May 4, 2015
Tip of the Week
Good Tactics Lead to Confidence. (This is an expanded version of my blog from last Thursday.)
My Arm, Weekend Coaching, and The Spirit of Pong
It was another busy weekend of coaching. My arm is about 90% healed, but I'm still having some problems, especially if I attack too much with my forehand, whether looping or hitting. Once it gets a bit aggravated, then hitting backhands or simple multiball makes it worse. So I still have to go easy.
On Sunday I gave a one-hour lesson to Navin Kumar, the bionic man with a partially mechanical heart and Parkinson's. Here's video (1:33) of part of the session where he works on his forehand while moving side to side. He's a little rushed, taking the ball a bit too quickly off the bounce, but part of that is because he plays with long pips on the backhand, which keeps him close to the table.
Following that was a 90-minute junior training session. Many forehands and backhands were hit, a few beginners were introduced to pushing, and we finished with around-the-world, knocking down paper cups, and the ever-favorite, hit the bottle and make Coach Larry drink worm juice.
Then came the 90-minute Adult Beginning/Intermediate Class. We started with drills - side-to-side footwork drills; a backhand-to-backhand contest to see who could get the most (most was 202); then looping and/or smashing against block. Then I gave a short lecture on serving (which we've already covered extensively), and then did serve and receive practice. Then came a tactics lecture/discussion, where we focused on playing choppers, lobbers, penholders, and Seemiller grip. We also continued some of the discussion of racket surfaces that we'd started the previous week.
I spent much of Saturday doing the final proofing of my new novel "The Spirit of Pong," my table tennis fantasy story of an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis. (Technically, it's a novella, since it's only about 30,000 words, and a novel is normally defined as at least 40,000 word. It'll probably be about 90 pages long in print.) I have a lot of edits to put in, and a couple of sections to rewrite. Then there's a bunch of stuff about the covers, title page, introduction, acknowledgements, etc. If all goes well, it'll go on sale perhaps next week.
World Championships
They finished yesterday, and here are the nearly all-China results - the only exception being half of Mixed Doubles.
- Men's Singles Champion: MA Long CHN
- Women's Singles Champion: DING Ning CHN
- Men's Doubles Champions: XU Xin CHN/Zhang Jike CHN
- Women's Doubles Champions: LIU Shiwen CHN/ZHU Yuling CHN
- Mixed Doubles Champions: XU Xin CHN/YANG Haeun KOR
Here are some links.
- ITTF World Championships Page (results, articles, photos, video)
- Men's Singles Final (12:12) - Ma Long vs. Fang Bo
- Point of the Match (42 sec)
- The last point (27 sec), with Ma Long jumping on table after winning.
- Women's Singles Final (6:42) - Ding Ning vs. Liu Shiwen
- Point of the Match (19 sec)
- Final Day Review (5:13)
- Shots of the Day
- Fan Zhendong vs. Timo Boll Quarterfinals (10:44)
- Point of Match (29 sec)
- Zhang Jike vs. Vladimir Samsonov - insane point (79 sec)
- USA Table Tennis World Championships Page
- Tabletennista also has lots of Worlds coverage
ITTF Meeting Documents
Here are the Meeting Documents from the Worlds. One thing of interest is an apparent rule that passed that says, "From Oct 2016 coaches will have the opportunity to coach between points." Here's a link and discussion on this. I'll likely look into this later.
Irregularly Irregular: Evaluating Your Variations
Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.
Ask the Coach
- Episode 117 (45:15) - The World Championships
- Episode 118 (19:21) - The World Championships Wrap
Grip Changes between Backhand and Forehand
Here's PingPod #43 (5:45) from PingSkills.
Annual Bill Gates/Warren Buffett/Ariel Hsing Table Tennis Extravaganza
Here's the article, including a link to a two-minute video. It all takes place at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. In the video you get to see Bill Gates's pretty strong backhand, Warren Buffett smash a winner past Ariel, and see what happens when Buffett and Gates play doubles and simultaneously serve two balls to Ariel.
The Kit and Joe Show
Remember this behind-the-back shot from February, done by Kit Jeerapaet against Sutanit "Joe" Tangyingyong? Kit's back to his old tricks, with this new shot against the hapless "Shoeless Joe" Tangyingyong. "I hate him," posted Joe on Facebook.
Reality: Where's the Fun in That
Here's the picture of people playing video pong while the real table gathers dust.
More Mike Mezyan Pictures
NOTE - If you are unable to see these pictures, all you have to do is join the Table Tennis Group - it's easy! Here are all the past, present, and (soon) future pictures he's collected. (I pick out his best ones for here - he has more.)
Best Non-Human Table Tennis Videos
I've linked to all of these in past blogs, including several last week. Now you get to see all the best non-human table tennis videos all at once!
- Octopus on Four Tables (34 sec)
- Energizer Battery (31 sec)
- Penguin Pong (40 sec)
- Bernard the Hairless Polar Bear Plays a Penguin (3:35)
- Chinese Robots Play Ping-Pong (1:40)
- Doggie Pong Commercial (30 sec)
- Cat Pong (22 sec)
- Pigeon Pong (38 sec)
- Snoopy Pong (23 sec)
- Minion Pong (repeating gif image)
- Teddy Bear Pong (3:20)
- Weird White Creatures Pong (19 sec)
- Jackalope vs. Platypus (30 sec)
- Nestle Quik Rabbit Pong (30 sec)
- Argos Aliens Pong (30 sec)
- Larvae Pong: Part 1 (6:11), Part 2 (2:47)
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