Vladimir Samsonov Wins 2016 Butterfly LA Open
(Courtesy of Barbara Wei/Butterfly Table Tennis) In a league of his own, Vladimir Samsonov (Belarus, WR #9) effortlessly adds the 2016 Butterfly Los Angeles Open champion to his long and storied table tennis resume with a straight game win over 2015 LA Open champion Hou Ying Chao from China. The long anticipated offense vs. defense match drew over 2,000 spectators on the evening of September 5th where table tennis fans from around the southern California area gathered at the Los Angeles Badminton Club (El Monte, CA) to witness two table tennis legends compete.
Hou, former top 10 in the world and one of China's best male defense players of all time, got off to an early start in the first game in the best of 7 match. With a 5-0 lead in game one, it briefly looked like Samsonov was in trouble. However, table tennis legends like Samsonov do not easily succumb to a slow start. A few well-placed... Read More
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ITTF Cadet Camp at MDTTC
(Courtesy of Larry Hodges) The ITTF, in conjunction with USA Table Tennis and the Canadian TTA, ran a four-day ITTF Cadet Camp at the Maryland Table Tennis Center over Labor Day Weekend, Fri-Mon. Fifteen players took part in the camp, including five USA national team members: Crystal Wang (Junior and Cadet Girls); Derek Nie and Klaus Wood (Cadet Boys); and Lisa Lin and Faith Hu (Mini-Cadet Girls). Also taking part were Ivy Liao and Isabelle Xiong, members of the Canadian Women's, Junior, and Cadet Girls' Teams. The camp had nine sessions, 22 hours total.
Wang Qing Liang ("Leon"), recently named a USA National Cadet Coach, was the head coach, and planned out and ran much of the camp. Other coaches were Cory Eider (USATT High Performance Director), Liu Yongjiang (Canadian National Cadet Coach), and myself (a USATT certified National Coach and former USA Junior Team Coach). Wen Hsu was the Camp Coordinator. Practice partners were Nathan...Read More
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Butterfly Badger Open Bigger and Better in 2016
(Courtesy of Barbara Wei/Butterfly Table Tennis) On September 16th-18th, the 9th annual Butterfly Badger Open, one of the nation's biggest and longest standing table tennis tournaments, will take place in Franklin, WI (15 miles from downtown Milwaukee) at the Milwaukee County Sports Complex. A Midwest favorite, the Butterfly Badger Open will feature the same stunning conditions from 2015, including 45 fully barriered tables, incredible lighting, large feature courts and free lunch for all players. However, new for this year, additional prize money will be awarded for the Open Singles champion, with $3,000 on offer.
From humble beginnings as a 2-star tournament in 2008, the Butterfly Badger Open has grown in both importance and prominence in the Midwest and nationally. Attracting top players from across the east coast, Midwest and south, the Butterfly Badger Open's previous champions include Canadian Olympian Eugene Wang and 2015...Read More
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2016 Shonie Aki Scholarship Award
(Courtesy of Carl Danner) Shonie Aki, a remarkable individual, great father, tireless worker and volunteer as well as a great friend to many, had a long history in table tennis. He was both a star player and a great organizer and trainer. Shonie began his successful playing career in 1959, and was among the top-ranked U.S. players for many years. He was the California State Champion three times and was the founder and organizer of table tennis clubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Berkeley. He successfully organized and ran many tournaments and events sponsored by the USTAA starting in 1960. Shonie became the President of the California Table Tennis Association in 1961 and was the Vice President of the USTTA Executive Committee from 1988 through 1999. He became one of the first inductees to the California Table Tennis Hall of Fame and later became an inductee to the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame.
In 1963, he received the prestigious Barna Award for his contributions...Read More
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11 Questios with Sharon Alguetti
(Courtesy of Matt Hetherington)
This week's 11 Questions is with one of the shining stars of Cadet and Junior table tennis in the USA. Currently ranked in the top 20 Cadet players in the world, and a member of the US National Cadet, Junior and Men's Teams, Sharon is showing that his hard work is bringing results.
Just at the beginning of this month he defeated a handful of 2550+ Chinese players to win the September LYTTC Open Singles event, a huge result for him as he continues to push himself to the limits. Again this episode comes from the USATT Super Camp series of 11 questions interviews with Matt Hetherington and covers the classic selection of interview questions. Sharon lists Kanak Jha as both his greatest win and his biggest rival and also cites his toughest loss as being against Derek Nie despite being up 9-0 in the 5th game. Check out the full interview...Watch Now
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 Krish Avvari Interview with Rahul Acharya (Courtesy of Rahul Acharya) What began as simply an introductory class at the India Community Center, Milpitas quickly became an intense passion for Krish Avvari. Inspired by his uncle who was a collegiate table tennis champion, Krish pursued the sport, favoring it over soccer and swimming. It is hard to believe that the calm and collected 16-year-old from Fremont, CA has already played table tennis for over a decade. And his dedication and hard work has paid off. Krish recently bagged two gold medals in Junior Boys' Singles and Junior Boys' Teams, a silver medal in Men's Doubles, and a bronze medal in the Men's Singles at the 2016 U.S. National Championships this summer.
I had the opportunity to ask Krish a few questions. I hope you enjoy getting to know him!
Quick facts about Krish: Highest USATT rating 2637...Read More |
The Quickest Way to Improve Your Win Percentage
(Courtesy of Tom Lodziak) Table tennis rallies are short. In fact they are very short. Various studies over the years have shown that the average table tennis rally is anywhere between 3 and 5 shots. My own research supports this. I recently counted the length of rallies of eight matches at the ITTF World Championships in May 2015 (I stopped at eight matches - life is too short to count table tennis rallies!). My average figure? 4.8 shots per rally. What can we do with this information?
For me, it seems fairly obvious. If you want to increase the number of points you win, you should focus a lot of your training on the first five shots of a rally. This is where most points are won and lost. Why focus on skills which are rarely used in match-play? Instead, focus on the skills you actually need.
From my experience, players don't practice their service nearly enough. Yes, service practice can be a bit dull. But it is so important. Every point starts...Read More
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Fourth Anniversary of Pong Planet and Tournament
(Courtesy of Bruce Liu/BATTF) How time flies! The legacy of the legendary Palo Alto Table Tennis Club is four years old. Not only is Pong Planet surviving, but also thriving. James Guo is the man responsible for it.
Here is a brief able tennis history in Bay Area around 2005. 2005 is considered by many as a revolutionary year for table tennis in Bay Area. Before 2005, there were few full-time table tennis clubs. Most clubs were run by table tennis enthusiasts (nuts?) in schools, community centers, or churches - often sharing with other sports. There were few, if any, full-time coaches under 40 years old.
In 2005, Dennis Davis of Palo Alto Table Tennis Club, arguably the most successful Club at the time, helped the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee (BASOC) successfully win the bid of the 2007 World Junior Championships in Stanford. During the bidding process, he made many friends in China. At the end of 2005, Dennis brought...Read More
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 Timo Boll's Amazing Hand Switch Rally (Courtesy of TTProvider) Timo Boll is no strange to the hand switch and has proved time and time again that he has sufficient ability with both hands at table tennis to show off a few surprises in a match. This week's video upload is a rally from the match between Timo Boll and Jun Mizutani at the 2011 Volkswagon Cup event and shows a great exchange between both players before Timo is pushed out of position wide on the backhand side but changes to play a right handed forehand before heading around the corner! This is just one example of many of Germany's finest making the hand switch in a rally, usually to the delight of the spectators and online viewers. Boll has always had a reputation as a great entertainer and one of Europe's favorite players to watch, as well as being a popular player in China also. |
 History of USATT - Volume XVII - Chapter 25 (Courtesy of Tim Boggan) 1990 TOC - Part 1So O.K, I spent about a day and a half concentrating on the draws for the fast upcoming Veteran's event...But what's this? To my surprise, when I'd finished both the Singles and Doubles draws had then been sent off to Hans Westling, the initial and now long-time Swaythling Club overseer of the World Veteran Championship. Traditionally there were no 'official' seedings in the veterans, but 'unofficially' it was understood that there were very careful placings in the initial round robins and later - to some frustrating whimsical extent, which I had nothing to do with - in the single elimination rounds that followed.
After I had a phone conversation with Hans, I incorporated his changes, and the Preliminary draws looked reasonable. To my knowledge this was the last time that anybody in the U.S with any real player background or interest had...Read More
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