Coaching Tip of the Week: A Trick to Beat a Tricky Pusher

September 14, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) Some players have very accurate pushes, and will push very wide to your backhand over and over – unless they see you stepping around, or even hedging that way. That’s when they push to your wide forehand and catch you off guard. Let’s say your forehand loop is stronger than your backhand […]

WAB CLUB FEATURE: MK Georgia Table Tennis

September 13, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) MK Georgia Table Tennis is in Duluth, Georgia just off of I-85 to the Northeast of Atlanta. Duluth is in the greater Atlanta metropolitan area, and is a suburb with a strong Asian influence which includes about 10% of the population being of Korean descent. The club itself is located off Peachtree Industrial […]

History of College Table Tennis: Leparulo Part 2

September 12, 2020

(Intro by Steve Hopkins) In an interview last month with Willy Leparulo, President of National Collegiate Table Tennis Association, he referenced a research paper that he created that followed the development of table tennis on college campuses. You can view the full interview here. Willy Leparulo has provided the document to Butterfly for us to […]

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 […]

BUTTERFLY FAVORITE: The Rise of Brian Afanador

September 9, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) This video is from the Serbian Open last year. It was uploaded by the Official ITTF Channel on Youtube and shows Puerto Rico’s Brian Afanador taking on Japan’s Yuta Tanaka. Both players are still early in their careers and are still improving. Afanador is 23 years old, and Tanaka is 20 years […]

USATT’S THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE: Wang Makes It 4-1 for Team Butterfly

September 8, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) USA Table Tennis conducted its fifth Challenge Series event last week. The event matched US Women Olympic Team Member Huijing Wang versus one of USA’s top juniors, Michael Tran. Table tennis is one of the few sports where men and women compete against each other in major tournaments using the same rating […]

SPIN & SMASH FALL OPEN 2020

September 8, 2020

USATT Sanctioned 2-Star Table Tennis Tournament with $2,400 in Cash Prizes! Friday, October 2 – Sunday, October 4, 2020 What You Can Expect Spin & Smash will be fully disinfected daily Clean, disinfected Butterfly A40+ balls will be used for each match New masks will be given daily to each player. Hand sanitizer will be […]

Coaching Tip of the Week: Tactics Early In a Match: Explorers and Dominators

September 7, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) There are basically two ways to play tactically early in a match. You can either feel your opponent out to see what he can do and then adjust your tactics based on this (“The Explorer”); or you can force your game on the opponent right from the start, making tactical adjustments as […]

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 […]