Mystic Day

This weekend is so mystic for me. I just started with a thought to meet an old table tennis friend. We were looking for a common place to meet and play table tennis. My friend told me there is a tournament happening in TSquare Arena and we can pair for doubles event. I said yes and we gathered in the hall Saturday morning. I was excited to meet him after 8years. We participated in Singles league. Nice run this week, I had good match practices. We both played very good and qualified for Sliver cup. He brought Veg pulao & panner gravy from home we had after the league matches. The facility is awasome and organizers are one of the ambassador of table tennis. 

            Sunday was mystic. I say this not because I had a podium finish. I took my wife to the tournament saying "just a Sunday outing". She watched all my matches. When we started back to home, we boarded metro. The train was full and we were standing near two Moms and their toddlers sleeping in lap. We just enquired which baby is boy and which is girl. Train started and we were just conversating. We both were standing atleast a meter away from 2 toddlers. The train was near IndraNagar and I told my wife I am going to use my telephathy and wake the babies. I was asking one of the baby to wake up and look at me (mystic). It happened to my surprise! 5th second I went mystic. We both were looking at the toddler 'the boy' just tried to open his eyes and he looked both of us. I was super duper Haappii and I became second time mystic before her. 

April 23rd 2023, Happy World Table Tennis day!

Shiva Tandav at Mount Wuru

  Normally the Shivrati will be soaked with Spiritual Bliss. This year my Shivratri was completely different. Thanks to Checkmate club coach KrishnaArjun ji. 

This year I celebrated Shivratri in different Mountain peak not himalayas in the north but one of the Dakshina hill. The dance of Shiva from Aru (formless) to Wuru (different forms) creates different characteristic to a civilization. Sport is one of the characteristic of civilization. From ancient time sport is integral part of society. People tend to get attracted by one of the characteristic of society and climb the hill. Every inch towards the peak directs one to the Shiv tatva. 

Endless Bliss! Om NamahShivaya! 

May the Tandav of this hill bring Legends and Rishis of our future. All the very Best!

Useful links:

Shakti Kriya - click here

Star of this sport - click here

ITTF level 1 Coaching certificate

 I am happy to tell you that I have completed International Table Tennis Federation Level 1 coaching certificate successfully.

Click here to view the certificate

Veterans League, Coimbatore Table Tennis

Right hand shake hand grip flick drills

Right Hand shake-hand grip Server Techniques

Fundamental Serve technique which covers both long and short serve to the backhand corner and forehand corner. Wang Liqin the 3 times world table tennis champion showing his serve techniques. 

Top 10 angry moments in table tennis and in depth analysis

Lot of people play table tennis across the world. Whether it is a game or work or life, showing anger bring disgrace. When desire is not fulfilled anger pops up. This anger becomes a self destructing emotion when it is not handled in matured way. Even when it is shared among friends and family it bring disgrace to oneself. I see below videos as how people around us accept of anger levels. Its starts from small ball misses, bat throwing and gradually players start bursting it all over the place that's whether people around are humiliated and start reacting. Reaction start with arguments, yellow card and banding the player with Red card at-last.

Point 1: Players love this game and play forgetting themselves.
Point 2: When you play you want everything to happen on the board.(Opponent's not going to like it anyway)
Point 3: You are going to dive deep to control yourself and focus and what should be played to win.

Problem start when we are diving in without holding your emotions which is always projected outside. Nature of emotion bring feelings on people which in turn decides your behavior. Always dive deep to take control of things and aware of the behavior you show to people around us. Not every time we can be conscious of our emotions few time we have to let it go. but always Practice makes a man perfect.

Reverse pendulum server

Table tennis Serves variety

Watch "10 Serves - The Answers" on YouTube

Reverse Penhold Backhand (RPB) Grip in Table Tennis

What Type of Player Uses this Grip?

This grip is currently being used by attacking style players who prefer to play with heavy topspin on both sides. As a relatively new grip, it remains to be seen whether its use for other styles will become popular. World No.1 Wang hao’s game has a tremendous difference after 2007 world championship. The major reason is the RPB grip. His game gets an advantage of attacking opponent at every corner of the table even when wang hao is receiving the serves.
On the forehand side, this grip is similar to the traditional Chinese penhold grip. On the backhand side, the use of the rpb grip removes the normal weakness of the Chinese penhold grip since it is able to produce a heavy topspin ball with good power and a wide reach. At the beginning it was a surprise stroke, gradually players had brought the stroke in regular game. Some players will use a mixture of the rpb grip and the Chinese penhold block and push on the backhand side to give more variation. The added side spin to the ball using RPB grip pushes the opponent always from the backhand side which gives a opening in the forehand side to finish the ball. But the stroke is quiet complex one.

Natural drawback occurs when the rpb grip is used exclusively from the backhand side, it suffers from the same problems as the shakehand grip, in that the player will have a crossover point, or an 'area of indecision', where the ball cannot be easily struck with the forehand or backhand side, and a decision to use one or the other stroke must be made. Another limitation of the rpb grip is that it is actually quite difficult to produce a topspin ball from the backhand side that does not have sidespin, and hitting down the line from the backhand side is more difficult than hitting crosscourt.

Service Practice - Training in Table Tennis/Ping-Pong

Doing it for Yourself
Practicing your serve is one of the easiest and best things that you can do to improve your table tennis. But it must be quality practice - half an hour of standing at the table serving random serves without any thought just won't cut it. Here's what you should do to get the most out of your serving practice.

* Serve one ball at a time. Don't get in the habit of holding two or more balls in your hand when serving. It affects your ball toss and you are better off practicing what you would do in a match anyway. Have a box of balls on the table instead. Having to reach for another ball will stop you from rushing into the second serve.

* Have targets to aim at. You need to be able to get feedback about the success of your serve. So have small targets on the table to allow you to focus on the areas you are trying to hit, and also to allow you to judge the success of your efforts.

* Pay attention to the results. Is the serve bouncing too high over the net? Are you not getting enough sidespin kick off the table? Are you consistently serving too long or too short? Do you struggle to perform one particular type of serve? The answers to these sort of questions will give you valuable feedback and allow you to make the necessary corrections to your service action.

* Take your time. In order to understand the results of your serve, you will need to be practicing at a steady, unhurried pace. The idea is to get the most out of every serve, not serve 500 serves as fast as you can.

* Use both repetition and randomness. When perfecting a serve, you need to repeat it many times in order to groove in the motion into your muscle memory, so you can perform it automatically. Once you are successful at doing so, it is time to mix the serve in with the other serves you have mastered, and make sure that you can still perform it successfully. The ability to perform a variety of serves without making a mistake when changing from one serve to another is a vital skill.

* Remember the rule of quality over quantity. A few very good serves that you can rely on under pressure will help you more than a ton of serves that you can't keep short or low when you need to.

* Don't serve and stop. To get the most out of your practice, continue the service motion and get into the ready position for your third ball. Remember that the ready position will change depending on where you have served the ball, and move to that location. For example, if you serve short to the forehand of your opponent, your ready position should be more central to the table than if you serve to the backhand side, where you should be recovering more towards your own backhand.

If you really want to take it that extra step, visualize the type or return your opponent would make and shadow play the third stroke - this will help you groove in the common service routines you are planning to use.

* Steal from the pros. Pay close attention to how the professionals and top players serve, and copy them shamelessly. Remember, these players have spent hours at the table perfecting a service technique that works at the highest level. The more you can replicate what they do, the better your serves will be.

* Innovate a little. Although copying the top players is a great way to get your serving up to speed, spend a little time coming up with your own particular variations. Have some fun when serving and try a few weird and whacky motions. You just might find a unique serve or variation of your own that you can use as a surprise serve on opponents.

* Don't stop practicing. Treat your serving practice as a necessity, not just something you do when you can't find a partner to train with. An hour of focused serving practice a week will do wonders for anybody's ping-pong game.

Two-on-One Practice Partners

A common problem for the best players in the world is finding a strong enough practice partner. During his prime, Waldner once quipped to the Swedish coach, When do I get to practice with someone stronger?

China has more depth than any country, but even there, the best players are the best players. Players like Wang Liqin and Ma Lin can't find anyone better to practice with than themselves. Or can they?

China has developed a way of doing this. Cheng was hesitant about even talking about this, as this training method has been relatively secret, even to this day. It is normally only used in closed training sessions as they prepare for major tournaments. Cheng hinted that at one time, if heâd told outsiders about this technique, heâd have gotten in trouble.

The technique involves having two practice partners for one player. This is a luxury that other countries can't afford, but that China, with their playing depth, can. Two practice partners are selected, one with a very strong forehand, one with a very strong backhand (but also a good forehand), and they learn to play together as a team. Together, they do drills with the best Chinese players. With one player only playing forehand from the forehand side, and the other only playing from the backhand side (favoring backhand, but also playing forehand from backhand as top players do), suddenly they become a stronger player's than even Wang Liqin! And so even the best Chinese players are pushed to the limit, practicing with these “stronger players.