Paddle Palace Akron Open
USATT Santioned 2-Star Tournament
Dec 11-12, 2015
Title Sponsor: Paddle Palace
Food Sponsor: Subway
Table Sponsor: Butterfly
Facility: The House of the Lord
We would like to thank the 71 players who participated in our weekend tournament playing over 400 matches on 13 tables. We would also like to thank our workers - Blake Cottrell, Ron Arcaro, Sam Dubina, Samson Dubina, Chen Cottrell, Scott Cottrell, and our wonderful photographer Chris Jordan. Tournament photos will be available soon. Check back for updates!
For the last nine years, I have been a 2400 level player. This year, I have been consistently playing 2500-2550 level for the last 8 months and winning most tournaments. Ok, so what is my secret?
No, no, no it isn’t booster or steroids or a flashy serve or a powerful smash…
So, what is it?
It is something very, subtle.
It is something that most players, most spectators, most coaches, and most of my opponents have not noticed.
There are hundreds of footwork drills in table tennis that can improve your anticipation, improve your ability to watch your opponent's racket, as well as improve your body positioning, balance, leg strength, leg speed, and many other vital aspect of the game. Today, I would like to share with you a very short clip from my dvd INTERNATIONAL TABLE TENNIS SKILLS. Check it out...
One of the most frequently asked questions is..
“Samson, why do you do drills? Wouldn’t it be better to exclusively play matches each day?
Good Question. In preparing for the Olympic trials, there are many aspects of my game that I need to continually sharpen – strokes, footwork, serve, serve return, short game, offense, defense, etc… For isolating one or two aspects of the game, I can select unique drills to work that aspect over and over again during a 10 minute drill. So for performing drills, you can work on the specifics.
The Newgy Ohio Open concluded with California's Dan Liu taking top honors and $1400 by winning both the u2600 and Open events with 20 consecutive wins! With groups of 8 players in every event and 4 advancing from each group, most players were able to play 15-25 matches over the course of the weekend. I would like to personally congratulate all the winners.
Here are the detailed match results: http://omnipong.com/T-tourney.asp?t=103&r=328
Most of your practice time in table tennis should consist of doing game-situation drills. Game-like drills consist of a serve, return, and rally. HOWEVER, there are times during practice that you should put yourself in a bad situation to push yourself to the limit, to push yourself HARDER than you actually would go in a match.
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