Newgy’s Blog

Congrats to all the winners of the Newgy Wang Open Table Tennis Tournament! 60 table tennis players competed for trophies and cash prizes at the Academy Park Gym in Franklin, Tennessee on Saturday, October 11. Newgy Industries and the Wang Vision Institute were proud to sponsor this great event that attracted players from all across Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia. Newgy’s Coach Roger Dickson did a great job, once again, organizing and refereeing the tournament, with the help of the Nashville Table Tennis Club. The format was Two-Tier Round Robin.

“A youth movement and new faces in local table tennis could be seen at the 2014 Newgy – Wang Vision Institute Open. It was a mix of local new young players and several of the Atlanta International Table Tennis Academy students making up the youth movement. Even the US Nation Jr. Boys coach – Shigang “Alex” Yang was here to see his students compete. One boy kept Coach Yang’s attention for most of the event, Andrew Yang at 7 years old and the Coaches son not only competed against all comers – but managed to capture 3^rd in Division F!

The new faces were lead by Mina Boushra. Formerly a player in Egypt, Mina has started playing again and his left handed forehand attack and good use of his long pips backhand not only lead him to victory in the Qualifying groups but got him to the Open Final! Not a new face to finals in events throughout the South, John Mar from Atlanta used his pose, patience and power to bring home the Championship and to hand Mina his only lost matches of the day.” – Coach Roger Dickson, Newgy

Here are all the groups and event winners:

Top Tier AM – Mar, John, Skripnik, Ivan, Weishaeupl, Robert, Boushra, Mina, Neuendorf, Tim, Zhang, Kui, Handoko, Leidy, Flowers, Donny

Tier 2 AM – Glasscock, Michael, Mann, Eli, Fox, Bryson, Hurt, Jonathan, Kavanaugh, Robert

Open Singles

Mar, John

Boushra, Mina

Handoko, Leidy

Skripnik, Ivan

Top A

Chen, Cuiren

Patton, Charles

Dailey, Tommie

Arabov, Iliyan

Top B

Cook, Joshua

Bagchi, Ayan

Jordan, Archie

Ruan, Ethan

Top C

Guo, Xiaofeng

Mann, Thomas H.

Top D

Zhu, Sabrina

Tillery, Glenn

Chen, Ben

Sun, Qi

Lower E

Mann, Eli

Kavanaugh, Robert

Xing, Xuejing

Hurt, Jonathan

Lower F

Magee, Daniel

Williams, Wayne

Yang, Andrew

Taylor, Laura

The Nashville Predators/Newgy/NTTC Table Tennis/Ping-Pong Tournament was a hit! 75 pro table tennis players, recreational ping pong players and students competed on the main floor of the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Saturday, April 19, 2014.

The tournament featured three divisions to include players of all levels and ages. The pro division featured players with USATT ratings of 1200-2200.

Roger Dickson, Newgy’s Head Table Tennis Coach, did a great job running the tournament. We had several volunteers from the Nashville Table Tennis Club to help with registration and scorekeeping.

A big thanks to the Nashville Predators and Bridgestone Arena for hosting this fun table tennis event!

Congrats to all the winners!

Pro Division

1^st Place: Jude Lam, Knoxville, TN

2^nd Place: Donny Flowers, Memphis, TN

3^rd Place: Roger Jett, Murray, KY

Recreational Division

1^st Place: Rick Sati, Smyrna, TN

2^nd Place: Radu Rusu, Franklin, TN

3^rd Place: Iqbal Indawala, Nashville, TN

Junior (18 & Under) Division

1^st Place: Steven Dickerson, University School of Nashville

2^nd Place: Chance Waller, Smith Co. High School

3^rd Place: David Shayne, University School of Nashville

When the entry form for the U.S. Olympic and National Team Trials came out, for once, I didn’t throw it in the trash. Usually the U.S. Team Trials event is part of the U.S. Nationals and working at the Newgy Robo-Pong booth keeps me so busy that performing at my best is difficult. But with the London Games this summer, the Trials would take on a life of its own in Cary, North Carolina on February 8-12! Having played at the Cary Cup quite a number of times, I knew it would be a great opportunity to get a little of the Olympic athlete experience in a great venue!

Joining me in the process was Liliana Kohann. She boldly stated that “If you go, I will too”. Once the entries were confirmed, the training schedule was created. Utilizing the Newgy Table Tennis Training Center for a combination of robot training with the Robo-Pong 2050 and personalized coaching, Liliana and I were training a minimum of two hours per day during the week and a Saturday session lasting four to six hours!

My core drills on the Robo-Pong 2050 consisted of drill #6 (two ping-pong® balls to the backhand followed by two to the forehand) done at the regular designed settings for two cycles of two minutes, then adding to both the speed and frequency for the next cycles. I focused on actively blocking for two cycles of two minutes, then with an active block on the first ball and a loop on the second. This drill is great at improving the recovery time between two strokes while still requiring movement.

My second core drill was a modification of drill # 52 or Falkenburg (two backhand ball locations, followed by a wide forehand ball). Using the Robo-Soft application, I moved the wide forehand closer to the center line. Having had a knee injury, I wanted to build the strength of movement first then gradually go back to the wide setting over the course of the near two months of training.

The third core drill was for serve return, it was a mix of drills #16 and 17. The focus was attacking the under spin, so I would alternate a flip or roll, then a fast, low and deep push.

I always ended my robot session with a random session either drill #26, 27 or 28 to increase my anticipation. My goal was to loop with more spin than speed every time – regardless of the position!

Roger Dickson

Going to a table tennis tournament and planning to win your event is sometimes easy to imagine, but usually harder achieving! If you want to win, you need to work backwards: win event – win semi final –win quarter final – win cross over – win round robin – win game – win point! The easiest way to win points is to control the quantity and quality of YOUR spin!

How to improve the spin is a logical first step, so always think of the ping-pong® ball as an egg! To make better spin you need to brush /graze the shell of the “egg”, not make scrambled eggs by hitting toward the yolk. Try not to slow down the speed of the racket when you graze the ball, energy still needs to be transferred to the ball and a slow racket has less energy.

Service practice should be the first place you practice adding spin as the ball is only travelling at the speed of the falling ball and adding more spin to your service game has huge benefits. Try using underspin to make the ball bounce on the returners side first then come back to you! All that should be focused on is the spin at first, then start lowering the height until it turns into a legal and low serve.

Using the Newgy Robo-Pong 2050 or 2040 table tennis robot in the service position is another great way to improve making more spin in the service return area of your game. Adjusting the feed and spin from the Robo-Pong, you can work on maintaining good racket speed as you graze the ball from a very consistent practice partner! When set to underspin, return the Robo-Pong’s service with heavy spin pushes (both short and deep), flips and drop shots! If you only practice one type of return, this will become the primary way this type of serve is returned and can create a weakness for an observant opponent!

After practicing both service and return service a lot, adding or subtracting spin to the balance of your strokes becomes second nature. Soon you will find yourself adjusting the spin to your advantage more and more, winning one point, one game, one match and one event at a time.

Roger Dickson

FREE Newgy Robo-Pong Training Seminar at the  Newgy Table Tennis Center in Gallatin, Tennessee!

Do you want to improve your table tennis game so you can beat your friends or win an upcoming tournament? Thinking about getting the Newgy Robo-Pong to help with this? Or maybe you already have one but don’t know just how much it can do.

Here’s your chance!

Maximize your Newgy Robo-Pong: Learn how to best utilize all the features of your robot to improve your table tennis game!

• Spin and shot selection, head angle adjustments
• Oscillation, ball speed and ball frequency
• Randomization controls
• Pre-programmed drills
• Programming your own customized drills
• Plus, much more!

See how the Robo-Pong can improve your table tennis skills while having fun and getting a workout all at the same time! This seminar will consist of both demonstrations and play/practice with the Robo-Pong and other seminar attendees.

This seminar is FREE to the first 25 people to sign up! Sign up for 1, 2 or all 3 days!

Friday, Oct. 28, 2011:  6-9 pm

Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011:  9 am-5 pm

Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011:  9 am-12 Noon

First come, first serve basis; Men, women, all ages and all skill levels!

Taught by USATT Certified Coaches Carl Hardin and Roger Dickson

Newgy Table Tennis Training Center

805 Teal Drive, Gallatin, Tennessee 37066 USA

To sign-up for this free seminar, email [email protected] or call 1-800-556-3949 to reserve your spot!