June 24, 2015

MDTTC Camp

Yesterday was the Day of the Nosebleed. When you run a camp with kids, you'll get them occasionally. How about two in five minutes, and both from my group? First a five-year-old (the youngest in the camp) walked right into someone's forehand backswing, and got smacked in the nose. It bled pretty badly. Five minutes later a seven-year-old kid was shadow-stroking his forehand, as I'd directed him to do, and somehow he managed to smack himself in the nose - and the blood came pouring out. (What type of forehand stroke am I teaching these kids?!!!) We went through a lot of paper towels before all the bleeding stopped. A couple hours later the seven-year-old was running about picking up balls and the nose started bleeding again, even worse than before. (Yes, we did a thorough clean-up each time.) Table tennis is a violent sport....

We spent a lot of time working on spin serves. Two kids who had never put spin on their serves on their lives were able to put enough backspin on the ball so the balls came to a stop on the table. (Here's my article How to Create a Truly Heavy Backspin Serves.) We also did a lot of King of the Table and Brazilian Teams, and many paper cups were killed.

The seven-year-old with the two nosebleeds has a nice backhand, but tends to jerk his forehand, and stops the stroke almost as he hits the ball. Maybe one kid in a hundred that age can spend an entire day focused almost entirely on fixing the problem, not to mention taking it seriously, but that's what he did. By the end of the day his stroke was looking much better. We're both determined for him to have a "perfect" forehand. He's almost too serious about wanting to get better!!!  

We welcomed back Nathan Hsu, who had been training in China for three months. (He recently turned 19, rated 2415, but earlier this year was over 2500.) Either his hair is too long or I'm getting too old. He's also wearing a new black headband that hangs out in back of his head and looks (to me) like he has long, flapping pigtails. (Sorry, Nathan, the truth hurts.) But more importantly his shots seem more powerful and consistent, and he told me he's worked a lot on his serves. He'll be playing at the US Open in 12 days. 

Help Wanted - Head Table Tennis Coach

Here's info on applying for the head coach position at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta.

The Best Table Tennis Balls

Here’s the new article from Expert Table Tennis, on the best plastic poly balls. He narrows the choice down (and lists the brands for each) to the following: “Do you want to get the seamed balls from China, the seamless balls from China, or the Nittaku Premium balls?”

11 Questions with Tim Boggan

Here's the USATT interview. 

Never Alone – Chuang Chih-Yuan

Here’s the article from Butterfly on this Taiwanese star.

National Senior Games

Here's info. They will be in Minneapolis, July 9-15. 

Will Shortz Day 1000 Celebration

Here's info – "Unless he is kidnapped or something, next Tuesday, June 30, will be Will Shortz's 1,000th consecutive day of playing table tennis. There will be a party at his club from 7:00 to 11:00 pm, with food, drink, film, and special guests."

Zhang Jike’s Backhand

Here’s the video (5:06) featuring backhand highlights from the 2011 Worlds. (Yeah, he won.) Here’s another (2:09) also from the 2011 Worlds that features his backhand banana flip.

Chinese Team Training at Japan Open

Here’s the video (42 sec). The Japan Open, in Kobe, is today through Sunday. Here’s the home page.

Net-Climbing Post-Ricocheting Pointing-Winning Loop

Here's the video (11 sec). We of course teach this shot at MDTTC. 

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.)

Ping-Pong or Table Tennis?

Here’s the shirt that answers the question!

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