Tip of the Week
Return to Ready Position Even When Blocking in Drills or Warmup.

Weekend Coaching and Giving Kids a Reason to Want to Be Good
One of the toughest things for good coaches when working with younger kids is finding that balance between disciplined training, and keeping it fun so they’ll want to keep coming back. As I blogged about on February 23, you have to give them a reason to want to get good. This past weekend I had an interesting experience regarding this in one of our group sessions.

I was doing multiball with four kids. I was taking them three at a time where they’d rotate in a circle, doing 3-4 shots each, then the next one, with the fourth player on ball pickup. For example, one would do backhand, forehand from backhand side, then forehand from forehand side, then circle around while the next player was up. If you do this fast, the players are drilling or moving almost continuously. I was also putting targets on the table for them to hit. Toward the end, I put a round box on the table, and challenged the players to knock it off the table. To do so takes a number of hits, with each hit knocking the box from a quarter to a full inch at a time.

Tip of the Week
Play the Inner Forehand Against Backhand Players.

Weekend Coaching and Playing
We have a glut of coaches at MDTTC, so I only coached one junior group session this weekend. I did a lot of multiball the first half. I generally start with four simple multiball drills, and then go on to others, often personalized for the player. The four are: forehand-forehand footwork; backhand-backhand footwork; forehand-backhand footwork; and backhand-forehand-forehand drill, also known as the 2-1 dill or Falkenberg drill, which incorporates the three most common moves in table tennis. (The sequence is backhand from backhand side; forehand from backhand side; forehand from forehand side, then repeat.) After that, I worked in individualized shots, such as looping or smashing, and some pushing as well. The second half I had the players in my group hit among themselves, seeing how many they could hit in a row at a slow pace. The hardest part for younger kids is the “slow” part. They are used to going faster with a coach, and when they hit with another kid and the balls start spraying around they end up with very short rallies. As I explain and demonstrate to them, once you can stroke the ball consistently with a good stroke, then hitting hard is easy.

Tips of the Week

Tips of the Week
Here are the Tips of the Week that went up every Monday during the month I was gone in South America.

This week's Tip of the Week is up, Positioning Part 3 of 4: In the Rally. However, I'm postponing this week's blog until tomorrow because:

1. I only got back from a month in South America on Thursday night, spent Friday resting, coached all day Saturday and Sunday, and now have a month's worth of things to take care of.
2. I have a dental appointment this morning – about a week ago, while in Peru, either the cap of a tooth from a previous problem broke off or the tooth itself broke, I'm not sure which.
3. It's President's Day!

Tip of the Week
Every Shot Sets Up the Next Shot.
(NOTE – while I’m away I’ll still put up a Tip of the Week each Monday. I wrote them up in advance.)

Flu and South America and Next Blog Feb. 16, Oh My!
I’ve been sick in bed all week with a fever, while going through boxes of Kleenex and coughing up an ocean. I thought it was a bad cold. Over the weekend it got worse, so I finally saw a doctor. They gave me a Covid/Flu test . . . and I have the flu. I have medicine now and should be okay in a day or so. So, for this week’s blog I’m just going to post my daily upcoming schedule in South America, where I’ll be, Jan. 15 – Feb. 12. Then I’m back to bed.

Tips of the Week
Since I’ve been a way for a while, here are my tips going back to Dec. 1. That way you can read all five of the "Coaching Yourself" tips together!

Tip of the Week
Coaching Yourself, Part 3 of 5: Serve Practice

Next Blog – January 5, 2026 – and the US Open
=>But Tips Will Go Up Every Monday
I’ll be gone the next few weeks. I’m off to the US Open Wednesday morning, and then Christmas in Sonoma, CA with my brother and family (near San Francisco). So, next blog will be Monday, Jan. 5. But the Tip of the Week will go up every Monday. For the five Mondays in December, I put together the five-part “Coaching Yourself” series. Part 3 went up today!

Tip of the Week
Coaching Yourself, Part 2 of 5: In Practice.

North American Teams
I coached 83 matches in three days at the Teams (Fri-Sun, Nov. 28-30 at the National Harbor in Maryland). It was my 50th Teams in a row (excluding the cancelled 2020 due to Covid), starting in 1976 when Gerald Ford was president. I used to play in it, but now I only coach. However, coaching can get pretty physical – as noted in my (short) blog last week, I somehow hurt my neck from all the watching, cheering, and coaching. (It’s 90% better now.) My voice got rather hoarse, my arm was hurting from three days of clapping, and I could barely hold my head up.

Tip of the Week
Coaching Yourself, Part 1 of 5: At Home.

Alas, after coaching 83 matches in three days at the North American Teams, I’ve somehow injured my neck – probably from yelling and cheering for our players. It started bothering me late on Day 2 (Saturday), and got progressively worse on Sunday to the point where I could barely hold my head up straight while coaching. I have the same problem trying to type on my computer. So, no blog this week – I’m probably going to spend the next few days in bed reading with my head propped up on a pillow. (But the Tip is up – I wrote it in advance.) I might have to get a neck brace – not sure yet. There’s a specific spot on it that’s injured, but I’m not sure if it’s muscle, tendon, or what. I’m not even sure if I can drive safely right now. (For the record, rounding to nearest half hour, I coached 23 matches on Friday from 8AM to 8PM; 32 matches on Saturday from 8AM to 11:30PM; and 28 matches on Sunday from 9AM to 9:30PM. That’s 83 matches in approximately 40 hours.)