Franziska Heads to New Heights
1 DAY AGO - Patrick Franziska has been one of the big movers in the German National Team in 2014, leading Expand
1 DAY AGO - Patrick Franziska has been one of the big movers in the German National Team in 2014, leading Fulda Maberzell TTC to the top position currently in the German League's First Division and also jumping to his highest world ranking yet at number 33. I spoke to Patrick about his new ranking and the German League, as well as his signing for next season with Borussia Dusseldorf. You can follow Patrick on his Facebook Fan Page HERE.Patrick Franziska rises to WR33How do you feel about your new World Ranking of 33rd? Do you have a goal for 2014?I'm happy that I reached 33rd, it's my highest ranking so far but of course I want to go higher, top 30 maybe top 25. It gets harder the higher I go up.Are you happy to be joining Borussia Dusseldorf in the next season of the German League?Yes! I'm very happy to play in one of the best clubs in Europe. But for now I will focus on my last games in Fulda and try to beat Dusseldorf one more time ;)How have you results been with Fulda this season?We are Collapse
4 Secret Things You Don’t Get To See At International Tournaments
3 DAYS AGO - Testing for VOCs in the racket control room Photo source: screenshot from youtube.com
We all enjoy Expand
3 DAYS AGO - Testing for VOCs in the racket control room Photo source: screenshot from youtube.com
We all enjoy watching the on-table action of international tournaments, but we aren’t always privileged enough to see some of the cool, behind-the-scenes places and events that exist as well. Without further ado, let’s check them out.
#1 The Training… Collapse
The Expert in a Year Diary: Week 7
4 DAYS AGO - Week seven? Week seven?! What happened to week six? Well, Sam was away skiing for the first nine Expand
4 DAYS AGO - Week seven? Week seven?! What happened to week six? Well, Sam was away skiing for the first nine days of February so we didn’t starting training again until the 10th February. I was worried that the break would cause him to slip backwards somewhat and we would have to spend a few days getting back […]The post The Expert in a Year Diary: Week 7 appeared first on Expert Table Tennis. Collapse
World Team Table Tennis Championships 2014
5 DAYS AGO - The World Team Table Tennis Championships 2014 take place in Tokyo, Japan from 28th April to 5th Expand
5 DAYS AGO - The World Team Table Tennis Championships 2014 take place in Tokyo, Japan from 28th April to 5th May 2014. Collapse
MHTT Weekly Feature 1/03/2014
01/03/2014 - The week flew by again with more big news in the world of table tennis. The second Chinese Expand
01/03/2014 - The week flew by again with more big news in the world of table tennis. The second Chinese National Team Trials concluded with Ma Long being ousted by the young Fan Zhendong in the semifinal stage, allowing Xu Xin to assert his dominance over the younger player in the final. Liu Shiwen advanced alongside Xu Xin as the second stage qualifiers.Catch the finals action above thanks to TTLondon2012!Timo Boll will battle for his tenth German National Championships title at the upcoming event. Winning here would create history as he joins 3 other German heroes who hold 9 titles. The big challenge for Boll will be his teammate Dimitrij Ovtcharov who surpassed him on the World Ranking in 2013 and has beaten him on a few recent occasions.Read the Article on Table Tennis Talk HereTabletennista have released an article with photos from the inaugral first time ceremony for the retirement of former National Team members. The likes of Ma Lin and Wang Liqin along with Chen Qi and others were Collapse
One Awful Service Mistake You Probably Make
27/02/2014 - Photo source: chinadaily.com.cn
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, Expand
27/02/2014 - Photo source: chinadaily.com.cn
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Thanks to the sheer abundance of service techniques we see top players use, it’s not surprising… Collapse
A Lesson in Simple Mechanics
25/02/2014 - Before we start with today's lesson, here's a pop quiz. Which of these balls are not like the Expand
25/02/2014 - Before we start with today's lesson, here's a pop quiz. Which of these balls are not like the others?The answer is in the photo further down the page. Skip down to it if you wish, but you are also welcome to continue reading first.Today's lesson is about speed and spin in table tennis.We don't measure speed correctly. In attempts to promote the sport, people sometimes cite numbers which attempt to illustrate the challenges involved in playing table tennis, and one of those numbers is the speed of the ball. Where does table tennis rank in a list of the fastest sports, or the fastest racket sports? How fast does a table tennis ball actually travel? 100 miles per hour is a high number cited; 60 mph might be more reasonable.I believe that giving an answer in miles per hour is inadequate or counterproductive. Table tennis is clearly one of the fastest sports, and this is clear not by looking at ball velocity, but by looking at time: how much time a player has between shots, or how many Collapse
We've just hit 200,000 fans on Facebook!
25/02/2014 - We've just hit 200,000 fans on Facebook!
This is an incredible milestone for Table Tennis Master Expand
25/02/2014 - We've just hit 200,000 fans on Facebook!
This is an incredible milestone for Table Tennis Master and we couldn't have done it without you. We appreciate your support and your commitment to becoming a better player.
In celebration of hitting the 200K mark and to show our appreciation, we're putting on an awesome 3 day special on all our training DVDs:… Collapse
2014 Qatar Open
24/02/2014 - GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour - Super Series
China's Xu Xin, the second seed, won the Men's Expand
24/02/2014 - GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour - Super Series
China's Xu Xin, the second seed, won the Men's Singles title at the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open in Doha on Sunday 23rd February 2014.
In the final he beat Chinese Taipei's Chuang Chih-Yuan, the no.6 seed, 13-11, 11-4, 4-11, 11-6, 11-5.
It was the tenth time that Xu Xin had appeared in an ITTF World Tour Men's Singles final and it was the eighth time that he had won.
Additionally, it was the third time he had won in Doha having won in 2011 and 2012.
It also means that he is one of only three players to have won the Men's Singles title in Qatar since the first tournament was staged in 1994 equalling the record of Zoran Primorac who won in 1998, 1999 and 2001 and Wang Liqin who won in 2005, 2006 and again in 2010.
Meanwhile, for Chuang Chih-Yuan it was his 14th ITTF World Tour Men's Singles final and the 11th time he has finished as the silver medallist. Collapse
Congratulations to William on qualifying for the 2014 Commonwealth Games!
23/02/2014 - Congratulations to William on qualifying for the 2014 Commonwealth Games!
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March 7, 2014
2 DAYS AGO - Table Tennis Tales & Techniques - On Sale! - and Other Books
I've spent much of the last Expand
2 DAYS AGO - Table Tennis Tales & Techniques - On Sale! - and Other Books
I've spent much of the last few weeks putting Table Tennis Tales & Techniques into a new format. You can now buy it print on demand at Amazon.com, with the price lowered from its previous $17.95 retail to only $11.61. There are some minor wording changes, and the format is slightly larger (9"x6" instead of the previous 8.5"x5.5"). While the book originally came out in 2009, the articles - both stories about table tennis, essays on technique, coaching tips, and a lot of table tennis humor - are timeless. Or so says me, the author! Of course, while there, don't forget to buy Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers or my other books on sale at Amazon. (Alas, due to the way the book was original set up, it would be incredibly time-consuming to put the Tales & Technique book in an ebook format, so that's not planned for now.)
Note that I expect to have an updated version of Table Tennis: Collapse
March 6, 2014
3 DAYS AGO - Top Ten New Table Tennis Rules I'd Like to See
Some serious, some not so serious. You judge Expand
3 DAYS AGO - Top Ten New Table Tennis Rules I'd Like to See
Some serious, some not so serious. You judge which.
No-Hidden Serve Rule Adjustment. When serving, players should be required to serve so that the ball is visible to both umpires, or where the umpires would sit if there were umpires. When there are no umpires, it would be assumed the umpires would be sitting five feet out on each side, lined up with the net. The point of the rule isn't to make sure the umpires can see the ball. The point is that if a server hides the ball from an opponent but it isn't obvious he is doing so, it'll be obvious he's hiding it from at least one of the umpires. No more hidden serve problems.
Execution of Servers Who Hide Contact. For now on, on the first instance of a player hiding his serve, his opponent shall have the opportunity to slap him in the face. On the second instance, the player shall have splinters shoved under his fingernails. On the third instance, the player shall be Collapse
Get Your Personal Coaching Here
4 DAYS AGO - Want to improve your table tennis skills?
Well now you can get personalised coaching tips right Expand
4 DAYS AGO - Want to improve your table tennis skills?
Well now you can get personalised coaching tips right here.
And the best thing is - it's free of charge.
Just follow the instructions here...
and you'll be on your way to playing better table tennis.
Here's one submitted by Thinh Tran of Fort Worth, Texas, USA. Collapse
March 3, 2014
6 DAYS AGO - Snow, God, and Godzilla
With the snow piling up outside as God serves vengeance upon the Earth for Expand
6 DAYS AGO - Snow, God, and Godzilla
With the snow piling up outside as God serves vengeance upon the Earth for our constant tinkering with table tennis rules, everyone else is getting the day off. I don't want to go against the tide of doomed humanity and so I too will take the day off. So no blog today, other than this. The Tip of the Week will go up tomorrow. (Actually, I've got a bunch of things to get done today, in particular the new MDTTC newsletter, finalizing a short story I'm working on, and a secret table tennis project I'm working on - shhh! More on that later on.) Alas, only those on Noah's giant snowmobile will survive the massive snows to repopulate the Earth, bringing back 38mm balls, 21-point games, celluloid balls, and (of course) the print version of USA Table Tennis Magazine. The rest of us will die horrible deaths, freezing and suffocating as we are buried in hundreds of feet of snow and (if God has a sense of humor) poly ping-pong balls that'll Collapse
My Latest Sci-Fi Table Tennis Artwork " Facility X"..Hope you Like it ..Enjoy! :)
28/02/2014 - My Latest Sci-Fi Table Tennis Artwork " Facility X"..Hope you Like it ..Enjoy! :)
February 27, 2014
27/02/2014 - Coaching Scams
In my April 14 blog, I wrote about a coaching scam from England. (See fifth item.) Expand
27/02/2014 - Coaching Scams
In my April 14 blog, I wrote about a coaching scam from England. (See fifth item.) The scam has apparently expanded, and now sometimes comes from England, other times from Nigeria. The scam works as follows: you get an email that someone wants to send his son/daughter to the U.S. for coaching. They make the arrangements, and want to pay in advance. They send the check, which is for way too much - apparently an extra zero is added at the end. Then you get an email saying they made a mistake, and asking for you to send back the difference. Many people think that they can do this, since they've already received the check, but the check will bounce, and you'll be out the difference. I've been getting varieties of this scam for years. At least ten coaches have told me they received it, and I expect many more have. I think they are simply taking emails from the USATT certified coaching list. At least one coach I know of almost fell for it - he had already made Collapse
February 25, 2014
25/02/2014 - Want to Improve? Compete with a Junior!
Here's a little tip for those who want to improve. Expand
25/02/2014 - Want to Improve? Compete with a Junior!
Here's a little tip for those who want to improve. Every club has some up-and-coming junior who practices regularly and keeps getting better. Well, why not grab his coattails (even if you are currently better), and try to stay with him? It gives incentive and can lead to great improvement. Make a friendly rivalry out of it, perhaps practice with and play the kid regularly. As he improves, he'll push you to improve.
It may be counter-intuitive, but even if you are better, and practicing with the kid seems to help him more than you (and thereby make it "harder" to stay with him), it works both ways. His improvement will push you to higher levels, either to stay ahead or to stay with him. He probably plays faster than you; his speed will push you to rally and react at a faster pace. As he gets better, he'll push you to find new ways to win points, and suddenly you'll be thinking more about the aspects where you should Collapse
February 24, 2014
24/02/2014 - Tip of the Week
Backhand Sidespin Push.
Adham Sharara Interview - More Changes Are Expand
24/02/2014 - Tip of the Week
Backhand Sidespin Push.
Adham Sharara Interview - More Changes Are Coming!
Here's an interview with ITTF President Adham Sharara. Some of the things he says will make some players nervous or even downright scared. Three of the main things he talks about are ending Chinese domination, slowing down the game by using a ball with less spin and speed (bounce), and starting to restrict rackets with a bounce test. Here are excerpts, and my comments. (Note that I'm saving for last the most revolutionary item - the testing of rackets, i.e. a bounce test, and an apparently new racket approval process.)
When asked why he thinks it's necessary to end Chinese domination, he uses the example of USA basketball, and says, "Hence, we felt it’s necessary to take our sport to other nations and requested China to help others. Table tennis should be played everywhere. Otherwise, it’ll become very boring." I'm a bit leery of the whole idea of making it Collapse
4 Lessons Flappy Bird Can Teach Us About Table Tennis
24/02/2014 - Image sources: news.xinhua.net, flappy bird logo
In case you dont already know, Flappy Bird is Expand
24/02/2014 - Image sources: news.xinhua.net, flappy bird logo
In case you dont already know, Flappy Bird is (was?) a game for your phone created by a Vietnamese developer in mid-2013, and was removed from the app stores earlier this month despite huge popularity and amid huge… Collapse
The Expert in a Year Diary: Week 5
23/02/2014 - Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this diary post uploaded. The highlights video and Expand
23/02/2014 - Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this diary post uploaded. The highlights video and Instagram clips have been up for a while now so you may have already seen those. I’ve got some great content coming from our time at Swerve (17th-19th Feb) to get online too but I want to keep everything […]The post The Expert in a Year Diary: Week 5 appeared first on Expert Table Tennis. Collapse
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Sam’s Diary: Swerve TTC Training Camp
3 DAYS AGO - I’ve had quite a few people tell me that they are really enjoying following along with Expand
3 DAYS AGO - I’ve had quite a few people tell me that they are really enjoying following along with Sam’s progress and reading my weekly diary entries. A couple of you guys suggested Sam should keep a diary. I thought that was an excellent idea and I will be encouraging him to keep some kind of shorthand personal […]The post Sam’s Diary: Swerve TTC Training Camp appeared first on Expert Table Tennis. Collapse
March 5, 2014
4 DAYS AGO - Players from Training Centers vs. Regular Clubs - Style Differences
Ever notice that you can tell Expand
4 DAYS AGO - Players from Training Centers vs. Regular Clubs - Style Differences
Ever notice that you can tell much of a player's background just by watching his style and strokes? The most obvious thing is whether the player came out of a training center (i.e. regular coaching and training, constantly surrounded by top players with good technique) versus those who come out of regular clubs (mostly learned on their own by watching local players, who didn't always have the best technique, and developed mostly by playing matches). These are not rules, just general things you mostly see that tell the player's background. It's mostly about where the player started - a self-taught player who then joins a training center will still have some semblance of those self-taught strokes and style even after years of training.
Players from training centers generally have nice, smooth technique. Even when the technique isn't perfect it's usually close to where only a discerning Collapse
March 4, 2014
5 DAYS AGO - Tip of the Week
Changing Bad Technique.
Change of Direction Receive
At the MDTTC tournament this Expand
5 DAYS AGO - Tip of the Week
Changing Bad Technique.
Change of Direction Receive
At the MDTTC tournament this weekend player I was coaching was having trouble against a much higher-rated player who had nice last-second change of directions on his receives. Over and over he'd start to push the ball one way - usually to the backhand - and at the last second, would change and go the other way. (Here's a Tip on this, "Pushing Change of Direction.") Although my player kept the first game close when the other player kept going for (and missing) some difficult counterloops, this last-second change of directions completely stopped my player's serve and attack. He'd see where the ball was going and start to move to attack, and then, suddenly, the ball would be somewhere else, and he'd be lunging to make a return.
Between games I told him to focus on three things. First, go completely two-winged to follow up his serve - if the receive was to his backhand, backhand loop, while Collapse
BIG NEWS FOR SMALL DEVICES
01/03/2014 - AllAboutTableTennis.com is now mobile friendly.
If you use an iPhone, iPod Touch, Android or Expand
01/03/2014 - AllAboutTableTennis.com is now mobile friendly.
If you use an iPhone, iPod Touch, Android or Blackberry device, you'll be able to view the new mobile version of my web site.
Please give it a try and let me know how you get on.
I'd also appreciate a Facebook LIKE for my site.
Thanks
Martin
www.AllAboutTableTennis.com Collapse
February 28, 2014
28/02/2014 - Making a Living at Table Tennis
I started this article by writing, "Not a lot of people in Expand
28/02/2014 - Making a Living at Table Tennis
I started this article by writing, "Not a lot of people in the U.S. do it," but by the time I was through, I decided to change that to, "A surprising number of people in the U.S do." So who and how does one make a living at this Olympic sport?
Professional Players. Right now there's really only one USA player who is basically a full-time professional player, Timothy Wang. Historically we've rarely had more than one or two at a time, though a few times we've had several making a living at it in the German and other European leagues, especially back in the 1980s.
Coaches. There are a LOT of professional coaches out there. The numbers dwarf where we were just seven years ago, before full-time training centers began popping up all over the U.S. My club, MDTTC, has seven full-time professional coaches, including me. (The other "full-timers" at my club work longer hours than I do, but I do many of the Collapse
February 26, 2014
26/02/2014 - Vision
I've previously blogged about some of the below, but I'm going to rehash some of it Expand
26/02/2014 - Vision
I've previously blogged about some of the below, but I'm going to rehash some of it here so as to get to the point about vision.
Way back in December, 2006, I made a proposal to the USATT board for them to get involved in developing training centers and junior programs. The plan basically involved them recruiting and training coaches to set up these centers and programs. They'd use their web page and regular mailings to get prospective coaches into coaching seminars that USATT was already running. The seminars would cover not only how to coach, but the professional side as well - how to get students, set up and run programs, etc., with a major emphasis on developing full-time coaches who would set up full-time training centers and junior programs. I even wrote the manual for the program, which I've since had published, "Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook."
I ended the proposal by asking the USATT board what their vision was for table tennis in Collapse
MHTT Weekly Feature 26/02/2014
25/02/2014 - A little bit late this week but still lots of exciting things going on in the world of table Expand
25/02/2014 - A little bit late this week but still lots of exciting things going on in the world of table tennis. The week gone by of course marked the completion of the ITTF World Tour Qatar Open 2014, one of the Super Series events on the tour.While top seed Ma Long was forced to withdraw, his compatriot Xu Xin was able to stave off the hungry international competitors and hold the win for China. Fan Zhendong suffered his first set back with a loss to Korea's Cho Eon Rae. Was it only a matter of time before that happened? Probably! Surprising still. Xu Xin was victorious 4-1 in the final over Chinese Taipei's Chuang Chih-Yuan.Xu Xin Champion in QatarImage from Xinhua.netIn the world of Social Media, Table Tennis Master reached a milestone after becoming the first table tennis page to secure 200,000 fans. The site are celebrating by offering special discounts and free worldwide shipping on their table tennis DVDs so make sure you check out www.tabletennismaster.com while the 3 day period Collapse
Michael Maze - European Table Tennis Champion 2009
24/02/2014 - Michael Maze - Denmark's best professional table tennis player.
[VIDEO] German League Match 17: DJK Borussia Münster vs TTC GW Fritzdorf
23/02/2014 - German League 2013/2014: Sarah Her-Lee (DJK Borussia Münster) vs Gabriele, Völker (TTC GW Expand
23/02/2014 - German League 2013/2014: Sarah Her-Lee (DJK Borussia Münster) vs Gabriele, Völker (TTC GW Fritzdorf)We did it! We won 8-4 against TTC GW Fritzdorf!! For my matches I won 3-0 against the no.3 and 4, but lost to the no.1, after being 10-7 up in the 4th set, (down 1-2 in sets), and losing 10-12, it's never a good feeling losing a match this way!View the highlights video hereContinue Reading 繼續閱讀 Collapse
February 21, 2014
21/02/2014 - USATT President's Blog
Here's USATT Board Chair Mike Babuin's new blog on Expand
21/02/2014 - USATT President's Blog
Here's USATT Board Chair Mike Babuin's new blog on "Changes for 2014." It's mostly good stuff. Many of the items he writes about we can't really judge until we know more about the programs, and see if they will actually be implemented. USATT historically doesn't have a high batting average in that regard. Here are my short comments on each.
On Change. Mike quotes Einstein: "Madness is best described as doing the same things over and over again while expecting different results." He also talks about how some are resistant to change. I've been arguing the same type of thing for decades as I've watched one administration after another do the same type of stuff while expecting different results. However, not all change is good. Change for the sake of change isn't going to help things; there has to be a specific reason for each change. Some changes are obvious; others are experimental as you don't Collapse
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