By Stanley Popovich

At times, our worries and anxieties can overwhelm us. In addition, our worries can distort our perception of what is reality and what is not. As a result, this may interfere with your sport of table tennis.  Here is a brief list of techniques that a table tennis player can use to help gain a better perspective on things during their anxious moments.

Sometimes we get stressed out when everything happens all at once. When this happens, a person should take a deep breath and try to find something to do for a few minutes to get their mind off of the problem. A person could read the newspaper, listen to some music or do an activity that will give them a fresh perspective on things. This is a great technique to use right before your next event.

Remember that our fearful thoughts are exaggerated and can make the problem worse. A good way to manage your worry is to challenge your negative thinking with positive statements and realistic thinking. When encountering thoughts that make you fearful or anxious, challenge those thoughts by asking yourself questions that will maintain objectivity and common sense.

Remember that all the worrying in the world will not change anything. Most of what we worry about never comes true. Instead of worrying about something that probably won’t happen, concentrate on what you are able to do.

Another technique that is very helpful is to have a small notebook of positive statements that you can carry around with you. Whenever you come across an affirmation that makes you feel good, write it down in a small notebook that you can carry around with you. Whenever you feel stressed before your event, open up your small notebook and read those statements. This will help to manage your negative thinking.

In every anxiety-related situation you experience, begin to learn what works, what doesn’t work, and what you need to improve on in managing your fears and anxieties. For instance, you have a lot of anxiety before your event and you decide to take a walk to help you feel better. The next time you feel anxious you can remind yourself that you got through it the last time by taking a walk. This will give you the confidence to manage your anxiety the next time around.

Take advantage of the help that is available around you. If possible, talk to a professional who can help you manage your fears and anxieties. They will be able to provide you with additional advice and insights on how to deal with your current problem. By talking to a professional, a person will be helping themselves in the long run because they will become better able to deal with their problems in the future. Remember that it never hurts to ask for help.

It is not easy to deal with all of our fears and worries. When your fears and anxieties have the best of you, try to calm down and then get the facts of the situation. The key is to take it slow. All you can do is to do your best each day, hope for the best, and when something does happen, take it in stride. Take it one step at a time and things will work out.

BIOGRAPHY:

Stan Popovich is the author of “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods” – an easy to read book that presents a general overview of techniques that are effective in managing persistent fears and anxieties. For additional information go to: http://www.managingfear.com/

Sample Video Analysis #2

By Larry Hodges

January 7, 2011

Subject is a lefty, mid-40s, rated about 1750 (USA ratings), shakehands with inverted on both sides.

Sample Video Analysis #1

By Larry Hodges

Dec. 8, 2010

Subject is 19, rated about 2150 (USA ratings), shakeshands with inverted on both sides.

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By Larry Hodges

General Tournament Information 

I’m thinking of entering my first USATT tournament. What do I need to know?

You need to know where the tournament is and the type and format of events held, and how the tournament rating system works. You also need to know about tournament etiquette. You could also probably use a few tips to help you play your best. These and other questions are answered below.

How can I find out when and where USATT tournaments are being held? (This is for USA tournaments.)

See the USATT Tournament Schedule.

What are the fees and requirements to play in a tournament?

There are three fees. First, all players must be members of USA Table Tennis, which (circa 2011) is $49/year for adults, $25/year for those under 18, with other amounts for household, college, or for three years. You can join USATT at the tournament site. Second, there are the event fees for each event you enter. Third, there is the tournament processing fee ($10, circa 2011), to cover the processing of ratings and registration.

What types of events are held at tournaments? Are there events where I would be competitive?

There are events for all levels and various ages. You may be eligible for one of the age events, which normally include Under 10, Under 13, Under 16, Under 18 and Under 22 for boys and girls, and Over 40, Over 50 and Over 60 for senior players. You can also enter the Open, if you are very good or very brave. There is also Women’s Singles.

However, for most players in their first tournament, there is a better option. USA Table Tennis (USATT), the national governing body for table tennis in the U.S., has a national rating system, and all matches in USATT sanctioned tournaments are rated. Most events in tournaments are actually “rating events,” where players must have a rating under a certain limit to be eligible. For example, in an Under 1400 event, you must be rated 1399 or lower to be eligible.

The best players in the country are around 2700. An average tournament player is in the 1400-1800 range. A beginner is usually in the 200-1000 range. NATT has events starting with Under 800/Novice (which is open to unrated players), and continuing up every 125 to 150 points to Under 2500. Whatever your level, there is an event for you. (More on ratings below.)

What is the format for the various events?

The most common format of tournament events is an initial round robin of 3-5 players, with the winners of each group advancing to single elimination. Some events are single elimination from the start.

What is a “Round Robin”?

A round robin is where a group of players each plays all of the other players in the group. If there are four in the group, each player will play the other three.

What are rating doubles events?

Most tournaments have doubles events with a rating cutoff, such as Under 3200 or Under 4200. This means the two players’ combined ratings must be under the cutoff. Unrated players cannot play in a rating doubles event – another reason to establish a rating!

Are there prizes for winning an event?

The finalists in all events get either a trophy or prize money – see the entry form for each specific event. (In the Open event, there is usually prize money for the final eight or final 16.)

Is there a dress code?

Yes, but it’s pretty lenient. Shirts and shorts (women may wear skirts), with the color not matching the ball’s color. (The entry form for each tournament lists the ball’s color, which is always white or orange.) Most players wear warm-ups (unless it’s hot), but remove them to play. Wear rubber-soled athletic shoes. Some referees won’t allow you to wear a hat.

Are there rules on what equipment I may use?

You must use USATT approved rackets and surfaces – but most rackets and surfaces are USATT approved. Two rules that first-timers are not always aware of is that sandpaper is illegal, and that the racket must be black on one side, red on the other. (The former damages the ball; the latter is so players can’t use two very different surfaces and fool their opponent by flipping the racket.) The control desk will provide balls. 

What’s the difference between the tournament director, the referee, and an umpire?

The tournament director runs the tournament. The referee makes sure the rules are followed (both by players and the tournament staff in setting up and running the tournament), and is the final say in all matters pertaining to rules. Umpires are assigned for some matches, and they keep score and enforce the rules for the match they are assigned to.

When I arrive at the tournament, what do I do?

Make sure to come at least 30 minutes before your first match. (The entry form will list when your event starts.) When you arrive, check in at registration, and you’ll get a player’s schedule, which tells you when and where your matches will be. At smaller tournaments there will not normally be a printed schedule and players are called when their match is ready to be played.When it’s time for a match, go to the control desk to pick up the match slip (which is on a clipboard with a pen) and ball. You’ll meet your opponent there, and the two of you will then go off to the appointed table to do battle. When the match is over, the winner of the match returns the match slip (with the scores of the match written in) to the control desk, along with the ball.

Tournament Ratings

How does the USATT rating system work?

A complete description is online at the USATT Ratings Pages. The system is similar to chess. In each match, there is an “exchange” in rating points, with the winner going up, the loser going down. (If the players are more than 237 points apart, there is no exchange.) If a higher rated player beats a lower rated player, there is only a small exchange of points. If a lower rated player upsets a stronger player, there is a larger exchange of points. If a player has a very good tournament, he may be adjusted upwards. The goal, of course, is to get your rating as high as possible! 

Will I be able to play in rating events in my first tournament, since I’m unrated?

Yes, but you cannot advance out of your initial round robin if you are unrated, except in the Novice event. Once you have established a rating, you are set and can advance in any rating event you are eligible for the rest of your life! So it’s usually good to enter a couple of rating events, just to get the matches in the preliminaries to establish a rating. Most round robin groups are four players, so you’ll typically get three matches.

After I play in my first tournament, when will I be rated?

It usually takes about two weeks after a tournament for it to be rated. Once the tournament is processed, the ratings will go online at the ratings page for USATT, which is linked to their home page at www.usatt.org.  Your name and rating will also be published in USA Table Tennis Magazine, the national magazine for table tennis, which comes out every two months. USA Table Tennis has about 8000 members, nearly all of them rated.

Who runs the USATT ratings?

North American Table Tennis is contracted by USATT to run the rating system. They also run many of the major tournaments in the U.S.

Tournament Etiquette…

…Warming up

At most tournaments, all or most of the tables are used for matches. To warm up, you wait until a match is completed, and then that table is available for practice until another match is scheduled on it – so it’s yours until two players with a match slip show up. If there is a shortage of tables to warm up on, players can practice four to a table, with each pair taking a diagonal and hitting corner to corner.

…Before the match

Be on time for your match – you have a schedule, so use it! It’s not nice to keep an opponent waiting. When you meet your opponent at the control desk, it’s customary to shake hands. Come ready to play – make sure to warm up with someone before going to the control desk for the match.

If it’s a round robin event, then you’ll be playing several other players. There should be a playing schedule on the round robin sheet – make sure to play in order, unless a player is missing. If a player is missing, let the control desk know, and then play the next match that can be played. After about 15 minutes, if a player doesn’t show, the referee will default him.

Before the match begins, you are allowed to examine your opponent’s racket to see what type of equipment he is using. Don’t start a match without knowing what your opponent is using – inverted, short pips, long pips, antispin, hardbat, and all the possible combinations (since a racket has two surfaces). (If you don’t know what these surfaces are, you need to ask an experienced player or coach about them. It’s best to ask about it before you find out the hard way in a tournament match!)

Once you are at the table, you and your opponent are allowed to warm up for two minutes. It is customary during this time to hit “forehand to forehand” and “backhand to backhand,” corner to corner, to warm up and groove these two strokes. More advanced players may also warm up their “loop” (a heavy topspin shot).

 

Once both players are ready (or two minutes has passed), you have to figure out who serves first. By the rules, you flip a coin. In the great majority of matches, it is customary for one player to simply hide the ball in one hand under the table, and the other chooses which hand it is in. The winner gets choice of serving or receiving or  which end to start play on, [or may choose to let the other choose first.] Then the other player gets to choice whatever is left (service order or sides).

…During the match

It is generally considered impolite to talk to an opponent during a match, except to clear up who serves, what the score is, or similar issues. If you know your opponent, or if he seems willing to talk, then of course that’s up to the two of you.

During a match, some players become somewhat … animated. There’s nothing wrong with being a bit high spirited, but don’t go overboard and start screaming or (worse) swearing. Remember, it’s only a game!

If you or your opponent has a coach during the match, note that coaching is only allowed between games and during a legal timeout. Also, only one person may coach a player during a match.

If, by some chance, you and your opponent have a dispute of any sort, you need to call for the referee, who can make a ruling and/or assign an umpire for the match.

…After the match

Always shake hands. If your opponent had a coach, shake his hand as well. If you had an umpire for the match, shake his hand. When in doubt, shake everybody’s hand!

Check to make sure the scores were written properly in the match slip, and then the winner returns it (along with the ball) to the control desk. If it’s just one match in the middle of a round robin, then you have to wait until all matches are played before the group’s winner returns it to the control desk.

…Spectating

Make sure to find out early on when the big matches will be played. You don’t want to miss them! This is your chance to see how the “big boys” play. You should be relatively quiet during points, but cheer your head off after the point is over, especially if it was a great point. Never boo – it’s considered in poor taste in table tennis.

…Photography & Videos

You are allowed to take photos during a match, but never use flash in a tournament – it affects play. Stay outside the court when taking photos, but you can get as close to the barriers as you can get as long as you don’t go past them. You might want to let the tournament director know in advance you are taking pictures.

…Videotaping

It is normally OK to videotape both your matches and others, including the big matches. However, at some tournaments, videotaping of major matches is prohibited. Check with the tournament director or control desk if you aren’t sure.

How to Play Your Best

Here are a few tips to help you have a successful tournament.

• Get plenty of sleep.
• Eat lots of carbohydrate foods just before and during the tournament, and get plenty of liquids. You might consider bringing your own food and sports drinks.
• Get a good warm-up before you play. Ideally, arrange the day before to meet with a practice partner you are comfortable with to warm up with. The entry form says when your event starts, so be there at least 30 minutes in advance. If it’s your first tournament, you probably want to come an hour early.
• Play lots of practice matches in the last few days before the tournament
• Practice your serves!
• Get a coach. See online coaching list.
• Playing well should be your goal, not winning. If you play well, the wins will come.
• Watch and listen to the top players, and you’ll learn a lot.

 

By Larry Hodges

During the hardbat era, serving was generally not a major weapon. Service technique simply had not been developed to the degree that it has in the sponge game. This makes sense, since you can’t get as much spin with a hardbat, and so you are more limited in what you can do. However, in the sponge era, service techniques have reached an extremely high level, and these techniques are only now beginning to spread to the hardbat game.

First, a reality check. Unlike the sponge game, you aren’t going to dominate with your serve against players your own level. However, you can use modern serve techniques to both take the initiative when serving against your peers, and to dominate against many weaker players, thereby avoiding upsets.

It’s assumed, for this article, that you know how to serve with spin, and have some knowledge of modern serve techniques. If you don’t … well, you can always emulate the great hardbat masters, and serve just to get the ball in play! However, if you want to use your serve to take the initiative against your peers, and dominate against weaker players, learn some modern serving techniques, and then follow these tips.

Contact: with sponge, the key to spin is to just graze the ball with a grippy surface, knowing that the surface will grab the ball. If you use the same technique with a hardbat, the ball will slide some, and you’ll get less spin. With a hardbat, you need to contact the ball with the racket moving slower – and then accelerate through the ball. It helps to slightly push the rubber into the ball to lengthen contact and increase grippiness so you can maximize the spin.

Spin vs. Deception: Since you really can’t get nearly as much spin with a hardbat as with sponge, it is often more important to be deceptive than to go for pure spin. Right at contact, change directions, so the opponent has trouble figuring, for example, if you are serving light sidespin-backspin or light sidespin-topspin. Hardbat is a game of precision, and it only takes a little to throw the opponent off enough to force a slightly high ball to attack and take the initiative.

Height: Many sponge players have lost the art of flipping short balls, since inverted is not the best surface for doing that. However, hardbat is the best surface for doing this. Therefore, it is extremely important to serve low in hardbat. To do so, contact the ball low to the table. If you contact the ball too high, the ball will bounce high. Many players serve too high and don’t realize it until they find their serve getting attacked in a tournament.

Depth: Very short, low serves are very effective, both with spin and with no-spin, with a fake spin motion. However, many players find fast & deep serves even more effective, especially if mixed in with short ones. Some players can go after fast & deep serves, but not most. By serving deep, you have more time to see the incoming ball, more time to react, and there will be less angle on the return. Plus, you don’t have to worry about inverted loops! By serving fast, you rush the opponent, and force him to return with his weaker side if you choose. Be ready to follow a fast & deep serve with a strong drive or smash.

Look for Weaknesses: In sponge, you can cover for a weakness with other shots. It’s harder to do that in hardbat, which by its very nature forces longer rallies, allowing you to probe for and find opponent’s weaknesses. The same is true of serve return. Most players have at least one type of serve that they aren’t particularly comfortable returning (as well as at least one that they are very comfortable against!), so find what serves give your opponent trouble – and find it as early in the match as possible.

Choppers: Choppers often make the mistake of just serving to get the ball in play. That’s throwing away an advantage. Instead, put pressure on your opponent with tricky serves, and never let him know if you are going to chop or attack. If you can’t react or move fast enough to be able to choose between attacking or chopping depending on the return, decide before serving, and be decisive for that one shot. (Then fall back and chop if you don’t see a quick putaway.)

By Larry Hodges

Everybody has at least one serve that gives them trouble. It might be a certain sidespin, or a deep serve, a short serve, a no-spin serve, an angled serve, etc. The question is what to do against these problem serves?

By Larry Hodges

When receiving, many players are either overly aggressive or too passive. It's important to find the middle range. However, it is even more important to understand that it is consistency, placement and variation that are most important.

By Larry Hodges

We will define a "short" serve as any serve that, given the chance, would bounce at least twice on the receiver's side of the table before going off the end. Any serve that doesn't do this will be considered a "long" serve.

To attack short serves to the forehand, you will need to develop a forehand flip. The shot can be demonstrated by any top player or coach, or you can learn about it in most table tennis books.

By Larry Hodges

Returning serves effectively takes longer to learn to do than any other part of the game. This is due to the incredible variations in spin, speed, direction and depth available to servers. Worse, a good server disguises every aspect of the serve, especially the spin. We're going to focus the most difficult part here - reading spin. (For more info on spin, see my article Everything You Wanted to Know About Spin - But Were Afraid to Ask.)

Ideally, a player should read the spin off the server's racket. No matter how many motions a server goes through, all a receiver has to do is read the direction of the racket at contact, and he will have read the type of spin. This is easier said than done.

The receiver also needs to read the amount of spin. Against a somewhat grippy inverted rubber, this is roughly done by a simple formula: racket speed - ball speed = ball spin. What this means is that a server's racket speed at contact will convert to ball speed and ball spin; if the racket moves fast, but the ball comes out slowly, then most of the energy has been converted to spin. (It's actually a bit more complicated than this. You get more spin if you accelerate into the ball rather than moving the racket at a constant speed, but it's close enough. Plus you have to take into consideration the grippiness of the rubber, as a non-grippy surface will have less spin.) 

A server disguises spin in three major ways. First, his racket may go through a semi-circular motion, with contact at any point on the curve. This way, a server may give different spins with the exact same serve motion - the only difference is where in the serve motion contact is made. At the advanced levels, this semi-circular motion is so short and quick it's very hard to pick up. 

Second, a server may disguise spin by mixing up spin and no-spin serves. (If a receiver thinks there is spin on the ball, and there isn't, it's the same as misreading a spin.) There are two ways the server may do this. A server may contact the ball near the throat of the racket, where the racket travels slower than the tip. Or he may fake a grazing motion, but just pat the ball with the racket straight on. In both cases, the server may use an exaggerated racket snap after contact.

Third, the server may put so much spin on the ball that it is simply difficult to read the amount of spin.

The only way to learn to return serves is to understand them, and to practice against them. So how do you read the spin?

As your opponent is serving, keep your eyes on his racket. (Against a high-toss serve, you may glance up to see when the ball will be coming down - but as it comes down, you should be watching the racket.) Ignore the direction the racket is moving until contact. Then, right at contact - SNAP! Take a flash "video" in your mind of the split second of contact. In this split-second video, you should be able to see the direction and speed the racket was going at contact. From this, you can judge the type of spin. From the racket speed, and the speed of the ball after contact, you can judge the amount of spin. 

What happens if you absolutely cannot read the spin off the racket? Or if contact is hidden? If the contact is hidden (which isn't legal, though it often isn't enforced), you will have to read the spin mostly from the ball alone. The type of sidespin on the ball should be easy to read from the general racket motion - left to right or right to left. It's the reading of topspin vs. backspin that's tricky.

A ball with backspin tends to travel in a line, and slows down when it bounces on the table. A ball with topspin drops quickly, and jumps when it hits the table. A sidespin ball will curve sideways in the air, and jump sideways when it hits the table. If you let the ball come out to you and take the ball late, you will have more time to read this, and make the proper adjustments. However, reading from the ball alone will make your receive more tentative and late, and so less effective.

Eventually, reading spin will become more and more natural, and you won't even think about it so much. Then you can concentrate on what to do with the ball.