Pong with Me - Atha and Steph on table tennis.

Guest posting from Fahad

2010-03-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! It's been a long time since our last post, but Fahad from tabletennisnet.org has been kind enough to offer this following guest post. I hope those of you who are looking for a new blade find it helpful!

Also, please do check out his site, too! Click here to go to Table Tennis Net, a great blog dedicated to table tennis.

Here's the article, entitled "Choosing the right table tennis blade."

Choosing the right table tennis blade:

We have discussed in an earlier post that the rubbers and blade of a table tennis bat can affect your game greatly. However, we haven’t seen how the different type of wood and ply affects the ball when it is hit.

Let’s take a look at all those important factors and their effects on your game. Hopefully you will be in a better position to choose your next table tennis blade.

Table tennis blade weight

This is a tricky one. Lighter blades are can be swung a lot faster but heavier blades having more mass produce more momentum when hitting the ball. So what you should really look for is a blade that’s heavy enough but also comfortable so that it can be sung quickly. This will give you the best of both, speed and momentum. Nice.

Table tennis blade stiffness

Table tennis blade stiffness refers to how much bend and flex it can take. Generally, the stiffer the blade the faster it will be. However it will be less spiny than a flexible blade.

Table tennis blade balance

The balance is a measure of how close the centre of gravity of the blade is to the handle or the tip of the head. Loopers and hitters tend to go for head-heavy blades to produce extra spin and speed while a defensive player would often choose a blade with the centre of gravity towards the handle as it increases control. You should also be aware that the weight of rubbers affects the blade significantly. Heavy rubbers tend to move the centre of gravity towards the tip of the paddle head.

Speed

Faster table tennis blades tend to be used by offensive or more aggressive players whereas defensive players prefer slower blades. Slower blades also offer more spin as the contact time of the ball with the blade is longer. This gives a defensive player more time to put spin on the ball. One should understand that slow blades doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be a slower than other players. Furthermore, we also need to bear in mind that the table tennis rubbers will affect the speed of your game play too.

Table tennis blade head size

Air resistance generated from the head size is comparatively insignificant. So the concern here is that the larger the head of the table tennis blade the more rubber will be required to cover it. This will consequently increase the weight of the table tennis paddle. As we discussed earlier, a heavier blade will tend to move the centre of gravity away from the table tennis handle.

Handle types

The handle type is only of matter of preference and varies from player to player. Usually, players with a strong forehand tend to go for the flared handle. This is possibly because it allows for better grip before executing the stroke.

Players with stronger backhand seem to prefer straight handles as it gives greater flexibility to execute that stroke.

Mind you, there are other types of handles. Few examples include the pistol handle or even the V-grip blades. I’m not entirely sure of their effectiveness but needless to say that it’s better to stay away from unproven and non-tested equipment (competitive level).

Table tennis manufacturers have also introduced new technologies such the WRB, VSG and Senso. The process involves hollowing out the handle to move the centre of gravity closer to the blade. Some even claim that it reduces vibration and improves the touch and feel of the blade. But I believe that such claim should be treated with caution and if you really want to find out, try them J and check whether they fulfill those claims.

Rubbers

I’ve written an in depth article about table tennis rubbers

Table tennis rubbers

Layers

When considering the layers of your rubbers, you need to take into consideration the number of layers and secondly their composition.

The number of layers can vary from 1 to a maximum allowable 7. Table tennis blades with 3 or 5 plies tend to be more popular. In theory, other combinations are also possible but they are rare.

Another point that wanted to share is that the number of layers isn’t necessarily related to the speed produced. So you don’t really have to worry too much about how many layers your table tennis blade has.

Table tennis rules and regulation stipulate that 85% of your blade should be made of wood. This gives manufacturers a leeway to incorporate other materials into the blades such as carbon fibres, glass fibre or Aralyte. Here is a small breakdown about their effect.

Carbon fibre:

Improves the strength and stiffens the table tennis blade. Carbon fibre also increases the sweet spot size of the blade.

Aralyte:

Also increases the size of the sweet spot. However it has the advantage of dumping vibration and gives a softer feel compared to the carbon fibre table tennis blade.

Fibreglass: has a similar effect to carbon fibre.

Your playing level

One common mistake that a lot of beginners make is to go from a beginner’s blade to a super fast one. Your level needs to be pretty high if you want to use these type of blades and even if you have been practising for couple of years it might not be enough.

My only advice is that unless you are a professional, stay away from them. Otherwise you will be wasting your money. Period.

Always ask a more experienced player or coach to help you out with your final decision.

Pricing

Prices vary from few dollars to well above $100 mark. As I mentioned it earlier, you need a table tennis blade suited to your skills not one that cost you more. A cheaper blade might have better characteristics suited to your style of play. So why pay more than you should? Try to select your blade without looking at the price so you don’t get influenced on your choice.

Conclusion:

I hope that this article was useful and helped you narrow down your selection of table tennis blade. What blades do you use? How long did it take you before you felt comfortable with them? Don’t forget to share your thoughts and comments below :-)

world junior championships 2008

2008-12-09T01:44:00.000-08:00

This year, the 2008 World Junior Championships are being held in Madrid, Spain. The US has sent Olena Sowers, Lily Zhang, Ariel Hsing, and Isabella Chen for the Junior Girls' Team, and they caught the attention of everyone on Saturday in the team event:

After being down 2-0 against Chile, Olena Sowers (one of Atha and my good friends and teammates in last year's World Junior Championships at Stanford University in California) turned the tie around and sparked a comeback that kept the US from elimination in the first round of the team event. While the US ended up falling to Japan the next morning, they still caused quite a stir with their 3-2 come-from-behind win over Chile. Click here for the story from ittf.com.

For more stories and live results from Worlds, click here or visit ittf.com.

regionals 11-16-08

2008-11-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

The New York City region had its regional tournament on Sunday, November 16, at FIT in downtown Manhattan. The tournament itself was a huge success thanks to the quick, efficient set-up and clean-up before and after the tournament (props!), and because of the tournament's huge turn-out. Co-ed matches lasted from about 10am to after 7pm, and the women's matches lasted from about 10am to around 3pm. In both co-ed and women's, Rutgers dominated the scene by going undefeated in both events, so congratulations to the Rutgers' co-ed team: Judy Hugh, Adam Formal, Iuliana Radu, Wing "Leon" Sit, and Jin Yang; and to the Rutger's women's team: Judy Hugh, Iuliana Radu, Jin Yang, Rekha Bachwani, Shriya Patel, and Elizabeth Cho. On another bright note, Columbia's co-ed and women's teams both got 2nd behind Rutgers, losing only to Rutgers, so KUDOS to the Columbia co-ed team: Carlos A. Perilla, Victor Leung, David Loeffler, Vanck Zhu, Shih-Hung Hsu, James Skoufis, Kagan Irez, and me; and to the women's team: Lina Cao, Jenny Chen, Wendy Mu, Vivian Wang, Dehui Kong, and me!

This was the first of two regional tournaments (the next one will be in the spring), and the top two teams from each region get a bid to the College Nationals, being held in Minnesota this year. Although the tournament took basically all day and drained the hell out of everyone there, it was great to see old friends and meet new ones. Teams that went included Columbia, Yale, Stonybrook, Rutgers and NYU, [among others], and some matches got heated and intense; the best ones to watch throughout the day were probably NYU vs Stonybrook (or really NYU vs anyone, what with their energy level and team spirit, contributed mostly by Joe Kim) and Columbia vs Rutgers, with both ties going down to the wire: NYU and Rutgers both won in the 5th game of the 5th team match (the format of NCTTA tournaments are best 3 out of 5 team matches, with 4 singles and 1 doubles, so if you see tight doubles matches going on, chances are that the team tie is at stake).

I was silly and forgot my camera, so the following pictures are credited to Shih-Hung Hsu:

David Loeffler:

Judy vs Carlos:

Victor Leung:

New ITTF Eligibility Rule FOR NON US-CITIZENS UNDER 21

2008-10-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

Recently, the US Women's Olympic coach, Teodor Gheorghe, emailed me with these news:

"If any[one] was born in another country and never represented USA at the World Junior Championships and want[s] to represent USA in the future, please read the attached document, fill out and sign the form... and send it back to me ASAP"

And since I can't figure out how to put the actual document up, here's the copy and pasted version:

New ITTF Eligibility rule registration form

According to the new ITTF eligibility rule, players under 21 years old and were born in another country, but wish to represent the United States have to be registered with ITTF through USATT.

The new eligibility rule applies only for the World Title events - World Championships, World Junior Championships, and World Cup and is as follows:

In addition to the provisions of 3.8 (the general rule of eligibility) players being eligible to represent an association other than the one they intend to represent, shall register with the ITTF, through this new association.

Such players shall not represent the new association before:
* 3 years after the date of registration, if the player is under the age of 15 when registered;
* 5 years after the date of registration, if the player is under the age of 18 but at least 15 years of age when registered;
* 7 years after the date of registration, if the player is under the age of 21 but at least 18 years of age when registered.

Players being 21 years of age or older will not be registered with the ITTF and will not be eligible to represent a new association at World Title events.

Players who have already represented USA at a previous World Title event will keep that eligibility and do not need to register with ITTF.

Players who are under 21 years of age, born in another country, and have never represented USA at a World Title event must fill out and sign the below application for registration with the ITTF and send it to USATT HQ, attention Doru Gheorghe or by email to: Doru@usatt.org

So, if this applies to you, and you want to represent the US in future international tournaments, EMAIL DORU for the form!!! I also have a copy of the form as well, so you can email me at so90crazy@gmail.com too, but it would probably be better for you to just contact Doru directly.

Cheers!

Tibhar's SINUS

2008-10-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

Despite its ridiculous-sounding name, Sinus is a really great rubber. It's the sort of off-spring/next generation of Nimbus, and was designed specifically with the forehand and those who are used to hard, spinny rubbers in mind. Actually, the Nimbus was really intended to be mostly a backhand rubber, but it's definitely versatile and all-around enough for a forehand rubber (I used it for around four months until last night, when I tried Sinus). For anyone who's looking for that powerful, explosive, spinny shot that you used to have with harder sponges, definitely try this one out. I like it more than Butterfly's Tenergy, because I feel like you get a better grip on the ball with Sinus, and more control overall.

And to answer Alex's question from the last post, I was talking specifically about Butterfly's glue... Sorry for any confusion or issues that ambiguity may have caused!

Sorry it's been a while, but college life tends to catch up to you...

Speaking of which, college table tennis has definitely been an experience. I would venture to say that the Columbia table tennis team practices quite a lot for a college team, and that we're a relatively cohesive one at that. No politics or animosity or anything like that, and that's always a good thing. For anyone who doesn't know how collegiate table tennis works, there is an organization (NCTTA): http://nctta.org/index.html. There are different regions all across the country (Columbia is in the New York City region with NYU, Rutgers, Cooper Union, Yale, Stevens Institute of Technology, Polytechnic University, FIT, Stonybrook, NJIT, and a few other teams that are inactive this year), and teams within each region play each other at regional tournaments (ours is coming up in November!) and the top two teams from each region go to Nationals at the end of the school year. Anyone applying to college or looking at colleges that still wants to play or start playing table tennis, look to see if your schools have a club or a team. If yes, then join, if not, then look to start your own club!

more on water glue

2008-09-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

So I know that in the last post I listed a few rubbers that would fall under the "Hurricane of the new era" category, but I tried out another one today that I would definitely add to the list: Butterfly's Tenergy. Compared to other new rubbers, the Tenergy's sponge is VERY hard and could be comparable with Hurricane; it has the same relative hardness, is quite spinny, and can deliver a pretty explosive shot. For anyone who uses Hurricane and is looking into rubbers to try out, I'd definitely suggest trying this one out before you get used to a softer sponge; the only reason I'm not flying off the walls crazy about the rubber is because I'm used to my Nimbus (Tibhar) now and I like it a lot, so I'm sort of over my "I-have-to-use-Hurricane" phase. In any case, there will never be another rubber exactly like Hurricane, so I'm over looking for a replacement.

For anyone using water glue for the first time, this is how you go about gluing: take your new sheet of rubber out of the packaging, and leave it out in open air for around 3 days. The reason you're supposed to leave it out is so the "speed effect" built in the sponge can sort of sink in and "breathe"; I'm not exactly sure how racket inspections/testing will work, but I've been told that unless your sponge gets the 72 hours of open air it needs, it could fail the test. Anyway, after 3 days, put a glob of glue roughly the size of a quarter, maybe a little smaller, in the middle of the sponge, and spread it out as evenly as possible; any bumps will be immediately noticable when you put the rubber on the blade. Water glue looks basically just like Elmer's glue (the white pastey stuff we used in like first grade for arts and crafts), and is just as harmless- the gluing process can get VERY messy, so make sure you have a tissue handy, but in case it gets on your hands or something, it's not toxic.. no biggie. To glue the blade, use a very small glob of glue and spread it evenly. When wet, the glue looks white, but will look transparent when dry, so you'll definitely be able to tell when it's dry. It should take only about 5-10 minutes for everything to dry. One layer of glue for both wood and rubber is definitely enough, and it wouldn't make a bit of difference if you use more glue anyway, so the whole gluing process should take no more than 10-15 minutes, if even that much. Plus, gluing can be a one-time experience for each rubber; you do it once and never again (unless you need to because it's coming off or something like that).

Overall, I'm pretty chill with the new glues/rubbers. My only issue is that my forehand rubber (Tibhar's Nimbus) has sort of a short lifespan; while I only need to glue it once, it usually doesn't last me more than 2 or 3 months. But, it's nice not to have to worry about gluing before practice anymore, and I'm down for not inhaling poisonous toxins any day.

dealing with water glue (yes, you have to now)

2008-09-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's been September for a while, and for those who don't know, this means that the table tennis world officially has to start using ONLY water-based glue. Water glue really is going to change the game, as shown by Li Xiaoxia, winner of the Volkswagen Women's World Cup earlier this month; Li has real power, and she has never needed to rely on her rubber and glue to get by, unlike most people, and therefore blew away the competition. That's right, people will no longer be able to blame a bad match on a bad gluing job, because gluing is essentially no longer important and plays little to no role in actual play.

I said it before and I'll say it again: FOR PEOPLE WHO NORMALLY USE HURRICANE, GIVE IT UP. I know it's hard and I know Hurricane is an amazing rubber, but I can guarantee you 110% you will not be able to use it anymore. Using Hurricane is especially out of the question now that Optimizers are officially illegal. The way the rubbers of the new age work is that the stuff that made speed glue speedy is now built into the sponges. This the reason why you only need to glue a sheet once and never again; regluing is not necessary because the "stuff" isn't in your glue anymore (it's been about two months since the last time I glued). It's weird to imagine gluing only about once every two or three months, but it's been great, because I don't need to sit and glue my Hurricane for 10-20 minutes anymore, and there is no unpredictability in my rubbers' performance. Definitely, for sure, absolutely, positively, undeniably, you're going to need to take some time to look into company's new lines of rubber, try them out, and get used to them (Tibhar, Donic, Butterfly, and Xiom have come out with pretty good ones, but, obviously, not everyone will like the same ones).

In addition to investing in new rubbers, you probably will need to try out new blades too; depending on how long you've been using your current one(s), it may be considered illegal because speed glue from before has been absorbed into the wood. Also, blades of a certain hardness may just not match up with whatever new rubber you get, so that's going to require some mixing and matching as well.

Shots with the new rubbers aren't as spinny or as powerful as with speed glue, but this definitely is not to say that making powerful or spinny shots is impossible. All I'm saying is that you absolutely cannot depend on your glue or your rubber to make your shots for you anymore. It will take some work and some getting used to, but it is definitely doable. Good luck to everyone in making the switch! It's kind of a pain, I know, but we don't have a choice, do we...

Zhang Yining withdraws from Panasonic China Open

2008-09-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

Looks like she decided to pursue a career in modeling instead.

I'm just kidding.

But, seriously, looks like the China Open women's title is up for grabs.

Click here to read more on ittf.

US Nationals Tournament Hotel

2008-09-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

They finally changed the tournament hotel to the Las Vegas Hilton for the US Nationals! It's about time for a change...the Stratosphere was just too far from both the Strip AND the Convention Center, and the Riviera was plain out dingy. At least the Hilton is close to the Convention Center and a decent hotel :).

Use reference code USA Table Tennis for the discount price of $70/night. Make your reservation before November 13, 2008 to get this rate!!

Click here for full details.

Olympic gold easier than World Championships gold?

2008-09-10T10:55:00.001-07:00

According to table tennis legend Jan-Ove Waldner it sure is! Look at what ITTF quoted him as saying:

"Prior to the competition Jan-Ove Waldner was asked whether it was easier to win the Men's Singles title at the Olympic Games or the World Championships.

He answered with a wry smile. 'The Olympics, there you only have to beat three Chinese,' he said. 'In the World Championships you have to beat six!'"

WORD!

Click here to read more on ITTF.

Volkswagen Women's World Cup

2008-09-09T17:51:00.000-07:00

Why hello there, everyone! Sorry for this lack of posting...life just catches up with us sometimes. Hold on just a sec as a stretch my typity-type-type fingers for some posting...

Oh yeah, as I warm up my typity-type fingers, Steph just started school at Barnard this last week! How exciting!

Okay, so the Volkswagen Women's World Cup. Went down yesterday. Lemme guess who won...China? Was I right? Oh, yep, China did win! Yay for me.

But, hey! Look! A new name came up -- up-and-comer Li XiaoXia won the title in Kula Lumpur. Second seed Li (born in 1988) basically crushed the competition, defeating Hong Kong's Tie Yana in four straight games in the final. Now that the Olympics are over, time to look for some fresh blood to replace old-timer Wang Nan...

Click here to read the whole story at ittf.com.

videos from beijing olympics

2008-09-08T23:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry these took so long!

Singles- early rounds
William Henzell (AUS) vs Jens Lundqvist (SWE)

Jian Fang Lay (AUS) vs Sandra Paovic (HRV)

Peng Zhang [aka Wilson Zhang] (CAN) vs Seiya Kishikawa (JPN)

Singles- Women's QF and Men's Round of 16

Wang Chen (USA) vs Li Jiawei (SIN)

Zhang Yining (CHN) vs Feng Tianwei (SIN)

Wang Nan (CHN) vs Tie Yana (HKG)

Wu Xue (DOM) vs Guo Yue (CHN)

Wang Hao (CHN) vs Yo Kan (JPN)

Jorgen Persson (SWE) vs Vladimir Samsonov (BLR)

Ma Lin (CHN) vs Kalinikos Kreanga (GRE)

Werner Schlager (AUT) vs Wang Liqin (CHN)

Timo Boll (GER) vs Oh Sang Eun (KOR)

Women's SF

Zhang Yining (CHN) vs Li Jiawei (SIN)

Wang Nan (CHN) vs Guo Yue (CHN)

Check out older posts for more videos! (I didn't want to post the same videos twice). A link to a photobucket album will be available soon =]

biggest lesson from the olympics: CHANGE UP THE PACE

2008-08-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

After watching so many Olympic table tennis, the most noticable thing I picked up from different matches was this: no matter how hard or how fast someone may rip the ball, as long as his/her opponent switches up the pace, the opponent can always pull it out. The three matches in which a player completely tripped up his/her opponent by changing the tempo and rhythm of the game are Zhang Yining vs Feng Tianwei (women's quarterfinal), Guo Yue vs Wang Nan (women's semifinal), and Ma Lin vs Wang Hao (men's final).

When interviewed after her match, Zhang Yining, who had to use her back-up racket because her main one didn't pass inspection before the match, acknowledged Feng's spectacular effort, and admitted that the only way she pulled out of the match was by messing with Feng's rhythm. Feng plays a pretty straightforward game, serve-attack and rallying with a strong forehand. Feng has beaten Zhang before and has shown time and again that she can keep up with Zhang (see videos). Given that Zhang may have already been off mentally because of her racket, and the way Feng played that night, it is quite possible that if Zhang just got into rallying contests with Feng, Feng would have come out on top; Zhang herself even admitted that unless she did something to make Feng feel uncomfortable and off-balance, she would have lost the match. Once they got into rallies that were about 50-50, Zhang would suddenly throw in a slower shot, letting the ball come a little closer to her body, giving the feeling almost that she "caught" the ball before looping it back. That extra fraction of a second that you keep the ball on your side of the net, especially when your opponent likes and is very comfortable with a fast game, is enough to throw him/her off and get him/her to hit the ball off the table off the edge of his/her racket. Zhang's signature move is her backhand, which appears to be late (timing-wise); in fact, her timing is late, but she has the touch and ability to control her shots. She seems to absorb all of the oncoming ball's momentum, and she seems like a wall when nobody can get shots by her.

Like I mentioned before, Guo Yue came out of the gates strong against Wang Nan in the women's semifinal (winning the first game at 3 and the third game at 4), and it appeared that it would be relatively smooth sailing for Guo, until Wang slowed down the game considerably. Wang threw off Guo's rhythm by literally slowing down the game: Wang took her time picking up the ball, took her time before serving, and took her time getting ready to receive Guo Yue's serves. While it was sort of annoying and tedious to watch, Guo Yue was noticably affected by the change of pace. Guo began to rush shots, making countless unforced errors and was never really able to turn the game around. In addition to literally slowing down the tempo of the game, Wang also started to mix in higher, slower, spinnier shots with low, fast rips, and the over-anxious Guo (who loves and excels at a fast, even-paced game) couldn't handle the variety; either Guo would be at mid-court expecting a hard and fast shot, but getting a slow, arching shot, or she would just be on her toes to the point of falling forward, waiting for a shot to get to her. This was also a classic example of experience and ability to make effective shots trumping youth, power, and over-zealousness. The first video is an example of Guo Yue's typical favorite rally (fast-paced, even paced); the second video is an example of Wang Nan changing up the pace, throwing in fast shots and slow, arching ones, and even though Guo acually won this point, it is clear she wasn't comfortable with the shots she got and that she was completely leaning forward; finally, the third video shows a point that Wang Nan won by varying tempo, arc, and spin, and it demonstrates that you don't necessarily need to rip the ball hard to win a point.

The match between Ma Lin, the Men's Singles gold medalist, and Wang Hao is the most telling. Typically in men's matches, men really go at it and try to rip everything as hard as they can. However, in this match, it was clear that Ma Lin was feeling the pressure, excitement and nervousness of fighting for the gold medal, and that he coped with it by making almost vertical shots; as the match progressed, he wasn't so quick or eager to try for insane rips, so instead, he started to swing virtually upward, sending the ball high and spinny over the net. Wang Hao, who probably expected a fast game from his compatriot, couldn't handle the constant change of pace. Ma's shots were so spinny and so slow, and Wang was so anxious and nervous, and something had to give. Wang ended up making a LOT of unforced errors, missing random blocks, and never really getting a chance to get on offense. It was sort of ironic that a man with a game so slanted toward strong attacks resorted to slow, weak shots to be effective, but it is not the first time we have seen that a constantly changing pace in a match can upset and opponent.

WANG HAO CHOKES AGAIN!

2008-08-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I wish I could say something interesting about the matches between Wang Liqin (CHN)/Jorgen Persson (SWE) for the bronze and Wang Hao (CHN)/Ma Lin (CHN) for the silver... but I really, really can't.

I give Persson a whole lot of credit for making it all the way to the final four. At 40+ years old, making it to the bronze play-off isn't easy, especially when table tennis is dominated by Asian players, so kudos to Persson!

And, as much as I dislike Ma Lin, kudos to him too. He's looked great all tournament, and he made the world's #1 ranked male player look lost. The reason Atha and I dislike Ma Lin very much is his terrible sportsmanship. An example is his attitude today in his semifinal match against fellow teammate, Wang Liqin; he was showy and obnoxious, and it would be one thing if he showed up somebody from a rival country, but it's definitely not cool to do it to your own teammate. I guess this is a matter of opinion, but to me, it's arrogance and bad sportsmanship.

Wang Liqin took it well, and took the bronze, beating Persson in straight sets. In fact, Wang Liqin has taken a lot of crap pretty well, especially considering he'll probably never have a chance at a gold medal again, and that the 2004 gold medal could have [and probably should have] been his. I really admire him for his dignity and for his composure. For people who don't know, this is what happened in Athens: Wang Liqin and Wang Hao met in the semifinals, and the winner would move on to play Korea's Ryu Seung Min for the gold. Wang Liqin was told to lose to Wang Hao on purpose, because Wang Hao had a much better record against Ryu. So, Wang Liqin lost and Wang Hao got the spotlight, but choked. Badly. I forget what his record was against Ryu, something like 2 losses and 7 wins, but basically, Wang owned him.

But Wang froze up, embarrassing himself, disappointing the Chinese, and shocking the world. And the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, of all places, was his opportunity to redeem himself. He's been playing extremely well of late, and had looked completely dominating throughout the last couple of weeks, but looked completely shut down against Ma Lin tonight. Against everyone else he played, Wang Hao really looked like the world's #1, but against Ma, he just looked... lost, like he didn't know what was going on. He made unforced errors all over the place, always found himself trailing and having to work really hard to fight back, and missed routine shots. An example is when he was down 7-5 in the 5th; he missed two routine backhands that put him down 9-5, two points away from losing the match and that could have tied the score at 7-7 to give himself a chance at coming back.

Still, I don't really feel sorry for him... he was basically given the gold on a silver platter last Olympics, and still couldn't get it. He clearly has problems performing on the big stage; he was simply out-done by better players in 2004 and 2008, Ryu Seung Min and Ma Lin. Ma was pumped all day, starting in the semi's and carrying all the way to the end (so excited, in fact, that he came close to ripping off his shirt after winning the match... ew). He came out the gates with fire in his eyes, pressuring Wang Hao and shutting down the world's #1 from the start, never giving him the chance to come back. Since they are both from China, neither of them had coaches for the match, and this definitely favored Ma Lin; Ma is a little bit older than Wang Hao and has been on the big stage more, so when it came down to a mental and emotional competition, Ma won by a long shot. Ma usually has a tendency to choke or suddenly be tentative when he has a lead (as in the 2007 World Championships final against Wang Liqin), but not tonight; he held on and hung tough the whole match, and it paid off.

Once again, expected, but anticlimactic: China's men sweep medals in singles. Congratulations to all six Chinese players, and to everyone who put up one hell of a fight!

all three medals go to china

2008-08-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

As Atha said... expected result, but anticlimactic. Actually, the match between Li Jiawei (SIN) and Guo Yue (CHN) was far from dull, as was the match between Li and Zhang Yining this morning. The match between Wang Nan and Guo Yue, on the other hand, was pretty boring (I watched the women's semi's in person this morning).

Women's SF
Zhang Yining (CHN) vs Li Jiawei (SIN): 4-1 (-9, 8, 10, 8, 5)

Li Jiawei started out taking the first game, like in the teams final, and looking pretty sharp. However, she still couldn't pull through, losing the next three very tight games. Li wasn't able to hang on to any leads she had (including a 6-3 lead), and Zhang simply performed better in the clutch, plain and simple.

The thing about Zhang Yining's game is that her rallying skills are so good and so solid that she can let her opponent attack and still win, but when she actually needs to turn up the offense, she can do it and not screw up. Basically, she's a coach's dream. She's calm and collected, doesn't choke, and can pull through when the going gets tough.

Anyway, she seemed to have a harder time against Li today than in the team final, when (with the exception of the first game, which Li won at 9) Li only managed 14 points in the 3 games she lost. This time, Li took her shots, smashing forehands (she uses pips on her forehand) and putting points away when she had opportunities [see videos below for examples], and just putting more umph on her forehands than last time.

Don't get me wrong, Li did play very well in their last meeting, but was much more aggressive and seemed to be much more into the match this time around. She put up a great fight, but really is just no match for Zhang Yining.

BUT... what sort of creeped me out a little bit was that after the match ended and Zhang Yining was about to leave, I looked down at her feet and couldn't believe what I saw... CROCS. YELLOW crocs, of all colors... personally I think crocs are man's worst invention ever, and the only reason I didn't completely lose respect for Zhang right then and there is that she's so incredible. O_o eek...

CROCS?!?! Oh boy...

Wang Nan (CHN) vs Guo Yue (CHN): 4-2 (-3, 8, -4, 7, 3, 6)

I'll admit, I REALLY wanted Guo Yue to win, but the veteran Wang Nan pulled through. Initally, I thought Wang Nan was going to win in a landslide, because neither of them had coaches (because both of them are from China). Wang Nan has been around for a while and can probably do without a coach, but Guo Yue has a tendency to choke or freeze and is probably a whole different player when she has no coach. Guo started off the match looking great, ripping forehands and just playing her normal game.

However, Wang started to slow the game down a lot, taking her time picking up the ball and before serves. Who knows how much this affected Guo Yue, but the match started to turn around; Guo started making all sorts of random unforced errors, missing routine (for her) forehands, and started going into backhand-backhand rallies (Wang Nan's strongest game). Instead of challenging and pressuring Wang's wide forehand, which she can no longer catch up to because of her...advanced age, Guo ended up getting herself into a consistency contest, which she would lose to Wang Nan any day. Anyway, it quickly became apparent that the youngster couldn't get herself back into the match, losing the last three games without making much noise.

Well, congratulations to the Chinese players! The bronze medal went to Guo Yue, the silver to Wang Nan, and the gold to Zhang Yining. Kudos to Zhang Yining! She really is something, and being able to get gold medals in singles two consecutive Olympics is no small feat, and, as she herself acknowledged in an interview after the championship match, not at all easy. She truly is the world's #1 female table tennis player right now, and as she's shown in match after match, she has earned and deserves that title. So, while I'm not so thrilled about China getting all three medals (the men will probably have the same result, with all three of them in the top 4), I am absolutely elated for Zhang Yining. She's humble, modest, and a total star.

Check back soon for pics and videos! They'll be up soon, I promise...

Wang Chen retires! And Li Jiawei still in the running for a singles medal.

2008-08-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

First of all, Wang Chen retired after reaching the quarterfinals of the 2008 Beijing Olympics:

"I'm 34 years old and my back hurts a lot. Sometimes I just want to give up, but I wanted to play at the Olympics, which is a big event. I will retire after this tournament," she said (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/21/content_9578425.htm).

Well, congratulations, Wang Chen, for pulling through and getting the USA so far in the Olympic games! WOW! Given the fact that she was ready to quit ping pong for life when she came to the United States in 1999, she's really come a long way to prove herself in her first and last Olympics ever. Now, she'll return to NY to continue running her table tennis club. We also shouldn't forget to recognize Gao Jun, who's given so much glory to US women's table tennis. Thanks to both of you!

Second of all, darn! Li Jiawei lost to Zhang Yining in the semifinals of the women's (-9, 8, 10, 8, 5). I was rooting for Li Jiawei -- it would have been so awesome if she had gotten into the finals so that it would be one country against the other. Now it's China vs. China, with Wang Nan and Zhang Yining in the finals -- the expected result, but anticlimactic :(.

Well, at least Li Jiawei's still in the running for a bronze medal, and hopefully she can pull through and finally get a singles medal. This Olympics is her 3rd one. In the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Li Jiawei beat 2nd-seeded Wang Nan only to lose to North Korea's Kim Hyang Mi in the semi-finals in 7 games. Then she lost to South Korea's Kim Kyung Ah in the bronze medal match.

Let's hope Li Jiawei can pull through against Guo Ye in the bronze medal match! This should be a good match, which will be going down August 22 at 7:30PM (Beijing time).

women's quarterfinals & men's round of 16

2008-08-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

Tonight I saw the women's quarterfinals and the men's round of 16. My parents, my aunt, and I went into the stadium with our US flag to cheer on Wang Chen, who played against Singapore's Li Jiawei. Alas, Wang lost to Li Jiawei 4-1. Anyway, the match between Zhang Yining (CHN) and Feng Tianwei (SIN) was by far the best match of the night; Feng played an amazing game, really making Zhang work for every point and stepping up her game to a level beyond her normal, but Zhang was just too much.

The day began with the women's round of 16, with both US women still in. Wang Chen beat Kim Kyung Ah in seven (9, 9, 8, -10, -6, 9, 5). Gao Jun, unfortunately, lost to the Dominican Republic's Wu Xue in 7 this morning in the round of 16 (10, 8, -6, 3, -8, -12, 9), otherwise we would have gone US-crazy in the stands cheering for two players. Wang Chen advanced to play Li Jiawei (SIN) in the quarters, and Wu Xue moved on to play Guo Yue (CHN). The situation really could not have been better for Wang; of the players left, the one she would have the least trouble with is Li Jiawei, because of playing styles- Li plays a fast, rallying game, at just the rhythm and tempo Wang is comfortable with. Wang's rallying skills are comparable, if not better, than Li's, so this was a huge opportunity to get into the top 4 to try for a medal. However, it was not to be...

Women's QF (for results from this round and the previous rounds, click here)

Zhang Yining (CHN) vs Feng Tianwei (SIN): 4-1 (11, -12, 12, 10, 11)

This was THE most incredible match I've ever seen in person. Period. I've seen Zhang Yining play on TV and, as I mentioned in a previous post, I think she's amazing; she rarely ever makes unforced errors, and her game is basically this: here, you can go ahead and attack if you want, and we'll see if you can out-rally me. But, seeing her in person is a whole other story. She appears to be something unhuman on the court, particularly so tonight, out-battling Feng in a nail-biter. As the score makes clear, it was a CLOSE match that really could have gone either way (see the videos for typical points, as in almost every one) in which both players put on a tremendous performance. Actually, Zhang wasn't even using her normal racket... apparently, she had to go with her back-up racket because her normal one didn't pass the umpires' inspection. The fact that she can use her back-up and still play like this is a testament to her abilities. There really isn't a single woman on this planet who can match her skills, and I say this in all seriousness with no gushing-obsessiveness whatsoever. It was a heart-breaker for Feng, but on the other hand, she has every reason to be very, very proud of herself; she outdid herself and played probably the best match of her life, really giving everybody something to talk about.

Wang Chen (USA) vs Li Jiawei (SIN): 1-4 (13 ,6, 10, -13, 4)

This was an exciting match for me and other Americans to watch, because Wang Chen represented our last hope for a medal in table tennis. Even though she lost, top 8 ain't bad, and we're real proud of her =] What cost Wang the match was not winning the first and third games, and her passiveness. Wang not taking the first game sort of set the tone for the rest of the match; had she won, she would have established a presence and put some pressure on Li and let her know that she's a force to be reckoned with. Instead, Wang allowed Li to find a groove and establish her game. Granted, the game was very close and could have gone either way, but I imagine it was a bit of a confidence killer for Wang. In the third game, Wang was up 9-5 and 10-6, but couldn't hold the lead. This was definitely a confidence and rhythm killer for Wang, as she found herself down 9-3 in the fourth. However, Li had a bit of a mental lapse of her own, losing at least six straight points, giving Wang Chen an extra life. Wang Chen's biggest problem, however, was that she didn't go for her shots. There were plenty of rallies in which she just didn't have enough on her shots, allowing Li to either punch or rip a backhand past her. A good, strong, solid punch from Wang's backhand is critical to her game, because she doesn't step around anymore, and because she has no backhand topspin (she has pips on her backhand). She let Li get away with okay or weak backhands too many times, and Li managed to steady herself in long backhand rallies, and basically did anything she wanted with the ball because Wang was just blocking shots back. In any case, CONGRATS to Wang Chen for making it this far, and to Li Jiawei for being the only player not representing China to make it to the final 4!

Wang Nan (CHN) vs Tie Yana (HKG): 4-1 (5, 4, -11, 2, 4)

This match, to be honest, was really ugly... Wang Nan and Tie Yana have played before, and this wasn't the first time Tie Yana was disposed of in this fashion. Rallies were very short, lasting four exchanges, tops, with basically all of them going to Wang Nan. Tie Yana seemed very much off her game, making many more unforced errors than usual, and never really giving herself a chance to put up a fight. And anyway, she kept playing to Wang Nan's backhand, the strongest part of her game, and never challenged Wang Nan's forehand (which should have been easy for Tie, because her best shot is her backhand, and her backhand would go cross-court to lefty Wang Nan's forehand).

Wu Xue (DOM) vs Guo Yue (CHN): 0-4 (5, 14, 11 ,5)

This match was sort of predictable, with Guo as the clear favorite. Wu went down swinging, though. On any given day, Wu at her best couldn't beat Guo, but Wu put up a fight. In many points, Wu made some great shots, giving Guo some extremely uncomfortable angles wide and down the line with her backhand (Wu is a lefty penhold player with inverted rubber). However, she and Guo really are on totally different levels, and Wu just flat-out is no match for Guo.

After the women came the men's round of 16. Of the eight matches played, only two were worth watching. For the most part, the men's matches were pretty boring because one player was clearly no match for the other: the three Chinese men, Ma Lin, Wang Hao, and Wang Liqin all had and easy time; the two Germans, Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Timo Boll, didn't play well. The two good matches were Zoran Primorac (HRV) vs Yang Zi (SIN), and Jorgen Persson (SWE) vs Vladimir Samsonov (BLR). It made me really happy that there were many Europeans still in, and even happier that two advanced, but it worried me a bit that they aren't new or young faces; most of them have been around so long that they're legends, and almost all of them have had blades named after them for some time now. Anyway...

Men's round of 16 (for scores and results of this round and previous rounds, click here)

Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER) vs Ko Lai Chak (HKG): 1-4 (4, 7 ,4, -1, 1)

This really just wasn't much of a match. Plenty of kudos and credit to Ovtcharov, though, for being the youngest person left standing, and for accomplishing so much at such a young age. However, he has issues against lefties, and it showed in this match. Also, the differences between the European style of play and the Asian style of play became apparent: Ovtcharov kept trying to get into counter-looping rallies far away from the table, but kept getting ahead of himself and missing on his own.

Wang Hao (CHN) vs Yo Kan (JPN): 4-1 (6, -9, 8, 5, 4)

In the beginning of the match, it seemed as if Yo may have had a shot, but as the match progressed, it just became clear that the two of them are on two completely different levels, and that Yo is no match for Wang. Yo, like Wang, is a righty penhold player with inverted rubber, but Wang Hao has a backhand that is virtually unique and was just too much for Yo to handle. Counter-looping rallies went 80-20 ish for Wang Hao, who had basically the whole stadium on his side. In all seriousness, though, nobody is looking better than Wang Hao now, including the other two Chinese men. In all likelihood, Wang is going to be able to redeem himself after his 2004 silver medal and take the 2008 gold medal. And btw... his hair really does make him look like a rooster...

Jorgen Persson (SWE) vs Vladimir Samsonov (BLR): 4-3 (-7, -8, 9, -11, 7, 10, 9)

The match seemed to be completely going to Samsonov, who won clutch points, and who just looked sharper overall. However, Samsonov seemed to lose a bit of focus in the fifth game, allowing Persson to get himself back in the match. In the sixth game, it was neck-and-neck until 8-9. Persson looked just about defeated, always on the defensive in rallies. Samsonov stepped around and ripped a forehand off the edge...side? After a long dispute over whether the shot hit the edge or the side, the officials decided to replay the point. This was no small issue; if they ruled the shot as an edge, Samsonov would have had match point at 8-10, and if they ruled the shot as being outside, it would have been 9-9 and anyone's game. Samsonov was very noticably annoyed at the decision, and started to unravel mentally. After losing the sixth game, the seventh was neck-and-neck again, but it was apparent that Samsonov just wasn't all there, that he was thinking that the match should have been over. When all was said and done, Persson, now 42 years old, made one heck of a comeback and advanced to the men's quarterfinals, where he will meet the only non-Asian player left (that's kind of lame... but whatever, no one asked me to do the draws), Zoran Primorac.

Yang Zi (SIN) vs Zoran Primorac (HRV): 4-2 (7, 7, -4, -8, 7, 6)

This match was exciting from the beginning because Primorac was pumped; you could tell when he was leading or winning because he would shout and fist-pump. Yang gave him a bit of a scare by taking two games to tie the score at 2-2, but the veteran Primorac managed to tough it out. However, watching him (and Persson and Samsonov) made it clear that they wouldn't be able to keep up with the Chinese players; the Europeans' shots are noticably slower, and have considerably less quality. Persson and Samsonov had several long, lob-and-smash points, that, if played out with the Chinese players, would have lasted about three exchanges, if not three shots.

Kalinikos Kreanga (GRE) vs Ma Lin (CHN): 0-4 (5, 5, 3, 7)

This is just not a fair fight. Kreanga has virtually nothing he could use to even challenge Ma Lin, let alone beat him. Kreanga's game is pretty straight-forward: loop and counter-loop until someone misses. This basically was his plan throughout the match, and it wasn't pretty.

Wang Liqin (CHN) vs Werner Schlager (AUT): 4-0 (6, 4, 8, 2)

This wasn't really much of a fair fight either. I'm not sure what Schlager was thinking, but whatever his game plan was (if he had one) was almost as good as not playing at all; Schlager is not usually this sloppy, and his matches are usually not this ugly. He did basically what Kreanga did, with the same result: rear back and loop as hard as humanly possible and just see what happens. 4-0, that's what.

Timo Boll (GER) vs Oh Sang Eun (KOR): 1-4 (9, 4, 9, -8, 3)

Timo was clearly off his game tonight. Like I said in a previous post, Timo is probably the only European with a shot at upsetting any of the Chinese players. But not this time. Oh's condition was pretty average, but Timo's was just off... Timo's unforced errors made the game easy for Oh, because the Korean didn't need to do very much. Unfortunately, it was a disappointing night for the Germans and for Timo.

Tan Ruiwu (HRV) vs Li Ching (HKG): 4-2 (-9, 6, -10, 8, 11, 11)

I actually didn't get to see the end of the match, but what I did see wasn't anything too spectacular. The excitement came because people sitting near us in the stands were cheering very loudly for Li Ching. In general, though, there were too many unforced errors from both players, and neither of them has a chance in the next round against Wang Liqin anyway...

Check back soon for pics and videos from today's matches. In about six hours, I will be watching the women's semifinals (Zhang Yining vs Li Jiawei & Wang Nan vs Guo Yue), and maybe some men's quarterfinal matches. Check out ittf.com for live scoring!

excitement in early rounds

2008-08-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

I saw live Olympic table tennis for the first time last night! Starting at 6pm, I saw women's first and second round matches, and men's first round matches, with many going down to the wire in 7 games. It was funny to watch matches in which two Chinese players played each other, because the crowd couldn't really pick one to root for, as in the match between Xian Yi Fang (FRA) and Xu Jie (POL).

The day didn't begin well for the US, as David Zhuang, the only male player from the US, lost to Segun Toriola of Nigera in 7 (-8, 8, -2, 6, 9, -7, 8). I got a chance to watch Toriola play, beating Joao Montiero of Portugal, also in 7 games (-5, 7, 7, -5, 9, -9, 7).

When I first got to the playing hall, they had just started the last of the women's first round matches: Wenling Tan Monfardini (ITA) vs Tetyana Sorochynska (UKR); Jian Fang Lay (AUS) vs Sandra Paovic (HRV); Veronika Pavlovich (BLR) vs Dana Hadacova (CZE); and Fabiola Ramos (VEN) vs Jong Kim (PRK). The most eventful and exciting match by far was Lay vs Paovic. Lay is a right-handed, penhold, pips player, and Paovic is a right-handed, shakehand, two-winged looper. The match was so exciting because of the long rallies, the come-backs, and also because Paovic didn't really play Lay correctly; Paovic ripped almost every shot (or atleast she tried to) and tried to put every point away in as few shots as possible, but against Lay's type of pips and playing style, the more spin you put on the ball, the better. Well, ripping everything COULD work, but Paovic's shots obviously didn't have enough speed or power (as opposed to, say, Guo Yue) to beat Lay, the next-best option would have been to put crazy spin on every shot so that Lay's pips wouldn't have been able to handle it. However, European players don't really practice those purposely high, spinny shots, so it's understandable that Paovic tried to tough it out the hard way.

(Monfardini in blue vs Sorochynska in red)

(Lay in green & yellow vs Paovic in black)

Next, I saw men's first round matches: William Henzell (AUS) vs Jens Lundqvist (SWE); Song Man Jang (PRK) vs Liu Song (ARG); Peng Zhang [also known as Wilson Zhang] (CAN) vs Seiya Kishikawa (JPN); and Lucjan Blaszczyk (POL) vs Suraju Saka (CGO). The first three matches were pretty exciting for their own reasons. Lundqvist vs Henzell was a crazy match because Henzell, who came out of nowhere and actually almost beat Wang Liqin in the team event, was the major underdog against one of Sweden's top players, and pulled off a 6-game upset. Henzell's serve, which is what gave Wang Liqin so much trouble, is also what brought down Lundqvist; when Wang tried to return the serve short, it didn't go over the net, and when Lundqvist tried to return the serve short, it went off the end and Henzell ripped it back to Lundqvist's backhand for a winner. Henzell continued to play well today, almost taking down Yoon Jae Young (KOR), but losing 4-3. Jang vs Liu was a crowd-pleaser because of long points in which Liu tried to loop-kill everything, but Jang, a chopper, got everything back. The crowd was rooting for Liu, wow-ing every time he tried to put a point away, but ohhhh-ed everytime he ended up ripping his shot into the net. I thought the match was pretty boring, mostly because that's just not the way you're supposed to play a chopper, but as long as people felt they got their money's worth, it's all good... Zhang vs Kishikawa was an interesting match to watch (at least to me) because I've see Wilson play in the US and Canada several times, and he's incredible; however, when pitted against players outside of North America, he looks less impressive. Granted, Zhang had a bit of bad luck, meeting a Japanese player this early on, but it quickly became apparent that pretty much every man on the floor could take him on in counter-looping and offensive points.

(Henzell in green & yellow, Lundqvist in black & yellow)

(Liu in red, Jang in blue)

(Wilson in red, Kishikawa in yellow)

Next came the last of the women's first round matches: Eva Odorova (SVK) vs Petra Lovas (HUN); Xu Jie (POL) vs Xian Yi Fang (FRA); and Huang I-Hwa (TPE) vs Andrea Bakula (HRV) [the last first round match went to Stephanie Xu Sang of Australia by default). I paid attention to the Odorova/Lovas match because the winner moved on to play Gao Jun. However, from the few points that I saw, I wasn't all that impressed and had no doubts that Gao Jun would win; they both had strong backhands, and both hit and blocked more than looped. From what I saw, neither of them really had a weapon she could use against Gao (Odorova ended up losing to Gao earlier today, 4-2). The only real excitement in the match came when Lovas almost made a comeback. Xu vs Xian was sort of a fun match to watch; fun because there were some long points because Xian is a chopper, and not so fun because it was long and got kind of old toward the end. Huang vs Bakula was an interesting yet awkward match to watch, because Huang is from Taiwan; everyone insists that politics and sports are separate, but we all know otherwise... there were people in the crowd that cheered for her directly, others that cheered for Taipei (NOT Taiwan), and still others that cheered for China. In any case, Huang's game is pretty typical of Taiwanese girls: no killer, put-away shots, but very steady, high-quality shots that make their opponents very uncomfortable, and a very calm, almost casual or nonchalant demeanor. Unfortunately, Huang lost in her next round match against Ni Xia Lian (LUX).

(Odorova in black, Lovas in pink)

(Xian in red, Xu in black)

(Huang in blue, Bakula in black)

The rest of the men's matches were pretty uneventful, except for two: Segun Toriola (NGR) vs Joao Montiero (POR) and Damien Eloi (FRA) vs Ahmed Ali Saleh (EGY). Toriola vs Montiero was exciting because it went all the way to the seventh game, and was nothing short of thrilling; the two men went at it counter-looping from beginning to end, with the crowd on Toriola's side. Toriola continued his hot streak today, beating Jean-Michel Saive (BEL) 4-2, a huge, huge upset. Eloi vs Ali was cool to watch because Eloi uses a custom-made racket that's shaped like an hour-glass. Plus, it was a tight match that went down to the 7th game, after Ali was up 3-1.

(Toriola in blue, Montiero in red)

(Eloi in red, Ali in blue)

Finally came the first of the women's second round matches (but I didn't see all of them): Zhu Fang (ESP) vs Li Jie (NED); Melek Hu (TUR) vs Elke Schall (GER); Dang Ye Seo (KOR) vs Miao Miao (AUS); and Elizabeta Samara (ROU) vs Viktoria Pavlovich (BLR). I didn't see all of Zhu vs Fang, and didn't see any of Hu vs Schall, but what I did see wasn't very exciting. I didn't think Dang vs Miao would be a good match from the get-go, because Dang is a whole level above Miao, and just too much better. The excitement came when the crowd got really into the match, with Australian fans and Korean fans shouting their lungs out. In the end, though, it was obvious that Miao was no match for Dang. In the Samara/Pavlovich match, I admit I was thoroughly rooting for Liza, because I've met her and think she's a really nice person, and I really like watching her play, but I didn't think she'd win; Liza's game is suited for topspin rallies, not for playing against choppers, so I figured she might have issues with Pavlovich. Liza won the first game by a lot, but Pavlovich pulled herself together and won the next four pretty easily.

(Zhu in red, Li in blue)

(Dang in black, Miao in yellow & green)

(Samara in blue, Pavlovich in black)

Today, the women played the rest of their second round matches, and started playing their round-of-32 matches, in which seeded players like Zhang Yining and Wang Chen played their first matches of the event. All three Chinese players, Zhang Yining, Guo Yue, and Wang Nan, breezed through their matches 4-0, and both US women, Gao Jun and Wang Chen won their matches relatively easily, 4-1 (Gao over Sayaka Hirano of Japan, and Wang over Krisztina Toth of Hungary). Play continues today, 8/21/08, at 10am (Beijing time) with the round of 16. Gao Jun will play Wu Xue (DOM), and Wang Chen will play Kim Kyung Ah (KOR). I think both Gao and Wang could win their matches because Wu doesn't really have a power anything that can get past Gao, and Wang is relatively comfortable against choppers, and will also have revenge on her mind after losing to her in the team event 3-1. Most of the matches in the next round are sort of predictable, but should be a treat to watch simply because of the elevated level and quality of play (and I'm psyched because I'm going to get to see the quarter-finals tomorrow :D). We'll see what happens and if anyone is able to pull off an upset!

For live scoring and to see scores from previous matches, go to ittf.com and click the appropriate links on the right-hand side.

another surprise

2008-08-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

So, China's men's team took the gold in straight sets over Germany. First, young blood and rising young star, Dimitrij Ovtcha (currently ranked #14 in the world), lost in straight sets to Wang Hao (currently ranked #1 in the world). Ovtcha is only 19 years old (only about 4 months older than Atha), and I saw him win the juniors' event at a Junior Circuit tournament in Spain in 2005. Tonight, he really couldn't manage much against Wang, who is totally on top of his game (his hair, though, is a completely different issue). Timo Boll (currently ranked #6 in the world), on the other hand, put up a great fight in both his match against Ma Lin (currently ranked #2 in the world) and in the doubles match (Timo Boll/Christian Suss vs Wang Hao/Wang Liqin). Timo is probably the only non-Asian player with a really good shot at beating a Chinese player, and probably has the best shot against Wang Liqin, who has not looked sharp at all; he almost lost to William Henzell of Australia on Thursday, and looked off in this doubles match. Anyway, credit when credit is due: congrats to China's men's team for the gold, and good job to Germany for putting up a great fight and for the silver!

In the battle for the bronze medal, Korea defeated Austria 3-1.

As for US players, Crystal Huang of the US women's team lost her preliminary round match for women's singles to Yang Fen (CGO) 4-2: (-4, 8, -9, 5, 11, 9). If Crystal had won, she would have played Elizabeta Samara of Romania. Our one male player, David Zhuang, will play in his preliminary round match at 11:30am on 8/19/08 (Beijing time) against Segun Toriola of Nigeria. If David wins, he will play against Joao Montiero (POR) at 8:15pm on 8/19/08 (Beijing time). Gao Jun will play at 1pm on 8/20/08 (Beijing time) against the winner of Eva Odorova (SVK) and Petra Lovas (HUN). If Gao wins, she will play against Li Jiao (NED) at 9pm on 8/20. Wang Chen waits in the round of 32 for her opponent. Singles should be much more exciting and should have many more upsets than teams, so let's watch out for anything crazy!

One last thing... What is going on with Wang Hao's hair...? Seriously, can someone fill me in? Because I really want to know... what part of a mullet/rooster haircut screams "I'm the world's highest ranked male player" ?! Anyways.... go USA! =P

SHOCKER: china wins gold in women's teams!

2008-08-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

For anyone who didn't pick it up, the title is completely sarcastic. However, even though it comes as absolutely no surprise that China coasted to the gold without dropping a single match, the Chinese players never cease to amaze. Their abilities are in no way overrated, exaggerated, or anything short of stunning; all the hours spent practicing and making what you may think are awesome shots seem like child's play when you see Zhang Yining making shots as easily as you spell your name.

The stands were completely packed for this final. Even Hu Jingtao was there... the pressure was most definitely on, but China pulled through. In the teams final against Singapore, China did something completely unexpected, but after you think about it, it made complete sense. They sent Wang Nan, the oldest and, relatively speaking, the weakest, to play in the first spot (generally reserved for the strongest player). She ended up playing Feng Tianwei, the opposite of what Singapore had wanted; Singapore's ideal match-up would have been Feng vs Zhang and Li Jiawei vs Wang. However, with this match-up, it was experience and consistency (in Wang) vs youth and nerves (in Feng), and speed and a great backhand (in Li) vs un-human consistency and an even better backhand (in Zhang). On top of that, the strongest parts of Feng's game are her backhand and forehand from the backhand corner; since Wang is left-handed, she would be able to control the game easily by using her strongest weapon, her backhand, against Feng's weakest shot, her forehand.

Feng was clearly nervous, with this being her first Olympic appearance and with her in the #1 spot, and couldn't do much against the experienced, calm Wang Nan. Feng won the first game, but lost the next three games, in which she didn't play anywhere near her normal level, making too many unforced errors, and not playing enough to Wang Nan's forehand. She clearly looked upset with herself and sort of at a loss after the second game. As I watched the match, the more I thought that Singapore had made a mistake putting Feng in the first spot. Even if they wanted her to play Zhang, the chances of Feng winning would still be small, and it would have put an insane amount of pressure on Li. Granted, that scenario would be a lot better than the one Singapore ended up getting, but either way, there really wasn't much of a chance that China would lose.

Li Jiawei vs Zhang Yining was a much better match than the scores indicate; Li lost 3-1 (-9, 3, 4, 7), but there were some absolutely spectacular, long points. Li started out looking great, leading Zhang 10-5. Zhang caught up to 10-9, but lost the game by missing her own serve. From this point on, Li looked less and less confident, and Zhang looked more and more dominating. The scores may show that Zhang completely rolled over Li, but Li really did put up a great fight. As her coach, honestly, what could you possibly say to her? No matter what she did or how amazing her shots were, Zhang put everything back on the table. Anyone watching the match could clearly see that Zhang Yining's technique and mechanics are just flat-out better than everyone else's. Her game is by no means a power game, and, by themselves, her forehand and backhand really aren't anything special, and you would never teach her strokes to anyone (her timing is extraordinarily late, and she doesn't really swing through the ball). What makes her special and more consistent than everyone else is her balance; she is a very tall person, so she already covers a lot of ground, but no matter how far you spread her out, she's still able to make a quality return AND get to the next one in plenty of time. She never seems to be falling over or leaning, and her ability to keep her feet on the ground and maintain her balance is the reason she almost never misses high balls, or really any shots, for that matter. Really, the only way to beat Zhang Yining is to blow her away in the first couple of shots, because anyone who gets into a drawn-out, long rally with her will lose 80% of the time, as we saw with Li Jiawei. Even Gao Jun, who has an incredibly consistent game, can't out-steady Zhang Yining. In any case, Li didn't really have good strategy. She served to set herself up for backhand-to-backhand rallies, the last thing you should do against Zhang Yining. It wasn't until the 4th game that Li got aggressive and opened with her forehand and stepped around a bit. Actually, there were a few points throughout the match in which Li went forehand-to-forehand for a couple of exchanges, but after she didn't win the point right away, she lost patience and hit back to Zhang's backhand. Anyway, the match was much closer than the scores show, and the performance Zhang put on really was something to watch and learn from.

Men's teams continue today, with Austria playing Korea for the bronze at 2:30 (Beijing time), and China playing Germany for the silver and gold at 7:30 (yay for non-Asian teams going for medals!). Also, women's singles preliminary rounds begin today at 10am.

US vs Korea, as it happens!

2008-08-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

Match-ups: Wang Chen vs Kyungah Kim; Gao Jun vs Yeseo Dang

Wang vs Kim: should be a tight match, about 50-50. But had the match-up been reversed (with Gao playing Kim and Wang playing Dang), it would be more to USA's advantage... both Gao and Wang have few issues with choppers, but Gao is much more comfortable with them (probably has a 90% winning rate against choppers), and Wang is much more able to keep up with Dang, who plays a typical Chinese-bred fast, rallying game. Anyhoo, here's how its going-

Game 1- 6-11 (10:09am); Wang's strategy was more or less correct, putting her shots to Kim's middle, but losing on service games (not very good return of serves in addition to being faulted for her own serves).

Game 2- 11-9 (10:19am); Wang wins, returning serves much, much better than in the first game, and being much more steady and consistent. Veteran's patience ;)

Game 3- 9-11 (10:32am); Wang loses a close one; at 9-9, Kim called a time-out and won the next two points. Wang didn't look as sharp in this game than in the previous one, and her being slightly conservative probably cost her the game. However, with the game still this close, there's no way to tell what the outcome will be. Wang is by no means out.

Game 4- 1-3 (10:35am); Wang is trailing and calls a time-out... things don't look great, but we'll see if she can turn it around.

Game 4- 13-15 (10:49am); Wang loses a nail-biter. After her time-out, Wang regained her composure and tied the game at 4-4. From that point on, it was a see-saw game. Down match point at 8-10, Wang saved two match points to tie it at 10-10. From this point until the end of the match, Wang had two set points (at 11-10 and 12-11), but couldn't convert, and lost 13-15. Close, as expected, but no cigar.

Gao vs Dang: hard to say what will happen, but it definitely won't be easy for Gao. Now there is an unbelievable amount of pressure; because of playing styles, Dang has the advantage over Gao (Gao and Dang are probably matched at 40-60, 50-50 at best), but also, Gao now has to deal with a must-win situation. The US can't afford to go down 0-2 for a number of reasons. 1) it would put a lot of pressure on the doubles team 2) it would definitely kill confidence 3) if USA is going to win, they have to survive until they get a favorable match-up.

Game 1- 11-8 (11am); Gao rallies to come from behind down 2-6. She's looking nice and loose. Since she's looking this good, I'm thinking she should play two singles; with the Olympic rules, teams don't have to decide who is playing doubles before the match starts, so coaches can make on-the-spot decisions. Since two out of three of Korea's players are choppers, and the one non-chopper (Dang) will be out of the way, Gao will completely have the advantage going into her second singles match. Of course, this is all given that the US gets that far. But, anyway, on top of the playing style advantage, Gao is much calmer and cooler than Wang, and handles pressure much more smoothly. In other words, you wouldn't feel nervous or antsy putting her into a must-win situation, but you may be somewhat worried or have some reservations putting in Wang. In any case, we shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves... we have to win this match and doubles before we can talk about later match-ups.

Game 2- 10-12 (11:11am); Gao led by at least two points throughout the whole game until... she was up 10-8, but lost four straight points to drop this game at 10. Also, she didn't really help herself out by missing a serve at 6-5 to let Dang tie it at 6-6. What's worse, she seemed to have pulled something either in her right hamstring or her lower back; Dang sent a shot wide to Gao's forehand, and she may have slightly injured herself going for the shot.

Game 3- 9-11 (11:23am); This game was similar to the previous game- Gao led by at least two throughout the game. She was up 6-4, but then found herself down 6-8, 8-10, and then lost at 9-11. The tweak in her leg from last game appears to be affecting her a tiny bit. Given how close all of these games have been, I think if she can pull out of the fourth game, she has a very good shot at winning the 5th. It's going to come down to which player can stay mentally tough and which can convert in the clutch. This next game is a must-win for Gao.

Game 4- 11-8 (11:32am); Gao pulls through another very close game. Now it goes down to a nerve-wracking 5th set. If Gao minimizes her unforced errors, the outcome of this game should be very similar to the previous one. Dang is an extremely aggressive, offensive player, but makes many unforced errors. If Gao can stay consistent and out-steady Dang, Gao can definitely come out on top.

Game 5- 8-11 (11:43am); Gao loses the match. In this set, Dang changed her strategy and adjusted beautifully, serving everything long. By doing this, Dang changed the tempo and rhythm of the game to suit her style; she would serve long to Gao's backhand, Gao would open up the point, and in straight-up rallying points, Dang has the upper hand. Previously, when Dang served short, there was about a 50-50 chance she'd win the point because of Gao's excellent control. However, against long serves, it is much harder to place your return where you want to, and you feel pressured from the get-go. Anyway, with the US down 0-2, it is highly unlikely that USA will win.

Gao/Crystal vs Kim/Miyoung Park: At this point, since our chances of winning are pretty slim, it sort of doesn't matter who we put in for doubles, but Gao is back in because both Kim and Park are choppers. Anyway, we'll see what happens.

Game 1- 12-10 (12pm); As a pleasant surprise, Gao and Huang take the first game. They played smart table tennis against the two choppers, alternating pushing and looping, and being very patient.

Game 2- 5-11 (12:07pm); US plays sloppily and drops this game rather quickly. This may be a sign of mental fatigue or a decrease in confidence, but let's wait to see if they can recompose themselves.

Game 3- 11-4 (12:15pm); US coasts through this game, with both Crystal and Gao playing perfectly against choppers.

Game 4- 7-11 (12:21pm); US was up 5-2, but drops this game at 7. Again, we're going down to the wire in a 5th set. If Gao and Crystal lose this game, the US is done.

Game 5- 5-11 (12:33pm); US loses the match and loses the tie. It was a tough fight, but Korea comes out on top, winning the tie 3-0. Just looking at the 3-0 is very misleading, because every set of every match really was a dog-fight, and, although US was definitely the underdog, they definitely still had a good chance of winning. Unfortunately, the match-ups didn't come out in our advantage; this tie could have just as easily been 3-1 for the US. In any case, Korea now moves on to play the winner of Japan/Hong Kong.

The US loses its chance of getting a medal in teams, which was the event in which they had the best (and probably only) shot of medaling. However, singles play begins with preliminary rounds on 8/18/08, and the main draw on 8/20/08 (Beijing time). Crystal Huang will play Yang Fen of the Congo in the preliminary round.

US BEATS ROMANIA!

2008-08-15T03:48:00.000-07:00

Yay for the US women's team! This morning, they got one step closer to the bronze medal, beating Romania 3-1. Wang Chen played first against Romania's Elizabeta Samara, and lost 3-1 (9, -6, 7, 9), but Gao Jun coasted through her match against Daniela Dodean, winning in straight sets (7, 6, 6). Evidently, Gao's experience, calm and cool personality, and of course her playing style (penhold, & pips) trumped youth, speed, and power. Crystal/Gao won relatively easily over Iulia Necula/Samara 3-1 (8, 7, -16, 7). Finally, Wang Chen took care of Necula easily in straight sets (5, 6, 2). Next they play Korea, who lost to Singapore in the first leg of the gold/silver playoffs, and if US beats Korea, they move on to play the winner of Japan/Hong Kong (Japan beat Austria 3-0 in the other leg of the bronze playoffs, and Hong Kong will almost definitely lose to China in the other leg of the gold/silver playoffs, which start in about a half hour). Since 2 of Korea's players are choppers and our veterans, particularly Gao Jun, have basically no issues with defensive players, we definitely have a good shot at winning; if we had to play Singapore, we could have basically counted ourselves out, but playing against Korea is a much better match-up.

In other Olympic news, USA's Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson took the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the women's individual all-around (gymnastics), and Phelps coasted to his 6th gold medal in the men's 200m individual medley, helping to put USA ahead of China in number of medals. USA now has amassed 44 medals (with 14 golds, 12 silvers, and 18 bronzes), and China has 37 (with 23 golds, 9 silvers, and 5 bronzes). I also saw my first Olympic event today, watching USA play Cuba in baseball, and was sorely disappointed at USA's 5-4 loss in 11 innings. To make things worse, Taiwan lost to China (really, how embarrassing...) in the adjacent ballpark 8-7 in the 12th. In any case, it was a good day, because the new ballparks (built just for the Games) are beautiful. That's all for now, but let's keep our fingers crossed for the US, who plays Korea at 10am on 8/16/08 (Beijing time)!

us to go for bronze

2008-08-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning at 9am on 8/15/08 (Beijing time), the US women's team will take on Romania in the first round of the bronze medal playoffs; the top team from each group will play for the gold/silver, and the #2 team from each group will try for the bronze. The teams on the women's side going for the bronze are Romania, USA, Japan, and Austria, and the teams going for the gold/silver are China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore. Tomorrow's match against Romania should be an interesting one, for a couple of reasons: the US team is a team of veterans and very experienced players in Wang Chen and Gao Jun, and the Romanian team is a team of young blood and fresh legs in 20-year old Daniela Dodean (ranked #47 in the world) and 19-year old Elizabeta Samara (ranked #61 in the world), both of whom I have seen play in Junior Circuit tournaments. Dodean and Samara have played against USA's Wang Chen and Crystal Huang as recently as May of this year, with Dodean losing to Wang Chen 3-2 and Samara beating Crystal 4-2. Also, Romania just came off of a nail-biter, beating Poland 3-2, with Dodean winning at 9 in the fifth against Poland's Xu Jue. The win could affect the team's mental game by either tiring them out or by giving them a huge boost in confidence, so we'll see what happens tomorrow. Finally, the US coach is a former player of Romania's men's national team, so we'll see if that will help in terms of predicting Romania's line-up or strategy. I personally think that the US should win, but it'll be close; if our veterans come out of the gates strong and establish their presence and authority early, they should be able to control their matches. But if they allow Romania's players, sure-to-be psyched and pumped, to start off on a roll, who knows what'll happen. If USA wins, they will play either Japan or Austria for the bronze medal at 10am on 8/16/08 (Beijing time).

In the gold/silver playoffs, China will play Hong Kong at 7:30pm tomorrow night, and Singapore will play Korea at 2:30. There really isn't much of a question who will win the gold; China will definitely take first place, and Singapore should take the silver relatively easily. However, at this stage, with the silver medal at stake, it's hard to say what will happen between Korea and Singapore. We'll just have to wait and watch.

So, the best that the USA can do is bronze, but at this level of play, 3rd place ain't bad at all.

US in the first day of action- steph

2008-08-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

Table tennis matches began today, and the US women's team finished the day 1-1. They played Singapore in the morning and lost 3-0, but beat the Netherlands 3-1 tonight. Although Singapore is the #2 seed, the US team definitely had a chance to beat them, as long as the match-ups were about even. But, the US got off to a shaky start and didn't really recover, with Wang Chen losing to one of Singapore's rising stars, Feng Tianwei, 11-2 in the first game of the first match. In any case, their match against the Netherlands was a critical one, and they pulled through. Wang Chen recovered and regained her composure beautifully, winning 3-2 against Li Jiao, currently ranked #15 in the world (-6, 9, -4, 4, 3). Next, Gao Jun took care of Li Jie easily in straight sets (5, 4, 4) as Gao usually does with choppers. The US next lost their doubles match (Wang Chen/Crystal Huang vs Li Jie/Elena Timina) 3-1 (-9, 9, -6, -9). But Gao put the tie away, beating Timina in straight sets (7, 5, 7). The US will take on Nigeria at 14:30 on 8/14/08 (Beijing time). If they beat Nigeria, they will advance to the semifinals (which will be played on 8/15/08).

China, as expected, dominated in their matches, with the men's team beating Greece 3-0, and the women's team beating both Croatia and the Dominican Republic 3-0. Next, the men will play against Australia in the morning and Austria in the evening, and the women will play against Austria. The women's match should be an interesting one, because the two singles players, Liu Jia (ranked #17 in the world) and Li Qiangbing (daughter of national icon and Wang Liqin's personal coach, Li Xiaodong) are excellent players, and they should feel absolutely no pressure; the pressure will be completely on the Chinese, both men and women, because not only will every single pair of eyes in the country be focused on them, but also because everyone expects them to win. Anybody who plays China, in either singles or teams, should just relax and go all out- if China wins, fine, because it wouldn't shock anyone, but if China loses, the whole world would freak out. China's opponents, especially contenders like the Koreans, MUST take into account the amount of pressure on the Chinese players, consider that a huge advantage, and play like they have nothing to lose.

Check back soon for thoughts and comments from US women's coach, Doru Gheorghe!

Matilda Ekholm -- Are some National Olympic Committees against women?

2008-08-11T05:13:00.000-07:00

Just read an interesting article on ittf.com. Sweden's National Olympic Committee didn't nominate Sweden's #1-ranked female table tennis player, Matilda Ekholm, to represent Sweden in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Matilda, 25 years old, was actually ranked top 100 in the world and "qualified for the Olympic singles against international opponents."

Why wasn't she chosen? Well, the article suggests that maybe a few country's National Olympic Committees are simply prejudiced against women. The following four women's respective National Olympic Committees refused to nominate these ping pong athletes, despite their having qualified for the Olympics: Nesrine Ben Kahia (Tunisia), Safa Saidani (Tunisia), Karen Li (New Zealand), and, of course, Matilda (Sweden).

This Olympics will be the second Olympics in a row in which Sweden will have no female table tennis representative. I have no clue what the Swedish Olympic Committee is thinking...I think they've made a huge mistake. Why not allow your country's best female ping pong player who is ranked top 100 in the world to compete in the Olympics in her prime age?

What do you guys think? Is this discrimination or is it a fair judgment of those women's odds of advancing in the table tennis competition? Is there more to the story than the ITTF article is letting on?? Let us know!

hello from beijing!!!! -steph

2008-08-10T04:29:00.000-07:00

Hey from Beijing!! I'm psyched to be here, and the energy here is INSANE. At the airport, there are people everywhere with Olympic costumes and garb, waving little Olympic flags (I got one =P), and welcoming everyone to Beijing. I knew they redid the airport and that it was supposed to be tremendous, but I still got off the plane expecting huge crowds and overall dirtiness. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the new airport was beautiful, bright, and clean. The taxi was clean, too, which was also a pleasant surprise. I guess I really shouldn't have been surprised... everyone on the planet has known that Beijing would bend over backwards to get itself ready for the Games.

Despite the brightness inside the airport, it was a little bleaker outdoors; it was hazy, dark, and humid. It's raining now, and it has been pouring, thundering and lightning-ing for the last few hours. Seems like I brought some bad weather :( Hopefully the weather clears up in the next few days! Well, in any case, rain and bad weather is a non-issue for table tennis players =P Anyway, so far, China and USA are tied in number of medals at 8 apiece, and Michael Phelps took the gold in the 400m medley, breaking the record by about 2 seconds. USA's men's basketball team is going to take on China's team in about an hour. Trust that all eyes will be on this game!

The first day of table tennis is on 8/13 at 10am (Beijing time), and USA's women's team will play Singapore's team, seeded 2nd behind China, in Group B in the qualifiers. The team is made up of Gao Jun (currently ranked #25 in the world), Wang Chen (currently ranked #20 in the world), Crystal Huang, and my friend and doubles partner, Jackie Lee as a back-up. It will definitely be tough, but USA certainly has a chance of upsetting Singapore.

Go USA! :D

Greetings from Hong Kong!

2008-08-05T20:40:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've posted, and I'm very sorry. I've been in Hong Kong for a summer internship, and I'll be back in the states in mid-August. I thought that I would be able to keep blogging from here, but unfortunately, my work place blocks almost every fun site there is (including blogger.com).

However, I've got a few minutes on some unrestricted internet, so here I am!

So what's on my mind is that the Olympics are coming up in just a few days. Even though I'm excited about the Games, I'm also a bit anxious. I really do want to see China put on a successful Games, but, at the same time, I don't agree with how they're doing so in such a totalitarian way that is at the expense of the Chinese people. However, I do hope that everything goes smoothly for China as they make their debut to the world.

We're both really curious to know what YOU guys think will happen at the Olympics, whether you have a take on the table tennis front, the political front, or anything else. Who do you think is going to win or go far in the table tennis Games? Do you think the Olympics are gonna be a hit or bust for China? We welcome any comments, just as long as they're tasteful and respectful.

new glue means new rubber -steph

2008-08-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

This post is a response to a comment on our last post ("Although I agree with your comments, I don't think it's fair to compare a speed glue with a glue that is only designed to attach a rubber to the blade." by alex- thank you for your comment!). I apologize for not elaborating on this more, but along with the new water glues come expanders and new kinds of rubbers (see images below). If you use water glue with your old rubbers, it would feel as if you're playing with a piece of cloth; there is absolutely no trajectory on the ball and it goes straight into the net. As a remedy, companies have developed expanders or optimizers. They have the properties of speed glue, so basically, instead of having the chemicals that create the speed glue effect in your glue itself, they are simply called something else in a different bottle. What you do is spread the optimizer, which makes the sponge of your rubber expand, and after that dries, you apply the water glue. The feeling of the two of them together is almost like speed glue, but not quite. However, there are rumors that optimizers will be made illegal, so companies are starting to develop new kinds of rubber. The new rubbers are revolutionary because they eliminate the need for optimizers. The "speediness" of speed glue is already in the sponge (called "tensor technology" or "speed effect"), so all you need to apply to your rubber is water glue. This way, there are absolutely no harmful chemicals and no odors. These rubbers are definitely the rubbers of the future, because they last long and are extremely low maintenance; I've glued my rubbers once, and that was about a month ago. China's table tennis magazine, "Table Tennis World" (乒乓世界), has given Tibhar's Nimbus, Joola's Mambo GP, and Donic's Coppa rave reviews (especially Coppa as a forehand rubber) and highly recommends them. Another rubber that is excellent, but, unfortunately, not sold in the USA is Palio's Macro. The Chinese have been experimenting and trying out all sorts of rubbers for months now, and they agree that the previously mentioned rubbers are the way to go, and they also recommend that people not use Butterfly's rubbers.

Butterfly optimizer

Butterfly water glue

Tibhar's Nimbus

Joola's Mambo GP

Donic's Coppa

Palio's Macro

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ANYONE WHO USES HURRICANE II, III, OR ANY OTHER HARD SPONGES:
(Hurricane III)
I promise you that you will have to invest time and money to search for a replacement rubber; I used Double Happiness' (红双喜) Hurricane III (狂飙3)for around five years and I loved it. The problem is that Hurricane and other Chinese-made rubbers are designed for use with speed glue, so there is no conceivable way that they can work well with water glue (believe me, I tried, and was very frustrated and distressed when I realized I would no longer be able to use my Hurricane). If you haven't experienced Chinese rubber with water glue yet, take my word for it that it's unbearable. You could rear up and swing as hard as you can and your shots will still be slow, soft, and just bad. Even if you use a softer sponge (I normally play with a hardness of 40 and tried out a 37), the results will be exactly the same. So, until Double Happiness develops a new model of Hurricane that is effective with water glue, look into new rubbers with "tensor technology".

I apologize again for not being clearer on this point in the last post, and encourage everyone to
assume that optimizers will become illegal and look into rubbers with tensor technology. Again, water glue will take a bit of getting used to, but rubbers like Nimbus and Coppa almost feel like normal, Japanese-made rubbers. Everyone, please comment/email us at pongwithme@gmail.com and share any experiences or questions about the new water glues! This is new for everyone, so everyone will benefit from others' input. Thanks!

water glue: the switch -steph

2008-07-29T15:56:00.001-07:00

The days of speed glue are over. Starting in September, after the Olympics, everybody will be required to switch to water-based glue (except for cadets and juniors, who had to make the switch in January 2008). For anyone who has not tried out water glue and for anyone who plans on waiting until they absolutely need to switch, I just have one thing to say: the change is huge, and you should not take it lightly. I first tried out water glue in the spring just to see how it would feel, and it was an... experience. Now of course, everyone will react differently, but the change is going to affect everyone.

With water glue, the first thing you'll notice is that everything gets slowed down; no matter how hard you rip the ball, your shot is not going to be anywhere near as fast, spinny, or powerful as with your old glue. While this may seem distressing, think of it this way: 1) everyone will be in the same boat, 2) with slower shots, it will be easier to keep up with better players, rallies will be longer, and what all of that means is that the playing field is somewhat leveled.

Also, glue becomes an almost obsolete. There is an upside and a downside to this: the upside is, I kid you not, you only need to glue once per rubber. No lie, you glue once, and three weeks later, your rubber feels exactly the same. Sure, you could reglue if you want to, but it would make absolutely no difference at all. The downside, which may not apply to everyone, is that glue will no longer give your shots an edge; with speed glue, the more you used, the more cork your rubber would have, and the faster and stronger your shots would be, but with water glue, you could pile it on if you really wanted to, but it wouldn't make a difference. Before, people could rely on their glue and their rubber to make good shots, but now, you actually need to make good shots, and this means making full strokes-not cheating on them.

Everyone is or will start trying to get a feel for the equipment of the future (with new glue inevitably comes new rubber and other accessories), including myself. This will be an on-going process until companies come out with working products, and everyone should get started on trying things out sooner rather than later.

a message from atha

2008-07-27T17:11:00.000-07:00

Atha says hello to the rest of the world! She is currently in Hong Kong and unfortunately has no access to the blog, which is why she hasn't been able to post anything for the last week. We'll have her back soon, though, I promise =]

the swing -steph

2008-07-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

I gotta say, I'm in a pretty good mood. The Yankees just swept the Oakland A's and have just clobbered the Minnesota Twins. I figure now is a good time to talk about another connection between baseball and table tennis: the swing of the bat and the swing of the racket. The biggest aspect the swings share is this: the key to a perfect swing is not your arms. What people often don't realize is your arm strength is not the most important factor in hitting the ball solidly. It's really all in the combination of your legs and your waist. Shots' power comes from effectively shifting your weight from your back leg (plant leg) to your front leg, and the torque in your waist and hips. To make comparisons, there will be photos of a good, fundamental baseball swing (our lovely model is my good friend, Reynold Graham) and forehand (modeled by my dad, Santos Shih).

For both swings, you begin with your weight on your back leg (right leg for righties, left leg for lefties). You should be the most relaxed at this point. Note that in the following photos, his front foot (circled in red) is off the ground, showing that his weight is on his back foot.

However, there is a major difference: in table tennis, the backswing is critical. Without a good, full backswing, for forehands and backhands, you will not be able to generate any power on or have any control of your shots; imagine trying to knock out someone's teeth without pulling back your fist. The timing of your backswing should match the timing of the oncoming ball- in other words, if the ball is coming toward you slowly, your backswing should be slow, if the ball is coming quickly, your backswing should be fast. When you hit a solid shot in both baseball and table tennis, it should feel as if the ball was holding still and just waiting for you to do whatever you want with it. The following photos show a full, sufficient backswing for a forehand from the back, side, and front. Note that his weight is clearly on his right leg.

The next part of both swings is turning/contacting. Before you actually contact the ball is when you start generating power, but you should still be relatively relaxed. As soon as you make contact, that's when you really uncork it and let it all go in a compact burst. To do this, you have to shift your weight, rotate your hips, and push off of your plant leg. Again, your arms aren't doing the work, and it absolutely does not matter how hard you swing; it is a matter of how suddenly you can unleash the power of your stroke. You know you've made a quality shot when the ball appears to explode off your bat/racket and you don't have to swing very hard; everything seems like it's in slow motion except for that half-second that you contact the ball. Your plant leg does the majority of the work, supporting the weight of your whole body, and your obliques/lower abs do the rest, turning and giving momentum to your upper body and arm. The common misconception in both sports is that the harder you swing your arms, the harder you're going to hit the ball. In reality, your timing and the momentum generated by your legs and your body are what make a good shot; your arm just controls the direction and angle of your shots and follows through. For those table tennis players whose shoulders and/or triceps are always sore or in pain, you overwork your arm and aren't using the rest of your body- if you are doing a forehand correctly, your lower back, quads, and maybe your butt should be sore, NOT your arm.

Notice in the first two photos that his back foot is "squishing the bug" (for anyone who remembers little league softball/baseball!), meaning that he is pushing off his back leg and driving all his momentum into his swing. In the second two photos, you can see that his hips are "opened up" and are now facing us, meaning that he has shifted his weight and carried all his power and momentum into his swing.

In the first two photos, you can clearly see him shifting his weight from his plant leg to his left leg, and the third photo shows him bringing all of his momentum into his stroke.

The final part of the swing is the follow-through. At this point, you should have shifted all of your momentum onto your front leg. The follow-through completes the stroke, ensures that you've used all the power you can, and directs your shot in one clear direction. Note that for both swings, their weight is clearly on their left legs, and their waists have twisted as much as they can.

The biggest difference between the baseball swing and the table tennis swing is that in table tennis, you're constantly in motion; you don't just take one swing and wait 10 seconds for the next shot, you have to link all of your swings together for a continuous rally. Therefore, shifting your weight back onto your plant leg is a crucial part of your stroke. Immediately after your follow-through, you have to bring your momentum back to your plant leg. The ball travels too fast for you to be able to stand still and admire your shot, so you have to assume that your shot is coming back. As soon as you follow through, your hips and waist go to work again. In the photos, he pushes off his left leg and turns his body directly to the right, keeping his arm as parallel to the ground as possible. You have to turn your hips to the right so that your weight comes back onto your plant leg, and guides your arm into another backswing all in one smooth, relaxed motion.

And that's my 10 cents for the day. Here are just some videos of the forehand so you can see everything in continuous motions instead of in frames. In the first two, pay attention to the explosiveness of the shot that can only be achieved when the timing of your shot is right and when you use power (发力) just when you make contact with the ball. In the second two videos, pay attention to the continuousness of the strokes, and to the shifting of his weight from right to left and back. The weight shifting is the most important part, because that's what allows you to be able to repeat the motion over and over again with no breaks.

no coach? no problem -steph

2008-07-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

Ever feel helpless and alone without your coach there? Overwhelmed? Naked, even? Feel like you just don't know where to start? There are a lot of people out there who simply don't know what to do with themselves without someone sitting outside of the barriers to help them during a match. I will admit that I am one of these people. It's gotten a lot better as the years have gone by, but let me tell you that at my worst, I was a complete basket case; I had absolutely no idea what was going on, and no matter if I won or lost, I had no idea how it had happened. Then one day, after getting a sound yelling-at and long lecture from my coach, my self-coaching improved by leaps and bounds. I'm now going to share his words of wisdom, and hopefully they'll help out someone else as well.

There are basically three things to focus on: how to receive your opponent's serves, how your opponent receives your serves, and how your opponent sets him/herself up for winners. If you can more or less get these three points down, that's 80% of the game.

How to receive your opponent's serves is the most straight-forward part. Presumably when you practice and train, you practice how to receive all different kinds of serves, so to take care of this part, you really just bring out what you practice at the club or at home: pay attention to how your opponent's racket strikes the ball when he/she serves, the ball's rotation (if you can), the speed of the serve, and how the ball moves in the air as it comes toward you. For example, to distinguish between a heavy underspin serve and a no-spin serve, pay attention to what part of the racket your opponent uses to contact the ball:

Forgive the crudeness of the diagram, but it gets the point across... If your opponent contacts the ball with the right half of the racket, the ball will have little to no spin, and if he/she contacts the ball with the left half, the ball will have a lot of spin (this is assuming your opponent is right handed and is serving a forehand serve).

Next, figure out how your opponent likes to receive your serves so you can have an idea of how your serves are most likely going to be returned to you. For example, pay attention to see if your opponent is more likely to drop shot your short serves or push them long. Also, look to see if any of your serves give him/her a lot of trouble. When you have this part of your opponent's game more or less figured out, the match becomes a lot easier, because you can anticipate serve returns and set yourself up accordingly.

The last part is the tricky part, especially if you're playing against someone you've never seen before. Every person has his/her favorite plays, and absolutely everybody is different. Also, every person has his/her strengths, and his/her serves will basically reveal what kinds of points he/she prefers to play. For example, a player whose shots aren't strong, but are fast, and who is super consistent will probably let you be aggressive and attack the ball so that you will get into rallies that favor him/her. You can figure that this person will probably serve long a lot to thrust you directly into a rally in which he/she is comfortable and confident, and/or serve just off the end of the table to get you to open with a shot of mediocre quality and start a rally that favors him/her. Once you see what kinds of points your opponent likes, avoid those situations at all costs. You have to do whatever it takes, even if it means venturing outside of your own comfort zone a little bit, to make your opponent uncomfortable and to keep him/her off-balance. Sometimes if your opponent gets annoyed enough because you aren't giving him/her the rallies he/she wants, he/she will start missing easy shots, giving you freebie points.

Like I said, these three points are only about 80% of what it takes to win a match, or at least keep it close. The rest is concentration, stamina, your own shot making skills, and how you feel that day. However, if you can figure out these three elements of your opponent's game, it makes figuring out how to play him/her that much easier.

Busy days...

2008-07-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

Have some fun today! Be wild, be spontaneous, be pong-a-licious!

"table tennis" or "ping pong" part 2 - steph

2008-07-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

So, as Atha has mentioned in a previous blog, my opinion does not necessarily reflect hers, and our opinions on the question of whether to call the sport "table tennis" or "ping pong" is a perfect example. In my eyes, there are two extremes: people who call the sport "ping pong" and have absolutely no issues doing so, and people who call the sport "table tennis", cringe at hearing "ping pong", and look down on those who have no problem with "ping pong". Then, of course, there are people, like Atha, who use the name "table tennis" and "ping pong" interchangably. I personally use "table tennis" and I have issues saying "ping pong". However, I don't admonish anyone who says "ping pong" and I don't go around insisting that people say "table tennis". While Atha and I may have different opinions on the name of the sport, we ultimately have the same opinion: there is simply not enough coverage of competitive (aka "real") table tennis in the US. Because of the lack of exposure to the general public, ping pong is thought of as just a basement sport and is not differentiated from the competitive sport simply because people just don't know better.

Like I said, I'm partial to "table tennis" for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that, no matter what people may prefer to call the sport, the official governing body of the sport, both internationally (ITTF) and in the US (USATT), recognize the sport as "table tennis". While it may be true that in Chinese, the sport is called "乒乓" (pronounced as ping pong), its name in every other language is the direct translation of table tennis (eg "tenis de mesa" in Spanish, and "tischtennis" in German). However, even China's official governing body is called the CTTA...

The next reason I prefer "table tennis" is that "ping pong" just sounds silly to me. However, this brings me back to my (and Atha's) original point: the image and idea that come to mind when a non-table tennis athlete thinks "ping pong" differs drastically from those that come to mind for a table tennis athlete/coach. For example, and I'm sure this has happened for almost everyone, when you say, "yeah, I play table tennis," someone else says, "oh, you mean ping pong?", waves his/her hands around in the air and then says "yeah I'm really good at that". Then you end up smiling and nodding awkwardly, knowing that the person you're talking to has never seen the level of intensity at the North American Teams Championships, held yearly in Baltimore, MD, or at Nationals, and just knowing that the two of you are clearly visualizing two very different things.

Now, I'm not trying to be elitist, condescending, or arrogant; everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion and can call the sport anything they want. But, something definitely needs to be done to change the sport's image. As Atha mentioned in her post, when old ladies at country clubs say that they play tennis, nobody will confuse "old geezer" tennis with Roger Federer tennis, and nobody will say that tennis' image is marred and damaged by "old geezers". Similarly, nobody will say that kids who play baseball in empty lots make baseball look bad. And the list goes on and on. The reason for this is that sports are a big part of our culture; go channel surfing and you're sure to see games from the NBA, MLB, NFL, NSL, NHL (and note that the sports on primetime TV and the sports that are heavily advertised are exclusively male leagues, but that's a whole 'nother issue), so no matter where you look, you see professional athletes at the top of their games, earning millions of dollars because of their skills. The table tennis scene, however, is a completely different story. The extent of major media coverage of table tennis has been, as Atha mentioned, Killerspin in Chicago (which was aired at the strangest, most nonsensical times possible), and, unfortunately, the movie "Balls of Fury". Basically, the general public has never gotten the chance to see what I've seen and is unused to the idea of professional, or even Olympic, table tennis.

Finally, I have to say that while I agree that the basement is a great place for table tennis players to start out, and that it is a crucial part to the grassroots movement, I disagree with the idea that basement table tennis is the future of table tennis in the US. The basement is where a lot of people, including me, start playing and grow to like the sport. However, solely playing in your basement is not the way to up your game. You're not going to get better with practice alone; who you practice with makes all the difference. The issue of practice and practice partners could be a whoooooole other post, but my point is that table tennis HAS to come out of the basement and it most definitely needs to shed its image of it being just a game. My point is that table tennis is more than just a game. It is a huge commitment and, like any other sport, requires a lot of time, effort, and energy. Not everyone will pursue table tennis seriously, and I respect that, but those who really want to compete absolutely cannot limit themselves to their basements. And, yes, people definitely still play basketball on rundown courts, but there are summer camps, summer programs, clinics, etc., in quality facilities (an example is Hoop Zone, near my house on Rt 4. East in Englewood, NJ). The grassroots system we have in the US, as a whole, is not sufficient. It is not enough to get a bunch of people interested in table tennis; people need to see it at its best to really appreciate table tennis as a "legitimate" sport, but the only way for this to happen is more exposure, more education, better coaches, more people who know what they're talking about, and more people who can teach fundametals and basics. For example, the basics for sports like basketball, baseball, tennis, and American football are widely taught to children at an extremely young age, and, for the most part, kids really do build solid fundamental skills in these sports because whoever taught them (parents/coaches/gym class/etc.) essentials like how to properly throw a baseball or a football, and how to dribble a basketball. In contrast, basement ping pong is learned/taught by grabbing a racket and improvising until people can manage to somehow get the ball across the table. The problem with improvising is just that; you may find a stroke you're comfortable with and that gets the ball across the table a few times, but without knowledge of the basics, you will only have limited success. Again, not everyone is looking to be a world-class player, but the problem is that the highest level the average person envisions is probably the equivalent to the level of little league baseball. The issue is simply that people don't know what kind of table tennis is out there.

So, back to the original question. Is it "table tennis" or is it "ping pong"? It's really a matter of opinion. The two different names can carry two different implications for different people. But no matter what name you use, it all boils down to this point: the typical perception of the game in the US does absolutely no justice to the sport. People just do not know enough about the sport at the international, world-class level, but this is an easily fixable problem.

Senior discount?

2008-07-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

My hero.

That's going to be me in about 60 years. It's my goal to be an old woman who whoops on little kids' butts and makes them cry. Watch out!

Korean Olympic Training

2008-07-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday! The start of the 2008 Summer Olympics is fast approaching (8/8/08)! As you all know, Stephanie will actually be in Beijing to witness this event and all its crowded, humid, polluted excitement! Stay tuned for her Olympic coverage :-p.

We aren't the only ones getting ready for the excitement of the Olympics -- the actual Olympic competitors have been pushing through with full force. Why, ITTF just released an article about how the Koreans--who have produced 2 Men's Singles Olympic Gold Medalists, Yoo Nam Kyu in '88 and Ryu Seung Min in '04--are "training in earnest."

Okay, so what does training really mean? Here's a youtube video to show you what "training" on the ping pong table is (sound is lagged, but it's the best I could find)...

"Training" consists not only of doing table drills but also of doing footwork drills, jumproping, sprints, endurance runs, and weight training.

The Koreans are known for their being in tip top shape and for training super hard. This is a glimpse of a typical day of Korean National Table Tennis Team training:

5 :00 am - Wake up before the hot Korean summer heat hits
6:00-7:00 am - Training starts with 30 minutes stretching, 30 minutes running
7:00-8:00 am - Breakfast and rest
8:00-12:00 pm - First session of table training
12:00-2:00 pm - Lunch and rest
2:00-6:00 pm - Second session of table training
Optional training in the evening.

Phew! I get tired just writing about that training schedule! Also, the Korean National Players' Village is situated at the foot of Mount Bul-Am. Training in that location is meant to boost the players' power and endurance. I think I probably would die...

Read the full story here:
http://www.ittf.com/_front_page/ittf_full_story1.asp?ID=15802&Category=General&Competition_ID=&

Ping pong or table tennis? I'd say it's BOTH--A response to a reader's comment

2008-07-13T02:35:00.000-07:00

I recently received a comment from a reader who congratulated me on naming my site "Pong with Me" and for using the term "ping pong." You can see the whole comment under my post called "Tip #1: Got Patience?" The reader asserts that "this attempt to disassociate the sport from the term 'ping pong'...betrays an arrogant and self-harming elitism - since when has a sport turned its nose up at those who self-teach themselves the sport, even though it be in basements?"

Originally, I was simply going to respond to his comment with another comment, but it turned into a whole other monster, a whole other post, a whole other schpeal!

So, in response to Tsoi Dug, I say the following:

Thank you for the comment, tsoi dug! I wholeheartedly agree with the reader that ping pong should be an acceptable term to people who call themselves "table tennis" athletes.

I think that we need to encourage more people to play in their garages and to get good in them. Look at my video of Timo Boll as a little child. That's him playing against his father in his basement in Germany! I, myself, did a lot of training in our own garage, and I call the sport "ping pong."

If we look at basketball and soccer, how many of those top athletes came from underprivileged backgrounds? How often do we see kids playing soccer in South America or Africa in dirt poor conditions? Are they not playing "real" soccer? Do we go around saying that those kids playing basketball in their local, rundown, outdoor basketball courts are not "real" basketball players? What about those old people who stand around on the tennis court at their country club and swing at a few tennis balls? Do we say, "Oh, they're not playing tennis--they're playing ___ (insert with anything along the lines of 'pseudo tennis,' 'old geezer tennis,' 'these people are lame-o's who give tennis a bad name,' etc.)." Hmm...I didn't think so.

So what makes someone playing ping pong in their basement so different from someone who plays ping pong in better conditions with better equipment that we need separate terms for the two scenarios?

Well, I do see why "table tennis" players don't want to associate with "ping pong." The majority of the American public DOES NOT see ping pong as a sport. The education simply isn't there. Most Americans see table tennis/ping pong SOLELY as the game they play in their basements and garages. They think that table tennis is just about waving your hand in the air and trying to get the little ball to bounce on the other side of the table by "not hitting the ball too hard."

It's easy to see why "table tennis" athletes try to disassociate themselves from those recreational "ping-pongers" who don't understand the true dimensions of the sport--it's because there is little or no representation of table tennis as a sport. There is nothing to redeem ping pong from being seen as a mere game which requires little physical effort. In the American media, there are no Michael Jordan's or Andy Roddick's or Mia Hamm's to make up for the old people or fat P.E. kids.

The core of this problem, however, is NOT in the term "ping pong." The problem rests in the portrayal of ping pong/table tennis in the general public and the lack of proper education and media coverage on table tennis as a sport. Now, Killerspin has done a great job by airing its matches on ESPN2, and I commend them for publicizing the sport for what it is--competitive, physical, complex, intense, and intricate. There just needs to be more of that.

Instead of shunning the "ping pongers," we should embrace them and accept the term "ping pong." The garage- and basement-ping-pong players are where the future of table tennis/ping pong is, and we just need to harness that popularity and turn it into something positive for the sport.

We need to educate these "ping pong" enthusiasts and show them everything that ping pong/table tennis can be--something more physical, complex, and rewarding than they could ever imagine.

We need to start from the bottom up (this includes basements, garages, schools, after-school programs, community centers) to promote grassroots and homegrown players and establish American players as formidable forces in the international arena.

2008 Stag PanAm Junior Championships -- it's all about the Bay Area girls!

2008-07-11T11:52:00.000-07:00

2008 Stag PanAm Junior Championships went down in Halifax, Nova Scotia, (that's in Canada, if you didn't know) from July 7-10.

Ariel Hsing (pictured left) won the PanAm Junior Girls' title! Way to represent the Bay, the girls, and the US, Ariel! 12-year-old Ariel was one of the youngest players at the tournament. Yep, it's all about the Bay Area girls -- we used to train together at the Palo Alto Table Tennis Club.

Lily Zhang (pictured left), another Bay Area/Palo Alto youngun (also 12 years old) and one of my faves, also did quite well. Although she didn't make it to the final round robin, she did win the consolation round, grabbing the #11 spot. See? It IS all about the Bay Area girls.

Unfortunately, the American junior boys didn't perform quite as well as the girls. Southern California's Steven Chan placed 13th, and St. Louis's Justen Yao placed 17th. Unfortunately, Justen had torn his tricep while playing at the US Open in Vegas, so he was not in 100% tip-top shape. Hope you get better, Justen!

Click here for the story from Butterflyonline.com.

Click here for the full results from the Canadian Table Tennis Association's website.

Tip #1: Got patience?

2008-07-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my first table tennis tip. Yay, hurray, woohoo, honk! I will be making this a regular thing, so if you have any questions please please please ask, either by e-mailing pongwithme [at] gmail.com or by simply leaving a comment, if that's easier for you.

Okay, so in table tennis, you gotta be patient. That's not to say that you don't have to make sure your legs are quick enough to get to the ball, nor does it mean you shouldn't be aggressive when the opportunity arises. However, you can't rush a point. In other words, you can't be too obsessed with finishing off the point with a killer loop before you've taken the time to set yourself up for a put-away shot.

If there's one thing that I've learned is super important in table tennis, it would be this: never fear playing out the point.

You have to be patient and strategically set yourself up for an opportunity to end the point. If you play to set yourself up for a good shot, you'll find that you will actually start winning many of your points before you even get to put away the point. Sort of anti-climactic, but it's true! You won't have to waste your energy ripping away at unnecessary shots but instead can conserve energy for times when you really need it (say, deuce in the 5th or match point).

So how should I work on that aspect of my game, you say? Well, young padawan, you must be one with the force. I'm just kidding. I would suggest that when you're playing practice matches (heck, even when you're playing a tournament match), mentally visualize how you will set yourself up for an opportunity to put the ball away.

When serving, don't think about trying to win the point with an ace serve. Instead, think about what serve will allow you to set yourself up for a good shot to put away. That strategy is based on what spin you put on your serve, where you place the ball, and where you want your opponent to receive the ball. Based on your opponent's tendencies and on the spin of your ball, try to think about the possible areas where your opponent might return the ball. As the server, you have a certain degree of control, which you can use to your advantage. You don't want to deal with your opponent's nasty underspin chop? Serve a fast, deep topspin serve so that your opponent is forced into a topspin rally. Don't want your opponent to keep ripping your serve? Serve so that your second bounce is closer to the net, so that the ball bounces lower and closer to the net so that your opponent won't even have the opportunity to attack the ball. All this is in your control.

If you're the receiver, think about what your opponent is not expecting. Think about which angles, which depth will throw your opponent off the most. When your opponent is thrown off, you will have a better chance of scoring a winner.

For inspiration, here's Timo and his crazy rally with a chopper. Now this is patience, young padawan. Enjoy!

P.S.! Go to your nearby 7-11 today to get a free Slurpee (while supplies last). Yum yum :)

from Steph baseball and table tennis- who woulda thought...

2008-07-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

So, like I mentioned earlier, baseball and table tennis have, surprisingly, A LOT in common. Table tennis involves much of the same mentality and strategy used in baseball, but it's all compounded into the mind of one player instead of 9. In other words, table tennis players are the batters and fielders and the pitcher all at the same time. There are MANY parallels I could draw between the two sports, but for right now, I'll just focus on the most obvious one: pitching/batting and serving/receiving.

Ok, so a pitcher has a bunch of pitches he can choose, each with its own characteristics, including spin, grip, and velocity. Some common examples are the fastball, the change-up, the slider, the curveball, and the knuckleball (which is thrown literally with your knuckles and "dances" and floats in the air). There are endless variations to pitches in terms of grip, timing, wind-up, velocity, and degrees of spin. In table tennis, the serves share exactly the same concept, with an infinite number of possibilities in spin, speed, point of contact between ball and racket, toss, motion, and timing. In general, serves can be categorized as topspin, backspin, side-spin, or no-spin.

The most important thing pitches and serves have in common is their extreme importance in their respective sports. Anyone in baseball will tell you that to win games, it all starts with pitching. Good pitching will trump good hitting any day, because if you can hold the opposing team to even 3 runs a game on a consistent basis, not only does your team always have a chance to win, but your opponents' batters feel the pressure before the game even begins. Well, serves in table tennis are exactly the same: if you have great serves, you are always in control of the game, put enormous amounts of pressure on your opponent, and you'll be able to wiggle your way out of very close games. It's real simple. It goes like this: if your batters are constantly striking out and never even making it to first base, how many runs do you need to score to win? Just one. If you are constantly getting aces, winning points straight off your serve, or your serves are so good that they set you up for a winner (and keep in mind you serve every two points in an 11 point game), how many [essentially] freebie points do you get? Over half the game.

Oceania World Cadet Challenge Team

2008-07-09T14:05:00.001-07:00

Every year, ITTF holds the World Cadet Challenge for players under 15 years old. Every continent sends 4 girls and 4 boys to the Challenge. This year it's going to be in Helsingborg, Sweden.

Oceania just had its tryouts for its team in TAHITI. That's pretty awesome. Anyway, this is random, but I thought this picture was super cute because they all look so young and out of it. Hehe.

Click here for the full story on ittf.com.

from Steph hey, everyone!

2008-07-09T10:42:00.001-07:00

Hey! So, as Atha mentioned, my name is Stephanie Shih, and I will be a guest author for this blog. I'm 18 years old and will be moving into Barnard College at Columbia University as soon as I get home from Beijing in August after watching the Olympics (and I'll be writing about the atmosphere and about the Olympics while I'm there). I live in NJ, and practice at the New York Table Tennis Club- only the best club in all of NY ;) - in Flushing [Queens], NY. I've been playing competitive table tennis since 2001, and I was on the US team from 2005-2007, on the US Girls' Cadet Team in 2005, and, as Atha mentioned, on the US Junior Girls' Team in 2006 and 2007. Playing table tennis has brought so much to my life. The best part has definitely been going to tournaments and training camps around the country and around the world- I've been to Canada, Dominican Republic, Sweden, Spain, and China for training and tournaments, and have met and chilled with people from the US to Australia.

Anyway, table tennis isn't my only favorite sport- I LOVE baseball (die-hard, hard core Yankees fan) and tennis (Djokovic and Ivanovic fan). I like almost every sport, really, because, as an athlete myself, I can relate to how the pressure of competition feels in some way or another. I just happen to find that baseball (yes, baseball) and tennis have the most in common with table tennis, and the comparisons are fascinating. I'll be writing about the connections between table tennis and baseball, and the similarities and glaring differences between table tennis and tennis. Hopefully, for any of you baseball buffs, this blog will be interesting and get you into our tt world ;)

Okay, so it's back to the Yankees game for me, and back to Atha for you. See ya!

Reconstruction

2008-07-09T00:42:00.000-07:00

If you haven't noticed already, I am completely reconstructing my site. Some of the links might not work, so please bear with me as I beautify my site. Thanks!

Introducing...

2008-07-08T16:49:00.001-07:00

STEPH SHIH! Please welcome Steph, who will be writing some guest articles on pongwithme. She is one of my very good table tennis friends. She was also one of the top Junior Girls in the U.S. and was on the Junior National Team with me in 2007 and 2006. She's from New Jersey and will be heading off to Columbia University in New York next year. Yay for college table tennis!

I am really excited that Steph will be contributing to this blog. I am sure that she will be a great addition to the online table tennis community.

**Disclaimer** Stephanie's opinions do not necessarily reflect those of Atha. Please do not get us mixed up. Thanks!

U.S. Open

2008-07-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I had a relaxing 3-day weekend and lots of friends and family time. I love summer and weekends :).

This weekend was also a big one for U.S. pongers -- the 2008 U.S. Open went down in Las Vegas! This is an annual 5-star tournament (5-star is the highest ranking you can get, and the number of stars is based on the amount of prize money offered) that is "open" to ALL players around the world. Lots of international players come to participate in this tournament. From what I heard from my friends there, it was a good time (I don't, however, know if it was a good time because of the ping pong or the "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" type thing, if you know what I mean).

Anyhow, it was a big big tournament. "28 nations, 700 players, 91 tables, 57 events, and 100 degrees," states the USATT US Open coverage. Not bad, not bad. The U.S.'s #1 woman and former Chinese national team member, Gao Jun, won the US Open women's title. Yay. I hope she does well in the Olympics! Since I wasn't at the US Open, I can't really say what it was like. From the results, I don't really recognize many of the names because they're mostly international players, and I don't keep up too much with them. But I did recognize some up and comers: Ethan Chua placed 2nd in Boys Under 11, and "John John" Alto won the Boys Under 13 event. Yay, congrats to them! It's hard to win an event at the US Open because of the large number of international players, but they pulled through :).

I'm sad that I didn't get to go to the US Open, but it's okay. If you want more results, you can either visit butterflyonline.com or http://www.usatt.org/magazine/08jul-aug/OpenCoverage.shtml.

My favorite part of the weekend, however, was watching the Wimbledon Gentlemen's Final. It was AMAZING. Here's a ghetto clip of the last 6 minutes of the match from Youtube. Enjoy!

Cartwheels

2008-07-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

I used to do gymnastics as a kid...but I definitely did not bust out the gymnastics moves while playing ping pong, like one of the guys does in this video! This video is from an exhibition game from a long time back when ping pong players used to wear super tight and short shorts to show off those hot man legs (no offense if you still wear those; I understand that you need the freedom and ability to move quickly, but sometimes too much leg is too much leg!). Anyhow, this was also back when players were allowed to hide their serves. In 2000, ITTF passed a rule stipulating that serves could NOT be hidden by any body part or article of clothing between the point of contact between ball and racket and the two net posts. That law was passed at the same time as when ITTF also changed the ball size from 38mm in diameter to 40mm in diameter. There was a big commotion -- and, man, it was 8 years ago! Time flies.

As you'll notice in the video, there are two very different playing styles. Both players hold their rackets with shakehand grips. The guy closer to the camera has an aggressive, forehand-dominated, looping style. The guy farther from the camera is more of a defensive player, who prefers to chop (give the ball underspin), fish (just getting the ball back over the net with a little bit of topspin), and lob (getting the ball really high up in the air). Of course, this is an exhibition game, so the two players are not actually playing their hardest, and all of the gymnastics and theatrics are not too commonplace in a real match.

And a shoutout to nukemdomis, this video is for you! And thanks to everyone who has been visiting my site :).

Ping pong in Africa

2008-07-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I did :).

So I was catching up on some ITTF news, and last week, the African Seniors Cup took place in Nigeria. It's always a little bit weird to think of table tennis in countries outside of Asia or Western Europe, but table tennis exists everywhere! It truly is a global sport. While I was training in China a few summers ago, I met Egyptian, Sri Lankan, Indian (okay, India and Sri Lanka are technically in Asia, but you know what I mean), Ukrainian, and Polish players. Pretty crazy, eh?

Anyway, as I was saying, the African Seniors Cup went down last week. And the interesting thing about the tournament was that a Chinese Congo-Brazzaville woman named Yang Fen won the Women's event. A Chinese Congo-Brazzaville table tennis player. Crazy. Sorry if I sound ignorant--I don't know very much about Africa--but I didn't even know that Chinese people lived in Congo-Brazzaville. Yang Fen is currently ranked #250 in the world women's rankings and is ranked #1 in the continent of Africa. She is going to represent Africa and Congo-Brazzaville at the 2008 Olympics.

So the thing that caught my attention was the words "African Seniors Cup" and the accompanying picture of a Chinese girl with poofy hair and her coach (pictured above). Chinese ping pong players are notorious for leaving China after years of table tennis training, moving to other countries (Canada, USA, Austria, Singapore, Hong Kong), and replacing those countries own homegrown players as the top players. Now, being a homegrown American table tennis player myself, I know how the feeling of having absolutely no hope of becoming a top top table tennis player, even in the US, which does not do very well in international events. It does stink to have any good foreign player (now I'm not just talking about Chinese players; I'm also talking about Europeans) come in and sit at the top of the rankings and on the national teams.

HOWEVER, I think that so many people are taking the wrong attitude in how to solve this problem. I've heard people complain about how Chinese players are "taking over" the sport, as if it were some disease or something. The solution is not to complain and impose bans and restrictions. Instead the fact that Chinese players can just come into your country and defeat your homegrown players is just a wake up call to every country that its table tennis associations need to start from within and develop its own players. Each country needs to invest in itself and find ways to catch up to and compete with China. The beauty of the freedom of movement is the exchange of ideas and skills. It's about the spirit of competition, and the last time I checked, whining wasn't part of it.

Anyway, this is not a response to any specific person or current event; it's just a general reaction to the things I've heard and seen in the past years. Please feel free to leave any comments. And thanks for reading :).

Junior and Cadet Camp

2008-06-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

Ah, the good old days of being on the cadet and junior teams. One of the biggest goals of a young American table tennis player is to make the cadet team (if you're under 15 as of Jan. 1 of the coming year) or the junior team (if you're under 18 as of Jan. 1 of the coming year) or both if you're a talented little youngster. Every year, the cadet and junior team trials go down at the U.S. Nationals in Vegas, where juniors and cadets compete for 16 spots on the boys' and girls' junior and cadet teams. It's super intense. You'd be surprised how much emotion runs through the players and their families. Now that I'm past that phase of my life (I'm old and 19 y.o. now :-p), I look back and shake my head at my past intensity and tears shed. But as anyone who spends 10 hours a week practicing table tennis or commutes 1 or even 2 hours for practice or spends their summers abroad, training for table tennis, can attest, making the junior or cadet team is a big deal. Members of the national junior teams get sent to camps and tournaments all around the world, all expenses paid. Pretty sweet deal, huh?

The reason this topic came up with me is because on the usatt.org website, there's a little blurb about how ClubJoola in Rockville, MD, is going to host the summer training camp for cadets and juniors this year. Opened in Dec. 2007, it seems like a pretty cool site, with easy access to Washington, D.C. and its attractions, such as the Smithsonian, the White House, and the National Mall. I'm interested in seeing how the place is and how the camp goes.

I like how there are more and more full-time table tennis centers popping up around the US. For example, there's Fan Yiyong's club in Seattle, the Potomac Table Tennis Club in Maryland, the TopSpin Club. I hope to see more!

That's it for now. Peace.

Equipment

2008-06-23T14:53:00.001-07:00

How could I forget? Before you go out and hit the table tennis club, you need to get yourself some good equipment.

First of all, what can't you play with? No sandpaper rackets, please. They ruin the ball and are illegal to use in match play. Second, any rubber that is not black or red -- purple, green, orange is kaput, no-no, out the window. Third, a racket that isn't mostly made out of wood. If you buy from a big table tennis brand, such as Butterfly, Stiga, or Killerspin, you don't really have to worry about what I just mentioned.

Okay, so there are basically two types of rackets that you can buy. The first is the pre-assembled, recreational paddle, which is used for very informal situations. Recreational rackets come pre-assembled, where the rubber sheets come preglued on the wood racket. Quite inexpensive, these can be found at your local sporting goods store (Big 5, Copeland's, what have you).

The second type is the custom-made, high performance rackets that most competitive players use. The player chooses his or her blade and the individual sheets of rubber. Rubber sheets come in four different varieties: 1) inverted, the most popular, also known as pips-in, 2) pips out, and 3) anti-spin. One assembles the racket by applying table tennis glue (which is very similar to rubber cement) to both the blade and the sheet of rubber and then by cutting the sheet of rubber to fit to the blade's head. This customization allows for the player to choose the right combination for his or her playing style. The myriad choices can also prove to be very, very overwhelming, especially to those just starting out.

I've played with Butterfly equipment my whole life (they've been my sponsor for as long as I can remember), and I'd recommend the Primorac paddle with Sriver rubbers for anyone who's starting out. I would surf around the net and check out different websites and brand names to see which combo might be best for you. To start off, I'd recommend Google-ing "table tennis racket" and seeing what comes up. As for brands, I'd say that these are the big, trusted ones: Butterfly, Stiga, Joola, Donic, Juic, Nittaku, Tibhar, Yasaka.

That's it for now. Peace!

Get out of your basement and start playing!

2008-06-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

So you know about ping pong and want to start getting some real competition aside from your family members? usatt.org has a complete list of all registered clubs in the nation. Check it out here.

If you're in the Bay Area (where I'm from), be sure to check out these clubs:

Palo Alto Table Tennis Association (Palo Alto) - My second-home club. http://www.tabletennisgold.com/paloalto.html
Concord Table Tennis Club (Pleasant Hill) - My home club and also Survivor contestant, Yau Man's, home club! http://www.concordtabletennis.com/
Sunset Table Tennis Club (San Francisco) - http://www.sunset-ttc.com/
The Top Spin (Santa Clara) - http://www.thetopspin.com/
Indian Community Center (Milpitas) - http://www.indiacc.org/AM/Template.cfm

I hope you go out and take a chance. Good luck!

2008 Chinese Olympic Team

2008-06-20T14:25:00.001-07:00

China announced its men's and women's teams on Wednesday. It's pretty cool that China's top two players on both the men's and women's teams are also ranked #1 and #2 in the world.

On the men's side will be the following:
1. Wang Hao: #1 in the World, singles silver medalist in Athens 2004
2. Ma Lin: #2 in the World
3. Wang Liqin: this will be his 3rd Olympics
Alternate: Chen Qi

On the women's side will be the following:
1. Zhang Yining: #1 in the World, singles and doubles gold medalist in Athens 2004
2. Guo Ye: #2 in the World
3. Wang Nan: this will be her 3rd Olympics
Alternate: Li Xiaoxia

I personally cannot wait until the Olympics!

Timo Boll was a prodigy!

2008-06-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

Timo Boll, Germany's #1 player, is going to be representing Germany at the 2008 Olympics this summer (yay for Olympics!). This video showcases his early talent, starting from age 4. (Btw, I just realized that in the clip where Timo Boll is 9 years old, Timo's opponent is one of my coaches, Stefan Feth :-p. Stefan now coaches in Palo Alto, CA).

Basic Table Tennis Rules

2008-06-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

So apparently I became a certified club umpire at age 11 or something. You should probably get to know the rules of the game, too. If you have time, take a look at USATT's (USA Table Tennis) rule book at http://www.usatt.org/rules/index.shtml. For a more user-friendly version, check this link out: http://www.pongworld.com/more/rules.php.

Many people still go by the 21-point-game, but in 2000 the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) changed the rules so that all games be played to 11 points.

2006 Best Points

2008-06-16T14:46:00.001-07:00

So you think that only Chinese people play ping pong? True, ping pong is really popular in China, and, indeed, China produces many of the world's best players, including World Champions and Gold Medalists, such as Wang Liqin, Ma Lin, and Kong Linghui. China's Wang Hao is currently ranked #1 in the world. However, contrary to popular belief, Europeans and non-Chinese countries also have a presence in the international table tennis scene. Sweden's Jan Ove Waldner (3x World Champion and Olympic gold medalist) is a table tennis legend, and many in the table tennis world consider him the best table tennis player in history. Korea can claim Olympic Gold Medalist Ryu Seung-Min, Gold Medalist Kim Taek Soo, and World Championships Runner-Up Joo Se Hyuk. Germany's Timo Boll sat at the number 1 spot for a while in 2003. Austria's Werner Schlager won the 2003 World Championships. If we take a look at the men's world rankings, we see that non-Chinese players actually do have a presence in the table tennis scene.

1 WANG Hao CHN
2 MA Lin CHN
3 MA Long CHN
4 WANG Liqin CHN
5 SAMSONOV Vladimir BLR
6 CHEN Qi CHN
7 BOLL Timo GER
8 RYU Seung Min KOR
9 JOO Se Hyuk KOR
10 LI Ching HKG
11 GAO Ning SIN
12 CHUAN Chih-Yuan TPE
13 OH Sang Eun KOR
14 OVTCHAROV Dimitrij GER
15 SCHLAGER Werner AUT
16 HAO Shuai CHN
17 CHEUNG Yuk HKG
18 KREANGA Kalinikos GRE
19 KAN Yo JPN
20 MAZE Michael DEN

So, yes, ping pong is pretty big internationally, and not just in China. Maybe Americans should start treating this sport as seriously as other countries do :-o!

With that, here's a little something something to show you some world class table tennis in action. I found this video on YouTube, and it features the world's top men, including China's Wang Liqin, Germany's Timo Boll, Belarus's Vladmir Samsonov, Korea's Ryu Seung-Min, and Austria's Werner Schlager. If you listen to the commentary, it's in some weird European language. Ping pong on TV in Europe. See, it exists outside of China!

Day 1

2008-06-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hi there! First of all, welcome to my blog. My hope for this blog is that it will enable more to learn to appreciate competitive table tennis as a real sport that can actually make a person sweat (it's true--real, salty, sticky sweat).

For the 11 years I've played competitive table tennis, I have had to try to convince too many people that, yes, ping pong is a sport and, yes, strenuous physical workouts and footwork drills can actually help someone's table tennis game. While I completely endorse basement table tennis, ping pong is more than a leisurely game to be played at random family gatherings. Table tennis is an Olympic sport to which many people around the world devote much (if not all) of their lives.

I'll continually update this blog. I'm thinking of including basics, such as rules, playing styles, equipment, tournaments, organizations, and how to get involved. I'll also try to post cool videos, photos, current events, and featured players. And if there's anything else you want to know, lemme know!

So, with that, I hope that this blog can provide a window into the "other," less known side of table tennis. Welcome, and enjoy!