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Don't Telegraph the Direction of Your Attack.
USA Table Tennis Announces New Membership Programs for 2021
Here's the USATT news item. Here are the first two paragraphs:
"USA Table Tennis, the National Governing Body for the sport of table tennis, today announced that the organization is implementing a new, simplified membership structure, which will take effect on January 1, 2021. Under the new program, members can select one of two available annual memberships – "Basic" and "Pro" – depending on each particular member's playing goals."
"The Pro Plan, which will cost $75 per year, will allow the member to play in all USATT Sanctioned Tournaments and Leagues, including the US Nationals and US Open. The Basic Plan, which will cost $25, permits the member to play in 0 – 4 Star Tournaments, which will include a new event – the US Nationals State Qualification Tournament – and USATT Leagues. All members will continue to receive the historical benefits of USATT membership including coverage under an accidental medical insurance policy, voting privileges, travel and sponsor discounts, access to the USATT newsletter, and full access to the complete USATT rating system."
This could be a good idea, but a lot of it will come down to execution and communication. A key thing here is that USATT will now be requiring the $25 membership to play in the USATT League. Until now, it has been free, some will not like this. How to turn USATT League players into USATT members has been an ongoing question for years. One of the keys here is that they don't have to pay the full $75 membership, only $25.
HOWEVER . . . and here's the part that's important. In just over eleven weeks, USATT clubs all over the country might be running USATT Leagues. (I say "might" because of the pandemic, which is a separate issue.) If League Directors don't know about the change, they will likely show up in January to run their leagues as always . . . and get caught when they find non-USATT members can't play, or at least can't get their ratings processed. What will happen if they have some non-members playing? Will that stop the entire league rating processing? Non-members will also show up, not realizing they have to be USATT members, and some will be unhappy at this. I think the $25/year is fair, but they key is to not have lots of leagues play with non-members, and then discover they weren't eligible.
So COMMUNCATION will be key. USATT needs to inundate clubs and league directors with info on the new policy so they can prepare by alerting their players. They will need a lot of lead time on this since often they may not even communicate with the players except when they show up at the club. Ideally, USATT could even produce simple flyers that clubs can put up, showing the benefits of the USATT League, with the key part that they get a LOT for that $25.
One irony is that, in this case, the pandemic might have helped USATT. Normally, such a change would take place while leagues are running every week all over the country, and so it would cause problems. But with the pandemic, most leagues are currently on hold, and so it's a natural time to make such a switch.
One problem, of course, is that many league directors might simply choose to look around and find other free table tennis league software. Ideally, USATT will cut that off by communicating to the clubs and league directors the value of the USATT League, as part of a nationwide league, along with the ease of league ratings, submitting, and processing. Lowering the membership for leagues to $25 is a big help.
One thing that might help is if clubs get a percentage of the new $25 memberships. The problem there, of course, is that $25 isn't a lot, and when you split it up, it becomes even less. Of course, if USATT were to give clubs 40% of that ($10), clubs might simply charge $15/year to play in the league.
One nice thing - USATT has eliminated the hated Ratings Access Subscription plan, so USATT members can again look up the ratings of anybody, even former members whose memberships have expired.
A little history. I initiated USATT League about 20 years ago, and co-founded it with Robert Mayer. At the time we started it, "winner stay on" was the norm all over the country, with very few leagues. So the question was: How could we jumpstart a league system? And so the USATT League system was born - and now it is used every week in club leagues all over the country. A key part was that the ratings were separate from the USATT Tournament ratings, since players are very protective of that. However, at some point (and it might already be happening - not sure), some leagues can run using regular USATT ratings, if they choose. One goal of the USATT League was to allow players to get initial ratings from the leagues, and use that as their starting rating when they play their first USATT tournament. That way they don't have to go through what most have to do, play in rating events their first tournament where they can't advance, since they are unrated.
There is also info in the news item on the new Regionalization of the Nationals, where players qualify in regional events. I'll look into that sometime later. The next USA Nationals is now scheduled for July 4-9, 2021, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.
Weekend Coaching
In the Sunday Class, I worked mostly with the younger kids, and continued to work on fundamentals. At the end of the session, I put a water bottle on the table, and put a trillion dollar bill under it. I'd feed each of them three balls (wide backhand, middle, wide forehand), and if they knocked the bottle over, they got a trillion dollars! I lost four trillion dollars, my entire life savings...
On Saturday I spent much of the session with Navin Kumar working on forehand loops followed by smashes. But we also spent a lot of time on his blocking, making sure he's solid on both sides, and able to cover the whole table in random drills. Here are two videos from the session (41 and 74 sec). Navin also posted two videos of himself, side by side. The first was of him before I started coaching him, and the second a recent one. Forehand has improved!!! He also did this video (2:20) for a Parkinson's group.
USATT Board Teleconference
They have one tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct. 13) at 8PM Eastern Time, using Uberconference. Here's the USATT Agendas and Notices page, which includes a link to the info for this teleconference if you would like to listen in and perhaps participate. (You can ask questions in the chat box, and then they may respond or allow you to speak.) The current agenda is sparse, just CEO Report, High Performance Report, and Committee Reports and Updates, but more may be added later. (Here's the USATT Minutes page, where you can see the minutes of past meetings.)
USATT Coaches Meeting
USATT High Performance Director Sean O'Neill has been organizing bi-monthly Zoom meetings for all USATT Coaches. They are normally the second and fourth Friday every month, usually at noon eastern time (though they sometimes have to vary that due to coaches' schedules), and last about 30 minutes. Sean announces each meeting, including agenda and the link to attend, on the USATT Coaches Facebook Page. I attended the one last Friday, which went a little longer than previous ones, about 50 minutes. Attending were Sean O'Neill, Doru Gheorghe, Samson Dubina, Mike Lauro, Sameh Awadalla, Wang Qingliang, and Larry Hodges (me). Here is a video of the meeting (50 min), along with links about the items covered in the meeting. Some of the items discussed included:
Table Tennis Books Out This Year
There are at least eight new books on table tennis out this year! Here's a listing. Time to do your Christmas shopping! (Here's my table tennis book collection of 269 books.)
31,000 Reads!
The last week's blog was the first to break 30,000 reads in a week, and went over 31,000 this morning. It's been getting about 28,000 the last few weeks.
Benefits of Becoming a USATT Certified Coach
Here's the USATT article by Joshua Dyke. "The USATT Online Coaching Certification program is an excellent opportunity for those who wish to teach the game they know and love. Whether you want to coach table tennis players that compete on the national stage or be joined by friends and family to have weekend matches in your recreation room; these are moments where coaching certification would be a welcome addition to enhance the quality of play and the spirit of the game."
2020 US Hopes National Finals
Here's the info page. They will be held in Akron, OH, at the Samson Dubina TTC, Dec. 2-5. This is for kids born in 2008 or after. My club (MDTTC) will likely be sending five kids - Stanley Hsu (just turned 12, 2286, #1 in Hopes), Mu Du (12, 2020, #4 in Hopes), Winston Wu (10, 1955, #7 in Hopes), Ryan Lin (10, 1901, #11 in Hopes), and Aaron Zhang (11, 1516, #22 in Hopes). I hope to go as one of the coaches, but we have a lot of coaches at our club, so we'll see.
USATT Hall of Famer George (Gus) Kennedy Passes Away
Here's the USATT article. Although he was on the USATT Board of Directors the first few years I worked for them, I never really knew him well, alas.
Interview with USATT High Performance Director Sean O'Neill
Here's the video (50:22) from Kevin Table Tennis.
"In the Loop" Table Tennis Research Roundup
Here's the info page. "Ready to CHOP down your competition and PUSH your game to the next level? Join my FREE monthly "research roundup" and get concise breakdowns of the latest research pertaining to table tennis players."
Do Your Serves Complement Your Playing Style?
Here's the article from Tom Lodziak.
New from Samson Dubina
Special Training China's Table Tennis
Here's the video (8:15).
Reverse Tomahawk Serve
Here's the video (63 sec, includes slo-mo) of Ding Ning.
Table Tennis Player Has Got Crazy Skills
Here's the training video (3:01).
Jimmy Butler vs. Daniel Tran
Four-time US Men's Champion Jim Butler has been posting videos of his practice matches with US MiniCadet star Daniel Tran and others. You should go to the Jimmy Butler Facebook page and have a look!
New from Steve Hopkins
Chinese Nationals
Here's the ITTF Article: Fan Zhendong wins singles gold; Chen Meng and Wang Manyu secure women's doubles title. See also Steve Hopkins' article above.
All of the Dragons in The Table Tennis Dungeon
Here's the article by Coach Jon.
Adriana Diaz, Puerto Rico's "Athlete of the Decade"
Here's the ITTF article.
Vladimir Samsonov - The European Legend!
Here's the video (6:22).
INCREDIBLE Table Tennis Backhands! Who Did It Best?
Here's the ITTF video (1:50).
New from the ITTF
Here's their home page and news page.
New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here!
Tahl Leibovitz Racket at the Olympic & Paralympic Museum
Here's the picture. (Here's the non-Facebook version.) Want to know more about Tahl? Here's his 2017 book, Ping-Pong for Fighters. Here's another Facebook posting that shows both Tahl's racket and a racket signed by USATT's first three Olympians (from 1988), Sean O'Neill, Insook Bhushan, and Diana Gee. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)
US Table Tennis Championships (1940)
Here's the video (1:21), including a lot of Lou Pagliaro vs. Sol Schiff.
Ping-Pong Paddle Shirts from Amazon
I Played Against World No. 8 Cheng I-Ching
Here's the video (14:44) from Adam Bobrow!
Top 10 Table Tennis FAILS of 2020
Here's the video (4:04) from Table Tennis Daily!
A Little Ping Pong Madness
Here's the music video (4:13)!
Hand Sanitizer Backboard Basketball Pong
Here's the video (3 sec)!
Table Tennis Funny Collection
Here's the video (2:52)!
Table Tennis Trickshots Maharu Yoshimura Edition
Here's the video (6:14)!
Split Table Tennis Racket
Here's the video (5:10) from Pongfinity!
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