JOOLA USA

the best. during November 26 -29, 2008 I was in maryland ,played with my team. It was great and awsome.I put all my hard training into It I worked hard and won alot of games. last words put the radar's working.

Hi Joolausa, sorry that I haven't been  blogging lately. I've been working hard in school and playing ping pong. You could say that school and table tennis are my life. I'm going to train to compete in Cadets this year at nationals, and Im also competing with my school friends for a better GPA. I gotta go. Bye. :]

Ratings finally came out today for the 2008 tour finals. I went to the finals twice. I didn't quite make it too my goal of 1700 but i am half way there. I will go to the Westfield tournament and then FIT after that. By november when the 2008 National team open is, i hope to meet and pass my goal

i playd polish tournament i did very good but i didny advence, i liked it

{mosimage}Hey, my first blog post for Joola. Today, I'm going to dispel a very popular but mistaken notion: that table tennis is at its essence an individual sport.

Now, some of you might be confused. After all, other than doubles matches, table tennis consists of one player competing against another. And no, I'm not talking about team matches either. What I'm talking about is training

, not competition. A look around the world of table tennis today will quickly reveal that different countries and different regions tend to have very different training methods, especially when it comes to junior players. However, the same concept holds true for the elite junior development programs worldwide: the team concept.

 

Training as a team has multiple benefits. First of all, it usually ensures that players will always have a comparable practice partner. Seemingly small differences in skill level often are much larger than they appear, making it difficult to find a worthwhile training partner when players reach high levels. When training as a team, players often improve at similar rates, ensuring that there are almost always comparable training partners for every team member, especially when there is the option for the coach to bring in new players and to drop players who consistently underperform in training. The larger the size of the team, the more likely it is that there will be multiple players who are at a similar skill level. An additional benefit is that the coach can give important advice to every member of the team, as well as give 1 on 1 advice when needed. The coach's time in a team is spent very efficiently, as he can address the whole team or move from player to player as needed.

The team is also a pipeline in itself. Younger and lower level players are able to emulate, learn from, even practice with higher level and more experienced players, making every player's improvement potentially that much faster due to the fact that those younger players can feed off the experience of the older players.

Further adding to the benefits of the team concept is that players are exposed to a variety of styles. In any team there will ideally be a variety of styles. If a rotation system is used to determine training partners, players will get to practice with all of these styles and will develop a more complete repertoire, learning in the process to deal with attacking players and defensive players alike. Of course, maybe it's hard to find a junior chopper to develop, but the team concept still beats training with the same coach and same few practice partners.

 There is also of course the issue of motivation. Players will often push themselves harder because teammates are in friendly competition, and everyone is aspiring to improve. Players who are simply going through the motions, or are not trying to improve their game, are generally not included in the team. This goes back to point number one as well, that players will improve at similar rates. When you practice often with someone who is improving, if you're using the opportunity to improve your own game, you will tend to improve just as quickly. Physical training is especially enhanced when conducted in teams as players really tend to push each other.

 Finally, the team atmosphere or team spirit should not be overlooked. In competition, team spirit definitely provides a boost to performance, but the same can be said for training. It can make training fun, and make practicing less of a chore. Camaraderie can go a long way.

 All these factors contribute to table tennis being a team sport, not entirely an individual event. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but team training has been proven superior time and again. The best non-Chinese model is the dominant Swedish men's team of the late 80s and 90s, which had its players (Waldner, Persson, Karlsson, etc.) training together as a team from a young age. Too often in the US junior players and their families feel like they are in direct competition with other local and US juniors, which can be detrimental to the development of the sport. It is imperative that the team concept be fully utilized in coaching and training in order for the sport to flourish in the future.

 

The Wing Fast is one of the newest blades from Joola, and has a faster and harder feel to compensate for the speed glue ban.  I tried it after the recent Junior Olympics and loved its bounce and feeling.  Now even though I use Mambo C, which has no built in glue effect, I feel that my blade/sponge combination is beneficial to my game.  For those players who prefer a slower blade witheven more control, I would recommend the Wing Medium.  These blades also have an awesome Hinoki handle that feels comfortable with no sanding required.

I have been playing table tennis for a little over a year now. I my rating right now is about 1243 but can play on par with people who's ratings are around the 1700 range after much training. My rating was steadily going up from 600 to 1296 when I encountered a guy with long  pips at the 2008 eastern open. This made my rating plunge 63 points. Now I hope with the next tournament that I goto, I will be able to raise my rating to around 1700.

Blade: Fever (Flared)

FH Rubber:Drum (Max)

BH Rubber:Energy (Max)

Shoes:Bend 2008

The Fever is not too fast but not too slow. It is a decent blade because it produces a great amount of spin when combined with Drum. Energy on the other hand is a faster rubber with great glue effect sound. Thats is basically why I use Energy on myt backhand. Both rubbers are pretty durableso its worth buying. 

Hey everyone!

With USOpen a week behind us, its time to relax and reflect upon what we damage we did and how we could have done things differently. Train here, train there..Now we're starting to count down for nationals to show our true colors.  Five months (for anyone wondering)!

Well personally, I had an excellent Open. Sure it was rocky along the way but everyone's islike that (mine always just seems to be a bit rockier. haha!).  I played a total of five events, one a day, and did quite alright. I advanced in most of my groups and I got to semi's for Womens 2100U. Overall, I played much smarter this tournament and I was even able to steal a couple of points here and there. Heeelllo 1824.

And as quite a few people notice, okay maybe everyone who's known me since I was ten, I took up photography. Yes! That's where at least 65% of my time at Vegas was. It was a little intimidating at first because well, I've never taken pictures at such a big tournament but after the first day I got used to it. I figured out that the players dont really mind as long as I dont ruin the point for them..But! It was really cool. And you guys can expect to see me carrying a camera in one hand and a paddle in the other. If you guys want to check some of my pictures, and my dads's, you can go to www.gerrychua.com and take a look. :)

So much going on these days, Im so grateful that its summer.

And Im thankful for JoolaUSA!
You guys, we're so cool. Daaang.

Anyways, Im out! Later!

 

Hi everybody,  sorry I havent been blogging.. I've been at my coach's club training with her for the U.S.Open. I stayed a total of one month and trained around the clock. It was really intense, and really hot. I improved my overall game while having fun at the same time.

 My training paid off at USOpen, completely. I won 3700doubles with my friend Anand Engineer. I placed second in Boys11U and recieved semifinalist for Boys13U. Its alright though, I played my hardest. There were some tough matches, but they were really great to play.

I gotta go running, so bye!