August 28, 2017

Tip of the Week
Covering the Wide Angles.

$2700 Butterfly MDTTC August Open, PongMobile, and that Nasty Todo List
Getting up to blog after a pair of 15-hour days is like facing Mayweather for 12 rounds, then fighting The Mountain from Game of Thrones, and then jogging a marathon or two. This past weekend I ran the tournament, with great help from Mossa Barandao of PongMobile. I plan to do a write-up later today, with pictures, which I’ll send off for publication at the news sites at USATT and Butterfly, and link to from my blog afterwards. You can get complete results at Omnipong. Congrats to champions Jishan Liang, Khaleel Asgarali, Ed Watts, Kallista Liu, Haoran Guan, Stephanie Zhang, Todd Klinger, Xinsheng Michael Huang, George Li, and Stanley Hsu!

What’s PongMobile? Mossa sets up a station at our tournaments and leagues so players can easily look up their ratings and ratings histories, both in numbers and graphic form. (The station is always surrounded by players looking up all their friends, coaches, and rivals.) But it’s more than that. It allows you to:

  • Follow your favorite players - Stay up to date with matches played at USATT tournaments.
  • Where can I play? Find clubs nearby or when traveling.
  • Looking for tournament results? Navigate through recent tournaments with ease.

Special thanks for helping with the tournament also goes to referee and umpire Paul Kovac and Stephen Yeh. Also a thanks to John Hsu (one of our coaches), who not only took care of credit card payments (saving us time at the control desk), but also took charge of running the Under 12 Final Six RR (which also allowed him to study the players in our HW Global “Talent Program” at MDTTC).

As near as I can tell – plus or minus about two – this was the 191st USATT tournament I’ve run. Nearly all of them were two-day events. That means I’ve spent more than a year running tournaments. (On the other hand, I’ve also run or coached at training camps for over 1000 days. I blogged about the hours I’ve spent at each aspect of table tennis on June 27.) Our next one is Oct. 14-15.

When the tournament was done, I wasn’t. I had to do a lot of post-tournament paperwork. This is greatly helped by Omnipong, and as I always make sure to do, the tournament report and results were sent to USATT on Sunday, for quick processing. They sometimes get it done on Monday (today), but at the latest they will likely be up by tomorrow. (If they go up today, I’ll put up a note here.) I also had to coach a 90-minute group training session on Sunday night. Later that night I also had to do some proofing/editing of a USATT document, update the previous Hall of Fame program booklet (some new donations), and a bunch of other little stuff. Then I got to watch Game of Thrones!!! (I had it on record, and didn't start until about 11PM.) 

Today’s Table Tennis Todo list – though I doubt I’ll get to all of these today.

  • Tip of the Week
  • Blog
  • Tournament accounting
  • Tournament write-up and results
  • Tournament photos (organize, label, and link from results). Mossa took pictures of all the finalists, plus some action shots.
  • Class accounting
  • Work on USATT Coaching Committee Report (due Friday)
  • Schedule next week’s coaching (school starts, so major changes in schedule)
  • Compile list of changes in scheduling for next year’s tournaments
  • Finalize tournament sanction requests for next year
  • Respond to dozens of emails
  • Coaching from 7-9PM (6-7PM student is away)

How Training Drill Selection Can Impact Your Improvement
Here’s the article from MH Table Tennis.

How to Get More Spin on Serves (Cool Trick!)
Here’s the video (2:38) from Sam Huang. This is from 2014, but I don’t think I ever linked to it. “This video discusses a simple method to practice getting more spin on your serves.”

Tuan Le in Slow Motion
Here’s the video (5:15). Dr. Le, currently rated 2278, has been as high as 2434, and has some nice strokes.

New Videos from EmRatThich
Here are six that he put up over the weekend.

World University Games
Here’s the table tennis page. The event is taking place in Taipei, with 22 sports, with table tennis finishing on Aug. 29 (Tuesday). Alas, USA is out of all events.

Czech Open
Here’s the home page for the event that was held this past weekend in Olomouc, CZE. Here’s the Finals Summary video (69 sec).

ITTF Young Umpires’ Project – Exciting Times for Young Officials
Here’s the ITTF article.

Mudit Dani, Budding Player, to Participate in Tournaments Before Taking the Academic Plunge
Here’s the article from the India Times. “Come fall, Mudit Dani . . . will begin his undergrad studies at New York University. However, before he takes the academic course, the youngster, who is a national level junior table tennis player, has decided to squeeze in two tournaments — the Edgeball International, Chicago, and World Junior Circuit, El Salvador — this month.”

Across the Net
Here’s the September Newsletter from the Melton TTA (from Australia), with a number of interesting articles.

Table Tennis for One, With Help From a Robot
Here’s the article from the Wall Street Journal. 

Ping Pong Tournament (Extreme Pain!!!)
Here’s the video (5:37). It gets rather funny toward the end when the winner gets to hit the loser with the ball, but the winner keeps missing!

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