Blogs

Larry Hodges' Blog and Tip of the Week will normally go up on Mondays by 2:00 PM USA Eastern time. Larry is a member of the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame, a USATT Certified National Coach, a professional coach at the Maryland Table Tennis Center (USA), and author of ten books and over 2100 articles on table tennis, plus over 1900 blogs and over 600 tips. Here is his bio. (Larry was awarded the USATT Lifetime Achievement Award in July, 2018.)

Make sure to order your copy of Larry's best-selling book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers!
Finally, a tactics book on this most tactical of sports!!!

Also out - Table Tennis TipsMore Table Tennis Tips, Still More Table Tennis Tips, and Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips, which cover, in logical progression, his Tips of the Week from 2011-2023, with 150 Tips in each!

Or, for a combination of Tales of our sport and Technique articles, try Table Tennis Tales & Techniques. If you are in the mood for inspirational fiction, The Spirit of Pong is also out - a fantasy story about an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis, trains with the spirits of past champions, and faces betrayal and great peril as he battles for glory but faces utter defeat. Read the First Two Chapters for free!

MDTTC Camps - Day Two Highlights and Improving Girl

Yesterday's focus was on the backhand. Most of the players in my group, unlike some of the bizarre forehands I saw yesterday, were a bit more orthodox, and all either had pretty good backhands or picked up on it pretty quickly. How boring! I had several of them work on backhand accuracy, hitting shots side to side. I also worked a bit more on forehands, since this seems to be this week's major prevailing weakness.

For the talent versus training debate, here's an interesting story which could seemingly argue both sides. On Monday I worked with an eight-year-old girl who literally struggled to even hit the ball in multiball, not to mention trying to get it on the table or hit it properly. At the same time I was working with a five-year-old boy, with one standing on the forehand side, the other on the backhand side, both hitting forehands. The five-year-old also struggled at first, but he was at least hitting the ball, and by the end of the session was hitting the ball on the table somewhat consistently, though he kept letting his wrist drop back. (I wrote about that yesterday. He also has a tendency to stand completely sideways to hit backhands, and I'm having a hard time convincing him otherwise.) But the girl, despite being older and much bigger, continued to struggle, and seemed to make little progress.

We finished training part of the morning session with serve practice, and again I worked with these two together, along with a few others. Again, the five-year-old picked up on it, and was serving on the table over and over. (That's actually somewhat rare - at that age most struggle to serve.) The eight-year-old absolutely could not serve. I worked with her for fifteen minutes, and she did not make a single serve. Her toss was spastic with no control, and then she'd lunge to hit the ball, and usually completely miss it. Sometimes she'd hit it, but it would go straight sideways or even backwards. I tried to stay positive, but it was pretty frustrating on both sides. I've never had someone struggle this much just to serve.

We finished the session with Brazilian Teams (2-5 players on a team, one player plays until he loses a point then next person on the team comes up). The girl still couldn't serve, and never made a return, and so didn't even come close to winning a point. (She began letting her opponent serve when she came up.) Because of her serving struggles, about ten minutes before the end of the session I pulled her aside to work on her serve. Again she struggled, though she finally made one mostly lucky serve. Since she seemed in a mood to learn, I finished the session feeding her a few balls multiball to see if she could at least get a few on the table. She got a few, but it was still a mostly random thing - she'd miss the entire ball half the time, and the rest she'd spray all over the court with a spastic stroke. Her dad came in at the end and watched, and while he didn't say anything, you could tell he was a bit disappointed in her inability to hit the ball on the table.

Now we continue her story on Tuesday. I worked with her again in multiball, and she finally started to get a few on the table. It wasn't a gradual process; something must have clicked, and suddenly she was able to get the ball on the table. We're not talking great shots here, or even a great stroke, but she was hitting the ball on the table, which was a great victory for her. Later we worked on serves, and she continued to struggle. She made two or three serves in about ten minutes of trying. She skipped the Brazilian Teams and instead practiced serves again, and this time (drum roll!) she began to make a few. She was finally getting the knack of tossing the ball and meeting it with her racket in front of her instead of randomly tossing the ball all over and lunging at it.

Tuesday afternoon I worked with her more on both stroking and serving, and she improved on both. Finally, halfway through the afternoon session, she began making half her serves. So I challenged her to a "match," with games to seven - she would serve, and if she made the serve, she scored; if she missed, I scored. Alas, I won the first game something like 7-2. Then something again clicked, and she won the second game by about the same score. I won game three in a nail-biting 7-5 when she missed her last three serves in a row. Then, miracle of miracles, she won game four 7-0! Then she lost it, and I won game five 7-1 when she only made one serve out of eight. I suggested we play best of seven, and we continued - and she won the last two games 7-3, 7-1. She was the champion!

Halfway through the afternoon session we played Brazilian Teams, and she won two points - both times when opponents (in the beginners group) failed to return her serve. (Alas, she has yet to make an actual return in a game, but hopefully that'll come.) Afterwards, when several others had to leave early, I worked with her one more time, one-on-one for fifteen minutes. I brought out the giant rubber frog I sometimes let the younger kids use for target practice, and fed her multiball. At first she missed over and over, but the balls were at least hitting the table. We kept track of her hits. And then she started hitting it! About that time, as if in a TV movie, her dad came in, and saw her hitting it - including three times in a row one time. She hit it 20 times before we stopped. Her dad was unbelievably happy. "I can't believe how much she's improved!" he exclaimed. The contrast from Monday, when she was lucky to even hit the ball, to Tuesday afternoon was rather extreme.

She still has a long way to go, but after seeing her on Monday I would never believe that on Tuesday she'd be hitting the frog about one-third of the time, or making her serve 75% of the time. She has yet to make a return in an actual rally, other than when fed multiball to one spot, so that's next on the agenda. (She has to miss today - Wednesday - but will be back Thu and Fri, and I think she said she's coming next week as well.)

USATT High Performance Committee Report

Here are the Actions of the USATT High Performance Committee (April-May, 2013)

Two Weird Things Science Says Make You Better At Table Tennis

Here's the article. Wearing Red and Training Under Bright Lights?

Penhold Beats Shakehands

Here's an article on the annual "Penhold Versus Shakehand" team match in China. This year Ma Lin, Wang Hao, and Xu Xin defeated Zhang Jike, Timo Boll, and Dimitrij Ovtcharov. There were some interesting rules for the competition. (And where was Ma Long???)

Interview with Ariel Hsing

Here's an interview (3 min) that just went online with Ariel Hsing as well as Coach Dennis Davis, from the 2012 USA Nationals in December.

Zhang Jike Point-Winning Foot Shot

Here's a video (40 sec) of an exhibition where World Champion Zhang Jike scores a point against Xu Xin with a drop shot with his foot!

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MDTTC Camps

Starting yesterday we have ten consecutive weeks of camps at the Maryland Table Tennis Center, each Mon-Fri, 10AM-6PM, with a 1-3PM lunch and rest break. Here's info on the camps.

I'll be coaching at most of them. I will miss at least two of them: July 1-5 for the U.S. Open, and July 22-26 for a science fiction writer's workshop I'm attending in Manchester, NH, July 19-27. (Call it my annual vacation.) I might also miss July 29 - Aug. 2 for the Junior Olympics - not sure yet. If there's a small turnout in some weeks, I may miss some of those sessions as well - I could use the rest break. The camps are dominated by junior players (mostly Chinese), but there are usually a few adults who take part. The camps are for all ages and levels.

This is our 22nd consecutive year of running camps at MDTTC, which started in 1992. Coaches Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, and I have been there from the start. Also coaching (or acting as practice partners) at the camps are Wang Qing Liang ("Leon"), Chen Bo Wen ("Bowen"), Chen Jie ("James"), and Raghu Nadmichettu.

From the start we've had a basic system. I mostly run the morning sessions (10AM-1PM), where I give short lectures, and then we break into groups doing lots of multiball. Until two years ago the players were divided pretty much randomly in each group.  Then Cheng and Jack asked if I could focus on the beginners in the camp, since they tended to slow things down in other groups - they need more individual attention - and I agreed. So now I generally get all the beginners in my group. We end the session with games, often 11-point games moving up and down tables, either singles or doubles.

Then lunch is served - Chinese food that each player orders for $6 in the morning. (Some go out for lunch or bring their own, but most order the Chinese food.) After lunch I generally take a group to our customary 7-11 trip.

Cheng and Jack run the afternoon session. This is mostly table practice, and then games at the end. We usually finish with Brazilian Teams, where you have teams of 3-6, with one player at a time from each team playing a point. If you win the point, you keep playing; if you lose the point, you go to the end of your team's line, and the next player is up. New player always serves. We generally handicap the top players against the weaker players, for example only giving them one shot to win the point.

Day One Camp Highlights

We focused on grip, stance, and the forehand on the first day. (Advanced players were grouped separately.) I had an interesting mix in my first group on Monday morning. Here's a listing of five of them:

  • Jumpy two-fingers grip kid. He's 13 years old, and had two fingers on the racket's surface instead of just the index finger, and tended to jump around a bit as he hit forehands. (Anyone remember Jills Hammersly of England?) It took some urging to convince him to take the second finger off, but by the end of the session his forehand was greatly improved, care of the better grip and a more balanced stance.
  • Wrist back forehand kid. He was the youngest in the camp, five years old. No matter what you say to him or how many times you adjust his shot, he likes to tip his wrist straight back on forehands. By the end of the day we'd mostly fixed the problem, but not completely - I still had to remind him every few minutes. Okay, more like every 30 seconds.
  • Big backswing forehand kid. He's about 10, and took a backswing that brought his racket back to about California before sweeping forward through the USA heartland before eventually arriving in Maryland just in time (usually) to hit the ball. We spent some time shortening his stroke, and he met with much greater success.
  • Stand-sideways forehand guy. He's about 20, and stood completely sideways for his forehand shots. He was self-taught, but was open to change. I fixed his stance so that his right foot was only slightly back (otherwise you can't really get any body rotation into the shot without looking pretty much backwards, plus you don't have time to go into this stance in a fast rally). He picked up the change pretty fast.
  • Out-of-practice backs-off-the-table-too-much kid. He's 13. I was his coach for a year (he reached about 1400 with a good loop from both sides), but then he stopped playing for almost two years. Now he's back. He's hitting and looping his shots well, but we do need to get him to stay a little closer to the table.

In the afternoon session I worked with eight beginners, including Jumpy Two-Fingers, Wrist-Back Forehand, and Big Backswing Forehand. We did a lot of practice and a lot of games.

ITTF Coaching Seminars

Here's a listing of upcoming ITTF Coaching Courses in the U.S., both Level 1 and Level 2. I'm teaching one in South Bend, IN on Oct. 2-6, 2013. I'm also attending the Level 2 course in New Jersey, Aug. 26-31.

Hopes Week

Here's a video (2:37) with highlights from the ITTF Hopes Week in Austria (where many of the best 11- and 12-year-olds in the world trained and competed together for a week).

Homer and Adam Brown Earn Guitars

Here's the article on their getting guitars from the country music group Lady Antebellum.

New Nike Ping-Pong Commercials

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Tip of the Week

Shadow Practice for Strokes and Footwork.

MDTTC Camps

Starting today we have ten consecutive weeks of camps at the Maryland Table Tennis Center, each Mon-Fri, 10AM-6PM, with a 1-3PM lunch and rest break. Here's info on the camps. I'll write more about them tomorrow.

Crystal Wang at Hopes Week

Here's the home page for Hopes Week in Austria, where the best 11- and 12-year-olds in the world (outside China) gathered after qualifying in national trials. In the tournament held at the end of the camp, 11-year-old Crystal Wang (with a now outdated 2292 rating) made the final of Girls' Singles, losing to a player from Hong Kong in the final. (For some reason, the results and articles have her listed as "Chrystal.") The USA boys' representative, Victor Liu, made the quarterfinals of Boys' Singles. The two teamed up to make the final of the Team event, where they lost to Hong Kong.

Crystal is from my club, the Maryland Table Tennis Center; I've watched her develop from a beginner. Jack Huang is her primary coach. I've coached her in a number of tournaments, including the Hopes Trials in the U.S., and I've had many practice sessions and hundreds of practice matches with her. Let's just say playing her is scary; no matter what you do she keeps coming at you with heavy topspin from both wings, often right off the bounce. I don't think I've ever seen anyone that young who was so good at going after the middle or moving the ball around. She may be the best 11-year-old girl in the world outside China, though Korea and Japan might have something to say about that. (Remember that Hong Kong is a territory of China, though it's actually a bit more complicated than that.)

Mikael Andersson, the ITTF Senior Consultant - Development/Education & Training, blogged about Hopes Week in his June 13 blog, including a picture of Crystal. Here's what he had to say about her:

Best of all the Hopes in the venue – in relation to relative skill – at least in training, is the (also) 11 year old Crystal WANG from the deep gold mines of the Maryland Table Tennis Center in the USA. With her – the sky is the limit. "I am training seven times a week said Crystal when I caught her in the hotel lobby early in the week. Three of the sessions are with private coaches/ sparring partners. One is left –handed, one is defensive player and one is a pen-holder. The remaining times I join some group sessions and practice / play with the other players in the center."

No wonder – the perfect technique – the touch and the calm composure that this young USA shooting star is showing us in training.  I beg you Crystal; Spread your wings and fly as far as you can!

China Open

It finished yesterday. Here's the home page with results, articles, photos, etc.

Table Tennista - the Magazine

Here is Issue Three of their new magazine.

Top Spin: The Story of Ariel Hsing

Here's a video (11:46) that chronicles the rise of USA's Ariel Hsing. "With hard work and family sacrifice, a young table tennis champion works towards becoming one of the top players in the world -- Ariel Hsing exudes a quiet confidence and intensity that rivals any young professional athlete working hard to become a promising Olympic champion. However, Ariel's story goes beyond her personal dedication and also reveals the family sacrifices that foster her talent."

Quentin Robinot Bullet Shot at ITTF China Open

Here's the video (35 seconds) of this great counter-kill.

The Darkness of Pong

Here's another artistic table tennis artwork from Mike Mezyan. (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.) Here's how Jim Short described it: "Wonderful artistic touches: notice how the light draws your eye from upper left to lower right, making the table the centerpiece of the work. And these elements combine to make the figure even more shadowy and mysterious, adding to the dark flair of the art."

Actress Ping Pong

Actress Chace Crawford teaches Anna Kendrick how to play, as brought to you by Table Tennis Nation.

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Fundamentals and a Strong Foundation

I had a 1200-rated 11-year-old student recently at a tournament who faced long pips for the first time, against a higher-rated player. The opponent was a long pips blocker, no sponge, and pretty much covered the entire table with the long pips on the backhand, i.e. a "pushblocker." My student went in having no idea what to do, other than my admonition to give lots of deep no-spin, play steady, and patiently wait for an easy ball to put away. However, it became obvious very quickly that even against a high ball, he wasn't going to be smashing the high balls with any consistency; the long pips returns were just too different for him.

So pretty much on his own he stopped smashing, and simply rolled ball after ball after ball after ball after ball after ball after ball after ball after . . . (I think you get the idea). The rallies were extremely long, but his patience won out; he won, 11-9 in the fifth. (The opponent went on to have a great tournament - probably because my student warmed him up!)

Later, in a training session, I mentioned that in tournaments you are going to face all sorts of different and strange styles like this one, and there were just too many to prepare him for everything. I also told him that at some point, I'd bring out a sheet of long pips for him to practice against, but not now; it wasn't worth it, and would just take away from other training. I wanted to install strong fundamentals, not worry about learning to play all the different styles this early in his development. He'll learn that later.

I told him something that I thought should be highlighted for others developing their games:

"If I try to prepare you for everything, you'll be prepared for nothing. If I give you a solid foundation, you can adjust to anything."

The point was that if I tried to prepare him for [and here I started to write a LONG list of weird styles, but decided I'd leave it to your imagination instead - there's a lot], then he'd know what to do against all of them, but would have less of a foundation in his game since we'd have wasted so much time preparing for things he'll rarely face. And so even if he knew how to play these weird styles, he wouldn't have the foundation to execute what was needed to win, and so he wouldn't be prepared against anyone. Instead, I told him to develop the foundation of his game (i.e. the fundamentals) so that his foundation is stronger than his opponents, and learn to adjust to them. If he did, I assured him he'd go right through opponents that he would otherwise have struggled with.  

Another way to think of it is this: if the opponent has a "weird" game, then he's not playing like most players. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's a reason certain techniques are considered "good" and others "not so good." If you have "good" technique, and the other has "not so good" technique, then his only overall advantage over you is the very weirdness of his game. His weakness is that his technique is flawed, and if you have better technique, then you can adjust to his weirdness and win because of the sounder technique.

Rest assured there are many players with so-called "not so good" technique who are very good. They have honed these "not so good" techniques to the point where they are pretty good. But overwhelmingly they would be even better if they had spent the same amount of time and energy developing more proper technique. There are always exceptions, but as a general rule, there's a reason why good technique is considered as such. (The biggest exception to this might be the very style mentioned above, "pushblockers," where players who are not as physically "athletic" as others can often reach a pretty high level by just blocking with long pips instead of conventional technique - but with long pips no sponge, that could be considered "proper technique." But that's a whole other essay for another time.)

I do believe that players should experiment and learn to do a few things different, especially on the serve, and perhaps on at least one receive or rally shot. Having something different can throw off an opponent. Just don't overdo it for the sake of doing it if your goal is to reach your maximum potential.

Yesterday

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Due to near-hurricane thunderstorms, three of my four students cancelled (normally not "good," but I needed the rest); I got a bunch of writing and reading done; the Orioles, in a four-team AL East Divisional race, beat the rival Red Sox while the other two in the race, the Yankees and Rays, both lost (and as noted in yesterday's blog, Orioles Hangout published my Top Ten List); and I got to see the midnight showing of "Man of Steel."

ITTF Coaching Seminars

Here's an ITTF article on the ITTF Level 1 coaching seminar in Austin, Texas run by Richard McAfee, starting last Monday and ending today. I ran a similar one in Maryland in 2011, and am running another in South Bend, IN, Oct. 2-6. More info on that soon - probably Monday.

Chinese Versus European Loop

Here's an article that highlights the difference between the "Chinese" and "European" loops.

USATT Board Chair Blog

Here's a blog entry posted yesterday by the Chair of the USATT Board Mike Babuin. Here's the opening paragraph: "Recently I had the distinct pleasure to introduce table tennis into Valor Games. For those unfamiliar with Valor Games it is a competition designed and geared towards military personnel and veterans who are physically disabled and/or who have suffered from one of several conditions, traumas, or disorders as a result of their service to our country.  While many people may be familiar with the Wounded Warrior Program, Valor Games is a similar yet distinct competition that is gaining in recognition and participation across the United States."

The Pongcast

Here's the latest Pongcast (18:46). "This month the Pongcast reviews the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships and looks at what has been happening at the ITTF in May."

Lily and Ariel at China Open

Below is a summary of how the USA girls are doing in the China Open, as posted this morning by Bruce Liu. (Here's the ITTF China Open Page with results, pictures, and articles, and here are a few matches of Lily, Ariel, and Wu Yue on iTV. The China Open ends this Sunday.)

June 14 (China time) Summary:
Women's Singles:

  • Lily upset the #16 seed BARTHEL Zhenqi (#66 in the world) in the round of 32. It was another wild 7-gamer (11-5, 12-10, 7-11, 7-11, 11-7, 4-11, 11-1).Her round of 16 opponent will be World Champion/World Cup Champion/Olympic Gold Medalist, aka the Grand Slammer, GUO Yue from China. We will see how wild Lily can be. It will be tough for sure. But that why it is worth fighting for.
  • Ariel fought hard as usual. She lost to GUO Yan (#5) in 5 (9-11, 5-11, 11-9, 5-11, 5-11). A great effort. 

Women's Doubles:

  • Lily and Ariel are in the quarterfinals at the China Open! Not too shabby for two 17-year-old. Due to their busy schedule, they really did not have much time practice doubles. Imagine if they can practice more together... Their opponents in the quarterfinal will be GUO Yue(#16) / LIU Shiwen (#2) from China. I'm pretty sure other than Lily and Ariel, all other players still in the Women's Doubles are full-time professional players! In fact, most likely the majority of the players in the whole tournament are professional players. 

U21 Girls' Singles:

  • Lily played twice today in the event. In the round of 16, she duly stopped the dangerous HIRANO Miu 3-1 (8-11, 11-8, 14-12, 18-16). Alas, lost to ZHOU Yihan (#102) from Singapore 4-1 in the quarterfinals. It is a great accomplish already, especially in China.
  • Ariel lost 0-3 to the red hot So Eka is out but don't let the game counts fool you. It was a highly competitive match. You can see it yourselves from the score (13-15, 9-11, 8-11).

Go girls! 

Musical Ping-Pong Table

Yes, an interactive musical ping-pong table, on display at Union Depot in St. Paul, MN!

Apparently this table plays music as the ball hits the surface.

Kim Kardashian Plays Ping-Pong With Her Family

Here's the story from Table Tennis Nation. The apocalypse has occurred.

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Staying Low Revisited

The Tip of the Week this past Monday was Staying Low. It was inspired by a student of mine, Sameer, 11, who tends to stand up straight when he plays. I've been on him about this for some time, and usually he gets lower - but only in practice drills if I constantly remind him. Once he plays points, he stands up again. At the Eastern Open this past weekend he won Under 800 and made the final of U950, but there were times where he didn't look so good since he was standing up so straight. (In newer ratings from before the tournament, he's rated 1181.)

So I told him that for the next month, our sessions are going to be very "boring," that we're going to focus almost exclusively on staying low. It's not just getting low, it's how you do it. When he does get low, his tendency is to simply bend his knees while leaning backwards from the waist, instead of forward. Also, his feet tend to be too close together, his feet pointing too much forward. You can't fix any one of these; they all go together. He also tends to either let his free arm tightly at his side, either hanging down or jammed up to his chest. Keeping the free hand out for balance is closely related to the ready position as you need it to stay balanced when you move.

So yesterday we started off by spending about ten minutes just shadow practicing with the proper stance. Once he looked comfortable doing this, we hit forehand to forehand at a very slow pace - it almost drove him crazy since he likes to play fast (like most kids), and every now and then in exasperation he'd smack one in. But we did this for twenty minutes, just forehand to forehand, adding some side-to-side footwork near the end. Then we did the same thing, backhand to backhand.

Then we played some points. The key was that he wasn't to play table tennis; he was to play "low table tennis," where he had to play the points in his newer stance. I expected problems, and kept the rallies simple - but lo and behold, he'd developed the habit during those excruciatingly slow rallies! Normally when I spot him 6 points I win over and over. This time he did something unthinkable - he won four out of five! Now I probably did miss a few shots, and was keeping things simple, but it was by far the best he's ever played. As a side bonus, by staying low he was able to see and react to my serve better than before, and returned them better than ever, even the "trick" serves I threw at him near the end of most games.

Table Tennista

Here are this week's headlines at Table Tennista:

China Open

Here's an ITTF story that features USA player Ariel Hsing - unfortunately, it features her upset loss. Here's the ITTF home page for the China Open, with results, articles, photos, and videos.

Behind the Scenes at the 2013 China Open

Here's a 38-second video with a few action shots and short interviews with Chinese players at the China Open. Interesting to watch, even more interesting if you understand Chinese, which I do not. Feel free to translate anyone!  

Three More Books Coming Out By Next Year

By the end of the year I'll have enough Tips of the Week to put them together in one volume, "Table Tennis Tips." (Highly original title - have a better suggestion?) It'll clearly be marked as a compilation of my previously published Tips of the Week. So far I've done 123 Tips of the Week here at TableTennisCoaching.com, one every Monday since Jan. 11, 2011. (Confession: a few didn't go up until Tuesday.) I anticipate doing 29 more this year, for a total of 152, plenty for a book. Sadly, I'm running out of topics, and so anticipate ending the Tips of the Week at the end of this year. (I also did 169 much shorter Tips of the Week, which were published near the back of Table Tennis Tales & Techniques - took up only 54 of the book's 272 pages. The Tips I do here are considerably longer, more like features than simple tips.)

Next year I'll also be publishing "More Pings and Pongs," the second anthology of my best published science fiction & fantasy stories. "Pings and Pongs: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of Larry Hodges" came out in 2010 with my 30 best; I've now sold enough new stories for a new volume. The only problem is that typically when you sell a story, the buyer generally has sole rights to the story for six months, and so I anticipate I won't have rights to all the stories I'd like to use until April of 2014.

As a special, I've lowered the price for the Kindle version of Pings and Pongs to $2.99 - buy yours today!!! (I'd lower the price of the print version, but due to printing costs and other issues, the lowest I can sell it for is $8.35 - a bargain!!! It includes "Ping-Pong Ambition," a table tennis fantasy story.)

I have one other book also planned - "Table Tennis Fundamentals," the rewrite of "Table Tennis Steps to Success."

Here's my Amazon page that lists all my books, other than the USATT manual "Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis," which I plan to rewrite and have professionally published sometime in the future.

Non-Table Tennis - Orioles Top Ten List

Orioles Hangout published another of my infamous Top Ten Lists. This one was "Top Ten Ways the Orioles Can Get a TOR Starter." (For you non-baseball people, "TOR Starter" means "Top Of Rotation Starter," i.e. a pitching ace.) It's the eleventh article of mine they've published - nine "Top Ten" lists and two regular articles.

Non-Table Tennis - Sheeba

Yesterday I did 3.5 hours of coaching, and was pretty exhausted afterwards. I got home around 8:15PM, and let Sheeba, my dog, outside. She's 15 years old, which puts her in her eighties in human years. She's almost completely deaf, and half blind - almost completely blind without bright light - and has arthritic back legs so she hobbles around. When I went down around 8:30 PM the gate was open. One of the tenants downstairs had just left, and likely left it open, not realizing she was in the yard. Sheeba was nowhere to be seen.

I spent the next hour and 45 minutes circling the neighborhood and expanding outward, trying to find her. Calling for her was pointless since she's deaf, though I found it was a good way to indicate to people that I was searching for a lost dog. I kept asking around, and twice I found people who had seen her going by. Finally, at around 10:15 PM, I got a call from someone who had found her. I thanked her profusely, and walked the evil, naughty dog back home, where she demanded (and got) a bacon snack.

My legs are exhausted this morning, partly from 3.5 hours of coaching, but mostly from walking around for an hour and 45 minutes.

Table Table Tennis and Office Table Tennis

My legs are so tired from coaching and searching for Sheeba that for now on I'm going to play table tennis like this. Or perhaps like this.

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Fingerprinting and Afterschool Programs

Yesterday I was fingerprinted. Oh no!!! As I blogged about yesterday, it was for an afterschool table tennis program we'll be running at MDTTC this fall. Also fingerprinted were coaches Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, and John Hsu.

I went in expecting to have my fingertips inked. But that's a thing of the past. Instead, they had me put my fingertips on the surface of a scanner, one by one, with the fingerprint image appearing simultaneously on a large screen. It took about 90 seconds in all.

Afterschool programs are a great way to bring in new junior players, as well as a way to make use of a facility in the late afternoon, before the (hopefully) big player rush after 7PM or so. This would be especially important to full-time centers, but part-time clubs already have the tables (and storage area for them), and playing space, so perhaps they too can take advantage of this. (And we get paid! The kids pay a nominal fee for the program.)

How do you do it? Contact the local county school's recreation department. You'll need a coach or organizer. You can handle a lot of players with two coaches - one to coach a few at a time, one to watch over the rest as they play. Ideally, you'd have them doing drills for at least half the session, with the players rotated a few minutes at a time to work one-on one with one of the coaches, probably with multiball. Realistically, if you have a large number of kids and only two coaches, it'll be mostly free play except when they rotate in to work with the coach. The coach can actually work with two at a time, with one kid on the forehand side, the other on the backhand side, with the coach feeding side to side. Or he can work with even more, with the kids lining up and taking turns, perhaps four shots each, then back to the end of the line. (I prefer two at a time if there's a large turnout.)

I blogged a bit more about this on June 4, including the importance of starting with one session a week to concentrate the players in that session so as to get a good turnout. Once you have a good turnout, then you can expand to two days, and so on.

Crystal Wang Impressive at Hopes Week, Wins Tournament

USA's Crystal Wang is featured and pictured in the ITTF story about Hopes Week, where she won the afternoon tournament. Here's an excerpt:

The afternoon session featured the now traditional training tournament with the players starting from the score 8-8 and playing best of five games . . . among the girls Crystal Wang from Maryland in the United States proved most of the coaches who watched her play during the opening day right. Certainly she impressed Mikael Andersson.

"She not only won the training tournament, she basically cruised her way through the first real test in Schwechat," he said. "Great style, wonderful timing and technique was too much for the other young Hopes girls to handle this afternoon." Earlier this year, in April, Crystal Wang won the Hopes Girls’ Singles event at the ITTF-North America Cup in Westchester.

Video Interview with Zhang Jike and Timeouts

Yesterday I blogged about timeouts. As posted by Doug Harley in the comments section, here's a video interview (3:08) of Zhang Jike after winning his semifinal match in Men's Singles at the Worlds, 4-0 over Xu Xin. (He'd go on to win the final.) One minute in he's asked why he called a timeout leading 10-9 in the third. The translator spoke broken English, but corrected into somewhat proper English, he said, "This is a key set for me so if I can win 3-0 it'll be easier for me to play the next set, and secondly, I did not do well the last point when I was leading 10-8 so I called a timeout to reset myself."

How Useful is Shadow Play?

Here's a short article from Table Tennis Master: How Useful is Shadow Play?

The Speed of Table Tennis

Here's a video (3:04) featuring USA's Erica Wu that breaks down the speed of table tennis. (I think I remember seeing and posting perhaps an earlier version of this, but this one was only posted on Monday.)  

China Open

Here's the home page for the China Open, June 12-16, 2013, in Changchun, China. USA players Ariel Hsing, Lily Zhang, and Wu Yue are all entered in it. Hsing and Zhang are in Women's Singles, Doubles (teamed together), and Under 21 Women. Wu Yue is in Women's Singles and Doubles (with Shao Jien from Portugal).

2013 USATT Para National Team Training Camp

Here's Richard Xue's photo album - the first ten albums are all from the camp, which is going on right now in San Diego.

Lady Antebellum Ping Pong & Songs Finale

I blogged about this yesterday; here's a video (1:33). The two players on the right at the start are Homer and son Adam Brown; that's Michael Wetzel umpiring.

Four Year Old on TT Robot

Here's a video (2:34) of four and a half year old Jordan Fowler (grandson of Brian) smacking balls on his KingPong Robot.

California Governor Jerry Brown Brings Ping Pong to State Government

Table Tennis Nation brings you the story, with lots of links on this and related items.

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Timeouts

I've found it interesting how different coaches and players use timeouts. Far too many use it as a desperation measure, usually late in a match when a player has fallen way behind, and where it's unlikely to make a difference. Almost always it's done when a player is behind.

I'd argue that it should be used most often when a player is losing focus at a key time, where the timeout has the best chance of helping to win a game, whether it's in the first game, last game, or any in between. I think most would agree with this. Putting that aside, when should one call a timeout?

Let's suppose your player is serving up 9-7 in the fifth. I was once criticized for calling a timeout in that situation, with the argument that it lets the opponent talk to his coach and focus, and so maximize his chances of coming back. But I find that reasoning backwards. With my player is leading 9-7 in the fifth, if both players are focused and play smart, then my player is probably going to win. The most likely way my player loses is if he loses his focus and/or doesn't play smart - so by calling a timeout, I maximize the chances that my player will be focused and play smart, and therefore likely win. In other words, if you are leading, you are in control, and so worry less about the opponent and more about making sure you are prepared.

In other words, if you are behind by a score such as 7-9, and if you are focused and know what to do, the last thing you want is to give the opponent time to focus and think tactically. It's very easy for a player to lose focus when he is leading and about to win, and a timeout allows him to recover. (However, if you are behind 7-9 because you are losing focus or not sure what to do tactically, then you should call the timeout.)

Ironically, I sometimes hesitate to call a time-out near the end of a match when my player is leading because I know there's a good chance the other side will call one, so I get to save our timeout for later if needed.

Another mistake I think some make is waiting too long. It's better to call a timeout early in a match where it might lead to winning a game than to wait until later where it might not. At the Easterns I was coaching 11-year-old Sameer in his first major tournament. In one of his first matches he was serving and leading 10-8 in the first game, and lost the next point. On his own he called a timeout - he wanted to make absolutely sure he won that game, and wanted to ask what serve I thought he should use. (I said short backspin to the forehand, and the opponent put it in the net! Sameer won the match 3-1; if he'd lost that first game, it might have been 2-2. A very smart timeout that few would have done because it was still "too early" in the match.)

Here's the chart from my book Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers on when to call timeouts. Number two is the one that's way underused when players are leading in a close game - see the second part of that one.

When to Call a Time-out

  1. When losing focus before a key point. This is the most important time to call a time-out. A time-out is a good way to get your concentration back.
  2. To think about or discuss tactics at a key point. Generally do this when you are about to serve, since you have complete control over choosing your two serves. If you have a coach, he might be able to help choose two serves to use. Call it when you are receiving mostly if you have a good idea what the opponent will serve, and are debating how you should return that serve. Or call it to think or discuss any other tactical plans. It’s also valuable to call a time-out when you are winning a relatively close game (especially late in a match), such as at 10-8 or 9-7, so as to clear your mind, think tactically, and close out that game. This is often when the Chinese team calls time-outs.
  3. When falling behind in a key game. It’s useful to call a time-out if you lose the first game and are falling behind in the second (since you absolutely do not want to fall behind 0-2), or if you have already lost two games and will lose the match if you lose another. The key is not to wait until you are way behind; instead, call the time-out when you are still relatively close and can still find a way to come back. The time-out allows you to make sure you are focused and to rethink your tactics. It’s also a good way to give your opponent a chance to cool off if he’s playing well—there’s nothing wrong with calling a time-out in hopes of disturbing his concentration or throwing off his rhythm.
  4. Desperation tactic. Far too many players call time-outs as a desperation tactic near the end of a match when they are way behind and are pretty much out of it, but this rarely leads to a win. If you are losing badly, why wait until you are way down in the last game? It’s far better to call the time-out earlier in the hope of not being in this situation, where the time-out will rarely help.

Fingerprinting

We're starting up an afterschool table tennis program this fall with Montgomery County Schools. As noted in my blog last week, one of their requirements is anyone working with students gets a background check - and that means we have to get fingerprinted! So this morning I'm leaving about 8:30 AM to meet at a county office to be fingerprinted, along with fellow coaches Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, and John Hsu. I'm hoping to get pictures. If they look into my background they'll find I kill dozens of times every day. More on this tomorrow, though it might be simply a repeat of this note, saying "We've been fingerprinted."

Game Strategy

Here's an article from Table Tennis Master: Game Strategy

Non-Celluloid Balls

Here's a thread at the about.com table tennis forum where Jay Turberville reviews one of the new plastic balls (i.e. not celluloid).

The Fight to Save Table Tennis

Here's an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal that features Marty Reisman and hardbat & sandpaper table tennis. There were quite a few errors in the article, however - here's a thread at the about.com table tennis forum where Jay Turberville lists nine mistakes, and Scott Gordon adds a few others.

Lady Antebellum’s Ping Pong Tournament Serves Up the Fun

Here's an article and pictures of the charity tournament. Here are more pictures.

Dog Spectator

Here's 49 seconds of a very jumpy dog spectator at table tennis.

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great analysis of timeout strategy, i agree completely.  here is a snippet from an interview with zhang jike following his 4-0 demolition of xu xin in the semifinals of last month's WTTC, where he is discussing taking his timeout in the 3rd game while leading 10-9, and his reasoning behind it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCQtO_c3ZS4&t=0m59s

spot on.

Good find - I'll probably mention it in my blog tomorrow for those who don't see your comment. 

Tip of the Week

Staying Low.

Eastern Open

It was a tiring weekend, but tournaments always are. I think coaching is more tiring than play. Seriously! Here are the results. We got there on Friday afternoon so our players could practice. I ended up volunteering with the NATT group running the tournament and spent some time putting together barriers. It was nostalgic - I was in charge of barriers at two U.S. Opens, two U.S. Nationals, and one North American Teams.

I mostly coached Derek Nie (12) and Sameer Shaikh (11). Sameer won Under 800 and made the final of Under 950, so it was a successful tournament for him. However, he needs serious work on staying low - hence the inspiration for this week's Tip of the Week (above). Often in practice with me he stays down, but once he gets into matches he tends to stand up straight, and his strokes and movement become awkward. We're going to focus on this for the foreseeable future.

Derek, rated 2215, had a strange tournament. On the one hand, he made it to the final of Under 2375, and had wins over players rated 2353 and 2332. He also went through stages where he was playing extremely well; his backhand play especially has improved as he can now do five types of backhand loops very well - over the table against short balls (especially serves), i.e. "banana flips"; off regular backspin; backhand rips against weak balls; in fast topspin rallies where he backhand loops the ball without backing up much, almost off the bounce; and from off table when forced to back up.

However, he had several matches where, at key stages, he seemed to tighten up and miss a few shots, especially finishing forehands. Astonishingly, he also kept missing his own serve, something he'd never done much before. Not fast and deep serves, but simple short serves that normally are almost never missed. He must have missed his own serve over 20 times this tournament - he has some work to do on this. In one five-game loss, after going up 2-1 in games, he missed his own serve four times in the last two games. (He also had a knee problem that affected him in some of his matches, especially toward the end; in his very first match he dived for a ball, and landed on it. Hopefully it's just a bone bruise. I don't think it affected him too much, but he's taking the next two days off to rest it.)

In the end, he lost five-game matches to three of his rival juniors, and another in four where he was down 1-2 but leading 10-8, with the opponent deucing it on a net-edge and winning on a net. (All four were actually rated higher, all in the 2260-2310 range.) Derek and I both agreed that while the actual results this time were somewhat disappointing, his actual play showed great promise. It'll take him time to gain the experience to incorporate his greatly improved backhand play with his already strong forehand play. And we had a lot of fun both to and from the tournament (four-hour drive) doing brain teasers and (I kid you not) discussing physics.

Here's a good place to thank fellow MDTTC players Raghu Nadmichettu and Harold Baring for their help in practicing with Derek throughout the tournament - and also to congratulate them for both making the quarterfinals of the Open. Chen Bo Wen, also from MDTTC and regular practice partner/coach for Derek, made the final of the Open.

I wish I could go into some of the tactics used in the tournament, but some give away too much for possible future opponents. Derek has a new-found "rivalry" with senior player Vladimir Shapiro (2332), who Derek beat in the Open but lost to in the U2375 final. In their first match, Vladimir was up 2-0, but with a major change in tactics Derek won the next three. In the U2375 final, Vladimir made a nice tactical adjustment to win at 7,8,9. "The future belongs to him," he told me, but the present belongs to him - with his two-winged looping game, varied serves, and smart tactical play, he swept three events - U2375, Over 40, and Over 50.

Because I was busy coaching, I didn't see many of the big matches. We left on Sunday as they were about to start the Open Quarterfinals.

We didn't stay at the tournament hotel, instead staying at a cheaper Day's Inn - and paid the price in other ways! I'm not picky about hotels, and didn't really mind it, but I did note a few things about the hotel:

  1. There was litter scattered all over - in the streets, walkways, outside rooms, and hallways.
  2. The coke machine just outside the front desk looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. I could barely make out the flavors. It was situated so that to get at it I had to squeeze between a bush and an over-loaded trash can that smelled of old garbage. When I clicked on Lemon Ice Tea, I got a Ginger Ale. The front desk refunded my $1.50. They said that there had been complaints about this. I mentioned I'd try the lemonade, but they said that if I did, I'd probably get a coke instead. I ended up going for a water.
  3. The arm rests on the chair in our room were both broken and hanging off sideways.
  4. The light fixture between the beds was broken and hanging off the wall.
  5. The front door had some sort of paint splattered over it.
  6. There was trash scattered about the bathroom.
  7. While walking to the front desk to check out, in a walkway littered with trash, I stopped and watched a giant spider crawling about the wall. Spider webs were all over.
  8. The clock at the front desk was 12 minutes slow.
  9. The complimentary was only corn flakes or sugar frosted flakes, plain bagels, bread, sugar donuts, orange juice, and coffee. I didn't mind; I had two bagels.

In contrast to this, the playing conditions were excellent, with grippy wood floors and good lighting. It was rather humid, which gave some players problems. I'll never understand why so many players show up at tournaments without a towel to wipe their racket with. When it's humid, I bring two - one for me, one for the racket and ball.

Here was an "interesting" incident. A very loud argument was going on between a coach and the referee. Several spectators told me what had happened. In the fifth game of a close match a ball rolled into the court. One player raised his finger to signal let. As he was doing this, his opponent, a junior player, not seeing the raised finger (he was watching the ball) went for a shot and missed. The adult who had raised his finger for let claimed the point. The referee was called. Since the junior player didn't know that his opponent had called a let, the point stood, with his opponent getting the point. (I'm not sure if the adult denied calling a let or claimed that since the junior went for the shot the point counted.) The referee couldn't rely on spectators on what happened (or you might get a biased view), and you can't check the video (or everyone would have to video their matches just in case), and so he could only go by what the players said - and so probably made the right call. However, the adult, if did in fact call the let, pulled a fast one there - and he won the fifth game 11-9. Anyway, there was a LOUD interaction between the junior's coach and the referee, which led to the coach getting red-carded and kicked out.

I had another interesting experience. One of the juniors from my club was playing a match and seemed to be struggling. I wasn't coaching the match, but I asked his dad how he was doing, and discovered he was down 2-1 in games and down 5-1 in the fourth against a player rated considerably lower, whose game I knew. (Very strong backhand, very weak forehand, with specific tactics needed to adjust for this since the player was willing to play backhands from the forehand side.) So I called a time-out, explained how to play this player, and our junior went back out and won the game and match.

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

More reviews for the book are in. At Amazon.com, there are 17 so far - 15 five-star ones, and two four-star ones. They are selling pretty well at Amazon, both the print and Kindle versions. A few also sold at The Easterns. Hopefully we'll sell a bunch at the U.S. Open.

Butterfly App

Here's an app from Butterfly that allows you to watch the top players on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad. (Alas, my phone is circa 18th century, and it makes phone calls. Yes, just phone calls. Though I've heard rumors it takes pictures as well.)

Receive Secrets

Here's an article from Table Tennis Master: Service Receive Secrets From Japan.

Do You Know (the Ping Pong Song)

Here's a table tennis song I hadn't heard before - the music is to the beat of a bouncing ping-pong ball.

Michael Maze - Literally

Here's a cartoon from Mike Mezyan that combines Danish table tennis star Michael Maze, Michael Jackson, a maze, and a table tennis tour. (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

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Easterns

At noon today I leave for the Eastern Open this weekend in Piscataway, NJ, coaching Derek Nie and Sameer Shaikh. As usual, I'll bring files of notes of players I've seen before, either live or on video. I'm going up with Derek and his mom. I've actually got some coaching this morning, not to mention my blog and dropping my dog (Sheeba) off at the dog boarding place, so it's going to be a hectic morning.

The complicating factor is I teach a junior class on weekends, on Saturdays 10:30AM-Noon and Sundays 4:30-6:00. Normally Raghu Nadmichettu assists, but he's playing in the Easterns. I have a substitute for Saturday, but not for Sunday. So either I or Raghu have to be back by Sunday at 4:30 for the class. What really complicates things is we don't know if Raghu or Derek will play on Sunday. They will if Raghu makes the quarters of the Open, or Derek the quarters of Under 2375. Sameer will finish on Saturday, so either Raghu or I have to go back with Sameer and his dad when they return that night or the following morning. On the other hand, if Raghu advances and can't go back, and Derek advances (and so has a big quarterfinal match in U2375), I might do some last-minute scrambling to get a substitute for the class so I can stay over to coach Derek.

Derek and I have an established way to pass the time on car trips to tournaments (with his parents driving) - brain teasers. I used to give them off the top of my head - I know hundreds - but I've run out after many trips. Last time I printed out a large number from online sites. Yesterday I stopped at the Library and picked up "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems." Derek's gotten pretty good at them.

You can see the players in the Easterns by player's list or by event. Top seeds include Zhang Kai (2603), Yu Di (2600), Peter Li (2557, from my club before he went off to college), Eric Zhao (2543), Li Bochao (2500) and Chen Bo Wen (2494, from my club). For a 4-star tournament, it's not particularly strong, but there'll be some strong competition. Under 13 Boys is a powerhouse, with Jack Wang (2338), Gal Alguetti (2252), Derek Nie (2234), and Sharon Alguetti (2176). These ratings are actually old ratings, the ones used for qualification; at the tournament they'll have newer ratings for seeding. We have a large group coming from my area, with an even 20 players from Maryland, Virginia, and DC, almost all who play at MDTTC.

By the way, they will start setting up the playing hall Friday at 4PM, and finish by 7PM. I'm told that players can practice on any available table during that time.

Balance = Rapid-Fire Shots

I was working with an intermediate player today. I was giving him random multiball to his forehand side, and he had to smash every ball. He was struggling - every couple of shots he'd be off balance, and flailing away at the next shot. The problem was just that - balance. But if I only told him to stay balanced, he'd have continued to flail away - the key was to identify why he was going off balance. And that was pretty easy to see - every time he smashed, his whole body would move forward, throwing himself off balance, and then he'd have to move all his weight back to prepare for the next shot. This also threw off his timing.

I pointed out Chen Bowen, a 2500 player, who was looping against block on another table, and told my player to watch Bowen's head - it barely moved when he looped his forehand over and over. Instead, his body rotated rapidly around it, which created great power - and left him in nearly the same position and balanced, weight between his legs, immediately ready for the next shot. (You do this on both forehand loops and drives.) My player tried it out, and greatly improved his ability to play rapid-fire forehands over and over. It's okay for the head to move forward some on very powerful shots (drives or loops), or when rushed when stepping around the backhand corner, but it should be minimized if you want to be ready quickly for the next shot.

To illustrate the above, here are some short videos to study.

McAfee and the ITTF Coaching Program

Here's my article "Man on a Mission: Richard McAfee and the ITTF Coaching Program," published by the ITTF on its Facebook page. The article is also in the current (May/June) issue of USA Table Tennis Magazine.

North American Table Tennis Language Translator

I just noticed a new feature there. Here's the Eastern Open home page. Go to the top right, and see "Select Language." Then start clicking on different languages, and watch the text on the page change! Africaans! Albanian! Arabic! Traditional Chinese! Japanese! Macedonian! Yiddish! Etc. - I had great fun with this.

Ping Pong Prom Proposals

Here's an article and videos from Table Tennis Nation featuring, you guessed it, Ping-Pong Prom Proposals.

Circular Table Tennis?

I have no idea what to call this type of table tennis, so I'm going to call it Circular Table Tennis. Shouldn't they have people on both the inside and outside, rallying back and forth? (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

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ICC and Fundraising for Table Tennis

ICC (India Community Center) has set the modern bar for raising money for table tennis in the U.S., raising $100,000 at a fund-raiser on June 2 in Milpitas, CA. Here's the article! "This annual event, which showcases the program’s homegrown talent to raise funds to nurture tomorrow’s champions, was attended by over 200 diehard table tennis players and fans. ICC’s junior players riveted the audience with their technique and passion during the talent exhibition. There were also celebrity challenge matches featuring former California State Controller and ICC Trustee Steve Westly, ICC Co-Founder and Trustee Anil Godhwani and 2012 Men’s & Women’s National Champions and 2012 Olympians Timothy Wang and Lily Zhang."

I'm no expert on fund-raising, but I have dabbled in it. I did get a $7000 sponsor for the 1993 Junior Nationals, which I ran in Maryland- that's $11,264 in 2013 dollars. The sponsor was Janlibo, a Chinese soft drink that was trying to expand into the U.S. market, starting in Maryland. Ironically, they wanted to increase their sponsorship the following year, but without checking with me or Janlibo, the USATT board of directors decided to recombine the Junior Nationals with the Junior Olympics, as it had been in previous years. They assumed Janlibo would go along with it, with the Junior Olympics moving to a different city each year. Janlibo had no interest in that - they were focusing on the Maryland/DC region at the time - and so the Junior National went from $7000 ($11,264!) in 1993 to $0 prize money thereafter. Alas.

There have been some titanic battles on the board over USATT fundraising. There was a period in the early/late 2000's where two board members had diametrically opposed ideas on how to do it. (I attended nearly every board meeting back in those days, and was a witness to all this.) One believed that we should hire a full-time fundraiser. The other believed we should hire a big-time fund-raising company. They had extremely sharp debates. The board was unanimous that we needed to do one or the other, but since they couldn't decide which to go with, they ended up doing . . . neither. Alas.

The last two times USATT had major sponsors that I know of were the late 1980s and early 1990s. The first was with Brother Corporation. USA Olympic table tennis players Diana and Lisa Gee helped bring that sponsor in with a Comdex exhibition, with USATT Program Director Bob Tretheway negotiating and closing the deal. (There was also a Ground Round Restaurant sponsorship that Bob brought in. And thanks to Sean O'Neill for aiding my fuzzy memory on some of this.) In the early 1990s, Dan Seemiller (and others - not sure who) brought in Dow Chemical as a big sponsor for the 1991-1992 U.S. Opens in Midland, MI. I believe both of these deals were over $100,000, and considerably more in modern dollars. I don't think USATT has had anything comparable since. I know recently-elected USATT board chair Mike Babuin is very interested in the fund-raising aspect - hopefully he'll break through on that. As to table tennis clubs, in addition to ICC I'm told that Lily Yip has also done well in local sponsorship for her club (and especially her tournaments) in New Jersey. 

At some point we probably should do one at MDTTC, my club. But as I noted above, I'm not an expert on fundraising. Alas.

Serve Practice

Here's my periodic note on this - have you practice your serves recently? Just get a bunch of balls, and practice! It's one of the most under-practiced aspect of the game, with more return on investment than just about any other aspect. How many times have you lost a match "because of his serves"? Well, become that guy "with the serves"! Don't have good serves; have great ones!!! You don't need to be a superstar player for this. Here's my article "Practicing Serves the Productive Way." In the Articles section here I have an even 20 articles on serving. But don't just read about it - study the top players, perhaps get a coach, and practice!

Kenta Matsudaira - Japan's Next Number One?

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master.

2013 National Junior Disability Championships

Here's their web page. They are July 6-13, 2013, in Rochester, MN. Sports include: Swimming, Track & Field, Table Tennis, Powerlifting, Archery & Pentathlon.

Incredible Pingpong Skills

Here's a trick-shot video that's pretty good (2:39). Anyone know who the player is? (I'm bad with faces, but it's not Jun Mizutani of Japan, as one commenter asked - he's a lefty.) The comments are almost as funny as the video.  

Waiting to Play

Here's what happens when there's a long line to play at your club. (If you can't see the Facebook picture, try this.)

Non-Table Tennis - Tenant Termination and Credit Ratings

On June 3 I had that short blog where I explained the problem I was having with my tenant downstairs. Last night we had it out. He has only paid $400 of the $1080 owed, and insists he explained in a "detailed note" two months ago why he hasn't been able to pay the rest. I don't think he thought I'd kept the note. As I showed him, the note actually says 1) he was having trouble getting an advance on money owed and so was having trouble paying the $500 he still owed on that month's rent, and 2) that while he had lost his full-time job, he wrote "My part-time job will now be full time." We argued for a long time over this - he claimed those words do not imply his part-time job ever became full-time, and kept quoting himself as saying, "My part-time job might be full time." I had to keep referring to where he wrote "now," but then he claimed that didn't change the meaning of the note, which of course is completely wrong. "My part-time job will now be full time" "My part time job might be full time."

He said the part-time job never became full-time, though he did get another full-time job shortly thereafter. As I pointed out, he not only never told me any of this, he told me last month (when the rent was also late) that he had extra income now and wouldn't be late on the rent again. Then I pointed out that none of this explains why he hadn't paid this month's rent (due May 28), or more importantly, why he had refused, despite multiple requests, to say when or if he'd pay. He insisted that the part where he wrote he hadn't been able to get the advance two months ago explained that. Again, it didn't make sense - that part of note explained why he hadn't been able to get an advance to pay the rest of the rent two months ago, but says nothing about this month's rent. He kept insisting this like it had just happened, when it was two months ago, and (as he admitted) he'd long ago received the money owed from back then. If this doesn’t make sense to you, it doesn't. I kept wondering if he was drunk or something since his arguments made no sense, but I don't think so.

I finally had to do something I've never done - I gave him one month's notice. I should have done this long ago as we've been having these spats over the rent over and over, with him rarely paying on time and refusing to ever let me know when or if it would be paid when it was late, and acting insulted when I asked. Ultimately he had to go because of his struggles to pay and his credit rating (which predicted he'd eventually burn me), but the reason I did it now was because of his insistence that it wasn't his responsibility to let me know when or if he'd be able to pay rent, and because of his incredible temper - he was screaming at me about how I was reading his note wrong, how I wasn't being fair, etc.

A year ago someone checked his credit rating for me, and it turned out to be incredibly low, something like the bottom 1%. (I forget the actual number.) Not checking his credit rating (and judiciary record for domestic violence and a few other things) before renting to him was a huge mistake that'll never happen again. (He was from the same high school I went to, three years ahead, though we'd never met.) I checked my credit rating yesterday - mine is 822 (from Equifax). I've never missed a payment, whether on my house, car, credit card, etc.

Anybody looking for a room or two floors to rent in Germantown, Maryland, about ten minutes from MDTTC? If so, contact me.

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