August 24, 2012
MDTTC Camp, Week Eleven, Day Four
Today's the final day of our eleven-week summer camp marathon. We had three new players join us yesterday (but three also left), giving us an even 40 players in the camp. I gave lectures on the backhand drive and flip against backspin (including banana flip, which I talk about in my February 15, 2012 blog), the backhand loop, and on third-ball attack.
In the lecture on third-ball attack I went over the serves different styles should favor. For example, a looper might want to serve a lot of short backspin and no-spin, with sidespin serves mixed in as well as occasional deep serves. A hitter might want to serve more sidespin and topspin, and challenge the receiver with more deep serves, especially breaking ones into the backhand. However, it's different for different players. For example, some loopers prefer looping against backspin (and so would serve more backspin), while others prefer looping against topspin, and so might serve more sidespin and topspin. I also spoke about depth - short serves, half-long serves (where the second bounce is right about the end-line), and long serves (where first bounce is near the end-line). Over and over I stressed that the purpose of the serve was to get the inniative, not just to get the ball into play.
I also spoke about the importance of "trick" serves, where you have some serves you throw at opponent for "free" points. Your typical trick serve will work a few times before the opponent figures it out. If you don't have any such tricky serves, then you are giving away potentially free points; it's like spotting your opponent points. The problem with trick serves is once an opponent gets used to them, they are often easier to attack then other serves since most go long and can be looped, and so they should be used only a few times. (So focus on third-ball serves that allow you to get the innitiative.) Trick serves work best at the beginning and intermediate levels, but they are effective even at the advanced levels if used sporadically and at the right time. Examples of trick serves are a fast no-spin serve at the elbow or a tomahawk serve (a forehand serve with racket tip up) deep to the forehand so it breaks away from the receiver, causing him to reach for the ball and often miss-hitting off the end and side.
I'm still in the neck brace. The most comfortable position is with my head back, nose in the air, which leads me to believe that stuck-up people aren't really stuck up; they just have whiplash.
Table Tennis Graphic Designers Wanted!
Uberpong is looking for graphic designers to create table tennis designs. "Are you a graphic designer, illustrator or just a wizard with crayons? Do you want your design to appear on an Uberpong ping pong paddle (table tennis bat)? We need you!!"
Clash of Titans
Here's a video (4:09) that contrasts Jan-Ove Waldner versus Ma Long.
As One
You can now watch the movie "As One" online, with English subtitles. It's the movie about the unified Korean women's team winning at the 1991 World Championships. Here's the IMDB info page.
New World Rankings
Here's an article on the new World Rankings, and here are the rankings themselves. The article includes a link to a video of the Olympic Men's Final between Zhang Jike and Wang Hao for those who missed it.
Ping-Pong with Giraffes
In honor of my neck problems, here are all the ping-pong and giraffe connections I could find.
- Here's a Facebook page entitled "Playing Ping-Pong with Giraffes." In the "About" section it says "Like this if you like playing ping pong with giraffes."
- Here are drawings of a giraffe looking at a ping-pong table and racket with the caption, "Giraffe is confused by ping-pong paddle." (See pictures 10-12.)
- Here's a child's book called "Big Max and the Mystery of the Missing Giraffe." In the description, it says that while searching for the giraffe, Detective Big Max finds some lions playing ping-pong.
- Here's a plastic toy giraffe sold online. No ping-pong mentioned, right? Look at the web address - it's sold by ping-pong-online.de!
- Here's a page for the upcoming Paralympic Table Tennis Games, Aug. 30 - Sept. 10, 2012, in London. Where's the giraffe connection? Again, look at the web address - dancinggiraffe.com!
- Here's an Australian booklet entitled "How to Draw a Ping Pong Playing Alien Giraffe." Unfortunately, it's currently unavailable.
- Here's an online game called "Bomb Table Tennis" - brought to you by Giraffe Free Games!
- Here's a place that arranges vacations - and their advertising says, "Whether you’re after breakfast with giraffes, the world’s hotspots for food, table tennis or underwater cave exploration, you’ll find something to inspire your next journey in this week’s roundup from NotVentures."
- Here's a hotel in Krakow, Poland called the Giraffe Hostel, which offers table tennis as an activity.
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