August 13, 2015

Getting a Grip: The Backhand is Back!!!

Yesterday in our ongoing summer camps I taught (blah blah blah), and then we worked on (blah blah blah), and the players were really excited when we did (blah blah blah). And after six hours of camp, I did another two hours of private coaching, where we (blah blah blah). Yeah, let's get through all the boring stuff, and get to the interesting part!

My game has slowly deteriorated over the last few years. Much of this is simply age – I'm 55 (yikes!). Both the muscles and knees won't let me move like I used to. But other parts of my game have also gone done, including my backhand. It used to be a wall when it came to blocking and counter-hitting, which made me a pretty good practice partner. But I've spent much of the last year or two often staring at my racket, wondering where the old magic was.

And then, yesterday, while hitting with a player in a private session, the backhand magic was back!!! Or more specifically, my old grip was back. Somehow, over the last few years, I'd changed my grip. I've always gripped it with my middle finger slightly off the handle, with the racket resting on the first knuckle. Somewhere along the way I'd lowered the middle finger down with the other two fingers. I'd sort of noticed this in the past, but didn't think it made much difference. Boy, was that wrong!!!

Yesterday I raised it back to where I'd done it before, as I'd done other times, and it didn't help. Then, fiddling with my grip, it fell into place, with the key (for me) being the racket rested on that middle finger knuckle when I hit backhands. Bingo – and suddenly the old backhand was back. I think my eyes went a bit wide when the old backhand returned after perhaps a two-year leave of absence. Suddenly I could do little wrong as I was counter-hitting and blocking with near 100% efficiency. It improved my forehand blocking as well, and probably much of the rest of my game.

I think I'd changed the grip inadvertently because I do so much multiball training when I coach. For that, it's a bit easier to have all three fingers gripped around the handle. And so, without realizing it, I'd gradually adopted that grip for my regular play. If I were still playing competitively – I'm retired from tournaments, though who knows! – I'd have probably figured this out long ago, but as a coach I'm more focused on who I'm playing than on my own game. Also, as I've blogged in the past, most technique problems come in twos – if one part of a stroke is wrong, it affects at least one other part, and to fix it, you have to fix both. In this case, I had to both change the middle finger position and then rest the racket on the knuckle.

I had a similar problem with my hardbat game a number of years ago. I normally play sponge, but at major tournaments where I'm mostly coaching I often enter the hardbat events. At the Open or Nationals I've won Hardbat Singles twice, Over 40 Hardbat four times, and Hardbat Doubles – my specialty! – 13 times. But there was a period of about two years where I was struggling, losing to everyone. Then I discovered I'd been using my sponge grip when playing hardbat, when I'd always used an extreme forehand grip for hardbat. I switched, and started winning again.

Note to self (and readers): Check your grip!!!

Para Pan Am Games

They are in Toronto, Aug. 7-15, with table tennis from Aug. 8-13. (I expect there'll be a feature article at the end on all the USA winners.) Here are the results so far:

Ask the Coach Show

Episode #166 (18:40) – Serving Strategy (and other segments).

Coach Sets the Bar

Here's the USATT article featuring Coach Yang Yu from the Austin TTC.

USATT Online Store

For those of you who missed it before, USATT now has an online store. Why not do some shopping?

Training Like a Pro

Here's 24 seconds of Samson Dubina doing forehand-backhand training.

Fan Zhendong Technique in Slow Motion

Here's the video (77 sec).

Big Backhand Punch by Panagiotis Gionis

Here's the video (13 sec) as he catches Saive off guard.

Great Chopper Turns Attacker Point

Here's the video (23 sec) of chopper/looper Joo Saehyuk (KOR, world #13) vs. Marcos Freitas (POR, world #10).

Fake Smash and Drop Shot

Here's the video (8 sec) of Adam Bobrow pulling a fast one.  

"Do Yourself a Favor and Take Up Ping-Pong"

Here's the cartoon!

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Table Tennis

Here's the hilarious video (5:39)!

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barnr Thu, 08/13/2015 - 16:21

I'd like to for instance read (or watch) interviews with active players even older than Mr. Hodges (yikes!).  Maybe they (interviews) exist and I'm unaware.  How are their bodies standing up to many years of playing?  I'm 58.

I suppose these days there is more information available than ever about people being active later in life.  It seems to have become accepted fact that TT can improve brain function.  

Now ... what was I going to type next?

Last month I went to see some of the National Senior Games table tennis competition.  I recently watched the documentary Ping Pong about the world over-80 championships.  For instance George Braithwaite -- could we find out:  how did he and does he continue playing so well?  Or possibly Dan Seemiller, he obviously continues doing remarkable things at the table.  In "Ping Pong" more than one competitor wanted to continue being active in TT because I think they view it as a bit of "fountain of youth."