As reported in October, several of us ventured to the great states of Nevada and Utah for several days of competitive table tennis.

From the Knoxville Table Tennis Club, Ruth Gove, Woody Gove, and I represented Tennessee in the Henderson, Nevada Senior Games two-day tournament. We three also played in the two-day Nevada Senior Olympics. After 4-days of playing in Nevada and one travel day, the three of us proceeded to St. George Utah for a 4-day tournament called the Huntsman World Senior Games.

In the World Games 65-countries participated in the many different sports offered. There were 188-table tennis players, competing both in age groups and in USATT ratings groups.

In the three tournaments, 8-days total, I won 4-gold, 3-silver, and 2-bronze medals. My mixed doubles partner, Ruth Gove, won 2-gold and 3-silver medals, while my doubles partner, Woody Gove, won 2-gold medals. The overall result was 8-gold, 6-silver, and 2-bronze or 16-total medals for the Knoxville Table Tennis Club.

Accompanying us to the World Senior Games in Utah were Ruth and Dr. Paul Hua of Chattanooga and Tony Capozzi from Kingston. Ruth Hua won a gold and a bronze medal while Dr. Paul won a silver.

The five of us were not the greatest in numbers attending the 3-tournaments from our state. All together, our state won a total of 19 medals and was the most prolific in total numbers of medals won compared to every other state and country in the sport of table tennis.

I am looking forward to the U.S. Nationals in December.

Bill Neely

The Newgy Robo-Pong 2050 table tennis robot has a wide variety of drills to utilize. These drills, in my opinion, are very helpful for skill levels all across the board.

Warm Up Drills:

Drill #6: 2 backhands, 2 forehands.

This drill will get you moving, and will help warm up your forehand and backhand loop. For a warm up drill, it will make you move your legs a decent amount. What I normally do after I try this drill, I will set the robot for 10% less frequent balls, and I will do the drill, but hit only with my forehand. Doing that makes you have to move your legs even more and is a really good exercise.

Drill #10: backhand, middle, backhand, forehand.

This is another great warm up drill. It is not that intense of a drill, but you move your legs quite a bit. In this drill you have a lot of different patterns of moving. You get a lot of short distance leg movement when you go from the backhand shot to the middle shot and back to the backhand. Also, there is long distance moving when you go back and forth between the backhand and forehand shots. This drill is great for warming up your legs.

Under Spin Drills:

Drill #16: random under spin.

This drill is perfect for practicing under spin serve return. In this drill you have to be ready for the ball to go anywhere. Also, the amount of spin that the robot puts on the ball makes it hard to lift, which is like practicing against a high level opponent.

Drills #21 & 22: short forehand, long backhand (and opposite)

These drills are also very good for practicing serve return. But instead of just one ball, you get to work on the first short serve return, and you also get a very heavy long push to the opposite corner. That second ball really helps you on getting your opening on the table. These two drills are very essential and effective for improving your serve return and opening game.

Top Spin Drills:

Drill # 28: middle, then one ball to either corner.

This is one of my favorite drills on the robot! The robot will feed one ball to the middle of the table, and then one ball will be fed to either the backhand corner or the forehand corner. This drill is great for practicing your loop and footwork. Also, another thing you can do with this drill is to start the drill as you normally do, but instead of using your backhand when the ball comes to that corner, you can use your forehand. When you do this, the drill becomes about twice as difficult. You have to make sure you get your feet in position for the next shot. I highly recommend this drill.

Drill #31: 1 high ball to backhand, then one to forehand.

This is the most fun drill on the robot. The robot will give you high balls to your forehand and backhand. I really enjoy this drill mainly for the satisfaction of smashing balls. But this drill can help with that, or if you let ball drop a little lower, you can work on your loop drives. This drill can be very fun, but also very helpful at the same time.

Perry Wilson