In the heart of Portland, Oregon, Paddle Palace Table Tennis Club (PPC) recently hosted the 2024 PPC June Open. The USATT-sanctioned tournament featured 72 athletes competing in 12 events over two days. Seattle Pacific Table Tennis Club (SPTTC) brought a group of nine players to the event to compete against other players from the Pacific Northwest.
Among the competitors was 33-year-old Vladimir Chernov, who is coached by Linshuai Meng of the Seattle Pacific Table Tennis Club. Vladimir won the U1600 singles title and described it as a milestone as a table tennis player. He praised Coach Meng for bringing the victory. “Coach Meng provided strategic insight that was crucial to my victory in the U1600 competition. He emphasized the importance of exploiting the weaknesses of an unpredictable opponent. He told me to focus my shots on my opponent's backhand side, but to maintain the element of surprise, he occasionally suggested close forehand shot placement to keep my opponent guessing. At a crucial moment in the U1600 final, Coach Meng suggested a change in my serve to allow me to attack the third ball more easily, which helped us win the match 3-2. We were able to win by nine in the fifth inning.”
Other SPTTC players, including Elie Yang and Chen Xu, also credit Coach Meng's natural ability to call timeouts at the right times and analyze opponent's movements and playing styles. They have benefited from his guidance on mental resilience, tactical awareness and employing mock match scenarios and pressure situations during practice.
During her tenure at Seattle SPTTC, Coach Meng trained many talented young table tennis players and established SPTTC's first youth development program. Coach Meng developed and implemented weekly training sessions that included physical conditioning, multi-ball training, and hands-on practice. These methods were aimed at improving various aspects of the trainee's abilities, such as physical strength, speed, and match experience. Coach Meng's training methods are widely recognized and highly praised by the team.
Coach Meng owes much of his success throughout his life in the table tennis world, from his childhood as a child prodigy, to coaching in international competitions as a player, to learning from observing China's great national coaches and incorporating many of their practices into his own system. I think this is due to the fact that it was installed. His career as a player includes success on the international stage as a member of the prestigious Tianjin Table Tennis Team and a third place finish at the ITTF World Tour Youth Championships.
As both a player and a coach, he helped develop young stars such as Ellie Yang, who reached the finals of the 2018 U.S. Table Tennis Championships for girls under 10. He further worked with and helped coach Meng Fanbo, who was ranked number one on the German table tennis team.
Coach Meng continues to train American table tennis players in the best techniques so they can compete equally with players from around the world.
