October 2, 2015

Thinking About Blocking – a No-No

On Wednesday night I was coaching a junior player with a pretty strong forehand loop. Early in our session we warmed up with his crosscourt loop to my forehand block, where I'm normally very steady. I was blocking to his wide forehand and middle, as he moved side to side. All was well at first, but then I made a few mistakes. So I focused on my forehand block, trying to get the right technique. Instead, I made more mistakes. I'm supposed to be steady in these drills, and yet I was suddenly missing way too many blocks. These were not "easy" blocks, as he does loop hard, but I've been blocking these shots for nearly 40 years, and it's normally second nature. (The key phrase here: second nature.)

I started analyzing my block, trying to find the problem. The more I examined it, the worse it got. The technique was right, so that wasn't the problem. But something was wrong.

I think some readers already know the problem, worthy of a D'oh. Because I was thinking about the shot, without knowing it I was consciously trying to guide the shot, rather than let my subconscious, with the nearly 40 years of blocking practice and muscle memory that made it second nature, control the shot.

When I realized what was happening, I looked off into space for a moment while the student was retrieving one of my errant blocks, and completely blanked out my mind. From there on, my conscious mind focused on just watching the ball and otherwise just being a spectator. And so I went back to having a front-row seat as my dependable forehand block returned. Against a long series of furious loops from the student ("unstoppable force"), I didn't miss another block for the next few minutes ("unmovable barrier"). And it was fun, watching those pin-point accurate punching blocks from my forehand – and though I was just a spectator to it, I get the credit for them!

This is the root of the problem with thinking too much. I've always argued that the problem isn't thinking too much, it's thinking at the wrong time and about the wrong things, and for a few minutes, I was guilty of both. Once you've learned a shot, you have to let go and let the trained subconscious do its job.

My Next "Vacation" – and Another Table Tennis Novel

For those of you who have read my short table tennis fantasy novel "The Spirit of Pong," there's another coming! I plan to attend a local writing workshop, Mon-Fri, Nov. 9-13, where I will work on "Pongman," a new novel set in the same universe as "The Spirit of Pong," though not really a sequel. The star of that one, Andy "Shoes" Blue, will return, but not as the main character. Also returning (Spoiler alerts!): the evil and conniving Coach Wang. The main star is Pongman, the world's first table tennis super hero – table tennis star by day, superhero by night. (He, Andy, and the also returning Derek Klaus Hsu make up the U.S. Team.) But he's up against the Pingkin –North Korean Table Tennis director by day, supervillain by night. It's a clash of powerful table tennis nations as China, North Korea, and USA battle it out for glory at the Worlds – but only if Pongman can save the rival Chinese team from the Pingkin's treachery. ("Pingkin" is, of course, a takeoff on the comic strip villain Kingpin, which is why there's no "g" at the end. Hopefully it won't look like a typo to readers.)

On a related note, my fantasy horror story "Head or Heat" is finally out in the new issue of Ares Magazine, as the top-billed cover story.

Asian and European Championships

They are both going on right now. Lots of great articles on them at Tabletennista. Here are links to the ITTF home pages, with results, articles, pictures, and video. (You could spend your weekend watching just the videos!)

Asian Championships Men's Doubles Final

Here's the video (6:09 with time between points removed) between Fan Zhendong/Chen Meng and Yang Zi/Yu Mengyu.

Can a Table Tennis Robot Help You Improve?

Here's the article and video (10 min).

Dynamic Stretching

Here's video (3 min) of Samson Dubina doing this form of training as part of his Olympic training.

Interview with the 6-time Racketlon Champ

Here's the podcast (43:28) with Jesper Ratzer. "If you haven’t heard of racketlon before you need to check it out. It’s an incredible sport that combines table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis to determine who is the best all round racket sports player. The sport is relatively new but is growing in popularity in Europe and already has world rankings and a world championships."

"So, who is the best all round racket sports player in the world? Well, he’s Jesper Ratzer from Copenhagen in Denmark and he joins me on this episode of The Expert Table Tennis Podcast. Jesper was an accomplished badminton and tennis player as a child, but it was only when he first got involved in racketlon that he discovered the joys and struggles of table tennis. Since then he has been training hard to improve his game and play, as he says, 'proper table tennis.'"

USATT Insider

Here's the new issue, which came out on Wednesday.

Celebrity Table Tennis Battle: Rick Carlisle vs. Daryl Morey

Here's the USATT poll – vote now!

Canton Pursues Chance to Hold U.S. Olympic Table Tennis Trials

Here's the article. The decision between Canton and Greensboro should be made "early next week." According to the article, the Trials will be held in one of these two locations on Jan. 27 – Feb. 1, 2016.

Livingston Freshman Aims for 2016 Olympics

Here's the article on U.S. Cadet star Jack Wang.

UB's Table Tennis Club Bounces Back

Here's the article on the University of Buffalo's TT club.

International Table Tennis

Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.

Some Serious Concrete Pong – Ariel Hsing and Michael Landers

Here's the video (3:30) as the two give a street exhibition. Ariel's in a dress and high-heeled sandals!

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.)

Table Tennis – and Billiards, Basketball, and Soccer

Here's the cartoon!

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