The Ten “Etiquettes” for the High Level Athlete
These are from page 15 of the ITTF Advanced Coaching Manual, which make them at least semi-official. Like the “Ten Commandments” I blogged about yesterday, these have also always irritated me. Also, some of them just don’t make sense due to the poor translations. (As I wrote yesterday, the manual was originally in French and somewhat poorly translated into English.) Here they are, with my comments afterwards.

The Ten “Etiquettes” for the High Level Athlete
(From page 15 of the ITTF Advanced Coaching Manual.)
A self respecting sports teacher has the duty to transmit to the athlete that guiding principles without which the sport would not be what it is today are part of his teaching. The Champion is a sports phenomenon and must therefore set an example for ALL athletes!

1. The first step towards success: good judgment.
2. Any progress goes through trial and error.
3. Losing and Winning belong to any training.
4. Learning lessons from the past means imposing rules for yourself.
5. These rules cannot be built without a philosophical global vision.
6. Competitive sport means pushing your limits further and enjoying your conquest.
7. Nothing is for free: fatigue and efforts are the price to pay to reach that point.
8. Pleasure, self respect and personal satisfaction gained from this conquest are priceless.
9. To reach that point, some traps need to be avoided: challenging profit, uncontrolled aggressiveness, provoked opposition.
10. Sport is a real school of Life.

Let’s look at these one by one.

Intro paragraph: Can someone please edit this so it sounds like it was written by someone who actually speaks English?

Regarding the ten items below, I’m a bit confused as they seem more about how a player develops his game to the highest levels, not about etiquettes. (Definition of etiquettes: “The customary code of polite behavior in society or among members of a particular profession or group.”)

1. The first step towards success: good judgment.
   Agreed, though it needs some elaboration. What’s needed is good judgment on how to develop one’s game to the highest level. Both here and with the following items there should be some elaboration over what it specifically means. For example, for this first one it should be pointed out that judgment is needed in choosing a playing style, equipment, a coach, how to train, what drills to do, what players to copy, how much and what types of physical training to do, what serves to develop, what types of receive, etc., etc. These are all things that players need good judgment on – and a systematic listing of these items might be helpful, in addition to the generic slogan.
2. Any progress goes through trial and error.
   Agreed, no comments here. It should emphasize that players should try out new things, usually with the guidance of a coach.
3. Losing and Winning belong to any training.
   Agreed, though it would be stronger if it finished with, “You learn from both.” Emphasis should be on the idea that players shouldn’t shy away from events that they might lose in (or worse, lose rating points in!) because it is exactly those situations where a player learns the weaknesses in his game that need to be worked on.
4. Learning lessons from the past means imposing rules for yourself.
   As worded, this doesn’t really make sense. What I think they mean is simply, “Learn from the past.” The emphasis should be on learning something every time you play. I don’t know about “imposing rules for yourself.” I think they mean apply what you learn.
5. These rules cannot be built without a philosophical global vision.
   What does this mean? I have no clue. What is a “philosophical global vision,” and how does that relate to a top player?
6. Competitive sport means pushing your limits further and enjoying your conquest.
   Agreed, though they should cut the word “further,” which doesn’t add anything.
7. Nothing is for free: fatigue and efforts are the price to pay to reach that point.
   Agreed. I’d change the ending to, “to reach the highest levels.” At the same time I’d like it to emphasize that you should enjoy the effort you put in, as you have a better chance of reaching the highest levels if you enjoy and cherish the journey as well.
8. Pleasure, self respect and personal satisfaction gained from this conquest are priceless.
   Okay, I can agree with this one. Hopefully one doesn’t go overboard on the self respect thing – otherwise no one will have self respect except the champion! If you truly gave it 100% you should have just as much self respect as anyone else – as long as you truly gave it 100%, and are not kidding yourself about it.
9. To reach that point, some traps need to be avoided: challenging profit, uncontrolled aggressiveness, provoked opposition.
   I have no clue what this means. I understand you can’t have uncontrolled aggressiveness, but what is “challenging profit” and “provoked opposition”??? If it’s in the Advanced Coaching Manual, it needs to make sense. There is no explanation, just these meaningless words.
10. Sport is a real school of Life.
    This could use some elaboration. How is it a school for life? Basically because you learn that hard work pays off (with improvement; not everyone can be the #1 champion); you learn self-discipline; you learn to set goals (instead of just sailing through life without any goals or purpose); and you learn to face adversity.

Olympic Coverage

• ITTF International Coverage and Schedule & Results
• ITTF Day 11 Newsletter
• ITTF Press Releases
  • ITO is the Youngest Olympic Table Tennis Medalist after Japan Clinches Bronze in Rio
  • China Defends Women's Team Gold Title in Rio
• USATT's News Segments

Serve Return: Five Helpful Tips
Here’s the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

China Dominates Table Tennis Like No Country in Any Other Olympic Sport
Here’s the article. (I had a short article in Sports Illustrated in 1999 titled “The Chinese TT Dynasty,” where I also argued that no sport was dominated by one country as much as table tennis by the Chinese. And since then they have only increased their domination.)

Rookie Olympics: JR Cardenas Tries Table Tennis
Here’s the article and video (2:47). That’s Jay Turberville at the Phoenix club being interviewed during the segment. (Not Turberbille, as it says on the screen!)

University of Oregon Table Tennis Player Shows the Sport's Competitive Edge
Here’s the article and video (57 sec), featuring Aron Zhang.

China's National Team Showing Off
Here’s the video (75 sec).

LEAKED: Chinese Team Whatsapp Group React to Ma Long's Olympic Gold!
Here it is. (Okay, someone’s just having some fun.)

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The Ten Commandments of High Level Sport
I’ve always been slightly irritated at some of these “Commandments.” They are from page 14 of the ITTF Advanced Coaching Manual, which make them at least semi-official. The manual was originally in French and somewhat poorly translated into English, so there might be some problem there. But these are what we publish and teach, with little further explanation. Here they are, with my comments afterwards. (Tomorrow I plan to write about what’s on the next page of the Advanced Coaching Manual - The Ten “Etiquettes” for the High Level Athlete.)

The Ten Commandments of High Level Sport
(from ITTF Advanced Coaching Manual)
Silent laws and rules that everybody follows exist in every social situations High level sport is no exception; it is a special environment which has its own rules of the game. We either accept these rules or they do not accept us. These rules are not written down anywhere, but those who succeed have accepted them and work with them.

1. Winning is not everything, it is the only thing!
2. Sport is not war.
3. If it is not expressly prohibited, it is allowed.
4. The perfect match does not exist
5. Making at least one error less than the opponent is enough.
6. We don’t make the same mistake twice.
7. You have to accept losing in advance: The Winner is he who knows what he would do if he lost, but doesn’t say it. The Loser is he who knows what he would do if he won and says it.
8. Fight against a strategy, not against a person, and especially not against your imagination: imagination is stronger than will!
9. In competition, approximately does not exist: those who succeed are the ones who do not leave anything up to chance.
10. If you can dream it, you can do it!

Let’s look at these one by one.

1. Winning is not everything, it is the only thing!
   Are you kidding me??? There goes sportsmanship, learning from sports, the journey, etc. So if winning is the only thing, then cheating that allows you to win is, by definition, okay. I could write an entire blog on this one, but suffice to say that this is nonsense.
2. Sport is not war.
   Well, of course. I’m not sure why this is in here. Sport is also not a business negotiation, or a game of chance, or a color, but these aren’t mentioned. If they mean that since it is not war, that means there are limits to what you will do to win, then look back at the previous “Commandment.” If winning is the only thing, then sport is war, where winning is (almost) the only thing. (I say “almost” here because even in war there are international rules for conflict.)
3. If it is not expressly prohibited, it is allowed.
   At first glance, this seems okay. But does this mean that since the rules do not say I cannot flash a light in my opponent’s eyes as he’s hitting the ball, it is allowed? If it’s a laser light I can probably do it without the umpire noticing, and then I quickly put it back in my pocket. Is this allowed? How about other poor sportsmanship behaviors to distract my opponent – all allowed if not expressly forbidden? Is secretly damaging my opponent’s racket okay since it’s not prohibited in the rules? (Maybe spread some grease on the surface to lower friction?) But the gist of this poorly worded statement is that you should take the rules to the limit.
4. The perfect match does not exist.
   Agreed. But I would add that one might strive for the perfect match. On the other hand, striving for the “perfect” match might lead one to play all world-class shots when sometimes a lesser shot will do, depending on the situation and opponent. That’s in the realm of tactics – but if such a lesser shot is the better shot, then perhaps doing that shot is part of playing the “perfect” match.
5. Making at least one error less than the opponent is enough.
   Again, the gist is correct. But this depends on the definition of “error.” When an attacker plays a steady player, the steady player will make few unforced errors, while the attacker will likely make many – and yet he might win. But since the attacker is hitting winners, does that mean the opponent is making an error each time? But I’ll go along with the gist of this one.
6. We don’t make the same mistake twice.
   Agreed, that’s what one should strive for. Of course, it’s not an absolute rule or after missing a specific shot, one might not go for that shot again in fear of making the same mistake twice. But I agree with the gist of this.
7. You have to accept losing in advance: The Winner is he who knows what he would do if he lost, but doesn’t say it. The Loser is he who knows what he would do if he won and says it.
   Sorry, but this makes absolutely no sense to me. Good coaches tell players not to think about winning or losing, but to focus on performance, i.e. playing well, which leads to winning. (And since the primary goal is to win, striving for it leads players to train hard for long periods of time.) Why would we want our players to think about what they’ll do if they lose? I’d rather they simply be surprised when that happens, since they weren’t expecting it. I also don’t get the part about “The Loser.” I think they are trying to say that losers talk about winning before they’ve won, but that’s irrelevant to me.
8. Fight against a strategy, not against a person, and especially not against your imagination: imagination is stronger than will!
   I agree with this, though the part about not fighting against your imagination isn’t worded well. Players often imagine losing in advance and so are worried about this when they shouldn’t be thinking about that at all. (See #7 above.)
9. In competition, approximately does not exist: those who succeed are the ones who do not leave anything up to chance.
   I agree with this. Players should not leave anything to chance. That means preparing physically, mentally, and equipment-wise for essentially all possibilities, just in case.
10. If you can dream it, you can do it!
    I can quibble with this. I’m 56, and I still dream about being World Men’s Singles Champion, but can I do it? But it’s a good slogan for up-and-coming players.

Olympic Coverage

• ITTF International Coverage and Schedule & Results
• ITTF Day 10 Newsletter
• ITTF Press Releases
  • China to play Germany in Women's Rio 2016 Gold Medal Match
  • Japan Shocks Germany to Play China in the Rio 2016 Men's Team Gold Medal Match
• Japan's Maharu Yoshimura in amazing table tennis trick shot
• USATT's News Segments

Here’s What Olympians Eat for Each Sport
Here’s the article, which includes a section on table tennis where Richard McAfee is quoted.

We Played Beer Pong with Table Tennis Olympian Timothy Wang
Here’s the video (5:08) from Daily Vice. Title is deceptive – they don’t get to beer pong until near the end; before that they talk about table tennis and interview Timothy.

Incoming UGA Freshman Represents Team USA in Table Tennis
Here’s the article featuring Yijun “Tom” Feng.

Butterfly San Francisco Open
Here’s the article and pictures of this four-star event.

Seven Seconds of Will Ferrell Playing Table Tennis
Here’s the video!

Mini-Table in Hand Pong
Here’s the repeating gif image! I have one of these – I keep it at the club for the kids to use.

Non-Table Tennis - Small Press Award for Short Fiction
Last week the Washington Science Fiction Association announced the finalists for the annual Small Press Award for Short Fiction. My story “Leashing the Muse” is one of the finalists. The award is for short stories (under 17,500 words) that were published in 2015 by a “small press,” which is defined as under 10,000 circulation. (There are perhaps 5-8 major magazines that are over 10,000, and about a hundred below that. I’ve had 13 short stories published in the major ones, 79 overall.) I wrote about this story at the end of my June 5, 2015 blog. I’ll be a guest and panelist at the annual Capclave Science Fiction Convention, Oct. 7-9, where they will announce the winner. (This coincides with the Women’s World Cup being held in Philadelphia, so I’ll have to miss that, alas.)

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Tip of the Week
How to Deal with Nervousness and Play Your Best: Magic, Best Match, Tactics.

Dan Seemiller vs. Larry Hodges
As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m hard at work editing Dan Seemiller’s autobiography. It’s got some great stuff! It’ll be out by early September, and you have to buy this. You’ll get to live out the great moments in his career as he won five USA Men’s Singles titles, as well as Men’s Doubles 12 times, plus lots of international play at the Worlds and elsewhere. Plus lots on his playing rivalries with players like Eric Boggan, Sean O’Neill, and others!

But this is my blog, and guess what? As I read about Dan’s playing Career (capitalized) I can’t help but compare it to my own playing career (no caps).

Dan played in the Second Division at the Worlds in 1975, 1977, and 1981, going a combined 66-1, including 26-0 and 22-0 the last two years. I played with a weaker team at the U.S. Open Team Championships in Detroit in 1996 and 1997 (average rating in our division those two years was about 2000), and I went a combined 52-0. That’s always been one of my proudest achievements – Dan himself couldn’t have done better in that division!

Dan was down 16-19 in the fifth in the Men’s Singles Final at the 1982 USA Nationals with Eric Boggan serving, and won all five points on Eric’s serve to win the title. I was down 13-17 in the fifth in the final of the 1980 North Carolina Open to Fred King, and won all five points on his serve to lead 18-17, and went on to win 21-19 – my first major title. (Back in those days games were to 21 and you served five times each.) Dan came out of nowhere – unseeded – to finish first at the 1972 U.S. Team Trials; I came out of nowhere – also unseeded, with about an 1850 rating – to win that North Carolina Open (as well as my other three events – Open Doubles, Under 22, and Under 2000).

We both ate choppers for breakfast. He was beating choppers like Norio Takashima (world top ten) while I went 20 years without losing to a chopper under 2500, while beating seven over 2400. I’m guessing he’s gone well over 40 years without losing to a chopper under 2500.

Dan was a star second baseman and leadoff hitter back when he was in middle and high school – you’ll get to read about his baseball, football, and basketball exploits. I too played second base – but I did so because I couldn’t make the throw from third base, and so couldn’t play third like Brooks Robinson, my idol back then. I also argued all the time with the coach that I should be the leadoff hitter since I drew so many walks – but that was because I refused to swing the bat until I had two strikes, and even then would only swing if the ball was pretty much lobbed right down the middle. I had made a wooden baseball plate for my room, and put up strings over it from the walls and ceiling so I could see the actual stroke zone, and would spend hours standing there, memorizing it, determined not to swing at anything that wasn’t a strike. And so I drew a lot of walks, constantly struck out looking, had very few hits, but because 12-year-old pitchers don’t have much ball control, had a surprisingly good on-base percentage. But the coach was always yelling at me to “Swing the bat!”, and would either sit me on the bench or bat me ninth.

Dan and I attended a number of Dan Seemiller camps. Okay, he did so hundreds of times as head coach. I did so as a player twice in 1977 and 1978 (which greatly helped my development), and then became his assistant coach for his summer camps for two years in the early 1990s. Recently he was one of the head coaches for the USATT Supercamp in New Jersey, which I also attended as a coach, manager, and writer. You can learn a lot listening to a guy with his experience. As he once said, he should have a Ph.D in table tennis.

And now the killer – I once beat Dan Seemiller in a USATT sanctioned tournament! You heard that right; I beat him!!! Okay, it was in hardbat singles, which I probably practiced more than he did at. We’ve played twice and split. We won’t talk about our head-to-head record with sponge – Dan early on recognized that I couldn’t cover the whole table effectively in rallies, and while most players blindly put the ball where I could rally, Dan, like a machine, would put every ball to the one spot on the table I didn’t have covered. Dang him.

But now, watching him play at age 62, with his rating “down” to 2419 (but over 2500 just one year ago – have we ever had someone in his sixties rated over 2500?), I sometimes wonder if the Larry of 1990 could take the Dan of 2016 down. I keep thinking yes, but I’m sure Dan would just smile and say, “Sure, Larry, sure. How much you want to play for?” (That 2419 might be deceptive – he’s been mostly 2450-2500 the last few years, and one bad loss mostly brought him to 2419.) I might have to wait until he’s 70 or 80. 

Killing Your Game: Sit Less . . . Win More
Here’s the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

USATT Announces Youth National Teams for 2016-2017
Here’s the article and team listing.

A Rio Table Tennis Lament: That’s the Way the Ball Crumples
Here’s the article from the New York Times on the poor quality of the ball being used at the Olympics.

Olympic Coverage

• ITTF International Coverage and Schedule & Results
• Sweden Eliminate US Men's Table Tennis Team
• US Women's Team Bow out to Germany in Rio
• ITTF Press Releases
  • Great Britain Break Records to Defeat France at Rio 2016 Team Event
  • Women's Team Semifinal Places Determined at Rio 2016
  • Germany Through to the Women's Team Gold Medal Match
• USATT's News Segments
• ITTF Daily Summaries (covering Fri-Sun)
  • Day 7
  • Day 8
  • Day 9

How Table Tennis Champs Are Produced in China
Here’s the video (46 sec). It’s in Chinese, but you don’t need to understand the words to see what’s happening.

Ping Pong for the Homeless
Here’s the article on the charity event hosted by KEYS for the Homeless, to be held Saturday, Aug. 27 in Washington D.C.

Results 24
Here’s a site dedicated to giving results from sports all over the world – including table tennis (see the “Other” tab).

Will Ferrell Taunts Clayton Kershaw at Celebrity Ping Pong Tournament
Here’s the article and video (4:40).

Table Tennis Player Uses Sport to Recover
Here’s the article and video (2:39) on table tennis player and physics professor Paul Selvin.

Kwame Alexander Dunks Over a Ping-Pong Game
Here’s the video (41 sec)!

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My Thoughts on the Men's Gold and Bronze Medal Matches
Last night Ma Long went from being the best in the world to being an all-time great. He now does just about everything a little better than Zhang Jike. Zhang might have a slight edge on the backhand, but it's close. Ma Long has more power and consistency, and is able to rip forehands at will. Every decade or two a player comes along that simply raises the bar higher than anyone before - such as Wang Liqin and Jan-Ove Waldner. Ma Long might be doing that now. He completely dominated the gold medal match.

On the other hand, Zhang Jike simply didn't look as good as he used to be. Are his days near the top of the Chinese team over? He even struggled with Samsonov in the semifinals. I think that Zhang Jike at his best would have played Ma Long somewhat closely, though I do think Ma Long has passed him by and would have been favored, even if Zhang were at his best. I'm betting Fan Zhendong might be slowly moving into the #2 spot on the Chinese team, with Zhang and Xu Xin battling for #3. (And, of course, Fan is already #2 in the world, Xu #3, and Zhang #4 - but much of the time Zhang was winning the biggest titles he wasn't ranked #1 in the world either; he wasn't as good outside the big ones.) 

Did anyone notice how much the players used short receive? Players have so overused backhand banana flipping that servers are just too used to it, and can hang back and attack it. The best players are very good now at mixing in flips and short receives, as well as occasional long pushes. Samsonov sometimes likes to push serves out to the forehand so he can block into the server's backhand. The receive in these matches was almost a throwback to times past when short pushing was king. 

Watch Samsonov closely when he plays. Nobody scores more points with subtle changes of pace and direction than he does. He also has the most consistently disarming receive. Much of this is a lost art because of the powerful two-winged attacks of modern players, and yet I can't help but imagine the destruction someone like Jan-Ove Waldner would cause the first time out against these players - even more subtle play than Samsonov, along with a much stronger overall game. Those who think he'd get killed are wrong, at least the first time out. However, I agree Ma Long would start to dominate once he got used to this type of game and trained for it. It's like the old pips-out players - long after it was obvious the European inverted players had an advantage over the pips-out Chinese they still struggled with them because they weren't used to playing that style very often, while the pips-out players played inverted players all the time. The first time out Waldner would turn some of the current top players into pretzels. So would pips-out players like Liu Guoliang and Jiang Jialiang. But again, let me emphasize that this would only last until these other players learned to play these styles, which wouldn't take long.  

All four semifinalists illegally hid their serve. Ma Long does it most obviously - his serve is so blatantly illegal a child would call it, unless he were raised in the cheating culture we've developed in our sport regarding illegally hidden serves. Here are highlights of the Men's Final – watch the very first serve and see how the ball goes behind Ma Long's head, illegally hiding contact from Bo? From an umpire's perspective, either it's obviously hidden, or the umpire can't tell if the serve is visible – in both cases that makes it illegal. It's just mind boggling to me how these blatantly illegal serves are not called every single time.

Zhang Jike's serve is more subtle, since he almost faces his opponent when serving, but the ball usually goes behind his thrust-out head as he's about to contact the ball. Samsonov used to have one of the most legal serves, but even he now hides it, and I don't blame him since umpires are allowing all his opponents to do so. (Remember, good hidden-servers don't always hide the ball every serve; often they want the opponent to look for contact and try to read it off that, so they are thrown off when they don't see contact. But some hide it nearly every time, such as Ma Long.) 

But the top players have learned to read the ball from the air and bounce, which is more difficult, but the irony of umpires allowing illegal serves is that the top players face them all the time and so learn to return them. One reason Samsonov does so well at age 40 is that he developed his game before hidden serves became illegal, and so developed this skill early on. Others had to develop it in recent years as more and more players discovered they could illegally hide their serves and it wouldn't be called - and then the rest were forced to do so to compete. 

Note – Olympic Team Competition begins today!

Olympic Coverage

• MA Long Completes Golden Grand Slam with Rio 2016 Gold
• Video
  • Ma Long vs Zhang JIke Highlights HD 2016 FINAL (7:59)
  • Ding Ning vs Li Xiaoxia Highlights HD 2016 FINAL (3:04)
  • See others in links on right
• TeamUSA Ready for Table Tennis Team Event in Rio
• ITTF International Coverage and Schedule & Results
• USATT's News Segments
• Best Point at Olympics (28 sec)? Ma Long vs. Jun Mizutani.
• Paul Drinkhall’s Rio report (2:21 – podcast)
• Men's Medalists with their medals, L-R: Zhang Jike (CHN), Ma Long (CHN), Jun Mizutani (JPN)
• Women's Medalists with their medals, L-R: Li Xiaoxia (CHN), Ding Ning (CHN), Kim Song I (PRK)
• ITTF Daily Summaries
  • Day 1
  • Day 2
  • Day 3
  • Day 4
  • Day 5
  • Day 6

The Youngest Member of Team USA Aims to Be the Future of Olympic Table Tennis
Here's the article on Kanak Jha from The Bleacher Report.

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

Kung Fu Ping Pong 2016 AACCT
Here's the new six-minute movie that's basically Rocky (a girl) in table tennis.

Jian Fang Lay vs. Son in the Knock Down Mascot Competition
Here's the video (1:26)!

Ping Pong Champ from Bloom County
Here's the new cartoon! So which U.S. Olympic Table Tennis Team member most resembles "Yegor," the "juiced athlete from Rio"? Kanak Jha in 2020, after a few years of weight training?

Non-Table Tennis: Science Fiction Happenings
I've had a great month in my science fiction & fantasy world. Here's a summation:

• My story "Leashing the Muse" (from Space and Time, May, 2015) was named a finalist for the 2016 Small Press Award by the Washington DC Science Fiction Association. (This is for the best story of 2015 that wasn't published in one of the three or four biggest markets.) Winner will be announced on Oct. 8 at the Capclave Science Fiction Convention, where I'll be attending as a guest and panelist. I was informed by email; the actual announcement on their site hasn't gone up yet.
• My novel, Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions is getting great reviews! The novel has lots of table tennis – here's my March 8 blog on that. And here are the reviews!
  • The SF Crow's Nest. "There are so many good things in this novel that I’m bursting to share them but that would spoil it for the first time reader." "Anyway, it’s a marvellous book. Easy reading, fast-paced, lots of surprise plot twists, likeable heroes, a loveable alien and a gripping climax that takes the election right to the wire. Highly recommended."
  • Abyss & Apex. "Larry Hodges is a master of irony and slips in enough humor that it’s a great ride."
  • Amazon (three 5-star reviews, one 4-star)
  • Goodreads (three 5-star reviews)
• Sold two new stories this past month: "The Untold Christmas Carol" to Galaxy's Edge, and "A Snowball's Chance" to Space and Time Magazine. The first tells the story of what really happened during Scrooge's very long night – for it was Satan himself who was orchestrating events for his son, Tiny Tim, helped by his assistant, the spirit of Benedict Arnold – but nothing went right. The second is a fantasy battle between an evil elderly witch and a challenger – with a time-traveling twist!
• My story "First Cat" came out in a new anthology, "Speculative Story Bites." (This is a resale; the story has now appeared in five anthologies, i.e. I've sold it five times. Interdimensional beings invade Earth through a portal that opens in the Oval Office, and it's up to the befuddled president's temporarily super-intelligent cat to save us! How does he become super-intelligent? You'll just have to read the story!)

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Back to Coaching, Office Coaching, ITTF Classes, and Dan's Autobiography
After my five weeks wandering the country, I'm back to regular coaching. I was coaching during most of my travels – but much of that was coaching matches at the USA Nationals and Junior Olympics. I did a lot of "regular" coaching at the USATT Supercamp, but since I didn't apply to be one of the National Team Coaches (which I was for about ten years back in the 1990s/early 2000s), I was more of an assistant there – sometimes a "walk around" coach, other times working one-on-one as a practice partner/coach. (But my primary duties there was a manager and writer.) It was great fun working with many of the top U.S. junior players from all over the country, but now it's back to coaching just locals.

But with the Nationals and Junior Olympics over, for many players now's the time to start reworking parts of their game, thinking long-term. One of my players currently dominates with his serve and his backhand, but is having forehand problems - attacking, rallying, and blocking – and so we're really working on this, with some major technical changes. It's tiring for me since to work on his forehand block, someone has to loop – and that would be me! I had two hours of coaching last night – not too much – but it'll get busier in the coming weeks. Fortunately, I wasn't needed at this week's MDTTC camp so I'm able to catch up on things. I might be needed in the next two camps coming up, however. (They are all Mon-Fri.)

But now I'm facing major time problems. With private and group coaching starting up, and my usual writing (both table tennis and science fiction & fantasy), plus all my USATT work, plus my current big project – editing Dan Seemiller's autobiography (more on that below!), I just don't have time or energy for anything new. For example, yesterday I received an email from an office with 18 people, where table tennis has apparently become a craze – and they want me to come in a coach all these people – all 18! – on their one table. Even if I take more than one at a time, that's a lot of time I don't really have – but it's also a lot of income if I take it. Later today I have to decide whether to do this or pass it on to another coach.

I've also been asked to run an ITTF coaching seminar at MDTTC. Again, it's a major time commitment, so I don't know yet if I'll be doing it. We were thinking of getting it together quickly and run it at the end of August, but that's probably just too short notice, so we're rethinking that. If anyone's interested in attending an ITTF Level 1 Coaching Class, let me know and I'll contact you when/if we have plans.

Regarding Dan's book, I'm hoping to finish the main editing by the weekend, or Monday at the latest. Then I'll be working with Dan in placing about 70 photos (along with captions and photo attributions). Then there's the covers, copyright page, dedication page, acknowledgement page, table of contents, and an index. If all goes well, we can have it ready by early September. I'll post updates here. Mark your calendar – this is a long-awaited book that (at least in the table tennis world) will sell like Harry Potter!

Olympic Coverage
Here's the ITTF International Coverage, and here are USATT's News Segments. Here's the Day Four Summary – and Congrats to Ding Ning, the Women's Olympic Gold Medalist!

10 Things that Require Zero Talent
Here's the article from Samson Dubina.

Footwork Training in China
Here's the video (37 sec). We've done versions of this at MDTTC, but not in recent years. Maybe we should bring it back.

China's Olympic Gold Medal Factories
Here's the video (1:24). This is why China will likely soon dominate in skill sports at the Olympics. For years they relied on Chinese coaches in sports where the best coaches were from other countries. In recent years they have been recruiting top foreign coaches for sports like basketball and soccer. These special sports schools started in the 1960s with table tennis and badminton – Cheng Yinghua came from one of them. (He's been a coach at MDTTC since 1992, and was three-time U.S. National and two-time U.S. Open Men's Singles Champion, and a member of the Chinese National team from 1977-87.)

Jun Mizutani's Serve
Here's the video (55 sec) – as I write this he just lost to Ma Long in the semifinals of the Olympics.

Paul Drinkhall with this Insane Rally!
Here's the video (55 sec).

Belly Pong?
Here's the repeating gif image.

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Five Weeks Wandering - MD, NV, NJ, NH, TX
I've been all over the place these past five weeks. (I've spent the last five days catching up on piles of work…) Here's a recap – in reverse order.

• July 31 – Aug. 4 – Coaching at the Junior Olympics in Houston. Thirteen players from my club, MDTTC, flew to Texas, and we dominated. (This was helped by a lot of states that quaked in fear at the power of Maryland Table Tennis, and so didn't show – hi California! Zero entries. Hope to see you next year!) Maryland won 30 medals, including 17 golds. I wrote and sent out a press release and group picture, which was published by USATT, Butterfly, and a shortened version in the Baltimore Sun. Also got to spend a late afternoon swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, and spent a couple hours with some of the kids and parents at the Houston Art Museum. (I found a perfect way to increase interest – in each room of art, we voted on which piece "won the room." Picasso was a big hit.)
• July 22-30 – "The Never-Ending Odyssey" writing workshop in Manchester, NH. This is an annual gathering of graduates of the six-week Odyssey Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing Workshop, which I attended in 2006. We workshop and write new stories, and have 3-4 hours each day of classes we teach ourselves. I now have four new stories. (To date I've sold 79 short stories and published three novels.) While there I stopped by the New Hampshire TTC for an hour, where I hit with Brad Robbins and others.
• July 10-22 – USATT Supercamp in New Jersey. I blogged daily there, and the blogs were also published by USATT as news items, along with photos and video by Matt Hetherington. Now, for the first time ever, here are links to all eleven of my articles, as well as two by Sean O'Neill and one by Rahul Acharya. I'm toying with compiling this as a book.
  

  • Day One by Larry Hodges
  • Day Two by Larry Hodges
  • Day Three by Larry Hodges
  • Day Four by Larry Hodges
  • Day Five by Larry Hodges
  • Day Six by Larry Hodges
  • Day Seven by Larry Hodges
  • Day Eight by Larry Hodges
  • Day Nine by Larry Hodges
  • Day Ten by Larry Hodges
  • Day Eleven by Larry Hodges
  • Day Twelve by Sean O'Neill
  • Days 13-14 by Sean O'Neill
  • Discovering a Super Toolkit at USATT's Super Camp by Rahul Acharya

• July 3-9 – coaching at the USA Nationals in Las Vegas. Here are results. Here's my July 8 blog on the Men's Final.

Five Weeks of Articles
During my five weeks away, a lot of articles have accumulated at various places! Here are some you might want to check out:

• USA Table Tennis News Page
• ITTF News
• Butterfly News Page
• Samson Dubina Articles

Tom's Table Tennis Newsletter
Here's the new issue, which includes the following segments and other links:

• Tactics for beating a looper
• How to deal with too much conflicting table tennis advice
• REVIEW: Butterfly Amicus Professional Table Tennis Robot
• Table tennis at the Rio Olympics

Olympic Coverage
Here's the ITTF International Coverage, and here are USATT's News Segments. Both Men's Singles and Women's Singles are into the semifinals. So . . . do Mizutani or Samsonov have a chance against Ma Long or Zhang Jike?

Women's World Cup in Philadelphia
Here's the ITTF press release, in Philly on Oct. 9-11.

ITTF Launches Table Tennis X
Here's the article and video (1:38).

ITTF Launches New Website!
Here's the ITTF press release.

PingSkills Answer Your Questions
Here's the video (55:08) from Aug. 1.

ABC News and Navin Kumar
Last Thursday ABC News taped a news segment at MDTTC featuring "The Bionic Man" Navin Kumar, where I was his hitting partner and was also interviewed. It hasn't aired yet – I'll link to it here when it does – but here's Navin's posting and picture on it.

NBC News and Kanak Jha
Here's the video (2:28) of the NBC News special on Kanak Jha before the Olympics.

Meet Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna
Here's the article and video interview (3:32) from Pong Universe.

Why Do Ping Pong Balls Burn?
Here's the article.

Jason and Alex Piech at the USA Nationals
Here's the video (3:58)! They are from Arkansas, but came to Maryland for two weeks of MDTTC camps recently. They were also at the Junior Olympics – both got medals.

Sid & Nandan Little Big Shots Video
Here's the video (5:57) of the Naresh brothers from Chicago.

Trillion Dollar Bill and Ice Cream
At the recent USATT Supercamp, I twice tried to pay for items with a "trillion dollar bill." Here's the video (23 sec) taken by Allen Wang as I tried to do so at a convenience store. I also tried to do so when I treated the kids to ice cream at the camp – here's the video (1:45) taken by Arcot Naresh (I previously linked to this one). I often give out these trillion dollar bills to kids as rewards for various achievements. Regarding ice cream, on the last day, just before I left the camp, I stocked the freezer at the house we were staying at with ice cream. Here's the video (15 sec) of the kids eating it and thanking me for it.

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Game
Here's the video (14 sec)!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

One More Day…
I really planned on an extensive blog this morning – my first in a while – but I need one more day to catch up on work missed during my five-week absence. I promise to start blogging regularly again tomorrow. Meanwhile, below are some segments I put together previously for the blog, including the Tip of the Week. Alas, I have a number of other links that I'll compile in tomorrow's blog.

Tip of the Week
Three Weapons: The Triple B's.

Olympic Coverage
Here's the ITTF International Coverage, and here are USATT's News Segments.

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

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

Starting Out In Table Tennis #269
Here's the new video (50 min) from PingSkills.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Next Blog - Tuesday, Aug. 9
It’s been a great eleven days here at the USATT Supercamp, but now I’m off for my annual “vacation.” Normal people vacation at the beach, camping, Disneyworld, or some other sane thing. Me, I go to an annual science fiction writing workshop, July 22-30. So Friday morning, after taking Matt Hetherington to the airport at 7:15AM (see below), I’ll be driving up to Manchester, NH (four hours), for my “vacation.” I drive back to Maryland on Saturday afternoon, July 30 (I’m dreading the eight-hour drive), and flying out to Houston early the following morning to coach at the Junior Olympics, returning on Aug. 4. After that I'll need a few days to catch up on work, plus I'll be back to coaching at our summer camps. I’ll be back on my regular blogging schedule, Mon-Fri, starting Tuesday, Aug. 9, with the usual blog and other segments.

USATT Supercamp - Day Eleven
By Larry Hodges

This is my last day here; I’m leaving tomorrow morning for my annual vacation. But it was a really full day! We started with physical training - and today’s was short and simple. After jogging half a lap and walking the rest to loosen up, and some stretching, we did a timed mile. Below are the times. Nope, they aren’t good enough; we need more in the 5:30 range. We’ve been on the players about this, and expect to see improvement over time.

Next up was the 12-2PM session. We started with a video from Brian Pace, “Table Tennis - A Lesson In "Work Ethic" from 5-time US Champion Sean O'Neill” (4:05). In it Brian, one of the fittest athletes in table tennis - also a professional cyclist - talks about how he learned what was really needed to reach the top, via the infamous “run” with Sean. We’re trying to get through to as many players as possible what it really takes to reach the top. Those who buy into it may be a part of a table tennis revolution in the U.S.

Sean said, “If you want to play internationally, you have to be physically fit.” He said that they needed to do physical training at a minimum three times a week, preferably more - running, sprints, jumping rope, weights, etc. “Keeping a journal that marks your progress helps.” He also spoke of the heart monitors that players had been required to wear, showing their heart rate and how hard they were pushing themselves when training.

Dan said of his own training, “I mostly concentrated on my legs. I lifted weights and wore ankle weights when walking around (not when running). I ran the hills around Pittsburgh. I also used a weighted pipe as a weighted racket to practice my strokes.” He added, “If you try to give 110%, you might be surprised to find you have more in you than you think.”

Dan continued on a related topic: “Never give up the table unless you absolutely have to.” He spoke of how this was central to top Chinese players. “Physical fitness helps you to stay at the table.”

Cory said, “It’s up to you to be disciplined enough to do the physical training. From now on it’s on you. There are no excuses. Physical fitness is a sign of desire.”

Sean said, “Physical training is so controllable. I was doing three miles a day before school when I was in eighth grade.”

Then the 12-2PM training began! Observing the session was Coach Pieke from the Alameda club in California (and a former National and Olympic coach for Holland), who had flown in to observe for a day - three of his players were here (Kai and Aziz Zarehbin, and Avery Chan). I spent the session with the upper group, run by Sean. He took a number of mini-videos of players to show them technique problems, from too-big or too-low backswings, overzealous follow-throughs, or backhands following through awkwardly to the side.

First drill was one player blocking, the other looping from the backhand side, covering 2/3 of the table as the blocker moved him around randomly.

Second drill was short serve, long push return to backhand, server backhand loops to three spots - wide forehand or backhand, or partner’s elbow. Partner had to block or sometimes counterloop each ball back to the server’s backhand, who continued to backhand loop.

Third drill was counterlooping - except instead of from forehand corner to forehand corner, it was middle to middle. “Players always counterloop paddle to paddle, corner to corner. Need to vary that. Need to loop from and to the middle.” And it’s true that most counterloopers just rip the ball crosscourt over and over.

Fourth drill was server tells receiver two spots he can return the ball to, one short, one long. Then server serves short, and receiver randomly places the ball to those two spots. For example, it could be a short push to forehand or long push to backhand, or short push to backhand or long push to middle.

Then they all played one best of five match - but each game starting at deuce. And then the session was over. Lunch was two types of fried rice, spaghetti, and the camp’s favorite - hot dogs! They were gone quickly. I gave Coach Pieke a ride to his hotel (15 min away), then returned to an empty house - all the kids were still at the club getting video interviewed by Matt Hetherington for USATT.

For the 5-8PM session, I was back with the lower group, but wasn’t needed as a practice partner, so I was a roving coach. After some easy jogging and stretching to warm up, Sean asked how many of them did this before every session, and stressed its importance.

Then, for warm-up, rather than the typical forehand to forehand and backhand to backhand, Sean had them warm up differently. Each player would hit a forehand from the forehand corner, the move to the middle and hit a forehand from the middle, then move to the backhand and hit a forehand from there. Then they’d continue, with a forehand from the middle, a forehand from the forehand, and so on, with both players moving across the table, hitting forehands from all three spots. The players quickly caught on - it’s not as tricky as it sounds.

To warm up the backhand, he had players hit about three backhands in a row, then one would go to the middle, and then they’d play out the point. Sean stressed balance and staying at the table.

Then we set up a two-person team competition. Sean strongly stressed the importance of fighting for every point, and I think the message was received - I saw no giveaways.

In the upper group, there was a “shocker.” Dan Seemiller (the legend at age 62, rated 2419) and USATT High Performance Director Cory Eider (rated 2504) teamed up and went 5-0, defeating the following teams: Klaus Wood and Rahul Acharya; Allen Wang and Adar Alguetti; Sharon Alguetti and Michael Tran; and Gal Alguetti and Jack Wang!!! Let’s just say that after watching them throughout this camp, they exposed their weaknesses, and Dan & Cory were unbeatable in doubles. In defense of the players, after two weeks of training, many were tired, and going up against Cory’s relentless topspins and Dan’s constant change of pace blocking and sudden loops can be a nightmare if you aren’t at 100%. That’s another reason they need more physical training.

In the lower group we had eight two-person teams, but because they started later, they each only played two teams. Let’s just say there were some incredible points. Lisa Lin may have been the night’s star, beating three higher-rated players, including one of the Chinese practice partners in a big upset, before losing to another Chinese practice partner, a chopper. Jaden Ly pulled off a 650-point upset - but her rating of 1149 is a joke (over 500 points lower than the next lowest), which was why she was allowed into the camp. She and her partner in the team competition, Faith Hu (1761 in new ratings, probably 100 points better) were perhaps the most under-rated players in the camp.

For dinner we had a huge pot of orange chicken (the camp’s favorite, gone like soap bubbles in a hurricane), beef with broccoli, regular and fried rice, a rice/sausage/egg dish, and vegetables and fruit. The amount of watermelon we’ve gone through in this camp would feed a large army.

And then it was clipboard time! (Plus others on other tables playing penhold or with mini-paddles.) Kai Zarehbin, 12, rated 2276, was demanding a match, so I brought out my clipboard and a “trillion dollar bill” (for the winner) and we played. Let’s just say it was culture shock as he tried to figure things out in game one and didn’t as I won 11-5. (I’m chopping and pick hitting.) We played a second game, and this time it was a battle. One point near the end went on forever, with him looping about 30 balls, and finally ended when he pushed and I made a running forehand clipboard smash! But then it was 10-all, 11-all, 12-all . . . and with some gutsy shots, he won, 14-12. There went a trillion dollars! But it wasn’t over - Sid Naresh (12, rated 2249) wanted some action. It was getting late and I had a lot to do, but I agreed to the challenge - and I pulled it out, also in deuce. I feel guilty that I didn’t give him a second try as I had with Kai, but I had to go - but we have a trillion-dollar challenge coming up at the U.S. Open in December. Tickets on sale soon.

Then it was back to the house to write this up, pack, and try to get to bed at a reasonable hour (I can dream) as I have to take Matt Hetherington to the airport at 7:15AM (he’s flying to Houston for an Olympic event), then get back in time to send the kids off to physical training - and then I’ll jump in my car and I’m off to vacation - a science fiction writing workshop in Manchester, NH, July 22-30 (my eighth time there). It’s been a great eleven days!

I was here as manager/coach/practice partner - but I was really here to be a part of the next and best generation of USA Table Tennis and its National Teams. Let me close by thanking those responsible for these incredible eleven days (with two more to come after I leave), mostly in alphabetical order.

The Coaches:

• Samson Dubina
• Cory Eider
• Larry Hodges
• Richard McAfee
• Sean O’Neill
• Dan Seemiller
• Wang Qing “Leon” Liang
• Han Xiao
• Lily Yip

The Practice Partners:

• Alex Ruichao Chen
• Katie Chen
• Wally Green
• Matt Hetherington
• Adam Hugh
• Judy Hugh
• Charley Jiang
• Yuxing “James” Jin
• Jason Li
• Sherri Li
• Kaden Xu
• Jessica Young
• Clarence Zhang
• Leo Zhao

Others to thank:

• High Performance Director Cory Eider
• Videographer and photographer Matt Hetherington
• USATT Director of Communications and Webmaster Sean O’Neill (who put up my daily reports and Matt’s videos and photos)
• Manager and writer Larry Hodges (hey, that’s me!)
• Cooks Lily Yip, Frank Chen, and Michael Wan
• Groceries supplier extraordinaire Judy Hugh
• House owner & disciplinarian Barry Dattel
• House parents and “assistant” managers Hoang Tran, and Arcot & Sangita Naresh
• USATT CEO Gordon Kaye
• Lily Yip TTC
• USA Table Tennis

And last - and Most Important - the Players! (With pre-Nationals ratings.)

USATT Supercamp - Day Ten
By Larry Hodges

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

Sometimes cold print like this doesn’t really do justice to all that’s happening. With luminaries like Dan Seemiller, Sean O’Neill, Lily Yip, Richard McAfee, Samson Dubina, Han Xiao, Wang Qing Liang, and Cory Eider, and with so many of the top juniors in the country, there are so many interactions going on that there’s no real way of reporting on them. For example, Lisa Lin has a really nice backhand serve, her best serve. I told her how Dan probably had the best backhand serve in U.S. history - incredibly spinny and deceptive, plus he knew how to follow it up - and suggested she talk to him about it. Five minutes later I find them in deep discussion as Dan’s demonstrating and explaining it for her. This is how knowledge is passed from one generation to the next.

The kids got to sleep late today - no physical training. (But we have evil plans for tomorrow - another timed mile run.) After a morning of video games on various devices (and a room inspection, followed by forced clean-ups as I stood guard, arms folded), we went over to the club at 11:30AM for a birthday party for Michael Tran (who turned 14 today) and his brother Daniel (who recently turned nine). We had lots of chocolate and vanilla cake.

Sean O’Neill had to leave for the day, driving back to Virginia for a funeral. He’ll be back tomorrow. Lily Yip ran the 12-2PM session for the lower group, with my assistance, while Dan and Cory were with the upper group. (Note that “upper group” refers to overall level; the kids in the “lower group” may be lower rated, but they are also mostly younger.)

Once again I was recruited as a practice partner. I warmed up for a while with Nandan Naresh (age 9, 1830). Then I blocked while he did side-to-side forehand looping footwork. Then Jessica Lin (12, 1906) took his place and we each did a serve and loop off backspin drill, playing out point after the loop. Then one of our practice partners had to leave, leaving us with an even number again, so I wasn’t needed as a practice partner, so I became a roving coach. The next drill was serve short backspin, receiver backhand banana flip, play out point (POP). They did a few other drills, and then they played 30 minutes of up-down tables, games to 11.

One problem - I spent the morning and much of the afternoon with severe indigestion. I also thought I had a slight fever and felt like I’d just run ten miles. I kept it to myself and struggled through the session. By the afternoon it had cleared up. However, I later found out that a couple other kids had the same symptoms. We all played through it.

We started the 5-8PM session with Dan Seemiller giving a short lecture on excelling in as many things as you can, reiterating what he’d spoken about yesterday. He went over each of the 15 items again - so here’s the list from yesterday, with a few notes from today:

1. Serve - must set up your attack.
2. Ball placement - learn to target the moving middle. It’s different for everyone.
3. Power
4. Consistency
5. Footwork - must be in shape!
6. Receive - you’ll make mistakes, so don’t worry about that.
7. Deception (serves and strokes) - how much is in your game?
8. Fundamentals - you should always be working on these, and will do so the rest of your playing career.
9. Tactics
10. Shot selection
11. Rally ability
12. Blocking
13. Looping (forehand and backhand)
14. Reading of spin
15. Experience - When you lose a match, learn at least one thing, maybe two.

Once again I worked with Lily with the lower group. I started out hitting with Daniel Tran (9, 1801), doing the 2-1 footwork drill (backhand, forehand from backhand side, forehand from forehand side). Then we did a drill where we each spent ten minutes serving deep serves into each other’s backhands. (He’s a lefty, so we served down the line.) It took me a few minutes to convince myself that he really could tee off on my returns to his forehand, but once I began going into this backhand more, he started guarding that side, and I was able to go more into the forehand. We had some vicious rallies, including some nice counterlooping duels. (I may have had my most memorable backhand counterlooping rally ever, where he forehand looped to my backhand over and over and I did about ten backhand counterloops before winning the point.)

Then it was my turn; he had trouble when I kept varying the spin on my down-the-line fast serves, but gradually improved. When I served really fast, but with straight topspin, he’d just smack it in with his backhand. Since he liked going to my wide forehand and then step around to counterloop, we again had some vicious counterlooping duels. I threw everything at him when I served - fast topspin, breaking sidespin either way, fast and dead, and all sorts of fakes. Most worked the first time. Other than a deceptive forehand pendulum side-top serve that looks like backspin (and gets most people), he adjusted to them all.

Then, after a five-minute break, Lily took four girls for multiball while I took the seven boys plus Katie Chen (about 1900) and ran their drills. I called three drills, with each player doing it about 7 minutes. Before each drill I called them together to go over the purpose and focus on the drill.

1. Forehand Random Looping Drill. One player blocks randomly to 60% of table, other player loops. Blocker has to jump on any loops that land short and block at very wide angles - so loopers needed to drive the ball deep. They also had to focus on balance - no off-balance follow-throughs that left them open on the next shot. I demonstrated the proper way loop and recover quickly - it’s all about proper rotation and balance.
2. Short to Forehand/Long to Backhand. One player serves short backspin. Receiver either drops it short to the forehand or pushes quick to the backhand. Server has to forehand flip or backhand loop, then they play out the point. I stressed that the receiver should regularly aim one way, push the other - for example, start to push crosscourt deep to the backhand, but at the last second drop the racket tip and angle it to the left, and drop it short to the forehand. The goal on both sides was to mess up the opponent!
3. Middle-Random Drill. One player alternates blocking to the middle and randomly to a corner. The other player forehand loops from the middle, then loops or drives from either wing against the random ball to the corner, with all of his shots going to the same side for the blocker. None had done this drill before, which I had learned from Stellan Bengtsson - the purpose was to learn to cover and dominate the table from the middle with the forehand, and react to random angled shots. The kids had trouble at first, but found it easier when I told them to alternate saying to themselves, “Middle, Random, Middle, Random…”

I then paired them up into six doubles teams - keeping players who play together regularly on a team together - and had a lecture/demo/discussion on doubles tactics. Then they played up-down tables that way, games to 11, on three tables.

Next was Brazilian teams, one game to 31. (Player from each team plays a point; winner stays on, loser goes to the end of his team’s line, and next player comes up. New player always serves.) I told them about one of my greatest memories, from the 1978 Seemiller camp in Pittsburgh, where I was on a six-person team, one game to 51, with our team down 48-33 when I went to the table. I was around 1800, and the other team had Perry Schwartzberg (2400+), Joe Rokop (2200+), a 2000 player, and three other players around my level. The rule there was new player received, so I got to serve each time I won a point - and I just served and forehand attacked over and over, and won 18 in a row to win 51-48!!! That was the moment when I realized these great players weren’t gods, that if you learned to play properly you could win against them. This is a lesson everyone should learn.

We chose up four three-person teams (the girls had rejoined us) and paired them up. They played one game to 31. Afterwards, we had five minutes, so I told the two losing teams they would now have their chance for revenge with one game to 11 - but everyone had to play penhold!!! (They were all shakehanders.) The kids loved it, and I think both losing teams won this time. Tomorrow I might have them play opposite hand, or perhaps Seemiller style!

And then it was dinner - orange chicken (gone in minutes), beef with broccoli, another chicken dish, some sort of egg and potato dish, fried rice, and lots of watermelon. And then - after an obligatory 30 minutes of penhold play! - we returned to the house.

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

USATT Supercamp - Day Nine
By Larry Hodges

[Here's the USATT Day Nine page, with video and photos by Matt Hetherington, and this article. Here's a group shot taken today.) 

Never have I seen so many totally dedicated coaches working with so many talented players. Richard, Samson, Han, Leon, Dan, Sean, Lily, and Cory - they didn’t come here for work, they came excited to finally get so many top up-and-coming USA juniors training together with the opportunity to do something we haven’t done since the 1950s - take on the world with a chance to win. They are putting their all into this effort - not just by themselves, but as perhaps a spark to get it going. The final responsibility will rest with these kids, their parents, and their coaches, spread all over the U.S., as team spirit spreads and we transform from a bunch of clubs into Team USA, a rising worldwide table tennis power.

Today’s physical training started with everyone jogging half a lap, and then walking the rest of the lap. Then they did four types of plank exercises (on back, stomach, and each side), then pushups, then lay on back with feet slightly off the ground. They did each of these twice each, the timed ones for 30 seconds. Then it was three laps (3/4 mile) - and we were done! The kids are pretty tired from so many days of training, with three workouts/day, so we went easy today, and they are off from physical training tomorrow. During the session we were amazed as three men ran lap after lap during all this, at blazing speeds. I spoke with one, and he said they were “post collegiate professionals.” His best mile time was 3:58, which puts into perspective my 4:53 from 40 years ago. Sharon Alguetti and Nandon Naresh independently tried to “race” with them, but that’s like a club player taking on the Chinese National Team.

And then it was back to the club. This week’s lectures are tag-team affairs with Dan Seemiller and Sean O’Neill speaking on multiple topics, with the other jumping in for their input. Dan started today’s lecture by re-iterating something he’d talked about the day before - the need to excel in many areas. You can’t just be a blocker or a looper; you have to be great at a number of things if you want to be great. He then asked the players to self-grade themselves on 15 different things against other players your level, all of which could be broken down into many sub-parts:

1. Serve
2. Ball placement
3. Power
4. Consistency
5. Footwork
6. Receive
7. Deception (serves and strokes)
8. Fundamentals
9. Tactics
10. Shot selection
11. Rally ability
12. Blocking
13. Looping (forehand and backhand)
14. Reading of spin
15. Experience

He said of experience, “You have to be in the ring, have enough tough losses, enough tournaments,” and “We can’t teach you this one.”

Sean said that the players should be doing self-evaluations at least every three months. It’s the only way to really track your progress and see where you stand. For his own students, he said that after every tournament he asks them five questions: How were your techniques, your footwork, your tactics, your mental game, and your hustle.

Sean pointed out a problem in our country. Many coaches show you what to do, but often they do not give the type of talk needed for players to understand what’s necessary to reach the top. He said that if any of the players here later on have a technical question or video of themselves they want analyzed, send it to the coach and they’ll look at it and get back to you.

Sean also spoke of how often USA Team members (Men’s, Women’s, various junior teams) would sometimes show up at top tournament not really in practice or in their best physical shape. “That won’t happen anymore,” he said.

He said that players shouldn’t worry about losing, that they should play tournaments for experience. “There is no such thing as a bad loss. Learn from them.”

He said, “Stop thinking about ratings. If you are focused on your rating, it’s game over. If you worry about rating, you’re not a competitor.”

Dan added, “When working hard, don’t worry about your level. Focus on what you are working on.”

They both spoke about confidence, about believing in yourself. Dan said, “If you are on a USA Team and don’t think you can beat a top Chinese player, we won’t send you out there. You have to believe you can.” He added, “It’s great to daydream about what you can do. Every one of you should believe you can be World Champion.”

Sean then spoke about visualization. “Visualize what you want to do. Then do what’s needed to make it happen.”

Dan and Sean both stressed that making the USA Team is only the first step. If the goal is to take on the world, then you need players who are ready to take on the world, not ones who are solely focused on beating other USA players.

Dan said, “Be the best you can be. Those who want to do this, put the hammer down and do it.”

And then it was time for the 12-2PM session. I was in the lower group, with Dan running the session. He warned them in advance that today there’d be a lot of footwork. They started with shadow stroking - side-to-side forehands, in-and-out forehands, and forehand-backhand from the backhand corner. They did each of these twice for about 30 seconds.

Then it was on to the tables - where these were the first three drills, except this time with the ball. There were 15 players, so I joined in as a practice partner. During the session I hit with Sam Rockwell, Estee Ackerman, and Daniel Tran.

The next drill was pushing - and we played up-down all-pushing games. As noted yesterday, Dan’s version of this is player play until any player on any table wins a game to 11, and yells stop, and then whoever is in the lead wins. (If it’s tied, there’s a tie-breaker, which everyone watches.) After a time Dan switched the rules to two pushes and then either player could loop. Finally he switched to regular games. I did pretty well until near the end, when I faced two players with (illegal) hidden serves that I simply couldn’t make good returns on, missing about half of them outright.

Then they did more shadow practice, this time forehand looping against topspin; forehand looping against backspin; backhand looping against topspin; backhand looping against backspin. For the forehands, Dan stressed going in a circle, i.e. (as I teach it), imagining a pole in your head and circling the pole. This allows you to put great power on the ball and still remain balanced and recover quickly for the next shot. They then did a quickness drill where everyone (without their rackets), went to the side of a table and had to sidestep quickly from one net post to the other, going around half the table, and then return, over and over as fast as they could for 30 seconds, twice. The two standouts in this that I saw were Jayden Zhou, Avery Chan, and Faith Hu.

And then it was lunchtime! (Hot dogs, spaghetti, fried rice, roast chicken, watermelon.)

After the break we returned for the 5-8PM session, which started with another talk by Sean and Dan. Sean started by pointing out to the group the opportunities they have that we didn’t have in our day - far more camps, full-time clubs and coaches. Then he went into a talk on contingency plans. He asked how many players had backup rackets. (About half.) How many practiced with their backup rackets so they’d feel confident in it if they had to use it in a tournament? Very few raised their hands. (As a professional coach, I was able to raise my hand - I use my backup racket regularly against players under 1600 or so, and switch to my regular playing racket against stronger players. That way I don’t wear the latter down as fast.)

Dan told the story of how he had shown up at the last Nationals with a legal racket - but because the antispin he uses on one side is rare, the acting referee somehow didn’t see it, and ruled the racket illegal - as well as the backup. He was forced to use an unfamiliar racket. But right at the start of his match against Lijuan Feng, the head referee showed up, realized they’d made a mistake and that the racket was legal - but since they had already started, it would be illegal to change rackets, even though they had only played about four points. So Dan had to play with the unfamiliar racket. It was a unique situation, but is the type of thing that can happen.

They then discussed the various things that can go wrong so you can prepare for it. These included your sponge tearing or bubbling (so have backup sponge and racket); shoes (some like grippier ones on slippery floors); and food (you don’t want to get stuck eating unfamiliar food at a tournament, so if you don’t know what’s available there, bring your own food). Sean even mentioned it’s helpful to get to know the umpires, even by name - if you do, maybe they’d be less likely to fault you!

On the topic of being prepared, I jumped in and pointed out the importance of practicing your fast, deep serves before a big match. It’s easy doing most short or spin serves, but it is fast, deep serves that are most often missed, usually off the end or sometimes into the net - and so in the pressure of a match, if you haven’t warmed them up as you would any other stroke, you won’t be able to pull them off at normal speed, and so you either slow them down (less effective) or miss too often. Imagine playing some forehand looper who keeps stepping around his backhand to loop your serve with his forehand, leaving his forehand wide open to a fast, down-the-line serve - but you haven’t warmed up the serve, and so you either miss it, do it too slow, or are simply afraid to try!

Both Dan and Sean stressed that you have to treat everyone as if they can beat you. That way you can’t be caught off guard. Focus on playing your best, regardless of the opponent’s level. “When you compete, don’t think about winning or losing,” Dan said. “think about performing well. Keep your focus, scout your opponents, control what you can control. If you are nervous, think about tactics to get your mind off winning and losing.”

Sean said, “Don’t think about the outcome. Think about what you want to do.” He added, “You can’t be afraid to lose in this sport.”

Dan said, “When competing, enjoy the competition.”

And then the training began. Once again I was with the lower group, again run by Dan. Once again we had an odd number of players - that seemed to be happening a lot - so I hit with Avery Chan. We started with ten minutes warm-up and then ten minutes of counterlooping. Avery loves to hook the ball with lots of sidespin, so we had some nice sidespin counterlooping duels.

And then it was multiball time. I had four players in my group - Avery Chan (12, rated 2016); Aziz Zarehbin (10, rated 1998); Nandan Naresh (9, rated 1830); and Daniel Tran (9, rated 1801). Yep, I just gave out their ratings - what did Sean say about that? (But ratings are okay as a rough indicator of level.) I did five multiball drills with them:

1. I feed backspin side to side and they forehand and backhand loop.
2. I feed backspin to backhand, they backhand loop, I give quick topspin to forehand, they forehand loop.
3. I feed backspin to forehand, they forehand loop, then I give five quick random topspins.
4. I feed two topspins to forehand, they forehand loop, then I feed two topspins to backhand, and they backhand loop or hit.
5.  I step back some and feed them loops to their forehand, moving them around a bit. They forehand counterloop off bounce.

Then we had service practice. Dan started with a talk and demo of short serves (backspin, no-spin, side-top), stressing low contact, with second bounce on far side near the end-line. Then he demoed long serves. Then the players went to the tables, one per table, and worked on serves for perhaps 20 minutes. Serves and tactics are my favorite topics, so I had fun roving about helping with serves. I ended up gathering three together who were just learning reverse pendulum serves and worked with them on that. I worked with another on fast, deep serves, with another on depth control of short serves, with another on maximizing spin, and with another on deceptive side-top forehand pendulum serves.

And then we had up-down tables 11-point games - but they were backhand-to-backhand games! The rallies here are vicious. As I explained to some, you play to win, but the importance here is developing the ability to rally hard for many shots. I had some huge battles with Lisa Lin and Estee Ackerman, both of whom have tremendous backhands, but managed to stay at the first table most of the time. (Aziz Zarehbin was also tough, but seemed to lose patience and get careless.) The others? They weren’t able to get through the wall of Lisa, Estee, and Aziz, so I didn’t play any others.

Then Dan switched it to where we hid the ball, and whoever won got to either forehand loop or forehand block. This time I had titanic battles again with Lisa as well as Jessica Lin, but managed to finish on the first table, despite losses (and wins!) against both of them. I thought I’d be able to block Lisa down, but that’s where she beat me; when I looped against her great blocking, somehow I won. Jessica had a different tactic - she kept hook looping to my wide forehand, and I fell behind quickly. (But I won against her when I looped.) The other surprise here was Faith Hu, the second lowest rated in the group, who managed to reach the second table (out of eight, with 16 players) near the end.  

And then it was dinner time, with fried rice, spaghetti, roasted chicken, potatoes, vegetables . . . and a huge pot of orange chicken that lasted about three seconds. I was near the front of the line, and was about to get it, but with all eyes on me and the quickly diminishing orange chicken, I didn’t take any and settled on roast chicken and fried rice. There was some fun trash-talking during dinner from the older players from the upper group, who had apparently had some titanic matches going on in their own up-down table competition.

Dinner was followed by the almost ritual penhold matches afterwards - many of the kids stay at least 30 minutes late for this. Sharon Alguetti especially likes to take on the younger kids, penhold to their shakehands. On the way back to the house, I once again treated the kids to Slurpees - a habit that’s getting increasingly expensive. Later I had to run back to the club to get something, and ended up taxiing two groups of the older kids to the house they are staying at - Adam Hugh’s house - a 15 minute walk but a three-minute drive.

And Now Some Fun Stuff
The following videos were taken by Arcot Naresh, father of Sid and Nandan.

• Here’s video (30 sec) of me (“by the powers invested in me as a National Coach”) boldly predicting a strike last week when we took the kids bowling.
• Here’s video (33 sec) of 9-year-old Nandan Naresh doing the Bowling Dance.
• Here’s video (1:45) of me taking the kids out for ice cream - and trying to pay for it with a trillion dollar bill!

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