June 5, 2015

Vision and Growing the Sport

Success at developing table tennis, and anything else, involves three things: Vision, Planning, and Implementation. If you want to be a successful leader, be a VIP – Vision, and Implementation after Planning. (Should I trademark that? I just made it up!) If you don’t know where you are trying to go, you won’t get there. If you don’t plan on how to get there, you won’t get there. If you don’t implement your plan, it won’t happen and you won’t get there. Two out of three doesn’t cut it.

Someone can be successful without all three if they are in partnership with someone who complements them so that, together, they have all three. Or one can do perhaps two of these three things, be successful on a small scale, and claim victory while others are pulling out their hair in frustration.

In my 39 years in table tennis, nothing has been more frustrating than to watch leaders unable to understand this simple concept, or to watch those few who did understand it meet up with this opposition. I’m sort of flabbergasted that after all these years, I got fed up and ran for the board – and lo and behold, our new CEO Gordon Kaye, does understand this concept. Here’s an example.

When I ran for the board, one of the things I campaigned on was to “Turn U.S. Open and Nationals into premier events,” with the goal to “attract players, spectators, TV, and sponsors to our sport.” (That’s word for word what I wrote.) I also wrote, “We need to find permanent homes for the Open and Nationals, and let the local TT community develop and market them into big properties, like tennis and other sports did with their major events.” Since I’ve worked with local table tennis communities since I co-founded the Maryland Table Tennis Center in 1992, this is an aspect I know something about, and so my vision matched something I could plan for and implement.

But Gordon has contacts or knows how to get in the door with what I’ll call “high-end” groups that I wouldn’t have a clue how to work with, such as Caesars Palace and other organizations in Las Vegas, who know how to put on a show. So his vision involves turning the Open and Nationals into premier events through these groups, and turning them into high-profile Las Vegas events. Our vision is similar, but the planning and implementation are very different. He’s been planning and implementing changes to our upcoming U.S. Open, and if all goes well, over the next few years our Opens and Nationals will grow and become these premier events we all want. If it happens, it didn’t “just happen” – it happened because Gordon had a vision, planned for it, and implemented it. (If it doesn’t happen, well, we’ll discuss that with Gordon in a few years when his contract is up for renewal!)

Those who read my blog regularly know my Vision: Regional team leagues and coaching programs that lead to huge memberships, and national tournaments and leagues allowing professional players to make a living in this country. USATT has always had internal fighting between those who favor grass roots development (i.e. large membership) and those who favor elite development (i.e. professionalizing the sport so top U.S. players can make a living, or winning Olympic medals – China says hello). I’ve always argued that the two are the same – you need the large number of players or there’s little chance of professionalizing the sport, not to mention challenging the Chinese when we only have a small base of players.

USATT currently has about 9000 members. Imagine if we had 100,000 – primarily through league memberships – then there’d be money pouring in to USATT as well as the major dealers (since they’d be selling to all these players), and suddenly both USATT and sponsors could support professional players through sponsorships, tournaments, and professional leagues. Plus, of course, with the larger base of players we’d be far more likely to find and/or develop a Jan-Ove Waldner.

So my primary goal at the start is grass roots, where we develop regional team leagues and training centers. Much of this would be done through the development of regional associations, which would also run state championships. (One of my goals is to have 50 state championships next year, with the winners from each invited to take part in a “Parade of Champions” at the U.S. Nationals in December where they’d all be honored. Just as the U.S. Tennis Association uses the U.S. Open to promote itself, I see state championships as a way for regional associations to promote themselves and grow. This was actually CEO Gordon’s idea, which I’ve stolen from him. Shhh!)

But Vision won’t do it alone. You need the Planning and Implementation. And lo and behold, I’m now in a position with USA Table Tennis where I can do much of this. I actually have three positions with USATT: I’m on the Board of Directors as an “At-Large Representative” (since January, when I was elected to a four-year term); and for about two months I’ve been the Regional Associations Coordinator (appointed by the CEO) and the chair of the League Committee (appointed by the Board). All three are unpaid, volunteer positions. (Alas!)

It’s ironic that I’m chairing the League Committee when I’m more on the coaching side. But if someone doesn’t chair the League Committee and put together a proto-type regional team league that can spread, it’ll never happen. It’s my great wish that I’ll get this done in the next two years, and then someone else can step in and continue the work as chair of the USATT League Committee. (I’d likely stay on and focus on my other two positions to develop the sport.)

I’m currently in the planning stage for all of this, which really means watching and learning. I’m watching how the new Capital Area League works, and other ones. I’m looking at how other sports and table tennis around the world operates regional associations. But I’m also facing reality – I won’t be doing much until this fall. Why? Because I’m a professional table tennis coach who’s about to hit the summer, where kids are out of school. We have eleven consecutive weeks of training camps at the Maryland Table Tennis Center, and between that, my regular coaching outside the camps, and writing (including this blog), I won’t have much time or energy for much else. So I’ll just keep watching and learning for now.

But this fall I hope to get a lot more active. I’ve already written a feature article on my plans for USATT Insider, though many details have to be filled in before I submit it for publication this fall. I’ve started work on a number of things, such as proto-type regional association bylaws, league plans, compiling a listing of current state championships, and the recruiting and training of professional coaches. It’s on hold now until the fall, but I expect to go public with a number of related plans by the Nationals in December. We’ll have a lot to talk about then!

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 16 (1988-89)

Yesterday Tim Boggan and I got about 1/4 of the way through chapter 23, so today we only have to finish that and chapter 24, and then we are “done.” I put “done” in quotes because we won’t really be done. We’ll spend much of Saturday doing corrections – Tim has been going over the roughly 400 pages, marking them up with changes, such as “You fool! This photo goes here!!!” From past experience, corrections will take a day. Then I’ll need time to prepare it for publication on Amazon, create the flyer and ad for the new volume, and update the wepage. (Also, Tim has warned me that chapter 24 is a doozy. By that he means there’s roughly a photo corresponding to every word in the text – and there’s a lot of text.)

Friday will likely be the twelfth consecutive 17-hour day I’ve worked. I wrote about how Tim has enslaved me on Wednesday. I hope you clicked on all the links – if not, go back and do so! (The first few are pretty straightforward, but they get more and more outrageous as you go on.) I am so looking forward to going back to leisurely 12-hour days.

Above I wrote about VIP: Vision, and Implementation after Planning. And guess what? That’s exactly what he did. And that’s why Tim’s a VIP!

• Vision: A comprehensive history of U.S. Table Tennis, including extensive international coverage.
• Planning: Each issue is meticulously planned, first about what will be covered, and then the huge number of photos. He has pages and pages of notes on what goes where, and printouts of text with marks showing where the huge number of photos go.
• Implementation: That’s two parts, the writing, and the page layouts, which is what we’re spending two weeks creating.

A few recent quotes:

• “I can always turn a terribly horrible picture into a horrible picture.” -Larry
• Larry: “Would you rather use the really nice photo, or the black, blurry blob that matches the other photo?” Tim: “Use the blurry one.”
• “Please don’t tell anyone how stupid I was.” -Tim
• “I must have been insane.” -Tim, on the unbelievably huge number of photos he had planned for the last chapter, which we plan to do today.
• “You’re still here?” -Larry every morning.

MDTTC Summer Camps

Our summer camps at MDTTC start on Monday, June 15, and continue for eleven consecutive weeks. Each camp is Mon-Fri, 10AM-6PM, with a two-hour lunch break. Here’s info. The camps are for all levels, but are dominated by kids. If you don’t mind being a room full of hard-working kids, come and join us!

U.S. Open Entries

As of this writing, the upcoming U.S. Open has 996 entries, and will almost for certain go over 1000, making it one of the most successful US Opens ever. Here’s the listing! When the entries are all in, I’ll blog about how it compares in history to past ones and other interesting stuff I find.

Ask the Coach

Episode #136 (21:25) – Which Serve Should I Learn? (and other topics).

Mark Simpson: Train Smart, Play Smart

Here’s the new podcast (27:23) at Expert Table Tennis. Mark “…studied psychology at the University of Nottingham, played table tennis semi-professionally in several European countries, and completed a Master’s degree in Sport Psychology.” “In today’s episode I talk to Mark about his ‘Train Smart, Play Smart’ seminars that he is delivering to table tennis clubs up and down the UK.”

Here’s a list of topics covered:

• How Mark became a semi-professional table tennis player.
• Why he moved away from the UK.
• What he is doing back in the UK for a couple of weeks.
• All about his ‘Train Smart, Play Smart’ seminars.
• How you can improve your table tennis with imagery.
• A three-step routine to use in between points in a match.
• What services Mark offer to table tennis players looking to improve their performance.

Redesign My Brain for Table Tennis

Here’s the new video (5:12). “William Henzell and Trevor Brown try to teach Todd Sampson how to improve his brain by playing Table Tennis.”

“The Spirit of Pong”

Looking to get psyched up to play championship table tennis? Then buy a copy of my fantasy table tennis novel, The Spirit of Pong, and see what happens! If it doesn’t get you psyched to play, then you just don’t have any table tennis spirit!!! (The novel includes some serious training sequences – the scenes with Ogimura are straight out of a Rocky movie.) Of course, if you are just interested in learning, perhaps get Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers, or one of my other table tennis books. (It’s my blog, so I get to blog about my books!)

Ask a Pro Anything: Mima Ito

Here’s the interview (4:52) with Adam Bobrow. 14-year-old Mima of Japan is already ranked #11 in the world. In March this year she won Women’s Singles at the German Open, the youngest player ever to win an ITTF Pro Tour Event. . In 2014 she teamed with Miu Hirano to win Women’s Doubles at the German Open and become the youngest players ever to do so (both were 13).

This May Be the Best Shot You’ll Ever See

Here’s the video (26 sec) – and it happens at 9-all in the fifth! After watching, replay it and watch the look on the opponent’s face.

Training Makes Perfect!

Here’s the new ITTF promo video (37 seconds) that features players training for the Australian Open (which begins today), with some unique camera angles.

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.

Table Tennis Humor

• The School of Bounce (2:30) – a new hilarious table tennis video!
• Cat Net Pong (65 sec video) – you’ll never need a net again.
• Cartwheel pong (11 sec video) – remember, this is just ping-pong!
• Afterhours with Princess (47 sec video) – here’s Adam Bobrow goofing off with a member of the Philippines National Team. Some crazy sidespin shots, and I don’t mean just the ball spinning! I believe her full name is Rommelia Princess Naval Tambo.
• Budget Negotiations Pong – here’s a table tennis cartoon that satirizes budget negotiations between Obama and Republicans – and the latter won’t like this. (But absolutely no political comments here!)

Non-Table Tennis – Review of “Leashing the Muse”

My fantasy story “Leashing the Muse” was a cover story for the June issue of Space and Time. The issue was reviewed at SFRevu – here’s what they wrote:

"Leashing the Muse" by Larry Hodges – William is an English professor, distressed by the lack of literary quality in the writing of his students. But suddenly, the words on the paper change, rewritten to improve the quality of the prose. This happens everywhere and to anything, even the already great works of literature. It turns out this is being done by Polyhymnia the Muse. William finds her and confronts her about it in this amusing tale.

Here’s a more comprehensive description of the story, with minor spoilers:

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.

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