Tim Boggan Arrives
Yes, it's that time of year again – USATT Historian Tim will be knocking on my door at precisely 9:30AM (after driving 4-5 hours down from New York to Maryland), and then we start work on Volume 17 (!) of his History of U.S. Table Tennis. More specifically, I begin my work, as Tim's already done most of his – the writing and planning. Mal Anderson has also done his part – he's the primary photographer, and has scanned probably 1000 photos for the volume, and sent them to me in a CD I received this morning.

Who are Tim and Mal, you ask? They are both members of the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame (as am I), so we're practically a history of the game, the three of us. (But I'm only 55! They are about 25-30 years older than me.) You can read about all of us in our profiles there.

My job over the next two weeks, as I've done with the previous volumes (usually once per year), is to fix up the photos (many of which are vintage ones or in bad shape – lots of work in Photoshop), and then lay out the pages (text and photos). Tim comes in with notes on where each photo goes, and he's pretty particular about it – he'll be spending the next two weeks looking over my shoulder and saying various versions, of, "No, you fool, the photo goes there!"

It's a pretty big job. The last volume was 427 pages with 1327 graphics. I had to fix up all 1327 graphics, lay the text on the page, put the graphics in place (Tim often has elaborate plans, and often we make last-minute time-consuming changes), flow text properly, type in the caption that Tim dictates to me, put in the "Photo by [somebody]" (most of the time it's Mal Anderson), and so on. There are also a bunch of technical things that have to be done, and then prepress work, and then creating the ad for the volume, updating the web page (which I created and maintain for him), etc. It'll take 10-14 days of work.

We typically start at 7AM each day and go to 2:30 PM, which is when I have to leave to coach (MDTTC afterschool program, other group coaching, and private coaching). On weekends we work around my coaching schedule – I'm mostly free Saturday, with a busy Sunday schedule.

It means all my normal work is squeezed into nighttime, after I return from coaching, typically around 7-9PM. For the next two weeks that's when I'll have to do the blog, the Tips of the Week, my USATT work, and all the other stuff that comes up every day. Plus I've got a book launch for my own science fiction novel coming later this month, so I've got to do a bunch of publicity work for that.

So if anyone, and I mean ANYONE, sends me something they need me to do, or asks me to help them with something, or even thinks about doing this, here's my answer.

The 50-Foot Serve
Here's video of me doing it in an exhibition last year with Stefano Ratti at the Smash TTC. (The link should take you to 18:07 in the video.) I do this all the time, not just in exhibitions, but during breaks at MDTTC. It's a fun trick! If you want, go to the beginning of the video and see the entire exhibition, where I pull out all sorts of tricks.

Dean Johnson Inducted Into USATT Hall of Fame
Here's the ITTF article.

Maryland Table Tennis Center January Newsletter
Here's the new issue. (I'm the editor/writer.)

Ma Long & Liu Shiwen End 2015 as World Number Ones
Here's the ITTF press release.

Yunhao (Kaden) Xu – Interview
Here's the USATT interview by Rahul Acharya.

Qualification System for the Rio Olympic Games
Here's the info from USATT.

We're #10!
Here's the article, "17 sports to try in 2016 that are way more fun than the gym."

Here's a Nice 53-shot Rally
Here's the video (54 sec).

Table Tennis is for Everyone
Here's the new video (60 sec). Pretty nice!

Great Table Tennis Drawing
Here's the picture!

Penguin Pong!
This is in honor of a humorous story I recently sold to Galaxy's Edge, about two penguins who have to make the trip from Antarctica to the Middle East to get on Noah's Ark.

• Penguin Plays Table Tennis (40 sec)
• Penguin Plays Table Tennis (repeating gif version)
• Polar Bear (Bernard) vs. Penguin (3:35)
• Penguin Igloo Basement Pong (cartoon)
• Penguin Big Paddle Pong (cartoon)
• Sharp-Nosed Penguin Pong (cartoon)
• Penguins Playing Pong 1
• Penguins Playing Pong 2
• Fat Penguin Pong Player
• HaiFu Penguin Long Pips
• Homemade Penguin Ping-Pong Balls
• Penguin Solo Pong
• Ping-Pong Penguin
• Ping and Pong the Penguins

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Tip of the Week
Backhand Serve Deception with the Elbow.

Luck or Skill?
I saw this video recently (16 sec, including slo-mo replay) and was struck what a perfect example of skill that looks like luck. Now when I say "skill," I don't mean natural talent; I mean learned skill. The player on the near side has an easy put-away, and creams the ball – but the opponent makes a seemingly "lucky" block return. He doesn't just block back a winner; he practically counter-smashes, and makes it look effortless and easy. So . . . was he just lucky?

No, it was almost all skill from years of training. Look at the body position of the player on the near side as he sets up to smash - he's set up to go crosscourt, and the opponent reflexively sees this. The near-side player could change directions at the last second, but doesn't, and so he's predictable. It would have been an easy winner to the wide forehand or middle. Of course with a shot like that, the near-side player was likely taking the long diagonal for safety as he didn't expect the opponent to react so quickly.

But the opponent didn't really react quickly so much as he reacted correctly. He couldn't cover the entire table, and so he read the opponent's body stance to mean he was going crosscourt. He was in a perfect ready position, and so ready to move quickly in either direction, and so as the opponent smashed, he was already moving into position for the shot. At that point, at the higher levels, making such a return not only wasn't lucky, but it would have been an unforced error if the player hadn't make the block, since he was right there and waiting. (Okay, most top players wouldn't have practically backhand counter-smashed as this player did, but they would have usually made the return.)

What can you learn from this? First, never give up on a point. There are only so many places the opponent can go, and even if you can't cover all of them, you can cover some of them. Second, after every shot your first priority is to get into a ready position for the next shot, where you are ready to pounce on any return. And third, many or most players telegraph the direction of their shot well before contact – and so even smashes become returnable, if you learn to read the signs that show where the opponent is smashing. (Hint – watch the shoulders!)

For more examples of such "reflex" blocking, see the segment below on Waldner's blocking.

The Table Tennis Player's Guide to Health and Fitness
Here's the new online book (free!), 99 pages. I haven't read it, but it's more on sports nutrition than on strictly table tennis, so I'm not really an expert on this. The opening line is nice: "Table tennis is the greatest sport in the world." Later it says, "This guide will provide you with the knowledge and tools necessary to optimize your training and nutrition for table tennis."

Fix It or Trash It? Learn to Problem-Solve During Matches
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

USATT News
They have a slew of new articles, so I'll just give the link, and let you browse!

ITTF Updates – Plastic Ball Still Has Problems
Here's the article.

That Other Tenergy
Here's the new article from Coach Jon. I use Tenergy 05 2.1 black on the forehand, Tenergy 25 2.1 red on the backhand.

Tom's Table Tennis Newsletter
Here it is, from Coach Tom Lodziak in the UK.

Super Slow Motion of Zhang Jike's Attack!
Here's the video (21 sec).

The Legend Waldner King Block and Speed of Reaction
Here's the video (4:02). Watch how he picks opponents apart with precisely placed and deceptive blocks.

Cory Eider Leads Physical Training
Here's the video (1:19).

Harimoto Tomokazu - the New Prodigy of Table Tennis
Here's the new video (5:26).

Lob of the Year?
Here's the video (25 sec, including slo-mo replay). Of course, we're only four days in, but this might top anything from last year as well.

Chinese National Men's Table Tennis Team Sings
Here's the video (2:57) of Wang Hao, Wang Liqin, Ma Lin, and Ma Long.

Tricks & Top Shots: TTS Award Winners Oct-Dec
Here's the article and videos!

Jumping a Ping-Pong Table – Almost!
Here's the video (5 sec) – don't try this at home at your club!

Non-Table Tennis - More Pings and Pongs
My new anthology of short stories is out! More Pings and Pongs includes the 25 best science fiction & fantasy stories I've sold since my previous anthology, Pings and Pongs in 2012. I blogged about it this morning in my science fiction & fantasy blog. "From God getting Earth critiqued in a workshop, to a dragon landing on the U.S. Capitol, from a dead kid on a high school track team battling the mile mafia, to the first ten U.S. presidents battling each other and alien vacationers on an alien computer, there’s something for everyone!" Alas, no table tennis. The last month has been pretty good for me on the science fiction & fantasy writing front – I sold two stories to Galaxy's Edge, one of the top paying markets; I have three other stories that are "finalists" at other markets; my novel "Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions" comes out at the end of this month; and of course More Pings and Pongs!

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Happy New Year!
Tomorrow is New Year's Day – and I'm spending the day in bed reading. Happy New Year, and see you next Monday!

2016 USATT Resolutions

1. State Championships in all 50 states. Realistically, this isn't going to happen in 2016, but if we strive for 50, I'll likely get a lot more than if I strive for less. In 2015 we had 13 states with state championships, plus another 16 with state games. Since we started the State Championships Initiative, we've gotten nine new states planning state championships in 2016 - CA, DC, IL, MA, MD, NV, NY, SC, and TN. (For this, I'm counting DC as a state.)
2. Double the Number of Regional Team Leagues. Since we started the Regional Team League Initiative, and created a USATT League Page, we've had interest in such leagues in a number of regions, including Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Long Island. There are currently seven regional team leagues that I know of (see listing from Regional Team League Initiative), so the goal is 14. We might not get that, but we'll strive for it. Of equal importance is growing the current leagues.
3. Get USATT to Recruit and Train Professional Coaches. I've blogged about this many times, such as here. It's not enough to just hold courses where we teach coaches how to coach. We need to recruit and train professional coaches, and teach them how to set up and run programs, and make a living as a professional coach. I'm not sure yet if this will be a 2016 or 2017 initiative, but it has to start sometime.
4. Get Started on a U.S. Professional League or Circuit. I've discussed this issue with the USATT CEO, and we expect to begin work on this sometime this year.
5. Solve the Hidden Serve Problem. It's a huge problem, though many from USATT are still blind to the serious cheating in our sport. We have to either get umpires and referees to enforce the rules as they are written (meaning calling any serve that they are not "sure" are legal, as the rules require), change the rules so they are more easily enforced, or (as a last, unhappy step) simply allow hidden serves again, though that would be a step backward. Until we resolve this problem, most of our national titles will be decided by umpires allowing top players to cheat, where we reward the cheaters and cheat the honest ones.

2016 Personal New Year's Resolutions

1. Get weight to 170 pounds, and then keep it under 172. From Oct. 1 to Dec. 12 I went from 196 to 179. I was 182 when I returned Dec. 26, and have managed to drop back to 180 since.
2. Write sequel to "Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions." The SF novel comes out at the end of January. (Here's where I blogged about it, and the initial press release on it; another should be coming out soon, along with the cover. It has lots of table tennis!) I'm 17,000 words into the sequel, "Campaign 2110: Scorpions in Space," but it's been on hold the last month due to other work, the Nationals, and the holidays. (First one was 123,000 words.)
3. Sequel to "Pings and Pongs." Hint – it's already done! In fact, here's the kindle version. The print version should go online in a few days. It has the 25 best stories I've sold since 2012.
4. Have a Successful SF Convention Tour. I'm currently scheduled for nine science fiction conventions in 2016 where I'll be promoting my Campaign 2100 novel. I'll be doing readings, book signings, and panels. There'll also be a lot of online promotions.
5. Another Year of Blogging and Table Tennis Tips. It's not easy putting together a blog five times a week, but somehow I'll manage to keep it up. With one more year of weekly Tips, I'll be able to put together a sequel to Table Tennis Tips, which will be creatively titled More Table Tennis Tips.
6. Coaching at Big Tournaments. I consider tactical coaching my biggest strength, and so look forward to doing so at the big tournaments. I'm hoping to make it to at least ten major tournaments in 2016 – the U.S. Nationals, U.S. Open, the Teams, U.S. Team Trials, and at least six other 4-star tournaments.

Other Happenings
It's been a busy week, as always. Plus I'm rather tired right now. Since 4AM this morning I've received eleven phone calls from someone in Tunisia who only speaks French, which I don't speak. I keep asking why he's calling, but since he apparently doesn't speak English, we're not communicating – but he keeps calling back. I will likely have to look into how you block someone from calling you. (He's called five times while I wrote this blog. I just hit the "end call" icon each time.) He woke me up at 4AM and again at 6AM with his calls – I normally get up around 7AM.

I'm doing an hour of coaching at noon, and then I'm done until Sunday. I'll get a lot of reading done, and probably see a couple of movies. Plus I'm working on two new short science fiction stories, one about a super-being marooned in a contracting universe and about to get caught in the "Big Crunch," and another about Santa Claus reluctantly getting caught up in distributing guns to human rebels against alien conquerors. I'm also working on sequel to my upcoming SF novel (see above), but that's on hold for the moment. I sold a humorous story to Galaxy's Edge just a few days ago, "Penguins in Noah's Ark," which you can guess was about two penguin's journey from Antarctica to the Middle East in time for Noah's Ark. (It has Panthera atrox lions and saber tooth tigers and Arctotherium bears! And dinosaurs too! Sorry, no table tennis, though George W. Bush makes an appearance.)

Starting next week I have all sorts of group sessions starting up again – lots of programs, including the afterschool program (Mon-Fri), two junior classes, and an adult class.

Also next week – on Tuesday, USATT Historian Tim Boggan once again moves in with me for 12-14 days as we work on his History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17. (You read that right.) Here's the Tim Boggan Table Tennis page where you can learn about and order any of his first 16 volumes. (I created and maintain the page for him.) We generally work from 7AM to 2:30PM each day, then I'm off for the afterschool program at MDTTC and other coaching. During that time I have to do the blog at night, along with my other table tennis work.

Ringing in the New Year with the 2016 Butterfly NA Tour!
Here's the article. Here are the Four on the Tour:

• March 4-6, 2016 – Butterfly Arnold Table Tennis Challenge: A 4-star USA Table Tennis sanctioned tournament which is part of the 2016 Arnold Sports Festival. The 3-day tournament is hosted by Rockford Table Tennis Club and held at the Ohio Expo Center & State Fair, Voinovich Center on 717 E 17th Ave in Columbus, Ohio.
• March 31-April 3, 2016 – Butterfly Cary Cup Championships (Giant RR+): A 4-star USA Table Tennis sanctioned hosted by Triangle Table Tennis. The 4-day tournament takes place at Triangle Table Tennis, located at 2900 Perimeter Park Dr., Suite 200 in Morrisville, North Carolina.
• July 28-31, 2016 – USA Masters Games: The table tennis competition is an adult age group competition for ages 21 and above. The 4-star tournament takes place at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel, Guilford Ballroom, which is located at 3121 West Gate City Boulevard in Greensboro, North Carolina.
• September 16-18, 2016 – Butterfly Badger Open: A 4-star USA Table Tennis sanctioned tournament hosted by the Milwaukee Table Tennis Club.  The venue for this 3-day competition is the Milwaukee County Sports Complex located at 6000 W Ryan Rd in Franklin, Wisconsin.

Ma Long Multiball Training
Here's the new video (68 sec).

Zhang Jike Training 2015
Here's the new video (35:32).

2015 Year in Review
Here’s the new ITTF video (7:14).

Emotional Table Tennis 2015
Here's the new video (2:58). "Take a look back at the emotional moments of 2015!!!"

Best of 2015 Ask a Pro Anything
Here’s the new video (4:12) from Adam Bobrow. Some great stuff here!

Ma Long and Xu Xin Impromptu Exhibition
Here's the video (43 sec) – why not count just how many exhibition tricks they throw in?

Top 10 Table Tennis Trick Shots of 2015 from Pongfinity
Here's the new video (2:44).

Table Tennis Hall of Famer Dean Johnson versus The Pilot Newsroom
Here's the new video (60 sec).

Testing Plastic and Celluloid Balls by Fire
Here's the video (1:48).

Now Serving Ping-Pong
Here's the article and video (1:25) from The Scroll (Idaho).  

Taos Mesa Brewing Starts Weekly Pingpong Tourneys
Here's the article from The Tao News.

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.

Beetle Bailey Table Tennis
Here's a new one, dated May 29, but the year unknown. (Marv Anderson sent it to me.) I've been collecting the Beetle Bailey table tennis cartoons, and there are now 15 of them, all linked from this May 11, 2015 entry.

Dilbert Table Tennis
Here are six Dilbert cartoons that feature table tennis. I'm a huge Dilbert fan!

• November 22, 2015
• April 16, 2013
• June 13, 2007
• August 12, 1995
• January 6, 1992
• September 7, 1989 (Dilbert in Action!)

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Coaching Matches is Trickier Now
Coaching matches used to be easier. In most matches in the "old days" (twenty years ago?) there'd be a style conflict since the odds of two players with the same style playing was rather low. I mean, what were the odds of two players playing with the same style, such as, say, both being two-winged loopers? Sure, it happened sometimes, but there were a lot more common styles back in those days – hitters, counter-hitters, blockers, choppers, various types of pips-out, conventional penholders, Seemiller grip, and all sorts of forehand/backhand combinations.

All of these styles still exist, but it's a matter of degree – they used to be common. Now the matches I coach are mostly up-and-coming players who train regularly under top coaches, and so there are very few "old-fashioned" styles among them – they are nearly all two-winged loopers these days. The few that don't play that way are still usually inverted players who loop both sides, just not all the time.

With style conflicts, there are obvious tactics. There was the thrill of the clash of styles, such as when a looper met a hitter, or a one-winged forehand looper met a blocker. The tactics were more straightforward.

These days, since the large majority of the matches I coach are between standard two-winged loopers, coaching is a bit subtler. Both players tend to play the same, with the same serves, same surfaces, same strokes, and often the same strengths and weaknesses, with subtle differences in degree.

There's still diversity, but nothing like before. In the past it was like throwing a lion, a wolf, a bear, a giant anaconda, a crocodile, a rhinoceros, a shark, and a black widow spider into the quarterfinals, and they'd battle it out. Now it's more or less eight lions, all running around looping everything. The game is more athletic, but it's also more uniform.

As a side note, coaching matches was also easier when games were to 21 – lots more time to watch and decide what to say between games, and there were fewer games as well. (Most matches were best of three to 21, some big matches best of five.) Now you send your player out there, and you've only got it seems like three minutes before you do it again.

Ask the Coach Show

• Episode 205 (24:55) – PingSkills Yearly Membership Winner
• Episode 206 (23:30) – Ma Long or Fan Zhendong for Gold
• Episode 207 (21:59) – The forgotten art of pushing
• Episode 208 (25:29) – Table Tennis: The Dangerous Sport

New USATT Membership System Launches January 1st!
Here's the USATT article.

Tomokazu Harimoto Promising At 11 Years Old 
Here's the latest article on the Japanese prodigy. He's now ranked #223 in the world. At age 11. For perspective, the #1 ranked U.S. man is Timothy Wang, #278 in the world.

Top 5 Moments of 2015
Here's the new video (3:22).

Even the Best Make Mistakes
Here's video (35 sec, including slo-mo replay, and the following point) of world #4 Dimitrij Ovtcharov not just missing his serve, but hitting it off the edge of his racket so the ball goes directly to the opponent's side of the table – and it happens at 9-all in the first against world #1 Ma Long!

Table Tennis Training with Children with Down Syndrome
Here's the video (2:46).

Righty Penhold to Lefty Shakehand in One Second
Here's the video (24 sec, including slo-mo replay).

The Caw: Legends Todd Heap and Jonathan Ogden Playing Ping-Pong
Here's the article and picture of the two Baltimore Ravens.

The "Eye-Table"?
Here's the picture – we'll just call it the iTable. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Best Table Tennis Scene Ever?
Here's video (21 sec) of Maggy Q's intro scene from Balls of Fury.

Cat Plays Ping Pong!
Here's the video (42 sec) from 1951 – this cat really can play!

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Tip of the Week
You're Your Yore.

USA Nationals (and Hidden Serves, Alas)
It's been an incredibly busy two weeks – USATT board meetings, USA Nationals, USA Team Trials, 29.5 hours at San Francisco Airport (see segment below), Christmas in Eugene, and catching up on everything since I returned two days ago. Here are some highlights.

I flew to Las Vegas the morning of Saturday, Dec. 12. And then – I had the day off! Well, sort of. I ended up working on a new science fiction story I'd been planning. (That's what I do when I'm not doing TT.)

The USATT board meeting was noon – 7PM on Sunday, Dec. 13, and 9AM-1PM on Monday, Dec. 14. A quick rundown of the agenda: committee reports and discussions; SafeSport discussion; USOC update; High Performance discussion; lots of time on the budget; TV; USATT events; ratings; marketing and sponsorship; strategic initiatives; and the problem with hidden serves.

This last one – illegal hidden serves – would irritate me the rest of the week, and still does. [Begin Hidden Serve Rant – skip ahead if not interested.] As I've blogged about many times with lots of video and pictures, cheating is rampant in our sport, with the large majority of major titles decided by illegal hidden serves, with the key factor in most matches whether the umpire will enforce the rules. Our sport rewards those who cheat and punishes those who do not. After some discussion the night before, where board members seemed favorable to resolving the problem, it was suggested I make a motion that the board wishes these rules to be followed. So I made the following motion, assuming it would be a no-brainer that'd pass unanimously:

"It has come to the attention of the USATT Board of Directors that illegal hidden serves are being allowed, and that when umpires are not sure about the legality of a serve they often do not call them. This is unfair to their opponents. The Board would like to see the rules enforced as they are written."

Once this was passed, we could then use it to encourage referees and umpires to enforce the rules. Specifically, we'd approach the referees of future U.S. Nationals and Opens and ask if they would abide by the board's direction. Except . . . the motion lost by a vote of 1-6-1!!! I was the only one who voted for it. I'll wait until the minutes go up on this to blog more about this, but just think about this for a few minutes. It's mindboggling. As one wit emailed me about it, the motion might as well have been this:

"It has been brought to the attention of the USATT Board of Directors that illegal hidden serves are being allowed. A majority of the Board encourages this, and would like umpires to continue to ignore the rules as they are written."

I wrote a long email to the board over this travesty. At some point I'll likely post it here. (This definitely has dampened my enthusiasm for USATT.) Meanwhile, as predicted, match after match was won or lost by illegal serves. I watched two top cadets play, where one hid his serve over and over in the first match, and easily won as his honest opponent struggled with his illegal serves. The second time they played an umpire warned both that he would be enforcing the service rule, and so both cadets served legally – and this time the other cadet won easily. (And guess what? Before the match, to encourage that umpire to enforce the rules, I showed him printouts of the opposing cadet illegally hiding his serve. It worked, as it should. However, in most cases, it doesn't work.)

Or just watch this women's singles quarterfinal match between 13-year-old prodigy Crystal Wang and Wang Chen (video starts halfway through game two), where the latter hid nearly every serve the entire match, but was not called for it a single time. Crystal led 3-2 in games and was two points away from winning at 9-7 when Wang Chen served these two hidden serves, and Crystal puts one in the net, and weakly returns the other. The problem here is that some would think this is an isolated incident. Pick any random point in the match, even at the very start (here's Wang Chen's first serve in the video), and you'll see the same hidden serves.

Most top players these days hide the ball with their head by throwing the ball backwards and thrusting their head forward at the last second, contacting the ball behind the head (but often following the ball down below their heads to make it appear the contact was under the head), but Wang Chen is old school, blatantly and illegally leaving the non-playing arm out in front, despite the rule that says, "As soon as the ball has been projected, the server’s free arm and hand shall be removed from the space between the ball and the net." This is so blatant that most umpires will call it, which is why fewer players do it, but this time around I didn't see it called a single time. The rules also say that hiding the ball during the serve is illegal, and that it is the responsibility of the player to serve so the umpire can see the serve is legal, and that the umpire is supposed to call any serve where he's not "sure" the serve is legal (i.e. the ball visible throughout the serve). But the rules were not followed, and so the match was decided by this. Enforce the rules, and Crystal wins for sure. Who wants to explain to her why her opponent was allowed to break the rules?

I don't mean to pick on Wang Chen since nearly every top player was hiding their serve, either on their own, or in reaction to opponents being allowed to do so by the umpires – otherwise, they couldn't compete fairly. (But I can't show videos of illegal serves without picking one.) Whoever does it first is cheating, but I don't blame those who do it in reaction to the umpire allowing an opponent to do so. At that point, they are no longer playing by the rules of table tennis, at least in regard to the hidden service rules. Whoever hides his serve first is doing so to gain an illegal advantage, and that is cheating. Whoever does it in response to the opponent doing so is not gaining an illegal advantage, but is simply evening the playing field since the umpire isn't enforcing the rules, and so I don't consider that cheating.

While changing the rules will help, the culture also needs to change. Our current culture of cheating will continue until we change the culture, and that has to come from the top – but at the moment, those at the top don't seem interested in changing the culture. They have forgotten the U.S. Olympic Oath (bolds below are mine), which is for all athletes in Olympic sports, including ours:

"In the name of all competitors I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams." 

We've fallen a long way from this. [End Hidden Serve Rant.]

The Nationals itself started Monday morning. The tournament ran smoothly on 126 tables with 771 players. Here are the results.

But perhaps more interesting than the tournament itself on Monday was what was happening at the Westgate Hotel, where many stayed. As I walked to the playing hall I couldn't help but notice about a thousand people mostly wearing "Trump" shirts – it turns out Donald Trump was having an election event there that night, and people were going crazy!!! I spent some time watching – not Trump, who I never saw (and presumably would arrive later that day), but the actual Trump supporters. What was going through their minds that they would support Trump? I could write a lot about what might happen if such an egotistical bombastic sociopath were elected president – what could possibly go wrong? – but I won't.

On Tuesday night we had the USATT Assembly, where a somewhat small but animated group discussed USATT issues. On Thursday night we had the Hall of Fame induction banquet, where Jack Huang (from my club!), Eric Owens, Tahl Leibovitz, Wang Chen, and Dean Johnson were inducted, and Si Wasserman was awarded the Mark Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award. I think five inductees (six if you include Wasserman) is a record – most years it's two or three.

This year I entered more events than usual, since I'm primarily a coach. I was in five events, and made the semifinals or quarterfinals of all five:

• Hardbat Doubles with Ty Hoff: Semifinals (I've won this event 13 times, 9 times with Ty)
• Hardbat Over 40: Quarterfinals (I've won this event four times)
• Sandpaper Singles: Semifinals
• World Ping-Pong Trials (Sandpaper): Quarterfinals
• Over 50 Men's Doubles with Ty Hoff (sponge): Quarterfinals (where we lost in five to the top seeds)

I was also entered in Hardbat Singles, which I've won twice, but had to drop out to run the National League Finals (also called the Club Championships). My arm, left knee, and back were all hurting, and so it might have been for the best.

I did less coaching at this Nationals than at any Nationals probably in the last 25 years – we now have seven full-time coaches at MDTTC, and they were all here coaching away. I spent some of my nights doing video analysis for our players, often messaging them bullet points on their upcoming opponents. I wish I could write more about this, but it's top secret! I tend to do a lot of advance scouting of opponents, either live, by watching videos, or asking around. For example, in the semifinals of the minicadet boys, we faced a player that neither I nor our player had seen before. So I asked around, and ended up with a pretty good scouting report – and it helped as our player (Ryan Dabbs, rated 2175 to the opponent's 2262) pulled off a nice 3-0 upset to make the final and make the USA National Minicadet Boys' Team. Derek Nie, also from my club, also made the Cadet National Boys' Team, also finishing second.

After the Nationals was the USA Team Trials. And then I was off to Eugene for Christmas with family – but first I had to get through San Francisco Airport….

29 and a Half Hours at San Francisco Airport
Shortly after lunch on Monday, Dec. 21, right after the USA Nationals, I went to the Las Vegas airport. I flew to San Francisco Airport, and was supposed to transfer to another flight to Eugene, OR, where I'd spend Christmas with family. Instead, my flight was postponed over and over, and finally cancelled at around 1AM. I ended up spending over ten hours at SF airport that day before taking a shuttle to a hotel, arriving around 2AM. It was pouring rain outside, and the shuttle shelter was jammed with others from the cancelled flight, and so I ended up standing outside in the freezing rain for 25 minutes, and so was soaking wet and frozen cold on the shuttle ride. Since the cancellation was "an act of God" (technically, an "air traffic controller problem," whatever that is), United wouldn't pay for it, so I had to pay $113 for the room. The earliest flight available was 5:57PM the following night. The hotel let me stay there until 1PM, then I took the shuttle back to the airport. Then that flight was delayed over and over – nine times to be exact, before finally taking off at 8:15PM. I ended up spending twenty-nine and a half hours at San Francisco Airport (including time at hotel). Isn't table tennis fun? 

Amazingly, this wasn't nearly as bad as my experience at San Francisco Airport last year – see the seventh segment in my blog one year ago, "My Seven Years at San Francisco Airport." I don't think I'll ever go through that airport again.

The Power of Practice
Here’s the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis.

Coaching Articles from Coach Jon
Here are two new ones.

• Twiddle Me This…The Table Tennis Twiddler
• Table Tennis Muscles

Articles from Samson Dubina

• Interview with Samson with Pong Talk with the Stars
• Team Spirit – the Alguettis
• The Details of Pushing

How To Do A Backspin Serve - Part 2
Here’s the video (2:28) by Eli Baraty. Here’s Part 1 (1:25), which I previously linked to.

Podcast with Nick Ryder: Making a Comeback After 20 Years
Here's the podcast (36:41) from Expert Table Tennis. In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Nick first started playing table tennis back in the 80s.
• Why he decided to quit playing as a junior.
• What he learnt from training with future England star Mike O’Driscoll.
• Why he chose to make a comeback to the sport in 2012.
• How he has consistently improved his level over the last three years.
• The types of training and drills he’s implemented.
• What his goals are for the next couple of years, and beyond.
• TOP TIP: Develop a special serve to win you cheap points.

TableTennisDaily Podcast #4 - Par Gerell
Here’s the podcast (36:42).

USATT News Items
Since I've been away two weeks there's an accumulation of USATT news items – so why not browse over them?

National Collegiate Table Tennis December Newsletter
Here it is.

Ma Long Becomes Most Successful World Tour Grand Finals Player Ever
Here’s the ITTF press release.

Ding Ning in Slow Motion
Here’s the video (1:56) of the reigning world women’s champion.

Ma Long Chop Block
Here’s the video (5:17). I have students who insist that “nobody” does this! (I do it all the time, to their chagrin.)

Zhang Jike: Topspin and Flick Backhand
Here’s the video (9 sec).

Vladimir Samsonov Serve Practice - World Tour Grand Finals 2015
Here’s the video (4:14).

Top 10 Table Tennis Points of 2015
Here’s the video (8:39).

Table Tennis - Best of 2015
Here’s the new highlights video (9:35).

Table Tennis Target Practice for Prizes
Here's the video (78 sec). I do this type of thing somewhat regularly in my group sessions, usually with bunches of candy.

Super Sidespin Power Lob
Here’s the video (8 sec) of this lob by Adam Bobrow.

Santa vs. Reindeer Table Tennis Cartoon
Here’s the cartoon!

***
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Last Blog Until Dec. 29
Tomorrow morning I'm off to Las Vegas for USATT board meetings (and other meetings), the USA Nationals (Dec. 14-19), the USA Team Trials (Dec. 20-21), and then off to Eugene, Oregon for Christmas with family (Dec. 21-26). I return on Dec. 27, just in time for the MDTTC Christmas Camp, Dec. 26-31, missing the first day. (I blogged about all this on Wednesday.) So this will be my last blog until I return – see you then! (I originally said I'd be blogging again on Monday, Dec. 28, but I needed an extra day to catch up on things.) 

Meanwhile, the holidays are a time to think about giving, so why not consider giving to the sport? Not money – why not run a State Championship? A Regional Team League? Set up a Regional Association?

Tip of the Week
Fast, Quick Motions Disguise a No-Spin Serve. (These tips normally go up on Mondays, but I'm putting this one up early since I'm going out of town tomorrow for two weeks.)

USA Nationals
My pickup to the airport for the USA Nationals is at 5:10 AM Saturday. As usual, I'll likely just stay up all night on something, and sleep on the flight. I arrive in Las Vegas at about 10:30AM (helped by the three-hour time difference – it'll be 1:30PM here in Maryland). There are 774 players entered, and probably an equal number of family, coaches, and staff, so there'll probably be 1500 people there.

Here's the USA Nationals home page. It has an event listing, links to news articles, and other links. But probably the most important one is the link to the Online Event Info. From there you can see the Entries by Name, Entries by Event, and Results. The latter (which is not yet active – it currently asks for a password, but I believe that will change) will soon will have the draws themselves, and then the results of every round of every event.

So what does one do at the USA Nationals in Las Vegas? Let's see…

1. Play. There are 94 events. (List as on the USA Nationals home page.)
2. Spectate. Nearly every top USA player in the country will be there.
3. Shop. There'll be lots and lots of equipment booths.
4. Special events. Such as:

•   USATT Board Meeting (Sunday & Monday). They will be meeting most of Sunday and Monday morning. (I'll be there.) I believe the meeting room is at the playing hall, and except for a few rare "executive sessions," is open for USATT members to attend. Perhaps stop by to see an agenda and come back when they are discussing something of interest to you.
• USA World Ping Pong Qualifier (sandpaper trials - Monday 8AM. I'm in this, but might have to drop out since it'll conflict with the USATT Board Meeting.) Here's info.
• USATT Assembly (Tuesday 7PM. Refreshments, and you get to meet and ask questions of USATT leaders. I'll be there.)
• USATT Hall of Fame Banquet (Thursday 7PM. Here's info. Here's the USATT Hall of Fame page.)
• World Team Trials (Sunday & Monday, Dec. 20-21)  

1. Say hi to friends.
2. Eat. They have some nice buffets.
3. There are rumors of other entertainment available in Las Vegas, but in the nearly 40 years I've been going there for the Nationals I wouldn't know as all I ever see are the hotel and playing hall. Does Las Vegas even exist???

I'll be pretty busy at the Nationals: attending meetings, coaching Maryland players, and playing in five events. I'm normally a sponge player – and that's what I use when I coach – but I'm retired from tournament sponge play, and so at the Nationals and Open, when I'm not coaching, I play in hardbat (and now sandpaper) events. I'm in Hardbat Singles (2-time national champion), Over 40 Hardbat (4-time champion), Hardbat Doubles with Ty Hoff (13-time champion, 9 times with Ty), Sandpaper Singles, and the World Ping-Pong Trials (sandpaper).

My table tennis books will be on sale at the Butterfly booth, and they are scheduling an autograph session, so stop by. If you buy a book and I'm not there, have Butterfly call me – they should have my number – and if I'm free I'll come over to sign it. Books of mine that will be on sale there will be Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers; Table Tennis Tips; Table Tennis Tales & Techniques; Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook; and The Spirit of Pong.

Why is Grip Pressure So Important?
Here's the new coaching article by Max Costantini.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #204 (26:11) - 2015 ITTF Star Awards (and other segments). Also, here's their new promotional video (67 sec).

ITTF World Tour Grand Finals
Here's the ITTF home page for the event, running Dec. 10-13 in Lisbon, Portugal. You can watch the matches live.

2014 Decider Kicks off 2015 World Tour Grand Finals
Here's the ITTF press release.

Podcast with Billy Shilton: Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Dreams
Here's the new podcast (49:43) from Expert Table Tennis. In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Billy got started playing table tennis just four years ago.
• About Billy’s disability and how it impacts his table tennis.
• Tips for improving your dynamic balance.
• What a typical day is like for Billy at the national training centre.
• How he manages to juggle both table tennis and college work.
• The effect that a confidence boost has had on Billy’s performances.
• Why Billy is now a class 8 athlete (he was in class 7 until a couple of months ago).
• What Billy learnt from his time in China.
• TOP TIP: Why quality is so important in your training.
• About Billy’s younger brother Stan who is crushing it in the England U13s.
• What’s next for Billy Shilton.

USA Table Tennis Christmas Shopping
Why not visit the USATT online store and buy some USATT merchandize?

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.

Some Great Counterlooping
Here's the video (21 sec) of the point between Kalinikos Kreanga (GRE, far side) and Grigory Vlasov (RUS).

Incredible Point between Ovtcharov and Mizutani
Here's the video (66 sec, including replay from different angles).

Double Falling Down Doubles Pong
Here's the video (41 sec, including slo-mo replay).

Jean-Michel Saive on Some Sort of Game Show?
Here's the video (56 sec) – they seem to be having a good time!

2014 Tai Ben Invitational CHUANG Chih Yuan vs Jean-Michel Saive
Here's some exhibition play (81 sec) from these two. I once did something similar while playing a match with David Zhuang, and the umpire went crazy, yellow-carding us both.

Scrambled Egg Pong? Seriously?
Here's the picture! They're making a complete yoke of our sport! But I think drop shots might be a good tactic.

Santa Claus Plays Table Tennis
These come up when you Google "Santa Claus table tennis pictures." Make sure to hum, "Santa Pong is coming to town!" as you look at these.

• Santa vs. Reindeer
• Santa vs. Elf
• Santa vs. Santa
• Santa vs. Ginger Rogers
• Santa and Alice Cooper play doubles
• Santa Forehand
• Santa Pong Pillow
• Santa Table Tennis Balls and Rackets

Non-Table Tennis: Political Campaign SF – a New Sub-Genre?
Here's my new science fiction blog entry. But as I've blogged before, the novel actually has a lot of table tennis!

***
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Total Ban on Chinese Players
When the U.S. Team lost at the World Championships, thousands of Chinese players cheered from the rooftops in New Jersey. I know; I saw it on television, and all those journalists who have refuted this are third-rate losers. Our country cannot be the victims of incredible play by players that believe in constant training and have no sense of living a normal American life of McDonalds and Dancing with the Stars. It's going to get worse and worse.

And so I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of Chinese table tennis players entering the United States until USATT can figure out what is going on.

To keep the top Chinese players out, USATT will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than USATT, believe me. We will build a great, great wall around our country, and we will make China pay for that wall. Mark my words.

This does not apply to Chinese players already living in America, except we have to be vigilant. Many of them would like to force innocent Americans to live under their table tennis laws, forcing children to train eight hours a day plus physical training, with no TV or video games. If you see a Chinese player trying to force innocent Americans to train really hard, call the authorities, and don't worry about political correctness; I'll protect you. I am a strong leader.

Even though Chinese players dominate against Americans, when China sends its players here, they're not sending their best. They're sending players that have lots of weaknesses in their games, and they're bringing those weaknesses to American. They're bringing bad technique, they're bringing bad footwork, they're bringing bad mental training, and some, I assume, are good players. The concept of training hard was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. players tired. They are worse than Voldemort.

Believe me on this, because I have a really high IQ. To beat the Chinese you need the author of Table Tennis Tactics for Bombastic, Egotistical Blowhards. I'm the best table tennis player in this country. Look at my forehand!

We will make USATT great again. It's going to be trumping fabulous.

How to Do a Backhand Drive
Here's the new coaching article and video (1:08) from Coach Eli Baraty of the Harefield Academy in the UK.

Ma Long's Instructional
Here's the new video (56:32), with subtitles.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #203 (20:13) - Ma Long's Reverse Backhand Serve (and other segments).

New Coach: China Works the Hardest
Here's the article and multiball video (15 sec). Here's another article featuring new coach Wang Qiaozhi, "Chinese Players Are Obedient in Training."

Ma Long & Liu Shiwen Are the 2015 Male & Female Table Tennis Stars
Here's the ITTF press release.

Slo-mo Pongers
Here's the video (3:49).

Passionately Pink Pong
This is a Social Ping Pong Event to Benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation, to be held during the USA Nationals, on Friday, Dec. 18, from 7-11PM. Here's ticket info. I expect to be there.

Team USA Training at Las Vegas TTC Before Nationals
Here's the video (4:43).

MDTTC is #2!!!
In Butterfly USA sales. Here's the listing – note that #1, the WAB Shop, is Canadian, and so doesn't count. Curse you, Lily Yip!!!

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

***
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Busy
Things are about to get busy for me – or more specifically, go from the usual busy to lip-smacking, hyper-driven sheer non-stopiness as the work piles on. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, "If you need something done, ask a busy person." Thanks a lot, Ben. Here's my upcoming schedule – mostly table tennis, but with a little (lot of) SF at the start.

• Copy edits on "Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions." This is my new science fiction novel, coming out in late January. The editor just sent me the copy edits, and I now have to go through them, one by one, and approving or not approving each change. This'll likely take up much of the next few days. Meanwhile, I have to find time to do laundry, go to bank, get a haircut, get a flu shot, and visit Best Buy to find out why my Kaspersky Internet Security refuses to renew.
• USATT programs. Regional Leagues, State Championships, Regional Associations. When I ran for the USATT Board of Directors, I promised to work on these and other issues, and it's a lot of work. Is it too late for me to change my mind? (Just kidding!) Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg – things come up pretty regularly in my three USATT positions – board member, chair of league committee, and regional associations coordinator. What was I thinking???
• Las Vegas and Eugene. I leave Saturday morning (Dec. 12) for the USATT Board meeting (Sun & Mon, Dec. 13-14), the USA Nationals (Mon-Sat, Dec. 14-19), the USA Team Trials (Sun & Mon, Dec. 20-21), and Christmas with family in Eugene, OR (Mon-Sat, Dec. 21-26). Here's a breakdown.
• USATT Board Meeting. It's all day Sunday and half of Monday, Dec. 13-14. I haven't seen the final agenda yet, but I'll be giving a presentation on my activities (see USATT programs above), plus there'll be lots of stuff on the budget, national team, and other fascinating issues. I'll blog about that later on. I also had to put together a USATT report on my activities, which I'll use for the presentation.
• USA Nationals. They are Mon-Sat, Dec. 14-19. I'm mostly coaching, but I'm also in three hardbat and one sandpaper event, plus a bunch of meetings. Here's the USA National home page.
• Other Las Vegas Events. I'm entered in the World Championships of Ping Pong Trials on Monday morning (sandpaper – here's the entry form), but will likely have to drop that because of the USATT Board meeting. On Tuesday at 7PM is the USATT Assembly, where USATT leaders and members get together and talk table tennis, with refreshments. On Thursday at 7PM is the Hall of Fame Banquet. (I was inducted in 2003.) On Saturday morning and afternoon are the USATT League Finals. I'm scheduled to play hardbat singles that morning, but if I can't find a volunteer to help run them, then I'll have to default out to do so.
• USA Team Trials. They are on Sun & Mon, Dec. 20-21. I'll both be coaching and watching. Here's info.
• Christmas in Eugene. We'll be gathering in my dad's house, Mon-Sat, Dec. 21-26. I've already mailed off several boxes full of presents. We'll be doing our annual jigsaw puzzle, play Settlers of Catan, and see Star Wars 7 (I'm hyperventilating) on Christmas Day.
• Christmas Camp. From Dec. 26-31 is our annual Christmas camp at MDTTC, which we've done since 1992.
• Tim's History Volume 17. On Jan. 5, USATT Historian Tim Boggan moves in with me for another 10-14 days as we do the page layouts of his next volume. Here's info on all his History of U.S. Table Tennis books.
• Book Launch. From Jan. 21-24 I'll be in Novi, Michigan, for the Confusion Science Fiction Convention where they'll be doing the launch of my science fiction novel – see above.
• Blogging, every morning, Mon-Fri. I will take a break during the Nationals and Christmas holidays. Besides this table tennis blog I also do a weekly science fiction blog on Monday mornings, the same morning I do the weekly table tennis tip here.
• Coaching & Tutoring. The usual private and group coaching, about 20 hours a week. Recently a couple of students have missed a lot, due to injuries and school, so it's been a bit lighter than usual, but that's temporary. I also do a lot of afterschool tutoring.
• Weight. Meanwhile, since Oct. 1 I've gone from 196lbs to 179lbs. I've been living on soup. I actually got to 182 pretty quickly; the last three pounds were a struggle.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #202 (27:24) - How Important Is Luck? (and other segments).

Joo Saehyuk and the Rebirth of Defensive Play
Here's the article from Butterfly, with link to video.

Adrien Mattenet - Big Backhand [Bundesliga 2015 - 2016]
Here's the video (32 sec, including slo-mo replay).

Super Defense
Here's the video (35 sec, including slo-mo replay), as the chopper returns some rips, including a spin-around return.

Old Ping - Johnny Leach & Others
Here's the video (8:35) of some vintage pong.

California State Open
Here are the results, and here are pictures by Long Nguyen.

How to Make Ping Pong Ball Lights
Here's the article, with pictures illustrating each step.

iPhone Pong by Michael Maze
Here's the video (28 sec). I do this in my junior classes all the time!

Toddler on Table Pong
Here's the video (41 sec) – pretty impressive! Imagine when he stands up…

The Origins and Importance of Table Tennis
Here's the Norwegian video (36:41) on this. It's mostly in Norwegian, alas. Here's what table tennis historian and author Steve Grant wrote about it:

Table Tennis was Part 7 this week of a funny and educational 8-part weekly series by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation on the origins and importance of 8 different sports. Based partly on my book Ping Pong Fever---the Madness That Swept 1902 America, this episode opens with an attempted fratricide-by-racket on the host's lifetime rival. Later highlights include a spit-take by Mr. Jaques, head of the eponymous 200-year-old British sporting goods firm that first popularized table tennis; a ping-pong-curious squirrel; filming at Bounce, the ping pong social club that is the London counterpart of New York City's Spin club; and a reenactment of the moment of my discovery of the game's inventor. Lowlights include a treatise on Virginia Woolf simply because she later lived in the same house as the inventor (a segment that the show's producer mercifully ends with a phone call demanding a return to the show's subject) and a table tennis demo by the director of the Nobel Prize Institute simply because he is a Cold War historian living in Norway who had things to say about Ping Pong Diplomacy. Some parts are in English, but for a Norwegian transcript that you can translate into any garbled language using an online translator, click on "Teksting" under the video.

Justin Bieber Gets Golden Ping-Pong Paddle to Celebrate His Success on Spotify
So table tennis has finally made it.

Ping-Pong on His Mind?
Here's the picture! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Flying Pong
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane . . .  no, it's just four ping-pong players. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Ape Over Table Tennis
Here's the picture!

***
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Regional Team Leagues
By Larry Hodges, USATT League Chair
(NOTE - The following is a USATT news item that went up this morning. Note the links to the new USATT League Page and the USATT Regional Team League Prototype. This league initiative, along with the Regional Associations initiative, the State Championships initiative, and a coaching/training center initiative I hope to do next year, are designed to help jump-start USA Table Tennis to the next level – but it's going to take years, so perhaps "jump-start" isn't the right word.)

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

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

But someone has to start up these leagues. Until now anyone wanting to create such a league has to start from scratch, a huge problem. What was needed was a prototype regional team league that can spread nationwide. And so here it is – a USATT Regional Team League Prototype. (It is also linked from the newly updated USATT League Page.)

There's little in it that is set in stone - it's in Word format so you can make changes. Use it as your starting basis, and go from there. It's based on successful leagues in the U.S., such as the Capital Area League and the LA League.

But first we need people in each region willing to take charge and start up these leagues. It can be a single person or a group. Or a single person can put together such a group, as I did for the Capital Area League, and then step back as others take charge. (And we owe a big thanks to there to Stefano Ratti, Mike Levene, John Olsen, and Richard Heo.)

Playing table tennis in a team league is almost a foreign idea to U.S. players. Most U.S. leagues are singles. That's fine for a club league, but if you want it to spread and get huge numbers, you need team leagues, where players represent their club in various divisions, based on level. This is how it's done not only in successful table tennis countries, but nearly all other successful sports, as noted above. I've even played in tennis leagues - I was part of a six-man team - and it was all run by volunteers. And that's how they got 700,000 members. (A key is to have regional team leagues where everyone in the league is in easy driving distance. In general leagues should cover an area no more than perhaps an hour drive across, preferably less.) A typical league would have multiple divisions, from beginning to elite.

Keep in mind that tennis having more members than table tennis, as it does in the U.S., is not the norm - we have to get away from that type of thinking, which has been indoctrinated into us along with an inferiority complex to tennis and other sports. All over Europe table tennis memberships are higher than tennis - though both table tennis and tennis memberships there dwarf USA Table Tennis membership. Table Tennis is often called the #2 participation sport in the world, and some surveys show this, but whether we're actually #2 or merely #3, we're near the top of the list, along with soccer, basketball, and volleyball. (Here's a typical listing, which has us at #3.)

There's also the National League Finals, held at the U.S. Nationals each year, where the winners of the major team leagues play single elimination to determine the National Champion!

Here's our current listing of team leagues - please email us if you have information on others.

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

So, are you interested in a Team League in your region? Then go over the League Prototype, and start up your own league. If you have questions, email me. Together we can create a national network of such leagues.

I'll Be Haunting You
Here's the truly haunting new table tennis music video (2:49) starring Adoni Maropis and Carlos Ortega.

A New Way to Teach Table Tennis
Here's the new coaching article by ICC Massimo Costantini. And I've been harping for years on the importance of beginners getting the grip right, and doing the "grab" test (where I grab the racket out of their hand, and if it doesn't come out, the grip is too tight).

How to Strengthen Your Middle
Here are eight tips from Samson Dubina on how he learned to cover his middle (and go from 2400 to 2550), along with a "Rocky" table tennis training video (2:34), on his Olympic funding page.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #201 (25:14) - Expressing Excitement To Play Better

Work and Play: Ping Pong at Work
Here's the new article from Coach Jon.

International Teams Thrill Participants and Spectators at 2015 Butterfly Thanksgiving Teams
Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

Ping Pong the Animation
You can get this Japanese table tennis anime series at Amazon in Blu-ray (11 episodes, 270 min), or you can get them free online in lower quality. I blogged about this once before, but one of the players in my training group, Chris Buckley, just bought the set and showed me. He described it as, "Ping Pong the Animation is an award winning Japanese anime series that is a coming of age story of top high school players.  The wonderful characterization of even the minor characters has gathered a lot of attention for the director, Masaaki Yuasa."

SONG Chen - SAIVE Jean Michel | SUPER DIVISION 2015-2016
Here's the new video (5:31). Saive may be retiring, but the former world #1 can still play!

Around the Net Compilation
Here's the video (2:25).

Adam Bobrow's New Chopping Blade
Here's the new video (60 sec) as he chops with this new blade. After all . . . isn't that what you are supposed to do with a blade?

The Ultimate Ping-Pong Head Smack
Here's the video (17 sec, including slo-mo replay)!

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Tip of the Week
Use Simple No-Spin Serves in Doubles.

Importance of No-Spin Serves
We'll call today the "No Spin Zone," since it's featured in the Tip of the Week, here in the blog, and in a link to another Tip of the Week below.

I've been surprised several times by players, even relatively advanced ones, who don't really know how to do a no-spin serve. Now obviously any player can serve no-spin by just patting the ball over the net, but what surprises me is how many can serve backspin over and over, but cannot execute a no-spin serve with the same motion. By having this combination, receivers can't just mindlessly push every serve back - if they do, the no-spin serves will pop up.

To execute a no-spin serve that looks like backspin, imagine doing a normal backspin serve, where you graze the ball toward the tip of the racket (the part of the racket that's moving fastest as it rotates around the wrist). Now contact the ball closer to the handle without as much grazing motion. Use the same follow-through or even exaggerated it - you have to sell it as a backspin serve. Result? The receiver likely will read it as backspin and pop it up.

Even if they read it correctly and chop down on the ball to keep the push low, it'll come out with less backspin than if they pushed against your backspin serve. When pushing against backspin, the backspin rebounds out as backspin as the ball changes rotation. There doesn't happen against a no-spin serve, and so the ball has less backspin. Also, a short backspin serve is easier to drop short than a short no-spin serve, since the backspin makes the ball die off your racket. 

The main problem with a non-spin is that it often is easier to attack. But that's mostly because players don't keep the serve low to the net. A non-spin serve that is very low is actually tough to attack, and when it is attacked, it's often done so weakly. Also, once a player is used to a no-spin serve, you can't really vary it - no-spin is no-spin, while you can vary backspin from light to heavy. Some players even hold back on their heaviest backspin serves, pulling them out at key times, with opponent predictably putting them into the net. 

As you play better players, you might need to serve both your backspin and no-spin serves short, i.e. if given the chance the ball would bounce twice. At the higher levels, many players base their games around mixing up short backspin and no-spin serves. 

Here's what I usually advise players - and these are guidelines, not rules. When serving short backspin, be ready for a deep backspin push, and if you get it, loop from either side, and focus on both spin and speed. When serving short no-spin, be ready for slightly high returns, pushes with less backspin, and weak attacks, and be ready to end the point against these. (Here's my Tip of the Week from 2012, "Those Dizzying No-Spin Serves.")

Playing with Purpose Early in the Point
Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao.

Challenge: Learn how to take down the top dog!
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #200 (31:39) - Competition Time (and other segments)

World Junior Championships
They finished yesterday in Vendée, FRA, Nov. 29 - Dec. 6. As noted last week, the USA Junior Girls Team got the bronze! Here are some links.

• ITTF World Junior Championship page, with complete results, articles, video, and lots more.
• USATT World Junior Championships page, with USA results, articles, and lots of video of Team USA.
• Here's news from Butterfly.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 16, Chapter 20
Another chapter is online! Why not buy your own set of these incredible histories?

Club Pride on Display at 2015 Butterfly Thanksgiving Teams Tournament
Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

11 Questions with Fede Bassetti
Here's the USATT Interview with the USATT Coaching Chair.

Interview with Rajat Hubli
Here's the USATT interview by Rahul Acharya with the Indian star now living in the U.S.

Tribute to Jean-Michel Saive
Here's the ITTF video (7:19) on the retiring star.

Top Players in Training!

• Jun Mizutani (2:45)
• Michael Maze (1:37)
• Ma Long (2:11)
• Xu Xin (2:28)

Incredible Drop Shot
Here's the video (26 sec, including slow motion replay).

Five TT Players Go Sledding
Here's a new JibJab production (67 sec) by Jimmy Butler. Can you name all five players?

Chinese Table Tennis Comedy?
Here's the video (2:03) of some sort of table tennis comedy, but I have no idea what's going on. The table tennis scene is the first 53 seconds, and then they go to what looks like a car dealership.

First a Plastic Ball, Now a Plastic Table?
Here's the picture of the Lego table!

Having a Ball
He has ten reasons to be happy.

Stick Pong
Here's the picture!

Non-Table Tennis - Odyssey and Odyssey Online Workshop
Here's my weekly Science Fiction Blog, where I talk about the Odyssey Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Workshop.

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