MDTTC October Open and Tournament Scheduling

This weekend I'm running the MDTTC October Open in Gaithersburg, Maryland (that's USA). Come join us for a weekend of competitions! Top entries so far include Wang Qing Liang (2621), Chen Bo Wen (2516), Raghu Nadmichettu (2328), and Nathan Hsu (2310), and I expect a few more. We're giving away $2600 in prize money, and much larger trophies than before. If you are playing in the tournament, here's my Ten-Point Plan to Tournament Success.

For those of you scared of facing under-rated juniors who spent all summer training in our camps, relax - most gained a zillion points in our last tournament. Besides, if you do lose to a 60-pound kid with a rating 500 points lower than his level, it'll be something to talk about years from now when that player becomes a superstar. It's sometimes fun to watch these up-and-coming kids and guess which ones are going to become the superstars. Also, remember that if one of these kids has a really good tournament - including a win over you - he'll get an adjusted rating, and you'll only lose rating points to the adjusted rating, not his starting one. In fact, by losing to him in an upset, you greatly increase the chances of his getting adjusted!

There's a downside to my running these tournaments - it conflicts with my coaching schedule, where I'm busiest on weekends. Each time I run one I have to do a series of cancellations, postponements, reschedulings, and substitutions. For some players with less flexible schedules, it means they miss their weekly session, which isn't always fair to them. I may have to recruit someone to take over to run our tournaments next year. (Any volunteers? You do get paid! Not a huge amount, but at least $200 per tournament, more if there's a good turnout.)

We could also use a few more umpires. We have a referee, of course, but for umpires we often have to hen-peck someone into going out there. There are only a few certified umpires locally. I'm a certified umpire, but I'm running the tournament. (For those not clear on this, referees make sure the rules are followed - legal draws, clothing, rules interpretations, etc. - but do not umpire unless they can assign someone else to take their place as referee. Umpires are the ones who go out to the table to keep score and make sure rules are followed in individual matches. Directors do the actual running of the tournament.)

I ran all the MDTTC tournaments in the 1990s and early 2000s. (I've run over 200 USATT sanctioned tournaments lifetime, mostly at MDTTC and at the Northern Virginia Club in the 1980s, plus a few at nearby Club JOOLA, and in Colorado and North Carolina, as well as the 4-star Eastern Open in 1998.) Last month was the first one I ran in nearly a decade, and this will be my second.

There are a few minor problems with the scheduling that I hope to work out for next year, but for now we'll have to go with the event schedule. The main problem is that the events are scheduled each day so the lowest event starts first, then the next lowest, and so on. This means that the players who advance to the playoffs in each event are usually the highest rated players in the event, and they are also the ones most likely to be playing in the next highest event - and so there's a lot of conflict as the same players are in the playoffs and the new event.

If, instead, the highest events were to go first, then the ones advancing to the playoffs, usually the highest rated in the event, usually aren't not eligible for the next lowest event, which would be the next one starting. The downside to this is that it would mean the first event starting would be the highest event, which on one day would be the Open - and for some reason, the "top" players often don't like playing early in the morning. Alas. So instead it might be best to start with the highest rating events and work down, and schedule the Open a little later in the day.

The other option is to alternate events, i.e. a high one, then a low one, etc.  The downside to that is that players have to wait longer between events if they are playing in two consecutive rating events.

Pictures from ITTF Coaching Seminar in India

Here are more pictures from the ITTF coaching seminars that USATT Coaching Chair Richard McAfee is running in India.

Backspin/No-Spin Serves

Here's a video from PingSkills (1:56) on varying your serve between heavy backspin and no-spin.

Incredible Shots

Here's a highlights video of great shots that I hadn't seen or put up before (6:05).

Ping/Pong the Palindromic Book?

Here's the book, and below is the description they give. That's all I know, folks!

PING/PONG is the first palindromic book. It may be read the same way in either direction. The book stages a thrilling game of table-tennis in which the front and back covers face off in an never-ending rally. A unique and interactive reading experience! This 200 pages book was my contribution to the project Babel on demand: a monumental manifesto initiated by Étienne Hervy and Émilie Lamy for the International Graphic Design Festival of Chaumont.

"Life with Elizabeth" Ping-Pong, Part 2

Yesterday I linked to a video of a humorous ping-pong routine from the 1952-1956 TV show "Life with Elizabeth," starring Betty White. (It starts about 30 seconds in and lasts about four minutes.) It turns out they had another one, in the episode entitled "Remorse Code." Here's the video, with the link taking you directly to where the table tennis starts (at 16:19). There's a short break from the table tennis, but watch to the end (at 25:38). You'll meet the dumbest and most literal-mined ping-pong player ever. (Special thanks to Scott Gordon for finding the "Life with Elizabeth" video from yesterday, and to Jay Turberville for finding the one today.)

***

Send us your own coaching news!

Creating Spin

Yesterday I was coaching a junior (who is mostly a hitter) on his forehand loop against backspin, and later on his serve. In both cases he had difficulty in creating spin because he tended to start with his racket mostly behind the ball, both when looping and serving, rather than from below (when looping against backspin) and from above or from the side when serving backspin or sidespin. He also didn't backswing enough to give himself time to accelerate into the ball, which allows you to snap the forearm and then the wrist into the ball like the tip of a whip.. These are common problems, especially for hitters.

Hitters, by definition, don't loop as well as loopers. I've noticed that, in general, hitters have more difficulty learning to serve with spin, and I think the two are related. Loopers are more used to creating spin, and instinctively understand the need to backswing so as to allow themselves to spin the ball - getting below the ball when looping backspin, above it to serve backspin, and to the side to serve sidespin. They also instinctively understand the need for the longer backswing to accelerate the racket to create spin, whether looping or serving.

If you guide a player through the serve by holding his hand and literally serving the ball for him, with a better backswing, they tend to get the idea, though it takes practice for them to do this on their own. (Learning to graze the ball when serving isn't easy at first.) I've noticed that those who learn to serve with spin also pick up looping more quickly, for the reasons give above.

I mentioned above how hitters tend to have more difficulty putting spin on their serves. However, there is a corollary to this - hitters tend to have better placement on their serves, and usually better fast serves. This is probably out of necessity, since they don't have spin to make their serves effective.

Editorial Board Report

As a member of the USATT Editorial Board, yesterday I sent my comments to the chair, Tim Boggan, for the annual report. I had a few comments about the covers (not enough table tennis action), hard-to-find or missing captions, and the timing of the issues (which I thought could be adjusted so we get features on the Open and Nationals in a more timely fashion). I was happy with the increasing number of coaching articles.  I was probably most irritated by a statement in one issue in an unattributed article that "The minutes of each Board meeting and the annual budgets are now available online." They have been online since 1999, when I started the policy of putting them online as co-webmaster.

USA Juniors & Cadets Shine Internationally

Here's a USATT results listings and photos for the Canadian and Serbian Junior and Cadet Opens.

Betty White Does Humorous Ping-Pong Routine

Here's an episode entitled "Ping Pong" from 1952 of the TV show "Life with Elizabeth," a show that ran from 1952-55. About 30 seconds into the show the table tennis starts, and it continues for four minutes as actress Betty White and actor Del Moore put on a hilarious table tennis skit. As Del says, "All is fair in love and ping-pong." (I don't think there is any more table tennis in the rest of the episode, which is 25:54 long.) So which is better, this or the WC Fields routine from the 1939 movie "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man" (2:33)? There's also, of course, the table tennis routine from a 2003 episode of "Friends" entitled "The One in the Barbados: Part 2" (6:48).

***

Send us your own coaching news!

Tidbits

• The MDTTC October Open is this weekend, and once again I'm running it. Enter now, or at least by 5PM Thursday, the deadline. (Though I'll take entries at least until 7PM on Friday, and probably on Saturday until 6PM for Sunday events.) You can enter via email to me, and pay upon arrival - but if you don't cancel by 5PM Thursday, you are responsible for payment even if you don't show. If you don't enter, we will talk about you - we'll mock you and your personality, and discuss tactics on beating you.
• As promised in a blog a few weeks ago, as soon as the Baltimore Orioles baseball team were out of the playoffs, I'd start weight training again. I did my first session yesterday since early this year. This is both to keep my back from acting up again and also to get my playing level back. When you get older, without weight training it gets harder and harder to race around the court making crazy shots.
• When local juniors have birthdays, I've started the tradition of giving them "Get Out of Lecture Free" cards, applicable one time when they find themselves cornered and unable to escape as I lecture on the errors of their table tennis ways.
• Sometime soon a well-known actor will wear an MDTTC shirt on a highly-rated TV show watched by six million people each week.
• Someone's coming to MDTTC this Saturday and Sunday night to do a video special on us. More on this later.
• In "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," the argument is made that the single most important item to have around is a towel. However, to a table tennis coach, the most important thing to have around is a box. It gives you something to hold balls when you feed multiball; a target for beginners to hit with their drives and serves; something to put in the middle of the table so students can learn to hit the ball to the corners (i.e. avoid hitting the box); something to pick up balls with; a way to narrow down the table so you can have backhand-to-backhand or forehand-to-forehand games with students; and, in a crunch, they make a nifty blocking and chopping racket.
• Yesterday a player told me he was going to the Nationals in Las Vegas, and mentioned that he usually goes to the Nationals when it's in Las Vegas (2400 miles away) but avoids going when it's in Virginia Beach (226 miles away) because "Virginia Beach is impossible to get to." (He was referring to the lack of flights there - it's much easier getting a direct flight to Las Vegas.) This year it's in Las Vegas, but I've heard through the grapevine that it'll be back in Virginia Beach next year. I don't know for sure, however.
• Am I the only coach who keeps a large rubber frog around ("Froggy") as an on-table target for kids in the 5-8 age range? Or a stack of paper cups to make pyramids out of that the kids can knock over as I feed multiball, including one specific cup named Scar with a mark on it that everyone goes for? (He's a nasty cup, I explain, always picking on me.) Note that I only pull Froggy and Scar out at the end of a session; if you start kidding around early in a session, not much gets done that session.
• "Hodges" is an anagram for "He's God." "USA Table Tennis" is an anagram for "Satan But Senile." Coincidence?

Volkswagen 2012 China VS World Team Challenge

Here's the poster. The tournament is Nov. 24-25, 2012, in Shanghai, China. Here's the ITTF home page.

Incredible Counterlooping Duel

Here's a great counterlooping point between Kalinikos Kreanga of Greece and Bojan Tokic of Slovenia.

2012 China National Championships Xu Xin - Ma Long

Here's a great match from the Chinese Nationals Men's Team Final, with the time between points taken out so it's only 8:14 long. (Xu Xin is the lefty.)

Ping-Pong Wedding, Part 2

Yesterday I linked to a picture of Dana Hadacova at her "ping-pong wedding," which showed her hitting with her groom with wooden bats on a mini-table. However, I didn't know who the husband was, or why Dana seemed to have two names - Hadacova, and Cechova (the latter is how she is listed in the ITTF world rankings). However, super-sleuth Aaron Avery found out that the husband is Roman Cech, hence the new last name - Cechova. (Actually, it's Čechová, but I'm not sure if the tilda and accents will come through properly on all browsers.) There's no evidence he's a ping-pong player (she lists him as a "physical coach," but he's like this hockey player. Here's a picture.

New Penhold Blade?

Interesting grip - when you hold it in front of you, you stand behind the eight-disk?

***

Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week

How to Handle the First Loop Off Backspin.

A Commuting Weekend - Table Tennis and SF

I spent the weekend shuttling back and forth between coaching at the Maryland Table Tennis Center and being a panelist at the annual Capclave Science Fiction Convention. By great luck (or was it?), Capclave was held at the Hilton in Gaithersburg, about five minutes from MDTTC. I managed to cancel or postpone some coaching that conflicted with panels at Capclave. By simple good luck, my morning coaching on Saturday and Sunday were with beginners, meaning I didn't get all sweaty and so was able to just change into normal clothes and rush over to Capclave. So here's how my weekend went. (Panels are usually one-hour affairs where 3-5 writers or others talk about a topic in front of an audience.) Here's my online Capclave Bio - note the table tennis ice cube mention!

Panelists are allowed to display their books, and so I displayed on a mini-bookstand in front of me my collection of SF & Fantasy stories, "Pings and Pongs," and explained the title pertained to my table tennis background - which usually brought a few questions.

FRIDAY

I'm normally in a 5-7 PM Elite Junior session, but I was able to get out of it. I was in one Capclave panel, on "Comic Relief" (in science fiction), from 4-5PM. Here's a picture of the panel - L-R: Me, Lawrence Schoen, Doug Fratz, and James Maxey. We talked a lot about the comic relief in "The Big Four" (Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, and The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings), and other humorous characters. The rest of the night I attended other panels and toured the Dealer's Room, with its extensive number of booths selling books and other SF & fantasy items.

SATURDAY

I coached a junior class from 10:30AM - Noon, then changed, ate a quick lunch, and rushed over to Capclave for my 1-2 PM panel, "21st Classics," which was on what books since 2000 will become classics, and why. (Lots of nominations!) Then I rushed back to MDTTC, changed back to my TT clothes, and coached from 2:30-4:30. (In that session we did a lot of the improvised multiball drill I describe in this week's Tip of the Week - see above.) Then I went home, let my dog out and fed her, showered, and was back that night for a few panels, including my own late-night one from 11-12PM, "Shortest Fiction," which was on flash stories (under 1000 words) and twitter stories (under 140 characters or less). Here's a twitter story I wrote and sold: "Droid for sale. Minor space damage, memory wiped. Pesky hologram feature disabled."

SUNDAY

Sunday morning I coached a beginning 7-year-old from 10-11AM, and watched him make a big breakthrough when he hit 45 backhands in a row (live, not multiball). Then I changed, ate, and rushed over to Capclave for my 12-1PM panel, "My First Time," about the first SF and fantasy books we read and how they brought us into the world of SF and fantasy reading and writing. (For me, it was three very specific books. For SF, it was "The Forgotten Door." For fantasy, it was "The Ghost of Dibble Hollow." For horror, it was "The House on the Square," a short story in "Chilling Stories from the Twilight Zone.") Then I went back to MDTTC to coach from 3-7PM. I finished off the day eating a late dinner while watching the third season premier of "The Walking Dead" on TV.

Ginny's...Where East Meets West

The television program "Ginny's...Where East Meets West" did a 30-minute feature on Maryland table tennis recently, where they interviewed Wen Hsu (MDTTC officer and Nathan Hsu's mom), Barbara Wei (former member of U.S. Junior Girl's Team), and Nathan Hsu (2011 U.S. Junior Olympic Under 16 Boys' Gold Medalist). The show is about the intersection of the East (i.e. table tennis) and the West (i.e. table tennis in the U.S.). Yes, it's in English!

• Part One: Wen Hsu
• Part Two: Barbara Wei
• Part Three: Nathan Hsu

ITTF Coaching Seminar #2 in India

USATT Coaching Chair Richard McAfee just finished the second of three ITTF coaching seminars in India. Here's the ITTF article on it. (Here's the article on the first one, which I posted last week.)

2012 Chinese National Championships

So who was in the final of the Chinese Men's Singles Championships that finished yesterday? World #1 Zhang Jike? World #2 Ma Long? World #3 Xu Xin? World #4 Wang Hao? World #5 Timo Boll? (No wait, he's from Germany!) World #6 Ma Lin? World #9 Wang Liqin? World 14 Hao Shuai? World #16 Chen Qi?

None of the above. After they were all eliminated, the two left standing, and showing the depth of Chinese table tennis, were Fang Bo (world #69) and Zhou Yu (world #85). Here's the shortened video of the final (12:14), with Zhou winning 4-1.

Ping-Pong Wedding

Here's a picture of Czech star Dana Hadacova (world #97, #86 in July) playing ping-pong on a mini table at her wedding with her new husband. Anyone know who the husband is? (My quick googling didn't find anything.) She seems to go by two last names, Hadacova and Cechova (which is how the ITTF lists her) so presumably one was her previous name, and the latter is the name she took on after marrying. (Here's her official home page.)

***

Send us your own coaching news!

Topspin Rallies

One of my beginning/intermediate students in a session yesterday kept pushing my topspin and sidespin serves, and of course they popped up or went off the end. This same junior is all over the ball in "normal" topspin rallies - he's primarily a hitter, though he loops against backspin. You'd think that he'd want these topspin and sidespin serves since he can use his regular forehand and backhand drives both to start and continue the rally, not to mention ending the point with his big forehand. Many players, especially juniors, are almost robotic (in a good way) once they get into a topspin rally, hitting and countering with ease as this is exactly what they do in most practice drills.

And yet, given the chance to immediately go into these comfortable topspin rallies, this student and many others choose to push the serve back. Why is this?

I believe it's the mindset when returning serves. They do get a lot of backspin serves, and so they find pushing the safest return. And so their mindset is to push the serve to get into the rally. Except, of course, when you push a topspin or sidespin serve, there is no rally. (At higher levels, of course, players can chop down on these balls as a variation, more of a chop-block than a push, but that's a separate issue.)

At most levels, when returning serves, you have to make a quick decision: Does the serve have backspin? If yes, then you can push it. If no, then you stroke it.

You don't have to push the backspin, of course. If it's short, you can flip it. If it's long, you can loop it. You can also drive it, whether it's short or long. And you use the same strokes if the ball doesn't have backspin, except you stroke mostly forward.

There is, of course, more to returning serves than judging whether the ball has backspin or not, but judging that, and actually looking for those topspin/sidespin serves to attack rather than relying on pushing, is a giant leap forward.

$100,000 World Championship of Ping-Pong

After a long, arduous search, and after finally sending an email to the organizers (Matchroom Sport), I have finally located the home page (still under construction) for the $100,000 World Championship of Ping Pong, to be held in London on Jan. 5-6, 2013. It's the same address as the one for the one held in 2011 in Las Vegas except it ends in .net instead of .com.) This is a sandpaper tournament, so no counterlooping. (Well, you can do sort of a counterloop with sandpaper, but it's really just a fake loop with little topspin). Get ready for lots of hitting and chopping! I'm tempted to go - I'm pretty handy with sandpaper, though I'm not a serious contender with the best sandpaperers - but it's a bit too expensive for me to fly to London, not to mention taking time off from my coaching practice.

Smashing Poverty in the Philippines with Ping-Pong

Here's a 25-minute documentary "Smashing Poverty" on Ernesto Ebuen (former Philippines star, now a top coach in New York - he's Michael Landers' coach) and his efforts to use table tennis to "smash" poverty in his home country.

Wang Liqin vs. Ma Long

Here's a great match to watch (7:02), with the time between points taken out. It took place in the Team category of the Chinese Nationals, which are going on right now (Oct. 6-14). Three-time World Men's Singles Champion Wang (2001, 2005, 2007) is down to #9 in the world, but since the world rankings went online in Jan. 2001 was ranked #1 52 months. Ma Long, currently ranked #2 in the world, was ranked #1 for twenty months (Jan. 2010 to Dec. 2010 and Oct. 2011 to May 2012).

The Biltmore Ping-Pong Table

Want to see the ping-pong table in the largest privately owned home in the United States at 175,000 square feet, with 250 rooms? Yes, it's the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC, built by George Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895. Here's a picture of the Biltmore House (and the Wikipedia page about it), and here's the Biltmore ping-pong table.

Hermann and It's Kind of a Funny Story

Hermann Luechinger has a really funny story to tell about his inadvertent table tennis meeting with a music superstar. I don't want to ruin your surprise by telling you who the superstar was, but if you really want to know, it's this guy.

***

Send us your own coaching news!

Placement of Loops

I coached a lefty junior yesterday, and was working on his backhand loop when he said, "I don't like backhand looping. Every time I do it, my opponents smash." I asked him to show me the backhand loop that kept getting smashed, and sure enough, it was a soft, spinny one that went crosscourt from his lefty backhand to a righty opponent's forehand. No wonder it was getting smashed!!!

Slow, spinny loops are effective if they go deep to the backhand, but only to the forehand side of a player with a relatively weak forehand. Soft loops to the forehand are easy to smash for many players since the body isn't in the way - you just hit through it. On the backhand side, however, if the slow loop goes deep, the body is in the way and so the player is jammed, and smashing them can be difficult. So slow loops that go deep to the backhand are usually just blocked back, and usually not that well. (Slow loops that go short to the backhand, however, are dead meat to any player with a decent backhand. They should be smacked away.) 

In general, soft loops should go deep to the wide backhand, aggressive loops to the wide forehand (since the forehand block is usually slower) and to the middle (i.e. the playing elbow, midway between forehand and backhand, so the opponent has to make a quick decision on which to use, and then move into position).

There are many exceptions to this rule. Some players, including myself, are looking to step around to use the forehand from the backhand side, and so even a soft loop to the wide forehand can often catch us going the wrong way if we over-anticipate or stand too far toward our backhand side. And others try to counterloop everything on the forehand, and are often too slow to react to a slow loop, especially if it lands short. It all depends on the opponent. 

I had the student spend the next five minutes working on backhand loops down the line (to a righty's backhand), and I expect he'll have more success now, and gain confidence in using the backhand loop. An added benefit is that this junior has a much stronger forehand than backhand, and backhand loops that go to an opponent's righty backhand will tend to come out toward his forehand.

Coaching Seminars in India

Here are more pictures from the ITTF Coaching Seminars that USATT Coaching Chair Richard McAfee is running in India.

Video Profile of Brooklyn Club

Here's a video profile (7:16) of the Brooklyn Table Tennis Club, with lots of action shots and interviews with Coach Nison Aronov and others.

Beer Pong with the Stars

Here's TMZ's gallery of celebrities playing beer pong, featuring Holly Madison, Kate Bosworth, Sofia Vergara, Jay Chandrasekhar, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kevin Heffernan, Maria Sharapova, Angie Harmon, Candice Bergen, John McEnroe, and Jennifer Garner. And here's Stephen Colbert on Beer Pong (4:18). And since we're on the topic, here are some amazing beer pong videos. (And I'm a non-drinker!!!)

• Amazing Beer Pong Shots Part 1 (1:29)
• Amazing Beer Pong Shots Part 2 (1:04)
• Spectacular Beer Pong Shots. (5:04)
• More spectacular Beer Pong Shots, to the tune of Rocky music. (2:45)
• Still more spectacular Beer Pong Shots. (3:04)
• And even more spectacular Beer Pong Shots. (2:36)
• Epic Beer Pong Shots. (3:42)
• Eight-year-old beerless beer pong (0:59)

Non-Table Tennis - Capclave SF Convention

This weekend (Fri-Sun) I'll be attending the Capclave Science Fiction Convention. (It's really SF, fantasy, and horror, but we often shorten that to just science fiction.) Since the convention is only five minutes away from the Maryland Table Tennis Center, I'm going to be running back and forth attending the convention and coaching table tennis. (I have 8.5 hours of coaching this weekend, minus three hours that I cancelled or postponed.) If any readers are local to Gaithersburg, Maryland (that's USA), and are into SF, come join us, and make sure to hunt me down! I'm on four panels, so I have an online bio. And here's my schedule (it's also online):

Friday 4PM, Rockville/Potomac Room
Comic relief
Panelists: James Maxey (M), Doug Fratz, Larry Hodges, Lawrence M. Schoen
How much comic relief can you put in a book before it gets shifted into the humor category? Does humor hurt or enhance a serious novel? Does it throw you out of the story if you expect Song of Ice and Fire and get a line right out of Xanth? What are examples of writers who get it right/wrong?

Saturday 1PM, Bethesda Room
21st Century Classics
Panelists: Michael D. Pederson (M), Laura Anne Gilman, Larry Hodges, Walter H. Hunt
What makes a book a classic? What modern works, published since 2000 do you think should be added to the list of classic SF and Fantasy works. What do you think people will still be reading in 50 years? Will Harry Potter be an eternal children’s must-read like Narnia?

Saturday 11PM, Bethesda Room
Shortest fiction
Panelists: Jamie Todd Rubin (M), Larry Hodges, Dina Leacock, Craig Alan Loewen, Jennifer Pelland
There is Flash Fiction, Tweets, and Drabbles. How to write for an instant gratification society.

Sunday Noon, Bethesda Room
My First Time
Panelists: Diana Peterfreund (M), Chris Dolley, Larry Hodges, Alan Smale
Authors discuss their first science fiction and fantasy novels. Have those novels stood the test of time. Did they spur you to become a writer.

***

Send us your own coaching news!

Coaching in the Wilderness and Run-ins with Animals

I do some coaching each week on the road, including a trip out into Virginia. They pay me double to do this, otherwise I wouldn't want to leave the safe confines of the Maryland Table Tennis Center, which is eight minutes from my house. The kid I'm coaching in Virginia is five years old, and like most kids his age has an attention span of roughly from now to now. So I find all sorts of interesting ways of keeping him interested during our one-hour sessions - mostly with targets on the table (giant rubber frogs, stacks of cups, etc.) or by setting up imaginary scenarios where he has to do something or the world will explode. This kid lives in a mansion in the middle of woods - a great place to grow up.

Yesterday after I drove down their front driveway (about two hundred yards) and pulled into the street out front, I found myself surrounded by six deer. I'd driven right into their midst and then stopped my car, and rather than run, they all just stared at me as if they were used to this. I stayed absolutely still, and after a minute they ignored me. Four more joined them, and now ten deer surrounded me. As if that weren't enough, I very large hawk sat perched on a telephone cable just over the street, looking down on us like the specter of death.

After about five minutes the deer all took off suddenly as another car came by. (Apparently my car wasn't as scary.) As I drove out, four more deer came out onto the road, blocking my path. They froze for a moment, and then they too took off. A minute later, as I drove home, I passed a large horse farm with dozens of grazing horses.

I've had other run-ins with wildlife in my years as a coach. Many years ago, while spending a summer coaching in Oklahoma, I woke up in the middle of the night with a searing pain, and discovered a scorpion perched on top of me that had just stung me. Numerous times I've had birds flying around in clubs and tournaments, including this segment from the Maryland Table Tennis Center (starring a very traumatized bird and Nathan Hsu, Derek Nie, Raghu Nadmichettu, Tong Tong Gong) just a few weeks ago. A kid once brought a box turtle to MDTTC and let it walk about the club all afternoon while he played. We've had numerous dogs visit the club, though all seemed well trained. One woman at one of our training camps brought her dog, which was so well trained it would sit quietly by the table as her owner trained, never interrupting anything until she gave the okay, I think by snapping her fingers or something. The kids had a blast with it as it would lie quietly as they covered it with ping-pong balls.

Here are lots of animals playing table tennis!

Exhibition and Teaching in Guam

Australian player and coach Alois Rosario puts on a show for the kids in Guam (2:05).

Great Point at World Cup

Here's a great point (1:09) from the 2012 Men's World Cup between Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus and Chuang Chih-Yuan of Taiwan. The point took place with Samsonov leading 9-8 in the seventh, and gave him match point. Chuan would win the next two points, but Samsonov would win 12-10 in the seventh.

Ariel Hsing vs. Matthew Perry

USA Olympian Ariel Hsing was on The Ellen DeGeneres show yesterday (3:12). DeGeneres was playing actor Matthew Perry when she faked a back injury, and said someone else would have to play for her. Then she called in Ariel, who proceeded to clobber poor Perry, who was actually pretty good. DeGeneres had told Ariel not to hold back, and she didn't.

Three-Way Table Tennis

This looks like someone's homemade table, but they decided it needed three sides. And they are playing outdoors.

***

Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week:

Training Cycles.

My Weekend

I'll tell you about my weekend, and then you tell me about yours. Mine was about evenly split between table tennis and my outside interest, science fiction & fantasy writing, along with some Baltimore Orioles baseball.

FRIDAY: Friday is ancient history now, and I only vaguely remember what I did after doing the blog in the morning. I was a practice partner for our junior program that night (5-7), and unfortunately set our junior program back ten years by going 5-0, with wins over a pair of 2200 players (both 3-0, though one wasn't a junior) and a 2300 player (3-1). As I told the 2300 player, "I'm going to get a swelled head." (I'm too old and stiff to compete at that level anymore!)

SATURDAY: I coached a beginning junior class from 10:30AM to Noon, coached two others players from 2-4 PM, and then went home. (I twinged my chest and shoulder near the end of this session, which is worrisome.) Normally we have a 4:30-6:30 training session, but with Coach Jack in China until the end of October (vacation) and with most of the club taken over by the local Coconut Cup tournament (a local mostly-Chinese event, over 100 players), we cancelled it. I spent the rest of the night reading "Behold the Man" by Michael Moorcock. Isn't that how normal people spend Saturday nights?

SUNDAY: I coached a junior from 10-11AM (chest and arm seemed okay), then went home and raked leaves from my lawn and had lunch. I coached two kids from 2-4:30 PM, one a beginner, the other a rapidly advancing 7-year-old girl who is now looping from both sides off backspin, and who successfully for the first time served backspin so the ball came back into the net. Then I taught a beginning junior class from 4:30-6:00. (Judah Friedlander, a standup comic and a star from the TV show "30 Rock," came in for a few hours. I've coached him a number of times.) Then I was a practice partner for the last half hour of our 4:30-6:30 training session, where I played (and won!) two matches. Then I sped home to watch the Baltimore Orioles go to 2-2 in the ninth against the New York Yankees (first game of the playoffs) before giving up five runs and losing 7-2. Along the way I managed to watch The Simpsons and Family Guy.

MONDAY: This was a busy day, mostly SF stuff. Besides a very short table tennis blog entry, I read and critiqued two short stories for a writer's group coming up that night. I wrote half of the Tip of the Week for this morning ("Training Cycles," see above). I did laundry. I did the Junior Class Accounting (takes some time!). I put together five pages of notes for the Capclave Science Fiction Convention coming up this next weekend here in Gaithersburg, Maryland. (I'm a panelist.) At 6PM I drove up to Frederick for a meeting of the Frederick Writer's Group, which meets twice a month on Mondays. I got there 90 minutes early (intentionally) and worked more on this week's Tip while munching on a Russian Reuben sandwich and hot chocolate. The meeting itself was 8-10PM, where my fantasy story ("The Nature of Swords") and two others were critiqued. Mine came off really well - I was pretty happy - and soon I'll put in some of the suggestions and start submitting it. Here's the opening paragraph:

The two floating swords parried and thrust as they battled through the corridors of the ruined castle. Dust and cobwebs swirled in the musty air as the steel on steel clashing continued up a stairway and into a large room that once had been a kitchen, with rusty pots and human bones littering the floor by a broken table covered in dust.

Then I raced home and managed to catch the last few innings as the Orioles defeated the Yankees, 3-2. Then I stayed up late putting in some of the suggestions for my story, finished the Tip of the Week (though I'd end up rewriting much of it this morning, alas), and before going to bed, did a quick rewrite of one section of my upcoming book, 'Table Tennis Tactics: A Thinker's Guide." (The writing is basically done; I'm doing the page layouts now.) Then put together a "secret" package to send to Judah Friedlander (more on this later on!). Then I read the newspaper, read the last 20 pages of "Behold the Man," and went to bed at 3AM. 

Three ITTF Seminars in India

Here's an ITTF article about the three ITTF coaching seminars that USATT Coaching Chair Richard McAfee is currently running in India.

Table Tennis Down Memory Lane

Here's a trip down memory lane for table tennis players, with vintage video (6:40) from the hardbat era.

Pamela's Essay - Hitting with the President of China

Here is a college essay from Xiyao "Pamela" Song on her playing table tennis with Hu Jintao, the President of China. Pamela, a former player from the Maryland Table Tennis Center, is now a student at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Two years ago, at age 16, she was #4 in the U.S. in Under 18 girls with a rating of 2361.

"Ping."

 The ball spun off the paddle and hit the table.

"Pong."

The president hit the ball back.

"Ping."

That would be the president of China, a country of 1.4 billion people.

"Pong."

The setting would be an exhibition match of the best ping pong playing.

There I was, at the age of 11, looking across the green table and staring into the brown eyes of China's top political leader, Jintao Hu, at the center of an arena surrounded by hundreds of people. I knew I wanted to be the best. I practiced for hours each day to get on this stage.

With a paddle in one hand and a small ball in the other, I posed to hit my first serve to President Hu. Thoughts raced through by mind. "Should I go easy and let him win the first point? Or, should I capture the opening point?" Diplomacy told me one way, but my competitive instincts told me another. I decided to go for the point, and hoped that Mr. Hu would understand. Mr. Hu served. I held my paddle tightly and smashed the ball with a nimble waist twist. Thunderous applause followed. Clearly, this was my moment of glory, not his. I won that point and several more. Before leaving, he called me to his side and encouraged me.

 "Fly high, my little girl; and never shy away from opportunities. There is a vast blue sky opening for you." Hu said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

I took his advice. When I was 15, I flew to America.

I knew life in America would be challenging and hoped it would provide me more space to fly. The challenge to learn English seemed as heavy and bulky as the luggage that I'd brought from China. But, as I unpacked my suitcase, I began to find ways to learn English. Armed with the little insufficient basics of "Chinglish", I seized every opportunity to become fluent in English. I kept a personal diary to enhance my writing and even borrowed audio tapes; even my sister would get annoyed by hearing my iPod play "Unite 1, Lesson 1…"  I can still remember vividly how excited I was when I could distinguish between "ring" and "rain," and how thrilled I was when I was able to order a cup of tea at Starbucks in English for the first time.

I feel accomplished about my achievements thus far and am now ready for my next set of challenges to study at Penn State with a goal of becoming a scientist or doctor. I hope to make a significant contribution to U-Madison by sharing my Chinese culture, personality traits and experiences, and to serve as a bridge between China and the rest of the world. Mr. Hu was right. Fly high and never shy away from opportunities. My wings have become much sturdier and more powerful as I open them up, soaring higher and farther, to embrace this vast blue sky of possibilities.

Stone-Age Table Tennis

Maybe these cement tables in the park are the secret to China's success?

Non-Table Tennis - Humorous Ghost Stories

I did a guest blog this weekend for World Weaver Press on Humorous Ghost Stories as part of their Haunted October Blog Tour. They just came out with a new anthology, "Specter Spectacular: 13 Ghostly Tales," which includes my humorous ghost story "The Haunts of Albert Einstein." (You can also buy it on Amazon.)

***

Send us your own coaching news!

Columbus Day and Pongcast

Today is Columbus Day, a Federal Holiday. Who am I to go against Federal Law and work today? I'll be back tomorrow with both the blog and the Tip of the Week. For now, let's contemplate the surprise of the American Indians in 1492 who discovered their lands had been "discovered" by Columbus, who no doubt looked forward to rising economic prosperity due to trade in the worldwide economy with their new European partners, all of whom had properly stamped green cards and visas.

If only the Indians had foreseen the rise of ping-pong 400 years later, and counterlooping with tensored inverted sponge in 500, they could have set up training camps in their cornfields and among the buffalo, and gotten such a head start on the Chinese that they'd dominate the sport with their tomahawk serves and obsidian blades.

But for you diehards who absolutely need their daily TT fix, here's Pongcast TV Episode 16 (21:40), which covers the recent Men's World Cup.

You're still here?

***

Send us your own coaching news!

Value of the Backhand Loop

If I could go back 36 years and tell myself one thing as I was developing my game, I'd tell myself to develop my backhand loop.

Sponges weren't nearly as good back then as modern ones, and so it was much harder to backhand loop with great power without backing well off the table to give yourself time for a bigger swing. The thinking for many was that if you develop your footwork and forehand, you don't need as much of a backhand attack - i.e., "one gun is as good as two." And backhand loop? It was a nice shot, but not really necessary.

And so I didn't really develop a backhand loop until I'd played many years. The result is it's not natural or particularly strong, can be erratic, and is not a particularly instinctive part of my game.

With modern sponges you can loop just about anything, even balls that land short over the table (especially with the backhand, where you can wrist-loop it), and so players pick up the backhand loop early as a dangerous weapon. A good backhand loop gets you out of those pushing rallies (including pushing back deep serves to the backhand) that put you at the mercy of the opponent's loop. Meanwhile, I still struggle to get myself to backhand loop against deep serves (I can't step around and loop forehand every time), and against quick, angled pushes to my backhand, especially after a short serve to my forehand. You don't have to rip these backhand loops; consistency, depth, and spin are key. (You can often get away with a weak loop if it consistently goes deep.)

Just as difficult is backhand looping in a rally. These days many of our up-and-coming juniors backhand loop (often off the bounce) just about everything - or at least topspin their backhands to the point where, compared to backhands of yesteryear, they are backhand loops. This turns players like me into blockers, and not in a good way. 

Not everyone has the athleticism to backhand loop over and over, though most people can if they spend enough time both practicing and (just as important) doing physical training. But just about anyone trained properly can turn their backhand loop into a dangerous weapon against pushes, deep serves to the backhand, and against low but soft blocks. Yes, I mean you, the person reading these words.

So develop that shot, and don't make the mistake I made so many years ago.

More on Backhand Looping

And since we're on the topic of the backhand loop, here's a new video out, "Backhand Loop Training" (6:41) from Dynamic Table Tennis (that's Brian Pace). It shows Brian demonstrating and explaining the backhand loop. Note near the start how he's backhand looping against block almost off the bounce, something few players did when I was starting out (except perhaps for Hungarian great Tibor Klampar).

Here's a tutorial (4:02) on the backhand loop against topspin by ttEdge.

Here's a tutorial (4:12) on the backhand loop against backspin by PingSkills.

Here's a video (1:08) from a year ago of Chinese Coach Liu Guoliang feeding multiball to Ma Long, who is backhand looping against backspin. I don't recommend most of you try to loop with as much speed as Ma, but note that his loops aren't just speed - they have great topspin as well pulling that ball down.

Zhang Jike vs. Timo Boll

Here's a match from the 2012 World Team Championships between world #1 Zhang Jike of China versus the European #1 (and world #1 for three months last year) Timo Boll of Germany, with the time between points removed so it's nine minutes of non-stop action.

Behind the Back Save Against Saive

Here's a video (55 sec) of Marc Closset making a behind-the-back return to win a point at the 2012 Belgian Championships against Jean-Michel Saive. Make sure to watch the slow motion.

How to Win a Key Point

This player has taken his high-toss serve to a new level (0:20).

***

Send us your own coaching news!