November 12, 2018

Tip of the Week
Subconscious Aiming and Stroking.

Ten Things Every Table Tennis Player Should Be Able to Do

  1. Lob. It's the funnest thing to do in table tennis, it'll win you a few emergency points, and by doing it, you'll learn how to play against this style.
  2. Chop. Not only is it a great way to win an emergency point when you are out of position, but by learning to chop you will quickly learn how to play choppers.
  3. Loop. Even if you aren't a looper, you should learn to do it because it's such a big part of the sport, plus doing them yourself helps you learn how to play against them.
  4. Play with different surfaces. It not only is fun to try out short pips, long pips, and anti, but it allows you to understand how they play, and so you'll learn how to play against them.
  5. Have a tricky "go to" serve. If you don't have at least one serve that people have trouble with, you better see a coach and develop one as you are literally giving away games. Some have a tricky serve they go to when it's close (though it's better to use them early so it doesn't get close!), while others develop their serves to the point where all of their serves are tricky.
  6. Serve backspin so the ball comes back into the net. Because it's a neat trick and helps you develop and control spinny serves.
  7. Bounce a ball on your side of the table and smack it and hit a bottle on the far side. Because it's fun, it helps you develop control and accuracy, and because it helps you "let go" and allow your training to take over, i.e. your subconscious. (See Tip of the Week above.) You can use other targets than a bottle, but water bottles are pretty convenient.
  8. Stay calm under pressure. If you can't, you are just throwing away matches. The best way to develop this is to play lots and lots of matches where you imagine every point is 10-9 in the fifth in the final of the Worlds. Then, when you are at 10-9 in the fifth in the final of Under 1700, you won't be so nervous! (You can vary the scores so sometimes you are down 9-10, or at 10-10.)
  9. Umpire. It makes you learn the rules, plus gives you a better understanding of what an umpire does.
  10. Help run a tournament. Then you'll appreciate all the time and work that goes into one, and have a better understanding of it.

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers in a Movie!
I was contacted recently by a production assistant for the upcoming French movie "Perdrix." They want to use the French version of my book, "Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers," as a prop in the movie. As he explained, "In the movie, one of the characters, a teenager named Marion is a table tennis player and learns from the French translation of your book Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers. As she reads it every chance she gets." As near as I can tell, the movie has already been produced and will be showcased in May, 2019 at the Cannes Film Festival.

Dick's Sporting Goods: The Table
Here's the video ad (60 sec) - it's a great TT story! Plus they used real players even though it literally takes place in a basement!

USATT CEO Gordon Kaye Submits Resignation
Here's the USATT article. It's a terrible loss for our organization. But the USATT board has already started a search for a new one, with a search committee task force.

USATT Opens Nominations for 2018 Coach of the Year Awards
Here's the USATT article. (I chair the Selection Committee.)

Belarus Open
Here's the info page for the event starting today in Minsk, Belarus, Nov. 13-18.

Austrian Open
Here the info page for the event held in Linz, AUT, Nov. 8-11, with results, articles, pictures, and video. Here's the Day 4 Highlights (2:28).

Table Tennis Star Point | 2018 Star Awards
Here's the video - vote for the best!

New from Samson Dubina

New from EmRatThich

"Hand Not Shoulder" – The Secret to Effortless Loops
Here are the articles (with links to video) by Ben Larcombe.

Amicus Training Videos with Richard Prause

How to Improve Your Pendulum Serve
Here's the video (5:59) from Sherwin Remata.

Training Drills or Matches?
Here's the article by Tom Lodziak.

Table Tennis Expectations
Here's the article by Eli Baraty.

Drills to Practice for the Beginner
Here's the article from Table Tennis Spot.

7 Tips and Tricks to Help Beginner's Win
Here's the article.

Former World Champion Focuses on Developing Next Generations
Here's the USATT article by Richard Finn, featuring Stellan Bengsston.

US Players Making a Mark in European League Competition
Here's the USATT article by Matt Hetherington, featuring Lily Zhang, Victor Liu, Michael Tran, Jennifer Wu, and Kanak Jha.

Why is Boll Strong?
Here's the article on the world #4 - at age 37.

Signs of Spirituality in Table Tennis
Here's the article by Coach Jon.

Six Years Later, Malaysian Initiative Once Again Proves Successful

Here's the ITTF article, featuring USA's Richard McAfee.

WAB Club Feature: California Table Tennis, and the Angel’s Cup Butterfly Team Tournament
Here's the article by Steve Hopkins.

WAB Club Feature: Spin & Smash Table Tennis & Ping Pong Club
Here's the article by Steve Hopkins.

Rhode Island Table Tennis Hall of Fame: Class of 2018
Here's the article. Inductees are Joe Polselli, Marta Zurowski Lachcik, and Steve Hopkins.

Announcing the PongMobile Cup 2019
Here's the article by Steve Hopkins.

Michael Levene the new Director of Marketing and Coaching at Triangle TT
Here's the Facebook announcement. Triangle TT is in North Carolina. SmashTT, the club Michael started and currently runs, will continue with new management taking over.  

History of USATT – Volume 21 – Chapter 24
Here's chapter 24 of Tim Boggan's latest volume, which covers 1994-1995. Or you can buy it and previous (and future) volumes at www.timboggantabletennis.com. This chapter covers "Past and Present Interactions." Volume 21 is 438 pages with 1667 graphics, and covers all the wild things that happened in 1994-95 - and I'm mentioned a lot! Why not buy a copy - or the entire set at a discount? Tim sells them directly, so when you order them, you get it autographed - order your copy now!

The Dragon Hits an Unbelievable Around-the-Net Receive
Here's the video (8 sec) as Ma Long loops around the net against Ovtcharov's serve.

Ibrahim Hamato on a Robot
Here's the video (1:29) as the no-armed Egyptian Paralympic sensation does footwork drills on a robot. (Haven't seen or heard of him? Google him!)

Bouncing Two Balls on a Paddle
Here's the video (9 sec) - I counted 23 bounces. I've tried this, and it's a lot harder than it looks.

Playing Table Tennis on 3 Tables
Here's the video (17 sec).

You Need to Watch this Match Point!
Here's the video (73 sec, but "the point" is in the first 6 sec, the rest is replay and slo-mo).

Off-Stage Exhibition Lobbing
Here's the video (49 sec)!

The Adventures of Tawny Banh

Ping-Pong Cannon from Vacuum Cleaner
Here's the video (2:46) on how to make one. "11-year-old inventor fashions ping pong ball cannon out of vacuum cleaner."

VR Ping Pong, but Fun - Racket Fury Table Tennis VR
Here's the video (4:26) - "What happens when you combine space and sci-fi and robots . . . and ping-pong."

Tom & Jack in Table Tennis Game
Here's the cartoon (4:01)! It starts off slow but gets a bit crazy as it goes on.

Darth Vader "Stop!" Shirt
Here's the picture and where you can buy the shirt!

Waldner Trick Serve
Here's the video (12 sec)! Watch the ball in his hand closely.

Adam Bobrow vs. Jorg Rosskopf
Here's the video (26 sec)!

Big Paddle Pong
Here's the video (42 sec) as Samson Dubina rallies with a paddle the size of Ohio. That's a lot bigger than the ones used by Bill Gates or Ellen Degeneres!

Stan Lee Signs Limited-Edition "The Amazing Spider-Man" Table Tennis Table
Here's the article (from 2012) and here's the picture.

The Avengers and Table Tennis
In honor of Stan Lee - yeah, I was a big fan. This is from my April 27, 2018 blog.

Spider-Man Plays Table Tennis
Again, in honor of Stan Lee. (This was from a blog in 2014, but hopefully all the links still work.)

  1. Spider-Man Smacks in Forehand Against Pikachu (here's the non-Facebook version). 
  2. Spider-Man Plays Doubles with "World Champion" Judah Friedlander
  3. Spider-Man's Big Backhand
  4. Spider-Man at Ping-Pong Club (15-sec video - you get webbed)
  5. Spider-Man vs. Skeletor (63-second video)
  6. Spider-Man Plays Table Tennis (54-sec video)
  7. Spider-Man plays table tennis with Spider-Man theme music. (3:58 video, Spider-Man masked man appears at 2:37, Spider-Man theme music a few seconds later.)
  8. Spider-Man Ping Pong (22:46 video in Spanish that doesn't actually appear to have any table tennis! Can anyone explain the title?)
  9. Spider-Man Playing Car Pong (1:47 video). Car Pong is from 0:31 to 0:40, and from 0:48 to 1:17 Spider-Man plays Table Pong. (Yes, that's Adam Bobrow.)
  10. Adam Bobrow as Spider-Man.  And here's another. And another (with Superboy looking on). There are plenty more! 
  11. Spider-Man Table
  12. Spider-Man's Andrew Garfield Plays Table Tennis
  13. Spider-Man Makes Web Paddle
  14. Spider-Man Paddles
  15. More Spider-Man Paddles
  16. Still More Spider-Man Paddles
  17. Spider-Paddle
  18. Spider-Balls
  19. Spider-Man vs. Batman Online Ping-Pong Game
  20. Spider Playing Table Tennis
  21. Spider-Man Ping-Pong Gun
  22. Web Slinging Ping Pong Master of Disguise (I have no idea what this one's about)
  23. Ping-Pong Playing Spider Robot

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