It seems that a large percentage of the players in this country are extremely “rating-phobic.” Sure, USATT ratings provide a way to track your improvement, but in reality they only show how well you played in your last tournament. Too often players will only sign up for tournament events where they have an opportunity to play only against higher-level players. The logic behind their thinking is that they should be able to play better players to improve if they’re paying money to play.

Hypothetically, you could play seven matches in a tournament, lose six, and your rating could still go up 50 points. The problem is that in such a style dependent sport, there are indeed ways to temporarily “beat the rating system.” However, the only accurate way to determine your true level is to consistently play against players of all levels and styles.

Too often players measure their improvement over time by how many points they have accumulated, rather than thinking about how they have improved over the last few months or years. In such a complex sport, there are always new things to learn; so my best advice to anyone would be to stop worrying about ratings and play as much as possible! That is the best way to improve!

Hope this helps!

Michael Landers

The perfect table tennis posture is key to excellent footwork. The key elements to the best table tennis posture are: feet wider apart than the width of your shoulders, body leaning forward enough to shift your body weight to the balls of your feet. Also the wide stance will move your body weight to the insides of the balls of your feet. Next, position your elbow at least 4 to 6 inches in front and away from your body opposite your opponent. Now you are in perfect position, ready and able to move in any direction quickly with perfect balance.

Now observe your opponent’s direction of swing to the ball; with this information you move to the opponent’s selected target before he makes contact with the ball and wait until the ball crosses the net before moving your blade or start your stroke for a counter or until his ball lands in your court before starting a back-swing for a loop stroke.

Important: Never start your stroke before moving in position to stroke. Why… because moving to stroke first shifts your body weight to your heels making it nearly impossible to move.

Carl Hardin

April 20-22, 2012 – Cary, NC

It was the same gym but it had a very different feel than it had in February! The final stage for the right to go to London had been set and the top four qualifiers from Canada and the US came to claim their ticket.

The Canadians had sent their top three qualifiers and a coach’s pick for both the Men’s and Women:

Team Canada

· Chris Xu (CAN)

· Anqi Luo (CAN)

· Sara Yuen (CAN)

· Shirley Fu (CAN)

· Hongtao Chen (CAN)

· Pierre-Luc Hinse (CAN) – Qualified for London 2012

· Andre Ho (CAN) – Qualified for London 2012

· Pierre-Luc Theriault (CAN

The US sent the top four qualifiers from the February event, minus Gao Jun who had injured her knee:

Team USA

· Ariel Hsing (USA) – Qualified for London 2012 (Singles & Team)

· Lily Zhang (USA) – Qualified for London 2012 (Singles & Team)

· Erica Wu (USA) – Qualified for London 2012 (Team)

· Judy Hugh (USA)

· Michael Landers (USA)

· Barney Reed, Jr. (USA)

· Timothy Wang (USA) – Qualified for London 2012

· Adam Hugh (USA)

The upset of the Men’s first round event had to be Andre Ho, who came into the event off everyone’s radar. He had struggled at the qualifier but came to Cary with a single focus – win the ticket! In the first final of the event Andre stepped up and defeated teammate Pierre – Luc Hinse to achieve his Olympic dream.

The first Women’s event would be very important as the Canadian already had one spot with Mo Zhang winning her ticket via being the Pan-Am Women’s champion. So if a Canadian won the first ticket the US Women would be only able to get one ticket to London and possibly not qualify a Women’s team. Ariel Hsing had all that on her young shoulders as she faced Chris Xu from Canada. Chris is a defensive player who gets more comfortable the longer the point and Ariel is a fast attacker –winning the point early in the rallies! Amazingly the California teen finds a comfortable middle gear between spin & speed and brings home her ticket 4 – 2 (5, -9, -7, 10, 8, 4).

The Men’s second round found Hinse back in the final match for his ticket. 2012 was Pierre-Luc’s fourth Olympic qualifying attempt; he had fell one step short on the last three and found himself down 3-2 to Timothy Wang. All the pressure situations in the past must have prepared him well as Pierre-Luc won the last two games at eight to get his London ticket.

The pressure on the Women had changed, now there is more than the first round! Whoever wins this round will get a team spot at the London Olympics for their country. The format also changed from single elimination to round robin groups with the top two advancing from the two groups.

Erica Wu lost in a three way tie breaker in her group, so went on to the consolation match. Sara Yuen and Chris Xu advanced from group 1 to play group 2 advancers Lily Zhang and Luo Anqi. In dramatic style Lily Zhang completes a semi-final comeback from down 0-2 to pull out the victory over Chris Xu in the 7^th! The other semi final does not have that type of drama as Luo Anqi sets up a group rematch with a 4-1 victory over Sara Yuen. With teammates cheering the final spot goes to Lily Zhang and the USA will get a team spot too!

As the Canadians have the first two tickets, the third will go to the highest finishing American and like the ladies it changes formats to round robin. With four US players and two Canadian, who would have thought that the groups finishing order would pair teammates against each other in the semi finals? On court one it is Pierre-Luc Thieriault against Hongtao Chen. This match may determine who the third team member is for Canada and it is a counter attacking battle that in the end goes to the speedy Hongtao 4-3!

On court 2, in the other semi it is young gun Timothy Wang versus teammate and occasional practice partner Barney J. Reed. Timothy comes out strong and gets an early lead that Barney almost overcomes! A pressure packed second sees big swings in nerves and quality of play from both players, but Timothy steals the second 13-11! Riding the emotional wave Timothy captures the third only to have Barney control the fourth game start to finish. Up three to one in games Timothy gets some breaks to secure the final game and his Olympic ticket.

The final match of the event saw Timothy Wang come back from 10-6 to win in seven over Hongtao Chen. It was a great way to end the event as the USA team was the loudest cheering section in the gym for their teammate and newest Olympian.

Newgy wishes the best of luck to all the North American qualifiers as they chase the Olympic dream in London this August!

Roger Dickson

I am disappointed to say that I did not qualify for the London Olympic Games in North Carolina April 20-22, 2012, but I sure learned a lot. For one thing, I learned that failure is completely normal. And although I ultimately lost, I won in many other ways. The support that I have gotten from my family, friends, fans, and sponsors, along my journey, has been tremendous, and without them, I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as far as I did.

Though I am extremely disappointed that I failed to qualify, I realize that I’m still only 17 years old. To be able to say that I’ve had the experience of traveling the world and getting so close to making the Olympic Games is unbelievable in its self. All in all, I gave it my best shot and that’s what matters.

May 10-13, I will be traveling to Qatar for one more shot at qualifying for the Olympics, however, it will be extremely difficult because anyone in the world is allowed to play.

Wish me luck!

Michael Landers

I was especially excited to play in the World Championships, March 25 – April 1, 2012, for a few reasons. First of all, this year was the World Team Championships, which meant that all matches would be played in a team format (three of our players would battle against three players from another country in our division). I would definitely say that it’s a lot easier to play against some of the best players in the world while having your friends and teammates behind you and supporting you each and every point rather than playing alone.

I was so excited because this was the first time that I’ve been on Team USA along with my close friends in the table tennis world, not to mention that all of us were born and raised in the United States. The other special thing about this year’s competition was the location. The tournament was held in Dortmund, Germany, which meant that tons of spectators would come support the event. It seems as if a new generation is taking over the table tennis scene in the United States and I’m happy to be a part of it.

Because of our team’s overall world ranking, we were placed in the third division (out of a possible five). Overall, we played some great matches and finished fifth in our division. Unfortunately, we didn’t place high enough to move up into the second division, but we all gained tons of experience and had a great deal of fun.

Michael Landers