September 2, 2011

Develop an Overpowering Strength and Ways to Use It

This article, now online at Butterflyonline.com, was originally a Tip of the Week from back in February, but I added some stuff from Coach Jack Huang (one of my co-coaches at MDTTC), and sent it in to Butterfly, who published it yesterday. (You even get to see a picture of me and my "devastating" forehand!) A related article is How to Move Up a Level, which explains the five things you need to do to improve a level, with #5 about finding that overpowering strength and ways to use it.

Back update - I'm back!

Yesterday I got the okay from my physical therapist to resume table tennis activities as long as I go easy on it. I can finally hit with my students! For the last couple weeks I've had others come in to do my hitting.

Originally I was going to take six weeks off, but the therapist thought three weeks would be enough, and now, after two weeks, after examining my back, said I'm ready. It's been a busy two weeks; I've been doing a ten-minute stretching and strengthening routine three times a day, and meeting with the therapist twice a week for a more rigorous routine.

For now, I'll just do easy stuff  - multiball, blocking and easy countering, and perhaps I'll do a few easy loops just to test it out. Surprisingly, the back rotation from my forehand pendulum serve (along with looping) put the most strain on my back; I'll test that out. Playing games also put a lot of strain as I wouldn't know where the next ball was going and often did last-second moves that strained the back - and this was even more true even when playing beginners, since they spray the ball randomly all over.

So you want to be a better table tennis coach?

PATT (that's Principles Approach to Table Tennis) tells you how with their article, How To Become a Better Table Tennis Coach. They also sell two books on table tennis, "PATT - A Principles Approach to Table Tennis" and "PATT Notes - Volume I," both written by USATT National Coach Donn Olsen. These are rather theoretical books that try to develop the basic principles of table tennis and apply them as "a foundation for exceptional play" (the subtitle of the first book).

Interview with German National Coach Richard Prause

From Matt Hetherington's blog.

Virginia Beach Tournament for the Homeless

The Annual PingPongforPOVERTY.com Charity Tournament will be held Sept. 30 - Oct. 1 in Virginia Beach. Here's an article about it. "The event is open to all age groups and skill levels from beginner to expert. It's a great time to get a new pingpong table too, as all the tables are either auctioned off or sold and proceeds go directly to PIN." (People in Need Homeless Ministry of Virginia Beach.)

Illegal hidden serves

Here's video, pictures, and discussion of World Men's Doubles Champion Xu Xin illegal hidden serve, which, like other world-class players with such serves, is rarely if ever called. The fact that he's a lefty only makes it easier to hide the serve. I'm linking to this one because this is the one someone chose to use as an example; they could just as easily have used most other world-class players, since most at least sometimes hide their serves.

Counterlooping extraordinaire

Here's an incredible counterlooping point between Wang Hao and Ma Long (1:05).

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