Table Tennis Club of Indianapolis
By Coach Blake Cottrell
 
The Table Tennis Club of Indianapolis welcomed US National Team Coach Samson Dubina over the past weekend for an intense footwork clinic.  Players participated in lecture, drills and physical training for up to twelve hours on July 29th and 30th.   The players were surprised to learn that there are many neglected aspects of footwork, such as:
1.      Understanding Probabilities
2.      Learning to Anticipate
3.      Developing the Ability to Watch and Adjust
4.      Mastering Body Balance, Positioning, and Timing
With the help of ITTF certified coach Blake Cottrell, the clinic format including a short lecture on various types of footwork techniques followed up by twenty minutes of drills on each topic.  Topics included side/shuffle footwork, which included systematic, semi-systematic and random drills.  Other topics were in and out footwork, cross-over, blocking and defense footwork, ball placement, anticipation footwork and linking multiple footwork drills together.  Players ranged from unrated to 2100 according to the USATT rating system.  A focus was placed on fully understanding each drill so that each player could perform the drills after the clinic at their home or local club when training on their own.  One drill that players seemed to enjoy particularly was one in which they took turns turning defense into offense by blocking several balls and then looping after the attacking player blocked.
On Friday evening several players signed up to have Samson observe a match that they played in their regular Friday night open play.  Samson observed one match by each of these players, took notes on strengths and weaknesses and prepared a short written program intended to improve their game.  He also took short videos of each player and emailed the video to them so players had a visual idea of what they look like when they play.  This was a first for many of the participants who had trouble recognizing themselves!
Throughout the clinic an emphasis was also put on game situation drills with plenty of short practice matches and top table.
The very tired group finished the day Saturday with a round of physical training just to ensure that physical well-being continues to be a focus as players train for improvement.
The Samson Dubina Table Tennis Academy would like to thank the Clyde family and the Table Tennis Club of Indianapolis for hosting this event!  The Samson Dubina Table Tennis Academy plans to continue improving the level of table tennis in the Midwest US by doing a series of clinics during the 2016-2017 Season.  The topics include:  Advanced Strokes, Beginner Strokes, Footwork, Serve & Return, Tactics, Short Game, and Tournament Preparation.  Go to www.SamsonDubina.com for more details.