Included in what you can find on the ETTU site at the moment are the following articles:

• An analysis of how soon players detect the spin on the ball when returning serve, comparing expert players to beginners, and looking at whether a player needs to see the contact with the ball to read the serve accurately.
• A thought provoking discussion on combining strokes together to produce the best results for a particular player. During the discussion World and Olympic champion Kong Linghui is described as having only average power, average spin, and OK speed (!?), but good combinations which led to his success.
• For all you mad attackers out there, there are also some useful suggestions on how to perform the counterloop, and how to train the stroke as well.
• There are also a number of articles on the current state of European table tennis, along with plans on how to improve in the future.

Richard highlights the importance of where on the bat the ball is contacted for various serves (although I must admit I disagree with his reasoning on his first tip, I personally think the difference in spin is caused by his instruction to hold the bat a bit straighter, not by where the ball is contacted).

He also discusses the use of opposite movement serves, and the fact that a lot of training is needed to master serving. Interestingly, he also mentions that due to the banning of hidden serves, many players are now concentrating on disguising the amount of spin on the ball, rather than the type of spin.

Hopefully there will be more articles of this type in Butterfly News in coming months - it is great to get an insight into how top international coaches approach the game.