Tip of the Week
Move Those Feet. This is a slightly rewritten version of a blog I did last week – but I put a note then that it would likely become a Tip of the Week, and here it is! This way it'll be included with all the other Tips of the Week, both for browsing and for upcoming compilations into books – "More Table Tennis Tips," comes out early in 2017. It'll be a sequel to Table Tennis Tips. While you can just read the Tips online as they come out, both volumes put the Tips in logical order of progression, and compile them together for easy reading.

Coaching a Seven-Year-Old
Here's what you need to know – 14 dos and don'ts. I have a new kid I've been working with, and this is pretty much a checklist.

1. Do have them start out by balancing a ball on their racket, and then bouncing the ball on the racket. They'll have great difficulty at first, but it'll help their hand-eye coordination develop.
2. Do feed multiball as much as possible – they can learn to be pretty consistent that way.
3. Do expect him to learn quickly. They may not have hand-eye coordination, but if you know how to teach it, they are natural mimics at that age.
4. Do remind them to watch the ball. Amazingly they'll often forget this.
5. Do count how many shots he gets in a row or give him a target to aim for. It keeps their attention.
6. Do expect them to be hungry all the time. I've learned to keep snacks around.
7. Do coach him as close to the restroom as you can. It'll save you a lot of time.
8. Do expect him to find absolutely anything hilarious. Do not attempt to figure out what he finds funny as you will never understand.
9. Don't expect him to hear anything you say unless you say it three times, grab him by the hair and yell it in his ear, and possibly use a taser. That'll get his attention . . . for a few seconds.
10. Don't expect him to have any hand-eye coordination. At that age, when they first start out, struggle just to make contact with the ball, and hitting it on the table is a somewhat rare occasion. But their expectations are low, so those few shots that do hit are cause for celebration.
11. Don't expect him to understand that a table tennis session is just for table tennis. Anything will distract him – a broken ball, a bug, a mark on his paddle, whatever. And if there's nothing to distract him, the lack of distraction will distract him. I'm serious.
12. Don't have a smart phone or other game device anywhere in sight or that's all he'll see.
13. Don't get impatient or you'll be perpetually impatient.
14. Don't have them hit too backhands for long periods. Their arm muscles aren't developed for that yet.

Exhibitions and Clinics at Potomac Community Center
Here's the email sent out yesterday from Herman Yeh, president of the Potomac Country TTC. Click on the links to see photos and video! We've done two exhibitions/clinics so far, each time for about two hours with 30-40 kids.

Members of PCTTC and Friends,

The second of a series of three table tennis clinics/exhibitions was completed on last Club Friday (2/26) at Potomac Community Center. Again, it was a very successful evening with many kid’s participation.

I am very grateful to Larry Hodges for taking the lead role in coaching these youngsters and to many volunteers from club (Gary Schlager, Michael Clarke, Shaw Zee, Kangmin Zheng, Yon Wacker) for helping Larry to put up such a great show. Everyone had a great time on that night. Here are some photos (www.pcttc.net/cf_slide1.html and www.pcttc.net/cf_slide2.html) and video taken by Shaw Zee on the night of 2/26 if you are interested. (Unfortunately, Terry Berman missed the photo shooting on the first night (2/12) because pre-approval wasn’t made in advance.)

I like to thank Yon Wacker and Kevin Shorter for generous donation of buckets of practice balls and Len Pettiford for gift of ball picker. Thanks also go to Friends of PCC for supplying beverages to volunteers.

-Herman, PCTTC

LA and Capital Area Leagues
Today's the deadline to enter the LA Team League – enter now! (If you are in the Maryland/Virginia/DC area, then enter the Capital Area League – you have until March 31 to enter. If you don't have a team, there's a signup form for players looking for teams.)

Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina
Here are two new ones.

• Spin: Here's the video (3:32) where they illustrate spin using a bicycle wheel.
• Chopping Advice: Video Interview (3:02) with Angela Guan.

"Tilden's Doubles Falk Drill" Based on The Falkenberg
Here's the video (45 sec) of this footwork drill for doubles players.

Ask the Coach Show

• Episode #230 (28:55) - World Championships Starts (and other segments).
• Episode #231 (24:35) - How to Win Matches (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. USATT has posted several videos of USA players on their News Page.

Budapest to Host 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships
Here's the ITTF Press Release.

Lagom Table Tennis – Swedish Training
Here's the article from Coach Jon.

Legend Peter Karlsson Shares His Experiences
Here's the article.

Susan Sarandon on Ping Pong
Here's the article.

Timo Boll Forehand Topspin
Here's the video (1:47) that shows him looping in slow motion. I think this might be a reposting of an older video, but it's still a great one to watch and study.

Podcast with Jorgen Persson
Here's the podcast (49:53). When asked how he would have done in his prime against Ma Long, he said, "Me and Jan-Ove would have found a way to beat the current Chinese."

Lindenwood University Table Tennis
Here's the video (1:41) of a team practice. "Ever wonder what it's like to play in Lindenwood University's fastest collegiate sports? Two members of the LU table tennis team wore GoPro cameras during a practice to take an up close look at how intense the game can actually be."

Close up: Jun Mizutani
Here's the video (50 sec).

Jonah Bokaer’s 3,000 Ping-Pong Balls Take Stage at American Dance Institute
Here's the article from the Washington Post about a modern performance dance that includes 3000 ping-pong balls!

Washington Redskins Quarterback Kirk Cousins Plays Table Tennis!
Here's the picture. He's the tall one, with 3-time U.S. Men's Champ Timothy Wang second from left.

Speed Bump on Saturday
Here's the table tennis cartoon!

Non-Table Tennis: Galaxy's Edge Story
My humorous science fiction story "Pretty Pictures on Walls" went up this morning at Galaxy's Edge, one of the truly premier online SF magazines - I'm still a bit in awe that my name is listed right there next to Robert Silverberg! Mine is the second one in the story listing just above (gulp!) Silverberg's! (I met him at a SF convention - wonder if he remembers me?) Note the ad on the top right for my upcoming novel, "Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions"!

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Every four years on February 29 the Leap Year Bull Frog makes his rounds, delivering pogo sticks, trampolines, and pole vaulting poles to deserving boys and girls all over the world. On this solumn occasion advocates of the ancient religion of Leapianity spend their days in quiet contemplation of future leaps. As a deeply religious Leapian, I will spend my day visualizing many leaping smashes against lobs, along with attacking a todo list that is longer than the magical Leap Day Bull Frog can jump. (I hope that's not sacrilegious.) So no blog today. Back tomorrow, along with the Tip of the Week!

However, it wouldn't be Leapian of me to leave you with nothing on this holiday, so why not follow the World Team Championships, taking place right now in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia? 

Regional Leagues, Capital Area League Finals, Results, and the New Season
Let's start with what's probably of greatest interest to you – leagues in your area. Want to play in a league? Then why not join one of these?

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

But what if there isn't one in your area? Then start one! (If you are in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area, now is the time to sign up for the Spring season of the Capital Area League.)

How are team leagues different from tournaments? First, you aren't risking your USATT rating – yay! But second, and more important, you have the fun of playing regularly on a team, with thousands your teammates cheering for you! I blogged about team leagues back on Nov. 24, 2014. Here is the recently created USATT League Page, and the news item on Regional Team Leagues.

The Fall 2015 season of the Capital Area League came to an end this past Saturday, with the Grand Finals at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. MDTTC A (Derek Nie, Klaus Wood, Raghu Nadmichettu) won the A Division Finals, defeating MDTTC Lions (Stefano Ratti, Ryan Dabbs, Greg Mascialino) in the final, 4-0. (NOVATTC had come in first in the regular season, edging out MDTTC A due to a default by the latter on the last meetup, but they lost 4-2 in the semifinals to the Lions here.) You can find complete results on the Capital Area League page.

But now we're on to the new season – and things are really looking up! Last season had 12 teams and 74 players, but the upcoming season already has 15 teams signed up, with a month to the March 31 deadline! The schedule is already up on Capital Area League page (I won't link to it every time I mention it…), with the first meet on April 17 at the Washington DC TTC. The newly reopened SmashTT (in a new, bigger venue) will host the second meet on April 30, with five to six meets scheduled, depending on the final schedule and division sizes. (There'll likely be three divisions.)

We ran into problems this past season over prize money. There's always an ongoing debate on this. If you put sizeable prize money into the top division, some players in other divisions feel like they are subsidizing the top players and don't think that's fair. If you don't put sizeable prize money in the top division, you don't get the top players, and so it becomes a weaker league as far as level. The solution? Get sponsors so that you can put prize money everywhere! And that's the plan this year – but mostly because we now have FIVE sponsors! So a great thanks goes to Paddle Palace, HW Global Foundation, Go Table Tennis, West, Lane & Schlager, and Pongmobile for sponsoring the league. Special thanks goes to Commissioner Stefano Ratti, who's done an excellent job in mediating the various disputes that inevitably arise, and for masterminding all these sponsorships.

Interesting Tidbits

• A 9-year-old player I was coaching complained that he was hungry. (He's always hungry.) I jokingly told him to eat a ping-pong ball, they're filling. He picked one off the floor, put it in his mouth, and bit into it! After getting over the shock, I took the now broken (and saliva-covered) ball from him and explained about germs and the sin of breaking perfectly good ping-pong balls (someone has to pay for them!).
• A mom and her son, about 12, came in, and were interested in trying out our table tennis robot. It was being used by Navin Kumar, the famous "Bionic Man." (Here's video of him.) I introduced them, and left. I only later found out that by an incredible coincident, the two newcomers were next-door neighbors to Navin's parents in Bangalore, India! Here's Navin's Facebook posting on this.
• The Baltimore Sun is coming in this Sunday at about 1PM to do a feature on Derek Nie and Klaus Wood.
• Tonight I'm doing an exhibition and clinic at the Potomac Community Center (home of the Potomac TTC), from 6:30-8:30PM.

Perfect World Team Championships
They begin this Sunday, Feb. 28 – March 6, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Here's the ITTF home page for the event, with draws, results, articles, video, pictures, quotes, etc. The draws are up, the Chinese are testing the tables (see segment below), and Kanak has his haircut, so we're all set to go! Here's the ITTF press release on 2016 World Table Tennis Championships to be Most Social of All Time, where they list all the social media they'll be on - Facebook, Instragram, Twitter, YouTube, flickR, Weibo, Wechat, youKu, and Tencent Video. (Here's the ITTF Press Release from last August on the title sponsor, Perfect China Company - thanks to TTRocks' comment on their for finding this. For some reason their logo on the ITTF page doesn't link to them.) 

National Collegiate Livestreaming
The NCTTA will be livestreaming four regional championship events this weekend!

• West Regional Championship
• Northeast Regional Championship
• Great Lakes Regional Championship
• Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship

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

Generation Gap, Example to Young Koreans, Joo Saehyuk
Here's the article.

Netherlands Seeks Elusive Medal but Is it Last Chance?
Here's the article.

Markham Once Again City to Decide Olympic Games Fortunes
Here's the article.

Mark Zuckerberg and the President of Indonesia Played Ping Pong in Virtual Reality Together
Here's the article and pictures.

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.

Backhand Multiball
Here's video (44 sec) of a two-shot sequence drill where the player backhand flips a short ball to the forehand, followed by a quick backhand loop off the bounce from the back hand corner of the simulated block there. Note how they don't play out the point as they are zeroing in on developing these two shots in sequence.

Great Point: Ma Long vs. Yuya Oshima
Here's the video (15 sec) between China's world #1 and Japan's world #20. That's Adam Bobrow commentating.

Chinese Stars at the Worlds in Kuala Lumpur
Here are the top four players in the world testing the tables.

• Ma Long and Zhang Jike (15 sec).
• Fan Zhendong and Xu Xin (13 sec).

Ma Long's Best Points
Here's the highlights video (4:26) of the world #1.

Cat TT Cartoons
Marv Anderson alerted me to a table tennis theme in this week's Monty comic strip! Monty teaches his cat to play table tennis – and isn't happy with the result.

• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday
• Friday

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Rarely Used Shots
After losing a backspin counter-lobbing point to a student (you heard that right), it got me to thinking about such rarely used shots. So here is a listing of a few of the lesser-used shots that are central to exactly nobody's game - but are fun to try!

• Backspin Lobs. They are great fun, and a break from the usual topspin and sidespin lobs, but of course the backspin means the ball stays over the table, giving the opponent an easy angled smash. But it's so fun to watch the shock in a an advanced beginner as he prepares to smash the ball, only to have to make a last second lunge for it that rarely works! Extra bonus - a backspin lob that bounces back to your own side of the table! (See "Mistaken Comeback Backspin Lob" segment below – but normally you do this on purpose with a chop contact.) This is especially effective if you do it short to the forehand, where it's harder for the opponent to reach over the table or run to the side. I do this shot at least every 30 minutes when I'm coaching. 
• Backspin Counter-Lobs. Now we're taking backspin lobs to the ultimate, just as counterlooping is the ultimate in looping. So your opponent does a backspin lob? Backspin lob right back, and let the backspin counter-lobbing begin! I had a few vicious backspin counter-lobbing points with a student yesterday; I'm sure the Chinese are researching this highly advanced shot. 
• Running Forehand Push. Okay, this might be a somewhat normal shot for a chopper, but for the rest of us, it's not something you do every day, or every year. I took on a student recently in a pushing battle, and we both quickly realized there were two strategies: either push over and over to the other player's forehand (since neither of us normally forehand push much against deep backspin), or quick push side to side, forcing running forehand pushes. I have to say my running forehand push needs work. 
• Forehand Pendulum Drive. I learned this shot in the late 1970s from Charles Butler, a 2300 player who was at least 6'4". He was a two-winged looper back when most top players weren't (yes, there was a time...). He was not only tall, but his arms seemed extra long as well, leading to a huge middle. And so what did he do? Every now and then on a shot to his middle he'd return it with the same motion as a forehand pendulum serve, basically a sidespin drive from the middle! I too have learned this shot (key is to learn to close your racket), and about once a day when someone blocks to my middle I'll throw this at them. Alas, I haven't yet mastered the intricacies of a reverse forehand pendulum drive - have you?
• Backhand Strawberry Flip. At the higher levels most top players use backhand banana flips to attack short serves, creating topspin and sidespin with the shot. For a righty, the racket contacts the ball on the left side, so the ball spins clockwise when seen from above, and curves to the right. But what about the lesser-used strawberry flip, pioneered by Stefan Feth, where you contact the ball on the right side and spin it the other way? Not with just a blocking motion - that'd be a sidespin block, with this type often called a squeegie block - but an actual drive so that the ball spins to the left? I've fooled around with the shot and perhaps I'll unleash it on the world at the upcoming Worlds - oops, forgot to try out. 
• Emergency Seemiller Backhand. Ever get caught by surprise by a shot to your middle where you were already preparing for a forehand? And reacted by simply blocking with your forehand side from the middle, windshield-wiper fashion, i.e. a Seemiller backhand? Heck, I've seen seemingly normal shakehand players use this contrived shot to smash against short, high balls when caught off guard. (Confession: I've done it.)
• Hand Serve. The rules consider the hand below the wrist to be part of the racket. So it is legal to serve by hitting the ball with your hand, as long as you are holding the racket with that hand! The easiest way to do this is with a backhand serve, where you hit the ball with the back of your hand. Yes, it hurts, but imagine the look of shock on your opponent's face when he catches the ball, thinking you've mishit it, and you claim the point? I've done this twice in tournaments (in 40 years), and both times the opponent caught the ball. Being the nice person I am, I gave them lets both times even though it was legally my point. (Both were weaker players; I decided not to test it against my peers and face their wrath.)

Ask the Expert: 10 Questions about Table Tennis Rules
Here's the new article from Samson Dubina.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #229 (23:34) - 3rd Ball Against Fast Push (and other segments).

Jun Mizutani: Japan Hopes Are High
Here's the article on Japan's Men's Team at the Worlds, with Jun Mizutani, Koki Niwa, Yuya Oshima, Maharu Yoshimura, and Kenta Matsudaira, with world rankings respectively of 7, 14, 20, 24, and 28.

Science in Olympic Games/Table Tennis: The Science of Spin
Here's the video (39:16).

China Warm Up Matches for 2016 World Championships
Here's another nice match! Zhang Jike vs Fan Zhendong (4:54)

Xu Xin the Showman
Here's the highlights video (8min).

Mistaken Comeback Backspin Lob
Here's the video (64 sec, including slo-mo replay)!

Kanak Gets a KANAKKANAK Haircut
Here's the video (39 sec) as he gets the haircut in Malaysia seemingly double-named after him – for 8 Ringgits, which is $1.89. $1.89 for a haircut???! I'm flying to Malaysia for my haircuts from now on. (Video by U.S. Men's Coach Stefan Feth, who is heard talking in the background.) 

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Zhang Jike vs. Ri Chol Guk at 2011 Worlds - and an Interesting Banana Flip
Here's an interesting video (4:38), for three reasons. (I first saw it as this Facebook posting.) First, you get to see the best in the world (Zhang Jike) against a player you rarely get to see, Ri Chol Guk from North Korea. (His peak was world #82 in June, 2011, before leaving the world rankings in May, 2012 at #86.) Second, Guk has a conventional penhold backhand (same side for forehand and backhand) rather than the modernistic reverse penhold backhand – a dying breed. And third, see the receive by Zhang at 8-6 in third, where he flips a short serve to his forehand with his backhand. Any video of Zhang and most modern top players will show them using the backhand banana flip to receive many short serves to the forehand, but what's unique is that he flips it inside-out to Guk's wide forehand – for an ace.

It's one of those way under-used shots. Let's examine what's actually happening. Guk serves short to the forehand, giving Zhang an angle into his forehand. Against a normal forehand receive, Guk and other players would automatically guard against that wide angle. But as soon as Zhang reaches in with his backhand, many players – including Guk here – reflexively give up this angle. Watch the video again and see how Guk, as soon as he sees a backhand receive, is already moving to his left (our right), giving up the wide forehand.

Why does he (and others) do this? Because from zillions of hours of play, players are not programmed to react to backhands from the forehand that angle into your forehand as Zhang does here, since they so rarely see it. When faced with an opponent's backhand, players are used to seeing at most a down-the-line backhand to their forehand (no angle), and so reflexively only guard against that, while more often expecting a crosscourt shot to their backhand. (Here's an example of that three points earlier, as well as a number of earlier times.) Result? The wide forehand angle is given up. Receivers, take notice!

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #228 (25:10) - Is the Backhand Sidespin Flick Overrated? (And other segments.)

34 Seconds of Forehand Multiball
Here's the video.

USATT Releases iOS Mobile App
Here's the download/info page.

11 Questions with Paul Shih and Yun Fan
Here's the USATT interview.

Interview with Kokou Dodji Fanny (Togo)
Here's the USATT Interview by Rahul Acharya.

The Road Traveled
Here's the article by Joe Windham on his experiences at various clubs – Triangle TTC in NC, Milwaukee TTC, Atlanta International Academy, San Diego TTC, Minneapolis TTC, St. Louis TTC, Salt Lake City TTC, and the South Bend TTC in IN.

2016 US Olympians and Paralympians Reunion
Here's the USATT article and slideshow. "USA Table Tennis Olympian Sean O'Neill (1988-1992) along with Las Vegas TTC's Carmencita, Luoana and Cynthia Alexandrescu shared table tennis duties for a great weekend of play at the Tropicana!"

NCTTA Commentator Challenge Winners Up to the Task
Here's the article. The National Collegiate TTA had a contest to find commentators for their events. The winners are Kevin Korb and Bryan Song, with runners-up Dylan Ley and Andy Nguyen. "Sports commentary can run the gamut from entertaining and insightful to "meh." Good commentary can add to spectators' enjoyment of an event, while bad commentary--or sometimes even too much commentary--can send them scrambling for the mute button."

Drew Ogden Leads Dixie Division
Here's the article.

Two Current Stars Withdraw, Two Stars of Yesteryear
Here's another article on the withdrawal from the Worlds of Ovtcharov, as well as Chuan Chih-Yuan, and the entries of Schlager and Primorac. Here's another article on Ovtcharov and the German Team.

Lakeland February Open
Here's the video (7:03) showcasing the prizewinners!

Filling a Car with Ping Pong Balls!
Here's the video (4:44).

Alien Pong
Here's the cartoon!
***
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Coaching the Candidates
Before the most recent Republican and Democratic Debates, there was a rumor that the moderators would challenge them to showcase their table tennis skills. And so each candidate quietly contacted me about private coaching. Here are my notes on each of these sessions which took place this past week at the Maryland Table Tennis Center.

=>DONALD TRUMP. He wore his customary "Make USATT Great Again" baseball cap. (It fell off once and took his hair with it, but he paid me $1000 not to tell anyone.) As we warmed up, at first I thought he was just really, really slow, but then I asked to examine his racket, and it was made of solid gold and weighed about twenty pounds – and he insisted on using it. I wanted to go over to his side of the table to help him with his technique, but as we rallied several Mexican workers came by and extended the net in both directions into a six-foot barb-wired fence.

The rallies weren't very good as Trump insisted on attacking everything. Way too aggressive. Most of his shots missed, but he claimed they hit, and a bunch of people wearing Trump shirts kept clapping and screaming, "Great shot!" even when they missed by ten feet. I tried to get him to done it down, but he said, "I have the best forehand and backhand in the world. Everybody loves my technique. I have a beautiful game and I'm very rich."

He told me a story about how at the World Table Tennis Championships, when Team USA lost to Team China, thousands of Chinese had celebrated in the streets of New Jersey, and that he had decided that until we figure out what is going on, he was calling for a complete shutdown on New Jersey natives entering the United States. Now some of my best friends are from the Lily Yip Table Tennis Center and the New Jersey Table Tennis Club, but I didn't want to get into an argument with him. He had some strong opinions on unrated players, and didn't believe they should be allowed to play in rating events. "I will round up every unrated person in American and export them, and make China pay for it."

At the end of the session he slapped a Trump bumper sticker on the table and then took an escalator out. (When did we install that?) Trump said some really nasty stuff during our session, but he also bought the club with some pocket change during a break and is now our owner, so I'll shut up.

=>JEB BUSH. I could already see he was having so much trouble in the election. He looked bushed (sorry!), tottering about like an old man with sacks under his eyes. I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "I have no Tenergy." Now I happen to know that his campaign had raised over $150 million, so you'd think he could shell out $150 – 0.0001% of the money raised – for two sheets of Tenergy. But apparently Trump was right, this guy is always low on Tenergy. He played passively with antispin on both sides, just blocking everything back with a pained smile on his face. We only hit for about ten minutes, and then, pleading exhaustion, he dropped out of the session and the presidential race.

=>BEN CARSON. We never had a session. You see, we have this storage closet at MDTTC, and immediately after entering the club, Carson ran into it, screaming, "I found it! This is where Joseph stored his grain!" He spent the next hour searching through the boxes of rackets, balls, and other TT stuff, looking for that grain. I think he found an old ham sandwich one of the kids discarded back there, and called it a victory. On the way out he stopped by one of the tables and claimed it was the Ark of the Covenant, and my Gatorade bottle the Holy Grail. The guy is nuts.

=>TED CRUZ. He plays with a bible as a racket, with long pips no sponge on one side, vintage Sriver on the other, and both sides are illegally the same bright Republican red – yeah, he cheats. He also insisted on playing on a God Table Tennis Table that he brought himself. He kept moving to his right all the time, and so often was way, way off to the side, making rallies impossible. The session was cut short as he got into an argument with the club's management about his insistence that we not pay our bills, and he went into an absolute rage when he heard we were raising our ceiling (to allow for more lobbing), and  after a few minutes he stormed out. Last I saw he was outside on the steps of the club reading Green Eggs and Ham to an empty parking lot.

=>MARCO RUBIO. He's only five feet tall and looks about twelve. He was a strange student. When I asked him if he'd ever had any coaching before, he said, "Tactics isn't about finding complex strategies to defeat an opponent. Tactics is about sifting through all the zillions of possible tactics and finding a few simple ones that work." This had nothing to do with my question, and of course are the opening lines to my book Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers. I asked him if he'd ever seen high-level table tennis, and he repeated the same lines. When I asked if I could see his grip, he repeated it again. For the next hour, no matter what I said or asked, that's how he responded, always word for word. And yet, despite this weird repetition, he was probably the most talented of the candidates.

=>JOHN KASICH. I have to apologize. Like everyone else, I'd never heard of this guy. When he came in he seemed reluctant to play, so I practically dragged him out to the table. One of his security guys protested, but we had him kicked out. Kasich kept protesting throughout the lesson about something, but like everyone else, I never really heard what he had to say. At the end, when we shook hands, he said, "I keep telling you, I'm not Kasich, he was the guy you kicked out." In the immortal words of Rick Perry, "Oops."

=>HILLARY CLINTON. All the stuff you've heard about her being dishonest . . . well, it's all true. I was ready to teach her all the wonderful secrets of table tennis, but she only wanted to play games. But her serves were illegal! She used a hidden serve(r), thereby illegally hiding contact. Anyway, halfway through the session representatives from Butterfly, JOOLA, Paddle Palace, and others came by, and she went to the back room to have talks with them. We secretly recorded her speech to them, but we've been bribed to keep them secret. Suffice to say that if elected, table tennis equipment will become tax-free, and so I'm voting for her.

=>BERNIE SANDERS. As you can probably guess, he played with a hardbat. We didn't get much practice – he spent the whole session griping about the sponge conglomerates and how unfair that was to the average hardbat American. He couldn't put any spin on the ball. When I tried to teach him how to spin, he refused, insisting on talking without spin, saying he'd raise taxes, turn America into a (Democratic) Socialist Paradise, and reminiscing about the old days when he'd cheer for his old hitting partner, Fidel Castro and growing up in the 50s (1850s). But at the end he got really hot, and I could feel the bern. 

Today's Todo List
Let's see how much of my todo list I can get through today. Check back periodically throughout the day and night as I cross them off the list. (By making this public it sort of puts pressure on me to get them done – so now I have to get them done. I'll have to stop at 2:15 PM for the afterschool program, but I'll continue tonight. There's nothing in the world more joyful than checking items off a todo list, right?)

• Blog
• Update links for MDTTC Opens with direct links for payments
• Work with translator on questions regarding Korean translation of Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers
• Email to ITTF officials regarding hidden service rule
• Finalize and send last minute edits of SF novel to publisher
• Two promotional items for upcoming SF novel
• Updates on Capital Area League webpage
• Afterschool program (leave at 2:15PM) and 1.5 hours coaching
• News item on History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17
• Update Capital Area League Results
• Letter of Recommendation for top player who's applying for a grant
• Prepare email to USATT clubs about leagues and state championships
• Online coaching analysis
• Order trophies for MDTTC April Open (Thur)
• Schedule and start plans for Maryland Closed (Thur)
• Ongoing correspondence with roughly a zillion people on leagues, state championships, regional associations, coaching programs, and other issues
• Finalize short SF story I've been working on [will likely postpone this for some time - Saturday morning?]
• Article for Orioles Hangout
• Browse and procrastinate on the 23 items on my long-term todo list

US National Junior/Cadet Team Members and Top Collegiate Teams to Compete at 2016 Butterfly Arnold Challenge
Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

Ovtcharov Withdraws from 2016 World Championships & Legends Return
Here's the ITTF article. The two returning Legends are Schlager and Primorac.

Table Tennis Hurts
Here's the article by Coach Jon.

2016 World Champs Teams - China
Here are two videos that introduce the men and women who will represent China at the Worlds

• Chinese Men's Team (63 sec) – Ma Long, Fan Zhendong, Xu Xin, Zhang Jike, and Fang Bo.
• Chinese Women's Team (50 sec) – Ding Ning, Chen Meng, Li Xiaoxia, Zhu Yulin, and Liu Shiwen.

China Warm Up Matches for 2016 World Championships
Here are two good ones as the top four in the world go at it!

• Ma Long vs Fan Zhendong (6:22)
• Zhang Jike vs Xu Xin (4:54)

Spinning on a Table
Here's 28 seconds of a player spinning on a table like a top – balanced on one hand – while rallying. Dear player – you have it all wrong, you are supposed to spin the ball, not yourself!

Alec Baldwin and Jason Schwartzman "Traffic" Commercial for Amazon Echo
Here's the video (30 sec)!

Super Sideways Dive into a Pool in a Captain American Uniform
Here's the picture of Adam Bobrow demonstrating basic movement in table tennis. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

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Tip of the Week
Three Tips to Increase Forehand Looping Power.

Move Those Feet – and Meet George Braithwaite
Whether you are 8 or 80, or somewhere in between, moving your feet is a priority. It's something that coaches constantly harp on. Beginning kids often don't find it important, and so you have to drill it into them, and then they quickly pick up on it. Older players often find it difficult because of their age, but while age slows you down, it doesn't stop you from moving your feet – it's simply a habit. An older player who doesn't move fast but still moves his feet is faster than a really fast player who doesn't.

Here is Exhibit A, video of George Brathwaite (12:05) in a training session. George "The Chief" is well into his eighties (here's his Hall of Fame profile), but see how he still moves his feet? That's because he has made it a habit. Let me emphasize this again: Moving the feet is a habit. It has nothing to do with how fast your feet are or how old you are.

Often players instead reach for the ball, meaning they limit their range, go off balance, and have to do an awkward stroke instead of the one they've spent so much time perfecting. The problem is they haven't developed the reaction of stepping to the ball, and so they instead react by reaching instead of stepping. Just as a person reflexively blinks if something comes at their eye, you should learn to reflexively step to wherever the ball is going. This doesn't mean you'll reach the ball every time, and sometimes you might even take that step and still have to lunge after it, but that's only after taking that first reflexive step. Focus on balance, with your weight centered as you move, and only going to your back foot for weight transfer as you get into position.  

Some would say, "Of course George can move his feet – he's a Hall of Fame player!" But that's backwards – he's a Hall of Famer because he worked hard to develop such basic habits as moving his feet. George can do it in his eighties. What's your excuse?

(A version of this will likely become a Tip of the Week at some point.)

Advice from Lily Zhang
Here's the video interview (3:13) from Samson Dubina.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #227 (24:10) - Tournament Warm Ups and other segments.

Korean Physical Training for Table Tennis
Here's the video (43 sec).

Feng Tianwei Wins Singapore Sportswoman of the Year
Here's the article.

PGA Star Matt Kuchar Plays TT in Slow Motion
Here's the video (58 sec).

Very Nice Table Tennis Trophies!
Here's the picture. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Going Around the Table?
Here's the video (32 sec).

Awesome Swap Hand Shot by Maria Tsaptsinos!
Here's the video of the nice point (18 sec) by the world #334 from England.

Spectacular Backhand Sidespin Around the Net
Here's the video (13 sec, including slo-mo replay) – but alas, that's a side, not edge.

Happy, Smiley Paddle
Here's the picture – I think he (or his "handler") just won!

Two-Ball Serve Trick Shot
Here's the video (15 sec, including slo-mo replay). And here's the video (2:26) Two-Ball Serve Trick Shot Behind the Scenes!

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History of U.S. Table Tennis and Other TT Books
It's out – Tim Boggan's History of U.S. table Tennis, Volume 17!!! You may remember me blogging about the long hours of putting the 450 pages and 1500 illustrations together back in January with Tim. So why not buy a new volume or perhaps 17 of them? Cost is $40/book, but if you order all 17, it drops to $30/book! (If you have ordered previous volumes and want to buy the rest, you can negotiate with Tim.)

The volume covers 1989-1990, including a lot about the infamous 1990 U.S. Open/World Veterans/International Junior Championships. I'd say more about this, but then you wouldn't have to buy the book!!! (Sorry, only comes in print.)

If you can't afford all 17, and don't want to order them piecemeal, one option is to go for Volume V, which covers the Ping-Pong Diplomacy Years, 1971-72. Tim gives a first-hand look at those historic events, where we finally made contact with China, with the U.S. Team touring China and the Chinese Team touring the U.S.

So why not curl up with a nice historical table tennis book this weekend? Or, since you'll need to order the book, why not order it now so you can curl up with it next weekend?

Or, of course, you could order one of my books, which come in print and (in most cases) kindle versions. (Here's my Amazon page.) Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers has been the #1 best seller for table tennis almost continuously since it came out 27 months ago (as of tomorrow) – see the "#1 Best Seller for Table Tennis" citation next to it on the Amazon page. (Others books have taken over the #1 spot for short periods of time, mostly when they first come out.) It has 38 reviews – 31 5-star, six 4-star, and one 3-star – read over them to get a gist of the book. It comes in both print and kindle.

If you are looking for Tips, check out Table Tennis Tips. Or if you want a mix of essays on table tennis technique and stories about table tennis, go for Table Tennis Tales & Techniques. If you want to be a professional table tennis coach, go for the Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook.

If you are more in the mood for an inspirational story, check out "The Spirit of Pong," my fantasy table tennis novel about an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis, and trains with the spirits of past champions – you'll meet many of the greats, including Ogimura, Satoh, Rong Guotuan, Reisman, and special appearances by moderns including Waldner and Deng Yaping. (This is my favorite of my books.) It's a quick read, only 100 pages, and comes with a special 4-page humorous fantasy table tennis story, "Ping-Pong Ambition," about a man who wants to be the best table tennis player ever, and while training with a robot, the ball cracks . . . and out comes a genie that had been trapped in the ball for 10,000 years!!! (You'll have to read the story to find out how that happened.)

Here's my blog entry (updated) from December where I listed other table tennis books and linked to my reviews of them.

Table Tennis is Back in the Junior Olympics!!!
Here's the Junior Olympics Table Tennis Info Page – but there's little info there yet other than the main news that we're once again listed. We were part of it from the 1980s until just a few years ago, and now we're back in! The event will be held Aug. 1-3 in Houston, TX. The online listing shows it starting July 30, but July 30-31, Sat & Sun, is actually a 4-star tournament they are planning to be held in conjunction with the Junior Olympics, which start the next day and run Mon-Wed. As some of you may remember, when I ran for the USATT Board of Directors, this was one of the things I promised to push for. But while I pushed for it, special thanks goes to Wen Hsu and Richard Lee who made it happen! Richard and North American Table Tennis will be running the event, along with the 4-star tournament.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #226 (19:29) - Serving Strategy (and other segments).

Official U.S. Olympic Trials Gear
Here's where you can buy it!

Texas Wesleyan Faces Rival at Regional Tournament
Here's the article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

2016 World Championships Media Guide Now Available
Here it is. It includes:

• ITTF Overview
• History of Table Tennis
• Basic Table Tennis Rules
• Player lists and Bios
• WTTC Information
• Previous Results
• Major Event Winners
• Upcoming Major Events
• Media Guidelines
• General Media Information
• ITTF Media Contacts

Table Tennis Features
Here's a bunch of news items from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada – way up north, includes table tennis in snow pictures! Click on pictures for next one.

Promoting the Sport – Interview with Blake Cottrell
Here's the video interview (13:33) with the tournament director and promoter, by Samson Dubina.

Amazing Xu Xin Backhand Sidespin Flip Receive
Here's the video (15 sec, including slo-mo replay). It looks so simple, doesn't it?

Great Point
Here's the video (1:11) between Marcos Freitas of Portugal (world #11, #7 in November) and Adrien Mattenet of France (world #46, formerly #19).

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.

Hulky Pong?
Here's the cartoon! (And here's the Hulk Racket - I own one!)

Mostly Non-Table Tennis - Win a Free Copy of Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions
All you have to do is go to the Goodread's page, click on the "Enter Giveaway" link, and sign up! I will be sending signed copies to eight winners. (As I've blogged a number of times, one of the main characters in the SF novel is a professional table tennis player turned campaign director, with a number of table tennis scenes.)

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What's in a Name?
Some of us have perfect names for what they do. Let's face it, doesn't Donald Trump have a great last name for a businessman or politician? (Well, until he went and ruined it by, well, I'll shut up now.) Or how about others with perfect names for their sport, like sprinter Usain Bolt, golfer Tiger Woods, or the great baseball slugger Hack Wilson? (There's also the unstoppable tennis star Bjorn Borg, but the unstoppable villains the Borg of Star Trek: Next Generation came after he retired.) Or how about someone with initials "LBH" for "Loop Block Hit"? (That would be me - and my last name is also an anagram for "He's God"!)

So let's examine the USATT ratings database and find out who's out there!

There were 64 Pings, and another 95 with "ping" as part of their names. My favorites: Ping Chao of Somerset, NJ, rated 545; (makes me hungry for ping-pong), He Ping of Durham, NC, rated 875 ("He ping-pong player!"; Ping Hao, of Gaithersburg, MD, rated 1803 (from my club! So "Hao" do you play ping-pong?); Ping Ma of Maritta, NY, rated 339 ("Ma, take me to play ping-pong!"); and Rusty Ping of Texas, unrated – "I need to practice, I'm rusty!" There was also former USA Olympian Whitney Ping.

There were seven Pongs (plus another 30 with "pong" as part of their name):

• Johnny Pong of Laguna Woods, CA, rated 1048
• Norman Pong of Chelmsford, MA, unrated
• Vivien Pong of Eugene, OR, rated 1005
• Beth Pong Green of Monument, CO, unrated
• Pong Javier of Illinois, unrated
• Chin Pong Tsui of New York, NY, unrated
• Kin Pong Lee, foreign player location unknown, rated 1566

There were 39 people whose first name was "Ping," and four people whose last name is "Pong," so all we have to do is arrange a marriage between two of them (156 possible combinations!), and we'll have a Mr. or Mrs. Ping Pong!

Moving on to strokes, meet:

• Craig Loop of Los Angeles, unrated
• Tom Loop of Scotch Plains, NJ, rated 1638
• Carl Looper of Tybee Island, GA, rated 896
• Lots of Blockers – say hello to Adam, Eli, Gary, Jerry, Jonathan, Macy, Michael, Miwa, Robert, Rod, and Willen Block, and to Desmond, Jared, Jer'el, and Tavon Blocker.
• No one named Push, but we do have Pushkar, Pushan, Pushilal, and Pushpak.
• Mosi Kill Kelly, location unknown, rated 2222
• No one named Chop, though quite a few had "chop" in their names, including a number of Chopra's. But there was Carl Chopp of Aurora, CO, unrated.
• There were 11 people named Fish, and 41 named Fisher.
• No one named Serve, but there were Bert and Humberto Servello.
• Want to flip a serve? Meet Flip Carico of Troutville, VA, rated 1804. Of course the Europeans call a flip a flick, so meet Bob Flick of Luthvle Timon, MD, rated 837.

Moving on to equipment:

• No one named Racket, but two had "racket" in their names – Hayden Brackett of Springfield, MO, rated 992, and Jeremy Brackett, of Attalla, AL, rated 1082.
• There was Sam Blades, from unknown foreign country, rated 584.
• There were 21 people named Bryce, but no Tenergys or Srivers.
• There were no Antis, though a lot of Santiagos (which has "anti" in it), but I once knew a player named Ahn-Tuy Nguyen, whose first name was pronounced "Anti" – and believe it or not, he played with the Seemiller grip with anti on one side!

Speaking of Nguyen, do you want to win? There were 654 players with the Vietnamese name Nguyen, which is correctly pronounced (roughly) "Win."

Table tennis is a game of spin and speed, so…

• Say hello to Vic Lotsospin of Pennsylvania, unrated. There were a lot of others with "spin" in their names, but no one named Spin.
• Say hello to Nick Speed of Arizona, unrated.
• But you don't need spin if you are Nospin Mitbbs from California, unrated.

But if you want to know the score, ask Ronald Score, of Washington, UT, rated 1351, or Tyler Score, of Phoenix, AZ, rated 1182.

Someone's playing name games with our database – apparently the guilty party is Fremont Head Coach Shashin Shodhan! The USATT database includes Shashin Chopper Shodhan, Shashin Left Chopper Shodhan, Shashin Lobber Shodhan, Left-Handed Shashin Shodhan, Lefty Shodhan, Pips-out Shashin Shodhan, Shashin Left Penhold Shodhan, Shashin Rght [sic] Shodhan, and Shashin Wheelchair Shodhan! There was also Kuldip Left-Handed Shodhan, Kuldip Wheelchair Shodhan, and Lefty Kuldip Shodhan.

But names aren't everything – who among us isn't determined to break 2000, that magical rating barrier? (Well, other than those rated over 2000.) And Majid Hussain of Ontario's USATT# is 2000. (But he's rated 2306.)

So who's the Best? Meet Alex, Aubrey, Bryan, Daniel, Gabe, Mark, Mia, and Thomas Best! And who's the best of the Best? That would be Daniel Best, from Germany, rated 2248. Of USA players, that would be Aubrey Best, of Orlando, FL, rated 1109. So the best of the USA Best aren't exactly . . . blessed.

Free Video Clips
Here are seven free video clips from Samson Dubina's coaching DVD.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #225 (20:45) - Backhand Counterloop and other segments.

Nice Drill
Here's the video (58 sec) – short push, long push, quick block.

Waldner Cherishes His Chinese Friends
Here's the article. And here's video (16:10) of Waldner's Most Beautiful Points.

Segun Toriola Qualifies for 7th Olympic Games
Here's the ITTF article. "TORIOLA's appearance at Rio 2016 will be the most by an African in any sport, writing himself into African sporting history." "TORIOLA joins table tennis legends Jean-Michel SAIVE (BEL), Jorgen PERSSON (SWE) & Zoran PRIMORAC (CRO) in an elite group of players who have played at seven Olympic Games."

2016 DHS Swiss Open Final
Here's the video (10:19) of Dimitrij Ovtcharov vs Vladimir Samsonov

World Champs Fav Moment - Ma Long
Here's the ITTF video (66 sec).

Fantastic Backhands
Here's the video (1:11).

LEON's World of Magic with David Wetherill
Here's the video (4:58) – humor, magic, and table tennis! "Leon Thomson, the magician, invites David Wetherill who did the "FANTASTIC TABLE TENNIS SHOT" to play table tennis at BTTC, Leon pulls of a ridiculous trick with David's Bat! David did the Fantastic Table Tennis shot at the Paralympic games in London 2012."

Mostly Non-Table Tennis – Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions
Here's the Amazon page for the kindle version of my new SF novel! You can only pre-order now, so why wait? Print page should be up in a few days. The novel will be released on March 8. As noted many times, one of the main characters is a professional table tennis player, and there are a number of table tennis scenes.

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Schedule
My schedule these days is pretty hectic. I've blogged about this a few times – and have been sarcastically called a "table tennis martyr" for doing so – but at some point something will likely have to give. I'm involved in way too many USATT and MDTTC issues, plus have my regular coaching and tutoring hours, afterschool pickups, blogs & tips, and science fiction writing. My guess is I'm probably going to have to drop some of my USATT activities after this year, but I hope to get a lot done this year first. (I'm currently on the USATT Board of Directors, the chair of the USATT League Committee, and the USATT Regional Associations Coordinator. I may drop the latter two after this year – hopefully there'll be worthy successor who can continue this work. Heck, any ambitious, hard-working table tennis martyrs want them now?!!!)

I've had to temporarily drop my usual SF writing to focus on these other issues, and my USATT work has taken a hit. The last few days I've picked up on USATT issues – I was up half of last night on various issues, mostly working with people around the country involving regional leagues and associations, coaching, and state championships. I think half my emails these days are basically, "I'm inundated right now, but will get back to you." (Yesterday didn't help – I spent most of the day in Baltimore for the funeral of my aunt, RIP.)

Today, after the blog goes up, I've got a long list of MDTTC and USATT things to get done, plus a lot of publicity work for the upcoming SF novel, Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions (out on March 8 – lots of table tennis in it!).

My weekly and upcoming schedules are below. Mon-Fri mornings and early afternoons are devoted to blogging, writing, and USATT & MDTTC work. (I usually start around 7:30AM.) Mon-Fri I leave either 2:15 or 2:30 to do afterschool pickups, then do both coaching and tutoring until 5:30 PM, then private or group coaching. Nights I do more USATT/MDTTC work as needed, and try to get some SF writing in, though that's been down recently – just no time or energy at that point, and there's always some "emergency" USATT or MDTTC item to get done. Then it's off to bed somewhere between midnight and 2AM. I try to squeeze in half an hour of reading at night, and do the Washington Post crossword puzzle during lunch and while waiting for the kids when I do school pickups. I schedule one breath of air every hour on the hour, when I have time.

Weekly Coaching Schedule
Mon: 2:15-7:00PM
Tue: 2:15-7:00PM
Wed: 2:30-6:45PM
Thu: 2:15-7:00PM
Fri: 2:30-5:30PM
Sat: 2:30-3:30PM
Sun: 1:00-8:15PM

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #224 (22:45) - Backhand Footwork

Former Olympic and World Champion Waldner Bows Out
Here's the article from Eurosport.

11 Questions with Richard Perez
Here's the USATT interview.

Arnold Table Tennis Challenge: Bigger and Better in 2016
Here's the USATT article by Barbara Wei.

San Antonio 2016 Winter Open
Here's the article by Joe Cummings.

Reducing Anxiety and Increasing Productivity … Through Table Tennis?
Here's the video (3:17).

TableTennisDaily Podcast #7 Marcos Freitas
Here's the interview (55:57) with the world #11 (recently #7) from Portugal.

David Beckham Plays Table Tennis
Here's the video (35 sec) where he shows the world that Table Tennis can be played anywhere and everywhere!

Ghost vs. Skeleton
Here's the cartoon – you create the caption! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

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