Sounds good, doesn't it? Who wouldn't want to increase their speed around the table tennis court? Read on and I'll show you how to improve your ping-pong court coverage by over 7% without doing any special exercises or drills.
Kim Taek Soo - Owner of One of the Fastest Pair of Feet in Table Tennis! Photo by courtesy of the ITTF
Keeping the Dream Alive - Results from the World Final Olympic Qualification Tournament
The Final Table Tennis Olympic Qualification Tournament has concluded in Budapest, Hungary. Although the National Olympic Committees still have to confirm the entry of the players who qualified, 16 men and 17 women earned the right to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games. Included in the 16 men is Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium, who after just failing to automatically qualify on a count back from Sweden's Jorgen Persson, has now booked a place in his sixth Olympic Games!
The provisional list of teams qualified for the Olympic Team event has also been announced, with the USA winning a berth in the Women's Team event - and my own country, Australia, qualifying in both the Men's and Women's events - Go Aussie Go!
It's been another interesting week of discussions in the About.com table tennis forum, with a number of topics being well worth a read. Favorites include:
Also, I'd just like to make a quick but sincere apology to everyone who has written to me lately. I've been flat out recently with several things that have jumped me at once, but I promise to start catching up with my email on Monday!
If you've got a camcorder and you are a table tennis nut, sooner or later your thoughts will turn to videotaping yourself and other players to help improve your game. When that time comes, I've got a number of tips to follow and traps to look out for in order to get the best ping-pong footage out of your video camera.
According to the USATT website, the process of seating a new USATT Board of Directors is finally nearing completion. In the latest Nominating and Governance Committee update, it was reported that Michael L. Babuin and Christian Lillieroos were selected unopposed for the two At Large Board Members, and that David Del Vecchio has been designated as the National Sports Organization Board seat. Linda Leaf (President of the Shorewood Table Tennis Club in Milkwaukee, Wisconsin) has been selected as the USATT Board Club representative, and the Independent (3) and Athlete Board (1) members should be named and seated by around 15 May 2008. Full details can be found on the USATT website.
Jan-Ove Waldner may have retired from international competition, but during his career he was a formidable table tennis player capable of destroying any opponent on his day.
About.com Table Tennis forum member Sean P. O'Neill, a 2-time Olympian and 5-time US National Champion, has butted heads with Jan-Ove more than once, and has put together a blueprint for beating the Swedish maestro of ping-pong. While few of us will ever get the chance to step on the court against Waldner, it is fascinating to learn what an elite player such as Sean has to say about Waldner's game and what weaknesses there are to take advantage of, and how to go about exploiting them! Thank you for the insight Sean!
Jan-Ove Waldner vs Liu Guoliang at the 2000 Olympic Games Photo by courtesy of the ITTF
Australian National Table Tennis Training Program - Discussion Paper
When it comes to table tennis, Australia and the USA have a number of things in common. Both countries are languishing well down the ranks in the men's side of the game, with their best years taking place more than 20 years ago. Both countries have stronger women's teams due to Chinese imports - the USA has Gao Jun and Wang Chen, Australia have Miao Miao, Jian Fang Lay, and Stephanie Sang. And it could be argued that both countries are struggling to find a national training program that will help catapult their home grown players up the world rankings in future years.
Australia's Mark Smythe, a successful junior coach and former top level Australian representative, has written a Discussion Paper regarding the Australian National Table Tennis Training Program, hoping to help give Table Tennis Australia options to consider when deciding on the direction it needs to take in assisting Australia's elite table tennis players. Mark has obviously given the situation much thought, and I believe much of what he says is applicable to USA table tennis as well. Check out Mark's ideas for yourself - it's not often you get to read what a former top level player has to say on the subject.
Oh yes, one final thing. The Discussion Paper was written on 4th February 2008, and was presented to Table Tennis Australia. It's now the 30th April, and apparently Mark has yet to receive a response from TTA. Perhaps they are busy discussing it among themselves?
Australia's Mark Smythe in action Photo by courtesy of the ITTF
It's often said that we are all in danger of turning into couch potatoes, staring endlessly at the TV. But can you turn this problem into an advantage?
According to studies, watching other people perform a complex motor skill (such as a forehand loop in table tennis) actually helps you to learn the task as well. And did you know that skilled ping-pong players actually have different brain patterns than beginners when watching table tennis? What are the implications for the rest of us, and how can we take advantage of what scientists have discovered? Can you really learn how to play table tennis by watching other people play?
The argument about whether table tennis was better in the hardbat era or modern times is one that never goes away. So when forum member dadsky posted some scathing claims made by an acquaintance about the superiority of hardbat in the About.com table tennis forum, he was guaranteed a lively debate! Fellow forum member Scott Gordon (a sponge and hardbat player) replied with a very insightful take on the hardbat vs sponge debate, which places things in perspective quite nicely. Thanks Scott!
Did Ping-Pong Hit its Peak in the Past? Photo by Stockbyte / Getty Images
Table Tennis Racket Sniffer (enez) Gets a Nose Job
The enez device, developed by Wassing and used by the ITTF to detect banned VOCs in table tennis, has gone under the knife and had a redevelopment, with the VOC sensor being made more resistant against overloading and a "Gas Alert" warning added to notify the user that a racket has much higher levels of VOCs than allowed, and that the test should be halted immediately to avoid damage to the sensor.
As forum member Andrew Gooding pointed out, Wassing has outlined the reasons for the upgrades and a number of hints for the correct use of their enez device on their website. While I'd recommend reading the document just for that alone (not to mention checking out the Flash introduction and reference material at their main web site at http://www.enez.de/ - it's quite nifty), what is also noteworthy is their mention of the use of the enez device at ITTF Junior Circuit Events, in conjunction with other tests for the rubber's gloss, evenness and thickness on player's rackets. It was found that more rackets were found to be illegal for having rubber that exceeded the allowed limit of 4.0mm for sandwich rubber, than for having illegal levels of VOCs! I wonder how often umpires and referees bother to test rubbers for being too thick in local tournaments? Not often I bet!
A number of reasons for why rackets might fail the VOC test were also given and explained, including:
Insufficient airing of the rubber to allow VOCs to dissipate
Use of rubber cleaners that contain VOCs
Storing the racket with items containing VOCs
Old VOCs from speed glue that was absorbed by the blade or racket case being transferred to the rubber
Using non-speed glues that contain VOCs
Using speed glue replacements that still have some VOCs
Wassing's final motto in regard to getting rid of VOCs from your racket? Airing, Airing, Airing!
Racket Testing at 2008 Venezuela Junior Open Photo by Raul Calin, by courtesy of the ITTF
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