Full-Time Clubs

The biggest change in the game over the past six years or so is the rise of the full-time table tennis club. There were about ten in December 2006 when I did a presentation to USA Table Tennis, trying to convince them to get into the business of recruiting and training of coaches and directors to set up such centers and junior training programs. (Nothing came of that - two board members literally laughed at the idea. I blogged about this on January 4, 2012 while writing about "USA Cadet Depth.") Anyway, since then the number of full-time clubs has skyrocketed as coaches see how others doing them so successfully. Here's my current list of 56 full-time table tennis clubs in the USA.

The biggest stumbling block for those who are setting up these centers is that there is no manual on how to do it. Each time they have to re-invent the wheel. It's not quite that bad - they can see others doing it successfully, and so know it can be done, and they have others to ask advice on how to do it. I don't have time to put one together. (I do way too many volunteer activities already.)

Nearly all of these full-time clubs have copied the rough formula made successful at my club, the Maryland Table Tennis Center, which opened in 1992. We were the first full-time club in the U.S. centered on coaching and training. (There have been others that were league-centered, with part-time coaching, but our emphasis was toward coaching, especially junior training programs.) Many didn't think it would work, arguing that there weren't enough players for a full-time center, similar to the arguments made at the 2006 Board meeting. What they don't understand is the primary point of a full-time center is to attract new players. It is coaching and training that turn recreational players (there are millions of them) into serious players. I'd say "duh," but I've come to learn that this isn't as obvious to many as it is to those who are actively doing it.

I've advised many of those starting these centers, and those I've advised have advised others, and the "how to" of setting up a full-time training center has literally spread word of mouth. Here are a few guidelines.

1. Center it around the coaches. From a financial point of view, the purpose of the coaches is to bring players in, not to make lots of money off of. You want coaches who want lots of students, and will go out and find these students. When they bring in a new student, the club usually gets a new player who buys membership, equipment, refreshments, pays to play in tournaments and leagues, to attend training sessions and/or junior programs, and to attend clinics and camps. That's where the money comes from.
2. Have multiple coaches. I find you want about one full-time coach for every four tables in the club. So if you have eight tables, you need at least two. If you open a large center with, say, 20 tables, you'll want about five. (Don't bring them all in at once; start with two, then bring more in.) It helps to have at least one "name" coach or player, but that's not that necessary. You can usually build up any good coach as a "name" coach.
3. Let the coaches make good money. If you want a coach who will work long hours, let him keep the bulk of his money. For example, if the coach charges $50/hour, he keeps $40, the club gets $10. (That's the MDTTC standard.) You want a coach with lots of incentive to bring in lots of students and work those long hours. You don't get that if you do what some clubs have tried, where they keep a high percentage of the coaching fees.
4. Have multiple revenue sources. The club should get money from membership, coaching fees, training sessions, junior programs, clinics & camps, tournaments, leagues, and equipment and refreshment sales. Make sure the coach understands that he needs to guide interested students towards these programs and sales.
5. Keep the place clean and neat, with good playing conditions. You don't need a Taj Mahal as long as the place looks neat and clean, with good floors and lighting, and enough room. Put up a few table tennis posters and you're set.

The Rise of Dimitrij Ovtcharov

Here's an interesting article from ITTF on Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov, who is now ranked #7 in the world. Along with Timo Boll (#5) and Bastian Steger (#25), is Germany a legitimate threat to the Chinese? More important, how the heck do you pronounce Dimitrij Ovtcharov?

Lily Yip Featured

Here's an article on two-time USA Olympian Lily Yip.

Gal Alguetti's Serve

Here's his last serve in a match at the Teams in Baltimore - not to mention the nice return and Gal's follow! Gal was leading 10-0 at this point against what he described as a 2000 player.

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Tip of the Week

The Backhand Loop and Hit One-Two Punch.

Time-Wasting Stuff

This last month I've had so many things to do, and so many didn't get done because of too much time-wasting stuff. This has had a detrimental effect on finalizing my new book Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers (which should be done before the Nationals, but I probably won't have copies there), doing some video coaching and analysis, and various MDTTC and other table tennis activities. Here are some of the things that have wasted my time the past few weeks.

• I spent much of last week with a cold.
• Thanksgiving, the Teams (three days), and the exhaustion that comes from it.
• I'm always getting requests for table tennis info. Some of it is easy and doesn't really take up time. Others are more time consuming. For example, someone wanted to know what year the USATT ratings started. That took some research - as near as I can tell, the plan came out in 1972, and they were published for the first time in 1973. (I started in 1976, so this was just before my time.) Even Tim Boggan didn't know of the top of his head, so I did the research myself, mostly by going through his history books.
• A guy on Facebook posted a note attacking Chinese students. Apparently there's this group that believes that the vast majority of Chinese college students in the U.S. are infiltrators sent here by the Chinese government, they are nearly all economics majors, and that they are here to take over the U.S.  I asked what his evidence was, and pointed out that I work with many of these Chinese students, and they seem pretty normal to me. The response was about two days of all-out attacks on me by two idiots, who claimed I was a backer of the Chinese and Korean governments and other made-up stuff. What a waste of time that was. I can no longer even see the attacks as the two later blocked me. Much of it was later deleted by Facebook after I complained - there was some nasty stuff.
• Christmas shopping.
• Working and reworking out dates for the MDTTC Tournament schedule. We actually worked them out a while ago, but there were some conflicts, and we had to change most of them.
• It seems every time I'm about to get some work done, I get an unexpected coaching request. Well, at least they are paying for it!
• Too many good movies out there. You can't seriously expect me to continue to exist without seeing Argo, Flight, Killing Them Softly, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Red Dawn, Rise of the Guardians, Skyfall, and Wreck-It-Ralph? (We can ignore the Twilight saga, of course.) Yeah, I use movies as a break, and see about one a week. (Always with a small popcorn, easy on the butter, and a small cherry coke.)

The Physical Side of Table Tennis

Here's an article by Seth Pech, The Physical Aspect of My Table Tennis Game. He talks about endurance, speed, and strength, why they are needed, and how to develop them.

Mike Dempsey Memorial Open Page

Here's the home page, with results, articles, and photos.

USA Junior Girls Reached #2

In November, the U.S. junior girls team, led by Ariel Hsing and Lily Zhang, were tied with Japan for #2 in the world in junior girls teams, behind China. Here's the world team ranking list (set it for U18 Girls and for November). In the new December rankings, they dropped to a tie for fifth with Hong Kong

USA Sandpaper Team

Sandpaper stars Ty Hoff and Adoni Maropis (yeah, the actor who nuked part of California in "24" and later became a national hardbat champion) will represent the U.S. at the 2013 World Championships of Ping Pong, Jan. 5-6, 2013, in London. Here's the news release.

Dr. Phil vs. Billy Bush

Here's the ping-pong battle of the Titans (4:06) - the two TV talk show hosts go at it here. Check out Dr. Phil's ping-pong ball shirt!

Tower Table Tennis

If you thought lobbing was a dangerous way to score a point, try lobbing in this high-altitude game!

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1400 Articles!!!

I just realized that the Tip of the Week I published this past Monday was the 1400th article I've had published. (Cue the confetti.) There's a bit of ambiguity in there, as what constitutes a published article? I don't count blog entries (over 500 here since I started two years ago), but I do count the Tips of the Week. (For one thing, they are also published at Paddle Palace.) Included among these 1400 in 138 different publications are 1258 on table tennis. Here's a complete listing.

Pages I Maintain

I maintain a number of webpages. This seems like a good time to post them. (For one thing, I'm battling a cold, and this will be an easy blog to write so I can get back to bed.) Here are the main pages. Each of them includes many sub-pages.

TableTennisCoaching.com. If you are reading this, you are there. Here's your chance to explore some of the pages here. For example, have you gone over to the "Fun and Games" section? Lots of hilarious table tennis stuff - videos, pictures, and games.

CelebritiesPlayingTableTennis.com. This is where you can find 1440 pictures of 870 celebrities playing table tennis. This is the most important page on the Internet. (I used to update this monthly, but it's rather time-consuming so these days I do it sporadically.

TimBogganTableTennis.com. This is where you can buy copies of Tim Boggan's history books, History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volumes 1-12. You can also learn about the famous Tim himself! (I do the page layouts for Tim's books.) He's almost done with Volume 13! (Each time he finishes a volume, he drives down from New York to Maryland to stay with me for two weeks, where he'll sit next to me as we do the page layouts together. I do the actual layouts while he waves a finger at the screen saying things like, "No, you fool, the photo goes there!!! And I don't like that font - invent a new one!" 

Larrytt.com. This started out as my table tennis coaching page, where I listed my credentials and recent adventures. It's since become basically my everything table tennis page, where I just keep adding stuff.

Larryhodges.org. This is my science fiction and fantasy writing page. As readers of this blog know, outside table tennis I write SF&F - I've sold 65 short stories (also 30 resales and 15 paid "twitter" stories), and have two novels making the rounds. I also maintain a page on writing science fiction & fantasy.

LarryHodgesBooks.com. This is under construction - nothing much there yet except a listing of my six books. Sometime next year this will be where you'll be able to buy copies of your favorite Larry Hodges books!!! I'm currently putting them in proper format for POD (Print on Demand) and ebooks. The following books would be sold there (though I might later start selling other table tennis books):

• Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers (coming in December, 2012, though this might soon become January 2013)
• Table Tennis Success (formerly titled Table Tennis: Steps to Success)
• Table Tennis Tales & Techniques
• Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook
• Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis
• Pings and Pongs: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of Larry Hodges

Table Tennis on CNN Home Page

Here's a screen shot of CNN.com last night, with the picture of Ding Ning of China featured. The caption is, "Ning Ding of China plays a forehand during the women's singles table tennis quarter-final match against Ai Fukuhara of Japan on Day 4 of the London 2012 Olympic Games on July 31." (I think the Ding is supposed to come before the Ning.) It was part of a gallery of "75 Amazing Sports Moments" from 2012." See photo #20.

Stellan Bengtsson Article

Here's an article from the ITTF on Stellan Bengtsson, former World Men's Singles Champion and now a coach in San Diego.

Zhang Jike's Condition

Here's an article from TableTennista, "Zhang Jike Not Satisfied With His Condition."

Ping Pong Talkin Blues

Since I'm fighting a cold, this seems a good time to link to these guitar strumming songs by Dan Cole.

• Ping Pong Talkin Blues 1 (2:38)
• Ping Pong Talkin Blues 2 (2:36)
• Ping Pong Talkin Blues 3 (3:10)

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Bruce Lee Playing with Nunchucks

Here's a great video that's been going around supposedly showing Bruce Lee playing with nunchucks and beating top players. (This is the full version, 2:38, as opposed to various shortened versions.) The footage for the video is apparently from the 1960s, and has been used recently in a Nokia commercial. The amazing thing is many people believe it is real!!! (Right about now you are either nodding your head, sitting in your chair stunned, or shaking your fist at me and declaring that it's real and Bruce Lee is God.)

When this first came out a Bruce Lee fan really got into it with me, arguing that the footage was real, and that I just didn't understand how Bruce Lee had surpassed normal human abilities with his mental and physical conditioning. He's obviously Superman, Spiderman, and Zhang Jike all in one, right?

Someone obviously took old footage of Bruce Lee working out with nunchucks, removed the background, put him into a table tennis scene (made to match the vintage footage of Bruce) where the opponents faked their shots (or perhaps footage of real players, with the ball removed), and then inserted the ball digitally. How difficult is this? Go watch Forrest Gump or many other modern movies. It's not hard. Nokia obviously hired a special effects lab to create this. (The opponents, however, are obviously real players, since they have good stroking technique.)

How is it obviously not real? Let me count the ways.

1. Watch the ball. Any serious table tennis player can see that it has been inserted digitally. Bruce's shots drop like they have topspin whether or not he hits with an upswing or downswing. For example, about two seconds in someone walks in front, blocking our view. After the person is out of the way, see the next three shots, where Bruce hits the ball on the downswing, but the ball travels as if it has topspin! The third one is especially obvious - see how the ball arcs down like heavy topspin, even though Bruce has hit the ball with a chopping motion.
2. There are many examples in the video where the ball's flight doesn't make sense. For example, go to second 31, and see how the opponent's topspin return suddenly dips upward just before Bruce smashes it. As the video continues there are cases where the ball mysteriously just slows down in mid-flight or does other dips and rises that make no sense.
3. Assuming his nunchucks aren't covered with inverted sponge, Bruce wouldn't be getting spin on his shots as he obviously does. The opponents are hitting with topspin, and when hit with nunchucks - which are not going to do any spin reversal without a sponge covering - all his returns should have backspin, instead of the obvious topspins.
4. If it were real, it would have taken many years of serious training to learn to hit a ping-pong ball like that. There are no reports of this.
5. If Bruce really were this good, he'd be the best in the world with a real paddle, despite no serious training. So why didn't he compete, even once? Bruce was not known for his modesty. In fact, the obviously very good players he was playing would have reported his skills, and he'd have been recruited to play on the Chinese National Team.
6. There are several shots where Bruce returns the ball with his back turned (go to second 51), without even a glance. He doesn't just return it, he smacks a fast, incoming ball with a rapidly twirling nunchuck without even seeing the opponent hit the ball. Sorry, that only happens in movies and fake videos.
7. Bruce doesn't vary the pace of his nunchucks - the incoming ball just happens to arrive just at the right time. If this were real, he'd have to slow down or speed the nunchucks up to time them against the incoming ball.
8. If he was hitting a real ball with real nunchucks at the speed they are twirling, it would have broken the ball pretty quickly.

ADDENDUM: Since I posted the above Tom Nguyen (a huge Bruce Lee fan) and Julian Waters have told me that that's not even Bruce Lee in the video. (Julian says it's a look-alike trained in martial arts, and that the ad was created in China in 2008.) Apparently it's just a stand-in. So instead of using vintage footage of Bruce Lee from the 1960s it was apparently all created recently. 

JOOLA North American Teams Recap Video

Here's a recap video of the JOOLA North American Teams (2:45).

JOOLA North American Photo Collage

Here's are photos from the JOOLA North American Teams by David Lui

Mike Dempsey Memorial Tournament

The Mike Dempsey Memorial Tournament, a Paralympian tournament in San Diego, starts today, ending on Saturday. Before the tournament there was a four-day training camp. Here are photos by Richard Xue.

• Team USA
• Opening Ceremonies

Mike Dempsey Memorial Training Camp

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4

Ping Pong Power Puma Girl

If you believe in the Bruce Lee video, then you probably also will believe in the Power of Puma Girl! (47 seconds.)

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Serving to Backhand

I am always amazed at how many players do the same type of serve over and Over and OVER - a serve from the backhand side crosscourt to the receiver's backhand. Watching this it also becomes obvious that receivers are so used to this type of serve that they have little trouble returning it. Why don't servers challenge the receiver with more variations?

First, there are good reasons to serve from the backhand side to the receiver's backhand. Here are a few:

1. By serving from the backhand side, it allows the server to follow-up against a weak return with his forehand.
2. Many players can't serve short effectively, and if they serve to the forehand, the serve will likely be looped. Most players loop better on the forehand than on the backhand.
3.  If they serve short to the forehand, they have to guard against a wide forehand angled receive, which leaves them open on the backhand side to a down-the-line receive.
4. Players have less reach on the backhand, and a breaking serve to the backhand can make them reach for the ball.

These are good reasons. However, they forget the most important goal of serving - to mess the opponent up. And you don't do that by giving him what he's used to over and over. Variation is key. You can serve crosscourt to the backhand with varying spin, but that's just one type of variation. Serving from and to different parts of the table are other ways of varying the serve to mess up an opponent.

Perhaps most important of all, most players have great difficulty returning short serves to the forehand effectively, and many have the same trouble with deep ones. Why not develop these serves and take advantage of this? Every opponent is different, so go in there armed with whatever might be needed.

I once played a player who could attack any of my serves with his backhand, and loop any deep serve with his forehand. When I served down the line short to the forehand, he reached over and flipped with his backhand. The solution? I stepped over to my forehand side and served nearly every ball from there the rest of the match, where I had an angle to his forehand side that forced him to use his weak forehand receive. I won.

This past weekend at the Teams I played a few matches, and struggled to move on the cement floors. So I adopted the tactic of simply throwing every serve I had at each opponent, with huge variations - what I call "cycling" my serves. It worked well, with opponents struggling to get any of my serves back. One opponent began backhand flipping in my short serves with his backhand. So like the example given above, I began serving half the time from the forehand side into his short forehand.

I once played a blocker where I varied my serves, and lost the first game. When I served to his backhand, he won most of the points. When I served to his forehand, whether long or short, I won most of the points. I threw conventional tactics and most variation out the window and served to his forehand exclusively the rest of the match and won easily.

I've played opponents that could loop any deep serve and flip any short sidespin or topspin serve. So I'd focus on short backspin and no-spin combinations. Amazingly, after a steady diet of those serves, sudden deep serves or short sidespin or topspin serves suddenly became effective.

Every opponent is different. When serving to different opponents, you should be different as well. (See also this week's Tip of the Week, Serving Short to Forehand and Long to Backhand, where I talk about making the receiver cover seven feet of diagonal table while turning him into a pretzel.)

Ian (and Mitch) Seidenfeld

Here's an ITTF article on Ian Seidenfeld, 11, the youngest competitor at the Mike Dempsey Memorial Tournament, a Paralympian tournament in San Diego, Nov. 29 - Dec. 1.

Primorac vs. Maze Point

Here's a 59-second video of "Primorac's Greatest Point," where he's ripping ball after ball against a lobbing, fishing, and counterlooping Michael Maze.

Auburn University Campus Table Tennis

Here's their outdoor ping-pong center!

Kid vs. Cat - the Showdown!

Here's a 35-second video of a kid and a cat playing table tennis - really! Sort of.

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Tip of the Week

Serving Short to Forehand and Long to Backhand.

JOOLA North American Teams

I spent the weekend mostly coaching at the Teams in Baltimore. Since my family lives on the west coast (Oregon and California), I spent my third straight Thanksgiving with Tong Tong Gong and his family - they served a vintage Thanksgiving meal with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry juice, an incredibly good bread that's a family recipe, and a number of other items, including a few Chinese dishes. (They also had 17 relatives over.) I ate more at that meal than I have at any meal in years - and I mean this literally. Since they live only 20 minutes from the playing hall, I stayed at their house for the weekend, as I did the last two years. (I live an hour away.)

The number of teams was down a bit, from last year's 196 to 158. Part of this is because of the new Butterfly Teams in Columbus - see segment below. Some have written that that tournament had no effect on the Teams in Baltimore, but that's absurd - I know of at least 10-12 teams that regularly play in Baltimore that went to Columbus this year, and that's just the ones I know. I'd guess they lost at least 20 or more teams to Columbus. At $800/team, that's at least $16,000 in lost revenue.

While I'm never happy playing on cement, as most matches at the Teams (both Baltimore and Columbus), Open, and Nationals are played on, there's not a lot that can be done about that. However, I was happy to see (yes, that's a pun) that the lighting was greatly improved this year, as part of a renovation at the Baltimore Convention Center. The tournament ran on time, with two tables assigned to every team match we played. They also had much better prizes this year, giving out nice crystal prizes to the division winners that the players seemed happy with.

Here's a picture of the Division One Champions, Atlanta Table Tennis Academy, holding the crystal prizes. (Picture is care of Tom Nguyen from North American Table Tennis.) L-R: Tournament President Richard Lee, Feng Yijun, Liu Jikang, Li Kewei, Coach Wang, Timothy Wang, Wang (Eugene) Zhen, and Referee Bill Walk.

However, this will be the last year it'll be in Baltimore. Next year it's moving to the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at the National Harbor, just south of Washington D.C.

Because I was there primarily as a coach, I didn't see much of the finals - just the last match in fact. I played as a part-time player for the NOVA team, playing in three ties where I beat a couple of 2150 to 2200 players and several 1950 players, went five with a 2300+ player, and lost to a 2050 player who moved me around on the slippery cement and then smashed over and over. When I did win points, it was usually off my serves, which gave everyone fits and covered up for my growing lack of mobility. Alas, I don't practice any more (I'm just a coach), and at 52 I'm too stiff and slow to play the way I used to. In my mind, I'm still greased lightning, but once at the table....

It is a grueling tournament, designed for true table tennis warriors. Play began Friday at 9AM, with most teams playing team matches at 9AM, 11AM, 2PM and 4PM, with these matches deciding what division you would get into. (Most teams played two higher teams and two lower teams, though of course this was adjusted for the highest and lowest teams.) On Saturday teams played five more team matches (9AM, 11AM, 2PM, 4PM, and 7PM), and two more on Sunday (9AM and 11AM), with crossovers at 2PM and 4PM. This is a true players tournament.

Tong Tong, just turned 15, didn't start out well, and I'm not going to get into that. He played well on Saturday night, and if he plays like that he might be in the mix for the USA junior team trials coming up in three weeks. He's been on the cadet team the last two years - top four in country - but is now ineligible, but has three years to try out for the junior team. I coached him here, and will be coaching him and Derek Nie at Nationals. Derek, 11, will be trying out for the mini-cadet and cadet teams.

I coached Derek in a number of his matches, and he had a great tournament. He came in at 2139 (from a high of 2170 recently), and pretty much blitzed everyone. He beat about ten players between 2100 and 2200 with, I think, only one loss in that range. He beat three or four players in the 2250 range (one of them from down 5-10 in the fifth), and he beat a 2438 player. He, Crystal Wang, Heather Wang, and Bernard Lemal combined to win Division 3, going 7-0 in the round robin and then winning the crossover semifinals and final for a combined 9-0. (So Crystal won crystal!) I'm wondering if Derek is the first person ever under 70 pounds to beat a 2400+ player?

Derek's best mach might have been the win over the 2438 player, but his gutsiest took place in the Division 3 Final. He was up against I think a 2180 player who could attack from both wings as well as lob over and over, and who played very smart. Derek led most of the first game but lost 11-9. He led 9-8 in the second and was basically lobbed down three straight points. Between games we talked tactics, then I told him if he wanted to win this match, he'd have to win it here (I tapped his head) and here (I tapped his heart). He nodded, and I knew we were in for a long match. Derek won the next game somewhat close, and the fourth easily. In the fifth, the opponent made a diving, lobbing return on the edge, looped a winner, and then got a net dribbler to go up 3-0. After a timeout, Derek only gave up one more point as he won, 11-4.

Crystal, 10, also had an amazing tournament. (I coached a few of her matches.) She beat a 2500+ player, a number of 2250 players, and I don't think lost to anyone below her 2245, though I'm not sure of all her matches. I'll talk more about her when the ratings are processed - but almost for sure she'll achieve the highest rating ever for a 10-year-old, boys or girls, probably well over 2300. There's a chance she or Derek may be adjusted to an absurdly high rating - we'll see. I'm wondering if she's the youngest player ever to beat a 2500+ player?

One strange incident took place. Derek was in a battle with Ray Mack, a 2150 player, and led 10-8 in the fifth. He went for his towel and drink bottle and took a sip. An umpire who was walking by interrupted the match, telling Derek that it was not legal to drink during the towel break every six points! Many or most players regularly do this; I've been doing it for 36 years. While the rules do not specifically say you can take a drink during the break every six points, I've never seen an umpire forbid it. I checked with the tournament referee, Bill Walk, and he agreed that it was okay to take a brief drink during the towel break. It was a rather scary moment when the umpire interrupted the match as it could have disrupted Derek's focus. The umpire got into an argument with Derek's parents and teammates while Derek walked about, looking perplexed. As it was, he scored the next point. I don't think umpires are supposed to interrupt matches in progress to enforce perceived rules violations.

As noted, I didn't see much of the action taking place on the feature courts where the top players were playing. I saw bits and pieces, but not one entire match. I did see the last few games of the last match in the final, where chopper/looper Chen Weixing kept coming from behind before finally losing close in the fifth as Atlanta Table Tennis Academy defeated Team JOOLA, 3-1.

It was a fun but exhausting weekend, which culminated in my getting a mild cold yesterday, though it seems to have mostly gone away already. Maybe I was just tired, though I went through a bunch of Kleenex yesterday. Here are the final division results - playoff results are at the end.

Butterfly Teams in Columbus

While the JOOLA North American Teams were held in Baltimore, the Butterfly Teams were held in Columbus, Ohio. Here are the results, and here's a listing of the players on each team so you can match them with the teams in the results.

Ariel's Speech

Here's Ariel Hsing's acceptance speech as San Jose Female High School Athlete of the Year (3:11). Ariel, 17, has been the U.S. Women's Singles Champion the last two years, and is a 2012 Olympian.

Table Tennis Legends

Here's a video (54:27) of old-time legends playing in the English Table Tennis Association 70-year anniversary gala in 1994. Names include Istvan Jonyer, Gabor Gergely, Klampar Tibor, Milan Orlowski, Janos Takacs, Jacques Secretin, Vincent Purkart, Ferenc Sido, Janos Fahazy, Mihaly Bellak, Tibor Kreisz. Perhaps most interesting is 73-year-old Ferenc Sido (6'4", 240 lbs at his peak, yet still able to move around and chop!), the last hardbat player to win Men's Singles at the Worlds (in 1953, also making the final in 1959). He is shown from 0:52 to 4:54.

Time-Stopping Exhibition Video

This video (1:39) starts as a regular exhibition, with a behind-the-back return, etc., but watch what happens about 13 seconds in!

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Teams Aftermath

It's official: I have a cold. I spent the last three days mostly coaching kids at the North American Teams, and somewhere along the way probably got exposed. I've been doing this blog for almost two years, and except for major holidays and when I'm out of town, I don't think I've missed a day. But since I normally take holidays off, and yet I did a blog on Thanksgiving, I'm taking today off both as a sick day and as my unofficial Thanksgiving holiday. I'll have turkey soup for lunch. (The Tip of the Week will also go up tomorrow.)

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Happy Thanksgiving!!!

See my Thanksgiving links at the end of this blog.

Malware warnings all gone

It took a while, and I had to hire Sucuri Securities, but all the problems are over with Google blacklisting the site for malware that was long gone. Our long national nightmare is over. Or at least mine is. (One complication - apparently you might get a false malware warning if you visited the site recently. If so, clear your cache - sorry! - and it'll go away. That's what happened to me.)

No Blog Friday

I'll be coaching (and playing part-time) Fri-Sun at the North American Team Championships. Here's a preview picture!

Crystal Wang Enters the Stratosphere

Crystal Wang, age 10, is now rated 2245. This is by far the highest rating ever achieved by a girl at that age, and the second highest for anyone that age, boys or girls. The highest rating ever achieved by a 10-year-old is Kanak Jha two years ago at 2265. (And Crystal still has three months to gain 20+ points before she turns 11.) No one else has even been close to breaking 2200 at that age. For perspective, Ariel Hsing's highest rating as a 10-year-old was 2066, and Lily Zhang's was 1887 - and these two are now both our best junior girls and our best women as well.

To recap what I wrote in my blog last week (Nov. 13), Crystal already had achieved the highest rating ever for a 9-year-old last year, boys or girls, at an even 2150. She was rated 2166 earlier this year when she began complaining of wrist problems, and had three poor tournaments in a row, dropping to 2099 - still #1 in the country for Under 11, Under 12, and Under 13. They x-rayed the wrist and discovered she'd been playing with a fractured (i.e. broken) wrist. So she had to take most of the summer off. She started up again at the end of the summer, and now she's even better than before. At the Potomac Open she defeated players rated 2334, 2240, 2205, and 2149, without losing to anyone under 2200. It's no fluke as she just before the Potomac Open she defeated two players over 2300 to make the final of the MDTTC Elite League. (Crystal trains at the Maryland Table Tennis Center.)

Crystal (yes, she was born in the U.S.) plays a very modern two-winged looping game, hitting and looping on both sides. She's a member of the USA Cadet Girls' Team, making the team last year as a 9-year-old competing in an under 15 event. She trains long hours, day after day, with Coach Jack Huang her primary coach, though she also trains with the MDTTC coaches and players. She and Amy Wang (no relation, a year younger, coincidentally rated 2099, from NJ) are essentially Ariel & Lily, Part II, east coast version - the new Dynamic Duo, but rated even higher for their ages. The Walloping Wangs? But they both have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to follow in the huge footsteps of Ariel and Lily. 

And to think I'll have to write about this all over again if Crystal breaks 2265 in the next three months....Jeez.

Just to be clear, I'm not obsessed with ratings, and in fact believe they often hurt the sport, especially at the junior stage. (Here's my article on Juniors and Ratings, which I also linked to yesterday.) But they are usually a pretty decent indicator of level.

Update: 2013 USA Junior and Cadet National Team Selection Procedures

There's a mysterious change in the USA Junior and Cadet Team Selection Procedures. Here's the note from the USATT web page - it sure would be helpful to have some hint on why they withdrew the previous procedures. Below is the text from the message:

• The previously published selection procedures for the 2013 Junior and Cadet National Teams are hereby withdrawn.  The High Performance Committee will promptly review and revise those procedures, subject to the approval of the Athletes’ Advisory Council.   The selection procedures then will be republished.
• As previously announced, the 2013 Junior and Cadet Trials will be conducted in Las Vegas at the U.S. National Championships on Dec 18 – 22, 2012.  All entries have been received, and all who entered will compete for spots on the National Team.
• The revised 2013 Selection Procedures will be posted on the USATT website NO LATER THAN Dec. 10, 2012.

The Power of Zhang Jike

Here's a musical highlights video of World Men's Singles Champion Zhang Jike (6:07).

Jean-Philippe Gatien

Here's a highlights reel (5:02) of 1993 World Men's Singles Champion Jean-Philippe Gatien, often called the fastest man in table tennis. (He and 2004 Olympic Men's Singles Gold Medalist Ryu Seung Min should have a race!) The key thing to see when you watch Gatien play is how much of the table he covers with his forehand without backing up.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Last year I did an entire blog on Thanksgiving and Table Tennis. Rather than try to up that, I'll simply link to it so you can again enjoy these nine items, including the Table Tennis Thanksgiving Turkey.

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Quick Note on Malware

Most or all of the malware warning problems I blogged about previously seem to be gone, but there might still be some traces left of whatever got the site blacklisted on Google. If you are reading this, you arrived here successfully, so all's well with the world.

Merit Badges for Table Tennis?

As noted in my blog on Monday, there's a great proposal on the USATT web page (by Diego Schaaf and Wei Wang) to award "merit badges" for achieving various rating levels. Read it over and see what you think.

I've always argued that players take ratings way too seriously, and that they are, in general, a very bad thing for junior players. (Here's my article Juniors and Ratings.) Because of ratings players (especially juniors) tend to focus on immediate results instead of long-term improvement; it makes them nervous when they play as they worry about their rating (and this nervousness becomes a habit); and it often causes them not to play tournaments so they can protect their rating (thereby losing valuable tournament experience and so falling behind their peers).

I've always found the bridge system to be intriguing. In bridge, you cannot go down in rating; you only go up. This gives incentive to play more as you try to go up. It's not as accurate a system, but it incentive to compete. Given a choice between an inaccurate system with zillions of players (such as the American Contract Bridge League with 160,000 members), or a more accurate one with 8000 (USATT says hi), I have 152,000 reasons to go with the less accurate system. (This is a simplistic version of a more complex argument I won't go into here.)

The strength of the proposed system by Diego and Wei is that it gives incentive to keep playing as you get merit badges for going up, but unlike rating points, they aren't taken away when you go down. Sure, you might blow your current rating, but you'll still have that merit badge to show how good you were, plus every time you go out there you know there's a chance you might have that great day where you beat everyone and win ANOTHER merit badge!

As I wrote in my blog on Monday, similar suggestions have come up in the past, but three things always stopped it: 1) What should be awarded for these achievements - belts, like in martial arts? Pins? Badges? Certificates? etc.; 2) Few ever put together an actual proposal such as this eon, and 3) No one ever follows up on it.

There is the question of who pays for the merit badges, but that's a no-brainer to me. It's the responsibility of the player who achieves the new level to apply and pay for the merit badge. If it's not worth the small payment needed to pay for the badge and the office time to deal with them, then it's not worth their having.

There's also the transition period - at the start, why not let players send in proof of their highest rating achieved? It's all online since 1994, and before that there are magazines that can be copied. (Sorry, USATT doesn't owe you that. But I'm sure there are USATT members who might help out with this at the start.)

I hope someone from USATT follows up on this.

Last-minute coaching and preparation for Teams

Lots of last-minute training for the Teams in Baltimore and Ohio! I'm writing this blog the night before (Tuesday night) because I have to be up early to coach this morning. (Or should that be tomorrow morning since I'm writing it tonight, the night before the morning that the blog goes up? Never mind.) I've even got some coaching on Thursday. (I expect to blog on Thanksgiving morning, but perhaps a shorter one.)

I'm primarily going to be coaching, but I was talked into playing as a part-time fifth player by two of my students. I'm only committed to playing about one team match per day. The rest of the time I'll be coaching. (I'm mostly coaching Tong Tong Gong. At the Nationals I'll be working with him and Derek Nie.)

ITTF Video World Cup

There are now 17 entries in the ITTF Video World Cup. Take some time and watch them - they're pretty good. Of course the one I most like is "TTism (in slow motion)," by Richard Heo. Why? Because I'm in it!!! (I show up for about three seconds at 1:29, cheering silently and motionlessly for Raghu Nadmichettu, who is celebrating a win silently and motionlessly. That segment was filmed at the Maryland Table Tennis Center.) Here's the info page for the contest. First and second places are $5000 and $2500. Deadline to enter is Nov. 30. Oh, and it turns out you can vote once every 24 hours! So vote, and vote often.

2013 USA Team Trials

Here's a short news item from USATT: "The 2013 National Team Trials will be held on February 7-10, 2013, at the Top Spin Club in San Jose, CA. Prospectus and entry form will be posted on USATT webpage."

Reverse Forehand  Pendulum Serve

Here's an article and photo sequence on a version of the reverse forehand pendulum serve by world #27 Sayaka Hirano.

Ma Long Dong a Split?

Now here's a great picture of China's Ma Long looping from the backhand corner. Not sure if he's going to recover for the block to his wide forehand.

Table Tennis iPhone App

Here's the new TTProPlanner Promo - "for those of you who would like to plan/review your Table Tennis training" - on video, or read about it at the app store.

Terese Terranova in Broward County Hall of Fame

Here's a short article from Table Tennis Nation on wheelchair player and coach Terese Terranova's induction into the Broward Country Hall of Fame.

The Passion of Table Tennis

Here's another new highlights video (4:18). This one starts off by building tension as we watch the players get up and prepare for the tournament.

Ariel Hsing, Athlete of the Year

Here's a video about a minute long showcasing Ariel Hsing as the 2012 San Jose Female High School Athlete of the Year.

The Ping-Pong Dance on ABC Good Morning America

Here it is! (It's about one minute long, where they show Adam Bobrow doing one of his patented celebratory dances after winning a point.)

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Malware Update

I got up early this morning so I could get the blog done and go straight to work on the U.S. Hall of Fame Program, with the hope that I could finish that soon and go back to work on the page layouts of "Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers." The first thing I found was an email from Sucuri Securities that the site was now not only malware free, but was no longer blacklisted by Google. Yippee!!! Life was good again. I could go back to focusing on table tennis rather than various painful deaths for malware developers. 

So I clicked on the link I have that says "New blog entry," and immediately received a malware warning. (This was in Chrome.) After some checking, I found the malware warnings are erratic. On the main links to the left only "Chat room" gets a malware warning. (And I've never even used the chat room - I'll probably remove it soon.) When I do a search of the site (see field on top left) I get a malware warning. And of course if I try to do a new blog entry (like this one), I get a malware warning. I also can't seem to call the blog up at all in Explorer. (If you are reading this in Explorer, could you let me know?)

But there's apparently no malware, just the warnings from Google due to the blacklisting that seemingly won't go away. And yesterday there were a lot fewer reads than usual - obviously a lot of people are getting these false malware warnings. 

So I'm going to skip the blog today, and discuss the situation with Sucuri Securities.