January 2019

2019 Butterfly Pong Planet Open

January 31, 2019

Date: April 27-28, 2019Location: Pong Planet – 848 Brittan Ave, San Carlos, CA 9407 ENTRY DEADLINE: All entries must be RECEIVED BY April 20, 2019. Slots are limited to ensure tournament quality. Late entries may be accepted with a $15 late fee. No refund after the deadline. No entry will be accepted without an entry […]

Picking Football Winners…. with Table Tennis Logic (SuperBowl Edition)

January 30, 2019

(by Steve Hopkins) It’s no surprise to anyone reading this post that my sport doesn’t make headlines in the US. Because of this, I like to find table tennis angles to most of the big sporting events. In early January, I used table tennis logic to pick the winner in the Clemson-Alabama College Football National Championship game […]

Ask The Experts: Jun Gao., No. 203

January 28, 2019

Ask The Experts: Jun Gao., No. 203Butterfly Table Tennis Question and Answer Question: My son is 13 years old playing table tennis from 4 years.Want to change his equipment. Which blade and rubbers he should go for he is no 2 ranked in his state.He has controlled game attacks from both backhand and forehand. Answer: […]

Progressive Drills to Improve Rallying Skills

January 28, 2019

(By Larry Hodges ) Many players rally very well in drills, but not so much in matches. Once they get into a match, they not only lose consistency, but they also rally like a drill, hitting the ball right back at the opponent rather than trying to win the point with placement. Here is a […]

Rhode Island Winter Open Recap

January 27, 2019

(by Steve Hopkins) The Rhode Island Winter Open was held on Sunday, January 27th at the Rhode Island Club in Manville. With 8-10 in each of the six events there were a little over fifty entries for the day. Each of the six events was a rating event: U1000, U1200, U1500, U1800, U2100, and Open. […]

A $15,000 Event in Northern California: 2019 Butterfly Ultimate Fieldhouse March Open

January 25, 2019

(By Steve Hopkins) The Bay Area will be host to a large 4-Star tournament on March 1-3. The 2019 Butterfly Ultimate Fieldhouse Open features 32 events including men’s and women’s singles, a juniors event, an over 40 event, three doubles events, and a series of rating events in both round robin and giant round robin formats. […]

WAB CLUB FEATURE: Denver Table Tennis Alliance Part 2

January 25, 2019

WAB CLUB FEATURE: Denver Table Tennis Alliance (by Steve Hopkins) With its location on Curtis Street, just North of Denver’s city center, Denver Table Tennis Alliance has easy access to the greater metropolitan area. The club features 8 butterfly tables, barriers, great lighting, and rubber Gerflor-Taraflex flooring (wood color). At DTTA, a quality facility is […]

2019 Hungarian Open Recap

January 22, 2019

2019 Hungarian Open Recap (by Steve Hopkins) Budapest was host of the Seamaster 2019 ITTF World Tour, Hungarian Open. The top four seeds in the men’s event were Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin, Lin Gaoyuan, and Hugo Calderano. The women’s event also included a strong contingent of Chinese players with all of the top four tournament seeds […]

The Grinding Mentality – How to Play It and Against It

January 19, 2019

The Grinding Mentality – How to Play It and Against It (By Larry Hodges) The Grinder is a style of play, or really a mentality, where your single-minded focus is on not making any mistakes, and not giving the opponent any easy shots. This often means trying to stretch out rallies as long as possible, […]

Getting to Know Brian Afanador

January 19, 2019

(original article at elVocero.com, shown here in Spanish. Loosely translated and edited by Steve Hopkins with assistance from Google Translate.) With the 2019 Pan American Cup coming to Puerto Rico in a few weeks, Brian Afanador is feeling some additional pressure. His training regimen now includes two innovations that are aimed at efficiency: working fully with French coach […]