Chinese over the table backhand loop

As most people have noticed, table tennis has changed in the last years thanks to the "over the table backhand loop" that Petr Korbel perfected and the chinese team so effortlessly use. There was a very good article in the usatt magazine detailing it not long ago.

It is a complicated technique, involving stepping into the ball, leaning your elbow forward, using a very small window of contact, and trying to hit the ball on the perpendicular of the direction of the incoming spin to minimize the effort; the revolutionary concept was that having the paddle in a very closed angle could be offset with a very fast twist. Notice in the videos the angle of the blade's handle just before the snapping starts, and how fast this snapping motion is.

Some great links I have found are:

http://bbs.chinatt.com/tt/dispbbs.asp?boardid=584&Id=258833

(if only I understood chinese)

and

and

2012 achievements so far

While I am still far from my goal of reaching a USATT level of 2000 in 2012 (and honestly it's probably impossible in Colorado, since the USATT ranked tourneys are over; but I'm looking more at the playing level than the actual score), I wanted to post my 2 big achievements so far.

In the bi-monthly round robins at top spin, I managed to place first in the medium category. It was not easy but it was a good day:

http://www.butterflyonline.com/static.asp?htmltemplate=/2012/12TSJRR.html

In the 2012 Rocky Mountain state games (which was a USATT ranked tourney) I managed to win the under 1700 tourney. The picture actually has my good friend and coach Angelo Gandullia, who won the Open in an exciting final.

http://www.butterflyonline.com/static.asp?htmltemplate=/2012/12COSG.html

However good these achievements are, the really unsatisfactory performances in bigger tourneys have instilled in me a greater urgency to gain fitness and practice more the attacking style. More on that in another post.

Ariel

I hadn't posted but... Zhang Jike is olympic champion and fastest grand slam winner!

At age 24, Zhang Jike is the world's number one, reigning world champion, world cup champion and Olympic champion, breaking all known records in table tennis! Zhang Jike has set a new standard and made another milestone in his career that will be written in table tennis history.

from http://tabletennista.com/2012/8/zhang-jike-grand-slam-winner-in-445-days-p/

I told you back in April I was cheering for him. He's young and still hungry, still looks like he has something to prove.

http://tabletennista.com/2012/8/zhang-jike-aims-to-surpass-liu-guoliang-ph/