MDTTC Camp - Week Ten

Yesterday we started the final week of our ten weeks of training camps. The kids were restless! I've never had so much trouble getting them to quiet down as we got started. I'm not sure if it was because school's one week away or because it was the last week of summer camps. (A number of them had been with us all or nearly every camp.) I had to send two of them to sit in the lounge, only the second time I'd done that all summer. (The previous time was when two kids got into a pushing fight, I think way back in week one or two.)

The focus on day one, as usual, was the forehand. We had a new group of beginners. Several had surprisingly good forehands to start with - not from coaching, but from watching and playing in their basements or other places. Two of them had been playing regularly at a table at their neighborhood swimming pool.

Watching the Ball

Players often advise beginners to "watch the ball." I always thought this was somewhat silly as I can't imagine anyone, even a beginner, not watching the ball, assuming they are playing serious. It's rarely come up when I coach, even with little kids, who naturally watch the ball intently. There are some technical aspects, such as do you watch the ball all the way to contact, or only to a certain point, since you can't react at the end?

I advise players to try to watch the ball right to contact, to allow for last-second adjustments and to make sure they are seeing the ball as well as possible. Watching the ball all the way especially helps when doing spin shots, where you just graze the ball, such as looping, pushing, chopping, and serving.

Some say you should look up sooner to see what the opponent is doing, but since at that point you can't really change your shot, that's pointless. You have plenty of time to hit the ball and then look up and prepare for your next shot, partially based on what the opponent is doing. Looking up sooner doesn't help any since the opponent doesn't yet know what you are going to do.

Here's something you can try doing - don't just watch the ball, watch the part of the ball you are going to hit. For example, if you are counterlooping, watch toward the top of the ball as the opponent's loop comes at you. The ball may be just this fuzzy white thing zipping at you, but you can still watch the top of the fuzzy thing. (If it's too fuzzy, perhaps you need glasses or contacts.) If you are pushing, watch toward the bottom of the ball.

Problems Reading This Blog?

Someone emailed me saying they were often getting Internal Server Errors when they came to this page. Anyone else having this problem? If so, please email me.

ITTF Level 2 Course in Atlanta

Here's an article from the ITTF on the course recently taught in Atlanta by Richard McAfee, Aug. 11-16.

USATT Tip of the Day

Here's a USATT Tip of the Day that features an excerpt from an interview with USA Olympian and nine-time U.S. Women's Singles Champion Gao Jun by USATT Magazine, from Jan/Feb 2000. The question asked by interviewer USATTM is, "What’s your secret? Can you share with our readers?" Gao's response starts off, "I have three words to share with everybody: PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE." (Guess who interviewer "USATTM" is? Yes, that was me! I was editor of USA Table Tennis Magazine from 1991-1995 and 1999-2007, twelve years and 71 issues.)

Gerry Chua's Video Page

Here's Gerry Chua's Youtube page, where you can find lots of table tennis videos.

The Warrior Versus the Mayor

Here's an article and video (15 sec) from Table Tennis Nation of Harrison Barnes of the Golden State Warriors playing San Francisco mayor Ed Lee in San Francisco‘s Third Annual Ping Pong Tournament and Festival in Chinatown.

Fancy Tables

Here are four fancy tables: Donald Duck and University of Oregon, Earth, some sort of texture, and Oregon State Beavers. (Click on each picture to see the next one.)

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Tip of the Week

Height of Service Toss.

How to Promote Major Tournaments

Over the years there have been numerous discussions on how to promote the U.S. Open and Nationals so as to bring in more players, more spectators, more press, and make it a better experience for all. There are many good ideas out there, and I read some excellent ones in a threat at about.com over the last few days.

But all of these excellent posters are missing the point - ideas don't get the job done. If you want to improve on these things, don't start by pushing ideas, no matter how good they are. Start by pushing to have someone officially in charge of implementing improvements. For example, if you think we need to present matches at the Open and National better, perhaps with more scorekeepers or better communication, don't press for more scorekeepers or better communication; press for someone to be in charge of presentation. Then there is an official person in charge of this, and he can officially push for these things, and they are far more likely to happen.

Want to increase the number of entries at the Open or Nationals? Have someone officially in charge of increasing entries. Want to have more spectators? Have someone officially in charge of bringing in spectators. Want more press coverage? Have someone officially in charge of media coverage.

You won't find success this way every time since not everyone officially in charge of something will do the job well. If they don't, then thank them for their services and put someone else in charge.

How do you find these people with a limited budget? You ask for volunteers. This is one of the most untapped areas for USATT. For example, I'm a member of Science Fiction Writers of America. They have about 1500 members, less than 1/5 the USATT membership. And yet they have an elaborate web page, run huge conventions (far larger than anything in table tennis - we're talking 5000 people in the biggest ones), have a fancy magazine, and do all sorts of membership services, far more than USATT - and they have exactly one part-time employee. It's essentially all volunteer run. (Why do they only have 1500 members? Because they have very exclusive and difficult membership requirements - to join, you have to sell a SF or fantasy novel to a select group of "professional" publishers - i.e. the highest-paying ones - or sell three short stories to a select group of "professional" magazines - i.e. the highest-paying ones.)

Coaching and Playing Idiosyncrasies

Every player and coach has his major idiosyncrasies. What are yours? Here are some of mine.

1. I rarely have a coaching session where I don't blow the ball back at least one time. (I do this less with long-established players - it gets old after a while - but new students beware!)
2. I rarely have a coaching session where I don't throw up at least one backspin lob that comes back to my side of the table.
3. I entertain the kids by blowing a ball in the air so it floats in the air over my head and to the side. (By using spin I can make it balance sideways.)
4. When telling a student how to hit the ball, I regularly say "bang" at the point where they contact the ball.
5. With beginners I often hum in rhythm to the ball going back and forth. It helps their timing.
6. I end many group sessions with the kids trying to smack a bottle as I feed multiball. If they hit it, I have to drink what's in the bottle - and it's never just Gatorade or water; it's always worm juice, beetle juice, dog saliva, etc.
7. I end most multiball segments with a high ball for players to smash.
8. As a player, when I'm serving I always start by rolling up my right sleeve slightly with my left arm, then swing my right arm underneath me one time (to loosen it up), then I come to a stop for a moment as I visualize my serve, and then I serve.

Learning the Side-Swipe Serve Return

Here's a video (10:24) of Chen Weixing showing his infamous side-swipe serve return with long pips.

New USATT Feature - Video of the Day

USATT's webpage has a new feature: Video of the Day. Today's Video is Getting Down to Basics (Tips from U.S. Olympic Coach Doru Gheorghe). Yesterday's was Top 10 Hand Switch Shots.

Video Review of Table Tennis: Steps to Success

Here's a video review (49 sec) of one my first book, Table Tennis: Steps to Success. The book first came out in 1993, with a new version in 2006. This video came on July 2, 2012, but this is the first time I'd heard of it. I'm working on a new version, which hopefully will be out by early next year. For now, if you are looking for a table tennis book, try Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers!

Great Lobbing Point

Here's a video (25 sec) of Xu Xin and Ma Long lobbing in doubles at the Harmony China Open. Did Ma Long make that sudden counter-smash at the end? I can't tell.

The Perfect Swimming Pool

Here it is.

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MDTTC Camp and a Day of Rest

After coaching 6-8 hours/day for 14 straight days, I'm finally off today. I was exhausted a week ago; there are no adverbs or adjectives in the English language that adequately describe my current state of exhaustion, so let's just say I'm tired. I went to bed last night at 11PM and slept to 9AM. That's unprecedented for me; I normally sleep about six hours/night.

However, I've got a "busy restful" day ahead. Nothing physical, but a few errands, and lots of paperwork stuff - editing, rewriting, organizing. Mostly stuff I've put off the last two weeks due to the busy workload. We have one more week of our ten weeks of camp this summer, and then I can go back to writing during the day, and coaching nights and weekends.

Yesterday's focus was the backhand loop. I had 4'7" 12-year-old Derek Nie demonstrate; as I think I mentioned in a previous blog, if he can backhand loop at a 2291 level (that's his rating!), then anyone can, right? However, the beginners aren't ready for backhand looping, and we focused on the basics.

The natives were restless yesterday - Thursdays is always the most "dragging" day, as it's four days into camp, but not the last day yet. I let the beginning kids go to games earlier than usual in both the morning and afternoon sessions. The more advanced ones are a bit more focused, and if anything, trained longer than usual before playing games.

The 5-8-year-old beginners aren't really ready for real games the first few days, but I decided they were ready yesterday. So I had twelve of them play up-down-tables for the first time - games to 11 (11-10 wins), winner moves up, loser moves down. Some picked it up right away; some had great difficulty getting the rules or the score right. Two found playing games so distressful they quit and wouldn't play, so I had those two just rally for fun while the others played. One enthusiastic 7-year-old dramatically improved this week, and won every game he played; this kid is going to be good.

During break I pulled out my Franklin Table Tennis To Go Net Set, which allows me to set up a table tennis net on any table. It weighs about 12 oz., can stretch up to 75 inches across any table, and has adjustable clamps on the side that will grab about any table. (I'm starting to take it on trips wherever I go!) We set it up on the lounge tables (about six feet long), and the kids went at it. Nathan Hsu (about 2400) had some fun taking on challenges where he put the net near the far end so he only had about one foot of table space to aim at. Near the end coaches Wang Qing Liang and John Hsu joined in, and they put on a chopping versus loop exhibition.

An interesting thing happened during a private coaching session after the camp yesterday. I'm 53 and getting stiffer every year. After a day of camp, my muscles are like neutronium. I can still execute the shots at a pretty high level, but it's not easy, and looping/counterlooping isn't as easy as before. The 13-year-old I was coaching is learning to counterloop, and has picked it up really well - he's about 1600-1700, and a very good rallier. So we went at it, counterlooping for perhaps 15 minutes. Afterwards I was about as loose as I've been in since around the time of Aristotle. Then we played a few practice games, and wow! I felt it was the 1980's again. I was all over the table looping forehands, and when he'd quick-block, I was jumping on those balls. Have to remember this next time I warm up for a match!!! (I've had similar experiences before, and already knew counterlooping loosens me up, but usually not this much.)

Discounted JOOLA Teams Entry for Sale

A local paid for an entry last year for the North American JOOLA Teams when the price was greatly discounted but can't use it now. He's willing to sell it for $600. (Current price is $799.) If interested, email me and I'll put you in contact with him. (The Teams, previously in Baltimore, will be held in Washington DC this year, Nov. 29 - Dec. 1.)

Training Tips from Waldner and Persson

Here's a video (40:03) with training tips from superstars Jan-Ove Waldner and Jorgen Persson.

International Training Camp in China

China will host an international training camp in September. Here's the article. China's Men's Coach Liu Guoliang said, "We will be organising an international training camp this September. We are inviting overseas players to participate and help them improve their overall level. It will better promote the development of table tennis. What is important is that more people will get involved into the sport and the masses will appreciate the charm of table tennis."

Play Table Tennis with a New York Mayoral Candidate

Here's the article from Table Tennis Nation. "If you've never tried to play ping pong with your favorite mayoral candidate before, now's your chance! By Donating money to Bill de Blasio for his campaign you will get the chance to face him in a ping pong game at SPiN New York this Sunday. Hitting some balls while sipping on cocktails and listening to good music seems to be the perfect way to have Bill Blasio loosen up and genuinely elaborate on his plans for the city as a Mayor. This genius plan comes from the award winning actress, ping pong ambassador and Spin co-owner Susan Sarandon who endorses Blasio."

Two-Year-Olds Playing Table Tennis?

Here's the video (19 sec) - on the table with a little multiball help.

Balls in the Face

Here's the video (17 sec) of the new Tumba Ping Pong Show! And here's another video (10 sec) from them, featuring a ping-pong ball and a cucumber in the mouth!

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MDTTC Camp

There seems to be two groups in this week's group of beginning kids: those who want to play real games (up-down tables games to 11, king of the table) and those who want to hit targets while I feed multiball (pyramids of paper cups, Froggy). Since we have twelve of these beginners in the 5-8 range, I've pretty much divided them into these two groups when we get to games. The better ones tend to want to play real games. None of the four girls want to play competitive games - they perpetually want to line up and take turns hitting the poor paper cups and Froggy. They're inseparable.

There is amazing improvement in their target skills. I end many sessions with the bottle game, where they line up and try to hit a Gatorade bottle that I assure them is filled with something disgusting, like squeezed worm juice, which I have to drink if they hit it. Both groups love this game - the competitive ones compete to see who can make me drink the most. Normally beginning kids in this age group don't hit it that often, but the last two days they've been incredible, hitting it over and Over and OVER! I've drunk a lot of worm juice.

I had a private session with one up-and-coming junior I've been coaching for the past six months or so, with a supposed rating of 950. Yeah, right - he can loop over and over against my block, and pretty hard. "You're really working me!" I told him as I was sweating pretty hard trying to block all his loops. He was looping forehands from his backhand side to my backhand block. Some people don't understand that blocking involves footwork; good blockers work hard to block well.

Nature Versus Nurture

After my blog on talent yesterday someone brought this article in Skeptic Magazine to my attention. It basically debunks the 10,000 hour rule and other arguments for the "no such thing as talent" belief. However, like many other articles, it discusses physical and mental skills as if they were the same. That many purely physical skills are mostly genetic (such as sprinting speed or jumping ability, i.e. fast twitch muscle) is fact, but the bigger question is about the mental ones, such as hand-eye coordination, etc. Some aspects, such as IQ, have been researched to death and much of that is genetic. Like many articles on the topic, the article doesn't really address how hard a player trains, just the hours put in - 10,000 hours of mindless training in a skill sport isn't anything like 10,000 hours of hard-driven practice. There is a difference. The article also cites this New York Times article on the subject, which also seems to show that talent matters.

Regardless, my experiences in table tennis show that even "untalented" kids will become very good if they put in that hypothetical 10,000 hours, as long as they really work at it and have good coaching. Can they become the very best? That's the more interesting question. My current views are in yesterday's blog.

My Life

My life seems to center around seven things.

• Table tennis coaching
• Table tennis writing
• Table tennis organizing and promotion
• Writing science fiction & fantasy
• Promoting my science fiction & fantasy
• Reading and watching movies
• My dog Sheeba (a corgi mix, now 15 and a half years old)

It's way too much. Here's my "Big Todo List":

• Full-time coaching.
• Daily Blog and Tip of the Week.
• Two upcoming ITTF coaching seminars, Sept. 2-6 and Oct. 2-7 (one I'm attending, one I'm teaching).
• Rewrite of Table Tennis: Steps to Success (tentatively retitled Table Tennis Fundamentals), with new photos.
• Rewrite of Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis, with new photos.
• Maryland Junior League (on hold for now).
• Promotion and translations for Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers.
• Promotion for upcoming novel ("The Giant Face in the Sky," coming Nov. 15).
• Writing sequel to "The Giant Face in the Sky," with plans to have it out in time for the World Fantasy Convention in Washington DC, Nov. 6-9, 2013.
• Rewrite of other novel, "Campaign 2100: Rise of the Moderates" - a publisher is interested, but asked for a rewrite, but with no guarantee that they'd accept the new version. 

Few from the table tennis world realize just how much time and effort I've put into my "second career," science fiction & fantasy writing. I've sold 67 short stories, and currently have 39 others making the rounds. I've got three other short stories in various stages of completion. Here's my science fiction & fantasy page, which I'm planning a major upgrade soon.

During our two-hour lunch break from camp this morning, besides taking the kids to the daily trek to 7-11, I'll be studying for the ITTF coaching seminar, and if I have time, starting the list of needed photos for the planned "Table Tennis Fundamentals" book.

ITTF Hopes Camp in NJ

Here's an ITTF article on the ITTF Hopes Camp being held at the Lily Yip Training Center in New Jersey, Aug. 10-16.

2013 Para Pan Am Games

Here's the USATT table tennis info page on the Para Pan Am Games, to be held in Costa Rica, Dec. 9-16.

Table Tennis for the Elderly in Virginia Beach

Here's a video (3 min) about a table tennis program for the elderly at Westminster Canterbury in Virginia Beach. It shows a 101-year-old playing, interviews the elderly, and talks about the benefits to the brain.

Table Tennis "Boogie Woogie" - Shot of the Day!

Here's a video (32 sec, with replays) of an incredible shot in the final of the 2013 Netherland National Youth Championships.

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Talent and Table Tennis

There's a lot of online debate and many books (from The Sports Gene to Bounce) and articles out about talent versus environment. How much are top athletes born and how much is made? There's no question that most of it is made, but is there such a thing as talent? Well, yeah. And remember that this is a blog, not a scientific study, so much of what I'm writing is based mostly on my experiences as a table tennis coach. I've also discussed the topic several times with my uncle, who chaired the neurology department at Johns Hopkins for many years.

Some say there is no such thing as talent, and that's nonsense. No two brains are identical, even at birth. There are many studies that show, for example, that IQ is mostly genetic, and yes, intelligence helps in table tennis. (It's a bit more complicated than that - there are different types of intelligence - but I'm not going to get into that here.) The brain is a complex organ that's evolved many built-in areas of specialization (verbal areas, spatial skills, facial recognition areas, etc.), but just as there are variations in the rest of the body, there are variations in these areas of the brain because of the variations in the DNA. Some of these areas help in sports such as table tennis, meaning some players start out with at least an initial advantage.

The real question is how much difference does it make? I'm pretty sure anyone who starts out very young, with top coaches and lots playing time, will become a top player, even a great player - but can they become the very best? I'm not sure. I've seen many players train and train as single-mindedly as anyone, and not get anywhere, while others do far less work and pull ahead. Perhaps an "untalented" kid who starts at age 5 can seem to be a "talented" kid by age 7. But what about the "talented" kid who also starts at age 5? However, the law of diminishing returns is how the "untalented" one can catch up. As the years go by, the amount and quality of the training becomes more and more important and where the player started in terms of "talent" becomes less important. So the question is how much, in the end, that initial "talent" mattered? Hard to say.

Oh, but what is talent you ask? It is a natural aptitude or skill for a particular activity. Since table tennis involves a number of diverse activities, the talent that makes up a top table tennis player is a combination of many of these. There is also a difference in mental versus body talent. If someone is born with more fast-twitch muscles - which you can't really increase afterwards - that's body talent. If someone is born with more hand-eye coordination than others, that's brain talent. (Don't believe that a brain can be born with natural hand-eye coordination? Then how is a chameleon born with the ability to snatch flies out of the air with its tongue? Okay, that's tongue-eye coordination, but same idea. There are many other examples, such as monkeys and squirrels that can almost flawlessly jump from tree branch to tree branch.) Here are just a few of the skills needed for table tennis:

1. Hand-eye coordination
2. Ability to control body
3. Ability to make smooth and controlled movements
4. Ability to track the ball with the eyes
5. Mental skills (many)
6. Ability to mimic
7. Ability to repeat a motion
8. Reflexes (big topic here - this is mostly sport specific and learned.)
9. Speed (fast twitch muscles)

The chances that a player hits the jackpot with all of the above, and just happens to not only be a player but have the right circumstances to become a top player, is minute. However, of the pool of players who do have these circumstances, some will start out ahead in most of these attributes.

Some elite players refuse to accept the idea that talent does count (at least at the highest levels), for several reasons. First, they became highly successful because they often believe they will be the best if they outwork the others. So there's an inherent bias toward believing that, even if it's not necessarily true. No coach wants to tell a player that he's not as talented as this other guy, but if you work hard, you can be second best!!! So they don't, but often it is true. (On the other hand, the less-talented one will usually come out on top in the long run if he works hard simply because the more talented one doesn't work as hard.)  Second, those who are successful would rather attribute it to how hard they worked than on being lucky to be talented. Third, elite players train with other elite players, and rarely work on a regular basis for years with a non-talented player. Those who have quickly see the different in inherent talent among junior players, just as the juniors themselves do.

On the other hand, since the players that start out more talented are usually the ones that stick with it and work hard, since they have more noticeable improvement when they do, while the less talented ones get frustrated and tend to leave. This skews the stats, leaving us with fewer untalented ones who trained for years alongside the more talented ones. It can become self-perpetuating, as the more talented ones work harder and get ahead, thereby "proving" that the harder-working ones get ahead. Or the reverse, that the more talented ones get ahead, since the ones who started out better tend to end up better - but that's because they were both more talented and worked harder - but the hard work often comes about because of their initial talent.

The kids in our camps this summer are good examples of differences in "talent." Here's a listing of some younger beginning players I worked with who said they had never played before, though of course we don't really know their backgrounds. (These are the more interesting cases that stood out in my mind; there were many more.)

• Player A, age 5. He picked up forehand and backhand very easily. Strokes were smooth from the very start. By end of week was smacking in shots as well as kids nearly twice his age, and beating most of them in games.
• Player B, age 6. He picked up shots very quickly, and was smashing in forehands from day one. Not a lot of control - only about 20% of his smashes hit, but he was very athletic and liked to go for shots. Spent all week trying to get him to focus on consistency. Picked up good technique easily. Moved well like a natural athlete.
• Player C, age 6. Could barely hit the ball. It took most of the week before he was able to hit two shots on the table. Very little hand-eye coordination. Tried hard most of the week, but sometimes got frustrated since others his age were obviously better.
• Player D, age 7. Everything he did was jerky. I spent all week trying to smooth out his strokes, but after five days he still tended to jerk into every shot, so many of his shots were almost slap shots. He was probably the most frustrating one to work with because he so obviously wanted to learn, but didn't, at least at this stage, seem to have the ability to do so.
• Player E, age 8. His shots were smooth, but he seemed to have little timing at the start. He was also almost unable to play when others watched - painfully shy. At the end of the week he was actually pretty accurate with his shots, but only if given the exact same feed. He seemed unable to react to any changes in shots, and so couldn't really rally with others.
• Player F, age 8. She picked up the shots almost from the start. Very smooth shots. It took all week to get her to hit hard, but on the final day she finally let loose and was smacking in shots.

It sure would be interesting to get all these players, and many others, together to train regularly for the next ten years and see where they end up.

Olympic Eligible Rankings

There's an online discussion about the USATT ranking lists and why they don't have a listing for both top players and top USA players, so I did some quick research. And here it is, the minutes from the May 2003 USATT Board Meeting! Here's Motion #1:

MOTION I: Moved that the Board implement a Standing Rule to highlight, in a separate list in the Ranking section of the USATT magazine, the Olympic Eligible players.
Proposed by Barney Reed; seconded by Robert Mayer.
Passed: 11-0.

USATT has little organizational memory, and so what is passed at one meeting is often quickly forgotten, as was this motion. I was USATT editor at the time and maintained that list for many years. At some point after I left they stopped doing so.

Around the Net Shots

Here's a video (1:08, with replays) of a rally ends with what looks like three consecutive around the net shots!

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MDTTC Camp and The Pongs of Power

There are lots of younger kids at the camp this week, which is Week Nine of our ten weeks of summer camps. It's the youngest group of the summer, maybe ever. We have about 30 kids, with about 20 of them under age 10. I'm in charge of the beginning under 10 crowd. In most past camps I pretty much worked with them on my own, but this time there are just too many - 12 of these under 10's are beginners - so coaches John Hsu and Chen Jie ("James") are helping me with them.

The focus yesterday was on the forehand. There were the usual problems - many want to put their index finger down the middle, don't turn their shoulders, lunge for the ball, try to take the ball too quickly, stand up too straight, and above all, won't close their rackets. (I probably said "Aim lower" five hundred times.) I'm always amazed that until about age 8 or 9, most beginning kids don't really understand that the ball is going to go where their racket is aiming. They understand it when I point it out to them, but it's something that doesn't really occur to many of them on their own.

We ended the day with the ten-cup challenge, where I set up a pyramid of 10 paper cups, and each kid had 10 shots (fed multiball) to see how many they could knock down. Several got 7 or 8, but four missed all 10. They now have something to work for. By the end of the week they'll be the terror of paper cups everywhere.

I called this week's beginning under 10 group "The Pongs of Power." What does that mean? I don't know, and neither did the kids, though they debated it. But it has a ring to it, and would be a great name for a music band.

We have a large collection of beginning sponge paddles. However, the rubber on about 2/3 of them was starting to come off the sponge, and so would flap about as they kids rallied. About half were essentially unusable. So yesterday during lunch break I took about 20 of them and glued them all back on. Most came out okay, though a few had bubbles, since I had to glue them wet and then flatten out the sponge by placing them on the table, some with weights on top. But most are now usable. This is what table tennis coaches do - they glue rackets, lead expeditions to 7-11, come up with group names, stack paper cups, and every ten seconds yell "Aim lower!"  

I've had one day off since June. I'm coaching Mon-Fri 10AM-6PM (with a two-hour break in the middle), along with about one private coaching hour per day. Weekends are even busier, and are mostly private coaching, which is physically more tiring. My hair, fingernails, and toenails are the only parts of me that don't ache. But I have this Friday off. (I did leave for that nine-day writer's workshop in July, but that wasn't "time off" as I was pretty much writing and attending workshops and classes all day. Somehow those aren't great for the back either - when I returned to Maryland, my back was solid neutronium.) After our summer camps end next week, I'll catch up on rest and life will return to normal, or as normal as it can be for a table tennis coach and writer.

World-Class Serve Training

Here's a video (5:01) that demonstrates a number of advanced serves.

Why Ping Pong Just Might Be the Elixir of Youth

Here's the article, and here's the opening paragraph: "Table tennis, ping pong, wiff-waff: call it what you will, it's increasingly popular in the UK, with 2.4 million players. Now there are suggestions it could even help with conditions like dementia."

Table Tennista

Periodically I like to list the current international articles at Table Tennista - and there are a lot of good ones right now! Here's a listing.

• Timo Boll: Zhang Jike Is One Great Champion (Video)
• Chinese Domination Creates Negative Impact Towards Competition
• Zhang Chuanming's Two Goals For Zhang Jike
• Liu Shiwen Will Defend Her World Cup Title In Kobe (Videos)
• Changes In The Next Season Of The Bundesliga
• How To Improve Your Footwork? (Video)
• Jun Mizutani, Ding Ning And Li Xiaoxia Withdrew From 2013 Harmony China Open!
• Best Of The Bundesliga Part 1 (Video)
• China Dominated At The 2013 Hong Kong Junior And Cadet Open!
•  
• Elizabeta Samara And Hugo Calderano Won The 2013 Brazil Open! (Videos)

Country Ping-Pong Showdown

Here's a video (1:57) of Ariel Hsing on the CMA Musicfest last night on ABC TV. She plays two men from the music group Lady Antebellum.

Top Ten Hand-Switch Shots

Here's the video (6:01).

Ping-Pong Strike

The most powerful loop ever - at a bowling alley? Here's the video (14 sec)!

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Tip of the Week

Service Contact Point.

When and Where to Learn to Loop

One of the toughest decisions for a coach is when to start a player on looping. There is the "Chinese" theory, which is that you focus on the fundamentals - forehand and backhand drives - for a long period, while teaching the loop only against backspin. When the drives are well developed, then the player just extends his backswing and changes his contact and the shot becomes a loop, and soon the player is looping everything. Then there is the "European" method, where players often learn to loop almost from the start. This allows even smaller kids to loop the ball as they let the ball drop down to their level and spin it on the table. (Of course they have to first learn to hit the ball, so even here they first learn basic forehand and backhand drives.) I put the two methods in quotes because this isn't an exact thing; some Chinese coaches teach the "European" method, and vice versa.

I generally go with Chinese theory, but teaching the loop a bit sooner than most Chinese coaches. However, some kids seem to take to looping very easily, and for them, we go to looping much sooner. More and more Chinese coaches are also introducing looping earlier. Those who learn looping early tend to have more natural loops. Those who go the "Chinese" method tend to have more powerful loops. However, these are just tendencies.

There's also the question of whether to loop from off the table when learning to loop, so as to give time to develop the stroke before trying it closer to the table (which can lead to rushing and a poor stroke), or learning it close to the table from the start. I prefer to have players learn from farther off the table and gradually move in as they improve. Others think they should be topspinning close to the table very early on. I find that in a faster rally, those who try learn to loop close to the table are rushed, and so learning this way often leads to awkward strokes.

These questions have come up a few times because some local juniors have gotten conflicting advice from coaches and top players. The conflicting advice they get isn't wrong, it's just different ways, and you can't do two contradictory things at the same time.

MDTTC Camp and Montgomery County Fair

Last Friday ended Week Eight of our ten weeks of camps; today we start Week Nine. Lots of stuff was covered, as usual. When one kid wasn't using good for when hitting forehands, this is what I told him:

"Don't use bad form because then you miss. When you miss, you get irritated. When you get irritated, you bicker with others. When you bicker with others, it makes me go crazy. When I go crazy, I kill small children. Don't let me kill small children. Use good form."

After the camp ended at 6PM on Friday I took a group to the Montgomery County Fair - lots of rides and games. Here are some pictures, all taken by Celina Wu (except when she's in the picture!)

• Group shot: Back, L-R: Leon Bi, Sara Wang, Celina Wu, Larry Hodges. Front, L-R: Derek Nie, Lisa Lin, Jessica Lin.
• Derek on a ride
• Leon on a ride
• Sara on a ride
• Celina and Sara
• Sara and Celina
• Derek, either expecting or with a ball he'd won
• Leon shooting while Derek looks on
• Leon widening Derek's face
• Celina, Sara, Leon, Derek

New Ball Confirmed by ITTF for 2014

Here's an article/forum discussion, which links to the ITTF study and announcement. We're going non-celluloid in 2014!!! (I'd say we're going plastic, as the article states, but technically celluloid is a type of plastic.)

Liu Shiwen and Guo Yan Training

Here's a short video (33 sec) of Liu Shiwen (on right, world #2, world #1 for nine months in 2010) and Guo Yan (world #6, world #1 for five months in 2010-2011) in training.

The Power of Block

Here's a video (3:25, I might have posted this once before) of Jan-Ove Waldner that demonstrates his incredible blocking skills.

How a Nittaku Table Tennis Ball is Made

Here's the video (14:01).

Timo Boll vs Liu Guoliang

Here's a video (5:55) from the 2013 Shakehand vs. Penhold Challenge. The match was Boll vs Ma Lin, but the rules allowed for another player to come in as a substitute for 2 points, and so Liu Guoliang came in. The former World and Olympic Men's Singles Champion, the last of the "great" pips-out penholders, retired in 2001, and is now the Chinese Men's National Coach, but can still play a little at age 37.

Table Tennis, the People's Sport

But usually you don't have a people as the net!

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MDTTC Camp and Training Centers

Yesterday's focus was on the backhand attack, especially the backhand loop. I had 12-year-old Derek Nie demo his backhand loop - if a 4'7" 65 lb kid can do this shot at such a high level, perhaps that'll encourage others that they can too. When I was coming up, players had to ask themselves whether it was worth developing a backhand loop since many believed "one gun is as good as two," i.e. you should focus on the forehand and footwork. So the question used to be "To backhand loop or not to backhand loop?" But the game has changed, and now the question is "To backhand loop and be a top player or not backhand loop and not be a top player?"

It was a tiring day for me, for three reasons. First, Thursdays are always the most tiring day in our camps - it's day four of our camps, and we have another day still to coach. Fridays aren't as tiring because it's the last day, so we get a spurt of energy, plus we have a practice tournament in the afternoon, which is easy to run. Second, two of the kids in my group (a boy and a girl, ages 8 and 9) bickered back and forth all day, and kept shoving and hitting each other with their rackets and ball pick-up nets. It got so bad that for nearly two hours I had to set up a "nine-foot rule," where neither was allowed within nine feet of each other, or to talk to each other. (Why nine feet? The length of the table, so it was easy for them to see what distance they had to maintain.) Third, at 3AM yesterday morning my TV set suddenly went off, waking me up. How had my TV suddenly turned on by itself? Apparently with a little help from my dog, Sheeba (look at that innocent-looking face!), who must have stuck her nose against the "on" switch. (Usually I use the remote, but it has an on-off switch that's near the ground.) I didn't see Sheeba do this, but it was either that or gremlins. This has never happened before. (Sheeba is now 15 and a half years old; I've had her since I got her at the dog shelter at age three.)

Someone commented about how amazed he was that there are full-time table tennis training centers. Here is my listing I maintain of them, with 56 currently on the list. (But I don't seem to have had an update since October last year - any new ones since then?) USATT badly needs a "How to Open and Run a Full-Time Table Tennis Training Center" manual. Alas, I don't have time to put one together, plus I haven't been involved in the finances at MDTTC in many years and so am not really up to date on that topic. However, I am currently advising two new centers that are in the planning stages. Much of my advice on this topic is contained in my Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook.

Tonight after the camp ends at 6PM I'm taking several of the kids to the Montgomery County Fair, where there are rides, games, exhibits, animal shows, etc. It's pretty big; I've been to it every year for the past ten years. I wonder if any of them will have the courage to do the camel rides? (They are HUGE!)

From Inverted to Short Pips and Back to Inverted

Here's a guest posting sent to me from a top player I know who asked to remain anonymous - though he admitted many will recognize who he is.

Seven years ago I transitioned from inverted to short pips to help me primarily against frictionless pimples. The short pips made easy work of long frictionless pimples which rely on a random amount of spin reversal from an incoming ball. Short pips deliver less spin which then results in long pimples being less effective against them. It was a fine plan until I played 2400 and above higher level topspin players. They would simply bombard my short pimples with topspin and topside spin - forcing me to strike the ball with perfect timing to put any sort of pressure on their shots. Occasionally this would work but frequently their consistency was better than my consistency with the pips. I did manage to beat a 2400 player at one US Open 3-0 when my timing with the pips was perfect, but this was prior to the glue ban. After the glue ban the pimples have become a more of a handicap and furthermore the frictionless pimples were themselves banned. The adjustment to short pips took approximately four weeks to the point where the outcome of friendly matches was the same as prior to switching. Under pressure I would place balls into the net and needed to significantly flatten my shot and contact more of the ball than with inverted rubbers. Improvement after the first month was slow, I was playing closer to the table than ever before, and my game was less fluid and relaxed. With too many downsides after this year’s US Open, I switched back to inverted rubber.

Somewhat surprisingly adjusting my contact point to skim the ball and generate topspin has taken about three weeks and my friendly results are again now similar to the pimples. The human body has a remarkable capacity known as accommodation - asked to perform a skill it learns to do so over a period of time without having to think too much about it. The adjustment has taken approximately 30 hours of playing time. I have not played any league or tournaments since switching. One thing which has helped, knowing I was going to change; twiddling occasionally allowed me to make some adjustments prior to officially switching. Note my racket is now heavier so timing was slightly different on all shots and services.

So if you are thinking of switching from any surface to any other you can do so safely in the knowledge that the adjustment back, even after several years, is not too bad. Losing some matches after switching surfaces is a given when experimenting. Sound technique and training when younger has allowed me to experiment with different surfaces including hard bats and long pimples. After playing for thirty years a bit of variety has kept my interest and enthusiasm for table-tennis alive.

[I then asked him why the glue ban affected him - he wasn't referring to opponents gluing but to gluing his own short pips. Here's his response.]

Short pips with glue - depends on styles but I liked to hit through the ball with pips - I did not block that much - with glue you can hit the ball extremely fast and low with little spin, as fast as using an inverted rubber. This gives inverted played a real problem facing different height balls being hit at a fast clip, you can time pressure them into making mistakes. Glue softens the rubber and allows a larger margin of error on the pips.  The pips without glue are slower, much harder to hit really fast and consistently. Hitting through a very fast heavy topspin loop is much easier with glued pips and gives an opponent a really disturbing, no spin, fast return.

Dan Seemiller's Receive Philosophy

Five-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion and former USA Men's Team Coach Dan Seemiller posted this short note at the about.com forum on his receive philosophy:

Each player should have their own return of serve philosophy. Here's mine:

1.      Stay neutral - make only one move and do it.
2.      Loop whenever possible.
3.      Read the server's intentions through body language, racket angle, and ball toss
4.      Be quick but don't hurry --John Wooden quote--- 

How Rubber is Made

Here's a video from Andro (4:39) that shows how its rubber is made. Many years ago I visited a Double Happiness factory in China and saw how they made sponge, rackets, and balls.

Short Push and RIP!

Here's an animated gif image of a top player (Wang Hao?) doing a multiball drill where he drops one short with his forehand, then steps around and RIPS the ball with his forehand from his backhand side. I used to do this drill all the time back in my day. As near as my memory tells me, I did it just like he does. J

Under the Leg Shot

Here's video (21 sec) of a great under-the-leg shot by Jonathon Groth in the German League.

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MDTTC Camp

Yesterday's focus was forehand looping. It's always my favorite day as this is when players really begin the route to becoming top players. As I explain in my lecture, starting at the intermediate level looping dominates the game, and everyone's game is based either on looping or stopping the other guy's loop.

I had a player who was having trouble positioning his feet when he stepped around his backhand to play his forehand. I showed him how to solve this problem with what I call the "Hop" method of foot positioning. I demonstrated by first showing him how I positioned my feet when playing a forehand crosscourt from the forehand side. He had no trouble doing this on his side. Then, while standing in the forehand ready position on the forehand side, I pointed my non-playing hand crosscourt. (We're both righties.) Then, while holding my body, arms, and legs as rigid as possible, I literally hopped over to the backhand side and rotated my body until my non-playing hand was pointing crosscourt toward his backhand side. This put me in exactly the same positioning for hitting a forehand from the backhand side crosscourt as hitting a forehand from the forehand side crosscourt. But the hopping part looks pretty comical!

I mentioned last week how the younger kids all loved Froggy, the large latex frog (actually a toad) I bring out for various target practice games where I feed multiball. In previous weeks they went crazy for various cup games, where we'd stack paper cups in pyramids and then knock them down. This week the craze is for the Gatorade game, where I put a Gatorade bottle on the table, tell them it's something disgusting (worm juice, beetle juice, snake blood, dog saliva, etc.), and if they hit it, I have to drink it. We play all these games at the end of sessions in all the camps, but it's interesting how certain ones become the favorite one week and others in other weeks. This week I'm getting absolutely sick of Gatorade - the kids are getting too good at hitting the bottle. (Plus I have to act shocked and disgusted when they do - I'm running out of different ways to do this comically.)

How to Play a Backhand Table Tennis Drive

Here's a four-part series on the backhand by English Level 4 Coach Jim Clegg.

Part 1 - Control (5:05)
Part 2 - Speed (5:11)
Part 3 - Wrist (4:18)
Part 4 - Posture (2:54)

Shot Selection Mentality

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master. The primary points: avoid a safe game; placement over power; reading the spin; and don't rush.

World Class American Table Tennis Players of the Classic Age, Volume I

From the USATT article:

World Class American Table Tennis Players of the Classic Age, Volume I, authored by Dean Johnson and Tim Boggan, is the first of a new series to be published by United States Table Tennis Hall of Fame. The Series covers the players, officials and contributors of the period 1931-1966.

Volume I contains 182 pages of profiles, 170 Photos and Articles of two of the earliest players from the period – Ruth Aarons and Jimmy McClure, two of our greatest Legends. Many of the photos are from the private collection of renowned photographer Mal Anderson who retains the largest collection of U.S. table tennis photographs in the world taken over almost half a century, some of which were never-before published. Many photos are in full color.

Much of the material in Chapter 1 is from Ruth Aarons’ personal album. The book features detailed Profiles by Tim Boggan author of the multi-volume Treatise on the “History of U.S. Table Tennis” -- the single most comprehensive work published to date on the sport.

In addition to the Profiles are career highlights and complete records of Ruth Aarons and Jimmy McClure. Ruth Aarons is the only American player to win world singles titles (1936/1937); Jimmy McClure is holder of 3 World doubles titles – 1936, 1937 and 1938 – and U.S. National Championships in 1934 and 1939.

Foreword is by Mike Babuin, current Chairman of the Board for USA Table Tennis and President of the Cary Table Tennis Association and the Curator and Founder of the Cary Table Tennis Museum – one of the largest private collections of table tennis artifacts, memorabilia, and publications in the USA.

Available at Amazon Bookstore. Proceeds from sales of all books in the Series will benefit the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame Museum.

Never Give Up the Point!

Here's a video (44sec) that shows a top player literally falling to the floor and crawling about as he gets back into the point - which he wins!

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Rules Changes I Was Involved In
Yesterday I blogged about rules changes since I started playing in 1976. I also wrote how I was involved or responsible for three, and promised to write about them today. I'll go in reverse order.

1) Paddle Point Rule. Back in 1991 I shared a ride from Maryland to the U.S. Open in Midland, Michigan with Dave Sakai. Along the way we picked up then-USATT president Dan Seemiller in Pittsburgh. During the long drive we discussed the paddle point rule, which a lot of people thought was silly, including all three of us. The rule then was that if an opponent hit the ball off the end but it hit your racket while still in play (i.e. not hitting the floor or something else to end the point), you'd lose the point. The reason for the rule was back in the hardbat era there were many players who blocked so quick off the bounce it was difficult to tell if the ball hit the table first - but in the sponge era, this doesn't happen much.

But many matches were being decided by the paddle point rule, including the Men's Final at a recent Olympic Sports Festival (then a major USATT tournament), where Sean O'Neill was up I believe 20-19 in the fifth match point (games to 21 back then), and smacked a ball off the end for an apparent deuce, but the ball hit Jim Butler's racket, and so Sean won. So right there in the car I got out my steno notebook and wrote a draft of a rule change to rescind the paddle point rule. I gave it to Dan, who gave it to the chair of the Official's Committee (not sure who - Wendell Dillon?), who finalized the language and submitted it to the ITTF, where it was passed.

2) Ball Resting Freely in Palm. Until about ten years ago the service rule said that the ball must be in the flat palm when serving. Nobody actually has a flat palm, of course, so it's a judgment call how flat it must be. Sometime many years ago I began to demonstrate for umpires and referees a serve where I put the ball in the palm of my rather flat palm, asked if it was okay, they'd say yes - and then I'd turn my hand upside down so the ball was underneath my hand, but still in the palm! Anyone can do this by pinching the ball between the base of the thumb and the palm, but that wouldn't really be a flat palm. With some practice (I must have had too much free time) I learned to surreptitiously pinch it right in the middle of the palm, where it wasn't so obvious. I not only could hold it there, but I could shake my hand up and down, palm down, and the ball would stay there!

I demonstrated this to the referees at the Worlds about ten years ago, and challenged them to find anything illegal about it - and they agreed there wasn't anything illegal about it, if the umpire had already judged the palm to be flat. They could retroactively say the palm wasn't completely flat, but that would be unfair since I'd first have them agree my palm was "flat" before turning my hand upside down. A year or so later they changed the rule to "resting freely on the palm."

3) Two-Color Rule. Few active players these days remember what it was like from roughly 1977 to 1983, when there was no two-color rule, and more and more players started using long pips or antispin on one side. Rallies became atrocious where it became incredibly difficult to read the spin on the ball since you couldn't tell what surface was hitting it, and rallies became racket flipping battles where players would struggle to figure out what was on the ball.

The idea was popularized at the 1977 Worlds when two Chinese chopper/loopers made the semifinals using long pips - Liang Geliang and Huang Liang. They constantly flipped their racket, and opponents couldn't see which side they were hitting on, both in rallies and on the serve, and so they absolutely devastated the Europeans. (In the semifinals the story is both were ordered to dump, one to teammate Guo Yuehua, the other to eventual winner Mitsuru Kohno of Japan.) By the early 1980s surveys (including one taken by me) showed that over 80% of U.S. tournament players were using combination rackets, with the large majority of them using long pips or antispin. I was one of the activists to require players to use two colors. I even wrote a poem about it, which was published in USATT Magazine (then called Topics), and which I included in a letter to the ITTF. The ITTF finally began to require two colors in 1983.

Here is the poem:

Little Jack Ding-Dong,
Was Rotten at Ping-Pong,
And he could not figure why.
So he bought some weird rubber,
And beat a top player,
And said, "What a good player am I!"

MDTTC Camp
Yesterday's focus was on the backhand. This week's group seems a bit better on the backhand than the forehand. Can't wait to see if any of them will be ready to backhand loop by Thursday, when we introduce that to the players who we think are ready for it.

I'm having an interesting time with one kid, age 8, who's very shy and won't take part in games. I'm trying to get him to join in with the various target practice games we do at the end of each session with the beginning kids, but he absolutely refuses, seems embarrassed at being a beginner who mostly misses. I'll keep working with him.

Oxford Falls in Love with Table Tennis
Here's the story from Table Tennis Nation about TT mania in Oxford, England. Here's the opening paragraph: "The Oxford City Council in England has recently installed 18 ping pong tables in public areas around the city to get more people involved in our beloved sport. This initiative was funded by Sport England (formerly known as the English Sports Council) with a $23,000 donation to city of Oxford as well as 9 other cities including London, Birmingham and Liverpool."

Six Steps to the Perfect Playlist for Table Tennis Performance (Part 1)
Here's the article, where they even take into account the average rallying pace in finding music that matches that.

Keep Calm & Play Table Tennis
They brought their mini table tennis table with them on a road trip, and here's video (1:18) of the result!

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