User:Dannote
From TableTennisTraining
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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 so far, 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). I recently 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 like it a lot.
Left-handed, I'm a much more balanced player with more solid backhand strokes. I occassionally 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 parly 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.
Clubs where I play
- Blacksburg Table Tennis Club: meets at Squire's Student center on Virginia Tech campus about 3 times a week.
- West Salem Table Tennis Club: meets on Thursday nights between 5-11pm in Salem, VA.
Players I've received coaching from
- Sean O'Neill (attended a couple of seminars, highly recommended)
- Ed Brooks
- Mike Gallimore
- Bryan Pace
Players I coach
- Donna Mitchell (primary coach)
- User:GaryCovington (primary coach)
- Prasad Ramanakrishna (primary coach)
- David Horner (primary coach)
- Peter Menegay (primary coach)
- Hui Lin (primary coach)
- Jinpei Wu
- Mike Gallimore
- Ed Brooks
- Carol Kapsalakis
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.
