JOOLA North American Teams
They were held this past weekend, Fri-Sun, at the Gaylord Convention Center at National Harbor in Washington DC, about 45 minutes south of me and my club, MDTTC. This was my 40th year at the Teams – first in Detroit (1976-1997), then Baltimore (1998-2012), and now DC (2013-present). I used to play in it every year, but since 2007 I've been there as a coach, other than playing a few matches in 2012.
There were 711 players on 181 teams, with 138 tables. Here are complete results – every single match! The lighting and floors were a level better than the erratic lighting and sometimes slippery floors in Baltimore – a major improvement. Over $20,000 was given out in prize money, including $10,000 to the first-place team, AITTA 1 (Timothy Wang, Feng Yijun, Cai Wei, and Wu Yi), with $4000 going to runner-up Team JOOLA (Quadri Aruna, Li Kewei, and Joerg Rosskopf). It was well-run and on time - another superhuman effort by Richard Lee, John Miller, and the rest of NATT. I only wish I could have attended both this one and the competing Butterfly Teams in Philadelphia, 140 miles away – by all accounts, it too was well-run and on time.
Since I was coaching an MDTTC junior team, I didn't get to see too many of the big matches. When I was free I mostly watched or coached other MDTTC players. However, I did get to see several of world #50 Quadri Aruna's matches. He was the highest ranked player in the tournament but didn't seem at his best, losing both his matches in the final. From what I saw, he was playing too soft, too quick to back up to fish and lob. I don't think he meant to do this as he seemed to start rallies aggressively. It was only when the opponent played aggressively that he would quickly get soft rather than go for more difficult world-class shots, i.e. the ones that made him a world-class player. Since he's so good at fishing and lobbing, he's competitive even when he backs up and plays soft, he just doesn't dominate as he would if he played more aggressively.
I watched one of our top MDTTC players lose a close match against a very strong player after leading much of the match by playing aggressively. But under pressure, like Aruna, he got soft, but in a different way. He was winning by driving the ball deep on the table, but as the match went on he began to play his opening attacks a bit softer and spinnier, but more importantly, not as deep – and his opponent jumped all over them with backhand smashes and forehand off-the-bounce counterloops. Unless your opponent is already backed up, it's important to attack deep on the table.
One thing I saw, and am seeing more and more of, from roughly the 2300 to 2700 level, is deep serves. I think this is because of the banana backhand flip. By serving deep they force the receiver to react to more variations and so can't just stand there and flip all the short serves. Servers are serving at three depths – short, half-long (so second bounce is right about the end-line, often barely off), and very long breaking serves or fast & flat.
Most years I've coached a specific top player throughout the tournament, but this year was different as I coached one of MDTTC's junior teams all day for three days – five kids, ages 7-9. All are pretty serious players who train regularly with MDTTC coaches. All of them attended my junior training group sessions for 6-12 months, and I've done private coaching with most of them. Two of them were from the HW Global Foundation's Talent Development Program, which trains at MDTTC, with the others possibly joining next year.
Because of the ages of the players, coaching was a bit more psychological than usual – dealing with tears was as important as dealing with the opponent's serve. I kept the coaching simple, mostly on what serves to use and where to place the ball.
One player on the team, age seven, had an incredible tournament, winning nine matches, including a win over a 1454 player. He'll for certain come out the highest rated under eight player in the U.S. (He might not be listed as such in the USATT ratings at first. There's a current database problem I've alerted USATT about that shows a number of players with incorrect ages. According to the database, we have a three-year-old rated 1334, and 14 players under age five with ratings, including ones rated 1340, 1334, 1298, 1171, and 1030. Not likely! One player's tournament record shows he played matches before he was born, and two others apparently played and won matches at age one. They've already fixed some of the problems, such as a supposed one-year-old rated 1773. Most of these problems came about from one tournament that apparently messed up on the ages.)
The seven-year-old in question also had one of the points of the tournament. He stepped around his backhand and looped a forehand. The opponent blocked to his wide forehand. He raced over and smashed wide to the opponent's forehand. The opponent blocked it incredibly wide to the forehand again. The seven-year-old, who had already returned to the middle of the table, raced and lunged over, barely reaching the ball as it went way outside his forehand corner, and sidespin looped the ball to the opponent's wide forehand. The opponent lunged and made an even wider block to the forehand. The seven-year-old raced over again, and looped even wider, again with sidespin, with the ball now nearly parallel to the net. Again the opponent lunged over and now his block was so wide it virtually did parallel the net. The seven-year-old raced over, but the ball was so wide his racket hit the side barriers before he hit the ball, and so he missed. I wish it were on video!
Since we were in a lower division there were a number of rules problems and questions. In one match I was coaching the seven-year-old above led 5-4 in the fifth, but they forgot to change sides. He served and smashed to win the next point to go up 6-4. One of the parents from the opposing team went over and said something, and they changed sides, so I assumed he had just reminded them of that. But then the seven-year-old served again for some reason, and lost the point, and they called the score as 5-5. I was confused, and wondered if the previous point had been a let serve I'd missed. At 9-9 I ventured over and asked what had happened at 5-4, and the opposing parent explained that the 5-4 point didn't count because they had not switched sides! That, of course, is not the rule – a point played is a point played. And so instead of 6-4, it had been 5-5, and now it was 9-9 instead of 10-8. I was debating whether to protest, but the next two points were played quickly, and my player won both, and so it ended okay. If he'd lost, I'd have been pretty unhappy.
Since they were younger kids, they often lost track of the score. The parents began to stand on the sidelines keeping score, using this Chinese system of hand signals, which I'd seen before but never really knew about until now.
The playing hall was right next to an extensive indoor shopping mall, including a Peeps store. The Peeps mascot, a giant yellow bird, came in on Saturday and walked around, posing with pictures – many of the MDTTC kids got pictures with him. Here he is with me!
The next day, Monday, I went in to MDTTC, not to coach, but to do some English tutoring with a player – my normal students were resting from the tournament. I figured the club would be mostly vacant, with everyone resting. But lo and behold, about a dozen players who'd played all three days were there practicing and taking lessons, without even a day off! That's dedication.
Ask the Coach Show
Episode #197 (24:40) - Xu Xin's Forehand Sidespin Push (and other segments).
World Junior Championships
They are taking place right now in Vendée, FRA, Nov. 29 - Dec. 6. USA Junior Girls, seeded #10, astounded the world with a series of upsets to reach the semifinals, where they finally lost to #1 seed China. Doubles start today, Singles tomorrow. Here are some links:
USA Team Trials
Here's the final list of entries. Men's and Women's Team Trials will be held in Las Vegas immediately after the USA Nationals, Dec. 20-21.
USA Olympic Trials
Wanna make the USA Olympic Team? Here's the Trials info! They will be held Feb. 4-6 in Greensboro, NC.
College Table Tennis News
- NCTTA Commentating Contest Goes Live
Want to be a Sports Commentator? Here's the National Collegiate TTA's contest: "NCTTA is inviting the best and brightest and maybe the loudest to sign up for a contest that could create a chance to attend the NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships as a Commentator for the live stream!"
- University of Miami Table Tennis Team Supports Kids in South Florida
Here's the USATT article. "Coach Juan Ly and the fabulous University of Miami table tennis team always enjoy helping underprivileged kids in south Florida. The talented table tennis coach joined Miami players offering instruction, encouragement and much more at the Jason Taylor Foundation's Ping Pong Smash Kids Clinic."
- Upstate New York Splits into Two Divisions
Here's the article on this growing college division.
- New College Table Tennis Team Launches on Miami Gardens Campus
Here's the article. "…the Bobcats will expand their sports program with a table tennis team. The school is taking steps to join NCTTA competition in the Sunshine State. The school's table tennis team has the equipment, six players and a positive attitude as they begin their initial season in 2015-16."
Interview with Nikhil Kumar
Here's the USATT interview with the 12-year-old U.S. star. "Left-handed Nikhil Kumar of San Jose, CA may be only 12, but he is already a world-class player. Earlier this year, Nikhil won the Boys' Singles title at the 2015 ITTF World Hopes Challenge held in Shanghai, China."
Game On: Local Table Tennis Program Helps Senior Citizens Retain Health
Here's the article from the San Clemente Times. "World War II veteran Thomas Hurt, 91, couldn’t even coordinate his walker very well before he started playing table tennis for the first time in years. On Nov. 19, he was volleying with other table tennis players as though he’d played the game competitively for a long time."
Game On: Ping Pong Club Meets Every Week at Woodstock North
Here's the article from the Woodstock Independence. "Twenty-six years ago, Dennis Palys ran an ad in a newspaper looking for interested table tennis players. Palys played for fun in college and just enjoyed the sport of it. Out of that idea, the McHenry County Table Tennis Club was established."
Why is this Woman Smiling: Queen of the Table
Here's the article from Martha's Vineyard Magazine. "'Don’t call it an addiction,' Alina Wen says in a conspiratorial tone as we sit at the YMCA chatting about her zeal for table tennis.' Just say it’s a passion.'"
ATL Loves Outdoor Ping-Pong! But No Beer-Pong Allowed!
Here's the article from the Atlanta Curbed. "In the spirit of making any and every niche ironically cool – unironically? The line's a bit blurry at this point – permanent Ping-Pong tables are popping up at parks all around Atlanta."
Chip Gets a Lesson in Table Tennis
Here are two videos from Real Milwaukee TV (3:58 and 3:11). That's Linda Leaf from the Milwaukee club he's talking with.
Zhang Jike and Ma Long Training
Here are two new videos.
Stunning Backhand Around the Net
Here's the video (16 sec).
Two-Winged Monster Pong
Here's the video (2:18)!
Table Tennis Exorcist Needed!
Here's the video (14 sec) – she must have a hard head! (I'm guessing this is fake. One comment says it's from a Japanese skin care advertisement. But it looks pretty crazy!)
Non-Table Tennis – Short Story Submissions – Business or Hobby?
Here's my weekly science fiction blog, which goes up every Monday.
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