August 17, 2015

Tip of the Week

Controlling a Match.

Weekend Coaching

Friday was the final day of last week's camp. We did a lot of basics work as well as introducing some new ones. I introduced forehand and backhand looping to two seven-year-olds. An eight-year-old had a major breakthrough. He can both loop and hit, but usually after looping a backspin he'd swat the next ball off the end. We've been playing a game where I feed multiball, alternating backspin and topspin to his forehand, and he has to loop the first, smash the second. If he makes both, he scores; if he misses either, I score. I'm guessing I was 30-0 against in this came, but on Friday he finally pulled it out, "beating" me 11-7. 

We finished the camp with the "candy game." I put stacks of candy on the table near the end-line, and fed multiball. The kids lined up, and anything they hit off the table, they got to keep. (For the younger beginners, if they hit the candy but didn't knock it off the table, they still got a piece. More advanced players who won five or more pieces were strongly encouraged to share with the youngest kids.) 

With three students away or unable to come in, I was off on Saturday!!! I'd like to say I studiously solved all of USATT's problems, wrote a new table tennis book, and put table tennis in the public spotlight with an 11-0 trumping of Donald Trump, but no – I spent the day reading, doing crosswords, and saw "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."

Actually, I did do one serous table tennis thing on Saturday – I created a Classic Table Tennis flyer that introduces players to the hardbat and sandpaper games, for distribution at major tournaments. (I'm normally a sponge player and sponge coach, but as many know I'm a hardbat player on the side.) I've sent it to the Hardbat Chair for review.

On Sunday I worked with a student who was having trouble covering his wide backhand after moving to his wide forehand. So we did the following. First, we focused on being light on the feet, as discussed in last week's Tip of the Week, "You Can Be Light on Your Feet." Then we did a lot of backhand to backhand practice where he focused on keeping the ball wide to my backhand, which takes away the angle into his forehand, and so makes it easier to cover the corners. And then we did a lot of multiball where I randomly fed to the corners, forcing him to move side to side and cover those wide angles, including the wide backhand.

We also worked on his forehand smash. I pointed out that his smashes all sounded different, because he didn't have a consistent contact, and so his shots scattered all over the place. We worked on replicating the "perfect" smash, with the feel and sound of the contact the same every time. 

In the junior class, for some unexplained reason, the kids were talking about spin serves when we started, and wanted to work on them. So instead of doing serving practice at the end as we usually did we started with it. We ended up practicing spin serves for twenty minutes. One was particularly interested in backhand serves, and had seen Dimitrij Ovtcharov's backhand serve. So we worked on that. 

In the adult training session we did a lot of practice on serve and attack. The server would serve backspin, the receiver pushed back long, and the server looped, forehand or backhand. We did a number of variations, starting with simple ones where the receiver would push to a pre-arranged spot and then on to random pushing to either side. In the last drill I had the receiver focus on "messing up" the server by aiming one way and then quick-pushing the other way. This gave the servers problems at first, but most gradually realized what I kept emphasizing, which was they had plenty of time to wait to see where the ball was going, and then simply move to the ball, backswinging as they moved, and loop it. 

After the class a number of the players stayed late and tried out each other's rackets. There might be some racket purchases coming up!

Pushing

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao, with a link to video (2000 Olympic Men's Final between Waldner and Kong Linghui). 

Reading Spin of Your Opponent's Serves

Here's the coaching video (9:21). (This is from January, but I don't think I ever linked to this.) 

Homer Brown in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd

Here's a picture of the page. He's just played in his 47th consecutive US Open. Richard McAfee, David Sakai, and Dell Sweeris are also mentioned.

Why We Need Real Fan Superstars

Here's the article from Matt Hetherington. "Is part of the reason the sport is dying that we have no one to cheer for?"

Pong Adventure

Here's a new blog entry from globe-trotting ponger Matt Hetherington, "Don't Enjoy the View Through an Office Window." Below that is his previous one, "Why I Gave Up 9 to 5 Working Hours!" (That's two MHTableTennis segments here in a row!)

Short Interview with Waldner

Here's the video (22 sec) as he talks of him growing up since age two with ping-pong balls. (There's actually a longer interview, but you have to pay for that.)

Double-Multiball Training of a Chopper

Here's the video (31 sec) as two coaches feed multiball to this chopper.

Winner Off an Edge Ball

Here's video (35 sec) as Dimitrij Ovtcharov lobs on the edge, and Patrick Baum, light on his feet, still manages to rip a winner.

Great Points Between Timo Boll and Defensive Star Koji Matsushita

Here's the video (2:13).

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.)

Jean-Michel Saive – Benjamin Rogiers Exhibition

Here's the new video (33:11). Saive's a great showman – this generation's Jacque Secretin?

Waldner and Persson on a Mini-Table

Here's the video (5:21).

High-Table Pong?

Here's the picture!

Ai Fukuhara in a Game Show?

Here's the video (9:46) as she and others do various trick shots. It's all in (I think) Japanese, but it's funny to watch, with an over-excited narrator.

Classroom Chalk-Smacking Pong

Here's the video (7 sec)!

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