November 19, 2014

JOOLAs and Nittakus and Butterflys, Oh My! - And Training for Teams and Nationals

Yesterday was another crazy day in the ongoing "Keep the balls separate" battle at MDTTC (and at other clubs around the U.S.). I had three students. The first two (more or less beginners) I trained with regular Butterfly celluloid training balls. The third was advanced and was getting ready for both the North American Teams in nine days and the U.S. Nationals a few weeks later. The Teams are using JOOLA 40+ poly balls, so I brought out the nine that I had. They play quite different from celluloid - heavier, harder to spin, etc. Since I only had nine, we couldn't do any serious multiball training (though we did a few "boxes" of them - yes, nine-ball multiball!). Meanwhile, the two tables adjacent were also using JOOLA 40+ poly balls. The next one was using Nittaku Sha 40+ poly balls (the closest thing they had to the Nittaku Premier 40+ poly balls that'll be used at the Nationals). The last table on this side had Crystal Wang preparing for the World Junior Championships in one week, and she was training with Butterfly 40+ poly balls, as that's what they'll be using. In the row of tables opposite us, they were all using regular Butterfly celluloid balls.

So there was this ongoing struggle to keep all these balls separate. These balls all play a bit different, though sometimes the differences are subtle. It gets crazy sometimes as we sift through balls, trying to pick up ours while tossing back any that are not, and watching players and coaches racing around to other courts to retrieve balls that left their court.

And it's only going to get worse. Tomorrow (Thursday) we have a shipment coming in of twelve dozen Nittaku Premier 40+ Poly balls. That'll give us five types of balls to worry about! (With the limited quantities, some will continue using the Sha ball, alas.) As I've blogged before, I think the ITTF jumped the gun on this, mandating poly balls before they were standardized and before there are inexpensive (but still quality) training balls available. Like most coaches in training centers all over the U.S., we train players with boxes of balls, both for multiball and so we don't spend much of our time retrieving balls. Now I'll be training players for the Teams with nine JOOLA 40+ poly balls (until they break - and they break much more quickly than celluloid) and for the Nationals with the twelve (the maximum allowed) Nittaku Premier 40+ poly balls. (With the latter we might be able to pool our balls, as most of the players going to the Nationals also ordered a dozen.)

Since players are getting used to a ball that plays differently, and because the Teams and Nationals are coming up - two of the main tournaments we train for - I'm not doing any major technical changes with most of my players until afterwards, instead focusing on techniques we've been working on. For example, I have one advanced junior (top five in the country in his age group) who tends to back off the table too much, both on the forehand and backhand, where he likes to loop from off the table. At the advanced levels these days you can't back up so easily, but trying to change this in the next nine days before the Teams will only mess him up, so we'll wait until after the Nationals. There are plenty of other things to focus on with him and others. I'm also going to focus a lot on serve, receive, and playing out points.

Kagin Lee's Blog

Here's his new blog on Team Ratings, Rankings, and Seedings. It starts off, "In most of the world, table tennis is a club sport and a team sport. The two go together, as club members form teams and play against teams from other clubs. The team aspect is not that strong in the US . . . yet." This is one of those things I've blogged about repeatedly - if we want to get large membership numbers, we need to focus on these team leagues, as they do in table tennis overseas and in other sports all over the U.S. and the world. If I'm on the USATT Board, perhaps I'll have an ally in Kagin as we work to set up a prototype regional league that can spread, leading to a nationwide system of regional leagues. This is the very obvious and well-trod path for successful sports. Is it really that obvious? Yes. Will it be easy? No. Can we get started on this soon? We'll see.

North American Tour and the New 5-Star

There's a new 5-star tournament in town! "Thanks to USATT, the Tournaments Advisory Committee, and Will Shortz, the 2014 North American Grand Final will be a 5-star tournament in addition to the US Open and the US Nationals." Here is the North American Tour home page. Here is the current leaderboard. The 5-star Final will be held Feb. 7-8 at the Westchester TTC in Pleasantville, NY.

Camera Angles Revisited

Yesterday I blogged (third segment) about how most camera angles in ITTF events are from the end-lines of the table rather than from the side, which is a more exciting angle. Jay Turberville points out that this is official ITTF policy. Here's the ITTF TV Guidelines. Pages 5-6 give the standard set-up - and it's from the end-lines. Someone emailed me the following: "Shahara has made comments in the past that the current TV angle is used because it prominently displays sponsors' logos.  It's logical and since table tennis is such a poor sport, I am sure 'outside the box' thinking hasn't been applied to this problem." Alas, it looks like we're stuck for now with these inferior camera angles, making it more difficult for a sport that needs to look good on TV if we want to be more TV.

International Table Tennis Skills DVD by Samson Dubina

Samson Dubina has a new video for sale, International Table Tennis Skills. "Samson shares 19 years of knowledge that he has learned from 40 different coaches while traveling to Europe, Asian, and throughout North America.  During the 2 hour 17 minute DVD, Samson explains each professional skill in a simple, step-by-step approach that you can be understood by all ages and all levels.  Topics include - advanced footwork, drills, strokes, serve, serve return, looping, flipping, game strategy, training routines, mental strategies, and much more.  DVD cost is $59.99 (Ohio residents add 7% sales tax).  Great Christmas Gift!!!"

Multi-ball Training

Here's some great multiball training (2:14). I think the drill is the coach randomly feeds either two or three balls to the forehand, then one to the backhand, then repeat. This is a good drill for intermediate and advanced players, though some might have to go a bit slower! (Correction: As pointed out by Slevin in the comments below, the coach is actually alternating three forehands, then two forehands, and so the drill isn't actually a random drill.)

Ask the Coach

Here's Episode #30 - Shattering Balls

  • PingSkillers Question of the Day - 0:44: Should you beat a weaker opponent 11-0 if you can?
  • Question 1 - 2:10: I am a lefty. Lately a righty has been serving down my forehand side and I automatically return to his backhand for which he kills me most of the time. I stand to the middle of the table on his service and find myself tripping over my feet. George Byron
  • Question 2 - 4:42: Can I attack a heavy backspin with a flat shot without topspin? Once I hit a backspin flat batted and it placed on the table more like a smash. But it doesn`t work on loose backspins. Can I hit that ball like that? Tharindu Dinethra
  • Question 3 - 6:35: Hi I was wondering if the glue you use makes a difference to the speed of the bat and if it affects the spin. Or are all glues the same? Shea Kiely
  • Question 4 - 7:41: During a match that I had, I made a smash and the ball broke during the impact, making me miss my shot. Would that be a let, or my opponent's point? Shawn

Tournament Preparation

Here's another training video (71 sec) from the Zhou Xin TT Academy. (We've got to start making videos at our club of our players in training!)

Vladimir Shapiro Interview

Here's the USATT article. I've had a couple of titanic battles with him - except I was coaching MDTTC juniors against him!

Doubles Soccer Volleyball Pong

Here's the video (3:32)!

Fitbit Commercial

Here's video (60 sec) of a sports ad for Fitbit (a sports watch) where they show people doing all sorts of sports and physical activities. There's a couple seconds of table tennis 17 seconds in.

Jan-Ove Waldner Exhibition

Here's video of Waldner (56 sec) as he carries on a conversation with his coach and sips a soft drink while lobbing. (He stole that from me!!! I used to do a similar routine with a candy bar as far back as 1980 - when I was 20 and he was only 15 - where I'd open and eat the candy bar, and finish by crunching up the wrapper, tossing it over my shoulder, and then counter-smashing!)

Face from a Thousand "Free Syria" Ping-Pong Balls

This is both funny and serious. Here is the cover of the Intelligent Optimist, Jan/Feb 2014, which is funny. He is also pictured holding two ping-pong balls in the table of contents, where it says, "Syrian Activist Ahmed Zaino's civil disobedience takes an unusual form. Thousands of ping pong balls." Here is the article on pages 76-80: "Syrian Activist Ahmed Zaino fights for the future of his country with ping pong balls and red paint. His creative, non-violent protests drive government forces mad and bring hope to his fellow Syrians." There is also a companion video (4:30).

Funny Cartoon?

Here's a hilarious table tennis cartoon - I think! - with elephants Yim and Yam playing table tennis. Can anyone translate? I think it's in Malay.

Table Tennis Wizardly War

Here's a table tennis battle (75 sec) that's absolute mayhem, fire, and destruction that could be right out of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. (The serious action starts about 20 sec in.)

***

Send us your own coaching news!