October 17, 2013

Random Drills

One of the best ways to improve is through multiball training, and one of the best drills you can do there (besides an intense stroke workout) are random drills. When you play a match, you don't know where your opponent is going to put the ball, so you have to be ready to cover the whole table. When you do simple rote drills like forehand to forehand or backhand to backhand, or side-to-side footwork, you get practice, but you are not getting the practice needed to prepare you for the randomness of actual match play. For that you need to do random drills.

The problem with random drills is that you can't really do them very well live (i.e. with a practice partner) until both players are relatively advanced. And so players avoid doing them until they are somewhat proficient - and then they practically have to start from scratch doing random drills that they should have been doing early on. Once you can hit a decent forehand or backhand you should be doing some sort of random drills as well. Few do so.

So get a coach, or a practice partner you can take turns with, and do random multiball drills. At first have them feed the ball randomly to two spots - middle forehand and middle backhand. Make sure your first move is the right one; you have more time than you think, so don't rush. When you are comfortable at doing this at rally speeds, then go random the whole table. Learn to cover all five spots - wide forehand, middle forehand, middle, middle backhand, and wide backhand.

Let me emphasize - the key is that the first move must be the right move. No moving to the forehand and then changing when you see the ball going to the backhand, or vice versa.

Here's a short video (26 seconds) of Soo Yeon Lee doing random multiball. She's hitting; depending on your level and playing style, you can do this hitting or looping.

RGIII Response Video

The RGIII Response Video has gone semi-viral, with over 1000 views in two days. Last night I sent a press release out to all the local media, hoping they will pick up on the story. I also posted it on three Redskins football forums. Last night it was featured in the Dallas Morning News, and it's also featured at Table Tennis Nation, on the USATT web page, and the USOC web page. Let me know if there are other places featuring it. Keep reposting - let's make this go viral!!!

RGIII vs. the MDTTC Kids

Here's Berndt Mann's version of what would happen if RGIII were to actually take on the MDTTC juniors in table tennis, as posted in the about.com forum:

I can just imagine the matches between RGIII and your talented juniors.

First up is Crystal vs. RGIII.  RGIII lines up in the shotgun formation, some five yards behind the table.  She serves a hard long side-top to RGIII, who snatches the ball in his right hand, then rifles it 75 yards down the MDTTC to a friend, who makes a spectacular one-handed catch and slams the ball down on the Gerflex, breaking it.

"You can't do that", says the ref.  RGIII doesn't seem to notice.  On Crystal's second serve, RGIII deftly catches the ball, holds it snug against his chest, doesn't see anybody open, and does an end around the table, Nathan, Derek, and Roy trying vainly to catch up to him.  Touchdown, or it would be if this weren't table tennis.

This time the ref is miffed.  He issues RGIII a yellow card.  RGIII sneers a true jock sneer and proceeds to tear up the card.  His buddies cheer.  But he's down 2-0 and playing football when he should be trying to play table tennis and he loses every match and ends up with a rating of -256.  So much for Olympic aspirations.  

But RGIII is a good sport about it all.  He offers to take Crystal, Nathan, Derek, and Roy out to a nearby pizza parlor in his limousine.  Gracious in victory, they accept his offer in the spirit in which it was made.

Never Doubt a Man and His Paddle

Here's a video (2:02) that profiles (mostly without words) a player at Spin Standard.

Ten Cool and Unusual Table Tennis Table Designs

Here's the article and pictures.

25 Best Points of 2012

Here they are (13:14).

Chen Weixing Secret Training

Here's the video (1:27) - it's Karate Kid meets the Food Network meets Table Tennis!

Non-Table Tennis - Publisher's Author's Page

I'm now listed in the author's page at Class Act Books, which is publishing my novel on Nov. 15 ("The Giant Face in the Sky").

Non-Table Tennis - My Science Fiction & Fantasy Page

I've recently redone my SF & Fantasy page to include Wordpress, so I could blog there a couple times a week. However, I've run into some problems with this. For one thing, I can't find a way to put in pictures other than the thin one in the header. I'd like to have a permanent picture of the cover of my upcoming book somewhere near the top. Anyone experienced with this have any idea what I'm supposed to do? I've tried about a zillion "themes" but none seem to allow this.

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