AGTTA Summer 2009 League Winners (clockwise from the top): David Wang, Joe Ryan, Edmond Sysomboun, Alex Lehocky, Michael Levene, and John Mar
Congratulations to:
John Mar – Open Class Winner
Michael Levene – Class A Winner
Toan Nguyen – Class B Winner
Alex Lehocky – Class C Winner
Edmond Sysomboun – Class D Winner
Joe Ryan – Class E Winner
Jeffrey Ma – Class F Winner
Liming Xu – Class G Winner
David Wang – Class H Winner
Photos from the night are after the jump.
Tags: agtta, photos, summer 2009 winners
Better late than never. Week 1 of the Summer Tournament series at Rhodes Jordan. Unfortunately I was only able make the first week. Photos are after the cut.
Tags: photos, rhodes jordan, summer tournament
Sooyeon Lee plays at Spin NYC (photo courtesy of SpinNYC.com)
Spin New York is a Table Tennis club started by celebrity actors Susan Sarandon, Alan Cumming, and Judah Friedlander. This video was their opening night party that was hosted by Vanity Fair. So don’t expect model Sooyeon Lee (rated 2400+) to battle out a point with you in perfect makeup, stiletto heels, and the world’s smallest cocktail dress every time you show up.
Tags: Spin New York
Didi deSouza - photo ©2009 Rick Merced
This is the start of a new section on Atlanta Table Tennis. I will feature and provide contact information for any and all active Atlanta area table tennis coaches. If you are a coach and would like your information up here, please contact me. Obviously, if you give me a lesson you get a really cool picture taken of you for free.
Kwaovi “Didi” deSouza is one of Atlanta’s top players and has coached several of Atlanta elite and up and coming players over the past years. He specializes in multi-ball drills, footwork training, serve and service receive drills, and proper stroke mechanics. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: coach, Didi deSouza
"Uhhh, I meant the new SHOE helped me win... not glue"
Perusing the ITTF site I noticed that there is a new series of videos called “ITTF World of Table Tennis.” In the first episode the ITTF recaps the World Table Tennis Championships and has one on one interviews with Ma Lin, Wang Liqin, and Wang Hao. The interview of interest is the Wang Hao one where he practically admits to cheating as if it were nothing serious.
Fast forward to 23:00 if you want to see the Wang Hao interview, or just read the transcript of the question below.
ITTF: You’ve been good at using your tactics before, but never this good. How come?
Wang Hao: Well I think the new glue has really helped me. Not only to win World Cups, but also today to become World Champion. I think I am the one who has benefitted the most from the new glue.
On September 1 2008, the ITTF bans Speed Glue, introduces the ENEZ device at major tournaments while at the same time doing little to penalize or deter players from cheating. Let’s face it, whether you’re a speed glue fanatic or not, using the stuff in competition is illegal and here we have the World Champion possibly admitting that he cheated in an interview on the ITTF site. Did anyone at the ITTF actually look at the final video before it was uploaded?
Now, there are two things to take note of here. First, I don’t speak Mandarin, but it is very well possible that there was an important detail lost in translation during the editing process. Why doesn’t he credit his win to his training, his team mates, or his coach? Second, the translator doesn’t actually say “Speed Glue” or anything to that effect, but something tells me that he isn’t crediting his win to standard water based glue. The interview in its current form just leaves too much to the imagination.
How can any serious player take the glue ban seriously now? What do players like Timo Boll and Michael Maze who have converted over to using Butterfly Tenergy rubber and have admitted to no longer speed gluing have to say?
EDIT (July 25): Chinese reader Yuewei watched the video interview and was able to correct not only me but ITTF’s terrible translator. Thank you for clearing that up Yuewei!
He was talking articulately about the “INORGANIC GLUE or GLUE BAN†which he thought might have given him some sort of edge over other top players. Yet the English interpretor translated Wang’s explicitly spelt “INORGANIC GLUE or GLUE BAN†into “the new glueâ€
Tags: speed glue, Wang Hao, World Table Tennis Championships
