No Blog Friday and North American Grand Tour Final

I'm off early on Friday morning for the North American Grand Tour Final this weekend at the Westchester TTC in Pleasantville, NY. Here is a link to the program, with the schedule, rules, fun facts about table tennis, and information/photos on all 16 players (average rating over 2600, led by Eugene Wang at 2799). Here is the tournament flyer, which includes spectator info. Here's the USATT News Item.

All-out Forehand Attack - Surprise vs. Predicted

There's a huge difference between surprising your opponent with sudden forehand attacks, and predictably attacking all-out with the forehand. Last night was a good example. I played one of my students some practice games after our session - he's probably playing 1700 level, but knows my game and my serves very well. Without telling him, I decided to play all forehand. And so I won the first game 11-2 without playing a single backhand - I returned every single serve with the forehand (about half of them against short serves), and no matter what he did, I ran around and played forehand, even forcing counterloops every time he attacked. We played a second game, and I took another big lead, and he was getting frustrated. Then I told him what I was doing - he hadn't noticed, other than noting that I was playing very aggressive. We started a new game, and this time he began to play smart, attacking the wide corners over and over, challenging me with fast, angled serves and short ones to the forehand. Result? This time he won 11-7. He went home happy. (Now, if this were the 1980s, things would have been different - but I'll be 55 in three weeks, and so I'm not quite so fast anymore.)

Beginning/Intermediate Class

Here's info on the Beginning/Intermediate Class I'll be teaching at MDTTC for ten weeks, Sundays from 6:30-8:00 PM, starting Feb. 15, for players from beginner to about 1500. This is an adult class, though we'll let players as young as thirteen participate. There are 14 signed up so, ranging from around 20 to players in their 60s. I'll likely have two assistant coaches. I've taught this class about 20 times before. You can sign up via email and pay when you arrive!

USATT January Teleconference

I had my first USATT meeting as a new USATT Board Member on Wednesday night, January 21. The three motions from the meeting went up yesterday in the USATT Minutes Page. (The actual minutes, which give more info on the motions, discussions, and reports, will go up later after they are approved by the USATT Board.)

At the start of the meeting there were only six of nine board members present, as Club Rep Director Ed Hogshead was teaching a table tennis class, Athlete Director Ed Levy was in England (where it was 1AM), and Athlete Director Han Xiao was stuck in a business meeting. At-Large Director Mike Babuin was up for re-election for another two-year term as Chair of the Board. (I'm now the other At-Large Director.) There was no official advance notice of who might be running against him, so the first thing we did was have a call for anyone running against him - and Peter Scudner said he was. (I think I scared a few people for a few seconds into thinking I was running when I spoke up here, but it was only to remind people to identify themselves when they spoke as I was having trouble recognizing everyone by their voices.)

Mike and Peter each gave a short speech on why they were running, and then we voted. I voted for Mike since he has been arguing for many of the same things I've argued for to develop the sport. However, he was voted down 4-2, with Mike and I voting for Mike, while the three Independent Directors (Peter and the other two non-table tennis members, Jim Kahler and Anne Cribbs) voted for Peter, along with National Organization Director Kagin Lee. (Han Xiao joined us soon afterward, missing the vote, though of course his vote alone wouldn't have made a difference.) Peter then took over as Chair of the Board and the teleconference. (He previously chaired the board for four years, 2009-2012.)

If you are having trouble figuring out what all these board titles mean, welcome to the crowd; they are all from our bylaws. Sometime I'll blog about them. Here's the Board listing.

During the meeting there were three motions, several reports, and an executive session (board members only) where we discussed some disciplinary issues. (Besides the board members, others on the teleconference were Counsel Dennis Taylor; High Performance Committee Chair Carl Danner; and Assistant Secretary Lee Kondo.) The reports were on RailStation (who now does our membership and ratings software), a sponsorship update, and on the U.S. Open and Nationals. (Much of this will be covered when the official minutes go online.) There were three votes.

The first vote was simply to approve the minutes of the previous meeting at the USA Nationals in December. There had been some email discussion and corrections to this. When Kagin Lee moved to approve them, and nobody immediately seconded it, I did the second, and they were approved unanimously. (I did attend most of that meeting, but not as a board member, so afterwards I wondered if it was appropriate that I seconded the motion. But not important as it passed unanimously, I think 5-0 as Han wasn't yet available.)

The second vote was some redefining of what a "Supporting member" was, and it also passed unanimously. Again I did the second.

The third motion passed 4-1, with me the lone dissenter. So why did I vote against this? The vote was about newly reworded USATT Committee Procedures and Responsibilities, which is included in the online document (pages 3-6). When the vote came up during the teleconference, I said that we're just putting a bandage on the problem rather than fix the problem, and that I wasn't going to approve any more of these minor bureaucratic changes to the committees until we focused on the 800-pound gorilla, which is implementation. Currently our bylaws specify that these committees are "Advisory." Committees that advise when we don't have anyone to implement are mostly useless. We need to stop the seemingly endless restructuring and wording changes, and focus on actively developing our sport. (This might change soon, as I may be volunteering for a position where I will focus on implementation. More when and if this comes up. There also might be an upcoming motion from me or someone else taking the "Advisory" word out of the bylaws for many of these committees, and adding implementation to their general responsibilities. That's the one I'd vote for.)

We received the motion in advance via email. Here is my email to the Board the day before the teleconference, explaining why I opposed the motion.

Jan. 20, 2015:

Many of the committee responsibilities are advisory, but who will do the implementation? For example, the League Committee is tasked to “Develop plans to promote the growth of affiliated leagues.” If they are not also tasked to implement these plans, who will? Otherwise we’ll just keep creating unimplemented plans, like we always do.

The Club Committee is tasked to “Survey clubs regarding their needs and expectations for USATT support,” “Survey clubs regarding their existing structure and membership,” and “Review how clubs fit and maintain a role in the USATT Strategic Plan.” How does any of this help if they aren’t also tasked to actually implement anything after getting this info? Only in a very bad bureaucracy is the goal to find the problems while not looking to fix them. The items above give us information that could lead to plans to address the problems found, i.e. they are a means to an end – fixing the problems and thereby develop and grow the sport. But who will implement these plans if not the committee?

The Coaching committee is tasked to “Appoint, certify, train and monitor coaches.” What about recruit, probably the most important aspect if we want to grow? And who will create and implement plans to recruit coaches if not the Coaching Committee?

I could go through many of the committees in this way. We need to stop focusing on restructuring and similar issues, and focus on things that specifically increase membership, improve our elite players, or similar things that lead to such development. (That includes increasing revenue, which is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.) Historically we’ve been the model for a Dilbert cartoon, with the lack of implementation our greatest sin. It’s time to break that mold and focus on doing things that develop the sport.

I’m in the middle of a “writing sabbatical” this week to work on a new table tennis book (“Parents’ Guide to Table Tennis”), but I’d be willing to work on the wording next week if requested, but only if there seems to be a consensus that it is needed, i.e. that the committees should be tasked (roughly speaking) with creating and implementing plans to develop the sport in their area.

-Larry Hodges (just back from a three-hour meeting of the Capital Area Super League organizing committee – where it’s all about implementation)

Alas, as noted in my blog on January 26, I didn't get much work done on the "Parent's Guide," but I got a lot of other stuff done, much of it USATT stuff.

Ask the Coach

Three more episodes - they've been busy!

• Episode 69 (26:21) - Improving Anticipation
• Episode 70 (19:47) - Who is Second Best?
• Episode 71 (25:32) - Eye Dominance

The Serve of Kenta Matsudaira

Here's a video (60 sec) showing the progression of the serve of Kenta (world #23, formerly #15) from a child to now. Here's a translation of the caption: Translation of caption: "Kenta Matsudaira is not only known for its great game but also with a unique service, which he learned from an early age. See this interesting movie." It's an interesting serve that more should copy - or better still, develop their own interesting serve variations.

Hank Zipzer: My Secret Life as a Ping-Pong Wizard

This is a kid's book, roughly for grades 3-7 (ages 8-12), 158 pages but with rather large print so it only took about 90 minutes to read. Here's the version I read. Here's a newer version. It's one of 17 books in the Hank Zipzer series by Henry Winkler (yes, of Happy Days fame) and Lin Oliver. The books are all subtitled "Hank Zipzer: The World's Greatest Underachiever." Hank, like Henry Winkler, is dyslexic, as well as having very poor hand-eye coordination.

In this book, Hank, who is just starting fifth grade, goes from troublemaker and soccer failure to gaining confidence and fun as a ping-pong player, where he learns to concentrate under the patience tutelage of Coach Winston. There's sort of an ongoing joke where seemingly everyone Hank knows thinks ping-pong is a backyard game for old people, and compare it to shuffleboard - and so Hank is at first afraid to admit he plays. He even creates a rather elaborate listing, "Ten Reasons I Am Going to Hate Playing Ping-Pong." But he goes from hiding his ping-pong to finally playing it in the "Parade of Athletes" at school. His father, who wants him to play soccer and chides him constantly for quitting, goes from saying "Ping-Pong is not a sport. It's a hobby," and "While Ping-Pong is a nice backyard pastime, I certainly don't consider it a sport. It doesn't command the respect of the athletic community," to saying, "You played very well, son. Ping-Pong is quite a sport."

We also meet some interesting (fictional) players at the Ping-Pong Emporium that Hank joins, including: Hank's grandfather, Papa Pete, who topspins everything; Wei Chang, a member of the 1996 Chinese Olympic Women's Team; Coach Winston Chin, an extremely patient and understanding coach who gives him a racket and free lessons; his five-year-old grandson, Sammy, who is a kindergartner from Hank's school and plays standing on a box; Maurice, the Jamaican national champion (who sounds to Hank like Count Dracula), who takes Hank under his wing and practices with him regularly; Niko, the a wheelie-popping wheelchair player in a baseball cap with wicked spins who teaches Hank how to anticipate returns; Dr. Crumbworthy, Hank's ping-pong-playing dentist; and Principle Love, who proudly explains that he "earned a merit badge in table tennis from Boy Scout Camp in Minnesota."

Another Scary Kid

Here's the video (2:37) of Arthur Dubois, who looks about five, and whose shoulders are barely over the table.

2015 Chinese Team Trials

Here's video (32:02) of Ma Long vs. Fan Zhendong. (Commentary is in Chinese.)

International Table Tennis

Here's my periodic note 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).

Sri-Lankan Baby Pong?

Here's the picture.

Under-the-Leg Smash

Here's the video (3 sec) of Kim Gilbert!

Crazy Table Tennis Tricks with Dominoes

Here's the video (2:19)!

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Fixing the Forehand Loop - Slowly and Meticulously

Yesterday was one of the best days I've ever had as a coach. It all happened in a coaching session with ten-year-old Daniel Sofer, #10 in the U.S. in Under 11 Boys with a rating of 1639, and recently #4 in Under 10 until he made the silly decision to turn ten. (I have permission from Daniel and his dad to use his name.)

Daniel has a nice backhand (both hitting and looping - he can do some nice backhand loops from off the table), and extremely good ball control for his age. (He's almost for certain the best lobber his age in the country - he can lob my best smashes back over and over unless I smother-kill them out of the court.) In fact, he does a lot of things pretty well. But for many months we've been trying to fix up his forehand looping. He has about five different strokes, and regularly switches back and forth. He also likes to back up and try to awkwardly spin the ball off the floor, or alternately switch in mid-rally to flat hitting. The result is he isn't really comfortable forehand looping, and in games it shows, as he mostly pushes and blocks, along with some lobbing. In rallies, he mostly hits or pushes with the forehand, despite the fact that in practice all he does is loop.

The primary problem with his forehand loop is that rather than rotate his body fully into the shot (using the legs and hips in particular), he tends to pull upward with the right side of his upper body (he's a righty), ending up with his racket high over his head, which dissipates most of his power and turns his stroke into the opposite of the easy power I've written about. Instead of sort of rocking into the ball with his whole body, all he gets is upper body. Or, when he tries to fix it and use his whole body, he goes the other extreme, and throws his whole body forward, ending up several feet forward, thereby losing balance and control.

For months I've worked with him on fixing the technique, often spending 45 minutes of our one-hour sessions on it. Often he does pretty well after ten minutes, but then he falls back into old habits - and the next session it starts again as he struggled to get the stroke consistently right. It was frustrating for both of us, especially since it meant we weren't working on other things. He's not particularly patient, so it's not easy for us to focus on this one thing session so much.

So yesterday I tried something different. I've done this with older players, but younger players don't often have the patience for what we did - but Daniel seemed in a receptive mood.

First, he was able to watch one of our top players, Alex Ruichou Chen, rated 2674, looping over and over, giving him a visual image. He'd done this before, and it sometimes worked for a short time, but never permanently.

Then I had him put his racket down and simply watch me demonstrate the shot in slow motion, stopping at contact. I wanted him to have a real visual image of how the power is generated up to that point, from the legs and hip rotation. I also showed him how hard I could shove him with this stroke - yes, I shoved him across the court!

Next I had him get his racket and also go through the stroke in slow motion, stopping at contact to emphasize how much power is generated with the legs and hip rotation. I let him shove me around so he could see how much "easy power" is generated this way. (He's not the violent type and didn't like doing this.) He's always understood this, but the key was to create muscle memory of this. We did this for something like 15 minutes, where I gradually let him continue the stroke past contact, focusing on rotating the body about, pulling with the left side, with the head moving forward only a little bit.

Next we grabbed a bucket of balls and tossed balls up to ourselves and looped them out of the air. No rallies, just repetitively looping one tossed ball after another. We did this for about 10 minutes. At this point he's really getting the stroke down - the muscle memory is taking hold.

Finally, 30 minutes into the session, we went to very simple multiball, where I fed light topspin balls very slowly, and he looped them away with ease, always focusing on keeping it simple as we developed the muscle memory. We did this for perhaps about 10 minutes.

Roughly 45 minutes into the session we rallied for the first time, where I blocked and he forehand looped, going easy, where I had him wait on the ball so he could do a non-rushed, easy stroke. And guess what? The muscle memory held!!! We did this for ten minutes, and at this point I'm so excited I can barely play. He wasn't so much excited as relieved as he seemed to finally have the shot down. (He is not the patient type, so it showed how much he wanted this that he had gone through this long, tedious process.)

I'm looking forward to our next session, where we'll continue with this, and start doing it against backspin as well. I'm thinking we start with ten minutes of easy forehands - shadow practice, looping off tossed ball, and then very easy multiball - and if all goes well, then we can go to rallies.

Table Tennis Insider

The first issue ever came out this morning, February 4, 2015. (If you are a USATT member and they have your email on file, you should have received an email last night from USATT CEO Gordon Kaye explaining this.) Insider will come out every week on Wednesdays. It's the end and the start of a new era - the end of the "magazine" era and the start of the "Insider" era. Here's a historical listing of all USATT editors since 1970. Samuel Gest is the editor of Insider, so presumably I should add him to the list? (Note that I have an article in this issue, at the bottom, the "The Culture of Table Tennis in the U.S." blog I did on Monday.)

2015 ITTF/USATT Hopes Program

Here's the article by Ben Nisbet. This is for the best USA players born between Jan. 1, 2003 and Dec. 31, 2004.

Training in China

Here's the English flyer and the Chinese flyer for this May 22 - June 26 trip to the Nanshan Table Tennis School in Shenzhen, China, organized by Atlanta coaches Wang Hui and Yang Shigang (USA Junior Team Coach).

New Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina

• You Need More Spin: Learn the Necessities of Maximizing Your Spin!
• Strict vs Flexible: Making a Distinct Clarification

Table Tennis Basics - Like a Boss!

Here's the new video (2:02) from the always interesting Brett Clarke - the Golden Point Method!

Great Point!

Here's the video (38 sec) as the player on the far side does everything possible to win the point, including changing hands and diving.

Our Little Table Tennis Champ

Here's video (63 sec) of table tennis champion wannabe three-year-old Shia. (Could use shorter tables!)

2014 ITTF Legends Tour Documentary

Here's the video (25:50), which features Jan-Ove Waldner, Jorgen Persson, Mikael Appelgren, Jean-Philippe Gatien, Jean-Michel Saive, and Jiang Jialiang.

Utah Biz Games

Here's the hilarious video (63 sec)!

Table Tennis Balls + Black Sharpie Pens

This is what you get from Mike Mezyan! Mike also found this metal ping-pong sculpture and Lego ping-pong set.

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To Players in the Capital Area (Maryland, Northern Virginia, Washington DC):
*****Join Us in the Capital Area Super League!*****

The deadline has been extended to February 20, so you can still enter. We have enough teams already for the league, especially for Division One (though we could use one more), but would especially like to get more teams for Divisions Two and Three.

This is a team league for all levels - yes, that means you! In Europe, some countries have memberships in the hundreds of thousands, all because of such team leagues. (Germany has over 600,000.) Players from Europe talk about how much we're missing without such leagues, where players get to play on a TEAM, surrounded by friends cheering you on. So we hope you'll sign up and share their experience. (Some of this was in yesterday's blog, but I want to emphasize it.)

The league was initiated by Michael Levene and Stefano Ratti, who played in the English and Italian leagues and missed the camaraderie of such team leagues. (John Olsen and I are also members of the organizing committee.) This is your chance to join with us. All money going to the league stays in the league - it is run completely by unpaid volunteers. No payments are due until March 15.

If you want to play but don't have a team - or have a team that needs more players - there's a "Looking for a Team" section on the web site, or you can contact the organizers, who may be aware of other players in a similar situation. If you are concerned about having a home venue, or are concerned about the type of commitment, again contact us at Michael@smashtt.com or rattigno@yahoo.com.

So get your friends and practice partners together, and come join us!

North American Grand Tour Final

It's this weekend at the Westchester TTC in Pleasantville, NY, and I'll be there. Here is a link to the program, with the schedule, rules, fun facts about table tennis, and information/photos on all 16 players (average rating over 2600, led by Eugene Wang at 2799). Here is the tournament flyer, which includes spectator info. Here's the USATT News Item.

The Westchester TTC will host a welcome party on Friday night, Feb. 6 (6-10 pm), for the public to meet the players, participate in a handicap event with cash prizes, and enjoy food/drink. The Grand Finals' preliminary matches will take place on Saturday, Feb. 7 (10 am - 6 pm), with four round robin groups of four players. Two players from each group will advance to single elimination playoffs on Sunday (11 am - 4 pm). 

Here are the 16 players, seeded by Tour Points:

1. Kai Zhang, Pleasantville, NY
2. Jishan Liang, Flushing, NY 
3. Xiang Jing Zhang, El Monte, CA
4. Bob Chen, Milpitas, CA
5. Yonghui Liang, Milpitas, CA
6. Ruichao Chen, German Town, MD
7. Eugene Wang, Victoria, BC, Canada
8. Jimmy Butler, Houston, TX
9. Zi Rui Zhao, Livingston, NJ
10. Rui Wang, Milpitas, CA
11. Jack Wang, Livingston, NJ
12. Gal Alguetti, Tenafly, NJ
13. Tinglei Wu, Flushing, New York
14. Dan Liu, Milpitas, CA
15. Nathan Hsu, Rockville, MD
16. Crystal Wang, Boyds, MD

The Bionic Man

Here's the new video (9:22) of Navin Kumar (by Peter Scudner). Navin's been in the news a lot recently. He has Parkinson's and a mostly mechanical heart. The video was taped at MDTTC. I helped out as hitting partner, coach, and was interviewed.

Weird but Legal Shots and Tactics

Here are a few weird but legal things you can do!

• Back of hand serve. The racket say that "A player strikes the ball if he or she touches it in play with his or her racket, held in the hand, or with his or her racket hand below the wrist." So you can hit the ball off the back of your hand! While this is difficult in a rally (though I've done it - it can be painful!), it's easy to serve that way. You just fake a backhand serve and hit off the back of the hand. It's a no-spin serve, but if you keep it low, just the shock factor will cause weak returns. However, I've done this twice in tournaments and both times the opponent caught the ball, thinking it was an illegal serve. I didn't have the heart to press the matter, but I should have claimed the point.
• Jumping up and waving arms after popping the ball up. I did this once in a match against an elderly Hall of Fame player, and the opponent missed the shot - and began screaming at me! If you do this but don't make a sound, I think it's okay.
• Waving left arm while serving or receiving. It's distracting to the opponent - and that's the point. Mikael Appelgren (former world #1) was infamous for this, often waving his non-playing arm up as he received, which distracted the server. However, I'm not so sure about the sportsmanship of this one, if overdone. 
• Super high-toss serves. Against a good attacker, a weak high-toss serve is cannon fodder. But at the lower levels, or against a weak attacker, just the act of tossing the ball up high can throw an opponent off, even if the serve itself isn't so good. I recommend developing the serve itself (after you can do it effectively with a short toss), but even if you can't do it very well, it's a good change-up against some players.
• Serve lefty. (Or righty if you are a lefty.) It really throws opponents off! Well, sometimes.

Jimmy Butler Interview

Here's the interview. Oh, and who says Jim's a backhand player? See this photo! (Make sure to click on it to see the next two pictures of yours truly.)

2014 Breakout Star Crystal Wang has High Hopes for 2015

Here's the article by Barbara Wei. (Here are lots of other articles from Butterfly.)

Challenge to Non Full-time Players

Here's the article by USATT Hall of Famer Dell Sweeris.

Ozark Table Tennis Club

Here's the USATT news item on this long-time Missouri club.

Forrest Gump - Best Fictional Athlete Ever

Here's the article with pictures and video. "We’re talking about unquestionably the best football player and table tennis champion in history - with clear talents in sprinting, MMA, swimming, hurdles, and ultramarathon endurance. Forrest Gump is Bo Jackson crossed with Usain Bolt crossed with AMERICA."

Some Pictures Making the Rounds

• A Few Ping-Pong Tables
• Waiting to Play Table Tennis
• Shoe-Net Pong
• Child Cancer Pong (this one's a bit more serious)

Chimpanzee Pong

Here's the video (4 min). Toward the end he really does play! The chimp acts no differently than a typical five-year-old, both with the way he "strokes" the ball (often oblivious to where the ball goes), and the various antics (such as using the balls as "eyes").

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Tip of the Week

Develop the Five Types of Rallying Shots.

The Culture of Table Tennis in the U.S.

As I help set up the Capital Area Super League (with Mike Levene and Stefano Ratti the primary movers and creators, using their experience from playing in leagues in England and Italy), one thing that keeps jumping out is the culture of table tennis in America. It's quite different from the table tennis culture in more successful countries. For one thing, we have a rating-obsessed culture in USATT, where often little else matters other than the almighty rating. What's the goal of most tournament players in the U.S., win an event or gain rating points? Since most players focus on playing in higher events in the hopes of pulling off an upset, while avoiding the lower ones (i.e. the ones they might win) in order to avoid getting upset, I think we have our answer.

But it's not just ratings. In Europe, where memberships dwarf USATT's, it's a team culture. Few players play regularly in tournaments; it's all about playing on a team in a league. There are team leagues everywhere, leading to huge memberships, which lead to the growth of clubs, which is why there are 600,000 (paid) league members in Germany and 11,000 clubs. Players from Europe talk about how much we're missing without such leagues, where players get to play on a TEAM, surrounded by friends cheering you on.

I'm always amazed that some believe that the leagues in Germany and other countries started because of the large memberships, when in fact the leagues were the cause. And yet this faulty reasoning is used to argue that we're not ready for team leagues in the U.S. because (drum roll please) we don't have enough players!

But there is some truth that developing these team leagues won't be easy, and that's because of the culture of table tennis here, where few have ever played regularly on a table tennis team. They don't know what it's like to compete regularly on a team where your teammates and friends are cheering you on, even as you cheer them on - you know, like most of you were cheering on a football team at the Super Bowl last night! Except - you get to be Tom Brady or Russell Wilson.

As we promote the Capital Area Super League here in the Maryland/Virginia/Washington DC area, the hardest part is explaining what a team league is. Many only have a vague idea of what it's about. The info is all on the web page, but that's like telling a math student all the info is in a math textbook. Having the info available doesn't mean they understand it, even though in this case it's really simple. But we're working on it, and the good news is playing on a team league is a lot simpler than math! (You only occasionally have to count past 11.)

It's not just the players. Local and National leaders are also often stuck in the past, going with "what works," i.e. the same "winner stay on" club mentality that handicaps an often status quo USATT and keeps its membership under 10,000, i.e. a round-off error compared to more successful table tennis countries. These are often the very ones who a few years ago didn't believe there were enough interested players in this country to support more than a few full-time training centers - and then we went from less than ten to about 80, with more popping up regularly. (I expect they'll continue to do this until there are many hundreds of them or more.) Now they don't believe we have enough interested players to run successful team leagues. It's the same old "Which came first, chicken or egg?" question we've always faced, except when asked "What comes first, leagues & coaching programs, or large numbers of players?", the answer is categorically leagues and coaching programs, since they are what lead to the large number of players. It's all about cause and effect. Waiting for the large number of players to miraculously appear so you can run these programs is sort of like sitting around waiting to become a top player rather than practicing to become one.

It's going to be a long, difficult process dragging USA Table Tennis into the modern table tennis culture that's so successful overseas. Those looking for immediate results should look elsewhere; it's going to take years. But just as a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, developing table tennis in this country also starts with a few simple steps - and that's why we need to focus on taking those steps to continue to develop training centers, and to begin the process of spreading team leagues around the country.

As a member of the USATT Board of Directors, this will be my focus over the next four years and perhaps beyond. Right now I'm watching and studying the process as we create the Capital Area Super League (much of it based on the LA League and overseas leagues) so we can develop a prototype that can spread to other regions. It'll be a long process, but it has to start sometime. Soon I'll be writing about more specific plans, which involve creating state & regional associations and/or working with current ones, with the primary purpose to spread team leagues and coaching programs, as well as state championships. While I'm not yet ready to go nationwide, the process has to begin at some point, even if it's still in the exploratory learning stage. And so I declare that the process begins . . . Now.

Learning Good Mechanics: Following Through

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao, which includes links to videos of Yan An, Zhang Jike, Timo Boll, Ma Long, and Joo Sae-Hyuk. (This is follow-up to his article I linked to last week on Weight Transfer and Using Your Legs.)

Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina

• Test Time: How much do you REALLY know about your FOOTWORK?
• The #1 Question: Learn about the 17 needed adjustments!!!!

Ask the Coach - Werner Schlager Academy Version

They are now doing a continuing series with head coach Richard Prause. They are in German, but with English subtitles. Here are the first three. (I linked to the first two previously, but #1 didn't have subtitles at that time, and #3 is new.)

• Ask the Coach #1: What is Talent in Table Tennis? (2:24)
• Ask the Coach #2: Service Tactics (1:42)
• Ask the Coach #3: How do Professionals Practice? (3:13)

Ask the Coach- PingSkills Version

Episode #68 (16:56) - Banana Flip

• Discussion - 1:26: How can I download PingSkills videos on to my iPhone?
• Previous #PQOTD  - 3:26: How many training sessions did you do last week?
• #PQOTD  - 4:52
• How high on the World Rankings do you think Quadri Aruna can reach?
• Question 1 - 5:35: So usually I use a low tomahawk serve, and it works quite well. The only problem is I don't get much sidespin on the ball. Sometimes I get a lot and sometimes I get almost no spin at all. Any tips on how I can produce more spin on the ball? Lukas
• Question 2 - 8:39: If you would answer my question I would be very grateful.  In which point at your bat must the ball be hit for the Banana Flick? Thanks Nick
• Question 3 - 10:29: My hitting partner and I were discussing that we think we blink when our opponent hits a hard smash or drive.  So we lose track of the ball at a critical time.  What is your experience with this?  Do most players do this?  Is there a way to stop this? Phil
• Question 4 - 13:13: I and my partner often practice topspin but after hitting the first topspin i am not able to return the second one. How can I hit the second topspin and return to my position quickly. Charankamal

Which is the Best Poly Ball?

Here's the video (2:33) from Expert Table Tennis.

Most Expensive Table Tennis Bat

Here's the article from Expert Table Tennis, which also covers the most expensive rubbers. Regarding rackets, I use the Butterfly Timo Boll ALC (flared), which is mentioned in the article. It may be the most popular high-end racket right now. I'm pretty sure I'll be using this one forever. It's now used by well over half my students and a good percentage of the players at my club. (I use Tenergy 05 2.1 black on the forehand, and Tenergy 25 2.1 red on the backhand.)

Great Point - Wang Liqin vs. Werner Schlager

Here's the video (27 sec) of one of the best points I've ever seen played. (I may have linked to this before, but watch it again!)

Creative Senior Table Tennis?

Here's the video (38 sec) showing multiple versions of table tennis by these experience warriors.

Novak Djokovic and Stefan Feth

Djokovic just won his fifth Australian Open (some of you may have missed that while watching that Pretty-Good Bowl game). Here he is with USA Men's Coach Stefan Feth at the 2012 Olympics.

Inflategate - the Truth

I can't keep hiding the truth. These new plastic balls simply don't bounce enough. So a couple weeks ago during a trip up to New England I stole some air from a bunch of footballs to inflate the plastic balls a little more, and it did the trick. Yeah, and I also told the Seattle coach to throw the ball at the one-yard line.

iPhone Pong

Here's the video (22 sec), from the iPhone's perspective!

Minion Pong

Here's the continuing gif image that all table tennis webmasters should make permanent features of their web pages. Here's my technical analysis.

• Player on left: An excellent example of proper weight transfer. Note how he puts his full weight into each shot, and yet maintains his balance for the next shot? An excellent example for you and your students. Note the excellent use of the free arm as a counterbalance to his playing arm. The shots are especially impressive given the lack of depth perception since he only has one eye - but note how hard he concentrates, and how he keeps his eye on the ball. As a coach, the main thing that needs work is the foot positioning for the forehand - you'll note that he strokes it with the left foot in front (he's a lefty). Instead, he needs to move that ball back for better weight transfer. Also, I'd recommend a better playing outfit as the heavy playing clothes he wears likely slows him down. He probably needs to replace the mittens with gloves so that he can extend his finger onto the blade for a better shakehands grip. Finally, based on his strokes, I believe he's using a hardbat. I'd recommend he get inverted and work on his looping, such as another energetic student of mine who successfully made the transfer to inverted. (He also needs to get a legal black surface for his forehand.)
• Player on right: This is an excellent example of winning with sheer brick-wall blocking - I'm fairly certain he read my Tip of the Week on this. I watched the video for over eight hours last night, and he did not miss a single block. As a coach, I'd recommend that he try watching the ball, as well as use the racket he has in his hand, though of course I always recommend to my students that they learn to use their head. (He's using a green racket, so he needs to switch to a legal black and red one.) You'll note how he is watching at a particular spot in the snow, which undoubtedly is done as an aide to concentration and to withstand the pressures of match play.

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Serving Combos

I was playing a match with one of my students recently and decided to test him on a bunch of serving combos. He knows my serves very well, so individually he has no problems with them. But when I throw certain combos at him, he (and most others) struggle with the second one. Below are ten of my favorite combos. All can be done as listed or by reversing the order. Some are mostly variations of others, so there's some overlap. I'm assuming both players are righties for this, but lefties can use similar variations.

Keep in mind that the more you do these serves, the better you get at them, at figuring out what combos work best against different players, and at following them up. For example, after a short serve to the forehand, I might serve long to the backhand (usually a serve that breaks to the right), anticipating a crosscourt return to my backhand. Since I've been doing this for decades, I've learned to read my opponent very quickly and see early on if I'm going to get the expected soft return to my backhand, and so I'll quickly move over and rip a forehand. But I'll also see quickly if he's going down the line to my forehand or if he's going to do an aggressive backhand attack (or forehand step around), and adjust accordingly. Similarly, if I serve short to the forehand (often after a long serve to the backhand), I can pick up early if he's going to return the expected crosscourt return to my forehand (and edge over to attack it), or if he's going to go down the line (and so I get ready to either attack with my backhand or step over to use the forehand). The more you do these combos, the better and quicker you'll get at them. (And remember, all of these combos can be done in reverse.)

1. Short to the forehand, then long to the backhand.
2. Deep sidespin to backhand (so it breaks right), then reverse pendulum short to forehand (so it breaks left). This is a more specific variation of the one above.
3. Heavy backspin, then "heavy" no-spin (i.e. big backspin motion).
4. Short sidespin-backspin, then short super-heavy backspin.
5. Short backspin, then short side-top with big down motion.
6. Deep, breaking spinny serve (not too fast), then fast serve.
7. Deep to middle or backhand, then fast down the line to forehand.
8. Deep pure sidespin to backhand, then deep corkscrew to backhand (so it breaks like crazy to the right).
9. Deep topspin anywhere, then fast no-spin to middle.
10. Serve from wide forehand diagonally to the short forehand, then fake the same serve but go deep down the line to the backhand.

USATT Stuff

When I ran for the USATT Board, I said there were five major items I'd focus on, plus twelve others. (See listing here.) Below is an update. The nice thing is that when I ran, I was assuming the same old USATT where nobody really did much. Our new CEO (Gordon Kaye) is taking charge of some of these issues, making things a lot easier for me and better for all of us.

THE BIG FIVE:

1. Create a Nationwide System of Regional Team League (I blogged about this on Monday, Nov. 24)
   =>The Goal: Dramatically increase USATT membership.
   This is part of the Regional Association Proposal I'm putting together to present to the board at the teleconference tentatively scheduled for Feb. 25. I'll be working closely with the USATT CEO on this.
2. Create State and Regional Associations (I blogged about this on Tuesday, Nov. 25)
   =>The Goal: Dramatically increase membership by organizing on the local level.
   Also part of the Regional Association Proposal. I expect to have a prototype regional league that we can promote and develop in other regions by the end of the year.
3. Create a USATT Coaching Academy to Recruit and Train Professional Coaches (I blogged about this on Wednesday, Nov. 26)
   =>The Goal: Large numbers of coaches, training centers, and junior & adult programs.
   Yep, also part of the Regional Association Proposal. USATT committees are about to be updated, so I'm waiting for approval of the new USATT Coaching Committee so I can go to work with them on this. I expect to implement this part of the proposal by the end of the year.
   More Training Centers => More Junior Programs => More Players and Higher Level of Play
4. Turn U.S. Open and Nationals into Premier Events (I blogged about this on Monday, Dec. 1)
   =>The Goal: Attract players, spectators, TV, and sponsors to our sport.
   The USATT CEO is working on this. I've discussed it with him quite a bit, and am pretty confident that he's taking care of this. Let's see where we are a year from now.
5. Create a Professional Players Association and Professionalize the Sport (I blogged about this on Tuesday, Dec. 2)
   =>The Goal: For top USA players to make a living playing professionally.
   The USATT CEO has plans on this, which he'll blog about later. With so much going on, we'll start on this next year.  

Other USATT Issues 
(I blogged about these on Wednesday, Dec. 3.)​

1. Mailings to past members. (I blogged about this on Feb. 19.)
   This is something I'll look to do after we've had a year or so to develop programs around the country (leagues, coaching programs, etc.) so we have something new to offer past members.
2. Hidden serve rule. (I blogged about this on Nov. 11 and numerous other times.)
   I'm waiting for the new USATT Rules Committee to be approved and then I'll approach them about this.
3. Rules changes and the plastic ball.
   For better or worse, plastic balls are here to stay. But I'm not interested in any more rules and equipment changes, other than fixing the hidden serve rule
4. USATT Advisory Committees.|
   This has already been a subject of discussion on the board. I believe some of the committees are having the "Advisory" dropped. I'll have more on this later.  
5. Committee Chairs and Members.
   I'm going to make sure we take our time and research members before approving. Too often committees are chaired by the first person who volunteers. We need to do searches and recruit the right candidate for each. I've seen times where a committee chair was decided like Jeopardy - whoever hit the buzzer first (i.e. raised their hand) got the position.
6. NCAA recognition. Here's some info on this. I blogged about this on November 18.
   Nothing new on this, but at some point I'll look into it. 
7. Fix rating system.
   Too much to go into here. To start with we need a USATT Ratings Committee. We don't have one. I'll propose one sometime this year.
8. Publish USA citizens ranking lists.
   This was actually required by a past USATT board vote that's long since been forgotten. Too often U.S. players are buried in the rankings behind foreign players. We need both an open listing and a citizens listing. USATT is now keeping track of citizen info, and should have such a list ready as an option later on in the new ratings platform.
9. U.S. Open and U.S. Nationals info.
   The dates and location of these events should be available at least one year in advance, so we can promote them at the previous year's event. The USATT CEO is working on this.
10. Bring back print magazine if financially feasible. (I blogged about this on February 11, where I predicted in advance the large advertising decrease.)
    I only recently got the magazine financial info, and will be studying it soon. Suffice to say we lost a lot the last few years - but a lot of this was because of falling advertising. It dropped by about half this year when it went online, and was still falling when they pulled the plug.
11. Let members get on the USATT ballot by petition.
    I've written the proposal, which will go to the Board as part of their packet for the February teleconference. It's a bylaw change, so they need 30 days' notice, which means they'll vote on it in the March teleconference (tentatively scheduled for March 25). It'll need a 2/3 majority to pass. As the date approaches, I'll post the proposal and blog about it.
12. Change USATT's Mission Statement.
    Here is our current bureaucratic shopping list mission statement, followed by the mission statement of the U.S. Tennis Association (with the word "Table" added). I like theirs, and would like to quote the table tennis version of it regularly at USATT board meetings. It needs to be the driving force behind everything we do. I'll make the proposal later this year. (It's a bylaw change, so will need 30-days' notice and a 2/3 majority to change.)

• "The Mission of the USATT shall be to enable United States athletes to achieve sustained competitive excellence in Olympic/Paralympic, Pan American or Para Pan American Games, and other international competitions, and to promote and grow the sport of Table Tennis in the United States, while creating a lasting value for our members."
• "To Promote and Develop the Growth of Table Tennis."

Small Kid on a Big Table - on a Platform

Here's the video (4:14) of a kid from Palestine who probably couldn't play effectively on a regular table - except they've put him on a platform! He looks pretty good, far better than if the table were shoulder height to him. I'm a little worried about the safety side as kids that age tend to be oblivious to things, and he might forget he's on a platform and get hurt when he steps off. But it's still a great idea - I think! Ideally, of course, we'd just get a shorter table, as I blogged about on Tuesday.

On a non-table tennis note, here's something that kind of threw me. There are 22 comments under the video as I write this, and all of them are invoking God, mostly praising him or asking him to protect the kid, when in fact the video is about a little kid who plays very good table tennis while standing on a platform. (There's a "See Translation" link next to each, at least on my Google Chrome browser.) 

How to Smash a High Backspin Ball

Here's the video (2:13) from Expert Table Tennis.

Ask the Coach

Episode #67 (20:40) - Ovtcharov's Serve

• Yesterdays #PQOTD  - 2:30: Who is the most inspirational player you have seen?
• #PQOTD - 3:37: How many training sessions did you do last week?
• Question 1 - 4:02: Hey Pingskills, Your tips for the tall players didn't work on this guy, He's unbeatable :( He just blocks, I smash, loop, chop but it doesn't work. Please have you another tips? Brock
• Question 2 - 6:17: Sir, my defense is dominant in bh. So, when the attacker attacks, I automatically switch to backhand. i'm weaker in fh. Any tips please? Earl
• Question 3 - 8:22: I am having trouble chopping the ball (forehand) in a match, where it goes too far or too high or I just miss the ball. Do you have any suggestions as to how I can fix this? Thanks! Nikolas
• Question 4 - 12:02: My son is just 10 and quite interested in learning TT and his dream is of becoming a world champ. He is prepared to do anything to be a master and hold the trophy. My full support is with him. Should I buy a table for him or 10 years is too young? Young
• Question 5 - 15:15: Please explain how Ovtcharov does his serve and why. Dii
• Question 6 - 18:15: How can I improve my forehand topspin? When I do it, it always hit the net. Am I missing something?

Ma Long Practicing His Serve

Here's the video (5:45) from a couple years ago. See if you can pick up his contact.

Chinese World Team Trials

Here's info on them. They'll be held Feb. 2-6 in Zhenjiang.

Ping Pong: "The Ultimate Social Networking Tool"

Here's the article from Pong Universe.

Soccer Skills in Table Tennis

Here's the video (25 sec) as two players show they can handle the ball with their racket and their feet.

University Ping Pong Project Transforms Public Spaces

Here's the article where they try to spread ping pong and color in London.

International Table Tennis

Here's my periodic note 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).

Waldner vs. Fetzner

Here's video (46 sec) of some humorous play between Jan-Ove Waldner and Steffen Fetzner from 2012.

Jumping Net Pong

Here's the cartoon.

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Short Blog Today

I woke up this morning with a sore throat and a headache - a double whammy. My voice is hoarse and I think someone punched me all over my body while I was sleeping. I think I have a slight cold (yeah, lots of Kleenex), while the headache might be from late-night work and lack of sleep. I was going to write about yesterday's adventure (2.5 hours of coaching, meeting with USATT player rep Han Xiao on my Regional Associations proposal, snowball fights, and the power of chocolate brownies as incentive for juniors to work hard), but I think I'm going back to bed. But remain assured that even sleeping, I never stop thinking about USATT issues and ways to turn our sport into the greatest thing since sporks. (Someday perhaps I'll write about my ongoing contention with my students that the spork is humanity's greatest invention, better than their smart phones and even better than Tenergy, but not now.)

Peter Scudner New USATT Board Chair

USATT members should have received a press release from USATT this morning announcing Peter as the new chair. Here's the USATT press release. 

Entry List for 2015 Pan Am and National Team Trials

Here's the USATT News Item, which lists who has currently entered, and will be regularly updated until the deadline on Feb. 15. It also gives info on how to enter.

Serve Return Training

Here's the video (1:28) where Samson Dubina has a robot "serving" slightly long balls randomly about the table, and he topspins them all.

Ask the Coach

Episode 66 (16:16) - Waldner's Trademark Serve

• Yesterdays  #PQOTD  - 2:01: How old were you when you started Table Tennis?
• #PQOTD  - 3:43: Who is the most inspirational player you have seen?
• Question 1 - 4:12: My problem is my backhand and power hits. The power hits are not going right. When I make a smaller version of it then it goes really well, but when I add more power I lose control or balance and the ball goes over the table. Aleksander
• Question 2 - 5:39: Hi I am having an issue with my backhand these days. When i try to make a backhand topspin smash, it tends to go under the net most of the times. at the moment, I use side topspin to sort of lift the ball at the same time but it feels unstable. Denny
• Question 3 - 9:31: Hey PingSkills! I have a trouble with tall players, the guy is like 6'5 tall and around 200 pounds of muscles and he's a very good table tennis player and he block all my best shots. Please have you some tips? Brock.
• Question 4 - 11:23: I watched some amazing footage of Waldners career and how he developed his trademark serve along the line below his arm. It is impossible to anticipate and even less see what he is doing but isn´t there a rule you are not allowed to hide the ball? Marcus
• Question 5 - 13:34: I am wondering what benefits I can gain from seeing a coach in person, versus doing drills I have learned with someone at or above my skill level. Would it beneficial to have a coach critique my form and help and analyze my in game strategy? Dakota

Reminder - USATT Committees

This is just a reminder that USATT committee applications are due on Monday. Here's the USATT Board Seeks Nominations for Committee Appointments news item from Jan. 15. If you have interest and expertise in any of the following, I hope you'll apply - we need people like you! (Here's my Jan. 16 blog where I give my take on each of the committees.)

Advisory Committees

• Umpire and Referee Committee
• Rules Committee
• Seniors Committee
• Tournament Committee
• Editorial Committee
• Clubs Committee
• Hardbat Committee
• Leagues Committee
• Juniors Committee
• Coaching Committee
• Marketing and Fundraising Committee 

Standing Committees

• High Performance Committee
• Nominating and Governance Committee
• Compensation Committee
• Audit Committee
• Athlete Advisory Council
• Ethics & Grievance Committee 

Nittaku ITTF Monthly Pongcast - December 2014

Here's the video (9:56). I thought I had put this up previously, but I searched and couldn't find it.

Table Tennis England Requiring Plastic 40+ Balls

Here's the article.

Virtual Table Tennis Drops the Ball on Gross Motor Skills

Here's the article from Medical Xpress. "Children playing table tennis on a game console move their arms faster and further than those playing in real life but miss out on the development of key gross motor skills, according to a WA study."

25 Olympians Staring Longingly at Ping Pong Balls

Here's the article and pictures.

Bear Pong

Here's the cartoon.

***

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Busy Day

I'm leaving to coach at 1PM, finishing at 7:15PM. It's going to be a long coaching day! (It's not all coaching; I have to pick up four kids from school for our afterschool program, and I have a meeting from 5-6PM.) Then, when I get home, I get to go to work on USATT and MDTTC stuff. Besides finalizing a Regional Association proposal for USATT (which includes state & regional associations, state championships, team leagues, and training centers & coaching programs), I have to put together the monthly MDTTC Newsletter.

Blogging Policy on USATT Issues

I'm putting together a "Blogging on USATT Issues" policy that I can use as a guideline for what and when I can blog about USATT issues, since I'm on the USATT board. (This is primarily a coaching blog, but I do of course blog about other issues, including USATT.) I'll share this with the USATT CEO for his input. (I also have to check the USATT bylaws for anything on this, as well as the Code of Ethics and Conflict of Interest forms I signed to run for the board.) It's not just for me - others from USATT sometimes blog (here's the USATT blogging page) and I think there should be some policy on this, with specific guidelines. I get the final say on my own policy (as long as I'm not abusing my USATT position), though of course if there's a more general one for USATT people then USATT would have to approve that. Hopefully the two will be identical and so we can have just one set of gudelines.

For example, we had a USATT teleconference last Wednesday night. There was at least one major thing that happened (some might say more than one), but I haven't blogged about it as I'm waiting for USATT to put out a press release first. (There were some other interesting things, but for now I'm waiting for the official minutes to come out before blogging about them.) But it's not always that simple. Meetings in person are mostly open, and so anything that goes on there can be blogged about except for what happens in closed "executive" sessions, mostly on confidential, personnel, disciplinary issues. But a teleconference is only for board members and invited guests, and so might be considered "closed." So I'm more hesitant to write about what happens there. Can I blog about general things that are on the agenda? There are many questions like this that I'll discuss with the CEO before finalizing my policy.

I also don't want board members to think I'm using this blog as a weapon against them, or that they have to watch everything they say around me. At the same time if I agree or disagree with something that happens (such as official USATT business, as opposed to just discussions), I'm likely going to blog about it. They can also blog about it if they choose, and in fact I'll allow them to do a guest blog here. A key thing is that even if I disagree with something, I'll try to blog about it in a respectful manner.

I've got at least two major proposals going before the board soon, for the teleconferences in February and March. Do I blog about them in advance? Since they are coming from me, I can. More on these when they are coming up. When others have proposals, what and when can I blog about them? That's the tougher question.

Winning 161-2

[Bonus if you catch a curious thing I'm doing in this paragraph!]

A coach is facing a backlash and a ban for running up points in winning 161-2 in what was obviously a mismatch. Was it right to do this? I thought a lot about this all morning - is such a display okay? I don't want to win 11-0 and so I usually allow scoring by popping a ball up at 10-0. But should you do this? You almost always will win if up 10-0 or 10-1, so why not allow a point at 10-0? Many will say this is wrong, and say go for 11-0 - and that's okay; if you want to, go for it! I just don't want to do it on my own. Many say that losing 11-0 builds "grit." What do you think?

[Count the e's - yep, I'm having a little fun here. And see this.]

All right, enough e-foolery. In general, I actually would say play every point at your very best unless it's an obviously complete mismatch. If I'm playing a 7-year-old kid who I can beat 11-0 every game, I may still win 11-0 - but I'll put some balls up so he can take shots, and I won't use serves he can't return. But I might give him a spinny serve, the same one over and over, until he figures out how to return it - that's a challenge for him.

In a more serious match that's also a mismatch, I'll mostly try every point (though I'll likely have a few "fun" lobbing points), but I may practice certain shots, such as forcing my third-ball attack or certain types of receive, rather than play tactically. I might also hold back on my trickier serves, unless I feel like the opponent needs practice against them - it depends on their level. Letting an opponent face tricky serves is good practice for them, but if their level is too low and I throw all sorts of tricky serves at them (as opposed to perhaps one or two, so they have a serious chance of figuring them out), that won't help except as an occasional reminder of what's possible so they'll also try to develop such serves. Against some weaker players I'll just keep the ball in play and let them practice their attack while I focus on consistency - but I'm fighting hard to be as consistent as possible.

Since I've got a very strong third-ball attack, one thing I often do with students is play games where I force the third-ball attack, sometimes even playing with the rule that I have to end the point on the first shot after my serve. This forces them to really focus on good receives. Since I’m not nearly as fast as I used to be, they have a fighting chance once they realize I can't cover both corners with my forehand like I used to, and so if they can play both wide corners without telegraphing it, I'm in trouble!

In practice against an obviously much weaker player, if I'm up 10-0, I almost always put a ball up slightly to give them a decent chance of winning that point. In a tournament I might consider doing this if it's really a mismatch, especially if it's match point. But I won't give the point away for free - they have to make the shot, and get through my defense as well. Some of course disagree with this philosophy, and say go for blood every time.

Bottom line - it's a judgment call, not a one-size-fits-all thing.

Capital Area Super League

Here's the home page for this new team league in the Washington DC area. Please sign your team up early, so the organizers can have a sense of how many teams are going to be part of the league. There is no downside for signing up – rosters can be adjusted and fees are not due until March 1. The deadline will be extended until Feb 15, but, please sign up early. If you don’t have a home venue, contact the organizers. They can help you with that.

Samson Dubina Articles

• Coach vs. Practice Partner: Find the Distinction
• Kids: Learn 5 reasons why your son or daughter should start playing table tennis...
• Major Events for Ohio region (and here's something interesting - a footwork clinic on March 14)

The Secret to Long Pips

Here's the coaching article from Pong Universe.

Ask the Coach

Episode #65 (15:51) - Contact Points

• Previous #PQOTD  - 3:07: How many different types of rubber have you tried?
• #PQOTD  - 4:14: How old were you when you started Table Tennis?
• Question 1 - 4:45: How can i play a offensive stroke on a short side spin serve? Pratap
• Question 2 - 6:04: What is an ideal contact point for BH and FH? Because BH the bat is close to the stomach. FH the bat travels from far from the back. Ashok
• Question 3 - 8:23: I’ve read the chinese put the forefinger not along the bat but near the middle ? I have tested and I find the control is better and the feeling is also better when the ball arrives on the bat. What do you think? Martin and
• Question 4 - 11:16: Is there a way to make the ball spin backwards and while spinning backwards have the ball curve sideways when serving? Tyson
• Question 5 - 13:17: In your previous video, you said not to use the backhand smash that frequently but since I'm a left handed player, I receive most of the shots on my backhand so should I use the backhand smash more often or do you have another strategy? Aiyan

Master of Table Tennis

Here's the new highlights video (7:19), featuring Wang Liqin, Ma Lin, and Ryu Seung Min.

Triangle Teams

This past weekend MDTTC players Ruichao "Alex" Chen and Nathan Hsu won the 4-star Triangle Team tournament in Cary, NC. No online results yet, but here's a picture. (Click on it to see other team pictures.)

4 Healthy Habits to Play Table Tennis Forever

Here's the article from Pong Universe.

Brother & Sister Duo Prachi and Kanak Jha Focused on Pan Am and National Team Trials

Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

Indian Hand Helps US Progress in Table Tennis

Here's the article in the Times of India that features ICC Coach Rajul Sheth.

7th Annual Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC Tournament of Champions Pong

Here's the video (60 sec). "A recap video of the JOOLA sponsored Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC 7th Annual Tournament of Champions Pong. This year's tournament helped to raise over $95,000 dollars."

Three Media Internships Available at the Qoros 2015 World Table Tennis Championships

Here's the info page.

Adham Sharara: Zhang Jike Should Be Disqualified

Here's the article. Note the dissenting comment at the end by Barry Meisel.

A "Muscular" Adam Bobrow Directs Airline Traffic with Paddles

Here's the picture! (Here's the result.)

No School Because of Snow

Here's the video (20 sec) of MDTTC junior star Klaus Wood's "reaction" to learning there was no school yesterday due to the two-inch blizzard.

Snow Pong

Here's the picture.

A "Hot" Serve

Here's the fiery video (5 sec)!

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Tables for Kids

One of the problems table tennis coaches face is that kids aren't really big enough to play table tennis on a regular table until they are about 6 or 7 years old. Before that the table is simply too high, often about shoulder height. Tennis had a similar problem in that their courts were too big for kids, who were expected to cover the same amount of ground as Roger Federer. They solved it with QuickStart Tennis (5:35). As a long-time tennis player on the side, I've actually helped with these tennis programs, where they often have a court full of kids in the 3-5 year old range. There's no reason why table tennis can't also start in that age range - except for the size of the table. In fact, with smaller rackets and courts, table tennis should be easier than tennis for these kids!

Sean O'Neill has been a strong advocate for shorter tables for younger kids. He argues that shorter tables is both good for very younger players (such as the 3-5 age group) as well as for slightly older ones (such as under 10), where the height of the normal table might lead to bad habits while a shorter one would lead to better technique. Here's his article (with pictures) on the subject, Helping Young Kids Learn to Play with Correct Technique, Balance, and Power.

Here are two videos he has on this, where the DHS Rising Star Table is featured. It adjusts to four inches lower than a normal table (from 30 inches down to 26).

• Double Happiness Rising Star Table (3:09). See the personal testimony 43 seconds in from 4-year-old Kaitlyn, and see the switch to a shorter table right afterwards!
• Playing on a DHS Rising Star Ping-Pong Table (2:23)

I've got several students with younger brothers or sisters whose parents are asking when they'll be old enough to learn. With our current tables, not until they are at least five and probably six. With a shorter table, like tennis, they can start in the 3-5 age range. (I'm told that overseas many clubs do have such tables for their younger players.) I'm now debating whether to try to get one of these tables for my club, or get a cheap table somewhere and shortening it by chopping off part of the legs!

Meanwhile, schools are closed here in Maryland due to snow - three inches!!! Call out the National Guard! So no afterschool program or coaching for me today. I'll get a lot of other stuff done.

15 Ways to Identify Bad Leaders

Here's the article. I found this especially informative now that I'm on the USATT Board of Directors. I actually emailed them the link in the midst of a discussion. Hopefully we'll avoid these 15 bad habits! (I could write volumes on each one of these and how it pertains to past USATT problems.) I believe the very first item, on vision, is the most important for board members:

1. Leaders who can’t see it, probably won’t find it: Leaders without vision will fail. Leaders who lack vision cannot inspire teams, motivate performance, or create sustainable value. Poor vision, tunnel vision, vision that is fickle, or a non-existent vision will cause leaders to fail. A leader’s job is to align the organization around a clear and achievable vision. This cannot occur when the blind lead the blind.

And so I'm especially interested in what other board members have as their vision for the future of our sport, so we can work together on programs to achieve it. Those without a vision for the future of our sport shouldn't be driving the car - you have to know where you are going to get there. As I posted yesterday, here's my vision: "I see a USATT with huge membership, where our top players and juniors are competitive with the best players and juniors in the world, and where our U.S. Open and Nationals are premier money and TV events."

Learning Good Mechanics: Weight Transfer and Using Your Legs

Here's the new coaching article from Han Xiao. Includes links to great videos of Timo Boll and Ma Long looping. I'm showing this to my students.

Serve Tutorial - Confuse Your Opponent with This Serve!

Here's the video (2:45), about getting different spins with the same motion. Here's another video (2:38) by the same coach on "How to Produce More Spin."

Top Tournament Tactics - Top Tactics Against Defensive Players

Here's the new video (2:59) by Brian Pace.

Exhibition at Smash Table Tennis

Here's the video (25:08), with a great opening, of the demo and exhibition I did January 19 with Stefano Ratti at Smash TT in Sterling, VA - with a great opening!!! Lots of trick shots and humorous exchanges. (I posted this in my blog one day late before going on my writing sabbatical, so many may have missed it.)

Westchester Table Tennis Center to Host 2014 North American Tour Grand Finals

Here's the USATT press release, and here's the info flyer. I'll be there - can't wait for the handicap contest at the Friday night party!

Butterfly North American Tour

Here's their schedule.

A Revisionist's Cultural History of Ping-Pong aka Table Tennis by William Shakehand

Here's the online booklet (in verse) by Hermann Lueuchinger - it's great!

USATT News Items

Here are eight more since yesterday!

• Watch How This Armless Table Tennis Player Can Compete with Champions
• Off the Table - Quadri Aruna
• DHS Top 10 Points - Wang Hao
• Olympic Coaching Tips with Doru Gheorghe
• Ask the Coach Show #64 - World Tour Gets Rich
• How to Return Sidespin Serves
• History of USATT - Volume XV - Chapter 9
• The Forehand Tomahawk Serve

World's Fastest Archer Shoots a Ping-Pong Ball

Here's the article and video from Table Tennis Nation. (Full video is 5:52, but they show a very short recurring image of the ping-pong ball shooting.) On a side note, the video of the archer has gone viral, but there's huge backlash from the archery community, who say much of what is said on the video isn't true. But I'm not expert on the topic, though a resident archer at the Olympic Training Center (where I lived for four years) once let me take a picture of him as he aimed an arrow at me (circa late 1980s), and got in all sorts of trouble for it. The picture, alas, has been lost to the mists of history.

Tennis Pong for Mini-Men

Here's the cartoon.

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Tip of the Week

Play the Ball.

Writing Sabbatical

A week ago I wrote that I was taking the week off to work on my new book, "Parents Guide to Table Tennis." But a funny thing happened along the way - I got caught up in a number of USATT issues. The net result was I got a lot of stuff done, but only a little on the book, which I'm putting on hold for now. I've come to realize that I probably won't get much writing done over the next four years (my term on the board), other than this blog and the Tips of the Week, and some fiction writing.

There's a lot of USATT stuff going on, but my focus right now is regional associations, which include setting up state championships, regional team leagues, and training centers (which include coaching and junior programs).

However, I did get some writing done - in a fit of energy and inspiration, I did a lot of work on my new table tennis fantasy novel, now tentatively titled "The Spirit of Pong." It's about a mid-level U.S. player who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis. He learns the three secrets of table tennis (The Body of Pong, the Mind of Pong, and the Paddle of Pong), and has to overcome great adversity and treachery while meeting the spirits of a number of table tennis greats. I just finished a chapter where he visits the statue and gravesite and meets the spirit of Rong Guotuan, China's first world champion (Men's Singles in 1959) and coach of their first women's world team title (Women's Teams in 1965), who was then framed during the Cultural Revolution as a spy, condemned and tortured, until he finally committed suicide by hanging himself in 1968 at age 30. He has since been "rehabilitated," but I got a stomachache while writing this chapter, just thinking about this terrible wrong. My protagonist learns "The Mind of Pong" from Rong.

Here's a short rundown of my week:

• Monday: Spent most of the day working on USATT issues and taking care of a number of other items on my todo list. Did one hour of coaching. Then did a demo and exhibition with Stefano Ratti at SmashTT (see segment below). Then met with the Capital Area Super League Organizing Committee for two hours. (Me, Michael Levene, Stefano Ratti, and John Olsen.) Couldn't sleep, so stayed up half the night on USATT issues.
• Tuesday: I planned to start on the "Parents Guide" that morning, but after staying up until 4AM I was exhausted, and didn't get much done. I did another two hours of coaching, and then, late that night, wrote a chapter of "The Spirit of Pong."
• Wednesday: Worked more on "The Spirit of Pong," then studied a bunch of USATT issues for the meeting that night. Had a lot of email discussions with board members on various issues. Coached two hours, then came back for the USATT Teleconference (see segment below). After the meeting I was too energized to go to bed, so worked on USATT issues half the night. I did some work on "Parents Guide," then put it aside.
• Thursday: Did three hours of coaching, including running one of our junior group sessions for an hour. Also had to spend much of the day on non-table tennis issues - running errands, etc., plus one biggie. A while back the overhang over the front door to my house broke and fell - it was a massive thing, weighing hundreds of pounds. I had a new one installed, which cost a LOT of money, alas. They also fixed once again my perennially breaking front gate.
• Friday: I spent most of the day on USATT issues, then did three hours of coaching. Then saw the movie "The Theory of Everything."
• Saturday: Spent much of the day working on "The Spirit of Pong," including a lot of research and reading about Rong Guotuan. Then went to the club from 5-10PM for a fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis, where I did a demo and exhibition with Sameer, and then helped run a recreational tournament. They raised over $4000! (More on this later, when I get pictures and video.)
• Sunday: Did 2.5 hours of coaching, including 1.5 hours running one of our junior group sessions. Spent much of the night (and this morning) in email discussions with board members, including a discussion I started on "Vision." While I can't share what others wrote, I can share mine: "I see a USATT with huge membership, where our top players and juniors are competitive with the best players and juniors in the world, and where our U.S. Open and Nationals are premier money and TV events." And yes, achieving this vision is what most of my USATT work over the next four years (and over the past week) has been about.

USATT Board Teleconference

I had my first USATT board meeting since getting elected to the board. It was a teleconference on Wednesday night. I'll discuss it more when the minutes for the meeting come out. A few items: we voted on the new board chair (as required by USATT bylaws), but I'll let USATT do the press release before I write about that. We redefined what an "Associate Membership" is (more on that after the minutes come out); heard reports on RailStation (who now do our ratings, membership, and other software), sponsorships, and the US Open/Nationals (more on that hopefully over the next week); discussed committees and had a vote on a new structure and committee definitions that I disagreed with (more on this after the minutes come out - yes, that's getting repetitive); and had an executive session where we discussed some confidential personnel/disciplinary issues. The meeting started at 8PM and ended at 10:07PM. As noted, once the minutes come out I can comment more on this. Hopefully they'll be out within a month or so.

Smash TT Exhibition

Here's the video (25:08) of a demo and exhibition I did at Smash Table Tennis in Sterling, VA, last Monday (Jan. 19) with Stefano Ratti. Lots of trick shots and fun! Here's Stefano and I afterwards posing with the club's balloon mascot. Then we had a meeting of the Capital Area Super League Organizing Committee for two hours. (Me, Michael Levene, Stefano Ratti, and John Olsen.)

USATT Ratings Page and Webpage

Here's the new USATT Ratings Page. There are still some bumps in the page, but they are working to fix them. There's a "New USATT Ratings Site" discussion of this at the Mytabletennis.net forum, where even USATT CEO Gordy Kaye is involved. There's also "USATT Website - Great or Sux?" discussion of the new USATT website.

USATT News Items

During my sabbatical USATT put up 17 news items - here's their News Page!

• World Championships of Ping Pong
• 2014 North American Grand Finals - Press Release
• Will Shortz
• McMaster University Emerges as Table Tennis Powerhouse in Canada
• Seemant Teotia Boosts NCTTA Divisions
• Finishing Strong
• NCTTA Leaders to Select a 2016 TMS Championships Site
• 2015 Para National & Para Pan Am Team
• Throw Back Thursday
• Crescent Valley Grad Michael Groom Has Taken to Table Tennis
• Inaugural Pre-US Nationals Giant Round Robin
• DHS Top 10 Points - 2015 World Team Cup
• Placement of the Serve
• Alvara Valera ITTF Stars Awards Inspirational Acceptance Speech
• Susan Sarandon Donates Pingpong Tables to Public Schools
• Backhand Loop Demo
• Mental Training and Stress Management Basics

$100,000 World Championships of Ping Pong

The tournament, where players only use sandpaper rackets (you heard that right) were held this past weekend in London for the third consecutive year. Here's the home page with results, articles, pictures, etc. Here's the prize money listing. In the final Andrew Baggaley (ENG) defeated Alexander Flemming (GER), 3-2, winning $20,000. In the semifinals Baggaley upset 2-1 Maxim Shmyrev (RUS) who had won the previous two years. Three USA players took part - Jim Butler, Ilija Lupulesku, and Johnard Baldonado, with Lupulesku making the final 16 before losing 2-1 to Flemming. (He made the semifinals last year.)

New Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina

Here they are - and you can also buy his International Skills DVD!

• Mood Swings - Learn about making or breaking your next tournament!!!
• The Perfect Plan - Learn About Feeling Pressure from Outside Sources Learn about feeling pressure from outside sources.

New Videos from Dynamic Table Tennis

Here are two new ones from Coach Brian Pace at Dynamic Table Tennis (lots of videos and books for sale there!):

• Forehand Loop Footwork Technique Development (7:55)
• Online Training for Table Tennis - Technique Program (7:21)

Ask the Coach (PingSkills Version)

Here are the latest four episodes:

• Ask the Coach Show #61 (19:51) - When to Move for Receiving
• Ask the Coach Show #62 (17:20) - Breaking 2000 Ranking
• Ask the Coach Show #63 (16:15) - Staying Low While Serving
• Ask the Coach Show #64 (21:44) - World Tour Gets Rich

Ask the Coach (Werner Schlager Academy Version)

Here's Episode #2 - Service Tactics (1:42), with English subtitles (it's in German), from WSA head coach Richard Prause. Here's Episode #1 (2:24) - What is Talent in Table Tennis (no English subtitles).

Master Table Tennis in 12 Months

Here's the page that tries to answer the question, "Is it possible to master table tennis in just 12 months?" It goes over the year-long "Expert in a Year" challenge.

This is How You Rip a Forehand

Here's video (68 sec) of Chinese phenom Fan Zhendong ripping forehand power loops against backspin in multiball.

Benefits of Practicing With Both Right-Handed & Left-Handed Players

Here's the article from the I Play Table Tennis page.

2015 To Be the Biggest Year in ITTF History

Here's the ITTF Press Release.

USATT Minutes

Here's the page where you can see the minutes of past USATT meetings. The Nov. 12 Teleconference Minutes just went up recently. (The December meeting ones were up previously.)

China is Beatable at Table Tennis

Here's a short article where Sweden's Jorgen Persson (1991 Men's Singles World Champion) talks about this and other issues.

Rainn Wilson/Dwight from "The Office" and Table Tennis

Here's video (68 sec) of Rainn Wilson playing table tennis on the show, and saying the headline above - as well as naming his heroes: "All of my heroes are table tennis players. Zoran Primorac, Jan-Ove Waldner, Wang Tao, Jorg Rosskopf, and of course Ashraf Helmy. I have a life-size poster of Hugo Hoyama on my wall. And the first time I left Pennsylvania was to go to the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony of Andzej Grubba." Here's a 60-sec video of him doing a Soul Pancake commercial while playing table tennis, "Rainn Wilson is a Master Ping Pong Jedi."

Rubber Band Pong

Here's the cartoon.

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Writing Sabbatical This Week

As I wrote on Friday week, I'm taking a writing sabbatical this week, so this will be my last blog until Monday, January 26. I plan to write "Parents Guide to Table Tennis," and if I have time after that, work on my table tennis fantasy novel "The Paddle of Pong." It's going to be a busy week. Besides all the writing and the usual coaching, there's a bunch of USATT stuff going on, including a USATT board teleconference on Wednesday night. Tonight (Monday night) I'm doing an exhibition at SmashTT at 8:30PM (come join us!), after which we're having a meeting of the Capital Area Super League Organizing Committee. On Saturday night I'm helping with a fund-raiser for Cystic Fibrosis at MDTTC, where I'll be doing an exhibition and clinic with Sameer Shaikh, and helping run a recreational tournament. (The tournament is NOT for USATT members or advanced players.)

Tip of the Week

The Lost Art of Messing People Up.

Breaking News Added One Day Late - Exhibition!

Here's the video (25:08), with a great opening, of the demo and exhibition I did Monday night with Stefano Ratti at Smash TT in Sterling, VA - with a great opening!!! Lots of trick shots and humorous exchanges. 

Things I Was Told Would Never Happen

• I started playing early in 1976 when I was 16. By that Fall I had reached about 1500. A local coach began coaching one of my main practice partners for $5/hour (about $20 in 2015 dollars), who had started at the same time I did and was about the same level - but was four years younger. I asked the coach if he'd coach me as well, and he agreed, but said he'd charge me $15/hour ($60/hour in 2015 dollars), since I was older and had less potential. I couldn't afford it. A year later another higher-level coach began coaching this younger player for free. I asked him if he'd coach me as well, but he said no, said he only had time to coach one player and had to go with the younger one who had more potential. I ended up not taking coaching from either, and in fact relied on coaching camps (including a series of Seemiller camps). In the end, the younger player got good, but I got better - and only one of us made the USATT Hall of Fame!
• Deng Yaping, who was 4'10", was kicked off the Chinese National Team three times because they thought she was too small to ever be any good. She went on to win Women's Singles at the Worlds three time and the Olympics twice. (Okay, I wasn't "told" this, but it was too good to leave out.)
• When I started playing in 1976, the idea of table tennis - "ping-pong" - being an Olympic sport was a joke. There simply was no way. But a few people didn't believe that, and primarily through their efforts (and especially Fred Danner's), we became an Olympic Sport.
• I started out as a forehand hitter, with a big smash, but a weak, awkward loop. I worked with a number of coaches on this, but over and over they concluded that my hitting was so much better I should just focus on that. One even said, "Forget looping, just hit." I was determined to learn to loop effectively, and kept at it, even stagnating at the 1850 level for three years while I did this. Then it all came together! It still doesn't look as sharp as my hitting, but it gets the job done.
• In 1992 I teamed with Cheng Yinghua and Jack Huang to open the Maryland Table Tennis Center. (We were originally called the National Table Tennis Center.) There had been several attempts to open full-time table tennis training centers, and all had failed. (There had been some successful ones that relied primarily on leagues.) Over and over I was told that there simply weren't enough serious players in the U.S. for a full-time table tennis training center to survive. And here we are, 23 years later! (They didn't get the idea that you don't rely just on current players, you bring in and develop new ones.)
• In December, 2006, at a USATT Board Meeting I gave a presentation where I tried to get them to get involved in recruiting and training coaches to open full-time training centers. At the time there were only about 8-10 in the entire country. The idea was met with complete skepticism. Two board members openly argued that the ones that existed were "special cases" or ones that simply hadn't closed down yet, and that there simply weren't enough serious players in the country for there to be more than a few full-time training centers. Others were silent. I resigned my positions as USATT Editor and Programs Director primarily because of this. And here we are, eight years later, and there are now almost 80 full-time centers in the country, with new ones popping up every month or so.
• If I got started on how many people have argued that table tennis team leagues won't work in the U.S., I'd have to devote the rest of blogs this year to the topic. Suffice to say it's met with the same skepticism as much of the above, despite the great success of such team leagues overseas. Once again they argue there aren't enough players, again not getting the basic idea that you develop new players. Over and over I've asked why they believe people in the U.S. are so different than people overseas, and over and over I'm told the situation is different, usually involving more distractions, other sports, video games, etc., as if they don't have these things overseas. It's rather bizarre, and sort of reflects the mindset of the status quo. This is the great opening USATT has coming up to develop the sport in this country. I'll have a proposal to USATT on this probably by the end of this year. (I'm currently working with a local group - in particular two players who played in the European leagues - who are developing the Capital Area Super League. My experiences here will help in developing a regional prototype that can spread to other regions.)

Navin Kumar - the Bionic Parkinson's Man

For now on I'm just going to introduce myself as "Navin's coach." Here are three new segments on him, plus a recent one in the Washington Post and three from USATT:

• Here's a new interview with Navin Kumar, "The Bionic Man, Ping Pong's Ultimate Inspiration." I'm mentioned in the article as Navin is a student of mine. Here's how it starts: "I was born with a congenital heart condition that has required 5 open-heart surgeries throughout my life to correct. My heart is now mechanical and made of the same carbon fiber material that you see in some table tennis paddles and I also have a pacemaker implanted inside me which is cool because occasionally I get to have software downloaded inside me so I feel like my old childhood bionic hero, The Six Million Dollar Man. A year and half ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease which affects me 2 ways – muscle stiffness and right hand tremors."
• Here's a new video (2:35) from yesterday where we had a breakthrough in his forehand technique. Watch the subtle turn of his foot and knee that turns his body into the shot.
• On Saturday from 10AM to 1:30PM I helped Peter Scudner do a videotaping of Navin Kumar, "The Bionic Man." The video will be out in a week or so - I'll post it here.
• Here he is in the Washington Post on Dec. 2, 2014, "Table Tennis: It Might Be Time to Take It Up Again."
• Here are three USATT articles that feature him:
  • January 15, 2015: "Navin Kumar Plays Table Tennis for Life."
  • January 9, 2015: "Kumar Eligible to Participate in Para Table Tennis."
  • September 16, 2014: "Navin Kumar: A Passion for Life."

USATT Board Seeks Nominations for Committee Appointments

Here's the notice from USATT, which you probably also received via email last week. (I also linked to this on Friday.) See if there's anything that matches your interest an expertise. I hope we get some great volunteers!

The Importance of a Loose Elbow

Here's the new coaching article by Matt Hetherington.

Two New Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina

• Making Peace with the Edge (Learn to deal with half-long balls)
• Don't Don't Don't (Do This vs. Don't Do That)
• And a photo from his recent junior clinic!

Ask the Coach

Episode #60 (12:50) - Serving Slow or Fast?

• Previous #PQOTD  - 0:47: What is your favourite activity apart from Table Tennis?
• #PQOTD  - 1:57: What are the most important muscles in Table Tennis?
• Question 1 - 2:22: Hi Alois, on my attacking forehand topspin strokes, is it ok that when i get to my finish position to open the angle of my bat while getting to it or it should stay the same angle? Pasquale
• Question 2 - 4:19: I am an attack player. What serve should I use? Nick
• Question 3 - 7:00: I have been training for a long time on a pendulum serve. The results are converging to a 80% success rate, about 15% into the net and 5% single bounce. How to improve the numbers and restore confidence so that I can use the same serve in matches? Dieter
• Question 4 - 10:50: I'm an attacking player and rely a lot on speedy topspin shots. I was playing with a spare old bat. I've recently got a new bat which is much lighter and while it's easier to control the spin shots when I try to generate any speed it flies off. Shinjini

New USATT Ratings Page

Here it is. I haven't had a chance to test it, and don't have time right now. So why don't you test it, and report on it? (I did notice one thing - it's confusing trying to find your rating history. Turns out that clicking on your name doesn't work. You have to click on your rating to find it. There should be a note there explaining this. I'll explore this later.)

Butterfly Aurora Open

Ruichao "Alex" Chen (a coach/practice partner from my club, rated 2667) won Open singles ($1500), 11-8 in the fifth over USA National Men's Champion Jimmy Butler ($750). I watched the match - what a battle! Both have great serves, but use them somewhat differently. The lefty Alex has perhaps the most vicious third-ball attack in the country - he relentlessly follows each serve with a forehand loop, and it's nearly unstoppable. Jim uses his serves for outright winners and to control points, though of course he'll rip a forehand or backhand smash if the return is weak. Alex serves short over and over, while Jimmy serves long much of the time - which is risky unless you have very good serves. (Here is the online video of the Saturday afternoon session, which included the Open Final near the end, just before the Open Doubles Final - but for some reason the video blanks out starting at 1:37:16. Anyone know where we can see the video?)

• Here's the "Top Seed Ruichao Chen Crowned Open Singles Champion" article by Barbara Wei.
• Here's the "Dreams Made Possible by Family and Friends" article by Barbara Wei.

Top Fifteen Ways My Life Will Change Now That I'm on the USATT Board of Directors

This was in my blog on Jan. 8, but a lot of people have asked about it, so I'm posting it again.

1. I get to move into theUSATT Mansion. (Look closely at this!)
2. I get to cut the salary of every USATT volunteer who has ever snubbed me. Oh wait…
3. Hobbies like eating, sleeping, and breathing will go on hold.
4. Robert F. Kennedy's quote now scares me: "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
5. I get a free USATT tie!
6. All those people who call me a crazy fool now have to call me a crazy foolsir!
7. To make time for my USATT volunteer work all that pesky paid stuff like coaching and writing will go on hold.
8. I get to scientifically test the theory that "absolute power corrupts absolutely." I believe it does, and I'm never wrong.
9. I can schedule the U.S. Open and Nationals at my club.
10. If I'm thinking about USATT stuff when I order a pizza, I can send the bill to USATT, right?
11. Next time at I jump on the table at a USATT board meeting and start ranting about coaching and leagues they'll wait a little longer before calling security.
12. Now that 8000 USATT members have access to my email I'll get peace and quiet.
13. Soon USATT members will know why my last name is just an anagram for "He's God." After a few months they'll realize that "USATT Board" is an anagram for "Oust bad rat." Squeak squeak!
14. To those who voted against me - you'll get the 100 rating points back after you apologize and practice your serves 15 minutes.
15. Strange how the day after I'm elected my new USATT rating is 2811.

International Table Tennis

Here's my periodic note 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).

Service Rules

Here's the video (5:31) from PingSkills. Just a basic intro to the serving rules.

NCTTA January Newsletter

Here's the January Newsletter of the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association.

Teddy Tran - Gab Talk

Here's the video (11:46) with the USA star. "Without ping-pong, my life would be like a broken pencil - pointless." It's about following your dreams, and having perspective.

The Marty Reisman Racket

Here's the article and pictures

The Difference Between a Master and a Beginner

Here it is!

One of the Best Points Ever - Yep, by Jan-Ove Waldner

Here's the video (33 sec). Not sure who the other player is, on near side with back to us - can anyone tell?
BREAKING NEWS! Bernard Lemal and Stefan Fangmeier both emailed to inform me that the other player (near side) is German star Georg Boehm. 

Craziest Table Tennis Rally of All Time?

Here's the video (42 sec) as Ma Long and Xu Xin (the lefty penholder) put on an impromptu exhibition where they do just about everything.

SPiN New York "Schools" Students on the Joys of Table Tennis

Here's the article.

Susan Sarandon Talks SPiN at Brooklyn Tech

Here's the video (2:34).

Ping Pong the Animation Tribute

Here's the video (3:09) - this is great!!!

Armin van Buuren - Ping Pong

Here's a 41-sec table tennis video from the music producer Armin van Buuren. It's rather interesting, but only because of the music and graphics. (Watch it a second time where you ignore the music and graphics, and you'll see what I mean.)  

Jimmy Fallen Faces Off Against Beer Pong Robot

Here's the video (1:48) - "Yes! Finally! We've Done it! USA! USA!"

Unicorn Pong

Here's the cartoon.

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