August 21, 2012

MDTTC Camp, Week Eleven, Day One

It's the first day of the last week. This camp is full - well over 30 players. I gave lectures on the forehand, on doubles, and on serving. Sometimes I only coach in the mornings at our camps, but because of the numbers, I'll be there all day all five days.

In the first half of the morning session I did multiball with seven players. One was a "blast from the past" - sort of. Back when I was in North Carolina from 1979-81 (when I was 19 to 21 years old), I used to hit a lot with Walter Wintermute, a 1900+ lefty all-out attacker, who was two years younger than me. (He's now rated over 2000.) He was a really nice guy, and we even played doubles together a few times. Now his son, David, 14, already rated over 1800, is at our camp and was in my group. He looks almost exactly like his father 30+ years ago! They even have the same long hair style. According to David, however, his dad is on him to cut it. Walter, by the power invested in me as a table tennis coach, I hereby give David permission to keep his hair long at least until the age when you cut yours!!! (That should bring him at least into his 20's.)

I spent much of the second half working with two new juniors. One was a lefty penholder who wasn't sure whether to play his backhand conventional or reverse penhold. I recommended he learn the reverse version, and he seemed to do it pretty well. On the forehand, however, he had this nasty habit of lifting his elbow and wrist as he stroked, and so his racket would close as he hit the ball. We spent a lot of time trying to undo that habit. We're going to focus on that for a while.

The other new junior hit forehands with just his arm, and had an awkward low grip, with a big gap between his hand and the paddle, and his finger almost straight down the middle. We fixed the grip, got him to rotate his shoulders, and his forehand really came alive - he was smacking in shots by late afternoon. On the backhand, however, he tended to sort of slap at the ball, often hitting with backspin. We fixed that, but he's still having trouble generating any pace - most of his backhands are pretty soft. But the technique is now sound, and I'm confident his backhand will really come alive in the next few days. One thought is to have him hit some with pips-out sponge, which forces a player to stroke more. But we'll see how he does tomorrow.

The Legend of "B"

"B" is a player whose name I'm not going to give out, but we're having a lot of fun with it. He's a little kid who started in a group session. He's doing fine. However, a couple other kids who knew him but were in different group sessions asked about him. I told them how "B" was incredible, how his forehand was already as good as the coaches, and went on and on. And so the legend of "B" began. Now we take turns talking about The Legend of B as we take turns exaggerating his greatness. We're at the point where the best players in the world can sometimes see his shots, but usually can only hear them as they go by for winners.

Drill Your Skills with the Chinese National Team

Here are a couple of nice coaching videos on serving. They are taught by Chinese National Team Member Xu Ruifeng.

Washington Post Feature on MDTTC on USATT Home Page

Yep, we're famous now! (Presumably we'll still be on the USATT front page when you read this.) Make sure to check out both the video and article.

Levitating Table?

Here's the picture. The online translation (Spanish to English) of the caption says, "Bureau in period of experimentation. Is installed with a remote control, and it picks up on the wall in the same way. The technique to keep it in a permanent state of levitation and leveled to the ground 0.76 cts prosecutable parallel to a agency to the NASA that has been inspired by the utensils used for their huge ships."

Outdoor Ping-Pong

Umpires - don't you need a free hand?

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