Han Xiao Archives

Ask The Experts: Han Xiao, No. 141

August 23, 2016

Ask The Experts: Han Xiao, No. 141 Butterfly Table Tennis Question and Answer Blade: Stiga Allround Classic Forehand: Flextra Backhand: Flextra Question: I read the article written by Han Xiao (Modern Topspin Stroke) that compares the old technique and the modern technique for doing topspin. Basically, the modern one requires less backswing due to more modern […]

Han Xiao, Athlete Services Coordinator for 2016 Olympic Games

January 9, 2016

Han Xiao Selected as Athlete Services Coordinator for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio Courtesy of USA Table Tennis Han Xiao, former National Team Member, Men’s Doubles, and Mixed Doubles Champion and current USATT Athlete to the USOC’s Athlete Advisory Council, was recently announced by the USOC to have been selected as one of […]

Playing With Purpose Early in the Point

December 6, 2015

Playing With Purpose Early in the Point Butterfly Table Tennis Coaching by Han Xiao One of the biggest differences in skill level between players is how they are able to play every shot with purpose early in the point to set up points in their favor. It’s quite easy to pick out players who have […]

Transitioning More Quickly

November 1, 2015

Transitioning More Quickly Butterfly Table Tennis Coaching by Han Xiao Usually, players above a certain level can practice very comfortably when they know where the ball is going. Although the quality of each player’s shots may vary, generally players can drill quite consistently when the drill is fixed. When drills become more randomized, some players […]

Playing Less Predictably

October 25, 2015

Playing Less Predictably Butterfly Table Tennis Coaching by Han Xiao One of the biggest issues that players have is that sometimes they don’t feel that their practice level translates into their competition level. They feel that they hit great quality shots in practice and are very consistent in all their drills, but really struggle when […]

Brief Tactical Analysis of Fegerl vs Ovtcharov

October 17, 2015

Brief Tactical Analysis of Fegerl vs Ovtcharov Butterfly Table Tennis Coaching by Han Xiao Recently, one of the more exciting matches I’ve seen is a match in the European Championship men’s team finals between Dimitrij Ovtcharov of Germany and Stefan Fegerl of Austria. There were a number of excellent rallies in this match leading to […]

Effective Use of Timeouts

October 11, 2015

Effective Use of Timeouts Butterfly Table Tennis Coaching by Han Xiao Most players know that each player has one timeout over the course of the match. However, too many times I have seen matches between beginner or intermediate players where time outs are not used at all or are used ineffectively. In almost every match […]

Receiving Hidden Serves

October 4, 2015

Receiving Hidden Serves by Han Xiao Today’s topic comes courtesy of Larry Hodges, who is a coach at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. Larry has been talking to me a great deal lately about the huge problem of many high level players serving almost exclusively illegally in competition without umpires willing to fault them on […]

Player Archetypes: Defensive Styles

September 30, 2015

Player Archetypes: Defensive Styles Butterfly Table Tennis Coaching by Han Xiao Last week, we focused on identifying common attacking archetypes, what their characteristics are, what traits a player needs to excel with the archetype, as well as some general tips for excelling with each play style. This week, we’re going to do the same with […]

Player Archetypes: Attacking Styles

September 24, 2015

Player Archetypes: Attacking Styles by Han Xiao Recently, I received a question from Adam Formal about player archetypes. Since Adam does some coaching, he wants to know what some of the common player archetypes are and how to decide which style or archetype fits a particular player. To answer Adam’s question, I will do a […]