May 23, 2018

Serve and Receive Tactics Seminar at MDTTC and Nationals
As mentioned in previous blogs, I'll be running two Serve and Receive Tactics Seminars. The one at the USA Nationals is now the lead story on the USATT News page!  (Here's the direct link.) Here are the two, with links to the seminar flyer.

The one in Las Vegas is free - I'm running it as USATT Coaching Chair. The one at MDTTC is $15 for members, $20 for others, with 100% of the money raised going to the HW Global Junior Program at MDTTC, to pay for our coaches to go to the USA Nationals to coach the 19 MDTTC junior players who are competing. Here's their funding page - we're now at $14,175 raised of the $15,500 needed. All money raised in the seminar will go toward this - I'm not taking any of it.

Here are the main topics I'll be covering. Much of it will be a combination of demonstration and explanation as I go into the nuances of each topic. (I'm hoping to be able to cover all this in an hour, 30 minutes on serve, 30 minutes on receive, and then let players try these things out at the tables the last 30 minutes as I walk around observing and coaching. But we'll see how long it actually takes.)

SERVE TACTICS

  • The purpose of the serve
  • Set-up serves vs. trick serves
  • Types of deception
  • Long serves
  • Short serves
  • Serving combos
  • Holding back on serves
  • Ten-point plan to serving success

RECEIVE TACTICS

  • Reading the serve
  • The purpose of the receive
  • Types of receive - your arsenal
  • Passive, disarming, & aggressive receives
  • Receiving deep serves
  • Receiving short serves
  • Deception on receive
  • What to do with tricky serves

As the flyer says - and the evil Russian player from "Balls of Fury" - "Should I serve long? Short? What spin? Where to? Gosh, I wish I'd attended that Serve & Receive Tactics Seminar at the USA Nationals!!!"

It's kind of a weird morning - my Tip of the Week: Develop Power Timing by Slapping is also the lead news item at the Butterfly News Page, I'm mentioned in the first paragraph of the Table Tennis Tidbits #29 (see below), plus I just sold a science fiction story (see last segment).

Table Tennis Tidbits #29
Here's the USATT article by Robert Ho, "2016 Women’s World Cup - When the Cats/s'  Away…" Here's the first paragraph - and I'm mentioned!!! "At this tourney in Philadelphia, Pa., World Champion Ding Ning and World Tour #1 Liu Shiwen, both from China, were originally expected, but for unstated reasons were no-shows.  Consequently there were surprising finalists and unexpected match outcomes in the City of Brotherly (in this case, Sisterly) Love.  Sitting in the front row at courtside was U.S. coach Larry Hodges from the club in Gaithersburg, Maryland."

Changing Your Pushing Mindset
Here's the article by Tom Lodziak. "Many players I coach come to me with the same issue. They have a pushing problem. In matches they will push, push, push, push, push – waiting and hoping the other player will make a mistake. They aspire to be more attacking, but once the pushing starts in a match, they can’t seem to find a way out. If they do attack, in tends to be erratic and inconsistent, so they go back to push, push, push, push. Does this sound familiar? Is this something you also struggle with? In this blog post, I will explain how you can change your pushing mindset and become more attacking."

Table Tennis for All Shakehand Version: Forehand Slow Loop Tutorial
Here's the video (24:46) - It starts off with a rather humorous, theatrical way!

New Videos from EmRatThich

Wu Continues Excellent Home Performances onto International Stage
Here's the USATT article.

Fitness Concerns Prompt Shenzhen Withdrawal from Dimitrij Ovtcharov
Here's the ITTF article.

Zhang Jike Overcomes First Hurdle but Aspiring Colleagues Attract the Attention
Here's the ITTF article.

Roger Federer Warns Against the Perils of Pushy Parents
Here's the article from the London Telegraph. "Young sports stars do not need pushy parents 'babysitting' them through their career, the tennis champion Roger Federer has said, as he argues athletes should be given space to develop without unnecessary pressure."

Hugo Calderano Jumping Over Player
Here's the video (22 sec, including slo-mo replay) as the world #11 from Brazil leaps over one of his practice partners.

Dupamo Comic Pingpong
Here's the video (60 sec)!

Dog vs. Cat
Here's the video (8 sec)!

Non-Table Tennis - Death for the Cure: A Comedy about Cancer
Yesterday I sold a humorous fantasy story to Galaxy's Edge, one of the big "pro" magazines. It's my 91st short story sale. It's a seemingly controversial story - yes, a comedy about cancer!!! It involves Death herself getting sick of watching people die of cancer and takes matters into her own hands. She tries to raise money for the Cure, where she does things such as deliver pizzas (a seemingly perfect match since she can travel almost instantly to anywhere on the planet - but imagine Death arriving at your door with a pizza), and so on. But she finds a creative way to solve everything!

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