February 10, 2025

No Blog on February 17, but There Will Be a Tip of the Week
I’ll be out of town, coaching at the US Junior Trials, July 13-17. Next blog will be Feb. 24.

Tip of the Week
Why Are You Attacking Heavy Backspin Into the Net?

MDTTC Open and the US Junior Trials
Here are the results of the MDTTC Open held this past weekend. For some, it was a warmup for the upcoming US Junior Trials next week. I coached and watched a number of matches on Saturday, focusing on the players I may be coaching at the Trials. I’ve spoken to some of them on their preparation, especially the sports psychology aspect.

The Junior Trials are at the Westchester TTC in New York, about a four-hour drive away, Feb. 13-17. We have ten players competing, with five MDTTC coaches going. Vlad Farcas, who is running the Trials, held a roughly one-hour Zoom meeting on Saturday night (57 participants) to go over everything. Main thing of interest was the new Trials system, a progressive format where players play single elimination, but each round the winners go into a higher bracket, losers into a lower one. It’s apparently similar to the Swiss System that USATT used to use for Trials (circa 1990s), but has some major differences. I don’t think there’s an online explanation yet – when/if there is, I’ll link to it, either adding it here or in my next blog when I write about the Trials. I’ll learn more about the system at the Trials.

The Trials are Thu-Mon. We’ll be driving up on Wednesday. Could be slow – it’s supposed to snow on Tuesday, and perhaps more on Wednesday.

Shoulder and Fitness and Eyes, Oh My!
The good news is that I got the okay to start training again. They did an MRI on my shoulder, and it’s a small tendon tear of the rotator cuff. But it’s not severe enough to warrant taking more time off. I’m still doing shoulder therapy with a trainer and daily exercises, mostly with an elastic band. I have to avoid really extending my arm out too quickly, but I can do normal table tennis training now. One key thing – since hitting aggressive backhands is what really bothers the shoulder, rather than do that for, say, 5-7 minutes, I only do it for at most two minutes, but come back to it several times in a training session. It so happens that playing my backhand more aggressively is a key thing I’m working on, so this is a major focus. I did two sessions last week with fellow coach Lidney Castro, and they went well, except. . .

. . . after taking six weeks off, I’m out of shape again!!! Not as bad as it was last August, but training was exhausting, and I had to stop several times to catch my breath. The problem is I insist on doing drills at the essentially same pace and intensity as I did years ago, including various footwork drills – but I’ll be 65 in a few weeks. My theory is simple – use it or lose it. That means both continuing to practice covering as much of the table with my forehand attack as possible, and drilling at the fastest pace I can do consistently. (But the one major concession is I’m really working on my backhand attack since I physically do have to play that more now in games.) The problem – I’m very consistent in drills, and so some of these footwork drill rallies go on and On and ON – until I finally smack a winner just to end it so I can catch my breath. I’m not just out of breath but my legs also start to die. But it’ll get better the more I do it. One funny thing – as Lidney also agrees, when I’m rested, I’m 2200 (with glasses – see below), but as soon as I get tired, my level drops dramatically, to perhaps a struggling 1900. When the legs go, I simply can’t move effectively.

One other key thing – at the advice of the optometrist, I pulled out my old glasses from almost a decade ago, when I stopped wearing them. (I’m one of those weird cases where as I aged, my distance vision got better and better but I started to need reading glasses. It’s only this past year that the cataracts began clouding my vision.) As readers here know, I’m having cataract surgery in both eyes (March 25 and April 8), and until then my vision is very poor – 20-70 in my left eye, 20-150 in my right, which is horrible. But I made an incredible discovery – I can see much better with the old glasses, so I’m wearing them now when I train, and can read spin MUCH better. With the cataract surgery, it’ll be even better.

USATT Lifetime Member Jim Mossberg Establishes First Table Tennis Scholarship at Virginia Tech
Here’s the USATT article, by Barbara Wei. Jim Mossberg is a long-time player and leader in Maryland Table Tennis and a big help to me when I started playing in 1976. He ran the New Carrollton TTC where I played for years, and ran numerous local tournaments that I played in. He was also one of the first locals to develop a good backhand loop against backspin – something I wish I’d copied back then rather than deciding to become an all-out forehand attacker!

TTProNet
Here’s TTProNet, which was created and is operated by Robert Gardos. I wrote about them in my blog last week. They did take my suggestion to have intro info in the Welcome/Login page. (If you are not registered, the link takes you there; if you are registered, it takes you to your Dashboard.) Here’s the new info on the Login Page:

With 25+ years of professional experience and 18 years in the World Top 50, I know what truly matters in table tennis. That’s why I created TTProNet, the ultimate platform for players, clubs, and coaches. 
TTProNet is built on 3 key pillars:

  • Connections – Find players, clubs, coaches, and opportunities with no middlemen.
  • Academy – Everything about table tennis: technique, training, fitness, yoga, meditation, nutrition, physiotherapy, and planning.
  • Forum – Exchange ideas, learn from the best, and improve every day.

Register for FREE and become part of the world’s biggest table tennis community.

Mastering Doubles Table Tennis: Key Strategies
Here’s the article and video (10:57) courtesy of Sean O’Neill. (Video is in Japanese but demonstrates doubles techniques.) After reading the article, you might want to get my book, Table Tennis Doubles for Champions!

Major League Table Tennis
Follow the action!

Best Tips from Fan Zhendong

Butterfly Training Tips

MH Table Tennis
After a long break, Matt Hetherington is back! Here are his recent videos over the past two weeks. (A number of them were taken at MDTTC.)

New from Ti Long

New from Enzo Angles

Why (NOT) Serve From the Corner of the Table? (T&S EP. 05)
Here’s the video (12:34) from Olav Kosolosky

Backhand Counter Roadmap
Here’s the video (16:16) from Drupe Pong.

Tips to Improve Your Mental Strength in Ping Pong
Here’s the video (3:20) from Pingispagarna.

Mental Training Tip – From Wishful Thinking to Reality: The WOOP Approach for New Year Goals
Here’s the article by Dr. Alan Chu, Ph.D., CMPC.

When to Attack with Long Pips
Here’s the video (2:55) with Yang Xiaoxin from Pongspace.

New from PingSkills

Stanislav Gomozkov | The Father Of The Modern Backhand
Here’s the video (4:30) from Table Tennis Media.
EDIT - Some disagree with the idea of Gomozkov as the "Father of the Modern Backhand." And it's true that his backhand is more of a punch, which some top players do use (including me), but not as their primary backhand, which is more of a topspin backhand close to the table. As John Olsen wrote to me: 

I saw this video, not even close to being true, Russian propaganda. Gomoskov had a "racket higher than wrist" drive backhand, very steady but nothing like a modern high elbow spinny backhand. The modern backhand is generally credited to Antun Stipancic: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLvZwj2duUk

Great Fishing and Lobbing Rally
Here’s the video (72 sec) – with a big finish! From a coaching perspective, the one smashing is telegraphing the direction of his smashes with his shoulders. He needs to hide the direction until just before contact or change the direction just as he’s about to smash.

Nvidia CEO scrubbed floors to pay for table tennis tournaments in high school—now he's worth $115 billion
Here’s the article on Jensen Huang from CNBC.

Lin Shidong: China’s New PRODIGY? – Breaking Barriers at Just 18!
Here’s the video (5:12) from Beyond the Podium.

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

New from ITTF

There’s No Crying in Table Tennis

Portland MiLTT Preview
Here’s the video (1:25)!

Epic Cartoon Table Tennis Battle
Here’s the video – the first 3:35 are table tennis.

Which Shots Are Illegal?
Here’s the video (17 sec)! Wait, you can’t shove your opponent?!!!

Ping Pong Pots
Here’s the video (31 sec) – kids (and adults) – why not raid your kitchen for pots and try this?

Four-Table Pong
Here’s the video (41 sec)!

Pongfinity vs. World's Best Team
Here’s the video (13:06)!

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