Emperorzee

The forehand push is probably the toughest of all the basic table tennis strokes. Certainly in my role as a coach this is the shot I've seen beginners struggling with the most. It can feel quite unnatural at first and is made even more difficult if the feed is bad, as it often is if two beginners are playing together. The stance needs to go back to the forehand ready position you used for your forehand drive. If you're right-handed that means right foot slightly back and then as always, knees bent, body crouched, both arms out in front of you. The backswing for the forehand push is not as extreme as for the drive. The push is a softer shot and therefore requires more feel and less weight transfer/power. However you will still need a small amount of twisting backwards in preparation. You 'll also need an open bat angle, 45 degrees is good, like in the backhand push. Keep a small gap between your elbow and your body. The strike requires you to twist your body forwards with a ...

THE FOREHAND DRIVE I break the forehand drive down into four main parts. The stance, the backswing, the strike and the finish. Get all of these parts correct and you'll have a pretty good basic forehand drive. 1)THE STANCE This is the first thing you need to worry about. Make sure this is correct before trying to hit any balls. You'll want your feet wider than shoulder width apart (some coaches even say two shoulder widths apart). If you're right handed, then your right foot needs to be slightly further back than your left. About half a step. Knees should be bent. Body crouched (leaning forwards) and weight on the balls of your feet (not your heels). Then put both arms out in front of you and you're good to go. 2)THE BACKSWING This is the first movement after you've seen the ball. Without it your shot will lack power and you'll struggle to control the ball. The key things you need to remember are, rotating your body t...

As with the forehand drive, I broke the backhand drive down into four parts. Some players find the backhand drive harder to master. This may be because the 'backswing' required is very different, or often they have played other racket sports and already have a wrong technique established, or they may simply have spent a lot less time playing backhand shots in general. 1)THE STANCE This should be 'square to the line of play'. This means that your feet should be facing the direction of play. Usually this will mean your feet will be pointing diagonally towards your opponents backhand corner. Everything else is the same as the forehand drive. Feet slightly wider than shoulder width, body is crouched, arms are out in front of you with a bend at the elbow. 2)THE BACKSWING This, for a backhand does not involve any rotation of the body or weight transfer. Instead, just bring the bat back towards your body. If you are right-handed ...

The backhand push is arguably the easiest of the four basic table tennis strokes. I teach it immediately after the backhand drive as the stance/ready position needed for the shot is identical. 1)THE STANCE This is the same as that used for the backhand drive. Feet and body must be square to the line of play. 2)THE BACK SWING The one for the backhand push requires the bat to be brought backwards and slightly upwards, towards the chest. The bat angle will need to be open at about 45 degrees. The elbow will be bent. 3)THE STRIKE This simply involves 'pushing' the bat forwards and down from the elbow. You should strike somewhere between the back and bottom of the ball. It important to 'brush' the ball using the rubber rather than 'tapping' it with the blade. The bat angle should stay open throughout the shot and you'll want to make contact at the peak of the bounce or slightly earlier. A common mistake is trying to ...

Aside from a racket, ball and table very little equipment is needed for table tennis, making it one of the world's most popular recreational sports. 1)RACKET Also called bats or paddles, "racket" is the official ITTF term for the instrument used to hit the ball. Table tennis rackets are made of plywood and covered in pimpled or inverted rubber with a thin layer of sponge in between. The combination of sponge, pimpled rubber and plywood allows the ball to travel at maximum speed and is conducive to adding spin to the ball, although many players today prefer inverted rubber because it is resistant to spins, allowing for effective defensive shots. Most rackets have a long handle but the Japanese racket has a raised handle and the Chinese racket a much shortened handle, allowing for varying ways of gripping the racket. 2)PING PONG BALL. International regulations require a table tennis ball to be 40 mm in diameter and made from hollow celluloid. T...

The earth has a limited amount of water. That water keeps going around and around and around and around and ( well, you get the idea) in what we call the "Water Cycle". This cycle is made up of a few main parts: •evaporation (and transpiration) •condensation •precipitation •collection EVAPORATION Evaporation is when the sun heats up water in rivers or lakes or the ocean and turns it into vapor or steam. The water vapor or steam leaves the river, lake or ocean and goes into the air. Do plants sweat? Well, sort of.... People perspire (sweat) and plants transpire. Transpiration is the process by which plants lose water out of their leaves. Transpiration gives evaporation a bit of a hand in getting the water vapor back up into the air. CONDENSATION: Water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming clouds. This is called condensation. You can see the same sort of thing at home... Pour a glass of cold water on a hot day and watch what happens. Water forms on...

Self CPR... Dear All, Please read this:- 1 Let’s say it’s 7.25pm and you’re going home (alone of course) after an unusually hard day on the job. 2 You’re really tired, upset and frustrated. 3 Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up in to your jaw. You are only about five km from the hospital nearest your home. 4 Unfortunately you don’t know if you’ll be able to make it that far. 5 You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself. 6 HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE? Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness. 7 However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prol...

The Federal Government has incurred a total sum of N56.784bn in petrol subsidy arrears since Muhammadu Buhari took over as President of the country on May 29, this year. According to data from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, obtained from the agency’s website on Friday, the country is said to be incurring petrol subsidy arrears to the tune of N47.32 per day on one litre of petrol. Between May 29 and now, the current government has spent 30 days in office. Based on a daily petrol consumption figure of 40 million litres, a figure supplied by the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, the total subsidy cost on the product for the 30 days the Buhari government has been in power amounts to N56.784bn at N47.32 per litre. The current PPPRA figures put the total cost of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) at N134.32 per litre, of which N118.83 is the landing cost while N15.49 is the sub-total of the margins. According to the PPPRA, the cost of a litre of petrol with freight i...