http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jaAgAFLtL0

I have played superbly this week, I'm so happy, you know when you just have one of those weeks when you just play well?

Anyway enough about me, Billy Holmes is continuing his personal progress mission, learning about flicks/flips he is entering into a new realm of thinking, and I have to say, he absolutely loves it, he's so enthusiastic.

Dan Rimmer is also happy to learn from my experiences of TT, Dan is the undisputed number two in Lincoln, but he is so willing to take his game to the next level, and he has already made some great strides in that direction.

I have had some really great feedback from afar to my personal goal of improving TT standards locally, a great player and coach I know personally from Yorkshire, talked to me at the weekend about the fact of local league players needing coaching, and the fact that virtually ALL coaching is based around Juniors, so much so that he has started his own TT coaching school in Sheffield, based around my principles. There is a massive market out there for any coach/ player of a given standard to pass on their knowledge to older players, the current ETTA  protocol of coaching is always directed at Juniors, not senior players, who think that they are beyond help, I am through the internet, trying to rectify this.

Hi Andy, We haven't done this in a while!  I know you coach a chopper so my question is this: what is the basic technique or set of techniques that a chopper uses to vary the spin on their chops?  Does it differ between the long pips and inverted sides?

 Hi Dave.

long pips are subject to the incoming ball and what spin is on that, so most of the variation is done with the reverse side. Faster or slower contact speed is the normal way of an opponent reading how much backspin a defender has put on the ball, fast for heavy chop, slow for float. So the real top guys use every other method to fool the opponent, such as taking the ball later (less spin) contacting on the tip of the blade (more spin) and chopping down the back of the ball (less spin) rather than underneath (more spin)

Lincolnshire finished 3rd in Div 1a behind Cleveland (winners) and Hertfordshire. Myself and mark Donoghue were unbeaten over the eight singles matches, along with Lesley keast who won 4/4 in ladies singles. Jim Brewster chipped in with 2/4 and Brian Hill with 1/4

I played with the new Xiom sheet on my f/hand, and although it let me down touch wise on a few occasions, it was fine in the power/spin ratio department, if anything it lacks 'gears' compared to Tenergy, particularly at the lower end, and I found it difficult on occasion when dealing with incoming spin.

 I'm just fixing on a sheet of Giant dragon G3, its a factory pre-tuned rubber from Korea, I'm coaching Billy and Dan later so it will give me the opportunity to 'knock the rubber in' as these rubbers need some table time before they are really ready for competition play. 

My Lincoln league team of Alkisti, Wayne and Graham, somehow managed to beat Claytons 'A' 8-2 away last night, so well done to them.

Sometime around December 18th I did something which caused a pinched nerve in my neck.  I'll spare you the details but it involves the phrase "radiating pain," which is never a good thing.  Fortunately it appears to be not very serious and should heal on its own with some physical therapy.  In the meantime I can't do any activity which requires turning my head quickly or abruptly or at an odd angle so ping pong is out.  It may be 2-3 months before the symptoms decrease enough to satisfy the doctors so until then it's just me an my reflex dvds and running the Berkeley club RR once in a while on Fridays.

The break while I recover will be the longest time without playing since I started six years ago which gives me a nice opportunity to think about what I want to do when I come back.  I've been playing and training as a two winged shake hand looper since I started and while (with a few exceptions) I've enjoyed every minute of it my achievements have been modest to say the least.  My natural abilities (if you can call them that) don't seem particularly well suited to this style so perhaps it's a good time to think about trying something else, becoming a chopper perhaps, or a modern defender.  The grass is always greener of course but it's something to think about.