October 27, 2015

Toby Kutler: Flat to Spinny Backhand
Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with Toby Kutler, a 24-year-old local who's recently made the jump to 2300+. I've known and played him since he started playing at age 12, including coaching him at camps and a few times in tournaments. He's been training very hard the last year or so, after having hip injuries that sidelined him for over two years, 2012-2014. From 2008-2011 he was roughly a 2000 player. (He wasn't training as hard most of that time as he does now.) In 2011 I trained with him regularly, and during that time he jumped to about 2150 before the injury problems. (Here's a 13-sec video of him in 2014 where he's doing forehands footwork. Here's an article on him training in China in 2011.)

Even then I always saw the major flaw in his game – his backhand. He had a very strong forehand loop, but on the backhand he simply did everything pretty well – he could block and hit well, and could backhand loop, but there was no serious threat there. I discussed it with him a few times. Backhand looping is pretty much a must at the high levels these days, but it just wasn't a big part of his game at that time.

He began playing seriously again in 2014, including training for a time at the Werner Schlager Academy in Austria, where he was told, "The days of the flat hit are over." He also trained in California with Stefan Feth, who also convinced him to spin the backhand, and worked with him on it. And so he decided to make the switch from a mostly flat backhand to a topspinning one, i.e. backhand looping.

He said he was able to do it in drills early on, but that it wasn't instinctive in games at first. But after two months of it – what I call "Saturation Training" – he said it became natural and instinctive.

Before his backhand just wasn't a threat to stronger players – in rallies they'd quickly turn him into a blocker, allowing them to attack while taking out Toby's strong forehand. But now he attacks from both wings, and so there's nowhere to go. He can still block well, but it's now a secondary game as he mostly loops from both sides – and that allows him to get his forehand into play far more than before. Result? He's now rated 2308, with a recently high of 2339. He's also now training and playing matches regularly at the club with better players than before, which could also push him to a higher level.

But the key to this was two very basic things: lots of hard work, and learning to topspin the backhand – and the key to the latter was the decision to make this major change. Why not take a good hard look at your own game, and see if there's one thing like this that you could do to jump up a level? (Maybe you too should be looping the backhand?) Then, with a little saturation training, you'll be at a whole new level.  

Ping-Pong Diplomacy 1972 and a Challenge!
Here's video (6:02) of the Chinese tour of the U.S. in 1972, part 2 of Ping-Pong Diplomacy. (Part 1 was the U.S. tour of China in 1971.) Commentary is in Chinese, but the images tell the story as they gave exhibitions with the U.S. team in LA, NY, DC, Memphis, and other places. Chinese players include Zhuang Zedong, Zhang Xielin, Liang Geliang, Li Furong, and Lin Huiqing.

You'll see lots of top U.S. players, so here's the challenge: How many can you name? Email me, and I'll tomorrow I'll post who got the most. Some should be easy, such as the guy pinning a pin on a Chinese player at 1:34 or the lefty playing at 1:45. (Don't comment below – that'll give it away.)

New Articles from Coach Jon

• A Fresh Look at Fishing
• Breaking Away from Table Tennis - a look at cheating in table tennis, using the cycling movie "Breaking Away" as an outside example, where a character has the revelation that "Everybody cheats." He writes, "There are many players, however, who clearly know the rules but choose not to follow them. When a match is close and a good serve is really important, you can bet an illegal serve is on the way." I've blogged about this many times as well – this is what players face regularly at the higher levels, and yet we can't seem to get the rules people to act on this – they all seem to be waiting for someone else to do something.

In the Zone Part 8
Here's the article. I linked to parts 1-7 on Oct. 21.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #180 (18:11) – The Exciting Push (and other segments)

Off the Table with Caroline Kumahara
Here's the ITTF Video (3:13) of the Brazilian star.

Pink Pong – Table Tennis Charity
Here are pictures of Kim Gilbert and others at a TT charity for breast cancer.

11 Questions with Scott Butler
Here's the USATT interview.

Ping Pong Champ a Hit on ECU Campus
Here's the article on Nepal's Norden Tamang from East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma.

Bouncing Ball on Racket Handle Challenge
On Friday and Monday I linked to players setting records on this. Today we have the ultimate record that will never be broken (yes, that's a challenge) as Magnus Mallander, described as a youth coach from Halmstad, Sweden, bounces it 445 times in a row! Here's the video (2:37).

Unbelievable Point Between Ovtcharov and Mizutani
Here's the video (47 sec).

Great Defense Then Offense Point
Here's the video (34 sec), with a big celebration afterwards.

Seahawks Use Ping-Pong as an Escape from Football
Here's the article and audio video (3:02). (They don't show pictures in the video, only audio, with a note, "Sorry, no photos of the Seahawks playing ping pong. Pictures are not allowed in the locker room."

Righty and Lefty Play on a Robot
Here's the video (5:51).

Build a 300mph Ping-Pong Cannon
Here's the article and video (47 sec), and watch someone try to return the ball. I'd like to see a 2700 player try to return these!

MDTTC October Open
Here are results and pictures from our tournament this past Saturday, run by Charlene Liu. Click on names to see pictures. Complete results available at Omnipong.

Open Singles – Final: Chen Bo Wen d. Wang Qingliang, 4,-3,9,6,-8,10; SF: Chen d. Bojun Zhangliang, 8,8,-9,8,-8,6; Wang d. Stefano Ratti, 9,6,4,5; QF: Chen d. Klaus Wood, 6,-8,5,2; Zhangliang d. Albert Senter, 7,6,5; Ratti d. Allen Lin, 5,4,-5,10; Wang d. Raghu Nadmichettu, 6,-9,4,7.
Under 2300 – Final: Raghu Nadmichettu d. Klaus Wood, -9,6,-8,5,8; SF: Nadmichettu d. Tiffany Ke, 6,6,-11,7; Wood d. Amy Lu, 6,8,-8,7.
Under 2000 – Final: Yunhua Gong d. Costel Constantin, -2,-8,8,6,6; SF: Gong d. George Li, 6,6,4; Constantin d. Kevin Zhou, 7,8,12.
Under 1700 – Final: Leonid Koralov d. Alvin Whitney, 8,-8,5,-4,9; SF: Koralov d. Maksim Danilau, -4,7,9,9; Whitney d. Walid Alkadi, 7,6,11.
Under 1300 – Final: Hassam Alkadi d. Kallista Liu, -9,9,-4,11,2; SF: Alkadi d. Siliang Huang, 9,2,5; Liu d. Walid Alkadi, 9,-8,5,6.
Over 50 – Final: Ernest Byles d. Lixin Lang, 7,4,4; SF: Byles d. Morteza Sajed, 5,5,5; Lang d. Alnoor Hemani, 3,3,3.
Under 16 – Final: Klaus Wood d. Tiffany Ke, 11,2,9; SF: Wood d. Eric Li, 6,6,4; Ke d. Louis Levene, 2,-8,8,8.

World Weaver Press News Release
As noted in my blog on Oct. 16, I'm now a novelist for World Weaver Press, who bought my novel "Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions." Here's their press release about it. The novel covers the election for president of Earth in the year 2100, where the world has adopted the American two-party electoral system, and includes first contact with an alien ambassador, who travels with the campaign as an observer. It also has lots of table tennis as one of the four main characters is a championship player, who teaches the alien to play. The novel will be out in late January.

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