Another Oriole Takes Lessons

Okay, cat's out of the bag (or Oriole is out of the nest?), since most of the local table tennis juniors now know. The Baltimore Oriole baseball player I blogged about yesterday that I'm coaching is Darren O'Day, the 6'4" submarining $3.2 million/year relief pitcher with a lifetime 20-9 record and 2.62 ERA. Last year in 68 games he had a 2.18 ERA, the best of the O's relief pitchers. I hit with him some in August. I'm coaching him later today; afterwards he's hitting with our local kids, who are out of school today (some teachers meeting) and so doing a one-day training session (10AM-6PM).

I did find it interesting how fast these Oriole players pick up the sport. As noted yesterday, of the 25 Orioles, about half are at least 1200, the result of non-stop competitive play in their clubhouse. Surprisingly, most have decent technique - they copied much of it from JJ Hardy and Brady Anderson, who play 1800+ level. The lefty Brady actually has the best technique, running around attacking with his forehand, and not a bad backhand either. JJ has a nice counter-hitting game, but tends to point his racket up when he strokes - but it gives him an excellent blocking game, and he can smash as well, along with a surprisingly spinny forehand pendulum serve, made even more effective because he does it from his forehand side, which almost nobody does in "real" table tennis - except me, who does it in close matches as a variation. (Why don't you?)

Scream Halloween

In a class I taught yesterday just before the kids left to go trick-or-treating I did a nasty trick. I hid my Scream mask in the restroom before the class began. About ten minutes before class ended I asked my assistant coach, John Hsu, to talk to the kids about how to create spin on serves, and arranged that he'd be facing the restrooms as he did so, so the kids would have their backs that way. Then I went to the restroom, put on the mask, and quietly sneaked up on them. Then, staying silent, I leaped in front of them. There was quite a bit of screaming! Then I went after Coach John, "choking him to death" right in front of the kids. (John knew - it was pre-arranged.) Then I chased several of the kids around the table, still silent. Finally I put a Gatorade bottle on the table and motioned for them to go to the far side. We spent the last five minutes with me feeding multiball in the mask while they tried to hit the bottle of "worm juice." When they did, I had to jam the bottle up under the mask to drink it, always looking back and forth sharply between the bottle and the kid who hit it. Then I'd go right up to the kid and stare at him from one inch away. At the end, I went back to the restroom, removed the mask, and returned and said, "Did I miss anything?"

Table Tennis the Brain Sport

Here's an essay by Daniel G. Amen, MD, on the greatness of table tennis as a brain sport.

Four-Table Tennis

Cape Fear Table Tennis Club in Fayetteville, NC, is running the first four-table tennis tournament in the U.S. What's "four table"? It's table tennis played with four tables! Here's video (7:06). And here's their home page with info on the tournament.

Around the Net Shot

Here's video (38 sec) of Puerto Rican cadet star Adriana Diaz doing an around-the-net roll-on-the-table shot at the 2013 World Cadet Challenge.

16 Table Tennis World Records

Here they are!

Table Tennis Animation Project

Here is Sneak Peak of a Demo/Test raw footage (1:44) of a table tennis animation work in progress by Mike Mezyan. Can't wait to see the final version!

Queen Latifah vs. Granny Franny

Here's the story and video (51 sec).

Superhero Bee Pong

Look! Up at the Table! It's a Bird! It's a Plane! No - it's . . . a large bumblebee playing table tennis? I think that's what it is, not sure. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Non-Table Tennis - "The Best Things About Halloween"

Last year I had a story, "The Haunts of Albert Einstein," published in the anthology Specter Spectacular: 13 Ghostly Tales. ("Poor Albert Einstein is destined to haunt his old offices in Princeton for eternity, surrounded by the ghosts of bickering physicists who simply will not shut up, and the relentless paparazzi. What can he do to save himself from this fate?") The editors asked the authors to recount their favorite memories of past Halloweens. They just put up three of them, including mine - here they are! Mine's about getting caught up in a Halloween prank, and hiding late at night behind a bush in a Tyrannosaurus Rex costume as a drunk, angry man stood on the other side trying to find me.

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Learning to Return Fast Deep Serves

Many players have trouble with them. How do you learn to return them? By practicing against them! I have a student, Doug, who was having trouble with them, especially when served to a certain spot I won't name since he may have to play some of my readers. So yesterday we played games where I started each rally off with a straight fast, deep topspin serve, and where I had only one shot to win the point. At the start he was horrible, missing the serve over and over. But guess what? Practice does make perfect (or at least better), and he improved and eventually won. (It's not easy trying to win on one shot when the opponent is looping your deep serve over and over!)

Now I wasn't using my best fast-breaking sidespin serves or the sometimes almost unreturnable dead ones, but few players have those serves except at the higher levels. But I'm going to press Doug on this, and soon he'll be facing these nightmares - and if history repeats, he'll get used to them.

I do a similar thing with other students. Sameer had trouble with a player's deep sidespin serve to his backhand in a tournament, so we played games where all I did was serve that serve. When he got used to it, I started throwing two variations at him and later more. Now he's comfortable with the serve when he sees it coming, and reacts to it pretty well even when I vary the serve.

One of our top juniors had fits with certain short serves to his forehand. So we played matches where I gave him that serve over and Over and OVER. Soon he was flipping it all over the table and I had to practically retire that serve against him in matches. Yes, my goal is to teach all my students to return all my serves so that soon they'll all be beating me.

It always amazes me that players win or lose more on serve and receive than anything else, and yet few actually practice these things systematically.

Ping-Pong Halloween

What are my Halloween plans? I teach a beginning table tennis class for kids on Thursdays from 6-7. I was thinking they'd want tonight off, but I was surprised last Thursday when all but one said they'd be here. (Three said they hated Halloween! Wow!!! Didn't like costumes and all that sugar.) I also have a private lesson from 7-8PM. So I'll be coaching from 6-8PM, and not getting home until close to 8:30PM, when most of the trick-or-treating will be over. Fortunately, the people downstairs will be around to give out the Snickers and Milky Ways I always give out. (I own a three-floor townhouse, and live on the third floor while renting out the first two.)

I won't miss Halloween completely. Besides bringing some of the candy to give out to the class (for those who like sugar!), I've got a Scream mask that I might put on during the class near the end. Or maybe I'll feed multiball in it. I've always had this dream of showing up at a club anonymously in some sort of costume (such as a gorilla suit, though a scream mask will do), and silently play matches all night and beat everyone.

Here's some table tennis Halloween stuff:

• Scary ping-pong ball eyes.
• Scary ping-pong ball eyes on creepy people! Note the illusion that the head is constantly getting bigger?
• Kid dressed up as a ping-pong table.
• Kid dressed up as a ping-pong paddle. But what's the kid on the left, and what's a "Ping Pong Domo"?
• Guy dressed up as a beer pong ball. Note his buddy dressed up as the beer pong cup.
• Three guys dressed up as a ping-pong ball, table, and beer pong cup.
• Skull table tennis. "Live the good life. Play Table Tennis."
• Skull table tennis on a shirt. "Losing is not an option."
• Halloween ping-pong pumpkins.
• Happy Halloween ping-pong ball wreath.
• Scary ping-pong Halloween image.
• See how many ghouls you can kill in Creepy Halloween Pong!

Orioles Player Taking Lessons

Another multi-millionaire Baltimore Oriole baseball player has arranged table tennis lessons with me. Ho hum. I've already given lessons to JJ Hardy and Brady Anderson, and hit with a bunch of their players at their clubhouse. For now, the new one wants to stay anonymous. However, after taking a few lessons, he plans to play in our leagues during the off season.

Polyethylene Balls

Yesterday I posted a link to USATT Board Chair Mike Babuin's blog with his thoughts on the new polyethylene balls, which are supposed to replace the current celluloid ones in ITTF events on July 1, 2014. (USATT would presumably match them, as they usually do on rule changes.) Here's USATT Board Member Kagin Lee's blog about this last week. However, if you want to test these balls for yourself, JimT posted in the comments in my blog yesterday that you can order them from eacheng.net, which I just did. Cost for three balls was $7.99 plus $5 shipping, so $12.99 total. (Choose "BY AIR-small packet" for the $5 shipping, unless you are in a rush.) Once I have them I'll try them out, and let others from my club as well, and report back here.

Knee Update

Just a quick update - the knee seems fine now, though I'm still leery of making sudden moves, especially to my wide forehand. I'm wearing an Ace knee brace, and will probably keep using it for a while.

2013 Men's World Cup Best

Here's a video (4:25) of the best of the recent World Men's Cup. And here's the ITTF's Top Ten Shots (5:16) from the tournament. (It's really top ten rallies, shown from different angles and replayed slow motion.)

Roger Federer Wants to Play Lebron James in TT

Here's the story from Table Tennis World!

Funny Serves

So which of these three serves is the funniest?

• Fake-out High-Toss Serve
• Ball Hits Partner Serve
• Out of Court Serve

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Table Tennis is a Dangerous Sport

How many other sports features killing and smashing and chopping? But that's not what I'm writing about. I'm writing about arm and knee problems, illnesses, and concussions.

Recently my students and I have been coming down sick or injured. I've blogged about my recent arm and knee problems (now all better, for now). I normally have four hours of coaching on Wednesday nights. But two students will miss tonight. Daniel, age 8, hurt his arm a week ago (did he catch it from me?), and seems to have aggravated it. He saw a doctor, and his arm is now in a sling - no table tennis for at least two weeks. Matt, 12, accidentally got hit in the head by a door (!), and has concussion symptoms. He said he won't know for sure if he has a concussion until next week (he's seeing a specialist), but can't do any sports activities for a week. I've had a couple other students miss sessions over the last few weeks because of illness.

On a more serious note, knee problems in table tennis often come from playing on cement floors. MDTTC had cement floors its first 12-15 years or so, and toward the end I was having severe knee problems and had to wear a knee brace. After going to the red cushioned flooring, I had zero problems until eleven days ago, when I simply pushed off the foot wrong while stepping around to forehand loop, but that's mostly better now. Knee braces are excellent in preventing further injury. They not only keep the knee warm, but keep the injured part pressed together, so it doesn't injure further if you don't overdo it.

Arm problems usually come from technique problems, though not always. I had serious shoulder problems before I ever played table tennis, from throwing baseballs "like a girl" (i.e. not turning my shoulders - here's a graphic that shows this, see bottom image). I later developed arm problems in my forearm, which I think came about from having a somewhat short and jerky forehand loop stroke. Ironically, once injured from looping, it is actually the backhand that hurts and aggravates it. (Looping stretches the forearm muscle in question; backhands contract it and is what makes it worse.) When I do have arm problems, I tend to over-protect it, which leads to re-injuring the shoulder.

Illnesses in table tennis often come after tournaments, where you spend lots of time with strangers, often shaking hands, as well as time in airports and buses, where your hands are constantly in contact with surfaces grabbed by others. If your goal is to gather a large collection of germs on your hands, go to lots of tournaments. Solution: make sure to wash your hands (with soap) regularly at tournaments and when traveling or you'll likely catch something, and pay for it a few days after the tournament. (I always harp on this with our juniors at tournaments. If you pick up something while traveling to the five-day U.S. Open or Nationals you'll come down sick halfway through.) 

Concussions come from getting slammed in the head by doors and getting hit by extremely heavy ping-pong balls. Since table tennis doesn't have extremely heavy ping-pong balls, avoid getting hit in the head by doors and you should be fine.

New Wheelchair/Standing Rules

Here's a relatively new rule about playing doubles when one of the players is in a wheelchair.

2.08.03 In doubles, when at least one player of a pair is in a wheelchair due to a physical disability, the server shall first make a service, the receiver shall then make a return but thereafter either player of the disabled pair may make returns. However, no part of a player's wheelchair nor a foot of a standing player of this pair shall protrude beyond the imaginary extension of the centre line of the table. If it does, the umpire shall award the point to the opposing pair.

At the South Shore Open this past weekend referee Kagin Lee pointed this out to me and asked what I thought of it. We went out on the table to test it, and guess what? I can stand on the left side of the table and still reach short or long balls to the wide forehand. (I'm right-handed.) What does this mean? It means that according to the rules, I can play doubles with a wheelchair player and play the rallies essentially alone, with the wheelchair player off to the side, perhaps ready to occasionally cover any shots that get well angled to my forehand that I can't reach. When it's my turn to receive, I can receive while standing on the left side, thereby allowing me to play from that side the rest of the rally. Since I'm limited by not being able to put my foot to the right of the center line, I'm somewhat limited, but it sort of defeats the purpose of doubles. I'm not sure how they can fix this rule, but it's definitely problematic. Fortunately, this won't come up very often. To date, in all the doubles matches I've played, I've faced exactly zero doubles teams made up of a standing and a wheelchair player. I've seen it only a couple of times.

Mike Babuin's Thoughts on the New Polyethylene Ball

Here's his blog. He's the chair of the USATT Board of Directors.

Matt Hetherington Page

Here's the web page and blog of the New Zealand player, with lots of interesting stuff from a top player's perspective. Yesterday he blogged about Vladimir Samsonov defeating Timo Boll at the Men's World Cup, "Samsonov Ends Boll's 5-Year Run." Includes a link to a video of the match (39:15).

No Table? No Problem!: 3 Solutions When All Training Tables Are Taken

Here's an article from Table Tennis Master on training with three or more players on a table.

A Game Nobody Knows (Ping Pong Song)

Here's a video (3:48) that's shows Wally Green in action as he raps (or Hip Hops?) to music.

Colorful Table

Now that's colorful!

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Tip of the Week

Start Drills with a Serve.

Butterfly South Shore Open

It was an exhausting weekend, but so is every tournament I coach at. There's no question - coaching is far more tiring then playing. Seriously!!!

Here are results and pictures. I didn't get to see much of the tournament since I was busy coaching.

I traveled to and from the tournament with Nathan Hsu (17) and his mom, Wen; Crystal Wang (11) and her dad, Quandou; and Derek Nie (12) and his mom, Jenny. (Derek and his mom traveled separately going out, but were on our flight coming back. Roy Ke, 14, another top junior from my club (MDTTC) also went but traveled separately.) We flew to Chicago, and then rented a car to drive to South Shore, about 45 minutes away. We arrived at the playing hall (Lincoln Center Fieldhouse in Highland, IN) around 8PM on Friday night, just after they'd closed the gym. We found an open door and were able to look over the place and survey the draws before they shooed us out.

Crystal, rated 2267, was top seed in all three junior events she was in - 13 & Under, 15 & Under, and 18 & Under - and she swept all three events without losing a game to anyone, capturing $1700 in prize money, care of the Nate Wasserman Junior Championships. She played Anushka Oak (13, rated 2091) in all three finals.

I was mostly coaching Nathan this tournament. (I'll be coaching him and Derek at the Nationals.) He mostly played well this tournament, but didn't have the results to show it. He went in rated only 2303, well below his norm - he was 2397 just a short time ago. In the Open, he upset Patricio Perevra of Lindenwood University in Missouri, the 7th seed, to reach the quarterfinals. There he faced the unrated Wang Zhao, a former member of the Chinese National Team and only 28 years old. He'd easily dismantled a 2300 player 4-0 in the previous round, and his level was estimated at 2650. The story I was told was that injury problems had ended his career in China, but while no longer Chinese-team level, he was very good, with an unreal forehand, and everything else almost as good.

But so was Nathan!!!

Nathan used his backhand loop to dominate, often with off-the-bounce counter-loops, and a nice inside-out forehand flip to take out Wang's forehand and set up Nathan's own attacks in this best of seven. He also counterlooped surprisingly well. They battled right to the seventh game. Finally, Nathan found himself up 10-9 match point with the serve! So what happened? Nathan served short, and Wang returned it with a net-dribbler. Jeeez!!! But Nathan's not through. Wang had one or two match points, but Nathan deuced it, and had another match point with the serve. He served long to the backhand, and Wang, caught off guard, made a soft topspin return to Nathan's wide backhand - which Nathan had anticipated. He was already there, and ripped a forehand down the line that would have been a match-winning shot - but it just missed. Then Wang won the next two points, and it was over. (In the semifinals, his racket - the same one he'd used against Nathan - was ruled too thick, and so he had to use an unfamiliar racket, and lost.) 

Nathan had another nice match in the semifinals of Under 18 in a best of five, against top-seeded Jonathan Ou, rated 2472. (Nathan was seeded fourth.) I can't go over the tactics here - they will likely play many times in the future and Jonathan might be reading this (Hi John!), but once again it was a battle. Jonathan won, 11-8 in the fifth. (Jonathan would win the final 3-0.) And so, despite playing two great matches, Nathan had nothing to show for it, other than the knowledge that he can compete with these players.

During the tournament we lived on McDonalds for lunch (chicken sandwiches for me) and Cracker Barrel for two dinners (though Crystal and I had to miss one when she had some late-night matches). There was a breakfast buffet at the hotel, and I had freshly-made waffles and scrambled eggs for breakfast both mornings.

On the way back we had to wait at the airport in Chicago for over an hour. So the kids and I grabbed our paddles, and walked about until we found some tables. Then it was time for Airport Pong!!! I didn't actually play any this time (knee problems), so I was just the ball boy as Nathan, Derek, and Crystal took turns. I don't have video, but here's Airport Pong video (1:43) from after the 2012 Junior Olympics/Southern Open at Houston Airport, with Nathan, Amy Lu (the lefty), and Lily Lin.

It was a fun tournament, and we had a great time. The lighting was great, with wooden floors and lots of room. Great thanks goes to Director Dan Seemiller; to the tournament committee (Brad Balmer, Steve Betts, Jason Denham, and Pam Hazinski); to referee Kagin Lee; and to the local South Bend Table Tennis Club.

Why Today's Blog Was Late

Why, you ask? Well . . . this'll sound crazy, but blame the TV show "The Walking Dead." I missed this past Sunday's episode (coaching at the South Shore Open in Indiana). I was up late last night working on other things, and went to bed around 1AM. Just before I went to bed I had checked on when I could see replays (Fri 11PM and Sun 8PM). Well, I had perhaps the most vivid and definitely the most physical nightmare of my life, and probably the longest as well.

I dreamed I was fighting the walking dead - and it went on and On and ON!!! I was on a balcony overlooking a large gymnasium (now that I think about it, I think it was the South Shore Open gymnasium!) filled with the walking dead, and they were streaming up a stairway to get at me! My only weapon was a sharpened pencil, and it kept breaking - but then I'd find another one. (Strangely I was killing them by stabbing them in the belly, when in reality - well, Walking Dead reality - you have to stab them in the brain.) And then (of course) I had a ping-pong paddle and began swatting them away. At some point the paddle went back to a pencil, and then back again - it kept changing in my hand, and at the time, this seemed perfectly normal. Anyway, the whole time I was fighting them I kept thinking about how painful it would be if they got at me (yes, they eat you alive), and so it was an all-night adrenalin-packed episode. When I woke up in a sweat, I was exhausted and had a massive headache. It's very tough to write with a massive headache, alas.

Men's World Cup

Xu Xin of China defeats Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus in final.  Here's the ITTF Men's World Cup Page, with results, articles, and photos.

Quality over Quantity - Training Smart

Here's an article from Table Tennis Master on choosing your drills when you practice.

Ultimate Hook Loop

Here's the video (10 sec) of a super-sidespin loop. My only critique is that it would be even better if it went wider. If you are a looper and don't have a hooking loop to the forehand, you need to develop one.

Mikael Andersson, Messages from Paris 2013

Here's a video interview (13:11) with Mikael Andersson, an ITTF Senior Consultant - Development, Education & Training, and one of the main designers of the ITTF Global Junior Program.

Epic Ping Pong Fail - Spinning Face Smack

Here's the video (33 sec) - and watch where the ball actually hits!

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No Blog or Tip Today

I returned from the South Shore Open in Indiana at 1:30 AM this morning, and because I had to take care of some things I didn't get to bed until after 4AM. So no blog today, and the Tip of the Week will go up tomorrow. But for diehards who need something, here's video (1:05) of the rally of the tournament at the Men's World Cup, with Vladimir Samsonov lobbing down Xu Xin.

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Back Foot on Forehands

I began to write a blog entry about how the back foot positioning on forehands has evolved at the higher levels from being back to mostly being parallel to the table in the modern game, where it's not just power, but speed of power that's paramount - and so there's no time to bring that foot back. Then I realized it should be a Tip of the Week for Monday.

South Shore Open

I'm off to the 4-star South Shore Open in Indiana right after lunch today, where I'll be coaching MDTTC juniors Nathan Hsu, Derek Nie, and Crystal Wang. (Also going from MDTTC: Roy Ke, along with coach/practice partner Dong "Steve" Yiming.) There are 214 players entered. I've got my coaching notes printed out, a list of things to bring (I pack right after I finish the blog), and I think the kids are ready. There's a lot of prize money in the Wasserman junior events! But as far as we're concerned, it's just another day of matches at the club. Right?

USATT Tips of the Day

USATT is still going through the 171 Tips of the Week I wrote for them from 1999-2003, putting one up each day. Here are the Tips they've put up. Below are the Tips from the past seven days.

• Oct 22, 2013: Fool Your Opponents - Exaggerate Your Serve's Follow-Through in the "Wrong" Direction
• Oct 21, 2013: For Looping Power, Arm Snap Comes LAST
• Oct 20, 2013: Learn To Play Close To The Table
• Oct 19, 2013: Backhand Chopping in an Emergency
• Oct 18, 2013: Make Sure the Background Isn’t Distracting
• Oct 17, 2013: Serve With the Red Side With an Orange Ball
• Oct 16, 2013: When Playing an Unknown Player, Concentrate on Serve & Receive

USATT Email Vote

Here's the minutes of the USATT Oct. 23 email vote, where they voted on a number of rule changes. I believe they are just matching new ITTF rules, as the very first item changes the USATT rules to match the current (new?) ITTF rules.

I'm a bit surprised by the first rule change - I don't think they saw the implication. Below is the new rule. The four words crossed out ("as close as possible") were part of the old rule; the words in bold italics ("attached" and "from top to bottom") are new wording:

2.2.4 The bottom of the net, along its whole length, shall be as close as possible to the playing surface and the ends of the net shall be as close as possible attached to the supporting posts from top to bottom.

Here's the problem. With the new wording, there's no requirement that the net actually goes out to the net posts, which go six inches (15.25 cm) outside the table. (Rule 2.2.2: "The net shall be suspended by a cord attached at each end to an upright post 15.25cm high, the outside limits of the post being 15.25cm outside the side line.") This is to keep players from regularly making unreturnable shots around the net, as players like Istvan Jonyer did regularly in the 1970s before they made the rule that the net (or at least the posts, with the net "as close as possible," or similar wording at the time) go six inches outside the table.

So you can have a net that only goes to the edge of the table, attached to the outside posts by, say, a piece of string. And so players can easily hit shots between the net and the net post. It wouldn't be a legal shot, but do we really want to allow that huge gap there? Besides making it trickier to call some shots ("Did that go inside or outside the net post?"), it would look bad. Why not keep the "as close as possible" wording from before?

Men's World Cup

Here are some nice action shots from the Men's World Cup, which started today in Belgium.

Ma Long Multiball

Here's a video of world #1 Ma Long (40 sec) doing multiball. It's a two-shot drill: a random backspin followed by a random topspin. (Note the other player picking up balls by hand - what is this, 1980? We have nets and other ball pickup devices for that now!)

Table Tennis in Enchanted Forest on Floating Table by Woman in Wedding Dress Weighed Down by a Paddle

Okay, that's my name for Mike Mezyan's latest artwork, which he calls "Once Upon a Table," and describes: "She Had TT Dreams...She Had TT Hopes...A Table in an Enchanted Forest Understands Her...It Knows What She Wants..It Floats Gently Carrying Her Fueled By Her Aspiration And Determination...Her Table Was Her Palace...Her Racket Was Her Prince Charming...Her Story Has Just Begun..."

About Time

Here are some table tennis pictures from the upcoming feature movie About Time, which comes out Nov. 8. Apparently there are a lot of table tennis scenes in this SF movie, which looks like my kind of movie - TT & SF! Here's the description from IMBD: "At the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think."

Basketpong

Here's the video (2:13)! And here's another (2:54)!

The 2014 Nationals Are Booked by Mark - Be Very Afraid

Here's a hilarious posting by Mark ("mjamja") at the about.com forum that refers to my Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers book. I wanted to post it in its entirety here, but wasn't able to reach the author. So here's the first paragraph (the best one!); follow the link above for the rest.

Any of you who plan to play in the 2014 US Nationals in any rating event between U1600 and U2100 should be very afraid. I have ordered Larry Hodge's "Table Tennis Tactics," Richard McAfee's "Table Tennis Steps to Success," and Alex Polyakov's "Breaking 2000."   I plan on a total table tennis immersion approach using these wells of knowledge as my guide and devoting myself to real training for the next year.

Non-Table Tennis - "Rationalized"

Here's the cover of Star Quake 1, a compilation of the best stories they published in 2012. I'm on the cover with my featured dystopian SF story, "Rationalized" (yep, it's free online), which won the 2011 Story Quest Short Story Competition. (It's the 14th time I've been on the cover of a SF magazine.) It's about a future society where everyone has an operation on their brain at age 13 to remove all emotions, and the underground society that secretly avoids this operation, but must pretend to always be unemotional - and the lengths they must go to hide their secret when a terrible accident occurs. "The writing is solid and for a story about lack of emotion, it packs an emotional punch" wrote blogger Mark Webb.

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Serve, Receive, or Side?

In this week's Tip of the Week (which goes up every Monday), I wrote about "Should You Choose Serve, Receive, or Side at the Start of a Match?" Here are some examples from real tournament experiences.

I almost always give away the serve, for the reasons given in the Tip. I want to be serving at the end of the first, third, and fifth games, where there's pressure and where I can pull out my trickiest serving combos, based on what I've learned in the points played so far. I'd rather let the other guy serve first so I can get into the match a bit more (even if it's only two points) before I serve. But there are exceptions.

When I play an all-out hitter, especially a pips-out penholder, I often keep the serve, especially if the player seems the nervous type. High-risk players like that need a lot of confidence to go for their shots, so don't give it to them. An example was Ron Lilly, a top pips-out penhold hitter from the 1980s and 1990s who was sometimes rated over 2300. When he was fearless in his hitting his level skyrocketed. But when he fell behind he tended to play safer, and then he'd fall further behind. So my goal against him was always to build up a lead early. This not only meant serving first, but it meant throwing every trick serve I could right from the start rather than holding back on anything for later. I did the same thing against Lim Ming Chui, another pips-out hitter.

Since most players, strangely, keep the serve, it's sometimes a waste to give the serve away. So sometimes I'll choose sides instead. In this case I actually want to be on the good side at the start, so I can get into the match early. If the floors on one side are slippery or it's hard to pick up the ball in the background from one side, then it's harder to get started - so I'd prefer to be on the good side first, and worry about the bad side in the second game when I'm already into the match. It's much easier to adapt at that point.

For example, in major tournaments, often played in a huge gymnasium, you often play in a row of tables where one side faces the wall, the other the huge open area of the gym. I often warn players to make sure to warm up on both sides of the table to get used to both backgrounds. Often it's trickier to pick up the ball when your back is to the wall and you're looking out into the open area (something you few players experience in club matches), and usually the ball is chosen so it doesn't match the wall, so it's easy to see it when looking into it. So I'll usually choose to start facing the wall, and by the time we switch sides, I'm into the match well enough that it's easier to adjust to the new background.

Also in large tournaments, often played on concrete, there are often cracks in the floor or other floor problems that may run through your side. These can be distracting, especially at the start, so I often choose the other side to start. By the time I'm on the "cracked" side, it's easier to adjust. Or the lighting on one side might be weaker, or there might be a draft on one side, or any of a zillion other possibilities. I once chose the far side from the stands because someone in the stands was blowing a plastic horn loudly for a match next to mine, and it was distracting, so I wanted to get as far from him as possible at the start. (By the time we switched sides the other match was done so I didn't have his horn blowing from fifteen feet away.)

Another reason to choose sides is if you are playing someone who tends to hide his serve, and there is one umpire for the match. Then you want to choose the side so the opponent has his back to the umpire, and so the umpire is more likely to call him for hiding his serve. Since the umpire is watching from the side, he doesn't have a great angle for seeing whether the serve is hidden or not, and technically it shouldn't make a difference which side he's on - but in practice, he's more likely to call it if he himself can't see the serve either.

Updated USATT Tournament Guide

Here it is, thanks to the work of Wendell Dillon. The stuff in it is crucial for tournament directors, but should be of great interest to players as well. Not sure about the rules for making draws? Tie-breaking procedures? Playing conditions? Here's where you find it and a lot more.

Xu Xin in Training

Here's a video (2:01) of Xu Xin doing multiball training with Chinese Men's Coach Liu Guoliang. It's a random drill, where Liu feeds first a backspin ball, followed by a series of topspin ones (usually 3-4, sometimes 5 or 6).

Pong-Tron

Here it is - but could SOMEONE who speaks "Asian" (I have no idea if this is Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or perhaps Martian) please read the words and explain what it is?

New Concept in Tables?

Yesterday I showed Mike Meier doing an exhibition on what I thought was some sort of improvised table. It turns out it wasn't - it was a new design from BoConcept. Here's a great video (1:12) showing the new table in an office setting - and a lot of bouncing ping-pong balls! (Here's an action still shot, care of JOOLA.)

Instant Game Rooms

Here's a page showing ten gadgets to spice up your game room - and three of them involve table tennis.

1959 Table Tennis Marathon

Here's a picture and story from the 1959 LA Times about a TT Marathon: "April 12, 1959: Surrounded by friends and fraternity brothers, Thayer Holbrook, 19-year-old University of Southern California freshman, cools his feet after playing table tennis for 50 hours at Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house."

Adam Bobrow's "Trick Shot" Entry

Here's his entry (1:31) - but it's not really a trick shot video so much as, well, watch and see.

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Knee Update

I gave a 1.5 hour coaching session yesterday, but could only hobble around, and ended up doing multiball or serve practice for over half the session. As I blogged on Monday, I injured the right knee on Saturday. So I've had to cancel all my coaching tonight - three hours. (Every other week I have four hours on Wednesday nights, but this was an "off" Wednesday.) Coach Raghu is subbing for one of the hours, while the other two are taking the week off. (One is having arm problems and could use the rest.)

Coaching is one of those professions where you HAVE to stay healthy or you run into serious problems. Some remember all the back problems I had in 2011; I overcame that with a lot of stretching and specialized weight training. Then, other than a cold or two, I was healthy for two years. A few weeks ago I had to take most of a week off with arm problems. And now this.

For most of our 21 years, MDTTC had cement floors. This has no give, and so led to knee problems for me (and others) during the late 90s and early 2000s. Then, about 6-7 years ago, we went to the soft red flooring that's so popular at professional clubs and major tournaments. Since then I've had no knee problems until now. This injury wasn't because of the floor, however; I just put weight on it wrong.

Lefties at the 2013 LIEBHERR Men's World Cup

The Men's World Cup starts in three days, Oct. 25-27 in Verviers, Belgium. Here's an interesting tidbit: of the 20 players participating, 40% are lefties. (That's eight of them for the math challenged.) According to Wikipedia, about 12% of men and 10% of women are lefties. So here's my challenge to readers: Who can first name the eight lefties among the 20 players? (And no, I can't; I don't know all these players.)

Fantasy Table Tennis

Yesterday I listed the numerous table tennis excerpts from my upcoming novel, "Sorcerers in Space." Here's an article I wrote in 2009 that was published in Fantasy Magazine, "The Table Tennis Fantasy Tour." It gave a rundown of some of the fantasy table tennis in movies, TV, and books, such as movies "Forrest Gump," "Balls of Fury," "A Matter of Life and Death," and "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man"; TV shows "Gary Shandling's Show," "Ping-Pong Club," and "Get Smart," and the fantasy novel "Robot Adept" - as well as my own short story "Ping-Pong Ambition."

ITTF Trick Shot Competition

Because of recent arm problems, and now a knee injury, plus the inconvenience of not having a video camera (I was going to borrow one), and simply being too busy on other issues, I haven't been able to put together a video for the ITTF Trick Shot Competition, alas. The deadline is Friday, Oct. 25. I had two tentatively planned. But doing one now is mostly pointless as the online voting has gone on for weeks, and there's no way I can catch up.

For the first trick, I was going to stand 60 feet directly to the side of the table. I'd then do a high, sidespin serve that hits the table and jumps sideways so it hits both sides of the table, a legal serve (other than the fact that I would be standing in front of the extension of the end-line). I can do this either tomahawk style or pendulum style, but I get more distance with the tomahawk, with the ball curving to the left. I can do this serve pretty well over half the time. But it doesn't end there - I was going to prop up a ping-pong paddle on some books on the left side of the table, and try to hit it so the ball would bounce back to the right-hand-side of the table. But it doesn't end there either - I was going to try to make it land in a cup. (I'd put water at the bottom of the cup so it wouldn't bounce out.) I wonder how many tries it would have taken to get this done? One thing that would make it easier is that the big-breaking serve I do would always hit on the far left side of the table on the second bounce, so that's where I'd prop up the ping-pong paddle, angled just right.

For the second trick, I was going to push a table up against a wall, with the net parallel to it. I'd stand to the side of the table on the far side, with two balls in my hand. I'd then look up and blow one of the balls up in the air so it balances in the air - a trick I've done for years. Then, without being able to look down, I'd drop the other ball on the table and smack it against the far side of the table so it bounces up against the wall and back, and smacking the ball I'm balancing in the air.

Pretty good tricks if I could do them!!!

Table Tennis Charity Foundation

You can donate to this charity. "Our MISSION is to Raise Awareness of the THERAPEUTIC Value that Playing Table Tennis has for MENTAL HEALTH and BRAIN FITNESS! Our VISION is to Integrate Ping Pong Programs (as an educational & structured activity) for Senior Living Communities, Rehabilitation/Medical Facilities, AND our School Systems! And, as a 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization, We Utilize the Brain-Stimulating Sport of Table Tennis to Raise Money for Charity Partners Who Directly Benefit Those Facing Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Depression and Mild to Moderate Intellectual Challenges."

Interesting Table and Exhibition

Here's a picture of Mike Meier doing a behind-the-back shot in an exhibition.

Krazy Table Tennis

Here's a 1920s table tennis set - and yes, it's called "Krazy Table Tennis."

Fiery Table Tennis

That's a lot of fire.

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My Upcoming Novel and Ping-Pong

Yes, the two are connected. Table tennis or ping-pong is mentioned 19 times in 11 different scenes in the novel. Why? Because the 13-year-old protagonist (Neil, alias Armstrong though his last name is never mentioned in the novel) is a sorcerer's apprentice and wannabe ping-pong star who has to leave behind this childhood ambition to save the world in this humorous parody of the 1960s space race. Included in the scenes are mentions of several real players, the Florida State Finals between Brian "Speed Race" Pace and "Tricky Dicky" Fleisher, and two flying carpets that Neil names after Marty Reisman and Tim Boggan.

I'm going to list all the table tennis mentions below, but first, two news items. First, it's been retitled "Sorcerers in Space." (Previous title was the boring "The Giant Face in the Sky.") And second, the really horrible cover that I linked to a week ago has been replaced by a very nice cover. (I really like this one!!!) The novel comes out Nov. 15.

Here's the blurb on the back of the book - no table tennis mention, sorry. The novel is described as Hitchhiker's Guide meets the Space Race.

It is 1969, at the height of tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Neil, 13, badly wants to be someone. Instead he's stuck as a sorcerer's apprentice for Gus, the "meanest sorcerer in the world." Gus creates a magical talisman to spy on the Soviets, but instead it spies on them and sends text into space. A Giant Face in the Sky shows up, reading the text.

Since whoever gets to the Face will have the world at their mercy, the Race to the Face begins. The Soviets invade the U.S. in their attempts to kill Neil, who is prophesied to defeat them. A floating, talking meteor assassin named Buzz becomes Neil's companion--but in one week, Buzz must kill Neil.

President Kennedy puts together a motley crew that includes Neil, Gus, Buzz, a dragon, the god Apollo, a 2-D sorcerer, and the sorceress Jackie Kennedy. Can they make it to the Face before the Soviets, and before Buzz kills Neil?

And now we get to the table tennis!!! Here are the eleven ping-pong scenes with 19 mentions.

Ping-Pong Scene 1:

I still dreamed of being a rock star or ping-pong champion, but those dreams had taken a bad turn after I'd been sold into slavery, I mean, become a sorcerer's apprentice. Somehow my parents had thought it was a good idea.

Ping-Pong Scene 2:

"Not Russia," Gus said. "The Soviet Union. Russia's just the main part of it. Don't you pay attention in school? Or do you just play ping-pong and listen to Beetles music?"

"It's not ping-pong, it's table tennis! And it's better than practicing magic I'm not allowed to do."

"Maybe, but according to Chef Wang, someday you're going to have to battle the Soviets, so I suggest more studying and less ponging.

Ping-Pong Scene 3:

"Can I go home now?" I asked. "I want to practice my serves." There was a school tournament coming up next week, and my reverse pendulum serve needed work. Maybe ping-pong was where I'd someday be someone, do something.

"Will you forget your ping-pong!" Gus cried. "A Russian agent just tried to kill you, you're supposed to defeat the Soviets, there's a Giant Face in the Sky that that compels us to say its name as if capitalized, and a murderous meteor is following you around, and that's what you're worried about?"

"I'm not murderous!" Buzz exclaimed. "I'm a pacifist." More quietly he added, "Except when someone makes me apprehensive."

"How am I supposed to defeat the Soviets?" I asked. "I'm just an apprentice. Maybe I can beat them at ping-pong."

Ping-Pong Scene 4:

I decided to change channels and said, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, find a station with a ping-pong ball."

The mirror showed me the latest lottery, with numbered ping-pong balls in a container. With gritted teeth, I tried again.

"Mirror, mirror, about to get whacked, find me some table tennis unless you want to get cracked." The mirror found the Final of the recent Florida Table Tennis Championships while the Beetles played "Strawberry Feasts Forever." I pulled up a chair to watch the final between Brian "Speed Race" Pace and "Tricky Dicky" Fleisher.

"Aren't you packed yet?" Gus said. "Tonight, we're going to Washington D.C. to see the president, and you're watching ping-pong on the mirror?" He aimed his staff at the mirror, and the table tennis and Beetles action was replaced by my reflection.

Ping-Pong Scene 5:

I named it the Red Reisman, after a famous table tennis player.

Ping-Pong Scene 6:

So, Gus and I left that afternoon to buy supplies at the Black Market, using the new flying carpet Gus had bought to replace the recently-destroyed Red Reisman. It was identical to the Red Reisman, except this one was blue and even more worn out. I'd named it the Blue Boggan, after another famous table tennis player.

Ping-Pong Scene 7:

Why was I here? What was my purpose, and why was I put on this world? It couldn't have been just to serve Gus his mid-day tea. I'd always wanted to be a ping-pong champ or a rock star, but there had to be more. Was I here to defeat the Soviets, as prophesied by Chef Wang? Or did I have a higher purpose, one which I would only discover in time? I just knew that someday I was going to be somebody, do something. I just didn't know what.

Ping-Pong Scene 8:

Gus looked disgusted. "Don't remember the formula for force, my apprentice with ping-pong balls for brains?"

"Isn't that F equals MA?" I said.

"Correct, Force equals Magic times Acceleration," Gus said.

Ping-Pong Scene 9:

Kennedy was watching the two go back and forth like a ping-pong match.

Ping-Pong Scene 10:

Ten more evils occurred before I finally pronounced it to the booming voice's satisfaction, leading to traffic tickets, an edge ball in a ping-pong game, dandruff, and other calamities.

Ping-Pong Scene 11:

She'd also brought a number of baby hooting owls, parahoots, that, in an emergency, could carry us safely back to Earth. They were cute little creatures, with big, almond-shaped eyes—like all cute creatures—and soft, wavy, brown feathers. Their eyes were the size of quarters, far too large for their ping-pong-ball-sized heads.

Epic Retrieving! Turning Defense into Attack!

Here's a great point (42 sec) showing some great lobbing and counterattacking. Not sure who the players are, though I'm sure I'll recognize them once someone comments below telling us who they are.

How Ping-Pong Saved My Life

No, it's not about me, it's someone else at Uberpong (Eric Jensen).

Kramer (from Seinfeld), Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve McQueen Playing Ping Pong

Here are gifs showing this from Uberpong.

Pizza Hut Table Tennis Commercial

Here's a video of a recent Pizza Hut commercial (31 sec) that includes about one second of table tennis 23 seconds in. Why does it include table tennis? I have no idea. The rest of the commercial they show pizza and people eating pizza, then out of the blue there's table tennis for no apparent reason other than perhaps to show that if you eat pizza, you'll win at ping-pong. Of course, the greatest pizza place on the planet, Comet Ping-Pong, learned this long ago.

Tumba Ping-Pong Show

Here's a video (65 sec, on a page in Chinese but the video doesn't need language) that was first shown to me by Chinese players at my club. I've posted videos by the Tumba Ping-Pong Show before, but this is a compilation of their best ping-pong tricks that's apparently going viral in China. 

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Tip of the Week

Should you Choose Serve, Receive, or Side at the Start of a Match?

Knee Problems

Yes, just a couple weeks after getting over about ten days of arm problems (where I had to cancel or get substitutes for a lot of coaching sessions), now it's my right knee that's acting up. I hurt it on Saturday at the very end of my last session, with John Olsen and Kevin Walton. We normally do nearly 90 minutes of multiball each session (they take turns), then do live drills or games the last 30 minutes or so. I was playing John a game, and he returned my serve to my wide backhand. I stepped around to loop a forehand, and as I put weight on my back (right) leg, I felt something go in the knee. I made the shot, and the rally continued, with me hobbling about fishing to keep the ball in play. Then he went to my wide forehand, and I tottered over for the shot, again putting weight on the knee and aggravating it. We stopped play after the shot.

I did a lot of group session on Sunday, where I limped about. I did one private coaching session where I staggered around in live drills, but fortunately did a lot of multiball so I wouldn't have to shamble around the court running down balls. (Okay, I think I've finally run out of acronyms for "hobble.")

I'm resting it today (my day off), and have only one session tomorrow (Tuesday). But then things get busy again on Wed and Thur. I'll sort of get Fri-Sun off, as I'll be coaching at the South Shore Open in Indiana where hopefully I won't leap to my feet to celebrate some victory and hurt the knee again. Because then I'd be forced to stumble about next week.

How I Taught Serves in Class Yesterday

On Sundays at 4:30 I have a 90-minute session with about 12 beginning kids, ages 7-11. I'd already taught them how to serve legally. Yesterday I introduced them to serving with spin. This is always a tricky subject to teach since they don't have the fine coordination yet needed to really graze the ball and make it spin. Worse, they get little feedback from their shot since they can't really see how much it's spinning. So as I always do, I brought out the ping-pong soccer balls.

First I showed them how to change their grip so as to get extra wrist on a forehand serve. Then I demoed a few serves, showing them backspin serves that bounced back into the net and sidespin serves that curved dramatically. This always gets their attention. Then I showed them a simple exercise to learn to create spin. Hold the racket in front, forehand side up. Then tilt the left side up a bit. (Lefties reverse.) Then toss a ball up, and spin the left bottom of the ball so it goes straight up with spin. Catch the ball, and repeat. After demoing this with a soccer ball, I gave one out to each of them. This way they could see how much spin they were creating as they hit the ball up, and they really like spinning the ball. After a few minutes practicing this, I showed them how to do this with a serve (forehand backspin and sidespin serves), and then sent them out on the tables to practice.

RGIII Response Video Postings

The RGIII Video Response went semi-viral, with over 10,000 views. I'm told it was shown on the NFL Network, but I haven't actually got an eye-witness to that. Anyone see that or have a video of it? Or know of any showings not listed below? Definite online showing are at:

• USATT.org
• USOC.org
• USA Today
• Sport Illustrated
• Washington Post
• Dallas News
• NESN
• Yardbarker
• Table Tennis Nation

2013 USA Nationals

The deadline for the USA Nationals was extended to Oct. 25, this Friday. Hope to see you there!

Interview with Xiao Zhan

Here's a video interview (4:51) of one of the Chinese National Team Coaches, about how he got started, coaching young players, and talent identification. In Chinese with English captions.

The Kenta Matsudaira Sidespin Block

Here's an article and video analysis of the Japanese star's sidespin block, a rare shot among the world's elite that mostly consists of looping or counterlooping everything.

Physics of Table Tennis

Here's an article explaining the Magnus Effect (how spin makes the ball curve), using Adam Hugh's ITTF Trick Shot Competition entry as an example.

Kreanga vs. Tokic

Here's a great point between these two (54 sec).

The Eight Stages of Every Player

Here's the funny but accurate appraisal! So where are you on this?

Fun with Ping-Pong Ball Eyes

Here are some pictures.

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