PongNow: Brian Pace

September 11, 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 Brian Pace, one of the leading juniors of his era, an elite player, and now a forward-thinking innovative coach. Brian was the most accomplished of Butterfly’s Wilson, North Carolina junior […]

USATT’S THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE: Zhou over Nikhil

September 10, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) USA Table Tennis conducted its sixth Challenge Series event this week. The event matched two US Olympians: Nikhil Kumar (for Team Butterfly) and Xin Zhou (for Team Nittaku). With both players over 2750 in US rating, they seemed to be pretty evenly matched. Nikhil is the younger of the two at just […]

WAB Club Feature: Los Angeles Table Tennis Club

September 6, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The Los Angeles Table Tennis Association (LATTA) is located in El Monte, California, just to the east of Los Angeles. The facility is just off of the 10 with easy access to the greater Los Angeles area. LATTA is a non-profit organization established in 1998. The center is one of the largest table […]

PongNow: Larry Hodges

September 5, 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 USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame member, Larry Hodges Larry Hodges is a table tennis player, coach, promoter, writer, classic style specialist, and USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame member. […]

BUTTERFLY FAVORITE: Marcelo Aguirre – Opening With Power

September 2, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) This video is a German Bundesliga match last Decmeber. It was uploaded by TTBL and shows Marcelo Aguirre traded big shots with Bastien Steger. Steger is known for hitting big shots, and is especially known for his long, full backhand loop technique. However, in comparison to Aguirre, there’s a noticeable different – […]

OPEN DOORS: Innovation at Wang Chen TTC – Home School Support

August 30, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) An innovative idea emerged last week from the Wang Chen Table Tennis Club. As shut-downs continue, many students will be home for some or all of the workweek. This affects parents who normally avoid daycare during the hours that their children would be in school – and in our cities, this also affects […]

PongNow: Willy Leparulo

August 29, 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 the Godfather of Modern US Collegiate Table Tennis, Willy Leparulo. Willy has held a leadership position in NCTTA for about 20 years, helping to guide them from a regional organization to […]

Steve Isaacson Interview: Honoring Ruth Aarons

August 26, 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 […]

PongNow: Tim Wang

August 22, 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 Tim Wang, 3-time U.S. National Champion and 2-time U.S. Olympian. Tim shares stories of his early years, his first National Championship, his Olympic run, and a trip to China. __________________________ […]

China “2020 Olympic Warm-Up” Finals

August 21, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) As much of the table tennis world is beginning to emerge from their various lock-down circumstances, we are beginning to see club and regional events as well as some larger challenge events. The U.S. has been running Thursday night live, carefully playing one challenge match a week to help build enthusiasm here. […]