May 23, 2013

Coaching Hitters and Loopers

Here's an interesting thought. For many years one of the great things about table tennis was the clash of playing styles. One of the most common ones was hitter versus looper. Over the last 20 years or so looping has completely dominated at the higher levels, leading to almost near-death of the hitting style. I consider this a tragedy - I like having such diverse styles. Note that by "hitter" I'm really talking a range of styles, from pips-out penhold hitters, to shakehanders with pips on the forehand or both sides, to shakehanders who open with a loop and follow with a smash, as well as hitters who block until they see a chance to hit. It might be better to call hitters "hitter/blockers."

While there's no question the looping style is superior at the highest levels, it's not quite as superior as the looping dominance would make it appear. What happens at the grassroots level when coaching kids is that, given a choice between two styles where one might be 1% better, nearly 100% of top coaches will go for the one that's 1% better, and so that style completely dominates out of proportion to its actual superiority. If just as many players were trained as hitters as loopers, loopers would still dominate, but there'd be a sprinkling of hitters in the top 100, and below that there'd be lots of them. Remember that it wasn't that long ago that Johnny Huang was top ten in the world as an all-out hitter - his last rating in 2004 was 2860. Liu Guoliang was #1 in the world in the late 1990s or so. The best hitters, if players were regularly trained that way instead of all being trained as loopers, would be at least 2800 level, probably 2850. Of course, the best players in the world are more like 2900 level in the USATT rating system.

Of course the game has changed - larger ball, better backhand techniques, etc. Which is why a hitter would be highly unlikely to win the Worlds these days, at least on the men's side. But there'd be players just below that level. I'm guessing that some readers, unfamiliar with the great hitters of the past, really don't see how they could compete. Believe me, they can, just not at the very highest levels.

I'm currently coaching one kid as a hitter, but for one simple reason: most of his training takes place in his basement, where there's only about five feet back on each side.

One interesting note - the chopper/looper style still survives, and every generation has a few kids coached in that style, while almost none are trained as hitters, at least on the boys' side. (A number of coaches still coach junior girls as hitters.) 

My Top Fifteen Best Moments as a Coach

As promised yesterday, here they are, not necessarily in any order. They are somewhat slanted toward recent times.

1. Coaching USA Junior Team to third place at World Youth Cup in Taiwan in 1993.
2. Coaching Todd Sweeris at the 1996 USA Olympic Trials. (He made the team.)
3. Way too many moments at the Junior Olympics and Junior Nationals (which used to be held in conjunction with the Junior Olympics), where I've coached over 200 gold medalists.
4. Coaching Tong Tong Gong to making USA Cadet Team in 2010 and 2011, where he pulled off nine upsets, with zero upsets against him.
5. Coaching Derek Nie to winning the Under 12's at the 2012 U.S. Open.
6. Coaching Crystal Wang to winning the North American Hopes Trials in 2013.
7. Finalizing my five table tennis books, which are all centered on coaching.
8. Coaching Celebrities such as Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy and former centerfielder/current VP Brady Anderson; actor/comedian Judah Friedlander; and Delaware Governor Jack Markell.
9. One of the initial two ITTF certified coaches in the U.S. in 2011.
10. Running an ITTF Coaching Seminar in 2011.
11. Named a USATT National Coach in late 1980s.
12. Named USATT Developmental Coach of the Year in 2002. (I was runner-up three times.)
13. Induction into USATT Hall of Fame in 2003 for my coaching and writing.
14. Miscellaneous matches where a single piece of coaching, sometimes outside the box, won the match. I wrote about many of these in my Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers book in Chapter Seven, "Tactical Examples."
15. Running my 200th five-day coaching camp in summer, 2012. That's 1000 days of my life running these camps. 

Crystal Wang on TV

Crystal, 11 and rated 2292, was featured on NBC 4 yesterday in this video (2:10). She's the U.S. #1 girl in Under 12, Under 13, and Under 14. And she's from my club, MDTTC! I just interviewed her last night for a feature I'm doing on her for USATT Magazine. (I learned two new things about her last night: 1) She's been accepted into a special magnet school starting this fall - she's a straight A student; and 2) outside table tennis she's an artist and loves to draw.

North American Tour Leaders Board

Here it is!

Dubai Goes Big on Ping Pong

Here's the story.

Best of the 2013 World Championships

Here's a highlights reel (8:41)!

Here's another (13:21)!

Ping Pong the Film

Here's a preview (2:22) of this documentary that opens on May 27. Cities with showings are listed on the right. "Pensioners from across the planet compete in the World over 80s Table Tennis Championships in Inner Mongolia. Eight players, from four continents, with seven hundred and three years between them, guide us through the extraordinary world of Veteran sports. Hugh and Anson Hatford’s film interweaves the competition with intimate and candid portraits that explore the hope, passion, prejudice, and immediacy of growing old."

Liu Guoliang on Psychological Warfare

Here's a rather long video (42:08) where former Chinese superstar and current Men's Coach Liu Guoliang talks about psychological warfare in table tennis. It's in Chinese with English subtitles. I haven't watched the whole thing - anyone want to report on it?

Kung Fu Table Tennis

A Kung Fu TT picture. 

***
Send us your own coaching news!