It Was Going to Be a Short Blog Today

I blogged Monday (Columbus Day) because the local schools were open. They are closed today – the school calendar doesn't specify why, but I presume it's Indigenous People Day. (We're having a one-day camp at MDTTC for the kids out of school. We have so many coaches at MDTTC that I'm not needed today, so I'm working at home on some USATT league stuff.) So I was planning to be off too! (Also, I've been on the go every day for a long, long time - "I need a vacation.")

However, yesterday was a banner day for me, though not for table tennis reasons. (Though there's a big table tennis angle.) Life for me just got more complicated – for the better. Here's what happened….and I ended up doing a normal blog.

Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions - SOLD!!! – and Table Tennis!

I sold my science fiction novel to World Weaver Press. It covers the election for president of Earth in the year 2100, where the world has adopted the American two-party electoral system. It's a satirical drama featuring a moderate third-party challenge to the two main candidates, the conservative president and the liberal challenger, as they campaign all over the world for electoral votes and the presidency. I've been describing it as "West Wing in the 22^nd Century." The novel is 123,000 words long, which is 622 pages in double-spaced 12-point Courier New. It'll likely be published in a 9"x6" format, about 400 pages.

There is a huge table tennis angle – one of the four main characters is a table tennis champion, who always carries a ping-pong ball around, which he nervously tosses about and smacks people with. Chapter four takes place at the U.S. College Championships (all the players are full-time professionals) and is one long table tennis scene as our champion plays table tennis while simultaneously listening in on breaking political news. There's also an extensive scene with a table tennis exhibition in China – it does not end well for our heroes. (They also go shopping for table tennis supplies in China.) The novel also has an alien ambassador, who joins in the campaign and learns table tennis while traveling the world. (His ancestors snatched flying insects out of the air, so he has great reflexes and hand-eye coordination, so he learns fast – to the chagrin of our human table tennis champion!) I blogged about the various table tennis scenes in the novel on June 13, 2014. I also blogged on May 17, 2012 about how table tennis has changed in the year 2100. (No major spoilers in the two blogs.) The novel has been making the rounds for several years – publishers take a long time to get back to you.

My previous novel, the humorous fantasy Sorcerers in Space, was originally published by a rather small publisher. (I have since bought the rights back and am now self-publishing it. The novel also has a table tennis angle, as the main star, 13-year-old Neil [Armstrong] has to give up his ping-pong dreams to save the world.) World Weaver Press is a much nicer one, a couple of steps up.

Because it's a political novel, we want it out at the start of the US Presidential election, so they are going to make sure it comes out in January, before the Iowa Caucuses on Feb. 1. I plan to send advance copies to lots of people in both the SF and political worlds, in the hopes of getting some good reviews and publicity.

I'm going to have to spend some time going over proofs and galleys and other pre-publication work. After it's published I'll be doing a lot of publicity work, including going to science fiction conventions and perhaps some TV. I'll do my best to make sure this doesn't interfere with my major table tennis work.

This is sort of the culmination of a vow I made many years ago to write at least three novels – a political satire, a humorous fantasy, and a table tennis fantasy – and see which did best. All three are now written and either published or soon to be published. Here's the result:

• Political satire: Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions (coming January 2016!)
• Humorous fantasy: Sorcerers in Space
• Table tennis fantasy: The Spirit of Pong

I've been planning on taking a week off from Nov. 9-13 at a local writers retreat to work on a sequel to The Spirit of Pong. It looks like I'll instead be working on the sequel to Campaign 2100! I've longed planned it as a trilogy – I have rough outlines for the next two:

• Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions
• Campaign 2110: Scorpions in Space
• Campaign 2120: Galactic Scorpions

But Campaign 2100 wasn't my only sale yesterday…

The Many Heads of Mr. Krup

When I got to the club yesterday to coach, I checked email on my new smart phone – and there it was, another acceptance letter! This was from Space and Time Magazine for the science fiction story titled here. (Sorry, no table tennis this time.) They are a somewhat major SF magazine. This is my fourth short story sale to them, and 72^nd science fiction or fantasy short story sale. (Here's my science fiction & fantasy page, which I probably need to modernize. I still haven't updated it with the two sales from yesterday.) I've been a cover story for Space and Time twice, Spring 2011 and Spring 2015.

My Reaction After Learning I'd Sold My SF Novel

Here's the video! (With apologies to Adam Bobrow.)

World Men's Cup

It starts today, in Halmstad, Sweden, Fri-Sun, Oct. 16-18. Here's the ITTF home page for the event where you can get results, articles, pictures, and video. Preliminary draws are up; USA's Jimmy Butler will be up against world #25 Panagiotis Gionis (GRE) at 1PM Swedish time (that's 7AM Eastern Time). (Alas, he lost 4-0. Next he's up against Simon Gauzy of France, world #28.) Here is the player's list:

1. MA Long (CHN)
2. FAN Zhendong (CHN)
3. OVTCHAROV Dimitrij (GER)
4. MIZUTANI Jun (JPN)
5. FREITAS Marcos (POR)
6. CHUANG Chih-Yuan (TPE)
7. NIWA Koki (JPN)
8. TANG Peng (HKG)
9. GAO Ning (SIN)
10. APOLONIA Tiago (POR)
11. GIONIS Panagiotis (GRE)
12. GARDOS Robert (AUT)
13. GAUZY Simon (FRA)
14. ASSAR Omar (EGY)
15. ACHANTA Sharath Kamal (IND)
16. KARLSSON Kristian (SWE)
17. TSUBOI Gustavo (BRA)
18. KALLBERG Anton (SWE)
19. HENZELL William (AUS)
20. BUTLER Jimmy (USA)

Chinese Team Hits with Local Swedish Kids

Here's video of Ma Long (8 sec) and Fan Zhendong (11 sec) hitting with the locals.

Greatness is an Attitude

Here's the new podcast (42:48) from Expert Table Tennis, featuring Coach Marc Burman. Topics include the following:

• Why Marc started Westcroft TTC at the age of 16.
• How he managed to quickly grow the club both in numbers and level.
• What he remembers of me as a nine and ten-year-old.
• Marc’s philosophy when it comes to introducing players to table tennis.
• Who Marc believes are the three greatest coaches of all time.
• The importance of personality and attitude in determining success.
• What Marc learnt from Carl Prean and Jean-Michel Saive.
• Why it is so hard to play as well in matches as you do in training.

Ask the Coach Show

Episode #173 (21:40) – Kenta's Forehand Sidespin Block (and other segments).

Pong Road

Here's the page about an upcoming table tennis documentary where Rocky Wang travels the country. "Pong Road is an episodic documentary showing the life of a professional American table tennis player and the ping pong sub-culture across the country."

The Newest Ping Pong Robot is a Giant

Here's the video (62 sec) – these table tennis robots can really play!

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.

America's Funniest Videos Looks at Table Tennis

Here's the video!

***

Send us your own coaching news!

103 Best Table Tennis Animated Images

It took quite a long time to search down and shamelessly steal all of these from whatever pages I could find them, but it was fun. (Hey, I'm in there – twice!) It was a tough job, but someone had to do it, and now you don't have to. So instead of a regular blog this morning, we'll go with this. (They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so that makes this my longest blog ever at 100,000 words. Or is an animated image worth 10,000 words?) You can spend some time exploring these and perhaps put them up on your table tennis web pages. (I found a lot more than 100, but I only put up the ones that I liked.) 

I was a bit disappointed that no one's created an animated gif of a few seconds of this octopus table tennis (perhaps when he smashes near the end?) or this energizer battery table tennis (perhaps when he's playing alone at the end) – hint hint! The first ten are roughly my top ten, but after that it's not really in order. Have fun! (Note - I've since added more, so we're over 100 now.)

1. Minion pong
2. Ghost pong
3. Alien vs. Predator pong
4. Speedy Gonzalez pong
5. Godzilla pong
6. Hospital pong
7. Snoopy pong
8. Behind back counter-smash
9. Belly Pong
10. High-toss serve hits partner (from movie "As One")
11. Wang Liqin rips forehand (most spectacular)
12. 91-shot lobbing rally
13. Loki pong (from The Avengers)
14. Trick pong
15. Baby smashing pong
16. Wang Hao multiball
17. Body-spinning counter-topspin
18. Behind back counter-hit
19. Chinese exhibition
20. Minion paddle pong
21. Forrest Gump
22. Forrest Gump backhand
23. Tom Hanks street pong
24. Bruce Lee nunchucks pong (it's not real!)
25. Arnold Schwarzenegger dancing pong
26. Tommy Lee Jones pong
27. Daniel Radcliffe ("Harry Potter")
28. Barack Obama and David Cameron (British Prime Minister)
29. Derek Nie vs. Manny Machado
30. Derek Nie and Manny Machado reaction
31. Larry Hodges flip kills winner (hey, that's me!)
32. Larry Hodges forehand (I didn't even know about this one!)
33. Baseball clubhouse pong (I think this is the Dodgers; not sure who the main player is)
34. Dance pong (starring Adam Bobrow)
35. Pigeon pong (this is real!)
36. Forehand loop
37. Mousetrap pong
38. Penguin pong
39. Lizard pong
40. Puppet pong
41. Head pong
42. Plate pong
43. Cat smash
44. Cat pong
45. Cat rally
46. Cat watching pong
47. Cats watching pong
48. Cat and mouse pong
49. Cat bouncing ball
50. Kitten cartoon pong
51. Kitty cat pong
52. Jumpy dog pong
53. Bird playing tetherball pong
54. Timo Boll vs. robot
55. Robot pong
56. Man vs. robot
57. Man vs. five robots
58. Cartoon robot pong
59. Cartoon drawing pong
60. Breaking table pong
61. Ping pong gun shoots ball through paddle
62. Ping-pong ball smashing through paddle (from a ping-pong gun)
63. Ping-pong ball smashing through cucumber in mouth
64. Exploding ping-pong balls (boom!)
65. Never-ending rally (watch person walking on top right to see the break)
66. Woman in orange
67. Ball bouncing on paddle
68. Backboard pong
69. High-toss trick serve (funniest one?)
70. Lob bounceback pong
71. Smack in head
72. Man vs. cat (that's Steve McQueen from the movie "The Great Escape")
73. Dog pong
74. Paddle in pants pong
75. Jesus vs. Devil
76. Big paddle pong
77. Big paddle vs. big paddle
78. Big paddle and two balls
79. Ping-pong balls in space
80. Armless pong (racket in mouth)
81. Spinning armless pong
82. Solo pong
83. Smack in face
84. Child bouncing ball
85. Ping-pong ball eyes
86. Crazy action pong
87. Toy cowboy and indian pong (this one hurts my eyes!)
88. Speed women (this hurts my eyes too!)
89. Speed pong (another one that hurts my eyes!)
90. Forehand and backhand
91. Anime forehand smash
92. Anime smashes
93. Anime smash in red
94. Anime rally
95. Anime kid rally
96. Anime serve
97. Anime ball toss
98. Anime angry jump
99. Anime penhold vs. chopper
100. Anime smash and win
101. Anime girls and paddle in face
102. Anime slow motion
103. Player catching ball on racket, smashing

Have You Practiced Your Serves Today?

Here's my article on Practicing Serves the Productive Way. And here's my Tip of the Week from last week about Serving and the Snowball Effect. C'mon people, next to receiving, serving is the most under-practiced aspect of the game.  

World Men's Cup

It starts tomorrow, in Halmstad, Sweden, Fri-Sun, Oct. 16-18. Here's the ITTF home page for the event where you can get results, articles, pictures, and video, and here's the ITTF Preview video (38 sec).

Two Decades, Two Careers Later, Appearance Number Two for American

Here's the ITTF feature story on Jimmy Butler attending the World Cup.

Fill the Club

My blog item from Tuesday is now a feature article at Butterflyonline.com, Fill the Club. It's about three important principles for successful clubs, especially full-time ones. Here's their news page, with lots of other items.

Zhang Jike Injury

Here's the article.

Dimitrij Ovtcharov: A Closer Look

Here's the new video (2:52). And here's 13 seconds of him already in Halmstad, Sweden, preparing for the World Cup (which starts tomorrow, Fri-Sun). Check out that backhand serve!

The Power of Lob 2.0

Here's the new video (20:45). Here's The Power of Lob 1.0 (7:52, from 2010).

Crow and Dog Play Pong

Here's the video (1:44) as the two play with a ping-pong ball – especially the crow.

Ping-Pong in Virtual Reality

Here's the very weird video (52 sec) from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who wrote, "The craziest Oculus experience I've had recently is playing ping pong in virtual reality."

Newlyweds Mickey Rooney & Ava Gardner Play Ping Pong 1942

Here's the video (3:41) of the two famous actors. Rooney was once a junior star in California. In fact, it was his table tennis that got him his big acting break, as described in this bio of Mickey Rooney:

"After leaving the Mickey McGuire series, Rooney appeared in several films, but his career seemed to be leading nowhere. The dreamed of “big break” was to come from the unlikeliest of sources – a game of table tennis. According to Rooney, one Sunday afternoon, he was appearing in an exhibition table tennis game at the Ambassador Hotel. Seeing that he had an appreciative audience, the ham in him kicked in and Rooney began to show off. “I entertained them,” he later wrote, “with a line of picturesque speech and patter and some pantomime that had them in hysterics.” One of those most delighted by Rooney’s antics was the game’s referee who turned out to be none other than David O. Selznick, himself an avid table tennis fan. The legendary producer had not yet reached the pinnacle of his career but was nonetheless an important producer at MGM where he worked under his father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer. Following the match, Selznick reportedly tried to convince Mayer to sign his new discovery to a contract with the studio. When Mayer learned it was Mickey Rooney whom his son-in-law was so enamored of he was nonplussed, telling Selznick that Rooney, at fourteen, was a has-been. Selznick was undaunted by his father-in-law’s dismissal and sought to make Rooney a star by putting him in his latest production, Manhattan Melodrama (1934) set to star Clark Gable. That there was no part for a boy in the gangster film did not faze Selznick who called in writers Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Oliver H.P. Garrett to write one. This resulted in new scenes showing Clark Gable as a boy, played by Mickey Rooney, of course."

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Emulating the Equipment of the Top Players

One of the best and worst habits intermediate players make is copying the equipment of the top players. There's no question that if you want to play like a world-class player, you should use the type of equipment that is used by world-class players (mostly tensor-like sponges), whether it's the same brand or something similar.

However, far too often players use specific equipment because the world-class players are using it, rather than using what's best for them. I'm going to use Butterfly's Tenergy 25 as an example. (Disclosure: I'm sponsored by Butterfly.)

I went over the 43 international players and 20 North American players listed as sponsored players at butterflyonline.com. Of those 63 players and 120+ racket surfaces, only one uses Tenergy 25: Koki Niwa of Japan, world #14 in men's rankings. (According to this bio, he uses Tenergy 25 on the forehand, with Tenergy 05 on the backhand.) Why is this? Because most world-class players (or those training to become one) take big swings at the ball from both sides, and so use the various surfaces designed for that – usually (for Butterfly) Tenergy's 05 (most popular), 64, and 80. Exactly zero used the softer FX, less powerful versions, for the same reason – at that level, the premium is on power.

So does this mean we should all use the same powerful surfaces as the world-class players? The answer to that is an emphatic It Depends.

I'll use myself as an example. I'm 55 and well past the stage where I'm trying to take the world by storm and beat the Chinese. I both hit and loop on the forehand, but on the backhand I mostly hit, counter-hit, and block, and sometimes loop. So what do I use? For several years I used Tenergy 05 FX on the forehand, which gave me a very consistent loop. But gradually I began to realize that at my level (still trying to hold a 2200 level, though I'm probably well below that now) I needed a little more power on that side, and so went to Tenergy 05. (I use 2.1 on both sides.) Since players have more room to swing on the forehand side, I think 05 (regular or FX) is often a good choice for anyone who loops regularly on that side. However, many players should consider using the FX version for more control, especially if your level is under 2000 in USATT ratings. You can always go to the regular version later on. (With the harder sponge, you have to swing harder to sink the ball into the sponge. The softer FX is better if you don't swing so hard – so it's especially good for younger and older players.)

But on the backhand players are more cramped, and so usually have shorter swings, and usually loop less. I could use 05 or 64 (two of the most popular on the backhand) to strengthen my occasional backhand loops, but that's not what I usually do on that side. (I mostly loop either against backspin or against soft but low blocks.) For most of us, once we are into rallies, on the backhand we are more hitters, counter-drivers, and blockers. And for that, Tenergy 25 is simply better. And so I use 25 on the backhand. And like all tensor-type surfaces, it's still excellent for looping, as well as fishing and lobbing. Of course, using it on the backhand is opposite of what Koki Niwa does, with the 25 on the forehand, 05 on the backhand! (I'm not sure why.) So once again . . . it depends. 

Here's the description of Tenergy 25: "Adept at drop-shots, flicks, short pushes and quick counter attacks, Tenergy 25 is perfect for close-to-the table play." The part that should be most important for many of us is the "quick counter attacks," meaning it's great for counter-hitting in fast rallies.

So what should you use? Yep, it depends. If you are training for a very high level, or just want to emulate the top players, then by all means go for Tenergy 05, 64, or 80, or something similar, perhaps using the FX version at first. But if you aren't swinging for the fences on the backhand, I'd recommend something for more normal players – and that's Tenergy 25. I would say that for the majority of players under 2200, Tenergy 25 is better than the other versions, at least for the backhand. (It's used on both sides by USATT Hall of Famer David Sakai, one of the best counter-driver/blockers around.)

Here's more info on the Tenergy series: Part 1 and Part 2, and a video (10:20). Here's an article about Koki Niwa (with links to video, and here's an article about Koki Niwa's techniques.

In the Zone: Training Emotional Skill in Table Tennis

Part 6 is new. I previously linked to 1-5.

• 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

Ask the Coach Show

Episode #172 (17:05) – Getting a Relaxed Swing (and other segments).

USATT and NCTTA Partner to Host Team Challenge at 2015 Nationals

Here's the USATT article.

My Interview with Expert Table Tennis

It's now up as a USATT news item. It's mostly about tactics, though we cover other issues.

Jack Wang Interview

Here's the USATT interview with the cadet star.

11 Questions with Jerry Vasquez

Here's the USATT interview.

Butterfly's Off-the-Wall partnership with inclusion Table Tennis

Here's the article.

No Arms, One Leg? No Problem!

Here's the video (49 sec) of Luiz Henrique Medina. (It's in Spanish, but the video tells the story.)

The Magic Chopper: Zhang Xielin

Here's video (3:14) of this Chinese star from the 1960s, who was nicknamed "The Magic Chopper," and who dominated against the Europeans (and presumably the Japanese, who he is playing here, in the men's team final in 1965). What's interesting is that he was a penhold chopper!!! I've always wanted to see him play, since I'd heard so much about him, and this is the first time. He often chopped with sidespin, which flummoxed the Europeans, but his fellow Chinese apparently were used to playing him.

2006 BBC Documentary: Planet Ping Pong

Here's the video (57:17) on the history of table tennis. (I linked to this back once before, back in 2012.) "The story of table tennis and how it became the most popular sport in Asia. The programme revisits the glory days of the 30s and 40s, when thousands would cram into Wembley to watch top players do battle. Contributors include Britain's only world champion Johnny Leach, China's former World and Olympic women's champion Deng Yaping, and writers Howard Jacobson and Matthew Syed." Also narrating parts of it are Marty Reisman and Tim Boggan.

Jimmy Butler Floored

Here's the video (69 sec) as he falls, gets up, falls again, and tries to continue the rally while on the floor. After 13 sec, it switches to a kid who just won a game against Jimmy and is rolling on the floor and screaming, "I beat the National Champion!" It finishes with a weird puppet in an opera thing. (Jimmy's off to play in the Men's World Cup this weekend in Halmstad, Sweden, Oct. 16-18.)

***
Send us your own coaching news! 

Fill the Club

Want to fill your club and make it successful? But I repeat myself.

Far too often I've seen clubs struggle and fail because they focused on having a really nice club that people would pay good money for, and figured they'd gradually build membership up. The problem is a club with few members isn't very enticing for most new players, and so you lose them as fast as you get them. So the first goal is to fill the club, which will make it successful, as well as having a nice club. (Nice club generally means good playing conditions – floors, lighting, and enough room; clean and neat; and various programs, such as private and group coaching, a junior program, leagues, and tournaments.)

In addition to just having a nice club, here are three rules I believe are at the core of most successful clubs. (Much of this applies more to full-time clubs, but it also applies to part-time ones.) There are of course other models, but I believe that the bulk of the successful ones understand and follow these principles – and is a primary reason why we've had so many successful full-time clubs pop up all over the country over the past eight years, many of them following the model created by the Maryland Table Tennis Center, which I co-founded in 1992 and became the first successful full-time club centered on coaching and training.  

1. Fill the club. That should be your primary goal. Keep membership rates relatively low until the club has filled up. If the club needs revenue (as is the case for most full-time clubs), then filling the club up is the answer, not charging high membership rates. If you fill the club up, those players aren't just buying memberships; they are paying for private coaching, weekly group coaching, training camps, junior programs, leagues, tournaments, equipment, and food and beverages. Plus, lower membership rates lead to more members, and you likely end up with more revenue that way than with higher rates but fewer players paying them. (If your club relies almost entirely on memberships for revenue, then they are losing out on a lot, though of course many smaller clubs or ones with an inexpensive facility can get away with this.)
    
2. Start out with programs once a week. Don't make the classic mistake of offering group sessions (junior or adult) or leagues multiple times per week right from the start. Offer it one day a week, and fill it up. After you fill up the first day, offer a second, and then a third, and so on. If you start on multiple days, you end up with a low turnout on each, and when people see how few others are there, they tend to lose interest. This is true of most programs, but especially of junior programs – when a kid comes to the club and sees only a few others, he loses interest. If necessary, invite local juniors in for free at the start to make sure you have ten or more kids at the start. This idea also applies to training camps – rather than offer them every week all summer and get low turnouts, offer perhaps one a month until you fill them up. (What type of programs should your club run? Weekly junior and/or adult training; training camps - mostly during summer and school breaks; and leagues.)
    
3. Let full-time coaches keep most of their private coaching money. Many clubs make the mistake of requiring their full-time coaches to turn over a good portion of their private coaching fees, sometimes as much as half. This results in the coach having less incentive to bring in new students (i.e. new players for the club) and work long hours. You end up with fewer and less active coaches who aren't bringing in many students, and who have incentive to find another place to coach at.

   Instead, the implicit deal with your full-time coaches is that in return for their bringing in new players (i.e. filling the club) and working long hours, they get to keep the bulk of the money they receive from private coaching. For example, the coach might give the club $10/hour for coaching privately (out of the typically $40-$60/hour they charge), with perhaps a maximum $500 or so per month, so that the coach has incentive to bring in lots of players and coach long hours.

   You want your full-time coaches to become rich because if they do, the club prospers from all the students they bring in. You want coaches who bring in students and fill the club, and those new players pay for memberships, weekly group coaching, training camps, junior programs, leagues, tournaments, equipment, and food and beverages. By letting the coaches keep the bulk of their private coaching fees you make your club an attractive place to coach at, and so you get more full-time coaches, each bringing in new players. (Coaches not only bring in new players, they keep current ones active and so you don't lose them. Info on bringing in new students is in the Professional Coaches Handbook – see below.)

   The idea of letting coaches keep the bulk of their private coaching fees mostly works for full-time coaches. Part-time ones usually get their few students from current players, and so don't really help the club financially from their coaching except by the money they turn over directly to the club.

   The club should take a higher percentage from group sessions (weekly ones or training camps), either paying the coach an hourly wage, or a percentage of income. That should be a good source of revenue for the club.

Here are other resources that might help.

• USATT Club Development Handbook by Yang Yu and Roderick Medina
• USATT Club Handbook
• Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook by Larry Hodges (Included are ways for coaches and clubs to bring in new students to fill the club.) You can also buy it from Butterfly.

The US Nationals Watching Game

Here's the list of players entered in the Nationals so far. (Set the dropdown menu to "2015 US Nationals.") There are 26 as of this writing. There is nothing – NOTHING! – more fascinating than to keep hitting "refresh" over and over and watch as this list grows to a projected 800. For even more nonstop entertainment, click on "Entries by Event" and watch as the entries grow in your favorite event. I've watched book readings, bamboo growing, and paint drying, and believe me, nothing compares to the national pastime of the Nationals Watching Game.

Serve Return: Learn to Improve Your Short Game

Here's the new coaching video (2:11) from Samson Dubina.

Ask the Coach Show

Episode #171 (24:36) – Overcoming League Game nerves (and other segments).

Six Reasons Why Your Child Should Play Table Tennis

Here's the article from Pong Universe.

Side-to-Side and Forehand Loop Multiball Drill

Here's video (74 sec) of one way to do this. I've done versions of this before, and while it might make logical sense to have them simply alternate forehand looping from the forehand and backhand sides, kids seem to find this way compelling, and can really get into it, and move faster than if just looping from each corner. It also allows them to move at full speed to the left, since they aren't trying to move into position to loop, and so they get more physical training. This type of drill is best done as a speed drill, done in short spurts, with two or three players alternating.

Yesterday's Coaching Articles

Yesterday had links to a record eight new coaching articles. Since some of you were probably overwhelmed by this feast of learning, here's a recap.

• Tip of the Week: Back Foot Position on Forehand.
• Effective Use of Timeouts: Here's the new coaching article from Han Xiao.
• Omar Assar on Keeping a Routine: Here's the new coaching article from Matt Hetherington, where Egyptian star Assar (world #36) talks about setting up a table tennis training routine.
• What I Learned from Winning Ugly: Here's the new article from Matt Hetherington, where he reviews Winning Ugly, one of the better sports psychology books out there. (Here are some of the better ones that I recommend.)
• Tactical Drills: Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.
• Coaching Videos from Samson Dubina: Here's the new article, where he puts online four clips from his International Table Tennis Skills video: Slow-Motion Serve Demo, Backhand Loop Demo, Mini-Steps for Huge Improvement, and In-and-Out Footwork. (The four videos combine for about seven minutes.)
• Vladimir Samsonov Tutorial - Table tennis Exercises for Beginner to Advanced: Here's the new coaching video (22:18) from the world #11 (at age 39!) and former #1.
• Ask the Coach Show – They're Back!!!: Episode #170 (30:10) – How to Do a pendulum Topspin Serve (and other segments).

Table Tennis Physical Training

Here's video (15 sec) of some serious physical training, specifically for table tennis.

Table Tennis School: Training Topspin Forehand and Backhand

Here's the new video (38:12).

30-Shot Rally Between Liam Pitchford and Dimitrij Ovtcharov

Here's the video (29 sec) of this great point at the recent European Championships.

Another Incredible Behind-the-Back Smash

Here's the video (51 sec, including slow motion replay) of a new and rather spectacular one.

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.)

• Parakeet Pong
• The Wolverine Pong
• Big-Eyes Table Pong
• Puppy Pong
• Egg Pong

Puppy-Dog Pong with Glazed over Eyes

This looks like one of my students when I go into a long-winded coaching speech. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week

Back Foot Position on Forehand.

Sunday Coaching and Capclave

On Sunday I had two hours of private coaching and three hours of group coaching. In the adult training session, much of the focus was on hitting or looping down the line, especially with the forehand. After doing that down both lines, I had the players do side-to-side footwork where one player hit or looped forehands, alternating between crosscourt and down the line, while the other alternated forehands and backhands. I remember from David Sakai from years of drilling with him in the early 1980s that if you can play aggressively down the line, then you can play anywhere. It's a shorter distance, and once you master it, you've mastered the shot.

We also did a lot of serve practice. I had them do a lot on fast no-spin serves, which are especially effective to the middle (elbow). (Here's my Tip of the Week, Fast No-Spin Serves to the Middle.)

In the beginning junior class, we introduced them to up-down tables. This is where the players (ten of them) go on five tables, and each played a game to 11. (No deuce – 11-10 wins to save time.) When all are done, the winners move up, the losers move down, with the winner on the first table and the loser on the last table staying there. (I had an impromptu vote on whether we should call whoever loses the "loser" or "runner-up." It was 10-0 to call them "losers." So losers it is!)

In the two private coaching sessions, things were sort of reversed – one needed lot of work on the backhand, the other on the forehand. So we did a bit of saturation training on those.

On Friday night and all day Saturday I was away at the annual Capclave Science Fiction Convention in Gaithersburg, MD – coincidentally only 1.5 miles from MDTTC! (And there was "ping-pong" there - I'll get to that.) Once again I was a panelist – see the listing from my Friday blog. I also did a reading, where I read three humorous short-short stories, each about 5-7 minutes in length. The first one was "Manbat," about a bat that thought it was a superhero; the second was "A Meteor Will Kill You in Five Minutes," about what you do when a meteor is destine to kill you at a specific time, but not before, and so you and the meteor chat while you wait; and the third was "Happily and Righteously," a satire on paranoia that starred the now infamous "unimportant person who is no longer a part of this story." (The second and third of these are published in my anthology Pings and Pongs – along with 28 of my other published science fiction & fantasy stories. Buy it now so I can afford dinner tonight!)

Here are some pictures taken of me at some of the panels. You can't see it but there's a rather large audience for each. I'm wearing my button-up dress shirt covered with dragons. In front of me are displayed the three books I've written that fit under the science fiction & fantasy banner, including my table tennis fantasy The Spirit of Pong.

• Picture One (here's the non-Facebook version)
• Picture Two (here's the non-Facebook version)
• Picture Three (here's the non-Facebook version)

During my intro at the start of the panel on "Fiction with a Laugh Track" (i.e. humor in SF and fantasy), I was asked why the anthology was called "Pings and Pongs," and I briefly explained my table tennis background. Then the moderator of the panel asked if I could demonstrate. So I pulled out my smart phone – it's a tiny 2.5"x5" Moto E), and began bouncing a ping-pong ball on it. (Yep, I had one handy.) He then challenged me to keep doing it during all the panelist introductions, and so I did, for something like two minutes straight without a miss before I caught the ball to stop, as the audience laughed and clapped. I then told the crowd that at the end of the session I'd give a free copy of one of my books to anyone who could do this for 30 sec. No one could come close.

Today's going to be a really busy day. Besides doing the blog and Tip of the Week (and a dozen other things from my todo list) this morning, I'm coaching (and doing some tutoring) continuously from 12:45-7:00PM, then weight training (getting ready for the Nationals), and then a bunch of USATT and other work. 

USA Nationals – Enter Online!

Here's the USA Nationals page. There's now an Online Entry link. I just used it to enter – yep, I'll be playing at the Nationals! (But I'm retired from sponge play in tournaments, even though that's what I use and coach 99% of the time – I'll be coaching at the Nationals and playing hardbat and sandpaper events for fun. I'm doing some physical training to get in shape.)

Today's Coaching Articles

This morning there are a huge number of new coaching articles. It must be a full moon! (Or is that a full ping-pong ball in the sky?) Besides my Tip of the Week (above), here are seven more. I'm tempted to spread them out between today and tomorrow, but why wait? (And afterwards there are links to some great points!) Enjoy.

Effective Use of Timeouts

Here's the new coaching article from Han Xiao.

Omar Assar on Keeping a Routine

Here's the new coaching article from Matt Hetherington, where Egyptian star Assar (world #36) talks about setting up a table tennis training routine.

What I Learned from Winning Ugly

Here's the new article from Matt Hetherington, where he reviews Winning Ugly, one of the better sports psychology books out there. (Here are some of the better ones that I recommend.)

Tactical Drills

Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

Coaching Videos from Samson Dubina

Here's the new article, where he puts online four clips from his International Table Tennis Skills video: Slow-Motion Serve Demo, Backhand Loop Demo, Mini-Steps for Huge Improvement, and In-and-Out Footwork. (The four videos combine for about seven minutes.)

Vladimir Samsonov Tutorial - Table tennis Exercises for Beginner to Advanced

Here's the new coaching video (22:18) from the world #11 (at age 39!) and former #1.

Ask the Coach Show – They're Back!!!

Episode #170 (30:10) – How to Do a pendulum Topspin Serve (and other segments).

Shanghai is the New National Men's Team Champion of China

Here's the article from Tabletennista.

Werner Schlager vs. Wang Liqin

Here's a truly great point between the two (27 sec).

Match Point in Slow-Mo

Here's the video (62 sec) of the last point of the quarterfinals of juniors in South Australia.

Xu Xin vs. Zhu Linfeng

Here's video (2:54) of a great point between these two lefties. The incredible point lasts 35 seconds, and then they show it in slow motion.

Men's Final at Chinese Nationals: Xu Xin vs. Zhang Jike

Here's the video (9:50, with time between points removed).

Table Tennis Training – Wow!

Here's video (64 sec) of some crazy good players in training.

Robot Playing Live Table Tennis

Here's video 1:27) of this robot at some show where the robot can rally live with us humans. I've linked to previous such videos, but I think they keep getting better and better.

Michael Landers Prepares for the Dirty Dozen at Spin NY

Here's the video (11 sec).

That's a Big Paddle

Here's the picture. Yeah, it's big. Really big. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Ghostly Pong

Here's a repeating gif image of two ghosts playing table tennis! Why not put this on your club's web page?

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Interview with Larry Hodges (hey, that's me!) on Tactics

Here's the podcast (55 min) that came out this morning from Expert Table Tennis. (We taped it last Friday.) Most of the discussion is on tactics, though we touched on other topics as well. Enjoy!!!

Top Junior Shocks World by Serving Legally

[And now for a little "fun," followed by a more serious note at the end, followed by the usual links to coaching and other table tennis items. I'm really frustrated that with lots of big tournaments and various U.S. team trials coming up, once again many of the wins and losses will be decided by the usual hidden serves (not to mention boosting), as we continue to honor those who cheat and cheat those who don't.]

---

An Ace Reporter from the New York Times read on the Internet that in an ongoing tournament a top USA junior had served legally. Astonished, he decided to check into the matter himself. So he hopped on a plane and flew there in time to see the matches. Being a player himself, he knew the rules stated that serves cannot be hidden from an opponent, but of course while all rules are equally important, some are less equal than others.

He soon found the Top Junior, who was 14 and playing Clash of Clans on an iPhone as he waited for his next match. "You were in the quarterfinals of Under 15 Boys," the Ace Reporter said, "and you chose to serve without illegally hiding your serve. For God's sake, why?"

"It just seemed wrong to cheat in such a big match," the Top Junior said, biting his lower lip. He was dressed from head to toe in a sponsor's uniform.

The kid's coach stood nearby, looking up into the sky. "Why me? How can I develop champions if they won't listen to me and cheat like all the others? What am I to do?" He began smacking himself on the forehead.

"But don't you understand that cheating is a good tactic?" asked the Ace Reporter.

The kid stared at his feet. "But isn't it against the rules?" he muttered under his breath.

"True," said the Ace Reporter, contemplating.

The Big-Shot Coach turned white. A passing top player stopped, looking stunned, then shook his head and walked on. Several girls nearby giggled.

"Of course it's against the rules!" cried the Big-Shot Coach. "But not all rules are equal. Since umpires won't call hidden serves, we're all on the honor system. And so when you serve legally, you dishonor your opponents, the umpires, and the spectators who paid good money to see you play your best."

"I'm sorry," the Top Junior said. "I'll cheat next time."

"Thank you," said the Big-Shot Coach. "But there won't be a next time. After this tournament, you're suspended from training for a month. When you're ready to apply yourself and be a champion, you can play again."

The Helpful Umpire who had umpired the quarterfinals wandered over. "I was shocked by the behavior of that kid," he said, shaking his head. "Showing us up like that." He was dressed in the blue blazer and tie of an official umpire, the very image of a professional.

"Technically, wasn't it the other kid who was cheating by hiding his serve?" asked the Ace Reporter.

"Well, sure," said the Helpful Umpire. "Why is that important?"

"But aren't you supposed to call serves that are hidden?"

"I wasn't sure if they were hidden," the Helpful Umpire said, "so I didn't call them."

"But the rules state that if the umpire is not sure about the legality of a serve he shall call the player for the serve."

"But I wasn't sure I wasn't sure," said the Helpful Umpire. "Besides, it's just a rule. What's the big deal?

"Isn't it unfair to the kid who serves legally when you let his opponent cheat?"

The Helpful Umpire shook his head vigorously. "It's not our job to enforce all the rules, just most of them. If he chooses not to cheat, well, he'll never be a champion."

The Distinguished Referee wandered over. He was dressed like the umpire, with a Referee tag on his blazer. "What seems to be the problem?"

"This crazy reporter thinks we should enforce the serving rules," said the Helpful Umpire.

"We are enforcing the serving rules," said the Distinguished Referee. "Most of them. If a player serves a soccer ball instead of a ping-pong ball, he'll get called for it every time. Usually."

"But don't you think all the rules should be enforced?" asked the Ace Reporter.

The Referee and Umpire stared at him for a moment, then began laughing.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to see if a serve is hidden?" asked the Distinguished Referee.

"Since the players hide the ball so we can't see if they are hiding it, it's impossible to tell if they are hiding it!" said the Helpful Umpire.

"But if you're not sure if the serve is legal, you're supposed to call it," said the Ace Reporter, pretty sure he'd already said this.

The Referee and Umpire began whistling, so the Ace Reporter repeated the question. They only whistled louder.

"Okay, I get it," said the Ace Reporter. "It's a difficult rule to enforce, and umpires are reluctant to call a serve unless they are certain it's illegal. Then perhaps you should consider changing the rules to make it easier to enforce. For example, make the ball visible throughout the serve to the net and its upward extension, or even to the umpires. That would make enforcement much easier."

"Great idea!" said the Distinguished Referee.

"I'm all for it!" said the Helpful Umpire.

"They you'll try to change the rules to fix this problem?"

"Why would we do that?" asked the Distinguished Referee. "If it's a major problem, I'm sure someone else will take care of it."

Just then the Ace Reporter noticed that Under 18 Boys had started. The Top Junior was up against the same player he'd lost to in Under 15 Boys. This time both players cheated throughout; never was a serve to be seen. Since the umpires weren't calling serves, the Top Junior began to use more advanced tactics, such as spinning it out of his hand and spitting on the ball. On the last point of the match the Top Junior cleverly switched balls and served a soccer ball, which the opponent put into the net. The Top Junior won.

"I'm gonna be a champion!" the Top Junior said. "I've learned that to compete, you have to cheat! This is an important life lesson I've learned from this sport."

"I'm so proud of you," said the Big-Shot Coach. "We have taught you well."

The Big-Shot Coach, the Helpful Umpire, the Distinguished Referee, and the Top Junior had a group hug as the song "You're the Best" played in the background. The Top Junior went on to great fame as he won numerous titles until years later when he and hundreds of others were banned for life and stripped of all their titles when they were caught up in a future retroactive cheating investigation where videos of championship matches were studied and all those seen to be cheating were banned for life. Chairing the investigation and giving out the lifetime bans was the absolutely shocked – shocked! – Distinguished Referee.

---

[NOTE – I've blogged about the rampant cheating that goes on in our sport at the higher levels many times, most recently on Sept. 18 and Sept. 25, with the latter including a link to the Net Visibility Rule Proposal to fix the problem of hidden serves. (There's also the problem with boosting – I recently sent the USATT Rules Committee the Racket Testing Rules Proposal that I've also blogged about.) Hopefully the above illustrates the problem without offending the coaches, juniors, umpires, and referees, who are lampooned equally. Many of the quotes used are almost literal quotes from coaches, umpires, and referees. If anyone is offended by this, then they are missing the point. Nothing above is a fraction as offensive as the cheating we are teaching our kids and that dominates the higher levels of our sport. If sports is about sportsmanship, then we are no longer a sport.

I'm tired of hearing kids and parents point out that their role models, the best players in the U.S. and the world, are nearly all cheating, and ask me what they should do. I'm tired of watching our top kids divided into two groups: the majority who have been taught to cheat, and the minority who won't, and as a result lose to players who do cheat. I'm tired of umpires explaining they didn't call the hidden serves because they weren't sure they were hidden, without seeing the irony that their very words meant the serves were illegal. Let's fix the problem.

Most umpires and referees are hard-working and well-meaning. However, there just doesn't seem to be much understanding of the severity of the problem. Since most umpires don't call hidden serves, and few referees push for them to do so, it's not easy for an umpire to make a huge "nuisance" of himself by actually enforcing the rules. And so cheating has become the norm at the higher levels. This is a cultural problem that has to change. It's also easy for officials to give lip service to the problem but not take serious actions about fixing it – which is why the problem hasn't been fixed. Someday we'll look back and wonder, "What were we thinking?"

To any up-and-coming juniors who are reading this, you are likely going to face this problem that our refusal to deal with this problem has inflicted on you. My suggestion – serve legally unless the opponent cheats first, and the umpire won't call it. In that case, the match is no longer being played by the rules of table tennis, and so you are no longer bound by them. I no longer blame players for hiding their serves, but I do blame whoever is the first in a match to do so.

Some think the problem is not the rules, but strictly the umpires and referees who won't enforce the rules, and use that to justify rejecting the Net Visibility Rule proposal. (And that is a major part of the problem.) However, here's my question to you: Do you believe it is easier for an umpire to enforce the hidden service rule when he’s not sure if the ball is hidden, or when he’s sure it has been hidden? The latter would be the case under the Net Visibility Rule.

The rule would also give us a chance to reboot our thinking on hidden serves, since we’d be going to a rule where umpires can clearly see if the ball is hidden from a receiver, and so would call it – just as they usually call it if a player serves out of his hand. They may not call a serve that is borderline hidden from one of the net posts, just as they might not call a 5.5” toss, but it solves the problem of hiding the ball from the receiver, just as the six-inch toss solved the problem with players serving out of their hands. In both cases, it is the extreme cases that would be called – not hiding the ball from a net post or tossing the ball 5.5”, but when the server has obviously broken the rules by hiding his serve from a receiver or serving out of his hand.

I don't plan on blogging about hidden serves every other day, as I seem to be doing sometimes, but it's currently on the radar for USATT and ITTF officials, and we need to convince them both of the severity of the problem and of real solutions that can be passed by the ITTF (and USATT can submit a proposal), whether it be my proposals or some other solution – but the problem must be dealt with. Didn't we learn anything about cheating and looking the other way from the steroids scandals? There's something really wrong when we need to have coaching articles on How to Receive Hidden Serves, one of the most necessary articles that should never have been necessary. I'd rather be blogging about regular coaching issues, as well as upcoming plans on regional associations, leagues, state championship, and coaching programs.]

Marcos Freitas – Forehand Topspin Tutorial

Here's the new coaching video (3:27, in English) from the Portuguese star (world #8 and European Men's Singles Finalist last week).

Importance of Mental Fitness in Table Tennis

Here's the article. "Stay Focused. Learn to deal with tension. Think positive."

Table Tennis School – Training Defensive Chopping

Here's the video (12:50).

Anatomy of a Table Tennis Player

I linked to the article on this yesterday, which linked to this video, but I think it might have gotten lost in the shuffle. I thought it was such an interesting one that I'd link to it again. Here's the video (4:18), where European Champion Dimitrij Ovtcharov discusses the key attributes needed to be the perfect Table Tennis player. 

USATT Membership Program Update

On Tuesday USATT members received this letter from USATT CEO Gordon Kaye regarding new membership levels and rates. (No more rating fees!!!) There's an interesting discussion of it and other issues at the Mytabletennis.net forum, "A good set of deeds by the USATT." (Gordon joined the discussion several times.)

Chinese Nationals

Here are some good articles this from Tabletennista. Xu Xin just won the Men's Singles, Zhu Yuling the Women's Singles.

International Table Tennis

Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.

Top Three Shots from Round One of the Champions League

Here's the video (56 sec), with highlight shots from Tiago Apolonia, Timo Boll, and Wang Yang.

Little Kid on a Robot

Here's the video (41 sec) – pretty good!

The Ultimate Candle Extinguishing Shot

Here's the video (68 sec).

A Little Dinner Plate Pong

Here's the video (41 sec) – it gets better and better! Why don't you try this?

Paddle Collage

Here's the picture.

Color Pong

Choose any color. The google this: [your color] table tennis pictures. Then throw in a few variations, like polkadot or striped. Lots of stuff comes up - have fun!

Non-Table Tennis – Capclave Science Fiction Convention

This weekend I'll be at the annual Capclave Science Fiction Convention in Gaithersburg, Maryland – coincidentally only 1.5 miles from MDTTC! I'll be there Friday night, all day Saturday, and probably Sunday morning. (I have a busy coaching schedule on Sunday afternoon and night.) I'm a panelist, plus I'm doing a reading. My main goals there are to have fun and to promote my novel Sorcerers in Space. (I have flyers and specially made bookmarks to give out.) Here's my Capclave bio, which mentions me once beating someone with an ice cube. If anyone's interested, here's my schedule – feel free to drop by!

10-11 AM SAT – Salon B/C Room – Democracy... IN SPACE!
Panelists: Day Al-Mohamed, Larry Hodges, Alastair Reynolds, Benjamin Rosenbaum (M)
With all these space empires around, why are there so few space democracies? What authors see a future for democracy? Why are there so few democracies in fantasy novels not set in the real world?

12-1 PM SAT – Bethesda Room – The Fantastic Private Investigator
Panelists: Kimberly G. Hargan (M), Bjorn Hesseler, Larry Hodges, Allen Wold
From Asimov's Elijah Baley to Butcher's Harry Dresden, science fiction and fantasy has melded with mysteries. Who are some of the best genre detectives? How do you write a mystery in a fantastic world where the murderer can use magic or high technology to commit the crime or provide an alibi?

3:30-3:55 PM SAT – Frederick Room - Reading
It's time for the annual "Larry Hodges Over-the-Top Humorous Flash Story Reading"! I'll be reading three rather short stories, each about 5-7 minutes long: Manbat, A Meteor Will Kill You in Five Minutes, and Happily and Righteously.

10-11 PM SAT – Bethesda Room – Fiction With A Laugh Track
Panelists: Brenda W. Clough, Andrew Fox, Larry Hodges, Alex Shvartsman (M)
What are the tips and tricks in writing humorous SF and fantasy? What can an author do to avoid the obvious pitfalls, and spot the not-so-obvious ones? How do you maintain a reputation for writing humorous SF or fantasy, and what is the benefit of doing so?

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tuesday and Wednesday

Lots of iconic things happening! Here's a rundown of some of my private students.

Navin Kumar posted a note about his nice undefeated performance in the Tuesday night league. In a breakthrough performance where his forehand really began to come around (along with his usual blocking), he went 4-0, holding all of his opponents to 5 points or less, despite being the last seed in the group. I can't link directly to his Facebook posting, but this link takes you to his Facebook page where he put up the posting. (Navin's the student of mine who's been in the news quite a bit due to his partially mechanical heart and Parkinson's.)

Another student, 14, had been having trouble with his grip finally got things together the last two days. In the Tuesday night league he said he played the best match of his life, with his forehand the best it's ever been. But he was still having trouble with his backhand – until Wednesday night, when we spent the whole session on it (including hitting 321 in a row at a fast pace), with a little saturation training. By the end he said his backhand felt the best it's ever been.

Another student, 14, had a great training session that led me to wonder when he's going to start showing up in tournaments again now that he's way under-rated. But as he said, he'll have sleepless nights because of that one point we had yesterday where he drove me out of position on my wide forehand, then smashed to my wide backhand, and I switched hands and lobbed it back left-handed – and he missed! He said he's going to have nightmare.

Another student, just turned 11, finally got up the courage to stop pushing and began looping on his serve during league matches. It didn't lead to great results (yet), but he's now on the pathway to a higher level. He understands the importance of the change.

As I've blogged about recently, I'm tutoring one eight-year-old student in his writing. He and a ten-year-old decided to both write stories that featured my attempts to get rocky road ice cream, but ending with me getting fish stuck in my mouth instead. (I hate seafood!!!) One story involved me getting on a ship to Rocky Road Island, only to discover it was the Titanic. We sank and I ended up with fish in my mouth. The other one involved unicorns sharing their ice cream with me, only to (yep) end up with them stuffing fish in my mouth. The horrors!

Meanwhile, I've been on a binge recently on some USATT work that I'll go public with later on, probably in November. It involves the stuff I've been blogging about – regional associations, state championships, and leagues.

The Spirit of Pong and Sorcerers in Space

Recently I put the first two chapters (17 pages out of 100) online of my table tennis fantasy novel, The Spirit of Pong. Now I've put the first six chapters (46 pages out of 319) of my humorous fantasy novel, Sorcerers in Space. Enjoy – and both end with links to Amazon where you can buy the book if you like what you see. (Sorcerers in Space does have table tennis, though not a lot - the main character, 13-year-old Neil [Armstrong] has to put aside his ping-pong dreams to save the world. It's a satire on the 1960s space race, with sorcerers instead of astronauts, and Neil is a sorcerer's apprentice. (Both of these books are described on my Books by Larry Hodges page.)

MDTTC is Up to #2 in Sales!

Here's the Butterfly listing of equipment sales for the year. #1 is the WAB Shop from Canada, so they don't count in U.S. rankings. Next is the Lily Yip TT Center in New Jersey. Maryland Table Tennis Center (my club) is next, so we're #2 in the U.S. – and Lily Yip, we're coming for you!!! :) But congrats to all the clubs listed there, and all the other ones that help make this country more table tennisish.

USATT Athletes of the Month – September

Here's the listing. Winners are Timothy Wang (men), Lily Zhang (women), and in a four-way tie, the national Men's, Women's, Boys', and Girls' teams (teams) for their sweep of team events at the North American Championships. Timothy and Lily also won for their performance at the North Americans, with both winning singles and helping lead the USA team to victory.

Ideal Build for a Table Tennis Player?

Here's the ITTF article. It includes a link to a the video Anatomy of a Table Tennis Player (4:18) where European Champion Dimitrij Ovcharov discusses the key attributes needed to be the perfect Table Tennis player. (In the first paragraph it mistakenly says Ryu Seungmin won the 2014 Olympics, but he actually won it in 2004. They'll likely fix the mistake soon.)

I Wanted More Than a Silver Medal

Here's the article on Marcos Freitas from Tabletennista.

Off the Table with Thomas Weikart

Here's the new video interview (4:47) with ITTF President Weikart.

Interview with Jimmy Butler

Here's the interview from MH Table Tennis. (But I still prefer my version of the picture they used to feature the story.)

The King Kong Ping Pong Sing Song Ding Dong

Here's the picture! (But why do they use a picture of a moray eel instead of a gorilla???)

***
Send us your own coaching news!

U.S. Nationals and Weight Training

I'm trying to make my plans for the upcoming U.S. Nationals, but things are never simple. In recent years it's been simple: I go, I coach, I return. This time, however, I was thinking of playing a bunch of events – hardbat (singles, doubles, over 40), sandpaper, perhaps a senior event or two. But now I have several coaching requests, and so might be busy coaching, which conflicts with my playing – I would likely have matches that conflict with a student's important match. Coaching is my priority, so we'll see how things end up.

But in case I decide to play in the Nationals again, yesterday I began the long put-off weight training I've been postponing for a while. And so after coaching/tutoring from 3:00-7:30PM, I stopped by Planet Fitness for the first time in a year. (Or is it two?) I'm weight training again for three reasons.

First, to get in better shape. When even carrying groceries or my 21-pound playing bag is difficult, I need to weight train.

Second, as I get older (55), I'm slowing down, and so not as effective in private coaching sessions, where I'm hitting with players. Plus, of course, my overall game has declined. Weight training will bring some of it back. Heck, I watch and coach some of our up-and-coming juniors, and realize that I better get in shape or they'll start beating me!!! (Some do…) My tentative plan is to retire from most private coaching in April 2018, which coincides with when I make my last house payment. But I'd continue group sessions and perhaps some private coaching – we'll see. But it gets harder and harder to do private coaching as I get older.

Third, in case I do decide to play in the Nationals. While I primarily coach sponge players and play with sponge normally, I've won a lot of hardbat titles at the Open and Nationals – two national singles championships, 13 open doubles and two over 50 doubles, and four over 40 singles titles at the Nationals. I'm also pretty decent with sandpaper. At last year's Nationals, however, I felt so slow that I said I was retiring from all tournament. But if I get back in shape, maybe I can win another title or ten.

I blogged about weight training for table tennis on January 27, 2012. As I wrote then, in the words of Mr. TT, "I pity the fool who doesn't weight train for table tennis."

Below are the 16 exercises I do, and the weights I'm currently doing. (When I was doing this routine regularly a few years ago, I had increased the weights gradually, but now I'm back at the beginning numbers.) I plan to do them Mon, Wed, and Fri, three sets of ten each. (This week is different I'm doing them on Tue and Thu, since I missed Monday.) The whole routine takes about 25 minutes, and then I do about five minutes of stretching.

1. Arm Extension (50)
2. Arm Curl (40)
3. Chest Press (50)
4. Pull Down (90)
5. Row (90)
6. Overhead Press (40)
7. Leg Curl (70)
8. Leg Extensions (60)
9. Leg Press (140)
10. Calf Extension (210)
11. Fly Delts (70)
12. Rear Delts (50)
13. Back Extension (170)
14. Abdominal Machine (90)
15. Torso Rotation left (60)
16. Torso Rotation right (60)

USATT Membership Program Update

Here's the letter to the membership from the CEO on the new membership levels and rates. No More Rating Fees!!! I'll likely blog about this and other big changes in USATT later on.

US Olympic Trials

Here's the announcement – they will be held in Greensboro, NC, Feb. 4-7, in the Greensboro Coliseum Complex.

In the Zone: Training Emotional Skill in Table Tennis

Part 5 is new. I previously linked to 1-4.

• 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

Interview with Richard Prause: "Well prepared"

Here's the interview with the German coach about the European Championships.

Interview with Joo Sae Hyuk: The World's Best Modern Defense

Here's the interview from MH Table Tennis.

Interview with Christian Lillieroos: ITTF Instructor

Here's the interview from Pong Universe. Here's the ITTF article on a Level 2 Coaching Course he recently held in New York.

Interview with Daryl Sterling Jr.: 11 Questions

Here's the USATT interview.

ITTF Pongcast – September 2015

Here's the video (13:15).

The Spectacular Asian Championships

Here's the video highlights recap (2:50).

Benedict Cumberbatch vs. Deng Yaping

Here's the video (2:45) as the great actor Cumberbatch introduces the great champion Deng and then plays her. Watch as she out-rallies him with a wooden spoon!

The Ping-Pong Song

Here's the music video (3:58) from Neven Duzevic from 2011.

Amazing Table Tennis Sponge Cutter

Here's the video (38 sec). I've never seen one of these. I just use scissors.

Jimmy Butler Having Fun with JibJab

Here is what Jimmy does when he has too much free time.

• USATT Office Staff (1:27) – Gordon Kaye, Sean O'Neill, Tiffany Oldland, Doru Gheorghe, and Richard Finn.
• Sean O'Neill (1:22) – the 5-time US Champ and 2-time Olympian
• Tahl Leibovitz (1:29) – Paralympic Champion and Hall of Fame Inductee this December
• Kenny Owens (1:22) – father of Eric Owens

Forrest Gump Keeping His Eye on the Ball

Here's the meme that explains why he never blinks while playing table tennis. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Mystical Ping-Pong Eyes

Here's the picture!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Adventures in Serving

• Fifty-foot serve games. At MDTTC, I run most of our classes in the back tables. There's a spot near the robot table where I can stand about 50 feet away and perpendicular to a table, so that I'm lined up with its net. I've always done the infamous "50-foot serve" in my exhibitions, but I've done it from that spot so often I can almost do it in my sleep. I serve the ball with an overhead tomahawk serve, so it goes high and with sidespin and backspin, and it curves around, hits the table on the right-hand court, and bounces over and hits the left-hand court. At the end of classes I often let the beginners stand on the left side of the table and challenge them to return it – not easy since the ball has a lot of spin. When I'm feeling energetic, I'll sometimes challenge them to a game, where I have to serve and then sprint to the table, jumping the barriers along the way – I can just get there in time to play the point!
• Come-back serve. Once, when playing a tournament match against Sunny Li, then the top ten-year-old in the country and rated over 2000, I was up something like 20-14 match point. (Back then games were to 21, and you served five times in a row, so I only had one serve left.) I threw the come-back serve at him – serving it high with backspin so it hit first my side and then his side of the table, and bounced back directly to my side. He reached over the table but of course couldn't reach it – an ace!!! I've always felt sort of bad about that one, but it wasn't exactly a close game, and I was a regular hitting partner for him and one of his part-time coaches. (I coached him in tournaments many times, including many of his national junior titles.)
• Fast serves down the line galore. I once played a 2100 player from Canada who had an insanely good backhand, but a very weak forehand. (This was when matches were best of three to 21. I was about 2270 at the time.) I served fast down the line on the first point, and rather than attack it, he just sort of blocked it back, and so I smashed an easy winner. I did it again, and again he just blocked it back, and again I smashed. And so I decided I was going to use that same serve every point until he attacked it. He never did, and I ended up serving fast down the line every single point of the match, following nearly every one of them with a smash. I won easily, holding him to about ten points each game. Afterwards, he was very angry, wouldn't even shake my hand, claiming I had tried to show him up! Nope, I had simply found a winning strategy against a good player who posed a threat except for this huge weakness in his game.
• Forehand tomahawk serve. The second player rated over 2000 I ever beat in a tournament was a guy named Benfield Munroe, rated 2048, circa 1979, when I was about 1850. We split the first two games (two out of three to 21), but he led 20-15 match point in the third. Until then I'd been serving all forehand pendulum serves, and perhaps a few backhand serves. So I brought out my experimental forehand tomahawk serve, where I hit the top of the ball toward the right, and serve a sidespin-topspin serve, but follow with a big downward motion to fake backspin. He put it off the end five times in a row! (After the last two he started screaming at himself.) I won the next point on his serve, and then I gave him one more tomahawk serve, and for the sixth time in a row he put it off, and I won!
• Hand serves. Twice in my 39 years of play I've served off the back of my hand in a tournament. This is perfectly legal – the racket hand below the wrist is considered part of the racket – and so it's just a no-spin serve. Both times my opponent caught the ball thinking it was an illegal serve. Both times I should have claimed the point, but I didn't bother, and gave them lets both times.
• Edge serves. Want to change the sport as we know it? Perfect the down-the-line edge serve. I once spent some time practicing this, where you serve backhand from the backhand corner down the line, trying to hit the edge, making it a very difficult return for the receiver. I reached the point where I could do it almost 1/3 of the time. The problem was I was also serving off the side about 1/3 of the time.
• Changing service position. (This one I'm cut & pasting from Chapter Seven of my book Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers, "Tactical Examples," where I give numerous such examples.)

  At the North American Teams one year I was playing with slightly lower-ranked players as a player/coach. I was one of the three undefeated players in the division. [Note – this was the "B" Division, the second highest one.] The other two were a pair of junior players from Canada. Our teams played in the final. Both of the Canadian juniors played the same style, which had created havoc throughout the division: big forehand looping attacks, but medium long pips on the backhand which they used to flat hit shot after shot. They quick-hit every short serve with their backhands (spin didn’t take on their pips), even short ones to their forehand, and followed with their big forehands.

  As I watched them play, I realized that they would have little trouble with my best serve, a forehand pendulum serve I do from my backhand corner, which sets up my forehand. No matter where I’d serve it, if it was long, they’d loop it; if it was short, they’d backhand hit it. I could use a tomahawk serve to their forehand, but that would take away my big serving strength. What to do?

  When I went out to play the first of the two, I set up like I normally do to serve, in the backhand corner. Then I took two steps to my right, and spent the whole match serving forehand pendulum serves from my forehand corner. This gave me an angle into his forehand so that he’d have to receive with his forehand (or risk me going down the line to his open backhand side if he tried to cover the short forehand with his backhand), and so I was able to use my pendulum serve to his inverted forehand, something he had probably rarely had to deal with. Since he couldn’t return it aggressively, I was able to move back into position after each serve to attack with my forehand. The same strategy worked against the other Canadian junior, and I won both matches. (Ironically, before the last match, the perceptive Canadian coach took the other junior off to a table and mimicked my serve over and over from the forehand side so the kid could practice against it, but it wasn’t enough.) I won all three of my matches, but alas, we lost the final 5-3.

USA Men's and Women's Team Trials

Here's the prospective and entry form for the 2016 Trials for the USA Men's and Women's Teams. They will be held on Sunday and Monday, Dec. 20-21 in Las Vegas, starting the day after the USA Nationals. (The Junior and Cadet Team Trials will be held during the Nationals.) I'm going to have a long stay in Las Vegas, flying in on Saturday, Dec. 12, for the USATT Board Meeting on Dec. 13-14, then coaching (and playing?) at the Nationals, and then staying over to watch (and possibly coach) at the Team Trials.

Zhang Jike on His Dispute with Jang Woojin, and His Playing Condition

Here's the article.

Jim Butler Training and Upcoming Return to Sweden

Here's the video (3:45) that shows him doing multiball and talking about going to the World Cup in Sweden – his first time back in twenty years, after living, training, and playing in the pro leagues there from 1989-1995. The 2015 Men's World Cup is Oct. 16-18 in Halmstad, Sweden.

Incredible Rallies from the European Championships Men's Semifinals

Here's the video (1:23).

Interview with Badger Open Director Linda Leaf

Here's the video (2:40) by Barbara Wei.

How Samara and Ovtcharov Celebrated Winning European Championships

Here's the video (1:25).

The Smallest Table Tennis Player?

Here's the video (6:42) of this dwarf player.

Matt Kuchar Plays Table Tennis

Here's the picture of the pro golfer. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Table Tennis vs. Illegal Drugs

Here's the humorous video (7:18) that compares the two!

Two Dogs Play Table Tennis

Here's the animated gif image!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week

Serving and the Snowball Effect.

Weekend Activities

• I spent way too much of the weekend emailing in various discussions on the hidden serve rule, boosting, Capital Area Team League, and various stuff on future USATT leagues and regional associations. And please, if I EVER respond to another really silly posting on Facebook about politics or religion, PLEASE just SHOOT me.
• On Friday I was interviewed for an hour by Expert Table Tennis. The podcast will be out next Friday morning. The bulk of the one-hour discussion was on tactics. I'll post it here in my Friday blog. I also did two hours of coaching, 90 minutes of English tutoring with one of our kids, and saw The Martian late that night, which was great, though no table tennis scenes. (I'd previous read the book, which was my favorite novel of the year.) There do seem to be a lot of table tennis in recent movies, from Gravity to Minions. I need to do a compilation of them in my blog.
• On Saturday I did something I've wanted to do for a LONG time – I spent most of the day in my lounge chair reading. (Alas, I had to do three hours of USATT and MDTTC work in the morning, but finished that by 11AM.) I normally have only one or two hours of coaching on Saturdays (Sundays is my busier day), but they couldn't make it, so I was off. I finished reading "The Three-Body Problem," a Chinese science fiction novel whose translation won this year's Hugo Award for best SF novel. (Since many table tennis players are Chinese, I wonder how many have read or heard of it?) I'm now reading the sequel, "The Dark Forest."
• On Sunday we had 11 kids in our Beginning Junior Class, with most of the players ages 8-10. This group is great to work with – no troublemakers! The day's focus was on serving with spin, so I brought out the colored soccer balls to demonstrate. Then we worked on basics – forehand, backhand, and footwork. Best moment – the youngest in the class is five. He has struggled to hit even one ball on the table, even in multiple where we hit the ball very slowly to him. I kept guiding him through the stroke, but for the second straight session it didn't seem to work. And then – something clicked, and he hit nine consecutive perfect forehands! I'm not sure who was more excited, him, me, or his parents.

  In the Adult Training Session, we did the usual drills, plus one relatively new one for them – each spent 7.5 minutes where they'd serve fast serves anywhere on the table, and then play out the point. I started it with a demo on fast serves, showing the various types – topspin, sidespin, and dead – and to the three spots – wide backhand and forehand, and to the middle. Here are three articles I have on this:

  • Fifteen Important Deep Serves
  • Turn Opponents into Puppets with Long Serves
  • How to Ace an Opponent

• Also on Sunday – my article on the Capital Area Team League went up as a USATT News Item.
• Here are three very strange lets – or reactions to lets - that I saw recently:
  

  • "Let! My racket hit my knee."
  • "You can't call a let because I yelled during the point. It's free speech."
  • "Let! I wasn't ready." (After missing his own serve.)

Receiving Hidden Serves

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao. I suggested this one to him, since it's such a huge problem in our sport. Hidden serves aren't legal, but they are rarely called, alas, and so you need to be ready for them. This articles is great in covering exactly how to do so. 

The Details: Comparing Drills to Matches

Here's the new coaching article (with links to two videos) from Samson Dubina.

Entry Form for USA Nationals

It's out, linked from the USA Nationals page. They will be held Dec. 14-19 in Las Vegas, with the U.S. Men's and Women's Team Trials on Dec. 20-21.

Asian Championships

• The Asian Championships, Pattaya, Thailand, Sept. 26 – Oct. 3.
• Asian Championships Men's Final: Fan Zhendong (CHN) vs. Xu Xin (CHN) (10:40, with time between points removed).
• Asian Championships Women's Final: Zhu Yuling (CHN) vs. Chen Meng (CHN) (44:19 – I couldn't find one with time between points removed).
• 18-Year-Old Fan Zhendong Dominates Asian Championships (ITTF press release)

European Championships

• The European Championships, Ekaterinburg, Russia, Sept. 25 – Oct. 4.
• European Championships Men's Final: Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER) vs. Marco Freitas (POR) (10:07 with time between points removed).
• European Championships Women's Final: Elizabeta Samara (ROU) vs. Li Jie (NED) (1:13:49 – I couldn't find one with time between points removed).
• European Championships Highlights (videos)
• Ovtcharov & Samara are Crowned Best in Europe (ITTF Press Release)
• Elizabeta Samara standing on table after victory (here's the non-Facebook version)
• Aleksandar Karakasevic Breaks his Bat at Europeans (22 sec, including slow motion replay)

USATT Celebrates Some Special Moments

Here's the new video (2:54): "With the U.S. Championships and the first stage of the U.S. Olympic Trials less than 3 months away, USA Table Tennis celebrates some special moments in recent years." (Video created by Jimmy Butler.)

The Mozart of Table Tennis Turned 50 on Saturday

Here's a picture commemorating Waldner.

Zhang Jike in Bad Condition

Here's the article from Table Tennista.

How a Chopper Ends a Match

Here's video (27 sec) of the last point as chopper Panagitis Gionis defeats Alexey Liventsov at the European Championships.

Best of Backhands

Here's the video (4:24) – why don't you have a backhand like this?

The People's Lovie Awards

It's down to the Final Five for Best Internet Video Documentary – and "Fact or Fiction," the documentary on Marty Reisman, is a finalist! Vote now for "Fact or Fiction" your favorite!

Masai Table Tennis Club – and Lions!

Here's the cartoon. What's the caption?

***
Send us your own coaching news!