March 17, 2016

Off Until Tuesday
I'm leaving very early Friday morning for Lunacon, a science fiction convention in Rye Brook, NY, March. 18-20. I'm there to promote my SF novel Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions – I'm on six panels, doing a reading, and will be in two autograph sessions. (Here's my bio and schedule. My reading is 4-4:30PM on Saturday. And remember, as I've blogged, the novel has lots of table tennis!) I'll be returning very late on Sunday night/Monday morning, so no blog on Monday. See you on Tuesday! (Coincidentally, the convention is about 15 min away from the 4-star Westchester Open held this weekend, but I don't know if I'll have time to stop by.)

2016 State Championships (so far)
There are currently 15 State Championships sanctioned for 2016 – but it's still early in the year. There'll be plenty more – for example, I'm running the Maryland State Championships later this year, but haven't sanctioned it yet. I know there'll also be a DC championships, and based on the listing for 2015 State Championships, there are plenty more to come. Here's the original USATT news item on this, with info on how you can run one. (Here's the USATT news item from earlier this week, on Regional Team Leagues and State Championships.)

I'm especially happy to see the 4-star California (May 6-8) and New York (May 14) State Championships! These are new, in two of the biggest states, and I'm guessing are the first time in history that a state championship was a 4-star event! A great kudos goes to Rajul Sheth and Will Shortz for setting these up. Hopefully they and others can work with USATT in getting publicity for these events.

And so here is the listing (hopefully none sanctioned were left out), which includes some already run. (It also includes both the Florida Closed and State Games.) Why not enter? Even if you can't win, you get to meet up with all the other players in your state – and like a lottery ticket, there's always that chance….

• Winter State Games of Oklahoma, Jan 23, Oklahoma City, OK, 0-star. Contact: Britt Salter, bsalter5@gmail.com
• Minnesota State Championships, Jan. 30-31, Eden Prairie, MN, 2-star. Contact: Mitch Seidenfeld, mitch@tabletennismn.com
• Arkansas State Closed Championships, Feb. 27, Little Rock, AR, 2-star. Contact: Eugene Atha, eatha@swbell.net
• Alabama State Team Championships 2016, Mar. 19, Anniston, AL, 2-star. Contact: Mike Harris, 238mike@bellsouth.net
• PA State Closed Championships, Apr. 16, Philadelphia, PA, 2-star. Contact: Brian Hoffman, brianhoffman@att.net
• Wisconsin Closed State Championships, Apr. 16, Shorewood, WI, 1-star. Contact: Linda Leaf, linda.leaf@gmail.com
• Indiana State Championship, Apr. 23-24, Indianapolis, IN, 1-star. Contact: Robert Clyde, indytabletennis@sbcglobal.net
• Arizona Closed, Apr. 30 – May 1, Phoenix, AZ, 1-star. Contact: Jay Turberville, pttc@studio522.com
• California State Championship, May 6-8, Milpitas, CA, 4-star. Contact: Rajul Sheth, rajul@indiacc.org
• New York State Championships, May 14, Westchester, NY, 4-star. Contact: Will Shortz , wshortz@aol.com
• Missouri Show-Me State Games Open, June 4, Springfield, MO, 2-star. Contact: Bill Lewis, epcotmagic@aol.com
• Virginia State Championship at Smash TT, June 4-5, Herndon, VA, 0-star/ Contact: Michael Levene, michael@smashtt.com
• Florida Sunshine State Games 2016, June 18-19, Lakeland, FL, 0-star. Contact: Brad Woodington, bradwoodington@gmail.com
• Summer State Games of Oklahoma, June 18 OKC, OK, 0-star. Contact: Britt Salter, bsalter5@gmail.com
• Florida State Closed, Oct. 15, Orlando, FL, 2-star. Contact: Hung Tran, coachhungpp@yahoo.com

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #242 (23:00) - How Much Is Too Much Training (and other segments).

World Championships Teammates Turn Rivals at 2016 Kuwait Open
Here's the ITTF Press Release.

Stars Zhang Jike, Liu Shiwen to Descend on Dubai for Table Tennis Asian Cup
Here's the article.

Amazing Michael Maze Retires from Table Tennis
Here's the ITTF press release. (This is different than the ITTF article linked to yesterday – which had a bad address for part of the day.)

Destination: Destin
Here's the write-up of the ITTF coaching course held in Destin, TX, with head coach Roger Dickson.

International Table Tennis
Here's my periodic note 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.

Nice Rally and Behind-Back Shot!
Here's the video (26 sec).

Hardbat - the Movie
Here's the new movie (12:53). "An obsession with ping-pong disrupts an otherwise pleasant evening." It's been showing at a number of film festivals, and was the Audience Award winner at the Northside Film Festival.

The Wisdom of Charlie Brown
Here's yesterday's cartoon for Classic Peanuts, where Charlie answers Lucy's question about life's mysteries. He lists eleven things we should all do – and number 11 is the one we all need to learn in table tennis! (I think he was talking about baseball pitching.) Here are eleven items – I think I rank high in all of them, though I haven't sent many packages overseas lately, though I did send some comp copies of my books there. How about you? (Confession: I lob a lot, so about #11…)

1. Be kind.
2. Don't smoke.
3. Smile a lot.
4. Eat sensibly.
5. Avoid cavities.
6. Mark your ballot carefully.
7. Avoid too much sun.
8. Send overseas packages early.
9. Love all creatures above and below.
10. Insure your belongings.
11. Try to keep the ball low.

Medieval Pong?
Here's the picture – but I have no idea what's going on! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

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