4/13/2005
ELITE TABLE TENNIS PLAYERS
This is not ping pong, Olympians and top juniors starting up league this summer
John Crumpacker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, April 10, 2005
There is a cacophony of tapping going on in the little gym at St. John's School in the Sunset. There is dancing of a sort, yes, with nifty footwork, but that's not the source of the tapping.
Players young enough to drink juice from cardboard boxes with built-in straws and old enough to have gray in their hair are working on their games on nine tables as the gym is transformed into the Sunset Table Tennis Club. Vivid orange balls are sent smashing across the net with speed and spin.
This is perhaps the only sport in the world that goes by different names depending on how it's played. Recreationally, it's ping pong to millions of dilettantes. Competitively, it's table tennis to a much smaller number of elite players.
Two of the players in the Sunset gym are highly ranked juniors who will be honing their games this summer in a Bay Area start-up table tennis league for elite competitors, all of whom have Olympic aspirations and one of whom, Khoa Nguyen of San Jose, competed in the 2000 and 2004 Games.
Misha Kazantsev and Kevin Phung, both 16-year-old high school juniors, hope to join Nguyen as U.S. Olympians, perhaps as soon as 2008 in Beijing or in 2012. When the Bay Area league begins play July 1 with five teams, Kazantsev and Phung aim to improve their games against more experienced players.
The league is tentatively titled "Cingular Table Tennis Smashpit'' and was organized by a Fremont computer sales executive and elite player named Shashin Shodhan, an alternate on the 2000 U.S. Olympic team. (The league's Web site is www.nctt.com/league.)
"It's a good way to get all the good players in the Bay Area together where we can all play together,'' said Kazantsev, who attends Lowell High School in San Francisco. "I certainly have a long way to go, especially internationally, because the competition in the U.S. isn't as strong as Europe or Asia.''
Kazantsev's roots are in Eastern Europe, but he learned to play the game, and developed into the No. 2-ranked U.S. junior, in San Francisco. Kazantsev was born in Russia and was brought to the U.S. when he was 2 by his mother, who is Jewish and experienced "persecution,'' according to her son. His father remains in Russia.
"Misha is extremely talented,'' said Masaaki Tajima, who coaches Kazantsev and others at the Sunset TTC. "I've been coaching for about 30 years. I would say he is the most talented kid I ever coached. As I look at the spectrum of talent in the U.S., I would say he is the most talented.''
Phung, meanwhile, aspires to Kazantsev's level of play. The Albany High student and El Cerrito resident said he's ranked in the top 18 among U.S. juniors.
"I got the basics down,'' Phung said. "I've got to work more on my short game and recognizing spin. ... (The league is) going to be really good. I've played most of them before. This will be a good chance for everyone to get together and practice against different styles.''
That was the idea behind what amounts to a labor of love for Shodhan, 26, a UC Berkeley graduate who would like to see table tennis improve on the elite level in the U.S., starting with the Bay Area, home to a number of elite players. Shodhan organized five teams of three players each, representing San Francisco, Berkeley, Milpitas, Mountain View and Palo Alto.
"There will be an Olympic hopeful on every team,'' he said. "I want to see the sport grow. I'm hoping in a few years this will expand to Southern California and (then) nationwide and we can have different divisions on each team, like Division I and II. This is one of the best areas in the U.S.''
The players in the league range in age from the 38-year-old Nguyen to 14- year-old Sean Lee of Cupertino. Cal sophomore Jackie Lee, 19, (no relation to Sean) is the only female competitor. Both Lees want to accomplish what Nguyen has done. That is, compete in the Olympic Games. (Nguyen lost in the first round in Athens last year.)
"I think I have a good chance,'' said Sean Lee, who will play for the Mountain View team. "Right now I'm improving pretty fast. I have improved my weaknesses and made my strong points even stronger. My skills are getting better. The problem for me is the amount of time I get to train. I only train twice a week.''
That's because this freshman at Monte Vista High School in Cupertino also plays the violin and the piano and works at keeping up his grades so he'll be accepted to a UC campus in a few years. In table tennis, he's ranked No. 2 in the under-15 division.
"The kid is busy. We push him to the limits,'' said Sean's father, Binky Lee. "He will learn from all the better players over his age. It will be a great learning experience for Sean. This will not be intimidating with him.''
Jackie Lee doesn't sound intimidated, either, even though she'll be the only woman playing against men -- not a foreign concept since table tennis has mixed doubles, although not in the Olympics.
"It's a disadvantage in that men and women have different styles,'' she said. "In every other country in the world, men and women are in separate leagues. In the U.S., we mix it up. It'll be harder for me to win matches, but I will be gaining experience. I think I measure up well; I'm toward the top, actually.
"I'm looking for 2008. That's my goal, 2008.''
On the elite level, table tennis is a fast and furious sport in which footwork, reaction time, shot selection and strategy all meld.
"It's a lot more physical than people think,'' said Jackie Lee, who will play for the Berkeley team. My friends go, 'You sweat when you practice?' It's one of those sports if you don't practice, you won't have fun. If you can't keep the ball on the table, it's easy to lose interest.''
The "Cingular Table Tennis Smashpit" is designed to build interest in the sport while its elite players develop into even better players.
"People have seen real table tennis,'' league founder Shodhan said. "It's not ping pong that people are used to. It's very different than what you see people playing for fun in the garage.''
In the garage, the tapping is of the gentle variety, the old soft shoe. In competitive arenas, it's done with feverish intensity.
John Crumpacker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, April 10, 2005
There is a cacophony of tapping going on in the little gym at St. John's School in the Sunset. There is dancing of a sort, yes, with nifty footwork, but that's not the source of the tapping.
Players young enough to drink juice from cardboard boxes with built-in straws and old enough to have gray in their hair are working on their games on nine tables as the gym is transformed into the Sunset Table Tennis Club. Vivid orange balls are sent smashing across the net with speed and spin.
This is perhaps the only sport in the world that goes by different names depending on how it's played. Recreationally, it's ping pong to millions of dilettantes. Competitively, it's table tennis to a much smaller number of elite players.
Two of the players in the Sunset gym are highly ranked juniors who will be honing their games this summer in a Bay Area start-up table tennis league for elite competitors, all of whom have Olympic aspirations and one of whom, Khoa Nguyen of San Jose, competed in the 2000 and 2004 Games.
Misha Kazantsev and Kevin Phung, both 16-year-old high school juniors, hope to join Nguyen as U.S. Olympians, perhaps as soon as 2008 in Beijing or in 2012. When the Bay Area league begins play July 1 with five teams, Kazantsev and Phung aim to improve their games against more experienced players.
The league is tentatively titled "Cingular Table Tennis Smashpit'' and was organized by a Fremont computer sales executive and elite player named Shashin Shodhan, an alternate on the 2000 U.S. Olympic team. (The league's Web site is www.nctt.com/league.)
"It's a good way to get all the good players in the Bay Area together where we can all play together,'' said Kazantsev, who attends Lowell High School in San Francisco. "I certainly have a long way to go, especially internationally, because the competition in the U.S. isn't as strong as Europe or Asia.''
Kazantsev's roots are in Eastern Europe, but he learned to play the game, and developed into the No. 2-ranked U.S. junior, in San Francisco. Kazantsev was born in Russia and was brought to the U.S. when he was 2 by his mother, who is Jewish and experienced "persecution,'' according to her son. His father remains in Russia.
"Misha is extremely talented,'' said Masaaki Tajima, who coaches Kazantsev and others at the Sunset TTC. "I've been coaching for about 30 years. I would say he is the most talented kid I ever coached. As I look at the spectrum of talent in the U.S., I would say he is the most talented.''
Phung, meanwhile, aspires to Kazantsev's level of play. The Albany High student and El Cerrito resident said he's ranked in the top 18 among U.S. juniors.
"I got the basics down,'' Phung said. "I've got to work more on my short game and recognizing spin. ... (The league is) going to be really good. I've played most of them before. This will be a good chance for everyone to get together and practice against different styles.''
That was the idea behind what amounts to a labor of love for Shodhan, 26, a UC Berkeley graduate who would like to see table tennis improve on the elite level in the U.S., starting with the Bay Area, home to a number of elite players. Shodhan organized five teams of three players each, representing San Francisco, Berkeley, Milpitas, Mountain View and Palo Alto.
"There will be an Olympic hopeful on every team,'' he said. "I want to see the sport grow. I'm hoping in a few years this will expand to Southern California and (then) nationwide and we can have different divisions on each team, like Division I and II. This is one of the best areas in the U.S.''
The players in the league range in age from the 38-year-old Nguyen to 14- year-old Sean Lee of Cupertino. Cal sophomore Jackie Lee, 19, (no relation to Sean) is the only female competitor. Both Lees want to accomplish what Nguyen has done. That is, compete in the Olympic Games. (Nguyen lost in the first round in Athens last year.)
"I think I have a good chance,'' said Sean Lee, who will play for the Mountain View team. "Right now I'm improving pretty fast. I have improved my weaknesses and made my strong points even stronger. My skills are getting better. The problem for me is the amount of time I get to train. I only train twice a week.''
That's because this freshman at Monte Vista High School in Cupertino also plays the violin and the piano and works at keeping up his grades so he'll be accepted to a UC campus in a few years. In table tennis, he's ranked No. 2 in the under-15 division.
"The kid is busy. We push him to the limits,'' said Sean's father, Binky Lee. "He will learn from all the better players over his age. It will be a great learning experience for Sean. This will not be intimidating with him.''
Jackie Lee doesn't sound intimidated, either, even though she'll be the only woman playing against men -- not a foreign concept since table tennis has mixed doubles, although not in the Olympics.
"It's a disadvantage in that men and women have different styles,'' she said. "In every other country in the world, men and women are in separate leagues. In the U.S., we mix it up. It'll be harder for me to win matches, but I will be gaining experience. I think I measure up well; I'm toward the top, actually.
"I'm looking for 2008. That's my goal, 2008.''
On the elite level, table tennis is a fast and furious sport in which footwork, reaction time, shot selection and strategy all meld.
"It's a lot more physical than people think,'' said Jackie Lee, who will play for the Berkeley team. My friends go, 'You sweat when you practice?' It's one of those sports if you don't practice, you won't have fun. If you can't keep the ball on the table, it's easy to lose interest.''
The "Cingular Table Tennis Smashpit" is designed to build interest in the sport while its elite players develop into even better players.
"People have seen real table tennis,'' league founder Shodhan said. "It's not ping pong that people are used to. It's very different than what you see people playing for fun in the garage.''
In the garage, the tapping is of the gentle variety, the old soft shoe. In competitive arenas, it's done with feverish intensity.
