Years of Training Have Destroyed My Reactions
Okay, this may seem misleading. During my development years I did the usual intensive drills that conditioned me to react properly to nearly any given shot. Let me emphasize one word here: nearly. Now opponents may play at speeds that I might not be able to react to, or catch me off guard with placement and spin, but even there I’d usually react properly, just not always quickly enough or with just the right racket angle.

Some of my students have picked up on a certain flaw here, which I think affects me more than most. When someone throws something at me that I’m not used to, all that conditioning falls apart. It means I basically have two choices – I can go for a “regular” shot, and likely miss, or I can change to a safe shot, usually just fishing or weakly blocking it back.

For example, one of my students (a righty) has been developing this inside-out backhand loop that goes down the line, breaking away from a righty opponent. Now against a regular down-the-line shot, whether it’s a block or a loop, I’d react almost instantly with either a block, a smash, or a loop. It’s instinctive, and I can do all three with equal ease. But when he throws this inside-out backhand sidespin loop at me, I basically freeze up – my subconscious doesn’t know what to do. And so I usually just hold my racket out and block it back weakly, or step back and fish it back, or often react so slowly that I don’t even get to it.

Another student discovered that if he steps around his forehand and plays a backhand from the forehand side, and hits it down the line to my backhand, I often watch it go by before I react. None of my training prepared me for that shot!!!

I faced a more extreme example of this many years ago. In the very first tournament I ever played after they went to 11-point games I n2001, in a best of five, I faced an 1800 penholder – but he was the first penholder I’d ever faced with a reverse penhold backhand. (This shot was basically unknown until the 1990s, and rare right into the 2000s.) I couldn’t react with a regular backhand against the shot, and over and over I’d sort of put it back weakly, and he’d smash a winner before I had a chance to back up and make an effective lob. Next thing I know I’m down 0-2 to this 1800 player. I was about 2270 or so and hadn’t lost to a player under 2000 in over 20 years, and now I was on the verge of losing to an 1800 player. I finally switched to pure fishing and lobbing every time we got into a rally and managed to win in five. Afterwards I found a local with that backhand and practiced until I was used to it.

I think most top players adjust faster than I do to such things. I adjust tactically very quickly, but in the heat of a fast rally, it’s hard to overcome what your brain has been wired to do. I think part of the problem is that I didn’t do much multiball training in my early years, as that really prepares a player to simply react to fast incoming balls; I mostly did one-on-one training, and so learned to react against the shots those players gave me.

But one of my pet theories is that at most levels, players way underestimate the value of throwing in such variations. I’ve seen it done even at high levels. There’s one top USA junior who often throws opponents off with a sidespin chop return of serve (he’s not a chopper) that seemingly just gives the opponent an easy loop – but over and over opponents mess up against it because they’ve never trained against such a shot.

Ma Long Training
Here’s the new video (3:35).

Ask a Pro Anything - Jonathan Groth
Here’s the video (6:41) from Adam Bobrow. World #27 Groth is from Denmark. Wait’ll you see the dance moves!

More Articles on North American Team Championships
Here’s the ITTF page – but it’s confusing as there is also the JOOLA North American Teams in Washington DC.

$100,000 World Championship of Ping Pong
The World Championship of Ping Pong will be held Jan. 28-29, 2017, in London, with $100,000 in prize money for this Sandpaper event. Yes, sandpaper! You can get the latest news from their Facebook page.

Great Highlights Reel
Here’s the video (1:34) of some great rallies.

Ibrahim Hamadtou at the Paralympics
Here’s a new video (55 sec) of the armless player, who holds the racket in his mouth and serves by tossing the ball up with his feet.

Playback Pong with Power
Here’s the cartoon.

Funny Cats Playing Ping-Pong
Here’s the video (2:20) that compiles a number of cats playing (or more likely interacting with) table tennis.  

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Dan Seemiller’s Book and A Tale of Two Quotes
So . . . have you bought “Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion” yet? Why not? This is the story of our greatest modern champion. Warning – some people won’t like some of the things he says. But I’m more interested in what we can learn from the book.

Here’s an interesting quote from page 129 of the book, where Dan says, “I normally don’t get nervous, I’m too busy thinking about strategy instead of the score.” This is one of those things I’ve harped about here and in my books, that if you think about tactics between points, you won’t be thinking about winning or losing, the score, what’ll happen if you lose, etc., and so won’t get nervous (or as nervous). It’s one of those basic things that sometimes takes years to learn, and many never learn it. Contrast that with an actual exchange that took place during my coaching last night:

Me: “Since you can do this shot in practice, what happens in a game?”
Student: “I get scared and miss the shot.”
Me: “Then let’s practice getting scared and missing the shot.”

Now I was joking with that last part – though not completely, as you always want to practice what you do in matches, though perhaps not getting scared and missing – but the point is that many players get scared and so can’t play. They are too worried about winning and losing, and so can’t think or play straight. Instead, if they focused on what they want to do – tactics – then they would play much better.

And just for the record, there were many other great quotes in the book. Here’s perhaps my favorite!

Eric Boggan (2-time U.S. Men’s Singles Champion, #18 in the world, and Dan’s rival for many years), on page 133: “To me, losing is like God blowing his nose on me.” Somewhere out there is an artist who can illustrate this in a cartoon.

USATT News Items
There are a LOT of new items on the USATT news page. I started to put together segments on each, but decided it’d be better to just direct you there.

MDTTC September Open Ratings and Write-up
Here they are – that was fast! I ran the tournament on Saturday and sent the results in that night. They were processed on Tuesday morning. And as I relentlessly last night tried to convince 7-year-old Stanly (now rated 1366), “There is nothing more important than ratings. Not family, not school, not food, nothing. It is the single most important thing there is. Period.” Alas, he has a smart phone with games on it, and so you know what he considers more important. (I did a write-up of the tournament in my blog yesterday, and it’s now up as a USATT News Item.)

How to Read Spin Serves in Table Tennis
Here’s the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis.

Footwork: Training vs Warm-Up Article and Video
Here’s the new coaching article and video by Samson Dubina.

USATT’s North American Championships Page
Here’s the page, with results, pictures, and video. (This is a bit confusing as this is not the North American Championships where they have singles championships. They only had USA vs. Canada team championships to decide who would represent North America and the World Cup. USA won both men’s and women’s.)

Nittaku ITTF Monthly Pongcast - August 2016
Here’s the video (14:15).

Table Tennis is the Olympics’ Most Revealing Sport
Here’s the article about how the difference between an Olympic table tennis player and a casual player is described as the biggest gap among Olympic sports.

Omron's Table Tennis Robot FORPHEUS Certified by Guinness World Records
Here’s the article.

Poland's Partyka Claims Fourth Consecutive Paralympic Singles Gold in Rio
Here’s the ITTF Press Release.

12-year-old Cerebral Palsy Athlete Makes Paralympic History
Here’s the article from Pong Universe.

A Little Chinese National Team Doubles Smashing vs. Lobbing
Here’s the video (30 sec).

Game On! The Monolith Ping Pong Table
Here’s the article and pictures.

Table Tennis Replaces Baseball as an Olympic Sport
Here’s the meme.

Chimpanzee Playing Table Tennis?
Here’s the video (13 sec) – I think this is real!

Non-Table Tennis - 80^th Short Story Sale
Yesterday I sold “The Electrifying Aftermath of a Demon Thrice Summoned” to Galaxy’s Edge Magazine. They are one of the “pro” magazines that pay well. (I’ve sold 14 to the “pros.”) The humorous story is about the U.S. president and the person running against her, with each summoning the demon to wreak havoc on the others campaign – with an “electrifying” conclusion in the U.S. Senate the third time he is summoned. The poor demon just wants peace and quiet so he can read the works of Dante and Faulkner, but finds himself loose in the world of these evil humans, where he can do good or seek revenge. What does he do? (Their current issue has my story "Manbat and Robin," another humorous one about a bat that thinks it's a superhero.) 

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Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion by Dan Seemiller
It’s out! Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion is the autobiography of five-time U.S. Men’s Singles Champion Dan Seemiller (who along the way also won Men’s Doubles 12 times, Mixed Doubles seven times, and was the U.S. Men’s Coach at the Worlds and Olympics for many years). The book is 218 pages with 96 pictures. I did the editing, photo work, and page layouts. Dan turned out to be an excellent proof reader, finding many typos that I missed. Maybe it’s that perfectionism that made him such a strong player?

At the very end of the book is a “Who is Dan Seemiller?” section which I wrote. Here it is – and after reading this, go out and buy yourself a copy! (Right now there’s only a print version. Later this week I’ll put together an ebook version.)

I first met Dan Seemiller at one of his Pittsburgh camps in 1977, my second year of play. Let’s just say that I was in awe as he and his brothers (Ricky and Randy, plus Perry Schwartzberg) demonstrated and explained the various techniques. I went to another of his camps in 1978. The day before he badly sprained his ankle, and he showed up with the leg in a full cast so he could still move about to coach – and in a challenge match, hobbling about mostly on one leg, he still managed to win a challenge match against the U.S. #1 junior player, Rutledge Barry! Those Seemiller camps formed the basis both for my own game, and for my future professional coaching career. Little did I know that, one day, I’d be assisting Dan at his Pittsburgh camps in the early 1990s, and learning how to run my own camps. I’d also be his coaching chair during his USATT presidency. (And now I’m editing and doing the photo work and page layouts for his autobiography – wow!)

Dan is considered by most the greatest modern U.S. player, going back to the 1950s. He’s done it all at the highest levels – player, coach, tournament director, club president, and president of USA Table Tennis. He even has a grip named after him – the “Seemiller grip.” There’s a reason he was the youngest person ever awarded the USATT Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2012 at the age of 58. Even now, as I write this, he’s still actively playing – easily the best over 60 player in the U.S. – while coaching at South Bend and helping USA Table Tennis run training camps for their top juniors. Plus, he was instrumental to bringing the World Veteran Games to the U.S. in 2018, something he’s very excited about – setting it up, running it, and playing in it. (Want to read more about Dan? Google “Danny Seemiller Hall of Fame” for Tim Boggan’s write-up.)

Dan’s Record

• 5-time U.S. Men’s Singles Champion: 1976, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983
• 12-time U.S. Men’s Doubles Champion: 1976-1983, 1990-1991, 1994, 2009
• 7-time U.S. Mixed Doubles Champion: 1976-1978, 1981-1983, 1988
• U.S. Men’s National Team Coach, 1999-2009
• U.S. Men’s Olympic Coach, 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens
• 3-time USOC Coach of the Year for Table Tennis
• South Bend Table Tennis Club Head Coach 1996-present
• President of USA Table Tennis, 1990-1995
• Hall of Fame Inductee, 1995
• Lifetime Achievement Award, 2012

Maximizing Benefits from Multiball Training in Table Tennis
Here’s the new coaching article from Matt Hetherington.

2016 Thailand National Junior and Cadet Training Camp
Here’s the photo album of the camp. 20 Athletes are preparing for the Asian Junior and Cadet Championships. Eleven coaches working the camp include 8 from the ITTF Level 2 Course that USA’s Richard McAfee is teaching.

How Table Tennis Champions are Produced in China
Here’s the video (46 sec) – that’s some serious multiball!

North American Championships
USA defeats Canada in both Men’s and Women’s Teams, and so Team USA will represent North America at the 2017 World Team Cup.

• Men’s Team Results
• Women’s Team Results
• Team Listing and Video (5 hr 15 min)
• Men’s Team photos
• Women’s Team Photos

Butterfly MDTTC September Open
By Larry Hodges, tournament director
Maryland Table Tennis Center • Sept. 10, 2016

Another Saturday, another tournament – isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? The Butterfly MDTTC September Open had 55 players in seven events. New MDTTC coach Zhang Yan, unrated but seeded at what turned out to be an under-rated 2550, took top honors, defeating fellow MDTTC coach Chen Bo Wen (“Bowen,” 2563) in the final, 11,3,-10,6,11. Zhang was up 10-8 in that third game; at 10-9 they had a monster counter-looping rally that just would not end, with both players ranging farther and farther to their right (both are righties) as they hook-looped back and forth with as much sidespin as topspin. Bowen won the point as Zhang stood, hands on hips and looking disgusted after the point, but it was only a momentary setback.

Klaus Wood showed that he’s ready to make the jump from 2350 to 2450. He won Under 2350 event without losing a game (over George Li in the final), and in the quarterfinals of the Open came back from down 0-2 in games and 8-10 match point in the fifth to have his own 11-10 match point before losing to Roy Ke (2441).

George Nie once again won Under 2000, this time in a squeaker over Darwin Ma, 9,9,-3,-4,9.

Ali Paryavi, who took part the week before in the four-day ITTF Cadet Camp at MDTTC, won Under 1700 over Hossam Alkadi in a huge comeback from down 0-2 in games and who knows how many match points in game three, -11,-9,14,9,6.

Stanley Hsu nipped chopper/looper John Miller in the final of Under 1350 (-9,10,9,11), with a deuce-in-the-fifth squeaker in the semifinals over Thierry Viboux, 9,-5,-3,12,10. Stanley also made it to the final of Under 15, losing to Walid Alkadi in the final, 5,8,8.

Lixin Lang, who assisted in running the tournament, in his free time once again won Over 50 over Thomas Sampson, 7,8,-5,2.

A great thanks goes to sponsor Butterfly, to MDTTC, to referee Paul Kovac, and to Lixin Lang and Wen Hsu for helping run the tournament. Here are complete results, with a summary below.

Breaking News (added later) - the ratings for the tournament were processed on Tuesday morning - here they are!

Open Singles – Final: Zhang Yan d. Chen Bo Wen, 11,3,-10,6,11; SF: Zhang d. Nathan Hsu, 8,6,10,-10,9; Chen Bo Wen d. Roy Ke, 8,9,-7,9,9; QF: Zhang d. George Li, 8,8,4; Chen Bo Wen d. Spencer Chen, 5,8,7; Ke d. Klaus Wood, 7,5,-9,-6,11; Hsu d. Eric Li, 11,-11,9,-10,6.
Under 2350 – Final: Klaus Wood d. George Li, 6,6,7; SF: Wood d. George Nie, 3,-5,7,4; Li d. Tiffany Ke, 8,12,6.
Under 2000 – Final: George Nie. D. Darwin Ma, 9,9,-3,-4,9; SF: Nie d. Xinsheng Michael Huang, 8,6,6; Ma d. Joshua Gong, -8,5,10,11.
Under 1700 – Final: Ali Paryavi d. Hossam Alkadi, -11,-9,14,9,6; SF: Paryavi d. Ara Sahakian, 10,7,6; Alkadi d. Adrian Yang, 4,5,7.
Under 1350 – Final: Stanley Hsu d. John Miller, -9,10,9,11; SF: Hsu d. Thierry Viboux, 9,-5,-3,12,10; Millder d. Jeff Howes, 9,2,-2,8.
Under 15 – Final: Walid Alkadi d. Stanley Hsu, 5,8,8; SF: W.Alkadi d. Hossam Alkadi, 7,2,5; Hsu d. Ryan Lee, -6,7,10,9.
Over 50 – Final RR: 1st Lixin Lang, 3-0; 2nd Thomas Sampson, 2-1; 3rd Yunhua Gong, 1-2; 4th James Wilson, 0-3.

Chinese Community Center Once Again Proves Ideal Host
Here’s the ITTF article.

British Bayley Avenges First Round Defeat to Take Home Paralympic Gold
Here’s the ITTF press release.

Great Rally
Here’s the video (33 sec) – watch them take turns on offense and defense!

Great Britain’s Will Bayley Stands on Table After Capturing Gold in Rio! 
Here’s the picture. (Here’s the non-Facebook version.)

How Table Tennis Players are Seen
Here’s the six-picture meme!

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Tip of the Week
The More Two Players Drill Together the Better They Drill Together.

Tactical Coaching Can Be a Wonderful – or Terrible – Thing
This past Saturday I ran the Butterfly MDTTC September Open. I’ll have a write-up and photos ready hopefully tomorrow, but here are the complete results. It was an exhausting weekend. On Saturday I was at the club at 7:45AM, and didn’t leave until about 9PM, over 13 hours later. I did manage to compile all the results and send to USATT that night, so they will likely be processed in the next couple of days.

During a short lull I watched a match between an experienced player who earlier this year had switched from a mostly looping game (with inverted on both sides) to chopper/looper (with long pips on the backhand). I watch him play against a young junior player, and the chopper won the first, 11-9, and so things looked good for the chopper. But between games the junior received some very good coaching. I didn’t hear the coaching, I simply saw the change in tactics the rest of the match.

First, the junior began to play a bit more patiently, pushing deep to the backhand, forcing the chopper to push with the long pips. It’s tricky pushing low with long pips – it can’t create much backspin to make the ball travel on a line, and the chopper had only started using it this year – and every few pushes would pop up some, and the junior would jump all over that. As noted, the chopper had gone to chopping only

Second, the junior began to attack the middle. That is important when playing choppers – it’s their weakest spot – but here it worked for a different reason. The chopper still had attacking instincts, and often counterlooped very effectively when the junior attacked his forehand. But when the junior attacked the middle, the chopper often tried to counterloop, but now he was rushed as he moved to his left (he’s a righty) – and so he made many misses and weak loops that the junior jumped all over, plus it put him out of position. (A more conventional chopper would cover the middle with the long pips, forcing the junior to go more to the forehand if he wanted to see the chopper’s forehand – which would make it easier for the chopper to counterloop.)

Result? The junior likely won because of the between-games coaching. The coaching helped both because of the two specific tactics above, and because it allowed the coach to keep stressing these things. Played without a coach, I’m pretty sure the chopper would have won.

Most of us accept this type of thing as part of the game, that players get coaching between games, and so some have an advantage in this way. It’s only between games, so the interaction is at least kept to a minimum. But as you probably know, this all changes on Oct. 1, when the new ITTF coaching rule comes into effect and coaches can coach players any time between points. Yes, it’s madness. I blogged about this on August 26, and about whether USATT should adopt this on August 19. I’ll likely blog about this more this month.

5 Steps for Mastering Service Deception in Table Tennis
Here’s the new coaching article from Matt Hetherington.

Balls: The Common-Sense Way to Adjust
Here’s the new coaching article by Samson Dubina. As he notes, we’re currently in a state of chaos where there are a number of different balls out there that play differently. This didn’t use to be a problem – it used to be that the differences between balls were minimal.

Reverse Pendulum Serve
Here’s the video (3:45) of a player demonstrating the serve, first in real time and then in slow motion. (It’s in Vietnamese, but you can watch how he does it.) Of especially interest is he does the two most important variations, with the same motion: deep to the backhand (at the start), and then short to the forehand (about 45 sec in). If you can master this (or any other good serve) where you use the same motion and then either go deep to the backhand or short to the forehand, you’ll be able to work many players over as it’s not easy covering these two extremes.

Belarus Open
Here’s the ITTF page for the tournament held this past weekend, with results, articles, pictures, and video. Here’s the latest article, Jang Woojin takes Men's Singles trophy after incredible comeback

Kickstarter for New Table Tennis Shirt
Here’s the page where Steve Worthington is doing a Kickstarter to put his table tennis design on a shirt.

Amazing rally at the ITTF World Tour Belarus Open
Here’s the video (24 sec).

Devos Makes History as Youngest Male Paralympic Table Tennis Champion
Here’s the ITTF press release.

Unbelievable Paralympic Diving Return
Here’s the video (23 sec) – the best part is the reaction of the opponent, who actually turns away thinking she’d won the point. See her face at the end when she realizes the ball came back!

Coaching Cerebral Palsy Table Tennis
Here’s the video (6:31). I think it’s in Hungarian – can someone verify? (Update: Bernard Lemal informs me it's in Russian.) 

Prince Harry Dons Angry Birds Hat for Table Tennis Match at Music Festival
Here’s the article and pictures of the English prince playing table tennis in a funny hat! (It’s from 2012.)

Yes, Martians Play Table Tennis
Here’s the picture! At least Marvin the Martian does in this pin. As of this writing, there are five of them on sale at ebay for $9 each. (Here’s another picture of Marvin playing table tennis.)

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As You Think, So Shall You Become - Revisited
Yesterday I posted this Bruce Lee Table Tennis graphic – and the Bruce Lee quote in the heading, “So you think, so shall you become,” very much applies to table tennis. Most players have self-images of their game, which puts them in a comfort zone. And nearly everything they do re-enforces this, and so they stay in this comfort zone, rarely developing anything new. Sure, they play around with other shots, and practice them, but not in a long-term, serious way. I’ve seen loopers who can’t block react by spending even more time working on their loop rather than mastering the block. I’ve seen players who are great blockers but constantly lament their lack of attacking skills – and spend decades playing as a blocker rather than taking a few months of that time where they develop and incorporate attacking skills. These players are unable to think of themselves as something better, and so are unable to become better. And that’s what Bruce Lee was referring to.

In fact, for players who stay in their comfort zone rather than strive to leave it, I will paraphrase the Bruce Lee quote: “So you think, so shall you remain.”

Those who become great players have a different way of thinking. If they see something that someone else does better than they do, they are certain they can do better and become determined to top it. They may not always become better at it, but they become as good at it as they can possibly be. The best up-and-coming juniors see what the world-class players do, and are convinced they can do better – and so strive to do so. “So you think, so shall you become,” and because they think they can, they become it.

I remember coaching a top 12-year-old whose strength was blocking. He was in a close match against an older, higher-rated looper, and the match was 2-2. Between games I told him he needed to forehand block into the opponent’s wide forehand to draw him out of position, and – but I was interrupted. The kid wanted nothing of this. He was certain he could win by counterlooping with his opponent, apparently oblivious to the fact that the opponent was a much better counterlooper. But he was determined, and so we changed our tactics to make sure the opponent had more difficult loops to counterloop – and lo and behold, the 12-year-old left behind his blocking persona and won by looping everything. A year later he made the USA Cadet Team.

I’ve gone through similar thinking. Fortunately, I’ve always felt that if I put my mind to something, I could master it. When I first showed up at the New Carrollton Table Tennis Club in 1976 at age 16, and saw real table tennis for the first time, I was at first shocked at how much better everyone was. (I was #41 of 43 on the ladder, ahead of a 12-year-old who had also just started and an 8-year-old girl.) But whatever I saw, I was certain I could also master. At the time I was basically a keep-it-in-play type, with an occasional pick-hitting forehand. (I was also holding the racket with the thumb down the middle, using the other side for both forehand and backhand, basement style. Jim Mossberg quickly fixed my grip.)

I remember watching Bob Kaminsky smacking in forehand after forehand against chopper Herb Horton, and told myself, “I can do that.” (At the time I didn’t even realize Bob was hitting with short pips, while I had inverted.) So I spent a huge amount of time working on my forehand hitting, and turned it into a huge strength. At the 1976 U.S. Open, my first big tournament, I saw how Dragutin Surbek (#3 in the world, who would win men’s singles) could cover the entire table with his forehand, and told myself, “I can do that.” And so I became a forehand specialist, running around hitting forehands every chance. (Surbek was actually a looper, but I copied his footwork, and that of Kjell Johnannson, as a hitter.) When I saw Ricky Seemiller serving people off the table, I told myself, “I can do that.” I practiced my serves for half an hour a day, six days a week, for three years, and developed very good serves.

By driving myself to surpass these players in their own strengths, I achieved a 1954 rating in 2.5 years. But then I hit a wall. I was getting looped off the table by opponents, who were turning my hitting game into a blocking game. I told myself, “I can do that,” and was determined to become a looper. Here I ran into problems. Anyone who has seen me play can attest that I’m pretty stiff when I play. What they might not know is that I was just as stiff as a teenager as I am now. (I was once told by a doctor it’s a medical condition. My muscles are so dense that I sink like a rock in water – I sometimes show off in pools by walking around on the bottom on the deep end, or doing pushups on the bottom.) But I spent years working at it, and after about two years (where my rating dropped to about 1800), it began to pay off, and I developed a pretty decent loop, at least for a 2250 player. (If you ignore the stiffness and jerkiness, my technique is actually very good. Though that’s a lot to ignore.)

I never moved as fast as Surbek, or served as well as Ricky Seemiller, or looped as well as many of my opponents – but by striving to match and surpass them, I developed these things to a very high level. (I think I may have matched Bob Kaminsky’s forehand – but his peak years were many years before I saw him.)

So what is the self-image you have of your game? Do you stay in your comfort zone - “So you think, so shall you remain” - or do you have higher ambitions, realizing that the very act of telling yourself, “I can do that,” will lead to great improvement, even if you never do it as well as the one you are copying? “So you think, so shall you become.” Remember it, both for table tennis and for other aspects of your life as well.

Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder: How do you react to a loss?
Here’s the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

Status of “Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion”
We should finish it today, and if all goes well, print copies of Dan Seemiller’s autobiography will be out in a week or so! 218 pages, 96 pictures, great reading! Stay tuned. (Next week I’ll put together the ebook version.)

Some Nice, Easy Counterlooping
Here’s the video (43 sec). The site is in Chinese, but the video is in table tennis. If you want to learn to counterloop, just watch this and copy. Don’t they make it look easy? But seriously – you can learn by watching, because done properly, and with practice, it isn’t that hard. Don't think you can do this? See Bruce Lee quote above.

Table Tennis Tactics - Serve and Attack
Here’s the coaching video (12:18).

Zha Wenting Captures Women’s Singles Title at Butterfly LA Open
Here’s the article by Barbara Wei. Links to three other articles on the tournament by Barbara were in my Sept. 6 blog.

Internet Sensation Ibrahim Hamadtou Becomes a Paralympian
Here’s the ITTF press release, with links to video, on this spectacular armless player.

Belarus Open on the ITTF Pro Tour
Here’s the page where you can get results, articles, pictures, and video. The tournament is Sept. 7-11, finishing this Sunday.

Austin Table Tennis on TV
Here’s the video (2:03).

Table Tennis Robot Home Upgrade for Continuously Varying Speed
Here’s the video (64 sec) – this is both fascinating and hilarious!

The Sound of Table Tennis
Here’s the animated video (44 sec). 

A Little Underwater Table Tennis . . . with Sharks?
Here’s the picture!

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Final Proofing - "Revelations of a Champion"
Yesterday I did the absolutely final proofing of Dan Seemiller’s autobiography, “Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion.” The book is really coming around! I did 4.5 hours of proofing at Ledo’s (noon to 4:30PM, lots of pizza and large Mountain Dew, two refills), did a 90-minute coaching session, and then did another 2.5 hours of proofing at Wendy’s (7:30-10PM, large chili with cheese and onion, and a large Dr. Pepper). And then it was done! Except – I needed another three hours to input all the changes, making sure to keep all the layouts lined up. (Plus some USATT stuff took up over an hour.) I also had 19 questions for Dan, which I emailed to him a little after 2:30AM. As soon as he gets back to me on those, I’ll be able to finalize the interior. (It’s 3:23AM as I write this – I’d rather get the blog done now then have to do it when I get up.)

Meanwhile, today I need to pretty much finalize the front and back cover (plus the spine in between). That was turning into a headache as the cover picture is a great shot of Danny, but it’s in black and white. I colorized it, and added the title and a sub-title, but so far the fonts and colors just aren’t working. I’d like to get this done by Friday, since I’m running the MDTTC September Open this Saturday, and coaching all day Sunday.

There are some nice quotes from Dan in the book – I may blog about some of them later on, after the book is out.

I had an interesting time at both Ledo’s and Wendy’s, with an interesting event at each. At Ledo’s, three old white men – all at least 75 or 80 – spent over an hour very loudly discussing what a great person Donald Trump was, while ripping into Clinton. (They actually spent most of the time talking about the virtues of Trump, with anti-Clinton interjections thrown in.) I had to restrain myself from correcting some of their statements. Next time I need to bring earplugs, or perhaps a tranquilizer dart gun. Or maybe a hard-hit ping-pong ball to the head.

At Wendy’s, a family of eight people got there just before me – apparently a grandmother, a mom and dad, and five kids. The kids were excitedly talking about getting Happy Meals, which was strange since those are from McDonalds. Then the mom told the cashier that there was a special on Happy Meals after 4PM, and that they should cost only $1.99. The cashier was very confused, and kept trying to explain that they don’t have Happy Meals at Wendy’s. The mom then changed her order to Chicken McNuggets – again, a McDonald’s menu item. When the cashier again tried to explain, the woman got very agitated, and asked for the manager. When the manager explained that this wasn’t a McDonalds, the woman insisted that they had been coming regularly to this Wendy’s and getting Happy Meals for $1.99 after 4PM. This went on for a time, and I was getting pretty impatient. The woman finally said, “Well then, we’ll just go somewhere else.” The kids were very disappointed at not getting their Happy Meals. What’s funny is there was a McDonalds almost next door – and that’s where they went next. (I saw them to there through the window.) Presumably they got their Happy Meals. Or perhaps they tried to order a Frosty.

Liu Guoliang - Table Tennis Tactics Genius
Here’s the video (19:52) from July, but this is the first I’ve seen it. It’s in English.

Table Tennis Tips for Racketlon Players
Here’s the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis.

As You Think, So Shall You Become
Here’s the Bruce Lee/Table Tennis graphic – and it very much applies to table tennis.

Two Little Japanese Kids Playing Ping-Pong
Here’s the video (10:47). And they say the Chinese are even better.

TRex vs. Brontosaurus
Here’s the cartoon!

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Michael Jordon and Ma Long – the Same?
Here’s the classic picture of both. There’s actually a coaching lesson in this. Players have their best performances when they just let go and let their subconscious take over, i.e. learned reactions. So when top players are performing at their best, they are basically just observers, other than basic tactics. So when they pull off great plays, whether in basketball, table tennis, or any other skill sport, they often have that reaction of essentially shrugging their shoulders and throwing up their hands, as they are just as amazed as we are at what they are doing – because, deep down, they don’t even feel like they are doing it, they are just spectators.

I’ve had this exact same feeling when I’ve played my best. I remember playing Rey Domingo – a 2500 player – in perhaps the best tournament match of my life, and I just watched as his best shots came at me in slow motion, and so easily returned, and anything I touched with my forehand was a winner. I spent the whole match focusing on not paying attention to what I was doing because if I’d thought about it, everything would speed up and my shots would stop hitting. I won the match easily.

I’m guessing most of you have had this experience as well. If not, you need to learn to let go when you play. There’s a reason why you train – so that you reactive instinctively, as the top players do.

A Proofing We Will Go, A Proofing We Will Go…
Today I’m spending most of the day at Ledo’s Pizza doing the final proofing of Dan Seemiller’s autobiography, “Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion.” The pages are done in the hopes that many readers will force a humungous print run. (Yeah, that rhymes, but in reality it’s print on demand.) Dan’s also proofed it, and found all sorts of things – his proofing skills are better than his forehand defense. (Did I just let the cat out of the bag on how to play him? Sorry Dan!)

MDTTC September Open
Here’s info! It’s this Saturday, Sept. 10, at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. I’m running it, alas. See you there! (Note that you can enter online – and you should. See link at the tournament page.)

ITTF Cadet Camp at MDTTC
My blog on this from yesterday is now a USATT news item.

Backhanded Compliments: The Case for the Table Tennis Backhand
Here’s the new article from Coach Jon.

Krish Avvari Interview
Here’s the USATT interview with the USA Junior Team Member, by Rahul Acharya.

11 Questions with Sharon Alguetti
Here’s the USATT video (3:17).

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17 (1989-1990)
Here's chapter 25! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

Iwata City celebrates Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito’s Olympic Success
Here’s the ITTF article.

Tapper and Partyka Sets Off for Early Clash in Rio
Here’s the ITTF press release on these two Paralympic players.

Table Tennis Star David Wetherill Goes for Glory at the Rio Paralympic Games
Here’s the video (1:52).

Samsonov vs. Zhang Jike, Quarterfinals of 2015 German Open
Here’s the video (17:31, with time between points removed, some slo-mo) – Samsonov was up 3-0 in games and 10-9 match point in the sixth, but Zhang would not be denied. Zhang would lose 3-4 in the final against Ma Long at the 2015 German Open. A year later they’d repeat nearly all of this at the Olympics.

Photos of Olympic Athletes Staring at Table Tennis Balls Are Gorgeous and Strangely Hypnotic
Here’s the articles and photos from Business Insider.

Now THAT’S a Table Tennis Trophy!
Here’s the muscley image, held by Richard McAfee. (Here’s the non-Facebook version.) He’s currently in Thailand teaching an ITTF Level 2 Coaching Course. (Here’s the non-Facebook version.)

Is This Your Forehand?
Here’s the repeating gif image (4 sec)!

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Tip of the Week
Looping Slightly-Long Balls.

ITTF Cadet Camp at MDTTC
The ITTF, in conjunction with USA Table Tennis and the Canadian TTA, ran a four-day ITTF Cadet Camp at the Maryland Table Tennis Center over Labor Day Weekend, Fri-Mon. Fifteen players took part in the camp, including five USA national team members: Crystal Wang (Junior and Cadet Girls); Derek Nie and Klaus Wood (Cadet Boys); and Lisa Lin and Faith Hu (Mini-Cadet Girls). Also taking part were Ivy Liao and Isabelle Xiong, members of the Canadian Women’s, Junior, and Cadet Girls’ Teams. The camp had nine sessions, 22 hours total. Here’s a group picture.

Wang Qing Liang (“Leon”), recently named a USA National Cadet Coach, was the head coach, and planned out and ran much of the camp. Other coaches were Cory Eider (USATT High Performance Director), Liu Yongjiang (Canadian National Cadet Coach), and myself (a USATT certified National Coach and former USA Junior Team Coach). Wen Hsu was the Camp Coordinator. Practice partners were Nathan & John Hsu, Heather Wang, You Lyu, and Yan Zhang. (Practice partner and coach is almost interchangeable as the practice partners were also coaching and often feeding multiball.)

If I listed every drill done during the camp, this would be a long blog. Let’s just say the focus was on footwork, serve & attack, and serve & receive. At the start of the camp, the drills were a bit more generic as they did drills where they had to cover a lot of ground very fast (i.e. footwork). More and more the drills became more game like, often starting with a serve and loop. There was a lot of service practice, generally followed by receive practice, with lots of flipping and short receive. One of my favorite drills is when the coaches fed multiball half-long backspin, and the players had to judge whether the ball was long enough to loop, or had to push or flip. As a feeder, I had fun trying to mess them up by feeding balls right in between! (It also inspired this morning’s Tip of the Week, Looping Slightly Long Balls.)

Physical training was a major component of the camp. Most sessions started with jogging and various side-stepping routines. Twice they did ladder drills, where they work on speed and foot coordination. Twice they did “plank” training. They also did the “hill runs” – there’s a steep hill just outside the club, and we made use of it. The kids had to run up the hills, jog back, and repeat about ten times. Then they repeated this running backwards. And finally they did it on their hands and feet – no knees or other part of the body touching the ground – and had to go up the hills this way backwards, feet first. It was torture great fun!!!

Several times in the camp they played matches, including a practice tournament, a team competition, and doubles. After each, the players were required to write out why they won or lost. You don’t learn from these things if you can’t do that. At the end of the camp Cory emphasized to the players how important tournament competition is – many of them are only playing 6-8 tournaments per year when they should be playing more like 20. The best juniors generally play lots and lots of tournaments, and it is this constant feedback – plus the incentive to train for these tournaments – that leads to much improvement. I pointed out that I’d heard coaches argue that one tournament is worth one or two weeks of training. I also pointed out that lots of tournaments is the cure for those who are afraid of losing rating – you both get used to playing lots of rated matches and so lose the fear of it, plus you know you have another tournament coming up in  a week or so anyway, so your current rating is mostly meaningless.

Here is the lighter side of the camp:

• Amy Wang (USA Junior and Cadet Girls’ Team) was supposed to participate, but had to go to a separate ITTF event. But when we arrived, some of us thought she was there – and throughout the camp people kept thinking they saw her because Canadian Isabelle Xiong looks almost exactly like her! (They even play similarly.) I’m looking forward to seeing them side by side. If I hadn’t been told Amy wasn’t coming, I would have gone over to Isabelle and said, “Hi Amy!”
• I bought four mini-paddles at the USA Nationals, but they had cheap sponge on them, and weren’t fun to play with for many. So I put Tenergy on both sides on two of them – and the kids went crazy with them! They took turns throughout the camp during breaks, and put on quite a counterlooping and lobbing show with them.
• During break, Klaus Wood practiced various around-the-net sliding shots – and here’s the video montage (30 sec) of these shots in slow motion – they are pretty spectacular!

I’d like to thank all those who made the camp possible – ITTF, USATT, CTTA, MDTTC, Cory Eider, the players and coaches, and MDTTC’s tireless worker Wen Hsu. Without them these poor kids would have spent another Labor Day Weekend watching TV while their overseas counterparts were sweating and improving.

The 2016 U.S. Presidential Race Cartoon – Revisited
On Friday I posted my 2016 Presidential Race Cartoon, which I hope you enjoyed. The cartoon was made up of 77 distinct images, combined in Photoshop. (I still have the version with 77 layers, one for each item, so I can edit them individually.) Up until the last minute I was toying with sticking in something about Trump’s hair, but things were a bit jammed, and let’s face it, that would be too easy. (I was thinking about making his hair a tribble from Star Trek.) I also toyed with giving him a “Make America Great Again” baseball cap, with an asterisk that said something like, “You realize I’m saying America isn’t great?” For Clinton, I toyed with putting some bulge on her back, due to the conspiracy theories about that being a defibrillator vest. But I’m guessing most readers haven’t heard about that one.

The original background images was Oh Sang Eun vs. Timo Boll. I chose the picture because I needed one where both players and the audience could clearly be seen. However, Oh is just standing there, so I removed him and replaced him with this one of Fan Zhendong. Then I removed the umpire, cleaned up the image, and put in all the other images.

Hopefully, most readers could recognize the people in the audience, but here they are, L-R, starting with the “Trump Cheering Section”: Russian President Putin, NJ governor Chris Christie (what was he thinking???), the Joker (from “The Dark Knight”), Dennis Rodman, Charlie Sheen, Sarah Palin, Mike Tyson, and the three KKK’s. (Rodman, Sheen, Palin, and Tyson are all publicly for Trump.) The two “Poorly Educated White Guys” are generic pictures of rednecks, and the five in the “New Jersey Muslims Jumping Up and Down Celebrating 911” are also generic pictures. Next to the aisle and saying, “We want to play” are the Libertarian and Green Party candidates, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. To their right, in the “Clinton Cheering Section,” are Presidents Bush Sr., Obama, Bush Jr., B. Clinton, and Carter.

3 Types of Serves All Table Tennis Players Should Know
Here’s the new coaching article by Werner Sigmund from 3TTabletennistraining (posted at Pong Universe).

Tom's Table Tennis Newsletter
Here’s the new one, with links to various coaching articles.

2016 Shonie Aki Scholarship Award
Here’s info. “The Shonie Aki Scholarship award, in the amount of $1,250 for one year, will be offered to a young table tennis player who has aspirations to complete a college education, become a better player and a productive individual who would reflect on Shonie’s legacy.” For more info, see the info page.

Butterfly Los Angeles Open
Here are articles by Barbara Wei on this 4-star tournament. Vladimir Samsonov won Men’s Singles over Huo Yingchao, while Zha Wenting won Women’s Singles over Grace Yang.

• Sept. 5: Vladimir Samsonov Wins 2016 Butterfly LA Open
• Sept. 4: 2016 Butterfly LA Open Tournament (results, pictures, video)
• Sept. 3: Vladimir Samsonov & Hou Ying Chao Compete at 2016 Butterfly LA Open

Butterfly Badger Open Bigger and Better in 2016
Here’s the USATT article on this 4-star Wisconsin tournament held near Milwaukee.

ITTF Releases Paralympic Games Table Tennis Media Guide
Here’s the ITTF press release.

Timo Boll Switches Hands, Loops Winner
Here’s the video (43 sec, including slo-mo replay).

2016 Ma Long vs Xu Xin - China Olympic Exhibition Show Hong Kong
Here’s the video (6:02).

Smacking Junior Players!
Here’s video (35 sec) of a mass of kids in a table tennis camp smacking five kids lined up against the wall with ping-pong balls. See what happens when you don’t give your best? (No, this wasn’t at MDTTC, but hmmmm….)

2016 Olympic Women's Final LEGO style
Here’s the USATT article and pictures.

Hulk vs. Superhero
Here’s the table tennis cartoon!

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The 2016 U.S. Presidential Race
Here is the 2016 Presidential Race – pong style! (Here's the Facebook posting and discussion.) That’s my main blog for today – I was up all night working on it. I’ve done this twice before, though perhaps not quite as exotically:

• 2004 Presidential Race (Bush vs. Kerry)
• 2000 Presidential Race (Bush vs. Gore)

1500 Published Table Tennis Articles
I realized yesterday that I’d just hit exactly 1500 published table tennis articles, out of 1691 total published articles. (This does not include nearly 2000 blog entries.) Wow.

ITTF Cadet Camp at MDTTC
It starts this afternoon, and continues through Monday afternoon. I’m one of the coaches. Today's sessions are 3:30-5:30 and 7:30-9:30PM. There's also a reception for everyone from 5:30-7:30PM - refreshments and beverages will be served. You are invited! I'll blog about the camp on Tuesday. (No blog on Monday - Labor Day.) 

Colin Wilson: How to Fulfill Your Potential
Here’s the new podcast (41:04) from Expert Table Tennis. Colin Wilson “…represented England for many years and is a double Commonwealth medallist. As a coach, he has worked with the English national team at all levels and trained some of the top players in the country.” In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Corby Smash TTC came into existence, and why [1:15]
• Who is Colin Wilson [7:45]
• What are the underlying qualities of success in any field [14:15]
• How much (and how often) should you practice table tennis [21:00]
• Matches vs Training – Advice for beginners [27:00]
• How to play related table tennis [29:45]
• More information about Corby Smash TTC [36:00]

2016 Olympics: Top Table Tennis Player Lily Zhang Brings Pac-12 Flavor to Team USA
Here’s the article. (It’s from Aug. 11, but I didn’t see it before.)

Ask a Pro Anything - Adriana Diaz
Here’s the new video (9:19) from Adam Bobrow.

Timo Boll vs Alexander Shibaev Table Tennis Team 2016 | Highlights Germany vs Russia
Here’s the video (10:08).

Chinese Ball-Bouncing Kids in Green
Here’s the picture – but click so you can see the other three pictures as well.

Chinese Table Tennis Art of Children Playing Table Tennis
Here’s the picture.

8th Annual Celebrity SLAMFest Kick Off Party
Here’s info on the event taking place on the weekend of Sept. 9-10 in Virginia Beach.

Table Tennis Touch Game
Here’s the page for this game – but even if you don’t want to play, go for the linked 30-sec video as a robot meets up with hordes of little red creatures at the ping-pong table!

Ping-Pong Paddle Sandals?
Here’s the picture!

USA Olympian Smashes Through Opponent
Here’s the table tennis cartoon!

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Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion
Our My long two-week national personal nightmare work binge is over!!! The book, “Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion” (the autobiography of Dan Seemiller) is edited, proofed, the photos fixed up, the pages laid out, and it’s all done! It came in at 214 pages with 94 pictures, divided into eleven chapters.  Book should be available around Sept. 15.

Unfortunately, it’s not actually done. This morning at about 1AM I sent the interior proofs to Dan Seemiller for him to proof. He’ll likely have changes. (Since I wrote this there have already been two changes.) Plus I haven’t finished with the front and back covers. Plus I have to decide whether it’s worth spending roughly seven hours to create an index. Anyway, today I will try to finalize the covers. Fortunately…

Flu Status
Our My long three-day national personal nightmare illness is over!!! It’s been fun exploring the many symptoms of the flu - I won’t go into that here other than to say that you have never had pain like the pain from flu-induced joint pain. I’m still pretty tired; I feel like I just ran a marathon. But I’m mostly over it just in time for…

ITTF Cadet Camp
It starts tomorrow. A bunch of top juniors – ages 10 to 15 – will be training Sept. 2-5 (Fri-Mon) at the ITTF Cadet Camp at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. Coaches are USATT High Performance Director Cory Eider, Wang Qing Liang, Han Xiao, Canadian Coach Liu Yongjiang, and myself. Players attending include Crystal Wang, Derek Nie, Klaus Wood, Jayden Zhou, Lisa Lin, and Faith Hu, all members of the various USA National Cadet or Mini-Cadet Teams, plus a number of others. There’ll be two table tennis sessions each day (2-3 hours each), plus 90-minute physical training sessions on Sat and Sun.

Windshield Wiper Serve
Here’s the coaching video (2:59) from PingSkills. This is one of my favorite serve variations – I’ll throw it at someone when I need a “free” point. (As mentioned in the video, it’s not a common serve, so players aren’t used to it.) Ricky Seemiller used to do this serve better than anyone. The main weakness of the serve is it’s difficult to get great backspin, though an expert such as Ricky was able to do this. You can get great sidespin with this serve. I disagree with the video where it says you get less spin with this serve than with the pendulum serve – I actually get more with this serve, and Ricky used to have the spinniest serves in the world with this. The wrist really snaps into this serve with a very natural super-spinny sidespin.

The Best Table Tennis Apps (iOS & Android)
Here’s the new article from Expert Table Tennis.

USATT Insider
Here’s the new issue, which came out yesterday.

Stars Named to Attend 2016 Women’s World Cup
Here’s the ITTF press release. (For some reason the ITTF online version is all jumbled, so I'm linking to the Butterfly version, which is identical but formatted properly.) 

Fan Zhendong vs Lin Gaoyuan FINAL Highlights Chinese Super League
Here’s the video (4:18).

Promo Picture for Rio Paralympics
Here’s the picture. The Paralympics are Sept. 7-18.

Really Weird Pong
Here’s the picture!

Realistic Computer Table Tennis Game?
Here’s the table tennis cartoon!

Non-Table Tennis - Manbat and Robin, A Snowball’s Chance
Today’s a big day for me – two of my science fiction & fantasy stories were published today. They are:

• Manbat and Robin in Galaxy’s Edge Magazine. This is the story of a bat that thinks it’s a superhero, and its sidekick, a robin.
• A Snowball’s Chance, in New Myths Magazine. This is the story of a time-looping good witch who is out to stop a bad witch – armed with nothing but a snowball and a mind-boggling secret.

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