NBA’s Bubble – Ping Pong, Golf, Billiards Among Limited Leisure Activities

Posted on June 21, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) When the NBA restarts the professional basketball season on July 30, it will be under strict lockdown rules that are designed to keep the players, staff, and families separated and safe.  The protected area is being called the NBA’s “bubble”.  The NBA released over a 100 page s or new rules for […]

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Open Doors: Princeton Pong

Posted on June 20, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) Princeton Pong, the 10,000 square foot elite table tennis facility in Princeton Junction, New Jersey, has opened.  They are currently restricting play to members, and only on a reservation basis. Regulations have restricted them to 25% of their capacity, so this limits the maximum number of players to 20 (in a club that […]

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WAB CLUB FEATURE: Rhode Island Table Tennis Association

Posted on June 20, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) In past years, the Rhode Island Table Tennis Association has stated with pride, that our league has been in continuous operation since World War II.  Obviously there were holidays, and snow storms, and a location change that has caused some short-term delays or stoppages, but the three month stoppage due to COVID-19 […]

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Dusseldorf Masters III: Video Highlights

Posted on June 19, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) Competitive table tennis is back in Germany in full force.  The Budesliga Championships was held over the weekend and the previous two weeks had warm-up tournaments labeled as the Dusseldorf Masters Series. The third and final installment of the Dusseldorf Masters concluded on the 17th.  The top two seeds were Dimitrij Ovtcharov […]

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PongNow: Interview with Christian Lillieroos

Posted on June 19, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) The PongNow interview series discusses table tennis with some of the best players and personalities in the sport. In this edition we have USATT Hall of Fame Coach Christian Lillieroos.  He has coached some of the best players in the world, and as an ITTF instructor he has also coached some of […]

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OPEN DOORS: Puerto Rican National Team

Posted on June 18, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins, photo is from ITTF, Marangely Gonzalez photographer) Stringent lockdown measures that have been in place across all of Puerto Rico since March 15th were lifted last week.  The Puerto Rican National Team wasted no time in implementing their training plan and bringing a dozen of their Men’s and Women’s players to a […]

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Dusseldorf Masters III: Ovtcharov Wins Again

Posted on June 17, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) Competitive table tennis is back in Germany in full force.  The Budesliga Championships was held over the weekend and the previous two weeks had warm-up tournaments labeled as the Dusseldorf Masters Series. The first Dusseldorf Masters event was won by Timo Boll.  In that tournament, Dang Qiu upset Dimitrij Ovtcharov early, and […]

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Bundesliga Finals: Video Highlights from Final and Semifinal Matches

Posted on June 15, 2020

(by Steve Hopkins) On Sunday, we posted the results of the Bundesliga Finals in our full article – Saarbrucken’s surprise 3-1 win over Ochsenhausen.  Many of the top European players battled last week in Dusseldorf through the Semifinals and Finals.  Video highlights have now been released, so if you didn’t catch the action live (via […]

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Ask The Experts: Jun Gao No. 348

Posted on June 15, 2020

Butterfly Table Tennis Question and Answer Question: I want to ask the most important question for me! It is: after the forehand topspin stroke, should you close the racket angle in front of your face??? My couch says that there are two steps of doing a forehand topspin stroke: first-you accelerate into the ball to […]

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Coaching Tip Of The Week: Practice Partner Collaboration – the PPC of TT

Posted on June 15, 2020

(By Larry Hodges) All sports involve collaboration, and table tennis is no exception. In fact, due to its one-on-one nature, table tennis in particular fits into this mode. One obvious collaboration is between coach and student, but there’s an equally important one – between playing partners. If you want to improve, players need to work […]

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