June 28, 2017
17 HRS AGO - Equipment Reviews and Why I Don’t Do Them
Recently USATT has started doing “USATT Expand
17 HRS AGO - Equipment Reviews and Why I Don’t Do Them
Recently USATT has started doing “USATT Equipment Reviews,” by Matt Hetherington. Here are the first two:
USATT Equipment Review - Butterfly SK7 Korbel
USATT Equipment Review - JOOLA Maxxx 450
Here are some other good places for equipment reviews. I’m sure there are others – feel free to comment below.
Table Tennis Database
Table Tennis Daily
Expert Table Tennis
Equipment Junkie
MyTableTennis.net
OOAK Forum
Some may have noticed that in 6.5 years and about 1500 blogs, I’ve almost studiously avoided doing equipment reviews. I’ve talked about equipment in general a number of times, but very rarely discuss the specific brands. I think there are only two times where I’ve actually done anything resembling equipment reviews. On Oct. 14, 2015, I had an entire segment on Emulating the Equipment of the Top Players, where I wrote about whether we should use the equipment used by the top players, and Collapse
Guide to buying a table tennis robot
5 DAYS AGO - I like table tennis robots. Not everyone does, but I think they can be very useful if you use them Expand
5 DAYS AGO - I like table tennis robots. Not everyone does, but I think they can be very useful if you use them in the right way. In this blog post, I look at the different types of table tennis robots you can buy. I’ve split robots into three different categories: entry level robots, mid-range single-spin robots and top-of-the-range multi-spin robots. I also make recommendations on which table tennis robots I think are the best and give links to where you can buy.
The post Guide to buying a table tennis robot appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching. Collapse
June 20, 2017
20/06/2017 - "What I was trained to do long ago..."
During a coaching session last night I blocked a Expand
20/06/2017 - "What I was trained to do long ago..."
During a coaching session last night I blocked a ball rather wide to my student’s forehand. The student moved wide and made a very nice forehand loop that went extremely wide to my forehand, well outside the corner and moving away from me very rapidly. Several things happened very quickly, all the result of training from long ago, training which coaches now try to give to their students.
First, I did exactly what I was trained to do long ago, and after my block went to the student’s wide forehand, I reflexively moved to cover the potential wide angle return to my forehand. I’m pretty sure most club players would have at most moved marginally over, leaving the wide angle open.
Second, I did exactly what I was trained to do long ago, and stepped to the ball, instead of leaning or reaching. The ball caught me off guard with the great angle, and I’m pretty sure the great majority of club players, when they Collapse
June 16, 2017
16/06/2017 - Living a Life of Pong
Sometimes I get so busy from all my table tennis work that I barely can find Expand
16/06/2017 - Living a Life of Pong
Sometimes I get so busy from all my table tennis work that I barely can find time to do anything else. I somehow make time for my other interests – science fiction reading & writing, movies, and a few other things, but those are like smoke in a hurricane of table tennis activities. When things get so busy that there’s barely time to breathe, us table tennis people have to remind ourselves that this is the business we have chosen. After all, if we weren’t doing table tennis, what would we be doing? Not table tennis!!! (Horrors!!!)
<Start non-Table Tennis Paragraph.> In my case, I’d likely be a math professor in that other lifetime that never happened. Instead, recently, in my SF writing sideline, I’ve begun writing stories that feature Mad Molly, an 80-year-old autistic black retired math professor who regularly saves the day with math, though she usually does in humorous fashion as she has her own separate motives – Collapse
June 14, 2017
14/06/2017 - Today’s blog will be up by 11AM or a Special Prosecutor will be assigned to investigate my Expand
14/06/2017 - Today’s blog will be up by 11AM or a Special Prosecutor will be assigned to investigate my secret dealings with table tennis coaches who scandalously try to influence the outcome of matches by coaching players. But the Tip of the Week is up - Great Serves are the Best Way to Avoid Upsets and Compete with Strong Players. Collapse
Stellenbosch Table Tennis Club
08/06/2017 - Stellenbosch Table Tennis Club is in the very beautiful city of Stellenbosch in the western Cape, Expand
08/06/2017 - Stellenbosch Table Tennis Club is in the very beautiful city of Stellenbosch in the western Cape, South Africa. Our address is 34 Banghoek Road, Stellenbosch. Collapse
June 7, 2017
07/06/2017 - $4500 Maryland State Championships and Other Tournaments
They are this weekend! I’m running Expand
07/06/2017 - $4500 Maryland State Championships and Other Tournaments
They are this weekend! I’m running them at MDTTC, with 24 events. Deadline to enter is 7PM on Thursday - though it looks like some events may fill up before that. Mossa Barandao is assisting – he and his team from PongMobile may take over running our tournaments this fall. That way I can focus more on coaching and writing. (Note - while you must be a resident of Maryland to enter Men's and Women's Singles, Open Doubles, or any of the age events, the rating events are open to all.)
I’ve run over 180 USATT tournaments, going back to the early 1980s. These include the 4-star 1998 Eastern Open (411 entries!), and lots of tournaments at MDTTC since 1992. I also ran dozens of tournaments at the Northern Virginia TTC in the 1980s, and a number of others. (Back in the 1980s I ran them all on paper – no computers, so you had to do each draw by hand. Scary!!!)
In the early 1990s I was assistant Collapse
June 5, 2017
05/06/2017 - Worlds
Due to a sudden last-minute “emergency,” I have to run an errand this morning. Expand
05/06/2017 - Worlds
Due to a sudden last-minute “emergency,” I have to run an errand this morning. (I might write about it tomorrow.) So no blog, and the Tip of the Week will go up tomorrow. But there’s only one thing you should be watching and reading about right now, and that’s the Worlds!!! Here are videos of Men’s Singles from TTInfo. They haven’t yet put up the shortened videos of Women’s Singles – I’ll put them up when they go up. (Shortened means time between points taken out. If you want to watch the complete matches, here's the ITTF video Page.)
Final – MA Long vs. FAN Zhendong – they are playing at 8:30 AM Eastern Time. I’ll put the video up later today when it’s available.
Semifinals - MA Long VS XU Xin (6:33)
Semifinals - FAN Zhendong VS LEE Sangsu (5:46)
Quarterfinals - MA Long VS BOLL Timo (6:10)
Quarterfinals - HARIMOTO Tomokazu VS XU Xin (7:16)
Quarterfinals - NIWA Koki VS FAN Zhendong Collapse
June 1, 2017
01/06/2017 - World Championships
The Worlds are going on right now, May 29 – June 5 in Düsseldorf, Expand
01/06/2017 - World Championships
The Worlds are going on right now, May 29 – June 5 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Here are some links.
Main Page - Live scoring, draws & results, photo galleries, and other info.
News Page
Videos
Live Steaming of Tables 1-8 (at top of ITTF home page)
USA is doing pretty well, especially Lily Zhang! For specifics of our players, see the draws in the Main Page, and do a search for “USA.” Or click on the below. (Note that where it says, for example, “1-32” in the Men’s Singles, that means the top 32 spots in the draw, i.e. the top quarter.)
Men’s Singles (1-32, 33-64, 65-96, 97-128)
Women’s Singles (Full Draw) (Last 32)
Men’s Doubles (1-32, 33-64) (last 32)
Women’s Doubles (1-32, 33-64) (Last 32)
Mixed Doubles (1-32, 33-64) (Last 32)
Here are USA Highlights:
Lily Zhang/Wu Yue – they are into the quarterfinals!!! In the first round they upset the #5 seeded team, Lee Collapse
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June 27, 2017
1 DAY AGO - Hours Spent in Table Tennis
How many hours have you spent on table tennis? Some say it takes Expand
1 DAY AGO - Hours Spent in Table Tennis
How many hours have you spent on table tennis? Some say it takes 10,000 hours to really develop a skill. Have you done your 10,000? I got to thinking how many hours I’ve spent on this sport. It turns out an insane number – apparently enough to perfect my table tennis skills, oh, about ten times over. So . . . how many hours? Let’s find out. There’s going to be a lot of rounding and estimates, but I think the figures at the end are pretty accurate. (Feel free to skip ahead to other segments if you find this boring.)
I started in 1976, so I’m in my 42nd year. I practiced a huge number of hours my first few years. Here are estimates:
1976-1981: About four hours per day, six days/week, so 24 hours/week, 50 weeks/year, for 6 years.
1981-1992: About two hours/day, six days/week, so 12 hours/week, 50 weeks/year, for 12 years.
1992-2007: About 1.5 hour/day, six days week, so nine hours/week, 50 weeks/year, for 16 Collapse
June 23, 2017
5 DAYS AGO - Upcoming USATT Coaching Courses and Seminars
[I sent the following in as a USATT news item, which Expand
5 DAYS AGO - Upcoming USATT Coaching Courses and Seminars
[I sent the following in as a USATT news item, which should go up soon. I spent much of yesterday putting together a 19-page presentation I’ll be playing on a projector for my “How to Set Up a Successful Junior Program” seminar, which will be held in a classroom. I also have a one-page outline for my “Intermediate and Advanced Serving” seminar, which will be at the playing hall, but I can pretty much do that one in my sleep. I’ll put both documents online after the Nationals.]
USATT is taking a two-pronged approach to educating our coaches – and players too! Take your pick of an ITTF Coaching Course or a USATT University Seminar at the USA Nationals.
ITTF COACHING COURSES
These are for current and prospective coaches who wish to improve their coaching skills as well as get certified as a USATT and ITTF coach. (Note that when you are certified at ITTF Levels 1, 2, or 3, you are automatically Collapse
June 19, 2017
19/06/2017 - Tip of the Week
Importance of Routine.
Capital Area League - and How to Create Your Own Expand
19/06/2017 - Tip of the Week
Importance of Routine.
Capital Area League - and How to Create Your Own League!
They had their final meetup this past Saturday (at MDTTC) – and results and photos are up, care of Mossa Barandao and Thomas Olausson of PongMobile! There were 116 players on 24 teams this year, all in the Washington DC area (most of Maryland and Northern Virginia). It’s a great activity that brings everyone together for many hours of great fun and competition – without those pesky ratings, by the way! (Of course, you can run a league with or without ratings.) The league will continue again with a new season this Fall.
Interested in creating a league in your area? Here’s the USATT League page, where you can learn how to set up either a Team League or a Singles League (with the USATT League Rating System). If you don’t have one, you do not know what you are missing!!! Here's a video (81 sec) explaining the league software and who to contact to get Collapse
How long does it take to get really good at table tennis?
16/06/2017 - Table tennis is a very complex sport, with lots of different shots, spins and playing styles, Expand
16/06/2017 - Table tennis is a very complex sport, with lots of different shots, spins and playing styles, played at a frighteningly fast pace. There is a lot to learn and master. It does takes time to get really good at table tennis. But how long? Can you become a really good table tennis player very quickly or will it take years and years? And what’s the best way to improve quickly? Let’s explore these questions...
The post How long does it take to get really good at table tennis? appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching. Collapse
June 12, 2017
12/06/2017 - No Blog Monday and Tuesday
No blog today or tomorrow (Mon and Tue) – I’m mentally and Expand
12/06/2017 - No Blog Monday and Tuesday
No blog today or tomorrow (Mon and Tue) – I’m mentally and physically exhausted from running the Maryland State Championships this past weekend. (I was at the club 7:45AM-9PM on Saturday, 7:45AM-11PM Sunday, doing paperwork at the end. Everything is submitted for ratings processing. We had 88 players.) I also have to catch up on hordes of USATT, MDTTC, and writing work. Today’s priorities are to write and send out press releases on the tournament, put together a list of changes for next year, read through 43 pages of USATT printouts to prepare for a USATT teleconference at 7PM tonight (which will probably go to at least 9PM), and then get started on several long put-off writing projects. But here’s a new video of a Table Tennis Cat (19 sec)! Collapse
(Video) How to do a reverse sidespin serve
08/06/2017 - One of my favourite serves is the reverse sidespin serve. It’s very effective against some Expand
08/06/2017 - One of my favourite serves is the reverse sidespin serve. It’s very effective against some opponents, who simply don’t know how to return it. But even if my opponent can return the serve, the ball is often returned in a predictable way, which gives me an opportunity to play a strong forehand attack for the 3rd ball. In this video lesson, I will show you how to do the reverse sidespin serve and explain the best positions to serve to.
The post (Video) How to do a reverse sidespin serve appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching. Collapse
Harrie and the Epic Table Tennis Journey
07/06/2017 - From time to time I like to highlight the progress of a member of The Expert Table Tennis Academy. Expand
07/06/2017 - From time to time I like to highlight the progress of a member of The Expert Table Tennis Academy. Today’s post is all about Harrie Austin-Jones, a 26-year-old guy from Maidstone, England who has been playing table tennis for almost nine months. Conveniently, Harrie lives just 20 miles from me. So, for the past couple of […]
The post Harrie and the Epic Table Tennis Journey appeared first on Expert Table Tennis. Collapse
June 2, 2017
02/06/2017 - Service Practice
In preparation for the Serving Seminar I’ll be running at the USA Expand
02/06/2017 - Service Practice
In preparation for the Serving Seminar I’ll be running at the USA Nationals, I did something a few days ago that I only do about once or twice a year these days – I practiced my serves! I’m retired from tournaments (except for occasional hardbat events at the Nationals and Open, and sometimes doubles), and so practicing my own game just isn’t high on my priorities list. But I did about 30 minutes of serve practice this past weekend, and it paid off.
At my peak I had pretty good serves. I practiced them regularly my first three years (1976-1979, ages 16-19), and from 1979-1981 (ages 19-21), I practiced them 30 minutes/day, six days/week, for two years. I continued practicing them regularly until the early 1990s. (Yes, I didn’t start playing until I was 16 – a very late starter, but I still reached 18th in the U.S. at my peak.)
I have a huge variety of serves, mostly centered around forehand pendulum serves. My best serves were a Collapse
May 31, 2017
31/05/2017 - Tip of the Week
Contact Point on Racket When Serving.
Habits and Homework
One of the kids I coach Expand
31/05/2017 - Tip of the Week
Contact Point on Racket When Serving.
Habits and Homework
One of the kids I coach has a nasty habit of standing up straight, both when receiving and in rallies. You’d think this would be an “easy” habit to break, but no – it’s like the minute he goes out on the table, he forgets what he’s been practicing and he stands up like a giraffe stretching for leaves on a tree. We’ve videotaped him to show him the problem, and he understands it, so that’s not the problem. He also tends to reach for balls rather than move to them, another bad habit that mostly comes from standing up straight. Central to these problems is that he has good ball control and very nice rallying skills, and plays at a high level despite these problems – but he pays for them when he plays stronger players. (He’s about 1700, age 11.) So how to you get someone to break such a seemingly simple bad habit?
We’ve given him homework. Four days Collapse
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June 26, 2017
2 DAYS AGO - Tip of the Week
One Point at a Time.
Table Tennis Protests and Walkouts
Below, in the segment on Expand
2 DAYS AGO - Tip of the Week
One Point at a Time.
Table Tennis Protests and Walkouts
Below, in the segment on the China Open, you’ll read about the Chinese players refusing to play their matches in protest of the removal of Liu Guoliang as head coach. The top three men in the world, all from China, refused to play in their country’s “premier” event – Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, and Xu Xin, with support from many other players and coaches. World #4 Zhang Jike, also withdrew, due to an apparent injury, but at least early on also joined the protest. How this will unfold is anyone’s guess, but from what I’ve read (and there are many links to articles and discussions below), I have a feeling Liu Guoliang will be hit hard, while the players will likely get something like a three-month suspension. We’ll see.
Here are three other major table tennis protests that led to players refusing to play, all in the U.S. Here’s a summary.
1976 U.S. Open. This was my Collapse
June 21, 2017
7 DAYS AGO - Thursday Off
I need a day off to catch up on things – see you on Friday!
Sports Skills and Expand
7 DAYS AGO - Thursday Off
I need a day off to catch up on things – see you on Friday!
Sports Skills and the Myth of the Natural
The following has a table tennis point to it, but starts out in a fantasy world. I’m currently reading Book Two in the Weird West Tales series by Mike Resnick, four fantasy books which feature the adventures of Doc Holliday in a re-imagined west where Americans, led by Thomas Edison, try to use science to battle the magic of Indians such as Geronimo. In Book One, “The Buntline Special,” we learn what really happened at the shootout at the O.K. Corral, and Holliday takes on the undead Johnny Ringo. In Book Two, “The Doctor and the Kid,” Holliday, now broke due to a horrible loss in a poker game, needs to hunt down and kill Billy the Kid for the reward money. Alas, he can’t, as Geronimo has used his magic so bullets bounce off The Kid. Okay, as table tennis players, perhaps none of this interests you. But there’s a table Collapse
Tibhar Aurus Prime & Aurus Select review
19/06/2017 - Tibhar is about to release two new rubbers in July 2017, the Aurus Prime and the Aurus Select. As Expand
19/06/2017 - Tibhar is about to release two new rubbers in July 2017, the Aurus Prime and the Aurus Select. As Tibhar Australia distributor I received some sample before the release date, which I felt justified a detailed review. Tibhar did not ask this off me, so I’m giving my honest review, […] Collapse
June 15, 2017
15/06/2017 - Preparing for Nationals
It’s that time of year again. So . . . how does one go about Expand
15/06/2017 - Preparing for Nationals
It’s that time of year again. So . . . how does one go about preparing for a big tournament? Well, first of all, you read my article, Top Ten Ways to Play Your Best in a Tournament. Well, duh!!! But from a coach’s point of view, here is how our coaching changes.
First, in the age of nearly unregulated plastic balls, where the balls play very differently, you have to switch over to whatever ball is being used. For the upcoming Nationals, that’s the Nittaku Premium ball. I keep a supply of each of the major types, and just yesterday I tossed a bag of these balls into my playing bag.
Second, there’s more emphasis on game play, less on basic rote drills. The time to perfect shots is mostly past; now’s the time to practice what you have in game situations. That means more free play, more points starting with serve or receive, and lots of random drills. It means more emphasis on receive, sometimes playing out points, sometimes not. For Collapse
June 9, 2017
09/06/2017 - Serve Practice and the Complacency of Non-Practice
By the time you’ve reach the intermediate Expand
09/06/2017 - Serve Practice and the Complacency of Non-Practice
By the time you’ve reach the intermediate or advanced level in table tennis you probably have at least decent serves. You can serve an advanced beginner off the table, and probably have “go to” serves that score you points against your peers, maybe even against stronger ones. And since you already have those serves, you don’t really need to practice them, do you? After all, you are using them in games every week, which keeps them honed and ready to use at their very best, right?
Wrong. There are three flaws with this logic.
First, no matter what level your serves are, they won’t have that little extra they’d have if you practice them regularly. Recently, in preparation for the Serving Seminar I’m running at the Nationals, I practiced my serves a few times, something I hadn’t done much recently. The result was immediate and obvious – my students, even advanced ones who were Collapse
June 8, 2017
08/06/2017 - Improvement of Players Who “Goof Off”
What comes first, chicken or the egg? It’s Expand
08/06/2017 - Improvement of Players Who “Goof Off”
What comes first, chicken or the egg? It’s sort of like a question that comes up regularly in table tennis. Obviously, players who work harder and train more seriously tend to get better than those who do not. But there’s a related question. Suppose you have two developing players who roughly work and train equally as hard, with one exception – while Player A is nearly 100% serious, Player B will sometimes goof off and use weird strokes. How does this latter habit effect a developing player?
I’ve noticed over many decades of coaching and observing that players who focus nearly 100% on doing the shots right, all the time, almost always improve much faster and become much better players than those who spend even a small amount of their developing time goofing off by throwing in “weird” shots. I’ve come to believe that when a developing player, after working hard for a time, throws in a few Collapse
June 6, 2017
06/06/2017 - Tip of the Week
Rallying Tactics for Blockers.
World Championships
By now you’ve seen all Expand
06/06/2017 - Tip of the Week
Rallying Tactics for Blockers.
World Championships
By now you’ve seen all the results, read all the articles, and watched all the videos (see yesterday’s blog) from the World Championships. Life can now go back to normal!!! Here’s the article on the Men’s Final, Ma Long Retains Title, Most Dramatic Final Ever?, and here’s video of the final (15:06). A few observations:
The Push Heard Round the World. Fan Zhendong was serving up 9-7 in the seventh. At 9-8 he serves, and Ma Long does a seemingly simple push to the forehand, and Fan is right there, in position to rip it – but instead weakly loops off the end. What happened? The simple-looking push was actually an extremely effective one, outside the corner but short enough so that the table was in Fan’s way, forcing him to adjust. If the push had been longer, Fan would have ripped it; if it had been shorter, he would have flipped it. So Ma found the perfect balance. But this Collapse
Learn how to counter-attack (and take your game to the next level)
01/06/2017 - One of the players I coach likes to finish our coaching sessions with some match-play. We have Expand
01/06/2017 - One of the players I coach likes to finish our coaching sessions with some match-play. We have some good games. I usually come out on top, but it’s close. After we finished one week, he said he found it difficult when I attack too much. He goes into automatic blocking mode and becomes too passive. So during our next session we worked on options for counter-attacking. When we played a few games at the end - he blocked less and attacked more and I found it much harder to win points. So for your benefit, here’s a couple of things we worked on, plus a simple training drill you can do.
The post Learn how to counter-attack (and take your game to the next level) appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching. Collapse
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