Top Ten Reasons to Attend the 2015 US Open

If you aren’t one of the 471 players entered so far in the US Open (Las Vegas, July 6-11), or a parent or coach attending, then consider this a warning. If you don’t go to this years’ US Open, you are going to miss it!!! Just what are you going to miss? (Deadline is Sunday, May 31, with entries accepted until Sunday, June 7, with a $75 late fee.)  So here are the Top Ten Reasons to Enter the US Open.

1. Compete in some of the 94 events, which are all listed on the US Open page, as well as on the domestic entry form (for US players) and the international entry form. (Here’s an event listing that shows who is entered in each event.) They include:
   

   1. Rating Events!!! 19 of them, from Under 800 to Under 2600, and that’s just singles.
   2. Under 2000 Tiered Super Round Robin! Here’s info.
   3. Over Age 18 Rating Events!!! Tired of losing to 10-year-olds who are 500 points under-rated? Then enter the Over 18 Rating Events – Under 1850, Under 1600, Under 1400, and Under 1250.
   4. Rating Doubles!!! Under 4200, Under 3700, Under 3200, Under 2700.
   5. Senior Events, 29 of them, from Over 30 to Over 80, both singles and doubles.
   6. Junior Events, 20 of them, from 9 & Under to Under 21.
   7. Handicap Singles – nope, not a Paralympic event, this is an event where you play one game to 41, and spot points based on the difference in rating. Here’s info.
   8. Hardbat (10) and Sandpaper (4) events!
   9. Paralympic Events (11)! (Mostly Wheelchair and Standing Disabled).
   10. Oh, and there’s also Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Mixed Doubles (for the truly elite).

2. Spectate as the best players in the country and many from around the world congregate and battle for the top prizes.
3. Shop at the many equipment booths. If you are an equipment junkie, this is heaven. If you are just looking for good equipment, this is heaven. If you just like to shop or like table tennis, this is heaven. Rackets and Sponges and Table Tennis Clothing, Oh My! (And you can buy signed copies of my books!!!)
4. Meet up with friends – over 800 players are expected.
5. Top Players and Coaches will be all over the place, and you’ll get to meet and talk to them. (I’ll be there – stop by and say hi.)
6. Vacation – we’re talking Las Vegas!!!
7. Tournament T-Shirts – FREE with entry!
8. Pool Parties – More on that later!
9. Caesars Palace and the LINQ. The hotels alone are a reason to go. You also get free entry to one event if you stay at one of them – here’s info.
10. USATT Leaders will be there – here’s your chance to meet and yell at them politely discuss the issues!

Samson’s Book, Tim’s Book, My Books, Balticon Books

It’s a bookish time. Let’s see:

1. Samson’s Book. Yesterday I finished editing Samson Dubina’s new coaching book, tentative titled “100 Days of Table Tennis Success.” It’s a hugely informative book, with exactly 100 chapters/subchapters! Final version will likely be around 190 pages. I’ll blog about it here when it’s out.
2. Tim’s Book. On Monday Tim Boggan moves in with me for 10-14 days so I can do the page layouts and photo work on Volume 16 of his History of U.S. Table Tennis. This one covers 1988-89.
3. My Books. They keep multiplying, and are now up to nine. Here’s my Amazon page, with my table tennis fantasy “The Spirit of Pong” the latest entry. (They are also listed, with short descriptions, at here at TableTennisCoaching.com.) The best-selling one right now is “Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers,” which if you have not yet bought you will suffer a 50-point loss in your next tournament.
4. Balticon Books. I’ll spend much of this weekend as a panelist at Balticon, the regional science fiction convention. Here’s my bio at their site. I’ve got a reading and a book signing, where I’ll be selling three of my books, all up on my Amazon page: “Sorcerers in Space,” “The Spirit of Pong,” and “Pings and Pongs.” On Saturday night I’m moderating a panel on “What’s so Great about the Undead?” Besides being a fan of “The Walking Dead,” I’ve sold several stories about the undead/zombies, including “Running with the Dead” (sort of an equal rights for the dead story that features a dead high school kid who wants to be a miler on his high school track team but faces the Mile Mafia) and “The Devil’s Backbone” in the anthology “After Death,” about a colony of Undead living in (you guessed it) the Devil’s backbone. (He’s two miles tall.)

Improve Your Looping: Learn what skills you need at what levels

Here’s the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

Ma Long Reverse Serve Training

Here’s the video (68 sec).

Ask the Coach with PingSkills

Episode #128 (19:20) – Men vs. Women.

Ask the Coach with Richard Prause

Part 11 (4:26) - How to Beat the Chinese. 

Incredible Returns, Spin Smash, and the Point Isn’t Over Till It’s Over

Here’s the video (41 sec).

Crazy Net Pop-up Edge Point

Here’s the video (6:32, but the link should take you directly to the point in question at 5:49), between Jens Lundqvist (near side) and Niagol Stoyanov. It’s a great rally even before the flukiness begins!

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.

Balloon Pong

Here’s the picture! I’m told that the paddle is actually a pen, making the balloon holding it a shakehands penholder!

Popeye vs. Bluto

Here’s the picture! Backhand stances and hammer grips? My coaching services are in grave demand!

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5:17AM

That’s what time it is as I write this. (I posted it at 5:22AM; it normally goes up between 9AM and 10AM.) No, I didn’t get up early; I’ve been up all night working on various projects. I’m going to go ahead and post this shortly before going to bed. So what have I been working on tonight?

• Samson Dubina’s new coaching book. Get ready to mark your calendars: it’s coming soon!
• This blog, a little shorter than usual as I’m a bit too tired to have deep thoughts right now.
• Regional Table Tennis Association Sample Bylaws. But I won’t be going public with much of my work on regional associations and related issues until this fall. (I’ll be pretty busy all summer due to our summer camps, which start in a few weeks.)
• US Open plans. Are you going? C’mon, you have to!!!
• Top secret discussions regarding the serving rule, which could lead to a better service rule where players don’t hide their serves, leading to peace on earth, the destruction of ISIS, and banana splits for all. I’d explain more but it’s TOP SECRET!!! Shhh.

Arm Problems Non-Problems

Yesterday I did my first private coaching in ten days, due to the arm problems. I blogged yesterday about the new arm brace; it's working great. I was able to do an entire hour without any serious problems. I still can't smash lobs at full power or backhand smash, and I have to go a bit easy on my loops and serves, but overall, it's a miracle. The arm is still injured, and yet I can coach with the arm brace protecting it from further injury. I wonder how many others are out there with arm problems that would be basically fixed by these braces?

The Spirit of Pong

Have you bought a copy yet of The Spirit of Pong, my new table tennis fantasy novel? Yes, you, the one reading this! Well, if you haven’t – and I can see that you haven’t – then march on down to Amazon and buy one!!!

This is my fantasy table tennis novel about an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis, and ends up training with and learning from the spirits of past greats. It's in two formats, Print and Kindle, both on sale from Amazon. (Here’s my Amazon Page where you can see and buy all of my books.) I've kept the price low - only $6.99 for print, $5.99 for kindle. It’s relatively short, exactly 100 pages. Here's the description from the back cover:

Andy “Shoes” Blue wants to be a table tennis champion, but he’s just another wannabe American. And so he goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis. He is trained by the mysterious Coach Wang, and begins an odyssey where he learns the secrets of table tennis from the spirits of Ichiro Ogimura (who helped spawn China’s greatness) and Rong Guotuan (China’s first world champion in 1959, whose tragic story Andy must relive), and must face the mysterious “Dragon.” Can he overcome treachery and learn the final secret of table tennis in time to defeat his ultimate nemesis?

Senior Moment

Last night I had my first "senior" moment, at age 55. I used to drink too much Mountain Dew. I finally set a rule that I could only drink one 6.5 oz can per day, other than at movies or when traveling. After coaching yesterday I decided to have my daily Mountain Dew while watching the news. I grabbed one from my pantry to replace the cold one I'd get from the refrigerator. After getting the cold one, I looked around, but couldn't find the one from the pantry. I checked around the refrigerator, the pantry, and everywhere in between. Then I went back to the refrigerator and tried to figure out where it was. That's when I noticed I'd been carrying it in my left hand the entire time. (In my defense, even as I was looking for the missing can my mind was on about twenty other things, mostly involving USATT and MDTTC, with a touch of SFWA.)

Serving Tips

Here’s the new coaching article by Han Xiao.

USATT Insider

Here’s the new issue of USATT Insider, which comes out every Wednesday morning.

Amazing Rally

Here’s the video (46 sec).

Potomac Open

Here are results, photos, and video from the Potomac Open, held this past weekend here in Maryland.

Boston Sports Stars Team Up for Ninko’s Ping Pong Challenge

Here’s the article.

“That Cat is Spooky!”

Here’s the ghostly cartoon.

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Disabled Veterans Camp

We had nine players in the camp yesterday from 10AM-1PM. A big thank you goes to assistants Steve Hochman and Josh Friedlander, who volunteered to help out as coaches/practice partners. It was another great and highly enthusiastic group. We covered all the basics - grip and stance, forehand and backhand, pushing, and serving. We finished with the ten-cup challenge, where everyone had two chances to see how many cups they could knock over with Steve and I feeding multiball. 

The camp was made possible by a grant to USATT from the USOC. Not only is the entire camp paid for - the players don't pay a cent - but they sent a box of goodies for the players. Each of the players received a nice Stiga racket with sponge. It was an honor working with these servicemen. I'd like to thank them for all the hard work they put in, both in uniform and at the camp! I'd also like to thank those who made it possible - the USOC and USATT, the Department of Veteran Affairs, MDTTC officer Wen Hsu, and especially Jasna Reed, USATT's Director of Para Programs. 

Arm Problems Non-Problems

It's a miracle!!! Yesterday for the first time I tried out the new Bandit Therapeutic Forearm Band that I blogged about yesterday. (Paul Choudhury emailed me a month ago recommending this – I should have listened! But I did receive a LOT of recommendations.) I'd thought it would at most be a small help - after all, how much can something wrapped around the outside of the arm help an injury on the inside? Boy, did I get that wrong!

The arm band somehow holds the injured part together almost perfectly. When I'm hitting, I can still feel the injury, but it's like it's on the other arm or somewhere else since hitting doesn't seem to affect the injury much at all, even though I'm using all the muscles around the injury. At the start of the Disabled Veterans Camp yesterday, where I wore the arm band for the first time, I was very protective of the arm. As we went through various demos it dawned on me how well it was working. By the end of the camp I was smacking balls all over the place without any pain. I tested out forehand looping against Steve Hochman's blocking, and as long as I go somewhat easy I think I'm okay. I was worried that I’d feel the effects today, but this morning the arm seems fine, i.e. still injured, but no worse than before.

I'm still going to be taking an inflammatory cream twice a day, and should start ultrasound treatment later this week. But I can get back to regular coaching now, starting tonight. (Of course, I might be posting tomorrow how I jumped the gun and that I was rushed to the hospital during a coaching session for an emergency arm transplant.) 

The Aging Ageless Jim Butler

Here's the REAL picture of Jimmy Butler after winning the North American Cup . . . right? I linked to this yesterday, and Jimmy thought it was pretty funny and posted it on Facebook and responded to me on the USATT News Page. Unfortunately, he also wrote, "I'll get you back!" Uh oh. (I originally added an AARP membership card with Jimmy's name on it, tucked under one of his wrist bands, but it didn't really add to the picture and you couldn't really read his name anyway.)

Crystal Wang and Derek Nie in Washington Post

Here’s the print version from yesterday’s paper. I blogged about this yesterday; here’s the regular online version.

McAfee’s Mechanics: Correcting Movement Problems

Here’s the new coaching article by Richard McAfee.

Ask the Coach with PingSkills

Episode 127 (20:16) – Mental Muddle.

Ask the Coach with Richard Prause

Part 10 (1:36) – Plastic Balls.

Ryu Seung Min Training Backhand Fishing and Counterloop

Here’s the video (1:23). He’s sort of the last of the great conventional backhand penholders, but the techniques for this type of thing are about the same for all grips.

US Open Tiered Super Round Robin Event

Here’s the USATT article on this new event.

11 Questions with Tahl Leibovitz

Here’s the USATT interview.

Nittaku ITTF Monthly Pongcast – April 2015

Here’s the video (12:12).

North American Cup Men’s Final

Here’s the highlights video (11:25) of Jimmy Butler vs. Timothy Wang. Here’s a video (1:16 sec, including slo-mo replay) of Timothy Wang as he reacts to an edge ball at 5-4 in the third game.

The Silicon Valley Table Tennis Band

Here’s the video (3:53) – “What the coaches at SVTTC do after full day of coaching.” (Note the “dancing” coach in the background picking up balls!)

Table Tennis Fall

Here’s the video (27 sec) – yep, table tennis is a dangerous sport!

“Astig” vs. “Stiga”

Here’s a “cool” Filipino comparison from Adam Bobrow.

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.)

• Massive Necklace Pong
• Nature Pong
• Domino Pong
• Dance Pong
• Balance Pong
• Toilet Trophy Pong
• Table Trophy Pong

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Another Eventful Day

Here’s a rundown of yesterday’s events.

• Disabled Veterans Camp. From 10AM-1PM I ran the first day of a two-day clinic for disabled veterans. (I did this last August as well, so perhaps it’ll be an annual thing.) It was supposed to be four days, but we didn’t get anyone signed up for Wed and Thur. We only had three signed up for the first day, but have about ten coming today.

  I went over the basics – grip, forehand, backhand, pushing, serve, receive, and looping. We used the robot a lot. There was a wheelchair player, so I spent some time with him going over the differences there. I also explained various organizations – USATT and Paralympics, MDTTC, and local leagues. The players were surprisingly good – probably close to 1000 level with a little practice.

  There was an interesting juxtaposition at the start – on three nearly adjacent tables we had two disabled military veterans (one in a wheelchair), two Buddhist monks in full robes who had come in for lessons, and two 2550 players (Wang Qing Liang and Han Xiao).

• Orthopedist. I arrived at 2:20 PM for my 2:30 PM appointment for my arm problems, but they were overbooked, and I didn’t see the doctor until 3:25 PM. After a rather painful examination where he basically pushed at the injury in every possible way and I found all sorts of creative ways of yelling “Ow!”, he concluded what I sort of already knew, that it was tendonitis. He gave me a brace to wear when I play, a type of inflammatory cream, and in a few days I start ultrasound treatment. The brace, a Bandit Therapeutic Forearm Band, does seem to relieve some of the pressure. It fits on the arm like this. We’ll see how it goes – this morning I’ll try the brace in action.

  Meanwhile, I’ll likely have to cancel all my private coaching this week, as I did last week, and as I did a couple of other weeks when the arm first started hurting. However, let’s see how the arm is today, my first day with the arm brace.

• USATT Teleconference. The USATT Board had a teleconference last night from 7PM to about 8:30 PM. Here’s a brief rundown.

1. Roll Call and Conflict of Interest (no conflicts)
2. Approval of Minutes from March 28 board meeting in Baltimore. The minutes were only distributed about an hour before the meeting, so not everyone got a chance to read them, and so it was tabled. We’ll vote on it next meeting.
3. 2015 World Championships Report. Much of this was from CEO Gordon Kaye, and included info on the U.S. getting the World Veterans Championships for 2018. There was some discussion of some issues, such as the new rule (starting Oct. 2016) where coaches can coach between points; a lowering of the time limits required before juniors who switch countries can represent their new country; and of a new task force to look into fixing the problem with hidden serves. (I may get involved in that.)
4. Financial Review. CEO Gordon reported on this. All is well for now.
5. Review of 2015 Strategic Initiatives. Gordon reported on a few of these doings, including sponsorships, marketing, fundraising, RailStation and ratings, and committees. I’ll comment more on these perhaps when the minutes come out.
6. Discussion about next in person board meeting. It’ll likely be in late August. (We have a teleconference scheduled June 15.)
7.  Legal Update and Executive Session. Alas, I can’t talk about what happens in Executive Sessions. But Wow!!! Golly!!! Jesus!!! (I guess you just had to be there.)
8. Adjourn.

• A little Photoshopping. Didn’t feel like going to bed, so had some fun with Photoshop – see Jimmy Butler segment below. (Sorry Jimmy!)

The Spirit of Pong

Have you bought a copy yet of The Spirit of Pong, my new table tennis fantasy novel? Well, for gosh sakes why not?!!! (Here’s my blog about it.) C’mon, it’s only 100 pages, even you can get through it!

Crystal Wang and Derek Nie Featured in Washington Post

Here’s the article and pictures in this morning’s paper, where they are featured in “Kids Post.” (They are both from my club. I’m quoted in the article.) Here’s what the paper version looks like. (I’m not sure, but you may need a Washington Post account to see this – but if so, it’s free.) I have my own copy since I get the Washington Post every morning in my never-ending quest to destroy the Amazon forests and convert them into table tennis books to sell on Amazon.com.

Jimmy Butler Makes Breakthrough at North America Cup

Here’s the article and a supposedly 44-year-old Jimmy Butler winning the North American Cup, with an obviously doctored photo to try to hide his true age. Now, in a TableTennisCoaching.com exclusive, the truth comes out - I give you the Actual Picture of Jimmy Butler as he wins!

Seeing Your Opponent: Knowing Where to Hit

Here’s the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

Ask the Coach

Episode #126 (33:55) –Topspin Variations.

Dan O’Connell: Full-Time Table Tennis in Germany

Here’s the podcast (25:53) from Expert Table Tennis. O’Connell is the #1 player from Wales.

Zhang Jike Training

Here’s the new video (7:33).

Tahl Leibovitz Gets a Master’s

Here’s his robed graduation picture. He’s the author of Ping Pong for Fighters and a Paralympics Gold Medalist. (Here’s his bio.)

Butterfly Party at the Worlds

Here’s video (1:26) of the party they held at the Worlds – see how many big names you recognize!

Portable Net

Here it is! It folds small, and attaches to just about any table. I have one, which I often take on trips. You never know when you’re going to want to string up a net and play somewhere.

Prince Harry Plays Table Tennis

Here’s the article and pictures from Table Tennis Nation.

Opus, Bloom County, and Berk Breathed Makes Fun of Table Tennis

Here’s the cartoon. “Welcome to POTV…the 24-hour Cable ping-pong network…all day…all night…exciting ping-pong! Ping-pong news…ping-pong personalities…lots and lots of ping-pong…”

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Tip of the Week

Become a Player of Routine.

Number of Hours and Hits in a Lifetime

Let’s do the calculation for myself.

• I’ve started playing table tennis in 1976 when I was 16. From 1976-1985, nine years, I probably averaged at least three hours/day practice. So that’s 21 hours/week for nine years, or 9828 hours. (I played some recreationally before that, but those hours are inconsequential.)
• From 1986-1989 (four years, actually starting at the end of 1985 and continuing to the end of 1989) I was a manager/director/coach for table tennis at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. I was often used as a practice partner during the three-hour sessions, plus did other sessions in camps and local clubs. I’m guessing that I averaged two hours/day, so about 14 hours/week, or 2912 hours.
• From 1990-1991 (two years) I played at local clubs while going to graduate school. I probably continued to average two hours/day, so again 14 hours/week, or 1456 hours.
• From 1992-1997 and 1999-present (23 years) I’ve mostly coached at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. During those years I’ve probably averaged at least 20 hours/week. Many of those hours are in group sessions, where my time is split between “walking around coaching” (and so not hitting) and feeding multiball (where I’m hitting more balls per minute than in regular play). I’m going to assume these two balance out to about the normal amount of hits per minute of regular play. And so I’ve got 21 years where I’m averaging 20 hours/week. Except – I’ve had periodic injuries that have taken me out of commission a few times. They probably bring the average down one hour/week, so we’ll bring that down to 19/hours week for these 21 years, or 20,748 hours.
• From 1997-98 I didn’t play a lot. During those two years I mostly worked as a computer programmer and as an editor, and probably averaged only a few hours per week – perhaps four hours/week those two years, or 416 hours.

So where does this leave me? 9828 + 2912 + 1456 + 20,748 + 416 = 35360 hours. We’ll round that off and estimate I’ve played table tennis 35,000 hours.

But now the question is how many shots per hour am I actually doing? In a typical rally I might be doing two shots per second. But most of the time is spent between points. Let’s assume (and I could be well off on this as I haven’t done any testing) that only 20% of the time is actually hitting. In a game, it’s probably less; in a drilling or coaching session, it’s probably higher. (Feel free to chime in with your own estimates.) So let’s go with 20%. At two shots per second that’s 7200/hour; 20% of that is 1440/hour. And 35,000 x 1440 = 50,400,000.

I’ve played table tennis about 35,000 hours and hit the ball about 50 million times. Wow. How about you?

Busy Monday

It’s another busy day. This morning I’m running a clinic from 10AM-1PM for disabled veterans. At 2:30 PM I have an appointment with an orthopedist sports medicine doctor to look at my arm. At 7PM there’s a USATT Board Teleconference. Somewhere in between all this I need to finish the editing on Samson Dubina’s coaching book, “100 Days of Table Tennis.” Due to the arm problems, I’ve canceled all my private coaching this week, so that frees up some time. But the sheer number of other issues that come up are endless.

North American Cup

It finished yesterday. Here’s the ITTF page with complete results and articles. Here’s the USATT site which has lots of video and links to the results. Here’s the final ITTF article on the champions. Congrats to champions Jim Butler and Zhang Mo! (They also had the North American Hopes Trials; here are the boys’ results and girl’s results.)

Ask the Coach with PingSkills

Episode #125 (32:44) – Improving Retrieving.

Ask the Coach with Richard Prause – Part 9: Short Pimples

Here’s the video (79 sec).

Motor Learning: Block vs. Random Practice

Here’s the video (15:55). “Motor learning is the study of how people acquire skill through practice. Decades of research show that there are more effective ways to design our practices...”

How to Train with a Table Tennis Robot

Here’s the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

ICoachTableTennis.com

Here’s the relatively new coaching site, which I believe started in March.

Jan-Ove Waldner: I Hope This Was Not the End

Here’s the article.

Zhang Jike Multiball Training at Worlds

Here’s the video (3:42).

Suzhour Worlds 2015 (Men’s Singles Part 2)

Here’s the video (6 min). Here’s Part 1 (5:23), which I posted last week.

What It Means to Fight in Para Table Tennis

Here’s the video (20 sec).

Li Xiaoxia – Off the Table

Here’s the new video (5:51).

Happy Birthday Matt Hetherington

Here’s his table tennis birthday cake! (Here’s the non-Facebook version.)

Long Distance Floor Pong

Here’s the video (39 sec) as Adam Bobrow and Kanak Jha demonstrate this rapidly growing sport that’s sweeping the world of post-tournament takedowns.

2000 Weightless Ping Pong Balls with Science Bob

Here’s the video (76 sec)!

Dean-O: Trick Shots Galore!!!

Here’s the video (60 sec).

The Greatest Doubles Rally in the History of the Universe

Here's the video (29 sec)! And here’s video (41 sec) of the same group doing some “table” training!

***
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The Spirit of Pong

It's here!!! This is my fantasy table tennis novel about an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis, and ends up training with and learning from the spirits of past greats. It's in two formats, Print and Kindle, both on sale from Amazon. I've kept the price low - only $6.99 for print, $5.99 for kindle. Buy now so I can afford to eat tonight!!!

I was up half the night working on the kindle version - lots of formatting.) The cover was created by Mike Mezyan, based on a previous table tennis artwork I picked out. It's a relatively short novel, exactly 100 pages. Here's the description from the back cover:

Andy “Shoes” Blue wants to be a table tennis champion, but he’s just another wannabe American. And so he goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis. He is trained by the mysterious Coach Wang, and begins an odyssey where he learns the secrets of table tennis from the spirits of Ichiro Ogimura (who helped spawn China’s greatness) and Rong Guotuan (China’s first world champion in 1959, whose tragic story Andy must relive), and must face the mysterious “Dragon.” Can he overcome treachery and learn the final secret of table tennis in time to defeat his ultimate nemesis?

There are 14 chapters, each illustrated with a picture or pictures at the start. The main characters are American wannabe Andy "Shoes" Blue (who's just lost in the quarterfinals at the Nationals for the third straight year), Coach Wang, the spirits of former greats Ichiro Ogimura and Rong Guotuan, the "Dragon" (a famous spirit whose identity I'm keeping secret - you'll just have to read the novel to learn about this huge confrontation, which most of my critiquers said was their favorite part of the novel!), with a large number of other spirits (or "spirits of what made them great" for living people) dropping in, including Deng Yaping, Jan-Ove Waldner, Marty Reisman, and Istvan Jonyer. You'll learn about the "Masters of Pong" - Ogimura, Rong Guotuan, Zhuang Zedong, Stellan Bengtsson, and others; meet the spirits of 24 former Chinese stars in a late-night training session; meet suspiciously familiar-sounding characters such as Chinese Men's Coach Kong Guoliang, U.S. Men's Coach Dan Steth, and U.S. Men's Champion Derek Klaus Hsu; relive tragedy in the Chinese Cultural Revolution; witness great treachery; plus chopstick races and "Danny Boy"! (You'll just have to read about it.)

At the end of the book is my fantasy table tennis short story "Ping-Pong Ambition." In that story, a table tennis player is imprisoned inside a ping-pong ball by a genie for 10,000 years, where he practices table tennis and studies to be a genie himself - with a huge twist at the end. (I originally sold this story to the 2007 anthology "Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic." Here are two reviews of the story:

• "Ping-Pong Ambition is a fun take on the genie-who-gives-three-wishes story. The tropes are familiar, but the light tone and twist ending make this an entertaining read." The Fix, Jan. 27, 2008.
• "Ping Pong Ambition by Larry Hodges was a great, quick read. The story squeezes ten thousand years into one thousand as the main character, Toby, finds himself trapped inside the tiny walls of a ping pong ball after having his wish granted by a wizard. I loved the voice of Toby and the description of the passing years. However, it amuses me most that, the sport was ping pong. You don't see that much and it makes me smile." Review from AnthologyBuilder.com.

A lot of people helped with the novel. Without them, it wouldn’t have been possible. Special thanks go to:

• The Great Eight, who critiqued early versions of this story. Honfai Geoffrey Cheng, Chris Grace, Vince Green, Nathan Hsu, Navin Kumar, John Olsen, Raul Rasay, and Dennis Taylor.
• Stellan Bengtsson, who spent an hour on the phone telling me about his 3.5 months training with Ichiro Ogimura in 1969-1970.
• Tim Boggan, USATT Historian.
• Etsuko Enami, ITTF Project Manager, who personally sent me the English version of the Ogimura book, which wasn’t available in the U.S.
• Ariel Chen and Qihong Cui from Mytabletennis.net, who helped with some research.
• Mike Mezyan, who created the cover.
• Ledo’s Pizza, Hong Kong Café, and the back room of the Maryland Table Tennis Center, three places where I got a lot of work done, ate a lot of pizza and Kung Pao Chicken, and played a little ping-pong.
• And all the Champions whose spirits appear in this book!

I owe a lot of thanks to the following four books:

• Ogi: The Life of Ichiro Ogimura, by Mitsuru Jojima, translated by John Senior (2009).
• Ping-Pong Diplomacy: The Secret History Behind the Game That Changed the World, by Nicholas Griffin (2014).
• Table Tennis Legends, by Zdenko Uzorinac and ITTF (2001).
• The Ogimura Seminar of Table Tennis, by Dell Sweeris (1968).

Here's my Amazon page, where all of my books on sale are listed.

Develop a Super Heavy Backspin Serve

Here's the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis.

Footwork Training in Thailand

Here's the video (7:54) as players train the small steps needed in table tennis. (You need both small and big steps, depending on the situation.)

Canadian Junior and Cadet Open

It ended yesterday in Markham, Canada. Here's the ITTF home page for the event, with results and lots of articles, and here's the USATT site, which includes a link to lots of video. USA dominated and won all eight non-consolation events - in fact, seven of the finals were all-USA.  

US Open Deadline Extended

Here's the USATT article. Original deadline for the US Open was this coming Monday (May 18), with a $75 late fee for the week after that, and May 25 the final, drop-dead deadline. But they've extended it all two weeks, so you have until Sunday, May 31 to enter without the $75 late fee, and until June 7 with the late fee. This is sort of a semi-annual thing (for the Open and Nationals) - I think they've extended the deadline for every one of them for the past decade or so. It's a way to get more entries, of course. Now, if I can just heal my arm problems and get 20 years younger over the next two weeks, maybe I'll enter the Open!!! (Otherwise, I'll just be coaching, selling table tennis books, attending meetings, and walking about looking important. I need to practice my strut.)

2015 World Championships Most Followed Table Tennis Event in History

Here's the ITTF press release.

Alameda, Austin, and Triangle Named USATT National Centers of Excellence

Here's the USATT article. Here's a listing of the USATT National Centers of Excellence, which includes my club, MDTTC.

Paralympic Hopeful Just Keeps Winning

Here's the article and video (2:10) on Danny Scrivano.

Pint-Sized Pong

Here's video (1:58) of some great points by little kids in a Japanese tournament. I believe it features the lefty kid in this video (1:33) that I posted Wednesday.

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. 

Air Guitar Pong

Here's the cartoon!

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.)

• More Cake Pong
• "I'll Serve" Model Pong
• Wall of Pong
• Bear Pong
• Song of Pong
• Four-Color Pong
• Arty Pong
• "It's Not the Macarena" Pong
• Invisible Pong

***
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Is There a Mathematical Advantage in Winning a Game If You Serve First?

No.

I guess I should explain. Some believe that serving first is a mathematical advantage in winning a game, since it means you will sometimes serve more than an opponent in a game. For example, suppose you serve first, and win 11-7. At that point you will have served ten times, your opponent eight. So you won because you served first? No!!! Even if your opponent had the two missing serves, and even if he happened to win both points (the odds are against it), you still would have won 11-9. Mathematically, serving first means you have a better chance of winning by a larger margin (or keeping it closer when you lose), but it makes zero difference mathematically in who wins.

Here's another way of looking at it. A game to 11 is really a best of 20, where we go to deuce if it reaches 10-all. In the case of deuce, you alternate serves, and both players have served ten times before that, so there's no mathematical advantage there to serving first. If it doesn't go to deuce, it means that one of the players scored 11 points within the first 20 points - it just so happens that in our scoring system, we stop the game as soon as someone reaches 11, and so don't play out the entire 20 points. If we did, to use the example above, then both players would serve ten times, and it might change the final score, but no matter how you work it, the player who scored 11 points first is going to win that game, even if the other player were given his missing serves.

In the example above, if the loser were to win both points on his missing two serves, he'd still lose 11-9. If he split the two points, he'd lose 12-8. He might even lose both of them, and lose 13-7.

So there is no mathematical advantage to serving first as far as winning a game. However, there is a rare mathematical advantage in tie-breaking. If you are in a round robin group and involved in a tie of three or more players, and if you are all tied in matches and games, it goes to points. In that rare case, there might be an advantage to serving first as it might give you a one or point advantage since you'd be serving first in three of the potentially five games.

But there are other things to take into consideration, some of them psychological, which I wrote about in my article, Should You Choose Serve, Receive, or Side at the Start of a Match? (Personally, I always give the serve away, except occasionally when playing someone who very badly wants to serve first.) 

Arm Tendonitis

The arm has taken a turn for the worse. I blogged about this briefly yesterday. Last night I had to cancel one private session, bring in Coach Raghu to hit for me in another, and in the afterschool program (where I usually mix in multiball and live play) had to use the robot only. I'm not going to be hitting any balls anytime soon. The problem in the arm, tendonitis, is an old one I had in the early 1980s, but went away mostly for thirty years. Sometime this morning I plan to make an appointment with a physical therapist, though I have a feeling they are going to test it, and say, "Yep, you've got tendonitis. You need to rest it, and then exercise it in this way." They'll then demonstrate the exact same exercises I learned 30 years ago, which I recently started up again.

I think the problem is that the arm seemed 90% healed this past week, and I was coaching almost normally. I was fine as long as I avoiding excessive forehand looping, forehand pendulum serves, and feeding backspin in multiball. Alas, right now it hurts just to pick up a racket. I've already hired Raghu and Josh Tran to feed multiball in my various group sessions, including one tonight.

Canadian Junior and Cadet Open

It ends today in Markham, Canada, May 11-14. Here's the ITTF home page for the event (lots of articles and results), and here's the USATT site, which includes a link to livestreaming. It was all-USA finals in all four team events - junior boys and girls, cadet boys and girls.

Learn from the Best: MH Table Tennis' Pro Tip Blog

Here's the new page. "A couple of years ago I trialed an idea of introducing small tips from professional players linked to small articles which included my own ideas also. I began the Pro Tip Blog. Unfortunately I never followed through with it...until now!"

Failure: Why It's Actually Good for Your Young Athlete

Here's the article from Sporting Kid Live.

Stay at Caesars Palace or The LINQ and Get a Free Event

Here's the USATT article about the upcoming U.S. Open in Las Vegas, July 6-11.

Reduce Recently Imposed Table Tennis Fees

Here's the petition started by USATT Hall of Famer George Brathwaite. He needs only 100 signatures! The Roosevelt Operating Corporation has begun charging non-residents a fee for playing at the Sports Park facility, and he's out to stop it.

Support Navin Kumar in His Mission to Win Gold

Here's the article. He's a student of mine - but with my arm injuries, I haven't been able to work with him that much recently.

Table Tennis Wants Olympic Mixed Doubles or Mixed Team Event

Here's the article from Fox Sports.

Ping Pong Therapy and the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Fight

Here's the article with links from Table Tennis Nation.

The Best Shot in Table Tennis

Here's the new highlights music video (4:34).

Table Tennis Doubles Best

Here's the new highlights music video (3:43) that features doubles.

40 Seconds of Ma Long and Xu Xin Goofing Off

Here's the video. (Ma Long in Yellow.)

Amazing 41-shot Rally Between Segun Toriola and Gao Ning

Here's the video (68 sec).

Nice Picture of Noki Niwa Stretching for Ball

Here's the picture from the ITTF - click on the picture to see a whole series of interesting ones.

Child Knee Pong

Here's the video (41 sec) - pretty impressive!

"I Don't Like the Looks of This"

Here's the Frank and Ernest table tennis cartoon.

***
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Miscellaneous Stuff

• Arm Problems. I aggravated the arm again during the afterschool program. Normally I just feed multiball for this, but two players were sick today and another kid kept wandering off, so I was left with just one kid in my group. So I hit with him one-on-one. He was sort of an advanced beginner, spraying shots all over the table, forcing me to reach for them. Normally this would have been fine, but while reaching for some of his mishits at some point the arm began to hurt again. After the session I had a 90-minute private coaching session, but halfway through I had to stop and bring in Coach Raghu to do my hitting for me. I've already warned my students for today that I can only block in today's sessions, so we'll see how that goes. I might have to take another one-two weeks off. (It mostly hurts when I do any forehand shots, forehand pendulum serves, or feeding backspin in multiball. Once it begins to hurt, just holding the weight of the racket hurts it.)
• Reverse Pendulum Serve. Recently I've been teaching this serve to many of my students, or focusing more on perfecting it with the more advanced ones. The key for most is to learn to contact more under the ball, rather than just behind (which is where you contact the ball when serving it long). Ideally, players should learn to use the same motion but be able to serve it both short to the forehand and long to the backhand. They should also learn the serve so that until the last second they can do either regular or reverse pendulum serves, i.e. sidespin either way.
• Canadian Junior and Cadet Open. It's going on right now in Markham, Canada, May 11-14. Here's the ITTF home page for the event (lots of articles and results), and here's the USATT site, which includes a link to livestreaming. They just finished the team events, and it was all-USA finals in all four events - junior boys and girls, cadet boys and girls. Jeez, why aren't I there coaching???
• US Open. This year's US Open, July 6-11, is looking to be a milestone for me - but a bad one. My first US Open was in 1976 when I was 16, and I've been to every one since at least 1984. However, I think it's been 24 years since I last attended an Open or National where I paid my own way. During those years I always had students who paid my way in return for my coaching them at the tournament. However, during many of those years we only had three full-time coaches at MDTTC - Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, and myself - plus my level of play was high enough that I could train one-on-one with our top juniors.

  Now we have eight full-time coaches/practice partners at MDTTC, and my playing level has gone down at age 55. All of our top junior players who are going to the Open train one-on-one with these coaches/practice partners, and they are coaching them at the Open. So it looks like I'll be paying my own way this year, and perhaps be a volunteer roving coach for some MDTTC players. (Most years I play in hardbat events on the side, even though I'm normally a sponge player, but due to injuries and lowered level of play, I'm retired from that as well.) Alas, perhaps it's the end of an era. I'm sure there are some out there who might want to hire me at the Open, but for now I'd rather stick to only coaching MDTTC players at tournaments.

  They are holding U.S. junior and cadet team trials at the Open for boys and girls (that's four tryouts), and I likely won't be coaching in any of them for the first time in many years. I miss the old days - it was just a few years ago, for example, when I coached Tong Tong Gong, and he came out of almost nowhere (seeded outside the top eight) to make the US Team two years in a row (top four) by pulling off nine different upsets while beating everyone below him. For that and all previous Trials I'd spend huge amounts of time studying video of opponents and taking notes, which gave our players an advantage, and it paid off, year after year. But at least I'll have a more relaxing time this year, since it'll be the first time in (decades?) that I won't spend all those feverish hours in advance studying videos.

• Possible Booth at US Open. I'm toying with joining with a few others and renting a booth at the U.S. Open, where I'd sell my table tennis books. It's expensive, about $1500 plus shipping costs. If I did this, I'd be sharing the booth with others selling table tennis books, videos, and artwork. I'm sure I'd end up losing money on this, but it'd give me a place to sit back and relax for six days.
• Samson Dubina Coaching Book. He hired me to edit it, and I've been working on it starting on Monday. "100 Days of Table Tennis Success" is looking to be an excellent book that I'll strongly recommend for table tennis players. I hope to finish my work on it by Friday, but we'll see. It's a big job, 181 pages.
• "The Spirit of Pong." According to the online tracker, the proofs for my new fantasy table tennis novel will be delivered by 8PM today. Then I get to go over them and see if there are any needed changes. If all goes well, I'll have final copies in a week, and then it'll go on sale at Amazon in print and kindle formats. It's the story of an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis - and he ends up training with the spirits of past stars. More on this when it goes on sale. It's a short novel (technically a novella), exactly 100 pages long.
• Non-Table Tennis - Story and Ad in Space and Time Magazine. My fantasy story "Leashing the Muse" is in the new issue, which I just received in the mail. It's my third short story sale to them, and 71^st overall. My name is on the cover of the magazine. Alas, Space and Time is one of the few science fiction and fantasy magazines that has stayed with print-only, so there's no online link to the story - you'll just have to buy the magazine to read it! Besides the story, I advertised my humorous fantasy novel Sorcerers in Space on the back cover - here's the ad. Still more alas - with my increased table tennis duties due to USATT work, most (though not all) of my science fiction & fantasy writing has to go on hold for the next few years. Here's a description of the story:
  • "An English professor is disgusted with the poor work of his students. And then, due to global warming, Polyhymnia, the muse of sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing, and rhetoric, and the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyn, is released from where she had been imprisoned in arctic ice for thousands of years by Zeus for criticizing his poetry. She decides her mission is to turn all written work into masterpieces, whether it be Milton, newspaper articles, or a how-to manuals. When any three-year-old with a crayon can write masterpieces, nothing stands out anymore, and so there are no more masterpieces. It's up to our English professor to capture the muse and convince her to stop, with the help of a super-powerful computer."
• Upcoming Schedule
  • Samson Dubina Coaching Book - I hope to finish this by Friday.
  • Potomac Open - I'll probably coaching at the Potomac Open this weekend, Sat & Sun. (If there's time, I may also stop by and visit the Gaithersburg Book Festival on Saturday.)
  • Disabled Veterans - I'm running a camp for them next week, Mon-Thur, May 18-21.
  • USATT Teleconference - we have a teleconference on Monday night at 7PM.
  • Balticon - I'll be attending Balticon, a regional science fiction & fantasy convention, as a panelist, May 22-24. (It's sort of like a 4-star tournament.)
  • Tim Boggan - he moves in with me on May 25 for 10-14 days so I can do the page layouts and photo work on his Volume 16 of History of U.S. Table Tennis.
  • Summer Camps - they begin at MDTTC on June 16 and continue all summer, Mon-Fri, 10AM-6PM, for 11 straight weeks, ending on Aug. 21.
  • US Open - I'll be at the US Open, July 6-11.
  • TNEO - The Never-Ending Odyssey is my annual science fiction & fantasy writing workshop vacation, July 24 - Aug. 1, in Manchester, NH.
  • Plus all the usual group and private coaching! 
• USATT Stuff - I've got lots and lots of stuff I'm working on here, but much of it will now have to wait until the fall. Most of my USATT volunteer work has to go on hold during the summer when I'm busy at our summer camps and private coaching - it's our busiest time, with kids out of school. (I'm on the USATT Board, chair the USATT League Committee, and am the USATT Regional Associations Coordinator.)

Ask the Coach

Episode #124 (31:50) - There are no limits, only Plateaus. 

Nathan Hsu: "I'm back in Tongxiang - China 2015 (Episode 1)

Here's the video (6:44). "Well, I'm back in China, and I'm going to try to vlog and stuff. The days are pretty repetitive, though, so I'll try my best to make the videos interesting. I don't really know what else to type... eh, whatever. This is fine." Learn what it's really like to train in China, or just wait for my upcoming fantasy novel "The Spirit of Pong"! (USATT yesterday featured my latest Tip of the Week on their news page, and ran it with a picture of me coaching Nathan at a tournament.)

11 Questions with Frank Caliendo

Here's the USATT Interview.

Not Just for Hipsters: Ping Pong Bounces Back

Here's the article from the London Telegraph from a few days ago.

ITTF and IOC Presidents Meet to Discuss Additional Table Tennis Gold

Here's the ITTF press release. "Prior to the Qoros 2015 World Table Tennis Championships, ITTF's President Mr. Thomas WEIKERT met the International Olympic Committee's President Dr. Thomas BACH in Lausanne, Switzerland." "The two Presidents also discussed the possibility of table tennis having mixed doubles or mixed teams as its fifth gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, in addition to the current lineup of men's & women's singles and men's & women's teams events."

Best of the 2015 Worlds

Here's the new highlights video (8:04).

New Japanese Junior Star

Here's video (1:33) of this incredible 7-year-old.

Death Pong

Here's the picture!

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.)

• Fighting Pong
• Tattoo Pong
• Periodical Pong
• Beatles Pong (I've run this before, but it's probably new to a lot of people)
• Outdoor Deserted Pong
• Awesome Wall of Pong
• More Cake Pong
• Skate Pong
• Loop-enardo Di Chop-rio Pong

***
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Dying Arts in Table Tennis

The game has really changed quite a bit in the 39 years since I started in 1976. Some of it has been for the better, but some has been for the worse. From a technique point of view, the biggest loss is the dying of so many techniques and styles that were so common in the past. The game is simply more interesting when there are more styles - modern players often have no clue that the game wasn't nearly always a match-up of looper vs. looper, that there used to be huge battles between styles. Here's a short listing of ten dying styles or techniques.

1. Pips-out penholders. I have several students pushing the 1800 level who have NEVER played a pips-out penholder in their life. (Recently I called them over to watch Heather Wang, a 2200 pips-out penholder at our club, just so they could see how the style played.) If anyone had predicted 25-30 years ago that the pips-out penhold style would die out at the world-class level while choppers (or at least chopper/loopers) would continue to thrive, they'd have been labeled a lunatic. Few remember that throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, much of the game at the elite level was basically a battle between Chinese pips-out penholders and European inverted shakehanders.
2. Short pips. There used to be lots of players with short pips-out, either pips-out penholders or shakehanders with pips on the backhand. But the hitting game is pretty much dead, and except for choppers and a few blockers with long pips, pretty much everyone has inverted on both sides.
3. Conventional penhold backhand. It's almost time to retire the "conventional" part of this, since conventional penhold backhands are so unconventional, unless you are an aging player from the past or Ryu Seung Min - an aging player from the past whose last world ranking was in February, 2014.
4. Forehand flat hitters. These days when one of our juniors plays a flat hitter, half the time he doesn't know what to do since there are so few of them. At the higher levels, just about all anyone does is loop. You have to practically lob to get a player to flat smash, and even then many world-class players continue to loop. First it died out among shakehanders, with Teng Yi and Johnny Huang perhaps the last of the "great" shakehand hitters, and then the pips-out penhold hitting style died out. I miss the days where you'd have that constant battle between loopers and hitter/blockers.
5. Backhand flat hitting. I'm constantly amazed at how our up-and-coming players are so unprepared tactically when faced with the flat backhand hitting of Jim Butler - they just aren't experienced against it. Often their coaches are their practice partners, who might be 2600 players in their 20s, and they too aren't really familiar with this type of play and don't coach against it very well.
6. All-out forehand loopers. Unlike conventional penhold backhands, where the only ones left are aging players from the past, there are nearly none left because aging players don't have the speed to be all-out forehand loopers. Remember the days of Guo Yuehua, Kim Taek Soo, Yoo Nam Kyu, Dragutin Surbek, Shigeo Itoh, Jean-Michel Saive, Jean-Philippe Gatien, and others who relentlessly ran around looping forehands? Once again we're mostly left with the aging Ryu Seung Min. Most modern players still strongly favor the forehand, but it's not like it used to be for some styles, where the whole goal was pretty much to play ALL forehand. There was even an old table tennis saying: "One gun is as good as two."
7. Forehand flips from backhand corner. This used to be one of the most common receives, done especially by all-out forehand attackers, who'd step around their backhand corner to forehand flip against most short serves. Jean-Michel Saive was a master of it. Some top players still do this as a variation, but it's pretty rare these days as everyone tries to backhand banana flip any serve that goes short. There's a good reason for this - it used to be if you forehand flipped from the backhand corner to the opponent's backhand, he'd block, and you'd get to forehand loop again. These days he's more likely to backhand loop. 
8. Seemiller grip and antispin. Remember when four of the five members of the USA Team (circa mid-1980s) played with the Seemiller grip, and with antispin on one side? Two reached roughly top 20 in the world (Eric Boggan and Dan Seemiller). Another won the gold medal at the Pan Ams (Brian Masters). Two reached the quarterfinals of Men's Doubles at the Worlds (Dan & Rick Seemiller). These days the grip has gone the way of the dinosaur, and yet it was a pretty effective grip, and below top 20 in the world, still would be. (I suspect it would be an excellent grip in the women's game even at the highest levels, where there's less power than in the men's game.) Antispin is also pretty much gone, though there is a recent minor resurgence due to "frictionless" antispin for blocking. (One of the funniest things is listening to many modern players and coaches trying to coach against the Seemiller grip - they only vaguely understand the style, and almost always coach as if it were some variation of a shakehands grip, and their coaching almost always hurts more than it helps.)
9. "Pure" choppers. There used to be a lot of pure choppers out there, who chopped and pushed everything unless you kept pushing, in which case they'd eventually pick hit if you gave them a weak push. But they'd win matches where they might attack once per game, relying on pure defense and opponents' impatience. Another style that's mostly gone - most choppers these days are also all-out forehand attackers.
10. Chop and sidespin blocking. There are a few that still do this, including Ma Long, but not many. It used to be a more common way to throw an opponent's timing off. Part of it might be the livelier sponges of today make it trickier to do. Waldner and nearly every pips-out penholders were the masters at this.

Canadian Junior and Cadet Open

It's going on right now in Markham, Canada. Here's the ITTF home page for the event, and here's the USATT site. The ITTF site has several feature articles on it, including one that features Crystal Wang from my club: Hosts Provide Severe Test for Second Seeds, Crystal Wang Steers United States Home.

Ma Long Videos

Here's a series of videos featuring the new World Men's Singles Champion, posted by Liliek Eko Suprabowo.

• The Amazing Ma Long Serve (5:45)
• Ma Long Multiball (1:41)
• Ma Long the Superman Tribute (9:17)
• Ma Long the Dragon (6:31)
• Ma Long Training (7:24)
• Ma Long's Technique (5:00)

Ask the Coach

Episode #123 (18:35) - Changing Technique.

Table Tennis Physical Training in China

Here's the video (31 sec).

Pro Tip Blog: Bilenko on Modern Defense

Here's the new coaching article from MH Table Tennis.

Does Blade Weight Impact Performance?

Here's the new article from Table Tennis 11. There are a lot of past coaching related articles there as well.

China Faces a Heavy Trouble After Suzhou

Here's the article from Table Tennista.

Uberpong Play Anywhere Survey

Here's the survey. "What would you change about the world of ping pong? By answering a few questions, you could help us improve your ping pong experience forever."

Xu Xin Rocks!

Here's the highlights music video (61 sec) featuring the Chinese superstar.

Robin Hood Pong?

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

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.)

• Pizza Paddle Pong
• Yo Momma Pong
• Color Table Pong
• Luxury Living Room Pong
• Proper Grip Pong
• Storefront Pong
• Godzilla Pong (I've posted this, but it's worth a second look. It's taken from this 46-sec Snickers ad from 2014, where 11 seconds in Godzilla plays table tennis for five seconds.)

***
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Tip of the Week

Covering the Wide Backhand.

Beetle Baily Cartoons

Beetle Bailey ran a table tennis cartoon yesterday (Sunday). Cartoonist Mort Walker has long had a partnership with table tennis, regularly running cartoons, often featuring epic matches between Beetle and Sarge. In the early years, apparently Sarge would win, but in recent years it's been all Beetle. Below are all the times they've featured table tennis that I can find. Considering the cartoon has been running continuously since 1950, I'm pretty sure there are plenty more, but they didn't start putting them online at beattlebailey.com until 1996. I'm determined to find them all!!! I found mention of a cartoon from Aug. 25, 1975 that is titled, "Blast it! I lost to Sarge in Ping-Pong Again!", and described as "The Chaplain counsels Beetle on his anger...and his ping-pong game," but I can't find it online. So I just ordered the 1975 Beetle Bailey collection (only cost about $7, including shipping), and will scan and put that online when it arrives. (NOTE added later - I received the comic book in the mail, but it was the wrong one, so I still haven't found this one.) (Yeah, today's blog is a bit short - very busy on various USATT and MDTTC issues, and editing the new coaching book by Samson Dubina. But I think there's enough here to keep you occupied.) (NOTE - I'll likely update this periodically with newer ones.) 

• May 15, 2016 - Run For Your Life
• May 10, 2015 - Sore Loser
• April 25, 2014 - Beetle Serves Backspin
• May 17, 2012 - Poor Loser and the Cliff
• July 15, 2010 - Philosophical Pong with Plato
• March 21, 2010 - Sit Down Pong and an Acrobatic Sarge
• July 10, 2009 - The Threat!
• June 7, 2009 - How to Do Table Tennis Publicity
• October 11, 2007 - Contact Pong (and Sarge demonstrates forehand technique)
• June 3, 2007 - Sore Winner and Loser
• December 8, 2005 - Sarge Putaway - Now THAT'S a Forehand
• July 28, 2005 - Picnic Meatball Pong
• April 3, 2002 - Injured Winner
• October 1976 (Sarge Snorkel Comic Book Cover) - Big Paddle
• Feb. 2 (can't read year) - I Can't Play Ping-Pong By Myself
• May 29 (can't read year) - Sarge Feels Better Already

Here are other Classic Comics featuring table tennis.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's a day late, since I don't blog on Sundays, but better late than never!

• From the ITTF. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)
• From Michael Mezyan. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)
• From Zazzle (all sorts of Mother's Day paddles and balls)

North American Cadet Trials

Here are the results - Sharon Alguetti won Cadet Boys, Crystal Wang Cadet Girls. Here's the ITTF page, which has three articles at this writing.

Blocking

Here's the new coaching article from Han Xiao.

The Expert Table Tennis Playbook

Here's the newly updated TT Playbook from Expert Table Tennis, 33 pages. Here's what he wrote about it: "I created The Table Tennis Playbook, my FREE eBook, a couple of years ago now and it has been downloaded thousands of times by table tennis players the world over. However, it was clear to me that it needed a serious face lift and a bit of updating. It's now received that and looks 10x better than before."

Ask the Coach

Episode #122 (21:25) - What Strokes to Learn First.

Mr. Nice Guy: Three Reasons to Improve Your Club Reputation

Here's the article from Samson Dubina.

How to Glue Table Tennis Rubber on Your Racket

Here's the video (3:23) from Samson Dubina.

Chinese Training - Fan Zhendong

Here's the Facebook video (2:27).

Interviews with Liam Pitchford and Tetyana Bilenko

Here are two new interviews from MH Table Tennis.

• Liam Pitchford, #1 man from England, #49 in the world
• Tetyana Bilenko, #1 woman from Ukraine, #45 in the world

Zhang Jike: Bedridden after the Worlds

Here's the article from Tabletennista.

Back in the Game - Pam Fontaine

Here's the article on the star wheelchair player.

Pope John Paul Receives Table Tennis Paddle in 1979

Here's the picture.

Suzhou Worlds 2015 (Part 1 - Men's Singles)

Here's the video (5:23).

How Oregon's 15-year-old table-tennis star Judy Bochenski thawed the Cold War in 1971

Here's the article and pictures from Oregon Live. Judy's a USATT Hall of Famer and owner at Paddle Palace.

How to Float a Ping Pong Ball on Air - the Coandă

Here's the video (87 sec) - I do this all the time just blowing the ball in the air with my mouth.

ITTF Commentator Adam Bobrow vs. Jiaqi Zheng

Here's the video (73 sec) of his great point - with a little dancing mixed in!

Ping Pong Dash - Japanese Table Tennis Cartoon

Here's the page that shows all 15 covers from 2006-2010.

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.)

• Red Alien Soldiers Explosion Pong
• Blue Darklight Pong
• Garden Pong
• Marilyn Monroe Pong
• Athena the Goddess Pong
• Paddle Hanging Pong
• Pocketless Pong
• Outdoor Netless Pong
• Outdoor Water Pong

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