USATT Coaches Seminar

South Bend, IN · Dec. 5-7, 2003

By Larry Hodges

Click on photo for larger version! Photo by Larry Hodges ©2003.

U.S. Men’s Coach Dan Seemiller and USATT Certified National Coach Mark Nordby ran a very successful 3-day seminar for USATT coaches this weekend in South Bend, Indiana. 18 coaches from all over the country attended the seminar. USATT funded the attendees up to $200 in travel expenses, and paid for Instructors Dan and Mark.

As one who has run such seminars, I was impressed with some of the innovative techniques used in the seminar. Most interesting – and, in the end, very valuable – was a rapid-fire videoing of all 20 coaches (including the instructors), where each demonstrated five times each their backhand push, forehand push, forehand drive, backhand drive, forehand loop against backspin, forehand loop against topspin, and two favorite serves. Afterwards, the coaches watched and analyzed together both the good and the bad of each coaches’ techniques.

We watched a lot of videos, including a number of tapes from the last World Championships, including both semifinals of men’s singles and selected other matches. These matches were analyzed in detail – both by the seminar instructors and the coaches. Sean O’Neill showed videos of players training in China and selected other videos (including videos from the recent North American Teams), and a number of tapes showing Jan-Ove Waldner’s techniques. (I was most impressed with the video showing how impossible it was to see where Waldner’s backhand was going until he actually hit the ball.)

A number of other segments were included in the seminar. Key selections of the Michael Gadel’s book, Train to Win, were discussed. Dan went over his Top Ten Tournament Tips (see box). We broke up into smaller groups, and each group came up with important points of “How to give a lesson,” after which there was a group discussion of these points. We went through much of the Killerspin Coaching DVD, a highly professional presentation that starred Zoran Primorac, Ilija Lupulesku and Jasna Reed demonstrating the techniques. The DVD is rather successful in covering the range from beginning to very advanced techniques – and the seminar coaches discussed and analyzed (and agreed or disagreed) with the techniques covered. I gave a presentation on the business of coaching – how to get students, set up classes and junior programs, how to maximize income, etc., using the new USATT manual “Professional Table Tennis Coaches Primer” as a guide and handout, along with the handouts “Junior Training Primer,” and “Beginning Classes Primer.” (All three of these “Primers” are online and linked, along with other club and coaching materials, at the USATT Club Programs page at www.usatt.org/club_programs.)

Dan’s huge experience (too lengthy to list here, but 5-time USA men’s singles champion, 11-times men’s doubles champion, 7-time mixed doubles champion, many years of traveling and training all over the world, and long-time USA Men’s Team Coach), and Mark’s gregarious rapport with the coaches (and background as a golf instructor before becoming a full-time table tennis coach) helped make the seminar a great success. The addition of such luminaries as Sean O’Neill and Houshang Bozorgzadeh were also big pluses. The attendees seemed very pleased with the seminar.

Attending the clinic, in addition to the instructors, were USATT Certified Coaches Ray Aker, Darrel Austin, Shun Au-Young, Houshang Bozorgzadeh, Barry Chan, Andy Cochran, Adil Dhanani, Roy Dietz, Alan Grambo, Douglas Haynes, Larry Hodges, Paul Lewis, Hank McCoullum, Sean O’Neill, Bob Salmeron, Steve Slaback, Len Winkler, and Royce Wong.