Coaching Tip: Returning the Tomahawk Serve
May 14, 2012 –

This is the forehand serve where you serve with the racket tip up, and contact the ball on the right side so it curves to the left, and the spin makes the ball come to your right off the opponent’s paddle. It’s awkward for many to take a ball spinning away from them on the forehand side and aim to their right, especially if the ball is short – try it and you’ll see. Until you reach the advanced levels, nearly everyone returns this serve crosscourt toward the opponent’s forehand side, and often they miss by going off the side to their left, or they allow the opponent to camp out on the forehand side.

By Paddle Palace 3 | Posted in Coaches and Players, Coaching Articles, Larry Hodges | Tags: , | Leave a Comment

Stellan Bengtsson, Observations on the Status of US Coaching
May 10, 2012 –

Table tennis coaching in the U.S. doesn’t look like anything else in the world. In all the other countries I have worked in, the National teams practice together and help each other improve. This isn’t the case in America. The National coaches have very little hands-on time to train the players directly. The teams rarely have joint training sessions where the players can challenge each other and work together.

By Paddle Palace 2 | Posted in Coaching Articles, Stellan Bengtsson, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Ariel Hsing Interview with NPR Reporter Dave DeWitt
May 7, 2012 –

Ariel Hsing and her STIGA/ICC Elite Teammates Lily Zhang and Timothy Wang, are on their way to London to play in the 2012 Olympic Summer Table Tennis Games. Ariel Hsing talks about the experience of making the team on NPR shortly after grabbing the first spot on the US Olympic team in Cary, NC

By Paddle Palace 2 | Posted in Ariel Hsing, Coaches and Players, Lily Zhang, Stiga, Table Tennis Events, Timothy Wang, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Coaching Tip: How to Play and Practice with Weaker Players
May 7, 2012 –

In some table tennis club in Lake Wobegone, all the players are above average and you never play a weaker player. But the rest of us have to make do playing and practicing with whoever is at our club. And often that means playing and practicing with weaker players.

Some recoil at the idea. It’s almost a mantra for many to say, “I want to play stronger players.” And it helps tremendously to play stronger players if you want to improve rapidly. But you also need to play matches with weaker players, and you can get good practice with them as well. Here’s why.

By Paddle Palace 3 | Posted in Coaches and Players, Coaching Articles, Larry Hodges | Tags: , , | Leave a Comment

JUIC International Junior & Cadet Championship Dates Set for September 15-16
May 1, 2012 –

This is the second year for the JUIC International Junior and Cadet Championship tournament. We expect to have a even larger interantional field this year with generous support from the ITTF and JUIC.

By Paddle Palace 2 | Posted in Coaches and Players, Table Tennis Events, Tournaments, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Coaching Tip: Chalk Up Wins with Chop Blocks
April 30, 2012 –

What is a chop block? It is a block with backspin. Since long pips and (usually) hardbat automatically returns topspin as backspin, it is the norm for those surfaces. But with inverted (as well short pips to a lesser degree), a topspin ball is normally catapulted back with some topspin.

But what if the inverted blocker were to chop down on the ball at contact, thereby returning the incoming topspin as backspin? That is a chop block, and it can cause havoc with an opponent’s timing.

By Paddle Palace 3 | Posted in Coaches and Players, Coaching Articles, Larry Hodges | Tags: , , | Leave a Comment

Three STIGA / ICC Elite Table Tennis Team Players are Olympic Bound!
April 24, 2012 –

The Olympic trials are over and the results are in! All three STIGA/ICC Elite Table Tennis Team champions who competed for a coveted spot on the 2012 Olympic team made the cut. Ariel Hsing, Timothy Wang, and Lily Zhang are all headed to the London games this summer.
By Paddle Palace 2 | Posted in Ariel Hsing, Coaches and Players, Lily Zhang, Stiga, Table Tennis Events, Timothy Wang, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Texas Weslyean Universtiy Table Tennis Team Takes 9th Straight Title
April 23, 2012 –

“Texas Wesleyan University’s Table Tennis Team, sponsored by Tibhar, won its ninth consecutive Coed Team Collegiate National Championship title at the 2012 Collegiate Table Tennis National Championship Sunday, April 15, 2012.

By Paddle Palace 2 | Posted in Table Tennis Events, Tournaments | Tags: , , , | Leave a Comment

Coaching Tip: Reverse Forehand Pendulum Serve
April 23, 2012 –

The most popular serve in table tennis is the forehand pendulum serve. (Here’s nine minutes of 2004 Olympic Champion Ryu Seung Min doing them, much of it in slow motion.) With this serve, the racket tip is down as you contact the ball with a right-to-left motion (for righties). And it’s a great serve – but it can be even more effective if you can vary it with the reverse pendulum serve variation.

The most under-used serve in table tennis is the forehand reverse pendulum serve. This is the reverse of the normal forehand pendulum serve, with the racket moving left-to-right at contact. It seems awkward at first, but is surprisingly easy to learn.

By Paddle Palace 3 | Posted in Coaches and Players, Coaching Articles, Larry Hodges | Tags: , , | Leave a Comment

Michael Landers to be Featured on “Kellogg’s Corn Flakes” Cereal Boxes
April 18, 2012 –

Michael Landers is one of “Team Kellogg’s 2012, Olympic Hopefuls” scheduled to adorn the famous makers Corn Flakes box.

There’s two sides to the story so take a look at the flip side of box!

By Paddle Palace 2 | Posted in Tournaments, Uncategorized | Tags: | Leave a Comment