JOOLA USA

Erick & Ethan @ Competitive Edge Clinic

Robofit is a table tennis retail store.  There are two areas where tables are set up.  Behind the retail display there are three tables used for open play.  On the other side, there are three or sometimes four tables that are equipped with robots for customers to use either during a lesson or for anyone that wants to do drills with a robot.  For this clinic, the robots on three tables were removed except for one in the corner. 

Both Ethan and Marielle were signed up for the two sessions on saturday.  Erick Shahnazari showed up for the saturday afternoon session.  Another youngster, Gregory Nguyen, from Fountain Valley participated in both sessions on saturday.  The clinic was well conducted. Both Stellan and Angie spoke in terms that was easily understood for all.  The playing level was quite varied with my estimate to be from 1000 to 1900.  This to me was the only negative about this clinic.  Because of the wide range in the playing level, both Angie and Stellan at times would spend an inordinate amount of time with the lower level players to keep them up to speed with the drills.  Angie and Stellan encouraged all participants to take notes.  Notepads and pens were provided.

From someone watching the sessions, I got the following salient points to improve one's game:  1)  think of the arm as consisting of three parts - upper arm, forearm, wrist + racket.  If the ball is slow coming at you, one can do a longer swing, when ball is coming fast, shorten the swing.  2)  The point where the rubber contact the ball should preferably in front of the body at the top of the bounce.  3) In a match, a player should be able to continually adjust their body in respect to the ball to "create" the perfect position to execute the next shot.  This is what we constantly see in good players as they are always able to move effortlessly for the next shot.

As the saying goes, time flies when you are having fun.  We arrived 9:15 saturday morning, just in an instant it was 5:10 PM and we had to scramble for a 35 minute drive back to El Monte for Ethan's private lesson with Grace Lin.