February 25, 2019

Tip of the Week
Top Ten Ways to Turn a Match Around.

Weekend Coaching
This past week in my two Beginning Junior Classes (Thursday and Sunday nights) the focus was on smashing. We started the sessions (which are two different groups of players) with about 30 minutes of basic stroking and footwork drills. Then came the demo and lecture on smashing. Then the players went into their groups, and either smashes against multiball, or against coaches who fished. (My assistants on Thursday are Lidney Castro and Aron Zhang; on Sundays Lidney and John Hsu.)

At the Saturday Junior League (which is half league, half coaching), we did the usual doubles and singles matches, often with improvised rules to force players to work on specific aspects of their games. For example, one segment, for the lower-ranked players, had them serving backspin to the backhand, the receiver pushed down the line to the forehand, the serve forehand looped, and they played out the point. For the advanced players, they had similar drills, such as serve and backhand loop, or serve and loop against a deep push anywhere.

At the Sunday Talent Program (more advanced juniors), as usual I did lots and Lots and LOTS of multiball in my station. (We often break them into rotating groups.) We also had them play up-down tables, except (like the Saturday league), the server served backspin, receiver pushed to forehand, and server forehand looped. Then came physical training and then Brazilians. And then I raced home to watch the Academy Awards! (I've seen every movie nominated for Best Picture and nearly every other movie nominated for anything.)

USATT Committees
Here's the USATT news item. Here's my January 28 blog on this. Alas, just when I thought I was almost done with my USATT work as a board member, I was pulled back in! I was asked to be on the USATT Committee Selection Task Force, along with Gary Schlager and Erica Wu. I now have 35 resumes and/or letters of intent to go through from an even 30 people who have applied to be chair or a member of one or more of 19 committees.

How did I get pulled into this? Oh yeah, I said yes….

I also have an excel spreadsheet with the 30 names along the left, and the 19 committees across the top, with a "c" for those interested in chairing a committee, or an "m" if interested in being a member. There are a total of 51 committee requests. Guess what I'll be doing this afternoon?

USATT Election
(I told all three candidates that I'd run links to all of their campaign items, and will run this election segment every week until the election on March 3.)

A USA Table Tennis election is taking place. I just received the USATT election email, and presumably so did all adult USATT members. If you did not, contact USATT. If USATT doesn't have your email address or your DOB, you wouldn't have received the email, so contact them and give them this info.

There are three candidates running for my current position - Mike Babuin, Bruce Liu, and Lily Yip. (As I've blogged about, I chose not to run for re-election. It's someone else's turn! I expect to stay neutral in the election.) My term was supposed to end Dec. 31, but for various reasons it was postponed, and the bylaws say I stay on the board until they finish the election. That should happen either in about a week (if one of the three gets over 50%), or about three weeks or so (if they have to do a runoff between the top two finishers).

Here is the USATT Election News Item. Here is the pertinent info from it:

  • Voting will start on February 25, 2019, and end on March 3, 2019. Voting will be on-line only.  
  • Eligible voters must have a current USATT membership that has been valid for at least 60 days prior to February 25, 2019, be in good standing with the association and be 18 or older. 
  • The ballot will be emailed to USATT members on February 25th.
  • Members should vote for only one candidate. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the eligible votes cast, then there will be a run-off election between the top two candidates who received the most votes.

Here is election info from each. They are alphabetized, but please see info on all three.

=>MIKE BABUIN

=>BRUCE LIU

=>LILY YIP

2019 ITTF Junior Circuit, Swedish Junior & Cadet Open
Here's the home page for the event held this past weekend in Orebro, Sweden. (I think it was held in conjunction with the Safir International junior event.) Team USA won one gold and five bronze:

2019 ITTF Swedish Youth Open

  • Mini Cadet Girls: Bronze Emily Tan
  • Junior Boys : Bronze Nikhil Kumar

2019 Safir International

  • Under 14 Boys: Gold Ted Li
  • Under 14 Girls: Bronze Linda Shu + Swathi Giri
  • Under 16 Girls: Bronze Sabrina Zhu

2019 Pan American Games Trial and First Adult National Ranking Event Tournament Homepage
Here's the USATT news item.

Capital Area League
The Capital Area League is for players in the Maryland/DC/Northern Virginia area. Here's the note just sent out: "Today, February 25th is the last day for the $50 Early-Bird savings. Don't miss out! If you were thinking of forming a team, take advantage of the savings and register by 11:59 pm today. You have until March 5th to finalize your player roster. If you have already submitted a team and paid your fee, thank you. Need a team? We may be able to help. Send us a note. Register now." (Final deadline is March 5.)

Pongmobile Cup
Here's the video (5:35) of the tournament highlights of the Pongmobile Cup held this past weekend in Washington DC. Here is the recorded livestream (9 hours 46 min - but you can jump around), and here are the results! Here's the Butterfly news item.

Ten Things That Require Zero Talent
Here's the picture. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Reverse BACKHAND Pendulum Serve
Here's the article by Samson Dubina.

Table Tennis Rules
Here's the article by Eli Baraty. (And someone spent some Photoshop time getting Arnold from "Commando" into a table tennis picture!)

A Tale of Three Tournaments
Here's the article by Coach Jon. Article and video features 1949 English Open (Reisman vs. Barna), 1997 Worlds (Waldner vs. Samsonov), and 2017 Worlds (Ma Long vs. Fan Zhendong).

Talented Left Handers, Major Challengers
Here's the ITTF article that features USA cadet start Nikhil Kumar.

Table Tennis Tidbits #44
Here's the article and video (40min) from Robert Ho. "Not Losing vs Winning: At the 2018 China Championships, Wu Yang, currently the top woman chopper in the world played teammate Ding Ning, twice Women’s World Champion, and an Olympic champion.  Although they have had numerous close matches, I’m not aware that Wu has ever beaten Ding."

WAB Featured Club: NYITTC
Here's the article by Steve Hopkins.

Backhand Serve Against a Left-Handed Player
Here's the video (2:05) from Viktor Tolkachev. The same serves work for a lefty against a righty.

The Deadly Strawberry Flip
Here's the video (3:41). (From last year, but I don't think I ever linked to it.)

Inside My Mind | Quadri Aruna
Here's the ITTF video (64 sec).

Daniel Habesohn | Behind-the-Back Master
Here's the video (60 sec). He's world #37 from Austria.

Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships
Here's the ITTF promo video (31 sec) for the event coming up April 21-28 in Budapest, Hungary.

World Rankings Video
Here's the video (59 sec) featuring the world top ten from 2016 to present.

Is China's Dominance in Table Tennis Real? Ranking History of Table Tennis (2001-2019)
Here's the video (5:37).

Nittaku ITTF Monthly Pongcast - January 2019
Here's the video (12:55).

Birmingham Man Holds World Record in Table Tennis
Here's the video (2:20) featuring Homer Brown.

Philip and Parkinson's
Here's the video (2:23). "I made a film about my friend Philip, his battle against Parkinson's disease and how table tennis helps him through it. Not an easy watch but I hope you take a look."

Ma Long Withdraws from Marvelous 12
Here's the ITTF article.

Chinese Table Tennis Chief Will Give Up Pay for 'Poor" Games Preparation
Here's the article featuring Liu Guoliang.

Africa Signs Memorandum of Understanding
Here's the ITTF article. "Earlier in February the European Table Tennis Union signed a Continental Development Memorandum of Understanding; now Africa has followed suit."

History of USATT – Volume 22
Here is Chapter Ten of Tim Boggan's History of U.S. Table Tennis, subtitled "May-July 1996 Tournaments." Or you can buy it and previous (and future) volumes at www.timboggantabletennis.com. Volume 22 is 469 pages with 1447 graphics, and covers all the wild things that happened in 1996-97 - and I'm mentioned a lot! Why not buy a copy - or the entire set at a discount? Tim sells them directly, so when you order them, you get it autographed - order your copy now!

A Little Side-to-Side Footwork . . . with Paddle in Mouth?
Here's the video (1:30)! That's Egyptian Paralympic star Ibrahim Hamadtou.

Ping Pong: The Animation Opening
Here's the video (1:29).

Mirrored Pong Maneuvers
Here's the video (29 sec)!

Table Tennis Whacks Climate Change Deniers
Here's the cartoon!

How the Sport Was Named - and the Third Choice
Here's the cartoon!

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