SERVICE AND SERVICE RETURN

                 Service and Service Return

The serve starts the point in table tennis, but not in a comparable sense to tennis.  In table tennis, your looking to perform a serve, that is difficult to handle, so you can take advantage or take control of the point. In table tennis, you do not need a ace serve, to be successful.  Your good serve may lead to a three ball attack.  The three ball attack , is your serve being the first ball, and the second ball is the return of your serve and the third, is your attacking stroke.  Your serve can be a weapon, and cause your opponent to either miss, or make a error of judgement.  Some players have their own pet serves, and are usually served from the same location.  In order to be more successful in your serving, you need to vary your serves in spin, speed and location.  All the aspects of this game is important, but in the advanced game, service and service return is very important.  The more advanced players will have serves, that are effective for their attack strategy or are used to defuse a attack from there opponent.

There are many serves, such as side spin serves, which are the most popular, backspin, topspin, side top, backspin with side spin, as there are several combinations, and ways of its application.  Backhand serves , forehand serves, are from from different parts of the table, and can be in delivered in different motions.

There is another aspect to the service. The movement after the serve is just as important, the movement to recover back to the ready position. This is done, so you can take advantage of a bad service return, or error, by being in position to attack, and out position your opponent. Your serve can test the skill of your opponent, serving all over the table, and finding a weakness in their returns. 

                           Service Return

In my opinion this is the most difficult skill to perform, and learn as a table tennis player. It is difficult because, you need acquire years of experience and knowledge to be able to read and deal with spin.  In coaching a player, you need to spend a lot of time teaching the techniques of service return and what to look for in your opponents application of their serves.  You can push serves, flip serves, attack serves, and even shovel them over, which is a technique I use often.  Positioning yourself for a return is important. When you start to learn where your opponent is serving,  it could be based on your receiving location, or your weakness on a certain part of the table.  You might have a problem with short serves to your forehand, or long serves to your backhand.  And also if you do have trouble in the return game, it could be your standing to close or too far away from the table. 

Service return is a valuable part of the table tennis game, its tough for most because of the lack of knowledge, which could apply to many things in life.  

MATCHPLAY - MENTAL FOCUS

                         Mental Focus

Well I must say everyone at one time or another, or on a daily basis gets nervous about one thing or another. It could be going to the doctor, or a big test of some sort, or going on a blind date.  There a lot of things that can be said about certain situations in life, that have the nerves tingling and the blood pressure rising.  The biggest reason for nerves,  basically comes from the expectations of these situations.  If your mind is set on dreading certain  situations and are fearing the worse, it will basically come to pass.  Thinking your going to lose a match before it starts, is a powerful thought, for it to actually happen.  What your doing in this situation is handicapping yourself.  If things are not going right in your match, and the fear of losing, sets in, you are almost planning your future!  Another thought you can have,is that you are not prepared, a thought that does not bring any positive motivation to any situation.  Lets address this particular  thought , about not being prepared, or your not being a good enough player.  When you play a match, either in a tournament , or in a club, right then and there you are the best you can be at that moment.  So if this is true, you can only  play the best you know how, especially if getting better is your goal. This way of thinking is the way you learn and acquire more knowledge about your game, winning or losing.  You don't reach a high level at table tennis by winning, its actually the other.  My personal saying to myself, and others is, when playing the game, " Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn."  Which would you rather do, play the best you can and come up short, or play with thought your going to lose and regret you didn't play your best?   Every match you play, you will gain some knowledge whether winning or losing a match.

 What produces distractions in a match?  If you focus on your match alone,  you will have no distractions.  But if you focus on who is watching you play, or listening to things around you ect....  What it is, for the most part, is paying too much attention to things that are not about your match. The reason for being nervous, is about most of what I had just mentioned. Now maybe you can realize why, when you practice or play with friends,  your level of play then is not the same as when match time comes.  Your skill level at the time of your match is set, so there should be no worries. You cannot play above your skill level, but you can implement it, the best way you can. Either winning or losing, you learn what you could do and what you couldn't do in the match. So with this in mind, in the end, you gain knowledge either way.  The great Jimmy Conners has a famous quote, in which he puts in perspective, his effort to win, and his thoughts about losing, to him losing, really never happens. He is asked about his loss.

" I ran out of time, finding a way to win"

- Jimmy Connors
 

BASIC FOOTWORK POSITIONS

FOOTWORK THE FOUNDATION OF TABLE TENNIS

                         FOOTWORK

The foundation and structure of a building a table tennis game, footwork is the most important part of the developmental process. Footwork is the foundation, of advanced table tennis.  Instead of learning shots or serves first, the beginning process should start with the foundation which makes serves and shots effective and consistent or in basic terms , work at all.

The main reason why most players are inconsistent, is because that they are more focused on strokes then positioning them selves for the stroke.  The service part of the game, also must include footwork and balance to effectively employ your serves.  When you serve, you must get back into a ready position, to be able to return the next shot, or attack the next shot. You could serve a effective serve, but then give up the advantage , if you are not in position  or ready for the next shot.  Table tennis is a fast game, and the movement and positioning, is essential to the success of any table tennis player. The forehand has a position, the backhand, as well as the push,  and many other shots.  I see most players worry about the stroke production, then the position they were in during the failed shot.  Now shot production is important , but positioning yourself for that shot comes first.   If your in position for a shot and you execute it, the next order of business is to recover from your shot , which is to get back to the ready position.  There are varied positions and footwork , when you include the varied styles and grips, in this game.  But in this post of this blog, it is the discussion of the basics of footwork being important, and learning the basics, that will improve anyone's game.  

3rd Annual Camarillo Senior Table Tennis Pictures

Diego De Blas

Bonnie, Amy, Bea

Alan Hammerand

Bea Abe

Story and Results  next post

CAMARILLO SENIOR TABLE TENNIS TOURNAMENT

On November 5, 2016, the 3rd annual senior table tennis tournament was held at Freedom gym , in Camarillo.

The tournament had a big turnout , and a few surprises.  The surprises began,  as the flyer was not exactly specific in the age, and as it ended up, a few younger players were admitted.  And a another surprise was , a younger player, unknown to all, was the player that won the singles division.  This person was Diego De Blas, and by winning the tournament, he defeated the 3rd, 2nd, and top seed to win it.  And also he did quite well in the doubles, knocking off the 2nd seed doubles team.  The tournament was organized by John Spohn, and the main supporter and organizer of the Camarillo club, which is where the tournament was held.  

Many from the club volunteered there time to help out and perform the different tasks needed to bring about the success of the tournament.  A shout out to Amy Akashi, for her help in ordering and organizing the lunch, for the players. And her help in contacting certain players!  Many players from the club helped in the setup and taking down of the tournament, as well as lunch time help.  Other then one player in the tournament, that surprised all, Aka-  Diego De Blas, it was a fun and exciting tournament, including Diego's stellar play. 

I was the one who organized the brackets, and Diego was the big bracket breaker!  The number one seed in doubles won, the team of Craig Burton and Gary Whiddon.  The team of Burton and Whiddon didn't let anyone break the doubles bracket. In  the women's division, Bonnie Renehan brought home the gold, going undefeated in her Round robin.   For more information about the Camarillo club, they have there own website, with lots of info on where to play, and articles and links for the avid player.  

camarilloseniortabletennisclub.com

Results
Mens Singles-             Womens Singles-            Doubles-
1st  Diego De Blas      1st Bonnie Renehan     1st Burton-Whiddon 
2nd Craig burton         2nd Amy Akashi          2nd Das-Renehan
3rd Gary Whiddon      3rd Bea Abe                 3rd Bunya-Spohn

Table Tennis Grips

                 Table Tennis Grips

The most used grip in table tennis, is the Shakehands grip  and the Penhold grip. The American grip, otherwise known as the Seemiller grip, was used and developed by Danny Seemiller.  This grip is unorthodox in nature, and is used in a way that's called twiddling. Twiddling is a procedure of flipping the paddle, and in most cases possessing different kinds of rubber, short pips, anti, and long pips rubber.  When a paddle has two different rubbers, it can be otherwise be known, as a combo paddle.

Any grip in Table Tennis, can use a combination of rubbers, to define there type of game,  they play.   Penhold is a grip that can be used for the forehand attack, and mostly used for a more defined attack, mostly using one side of the paddle. 

The Shakehands grip, can be used for forehand and backhand, with more ease then the other grips, and its the most basic grip for beginners.  The Seemiller grip is not the most popular grip, and it has its pro's and con's.  In this grip hitting a forehand and backhand is hit form the same grip on the same side of the paddle, and twiddling to use a opposite side in the same way.   Grips continued next page

TABLE TENNIS GRIPS