Tibhar's SINUS

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!

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

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...

biggest lesson from the olympics: CHANGE UP THE PACE

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.

new glue means new rubber -steph

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

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.

the swing -steph

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

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.

Korean Olympic Training

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=&

Tip #1: Got patience?

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 :)

Cartwheels

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 :).

Basic Table Tennis Rules

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.