USATT Supercamp - Day Three
By Larry Hodges

[Here's the USATT Day Three page, with video and photos by Matt Hetherington, and this article.]

I started off the morning telling horror stories over breakfast: the player who, after a loss, utterly destroyed a bathroom (something like $5000 in damages); in another match, the same player broke his racket after losing a few points, tried playing with the broken paddle for a while and lost more points, borrowed a friend’s paddle near the end (it was legal back then), but ended up losing an 800-point upset - and broke the friend’s racket; the player who ate half a notebook of paper after a loss; and yes, me, who once bought ten cheap sandpaper paddles and broke them all, one by one, during a tournament. (It was a long time ago, and I was only 17!)

As usual, we started off with physical training - but this was a short session. After jogging to the track (1/2 mile), and some stretching, we gathered the players together. I gave a few tips on distance running - proper breathing (through mouth, deep into belly), proper form (upper body relaxed, especially jaw and shoulders, leaning slightly forward, elbows at 90 degrees and pumping straight forward, light steps, and not overstepping by trying to step forward of body), and pace (steady for most of run, faster at the end). Then they jogged one lap for practice.

After some calisthenics and a short rest, it was the main event - a timed one mile, four laps around the track. I’m not going to give out the times - some of the kids would be rather unhappy if I did - but they ranged from about 5:45 to over eight minutes. A number of our top juniors were a little over six minutes. Conclusion: most were in pretty good shape, but for athletes trying to be the best in a sport like table tennis, not that good. Cory Eider and I agreed that by age 14 or 15, our best juniors should be breaking 5:30 - otherwise, how can they train as long and hard as their overseas rivals? (For perspective, when I was a miler in high school - 40 years ago - my best was 4:53. I ran the mile with the others, but let's just say it's been 30 years since I ran regularly...) Coach Samson Dubina came in first, with Andrew Song and Michael Tran giving him a good run for it at the end.

Then it was back to the club for a 45-minute lecture/slide show/video on Body Movement by Richard McAfee. Here are some of the main topics from my notes.

1. The Base. Wide stance, knees bent, low center of gravity. Stability vs. ability to move - need to find a balance.
2. Core Strength. This is the area between arms and legs. Without a strong core, it’s impossible to play high-level table tennis. It’s one of the focuses of the physical training.
3. The Strength Addition. This is about how movement should start and the sequence of muscles, from big and slow to small and fast: Legs and knees, hips, trunk, shoulders, elbow, wrist.
4. The Supports. “A chain is only as strong as its weakest length.” So if one muscle is underdeveloped, everything falls down to that level. Some ideas here;
   •    Transmission of forces: “The faster the athlete has to go, the more his stance is bent.”
   •    Proprioceptivity - yes, that’s a word! It means “the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement.” One device that helps in this type of training is a BOSU training device, which we have here. During break, it’s in constant use.
   •    Release. This involves lightening of the supports. If your weight is on a foot, you can’t move it, so you have to get the weight off the foot first.
   •    Landing.  How you land when moving.
5. Basic Position. The receive position is generally lower than the playing position.
6. Body Adjustments. These are often less conventional adjustments, often to cover the middle. Lots of examples were shown with video, such as 1993 world champion Jean-Philippe Gatien, who popularized “draw” footwork, where one covers more of the table with the forehand by essentially leaning away from the ball and powering it more with the upper body (though done properly, you also use lower body).
7. Lateral footwork, pivot footwork, depth footwork. Moving in different directions!
8. Games - footwork adjustment. “Players with good footwork in drill can be bad in games. They need game-type drills (random) and off-table training.”
9. Watching the feet. Overseas, especially in China, coaches are notorious for looking down much of the time, the idea being that 90% of problems involve the feet and lower body.

Afterwards we spent some time watching an ITTF training video created by Tibhar. We will likely watch more of it later. I’m especially interested in the one on multiball drills, which we’ll likely view later.

Then came the 12-2 table session. Once again I was with the lower group. Since we had an odd number, I was once again a practice partner for much of the session. Samson Dubina and Richard McAfee ran the session for this group. Here are three of the drills we did.

1. Two Loops, Two Blocks. Either player serves topspin, other player loops two balls in a row to the other player’s block; then the looper blocks back, and the other player loops two in a row, and then they switch again, and so on. I did this drill for a time with Jayden Zhou, 11, rated 2060, and we really went at it! Many great rallies.
2. Short Push, Receiver Attacks. Server serves short backspin, they push short twice each, then receiver attacks, and play out point.
3. Close and Far Counterlooping. One player serves backspin and loops off the push return. Then the two counterloop, with the server looping from close to the table, the receiver looping from off the table. (One of the players had to leave, so I didn’t do this drill - but I worked with several of the players on it, demonstrating how to loop quick off the bounce with a hooking sidespin at a wide angle.)

Then it was lunch time - spaghetti; rice, sausage & egg dish; and a few side items. And then, while everyone was eating, they brought in one more dish. I yelled out, “We have orange chicken!” - and there was a stampede as most of the camp came running. It was a huge pot, but they cleaned it out in minutes like a pack of piranhas. Note to self: never get between a group of hungry athletes and orange chicken. After lunch was a break until 5pm - and what did most of the kids do? There's some sort of Pokemon Go craze, and that's how many spent the afternoon and again that night. 

Up until now I’d worked almost exclusively with the lower group (younger and lower rated) because with them, I can be a pretty good practice partner and work one-on-one, plus for this group we had more lectures and demos, which I sometimes gave. But for this night session (5-8PM) I was able to join the higher group. I coached some as well as taking notes. Han Xiao mostly ran the session, with Wang Qing Liang, Alex Ruichao, and Jin Yuxiang as practice partners. (Samson and Richard ran the lower group, with Cory acting as a practice partner and one-on-one coach.) Han and I had some good discussions and analysis of some of the players. Here are two of the drills they did:

1. Server serves backspin, receiver pushes back long to backhand, server loop (forehand or backhand), receiver blocks to backhand only while server loops consistently anywhere with forehand or backhand. After about five shots, the server tries to end the point.
2. Server served long or medium-long, receiver attached anywhere, and rally continued with receiver attacking and server blocking. After about five shots, the server could counter-attack, and they’d play out the point.

Then they did about an hour of multiball, with the players in groups of three, with one player feeding multiball to another, and the third doing ball pickup. (This allowed the coaches to focus on coaching.) It was interesting to see how some of the players were highly proficient at feeding multiball, while others were not. Players in the group were the three Alguettis (Sharon, 14, 2558; Adar, 16, 2535; Gal, 14, 2500); Michael Tran (13, 2451); Klaus Wood (14, 2354), Rahul Acharya (17, 2320), Kai Zarehbin (12, 2261), Sid Naresh (12, 21910, and Roger Liu (15, 2163). Did I mention these players were good?!!! I especially enjoyed watching Michael Tran and Sharon Alguetti go at it in drills - super speed vs. super control. Now, if we could just combine these two, maybe we’d have something like this.

Then it was dinner time! Sesame chicken, curry chicken, soup, dumplings, broccoli, fried rice, and fruit. (I was in a spaghetti mood.) Then it was back to the house to rest up for the next day.

Allen Wang (18, 2546) and Amy Wang (13, 2416) arrived last night and will be with us the rest of the camp (July 11-24). Arriving Thursday are Tina Lin (17, 2354) and Matthew Lu (12, 2241). The 27 players in the camp range from age 9 to 18, and about 1800 to 2550, with a whole pack of kids in the 10-12 range rated between 1900 and 2100.

NOTE - during my stay at the USATT Supercamp (July 11-22), I'll be blogging about it daily, but probably not including the other segments I normally include in the blog. I'm just too busy here coaching, managing, and chaperoning!

USATT Supercamp - Day Two
By Larry Hodges

How do you spell exhaustion? U-S-A-T-T-S-U-P-E-R-C-A-M-P! No, not exhausted kids - how about us older coaches trying to keep up with these energized looping machines? Yes, they get tired during training, especially the physical training, but minutes later they are bouncing around like hungry Tasmanian Devils. (They never stop moving and eating. Even during breaks they are hitting with mini-paddles; playing doubles; lobbing to each other; or dragging me onto the table to challenge me where I chop and pick hit with a clipboard.)

Here's the USATT Day 2 Page, with video and photos by Matt Hetherington, as well as this article.

The physical training may be the most important aspect of the camp, which is taking place July 11-24 at the Lily Yip TTC in New Jersey, with 27 of the top juniors from around the country taking part. Compared to overseas players, top U.S. players and juniors are way behind in physical training. The stuff we’re doing here is new to nearly all U.S. juniors; it’s routine overseas. The Chinese players and coaches all say this is standard, and are always surprised top U.S. juniors don’t also do it regularly.

But the camp is also about other things. Along with the physical training, perhaps the other camp pillar is developing USA Team unity. Overseas, players train as part of a team, and the best countries are focused on beating the other top countries. Yes, they also want to be the best themselves, but they train and compete as a team, whether it’s the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Germans, or past great countries like Sweden and Hungary.

But in the U.S. it’s mostly individual players or clubs competing against other players and clubs. We need our players to train and compete as a team, working together to reach the top. That means often getting them together where they train and compete together, each pushing the others to be better, both in the camp and year round. It also means having USA National coaches look at the players - i.e. a different perspective - and make suggestions to the players’ coaches on things they can do to improve - not to supersede those coaches, but to work together with them to bring their players to their maximum potential, and thereby Team USA as well. Changing the culture of table tennis in the U.S. in these ways are key ingredients to bringing Team USA to the next level, and are perhaps the biggest focus of USATT High Performance Director Cory Eider.

To be specific, the actual listed camp goals are the following - with elaboration on each of these points:

1. Create “Team USA” spirit;
2. Send all players home with an “Action Plan”;
3. Education of the importance of physical fitness training;
4. Movement education;
5. Evaluation of all participants both technically and during competition;
6. Improvement of serve and serve return;
7. Improvement of first 5 balls;
8. Tactical education.

Many of us have been to table tennis camps, and this camp is not attempting to take away from other camps. But there are a few key things that make this camp different from most. Since all these players are aiming to be the best, they have to understand what it takes to be the best. That means not just doing drills, but understanding the purpose of each drill, and how it will help them move to a higher level. So before all drills the players are called together so we can explain the drill and its purpose, and what they should be focusing on when they do it. Similarly, after practice matches the coaches often meet with the players to discuss the tactics in the match - what worked, what didn’t, and what they need to work on to improve.

Physical training was once again from 9:30-11:00 AM at a local quarter mile track. Samson Dubina and Richard McAfee led the training, with Cory Eider, Wang Qing Liang, Han Xiao, and me assisting. We started with three laps, and then stretching. Then they were divided into two groups by age and size. One group went first to Richard to work with the medicine balls and bands. The other group went to Samson to work on planks. Most of the exercises were done for 30 seconds, three to four times each.

The medicine balls came in four, six, and eight-pound types, about 8-9” wide. They did four exercises with them.

1. “Side-to-Side,” where they swung the balls side to side in a circle, so the balls went way to their left and behind them, and then way to their right and behind them.
2. “Over head,” where they swung the balls over their heads, also side-to-side.
3. “Chopping Wood,” where they swung the balls down between their legs, and then back up again.
4. “Circles,” where they sat on the ground and twisted to the right, putting the ball behind them - and then twisted to the left so they could grab the ball and bring it around their body to their right again, so the ball circled their body. Then they did the same thing in the opposite direction.

There were three band exercises. (The bands are strips of stretchy rubber.)

1. The first was simple arm curls, where they held one end of the bands on the ground with their foot, and did curls with each arm.
2. Then came the triceps pull, where a partner held the band behind them and they pulled the bands forward, like throwing a ball.
3. Then they did the same thing (with partner holding the band), and did forehand strokes.

There were six “plank” exercises. These are exercises where the athlete typically lies on the ground and then lifts himself in the air in various ways with his arms or legs, and holds it there for 30 seconds, with body relatively straight. (The first two aren’t really plank exercises.)

1. Hand and leg extensions (Go on hands and knees and extend left arm and right leg; repeat with the reverse)
2. Russian twists (Sit on ground, leaning backwards, and rapidly touch each side, rotating body side to side)
3. Forward plank (Lie on stomach, and raise body on elbows/forearms and legs)
4. Right plank (Lie on right side and raise body with right arm and leg)
5. Left plank (Lie on left side and raise body with left arm and leg)
6. Back plank (Lie on back and raise body off ground with arms and legs)

Table training was from 12-2PM and 5-8PM, with the camp divided into two groups by levels. (I was with the lower, mostly younger group.) I was a practice partner for the first session, where we did a number of blocking and looping drills. One drill focused on looping with sidespin both ways, both hooking and fading, with both forehand and backhand loops. I helped run the second session, along with Han Xiao and Wang Qing Liang, and gave several lectures/demos on third-ball attack against pushes; third-ball attack against flips; serving short with sidespin and following with a loop; and random drills that start with various deep serves, with the receiver attacking the serve and then rallying as the server blocks side to side at random. We constantly harped on ball placement. For example, when third-ball attacking from backhand side, there are four placements - down line; to opponent’s elbow; crosscourt to corner; and crosscourt outside corner. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. Meanwhile, Richard McAfee and Samson Dubina ran the higher group, with Cory Eider taking a turn with each group, often acting as a 2500+ practice partner.

We finished with up-down tables, where winners move up, losers move down, and everyone tries to reach the first table, with single games to 11 (no deuce - 11-10 wins). The twist - if you won on your serve or third-ball, you got two points. One other twist - if it reached deuce, you had to yell “Deuce!” and the whole camp stopped to watch the next point. Players need to learn to play under pressure with people watching!

Once again lunch and dinner were cooked by Lily Yip and a pair of volunteers. Lunch included a Chinese dish of rice, sausage, scrambled eggs, and spices; clam chowder; spaghetti; and the usual assortment of fruit. Dinner was sesame chicken; two types of ribs; fried rice; potato soup; and fruit.

What did I do in between the two sessions? I have no idea; I finally took a nap and slept through it. (How do you spell exhaustion?) 

NOTE - during my stay at the USATT Supercamp (July 11-22), I'll be blogging about it daily, but probably not including the other segments I normally include in the blog. I'm just too busy here coaching, managing, and chaperoning!

USATT Supercamp - Day One
By Larry Hodges

The camp started yesterday (Monday), with 27 players at the Lily Yip TTC in New Jersey, July 11-24. I volunteered to be the resident manager and one of the coaches. USATT High Performance Director Cory Eider is in overall charge. For the first week, the other coaches are Richard McAfee, Han Xiao, Wang Qing Liang, and Samson Dubina. For the second week it will be Sean O’Neill, Dan Seemiller, and Lily Yip. Matt Hetherington is also here doing video; here are his day one videos and pictures. (When you see some of the younger ones, remember - that little kid you see is probably over 2000. And note the nice camp shirts - everyone got six of them, three blue, three orange.)

Most of us arrived on Sunday. I flew home from the Nationals in Las Vegas on a red-eye flight Saturday night, arriving in Maryland at 7AM. After spending much of the day taking care of miscellaneous business and repacking, I drove the four hours to New Jersey, arriving around 7PM. Most of the kids were already there. They are divided into three groups: the seven girls are at Lily Yip’s house (with daughter Judy Hugh also chaperoning), with an eighth living separately; the older seven boys are at Adam Hugh’s house; and the other twelve are at a separate house, where I’m the house manager.

The players range in age from 9 to 18, and from about 1800 level to 2550, including four players over 2500 (three Alguettis and Allen Wang); two others over 2400 (Michael Tran and Amy Wang); and three others over 2300 (Klaus Wood, Tina Lin, and Rahul Acharya). There are three 12-year-olds approaching 2300 - Kai Zarehbin (2261), Mathew Lu (2241) and Sid Naresh (2191). The youngest are the two 9-year olds, Nandan Naresh (1830) and Daniel Tran (1801). They come from eight states - NJ, NY, MD, MN, OH, IL, CO, and CA.

There are three sessions per day. From 9:30-11:00AM is physical training, along with possible technical/tactical discussions later on. Samson Dubina is in charge of the physical training, with Richard, Cory, and I assisting. Here was yesterday morning’s physical training:

1. Jog to track (1/2 mile)
2. Stretching
3. Three laps (3/4 of a mile) - I explained the importance of “stomach breathing,” i.e. breath deep into the bottom of the lungs rather than “chest breathing,” where you only use the top of the lungs. Tomorrow I may introduce 2-2 and 3-2 breathing, where you inhale for two or three steps, and exhale for two.
4. Side-to-side shuffling. The kids shuffled side to side on the track for 40 seconds, three times - with the addition that they had to jump when Samson blew a whistle.
5. Ladders and hurdles. This involved a series of exercises where they quick-stepped on exercise ladders on the ground, followed by going over the short hurdles. One of the exercises was called the “Hickey Shuffle”! Here’s a video (22 sec) of the kids on the ladder.
6. Cones. I was in charge of this one. We put four cones on the ground, creating a square about 8-9 feet on a side, with a kid in each square. The cones were black, white, yellow, and orange. My job was to yell out a color, and the kids had to quickly sidestep to it, and return to the center, staying low, and with the feet always moving. I’d then yell out another color, and they’d repeat - and I’d try to time it so they’d barely have time to get to the center before I’d call the next color. They did this seven times, 30-seconds each, with 30 seconds rest in between.
7. Sprints. They did a series of them. First were regular sprints; then came sprints where they started by sitting on the ground, looking the other way, and had to jump to their feet and run. Then they had to lie on the ground and jump up to run.

It was pretty strenuous - we already had one player throw up. But as we explained to the players, this is what players overseas do, and to compete, so do we. They were all up for it; I heard literally no complaints. This is a very hard-working, ambitious group.

We all snacked, and then we had the 12-2 session. I was a practice partner the first 45 minutes, but then one of the resident 2550 players came in and took my place. Some of the drills were regular ones many of us do; others were not. One drill had a player serving backspin, looping the push return slow and spinny, looping the next ball medium, and then loop killing the next one.

At the end they played a game where whoever served would serve three times. If the server won all three, he won a point. If he won two of three, he won no points, but got to serve three again. If he lost two of the points, then the receiver became the server, serving three at a time. (In the current version, the receiver can’t score, but I suggested that if the receiver wins all three points, he gets a point, just as the server does.) The games were to five, but it was a slow, laborious process to get that many.

Since it was July 11 - i.e. 7-11, i.e. “Seven-Eleven Day,” where 7-11s give away free Slurpees, seven of the older kids decided to walk the mile to the closest 7-11. After they left, Mr. Naresh and I drove nine of the younger ones there. We of course beat the older ones, waving to them as we passed. But after bringing the younger ones home, we went back and gave the older ones rides back.

The final session was 5-8PM, more table play. Wang Qing Liang and I were a practice partners the first two hours for the players in the lower half of the camp (roughly 1800 to 2150), with Samson Dubina running the session. The focus was five-ball attack. Here are three drills we did, with each player doing them each for ten minutes:

1. Server serves backspin, partner pushes to backhand, server loops forehand from backhand side, partner blocks back to backhand, server forehand attacks anywhere. We gave a short lecture about ball placement - wide corners and middle (elbow) - and about being aware of opponent’s positioning so you can best choose your placement.
2. Same drill, except now it was backhand loop followed by backhand attack.
3. Same drill, except partner pushes the ball anywhere on backhand side - either wide or to the middle - and server attacks forehand or backhand.

For the last hour the players were put into two- or three-person teams and had a team competition. It went late and didn’t finish until close to 8:30PM. After the matches we got together for stretching - but first Samson had a simple question: On a scale of 0 to 10, how much did they apply what they learned that day into their matches? The players seemed pretty honest, with answers ranging from 3 to 8. The practice tournament also gave the coaches a chance to watch the players in action. (I have a “secret” topic I’m watching the players for; I’ll bring it up later, after I’ve seen enough match play from all or most of the players, and then I’ll mention it in my blog.)

Then we had dinner at the club - very tasty chicken and potato stew, dumplings, salad, fruit, and other items. Lily Yip did most of the cooking! She also served lunch - spaghetti and hamburgers, plus a number of side dishes. Then I called half the kids together and announced we had one more training session - they groaned - that we’d decided they needed to be better at “blowing” the ball away. And so we had a ten-minute voluntary session where I taught them how to balance the ball in the air by blowing it.

Then it was back to the house for the thirteen of us staying there, a five-minute walk from the club. Then sleep and repeat!

7 Best Table Tennis Blogs from Around the World
Here's the article from Table Tennis 11 - guess which one was listed first?

7 Step Plan to Improve Your Forehand Topspin
Here's the article from Tom Lodziak.

Starting Out In Table Tennis #269
Here's the new video (50 min) from PingSkills, which is now a weekly thing.

Footwork Exercise Tip to Improve the Forehand and Backhand Strokes
Here's the video (1:32) from Eli Baraty

The Real Rallies of Table Tennis
Here's the article from Coach Jon.

Fighting Fit: How Table Tennis Helps Elderly Live Well with Dementia
Here's the new article. 

Timo Boll & Ma Long Backhand Attack
Here's the video (33 sec). Which is better?

Ping Pong Balls Raise a Boat
Here's the video (69 sec)!

Rainy Pong
Here's the video (11 sec) – kids playing outdoors in the rain with umbrellas!

Tommy Lee Jones Ping Pong Commercial
Here's the video (30 sec)!

Weird Six-Armed Players
Here's the video (4 sec) of these extremely weird hexi-armed players!

Animated TT Against a Dodging Squirrel
Here's the repeating gif image!

Parade Pong
Here’s the video (28 sec)!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

USA Nationals
I wasn't planning to blog for a few more days, but had to put down some thoughts after watching the Men's and Women's Singles Finals. First I'll give the facts, then I'll give a little analysis. 

Table tennis can be a cruel sport. In the Men's Singles Final, we had defending champion Yijun "Tom" Feng (top seed at 2722) against junior star Kanak Jha (second seed at 2655, coached by Stefan Feth). Here's the short version: Tom went up 3-1 in games, and was up 12-11 championship point in the fifth. That was the first of three turning points. Kanak was to serve, but first he did a simple thing: he tied his shoelaces. Now you can't get away with tying your shoelaces every point, but Kanak picked the right time - it allowed him to clear his mind. And it worked. They'd been having surprisingly long rallies, but this time Kanak basically ripped three forehands to win the game. He's still down 2-3, but he'd win the next game 11-7. 

Next thing we know it's 4-4 in the seventh - and we had our second turning point. Tom scored five straight points, and leads 9-4. As Kanak later said, "I thought it was over." And as I said above, table tennis can be a cruel sport - and this was the third and final turning point. Kanak scores the next two points to 6-9. Then he gets a net ball to make it 7-9, with Tom to serve. You could see Tom taking his time, focusing, knowing these would be some of the most important points he'd ever play. And then the serve went slightly long, Kanak loops it in, and it's 8-9. And then Kanak gets another net - an unreturnable net dribbler - and it's 9-9! With Kanak to serve - and two points later, he's completed the 4-9, 11-9 comeback (-10,-6,10,-5,12,7,9), and is the new USA Men's Singles Champion. 

Think about it - Tom had a match point in game five, then led 9-4 in the seventh. Kanak pulled off the gritty comeback, but with the help of two net balls. What are the chances of one player getting both? One in four, or 25%. So Kanak got the 25% and five other points as well. (For a little more math, assume both players are even. Then the chances of scoring seven in a row is two to the seventh, or 1 in 128. But it wasn't all even at the end, with Kanak dominated at the end, especially in backhand exchanges.)

This isn't the first time Kanak's made such a comeback. As posted by Bruce Liu, "Kanak is no stranger to the 7th-game comeback. The most notable one was probably earlier this year at the North America Olympic Trials when he was down 0-5 and won 11 points in a row. Not only did he earn himself a seat in the Singles event in Rio, he also made Team USA eligible for the Team event." (That was against Canadian Pierre-Luc Theriault.)

Now a little analysis. Tom's a penholder, but with reverse penhold backhand, and so the two play surprisingly alike. Tom's more power, Kanak more control and willing to block more, but subtleties aside, they are very similar. But if you watch the match closely, it could be seen as basically a cat-and-mouse game of serve and receive. Both have extremely good receives - it drives me crazy watching up-and-coming players spend hour after hour developing strokes and footwork and not also have a coach serve to them over and over so they can develop this part of the game as well. (Every rally starts with a serve and receive, right?) These two have receives that are just ahead of most of the field. In particular, both have great short pushes and great backhand (banana) flips. 

If you look at the match from the beginning up to the point where Tom was up 3-1 in games and 12-11 match point, the primary reason Tom had the edge over Kanak was because of his reverse pendulum serve from the middle of the table. Most players are robots, serving from the backhand corner over and over. They may do this serve short to Kanak's or some other player's forehand, but only down the line, which allows players like Kanak to step over and receive backhand. By serving from the middle, Tom had an angle into Kanak's short forehand, meaning Kanak had to either receive with his good (but not great) forehand receive, or had to step over with great backhand receive - but then be way out of position for the next shot, something Tom took advantage of. 

And it worked to the point where Tom had the match point. But the problem with something that works is that you tend to use it over and over, and Kanak was getting better with his forehand receive against this serve all the time, often dropping it short to Tom's forehand, or flipping it either forehand or backhand. And so the serve became less effective - and that was a primary reason why Kanak pulled himself back into the match. Along with a well-timed shoelace tying. 

Here's a prediction: Next year's Men's Singles Final will be an all-junior final. We've never had so many up-and-coming kids, especially in the 14-15 age range, and it's going to be difficult for players like Tom (2015 champion), Timothy Wang (champion in 2010, 2012, and 2013) and Jimmy Butler (absent this year, but champion in 2014 . . . and 1990, 1992, and 1993!) to hold off this massive charge, led by Kanak. There was a time when we might have one or two juniors over 2400, and rarely any over 2500. (Why? We didn't have many full-time training centers back then; we've gone from about 8 to 86 in the last ten years.) 

Here's the current listing of players over 2400 from the Cadet Boys (under 15 as of Jan. 1): Sharon Alguetti (2558); Victor Liu (2534); Gal Alguetti (2504); Nikhil Kumar (2503); Michael Tran (2451); and Derek Nie (2427). Then we add in the other players over 2400 from the Under 18 list: Kanak Jha (2655); Kunal Chodri (2601); Krish Avvari (2597); Jack Wang (2537); Adar Alguetti (2535); Allen Wang (2526); Nicholas Tio (2481); Aarsh Shah (2455); Felix Gao (2444); Roy Ke (2437); Newman Cheng (2418); and Shivansh Kumar (2417). That's an incredible group!!!

For Tom, Timothy, and Jimmy, of course, it's a challenge - and perhaps reading this will give them added incentive. They are already great champions, but if they win next year, they'll be even greater champions. 

On the women's side, there was less drama - but drama there was. Lily Zhang led defending champion Jiaqi Zhang 3-0 in games and served up 9-7 in the fourth - just two points from being the champion. She would have to go into the sixth game before winning, 12,8,7,-9,-5,6. It was Lily's third - she also won in 2012 and 2014. 

All four of these finalists, along with Timothy Wang and Wu Yue, will be leaving soon for the Rio Olympics. 

As to me, I mostly coached at the Nationals (plus some meetings), but I was in three events - Over 50 Men's Doubles (with Ty Hoff), Hardbat Doubles (also with Ty; I've won it 13 times, nine of them with Ty), and Over 40 Hardbat (which I've won four times). Result? Three semifinals. Alas, my feet and body just don't move like they used to. Plus, I have an entire page in my notebook labeled "Problems," with nine different problems that have come up here (mostly by people coming up to me and saying, "Larry, can you look into this problem?") that need to be resolved, and all these things led to a lot of tension - making it hard to loosen up for matches. Perhaps I'll blog about some of them later. 

Here are results for the USA Nationals (with one more day of play on Saturday). I fly out late on Saturday night, arriving at BWI in Maryland at 7AM on Sunday, then I drive home, do some more updating on Tim Boggan's recent History of U.S. Table Tennis volume (yes, he's found more changes needed...), pack, and then drive up to New Jersey to manage and coach at the USATT's two-week Supercamp for 26 of our top juniors. I'll blog about that probably starting on Tuesday. (Some of those attending include the three Alguetti brothers, Allen and Amy Wang, Michael Tran, Tina Lin, and Klaus Wood. Coaches include myself (I'm also manager), Sean O'Neill, Dan Seemiller, Han Xiao, Samson Dubina, Richard McAfee, Lily Yip, Wang Qing Liang, and Cory Eider.) 

World Series of Beer Pong
Guess what they are holding right next door to the USA National Table Tennis Championships, at the Westgate Hotel? The $65,000 World Series of Beer Pong!!! 

Some Breakfast Table Tennis at the Nationals!
Here's the video (65 sec)!

Last Blog until Tuesday, July 12
I'm actually going out of town for a month, July 3 – Aug 3. I don't plan to blog during most of this time – even I need vacations! – but I do plan to blog from July 11 to July 22, during the USATT Super Camp. Here's my upcoming schedule:

• July 3-9: USA Nationals in Las Vegas;
• July 10-22: coaching at the  USATT Supercamp at the Lily Yip TTC in New Jersey;
• July 22-30: at the TNEO Science Fiction Writing Workshop in Manchester, NH;
• July 31-Aug. 3: coaching at the Junior Olympics in Houston.

I won't actually be gone continuously for a month. I'm flying to Las Vegas on Sunday, returning the following Sunday morning (on a Saturday night red-eye flight, landing 7AM at BWI Airport), then I quickly finalize packing, and drive to New Jersey for the Supercamp. Then I drive from there to New Hampshire for the writing workshop. Then I drive all the way back to Maryland on June 30, and fly out to Houston on July 31, flying back late on Aug. 3. (Or perhaps staying the night, and returning Aug. 4.)

Preparing for the Nationals and USATT Supercamp
As a coach, I don't train much as a player. But I'll be playing in three events next week at the USA Nationals, though as usual playing has to take second priority over coaching – but I still want to win all my events do well. I'm in three events: Over 50 Men's Doubles with Ty Hoff; Hardbat Doubles with Ty Hoff; and Over 40 Hardbat Singles.

At last year's Nationals Ty and I played the top seeds, Li Yu Xiang and Chu Bin Hai, in the quarterfinals – and were at 8-all in the fifth before losing. (Ty and I also lost in the quarterfinals of Men's Doubles at the USA Nationals in 1989 to Jim and Scott Butler – 21-18 in the third – and the Butlers went on to win it.) This year Li & Chu are top seeded again, while Ty and I are seeded third, meaning we won't have to face them until at least the semifinals – but bring 'em on! So, how am I preparing for these big doubles matches?

I spent half an hour yesterday practicing my doubles serves (from right-hand court, of course) – mostly forehand pendulum serves, regular (sidespin left) and reverse (sidespin right). Because I've been teaching these serves to students a lot recently, a strange thing seems to be happening – I seem to have more control over them then before, at least since I stopped practicing them regularly many years ago. This is especially true of my reverse pendulum serve, which I expect to mix in with my regular ones. I've got lots of variations ready for both – backspin, side-backspin, sidespin, side-topspin, and no-spin. As an added bonus to this serve practice, several of the kids in the camp saw me practicing my serves, and next thing I know, a pack of them joined me, all practicing their serves. One kept asking me how to do them, and so I finished the session working with him on his serve. (This was during break!)

In Hardbat Singles and Doubles I'll likely use the same serves – I plan to practice my hardbat serves tomorrow, along with perhaps some more inverted serving. The main difference in my hardbat singles serves is that I mix in far more deep serves – I like to mix in short serves to the middle and long ones to the wide backhand, always following them, if humanly possible, with a forehand. I've won Hardbat Doubles 13 times, nine times with Ty. I've won Over 40 Hardbat four times. I've also won Hardbat Singles twice, but am not playing that this year. (These are for both the USA Nationals and the U.S. Open.)

To prepare for coaching at the Nationals I've been spying on the players I'll be coaching. At the Nationals during our first warm-up session I'll have them throw all their serves at me so I have a good feel for what serves they can do and how they come out. (Of course, I'm pretty familiar with their serves already, but more is better.) I'll mostly be coaching Adrian at the Nationals, but when he and I aren't playing, I'll likely coach other MDTTC players.

To prepare for the USATT Supercamp – where 25 of the top USA juniors will be training in New Jersey, July 10-24 – I spent some time working on my speed multiball. Our top juniors do most of their training now with our top 2550 Chinese practice partner/coaches, and so I mostly feed multiball to players under 2000. So I have to make sure my multiball is ready for the 2500 crowd. The main difference is I almost always bounce the ball on my side when feeding multiball, which is standard when feeding backspin and for most topspin drills. But when going full-speed, it's better to feed the ball directly into the paddle, and I've gotten rusty at that. So a few people at the club saw a strange sight this afternoon during break – me feeding multiball to the table tennis robot's net. I still feel a bit slow at it, so I might have to work at it some more. (I have to leave the camp two days early to go to my writing workshop. Normal people vacation at the beach, camping, Disneyworld, etc.; I go to science fiction writing workshops.)

But it's not just multiball I need to prepare for the camp – I'm also going to be chopping practice partner for the players. Though I'm normally an attacker, I chop at about a 2150 level – almost as good as my normal game – and so tomorrow I plan to get some extra chopping practice in so I'm ready. I have my own chopping blade, a Butterfly Joo Saehyuk blade with Tackiness Chop II 1.9mm black on the forehand, Feint Long II 1.3mm red on the backhand. (I actually had Tenergy 05 2.1 on the forehand so I could both chop and attack, but switched to Tackiness Chop II for the camp so I can chop better.) I normally use a Butterfly Timo Boll ALC blade with Tenergy 05 2.1 black on forehand, Tenergy 25 2.1 red on forehand.

It's going to be a busy time, but compared to the past month, this next month will be a breeze. Those reading this blog regularly know of all the tribulations this past month as I struggled to put together History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18 (!) with Tim Boggan (the proof copy was just ordered for Tim) while trying to do all my other work. Last night, besides doing most of this blog, I also put together the MDTTC Newsletter and about twenty other things as I try to get ahead on as much as possible before leaving for a month.

Dan Seemiller's Autobiography
Here's the promotional flyer for this, coming Aug. 31 – you don't want to miss it! (I'm working with him on the editing, page layouts, photos, and print on demand publishing. Plus I'll likely be the first outside Dan's club to get to read it!!!)

13 Stages: Develop a systematic approach to learning a new skill
Here's the coaching article from Samson Dubina.

The Serve
Here's the coaching article by Aiman Fazeer Yap.

Interview with Alan Cooke: England’s Performance Coach
Here's the podcast (43:44) from Expert Table Tennis. In this episode you’ll learn:

• Alan’s review of the World Team Championships [1:30]
• An update on Rio 2016 for Team GB [3:00]
• How Paul, Liam, and Sam prepared for Kuala Lumpur [5:00]
• The current plans for Rio 2016 [10:00]
• How and why to use periodization in your table tennis training [11:45]
• How to use goal setting for your tournaments [14:15]
• How to stay focused during a tournament [16:30]
• Alan’s coaching style and philosophy [19:00]
• What Alan says to the players in the corner [22:30]
• The correct mindset when facing “unbeatable players” [25:30]
• How to debrief, reflect, and learn after a tournament [27:30]
• Using video analysis to learn about yourself and others [31:30]
• What the plan is for Team GB after Rio [33:00]
• What separates top 50 players from top 20 players in the world [35:15]
• The future for English table tennis [38:00]

Ask the Coach Show

• Episode #265 (23:30) - Xu Xin Wins Korean Open
• Episode #266 (19:14) - Receiving Heavy Spin Serves
• Episode #267 (20:35) - Getting the Most From Your Training

DHS ITTF Top 10 at the 2016 Korea Open
Here's the video (6:02).

USATT Insider
Here's the new issue that came out on Wednesday.

U.S. Table Tennis Player Will Be the Youngest in Olympic History
Here's the article from USA Today featuring Kanak Jha.

An Introduction to Coach Pieke Franssen (Part One)
Here's the article.

USA and International Table Tennis
Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page. (Tabletennista, which used to do great international coverage, apparently closed down after May 31.) For USA coverage, see the USA Table Tennis News Page.

Best Animated Table Tennis Videos
Here's a selection of some of the best animated table tennis I know of – enjoy! (I've linked to all of them in the past.) Sorry, no anime – there's just too much of that to go through. I'm sure I'm missing some good ones that I just don't recall at the moment – feel free to add links to others below.

• Octopus pong (34 sec)
• Energizer pong (31 sec)
• Shaun the Sheep pong (68 sec)
• Bernard the Bear pong (3:18)
• Minion pong (repeating gif image)
• Ghost pong (repeating gif image)
• Speedy Gonzalez pong (repeating gif image)
• Snoopy pong (repeating gif image)
• Penguin pong (repeating gif image)

Trump Umpiring Table Tennis
Here's the new video (4:24)! (From Larry Bavly.)

Non-Table Tennis – Penguins of Noah's Ark
My new humorous story Penguins of Noah's Ark just went up at Galaxy's Edge! It answers the age-old question of just how two penguins in the Antarctic managed to make their way to the Middle East in time for Noah's Ark. It also answers a lot of questions about dinosaurs, burning bushes, and the Garden of Eden. Galaxy's Edge is one of the top "Pro" markets – I'm sharing the table of contents with George R.R. Martin, Robert Silverberg, Mike Resnick, Nancy Kress, and Gregory Benford, all huge names in SF.

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Training with the Piech's!
Yesterday I had a session with Jason & Alex Piech, the two I blogged about yesterday, along with the video of their going to Las Vegas. We decided to break the session into three parts, 1/3 with Alex, 1/3 with Jason, and 1/3 on doubles. The two have been playing about eight months, coached by Russ Hamilton in Arkansas. (The camp is 10AM-1PM, 3-6PM, so we did the sesson from 1-2PM.) 

First up was lefty Alex, who turns 7 in August, nicknamed "Storm." He has pretty good technique, but can be a bit wild with his shots as his contact can vary a lot. When he loops, sometimes he spins it, sometimes he hits it a bit too flat. We focused on consistency, where he had to make the first two shots every time. First we did it with him looping to my backhand. (We had a running gag where I kept insisting I never missed, with a ready excuse when I in fact did miss. He had his mom video some of the session just to prove to me that I did, in fact, sometimes miss. I don't, of course.) We then did a drill where he served backspin, I pushed to his forehand, he looped to my backhand, and the rally continued, with me blocking, and him looping and sometimes smashing. (No, I never missed. Sometimes I had alternate targets.) We also did some serve practice – he has surprisingly advanced serves. He has a really good tomahawk serve, very spinny, and also does a reverse tomahawk serve. These may cause some havoc to some players next week at the Nationals!

Next up was Jason, 9, nicknamed "Eyebrows" because of his ability to raise them up and down alternately, as shown in the video yesterday. He had a tendency to "muscle" the ball when looping, trying to create power mostly with his upper body. We worked on using the legs and hips to start the body rotation, with the legs getting the hips moving, the hips getting the upper body moving, and the upper body swinging the arm into the shot. I showed how this gives "easy power," leading not only to more power, but more importantly control of that power. (Many players misunderstand when top players say power comes from timing. What they mean is the timing of how they put each part of their body into the shot.) I demonstrated by tossing balls up and looping them myself, then had him do it as well. (Alex joined us for this.) Then we did a little multiball, and then we went live. He picked it up very quickly. We also worked on serves – he too had pretty good serves.

Finally we worked on doubles. Since they are lefty/righty, footwork was less of a problem, but I still went over their positioning when they served and received, showing how each should start the rally in their best ready position. We went over the types of serves they'd want to use in doubles, such as: mostly serving toward the middle so receiver doesn't have an angle; serving out to weaker players, short to stronger players (and the importance of finding out early, preferably in advance, if they had a lopsided team, and if so, who was the strong one); serving low; sidespins that break away often being more effective than those that break into a player (so a righty might use a tomahawk serve against a righty receiving forehand, but a pendulum serve if he receives backhand); and most importantly, that all of these were just guidelines – they should find out what works, and do that. I also taught them how to signal their serves to their partner.

We had a little fun after the lesson where I challenged them to return my serves for a time. Then a little more fun as I showed them various tricks – blowing the ball in the air; the 50-foot serve; and speed bouncing on the table. And then they bought four of my books – I sold them three, and threw in the fourth for free. Alex will have lots to read on the drive back to Arkansas! (They bought Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers, Table Tennis Tips, The Spirit of Pong, and I threw in Table Tennis Tales & Techniques.)

This was their second consecutive week here at the MDTTC camps, which are all summer long. This weekend we all fly out to Las Vegas for the USA Nationals. (We have an even 20 players and eight coaches from MDTTC going, as well as a few other part-time MDTTCers.) Hope to see some of you there!

The Best Table Tennis DVDs & Training Videos
Here's the new article from Expert Table Tennis.

Keeping Score During a Drill
Here's the new article by Samson Dubina. I use similar coaching techniques, such as playing multiball "games" where the student scores if he makes a certain number of shots.

Swing Ping Pong
Here's the video (2:22) of this new ping-pong ball on a thread device.

Table Tennis - Incredible
Here's the new highlights video (8:42).

"Do Yourself a Favor and Take Up Ping-Pong"
Here's the cartoon – and I do believe we've been insulted!

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Jason & Alex Piech: 2016 USA National Championships Promo
Here's the video (33 sec)! Alex and Jason Piech are at our MDTTC last week and this week (I'm one of the coaches), and tomorrow I have a private session with each of them, including some doubles work. This weekend they, along with half our club, will fly to the Nationals in Las Vegas for the USA Nationals. Among numerous other events, the two are playing Under 2700 Junior Doubles together – and Alex is a lefty, with Jason a righty, which is an advantage in doubles – so watch out Vegas!

These two were also the stars of a previous video I linked to here and featured by USATT in April, Kansas City Club Can't Handle Me (3:52). I actually didn't realize until yesterday that they were the two from that video!

You'll note in the new video that Jason (the older one at 9, who has a striking resemblance to former child star Haley Joel Osment of "The Sixth Sense" fame) does this up-down wiggling eyebrow trick. My mom used to do that, and I used to try to copy it, but never could. (The best I can do is slightly raise my right eyebrow.) So I'm jealous. Jason's table tennis nickname, appropriately, is "Eyebrow," while Alex (who turns 7 in August) is "Storm," which is appropriate, considering his energy. (Alex resembles another former child star, Jake Lloyd, from Star Wars 1.)

Jason is pretty active with his eyes – besides the eyebrow trick he spends every minute of his free time reading, and tomorrow his parents are buying three of my table tennis books for him to read on the long drive back to Arkansas. (I think they want to move to Maryland and live at the Maryland Table Tennis Center! They've probably never met so many other table tennis kids their age.) I'll probably blog about our session tomorrow.

So later today I'll introduce them to the techniques and tactics of doubles – where they should stand, what serves to use, how to receive, ball placement, and so on. Not sure if they are ready for circling footwork and control/attack player assignments! (Circling footwork is an advanced doubles footwork where players, after hitting their shot, literally circle back and around so that they can approach the next shot favoring their forehand – but isn't really relevant here, since it's for two righties or lefties, and they are left/righty. Control/attack assignments are where one player focuses on control and setting up his partner, while the partner attacks continuously.)

Maryland and Illinois State Championships, and Westchester and Joseph Bae Opens
They were all run this past weekend, and on by Tuesday they were already processed for ratings! Here they are for the Maryland and for Illinois State Championships, and here's the 4-star Westchester Open in New York and the Joseph Bae Open in California! (Here's the USATT Ratings Page.) The Maryland State Championships were featured as news items by both USATT and Butterfly. (The articles and photos are from my press release.)

The Circular Argument about Boosting
Why is it that nearly every time I bring this up with a USATT official, the response is, "Prove it!" Ummm . . . that's the point! It's circular reasoning where you allow a rule that makes it easy to cheat undetectably, and then refuse to act because there's no "proof" it is happening. Until a year or so ago, when players began complaining about it, many top players openly boosted, and I've seen them doing it all the time. (I'm told that Timo Boll estimated that 80% of top players are boosting.) So as I blogged yesterday, let's bring some common sense to the sport and stop allowing silly, unenforceable rules while allowing all this rampant cheating in our sport, where we honor the cheaters and cheat the honorable ones who don't. (The irony is that while many demand this proof about boosting, the very same ones, when they see players cheating with hidden serves, right out in the open where all can see that it's clearly happening, they don't demand proof – they look the other way and allow it to continue.)

Tournament Officials - Learn 4 Keys to Maximizing Your Performance
Here's the article by Samson Dubina.

Pragmatists Guide to Table Tennis Cardio Training
Here's the article from Coach Jon.

Is It Okay to Use Illegal Serves?
Here's the article from Tom Lodziak.

Zhao Wins 2016 Westchester June Open
Here's the article.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17 (1989-1990)
Here's chapter 15! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

Ask a Pro Anything - Vladimir Samsonov
Here's the new ITTF video (8:45) by Adam Bobrow.

Table Tennis For NepALL
Here's the ITTF video (6:12). "ITTF and United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace launched a 3 year para table tennis project supporting disabled children in Nepal called 'Table Tennis for NepALL.'"

Jun Mizutani Practicing Insane Backspin Serves!
Here's the video (21 sec). Funny thing is that while it may look impressive, many top players can do this type of serve, and I do it all the time in demos. However, what is impressive is that he's actually putting some speed into the serves, and still managing to get the ball to bounce backwards – so he is getting some impressive backspin.

Table Tennis Athlete Working Towards Olympics
Here's the video (60 sec) from 9 News featuring Timothy Wang. (This was from a month ago, but this is the first time I'd seen it.)

Novak Djokovic Plays Table Tennis
Here's the video (5:09) of the world#1 tennis player.

Keep Your Mouth Shut!
Here's the cartoon!

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How to Boost Your Table Tennis Rubber
Here's the article from Expert Table Tennis. This is one was a tough decision on whether to post, so I've decided to let readers to decide on their own on this one. The reality is that boosting is "illegal." However, it's also one of the most unfair rules as it's essentially undetectable, with the result that those who are willing to "cheat" have an advantage over those who will not. At this point, boosting is almost a protest against such an unfair rule – but only if others chime in publicly.

I blogged about this on Aug. 18, 2015 and a few other times. I proposed the Racket Testing Rule to address the issue, but (predictably) it was ignored as the officials in our sport continue to ignore the two big elephants in the room that lead to rampant cheating in our sport – boosting and illegal hidden serves. At this point I doubt if there's a single player in the top 20 in the world who doesn't boost (with the possible exception of outspoken boosting critic Jun Mizutani, though I'm betting he is by now), and the same is true of the top players in the U.S., with the notable exception of Sampson Dubina, who has also been an outspoken critic (along with me) of this continuing problem.

Unlike hidden serves, where you can learn both legal and illegal serves, and use the latter only when the opponent does so and the umpire allows it (and so you aren't serving illegal to gain advantage, which by definition is cheating, but only to take away the opponent's illegal advantage, which I don't consider cheating), you can't just boost when an opponent does – you either boost in advance or you don't.

Powers That Be, boosting isn't a health problem (like speed gluing), and it is essentially undetectable, making any ban silly, so just make any racket that passes the racket testing procedure at a tournament legal, and so level the playing field. Until we do that, we'll just continue to wink at each other while allowing all this rampant cheating in our sport, where we honor the cheaters and cheat the honorable ones who don't. Great message for our kids. (Note – I use the word "essentially" undetectable because I'm told that if we are willing to pay huge sums of money which neither USATT nor ITTF can afford, we can get equipment that would detect boosting.)

The irony is that I've never boosted myself, and don't even know how to – I haven't even read the entire article, though I likely will when I have time. But I've hit with others rackets that were boosted, and there is that extra 10% boost in bounciness as the ball just shoots off your racket with extra spin. I actually consider illegal hidden serves to be an even bigger problem, but it's time we shoot both elephants in the room.

Ping Pong Rabbit Trailer
Here's the video preview (65 sec) of the upcoming animated rabbit ping-pong movie – mark your calendars for July 29 - this looks great! It opens in China on that date, but hopefully in the U.S. as well, or soon afterwards. (The preview is in English, with Chinese subtitles.) The video is labeled as "PingPang Rabbit Trailer," (and I believe "Ping Pang" is a Chinese variant spelling of the sport) but I believe it's actually "Ping Pong Rabbit," as shown in the IMDB entry, which describes it as follows:

"From the animators that brought you The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Corpse Bride With dreams bigger than his small stature, a rural rabbit named Robb hurls himself in pursuit of his province's biggest prize, a storied 'Jade Table' awarded annually to the finest ping pong player in the land. Standing in his path is the fact that rabbits don't play ping pong, and the province's perennial champion is a ruthless monkey who uses the Jade Table to amass power and wealth, with no plans to relinquish either. Robb must prove that rabbits will no longer run scared, and that his improbable ping pong dreams will change not only his future, but also the fate of his entire province."

A New Drill
Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina, which starts with the following questions:

• How can we get both players engaged during a drill?
• How can we transition from offense to defense and defense to offense during drills?
• How can we get more effective practice during a three-hour session?

Chinese Coaching Site
If you're Chinese, here's pingpangwang.com and its Shakehands Grip Coaching page. (Is there another page for penhold?)

Ding Ning vs. Liu Shiwen – Point of the Match
Here's the video (46 sec, including slo-mo replay) from the final of the Korean Open this past weekend, with Adam Bobrow doing the commentating. That's Ding Ning getting the edge ball back.

Playing Ping Pong with Rafael Nadal
Here's the video (2:01) from last year, but I don't think I saw it then. He's playing doubles with his coach/uncle Toni Nadal, against WSJ's Ralph Gardner Jr. and former Swedish women's champion Malin Pettersson

Animated Strokes
Here's the repeating gif image, from Steve Worthington, the guy who brought us the new Table Tennis Car Sticker Kickstarter!

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Tip of the Week
Inside-Out Forehand Floppy Wrist Flip.

Maryland State Championships
I ran them this past weekend, Sat & Sun. Here are the results. It was two very long days – I arrived at MDTTC each day at 7:45AM, and didn't get out until nearly 9PM both days. Lots of prize money and trophies were given out, there were many rating points exchanged, and many balls were broken. I was up half the night finishing the paperwork on the tournament, writing the press release, and other timely items – such as this blog. (I plan to do another version as a USATT news item.) The bad news: I didn't get to bed until after 4:15AM, and I have to coach at the MDTTC camp this morning…

Here is a version of the press release I sent out, adjusted for the table tennis audience. (In the version sent to local media, I put in everyone's home city, left out ratings, used more general terms, etc.)

$5000 Maryland State Table Tennis Championships
By Larry Hodges, tournament director

The $5000 Maryland State Championships were held this weekend at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. Here are complete results, care of Omnipong.

The two biggest winners at the tournament were Zeng "Jeffrey" Xun (29, rated 2549) and Tiffany Ke (11, rated 2260). Jeffrey, a full-time coach at MDTTC with a steady two-winged looping attack and blocking, dominated in Men's Singles, defeating fellow MDTTC coaches Lyu You (17) 4-1 in the semifinals, and chopper/looper Wang Qing "Leon" Liang (20) in 4-0 in the final. Wang defeated lefty penhold looper/blocker Richard Lee (owner of North American Table Tennis and JOOLA USA, and a former national junior champion) in the other semifinals, 4-0. The three coaches are all former stars from China who emigrated to the U.S. to coach, and share a house in Germantown.

Zeng also teamed with student Derek Nie (15, rated 2427) to win Open Doubles over Wang and Lyu. Derek is the #2 player on the USA National Cadet Boys' Team (15 and under). Nie also won Under 18 Boys over Roy Ke (17, rated 2437), who had just returned from a year of training in China.

Tiffany likely became the youngest Maryland Women's Singles Champion ever at age 11. It was probably the youngest final ever, as her opponent in the final was 12-year-old Lisa Lin. It was also one of the closest matches as well, with the score reaching 8-8 in the fifth, with Tiffany scoring the last three points in a row. Both are members of the four-member USA Under 12 Girls Hopes Team. Tiffany is currently #2 in USA Under 12 Girls.

Tiffany also won Under 18 Girls' Singles over Lisa, and Under 15 Girls over Jessica Lin (no relation to Lisa), with Lisa finishing third in that event. Lisa actually defeated Tiffany in Under 15 Girls, but lost to Jessica, who lost to Tiffany – and the three-way tie was decided by games won and lost among the three, with Tiffany coming out on top. (Jessica finished third in both Women's Singles and Under 18 Girls.) The three girls train together full-time at MDTTC.

Ryan Lee, 9, the son of men's semifinalist Richard Lee, won Under 10 over Adrian Yang, 9. Yang was also in the final of Under 12 Boys, where he lost to Alexander Yang (no relation), 11. George Li, 13, won Under 15 Boys over William Huang, 13.

Lixin Lang, 56, won Over 50 Men over Thomas Sampson, 58; Michael Clarke, 69, won Over 60 over Mark Radom, 67; and Gordon Gregg, 74, won Over 70 over Su Liu, 81.

Under 2400 was won by Stefano Ratti over Raghu Nadmichettu; Under 2100 by Ernest Byles over Ronald Chen (age 12); Under 1800 and Under 1500 were swept by Ranjan Bhambroo, over Ara Sahakian and John Miller; Under 1200 by Lance Wei (9) over Giovanni Ratti (12); and Under 1000 by Andy Wu (8) over Lance Wei (9).

Under 4000 Doubles was won by the experienced senior team of Jeff Smart and Steve Hochman over juniors Darwin Ma (16) and George Li (13); Under 2400 Doubles was won by Stanley Hsu (7) and Hanfei Hu (10) over Kurtus Hsu (10) and Lance Wei (9).

Tournament sponsors include the Maryland Table Tennis Center; HW Global Foundation (sponsor of the MDTTC Junior Talent Program); and the Courtyard by Marriott Gaithersburg Washingtonian Center (official tournament hotel).

Washington Post Story on MDTTC and the Maryland Championships
Here's the story that came out on Sunday morning. The reporter and photographer spent half the day there on Saturday.

Illinois State Championships
Maryland wasn't the only state to hold a state championship this past weekend. Here are results of the Illinois State Championships. Here's a picture of the Naresh brothers, Sid (Under 18 and Under 15 champion) and Nandan (Under 10 champion, Under 18 runner-up, and 3rd in Under 15). Here's the non-Facebook version. Both will be at the USATT Supercamp coming up July 10-24 in NJ. (I'll be there as well.) (And look who won Over 55 – my fellow USATT board member Ed Hogshead, who I think ran the tournament. Here's the non-Facebook version.)

History of U.S. Table Tennis – Timmy's Corrections
Just when I thought I was done, Tim pulled me back into the world of History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18. After a thorough proofing, he sent me 48 new corrections to the volume. There goes my Monday night….

Ask the Coach Show

• Episode #263 (16:30) - How to Become an Equipment Expert
• Episode #264 (19:40) – How to Beat a Blocker

Table Tennis Edge App Update June 25, 2016
Here's the video (75 sec).

Massimo Costantini Leaving U.S. for India
It's gone public – it's been out there for a week now – so I guess there's no need for secrecy. The ICC and USA Olympic Coach has apparently accepted a position as head coach in India. It's unfortunate for the U.S. as we'll be losing a highly successful coach. One source cautioned me that the agreement had to be approved by the government, but there's nothing about that in the article. Here are two articles from publications in India. The Hindu in particular seems a highly reputable source.

• The Hindu
• Sport Star Live

11 Questions with Steve Hochman
Here's the USATT interview. This is the same Steve Hochman who won Under 4000 Doubles at the Maryland Championships above and who's volunteered to help out the last three years at my annual camps for disabled veterans. Scary backhand!

2016 Pan Am Junior Championships
Here's the USATT coverage, including articles, results, photos, and almost seven hours of video. USA's Kanak Jha won gold in Under 18 Boys' Singles.

2016 ITTF North America Cup Video Coverage
Here's USA coverage, including articles, results, and over seven hours of video. USA swept gold and silver in both men's and women's singles.

SC Featured: The Puzzlemaster and the Prodigy
Here's the video (6:47 sec) from ESPN, featuring Will Shortz and Kai Zhang. 

Xu Xin Shocks Ma Long to Claim Third Korea Open Title
Here's the ITTF press release.

2016 Korea Open Highlights: Ma Long vs Xu Xin (Final)
Here's the video (12:10). Here's an ITTF press release. And here's a video from ITTF commentator Adam Bobrow, Walking to work, Korea Open final day (11:46). (Here's Xu's forehand to win game one – 32 sec video, including replay.)

Kevin Zhou MVP of Capital Area TT League
Here's the Facebook article and picture, and here's the Capital Area TT League home page, with results of the past season. (This is for players in the Maryland, Virginia, and DC area.) 

The Seven Most Interesting Facts About Table Tennis
Here they are, from All About Table Tennis!

Fetch Pong
Here's the cartoon!

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History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18 – DONE!!! (and Cleaning Up Eyebrows???)
Our My long national nightmare is over. For the past two years weeks, as readers of this blog know, I've been working with USATT Historian Tim Boggan on this volume, and it's done, complete, out the door! Soon it'll join the other 17 volumes at the History of U.S. Table Tennis page, now that it's finished.

Well, almost.

We got through all of Tim's edits yesterday, and finished at 444 pages and 1548 graphics. Then, last night, I spent an hour getting it ready for printing via Createpace.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.com. (This is how I now publish my table tennis books.) But Tim is doing a final proofing, and promises to get back to me with any final edits by Monday. Then I input those, and upload the files to Createspace.com. Within two days it'll get approved for print, and then I order a proof copy sent to Tim. He gives it a final lookover, and then we can order copies.

Life does become fun around that time. I'll be at the USA Nationals in Las Vegas July 3-10; at the USATT Supercamp in New Jersey July 11-22; at a writing workshop in Manchester, New Hampshire, July 22-30; and coaching at the Junior Olympics in Houston Aug. 1-3. If there are any complication on the book that drag into this time, things get complicated.  

Now about those photos. Tim can be pretty picky about things. He notices things that take superhuman senses to notice. We'll bring up a picture on the screen of Eric Boggan playing Dan Seemiller, and I'll notice the quality of the pictures, the action, and so on. Tim? He'll point out the blemish on the floor ("Take it out!"), a window or light in the background ("Take it out!"), the bored-looking spectator ("Take him out!"). I spend a lot of time removing and fixing stuff. He also notices any imperfections that need to be perfected. Yesterday he had me zoom in on a picture of former Iranian champion and USA Team Captain Houshang Bozorgzadeh and (I kid you not) had me darken his eyebrows! (He agreed to let the world know of this. He left early this morning to return to New York.)

The last few days were a bit difficult as I was working with him, coaching at the MDTTC camp, and trying to do all my other work. It got done, and all would be well if I could now sleep for a few days . . . except tomorrow I'll be coaching at the MDTTC camp, and then this weekend running the $5000 Maryland State Championships. (I'm still accepting entries for most events until 6PM tonight.) I cannot wait for Monday . . . except, uh oh, we have another camp all next week, 10AM-6PM. (So I'm counting the minutes until I leave for the USA Nationals in nine days…13,680 to go as of 6:28AM this morning. Of course, right after posting this blog I'm also off to the club to coach at this week's camp.)

Maryland Table Tennis Center Camps
We have camps all summer long at MDTTC. Here's a group picture from Week One, which finishes today. Then we do it all over again the next week; and the next; and so on, all summer! (Only exception – no camp July 4-8, since all the coaches, including me, will be coaching our players at the USA Nationals in Las Vegas.)

Goal-Setting for Drills
Here's the coaching article by Samson Dubina.

USATT Board of Directors Meeting Actions
Here's the list of the two actual actions taken at the June 18 board meeting in New Jersey. (I'm a member of the USATT board.) We met for roughly eight hours, with most of the meeting take up with various reports, as I blogged about on Tuesday. (Here is the USATT Minutes page.)

Experienced Olympians Head List for ITTF-North America Cup
Here's the article.

Zhang Jike Knocked Out of ITTF World Tour Korea Open
Here's the ITTF press release, and here's the home page for the Korea Open. (Side note – Timo Boll just got knocked out as well. Both lost in the first round of the main draw.)

2016 Para Spanish Open Slide Show
Here are the pictures, featuring Team USA.

1947 Table Tennis
Here's the video (10:06). I didn't watch it all, but it starts off with Hungarian Ferenc Sido (big guy on left) apparently defeating Lou Pagliaro in the semifinals of the 1947 Worlds. This was five years before Satoh and sponge at the 1952 Worlds changed everything.

Zhang Jike & Ma Long Training
Here's the video (20:55).

Police Pong
Here's the picture from England. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Hermit Crab Pong?
Here's a picture and short article about an actual hermit crab using a broken ping-pong ball as his home! (Click on image to see larger and incredibly detailed image.)

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