Tip of the Week
Contact Point on the Forehand. (I actually did an entire Tip for this morning, only to discover I'd already done How to Serve to the Backhand Attacking Receiver. After over 270 Tips of the Week, that's the first time I've ever done that.)

Why My Forehand Push Is Much Better Down the Line
Here's something I hadn't really noticed before - my forehand push down the line is pretty good, but crosscourt not so good. Unless I'm chopping, I only forehand push against short balls, mostly when someone serves short to my forehand or drops my serve short there, and I decide not to flip. Off this ball I have a big angle into a righty's forehand - but the very threat of this means opponents automatically cover it. And so what do I almost always do? Fake it crosscourt, and then, at the last second, taking it right off the bounce, I push it down the line into their backhand. And that's what I became used to doing, and so have great control over it. But when I do go crosscourt, as I often do in drills with students, I don't have nearly the same control because I so rarely did it that direction. 

You'd think I would have developed the crosscourt forehand push for playing lefties - but there's a different reason why I didn't. Against lefties who serve short to my forehand I almost always fake a down-the-line flip, and then, at the last second, flip it crosscourt into their backhand - which almost always sets up my forehand against their backhand return. (I was a strong forehand player.) For variation, I drop it short to the lefty's forehand. And so again, I rarely pushed crosscourt. 

This doesn't mean I never forehand pushed crosscourt, or that I can't do it. But it shows that one becomes good at what you do, and because I almost always pushed one way, I became proficient in that direction, not so good the other way. 

I have another shot where I'm only comfortable going to certain places. In my beginning years, when I stepped around to forehand loop from the backhand side, I'd always go either very wide crosscourt or down the line. Result? Even when I know I should attack the opponent's elbow, I'm erratic when I do so, since I didn't do that shot my first few years. And so I almost always go at wide angles. (I get away with it because I disguise my direction very well, but it's a weakness that I don't attack an opponent's middle with my forehand from the backhand side.) On the other hand, in rallies, I've always attacked opponent's elbow with my backhand, and so I'm quite comfortable doing that.

Now examine your game. Do you have similar shots where you are only good doing it to one part of the table, not another, simply because that's the way you usually do it?

2016 World Veterans Championships
Here's the home page. They started this morning in Alicante/Elche, Spain, May 23-29.

Table Tennis Receiver's Edge Series Part 1
Here's the new coaching video (5:21) from Brett Clarke at Table Tennis Edge.

How to Do the Jab Serve
Here's the video (1:55) with the serve demonstrated by Eli Baraty.

Integral Training for High Performance Athletes
Here's the article by Francisco Mendez.

Dimitrij Ovtcharov 3 Point Forehand Topspin Training 2016
Here's the video (2:44).

Chinese Stars in Training
Here are some new videos.

• Fan Zhendong (2:10)
• Ma Long (3:35)
• Xu Xin (6:35)

Rio Set to Stage a True Clash of Titans: Ma Long vs. Zhang Jike
Here's the article from Matt Hetherington.

No Singles in Rio for World #1 Liu Shiwen
Here's the article.

First Ever Syrian Qualifies for Olympics Table Tennis Event
Here's the ITTF press release.

Our World: A Winning Team
Here's the article from the Naple News (Florida) featuring Marvin and Caron Leff.

Amazing Armless Table-Tennis Player
Here's another video (38 sec) of the amazing Ibrahim Hamato.

SPiN SF Opening Party - Match Point!
Here's the video (58 sec) of the point between Lily Zhang and Jiaqi Zheng.

One of the Craziest Points You'll Ever See
Here's the video (15 sec).

Eight Players, Four Balls, One Table
Here's the video (51 sec).

Epic Shot by 12 Year Old
Here's the video (12 sec) – that's so unfair!

Baby Pong
Here's the video (42 sec) – I counted 34 forehands in a row by this two-year-old on the table!

Real-Life Forrest Gump
Here's the video (9 sec) – three balls on the playback table! Here's the real Forrest Gump playing (1:31). And here's the Making of Forrest Gump Ping Pong (2:55).

RIP Alan Young
He died on Thursday. He was the actor who played opposite a talking horse in the TV show Mister Ed (1958-1966). What does this have to do with table tennis? In one episode, they had Mr. Ed briefly play table tennis – here's the picture. There's no digital manipulation; they apparently got the horse to hold the paddle and probably filmed a lot to get what they needed. I remember seeing the footage, but alas, I can't find it on youtube. And I'll leave you with this:

A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and nobody plays pong with a horse, that is, of course, unless, of course, the horse is the famous Mr. Ed! (Sung to the tune of the Mister Ed opening theme, 0:42, with some minor horsing around with the lyrics.)

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Serving Mania
Serving Mania has struck MDTTC! At least with my students. I blogged about this on Wednesday, about two kids who spent an entire one-hour session doing almost nothing but backspin serves (trying to make the ball come back into the net or bounce back over the net). It happened again on Thursday, where two kids (including the 7-year-old I blogged about on Wednesday) spent 40 minutes doing it again. There's getting better and better at it, and get pretty excited when they make the ball jump backwards and over the net.

We have a scoring system: one point if you get the ball to bounce back and hit the net; three points if it bounces back over the net cleanly after one bounce; two points if it bounces back over the net, but nicks the net in either direction, or takes more than once bounce on the far side to come back over the net. Here's a video (78 sec) of Ma Lin demonstrating the "ghost serve, where the backspin pulls the ball back into the net. But the ultimate backspin trick is making it bounce back over the net!

When I do the Trick Shots demo at the MDTTC Open House on May 29 I'm going to demo and teach these "Come Back" serves. It's a fun trick shot, though more advanced players see it coming and either reach forward or go to the side of the table, and smack it in. (I'll also demo and teach the 50-foot serve; blowing the ball so it balances in the air – sideways!; rallying by blowing the ball over the net; speed bouncing on the table; and playing alone with two paddles.

It's not all backspin – I also have them do sidespin serves where they curve the ball around objects to hit targets, or serve deep and hit other targets. We also regularly bring out the adjustable serving bar, so they can practice serving low to the net, under the bar. 

Because I want our kids to try advanced serves, when we play Brazilian Teams (2-5 players on a team, one player plays until he loses a point then next person on the team comes up), I have a two-miss policy – the first two times you miss your own serve, it's a takeover. So the kids are trying out these backspin and other serves in games now.

One thing I do when I teach serve is stress that it's okay to "cheat" while learning a new serve – i.e., they don't have to hold the ball in the flat palm or toss the ball up six inches. I allow them to hold it in their fingertips, even practicing the grazing motion while holding it, before serving it. But once they can do this, they have to learn to do so legally.

I've also been teaching several players to serve fast and deep serves. (Why are they called "fast and deep," when all fast serves are deep? I don't know, but that's the convention.) When learning to do a truly fast (and deep!) serve, it's best to hold the ball in your finger tips about a foot behind the end-line, low to the table and by a corner, and just smack it (with topspin) so that it hits near the end-line on your side, and goes crosscourt, crossing the net very low, and hitting deep on other side. Many are amazed at just how fast you can serve the ball when you do this properly. (However, a purely fast serve isn't that effective – too easy for the opponent to just counter or block it back, using your own speed against you. You need variations, with the three most effective ones being a fast, breaking sidespin serve into the wide backhand that breaks wide; a fast, flat one to the elbow; or a quick, down-the-line one to catch someone on the wide forehand - or crosscourt against a lefty, or a lefty vs. a righty - where you aim one way and change directions at the last second.) Here's how to do a fast, deep serve, and here are 15 fast and deep serves.)

It's not all serves. In the Thursday junior class last night we focused on forehand smashing. After a demo, Coach John Hsu and I fed multiball as the kids smashed. Then we demoed and taught how to smash lobs, and then John and I had fun as we lobbed to them for fifteen minutes, with each player staying up until they'd missed five shots. (With more advanced kids, it would be three misses.)

So . . . have you practiced your serves this week???

Upcoming Schedule
Okay, it's official. My upcoming schedule is absolutely insane. Here are upcoming activities – in addition to the usual private and group coaching, afterschool program, blogging, other writing, and numerous USATT and MDTTC duties. I'll be out of town continuously from July 3 - Aug. 3. 

• May 21: Coaching at Potomac Open
• May 27-28: Panelist at the Balticon Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore
• May 29: Helping run the Open House at MDTTC (I'll be running a service seminar and a trickshot demo/seminar, plus an exhibition.)
• June 6-8: Disabled Veterans Camp at MDTTC
• June 9 for about two weeks: Tim Boggan arrives so we can start work on his History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18. We'll be working on this starting early in the morning and all day long when I'm available. He sleeps on my couch.
• June 11: Running the MDTTC June Open
• June 17-18: USATT Board Meeting in New Jersey
• June 20-Aug. 26: Summer Camps at MDTTC – all summer long, Mon-Fri (when I'm not out of town)
• June 25-26: Running Maryland State Championships at MDTTC
• July 4-10: Coaching and Playing at USA Nationals in Las Vegas, NV
• July 10-22: Helping run the USATT Super Camp at LYTTC in NJ
• July 22-30: At the TNEO Writing Workshop in Manchester, NH – my annual "vacation"
• July 30-31: Coaching at the 4-star Southern Teams in Houston, TX
• Aug. 1-3: Coaching at the Junior Olympics in Houston, TX
• Aug. 17-21: At the World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City, MO

Maryland State Championships
It's official! I'll be running the $5000 Maryland State Championships at MDTTC on June 25-26, sponsored by HW Global Foundation. I'll set it up on Omnipong later so you can enter online. The tournament is for Maryland residents only.

Working with Navin Kumar
Here's a short article and video (2:07) Navin put up this morning. Navin's the "Bionic Man," with an artificial heart and Parkinson's.

USATT Tournaments This Weekend
This weekend there are nine USATT sanctioned tournaments. I'll be coaching at the Potomac Open. Here's a listing:

• 2016 Cincinnati Open, Cincinnati, Ohio, 4 star
• Potomac 2016 Spring Open, Potomac, Maryland, 2 Star
• 2016 Rochester Open, Rochester, New York, 2 Star
• LATTA Open, El Monte, California, 2 Star
• Princeton Pong Open, Princeton Junction, New Jersey, 2 Star
• Sacramento Spring Open, Sacramento, California, 2 Star
• Triangle May 2016 Upside Down Open, Morrisville, North Carolina, 2 Star
• NYISC May 2016 Open, College Point, New York, 2 Star
• 2016 Robo Pong SMC Open, Woodbury, New York, 1 star

USA Nationals Entries
Want to watch the entries for the USA Nationals as they trickle in? Here's where! As of this morning they have 87; eventually they'll likely have around 700-800. (The last Nationals had 771.) Don't forget to enter!)

Nationals Free Entry Contests
Want free entry to the USA Nationals? Here are three ways!

• Butterfly – Subscribe to In The Loop by May 27th and become Eligible to Win Free Entry into the US Nationals!
• JOOLA – Pong So Hard Contest
• Paddle Palace – LIKE Us, Then JOIN THE FACEBOOK EVENT for your Chance to Win!

Improve Your Table Tennis Skills Through Training Videos
Here's the TT video page from Pro Shop World. Videos include: Forehand Drive, Backhand Drive, Forehand Topspin, Backhand Topspin, Block, Service Basics, Reverse Pendulum Backspin Serve, and Service Receive.

Xu Xin & Liu Guoliang Training Olympic Games Rio 2016
Here's the video (6:34). Here's some discussion of it at the mytabletennis.net forum.

Chinese Olympic Team
Here's the final team, men's and women's singles and doubles, plus discussion.

Table Tennis Duo Making Waves
Here's the article in the Vicksburg Post (Mississippi) featuring Bill Seabergh and Charlie Lutz.

DTTA’s 4th MENSUAL Tourney
Here's the article, results, and pictures from this Denver tournament.

The Ultimate Backhand Banana Flip
Here's the video (15 sec including slo-mo replay).

International Table Tennis
Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.

Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions
As many of you know, I also write science fiction. There's a special sale on my recent novel, Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions (which has lots of table tennis) starting today through May 27. You can buy it as an ebook from Amazon for only $1.99, and 25% off as a paperback from the publisher, World Weaver Press. (Normally $14.95, now only $11.25.) The novel covers the election for president of Earth in the year 2100, where the world has adopted the American two-party electoral system, with an alien ambassador observing. (This afternoon from 12-2PM I'm on an online science fiction chat with World Weaver Press, my publisher, where I promote the novel.)

The Forehand and Backhand of Severus Snape
Here's the repeating gif image as the wizard from Harry Potter uses Ron Weasely's head for a ping-pong ball.

High-Heeled Ping-Pong Shoes
Here the picture! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

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Chop Blocks
I have a student who cries "Foul!" whenever I do a chop-block. He insists no one else does them, and often will catch the ball when I do them. Before we go further, what is a chop block? Here's my article, Chalk Up Wins with Chop Blocks, and here's the video, Ma Long Chop Block (5:17).

Yesterday, in a session with Matt, I threw a chop block at him, and he wanted to try it. Now I wouldn't normally devote half a session to chop-blocks, but on the other hand I'm an adherent to Saturation Training, which means if you are going to make a change in your game or add something new, you really focus on it for a time until you get it right, rather than just work at it now and then. So we did just that – spent half the session on it. For most of this I stood a few feet back and fed him loops, multiball style, as he chop-blocked and sidespin-chop blocked.

This is a shot that most people have trouble with at first, and then it comes together suddenly, once you get that "smothering" feel of contact. And once you do, it creates havoc for opponents. I think it's even more effective these days for a simple reason – it's one of those shots that has died out in popularity (except for long pips blockers, who do it naturally), and so few players are used to it. There's a reason why world #1 Ma Long likes to use it.

The modern-day argument against the chop block is that it's more effective to backhand counter-loop off the bounce. Readers, let's see a show of hands of those of you who are comfortable backhand counterlooping off the bounce in the middle of an intense match. Yes, it's not an easy shot to pull off. But the key thing is this – backhand counterlooping off the bounce and backhand chop-blocking are not mutually exclusive, as shown by Ma Long (who usually does the counterlooping version). Chop-blocking is simply a nice variation to throw off opponents.

I find it easier to sidespin-chop block, probably 60% backspin, 40% sidespin. But the key is the light touch and placement.

Drills: Learn about Multi-Tasking and Unit-Tasking
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

HEH (Hand-Eye-Hear) Coordination Activity
Here's the article by Massimo Costantini.

Aerobic Table Tennis in the Great White North
Here's the article.

USATT Insider
Here's the new edition, which came out yesterday.

ITTF 2016 PAN AM Junior Championships
Here's the article about the tournament to be held June 25-30 in Burnaby, British Columbia in Canada.

Shia's First Table Tennis Lesson
Here's the video (2:53) as the five-year-old gets his first lesson at the Broward County TTC, with Coach Terese Terranova.

Table Tennis Jigsaw Puzzles
Here's what you get if you search for Table Tennis Jigsaw Puzzles at Amazon. As a lover of jigsaw puzzles, I'm tempted to buy one and bring it to the upcoming Nationals – then all 800 of us can put it together! I generally like 500-piece dragon puzzles; I have over 30 of them, which we put together as a tradition at annual family gatherings at Christmas.
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Backspin Serves for Kids, and Making the Ball Return Into or Over the Net
Had an interesting session yesterday with two kids, ages 7 and 9. You'd think kids that age are balls of energy, wanting to smack the ball over and over. But when they get interested in something, that becomes their whole focus – and that's what happened yesterday.

I'd been teaching them backspin serves recently. It was new to the 7-year-old, while the 9-year-old was a bit more advanced. It started with the 7-year-old rushing out to the table five minutes early, and with a bucket of balls, trying to serve backspin so the ball would bounce backward. I'd demonstrated this to him a few days before, and he badly wanted to do it. He was able to serve so the ball would sometimes come to a stop, or even sometimes bounce backwards, though usually with the ball never reaching the net. He wanted to serve so it would go to the other side and bounce back into the net, as I'd shown him. And so began our hour-long Odyssey. (Here's the serve in question, though they aren't doing it with a high toss.) 

Seeing the other trying to do it, the 9-year-old joined in as both tried to make the ball bounce back into the net. I showed them how to do it, guiding them through the motion. And lo and behold, suddenly the 7-year-old did it! Excited, he continued to do it. Then the 9-year-old did it. I'd thought this would be a good thing to practice at the start of the session, and we'd go to regular practice afterwards. But they didn't want to stop! And so they continued – only now they had an even bigger goal – make the ball bounce back over the net, to their side, as I'd also demonstrated. Now that's a trick serve not normally done in tournaments – advanced players see it coming and smack it, and most players can reach them anyway. (Though not kids.) And so the Odyssey continued as they tried to both make the ball bounce backward and bounce back over the net. (I couldn't find a video of this, but the idea is you serve a bit high so the ball hits just short of the net, goes over the net, and then bounces backwards over the net again, returning to your side.) 

They didn't want to stop, and so we ended up doing almost the entire hour on this. In the end, both were able to make it bounce backwards most of the time, and each managed to make it bounce back to their side five times each. (A tie!) It was great practice – they now have very good racket acceleration and grazing contact on their serves, and they can control it – you can't do these serves if you can't control where the bounces are.

The last five or so minutes we did an alternate variation where I put a cup on the table on the far side, along the right sideline, halfway between the net and the end-line, and demonstrated "Making the Tour." I served forehand pendulum sidespin from my forehand side (on right) so the ball bounced first on the backhand side on my side of the table, then on the far left side on the other side, and then spun back to the right side, curving until it hit and knocked the cup off the table. They were determined to do this – and after a few minutes, both managed to knock it off.

And so ended a great session – without one rallying shot. Except the session didn't end there – the 7-year-old didn't want to stop, and continued practicing his backspin serve for another 30 minutes, until I had to kick him off the table since I could start a coaching session! (Then he borrowed my smart phone and spent the next hour calling up pictures of his other huge interest –jets and planes.)

Hitting Cups with Serves
Here's the video (14 sec). And here's a challenge: you should be able to hit each cup let's say 2/3 of the time. Then you should be able to hit all three consecutively (2/3)^3=~30%. If you really want to be a champion, then you should hit each cup 9/10 of the time, or all three 73% of the time. Go to it!  

How to Learn From a Defender
Here's the new coaching article from Carl Danner.

Advice About Trying Table Tennis Rubber with Pips
Here's the article.

Backhand Banana Flip
Here's a nice video (1:49) where it's demonstrated for both shakehand and reverse penhold. It's by an Asian coach, probably Chinese and speaking Chinese, but you can learn from the video itself. (Can someone identify the language? Update - Doug Harley tells me it's regular Mandarin Chinese.)

Ma Long Forehand Loop
Here's the video (48 sec). I might have linked to this once before, but it's a good one to study – especially the slow motion part.

Supermicro Named Title Sponsor of 2016 USATT National Championships
Here's the USATT news item.

2016 USA Table Tennis National Championship “Shout Out”!
Here's the new USATT feature – have a special message printed in the USA Nationals Program Book!

China's Squad for Rio Olympics 2016 Announced
Here's the listing and discussion.

Sport for All with Equal Dignity
Here's the article by Massimo Costantini.

Alabama Closed
Here's the article, results, and pictures.

Zi Rui Zhao Wins the Newgy Ohio Open
Here's the article and picture.

Pittsburgh Steel City Open
Here's the article and pictures.

Pongstarz and Cornilleau Partner with the Lausd Move It Challenge at Dodger Stadium
Here's the article.

Swedish Table Tennis Association Celebrates 90 Years
Here's the article.

Trainerbot Will Push Your Ping-Pong Skills to the Limit
Here's the article. Of course, much of this follows for any good table tennis robot.

Liu Shiwen, Queen of Amazing rallies!
Here's the video (2:08) – first rally shown is incredible.

Romain Lorentz Big Defense
Here's the video (39 sec) of some great lobbing and fishing!

Andrew Luck Wants to Buy Robot to Play Ping Pong With
Here's the article. "The Indianapolis Colts quarterback was asked during an appearance on 'The Ringer NFL Show' with Kevin Clark what the nerdiest thing he would buy with the money from his next contract. 'That's a good question,' Luck said. 'Maybe, like, a robot ping-pong thing that can hit balls back at you. My buddy has one and he swears by it.'"

Full-Speed Animated Three-Headed Robotic Pong
Here's the repeating gif image! You don't need coffee in the morning after seeing this.

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Adjusting to Different Balls in the Yucky Insane Plastic Era (YIPE!)
One of the realities of the YIPE era (yes, that's what I'm calling it!), where we use plastic balls instead of celluloid (which is actually a type of plastic, but we won't get into that), is that the balls vary widely, far more than before. It used to be that everyone knew that Butterfly balls were slightly softer and lighter than Nittakus, and you'd warm up with the appropriate tournament ball and you'd be ready. But now they vary dramatically. Playing with the various 40+ Nittaku, DHS, Butterfly, JOOLA, and the seamless Xu Shao Fa is like trying to play basketball where one moment you're dribbling a basketball, then suddenly (in no particular order) it's a bowling ball, then a baseball, then a golf ball, etc.

One of my students, Daniel (who I've blogged about before) played in the Capital Area League this past Saturday. He tends to play too passive, and so we've spent a lot of time working on using his serve to set up his attack. Alas, we weren't using a Nittaku Premium 40+, and so when he used that in the league, he said it felt really heavy, and he had no confidence in his attack. Result? He went back to pushing.

The moral here, and for others, is that you need to work out in advance what events you'll be playing in, find out what balls they will be using, get a supply of each type, and make sure to practice with that ball before each event.

They really, Really, REALLY need to standardize ping-pong balls. We are in an insane era of table tennis, where tournaments are like a box of chocolates – you never know what type of ball you're going to use next - unless you check in advance. Add the insanity of umpires not enforcing the hidden serve rule and making undetectable boosting illegal - so that only those willing to cheat get the advantage of these, and so completely dominate higher-level table tennis - and we really do live in an insane table tennis era. Maybe we should call it the Insane Plastic Cheating Era. But I like YIPE. 

Online Entries for the USA Nationals
Here's the page where you can enter online. As of this morning, they have 23 entries. I expect they'll finish with 700 or more.

New York State Championships
Here are results and pictures. The event was held this past weekend at the Westchester TTC. Men's and Women's Champions are Kai Zhang and Yuko Tsuji. Over 40 and Over 60 Champions were Philippe Dassonval and Robert Spitzer. Under 18, 14, and 10 Champions were Kai Zhang, Rohan Acharya, and Matthew Ioffe. Congrats to all, and thanks to the Westchester tournament staff!

A Positive Spin on the USATT League Program
Here's the article from Coach Jon. (Robert Mayer and I created this a number of years ago; he now maintains it.)

Do Lefties Have an Advantage in Table Tennis?
Here's the poll and discussion.

Multiball Training
Here's the video (2:35) of a high-level junior doing a series of multiball drills. The first one is a good four-ball drill – forehand from forehand side, backhand from backhand side, then two forehands, one from middle, one from backhand.

11 Questions with Ari Arratia
Here's the USATT Interview with the U.S. Paralympic star.

Interview with Rawle Alleyne
Here's the USATT interview by Rahul Acharya

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17 (1989-1990)
Here's chapter 9! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

RIO 2016
Here's an article on the upcoming Olympics and table tennis, from a Canadian perspective.

Five-Ball Pong
Here's the video (15 sec)!

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Tip of the Week
Depth Control on Serves with CBS.

Bottle Drill and Quotes
Here is a useful drills I used this weekend. Sameer (14, 1826) has reached the point where he's pretty consistent with his first and second loops (both forehand and backhand), but needs more focus on placement. He told me that in his league matches, he's making nearly 100% of his backhand loops off push, but they keep coming back – but that was because he's opening primarily to the middle backhand, where the opponent is ready and waiting. (And most players block better on the backhand.) Since your first attack should most often be to the opponent's middle (something top players routinely do, but beginners and intermediates often don't quite get – here's my Tip on Attacking the Middle), with follow-up attacks at the corners (since the attack to the middle draws them out of position), we did the following multiball drill.

I put a bottle just a bit to the left of the middle line on my side of the table, about a foot in, where the middle (playing elbow) of a typical right-hander would be. (This does vary based on the player, situation, and handedness.) I put another bottle on the right side of my side (my wide forehand), about 18 inches outside the corner, a couple inches from the sideline. First I fed just backspin to his backhand so he could practice hitting the bottle with his backhand loop. Then I fed just topspin to his wide forehand so he could practice hitting the bottle with a hooking forehand loop (so the ball curved to his left, my wide forehand). He reached the point where he was able to hit the bottles about 1/3 of the time.

Then I alternated feeding backspin to his backhand and a quick topspin to his wide forehand. His goal was to hit both bottles with consecutive shots. This mimicked a game situation where he attacks the middle, forcing the opponent to move to cover the middle with forehand or backhand, opening up the wide forehand. If he covers it with the forehand, the wide forehand opens; if he covers it with his backhand, he has to quickly move back into position, again often leaving the wide forehand open. The reality is that when covering the middle, at least one or both wide corners opens up.

A huge key to this type of accuracy is not consciously aiming, i.e. trying to consciously guide the ball. Just know where you want to the ball to go (i.e. hit the bottle), and let your subconscious (i.e. muscle memory) take over.

Here are some things I said during sessions this weekend – I wrote them down as they happened.

• "People who say Brian plays only at one speed are wrong. He doesn't smash everything – sometimes he hits harder."
• "Jim, now that you've demonstrated how not to forehand loop, can you show us the proper way?"
• "If you keep missing, wait until you get one good one. Then remember that feel, and repeat. If you can't get one good one, then really loudly yell, 'Help, Coach!'"
• "You're not good enough to hit that bottle." (8-year-old Kid hits bottle.) "Anyone can get lucky and hit it once, but it takes skill to do it twice." (Kid hits bottle again.) "Anyone can get lucky and…" (Kid interrupts.) "Coach Larry, if you say anyone can get lucky and hit it twice but it takes skill to hit it three times, I'm going to hit you."

Great Coaching, Part 1: Interview with Jasna Rather
Here's the article by Anthony Plog.

Here's 49 seconds of Forehand Multiball with Truls Möregårdh
Here's the video. 

2016 US National Championships Host Hotel Info
Here's the USATT news item. (The link for online entries should be up soon – it was supposed to go up Friday, but they ran into a technical glitch. When it's ready, it'll show up on the 2016 USA Nationals home page.

Capital Area League
The Capital Area League (Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC) had another meet on Saturday, with all 24 teams competing with over 100 players. (There are 127 players in the league.) Here's the home page, and here is the Results page, with detailed results for all league matches. As usual, a big thanks to Commissioner Stefano Ratti and the rest of the staff (Richard Heo, Larry Hodges, Wen Hsu, Mossa Barandao. Darwin Ma, John Olsen). Special thanks goes to Mossa, who did much of the running of the league this time, and put up all the results.

2016 California State Championships Videos
Here they are! (Here are results, which I linked to previously. The tournament was held May 6-8 at the ICC Club in Milpitas, CA.)

Zi Rui Zhao Wins the $3000 Newgy Ohio Open
Here's the article by Blake Cottrell.

Crumbly Concrete Table
Here's the picture of two kids and their table – and you complained about the condition of your table??? (Picture the arguments – "That was an edge!" "No, that was the side!" "No, that was the top of the table!") Here's the non-Facebook version.

2016 Ma Long Balls Trick!
Here's the video (36 sec) – what he does is hard to believe! To commenters below it think it's a fake – what do you think?

Zak Abel: From Table Tennis Star to Music Sensation
Here's the article and link to video (3:17). (I linked to the video previously.)

Training a One-Year-Old
Here's the video (48 sec) – and I present to you the 2035 World Women's Singles Champion!

Soo Yeon Lee and Entourage TV Show
Here's the video (60 sec).

Top 5 - Table Tennis Funny Reactions
Here's the video (1:28).

Beetle Bailey Table Tennis Cartoon
Here's the cartoon from this past Sunday, where we learn the real name of our sport – "Run For Your Life!" This makes sixteen that featured table tennis – I compiled them all (and just updated) in my May 11, 2015 blog. Mort Bailey really likes table tennis! (Or perhaps it's Sarge and Beetle. We should get them honorary USATT memberships.)

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Footwork Drills by Stefan Feth, and Attacking the Middle
Here's the new video (1:23) from Butterfly. Note how, for this drill, Stefan stresses that the he's putting the ball to his partner's middle. Far too often players just drill to the corners, and then wonder why they have trouble attacking an opponent's elbow, usually the weakest point – if you don't practice it, you won't do it very well. I've often faced this as a coach – I'll tell a player to attack the opponent's middle, and he'll get this pained look as he knows he's not comfortable doing so since he's so used to attacking the corners. And then he'll go out there and continue to go to the corners, since that's what his muscle memory wants to do.

Think about it. Any coach or top player will tell you that your attacks should go to three spots – wide forehand, wide backhand, and the opponent's middle (roughly his playing elbow). Most will agree that attacking the middle is usually the best spot for the first attack – here's my article, Attacking the Middle. Here's an excerpt:

Why is the middle so weak when attacked? There are five (yes, five!) primary reasons.

1. The player has to make a decision on whether to play forehand or backhand, and often hesitates. When the ball goes to the forehand or backhand there is no such decision to make. 
2. The player has to move in an uncomfortable direction. Most players find moving wide to cover the forehand or backhand an easier move since you are moving into the shot. Covering the middle means essentially getting out of the way of the ball, which is usually a more difficult move. 
3. When you attack the middle, it forces your opponent to move out of position to cover it. This opens up the corners. One of the best one-two combos is an attack to the middle followed by an angled attack. Or you can go to the middle a second or third time as your opponent struggles to cover it. 
4. Attacking the middle takes away the extreme angles for your opponent. If you attack a wide corner, your opponent can return at an equally wide angle.
5. Players don't get much practice covering the middle, both because opponents don't give them this shot much until the higher levels, and because most don't practice against it. (Here are three Tips on covering the middle: Covering the Middle; Covering and Recovering From the Middle; and Covering the Middle with the Forehand.)

And yet, what percentage of our practice do we practice attacking the corners, vs. to the middle? I've been pointing this out to coaches for years, usually to no avail.

Note that when you attack the middle, the ball should be arriving at the opponent's elbow area as the ball approaches where he'd contact it. So, for example, if attacking from the backhand side, the ball would actually hit the opponent's forehand side first as it bounces toward the elbow area. In a drill, your partner would cover this area by blocking either forehand or backhand. (In the video shown, she's blocking with the forehand, but if the balls were coming slightly more to her left, she might block with her backhand.) 

A variation of this is to start the drill with a serve and attack (usually server serves backspin and receiver pushes it back long), with the server then attacking to the middle, and playing out the point. The receiver has to decide whether to return the shot to the middle with his forehand or backhand – but shouldn't over-anticipate it, since in a game he wouldn't know it's going there. If he does start to over-anticipate, server should attack one to the corners to keep the receiver "honest"!

Friday the Thirteenth
Here's my annual link to a table tennis-playing Jason Voorhees from the real Friday the Thirteenth!

USA Nationals Online Entries
I'm told the link to entering online will go up later today soon at the USA Nationals home page.

Table Tennis Could Face An Increased Net Height!
Here's the article from Matt Hetherington. In other news, in order to make the game more exciting for spectators, ITTF also plans to change the scoring system to one-point games; outlaw spitting on the ball before serving (but of course not enforce it); and go back to celluloid balls, with the new 60mm balls lit at the start of each point for more fiery exchanges.

The Best Table Tennis Robots
Here's the article from Expert Table Tennis.

State Championships
This weekend is the New York State Championships and the Alabama State Championships!

Kanak Jha in the New York Times
Here's the video (20:35) of the junior star, the first USA Olympian born in the 2000's. The video takes place in Sweden. That's former Swedish star Ulf "Tickan" Carlsson he's hitting with, the 1985 World Men's Doubles Champion (with Mikael Appelgren).  

Behind-the-Back Shots!
Here are two new ones.

• Mohammed Al-Saad vs. Li Ping (26 sec, including slo-mo replay). Note how Li doesn't even react to the shot by Qatar's Al-Saad – his muscle memory isn't programmed to respond to such a shot! (Li is the 2009 World Mixed Doubles Champion, who later immigrated to Qatar.)
• Tao Wenzhang vs. Jinxin Wang in the Men's Singles Final at the 2016 California State Table Tennis Championships. (Video is 38:04, but link should take you straight to the 3-1 point in game two.)​

Become Eligible to Win Free Entry into the US Nationals
Here's info from Butterfly – "Subscribe to In The Loop by May 27th and become Eligible to Win Free Entry into the US Nationals!"

Pope Francis Receives Table Tennis Equipment
Here's the article and picture. Here are three additional pictures from ITTF. (That's Killerspin's Robert Blackwell talking to the Pope.) Here are two other pictures of the Pope receiving table tennis gifts, from Polish players: photo1 and photo2. 

International Table Tennis
Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.

Crazy Ping-Pong Stuff
Here's the video (3:40) – not sure what's going on, but lots of crazy ping-pong stuff going on. Is that a waffle or a sandwich he's using as a racket? I'm not sure what language they are talking.

Crazy Cats Love to Play Ping Pong
Here's the video (2:20)!

A "Little" Ping-Pong
Here's the picture! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

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How to Avoid Hurting the USA National Team, and Some Training Stuff
While in a session with Daniel (age 11, about 1650, but should be more like 1750), he hit a ball that broke cleanly into two hemispheres. I pointed out that somewhere out there were two poor mice, huddling in the cold, and that we should donate the two hemispheres as hats to help these two mice keep warm. But then I realized that the hats would cover their ears, and so they wouldn't hear approaching cats, and so they'd get eaten, and it would be my fault. This is when Daniel took over, pointing out that this would lead to fat cats, which would get eaten by dogs, leading to fat dogs, which would be sold in China, where (in some places) they eat dogs. This would spur the Chinese economy, thereby giving them more money to fund the Chinese National Team, making it less likely the USA National Team would beat them. So . . .  sorry mice, you'll just have to stay cold. (Now you know what really goes on in my coaching sessions.) 

Okay, we actually did lots of training in the 90-minute session - Daniel was on top of his game, and should play some tournaments soon. Our main focus right now is improving his forehand looping (which has improved dramatically), and following up his serve by looping (forehand or backhand) - he tends to play to the extremes, either too passive or too aggressive with wild swats. I'm 90% certain he's the best under 12 lobber in the country, but he's learned to hold back on that in serious matches. If he can remember to take his time when he serves (rather than grab the ball and serve like the ball's a hot potato), he'll make a jump soon. There's also one serve I want him to really work on - sorry, can't tell potential rivals about that one!

Equipment Reviews
I don't generally do equipment reviews here because I have a conflict of interest, since I'm sponsored by Butterfly. But that doesn't mean others can't – and here are five sites that do extensive equipment reviews. I link to these five sites in the Equipment Reviews section of the Coaching Articles page. 

• Table Tennis Database
• Ping Pong Ruler
• Pong Hero
• Table Tennis Judge (I just added this one)
• OOAK Forum - lots of equipment reviews, info on long pips

Improvement Keys for Attackers
Here's the article by Carl Danner.

MHTT Training Video Blog
Here's Days 5 and 6 from Matt Hetherington.

USATT Insider
Here's the current issue, which went out on Wednesday morning.

Susan Sarandon's Ping Pong Mecca, SPiN, Has Ricocheted Into Town
Here's the article about the new site in San Francisco.

11 Questions with Martin Del Vecchio
Here's the USATT interview.

Table Tennis Fulda Training with Waldner
Here's the video (4:16) from 2010.

Two Very Good Little Girls
Here's the video (49 sec). 

Bottle-Bouncing Pong
Here's the video (25 sec). I counted 67 bounces.

Pongfinity Food Trick Shots
Here's the video (2:33)! Includes "cookie pong."

Big Leg Pong
Here's the picture.

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USATT Announces Roster of National Coaches
Here's the announcement. They include Lily Yip, Barney Reed, Teodor "Doru" Gheorghe, Massimo Costantini, Stefan Feth, Wang Qing Liang ("Leon"), Zhou Xin, Han Xiao, Sean O'Neill, Maggie Tian, and Samson Dubina. (Han Xiao and Wang Qing Liang are both from my club, MDTTC.)

Most (or all?) of these coaches will be at the upcoming USATT Training Camp to be held at the Lily Yip TTC in New Jersey, July 10-24, right after the USA Nationals. The camp is primarily for members of the USA Junior, Cadet, and Mini-Cadet Team Members, with a number of others also invited. USATT's High Performance Director, Cory Eider, will be directing it. I'm the (unpaid volunteer) manager for the camp and one of the coaches, though I'll primarily be an assistant coach, helping out where needed – probably feeding multiball, acting as a practice partner for some of the mini-cadet players, or walking around looking important. (I'm no longer fast enough to train with the cadets and juniors, alas.) I'll be there the first 12 days, but have to leave two days early to go to my annual "vacation" – a writing workshop in Manchester, NH, July 22-30. 

There's always been a bit of confusion in the USATT coaching nomenclature as we have two types of "National" coaches. In this context, we are talking about the coaches who will coach the USA National Teams – Men's and Women's; Junior, Cadet, and Mini-Cadet Boys' and Girls'; and Paralympic. However, in the USATT coaching certification program the highest level is National Coach. I know, because I'm a USATT Certified National Coach. (Yes, I'm available for autographs, form a line.) I was one of the National Team Coaches at various times during the 1990s and early 2000s, including coaching the USA National Boys' Team at the World Youth Cup Championships in Taiwan and numerous other tournaments. I toyed with applying this year, but decided I didn't have time.

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers – 50 Reviews!
We did it! As of this morning, there are now 50 reviews at Amazon for Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers. As noted in my blog on Monday, this should greatly help with sales. The reviews are pretty good, with 43 of them 5-stars, six 4-stars, and one 3-star. Thank you all!

MDTTC Newsletter
Here's the May issue, which Butterfly now puts up each month. (It gets emailed to everyone on the MDTTC database.) I'm the editor. 

MHTableTennis Video Training Blog Day 5: Forehand Loop vs. Chop
Here's the video (4:37).

100 Things to Watch at Rio Olympics
Here's the article and video (78 sec) from Sports Illustrated. But of course there's only one thing to watch at the Rio Olympics – see #81! "Want to feel old? Kanak Jha will be the first U.S. Olympian born in the 2000s. The 15-year-old will compete in table tennis, where he has consistently been a member of the U.S. national team since 2014."

Table Tennis Legends Tie the Knot
Here's the article and video (2:15) on Hall of Famers Si Wasserman (94) and Patty Martinez (64) getting married at Oceanside senior center where they play each week!

Table Tennis Art Photos
Here's the gallery from CLJ Studios.

Ping Pong in China is Like Football Here
Here's the video (3:08) from 11 Alive in Atlanta.

Steve Rowe’s Visit to the NWT with Aerobic Table Tennis
Here's the article.

Liang Xu Won the Knoxville Spring Giant Round Robin Open 2016
Here's the article.

All America Over 40 Tour Rosemead Over 40 Table Tennis Tournament
Here's the USATT article on this tournament in California.

2016 Millcreek Giant Round Robin
Here's the article.

Double-Pool Pong
Here's the video (36 sec)!

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Drills When the Kids are In Charge
I let two kids choose their last multiball drill during a session yesterday. Here's what they chose.

The first, age 9, alternated hitting backhands from the forehand side of the table, and forehands from the adjacent table. So I had to feed every other ball to the adjacent table to my left! He ran back and forth like a giggling maniac. 

The second one, age 7, chose the following four-shot sequence: Forehand from forehand corner; forehand from middle; backhand from middle; and then I was supposed to give him a backspin serve to his wide backhand for him to push; and then repeat. I have no idea why he wanted this, but he was very insistent on that backspin serve as part of the multiball drill. He also has his own name for backspin - he calls it "stopspin," since he's seen my backspin serves stop and go back into the net. This kid has a history of begging for weird drills - usually intricate combinations that often have him doing backhands from the forehand side, me suddenly serving in mid-drill, or (one time), I fed multiball with a cardboard box instead of a racket. 

In my group sessions, especially toward the end, I sometimes do give players either a pair of options for their next drill, let them choose the drill, or ask them what they want to work on and then design a drill around it. For example, I may give them the choice of doing forehand-forehand footwork, or forehand-backhand footwork. Or serve and forehand attack, serve and backhand attack, or serve and attack from both wings. 

Training Blog at MH Table Tennis
Matt Hetherington is now blogging about his daily training at MH Table Tennis, with links to video. So far he's blogged about days 1-4.

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers Reviews
In yesterday's blog (Monday), I asked readers if they could give Amazon reviews to the book, in an attempt to get to 50 reviews. Well, it's been a big success – nearly! We've gone from 39 to 47 reviews. Now we just need three more! C'mon, readers, you can do it!!! If you've read the book, and like it, simply go to the review section for Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers. The reviews can be a single sentence, and then you click on the star level – hopefully 5-star!

Top 3 Table Tennis Injuries (and How to Prevent Them)!
Here's the article from Table Tennis 11.

Table Tennis Tips for Beginners
Here's the article from TableTennisSpot.com. The three segments are Getting the Right Equipment; Practicing Your Technique; and Scoring During a Table Tennis Match.

Interview with Adam Bobrow: "I Never Stopped Loving the Sport"
Here's the interview from TableTennista.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17 (1989-1990)
Here's chapter 8! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

Ma Long vs Joao Geraldo Amazing Point
Here's the video (42 sec, including slo-mo replay). Note Ma Long's backhand banana flip receive from the forehand side! Against short serves, this is a very good tactic.

Table Tennis-obsessed Retiree Travels the Globe to Become a Top-tier Player
Here's the article from CBC News in Canada.

Epic Table Tennis
Here's the video (17 sec), which appears to be a video taken off another screen. Watch the incredible diving footwork of the kid on the far side – how in the world did he get to those balls!

SPiN. We Finally Got One
Here's the article about San Francisco getting their own SpiNTT – "Susan Sarandon’s Rollicking Ping-Pongery Arrives in SoMa."

Table Tennis Physical Training - Jimmy and Emily
Here's the video (33 sec, set to Rocky music) – we do the same side-to-side training at my club, where one player leads, the others follow. But it's funnier in this video!

Jamaican's Champ Simon Tomlinson and His Samsung Smartphone
Here's the video (15 sec) as he shows a few tricks with his phone.

Stormtrooper Pong Shirt
Here's the picture: "Breaks: Even the Dark Side Needs Them"! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

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