April 20, 2015

Tip of the Week

Visualize Serves for Feedback.

Sunday Classes and Continuing Arm Problems

Due to my arm problems I had to cancel or get substitutes for all of my private coaching over the weekend. On Sunday I had two classes, a junior class from 4:30-6:00 PM and an adult beginning/intermediate class from 6:30-8:00PM.

In the junior class we had a couple of new players, so I spent a lot of time working with them to get them started. One of them (age 9) seemed a nervous wreck at the start, but by the end of the session he was hitting pretty good forehands and was smiling - and his mom immediately signed him up for the next ten weeks. Working with juniors can take a lot of energy because you have to constantly supervise them or you'll find them changing their grips and strokes, but if you set the right atmosphere and policies, things usually go pretty well. The standard in this class is we train hard for an hour, and then we do 30 minutes of games.

For games we did two things this session. First, we pulled out Froggy, and divided the players into two groups. They took turns, two shots each, trying to hit the poor amphibian as I fed multiball. The two teams were fair, and split the two games played to ten hits. Then we brought out the paper cups, and they build huge structures (this time creating a wall around Froggy, which I called the "Pretty Good Wall of China), and then took turns knocking them down.

In the adult class (19 players), the focus was on return of serve. After a good warm-up, I called them in and did a brief recap first on spin serves. Then I went over how to return the various spins and how to read them in a (perhaps too long?) 30-minute lecture. Then they went out on the table and took turns serving to each other as the other received. We finished the session with a smashing drill, where they hit simple forehand to forehand, and one player, after hitting two regular drives, smashed the third, and continued to smash while the other player tried to block or fish the balls back.

One thing I stressed, and which I always stress about receive, is the value of a good push off a short backspin serve. The problem most players have with pushing is they don't understand that it's more important to do all aspects of the push pretty well than any one aspect very well. Here's my article on that, Pushing: Five Out of Six Doesn't Cut It. I also stressed the importance of variation, such as the many ways to receive a short backspin serve. (Here's my article, The Many Ways to Receive a Short Backspin Serve.) I also explained why you need to be aggressive against deep serves. (Here's my article, Why You MUST Attack the Deep Serve - which also explains when you don't have to attack the deep serve!)

After the session I stayed late and served to the players so they could try to return high-level serves. However, I couldn't use many of my best pendulum serves as my arm was hurting again, aggravated by all the multiball. I had hoped that after a week of rest - not even doing multiball since last Monday - that I'd at least be able to feed multiball without problem, but that was not to be. I probably aggravated the arm again. So it looks like another week where I'll have to cancel or get substitutes for my private coaching, and bring in someone else to feed multiball for my group sessions. I've already hired someone to substitute for me in the afterschool program - I'll still pick up the kids, but someone else will feed the multiball we do in the sessions. After the session was done I went home and iced my arm off while watching Game of Thrones.

After the adult class, Josh Tran and Raghu Nadmichettu (who assisted me in the class) brought out the ladder to get balls from on top of the bathroom area. There was a two-year accumulation up there, and with Raghu holding the ladder and Josh using a ball net to grab them, they brought down about a gross of balls.

ITTF News Item on Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

Here's the ITTF News Item on the book being translated in French. Here's the French version ("Tactiques de Tennis de Table pour Pongistes Penseurs"), and here's the English version. Both come in both print and kindle formats. Or any of my other books - here's my Amazon page.

The following statement may be a lie: "Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers is the best book ever written on table tennis and will dramatically improve your table tennis game."

The following statement is now true: "It's been written that Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers is the best book ever written on table tennis and will dramatically improve your table tennis game."

Playing Against Pips/Anti

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao. 

New Coaching Articles from Matt Hetherington

Forehand Counterhit Lesson - Part 13 - Like a Boss!

Here's the new video (4:59) from Brett Clarke.

Backhand Topspin against Backspin

Here's the new coaching video (6:31) from PingSkills.

Top Myths about Table Tennis

Here's the article.

Table Tennis Camp for Veterans and Members of Armed Forces with Disabilities

Here's the article.

Video Interview with Zhang Yining

Here's the video (18:05) of the interview with Zhang Yining, with Jiaq Zheng translating. Zhang, a 2-time World (2005 & 2009) and Olympic (2004 & 2008) Women's Singles Champion, recently ran a clinic at the ICC club.

Footwork by Ryu Seung Min

Here's the video (18 sec) as he does one of those crazy step around rips.

Brian Pace - Back in Action

Here's a highlights reel (2:16) of his first tournament in three years.

Jonyer, Klampar, and Gergely

Here are current pictures of the swashbuckling Hungarian trio who won Men's Teams at the 1979 Worlds over China - L-R, Gabor Gergely, Tibor Klampar, Istvan Jonyer.

Match Point Between Xu Xin and Ma Long

Here's the exhibition point (37 sec)!

The Two-Color Rule Illustrated?

Here it is!

The Year Is…

…2015.

Weird White Creatures Pong

Here's the video (19 sec) of whatever they are!

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