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After running out of table tennis glue due to a small accident involving rough baggage handling at airports (water based glue doesn’t come out of clothing very easily, by the way!), I needed some more glue in order to be able to test out the TRICKY1 blades sent to me by Rick Smith, which I wrote about in a previous article.

I decided it would be a good time to try a different glue and write a review about it, and when Alex Vanderklugt of One of a Kind Trading mentioned that he had a new glue that he liked, this being the Donic Vario Clean glue, I thought I’d give it a try.

Here’s my thoughts on Donic’s latest VOC free table tennis glue.

Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/04/29/donic-vario-clean-water-based-table-tennis-glue.htm

ATLANTA — A group of avid ping-pong players are trying to spread the word about what they call the world of “serious table tennis.”

“We know that ping-pong has a lot of participation, and people play in their basements, and they play at school,” said table tennis player Willy Xiao. “But, they don’t know that there’s a whole other world of professional table tennis, and serious table tennis, just in Atlanta.”

Last weekend, Xiao and other teens organized the Invitational Atlanta Table Tennis Team Tournament. Players competed at the Marcus Jewish Community Center in Dunwoody on Sunday.

“We want them to come and join our clubs and leagues around Atlanta,” Xiao said.

For information or to get involved in the table tennis teams, click here.

Watch the Video by clicking on the link below:
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/187873/3/Teens-Organize-Serious-Ping-Pong-Tourney

Recently I was contacted by custom table tennis blade maker Rick Smith, who asked me if I could critique one of his TRICKY1 line of blades. Rick is able to create matched pairs of blades which are produced from the same piece of laminated balsa wood, thus providing near identical performance. Naturally enough, I agreed, and Rick proceeded to send me a matched pair of blades to review.

While Rick produces blades in DEFensive, ALLround, and OFFensive categories, he didn’t tell me which type of blades these were, so as not to affect my objectivity. Over the last week or so, I’ve put both TRICKY1 blades through their paces and now I’m ready to share my thoughts.

Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/04/18/tricky1-table-tennis-blades-review.htm

ByGreg Letts,About.com GuideApril 15, 2011

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Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/04/15/attaching-a-table-tennis-rubber-with-water-based-glue.htm

ByGreg Letts,About.com GuideApril 13, 2011

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Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/04/13/table-tennis-quiz-question-12-answer.htm

While it sounds farfetched, the scenario for this week’s quiz question is one that actually occurred when I was umpiring a singles match in our local pennant team Grand finals many years ago.

The Scenario

A match between Player A and Player B is being played in a noisy hall, with only one umpire. During a point Player A attacks strongly, and Player B retreats from the table and starts lobbing the ball from far away from the table. Against a lob that lands very close to the net, Player A moves to the side of the table and angles one of his smashes so that the ball travels over the barriers and into the crowd. Player B runs through the barriers and hits the ball, but his return misses the table because the table has been moved sideways from its original location during the point.

I’ll tell you next week about what call I made, and whether I’d do it differently with the benefit of hindsight.

Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/04/08/table-tennis-quiz-question-12.htm

Do what the pros do
- Common table tennis saying

Table tennis players looking to improve their game are often given the advice to watch the professionals in action (or higher level players) and copy what they do. While the elite of the table tennis world are no doubt an excellent example to learn from regarding current stroke techniques, lower level players need to exercise caution when it comes to mimicking the tactics used by professionals.

Unthinkingly adopting the tactics used by highly skilled players can actually make your game worse, since in some cases these tactics require advanced levels of technique and many, many hours of training to be effective. Some serious thought should be given to whether you have the necessary skills to use a particular high level tactic.

Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/04/07/do-what-the-pros-do-common-table-tennis-sayings.htm

If you spend much time browsing through the various table tennis forums on the Internet, you’d probably notice that there are a lot of requests made for help regarding techniques, tactics, and training.

With such a great need for online assistance, you would think that there would be a number of coaches taking to the Internet to meet the demand. But a quick search in Google will reveal that there are precious few qualified coaches out there in cyberspace.

Curiously enough, table tennis minnow Australia appears to be leading the way with online table tennis coaching, with PingSkills well and truly established as a market leader. Although they now have some local competition with the imminent arrival of ttEDGE, the result of a collaboration between long time Australian #1 player William Henzell, and current Australian #4, Robbie Frank.

ttEDGE is one of the first coaching sites I know who are using a special camera to bring true high-quality slow-motion videos of stroke techniques. You can see some of their sample videos on their YouTube website. Their official website is due to open any day now, so stay tuned!

Meanwhile, the lads at PingSkills aren’t resting on their laurels either – they have just introduced a new DVD covering Service Return Secrets which will be available to buy in a week or two. It’s also available right now in an instant download version for those of you not willing to wait. You can check out their trailer for the DVD here.

And while Australia is doing well in the online coaching stakes, the USA is rather under-represented considering its position as Internet trendsetter. But there are still a couple of coaching efforts which are worth a mention.

Brian Pace’s Dynamic Table Tennis website shows a lot of promise, but needs a bit more fleshing out. While Brian is mainly focusing on selling his Textbook Table Tennis DVDs, his site is well put together and could be adapted into an excellent online coaching site with a little tweaking.

USATT National Coach Larry Hodges is providing Video Analysis of player’s videos. The cost is $150 per analysis, which isn’t cheap at first glance, but I suggest you take a look at Larry’s incredibly detailed sample video analysis, and you’ll see that you get value for money. In fact, you can learn a lot just from reading that!

Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/03/10/online-coaching-for-table-tennis.htm

ByGreg Letts,About.com GuideMarch 17, 2011

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Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/03/17/table-tennis-quiz-question-11-answer.htm

ByGreg Letts,About.com GuideApril 1, 2011

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Article source: http://tabletennis.about.com/b/2011/04/01/table-tennis-net-news-friday-roundup.htm