June 20, 2012
Day Two at the MDTTC Camp - the Backhand
There are just over 30 players in the camp, ranging from beginner to 2400, from age 7 to 24. Today's focus was on the backhand, though of course that varied from player to player. I did a backhand demo with Tong Tong Gong where he and I went at it backhand to backhand. I am happy to say I smacked about three dozen consecutive backhands at full speed, an incredible display of advanced backhand prowess. I am unhappy to say that Tong Tong did three dozen plus one. Yeah, I finally missed.
So how's your backhand? Do you tend to keep the racket tip down? (This is for shakehanders.) This gives you extra power and can turn your backhand into almost a second forehand. However, it may cost you control and quickness, and make you weaker in the middle. Do you tend to keep the racket tip more up? That'll give you extra quickness and control, and make it easier to cover the middle. To use two classic examples, Jan-Ove Waldner tended to keep his tip up a bit while Jorgen Persson kept his down. (If you don't know these two Swedish world champions, google them.) Jim Butler is another player who keeps his racket tip down, giving him a great backhand smash. Dave Sakai is an example of a player who keeps his racket tip more up, giving him a great backhand counter-hitting and blocking game.
These days, at the world-class level, most players loop almost everything on both backhand and forehand, and so they tend to keep the racket tip down.
I pointed out to the campers that we've run over 150 five-day camps, which comes out to over two years of camps. Yes, I've spent two years of my life running these things. They were suitably impressed.
USA's Kanak Jha wins ITTF Hopes Challenge
Challenge the brain with table tennis
Here's an table tennis graphic with Spanish captions. Here is the English translation from an online translator - see #6! ("Apparently"?)
Six Steps to Exercise the Brain
1. Play an instrument, play, not only listen, strengthens the neural pathways.
2. Learn another language. Pay attention to hear another language sharpens the brain functions.
3. Juggle.
4. Dance. Memorize the dance steps improved the memory balance and posture.
5. Put together puzzles. Improve your concentration.
6. Table Tennis. Apparently this sport requires very fine movements that challenge the brain.
London Olympics/Coca-Cola Commercial
And it features table tennis! It's a mixture of music video and coke commercial (4:28). The table tennis player is Darius Knight of the English table tennis team.
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