(by Alan Chu, Ph.D., CMPC, ISSP-R) 2026 Mental Training Tip It’s that time of year again. The excitement of January’s fresh start has faded. Your training plan, which felt so clear and motivating six months ago, now feels either too ambitious or somehow beside the point. Your match results are… fine. But fine wasn’t what […]

(by Dr. Alan Chu, PhD, CMPC) In the 1990s, psychologist Anders Ericsson revolutionized our understanding of expertise. Through his landmark research on expert performers—from musicians to chess players to athletes—he discovered something surprising: what separates world-class performers isn’t innate talent or the quantity of practice, but the quality of practice. Based on his research, Ericsson […]

By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame When you start out, the coach is the BOSS. If you are smart, you’ll do what he says. Sometimes you’ll have a coach that just doesn’t work for you, or perhaps he’s just not a good coach – and then perhaps you should switch […]

(By Larry Hodges) Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame I’ve coached many choppers during a match, and coached even more matches against them. I’ve also chopped a lot myself, in practice and in tournaments. Chopping is one of the most “tactical” of styles for the simple reason that you need to score most […]

(by Dr. Alan Chu, Ph.D., CMPC) Champion mindsets aren’t born—they’re built, one focused breath and pressure point at a time. When Truls Moregard became the first European to win a WTT Grand Smash title in August 2025, defeating world number one Lin Shidong on home soil in Sweden, his victory revealed as much about his […]

(by Dr. Alan Chu, PhD CMPC) Hugo Calderano’s journey from crushing Olympic disappointment to World Cup champion offers every table tennis player a blueprint for recovery from a tough competition. After missing the podium at Paris 2024 despite being the highest-ranked non-Asian/European player, Calderano faced his darkest competitive period. However, he made history eight months […]

(By Larry Hodges) I had trouble with his serve” is likely the most common reason given for losing a competitive match. There’s a good reason for this – receive is the only time when the opponent can throw just about any spin at you, along with varied serving motions, placements, depths, and speeds. I know […]

(By Larry Hodges) Let’s face it; they’re probably faster than you. They might have a coach working with them regularly and in their corner in a match. They often have near perfect strokes, thanks to that coach. They strive in super-fast rallies, the type where your game starts to crumble. So . . . what […]

(by Dr. Alan Chu, Ph.D., CMPC) When Hugo Calderano stepped onto the court for the 2025 ITTF Men’s World Cup final, he wasn’t just facing world number one Lin Shidong—he was facing decades of near-misses, crushing defeats as recent as in the Paris Olympics, and the weight of being the perpetual underdog. What happened next […]

(by: Logan Rietz) The new Outerforce series of blades aims to bridge the gap between a traditional Outerfiber orientation and the Innerfiber style. In an effort to make Outerfiber blades more accessible, this new line is made with a low-density wood and offers a shorter trajectory, reducing overhitting errors while maintaining decent speed.  With this […]