What Programs Should a Club Have?
There's an obvious difference between what a full-time club and a part-time club may have. I'm going to write about some of the programs my club has, a full-time one (MDTTC). Most full-time clubs have similar programs; part-time programs should pick and choose which ones they may be able to sustain - or more importantly, ones that will help sustain and grow the club. These programs bring in new players, keep current ones, and bring in revenue for the club. If you are interested in learning about any of these programs, or how you can run one, email me. (With the tournament I'm running this weekend, and other commitments, I might need a few days to get back to you.)

• Private Coaching. This is a no-brainer – even a part-time club should have at least someone who gives private coaching for those who want to learn. They greatly help the club by bringing in new players and keeping current ones interested. MDTTC has seven full-time coaches and a few part-time ones.
• Training Camps. These are for all ages, but especially kids. Most full-time clubs run at least a few during the summer and school breaks. MDTTC runs camps all summer, Mon-Fri, plus one on Spring Break, the Christmas Camp, and numerous one-day camps when school is out.
• Group Coaching. Many players like to train with others, plus it's cheaper. MDTTC has adult group training (Sun nights 6:30-8:00PM – I teach this one – and Tue & Fri Lunch Break 1-2PM) and group junior training (see below).
• Junior Training. This is where you probably get the most training, and where the coaches get busy, and where you develop top players. MDTTC has a whole series of junior programs.
  • Beginning/Intermediate Junior Classes (Sun 4-5:30 PM, Tues 6-7PM, Thurs 6-7PM)
  • Intermediate and Advanced Group Training (Over 1700, Sat 4:30-6:30PM)
  • Group Training for Girls (over 1750, Fri 5-7PM)
  • Talent Development Program (application only, ages 6-12, Sun 5:30-7:00PM)
  • Afterschool program – we (usually me) pick some of the kids up, and then do training and homework at the club.
• Leagues. Without a league, a club will likely be stuck with a "winner stay on" mentality, which isn't really that great a system. It's better to have various leagues for all levels, so when new players come in you can put them right into a league for their level. MDTTC has five leagues!
  • Tue & Fri Singles Leagues, for all levels.
  • Wed Recreational League.
  • Elite League, for players over 1900.
  • Capital Area Team League.
• Tournaments. Most successful clubs run tournaments. MDTTC runs four per year – I'm back to being the tournament director. We have one tomorrow. I'm also planning a fifth, a Maryland State Championships probably on June 25-26.
• Pro Shop. Players need equipment – and it brings in revenue for the club. MDTTC has a nice pro shop, one of the top-sellers for Butterfly in the country.
• Newsletter. It lets players know what's going on! I edit the MDTTC Newsletter.
• News Coverage. You need to get the word out. Established clubs often can prosper just on word of mouth, but you get more with news coverage, and all clubs benefit from this. It's a simple matter of having someone at the club regularly emailing news releases to the press. I do this for MDTTC; here's MDTTC's coverage, sharing the page with our newsletter. (We've had a few more recent ones that will likely be updated later today.)
• Other Activities. Space Rental and Birthday Parties are just two activities a club can do to bring in revenue. MDTTC does both. Other clubs share their facility to split rent. For example, back in the 1980s I helped run the Northern Virginia Club, which shared its facility with a fencing club. I've seen a few clubs that had chess clubs – a lot of TT players seem to like chess – after all, table tennis is just chess at light speed!

In Remembrance of Mark Nordby
Here's the USATT article and gallery, and growing comments section. It's still hard to believe – he was only 48.

2016 ITTF North America Olympic Qualification Tournament
Here's the USATT home page for the event, held April 8-10 in Markham, Canada (near Toronto), with schedule, results, articles, and starting this morning, livestreaming. Here's the ITTF page. The North American Hopes Trials are also being held

Table Tennis Edge - Returning Serve - The App
Here's the video (1:28) on this. Looks interesting –it shows you video of a player serving different spins, and you have to try to read it instantly as part of a game. "If you struggle to read table tennis serves, this app is for you!!!"

4 Ping Pong Skills to Take You from Beginner to Winner!
Here's the new coaching article from MH Table Tennis.

Three Steps to Building a Better Table Tennis Player
Here's the new article from Coach Jon.

Lily Zhang Is Ready for Another Olympic Shot in Rio
Here's the article.

Table Tennis for NepALL a Huge Success on World Table Tennis Day
Here's the ITTF press release.

Free Table Contest
Here's the contest from JOOLA.

Ask a Pro Anything - Zhang Jike
Here's the video (4:26) from Adam Bobrow.

World Table Tennis Day 2016 at LYTTC
Here's the video (3:15).

Doubles Madness at Danish Championships 2016
Here's the video (43 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.

Not Even Forrest Gump Could Survive This Ping-Pong Ball Gatling Gun
I want one!

Galaxy Note 3 Ping Pong!
Here's the video (11 sec) – can you do an inside-out, around-the-net sidespin loop with your smart phone, as Matt Hetherington demonstrates here twice in a row?

Railroad Pong
Now that's some dangerous pong! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

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Table Tennis Players Who Are Very Good in Other Sports
There are a number of table tennis players who also excel in other sports. What follows is NOT a comprehensive list – it's a list of ones that I know of and remember this morning. To do a more comprehensive listing would take some real investigative work, and I'll leave that to the real investigators – you, the readers – so comment below your own nominations. (I know I'm leaving out some obvious ones.) Probably the three best all-around athletes in USATT's modern history were Dan Seemiller, Brian Pace, and Brian Masters.

• Golf. There are many top golfers in table tennis – we might as well call ourselves USATT&G. International Referee Ray Cavicchio is a professional golf instructor. The Seemillers (Dan, Rick, Randy) and Sweeris's (Dell, Connie, Todd) are all top golfers. So is Scott Preiss. (Isn't he good at bowling as well?) My apologies to the myriads of others – I just don't remember or know of all of them – so nominate others below.
• Tennis. Brian Masters (1983 Pan Am Men's Singles Gold Medalist and long-time member of USA Men's Team) was the Maryland 12 & under tennis champion. Barry Dattel, Corey Eider, and Ty Hoff are all top tennis players. Carl Danner is very good. (I played tennis on the side myself for many years, reached a 4.0 level, which some say is about 1800 in table tennis.)
• Baseball. Dan Seemiller was offered a minor league contract by the Pittsburgh Pirates, but decided to give that table tennis thing one more year. James Therriault coaches both table tennis and baseball professionally. Brian Masters was a little league baseball star (league MVP). When I was a kid I could recite every baseball world series champion and runner-up, the scores of every game, the winning and losing pitchers, as well as the entire Orioles roster and all their major stats. But I couldn't hit. (But I could draw walks and hook slide!)
• Basketball. 14-year-old Sameer Shaikh, a table tennis student of mine, is on his middle school basketball team. We've had many good basketball players in table tennis, from Jim Butler to Nathan Hsu. (I once coached a 6'10" college basketball player from beginner to 1500.) One great memory – in 1987 the members of the resident table tennis program at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs – all ages 14-17 – challenged the USA Tae Kwon Do Men's Team to a basketball game. Their shortest player was taller than our tallest player! With me as honorary coach – I know little about basketball – our sharp-shooting and quick rebounding team of Todd Sweeris, Chi-Sun Chui, Dhiren Narotam, Anthony Cooper, and Chi Phong Ngo beat them!
• Football. Dan Seemiller was also a star high school football player, and had a football scholarship offer before deciding to go with table tennis. I think he was a running back. (If Brian Pace had played football, watch out!)
• Soccer. Brian Masters was league MVP at age 12. Former Yugoslavian and Canadian table tennis star Zoran Kosanovic was a soccer star.
• Badminton. Until he was 12 years old, Cheng Yinghua was training full-time in both table tennis and badminton, and was a province badminton champion. When the U.S. badminton championships were held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in the late 1980s, where we had a resident program for table tennis, with Cheng as a coach/practice partner, he stopped by the tournament and was recognized by a number of players. I always thought I was pretty good at badminton, but I played Cheng once, and it was a different world.
• Cycling. Brian Pace does both table tennis and cycling professionally. Here's his home page, Pace Cycling Training. When I googled his name and cycling, I found this results page for him.
• Lacrosse. Brian Masters was on his college lacrosse team. Brian was great at all sports – at the age of 12 he not only was the Maryland 12 & under tennis champion, he was the league MVP in little league baseball and soccer, and I think (not sure) basketball as well.
• Shooting. Former junior champion Sunny Li was a sharpshooter in Iraq for the U.S. military. (His dad, Alex Li, who also played a little TT, was a pool champion.)
• Sprinter. Here's Brian Pace, again. He was on his high school track and field team for the 100 and 200 meter sprints. Former senior table tennis star Bill Sharpe was a three-time Olympian in the triple jump, and won the gold medal for that at the 1963 Pan Am Games.
• Distance Running. I was a miler on my high school track team and ran a marathon – but this was 40 years ago!
• Arm Wrestling. Here's a picture of me winning the University of Maryland Under 170 pound weight class in 1983 over the defending champion! (Outside table tennis, I've actually coached arm wrestling, baseball, boxing, tennis, and distance running, but not professionally.)
• Disc Golf. Pete May is a senior champion. Here's one of many articles.
• Martial Arts. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of martial arts experts in table tennis, but offhand I can't think of many. I think Tom Nguyen is a black belt in karate or Tae Kwon Do.
• Chess, Go, Poker. Do these count? One of my students, 9-year-old Bradley Guo, is the top-ranked under 10 player in Maryland and one of the best of his age in the country. Another player I coached, Tong Tong Gong, used to travel to chess tournaments, and played in the U.S. National Chess Championships (I think in Ohio). I believe John Tannehill was pretty good. Cheng Yinghua is apparently very good at Go. Tom McEvoy was world poker champion.

MDTTC April Open
I'm running the MDTTC April Open on Saturday. Yippee! You can enter until 5PM on Friday. There is a link that allows you to enter online. Some have reported problems with paying online; if that happens, just enter and pay on arrival.

Serve Practice
Speaking of tournaments, have you practiced your serves recently? No? Oh – you want to lose? Here's my article, Practicing Serves the Productive Way.

Back Problems
Due to back problems, I had to cancel, reschedule, or get subs for all of my private coaching on Tue, Wed, and Thur (today). I'm still doing multiball and light hitting with beginners in our afterschool program, but need to rest the back. I run the MDTTC April Open on Saturday and then return to normal coaching on Sunday.

NYTTL 2016 Open Meeting
Here's the meeting notice of the New York TT League. The meeting is on Sunday, April 17, at NYISC, at 1:30 PM. Here's the home page for the NYTTL (which is run by Mauricio Vergara) – lots of nice videos posted there.

World Table Tennis Day
Here are three WTTD videos, which was yesterday.

2016 ITTF North America Olympic Qualification Tournament Live Stream
Here's the USATT page for that, starting on Friday.

Jan-Ove Waldner Impossible
On Tuesday I blogged about this point (66 sec, including slo-mo replay), of Waldner doing your typical run-from-the-table, leap-in-air over-the-shoulder no-look lob winner. That's Jean-Michel Saive on far side. Bernard Lemal emailed me that the point was in the match for 3rd place at the 1991 World Men's Cup, with Waldner leading 18-9 in the third (best of three); he'd win a few points later. (The final was Persson over Gatien.) He also pointed out that though you can't see it clearly, Saive actually won the point by pushing the ball back, with Waldner stuck on the other side of the barriers. Here's the full match (13:11).

Spider-Man and Darth Vader as Mr. Ping and Mr. Pong
Here's the picture!

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World Table Tennis Day and Local Table Tennis People
Yep, it's today. Here's the World Table Tennis Day Facebook page, with lots of postings about various activities around the globe. (Including this rather interesting picture!)

Here's the ITTF press release on Table Tennis for NepALL - Inauguration Ceremony, which is being held today – it says, "Kathmandu has the honour to be the capital of the World Table Tennis Day," and "Kathmandu hosts the main event of World Table Tennis Day and promotes Table Tennis among people with a disability in Nepal"

Some are taking this very seriously (good!). Here's the Pongathon schedule for Mayrhofen, Austria.

Now celebrating World Table Tennis Day is a good thing. I've had people ask, even demand to know what I or others are doing this day. You know what? Some of us are doing "World Table Tennis Day" stuff every day. Perhaps as part of this World Table Tennis Day you should look around and celebrate the people who are doing these things, day in and day out, always trying to make our sport better. Some are volunteers; some are paid; but if they are making the sport better, it's the same thing. Why not make a list of those in your area who are making a difference in our sport?

The U.S. is full of such people, as is every other country in the world. If I got started naming all the people who are trying to make the sport better – the "Thousand Points of Light" – I'd be writing all day and night. So here are some of the people in my area (Maryland, DC, Northern Virginia) who are making the sport better, with apologies to those missed or other mistakes – please email me if I did. (I feel weird including myself on some of the lists below, but I can't, for example, list the Capital Area League or the MDTTC coaching staff without including myself, could I?)

• Capital Area Table Tennis League Staff: Superhuman commissioner Stefano Ratti and the rest of the gang: Richard Heo, Larry Hodges, Wen Hsu, Charlene Liu, Darwin Ma, and John Olsen.
• MDTTC Coaches: Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, Zeng Xun ("Jeffrey"), Wang Qing Liang ("Leon"), Chen Bo Wen ("Bowen"), Yuxiang Jin, Larry Hodges, John Hsu, Wen Hsu, and Raghu Nadmichettu.
• Other Active Local Coaches: Rao Nian, Donn Olsen, Charlene Liu, Changping Duan, Mike Levene, Marvin Thomas, Frank Cristofaro, Zhongxing Lu, and Zibing Wang.
• MDTTC League Directors: Wen Hsu and Jessie Lin (Tue & Fri), Derek Nie & Klaus Wood (Sun Elite League). (With apologies to league directors at other clubs – I don't have a comprehensive listing.)
• Local Tournament Directors and Officials:  Fan Yang, Lixin Yang, Mike Levene, Charlene Liu, Larry Hodges, Zibing Wang, John Miller and NA Table Tennis, and Paul Kovac.
• Local Club Presidents or Owners:  Mike Levene, Herman Yeh, Tom Norwood, Fan Yang, Wen Hsu, Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, Charlene Liu, Changping Duan, Fan Yang, Zhongxing Lu, Eddie Record, Irving Goldstein, Jim Mossberg, Mossa Barandao, and Enrique Matta.
• USATT: Han Xiao (USATT Player Rep, and member of Rules, League, and Compensation Committees, co-chair of Athlete Advisory Council), Dennis Taylor (USATT pro bono lawyer), Larry Hodges (Board of Directors, chair of League committee, Regional Associations Coordinator), Mike Levene (member of League Committee), Richard Lee and John Miller (directors of USA Nationals and U.S. Open).
• Parents: Without their time and financial sacrifices, we wouldn't have many junior programs, would we?

Hall of Famer YC Lee Passes
Here's the USATT article.

How to Get "In The Zone" and Win – Like Tin-Tin Ho
Here's the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis.

Teamwork: Friends or Enemies?
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina. (On a side note, here's 18 sec of physical training by one of Samson's classes.)

How to Do the SNAKE
Here's the article and video (65 sec) by Adam Bobrow. Is this a coaching video or just a fun thing? Honest truth – it's a coaching video, with a rare but useful technique! Shots like this sometimes come up even for regular players, in particular when you are off the table and the opponent drops the ball somewhat short, so it barely bounces off the end. With the table in the way, it's almost impossible to return this ball low, and so what's your best option? The Snake! I've done this a number of times successfully in tournaments, and will probably start throwing this at my students occasionally. Coach Jack at MDTTC (a USATT Hall of Famer) does this all the time. Even a top player often has trouble with it, either making a mistake or (more likely) easing up on his next shot for consistency, which keeps you in the point.

Deng Yaping Forehand Skill Analysis
Here's an interesting video (8:15) in Chinese that highlights Deng Yaping's forehand. She is still considered by many the greatest woman player of all time, though her style of play may be dated – long pips blocking & hitting on the backhand, mostly hitting on the forehand.

Jon Taylor Named USATT Membership and Club Development Director
Here's the USATT article. Finally, someone (or someone's parents) with the sense that the redundant "h" is not needed! (He and Jon Gustavson.)

Experience and Youth to Be Served Up On USA Squad at Rio Trials This Weekend
Here's the USATT article on this weekend's North American Olympic Trials. (The Hopes Trials for under 12 players are also being held there.)

New Table Tennis Center Open in Long Island NY
Here's the USATT article on the Long Island Sports Center. I've added it to the listing of full-time table tennis centers in the U.S. – there are now 84 on the list, ten times the number from nine years ago.

USATT Team Trials Talk
Here are three new videos where top players talk about Competition, Olympics, and Training.

• Competition Talk (2:47)
• Olympic Talk (3:06)
• Training Talk (2:27)

Teddy Bear Pong
Here's the picture!

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Monday Coaching
It was another busy day. It started with the afterschool program – but with two kids away, I mostly worked one-on-one for an hour with 7-year-old Qiyu, who is starting to master the strokes when he's able to pay attention. (If you've worked with 7-year-olds, you know what I mean!)

Then I had a session with 11-year-old Daniel, where we did lots and lots of counterlooping. We also did a lot of forehand attack drills, such as he serves backspin, I push, he loops, and then play out the point. We also had a long drill where he just attacked into my backhand ("The Great Wall of China" I call it after a good rally) with his forehand and backhand.

Then I had an hour with Navin, "The Bionic Man." Here's a write-up and video he did of the first two minutes of forehand to forehand. As I wrote in a comment there, the best part of the session was when we did a drill where Navin served to my backhand, I'd roll it back to his forehand, and he'd smash. We didn't play out the point as we wanted to focus on that first smash. After a time we switched the drill to where I'd roll the ball back anywhere on the table, and we'd rally until I went to his forehand, and then he'd smash. I also served to him for nearly 15 minutes so he could work on low, angled returns against varied serves.

Afterwards I had a group session with about 20 new players (from a social meetup group), and Navin helped out for an hour. Navin gave an inspirational talk, then we demoed the forehand. Then I had the players spread out and shadow practice the forehand. Then I took them, two at a time, and taught the forehand with multiball (one from the forehand side, one hitting forehands from the backhand side). Then we demoed the backhand, and again had them shadow practice the shot. We didn't have time to teach it directly, so I went directly to serves, explaining the serving rules, how to do basic serves, how to create spin, and demoed the various spins. (Serving backspin so it bounced back into the net, and sidespin so it curved around the table and hit a target off to the side.) Then it was free play, with Navin and I hitting with the players.

I also spent an hour working on the upcoming MDTTC April Open – see segment below.

Now the down side: I've been coaching almost every day for a while, and during my session with Daniel – who works me hard! – my back started to hurt for the first time in probably a year. Last night while at my desk it really started to act up. So I think I'm going to get Raghu or someone to substitute for my two hours of coaching today.

RIP: Mark Nordby and YC Lee
Late last night I got the shocking news that both had passed away. Mark, who was only around 50, apparently died just yesterday. He was a long-time coach and player from Illinois, though I believe he moved to Texas a few years ago – not sure. He was a former chair of the USATT Coaching Committee and a long-time coach of many USATT junior and cadet teams, and often coached Mark Hazinski in tournaments. He was a long-time coaching associate of Dan Seemiller, assisting at his numerous training camps. (In fact, he sort of replaced me – I was Dan's assistant coach the summers of (if I remember correctly) 1990 and 1991, but then we opened the Maryland Table Tennis Center in 1992 where we ran our own camps, and Mark became Dan's new and long-time assistant.) He and Dan teamed up to win a number of senior doubles titles. (Mike Levene and I lost to them in the finals of Over 40 Doubles at the 2010 U.S. Open.) Here's a picture of Mark, on the right, playing doubles with Dan. Here's one of him playing. I've known Mark for decades, both through his USATT work, at tournaments, and as opposing coaches and players. Cause of death is unknown, but possibly a heart attack. He will be greatly missed.

USATT Hall of Famer Y.C. Lee apparently passed three days ago. I didn't know him quite as well, knowing him mostly as an umpire and through his USATT work, mostly in the 1990s. Since he was the 1996 and 1997 U.S. Open Over 70 doubles champion, he must have been at least 90 years old. Here's his Hall of Fame profile. Here's a picture of him smacking a forehand. (I couldn't find any other online pictures of him, or a larger version of this one.)

MDTTC April Open
Here's the tournament page (where you can enter online) and entry form. I'll be running the tournament this Saturday at MDTTC in Gaithersburg, MD. Hope you can join us!

Equipment Reviews
Here's a new site, EquipmentJunkies.com, that reviews equipment for you TT EJs! "Do you order four backhand rubbers at a time in your search for the perfect racket? Have you still not decided whether you prefer a flared or straight handle blade? You, my friend, are an Equipment Junkie!"

MDTTC Hopes Team Members Lisa Lin and Tiffany Ke Featured in Baltimore Sun
Here's the article (actually a condensed version of my press release) and pictures.

11 Questions with Daryl Morey of the Houston Rockets
Here's the USATT interview.

Interview with Hanwei Wang
Here's the USATT interview by Rahul Acharya.

Tahl Leibovitz Featured by USOC
Here's the article, which came out a month ago but I somehow missed. "Once a homeless teenager, Paralympian Tahl Leibovitz embraces new career in social work while training for Rio."

New Facility Serves Up Table Tennis to South Bend Youth
Here's the article from the South Bend Tribune.

Tidewater Table Tennis Club Honors Dean Johnson with Lifetime Achievement Award
Here's the article.

Triangle Table Tennis Looks Forward to Future Success with Cary Cup Tournament
Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17 (1989-1990)
Here's chapter 3! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

Table Tennis Team Trials Olympic Talk
Here's the video (3:06). Features (in order) Tahl Leibovitz, Wang Chen, Lily Zhang, and Timothy Wang.

Jack Wang Interview at the 2016 Butterfly Cary Cup Championship
Here's the video (2:08).

Jan-Ove Waldner Impossible
Here's video (66 sec, with slo mo replay) of Waldner doing your typical run-from-the-table, leap-in-air over-the-shoulder no-look lob winner. That's Jean-Michel Saive on far side. [Bernard Lemal emailed me that the point was in the match for 3rd place at the 1991 World Men's Cup, with Waldner leading 18-9 in the third (best of three); he'd win a few points later. (The final was Persson over Gatien.) He also pointed out that though you can't see it clearly, Saive actually won the point by pushing the ball back, with Waldner stuck on the other side of the barriers. Here's the full match (13:11).]

Patrick Baum vs Steffen Mengel (2016 German National Championships) Final
Here's the video (11:19) – nice match. I wonder how long it's been since there was a German Men's Final without Timo Boll or Dimitrij Ovtcharov?

Butterfly Cary Cup Championship Final
Here's the video (41:25) of the match this past weekend between Zhang Bohan and Zirui Zhao, with Al Herr and Jeremy Hazin commentating.

The Art of Ping-Pong in Paddles
Here are 18.

Warrior Pong
Here's the picture!

Non-Table Tennis: Sale to Galaxy's Edge Magazine
In my other life as a part-time (though it sometimes seems full-time) science fiction & fantasy writer, I just sold a story to Galaxy's Edge, one of the premier markets, my third sale to them. The story, "Manbat and Robin," is a humorous takeoff on Batman and Robin, about a bat that thinks it's a superhero and his non-talking sidekick, a robin. Sorry, no table tennis in this one. 

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Tip of the Week
Remember the Feel of the Good Shots.

Backspin/No-Spin Serves
We did some practice on this in my adult training session yesterday, 6:30-8:00 PM. Most of the players there could serve good backspin serves, but that becomes passé at a certain level – it needs variation. If you switch to sidespin or topspin, it's rather easy to attack. But a very low no-spin serve is hard to do much of anything with – and if it looks like backspin, it can be devastating.

When you serve backspin, at most levels you will most likely receive a long push return, and so you likely set up to loop, forehand or backhand. For some, that's enough. But why not get some "free" points as well? A low, heavy, short backspin serve is difficult to attack, and that's why it's usually pushed back. But it's also easy for the receiver to push it back low and heavy, and so while you get to loop, you don't get a really easy ball to go after. That's where no-spin comes in.

When you serve no-spin, there's a higher chance the receiver, if he reads it properly, will attack it. But most likely, if you've set him up by serving backspin previously, will push it back. And if he doesn't adjust by chopping down, the ball will tend to pop up, giving you an easy ball to put away. It'll also have less backspin, as there's no incoming backspin to rebound with backspin.

How do you serve a no-spin serve? With spin, you contact the ball with a grazing motion toward the tip of the racket, since that's the fastest moving part. For non-spin, do the same motion, but contact the ball near the handle, the slowest moving part. You might also pull back slightly at contact to really lighten the contact. But fake like it's heavy spin – I even like to grunt sometimes! There's a reason why a good no-spin serve is called "heavy no-spin" – you fake heavy spin (usually backspin) with a big motion but give no spin. If you just pat the ball over with no fake motion, it's just no-spin, and easy to read.

When serving no-spin, you should be prepared for the receiver to try to attack, but if you serve it very low to the net – that's imperative – it's actually very tricky to do so. If they do push it, be ready for it to be slightly high and with less backspin – and so be ready to rip! When you serve backspin, be ready to loop. When you serve no-spin, be ready to loop hard! Some players almost telegraph this – when they serve backspin, they look to loop from either side, but when they serve no-spin, they cheat to their backhand side and look to for an all-out forehand. I'm probably guilty of this, but most opponents are a bit too busy receiving to notice.

Here are four Tips of the Week related to this – some redundancy.

• Those Dizzying No-Spin Serves
• The Power of a Low, Short, No-Spin Serve
• Fast, Quick Motions Disguise a No-Spin Serve
• Use Simple No-Spin Serves in Doubles

The Real Rules of Table Tennis
Here's the hilarious new video (8:24) – you don't want to miss this! I usually put the humorous items at the end, but I'm putting this first.

Dima Ovtcharov Backhand Tutorial - Part 2
Here's the video (5:13). Here is Part 1 (5:38), from a month ago.

Tomahawk Serve Preview
Here's the new video (1:47) from PingSkills.

The Amazing Serve of Kenta Matsudaira
Here's the video (69 sec) of the world #28 from Japan.

Table Tennis Serves in Slow Motion at the 2015 Swedish Open
Here's the video (2:01).

Bohan Zhang Wins 2016 Butterfly Cary Cup
Here's the home page for the event held this past weekend in Cary, NC, where you can get results, pictures, and video. (See "Results & Photos" for Days 1-3.) Here are articles by Barbara Wei.

• Bohan Zhang Wins 2016 Butterfly Cary Cup
• Top 16 Seeds Advance to Single Elimination Rounds at 2016 Butterfly Cary Cup
• North American Olympic Qualifier Participants Compete at 2016 Butterfly Cary Cup
• Butterfly Cary Cup Showcases Top East Coast Table Tennis Talent (also posted last week)

Good Sport
Here's the article on USATT Hall of Famer Dr. Michael Scott, subtitled, "94-year-old medical alumnus has traveled the world as a physician and table tennis champion."

MDTTC Newsletter
Here's the April issue. (I'm the editor.)

Tom's Table Tennis Newsletter
Here's the April issue from Tom Lodziak.

Different Levels but Level of Enthusiasm Same for Back to Back Indian Courses
Here's the ITTF article on USA's Richard McAfee's latest coaching courses in India.

15-Year-old Diaz Secures Historic Olympic Qualification
Here's the ITTF press release on the first Puerto Rican table tennis Olympian.

The Drinkhall Family on BBC Saturday Sportsday
Here's the article and video (2:29). Paul Drinkhall of England is world #65.

Incredible Around-Net Shot Leave Ma Lin Speechless
Here's the video (26 sec, including slow motion replay).

Sidespin Counterlooping Double-Bounce Shot
Here's the video (60 sec).

Table Tennis Head Shots
Here's the new video (40 sec) where the pair from PingSkills try to knock cones off each other heads.

Legos Pong
Here's the picture!

Non-Table Tennis: Interview with Larry Hodges [science fiction writer]
Here's the interview with me at the Aspiring Writers Unite! Web page, where I talk about my new science fiction novel, Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions, and other writerly things. I do mention table tennis several times. (One small problem – I had about 15 links in the interview, but they were inadvertently taken out. I've emailed asking if they can put them back in.)

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Ping-Pong for Quitters – My New Book!
Are you gutless under pressure? Unwilling to fight? If so, I have written the book for you!
Ping Pong for Quitters is my 12th book, my eighth on table tennis. (Here are all of my books.)
Realizing that most players are not as serious and hard-working as most high-level players,
I decided to write one for you, the normal player, the ones who don't always try their best,
like to goof off, and would rather quit than fight hard and put in all the hard work needed
for those who want to be the best. Some players will fight to the end in every game, but
others just don't have that warrior instinct. It is for those players that I dedicate this book.
Of course, few players will admit to being of the lazy, quitting sort, but no one has to know!
Like most of us, you can just have fun with the sport, and leave the sweat and tears to the
Stars (who buy this book instead) – and this book tells you how. On sale soon at Amazon!

MDTTC Spring Break Camp
This past week we had our Spring Break Camp at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. We had about 40 players in all, mostly ages 7-15. Because we have seven full-time coaches, I was only needed in three of the ten sessions, but my great coaching (and a bag of Jolly Ranchers candy) put me in great demand. The camp ends today - and little do the kids know that I have several bags of candy (Jolly Ranchers and Hershey Kisses) that at the end of the session I'll piled onto the table and let the kids try to knock them off as I feed multiball. (Whatever they knock off they get to keep - they are allowed to trade what they win with what's on the table.) 

MDTTC April Open
Next Saturday, on April 9, I'll be running the MDTTC April Open in Gaithersburg, Maryland – so sign up now! You can sign up online. Here's the MDTTC Tournament Page, and here's the entry form for this year's tournaments. Events include Open, U2350, U2000, U1700, U1350, Under 14, and Over 50 (all RR).

Sean O’Neill: Top Tips for Intermediate Players
Here's the new podcast (57 min) with the five-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion and two-time Olympian, from Expert Table Tennis. In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Sean got started in the sport and improved so quickly [1:00]
• Sean’s views on the future of table tennis [10:00]
• Why video analysis and scouting is so important [17:00]
• 3 tips for intermediate players [25:00]
• The important of good footwork and mastering the basics [32:00]
• Sean’s thoughts on The Expert in a Year Challenge [41.00]
• Encouragement to keep going when times are tough [46:00]
• How to contact Sean [52:00]

Forehand Topspin Tutorial
Here's the video (1:24) from 3StarTT coaching.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #250 (28:16) – "Our Last Show." Yep, it's hard to believe, but they are breaking up the band – no more "Ask the Coach" shows. I blame Yoko.

Junior Olympics and JOOLA Teams South
Table tennis is back in the Junior Olympics! They will be held this year in Houston, TX, Aug. 1-3. Here is the info page and the entry form. Some players will be going down a few days early as they will be holding the JOOLA Teams South in the same venue immediately before the Junior Olympics, on July 30-31. Get ready for five straight days of table tennis!

Butterfly Cary Cup Championship Live
Here's where you can watch the tournament this weekend, Fri-Sun.

World Table Tennis for All Day - April 6
Here's the USATT page for the event.

Judah Friedlander: The World Champ on 30 Rock, Trump, and Ping Pong
Here's the podcast (51:21) on the table tennis playing comedian & actor.

Athlete of the Month – Tin-Tin Ho, 17, from London
Here's the article.

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.

Top Ten Shots at the Qatar Open
Here's the video (6:11).

2016 Qatar and Kuwait Open Finals
Here's the USATT page with links for Men's and Women's Singles and Doubles finals.

Dream Garage Honda Civic Ad
Here's the video (30 sec) that features table tennis!

Jamie Oliver Playing Ping Pong
Here's the hilarious video (58 sec) of the famous British chef showing off his secret talent at table tennis.

Batman versus Superman
In honor of the #1 movie at the box office…

• Batman vs. Superman – the Ultimate showdown!
• Batman in an ITTF Pro Tour
• Batman serving
• Batman and Robin play doubles
• Batman vs. Robin
• Batman plays pong in a park
• Batman plays pong on a building
• Batman ping-pong set – with black balls
• Batman ping-pong balls
• Superman grabs paddle
• Superman flying with paddle
• Superman smashes cartoon
• Superman ping-pong set – with blue balls

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A Simple Side-to-Side Drill
Sometimes the best comes from the simplest. Yesterday I was working with Navin on his forehand-to-backhand transition, feeding multiball side to side as he hit forehands and backhands. After a bit I said now let's do it randomly, where he had to react to where the ball goes. But he hesitated. I asked why, and he said he was now hitting the forehand so well that he wanted to do the simple side-to-side drill longer, to really ingrain it. We'd been working a lot on his forehand, and more and more it's beginning to click. So we continued doing the drill for a while longer.

This brought back a memory from 1979, when I was an up-and-coming 19-year-old. From 1979-1981 I lived and trained in Wilson, NC, at the Butterfly TTC. I was training regularly with Bowie Martin Sr. (co-founder of Martin-Kilpatrick, more commonly known as Butterfly North America). He's a lefty, and I often drilled into his backhand. I remember doing the very same side-to-side forehand-backhand drill with him, over and over, with him backhand blocking side to side, often doing the drill more than once per session. Why? Because I was making the transition from forehand hitting to forehand looping. The drill allowed me to not only ingrain the stroke, but do it faster and quicker, often almost right off the bounce. By doing the drill constantly, I became very fast at moving to my wide forehand, good at taking the ball close to the table, and the stroke itself became very ingrained and consistent. I still fall back on this drill when I need to quickly get back into practice.

A key part of this is that you still need to do it in game situations, i.e. random drills. And so I also did random drills with Bowie – and guess what? Navin's going to be facing more and more in the coming weeks. (We're also going to do drills where he serves, I roll the ball back softly, and he smashes.) But he's also going to get a steady diet of side-to-side forehand-backhands. (This drill also ingrains the backhand and moving to the backhand, but that's a different story for a different day.)

Junior Olympics
After a several-years absence, table tennis is back in the Junior Olympics! Here's the entry form. It's in Houston, Aug. 1-3, with a North American Teams South on July 30-31 at the same venue. I'll likely be coaching at these events.

Seven Free Videos from International Table Tennis Skills
Here are free videos from Samson Dubina.

• How to Loop Long Serves
• Returning Short Serves
• Table Tennis Footwork
• Slow-Motion Serve Demonstration
• Backhand Loop Demo
• Mini-Steps for Huge Improvement
• In-and-Out

Important Aspects of Table Tennis Training Program
Here's the article.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #249 (31:00) - Frustratingly Close to Winning (and other segments).

Taught by Richard McAfee, Frederick Lee Puts Knowledge Learned to Good Use
Here's the ITTF article.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Vol. 17, Chapter 2
Here it is! You can buy this or other volumes at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

Second World Table Tennis Day Happening on Wednesday April 6
Here's the ITTF press release.

Jumpy University of Wisconsin-Madison
Here's the picture from the recent College Championships. L-R: Yash Shah, Pamela "Weirdo" Song, Maria Castillo, and Yixin Zhang. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Sausage Pong
Here's the video (50 sec)!

Panda Pong
Here's the picture!

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Systematic Drills
I've never understood why more players don't focus like a laser beam on exactly what they need to do to improve, and do specific drills that allow them to systematically develop those techniques. The key phrase here might be "systematically." For example, many rallies begin with an opponent looping against a push. This means you will face a loop off a push a lot - and so should practice systematically against it. To many, this means perhaps playing games or doing drills where the point starts with a player looping off a push - and that's a start. But suppose you do that, while your twin does a drill where he faces these loops against backspin five times as often, who's going to improve against it faster?

So instead of playing out points, why not have one player serve and loop against a push, and while the other player reacts to the loop (probably by blocking, smashing, or counterlooping), the other player is reaching for another ball from a box of balls to serve and loop again. Result? One player gets systematic practice looping against a push; the other gets systematic practice against a loop off a push, perhaps working on his counterloop, which is different against a loop off backspin then a loop in a topspin rally. Both players dramatically improve. 

The same logic applies to other situations. Have trouble with a specific serve - say, a big breaking serve into the backhand? Then have a coach systematically give you that serve, without playing out the point. Or have a practice partner give you that serve and perhaps he plays one shot off your return, and then reach for another ball. Result? He systematically practices his serve and attack, while you systematically practice your receive off the serve that gives you trouble. 

So analyze what you need to work on in your game, both weaknesses to address and strengths to develop or improve, and find systematically find ways to develop them. This doesn't mean you never play out points; it means using a part of your practice systematically working on these techniques, and other parts of your practice playing out points. 

Training Alone
Here's a one-man coaching video (4:28) from Sri-Lanka. It covers nearly every shot.

College Table Tennis

• 250 of the World's Best in Round Rock for Collegiate Championships (with link to video)
• Ohlone's Ying Wang Takes Women's Singles Title
• Mississippi College Star Yi Chi Zhang Captures Singles Title
• Table Tennis Title Comes Home to Fort Worth!
• See Andrew Chen interview below!

Interview with Victor Liu
Here's the video (2:56) from Butterfly.

Interview with Tara Profitt
Here's the USATT interview.

11 Questions with Ross Brown
Here's the USATT interview. 

Butterfly Cary Cup Showcases Top East Coast Table Tennis Talent
Here's the article by Barbara Wei on the Cary, NC tournament this weekend.

How Garry Shandling Protected Me in Comedy (and Crushed Me in Ping Pong)
Here's the article from Vanity Fair.

Table Tennis Comes Alive at the World War Memorial Building
Here's the article from KX News (South Dakota).

2016 World Veteran Table Tennis Championships iOS App
Here's the info page.

Paddle Battle for Mental Health
Here's the info page, where they've so far raised $23,265. "The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada’s leading hospital for mental health, providing for more than 30,000 patients each year. They provide urgent, inpatient and outpatient care and specialized services for children, youth, families and seniors. CAMH has Ontario’s only 24/7 emergency department dedicated to psychiatric care. CAMH is also a leading centre for brain science research, focusing on genetics, molecular medicine, brain imaging and new drug development to better treat and prevent mental illness."

Playing Ping Pong to Fight Poverty
Here's the article from Tristate News (Indiana).

Top Ten Rallies from Fan Zhendong in 2015
Here's the video (5:05).

Interview with University of Texas and Andrew Chen
Here's the hilarious interview at the National College TT Championships this past weekend – the link should take you directly to 2hr 24min 49 sec, where there's a hilarious interview for about two minutes – that's Andrew Chen saying, "…but let's talk about me," and so on. The whole video is over ten hours if you want to browse the rest.

Elephant, Rabbit, Hippo Pong
Here's the image.

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Tip of the Week
Stroke Technique vs. Consistency, Serve, and Receive.

USATT Training Camp
USATT will be running a two-week "Super Camp" for USA team members immediately after the July 4-9 USA Nationals. With July 10 a travel date, the camp will run July 11-24. The location will be finalized soon, probably this next week. (We already have at least one very good option.) Organizing it is the new USATT High Performance Director Cory Eider, with assistance from Sean O'Neill, Han Xiao, and myself. I'm the volunteer, unpaid camp manager and one of the coaches. Sean and Han will also be there one week each as coaches. Other coaches will be named later, including a head coach for each week. (On a side note, I got the okay from Cory to go public with all this. I don't want to upstage USATT on their camp, but he wanted everything to be transparent and said to go ahead and blog about it.)

We had a 2.5 hour Google hangout meeting yesterday (Cory, Sean, Han, and myself, from 3-5:30PM), where we discussed and planned the camp. A big emphasis is going to be physical training. As I blogged last Wednesday (see item #3 of the items where I discuss my thoughts on the HPD position), we have to focus on the weaknesses of USA players, and we were all in agreement that physical training was a top priority. That and receive seem to be the biggest weakness relative to our overseas competitors.

Invited to the camp will be the members of the U.S. National Men's, Women's, Junior, Cadet, Mini-Cadet, and Hopes Teams. Others will likely be invited as well. If you are a top, Top, TOP player or coach, or have a top, Top, TOP-class venue, then perhaps you should contact Cory.

As I've blogged before, right now we have the strongest group of players at the cadet and younger age level than at any time in history, and it's not even close. This is the first group since the hardbat era with the real potential to take the world by storm, ending our 60-year-nap. Our last major title at the World Table Tennis Championships was the 1956 World Mixed Doubles title – Erwin Klein and Leah Neuberger. We should bring in Tybie Sommer to give the USA team a pep talk – she's the USA's 1948 World Mixed Doubles Champion (then known as Thelma Thall) with Dick Miles, and is alive and well in Scottsdale, AZ. USA's heyday was 1937, when we swept Men's and Women's Teams, Women's Singles, and Men's Doubles. We were competitive at the highest levels into the 1950s . . . and never since.

As an incentive to the players to work hard in the camp, especially during physical training, here's a challenge from this former high school miler and marathon runner (40 years ago). In any long distance running, anyone on the Men's, Women's, Junior, or Cadet Teams who finishes behind me has to run extra. If anyone on the Mini-Cadets or Hopes Teams finishes ahead of me, I have to run extra. So train hard so you can shame me or avoid getting shamed yourself!

I'll have to miss the last three days of the camp. Here's my extremely complicated July schedule:

• July 3-10: USA Nationals in Las Vegas
• July 10-22: USA Training Camp in [TBD]
• July 22-30: Manchester, NH, for my annual writing workshop vacation
• July 30-Aug. 3: Houston, TX, coaching at 4-star Team Competition (July 30-31) and Junior Olympics (Aug. 1-3).

Podcast with Jan-Ove Waldner
Here it is (40:29). From TableTennisDaily. He's arguably the greatest player of all time. Topics covered:

• 02:30 Naturally gifted? 
• 04:30 Why Jan started playing.
• 06:40 How Jan gets feeling for the ball.
• 08:10 How much practice Jan did when he was younger.
• 11:24 How to get good at reading the game.
• 14:19 More on the importance of matches in the practice hall.
• 15:46 Was Jan really as calm as he looked when playing big matches?
• 19:00 The Waldner Service.
• 27:35 Ball issues.
• 29:00 Changing from 38 to 40mm ball.
• 30:40 Prize money.
• 34:30 ITTF.
• 35:43 Ma Long.
• 37:03 Chinese Hurricane rubber.

College Table Tennis Championships
Here is the home page, results and video for the event, held this past weekend in Round Rock, TX.

Qatar Open
Here's the ITTF home page for the event held this past weekend, with results, articles, pictures, video, etc.

Developing a Basic Tactical Plan for Competitions
Here's the new coaching article by Francisco Mendez, 9-time Mexican Men's Singles Champion.

The Best Physical Training Exercises for Developing Table Tennis Footwork
Here's the new coaching article (with links to video) from MH Table Tennis.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #248 (30:20) - Dealing with Backspin (and other segments)

Indore Host for First Ever Level Three Course Stage in India
Here's the ITTF article on the latest coaching course ran by USA's Richard McAfee.

The Table Tennis Buddy System
Here's the new article from Coach Jon.

Playing Ping Pong is Exercise for Life
Here's the article.

Make New York State Consider Drunk Driving a Violent Crime
This is only tangentially table tennis, but here's the petition from USA Paralympic star Tahl Leibovitz.

RIP Garry Shandling
Why is this in a table tennis blog? Because Garry did one of the best table tennis spoofs ever. In a December, 1988 episode of "It's Garry Shandling's Show," he did a table tennis episode titled The Natural, which spoofed the great Robert Redford baseball movie The Natural. "Garry attempts to make a comeback at ping pong in spite of an incident that put an end to his ping pong days 18 years ago." Unfortunately, I can't find any of the episode online.

ITTF-European Olympic Qualification Tournament Moved to Halmstad, Sweden
Here's the ITTF press release. "Due to the present circumstances in Turkey, the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU) has come to a conclusion to reschedule the ITTF-European Olympic Qualification Tournament that that was originally scheduled to be held in Istanbul, Turkey."

Tapper Becomes First Australian Paralympian to Qualify for the Olympic Games
Here's the ITTF press release.

Competitive Table Tennis Finds a Home in Northern Virginia
Here's the article from the Loudoun Times-Mirror.

San Ramon, Calif., Tween Excelling in Table Tennis, Named to U.S. Team
Here's the article on 11-year-old Mudit Mahajan.

Quentin Robinot - No Look Shot
Here's the video (23 sec, including slow motion replay) of the French play, #107 in the world.

12 Table Tennis Balls in One Hand
Here's the video (1:30).

New Roger Federer Table Tennis Commercial
Here's the video (30 sec). Here's the other one (46 sec) from last November.

Everybody Wants Some – Trailer
Here's the trailer (2:30) for the upcoming movie "Everybody Wants Some" – with four seconds of table tennis, starting 40 sec in. (Link should take you there.)

NEW Rotisserie-Style Chicken at SUBWAY
Here's the video (30 sec), which strangely starts out (first four seconds) with someone playing table tennis using a tablet as table tennis racket. Like the movie trailer in segment above, it too ends with a player throwing his "racket."

Table Tennis (or Spoon Pong?) on King of Queens
Here's the video (1:50)!

Crazy Table Tennis Spin Serve!
Here's the video (15 sec)!

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Off Until Tuesday
As usual, when there's a holiday and the kids are off school, I'm off too, and they are off Friday (Good Friday) and Monday (Easter). Spring Break actually begins today – no school locally today, tomorrow, or all of next week, with schools reopening on Monday, April 4 – but I'm only taking the two "official" holidays off. I'm not really taking Friday off – I'm declaring it a "USATT day," where I spend the day working on USATT issues. (This weekend and Monday, on the other hand, I may do a "House of Cards" marathon!) I'm also coaching at the two-day mini-camp at MDTTC later this morning and tomorrow, probably only the morning sessions.

In Memoriam
Here are some of the people I've known well from table tennis who have died. The list isn't comprehensive; there are many more, but these are the ones who were influential to me, in alphabetical order, with apologies to those missed. (Feel free to post your own comments below on any of them.) 

• Rutledge Barry. He made the semifinals of Men's Singles at the USA Nationals at age 15, then a year or so later disappeared from the sport for about 15 years. I used to study his receive - so much touch! The last time I saw him before he disappeared I guaranteed him he'd be back, and I was right. But things didn't go right in his life, and he committed suicide I his early 30s.  
• Alan Evenson. One of the best regional players my first few years, he was the long-haired "hippy" who could loop anything when looping wasn't yet as widespread. I watched him play in awe at my first tournament, the 1976 Maryland/Virginia/DC Area Closed, where he won Open Singles. We had some great battles after I finally caught up to him about three years later. I tried, and failed, to copy his backhand loop.
• Alan Fendrick. One of the funnest people ever, and a member of the famous/infamous "Boos Brothers" at the Teams. I jokingly called him Fenwick, but promised I'd never do it again if he ever beat me in a tournament. Sore arm problems helped, and so did his constant changing of pace, and after he upset me in a tournament, I never called him Fenwick again.
• Herb Horton. One of the most influential players for me, a very defensive 2000+ chopper with antispin on both sides who got everything back, he seemed to like playing me right from the start, and is the primary reason I developed a strong forehand. The first time we played he beat me 21-1, 21-0, 21-2. Fourteen months later, no doubt because of his willingness to play me regularly, he was the first 2000 player I ever beat in a tournament.
• Kjell Johansson. He's the only one on this list I never actually met, but after spending huge numbers of hours copying his forehand, I felt like I knew him. He was a Men's Singles finalist at the 1973 World's, three years before I started playing.
• Tony Khan. He offered to give me a ride to a tournament out in Virginia, an hour away, back when I was 17. He showed up in a motorcycle, and so I had my only motorcycle ride of my life. If my parents had known, they would have vetoed it – my brother almost died in a motorcycle crash. At the tournament in the final of Under 1700 he had me 20-15 match point, and I came back to win. He died in a motorcycle crash on the way home afterwards.
• Carl Kronlage. He picked me for his league team back when I was a 1400 player (late 1976, the year I started at age 16), and practiced with me for the league matches. I remember copying his strokes.
• Tong Lee. Some found him abrasive, but he was almost always right on the issues during his time as USATT treasurer, and put in long hours.
• Chris Manglitz. A pure TT enthusiast, always ready to help out, who'd drive anywhere to play, and loved doubles. And then someone shot him and his wife. For years afterwards we ran an annual Chris Manglitz Memorial Doubles Tournament to raise college funds for his three sons, who were roughly ages 8-12 when their parents died. (They were adopted by Chris's brother.)
• Dennis Masters. I spent many hours practicing with his son, Brian, and then he began to run 4-star tournaments all over the country, plus U.S. Opens and Nationals, and I tried to play in them all.
• Dick Miles. We spent years arguing over whether it was possible to change the direction of the racket's motion right around contact to vary the spin – he believed this was impossible. But he regularly called me up with ideas to promote table tennis.
• Marty Prager. He and I spent decades competing as coaches at the Junior Olympics, Junior Nationals, and other major tournaments, with professional respect for each other – and had a great time debating table tennis issues on the sidelines.
• Marty Reisman. Without him, I never would have played table tennis. I was 16 and looking for a book on Track & Field at the library, and looked to my left, and there it was – "The Money Player," by Marty Reisman. That's how I discovered Table Tennis. When I first met him many years later, I told him this story – and he replied, "Great. Another life I've ruined."
• Barry Rodgers. One of the nicest and most well-meaning people, he and I ran for the USATT board in 1991 and we both made it. He was a big leader in Pittsburgh area table tennis for years. Great things were in store from him, but liver cancer ended that.
• Ron Snyder. One of the advanced players at the club my first few years (going from 1700 to 2000), a blocker with a great backhand smash, he was willing to play me right from the start, even though he probably won the first 100 times we played.
• Johnny Stillions. I became friends with him at tournaments – I knew him through Brian Masters, who I was practicing with regularly – and he and I played pranks on Eric Boggan. Then he died in a car crash when he was around 16.
• Nate Sussman. Defensive whiz, 1800+, another good guy who played me right from the start.
• Jim Verta. One of the nicest guys you'd ever meet and a titan of regional table tennis, he too played me right from the start, and spent years combining table tennis and bridge. He was the Over 60 National Champion when I started, and I was in awe of this.
• Zhi-Yong Wang. One of the best coaches I ever met, with gravelly advice on anything table tennis – but the smoking (and lung cancer) did him in.

Club Friday at Potomac Community Center
I recently did three two-hour long demo/clinics at the Potomac Community Center for their Club Friday program. (All unpaid volunteer.) Here are pictures taken: Slideshow1 and Slideshow2; and Video1 (13 sec, by Shaw Zee – this one automatically downloads a .mov video) and Video2 (11:38, by Terry Berman – this youtube video starts with me warming up with Gary Schlager (who also volunteered) before getting to the demo and clinic).

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17 (1989-90)
USATT is now featuring each chapter, one each week. Here's chapter one of the 17th volume by USATT Historian Tim Boggan, subtitled "1989: USTTA President Eisner on How Things Are Going." Or you can buy this one, or any of the preceding 16 – or all 17 – by going to Tim Boggan's page, which I maintain for him.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #247 (34:51) - Engaging the Legs (and other segments).

DHS ITTF Top 10 - 2016 Kuwait Open
Here's the video (4:02) of the top ten shots at the Kuwait Open.

SPiN Chicago
Here's the video (1:29) of their recent opening.

Zhang Jike Motivated By Dimitrij Ovtcharov
Here's the article (with links to video) from Tabletennista.

Qatar Open
Here's the ITTF home page for the ITTF World Tour event, March 23-27, with results, articles, pictures, and video.

Paralympian Tapper One Win Away From Olympic Dream 

Here's the ITTF press release about Australia's Melissa Tapper on the verge of making both the Olympic and Paralympic teams.

Hudson Trio Shines at Table Tennis Tournaments
Here's the article from the Hudson Hub Times. Featured for the performances at the recent Arnold Challenge are Roger Liu (14), Janset Aykanat (8) and Aydin Aykanat (41).

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.

FOOTPONG | Pongfinity vs. Lassi Hurskainen
Here's the video (4:27) where football (that's soccer to us Americans) and table tennis take each other on in various contests, such as putting out a lighted candle, going through a small, rolling tube, or curving around a pole.

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