USATT Coaching Committee Report
September 1, 2017
By Larry Hodges (Chair)
[NOTE – this was submitted to the USATT Board of Directors one week ago.]

Accomplishments
Since I was only appointed in March, and the committee approved in May (myself, Rajul Sheth, Han Xiao, Sydney Christophe, and player rep Timothy Wang, with staff liaison Jörg Bitzigeio), we’ve only had a few months. (Also, I’m busiest during the summer, as are other coaches on the committee, and so I’ve put off a lot until the fall.) Here’s what happened on the USATT coaching front so far this year.

New ITTF World Rankings
Here’s the new listing. On the men’s side, the top five spots remained unchanged. Mizutani (JPN) dropped two spots to #8, with Boll (GER) and Chun Ting Wong (HKG) each moving up one spot to #6 and #7. But the more interesting change came from two other Japanese players. Matsudaira moved from #16 to #12, while the whiz kid, 14-year-old Harimoto, shot from #20 to #13.

So which countries challenge China’s supremacy on the men’s side? Here are countries with at least three players in the top 50.

• China: #1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 29, 35 spots. (They likely have a number of others who would be in the top 50, probably top 20.)
• Germany: #4, 6, 23, 29, 43
• Japan: #8, 9, 12, 13, 18, 19, 25, 28, 32
• South Korea: #14, 21, 42, 49, 50
• France: #16, 20, 44
• Portugal: #17, 39, 48
• Sweden: #22, 24, 39

China is obviously a huge favorite in any team match-up. But when they play Germany or Japan, it can be interesting as those countries have small, but legitimate chances. Perhaps Korea as well, but probably not. Things can get even more interesting if Japan’s Hashimoto begins to beat the best Chinese regularly, but he might need a few more years for that.

On the women’s side, the top four spots remained unchanged – Ding Ning, Chen Meng, Zhu Yuling, and Liu Shiwen, all from China. But just like on the men’s side, the Japanese seem to be making a move. Ishikawa, Hirano, and Ito, formerly #7, 5, and 11, are now #5, 6, and 7. (So Hirano dropped a spot while the other two went up.) Biggest jumps were Jeon Jihee (KOR) from #20 to #15, and Hina Hayata (JPN) from #17 to #24.

So which countries challenge China’s supremacy on the women’s side? Here are countries with at least three players in the top 50.

Tip of the Week
Weapons to Allow Opponents to Beat Themselves.

Fall Coaching and USATT Stuff
My fall schedule keeps changing and getting busier. But the good news is I’ve managed to keep Mon, Tue, and Fri open for rest, writing, and various USATT and MDTTC activities. The bad news it means longer hours on other days. Here’s my updated coaching schedule:

• Wed: 5:30-8:45 (one 15 min break)
• Thur: 5:30-9:30
• Sat: 11AM-4:00PM (will likely have a 4-5PM student, and twice a month also have 6:30-8:30PM)
• Sun: 2:45-8:30PM (one 15-min break, and I will likely have more Sunday hours before 2:45PM)

Meanwhile, now that the summer is over, I’m about to launch into a number of coaching committee activities. (I’m chair.) I’d hoped to get into these issues this week, but they may have to wait until next week as I have a number of other issues still to deal with from my todo list, but I won’t get into that now. (They are a mixture of table tennis and my outside science fiction writing side career. See segment below at the end for upcoming publications.)

This Friday I’ll post my USATT Coaching Committee Report where I go over the things the coaching committee will be working on this fall. They include creating a six-hour club coach certification class; updating the coaching certification process; coaching recertification seminars; coaches education (seminars, webpage, possible newsletter, invitations to coach at national team training camps, the recertification seminars mentioned above); confusion between “USATT Certified National Coach” and “USATT National Team Coach”; and scheduling an ITTF Level 3 Course.

After trying to take Labor Day off, I found myself wanting to catch up on work that I’d planned to do today – and ended up working half the night. When I tried going to sleep, I was too wound up. When it reached 4:30 AM and I was still up, I realized I was going to have a problem. I finally got to sleep, then woke up at 7:30 AM. My head is pounding like I’d gone twelve rounds with The Hulk, my eyelids weigh more than The Hulk, and my eyes feel like Ma Long and The Hulk plucked them out and played a best of seven with each. Sorry, no blog today, but at least I’m (mostly) caught up on various table tennis and writing matters. I’ll be back tomorrow with the blog and Tip of the Week. I need to put on my wall, “Early to bed, early to rise, is what morning bloggers must prioritize.”  Oh, and speaking of The Hulk:

• Hulk playing table tennis. (Here’s the non-Facebook version.)
• Hulk vs. Superman
• Hulk Racket
• Tim Boggan as The Hulk – something I photoshopped long ago

(Good night, everyone; I’m back to bed.)

It's Labor Day, so no laboring on my blog today. I'm spending the day in my lounge chair reading "Brave New World," which somehow I'd never gotten around to reading, and perhaps watching "Giant," which is on TCM at 4:30PM. See you all tomorrow. Oh, and here's a video of cats and table tennis (2:19). 

USATT Club Coach Certification Course
Much of the current USATT coaching certification process was set up when we had few coaches in this country, and were desperately trying to get coaches certified. (I was coaching chair for four years in the 1990s, and remember those problems.) Currently you can become a club coach just by passing a test, having two years USATT membership, and a 1400 rating, current or past.

I don’t think you should have specific rating requirements for specific coaching levels – they are separate things, though closely related. A better rule would be to require (along with other criteria) a specific minimum rating achieved, or similar relevant experience. So that’s going to change.

We’re looking to change the certification process, now that we have so many more coaches than before. Below is a very rough outline of a six-hour coaching seminar for becoming club coach. Later I will expand on it, giving more details on what should be taught in each segment and how. It should be somewhat easy for any high-level coach to run such a seminar at any club in the country, where they’d just roughly follow the seminar schedule, and we’d assume that the high-level coaches would know how to teach each aspect listed. Those who take the seminar would, with the approval of the coach teaching the course, become USATT certified Club Coaches.  (There are four levels - Club, State, Regional, and National. There's also Instructor, but that's designed for non-table tennis people, such as a PE instructor. Here are the current USATT coaching certification guidelines.) 

$2700 Butterfly MDTTC August Open
Aug. 26-27, 2017 • Gaithersburg, Maryland
By Larry Hodges (tournament director)
[NOTE – not interested in reading about a local tournament, with a final between two of the best players in the country? Then jump ahead to the other segments below!]

The MDTTC August Open was the day the choppers, juniors, and women & girls roared. There were choppers in the final and quarterfinals of the Open, and they won Under 2200 and Under 1500. There were juniors in the final of five of the six rating events (and – surprise! – both junior events). And women & girls won three of the six rating events. The ultimate winner was Stephanie Zhang, a chopping junior girl who won Under 1500!

Top-seeded Jishan Liang (2671) of New York, a powerful lefty two-winged looper, won the Open over second-seeded chopper/looper Jian Li (2660) of New Jersey, 2-1 win in this best of seven. Well, it was scheduled to be best of seven, but both players asked if they could play best of five, and we agreed. Then, after Liang went up 2-1 (with all three games being 11-5), Li was forced to retire due to an arm injury. The other chopper/looper in the mix was Wang Qingliang, who lost to Liang in the quarterfinals, 8,6,11. So $1000 to Jishan, $500 to Li, and $250 to the two semifinalists, Jeffrey Zeng and Chen Bo Wen, both MDTTC coaches, as is Wang.

Capital Area Team League and Other Leagues
The Capital Area Team League is for players in the Maryland, Virginia, and DC area. The “early bird” special deadline is tomorrow, August 31. Final deadline to enter is Sept. 12. If you don’t have a team, the league committee can help you find one. First league matches are on Oct. 1. Here are the basic rules:

• Teams have a roster of at least 3 players.
• Team contests will have 6 individual matches and one doubles.
• Each team will be placed in a division according to their ratings, with similarly-rated teams – priority consideration will be given to teams who have participated in the last season.
• No USATT membership required to play.
• Detail league rules here.

So . . . you want to play in such a league, but don’t live in the Capital area? Here’s the USATT League page, where you can find info on other such team leagues currently operating, how to start one, as well as info on singles leagues.

This is also a good time to mention that USATT is currently without a League Committee Chair, or a League Committee. If you are interested in chairing it, let me know, and I’ll forward you to the appropriate person. (Here’s the USATT Committee listing.)

USATT Remembers Robert Tretheway
Here’s the article. (I blogged about him on Aug. 16.)

Fall Scheduling
With local schools starting next week, I’m working out my new Fall coaching schedule. This is one of those surprisingly tricky things, sort of like trying to do a 20-piece jigsaw puzzle, which sounds easy except the pieces keep moving around, changing shape, and sometimes disappearing, with new ones showing up randomly.

During the summer we have little private coaching before 6PM (Mon-Fri) due to our summer camps. (Only available times are before 10AM and during the 1-3PM lunch break, but I rarely schedule during those times.) So while we often have sessions after school at 4 or 5PM, during the summer everyone has to move to after 6PM. But now, with school nights, the kids generally do their sessions earlier. But strangely, most of them have other afterschool activities (!), so we have to schedule around them. Worse, their schedules aren’t set in stone – they keep changing as they get new info, and sometimes it changes, week to week. Plus I have to work the schedules around my group sessions, which are mostly on Thursdays and weekends.

My weekend schedule won’t change much, just my Mon-Fri schedule. If I were one of the 50-hour/week coaches (we have several at my club), I’d be spreading them out all week. But since I generally can’t do more than about 20 hours per week, I’m trying to corral all the sessions into three weekdays, plus Sat & Sun. But last night I saw a glimmer of a chance, just a chance, that I might be able to schedule all my weekday sessions into two longer days and nights – something that would make me very happy. That would give me three days off three days to do more writing and other USATT & MDTTC stuff!!!

Tip of the Week
Covering the Wide Angles.

$2700 Butterfly MDTTC August Open, PongMobile, and that Nasty Todo List
Getting up to blog after a pair of 15-hour days is like facing Mayweather for 12 rounds, then fighting The Mountain from Game of Thrones, and then jogging a marathon or two. This past weekend I ran the tournament, with great help from Mossa Barandao of PongMobile. I plan to do a write-up later today, with pictures, which I’ll send off for publication at the news sites at USATT and Butterfly, and link to from my blog afterwards. You can get complete results at Omnipong. Congrats to champions Jishan Liang, Khaleel Asgarali, Ed Watts, Kallista Liu, Haoran Guan, Stephanie Zhang, Todd Klinger, Xinsheng Michael Huang, George Li, and Stanley Hsu!

What’s PongMobile? Mossa sets up a station at our tournaments and leagues so players can easily look up their ratings and ratings histories, both in numbers and graphic form. (The station is always surrounded by players looking up all their friends, coaches, and rivals.) But it’s more than that. It allows you to: