Writing Sabbatical Next Week

[NOTE - I'll have one more blog and tip on Monday (Jan. 19), and then start my writing sabbatical.]
As I wrote earlier this week, I'm taking a writing sabbatical next week, so this will likely be my last blog until Monday, January 26. (However, I'm thinking of doing one more on Monday, which I'd put together Sunday night - including the Tip of the Week - so check back Monday morning just in case.) 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. The current focus is the upcoming committee appointments - see below.

USATT Board Seeks Nominations for Committee Appointments

Here's the notice from USATT - you likely also received it via email, if USATT has an email address for you. (If not, contact them!)

One of the things I argued during the recent election campaign was that we need to take the word "Advisory" off these committee listings. Historically USATT is a group that does far too much advising and far too little implementing. That needs to change. We've already moved one step in that direction. Here's the current USATT Committees; note that all the non-standing committees (most of them) have "Advisory" in their names. After some discussion, the word was removed from the committee names in the call for applicants. However, they are still listed as "Advisory" committees, which implies that they are just there to advise, when we really need them to actually do stuff.

Besides USATT, I'm a member of several other organizations, such as Science Fiction Writers of American and (previously) the U.S. Tennis Association. Both groups are great at making use of volunteers via committees. SFWA is a master at this - I'm always amazed at how much they get done despite the constant politics. They've learned to separate the two. The committees get things done, and we can learn from them.

Here's my take on each of the 17 USATT Committees. (We also need a Ratings Committee; I'll make that motion later.) In many of these cases the current chair is eligible to return, and might do so. Some are doing excellent jobs.

Advisory Committees

=>Umpire and Referee Committee

This is an important post, with many responsibilities. However, I'm primarily looking for a chair who will push for umpires to enforce the rules, in particular the hidden serve rule. I've blogged about this repeatedly, such as here. The problem is the rules are rather clear, and yet there's little enforcement. The current rules state:

2.06.04 From the start of service until it is struck, the ball … shall not be hidden from the receiver by the server or his or her doubles partner or by anything they wear or carry. 

This is difficult for an umpire to tell. And since players know they can get away with it, they often hide the serve (a huge advantage), and the umpire isn't sure. So what is the umpire to do? Oh, there's a rule on that - in fact, two of them!!!

2.06.06 It is the responsibility of the player to serve so that the umpire or the assistant umpire can be satisfied that he or she complies with the requirements of the Laws, and either may decide that a service is incorrect. 

2.06.06.01 If either the umpire or the assistant umpire is not sure about the legality of a service he or she may, on the first occasion in a match, interrupt play and warn the server; but any subsequent service by that player or his or her doubles partner which is not clearly legal shall be considered incorrect. 

So if an umpire isn't sure if the serve is hidden, then he has to call it, usually with a warning the first time, and a fault thereafter. How much more explicit can you get than the second one above, where it says explicitly that if the umpire is not sure about the legality of a serve (i.e. if it was visible or not), then it's not legal? But the rule is rarely enforced. I want a chair who will push for umpires to enforce the rules. I still don't understand why this is even an issue - of course they should enforce the rules! But because of the laxness in enforcing them, we've created a culture among the top players (both in the U.S. and worldwide) where they know they can get away with illegal serves, and so many do so. This has to change. (Of course, the service rule would be a lot easier to enforce if we changed the service rule - see next item.)

=>Rules Committee

I'm tired of rules changes, so unless there's a huge reason, I don't want any more - except for fixing the hidden serve rule. Since we have so much difficulty getting umpires to enforce the hidden serve rule (see above), the simple solution is to change the rule to something like the following: "Throughout the serve, the ball must be visible to the opponent and to both umpires, or where the umpires would sit." I'm going to keep pushing for this rule, probably looking for a USATT tournament to test it, and then to the ITTF. I want a Rules Chair who will support this.

=>Seniors Committee

This could be a hugely important committee. Golf, for example, got very popular primarily through seniors. However, I haven't seen any real plans on promoting table tennis to seniors. This is not really my area of expertise, but I will be looking for a chair who will actively look to promote the sport to seniors.

=>Tournament Committee

This committee is perhaps more advisory, as they help out tournament directors. They work out the standards for the various star level tournaments. This is one of those committees that, if they do their job well, you don't notice them; if they do it poorly, they are noticeable. (The same is true of some others, such as the Umpire and Referee Committee.)

One big issue that keeps coming up is the idea of sanction protection. It used to be that if someone sanctioned a tournament on a certain date, if you wanted to run one on that same weekend you pretty much had to run it on Mars (or at least in a different region or far, far away). Now they've gone the other extreme, with zero protection, where if you run a million dollar tournament, someone else can run a rival one the same weekend across the street. I'd like to see a little moderation here rather than having to choose between these two extremes, but I'm not planning to get too involved in this issue - if I do, I'll be bogged down in it for the next four years. I'll be looking for a chair who is experienced in running successful tournaments who has good common sense.

=>Editorial Committee

I'll be looking for the obvious - someone with good editorial sense who'll help make our national publications high quality. Nothing special here.

=>Clubs Committee

I'd like an activist here, someone who will focus on developing clubs in this country. However, much of the Club Committee activities would coincide with the League, Coaching, and Juniors Committees (and perhaps the Senior Committee), so these people need together. I'm worried that we'll end up with each committee coming up with their own rival plans rather than working together. Since clubs are the place where all of these intersect, I'll be looking for someone here who can work with the others.

=>Hardbat Committee

As a long-time hardbatter myself (though I usually use sponge), I want a chair who looks to (duh!) promote hardbat table tennis. Nothing special here.

=>Leagues Committee

This should be one of the most important committees we have. I've blogged about this a zillion times, such as here; USATT needs to develop a regional system of team leagues. I'm working this now, and will likely work with this committee. I'm looking for a chair who is ready to get active.

=>Juniors Committee

Another one where we need an activist chair. This person needs to work closely with the Coaching Committee. The key is to recruit and train coaches who wish to be professional coaches or run junior programs.

=>Coaching Committee

Along with the League Committee, perhaps one of the two most important committees. We currently use the ITTF coaching program for certification. We need to go to the next level. I've blogged about this a number of times, such as here. I want an activist chair who's hungry to recruit and train professional coaches and those who want to run junior programs - i.e. set up a USATT Coaching Academy or equivalent.

=>Marketing and Fundraising Committee

We've never done this well, so of course I'm looking for a chair who will actually do these things. However, the new USATT CEO is focusing on these, and we recently hired a National Media and Marketing Consultant, so much of this might be happening with those two. So I'll be looking for someone with experience who can help with this.  

Standing Committees

=>High Performance Committee

This is a hugely important one, as they govern what USATT does for our elite and up-and-coming junior players. Much of this comes down to funding, and we're currently in a funding crisis here since USOC has, for now, cut our funding. Overall I'm happy with what they've been doing. The chair needs to be an open-minded person with experience, who can work in what might be the most difficult committee chair position - lots of people with strong but conflicting opinions here.

=>Nominating and Governance Committee

As I've blogged about, I believe we need to allow people to get on the ballot by petition, as before. I'm looking for a chair who will support this, as well as the usual fair-mindedness needed here. See #11 on my Election Page.

=>Compensation Committee

This committee is primarily responsible for staff salaries and related issues. Not really my area of expertise.

=>Audit Committee

Not my area of expertise, but we need someone we can trust to regularly audit our books.

=>Athlete Advisory Council

They advise our current and former top players. Need a fair-minded chair (duh!).

=>Ethics & Grievance Committee

Here we need a very fair-minded judicial type - so that's what I'll be looking for!

Exhibition at Smash Table Tennis

I'm doing an exhibition with Stefano Ratti at Smash Table Tennis in Sterling, Virginia, Monday at 8:30PM. Come join us! (Afterwards, at 9PM, we have an organizational meeting of the Capital Area Super League - I'm on the committee.)

Capital Area Super League

Here's a USATT news item on the new league. If you're in the DC region (Maryland & Virginia area), come join the Capital Area Super League!

New York Table Tennis League

If you are in the NY area, there's the NYTTL, which is now inviting players for the new season. (I'm mentioned in regard to my focus on leagues.)

Pro Table Tennis with Rowden Fullen

Here's an interesting table tennis site that has a HUGE number of coaching articles.

Returning Heavy Backspin

Here's the coaching video (4:48) from Tao Li.

Ask the Coach

Episode #59 (18:20) - World Ranking Predictions

• Yesterdays #PQOTD  - 1:57: Who will be number in the World in Mens and Womens at the end of 2015?
• #PQOTD  - 3:45: What is your favourite activity apart from Table Tennis?
• Question 1 - 4:34: Hey Pingskills,, What is the best sort of bat and rubber you can buy? Brock
• Question 2 - 6:02: Which Training camp did you guys join first before you started make Pingskills videos? Brock
• Question 3 - 7:08: I put a second coat of sealer on the blade and then when i used free chack the glue was drying as fast as I spread it. It clumped up. I scraped the glue and tried putting more this time. When I put the rubber on the blade, the rubber is peeling off. John
• Question 4 - 9:28: I am a righthander, I do a backhand serve from the left side of the table with my left foot further away from the table. If I dont know the ball is coming short I stand parallel to the table and kind of fall over. I cant figure out the problem. Manuel
• Question 5 - 12:10: After they blocked my loop it touched the top of the net. When I touched it, because it has lots of topspin it went out. What should I do when the ball has topspin or underspin or sidespin and touches the net and bounces on my table. Long
• Question 6 - 14:48: I noticed while playing against someone, their drive would sometimes 'sink'. Is this behavior dependent on the intensity of spin or power? I usually see this done with topspin but can this be done with other spins? Waley
• Question 7 - 17:20: If I want to block a spin, should I do it slow or fast? Brock

Lily Yip Repeats as Coach of the Year

Here's the article by Matt Hetherington. Here's the USATT notice on this from yesterday on the four big winners, which I blogged about Wednesday. 

Will We See a Top Defensive Play at the Top?

Here's the article by Matt Hetherington. 

Navin Kumar Plays Table Tennis for Life

Here's another article on my student at MDTTC - the "Bionic Man"!

Interview with Panagiotis Gionis

Here's the interview at the OOAK TT forum with the Greek chopping star and world #21.

One on One with NCTTA President Willy Leparulo

Here's the article and interview.

USOC Players and Teams of the Month

Here's the list for December - Jim Butler came in second in Men's, and the USA Junior Girls Team came in third for Teams. Phooey on luge, bobsled, and swimming!

Have Paddle, Will Travel

Here's the article as puzzle master Will Shortz plays table tennis in Casper as part of quest to be the first recorded person to play table tennis in all 50 states. I've been to all 50 states and have played table tennis in 47 (all but Alaska, Hawaii, and Connecticut), so he's about to one-up me. (Strangely, I can't get the text of the article to appear on my screen, just the headline, photo, and a bunch of gray lines where there should be text.)

Local Chicago Players Aim for Titles at 2015 Butterfly Aurora Cup

Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

Funny Point

Here's video (45 sec) of two kids going at it, with an unfortunate "What am I supposed to do about that?" ending!

Jan-Ove Waldner Drop Shot

Here's video (44 sec, including slow-motion replay) of the shot in an exhibition with Jorgen Persson. (That's Dan Seemiller doing most of the commentating, the one who says, "That's table tennis at its best.")

Rock-Paper-Scissors for Serve?

Here's video of Fukuhara Ai and Ichikawa Azusa doing rock-paper-scissors to see who serves at the start of a match - I've never seen this! (The link should take you directly to where they do this, 39 seconds in, but you could watch the whole video.)

Table for Two?

Here's the latest TT artwork from Mike Mezyan.

Business Pong

Here's the cartoon - and perhaps a reason little gets done at many USATT board meetings!

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Multiball Training

Have you done any multiball training recently? No? Well, why not? Don't you want to get better?

There are some myths about multiball training. Some believe it's only for beginners - and yet the Chinese team spends about 1/3 of their training time with multiball. Some think it's only for advanced players - but multiball is the best way to teach the basics. It's for all levels. Ironically, often beginners do multiball when they first learn, and advanced players do it for more intensive training, while intermediates don't do it - and it's one reason they stay intermediate players rather than advanced. It takes intensive training to become an advanced player, and multiball is one of the central ways of doing that.

Before we go further, here's my Tip of the Week on Multiball Training.

So how do you go about doing this if you don't have a coach, or can't afford one? Simple - find a practice partner - like anyone who wants to improve in table tennis - and take turns feeding multiball to each other. Yes, you'll need a box of training balls, but it's a one-time expense (other than getting new ones as they break). You'll also probably want ball nets to pick up balls, such as the Ball Amigo from Butterfly, and perhaps a head replacement. (I'd get two nets since there will be two of you.)

But first spend some time practicing. When I first began coaching I wasn't that good at feeding multiball either. So what did I do? I took a box of balls and practiced feeding multiball. (We had a robot with a net to catch the balls, so I didn't have to keep picking them up from the floor, but that's not really needed.) Learn to feed all types of balls - topspin and backspin, side to side, random, etc. It's easier to feed if you bounce the ball backwards on the table first, but for speed multiball you might want to practice feeding right out of your hand.

Here's a thread at the OOAK forum where the second message links to a number of videos of multiball being done.

One big question - and a reason some might want to hold off on buying lots of training balls for now - is because of the transition from celluloid to the plastic 40+ balls. Right now we're still using celluloid for multiball training at MDTTC because there aren't any good plastic training balls available yet - we're waiting for them from Butterfly, since they sponsor our club. As soon as they become available we'll be getting lots of them and switching over.

MDTTC Happenings

It seems we've had a lot going on recently at MDTTC.

• Coach Jack Huang just yesterday named USATT Developmental Coach of the Year.
• Coach Larry Hodges (me!) elected to the USATT Board of Directors eight days ago.
• Coach Ruichao "Alex" Chen wins Westchester December Open.
• Crystal Wang (age 12) in December makes finals of Women's Singles and won Under 22 Women for the second year in a row, and has feature video made of her.
• Navin Kumar is featured in numerous articles, such as this one, with a taping for a new feature video taking place this weekend.
• Coach/Practice partner Sun Jianhao joined our coaching staff. (No picture on the page yet.)
• The Capital Area Super League is starting up locally.

It Counts as Three Points!

Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

Ask the Coach

Episode # 58 (18:44) - Zhang Jike's Footwork.

• Yesterdays #PQOTD  - 1:04: Should Table Tennis copy other sports and go to a reduced format like 20/20 cricket and Fast 4 Tennis?
• #PQOTD - 2:53: Who do you think will be Number 1 in the World at the end of 2015 in Mens and Womens?
• Question 1 - 3:26: If you must choose an opponent that you would want to meet, who would it be? Brock
• Question 2 - 4:26: Who is your best Table Tennis Player of all time? Brock
• Question 3 - 4:49: How often did you guys play table tennis when you were rookies? Brock Lesnar
• Question 4 - 6:17: About the pendulum service when i practice this service i usually hit it in the net. I want to know how exactly to not hit it in the net or the judge calls a let. Am I supposed to draw back when I'm serving or there is a better way. Caylan
• Question 5 - 8:35: Does height affect gameplay in table tennis? Jaydon
• Question 6 - 9:42: In an old match from 2011, between Ma Long and Zhang Jike, if we leave everything else and just focus on Zhang Jike's feet I am mesmerized as to what level he has taken his footwork to. China excel in it. Are we missing some technical information? Arnab
• Question 7 - 11:25: Some coaches don't like their players fooling around and do a lot of experimenting while they are playing or practicing. So is it necessary to always practice hard with seriousness, determination or hard work, or, it wouldn't hurt to have some fun? Arnab
• Question 8 - 13:20: My friend says that if you angle your bat 45 degrees when you smash, the ball will land on more often. This tactic has worked for me, is it true? Or is it false?
• Question 9 - 14:52: I use "yasaka phantom 009" on my backhand.I learned many serves from your helpful videos, thank you. Can you show and teach me some serves with this kind of rubbers. Siddharth
• Question 10 - 16:32: What angle is the chop to generate spin? Brock

Newly Crowned Men’s National Champion Jimmy Butler to Compete at 2015 Butterfly Aurora Cup

Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

Kai Zhang

Here's an article and interview with the Westchester, NY star.

Father, Daughter Train at Greeley Senior Activity Center

Here's the article from the Greely Tribune in Colorado.

The Brothers Alamiyan Living Table Tennis

Here's the article. 

Boston Red Sox Ping Pong Tournament

Here's info - they are holding this near their park on Jan. 17 for fans, with winners getting Red Sox tickets. "Think you've got what it takes to run the tables in Ping Pong? Sign up now for our Red Sox Ping Pong Tournament!" … "At Winter Weekend, the best of the best will face off against 8 Red Sox personalities, vying for the Baseball Winter Weekend Cup!"

Table Tennis Twittering

Here's a table tennis twitter page. Everything you wanted to know about table tennis in nice easy 140-character chunks.

Man vs. Robot

Here's the video (2:30). (I like the start!)

Chinese Team Playing in the Dubai Desert Sands

Here's the picture! Click on picture to see two more.

How to Dive and Smack Your Head on the Floor

Here's the video (38 sec) of Adam Bobrow doing this, and why he has stiches on his head. (I searched Youtube for the infamous tape of USA team member Brian Masters smacking his head against the ground after losing a point at the World Championships but couldn't find it. Anyone have a link to it?)

Playing Kids in China . . . or at a USA Training Center!

Here's the cartoon.

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USATT Coaches of the Year

Here's the USATT Announcement. Congratulations to:

• Coach of the Year: Lily Yip
• Developmental Coach of the Year: Jack Huang
• Paralympic Coach of the Year: Ladislav Sranko
• Doc Counsilman Coach of the Year: Yang Yu

Jack Huang (from my club, MDTTC) won for Developmental Coach of the Year. (He won it primarily as Crystal Wang's coach, but also for others, such as Tiffany Ke and other MDTTC players.) It's his second USATT coaching award - he was Coach of the Year in 1998. (And now you know the answer to the burning question from my January 2 blog - see the Friday "Todo" list, item #15, where I wrote, "Write up Coach of the Year nomination for someone (who shall remain nameless for now)."

These awards are often the only time the top USA coaches get recognized. However, if you really want to see many of the best USA coaches, there's an easy method - just watch the top players and juniors in tournaments and see who coaches them in their matches. You can especially see a "who's who" group of coaches at the U.S. Open and Nationals if you watch the junior matches - especially at the Nationals during the Junior and Cadet Team Trials. Most spectators watch the players; I often find it more interesting to watch the coaches. There's a wide range of them - some are pretty much emotionless during matches, others you can almost tell the score by their faces. Some are calm and collected when coaching, others are animated.

Here's a listing of all the USATT Coaches of the Year since the program began in 1996. Here are multiple winners:

Four Times

• Teodor "Doru" Gheorge (4-time Coach of the Year)
• Daniel Rutenberg (3-time Paralympic Coach of the Year, one Volunteer Coach of the Year)
• Lily Yip (4-time Coach of the Year)

Three Times

• Stefan Feth (3-time Developmental Coach of the Year)
• Sean O'Neill (Coach of the Year, Developmental Coach of the Year, and Doc Counsilman Coach of the Year)
• Dan Seemiller (2-time Coach of the Year, Developmental Coach of the Year)

Two Times

• Dennis Davis (2-time Developmental Coach of the Year)
• Larry Hodges (Developmental Coach of the Year, Doc Counsilman Coach of the Year)
• Jack Huang (Coach of the Year and Developmental Coach of the Year)
• Christian Lillieroos (2-time Coach of the Year)
• Richard McAfee (Developmental Coach of the Year, Doc Counsilman Coach of the Year)
• Rajul Sheth (2-time Developmental Coach of the Year)

This Morning's Blog Was a Little Late Because…

…I was on the phone on USATT business from 10:30PM-1:15AM, and then working on USATT stuff until 4AM. By noon today all of USATT problems will be fixed, membership will hit a million, and all the major network TV stations will be pre-empted later today for a special briefing from the President on why table tennis now tops his domestic agenda. (Am I still in bed dreaming?) Actually, I did get a lot done last night, and the phone discussions were invaluable. But it did add a few things to my todo list, which along with the Great Wall of China are apparently the only manmade objects visible from space.

Team Leagues!

If you live near Washington DC (Maryland and Virginia), New York City, or Los Angeles, why not sign up now for their team leagues? I've blogged a lot recently about the Capital Area Super League, but there's also the New York League and the Los Angeles League. Are there other major team leagues in the U.S.? Let me know so I can blog about them.

Athletes of the Month - December

Here's the article and pictures from USATT. I linked to this before, but I don't think it was highlighted as well at the time. Congratulations to Lily Zhang, Jimmy Butler, Tara Profitt, Daryl Sterling, Jr., and the USA Junior Girls' Team for their outstanding play!

Butterfly Aurora Cup

Here are two articles by Barbara Wei on the 4-star tournament to be held this weekend in Aurora, Illinois. Both Barbara and top-seeded Ruichao Chen ("Alex") are from my club, MDTTC.

• Butterfly Kicks-Off North American Tour with Highly Anticipated 2015 Butterfly Aurora Cup
• 17 Year Old Ruichao Chen (2654) Top Seed at 2015 Butterfly Aurora Cup

Japanese National Team Training

Here's the new video (2:58) of their national team in training in Tokyo.

Expert in a Year

Here's the video (5:00) from Coach Ben Larcombe, and here's the Expert in a Year web page. "The Expert in a Year Challenge follows the progress of novice table tennis player Sam Priestley, as he attempts to go from beginner to expert in just one year and break into the top 250 players in England."

Ask the Coach

Episode #56 - ITTF Star Awards (14:49)

• Yesterdays #PQOTD  - 0:45: What did you think of the results of the ITTF Star Awards?
• #PQOTD  - 3:46: Have you noticed any differences in play of the Worlds top with the Plastic Ball?
• Question 1 - 4:15: Hi guys, lately I have hit a wall against a player 6'3 with long arms who I can't back off the table. I've tried long and short strategies and he just pounds me ..... any advice ? Thanks George
• Question 2 - 6:43: I confused how to control the direction of my smash. in game I usually smash the ball just to the right of the opponent's table side. I want to ask how to control the direction of the ball while I do a smash. Fairuzi Zafrano
• Question 3 - 9:01: I qualified for the regional games last october and I have been practicing with myself since then through matchplay only. What can I do to help myself be in my best condition in 1 month for the regionals? What are some exercises I can perform? Wayne
• Question 4 - 11:15: When I try to do a high toss serve I get two results. The ball bounces high during the contact landing near the net on my side and the other side. Sometimes I manage to keep the serve low but it moves across the table very slowly. What can I do? Sachintha

Episode #57 - The Best Bat to Buy (17:45)

• Yesterdays  #PQOTD  - 0:48: Have you noticed any differences in play of the Worlds top players with the Plastic Ball?
• #PQOTD  - 2:40: Should Table Tennis copy other sports and go to a reduced format like 20/20 cricket and Fast 4 Tennis?
• Question 1 - 3:05: Hey Pingskills, Your videos are very helpful and I have been good with blocking smashes but how do I block a smash with spin on it? - Brock
• Question 2 - 5:31: I am 15 years old. I began playing around 10 months ago. My rating is 682. Although, I have been showing immense improvement I am still only able to compete against players who are 2-4 years younger than me. Did I begin playing too late? Abdullah
• Question 3 - 7:03: Hi guys I'm asking you what is the difference between speed glue and water based glue and how does this effect our rubber or how does it damage the wood of the racket. Thanks Barbatel
• Question 4 - 8:18: I'm a beginner player and enjoy table tennis. I play with friends and they play 21 pts and 4 players. We do 5 serves and serve from the right and left corners. According to the lessons, serves should be only from the right. What are your thoughts? Rita
• Question 5 - 10:08: what is the best paddles and balls to buy?
• Question 6 - 12:37: I've got a question about my anti spin rubber. What is the best way to block the ball? (on the backhand) Huub from Holland
• Question 7 - 14:25: How do I improve myself more easily? Brock

Best Points of Simon Gauzy

Here's the new Highlights video (3:59) showing the best points by world #37 player from France.

Former U.S. Table Tennis Champion Paddles Numbers

Here's the article about 11-time U.S. Women's Singles Champion and 2-time Olympian Insook Bhushan, who now works as an accountant in the Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs Budget Office.

Ping Pong a Game for Everyone

Here's the article from the Hattiesburg American. "But in this week's column, I want to talk about a real sport — one of deft skill, requiring a sharp eye and lightning quick reflexes. It's an unforgiving sport, punishing the smallest mistake but rewarding precision and control. It's a game that's simple to learn, but truly takes a lifetime of commitment to master. I'm talking, of course, about table tennis, more commonly known as ping pong."

Female Table Tennis Player, Male Coach Suspended Over Late-Night CCTV Footage

Here's the article and video (8:15) - shocking!!!

Chinese Players in Local Attire

Here's Ma Long and Fan Zhendong (?) in local Arab attire after the recent World Team Cup in Dubai, United Arab Republic. Here are more pictures.

12 Horrible Messages in Forrest Gump

Here's the video (8:22) - or go directly to 3:07 where there's 9 seconds on table tennis!

Are You Not Table Tennis Entertained?

Here are pictures you'll wish you'd never seen.

Goldfish Pong

Here's the cartoon!

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Capital Area Super League

Interest in the Capital Area Super League seems pretty high, with lots of players discussing it at MDTTC and (I'm told) other clubs. Of course the main obstacle for something like this is that it's "new," i.e. something that hasn't been done much in the U.S., though it's the backbone of European table tennis, where they often count memberships in the hundreds of thousands. I envision team leagues like this all over the country. The people who don't see this are the same ones who eight years ago didn't think there were enough players in the U.S. to support full-time training centers. Just as full-time centers created their own base of players, team leagues will do the same, once organized and given the chance. It'll take time - but it has to start somewhere. As I've blogged repeatedly, we need a prototype regional team league that can be copied all over the country, and that's one of the things I hope to do here - in addition to just having a highly successful league. If you live in the Washington DC area, I hope you will sign up!

A few items regarding the league:

• The old web address was long and cumbersome. Yesterday I bought www.CapitalTT.com, and it's now the official web address for the league. Later it'll likely become the web address for a Capital Area Table Tennis Association.
• The league now has a "Looking for a Team" link (go to the bottom).
• The league organizing committee is Mike Levene, Stefano Ratti (these two are the prime movers), John Olsen, and Larry Hodges (me).

Adult Beginning/Intermediate Class

I'm teaching a new Adult Beginning/Intermediate Class (beginner to roughly 1500 USATT rating), Sundays from 6:30-8:00PM, starting Feb. 15. Here's the flyer. I've taught this course about thirty times before. It's a great way to introduce new players to the sport, plus the students in the class become their own peer group, and often start coming to the club on the same nights. This is one of the best ways for clubs to pick up new members. The main alternative with new players is to tell them to call winners one some table where they'll get eaten alive by a more experienced player, and you never see them again. Maybe that's not such a good idea!

If you want to teach such a class, the first step is to put together a flyer. Then post the flyer everywhere. Also send info to local newspapers - most will publish the info in their community calendars. You probably want an assistant, both for demos, but also to help with the coaching, either walking around, hitting with someone if there's an odd number, or feeding multiball.

Segun Toriola Incredible Lobbing Point

Here's video (66 sec) of "The best point in the history of table tennis." It's not far from the truth! But you can learn from video. If you watch Segun Toriola (world #159, formerly #56, from Nigeria), you'll notice that he never really needs to move fast - he's returning rip after rip, and yet there's no lunging, no diving, just smooth stepping into position to return each shot. How does he do this? Here are things to watch for:

1. His wide stance gives him great balance and a quick start in either direction.
2. He watches his opponent closely, and begins to react almost the instant the ball is being struck, or even before.
3. He keeps his lobs deep, which cuts down on the angles and gives him more time to react.
4. His lobs have good topspin, making the ball jump, which keeps the opponent from taking the ball too quickly.

I think his opponent is Singapore's Gao Ning, but I'm not sure - couldn't get a good look from the video since his back is to us, and I can't make out the name on the back. Can anyone tell?
(NOTE: someone anonymously emailed to verify it was Gao Ning, and said he was also able to freeze the video and see the name on the back.)

Agility Training with a Robot

Here video (60 sec) of Samson Dubina doing footwork training with a robot.

2015 USATT Direct Athlete Support Program

Here's info on this new USATT program for elite athletes.

ITTF Course in Singapore

Here's video (3:48) from a course taught in Singapore in 2012 by USA Coach Richard McAfee.

2014 - The Year in Review

Here's the new video (5:52) from the ITTF.

Butterfly News

Here's the Butterfly USA news page - some interesting stuff there.

Zhang Jike Signing Autographs

Just an interesting picture.

Where's the Ball?

Guess right in this contest, and you'll have a chance to win a 190 Stiga blade signed by Xu Xin, Fan Zhendong, Yan An, and Zhu Yuling!

Mornington Table Tennis Player Jim Healy Marks 90^th Birthday

Here's the article from the Melbourne Herald Sun.

Secretin-Purkart Show

Here's video (3:40) of the greatest table tennis exhibition team ever. This video was posted in 2007 (and is probably from years before that), but many of us remember this great exhibition team from France. Secretin was a top ten player in the world for many years (and 17-time French Men's Singles Champion), but it was for his exhibitions with Purkart that he is best known. Secretin, the lefty, was the "straight man," who brought sheer genius play to the team, while Purkart, a top chopper (two-time French Men's Singles Champion and seven-time finalist, probably many more if not for Secretin), would clown around.

Table Tennis Warnings

Every club needs these warnings (from Mike Mezyan) about falling tables and no walking on them!

Table Tennis Cartoon

I have no idea what's going on here, but there's some great table tennis action apparently going on in this picture! (Some explanation is given here - page toward the end.)

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Tip of the Week

Develop Your Primary and Secondary Skills.

Two Books, Two Sabbaticals?

I think, with eight books out and an insatiable reading habit, I can be considered the "bookish" type. (Here are my books. Buy them!!!) Here are my upcoming table tennis book plans.

Short-term: I've got two books I want to do soon. The first is "Parents Guide to Table Tennis." Alas, with this blog, my USATT work, my MDTTC work, and a zillion other things on my todo list, I'm not finding the time to do this. Also, by the time I finish writing this blog each morning I'm pretty much writed out (no, that's not a word, but you get the meaning). So when can I write this book?

I think the solution is I'm going to have to take a one-week sabbatical from the blog next week. Monday (Jan. 19) is already MLK Day, and I was planning to take that off anyway. Tuesday is a "Professional Day" for teachers with no school, and so we have no afterschool program that day, so I can easily take that day off as well. So no blogs next week as I work on the book (Jan. 19-23, Mon-Fri).

"Parents Guide to Table Tennis" would include general info on table tennis and USATT; advantages of table tennis (healthy; few injuries; size not important; develops hand-eye coordination, tactical and strategic thinking skills, and self-discipline; and it's an Olympic sport); equipment; what you want in a coach; what to expect of your child (goals, attitude, fun vs. improvement, self-discipline, hard work = improvement, what to do with especially "talented" kids); parental and child etiquette; private and group coaching; tournaments and leagues; and juniors and ratings.

Any suggestions on other topics it should include? Comment below!!!

The other book would be a novel, "The Paddle of Pong," which I blogged about briefly last Tuesday. I write a lot about table tennis and I also write science fiction & fantasy, so I decided it's time to really combine the two and write a real table tennis fantasy. My published novel, "Sorcerers in Space," does feature a kid who has to give up his dreams of ping-pong stardom to save the world, but it doesn't really feature table tennis. (I have another SF novel making the rounds, "Campaign 2100," which does feature table tennis quite a bit, but it's not really central to the novel.)

"The Paddle of Pong" would be a table tennis fantasy dramedy. Our hero is a mid-level American player who aspires to be a champion. So he goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis - and finds a mentor, treachery, and a fantasy world where he must achieve the Body of Pong, the Spirit of Pong, and most importantly, the Paddle of Pong - all while being haunted by the spirits of table tennis champions past.

So when could I write this? If the sabbatical next week works out, I might take another Feb. 16-20. Feb. 16 is President's Day, so I was planning to take that day off anyway. (I wouldn't be able to write the whole thing that week, but I'd get a good start on it. I've already written the first chapter, which gets our hero to the door of the National Training Center in China.)

Long-term: Here are other books I plan to do at some point:

• Rewrite of Table Tennis: Steps to Success (probably retitled as simply Table Tennis Fundamentals). I don't have time for this right now as it would require a lot of writing and a huge quantity of new pictures. But I expect to get to this eventually.
• Rewrite of Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis. The teaches how to coach table tennis at the lower levels, and is primarily for beginning coaches and non-table tennis coaches, such as PE instructors. I wrote the original version in the late 1980s. It was USATT's official coaching manual for about 20 years.
• More Table Tennis Tips. Last year I came out with Table Tennis Tips, which compiled in logical fashion all 150 Tips of the Week published from 2011-2013. Early in 2017 I'll compile the tips from 2014-2016, and another book will be born!
• More Pings and Pongs. The anthology "Pings and Pongs" has 30 of my best short story sales. However, since that time I've sold a lot more, and I now have enough for the sequel. After each story is published I have to wait from 3-6 months before the rights come back to me, and then I can compile them in this sequel.

USATT Board issues

I'm currently in an email discussion with a number of others regarding the various issues I focused on when I ran for the Board. (Anyone who thinks those were just "political" issues is missing the point - I ran to get these things done, and that's going to be my primary focus.) Alas, these types of discussions must remain confidential. I'll report on them when they become "official," such as things discussed at USATT Board Meetings (except during closed sessions where they mostly discuss personnel issues). I'm already facing the expected "This is how we always do it" responses from some people. It really is hard to bring change to an organization that's been doing the same old things for so many years, no matter how unsuccessful these "same old things" have been. At the same time, there are other USATT people who are eager to see USATT succeed and embrace the changes needed.  

World Team Cup

Here's the ITTF page for the event (results, articles, video, pictures), which finished yesterday. China swept both Men's and Women's Teams, the sun rose this morning, and we still have gravity. Note the links under "Media," which includes the Daily Reviews, Shots of the Day, and Quotes. Here's the ITTF Press Release, and the article from Tabletennista. Here are World Team Cup Highlights (2:59).

Table Tennis Training with Kong Linghui

Here's the new video (23:42) of 1995 World and 2000 Olympic Men's Singles Gold Medalist Kong Linghui teaching table tennis. He's now coach of the Chinese Women's Team that dominates the world.

Coaching Articles by Samson Dubina

Here are two new ones:

• Spin Reversal
• How to Get Out of a Slump (8 methods)

Reverse Penhold Racket Angle

Here's the video (3:24) from Tao Li Table Tennis.

Ask the Coach

Episode #55 (17:49) - Tactics Against a Good Flicker

• Last #PQOTD  - 0:55
• What is your Table Tennis Goal for 2015?
• #PQOTD  - 1:36: What did you think of the results of the ITTF Star Awards?
• Discussion - 1:49: World Cup results
• Question 1 - 4:50: During a match my opponent started to read the spin of my serves very well. And then he started to flick aggressively every short serve or even my short receive of his serve. As the result, I lost many points to it. What would a good player do? Ilia
• Question 2 - 7:49: I am not confident if I play a backhand smash or a forehand smash. So I rarely play them, is there a way to improve my confidence? Jukemc
• Question 3 - 10:50: I am getting good with my forehand counterhit but do I wait till it becomes very consistent then learn a loop or switch between them? When to use counterhit and loop while playing? Am I right that professional use loops only and never counterhits? Mohammad
• Question 4 - 13:07: Should I join a table tennis club? Jukemc
• Question 5 - 14:09: Hi guys, during a point I hit a shot that tipped the net, bounced on top of the plastic side piece holding the net and spun back onto the table on the other side. I doubt I'll ever see that again but in case I do, how would you rule that? George
• Question 6 - 15:28: When moving to the left should I start the move with my left or right foot, or does it make a difference? In the videos it seems that a move to the left is started with the right foot, and a move to the right is started with the left foot. Bill

Navin Kumar Eligible to Participate in Para Table Tennis

Here's the USATT article. I'm mentioned in it as Navin's coach!

2014 North American Tour Grand Final

Here's the flyer for the event to take place at the Westchester TTC in NY, Feb. 6-8.

Marty Reisman's Tribute Feature from SPiN NY 2014

Here's the video (16:15).

Ping Pong Ruler

Here's a page that does lots of equipment reviews.

Custom Barrier Rackets

Here's the picture - a two-tiered stacking approach!

Ma Long vs. Zhang Jike at the 2014 China Team Trials

Here's the video (14:48, with time between points taken out).

Ten Things China Does Better than Everyone Else

Here's the CNN article. See the second item, "Indoor Sports."
"Its state system of athletic training has perfected a foolproof method for producing top gymnasts, ping pong champs, badminton aces and diving divas."
"Chinese competitors are practically unbeatable at badminton and table tennis, winning more gold medals in these events than any other country at the Olympics."

U.S. Aerobic Ping Pong

Here's the page. Make sure to watch the "Health Works" video (2:21).

Incredible Around-the-Net Backhand

Here's the video (28 sec).

Women's Soccer Pong

Here's the video (14 sec) of two women really going at it! Here's a video (3:45) I linked to previously of men going at it in a "top ten" rallies listing.

Framework - Making a Ping-Pong Table?

Here's the video (3:04) of an episode of "Framework" where a group each tries to design a better table. (Starts with two rather long commercials, alas.) "You must bring style into something mundane." "The ever-so-cocky Freddy thinks he has as masterpiece of a ping pong table design, but Common reminds him of something he missed."

Top 10 Table Tennis Tricks

Here's the video (2:31).

Trick Shots

Here's video (47 sec) of Adam Bobrow and Josep Anton Velazquez doing trick shots as they circle the table at center court at the World Team Cup.

Big Eyes Adam Bobrow

Here's the picture.

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Leagues, Leagues, Leagues!!!

I blogged about the Capital Area Super League a few days ago - here's the flyer. If you live in the Maryland/Virginia region, sign up now!!! It looks like it's catching on, with more and more players talking about signing up on a team. Soon to be added will be a "Players Looking for Teams" page. (Note that they had another organizational meeting last night, and have updated the web page and flyer. For example, the format has been decided - it's going to be straight three on three team matches.)

Of course the long-term purpose of such a league isn't just for current players, but to bring in new ones. But that'll start happening when the league is established. And then it can grow and grow. And USATT, the national organizational body for table tennis in this country, can and should be a part of this.

Now I'll be honest - my true interest in table tennis, and especially USATT matters, is coaching. (Also writing!) But unless we want to spend the rest of our lives in a small sport, constantly scrambling to get more players and never succeeding, leagues have to be one of the two or three top priorities for USATT, and probably #1 if we want to have membership numbers like they do overseas. (Have I mentioned Germany has 600,000 paid members and 11,000 clubs, and how countries all over Europe have similarly large memberships? Oh yeah, about once a week….)

Assuming we're successful, the next step is to package it as a prototype league that can be spread to other regions. I hope to have something like that by the end of the year.

Here's an interesting incentive. I'm offering a free signed copy of my book Table Tennis Tales and Techniques to anyone who signs up for the Capital Area Super League this year. (Due to a large print overrun when it first came out, I have hundreds of extra copies.)

USATT Election Results

When USATT published the results, they didn't give out the voting figures. But they have since decided it is public information, so I can give out the results. I received 561 votes (83.6%) to Jim McQueen's 110 (16.4%).

Now these numbers tell us several things. First, the turnout wasn't great - only 671 USATT members voted. I'm guessing there are something like 5000 active adult USATT members, a little less than 13.5%. That's pretty low. Part of this is because the online voting procedure was a bit trickier than the way we used to it, with paper ballots where you just checked the candidate, stuck it in an envelope, and mailed it back. But 13.5% is low no matter how you look at it.

I think it means that much of the membership has simply given up on USATT. We've been a stagnant organization since its beginning in 1933, with embarrassingly low membership figures - basically a round-off number, as I call it. (We are listed as having 9000 members, but many of those are inactive life members, honorary members, institutional members, clubs, etc., plus something like 1500 junior members. At some point I plan to look into the actual breakdown of these numbers and how they have changed in recent years.) So the membership simply isn't excited about USATT, and the turnout reflects this. This needs to change.

The high percentage I received shows that those who voted really are looking for a USATT that actively develops the sport, in particular in the ways I campaigned on - developing regional team leagues, creating regional associations, recruiting and training coaches, turning the U.S. Open and Nationals into major events, and professionalizing our sport. Too often our boards have acted more like judges, judging the issues before them - but rarely taking initiative themselves or implementing anything substantive. This needs to change.

I really don't think the vote totals reflect on Jim at all. (In fact, a good part of the reason I received such a high percentage is I simply campaigned more.) Jim's a good guy, a USATT Hall of Famer who's done a lot for our sport, and who chairs the USATT Editorial Board. (As I've blogged before, I hope to work with him on magazine and possibly other issues.) It was more a vote to change the focus of USATT from just the day-to-day running of it to actively developing our sport. It's not something we've ever really focused on. This needs to change.

Oh My God!!!

Yep, that's me on the USATT Board of Directors page.

1985 US Open Photo

As part of USATT's continuing effort to embarrass and humiliate me*, they published this picture of me on the USATT Facebook page. Yep, that's me on the right! On the left is Jeff Harris, a local Maryland junior at the time. We won the event, I think Under 3800 Doubles. I'm 25 in the picture, one semester away from graduating college and going to the Resident Training Program (RTP) at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs as (at various times) player/assistant manager/manager/director/assistant coach/Special Assistant to the Executive Director, and who knows what other titles. (See Jim Butler's comments on this - they are all out to get me!)
  *To the humor-challenged, yes, I'm kidding!!!

If you desperately want to see an action shot of me from long ago, just go to the home page here, and there's a picture of me looping a forehand at the 1983 Pan Am Team Trials, when I was 23. Note the high follow-through? You wouldn't do that with modern tensor sponges like Tenergy!!! (I was using unglued Sriver back then. Now I use Tenergy 05 on the forehand, Tenergy 25 on the backhand.)

Thursday Night Junior Class

Montgomery County runs junior table tennis classes at MDTTC on Thursdays from 6-7 PM. We started a new session yesterday, with 12 players ranging in age from 9 to 14. I ran the session, with Chen Ruichao ("Alex," the recent Westchester Open champion, rated 2654) and John Hsu assisting. The first session for such classes is always the easiest, surprisingly. They're all a bit quiet and not sure yet what's going to happen. As the sessions continue they become bolder and things get louder. In yesterday's session we covered the grip, stance, ball-bouncing, and the forehand. (I also introduced them to our robot.) The last seven minutes of the session they took turns trying to hit my Gatorade bottle - if they did, I had to drink the "worm juice" inside.

Online Training for Table Tennis Program

Here's the promo video (3:25) for the new DVD from Dynamic Table Tennis (Brian Pace). Here's the description:

Online Training for Table Tennis is the first training program that consist of 4 different training programs that cover every way that you can improve in the sport of table tennis. 

The Technique Plan - The Technique Plan consist of receiving a professionally edited video of your tournament or training footage that will highlight exactly where the error is being made with regards to technique. 

The Tournament Stats Plan - The Tournament Stats Plan consist of your tournament or practice match video footage being put through the Tournament Table Tennis Software that will show you exactly what skillsets are responsible for your tournament result. 

Tournament & Video - The Tournament & Video Plan takes your video footage and creates a training program to improve your performance based on your tournament results. 

Training Plan - The training plan is a comprehensive training program that consist of 8 Training Videos per month that every skill set in the sport of Table Tennis. This is the type of training program that will teach you how to become a Tournament Player. This program will start on Feb 15th, 2015. 

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).

2015 World Team Cup

Here's the ITTF home page for the event, Jan. 8-11 in Dubai, United Arab Republic. Here's the team seeding list - nope, no USA teams. Here's the Shot of the Day (34 sec) for the first day (really rally of the day), between Zhang Jike and Robert Gardos.

Is Zhang Jike a Sure Bet in 2015?

Here's the article by Matt Hetherington.

Croatia's Champ Aiming for Top 10 and Olympic Medal

Here's the interview with Croatia's Andrej Gacina (world #26, formerly #18) by Matt Hetherington.

Roger Federer Warns Against the Perils of Pushy Parents

Here's the article.

Polar Pong

Here's the picture of two diehard players - and considering the temperature here in Maryland dropped to 6 degrees yesterday, it's oddly appropriate - but you'd never catch me out there!

2014 Mousetraps and 2015 Ping-Pong Balls

Here's the new video (2:05) - what happens when we put these together? You have to see it to believe it - and in slow motion!!! "Ahead of the 2014 New Year's Eve celebrations, Pepsi Max helps its fans get in the party mood with a vibrant video that brings to life the sentiment of the social season. Instead of the traditional fireworks, Pepsi Max created its own explosion of color using 2,014 mousetraps and 2,015 Ping-Pong balls to set off a spectacular and mesmerizing chain reaction."

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USATT Election

Well, I won. For some reason the vote totals are not given. Anyway, now the real work begins. We've got a big job ahead of us!

I promised to do a lot, but in my mind, these weren't just promises; these were things we simply need to do, and either I do it or someone else does it. I'll be looking for talented people to do as much of it as possible, and taking charge of other items. Some of the issues involve simply making a motion at a board meeting, but it's never as simple as that. Most votes are decided before the motion is made, so I can't just show up and make the motion; I have to bring it up with board members in advance, argue the case, and try to convince them of the importance of the motion. The five "Big Issues" will take a lot of organizational work - but I'm ready to get started! I won't be alone; there are plenty of others in USATT ready to jump in.

I do have a pretty clear roadmap on how we should address each of these issues. I plan to get started on all of them this first year, though some will take years to resolve. Some will be easy fixes; some will take a lot of time and work. Sometimes things will work out perfectly in the way that I foresaw; other times a better solution will emerge, and I'll adopt that instead. The final result is what counts, so we have to be flexible in finding the means to the result.

I think it's important that I and others at USATT remember this quote from Robert F. Kennedy: "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." I want to achieve greatly, and so do others from USATT, and that means taking risks on new ventures. The very idea of growing USATT from its current "round-off error" membership numbers is itself a risky venture. But we're going to do it.

I will be looking to see how others respond to problems and solutions to growing the sport, whether board members, volunteers, or staff. Do they look to fix the problem and find solutions, or just throw up roadblocks? Some do only the latter. Many do not even see the problems (such as low membership totals, small-scale U.S. Opens and Nationals, losing juniors as they approach 18, problems with the rating system, problems with the service rule, etc.), but once pointed out, these are obvious problems that need fixing. Who will actively look to fix the problems and find ways to grow and develop our sport? There's nothing wrong with pointing out the problems while looking for possible solutions, but it should be done in a brainstorming way, with the goal to find a solution.

I don't want to start off by stepping on others toes by proclaiming things I'll be doing that require others to also want to do them, i.e. the committee/staff/volunteers involved. So I won't be able to give blow-by-blow accounts of the issues as we deal with them - but I will keep readers informed as much as possible. I'm going to be doing a balancing act these next four years, where I have to judge what I can blog about and what I can't or shouldn't.

With a new forward-looking CEO who also wants to develop and grow the sport, a new Media and Marketing Consultant (see segment below), and with new committees appointments coming up, USATT potentially has the perfect mix of new and old - the energy and ideas of the new (and sometimes the old!), and the experience of the old.

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

1. I get to move into the USATT Mansion.
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 fool sir!
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.

USATT Hires Richard Finn as National Media and Marketing Consultant

Here's the USATT article. Richard gave a presentation at the meeting at the Nationals in December, and seems pretty competent.

Post Christmas & New Year Coaching

It seems like everyone's out of practice and out of shape! Didn't they get the memo about practicing hard during the break? Or at least shadow practicing? So now we have lots of basics work and footwork drills to get back in shape.

An interesting question comes up regarding this - what's the best way to get back into practice quickly? The conventional wisdom would be to drill and drill and drill, then play matches, and soon you'll be back where you left off. But my experience has always been that the quickest way to get back into practice - along with doing the drills - is to play matches right from the start. You may not do so well at first, but like being thrown into the deep end, you sink or swim - but unlike swimming where you drown if you don't swim, you get a second and third and fourth chance, and eventually it'll start to click. In fact, I've always found that after a break, my game comes back most often when my back is against the wall, i.e. I'm struggling and about to lose against a weaker player, and then something clicks, and bang! The magic returns.

Zhang Jike Serve, Flip, and Loop

Here's the video (24 sec, mostly slow motion) as he serves (alas, we can't see contact), does a forehand flip (note the placement to the opponent's middle, assuming he's a righty), and a follow-up forehand loop (note how he doesn't bother to bring his right foot back, sacrificing that for the sake of quickness).

ITTF Star Awards Night

Winners were Quadri Aruna and Ding Ning. Here's the ITTF article. Here's the ITTF press release (different from the article). Here's the highlights video (6:57). Here's the Tabletennista article, with lots of pictures of the stars as you've never seen them - in suits instead of warmup suits! Here's a video (2:32) of some of the musical and dancing festivities.

Child Contemplates Table Tennis

I can't read the Italian, but I like the picture! (Actually, I had Google Translate convert to English, but the translation wasn't very good.)

Action Shot of the Year

Here it is - it's the first time I've ever seen a barefooted woman fly through a hotel wall in a jungle-print party dress to lob.

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USATT Election

Sometime today USATT will announce the results of the USATT Board election, where I'm a candidate. It'll likely be posted on the USATT News page. (I'll link to it here when it does.) Check back here periodically today, and when the results are out, I'll check one of the below.

V I was elected. Oh No!!!
   I wasn't elected. Lots of sleep planned!!!

USA Olympian and Five-Time U.S. Men's Champion Sean O'Neill on Peaking

Sean has always been one of the hardest working players in U.S. history. (Here's a video by Brian Pace where he gets a lesson in "Work Ethic.") But it's not just hard work - anyone with grit and determination can do that, and many do. The point is to do so intelligently, so as to get the best results. And one of the keys to that is peaking for the "big" tournaments - something Sean may have done better than just about anyone else. Recently I had some Facebook discussions with Sean on this, and below is what he posted about peaking.

Peaking by Sean O'Neill

The real question is how does a person actually peak for big events? Do they just eat more Wheaties? Do they use different glue? Is there one drill you do that others aren't doing? The reason I won so many titles was:

1. My event preparation was far superior to the entire field. My off-the-court training dwarfed my opponents.
2. My video analysis of ALL my opponents wasn't closely matched or even really attempted.
3. My coaching was far stronger with both eastern and western coaching philosophies from day one.
4. My tournament environment was more favorable living on the east coast where I could play from NY to GA in a drive from home. We had monthly events at our local club. I was averaging 25-30 tournaments a year as a 9-16 year old. Playing abroad from age 11 was key. China for two months as a 14 year old was huge.
5. The intensity of my practices was in a different league then my competition. For three hours each day, one ball didn't touch the ground without a 100% effort. Edges were return regularly and net balls were easy put-aways. The first and final points were played as if I was in the finals of the Nationals. My drill selection or multi-ball was far more advanced than other Americans.
6. I made my first adult team as a 15 year old so I was exposed to international play at an adult while still a junior.
7. Played any adult style as a cadet. I learned to finish the point when I was 11 years old and made the main draw at the 1978 US Open by beating Randy Seemiller with stronger shots.
8. I played European style league matches as a junior in Stockholm. Learning how to play in front of a crowd when you only play two matches a night is the same as playing a finals. I also did this at the US Nationals in the Boys under 11, 13, 15, and 17, where Scott [Butler] and I were also prior to men's singles final. That is how one learns to play big when big is expected.
9. I had great doubles partners from Insook to Diana to Hank to Danny to Eric to Team Angby to show me how to play as a team and set my partner up.
10. My parents set everything aside so I could focus on table tennis 30 hours a week plus. We had live-in coaches (Chuchai Chan and Monty Merchant) before anyone ever thought of that idea. I had sponsor help with expenses as an under 11 year old. Larry published a letter to Butterfly to get the ball rolling. I had a European club happy to have exchange with me during critical junior years. I had club mates who would drop their training to help with any drills I needed help on. I had world-class coaches that never charged me a dime for their time, advice or guidance.
11. I knew that if I never gave up I would have a chance to compete. I didn't always win but I always competed.

So those are the top 11 reasons people should understand that allowed me to peak when it mattered most. There was nothing magical about peaking. It was the direct result of planning, preparation, and execution. Each year had a clear plan on what event were markers and which events were final exams. What I didn't do was put the same effort into the Westfield Open as I did the US Nationals. It makes no sense. Those little events are opportunities to try new things, test new strategies, and to gain recon info to be studied prior to bigger events.

No one can perform at 100% optimal level for each and every tournament throughout the year. Every Olympic Coach will talk about macro and micro cycles or even more basic a seasonal approach to physical and mental strengthening. Why is there spring training camps? To get into shape as year-long performances with no breaks are guaranteed to burn one out mentally. I think there was a time I lost to Danny in Detroit [US Open Team Championships] 5-6 times in a row and beat him in Vegas [USA Nationals] 5-6 times in a row. Detroit wasn't the goal tournament for me, it was a prep tournament for me. Did I try to lose in Detroit, NO! Did it bother me, NO! I knew the real prize was two weeks later.

Not that I am in their league, but Tiger, Sampras, Agassi, Nicklaus always spoke about winning majors as defining greatness. For me it was making National Teams and winning National/Olympic Festival/Pan Am Titles. My overall level of play was better than my entire generation. We had foreign-born players that I didn't focus the same efforts on in non-US Championship events. I didn't play for rating points, I played for hardware and medals. My junior titles speak for themselves, my singles titles speak for themselves, my doubles titles speak for themselves, mixed doubles titles speak for themselves, my sport festival titles speak for themselves, my Pan Am titles speak for themselves, my making of national or world cup teams speak for themselves. Winning 5 out of 7 Men's singles finals against some pretty solid opponents (Butler, Boggan, Seemiller, Zhuang, Hank Teekaveerakit) 18 titles between them speaks for itself. Oh, I will say the loss to Hank in 1986 was directly responsible for winning in '87, '88 ,'89, as that lesson never left me on each point of a finals is worth about two weeks of training. I lost my focus for 2 points in our match and Hank made me pay for it big time. Lesson learned big time. 

I broke my calendar in to both physical and emotional cycles to peak at the targeted tournaments.  It is one thing to taper down physically (i.e., reduce the longer distances and increase the intensity), but one must also be aware of the increased anxiety that accompanies getting closer to your goal.  I set emotional check points every 2 weeks out from an event to make sure I wasn’t getting too nervous leading into an event.

Other challenges included dealing with other players or experts after events that didn’t understand my targeted tournament list.  These naysayers were best to be avoided as they simply had no clue that the tournament I just participated in was one to try a new stroke that I had been practicing or to add a new tactic.  My coaches always were aware of my targeted events as they were critically involved in the planning stages.

Going into the final weeks, we would ramp up video analysis of potential opponents and practice more matches with these opponents directly in mind.  Working with the US Olympic Sports Psychologist (Shane Murphy and Sean McCann) we were able to create mental rehearsal tapes I could utilize daily in my visualization exercises.  Many people talk about doing the extra stuff, very few actually follow through.

Crystal Wang 2014 Highlights Video

Here's the video (1:29) created by Jim Butler. 

Practice

Ever feel like you're having a practice session where you're not really getting good practice? One of our top players said this of one of his practice sessions. (It can be because you're not doing the right drills, don't have the right intensity, your practice partner isn't drilling well, etc.) My response was, "When you practice if you are not getting practice stop your practice until you are getting practice."

Pingpong Keeps Seniors Fit both Physically, Mentally

Here's the article from the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Your 2015 Table Tennis Goals

Why not post it with others on this ITTF Facebook page?

Tiago Apolonia Voted Best Shot of 2014

Here's the announcement, along with the video (47 sec, including slow-motion replay), from Table Tennis Daily. "We are delighted to announce that the Portuguese sensation Tiago Apolonia has been crowned winner of the 2014 best table tennis shot of the year for his simply unbelievable around the net forehand in his match with Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov at European Team Championships."

Epic Celebrations in 2014

Here's the article and video links from Tabletennista.

Great Exhibition Point Between Ovtcharov and Persson

Here's the video (1:18, including slow motion replay).

Table Tennis Beer Pong Robot

Here's the video (1:46) - robot evolution has reached its ultimate peak, and there is no further purpose in human life other than to worship our drunken robot masters.

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Capital Area Table Tennis Super League

The League is on! The Capital Area Table Tennis Super League is a team league for the Washington DC region (Maryland, Virginia, DC), starting March 1. (But it could have national repercussions! See below.) While I helped instigate it, the ones primarily responsible for bringing this to life are Michael Levene and Stefano Ratti. (My biggest contribution was getting these two together.) Michael is a 2200 player and coach who used to play in the English leagues, and now runs Smash Table Tennis in Sterling, Virginia. Stefano is a 2300 player who used to play in the Italian leagues. The two of them bring their experience in overseas leagues with the plan to develop table tennis in the U.S. as it is done overseas. (They also want to play in the league!) We also learned a lot by studying the LA League. By combining the best of both worlds, we hope to create a regional league system that can spread all over the country.

This is something I made central on my Election Page for my campaign for the USATT Board. (See item #1.) The election results should come out tomorrow (voting ended Dec. 27), but regardless of the results, we've taken the first step on this.

The importance of creating such a system of regional team leagues cannot be overstated if we want to develop table tennis in this country. I've blogged about this over and Over and OVER; it's the primary reason there are 11,000 clubs and 600,000 paid members in the German Table Tennis Association, and membership numbers in much of Europe is counted in the hundreds of thousands, while here in the U.S. we have about 8000 members.

Of course, it won't happen instantly. Here are three quotes that I think are relevant here - and it's appropriate that two of them come from China.

• "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi
• "The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it." -Chinese proverb.
• "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" -Robert F. Kennedy

Here is the email that went out to local clubs on Sunday:

Dear table-tennis club owner,

We are excited to bring to your attention a new initiative we are working on, which we think would be greatly beneficial to clubs, players, and table-tennis in general.  We, as a small group of players with experience in foreign leagues, and with the help of Larry Hodges, are planning to launch a regional team league.  The development of team leagues is the main reason why table tennis is so popular in Europe, and we’d like to introduce this type of team play to the Capital area.

The “Capital Area Table Tennis Super League” would have the objectives of providing players with a fun way to compete (you can imagine the thrill of having your teammates cheer you on as you compete!), and develop table tennis into a more palatable spectator sport.  We believe that, over time, meeting these objectives will lead into an increased number of players.  It would also be an opportunity to publicize your respective clubs to players in the area, and to attract new players to the sport.

The attached flyer has information about the league, and we would ask you to forward this flyer to all your club members as soon as possible.  We also ask you wholeheartedly that you support this initiative, encourage players at your club to form teams, and be flexible in providing space for the league games. Again, we believe that, if we can develop a successful team league, every club will be able to benefit from increased membership and more engaged players.

If you have questions, thoughts, suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best,
Michael Levene
Stefano Ratti
Larry Hodges

Here is a follow-up email that Mike and Stefano sent out yesterday:

Dear table-tennis club owners/managers,

There have been a few questions raised with respect to the Capital Area TT Super League. Here are a few points of clarification, after some discussion. I am sure there will be more.

Keep in mind that, at this stage, nothing is set in stone.  We appreciate your patience as we launch this new initiative; I believe that we will learn a lot during the first season and we will be to fine-tune things in the future. For the time being, we want to get started, so we have made some decisions fairly quickly.  Please let us know if you have additional questions (I am sure we have missed many items!)

Question #1: How will the team fees be used? Will the host clubs collect additional club fees for non-club members playing in the league?
The (fairly modest) team fees ($200/team) will be used to pay for any operational expense (basically a software license), and fund prizes.  At this point, we (as in “league organizers”) are NOT planning on paying fees directly to the clubs (contrary to what I told some of you earlier today – my apologies). It would be the responsibility of each team to find a venue for their home matches – that means that each team would negotiate an agreement with its club, if the team wants to play its home matches at its club (in which case, the club can decide whether to charge its team(s) or not, what day/time can be made available, etc.).  We are going to leave it between the teams and the clubs.  The only request we would have is that clubs do not charge visiting players and their immediate family, though. Teams could also use venues other than their own club, if they so choose and/or if they cannot come to an agreement with their club – it could be other clubs or any other place, provided that reasonable playing conditions can be met.  Keep in mind that, if there is enough interest, and events are marketed appropriately, each club would of course be free to charge spectator fees (this is probably more in the long run, but I could see that happen for some key games).

Question #2: How will the Prize money be distributed?
This is still to be determined, but we will communicate it closer to the start date.

Question #3: Will there be rating caps or restrictions?
We will not have any rating caps, or any restrictions. We would, of course, prefer to have a balanced league, with competitive games and evenly-matched teams.  Of course, teams will be placed in the appropriate division (number of divisions will depend on the number of teams that will sign up), according to the ratings of their top 3 players.

Question #4: What type of balls will we use?
Our intent is to have a ball sponsor, which will allow ball standardization as much as possible.  While we are not sure about the brand, we will be using plastic balls.

Question #5: What is the format of the matches?
Team matches will be nine individual matches, with all nine matches played out. It will be 3v3 players (potentially with the option to substitute in a 4^th player). Points will be assigned for each individual match. Also, there will be 1 bonus point for not defaulting, and -1 point for defaulting. A team will be allowed to play with only 2 players present, but it will start from a 0-3 deficit and not be given the additional bonus point.  For example, if a team shows up with 3 players and wins 7-2, they will win 8 points (7 matches + 1 bonus point).  If a team shows up with 2 players and the two players win all of their matches, the final result will be 6-3 and that team will win 6 points (6 matches + 0 bonus point).

Question #6: What day of the week are the matches?
It will up to each individual team to select the time/day of their home matches, and, again, make sure they have a venue for their home games. However, teams that decide to play during a weekday will be asked to have a start time of between 7 and 8 pm (to allow for realistic travel times in our highly congested area, while not having super-late games).

Question #7: Is there a web site?
We have an initial web site at:

http://www.smashtt.com/capital-area-super-league/

We will add a FAQ section, which we will update as items get ironed out.

I hope this helps. Again, thanks for your help, and let us know if there are any other comments/suggestions, etc.

Stefano and Michael

It Snowed this Morning - No School!

• Here's Derek Nie's reaction on Facebook:
  "OOOOMMMMGGGG!!!! NO SCHOOL!!!! I DON"T HAVE TO GIVE MY SPEECH FOR SETTLAGE!!!!"
• Here's my response:
  "OOOOMMMMGGGG!!!! NO SCHOOL!!!! I DON"T HAVE TO PICK UP KIDS AND DO THE AFTERSCHOOL TABLE TENNIS PROGRAM!!!!"

Smacking Cups

Here's a video (10 sec) from a junior session yesterday where Kerry smacks over a pyramid of cups! I like to end many of our sessions with games like this.

The Paddle of Pong

I made the big plunge yesterday - I started a new novel! "The Paddle of Pong" is a table tennis fantasy dramedy. Our hero is a mid-level American player who aspires to be a champion. So he goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis - and finds a mentor, treachery, and a fantasy world where he must achieve the Body of Pong, the Spirit of Pong, and most importantly, the Paddle of Pong - all while being haunted by the spirits of table tennis champions past. (Here are my other books.)

USATT Board Motions

Here are motions made at the USATT Board Meeting held at the USA Nationals in December. I haven't read them yet; I'll go over them later.

New World Rankings

Here's the ITTF article, and here are the ranking lists. There are also team rankings.

World Championships of Ping Pong 2015

Here's the promo video (20 sec) for this $100,000 sandpaper event in London, to be held Jan. 24-25. Here's the home page for the event.

Nice Shot by Jun Mizutani

Here's the video (14 sec).

The Greatest Moments from Wang Hao

He's retired from the Chinese team. Here's video (5:57) of some of his greatest points.

Tuxedoed with Paddles Appelgren, Waldner, and Persson

Here's the picture.

Colorful Tables

Here are pictures of some almost psychedelic outdoor ones from Uberpong. I wish we had one of these at my club!

Mostly Non-Table Tennis - Books I Read in 2014

"I have no life, and I must read!" Actually, I think I read fewer books this year than any year since elementary school. I was too busy much of the year, especially January through the summer, though I caught up with a lot of reading in Sept-Dec. (As you can see, I decided to catch up on my John Grisham - that's what I read all summer during our camps.) 

TABLE TENNIS (1)
Get Your Game Face On Like the Pros! by Dora Kurimay

NON-FICTION (6)
100 Things Every Writer Needs to Know by Scott Edelstein
Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st-Century Writer by Jeff Vandermeer
Flow in Sports by Susan Jackson and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Vietnam: An American Ordeal by George Donelson Moss
A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence Krauss
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

FICTION (25)
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (722 pages)
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (1120 pages)
Hex by Allen Steele
The Hemmingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Bad Wizard by James Maxey
Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp
Shattered by Kevin Hearne
Sunset of the Gods by Steve White
The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF, edited by Mike Ashley
After Death edited by Eric Guignard
Storm Front (The Dresden Files book #1) by Jim Butcher
Fool Moon (The Dresden Files book #2) by Jim Butcher
Grave Peril (The Dresden Files book #3) by Jim Butcher
Summer Knight (The Dresden Files book #4) by Jim Butcher
The King of Torts by John Grisham
The Last Juror by John Grisham
The Associate by John Grisham
The Testament by John Grisham
The Street Lawyer by John Grisham
The Brethren by John Grisham
The Partner by John Grisham
The Racketeer by John Grisham
The Confession by John Grisham
The Broker by John Grisham

And somehow I still manage to read the Washington Post every day, as well as Scientific American, The Bulletin of SFWA, USA Table Tennis Magazine, and about five other magazines....

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Tip of the Week

Hitting or Looping?

Ratings

Here is an essay I wrote for the USATT Coaching newsletter in 2009. While it is primarily about juniors and ratings, most of it applies to non-juniors as well. (Note - I've used ratings in the past for publicity reasons, such as when Crystal Wang set records for highest rated player of her age, but that was for just that - publicity reasons. And guess what? Crystal cares very little for ratings, which is one of the reasons she has improved so much at such a young age.)

Juniors and Ratings
By Larry Hodges
From USATT Coaching Newsletter, Nov. 2009

Ratings can be a cancer on junior table tennis. They change the focus from improvement to immediate results and leave juniors nervous and defensive in their matches. They also take much of the fun out of the game for juniors who become obsessed with fear of blowing their rating.

Like a disease, the obsession with ratings by parents and juniors--and some coaches--causes tremendous damage to junior development. It's not enough that a kid faces the pressure of regular win-lose situations when they play tournaments; now, with one loss, they can blow their rating and have to live with the aftermath for--what seems at the time--forever!

It's understandable that a junior might be upset about losing a key match in a tournament. However, once it's done, it's done, and they should move on. With ratings, the effects of that loss live on. Worse, juniors often lose because they are so nervous about their rating that they end up blowing their rating because they are afraid of blowing their rating.

The frustration of watching otherwise successful junior programs--including ones I work with--that are handicapped by rating hysteria is disheartening. The most amazing thing is the often strained defenses given month after month by players, coaches, and parents, all in defense of protecting a rating--while in reality, teaching the junior a loser's mentality. Some of the best coaches in the U.S. came from countries without a rating system, and either do not recognize or do not understand how to address these problems. Yet, when you talk to top U.S. coaches like Stellan Bengtsson and Dan Seemiller, they roll their eyes in irritation at the very mention of ratings.

Most U.S. coaches know of up-and-coming players who flopped because they were more worried about their rating than in long-term improvement. Usually, it was the result of pressure (intentional or not) from parents or coaches, whose worried about short-term ratings cost their player long-term improvement--and ultimately led to a lower level of play and a lower rating.

Coaches, let's put a stop to it.

Rating events are a perfect place for juniors to learn to compete, and to think and play like a champion. Yet juniors--often under pressure from parents or coaches--often enter only higher events where they are less likely to play a weaker player and lose rating points. There are fewer things more sickening to me than seeing a junior rated 1600 only enter events from Under 2000 and up--but I see this type of thing all the time. (A similar thing happens in junior events, where juniors often avoid events they might win--but must defeat lower-rated players to do so--and instead enter older junior events where they aren't competitive but have a better chance of pulling off a "ratings upset.") Entering higher events and competing against stronger players gives experience that can lead to improvement, but it's only half the equation.

How can they learn to compete by avoiding the very players they need to learn to compete against? They need to learn to dominate against weaker players, and you don't learn to do this by playing only stronger players. A player who is rated 1999 and avoids the Under 2000 event because he's afraid of losing rating points isn't thinking like a champion. A champion rated 1999 wants to win that Under 2000 event. He may not do it, and he may even suffer a bad loss--thereby "blowing" his rating--but he'll keep trying, he'll learn from his losses, and eventually he will win it, and move on to higher events. Along the way, he'll learn how to compete and win. The one who avoids the event does not.

I remember a junior I was coaching at the Junior Nationals who was in the final of the Under 12 Boys' Singles. His hands were trembling before the match. I asked him why he was so nervous and his answer floored me: "I've never been in a final before." It was true; the kid had played for three years and probably 50 tournaments, but his parents had studiously kept him out of any rating or junior event that he could compete in, only entering him in higher events. He was rated much higher than his opponent, but he was too nervous to play, and lost badly.

I spoke to the kid's parents, and convinced them of the value of playing events where he was competitive. I'll give them credit; they learned, and soon their son was in the final of a rating event against a lower-rated player. However, it was too late; before the match, the kid was again nervous. I asked why, and his answer again floored me: "I'll blow my rating if I lose this." He lost again; the fear of losing rating points had been instilled in him.

The kid never came close to becoming a table tennis champion.

Rating anxiety by juniors is amplified because juniors are less experienced, and so more upset prone. But that's exactly why they need to compete, to gain that experience so they can learn to dominate matches against all styles. Juniors are the most rapidly improving segment of tournament players, and so are most likely to pull off an upset. Yet it is those painful losses that stick out to those who are obsessed with ratings.

There are some legitimate problems with the rating system that apply here. For a top junior, one bad loss can blow their seeding at a later national tournament. For this reason, I've never liked the idea of using current ratings for seeding at major events, as opposed to average rating over a period of time. But we have to live with the reality that current ratings are used. The problem is that the excuse of protecting one's rating for seeding purposes is way, way overdone. It's far more important, long-term, that the junior get the tournament experience to prepare for the big tournament and future ones than avoiding competition for fear of blowing their rating and seeding.

Imagine for a moment the best players in the world back when they were up-and-coming juniors. Can you imagine them avoiding an event because they were afraid of losing rating points? It's hard to imagine because the best players in the world (and the U.S.) are all very strong mentally. They are not worried about losing. If they were rated 1999, they wouldn't avoid the Under 2000 event; they'd want to win it because they have a champion's mind. They are competitors.

Now imagine the player with a 1999 rating who avoids that Under 2000 event. Is he avoiding it because he has the mind of a champion? Or is he avoiding it because he is afraid of defeat? Does he have a hitch in his mental game--fear, or lack of confidence in himself? How was this fear instilled in him?

Is he gaining the necessary experience to develop into a champion? Or is he avoiding that experience, while his peers compete, learn, and become champions?

Is he unable to perform at his best because he is afraid of failure?

Is he so afraid of losing that he can't make changes in his game to improve? Does he fall back into the same bad habits that worked at the lower levels?

Is he trying to succeed, or trying to avoid failure?

While there is no sure-fire cure for cancer or rating anxiety, doctors and coaches can help. In the latter case, coaches need to instill in juniors and parents from the beginning that ratings are not the focus of their play; improvement is. Coaches should stress the following from day one.

• Do not take ratings seriously. When ratings go up, they are fun; when they go down, who cares?
• Focus on improvement, with the goal to win events and titles.
• Ratings are only a snapshot approximation of your current winning ability in a tournament. Where you will be later on is more important than where you are now.
• Ratings can be a tool if used as intermediate- or long-term goals. There's nothing wrong with a 1600 player making it a goal to go over 2000 within a year, though that should be combined with event-oriented goals, such as winning the state junior championships, or winning the Under 2000 event at a major tournament.

Often a higher-rated player is like a house with a weak foundation, preventing further improvement, while a lower-rated player is like a skyscraper under construction with a strong foundation. The house might be taller now, but which one will someday soar into the sky? Those who focus on ratings may temporarily gain a higher rating but with a weaker foundation, while those who focus on improvement develop the foundation to become a skyscraper. Ask your juniors which they would prefer. If they want to be skyscrapers, urge them to compete in rating and junior events that they can win, and when it's over, don't ask them their rating. Ask them what they learned.

USATT Coaching Newsletters

From 2009-2012, under Coaching Chair Richard McAfee, we had six Coaching Newsletters. Here are links to all six.

Weekend Coaching

It was a busy weekend, culminating in seven straight hours of coaching on Sunday. Okay, it wasn't quite that, as one student had to cancel (which would have given me an hour off but I spent 30 minutes of it going overtime with another student), plus I had a 15-minute break in the middle. It was a long session.

Later this month I'm doing an exhibition with Sameer (13-year-old student) as a benefit for Cystic Fibrosis. So we spent probably 20 minutes of our session practicing for that, and will be spending more and more time on this. Lots of lobbing (including my signature lobbing while sitting on the floor), and various other routines. The plan is to start with a demo, then move to my telling the crowd of a "terrible, terrible" thing that has happened - Sameer has gotten cocky, and thinks he can beat me. ME!!! And so we will have our "challenge match," right there in front of the crowd, with the loser mopping the floors later that night. (Alas, I always play the bad guy in these exhibitions, which means I always lose. I might as well start mopping now.) I'm a bit worried that other coaches will see us lobbing and seemingly goofing off, and will roll their eyes at us!

At one point Sameer hit a ball to my wide forehand and I missed the shot. I said, "I would have made that shot when I was better!" A minute later he missed a shot and said, "I would have made that shot when I'm better!"

We had seven new players in the Sunday junior program, so I spent a lot of time teaching the basics - grip, stance, forehand, and serves this time.

Jim Butler and Major League Baseball

Last month Jim Butler won Men's Singles at the USA Nationals at age 43. He'll be turning 44 in February. How rare is it for players to compete at that age at the highest levels of sports? In the U.S., we've actually had several older players win Men's Singles at these "advanced" ages - Cheng Yinghua, David Zhuang, and Ilija Lupulesku all did so, with Cheng winning in 2004 at age 46, David in 2008 at age 45, and Lupi winning in 2007 at age 40. (I think the oldest U.S. Open Champion was Dick Miles in 1962, age 37.)  So how rare is this? Here's an analogy. I did some checking, and next year there will be 750 major league baseball players and about 6000 in the majors and minors. Assuming Jason Giambi (five weeks older than Jimmy) doesn't return - he hit .133 last year and is unlikely to be resigned - Jimmy will be older than all 6000 of them.

Sean and Chess Pieces

I had some interesting discussions on Facebook recently with 5-time U.S. Men's Champion Sean O'Neill and 4-time and current U.S. Men's Champion Jim Butler. I may post more of them later. Here's one from Sean:

During the 80's and 90's players needed to learn to use all their chess pieces, not just their Queens. Today's players seem to rely on few pieces to win. When Jimmy played the semi's and finals it seemed to me that he was using his positional game to a huge advantage over the "power game." Jimmy simply just wasn't going to miss a return for the sake of missing, his opponent would have to get the ball by him and Jimmy wasn't giving an inch to gain position to play a strong ball.

Neglected Footwork: In and out

Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

34 Seconds of Multiball

Here's the video. I think I showed this once before, but it's great to watch again if you want to see how the top players train. Red flooring, balls scattered everywhere - looks just like my club, MDTTC!

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).

Ten Most Popular Sports in the World

Here's the article - table tennis comes in at #6, with approximately 850 million fans. "Hugely popular in China, and gaining acceptance in Europe, table tennis has been around for less than a century, but was adopted quickly in mainland Asia. Part of the attraction of the sport, much like soccer, is the ease of play and inexpensive equipment - makeshift nets can be set up on a plank of wood, with simple wooden panels, allowing games to be played nearly anywhere. International play has been dominated by the Chinese, particularly the women, as no non-Chinese woman or women's team has gotten a gold in any international competition since 1992."

Table Tennis Intro

Here's the video (1:44) of how they introduce players in Thailand.

Ovtcharov and Persson Exhibition and Ball Destruction!

Here's the video (33 sec), ending with the "controversial" ball meeting its demise. I don't think I've ever seen a celluloid ball break this way, so I'm pretty sure it's plastic.

China Primary School Ping Pong Army

Here's the video (20 sec)!

Cristiano Ronaldo's Table Tennis Skills

Here's the video (6 sec) as he shows he's not only good at dribbling a soccer ball!

Table Tennis Images

Here are a few interesting pictures I saw this weekend:

• Born to play pong
• Pong on the Brain
• Ocean pong
• Veggie Pong

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