We've had a good response from our new MyCoach service that we announced a couple of weeks back and have been hard at work analysing the first videos that have been sent in. This page explains in more detail: ttEDGE MyCoach

I was in Canberra on Friday for an exhibition tournament in our Parliament House. It was a big do with the Chinese ambassador, South Korean ambassador, American embassy officials and several Australian government ministers in attendance. We played exhibition matches against Chinese and South Korean players who were in town for the Bennelong Cup this weekend in Sydney. The event was sold as a renewal of ping pong diplomacy and the US delegation pledged to send a team to next year's event. I played against one of the visiting South Korean players, winning 3-1 in a good match. I actually played very well I thought. He wasn't one of their top internationals however the depth of the South Korean players in extraordinary and he could handle himself pretty well.

Return to ping pong diplomacy?

I read that Patrick Baum was disqualified from the European Championships yesterday due to his rubber being too thick. His rubber was 4.09mm thick which is more than the 4.04mm allowed. Um...really? Patrick seemed to take it quite well, however I personally don't believe he should have to. Hss the sport not got better things to do than disqualify one of our top players because his rubber was 0.05mm too thick?! The reason for this 4.04mm thickness rule is to stop players using oil based boosters which, in theory, swell the rubbers and create more spin and speed. I think it is generally well understood that the boosters are not the cause of most brands of rubber going over the 4.04mm limit. It does swell some rubbers and there are many players getting around this by carving out their blades so the rubber sits deeper than it otherwise would.

Otherwise, I've been trying to fit in training and work and averaging 3 - 4 training sessions per week. I've been trying to improve my recovery after returning serve. I felt that I don't step in far enough and close enough to the ball which receiving short serves (which leaves me reaching for the ball and means I lose control). It has been affecting my forehand returns especially negatively. When I do step in far enough I often am slow to step back and recover into a good position to continue playing the point. It's usually not difficult to do right, it just requires you to be aware that you are doing it wrong. That goes for many aspects to table tennis. It would be nice to have a coach with us at training who could point out this type of mistake but I can't see that happening anytime soon.