February 3, 2016

Table Tennis Variations
Getting tired of playing the same table tennis all the time, where you do the same topspin and backspin shots all night long? Here are some variations!

  • Gnip Gnop. In this version, instead of hitting the ball directly over the net, you hit the ball downward, so it bounces on your side first, and then over the net. Here's video.
  • Jungle Pong. You can have many players play this at once – I've seen the kids at our club play with 15 players at once. Basically the rules are you have to let the ball come off the table, and make your return after the ball has hit the floor. You can hit the ball to either side of the table - so the opponent has to be ready to change sides quickly. Since the ball has to bounce off the table and hit the floor, players have time to run it down. If you have more than 15 players, they take turn in order until all 15 have hit one shot, and then start over – but whoever misses is out for that game. It's a rather strange game, but a lot of fun – at our camps, the kids play it during break all the time. Here's video, though here it's mistakenly called gnip gnop – gotta get these terms right!!!
  • Clipboard Pong. You can play with any size or type of clipboard – and you get amazing rallies! It's especially fun if one player attacks and the other chops, and it's easy to chop with a clipboard. Here's video, which includes Tahl Leibovitz and Marty Reisman. You can also play clipboard vs. regular racket, as I'm doing in this video, where I start off slow as we warm up, but stop missing once the match begins.
  • Smartphone Table Tennis. Both players use their smart phones. Here's video (featuring Matt Hetherington), though to make it fair both players should be using phones (unless one is much higher rated).
  • Any Object Pong. Yes, you just find anything to use, and play with it.
  • Opposite Hand or Grip. Yep, you switch hands or grips. For grips, you can choose shakehand, penhold, or Seemiller grip, as long as it's not your normal grip. (For penhold, you have to decide between convention and reverse penhold backhands.)
  • Pushing Game. It's exactly as the name implies – an all-pushing game. The server must serve backspin, and both players must play all backspin. It becomes a tactical battle of finding the balance between pure consistency, and pushing more aggressively to force mistakes. Often it becomes a mostly forehand to forehand pushing duel (with changes of directions to force opponent to move), since most players push better on the backhand. Prepare for a purely mental game as this game favors whoever has the mental will and patience to push forever.
  • Hardbat or Sandpaper. Why not give them a try, just as an occasional side variation?

8 Tips on Expanding Your Table Tennis Tactics Against Choppers
Here's the new coaching article from Matt Hetherington.

Tom's Table Tennis Newsletter
Here's the new issue from the British coach. Segments include:

  • Tips for maintaining a positive attitude when you’re losing
  • Tactics for beating a big flat hitter
  • Learning from Desmond Douglas at Westfield table tennis camp
  • Most read in January 2016
  • Best from the web
  • Top table tennis matches in January 2016

Ask the Coach

  • Episode 215 (23:15) – Flicking Sidespin Serves (and other segments).
  • Episode 216 (24:49) - Serving with a Purpose

USATT Minicadet Team Listing
Here's the USATT listings for the USA Minicadet Boys' and Minicadet Girls' teams. These are for 12 and under players, who held their Trials at the recent USA Nationals. I noticed over the weekend that they didn't have their own page, as the other teams do (Men's, Women's, Junior Boys and Girls, and Cadet Boys and Girls), and so notified USATT webmaster Sean O'Neill. After some searching, I supplied most of the head shots (Bruce Liu supplied some missing ones), with thanks to Sean, and now it's up!!! These kids trained hard to get where they are, and deserve the recognition. Congrats to Nikhil Kumar, Ryan Dabbs, Michael Lu, Aditya Godhwani, Rachel Yang, Joanna Sung, Rachel Sung, and Ayane Saito!

2016 USA Table Tennis Olympic Trials Format
Here's the USATT article from tournament director Ed Hogshead. Here's the USATT home page for the event, which will likely be updated with live video, results, etc. when the Trials begin. They start tomorrow, Thur-Fri, Feb. 4-6, in Greensboro, NC.

The Politically Incorrect Paddle
Here's the new article from Coach Jon.

Tahl Leibovitz Hall of Fame Induction
Here's the article from Sean O'Neill, who did the presentation for Tahl's induction.

Ping Pong Fever
Here's the article by Steve Grant, about the Norwegian humorous documentary about the 1902 Ping-Pong craze, which was largely based on Steve's book, Ping Pong Fever: The Madness That Swept 1902 America. (Here's my review of the book.)

11 Questions with Stefano Ratti
Here's the USATT interview with Stefano, who's both a top local player (rated 2346) and the commissioner of the Capital Area Table Tennis Team League.

SPiN Ping-Pong Club Owned by Susan Sarandon to Open March 10 in Marina City
Here's the article on the new club opening in Chicago.

DHS ITTF Top 10 Shots - 2016 ITTF German Open
Here's the video (4:10).

Judy Hugh & Cory Eider Wedding Video
Here it is, at long last, the highlights video (4:55) of the Wedding of the Century!!! While the wedding between these two table tennis stars took place on Nov. 8, 2015, the memories are forever. Cory joins a family that already included Judy, Adam Hugh, Lily Yip, and Barry Dattel.

Practice Devolves into a "Clownfest"
Here's the video (15 sec) as Matt Hetherington (on right, with 2699-rated Kaden Xu on left) shows how he is preparing for the upcoming Worlds.

Ice Pong
Here's the video (37 sec). I went ice skating exactly once in my life, when I was about 12. There was another kid who was both a very good ice skater and the local bully. On dry land, he avoided me – he'd tangled with me once and I clobbered him, even though he was a little bigger. But when he saw me out there trying to learn to ice skate, he began circling me, skating both forward and backward (the latter impressed the heck out of me, I didn't know it was possible), jabbing at me as he passed and basically making life on ice miserable. I felt helpless as I slid about trying to defend myself against someone who (I later learned) had been playing ice hockey since he was a little kid. I never ventured out on ice again.

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