Ai Fukuhara - World Table Tennis Championship 2009 photo courtesy of GettyImages
The H.I.S. World Table Tennis Championships is now being broadcast live on itTV. In case you missed the live stream, they are providing Video on Demand of each match. Join some of the conversation with fans from around the world on the MyTableTennis.net forum in our Live Commentary thread while you watch the Live Feed.
Tags: ITTF, itTV, Live Feed, World Table Tennis Championships
Jörgen Persson (Photo By: Ayoade Ademakinwa)
Jörgen Persson announced his retirement today at the H.I.S. World Championships in Yokohama on Friday May 1st 2009 after losing to Jun Mizutani. “The motivation has goneâ€, said Persson. “I made a big effort to play in the Olympic Games but now it’s time to finish.â€
Persson claimed the same thing after losing to another lefty, Timo Boll, after the 2005 Shanghai World Championships, but returned after a brief stint with coaching.
When asked if this was truly was the end of his career, Persson said “Yes, this time it’s true, it’s definite. Eighteen years ago I won the Men’s Singles title at the World Championships in Japanâ€, he reminisced. “Japan is special for me, I have a special relationship with the people here.â€
Its always disappointing to see a legend go out on a loss, but his legacy and contributions to the sport won’t be forgotten.
Read the full article on ITTF »
Tags: jorgen persson, Jun Mizutani, Timo Boll, world championships
Tournaments. Tournaments. Tournaments. I can hardly believe that its almost May already. Well if you’re looking for competition this Summer there are currently 2 upcoming tournaments in Atlanta in May (hopefully more will pop up). I’ll probably be at both competing and shooting photos in between my matches.
Atlanta Table Tennis Tournaments
- May 2, 2009 – AAU Sports District Qualifier at the Decatur Recreation Center. This is mostly an 18 & under tournament, but Ralph Presley stated that there is a U2000 division that takes place at 9 AM that has no age limit. So if you can get up that early and manage to get your entry form in by Wednesday April 29, don’t miss it.
- May 30, 2009 – The 2009 Atlanta Open Giant Round Robin Tournament will be at Lucky Shoals Park. This is an official USATT 1-star tournament. Entry deadline is Saturday May 23. There is a discount for early entry.
Southeast Regional Table Tennis Tournaments (if you want to travel)
- May 2 – The Charlotte Loopapalooza will be at the Hawthorn Racket Club in Charlotte, NC. This is a USATT 2-star tournament. Watch a video of the final round of last year’s Loopapalooza.
- May 23-24 – The Florida Hall of Fame Tournament will be at the Broward Table Tennis Club in Hollywood, FL. This is a USATT 2-star tournament.
- June 6 – The Ocala Open Orange Blossom Tour will be at the Presbyterian Church Gym in Ocala, FL. This tournament is only limited to 40 players, so enter early.
- June 13 – The June MCCC Round Robin is somewhere mysteriously located in Cary, NC. The entry form is nowhere to be found, so email Mike Babuin.
Tags: tournament
So you’re panicking over taxes. Yeah, me too. Thankfully, I get easily distracted.
I just uploaded some new photos from this past Monday’s League Night at Lucky Shoals Park.
Tags: Lucky Shoals, photos
Last year I decided it was time to upgrade my Sriver FX rubber to something with a little more kick in an effort to appease my inner Equipment Junkie. Like a lot of players, I went to Butterfly Online. After perusing all of their different lines of rubber I began to notice that the descriptions for each rubber were about as useful as a pair of breasts on the back of a pig.
So I browsed, but never bought anything until one day Brian Pace popped up on the front page of the site giving the first video review of the Bryce family of rubber. Outside of his recreational racket and his reputation as a player, I didn’t know a lot about him. Shortly after seeing the video I bought a couple sheets of Bryce FX. There was something about the way he described the characteristics of the rubber that cut through the “Marketing Hype” that plagues just about every product description on the site.
When Brian would come out with another video about drills and exercises with the Amicus robot, I’d watch it hoping to learn something that I was missing from my own game. Then one day, Brian wasn’t doing videos anymore. Instead, I was watching a German player named Stefan Feth replace Brian for their instructional videos. Stefan’s techniques and methods are top-notch, but I was just getting used to watching Mr. Pace on the site. Shortly thereafter, Brian Pace would no longer be seen in any video on the site ever again.
Eventually the instructional videos stopped only to be replaced by videos of Jack Huang showing you how to perform a stroke for 2 minutes without any explanation or coaching tips whatsoever. I stopped watching the videos after that.
Fast forward a year and I manage to stumble across some news about Brian Pace’s new company. Some discussion surrounding it had popped up on a forum and shortly after that Mr. Pace himself logged on and started answering questions. After reading some of his posts I became intrigued by his enthusiasm for his new company, Dynamic Table Tennis. I wanted to learn more about his story, why he left Butterfly, and reveal the truth about American table tennis sponsorships. So I asked him for an interview and he agreed graciously.
Thank for chatting with me Brian. Why don’t you tell me a little bit about your Table Tennis career?
I started playing Table Tennis in a USATT funded junior program with the hopes of producing an Olympian. It was not a participation program, it was an elite junior program. We had Nigerian players ranked at 2500 as our coaches and training partners. The group went from 75 kids to about 12 elite level juniors, and the more intense the training got, the more the number reduced until it got down to Oscar Melvin and I. We would both went on to the live at the Olympic Training Center, and the program was unofficially over in 1988 but continued for 1 more year.
How and when did you get sponsored by Butterfly?
I was at my local Rec Center looking for a new activity, and Ty Hoff walked in. We played for about 1 hour. He gave me 2 yellow balls, and I went home and told my mother I was going to be a professional table tennis player. The USATT funded grant was influenced by Bowie Martin Sr. who was running Martin-Kilpatrick which sold low level table tennis equipment. They were also the North American distributor of Butterfly equipment, and the top juniors in the program received a small sponsorship. It was some rubber, shirts, shorts, shoes, and a bag. It did take me a while to become one of the elite 6 that would receive the sponsorship. Since I started with them, I felt obligated to stay.
On a forum recently you stated that being sponsored is an illusion. For a lot of players once they’ve attained a decent rating they’re next goal is to get sponsored in order to help pay for equipment, travel expenses, etc. Tell me about your experience being in that situation and what it was really like.
If anyone that has hopes of getting sponsored, you may want to skip this because the answer is going to break your heart…
Tags: Add new tag, Brian Pace, butterfly, Dynamic Table Tennis, Interview
Looks like Adam Bobrow is at it again, but this time with real match footage. It kind of reminds me of the infamous Ding Song vs. Timo Boll match… except with dancing.
Tags: Adam Bobrow
