March 1, 2016
Tip of the Week
Move Those Feet. This is a slightly rewritten version of a blog I did last week – but I put a note then that it would likely become a Tip of the Week, and here it is! This way it'll be included with all the other Tips of the Week, both for browsing and for upcoming compilations into books – "More Table Tennis Tips," comes out early in 2017. It'll be a sequel to Table Tennis Tips. While you can just read the Tips online as they come out, both volumes put the Tips in logical order of progression, and compile them together for easy reading.
Coaching a Seven-Year-Old
Here's what you need to know – 14 dos and don'ts. I have a new kid I've been working with, and this is pretty much a checklist.
- Do have them start out by balancing a ball on their racket, and then bouncing the ball on the racket. They'll have great difficulty at first, but it'll help their hand-eye coordination develop.
- Do feed multiball as much as possible – they can learn to be pretty consistent that way.
- Do expect him to learn quickly. They may not have hand-eye coordination, but if you know how to teach it, they are natural mimics at that age.
- Do remind them to watch the ball. Amazingly they'll often forget this.
- Do count how many shots he gets in a row or give him a target to aim for. It keeps their attention.
- Do expect them to be hungry all the time. I've learned to keep snacks around.
- Do coach him as close to the restroom as you can. It'll save you a lot of time.
- Do expect him to find absolutely anything hilarious. Do not attempt to figure out what he finds funny as you will never understand.
- Don't expect him to hear anything you say unless you say it three times, grab him by the hair and yell it in his ear, and possibly use a taser. That'll get his attention . . . for a few seconds.
- Don't expect him to have any hand-eye coordination. At that age, when they first start out, struggle just to make contact with the ball, and hitting it on the table is a somewhat rare occasion. But their expectations are low, so those few shots that do hit are cause for celebration.
- Don't expect him to understand that a table tennis session is just for table tennis. Anything will distract him – a broken ball, a bug, a mark on his paddle, whatever. And if there's nothing to distract him, the lack of distraction will distract him. I'm serious.
- Don't have a smart phone or other game device anywhere in sight or that's all he'll see.
- Don't get impatient or you'll be perpetually impatient.
- Don't have them hit too backhands for long periods. Their arm muscles aren't developed for that yet.
Exhibitions and Clinics at Potomac Community Center
Here's the email sent out yesterday from Herman Yeh, president of the Potomac Country TTC. Click on the links to see photos and video! We've done two exhibitions/clinics so far, each time for about two hours with 30-40 kids.
Members of PCTTC and Friends,
The second of a series of three table tennis clinics/exhibitions was completed on last Club Friday (2/26) at Potomac Community Center. Again, it was a very successful evening with many kid’s participation.
I am very grateful to Larry Hodges for taking the lead role in coaching these youngsters and to many volunteers from club (Gary Schlager, Michael Clarke, Shaw Zee, Kangmin Zheng, Yon Wacker) for helping Larry to put up such a great show. Everyone had a great time on that night. Here are some photos (www.pcttc.net/cf_slide1.html and www.pcttc.net/cf_slide2.html) and video taken by Shaw Zee on the night of 2/26 if you are interested. (Unfortunately, Terry Berman missed the photo shooting on the first night (2/12) because pre-approval wasn’t made in advance.)
I like to thank Yon Wacker and Kevin Shorter for generous donation of buckets of practice balls and Len Pettiford for gift of ball picker. Thanks also go to Friends of PCC for supplying beverages to volunteers.
-Herman, PCTTC
LA and Capital Area Leagues
Today's the deadline to enter the LA Team League – enter now! (If you are in the Maryland/Virginia/DC area, then enter the Capital Area League – you have until March 31 to enter. If you don't have a team, there's a signup form for players looking for teams.)
Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina
Here are two new ones.
- Spin: Here's the video (3:32) where they illustrate spin using a bicycle wheel.
- Chopping Advice: Video Interview (3:02) with Angela Guan.
"Tilden's Doubles Falk Drill" Based on The Falkenberg
Here's the video (45 sec) of this footwork drill for doubles players.
Ask the Coach Show
- Episode #230 (28:55) - World Championships Starts (and other segments).
- Episode #231 (24:35) - How to Win Matches (and other segments).
World Team Championships
Here's the ITTF home page for the ongoing event, Feb. 28 – March 6, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where you can see results, articles, press releases, pictures, video, and quotes. USATT has posted several videos of USA players on their News Page.
Budapest to Host 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships
Here's the ITTF Press Release.
Lagom Table Tennis – Swedish Training
Here's the article from Coach Jon.
Legend Peter Karlsson Shares His Experiences
Here's the article.
Susan Sarandon on Ping Pong
Here's the article.
Timo Boll Forehand Topspin
Here's the video (1:47) that shows him looping in slow motion. I think this might be a reposting of an older video, but it's still a great one to watch and study.
Podcast with Jorgen Persson
Here's the podcast (49:53). When asked how he would have done in his prime against Ma Long, he said, "Me and Jan-Ove would have found a way to beat the current Chinese."
Lindenwood University Table Tennis
Here's the video (1:41) of a team practice. "Ever wonder what it's like to play in Lindenwood University's fastest collegiate sports? Two members of the LU table tennis team wore GoPro cameras during a practice to take an up close look at how intense the game can actually be."
Close up: Jun Mizutani
Here's the video (50 sec).
Jonah Bokaer’s 3,000 Ping-Pong Balls Take Stage at American Dance Institute
Here's the article from the Washington Post about a modern performance dance that includes 3000 ping-pong balls!
Washington Redskins Quarterback Kirk Cousins Plays Table Tennis!
Here's the picture. He's the tall one, with 3-time U.S. Men's Champ Timothy Wang second from left.
Speed Bump on Saturday
Here's the table tennis cartoon!
Non-Table Tennis: Galaxy's Edge Story
My humorous science fiction story "Pretty Pictures on Walls" went up this morning at Galaxy's Edge, one of the truly premier online SF magazines - I'm still a bit in awe that my name is listed right there next to Robert Silverberg! Mine is the second one in the story listing just above (gulp!) Silverberg's! (I met him at a SF convention - wonder if he remembers me?) Note the ad on the top right for my upcoming novel, "Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions"!
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