Tip of the Week
Distance from Table When Looping a Push.

My Weekend
This was one of the busiest four days I've ever gone through, Fri-Mon. Here's a rundown.

• The usual private and group coaching – but a little less than usual as one student was away at a tournament, another was sick, and another had to cut a lesson short because of shoulder problems, so only about seven hours total.

  One interesting note – it seems a number of players I'm coaching are working on backhand serves, so I'm coaching that a lot. My backhand serve was my #1 serve for a short time in the late 1970s, but I had some arm problems that made that difficult and pretty much stopped using it. Now I'm using it a lot – in demonstrations! In fact, I've been coaching it so much that on Sunday I spent ten minutes practicing the serve to get it back to where it was way back when. The big breakthrough was I finally can do a backspin serve that comes back into the net – more of an exhibition trick serve than a player should use in a match (where it's better to drive the serve out so the second bounce is at or near the end-line), but it's good practice, and shows students just how much backspin one can put on the ball. (I can do this easily with my forehand serve.)

• Spent 3.25 hours Friday night studying videos of one of our top players (and some of his opponents), and wrote a long analysis, along with a shorter version with recommendations. I kept track of unforced errors for the player and his opponent to show how he was losing on that (trying to force shots and losing focus), pointed out how he had several streaks where he lost a bunch of points in a row without taking a break or timeout (while his opponent had zero such streaks), as well as showing that he dominated when his first attack was to the middle (winning 78% of those points), while he roughly broke even when his initial attack was to the corners. I think this last stat caught him off guard as he seemed to prefer attacking the corners first.
• Had a short coaching conference with a player at a tournament via phone, where I gave tips on playing a specific player. (Attack the middle! Move the serve around, including short to the forehand!)
• Wrote the Tip of the Week and gathered links for this morning's blog.
• Spoke on phone with USATT CEO for an hour, primarily on league plans and regional associations, and then finalized the prototype for a USATT Regional League. I sent it to the USATT League Committee for comment. (I chair the committee, alas.) I expect to go public with this before the Nationals in December, perhaps even in November.
• Lots of email discussions with various people on: League plans; Regional Associations; What to do if two groups from same state want to run a State Championships (gist of it is the local clubs get to decide); and on the League Finals at the U.S. Nationals.
• Worked out plans for a Korean translation of Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers. Now if I can only get it into Chinese!
• Did the accounting for the past week's classes.
• Did updates on the numerous web pages I maintain, both TT and SF.
• 1.5 hours of private tutoring in English.
• Wrote two new science fiction stories (one rather long, one rather short), finalized two stories I'd been working on before, read and critiqued two stories by others (in return for their critiquing mine), submitted eleven stories to new markets, and started outlining a new novel, "Campaign 2110: Scorpions in Space" (the sequel to Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions) – lots of table tennis action in these SF novels! (When people ask me for help on things, I've run out of ways of explaining that I'm trying to run two or three careers – table tennis coaching and table tennis writing [is that one or two careers?], and SF writing, plus an exorbitant amount of volunteer time for USATT as well as MDTTC and others. I'm pretty much doing 12-16 hour days every day now. Thank God I don't sleep much…)
• Went to the bank and post office, got a haircut, went grocery shopping, and still found time to see the movie "Our Brand is Crisis" on Saturday, watch The Walking Dead on Sunday night, read a few chapters of a novel, and do the entire Friday and Saturday Washington Post Crossword Puzzles!

World Women's Cup
It finished this past Sunday, in Sendai, Japan, with China's Liu Shiwen defeating Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa in the final. Here are some links.​

• Home Page, where you can get results, articles, quotes, pictures, and video.
• Final: Liu Shiwen vs. Kasumi Ishikawa (6:33 - highlights, Adam Bobrow commentating)
• Final: Liu Shiwen vs. Kasumi Ishikawa (8:11 - entire match with time between points removed, Chinese commentating)
• ITTF Press Release, Day 1
• ITTF Press Release, Day 2
• ITTF Press Release, Day 3
• ITTF Press Release, Liu Shiwen Wins
• Best Point of the Final (37 sec)

ITTF World Cadet Challenge
It finished on Saturday, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

• USATT page for the event
• ITTF page with complete results, articles, pictures, and video. 
• Jack Wang ripping a forehand. (Someone should add a thought bubble and turn this into an Internet Meme! If no one else does, I might.)
• Shot of the Tournament, by Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico – it's a great rally, then watch her next-to-last shot – what the heck was that??? (And then the final backhand kill.)

Here are USA's main results.

• Boys' Singles: Jack Wang finished 8^th, Victor Liu 10^th.
• Cadet Boys' Doubles: Jack Wang/Victor Liu made semifinals.
• Boys' Teams: North America finished 3^rd.
• Girls' Singles: Crystal Wang finished 9^th, and Grace Yang 15^th.
• Cadet Girls' Doubles: Crystal Wang/Grace Yang made semifinals.
• Girls' Teams: North America finished 4^th.

Transitioning More Quickly
Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao.

Footwork Tips
Here's the new coaching video (91 sec) from Samson Dubina.

In the Zone – Part 9
Here's the new coaching article on the mental side of table tennis. I linked to Parts 1-7 on Oct. 21, and Part 8 on Oct. 27.

Table Tennis Newsletter from Tom Lodziak
Here's the newsletter, from the English coach & player, with links to articles on:

• Coping with Defeats in Table Tennis
• How to Play Table Tennis Like the Chinese
• The Dreaded First League Season
• What Are the Best Attacking Table Tennis Rubbers?
• Expert Table Tennis Podcast (he was interviewed last week)
• Table Tennis Gift Ideas

Table Tennis Tips for Competition Play
Here's the coaching article(s) from Pongworld.

Will Shortz and Kai Zhang in The New Yorker
Here's the article – a must read!

Return Kim Gilbert's Serves for Charity
Here's info on the charity for brain tumors to be held this Sunday at Dockweiler State Beach in Playa del Rey. (Here's the non-Facebook version.) It's held in conjunction with a 5K/10K Fun Run for Kids and an Expo. Here's more info. 

World Championships of Ping-Pong
Here's the entry form for the USA Trials in Las Vegas, to be held on Monday morning, Dec. 14. (This is sandpaper table tennis.) Here's the USATT news item about it from last week. I plan on entering, but I may run into a problem – USATT has a board meeting scheduled all day on Sunday, Dec. 13, and for Monday morning. I'll have to wait and see what's scheduled on Monday morning.

11 Questions with Scott Gordon
Here's the USATT interview with the Classic Table Tennis Committee Chair and Hardbat Champion.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 16
Chapter 15 is now up! "1988: October Tournaments. 1988: Hall of Fame Open/1989 U.S. World Team Decided." Here's where you can buy copies of the books by Tim Boggan for yourself.

2015 South Shore Sports Butterfly Table Tennis Championships
Here are the results – click on links to see complete draw sheet.

Best Table Tennis
Here's the new highlights video (4:59), "…dedicated to all those who MAYBE not become world champions but for a moment have felt thus!"

Halloween Table Tennis

• Happy Halloween (1:24) from the USA Pan Am and National Women's Team! Here's a still image taken 35 seconds in of all five, including the coach. Can you name all five?
• Happy Halloween from Pong Universe
• Trick or Treat – Happy Table Tennis Halloween! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)
• Ghosts playing table tennis (repeating gif image I've posted before)
• Costumed woman (cavewoman?) on robot (7:14) with racket in both hands

"Lubo" and the Most Dangerous Backhand on Earth
Here's the video (44 sec) as the coach wears a helmet for protection!

Toddler Pong
Here's the video (10 sec) – that kid's gonna be a champion!

French Table Tennis Commercial
Here's the crazy video – I think it's for a smart phone.

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Local schools are closed today for a "professional day" for teachers. As is my standard practice, when the kids are out of school, I'm off too! So no blog today, and the Tip of the Week will go up tomorrow. (I'll get a lot of work done.) But I'll leave you with this short, six-second repeating gif image of a player catching the ball on his racket, carrying it over, and smashing it. Legal??? Time to go practice this new shot!!!

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A Short History of Modern Receive
If someone were to write a History of Receive, I think there would be four major breakthroughs in modern professional table tennis.

• 1960s: Looping (Europeans and Japanese, especially Hasegawa). Before this time top players mostly attacked a long serve with a regular drive (or they'd chop it), without much topspin. But as the loop was developed during the '60s, long serves became vulnerable to a loop. And so most top players were forced to switch to serving short most often, which are often not as tricky and doesn't have as much break. There were players who used loop-like shots before this, but until the '60s looping wasn't done at a particularly high level. Nobuhiko Hasegawa in 1967 was the first world champion with a modern loop. He also was the first of the great lobbers, plus had a big backhand.

  Here's vintage video (8:57) of the 1971 World Men's Team Final, Japan vs. China (China wins 5-2), with Hasegawa against chopper/looper Liang Geliang in the first match. At 5:10 Hasegawa goes up against Li Jinghuang, a lefty penhold attacker. (China wins 5-2.) Others shown include Zhuang Zedong, Shigeo Itoh, and Mitsuro Kohno. (I couldn't find any video from 1967, when Hasegawa won the Worlds.) Here's 14 sec in 1974 of Hasegawa against Li Zhenshi, who now coaches in California, with Hasegawa looping a number of times against Li's blocks and hits.

• 1971: Short Push (Stellan Bengtsson). Before this time, most short serves were returned long, and so servers would serve and attack. A growing number of servers would start each rally with a serve and loop. Bengtsson of Sweden (now coaching in San Diego) perfected the art of returning short serves with a short push, taking away the server's attack. This forced servers to decide between long serves that could be looped, or short serves that could be pushed short. Others had used short pushes effectively, but Bengtsson popularized it, and used it to win the 1971 World Championships.

  Here's video (1:33 in) of Bengtsson of the final in 1971 against defending champion Shigeo Itoh of Japan, where Itoh serves short and Bengtsson drops it short, forcing the all-out attacker Itoh to push. Here's video (26 sec) of short pushing practice.

• 1979: Forehand Flip (Hungarians). Players used forehand flips before this time, but the Hungarians brought it to a new level as their "secret" weapon at the 1979 Worlds. The Chinese often specialized in serving short to the forehand, since forehand receive was often trickier than backhand receive against a short ball, but the Hungarians, in secret sessions, had spent a huge amount of time preparing for this. When they played the Chinese in the final, the three Hungarians – Istvan Jonyer, Tibor Klampar, and Gabor Gergeley – went flip happy, putting the Chinese on the defensive as they won the Men's Team event against the favored Chinese. They also used the shot effectively when the Chinese returned their serves short, sort of an answer to the short receive revolution that had taken over the game since 1971.

  The following are all from the 1979 World Team Final, won by Hungary over China. Here's video (53 seconds in) of Jonyer forehand flipping crosscourt in the 1979 team final against Guo Yuehua, forcing the Chinese star off the table and putting him on the defensive that led to Jonyer's winning shot. Here's video (3:55 in) of Jonyer flipping into Gue's backhand, again putting him on the defensive and again setting up a winning shot. Here's video (47 secs in) where Klampar does a controlled down-the-line flip to Li Zhenshi's backhand, followed by a forehand winner. On the very next serve Klampar flips in a winner. Here's video of Gergeley vs. Li Zhenshi (I seem to be picking on him – sorry Li!), where in the very first point, after a couple short pushes, Gergely flips in a winner. And then, 55 secs in, Gergely steps around and flips the serve aggressive to Li's backhand to set up his attack.  (Here's a tutorial (7:28) on the forehand flip from Pingskills.)

• 2009: Backhand Banana Flip (Wang Hao). Plenty of players had shots similar to this throughout history, such as Tibor Klampar and Anton Stipancic. But Wang Hao, a penholder, brought it to a new level as he dominated against short serves with this shot, using his reverse penhold backhand. The shot is essentially a wristy backhand loop over the table, with both topspin and sidespin. The shot was quickly copied worldwide by shakehanders. The shot was central to China's Wang Hao winning Men's Singles at the 2009 Worlds. China's Zhang Jike, a shakehander, made the shot central to his receive, and won the next two World Championships.

  Here's video (65 sec in) of Wang Hao backhand flipping Wang Liqin's serve in the 2009 World Men's Singles Final, taking away Wang Liqin's big forehand. Here's video (28 sec in) of Wang Hao backhand flipping in Ma Long's serve in the semifinals. Ma Long also has a highly effective backhand banana flip, as shown here (8 sec) in that same match against Wang Hao, but he'd have to wait six more years before he'd win the World Men's Singles Championship, where he'd also use this shot effectively – but by then, nearly every top player was doing it. Here's video (27 sec, including slow motion) of Zhang Jike's backhand banana flip. Here's my article (with link to video of Ma Long) on the backhand banana flip.

A Complete Game: Learn the Importance of Developing Many Skills
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

Training at the Werner Schlager Academy: Tom Lodziak
Here's the new podcast (48:46) from Expert Table Tennis, featuring Tom Lodziak, "a Cambridge-based table tennis coach who blogs over at www.tabletenniscoach.me.uk and offers one-to-one coaching to players of all ages and abilities." In the episode he talks about:

• How Tom got started in the sport in his mid-twenties.
• Why he believes training camps are so important for player development.
• All about the WSA including; the cost, the entry requirements, the accommodation, the daily timetable, the type of training and much more.
• What Tom learnt from top coach Richard Prause.
• About some of the other training camps available in the UK and Europe.
• Tom’s top tip from his week of training at the WSA.
• How you can get in touch with Tom to ask him any questions you may have.

Xu Xin's Serve
Here's video (23 sec, including slow motion replay) of the Chinese superstar practicing his serves. He was #1 in the world for a total of 16 months, including most of 2014, until dropping to #2 in March this year.

Women's World Cup
It starts today, in Sendai, Japan, Oct. 30 – Nov. 1 (Sunday). Here's the ITTF page where you can get complete results, articles, pictures, and video. (No USA players – Zhang Mo of Canada is representing North America for winning the North American Championships.) Here's the ITTF promotional video (59 sec). Here's a music video (38 sec) of the players training for the tournament. Here's Day One Point of the Day (49 sec), Caroline Kumahara against Petrissa Solja.

ITTF World Cadet Challenge
It's taking place right now in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Oct. 23-31 (Saturday). Here's the USATT page for the event, and here's the ITTF page with complete results, articles, pictures, and video. 

Ask a Pro Anything - Kasumi Ishikawa
Here's the video (16 sec) where she asks you (in English) to "Ask me funny question." Selected questions will be used in an upcoming episode starring her of "Ask a Pro Anything" with Adam Bobrow. (Ishikawa of Japan is #5 in the world and seeded #4 at the Women's World Cup that started today – see above.)

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.

More Bouncing Balls on Racket Handles
Here's video (45 sec) as the player bounces it "only" 116 times – but 30 sec in, he manages to balance the ball on his racket handle as he takes a drink, and then continues!

Earls Court Ping Pong Bar Shut Down After Hipsters Attack Bouncer Who Told Them to End Their Game
Here's the article!

Great Chop, Spin Around, Behind-the-Back Shot!
Here's the video (30 sec, including slow motion replay).

Dog vs. Chinchillas
Here's the cartoon! Here's a close-up of the chinchillas. My brother had a pet chinchilla for several years – we let it run loose in the basement, where we both had our rooms. Eventually he moved out, and we donated it to the National Zoo, where he joined the others already there. (This would have been around the mid-1970s or so.) This is what a chinchilla really looks like – sort of half guinea pig, half rabbit, and about the same size as a large guinea pig.

Moose Pong

• Crazed Moose Pong (this picture is why I chose moose as the animal theme!)
• Double Paddle Moose Pong
• Rocky and Bullwinkle Play Ping-Pong 1
• Rocky and Bullwinkle Play Ping-Pong 2
• Bullwinkle Table Tennis Set
• Moose Wedding Paddle
• Moose Ball Popper – it works like this.
• Moosehead Ping-Pong Table (Moosehead is a Canadian beer)
• Moose Meme: "Did Someone Say Ping-Pong Balls"?
• Mark "The Moose" Messier (hockey player) playing table tennis. (It's not in the caption, but according to his Wikipedia entry, he was nicknamed "The Moose" for his aggression and strength.) That's Wayne Gretzky on the right.
• Moose Cabin with ping-pong table (picture #17 shows the table. After a long day of taking pictures of moose – right? – you can relax and play ping-pong!)
• Moose Paddle 1
• Moose Paddle 2
• Moose Paddle 3
• Moose Head on a Paddle (I don't like this one)
• Moose Ball 1
• Moose Ball 2
• Moose Ball 3
• Moose Ball 4
• Moose Ball 5
• Mr. Moose on the old Captain Kangaroo show dumps ping-pong balls on Captain Kangaroo (video – scene starts at 1:10, balls dumping happens at 1:26). Apparently he did this regularly. Here's a continuous gif image of it!

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State Championships and Why Table Tennis Leaders Often Don't Try New Things
The project is moving along pretty well – see the USATT news item from last Friday (also my blog for that day). As of that time we had 14 state championships in 2015 (plus 15 state games). Since Friday we've had volunteers stepping forward for another eight state championships in 2016. (I'm hesitant to name the states until they have gone through the sanctioning process.)

When you run a local tournament, you may get publicity. But think about it – what do you think will bring in more exposure, another MDTTC Open (or some other tournament), or the Maryland State Championships? Some monthly or even 4-star event in California or New York, or the California or New York State Championships? State championships are a must. I've always known this, but didn't really prioritize it until our new CEO, Gordon Kaye, convinced me that now was the time to focus on setting these up, and asked if I'd take charge.

Now here's the thing that many don't understand. The GOAL is state championship in all 50 states in 2016 (plus DC – which someone just volunteered to run, so cross that off the list). Ignoring state games, which usually aren't quite the same thing, we've gone from 14 to 22 state championships. Let's suppose, just suppose, we end up with 40 in 2016, and that we turn many of these into media events, bringing attention to our sport. Would this be a success? Of course!

But there will always be those mudslingers who will come forward at that time and say we've failed, since we didn't get all 50, that we're short ten. And that is a major reason why it has always been so hard to get USATT leaders to try new things, because even if their new project helps develop the sport, they will still get ripped for it, while leaders who do nothing rarely get ripped for their lack of initiative. It's the culture of our sport, to chop off the heads of those who stick their neck out, but it's gradually changing. Gordon, for one, has shown a willingness to try new things, instead of playing it safe like 100% of our past CEOs/Executive Directors, all of who accomplished little but stayed popular with many. As a member of the USATT board, I've told him a number of times that I'm more interested in the things that are successful in developing our sport then worrying about the ones that don't. We can always fix the latter, but if we don't try new things to develop our sport, we'll never develop our sport. (State championships is one part of the recipe. Others I'm working on are leagues and coaching programs, and regional associations to oversee these regional programs. More on these in the upcoming months.)

Putting all this aside, the goal is 50 states in 2016, and so once again I'm asking for volunteers. If you would like to run a state championship, see the USATT news item, and email me if you have any questions. You get to set the date, and you sanction it like any other tournament. (One thing I left out of the news item was a direct link to the TUSATT Tournament Directors Info Page. I've emailed to have that added.)

Using Scientific Techniques to Improve Your Sport Skills
Here's the coaching article, which focuses on table tennis. The part on visualization is something that cannot be over-emphasized.

Why Women's Table Tennis Deserves More Coverage
Here's the new article from MH Table Tennis.

2015 ITTF World Cadet Challenge LIVE on Thursday
Here's info. It's taking place right now in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Oct. 23-31. Here's the USATT page for the event, and here's the ITTF page with complete results, articles, pictures, and video. 

Local Hero Fukuhara Playing for Tsunami Victims at Women's World Cup
Here's the ITTF article.

How Champion and Refugee Mufid is Inspiring Young Players
Here's the article from Table Tennis England.

Great Champions Table Tennis
Here's the video (4:08) showing champions as they win their titles.

Halloween Fun at Pong Club

Here's the article from Pong Club in South Austin. Rocky and shoe should visit more clubs!

A mysterious stranger is coming to Pong Club this Halloween. Between 3:00pm and 4:30pm, ping pong pro Rocky Wang of Pong Road will be taking challengers and fighting them off... with his shoe!

Everyone who challenges Rocky will receive a raffle entry for every point they score on him in an 11 point game. If you are USATT rated, Rocky will still take your challenge with his normal paddle.

The raffle winner will receive a 10-visit pass to Pong Club and a new Cobra or Python paddle. The first person to BEAT Rocky gets a 3 hour table reservation credit and Pong Club's undying respect.

If you show up on Saturday in costume or bringing Halloween candy for Pong Club Staff, your entry will be 50% off. We'll be ready for play at 11:15am that day so there will be plenty of time to practice for Rocky's arrival.

Ask a Pro Anything - Marcos Freitas
Here's the video (36 sec), where Marcos (world #8 from Portugal) does accents – American, French, and Australian!

Google a Rabbit
Here's some of what you get if you google "Rabbit Table Tennis Pictures." (There were a number of ball and paddle pictures – below are just some of them.)

• Ping-Pong Rabbit
• Easter Bunny Pong
• Rabbits versus Octopus
• Rabbit vs. Pig
• Triumphant Bunny Pong
• Rabbit Doll Pong
• Robo-Pong Bunny
• Bunny Pong
• Rabbit Studies Ball 1
• Rabbit Studies Ball 2
• Psychedelic Rabbit Pong
• Nestlé's Bunny Pong
• Costumed Mascot Bunny Pong
• Bunny Logo Pong
• Confused Bunny Logo Pong
• Bunny Pool and Pong
• Bunny Cutout Pong
• Table Tennis Bunny Pin
• Bunny Pong Balls 1
• Bunny Pong Balls 2
• Bunny Pong Balls 3
• Bunny Pong Balls 4
• Bunny Pong Balls 5
• Bunny Pong Balls 6
• Bunny Pong Balls 7
• Bunny Pong Balls 8
• Bunny Pong Paddle 1
• Bunny Pong Paddle 2
• Bunny Pong Paddle 3

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Coaching Tennis Players at Table Tennis
This keeps coming up. (I played tennis on the side for many years.) I'm coaching a ten-year-old who plays tennis and insists on using an almost tennis-style backhand. Whenever I get a new player who's played a lot of tennis, five things happen – one good, one sort of good, one bad, two very good.

1. They have good forehands. Table tennis and tennis forehands are somewhat similar, though there are differences. In table tennis you stroke more from the elbow, i.e. arm snap, while tennis is more from the shoulder. (Both use body rotation about the same.) However, in tennis, players often raise the racket high during the backswing, a habit we have to fix for table tennis.
2. They have good smashes against lobs. However, they often do them tennis style, with an overhead instead of turning sideways and doing a more conventional smash. Usually this isn't hard to fix, and tennis players are often a terror against lobs – they are especially good against any lob that lands a bit short, where they use their regular tennis overhead.
3. They want to turn sideways for backhands. That may work for tennis, but not in table tennis for two reasons. First, you don't have time in a fast rally to turn sideways for both forehand and backhand shots. And second, turning sideways on the backhand moves the contact point well to the side, meaning there's a lot of distance between the forehand the backhand contact points – and so it's extremely difficult to cover the middle (shots at the elbow). Tennis players do pick up the backhand pretty quickly, but rarely have quick ones, and even years later you can almost always tell if a player started out as a tennis player by looking at their backhand stroke, where they will usually always turn a bit sideways.
4. They are really good at putting topspin on the ball. They can do this on both the forehand and backhand – it's natural for them after playing tennis. This is sometimes difficult to teach a beginner, so it's always nice to have a tennis player who does this so easily.
5. They move. In tennis, you have a full court to cover. In table tennis, you have less time but much less court. Tennis players are used to moving to stroke, and they do this in table tennis as well.

Pips and Anti
Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina. (He won the Millcreek Open – see below!) The article talks about the myths about these surfaces, and goes over how different players use these surfaces, such as Dan Seemiller, David Zhuang, Angela Guan, and John Wetzler.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #181 (18:11) – Serving Styles (and other segments)

"I Never Thought It Would End This Way"
Here's an article from a soccer coach on the values we teach the kids we coach.

2015 ITTF World Cadet Challenge
It's taking place right now in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Oct. 23-31. Here's the USATT page for the event, and here's the ITTF page with complete results, articles, pictures, and video. USA players competing (and representing North America, along with their Canadian counterparts) are Victor Liu, Jack Wang, Crystal Wang, and Grace Yang. The North American Boys' and Girls' Cadet Teams both lost in the semifinals to Team Europe. The NA Boys defeated Latin American for third, while the NA Girls lost to Asia in the playoff for third. Asia defeated Europe in the Boys' final, but in a shocker, Latin American Girls upset Asia in the semifinals and Europe in the final! Here's the Boys' draw and the Girls' draw. (Both show complete results of individual matches – click on team scores.)

World Championships of Ping Pong U.S. Qualifier Added to U.S. Nationals
Here's the USATT article. For those not in the know, this is for sandpaper table tennis. I'm a little flummergasted (yeah, I made up that word) because I want to play in this event but USATT is having a board meeting all day on Sunday, Dec. 13, and until roughly noon on Monday, Dec. 14. The Qualifier is Monday morning. I'm going to take a good hard look at the agenda and see if there's anything I consider important on Monday morning.

A Purpose for Ping Pong
Here's the article by Kim Gilbert on Ping Pong Charity events.

Women's Hardbat Events at the USA Nationals
Here's the USATT article.

Millcreek Open
Here's the USATT article by Sam Steiner.

How I Turn from Love to Hate Table Tennis
Here's the article. Some things to think about.

Top Ten Points at the Men's World Cup
Here's the video (6:16).

Savio College Exhibition with Mario Genovese

• Some "forehand to forehand" (48 sec)
• Around the world (15 sec)

Incredible Shot by Michael Maze Against Ma Lin
Here's the video (37 sec, including slow motion replay) as he does an improvised running around-the-the net roll-on-the-table loop at the 2015 Tsingtao Tour. (Yeah, Ma Lin still plays, even if he isn't the best Ma anymore.)

Bouncing Ball on Racket Handle Challenge
On Friday,  Monday, and yesterday I linked to players setting records on this, and yesterday I wrote that 445 was the "ultimate record that will never be broken (yes, that's a challenge)." Well, challenge taken. Here's video (5:09) of 1109 in a row!!! Make sure to see the near miss and incredible recovery at 4:14. (I can't find the name of the person from the video or comments underneath.) Yes, a new record that will never be broken…

Caesar Pong
Here's the picture! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Google a Gorilla
Here's some of what you get if you google "King Kong Ping Pong Pictures" and "Gorilla Table Tennis Pictures."

• King Kong Ping Pong 1
• King Kong Ping Pong 2
• King Kong Ping Pong 3
• King Kong Ping Pong 4 
• King Kong Ping Pong 5
• King Kong Ping Pong 6
• King Kong Ping Pong 7
• King Kong Ping Pong 8
• King Kong Ping Pong 9
• King Kong Ping Pong 10
• King Kong Ping Pong 11
• King Kong Ping Pong 12
• King Kong vs. Godzilla
• Long-Armed Gorilla Pong
• Chicago Cub Gorilla Pong
• Dr. Neubauer Roaring Gorilla Pips
• Gorillas Playing Pong
• Gorilla Blade 1 (there were over 20 different ones)
• Gorilla Blade 2
• Gorilla Blade 3
• I Love My Gorilla Paddle
• Gorilla Ping Pong Ball (there were over 20 different ones)

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Toby Kutler: Flat to Spinny Backhand
Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with Toby Kutler, a 24-year-old local who's recently made the jump to 2300+. I've known and played him since he started playing at age 12, including coaching him at camps and a few times in tournaments. He's been training very hard the last year or so, after having hip injuries that sidelined him for over two years, 2012-2014. From 2008-2011 he was roughly a 2000 player. (He wasn't training as hard most of that time as he does now.) In 2011 I trained with him regularly, and during that time he jumped to about 2150 before the injury problems. (Here's a 13-sec video of him in 2014 where he's doing forehands footwork. Here's an article on him training in China in 2011.)

Even then I always saw the major flaw in his game – his backhand. He had a very strong forehand loop, but on the backhand he simply did everything pretty well – he could block and hit well, and could backhand loop, but there was no serious threat there. I discussed it with him a few times. Backhand looping is pretty much a must at the high levels these days, but it just wasn't a big part of his game at that time.

He began playing seriously again in 2014, including training for a time at the Werner Schlager Academy in Austria, where he was told, "The days of the flat hit are over." He also trained in California with Stefan Feth, who also convinced him to spin the backhand, and worked with him on it. And so he decided to make the switch from a mostly flat backhand to a topspinning one, i.e. backhand looping.

He said he was able to do it in drills early on, but that it wasn't instinctive in games at first. But after two months of it – what I call "Saturation Training" – he said it became natural and instinctive.

Before his backhand just wasn't a threat to stronger players – in rallies they'd quickly turn him into a blocker, allowing them to attack while taking out Toby's strong forehand. But now he attacks from both wings, and so there's nowhere to go. He can still block well, but it's now a secondary game as he mostly loops from both sides – and that allows him to get his forehand into play far more than before. Result? He's now rated 2308, with a recently high of 2339. He's also now training and playing matches regularly at the club with better players than before, which could also push him to a higher level.

But the key to this was two very basic things: lots of hard work, and learning to topspin the backhand – and the key to the latter was the decision to make this major change. Why not take a good hard look at your own game, and see if there's one thing like this that you could do to jump up a level? (Maybe you too should be looping the backhand?) Then, with a little saturation training, you'll be at a whole new level.  

Ping-Pong Diplomacy 1972 and a Challenge!
Here's video (6:02) of the Chinese tour of the U.S. in 1972, part 2 of Ping-Pong Diplomacy. (Part 1 was the U.S. tour of China in 1971.) Commentary is in Chinese, but the images tell the story as they gave exhibitions with the U.S. team in LA, NY, DC, Memphis, and other places. Chinese players include Zhuang Zedong, Zhang Xielin, Liang Geliang, Li Furong, and Lin Huiqing.

You'll see lots of top U.S. players, so here's the challenge: How many can you name? Email me, and I'll tomorrow I'll post who got the most. Some should be easy, such as the guy pinning a pin on a Chinese player at 1:34 or the lefty playing at 1:45. (Don't comment below – that'll give it away.)

New Articles from Coach Jon

• A Fresh Look at Fishing
• Breaking Away from Table Tennis - a look at cheating in table tennis, using the cycling movie "Breaking Away" as an outside example, where a character has the revelation that "Everybody cheats." He writes, "There are many players, however, who clearly know the rules but choose not to follow them. When a match is close and a good serve is really important, you can bet an illegal serve is on the way." I've blogged about this many times as well – this is what players face regularly at the higher levels, and yet we can't seem to get the rules people to act on this – they all seem to be waiting for someone else to do something.

In the Zone Part 8
Here's the article. I linked to parts 1-7 on Oct. 21.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #180 (18:11) – The Exciting Push (and other segments)

Off the Table with Caroline Kumahara
Here's the ITTF Video (3:13) of the Brazilian star.

Pink Pong – Table Tennis Charity
Here are pictures of Kim Gilbert and others at a TT charity for breast cancer.

11 Questions with Scott Butler
Here's the USATT interview.

Ping Pong Champ a Hit on ECU Campus
Here's the article on Nepal's Norden Tamang from East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma.

Bouncing Ball on Racket Handle Challenge
On Friday and Monday I linked to players setting records on this. Today we have the ultimate record that will never be broken (yes, that's a challenge) as Magnus Mallander, described as a youth coach from Halmstad, Sweden, bounces it 445 times in a row! Here's the video (2:37).

Unbelievable Point Between Ovtcharov and Mizutani
Here's the video (47 sec).

Great Defense Then Offense Point
Here's the video (34 sec), with a big celebration afterwards.

Seahawks Use Ping-Pong as an Escape from Football
Here's the article and audio video (3:02). (They don't show pictures in the video, only audio, with a note, "Sorry, no photos of the Seahawks playing ping pong. Pictures are not allowed in the locker room."

Righty and Lefty Play on a Robot
Here's the video (5:51).

Build a 300mph Ping-Pong Cannon
Here's the article and video (47 sec), and watch someone try to return the ball. I'd like to see a 2700 player try to return these!

MDTTC October Open
Here are results and pictures from our tournament this past Saturday, run by Charlene Liu. Click on names to see pictures. Complete results available at Omnipong.

Open Singles – Final: Chen Bo Wen d. Wang Qingliang, 4,-3,9,6,-8,10; SF: Chen d. Bojun Zhangliang, 8,8,-9,8,-8,6; Wang d. Stefano Ratti, 9,6,4,5; QF: Chen d. Klaus Wood, 6,-8,5,2; Zhangliang d. Albert Senter, 7,6,5; Ratti d. Allen Lin, 5,4,-5,10; Wang d. Raghu Nadmichettu, 6,-9,4,7.
Under 2300 – Final: Raghu Nadmichettu d. Klaus Wood, -9,6,-8,5,8; SF: Nadmichettu d. Tiffany Ke, 6,6,-11,7; Wood d. Amy Lu, 6,8,-8,7.
Under 2000 – Final: Yunhua Gong d. Costel Constantin, -2,-8,8,6,6; SF: Gong d. George Li, 6,6,4; Constantin d. Kevin Zhou, 7,8,12.
Under 1700 – Final: Leonid Koralov d. Alvin Whitney, 8,-8,5,-4,9; SF: Koralov d. Maksim Danilau, -4,7,9,9; Whitney d. Walid Alkadi, 7,6,11.
Under 1300 – Final: Hassam Alkadi d. Kallista Liu, -9,9,-4,11,2; SF: Alkadi d. Siliang Huang, 9,2,5; Liu d. Walid Alkadi, 9,-8,5,6.
Over 50 – Final: Ernest Byles d. Lixin Lang, 7,4,4; SF: Byles d. Morteza Sajed, 5,5,5; Lang d. Alnoor Hemani, 3,3,3.
Under 16 – Final: Klaus Wood d. Tiffany Ke, 11,2,9; SF: Wood d. Eric Li, 6,6,4; Ke d. Louis Levene, 2,-8,8,8.

World Weaver Press News Release
As noted in my blog on Oct. 16, I'm now a novelist for World Weaver Press, who bought my novel "Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions." Here's their press release about it. The novel covers the election for president of Earth in the year 2100, where the world has adopted the American two-party electoral system, and includes first contact with an alien ambassador, who travels with the campaign as an observer. It also has lots of table tennis as one of the four main characters is a championship player, who teaches the alien to play. The novel will be out in late January.

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Tip of the Week
Develop a Practice Partner.

Nationals – I'm Top Seed in All Four Events!
Yes, it's true. Okay, so far only 192 have entered, but that's roughly 1/4 of the expected 800 players. This year, besides coaching, attending meetings, and selling my books, I'm entered in four events – Hardbat Singles, Over 40 Hardbat Singles, Hardbat Doubles (with Ty Hoff), and the FASTT Sandpaper Singles. Here's the list of entries by player and by event (set dropdown menu to "2015 USA Nationals") – and as you can see, I'm top seed in all four!!!

Although I'm normally a sponge player, and that makes up the vast majority of my coaching, I've also been a hardbat player at the Open and Nationals for many years. (I've won Hardbat Singles twice, Over 40 Hardbat four times, Hardbat Doubles 13 times – nine with Ty Hoff, four with Steve Berger – and Over 50 Hardbat Doubles twice – once each with Jay Turberville and Jeff Johnson). But age has slowed me down, making it difficult to play my mostly all-out forehand attacking game. (I mostly chop on the backhand, where I'm pretty good, but not good enough to chop down the top hardbatters, especially with the fast racket I use to enhance my attacking.)

I'm retired from tournament sponge play, and I've retired from tournament hardbat play at least two or three times in disgust at my play. But this year might be different. I decided to try to win a few of these events one more time. And so I've done two things.

First, I've been dieting for about three weeks, and have gone from 196 lbs to 185. I plan to continue right down to perhaps 175, and then go to a weight maintenance diet. Here's the Larry diet, ©2015. (I also have a daily vitamin pill.)

• Breakfast: 4 oz Banana nut muffin and half a glass of Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice
  Calories: 450
• Mid-morning snack: Granny Smith Apple (sometimes varied with a pear, grapefruit, or handful of carrots)
  Calories: 80
• Lunch: Various soups from Campbell's Chunky and Progresso brands. I stocked up with several each of over ten types.
  Calories: 200-300
• Dinner: More soup! (But I vary it sometimes with salads.)
  Calories: 200-300
• Splurge #1: I allow myself one 7.5 oz can of Mountain Dew per day. (Actually, I've skipped this 2-3 times a week, and often only drink half of it. But I also ate a handful of peanuts the other day, so we'll leave this at the full caloric value.)
  Calories: 110
• Splurge #2: I allow myself a bag of popcorn every other day
  Calories: 300, so about 150/day
• Total daily calories: ~1300/day

According to the Calorie Counter (where I put in my height of 5'10", starting weight of 196, age 55, and put myself down as "active" (I do coach a lot of hours plus I'm weight training – see below), to maintain my starting weight I need about 3100 calories/day. Since 3100-1300=1800, and a pound of fat is 3600 calories, I should be losing a pound every two days. And guess what? I've dieted about three weeks – call it 22 days – and that means losing about 11 pounds, exactly what I've lost!!!

Second, I started weight training three weeks ago, three times a week. My routine takes about 30 minutes. I blogged about this on Oct. 7.

This will be a good test of whether getting in better shape will affect my play at the Nationals. We'll see! (But I already do feel more energized than before.)

State Championships
I blogged about this initiative on Friday, and it's a USATT news item. The goal is to have state championships in all 50 states in 2016. Since Friday we've had volunteers to run state championships from five new states! I'll blog more about this later. If you are interested in running a state championship, and there isn't one already in your state, contact me.

Polish Open
Here's the ITTF home page for the event, which finished yesterday, with results, articles, pictures, and video. The event was held in Warsaw, POL, Oct. 21-25. Here are some links:

• Men's Singles Main Draw
• Women's Singles Main Draw. Women's side just isn't interesting to me much these days – it's repetitively all Chinese, with an occasional Japanese or other Asian player in there, though rarely winning. The #1 non-Asian woman in the world is Elizabeth Samara of Romania, world #16, which tells us that something is wrong with the training of women outside Asian countries. (Han Yang of Germany is #8 in the world, but she's a former Chinese star.) On the men's side, it's also mostly Chinese, but there are several non-Chinese players who do regularly challenge the Chinese stars, and it is those conflict which are most interesting – such as what happened here, at the Polish Open Men's Semifinal and Final, as well as the Men's Doubles Final, where a pair from Sweden defeated a pair from Poland.
• Women's Final: Liu Shiwen (CHN) d. Ding Ning (CHN) (5:05, with Ding retiring because of injury after two games).
• Men's Final: Fan Zhendong (CHN) d. Stefan Fegerl (AUT) (14:05): 1,-9,-9,3,7,-8,7
• Men's Semifinal: Stefan Fegerl upsets Zhang Jike (14:47), 15,-6,-8,8,3,13. Here's a highlights point (36 sec)!
• Insane Athleticism by Xu Xin (24 sec)
• ITTF Polish Open videos. Here's the ITTF videos page, where you can find videos from all ITTF events.
• Highlights video (5:22) of Ma Long vs. 12-year-old Harimoto Tomokazu of Japan in round of 64. On Friday I linked to the ITTF article on him being youngest ever to reach the main draw in an ITTF Tour event, and video of his upset of world #72 Tan Ruiwu (world #72) from Croatia. Here's an article from Tabletennista on him – his idol? Fan Zhendong.

Playing Less Predictably
Here's the new coaching article from Han Xiao, which features and analyzes the recent World Men's Cup Final between Ma Long and Fan Zhendong (including a link to the video).

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #179 (23:20) – Drills Before a Tournament (and other segments)

Table Tennis School – Doubles Training
Here's the video (17:07).

Olympic Coach Magazine
The new issue of Olympic Coach Magazine (Fall, 2015) just came out.

2015 World Cup Highlights with Jimmy Butler
Here's the video (3:44).

World's Best Cadets Prepare for 2015 World Cadet Challenge
Here's the highlights music video (46 sec).

Bouncing Ball on Racket Handles
On Friday I linked to this challenge made to top players – here's the video (3:18), with Xu Win setting the record with 55 in a row. At the end of the video players were challenged to try to top these players. And here are two responses!

• Steve Chan bounces ball on racket handle 103 times in a row in 36 sec!
• Tuan Le alternately bounces ball on two racket handles 46 times in a row in 18 sec!

95-year-old from England Still Perfecting Her Game
Here's the article on Rita Tanner.

Around-the-Net Rolling Loop

Here's the video (15 sec, including slow-motion replay).

Great Scoop off Floor, Ball Rolls on Table
Here's the video (11:33, with the point in question starting 38 seconds in – link should take you directly there). The match itself is a great counterlooping duel as Mihai Bobocica (world #89, #1 from Italy) defeats Kirill Gerrassimenko (a young player from Kazakhstan) in seven games.

More Mike Mezyan Pictures
NOTE - If you are unable to see these pictures, all you have to do is join the Table Tennis Group - it's easy! Here are all the past, present, and (soon) future pictures he's collected. (I pick out his best ones for here - he has more.)

• Breakfast Anyone?
• Puppy Pong? (Is this the cutest ping-pong picture ever?)

Ping-Pong Ball vs. Ping-Pong Ball
Here's video (10 sec) of Kevin Korb pounding a ball off his shoe . . . sort of. "When your office is a ping pong club, you find creative ways to fit #trickshots into the daily routine."

Table Tennis Trick Shots
Here's the video (32 sec) of all sorts of crazy trick shots.

Ma Long and Chen Weixing Go Around the Table
Here's the video (32 sec) as the two clown around.

A Cartwheeling Killer Smash to the Gut!
Here's the sad, sad video (37 sec, including slow motion as the mortally wounded Shmyrev falls to the ground) as Agent 0011 – Rushton, Andrew Rushton – takes down Russian agent Maxim Shmyrev with a killer shot in this sandpaper rally.

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State Championships

(This also just went up as a USATT news item.)

Dear Table Tennis Leaders,

USA Table Tennis is making it a goal to have State Championships in all 50 states – and we'd like to do it in 2016. We want to turn these events into major events for both the players and the media. Here is a listing of all fifty states and which ones have a 2015 State Championships (including those with a State Games).

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 get this done, we need your help. In states where there are no State Championships we need volunteers or entrepreneurs to set up and run these tournaments. It's not hard to do so; all that you need to know is in the USATT Tournament Guide. It includes info on getting a referee, sanctioning, events to run, etc. (For info on getting referees and umpires, see the USATT Rules and Officiating page.) Here is the Tournament Directors Info Page. 

Here is a sample State Championship entry form. You'll need to fill in the local info where indicated. Feel free to make changes – design it for your state's needs. You get to choose which and how events you'd like to run (you don't have to run 22 events!), and schedule them as you see best. It can be a one-, two-, or even a three-day event starting on Friday night.

If you would like to run a 2016 State Championships, or have any questions, please contact the appropriate person below, and contact me to let me know you are running one, or for general questions. We thank you for helping to develop the sport in this country!

Sincerely,
Larry Hodges
USATT Regional Associations Coordinator and At-Large Director on USATT Board of Directors

• For info on running tournaments (including USATT sanctioning), see the USATT Tournament Guide, or contact Larry Rose, USATT Tournament Committee Chair.
• To find your Regional Sanctioning Coordinator, see the USATT Tournament Coordinators page.
• For info on getting a referee or umpires, see the USATT Umpires and Referees page, or contact Joseph Yick, USATT Umpires and Referees Committee Chair.
• For info on doing a direct mailing to players in your state (email or regular mail), contact Andy Horn, USATT Membership Director.
• For info on publicizing your State Championships, contact Richard Finn, USATT Media Director.
• For info on publicizing your events on the USATT web page, contact Sean O'Neill, USATT Webmaster and Social Media guide.
• For general info, contact Larry Hodges, USTT Regional Associations Coordinator.   

Greatness is an Attitude, Part 2

Here's the new podcast (43:24) from Expert Table Tennis, featuring Coach Marc Burman. (Here's Part 1 (42:48), which I linked to when it came out last week.) Topics in Part 2 include the following:

• Why you should focus on your performance, not your results.
• Why sometimes it is a good idea to play against your opponents strengths.
• What Marc learned from Jean-Philippe Gatien at the London Open.
• How to develop the habit of winning.
• Marc’s views on the importance of talent and personality.
• Six practical tips that will turbocharge your improvement.
• The difference between “good mistakes” and “bad successes”.
• How to deal with the pressure of being expected to win.
• The attitude that will help you to consistently beat lower ranked players.

Ask the Coach Show

Episode #178 (14:45) – When to Increase Drills (and other segments)

Rate This! Table Tennis Ratings

Here's the new article from Coach Jon. "High ratings are so coveted that I have heard players claim they will retire from table tennis once they get their rating over 2000." … "We definitely need to take a fresh look at our sport. Are we so obsessed with ratings and improved play that we are not enjoying playing?"

Multiball Training in Germany

Here's the video (2:22).

Polish Open

Here's the ITTF home page for the event, with results, articles, pictures, and video. It started Thursday, and is in Warsaw, POL, Oct. 21-25.

Tomokazu Harimoto Causes Sensation, Youngest Ever to Reach Main Draw

Here's the ITTF story on the 12-year-old from Japan, already ranked #286 in the world in Men's. He made the main draw at the Polish Open (final 64), but guess who he faced in the first round? Men's Singles World and World Cup Champion, and World #1 Ma Long (5,5,3,6). I can't find video of that match (I'm guessing it'll go up later) but here's video (8:15, with time between points removed) of him in the qualifier defeating the group's top seed, Tan Ruiwu (world #72) from Croatia. His world ranking is going to shoot up.

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 – Marcos Freitas

Here's the video (19 sec) where Adam Bobrow invites you to submit questions for the world #8 from Portugal.

Bouncing Ball on Racket Handle Challenge

Here's the video (3:18) as top players in Asia are challenged to see how many times they can do this. To see the final standings, go to 3:07; to see the record performance of 55 by Xu Xin, go to 2:49.  

USATT Member, Comedian, and Author Judah Friedlander on The Daily Show

Here's the video (6:11) from Tuesday night (Oct. 20) of Judah Friedlander. With a 1607 rating (over 2000 if he sheds the excessive weight from his hair and beard), he's the "World Champion"! "Comedian Judah Friedlander explains the inspiration behind his signature look and discusses 'If the Raindrops United,' his book of satirical illustrations." (He's also the author of "How to Beat Up Anybody."

I've coached Judah a number of times at MDTTC – while he now lives in New York, he grew up in Maryland, and spends a few weeks here every year. One of my surreal moments was the time I coached, back-to-back, Delaware Governor Jack Markell (USATT rating 1223) and then Judah, and then introduced the two and they played each other for over an hour.

More Mike Mezyan Pictures

NOTE - If you are unable to see these pictures, all you have to do is join the Table Tennis Group - it's easy! Here are all the past, present, and (soon) future pictures he's collected. (I pick out his best ones for here - he has more.)

• Four Very Strange Tables
• Ping-Pong Drawing
• "Small But Strong" Table
• Robot Viewing of Pong
• Chandelier Pong
• The Ultimate Dinner Setting!

Bonding Time with the Women's USA Team

Here's the video (50 sec) as USA Women's team members Lily Zhang and Jiaqi Zheng have a "Lady and the Tramp" moment – with Adam Bobrow there to capture the moment.

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The More Two Players Drill Together the Better They Drill Together

One of the keys to improving is getting a good practice partner. Usually these are two players who are roughly the same level. But it's more important that they both want to improve, are willing to work together, and are regular to train on a regular basis. The more they train together the more used to each other they get, and the better each plays in these drills. This leads to both players' levels escalating up – an upward spiral to excellence! (Here's my article on How to Play and Practice with Weaker Players.)

I want to emphasize how amazingly better you play when you drill with someone regularly – you get used to their shots, and your own shots become more and more natural and consistent, as well as more powerful. Some might think this is artificial, since you are playing against the same player and shots, which isn't what happens in tournaments or leagues. But the key is how much this type of drilling develops your foundation.

Players still need to play others with different styles, especially matches – that's imperative - but drilling with a good partner develops the foundation that's so important to develop your game.

Once you find someone to train with regularly, take turns with the drills. But remember that in any drill, both players are doing the drill. If one player is doing a footwork drill to the other's block, then the other is doing a blocking drill. Players not only need to learn to move and attack, but also to control an opponent's shots.

Don't forget to get a box of balls and do some multiball training! (Here's my article on Multiball Training.) Multiball training makes up about 1/3 of the training of world-class players. (A version of today's blog might end up as a Tip of the Week.)

Polish Open

Here's the ITTF home page for the event, with results, articles, pictures, and video. It started yesterday, and is in Warsaw, POL, Oct. 21-25.

Ask the Coach Show

Note – for much of yesterday there was a bad link for Episode 176, so I'm linking it again today.

• Episode #176 (21:18) – Ding Ning's Reverse Tomahawk Serve (and other segments)
• Episode #177 (23:44) – Confusing Table Tennis (and other segments)

Table Tennis Training China

Here's the video (1hr 13min 13 sec) – that's a lot of TT! It's in Chinese but you can learn by watching.

Interview with Andrew Baggaley

Here's the interview with the English star.

Ma Long and Zhang Jike Training

Here's the video (47 sec, including slow motion replay) as Ma forehand loops to Zhang's backhand.

Ding Ning vs. Liu Shiwen

Here's video (6:14, with time between points removed) of the world's top two women playing each other recently in the Chinese Super League.

Ask a Pro Anything: Fan Zhendong

Here's the video (2:24) as Adam Bobrow interviews the Chinese superstar. We learn about his favorite game – Clash of Clans – and watch him play with Adam doing the play-by-play! We also see his impression of Bruce Lee! Plus he sings! (He speaks decent English.)

Ambidextrous Table Tennis – Watch These Four Three Play!

Here's the video (32 sec) as one player shows how he can be two in a drill!

How to Knock a Ping-Pong Ball Off a Tee

Here's video (8 sec, repeating) of Kevin Korb showing an inefficient way of doing this.

Adam Bobrow Circles the Table with Jorg Rosskopf

Here's the video (25 sec) as the two clown around.

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Leagues, Leagues, Leagues!

If I hear or read that word one more time I believe I will hurl myself off a ping-pong table. Okay, the 2.5-foot fall probably won't hurt me and I'll just brush myself and go back to work, but it seems leagues (ugh!) is all I see or do that last few days – except when I'm coaching or blogging. (And here I'm blogging about it!!!) (Oh, and there's that pesky time I'm spending working with my new publisher on my upcoming SF novel – which has a lot of table tennis – and I'm writing a new SF short story, but I won't talk about that on this table tennis blog . . . much. Today is also Back to the Future Day, but believe it or not, my intensive online search found exactly zero table tennis pictures involving that movie or actors Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.)

I took yesterday morning off from blogging so I could work on the prototype USATT Regional Team League (that word again!). The goal is to create something that can spread to other regions, as I blogged about here. I kept running into roadblocks as the leagues (ugh!) in LA, NY, and the Capital Area are run a bit differently. I ended up deleting most of what I did. I got so tired of working on it that I finally called an early halt to it and worked on something else, and then went off to coach.

And then, last night, while mulling over it at about midnight after going to bed I had a spurt of inspiration and energy. I leaped out of bed, ran to my computer, and worked until 3AM – and it's (mostly) DONE! Well, except for the roughly dozen more bullet point items that need to be incorporated that I thought of afterwards.

However, I still might not be able to go public as there are still some major questions coming up. One big question is whether we'll need software or not. If we go with that, then that has to be developed. Looking into that is high on the league (there's that word again!) todo list. Software would be used for everything from registering teams, scheduling, and ratings. It's also the primary thing USATT can offer such leagues (aah!).

As noted below, we had the second meeting of the Capital Area Team League (ugh!) on Saturday from 5-10PM. After League (ugh!) Commissioner Stefano Ratti compiled and sent the results to me, I updated the online results, put them in a better format, and updated the standings. Due to some complications, things got complicated.

Meanwhile, there's been much discussion on the National League (aah!) Finals that are normally held every year at the Nationals. I can't go into details, but we need to more formalize the process to turn it into something more than "a bunch of top players show up and play and nobody knows about it." I'll likely have more on that later – I'm working with CEO Gordon Kaye and NY League (aah!) Director Mauricio Vergara on this.

I'll be at the club this afternoon and tonight. If anyone says the "L" word to me, I will smite them with a ping-pong ball. (Now I'll find out how many people from my club read my blog!)

Tutoring

I can't blog without writing about some funny stuff at the club. I'm tutoring one eight-year-old kid on his writing (I also coach him), and we run into some interesting situations. Yesterday:

• In a war between Minions and the Penguins of Madagascar over control of Mount Rocky Road (ice cream), the penguins win.
• Most of his stories involve my quest for rocky road ice cream, and most end with a fish sticking out of my mouth. (My aversion to sea food is well known.)
• For one story, we calculated that we could fit roughly 691,200,000 worms inside MDTTC, assuming worms are 6"x1/4" – big, fat ones – and the club is 10,000 square feet with 15" ceilings. To simplify things, we assumed the worms are rectangular, so each has a volume of 6"x.25"x.25" = .375 cubic inches. Club has a volume of 10,000' x 15' = 150,000 cubic feet, or 259,200,000 cubic inches. Then we divide 259,200,000/.375 = 691,200,000 worms. Have your eyes glazed over yet?

USATT Hall of Fame Dinner Highlight 2015 National Championships Week

Here's the USATT article. (I'm especially pleased that Coach Jack Huang - from my club - is being inducted!) "The highlight of the evening’s events, which are hosted by USATT Hall of Famer Tim Boggan, will honor the 2015 inductees, including Dean Johnson (contributor), Jack Huang (contributor), Eric Owens (player), Wang Chen (player), and Tahl Leibovitz (player). The Hall of Fame Committee will also award the Mark Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award to Si Wasserman."

Plugged In: Gordon Kaye, USA Table Tennis

Here's the article on the USATT CEO from Sports Business Daily. He covers topics including professionalizing the sport, calling it "pingpong," the lack of USA Olympic meals, pitching to sponsors, and getting on TV.

How to Grow Recreational Table Tennis in the U.S.

Here's the article from the USA Hobby Table Tennis Coalition

What is the Number One Weakness in Your Game Right Now?

Here's the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis. You can discuss your own #1 weakness in the comment section below the article. My main weaknesses are my too-soft backhand and being an aging (i.e. slower feet) one-winged attacker. How about you?

New Coaching Video and Article from Samson Dubina

• Serve Return – Part II: How to Loop Long Serves (2:30). Here's Part I – Returning Short Serves (2:11) from last week.
• Recipe for Success: Read 7 tips that I gave my students this week

Ask the Coach Show

• Episode #175 (21:18) – Ding Ning's Reverse Tomahawk Serve (and other segments)
• Episode #176 (25:24) – Ma Long's Fast Straight Serve (and other segments)

In the Zone: Training Emotional Skill in Table Tennis

Part 7 is new. I previously linked to 1-6.

• Part 1: Introduction and the Nature of Emotional Skill
• Part 2: Ten Attributes of Poised Players, What About Us?, and Diagnose
• Part 3: Intervention and Changing Goals
• Part 4: The Components
• Part 5: The Skills
• Part 6: Training Emotional Skill
• Part 7: Effective Focus is Agile, Relaxed Approach, Play Like You Train, Appropriate Arousal Level

Capital Area Team League Results

The fall season of the Capital Area Team League had its second meeting this past Saturday night at the Washington DC Club, for players in the Maryland, Virginia, and DC area. Here are the Standings and Results. (MDTTC A and JOOLA 1 have a makeup match to play, so they are currently down in the standings until they play.)

11 Questions with Jimmy Butler

Here's the USATT interview. "If I had to face Ma Long, I would ask him to come to the U.S., play him on slippery concrete with no barriers and no scorekeeper, and swing away.  ;)"

Table Tennis Champ Offers Free Lessons for Anyone

Here's the article on George Taplin of Abilene.

'Table Tennis Touch' Version 2.0 Update Adds Local and Online Multiplayer and Much More

Here's the article on this table tennis simulator. (It only costs 99 cents!)

TODAY Anchors Buzz About Caffeinated Peanut Butter Table Tennis Tech

Here's the video (2:45). The table tennis part starts at 1:40, where they go to a table and play, using a "vibration activated scoring system."

Incredible Backhand

Here's the video (36 sec including slow motion replay) by Ioannis Sgouropoulos (GRE) against Damien Llorca (FRA).

Great Point at the Philippines Open

Here's the video (40 sec) of this point between Jung Youngsik (KOR) (on the near side) and Kenta Tazoe (JPN).

The Legend of Bruce Lee . . . Ping-Pong Player!

Here's the picture! (Here's the non-Facebook version.) And for the one or two people on this planet who haven't already seen it, here's video (2:37) of "Bruce Lee playing table tennis with nunchucks," where he easily beats the best players. (It's actually a Bruce Lee look-alike in Nokia cell phone ad, but try convincing his fans of that!)

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