Tip of the Week
Five Serves That EVERYONE Should Master.

Protect Future of Table Tennis in USA
Most of you probably received the mass emails sent out last week from “Protect Future of Table Tennis in USA” about the U.S. team selections, especially in the Mini-cadet teams (12 and under). The letter is from Rajul Sheth from the ICC Table Tennis Center (where he's done some great work), who I consider a friend, and hopefully that won’t change after this. He makes some good points, though there are some inaccurate or misleading items I could nitpick about, and there is more to the issue than what is covered in the letter.

However, there was one serious problem that really angered me, and it had nothing to do with the actual issue involved. I emailed him complaining about his naming these four 10-12 year-old kids publicly in this way (rather than referring to them by rating and as “Player A,” “Player B,” etc.). These kids did nothing wrong, and yet they are publicly being dragged through the mud, turning a dream (making the U.S. National Mini-Cadet Team) into a nightmare as he very publicly tore into the credentials of these 10-12 year-old kids. I know of some parents who are also very angry about this.

Sure, if he left the names out, some could investigate and figure out who these kids were, but few would do so, and it’s a lot more humiliating for a kid to be named directly and publicly in this way, with all these attacks on their playing record. We’re talking about kids who have trained nearly full-time for years, approached the highest levels for their age in this country, did exactly as USATT asked them to do (attending the USATT Supercamp, where they were named to the National Team due to their performance there), and through no fault of their own, this happens to them?

I’m pretty tired right now, and I need a vacation. Plus I’ve got a todo list that goes from here to Beijing – even now Ma Long and Ding Ning are examining the lower parts of it and cowering in fear. (I think the item “Make America so great at table tennis the Chinese quit and take up shuffleboard” is the part that scared them.) Plus today is Adam West’s 88th birthday – the original Batman from the 1960s TV show and mayor of Quahog in Family guy – a national holiday if there ever was one. So no blog today – back tomorrow. 

All About Table Tennis Books
As readers here know, Dan Seemiller’s autobiography came out this past week, Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion. It’s what all the “cool” kids table tennis players will be talking about at the club now, so go get your copy now. Don’t make us send you to the nerdy kids table. (See how that works for both schools and table tennis clubs?) Here is the text from the back cover:

Dedication, Determination, Heartbreak, and Achievement

If you are in the Olympic sport of table tennis, then you know Danny Seemiller, USA’s greatest modern champion. In “Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion,” the five-time U.S. Men’s Singles Champion takes you through his 50 years in the sport, from the early days of training, the breakthroughs, the agonizing defeats and the great triumphs. You’ll learn why the three-sport star – baseball, basketball, and football – changed his focus to table tennis. You’ll experience his trips around the world, from being marched at gunpoint to achieving his boyhood dream of defeating the Chinese.

But playing is only half his story. Danny, a long-time coach first in Pittsburgh and then in South Bend, Indiana, was the U.S. Olympic and World Team Coach for ten years, and was named the USOC Coach of the Year for Table Tennis three times. He served five years as president of USA Table Tennis, ran dozens of major tournaments through the years, and was instrumental in bringing the 2018 World Veterans Games to the United States. He is a member of the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame, and in 2012 became the youngest recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

This is his story.

Years of Training Have Destroyed My Reactions
Okay, this may seem misleading. During my development years I did the usual intensive drills that conditioned me to react properly to nearly any given shot. Let me emphasize one word here: nearly. Now opponents may play at speeds that I might not be able to react to, or catch me off guard with placement and spin, but even there I’d usually react properly, just not always quickly enough or with just the right racket angle.

Some of my students have picked up on a certain flaw here, which I think affects me more than most. When someone throws something at me that I’m not used to, all that conditioning falls apart. It means I basically have two choices – I can go for a “regular” shot, and likely miss, or I can change to a safe shot, usually just fishing or weakly blocking it back.

For example, one of my students (a righty) has been developing this inside-out backhand loop that goes down the line, breaking away from a righty opponent. Now against a regular down-the-line shot, whether it’s a block or a loop, I’d react almost instantly with either a block, a smash, or a loop. It’s instinctive, and I can do all three with equal ease. But when he throws this inside-out backhand sidespin loop at me, I basically freeze up – my subconscious doesn’t know what to do. And so I usually just hold my racket out and block it back weakly, or step back and fish it back, or often react so slowly that I don’t even get to it.

Another student discovered that if he steps around his forehand and plays a backhand from the forehand side, and hits it down the line to my backhand, I often watch it go by before I react. None of my training prepared me for that shot!!!

Dan Seemiller’s Book and A Tale of Two Quotes
So . . . have you bought “Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion” yet? Why not? This is the story of our greatest modern champion. Warning – some people won’t like some of the things he says. But I’m more interested in what we can learn from the book.

Here’s an interesting quote from page 129 of the book, where Dan says, “I normally don’t get nervous, I’m too busy thinking about strategy instead of the score.” This is one of those things I’ve harped about here and in my books, that if you think about tactics between points, you won’t be thinking about winning or losing, the score, what’ll happen if you lose, etc., and so won’t get nervous (or as nervous). It’s one of those basic things that sometimes takes years to learn, and many never learn it. Contrast that with an actual exchange that took place during my coaching last night:

Me: “Since you can do this shot in practice, what happens in a game?”
Student: “I get scared and miss the shot.”
Me: “Then let’s practice getting scared and missing the shot.”

Now I was joking with that last part – though not completely, as you always want to practice what you do in matches, though perhaps not getting scared and missing – but the point is that many players get scared and so can’t play. They are too worried about winning and losing, and so can’t think or play straight. Instead, if they focused on what they want to do – tactics – then they would play much better.

And just for the record, there were many other great quotes in the book. Here’s perhaps my favorite!

Eric Boggan (2-time U.S. Men’s Singles Champion, #18 in the world, and Dan’s rival for many years), on page 133: “To me, losing is like God blowing his nose on me.” Somewhere out there is an artist who can illustrate this in a cartoon.

Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion by Dan Seemiller
It’s out! Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion is the autobiography of five-time U.S. Men’s Singles Champion Dan Seemiller (who along the way also won Men’s Doubles 12 times, Mixed Doubles seven times, and was the U.S. Men’s Coach at the Worlds and Olympics for many years). The book is 218 pages with 96 pictures. I did the editing, photo work, and page layouts. Dan turned out to be an excellent proof reader, finding many typos that I missed. Maybe it’s that perfectionism that made him such a strong player?

At the very end of the book is a “Who is Dan Seemiller?” section which I wrote. Here it is – and after reading this, go out and buy yourself a copy! (Right now there’s only a print version. Later this week I’ll put together an ebook version.)

Tip of the Week
The More Two Players Drill Together the Better They Drill Together.

Tactical Coaching Can Be a Wonderful – or Terrible – Thing
This past Saturday I ran the Butterfly MDTTC September Open. I’ll have a write-up and photos ready hopefully tomorrow, but here are the complete results. It was an exhausting weekend. On Saturday I was at the club at 7:45AM, and didn’t leave until about 9PM, over 13 hours later. I did manage to compile all the results and send to USATT that night, so they will likely be processed in the next couple of days.

During a short lull I watched a match between an experienced player who earlier this year had switched from a mostly looping game (with inverted on both sides) to chopper/looper (with long pips on the backhand). I watch him play against a young junior player, and the chopper won the first, 11-9, and so things looked good for the chopper. But between games the junior received some very good coaching. I didn’t hear the coaching, I simply saw the change in tactics the rest of the match.

First, the junior began to play a bit more patiently, pushing deep to the backhand, forcing the chopper to push with the long pips. It’s tricky pushing low with long pips – it can’t create much backspin to make the ball travel on a line, and the chopper had only started using it this year – and every few pushes would pop up some, and the junior would jump all over that. As noted, the chopper had gone to chopping only

As You Think, So Shall You Become - Revisited
Yesterday I posted this Bruce Lee Table Tennis graphic – and the Bruce Lee quote in the heading, “So you think, so shall you become,” very much applies to table tennis. Most players have self-images of their game, which puts them in a comfort zone. And nearly everything they do re-enforces this, and so they stay in this comfort zone, rarely developing anything new. Sure, they play around with other shots, and practice them, but not in a long-term, serious way. I’ve seen loopers who can’t block react by spending even more time working on their loop rather than mastering the block. I’ve seen players who are great blockers but constantly lament their lack of attacking skills – and spend decades playing as a blocker rather than taking a few months of that time where they develop and incorporate attacking skills. These players are unable to think of themselves as something better, and so are unable to become better. And that’s what Bruce Lee was referring to.

In fact, for players who stay in their comfort zone rather than strive to leave it, I will paraphrase the Bruce Lee quote: “So you think, so shall you remain.”

Those who become great players have a different way of thinking. If they see something that someone else does better than they do, they are certain they can do better and become determined to top it. They may not always become better at it, but they become as good at it as they can possibly be. The best up-and-coming juniors see what the world-class players do, and are convinced they can do better – and so strive to do so. “So you think, so shall you become,” and because they think they can, they become it.

Final Proofing - "Revelations of a Champion"
Yesterday I did the absolutely final proofing of Dan Seemiller’s autobiography, “Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion.” The book is really coming around! I did 4.5 hours of proofing at Ledo’s (noon to 4:30PM, lots of pizza and large Mountain Dew, two refills), did a 90-minute coaching session, and then did another 2.5 hours of proofing at Wendy’s (7:30-10PM, large chili with cheese and onion, and a large Dr. Pepper). And then it was done! Except – I needed another three hours to input all the changes, making sure to keep all the layouts lined up. (Plus some USATT stuff took up over an hour.) I also had 19 questions for Dan, which I emailed to him a little after 2:30AM. As soon as he gets back to me on those, I’ll be able to finalize the interior. (It’s 3:23AM as I write this – I’d rather get the blog done now then have to do it when I get up.)

Meanwhile, today I need to pretty much finalize the front and back cover (plus the spine in between). That was turning into a headache as the cover picture is a great shot of Danny, but it’s in black and white. I colorized it, and added the title and a sub-title, but so far the fonts and colors just aren’t working. I’d like to get this done by Friday, since I’m running the MDTTC September Open this Saturday, and coaching all day Sunday.

There are some nice quotes from Dan in the book – I may blog about some of them later on, after the book is out.

Michael Jordon and Ma Long – the Same?
Here’s the classic picture of both. There’s actually a coaching lesson in this. Players have their best performances when they just let go and let their subconscious take over, i.e. learned reactions. So when top players are performing at their best, they are basically just observers, other than basic tactics. So when they pull off great plays, whether in basketball, table tennis, or any other skill sport, they often have that reaction of essentially shrugging their shoulders and throwing up their hands, as they are just as amazed as we are at what they are doing – because, deep down, they don’t even feel like they are doing it, they are just spectators.

I’ve had this exact same feeling when I’ve played my best. I remember playing Rey Domingo – a 2500 player – in perhaps the best tournament match of my life, and I just watched as his best shots came at me in slow motion, and so easily returned, and anything I touched with my forehand was a winner. I spent the whole match focusing on not paying attention to what I was doing because if I’d thought about it, everything would speed up and my shots would stop hitting. I won the match easily.

I’m guessing most of you have had this experience as well. If not, you need to learn to let go when you play. There’s a reason why you train – so that you reactive instinctively, as the top players do.