August | 2020 |

Steve Isaacson Interview: The Hall of Fame

August 17, 2020

(Intro by Steve Hopkins) As I have been collecting stories from Hall of Fame members, players, and personalities in the sport, I recently had opportunity to converse with Hall of Fame Member, Steve Isaacson. I will be sharing some of his many stories in a series of articles over the next few weeks. This article […]

Coaching Tip of the Week: Should You Develop Your Forehand Push?

August 17, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) At the lower levels, pushing is often over-used; at the higher levels, spectators often underestimate its value. All top players have excellent pushes. However, advanced players – and even intermediate players – rarely push against deep backspin to the forehand, unless they are very defensive choppers. It’s simply better for them to […]

Dusseldorf Masters X: Duda Doubles Down

August 16, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The 9th men’s Masters event concluded over the weekend. The winner, Germany’s Benedikt Duda, the only player except for Ovtcharov to repeat as a Series Winner (Dimitrij Ovtcharov has won three times). This week, the event progressed almost exactly by seed. The top 7 seeds all advanced, and the only early upset […]

WAB CLUB FEATURE: Hoboken Table Tennis

August 15, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) Hoboken Table Tennis, Hoboken’s first social ping pong club, is located at 1012 Grand Street (3rd Floor) in Hoboken, New Jersey. The club has easy access to 95 to the West and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels provide easy access West to Manhattan. HiTT is a BYOB table tennis facility with 8 tables, […]

PongNow: Lily Yip and Adam Hugh

August 14, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow interview series discusses table tennis with some of the best players and personalities in the sport. In this edition we have Hall of Fame member and former US Olympian Lily Yip, and her son Adam Hugh (a player and club owner with a distinguished resume of his own). Enjoy […]

USATT’s Thursday Night Live Series: Adar Over Amy, Team Butterfly Up 3-0

August 13, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) USA Table Tennis conducted its third Challenge Series event on Thursday. This week, “America’s First Virtual Table Tennis Challenge” matched Adar Alguetti (2541) versus Amy Wang (2505). Table tennis is one of the few sports where men and women compete against each other in major tournaments using the same rating system – […]

Challenger Attack: A Non-Pro Review

August 12, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) I recently had opportunity to try Challenger Attack, Butterfly’s pips out rubber designed for high tempo attacking with heavy spin possible. I’ve been playing with Butterfly Dignics 09C, so the change was a big one. I had never used short pips before, so I found some very interesting differences with this rubber […]

PINGPOD featured on Balitang America

August 12, 2020

(Courtesy of Balitang America) PINGPOD: FIL-AM ENTREPRENEUR’S INNOVATIVE WAY TO MAKE TABLE TENNIS SAFE TO ENJOY AMID PANDEMIC NEW YORK — With social distancing in mind, PingPod is also the future of table tennis. PingPod co-founder and chief product officer, Ernesto Ebuen, said PingPod is the world’s first network of autonomous table tennis pods. Each “pod” is fully run […]

Dusseldorf Masters IX: Dima Logs Third Title

August 10, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The 8th men’s Masters event concluded over the weekend. The winner was a familiar champion, Dimitrij Ovtcharov. Dima cruised through the event logging a 4-1 win in the Quarterfinals, a 4-2 win in the Semifinals, and a 4-2 win over Franziska in the Final. The event went mostly as expected with four […]

Coaching Tip of the Week: Two Tips to Increase Forehand Looping Power

August 10, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) If you have trouble generating power when forehand looping, try out these two tips, and you’ll be surprised at the improvement. First, keep your legs farther apart. This gives more stability and more torque into the shot. Second, contact the ball more from your side. This forces you to use your whole […]