November 12, 2013

Tip of the Week

Pushing Short.

Potomac Open

Here are the basic Potomac Open results, held here in Maryland this past weekend. Winning the tournament (for the third straight time) was chopper/looper Wang Qing Liang, rated 2545 (but who spent most of last year over 2600), over Chen Bowen, rated 2509. Chen had upset Wang the last two times they had played, and looked to win for the third straight time here - he led 8-2 in the seventh! Then something happened. Chen had a match point at 10-9, but to no avail as Wang came back with a 10-2 run to win 12-10 in the seventh.

In the semifinals Wang defeated another local player/coach, Steve Dong, under-rated at 2370. Dong won the first two games, but then Wang's forehand caught fire and he played about half chopping, half ripping everything (seemingly never missing) the rest of the way in winning the next four.

Local player/coach Zhang Jake (only one letter away from the World Champion!) also made the semifinals of the Open (losing in seven games to Chen Bowen). He's about 2450, maybe 2500. But he also won Under 2300, and was in the final of Under 2150. (He's listed as second in Under 2150, but I'm guessing he defaulted or split the final - too tired from all his other matches.) What was his rating coming into the tournament? 2088!!!

How did this happen? He'd played in the recent JOOLA Virginia Open, his first tournament, and went 7-0. Here are his results at the tournament. Though he did lose an 11-9 game to a 1947 player (after winning the first two games), there simply isn't enough info in these results to give an accurate rating, hence the 2088 rating, which was about 400 points off.

Here are some videos from the tournament, care of "Bogeyhunter" (Sutanit Tangyingyong, himself a quarterfinalist in the Open).

Doubles Multiball

Here's a video (2:27) of Coach Roger Yuen feeding multiball to Ariel Hsing and Shirley Fu at Princeton University TTC. (Note the collision 18 seconds in!)

Receive Tips from Pierre-Luc Hinse

Here's a video (6:26) of North American Champion Hinse giving tips on returning serves.

New Full-time Clubs

There's still another full-time club in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Pleasanton Table Tennis Club. This makes approximately one million clubs in that general area. (Side note - full-time clubs are also popping up here in Maryland. Last month the Howard Country Table Tennis Club opened. Another one is opening later this month in northern Gaithersburg, just a few miles from the Maryland Table Tennis Center, making five full-time clubs with 40 minutes of MDTTC.)

Table Tennis Good for Seniors

Here's the article in the Chicago Tribune. "Belsky, 54, a former mayor of Highland Park, recently engaged in a non-stop, hour-long workout with ranked table tennis professional Lukasz Fita, 35, at Deer Creek Courts, until he was soaked with sweat but still matching monster serves and slams from nearly 20 feet behind the table."

Around the Net Shot by Fan Zhendong

Here's video (46 sec, including slow motion replay) of Fan making the shot of the day at the Polish Open this past weekend, where the 16-year-old from China became the youngest player ever to win Men's Singles at an ITTF Pro Tour Event.

Keeping Up with the Kardashians

Here's a video (3:39) of Soo Yeon Lee coaching the Kardashians. Now all we have to do is get Honey Boo Boo to play table tennis and the world will be complete!

Cat Gives High Five

Here's a repeating gif image of a player smacking in a forehand and then getting a high-five from his cat!

***
Send us your own coaching news!