Practicing with Weaker Players

Reader Allen Lin asks me how best to practice with lower-rated players. This comes up regularly at clubs. In a practice match, a lower-rated player cannot consistently push a stronger player. However, just because a player is lower rated doesn't mean everything they do is weaker. There are two ways to get the most out of playing or practicing with weaker players.

First, do practice drills where you play into the weaker player's strengths. Perhaps he can't loop, but can he block? Or perhaps he can't block, but he can loop? Or maybe he has a very good push to practice against. Or good serves. Examine his game and find the best of it, and that's what you can practice against. It's not all one-way, however - he wants practice as well, so take turns. In fact, if you look long turn, you can turn that "weaker" player into a peer that'll give you even more practice and competition. Even if he doesn't reach your level he'll get used to your shots, and at least when he plays you he'll be a good practice partner.

Second, play practice matches where you intentionally play into the weaker player's strengths. If he can't handle your best serves, hold back on them. (Unless, of course, he objects.) Find ways to play what you need to practice against his strengths.  You may risk losing this way, but this is practice. When I play weaker players I often just serve short backspin over and over, and when they push it, I go for a forehand loop on the next shot over and over. It's great footwork and looping practice for me, especially as the opponent realizes what I'm doing and begins to push quicker, wider, lower, heavier, and with last-second changes of direction. He doesn't have to be very good to learn to do this, and it makes me play my very best to get to all these pushes with my forehand. Or if your partner can't block or attack well but has a nice counter-hitting game, serve lots of topspin and go at it with him.

ITTF Level 2 Course

Here's the ITTF article on the ITTF Level 2 I took last week and blogged about yesterday. It includes the following: "Special congratulations to Larry Hodges who scored a rare perfect score of 20." (The article is also linked from the USATT web page.) In the classroom picture I'm on the very far side. The names in the group picture are, L-R, Richard McAfee, Simplice Sourou, Jeff Smart, Larry Hodges, Lily Yip, Nelson Gore, Barry Dattel, Sydney Christophe, Doon Wong, Roger Yuen, and Mieczyslaw "Matt" Suchy.

USA Sandpaper Team

Want to go to the $100,000 World Championships of Ping Pong in London in January, 2014? Here's the info page. "Dr. Mike Babuin, World Championship of Ping Pong USA Qualifier Director, announced today the format for USA players to qualify for the 2014 World Championship of Ping Pong to be played in London, England in January 2014. There are spots for two USA players."

Effective Service Practice

Here's a short article on Serving Practice from Table Tennis Master.

ITTF Trick Shot Showdown

Think you can do trick shots? Then enter the Stiga ITTF Trick Shot Competition! I'm toying with entering something...

Ola from New Zealand

A Piotr "Peter" Ratka from New Zealand is trying to raise money for his 15-year-old daughter Ola Ratka's training. (She is a member of the New Zealand National Women's Squad.) To do so he's created and is selling the Kiwi Ball Picker for picking up balls, with all profits going to her training.

She's also entered in the AMP "Do Your Thing" People's Choice Scholarship. Piotr is asking for your vote - so if you like table tennis and want to support her, go to Ola's Page and vote!

Ma Long is Chinese Men's Singles Champion

He defeats Fan Zhendong in the final, 7,-9,7,-9,-7,9,6. Here's the article, which includes a link to video of the final.

Three Futuristic Ping-Pong Tables

Here they are, from UBERPONG.

Insane Backhand

Here's video (32 sec) of an insane backhand!

History of U.S. Table Tennis

USATT has been running weekly excerpts from Tim Boggan's History of U.S. Table Tennis. Up right now is Chapter 15 of Volume 13, the most recent one, from 1984. (About 2/3 through there's a long excerpt from an article I wrote back then on serving short and returning short serves. Yep, I was writing coaching articles way back then!)

Manga Ping Pong Comic Books

Here they are!

Non-Table Tennis on the 12th Anniversary of 9-11:
TUMBLING TOWERS IN THE DARKEST NIGHT
The jets soared down from high and bright,
Tumbling towers in the darkest night,
3000 died in this crazy blight,
Who brought forth this unspeakable sight?

Towers toppled from a monster’s spite,
Bodies crushed with no chance of flight,
What was, to a madman, the highest height,
For the rest brought forth just rage and fright.

The world exploded in a bigger fight.
We bombed and killed in a show of might.
We avenged the act because we were right.
But when will humanity see the light?
-Larry Hodges

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Tip of the Week

In case some of you missed it, here is the link to yesterday's Tip of the Week: Where to Serve Short?

ITTF Coaching Course

What an incredible week! I returned late Saturday night from six days at the ITTF Level 2 Coaching Course taught by Richard McAfee at the Lily Yip Table Tennis Center in Dunellen, New Jersey, Mon-Sat. It's part of the ITTF's Coaching Development Program. I took the Level 1 Course two years ago in Colorado Springs, as well as a Course Conductor Course which qualified me to teach that course. (I've taught one so far.) Richard had been trained by ITTF to teach the Level 2 Course.

A big thanks goes to Richard McAfee, the course conductor, who (even as I write this) is teaching another course in Austin, Texas; to Lily Yip and Barry Dattel, our hosts at the Lily Yip TTC (where they even cooked us free lunches each day, often spaghetti or Chinese food); to Adam Hugh for letting us stay in his attic; and to the ITTF for creating the program.

I drove up to the course with fellow Maryland coach Jeff Smart (a past USATT Coaching Chair from long ago), who had received his Level 1 certification from the class I taught two years ago. I hate long distance driving, so I agreed to use my car if he'd do the driving. To save money, he and I spent the week in Adam Hugh's attic! (It was roomy and quite comfortable, and even had a bathroom.) At night we had many philosophical discussions on politics, religion, table tennis, and ice cream. We often agreed on the last two items.

Each day included two three-hour sessions plus lots and lots of homework and study. I brought a book to read in my free time, not realizing there wasn't going to be much free time. (Well, perhaps that's because of my somewhat obsessive outlook on studying.) About 1/3 of the time was spent in classroom on theory, the rest at the tables where Richard demonstrated the techniques, both from the book and from his own experience. Much of the table time was spent with the participants giving assigned lectures on various techniques.

Participants in the course were Sydney Christophe, Barry Dattel, Nelson Gore, Larry Hodges, Jeff Smart, Simplice Sourou, Mieczyslaw "Matt" Suchy, Doon Wong, Lily Yip, and Roger Yuen. It was quite a varied group.

Here's a rough day-by-day rundown.

DAY ONE: Coaches Presentation; Level 2 Presentation; General Principles of Sports Education; Basic Principles of Contact - "Peeling and Gumming" (grazing the ball and sinking it into the sponge) and "Carry, Dropshot, and Smashing" contacts (contact without adding speed or spin; contact where you remove speed and spin; contact where you add speed or spin); and Basic Principles of Spin. (What we call sidespin and corkscrewspin they call lateral and deviated spin.) I was also assigned to lecture on the ideas that "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" and "Sport is not war." I gave examples where these were true or false. Winning isn't everything or we'd all use poor sportsmanship to win (as some do). I argued that when we play sports, we think of ourselves as warriors, so sport can be thought of as war with rules - except war does have rules (no chemical weapons, for example), so they are more alike than we think. Main difference is few die in table tennis! I also gave a ten-minute training session on sidespin blocks.

DAY TWO: A Complete Technique (balanced game, speed, consistency, variation, adaptability); Observation; Techniques for Scoring the Point (power, speed, consistency, variation, placement); Movement; Proprioceptivity (knowing where your body is); and Free (strong leg) and Standing Leg (weak leg); and Producing Good Players. I was assigned to give a lecture on "What is Performance?", which covered Physical, Technical, and Psychological. I also ran a ten-minute session on the double-bounce push receive, where you push a serve back so that, given the chance, it would bounce twice on the opponent's side of the table, with the second bounce very near the end-line.

DAY THREE: Energy Pathways (Alactic Anaerobic, Lactic Anaerobic, and Aerobic, plus VO2Max, Maximum Aerobic Speed, Maximum Aerobic Power, and ways to improve Aerobic and Anaerobic fitness); Footwork; Serves. I was assigned to lecture on "Postural Adjustments for Covering the Middle," which I demonstrated for both forehand and backhand, as well as covering some of the historical development of these techniques. I also ran a ten-minute session on fast, deep serves.

DAY FOUR: Theory of Psychology and the Brain (such as, what does each hemisphere of the brain control and brain mechanics); Serve; Receive; Topspin (looping); Defense. I also ran a ten-minute session on backhand chopping.

DAY FIVE: More on Psychology; Blocking; Smashing; Multiball; Different Contacts. I also helped several coaches with their multiball skills. I also explained one of my favorite multiball slogans: Feed Fast, Feet Fast! I also ran a ten-minute session on smashing loops. (During this lecture I was "attacked" by the robot vacuum cleaner that roved the training center much of the time. Okay, it bumped into me as I lectured. I have to get one of those for MDTTC!)

DAY SIX: This was Testing Day. We started with a one-hour review session. Then we got to the testing. Many of us had spent much of our nights studying for this. There were two parts to the test. For the first part (worth 10 points) we were asked five different questions, and graded on how we answered them. I was asked questions on the Anaerobic Threshold (when the body begins to build up lactic acid in the muscles); on the left side of the brain (which controls emotion, speech, judgment, values, logic, and reason, as well as the right side of the body. Or was it the right brain I was asked about? Now I'm not sure, but that controls artistic, imagination, automatic body functions, proprioception, processes images and sound, and controls the left side); improving stability (wider stance, bend knees); Ways to Score the Point (power, speed, consistency, variation, placement); and one other that I can't remember offhand. I think it was Secondary Needs (achievement, recognition, and respect).

For the second part (also worth 10 points) we were each assigned a topic to run a ten-minute training session for four other coaches. I was assigned "Topspin to Topspin" (i.e. counterlooping). The four coaches in my group were Jeff Smart, Matt Suchy, Simplice Sourou, and Lily Yip (playing shakehand inverted instead of her usual pips-out penhold). It went pretty well. After a brief lecture and demo (with 2500+ Matt), I had them first do straight counterlooping, forehand to forehand, Jeff with Matt, Simplice with Lily. Then I had them do a version of multiball I like, where one player with a box of balls serves backspin, the other player pushes it back, the server loops, and the other player counterloops. The server doesn't play out the point; as soon as he loops against backspin he grabs another ball and repeats. It's a great way to learn to counterloop against a ball looped against backspin, which has a different trajectory than one looped against block or topspin. Lily (in her shakehand mode) tended to let her wrist fall back, and also tended to lean to the ball instead of step to it; Jeff tended to use too much upper body instead of more lower body; Simplice needed to pull more with his left side (he's a righty); Matt had pretty much perfect European bent-arm looping technique, looking like a righty Timo Boll.

I was quite relieved to pass, with a perfect 20 out of 20. Yes!!! One thing that helped was my determination to give all my practice lectures without notes. Most of the coaches would jot things down in advance and teach from the notes, but I had the advantage that I've lectured at over 170 five-day camps (yes, that's 850 days of camp, plus lots of group and private sessions), so most of this was second nature to me. (I did, however, have to be careful to include what the ITTF manual considered important, which didn't always match my lectures.) I'm certified by USATT as a National coach, the highest level, but ITTF requires all coaches to go through each step, and so much of the course was review of stuff I've been teaching for decades.

However, I'm not done yet. In addition to taking the course and passing the exam all coaches have to do 50 hours of coaching afterwards to attain ITTF Level 2. I'll have that done in less than two weeks, by Sept. 21 at the latest.

It wasn't all work and study. On Tuesday afternoon I took off some time to take on challenges with my clipboard, and played six matches, and went 6-0, and 17-0 in games. I beat a 2256 player 3-0; a 1970 player 3-0 and 3-0; a 1956 player 3-0; and an 1882 player 3-0 and 2-0. It was one of my best playing sessions ever. On Wednesday night I was brought back to earth by Matt, rated 2509, who won 3-0 (3,6,9), and then beat me at deuce and deuce with a mini-paddle with inverted sponge, looping and smashing like a maniac with it. On Saturday I gave Jeff Smart (the 1956 player above) a rematch, but first coached him on how to play me. Bad mistake! He won easily this time, but credited my coaching for his victory.

It wasn't all perfect. A lot of time was put into creating the ITTF Advanced Manual, but it was written originally in French. Whoever translated it into English did not speak English as a first language and did not seem to know table tennis, and so it was very difficult to read and figure out what was being said. There was also a lot of memorizing, which I didn't always like as I prefer to understand rather than just memorize things.

There should be an ITTF article coming soon, along with pictures; I'll post the link when it comes out.

How to Serve like Timo Boll

Here's Part 1 (which I linked to previously), and here's Part 2 (just out).

USATT Tip of the Day

USATT runs a daily Tip of the Day. Right now they are rerunning the 177 Weekly Tips I did back in 1999-2003 under the pseudonym "Dr. Ping Pong." Today's tip ("Proper Backswing") is the twelfth consecutive day they've used one of my tips.

Ernie Byles: Saved by Table Tennis

Here's an inspirational article on National Senior Singles and Doubles Gold Medalist Ernie Byles and how the sport helped him overcome cancer. I know Ernie well since he plays regularly at MDTTC (as well as the Potomac Club mentioned in the article), where we've battled many times. (I still have nightmares about his massive two-winged spinning game, his backhand hits, and his incredible lobbing.)

Ping Pong: The Over 80 World Championships

Last night PBS ran the one-hour (52:09 to be exact) documentary Ping Pong. "Seven players with 620 years between them compete in the Over 80 World Table Tennis Championships in China's Inner Mongolia." I watched the last half hour. You can watch it online.

Kagin Lee's Blog: A Professional Player's Auxiliary Skills

(Kagin is a member of the USATT Board of Directors)

Here's the blog. "A professional player needs to be able to do more than just play table tennis. Learning to serve, receive, and rally are obviously important, but they're not the only ingredients necessary for long term success. Here are some things that I believe all professional or aspiring players should learn."

ITTF Monthly Pongcast - August 2013

Here's the video (11:26). This one covers five Junior Opens, one Paralympic event, and three stops on the ITTF Pro Tour.

Backhand Highlights at the 2013 World Table Tennis Championships

Here's the video (2:65) from the ITTF. There are some really insane shots here!

UBERPONGBAT Combines Ping Pong with Fighting Video Games

Here's the video (3:09).

Table Tennis in a Cubisty Matrixy World

Here's a new table tennis artwork from Mike Mezyan.

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Tip of the Week

Where to Serve Short?

Lots of Stuff to Write About - Tomorrow

I have a LOT to write about after spending a great week at the ITTF Level 2 Coaching Course at the Lily Yip TTC in New Jersey. I've also got pages of links for other interesting segments. Alas, I've been on the go for weeks without a break, plus I woke up this morning with a headache. So I'm taking one more day off from blogging. I'd already written the Tip of the Week (see above), so hopefully that'll tide you over. Tomorrow I'll have lots to write about the ITTF Coaching Course, including what was covered, the day-to-day activities, the final exam, and how I was assaulted during a lecture I was giving by a robotic vacuum cleaner.

But here's a picture of donkeys sort of playing table tennis.

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NOTE - While I'm away at the ITTF coaching course (see below) I'm taking time off from blogging. I'll have lots to report when I return next Monday, Sept. 9!

ITTF Coaching Course

I'm off to an ITTF Level 2 Coaching Course next week, Mon-Sat, at the Lily Yip Table Tennis Center in Dunellen, NJ. The course is six days long, six hours/day and so 36 hours total. Here's the info page. The course is taught by Richard McAfee.

Coaching the Forehand

I had a new student last night, a 62-year-old semi beginner. He'd take a few lessons before, but had an awkward forehand - he'd drop his back shoulder during his backswing (and so tended to lift the ball instead of drive it forward), and lean toward the ball (so was off balance for the shot, not to mention this killed his timing). The stroke needed some serious rehab.

Rather than have him start off by hitting forehands, I had him do the following sequence.

1. First we shadow stroked the shot over and over to get it right. This means practicing the stroke without a ball.
2. Next I had him stand by the table with a ball, then toss the ball up and hit it with the proper stroke so the ball hit my side. This was surprisingly difficult - his timing had been built up based on a faulty stroke, and so he had to learn new timing with the new one. But by doing it this way he was able to hit off a nearly stationary ball. We did this over and over until he felt comfortable doing it.
3. Next I fed him multiball to one spot as he continued to ingrain the new stroke.
4. Next we did live hitting, going slow so he could use the new stroke. I focused on keeping the ball to the same spot. We were in no rush to increase the speed; the focus was on doing it right.
5. Finally we did some side-to-side footwork, again going slowly so he could make sure to use the new stroke.

The entire training sequence took half an hour. By that time he was stroking the ball properly. It'll take more time to really ingrain the stroke so muscle memory will default to this in a game situation, but now he's on the right path.

He had a pretty good backhand, could actually topspin it pretty well. However, when I increased the pace, the shot fell apart. We worked on meeting the ball more straight on as the pace increased, which helped his rallying skills tremendously.

Observing Top Players and Coaches

After I finished coaching last night I found a perfect spot to sit and observe the action on three tables. On one table was Coach Cheng Yinghua working with Nathan Hsu (16, about 2350). They again were doing the short push drill I blogged about on Wednesday. (USATT featured that blog entry on their home page.) They went through various other drills after that.

On another table Chen Bo Wen ("Bowen") was working with Derek Nie (12, rated 2297). They were doing a drill where Bowen served and looped, and Derek counterlooped off the bounce with his forehand, and then they'd play out the point. While most of Derek's counterloops were crosscourt, he was also working on going down the line. Afterwards I talked to Derek, who I coach in tournaments, and pointed out how important it would be for his game if he could master that down-the-line off-the-bounce counterloop. (They also sometimes do a similar drill to Derek's backhand, where Derek topspin blocks aggressively.) Everyone's game is different, but for technical reasons I won't go into here (his rivals might be reading this!) this shot fits his game perfectly.

On another table three players were playing winner stay on: Harold Baring (2414), Raghu Nadmichettu (2321), and Larry Abass (2316, but 2362 before his last tournament). What most caught my attention there was how Harold's third-ball forehand attacking style was similar to how I used to do it 20+ years ago. Alas, the good old days!

You don't really need to be a top player to be a top coach or to be really knowledgeable about the game. But only rarely can a non-top player have the circumstances where they spend huge amounts of time observing top players and coaches as they train. You can't learn this from just watching videos of tournament matches; you need to watch how the players got there to really understand the game at a higher level. Players and wannabe coaches should look for chances to observe top players and coaches in training sessions every chance they can. 

USA Nationals Entry Form

The USA Nationals entry form came out yesterday. And here's the home page for the 2013 Nationals (not much is there yet), to be held in Las Vegas, Dec. 17-21. They really do need to get these things out earlier; some people make vacation plans well in advance. At minimum, it should be distributed at the U.S. Open in July, just as the 2014 U.S. Open entry form should be distributed at the Nationals in December. There are complications in doing this, but they need to overcome those complications.

For perspective, I'm a member of Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA). The World Science Fiction Convention starts today, in San Antonia, TX. (I can't believe I'm missing it!!! I've been to three. About 5000 people attend each year, though the number fluctuates based mostly on location.) Here's the World Science Fiction Convention home page. And already they are featuring next year's World Con in London! If you go to that page, you'll see it's pretty extensive. They even have the guests of honor for next year already signed up so they can advertise them - seven of them! People are already making plans to attend. Even more importantly, they take advantage of the excitement of this year's World Con to get people to sign up for next year's. USATT should do the same.

Two Tips to Increase Forehand Power

Here's another tip of mine from long ago that USATT ran yesterday. (I did 171 Tips of the Week for them as "Dr. Ping-Ping," 1999-2007.) Has anyone noticed that the length of my tips have increased over the years? They used to be short things; now each one's practically a feature!!!

Jorgen Persson: The Story

Here's a video (5:19) that tells the story of 1991 World Men's Singles Champion Jorgen Persson of Sweden. Those who followed his career will recognize the many scenes, including the many Sweden-China confrontations back when Sweden was the dominant table tennis country. Yes, it wasn't always China! (But the few times since 1960 when China wasn't #1 they were the country that others had to beat to become #1.)

Adam Bobrow on TV

Here's an episode of the TV show "Code." As Adam describes it on Facebook, "Check out my dance battle with rugby superstar Liam Messam! My main segment is from 25:45 – 31:30 plus a moment getting crazy on the turntables at 33:14. The show was a BLAST! I am so happy I showed up for the live taping."

iPhone Ping-Pong

Here's a video (3:11, but starts with an irritating 30-sec commercial) showing plays table tennis with an iPhone on the Today Show. As described by Table Tennis Nation, "Franck from SPiN went on the Today Show yesterday to show off some bar tricks and demonstrated how you play ping pong with an iPhone (the ping pong starts at 2:05)."

"As One" Outtake?

I think this five-second video is an outtake from the movie "As One," which tells the story of the unified Korean team winning Women's Teams at the 1991 Worlds. I thought I'd seen everything in table tennis, but this is new - a player's toss in doubles hitting her partner in the head? But I think these are actors, not actual players, playing the part of real-life players Hyun Jung Hwa of South Korea (played by actor Jiwon Ha) and Li Bun Hui of North Korea (played by actor Doona Bae). Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Piingfinity

Here's a hilariously spectacular video (2:56) with lots of great special effect that went up yesterday. Perhaps the best part is when the woman looks in and we see the reality.

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Junior Lobbers

I have an 8-year-old student, about 1200 level, who simply loves to lob (as well as chop). Yesterday I finally made a deal with him that if he'd stopped lobbing every few rallies, I promised to let him lob at the end of the session. He sort of kept his side of the bargain (not always), and at the end he lobbed away. He's actually very good at this! Some rallies went on for 6-7 shots as I'd smash a near full-speed, but to one spot.

I had a 12-year-old for the next session, and he saw this, and he wanted to lob as well. Before we could start our session, he was hitting with the 8-year-old where they took turns lobbing and smashing. I let them do this for ten minutes (and agreed to go ten minutes over for the upcoming session). At the end of the session with the 12-year-old, he also wanted to lob. So I let him lob. Then we played a few games, and next thing we know we were about 25 minutes over on time. (No, I didn't charge extra.) Normally kids want the coaches to lob so they can smash, but now we have a turnaround, and I'm teaching two of them to lob. I have another 12-year-old student who last week practiced lobbing against me. So it looks like an infection that's spreading!!! (They are also learning about fishing, which is basically a low lob.)

There's nothing wrong with lobbing. In fact, it's a great way to learn to react to a smash and to practice covering lots of ground. When the kids learn how to react and move this way, and do so properly so the lob is essentially a high loop with lots of topspin, then they are that much closer to counterlooping at warp speeds. The key is not to make it a habit. Too often players start lobbing whenever they are in trouble when, if they want to be higher-level players, they should focus on counter-attacking whenever possible, and only lobbing as a last resort.

Baltimore Orioles Pre-Game Show

I blogged last Thursday about the MDTTC visit to the Baltimore Orioles clubhouse locker room for three hours of table tennis. The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network filmed some of it, and we were on the pre-game show before the game that night. However, I didn't get to see the pre-game show itself since I was at the game. The Orioles kindly sent me the video.

Here's the video (5:28)! The table tennis is only in the first 1:53. (That's Nathan Hsu playing in the background during the interviews with shortstop JJ Hardy and third baseman Manny Machado.) After that comes 90 seconds where Buck Showalter explains why he likes that the players have fun in the clubhouse, and then the rest is about the Orioles. Here's the video from Orioles.com (1:19), which I linked to last Thursday, where Buck talks about table tennis - great stuff, though not all completely accurate!

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

It's been a while since I blogged about Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers except in passing. It's come to my attention that there are still a few people in this world that haven't bought a copy. I figured this out by taking the world's population (7,175,410,847 as I write this, according to the World Population Clock) and the number of book sales (about 2000), subtracting the difference, and we reach the inescapable conclusion that there are 7,175,408,847 people out there who have not bought this book. Inconceivable!!!

The book has gotten nice reviews. At Amazon there are an even 20 reviews, 17 of them 5-star (highest level), and the other three 4-star. Here are all 20 of them.

Perhaps there are a few billion people out there who haven't heard of the book? Then our mission is to get them to hear about it.

So, do you, or anyone you know, do table tennis reviews for a table tennis magazine or blog? Let me know and I'll send you free copy of the book for review.

I'm also interested in translations to sell elsewhere, especially Chinese. If you have connections for that, let me know. I'd need both a translator and a publisher for that.

Charity Table Tennis Event at Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers pitching star Clayton Kershaw is holding a charity ping pong event tonight at Dodger Stadium Here's the story from Table Tennis Nation. Includes a link to a video (2:33) of him on Jimmy Kimmel talking about his table tennis.

Interview with TSP

Here's an interview with TSP that focuses on their various types of pips-out surfaces (both long and short), as well as questions about their blades.

Table Tennis Historical Pictures

Here's a collection of 292 historical table tennis pictures.

Shot of the Tournament at the Harmony Open

Here's a video (29 sec) of Singapore #1 player Gao Ning (world #16, formerly #9) making the shot of the tournament at the Harmony China Open.

Saive the Fighter

Here's a video (49 sec) of former great and world #1 (20 years ago) Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium looping, fishing, lobbing, and even chopping as he battles to win a game (leading 10-8), and showing that perhaps he's still pretty great.

No One Beats Me at Table Tennis!

So says Loki from The Avengers in this short table tennis gif image!

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Nathan and Cheng: Short Push Drill

Last night, as I was about to leave the club, I saw Nathan Hsu (17, about 2400) and Coach Cheng Yinghua doing a short push drill. It looked interesting, so I stopped to watch. I ended up watching for something like half an hour as they were really working on this. The basic drill was they'd push short until one of them either popped the ball up (flip it!) or accidentally or intentionally pushed long (loop it!). Most often they'd push short a few times, with Nathan moving in and out each time, and then Cheng would fake another short push and instead push long, Nathan would loop, and then they'd rally.

Three words describe this drill: Tiring, Finesse, and Tricky!

Tiring: There is no more tiring drill in table tennis than in and out drills. Top players are in such great shape they can endlessly and tirelessly move side to side. But those in-and-out drills are the absolute worse. These are drills where the coach drops one short, and the student has to step in and push or flip it, then step back, and be ready for either a deep ball or stepping in for another short ball. For some physiological reason, this is the most tiring drill you can do in table tennis - many top players have commented on this, and I know it from many years of personal experience.

Finesse: Dropping the ball short as you move in like this takes great control. Few players have the finesse for this. Watching Cheng take every ball right off the bounce and dropping it short and low was something to watch. Nathan wasn't far behind on this, though he was often caught by Cheng's...

Trickiness: It's not enough to just drop the ball short. At the higher levels they are tricky with this, and can change the depth and direction of their returns at the last second while seemingly doing the opposite. Cheng got Nathan over and over when he'd seemingly push aggressively. Nathan would get ready for the long push, but the ball would go short again. How did Cheng do this? By varying the grazing contact with the ball. Even with an aggressive pushing motion, if he barely grazed the ball it would go short and very heavy. If he grazed it slightly less, the ball would go deep. Both strokes looked the same, so you couldn't tell what he was doing until the ball left the racket. The problem was when Cheng would push short one way, and then suddenly do this "aggressive" motion that really looked like it was going deep, but it would also go short, catching Nathan and zillions of past opponents as they switched from ready to loop the deep push, to last-second lunges for the unexpectedly short ball.

But it wasn't just the depth. At the last second, as Cheng's racket moved toward the ball, it would become "obvious" which direction he was pushing, and Nathan (and zillions of past opponents) would start moving toward that spot. Then, with a last-second wrist move, he'd push the other way.

The great thing about this was watching Nathan make adjustments as he figured out how to deal with these pushes, and watching him experiment in doing these tricky pushes right back. It'll take a lot of practice to reach Cheng's level at this. (The irony is that at his peak, Cheng was such a good blocker that against USA players he'd often just push long over and over - changing the direction at the last second - and save the short pushes for when he played world-class players or when a game unexpectedly got close.)

None of this pushing stuff is really new to an experienced player or coach - I've been doing all this for decades. But knowing about it and doing it at a pretty high level isn't quite the same as watching it done at the highest level. (Want to learn more? I talk about this stuff in my book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers.)

Don't know who Cheng and Nathan are? Cheng was a member of the Chinese National team for eleven years (1977-87), and won Men's Singles at the U.S. Open twice ('85, '93), and - after becoming eligible at age 38 after retiring to become a coach in the U.S. - Men's Singles at the USA National four times ('96, '97, '99, and '04 at age 46). He had a rating over 2800 for many years. Nathan spent most of the last year rated just under 2400, and was 2397 before a few bad tournaments brought his rating down. But after winning Under 2400 at the MDTTC Open this past weekend he's back to 2400 level and is ready to move beyond that.

North American Championships

The North American Championships are done - congrats to the many winners: Eugene Wang, Ariel Hsing (thrice!), Hongtao Chen, Allen Wang, Tina Lin, USA Men, Canada Women, USA Junior Boys, and USA Junior Girls! Here's the home page with results, articles, and video, and here's the ITTF page with lots of articles.

Tribute to Karakasevic

Here's a video tribute (8:22), to Serbia's Aleksandar Karakasevic, known for his great backhand looping and doubles play. He was #32 in the world in 2006, and as recently as 2012 was #40. He won Men's Singles at the U.S. Open three times - 2003, 2006, and 2007. He never won an ITTF Pro Tour event in Men's Singles (making the semifinals two times and the quarterfinals five times), but he won Men's Doubles three times and was runner-up twice. He made the semifinals of Men's Singles at the 2011 European Championships, where he was also Mixed Doubles Champion three times.

Great Rally at the Czech Open

Here's a great rally (35 sec) at the 2013 Czech Open between chopper/looper Masato Shino (JPN) and Pavel Sirucek (CZE). The rally includes a great net ball off the side return, chopping, and counterlooping.

Longest Table Tennis Rally

Two Wisconsin teenagers set a new record for longest table tennis rally - 8 hours 30 minutes and 6 seconds! Here's the article from Table Tennis Nation.

Ping Pong Portal Picture

Here's the latest table tennis artwork from Mike Mezyan. Sometimes, when you dig yourself a big hole in a match, you just have to climb or tiptoe your way back out of that hole. A green hoodie helps, except perhaps in Florida. (Sorry, Sunshine State!) Or maybe that's a portal to another dimension of time, space, and table tennis.

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Tip of the Week

A Step-by-Step Sequence to Learning Pendulum Serves.

MDTTC Camps

"It's Monday . . . and there's no camp??? No lectures on grip, stance, forehand, and serves?" (Okay, it's really Tuesday, but this is what I was thinking yesterday.) Our ten weeks of camps at MDTTC ended Friday. I've now run about 180 five-day camps, six hours per day, or 900 days and 5400 hours of camp. That's nearly 2.5 years of camps. I've given each of my standard lectures 180 times, or about 1800 lectures in all. I've led in stretching (twice a day) 1800 times. (Well, actually less since I've sometimes missed the afternoon sessions.) And we're not done for the year - we have another camp, our Christmas Camp, Dec. 26-31. (Our camps are primarily for kids, but adults are welcome - we usually get 2-3 each week, sometimes none, sometimes more.)

MDTTC August Open

Here are the results (which I also gave out yesterday) of the August Open this past weekend, run by Charlene Liu. Congrats to Chen Bo Wen ("Bowen"), who finally broke through and won against Wang Qing Liang ("Leon") after a series of second-place finishes to Wang. It was a dominant performance - he didn't lose a game. Anther having a nice tournament was Nathan Hsu, who's been in a slump recently - but this time he won Under 2400.

I mostly coached Derek Nie and Sameer Shaikh in the tournament. (I also coached Tony Li one match, against a Seemiller-style player with antispin, something he'd never seen before. A new experience, and next time he'll be ready.) Derek (12, rated 2291) started well, with wins over a pair of 2150 players - including a mind-numbing win over Lixin Lang (2187) at 16-14, 19-17, 11-8! - but his elbow began to hurt during his match with Lixin. He kept clutching at it, and I almost had him default there. He finished the match, but decided he had to drop out to rest it. Hopefully he'll be okay in a few days.

Derek's other decent win was against Nam Nguyen (2137). They had one of the most incredible three-shot sequences I've ever seen. Nam lobbed a ball short. Derek absolutely crushed it. Nam absolutely crushed a counter-kill from no more than eight feet back, and Derek absolutely crushed a counter-counter-kill off the bounce. It was the fastest three-shot sequence I've ever seen - three forehand smashes/counter-smashes in the blink of an eye. I wish it was on video - it could have gone down as the fastest three-shot sequence ever!!! 

Sameer had a strange tournament - he literally could have won or lost all eight or so of his matches. As it was, he made the final of Under 1150. Down 0-2 in games in the final, he led 5-3 in the fifth before losing 11-8.

During the tournament a player said, "I have to play [higher-rated player]." I pointed out that he had it all wrong - that this [higher-rated player] had to play him! I often quote to my players Rorschach from the movie Watchmen, where he's allowed himself to be taken prisoner and he's surrounded by other prisoners out to get him. After dispatching one in very violent fashion, he says to the group of prisoners gathered around in his gravelly voice, "You don't understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me!" Here's the video of the scene (47 sec) - warning, it's pretty violent!!!

North American Championships

The North American Championships end today, Aug. 25-27 in Vancouver Canada. Here's their home page, which includes results, write-ups, photos, video, video interviews, live streaming

USATT Minutes

Here are the minutes of a USATT teleconference meeting on July 22 and the email approval vote of those minutes. Here are USATT minutes going back to 1999.

Footwork for a Short Ball

Here's a video from PingSkills (1:46) showing how to step in for a short ball and recover for the next shot.

Zhang Jike Doing Multiball

Here's a video (36 sec) of World Champion Zhang Jike doing multiball. Want to have footwork like Zhang's? Then watch his stance - wide, with left foot off to the side for stability as he rips shots from the backhand side. There needs to be a balance here. If the left foot is too far off to the side, then the follow-through goes too much sideways, and you're not in position for the next shot. If it's more parallel to the table, you lose body torque. (I had a disagreement with a coach recently - not from my club - who insists that when you step around the backhand corner to play a forehand the feet should be parallel to the side of the table. However, not many top players do that, if any.)

Top Ten Shots at the Harmony Open

Here they are (4:38)!

Table Tennis Through Google Glass

Here's an article and video (17 sec) showing table tennis through Google Glass. (Why isn't it called Google Glasses?)

Kim Gilbert After a Two-Hour Session

Here's the picture! So restful....

Mouthful of Pong

Here's another video (14 sec) from the (Tumba Ping Pong Show"! I linked to two other of their videos on my blog on Aug. 16 (at the very end).

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I've been getting up extra early all summer to do the blog Mon-Fri (and the Tip of the Week on Mondays) because I had to coach all day at the camps at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. I also had to get up early on weekends to coach all day. Even on the two (2!) days I've had off since June I did the blog. (I was away for a week at a writers workshop, but that was NOT a vacation - that was hard work, and also started early each morning and often went late into the night. And don't even hint that going to the U.S. Open was time off, since I was coaching all day there!) Now that our summer camps are over (Week Ten ended Friday), and I finished my weekend coaching yesterday, I'm taking a day off. No blog today, and the Tip of the Week will go up tomorrow. I'm going to spend much of today lying in bed reading. If you hear a loud purring sound, that's me. Did I mention I have chocolate? (I'm also toying with doing something crazy, like driving up to Gettysburg, or the National Aquarium in Baltimore, or the National Zoo in DC. Or maybe I'll just stay in bed reading.) See you all tomorrow!

But I'll leave you with this. USATT is now rerunning some (or all?) of the 171 Tips of the Week I did for them from 1999-2003 (under the alias "Dr. Ping Pong") as a Daily Tip, which includes tips from other coaches. Here are a few recent ones by me: 

• Monday, Aug. 26: Do You Want to Know Your Opponent's Rating During a Match?
• Sunday, Aug. 25: Play Both Stronger and Weaker Players
• Friday, Aug. 23: Pushing Effectively
• Thursday, Aug. 22: What to Do with Problem Serves (I think this one needs elaboration - I may expand on it for a future Tip of the Week)
• Sunday, Aug. 18: Test Equipment

Also, here are the online results of the MDTTC Open held this past weekend, care of Omnipong and tournament director Charlene Liu.

Did I just do a blog on my non-blogging day off?

Orioles Photos

Yesterday I blogged about our visit to the Baltimore Orioles clubhouse, where the top juniors from MDTTC and I played most of their players. Here are the photos I promised! (I should have video of the Orioles pre-game show that featured table tennis next week.)

Here are two photo albums. All the photos in both albums were taken either by Qiming Chen or someone using his camera.

• Qiming Chen's Facebook Album (29 pictures)
• Larry Hodges Photo Album of Other Qiming Chen Photos (13 photos)

Most of the players in the pictures are identified by the photo name/caption, though you might have to click on the picture to see the full name/captions. In the second album there are two group pictures. Here are the captions for those two photos.

Kids Post, L-R - Chris Tillman, Darren O'Day, U.S. Open Under 12 Table Tennis Champion Derek Nie, Steve Pearce, Tommy Hunter, Orioles ping-pong table. Background - Chris Davis (back to us), Brady Anderson, Ryan Flaherty

Group picture, L-R - Darren O'Day, Tong Tong Gong, Tommy Hunter, Chris Tillman, Larry Hodges, Adam Jones, Nathan Hsu, Derek Nie (in front), JJ Hardy (in back), Qiming Chen, Miguel Gonzalez, Steve Pearce, Alexi Casilla, Manny Machado, and Troy Patton

The Atmosphere Inside the Orioles Clubhouse

Here's another article on the Orioles and Table Tennis

MDTTC Camp

Yesterday was Day Four of Week Ten of our ten weeks of camps. The focus was the backhand attack, mostly backhand looping. It was a breakthrough day for some. One girl who struggled all week with backhands and forehands sort of figured out the backhand today, though she's still struggling with forehands. Two others have transformed from passive get-the-ball-on-the-table backhands to serious topspinning backhands.

It wasn't all great - the natives were restless yesterday, as they often are on Thursdays. It's four days into the camp, but not the last day, so the day sort of drags for some of them. I pretty much accepted I'd have to say everything three times to get heard.

Here's something you don't do too often: yesterday I taught a 73-year-old man to backhand loop. He started off slow and awkward, but after time was smacking them in like a 14-year-old.

Today is the last day of our summer camps. It's been ten weeks and fifty days of non-stop action. Alas, I'm totally exhausted - and Raghu Nadmichettu is substituting for me today, so I'm off today, for a change. It's really a half day for coaching since we'll have a practice tournament in the afternoon.

Playing Well 90% of the Time

We have a top junior who's been struggling recently. Sometimes he's on, sometimes he's off. He's sort of in that class of player (like most players), who's at his best 1/3 of the time, plays average 1/3 of the time, and poorly 1/3 of the time. This is a common philosophy, and is serious mental mistake. Top players don't do this; in any important match, a top player is probably at his best 90% of the time. (My percentages are rhetorical, not exact.) Assuming you are playing regularly, and unless you have physical reasons not to be at your best - and many physical reasons are actually mostly mental - players should be at their best nearly always. It's all in the mind. Timing doesn't just come and go, but the mind does. If you are focused, the rest will come.

Here's a shortcut to playing strong mentally. Just think about the best match you ever played. Close your eyes, and get into the mental focus you had in that match. Then use that same focus in your current play.

The Making of Butterfly Blades

Here's a video (13:09) that shows how Butterfly blades are made. It's in Japanese, but you can still follow the video and images.

Lupi versus Rafa

Here's a video (22 sec) of table tennis star Ilija Lupulesku playing table tennis with tennis star Rafael Nadal (far side) in a battle of lefties.

Adizero Shoes Table Tennis Commercial

Here's a video (1:14) of a Adizero shoe commercial that features table tennis.

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Visit to the Orioles Clubhouse

Yesterday was an incredible day. As noted in yesterday's blog, we were invited to give a demo and take challenges from the Baltimore Orioles baseball team in their clubhouse/locker room. They have a nice Killerspin table and lots of room. Many of the players have been playing regularly for the past few years - and it showed! This was not a bunch of "basement" players; they were surprisingly good. About a dozen of them could show up at any table tennis club and battle with the regulars. (Photos are now up in Tomorrow's blog.) 

We were supposed to be there from 2-3PM, but the Orioles kept challenging and challenging, and we ended up taking them on for three hours, from 2-5PM.

There's already been a lot of media coverage. The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN, home of the Orioles and Washington Nationals) did a special pre-game show on it, but I haven't seen it yet. (They just emailed me that they'll mail me copies of the video next week.) There's a short article in the Baltimore Sun, and an article and video (1:19) on the Orioles home page. The video has a great interview about us from Orioles Manager Buck Showalter - you should hear what he had to say about us! They also have video of me, Tong Tong Gong, and Derek Nie in the stands watching the game that night, which started at 7:05PM. (Orioles beat Tampa Bay Rays, 4-2. We sat directly behind home plate! They showed us briefly on the Jumbotron. Nathan and Qiming couldn't stay for the game.)

The players from the Maryland Table Tennis Center were:

• Derek Nie, 12, 2012 U.S. Open Under 12 Boys' Champion (and looks about 10, only 4'7" and 70 lbs)
• Nathan Hsu, 17, 2011 USA Junior Olympic Under 16 Boy's Singles Champion and 2012 USA Junior Olympic Under 18 Boy's Singles Finalist, #1 Under 18 player in Maryland among U.S. citizens.
• Tong Tong Gong, 16, member of USA Cadet National Team (15 & Under), 2011-2012, who lives only 15 min from Camden Yards in Ellicott City, and is a big Orioles fan
• Qiming Chen, 21, past University of Maryland Champion and President of the Univ. of Md. Table Tennis Club 
• Coach Larry Hodges, member of the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame (hey, that's me!)

Playing for the Orioles? Over half the team was at tableside nearly the entire three hours, cheering and jeering. Here are the ones that I remember playing against us: Manny Machado, Chris Davis, Matt Wieters, Nick Markakis, Steve Pearce, Taylor Teagarden, Tommy Hunter, Darren O'Day, and Chris Tillman. (I probably missed a few.) Also playing was former Orioles star centerfielder and now VP of Operations Brady Anderson. Their best player, shortstop JJ Hardy (about 1800), has had recent back problems and so didn't play - but he acted as the scorekeeper for many of the matches.

Here's a group picture taken near the end - many of the players had already left. Tomorrow I'll put up more photos taken (mostly by Qiming), and hopefully identify the players. (I don't have time now - this is a rather rushed write-up, as I didn't get to bed until 2:30 AM this morning, and I have to leave to coach shortly - I'll be coaching until 8PM today.)

To get a flavor for what this was like, image playing table tennis with these stars, with over half the rest of the Orioles all gathered around watching! Many of the players kept coming up to me to ask table tennis questions, and I bravely introduced myself to some of the others. I met and spoke with Chris Davis, Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Brian Roberts, JJ Hardy, Manny Machado, Nate McLouth, Matt Wieters, Taylor Teagarden, Alexi Casilla, Steve Pearce, Miguel Gonzales, Tommy Hunter, Darren O'Day, Troy Patton, Chris Tillman, Brady Anderson, Manager Buck Showalter, and former hitting coach Terry Crowly. I mostly let the kids play, but I did play Tillman, Hunter, and Brady Anderson, and at one point I did an exhibition with Nathan, and at JJ's request, demonstrated my ball-blowing trick where I blow the ball in the air sideways, keeping the ball in the air by spinning it with my breath. Derek was especially in demand - everyone wanted to challenge him, and he ended up playing nearly half the team.

Much of the time I was standing next to Chris Davis, who leads the majors with 46 home runs after hitting another last night. We talked for 20 minutes on how players develop in skill sports, and how China is developing players in sports school funded by the government. He said that it's almost impossible to make the major leagues these days unless you have systematic training from the time you were a little kid, and that he'd been trained as a baseball player since he was four. Adam Jones and a few others joined in the discussion. When Chris had to leave, he pointed at his large locker area and said, "While I'm gone, Larry, my office is yours." (Here's a picture of Qiming Chen and Chris Davis.)

We owe JJ Hardy (the Orioles power-hitting and gold-glove winning shortstop) and Orioles Media Manager Jeff Lantz a huge thank you for all of this. They invited us, and made all the arrangements. When we first arrived, J.J. Hardy had set up an ambush for Orioles outfielder Steve Pearce, who had no idea what was going on. Pearce, apparently the Orioles third best player after JJ and Brady Anderson (if he counts, since he's not front office) didn't know what hit him when JJ suggested he play this little kid, who happened to be the 70 lb, 2291-rated Derek Nie. Pearce quickly realized he'd been had as the MASN cameras caught it all! So began the night. (Derek was nervous at the start, and since we didn't want to alert Pearce to what was happening, he didn't get any warm-up - and so started shaky, missing a couple of easy shots as Pearce tied it at 2-2. Then it was all Derek the rest of the way, 11-3.)

For the first ten minutes or so, the kids were very nervous, but the Orioles were so welcoming and friendly (when they weren't jokingly trash talking) that they quickly relaxed. At one point Tong Tong disappeared for a while; it turned out Steve Pearce had taken him out to the batting cages, where Tong Tong got to take ten swings against a practice partner pitcher. (Tong Tong and I were the two who knew all the Orioles; Nathan, Derek, and Qiming were all more or less baseball novices.)

Some interesting notes on the players: Nick Markakis plays with sandpaper, and can both chop and attack. Steve Pearce has a nice forehand sidespin loop. Chris Tillman has a pretty good smash. Manny Machado had incredible enthusiasm, never wanted to stop challenging us. Darren O'Day had lots of equipment questions and can keep the ball in play. Brady Anderson is an all-out forehand player, and can really move - he's in incredible shape, and wore both Derek and I out. He's improved dramatically since last time we played when I gave him a lesson at MDTTC in May. (He said he'd been playing nearly every day since then.) Near the end Derek and I played him a series of games. At first he was getting only 2-4 points a game against us. Near the end, as I tired and as he energetically continued to move at full speed, and he got used to my serves, and our last three games were actually close, including one game where (with a little net and edge help!) got to deuce. Derek and I both estimated him at 1800. He may give JJ a run for it now.

Afterwards player after player invited us to come back again, and based on the video interview with Manager Showalter (see link above), he seemed to like it to. Since the Orioles won that night, we are now their good luck charm!

Dimitrij Ovtcharov Smashing Speed

Here's a video (1:27, though it really ends at 1:14) of Germany's Ovtcharov (world #6) smashing as hard as he can with a radar gun, even tossing the ball up by the net and using a big wrist snap to add speed. His fastest was 122 kilometers per hour or 75.76 mph. This seemingly disproves the myth that a table tennis ball can be hit at 100 mph, assuming the radar gun is accurate.

Aerobic Table Tennis

Here's an article by former USA table tennis star Kim Gilbert on Aerobic Table Tennis.

Just Do It!

Here's video (1:32) of a new Nike Commercial that features table tennis about halfway through. The girl playing is Amanda Malek (daughter of 1979 USA Men's Singles Champion and Coach Attila Malek).

Venus Williams

Here's a picture of tennis star Venus playing table tennis at Madison Square Park in New York City on Aug. 21 at the Delta Open Table Tennis Tournament. (I don't think she actually played in the tournament.)

Baby in Backpack Pong

Is this singles or doubles?

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