I stopped by the table tennis club in Milpitas after work yesterday and noticed a phenomenal young Chinese player who was coaching some of his students. I didn’t get his name, but I am quite sure he is at least a 2500. One of his students was Lily Zhang, if that gives you any idea. Lily was there too–absolutely sick serve and attack.

Anyway, what caught my eye was the Chinese coach’s serves. It’s the first time I’d seen that quality of serve in person (as opposed to in video of Maze and Boll). His reverse pendulum serve was brilliant.

So when he was off the court in a room hanging out I approached and asked if he’d let me take lessons. It turned out he didn’t speak English, so he went and got a translator. He told the translator he would not only give me lessons later, but that he’d give me a free lesson on serving now.

So he proceeded to give me like 10 minutes of lessons on how to do the reverse pendulum serve–which is currently my favorite. It was excellent, and he actually gave me some serious praise for learning the concepts so quickly.

Most importantly, he taught me that there is a body component involved, which I never knew. I incorporated that instantly and launched a few 1900 level serves (my estimation), which earned some kudos from him. He didn’t even stop the lesson; I stopped it myself after just a few minutes out of respect, and he stopped teaching to say goodbye to me when I left.

Good times at Milpitas Table Tennis club. The main coach is very nice, the club is top-notch, and I’ll definitely be going back. Hell, just watching Lily and her coach practice improves my game. ::