Emulating the Equipment of the Top Players

One of the best and worst habits intermediate players make is copying the equipment of the top players. There's no question that if you want to play like a world-class player, you should use the type of equipment that is used by world-class players (mostly tensor-like sponges), whether it's the same brand or something similar.

However, far too often players use specific equipment because the world-class players are using it, rather than using what's best for them. I'm going to use Butterfly's Tenergy 25 as an example. (Disclosure: I'm sponsored by Butterfly.)

I went over the 43 international players and 20 North American players listed as sponsored players at butterflyonline.com. Of those 63 players and 120+ racket surfaces, only one uses Tenergy 25: Koki Niwa of Japan, world #14 in men's rankings. (According to this bio, he uses Tenergy 25 on the forehand, with Tenergy 05 on the backhand.) Why is this? Because most world-class players (or those training to become one) take big swings at the ball from both sides, and so use the various surfaces designed for that – usually (for Butterfly) Tenergy's 05 (most popular), 64, and 80. Exactly zero used the softer FX, less powerful versions, for the same reason – at that level, the premium is on power.

So does this mean we should all use the same powerful surfaces as the world-class players? The answer to that is an emphatic It Depends.

Fill the Club

Want to fill your club and make it successful? But I repeat myself.

Far too often I've seen clubs struggle and fail because they focused on having a really nice club that people would pay good money for, and figured they'd gradually build membership up. The problem is a club with few members isn't very enticing for most new players, and so you lose them as fast as you get them. So the first goal is to fill the club, which will make it successful, as well as having a nice club. (Nice club generally means good playing conditions – floors, lighting, and enough room; clean and neat; and various programs, such as private and group coaching, a junior program, leagues, and tournaments.)

In addition to just having a nice club, here are three rules I believe are at the core of most successful clubs. (Much of this applies more to full-time clubs, but it also applies to part-time ones.) There are of course other models, but I believe that the bulk of the successful ones understand and follow these principles – and is a primary reason why we've had so many successful full-time clubs pop up all over the country over the past eight years, many of them following the model created by the Maryland Table Tennis Center, which I co-founded in 1992 and became the first successful full-time club centered on coaching and training.  

Tip of the Week

Back Foot Position on Forehand.

Sunday Coaching and Capclave

On Sunday I had two hours of private coaching and three hours of group coaching. In the adult training session, much of the focus was on hitting or looping down the line, especially with the forehand. After doing that down both lines, I had the players do side-to-side footwork where one player hit or looped forehands, alternating between crosscourt and down the line, while the other alternated forehands and backhands. I remember from David Sakai from years of drilling with him in the early 1980s that if you can play aggressively down the line, then you can play anywhere. It's a shorter distance, and once you master it, you've mastered the shot.

We also did a lot of serve practice. I had them do a lot on fast no-spin serves, which are especially effective to the middle (elbow). (Here's my Tip of the Week, Fast No-Spin Serves to the Middle.)

In the beginning junior class, we introduced them to up-down tables. This is where the players (ten of them) go on five tables, and each played a game to 11. (No deuce – 11-10 wins to save time.) When all are done, the winners move up, the losers move down, with the winner on the first table and the loser on the last table staying there. (I had an impromptu vote on whether we should call whoever loses the "loser" or "runner-up." It was 10-0 to call them "losers." So losers it is!)

In the two private coaching sessions, things were sort of reversed – one needed lot of work on the backhand, the other on the forehand. So we did a bit of saturation training on those.

Interview with Larry Hodges (hey, that's me!) on Tactics

Here's the podcast (55 min) that came out this morning from Expert Table Tennis. (We taped it last Friday.) Most of the discussion is on tactics, though we touched on other topics as well. Enjoy!!!

Top Junior Shocks World by Serving Legally

[And now for a little "fun," followed by a more serious note at the end, followed by the usual links to coaching and other table tennis items. I'm really frustrated that with lots of big tournaments and various U.S. team trials coming up, once again many of the wins and losses will be decided by the usual hidden serves (not to mention boosting), as we continue to honor those who cheat and cheat those who don't.]

An Ace Reporter from the New York Times read on the Internet that in an ongoing tournament a top USA junior had served legally. Astonished, he decided to check into the matter himself. So he hopped on a plane and flew there in time to see the matches. Being a player himself, he knew the rules stated that serves cannot be hidden from an opponent, but of course while all rules are equally important, some are less equal than others.

He soon found the Top Junior, who was 14 and playing Clash of Clans on an iPhone as he waited for his next match. "You were in the quarterfinals of Under 15 Boys," the Ace Reporter said, "and you chose to serve without illegally hiding your serve. For God's sake, why?"

"It just seemed wrong to cheat in such a big match," the Top Junior said, biting his lower lip. He was dressed from head to toe in a sponsor's uniform.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Lots of iconic things happening! Here's a rundown of some of my private students.

Navin Kumar posted a note about his nice undefeated performance in the Tuesday night league. In a breakthrough performance where his forehand really began to come around (along with his usual blocking), he went 4-0, holding all of his opponents to 5 points or less, despite being the last seed in the group. I can't link directly to his Facebook posting, but this link takes you to his Facebook page where he put up the posting. (Navin's the student of mine who's been in the news quite a bit due to his partially mechanical heart and Parkinson's.)

Another student, 14, had been having trouble with his grip finally got things together the last two days. In the Tuesday night league he said he played the best match of his life, with his forehand the best it's ever been. But he was still having trouble with his backhand – until Wednesday night, when we spent the whole session on it (including hitting 321 in a row at a fast pace), with a little saturation training. By the end he said his backhand felt the best it's ever been.

Another student, 14, had a great training session that led me to wonder when he's going to start showing up in tournaments again now that he's way under-rated. But as he said, he'll have sleepless nights because of that one point we had yesterday where he drove me out of position on my wide forehand, then smashed to my wide backhand, and I switched hands and lobbed it back left-handed – and he missed! He said he's going to have nightmare.

U.S. Nationals and Weight Training

I'm trying to make my plans for the upcoming U.S. Nationals, but things are never simple. In recent years it's been simple: I go, I coach, I return. This time, however, I was thinking of playing a bunch of events – hardbat (singles, doubles, over 40), sandpaper, perhaps a senior event or two. But now I have several coaching requests, and so might be busy coaching, which conflicts with my playing – I would likely have matches that conflict with a student's important match. Coaching is my priority, so we'll see how things end up.

But in case I decide to play in the Nationals again, yesterday I began the long put-off weight training I've been postponing for a while. And so after coaching/tutoring from 3:00-7:30PM, I stopped by Planet Fitness for the first time in a year. (Or is it two?) I'm weight training again for three reasons.

First, to get in better shape. When even carrying groceries or my 21-pound playing bag is difficult, I need to weight train.

Second, as I get older (55), I'm slowing down, and so not as effective in private coaching sessions, where I'm hitting with players. Plus, of course, my overall game has declined. Weight training will bring some of it back. Heck, I watch and coach some of our up-and-coming juniors, and realize that I better get in shape or they'll start beating me!!! (Some do…) My tentative plan is to retire from most private coaching in April 2018, which coincides with when I make my last house payment. But I'd continue group sessions and perhaps some private coaching – we'll see. But it gets harder and harder to do private coaching as I get older.

Adventures in Serving

Tip of the Week

Serving and the Snowball Effect.

Weekend Activities

Thinking About Blocking – a No-No

On Wednesday night I was coaching a junior player with a pretty strong forehand loop. Early in our session we warmed up with his crosscourt loop to my forehand block, where I'm normally very steady. I was blocking to his wide forehand and middle, as he moved side to side. All was well at first, but then I made a few mistakes. So I focused on my forehand block, trying to get the right technique. Instead, I made more mistakes. I'm supposed to be steady in these drills, and yet I was suddenly missing way too many blocks. These were not "easy" blocks, as he does loop hard, but I've been blocking these shots for nearly 40 years, and it's normally second nature. (The key phrase here: second nature.)

I started analyzing my block, trying to find the problem. The more I examined it, the worse it got. The technique was right, so that wasn't the problem. But something was wrong.

I think some readers already know the problem, worthy of a D'oh. Because I was thinking about the shot, without knowing it I was consciously trying to guide the shot, rather than let my subconscious, with the nearly 40 years of blocking practice and muscle memory that made it second nature, control the shot.

Playing Bag Content – What's in Your Bag?

I recently wrote about how I thought I might have gotten slightly injured from carrying around my way-too-heavy playing bag. I probably carry more stuff around than most. So, let's take an inventory of what's in my bag. Everything in it, of course, is an absolute must, right? Well, let's see.

I use a Butterfly Linestream Bag, black & blue version, which (alas) seems to be discontinued. (But it's similar to the Casio II Sport Bag.) Besides the large bag area, there are large compartments on each side, another along the long side, and two small pouches on each end.

Here's a picture of the complete contents of my bag, on my sofa. (This is the historical sofa that USATT Historian Tim Boggan sleeps on during his annual two-week stays at my house to do the sixteen volumes – so far - of his History of U.S. Table Tennis series.) Total weight: 21.4 pounds. And now I have to put all that stuff back. But first, let's look at what's in each bag compartment.