September 26, 2012

Keep a Player's Attention and Thinking

Want to bore a six-year-old? Feed him multiball and have him hit forehands for a long time. Want to inspire a six-year-old? Put a giant frog toy on the table and tell him to hit it.

Want to bore a sixty-year-old? Have him do nonstop repetitive drills without explaining anything. Want to inspire a sixty-year-old? Have him to a range of drills that cover what he does (or hopes to do) in an actual match, from repetitive drills to perfect strokes to random drills to mimic game play, and explain the purpose of each drill and technique.

Keeping a player's interest is one of those things coaches have to learn to do. If you just spew out instructions in a bland way and just do repetitive stuff, you'll lose them. You don't treat everyone like a six-year-old or a sixty-year-old, of course - it has to be both age-appropriate and personality-appropriate. Some are more analytical than others, and some just want to hit the ball. Younger players often just want to hit the ball, while older players tend to be more analytical. Yet even younger players have their analytical side, and like to think about certain aspects of the game as long as you don't overdo it. Show them something they want to learn to do, and they'll want to know how it's done.

The more the player thinks, the more interesting it is to him as he learns. Older players often enjoy learning the thinking side as much as the actual playing side - tactics, why specific techniques are better than others, mental training, etc.

Table tennis is a game of contradictions. One of them is that you need to think a lot if you want to improve. At the same time you have to clear your mind when you are in an actual rally and let your trained reactions take over - i.e. don't think.

ITTF Level 3 Coaching Course

USATT Coaching Chair Richard McAfee is attending an eight-day ITTF Level 3 Coaching Seminar in Malaysia. Here's the ITTF article - Richard is the tallest one in the back in the second picture. Here are more pictures.

Paralympic Junior Camp

Here's info from USATT on an upcoming Paralympic Table Tennis Junior Camp, to be held Nov. 24-27, 2012, in San Diego, for Paralympic players under age 18. (I had to Google the location since it was given only as "BalboaPark Activity Center and Town & Country Convention Center.")

Allen Wang Highlights Video

Here are highlights (2:20) from Allen Wang winning the North American Cadet Championships in Cary, NC, Sept. 1-2. (Allen came down and trained with us at MDTTC for two weeks this past summer.)

Dimitrij Ovtcharov's Serve

Here's Olympic Bronze Medalist Dimitrij Ovtcharov's backhand serve. Or is that a forehand serve, since it looks like he's about to hit it with the forehand side? I don't know. I can't even spell his name without cutting and pasting it. Here's a slow motion video (3:30) showing the serve from various parts of the table - the first one is from the forehand side! - which verifies he hits it with the regular backhand side of the racket. Maybe I should teach him my own version of this.

Monks Playing Pong

Here are monks in red and pink playing table tennis. The Chinese wouldn't have a prayer against them.

Table Tennis Club Advertisement

Nathan Hsu created two hilarious video ads for the table tennis club he started at his school, both about 37 seconds long. The first version was deemed "inappropriate" for school due to the violence implied. Here's the second version that was allowed. The videos star Nathan and Andy Zheng as "the little kid." Don't get beat up by a little kid!!! (My favorite part in both videos - see the part where Nathan looks in through the door.)

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