October 24, 2013

Serve, Receive, or Side?

In this week's Tip of the Week (which goes up every Monday), I wrote about "Should You Choose Serve, Receive, or Side at the Start of a Match?" Here are some examples from real tournament experiences.

I almost always give away the serve, for the reasons given in the Tip. I want to be serving at the end of the first, third, and fifth games, where there's pressure and where I can pull out my trickiest serving combos, based on what I've learned in the points played so far. I'd rather let the other guy serve first so I can get into the match a bit more (even if it's only two points) before I serve. But there are exceptions.

When I play an all-out hitter, especially a pips-out penholder, I often keep the serve, especially if the player seems the nervous type. High-risk players like that need a lot of confidence to go for their shots, so don't give it to them. An example was Ron Lilly, a top pips-out penhold hitter from the 1980s and 1990s who was sometimes rated over 2300. When he was fearless in his hitting his level skyrocketed. But when he fell behind he tended to play safer, and then he'd fall further behind. So my goal against him was always to build up a lead early. This not only meant serving first, but it meant throwing every trick serve I could right from the start rather than holding back on anything for later. I did the same thing against Lim Ming Chui, another pips-out hitter.

Since most players, strangely, keep the serve, it's sometimes a waste to give the serve away. So sometimes I'll choose sides instead. In this case I actually want to be on the good side at the start, so I can get into the match early. If the floors on one side are slippery or it's hard to pick up the ball in the background from one side, then it's harder to get started - so I'd prefer to be on the good side first, and worry about the bad side in the second game when I'm already into the match. It's much easier to adapt at that point.

For example, in major tournaments, often played in a huge gymnasium, you often play in a row of tables where one side faces the wall, the other the huge open area of the gym. I often warn players to make sure to warm up on both sides of the table to get used to both backgrounds. Often it's trickier to pick up the ball when your back is to the wall and you're looking out into the open area (something you few players experience in club matches), and usually the ball is chosen so it doesn't match the wall, so it's easy to see it when looking into it. So I'll usually choose to start facing the wall, and by the time we switch sides, I'm into the match well enough that it's easier to adjust to the new background.

Also in large tournaments, often played on concrete, there are often cracks in the floor or other floor problems that may run through your side. These can be distracting, especially at the start, so I often choose the other side to start. By the time I'm on the "cracked" side, it's easier to adjust. Or the lighting on one side might be weaker, or there might be a draft on one side, or any of a zillion other possibilities. I once chose the far side from the stands because someone in the stands was blowing a plastic horn loudly for a match next to mine, and it was distracting, so I wanted to get as far from him as possible at the start. (By the time we switched sides the other match was done so I didn't have his horn blowing from fifteen feet away.)

Another reason to choose sides is if you are playing someone who tends to hide his serve, and there is one umpire for the match. Then you want to choose the side so the opponent has his back to the umpire, and so the umpire is more likely to call him for hiding his serve. Since the umpire is watching from the side, he doesn't have a great angle for seeing whether the serve is hidden or not, and technically it shouldn't make a difference which side he's on - but in practice, he's more likely to call it if he himself can't see the serve either.

Updated USATT Tournament Guide

Here it is, thanks to the work of Wendell Dillon. The stuff in it is crucial for tournament directors, but should be of great interest to players as well. Not sure about the rules for making draws? Tie-breaking procedures? Playing conditions? Here's where you find it and a lot more.

Xu Xin in Training

Here's a video (2:01) of Xu Xin doing multiball training with Chinese Men's Coach Liu Guoliang. It's a random drill, where Liu feeds first a backspin ball, followed by a series of topspin ones (usually 3-4, sometimes 5 or 6).

Pong-Tron

Here it is - but could SOMEONE who speaks "Asian" (I have no idea if this is Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or perhaps Martian) please read the words and explain what it is?

New Concept in Tables?

Yesterday I showed Mike Meier doing an exhibition on what I thought was some sort of improvised table. It turns out it wasn't - it was a new design from BoConcept. Here's a great video (1:12) showing the new table in an office setting - and a lot of bouncing ping-pong balls! (Here's an action still shot, care of JOOLA.)

Instant Game Rooms

Here's a page showing ten gadgets to spice up your game room - and three of them involve table tennis.

1959 Table Tennis Marathon

Here's a picture and story from the 1959 LA Times about a TT Marathon: "April 12, 1959: Surrounded by friends and fraternity brothers, Thayer Holbrook, 19-year-old University of Southern California freshman, cools his feet after playing table tennis for 50 hours at Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house."

Adam Bobrow's "Trick Shot" Entry

Here's his entry (1:31) - but it's not really a trick shot video so much as, well, watch and see.

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