USA vs. Belgium Clubs

Someone emailed me yesterday saying he was pretty sure Belgium didn't have 500 full-time clubs, as I'd quoted someone posting yesterday. There's no way to judge from here. But the key is that both seem to agree they have 500 clubs in an area about the size of Maryland with about twice the population. Maryland, the state with the highest percentage of USATT members among its population, has only six clubs. That's about an 83-1 ratio by area, or 42-1 by population. I think we're outgunned.

The writer also pointed out that clubs in Europe are organized differently and said there's no point in comparing numbers, but I disagree. People are people, and if we create a good product, they will come. Every time someone has opened a nice table tennis club in the U.S. and run it properly, the people have come. The limiting factor isn't the U.S.; it's the small number of people in the U.S. able and willing to create such clubs. Sure, Belgium and other European countries have more government support, but entrepreneurs in the U.S. have shown over and over that professional table tennis clubs can make it in the U.S.  Look no further than the San Francisco Bay area, where new full-time clubs seem to pop up every week.

Table Tennis Centers in Maryland, the U.S., and Belgium

On Friday at the Maryland Table Tennis Center I was wondering how USATT would be different if all their board members were required to spend a week at one of the "elite" training centers. Their perspective on table tennis in the U.S., and where it could go, might be a bit different from what they are used to.

There are about 50 full-time table tennis centers in the U.S. (Current count: 53; let me know if I'm missing any.) Of these, perhaps 5-8 can be considered "elite," i.e. ones with large junior development programs that consistently develop strong players. Key here is both the elite aspect and the large number of players they have.

Tip of the Week

Short Serves to the Forehand from Backhand Side.

The New Plastic Balls

Here's a review of the new ball by Alex Vanderklugt of the OOAK forum. He reviews it with visual inspection, sound, size, the bounce test, and in actual play. The results are not good.

As some of you may have heard, plastic poly balls (instead of celluloid) are coming to table tennis, replacing the usual celluloid, care of the ITTF, starting July 1, 2013. The reasons seem to be vague, but involve a supposed worldwide ban on celluloid because of their flammability. Can someone point me in the direction of a good article on the current status? I've heard they may postpone the actual switch if they are unable to come up with poly balls that are satisfactory, but can't remember where I've heard this. Anyone know anything?

USATT Coach of the Year

It's that time of year again - time to nominate coaches for the USATT Coach of the Year Awards! There are five awards - National, Developmental, Volunteer, Paralympic, and Doc Counsilman. (I was the USATT Developmental Coach of the Year in 2002, and was runner-up three times, alas.)

Men's World Cup Results and Video

2009 Strategic Meeting

I just realized that Wednesday, Sept. 26 (two days ago) was the three-year anniversary of the 2009 USATT Strategic Meeting. I still consider that one of the greatest disappointments in USATT history. We had a new board of directors looking to really do things but not sure what, and they and table tennis people from all over the country gathered for two days to decide what to do. Unfortunately, the same old arguments that look good but lead to nothing won them over, and we ended up with lots of slogans and a series of vague priorities that predictably never led to anything. I wrote much more about this one year ago, on Sept. 26, 2011. I don't know when we'll ever have such an opportunity again to get USATT to really start developing the sport the way it's done successfully in other countries and other sports. I was going to write more about this, but you know what? It's too depressing. So instead we'll go to anagrams and smile. Yes, smile.

Table Tennis Anagrams

Don't blame me - I'm just the messenger!!! On February 22, 2012, I did anagrams of the U.S. Men's Team (Michael Landers: "Me Learn as Child," "Lame Child Nears," many more; Timothy Wang: "I Own That Gym"), and the next day, February 23, 2012, I did them on the U.S. Women's Team (Ariel Hsing: "Irish Angel," "Shinier Gal," several more). Here are others; Tim and Mike are going to kill me! (Remember, I'm just the messenger!!! If they can find "positive" ones with their name, I'll post them.)

Last-Minute Looping: Learning to Loop

Yesterday I taught an 11-year-old girl to forehand loop. She'd attended ten junior group sessions I'd taught, and this was I think her fourth private session. Her forehand and backhand drives are getting pretty steady, and of course we'll continue to work on them to make them "perfect."  

Sometimes it's good to wait longer to really ingrain the forehand and backhand drives before starting them on looping, but I'm a believer in getting to looping (at least against backspin) as soon as possible. Otherwise, they tend to become pusher/blockers (since they can't attack backspin), their loops aren't as natural (since they ingrain drive strokes early on rather than topspin strokes), and they don't take advantage of a characteristic that gives them the advantage at that age - they are shorter, and so looping is a bit more natural since they can let the ball drop down to their level. Plus, it gives them something to get excited about when they begin doing shots that match what the best players in the club are doing, and that excitement leads to more focus and determination, which leads to faster improvement.

I started her on looping in the last ten minutes of the session, feeding backspin with multiball. At first she had difficulty. Sometimes she wouldn't bring her racket down enough, or she wouldn't sweep up enough and would instead start up, then switch to a more forward-driving stroke. The result was flat strokes with little topspin. The scary part here is that since I'm giving her the same spin over and over, it's pretty easy to drive the ball with light topspin, and to believe that it's a good shot. (And it would have - in the hardbat era.) So I have to explain how a drive against backspin without great topspin isn't that good and will rarely be as consistent or effective in a match situation as looping. She understood, and kept trying.

Keep a Player's Attention and Thinking

Want to bore a six-year-old? Feed him multiball and have him hit forehands for a long time. Want to inspire a six-year-old? Put a giant frog toy on the table and tell him to hit it.

Want to bore a sixty-year-old? Have him do nonstop repetitive drills without explaining anything. Want to inspire a sixty-year-old? Have him to a range of drills that cover what he does (or hopes to do) in an actual match, from repetitive drills to perfect strokes to random drills to mimic game play, and explain the purpose of each drill and technique.

Keeping a player's interest is one of those things coaches have to learn to do. If you just spew out instructions in a bland way and just do repetitive stuff, you'll lose them. You don't treat everyone like a six-year-old or a sixty-year-old, of course - it has to be both age-appropriate and personality-appropriate. Some are more analytical than others, and some just want to hit the ball. Younger players often just want to hit the ball, while older players tend to be more analytical. Yet even younger players have their analytical side, and like to think about certain aspects of the game as long as you don't overdo it. Show them something they want to learn to do, and they'll want to know how it's done.

The more the player thinks, the more interesting it is to him as he learns. Older players often enjoy learning the thinking side as much as the actual playing side - tactics, why specific techniques are better than others, mental training, etc.

Table tennis is a game of contradictions. One of them is that you need to think a lot if you want to improve. At the same time you have to clear your mind when you are in an actual rally and let your trained reactions take over - i.e. don't think.

ITTF Level 3 Coaching Course

Coaching Decisions

Here's a tough decision I've got to make - and it's a good decision to have to make. I have a student, a 7-year-old girl. She has one of those rare combinations of talent, physical ability, and mental focus. She's been playing about two months and already has nice strokes, can even forehand loop backspin with surprising power. (Yes, one month after starting, this 7-year-old was already looping.) Should I go the "normal" route and have her focus on hitting against topspin until she's bigger? Or should I have her loop the forehand against everything right from the start, since she seems to do this naturally? She's too small right now to really be successful trying to loop over and over - her hitting peers would hit her off the table. But imagine where she might be in two years. And since she's picking things up so fast, how soon should I have her spin the backhand as well? (It's tough spinning the backhand until you are taller.) Decisions, decisions . . . but I think she'll almost set the course. If she can loop over and over, then that's what I'll have her do. 

She was using a rather slow blade and sponge, but in our last session she tried out my blade - a fast carbon racket with hyper-tension sponge for looping - and fell in love with it. I was of course skeptical, thinking it was obviously too fast for her, but she was noticeably better with it, could rally faster and more consistently, and loop with great spin. (Yes, great spin at age 7.) After discussing it with her dad, we're likely going to get her the same or similar setup. Many coaches would be against this, and so would I normally, until I saw how well she played with my racket, and especially the way her eyes lit up while doing so.

2013 National Team Trials Host City Bid

Tip of the Week

Care of Equipment.

Disservice to Juniors Everywhere

I'm going to do a disservice to junior players everywhere and point out something I noticed at the MDTTC tournament this past weekend, though it's something I've mentioned before. When playing these fast and furious juniors (i.e. players that can rally faster than you can), your best option is use serve and receive to get the first attack in, usually with a loop. However, over and over I saw players losing to juniors because they kept opening with crosscourt loops, which the juniors would pounce on. These juniors do a lot of crosscourt hitting, and I think if you even snap your fingers they'll reflexively cover the crosscourt angle. The players that gave them trouble were the experienced ones who would attack down the line with their first shot, and then move to cover the wide crosscourt angle if it came back. Usually they did not.

Butterfly MDTTC September Open

Here are the main results for the MDTTC tournament I ran this weekend. Juniors dominated, with at least one in every final except Under 2350. Here's a rundown, with main results below.

Table Tennis Tactics

This past week I've been jumping back and forth from working on the page layouts of "Table Tennis Tactics: A Thinker's Guide" and 246 other things. Here's an excerpt from the book:

Table tennis is a game of utter complexity and utter simplicity. If you get too caught up in the myriad of complex strategies available, you'll be lost in a sea of uncertainty. Think KISS—"Keep It Simple, Stupid." On the other hand, if your thinking is too simple, you aren't maximizing your play.

There's no conflict here. Much of tactics involves simplifying things so the game becomes simple and easy. If you use tactics that force your opponent into predictable returns that feed into your strengths, you've won the tactical battle and made the game simple and easy. In this book we'll cover the tactical and strategic ways of doing this, as well as the tactical frame of mind that makes tactical play come naturally.

Most matches are tactically won on at most two or three tactical things, not the zillions that are possible. It's finding those two or three out of the zillions that's key. (Hey, I may add this to the book! Addendum - just did.) And if you can't think of zillions of tactical things to do, you need to start thinking tactically! To further quote the book:

Tactical thinking is a habit. I know some brilliant people who do not think at the table, and some not-so-brilliant ones who know exactly what they are doing out there. Which do you choose to be? It’s a choice.

Help is on the way! The book should be out by December in time for the USA Nationals, and perhaps sooner. (If I get going on it, it might be ready by November.)

One Day Till the MDTTC September Open!

Preparing for Tournament This Weekend

When I say this, I mean both for my students and for myself.

Students: Yesterday I had one-hour coaching sessions with two junior players who are about to play in their first USATT tournament. (I had a third session with another who might play in our October tournament.) How does one prepare someone for their first tournament? First off, I direct them to this article I wrote a while back, "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your First Table Tennis Tournament … But Didn’t Know Where to Ask!"

But you are probably more interested in how to prepare a player to play well? Here's my article "Ten-Point Plan to Tournament Success." In the case of these two students, we did about 30 minutes of regular drills (footwork, steady stroking drills, multiball), and then went to game-type situations. For example, I'd rally steady into the student's backhand, and he'd pick a shot to either step around and smash, or hit his backhand down the line. As soon as he did one of these it was free play. Then we got to even more game-type drills, such as straight serve and attack (he serves backspin, I push it back, he loops, then free play). We did a lot of pushing and loop against push drills. I also had them do a lot of serve practice, always the most under-practiced aspect of a game, especially just before a tournament.