2009 US Nationals Results

Congratulations to all World Champions Table Tennis Academy students for their outstanding performance at the 2009 US Nationals. We are proud of all our students for their hard work, dedication and prestigious accomplishments. After 4 days of grueling competitions, the students of the Academy earned a total of 9 Golds, 5 Silvers and 3 Bronzes, winning a total of 17 medals (please refer to the below list for individual results).

A Big Thumbs Up to some of our other cadet & junior players who also performed well at the Nationals including Kunal Chodri, Aditi Chodri, Brian Chen, Krish Avvari, Michael Wong, Isabel Chu, Anthony Chu, and Shivi Singla.

Gold Medals:
* 21 & Under Women's Singles Winner - Natalie Sun
* Junior Girls Singles (National Team Trials) Winner - Natalie Sun
* Girls 13 & Under Singles Winner - Prachi Jha
* Boys 10 & Under Singles Winner - Kanak Jha
* 2010 Youth Olympic Trials Winner - Ariel Hsing
* Cadet Girls Singles (National Team Trials) Winner - Ariel Hsing
* Under 1700 RR Winner - Nathaniel Chu
* Under 4200 Doubles Winners - Austin Preiss (partner Mark Croitoroo)
* Hardbat Doubles Winners - Scott Gordon (partner Ty Hoff)

Silver Medals:
* 2010 Youth Olympic Trials 2nd Place - Natalie Sun
* Women's Singles 2nd Place - Ariel Hsing
* 21 & Under Women's Singles 2nd Place - Ariel Hsing
* Junior Girls Singles (National Team Trials) 2nd Place - Ariel Hsing
* Under 1500 RR 2nd Place - Larry Yang

Bronze Medals:
* 2010 Youth Olympic Trials 3rd Place - Austin Preiss
* Under 1900 RR 3rd Place - Nathaniel Chu
* Under 1600 RR 3rd Place - Bo Wang

* Cadet National Team Member 4th Place - Natalie Sun
* Junior National Team Member 4th Place - Yahao Zhang

Congratulations to all, a job well done!

2009 Winter Camp

For those that were asking, information for the 2009 World Champions Winter Camp has arrived!

Please click here for the winter camp flyer & here for the sign up form. Online registration is also available through here.

Due to our schedule of only hosting 1 camp during the winter, availability is limited. Reservation is based on 1st come, 1st serve.

Stefan Feth selected as US Men's National Team Coach

Our very own World Champions Table Tennis Academy Coach, Stefan Feth, has just been selected US Men's National Team Coach by USATT. Stefan will utilize his knowledge and international experience to enable him to elevate the US Men's National Team back to world class level. Stefan is following in the footsteps of our Academy's World Champion Head Coach, Li Zhen Shi by taking on this position. Coach Li was the US Men's National Team Head Coach in the 1990s. One of Stefan's long term goals is to guide this National Team to medal at prestigious international events, similar to the Bronze Medal that Coach Li led his Team to win at the 1995 World Team Cup.

For those of you who want to learn from the current US Men's National Team Coach directly, Stefan will continue to remain an active coach for the Academy while taking on this great challenge.

Please join us in wishing Stefan much success on this next stage of his coaching career! We would like to also thank everyone from the table tennis community for all the support given to Stefan and the entire World Champions Table Tennis Academy!

For more details, please visit the following link for the USATT write up. http://www.usatt.org/news1/feth_na_coach.shtml

Stefan Feth wins 2009 Cary Cup

Interview with Stefan Feth, Butterfly Catalog 2008/2009

Q. When, Where and How did you get started in table tennis?
I started to play when I was 7 years old on our dining table at home with my brother. Later on, I went with him to my hometown club in Grenzau, Germany to train.

Q. When did you decide to give table tennis 100% of your time?
I was already training twice a day, for 2.5 hours each session, after school 11th through 13th grade (in Germany, high school goes until the 13th grade). I decided to play as a full time professional when I was 19 years old.

Q. Where in California are you coaching now?
I currently coach at a facility in Mountain View/Bay Area, California. Since many of the players that I work with are young promising players, I spend a lot of time preparing and analyzing their game. I am very happy to have the opportunity to give back my knowledge and experience to the players here in America. I also stay in touch with many world-class players and coaches so I am up to date and current on the new developments of todays game. Besides this, I am a full time coach concentrating on training promising young players to bring their game to the next level.

Q. That seems to be THE place to play. Is table tennis that strong in this area?
Table tennis has been gaining rapid popularity in this area. More and more clubs are opening and many of them are operating as full-time table tennis clubs. Players in the Bay Area are very serious and competitive about this game. Currently, we are following the European model of a team league where multiple teams play against each other in the Bay Area. This creates a way to compete on a regular basis and gives the players regular feedback about their game and helps them target their training needs.

Q. Who are your prized players since your move to the USA in the beginning of 2006?
I am very happy with the development of many of my young players who I have worked with in the last two and a half years. Some of the young players that I work with are Brian Chen, Ariel Hsing, Prachi & Kanak Jha, Johnny Ou, Natalie Sun, and Lily Zhang.

Q. You have a busy schedule during the summer as well. Can you highlight the camps for us?
The Table Tennis Champions coaching staff includes myself, two former 4 x World Champions, Li Zhen Shi & Zhang Li, and U.S. Womens National Team Member, Nan Li. We had a great summer with 5 weeks of sold out high-level summer camps. Besides having Cadet and Junior National Team Members join, we also had players from Europe, Asia and North America. I trained as a player in the first two weeks of camp and was able to learn and gain knowledge from the World Champions. Our training camps are definitely one of the highest levels of group training available in North America.

Q. What are your short/long term coaching goals?
No matter whom I coach, whether they are a serious player or a recreational player, my goal is to help the players to get to their highest potential in table tennis. For example, for the high level younger players, the goal may be to create them into world class players; while the goal for the recreational player could simply be to have fun while improving. With my own personal experience at the world-class level, I have high expectations for my students. USATT needs new talented and committed players and I am very motivated to help as much as I can. As coaches, we should focus our efforts into the pre-cadet age and start developing them at an earlier age. As a country, having only four to five promising athletes in table tennis is not going to help grow this sport in the U.S.. In order to accomplish this goal we need better-educated coaches who have the skills and tools to raise the level of performance of these young athletes. The Table Tennis Champions Coaching Staff is planning to host coaching seminars in the Bay Area soon. Please check our website for details. I am also working to get table tennis into the schools in the Bay Area. The goal is to make table tennis accessible for everyone. The feedback from the current schools that I work with has been very positive.

Q. Can you tell us a little more about the Butterfly Table Tennis Champions Coaching Team?
We started the champions coaching team idea to help the table tennis community. Myself being a former German National Team Member from Cadet to the Mens Team; the World Champion Legends Li Zhen Shi, former U.S. Mens National & Olympic Team Coach; Zhang Li, former U.S. & Chinese Womens National Team Coach; and their daughter Nan Li, a current U.S. Womens National Team Member. We are utilizing our knowledge to combine our experiences from the European and Chinese cultures to formulate the best training methods together. We are not only training our students on a daily basis, we are also consulting with players and coaches all over the world to ensure we are providing the best possible training methods to our students. We want to give something back to the table tennis community. Serious players must bring a lot of discipline and work ethics to fulfill his or her dreams. We are willing to be on your side and work tirelessly to help you reach that goal. Please check our website www.tt-champions.com for more details.

Q. Now that you have switched to Butterflys Tenergy rubber, what makes it so special?
In my opinion, Tenergy is going to be the revolution of the rubber market. After the introduction to Bryce around 10 years ago this will be the next generation of future table tennis technology. So far we could only find rubbers with a softer sponge making that sound of a fresh glued racket. This rubber gives you the immediate fresh glued feeling when you take it out of package. It is extremely fast and spinny, exactly what I am looking for. It helps me to get the most spin on my serve, topspin and on my push. I also feel that the ball speed and ball trajectory is very high with the Spring Sponge Technology. Is it true that Butterfly did 10 years of research for this rubber? Overall its the rubber of the next decade/generation!! Butterfly just stands for INNOVATION AND QUALITY!! Buying this rubber is worthwhile in the long run. You have to treat that rubber very carefully since it is very sensitive and only use it with instructions. The Spring Sponge has a different and very rough sponge and is a totally different rubber than I have ever seen. To make it even faster use the Free Chack a few times. Just take off the rubber (Be careful doing this since the glue is very sticky) and glue it back on with Free Chack. This will make the rubber faster and spinnier.

Q. When you are not working or playing table tennis, what does Stefan like to do with his time?
I like to spend time with my girlfriend and friends. I am very fortunate to live in one of the nicest places in the world. There is a lot to discover and enjoy here since I did not have that opportunity when I was training and playing table tennis in the last 15 years.

Q. What would you tell a parent to get their child started in table tennis?
Start as early as possible and let the children play for themselves. Be supportive with the logistics and try to find the best coach you can. Trust the coach and try to build a lasting relationship with them.

Q. What do you think has to be done to bring U.S. Table Tennis to the competitive world level?
Players, coaches, officials and parents have to work together as a team and follow long-term goals. We have to start to invest more in new blood and support the career of being a table tennis player. Players from other countries are taking more risks in order to become great players.

Learn Easy, Play Hard, Choose Butterfly.
Stefan Feth