MDTTC Open House

by Larry Hodges / Courtesy of USA Table Tennis

On Sunday, May 29, the Maryland Table Tennis Center had an Open House, with three hours of events, all free. Here’s a great video of the event (4min 18 sec) created by Ming Li. (Here’s the Facebook version.) Throughout the event were periodic raffles – and lots and lots of food and refreshments!

• Things started off at noon with a 30-minute junior training session, mostly for new players, run by Coach Larry Hodges and assisted by Raghu Nadmichettu and Klaus Wood.
• Next came the exhibition, where Coach Larry took on 11-year-old Lisa Lin (member of USA National Hopes Team – top four under 12 girls), and despite the use of an over-sized racket, a mini-racket, an over-sized ball, an under-sized ball, a 50-foot serve, blowing the ball over the net, lying down while lobbing, and some basic cheating (and a well-timed bribe to umpires Lance Wei and Mu Du), he still lost.
• Next was a multiball demonstration by Coach Jack Huang, with many of MDTTC’s top juniors taking part, including Mu Du, Ryan Lee, Lisa Lin, and Klaus Wood. (With apologies to any missed.)
• Next came the Parade of Champions – single elimination with all matches just one game to three points! Coming out on top was Lisa Lin over George Li in the Final. Lisa received $70 in free equipment, while George got a nice new collared Butterfly shirt.
• Next came the Trick Shot seminar with Coach Larry, where he demonstrated and taught, and let the players practice various trick shots, including the infamous 50-foot serve; the “ghost” serve that bounces back into (and often over) the net; balancing the ball in the air by blowing on it; rallying by blowing the ball over the net. The toss-under-one-leg, serve-under-the-other serve; and finally speed bouncing on the table. (The video above includes shots of the kids trying out these shots.)
• The afternoon events finished with the Service Seminar with Coach Larry, where he went over the various ways to create spin and deception, as well fast & deep serves, and then the players got to practice.

Visit MDTTC.com for more information on this “We Are Butterfly” table tennis club.