May 16, 2016
Tip of the Week
Depth Control on Serves with CBS.
Bottle Drill and Quotes
Here is a useful drills I used this weekend. Sameer (14, 1826) has reached the point where he's pretty consistent with his first and second loops (both forehand and backhand), but needs more focus on placement. He told me that in his league matches, he's making nearly 100% of his backhand loops off push, but they keep coming back – but that was because he's opening primarily to the middle backhand, where the opponent is ready and waiting. (And most players block better on the backhand.) Since your first attack should most often be to the opponent's middle (something top players routinely do, but beginners and intermediates often don't quite get – here's my Tip on Attacking the Middle), with follow-up attacks at the corners (since the attack to the middle draws them out of position), we did the following multiball drill.
I put a bottle just a bit to the left of the middle line on my side of the table, about a foot in, where the middle (playing elbow) of a typical right-hander would be. (This does vary based on the player, situation, and handedness.) I put another bottle on the right side of my side (my wide forehand), about 18 inches outside the corner, a couple inches from the sideline. First I fed just backspin to his backhand so he could practice hitting the bottle with his backhand loop. Then I fed just topspin to his wide forehand so he could practice hitting the bottle with a hooking forehand loop (so the ball curved to his left, my wide forehand). He reached the point where he was able to hit the bottles about 1/3 of the time.
Then I alternated feeding backspin to his backhand and a quick topspin to his wide forehand. His goal was to hit both bottles with consecutive shots. This mimicked a game situation where he attacks the middle, forcing the opponent to move to cover the middle with forehand or backhand, opening up the wide forehand. If he covers it with the forehand, the wide forehand opens; if he covers it with his backhand, he has to quickly move back into position, again often leaving the wide forehand open. The reality is that when covering the middle, at least one or both wide corners opens up.
A huge key to this type of accuracy is not consciously aiming, i.e. trying to consciously guide the ball. Just know where you want to the ball to go (i.e. hit the bottle), and let your subconscious (i.e. muscle memory) take over.
Here are some things I said during sessions this weekend – I wrote them down as they happened.
- "People who say Brian plays only at one speed are wrong. He doesn't smash everything – sometimes he hits harder."
- "Jim, now that you've demonstrated how not to forehand loop, can you show us the proper way?"
- "If you keep missing, wait until you get one good one. Then remember that feel, and repeat. If you can't get one good one, then really loudly yell, 'Help, Coach!'"
- "You're not good enough to hit that bottle." (8-year-old Kid hits bottle.) "Anyone can get lucky and hit it once, but it takes skill to do it twice." (Kid hits bottle again.) "Anyone can get lucky and…" (Kid interrupts.) "Coach Larry, if you say anyone can get lucky and hit it twice but it takes skill to hit it three times, I'm going to hit you."
Great Coaching, Part 1: Interview with Jasna Rather
Here's the article by Anthony Plog.
Here's 49 seconds of Forehand Multiball with Truls Möregårdh
Here's the video.
2016 US National Championships Host Hotel Info
Here's the USATT news item. (The link for online entries should be up soon – it was supposed to go up Friday, but they ran into a technical glitch. When it's ready, it'll show up on the 2016 USA Nationals home page.
Capital Area League
The Capital Area League (Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC) had another meet on Saturday, with all 24 teams competing with over 100 players. (There are 127 players in the league.) Here's the home page, and here is the Results page, with detailed results for all league matches. As usual, a big thanks to Commissioner Stefano Ratti and the rest of the staff (Richard Heo, Larry Hodges, Wen Hsu, Mossa Barandao. Darwin Ma, John Olsen). Special thanks goes to Mossa, who did much of the running of the league this time, and put up all the results.
2016 California State Championships Videos
Here they are! (Here are results, which I linked to previously. The tournament was held May 6-8 at the ICC Club in Milpitas, CA.)
Zi Rui Zhao Wins the $3000 Newgy Ohio Open
Here's the article by Blake Cottrell.
Crumbly Concrete Table
Here's the picture of two kids and their table – and you complained about the condition of your table??? (Picture the arguments – "That was an edge!" "No, that was the side!" "No, that was the top of the table!") Here's the non-Facebook version.
2016 Ma Long Balls Trick!
Here's the video (36 sec) – what he does is hard to believe! To commenters below it think it's a fake – what do you think?
Zak Abel: From Table Tennis Star to Music Sensation
Here's the article and link to video (3:17). (I linked to the video previously.)
Training a One-Year-Old
Here's the video (48 sec) – and I present to you the 2035 World Women's Singles Champion!
Soo Yeon Lee and Entourage TV Show
Here's the video (60 sec).
Top 5 - Table Tennis Funny Reactions
Here's the video (1:28).
Beetle Bailey Table Tennis Cartoon
Here's the cartoon from this past Sunday, where we learn the real name of our sport – "Run For Your Life!" This makes sixteen that featured table tennis – I compiled them all (and just updated) in my May 11, 2015 blog. Mort Bailey really likes table tennis! (Or perhaps it's Sarge and Beetle. We should get them honorary USATT memberships.)
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