JOOLA USA

Hey I'm back. I just played a tournament. It was Cary Cup. I did OKAY. The finals and semis and quarters were real exciting. Segn Toriala won over Wang Zhen. 4-2. All right, i am training hard with my coaches and preparing for some other tournaments like in May South Bend tournament. Allright cya.

 

 

ethan j.

Hi Everyone,

Wow! my blog is the most popular blog. My coach told me about it. I am enjoying playing in the USATT league here in the Bay Area. I am in the U3900 team for Palo Alto Club. I am getting good experience playing different kinds of players. I am looking forward to the Elite group matches on Mar 15th. Will be fun to watch Stefan play a tournament.  Harry is still missing in action. I sometimes get threats that he is going to return but so far I have escaped :) Soon, I shall post a picture of him and maybe Sheri for all of you to see. So if you meet them, you can say Hi to them from me. Maybe if you are nice to them, they might even coach you. They are GOOD. Now I think they feel I am good so I don't need their help :)

Keep having fun. Hope to see some of you at the Berkeley Tournament this month.

 Kanak.

hi, its been a while since i've updated.. but anyways as you might know, the worlds have been going on for a couple of days and i've been following the news on it... if you go to ITTF's webpage, and press media.. then you can watch recorded vids of some matches.. a lot of the matches were very fun to watch and i learned somethings while i was watching them..

There are several things that have struck me as I have been watching the US team play and some other matches in both Division 2 and Division 1. First, of which is that no player that is developing a modern game hits on the backhand. Yes, they may punch block at times, but when attacking or counter attacking the vast majority of shots is the backhand loop. So if you are a playertrying to develop your game to the highest level, you definitely need to be spinning on your backhand. So my game with a backhand smash is definitely a little outdated.

           

            Related to this is the technique of spinning the return of serve with a backhand over the table. This is something I believe Han, Mark and others in the US already do, but I don’t really. It is definitely a good weapon on serve return. Something that should be practiced more by most young players as well as a better drop on return of serve.

 

            The other interesting thing is the number of illegal serves that I am seeing. From Some players spin the ball on the high toss serve, some throw the ball back nothing close to near vertical, others hide with the shoulder, and what seems the most common is hiding with the forearm. No matter what rules are put in place players will do anything they can to get an advantage unless stopped by the referee.

 

            All in all my impression of the Worlds so far is that it is interesting. There are definitely a lot of countries that take this sport more seriously than the US. If we are ever to compete there needs to be more full time table tennis centers, more foreign coaches introduced to the US, more international competitions, and more way for US players to make money apart from coaching.

 

            One of those ways is to have more US Citizen only type prize money, something like the All Star Series from before. It is something that Danny has talked to me about and has been proposed before the board before too. If  four star tournaments had both an open event and an event only open to US citizens then there would be a way for the elite players to start to make more money at tournaments. US players would know who there competition would be going into the tournament, and I believe would make it more likely for those deciding whether or not to travel to tournaments. It would also give our rising juniors more matches at big tournaments and more chances to win against our top men.

I am looking forward to the competition at Berkeley in early March. I have been dedicatedly trained and have devoted quite a lot of time in practice.  I really want to improve my skills and I want more trophies too. I am aiming to get at least one trophy in the berkely competition.

Hi, I got one more new coach who used to train the famous gold medalist in China. I learned a lot of tricks and real skills from him. On March 2 I will be participating in Berkerley competition. I hope I can win and get some trophies.

Hi joolausa,

This weekend is the NorthRidge tournament.I am going to try my best!I am very excited about this tournament.Every day i am practing for it.I am practing very hard for this tournament.Well I need to go practice. Wish me luck! sincerly Ethan Chua

Just came back from hong kong. I was there for like two weeks o get training.

    This nationals was probably the best tournament that I've ever played, even if I didn't get into a team or get a title. Sure I would be a little jealous if someone kept on boasting at me that they got into the junior or cadet team, but if they played terrible, meaning not trying hard, and still got in, I'd be mad, because there are other girls out there dying to getin the spot that was taken. Anyways, I had 6 events, but my main ones were the cadet trials, the junior qualification match, and U-1900.

    U-1900 was not such a disaster that I thought it would be. I played decent yet somehow, I did not manage to get to the semi-finals, forget about the finals. I played well during this event.

    The cadet trial was the highlight of my tournament. I came into the court, timid, shy, and scared. I thought that I didn't have even the slightest chance to make it into the team. My first match was against Isabella Chen, the girl who creamed me at U.S. Open. I took a deep breath, thought through it, and went into the court. Later on, I was down was 15-14 in the 5th game. I accidently let my hand jab at the ball when I pushed and instantly I knew it was terrible. She smashed it hard, very hard, and in. I knew it was over, but I certainly have done better than before against her.I would have made it into the team if only I had got one or two more points. Yet that was still a very good game. After that, I went to Isabella and gave her a hug to make sure that we were still friends because I had "friends" that left me when I beat them.  Next up, Tammy Gu, another that beat me up pretty bad at the last nationals or U.S. Open. O.K., I thought, just play hard and smart. When I played her, she would usually get the ball back, almost always. I tried very hard and beat her 3-0 but the game score was very close. I took a short break and had to play Elissa Lin next. I have never played her before, yet she was similar to me, smooth rubber on the forehand and short pips on the backhand. She was hard to play with, yet I still managed to beat her. Believe it was NOT easy. Only two more matches to go, then the teams are decided. Erica Wu. I played her several times; I both won and lost against her. The outcome was unpredictable. I played my hardest and won against her 3-0. I was very lucky due to all the nets and edges that I got. I wish that the last point of the match could be replayed, whether I lose or win, because it was too unfair beacause I got an edge. My last match was coming up after I took a seat on the gray plastic chair. Syvan Guo. She was extremely hard to play against, adding up the two minor falls that I received while playing on the slippery cement floor (not that I'm blaming it or anything, just....inconvenient). I lost to her 3-0 that disapointed me. I was hoping for at least one game . Overall, I played very well in the trials, yet I still did not get into the team, and I congratualte everybody that got into the cadet team.

    My junior qualification match was against Anne Deug, the girl that beat Lily, almost beat Ariel, and placed in the cadet team. I felt weak but still I fought. I fought hard and reached until the 5th game, but lost to her 18-16. That was stil a great match. I shook her hand, one of the last hands that I was going to shake in the tournament.

 

 

 

The Table Tennis Lifestyle video is a powerful video. 

Watch the video:

http://www.tabletennisnetwork.com/TableTennisLifestyleVideo/tabid/97/Default.aspx

The footages in this table tennis video are from backstage where the world top players practice hard before their battle against their opponents in front of millions of fans.

Watch the signature strokes of world';s top players in slow motion in this video. This video shows the lifestyle of players such as Wang Liqin, Ma Lin, Joo Se Hyuk, Michael Maze etc... With music in the background, you will not be bored watching this video thousand times. This 40 minutes video will bring the spirit of table tennis in your vains. This video is a must for coaches, experts and amatuers.

Players include:

• Jorgen Persson (Sweden)
• Hakansson Fredrik (Sweden)
  
• PAVLOVICH Viktoria (Belarus)
  
• Li Jie (Netherlands)
  
• Ma Long (China)
  
• Guo Yue (China)
  
• Chen Qi (China)
  
• Michael Maze (Denmark)
  
• Eloi Damien (France)
  
• Steger Bastian (Germany)
  
• Karakasevic Aleksandar (Serbia)
  
• Smirnov Alexei (Russia)
  
• PARK Mi Young (Korea)
  
• Kim Kyung Ah (Korea)
  
• Ovtcharov Dimitrij (Germany)
  
• Christian Suss (Germany)
  

and many more players from around the world in the back ground...

Interesting facts:

• What strokes Wang Liqin and Ma Lin practice each other?
  
• Close up of Wang Liqin, Wang Hao, Joo Se Hyuk 's paddles / bats. You will be amazed by the sponge size of the rubbers on their paddle.
  
• The female players Ma Lin hanging out with.
  
• Wang Hao's loop stroke.
  
• How European and Chinese players are different?
  
• Michael Maze's loop strokes and serves. He breaks the ball like crazy.
  
• Funny moments from Joo Se Hyuk, the worlds best chopper. Can he talk Japanese?
  
• Which top player is biting his nails like a kid?
  
• Judge yourself why the Chinese players are on the top of the world.
  
• The warm up exercise the world top players do. Which player has his legs up during warm up?
  
• You can adapt these players lifestyle and play like them.

Watch the video:

http://www.tabletennisnetwork.com/TableTennisLifestyleVideo/tabid/97/Default.aspx