(By MDTTC)
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- MDTTC’S FACILITY CLOSES JULY 2 – 9 due to the U.S. Nationals, taking place in Las Vegas.
- NO TUESDAY and FRIDAY NIGHTS LEAGUES on JULY 4, 7, 11 and 14. These leagues resume on July 18th; please sign up by 7:25pm on league nights to play.
- SUMMER OPEN PLAY HOURS (8:30–10am & 1-3pm & 6-9pm) resume on July 10 till September 1. Limited tables available on Tuesday and Friday League nights.
Welcome to the 62nd issue of the MDTTC News! As usual, there’s lots of news to report and new and ongoing programs, and we hope to see you at some of them. As usual a special thanks to MDTTC sponsors Butterfly and HW Global Foundation. Make sure to read my daily table tennis blog – I often write about MDTTC happenings there. And if you have a nice picture taken at MDTTC, email it to me and it might make the newsletter! -Editor and Coach Larry Hodges; Publisher Wen Hsu.
Content in this issue:
- MDTTC Summer Camps: July 10 – September 1, 2017, Mondays- Fridays
- 2017 National Senior Games Results
- 2017 Maryland State Championships Results
- Capital Area League Spring 2017 Results
- 2017 Virginia State Championships Results
- MDTTC Adult and Junior Programs
- Private Coaching
- Birthday Parties and Rental Space for Corporate and Private Events
- MDTTC Web and Facebook Pages
- Tip of the Month: Importance of Routine
Table Tennis Summer Camps
MDTTC Summer Camps resumes on July 10th and continues all Summer, Mon-Fri each week. The daily schedule each day: 10AM-6PM, with a 1-3PM lunch break in the middle. Early drop off starts at 8:30AM. The camps are for all ages and levels.
2017 National Senior Games
The National Senior Games were held early June in Birmingham, Alabama. Marylanders won 14 medals – 3 gold, 5 silver, and 6 bronze. Here’s Ernie Byles with his three medals, and here’s Mel Ketchel, the 95-99 Men’s Gold Medalist!
Here are complete results, listed by event. Here are Maryland results:
Men’s Singles
95-99: Mel Ketchel (gold) – WAY TO GO MEL!!
80-84: Liu Su (silver)
70-74: Michael Clarke (bronze)
65-59: Mark Radom (bronze)
60-64: Jeff Smart (silver)
55-59: Ernie Byles (silver)
Men’s Doubles
55-59: Steve Hochman/Jeff Smart (bronze)
50-54: Ernie Byles/Roger Byles (TX) (bronze)
Mixed Doubles
55-59: Steve Hochman/Si Cheong (gold)
55-59: Ernie Byles/Gloria Cadavid (TX) (silver)
Women’s Singles
60-64: Yvonne Smart (bronze)
65-59: Si Cheong (bronze)
Women’s Doubles
65-69: Si Cheong/Tahereh Roufeh (silver)
60-64: Yvonne Smart/Yali Carpenter (AZ) (gold)
$4500 Maryland State Championships
They were held June 10-11 at MDTTC. Here’s the write-up, results, and photos, and here are complete results at Omnipong. Congrats to new Men’s Champion Chen Bo Wen, repeat Women’s Singles Champion Tiffany Ke, and all the other Champions and players who did well!
Special thanks goes to tournament sponsors HW Global Foundation (which runs a table tennis Talent Development Program), PongMobile, Newgy Table Tennis Robots, Asian Pacific Table Tennis Balls, and USA Table Tennis. Great thanks also goes to Mossa Barandao of PongMobile for his tireless help in running the tournament; to Referees Paul Kovac and Joseph Lee; Umpire Stephen Yeh; and to scorekeepers Ali Paryavi, Lance Wei (Under 1000 Champion), Adrian Yang (Under 12 Semifinalist), Nicole Deng, and James Zhang (Under 12 Semifinalist).
MAIN RESULTS(Click on links to see pictures of finalists.)
Men’s Singles – Final: Chen Bo Wen d. Jeffrey Zeng, 10,8,-10,12,-8,1; SF: Chen d. Khaleel Asgarali, 5,9,5,10; Zeng d. Roy Ke, -12,3,-8,8,-6,7,4; 3rd-4th: Ke d. Asgarali, 9,-11,-6,9,9,6
Women’s Singles – Final: Tiffany Ke d. Lisa Lin, 8,7,8; SF: Ke d. Claudia Ikeizumi, 5,9,8; Lin d. Caroline Kalihara, 7,11,9; 3rd-4th: Ikeizumi d. Kalihara, def.
Open Doubles: 1st Chen Bo Wen/Jeffrey Zeng; 2nd Wang Qing Liang/Jiacheng Wu
Under 18 – Final: George Li d. Ryan Dabbs, 10,-8,-9,9,6; SF: Li d. Tiffany Ke, 12,-8,9,3; Dabbs d. Spencer Chen, 6,9,3; 3rd-4th: Ke d. Chen, 1,4,4.
Under 15 – Final: Ryan Dabbs d. George Li, -8,6,3,-8,9; SF: Dabbs d. Tiffany Ke, -9,8,5,-9,11; Li d. Jessica Lin, 8,6,9; 3rd-4th: Ke d. Lin, 9,5,3.
Under 12 – Final: Hanfei Hu d. Jackson Beaver, -5,12,-6,9,9; SF: Hu d. James Zhang, 10,8,-8,9; Beaver d. Adrian Yang, -9,4,10,-12,8; 3-4: Yang d. Zhang, 4,5,6.
Under 10: 1st Stanley Hsu, 2-0; 2nd Mu Du, 1-1; 3rd Andy Wu, 0-2.
Over 40: 1st Matt Chando, 3-0; 2nd Lixin Lang, 2-1; 3rd Yunhua Gong, 1-2.
Over 50 – Final: Thomas Sampson d. Yunhua Gong, -6,8,11,-6,7; SF: Sampson d. Changping Duan, 5,9,10; Gong d. Lixin Lang, -8,8,8,3; 3rd-4th: Duan d. Lang, def.
Over 60 – Final: Bob Slapnik d. Changping Duan, 6,-8,6,7; SF: Slapnick d. Chris Buckley, 5,9,10; Duan d. Somchai Paarporn, -8,8,6,4; 3rd-4th: Paarporn d. Buckley, -6,11,9,3.
Over 70 – Final: Ed Watts d. Gordon Gregg, 2,7,2.
Under 2400 – Final: Khaleel Asgarali d. Ryan Dabbs, 9,-10,7,3; SF: Asgarali d. George Li, 10,6,5; Dabbs d. Tiffany Ke, 7,-6,9,9;
Under 2100 – Final: Ronald Chen d. Spencer Chen, def.; SF: R.Chen d. Mohamed Kamara, 8,9,-4,8; S.Chen d. Joshua Gong, 5,8,7; 3rd-4th: Gong d. Kamara, def.
Under 1800 – Final: Sean Hwang d. Jackson Beaver, 6,14,6; SF: Hwang d. Liren Guo, 5,-3,9,8; Beaver d. Hanfei Hu, -7,7,-9,3,9.
Under 1500 – Final: Ryan Lee d. Andy Wu, -10,7,3,-15,11; SF: Lee d. Hanfei Hu, 8,-11,8,7; Wu d. James Zhang, 8,-7,-2,5,6.
Under 1200 – Final: Anoop Srivastava d. Kurtus Hsu, -13,6,4,8; SF: Srivastava d. Lance Wei, 5,108; Hsu d. Todd Klinger, 6,6,-10,2.
Under 1000 – Final: Lance Wei d. Nikhil Naravan, -11,10,8,7; SF: Wei d. Jeremiah Jeffrey, -6,5,8,-7,8; Naravan d. Christopher Timasonravichki, 8,-7,5,7.
U4000 Doubles: 1st Kevin Zhou/Arndt Plagge; 2nd Abbas Paryavi/Ali Paryavi
U3200 Doubles – Final: Mu Du/Ryan Lee d. Andy Wu/Stephanie Zhang, 5,3,5; SF: Du/Lee d. Nicole Deng/Michelle Kang, 11,10,6; Wu/Zhang d. Jackson Beaver/Hanfei Hu, 3,-4,9,14.
U2400 Doubles: 1st James Zhang/Jason Liu; 2nd Hanfei Hu/Lance Wei
Capital Area League – Spring 2017
The Capital Area Table Tennis League had their final meetup on June 17 at MDTTC for its Spring 2017 Season– and results and photos are up, care of Mossa Barandao and Thomas Olausson of PongMobile! Check out the results, and don’t forget to enter the Fall season!
2017 Virginia State Championships
They were held June 3-4 at Smash TT. Here’s the write-up and main results, and here are complete results from Omnipong.
MDTTC Adult Programs
- Tuesday and/or Friday Lunch Group Training (1:00-2:00 pm) for all levels. Improve your table tennis skills while getting great physical and mental exercises. Every player will get one-on-one playing time with Coach Jeffrey Zeng (2550+ rating).
- Sunday Adult Training from 7:00-8:30PM. No Sunday Training in July, resumes in August. No pre-registration is required, but if you have any questions, email Coach Larry. Complete beginners should take several private coaching sessions first so they can hit basic forehands, backhands, and push. Be prepared to improve!!!
MDTTC Junior Programs
Regular Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday group classes will start up again in the Fall, after the MDTTC Summer Camps are over.
MDTTC Private Coaching
Experienced coaches include USATT Hall of Famers and “Coach of the Year” award recipients: Jack Huang, Cheng Yinghua, and Larry Hodges; current U.S. National Team Coach Wang Qingliang (offensive FH/chopper); ITTF/USATT certified coach John Hsu; Jeffrey Zeng (all around with 2550+ rating); Bowen Chen (reverse penhold with 2550+ rating); Ruichao Chen (lefty attacker with rating 2650+) and other professional visiting coaches. See Private Coaching page.
Birthday Parties & Rental Space for Corporate and Private Events
MDTTC offers birthday parties ran by our popular Coach Larry. We also regularly host community events and team-building activities for local businesses. Space rental for special corporate and private events are available. Here is Facility Rental Information, and here is info on Birthday Party Packages.
MDTTC offers birthday parties ran by our popular Coach Larry. We also regularly host community events and team-building activities for local businesses. Space rental for special corporate and private events are available. Here is Facility Rental Information, and here is info on Birthday Party Packages.
MDTTC Web and Facebook Pages
Don’t forget to see the regularly updated MDTTC Facebook page, and make sure to “like” it! Stop by and see all the photos, read the latest news, or post your own comments. Also see the MDTTC web page for regularly updated info.
Tip of the Month: Importance of Routine
By Larry Hodges
Watch almost any top player a number of times just before he serves and you’ll notice something interesting – they go through the same routine each time. It’s part of mental rehearsal, which is what primes the brain (read – subconscious) for what’s about to happen. It’s almost like the famous Pavlov dog experiments, where they’d ring a bell just before feeding the dogs, and eventually the dogs would salivate at the sound of the bell. If you have a set routine for something, it similarly primes you for what you are about to do.
Let’s look at the top two players in the world, Ma Long and Fan Zhendong, who recently played in the Men’s Final at the 2017 Worlds, with Ma Long winning, deuce in the seventh. We often watch truncated versions, where time between points is taken out, so never see what happens just before. Here’s the link to the start of the full match, 2:50 into the video.
Fan is serving at 0-0 in game one. What does he do here before this first serve, and repeatedly throughout the match when he serves? In rapid succession, he bounces the ball twice on the table, stops, bounces it two more times, stops, then bounces it two more times, and then he’s primed to play. I didn’t watch every point for this, only about ten, and he did this every time. (One time he bounced it three times, stopped as if realizing his error, and then did the six-bounce routine.)
Now watch when Ma Long serves. It’s a bit more subtle, but watch as he sets up to serve. He stretches out, holding the ball just over the middle line – and comes to a stop, holding the ball with his hand upside-down. You can see him focusing, and then he turns his hand over so the ball rests freely on the palm, and he’s primed to play.
In both cases, at some point they come to a stop, and while still, they are visualizing the serve they are about to do.
I have my own routine, which I’ve been doing before I serve for nearly 40 years. I give my right sleeve a tug with my left arm, then step to the table. As I step in, I drop my playing arm and pull it back and then forward, like a pendulum. I finish in my serving position, bounce the ball on the table one time, and I’m primed to play (and especially to serve!). I’ve found that in serve demonstrations, if I don’t go through this routine, I lose control of my serves.
On receive, players also have routines, but they are usually more subtle, involving swaying back and forth between the legs (watch Ma Long) as they get into their receive position, or just getting into their ready positions. This primes them physically, plus it clears their minds so they are ready to react to anything.
But routine isn’t important just before serving or receiving. It’s also good to have a pre-match routine. Some listen to music. Some meditate. Some shadow-practice. The purpose, once again, is to prime you for the match, which often means preparing the mind (often clearing it, and then thinking of a few tactical things), and the body physically.
So create your own routines – or steal one from someone! – and soon you will be primed for each match.
