Table Tennis Spring 2009 Winners (from left to right): Jason Zhang, Jimmy Tan, Yoshiyuki Okawa, and George Cooper
Congratulations to:
Eugene Utsalo – Open Champion
George Cooper – Class A Champion
Yoshiyuki Okawa – Class B Champion
Israel Orija – Class C Champion
Jimmy Tan – Class D Champion
Jason Zhang – Class E Champion
Tony Liu – Class F Champion
Photos of the night are after the jump
Tags: agtta
Stone Mountain - The only place where lasers, fireworks, beer, humidity sound appealing for your July 4th Weekend
While most of the state of Georgia is getting ready to set off illegal amounts of fireworks tomorrow night, players from around the country are competiting right now at the US Open in Las Vegas.
- The USATT site has a link to the official 2009 US Open results page with day writeups by Larry Hodges. Also there’s mention about video coverage by the USOC that will be available sometime next week. Great site, terrible navigation. Their Table Tennis section is a bit difficult to find.
- Bruce Liu of USATT Magazine has been keeping updates via Twitter. If you don’t what Twitter is, now is a great time to learn.
- Varghese over at Spin Mantra has been keeping daily US Open updates with his blog.
- Milpitas has been blogging and posted the cutest photo. Losing to someone that cute should be illegal.
- I’ve got nothing else so here is a video of a penguin playing table tennis.
Textbook Table Tennis is a 2 hour series of exercises designed by USATT Certified National Coach Brian Pace for beginner to intermediate level players. Whether you are looking to finally break yourself out of that basement stroke, gain an edge for league night this week, or if you are just simply hoping to somehow justify that ridiculous $150+ blade purchase you made, then this video series is for you.
What is unique and innovative about Textbook Table Tennis is that you can purchase it for immediate download in MP4 or WMV format to watch on your iPod or computer for US$39.99. Or if you prefer the traditional DVD you can get that too for a few more dollars. So instead of ordering a video and clicking refresh on the tracking number page every 15 minutes for a week, you can simply pay using Paypal and begin watching the series after you download it.
Tags: Brian Pace, Textbook Table Tennis, video
Everyone gets “owned” at least once in a while. After you’ve loosened up and are starting to get use to your opponent, you are playing and notice an opening and go for the kill shot only to have the ball mockingly click back onto your side of the table before you know it. It happens to everyone. Above is a video by TTvirusPremium that shows some of the best moments where even pro players get humbled.
If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, I’ve just recovered from a large data loss and have taken a few weeks to get back into my online routines. I am back now and hopefully will continue with the regular updates.
Other interesting news…
- The ITTF met on Friday June 26 to discuss why VOC racket testing is already considered a mockery in the table tennis community. It hasn’t even been a full year since the new rules have been implemented and teams and companies have already found alternatives for speed glue (Haifu Oil or Lamp Oil tuning anyone?). And everyone thought the banning of speed glue would ruin the game. It just goes to show that if you take away a dishonest player’s ability to cheat, he/she will just find another way around the system. So in an effort to “crack down” they’ve lowered the amount of allowable VOC’s to 4ppm (parts per million). Although, by this time next year I’m sure the Chinese will have discovered another substance they can use to tune or boost their equipment with.
- I had a brief love affair with a rubber by Dawei call Inspirit Quattro Utralight (IQUL) from Cole’s Table Tennis Supply. A full review of the rubber will be coming soon.
- Dynamic Table Tennis will be releasing a new DVD called Competition Table Tennis which is specifically tailored for players who are looking for a series of training exercises for the tournament season. Visit Dynamic Table Tennis and contact Brian Pace if you are interested in getting a downloadable copy before the link goes live.
I don’t know how to end this entry, so here’s a video of a penguin playing table tennis.
Tags: Dawei, Elize, ENEZ, Inspirit Quattro, IQUL, ITTF, racket testing
Table Tennis Bling-age! Winter 2009 Winners (from left to right): Michiya Suzuki, Juan Wandurraga, Jim Chiem, James Wang, and the Fili-Rican Assassin!
So apparently I’m a slacker, but at least I’m a slacker with a trophy. I’ve been meaning to post these photos for a couple of weeks now, but I’m just now able to get to the photos. Trophies were given to people with the best win/loss ratio for the Winter 2009 League.
Congratulations to:
Michiya Suzuki – Open Class Winner
Jackie Zhang – Class A Winner
Juan Wandurraga – Class B Winner
Jim Chiem – Class C Winner
Rick Merced – Class D Winner (boo-ya)
James Wang – Class E Winner
This was the first time I had competed in the AGTTA league, so when I started I had no idea what to expect. I moved up 200 points in my rating over the 10 week period. I have no one to thank except my coach Didi DeSouza who was not only able to identify my terrible strokes, but also worked on my footwork and strategy with me. Keep an eye on the site since I’ll be doing to a coaching profile on him in the next few days.
After the jump are a few photos from the night…
Tags: agtta
"Damn it Dad! I told you a million million times that I wanted a BLUE car!" - Wang Hao photo courtesy of GettyImages
China wins all the Gold Medals, and no one is surprised. Let’s face it, when your favorite team keeps winning without breaking a sweat cheering for them gets kinda old. Don’t take me wrong here, I adore Wang Liqin’s ridiculously powerful loop, Ma Lin’s intimidating staredown, and Wang Hao’s ability to Cho! his way to a win. At this point in time, China will continue to dominate the sport for years until other countries start training like they do.
What we need is a good Cinderella story and the number one 18 year old player in the world was there to give us one.
Tags: Kenta Matsudaira, Ma Lin, Wang Hao, wang liqin, WTTC
