November 4, 2024

Tip of the Week
The One-Two Punch of Tactics.

Weekend Coaching, Grip Changes, and a Wrenched Neck
I worked with two kids this weekend who had seemingly parallel but opposite problems. One had a nice topspin backhand which he could take right off the bounce. But his forehand was basically all flat, very little topspin. So we spent some time on that. It’s almost tempting to turn him into a forehand hitter (perhaps with pips) with a looping backhand, like Sweden’s Mattias Falck, who made the final of Men’s Singles at the 2019 World Championships and won Men’s Doubles at the 2021 World’s. But it’s a myth that pips-out players don’t topspin the ball – they actually stroke up and forward at contact to generate enough topspin to control the ball, just not as much as an inverted looper. Anyway, let’s see how this player develops.

Another was the opposite – a looping forehand but one of the flattest backhands I’ve ever seen. He basically stabbed at the ball. The problem was that in simple drills, he could make some nice backhand kills with this shot – but there’s no margin for error, and it’s unlikely he could make these shots consistently in game situations. So we worked on adding a little topspin to that shot.

Several more kids had a first – got their backspin serves to stop on the table and even come back into the net! Sometime soon I’ll issue their next challenge – serve sidespin that curves around a target on the table.

Meanwhile, I’m finally doing something I wish I’d done from the start, when I first started playing in 1976. Back then the general advice was to never change your grip in a rally – they said there wasn’t time, and so you had to find a grip where you could play both backhand and forehand comfortably. I never did – and so I ended up using a forehand grip, which maximized my forehand attack but limited my backhand attack. This is one reason why I developed a super-consistent backhand, but my backhand attack has never put the fear of God in anyone.

But times change. Jan-Ove Waldner dominated the game for many years, and he changed grips from forehand to backhand. It only takes a little finger pressure to rotate the top of the racket slightly forward into a better backhand grip. And so most coaches now teach changing the grip from forehand to backhand.

As a coach, I taught this, but since I no longer trained as a player, I never really learned to change grips. It’s a tricky habit to pick up on after many decades of play. But for the last six weeks or so I’ve been focused on that. It’s just a matter of training to make it instinctive to change grips when transitioning from forehand to backhand, and vice versa. I’ve also worked on this by shadow practicing at home, where I move side to side, hitting forehands and backhand, changing the grip each time. It seems to be paying off. In practice, my backhand attacks are better than they ever were, and it’s not even close. The catch – in game situations, I still instinctually focus on backhand consistency, plus my backhand attack can still be erratic if I’m not in perfect position. I also don’t always change grips reflexively as I need to. We’ll see how it develops!

However, my training (specifically for the US Open in December) took a small downturn on Friday. While going for an off-the-bounce forehand loop during a practice session I wrenched my neck. For the rest of the session I had to refrain from looping, which put pressure on the injury. The good news – I spent the last twenty minutes working on my backhand, which keeps getting better and Better and BETTER!!! (At least in practice.) I have to be careful at my age – I’m 64 but still try to train like I’m 14, leading to the neck injury, as well as ongoing foot, shoulder, and arm problems that are currently mostly under control.

On a related note, I’ll be in Toronto, Canada, Tue-Sat, Nov. 5-10. Robert J. Sawyer, the dean of Canadian science fiction writing, is having a big get-together party for SF writers and his followers at his house on Saturday, and I thought this would be the perfect time to do some sightseeing. So, I’m spending Tue-Fri sightseeing around Toronto, then attending the party, and flying back early Sunday morning, just in time to coach Sunday afternoon at my club. I’ve got info on the local Toronto Clubs and am bringing my TT stuff, but I don’t know yet if I’ll play any, due to the neck problem and ongoing foot problems. (I have an appointment to see a podiatrist on Nov. 22, the earliest opening they had.)

2024 US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductions – the Video
Here it is (93 min), starting with HOF President Sean O’Neill’s opening remarks. Here’s the Info Page. The Inductions and Dinner were held on Oct. 10 at the Houston at the Houston International Table Tennis Center. Inducted were Glenn Cowan, Dennis Taylor, and Stellan Bengtsson, with Patty Martinez Wasserman getting the Mark Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award. Here are some direct links.

Butterfly Training Tips

How to Improve CREATIVITY & GAMEUNDERSTANDING
Here’s the video (4:06) from Pingispågarna.

The Key to Counterlooping
Here’s the video (2:39) from Robert Gardos and PongSpace. “While looping is a fundamental part of learning the basics of table tennis, counter looping is a much more advanced skill. Robert Gardos breaks down the steps of how to execute the counterloop.”

Backhand Topspin fixes and improvements
Here’s the video (6:12) from Ti Long.

What’s Going Wrong With Chinese Table Tennis?
Here’s the article by Tom Lodziak. “It has been a rocky few months for Chinese table tennis. I’ve been following the professional game for the past twenty years and I don’t recall a time when Chinese players have been beaten so regularly.”

New from Table Tennis Daily

Jackson Chance Foundation's 10th Annual Ping Pong Ball
Here’s the video (5:53).

Estefanía Ramirios Is Still Linked To Table Tennis, But From The Work Field
Here’s the article.

Major League Table Tennis
Follow the action!

New from the National Collegiate TTA

New from USATT

New from ITTF

Ping Pong Legend
Here’s where you can buy the shirt at Target!

Adam vs. India's Golden Girl
Here’s the video (14:17) from Adam Bobrow! “Manika Batra has set a new standard for table tennis in India. She's a superstar, the greatest female player in India's history... and a good friend.”

Trump Table Tennis Cartoons by Me
Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a fan of Trump. Here are five Trump cartoons I created. The first four involve table tennis; the last one does not except that it involves China, which dominates table tennis. If you are a Trump fan, perhaps just move along. (Here are all of my cartoons, including several more Trump cartoons. I also wrote Trump Tales: A Taunting.)

Mostly Non-Table Tennis – Two Stories Published, Three Sales, Five New Stories, and More Table Tennis Tips
“Southern Truths” is out just in time for the election! (I also wrote about this last week.) It’s a rather politicized anthology of stories about the South, but the focus is on their rather different politics, from presidential politics to guns. I have a story in it, “It's Election Day in Texas and I'm a Democrat Rarin' to Vote.” While obviously political, it mostly pokes fun at Republicans as a black Democrat tries to vote and faces non-stop obstacles in an over-the-top way. It’s received four ratings so far, all five-star, and two reviews – and one of the reviews is titled, “Larry Hodges is Funny.” (I have no idea who the reviewer is.) It says of my story, “While the book is good, the Larry Hodges story about a Black man voting in Texas was, literally laugh out loud funny. I won't put any spoilers here, but it was great.”

Also just out is “Ruth and Ann's Guide to Time Travel, Volume II.” (For some reason the cover image isn’t showing up in the print version – I’m sure they’ll fix that soon.) It includes my story, “Life and Death and Bongo Drums.” Life and Death show up at a man’s bedside, explaining that he’ll someday invent a time machine, go back in time and try to kill Hitler, and be tortured to death before he’s born, causing repercussions that bump up and down the eternal timeline. How will they fix this problem, and why are bongo drums the key to everything?

On top of this, I sold three new science fiction or fantasy stories this week!

  • “The Dragon, the Knight, and the Red-Eyed Flying Unicorn” sold to Dragon Soul’s Dragon Legends anthology.
  • “Prissy and the Rude Fly” sold to Flash Fiction Magazine.
  • “The Oysters of Pinctada” sold to Hemelein Press’s “For Glory and Honor” anthology.

Equally good, after weeks of playing around with them, I also finalized five new stories. I tend to write a story, put it aside and write another, and keep doing this until I have a few, then go back and forth with them as I keep rewriting until I think they are just right, then spend a long day or two doing final proofing. The five are titled: Thirty-Five Genie Heads on a Wall; The Santa Subjugation; The Old Man and the Story; The Red Patrol; and Big Sticks.

But this is a table tennis blog – so perhaps of greater interest to you is I’ve written Tips of the Week now through the end of January!

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