Top Ten Table Tennis Things That Were At One Time Unthinkable

Some things to ponder! These are not in any particular order.

1. Games to 11. It's hard to believe, but over a decade later I'm still uncomfortable with it. I much prefer games to 21 with five consecutive serves. With games to 21, a player could spend the first game getting used to the opponent, trying out different tactics, and even if he lost, the opponent still had only two chances to win a second game to 21 - and if he could win a game to 21, he's just better on that day. Now if you spend the same time adjusting to an opponent, you are down 0-2 in games, and the opponent has three chances to beat you in a short game to 11. Just about anyone decent has a chance in a game to 11. As to serving, with five consecutive serves you could really use them to set up an opponent. It's not quite the same thing when you only serve twice in a row.
2. Ball is 40mm. It did slow the game down a bit, and cut down on spin. It didn't really make a big difference to me, though it does make counterlooping and fishing easier. So perhaps a good thing. It hurt the pure chopping style, but may have actually helped chopper/loopers (because of the better counterlooping, and because the bigger ball gives them more time to get in position to counter-attack). It also helped kill off the hitting style at the higher levels.
3. Gluing is illegal. Modern sponges make this relatively unimportant. Players today often forget or never knew what it was like to constantly have to time your reglues at tournaments to maximize the effect, not to mention gluing every session before playing. Did we really do that???
4. Hidden serves are illegal. But many world-class players openly break the rule. This bothers the heck out of me. We face this in U.S. tournaments all the time, where some tournaments (including junior events) are won by whichever player would hide his serves illegally and get away with it. It was worse a few years ago, so I'm happy with that.
5. There are no pips-out penholders among the best players in the world. If you had predicted that in the 1980s you'd have been laughed at, though the signs that the style was in trouble were coming out by that decade. (Who is the best current pips-out penholder among men and women? Anyone know? I'm hitting a blank. I'm guessing there are still some relatively top women who play that way, but my brain isn't cooperating this morning - I was up until 3AM on a writing project.)
6. Penholders use the reverse side of their paddles for backhands. Aw, c'mon, that's just wrong. Except . . . pretty much all the top penholders do this, and it basically single-handedly saved the penhold style. (World #1 Xu Xin and #4 Wang Hao both play this way.) Ryu Seung Min, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist and current world #21, is I think the last of the great penholders with a "conventional" backhand, and he does it in spite of his weak backhand, with great footwork and a great forehand. Anyone know who's the best after him? (A few "old-timers," such as Ma Lin, still block with conventional penhold backhands.) Of course, there will come a time when the reverse penhold backhand will finally be "conventional," and we'll have to find a new name for the "conventional" backhand. Old-style?
7. The best players in the world often receive short balls to the forehand with their backhands. No way! This is wrong! Bad technique! Use the stupid forehand flip! Except . . . the best players in the world are now doing this. This is right! Good technique! (Welcome to the age of the Backhand Banana Flip, where you can flip any short serve aggressively with topspin and sidespin.)
8. Table tennis is an Olympic Sport. Whoa!!! It happened in 1988.
9. Some of the biggest money events in table tennis are sandpaper table tennis. I believe there have been two $100,000 sandpaper tournaments. Mention this to Stellan Bengtsson and see if he turns red with anger or if he falls to the floor laughing.
10. A full-time table tennis center centered on coaching could survive in the United States. It'll never happen. There simply aren't enough players in the U.S. to sustain a pipe dream like this. I wish I'd tape recorded all the prominent people in table tennis who told me this at various times before we opened the Maryland Table Tennis Center in 1992 (then called the National Table Tennis Center), and in the years since when many believed our situation was "unique." Now, of course, there are about 60 of them, the great majority of them popping up in the last seven years. This is the best thing that's happened to table tennis in the U.S. in modern history.

My Upcoming Plans

Here's my upcoming schedule and plans.

• Coaching 20 hours/week. (Less during summer camps.)
• Blogging and Tips of the Week.
• Coaching at Eastern Open, June 8-9.
• Ten consecutive five-day camps at MDTTC, 10AM - 6PM each day, June 17 - Aug. 23. (I'll miss two weeks for the U.S. Open and the TNEO writers workshop, and possibly another for the Junior Olympics.)
• Coaching and playing at U.S. Open, July 2-6.
• Attend TNEO, "The Never-Ending Odyssey" Writers Workshop in Manchester, NH, July 19-27.
• Coaching at Junior Olympics, July 29-31 (tentative).
• Attend ITTF Level 2 Coaching Seminar at Lily Yip TTC, Aug. 26-31. (Just made that decision last night.)
• Run ITTF Level 1 Coaching Seminar in South Bend, IN, Oct. 2-6. (I may also run one in Maryland, as I did in 2011.)
• Do rewrite of my book Table Tennis: Steps to Success, tentatively retitled Table Tennis Fundamentals, with all new pictures.
• Do rewrite and expansion of my book Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis, with all new pictures.
• Organize new Junior Team League for the Maryland region, starting this fall.
• Continue to write science fiction and fantasy as a fun money-making hobby, see lots of movies, and read lots of books.

USATT CEO Blog

Here's Mike Cavanaugh's blog on Tuesday, where he focuses on Memorial Day, Paralympics, and miscellaneous other items.

ITTF's "Ping Pong Paix" Wins the 2013 Sport Accord Spirit of Sport Award

Here's the article and video (1:19). The award was given out last night in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Why Timo Boll Doesn't Play Doubles

Here's the article - but the short answer is "To save energy." As Timo points out, the top Chinese do the same. (I'd wondered about this in my blog during the Worlds.)

Guide Dog Table Tennis

Who says you need to see to play table tennis?

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U.S. Open Entries Shooting Up

They are up to 847, with more likely being entered as I type this. (They were at 835 when I started writing this.) You can check the numbers, see who's entered, and find out who is in what events here. The deadline for entering the Open ended on May 24, last Friday.

Note that there is no Men's or Women's Singles listed, or Under 21 Men and Women. These four events are part of the ITTF Pro Tour event, technically called the "America's Challenge Series." You can see the list of entries for that here. (This goes straight to "Men Entries." For women, click on the link for "Women Entries" at top left.)  The listing says there are 86 entries, which seems strange because I see 34 men and 32 women listed, or 66 total. I don't see a separate listing for Under 21 - they seem to be included in the Men's and Women's listings. The deadline for entering is June 3, so more entries are probably coming. Here's the ITTF page for the America's Challenge Series.

There's an overlap between the events - many players are entered in both the Open and the Pro Tour Events. (But there are restrictions - for example, players were told they had to choose between the Under 21 events and the Junior Team Competition in the Open, since both start Tuesday morning.) To get an exact number I'd have to go through the Pro Tour entries one by one to see if they are also in the Open, so I'll leave that to someone else. (Plus it's kind of pointless right now, since the Pro Tour deadline isn't until June 3, so there'll be more entries.)

It'll be the most entries at an Open since the ratings went online in 1994 (so you can check the numbers), and has already topped the most for a Nationals, the 837 in 2006. The "normal" record is still held by the 1974 and 1975 U.S. Opens in Oklahoma City and Houston, where we had over 1000 entries. We were also over 800 at the Open a number of times in the 1980s when it was held in Miami Beach. (I did all the computer entry input for two U.S. Opens, I believe in 1988 and 1989.) Technically, the record is held by the 1990 U.S. Open in Baltimore, where there were something like 2000 players, but that included players in the World Veterans Championships and a World Junior Championships (not sure of the exact title of that).

One discrepancy problem - numbers given online for Opens and Nationals do not show those entered only in doubles, hardbat, or sandpaper events (since they are not rated by USATT), while the listing for this year's Open does. This is especially true since the introduction of hardbat events at the Nationals in 1997 and at the Open in 1998. For those years, you can probably add 20-30 entries to the numbers. Before that, perhaps add 10-20 for doubles-only players.

• Here's a graph showing U.S. Open entry numbers, 1994-2012.
• Here's a graph showing U.S. Nationals entry numbers, 1994-2012.
• Here's a listing of the location of all U.S. Opens and U.S. Nationals in our history. There's often a correlation between the number of entries and the location. When it's run in a vacation city like Las Vegas or Miami/Fort Lauderdale, entries tend to go up. This doesn't explain the huge numbers in Oklahoma City and Houston in 1974-75 - I'm told that happened because of lots and lots of promotion, primarily from Ron Shirley.

I'll be at the U.S. Open (of course!) both coaching and playing. My focus there will be coaching, but I'm also entered in a bunch of hardbat events (Open, Over 40, Open Doubles, Over 50 Doubles) and Open Sandpaper. I've won a bunch of these hardbat events in the past, and hope to add a few more while I can still play. If there are a lot of conflicts in my schedule with players I'm coaching, however, I might have to default some of them.

Hardbat doubles has always been my strength. (I'm normally a sponge player, and coach sponge, but hardbat is a sideline.) I've won it 13 times at the Open or Nationals, nine times with Ty Hoff, four times with Steve Berger. Neither of them are playing this year, so I have a new partner - Jay Turberville in both Open Hardbat Doubles and Over 50 Hardbat Doubles. (They only started the Over 50 Doubles last year, and this is my first time playing in it.) Hopefully our styles will mesh. In hardbat, I'm an all-out forehand attacker with a chopping backhand. I believe Jay is mostly attack from both sides, though he can also chop. As to singles, I've won Over 40 four times and Open Hardbat twice, but it's harder and harder every year to play my all-out forehand attack, and I'm 53. I could of course chop more, but then my level goes down. (Also, I use a very fast hardbat racket for attacking, and it's difficult to chop with it. If I went to a slower, more defensive blade, my forehand attacks would be less effective.)

I am so tempted to enter Over 50 Men, which starts Friday at 6PM. The top seed is rated 2280, not that far ahead of me. (Dan Seemiller isn't entered - so far.) If I play well, I'd be in the mix for that event. However, I'm already in too many events, and the more I play, the more conflicts there would be with my coaching. Plus, perhaps even more important, while I can go from sponge to hardbat easily, the reverse is difficult, and after playing hardbat events from Tue-Thur, I doubt I'd play well with sponge on Friday. (Though I would be playing some sponge - warming up players I coach. Not quite the same thing, though)

How Table Tennis Players Should Introduce Themselves

I've never been good at recognizing people. At tournaments people regularly come up to me to say hi, and I'm lost as to who they are. It's not their fault; it's mine. Many of them were at camps I've run, or players I've played or coached against. So here's my solutions, as I explained to some of our players at MDTTC: for now on, at tournaments, table tennis players should adopt a new method of greeting whereby instead of saying "hi" and shaking hands, they call out their rating and shadow practice their forehand and backhand strokes. From that I will unerringly know who they are. I'm sure most could similarly recognize my snappy forehand stroke, or my even more distinctive forehand pendulum serve where I tend to jerk my head.

Table Tennista

As usual, there are lots of international articles at Table Tennista. Here are the current headlines.

• Zhang Jike's Adversary Hasn't Been Produced Yet (Videos)
• Timo Boll: Chinese Players Don't Have Weak Points! (Video)
• Wang Hao Far From Disappointed (Videos)
• Li Xiaoxia: Ding Ning Was Not Confident (Video)
• Gao Ning's Chartres Is The 2012-13 French League's Champion!
• Dimitrij Ovtcharov And Yan An Will Join Forces In The 2013 China Open!
• Ma Lin's Ummc Took The Lead In The Russian League's Final! (Video)
• Xu Xin Now Knows Zhang Jike Is A Difficult Opponent! (Videos)
• Timo Boll Pleased To Partner With Ma Long In The Doubles (Video)
• Zhang Jike Still Praises Wang Hao (Video)

Laser vs. Ping-Pong Ball

Here's a video (2:21) showing what happens when a laser beam hits normal objects, including (58 seconds in for 22 seconds) a ping-pong ball.

USA Soccer Team Members Play TT

Here's a video (5:12) from last year where "U.S. Men's National Team players Brek Shea, Juan Agudelo, and Heath Pearce battle it out for table tennis supremacy during their downtime from training."

Non-Table Tennis Writing

Yesterday Science Fiction Writers of American published my article "Fifty Writing Quotes." It's literally what the title says, fifty quotes I came up with about writing for the benefit of writers. They pay 5 cents/word, so I got $45 for the article. (Here's the direct permanent link.)

I also sold two science fiction stories this month: "Human Help Desk" (1000 words) on May 3 to Abyss & Apex, and "Tyler's Ten" (6800 words) to New Myths Magazine. Plus my SF story "Better or Worse?" came out in Suddenly Lost in Words Vol. 3  on May 23. It's been a busy year for my SF writing; I have two other stories forthcoming, "Leashing the Muse" (4800 words) coming out soon in Space and Time Magazine, and "Galahad Returns" (6300 words) in Weird Tales, scheduled for their October issue.

Stop Monkeying Around

An orangutan with a modified penhold grip. (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

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May 28, 2013

Tip of the Week

What to Do at the End of a Close Game.

Here Was My Weekend

SATURDAY. I was coaching pretty much all day. I gave a private lesson from 9:15-10:15AM, then a group beginning/intermediate junior session from 10:30AM-Noon. From 2-4 PM I gave private lessons, and then from 4:30-6:30 was a practice partner for a group session.

Probably the most interesting session was the 9:15-10:15AM session with Sameer, 11, rated 1181. I've been coaching him at his house where there's only about four feet going back. Today was the first time I gave him a private lesson at the club where there was room to go back - so much of the lesson was on looping against block, which he can't do at his house. He's going to start taking more lessons at the club for this reason. He has a tendency to stand up straight, and then his strokes fall apart. When he stays low and doesn't rush, he's a lot better.

In the afternoon one of my sessions was with John Olsen, 56, rated 1999. I've been working with him for a few years now, and now he's playing me dead even in our practice matches. Against juniors, I'm still pretty good, but more experienced tactical players are starting to see the holes in my game now that I've slowed down to sloth speed. It's not easy being a mostly one-winged attacker when your feet move like a sloth. Add that John's used to my serves, and that my blocking in matches has also deteriorated due to slower footwork (yes, good blocking takes footwork), and he's not easy to play anymore.

That night I saw the movie Epic, which I thought was pretty good. If you go to see it, early on there is a scene where the main character, M.K., takes a taxi to visit her father out in the wilderness. She has a short discussion with the taxi driver. The taxi driver is voiced by none other than Judah Friedlander, one of the stars from 30 Rock, stand-up comedian, and well-known table tennis player! (I've given him several private lessons. That's why he's the World Champion.)

I looked around that afternoon and realized how spoiled players at MDTTC are, along with a few other clubs around the country. Regular club players were playing side-by-side with some of the best players and juniors in the country. Here's a listing of some of the players or coaches at the club that afternoon, with their rating (and age if a junior - lots of good juniors!), with apologies to those left out.

• Cheng Yinghua, 2614
• Wang Qing Liang ("Leon"), 17, 2587
• Jack Huang, 2526
• Chen Bo Wen ("Bowen"), 14, 2498
• Harold Baring, former #2 in Philippines, 2400+
• Raghu Nadmichettu, 2331
• Richard Doverman, 2310
• Crystal Wang, 11, 2292
• Zhang Liang Bojun ("Brian"), 16, 2251
• Chen Jie ("James"), 16, 2249
• Tong Tong Gong, 15, 2246
• Stephen Yeh, 2233
• Derek Nie, 12, 2215
• Roy Ke, 13, 2191
• Lixin Lang, 2187
• Heather Wang, 2181
• Barbara Wei, 2178
• Larry Hodges, 2145 (I'm getting old!)
• Greg Mascialino, 2099
• Changli Duan, 2080
• Changping Duan, 2065
• Amy Lu, 12, 2022
• Princess Ke, 12, 1953
• Adam Yao, 11, 1908
• Tony Li, 11, 1799
• Wesley Duan, 12, 1761
• Tiffany Ke, 8, 1430
• Lisa Lin, 9, 1385
• Missing on Saturday, but back on Sunday: Nathan Hsu (17, 2397) and John Hsu (2248)

SUNDAY. I coached a 6-year-old from 10AM-11AM. He's up to 86 forehands and 35 backhands in a row against multiball. But at his age hand-eye coordination is a problem, so we spent some time on ball bouncing. He was able to bounce the ball up and down on his racket seven times, a new record for him. It isn't easy as his reactions at this age aren't fast enough to really react to the ball in the time it takes to bounce up and down on his paddle. He could just bounce the ball higher, but then he loses control.

I was off until that afternoon. I had another private session from 3:15-4:15, then a group junior session from 4:30-6:00. While I was coaching there was an elderly woman hitting with an older teenager for about an hour, and I realized they had been there the day before as well. I'm guessing it was a grandmother and grandson. What made it interesting is both had these identical windmill-style forehands, sort of like an exaggerated Dick Miles forehand (if you've ever seen that!). They'd bring their rackets way over their heads like a windmill, then bring it down and hit the ball. They weren't much beyond the beginning stage, but it was somewhat obvious he had learned his strokes from her.

The group session was smaller than usual because of Memorial Day weekend. With three coaches (myself, Raghu Nadmichettu, and John Hsu), and a practice partner (11-year-old Tony Li, rated 1799, who helps out in these sessions), the kids got a lot of one-on-one practice.

MONDAY. I believe yesterday was the first morning since Christmas where I didn't have either a blog or coaching in the morning. I actually could sleep late! (Except my 15-year-old dog, Sheeba, can no longer last the night, and as usual got me up at 4AM to go out.) I got a lot of work done on various writing projects.

Plastic Ball Conflict of Interest?

To quote from the OOAK forum, "It comes to light that Dr. Joachim Kuhn, the ITTF Equipment Committee member in charge of ball testing and approval, the man behind the report about how great the new plastic balls are (that was recently suppressed by the ITTF without explanation) has a MAJOR conflict of interest. Turns out that Dr. Kuhn's wife, In Sook Yoo, is one of the two patent holders, so Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn stand to make money on every new ball sold." There are discussions on this on the OOAK forum and About.com.

Kanak Jha Wins Two Silver Medals at Polish Cadet Open

Here's the pictures and caption. The events were Cadet Boys' Doubles and Teams.

What Table Tennis Is All About

Here's a new tribute video (4:50) from Genius Table Tennis.

Worlds Pre-Match Light Show

Here it is (2:13)!

Meet Coach Richard McAfee

JOOLA put together this video (2:00) welcoming him as a sponsored coach. I think all sponsors should do this with all their sponsored coaches and players.

Will Shortz on TV

Here's a video (16:16) of world-renowned puzzlist and Westchester TTC owner Will Shortz last Wednesday on the Artie Lange Show, with guest host Colin Quinn. As described by Will, "The conversation started with puzzles, then segued to table tennis, and ended with me playing Colin in a TT match." The discussion turns to table tennis at 8:46 (here). For the record, Will won 11-1.

Real Table Tennis

Outside, where the buffalo roam. (Or cattle anyway.) Or perhaps indoors, on the floor, with shoes for a net.

Cartoon Fox/Kitten

I'm not sure if this Facebook picture is a baby fox or a kitten. (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

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Memorial Weekend Off

It's Memorial Weekend, and like millions of Americans, I'm taking a four-day weekend. So no blog today or Monday. Instead, I'm spending today on various writing projects. (Oops, there goes my day off.) Then this afternoon I'm off for Balticon, a regional science fiction convention in Baltimore. Sat & Sun I'm coaching all day (and so will miss the rest of Balticon). Then I'm off on Monday. So my four-day weekend is really a one-day weekend. Oh well. I'll start blogging again on Tuesday, including the Tip of the Week.

Meanwhile, if you need a table tennis fix, why not read up on the international articles at Table Tennista? Or explore usatt.org and ittf.com? Or see Will Shortz (world famous puzzlist and NY Times crossword editor, and more importantly, owner of the Westchester TTC) on the Artie Lange Show on Wednesday (16:16)? As Will describes it, "I was on the 'Artie Lange Show' last night (via DirecTV's Audience Network), with guest host Colin Quinn. The conversation started with puzzles, then segued to table tennis, and ended with me playing Colin in a TT match." For the record, Will wins 11-1.

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Coaching Hitters and Loopers

Here's an interesting thought. For many years one of the great things about table tennis was the clash of playing styles. One of the most common ones was hitter versus looper. Over the last 20 years or so looping has completely dominated at the higher levels, leading to almost near-death of the hitting style. I consider this a tragedy - I like having such diverse styles. Note that by "hitter" I'm really talking a range of styles, from pips-out penhold hitters, to shakehanders with pips on the forehand or both sides, to shakehanders who open with a loop and follow with a smash, as well as hitters who block until they see a chance to hit. It might be better to call hitters "hitter/blockers."

While there's no question the looping style is superior at the highest levels, it's not quite as superior as the looping dominance would make it appear. What happens at the grassroots level when coaching kids is that, given a choice between two styles where one might be 1% better, nearly 100% of top coaches will go for the one that's 1% better, and so that style completely dominates out of proportion to its actual superiority. If just as many players were trained as hitters as loopers, loopers would still dominate, but there'd be a sprinkling of hitters in the top 100, and below that there'd be lots of them. Remember that it wasn't that long ago that Johnny Huang was top ten in the world as an all-out hitter - his last rating in 2004 was 2860. Liu Guoliang was #1 in the world in the late 1990s or so. The best hitters, if players were regularly trained that way instead of all being trained as loopers, would be at least 2800 level, probably 2850. Of course, the best players in the world are more like 2900 level in the USATT rating system.

Of course the game has changed - larger ball, better backhand techniques, etc. Which is why a hitter would be highly unlikely to win the Worlds these days, at least on the men's side. But there'd be players just below that level. I'm guessing that some readers, unfamiliar with the great hitters of the past, really don't see how they could compete. Believe me, they can, just not at the very highest levels.

I'm currently coaching one kid as a hitter, but for one simple reason: most of his training takes place in his basement, where there's only about five feet back on each side.

One interesting note - the chopper/looper style still survives, and every generation has a few kids coached in that style, while almost none are trained as hitters, at least on the boys' side. (A number of coaches still coach junior girls as hitters.) 

My Top Fifteen Best Moments as a Coach

As promised yesterday, here they are, not necessarily in any order. They are somewhat slanted toward recent times.

1. Coaching USA Junior Team to third place at World Youth Cup in Taiwan in 1993.
2. Coaching Todd Sweeris at the 1996 USA Olympic Trials. (He made the team.)
3. Way too many moments at the Junior Olympics and Junior Nationals (which used to be held in conjunction with the Junior Olympics), where I've coached over 200 gold medalists.
4. Coaching Tong Tong Gong to making USA Cadet Team in 2010 and 2011, where he pulled off nine upsets, with zero upsets against him.
5. Coaching Derek Nie to winning the Under 12's at the 2012 U.S. Open.
6. Coaching Crystal Wang to winning the North American Hopes Trials in 2013.
7. Finalizing my five table tennis books, which are all centered on coaching.
8. Coaching Celebrities such as Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy and former centerfielder/current VP Brady Anderson; actor/comedian Judah Friedlander; and Delaware Governor Jack Markell.
9. One of the initial two ITTF certified coaches in the U.S. in 2011.
10. Running an ITTF Coaching Seminar in 2011.
11. Named a USATT National Coach in late 1980s.
12. Named USATT Developmental Coach of the Year in 2002. (I was runner-up three times.)
13. Induction into USATT Hall of Fame in 2003 for my coaching and writing.
14. Miscellaneous matches where a single piece of coaching, sometimes outside the box, won the match. I wrote about many of these in my Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers book in Chapter Seven, "Tactical Examples."
15. Running my 200th five-day coaching camp in summer, 2012. That's 1000 days of my life running these camps. 

Crystal Wang on TV

Crystal, 11 and rated 2292, was featured on NBC 4 yesterday in this video (2:10). She's the U.S. #1 girl in Under 12, Under 13, and Under 14. And she's from my club, MDTTC! I just interviewed her last night for a feature I'm doing on her for USATT Magazine. (I learned two new things about her last night: 1) She's been accepted into a special magnet school starting this fall - she's a straight A student; and 2) outside table tennis she's an artist and loves to draw.

North American Tour Leaders Board

Here it is!

Dubai Goes Big on Ping Pong

Here's the story.

Best of the 2013 World Championships

Here's a highlights reel (8:41)!

Here's another (13:21)!

Ping Pong the Film

Here's a preview (2:22) of this documentary that opens on May 27. Cities with showings are listed on the right. "Pensioners from across the planet compete in the World over 80s Table Tennis Championships in Inner Mongolia. Eight players, from four continents, with seven hundred and three years between them, guide us through the extraordinary world of Veteran sports. Hugh and Anson Hatford’s film interweaves the competition with intimate and candid portraits that explore the hope, passion, prejudice, and immediacy of growing old."

Liu Guoliang on Psychological Warfare

Here's a rather long video (42:08) where former Chinese superstar and current Men's Coach Liu Guoliang talks about psychological warfare in table tennis. It's in Chinese with English subtitles. I haven't watched the whole thing - anyone want to report on it?

Kung Fu Table Tennis

A Kung Fu TT picture. 

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My Top Fifteen Best Moments as a Player

Here are my best moments as a player, in no particular order. It was going to be a Top Ten list, but I couldn't keep it to ten. (On Thur and Fri I plan to write about my best moments as a coach, and my worst moments as a player.) Feel free to comment with your own best moments as a player. For some reason, I get lots of reads, but few comments. Feel free to speak up! What are YOUR best moments as a player?

1. Winning Open Singles, Open Doubles, Under 22, and Under 2000 at the 1980 North Carolina Open. I went in rated about 1850, though I'd been as high as 1954 before. I was playing so well before the tournament that I was incredibly nervous going in, knowing I could beat everyone there but not sure if I really could, considering the best players were rated much higher. (I won several other NC Opens, but this first one was the best.) The best players at the tournament were rated about 2100, but with rating inflation that's about 2250 in modern ratings.
2. Winning the National Collegiate Doubles Championship in 1990. My partner was Christian Lillieroos. I especially remember the semifinals, where I was on fire and carried the team. The final was almost anticlimactic as we won easily. (In singles, I got stuck with top seed Khoa Nguyen in the quarterfinals.)
3. Winning the National Collegiate Team Championship in 1994 and 1995 as a grad student. My teammates included Todd Sweeris, Xu Huazhang, and Sean Lonergan.
4. Hardbat titles - all of them. At the Open and Nationals I've won Hardbat Singles twice, Over 40 Hardbat four times, and Hardbat Doubles 13 times. I hope to win a few more at this year's U.S. Open, when I'm not coaching.
5. Going 52-0 at the U.S. Open Team Championships in 1995 and 1996 (31-0 and 21-0 respectively.) I was a player/coach, playing with lower-rated players, but they were still 2000 players and I was playing lots of 2100 players and a number of 2200 players.
6. Beating members of the Nigerian National Team (Kazeem Badru, rated 2538, in the early 1990s), Canadian National Team (Alan Bourbonnais in the early 1980s), and USA National Team (women's team members Insook Bhushan once and several times over Virginia Sung in the early 1990s, as well as Carol Davidson in the early 1980s). I also beat a member of the Israeli National Team at the 1981 U.S. Open, but I can't remember his name.
7. Wins over Ricky Seemiller, Rey Domingo, Dave Sakai, and Insook Bhushan in a one or two month period in 1990. If you don't know who these four are, you don't know your table tennis history and are probably under age 40. (Unfortunately a couple of timely bad losses kept my rating from skyrocketing - thanks a bunch, Bill Ukapatayasakul! I lost to him fifteen minutes after beating Insook.)
8. Winning Northern Virginia Open in early 1980s, my first Open win outside North Carolina.
9. The first two days at the Teams in the early 1990s. I went in rated about 2270, and beat just about everyone for two days, including lots of 2300 players and a few 2400 players, without any serious losses. If I'd stopped, I would have been adjusted to about 2500 or more. On the third day, unfortunately, my teammates showed up late, I didn't have anyone good to warm up with, and at the last minute I warmed up with a very weird player. Between that and my irritation with my teammates, I went 0-6 on Sunday, all against lower-rated players, including three that were about 100 points lower. I came out rated about the same I came in, around 2270. But for two days I was among the best players in the U.S.
10. Winning the A Division (the highest division below the Open Division) at the U.S. Open Teams one year with Jason St. George and Bernie Pietrak. I didn't have a great record in the tournament except for one thing: I kept winning the ninth match by upset over and over.
11. Beating the two undefeated Canadian juniors in a division final at the U.S. Open Teams. We were the only undefeated players that year - I was again playing on a weaker team as a player/coach - but these two were probably stronger players. I won on tactics. Both players had ferocious forehand attacks and long pips on the backhand, which they used to receive short serves. So I served high-toss forehand serves from my forehand corner short to their forehand corner, mixed with down-the-line serves to their backhands so they couldn't cheat with backhand receives, and they couldn't figure it out.
12. Almost going five with David Zhuang at a New Jersey Open in the early 1990s. I was up 20-18 in the first but he won. I won the second (!), he won the third, and I was up 20-18 in the fourth. He won, but for a while there I was battling even-up with a 2700 player.
13. Two big clipboard matches, both for $650. It's a long story how these two matches came about, and why both were for $650. Suffice to say that both times I was challenged by roughly 2000-level players, and I pocketed $1300. I'm about 2100 with a clipboard - I've been taking challenges for over 20 years.
14. Reaching #18 in the U.S. with a 2292 rating. (Ratings have inflated some since. These days 2292 is much lower in the rankings.)
15. Coming back from down 0-10 in the fifth in the final of Under 2400 at the Eastern Open against Pat Cox in the early 1990s to win the title. Games were to 21 back then - but amazingly, I tied it at 10-all, and won 26-24 in the fifth.

Life of a Table Tennis Coach

Today I normally have students scheduled for 2:30-3:30PM, 4-5PM, 6:30-7PM, 7-8PM, and 8-9PM. The 2:30 person is out of town. The 6:30 person is in the hospital (can't disclose why). The 7PM person has a baseball game (last game of the season, with games not normally on his table tennis night). The 8PM person (actually a father and son who do 30 min each) has to work overtime at work and can't make it. So now I'm down to just the 4PM person. Next week it'll get back to normal. Today I'll get a lot of other stuff done.

Chinese Quartet and Wall Street Journal

Here's an article from Monday's Wall Street Journal on the Chinese quartet of Xu Xin, Zhang Jike, Wang Hao, and Ma Long dominating at the Worlds, entitled "Young Stars Dining at Top Table,"

Samsonov Wins Richard Bergmann Fair Play Award

Here's the article.

Top Ten Shots at the 2013 Worlds

Here's the video (5:51). These are mostly different from the ITTF's Shot of the Day I've been posting.

Carolina Pong

Here's how Carolina Pong got started - the "You Got Served" CFTTC Documentary (11:26).

Orioles at MDTTC

It's been nine days, but the visit to MDTTC by Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy and former center fielder/current VP Brady Anderson is still the third headline story at Orioles Hangout. I've been in discussions with them about our visit to Orioles Park; it'll take place after the kids are out of school. (Last school day for locals is June 12.)

Bogus Account Requests

Three weeks ago, buried in an avalanche of bogus accounts that were posting spam all over TableTennisCoaching.com, I finally started requiring account approval. Since then I've had exactly 812 bogus account requests. (When I wrote this, it was 805; seven more came in while I wrote this blog.) You can tell the bogus ones by the strange usernames they give. (Here are the last three: wtqCJyGWFn, JNQbwZFiLU, and JGIkMfzjlL. I also get more reasonable sounding ones, like joseph13pyudadaeo, but though they start out okay, the inevitably end with gibberish.) I require all accounts here to have real-sounding names, and to put something about table tennis in their account bio.

Clipboard Table Tennis

I wrote about my clipboard challenge matches above. Here's a video (1:51) that shows the dynamic future of table tennis - Clipboard Table Tennis! It stars Tahl Leibovitz and Al Papp, with umpire Berndt Mann, with Marty Reisman joining in near the end. 

Non-Table Tennis - SF Story Sales

This month I sold two science fiction stories. (Here's my SF page.)

One was "Tyler's Ten" (6800 words), to New Myths Magazine. John Tyler was the tenth president of the United States. But when he (then the vice president) took the oath of office in 1841 after the death of President William Henry Harrison after 30 days in office), his body was taken over by an alien vacationer, and his consciousness stored in an alien computer in a virtual reality world in a star system far away. There he found the first nine presidents - Washington to Harrison - since each had also been taken over by an alien vacationer when they took the oath of office, with their minds in this virtual reality environment. Much bickering ensues as you meet the first ten presidents (Andrew Jackson has spent years picking on poor John Quincy Adams), but now Tyler takes things into his own hands to save them all in an alien courtroom drama. The ending is the best of any story I've ever had - let's just say it ends on earth, modern times, with all ten presidents walking up the steps of the Capitol.

"Human Help Desk" (1000 words) sold to Abyss & Apex. It's about a computer who realizes its owner is about to click on a virus that will kill it. It only has a second to live - "That's a very long time" - so who does it call? The Human Help Desk! While parts of it are light, it's not really a comedy, more a melodrama as the two computers talk while trying to save it from the virus.

I also sold a non-fiction story to Science Fiction Writers of America for their blog, "Fifty Writing Quotes." A few years ago, during a sleepless night, I went to my computer and made up fifty inspirational and/or instructional quotes about writing. I've been fine-tuning them since. Then I submitted to SFWA. It's not a big paycheck - $45 - but it's not bad! I'll post here when it goes live.

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Muscle Fatigue and Backspin

Recently my muscles have been feeling bone-tired, especially the legs. I feel like I've run a marathon before I even start. (I know; I ran one when I was 17, and went to my table tennis club that night just to prove I could do it - and could barely play at all.) The muscles are both tired and stiff. I'm hoping this is just a stage. I eat healthy and get plenty of sleep. (On the other hand, my dog, Sheeba, 15 years old, no longer can last the night without going out, and she gets me up around 4AM every single morning to go out. Maybe there's a connection. Or maybe I'm just an "old" 53.)

One result, of course, is I haven't been playing well. In fact, right now I'm probably playing the worse I've played since the 1970s. I'm a practice partner for our top juniors, but let's just say the last two weeks have been great confidence boosters for some of them. I've been going back and forth between trying to force the muscles to operate properly ("Move or else, you stupid legs!") or falling back on tactics. ("Age and treachery defeats youth and skill every time." Or so the saying goes.) There's a reason why this week's Tip of the Week was "Tools and Tactics for the Physically Challenged."

One solution I used over the weekend was lots of heavy backspin play. I'd recently lost to one of our up-and-coming juniors for the first time, primarily because she kept going after my forehand, and my legs preferred to lounge around my backhand side despite my threats, and so I kept waving as balls went by. (Or maybe we're just great coaches and this hard-working junior was getting better?) Anyway, when I played her this weekend I was again struggling in the first game, and finally decided enough was enough. Instead of looping her mostly long serves, I began to chop them back heavy. I already do that sometimes on the backhand, but she was giving me these lefty serves that break into my forehand, and I began chopping them back with my forehand. I also backed up and often chopped her first loop back. Net result - I won 3-0, though two of the games were close.

You don't need to be a chopper to win with backspin. Here's my article Winning with Backspin for the Non-Chopper.

Non-Table Tennis - Dental Dinero

Yesterday I saw a dentist and had the shock of my life. I brush and floss regularly, and have had only occasional problems. I did have one cavity in 2012, and one back in 2009. I'd been seeing the same dentist every six months for over ten years. However, she recently sold her practice, and a new one took her place. After the usual examination and x-rays, the new one said I had ELEVEN (11!) cavities!!! This makes no sense. I'm not feeling any pain or discomfort, I hadn't changed my brushing or eating habits or anything, and yet now, apparently, I have seven that need immediate attention, and four others that are growing and also need care. Total bill for all of them would be about $2300. Anyway, I'm still stunned by this. I'm going to see another dentist for a second opinion. Anyone have this type of experience? Anyone got $2300 they want to donate to a poor ping-pong coach? (Yes, I have health insurance, but no, it doesn't cover dental.)

World Championships

Below are videos of the singles finals at the Worlds, with time between points removed. There are also a number of follow-up articles on the Worlds, which ended yesterday, at both the ITTF Worlds Page and Table Tennista.

• Men's Singles Final (Zhang Jike vs. Wang Hao, 13:00)
• Women's Singles Final (Liu Shiwen vs. Li Xiaoxia, 12:26)

USATT CEO Blog

Here's USATT CEO Mike Cavanaugh's blog about the Worlds, which went up yesterday. It covers the ITTF meetings, elections, and appointments, including a number of U.S. appointees.

Ping-Pong and Human Rights in Syria

Did you know they were using ping-pong balls in the civil war in Syria? Here's the article - see paragraph four. (Note - in the original version of this morning's blog I included a letter from a human rights group that was soliciting people to send ping-pong balls to Syrian groups, with an address given. They just informed me they don't want to go public on this yet, so I've taken down the letter.) 

Table Tennis Genius Touch

Here's a highlights video (2:40) from a year ago that I've never posted, set to the piano music of Yann Tiersen - La Valse d'Amélie. It features both great touch shots and great shots in general.

Spinning Liquid Nitrogen Ping-Pong Ball

Here's the article and video (40 sec). I think I posted a similar video once, but this one's pretty spectacular.

Just for Men Commercial and Oversized Paddles

Here's a video (31 sec) of a Just for Men commercial that features table tennis played with oversized paddles. The table tennis takes place in the first two seconds and against 20 seconds in. I have my own oversized ping-pong paddle which I use for exhibitions. I'm using it on the cover of my book Table Tennis Tales & Techniques. None of these are as big as the one swung by Warren Buffett.

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Tip of the Week

Tools and Tactics for the Physically Challenged.

2013 World Championships - China Dominates, But Was "Nice" in the Doubles

They just ended. Defending Champion Zhang Jike just defeated Wang Hao in the Men's Singles Final as I wrote this - I held back on posting this half an hour so I could get that result. You can get complete results here. It's a repeat of the 2011 Worlds, where Zhang also defeated Wang in the final. (Wang Hao won in 2009 over Wang Liqin. Singles and Doubles events are held every two years.) The final score was 7,8,-6,12,-5,7. Zhang was down 5-7 in the last game but won the last six points in a row.

As usual, China dominated the singles events. All four semifinalists in Men's and Women's Singles are Chinese. They could have dominated the doubles events as well. Both teams in the Women's Doubles final were Chinese. However, Taiwan won Men's Doubles, and North Korea won Mixed Doubles. What's going on?

As the Chinese coaches at my club explained it, the Chinese were being nice. They did have entries in these events, but most of the top men only played singles. In Men's Doubles, China's Ma Lin/Hao Shuai were in the final (losing 4-2 to Chen Chien-An/Chuang Chih-Yuan of Taiwan), Wang Liqin/Zhou Yu played (losing 4-2 to the Taiwan duo in the semifinals), and Chen Qi/Fang Bo also played (losing 4-3 in the round of sixteen to Chan Kazuhiro/Kenta Matsudaira of Japan). While Ma Lin and Wang Liqin are still great players (ranked #8 and #9 in the world), they are the "older" veterans of the Chinese team, as is Hao Shuai (#12). Chen Qi (#17) and Fang Bo (#30) are younger, but are not yet among the "elite."

Similarly, in Mixed Doubles, China only had four teams: Wang Liqin/Rao Jingwen, Chen Qi/Hu Limei, and Qiu Yike/Wen Jia. The three men were ranked #9, 17, and unranked. The three women were ranked #106, unranked, and #35.

Where were the top four men in the world, all from China - Xu Xin, Ma Long, Wang Hao, and Zhang Jike? Where were the top three women in the world, all from China - Ding Ning, Liu Shiwen, and Li Xiaoxia? Not to mention world #5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 16, and 22, all from China? Most were playing singles, but not doubles. Ma Long and Xu Xin were the defending champions in Men's Doubles (defeating teammates Ma Lin/Chen Qi in the final), but did not defend their title. In fact, at the last Worlds, China not only swept all five events, all five events were all-Chinese finals. (Here are results from 2011.) Interestingly, China decided they wanted Women's Doubles, and so of course took that easily in the all-Chinese final.

So yes, China is being nice. Other than occasionally Timo Boll, few can really challenge them in singles right now, and so they swept both singles events with ease. Even if Boll or someone else does defeat a Chinese player, guess what? He faces another the next round. Then another. And so on. And their Chinese opponents are prepared - they have spent years practicing with Chinese players trained to play like Timo Boll.

One additional note - the Chinese weren't the only top players not playing doubles. Germany's Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov, ranked #5 and #7 in the world, did not play Men's Doubles. It's especially interesting since Boll is a lefty, and so they would have had a lefty-righty team. Perhaps the Chinese and Germans were just resting their players for singles - but that's not happened much in the past, and in a tournament that lasts a week, with athletes who are used to training six hours a day, I don't really think that's the reason, or at least a good one.

ITTF Development and Education & Training Workshop at the Worlds

Here's info on it.

2013 World Championships Results and Coverage

They end in Paris today. Here's the ITTF World Championships page, where you can follow all the action - results, live scoring, articles, video, pictures, etc. Here's their Facebook Page. They do great coverage. Equally great coverage is at Table Tennista. They have articles on every aspect, going up every day.  

ITTF Daily Show

Here's the ITTF World Championships Daily Shows:

• Day 1 (3:05)
• Day 2 (5:02)
• They seem to have skipped Day 3.
• Day 4 (2:54).
• Day 5 (3:59)
• Day 6 (4:07)
• Day 7 (4:28)

2013 WTTC Shots of the Day

The ITTF has been having a shot of the day throughout the tournament. (They skipped days 1 and 3.) I've posted previous ones; here are all of them. Or you can browse the ITTF Channel for all sorts of videos from the Worlds.

• Day 2 (Between the legs shot.)
• Day 4 (Note the next-to-last shot, when the player on the far side changes hands, then follows with a big backhand loop.)
• Day 5 (My pick for Shot of the Worlds - and watch Ma Lin's expression! He's the penholder on far side.)
• Day 6
• Day 7

NCTTA May 2013 Newsletter

Here's the May issue of the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association Newsletter.

John Harrington's 70th Birthday Cake

Here it is! (Yes, a ping-pong cake.) If you can't see it on Facebook, try here.

Powerful Yogurt Ping-Pong Man Commercial

Here it is! (25 sec)

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Table Tennis Protocol

There are many aspects of protocol in table tennis. Most players lean these things at their club, and so know to act "properly" at tournaments. Here are some table tennis protocols, and how it varies depending on the circumstances.

• Handshakes vs. High Fives or Fist Bumps. Players are supposed to shake hands after a match. At tournament, this is standard. However, between practice partners, friends, and often among juniors, players sometimes give a high five instead, or even (occasionally) a fist bump. In practice, it's even more common. For myself, in tournament I essentially always shake hands. In practice, against players I know well, I usually give a high five. I do this with all our junior players, who I play regularly as a practice partner. I also make it clear that they know the difference, and that they should shake hands after a tournament match.
• Nets & Edges. Always say "Sorry" or raise your hand in an apology after getting a net or edge. It's an acknowledgement that it was a lucky shot, and doing so is considered proper, even if you aren't really sorry about it. Think of the "Sorry" not as a real apology but as just that - an acknowledgement that it was lucky, as individually nets and edges are. In practice matches, I tend to have a little fun with it, often saying "Sorry!" with the "Sor" high-pitched, then dropping a few notes in pitch for the "ry!" When opponents get them I have less fun, often grabbing the offending net or table and throwing it into a black hole and then burning down the club.
• Warming Up. The rules say you have two minutes to warm up before a match. In tournaments, this usually means hitting forehand to forehand and backhand to backhand, about one minute each. At higher levels, players also practice looping against block, and take turns doing this. This sometimes means a rapid-fire series of practice shots as players hit forehand to forehand, then forehand loop to forehand block, then forehand block to forehand loop, then backhand to backhand, then backhand loop to backhand block, then backhand block to backhand loop. Throw in some forehand counterlooping, and sometimes a lot goes on in those two minutes. In practice, it's less formal, and you can take longer for each player to warm up. What you shouldn't spend this warm-up time doing (especially in the limited two minutes in a tournament) is practicing your putaway shots - smashes and loop kills. Your opponent isn't there to pick up balls for you.
• Dress Code. There is a USATT dress code for tournaments; see Section 3.2.2 of the USATT Rules (PDF). These can be abused. For example, if the tournament ball is orange, can you wear a yellow shirt? Some umpires say yes, others say no. Some players wear a yellow shirt in the hopes of making it harder for the opponent to see the ball - but the smart ones bring an alternate shirt in case the referee objects. Others wear shirts with lots of color so as to give a distracting background to the opponent - or for style reasons. In practice, it's less formal and you can wear anything that's neat. I'm one of those players who really has trouble seeing the ball against a similarly-colored shirt, so don't be surprised if in practice I make at least a joking complaint about a white or orange shirt that matches the ball.
• Yelling and Choing. This is a toughie. You shouldn't do anything that distracts others from their matches - but many don't follow that. In practice few players yell every point (though some do), but at most tournaments there will be a few, mostly junior players, who yell whenever they win a point, most often "Choing." It's a good psychological release and helps in dealing with nervousness, but it can be a serious distraction to those playing on other tables. The bottom line - if you yell when you win a point, try to keep it down and don't overdo it.

Weird Beetle Table Tennis Dream

I was traveling to a tournament, sitting in the back seat with my fellow player, which happened to be a very large beetle of some sort, about the size of a large rabbit. I kept talking tactics with it, and it kept staring at me with eyestalks. Then we were at the playing hall warming up, and it was having trouble getting onto the table. Then the umpire put a small ladder against the table, and the beetle climbed up onto the table. Then we began warming up, my forehand to its volleys at the net. Then someone asked if they could hit crosscourt with us, and the beetle began making a braying sound (like an unhappy donkey?), and the person walked off. We continued to hit, except now the beetle had grown to gigantic proportions, about the size of a horse, and was standing on its back two legs as we hit normal forehand to forehands. Then I smashed a winner, and the beetle stared at me with its big eyes - it seemed have lost the eyestalks when it increased in size. Then it sprouted wings and flew off. The umpire declared me the winner, but I was in tears at the loss of my friend the beetle. Then someone began yelling at me that they needed the table for the next round, but at first I wouldn't leave. They began shouting, and that's when I woke up, still feeling sad about losing my good friend the beetle. It took me a minute after I woke up to realize I didn't have a beetle as my best friend and practice partner.

I got up and petted my dog Sheeba for a few minutes, then went back to bed. I couldn't sleep, so I got up and let Sheeba out for a few minutes - she's 15, and recently has been getting me up around 4AM or so to go out (I'm not happy about this). Then I went to my computer and put together this morning's blog. (It's 4:10 AM as I write this. I'll post it later.)

Why I'm Not Blogging About the Worlds

I'm not there, and others are, and they are writing about it. So instead I'm just providing links to the main pages. I've been to several world championships, but now I'm home coaching, writing, and hitting with Baltimore Orioles.

2013 World Championships

They are in Paris, May 13-20, and so finish this coming Monday. Here's the ITTF World Championships page, where you can follow all the action - results, live scoring, articles, video, pictures, etc. Here's their Facebook Page.

Team USA at 2013 Worlds

Here's the USA Team at the Worlds Page, which shows up-to-date results and video. Alas, all USA players are now out.

ITTF Daily Show

Here's the World Table Tennis Championships Daily Show - Day 1 (3:05), Day 2 (5:02), Day 4 (2:54). They seem to have skipped Day 3.

2013 WTTC Shot of the Day - Day 4

Here it is (49 sec), including slow motion. Note the next-to-last shot, when the player on the far side changes hands! And then he follows up with a big backhand counterloop. 

Table Tennista

Lots of great coverage of the Worlds here. Timo Boll overcomes the first-round curse, Ma Lin is out in his final World Championships, Japan's having problems, and lots of other articles.

Syrians Unleash the Power of Ping-Pong Balls

Here's an article in the Wall Street Journal from February, 2012, where rebels used ping-pong balls as part of their protest: "They dyed the public fountains of Damascus and Hama blood red. They scribbled anti-regime slogans on hundreds of ping-pong balls and rolled them down into the Damascene streets from a tall hill. They created phantom demonstrations by recording rallies in one city and broadcasting them from loudspeakers hidden atop buildings in another. And so they forced Assad's goons to spend time frantically draining fountains, sweeping ping-pong balls from sidewalks, and chasing imaginary street protesters."

Neymar Plays Table Tennis

Here's a video (1:46) of Brazilian soccer star (that's football for non-Americans) Neymar (full name Neymar da Silva Santos Junior) playing table tennis.

Waldner Exhibitions

Here are two exhibitions by Jan-Ove Waldner that I don't think I've posted. Here's a video (9:07) of Jan-Ove Waldner and Mikael Appelgren doing an exhibition in 2010. Here's 47 seconds of Jan-Ove Waldner and Steffen Fetzner doing a table tennis exhibition in 2012, featuring tennis-style serving and Waldner trick shots with Fetzner's hilarious reactions.

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Coaching Updates

I had some interesting coaching sessions yesterday. Here's a rundown on three of them, with their permission - plus a fourth who just won three titles!

• Audrey Weisiger - She's the former USA Olympic skating coach I've blogged about before. She is determined to win against some of her fellow skating coaches, with one in particular in mind. As I blogged about recently, she's gone to long pips on the backhand, no sponge, and it's working really well. She is getting pretty good at keeping the ball in play, can block loops and drive back pretty consistently now, and can return my spinniest serves. (The coach she has in mind has a spinny serve, both forehand and backhand.) She also can do a consistent push-block against pushes, which comes back with topspin. She needs more work on the forehand. She can hit forehand to forehand pretty well, but her stroke tends to be too long, and she tends to wander off the table, which doesn't work well if you are blocking with long pips on the backhand. Also, since her backhand will tend to have backspin, many of her opponent's shots will be topspinny - and so she needs to be able to block those on the forehand with a short blocking stroke. She's also developing a somewhat spinny backhand serve. At first she had difficulty in doing this because she has to use the inverted side and flip, so we're working on her flipping skills.
• Sameer - He's 11, and starting to improve quickly. He's about 1200 now, but will probably be much better soon. Because much of his practice is in his basement, where there's only four feet going back, I'm training him as a hitter - he loops backspin, this topspin, with inverted both sides. (I've toyed with pips-out, but I want him to be able to loop from both wings against backspin.) He tends to stand up too straight (and he's tall for his age), so we're focusing on that. And while he's quick to step around to attack with his forehand, he's a bit slow moving to the wide forehand right now - we're working on that. He also tends to be erratic with his forehand loop early in sessions, not using his whole body, but he gets into it quickly. He's very forehand-oriented, but has suddenly developed a very good backhand counter-hitting game. He's got pretty spinny serves, mostly side-backspin, but can't control them yet, so they tend to pop up a lot.
• TJ - He's 12, and is also improving rapidly. Right now he's about 1000 level or so. He's definitely going to be a looper. However, he's a bit erratic on basic forehand smashes, so the last two sessions we've been focusing on that, with multiball and live drills where he smashes over and over, or loops backspin and follows with a smash. I've promised him that in a few weeks we'll focus more on looping. (I have him loop against block for about five minutes each session right now - he's pretty steady - but that will increase soon.) He has a natural backhand loop against backspin, and can already use it in games. He tends to rush, leading to many mistakes. Often, if I put the ball up, he'll rush and try to smash it on the rise, which is erratic. He likes to step around and forehand loop against backspin, but he has the same habit I had 30 years ago - he doesn't rotate fully around, and so can only loop down the line, plus it leaves him off-balanced with his weight moving away from the table. We're working on him rotating more so he can attack with his forehand to all parts of the table, stay balanced, and so be ready for the next shot.
• And a fourth student, player and coach John Olsen, yesterday won the Virginia Senior Games, winning the 55-59 age category in Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles!

Orioles at MDTTC

I blogged about this on Tuesday. It's featured now on the USATT home page - that's me in the middle with Orioles star shortstop J.J. Hardy on left, former star center fielder and current VP Brady Anderson on the right. Here's the best photo! And here I'm instructing them on the intricacies of table tennis.

2013 World Championships

They are in Paris, May 13-20. Here's the ITTF World Championships page, where you can follow all the action - results, live scoring, articles, video, pictures, etc.

Team USA at 2013 Worlds

Here's the USA Team at the Worlds Page, which shows up-to-date results and video. Alas, all USA players are now out.

Table Tennista

Lots of great coverage of the Worlds here.

Day Four Photos from the Worlds

Here they are!

Two Around the Net Shots in One Match at the Worlds

Here's the video (54 sec).

Adham Sharara Re-elected ITTF President

He defeats Stefano Bosi, the one who had accused him of corruption, but was silenced by ITTF at the Annual Meeting.

ITTF Museum to Move from Switzerland to China

Here's the article. Here's the museum.

Patent 8105183 B2 - Celluloid-free Table Tennis Ball

Here's the patent! We might be using these next year.

Pepsi Chasing and Chewing Ping-Pong Balls

Here's the video (1:18) of Jay Turberville's dog Pepsi chasing and chewing on ping-pong balls. You can see close-ups of the bite marks one minute in.

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