MyTableTennis.com

Over the last few days I've joined in discussions at the MyTableTennis.com forum. I've been in several threads, but the one I was most interested in was one titled "How should I coach someone in a match." I have a lot of experience there, so I posted some notes there, starting on page 5. (For a time the thread was basically hijacked by someone who put a "Hex" on it, but that person has since been banned, both for those postings and numerous postings in other threads.) Below are three postings I put up. Much of the discussion is on whether you should coach technique in a tournament match - which I consider a very bad idea, as my postings explain.

To learn to win close matches means playing lots of close and/or important matches where you develop the habit of tactically using all of your tools to win. To do so takes certain mental skills that can only be practiced at such times. So it's a highly effective time to develop tactical and mental skills, and not a very effective time to develop or fix technique. Some technique problems can be overcome indirectly in the course of a match - I gave examples in my Tip of the Week ("Mid-Match Technique Adjustments"), which was linked to above - but mental and tactical skills are what need to be emphasized in such matches. Hopefully you have far more time at the practice hall to work on the mechanical skills (i.e. technique) - and it is in important matches where you often find out what techniques you need to work on. 

(Addendum: much of this posting is about not worrying about technique in matches. However, you do want to focus on using the shots that you want to develop. If you are a looper, for example, you should generally try to win mostly by looping, not by pushing.) 

-Larry Hodges

Shortly after the above I posted a note about a pertinent Tip of the Week I'd recently done, "Real Tactics versus Parroting Tactics." Later, it was pointed out that there was one person arguing that you should coach technique in a match, while everyone else pretty much disagreed. Below is my response.

I would essentially never coach technique in a match, so I'm in the second category with most everyone else [about never coaching technique when coaching a tournament match]. However, there's a subcategory of the second version. The large majority of the time when coaching in a tournament I coach the player to win. But there are occasional times where you might coach a player to win a certain way. This is not coaching technique; this is coaching playing style. 

For example, I was coaching a kid named Tong Tong Gong (age 13) at the North American Teams a few years ago against Allen Wang. Tong Tong was about 2150 at the time, with a very good backhand and a quick but erratic forehand loop. Allen was about 2200, a pure two-winged looper from mid-distance, and about a foot taller. I believe Tong Tong was up 2-1 in games but lost the fourth game when he got into too many counterlooping duels with Allen, and Allen was a better counterlooper. I was all set to coach Tong Tong to stay at the table, and block and pick loop winners. Before I could say anything, Tong Tong said, "I can beat him counterlooping." It sort of floored me since he thought he could beat Allen at his own game. But I recovered, and made a snap decision to go with it. So I told him how best to win those counterlooping duels - get Allen off the table on the wide forehand, then counterloop off the bounce to the backhand; get the first attack so Allen has to go for the first difficult counterloop; etc. The whole game plan was on winning with counterlooping rather than just winning, which I thought he could do if he stayed right at the table. Anyway, Tong Tong won the match deuce in the fifth, counterlooping like a maniac. He might have won staying right at the table, but by doing it by counterlooping, he gained great confidence in that shot which would pay off later. One month later he'd pull off five upsets at the Nationals to make the National Cadet Team. (I coached all those matches, and they were ALL played strictly to win.) 

There have been a few other cases where I've coached a player to focus on playing the way he was developing as a player, such as looping when he might have won by pushing and blocking. But when I do so, I usually let the player know his options, and let him choose, and they choose both ways. It's good to develop the habit of trying to win with the shots you are developing. But these cases are infrequent; usually you coach to win, period, and usually that means using the shots the player is training to use. 

-Larry Hodges

After I posted this, someone posted the following:

larry, doesn't coaching about playing style involves technique also? i think i would rather coach about adaptation and it involves technique. as long as it it not too complicated and too long to execute just to win a point, there is nothing wrong with coaching technique. also, would you agree with me if for example in a match a player needs to adjust the angle of his bat to compensate for the incoming spin either against a heavy underspin or very light underspin, if you see your player commit errors against this wouldn't it better if you just told me him to compensate bat angle? IMHO, technique is important to coach as long as the player can adjust to it. also, not every player has a mental fortitude problem. i would rather coach the player as what is needed to be coached. i'm just confused where to draw the line between coaching technique and coaching playing style because both obviously involves technique to some point basing on your statement. 

And here's my response:

Coaching playing style and coaching technique are two different things, at least the way I define them. So is telling a player to adjust his racket, which isn't really technique. 

If the player I'm coaching isn't looping enough, I would likely tell him to loop more, and give tactics to help set it up. But if his looping technique were off, there's not much you can do in the match, with occasional exceptions. The technique is done subconsciously, and it's not likely you can change that in the short course of a match. You can do a lot more by scheduling a practice session afterwards where you can focus on fixing the problem. 

You can remind someone in the middle of a match to, say, adjust their racket angle against incoming spin, but that rarely makes a big difference. When someone loops at you, your subconscious sets the racket angle reflexively. If you try to do it consciously, you're not going to do well. However, the subconscious is constantly making adjustments, and will normally adjust by closing the racket regardless of whether a coach tells the player to do so. (Though of course the coach might take credit afterwards for it, even though the player's subconscious was already working on the problem!) It's usually better to use various workarounds, such as one I posted about earlier. Instead of telling them to close the racket against a spinny loop that they keep blocking off, tell them to block more aggressively. Then the spin will take on it less. Adjusting the racket angle to incoming heavy topspin that you are not used to is tricky to do, but blocking more aggressively is much simpler. The player might still have to close the racket more, but it's a less drastic change, and the subconscious can adjust quicker, and then the player can play free, i.e. let the subconscious take over. 

Here's an easy test I've done many times. When I coach a complete beginner if I give him a heavy backspin serve, he goes right into the net. However, it doesn't take long for him to learn to open his racket to return it. But that's because I'm giving it to him over and over, and so he can consciously open the racket. If I then start varying the serves, and come back to the heavy backspin serve every third serve or so, even if I make it obvious that it's a backspin serve (and make it obvious the others are not), the player can no longer react consciously, and goes right back into the net again, over and over. It takes some training to learn to react properly in a game situation, where you don't know what's coming until the ball's coming at you and you have little time to react consciously. That's why telling a player to adjust his racket angle during a match usually won't work because his conscious mind isn't what's setting the angle in the match. (But as noted, the player's subconscious is already making adjustments, and perhaps might make the adjustment before the match is over.) An exception might be if the opponent is, say, giving the same serve every single time (say a heavy backspin serve), in which case you can tell your player to open his racket - and hope the opponent doesn't start changing his serve. 

-Larry Hodges

The Speed of Fan Zhendong

Here's the video (34 sec) of the Chinese 16-year-old, already #10 in the world. He's doing a random footwork drill with a coach feeding multiball. The key to his speed? Much of it comes from his balance. He's balanced even in his follow-throughs, and that is key to his being almost instantly ready for the next shot. His head remains almost still during his shots, even on the forehand. His feet are wide and parallel to the table, allowing great stability and quick transition from forehand to backhand and back.  

Coach Wanted in Northern California

Established Club in northern California is accepting applications for a full time coaching position. Compensation is 30-60K depending on level and experience. The ideal candidate plays at a level of 2500 or higher, has multiple years coaching experience, and speaks English. Mandarin and Cantonese are a plus. Less coaching experience will be accepted from those who currently play at a very high level. You must be able to document your playing and coaching history. Match video is helpful. For more information send your resume to norcalttclub@yahoo.com.

Improve Your Serve

Here's the new article and video (1:28) from Killerspin.

Phil Mickelson Hires TT Coach

Here's the story from Table Tennis Nation - who is the mystery coach? Mickelson resides in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Any guesses? Or will the mystery coach please stand up?

The Ultimate Trick Shot

Here's a hilarious video (3:18) that shows the tribulations of two players apparently attempting to create a video for the ITTF Trickshot competition, and failing miserably - until something happens at the very end.

Non-Table Tennis: Sheeba and Bacon

I'm told that if one puts up a picture of a cat eating bacon, you'll triple your hits. Well, I don't have a cat, but I do have Sheeba, a corgi mix I got at a shelter 12 years ago. She'll be 16 in February, but still loves her bacon snacks. Here's a picture of her desperately trying to get that yummy bacon at the bottom of a large bacon snack jar. Yeah, I torture her this way - but she did get it! (Here's a head shot.)

Yesterday I did a scientific experiment.
Hypothesis: Dogs don't need their eyes to find food.
Methodology: I blindfolded Sheeba (she went along willingly), then waved a bacon treat under her nose.
Result: She snapped it up instantly.
Conclusion: Hypothesis proven correct. Also, dogs apparently love bacon, but this will require further testing.

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MDTTC Newsletter

I'm the editor of the monthly Maryland Table Tennis Center Newsletter, cleverly titled the MDTTC News. Yesterday the October issue was emailed to MDTTC members and those on our mailing list. (If you want to be on the list, email me.) Here's the archive of past issues.

Each issue covers a number of topics. The key is to make it interesting, informative, and link it to the club's programs. The last item is key - there's little point in a newsletter that features interesting stuff but doesn't link to programs that the club is trying to create interest in. Below is the table of contents for this issue. (I'm especially looking forward to the new afterschool program where I get to switch from my table tennis hat to my tutoring hat. I can tutor in just about any school subject outside foreign language.) Each issue also has a feature picture at the top. This issue has a group picture from one of our summer camps.  

Does your club have a newsletter? Why or why not? It's a great way to promote the club and its programs!

• NEW! Afterschool Program
• Upcoming Butterfly MDTTC October Open (Oct. 26-27)
• Fall Sales - Passo Butterfly track suits
• North American Teams - Discount available till October 23rd ONLY
• Adult Beginning Class
• Ongoing Programs

  • Junior Classes
  • Group Sessions
  • Private Coaching
  • Leagues

• Ernie Byles - Saved by Table Tennis
• Rental Space for Corporate and Private Events
• MDTTC Web and Facebook Pages
• Tip of the Month: Real Tactics vs. Parroting Tactics

Arm Problems and Novel Sequel

Arm is hopefully getting better. As noted yesterday, I've had to cancel or get substitutes for all my private coaching sessions since Saturday, including three hours yesterday. I'm still doing group sessions (including one from 6-7PM tonight), and I did do one private session that was all multiball. I'll test out the arm tonight and see how it is. Either way I'm still resting it one more day on Friday, and I'm pretty sure I'll be fine by the weekend.

Meanwhile, having a few days off gave me a lot of time to plan out the sequel to my upcoming novel, "The Giant Face in the Sky," coming Nov. 15. I've now got a rough outline for the sequel, and pages of notes. The first novel was a humorous fantasy that satirized the U.S.-Soviet space race in the 1960s, with sorcerers instead of astronauts, and with main character Neil (Armstrong, though last name is never mentioned) a 13-year-old sorcerer's apprentice, with his sidekick Buzz (Aldrin), essentially a talking, floating meteor. The sequel (also starring Neil, who is now president of the United States and magically disguised as an adult) will satirize the civil rights movement and Vietnam. (It's not easy combining the professions of table tennis coach & writer and science fiction & fantasy writer!)

Table Tennis Training in Korea

Here's video (7:55) of a table tennis camp in Korea. There's no actual table tennis in the video - just physical training to develop the legs. Take a look and remember this is how you should start your day for now on!

Slow Motion Table Tennis

Here's a video (48 sec) showing some great TT play in slow motion. Can you name all four players? (Comment below!)

Ma Long's Slow Spinny Sidespins and Topspins

Here's a video (4:02) showcasing world #1 Ma Long's spinny loops.

KIPP Ping Pong Smackdown Fundraiser

Here's the article and photos. "We raised $625K to provide quality education to students from the Bay Area’s low-income communities." Was this the largest fundraiser in table tennis history?

Spam Applications

I've had an ongoing battle with spam since I opened this site. As time went on it got worse and worse. Originally I let people register automatically. A growing number of spam accounts were created that posted spam in the forum and as comments in the blog, and I spent a lot of time deleting them until it got way out of hand. Starting April 23 this year I had to approve all registrations. When people register they get a note asking that they use a real-sounding name (since most spam uses various types of randomly created jumbles of letters and numbers) and to put something in the bio section that mentions table tennis. This allows me to rapidly go through them and approve only those that sound human and mention table tennis. This morning I broke 5000 spam account applications in the 133 days since April 23 - 5011 as of this moment. That's about 38 per day I've had to handle, one at a time. (Oops, make that 5012, got another one!) Thanks spammers. They should be lined up and smacked with cement-filled ping-pong balls.

Government Shutdown Ping Pong

The talking heads of TV news have christened the government shutdown as ping pong. Don't believe it? Here are the results when you put "Shutdown" and "Ping Pong" into the Google search engine! I think CNN's Wolf Blitzer calls it this about once every five minutes.

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Wider Stance

Because of my arm problems (see below), I only gave one lesson yesterday, and it was an all-multiball session. The 12-year-old player (hi Sameer!) has a tendency to stand up too straight when he plays. This leads to some awkward strokes. At first glance some would say he needs to loop more forward, or use less arm, or something similar, but that would be treating the symptoms. The problem was how straight he tends to stay, with his feet too close together. So much of the session was focused on not just staying down, but on keeping the feet wider. This gives extra stability and power. The results were good - his looping form was perhaps the best ever. It also helped when he took the ball a little later so he wouldn't be rushed. As he gets used to the wider stance he'll get quicker with it, along with the increase in stability and power. (Stability increases both the consistency as well as the recovery from the previous shot.)

This is true for most players. Watch videos of the top players and see how wide their stance is when they play. It does take some leg muscle, but not as much as you'd think; it's more a habit you have to develop. Once you get in the habit, I think it's actually less tiring as the extra stability means you aren't tiring yourself recovering from shots over and over.

Here's a video (5:37) of the Chinese team training earlier this year before the Worlds. Watch the very first drill sequence, and see how wide the players keep their feet - both the player moving and the one blocking. A few key things about a wider stance: feet should point slightly outward. Knees should be bent. Body should be bent slightly forward at the waist.

I spent some time this past weekend watching some of our top juniors train, especially Nathan Hsu and Derek Nie, whom I'll be coaching at the Nationals. Their stances were plenty wide, but the interesting thing they and our other top juniors all pretty much do is keep their feet mostly parallel to the end-line even on forehands, as they've been trained to do. In the past it was standard to have the right foot back some when playing forehands (for righties), and that's still how beginners are taught. But as players advance, more and more they keep the feet parallel, and rely on the wide stance (for stability and power) and flexible hips and waist to rotate around for most forehand shots. This has several advantages: it means they are equally ready to play forehand or backhand; it makes it easier to loop forehands close to the table; and it makes it easier to rotate the hips and body into the shot. They do bring the right foot back for some shots, but mostly when they have extra time. They also bring it back of course when stepping around the backhand corner, but not as much as players in the past.

Arm Problems

As expected, I had to cancel my three hours of private coaching scheduled today (Wednesday). The arm is still very sore, though I hope it'll be okay by the weekend. Other than a one-hour class I teach on Thursday (where I'll only feed multiball) I've cancelled everything until Saturday. The good news is two of the kids I normally coach today have made arrangements to meet to practice and play matches.

60 Full-time Table Tennis Clubs in the U.S.

I just added the King Pong TTC from NYC to the list of full-time table tennis clubs in the U.S. Let me know if there are any I missed! How did I find out about them? From this article in the Tribeca Citizen, "Our Friendly Neighborhood Ping Pong Parlor."

The Most Common Mistakes Made by Beginners

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master.

ITTF on Waldner and Waldner Stamp

Here's the ITTF article on Waldner and the new Waldner Chinese stamp.

Synagogue Welcomes Government Workers to Ping-Pong

With the government closed, this Synagogue is attracting "government refuges" for ping-pong and West Wing reruns. Here's the article.

Adam Bobrow Takes on San Francisco Mayor

Here's a video (17 sec) of Adam Bobrow and a partner (jumpy guy in striped shirt) he apparently chose at random from the crowd taking on San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and 11-year-old William Bai (rated 1970) in a doubles match. 

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USATT Taking Over U.S. Government

With the U.S. government shutting down, there's a huge power vacuum. So USATT is stepping in to save the day. Obamacare will now distribute health insurance and a wide variety of ping-pong products. Social Security now means that if you are 65 or older, you no longer have to pay membership at your ping-pong club. And the NSA will no longer spy on Americans; they are now secretly taping the Chinese National Team as they train.

Mike Babuin, chair of the USATT Board of Directors, has been sworn in as the new U.S. President. CEO Mike Cavanaugh has been sworn in as Vice President.

The rest of the USATT Board of Directors replaces congress as the Legislative Branch of the U.S. government. They are Anne Cribbs, Peter Scudner, Jim Kahler, Kagin Lee, Edward Levy, Attila Malek, and Han Xiao.

USATT pro bono lawyer Dennis Taylor has been sworn in as the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The President's Cabinet has 15 departments - and by a strange coincidence, there are 15 USATT Committees. Effective immediately:

• Agriculture Department will be taken over by the USATT Editorial Committee, chaired by Jim McQueen. A lot of what the Agriculture Department does is sending out written info to farmers. First release will be instructions on the growing of table tennis sponge, a highly lucrative crop whose street value is higher than crack cocaine.
• Commerce Department will be taken over by the USATT Marketing and Fund Raising Committee, chaired by Jim Kahler. The dollar bill will be replaced by the ping-pong ball, the new international monetary standard.
• Defense Department will be taken over by the USATT High Performance Committee, chaired by Carl Danner. The current secret plans to invade Syria, Iran, and North Korea have been shelved; instead, we will invade China and kidnap Zhang Jike, Ma Long, Wang Hao, and Xu Xin and make them practice partners for the U.S. Team.  
• Education Department will be taken over by the USATT Junior Committee, chaired by Rajul Sheth. We'll finally get table tennis into the schools by executive order.
• Energy Department will be taken over by the USATT Coaching Committee, chaired by Federico Bassetti. (It takes a lot of energy to coach!) With Big Oil now dominating the coaching committee, all coaches will be required to wear logos signifying which oil company controls them, i.e. ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, PetroChina, etc.
• Health and Human Services will be taken over by the USATT Ethics and Grievance Committee, chaired by Jim Coombe. First step will be to bring back speed glue, right?
• Homeland Security will be taken over by the USATT Hardbat Committee, chaired by Alberto Prieto. Hardbat people have a lot of experience defending their game.
• Housing and Urban Development will be taken over by the USATT League Committee, chaired by David Del Vecchio. New housing law: all houses must contain a ping-pong table.
• Interior Department will be taken over by the USATT Club Committee, chaired by Attila Malek. First act will be to declare the U.S. one big ping-pong club. The U.S. has an area of 3.794 million square miles, or about 4 x 10^14 square feet. Assuming 40'x20' courts, that's enough room for 132,213,312,000 ping-pong courts.
• Labor Department will be taken over by the USATT Compensation Committee, chaired by Mike Babuin. Henceforth all government payments shall be made in ping-pong balls.
• State Department will be taken over by the USATT Nominating and Governance Committee, chaired by Bob Fox. Why? Because Bob's been the USATT Team Manager at about 10,000 international events, and so has traveled the world and personally knows all seven billion people on earth.
• Transportation Department will be taken over by the USATT Tournament Committee, chaired by Larry Rose. You have to travel to tournaments. Plans are coming for bullet trains to connect all the major tournament cities.  
• Treasury Department will be taken over by the USATT Audit Committee, chaired by Peter Scudner. First act will be to look into how a sheet of table tennis sponge can cost $80. Second act will be to sell enough sheets of $80 sponge to raise the money to import the 132,213,312,000 ping-pong tables and nets from China needed for the Interior Department's plan to turn the U.S. into a ping-pong club (see above). Third act will be to raise the debt ceiling to one zillion ping-pong balls (see Commerce Department above) so that we never have to deal with it again.
• Veterans Affairs will be taken over by the USATT Seniors Committee, chaired by Gregg Robertshaw. Everyone over age 50 must now use long pips.
• Attorney General will be taken over by the USATT Officials and Rules Committee, chaired by Roman Tinyszin. Congress shall be red-carded.

Oh, and since they have nothing else to do, the U.S. government is taking over USATT. I'll let readers decide who is now in charge of each USATT function. (It's times like this that I have to bite my tongue and not write my views on this whole government shutdown. This is a table tennis blog, not a political blog, and so I'll restrain myself.)

Arm Problems

My arm is still bothering me. I have a 90-minute coaching session scheduled today which I was going to cancel. However, the student agreed to do 90 minutes of multiball and serve practice, so I'm going to go ahead and do the session. I'm 90% that I'm going to have to cancel my three hours of private coaching on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure the arm will be fine by the weekend.

2014 USA Junior & Cadet Team Trials

Here's info on the Trials, to be held at the USA Nationals in December.

Make Your Serves More Effective

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master.

The Amazing Block of Kenta Matsudaira

Here's the video (1:50). He's world #18. Note how his normal block has good topspin.

Krazy Table Tennis

Someone just sold a 1920s Krazy Table Tennis set! For just £49.99 (that's $81.15) they got net and brackets, 4 original branded balls, 6 different and really strange shaped wooden bats, and instructions.
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Tip of the Week

Mid-Match Technique Adjustments.

Arm problems

Old, tight muscles strike again. Alas.

On Friday night I was a practice partner in our Elite Training Session. I played a practice match with a 2000 chopper. Going into the match I felt a bit stiff, but what else is new? But I was even stiffer than usual. I lost the first game. Bearing down, I won the next three games pretty easily. Many of the points I'd serve no-spin or light-spin to his long pips, or roll his serves back soft to the pips, and in both cases I'd usually get no-spin or light backspin returns, and then I'd win the point with an explosive, off-the-bounce loop to the middle or extreme angles. The tactic worked, but it apparently took a toll on my arm, which afterwards felt extra tight. I played one more match, where I struggled a bit as the arm felt like it had a broken arm cast on it. Then I stopped for the night.

On Saturday I spent the morning wearing the arm down feeding multiball as I ran 2.5 hours of junior programs. That afternoon I had a two-hour private coaching session - and literally minutes into the session I was grabbing my arm. I had to stop playing 15 minutes into the session, and we switched to multiball. However, at this point the arm was so inflamed I had to stop feeding multiball after maybe 15 more minutes. We spent the next hour working on serves, and then I got Raghu Nadmichettu to do the last 30 minutes. I went home and iced it several times that night.

On Sunday I had four hours of private coaching scheduled, but I had to cancel them. I did a 90-minute junior session, feeding multiball, and it probably aggravated the arm a little bit. I did more icing.

Today (Monday) is my day off. I have two hours scheduled tomorrow, but I'm probably going to get Raghu or someone to substitute. I'm wondering if I'll be able to coach on Wednesday, when I have a full night of private coaching scheduled. Thursday I have another junior session (mostly multiball, which I should be able to handle by then), and fortunately my private session scheduled after that just got cancelled - the player can't make it. I'll probably opt out of the Friday elite session as well, and hopefully will be ready for the long hours of coaching I do on weekends.

I believe the injury is a strain to the Brachioradialis muscle. (Here's a diagram.) This is in the lower arm (between elbow and wrist), just below the elbow. If you touch your hand to your shoulder, it's the muscle in the lower arm that touches the bicep in the upper arm.

I had this same arm problem during much of the early 1980s, and on and off since then. It's mostly been okay in recent years, but I've had a few reoccurrences of it, including one just a few months ago. Fortunately I've learned to stop aggravating it when it begins to hurt, something I didn't do well in the 1980s, leading literally to years of lost play as I regularly rested the arm and then tried to come back too soon. However, it's not nearly as bad as it was in the 1980s, and I should be okay in a few days.

On Saturday night I was planning to borrow a video camera and create my entries to the ITTF Trick Shot Competition. I have several ideas, though I have to try them out first. However, I had to cancel those plans, and won't be able to do this until the arm gets better. Adam Hugh and the rest of the entries - you have a temporary reprieve!

Writing Plans

Sometime this week I plan to start work on my next major writing project - but I haven't yet decided between doing Table Tennis Fundamentals (essentially a rewrite and update of my previous book Table Tennis: Steps to Success) or the sequel to my upcoming humorous fantasy novel "The Giant Face in the Sky" (coming Nov. 15). It's not easy having two writing careers while also trying to coach full time!

Double Bounce Serve

Here's an article from Table Tennis Master on why this is the "best" serve. (I'm not sure about #3.)

Learn and Improve - Table Tennis with Gary Fraiman

Here's Gary's new coaching page - pretty nice looking! He used to coach in Maryland, but now he's down in Clearwater, FL. Here's his matching Facebook page.

Three Reasons Ma Long is the Worlds Most Overrated Player

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master.

Waldner on China Stamp

Here's the article and picture.

Troy Polamalu Plays Pong

Here's a video (24 sec) showing footage of Pittsburgh Steelers rookie Troy "Mane Man" Polamalu playing table tennis apparently for a commercial for Head and Shoulders. The first person who thinks the rallies are real, may your head explode and your ping-pong paddle break. (The rallies look like the ones from Forrest Gump!)

Quadruples Table Tennis

Here's a different version of table tennis, with up to four players and four "mini-tables," as shown by Table Tennis Nation a while back.

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Bring Balance to Your Force

I can never stress enough the importance of balance in table tennis. It's both for the shot you are currently doing and (perhaps even more important) for recovery for the next shot. Over and over players move to a ball and hit while slightly off-balance, and never realize it - but this subtle lack of balance leads to variations in their stroke and thereby a loss of control as well as power. Even more subtle is the loss of recovery for the next shot. Over and over players hit a shot and then are unable to react to the next shot if it goes to a wide angle. They blame themselves for being too slow when the real problem was they were off balance on the previous shot (or went off balance during the follow through), and that kept them from recovering for the next shot - not just a lack of foot speed. Even at the higher levels when a player is unable to get to a shot it is often because they went off-balance on the previous shot.

As I've gotten older I've become more and more aware of this. When I step around to play my forehand from the backhand corner (since my forehand attack is much stronger than my backhand attack), I often leave my wide forehand "open." I put that in quotes because if I finish my forehand attack balanced, I can recover quickly enough to cover that wide forehand shot. If I am late in stepping around, and so end up following through more to the side (as opposed to being there early enough to follow through more balanced with the same power), then I'm going to lose precious time recovering balance. And that's why I can't cover the wide forehand sometimes - not because my feet are too slow in covering the wide forehand, but because they are too slow in stepping around the backhand corner, leaving me off balanced and unable to recover for the next shot.

As I said yesterday to a student who was going off balance whenever he hit a powerful forehand, "Bring balance to your force."

Here are three articles I've written on balance.

• Balance Leads to Feet-first Footwork
• Balance is a Habit
• Balance Throughout the Stroke

Water vs. Gatorade

What do you drink when you play? For years I lived on Gatorade, usually the red ones. Then I switched to plain water. However, there are times when I feel I need the extra energy from the calories in Gatorade. So for the past year I've adopted a simple policy for when I'm coaching - I bring out two bottles, one of water, one of Gatorade. I've also made a MAJOR change in my life - I switched from the red Gatorade to "Gatorade Frost Glacier Cherry." So when thirsty, I sort of alternate between plain water and Gatorade (water, sugar, dextrose, citric acid, natural flavor, salt, sodium citrate, monopotassium phosphate, modified food starch, glycerol ester of rosin). Mmmm, good!

Want to Run for the USATT Board of Directors?

There's a special election coming up for an At-Large Representative. Here's the info.

Reverse Pendulum Serves

Here's a posting (with discussion) at the MyTableTennis forum that links to videos of top players demonstrating this serve. The "Masters" shown are Zhang Jike, Timo Boll, and Michael Maze.

Milan Stencl Video Interview

Here's the video (8:46). "He is a coach with experience of leading national squads from Holland, Belgium, Italy, Croatia and France, His reputation for hard work, firm discipline and no-nonsense approach is world famous. He coached many elite players and is well-known for bringing up Belgium and JM Saive to world's elite. Hear what he has to say about his introduction to table tennis as a player and coach, table tennis in past and now, working with talented players, what is his advice to young coaches and cooperation with player's families."

Another Cat

Here's the video (27 sec)! There's a whole section on Cats Playing Table Tennis in the Fun and Game Section Video Section.

Paddle with Hat and Sunglasses at the Beach

Don't you wish this was your day?

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Daniel the Lobber

One of my students, Daniel, age 8, has an amazing ability to soft loop, fish, and lob from off the table, with both topspin and amazing amounts of sidespin), as well as sudden counter-kills. His lobbing may be the best I've ever seen of a kid his age. I even suggested they put together a video for the ITTF Trick Shot Competition of him sidespin lobbing from way off to the side and then perhaps counter-killing - his age and size might give him an advantage. (On the forehand he lobs both ways - racket tip down, the conventional way, and racket tip up, the extreme sidespin way.)

The problem with Daniel is he absolutely hates to play at the table. Every rally he wants to back up and soft spin (topspin and sidespin, usually from nearly off the floor), fish, lob, and chop. (He's a pretty good chopper but doesn't want long pips since that'll take away from his lobbing.) He'd rather go to the dentist than stay at the table. When he loops it's always from way off the table. Some kids are successfully trained this way in Europe, where the idea is that it's easier for the kid to learn to loop if he lets the ball drop down to his level, plus you are learning a topspin contact from the very beginning. (I've coached a few players this way.) However, it's about as non-Chinese as you can get. Chinese coaches mostly have players stay at the table. First they learn to hit and counter-hit, bang-bang style. As they get better, the hitting is extended into looping, again without backing up too much. As they get older and they face more powerful opponents, they back up some to counterloop, but usually not as much as European-trained players. Against blocks they loop over and over within a step of the table. It's all about close-to-the-table power, and it's a highly-proven way to develop players.

I've decided to go ahead and train Daniel "European style," and forget hitting and counterhitting, which he hates doing (except when he counter-kills). He can block okay, but prefers to counterspin and fish from well off the table against loops, even on the backhand, sort of a mini-Lupulesku, if you've seen him play. I'm a bit leery as the five full-time Chinese coaches at our club might not agree with this, especially when he fishes and lobs. Even as I practiced with Daniel, his father noted how the kids practicing at other tables were mostly staying at the table, even when they looped. But getting Daniel to do that would be like taking cotton candy from a kid, and he has great fun with this off-table type of play. So we agreed to train him this way; maybe when he's older he'll start playing closer to the table, or perhaps not. I'll try to convince him to focus on mid-distance looping rather than lobbing everything, but he's pretty quick to throw one up - he lives to lob. (Paging James Therriault!)

This reminds me of a year at the Junior Olympics, at least 20 years ago, when there was a very weak field in under 10 boys. The winner was a kid who simply lobbed everyone's serves and returns of his serves (usually pushes) up in the air, often with funny sidespins, and the other kids didn't know what to do with it. So the lobbing kid won Under 10 Boys, but he wasn't really a good lobber - he could only lob back serves and pushes. I don't think we ever saw him again.

North American Tour Gains Momentum

Here's the article! Along with the rise of modern full-time training centers, this could be the best thing happening in our sport - we'll see. (There have been other attempts at setting up such tours, but it only takes one successful attempt to make it successful.)

Waldner Playing in Swedish League

Here's recent video (7:35) of Jan-Ove Waldner playing - he's still got it! What struck me about the video is how return of serve has changed since Waldner's time. Waldner steps around over and over to receive with his forehand, even against short balls. This is almost a lost art; these days players use their backhands over and over against short balls, with "banana flips" (i.e. over-the-table backhand loops with both topspin and sidespin). Also watch how over and over, both in receive and in rallies, he'll be aiming one way and the last second change directions. There's a reason many call him the greatest player of all time.  

Ma Long's Instructional Video

Here's the video (55:29) - I don't think I've linked to this before. (Ma Long has been #1 in the world for the past three months, as he has for 25 months since 2010.) It gives a table of content at the start, so you can skip ahead to the parts that interest you. Here's the listing - see which parts interest you.

1:00 -- (1) Serving With The Shakehand Grip
1:03 -- »» Short Forehand Serve
4:56 -- »» Long Forehand Serve
7:57 -- »» Short Backhand Serve
11:08 -- (2) Shakehand Basics
11:11 -- »» Forehand Drive
11:23 -- »» The Forehand Grip
14:56 -- »» Backhand Drive
18:29 -- »» Transitioning Between Forehand & Backhand
23:40 -- (3) Variations in Service Receive
23:43 -- »» Service Receive, 'Push' & Attack
26:21 -- »» Backhand Flip
31:28 -- (4) Looping Close-to-table Returns
31:32 -- »» Looping Down-the-line from the Forehand Position
35:29 -- (5) Over-the-table Backhand Loop

Great Rally - Timo vs Who?

Here's video (60 sec) of an incredible rally between Timo Boll and someone I can't quite place though I'm sure it'll turn out to be someone I should know. (Anyone know? Neither player is identified in the video. I think the player's name is on his back but I can't make it out. I don't see it in the comments either.) The scoreboard on the far left shows the other player up 3-1 in games on Boll - not too many players can do that!

UPDATE - John Olsen informs me that the other player is Christian Suss. I've met him but didn't recognize him.

Lieutenant Uhura and the Kenya TTA

I've been watching the shopping mall tragedy unfold in Kenya. I can't help notice that the president of Kenya, who has made a number of speeches or announcements, is Uhuru Kenyatta. His first name is just one letter away from Uhura from Star Trek, while his last name is essentially Kenya TTA. This combines the best of my two worlds, science fiction and table tennis. (Kenyatta's father was the founder and first president of Kenya.)

Cat Playing Table Tennis

Here's a pair of repeating gif images of a cat playing table tennis.

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Examples of Saturation Coaching

My Tip of the Week on Monday was on Saturation Training, where a player focuses on developing one aspect of his game. I thought I'd give some examples of this.

Probably the most famous example was Istvan Jonyer. He made the Hungarian National Team in the early 1970s mostly by blocking. While on the team he developed his powerful forehand loop and became Hungarian National Champion. But he had a weak backhand, and couldn't really compete with the best players in the world. Then he spent six months up in a mountain training, where he did essentially nothing but backhand loop. When he finished, he had a great backhand loop - though other aspects of his game had deteriorated, and he had to practice them to get them back. About two years later he became the 1975 Men's World Champion, and was #1 in the world for two year and a dominant top ten (usually top five) player for over a decade.

Another example is Todd Sweeris, who just yesterday was selected as one of the two inductees this year into the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame. (See my blog yesterday.) Todd made the 1996 and 2000 U.S. Olympic Teams - but through much of 1995 it didn't look like he had a chance. Only the top three U.S. players would make the team, and he couldn't even get games off the top three U.S. players: Jim Butler, David Zhuang, and Khoa Nguyen. He figured his best chance was against Khoa, and that the main thing he could really dominate in would be receive. (That was my suggestion!) So he spent nearly all of that year training overwhelmingly on receive, and with practice partners who copied Khoa. (Sorry Khoa!) He became one of the best serve returners in the country. The strategy worked as Todd beat Khoa 3-0 to make the team. (Fortunately Khoa would, after years of tribulations, make the Olympic team in 2004, and would be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006.)

I've got three students right now where I'm using saturation training. Sameer, 12, has a tendency to stand up too straight when he plays, and as a result uses too much arm when he forehand loops. So we're focusing on forehand loop in all our sessions, where he has to stay lower (for all shots), and use more lower body when he loops. Another is Matt, 12, who has a strong forehand but weaker backhand, and so we're focusing on backhand right now. Another is Jim, an older player with a strong backhand but awkward forehand, so we're focusing on that, often spending 30-40 minutes of our one-hour sessions on that.

I've used saturation training myself. I've never had a strong backhand attack, but I've always been steady. In the early 1980s, Dave Sakai (now a fellow Hall of Famer) was steady but didn't have a strong forehand attack. So we often drilled and Drilled and DRILLED with him forehand looping and hitting into my steady backhand, which made my backhand so steady that I could literally rally forever with it. That, combined with my strong forehand attack and serve & receive game, became central to my game. I've used saturation training with other aspects of my game as well. I even went through a one-year period (circa 1980) where I practiced my serves 30 minutes/day, seven days/week, and really developed them that way.

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers - Reviews

Haven't bought a copy yet? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!!! Here's where you can buy a copy at Amazon. (You can also buy it from Paddle Palace.) Oh, you need some convincing?

Here's a really nice review of the book that just came out by Ben Larcombe of Expert Table Tennis. It's probably the most extensive review yet. He lists the seven most important key points he got from the book - a pretty nice summation - and gives a detailed explanation for each of them. He brings up such good examples of these points that I strongly recommend you read this - it's like an addendum to my book. 

There have been a number of other reviews. Here's one from Alex Polyakov (author of Breaking 2000 and The Next Step - see his webpage). There are 24 at amazon.com (twenty 5-star, four 4-star) and two more at Amazon UK (both 5-star). The reviews at amazon have headlines; here are the 23 headlines given, most recent first. (One person just put in his username, so I left that out.)

1. Bible of Table Tennis
2. My best table tennis purchase so far
3. Excellent addition to table tennis library
4. Definitely for thinkers
5. A very good book covers a broad range of table tennis tactics
6. Good book for someone transitioning from basement star to begin playing at higher levels
7. Excellent Advice Lies Herein
8. An outstanding book
9. Very useful info
10. Solid on many aspects of tactics and strategy
11. Maybe the Best Table Tennis Book Ever Written
12. A MUST for table tennis players who play club and tournaments
13. Great Book from a Great Guy
14. Playing smart
15. For all skill levels
16. Finally I can think!
17. Very good book on under-covered subject
18. Great for the developing (or established) player!
19. A tremendous amount of info!
20. Highly recommended!
21. Hard to find sources on tactics other than Mr. Hodges
22. Great Resource For Improving Your Table Tennis Results
23. It Made Me Think!

Here are a few other quotes from notable table tennis coaches:

"Larry has done an excellent job in breaking down the skills needed by all players to improve in these areas. This book should be on every table tennis player’s mandatory reading list."
-Richard McAfee, USATT National Coach, ITTF Trainer, and USATT Coaching Chair, 2009-2013 

"Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers is a must read for any player serious about winning. This tactical Bible is right on the mark, and is exactly how I was taught to put together game-winning tactics and strategies."
-Sean O'Neill, 5-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion, 2-time Olympian 

"Larry Hodges' book on table tennis tactics is the best I have ever seen on this subject. This is the first book that explains how to play against the many styles of the game."
-Dan Seemiller, 5-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion and long-time U.S. Men's Team Coach 

Actions of the USATT High Performance Committee

Here's the Report (PDF), by Chairperson Carl Danner, covering June and July.

Ping Pong While Playing Drums?

Here's the story and video (3:02) from Table Tennis Nation! A guy sets the "world record" for most consecutive table tennis hits against a wall while playing the drums.

Curvy, Mirrowy Table

Here's the picture! I think that based on the way the table is curved, balls will tend to bounce inward, and so it'll be easy to keep the ball in play - I think. Unless, of course, you are admiring your funhouse mirror image on the table.

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Todd Sweeris, Terese Terranova in Hall of Fame, Yvonne Kronlage Gets Lifetime Achievement Award

Here's the article! I'm especially happy about Todd. He came to the Resident Training Program at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in the fall of 1986 as a 13-year-old, the youngest player there. I was the manager of the program at the time. So I got to work with him for a few years there. Then I returned to Maryland and opened the Maryland Table Tennis Center (along with Cheng Yinghua and Jack Huang), and Todd moved to Maryland to train there. On the back of my book Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers is a picture of me coaching him at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1996. I've already gone through my files and pulled out lots of pictures of him for use at his induction at the USA Nationals in December.

I've also known Yvonne a long time - she was president of the New Carrollton TTC where I started play at age 16 in 1976. We've differed on a few things politically, but we've both been promoting TT for roughly forever - but she's been doing it for a longer forever than I have!

Terese I mostly know from coaching our players against her players at the Junior Olympics and Junior Nationals for many years, especially in the 1990s when many of the finals were between Maryland and Florida players, and I'd be coaching the Marylanders (along with coaches Cheng and Jack), and she and Marty Prager would be coaching the Floridians.

USA Nationals

Speaking of the USA Nationals, here's the home page on the USATT web page, which includes the entry form and hotel info. I'll be there, but just coaching and attending a few meetings, including the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies. (I do the HoF program booklet.)

USATT Web Page

Speaking of the USATT web page, I'm featured there twice right now. I'm pictured, along with Ernesto Ebuen and Roger Yuen, for getting certified as an ITTF Level 2 coach. I'm also pictured (coaching Seyed Hamrahian and Derek Nie in doubles at the 2012 USA Nationals) for my latest Tip of the Day, "Don't Guide Your Loop." Ironically that was half of what I told a kid I coached at the Coconut Cup this past weekend - see my write-up yesterday.

2014 Junior and Cadet National Championships

Want to host them next year, either July 31-Aug. 2 or Aug. 7-9? Here's the Bid Sheet!

However, I'm a bit peeved by this. A lot of the top juniors in the U.S. train in China during the summer, often leaving right after the U.S. Open (usually the first week in July), and returning at the end of August. They are scheduling this right in the middle of that. So many of the best juniors in the country (including several from MDTTC) will likely be in China when this takes place, meaning that if they want to play in the National Junior Championships they'll have to fly halfway around the world. (That's roughly 13-15 hours.) It will cost a fortune - I just did a quick search and the cheapest flights from my area to China round trip are about $1400. Plus they'll show up off by 12 time zones, which affects juniors even more than adults. (A 2PM match is like 2AM for them, etc.) And after flying in for a few days of jet-lagged zombie-like play (which they will then be judged on for the next year), they'll hop back on a plane for the trip back, minus about a week of training (after taking recovery time, etc. into account). What this really means is some of our top juniors won't attend the National Junior and Cadet Championships, and so won't be on the National Junior or Cadet Team because they are too focused on becoming top players by training in China. Or, if they do attend, their poor parents will be out something close to $2000, on top of all the other training expenses.

I'm hoping someone from USATT can tell me if I'm missing something here.

Waldner's Best Drop Shots

Here's a highlights video (6:39) featuring the best drop shots by the great Jan-Ove Waldner. Tired of constant serve and rip and counterlooping rallies? This is completely different!

Four on One Table Tennis

Here's the picture - I have to try this! Maybe on break in our next camp.

Sleepy Table Tennis

That's all I can call this.

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Tip of the Week

Saturation Training.

ITTF Level 2 Coaching Certification

Yesterday I completed all requirements for ITTF Level 2 Coaching Certification. I'd taken the six-day, 36-hour course at the Lily Yip TTC two weeks ago, but was also required to do 50 hours of coaching afterwards. I finished that yesterday. I sent the paperwork in last night, and shortly afterwards received notification that it had been approved. So I'm the 11th U.S. coach to achieve this, joining Roger Yuen (who took the Level 2 course with me) and Duane Gall, Mike Mui, Chong Ng, Juan Ly, Federico Bassetti, Iuliana Radu, Ray Pestridge, Jef Savage, Joel Mitchell, and Roger Dickson. Interestingly, I'm the first USATT certified National Coach (the highest U.S. level) to achieve this. There are no Level 3's in the U.S. yet; they haven't taught the course for it here yet, though I hear they are tentatively planning one next year.

Junior Class

We started a new season of our beginning junior class on Saturday morning (10:30AM-Noon) and Sunday afternoon (4:30-6:00PM). One new thing is that we now require all players to register in advance so we know (at least roughly) how many kids will show up, so we know how many coaches to have on hand. For the Sunday class, we only had six pre-registered, a disappointing number. So I arranged for one other coach (John Hsu) to assist. However, since people don't seem to listen (AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!), 16 showed up.

I quickly recruited Raghu Nadmichettu to help out. You need a higher coach to player ratio when working with beginners, especially beginning kids, since they don't yet have the racket skills to practice among themselves - and if they try to, they aren't going to have very good form so they'll be practicing bad habits. So I put them 16 in four groups, four each with me, John, and Raghu, and four on the robot, and did lots of multiball. I rotated the groups every 20 minutes or so. (Three of the four starting on the robot had had some coaching, but one was a complete beginner, so I spent some time jumping back and forth between my players and the robot table.) At the end of session I broke them up into three groups - those who wanted more practice with John (1 player), those who were more advanced and wanted to play "King of the Table" (6 players) and those who wanted to stack pyramids of paper cups and knock them down as I fed multiball (9 players).

Coconut Cup

On Saturday MDTTC had the Coconut Cup Under 1800 Tournament, which I believe they do twice a year. (Next Saturday is the Over 1800 Tournament.) It's a three-person team, non-USATT sanctioned event (no ratings), with all profits going for Chinese books for Chinese schools. I spent most of the day on a back table coaching. When I was done I watched some of the matches. The team that won included John Olsen, who's both a coach and a student of mine. (He's rated 1999, but the "Under 1800" is a team average, and John was the team's "ace.") If you are interested in playing the Over 1800 Coconut Cup next Saturday, email the organizer.  

I was watching one of our junior players in the fifth and final match of a team match. He won the first two games, but then lost the next two. He completely fell apart emotionally, and could barely play. One of his teammates asked me to coach him. So I called a timeout in the fifth game when he was down 2-6. He was breathing rapidly and could barely think straight at this point. I told him to just clear his mind, and think of it as just another match at the club. Don't even try to play; just be a spectator and watch as your subconscious takes over. It couldn't have been easy for him as once a player gets emotional they often lose the deep-down desire to win, or at least the ability to do what's necessary to do so. But he managed to take some deep breaths and cleared his mind. I told him not to play a single point until his mind was clear, which he would do. I did give him two tactical items, very generic ones as the key was mental focus, not tactics - I told him to serve long backspin and loop (opponent was pushing them all back), and to just control the serve back, don't try to attack it since the opponent was steady but passive. As he went back to the table I told him to ball up any nervousness inside him and spit it out, and leave it on the sideline. Anyway, except for an edge ball, he won the next eight points in a row and won the game 11-8. Many people don't understand that coaching between games is at least 50% sports psychology.

The Next Step

Alex Polyakov, author of "Breaking 2000," has come out with another book on table tennis, "The Next Step." Right now there's only a Kindle version, but Alex told me there's a paperback version coming in a month or so. Here's the book's description: "This book provides detailed insights on four essential parts of the game - technique, strategy, tactics, and the mental game. The aim of this book is to create a different type of an artifact and go beyond common basics. This book's goal is to describe numerous principles of table tennis and to show how to apply vast amount of table tennis knowledge to construct player’s most effective game using the skills that the player has already mastered as well as to describe many other skills that the player may choose to develop to take the next step onto higher levels."

More Tips of the Day

Here's a link to the numerous Tips of the Day of mine that USATT is putting up daily. These were all written from 1999-2004 for USATT under the pseudonym "Dr. Ping Pong." I'm a bit leery of this since I haven't seen some of these tips in over a decade, but so far my decade-old self hasn't embarrassed me. The last three tips: "Reading Spin," "Use Ball Placement and Variation Against Short Serves," and "Attack Deep Serves." The picture of me they use for the Tips is me coaching Seyed Hesam Hamrahian (2126, has been over 2250) and Derek Nie (2297 despite his size and age!) in doubles at the 2012 USA Nationals. (I coach Derek regularly at tournaments, but Seyed is normally a student of Samson Dubina.)

Two Table Tennis Obsessives Go Back and Forth

Here's an article in the NY Times where crossword editor and table tennis aficionado Will Shortz interviews photographer and fellow TT aficionado and Alec Soth about his new book, "Ping Pong," which features table tennis photographs.

How Ping Pong Saved the World

Here's info on the film, including a trailer, 1:53. "How Ping-Pong Saved the World is a feature length documentary that recounts the events of April 1971 when a US Table Tennis team became the first Americans invited into communist China in more than two decades. For eight days 15 Ping-Pong diplomats captivated the world with their visit behind the Bamboo Curtain and in the process helped reshape world history. Ping-Pong Diplomacy soon became a metaphor for the on-going difficult relations between two ideological opposites on the brink of détente. Their unlikely invitation paved the way for President Richard Nixon's landmark visit to China just eight months later in February of 1972."

Late Note - here's the entire How Ping Pong Saved the World Documentary online (74 min). I actually linked to this last Tuesday but forgot about it.

Table Tennis - Simply the Best Sport

Here's a highlights and motivational table tennis video (7:53) that came out a year ago that I somehow never saw before. It features

Pittsburgh Steelers Decide Only Vets Can Play Ping Pong in Locker Room

Here's the story from Table Tennis Nation! This is one of the great injustices of the century . . . we shall march on Pittsburgh, and we shall overcome, because I dream of a time when ping-pong players will be judged by their ratings and not by their football seniority.

Jimmy Fallon on Playing Table Tennis with Prince

Here's a video (4:58) of Fallon telling a funny story on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno about playing table tennis with Prince. "It's like spinning, it's like flames are coming out!"

The Ping Pong King Kong

Here's a video (1:51) that shows some of the fastest and best table tennis I've ever seen! (And the facial expressions are great.) Watching this video will wake you up - it's fast and hilarious.

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