The Power of a Low, Short, No-Spin Serve Tip of the Week by Larry Hodges At the beginning level, players serve without spin. However, these serves are usually pop-ups that any intermediate (or advanced beginner) can easily attack. As players move up the ranks they learn to serve with spin. But eventually players come full […]
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Brief Tactical Analysis of Fegerl vs Ovtcharov
Posted onBrief 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
Posted onEffective 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
Posted onReceiving 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 […]
How To Play Table Tennis – Reverse Pendulum Backspin Serve
Posted onHow To Play Table Tennis – Reverse Pendulum Backspin Serve Join table tennis superstar Elizabeta Samara as she teaches you how to hit her famous reverse pendulum backspin serve in ITTF’s “How To Play Table Tennis Series!“
Player Archetypes: Defensive Styles
Posted onPlayer 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 […]
Serving More Deceptively
Posted onServing More Deceptively Table Tennis Coaching by Han Xiao Our topic today comes from Tae Hun Moon on the ButterflyOnline forums. The question is how you can make your serve more deceptive by creating a more confusing contact point and trick the opponent. This is a very common question among players since many players know […]
Getting More Spin on Your Serves
Posted onGetting More Spin on Your Serves by Han Xiao This question comes from Fabio Pellerin on the butterflyonline.com forums. Fabio wants to know how you develop a spinnier serve. For example, how you can increase the amount of backspin you put on your pendulum serves. This is a very common problem for many players, since […]
The Spin-Nospin Serve
Posted onThe Spin-Nospin Serve by Han Xiao Today, we’re going to discuss one of the most classically successful serve combinations of the past couple of decades: the spin-nospin serve. This is actually a two-serve combination: a heavy backspin serve along with a nospin serve with the exact same motion. It is often extremely simple looking yet […]
Pushing
Posted onPushing by Han Xiao Pushing is an underrated skill among many players, especially intermediate players who feel that they have a good grasp on how to push. We spend a lot of time on more glamorous shots such as our attacking shots, or other necessities such as footwork and blocking. Meanwhile, pushing is often a […]
WAB CLUB FEATURE: Orange County Table Tennis Academy
January 18, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins) The Orange County Table Tennis Academy (OCTTA) features 10-15 tables, professional flooring, great lighting, plenty… Read More
Jha Leads Dusseldorf to ETTU Win
January 18, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins, photo ETTU) Borussia Dusseldorf is one of the most successful German League squads and one… Read More
Zhu Yuling Rules Doha (Again)
January 18, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) There have been two WTT tour events so far in 2026, but there… Read More
Qihao Unlikely Winner in Doha
January 18, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins, photo WTT) India's Manav Thakkar had a fast start against a second-tier Chinese player in… Read More
Get Your Left Arm More Involved
January 16, 2026
Robot plays one topspin ball to long Backhand, Logan Backhand chop block (HACK) close to the table off… Read More
How to Perform a ‘Hack’ or ‘Swipe’
January 14, 2026
Robot plays one topspin ball to long Backhand, Logan Backhand chop block (HACK) close to the table off… Read More
When Champions Fall: Mental Strategies for Preventing and Managing Injuries
January 14, 2026
by Dr. Alan Chu, PhD, CMPC The table tennis world watched in dismay last when both World #1… Read More
Smell the Ball?!?
January 12, 2026
Robot plays one long backspin ball to Backhand, Logan Backhand push to Backhand, robot plays one long backspin… Read More
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