October 24, 2011

Tip of the Week

Feet at more than shoulder width.

The Technique of Zhang Jike

There was a nice posting recently at mytabletennis.com by "blahness" that linked to numerous videos of World Men's Singles Champion Zhang Jike of China, highlighting his many techniques. Here are those links - to see blahness's own excellent commentary, see the link above.

Good coaches and bad coaches

When I browse the online table tennis forums, sometimes I don't look at the name of the writer at first. Recently I noticed something. I kept reading things that I disagreed with - and over and over I'd look up at the name, and it would be the same people.  No, they were not "name" coaches, and no, they hadn't developed any top players, but they had a lot of armchair theories that aren't particularly effective in real table tennis, techniques that had been tried and, usually for very specific reasons, didn't work, and that, to be blunt, were just plain wrong. Yes, there are always a few examples of a "failed" technique that later on became successful, such as reverse penhold backhands or receiving short balls to the forehand with the backhand (mostly against backhand serve type sidespin), but they are very few; for every example of this, there are countless examples of techniques that some online "coach" argues for that you should avoid. For it to work, the technique has to be used successfully, and until that happens, use caution in developing your game based on unorthodox techniques that some online "coach" preaches.  

Most of the "name" coaches do know their stuff (sorry, anti-elitists!), but more interesting than that are the small group of lower-level (or just unknown) players who really do know what they are talking about. (The key is knowing what you don't know, and sticking with what you do know.) Moral - be careful what you read out there. Some of the more prolific writers giving table tennis tips know as much about table tennis coaching as I do about how an automobile engine works. (There's a gerbil on a spinning wheel, right?)

Interview with Timo Boll

Table Tennis Talk interviews Timo Boll after he wins the recent European Championships.

New Olympic rule hurts China, helps everyone else

New rule - countries will only be allowed two players at the Olympics, meaning China can only win two medals, which leaves one for the rest of the world. Link also includes a video of England's Paul Drinkhall on mind games (2:20).

Friday exhibition and coaching

On Friday about 20 kids (ages 5-10) from a local school came to the Maryland Table Tennis Center for two hours. I did a humorous exhibition with Raghu Nadmichettu. Then, after a short demonstration and talk on the grip and basic strokes, we put them in two groups, half with me, half with Raghu, for multiball, with us feeding two of them at a time, and the rest picking up balls. Then we played a game of around the world, the kids going around three tables between shots, three misses and they're out. Then it was free play for about an hour. I spent much of it on one table challenging the kids to return my "fastball," which is what I call my fast topspin serve. They were very determined, and every now and then one would do so, and I would give them "The Glare." (I let them know where the ball was going or they would have had zero chance.) Hopefully some of them will be back.

Micronesia and McAfee

USATT Coaching Chair Richard McAfee just ran a training camp in Micronesia - that's somewhere between the Philippines and Indonesia, but you knew that, right? Here's the ITTF story. As I pointed out to Richard, there's something really right about outdoor table tennis on grass.

Ping-Pong for Poverty

Here's a video (1:47) on the Ping-Pong for Poverty in Virginia Beach, which starts with a rather spectacular emptying of a few zillion ping-pong balls out of a car. They raised $100,000 over three years, including $60,000 this year. That's Scott and Austin Preiss doing the exhibition.

A crow trying to eat a ping-pong ball

Because how else would you spend the next sixteen seconds of your life?

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Send us your own coaching news!

mjamja Mon, 10/24/2011 - 15:29

Maybe for another "Tip of the Week" you could highlight some of those "failed" techniques and theories that seem to keep getting recycled.  That could be very helpful for those of us who have to get so much of our coaching over the internet.

Mark

Profile picture for user Larry Hodges
Larry Hodges Mon, 10/24/2011 - 15:38

Hi Mark, I might do that, but with great reservation. The minute I do, certain very vocal online "coaches" will be all over me like a swarm of wasps, lecturing me about having a closed mind, etc. I've been through this in online forums. I actually have dealt with these issues in the Tips and in the Blog, I just haven't mentioned the "alternative" techniques that some argue, so readers didn't realize it at the time. 

mjamja Tue, 10/25/2011 - 00:40

Thanks Larry,

Maybe something without much elaboration or "for/against" arguments. 

List opposing concepts, identify which one you follow, and maybe indicate if one or the other is an older concept that has fallen out of favor or is a new concept that has not generally been accepted yet.  I have been into TT only recently so I really do not have much historical perspective to use when viewing some of these ideas.

Another thing that I would find interesting to see discussed is the idea of "group dependent concepts".  I am sure there is a better name for it but what I mean is that certain techniques/concepts work well in concert with each other, but do not mix well with others.  In golf I think there is a "single plane" swing theory and a "double plane" swing theory.   There are specific things you need to do in each theory if you use that type of swing.  Each can produce good results, but if you mix parts from each theory it can really mess up your swing.  In bowling there are crankers and strokers.  Crankers use a completely different timing and shoulder movement than strokers.  Each can produce great results, but if you use crankers timing with a strokers swing you get really bad results.  I was wondering if there is something like that in table tennis.  From watching a lot of ITTF videos I would think there might be a set of "close to table play" concepts that do not mix well with "mid distance play" concepts.   To my untrained eye a lot of the mid-distance counter-looping strokes look more like close to table looping underspin strokes than they do to close to the table counter-looping strokes.  I have also heard the terms "mens footwork" vs "womens footwork" which I assume is partly due to women's play being more close to table and mens being more mid distance.  Maybe there are other opposing groups to consider as well.

Since I know you hardly ever have anything you really want to talk about I just thought I might make a little suggestion :)

Mark

Profile picture for user Larry Hodges
Larry Hodges Thu, 10/27/2011 - 05:00

List opposing concepts, identify which one you follow, and maybe indicate if one or the other is an older concept that has fallen out of favor or is a new concept that has not generally been accepted yet.  I have been into TT only recently so I really do not have much historical perspective to use when viewing some of these ideas.

Examples of this might include how the classical penhold backhand has been replaced by the reverse penhold backhand; backhand looping from higher up instead of from between the legs; and backhand receives of short balls to the forehand.

Another thing that I would find interesting to see discussed is the idea of "group dependent concepts".  I am sure there is a better name for it but what I mean is that certain techniques/concepts work well in concert with each other, but do not mix well with others.

Probably the best example of this in table tennis would be different techniques for loopers and pips-out players. There are quite a few differences there. I still remember a "top" coach from China who had only coached pips-out penholders in China trying to coach inverted shakehand loopers, and teaching a mixture of techniques that didn't mix well. 

One thing that some coaches, players, and spectators lament is that more and more, top players are beginning to diverge to using the same techniques. There are a huge number of differences, but not as many as in the past. The game has gotten so fast that only the most efficient techniques survive; anything that slows a player down even slightly is like a world-class sprinter who stumbles at the start of a race, and has no chance.