User:Dannote
From TableTennisTraining
Dan Notestein
Contact Info
dan@syncad.com
605 Alleghany Street Blacksburg, VA 24060
Table Tennis Background
I started playing table tennis at Virginia Tech during my sophmore year of college and I've been playing ever since. I didn't receive any formal table tennis coaching until very late in my playing career (and it shows). A few years ago I injured my right arm (tennis elbow), so I play about 50/50 left and right-handed now. My left hand goes by the name "Lefty Notestein" in the various ratings systems.
Playing Style
Right-handed, I'm an aggressive forehand-dominated looper. I loop as soon as I can, and will frequently step around to loop backhand balls with my forehand. My loops are known for their heavy spin and I particularly love to loop underspin balls. My biggest weakness is my back hand was fairly undeveloped for many years (although I've improved it a lot recently).
My standard bat is a shakehands-style Butterfly VSG-2000 with Mambo-H inverted rubber on forehand and backhand. But for the past few months, I've been using a new type of pistol grip bat and experimenting with new strokes and game strategies it allows. It's been a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to try something a little different. You can purchase one very cheaply on ebay (see the link above for more details). At one tournament, I got a chance to compare notes with another pistol paddle player (he's had his for about a year), and we seemed to agree in most respects as to it's strengths and weaknesses. Overall, we both liked it a lot.
Update: I've been playing with this bat for coming up on two years now. At this point, I'm pretty much sold on it as my future playing bat, so I purchased a good supply of them, as I was able to pickup up a bunch of them with some sticky Chinese rubber for about $50 each. Eventually I plan to add more about techniques I've learned with this bat. Here's a nice picture of the pistol paddle performing a forehand push:
I still play shakehands with my left hand as I don't have a left-handed pistol paddle. Left-handed, I'm a much more balanced player with more solid backhand strokes. I occasionally step around and use my forehand, but I'm much more likely to use my backhand strokes to return a ball from my backhand court than I am with my right hand. This is partly because my footwork is not as developed (yes, you have to relearn footwork when you switch hands too!) and partly because I'm more comfortable doing surprise backhand attacks with my left hand. The best part of my left-hand game is my serves: these were the easiest skills to migrate from my right hand to my left.
Update: I got to about 1600 level play with my left hand (with occasional victories against 1700-1900 players), but a tendon injury in my shoulder (unrelated to table tennis, I should add) has forced me to mostly retire Lefty for the past year. I'm hoping it will heal soon as I really enjoy left hand play, but tendons don't heal fast, especially after you hit 40. I have to be careful not to re-injure it, even when I'm playing right handed.
Clubs where I play
- Blacksburg Table Tennis Club: generally meets at Blacksburg YMCA on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday nights around 8-11pm, but times subject to change.
- Virginia Tech Table Tennis Club: meets at Squires Student center on Virginia Tech campus, schedule varies with time of year.
- West Salem Table Tennis Club: meets on Thursday nights between 5-11pm in Salem, VA.
- East Roanoke Table Tennis Club: meets on Monday nights between 6-10pm in Roanoke VA.
Players I've received coaching from
- Sean O'Neill (attended a couple of seminars, highly recommended)
- Ed Brooks
- Mike Gallimore
- Bryan Pace
Some Players I've coached
- Donna Mitchell (primary coach)
- User:GaryCovington (primary coach)
- Prasad Ramanakrishna (primary coach)
- David Horner (primary coach)
- Peter Menegay (primary coach)
- Hui Lin (primary coach)
- Song-Il Yoo (primary coach)
- Ronald Chen
- Jinpei Wu
- Mike Gallimore
- Ed Brooks
- Carol Kapsalakis
Kids Table Tennis Club
We've started a "kid's table tennis club" recently in Blacksburg and the kids meet once a week for 2 hours (I coach for one hour, then they have free play for one hour). The kids are between 7-11 years old, so their parents often come and we're teaching them some as well.
YMCA Intro To Table Tennis
The local YMCA operates a program called Open University, which offers short course on an diverse set of topics. This month I began teaching a short intro to table tennis course at the local Blacksburg YMCA. They supply the space for the course and, as an extra bonus, allow our local table tennis club to meet there. I donated an old table of mine and picked up a couple of used tables cheaply on craigslist, so we now have 3 tables for the class and the club.
Drilling Partners
- Mike Gallimore
- Ed Brooks
- Jinpei Wu
Coaching Seminars I've attended (and recommend!)
- Two seminars by Sean O'Neill (Sean is one of the best coaches I've encountered at clearly and logically describing table tennis theory)
- Colorado Springs Coaching Seminar by Danny Seemiller and John Allen: attending this seminar alone is a good reason to become an official USATT coach!
My Day Job
I'm a programmer that works on timing diagram and verilog simulation software for designing digital electronics. I also maintain site with tutorial information on the Verilog hardware description language.
