Regional Team Leagues and State Championships
(Note – this just went up on as a USATT News Item, and will go in the upcoming USATT Insider and emailed to all USATT clubs.)

Dear Club Leaders,

How'd you like to run a Regional Team League? Or a State Championship? If there already are ones in your state, then you're all set! But if not, USATT needs your help in organizing them.

Here is a listing of Regional Team Leagues currently in operation – email me if I'm missing any.

• Austin Texas League
• Capital Area League (DC area)
• Chicago League
• Denver League
• Genesee Valley League (Rochester, NY)
• LA League
• NY League

Here's a listing of State Championships held in 2015 (with the assumption that most will have similar championships in 2016). So far 2016 State Championships (or State Games) have been sanctioned in AL, AR, AZ, CA, FL, IN, MN, MO, NY, OK, PA, VA, and WI. (I plan to run one in Maryland, tentatively June 25-26. Other states also have plans for ones that are not yet listed as sanctioned.)

Now let's assume you are one of those unfortunate states without a Regional Team League or a State Championship, but like all those who want to Make USATT Great Again (as some say we were during the hardbat era long ago), or just want to play in them, what can you do?

Why not organize them yourself? Or contact other club leaders, and work together to set them up? (I find that having multiple people working on a project like this often energizes all of them.)

Here is the USATT League Page, which includes a link to this League News Item (which explains the importance and benefits of leagues), and to the USATT League Prototype, which you can use as a starting model. (You don't have to be a member of USATT to play in such a league.)

Here is the USATT State Championships Page, which gives info on setting up a State Championship, with the goal of holding them in all 50 states this year. (Unlikely, but if we strive for it, we'll get more than if we don't.)

Why are leagues so important? It creates a different atmosphere than the "winner stay on" mentality so common in the U.S., fostering instead a "team" atmosphere, where you cheer for your team, and your team cheers for you. It's why European countries have table tennis memberships that dwarf USATT's, and why league-based sports have such large memberships.

To quote from the League page:

Those who study sports association memberships can help but notice a pattern: those with huge membership do so through team leagues. That's the reason why the German Table Tennis Association has 600,000 members, why the U.S. Tennis Association has 700,000 members, and why the U.S. Bowling Congress has over two million members. And the lack of such a league structure is the primary reason USA Table Tennis has only 9000 members."

But you don't play in a team league just so you can boost your association's membership; you do so because it's fun! You're pumped up because your teammates are cheering for you, you win and lose as a team, and when it's all done, you and your opponents go out for pizza.

Why are State Championships so important? Because they foster local news media, leading to publicity and growth in the sport. To quote from the USATT State Championships Page:

For most players, the State Championships should be one of the most important events of the year. Many can compete to become a State Champion, whether it be in men's or women's singles, a senior event, a junior event, hardbat or sandpaper, a rating event, or doubles. It gives them something to train and look forward to. It's also the time when players from all over the state get together for table tennis and fun, usually ending with everyone going out for dinner together.

We'd like to celebrate these champions by commemorating them on a USATT State Champions Page as well as on the USATT News page. We'd also like to have an annual Parade of Champions at the U.S. Nationals, where, between matches during the showcase events, we invite all the attending state champions to take a march around the playing arena as the crowd cheers.

We'd like to turn these State Championships into major events in the local media. To do this, the tournament director or publicity director would simply Google the local TV, radio, and newspaper listings to get contact emails. Then, the week before the tournament, send them press releases inviting them to cover the tournament. Afterwards send them a follow-up press release that they can use.

To set up a nationwide system of regional leagues and state championships we need your help, either in organizing them, or in talking to club leaders to do so. Now's the time to get busy!

Sincerely,

Larry Hodges
USATT League Chair, State Associations Coordinator, and member of USATT Board of Directors

More Brain and Ping Pong
Here's the video (1:44). This needs to go viral!

Articles from Samson Dubina
Here are two – though the second is guest-written by Seth Pech.

• The Comeback Artist (written by Coach Seth Pech)
• Winning At Deuce: Learn to play your strongest tactics

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #240 (21:30) - Topspin Tomahawk Serve (and other segments)

Go Mobile with USATT
View a live mobile version of www.usatt.org on an iPhone.

Michael Maze Retires
Here's the article on the Danish star, former world #8, and one of the greatest lobbers ever. Here's the new A Legend Says Goodbye video (10:24).

Coach Selection Procedures for 2016 Paralympic Games
Here's the USATT info page. Are you interested (and qualified?) to coach the U.S. Paralympic Team? (A similar notice went up last week for the Paralympic Team Leader.)

Liam Pitchford Hungry for More
Here's the article of the English star who helped lead England to the semifinals of the World Men's Team Championships.

2016 World Championships Interview - Jun Mizutani
Here's the video (2:18) with the world #6 from Japan.

"I Love Table Tennis"
Here's the picture!

Mostly non-Table Tennis: Book Trailer for Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions
Here's the video (80 sec) which I mentioned in passing a few days previously but you probably missed it. It was created by Nathan Hsu, who is rated 2474 and has been over 2500. A 2500 player could not possibly steer you wrong! A big thanks goes to Nathan for creating this, who wouldn't even take payment for it – so now I guess I'll have to coach him at tournaments or something.

***

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Tip of the Week
Outlining the Book on Your Game.

Wild Weekend
I had a rather busy table tennis weekend. Here's a rundown.

FRIDAY: After spending most of the day slaving away at my desk on various issues, I left at 2:30 for the afterschool program (school pickups and coaching at MDTTC) and 30 minutes of English tutoring, finishing at 5:30PM. Then I was off for the Potomac Community Center, half an hour away, for a two-hour demonstration/clinic with 30-40 kids, as part of their Club Friday Program. (This was the third one we've done over the past five weeks.) Great thanks goes to Herman Yeh (president of the Potomac TTC, which meets there) for setting this up, and local volunteers Gary Schlager and others who helped out.

SATURDAY: This was a crazy day - the day Navin Kumar played on the robot for 16 straight hours!!! He did this at the Maryland Table Tennis Center to raise $1600 for an upcoming Paralympic trip to Romania - he has both a mechanical heart and Parkinson's. Here's his funding page, which also explains his situation in more detail. (I think we raised another $420 directly during the marathon.) I was there the entire time, arriving at 6:30 AM to set up, and then from 7AM-11PM for the actual marathon. (Navin will likely do a write-up of this, probably for tomorrow's blog.) So, what did I do while Navin hit approximately 60,000 balls? I did my own writing marathon, where I completed the following eleven articles:

• Wrote five coaching articles for upcoming Tips of the Week - four of them were pretty long;
• Finalized article/letter to clubs and for the USATT website and insider, about leagues and state championships;
• Wrote most of this morning's blog (which you are reading now), including most of the links.
• Wrote an article for the "Live to Read" blog, as a way to promote my recent science fiction novel Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions - it should go up sometime this week. It's about the "Big Ideas" in the novel - the problems with a two-party electoral system, and moderation in politics.
• Wrote an analysis of the opening chapter of Robert J. Sawyer's recent SF novel Quantum Night, which I put up this morning in my science fiction blog. It basically explained why a seemingly boring opening - a professor lecturing a college class - was such a compelling read. Great novel about neuroscience, psychopaths, and the nature of consciousness itself.
• Wrote one of my regular Top Ten Lists for Orioles Hangout, a regular column I do for them.
• Wrote a new science fiction story, "Theatre of Death."

SUNDAY: Both of my usual Sunday students were away, so it should have been a slow Sunday, right? Well, not really. First, of course, we lost an hour to Daylight Savings Time. Then I had an exhibition for the Chinese School at Hoover Middle School, which I did with John Hsu, with Wen Hsu also helping out.

I did the usual opening talk about table tennis, questioning them (with a show of hands) on how many of them had played before, been to clubs, had coaching, knew that China dominated table tennis (after first trying to convince that USA did), that it was an Olympic sport, and that they could come to camps at nearby MDTTC. Then John and I demoed the strokes. Then I went into my "A terrible thing has happened" spiel, where I explained that after years of training, John now had a big head, and thought he could be me! Then we had the challenge match, where he played straight man while I went through my usual antics – big paddle, little paddle, long-distance serving, rolling around on the floor, arguing with the umpire, under-the-leg serves, rallying by myself with two paddles, blowing the ball over the net, etc.

One small detail I neglected to mention – due to a last-minute problem, they weren't able to get a regular table to the school – and so Wen packed up and brought over a mini-table! Yep, the entire demo/exhibition was on a mini-table. And yet it went pretty much as if it were on a full-sized table. (I explained to the kids that this wasn't the normal size, but they all knew that.)

After that was a pair of 90-minute group sessions - a junior class and then adult training. It wasn't planned, but I seemed to spend much of the session working on players' backswings - some were too short, some too long, one too much straight back, and one waited too long to begin his. After spending 16 hours sitting in a chair writing on Saturday, my back was killing me, so it wasn't an easy day.

Table Tennis Optimal Serving Mechanics - Like a Boss!
Here's the new coaching video from Brett Clarke. An excellent demo and explanation of the mechanics of serving.

Don't Make Me Mad... Mentally Strong vs Mentally Weak
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

Dima Ovtcharov Table Tennis Backhand Tutorial (part one)
Here's the new video (5:38).

Obituary for James Verta 1916-2015
Here's the USATT article and pictures, by Barbara Kaminsky. This one caught me off guard - somehow I hadn't heard he'd died, even though it was almost a year ago. Jim was nice enough to hit with me regularly back when I started out in 1976. He was the reigning U.S. Over 60 champion at the time. He was later a regular at the Maryland Table Tennis Center our first ten years or so, regularly showing up with Herb Horton, Bob Kaminsky, and sometimes others to play table tennis and bridge - we even kept a card table at the club just for them. He was also a financial backer of the club early on.

The Table Tennis Tournament Tot
Here's the new article from Coach Jon. "USATT should stop sanctioning tournaments in which adults compete against children!"

Review - 2016 World Team TT Championships
Here's the article from Ping Pong Ruler.

2016 World Championships Breaks TV Viewership Records
Here's the ITTF press release.

DHS Top 10 - Perfect 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships
Here's the new video (5:45).

2016 World Team Championships - Men's Final: China vs. Japan
​Here's the complete video (2:10:56) - relive it now!

The Comic and the Ping Pong Champ
Here's the article from the New York Times, featuring Judah Friedlander and Wu Yue.

The First Ever Chicago Table Tennis League Nears the End of Its Season
Here's the USATT article.

Spin Will Let You Play Ping-Pong While You Drink
Here's the article from Chicago Magazine on Spin Chicago, the new Susan Sarandon-backed bar.

Does Your Office Need To Ditch The Ping-Pong Table?
Here's the article from Forbes Magazine.

How Table Tennis is Keeping This Group of Retirees Young
Here's the article from the Daily Journal in Kankakee, IL.

Augusta Table Tennis Classic Slideshow
Here are the links.

Table Tennis to Explore Possible Restructure of Major Events
Here's the article from Inside the Games.

Lily Zhang Road to Rio
Here's the repeating gif image from NBC Olympics.

Ping Pong Power
Here's the new video (43 sec) from Sweden, which seems to be about the upcoming 2018 World Cup in Halmstad.

What Type of Handle is This?
Here's the picture from Mike Mezyan. (Here's the non-Facebook version.) Is it a bottle opener? One of the Moai statues from Easter Island? (Or perhaps the Great Kahuna from Sherman's Lagoon.) Or, if you turn it upside down, perhaps the baby alien from Alien? Or maybe it's just a ping-pong paddle handle.

Ping Pong Pi Day!
Yes, today (3.14) is pi day!

Table Tennis Spiderboy!
Here's the video (42 sec) as he bounces ball against side of table like a pro.

***

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Robot Cleaning, Thursday Class, Potomac Clinic, and Navin's Robot Marathon
In preparation for Navin Kumar's 16-hour robot marathon tomorrow (see segment below), I partly disassembled the robot and cleaned it with wet paper towels and a toothbrush. It's the first time I've done this; took about 45 minutes. I ended up pulling about two handfuls of dust and gunk out of the robot, including half a broken ping-pong ball and part of a crayon! Before, it had been jamming every now and then; afterwards, it ran noticeably smoother and didn't jam during our entire beginning junior training session.

In the Thursday beginning junior class I worked with five kids, ages 11 to 13, mostly with multiball training. Here are some notes on them.

1. Player A has a good forehand, but keeps turning sideways for his backhand, tennis style. (He plays tennis.) So we worked on standing a more square to the table. He picked it up pretty quickly, but it wasn't easy – though he was extremely enthusiastic about playing, he was probably the least serious about working to improve, and often had fun smacking balls way off the end on purpose.
2. Player B keeps thrusting his elbow forward when hitting forehands, which opens the racket and keeps him from rotating into the shot properly. So we spent a lot of time shadow practicing the shot properly. I had him use his free hand to hold the elbow in place. Once he got the knack of keeping the elbow back, the rest gradually fell into place, and soon he was hitting pretty decent forehands. He also has a tendency to stand up too straight, so I had him put his racket down and pretend to "cover me" in basketball – and sure enough, he immediately went to a wider stance with knees slightly bent. Then we worked on him doing that in table tennis as well.
3. Player C is trying to put topspin on the ball with his backhand, but keeps lofting the ball off the end as he swings up to put topspin on the ball. This was a case of all or nothing – I kept trying to get him to close his racket and topspin more on top of the ball, and he kept lifting off the end, over and over . . . and then, suddenly, something clicked, and he began topspinning more on top of the ball, and bingo! He had the most advanced backhand in the class, a nice topspinning backhand.
4. Player D is the strongest player in the class, but tends to stand up too straight. I worked with him on this, pointing out my experience once in playing the 6'4" Jim Butler many years ago and realizing I was looking down on him when he went into his ready stance. (I'm 5'10".) We spent much of the session working on forehand looping, and then on forehand loop against backspin followed by a forehand smash against topspin as I fed multiball, alternating backspin and topspin.
5. Player E tends to stand a bit too rooted to the ground, reaching for balls, and not rotating the body into shots. So we went the other extreme, and I had her do the 2-1 drill – backhand from backhand side, forehand from backhand side, forehand from forehand side, and repeat. I reminded her of the "circle the rod through the head" idea for her forehands. She picked it up pretty quickly.

Tonight, after doing the afterschool program at MDTTC (leave at 2:15 for pickups, finish at 5:30), I'll be at the Potomac club from 6:30-8:30 PM doing demos and clinics for their Club Friday, where we'll compete with other sports (such as basketball) and activities to attract table tennis players. This will be our third time; we did this two weeks ago and two weeks before that. We got 30-40 kids the last two times. I'm also doing an exhibition with John Hsu on Sunday at 1:30 PM at Hoover Middle School for the Potomac Chinese School. 

And then, on Saturday morning, I'll be at MDTTC at 7AM for . . .

Navin Kumar's 16-Hour Marathon for Funding
Navin's marathon is from 7AM-11PM tomorrow (Saturday) at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. To raise $1600 for an upcoming Paralympic trip to Romania he'll be hitting on the robot for 16 hours straight! (Short hourly breaks.) This despite having a mechanical heart and Parkinson's. Want to help out? Here's his funding page, which also explains his situation in more detail. (I'll be there the first and last few hours. I donated $40, and he's going to pay for that in our next session – lots of footwork drills. I'm his coach.)

How to Identify and Exploit an Opponent’s Weakness
Here's the coaching article by Tom Lodziak. I linked to this on Monday as part of his Newsletter, but it deserves a direct link.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #239 (18:16) - Injuries and the New Plastic Ball (and other segments).

TT Radar
Here's a site devoted to "…list all publicly available Table Tennis / Ping Pong venues. Some are free, some need to be hired. Find a Table Tennis venue, click on its pin for more details, locate and play!"

Setting the Standard in Kuala Lumpur, Liu Shiwen Continues in Top Spot
Here's the article from Butterfly on the world's #1.

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.

Taking on a Pro - Melissa Tapper
Here's the video (58 sec) as aerial skiing athlete David Morris challenges Melissa in her sport.

Highlights Music Video
Here's one (5:47) I don't think I've linked to before.

Cat Compilation
Here's the video!

"Be the Racket!"
Here's video (30 sec) of a Japanese girl playing table tennis, using as a racket . . . her face! (So, real or not real?

Lola by Todd Clark
Here's the TT cartoon from Wednesday. "Score doesn't matter."

***

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Service Practice Tricks
What tricks can you make the ball do when serving? Can you put two balls on the far corners of the table and knock them both off with two fast, deep serves? Serve backspin so the ball comes back into the net – or even bounce back over it? Can you serve sidespin serves that bounce on the far left court and then curve into the right court and off the right side-line? Can you start with a forehand pendulum serve and then, at the last second, contact the ball with the backhand side (often with a quick, down-the-line topspin serve)? Can you toss the ball under your leg when serving? These are some of the "fun" serving tricks you might try. Hint – this'll be part of an upcoming Tip of the Week – some of these tricks are useful to practice as they give you the control to do effective serves. (Okay, not the under-the-leg one – that's not legal since you can't hide the ball from opponents, right?)

14 Months of Books
I know, I know, to half of you the very title makes your eyes glaze over. Sorry!!! But here's a listing of the 43 books I read from 2015 to the present (so just over 14 months), not in the order that I read them. They include eight books on table tennis, with my reviews on six of them. (But don't forget about my books!) And somehow I still manage to read the Washington Post every day, as well as Scientific American, The Bulletin of SFWA, Table Tennis Insider, and about five other magazines . . . there was a time when I used to devour a new book every day or so, but these days I just don't have the time, plus I'm also into doing crosswords at lunch, which take up time I could be reading. (Confession – I'm in a rush to finish this morning as I'm off to see my tax accountant. I'll try to be more substantive tomorrow.)

TABLE TENNIS (8)

1. The Metaphysics of Ping-Pong (2015) by Guido Mina di Sospiro. Here's my review.
2. Mental Strength – with Jan-Ove Waldner's Tips for Peak Performance (2013), by Gregor Schill and Malin Pettersson. Here's my review
3. 100 Days of Table Tennis (2015) by Samson Dubina. Here's my review (see right side of page – more a promotional segment).
4. Ping Pong for Fighters (2014) by Tahl Leibovitz. Here's my review.
5. Ogi: The Life of Ichiro Ogimura (2009) by Mitsuro Jojima. Here's my review, which includes ordering info at the end.
6. Ping-Pong Diplomacy (2015) by Nicholas Griffin. Here's my review.
7. My Secret Life as a Ping-Pong Wizard (2005) by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver. Children's book.
8. The Mystery of the Lost Racket (2013) by Enzo Pettinelli. Children's book.

NON-FICTION (6)

1. Napoleon: A Life, by Andrew Roberts (900+ pages)
2. The Quantum Moment by Robert Crease and Alfred Goldhaber
3. Leading Change by John Cotter
4. The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond
5. Putting It Together by Mike Resnick (book on writing)
6. How to Write Funny, edited by John Kachuba

FICTION (29 - all science fiction or fantasy)

1. Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer
2. Seven Eves by Neal Stephenson
3. Tuf Voyaging by George R.R. Martin
4. Ancient Shores by Jack McDevitt
5. Coming Home by Jack McDevitt
6. The Cassandra Project by Jack McDevitt and Mike Resnick
7. Barsk: The Elephants Graveyard by Lawrence Schoen
8. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
9. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
10. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
11. The Martian by Andy Weir
12. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
13. Foundation by Isaac Asimov (reread this series)
14. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
15. Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
16. Eagle Against the Stars by Steve White
17. The Wizard and the White House by Mike Maggio
18. I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells
19. Mr. Monster by Dan Wells
20. Summer Knight (The Dresden Files book #4) by Jim Butcher
21. Death Masks (The Dresden Files book #5) by Jim Butcher
22. Blood Rites (The Dresden Files book #6) by Jim Butcher
23. Dead Beat (The Dresden Files book #7) by Jim Butcher
24. Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files book #8) by Jim Butcher
25. White Night (The Dresden Files book #9) by Jim Butcher
26. Alternate Presidents, edited by Mike Resnick
27. Unidentified Funny Objects, edited by Alex Shvartsman
28. After Death, edited by Eric Guignard (I have a story in this one, "The Devil's Backbone")
29. Time Travel SF, edited by Mike Ashley

Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina
Here are two new ones.

• Table Tennis Recognition – "Learn about the importance and pitfalls of recognition."
• The Future of Table Tennis – Samson gives his "5 predictions about the future" of coaching and technique, involving ball placement, style of play, variations, fitness, and multi-tasking.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #238 (21:50) - Using Your Wrist for Forehands (and other segments).

Message to Athletes: Hard Work is Never in the Spotlight
Here's the Under-Armour commercial (92 sec) where Michael Phelp's training regimen is highlighted. It's no different for table tennis. Stop by any top table tennis center and you'll find those special few who put in the time with such a regimen. Even if you can't do it like these few, if you put in some of these "training in the dark" hours, you'll improve for when you are in the spotlight.

Team Leader Selection Procedures for 2016 Paralympic Games
Here's the USATT info page.

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Athlete Hopeful
Here's the video (2:03) about table tennis wheelchair player Jesse Cejudo of Phoenix, Arizona.

This Ping Pong Prodigy is Off to China to Become an Olympic Star
Here's the video (3:44) from the BBC of 9-year-old Anna Hursey from Wales.

Joseph Randle Hit People with Car over Beer Pong
Here's the story. "Former Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle has been ordered to receive mental health treatment at an inpatient facility, and you will understand why when you hear the alleged details from one of his latest arrests." John Olsen, who sent this to me, wrote, "I think you should have it as a morality play, beer pong is evil, ping-pong is good!"

Table Tennis Love
Here's the image from Mike Mezyan!

***

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World Table Tennis Day
The biggest holiday of the year is exactly four weeks away – yep, World Table Tennis Day is on Wednesday, April 6! So  . . . what are you doing on that day? More importantly, what are we doing on that day?

When I say "we," I'm referring to all table tennis leaders. It would be helpful to have lots and lots of events that introduce new players to our sport. However, it'll only happen if people organize such events.

Two big questions, whose answers I'll cut & paste from the World Table Tennis Day pages, which is on the "Table Tennis for All" website.

• What is the World Table Tennis Day (WTTD)?
  It is a celebration of the joy to play Table Tennis for fun, bringing people together where the focus is less on the competition and more on participation and fun. 
• What is the purpose of the WTTD?
  To gather Table Tennis enthusiasts, attract people who usually don't play table tennis, promote the love for our sport, and ideally engage new players to the practice in the long term. 

There's also a Join Us page, which answers and gives info on the following:

• Who can organize WTTD?
• Does it have to be EXACTLY on 6 April?
• What can be done on the WTTD?
• Where can it be done?
• Getting Started!
• CONTACT US!

There's also a Downloads page, with a WTTD Toolkit; Promotional Package; a "Get Moving!" Guide (the IOC Guide to managing Sport for all programmes); and an Ideas for WTTD packet. 

Here's a current listing of worldwide events scheduled on World Table Tennis Day. You'll note that there are four events scheduled in North America – in Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada; Villahermosa, Tab., Mexico; Hamilton, Bermuda; and Portmore, Jamaica. There are also two in South American – in Montería, Colombia, and Villa Albertina, Argentina. But nothing in the USA!

So, how about it? Who'll be the first in the U.S. to come forward and schedule something? My suggestion is for clubs to organize Meetups with Meetup.com. Perhaps schedule a meetup with new players one night at the club, with regular players there to help out. (I'm tempted to jump into this, but anyone reading my blog may have noticed that I'm generally juggling about fifty things. But if someone else sets up something for MDTTC, I'll help out.)

I actually came up with the idea of a National Table Tennis Day myself, not realizing at the time that there was already a World Table Tennis Day. On November 4, 2015, I blogged the following:

National Table Tennis Day
Let's establish a National Table Tennis Day. In the weeks and months before that day we'd flood the media all over the country with press releases, and recruit clubs to take part. We'd also do a web page and a promotional video. Then, on the day itself, we'd get clubs all over the country to open their doors and welcome new players. Some ideas for that would include a short beginners' clinic, an exhibition, and a recreational round robin event, singles or doubles. Snacks and drinks a must!

I suggest the date be Sept. 23, commemorating the anniversary of table tennis's Olympic debut in 1988, allowing us to tie it into the Olympics. Once the date is established, we do a nationwide campaign to get clubs to join in every Sept. 23, with lots of local promotion. Having the date this far in the future would give us time to promote it properly. Perhaps have a countdown thing on the web page counting down the days until Table Tennis Day. Additional benefit of Sept. 23: The initial day would be Sept. 23, 2016, a Friday, when many clubs are open and when people are free (not a work night). England already has a National Table Tennis Day – July 16. We could match them, but I like the Sept. 23 connection better. Either is fine with me.

Navin Kumar's 16-Hour Marathon for Funding
Navin needs $1600 funding for an upcoming Paralympic trip to Romania – and so this Saturday he's going to hit with a robot for 16 hours straight! (Short hourly breaks.) This despite having a mechanical heart as well as Parkinson's! He'll start at 7AM and finish at 11PM. Want to help out? Here's his funding page, which also explains his situation in more detail. (I donated $40, with the note, "I'll make you ***pay*** for this in our next training session - lots and Lots and LOTS of footwork for you...." I'm his coach.)

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #237 (25:41) - Standing on the Table (and other segments).

ITTF to Set up Working Group to Review Structure of Major Events
Here's the ITTF press release.

11 Questions with Ryan Hoarfrost
Here's the USATT interview.

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

Ohlone College Advances to Table Tennis National Championship
Here's the article in the San Jose Mercury News.

The Brain and Ping Pong
Here's the video (4:29) on how it helps with Alzheimer's.

Jorgen Persson Reflects about 2000 World Championships
Here's the video (6:53).

Table Tennis Talent Trains for Second Olympics
Here's the article and video (2:08) on Timothy Wang.

The Cure for Fear of Smashes Hitting You
Here's the video (20 sec)!

Ping Pong on Penang Bridge
Here's the video (51 sec) as Adam Bobrow and Sky Chin (former Malaysian top 5) go at it in Malaysia – until the police arrive and fault Adam for illegal serves. Or something.

Release Day Interview with Author Larry Hodges
Here's the interview with me at the "Hanging Out, Reading Books, Telling Tales" blog, about my SF novel Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions. This one has no table tennis in it. However…

…For those who missed it Monday, here's my interview at the Eating Author's Page, where I talk about my experiences at the 1980 North Carolina Table Tennis Open, where I ate nine quarter pounders with cheese in one day on the way to winning all four events I was in (including Open Singles) while coming down with the world's worst stomachache, which led to me not eating hamburgers for 36 years now – with one exception. You may recognize some of the players mentioned – Jim McQueen, Walter Wintermute, Alan Evenson, Denny Stanley, Fred King, and Tom Poston. (Jim and Walter are still active.)

***

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Table Tennis in Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions
Today's blog has one goal – to convince you, a table tennis person, to buy Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions, my science fiction novel that came out today – because it has table tennis! So, let me convince you. (If you absolutely are not interested, then skip down to the segments below.) We'll get to the table tennis parts in a moment. (And we'll be back to regular table tennis blogs tomorrow.) 

We'll start with this 80-second video, which doesn't showcase table tennis, but was created by Nathan Hsu, who is rated 2474 and has been over 2500. A 2500 player could not possibly steer you wrong! A big thanks goes to Nathan for creating this, who wouldn't even take payment for it – so now I guess I'll have to coach him at tournaments or something.J

I blogged about the novel this morning in my science fiction blog, where I wrote about the two "Big Ideas" in the novel – moderation in politics, and the problems with a two-party electoral system. Again, no table tennis there, but it'll tell you more about the novel, which covers the election for president of Earth in the year 2100, where the world has adopted the American two-party electoral system, with an increasingly incredulous alien ambassador along for the ride. Sounds kind of timely, doesn't it?

Now we're going to talk about the table tennis in the novel! (There are a few minor spoilers.)

• One of the four main characters is the highly sarcastic and brilliant Bruce Sims. (Confession: he's really me, unleashed to say whatever I want.) He had helped run the campaign for the current president, but left the campaign over policy disagreements and because he considers the president an idiot. He plays professional table tennis on the college circuit - yes, it's professionalized - and he's quite wealthy from it. He's one of the best in the world, which is dominated by American and Chinese players.
• Chapter five takes place as Bruce is playing the semifinals of the national college championships. (See opening excerpt below.) At 19-all in the fifth – with the umpire mistakenly putting Bruce up 20-18 match point - he simultaneously gets into arguments with his opponent, with members of the crowd, and with the referee, all while listening to breaking news (in a mental implant) about the upcoming election and an alien ambassador who just arrived and got into a spat with the president - first contact. He walks off the court on the spot to get involved. Soon he's traveling the world running a quixotic third-party moderate challenge for president of Earth, against the conservative president and the liberal challenger. (Campaign slogan: "Extremism in the pursuit of moderation is no vice.")
• The publisher said the best chapter of the novel is the Ping-Pong Diplomacy scene in China, where Bruce and Twenty-two play an exhibition for the Chinese leadership while trying to convince them to support their candidate. After the match, things go terribly wrong  . . . I wish I could say more but that would spoil it for you!
• Bruce teaches the alien ambassador, Twenty-Two, how to play table tennis. They play regularly as they travel the world during the campaign. Because her ancestors snatched flying insects out of the air, her reflexes and coordination are far beyond human - and she soon starts beating him, to his great chagrin.
• There's a scene where Bruce is walking through the Great Mall of China (500 miles long and growing, paralleling the Great Wall of China, one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World introduced in the novel), and finds a table tennis store, where he buys a new racket. (His old one, Sling, had been broken.)
• Bruce is running the campaign for president for Toby Platt. Toby's son, Tyler, age 13, is also an active table tennis player and is running for president of his middle school. Despite his running a worldwide campaign for president, Bruce gets very involved in both coaching Tyler and running his campaign for school president.
• One of Bruce's idiosyncrasies is that he always carries a ping-pong ball around, tossing it back and forth in his hands, fidgeting with it, throwing it against walls, etc. When he's irritated at someone, he smacks him with the ball.
• In the year 2100, nearly all the top athletes, including professional table tennis players, are big, hulking brutes on steroid-type drugs. Bruce is one of the few who refuses to use them, and so is always at a disadvantage against his more powerful opponents. In fact, he names his racket Sling after the weapon used by David against Goliath.
• Bruce's racket Sling is the latest model of ping-pong paddle, a Maestro Prime covered with Spinsey pinhole sponge, both from Trump Sports. (I wrote this years before Trump entered the presidential race!) When the ball hits it, the Spinsey sponge compresses, forcing air out through the tiny, angled holes that permeate the surface. If he held it one way, the air shoots upward from the parallel holes, creating a topspin. If he flipped the paddle, so the backhand side became the forehand side and vice versa, then the air would shoot downward, creating a backspin. He also has shoes with variable grippiness, depending on the floor.

Here are eight ways the sport has changed in the year 2100:

1. Table tennis is the #1 sport in world. Everyone watches it.
2. As noted above, the sponge has microscopic holes that shoot air out when ball hits sponge. The holes are angled so they put topspin on the ball. If you flip the racket, it puts backspin on the ball.
3. College players are all highly-paid professionals.
4. Professional players use steroids as matter of course, except for Bruce, who refuses to use them even though they are completely safe. This is a huge handicap for him.
5. Striped balls.
6. Playing shoes have adjustable traction.
7. Tables have sensors that detect hits.
8. Games are back to 21 points

Here's the opening to Chapter Five, subtitled, "Arguing at the U.S. College Table Tennis Championships":

Bruce Sims stood in a relaxed ready position, clutching Sling, his paddle, as Notre Dame’s Todd Davis prepared to serve. The thousands in the packed stands surrounding the playing court in the Baltimore Convention Center quieted to a murmur.

Bruce glanced at the scoreboard; he led 19-18 in this game to twenty-one. They were in the fifth game of this best of five, so he was only two points away from victory in the semifinals of the USA National Collegiate Table Tennis Championships.

He was twenty-nine, with a thick mat of curly brown hair and several days’ beard growth. Sweat dripped down his face and from his red shirt, which was drenched and covered with corporate logos. The back of his shirt said “University of Maryland,” with a large holographic Pepsi logo underneath that seemed to leap off the shirt in a swirl of colors. When he’d worked for the Dubois Campaign, he’d been sponsored by Coke, but he’d switched to the obscure Pepsi afterwards rather than go the liberal route with Hancola.

Sling was the latest model of ping-pong paddle, a Maestro Prime covered with Spinsey pinhole sponge, both from Trump Sports. When the ball hits it, the Spinsey sponge compresses, forcing air out through the tiny, angled holes that permeate the surface. If he held it one way, the air would shoot upward from the parallel holes, creating a topspin. If he flipped the paddle, so the backhand side became the forehand side and vice versa, then the air would shoot downward, creating a backspin. He held it in the topspin position for attacking.

Bruce had never played the hulking Davis before, but he had scouting reports: powerful from both sides and quick off the bounce, but with a tendency to serve fast and deep too often. Not too bright for a high-ranking player. Bruce couldn’t match up with Davis backhand to backhand, but by anticipating many of the fast serves to the backhand and attacking them with his forehand, he’d battled the top-seeded freshman phenom into the final game. Bruce was used to taking on bigger, stronger players; it was why he’d named his paddle Sling, after David’s weapon against Goliath.

After losing in the final three years in a row, perhaps this was Bruce’s year to win. He’d already knocked off the number four seed in the quarterfinals.

So . . . have you rushed out yet to buy a copy of the table tennis-infused Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions?

Table Tennis Recognition: Learn about the importance and pitfalls of recognition
Here's the new article from Samson Dubina.

Andy Couchman’s Diary – An Introduction
Here's the new monthly blog entry from Expert Table Tennis. He calls himself "…an overweight, semi-retired ex-pilot… and now a table tennis nut!"

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #236 (28:06) - Secrets to Early Success (and other segments).

World Team Championships in Malaysia
Here's the article on the Worlds from Butterfly.

2016 Arnold Table Tennis Challenge
Here's the Butterfly page for the event held this past week, which has new articles by Barbara Wei since I linked to it yesterday, featuring Mishel Levinski, Austin Preiss, Alexander Bu, and Jian Li.

The Inspiring Ibrahim Hamato Holds the Paddle in His Mouth
Here's the new video from the Worlds (33 sec), where he's up against Jean-Michel Saive. About halfway through see how he picks up the ball and serves – remember, he has no arms!

Table Tennis - Best of French Youth Open 2016 - Part 1
Here's the new music video (6:37). Presumably Part 2 will come out later.

Call Center Ping-Pong
Here's the cartoon!

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Tip of the Week
Preparing for Major Events – a Checklist.

Newly Published Stuff
Here's a rundown.

• Eating Author's Blog. This morning I'm featured on the Eating Author's Blog. While he features science fiction writers (which is what I do when I'm not doing TT), the story is about the 1980 North Carolina Open Table Tennis Championships, the day I ate nine McDonald's quarter-pounders with cheese, nearly died (well, it felt that way), but still pulled off a series of upsets to go undefeated in winning the Open and three other events.
• Butterfly's Ask the Expert. I've got a feature "Ask the Expert" article for Butterfly Online that came out on Friday, where I answer the following question: "I often found articles in the website that discuss about table tennis playing style which in modern era is dominated by looping style. I want to know the reason(s) why a playing style like hitter (two wing-or hardbat) is also decreasing, because I think it still very effective."
• Baltimore Sun on Derek Nie and Klaus Wood. Here's the feature article from the Baltimore Sun, which came out yesterday." I'm quoted a few times. Last week they ran a story on Lisa Lin winning Hopes Trials. (Derek, Klaus, and Lisa all train at MDTTC; I send out regular press releases. Klaus also plays at the Baltimore TTC.)
• Science Fiction Blog. In non-Table Tennis writing, I blogged this morning in my Science Fiction & Fantasy Page that Needs a Better Name (that might become its name) about it being one day until publication of Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions, with a compilation of the daily notes I've been posting on Facebook, linking the number of days to publication to countries with those electoral votes in the election of 2100, or similar issues. This is actually table tennis news, since (as I've blogged a number of times) there's a lot of table tennis in the SF novel. I'll blog more about that tomorrow.
• Galaxy's Edge. I was published in Galaxy's Edge with my story "Pretty Pictures at War." I have another story in their next issue, "Penguins of Noah's Ark." (Yes, I get paid for these.)
• Baltimore Orioles. In other non-Table Tennis writings, I had two recent articles on Orioles Hangout - some of these won't make sense to you if you aren't a baseball person. Orioles baseball is the only sport I really follow outside table tennis. I've hit with or coached half the team, including private lesson for JJ Hardy, Darren O'Day, and Brady Anderson. They've published 29 of my "Top Ten Lists." 
  • Top Ten Reasons Players Fail Oriole Physicals
  • Top Ten Leadoff Options for the Orioles

World Team Championships
Once again China came out of nowhere and won Men's and Women's Teams – who saw that coming? They defeated Japan in both finals. Here's the ITTF home page for Worlds, which finished yesterday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where you can see results, articles, press releases, pictures, video, and quotes. Here are the Highlights from the Final Day.

Perhaps the most interesting story of the Worlds was England making it to the semifinals of Men's Teams, where they faced Japan. It started as expected, with Jun Mizutani (world #6) defeating Paul Drinkhall (world #65) at 8,9,4. Then Liam Pitchford (world #44) pushed Maharu Yoshimua (world #19) to 11-9 in the fifth before losing, giving Japan a 2-0 lead in the best of five. But then Samuel Walker (world #118) upset Yuya Oshima (world #12) 3-1. In the fourth match, Pitchford played Mizutani, and was up 2-1 and 10-6 match point – but lost six straight points, and lost game five 11-6. Here's video (10:33) of the Pitchford-Mizutani match, and here's a link to where Pitchford leads 10-6 match point.

Here is the USATT home page for the Worlds, where you can find USA results. USATT has also posted several videos and articles of USA players on their News Page. USA Women finished 17, USA Men 51.

Tom's Table Tennis Newsletter
Here's the new edition, with the following segments:

• How to identify and exploit an opponent’s weakness
• 3rd ball attack training drills
• Magnificent Ma Long - the greatest table tennis player of all time?
• Best table tennis bats for intermediate players
• Best from the web
• Other news...

2-1 Footwork Drill – Demonstrated by a Kid
Here's the video (51 sec) – if he can do it, why can't you? (He looks about five.)

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #235 (27:09) - Power Of Practice Week 1 (and other segments).

Navin Kumar's 2016 Paralympic Table Tennis Journey
He needs funding – and here's where you can help.

Table Tennis Umpires and the Reluctant Referees
Here's the new article by Coach Jon.

2016 Arnold Table Tennis Challenge
Here's the Butterfly page for the event, with links to results, video, photos, and articles by Barbara Wei.

Orange County Register on Fund-Raising Tournament
Here are two articles.

• Back in the Paddle Again: The third annual table tennis tourney benefits two Laguna Hills High programs. "More than 100 people of all ages competed in Laguna Hills High School’s third annual table tennis tournament fundraiser on Saturday. The tournament raised more than $2,700 for the school’s science and Chinese programs."
• Table Tennis for a Cause. "Laguna Woods resident Chee Ho, 68, had some tough competition at a table tennis tournament he and five other members of Laguna Woods’ Table Tennis Club competed in on Saturday. His competitor was Keenan Zhou, a 10-year-old. More than 50 years separated the two in age, but their match was not just for fun and games."

Table Tennis - Great Way to Promote Your Brand!
Here's the ITTF video (2:43). Next time you are looking for sponsors or media coverage, show them this!

How to Make an Illuminated Ping-Pong Ball Lamp
Here's the video (1:21).

Greatest Beer Pong Trick Shot You'll Ever See
Here's the video (23 sec).

The Gal Alguetti Footwork Training Video
Here's the video (47 sec) – on a hoverboard!

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Regional Team Leagues and State Championships
Want to play in a Regional Team League? Or a State Championship? If there already are ones in your state, then you're all set! But if not, we need your help, either in organizing them, or talking to club leaders about doing so. (Sometime next week I'm sending an email to all USATT clubs on this, somewhat similar to the below, as the USATT League Committee Chair and a member of the Board of Directors. USATT CEO Gordon Kaye has been a great help in all of this, and instigated the State Championships initiative.)

Here is a listing of Regional Team Leagues currently in operation – email me if I'm missing any.

• Austin Texas League
• Capital Area League (DC area)
• Chicago League
• Denver League
• Genesee Valley League (Rochester, NY)
• LA League
• NY League

Here's a listing of State Championships held in 2015 (with the assumption that most will have similar championships in 2016). So far 2016 State Championships (or State Games) have been sanctioned in AL, AR, AZ, CA, FL, IN, MN, MO, NY, OK, PA, VA, and WI. (I plan to run ones in Maryland, tentatively June 25-26.)

Now let's assume you are one of those poor souls without a Regional Team League or a State Championship, but like all those who want to Make USATT Great Again (as some say we were during the hardbat era long ago), or just want to play in them, what do you do?

You have two options: Talk to your local club leaders about organizing them - or organize them yourself! And here's how, for club leaders or you.

Here is the USATT League Page, which includes a link to this League News Item (which explains the importance and benefits of leagues), and to the USATT League Prototype, which you can use as a starting model. (You don't have to be a member of USATT to play in such a league.)

Here is the USATT State Championships Page, which gives info on setting up a State Championship, with the goal of holding them in all 50 states this year. (Unlikely, but if we strive for it, we'll get more than if we don't.)

Why are leagues so important? It creates a different atmosphere than the "winner stay on" mentality so common in the U.S., fostering instead a "team" atmosphere, where you cheer for your team, and your team cheers for you. It's why European countries have table tennis memberships that dwarf USATT's, and why league-based sports have such large memberships.

To quote from the League page:

Those who study sports association memberships can help but notice a pattern: those with huge membership do so through team leagues. That's the reason why the German Table Tennis Association has 600,000 members, why the U.S. Tennis Association has 700,000 members, and why the U.S. Bowling Congress has over two million members. And the lack of such a league structure is the primary reason USA Table Tennis has only 9000 members."

But you don't play in a team league just so you can boost your association's membership; you do so because it's fun! You're pumped up because your teammates are cheering for you, you win and lose as a team, and when it's all done, you and your opponents go out for pizza.

Why are State Championships so important? Because they foster local news media, leading to publicity and growth in the sport. To quote from the USATT State Championships Page:

For most players, the State Championships should be one of the most important events of the year. Many can compete to become a State Champion, whether it be in men's or women's singles, a senior event, a junior event, hardbat or sandpaper, a rating event, or doubles. It gives them something to train and look forward to. It's also the time when players from all over the state get together for table tennis and fun, usually ending with everyone going out for dinner together.

We'd like to celebrate these champions by commemorating them on a USATT State Champions Page as well as on the USATT News page. We'd also like to have an annual Parade of Champions at the U.S. Nationals, where, between matches during the showcase events, we invite all the attending state champions to take a march around the playing arena as the crowd cheers.

We'd like to turn these State Championships into major events in the local media. To do this, the tournament director or publicity director would simply Google the local TV, radio, and newspaper listings to get contact emails. Then, the week before the tournament, send them press releases inviting them to cover the tournament. Afterwards send them a follow-up press release that they can use.

To set up a nationwide system of regional leagues and state championships we need your help, either in organizing them, or in talking to club leaders to do so. Now's the time to get busy!

World Team Championships
The finish this Sunday. Here's the ITTF home page for the ongoing event, Feb. 28 – March 6, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where you can see results, articles, press releases, pictures, video, and quotes. Here is the USATT home page for the Worlds, where you can find USA results. USATT has also posted several videos and articles of USA players on their News Page.

Timo Boll Effortless Forehand Rip
Here's the video (21 sec, but link takes you 14 sec in) – someone should create a repeating gif of this shot. It's a nice one to study, illustrating the "easy power" of a shot done with proper timing and technique.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #234 (24:59) - Snapchat Questions (and other segments).

China Junior Table Tennis Practice
Here's the video (5:29).

The Relative Age Effect in the Chinese National Table Tennis Team
Here's the new article from Expert Table Tennis.

An Odd Pairing on the Road to Rio
Here's the article and video (2:57) featuring Timothy Wang (3x U.S. Men's Singles Champion) and former professional football player Corey Bridges.

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.

Ask a Pro Anything: Feng Tianwei
Here's the video (4:04) featuring the world #8 (formerly #2 for eight months) from Singapore, by Adam Bobrow.

Great Rally at Worlds
Here's the video (36 sec) of the point between Austria's Stefan Fegerl (world #23) and China's Zhang Jike (world #4, but former world #1 and men's singles champion at Worlds and Olympics).

Doubles Service Toss and Switch
Here's the video (13 sec)!

Dodgers Ping-Pong Doubles Tournament
Here's the article, Dodgers spring notes: Clayton Kershaw, Sandy Koufax, ping pong, which includes a picture of a fancy, home-made draw sheet and the rules – which include best of three to 21 and 7-0 and 11-1 "skunks."! The table tennis excerpt:

Saturday also marked the drawing of names for the Dodgers annual ping pong tournament. Teammate pairings were reportedly drawn out of a hat, and among the notable pairings are Yasiel Puig and Kenta Maeda, and Joc Pederson and Dave Roberts.

 Kershaw was paired with first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

"Gonzo's not very good," Kershaw joked. "We're going to work on his competitiveness and the games. Hopefully we can at least make it a couple rounds."

Eye-Patched, Gloved Werner Schlager Wins Around-the-Table
Here's the video (2:13) where the 2003 World Men's Singles Champion is handicapped in this weird competition in Austria!

World Ping-Pong Federation
With the growth of Leagues, soon table tennis will take off and we'll follow in the footsteps of All-star Wrestling with the World Ping-Pong Federation. (I ran this cartoon once before, but it sort of fits the theme of today's blog!)

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Winning with the Tomahawk Serve
Here's a video (2:12) where Samson Dubina demonstrates the Tomahawk serve. He first demonstrates the sidespin version, then the side-backspin, and finally (92 seconds in) the sidespin-topspin version - which is the focus of what I'll be writing below. This brought back an interesting memory of the second player I ever beat in a tournament rated over 2000 - and shows the value of developing multiple serves and techniques, since you never know what will work against specific opponents. 

It was 1979 (or was it 1879? I'm getting old...), when I was 19 years old. I was a late starter at age 16, and at this point I was about 1850. I'd actually broken 1900 with a high of 1954 as an almost pure forehand hitter, but I was reworking my game by looping more, and so had dropped a bit. The only 2000+ player I'd beaten in a tournament at this point was Herb Horton, a 2002 chopper with antispin rubber on both sides, who'd graciously been playing me since I was a beginner, and so I was used to his game. (I felt bad about beating him when I was around 1800 since I only did so because of the many times he'd played me!)

I believe it was at the Southern Open in Atlanta that I played Benfield Munroe, who was rated 2048. (He was a former member of the Guyana National Team.) It was a best of three to 21 (yes, games used to be to 21!), and players served five times each (yes, we used to do that!). We split the first two games, then I served from down 15-20 match point. Until then I'd been serving all forehand pendulum serves. Recently I'd been fooling around with the tomahawk serve, which I'd never used in a serious match before. I only had one variation - sidespin-topspin, as demonstrated by Samson above. My version had a shorter, quicker swing, with a big downward follow-through, as Samson does. 

With nothing to lose, I tried the serve. Benfield pushed it way off the end. What the heck, I tried it again, the exact same serve - and again he pushed it off the end. I did it again, this time I think to the forehand, and again he pushed it off the end, and it was now 18-20. After the third one Benfield got really irritated at himself, walking around the court angrily.

I strongly considered going back to my forehand pendulum serve, and even lined up for that serve. Then I stepped back, realizing I was overthinking, assuming he would be ready for the serve this time. But receiving is mostly subconscious, and if he was having this much trouble with this serve, why would I let him off the hook? I used the serve two more times, and he pushed the first off the end again, then tried attacking the last one, but again went off the end. It was now deuce in the third, and Benfield was really angry at himself. 

He played cautious the next point, looping soft, and I smashed it for match point. Benfield was now having a real discussion with himself. So was I - should I give him the same serve he'd missed five times in a row, when he'd know it was coming?

Of course I used it, and he pushed off the end again. And so I won deuce in the third from down 15-20 in the third, with the opponent missing my serve six times in a row. It was easily my best tournament win ever. 

Benfield was unhappy with himself, but acted graciously afterwards. I think the first three times he missed the serve because he subconsciously thought it was backspin, due to the big downward follow-through. The last three were a combination of that and the irritation and loss of confidence after missing the first three - and once you lose confidence in your game, it's hard to react properly. 

While I coach and encourage players to focus on developing solid serves that'll set them up to attack, I also believe it's important to develop a few trick serves. After my experience above, I developed a whole bunch of them, and they have won roughly a zillion matches for me - the tomahawk serve mentioned above (but with more variations), fast no-spin to the middle, fast down the line, windshield-wiper serves, super-high toss serves with loaded backspin, big breaking sidespin serves deep into the backhand, and probably my best, a light sidespin-topspin forehand pendulum serve with a big downward motion that looks like backspin. 

Over the course of many years and tournaments, and partially because of pulling out such trick serves at key moments, I've come back from down 15-20 or 5-10 match point or worse nine different times. (I used to have a listing of all nine, but I misplaced it, alas.) Nobody's ever done it to me. (The closest was when I once blew a 20-16 match point lead on Joe Cummings, and had to put up with jokes about "He's cummings back!" for weeks from the kids at the Resident Training Program at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs that I helped run, 1985-1990. That's the only time I've blown a 20-16 or 10-6 match point lead.)

So here's my question to you: What serves do you have when you need to win "free" point? Not necessarily six in a row, but you should have at least some "trick" serves that'll might give you a point or two each game. If you don't, you are handicapping yourself. Note that this is especially true through the intermediate level and well into the advanced level - even 2400 players can be tricked into misses by a tricky serve they haven't seen much before, as long as it's not overused. Even at the highest levels smart players have different variations or motions to throw at opponents, which are often enough to give them a slightly weak ball, which is all they need. 

Here are two Tips of the Week about trick serves vs. third-ball serves, with short excerpts.

• Trick Serves and Third-Ball Serves - "If you have a tricky serve that opponents miss or pop up over and over, that's great. However, too much reliance on this can actually hold you back. The same tricky serve that your peers mess up against might be returned more easily by stronger players, including the ones you hope to learn to beat."
• Macho or Tricky? - "Going macho means you serve mostly to set up a third-ball attack, knowing that you will have to follow it up with a strong attack. Most often these serves will give the server a return he server can attack, but the receivers generally don't miss these serves outright, and the server does have to make a good shot or sequence of shots to win the point. Going tricky means pulling out a serve where you are trying to win the point outright with the serve, either by the receiver missing the serve or giving an easy pop-up. The weakness of these serves is that if the receiver reads them well, they are often easier to attack then third-ball serves."

Readers – Can you See This Video?
Can you see this video of George Brathwaite training? A few people apparently couldn't, so I'm trying to find out how widespread it is, and why. It's a Facebook video. I've had a few people say they couldn't see Facebook images, but this is the first time I've been told they couldn't see a Facebook video. Comment below!

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #233 (30:48) - Dealing with Sidespin (and other segments).

World Team Championships
Here's the ITTF home page for the ongoing event, Feb. 28 – March 6, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where you can see results, articles, press releases, pictures, video, and quotes. Here is the USATT home page for the Worlds, where you can find USA results. USATT has also posted several videos and articles of USA players on their News Page.

Chen Weixing and His Usual Tricks Against Xu Xin
Here's the video (15 sec) as he puts on an exhibition near the end of the match.

Adam Bobrow Photobombing at the Worlds
Here's the first one; click on it to see the next two.

Maryland TTC Newsletter
Here's the new March issue! (I'm the editor, Wen Hsu the publisher.)

Ping Pong Run!
Here's the new iPhone and iPad table tennis game! There goes your productivity!

Purdue's Supersonic Ping Pong Ball Launcher featured on Tonight Show
Here's the video (6:04). Table Tennis first shows up at 3:06, and the actual 920mph ping-pong ball launches (two of them through a ping-pong paddle target) takes place at 5:05.

How the Chinese Choose Their Up-and-Coming Stars
Here's the cartoon video (64 sec), with a guest "appearance" at the end by Ma Long!

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Shadow Practice
This is one of the most under-used ways of training – practicing a stroke without the ball. If you want to perfect a movement (i.e. a new stroke), don't try to do so while also trying to contort the movement so that you can also hit a little white ball that's moving and spinning – not until you've got the movement down. Otherwise, since the correct movement is not yet ingrained, you'll end up changing the movement to react to the ball. So it's important to first get the movement down.

Once you do have the movement down, that doesn't mean you are done with shadow practice. Shadow practice allows you to hone the movement as well as practice strokes and footwork together. They are also good for physical training.

Here's a whole class shadow practicing (6:42), with Lily Yip and then Judy Hugh feeding multiball to one player while seven others mimic the strokes, rotating in when it's their turn. (See "11 Questions with Judy Hugh" below.) I used to do this in my classes, and think I will start it up again.

The topic of shadow practice has come up quite a bit recently, in private coaching, classes I teach, and via email. So here are three Tips on the subject.

1) Shadow Practice Your Shots
If you spent five-ten minutes each day shadow practicing your strokes and footwork, you'll be surprised at the improvement, not to mention the health benefits. Make it part of your fitness regimen. For example, every day do 50-100 forehands, backhands, forehand loops, backhand loops, and side-to-side footwork, alternating forehands and backhands or just doing all forehand, side to side. Adjust to your own style of play, i.e. if you mostly loop the forehand, do lots of forehand looping shadow practice. If you are a chopper, do lots of chopping. Vary the routine to include other moves you use regularly, such as shadow practice stepping in and flipping a short ball to the forehand, or a forehand loop against backspin followed by a smash or loop against topspin. When no one's watching (if you're shy), play out points as if they were real!

2) Shadow Practice for Strokes and Footwork
A great way to improve the sharpness and steadiness of your shots is to shadow practice them. This means practicing your shots without the ball. One of the best things that ever happened to me when I was a beginner was when I was told to shadow practice my forehand and backhand drives and loops, and side-to-side footwork, one hundred times a day. This was a primary reason why I went from beginner at age 16 to 1900+ in about two years.

• For Beginning Players: focus on the basics. You want to develop smooth, repeatable shots and footwork. You might want to have a coach work with you first, so you aren't practicing bad habits. Once you know what to do, do perhaps fifty to a hundred forehand and backhand drives, and fifty to a hundred forehand and backhand loops. Then go side to side fifty to a hundred times, stroking each time (either all forehand, or alternate forehand and backhand).
  One key thing: remember that strokes have three parts: backswing, forward swing, and back to ready position. Many players tend to just go back and forth (going directly from forward swing to backswing), which you never do in a game. The stroke should go through a triangular motion (dropping down to ready position), not just a back and forth motion.
• For Intermediate Players: Focus on improving the speed, crispness and power of the shots and footwork. Think about the type of specific movements you do in a game, and mimic them. For example, if you want to develop a powerful forehand loop that you can use from all parts of the table, then shadow practice powerful forehand loops, from both the wide forehand and wide backhand, as well as from the middle, and practice moving from one spot to another. (Note--intermediate players should also use some of the techniques explained for advanced players.)
• For Advanced Players: At this point, your shots are consistent and powerful. You should continue to do the shadow practice as explained for intermediate players. However, now you should add randomness. As you shadow practice, imagine you are playing a real match. Imagine a specific opponent, and play out the rallies--except now you are playing at whatever level you hope to attain. Want to be a world-class player? Then shadow practice rallies as if you are world-class! Instead of alternating forehand loops from side to side, add randomness - imagine your opponent spraying the ball all over the court. For example, after looping a forehand from the backhand court, your "opponent" might put one to the wide forehand, which you then cover; or he might block one right back to your backhand again, which you've vacated after the previous shot to get back into position, and so you either step around again for the forehand, or play a backhand attack shot.
  You can also practice receive techniques - imagine an opponent's serve, read it, and return it. You might step in, drop a ball short or flip it, then step back and attack the next ball. Or you might shadow practice looping the deep serves. Think of what happens in a real match, and play out those points.
• For All Players: You can practice everything this way, except for the actual timing of hitting the ball - and you can do that later at the table, with much faster, stronger and crisper shots because of the shadow practicing. And the nice thing is you can shadow practice anywhere - at work, at home, on the subway. (Okay, that last one might get you strange looks--but I've done it before!)

3) Shadow Practice When You Miss
Table tennis is a game of technique, timing, and adjustment. When you miss a shot, that means something went wrong with your technique or timing. That means something went wrong with your muscle memory, which includes both the technique and timing. So what should you do to get back and reinforce that muscle memory?

You shadow practice the shot. Immediately after missing, before whatever went wrong has a chance to become part of your muscle memory, do it the right way. Imagine the same incoming ball you just missed against, including its speed, spin, and location. Then shadow practice the shot the way you should have done it, and visualize the ball doing what it was supposed to do, i.e. the perfect shot. This is how you reinforce the correct muscle memory. Put the feel of the miss out of your memory; thinking about it only reinforces in your muscle memory something you don't want reinforced.

This is especially important for beginning and intermediate players, whose muscle memory is not as developed, but advanced players should do this as well to re-enforce the proper muscle memory. Ultimately, this is the goal of the constant practice needed to become a top player - the primary purpose is to develop and reinforce those muscle memories so they'll remember to come out when needed in a match. 

Table Tennis Music
If you are going to shadow practice – see above – why not do it to table tennis music?

• Magic Ball (3:09) – the theme music from the 1989 World Championships, and still considered by many the greatest table tennis music ever.
• Piano Ping-Pong Song (3:40) – This is mesmeriazing - one you start, you can't stop watching and listening. The two women I'm told are members of the German National Team, but I don't know their names. 
• Concerto for Table Tennis (2:56) – yes, that's Ariel Hsing and Michael Landers doing the table tennis.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #232 (31:30) - How Tournaments Help (and other segments).

William Henzell: Time to Retire
Here's the podcast (41:15) from Expert Table Tennis on the 13-time Australian champion.

Table Tennis Player Lisa Lin Wins Girls' Hopes Trials
Here's the article from the Baltimore Sun on Lisa. Also featured are Tiffany Ke and Ronald Chen. It's from my press release - all three are from my club, MDTTC. (There's another feature coming out in a few days from the Baltimore Sun, featuring Derek Nie and Klaus Wood – the reporter came out this past Saturday and Sunday to do interviews with them, their parents, and me.) Here's the USATT article on this, with a picture and a link to video.

World Team Championships
Here's the ITTF home page for the ongoing event, Feb. 28 – March 6, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where you can see results, articles, press releases, pictures, video, and quotes. Here is the USATT home page for the Worlds, where you can find USA results. USATT has also posted several videos and articles of USA players on their News Page. Here's an ITTF feature on USA's junior star Kanak Jha.

ITTF Athletes' Commission Chairman Given Full Voting Rights
Here's the article. Vladimir Samsonov is the Chair who now joins the ITTF Executive Committee as a voting member. (I couldn't find an ITTF notice on this, but I'd heard about it separately, I think on Facebook.)

11 Questions with Judy Hugh
Here's the USATT interview with the New Jersey star.

Raymond Filz Sr. Obituary
Here's the USATT article by Wendell Dillon.

Zhang Jike Practicing Serves at the Worlds
Here's the video (12 sec) – alas, like most high-level serves these days (due to lack of enforcement), they're completely illegal, as he hides the ball and contact behind his head. His racket continues downward after contact, faking contact below his head.

Table Tennis Practice with Exercise Equipment
Here's the video (9:56) – first 24 sec are conventional before they get to the rebound boards.

Robot vs. Two Stationary Rackets
Here's the video (6 sec).

Michael Maze Playing with Smart Phone
Here's the video (29 sec).

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