May 10, 2013

Professional Franchise League System

One way to get a professional league for top players going in the U.S. would be a franchise system. How would it work? Here's a rough outline - feel free to make changes.

It would start in a populated region, with a committed Commissioner getting it started. Perhaps eight league owners would be solicited, each representing a different club or region, with each owner paying perhaps a $5000 franchise fee. What would be the owner's incentive? That owner would have perpetual rights to that franchise. If the league were to take off, they could become very rich.

Each team would have three players minimum, with team matches best of nine. If there were eight teams in the league, with each playing the other team twice, there would be 14 team matches for each team, half played at home, half played on the other teams home clubs.

Income would be generated by franchise fees, ticket sales, refreshment sales, and sponsors. The franchise fees and 20% of ticket sales would go to a Commissioner and league expenses.

The Commissioner would be in charge of...




Thursday, May 9, 2013 - 14:11
May 9, 2013

To Super Serve or Not to Super Serve?

I often play matches with beginning and intermediate players who say in advance, "don't use your serves!" It's a mixed thing; by my not using my best serves, we have better rallies, but they don't get to practice against these serves. On the other hand, most of them won't face these types of serves until they reach a higher level. So what to do? I try to find a logical balance.

Against beginners, I most serve just to put the ball in play so they can get some rallying practice. But then I might throw a spin serve at them. After they miss it, I'll tell them I'm going to do the same serve, and point to where they need to aim. Then I'll give them the same serve over and over until they can return it pretty well. Then I do the same with a different serve. Sometimes I'll also throw one of my super-fast serves at them, but I'll let them know in advance where it's going. The key is I want them to get into the rally for practice, but at the same time I want them to see what type of serves are possible, and begin thinking about how to return them. (I'm a strong...




Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - 11:38
May 8, 2013

Sidespin Loops

In the late 1970s I went to several Seemiller camps. One of the things I learned there is that looping with sidespin was a good thing, and that a natural loop generally has something like 15% sidespin. This is for two reasons. First, the natural contact point of the ball is lower than the shoulder, so the arm is tilted down, and so it naturally contacts the ball somewhat on the outside, which puts sidespin on the ball. And second, if you meet a loop straight on with pure topspin, you are going up directly against the incoming topspin, and so it's better to contact it more on the side so as not to have to go up against it directly. (Here's a Tip of the Week I wrote last year on Sidespin Loops.)

There's even more to it than that. One of the things I've pointed out to some of my students is that you get a more natural hooking sidespin on your loop if you take the ball either early or late. If you take it early, your natural contact point will be more on the outside of the ball, since your arm will be tilted forward. (This is the right side for a...




Tuesday, May 7, 2013 - 14:15
May 7, 2013

Spammers

Due to massive spamming attacks, I've been forced to switch to requiring administrator approval for new accounts. Yesterday I had to block over 50 new accounts, each of which was posting spamming notes all over the comments section on my blog and the forum, which I also had to delete. (Fortunately I can generally delete all postings by a spammer with a few clicks - but it does take time.) So starting last night, new visitors can create accounts but administrator approval is required. It seems to be working - since last night 18 more accounts were created, but only two legit. (On a related note, anyone who has to constantly waste time battling these spammers believes in the death penalty.)

Table Tennis Leagues in the U.S.

Last night I had a debate on the MyTableTennis forum on the future of leagues in the U.S., and whether a nationwide network of local leagues is possible. Here's where I join the discussion. I ended up posting thirteen notes. (You can also read the previous postings of course.) I...




Monday, May 6, 2013 - 14:37
May 6, 2013

Tip of the Week

How to Create a Truly Heavy Backspin Serve.

Soccer Ball Table Tennis

On April 26 I blogged about ordering "sports balls," which were ping-pong balls colored to look like soccer, baseball, and basketballs. The baseball and basketball versions weren't particularly good in seeing the spin - the lines were too thin. But the soccer ball versions were great! Here are the six-packs I ordered from Amazon for $5.99 each. (I bought four packs of them, and may get more soon. I'm a bit irritated that I can't get the soccer ball ones only - I have to order a six-pack to get two of them.) I've used such balls in the past, but most of them were "toy" balls that didn't play well, and at some point in the past they all disappeared. These new ones are one-star balls, but they played very well, good enough to rally with.

They were a great hit with...