September 2020

ITTF Announces its RESTART Bubble Players

September 30, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) Earlier this week, ITTF announced the 21 male and 21 female athletes who will participate in the RESTART events in November. Three major events will be held in China, including the 2020 ITTF Women’s World Cup, the 2020 ITTF Men’s World Cup, and the 2020 ITTF Finals. The Women’s World Cup will […]

What’s New?: A larger handle and Kevlar carbon – The Omar Assar Blade

September 29, 2020

Assar uses a customized Butterfly inner fiber carbon blade that bears his name (OMAR ASSAR BLADE), and Tenergy 05 Hard. Omar Assar is an exciting player from Egypt. The Olympian currently plays for Borussia Dusseldorf and was one of the most successful players in the recent Dusseldorf Masters Series. He is currently ranked No. 38 […]

Coaching Tip of the Week: Use Quickness, Ball Placement, and Variation Against Short Serves

September 28, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) You should have different strategies for returning deep serves and short serves. (Short serves are serves that, if given the chance, would bounce twice on the receiver’s side of the table). Against short serves, you can’t really loop, since the table is in the way. (You can do a backhand “banana flip,” […]

WAB CLUB FEATURE: Pleasanton Table Tennis Center

September 26, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) Pleasanton Table Tennis Center is located at the center of Pleasanton, California to the East of San Francisco Bay with quick access to I-580 and I-680 (and each of the major cities in the area). Pleasanton Table Tennis Center was the first table tennis club in tri-valley to open every day. The club is currently […]

Bowmar Sports Pop-Up Challenge and Give Away

September 26, 2020

TRUONG TU 🤜🤛 JAMES GOODWIN The match will be live streaming 🎥 on Bowmar Sports Facebook @bowmarsports Date: October 3, 2020 Time: 6:00 PM PT We would like you to get involved: 🤝 Win a Tenergy Rubber of your choice🎁 by predicting the score of this match in the comment on the Facebook’s post (best […]

PongNow: Peter Li

September 26, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow interview series discusses table tennis with some of the best players and personalities in the sport. This edition features Peter Li, 2011 US National Champion. Peter was one of the top juniors in the country from a very young age, and was near the top of US rankings from 2009 […]

USATT’S THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE: Sheth over Sung

September 24, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) USA Table Tennis conducted its eighth Challenge Series event this week. The event was another battle of the sexes with Ved Sheth taking on Joanna Sung. Sheth represented Team Nittaku and Sung represented Team Butterfly. The players traded the first two games. The first game was 11-10 Sung. A late surge by […]

BUTTERFLY FAVORITES: Energy of Omar Assar

September 23, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) This is a Butterfly Favorite. One of the strongest players through the Dusseldorf Masters Series was Egypt’s Omar Assar. The World’s No. 38 has an athletic and exciting style – amazing court coverage and long strokes create crowd-pleasing shots and great angles. The video is one of his signature matches, overcoming the […]

Ask The Experts: Di Yu, No. 356

September 23, 2020

Butterfly Table Tennis Question and Answer Question: I play close to table and sometimes mid range of table. I am attack player but not so aggressive. I like blocking while defensive and top spins while attacking… My question is: dignics 09c is competible with Timo Boll caf blade? Thank you and kind regards Onur ucler […]

Happy 90th Birthday Tim Boggan

September 22, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) Tim Boggan is turning 90 this Friday. Longtime friend, Larry Hodges, has posted a request seeking as many table tennis players as possible to Say Happy Birthday to Tim Boggan by posting birthday wishes to this Facebook link: WISH TIM A HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY As Larry noted in his blog today: Few, if any, […]