March 9, 2011

Use the flippin' down-the-line flip!

I beat a top junior player twice in a row in practice. How? He served almost the same short backspin serve over and over, allowing me to drop them all short. Then he'd either push long (so I was attacking first on his serve), or occasionally flip - but all his flips were crosscourt, so I had no problem attacking them. Note to all readers: 1) Vary your serves; and 2) Use the flippin' down the line flip!!! (Except against me, of course.)

Generally, you should flip to the forehand only when can do so very aggressively, or when the opponent has a weak forehand. More often you should move in as if flipping to the forehand, then flip it quick and wide into the backhand. You can also flip into the middle (the opponent's elbow), but only if you are flipping aggressively - and if you are, you might want the extra table you have when flipping to a wide corner. After all, you won't have all the topspin of a loop to pull it down.

Complete Idiots Guide doesn't think Complete Idiots play table tennis

As I blogged previously, I had an agent shopping "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Table Tennis." Unfortunately, below is the response from the publisher, including her surprise at the large number of players who play table tennis in the U.S. (The agent is now shopping it to the Dummies people, but they already turned it down a couple of years ago.)

"I am surprised at some of the numbers below. I have to admit, it’s a bigger market than I would have guessed. And the author is ideal for such a project. However, I’m going to pass because I’m not convinced this a book that can work for us in today’s environment. There are too many more visually compelling ways to learn how to play table tennis than from reading a book. I don’t think we could sell enough copies for this to work financially for us. Sorry."

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