Coaching Tips of the Week: Consistency is King

September 12, 2022

(By Larry Hodges) Consistency isn’t just something you need to learn to do; it’s an attitude. It’s the idea that, no matter what happens, you can keep the ball in play longer than your opponent. If you convince yourself you can do that, then you no longer are hesitant about your shots, and so your consistency […]

German League Update: Dusseldorf and Ochsenhausen Only Unbeaten Teams

September 11, 2022

(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTF World) Most of the German squads have now played three matches – and only two teams remain undefeated: Borussia Dusseldorf and TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen. For the talented Borussia Dusseldorf team, they have dominated every match winning 3-0, 3-0, and 3-0. Ochsenhausen has spread out 2 losses over their three wins, […]

WTT Contender: Top Americans Have Impact in Muscat

September 9, 2022

(by Steve Hopkins) USA’s Kanak Jha entered the WTT Contender Muscat as the 10th seed and had a solid run to the Semifinals. Lily Zhang entered as the 8th seed and advanced to the Final 8. The Contender Series is designed to bring players outside of the Top 10 and to combine the draw and […]

Coaching Tips of the Week: The Simplicity of Tactics

September 6, 2022

(By Larry Hodges) When you lose a match against someone around your playing level, you didn’t lose because your opponent calculated a series of seven shots of varying types, speeds, spins, depths, and placements, all presumably worked out on a blackboard in advance with lots of X’s and O’s, like they do in football. Nope, […]

WAB Club Feature: Bridgeport Sports Club

September 4, 2022

(by Steve Hopkins) At over 14,000 square feet, the Bridgeport Sports Club one of the largest table tennis clubs in all of North America. The club is located in Richmond, just South of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. They are located near Highway 99 and 9, with easy access to the greater Vancouver area. The […]

TTBL: Franziska and Saarbrucken Rebound

September 4, 2022

(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTF World) The Tischtennis Bundesliga – Germany’s professional league – has just begun its new season. A year ago, Borussia Dusseldorf and FC Saarbrucken were entrenched for 2/3 of the season as No. 1 and No.2 and the two teams played the last match in the mid-season final, in the European […]

WTT Feeder Bulgaria: China Rolls with Numbers

September 4, 2022

(by Steve Hopkins, photo ITTF World) The World Table Tennis event this week was the WTT Feeder Panagyurishte (Presented by Asarel) in Bulgaria. Often in these WTT events, only a few players attend from each country – and most often the local country has the most players. China seldom has more than 4 or 5 […]

German League Opening Weekend: Boll, Ovtcharov, Moregard, Jha Start Strong

August 29, 2022

(by Steve Hopkins) TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen started the 22/23 season with a 3-0 win over TTC RhonSprudel Fulda-Maberzell. A year ago, Fulda finished third – a few spots ahead of Ochsenhausen. Simon Gauzy started things off for Ochsenhausen with a 3-0 win over Fan Bo Meng. Kanak Jha then topped World No. 15 Quadri Aruna […]

WAB CLUB FEATURE: HiTT

August 29, 2022

(by Steve Hopkins) Hoboken Table Tennis (HiTT), 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 […]

Pan Am Cadet Championships (U15): Moyland and Tran Make the Finals

August 27, 2022

(by Steve Hopkins) Only the Finals remain at the 2022 ITTF Pan American Cadet Championships (U15) tournament in Cuenca, Ecuador. TeamUSA continues to perform well. Of the three events that have concluded thus far, TeamUSA has won all three (Boys Team, Girls Team, and Mixed Doubles). Of the four events remaining, one US entrant is […]