Tip of the Week
Whenever You Miss, Shadow Stroke.
Happy Martin Luther King Day!
Alas, I couldn't find a single picture of him playing table tennis...Photoshop, anyone, for next week?
USATT Turnover - and a Fresh Start?
I don't think USA Table Tennis has ever had so much turnover in such a short period of time - see listing below. They are almost unrecognizable from just months ago. This could be both a good and a bad thing. But it's definitely a huge opportunity!!!
It could be a good thing as it gives USATT a fresh start. And that could be a GREAT thing! (However, at least on the elite level, USATT has made great strides in recent years. The level and depth of USATT players has gone up dramatically, though this is mostly due to the rise of full-time training centers with professional coaches all over the country, a relatively new thing. The more USATT encourages this, the better things will get here.)
But fresh starts don't always work out. When the USOC essentially took over USATT in 2008 and completely changed the board of directors, I was excited for the chance of a fresh start. They held a Strategic Meeting in 2009 with 26 people to plan things out, which I attended. I spent an inordinate amount of time creating plans and practicing presentations. Alas, IMHO, much of the meeting was hijacked by a few people with bad ideas, and a huge opportunity was wasted. (Exactly zero of my plans were adopted.) Here is my Sept. 26, 2011 blog about that. Bottom line - in most organizational meetings, experience and forward thinking can't beat people who look good in a suit. :)
A fresh start could be a bad thing because it means a loss of organizational memory and continuity. (A primary reason the bad ideas mentioned above were adopted.) I've been to USATT meetings where people would bring up ideas as if they were obvious and fresh things, with no clue that they had been tried repeatedly in the past. That doesn't mean you can't try them again, but if you don't know why past attempts failed, guess what? You will likely do the same mistakes that led to failure before. It's important to have organizational memory so that you can learn from those mistakes. It's mind-boggling how often USATT has repeated the same mistakes during the 44 years I've been a member.
One problem USATT always faces during these transitions is that they are trying to serve two masters - Elite Table Tennis (in particular the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee) and the Membership. I've proposed several times that USATT solve this problem by recommending they "Instigate a Professional Players Association with its own ED, with the goal of getting sponsorships and TV for a professional circuit." I did formal proposals on this back in 2003 and 2004, and brought it up again in 2015. Alas, it would mean USATT giving up power, plus there's the problem that the USOPC partially funds USATT - if we created a professional players association, who would get that money?
Perhaps there should be more changeover. There's a USATT volunteer who recently posted on Facebook, about presidential contender Pete Buttigieg, "If Petey gets in, will we have a First Fairy, or a First Fagot?" (I called him out on it, and he deleted it, but I kept a screenshot.) I don't know if that's a USATT issue or not - but since we only have one member of the USATT Ethics and Disciplinary Committee left (see below), it's sort of moot. (I'm sure if we thoroughly investigated all USATT volunteers and staff, we'd find worse.)
Here's a listing of recent USATT personnel changes.
Weekend Coaching
This past Thursday we started a new ten-week Beginning Class, with 14 kids. The focus in the first session was grip, ball-bouncing, stance, and the forehand. This Thursday we'll do more on the forehand, and then start on the backhand.
In the more advanced Talent Development Program on Sunday, I was mostly with the younger players. We started off with a series of shadow-practice. A big feature of the session was backhand games, where players played only on the backhand side on both sides - but they could use forehand or backhand. Toward the end I switched over to the older players. One interesting thing - they played games at the end, and I realized one of our more advanced players served illegally almost every time - her serving hand and ball went below the table over and over. I pointed it out to her - she didn't realize she was doing this. We'll get that fixed. (I remember a kid I coached once got faulted for that in the semifinals of the Under 14 National Championships.)
MDTTC Opens in Gaithersburg, Maryland
The entry form for the year's four MDTTC Opens is now online. I used to run these tournaments, but I've turned the reins over to Klaus Wood. The first one is Feb. 8-9. See you there! (They should show up in the Omnipong tournament listing soon.)
Table Tennis Community Fundraiser to Support Sally Boggan
Here's the USATT article by Larry Hodges and Sheri Soderberg Cioroslan. Here's the GoFundMe page for Sally, wife of Tim Boggan - hope you can help out! We've raised $3764 as of this writing.
USATT News
New from Samson Dubina
Super Easy Backhand Flick Technique
Here's the video (7:35) from Tom Lodziak.
Building a Better Blocker
Here's the article by Coach Jon.
New from Steve Hopkins
Wang Returns to the Limelight for 2020 US Olympic Trials
Here's the article by Matt Hetherington.
Experior Expanding Excellence in Chicago’s Table Tennis Scene
Here's the article by Michael Reff.
ARKTTA's December Open and Review of 2019
Here's the article by Mike Lauro, featuring Arkansas table tennis.
Turn of the Decade: ITTF's Feature on Rising Stars
ITTF has started a new semi-daily feature on rising stars. USA's Kanak Jha was featured on Jan. 16.
China Announces World Team Championships Selection, Debuts for Liang Jingkun and Sun Yingsha
Here's the ITTF article.
2020 ITTF World Team Qualification Tournament
Here's the info page for the event to be held Jan. 22-26 in Gondomar, Portugal. The event serves as a qualification event for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad Tokyo 2020. Here's the ITTF article Five teams, five reasons: follow the Tokyo 2020 World Team Qualification.
Liang Jingkun Interview
Here's the ITTF video (3:09) with the men's world #9 of China.
Ask A Pro Anything | Best Of 2019
Here's the ITTF video (5:09).
New Videos from MaLong FanMade Channel (MLFM)
New from PingSkills
Table Tennis Rules and Knowledge Posters
There are three versions, sold at different places - take your pick!
One Minute, One Sport | Table Tennis
Here's the video (1:17) that tries to give a complete review of the sport in record time!
Comeback Receive and Fifty-Foot Serve
Here's the video (52 sec) as Scott Preiss demonstrates both in this exhibition!
It's a Dog Eat Ball World
Here's the repeating gif!
Powerpuff Girls | Ping Pong Z
Here's the video (2:27)!
Tom & Jack in Table Tennis Game
Here's the video (4:01)!
Penhold Ping Pong
Here's the video (10:03) from Pongfinity!
Playing Alone by Circling Table
It takes super-human speed to play alone by racing around the table, returning your own shots. Here are videos and gifs of these super-beings in action!
***
Send us your own coaching news!