Should Table Tennis Beginners Use Junk Rubbers?
Monday February 23, 2009
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| Can You Handle The Pips? Photo © 2006 Greg Letts, licensed to About.com, Inc. |
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Most coaches and experienced table tennis players would recommend that new ping-pong people should stick to using inverted rubber on both sides of their racket, until the basic strokes have been mastered. But is this truism good advice? Or can table tennis beginners use junk rubbers?
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Common Grip Errors in Table Tennis
Friday February 20, 2009
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| Thumbs Down on Thumbs Up - Your Bat! Photo © 2009 Greg Letts, licensed to About.com, Inc. |
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They say that there is a thousand ways to skin a cat, and sometimes it seems that there are almost as many ways to hold your table tennis bat! And while variety is the spice of life, most table tennis players are better off sticking to conventional grip types. Today I'm examining some common ping-pong grip mistakes made by new players - is your grip on the list?
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Table Tennis in the News - 18th February 2009
Wednesday February 18, 2009
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| What's News? Photo © 2007 Greg Letts, licensed to About.com, Inc. |
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Table tennis has been making headlines in a number of different areas of the media of late, including the following articles:
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How to Play the Basic Strokes of Table Tennis - The Forehand Counterhit
Monday February 16, 2009
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| Start with the basics! Photo © 2007 Greg Letts, licensed to About.com, Inc. |
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If you are a recent convert to the sport of table tennis, then you need to master the basic strokes as soon as possible. While there still exists some debate about which strokes to learn first, there is little doubt that one of them is the stroke I'm highlighting today - the forehand counterhit.
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Table Tennis Fitness Training - Train Smarter - And Harder!
Friday February 13, 2009
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| Don't Let Your Fitness Let You Down Photo © 2007 Greg Letts, licensed to About.com, Inc. |
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Those readers who have followed my personal table tennis blog would know about my use of walking aerobics that has allowed me to increase my training time and burn more calories without pounding my body into the ground. Which is all well and good if you have lots of time to train, but what if you are pressed for time?
Here's another training tool that I use that just might do the trick for those of you with busy schedules. It's a tip I picked up from Clarence Bass, a well respected figure in body building and whole body fitness circles. You can read the whole rationale behind this training tip by following the link, but I'll also put it into a nutshell below.
The training routine is to do 6-8 sessions of all out aerobic effort that last 20 seconds each, spaced out by 10 second periods of rest. Subjects tested using this routine had an increase in their VO2max of 14% in 6 weeks, along with an increase in anaerobic capacity of 28%. In other words, people improved their aerobic fitness and muscular endurance at the same time! Not bad!
I've been using this routine once a week at the end of my aerobic sessions, doing 6 sets of all out looping shadow play (with side-to-side footwork) for 20 seconds each, and a 10 second rest break between each set. Believe me, 6 sets is more than enough for me! It really is pretty gruelling, but I believe it's worth it.
So if you are pressed for time, but are willing to endure about 3-4 minutes of intense discomfort every 2-3 days (don't try this every day, as the report explains), this just might be the thing for you!
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Table Tennis News
Thursday February 12, 2009
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| Table Tennis News and Views USATT logo courtesy www.usatt.org |
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Dan Seemiller has resigned as the USA Men's National Team Coach, after 10 years in the role. A brief statement about Dan's resignation and the USATT's plans to find a new coach can be found on the USATT website.
In other news, older readers will find the following article of interest - an interview with Ye Yonglie, the journalist who reported on the Chinese match-fixing scandals of the 1960s-1980s. In the interview he describes in fascinating detail the events behind the 1987 WTTC controversy where He Zhili refused to dump her match to Guan Jianhua in the semifinals of the Women's Singles, and went on to win the gold medal. (Thanks to Denis' Table Tennis World forum member zzzuppp for digging this up!)
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Timo Boll, Li Qian Triumph at Europe Top 12
Wednesday February 11, 2009
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| Timo Boll - Home Town Triumph! Photo By: Rémy Gros, by courtesy of the ITTF |
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Home town hero Timo Boll triumphed in the final of the Europe Top 12 held in Düsseldorf, Germany this weekend. Boll won a close 4-3 victory over Vladimir Samsonov, 11-9 in the seventh game, coming back from a 1-3 deficit to win the next 3 games and the match.
In the women's final, Poland's Li Qian had a 4-1 victory over Li Jie, in a match that was played under the expedite system from 8-6 in the first game. The 5 game match took over an hour to complete!
More details are available at the ITTF website.
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Get Back to Basics - Your Basic Ready Position During the Rally
Monday February 9, 2009
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| Get Back to Base-ics! Photo © 2006 Greg Letts, licensed to About.com, Inc. |
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Today I want to talk about one of the advanced concepts of table tennis - in this case where you should be putting yourself during the rally. Once the basic strokes have been mastered, there is still a lot more to learn about ping-pong - and the art of being in the right place at the right time is one of these things. Naturally enough, I've got a lot of hints, tips and strategies for perfecting your ping-pong positioning, so read on!
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Greg's Table Tennis Blog - Update
Friday February 6, 2009
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| It's all systems go for 2009! Photo © 2007 Greg Letts, licensed to About.com, Inc. |
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My 2009 local competition season is finally underway, so it's about time I put up a blog update on my progress since December last year. It's been a busy January!
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The 80/20 Principle for Table Tennis
Wednesday February 4, 2009
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| Less Lobbing, More Chopping! Photo © 2008 Greg Letts, licensed to About.com, Inc. |
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Most people are familiar with the 80/20 Principle, which states that roughly 80% of results come from 20% of the causes. But can this real-life rule of thumb be applied successfully to table tennis, and if so, how? I've been putting this principle into practice over the last few months, and I've got a few tips on how to make the most of the 80/20 principle to improve your own ping-pong progress.
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