Tip of the Week

Tiger Woods Distraction Drill.

Regional Associations Coordinator and Election Petition Bylaw

Here's the USATT News Item on these two items, "USATT Appoints Hodges Regional Associations Coordinator." This is an unpaid volunteer position. It will put me in a position to work on several things I promised to do when I ran for the board - create state and regional associations; promote coaching programs and training centers; and set up a nationwide network of team leagues. They all go together.

Or to quote me from the article:

"I have long believed that a strong system of regional and state associations are necessary for the growth and development of the sport in the United States. With the sheer geographical size and diversity of our country, regional and state associations allow us to develop programming at a more local level. Central to this will be creating state championships, coaching programs and training centers, and regional team leagues."

Right now I'm in the learning and planning phrase. Also, we're in the middle of the MDTTC Spring Break Camp, and so I'm pretty busy coaching there, though I might get one of the other coaches to sub for me so I can work on these issues. But I've already done a lot of planning and will be going public with some of this later. (Much of the implementation will start in the fall and in 2016.) One difficulty is that I will be coaching long hours during the summer due to our training camps, and so won't be as active during that time. On the other hand, it is a volunteer position! (Maybe if they double my salary, I'd do more? Oh wait…)

One of the first steps is finding out just what state and regional associations are out there. Where there already exists one, I hope to work with them to expand to the next level, with state championships, coaching programs and training centers, and team leagues. If you already have lots of these, then great! But lets continue to grow.

If you are involved with, or know of any state or regional table tennis associations in the U.S., please email me. Don't be shy; we really don't have much into on this. I know about ones in Florida, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area, and the beginnings of ones in the Washington DC and New York areas with their team leagues. Sometime soon I plan to do a systematic Google search where I put in all fifty states, one by one, in front of the words "Table Tennis Association" and "Table Tennis Federation."

As I promised when I ran for the board, at the recent USATT Board Meeting I made the motion to allow candidates to get on the ballot with 150 signatures. To do this required giving the board 30-days' notice, and then it would require 2/3 of the entire board to pass, i.e. six votes. USATT legal counsel Dennis Taylor helped with the final language. Then I gave a presentation to the board on why this was important, and gave three arguments for the bylaws. I blogged about this on Monday, March 30.

I'd once again like to thank the board for approving this by a 7-1 vote, including USATT Board Chair Peter Scudner, who supported the proposal. To quote him:

"The Board believes this is an important change to our election procedures that will open access to the election process for all members. USATT is a membership based organization, and our members now have a more direct opportunity to be a part of the election process."

However, note that there are only two At-Large members, each elected to a four-year term, and term-limited to a maximum of two terms. My initial term ends at the end of 2018. The other is Mike Babuin, whose second term ends at the end of 2016. Since he's term-limited (we'll miss him!), that'll be an open spot. You can start collecting signatures to run on Jan. 1, 2016! (If you are interested in seeing the new election bylaws, here are the USATT Bylaws, already updated. See 7.6.b.3, which is on page 19, and see the third paragraph, which is the new one.)

I do thank the USATT Board and CEO Gordon Kaye for helping and supporting both of these issues. Meanwhile, I have four other bylaw proposals that I haven't sent to the USATT Board yet. I don't want to overwhelm anyone, so we'll keep that a secret between us for now, okay? Shhh.

Junior Star Allen Wang is Starting a School Club

He needs help with funding - so here's how you can donate!

French Translation of Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

Here it is, on sale at amazon.fr, the French Amazon. Or you can get the English one! Do it for the good of table tennis - the more copies that sell, the less I need to coach, and the more time I can spend developing the sport in the U.S.! (On my increasingly longer todo list: creating the French Kindle version, which will take a couple of hours.) Great thanks to David Salomez for doing the translation.

I'm now looking for someone to do a Chinese translation. Any takers? We can negotiate payment! If you are interested or know anyone who might be, email me.  

The Spirit of Pong

I finalized the draft of this fantasy novella (25,000 words) over the weekend, and sent it to eight pre-readers, who will critique it and get back to me. I already have the cover graphics ready, care of the Mezyan Table Tennis Imaginarium. (Aren't you dying to see it? Patience!) I blogged about this novella on March 16. I hope to have it ready by the end of the month. Then you'll get to read about American Andy Blue and how he learns the secrets of table tennis in China from the spirits of past champions.

I'm working on the back cover text. How's this? Suggestions are welcome.

"Andy "Shoes" Blue wants to be a table tennis champion, but he's just another mid-level American. And so he goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis. He is trained by the mysterious Coach Wang, and begins an odyssey where he learns the secrets of table tennis from the spirits of past champions such as Ichiro Ogimura (who spawned China's greatness), Rong Guotuan (China's first world champion in 1959, whose tragic story Andy must relive), the Dragon, and many more. Can he overcome treachery and learn the final secret of table tennis in time to defeat his ultimate nemesis?"

The Wake-Up Call - Would you like an early-morning alarm?

Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina

Ask the Coach

Episode #109 (15:39) - World Table Tennis Day (and other segments).

U.S. Open Events

Here's the listing from USATT. Entry form should be out soon.

ITTF Coaching Courses in the U.S.

There are four scheduled. They are:

• Flushing, NY - ITTF Level 1 Course - April 6-10, 2015
• Morrisville, NC - ITTF Level 1 Course - June 7-11, 2015
• Austin, TX – ITTF Level 2 Course – June 21-26, 2015
• Akron, OH – ITTF Level 2 Course – September 14-19, 2015

Ask a Pro Anything: Aruna Quadri

Here's the video interview (6:37) by Adam Bobrow. Special bonus - hear Aruna sing!

Table Reviews by Ping Pong Ruler

Here's the new page.

Great Attack vs. Chop Point

Here's the video (5:41), but it's the first point (between Feng Tianwei and Seo Hyowon) that's incredible! But note how many times the attack goes after the chopper's middle? That's how you play choppers.

30 Years Ago Today That We Won the World Doubles Title

Here's the video (13 sec) from Mikael Appelgren to Ulf Carlsson. Yes, once upon a time, China didn't sweep everything - nope, not a fairy tale!!!

Zhang Jike

Here's the picture - yep, that's him, playing table tennis at around age four or five!

GeekWire Bash

Here's the USATT story, pictures, and video!

Game of Chairs

Here's a video (5:47) from Sesame Street that satires Game of Thrones. Except they have three thrones, a wiffleball chair, a golf chair - and a ping-pong chair that's made up of dozens of copper-colored paddles and balls! They show up at 1:13. Here's a picture of the three chairs. I want the ping-pong chair!

Macho Easter Bunny Pong

Here's Macho Easter Bunny Pong! (Yesterday I linked to two Easter Bunny Pong pictures, Smacking a shot and Dancing with paddle. Wimps.)

Ping-Pong Go Round

Here's the picture of this circular table tennis! (I linked to a version of this before. For those wondering, a segment lifts up to allow access to the inner part.)

Crazy No-look Backhand by Koki Niwa

Here's the video (27 sec, including slow motion replay)!

Ice Skating Pong

Here's the picture!

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Shortened Blog Today

We're running our Spring Break Camp at MDTTC this week, Mon-Fri, with local schools closed, so just local kids. I thought I was off this morning - we have eight full-time coaches and several part-time ones - but I've been called in at the last minute. I've put together the segments below, but haven't done my own blog yet, or finished the Tip of the Week, which will go up tomorrow. But I think there's plenty below to keep you occupied! I'll start earlier the rest of this week, or work on it the night before.

Disabled Veterans Camp

I'm running another four-day camp, May 18-21, at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. Here's info! They are free to veterans with disabilities and members of the armed forces with disabilities. (I also ran one last August.)

World Table Tennis Day

Here's the ITTF Press Release. It's today!!!

Capital Super League

Here's the report on the latest matches this Washington DC area team league. All teams have now played. And there were some nice games and nice shots - see next segment on Derek's shot!

Derek Nie's Around-the-Net Backhand Loop Receive

Here's the video of this shot from league matches this past weekend! (The link should take you directly to 14:20 into the match, when Allen Lin is serving, with no idea what's in store for him!)

Backhand Topspin - Like a Boss!

Here's the new coaching video (5:45) from Brett Clarke.

Counterlooping

Here's the new coaching video (4:26) from William Henzell of ttEdge.

The Serve of Niwa Koki

Here's the video (11:57) of the serves of the world #12. It's in Japanese, but you can learn by watching.

Richard McAfee's ITTF Coaching Course in West Bengal, India

Here's the ITTF article.

Brian Pace Forehand Wrist Flip

Here's the video (23 sec).

One of the Greatest Counterlooping Rallies of All Time!

Here's the video (45 sec) of the point between Bojan Tokic and Kalinikos Kreanga (far side).

Japan Team Slow Motion at the 2015 Spanish Open

Here's the video (4:42) - rather

Trolley Car Table Tennis Club

Here are two recent videos on this Philadelphia Club

• CSN Philly
• My Fox Philly

Kanak Jha an ITTF Dreambuilding Ambassador

Here's the link. I couldn't find an article on this - anyone have a link?

I'm Perfectly Fine

Here's the non-table tennis music video (3:05) by table tennis player Nathan Hsu, which he composed himself. He's 18 and was recently over 2500. What's his guitar, singing, and song-writing rating?

Table Tennis as Inspiration for Art

Here's the article and pictures from Killerspin.

Easter Bunny Pong!

• Smacking a shot
• Dancing with paddle

Mascot Pong?

Here's a picture of USATT coach Gary Fraiman hitting with Phinley, the mascot of the Clearwater Threshers, a Florida minor league baseball team. Who won? Gary answers in the comments!

Ball in Mouth Smash - the Hunger Games!

Here's the video (8 sec)!

Dog Plays Table Tennis

Here's the video (58 sec) - is this for real?

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No Blog on Friday

Why? Because:

1. It's Good Friday.
2. Everyone else is off work, so why not me?
3. We have a one-day camp at MDTTC.
4. I'm working on several big projects.
5. I need to take my car to the shop in the morning for some minor repairs that I've put off for a long time.

European vs. USA Question

In the U.S., the first thing a player is often asked at a club is, "What's your rating?" But in Europe it's different. Stefano Ratti emailed me the following  after he recently visited his brother in the Netherlands and played a tournament there. Note that 18,000 players in the Netherlands equates to about 340,000 in the U.S.! (Stefano has been instrumental in helping set up the Capital Area Super League.)

I spoke to a number of local players (remarkably few people of Asian origins, compared to the U.S. TT population) and it was very interesting to see how the team leagues are the backbone of the sport. If you ask somebody what level they are, their answer is “I play in Division x for xyz team”, not “my rating is X”. They seed players based on their percentages in the team league, which basically puts players in a certain “class” – for example, if you play in the National Division 2 and have a 60% win percentage, you may be considered class B.  There appears to be a rating number (again, calculated ONLY on the basis of team league matches), but it is not widely used (my brother was barely aware of its existence).  Also, tournaments don’t seem to count towards any sort of rating (the opposite of what we have here!).  They have 4 National league divisions, and 7 regional league divisions. If I get my numbers straight, there are about 16 million people in the Netherlands and 18,000 registered players (I am one of them now!).

Wednesday Happenings

• Behind-the-Back Craze. Seems like everyone is trying to do this shot, including players at my club. In one private session one of my students was so determined to do the shot that we devoted five minutes to practicing it. (On March 25 I linked to videos of a number of these shots.)
• Segregated Balls. For coaching we have about a 50-50 mixture of white and orange Butterfly training balls. (Celluloid, though we plan to make the switch to Butterfly plastic training balls when they become available, which should be soon.) When doing multiball I subconsciously tend to feed all the white balls first, then the orange balls. In a multiball session yesterday, the player I was working with was forehand looping crosscourt from the forehand side. About halfway through the box (about a gross of balls), we switched and had him loop backhands from the backhand side. After we finished, we looked back - and since I'd fed all the white balls first, all of the white balls were sitting in one corner, all the orange balls in the other. Ping pong segregation!!!
• Friday Rest. For the last couple months I've been coaching nearly seven days a week. This has led to extreme exhaustion. As of yesterday, I've worked it out so that on Fridays I only do pickups for the afterschool program, but after dropping them off at the club, I'm done.
  There's a chance I might finally catch my breath. (The only complication is that Coach Cheng Yinghua will be going to China for a month on April 15, and during that time they'll need me on Fridays. So I'll go back to exhaustion and grumpiness during that time.)
• Barrier for Back Tables. My long ongoing quest to get another barrier for the back left area of the club has finally been answered, and yesterday I put the barrier there, to great acclaim. (Well, I applauded it.) We're always short about a foot back there where I do much of my coaching (especially group sessions), and so I'm always moving the barriers about trying to find the best way to cover for this.
• Sports Team Championships. I had an interesting email discussion yesterday with some "people in high places" about an idea I've toyed with for a while: trying to get all the major sports franchises (baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, etc.) to have club table tennis tournaments, and then we set up a Sports Team Championships for the champions of each club. Each of the champions would be assigned a top local coach. (I have dibs on JJ Hardy of the Baltimore Orioles!) Ideally, it would be in Las Vegas, with ESPN, prize money, etc.

Hidden Serve Rule

I've blogged before about the problems with the current rule. The current rule is (roughly speaking) that the ball cannot be hidden from the opponent throughout the serve. The problem is that umpires cannot usually tell if the serve is hidden or not. (I watched 16 different players on video at the recent USA Team Trials, and 14 of them hid their serves at least some of the time.) The rules state that it is the responsibility of the player to serve so that the umpire is satisfied that he is serving legally, and if an umpire can't tell if the serve is visible or not, then he cannot be satisfied that the serve is legal, and should warn or fault. In reality, few umpires do that, and so many or most of our national titles go to players who abuse this rule and hide their serve.

My suggested solution has been to change the rule so that throughout the serve the ball cannot be hidden not only from the receiver, but to both umpires or where they would sit if there is only one umpire or no umpires. However, some think this is too extreme, since the umpires may sit well off to the side. So I'm now proposing we just use the net, and require that the ball cannot be hidden from the entire net and the area directly above it. This would make it impossible to hide the serve from a receiver without it being somewhat obvious he was hiding it from at least part of the net. (Remember that the net not only goes over the table, but six inches out to the sides.)

Here is my suggestion on how to change the rules, with my addition in brackets. We would have to propose it to the ITTF.

Current rule 02.06.04: From the start of service until it is struck, the ball shall be above the level of the playing surface and behind the server's end line, and it shall not be hidden from the receiver by the server or his or her doubles partner or by anything they wear or carry. 

Proposed rule 02.06.04: From the start of service until it is struck, the ball shall be above the level of the playing surface and behind the server's end line, and it shall not be hidden from the receiver[, or the net and the area directly above the net,] by the server or his or her doubles partner or by anything they wear or carry. 

Table Tennis on The Big Bang Theory - Tonight!!!
In tonight's episode of The Big Bang Theory, "The Skywalker Incursion" (8PM eastern time on CBS), they play ping pong! Here's the description: "When Leonard and Sheldon are invited to speak at UC Berkeley, they take a detour to try and meet one of their idols. Meanwhile, while cleaning out Mrs. Wolowitz's house, a ping pong battle ensues when Howard and Bernadette argue over the fate of his TARDIS." Here are twelve pictures from the episode, six of which include ping pong. Yes, it's Big Bang Pong!

Ask the Coach

Episode #108 (27:36) - Short Topspin Serve (and other segments).

Backspin Serves into Net

Here's a video (1:36) of a player serving backspin so ball after ball comes back into the net. This is a good exercise in spin and ball control. Can you do this? If not, then practice it. Perhaps put targets on the net and try to make the ball bounce back and hit them!

USATT Insider

Here's the new issue that came out Wednesday.

International Table Tennis

Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.

Ask a Pro Anything: Dimitrij Ovtcharov

Here's the interview (6:10) by Jorgen Persson (subbing for Adam Bobrow).

How to Make Table Tennis Sponge

Here's a video (4:38) from Andro Table Tennis showing how they make table tennis sponge. It's in German but with English subtitles.

Table Tennis Fire

Here's a new table tennis music video (1:28) showing all aspects of the sport.

2015 Cornilleau 740 Open

Here's the USATT article on this tournament held March 21 in Springfield, Missouri. Sina Asadallahi of Houston, TX, won both the Open Round Robin and Open Singles.

Ma Long and Zhang Jike in Music Video Sing off

Here's the video (23 sec). So who's better?

Table Tennis Through Time (a Brief History of Ping Pong)

Here's the article.

April Fools' Day Postings

Here are links to my annual April Fools' Day postings - it's sort of a tradition! (In 2012 I had to do it on April 2 since that year April 1 was a Sunday, and I only blog Mon-Fri.)

• April 1, 2015: My Next Table Tennis Book - "Ping Pong for Quitters"
• April 1, 2014: Tongue Training
• April 1, 2013: 12-Year-Old Derek Nie Defeats Three 2600+ Players to Win Coconut Cup
• April 2, 2012: Wang Liqin is Coming to Maryland
• April 1, 2011: 13-year-old Makes Chinese National Team

Table Tennis: Not for the Timid!

Here's the artwork!

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My Next Table Tennis Book - "Ping Pong for Quitters"
(NOTE - For those how missed it when this went up on April 1, the day afterwards bolded certain letters in the below!)

After much thought, I've decided on my next major writing project. Recently the book
Ping Pong for Fighters came out, by Tahl Leibovitz. It does a great job for those
really into working hard, those who fight for every point. But what about the rest of us?
I'm talking about those of us who don't have the gumption to fight so much, but still
like to win.

For most of us, we long ago gave up on our dreams for the realities of a harsh world,
one where our aspirations have long been crushed and ping-pong stardom is not an
option. We'll never be champions. And yet most coaching articles and books are for those
lucky ones who do have what it takes to be a champion. But what about us forgotten
souls who have given up, the quitters of the world? We like to win just as much, thank you.

And so I've decided my next book will be "Ping Pong for Quitters." This book will teach
point-winning tactics and strategies for the rest of us, us quitters of the world who
really want to win, but without trying so hard. It'll be for those who don't want to fight,
instead looking to win the easiest way possible. This book will be for us, the more
lethargic of the world, who want to win but without moving or rushing about.

Fighting for every point is fine for some people, but not everyone. So it is for the rest
of us that I dedicate and write this book. I am also planning a sequel to my tactics book,
only this time for those of us who are not thinkers: "Table Tennis Tactics for Stupid People."
"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired." Those words were
spoken by Jules Renard, the famous French writer. We should learn from him.

New York Cosmos Ping-Pong Challenge

Here's the video (4:46) - this prank is great! Cosmos coach Alecko Eskandarian is set up with a match against undercover 13-year-old Estee Ackerman, #8 in the U.S. in under 14 girls with a 1931 rating. She starts out playing left-handed, but watch what happens after she falls behind 0-3! (Here's another video (4:24) linked to two weeks ago, the New York Cosmos 3rd Annual Ping Pong Tournament.)

Breaking News Stories

Here are some huge breaking news stories - it's like the world is turning upside down!

• ITTF Chair Adham Sharara Sacked
• New Soccer-Style Ball to Be Used at the 2015 Worlds
• China to Use Celluloid Ping Pong Balls as Fuel Source
• Painting Reveals Table Tennis More Than 50,000 Years Old

Ask the Coach

Episode #107 (23:55) - Ma Long's Forehand (and other segments).

Multiball

Here's 45 seconds of the 2-1 multiball drill. Why can't you do this? But I thought this angle really shows the amount of topspin on each shot, and how quickly this forces the ball to drop. In particular, watch how she generates topspin on the backhand. You can't hit like this with a hardbat!!!

Butterfly Cary Cup at Triangle Table Tennis

Here's the feature article on the recent 4-star tournament by Tim Boggan.

College Table Tennis

Here are three new USATT articles on collegiate table tennis.

• Eau Claire, Wisconsin the Land of Opportunities, on the upcoming U.S. College Championships, April 10-12.
• Texas Wesleyan University Rams, the many-time defending college champions.
• Anders Thunstrom Builds Collegiate Table Tennis. Thunstrom is the managing director of TMS International, the marketing arm of the International Table Tennis Federation.

11 Questions with Carmencita Alexandrescu

Here's the USATT interview with the ITTF coach, umpire, and player.

USATT Athletes of the Month

Here's the USATT article. Who are they this month?

One of the Greatest Points

Here's the rally (39 sec) - and note their reaction afterwards.

I Have No Idea What This Is

But here it is. I think it's a reflection on man's inhospitality to the infirmity of man and striped ties and the overarching domination of the almighty dollar in a world of masked gunmen and smokestacks. Or maybe it's just a ping-pong doodle.

Spinster Pong

Here's the picture - though I have no idea if the name fits, but it's just an interesting picture.

Oops. Thought It Was a Ball

Here's the picture!

Peekaboo Pong

Here's the picture!

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Table Tennis Birthday Parties

One of the things we do at Maryland Table Tennis Centers is table tennis birthday parties. I've run dozens of them over the years. We had one this past Sunday for Ryan Lee, one of our up-and-coming players - he just turned eight, and is already racing around looping like a maniac. Here's a picture from the party, and here's another. There were just over 20 kids this time, all about Ryan's age. Past ones have ranged from this age group up to teenagers.

The typical party starts out with a demo, which usually includes an exhibition. Then we give a short clinic on the basic forehand, backhand, and serve, usually taking the players up two at a time for about five shots each. Then we go to games. The most popular is the cup game, where I ask if the kids like to build things; they say yes. I ask if they like to destroy things; I get an emphatic yes. So explain how there's nothing better than where you get to build and destroy! Then I have them build pyramids, walls, or forts on the table with paper cups, and then they line up as I feed multiball and they knock them down. Here's a picture of this from a previous party. (We start with a lot more cups than this, but at this point they've knocked most of them off.)

We often finish with the bottle game, where if they hit a bottle I put on the table that's full of squeezed worm juice, I have to drink it. For the younger kids, who rarely can hit the bottle, I'll put two or even three bottles together on the table to give them a bigger target.

Then we go to free play and let them hit and play games on their own. Adults always want structure and rules; the kids have less interest than that, and like to just hit on their own. I sometimes join in and hit with them, or give demos of table tennis tricks, such as balancing the ball in the air by blowing on it, doing the 50-foot-serve trick, and serving with heavy backspin so the ball comes back into the net or bounces over it. I try to convince them it's magic while they argue that I'm only blowing on the ball or using spin.

Calling the Police

Yesterday, shortly before I was to leave to go coach at the club, I got a call from Raghu Nadmichettu, one of our top players and part-time coaches. When I answered on my cell phone, all I could hear were the sounds of someone crying and screaming. I kept saying, "Hello?", but there was no answer, just crying and screaming. After about 20 seconds we were disconnected. So I called back to see what was going on, and nobody answered; it went to voice mail. I left a message, and then called back again, but still no answer.

At this point I was pretty worried - what was happening? I finally decided I had no choice, and called 9-1-1 for I think the first time in my life. I explained the situation, assuming they could track Raghu by his cell phone, but they said they couldn't do that, and asked for an address. I didn't have it, but said I could get it, and that I'd check it out myself. So I called USATT, got Raghu's address, and drove over. (I've picked him up before and know where he lives, but didn't know the actual address or what apartment number he lived in.) When I got there, I listened at the door, and believe it or not, I could hear the same crying and screaming! I debated whether to call the police, since I had no idea what I'd find inside, and it sounded pretty scary. I finally worked up the nerve and knocked. Raghu answered, had no idea what all this was about. We finally figured out he must have accidentally dialed my number, and the crying and screaming I heard was coming from the movie they were watching on TV!

I jumped in my car and raced to the club, making it there two minutes before I was scheduled to coach - I have a reputation to maintain. See next segment!

Timeliness and Table Tennis

In 23 years at MDTTC and about 25,000 hours of coaching (about half group sessions), I've never been late to a single group session, and only twice (once every 11.5 years) have I been late to a private coaching session. (Once due to a scheduling mix-up, the other a traffic jam.) I'm kind of proud of this record, and still rue those two incidents that spoiled an otherwise perfect record. I always plan on getting to the club about 15 minutes before I'm scheduled.

Butterfly Tips

Butterfly is now using some of my Tips. Here's one they just put up, "Develop the Five Types of Rallying Shots." What are the five? Click and find out!

Expect the Unexpected

Here's the ITTF article, reposted by Butterfly.

Ask the Coach

Episode #106 (22:30) - Forehand Finish Position (and other segments)

Coaching Two Players at a Time

Here's video (31 sec) of a great way to work with two players at a time - one doing multiball, the other standing behind and shadowing the player. (There'll be at least one more player, doing ball pickup!)

What It Takes to be Great at Something

Here's the article by Ben Larcombe.

Ben Nisbet Interview

Here's the interview by USATT of the chair of the USATT junior advisory committee, co-founder and director of the American Youth Table Tennis Organization (AYTTO), and former Executive Director of USATT (circa 1999-2000). He's also the one I hit 2755 backhands in a row with (to his lefty forehands), at a Seemiller camp in 1978, when I was 18 and he was about 16. My arm still hurts just thinking about that.

Classroom Pictures from Richard McAfee's ITTF Course in India

Here are the pictures - click on them to see more. The ones at the start are all classroom shots, later they get to pictures at the tables. The courses are roughly 50-50 between classroom and at the table.

Chinese Team Focusing on English

Here's the article - I can't wait to star chitchatting with them!

Xu Xin vs. Jun Mizutani Point

Here's video (30 sec) of a great point from the 2015 Asian Cup.

Backhand Looping Around the Net Practice

Here's 12 seconds of what should be central anyone's training regimen.

Crazy Doubles Pong

Here's the cartoon!

Skeleton Pong

Here's 26 seconds of a skeleton (really!) dancing to music while others play table tennis! Notice the great focus of the two players as they keep their concentration and completely ignore the distracting dancing bones.

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Tip of the Week

Technical Problems Often Come in Pairs.

Saturday - USA Table Tennis Board Meeting

The USATT Board met from 9AM to 4PM at the Hilton Inn at BWI Airport near Baltimore. I blogged about this on Thursday, including the agenda. Attending the meeting in person were board chair Peter Scudner, Anne Cribbs, Ed Hogshead, Kagin Lee, Han Xiao, and myself. Mike Babuin and Jim Kahler also phoned in for certain issues. Also attending was CEO Gordon Kaye, High Performance Chair Carl Danner, USATT Legal Counsel Dennis Tayler, and Assistant Secretary Lee Kondo. Most of us met for dinner on Friday night.

Much of what went on I'll go over when the motions and/or minutes go online. Here's the gist of some of the more interesting items.

We started with breakfast (served in the meeting room at 8:15AM), then call to order and introductory remarks from Peter. Then came the roll call and conflict of interest statements. We went over the minutes of the January and March meetings, and they were approved with a few minor adjustments. Dennis Taylor gave us a legal update on several confidential issues. (This was also the Executive Session that was scheduled later in the agenda.)

Then came a long discussion of the committee members and their approval. There were some complications, but most were resolved. I'll wait for the minutes to go more in depth on this. I'm chair of the USATT League Committee (appointed three weeks ago), and all three members of the committee were approved - Adam Bobrow, Michael Levene, and Bruce Liu. There will also be a player rep appointed by the Athlete Advisory Council, probably Han Xiao, since I've been working with him on these issues already and he was on the previous league committee. Next was the financial report - all seemed well.

Next up was my Regional Association Task Force Update. With help from Han Xiao, I had put together a plan to develop state and regional associations, with a three-pronged approach: State Championships, Leagues, and Coaching Programs. There were lots of questions and some good suggestions. I'll post more about this later, but suffice to say that this is going to take up a lot of my time and energy over the next few years. One of my first jobs is to find out what state and regional associations are out there - if you know of any, let me know!

CEO Gordon gave updates on US Open and other issues. (Entry forms should be out soon. Yes, there have been complications.)

Next up was my bylaw amendment to allow USATT members to get on the ballot for the two At-Large positions by petition (i.e. 150 signatures). Currently the USATT Board appoints a Nomination and Elections committee, who chooses from applicants who will go on the ballot.

Going in I had no idea what the thinking on this was - I'm not good at inside dealing and didn't feel comfortable asking around on this particular issue. Only one board member had publicly declared his intentions, Kagin Lee, and he said he was voting against it. The difficulty was that this was not a majority vote - it needed six votes period, i.e. 2/3 of the entire board, and three weren't present. But for this vote, Mike Babuin and Jim Kahler both phoned in. I gave a presentation, giving three big reasons to vote for it, which boiled down to:

1. Good Relationships with the Membership. Members who wished to run for the board often find themselves blocked from the ballot, with no recourse, leading to a lot of animosity from the membership and clubs;
2. Basic Fairness. I pointed out the unfairness of a system where we have elections, but we choose who they can vote between. I also pointed out that the USATT membership makes up 100% of our membership, that they directly make up about half the income, and indirectly well over half. I emphasized we were talking about only two of the nine positions on the board, or 22%.
3. Outside Energy and Fresh Blood. It's important for the Board to hear other views, that's difficult if we can effectively veto the candidacy of those we disagree with.

After much discussion, we made a few changes to the wording, and this is the final verison.

MOVED to append a new, Paragraph 3 to Bylaw 7.6(b)(3):
Any adult General Member in good standing at least 60 days before the record date, who obtains and submits to the Nominating and Governance Committee at least 150 signatures of support from current adult USATT General Members in good standing and whose membership is current as of the date of affixing of their signature, shall be placed on the election ballot as a candidate for At Large Director. Petition forms will be kept online at the USATT website and made available year round for prospective candidates. Signatures may be collected at any time between January 1 and December 1 in the year of the election.

And then we took the vote - and it passed, 7-1! I want to thank those who supported this, chair Peter for putting it on the agenda and also arguing for it (saying it was better than a previous proposal he had opposed because it gave an additional way to get on the board rather than replacing the current version), Dennis Taylor for helping with the wording, CEO Gordon for helping with certain logistics, and to Mike and Jim for phoning in. (If they hadn't, the vote would have been 5-1, and it wouldn't have passed, since it needed six votes. In which case I would have made the same proposal at the next meeting, and the next, and so on until it either passed or four people voted against it, meaning it couldn't get the needed six votes even with the full board voting).

Following that was High Performance Update by Carl Danner. Then came a discussion of plastic balls, led by Ed Hogshead, who pointed out the problems of so many balls that play differently being used in different tournaments, and argued for setting a date where we go all plastic in 3-star and above tournaments. The problem is that the different plastic balls themselves are very different themselves, and so unless we settled on one brand, it might not help much. No action was taken here, and most likely all we can do is wait one or two years until the manufacturers fix these problems with a more standardized ball.

We had a nice discussion of Strategic Vision. I gave my vision of regional leagues and coaching programs leading to huge memberships, and national tournaments and leagues allowing professional players to make a living in this country. (That's really two, so I have double vision.) I'm actively working now on the first part, and will be on the second part later - CEO Gordon also has plans, and so I plan to work with him on this, probably this fall.

And then we had a very short thing on old business, new business, and then we adjourned around 4PM. It was one of the best USATT meetings I've been to - I usually leave these things disgusted, but not this time.

Sunday - Coaching from 11:45AM to 8:30PM

Here's a rundown:

• 11:45AM-1:15 PM - private coaching
• 1:30-3:00 PM - group session
• 3:15-4:15 PM- private coaching
• 4:30-6:00 PM - junior group session
• 6:30-8:30 PM - adult group session
• 9:00-10:30 PM - got home in time to watch the season finale of The Walking Dead!

The adult group session was the Adult Beginning/Intermediate Class. Coaches Raghu and Josh assisted. There were 17 in the class, with two missing.

After the usual forehand and backhand warm-up, I had them push backhand to backhand for five minutes, both for practice and to prepare them for a drill we'd be doing later. Then I gave a demo and lecture on heavy backspin serves, where I explained how to create truly heavy backspin by literally scooping the ball up from just above table level. I also showed them some exercises, such as serving high backspins that bounce backward, and even games to play while developing this. I had them practice this for ten minutes.

Then we got to the main focus of the session - forehand loop against backspin. I gave the demo and lecture, and then there were lots of questions. Since they go together, I also went over blocking and demoed that. We got out to the tables a little behind, so we ended up going late. We had three groups, one with each coach, with the coach working with two at a time, feeding multiball to one while the other practiced blocking. The others did a drill where one would serve backspin, the other would push to a pre-arranged spot (usually the forehand or middle), and the server would loop, and then they'd play out the point. All six in my group were able to execute pretty good loops.

Backhand Banana Flip

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao, which includes a link to video of Ma Long.

Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina

• Reasons for the Loss - Learn to evaluate yourself and your opponent!
• Open Your Eyes 0_0 - Look at your opponent and win!

Mental Training for Table Tennis

Here's the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis.

Ask the Coach

Episode #105 (32:30) - Player of the Week (and other segments)

Oldest ITTF World Tour Title Champion

Here's the ITTF story about He Zhiwen, age 52, who just won Men's Doubles at the Spanish Open. "One week ago at the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour German Open in Bremen, Japan's Mima Ito became the youngest player to win an ITTF World Tour title, when she beat Germany's Petrissa Solja in the final of the Women's Singles event . . . now one week later, on Sunday 29th March, at the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Spanish Open in Almeria, the host nation's He Zhiwen has become the oldest player to secure an ITTF World Tour title. Aged 52 years and 302 days, he partnered colleague, Carlos Machado to success in the Men's Doubles final."

Richard McAfee's ITTF Coaching Course in Dharwad, India

Here's the ITTF story of his continuing Indian tour.

PongStarz CEO Kim Gilbert Rallies for the KIPP Ping Pong Smackdown

Here's the video (4:02). And here's a picture of Kim last month helping a young cancer patient.

Pong Hero

Here's a new site that does equipment reviews.

Table Tennis Ideas Factory

Here's a new page with lots of video. It's in Chinese, but Google translated it all into English for me.

New Front Window at Westchester Table Tennis Center

Here's the picture!

Top Ten Points from the German Open

Here's the video (4:20).

Trick Shots from Editing Sports

Here's their Youtube home page, with lots and lots of links to trickshot videos. Since the word "edit" is in the title, I'm suspicious about whether they are all for real.

Nonchalant No-Look Behind-the-Back I-Don't-Care-Who-Won-Point Backhand

Here's the video (18 sec, including slow motion replay) as Renata Strbikova (that's the spelling!) of the Czech Republic makes this crazy shot against Wang Nam of Hong Kong. Note how Renata doesn't even look to see if she made the shot or who won the point!

Your Basic Behind-the-Back Backhand Smash

Here's the video (8 sec) - it seems like everyone's trying out this shot recently.

Balloon Net Table Tennis

Here's the video (1:45) of the new action-packed version of table tennis that's sweeping the world1

Jun Mizutani and Seiya Kishikawa Exhibition

Here's video (52 sec) of a great practice exhibition point by the two Japanese stars.

***
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No Blog on Friday

Because…

1. Schools are closed for a "Teacher Professional Day," and if they get the day off, so do I.
2. I can use another day off to rest. I took a day off on Tuesday, and it really paid off during yesterday's coaching, where I felt energized for the first time in a while.
3. To give me time to prepare for the USATT Board Meeting on Saturday, where I have two presentations.
4. So I can spend the day finalizing the first draft of "The Spirit of Pong," which I blogged about March 16. (I finished the first draft yesterday, but have two pages of notes of things to add or change.)
5. So I can take my car to the shop for a check-up and minor repairs.
6. We have a one-day training camp at MDTTC, but I might not be needed since we have eight full-time coaches - but I might be called in.

USATT Board Meeting

This Saturday there's a USATT Board meeting in Baltimore from 9AM to 4PM. Board members and some staff and/or committee chairs will be coming in for the meeting. As a board member since January, this'll be my first in-person meeting, though I've been on two teleconferences. (Over the years I've attended about 60 board meetings, including the last one in December at the Nationals.) Below is the agenda. I've got two presentations, both scheduled for 30 minutes.

The first (at 11:30 AM) is my Regional Associations Proposal, which plans to set up regional and state associations, with a three-pronged goal: setting regional team leagues; coaching programs; and state championships. A huge portion of my time over the next few years is going to be devoted to this. I'll blog a lot more about this later.

The second (at 1:30PM) is my proposal to allow USATT members to get on the USATT election ballot by petition of 150 members. Below the agenda is the wording of the proposal. I blogged about this issue on January 24, 2014. (I have several other bylaw proposals I plan to bring up later, but wanted to start with this one. I'll likely do the others in one batch.)

Two other issues I'll likely be very involved in are "Committee Assignments" at 9:25AM, and "Strategic Visioning" at 2:30PM. Oh, and "Breakfast" at 8:15. I have a lot planned there. (I'm guessing that changing USATT is a lot like making sausage - you might like the end result, but you might not want to watch it being made.) I'm also looking forward to the US Open Update at noon - like many of you, I'm impatient for this to be finalized.

Next week I'll blog about the meeting as well as an update on my own activities, in particular the various things I raised during the election. I'll have a lot to report!

The meeting is open to the public, other than the 15-minute executive session at 3:15PM. Come see the sheer excitement watching people around a table arguing over bylaw wording! See us stab each other in the eye with glares of steel! Watch us wield "Robert's Rules of Order" as a weapon of mass destruction, sweeping away all opposition that knows not its clauses and sub-paragraphs! (I'm just joking, of course - hopefully we'll get some important stuff done!)

USA Table Tennis Board Meeting Agenda

Saturday, March 28, 2015
Hilton – BWI (Baltimore, MD)

• 8:15am Breakfast
• 9:00am Call to Order/Introductory Remarks (Peter Scudner)
• 9:05am Roll Call/Conflict of Interest (Dennis Taylor)
• 9:10am Approval of the January 21, 2015 and March 5, 2015 Minutes (Peter Scudner)
• 9:15am Legal Update (Dennis Taylor)
• 9:25am Committee Assignments (Peter Scudner)
• 10:45am Break
• 11:00am Financial Report/Review of Preliminary March 31, 2015 Financials (Gordon Kaye)
• 11:30am Regional Association Task Force Update (Larry Hodges)
• 12:00pm US Open Update (Gordon Kaye)
• 12:15pm Lunch
• 12:45pm CEO’s Report (Gordon Kaye)
• 1:30pm Proposed By-Law Amendment (Larry Hodges)
• 2:00pm High Performance/USOC Update (Carl Danner)
• 2:15pm Discussion Regarding Plastic Balls (Ed Hogshead)
• 2:30pm Strategic Visioning (Peter Scudner)
• 3:15pm Executive Session
• 3:30pm Old Business
• 3:45pm New Business
• 4:00pm Adjourn

Bylaw Proposal (see 1:30 PM above)

MOVED to append a new, Paragraph 3 to Bylaw 7.6(b)(3):

The following will need a 2/3 majority to pass. (That's 2/3 of the entire 9-member board, so it needs 6 votes, period. If three don't attend and it "passes" 5-1, it doesn't pass. I've since learned that three board members will not attend, but some or all may attend parts of the meeting via teleconferening.)

"Any adult General Member in good standing at least 60 days before the record date, who obtains and submits to the Nominating and Governance Committee at least 150 signatures of support from current adult USATT General Members in good standing, shall be placed on the election ballot for At Large Director. Petition forms will be kept online at the USATT website and made available year round for prospective candidates. Signatures may be collected at any time up to one year before voting for the election begins. If the signatures are submitted in advance of the finalization of the ballot, the Nominating and Governance Committee may, but is not required to, include that candidate as one of the minimum of two (2) candidates for the ballot."

NOTE: The primary reason for making the petitions available year round and allowing signatures up to a year in advance is to allow candidates to get these signatures at the U.S. Open, which is currently held in the summer. The Open, the Nationals, and the North American Teams are currently the only tournaments where there are enough USATT members that prospective candidates can get these signatures, and the Nationals is often too late, and not everyone can make it to the Teams (which is also rather late in the election cycle).

French Translation of Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

The proofs are now in the mail. Once they are approved, the book will be on sale in the French Amazon, probably in a week or two. The translation was done by David Salomez.

Throwback Thursday at USATT

Here's a picture they put up this morning of the Resident Training Program for Table Tennis at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, from I believe Spring, 1988. At the time I was manager, which included being a practice partner and tutor. (I would later become director and assistant coach.)

Front, L-R: Lisa Gee, Larry Hodges, Dhiren Narotam, Rocky Wang, Karl Schultz, John Elwood, Diana Gee.
Middle, L-R: Gene Lonnon, Sean O'Neill, Coach Henan Li Ai, Todd Sweeris, Chi-Sun Chui, Ardith Lonnon, Insook Bhushan, Li Ai.
Back, L-R: Anthony Cooper, Chi Ngo, Coach Liquo Ai.

USATT Insider

Here's the new issue that came out Wedneday morning. It includes my article, "The Odyssey of Ruichao Alex Chen." 

Backhand Topspin Against Block

Here's the video (1:37) from PingSkills.

Ask the Coach

Episode #104 (29:24) - Throwback Thursday (and other segments)

Serve Practice

Have you practiced your serves this week? No??? Okay . . . let me know when you are serious about your game again, and we'll talk! To the rest of you, good job. (This is a reprint from a previous blog that I'll likely run periodically.)

World Police and Fire Games

The venue for the 2015 World Police and Fire Games has been moved to the Smash Table Tennis Center in Sterling, Virginia, about an hour from me. Here's the announcement. Deadline to enter is April 24. Here's info on table tennis in the Games, which will be held June 27-29. I don't know who is coming, but some of the prominent names that might be there include firefighter Scott Boggan (who I believe has won it a few times), and policemen David Fernandez and David Chun. "Every 2 years 12,000 athletes from 70+ countries compete in 60+ events at the world Police and Fire games."

Sinovision TV

Sinovision, a Chinese TV station based in New York City, sent a crew down to the Maryland Table Tennis Center Wednesday afternoon and night to do a feature on Crystal Wang. They interviewed and videotaped her and a number of others. I'll post a link to the video when it goes up.

Table Tennis Daily Launches Equipment Review Centre

Here's the article from Matt Hetherington. And here's the actual review site.

ITTF Level 1 Coaching Course in Dharwad, India

Here are pictures of the coaching course Richard McAfee is running, March 23-27. And here are two pictures where they held a ceremony to honor his work. I've played and coached 38 years - how come no one's ever given me a scarf??? (And what's in the gift-wrapped cylinder? ADDENDUM: Richard says it was a carved wooden candle holder.)

The Girls of Argentina

Here's the video (3:30) by Jimmy Butler on the Argentinian team that qualified for the Pan Ams.

German Open, Zhang vs. Samsonov and Yan An

Here are the highlights (3:15) of this epic comeback, where Zhang Jike comes back from down 0-3 in the quarterfinals against Vladimir Samsonov to win in seven: -8,-9,-9,3,8,11,5. Another great match is the semifinals, Zhang vs. Yan An - here are the highlights (2:51). (Here's the home page for the German Open, held this past weekend.)

International Table Tennis

Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.

Timo Boll is On the Ball

Or rather, the balls, eight of them, are on him. Here's the picture.

"We Don't Tolerate That Kind of Horseplay"

Here's the cartoon. 

***
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Shakehands Grip Variations and Changes

Recently I've had a lot of questions about whether it's okay to use variations of the shakehands grip, or to change grips during a rally. (Of course a large part of this is I'm teaching a new ten-week Adult Beginning/Intermediate Class.) The answer is . . . it depends.

Before I go further, here are three articles I've written on the subject:

• Grip and Stance
• Should You Use a Neutral Grip?
• Feet and Grip

But since these articles are all from 2012 and 2013, they've been forgotten - so now's a good time to blog about it! At least it'll get you thinking about it. Plus I'll add a few new things.

First, a quick definition. A neutral grip is where the thinnest part of the wrist should line up with the paddle. If, while in a backhand position, you rotate the top of the racket away from you, then you have a backhand grip. If you rotate the top of the racket toward you, it's a forehand grip. Here's an article with pictures showing extreme forehand and backhand grips - you can also have a forehand or backhand grip that isn't as extreme as in these pictures.

For beginners, I strongly urge you to use a neutral grip until your strokes are well developed. Those who start out with backhand or forehand grips usually ended up with stroke problems. The problem with a non-neutral grip is you are forced to make adjustments for the fact that your arm is aiming one way, your racket another. This will mess your stroke development up.

For intermediate players, once your strokes are mostly ingrained and (hopefully) sound, you can experiment with minor variations and grip changes. Small changes can often greatly enhance certain strokes while hurting others. Experiment and see what works for you and your style.

For advanced players, you have already gone through all this. However, you can still experiment sometimes, and perhaps you might find a variation that'll help. Subtle changes often make a big difference in some shot.

Most of the above is about grip variations. What about grip changes? Some players do change their grip between forehand and backhand; Jan-Ove Waldner did. He put pressure on the racket with his thumb, which forced his racket into a slight backhand position. This is a common variation. Minor changes like this are okay, as long as you can smoothly make them as you go from forehand to backhand and vice versa. But be forewarned - in fast rallies, these changes have to be almost instant and reflexive.

Timo Boll is another who uses grip changes, in particular when doing inside-out forehand sidespin loops, where he uses a slight forehand grip, making it easier to spin the inner side of the ball.

Ultimately, if you aren't sure, discuss your grip possibilities with a coach, experiment, and try to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the variations. For example, a backhand grip isn't best for all backhand shots; it's good for backhand looping and blocking, but many (including me) find it easier to backhand kill with a slight forehand grip.

Personally, I've gone back and forth over the years. I used a neutral grip probably my first five years, but since then I've changed from slight forehand to slight backhand every now and then. Sometimes I change based on who I'm playing. If I'm going to do a lot of forehand looping, I might go with a slight forehand grip, while if I'm going to block a lot I might go with a slight backhand grip. When I play a chopper I go to a very forehand grip. Sometimes if I decide I'm not consistent enough I'll switch to a more backhand grip so I can keep the ball in play more; but if I start playing too passive, I'll go more forehand, which improves my forehand loop and backhand smash, but lowers my consistency, blocking, and makes it harder to cover the middle (for me).

But I don't encourage others to change grips in the way that I do, nor do I discourage you from it, as long as you make sure you understand what you are doing.

Besides Waldner and Boll, there are other classic examples of top players with non-normal shakehands grips.

• Nobuhiko Hasegawa, 1967 World Men's Singles Champion - he had his index finger almost down the middle of the paddle. Here's a picture - how he avoided hitting his finger is one of the great unsolved mysteries. I don't recommend this - you tend to lose stability with the racket without the index finger to guide and secure it, plus it can tighten your forearm muscles.

• Stellan Bengtsson, 1971 World Men's Singles Champion, and Jorgen Persson, 1991 World Men's Singles Champion - both of these players had their index finger curled slightly around the side of the racket rather than on it. Here's a picture of Bengtsson's grip, and here's Persson's grip.
• Perry Schwartzberg, 1976 U.S. National Junior Champion - late in his career, he switched to a "hammer" grip, with all four fingers wrapped around the handle, as well as going to hard rubber on his backhand, with inverted on forehand. Without the index finger on the racket, you again can lose stability, and forehands can be awkward, but it's a good grip for hitting backhands.
• I've been trying to remember her name, but a member of the English Women's Team in I believe the 1970s played with a shakehands grip with two fingers on the rubber, the index finger and middle finger, like this. This feels pretty awkward!
• Tim Boggan, former top ten in U.S. (circa 1960s?) - for forehands, used an extreme forehand grip, plus put his finger down middle of the blade, with the base of the handle cupped in his palm. For backhands, he switched to an extreme backhand grip and lowered the racket in his hand. This is the most extreme grip changes I've ever seen - I don't even know where to begin in explaining why you don't want to do this…

But notice how these players are mostly from decades ago, while nearly all the top modern shakehanders use nearly identical shakehands grips? Do they do so because it's the best way and those with weaker grips fall back, or is nearly everyone taught the exact same grip from the beginning? Cause and effect! (But I'd stick with the proper shakehands grip if at all possible - it's proven and effective, and allows just about every important shot at a high level.)

Missing Out? Learn why you CAN'T reap the benefits of good practice

Here's the latest coaching article by Samson Dubina.

Ask the Coach

Episode #103 (19:50) - Is Ma Lin's Serve Legal? (and other segments)

Platform Toddler Pong

Here's video (78 sec) of what looks like a three- or four-year-old with near perfect forehand form. Note how he rotates around the "pole through the head" I sometimes write about? (Here's my Tip of the Week, "Balance Throughout the Stroke.") This gives natural power and keeps the player balanced and in position for the next shot. Note also that he's standing on a platform. While I worry about the safety - it probably should only be done under adult supervision - this allows kids to start much earlier, and get a huge head start on the future competition.

USA Men Qualify for Pan Ams

I linked to various pages on this yesterday. Here's the USATT page, with results, pictures, and video.

2015 Butterfly Cary Cup

Here's the final article on the tournament by Barbara Wei. (I linked to her previous five Cary Cup articles on Monday.)

College Table Tennis

Here are three new USATT articles on college table tennis.

• Texas Wesleyan is on a Mission: 12^th in a Row
• Team UCLA
• NCTTA World Wide: Spreading #TTLove to Ghana

11 Questions with Larry Rose

Here's the USATT interview.

US Table Tennis Foundation Approves Grant to USA Table Tennis

Here's the press release from USATT.

Never Give Up!

Here's the new highlights video (7:26).

Best Behind-the-Back Shots

So which of these is the best Behind-the-Back Shot of All Time?

• Kit Jeerapaet
• Daniel Habeshon
• Quentin Robinot 
• One of these ten?

Concrete Table Tennis Ad

Here's the video (2:08).

Most Consecutive Table Tennis Ball Bounces on a Paddle while Balancing Baseball Bat on Two Fingers in Other Hand

Here's the video (1:41)1

Saive-Saive Exhibition

Here's the video (3:26). "The table tennis show from the Saive brothers. They won twice the world most spectacular pairs contest. They also made hundreds of exhibition around the world." Most of us know about the exploits of Jean-Michel Saive, former world #1, Men's Singles Finalist at the 1993 World Championships, and 1994 European Men's Singles Champion. But how many of you know that his younger brother, Philippe Saive, was also on the Belgium team that made the Men's Team Final at the 2001 World Championships in Japan? (I was there, watching in the stands and doing media coverage for USATT. Philippe now runs Philippe Saive Management, which runs the ITTF Legends Tour - and Jean-Michel won their most recent event!

More Table Tennis from The Onion

Yesterday I linked to three table tennis articles from The Onion. Here are three other mentions of table tennis from articles that didn't feature table tennis:

• "'Table Tennis, Anyone?'" is one of many home videos that failed to earn the title of 'funniest.'" (March 30, 2005)
• "China wins gold medals in every table tennis event at the breathtaking $120 million Basement Stadium" (August 28, 2008)
• "The 2010 Hong Kong Junior & Cadet Open international table-tennis tournament is delayed indefinitely, even with the officials also getting down on their hands and knees to look for the missing ping-pong ball" (August 13, 2010)

And for those who missed it from yesterday:

• Ping-Pong Somehow Elicits Macho Posturing (Dec. 20, 2000)
• Table Tennis Star Wang Hao Out 4 Weeks With Sprained Knuckle (July 20, 2009)
• Congress Is Playing Professional Tournament-Level Ping-Pong With This Nation’s Future (Feb. 5, 2014)

***
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Exhaustion, and Playing Those Wide Angles and Middle

I must be getting old. I'm not sure how this happened - I think someone at the club stuck something in my Gatorade one day, and presto! This past month I've coached nearly every single day. I finally got a day off this past Saturday due to a series of fortunate events, but Sunday I was on my feet coaching for over six hours. Yesterday I had 2.5 hours of coaching and could barely move as my muscles were absolutely, completely, totally, wholly, entirely, fully, and utterly dead. (Yeah, I used a Thesaurus.)

I was hitting with 10-year-old Daniel (1639), and I think he aced me with shots to the wide forehand or backhand about every ten seconds. The eye-opener was when I wanted to work on his blocking near the end of the session with him, and literally couldn't forehand loop to his block more than a few shots - normally I'm sort of a machine in a drill, not really powerful but can loop over and Over and OVER. I was even having blocking as my legs just wouldn't step to the ball - and Daniel was somewhat gleeful in looping wide-angled aces, as well as to my middle. (But I liked that he was going for such wide-angle loops - see last Monday's Tip of the Week, To Play the Middle and Wide Corners You Have to Practice to Them.) We ended up doing extra multiball. When we played games at the end, I compensated for my lack of mobility by pulling out my best serves and receives - sorry Daniel.

Today I also have 2.5 hours scheduled, but I've got others substituting so I can stay off my feet - no coaching today. I still have to run out and pick up some kids for our afterschool program, but I'm just dropping them off and then returning home. I'll be back on Wednesday and Thursday, but I'm probably going to take Friday and Saturday off as well. Friday is a Professional Day, and local schools are closed, so no afterschool program, and I think my one student that night is away. Saturday there's a USATT Board meeting in Baltimore (see below), so no coaching that day. (I'm trying to figure out if sitting in a meeting all day is restful or exhausting?) I'll blog about the meeting on Thursday, and again afterwards on Monday.

The Spirit of Pong

I blogged about this fantasy table tennis novella last Wednesday. It's now 21,290 words, about 85 pages in double-spaced 12-point Times Roman. I was about 15 minutes from basically finishing the first draft on Sunday when I had to go coach. I say "basically" because I have three pages of notes of things to go add or fix; once I'm done with that, I'll consider it a first draft. I expect it'll end up around 25,000 words, about 100 pages. I hope to work on it more today and tomorrow, and perhaps finish the first draft. (Alas, I have other projects that keep interfering, such as getting the new French translation of my Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers ready for the French Amazon, and preparing for the USATT Board meeting this Saturday, where I have two presentations.)

I'm dying to tell you about my favorite scene, a life and death match with "The Dragon," an impeccably polite and unassuming Hiroji Satoh, who once again has a new revolutionary racket, plus a few other unexpected quirks. There are also appearances by the "Spirit of What Made Them Champions" of great players at key times, and extended training sequences with the spirits of Ichiro Ogimura and 1959 World Men's Champion Rong Guotuan - and the story gets rather dark in the latter saga.

The Odyssey of Ruchao Alex Chen: A Chinese Star from Sweden in America

Here's the story I wrote for USATT about this great player from the Maryland Table Tennis Center.  

Latin American Championships and Pan Am Qualification

Here's the ITTF page. Team USA (Jim Butler, Kanak Jha, Timothy Wang, and coach Stefan Feth - here's a team selfie!) defeated Peru to qualify for the Pan Ams. Here's an ITTF article featuring undefeated Kanak Jha. And here's the entire video of Team USA's win over Peru (2:28:37).

USATT Hall of Fame Museum at Triangle Table Tennis

Here's the ribbon-cutting picture. "Donna Sakai, President of the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame, cutting the ribbon to mark the opening of the USTTA Hall of Fame museum at Triangle Table Tennis in Morrisville, North Carolina. (l-r) Tim Boggan, member of the museum committee, Ann Campbell, President Triangle Table Tennis, Steve Rao, Morrisville Councilman, Mike Babuin, member of the museum committee, Dean Johnson, Chairman of the museum committee." Here's a Panoramic View of the museum.

Open Ended Drills

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao.

Plan A vs Plan B: Learn about making necessary adjustments

Here's the latest coaching article by Samson Dubina.

Don't Plan Rest Days Into Your Training Programme

Here's the new article by Ben Lacombe.

Ask the Coach

Episode #101 (16:50) - Pendulum Serve Grip (and other segments)

Episode #102 (23:15) - Is the rest of the world catching up to China? (and other segments)

Next Stop for Richard McAfee, Dharwad District in State of Karnataka

Here's the ITTF story about USA's globetrotting coach's coach.

XIOM Smash TT Round Robin and Newgy Ohio Open

While everyone was paying attention to the Butterfly Cary Cup in NC and the German Open (both covered in yesterday's blog), there was also the Newgy Ohio Open (here are results, photos, and video), and the XIOM Round Robin in nearby Virginia (here's the write-up & results, and photos). 

Great Point at German Open

Here's the video (8 sec) of this very fast point in the final between Zhang Jike and Ma Long.

Mima Ito of Japan Becomes Youngest Ever ITTF Pro Tour Champion

Here's the video (1:32) as she defeats Petrissa Solja of German in the final on Sunday.

Table Tennis in The Onion

As pointed out by Iskandar Taib in the OOAK Forum, table tennis has been in The Onion at least three times, including just last month:

• Ping-Pong Somehow Elicits Macho Posturing (Dec. 20, 2000)
• Table Tennis Star Wang Hao Out 4 Weeks With Sprained Knuckle (July 20, 2009)
• Congress Is Playing Professional Tournament-Level Ping-Pong With This Nation’s Future (Feb. 5, 2014)

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Tip of the Week

Macho or Tricky?

Adult Beginning/Intermediate Class

Yesterday, from 6:30-8:00PM, I taught Week Four of the ten-week class. There are 19 in the class, with Raghu Nadmichettu and Josh Tran normally assisting. (Yesterday John Hsu subbed for Josh, who was at Cary Cup.) Here's the group picture I linked to last week.

Yesterday we started right where we'd finished last week, with pushing, with the emphasis now on the forehand push. I explained that you have to learn to do regular forehand pushes, but as players advanced, they mostly only do forehand pushes against short balls, since it's better to loop any deep backspin ball to the forehand. (This is also somewhat true on the backhand side, but not quite as much since you are more likely to get jammed on the backhand side, and because you have an angle into a righty opponent's backhand with your backhand push.)

I harped on the idea that you have to step to the ball, both side to side and in and out, not just reach. I showed how beginners should learn to take the ball on the drop, letting the ball fall on their racket, but as they advanced, they should learn to take the ball quicker, right off the bounce. I went over the six main things you want to do with a push, and explained why it's better to be pretty good at all six than great at most but weak on one or two Here's my Tip of the Week, Pushing: Five out of Six Doesn't Cut It.

Then we did some regular forehand and backhand practice, 7.5 minutes each. And then it was on to footwork, everyone's favorite most hated part. After the demo, everyone did forehand 1-1 footwork, where one player alternated forehands from the wide forehand and the middle, hitting each ball to his partner's forehand, and the partner tried to alternate hitting the balls to those two spots. Two very important points on this were 1) both players were doing the drill - one practicing footwork, the other practicing consistency and control; and 2) all drills are footwork drills, since you assume you have to move, and so flex the knees in preparation.

We finished with a demo and lecture on fast serves. I explained the importance of these as variations to other serves, and showed how some fast serves are easy to return, while others are not. When I served my bullet topspin serve to the backhand, few had great trouble with it. But when I gave it a sidespin so it broke away from them, everyone had fits. Similarly, fast topspin to the middle wasn't too effective, but when I switched to a very flat, dead ball, they put it in the net over and over. Down the line was effective with topspin because the topspin allowed you to serve with maximum speed (since the topspin pulled the ball down), so the focus on those serves was to keep your racket aimed crosscourt until the last second, and then smack it down the line with maximum speed. Everyone then practiced their serves, with the option of serving fast or serving with spin.

USA Today - American Crystal Wang Turning Heads in Table Tennis at age 13

Here's the article from USA Today! It links to a 31-sec video. (And Crystal only turned 13 less than a month ago.) Special thanks to USATT Media Consultant Richard Finn for helping put these together.

Cary Cup

Butterfly Online has some basic results, pictures, and articles from the 4-star Butterfly Cary Cup held this past weekend. Here are articles by Barbara Wei. MDTTC, my club, did pretty well, as you can see from one of the articles! It's a five-hour drive, but a contingent of 21 went down. Here's the MDTTC picture, with four players missing.

• March 22: Jishan Liang Takes Championship Title in Impressive Style at 2015 Butterfly Cary Cup
• March 21: Maryland Table Tennis Center Dominant at 2015 Butterfly Cary Cup
• March 21: Top 16 Decided for 2015 Butterfly Cary Cup
• March 21: Outstanding Elite Competition in Top Division at 2015 Butterfly Cary Cup
• March 19: New Venue, Diverse Players, Same Excitement for 2015 Butterfly Cary Cup

German Open

It was held over the weekend. Here's the ITTF home page for the event, with complete results, articles, and video. Here's the ITTF video page, where you can see interviews and lots of matches and highlights, with the time between points often removed. Check out the Quotes section under Media, with quotes each of the five days. Here's the ITTF press release, Mima Ito Becomes Youngest Ever World Tour Champion. Here's video of a great point (52 sec) as Zhang Jike wins game four, 16-14, and then leaps the barriers as he goes go up 3-1 in the final against Ma Long. But (Spoiler Alert!) Ma Long would come back to win in seven, 9,-7,-8,-14,6,12,8.

Junior Class Picture

Here's a group picture of the Thursday Night Beginning Junior Class I teach, taken last Thursday. I'm on the far right. Assisting are John Hsu and Raghu Nadmichettu (on far left) and Jeffrey Xeng Zun (next to me).

Tomahawk Serve

Here's the coaching video (5:12) by William Henzell.

Physical Training for Table Tennis

Here's the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis.

Could Red Help You Win?

Here's the article by Ben Larcombe. I'm seeing red - so many blue shirts in my closet!

Early Specialization

Here's the article by Ben Larcombe of Expert Table Tennis. "While there is no doubt that early specialisation increases the likelihood of a child experiencing burnout, chronic stress and a decrease in motivation and enjoyment, that still doesn’t change the fact that it is becoming much tougher to succeed without it. In the majority of fields it’s the ‘early specialisers’ that are reaching the top."

44-Year-Old Table Tennis Champ Jimmy Butler Eyes Rio Return After Unbelievable Rebirth

Here's the article.

Pongstarz CEO Kim Gilbert and Kipp Smackdown for Bay Area Schools

Here's the USATT article, with links to a pair of videos.

Bay Area a Hotbed for Table Tennis

Here's the article from the San Jose Mercury News.

Paul David Interview

Here's the USATT interview.

SPiN Opening in Chicago at Marina City

Here's the article.

Can a European Become World Champion in 2015?

Here's the video (30 sec) from the ITTF. "Take a look back at Werner Schlager becoming the World Champion in 2003, the last European to do so."

The Best Return of Serve in History?

Here's the video (16 sec, with slow motion replay) of Ma Long's around-the-net looping receive of Dimitrij Ovtcharov's serve.

How to return a net ball with forehand from backhand side at one inch from the floor

Here's the video (21 sec) as Xavier Therien demonstrates against Antoine Bernadet.

A Great Rally and a Face

Here's the video (31 sec) of a great rally, but you almost don't notice it because of the guy's face!

Poor Baby Technique

This picture is an outrage. As is obvious to any coach, the baby is using a hammer grip rather than a proper shakehands grip with index finger on the paddle. He's not keeping his eye on the ball. He's clearly in an extreme backhand stance - what if the ball goes to the forehand side? And if the ball is white, his clothing is clearly illegal. However, at least his non-playing hand is up for balance.

Dodgers Ping Pong Finals

Here's an article about the Dodgers ping pong tournament, with a link to the video (2:52) where Clayton Kershaw and Corey Seager square off against Justin Turner and Daniel Coulombe in the Dodgers Ping Pong Finals.

CZ Ping Pong Stars

Here's the new humorous music video (6:24) as two players prepare for the big showdown and then have it out, all to the music of "Ping Pong."

Woodpecker Pong

Here's the picture!

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