Schedule
My schedule these days is pretty hectic. I've blogged about this a few times – and have been sarcastically called a "table tennis martyr" for doing so – but at some point something will likely have to give. I'm involved in way too many USATT and MDTTC issues, plus have my regular coaching and tutoring hours, afterschool pickups, blogs & tips, and science fiction writing. My guess is I'm probably going to have to drop some of my USATT activities after this year, but I hope to get a lot done this year first. (I'm currently on the USATT Board of Directors, the chair of the USATT League Committee, and the USATT Regional Associations Coordinator. I may drop the latter two after this year – hopefully there'll be worthy successor who can continue this work. Heck, any ambitious, hard-working table tennis martyrs want them now?!!!)

I've had to temporarily drop my usual SF writing to focus on these other issues, and my USATT work has taken a hit. The last few days I've picked up on USATT issues – I was up half of last night on various issues, mostly working with people around the country involving regional leagues and associations, coaching, and state championships. I think half my emails these days are basically, "I'm inundated right now, but will get back to you." (Yesterday didn't help – I spent most of the day in Baltimore for the funeral of my aunt, RIP.)

Today, after the blog goes up, I've got a long list of MDTTC and USATT things to get done, plus a lot of publicity work for the upcoming SF novel, Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions (out on March 8 – lots of table tennis in it!).

Tip of the Week
Improving Side-to-Side Reaction.

Exhibitions and Demos
Friday and Saturday were exhausting as I did exhibitions and demos. Sunday was just as bad as I spent nearly the entire day at the club coaching. Sunday was also the 19th consecutive day I'd coached, so I was exhausted before all this. Fortunately, I got a bit rested up by taking Monday off – President's day. (Plus we had about five inches of snow.)

The Potomac Community Center (which is home to the Potomac Country Table Tennis Club), has a Club Friday, where hundreds of kids show up for various sports, games, and other activities. We had a two-hour session there on Friday (7-9PM), with two others coming up on Feb. 26 and Mar. 11. A big thanks go to Herman Yeh (president of PCTTC who arranged things), and local volunteers Ernie Byles, Gary Schlager, Michael Clarke, Chris Clarke, and Zheng Kangmin.

We had half the big gym, with basketball on the other half, with a huge curtain lowered between us. We were on the far side, which made it a bit more difficult to attract kids since they couldn't see us from the gym door. We probably had about 30-40 total kids, with a core group of about 20 that stayed pretty much the whole time.

No blog today - it's President's Day! But it's no day off for me - I've been working since 7AM on USATT matters - primarily the Regional Team Leagues and State Championships initiatives. If you are interested in setting up a Regional Team League in your area, here's info:

• USATT League Page
• How to Set Up a Regional Team League
• USATT Regional Team League News Item

If you are interested in running a State Championship (and someone isn't already doing so in your state - see listing in link), here's info:

• State Championships  in all 50 States in 2016

Meanwhile, it's snowing outside (again) - we're supposed to get 3-5 inches. 

Hopefully I'll get today's work done soon so I can spend the rest of the day in bed - I'm off today after coaching for 19 straight days, including long, exhausting exhibition/demos the last two days at Potomac Community Center and Montgomery Mall - I'll blog about them later. 

Hey, I think I just wrote a blog after all! Sort of. 

Clinics and Demos and Other Activities
Things are getting incredibly busy. Tonight, after I finish the afterschool program/tutoring/coaching, I'm off to the nearby Potomac Community Center (home to the Potomac TTC), where they have a regular Friday night Youth Activity Club from 7-9PM (for grades 3-6), though it turns out they really start at 6:30PM. I visited it last Friday, and there were over 300 kids there. Tonight from 6:30-8:00PM (and on two more Fridays, Feb. 26 and Mar. 11) I'll be running a table tennis program for them in the big gym, with 14 tables. I'll be assisted by Cheng Yinghua and several other locals, but I'll be doing all the talking and organizing. I've run a number of such programs. We'll start with a short demo and exhibition, then do a short clinic on the basics. Then we'll send them out on the tables to play – I'll explain how to play Brazilian Teams and King of the Table. For the younger ones I'm bringing a huge amount of paper cups, which they'll build huge pyramids out from and then knock them down as I or the volunteers feed multiball. (This is unpaid, volunteer work.)

Tomorrow morning I'll be at Montgomery Mall for an 11AM-2PM exhibition/demo for the Girls & Women in Sports Day Expo. Assisting will be 11-year-old Jessica Lin (or is she 12 now?), who's about 1900, as well as organizer Wen Hsu. (We're hoping to get one or two more local girls to help out, but two of them have come down sick.) (This is also unpaid, volunteer work.)

Review of The Metaphysics of Ping-Pong
The Metaphysics of Ping-Pong (2015, 226 pages, by Guido Mina di Sospiro, subititled "Table Tennis as a Journey of Self-Discovery") is a fascinating story of one man's introduction and and often chaotic journey into the world of table tennis. Though I don't believe I've ever met him, much of his table tennis journey took place in neighboring Virginia and in some Maryland clubs, along with various other places around the U.S. and the world, including Italy, China, Mexico, New York City, California, and on cruise ships.

The novel has lots of cultural, philosophical, and historical asides, with various ruminations about this man's journey into the sport of table tennis, with lots of interesting characters. His introduction to the sport included facing a player using the "mythical" Sriver inverted rubber, under the Draconian "winner stays" rules. And from there we are off to meet the various characters in this world of table tennis.

USATT Reports – Leagues, Regional Associations, State Championships

My USATT League, Regional Associations, and State Championships Report went to the board in December. (I chair the USATT League Committee and am the Regional Associations Coordinator.) Also online are the minutes of the USATT League Committee Conference Call held on Jan. 16. (You can find these and other committee reports in the USATT Committee Reports Page. Here is a listing of USATT Committees.) Below is the Board Report. If it's boring, skip ahead to the good stuff below! (The formatting below doesn't quite match up with the original - the interface here isn't great.) 

<Start USATT Board Report>

USATT Board Report
USATT League Committee, Regional Associations, State Championships
By Larry Hodges, larry@larrytt.com
USATT League Committee Chair and Regional Associations Coordinator
December, 2015

USATT League Committee
I was appointed the USATT League Chair in March, 2015. Most of the committee members were approved also in March (Adam Bobrow, Michael Levene, Bruce Liu, Han Xiao), with two others added in October (Tahl Leibovitz, Mauricio Vergara).

The USATT League Committee had two major activities this year.

Pong in the Snow
Yes, it's snowing outside again here in Maryland. It looks like we'll get 3-4 inches, but it'd more except it's been in the 40s the last few days and so the ground is above freezing, and so it didn't stick at first. But schools are open (two hours late) even though the snow continues to fall. And so in honor of our latest snowstorm, and with apologies to the Let It Snow song (and the full version sung by Dean Martin)…

PONG IN THE SNOW
Oh the weather outside is frightful, 
But ping-pong is so delightful,
To the ping-pong club we'll go,
Despite the Snow! Despite the Snow! Despite the Snow!  

It doesn't show signs of stopping,
But I've brought some balls for chopping,
At the club we'll play like a pro,
Despite the Snow! Despite the Snow! Despite the Snow!  

When we finish up pong tonight,
And leave behind our playing site,
We'll stop working on our form,
As we venture out in the storm!

The pong in us ain't dying,
But it's time for our good-bying,
But we'll always have our pong chateau,
Despite the Snow! Despite the Snow! Despite the Snow!

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #220 (27:25) - Returning Smashes.

Inside the Mind of a Coach
Here's the rather detailed graphic! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Tip of the Week
Looping Against Backspin Drills.

Attacking the Middle
Today's blog is really simple – I'm assigning you to watch the final of Day Three between Crystal Wang and Angela Guan. (With apologies to Angela and choppers everywhere, we're about to let a huge cat out of the bag.) Here's the complete video (2hr 23 min), with Crystal vs. Angela starting about 10:30 in, followed by the Day Three men's final between Kanak Jha and Krish Avvari. (You'll have to register to watch it, but it's a simple process. You can watch video of the men's and women's finals for all three days of the USA Olympic Trials at the USATT Olympic Trials Page.)

I wrote about how to play choppers in a Tip of the Week, appropriately titled Playing Choppers. The second paragraph begins, "A chopper is weakest in the middle, and that is where you should focus most of your attacks." And that's today's subject. Crystal, who is only 13 years old, already knows this, and as you watch the video, watch how she relentlessly attacks the middle (the opponent's crossover point, roughly the playing elbow). She did the same thing in the semifinals in upsetting the 2545-rated Lu Ying, also a chopper. Crystal does have an advantage – she grew up training at the Maryland Table Tennis Center (my club), where she regularly trained with chopper/looper Wang Qing Liang ("Leon"), a 2600 chopper during most of that time.

By attacking the middle, you accomplish five things – and these are true not only against choppers, but against nearly all players.

Lawyers, and Coaches Seeking Clubs, and Clubs Seeking Coaches, Oh My!!!
A long time ago, before the explosion of full-time clubs in the U.S., when I was a webmaster for USA Table Tennis, I put together a page for Coaches Seeking Clubs and Clubs Seeking Coaches. At the time there were only a few full-time clubs – less than ten – and there just wasn't much demand for this in either direction. And so it wasn't very active.

But things have changed. Over and over we're finding new full-time clubs looking for full-time coaches to help their club, since most successful full-time clubs are oriented around the coaches, who are the ones who bring in new players to fill up the club. (That's the model that led to the "explosion" noted above.) Most of these coaches are from China, which has about ten zillion top players looking to become professional coaches. (Being a top player doesn't make one a top coach, but the ranks of top coaches tend to come from them. And most top players become at least decent coaches, and with experience, many become excellent coaches.)

But how do we get these coaches into the U.S. and into the clubs that need them? (Or start up new clubs centered around them, as often happens, but that's a separate issue.) There are all sorts of immigration issues. I'm only tangentially knowledgeable about these issues. At the request of lawyers, I've written a number of letters of recommendation for coaches, mostly for my club but for others as well. How these letters are used and the specifics of the immigration process, well, I think most of us know more about intelligent life in Andromeda than this process, which is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. (Sorry Winston.)

U.S. Olympic Trials
They start this morning at 9AM in Greensboro, NC, and continue through Saturday. Here's the home page, which includes the draws (see below), schedule, format, ticket information, playing listing, Live Results, and lots and lots of articles and other stuff. The matches will also be streamed live, with the women's and men's finals each night at 7 and 8PM. (Read over the format, but roughly speaking it's three consecutive days of single elimination, with the winner each day making the final USA team to the North American Trials, where they will compete with Canada for the final spots. The winner from the previous day doesn't have to play since he/she's already qualified.)

Here are the Day One Draws: