Tips of the Week and Equipment
I’ve been doing them almost every Monday since January, 2011 - in all, 306 of them. I’m still coming up with them, but it’s not as easy as before. Do you have something you’d like me to write about? Here’s your chance - comment below! Serve (my second favorite topic!), receive, strokes, footwork, tactics (my favorite!), training and improving, sports psychology, equipment, tournaments - take your pick!

Tips can cover nearly all aspects of the sport. The only thing I avoid are ones on specific equipment. I’m sponsored by Butterfly, so writing about rival equipment would be a problem. At the same time, if I write strictly about Butterfly equipment, then my writing is a bit biased. So long ago I decided to stay away from discussing specific equipment in the Tips.

The Tips are all online, but in chronological order. If you want to see them organized in logical order, by subject, with a table of contents, then you can read the first 300 of them this way in...

Coaching Almost Non-Stop from 11:15 AM to 8:30 PM Takes Its Toll
Yeah, I did that this past Sunday, not easy at age 57, and now I’m paying the bill. On Monday I had 4.5 hours of coaching scheduled, but one kid came down sick and so I “only” did three hours – but toward the end my back was killing me. I had to “retire” any looping in rallies with students. On top of that, my right Achilles tendon was screaming, “Stop moving or I’ll throw a fit,” and throw a fit it did as I developed a subtle limp toward the end that wasn’t so subtle later that night.

Anyway, after a good night’s sleep, the back and Achille’s tendon are back to mostly just angry muttering. I only have two hours of coaching today and two tomorrow, and then I can rest them on Thurday and Friday. (I’m normally off those two days, but I’m subbing on Thursday, teaching a class, but that’s not as physical as private coaching. I’ll wear running shoes instead of table tennis shoes – I’m sure Mr. Achilles will approve.)

I remember back in my late teens and early and mid-twenties...

More Table Tennis Tips
As noted in my blog yesterday, my new book, More Table Tennis Tips, is out! It’s 200 pages, $11.99, and covers the 150 Tips of the Week from 2014-2016, organized by topic, in logical progression. It’s the follow-up from "Table Tennis Tips," which covered the 150 Tips from 2011-2013. (Kindle version will come later.) By now so I’ll have money for dinner!!! (UPDATE on Saturday morning - kindle version is up!)

USATT Coaching Committee
On Monday I was appointed chair of the USATT Coaching Committee. (This will be my second tenure. I chaired the committee back in 1991-1995, and was on the committee 2010-2013.) This is a big honor, and will allow me to work directly on some of the things I promised to do when I ran for the USATT Board. (I’m also a bit more enthused about this position then I was with chairing the League Committee the last two years – that was important, but...

USATT Teleconference, New Coaching Chair, and the Service Judges Proposal
The USATT Board had a teleconference on Monday night, starting 7PM. (I blogged about the agenda on Monday.) Among other things, we appointed a number of USATT committee chairs and members. At exactly 8:36PM on Monday night I was appointed to my second tenure as chair of the USATT Coaching Committee. (USATT will publish online the full listings of soon of the various committee chairs and members we just appointed.) I’ll blog later about my plans for the coaching committee. My previous tenure was 1991-1995; I was also on the coaching committee 2010-2013.

The meeting was scheduled to last only 70 minutes, but took about two hours. This was mostly because the seven minutes allocated to the Rules Committee Proposal for Service Judges ended up taking something like 40 minutes of debate. The proposal was to give referees the option of appointing service judges on each end of the court at the upcoming USA Nationals, where they can better see the legality of a serve, in particular whether the...