Very good practice last night....wang noted that my feel for the ball has improved dramatically over the last few lessons...we talked a lot about johnny huang and his back-hand...wang said that jh taught him how to properly hit..out front like kong linghui..forehard punch..starting from the elbow..i managed 3-4 at the most..in a row..with proper technique but kept sliding back into my old way of wanting to Loop it more...

we talked about past tense...present tense and future tense as it pertains to english...using the specific example of "today, i teach...tomorrow i will teach and yesterday i taught"....we discussed what the word "confidence" meant and how it could be used in the realm of coaching...using my kissy kissy backhands as an example of what appears to be a lack of confidence..(in the context of the level i aspire to anyway)..if you follow..

we skipped for a bit...wang is excellent at double skips..great stamina...but not too good at alternating feet...he found it hilarious that people would come up to me and speak to me in cantonese...i find it hilarious too..considering that i am far from fluent...maybe at a 4 yr olds level...i noted that he plays with his bh ready...after each shot.///just like kong l...he said the was best for him and kong due the lack of set up time needed if someone were to attack that side...

we did serve and attack...he showed me a couple of wrist movements i could work on..and then we did fh to fh drills...my consistency of which is improving dramatically...my son called during the work out...and i put him on speaker so that wang could hear him...my boy was none too happy that he had called 5 minutes earlier and i hadnt answered the phone..."i dont like you daddy"...lol...wang and i laughed at that..silently of course..not wanting to incurr more wrath from my 5 yr old...

we practiced a bit of the sind winder shot..around the assembly but he told me that was a waste of time..."just a last chance shot" he said...not really something to work on...i chopped a bunch and watched him power drive the ball back....was able to chop back about 5 in a row on a couple of occcasions...from about 15 ft back....wang was very surprised that i could chop so well... and really liked the few times i smashed back his first power loop off my chop...that happened only twice due do his ability to put an amazing amount of top spin on my chops...

all in all...a very good english lesson for him and a very good table tennis lesson for me...well worth the money im spending...

Rick Anderson

Post edited by: Rick Anderson, at: 2005/11/16 12:21