May 3, 2016

Tip of the Week
React to Opponent's Swing.

Serve, Loop, and Follow Drill
Here's a basic drill I'm having a number of students do. It's a basic serve & attack drill, with minor restrictions. Starting at the intermediate level, the most common rally is where the server serves backspin, the receiver pushes, and the server loops. Let's take that one shot further.

The basic drill is similar. Server serves short backspin. Receiver pushes long to the side the server needs practice on (forehand or backhand). Server then loops, usually to a pre-arranged spot. Receiver's first block is also (not always) pre-arranged, often to the wide forehand. Then you POP – play out point. (POP is the shorthand I've used for decades.)

For example, server may serve backspin short to backhand; receiver pushes to middle; server loops forehand to receiver's backhand; receiver blocks to wide forehand; server moves wide and loops or smashes, and then POP.

There are endless variations. One important one is where receiver randomly pushes to either side, so server can practice looping from both wings (or all forehand if he's very, very fast), and learn to react to different placements. Receiver can also push quick to the middle, so server has to make a quick decision between forehand or backhand attack.

Other variations include the server's first loop going down the line, or looping anywhere. Sometimes receiver might throw in a short push so server has to react to that as well. There are endless variations. But before choosing which variation to do, ask yourself what exactly in your game needs work, and work that into the drill.

My Trip Back from Ravencon in Williamsburg
"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip…" Yes, my trip back from Ravencon was like Gilligan's Island – a three-hour tour that took 6.5 hours. (I wrote about Ravencon on Thursday – see "Now the science fiction stuff…".)

Apparently there was a 16-car pile-up on I-95, and traffic at one point was frozen for nearly 200 miles. I was parked in one spot almost continuously for over three hours. After being parked for a while I turned on the radio as the Baltimore Orioles were about to start a game – and my car didn't move until the ninth inning! I left Williamsburg at 11AM, expecting to be back by 2PM, and ready to teach my 4PM junior class. Instead, I had to call ahead and get others to sub for me. I arrived home around 5:30PM.

One ramification – as I've blogged in the past, one thing I'm proud of is that in the 24 years since MDTTC opened in 1992, in something like 20,000+ sessions, I've been late exactly twice – once because I had my schedule mixed up, and once because a traffic accident blocked traffic (like this time). Well, this makes three times, i.e. once every eight years. (Another side problem – I strained my right knee slightly while carrying a box of my books up some stairs.) I did sell a bunch of my novel ("Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions"), and had a great time on panels.

Capital Area League
We had our second meet of the season this past Saturday at Smash TT in Virginia. Here are the results and standings! There are 24 teams and 127 players this season in this rapidly growing league. Next meetup is May 14 at MDTTC.

Ryu Seung Min on Forehand Footwork
Here's the article (with links to video) from MH Table Tennis.

Don't Copy Him!
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

The Best Table Tennis Training Camps
Here's the new article from Expert Table Tennis. MDTTC (my club) is one of the camps listed.

10 Things I’ve Learned About Running a Table Tennis Coaching Business
Here's the new article from Coach Jon.

Li Jia Wei's Serves
Here's a video (2:29) where she demonstrates her serve. The first 20 sec they seem to be putting on makeup and talking in Chinese, then they get to her serves. Li was a former Singapore star who reached #3 in the world in 2005.

2016 Asian Cup: Liu Shiwen Regains Title
Here's the article.

USA Masters Games
Here's info on the table tennis events, July 28-31 in Greensboro, NC.

Table Tennis Trainer 3000
Here's the article and video (2:16) from Thomas Mayer. "The basic idea of my bachelor thesis was to track the ping pong ball in realtime to create data visualisations for trainers and players. After a few weeks of working I started developing a projected mapped interface for the ping pong table to show the collected data. By projecting game obstacles on the surface I figured out that I can change the game play totally."

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17 (1989-1990)
Here's chapter 7! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

This Isn't Your Usual Game of Ping-Pong
Here's the article from the Fay Observer that features the Cape Fear TTC in North Carolina.

2016 Asian Cup Army Competition
Here's a nice match (3:08) between Feng Tianwei (world #7 from Singapore) and Tie Yana (world #20 from Hong Kong).

Chinese Players Attacked by Ping-Pong Balls
Here's the video (12 sec)!

Popeye and Bluto Play Ping-Pong
Here's the hilarious new cartoon (4:46)!

***
Send us your own coaching news!