Tip of the week: Make Up-and-Coming Players Your Rivals – and Stay With Them!

August 14, 2018

Tip of the week: Make Up-and-Coming Players Your Rivals – and Stay With Them! (By Larry Hodges) Here’s a little trick that will give you both incentive to improve, and lead to real improvement. Next time you are at your club, pinpoint someone who is perhaps a little weaker than you, or perhaps your level, […]

Never Think About Winning or Losing While Playing – Excise the Thought and Play Well!

August 9, 2018

Never Think About Winning or Losing While Playing – Excise the Thought and Play Well! (by Larry Hodges) To some, this might be obvious. We’ve all had that experience where you wanted to win so badly that you get nervous, and your whole game fell apart. It might happen for a number of points, or […]

Tip of the week: Follow Through Back Into Position After Forehand Looping

July 20, 2018

Tip of the week: Follow Through Back Into Position After Forehand Looping (By Larry Hodges) Not all loops are the same, and not all follow-throughs are the same either. Imagine making a powerful forehand from your backhand side. Often the momentum of your shot will pull you even farther off to the side, leaving you […]

Tip of the week: Pinpoint Your Weakness and Then Pinpoint a Drill

July 19, 2018

Tip of the week: Pinpoint Your Weakness and Then Pinpoint a Drill (By Larry Hodges) Far too often player do general drills, the type that are great for developing a foundation to their game, but not so great at fixing up specific problems in their own games. To use a completely nonsensical example, suppose you […]

Coaching tip of the week: Training the Subconscious

July 11, 2018

Coaching tip of the week: Training the Subconscious (by Larry Hodges) Advanced players seem to always know exactly what shot to do and where to put it. It’s one of the reasons why they are advanced. But there’s no time during a point to really analyze the situation, so it’s all done reflexively, i.e. the […]

Pinpoint Your Weakness and Then Pinpoint a Drill

June 12, 2018

Pinpoint Your Weakness and Then Pinpoint a Drill (By Larry Hodges) Far too often player do general drills, the type that are great for developing a foundation to their game, but not so great at fixing up specific problems in their own games. To use a completely nonsensical example, suppose you were horrible at spelling […]

Maryland State Championships Results and Photos

June 5, 2018

(By Larry Hodges, tournament director) Maryland State Championships Results and Photos Despite pouring rain much of the weekend, 98 players took part in the third annual Maryland State Championships, a 3-star event held at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. There were 18 events with $3500 in cash and prizes, sponsored by HW Global Foundation (which […]

Tip of the week: The Balance Between Tactical and Strategic Thinking

May 29, 2018

(By Larry Hodges) Tip of the week: The Balance Between Tactical and Strategic Thinking You should both tactically and strategically develop your game. What does this mean? First, let’s define these terms. Tactical thinking is what you do when you are looking to win now. Strategic thinking is what you do when you are looking […]

How to Make Your Strengths Stronger with Serve and Receive

May 24, 2018

(by Larry Hodges) How to Make Your Strengths Stronger with Serve and Receive Excluding serve and receive, what’s the strongest part of your game, or the part that you want to make the strongest part of your game? There’s an old adage, to state the obvious, that practice makes perfect. But doing something in practice is not […]

Tip of the week: Develop Power Timing by Slapping

May 21, 2018

(By Larry Hodges) Tip of the week: Develop Power Timing by Slapping Power in table tennis comes primarily from timing. Not just timing with the ball, but timing the proper use of each muscle used, in the proper order and duration, while timing all this while also hitting the ball. For example, when forehand hitting […]