USATT Junior Trip to China

Shanghai Institute of Physical Education • Shanghai, China • Feb. 17 – March 18, 2002 • By Whitney Ping

[Editor’s Note: Ping, Kazantsev and Hazinski were all ranked #1 for their age group in the last issue of USATT Magazine.]

Mark Hazinski, Misha Kazantsev and I, along with Coach Mark Nordby, were given the chance to train and study table tennis in China at the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education. With good China-U.S. relations, the Chinese Table Tennis Association arranged the details, and, with a few weeks notice, we were on our way.

After a twelve-hour flight from San Francisco, we arrived at the Shanghai-Pudon Airport where Coach Xu, head coach of the team, and Julie, our somewhat English-speaking interpreter and director of the club, greeted us. The drive back to our hotel gave me a chance to see how modern Shanghai was – nothing like I had expected.

It was a pleasure to see that our rooms at the Hotel of Sports Exchange were very nice, equipped with all the bathroom necessities, phone, air conditioning, and a TV. We began practice the next morning. Our daily schedule was something like this: Breakfast – 7:30; Morning Session – 8:30-11:00; Lunch – 12:00; Afternoon Session – 2:30-5:00; Dinner – 6:00 ... Sleep.…

Our practice partners ranged from 11 to 23 years old, and 2000-2650 level. For the first two weeks, they were on their winter school break and were able to practice with us in the mornings. The first thirty to forty minutes consisted of service practice, which I so desperately needed and still do. Our training partners have already begun to test out new serves for the upcoming rule in September and Julie told us that in other clubs in China the rule was already implemented so that when the time comes, China will still be ahead of the game. Afterwards, we were assigned a three-to-a-table group where we did multi-ball for the rest of the session. The structure worked out very well: one person fed a bucket to another player, while the third picked up balls; after the turn was over, you rotated positions. It was amazing to see how every single Chinese player was able to feed multi-ball with such precision, speed, and spin. (Over the last two weeks, the kids went back to school in the morning, so we did multiball with the coaches.)

We ate all of our meals at the restaurant at our hotel. After the first few meals, we decided that most of the dishes served did not exactly appeal to our American taste buds. Coach Mark took care of us with his handy Mandarin-English dictionary and requested the basic eggs, chicken, beef, etc. We were given watermelon, strawberries, or pineapple occasionally, but it was a war to battle for the best-looking piece, so we had to go back to our elementary school ways and took turns picking them, one by one. Much of our appetites were filled with lots of junk food, especially toward the end of the trip. There was a large grocery store near our hotel where we were able to stock up on chocolate and fruit pies, cookies, chips, and of course, lots of ice cream. McDonald’s was also a frequent option, but all through the trip we were craving Taco Bell.

Afternoon sessions were all regular practice. From 2:30-4:00 we did 15-minute drills (unlike the 12-minutes drills in Japan or the 10 minutes in France that I’ve experienced). We did footwork, blocking, looping, and short-ball drills. At 4:00 we had a break and afterwards we played a variety of games: Brazilian teams, games to 11 or sometimes 5 (winner goes up a table, loser goes down), doubles matches, and occasionally some singles matches. After practice, we went for a run, but for two weeks straight, most of the running we did was getting back to our room – it rained and rained and rained. So when the sun finally came back for a visit, our moods really brightened up.

Saturdays were tournament days. The coaches put us into groups of eight or so and played a round robin. Mark played in the top group, with Misha, Mark and I in various other groups.

Sunday was our day off. The first week, Julie took us to downtown Shanghai for some shopping and sightseeing. Prices were not cheap. We went to numerous sports stores where it was awesome to see Wang Liqin or Kong Linghui advertising their shoes on billboards, posters and boxes. Almost every store had table tennis equipment, and one place even had a courted table where they were going to hold a small junior event. The traffic (people and cars) in China is unbelievable. It’s not really jammed up, but the way that you can reach out the window and touch the car right beside you, or see a crowded bus swerve around a moped, literally scaring the daylights out of us. The other three Sundays and sometimes at night after practice, we walked around on our own, mainly looking for CD and DVD stores. Mark, Misha, and I probably bought about 300 DVDs combined; and by the end of the trip, the store owners knew us like old friends.

It is hard to explain how exhausted we all were by the last day, more mentally than physically. We were in need of some days off. So while it was a great trip, coming home was not a drag. We said good-bye to our new friends, thanked the coaches, did some last minute shopping, and the next day we were off.

I would like to say thank you on behalf of the team to USATT for giving us this great opportunity, and to the CTTA and the club for their hospitality. A big thank you also goes to Coach Nordby who helped us in table tennis and otherwise, and to my teammates, Mark and Misha, for a great trip.