Back from Ecuador
I was coaching in Ecuador for nearly three weeks, and it's been a month since I last blogged. And boy, is there a lot to cover! Here's a quick Table of Contents.

• Tip of the Week: Use Practice Matches to Practice
• 19 Days Coaching in Ecuador
• USATT Bylaws Problems
• USATT Volunteers at the Open
• George Brathwaite Tribute
• Peak Performance Table Tennis - new book by Kevin Finn
• Weekend Coaching and Halloween Party
• Everything Else

Tip of the Week
Use Practice Matches to Practice.

=>START ECUADOR
19 Days Coaching in Ecuador
I returned last week from almost three weeks coaching in Cuenca, Ecuador. I could write a book on it!!! So much happened. For all their help in these events, I want to thank USA Table Tennis, High Performance Director Sean O'Neill, Team Leader Daniel Rutenberg, the players and parents, and my three fellow coaches - Thilina Piyadasa, Qiumars Hedayatian ("Q"), and Wei Qi. I also went to thank Ecuador Table Tennis for the excellent job they did in putting together these events. I also want to thank the umpires and referees for the professional jobs they did - I had no problems with them throughout.

While in Ecuador, I went on a diet. First, I tried to limit my calory intake. Second, I stopped drinking soft drinks, in particular Dr Pepper, my go-to drink. Result? I lost eight pounds. But Stanley Hsu lost five, and he had less to lose - some of this due to getting sick. More on that below.

Here's a summary, with great apologies to anyone or anything left out.

PART 1 - Oct. 10: Arrival. There were a number of complications in getting to Cuenca. I was on a flight with Ryan Lin and his dad, Hung, connecting in Miami. But the flight to Miami was delayed, and we wouldn't have been able to make the flight to Cuenca. So we had to cancel that entire flight and get a new flight - this time connecting in Panama City, Panama!!! I have fond memories of my 61 minutes in Panama - 15 minutes sitting on the plane waiting to get off; 15 minutes speed walking through the airport and barely making it to our connection just minutes before they closed the door; and about half an hour sitting on the plane waiting to take off. Ah, the sites of Panama!!! (I told Ryan the famous palindrome about the Panama Canal and Teddy Roosevelt: "A Man, a Plan, a Canal . . . Panama!" (Of course, there's a bit more to the story, but I won't get into that.) Here's a good place to thank Steve Hsu (Stanley's dad) and Hung Ling (Ryan Lin's dad) for their help in arranging my flights - which seemingly had to be changed every day due to changing circumstances.

Then it was a 3.5-hour wild ride from sea level to Cuenca at 8400 feet altitude, a roller-coaster ride that went on and On and ON! I got pretty nauseous. Next time, on the way back, I remembered to take Dramamine.

PART 2 - Oct. 11-16: Hopes Week. This involved a four-day camp and a two-day tournament. The camp was run by head coach Zoltan Batorfi and assistant coach Rafael Armendariz - and they did an excellent job. The top ten boys and girls from the Americas (under age 12 as of Jan. 1) took part. The four US players were Ryan Lin, Charles Shen, Manda Yu, and Tashiya Piyadasa. The two US coaches were myself (working with Ryan and Charles) and Thilina Piyadasa (working with Mandy and daughter Tashiya). I could write a book about this week alone!!! They trained six hours/day for four days, training with others in the group and multiball with the coaches. A key thing was adjusting to the thin air, where the ball travels differently than at sea level. (Most players were in this same situation, but some opponents were used to training at high altitude.)

One of the boys in the camp wasn't eligible for Hopes (but was allowed to train with them), so there were nine boys and ten girls in the Hopes tournament. On the first day of the camp, I remember the smallest kid in the camp, Emanuel Otalvaro from Columbia, as he went about his training, seemingly always smiling, and often doing "silly" things like throwing weird experimental serves at people, or bouncing the ball against the side of the table over and over. He didn't seem to stand out in practice. But when the tournament began, that's when we discovered how consistent he was. He plays a soft, mostly off-table spinning, fishing, and lobbing game, about 2250 level. He dominated the Hopes on the boys' side, going 8-0.

Finishing tied for second were Enrique Rios of Puerto Rico (with a 2274 USATT rating) and Ryan Lin, both 6-2. (Charles came in fifth, just missing the playoffs.) But since Ryan had defeated Rios head-to-head (deuce in the fourth), Ryan finished second in the RR, Enrique third. However, there was a secondary stage, where the players who finished first and fourth, and second and third, played semifinals. And so Ryan played Enrique again. This time he was down 0-2 in games, but fought back to 8-all in the fifth. We had a timeout, I called two serves - and Enrique missed both! So Ryan won again, 11-8 in the fifth. In the final against Emanuel, Ryan lost the first badly, but made it to deuce the next two games (leading 10-8 in the third), but lost both. Here's a picture of Ryan and Emanuel. Ironically, they were the two smallest players in the camp.

On the girls' side, coached by Thilina, Mandy Yu came back in the final from down 0-2 to win against Dafne Sosa of Dominican Republic, while Tashiya finished third. Here's Mandy and Dafne. And so USA came first and third on the girls' side, and second and fifth on the boys' side.

CHEESEBURGER SPECIAL - Alas, I had made a promise that if a USA player came in first, I'd eat a cheeseburger. (Here's the story behind that.) And so, afterwards, they ordered a quarter pounder with cheese from McDonalds, and while everyone watched and cheered, I was forced to eat it!!! Thanks a bunch, Mandy!!! Here's the video (8:19) - don't you dare watch it!!!

Meanwhile, the Pan Am Youth players arrived on Thursday, Oct. 14, and began training on Friday (getting used to the air) for the Pan Am Under 11 and Under 13 Championships. How does the air affect players? On the first day, in the first five minutes of counterlooping, Xianyao broke four balls, Mu Du three, all off the edge of their rackets as the balls came in higher than expected.

PART 3 - Oct. 18-24 - Pan Am Under 11 and Under 13 Championships. Now USA had 16 players, 4 coaches, a team leader (Daniel Rutenberg), and 17 parents. We went from the 20 players in the Hopes to over 160 players from countries all over the Americas. Here's the ITTF page, with complete results and other info. (This page is probably better for results.) Here are ITTF News stories, many of them featuring USA players. Here are pictures taken by Daniel. Here's the entire entourage!

Officially, I was in charge of Under 13 Boys (Stanley Hsu, Mu Du, He Xianyao, and Krish Gandhi); "Q" was in charge of Under 11 Boys (Kef Noorani, Brian Wu, Max Mouchinski, and Kyler Chen); Wei Qi in charge of Under 13 Girls (Amber Liu, Yishiuan Lin, Mandy Yu, and Aria Shi); and Thilina Piyadasa in charge of Under 11 Girls (Tashiya Piyadasa, Geetha Krishna, Abigail Yu, and Tiana Piyadasa). We each oversaw the training and daily schedule of the four in our charge. But for the tournament, where players in the same event would go out together, we coached players from outside our group. I ended up coaching mostly Stanley, Mu Du, Kyle, Max, Brian, Mandy, and one huge key match for Geetha.

I could write another book on this week. Instead, here are bullet points.

• The coaches often worked one-on-one with the players. I had brought along my "racket bag," a huge racket case with four rackets - long pips with sponge (for choppers); long pips without sponge (for blockers); short pips; and antispin. Throughout the tournament I and other coaches would pull them out so players prepare for a player using that equipment. For example, Geetha had to play the second seed in Under 11 Girls' Singles, Paola Zerpa Flores of Venezuela, a chopper with long pips. I brought out the chopping blade and chopped to her for 45 minutes. We devised a tactical plan involving her using her short backhand pips to alternate driving and pushing, with mixed in forehand loops and smashes. Geetha then executed the tactics brilliantly and pulled off the upset, 3-2!!! Which led to her getting the bronze in singles.
• In the final of Under 11 Girls' Singles, Tashiya was down 1-2 in games and 0-5 in the fourth against Karolayn Maldonado of Ecuador. Tashiya won the next 15 points in a row (!), winning game five 11-4. Fourteen of those points came exactly the same way - she slow looped against a push, and the opponent blocked off. At high altitude, slow, spinny loops are deadly - they just shoot off the end when you block. The irony is that at high altitude, pushes are deadly as they jump at you and have more spin then expected (since there's less air resistance to take off the spin). But if a player just drops the racket and spins, the push becomes a trap, as they have to face that spinny loop. This tournament was Tashiya's coming out party - she swept Under 11 Girls' Singles, Doubles, Mixed Doubles, and Teams!
• In Under 11 Boys' Doubles, Brian and Max faced the top-seeded and seemingly overwhelming favorites from Columbia, Emanuel Otalvaro and his partner, Juan Mineros. Emanuel swept singles in the Hopes and Pan Am Hopes Under 11. But Brian/Max pulled off the upset in the quarterfinals. Alas, in the semifinals, up 9-7 in the fifth, they lost to a pair from Guatemala. Kyler and Kef won the final over the Guatemalans.
• We had downpours nearly every day. This led to some problems with humidity. Most were minor. But just before the Under 13 Boys' Team final (Stanley & Mu Du vs. Puerto Rico), it not only downpoured, but it poured in through leaks in the roof onto the playing area. They postponed the final for an hour. But due to the essentially 100% humidity and the water pouring in, the players found their rackets were slick, and no amount of drying seemed to help more than temporarily. And so ball after ball slid off their rackets. This especially hurt Stanley and Mu Du, who play aggressive close-to-table looping games, and had to change their games dramatically. Stanley barely pulled out his two matches, but we lost the final 3-2. But the conditions simply weren't realistic - you won't play in humidity like that at the Olympics, Pan Ams, Worlds, Team Trials for any of these, the US Open, Nationals, or other major tournaments.
• We also had a problem with noise, but that we need to get used to, as that's the norm at many tournaments, including the Worlds. During many matches people in the crowd chanted and played musical instruments during points. This meant the players couldn't hear the ball hit the table, a key part to timing. I'm told this is the norm in Latin American tournaments, and so our opponents were more used to this. It's not the norm in the US, so we weren't as prepared for it. I told the players to focus on watching the ball hit the table, which helped some. As with humidity, the noise affected certain players more than others.
• The high altitude also caused problems. While the Hopes players had 24 hours of training to prepare for their tournament, the Pan Am Youth players only had ten hours, since we had to share the tables with other countries and so there was limited table time.
• Another interesting dynamic we faced was the language. Latin American coaches called out advise between nearly every point, mostly in Spanish (the Brazilians in Portuguese). We couldn't do the same in English since many of the opposing coaches and players understood English. (I toyed with talking very fast!) Having Wei Qi coach our Chinese-speaking players (10 out of 16!) was an advantage as few, if any of the opponents understood Chinese.
• And then the stomach virus struck. It started with Xianyao He, who came down sick just before the singles, with a 102 fever. (A doctor came in and diagnosed it.) He had to drop out of singles. Then we found out several of the parents had also come down with it. Then Stanley Hsu came down with it - not as bad as Xianyao's, but it put him in great discomfort. He tried to play singles - he was likely the favorite - but wasn't able to play effectively and lost to Sebastian Bedoya of Columbia, who Stanley had beaten 3-1 in the Teams. (Sebastian went on to win Under 13 over Enrique Rios.) And then I came down with the virus. I spent three days coaching while grabbing my stomach. It wasn't fun.
• A serious topic of discussion were the many "13-year-olds" who towered over me and looked like high school seniors. But they all had passports that "proved" they were 13. This was ironic, considering the two top Hopes players were the two smallest players, with the smallest winning.
• With all these tribulations, all 16 USA players won a medal!

PART 4 - October 25-27: ITTF Contender. Most of the USA contingent left after the Pan Ams. But three players stayed for the final event - Stanley, Mu Du, and Kef. Also joining us was USA's Nathaniel Hwang and his dad, former USA junior star Dennis Hwang, now a medical doctor. Kef was in Under 11 and Under 13 Boys', the other three in Under 13 and Under 15 Boys. Here's the ITTF page, with complete results and other info. Here's the ITTF News Page.

Kef got second in Under 11, losing the final to Emanuel. Once again Stanley seemed the favorite - and now he was healthy and pretty much used to the air! In the quarterfinals, he played Hamilton Hato Yamane of Brazil, a chopper/looper who Stanley and Mu Du had both beaten somewhat easily in the Pan Ams. At the Pan Ams, Hato had played very aggressively - so aggressive that I told Stanley and Mu Du to play him as an attacker who sometimes chopped. However, in the ITTF Contender, he switched to a steadier chopping game, and attacked less - but more effectively when he did. He caught Stanley off guard, winning the first two games at 4 and 8. Stanley won the next two easily at 4 and 5, and led 7-5 in the fifth. But he made some mistakes, and Hato attacked more, and Hato led 10-8 match point. Stanley deuced it but lost 12-10 in the fifth. Hato went on to win the event, defeating Enrique Rios in the final, 3-0. (Hato essentially came out of nowhere - nobody was looking at him as a contender.) There's a key tactical thing we'll need to work on next time the two play, but I can't really go over it here. Mu Du made the quarterfinals of Under 15, losing to Enrique.

And then it was time to leave - or was it? Kef, Nathaniel, and their dads had already left, but Stanley and his dad, Mu Du and his mom, and I were the last to leave, with a 4 AM pickup for the 3.5 hour ride to the airport. At 11:25 PM, there was a knock on my door, the panicked van driver. It turns out a nationwide anti-government protest had just erupted, and that we needed to leave immediately. We quickly got our things together and went to the lobby. Unfortunately, the word came back that all the roads out of Cuenca were blocked by protesters, with fires, barricades, and rioters. We were shown images and video - it was pretty nasty. So, the five of us, and dozens of other players/coaches/parents from all over South America and elsewhere were stranded in the hotel. We couldn't even step outside due to the violence. Here's video (2:33).

So we went back to bed and awaited our fate. At about 8AM, there was another knock on my door, and it was driver, saying the roads were now open. So we got into the van and took the 3.5 hour ride to the airport, just making our flight. (Others were not so lucky, and missed theirs.) And then, late that night, I was home!!!
=>END ECUADOR

USATT Bylaws Problems
Last week, while I was in Ecuador, the USATT board passed a series of bylaws. There are a number of problems with them, but I'm going to focus on one of them in this blog, buried in 106 pages of bylaw revisions. (I'll likely write about other problems in next week's blog.)

7.5: The Board, in its sole discretion, may also appoint an Interim Director until 2024. The Interim Director shall be either the Chair of the AAC or another member of the AAC as selected by the Board in its sole discretion.

What does this mean? It means a majority of the board can now pad its majority by simply appointing another voting member (from anyone they choose from the Athletes Advisory Council) who fits in with their majority, thereby increasing their majority (for the next three years) by 1/11, or 9%. This is just wrong.

The US Senate is currently split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, with Vice President Kamala Harris the tie-deciding vote giving the Democrats the majority. Suppose the Democrats decided to appoint nine new members to the Senate (9%), thereby increasing their majority to 59-50. Or if they decided to increase their current 220-212 lead in the House (three vacancies) by 39 (9%), thereby increasing their lead to 259-212. Do you think Republicans would object? The same if the Republicans held the majority and padded their majority. Allowing a majority to arbitrarily increase their majority by 9% changes a small majority into a nearly insurmountable majority. And that's the point! They are literally appointing a majority representative to increase that majority.

Some will try to make the argument that, "We need this person on the board!" You can make the same argument for many people. Since the person they appoint will be an athlete from the AAC, that person will have the opportunity to run for not one, not two, not three, but four athlete rep positions on the board this fall. (See 7.6.4, the election of the four athlete representatives, and the USATT news item on the elections.) If they need a specific person's advice, that person doesn't need to be on the board for that. But here's the key part - the USOPC has mandated that all Olympic sports have boards composed of at least 1/3 athletes, and so USATT will now have four athletes representing them - and yet, the USATT board wants to appoint another. Does USATT believe they know better than the athletes over who should represent them?

I hope the USATT board will rethink this one, and take out that provision.

US Open Volunteers
Here's the USATT News Item. I'm singling this one out for a reason - they no longer are offering hotel or partial air fare for volunteers. Normally, all volunteers get half a room and up to about $250 in air fare, along with two free events. This year - neither, just the two free events and a t-shirt for five days work. Presumably, this is because USATT is nearly broke, due to the pandemic and the roughly $200,000 lost in the (former high performance director) Joerg Bitzigeio arbitration case. But seriously, they really need to offer volunteers more than this. Five days of work, and to do so, you have to pay for your own flight and hotel?

There's another serious problem that I've already heard grumbling about. It says that the two events they play in cannot conflict with their shifts. But since they only know the starting time of their two events, how can they schedule their events and shifts so as to not conflict? This is the obvious question that the Volunteer form should have addressed. USATT needs to have someone oversee this, so volunteers can trade time slots or times so as to complete their events. 

George Brathwaite Tribute

• Ping-Pong Legend George Braithwaite Honored in New York City Ceremony on Oct. 23, 2021
• Documented Clips From The Chief George Braithwaite's Life Celebration Event (6:27)
• Roosevelt Island Celebration Of The Life Of Chief George Braithwaite (80 min)

Peak Performance Table Tennis: Unlock Your Potential and Play Like the Pros
Here's the new book that just came out by Kevin Finn, table tennis player and strength training and nutritional consultant. From the opening of the back cover: "What athlete hasn't become frustrated at losing a game, not because they were outplayed or outmatched, but because they gassed out, had a mental lapse, or just couldn't get in the zone? Peak Performance Table Tennis comprehensively covers those game aspects needed for peak performance and provides actionable steps for athletes to ensure they are in the best possible position to perform at their peak when it matters most."  

I haven't had a chance to read it - my reading queue is rather long - but I like the opening to the chapter on Tactical Skills on page 48: "When I first sat down to write this chapter, I unironically explored the possibility of simply making it one sentence long: 'Go buy Larry Hodges' Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers.' If you are at all interested in improving your game via tactics, that book is your one-stop shop!"

Weekend Coaching and the MDTTC Halloween Party
After 19 days in Ecuador, it was great to be back coaching at MDTTC! It took only minutes to adjust to playing at sea level again - going up is hard, coming down is easy. (Of course, I didn't really train much at high altitude, so unlike the players, I didn't really get as used to playing in the thin air.) On Saturday, Oct. 30, we had the Halloween party - not at MDTTC, but at a local park, where we had a barbecue (hamburgers and hot dogs) and a huge number of other food dishes brought in by players and parents, about 70 of us in all. The kids came in costume. Lots of games were played, from beanbag toss to throwing a football and frisbee around.

Then it was back to MDTTC. My first session back was with the Beginning kids, where we did (as usual) lots of stroking and footwork drills. Then came the advanced group (1800-2350), where I fed multiball for about 90 minutes. On Sunday and Monday, I worked with the advanced group again - including much of the sessions as a practice partner. One drill involved a player serving long to backhand, receiver backhand looping it back, and then into a footwork drill - but the kids had a hard time returning my tricky long serves, where I vary the spin and serving motion. I do need to spend some time just serving to some of them.

News of the Last Month
If I were to comprehensively cover every table tennis news item that went up this past month, as I often do, this blog would be rather looooong. Instead, here are some links to browse.

• Minutes of USATT Board Meeting on Oct. 4, 2021
• USATT News
• ITTF News
• Butterfly News
• Edges and Nets
• Timo Boll
• Samson Dubina
• Tom Lodziak
• Ti Long
• Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis
• Coach Jon
• NCTTA
• PingSunday/EmRatThich (news) - of especial interest, "Is Ma Long Forced to Retire?"
• PingSunday/EmRatThich (video)
• Malong Fanmade Channel
• eBaTT
• Adam Bobrow
• Pongfinity

Ma Long Multiball Looping
He makes it look so easy! (46 sec)

Dimitrij Ovtcharov Finding Ways to Play Table Tennis After Surgery
Here's the video (5:53)!

Marvel and Table Tennis
They seem to like table tennis! In Ant-Man, at 1:33:40, Ant-Man swats the evil enemy Yellowjacket with a ping-pong paddle! In Spider-Man: Homecoming, at 34:40, here are two pictures of Spider-Man running past a pair playing table tennis in a garage:

• Scene1
• Scene2

Here are some others, mostly copied and pasted from a past blog:

• Repeating gif of Loki playing table tennis
• The Avengers vs. Chinese National Team
• Hulk vs. Superhero
• Tim "Hulk" Boggan
• Spider-man Table Tennis (see last segment)
• The Avengers beginning table tennis set
• Spiderman racket
• Thor racket
• Hulk racket
• Spider-Man vs. Ant-Man (18 sec)

There's No Crying in Table Tennis
Here's the shirt!

Large Objects for Paddles Pong
Here's the video (36 sec)!

Many Objects Pong
Here's the video (41 sec)!

The Other 12 Ways of Playing Table Tennis
Here's the video (69 sec)!

Non-Table Tennis - SF Stories
On November 1 (Monday), I had two new science fiction stories published. (Alas, I think you have to buy the magazine to read them.) With five other stories coming out in December, it's going to be a fun Christmas! Here are the two that just came out:

• "99 Sextillion Souls in a Ball" in Dark Matter Magazine. What happens if a religious world government (helped by advanced computers) takes "Be fruitful and multiply" to its logical conclusion, ending in the complete conversion of the earth's mass into humans?
• "The Purple Rose of Retribution" in Utopia Science Fiction. What happens when an elderly luddite is forced to live in a virus-filled virtual world?

***
Send us your own coaching news!

This week's blog will go up on Wednesday, Nov. 3. I just got back from coaching in Ecuador for 19 days (lots to blog about!), and need a couple more days to catch up on other things. 
NOTE - the blog will go up late Wednesday afternoon. I'm working on it, but not only is there a lot to write about, but the heat in my house broke down, and so it's 58 degrees inside and my fingers are freezing!

Next Blog and Tip of the Week on November 1 3
I'll be coaching the US Junior Team in Ecuador Oct. 10-28. See segment below.

Tip of the Week
Ten Table Tennis Quotes for Improvement.

Ecuador
I'm off to Ecuador on Sunday morning - and when I say "morning," I do mean it! I'll be leaving at 3:30 AM for the airport for a 6AM flight to Miami, then transferring to a flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador, arriving at 12:46PM (1:46 PM eastern time). From there we have a 122-mile bus ride to the playing site in Cuenca, Ecuador. Traveling with me will be Ryan Lin and his dad, and Mandy & Abigail Yu and their mom. Guayaquil is 12 feet above sea level; Cuenca is 8400 feet. It'll be a long, uphill ride!!! The 18-day trip can be divided into four segments.

• Oct. 11-16: ITTF Americas Continental Hopes Week & Challenge. Twenty of the best Hopes players from the Americas (under 12 as of Jan. 1) will train together, with a tournament at the end. I'll be coaching the two USA players in it, Ryan Lin (2121) and Mandy Yu (2017). They are ranked #1 in the US in Under 12 for boys and girls, respectively.
• Oct. 14-17: The US Under 13 and Under 11 Teams and coaches arrive on Oct. 14, and will train through Oct. 17 in a "mini-camp," in particular getting used to playing in the high altitude. (At 8400 feet, air resistance is 74% what it is at sea level, and oxygen is 16% instead of 21%. The ball plays very differently.) This overlaps with the Hopes, so I'll be jumping back and forth. The other coaches will likely run most of these sessions.
• Oct. 18-24: ITTF Pan Am Under 13 and Under 11 Championships. We'll have 16 players, 1 team leader, 4 coaches, and 16 parents. Here's the USATT news item, USA Table Tennis Announces 2021 ITTF Pan Am Youth Championship U13 and U11 Teams. Daniel Rutenberg is the Team Leader. Coaches are Larry Hodges (me) for Under 13 Boys; Wei Qu (U13 Girls); Qiumars Hedayatian (Under 11 Boys); and Thilina Piyadasa (U-11 Girls).
• Oct. 25-31: WTT Youth Contender. USA players competing in this are Stanley Hsu, Mu Du, Kef Noorani, and Nathanael Hwang. (I'm coaching Stanley and Mu Du.)

Weekend Coaching
We did a lot of work on pushing and on attacking pushes this weekend. Way too many players just pat the ball back when pushing, instead of really doing something with the ball. You can push quick, heavy, angled, and short or long. Or you can just pat it back and be a patsy. We also did a lot of doubles play, capped off by Brazilian Teams Doubles on Sunday - the kids loved that. We paired them off (with established teams playing together, such as Stanley Hsu/Mu Du, Ryan Lin/Winston Wu, and so on), and they battled it out. One side note - I spent one 90-minute session as a practice partner . . . yeah, I need to get back in shape. Shots that used to be easy aren't so easy anymore. As I kept crying out, "That used to be easy!" After I get back from Ecuador, I have to do some physical training, practice, and get back into playing shape. (The only good news - many of the kids, even the advanced ones, still have great difficulty with my serves!)

USATT Board Meeting Tonight
The USA Table Tennis Board of Directors will have an open Zoom meeting tonight at 8PM eastern time. The agenda and info on joining in is at the USATT Agendas and Notices page. I'll be coaching at MDTTC when they start, but may join in around 8:30PM or shortly after.

MDTTC and WDCTTC Opens
There are two local tournaments this month. I'll be coaching on Saturday at the MDTTC Open. (And leaving for Ecuador at 3:30AM on Sunday!)

• Oct. 9-10: Maryland Table Tennis Center October Open
• Oct. 23-24: 2021 Washington DC October Open and Giant Round Robin

Late Guyanese Table Tennis Champion George Braithwaite to Be Honored
Here's the article. "The George Braithwaite Table Tennis Court will be unveiled at Capobianco Field, Roosevelt Island during the late sportsman’s Ping Pong Diplomacy Commemoration on Saturday, Oct. 23."

ITTF Proposals
Here's the ITTF AGM Working Documents, which shows the various proposals to be considered at their meeting at the upcoming Worlds. Here's the one I find most interesting - it allows doubles teams to serve crosscourt from the left-hand court, instead of always crosscourt from the right-hand court. See Proposition A-22, proposed by Iran, which would require a 3/4 majority to pass.

• To amend 2.6.3 As the ball is falling the server shall strike it so that it touches first his or her court and then touches directly the receiver's court; in doubles, the ball shall touch successively the right half court of server and receiver, or it shall touch successively the left half court of server and receiver.
• Rationale:   The extension of the service rule removes the disadvantage for right hand players and allows more flexibility to use their best position when starting a rally.

ITTF News

• 2021 European Championships, Sept 28-Oct. 3 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania
• 2021 Asian Championships, Sept 28-Oct. 3 in Doha, Qatar
• Khalil Al-Mohannadi Elected President of Asian Table Tennis Union
• Here's their news page, video page ("World Table Tennis") and home page.

How to Destroy a Defender: 5 Tips
Here's the video (5:36) from Timo Boll.

New from Samson Dubina

• Pandemic Robot Training
• 6 Types of Footwork Drills
• Tournament Checklist
• 13 Stages
• Check out the Action!

Tips to Improve in Table Tennis
Here's the article by Vikash Sahu - Practicing Serves, Spare Equipment, Stretching, Competing.

Footwork in Table Tennis
Here's the video (3:31) from Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

Optimization of Adaptability and Resilience in Sports and Life
Here's the article by Adam Formal.

2 x Backhands & 2 x Forehands
Here's the video (54 sec) from Nandan Naresh

Short Ball Backhand Return
Here's the video (2:41) from Bella Xu

Preparing For a Table Tennis Tournament
Here's the video (6:47) from Coach Jon.

Why Ma Long Picked Up Only One Ball?
Here's the video (3:29) from PingSunday/EmRatThich.

The Lasting Legacy Of The Seemiller Brothers On Table Tennis
Here's the video (3:55) from KDKA (CBS) in Pittsburgh.

New from Steve Hopkins

• Fakel Gazprom’s Big 3: Calderano, Lin Yun-Ju, Ovtcharov
• WAB Club Feature: Song Jeho TTC
• Euro Teams: No Timo, No Dima, No Problem
• Euro Teams: Final Four
• ITTF Rankings Update: Fan and Ma Long Secure at Top

New from Table Tennis Central

• Outstanding Table Tennis Plays (Team China) [HD] (8:03)
• Youth Table Tennis Level in China [HD] (2:04)
• Team Germany playing UNREAL Table Tennis for 8 Minutes [HD] (8:18)
• Defender vs Defender in Table Tennis [HD] (16:51)

$100,000 JOOLA Global Championships
Here's the info page on this huge international tournament to be held next year, Sept. 1-4, in Orlando, Florida, minutes away from Disneyworld and Universal Studios.

Egypt's Superstars Ready to Challenge for 2021 World Table Tennis Championship in Houston
Here's the article from World Table Tennis.

Why Were So Many Fans at the China National Games Women?
Here's the article from Edges and Nets.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Ping-Pong Gun
Here it is, from Etsy! It's only $5, but you have to assemble it yourself. You may not be the best player at your club, but now you can be the biggest nuisance!!!

Real Beer Pong Shirt
Here it is! I don't drink (well, except water, Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice, and Dr Pepper), but I've heard others do. And now they are playing REAL table tennis.

World's Okayest Ping-Pong Player
Here's the shirt! C'mon, unless you are Ma Long or one of his peers, this is the shirt for you!

If Table Tennis Were Like This...
Here's the video (50 sec)!

Best Table Tennis Points
Here's the video (5:54) from Pongfinity!

Mostly Non-Table Tennis - Capclave Science Fiction Convention
I spent much of the weekend jumping back and forth between coaching at MDTTC and the Capclave SF Convention, held in Rockville, MD, 25 minutes away. I was on three panels (moderating one), did a reading, and had a two-hour author signing session (along with others). Here's a picture of me at the signing! I have eight SF books, including The Spirit of Pong, which is both SF and TT. I have nine books on table tennis - here's all my books. One interesting note - my "secret identity" is really getting out - SF fans and writers keep coming up to me to ask about or mention table tennis! (In the picture, that's my science fiction & fantasy pen collection on display.)

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week
Forehand Push for Playing Choppers.

Weekend Coaching
As always, active feet was a priority in the sessions over the weekend. Another emphasis was forehand attacking from all parts of the table. This was fun for me since, during my active playing career, I started off most rallies as an all-out forehand attacker. The key is balance and recovery. So often a player can't get to a ball, and yells, out, "I'm too slow!" No, they weren't too slow - they were off balanced from the previous shot, or didn't recover as part of their follow-through, and so had little chance on the next shot. Another emphasis, repeated from last week, was serving low - I'm really trying to create a club of net-grazing servers.

In an intermediate group session, when they played points, I kept calling out when a player had great ball placement, or when they did not. Many of them are starting to get into their heads that nearly every ball should go to the wide corners or the opponent's elbow. There were two back-to-back points that emphasized this. One player serve and smashed to the opponent's middle forehand, where the other kid was standing and waiting, and counter-hit a winner. Poor placement!!! The very next point the smash went to the middle, and the opponent couldn't even get his racket on it. Great placement!!!

Ecuador
I'm continuing to prepare for 18 days in Cuenca, Ecuador, Oct. 10-28. We had a 95-minute Zoom meeting on Friday on the trip, with 22 participants. (Actually more, since some parents and players shared their link.)

Originally I was only going down from Oct. 14-28. However, it turns out ITTF is running a Hopes (Under 12) camp and tournament, Oct. 11-16. USATT is sending out top rated 11-year-old boy (Ryan Lin, 2121) and girl (Mandy Yu, 2017), and I was asked if I could go down as their coach. I've worked with Ryan for years, starting five years ago when he started in my beginning table tennis class, and coach him regularly at tournaments and group sessions. I didn't really know Mandy or her game, but her parents sent me videos, and I'm now an "expert" on her game! (I took notes.)

Right after the Hopes Camp is the ITTF Pan Am Youth Championships for Under 13 and Under 11, Oct. 18-24. Our 16 players are going down early to practice three days to get used to the 8400 foot altitude, a major concern. So the 16 players, ~18 parents, 4 coaches, and team leader will arrive on Oct. 14. Immediately after that event is the ITTF Youth Contender, Oct. 25-27, where I'll be coaching Stanley Hsu and Mu Du, both from my club. And then I fly home!

Mount Rushmores of Table Tennis
Who are the four best players of all time? I thought about that recently, and realized you really had to divide it into four groups, men and women, hardbat and sponge. After some browsing on the list of World Champions, here's my list. Some of these choices were relatively easy, such as Men's Hardbat. Others were difficult. For example, for Men's Sponge, Zhuang Zedong won Men's Singles three times in a row - but later a number of people came forward and said that Li Furong, runner-up all three times, was ordered to dump. And there are others that could be on that list, such as Zhang Jike, Jiang Jialiang, and Ichiro Ogimura. And it was painful leaving off USA's Ruth Aarons (2-time World Singles Champion) from Women's Hardbat. But to add one of these, you have to take someone off!

• Men's Sponge: Ma Long, Jan-Ove Waldner, Guo Yue-Hua, Wang Liqin
• Women's Sponge: Deng Yaping, Wang Nan, Ding Ning, Zhang Yining
• Men's Hardbat: Viktor Barna, Richard Bergmann, Bohumil Váňa, Johnny Leach
• Women's Hardbat: Angelica Rozeanu, Mária Mednyánszky, Gizella Farkas, Gertrude Pritzi

USOPC Audit: USATT
Here's the USATT audit report from June 18, 2021. I don't remember seeing this before, but someone posted a link to it this morning at the Mytabletennis.net forum (see 14th post). The report is linked from the USOPC's NGB Audit page - scroll down and click on "NGB Audit Reports," and five reports come up. (The others are USA Archery, Climbing, Field Hockey, and Judo.) USATT normally posts these on the USATT Financial Reports page - if you scroll down, you'll see the audits from 2005-2019. However, they have not posted the reports for 2020 or 2021, even though USOPC has already posted the 2021 audit. Someone had already sent me the link to the report yesterday, but I haven't had a chance to really go over it, but it does look like USATT has some things to fix. If someone puts together a thoughtful analysis of this, I'll probably link to it. Or USATT could post a report on how they are addressing these issues. (The due date for most of the things USOPC is asking for is Oct. 4, Monday.) 

Late Gyuanese Table Tennis Champion George Braithwaite to Be Honored
Here's the article. "The George Braithwaite Table Tennis Court will be unveiled at Capobianco Field, Roosevelt Island during the late sportsman’s Ping Pong Diplomacy Commemoration on Saturday, Oct. 23."

The Around-the-Net Shot Tutorial
Here's the video (9:30) from Adam Bobrow!

New from Samson Dubina

• Tournament Tough in 20 Steps - Learn how to train your mind and body!
• Pan American Champion - The Best in North and South America
• Winning in Mind - Part I and Part II
• Redefining Winning - Winning Defined by the E.L.M. TREE
• Success - Quiz Yourself on the 12 Aspects of Mental Success!
• Improving Your Serves - Through Visualization and Deliberate Practice

New from Ti Long

• Ma Long's powerful Backhand Loop technique Against BackSpin (9:05)
• 3 advantages of Ma Long's Backhand technique in the Chinese National Championship 2021 (6:27)
• Improve and fix Backhand Topspin technique with Robot (4:20)
• Forehand Topspin Technique Guide by Legend of Zhang Jike (6:18)

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

• Table Tennis in children performance or education physical (4:09)
• Forehand serve in table tennis. An analysis of Chinese players (6:18)
• Forehand serve in table tennis. Final phase and the foot roll (1:01)

5 Bad Mistakes in Reverse Pendulum Serve
Here's the video (7:41) from Eddy Zeile from the Dublin TTC.

How to Lob Like a Pro (in 4 Steps)
Here's the article from Alex Horscroft at Expert Table Tennis. (This went up on Sept. 9, but since the reorganized their page, I somehow missed it.)

Stroke Chemistry & Footwork Drill #2
Here's the video (62 sec) with Gabriel Perez.

New from Edges and Nets
Here's their page. They have ten new articles, covering the Chinese National Games and the WTT Contender in Doha.

A Different Perspective On Table Tennis at Jon’s Table Tennis Training
Here's the video (5:27) from Coach Jon.

Rachel Yang Interview
Here's the video (4:39), interview by Sally Moyland.

Tournament Highlights With Nandan Naresh
Here's the video (2:10).

USA Table Tennis Team Takes Home a Big Medal Haul from 2021 Pan Am Youth Championships
Here's the USATT article.

Table Tennis: A Breaking Method
Here's the new book by Oscar Roitman. (Kindle only - I already ordered my copy!) "Oscar Roitman gives us an approach of a new way of teaching table tennis and throughout this book - which used a very didactical and clear narrative - he describes the teaching process of Table Tennis through up to day pedagogical and methodological tools. The foundation of all these tools are the author's own experiences as a table tennis player and as a coach."

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

• Fan Zhendong-14th National Games Table Tennis Men's Singles Final Award Ceremony
• [Fan Zhendong] Congratulations to Xiaopang for winning the championship
• Wang Chuqin vs Liang Jingkun | Bronze Medal | 2021 Chinese National Games
• Fan Zhendong vs Liu Dingshuo | Final | 2021 Chinese National Games
• Fan Zhendong is monster champion (best points collections) | Chinese National Games 2021
• Wang Chuqin vs Liu Dingshuo | Semi-final | 2021 Chinese National Games
• Fan Zhendong vs Liang Jingkun | Semi-final | 2021 Chinese National Games
• Ma Long vs Fan Zhendong | Final | 2021 Chinese National Games (Gold Medal)
• Liu Shiwen admires Ma Long so much
• (Bronze medal match) Olympic champion Chen Meng VS Liu Shiwen
• (Gold medal) Wang Manyu vs. Sun Yingsha | National Games 2021 Final
• (Gold Medal) Ma Long/Wang Chuqin vs. Yan An/Xu Chen

New from Steve Hopkins

• China National Games: Fan Wins, Liu's Upsets Headline
• China National Games: Liu Who?
• WTT Star Contender Doha: Hugo Tops Field
• WTT Star Contender Doha: Final Four is Set
• WAB Club Feature: Bridgeport Sports Club

ITTF News

• Brazil's History-Maker Hugo Calderano Lifts First WTT Trophy in Doha
• New ITTF T Laboratory ready
• Here's their news page, video page ("World Table Tennis") and home page.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Americans Champs at Pingpong Table, Not So Much Ryder Cup
Here's the article from USA Today - which went up before Team USA won the Ryder Cup over Europe, 19-9. The article is about how the best USA golfers are highly competitive among themselves in table tennis, with many of them bringing their own rackets. Golf/table tennis players in the article include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Stewart Cink, Matt Kuchar, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, and Daniel Berger.

Party on the Plaza
Here's the picture from the Colorado Gazette. "Bernie, mascot of the Colorado Avalanche, and Miles, mascot of the Denver Broncos, helped kick off the ping pong tournament that was part of Party on the Plaza."

Tongue Pong?
Here's the video (58 sec)!

Ping Pong: Spider-Man vs. Ant-Man
Here's the video (18 sec)! Of course, Ant-Man is no stranger to ping-pong - in the Marvel movie Ant-Man, at 1:33:40, he swats the evil enemy Yellowjacket with a ping-pong paddle!

Non-Table Tennis - Capclave Science Fiction Convention
This next weekend is the Capclave SF Convention in Rockville, MD. As with most years, I'm a panelist, plus I'll be doing a reading at 7PM on Friday night, right after my 6PM panel. Here's my schedule and my Capclave Bio. (See the table tennis quote in my bio!) I'll also be in the mass author signing at 8PM on Saturday night. Saturday is going to be tricky - I'll be in a panel at 11AM for an hour, then drive to MDTTC (25 minutes) to coach from 1-4PM, then back to the convention for a 7PM panel and then the mass signing. (Regarding readings, they have erratic attendance - sometimes there's a roomful, other times nobody shows. The most awkward is when one person shows up!)

***
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Tip of the Week
A Good Warm-up.

Weekend Coaching
It was a busy three-day weekend for me - it looks like I'll be doing group sessions every week on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. The 51 kids in the Maryland TTC junior program are divided into four groups. I work with Group 1 ("Select," 15 kids from about 1800 to 2350, ages mostly from 11-15) in all three of their weekly sessions; once a week with Group 2 ("Progress"); and with Group 4 ("Novice") in their one weekly session. Other coaches/practice partners include head junior coach Wang Qingliang; Cheng Yinghua; Jack Huang; Lidney Castro; John Hsu; Nathan Hsu; Matt Hetherington; and Greg Mascialiano. For their age, there are some really strong players in Group 1, including the #1, #3, and #5 in 12 and Under, and the top two in 11 and Under. They include (with apologies to those not listed - too many of you!):

• Stanley Hsu (12, 2330), #1 in 12 and Under, #2 in 13 and Under Boys
• Ryan Lin (11, 2121), #1 in 11 and Under, #3 in 12 and Under Boys
• Winston Wu (11, 2027), #2 in 11 and Under, #5 in 12 and Under Boys
• Riley Yang (10, 1790), #5 in 10 and Under, #7 in 11 and Under Boys
• Mu Du (13, 2186) #8 in 13 and Under Boys
• James Zhang (14, 2196), #15 in 14 and Under Boys
• Ryan Lee (14, 2125), #20 in 14 and Under Boys

With the elite players, my focus is generally on footwork and positioning, placement, consistency, serve, and receive. I spent an inordinate amount of time just watching their feet; a good coach gets to know everyone's footwear. Several players still lean too often instead of moving to the ball, so that's something we're working on. I also worked a lot with players on serving low, a common problem that many never recognize. (Many players, even strong ones, think they serve low enough, but they are not really.) The key isn't just making the ball cross the net low (though that's important); it's also making it bounce low, which isn't quite the same thing. (See link on serving low above.) I demoed this a number of times.

With the novice group, the focus is on fundamentals. It's mostly multiball, often two at a time (a player on each corner, and I rapid feed to both sides); other times one does the multiball and the others line up behind, shadow-practicing (i.e. mimicking the motions of the player doing the multiball, as if they were actually hitting the ball). You'll note from the bulleted list above that, currently, we don't really have many high-ranked girls in our "elite" group. However, at the advanced beginning level, we are packed with up-and-coming girls - it's a wave that's going to hit the tournament world in about two years!!!

US Open
Here's the page for the event, to be held Dec. 17-22 in Las Vegas. The entry form ("Prospective") went up a few days ago, along with a link to Omnipong for entering online. As usual, I'll be there coaching. I've been to every US Open and US Nationals starting in 1984 (and a few before that). I've also been to the US/North American Teams (they changed names in 1998) every year starting in 1976, my first year!

USATT Announces 2021 ITTF Pan Am Youth Championship U13 and U11 Teams
Here's the news item. (This went up after I put up my blog last week, so I added it there late. Hope you enjoy my humorous quip!) Here's the ITTF page on the event, where you can see both the listings of players from each country and the doubles pairings. (Team pairings will likely go up soon - they will be the same as the doubles pairings in most cases, though not all.) I have my flights - I'll be in Ecuador Oct. 14-28. We have a big group - at last count, 16 players, 1 team leader, 4 coaches, and 17 parents. I'll be coaching the Under 13 Boys' Team - Stanley Hsu (2330), Mu Du (2186), He Xianyao (2208), and Krish Gandhi (2268). I'm looking forward to working with all of them!

Support Your Local Table Tennis Coaches and Writers!
This is my periodic note about my books - if you don't buy them, then you can't read them!!! (Well, you could borrow them from someone else who bought them.) Here's where you can find out about all 17 of my books, including 9 on table tennis:

• Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers
• Table Tennis Tips
• More Table Tennis Tips
• Still More Table Tennis Tips
• Table Tennis Tales & Techniques
• Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook
• The Spirit of Pong (fantasy table tennis novel)
• Table Tennis: Steps to Success (out of print)
• Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis (out of print)

But I'm not the only coach with books. Here are other active USA coaches with table tennis books you should add to your library.

=>Dan Seemiller

• Winning Table Tennis: Skills, Drills, and Strategies
• Revelations of a Ping-Pong Champion
• Smash! Moments, Memories, and Tips

=>Samson Dubina

• 100 Days of Table Tennis
• Why Table Tennis? (with co-authors Sarah Jalli and Jacob Boyd)

=>Dora Kurimay

• My Stories of Mental Toughness On and Off the Table
• Get Your Game Face On!
• Get Your Game Face On Like The Pros!: Mental Skills And Lifestyle Choices To Achieve Peak Performance And Play Your Best Table Tennis
• Get Your Game Face On Workbook: How to Develop Your Mental Game

=>Richard McAfee: Table Tennis: Steps to Success (the successor to my book of the same title)

=>Tahl Leibovitz: Ping Pong for Fighters

ITTF Pan American Youth Championships (U19 & U15)
Here's the ITTF page for the event that took place in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Sept. 12-18, with complete schedule, draws, results, and articles. USA won a bunch of medals, winning 8 of the 15 events! (Here's the USATT News Item on it, which went up on Thursday, Sept. 23.) Here are some articles

• Pan Am Youth Championship: USA Wins 8 of 15 Events by Steve Hopkins
• Youth Pan Am Update: TeamUSA Wins 3 of 4 Team Events by Steve Hopkins
• Champions! by Samson Dubina
• ITTF Pan American Youth Championships News Page

Houston Ready for Successful World Championships
Here's the ITTF news item.

Forehand Loop Sequence
Here's the video (1:57) from Jishan Liang

Ball Placement Secret Tips! and More!
Here's the video (10:59) from Seth Pech. "In this episode of how I practice I talk about Ball Placement and how it can be the difference maker! I also talk about movements and increasing spin on shots."

Precision Placement Multiball Drill
Here's the video (26 sec) from eBaTT. "To elevate your game you must be able to not only place the ball in different location but change location within split seconds."

Serve Like a Pro
Here's the video (3:05) from PingPonged TV, with four tips from Spanish Olympian Maria Xiao.

Short Pips Forehand or Short Pips Backhand
Here's the video (5:03) from Coach Jon.

Parkinson's Symptoms Fighting with Table Tennis
Here's the video (3:37) from Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis.

New from Samson Dubina

• Improving Your Serves
• 5 Robot Reasons
• Champions! Pan Am Youth Championships

New from Ti Long

• Improve and fix Backhand Topspin technique with Robot (4:20)
• Forehand Topspin Technique Guide by Legend of Zhang Jike (6:18)

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

• Liu Shiwen, Fan Zhendong play for team Guangdong | 2021 National Games (4:55)
• Hou Yingchao - the hero falls down | Quarter-final men's team (3:00)
• Ma Long is impossible to defeat | Quarter-final men's team (47:12)
• Very difficult match even for Fan Zhendong | National Games 2021 (43:09)
• Liu Shiwen lost to a younger player | 2021 National Games (53:54)
• Xu Xin is the captain of team Shanghai | 2021 National Games (2:55)
• Xu Xin lost badly (Shanghai vs Hebei) | 2021 National Games (4:08)
• Ma Long nearly lost (Beijing vs Fujian) | 2021 National Games (17:51)
• 30 minutes of Ma Long practice session in 2021 (28:29)
• Chopper vs Chopper: Ma Te vs Hou Yingchao | 2021 National Games (24:18)
• Wang Manyu dominated Chen Meng | 2021 National Games 39:28)
• Ma Long is playing for team Beijing (National Games 2021) (6:05)

New from Steve Hopkins

• Pan Am Youth Championship: USA Wins 8 of 15 Events
• Youth Pan Am Update: TeamUSA Wins 3 of 4 Team Events
• WAB Club Feature: HiTT
• Euro 16: Patrick Franziska Wins
• TTBL Update: Dusseldorf and Ochsenhausen 6-0
• PongNow: Ian Seidenfeld (17:42)

Ping Pong for Good
Here's the page for this site, "a movement for brain health." (JOOLA just announced a partnership with them - here's their news item.) Their objectives:

• Making playing ping pong accessible to all, anytime, anywhere, intergenerationally.
• Ping Pong Therapy in physical therapy offices, rehabilitation centers & assisted living facilities.
• Ping Pong Fitness activated in schools, gyms & community centers
• Support Clinical Research to develop more protocols for treatment and widespread adaption

Mastering Your Own Game: Meet Nenad B. of Ping Pong Parkinson
Here's the article. "There’s magic in a spinning [ping pong] ball. It's so addictive. When you're playing, you're completely focused. Nothing else matters."

ITTF News
Here's their news page, video page ("World Table Tennis") and home page.

China National Games Table Tennis Commences
Here's the article from Edges and Nets.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Top 20 Table Tennis Comebacks
Here's the video (29:53) from Table Tennis Report.

Ping Pong Champion and Other Table Tennis Shirts
Here's the page from Teenavi! (I'm toying with getting "Ping-Pong Because Murder is Wrong," but someone will take that the wrong way.)

Crazy French Table Tennis Cartoon
Here it is! I'm told the words on the left are, "It's hard to believe! Even with a robot he is rubbish!!!", and on the left, "Help meeeeeeeee!!!…" (Here's the non-Facebook version.) I love how people are hiding or diving behind tables and barriers, and the person with the umbrella!

Best Ping Pong Game Ever
Here's the video (3:32) - Table Tennis Tic-Tac-Toe from Pongfinity!

Cat Forehands
Here's the video (10 sec) - he's two for two!!! Note the relaxed ready position, how he moves to the ball, and how he does a perfect weight transfer as he rotates into the shot, with a strong follow-through. There's nothing I can teach this cat.

Moment of Victory
Here's the video (14 sec) from the Fremont TTC as one kid knocks off the cup and wins it for the team. Make sure to have the volume turned up! (That's Shashin Shodhan feeding the winning shot.)

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week
A Different Measure for a Match Coach.

Pan American Under 11 and U13 Championships in Ecuador
I'll be going down to Ecuador for two weeks in October as the coach of the US Under 13 Boys' Team. There will be four teams - Under 13 and Under 11 for boys and girls. The other coaches are Qiumars Hedayatian (U11 Boys), Wei Qi (U13 Girls), and Thilina Piyadasa (U11 Girls), with Daniel Rutenberg going as Team Leader, and he fortunately speaks Spanish. Here is the USATT news item, USATT Announces 2021 ITTF Pan Am Youth Championship U13 and U11 Teams. (Hope you enjoy my humorous quip!) There are actually two tournaments, both in Cuenca ("kwen·kuh"), Ecuador.

• Oct. 18-24 is the Pan American Under 11 and U13 Championships, the main event. Each player will play singles, doubles, mixed doubles, and teams for their age group.
• Oct. 25-31 is the World Table Tennis Youth Contender tournament. This is only singles, with U11, U13, U15, U17, and U19, with a maximum of two events. I'll be staying for that. The boys' events are only Oct. 25-27, so I won't need to stay for the rest of the tournament.

We had a 100-minute Zoom meeting on Friday for the four coaches, team leader, and USATT High Performance Director Sean O'Neill. (Previously there had been one for all of those interested.) Lots of discussion. The coaches are also working out doubles and team parings. The Under 13 Boys' Team I'll be in charge of is Stanley Hsu, Mu Du, He Xianyao, and Krish Gandhi. Initially I had thought they would be one team in the team event, but it turns out they can enter as two teams, so most likely Stanley & Mu Du will be a team, and He and Krish. (Same for doubles pairings.) Disclosure - Stanley and Mu Du are both from my club. (If both teams play at the same time, then one of the other coaches will coach one of the teams. The same for all events - if they send out, for example, four of the girls at the same time, the four coaches would be paired off with them.)

One big issue is the altitude, which I've blogged about. Cuenca is at 8400 feet altitude. The air pressure is about 74% compared to sea level, and oxygen content is about 15%, compared to 21% at sea level. The ball travels quite a bit differently, and so the players will need extra practice to prepare. (The kids will likely adjust quickly to the lower oxygen level - I'm more worried about the parents and coaches, who might find walking up a stairway exhausting!) The tentative plan is to travel down on Oct. 14, practice Oct. 15-17, and then the tournaments begin. Then I fly home on Oct. 28, along with the boys and parents who stayed for the second tournament.

There will be a USATT news item on this soon - perhaps today - and I'll link to it here when it comes up. I hope they use the quote I gave them - yes, they eat guinea pigs down there!!! (I won't.)

Fall Junior Training Season Begins
We started on Saturday, with a welcome party and parents info meeting. And then we started actual group sessions on Sunday, with another one tonight. So here's how my weekend coaching went.

We have 51 kids in our junior program, divided into four groups: Select, Progress, Intermediate, and Novice. But for simplicity, I just refer to them as groups 1-4. Group 1 is really strong, including many of the best players in the country for their age in the 10-13 boys' side. (Two are #1 for their age, and several others are in the #2-5 range.)

On Saturday, groups 1 & 2 came in for the party and info meeting, followed by groups 3-4. While head junior coach Wang Qingliang and others spoke with the parents, someone had to take charge of the 20-25 kids in the two sessions for one hour each - and that was me! But this wasn't a training session, this was a "fun" session, i.e. a welcome back party. So the kids had their choice of:

• Playing on extra long tables. We moved two tables against each other, end to end, so we had an 18-foot table. We removed the nets, but put a chair on each side of the middle of the table, with a barrier between the tables, so that they got a roughly one-foot net in the middle. The kids were just smacking and looping the ball back and forth - and even lobbing!
• Mini-paddles. I had five.
• Frankenpaddle! (Here's a closeup.)
• Rackets with long pips (one with sponge, one without), antispin, short pips, and four hardbat rackets. Many of the kids got to try out these new surfaces for the first time. Most had played against them, but playing with them gives a better understanding of how to play them.

On Sunday, the real training began! We have eight "official' group sessions scheduled each week, plus two others run separately. I'll be in five of them. I'll be there for all three of the group 1 sessions (including one joint group 1 & 2 session), plus one group 2 session, plus the one group 4 (novice) session. I'm working mostly with the elite and novice groups, less with the ones in between. Wang Qingliang runs most sessions. (I used to, but I'm semi-retired and so we have a new generation. I think of myself as a "head coach emeritus.")

On Sunday, for the group 2 session, I spent half the session as a "walk around" coach. The second half I was a practice partner for one of the players. Lots of focus on footwork. For the group 1 session (16 kids, roughly 1800-2350, with six coaches/practice partners), I was a walk-around coach. For both sessions, I told the kids I was mostly watching their feet - I wanted active feet! Much of the session was focused on serve & attack, and receive. We have another group 1 session tonight, 5-7PM, which I'll be helping with.

American Youth Table Tennis Organization Coaching Clinic
They held the three-day clinic at the Maryland Table Tennis Center this past weekend, taught by Sydney Christophe. I watched and listened in on a few sessions. It's a version of the former ITTF Coaching program that ITTF used to do, which I used to teach. (The ITTF version is currently on hold while they do some revamping of it.) Here's some info sent to me by the AYTTO CEO (and member of the USATT Board of Directors) Thomas Hu:

"In order to support the growing table tennis interest in the schools of Maryland area, AYTTO successfully completed the school base coaching certification course this weekend in MDTTC. Thanks to the support of MDTTC and JOOLA for providing and connecting the necessary resources, both the course and AYTTO program garnered much interest from coaches in our club as well as many parents. The course was taught by renowned ITTF course instructor Sydney Christophe. AYTTO is committed to building the supporting structure needed to capture new opportunities for the sport of table tennis in America. Anyone interested to start table tennis program in a school near them, please contact Thomas Hu at Thomas.hu@aytto.org."

ITTF Pan American Youth Championships (U19 & U15)
Here's the ITTF page for the event taking place in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Sept. 12-18, with complete schedule, draws, results, and articles. Team USA has 16 players and 3 coaches:

• Under 19 Boys: Jayden Zhou, Aziz Zarehbin, Kai Jiang, Sid Naresh
• Under 15 Boys: Nandan Naresh, Jensen Feng, Darius Fahimi, Daniel Tran
• Under 19 Girls: Amy Wang, Rachel Sung, Angie Tan, Joanna Sung
• Under 15 Girls: Emily Tan, Faith Hu, Sally Moyland, Sarah Jalli
• Coaches: Gao Jun (U19 & U15 girls, Team Leader), Cory Eider (U19 boys), Samson Dubina (U15 boys)

Timo's Week #3 - Why my motivation is still high in 2021
Here's the video (4:35) from Timo Boll.

Your First Table Tennis Lesson
Here's the video (15:58) from Coach Jon.

New from Samson Dubina

• 3:1 Principle - Learn to evaluate your training sessions!
• Success - Quiz Yourself on the 12 Aspects of Mental Success!

Hand Speed & Footwork
Here's the video (3:16) featuring Rachel Wang, commentary by Brian Pace.

Footwork & Transition Drill For Beginners
Here's the video (2:07) from Jishan Liang, commentary by Brian Pace.

Are You a Drifter? Here's the Big Benefit of Playing Closer to the Table
Here's the article by Tom Lodziak.

Forehand Serve: Active or Forward Phase
Here's the video (2:44) from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis. It follows last week's Forehand Serve - Pendulum Initial Phase (2:52).

New from Edges and Nets

• Ma Long Withdraws from Men's Singles at the China National Games
• How Armpit Space Affects the Ma Long vs. Fan Zhendong Rivalry

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

• Xu Xin is the king of table tennis double! (Love It When You Hurt Me) (3:46)
• Table tennis quiz #5 (Ping Sunday) (61 min)
• If not filmed, nobody will believe these table tennis rallies (5:10)
• Ding Ning at Peking University 3:58)
• Ding Ning and Timo Boll [best moments] (6:21)
• Legendary forehand of the top Chinese players (10:39)
• [Funny] Boy vs Girl in table tennis (5:52)
• Fan Zhendong prepares for Chinese National Games 2021 (5:04)
• What are the salaries of professional table tennis players? (part 1) (9:34, from last week)
• What are the salaries of professional table tennis players? (part 2) (4:31)
• What are the salaries of professional table tennis players? (part 3) (2:17)
• Ma Long - Ding Ning: funny exhibition match (4:44)

USATT News

• Premier Access to 2021 World Table Tennis Championships. I believe "Premier Access" meant subscribers to USATT Insider, who received an email with a link. There were numerous problems with the site - here are threads about it on Facebook and MyTableTennis.net.
• Kanak Jha vs Patrick Baum highlights - TTC Zugbrucke Grenzau vs TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen (7:33)

New from Steve Hopkins

• WAB Featured Club: Spartans Table Tennis
• Ochsenhausen and Jha Win
• PongNow: Jenson Van Emburgh (15:38)

2021 Butterfly Cup Results and Photos
Here's the articles, pictures, and video by Tony Murnahan.

ITTF News

• ITTF Announces Executive Committee Nominees
• Here's their news page, video page ("World Table Tennis") and home page.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Emma Raducanu, Tennis and Table Tennis Champ?
Here's a video (16 sec) of her hitting forehands - she's pretty good! This past weekend she won Women's Singles at the US Open Tennis Championships. Here's an article, Emma Raducanu – Who is Britain’s Chinese-Romanian teen tennis star?, which also mentions her table tennis.

Table Tennis Pillow
Here's where you can buy one!

1001 Excuses for When I Lose
Here's the cartoon! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Don't Do Drugs: Do Table Tennis
Here's the meme! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Ma Long and Qiu Yike Fight on the Roadside!
Here's the video (65 sec)!

Funniest Moments In Table Tennis History REVEALED!
Here's the video (8 min)!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week
Use Your Strengths, But Test Your Opponent.

MDTTC Open and Westchester Teams and 911 Museum, Oh My!
I had an action packed Labor Day Weekend, which can be neatly divided into three parts. Alas, Part 2 I had to write with my mouth clenched in disgust.

=>PART 1: MDTTC Open. On Saturday, I coached for half a day at the MDTTC Open. Here are the complete results. Perhaps the most interesting match was against a player with the Seemiller grip. The junior player I coached had barely beaten this opponent in a previous match one month before, but armed with better tactics, won easily three straight this time. I'm one of the few coaches left around who coached actively way back when that grip was relatively common. These days, many coaches give very bad advice on how to play this grip, leading to many unnecessary losses. Every player is different, but in general, against this type of player you:

• Attack the wide forehand, then continue attacking the wide angles.
• Rarely open to the backhand. Draw them out of position by attacking the forehand first.
• Rarely attack the middle. Only go to the middle when you are out of position as that takes away an extreme blocking angle. They are at their strongest from the middle, which is different than for most shakehand and penhold players.
• Serve mostly long to the backhand with spinny, breaking serves.
• Mix in short serves to the forehand so they can't sit back waiting for the deep ones.
• Focus on getting used to their "off" surface as early as possible. It's usually antispin, but sometimes long pips.

=>PART 2: Westchester Teams

It was a three-day tournament, with Under 3800 Teams on Saturday, U4400 Teams on Sunday, and U4800 Teams on Monday (Labor Day). I went up on Saturday afternoon from Maryland (five hours including lunch break) with Todd Klinger and his parents (Ron and Carolyn), and Todd's teammate, Christian Funderberg. They had a two-hour practice session at the club that night, then pizza for dinner. Todd and Christian were only playing on Sunday, in the Under 4400 event.

The Westchester Table Tennis Center is one of the finest facilities in the country. It's owned by Will Shortz, the NY Times puzzle editor, who's now played table tennis for 3,260 days in a row (since Oct. 3, 2012). I've been there probably a dozen times now for various tournaments, which have almost always been very positive experiences. Here are the complete results of the tournament. Here are pictures. 

Alas, we had some serious friction with the tournament referee, on multiple fronts. We had been told in advance (via email) that there would be a consolation event after the main event, and that they would be playing until about 6-8PM. So we were set for a full day of matches, and had paid a hefty $315 entry to do so, not to mention another $900 for three hotel rooms for two nights.

Under 4400 was scheduled to start at 9:30AM. So Todd and Christian were there at 8:30AM for a one-hour session. We were all set to play at 9:30AM, and their first-round opponents were also ready and waiting. But the referee wouldn't call any matches. There had been some accident on one of the local highways and so some players were going to be late. No problem, send out those who are available and wait on those few who are delayed. But the referee disagreed, and refused to send out any matches until 10:10AM!!! So the large majority of the players who had warmed up and were ready to play at 9:30AM were now cold from waiting around. We didn't get our clipboard until 10:15AM, 45 minutes late. Todd and Christian went out and warmed up again, but they were more primed to play at 9:30 then they were after 45 minutes of pointlessly waiting around.

They were seeded fourth in a group of four and lost all three team matches, though Christian pulled out a couple of upsets and they played great in the doubles, twice beating "stronger" teams. They pushed one team to five. (Best of five format Corbillon - singles, singles, doubles, singles, singles.) Each team match had two tables and they played the singles simultaneously, so each team match finished in about an hour or just over. They finished the third and final team match around 2:30PM. At that point the top two teams in each of the four groups moved to the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, we waited to play the consolation event.

After a time, we went to the control desk to check with the referee on when the consolation rounds would begin. We were told that they had cancelled it, saying the software wouldn't allow them to run a consolation event! This made no sense to me - if you can set up multiple team events on the software, then you can set up another team event for the consolation rounds, and simply put those teams in it that hadn't finished in the top two. (I also pointed out that you could simply run it on paper - very easy to do, I've done it many times.) But he insisted the software would not allow him to run the event and ridiculed the idea of running it on paper.

He said if we did the event, we'd be there all night, which also didn't make sense. If you take the nine teams that didn't finish in the top two and put them in a single elimination consolation event (run at the same time as the main event, which had eight teams), you'd have at most only one more round (since there were nine teams, and so you needed one preliminary to get to the quarterfinals), and at worse might finish an hour later - and still finish in time for dinner. But realistically, not all the teams wanted to play the consolation event, and so in reality they could have started the consolation event at the same time, quarterfinals on, and both would finish about the same time. So the idea that running the event "would take all night" simply doesn't make sense. (Ideally, of course, the consolation event would have been run RR so teams would get more matches, i.e. their money's worth for $315 entry fee for one day's play. If it runs late, so what? They paid to play for a full day. We'd been told we'd be playing until about 6-8PM. So, let's run it RR and let them play until about 6-8PM!!!)

And then we ran into an even more heated disagreement. When I pointed out they should be able to run the consolation event (either with their software by creating a new event or simply by hand), he insisted that, even if he could run it on the software, you can't run a consolation event unless every team agreed to play. In other words, he said it couldn't be run unless all nine teams that didn't finish in the top two agreed to play! THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!!! We argued on this, but he stuck to his guns. I asked him what he would do if he were referee at the US Open, and they had a consolation event with, say, 50 players, but one player didn't want to play. Would he cancel the entire event because of that? He wouldn't answer, and cycled back to arguing that the software wouldn't let him run a consolation event. (Do I really need to contact the creators of the software and ask if it will allow someone to simply create a consolation event and put those teams in it? That's sort of silly - of course you can.) In the end, as he repeatedly said, he was the referee and had ruled that there would be no consolation event. (It didn't specify on the entry from that there would be a consolation event, it was simply something they had planned, at least initially, and told us would happen.)

There was another interesting argument. At this point in the argument, some or most of the teams that might have played in the consolation had left. What if there were two teams that wanted to play a consolation team match, just so they could get a few more matches? That would be easy, right? But the referee ruled emphatically that if there were only two teams, then it wasn't worth running the event. I pointed out that it might be worth it to the two teams, but he again stuck to his guns, and once against said he was the referee and had made his ruling. At this point I was pretty angry, and even sarcastically pointed out that, as referee, he could rule that 2+2=5, but that wouldn't make it right.

Since they must have run into this problem the day before (when running U3800 Teams on Saturday), and knowing they weren't going to run a consolation event, perhaps they could have at least run the event with more teams per group? They ran U4400 Teams with three groups of four, and one group of five. Why not two groups of six and one group of five? Then perhaps we would have gotten more of our money's worth. (Ironically, despite not entering U4800 teams on Monday - that was a little strong for them - they were mistakenly put in the draw, in a group of four. So they are listed as defaulting those matches, and the other three teams only got two team matches in the preliminaries. The team that finished third paid $315 to play two team matches.)

So: we traveled five hours each way to play three team matches, it started 45 minutes late (10:15AM), and by 2:30 PM we were done, with a whole afternoon and night now unexpectedly open. The entry fee for this? $300 plus $15 registration, so $315 to play three team matches. (Plus three hotel rooms for two nights - another $900!) For perspective, on Saturday, Todd or Christian could have entered four round robin events at the MDTTC Open - Open Singles, U2400, U2200, and U2000. Total entry fee would have been exactly $100, less than 1/3 the $315 we paid for the Team event - and they would have played far more matches. (They went to Westchester so they could play lots of different players.) So, yeah, if you are going to charge $315 for one day's play, then give them one day's play!!!

As you can see, we were a bit peeved by all this. (And when I say "a bit peeved," I am way, way understating.) I will be very hesitant to bring players to future tournaments run by this referee, not unless we get incredibly firm agreements in advance on what to expect. As a coach and player, I am tired of these shenanigans. (This is not the first time I've had "differences" with this referee.) Note that while he was listed as the referee, with someone else listed as director, in reality he ran the tournament. (And if he wants to defend his actions, I'm up for a very public debate on either Facebook or Zoom.)

After hanging around the hotel the rest of the afternoon, we went out to dinner with the Wu's (William and Winston and parents), who are also from MDTTC and also finished up early. They were playing on Monday, however. We went to a nice Greek restaurant. (I had a huge Greek salad and tried not to watch as most of the others ate octopus as an appetizer.) Afterwards we took the kids out for ice cream (okay, we all had ice cream). Then we went for a long walk along the Hudson River at Tarrytown.

=>PART 3: 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

The Klingers, Christian, and I spent Monday at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. We were in the museum for several hours - I sort of lost track of time. It's a rather somber experience. Lots and lots of exhibits of things from the Twin Towers, pictures, a long timeline along the way, and lots of videos. What else is there to say about it? When 9/11 happened in 2001, I was busy moving into my new townhouse I'd just bought (and still live in). I spent three days unpacking while watching everything on TV. Afterwards we went for another long walk along New York Harbor, where we could see the Statue of Liberty.

Tickets for the Worlds - Still No News
Here's the World's ticket page, which is still essentially blank. As I blogged last week, we were told tickets would be on sale in August (for the Worlds in Houston in November), and it's now Sept. 7. And, as I also said last week, the bigger problem isn't that they are late, it's that they simply won't communicate. They could easily put up a news item explaining there's been a delay, perhaps because of Covid or other issues. But silence is not the answer, though it seems to be the USATT's and ITTF's answer. (And now I'll have The Sound of Silence stuck in my head for the rest of the say.)

Life After Tokyo – What’s Next?
Here's the article by USA Olympian and 5-time US Women's Singles Champion Lily Zhang.

New from Sean Zhang

• Backhand Topspin Serve Return (1:25).
• How To Pendulum Serve (1:36).

Serve Return With Banana Flip
Here's the video (2:12) from Ojo Onaolapo.

Forehand Serve - Pendulum Initial Phase
Here's the video (2:52) from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis.

New from Samson Dubina

• Tournament Officials - Learn 4 Keys to Maximizing Your Performance!
• Serve or Receive?
• 20 Different Opponents!
• Beat the STRANGER
• NEW Videos

New from Ti Long

• 8 technical exercises at home with Training Tool
• Ma Long changes Backhand Topspin technique to become the king of Legends

What Makes A Great Table Tennis Player
Here are the two videos (1:58 and 2:45). Fresh off their Olympic success in Tokyo, Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov (Silver Medal – Men’s Team | Bronze Medal – Men’s Singles) and Patrick Franziska (Silver Medal – Men’s Team) demonstrate what it takes to be a great table tennis player.

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

• Ding Ning Announced Her Retirement Officially
• Ma Lin Playing Style and Equipment
• Dimitrij Ovcharov Playing Style and Equipment

Videos (some overlap with the above)

• What are the salaries of professional table tennis players? (part 1) (9:34)
• Ding Ning announced her retirement officially (4:58)
• Chinese National Women's Team vs The USA Men's Team (23:34)
• The match between 2 no arm table tennis players (17:01)
• Ma Long's forehand: topspin machine (2021) (7:05)
• Best funny moments in table tennis (7:35)
• Table tennis quiz #4 (Saturday 04 September 2021) (48:07)
• The craziest match of Ma Lin in the final (13:28)
• How to build your own 5$ table tennis robot? [DIY] (5:13)
• Happy Birthday, Dimitrij Ovtcharov (02 September) (5:28)
• Very effective table tennis serve: come back serve (1:44)
• Direct winning serve in table tennis (5:42)

The Chinese Table Tennis Masters all Grew Up From These Kids!
Here's the video (7:07).

New from Edges and Nets

• Table Tennis Stars React to Ding Ning's Retirement
• Timo Boll Talks About Chinese Table Tennis and More
• Manika Batra Accuses Indian National Coach of Match-Fixing

New from USA Table Tennis

• USATT Announces 2021 US Open Table Tennis Championships - Dec. 17-22 in Las Vegas. "The Prospectus and Entry Form for the 2021 US Open are expected to be released in the immediate future." (NOTE - I proofed the entry form for them on Saturday, so it should be ready soon.)
• Are More Top Players Now in Their Teens? By Will Shortz.
• Tokyo Paralympics Have Concluded with a Team USA Medal Haul, by Joshua Dyke.
• Kanak Jha vs Darko Jorgic Season 2021/22 Highlights - TF Liebherr Ochsenhausen vs. 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT (5:10)
• Kanak Jha vs Tomas Polansky Season 2021/22 Highlights - TF Liebherr Ochsenhausen vs. 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT (4:16)
• USATT Minutes, which include the minutes to the Aug. 11 USATT Board Teleconference.

New from the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association

• NCTTA Registration is OPEN for 2021-2022 Season!
• August 2021 News

New from Steve Hopkins

• WAB Club Feature: Fremont Table Tennis Academy
• African Championships Update: Assar and Aruna Into the Semis
• TTBL: Dusseldorf Blanks Neu Ulm
• TTBL: Ochsenhausen Wins Its Fourth
• TTBL Update: Three Teams Undefeated Entering German League’s 4th Weekend

Tournament Refund Policies – No Way! No How!
Here's the article by Coach Jon.

Happy Birthday, Dima!
Here's the video (3:15) as Germany #1 Dimitrij Ovtcharov turns 33!

ITTF News

• ITTF Announces Executive Committee Nominees
• Here's their news page, video page ("World Table Tennis") and home page.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

New Season Begins! TableTennisDaily Team
Here's the video (25:58)!

Vlog - The Return of Tiger Boll
Here's the video (4:18)) from Timo Boll. (No actual table tennis - it's Timo playing golf - and the lefty TT player plays golf righty!

Most INSANE Behind-the-Back Shots Ever!
Here's the video (1:56) - the first one is a long counterlooping rally that ends with a Timo Boll behind-the-back winner!

Fear My Racket Table Tennis T-shirt
Here's where you can buy it on Amazon!

$5 Racket Vs. $140 Racket
Here's the video (6:16) from Pongfinity!

How to Suck at Table Tennis
Here's the video (6:06) from XOLAY!

Table Tennis Mascot Images
Here's a page of them!

Misdirected Serve
Here's the video (8 sec)!

Adam vs. USA no.1
Here's the video (11:54)!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week
How To Play Fast-Attacking Junior Players.

Paralympics
I believe the table tennis singles events are done - and USA won two medals, with Ian Seidenfeld winning a gold and Jenson Emburgh a bronze. Tahl Leibovitz lost 11-9 in the fifth in the quarterfinals. (Semifinalists get medals.) Here's the schedule, with table tennis scheduled for Aug. 25 - Sept. 3. Here's more info on table tennis at the 2020 Paralympics. (It's still considered 2020, just postponed one year.) Below are some links.

• Paralympics: How much money do athletes win for gold, silver and bronze medals? (from Independent.co)
• Lakeville's Ian Seidenfeld wins Paralympic gold in table tennis, adding to the family legacy (from Minnesota Star Tribune)
• USA's Ian Seidenfeld, in father's footsteps, mines table tennis gold (4:20, from NBC Sports)
• Jenson van Emburgh- Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Bronze Medalist (from Sunrise TTC)
• ITTF Coverage

USATT Coverage of Paralympics

• IAN SEIDENFELD WINS GOLD MEDAL IN HIS 1ST PARALYMPIC GAMES APPEARANCE
• IAN SEIDENFELD UPSETS REIGNING PARALYMPIC TABLE TENNIS CHAMP TO TAKE GOLD MEDAL
• IAN SEIDENFELD FACES PETER ROSENMEIER IN THE CLASS 6 GOLD MEDAL MATCH AT TOKYO 2020
• IAN SEIDENFELD ADVANCES TO THE CLASS 6 SEMIFINAL IN PURSUIT OF A GOLD MEDAL AT THE 2020 PARALYMPICS
• JENSON EMBURGH IN PRIME POSITION TO EARN CLASS 3 GOLD MEDAL AT THE 2020 PARALYMPICS

Paralympic Coverage by Steve Hopkins

• TeamUSA Para: Gold for Seidenfeld, Bronze for Van Emburgh
• Jenson Van Emburgh Interview (article and video 22:27)
• Seidenfeld PongNow Interview (10:20)

ITTF Pan American Under 11 & Under 13 Championships
Here's the info page. They will be held Oct. 18-24, 2021, in Cuenca, Ecuador, population 330,000. USA will likely have up to 16 players going - four in each age event: Boys and Girls, Under 13 and Under 11. There will also likely be four coaches and a team leader going. I've already volunteered to go as the coach of the Under 13 Boys' Team, but they haven't made selections yet. The reason I volunteered for this one is that at the Under 13 Boys' Team Trials, players from my club (who I've worked with extensively) finished #1, 3, and 6. (Stanley Hsu, Mu Du, Ryan Lin.) Since #2 finisher Patryk Zyworonek isn't going, so that means the top two finishers will be Stanley and Mu Du. Finishing #4 and #5 were He Xianyao and Krish Gandhi, so if they both go, they'll join Stanley and Mu Du on the team. (If one of them doesn't go, then Ryan Lin would be able to go. But I know all of them well - including their games - and can work with any of them.)

We had a 90-minute Zoom meeting last Friday night on this, with nearly 30 parents, players, and coaches attending. It was hosted by High Performance Director Sean O'Neill and High Performance Manager Daniel Rutenberg (who I believe is going as Team Leader). Before that we also received an info letter from Sean.

Players will be in four events: Singles, Doubles, Mixed Doubles, and Teams. As emphasized at the meeting, in the Teams, we are playing to win, so we would be playing our strongest players. This doesn't mean the #1 and #2 player would always play - the coach has to see how well the players are playing and make a judgment call. But - and this is key - regardless of who plays in any specific team match, or even if a player doesn't play at all, they have ALL equally earned the right to be on that team, and are all just as much a part of it. The goal is Medals (hopefully Gold) for them all!

USATT will be providing uniforms and the team leader, and paying the entry fees. Alas, the players and coaches have to pay their own way - it's self-funded. So if I do get selected, I'd have to pay for my flight, hotel, food, and any other expenses. Being insane, I'll probably do it. It's either that or stay home and play shuffleboard. But hopefully I'd get a snazzy uniform!

HOWEVER . . . there's a huge complicating factor that didn't come up in the Zoom meeting, presumably because nobody knew about it. After the meeting, I looked up the elevation of Cuenca - and found that it's at 8,400 feet!!! Playing table tennis at that elevation is almost insane - it's very different than playing at sea level. The air pressure is about 74% compared to sea level, and oxygen content is about 15%, compared to 21% at sea level. The thin air means the ball plays VERY different. Roughly speaking, the ball jumps at you far quicker than you expect; topspin balls don't drop as fast, so the ball is often higher than you expect; the ball doesn't curve as much; there's more spin on the ball (since there's less air to slow it down), so players constantly misread serves while struggling against spinny loops or backspins; and "short" serves don't just go long, they go way long. Basically, all of your trained instincts and reflexes are going to be off at first.

I've played at high altitude, and it takes a lot of training to adjust to such changes. For example, nobody from sea level can play effectively in Colorado Springs, CO (6,000 feet) without at least several days of practice. Your typical shot in Colorado Springs goes over a foot deeper than you expect. And we're talking 8,400 feet!!! A key thing to adjusting to high altitude play is to put aside any frustrations and take it as a challenge. But to meet such a challenge effectively means getting enough practice to adjust. (Interestingly, many players, including me, find it much easier to adjust to low altitude than high altitude. It's going up that's much harder to adjust to.)

By a strange coincidence, Samson Dubina just created a new video, Playing Table Tennis at High Elevation (7:02). He estimates it takes one day to adjust to every thousand feet of elevation. Based on that, we'd need eight days, which likely isn't feasible. But I think we need three days (two sessions per day) at minimum to be at least competitive. Others will be in the same situation - but many players from South American likely play at high elevation, or can more easily go to such a place to train, and so will be more used to it. The Ecuador locals will be feasting on those who just show up to play without serious high elevation training first. (I was at various times the manager/director/one of the coaches for the Resident Training Program for Table Tennis in Colorado Springs, 1985-1990, and there were many examples of players who came up and simply couldn't play without extensive practice.)

I've communicated the problem to the HPD and HPM, and requested that they look into our team going down early so they can get, at minimum, three full days of training at that elevation. (The coaches can run those sessions.) Hopefully this will be feasible. I've also looked into the possibility of sending our players to train in high elevation clubs in the US - there are several possibilities, especially in Colorado. But one of the Maryland parents looked into that, and trying to add a trip to Colorado before going to Ecuador dramatically increases the cost and time. So, I'm hoping we can keep it simple, and perhaps arrive in Cuenca on Oct. 14, train Oct. 15-17, and then be ready to play Oct. 18-24.

The original plan, before we knew of the elevation, was to arrive on Oct. 16, practice on the 17th, and play on the 18th. There is little chance of playing effectively if we went with that, and I'd recommend to the parents and players that if that's the only option, it's not worth going. It'll be setting our kids up for a predictably bad experience. For many (and I think all of them), it would be their first time representing USA in international competition. Hopefully we can turn it into a great experience.

US Open and Worlds
Still no news on when or where the US Open will be, other than mention at the last USATT board meeting that it would be around the second week in December "as always." There's no entry form or other info available. I'm pretty sure we've never gone this long without even basic info on the Open or Nationals, not to mention no entry form.

Similarly, with the first World Championships to be in the US (Nov. 23-29), there are many who are interested in attending as spectators - but again, no news. (Here's the World's ticket page, which is essentially blank. I found the page by Googling, since it's not listed on any USATT page I can find. Here's the ITTF Worlds info page, but no ticket info there either.) There's nothing in the USATT Tournament Page or Tournament Calendar. There was an ITTF/USATT news item on July 15 that said, "Fans will be able to attend the event with tickets going on sale this August." Technically, it's still August for two more days, but really? Instead of telling us they will be on sale in August and then just keeping everyone on hold, let us know when they will actually go on sale.

The bigger problem here is COMMUNICATION. I've blogged about this a number of times - USATT gets an F in communications. The bigger problem here isn't that the entry form for the Open isn't available or that the tickets for the Worlds aren't on sale, though both are problematic. No, the bigger problem BY FAR is that USATT chooses to keep us in the dark on these issues. If there's something that's delaying these issues, then TELL US. I've blogged about this repeatedly. C'mon, USATT, you have a news page - talk to us!!!  

=>BREAKING NEWS - US Open will be in Las Vegas, Dec. 17-22. Here's the USATT news item. (It was posted Friday night, Sept. 3.) 

World Ping Pong Championship
Here's the info page! This hardbat tournament is being held in Sugar Land, Texas, just outside of Houston, on Sunday, Nov. 21, two days before the World Table Tennis Championships begin in Houston. Steve Claflin, a former top junior star, is running it. You can enter via Omnipong. As I write this, there are 28 entries - including Jimmy Butler, AJ Carney . . . and Larry Hodges! Yep, I plan to go. The rest of you can battle for second. :) Alas, I have a 2248 hardbat rating, and that makes me (so far) only the 12th seed. But anyone who wants to win this thing will have to face the wrath of Hodge, the current US Over 60 and Over 40 (seventh time) Hardbat Champ! (Not to mention two Hardbat Singles titles at the Nationals and Open way back in 1991-92, and 14 Hardbat Doubles Championships.) I'm normally a sponge player, but will have to find some time to practice some hardbat soon.

MDTTC Open and Westchester Teams
Next weekend I'll be coaching on Saturday at the MDTTC Open in Gaithersburg, MD; on Sunday coaching at the Westchester Teams just north of New York City; and then, on Monday (with two MDTTC juniors and parents), visiting the 9/11 Museum. (I visited the 9/11 Memorial when I was in New York City the week of Aug. 16-21, but wasn't able to fit in the 9/11 Museum.) Hope to see some of you at the tournaments!

Reads Per Blog
Some of you might have noticed that my blog no longer shows the number of reads. It gets around 30,000 each time. But ever since I did an update to Drupal 9, the reads haven't showed up - and I haven't yet figured out why. It's on my todo list, but there are a lot of other things ahead of it.

Google Table Tennis Game
Today's Google heading (Monday, Aug. 30) features a table tennis game - but they put you through a hassle first. Using the arrow keys, go onto the island, and you'll come to the "Olympic" table tennis game. Enjoy!

My Texas Table Tennis Road Trip
Here's the article by Will Shortz. Yeah, that Will Shortz. Besides his puzzling background (enigmatology, to be specific), he's the owner of the Westchester Table Tennis Club, and as of today, has played table tennis 3,253 consecutive days, not missing a day since Oct. 3, 2012.

New from Samson Dubina

• Playing Table Tennis at High Elevation (7:02)
• Beat the STRANGER - New Tactics Article on Beating the Unknown Opponent
• NEW Videos of the Week
• Playing System (3:45)
• Pandemic Robot Training (2:47)
• 6 Keys to Tactical Analysis (3:41)
• The Case For Footwork (4:14)

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

• Forehand Drive in Table Tennis biomechanics chinese players (2:37)
• Backhand Drive in Table Tennis biomechanics chinese players (2:01)
• Table tennis sport that beats the advance of parkinson's (20 sec)
• Tokyo 2020 Table Tennis women's singles Chen MENG (11:16)
• Backhand topspin. Table Tennis biomechanics chinese players (4:12)
• Table Tennis Olympic tokyo 2020 men singles FINAL (10:30)
• Backhand topspin Table Tennis biomechanical description 3/3 (1:35

New from Ti Long

• How to create friction for the Backhand technique and secretly use the fingers (5:35)
• Zhang Jike's Backhand Topspin Technique (5:51)

Overcoming Challenges
Here's the article by Natalie Chan.

Forehand Loop & Cover The Table With Patryk Zyworonek
Here's the video (2:02) with commentary by Brian Pace.

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

• How professional players serve
• Great app to play table tennis on the street

Videos (some overlap with the above)

• Great app to play table tennis on the street [StreetTT] (7:48)
• Is Ma Long good at English? (1:15)
• top 5 women table tennis players (World Ranking) (7:26)
• Top 5 men table tennis players (August 2021) (7:00)
• Why Tomokazu Harimoto often lost to Xu Xin (18:24)
• Table Tennis quiz #3 (53:49)
• Who has the best communication skill?  (5:41)
• Miwa Harimoto won the Japanese junior championship (3:57)
• table tennis "beckoning our fate" (3:40)
• Shin Yu-bin - amazing 17 years old table tennis player (3:53)
• What happens when you ignore the serve rules of table tennis? (6:11)
• Physical training outdoor of Chinese national table tennis team (4:12)

Filip Zeljko vs Kanak Jha (Selected) | Saison 2021/22
Here's the video (4 min) of this German Bundesliga match.

New from Steve Hopkins
(See also his articles on Paralympics above.)

• Benedikt Duda Wins German Championship
• Czech Open Results
• WAB Club Feature: Pleasanton Table Tennis Center
• A Great Start for Jha/Ochsenhausen

Tournament Refund Policies – No Way! No How!
Here's the article from Coach Jon.

New from Edges and Nets

• Chinese National Team Emphasizes Youth to Finish 2021
• Jeoung Youngsik Withdraws from 2021 Korean National Team

2021 ITTF Czech Open
Here's the ITTF page for the event held Aug. 21-25 in Olomouc, Czech, with results and articles.

ITTF News
Here's their news page, video page ("World Table Tennis") and home page.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Thin Table Pong
Here's the video (10 sec)!

Insane Ping Pong TIC TAC TOE CHALLENGE!
Here's the video (15 sec)!

Cat Ping Pong Shirt
Yes, it's what you have all been waiting for!!!

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Tip of the Week
Forehand Position for Backhands.

New York City Sightseeing and Tim's Basement
It's been a LONG week for me - I'm exhausted! Why? Because I spent Mon-Fri last week on my feet almost continuously, touring New York City. And then, on Saturday, Will Shortz and I explored USATT Historian Tim Boggan's basement, a literal table tennis treasure trove! I did daily Facebook postings of my adventures in New York. Here's the entire report. Or, if you want to see the many comments and discussions, here are links to the Facebook postings:

• Monday - Times Square, Bubba Gump Restaurant, Hershey Chocolate World, Empire State Building, and Table Tennis at Bryant Park. (Only a half day as I arrived Monday afternoon.)
• Tuesday - Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Circle Line Sightseeing Tour (boat trip around Manhattan), Washington Square Park (the chess players), United Nations Building.
• Wednesday - Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Immigration Museum, Castle Clinton, 911 Memorial, World Trade Center, Wall Street and the Charging Bull, Walking Across the Brooklyn Bridge.
• Thursday - The Metropolitan Museum of Art ("Washington Crossing the Delaware," "Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat" by van Gogh!, "The Temple of Dendur" from 10BC!), the American Museum of Natural History (Lucy! The Bandaged Blue Whale! "Worlds Beyond Earth" video!), Central Park (including Belvedere Castle, Cleopatra's Needle, and the Turtle Pond), and the Spyscape Museum.
• Friday - the Bronx Zoo and Coney Island (I rode the Cyclone!).

When I sightsee, I always collect souvenir magnets. Here's this week's haul! (Missing - Castle Clinton was out of souvenir magnets, so I ordered one online.)

On Saturday morning, Will Shortz (of NY Times Crossword fame) picked me up at my hotel in Manhattan. It was about an hour's drive to Tim's house on Long Island. Tim Boggan was waiting for us, as was Eric Boggan (2-time US Men's Singles Champion and formerly #17 in the world - the US's top ranked man since the hardbat era). Then we went to the basement.

With Tim supervising, we went through box and Box and BOX, and shelf after Shelf after SHELF of table tennis stuff! We were like Bilbo in Smaug's lair. The only downside was that, at some point last year, Tim and son Scott (also a former US Men's Singles Champion) had cleaned out some of the basement, and his huge collection of past magazines was gone. But there were carloads of stuff of historical interest. We spent nearly all of Saturday going through it. (We took a lunch break at a local diner - Will and I had waffles, Tim had a shrimp sandwich.) We loaded up Will's car; he's a serious TT collector, and puts some of it on display at the Westchester Table Tennis Center, which he owns. I took about 20 old table tennis books, about half in English, half foreign language, to add to my table tennis book collection. (None of this will be sold - it's for historical purposes. I'm still trying to decide who and where to will my TT book collection to so that it stays together. I left the box of books with Will, and will pick them up when I go to coach some of our MDTTC players at the Team tournament at his club in two weeks, Sept. 4-6. So I have not yet updated my online listing.)

I also grabbed a couple of odds and ends, such as a weird racket with four holes in the base to put your fingers through, and some table tennis playing cards. We also found three boxes of VHS tapes and a film reel, all labeled, much of it vintage film/video of Eric and Scott Boggan in their peak years, and many others. Those we are sending off to Scott Gordon (former long-time chair of the USATT Classic Table Tennis Committee) - he collects those and will likely digitize many of them.

Then Will gave me a ride back into Manhattan and Penn/Moynihan Train Station (75 min ride), where I could catch Amtrak back to Maryland. Alas, I should have reserved a spot - every train to Maryland was full! So I had to check back into my hotel and take an 11AM train on Sunday morning.

I did have two "exciting" moments at the train station. When I first got there on Sunday, just outside the station's entrance, two police officers were arguing with what appeared to be a homeless person - who was screaming at them semi-coherently. He was black; the officers were white; dozens of people were videotaping it. I stayed and watched. After above five minutes, the homeless person walked off, still screaming. (So I don't think it'll make the news.) Then, just 15 minutes later, while I was waiting for the train to arrive, I glanced to my right where I had my luggage bag - and it was gone! Someone pointed, and sure enough, about 50 yards away some homeless person was wheeling it away. I chased after and caught him, and he immediately gave it back, saying, "Sorry, sorry, thought it was mine." (And before anyone jumps to conclusions, the second guy was white.) Moral - never take your eyes off your belongings when out in public!!!

USA Table Tennis Board Meeting
=>Skip this if not interested in the inner workings of USATT!
There was a USATT Board Teleconference on Aug. 11, which I attended. There were 23 people attending. Here's a brief rundown. (Most interesting part - see #6!)

1. Approval of Minutes of previous meeting.
2. Report from Bobby Sharma, chair of Nominating and Governance Committee. Arjun Chowdri was nominated and approved to the board as new independent Director. He's from the sport of golf.
3. CEO Report by Virginia Sung. She went over the Nationals. The turnout was only 490, the second lowest in our history (lowest since 1986). There were 177 men, 94 women, 219 juniors. (Which, by the way, is a HUGE turnaround from the past - go back 20 years and there were probably 1/3 as many junior players - but many more adults.) There were 48 events on 45 tables. Due to scheduling problems, many players had to default and leave early (I blogged about this on July 12); a total of 53 players received refunds. The US Open was also mentioned, but still nothing on where it'll be. It will most likely be held the second week in December, and will be combined with the Pan Am Team Trials. She also said there should soon be info on tickets for the Houston Worlds, to be held in November. (See separate segments below on this.)
4. High Performance Director Report by Sean O'Neill. He spoke about the various team trials, Olympics preparation, Olympics report, athlete grants, Kanak Jha going back to play in the German Leagues, Lily Zhang maybe.
5. USATT Foundation report by Carl Danner. There is currently $1.28 million in the USATT Foundation, up about $100,000 this past year. They have sent about half a million to USATT in past ten years, so about $50,000/year.
6. Umpire and Referee Committee Report by Roman Tinyszin. The ITTF has approved more racket colors. One side will still have to be black, but as of Oct. 1, you will have a selection for the other side, including pink, violet, green and blue. Here's the ITTF report on this, from February. Here's more info from PingSunday. The new wording from the ITTF rules (2.4.6) now says, "The surface of the covering material on a side of the blade, or of a side of the blade if it is left uncovered, shall be matt, bright red on one side and black on the other. With effect 1st October 2021, the surface of the covering material on a side of the blade, or of a side of the blade if it is left uncovered, shall be matt, black on one side, and of a bright colour clearly distinguishable from black and from the colour of the ball on the other."
7. Update on the Proposed Amendments to the Bylaws, by Brian Moran. He reported on the upcoming Player Rep election, which should take place soon now that the Olympics is over.
8. Update on the Athletes Advisory Council – First and Second Athletes – Third and Fourth Athletes, by Brian Moran.
9. Approval of New Committee Members and Chairs. Marco Makkar was appointed to the Nominating and Governance Committee. Alfred Adjei was appointed to Tournament Committee. There was a strange incident regarding this. They were about to have the vote, but someone asked a question. After that, they went on as if the vote had already taken place, but the chair hadn't yet called for the vote. I pointed this out in the online chat section, and later they came back to it and had the actual vote. Not a big deal, as it was obviously going to pass, and did unanimously.  

Chief Tribute - George Braithwaite
Here's the video (6:04), brought to you by Thomas Hu. (I show up at 2:24.)

Paralympic Table Tennis Schedule
Here's the schedule, with table tennis scheduled for Aug. 25 - Sept. 3. Here's more info on table tennis at the 2020 Paralympics. (It's still considered 2020, just postponed one year.) Meanwhile, here's highlights from the table tennis action from the 2016 Paralympics (12 min)!

Countdown Begins as Houston Marks 100 days to Go until the World Table Tennis Championship
Here's the article from World Table Tennis.

World Championships in Houston - Ticket Info
Here's the ticket info page - but no info is up yet. Presumably it'll be up soon. The Worlds are in the US for the first time ever, Nov. 23-29 in Houston.

World Ping Pong Championship
Here's the info page! It's being held in Sugar Land, Texas, just outside of Houston, on Sunday, Nov. 21, two days before the World Table Tennis Championships begin in Houston. Steve Claflin, a former top junior star, is running it. You can enter via Omnipong. As I write this, there are 18 entries - including Jimmy Butler, AJ Carney . . . and Larry Hodges! Yep, I plan to go. The rest of you can battle for second! :)

Upcoming Tournaments in the Maryland and DC Area
There are ones in our area the next two weekends:

• Aug. 28-29: 2021 Washington DC Table Tennis Open and Giant Round Robin (at the Washington DC TTC), run by Khaleel Asgarali
• Sept. 4-5: MDTTC September Open (or sign up directly at Omnipong), run by Wang Qingliang

Tokyo Vlog #6 - Arigato Tokyo!
Here's the Vlog from Timo Boll (13:27).

New from Jinxin Wang

• Backhand Flip (2:09)
• Forehand Pivot (1:46)

New from Samson Dubina

• Pandemic Robot Training (2:46)
• Playing System (3:45)
• 6 Keys to Tactical Analysis (3:40)
• Photos
• The Case For Footwork (4:14)
• Pips and Anti - Should you use junk rubber?
• Kidnapped - I replayed this again and again...

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

• Table tennis sport that beats the advance of parkinson's. REMOTE training (20 sec)
• Tokyo 2020 Table Tennis women's singles SUN Yingsha vs CHEN Meng (11:16)
• Backhand topspin. Table Tennis biomechanics chinese players (4:12)
• Table Tennis Olympic tokyo 2020 men singles FINAL (10:30)
• Backhand topspin Table Tennis biomechanical description 3/3 (1:35)

PingSunday/EmRatThich
Lots and lots of new stuff here:

• Articles
• Videos

Creating More Time for Yourself by Preparing Whilst Moving
Here's the video (56 sec) from Eli Baraty.

New from Ti Long

• Mijutani Jun's 7 serves (10:16)
• Forehand Topspin Technique with Penhold Racket by Xu Xin (6:05)
• Technical Guide Forehand Topspin of The Legend of MA LONG (7:13)
• How to create the feeling of ball-grip friction of the Forehand Topspin technique (5:05)

New from Table Tennis Central

• 20 Most Creative Plays in Table Tennis [HD] (8:01)
• Comedy Table Tennis & Funniest Moments [HD] (4:03)
• The Best of German Table Tennis [HD] (8:06)
• Table Tennis in Slow Motion [HD] (12:28)
• Patrick Franziska - Amazing Talent [HD] (4:39)
• Masterful Skills in Table Tennis [HD] (8:11)
• "Extraordinary" Plays in Table Tennis [HD] (8:14)

New from Steve Hopkins

• Revisiting Tokyo: China Secures 4 Gold Medals, 3 Silver Medals
• Revisiting Tokyo: Japanese Pair Earn Gold in Mixed Doubles
• Revisiting Tokyo: By the Numbers
• Revisiting Tokyo: Early Rounds
• Ovtcharov Provides Tour of His Tokyo 2020 Living Space
• German League 2021 Season Kickoff: Dusseldorf and Ochsenhausen Both Win
• WTT Budapest: Moregard Wins First Post-Olympic Event
• WAB Featured Club: South Jersey Indoor Sports Club

New from Coach Jon

• The Soul of Table Tennis
• It's Always Something…..

Nationals 2021-My Search for Gold
Here's the article by Darryl Tsao.

NCTTA Parties Together From Coast to Coast, Alumni Sign-up, and Fundraiser
Here's the article.

USA Table Tennis Announces 2021 ITTF Pan Am Youth Championships Teams
Here's the info page.

Two-Time Olympian Kanak Jha Visits Cary, Shares His Love for Table Tennis
Here's the article and video (2:12) from WRAL.

Which Sport Requires the Most Hand-Eye Coordination?
Here's the video (3:39), where famed physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is asked this question. His response? Table tennis! It comes up three times in the video.

ITTF News
Here's their news page, video page ("World Table Tennis") and home page.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

New Funnies 237 Woody Woodpecker Ping Pong
It's for sale!

Hello Kitty
Here's the Hello Kitty table tennis page! What, you don't know who she is? Here's info on the Japanese character Hello Kitty.

Adam vs. Anastasiia
Here's the video (14:30)! "Anastasiia grew up here, on Earth. Yet her forehand smashes might lead you to believe otherwise."

Trick Shots
Here's the video (4:23) from MLFM!

Table Tennis Expectation vs. Reality
Here's the video (6:45) from XOLAY!

Sideways Pong
Here's the video (4:02) from Pongfinity - where they play with the table on its end, as well as with a hula hoop and while juggling!

Political Game
Here's the cartoon - no "!" on this one.

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Alas, no blog this week. I'm visiting New York City this week for sightseeing and some table tennis business, which I'll write about next week. I was planning to go up after doing my blog, but due to a scheduling issue I have to leave early Monday morning. But the Tip of the Week is up, The Seven Links of Table Tennis. And to tide you over, here's a new video of Roger Federer playing table tennis against a backboard - could you match this? (Here's my blog from August 12, 2019 - skip to the end and you'll see lots of links of Federer playing table tennis. Some are pretty funny.) See you next Monday!