July 21, 2015

USATT Board Teleconference

The USATT Board of Directors had a teleconference last night, starting at 7PM Eastern Time and lasting about 70 minutes. As one of the at-large members, I was on the call. Alas, only five of the nine board members were able to make the call – me, Peter Scudner, Anne Cribbs, Ed Hogshead, and Kagin Lee. But five of nine is a quorum, and so the meeting went as scheduled.

I spent perhaps an hour preparing for the meeting – going over the draft of the minutes of the previous meeting and suggested changes, and going over the budget figures from the Audit Committee Report. All looked fine. However, the real time-taker were a pair of two-hour phone calls, one before and one after the teleconference. One was with another USATT official where went over everything about USATT; the other was a more local call about everything about MDTTC, the club I coach at. So basically everything that could possibly be of importance to anyone was discussed on those phone calls. And I still managed to finalize the new MDTTC Newsletter, spend an hour organizing my notes on upcoming USATT plans, and cross off nine other things on my todo list.

Technically, except for a short closed session (to discuss a certain disciplinary matter regarding a member who had apparently done naughty things), the meeting was "open," and I could write all I want about it. But I don't feel comfortable doing that, where as soon as I get off the call I start writing about it, in competition with USATT itself, which also gives out such news. So as in the past, I'll wait until they publish the actions/votes, which should go online in a few days. The actual minutes, which are far more detailed, don't go up until they are approved, which will likely happen on August 22, at the in-person meeting in Chicago. But the gist of the meeting:

  1. We approved the minutes of the previous meeting;
  2. We appointed a new ratings committee – I'll let USATT announce the names first, but the plan is to both to fix up problems with the rating system and perhaps work with Canada so that we can have a joint North American rating system;
  3. Had an Audit Committee Report from Anne Cribbs;
  4. Had an extensive CEO report on the US Open, the Open & Nationals in 2016, Pan Am Games update, Membership, Sponsorship, Fundraising, ITTF Pro Tour, and the World Veterans Championships;
  5. Closed session (shhh!);
  6. Discussed the agenda and plans for the Aug. 22 meeting in Chicago (and we will now likely meet Friday night as well, Aug. 21). I have four bylaw proposals for that meeting, which I'll blog about later;
  7. We voted to liquidate all USATT properties and turn over all assets to the Donald Trump Election Campaign (no wait, I think we voted that one down – my memory is hazy on this one);
  8. Adjourn!!!

Pan Am Games Update

They are in Toronto, with the table tennis July 19-21 (Sun-Tue).

  • Men's Team: Timothy Wang, Kanak Jha, Jimmy Butler, Coach Stefan Feth
  • Women's Team: Jiaqi Zheng, Lily Zhang, Yue Wu, Coach Doru Gheorghe
  • Live Scoring for USA matches
  • USATT home page for the event
  • Day One Results (Sunday)
  • Day Two Results (Monday) – Women reach semifinals, men lose in quarterfinals to Puerto Rico, with Jim Butler hobbling about with a leg injury
  • Article on USA Women reaching the semifinals

Playing as the Underdog

Here's the coaching article by Han Xiao. (This actually went up after I'd left for the US Open on July 4, but somehow I missed seeing it.)

Ask the Coach Show

Episode #157 (32:03) – Correcting Errors and other topics.

Rolling Ball Loop Exercise

Here's the video (42 sec) of a player who has to loop a ball rolled off the edge. It's a good exercise to develop timing and spin contact.

Actions of a Stroke in Modern Table Tennis

Here's the coaching video (20:44) by ITTF Level 2 Coach Phong Pham. (It's listed as "Clinic 2," but I couldn't find "Clinic 1.")

11 Questions with Carl Danner

Here's the USATT interview with the chair of the High Performance Committee.

2015 Hyson Chicago International Open Stirs Excitement for Table Tennis in the Midwest

Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

Table Tennis Coach Lends Renowned Services to Rocky Mountain State Games

Here's the article featuring Richard McAfee in the Colorado Spring Gazette.

Robo Ping-Pong; Stanford Students Design, "Teach" Robots to Play

Here's the article and link to two-minute video. Our robot overlords are almost ready to take over USATT.

World Record for Most Player in Action in an Outdoor Space

Here's the ITTF article on the record set in Ocaña, Spain.

"You don't know how to DANCE but TABLE TENNIS makes you a professional dancer."

Here's the picture (actually, six of them together).

Box of Balls Dropped on Ariel Hsing and Michael Landers

Here's the video (48 sec, mostly in slo-mo) and Ariel's short report on her week in China, where she and Michael did the Ping-Pong Concerto. (See segment on this in yesterday's blog, toward the end.)

The Wristiest Serve Around?

Here's the video (24 sec).

British Open Winner Zach Johnson is a Table Tennis Shark

Here's the article from Table Tennis Nation.

More Minion Pong

Here's a new picture. (Here's the non-Facebook version. For more minions playing table tennis pictures and videos, see the last item in my July 3 blog.)

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