May 5, 2016

Down-the-Line Pushes, Chop Blocks, and Other Adventures
Yesterday I was showing a student how you can mess up an opponent when receiving a short backspin serve to the backhand by, at the last second, dropping the racket tip and pushing short or long to the forehand. The server reacts to your racket aiming to his backhand, and so is caught off guard when you make the last-second change. Why more players don't do this I've never figured out; it's incredibly effective.

But then he began experimenting, and when I served sidespin-topspin to his backhand, he did the same thing, chop-blocking the ball down the line. It's another effective shot that few use. I found myself struggling to react to the shot, even though it was right there, to my forehand, and I've got a pretty good forehand. I've used the same shot against others, but only occasionally have others tried it against me.

Why was it so effective? Three things are happening, all causing varying degrees of calamity. First, as noted above, he'd aim to my backhand until the last second, and then change directions to the forehand. This causes the muscle memory to prematurely react to a ball to the backhand, and so you get caught off guard when it goes to the forehand. Second, since we're mostly expecting a topspin return, muscle memory again misdirects us, leading us to move to a position a step or so off the table – but since it's instead a softer backspin return (with the backspin further deadening the shot), we end up too far off the table, and so are stuck reaching for a ball dropping in front of us. And third, since we're not expecting backspin, we're caught with our racket too high, and have to last-second drop it.

Many players will have no problem with such shots, so guess what? You don't use such tactics against them. But for the rest of us, change-ups like this are highly effective, both the ones mentioned here and others. If you limit yourself only to shots and tactics that give everyone trouble, you will be greatly limiting your game.

ITTF PTT Level 1 Coaching Course Fremont
Here's the info page on the course, taught by Shashin Shodhan. The course will be June 6-10 in Fremont, CA. (I will likely be running one at MDTTC this fall – the more coaches the better!)

Better Aging Through Practice, Practice, Practice
Here's the article from the New York Times, which is actually about tennis – but as Coach Jon Gustavson says, just replace "tennis" with "table tennis" as you read it.

Coach/Team Leader Selection Procedures for 2016 Olympic Games
Here's the info from USATT.

Sidorenko Vladimir: Two best points at the 2016 Russia Cadets Championship
Here's the video (39 sec). That's a nice first point!

Superb Liu Shiwen and Xu Xin win all China 2016 Asian Cup Table Tennis Finals
Here are the videos (5:01 and 6:18).

2016 Asian Cup Highlights: Zhang Jike vs Wong Chun Ting (SF)
Here's the video (5:18, time between points removed).

Buffet and Gates
Here's the repeating gif image of the two recently playing doubles against an unseen Ariel Hsing at the 2016 Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. Here's an article and pictures of the same event in 2015, also with these three.

Tom "Loki" Hiddleston Playing Table Tennis
Here he is as Loki, and in real life. (Here's the non-Facebook version.) Loki is the evil brother of Thor in the Avengers series.

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