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ITTF Calendar: Japan Open Latest Covid Casualty

July 8, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins/Photo Courtesy of ITTF) The 2020 ITTF Calendar continues to shrink as they deal with the COVID-19 Pandemic. ITTF announced today that the Japan Open has been cancelled. This event was scheduled at the end of April, and it had been postponed with the hopes of playing the event this Fall. The announcement […]

Coaching Tip of the Week: Side-to-Side Training for Improvement and Health

July 6, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Table tennis is a game of movement, and most of that movement is side-to-side. To master the sport, you must be a master at patrolling the five-foot width of the table. Which is why players who wish to improve do lots and lots of side-to-side footwork drills. (There are also in-out drills, […]

WAB Club Feature: Tan’s Table Tennis Training Club

July 5, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) Tan’s Table Tennis Training Club is the first full-time table tennis club in the greater Cincinnati area. The club is located just to the Northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, a few miles from the 275 Expressway and just off of I-42. The location provides easy access to greater Cincinnati and Dayton. […]

Remembering John Tannehill

July 4, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) John Tannehill passed away earlier this week at the age of 68. John’s storied table tennis career included accolades as a junior and several years as a top 5 player in the US, including finishing two time as the runner-up at the US Open. He may be best known in the sport […]

There Will Be Fireworks Next Year

July 4, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) Most years, Fourth of July fireworks are a part of America’s table tennis culture. The venue changes, and the schedule changes, and the city changes, and recently the big Summer event has been the US Nationals instead of the US Open – but nearly every year a thousand table tennis players, officials, staff, […]

BUTTERFLY FAVORITES: Chuang Chih Yuan – Backhand Flick

July 4, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The first video of Chinese Taipei player Chuang Chih Yuan is from 2017. It shows him developing his backhand flick in two common game situations – (1) for use against short serves to his forehand side, and (2) as an attacking shot following a short return of his serve. In 2016 and […]

PongNow: Marv and Caron Leff

July 3, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow interview series discusses table tennis with some of the best players and personalities in the sport. In this edition we have Florida Hall of Fame members Marv and Caron Leff. __________________________ In this edition, Marv Leff talks about his early years playing in Chicago, his successes in Florida as […]

BUTTERFLY FAVORITES: Kreanga’s Backhand Highlights

July 2, 2020

This video of Greek player Kalinikos Kreanga was originally published in 2016. It was titled ” Kalinikos Kreanga: The Beast of Backhand”. What could be more motivating that watching the energetic, emotional Kreanga and his free-swinging backhand powering past some of the world’s best players. Kreanga was never World Champion and never won the European […]

2021 Shaping Up to be a Big Year (Covid Postponements)

July 1, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The ITTF tournament calendar continues to look pretty bleak for 2020. There will be no events in July, and five of six August events have been postponed. Its that last word that is of note here, however – POSTPONED. Many events that could not occur have been postponed instead of cancelled. That […]

Ask The Experts: Truong Tu, No. 350

July 1, 2020

Butterfly Table Tennis Question and Answer Question: Blade: Michael Maze , Innerforce ZLC , Zhang Jike Super ZLC , Viscaria Forehand Rubber: Tenergy 64 Backhand Rubber: Tenergy05 Hi , I’ve played many years with Maze blade, then needed some more speed and switched to IF ZLC , than after new plastic ball needed again something […]