Tip of the Week

Can you write The Book on Your Game?

MDTTC Coaching Camp - Day Five

MDTTC Coaching Camp - Day Four

• Yesterday we focused on footwork. Actually, we do that every day, since - as I regularly remind everyone - all table tennis drills are footwork drills. I gave a short talk on footwork, and on the progression from rote drills to random drills. I also gave them my standard "Are you a tree or a squirrel?" talk.
• Quote of the day: one kid (about 9) was doing a drill that involved stepping around his backhand corner to hit forehands. He looked awkward and kept losing his balance. I came over, but before I could say anything he looked at me and said, "I can't do the drill. I'll step on my drink." I looked down, and realized the reason he was so awkward and was losing his balance was because he was trying not to step on his drink, which sat on the floor on his backhand side. I moved the drink off to the side, and his improvement was immense.
• Sometimes I'm more babysitter than coach. There are two kids in the camp who interact like fire and gasoline. I think I spend half my time telling them to stay away from each other and the other half tuning out the constant cries of, "Larry, Larry, look what he did!"
• We have one 7-year-old kid who's a walking hazard. He's oblivious to others when he plays. When he goes to pick up balls, he constantly walks right into other player's backswings, and keeps getting hit. I keep reminding him not to go near anyone who's playing, but he can't seem to remember.

Broken Bat Open

MDTTC Coaching Camp - Day Three

• Yesterday's focus was on the backhand attack - smashing, drives against backspin, and backhand loop.
  • To develop the backhand smash (where you lengthen the backswing and/or use more wrist), a good drill we taught is the "hard-soft" drill, which really should be called the "hard-medium" drill. The players hit backhand to backhand, with one player alternating hitting one medium-hard, the other hard. The other player plays steady.
  • To develop the backhand attack against backspin, we introduced a drill for intermediate to advanced players. The entire drill is done backhand to backhand. Player A serves backspin. Player B pushes it back. A backhand loops or drives. B blocks. A chops. (This is the part where beginners have trouble.) B pushes. A backhand loops or drives, and the drill continues.
• We also focused a bit on doubles play, primarily the basics: serving low and short, hitting toward the person who hits at you (or even to his side so he gets in the way of his partner), and moving in and out rather than sideways, which takes you out of the point.
• We've been running competitions to see how many cups a player can knock off a table in ten shots. Alex, an eight-year-old near beginner, set an astonishing record when, out of the blue, he knocked all ten cups off with three perfect forehands!
• Kudos to David Varkey, who's been volunteering as an assistant coach throughout the camp to accumulate the 30 hours coaching needed for his ITTF coaching certification. He should achieve it on Friday. David attended my ITTF coaching seminar in April.

Loop or Stop the Loop?

MDTTC Coaching Camp - Day Two

Yesterday's highlights:

MDTTC Coaching Camp - Day One - and the Forehand

Day one of our two-week camp at MDTTC went pretty well, just like the other 150 or so I've run. Yes, that's not a typo - I've run approximately 150 five-day training camps now, the equivalent of over two years, seven days a week! Yikes.

Originally I was only going to do the morning sessions (10AM-1PM), both because I'm not usually needed in the afternoon sessions (3-6PM) and because of my ongoing back problems. But there's a large turnout, and more beginners than normal, so I'm doing the afternoon sessions as well. I agreed to take charge of the beginners all week. (After the two weeks end on Aug. 19, I plan to take about six weeks off where I have one of our top local juniors do my hitting for me when I coach, to allow my back to finally heal up.) This week I'll be living on Ibuprofen.

Tip of the Week: Playing Lefties

What are three keys to playing lefties?

MDTTC Training Camp

Today we're starting the last of our MDTTC summer camps, a two-week session, Aug. 8-12, 15-19 (Mon-Fri both weeks). By the end of these two weeks there will be many enlightened, improving players, and my back will feel like what happens when a supernova wrestles a quasar. (After the camp I plan on taking 4-6 weeks off, where I have local top players or juniors do my hitting while I coach so my back can get better.)

Have you ever been to a table tennis camp? Well, what are you waiting for - sign up for one! They are great fun and you'll learn a lot.  You'll have sore muscles, but it's a "good pain." (Note - MDTTC camps are primarily for juniors, though a few adults sometimes participate. But there are plenty of camps for all ages.) Here's a listing of some training camps. It might be too late for most summer camps, but now's the time to start thinking about Christmas camps in December! 

No more celluloid balls?

There have been rumors flying about regarding the apparent ban on celluloid ping-pong balls. I emailed ITTF President Adham Sharara, and here's his response:

Special Section on Ping-Pong Balls

Three-stars and two-stars and one-stars, oh my!

A couple of decades ago you could pretty much tell the star level of a ball with a couple of shots, or by simply examining it. Manufacturing simply wasn't that precise. Your typical one-star or training ball was shaped like an egg with seams the size of a Godzilla wedding ring. But times have changed. These days even training balls are pretty round and consistent, and usable for training even at the higher levels. The main advantage of a three-star ball is that they have been carefully checked, and so you know (well, usually) they are good. Training balls are usually good - but that's not a whole lot different than three-star balls. As to two-star balls, I don't think I've seen one in years - does anyone use them? Also, since training balls and one-star balls are often the same thing, the huge majority of balls used are either one-star/training balls or three-stars.

Here's a challenge. Randomly select five or so three-star balls. Then get the same number of one-star/training balls of the same brand and color. Mix them up, and hit with them. Can you really tell the difference? Only an elite player can really tell the difference in most cases. But I don't think there's that much difference anymore, at least in the ones I've used - Butterfly, Nittaku, Stiga, and JOOLA balls.

I know some players are rather finicky about the ball. Do you agree with the above?

Celluloid ping-pong balls banned?

Grip and Stance

I had a student last night who played his forehand in a nearly backhand position, facing the table. He also held the racket with his index finger almost down the middle, resulting in a floppy, wristy forehand. When I tried to get him to change his grip, his forehand looked like a jellyfish trying to do the wave. When I tried getting him to rotate his shoulders back on the forehand so he could use the whole forehand hitting zone, let's just say that too didn't work. It wasn't until I told him to change the grip and rotate his shoulders back that a little light bulb went off over his head, and suddenly his forehand came alive. We did about 30 minutes of multiball on his forehand, and now he's swinging like a pro. Well, at least in practice. It'll take time to incorporate it into a game.

Feature coaching videos from PingSkills

PingSkills has a number of free coaching videos on just about every subject, conveniently divided into beginner (Bronze), intermediate (Silver) and advanced (Gold) sections. Browse around a bit!

Fred Danner's Ping-Pong Diplomacy book

Perfecting your serve

Samson Dubina (2009 USA Nationals Men's Singles Finalist and full-time coach) explains how to perfect your serve, breaking it down point by point. I've always said serve and receive are the most under-developed parts of the game for most players. And serves are the easiest part to develop since you can practice them alone. To quote Nike, just do it!

Here are some articles I've written on serving:

• Serves to Help You Win
• Ten-Point Plan to Serving Success
• Deception on Serves: Using Semi-Circular Motion
• Maximize Your Service Play
• Serving Short
• Serving Long
• The Fifteen Fast and Deep Serves
• The High Toss Serve
• The No-Spin Serve
• Contact the Ball as Low as You Can When Serving
• Holding Back on Serves
• Hardbat Serving Tips
• Strengths and Weaknesses of the Four Major Serves

Here are some videos on serving:

Celebrities Playing Table Tennis

Yes, it's that time of month again - the Celebrities Playing Table Tennis site gets updated around the first of each month. There are now 1234 pictures of 720 different celebrities playing table tennis - and any short listing of the Who's Who of Celebrities Playing Table Tennis just wouldn't do it justice! There are sections on Politicians/Leaders; Actors and Actresses; Athletes; Musicians; Talk Show Hosts; Writers; Cartoon Characters; and many more!

New celebrities playing table tennis pictures this month include actors Tom Hanks, Haley Joel Osment, Justin Timberlake, Sam Rockwell, Claudette Colbert, Esther Williams, Broderick Crawford; Prince Akihito of Japan (now Emperor); Ed Lee, Mayor of San Francisco; John Prescott, former Deputy Prime Minister of England; Ed Nixon, brother of Richard M. Nixon; golfer Tiger Woods; tennis players Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs; Chinese Olympic Gold Medalist Hurdler Liu Xiang; pool star Mika Immoren; talk show host Regis Philbin; singers Lil Jon and Anne-Marie Godart; English socialite Lady Norah Docker; and cartoon character Donald Duck.

Short sidespin serve to the forehand

Can you serve a short sidespin serve to the forehand that breaks away from a right-hander? A LOT of players have great difficulty with this serve, and many can't return it except crosscourt, i.e. into a right-handed server's forehand. If you play one of these players and can't do this, you are handicapping yourself. Shouldn't you be ready to throw this serve at these people? Three common ways of doing this serve: the forehand tomahawk serve (i.e. racket tip up); reverse forehand pendulum serve; and the regular backhand serve. (This may be expanded into a Tip of the Week.)

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