Backhand Development - A Time for Everything, and Everything in its Time

I've been keeping a secret from one of my junior students. He has a strong forehand loop, and is pretty good at moving about to attack with it, but his backhand wasn't as good. When he does play backhand, he pretty much topspins everything, but it's not consistent enough, and so opponents get him on that side. Part of the reason for this is that he's always thinking forehand, and so isn't always ready for the backhand.

In our sessions, we used to do a lot of random drills. But I stopped doing them a couple months ago, and he hadn't really noticed. Why did we stop? Because I've been focusing on his backhand. I didn't want him to play backhands as a second-tier shot, done only when forced, and with an inconsistent stroke. I wanted it to be an equal, or at least near-equal shot with his forehand, though the latter would continue as his primary put-away shot. And so we've been really focusing on backhand training these past two months, though we did plenty of the usual forehand work as well - I doubt he could have survived a session if he couldn't rip a few forehands. But he's been very good about it as well, often asking to extend a backhand drill. He's one of those stubborn types (in a good way), who doesn't want to switch drills until he feels he's doing it perfectly.

Yesterday I sort of shook things up by starting our session with backhand to backhand, rather than forehand to forehand as we usually do. We went on for a long time, perhaps the first 15 minutes, for a very simple reason - he was topspinning the heck out of the ball, and was pretty consistent. I didn't exactly tell him how well they were coming out, but I think he could figure that out, and I wanted to really ingrain it. (See "Learn to Backhand Topspin - Like a Boss!" segment below.) Then we went on to forehands (lots of looping and moving), the 2-1 drill (backhand from backhand side, forehand from backhand side, forehand from forehand side, repeat), and some multiball looping against backspin.

Then we did random multiball, the whole table, where he had to react to my topspin feed), and topspin everything back from both wings. I'd been holding back, but now I felt he was ready for this. And after two months of backhand work, the drill clicked - he was able to topspin everything back smoothly. I think I worked him to death on this drill. When we finally finished, I explained why we hadn't been doing the drill for a while, why we were doing it now (his backhand had improved), and why I hadn't told him in advance - I didn't want him to think about his backhand technique, which would have been the quickest way to mess it up. (It has to be subconscious.)

A secondary bonus of his improved backhand was that I decided he was ready to really focus on backhand banana flipping. So from here on he'll be learning to topspin any serve back, including short, low, heavy backspin. We spent some time on this, and in drills, he's already doing it pretty well.

It'll take time to incorporate this, and his newly improved backhand, into games, but now a corollary of Larry's Six-Month Law takes effect - if you improve a technique in practice, it'll take up to six months of training and practice matches to do it at that same level in a serious match. The clock is now ticking.

The Lefty-Righty Match-up

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao. Learn how to play lefties (if you're a righty) and vice versa!

Serve Long

Here's the new coaching article from PingSkills.

Learn to Backhand Topspin - Like a Boss!

Here's the new video (2:08) from Brett Clarke of TTEdge. "This table tennis backhand topspin lesson or tutorial will teach you the technique for how to use your wrist with the "Tick-Whip" method. The backhand topspin or loop is a tricky shot to master and it takes serious practice and training."

Ask the Coach

Episode #94 (24:24) - Good Days Will Come (and other segments).

USATT Insider

Here's the new issue, out yesterday morning.

World Table Tennis Day

Here's the new ITTF article on this new World Holiday, which is on Monday, April 6 - Easter Monday. It links to this video (1:28), which you should watch just for the underwater table tennis.

2015 Para Pan American Games Team Leader & Coaches Position Openings

Here's the USATT News Item.

USA Table Tennis Award to India Community Center (ICC)

Here's the picture. USATT CEO Gordon Kaye recently met with their club leaders, and gave them this award. He also met with representatives of other clubs in the area - here's a picture. (He's on the near left.)

U.S. Pan American and National Team Trials Video Teaser

Here's the video (52 seconds).

Highlights Video from Chicott Tenis de Mesa

Here's the new highlights video (14:04).

Butterfly Ad Featuring Kanak Jha

Here's the video (1:41). I usually stay away from equipment ads in this blog, but this one was so well done that I decided to include it - especially since I'm having at least one of my students study some of the techniques in the video, such as the banana flip 62 seconds in. (Disclosure - I'm sponsored by Butterfly.)

Rolling Stone vs. Vice Table-Tennis Challenge: We're Upping the Ante

Here's the article from Rolling Stone Magazine.

Marvin Leff Birthday and Florida Table Tennis Hall of Fame Cartoon

Here's the cartoon!

The Revenge: Timo Boll vs. KUKA Robot

Here's the video (2:50). "Last year, Timo Boll challenged the KUKA KR AGILUS in his area of expertise: table tennis. Now, it is up to Timo to prove his qualities in a completely different kind of duel." This one's a little strange as it's more of a musical challenge! (With a bit of glass destruction at the end.)

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Tactical Thinking - Adjusting to Different Opponents

Recently at the end of a coaching session I played a practice match with a student. He often served short to my forehand, either backspin or sidespin, and over and over I flipped it aggressively to all parts of the table and dominated the point. Halfway through one game I finally put the game on hold and challenged him to give me his best short serves to my forehand. Over and over he served low with heavy, yet varied spin - and over and over I flipped them aggressively with ease, to his growing consternation. ("Aggressively" doesn't mean flipping for winners, but fast enough that if placed well, the server is usually put on the defensive.) Finally I challenged him to figure out how to deal with this. At first he said he'd stopped serving short to my forehand - and I said that would be a bad mistake.

So I challenged him to think about why I was able to flip his serves over and over with ease. When he served backspin, I used his own spin against him to create topspin, which allowed me to flip aggressively. When he served sidespin, it was even easier, as that's easy to flip, like a mini-counterdrive or mini-counterloop. So I asked him how he could keep me from using his spin - and that's when he figured it out! He served short, low no-spin, and miracle of miracles - or actually rather predictably - I had to slow down my flip. (I could still place it, but it was no longer the dominant shot it had been earlier.) 

The lesson here is that everyone is different. I happen to have a very good forehand flip, but only against spin, since I know how to take advantage of different spins. This doesn't mean you don't want to serve short with spin to the forehand, just not a whole lot against me, since I happen to be good against it - and so it's a tactical thing. Others might have trouble against these same short spin serves, which is why it's important to either scout out an opponent in advance, or test him out early in the match to see what works. (Most players won't flip aggressively against a short backspin ball to the forehand - it just happens to be a strength of mine. Many players have trouble receiving short balls with the forehand in general, and are grateful when opponents don't take advantage of this.)

When the game resumed, the student began mixing in short no-spin serves to my forehand, and long serves to my backhand, one of the most standard serving patterns. Since I was forced to watch for the short serve to the forehand, I had to receive many of his long serves with my backhand - and I don't have a particularly good backhand loop, so those receives were relatively weak. If he'd given up on the short serve to the forehand, I wouldn't have had to watch for it, and so I'd have been able to loop all the long serves to my backhand with my forehand, and I'd have dominated the points. Also, before I had made up for the weaker backhand receives by punishing him with the forehand flips, but now most of my returns were relatively soft, and he often turned me into a pretzel as I tried (usually unsuccessfully) to forehand loop the deep serves to the backhand while still covering the short ones to the forehand. So I was soft against the short serves to the forehand, and against the deep ones to the backhand I was either soft with the backhand or erratic with the forehand. Tactically, he had figured me out, taking away my strengths while playing into my weaknesses. I began to regret teaching him tactics!

Lots of Tournaments

If you are looking for a tournament, see the USATT Tournament Page. From there you can see a listing by date, or refine the search and search by state, region, date, and/or star level.

Constant competition is one of the keys to improving. Knowing how to prepare for a tournament is important or all that practice is wasted. Here are four articles on these and related topics.

• Importance of Constant Competition
• Top Ten Ways to Play Your Best in a Tournament
• Practicing for Big Matches
• Dealing with Cheaters and Poor Sportsmanship

We have two local tournaments coming up, and two semi-local large ones.

• MDTTC Open: This Saturday, March 14, is the MDTTC March Open here in Gaithersburg, Maryland, run by Charlene Liu, with seven events: Open, U2300, U2000, U1700, U1300, Under 16, and Over 50. I'll be there, off in a corner doing private coaching from 12:30-4:00PM, and perhaps coaching students in matches during the tournament.
• Smashtt RR: The new Smashtt club in Sterling, Virginia, is holding its first tournament on Sunday, March 22, a big round robin event, run by club owner, coach, and referee Michael Levene. Here's the entry form and info page. Michael wrote, "Accepting scanned entries with PayPal payment to michael@smashtt.com if people don’t want to go through regular US mail services."
• Butterfly Cary Cup: That same weekend many local players will be traveling down to Cary, NC, for the $21,000 Butterfly Cary Cup, March 20-22. I may be going down to coach - not sure yet.
• Westchester March Open: The following weekend, March 28-29, is the Westchester March Open at the Westchester Club in New York. They run monthly 4-star tournaments - you should give them a try! (You'll even get to meet owner Will Shortz - see "11 Questions" article below.)

Tactical Training for Table Tennis

Here's the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis. (There's even a mention of my book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers!) He also has a free ebook, The Table Tennis Playbook.

Ask the Coach

• Episode #92 (23:15) - How to Serve Short (and other segments)
• Episode #93 (20:05) - Playing on Auto Pilot (and other segments)

USATT Athletes of the Month

Here's the USATT article. For February they are Ishana Deb, who won the bronze medal in Under 15 at the Swedish Junior & Cadet Open, and Kanak Jha, who won the Cadet and Under 16 titles.

11 Questions with Will Shortz

Here's the USATT article that features the famed New York Times Crossword Puzzle Editor and owner (and player) of the Westchester Table Tennis Center.

Samsonov on Ball Quality and ITTF Penalties

Here are two new articles on issues being addressed by ITTF Athlete's Commission Chair Vladimir Samsonov.

• Quality of Poly Balls
• ITTF Penalties

Zongqi Zhong takes Under 2500 Title; Tiffany Ke Surprise Under 2200 Semi-Finalist

Here's another article from Barbara Wei on the $12,000 Arnold Challenge tournament held this past weekend.

Public and Private Schools Come Together at NCTTA Northeast Regional Championships

Here's the USATT article.

West Region of NCTTA Converges for Regional Championships

Here's the USATT article.

Anything to Win the Point

Here's video (21 sec) of a crazy point where Oscar Perman of Sweden does pretty much everything to win a point, including changing hands, some crazy fishing, what appears to be a two-handed backhand, and a running backhand loop kill.

Amazing Table Tennis Features Marcos Freitas

Here's a new highlights video (2:22) that features the best rallies of world #9 Marcos Freitas of Portugal.

Table Tennis Joy

Here's a new highlights video (4:55).

Tom Hanks Plays Table Tennis in Music Video

Here's video (2:38) of a new Carly Rae Jepsen music video, "I Really Like You." At 58 seconds in, someone hands Hanks a ping-pong paddle, which he autographs, smacks a ball with it, and then poses for a selfie with them. Hanks, of course, also played a little pong in a little movie called Forrest Gump.

Blow Ball?

Here's video (3:04) of some German show where Belgium's table tennis great Jean-Michel Saive (on left) and someone else battle to see who can blow the ball past the other! The actual game begins about 65 seconds in. I've introduced this very game to the kids in my beginning class many years ago. Saive recently won the ITTF Legends Tour event in Halmstad, Sweden.

Calvin Shows You What to Do with those Broken Ping-Pong Balls

Some have noted that many of the new 40+ poly balls break more easily than celluloid balls, and that when they break, they often break cleanly into two sides. Well, Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes shows you what you can do with these halves!

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Recipe for a Regional Team League

Here's the Capital Area Super League recipe, which will continue to evolve.

1. Find enthusiastic volunteers. (Such as Michael Levene and Stefano Ratti.) Allow them to simmer for a while as enthusiasm builds to a boil.
2. Add a few other volunteers for spice. (Such as John Olsen and myself, the others on the league organizing committee.)
3. Create League Rules and stir. (We borrowed heavily from Michael's and Stefano's experience in table tennis leagues in Europe, from the LA League, and from the U.S. Tennis Association. Plus we asked ourselves what we wanted, and what a new player might want.)
4. Advertise like crazy so that interest begins to simmer, and so you get a bunch of teams and players. (This is only the first season; many locals aren't sure what it is, and are waiting to see. The goal is to keep building it up until we have huge numbers of players, including lots of new players, like they did overseas. This season has 68 players on 13 teams. Let's see how it grows.)
5. Add a pinch of match cards, and continue to simmer.
6. Ladle out the teams into divisions and create schedules for each, such as Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3.
7. Serve fresh - i.e. play it out! (The first team match is on Thursday, March 19, at 7PM, when the MDTTC Lions (Raghu Nadmichettu, Stefano Ratti, Heather Wang, and Ernie Byles) take on the MDTTC Illuminati Potatoes (Chen Bo Wen, Reza Ghiasi, Khaleel Asgarali, Toby Kutler, Ryan Dabbs, and Amy Lu) at the Maryland Table Tennis Center in a Division 1 match-up. Seriously, that's the team names! I'll be there - I'm hoping I get to cut a ribbon or something. (Teams can have up to six players, but only three can play a given team match. Having extra players helps since not everyone can or wants to make every team match.)
8. Regularly put up results and stats - they are the spice.
9. Regularly send out press releases so the food (I mean table tennis) writers can write about it. Show the world that this is huge!!! (That's going to be my job.)
10. At the end of the season give out nice prizes at a season-ending banquet - they are the dessert. And start planning out the next season!

As the newly-appointed chair of the USATT League Committee, I plan to watch and learn a lot this season. The plan is to create a successful regional team league, and then put together a league package that can be copied everywhere - and then promote the heck out of it. Like most recreational leagues, it's all volunteer run. U.S. Tennis does this and has 700,000 paid league players. Germany does this and has 600,000 paid league members. We're on our way. Later on we'll look into software for the league, with USATT perhaps buying or leasing it, and then leasing it out to the leagues for a fee, and then, like in Germany and much of Europe, the league players become USATT members. (We considered leasing the software used in England, but it's rather expensive, especially since we're only one league. For now, we'll run it ourselves.) Here's the recent USATT article on the Capital Area, NY, and LA Team Leagues. 

Only Partially Table Tennis: Back Update - and Holy Mattress Madness!!!

This is almost embarrassing, but now I know why I've been having so many back problems recently. As noted before, my new mattress was too soft. I'd been using an air mattress for many years, but it had developed a leak, and I was having to pump it up every few days. So a few weeks ago I got a firm mattress, and life was fine - temporarily. But gradually, the mattress seemed to soften, and soon I'd forgotten how firm it had been. It got so bad that I even bought a "firm mattress topper" to put on top - but that didn't work either, since the formerly-firm mattress under it was so soft. Every time I lay on it, it put a strain on my back.

Last night when I went to bed I almost gave up on it, and was about to sleep on the floor - when I suddenly realized the problem. When I'd gotten the new mattress, rather than get rid of the old air mattress, I'd simply put the new one on top. Duh!!! This might be the single the dumbest thing I'ver ever done. (In fairness to me, I literally had forgotten the air mattress was under there.) The air mattress had very gradually lost its air, and so the new mattress on top was sagging into it, while the sides of the new mattress were held up by the frame around the air mattress. So I took the air mattress off, and put the new mattress on the platform underneath - and problem solved!!! The mattress is once again nice and firm, and should support my back for many years, or at least until I overdo it and try to race around and loop like it was the 1980s again.

Learnin' Experience: Read About 4 Main Keys to Improvement

Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

Private Coaching - Serve & Attack

Here's a video (10:38) of a private coaching session by Brian Pace of Dynamic Table Tennis.

Ask the Coach

Episode #91 (26:34) - Short Pimples (and other segments)

Kalinikos Kreanga Demo

Here's the video (9:11) - just watching Kreanga (formerly world #7) loop should improve you 200 rating points. You'll gain 100 just watching the other guy block (Greek team member Dimitrios Papadimitriou).

Best Backhands from the Bundesliga - Calderano vs. Boll

Here's the highlights video (3:55) - the best backhands of Hugo Calderano of Brazil (world #73, #56 three months ago) vs. Timo Boll (world #9 in February, former world #1).

Great Attack vs. Chop Point

Here's the video (42 sec) between Chuang Chih-Yuan of Taipei (world #8, former #3) vs. chopper/looper Joo Saehyuk of South Korea (world #16, former #5).

The Arnold Table Tennis Challenge Demonstration with the Terminator!

Here's the video (2:36) with Arnold Schwarzenegger! (This is different from the one I linked to yesterday.) And here's a pair of photos - Austin Preiss and Arnold now (age 20) and ten years ago!

Liverpool Football Table Tennis Championship

Here's the video (2:05) of the Liverpool football team (that's soccer for us Americans) having their own table tennis championships. Apparently Alberto Moreno, Javier Manquillo, and Jose Enrique went head-to-head for the prize. (Video shows Moreno vs. Manquillo.)

The Mystery of the Lost Racket

Here's the ebook for this 99-cent children's short ebook that came out in 2013.

Dynamic 3-D Cartoon Pong

Here's the picture!

"ping-pong" is so fun to say, isn't it? ping-pong. ping-pong. haha, ping-pong. Isn't this fun?!

Here's the button!

Grandma Pong

Here's the video (6 sec) - if you can't beat China, then break china!

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Tip of the Week

Playing in Poor Conditions.

USA Pan Am and National Team Trials

Here's the USATT Page with complete results and video. (Jiaqi Zheng and Yue "Jennifer" Wu were not eligible for the National Team, due to time requirements since representing another country, but as US citizens were eligible for the Pan Am Team.)

• Congratulations to Pan Am Team members: Jiaqi Zheng, Lily Zhang, Yue "Jennifer" Wu, Kanak Jha, Jimmy Butler and Timothy Wang
• Congratulations to US Team members: Lily Zhang, Judy Hugh, Prachi Jha and Amy Wang, Kanak Jha, Jimmy Butler, Timothy Wang and Yahao Zhang

Beginning/Intermediate Class and Junior Class

After missing two straight Sundays due to snow, we finally got back to these two classes. I taught both classes, with John Hsu assisting.

There are 14 kids in the 4:30-6:00PM beginning junior class, ranging in age from 6 to 11. Since we'd been away so long we focused on basics this session - lots of regular forehand and backhand play. We had one new player, so I spent some time getting him started. Then we did service practice, and then games. As usual, as soon as it was game time the cry went out for "Cup game!", and so out came the paper cups. It's the perfect game for the younger crowd, who love to build and destroy. So they built giant pyramids of cups, and then took turns smashing them to pieces as I fed multiball. We finished with the bottle game, where I put a bottle of "worm juice" on the table (a Gatorade bottle filled with either worm juice or Gatorade, depending on who you asked), and I had to drink it if they hit it. They did.

For the Adult Beginning/Intermediate Class from 6:30-8:00PM we had 15 players, with three others missing. Because a few had missed the first session three weeks ago I had invited them to come in early, so we actually started at 6:15, where I went over some of the things from the first class - grip, stance, and forehand. Because it had been three weeks since the previous class, where we'd focused on the forehand, I decided to spend 20 minutes on that at the start. Then we worked on the backhand. Next came serve deception, though I first did a recap of how to create spin, which I'd taught three weeks before. Then they were out at the tables practicing serves. We went late, with nearly everyone able to stay to work on serves until at least 8:15, some until 8:30PM. I promised the group that we'd start next week's session with more service practice. Then we'll move on to the focus for the session - footwork and pushing.

Snow and Back

As noted in my blog last week, I hurt my back shoveling snow over a week ago - not in the snowstorm this past Thursday, but the one the weekend before. I took much of last week off from private coaching (where I have to do real hitting, as opposed to mostly lectures, walk-around coaching, and multiball when I teach a class), and I think it's okay now. So today I return to private coaching. The temperature will likely hit 60 degrees today - but it'll take days for the huge piles of snow outside to completely melt away.

Capital Area Super League Meeting

The Organizing Committee for the Capital Area Super League (myself, Michael Levene, Stefano Ratti, John Olsen) met Saturday night at the Smash TT Center in Virginia. We've pretty much finalized things. The final tally is 68 players on 13 teams, which is okay for our first season - five in the first division, and four each in the second and third. We went over the budget, prizes, software, and various other issues. Play begins next week! (I often feel like the "black sheep" of this group, as the other three are doing a lot more to set this up, but I'll try to make up for it when I focus on publicity for the league, i.e. sending out press releases, etc.) 

My Todo List

Here's my  todo lists for today, which I'll periodically update as I go through it. 

• Table Tennis:

1. 1.Tip of the Week
2. 2.Blog
3. MDTTC Newsletter (This usually goes out at the start of each month but I held this up for the USA Team Trials)
4. Junior Accounting - Thursday and Sunday Classes
5. Adult Beginning/Intermediate Class Accounting
6. USATT League Committee Appointments
7. "Spirit of Pong" table tennis fantasy novella. (I'm going to a writing workshop this summer - see below - and plan to have this critiqued there before I do the final write-up before getting it published. To do so I'll need to have a draft ready by April 9.)
8. Prepare for Regional Associations presentation at March 28 USATT board meeting (including plans for leagues, coaching programs, and state championships - a three-pronged approach)
9. Work on plans for TableTennisBooks.com
10. Afterschool Program (leave 2:30, finish 5:00 PM)
11. Private coaching (5:00-6:30PM)
12. Yell at players from club who didn't play smart tactics at USA Team Trials and Arnold Challenge. (Should I practice in front of a mirror first?) Okay, I'm sort of kidding, but I do have a few things to go over with them. Alas, I wasn't able to go to either tournament, mostly because I couldn't afford to miss teaching my Sunday classes for the third week in a row.

• Non-Table Tennis:

1. Taxes (I see my accountant tomorrow morning)
2. Apply for The Never-Ending Odyssey Writing Workshop (July 24 - Aug. 1)
3. Find a harder mattress (current one is too soft, and may be aggravating back problems) Note - I "fixed" the current mattress - see tomorrow's blog!
4. Birthday thank-yous (I turned 55 on Feb. 27. Yikes, that's old.)
5. House termite inspection
6. Vehicle emissions inspection
7. Clean desk (It's a mess right now. Isn't that the sign of a busy person?)

How a 13-Year-Old Girl Became a Smashing Success at Table Tennis

Here's the article from ESPN on Crystal Wang. Special thanks to USATT Media Consultant Richard Fin for helping set this up. Here's the start: "In many regards, Crystal Wang is a typical 13-year-old girl. She watches music videos and variety shows on YouTube and draws in her free time. "The Hunger Games" movies are among her favorites. She likes to read and wants to be a doctor when she grows up. When you look beyond the straight-A student's sweet, soft-spoken exterior, however, a fierce competitor emerges."

New Documentary Shows the Pain and Passion of the Pingpong Life

Here's the article from ESPN on the documentary "Topspin."

$12,000 Arnold Challenge

The tournament was held this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio - and yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger was there! Here's the tournament home page, here are results, and here's a 47-second video of Schwarzenegger rallying with Austin Preiss. Below are articles on the tournament by Barbara Wei.

• March 8: 2015 Butterfly Arnold Table Tennis Challenge More Than Just Table Tennis
• March 7: 2015 Arnold Table Tennis Challenge Dark Horse Jun Gu Takes Spotlight in Open Event
• March 7: Bochao Li Takes Open Singles Title; Lindenwood University Sweeps High Level Rating Events
• March 6: First Full Day of Competition at 2015 Butterfly Arnold Table Tennis Challenge Features 18 Events Including Open Singles
• March 5: Diversity in Leading Players at 2015 Butterfly Arnold Table Tennis Challenge

Rising Early vs. Eight Hours Sleep

Here's the new article from Ben Larcombe. 

Ask the Coach (PingSkills version)

Episode #90 (24:15) - Best Penholder Ever (and other segments).

Ask the Coach (Werner Schlager Academy Version)

Here's the 31-sec video where head coach Richard Prause invites you to ask any question. (Yes, in English.)

Table Tennis Coordination, Agility, and Speed

Here's video (62 sec) of training for these.

Zhang Jike Donates Money for Sick Child

Here's the article from Tabletennista. 

Ma Long Moves Back to World Number One

Here's the ITTF press release. (I wrote about this and other world ranking news on Thursday - see third segment.)

German National Championships

Here's an article (and video) on Timo Boll winning his tenth German National Men's Singles Championship. Here's an article (and video) on Petrissa Solja winning the German National Women's Singles Championships. And here's a great rally (24 sec) that took place in the final between Petrissa and Winter Sabine. (The two would team up to win Women's Doubles.)

Bay Area a Hotbed for Table Tennis

Here's the article from the San Jose Mercury News.

"The Dean of Table Tennis": Dean Johnson

Here's the article.

Thoughts on Seattle's Least Functional Ping-Pong Table

Here's the article on this poor, forlorn windy table.

Susan Sarandon and Jonathan Bricklin's Relationship "Continues to Evolve"

Here's the article in People Magazine about two primary owners of SPiN Table Tennis.

A Table Tennis - Golf Romance?

Here's the cartoon!

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Playing Fair and a Rules Proposal

I read the following recently on a table tennis forum:  "It's the coach's job to teach a player how to win.  It's the parent's job to teach ethics to their kids. If a player resorts to cheating to win, then the parents have failed."

I was tempted to jump in and respond - harshly - but thought better of it. This is probably a somewhat common attitude, though I don't think most agree with it. The simple reality is that much of what is considered "good sportsmanship" comes from the coach. I'm pretty sure I can convince most parents that their kid should always play fair, including serving legally. I'm also pretty sure I can convince most parents that their kid should learn to serve illegally, since so many of his opponents will be doing so, and so he needs to do so to compete. These are contradictory positions. While parents can put their foot down, they are rarely as experienced in these matters as a coach, and so they rely on the coach for guidance in such matters.

I could teach the up-and-coming juniors at my club how to illegally hide their serves, as some coaches do. More specifically, I'd teach them how to serve borderline, where most serves are visible, but it's so close that an umpire, sitting off to the side, can't quite tell. The umpire should, by the rules, rule these serves illegal since it's the player's responsibility to serve so the umpire is "satisfied" that the serves are legal, and they are supposed to call any serve that they aren't sure about, but most umpires do not enforce these rules, and so players get away with this. (I've posted the pertinent rules below.) And once a player establishes that he can get away with these "borderline" serves that should be faulted, it's easy for them to go over the line and actually hide contact at key points in a match, and win easy points. (If you hide the serve every time, there is so much complaining that the umpires are more likely to call it. So most players who are willing to cheat by hiding their serve do so only a few key times per game - which effectively raises their level about 100 rating points.)

But I won't do this. I'm not going to "teach a player to win" by cheating. Alas, not all coaches are this way. There are coaches who teach their players that cheating is okay if the umpire doesn't call it. And this attitude works because so many umpires and referees allow it. And so we regularly see the various styles of hidden serves - the last-second outward thrust of the shoulder (with the arm pulled back suddenly to draw the umpire's attention away from it); the ball thrown backward in a high-toss serve with the head thrust forward, thereby hiding contact with the head; or the more blatant hiding with the arm, which is supposed to be removed from the space between the ball and net as soon as the ball has been projected.

Even at my club I've seen top juniors practice hidden serves because they want to be ready to use them if their opponent does so, and the umpires doesn't call it. And I'm forced to agree that, in that circumstance, it's only fair that my players also hide their serve, since otherwise it's not a fair playing field. They also need practice partners - often other top junior players - who hide their serves so they can practice against them. But I hate this, and I hate the situation that allows and even forces this.

Probably the best of a bad situation is to allow, or even teach, these hidden serves, but make it clear they are NOT to be used except when the opponent is doing so, and the umpire doesn't call it. But it's sickening to me to know that some players will wait until a key moment in a match, and then they'll throw in a hidden serve, and my player will hit the ball way off the end or straight down into the net, and there's nothing we can do about it, because the umpire allowed the borderline serves that led up to this, and so can't tell the difference between those borderline serves (where the ball was barely visible but the umpire couldn't tell for sure) and the ones where the contact was hidden. Both are illegal, including the borderline one that was technically (but barely) visible. See 2.06.06 and 2.06.06.01 below.

I've posted this a number of times, but below is a quick review of the pertinent rules. (If there is no umpire, then the players act as umpires. Much of what I've written above refers to top juniors competing for national titles, where most of the matches are umpired, and many titles are decided by whether the umpire enforces the service rules.)

• 2.06.04: From the start of service until it is struck, the ball … shall not be hidden from the receiver by the server or his or her doubles partner or by anything they wear or carry. 
• 2.06.06: It is the responsibility of the player to serve so that the umpire or the assistant umpire can be satisfied that he or she complies with the requirements of the Laws, and either may decide that a service is incorrect. 
• 2.06.06.01: If either the umpire or the assistant umpire is not sure about the legality of a service he or she may, on the first occasion in a match, interrupt play and warn the server; but any subsequent service by that player or his or her doubles partner which is not clearly legal shall be considered incorrect. 

As regular readers of this blog might know, I'd like to solve the problem by changing the rules so that the rule says something like this: "Throughout the serve, the ball must be visible to the opponent, and to both umpires, or where the umpires would sit." The wording might need some playing with. For example, perhaps it needs to be specified where the umpires would sit - perhaps ten feet to the side?

But with a rule like this, borderline serves - where the ball might barely be hidden from one of the umpires - are no longer a problem because if you try hiding the ball from the opponent, then it's blatantly obvious it's hidden from at least one of the umpires or where they would sit, unless the umpire has x-ray vision. A borderline serve where it's not clear that it's visible to both umpires or where they sit would obviously be visible to the opponent, which is the goal of the rule. (It's like the six-inch rule, where the goal wasn't to force everyone to toss the ball up six inches; the goal was to stop players from serving out of their hand. If someone only tosses the ball up five inches, he may or may not get called on it, but he's not serving out of his hand.)

I'm actually starting to think that a better rule might be as follows, with my addition in brackets:

2.06.04: "From the start of service until it is struck, the ball … shall not be hidden from the receiver [, or the net or the area above the net,] by the server or his or her doubles partner or by anything they wear or carry."

This would also make it impossible to hide the serve from the opponent without it becoming blatantly obvious, and without referring to non-existent umpires in varied sitting positions. It's also not as extreme, since the sides of the net aren't as far off to the side as the umpires would be. I'll be discussing this with the USATT Rules committee at some point this year, and hoping we can convince the ITTF to adopt something like this. (It's already been tried without success, but many rule changes were turned down initially before passing.)

USATT Teleconference

The USATT Board of Directors (which includes me) had a teleconference last night. The focus was on appointing committee chairs for the next two years. We ended up re-appointing seven committee chairs, appointing five new ones, and tabling three appointments for now. My informal policy on this is that I'll wait for USATT to post the appointments that were voted on before I go public. This allows our CEO time to contact the new and re-appointed chairs to inform them of their status, plus I don't think it's fair that I use my status on the board to be the first to publish such info. I'm told that it'll most likely get posted in the USATT Minutes page on Monday, after which I'll blog more about this. One thing I can announce - I now chair the USATT League Committee. More on that later.

USA National and Pan Am Team Trials, and the Arnold Challenge

Here's the home page, which includes links to live streaming, which begins at 10AM Eastern Time today (Friday). I really wish I were there coaching as I have so often in the past. But we have so many 2600-level Chinese practice partner/coaches at our club that it's more economical to send them with our players as coaches/practice partners, since at 55 (as of last Friday) I can only do the coaching part at this level these days. But I'll be watching, and probably screaming at the screen, "Serve it there! No, wrong serve! Play the middle!", and so on.

I also considered going to the Arnold Table Tennis Challenge in Columbus, Ohio this weekend to coach several of the Maryland players there, but the problem is we wouldn't be back until late Sunday night, and I have two classes I teach Sunday nights which have been cancelled two weeks in a row due to snow. I can't cancel a third straight week. We have a contingent driving up there right now, which must be fun since we had about eight inches of snow yesterday. (Schools were closed both yesterday and today.)

USATT Insider

The new issue came out yesterday. It includes the "11 Questions with Larry Hodges" interview I linked to yesterday.

Drill Your Skills with China National Team - Part 10: Push and Attack

Here's the new coaching video (9:47). Here are links to Parts 1-9.

Ask the Coach

Episode #90 (24:15) - Best Penholder Ever (and other segments).

Nittaku ITTF Monthly Pongcast - February 2015

Here's the video (12:03).

Diversity in Leading Players at the 2015 Butterfly Arnold Table Tennis Challenge

Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

Timo Boll Off World Ranking List

Here's the article. He's a "victim" of the four-month rule - if a player doesn't compete in an ITTF tournament for four consecutive months, he's dropped from the list. Timo says, "No problem. In the next month, when I compete at the 2015 German Open, I will be back in the top-10!"

World Table Tennis Day - April 6

Here's the poster.

Table Tennis South Australia

Here's the new issue - includes articles on Club Code of Conduct, Plastic Balls, and a Table Tennis Quiz.

Legends Tour 2015 Highlights: Saive vs. Persson (Final)

Here are highlights (3:44). I blogged about the event yesterday.

Top Ten Shots

Here's a new highlights video (7:26).

Highlights: 2015 Edition

Here's another highlights video (8:56).

Amazing Table Tennis Tricks

Here's the video (3:15) - some really great stuff here!

Stationary Bike Pong

Here's the video (46 sec) - double your exercise!

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How I Hurt My Back and How Not to Do Multiball

I think I hurt my back shoveling snow on Sunday or Monday. Because of snow and icy roads, I didn't do any serious coaching from Sunday to Tuesday, other than a one-hour multiball session on Tuesday, where I probably aggravated it. On Wednesday, when woke up, my back was in agony. I did a one-hour multiball session, but had to cancel a one-hour private session. Today I had 3.5 hours of coaching scheduled, but due to the snow (5-8 inches expected, it's coming down pretty hard) they are all cancelled. If not for the snow I'd have had to cancel them anyway.

I think my new mattress is also a culprit - it's not firm enough. Rather than buy a new mattress (again), I just ordered an extra firm mattress topper. Hopefully it'll be firm enough.

I'm probably going to cancel all my coaching on Friday as well. I'm not yet sure about Saturday - I have two hours of private coaching and a two-hour multiball session scheduled. I'm almost for certain going to cancel the private coaching for that day. We'll see about Sunday. Most likely I'll cancel all private coaching that day (four hours), but teach the two 90-minutes classes I have scheduled.

When I feed regular multiball, it doesn't affect my back too much. The problem is feeding backspin. When I do this I tend to drop my right shoulder and rotate my back into it - ouch!!! Right now I can't feed backspin without aggravating the back. I had to stop feeding backspin in the session yesterday.

When I explained this to Coach Cheng yesterday, he smiled, and said it's because I use my upper body to feed multiball instead of my legs. Normally this wouldn't make a difference, but in my current condition, it does. He showed me how he does it, using just his legs. I tried copying it, but it didn't feel natural. Ironically, Sean O'Neill had commented about this many years ago as well.

Back in 1992, when we opened MDTTC, I was already experienced in feeding multiball, but after watching coaches Cheng and Jack feed multiball, I realized I needed to practice. So I spent about a week where I literally practiced feeding multiball, feeding the ball into a robot net. Now I may have to do that again, and relearn how I feed backspin. Cheng also showed me how he shovels snow using only his legs, and mocked others who complain about it, saying it's all in the technique!

For now, I'm going to spend the day resting as the snow outside comes down. I've found that sitting at my desk aggravates the back, which is a problem since I was hoping to get some writing done. And then, at 8PM (dang, right when Big Bang Theory comes on TV - see segment below!), we have a USATT teleconference where we'll be appointing committee chairs.

ITTF Legends Tour

Jean-Michel Saive defeated Jorgen Persson in the final yesterday. In the semifinals, Saive defeated Waldner while Persson defeated Gatien. In the two quarterfinals, Waldner defeated Jiang Jialiang (rematch from 1987 Worlds!) while Persson defeated Rosskopf. Here's the article from Tabletennista, including results and lots of video. Here are some photos of the event - click on them to see each one. The third one has Saive standing on the table! Here are more photos. Also, here's a nice trailer (78 sec) they put together for the event.

Ma Long #1 Again

In the new world rankings, he's back to #1 in men's rankings, with Xu Xin dropping to #2 after twelve months at #1 (plus four months back in 2013). Ma's been #1 in the world 29 different months - all twelve months in 2010, three months in 2011, five months in 2012, six months in 2013, and two months in 2014. Fan Zhendong is #3 for the fifth consecutive month - he's been top three for 13 consecutive months, including two months at #2 in 2014 (Sept and Oct). Zhang Jike, who has won men's singles at the last two Worlds, the last World Cup, and the last Olympics, continues at #4 for the seventh consecutive month; he hasn't been ranked #1 since 2012. (He only does well in the "big" tournaments!)

On the women's side, Ding Ning is #1 for the sixth consecutive month. Li Xiaoxia moves up to #2 after 19 consecutive months at #3. (She was #1 for eight months in 2011 and for one month back in 2008.) Liu Shiwen moves down to #3 after five consecutive months at #2. (She was #1 for thirteen consecutive months before that, as well as nine months in 2010.)

All the players listed above are from China, which continues to have the top four men and top three women.

Sports Illustrated

I'm told that the new March 9 issue of Sports Illustrated has a feature on page 60 on New York Times puzzle editor and table tennis player/owner Will Shortz - his game and his Westchester club. Go get your copy!

Ask the Coach

• Episode #88 (19:00) - Table Tennis Terminology (and other segments)
• Episode #89 (21:50) - Waldner Back in Action (and other segments)

Learn to Play the Backhand Counterdrive

Here's the coaching video (2:39) from Brian Pace of Dynamic Table Tennis.

Marcos Freitas - The New European Hero

Here's the video (5:21) of the world #9 player, from Portugal.

Ding Ning - Off the Table

Here's the video (6:30).

Great Rally

Here's the video (27 sec) with both great and fluky shots.

Junior Diving Forehand Defense

Here's the video (19 sec, including slow motion replay).

Celebrity Table Tennis

Here are some celebrities playing table tennis pictures. (Click on the first - is that Jay Leno? - and you'll see more.) Of course, the mother lode of these pictures is the Celebrities Playing Table Tennis page, which I used to maintain but stopped a few years ago - just too busy.

Big Bang Theory Pong!

Here's video (15 sec) of the Big Bang Theory stars playing table tennis. That's Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting ("Penny") on the left smacking in forehands (she's pretty good!) against Kunal Nayyar ("Raj") on the right, with Mayim Bialik ("Amy") watching, and Simon Helberg ("Howard") walking by near the end.

Non-Table Tennis - Top Twelve Spring Training Problems for the 2015 Orioles

Here's the article, featured at Orioles Hangout!

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Eleven Questions with Larry Hodges

Here's the USATT interview with me yesterday. Not a policy interview, but hopefully some interesting stuff. I had a lot of fun with it, but hopefully some of it is informative as well.

Upcoming Events and Back Problems

Tomorrow we have another 3-5 inches of snow scheduled to come in - yeah, these days we schedule these things. (So it's likely school and all coaching will be cancelled tomorrow.) There's also a USATT teleconference at 8PM where we appoint committee chairs. I have to go over dozens of applications. Alas, not a single worthy bribe. And then on Saturday there's a Super League Organizing Committee Meeting at 7PM. ESPN and USA Today just did interviews with Crystal Wang at our club, so those are coming out soon, plus the Washington Post is doing a feature soon on Crystal and Derek Nie, so more on those when they come out.

Mixed in with these, of course, is the usual private and group coaching, and several writing projects. I've also got the MDTTC March Newsletter to finalize. I normally send it out at the start of each month, but we decided to wait until after the USA Team Trials this weekend so I can put info from there in it, and send it out probably next Monday. Plus I have a dentist appointment today at noon, and see my tax accountant next Tuesday. Yeah, things are busy here.

Worse, my back just started acting up again for the first time in months. I woke up this morning with it pleading with me to spend the day in bed, but I had to overrule that. Hopefully I'll get through the two hours of coaching I have scheduled today, and then I'll likely be off on Thursday (snow), and have only a one-hour multiball session on Friday. But I just put new sponge on my racket, and having extra bouncy new sponge always takes some of the strain away as the sponge practically does the playing for me as I stand around and make stroking motions. (I use a Timo Boll ALC, with black 2.1 Tenergy 05 on the forehand, red 2.1 Tenergy 25 on the backhand, all from my Butterfly sponsor.)

I was going to blog this morning about a coach's and parent's responsibility to their kids in regards to teaching them to win and teaching the ethics, but I'll save that for another day when I'm not having a heated spear jabbed into my back repeatedly.

Three Things Never to Tell an Eight-Year-Old Before a Training Session

• Never try to explain the Borg from Star Trek with an 8-year-old just before a training session. There will be no real training session afterwards, just lots and lots of Borg-related questions.
• Never tell the story of a junior who once jokingly aimed a realistic looking squirt gun at a ticket agent at an airport and said "I have a gun!" to an 8-year-old just before a practice session, or you'll end up with him saying "I have a gun!" the entire session, including a toy gun made from aluminum foil.
• "I have a blade and I like to kill." That's what I told one of my students yesterday. That's all I heard from him the rest of the session. Then he told it to another. Soon it was the favorite quote of the 8-year-old crowd.

ITTF Legends Tour

It starts again today in Halmstad, Sweden. Here's the home page, the Facebook page, the draw, and here's an article on it from Tabletennista. Interesting note in the article - Waldner was originally seeded #1, and would have had a bye in each event, thereby playing one less match than others. He didn't think this was fair, and asked that the seeding be done randomly. The article includes a picture of him drawing his seeding number out of a hat.

Here's where you can watch it live, starting at noon Eastern Time. Playing in today's event is Waldner, Gatien, Rosskopf, Persson, Jialiang, and Saive. If you tune in at the start, you'll likely get to see the first two matches - Rosskopf vs. Persson, and then, in a rematch of the Men's Singles Final in 1987, Jan-Ove Waldner vs. Jiang Jialiang. For showmanship, I hope Jiang does his infamous "fist-pumping walk around the table" thing. Up 2-1 but down 16-20 in the fourth, Jiang scores four in a row. Here's the point at 19-20; watch what Jiang does after the point!

Former Table Tennis Champ Enjoys Career Rebirth

Here's the article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "At 44, Jimmy Butler, whose career was left for dead because of a debilitating muscle condition, has not only returned to an elite standard of table tennis competition, but he enters this week’s Pan Am and National Team Trials at Texas Wesleyan as the reigning U.S. men’s singles national champion."

World Table Tennis Day

Here's the ITTF press release on this inaugural event on April 6.

2015 Hopes Camps in the U.S.

Here's the announcement - they are at the Alameda Club in California and Atlanta International Club.

Technical Training for Table Tennis

Here's the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis. "I believe to become an expert table tennis player you must master the four aspects of the game (technical, tactical, physical and mental). An expert is proficient in all four areas and can be described as a ‘complete’ player. The first and most important aspect of the game to master is technique." (In this context, technical means technique.)

Backhand Serve Against a Lefty

Here's the video (2:05), demonstrated by Victor Tolkachev. A similar pattern is effective against a righty, except there you often vary between short to the forehand, long to the backhand (the reverse of what is shown here).

Ma Long's Serve

Here's the video (2:13), shown from different angles. The quality of the video isn't great, but you can see what he's doing, especially when it goes slow motion.

Table Tennis Serves in Slow Motion

Here's the video (7:24).

Ovcharov vs. Jung Youngsik

Here's video (50 sec, including slow motion replay) of a great point between these two. Ovcharov is #6 in the world, Jung #39 in.

Segun Toriola vs. Ning Gao

Here's video (66 sec, including replays from different angles and slow motion) of a great rally between these two.

Diving, Rolling Return

Here's the video (55 sec, including slow motion replay).

Evolution of Table Tennis

Here are the five volumes for the historically minded. Some great stuff here!

• One (9:49)
• Two (9:58)
• Three (8:25)
• Four (9:36)
• Five (13:33)

Chase Free Commercial with Table Tennis

Here's the ad (30 sec). About 12 seconds in you see someone receiving and playing with a rather interesting paddle with lights on it!

Chimpanzee Pong

Here's video (24 sec) from two years ago of a chimpanzee rallying backhand to backhand! (I have suspicions on whether this might be faked - look how mechanical looking the chimp's backhand is. But it's probably for real.) Here are two other videos from Japan where they try to teach a chimp (in overalls!) to play table tennis, here (2:15) and here (4:01) with more dubious results.

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The Sayings of Bruce Lee

I read over these quotes from Bruce Lee and was amazed at how many of them apply to table tennis. I picked out the 30 most pertinent to our sport, in no particular order. I guess you can say that Bruce Lee is ghost-writing my blog this morning. Which are your favorites?

1. "The successful warrior is the average man with laser-like focus."
2. "Be happy, but never satisfied."
3. "Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own."
4. "Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
5. "If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." 
6. "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times." 
7. "Don't fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail." 
8. "A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at." 
9. "Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it." 
10. "The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the engagement; you ought not to be thinking of whether it ends in victory or defeat. Let nature take its course, and your tools will strike at the right moment." 
11. "Be self-aware, rather than a repetitious robot" 
12. "Time means a lot to me because you see I am also a learner and am often lost in the joy of forever developing." 
13. "The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits." 
14. "Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can." 
15. "Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never seek the light." 
16. "Everything you do, if not in a relaxed state will be done at a lesser level than you are proficient. Thus the tensed expert marksman will aim at a level less than his/her student." 
17. "Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there." 
18. "Obey the principles without being bound by them." 
19. "The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be." 
20. "Preparation for tomorrow is hard work today." 
21. "If you think a thing is impossible, you'll only make it impossible." 
22. "Remember no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged." 
23. "Practice makes perfect. After a long time of practicing, our work will become natural, skillful, swift, and steady." 
24. "Put 'going the extra mile' to work as part of one's daily habit." 
25. "Emotion can be the enemy, if you give into your emotion, you lose yourself. You must be at one with your emotions, because the body always follows the mind." 
26. "Don't fear failure...in great attempts it is glorious even to fail." 
27. "Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them."
28. "A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer."
29. "Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do."
30. "The doubters said,
    'Man cannot fly,'
    The doers said,
    'Maybe, but we'll try,'
    And finally soared
    In the morning glow
    While non-believers
    Watched from below." 

Stepping Around Footwork

Here's the coaching article by Han Xiao, with a link to a short video everyone should watch.

Ask the Coach

Episode #87 (20:35) - Returning Serve with Your Own Heavy Spin (and other segments)

Jack Wang Credits Tournament Play and Innovative Training Techniques for Recent Success

Here's the story by Barbara Wei.

Richard McAfee Returns to India

Here's the ITTF story of his coaching course in India.

Texas Wesleyan Sweeps Texas Division

Here's the USATT article. Texas Wesleyan is going for its twelfth consecutive national title.

Knights Come Out on Top

Here's the USATT article on the University of Central Florida Table Tennis Team.

Sensational Rally Between Ovtcharov and Persson

Here's the video (1:18).

ITTF Legends Tour

The Legends Tour starts up again tomorrow, March 4, in Halmstad, Sweden. Meanwhile, here are short video highlights they've put together of some of the stars:

• Jan-Ove Waldner
• Jorgen Persson
• Jean-Michel Saive
• Jiang Jialiang
• Jorg Rosskopf

ITTF Video Channel

Here's the page - you could spend the rest of the day week month year your life watching these!

Panda Pong

Here's the picture, probably the only one ever that shows a Panda doing a proper forehand pendulum serve. Note how he's not trying to hide the serve, and even has pulled his non-playing paw out of the way? But the Panda kid hitting a backhand needs some work on his foot positioning.

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Tip of the Week

When Should You Go For a Winner?

Rest in Peace Leonard Nimoy

Famed actor Leonard Nimoy (best known as "Mr. Spock" from Star Trek) died on Friday, which happened to be my 55^th birthday. He was 83. Mr. Spock, the logical Vulcan, was one of my heroes growing up, and that it happened on my birthday was especially memorable, in a bad way. I have several connections with Nimoy.

• My mom told me that when I was about two years old (circa 1962), when Nimoy was already a well-known actor but before his role as Mr. Spock, we were at a bank in the Los Angeles area, and Nimoy was in line. She said I began running and crawling between people's legs, and that I crawled between Nimoy's legs.
• I met Walter Koenig ("Chekov") at a science fiction convention.
• I attended a writers' workshop with Ann Crispin, a famed Star Trek novelist.
• This page has four pictures from Star Trek (you may have to page down a bit) where the characters are playing table tennis. (Alas, no pictures of Nimoy/Spock playing, as this is from Star Trek Voyager, not The Original Series.)
• Here's the home page for the Vulcan Red Tooth Table Tennis Club. Alas, it's named after the God of Fire from Roman mythology, not Mr. Spock's race.
• Finally, when I'm under pressure in a table tennis match, I sometimes ask myself, "What would Spock do?" It's a great way to get yourself to look at things analytically and without emotion.

Weekend Weather Worries

For the second Sunday in a row all my coaching was cancelled. Sunday is my busiest coaching day, where I normally coach nearly non-stop from 11AM to 8:15PM. (This includes two 90-minute classes - a junior class and an adult beginning/intermediate class - so that's a lot of makeups coming up.) This time the problem wasn't actually snow but icy rain, which apparently froze over during the night. Schools here in Montgomery Country, Maryland, are closed today, as they were for previous snowstorms on Feb. 16, 17, and 26. So no afterschool program today, and I just got an email cancelling my only private coaching scheduled today (a 90-minute session), so I probably won't leave my house today, just as I didn't yesterday. I have a rather long todo list, so maybe I'll get a lot done today.

Chinese Alumni Association of Greater Washington Tournament

On Saturday we had about 100 people at MDTTC for this. The club was jammed from early morning until around 5PM. This was for college alumni from various colleges - not sure which ones. It's a good thing it was on Saturday; if it had been Sunday, it likely would have been cancelled as we had snow and icy rain all day.

Net Extension Rule

In my blog on Thursday I wrote about various interesting rules, including the one about the net extending six inches to the side. I've been told numerous times over the years that this rule came about around the early 1970s because of Istvan Jonyer's ability to sidespin loop around the net, but it looks like that info was incorrect.

When a few people questioned this, I looked at old pictures from the 1940s to the 1960s, and they nearly all seem to show the net extending out six inches. (Google 1940s table tennis pictures, and plenty show up.) Then I went to my table tennis book collection and looked at the rules published in old ones, and found that until 1933, several of them specify the net as being 66" in width, which means it would extend 3" off each side. (Table is five feet side, or 60 inches.) Starting in 1933 most begin specifying six-foot nets (72"), with the net thereby extending six inches outwards. Somehow I doubt Jonyer (born in 1950, European Champion in 1971, World Men's Singles Champion in 1975) was sidespin looping in 1933. I've edited the original entry, and will bawl out a few people over this.

Backhand Counterhit

Here's the coaching video (4:53) from PingSkills.

Ask the Coach

Here's Episode #86 (14:25) - Can Timo Boll & Ma Long Win World Doubles (and other segments).

Don't Serve First!

Here's the coaching/mathematical article. I haven't studied the math, but I generally agree with the conclusion. Here's my Tip on this.

Coaching Beginning Kids

Here's a video (6:58) that shows a clinic with coaches teaching beginning kids.

Changes to the 2015 Selection Procedure for Cadet and Junior Teams

Here's the new info.

The Story of American Champion Jimmy Butler

Here's the USATT video (22:05).

Old School Pong from the New York Times

Here are 19 vintage table tennis pictures.

ITTF Annual General Meeting

Here are the meeting documents (162 pages), including agendas, reports, financial statements, propositions and resolutions, and technical leaflets.

Interview with Norio Takashima

Here's the interview at the OOAK Forum with the former Japanese defensive star.

Amazing Rally at the 2015 French National Championships

Here's the video (43 sec) of the rally between Antoine Hachard and Adrien Mattenet.

Kreanga Backhand Rips

Here are two (9 sec), including slow motion.

Soo Yeon Lee's "Don't Hold Back" Table Tennis Ad for Joe's Jeans

Here's the video (30 sec).

Funny Table Tennis Trick Shots

Here's the video (4:04). I've linked to most of these, but here they are all put together in one video.

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Beginning Junior Class

I teach two beginning junior classes, one on Thursday 6-7PM, and the other on Sundays 4:30-6:00 PM. And so should your club!!! Yesterday's session had 16 players ranging in age from 7 to 12. Assisting me were the Triple J's - Coaches Jeffrey, John, and Josh. Here's the info page.

We started with ball bouncing. This is especially important for beginning juniors as it helps them develop the hand-eye coordination needed, as well as helping them get used to the proper grip. First they bounced on the forehand side (calling out every tenth in a row they make), then on the backhand, and then alternating. For the very, very brave (but mostly older ones) I challenged them to alternate between forehand and off the edge of their racket! Many can do a couple of these. While they did this, I worked with two new players who were there for the first time, showing them the proper grip and stance.

Then we did some forehand and backhand shadow practicing as a group. By this time everyone was there, so I then did a roll call.

Then we went into four groups, one with each coach. It worked out nicely, with four players with each coach. I took the two new players and two others, and used the robot area. We started with one player with me, one on the robot, and two picking up balls. The second half I worked with two at a time (one at each corner), with one on the robot and one picking up balls.

Yesterday's focus was the backhand, so we spent much time on that. However, since we had two new players and the two others in my group had had only one session, we started with the forehand. After one circuit on that, then we went to the backhand.

One hour is probably too short, and the time went by way too fast. All four players in my group were able to hit forehands and backhands, though they needed regular re-enforcement and reminders. One liked to slap her wrist into every shot; another tended to stand square to the table and just block forehands; one kept hitting everything off to the right; and one tended to just stab at the ball with a lunging motion. I worked with each to fix these problems, and they seemed to pick it up pretty well.

For the last ten minutes we played games. We broke into two groups. Six of them played "Master of the Table," where one player is the "Master," and stays there until someone scores two points in a row, thereby becoming the new "Master." (New person always serves; if he loses, next person is up; if he scores, then the "Master" serves, and if the new person scores again, he's the new "Master.") Most of us actually call this King of the Table, including the girls, but I don't want to get in trouble with the girls' parents if I use that name!

The other half did the all-time favorite of the younger kids - creating intricate pyramids with paper cups, and then knocking them down. After they create what I like to call the "Pretty Good Pyramid of Egypt" or the "Pretty Good Wall of China," they line up, I feed multiball, and they knock it down. When we're down to one cup, I put a ball under it and claim it's a nuclear bomb that'll blow up the galaxy, and they have 60 seconds to knock it down, taking turns with two shots each. Yesterday the galaxy was saved by Giovanni Ratti, who smacked the cup over just 22 seconds in.

After picking up all the cups - there are a lot - along with the balls, the session is over, though I invariably go an extra 5-10 minutes as the knock over the cups. Then it's free play for those who can stay longer, usually for another 20 minutes or so.

Crystal Wang, ESPN, and USA Today

Crystal Wang will be featured in ESPN and USA Today this next week. ESPN is interviewing her today (and may come back on Monday or Tuesday), while USA Today is coming in on Tuesday. Special thanks to USATT Media Consultant Richard Finn for helping put these together. Crystal, who turned 13 just four days ago and is already rated 2469, is the youngest member of the USA National Team in history, as well as the youngest USA Under 22 Champion - in fact, she's the two youngest, winning it at age 11 and 12!

Free Hand Rule

Yesterday, in my blog about Most Interesting Rules, I wrote about how it was required to have a free hand, saying:

Because the rules define both a playing hand and a non-playing hand, it is illegal to play with a racket in both hands, since then you wouldn't have a non-playing hand. However, taking this to its logical conclusion, doesn't this mean that if you hit the ball with a two-handed grip you lose the point, since you wouldn't have a free hand? (I've seen tennis players play this way.)

This is one of those issues that has come up periodically over the years. I know it came up as an issue at a U.S. Open or Nationals, and I think there was mention of it in USA Table Tennis Magazine. In each of these cases, it was ruled that since the rules refer to the free hand, a player must have a free hand, and so it is not legal to play with two rackets. I'm told that others interpret this differently. (I emailed a few times about this with Kagin Lee.)

For example, would it be legal to hold the racket in the mouth, thereby having two free hands, when the rules refer to the free hand in the singular, and also refer to a playing hand which you no longer would have? I've done this in exhibitions, but here's a video of Ibrahim Hamato (2:43), an armless player who plays very well with the racket in his mouth. The rules allow a player to adjust the serve due to handicap, but not in a rally - and so some could argue that Hamato's play is illegal since he doesn't have a playing hand. In fact, the rules states that "A player strikes the ball if he or she touches it in play with his or her racket, held in hand, or with his or her racket hand below the wrist." So apparently racket in mouth is not legal.

So I'm beginning to think that there really is no specific rule that outlaws having two rackets, one in each hand. Are there any eagle-eyed rules buffs who can cite one, saving me the trouble of going through them again? The ITTF rules do refer to the racket in the singular multiple times, if that counts. Think of the possibilities - you don't even have to be ambidextrous. If you can have two rackets, you can also switch them back and forth!!! Perhaps have inverted on both sides on your "normal" racket, but sometimes switch hands and use the other, which might have long pips!

USATT Committee Chairs

USATT is now getting into the nitty-gritty of appointing USATT Committee Chairs, and soon after we'll be appointing committee members. Here's the USATT Announcement on this. While the deadline has already passed, anyone can still be considered. Since I'm on the board, I've gotten all the applications and will be going over them soon. Next week we have a teleconference to go over all this and make appointments.

Don't Skip the Warm Up (Unless You're Trying to Lose)

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

Ask the Coach Show #85 - How to Run a Successful Club

Here's the video (29:11). While the title refers to one of their segments, they actually cover a number of topics in each video.

Chinese Team Finalized for World Championships

Here's the article, which lists the players, whose playing doubles together, and lots of video links.

Want to Buy or Sell Used Equipment?

Here's the new Used Table Tennis Equipment - Buy & Sell Facebook page.

Ping Pong Map App

Here's the Uberpong Map App. Want to find the closest place to play? Here's how to do it!

Kanak Jha Preparing for the Pan Am and US Team Trials

Here's the video (1:27). He'll have some tough competition.

2015 Kuwait Open Final: Xu Xin vs. Ma Long

Here's the highlights video (2:28).

GoPro in Action - Table Tennis Practice

Here's the video (1:14) showing what it's like if you practice with a video camera around your neck.

USA Today Features Behind-the-Back Countersmash

Here's the feature, where they consider whether he's a Jedi.

What Happens When Your YouTube Video Goes Viral?

Here's the article by the guy from the Expert in a Year Challenge, whose video Guy Plays Table Tennis Every Day for a Year (5 min) is now up to 1,294,191 hits. Table tennis videos don't often go viral, but we've suddenly had two of them, with the recent Greatest Table Tennis Shot video (54 sec, the one with the behind-the-back countersmash by Kit Jeerapaet, see USA Today segment above) now up to 1,812,186 hits.

Malta's Mario Genovese Sets Record with Most National Titles

Here's the article, where he's pictured with a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records. He's won Men's Singles 21 times and Men's Doubles 16 times, a total of 37 titles, topping the 36 won by England's Desmond Douglas, as well as the 32 by Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium.

Airball - Table Tennis Revolution?

Here's the video (22 sec) showing these new squeezable 3D ping-pong balls in action. Alas, when I went to the website listed I couldn't find them there. (I emailed asking about them.)

I Love My Robot

Here's the funny table tennis ad (1:19) for a Newgy Robo Pong.

Mostly Non-Table Tennis - FREE Copy of Sorcerers in Space!

My table tennis books sell pretty well, but my humorous fantasy novel, Sorcerers in Space . . . not so well. Very few people even know about the book. It hasn't even been reviewed on Amazon. (Contrast that with Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers, with 35 reviews.) So let's change that.

I will send a FREE copy of the novel to the first five people who ask for it, who promise to write a review on Amazon. It only has to be a paragraph, though you can write longer. If interested, email me and I'll send you the book. If you want the print version (326 pages), I'll need your address. If you want the Kindle version, all I need is your email address, and I can have it sent to your Kindle. (I'll put a note up here as soon as I get five takers.) I'm not going to ask for positive reviews, but if you don't like humorous fantasy that satirizes the 1960s U.S.-Soviet space race with sorcerers instead of astronauts, then you probably don't want the novel!

Table tennis is not central to the story, but the main character is a 13-year-old sorcerer's apprentice who has to give up his ping-pong dreams to save the world. (And yes, in my alternate universe, Kennedy is still president in 1969 - he survived the 1963 assassination attempt and won an illegal third term in 1968. Lee Harvey Oswald is now his faithful servant, or so it seems.) Here's the book's description:

It is 1969, at the height of tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Neil, 13, badly wants to be someone. Instead he's stuck as a sorcerer's apprentice for Gus, the "meanest sorcerer in the world." Gus creates a magical talisman to spy on the Soviets, but instead it spies on them and sends text into space. A Giant Face in the Sky shows up, reading the text. 

Since whoever gets to the Face first can lob down spells and have the world at their mercy, the Race to the Face begins. The Soviets invade the U.S. in their attempts to kill Neil, who is prophesied to defeat them. A floating, talking meteor assassin named Buzz becomes Neil's companion--but in one week, Buzz must kill Neil. 

President Kennedy puts together a motley crew that includes Neil, Gus, Buzz, a dragon, the god Apollo, a 2-D sorcerer, and the sorceress Jackie Kennedy. Can they make it to the Face before the Soviets? And before Buzz kills Neil?

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