October 30, 2015

A Short History of Modern Receive
If someone were to write a History of Receive, I think there would be four major breakthroughs in modern professional table tennis.

  • 1960s: Looping (Europeans and Japanese, especially Hasegawa). Before this time top players mostly attacked a long serve with a regular drive (or they'd chop it), without much topspin. But as the loop was developed during the '60s, long serves became vulnerable to a loop. And so most top players were forced to switch to serving short most often, which are often not as tricky and doesn't have as much break. There were players who used loop-like shots before this, but until the '60s looping wasn't done at a particularly high level. Nobuhiko Hasegawa in 1967 was the first world champion with a modern loop. He also was the first of the great lobbers, plus had a big backhand.

    Here's vintage video (8:57) of the 1971 World Men's Team Final, Japan vs. China (China wins 5-2), with Hasegawa against chopper/looper Liang Geliang in the first match. At 5:10 Hasegawa goes up against Li Jinghuang, a lefty penhold attacker. (China wins 5-2.) Others shown include Zhuang Zedong, Shigeo Itoh, and Mitsuro Kohno. (I couldn't find any video from 1967, when Hasegawa won the Worlds.) Here's 14 sec in 1974 of Hasegawa against Li Zhenshi, who now coaches in California, with Hasegawa looping a number of times against Li's blocks and hits.

  • 1971: Short Push (Stellan Bengtsson). Before this time, most short serves were returned long, and so servers would serve and attack. A growing number of servers would start each rally with a serve and loop. Bengtsson of Sweden (now coaching in San Diego) perfected the art of returning short serves with a short push, taking away the server's attack. This forced servers to decide between long serves that could be looped, or short serves that could be pushed short. Others had used short pushes effectively, but Bengtsson popularized it, and used it to win the 1971 World Championships.

    Here's video (1:33 in) of Bengtsson of the final in 1971 against defending champion Shigeo Itoh of Japan, where Itoh serves short and Bengtsson drops it short, forcing the all-out attacker Itoh to push. Here's video (26 sec) of short pushing practice.

  • 1979: Forehand Flip (Hungarians). Players used forehand flips before this time, but the Hungarians brought it to a new level as their "secret" weapon at the 1979 Worlds. The Chinese often specialized in serving short to the forehand, since forehand receive was often trickier than backhand receive against a short ball, but the Hungarians, in secret sessions, had spent a huge amount of time preparing for this. When they played the Chinese in the final, the three Hungarians – Istvan Jonyer, Tibor Klampar, and Gabor Gergeley – went flip happy, putting the Chinese on the defensive as they won the Men's Team event against the favored Chinese. They also used the shot effectively when the Chinese returned their serves short, sort of an answer to the short receive revolution that had taken over the game since 1971.

    The following are all from the 1979 World Team Final, won by Hungary over China. Here's video (53 seconds in) of Jonyer forehand flipping crosscourt in the 1979 team final against Guo Yuehua, forcing the Chinese star off the table and putting him on the defensive that led to Jonyer's winning shot. Here's video (3:55 in) of Jonyer flipping into Gue's backhand, again putting him on the defensive and again setting up a winning shot. Here's video (47 secs in) where Klampar does a controlled down-the-line flip to Li Zhenshi's backhand, followed by a forehand winner. On the very next serve Klampar flips in a winner. Here's video of Gergeley vs. Li Zhenshi (I seem to be picking on him – sorry Li!), where in the very first point, after a couple short pushes, Gergely flips in a winner. And then, 55 secs in, Gergely steps around and flips the serve aggressive to Li's backhand to set up his attack.  (Here's a tutorial (7:28) on the forehand flip from Pingskills.)

  • 2009: Backhand Banana Flip (Wang Hao). Plenty of players had shots similar to this throughout history, such as Tibor Klampar and Anton Stipancic. But Wang Hao, a penholder, brought it to a new level as he dominated against short serves with this shot, using his reverse penhold backhand. The shot is essentially a wristy backhand loop over the table, with both topspin and sidespin. The shot was quickly copied worldwide by shakehanders. The shot was central to China's Wang Hao winning Men's Singles at the 2009 Worlds. China's Zhang Jike, a shakehander, made the shot central to his receive, and won the next two World Championships.

    Here's video (65 sec in) of Wang Hao backhand flipping Wang Liqin's serve in the 2009 World Men's Singles Final, taking away Wang Liqin's big forehand. Here's video (28 sec in) of Wang Hao backhand flipping in Ma Long's serve in the semifinals. Ma Long also has a highly effective backhand banana flip, as shown here (8 sec) in that same match against Wang Hao, but he'd have to wait six more years before he'd win the World Men's Singles Championship, where he'd also use this shot effectively – but by then, nearly every top player was doing it. Here's video (27 sec, including slow motion) of Zhang Jike's backhand banana flip. Here's my article (with link to video of Ma Long) on the backhand banana flip.

A Complete Game: Learn the Importance of Developing Many Skills
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

Training at the Werner Schlager Academy: Tom Lodziak
Here's the new podcast (48:46) from Expert Table Tennis, featuring Tom Lodziak, "a Cambridge-based table tennis coach who blogs over at www.tabletenniscoach.me.uk and offers one-to-one coaching to players of all ages and abilities." In the episode he talks about:

  • How Tom got started in the sport in his mid-twenties.
  • Why he believes training camps are so important for player development.
  • All about the WSA including; the cost, the entry requirements, the accommodation, the daily timetable, the type of training and much more.
  • What Tom learnt from top coach Richard Prause.
  • About some of the other training camps available in the UK and Europe.
  • Tom’s top tip from his week of training at the WSA.
  • How you can get in touch with Tom to ask him any questions you may have.

Xu Xin's Serve
Here's video (23 sec, including slow motion replay) of the Chinese superstar practicing his serves. He was #1 in the world for a total of 16 months, including most of 2014, until dropping to #2 in March this year.

Women's World Cup
It starts today, in Sendai, Japan, Oct. 30 – Nov. 1 (Sunday). Here's the ITTF page where you can get complete results, articles, pictures, and video. (No USA players – Zhang Mo of Canada is representing North America for winning the North American Championships.) Here's the ITTF promotional video (59 sec). Here's a music video (38 sec) of the players training for the tournament. Here's Day One Point of the Day (49 sec), Caroline Kumahara against Petrissa Solja.

ITTF World Cadet Challenge
It's taking place right now in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Oct. 23-31 (Saturday). Here's the USATT page for the event, and here's the ITTF page with complete results, articles, pictures, and video. 

Ask a Pro Anything - Kasumi Ishikawa
Here's the video (16 sec) where she asks you (in English) to "Ask me funny question." Selected questions will be used in an upcoming episode starring her of "Ask a Pro Anything" with Adam Bobrow. (Ishikawa of Japan is #5 in the world and seeded #4 at the Women's World Cup that started today – see above.)

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.

More Bouncing Balls on Racket Handles
Here's video (45 sec) as the player bounces it "only" 116 times – but 30 sec in, he manages to balance the ball on his racket handle as he takes a drink, and then continues!

Earls Court Ping Pong Bar Shut Down After Hipsters Attack Bouncer Who Told Them to End Their Game
Here's the article!

Great Chop, Spin Around, Behind-the-Back Shot!
Here's the video (30 sec, including slow motion replay).

Dog vs. Chinchillas
Here's the cartoon! Here's a close-up of the chinchillas. My brother had a pet chinchilla for several years – we let it run loose in the basement, where we both had our rooms. Eventually he moved out, and we donated it to the National Zoo, where he joined the others already there. (This would have been around the mid-1970s or so.) This is what a chinchilla really looks like – sort of half guinea pig, half rabbit, and about the same size as a large guinea pig.

Moose Pong

***
Send us your own coaching news!