A Coach’s Journey from China Leads Seattle Pacific Table Tennis Club to Success at 2024 PPC June Open

In the heart of Portland, Oregon the Paddle Palace Table Tennis Club (PPC) recently hosted the 2024 PPC June Open. 72 players competed over two days in 12 events at the USATT sanctioned tournament. Seattle Pacific Table Tennis Club (SPTTC) brought a contingent of 9 players down to the event to compete with others from the Pacific Northwest.

Among the players competing was Vladimir Cernov, 33 years old, who was coached by Lingshuai Meng from the Seattle Pacific Table Tennis Club. Vladimir won the singles U1600 event which he described as a milestone as a table tennis player. He credited Coach Meng with securing the win. “Coach Meng offered strategic insights that were pivotal to my victory in the U1600 event. He emphasized the importance of exploiting my opponent's weaknesses while being unpredictable. He told me to focus my shots on my opponents' backhand side. However, to maintain an element of surprise, he suggested occasional forehand shot placement to keep my opponent guessing. During the critical moment of the very close U1600 Finals, Coach Meng suggested changes to my serve so that I could easily get my third ball attack. This helped me win the match 3-2 and 9 in the fifth.”

Other SPTTC players, including Ellie Yan and Chen Xu, also recognize Coach Meng’s innate ability to call for timeouts at the right moments and dissect opponents’ moves and playing styles. They have benefited from his teaching of mental resilience, tactical awareness, and the employment of simulated match scenarios and pressure situations during practices.

During his tenure at Seattle SPTTC, Coach Meng cultivated many outstanding young table tennis players and established SPTTC's first youth training program. Coach Meng developed and executed weekly training sessions which included physical conditioning, multi-ball training, and real-match practice. These methods aimed to improve various aspects of the trainees' abilities, such as physical fitness, speed, and match experience. Coach Meng's training methods have been widely recognized and appreciated by the team.

Coach Meng attributes much of his success at coaching from his lifetime in table tennis from childhood prodigy, international competition as a player, to learning through observing excellent national coaches in China and putting many of their practices into his system. His career achievements as a player include being part of the prestigious Tianjin Table Tennis team, where he competed on the international stage, and clinching third place at the ITTF World Tour Youth Championships.

He has been both a player and coach and contributed to the development of young stars such as Ellie Yan, whom he led to the finals of the girls under 10 category in the 2018 US National Table Tennis Championships. He has further worked with and helped guide Meng Fanbo who ranked first on the German table tennis team.

Coach Meng continues to train American table tennis players in the finest techniques, so they can compete equally with players across the globe.