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Want to improve your table tennis game? Start here with the most important rules to learn, how to score and umpire matches, grip types, playing styles, how to choose your first racket, all about spin and how to play the basic strokes of ping-pong.

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Ping-Pong Blog

Serve and Return of Serve - Thoughts from the Australian National Coach

Friday November 20, 2009
Timo Boll - an example to follow Photo by Rémy Gros, by courtesy of the ITTF
Brett Clarke, the current Table Tennis Australia National Head Coach, has written two thought provoking articles regarding serve and return of serve at the advanced level.

Having analyzed world class play extensively, in his first article on returning serve (Note: this is a link to a .pdf file) Brett recommends copying the short backspin return technique of Chinese star Ma Lin, and the low bouncing backhand sidespin flick German heroes Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov. Brett also outlines his method of teaching the short backspin return technique.

In his second article, Brett studies the importance of the short but fast serve, discusses why it is important, and suggests how best to practice this important stroke.

While Brett is discussing advanced techniques, players of all levels would benefit from reading Brett's thoughtful analysis of serve and serve return in the modern game.

ITTF World of Table Tennis - Episode 7 is Up

Thursday November 19, 2009
TT on the TV - well, itTV! Image courtesy www.ittf.com
Episode seven of the ITTF World of Table Tennis is now available for viewing from the ITTF website. In this episode, they have footage from the World Cup, talk with Werner Schlager about his academy, and see how table tennis is helping to build bridges between people in Jordan. Good viewing for readers with broadband connections.

Guide to Basement and Family Ping-Pong

Wednesday November 18, 2009
A $10 bat and a $200 bat - can you tell the difference? Does it matter? © 2009 by Greg Letts, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Strangely enough, most of what is written on the Internet about table tennis caters for that small percentage of serious players, and the vast majority of basement or family ping-pong players are left out in the cold. There is very little good advice online about how to play better ping-pong without spending a fortune on custom bats, expensive coaching, or attending training camps. Most information that you will find that is aimed at complete beginners is either written by other beginners (which results in some strange advice!), or is written in the expectation that the new player is planning to start playing with expensive custom equipment and become a serious table tennis player as soon as possible. (And yes, I've been as guilty of this as anyone in the past!)

But what about those ping-pong players who simply want to play for fun in their garage, family room or workplace, using their trusty Wal-Mart bats, but who would also like to play a bit better and beat their buddies more often?

If you are one of these players, then this Guide to Basement and Family Ping-Pong is for you. This guide is written by an advanced table tennis player for the ping-pong player who has only ever played for fun, who doesn't know the real difference between basement ping-pong and advanced table tennis (and who probably doesn't care!), but who still wants to improve his game and win more matches against his family, friends and work mates.

Follow the Bouncing Ball...

Thursday November 12, 2009
Don't just phone it in... Image copyright Apple
In the What will they think of next? category is this nifty product from Terranova Scientific, who have produced an iPhone application to measure the Coefficient of Restitution (COR) of table tennis balls, by "listening" to the consecutive bounces of the ball, and then calculating the COR by analyzing the time interval between the bounces.

Seeing as the current test for the COR of table tennis balls is done by dropping the ball from 305mm, and then measuring the height of the bounce (which is not as easy at it sounds - try it sometime), this could be a useful product for table tennis officials around the world. Initial pricing looks to be around $25 US.

The actual table tennis ball COR measurer iPhone application is not released quite yet, but you can check out the equivalent product for golf balls from the company here.

Now if they could only come up with a similar iPhone application to measure the fastest rubber...

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