Tip of the Week
How to Serve to Passive and Aggressive Receivers.

Training and Weekend Coaching
I had a whirlwind training period this past week, getting ready for the upcoming US Nationals. (I leave for them on June 28 where I’m seeded in a number of senior and hardbat events.) Due to shoulder injuries that made forehand looping difficult, I finally made the big decision to go from my regular inverted both sides (Tenergy) to short pips. Not just on the forehand, but on the backhand as well, so that my sponge game would be similar to my hardbat game. However, while this would likely be effective since I probably hit better than I loop, the experiment only last a few days. Why? Because, after two practice sessions with them, I played my first practice matches with it. Halfway through my second match I re-injured my right side, making it difficult to rotate back and forth quickly. Two results: First, I have to take another week off to let it heal, and second, since I won’t get much match practice with pips, I’ll stick with inverted both sides for the upcoming US Nationals. Meanwhile, I’m back to physical therapy for both my right shoulder and side. I’ll just have to play through these injuries at the Nationals – they won’t completely heal before that.

Just a short blog today, but the Tip of the Week is up: Most Competitive Matches Are Won or Lost on Two Things. Why the shortened blog?

Over the next two days I have a root canal and then a tooth capping. Then, this afternoon, I start up physical therapy again for both my shoulder and side. Why? After ten days off for the highly successful cataract surgery in my left eye, I practiced on Friday – and immediately re-injured my shoulder. Then, on Saturday, while hitting with a student in a group session, I re-injured my right side. Meanwhile, when I don’t have a dentist jabbing sharp instruments into my mouth or a physical therapist putting my shoulder and side into awkward positions, I’ve got several writing projects. (One includes a secret table tennis book project – first draft was completed last week, but it’s got a ways to go. I may blog about it sometime soon.) I’m also finalizing a new non-table tennis science fiction story, and about a dozen other things on my todo list for today.

One interesting note – the injuries mostly affect forehand looping. So, there’s a good chance I may play the Nationals with short pips on the forehand (with sponge) and just focus on forehand hitting, as I do with my hardbat game. (I leave for the Nationals on June 28.) I may actually be better that way in general, but I’ve always stuck with inverted since, as a coach, it makes me a better practice partner. Who knows, now that I’m older, maybe it’s time to consider long pips on the backhand? Hmmm...

Tip of the Week
Showing Frustration or Confidence.

USATT Initial Ratings Problems
For many years there’s been a serious bug in the USATT ratings software, which I’ve periodically pointed out to USATT people and here in my blog. Specifically, it often gives out nonsense ratings for initial ratings, especially if the player wins or loses all of their matches in their first tournament. This is unfair to these players, who find themselves way over-rated (and so can’t play in rating events where they might be competitive) or under-rated (making it unfair for others who have to play them, especially in rating events), and messes up seeding. This didn’t use to be a problem. (Here is the Guide to USATT Ratings, which explains how USATT ratings are processed, including initial ratings.)

Tip of the Week
If You Step Around Your Backhand to Play a Forehand, Go All the Way.

Weekend Coaching and Balticon and Cataracts, Oh My!
I coached two junior group sessions on Saturday morning. Call it Footwork Always in Saturday Training (FAST) as I spent much of the session making sure feet were lively. I also fed a lot of multiball – same thing, footwork, Footwork, and More FOOTWORK!!! Note that when I say lively, that means the habit of moving the feet – i.e., lively feet – which isn’t the same as foot speed. But lively feet lead to maximizing your footspeed. A slower player with lively feet will always cover more ground than a faster player without lively feet. It’s like running a five-foot sprint where one group gets a three-foot head-start.

Tip of the Week
Learn from Students of the Game, Crafty Veterans, and Hedgehogs.

Weekend Coaching, Dr. Seuss, Ongoing Injuries, and the Baltimore Science Fiction Convention
I coached in three junior group sessions. The focus this weekend might have been random play. I did a lot of random drills and just random rallying with players. The keys here are 1) ready position; 2) don’t anticipate, just react; and 3) return to ready position.

Besides the normal keys to a good ready position, a key thing I emphasize is that their ready position changes based on where I’m hitting the ball. If they go to my wide forehand, then I have more angle into their wide forehand (assuming we’re both righties), and less into their backhand, and so they have to move toward their forehand side. They also should roughly point their racket at where I’m hitting the ball from, so they can move equally well to their forehand or backhand side, depending on where I hit the ball.

Tip of the Week
Warm Up Your Serves.

Weekend Coaching
I think the mantra for this weekend was, “If you can’t do it in practice games, how can you do it in a serous match?” and “If you are scared to do the shot, that means you need to practice the shot, and that’s what this is – practice!” In practice games, too often players were pushing too much, scared to loop. How do you overcome that? By looping every chance you can!!! We also played some doubles, where it’s even more important to loop deep serves – and so I was all over anyone who didn’t.

Other than that, it was mostly the standard focus on fundamentals, with lots of stroking and footwork drills. I had a couple of multiball sessions with advanced beginners where we worked on smashing. I put an empty bowl on the table, and their job was to hit it over and over until they knocked it off the table. I coached in four group sessions, and after some of them I pulled out my new secret paddle – a hardbat copy of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and used it to chop and pick-hit my way to victory in numerous challenge matches. (I’m about 1800 with it.) Why do I have a copy of this book? See segment below about “New Table Tennis Novels”!

Tip of the Week
Top Eleven Things About Top Table Tennis Players.

Talking Table Tennis
One of the quickest and easiest ways to tell if someone is a real student of the game is simple – ask them table tennis questions. If someone has spent many years or decades studying and thinking about the game, they’ll have lots and Lots and LOTS of thoughts about it. So, ask them. In the huge majority of the time, they’ll love to talk table tennis. It’s what they do!

This is especially true of coaches. It’s their profession. Some coaches coach only because they have nothing else they can do, and may not really be that interested in it. They put in the time for the money, and have the needed playing level as a practice partner, and they are often good at the fundamentals – they know how a forehand should be hit, etc. HOWEVER...

They may not put out the extra effort other than what’s needed. They’ll mostly teach the standard fundamentals without taking into consideration the specific needs of individual players. They won’t spend a lot of time watching you play so they can better coach.

Recent Tips of the Week

NEXT BLOG – APRIL 28– SEE SEGMENT BELOW
BUT TIPS EVERY MONDAY

Tips of the Week

Tip of the Week
Where to Contact a Push.

Weekend Coaching, Shoulder, Cataracts, and Writing
It always amazes me how fast kids can mimic shots. The key I’ve found is to make sure they have a good grip and proper foot positioning. If you get both of those right, and you show and guide them through the stroke, the rest falls into place as if you were holding two ends of a rubber band. Get either wrong, and the rubber band (the player) gets twisted. (Here’s my Tip from almost 13 years ago on this, Grip and Stance.) Once they can do the stroke correctly, then you do a lot of multiball with them until they can also time it. And work from there until someday they can beat you!

I had a group of four junior players rotating with me in one session, mostly doing forehand footwork drills. None had ever done over 100 in a row before. By the end of the session, all four had done 200 or more. They are learning that (to paraphrase Yogi Berra), the game is 90% mental and the other half physical. The math might not work, but the gist of it is true – and with proper focus, getting one or two hundred in a row becomes easy. And it’ll pay off later on in matches.