when you are so much better than your opponent, and you prove it psychologically

Being much better than someone else at something is a funny thing. It shows your personality, and also allows you to delve into the psychological aspect of the game.

Table tennis is truly a gentleman's sport - the simpleness of the game, and a relative lack of intentional personal injury during play, combine into what is essentially a momentary passion, something that will be finished and then life continues on to normal. Seldom do you see a beaten opponent toss you his prized racket, or try to smash the ball into your eye - at least in my experience.

However, there is a lot of attitude and mind games when playing. Like the moniker of "live action chess" implies, you are constantly using psychological warfare to try to get an edge. But, you can also inspire defeat into your opponent's heart by your attitude when facing their best attempts.

I think some great examples can be seen in the following video, which highlights one of the best that have played the game.

http://tabletennista.com/2013/10/jan-ove-waldner-the-power-of-block-video/

Notice that Jan is not apologetic, nor does he celebrate excessively - he just remains serious like those monster returns mean nothing to him. I particularly like the one where he starts walking away from the table after blocking a shot by a young Timo Boll. You have to wonder, as his opponent, if he isn't just playing with you to entertain the crowd, and his real level is so much higher. He effectively conveys an air of "no matter what you do, i'm not impressed in the least, and you will lose".

Truly one of those "actions are louder than words" moments are captured in that video. Jan wasn't known for a ferocious attack or wild antics - he was just known for pulling shots that no one else could pull, seemingly effortlessly. His demeanor helped a lot in conveying a sense of awe and defeat into his opponent's heart.

Wow! what a final between Ma Long and Fan Zhedong

I have to say this is one of the best matches i've seen in a while. It is a bright future for china if we think how young Fan Zhedong is. This is the link to the match in hd and short form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TiJ4VJblb0#t=10

Apart from some matches with Zhang Jike, I had never seen an opponent that forced Ma Long into thinking he wasn't the most powerful attacker in the table. Great match.

a great match between zhang jike and samsonov

http://youtu.be/vNRKeVF6gfw

Really great online table tennis shops

so far the best shops I've found for cheap stuff (and no, paddlepalace is not cheap... although I have bought for them and have no problems with them) are

http://www.ttnpp.com/shop/

seems to be chinese - cheap chinese, donic and butterfly, and some items you can't get in US stores.

http://www.tabletennis11.com/

european? take a look at the ittf dhs table for around $700

I also love megaspin.net; if you live in the us, though, one of the local trainers might be a butterfly seller and they can beat online prices.

how to make watching table tennis in TV really awesome

Unless you're living under a rock, you know all the good matches around the world are transmitted live in the ITTF homepage (terrible quality, by the way) or posted short after in YouTube.

You probably also know the reason why the ball size was increased from 38 to 40 mm was because the ITTF wants table tennis to be easier to follow on video. Also, matches were shortened to 11 points and 2 un-hidden serves per person to accommodate short attention spans and reduce the difficulty of following the game.

Ping Pong (or table tennis) is fast, tactical, and complex. Each paddle motion imparts both directional momentum and rotational speed, not in 8 directions but in all possible combinations of a sphere (360° by 360°!). Reading spin is one of the most important aspects of the game and very difficult to grasp unless you play the sport.

What I want in TV broadcasting (and possibly in game screens for the live public) is a ball that has sensors (or from which data can be measured with optics) and transmits the information so that every stroke has its spin and speed recorded. A minuscule sensor on top of each player's blade could also be used to measure the stroke speed and angle shift.

In real time, I would love to see a live data, in the lower right corner of the screen, telling me the amount of spin and its direction on the ball, and the force applied by the paddle at the moment of contact. This would give fans who play the sport all sorts of insights into how the pro's play and their capabilities and strategies.

Can you imagine? Almost overnight, you would know who has the spiniest and most powerful shots and serves. It would revolutionize the sport for spectators forever - you would know exactly what happened and why, or could deduce it with some time.

I know technology isn't ready for this - but it will be someday. I'm sure within my lifetime.

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