I haven't blogged in a while because well I haven't been playing a lot!  My new job has required some business travel (a new thing for me) which has caused me to miss about a month of playing since January.  That combined with fewer hours at the table (no table at new workplace) means my level has slipped somewhat.  I would really like to play more but it's just one of those periods.

In any case, the time away (relatively speaking) from the game has given me a chance to look back on the last eight years of table tennis mania.  And while I never became a good player I can honestly say I had a lot of fun and did manage to learn a few things along the way.  I'd like to do my civic duty and pass on these few crumbs of knowledge but frankly they're nothing new and if you're anything like me you'll ignore them and go out and learn for yourself.

The first is to get coaching and the second is to not take your coach seriously.  By this I mean that many coaches in my experience are pointlessly dogmatic about table tennis technique.  They have a total blind spot to the fact that in many cases whatever technical nicety they're teaching you is violated by many top professionals.  In table tennis there are only a small set of absolute wrong ways of doing things and by a long period of sifting through many coaching sessions I can probably list all of them on the fingers of one hand.  On the other hand are all the fingers representing all the wrong ways of doing things that coaches have taught me over the years which number many dozens or hundreds.  E.g., don't hold your wrist this way (but top 10 player X does that), don't do that with your elbow (but these three top 20 players all do that), on your backhand backswing don't hold your racket that way (but current world #7 does that), etc.

By all means listen to your coach, but absolutely don't be afraid to confront them with disconfirming evidence that they're wrong about something.  And if something they're trying to teach you doesn't feel right or make sense to you then confront them about it.  If they don't budge or don't listen, get another coach.

By the way this is the intersection of all my coaching lessons:

1. Stay on the balls of your feet as much as possible during a point.

2. Try to move your weight forward when striking the ball.  This does not have to be a big movement, it might only be a subtle shift of your weight a few inches forward.  Your feet don't necessarily have to move to shift your weight.

3. On your forehand rotate your torso, i.e., don't swing with just your arm (unless you really don't have time).

4. On your backhand try to keep the ball in front of you when you make contact.

5. Understand that moving your feet is 75% of whatever shot you're trying to make.  Don't get too obsessed over elbows, wrists, fingers, grips, racket angles, etc.  In table tennis your feet are the most important body part.  I've seen many intermediate level players (better than me) with absolutely cr*ppy technique who nevertheless play at a decent level.  I used to puzzle over this until I realized that they all have one thing in common which is that they all move very well and are light on their feet, mobile, and agile.

On the equipment side of the game it's another thing entirely.  In this arena I am in all modesty a complete professional.  My advice to you, dear beginning or intermediate player is this.  First, all wood blades are fine.  All that fancy composite stuff that marketing departments try to push so hard can safely be ignored.  Second, you can almost not have a blade which is too slow.  Defensive blades for a offensive looping game are fine, perhaps even preferable.  And third, 1.8 or 1.9 mm thick sponges are fine.  Maximum thickness sponges are tough to play with unless you train a lot.  And don't get anything too soft, you'll like it at first because of all the spin but in the long run a thinner but firmer sponge will be better all around.  Of course all of this is very subjective, something to keep in mind as well.

I have a tried and true method for getting a warm up partner which is to commandeer an empty table and practice serve.  It almost never fails that within 10 minutes someone desperate to warm up for their first match of the day will approach me and ask to hit a few balls.  This works perfectly for me since generally speaking I'm not a very forward person.  On the first day of the tournament my warmup partner and I did the usual fh-fh and bh-bh and then moved on to serve and return.  After my first serve or two the guy points out to me that I'm not removing my free hand quickly enough after the toss.  He mentions that the only reason he would mention this is that he's an umpire and and it’s a clear service rule violation and so on.  So we go over the rule and I practice a few to his satisfaction.  I wasn't taken aback by this because firstly he was very friendly about it and secondly I have an old habit of not withdrawing my free arm far enough.  It gets pointed out to me at clubs maybe once every six months.  I don't think I'm actually hiding the ball at any time but it's marginal enough so that every once in a while someone feels compelled to call me on it.  The rule states specifically that not only can't you hide the ball but that your free arm must be removed immediately after the toss.  You can't let it linger in the receiver's line of sight.  Of course all the top players break this rule pretty much all the time.  Many pros are very proficient at not removing the free arm until the very last split second, which is clearly a rule violation and equally clearly never called in an international match.

So I thanked the guy and then proceeded to my first RR, which was the U1600 40+.  Fast forward to the 3rd match.  I've won the first two and if I win this one I win the table and move on to the single elimination round of the event.  The match is tied 2-2 and between the fourth and fifth sets my opponent in a rather irritated tone of voice accuses me of hiding the ball on my serve.  Why he would do this after four sets and dozens of serves I don't know.  I tell him that this sort of thing should be called in the first set not the fifth but at that point we're both gearing up for the tie breaker and we don't go into it further.  Of course to myself I'm a little embarrassed because an umpire just schooled me on this not more than two hours ago and here I am pissing some poor guy off because I didn't pay attention.  At that point I just decided to fix the serve.   Of course I missed the first one entirely and went on to lose the match.  Now some people might say "hey that's dumb, you don't change your technique in the middle of a tournament."  But to me that was the moment where that had to be changed and so it was.  After the match I shook hands with the guy and we were friendly about it.

The next day I got to the hall early and practiced the correct motion for a good half hour so I could feel the difference in timing and body movement (which to me felt very significant).  During the next RR (the aforementioned U1700) I served correctly all three matches and while my serve wasn't as good as usual it was good enough to win two out of three which I was pretty happy about.

After a year break I'm back at the nationals in Las Vegas.  This is my third trip and every time it's been fun.  I'm in five events this time around.  Winning any event at the nationals is tough because people train specifically for it, you have to win a lot of matches just to get in a final, and since the rating deadline is months in advance (October) many kids come in very under rated.  So for someone like me winning an event is pretty much not on the table.  However, I can still spoil other people's chances at winning an event and today I did just that in the U1700 RR.  Coming in at a 1283 rating I was the "D" player in the group and proceeded to knock off two of the higher rated players (one match came down to 12-10 in the 5th set) before being blitzed 3-0 by the eventual table winner.

My best chance at advancing out of a RR came yesterday in the U1400 and U1600 40+ events.  In the latter I won two out of three but didn't advance and in the former after cruising to a 3-0 win in the first match I inexplicably tightened up and lost the next two.  After the first match I felt like I should win the group and of course that was the kiss of death.  But I still have to ask myself why should such a thing happen?  Even though it makes no difference in my life I still have feelings about winning and losing at the table.  

I have two events left but they both start at 9am, not the best time for me to do anything involving moving or thinking.  But I'm here so I figured why not?  At least I'll get to watch some good matches later in the day.

I haven't written in a while since I've been going through a job transition.  The new job is of course better in many ways, many that is except one: there was a table in a large unused room at the old place and no table at the new one.  Towards the end that table (and the Thursday noon yoga class) was  sometimes the only thing that got me to work in the morning.  I would take a break at least once a day to hit with a friend or just practice service on my own.  Alas, the new company is very small (there are three people in my office currently) and we're only renting a coworking space in downtown San Francisco.  I.e., no table at work for me for the foreseeable future.

Level-wise I'm pretty much back to where I was a year ago and am feeling ok about the US Nationals coming up in a couple of weeks.  I had a great time there a couple of years ago and am looking forward to going back.  Five events in five days for me.

Yes I am in the throws of another EJ spasm. That means lower ratings for me and more money in the pocket of my favorite local equipment dealers.  One of those guys is Charlie Smith, the blade maker extraordinaire at BBC blades.  Charlie loves single ply cypress and many of his blades are variations on this theme.  The Ramin Cross is essentially his entry in the Nittaku Acoustic category of blades, i.e., 5-ply, all wood with a special glue between the plies.  I had a Nittaku violin once for a few weeks but gave it up because of the sadly tiny handle.  After I traded it for a vintage butterfly blade (why you ask?) I thought "hell, why didn't I keep that and get the handle replaced?"  But life is too short for second thoughts so I forgot about it.  Until that is, I had a hit with the Ramin Cross.  It instantly reminded me of the violin.  Very solid, minimal vibration, and super control.  Not very fast or springy.  The lack of vibration bothered me at first but I've gotten used to it over the past few weeks.  The blade has a little flex but lacks the springiness and inherent spin that my triflex skinny blades have.  Aside from that the balance is more head heavy compared to the triflex (they both weigh exactly the same, 90g, but the balance is noticeably different) which also took some getting used to.  I haven't used a head heavy blade in a while because they tend to feel less maneuverable to me but for whatever reason this one is ok.  

I had some reservations about this blade before I tried it because I knew it was going to have a very thick central ply which would give it a more of a single ply feeling and I haven't liked the single ply blades I've tried.  They're great with heavy, tacky rubbers or pips but the feedback isn't there when you put soft tensors on them - the ball just disappears.  The Ramin Cross is not really an exception to this but at 6.5mm it's thin enough to flex a little and with the right rubbers the feel is not bad but not really near the level of a traditional Swedish type 5-ply. As with all of Charlie's blades, the build quality is impeccable and the blade itself is a work of art.  

Rubber wise I've shifted gears slightly to Xiom omega IV Europe as the pro version felt a bit too firm for the Ramin.  I felt like maybe the pro is intended to be used on a blade with a harder feel and the Ramin Cross is more on the soft side of things.  However omega IV Europe is a pretty good fit for it and after a session or two I'm pretty happy with it. (You may ask why the sudden shift to Xiom, it's because they recently started sponsoring the Alameda jr players.)

So what's that, one new blade and four rubbers?  Barely a snack by my old standards but I think that'll be it for the EJing until after the Nationals.  I'm signed up for five events this year and with only two months to go I'll need all that time to get used to one set up.