Recent content by lightspin

I think HH gives very good advice in his videos and was a solid player. I would consider him a "professional player" but what is more important is that what he says is quite useful. The sad state of table tennis is very few players can earn a living solely off of prize money. Quite a few...

Great video by HH. Start young, practice as much as possible, have parents willing to spend a ton of time and money and maybe you will make it. If you are missing any of these ingredients it is game over. If you live in China or some other country that has a similar table tennis training...

Waldner was champion of Sweden at 45 years of age. I think ZJK could do well if he wanted to. The main issues are money and desire.

It is hard to say how good you can be. Can you break 2500 or 2600? Sure. I know people who started at age 12 and did that. They also didn't train 8 hours a day, they played maybe 2-4 hours a day, 5-7 days a week. Can you become top 10 in the world? Well the current batch of people who are in...

25 hours a week is fine. Just make sure that you still do reasonably well in school. If you are in "go pro or die trying" mode then you probably need to increase that number to 36 hours a week with some additional physical training. You could probably make the national team doing what you are...

Some players have made it their personal style to back off the table. You might just experiment to find out what works for you. Do you prefer to loop closer or further away from the table? Are you fast enough to handle fast shots coming at you when you are close to the table? If you are quick...

This is definitely extremely important. I know a few players whose careers ended very quickly because they could not remain healthy. They would put in the work and achieved a good level but their body just said "Naw, I don't think so" and that was that.

The service rules are so stupid and never enforced. They need to be changed. If a receiver turns his back while the serve is being done, technically it is a fault for the server as the receiver couldn't see contact. I hope to see this bold strategy used one day in a match...

The Ted Talk video is problematic. Maryam Mirzakhani was a famous math prodigy. She started specializing in math and science from an early age. You can read about her here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_Mirzakhani You can still achieve an insanely high level in math if you start...

It is strange they wouldn't use TTR. I guess they did indeed pay the price by not paying the price for TTR.

Sora started playing at 2. Harimoto started at 2. I believe the Lebrun brothers started at 2 or 3. There are tons of kids in china training full time at age 6 or so. If pressed, I could find a quote of one of the heads of the Japanese table tennis association who said the ideal age to...

Harimoto's quote is hilarious: "He made good use of the lack of video review." I would have to agree with Harimoto's sentiments.

When I trained in China, I got to speak to one of the women's head coaches of the CNT. He said that Waldner was the most naturally talented player of all time. He also said that if you don't start seriously training at a young age, your skill ceiling will be very limited. He said had Waldner...

I think this is the absolute correct answer.

Illegal serves are hard to overcome, even for the best of players...