Blogs

Larry Hodges' Blog and Tip of the Week will normally go up on Mondays by 2:00 PM USA Eastern time. Larry is a member of the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame, a USATT Certified National Coach, a professional coach at the Maryland Table Tennis Center (USA), and author of ten books and over 2100 articles on table tennis, plus over 1900 blogs and over 600 tips. Here is his bio. (Larry was awarded the USATT Lifetime Achievement Award in July, 2018.)

Make sure to order your copy of Larry's best-selling book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers!
Finally, a tactics book on this most tactical of sports!!!

Also out - Table Tennis Tips, More Table Tennis Tips, Still More Table Tennis Tips, and Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips, which cover, in logical progression, his Tips of the Week from 2011-2023, with 150 Tips in each!

Or, for a combination of Tales of our sport and Technique articles, try Table Tennis Tales & Techniques. If you are in the mood for inspirational fiction, The Spirit of Pong is also out - a fantasy story about an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis, trains with the spirits of past champions, and faces betrayal and great peril as he battles for glory but faces utter defeat. Read the First Two Chapters for free!

February 3, 2017

Overseas Professional Leagues and Full-time Training
When I ran for the USATT Board, two of the things I wanted to do were to set up professional leagues for our players and a professional players' association. The problem is that we only really have one "professional" player at the moment - 16-year-old Kanak Jha, who is currently playing in the professional leagues in Sweden while training full-time. Timothy Wang was a full-time player, but now he's coaching full-time in Texas. There are many full-time coaches who are top players, but there just isn't enough money in the U.S. at this time for truly professional table tennis.

I met with players and organizers a couple of times to discuss the idea of a professional players' association, but there just isn't a lot of interest right now. Even worse, there's the one stumbling block I knew we'd face, and still haven't really figured out how to overcome - where do non-USA citizens fit in? Right now, the best players in the U.S. are overwhelmingly non-citizens. When you go to the USATT ratings page and click on "Top 25 Men" (with "US Citizens Only" unchecked), the players range from 2673 to 2774 - but only two are US citizens - Kanak at 2708 (#15) and Yijun Feng at 2684 (#20).

So if we set up a professional players' association, who do they represent? Who can play in a US Professional League? All US players, or citizens only? Those I've spoken with are extremely opinionated on this, and split evenly between the two sides.

My conclusion is that we're not quite ready for either. (It'll happen, just not right away.) So what can we do in the meantime?

It so happens that a huge problem in USA Table Tennis is that we lose nearly all our top up-and-coming players at age 18 when they go to college. College is a good thing - but wouldn't it be nice if more of these kids took off a few years to see just how good they could be, and maybe even make it to the Olympics? I took two years off myself before starting college at age 20. Most players hit their peak in the early-to-mid 20s.

When you play in a professional league overseas, as Kanak is doing, you don't just make a living playing in the league - you train full-time with your teammates under top coaches. And Kanak is only the latest of a number top U.S. players who developed this way - others include Jim Butler, Sean O'Neill, Eric Boggan, Dan Seemiller, and many more. (Most opportunities seem to be in Germany and Sweden, and recently there seem to be more openings in China.) The problem is it's not easy finding these overseas positions.

USATT will soon be hiring a new High Performance Director. One of the things I'm pushing for is that he will be in charge of creating and maintaining a listing of foreign professional league opportunities, where USA players may play professionally while training full-time. I've already discussed this with our CEO and others, and I'm pretty sure it'll be part of his duties. I want all our top players, especially our up-and-coming ones, to know about all such opportunities.

We currently have an incredible group of players in the 16 and under age groups. (For perspective, there are five US citizens rated over 2590 - and four are 16 or younger: Kanak 2708, Sharon Alguetti 2651, Krish Avvari 2610, and Nikhil Kumar 2591, with Jack Wang 2582 and a flurry of others not far behind.) Historically, we'd lose nearly all of them soon. Perhaps this time we can keep a few of them for just a few more years before we send them off to college.

Europe Top 16
Follow the action this weekend! It's Feb. 3-5 in Antibes, France. Just two events - Men's and Women's Singles. Here's some live coverage, and here's live scoring.

How To Beat Your Practice Partners in Matches
Here's the new article by Matt Hetherington.

How to Use Short Pips in the 40+ Ball Era
Here's the article and podcast (7:34) by Ben Larcombe from Expert Table Tennis.

3T Table Tennis Training
Here's the video (1:45) - multiball training with towels as targets.

Capital Area League
The Capital Area League meets this Saturday from noon-10PM at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. There will be over 90 players in four divisions. The team league is organized by the National Table Tennis League, a non-profit group formed by volunteers. Spectators are welcome.

Dan Seemiller: Revelations of a Ping-Pong Champion
For those who missed it yesterday, here's the article and podcast (51:26) at Expert Table Tennis, featuring 5-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion Dan Seemiller and his autobiography, Revelations of a Ping-Pong Champion. (I'm reposting it because my Friday blog gets the most reads.)

ITTF Coaching Courses in Ft. Worth, TX, and in NY (USA)

(Table) Tennis Anyone?
Here's the article on Transverse Myelitis, table tennis, and Cindy Hall Ranii.

Confidence blossoms, times have changed for Emmanuel Lebesson
Here's the ITTF article on the 2016 European Men's Singles Champion from France. (He's "only" world #31, but upset Samsonov in the final last year.)

Top Ten Paralympic Table Tennis Moments
Here's the video (4:10).

Jimmy Butler and the Houston Rockets
Here's video (49 sec) of the incredible counter-smash by Hakeem Olajuwon (NBA Hall of Famer on the left) against Clyde Drexler (also an NBA Hall of Famer, playing doubles with four-time U.S. Men's Singles Champ Jimmy Butler). Olajuwon (on left) is playing doubles with Daryl Morey, Houston Rockets General Manager. Here's a longer video (5:42) of them playing.

The Most Difficult Table to Play On . . . Ever!
Here's the picture!

Hoverboard Footwork
Here's video (47 sec) as Gal Alguetti does basic forehand-forehand footwork . . . on a hoverboard!

Ellen DeGeneres and Table Tennis
I've bolded the dates of the best ones - but they're all good!

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February 2, 2017

Team and Singles Leagues, and the USATT League Committee
By Larry Hodges, USATT League Chair and At-Large Member of USATT Board of Directors
[NOTE - this was a USATT news item last week - not sure how many people saw it. Note the need for a new League Committee Chairs near the end - do you have what it takes?]

TEAM LEAGUES
It's that time of year again - time to sign up for a Regional Team League! Oh, there isn't one in your area? Then why not set one up? Here is the USATT League Page, which links to the USATT League Prototype, which you can use as a starting model. (You don't have to be a member of USATT to play in such a league.). Here is a listing of Regional Team Leagues currently in operation – email me if I'm missing any.

Why are team leagues so important? It creates a different atmosphere than the "winner stay on" mentality so common in the U.S., fostering instead a "team" atmosphere, where you cheer for your team, and your team cheers for you. It's why European countries have table tennis memberships that dwarf USATT's, and why league-based sports have such large memberships. It's why the German Table Tennis Association has 600,000 members, the U.S. Tennis association has 700,000, and the U.S. Bowling Congress has over two million. USATT has about 8000.

But to quote from the USATT League page, "You don't play in a team league just so you can boost your association's membership; you do so because it's fun! You're pumped up because your teammates are cheering for you, you win and lose as a team, and when it's all done, you and your opponents go out for pizza."

One big difference in overseas leagues, however, is that in most of them, if you are a paid member of a regional team league, you automatically become a paid member of the national governing body, with each getting a share of the fees. That is the source of these huge overseas memberships. Unlike these leagues, USATT doesn't yet have team software to offer league directors, and without this to offer, it's hard to justify requiring USATT membership to play in such leagues.

And so, for now, USATT doesn't directly benefit from such leagues, though they do so indirectly from the increase in participation, which would likely lead to more serious players and therefore more USATT members. I hope league software can become a priority for USATT in the future, perhaps spearheaded by the League Committee. League software would automatically do scheduling, make entering results easy, present the results and standings, and optionally provide ratings.

Such software can be created by USATT, or leased from existing vendors, such as the league software developed by Pongmobile for the Capital Area League, which I can strongly recommend, or TableTennis365, used in England.

SINGLES LEAGUES
Why a Singles League? So you can put players in groups based on level, everyone gets to play competitive matches, and the matches can be rated!

  • USATT Singles League - with league ratings. Since its beginning in 2003 to 2017 there have been 683,948 processed matches by 32,579 players in over 450 leagues (84 of them currently active). (I co-founded this with Robert Mayer back in 2003. In recent years he's been running it.) As of last fall, the Singles League has been integrated into USATT's Simply Compete membership portal. There have been some complications with this transition, but they are nearly all worked out now.
  • USATT Rated Singles League - Coming Soon! For USATT members only, processed for USATT tournament ratings.

USATT LEAGUE COMMITTEE
Now for a little history, and a call for help. When I ran for the USATT Board two years ago (a four-year term), one of the things I promised was to push for regional leagues. However, while they are among the most important things to the future of our sport, they are not what I personally wanted to work on. (I'm more into the coaching and writing side, and plan to get even more active in those areas.)

But someone had to do it, and USATT CEO Gordon Kaye convinced me to chair the committee. I agreed to do so, with the admonition that my primary task would be to create the much needed USATT League Prototype. How can we develop a nationwide network of regional leagues when every time someone wants to develop one, he has to start from scratch? It took a lot of work, as I studied successful leagues around the U.S., overseas, and in other sports, and used my own experience as co-founder of the Capital Area League.

It won't happen overnight. I co-founded the Maryland Table Tennis Center in 1992 and created the policies that made it the first truly successful full-time training center. Fifteen years later, circa 2007, there were only about eight such centers in the entire country - much like the current situation with team leagues, it hadn't yet taken off. Now there are nearly 90 of them. Similarly, I expect it'll take time for regional team leagues to take off - but eventually, they will, just as they did all over Europe. On the other hand, perhaps the future in the U.S. is in Singles Leagues - who knows. We should invest in both.

Now it's time for me to move on, and for someone else to take over. My two-year term is ending, and we're looking for a new chair. Are you ready to make a difference? Want to help develop the sport in this country? (Perhaps spearhead the acquisition of league software and incorporation of league members into USATT members?) This is your chance! If interested, contact USATT CEO Gordon Kaye, and CC me. Now's the time to get busy!

Dan Seemiller: Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion
Here's the new article and podcast (51:26) at Expert Table Tennis, featuring 5-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion Dan Seemiller and his autobiography, Revelations of a Ping-Pong Champion. (It was originally "Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion," but Dan later decided to change it for more mass appeal.) In this episode you’ll learn:

  • All about Dan’s new table tennis book [1:00]
  • How Dan first started playing table tennis [4:30]
  • What Dan thinks about unique styles and challenging the Chinese [6:45]
  • Why Dan reached a higher level than his brothers [9:30]
  • When things really took off for Dan as a player [12:45]
  • What is the “Seemiller” grip? [16:15]
  • Dan’s strengths and weaknesses as a player [20:30]
  • How to identify bad habits vs individual styles [25:30]
  • How Dan became such a tactical competitor and his tactical tips [28:00]
  • What Dan thinks about combination rackets in 2017 [33:30]
  • Dan’s prediction for the next big change in table tennis strategy [37:00]
  • 2018 World Veterans Table Tennis Championships [39:30]
  • How to change your game/style as you grow older [42:15]
  • Why you should buy Dan Seemiller’s new book [46:00]

Positive Changes
Here's the new video (3:14) by Samson Dubina.

How to Get More Spin on Your Forehand Loop
Here's the new podcast (7:05) by Ben Larcombe from Expert Table Tennis.

USATT Board Teleconference
Here are the Actions and Notices from the Jan. 25 USATT Teleconference. Minutes, which give more detail, will go up later.

Polish Coach Looking for USA Coaching Job
Here's his resume. He (Kamil Duniec) wrote to me, "I'm looking for a job like a table tennis player, coach. I'm playing in German league currently.  I was working as table tennis coach in Northern Ireland. Please contact me if you are looking for somebody. Thank you."

Triple-Impact Competitors Scholarships
Here's info on these scholarships for athletes, which could apply to table tennis. "PCA awards scholarships of $1,000-$2,000 (depending on location) to high school athletes, based on their essays explaining how they meet the standard defined in Elevating Your Game: Becoming a Triple-Impact Competitor by PCA Founder Jim Thompson."

MBvsPP1
Here's the video (1:59, set to music) of Coach Attila Malek feeding multiball to daughter Amanda.

Weihao YAN vs Alexander FLEMMING (World Championship Of Ping Pong 2017) Final
Here's the video (12:09). Here's the home page for the event held this past weekend in London, with $100,000 in prize money - with Yan getting $20,000, Flemming $10,000.

It's Groundhog Day!
And here are three Groundhog Day TT images. The first I created years ago; the other two are new.

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February 1, 2017

Changing Racket Angle When Looping
Here's a question I was asked recently.

QUESTION: A lot of coaches tell us to not 'turn' or close your paddle during your forehand forward swing. They say it's a bad habit of creating topspin and causes inconsistencies. However, I've seen J.O. Waldner and Xu Xin doing that a lot.

MY ANSWER: They probably do this mostly against a slow incoming ball - and they have the timing to get away with it. Against a fast incoming ball, you normally don't want to be changing the racket angle as you forward swing. Against a slower ball, you can generate a bit more whip by changing the angle as you forward swing - but the timing is more difficult. I often to this when going for an all-out rip against a backspin. (Here's an example of a player opening the racket as he snaps his forearm and wrist into the shot in this loop against backspin. Compare the very closed racket angle during the backswing to the slightly more open contact point. The link should take you 57 seconds into this instruction video.)

Busy Day Today
Here's my todo list for today:

  1. This morning's blog.
  2. Class accounting (for the various TT classes I teach).
  3. Book accounting (for the various TT books I've written and sell).
  4. Update webpages (on the first of each month).
  5. Go over proofs of "History of U.S. Table Tennis," Volume 19, with Tim Boggan.
  6. Promote MDTTC February Open (Feb. 18-19), which I'll be running. I plan to print out entry forms to send to local clubs, then post about it here and elsewhere.
  7. Organize text for "More Table Tennis Tips," then print for proofing. Yep, I now have 150 Tips of the Week from 2014-2016 for the sequel to "Table Tennis Tips." Today's main job is to organize the 150 Tips into chapters by topic. "Table Tennis Tips" was divided into ten chapters: Serve, Receive, Strokes, Grip and Stance, Footwork, Tactics, Improving, Sports Psychology, Equipment, and Tournaments.) If I have time tonight I might start playing around with the cover.
  8. Two hours of private coaching tonight.
  9. A bunch of USATT correspondence and possible USATT work.
  10. Call Geico. Somehow there's a big crack in my car's windshield. I have no idea where it came from as I haven't been in any accidents. (Hard-hit ping-pong ball?) I'm told my car insurance might pay for it.

USATT Awards Five Top Honors as Coaches of the Year
Here's the USATT article, with bios, statements, and testimonials. Here's the listing:

  • Olympic Coach of the Year: Stefan Feth (Mountain View, CA)
  • Paralympic Coach of the Year: Gary Fraiman (Clearwater, FL)
  • Mark Nordby Developmental Coach of the Year: Tao Wenzhang (Milpitas, CA)
  • Doc Counsilman Technology Coach of the Year: Samson Dubina (Akron, OH)
  • Volunteer Coach of the Year: Joe Ciarrochi (Akron, OH)

2017 Spring High Performance Training
Here's the USATT info page. It's a three-day USATT training camp to be held between the USA National Team Trials (March 23-26) and the  4-star Butterfly Cary Cup (March 30 - April 2) at the Triangle TTC in North Carolina. I may go down, if I have a top player or junior from my club to coach at the Cary Cup or Team Trials. If so, I may attend the Camp, either as a volunteer coach, or maybe, just maybe . . . as a player!

Samson Dubina Breaks Left Hand
Here's the Facebook picture and discussion. (If you're not on Facebook - Muggles? - you might not be able to see it, but here's the lurid non-Facebook image showing the cracked left ring finger.) As Samson thankfully points out, he's right-handed, so he'll be able to continue to play and coach. He claims he broke it playing volleyball, but I'm suspicious. Here's what I wrote: "C'mon, Samson, I've told you OVER and OVER that punching students for missing is risky. Tasers are much safer."

How to Eat and Drink at a Tournament
Here's the podcast (7:37) by Ben Larcombe

Photos from the Westchester January Open
Here's the gallery.

Young-Star National Team Camp-reaction Test
Here's the video (48 sec) - I want to try this!

Ask A Pro Anything - Joo Saehyuk
Here's the video (7:11) by Adam Bobrow of the best chopper in the world and a Men's Singles Finalist at the 2003 Worlds.

The Table Tennis Wheel
Here are four videos of them in action by Tahl Leibovitz and students, where players spin the wheel to develop their looping technique. I found three places where they are on sale: Ping Pong Depot in Canada ($149.95, I think this includes a speedometer), Table Tennis 11 in Estonia ($80.78), and Contra in Germany (EUR 89.90 or $96.69). If you search around, I believe you can get them with or without the speedometer.

Another Beetle Bailey TT Cartoon
Here it is, found by Marv Anderson. It's dated 6-28, but I don't know the year. I've added it to the listing I put up in my Sept. 28, 2016 blog.

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January 31, 2017

How to Play Practice Matches with a Weaker Player - an Example
It's always a bit disconcerting to go to the USATT News page and see a big picture of yourself! (And it'll stay there until another news item goes up.) Here's the direct link to my Tip of the Week (from yesterday) as a USATT News item.

Here's an interesting example of this. Back in the 1990s we had a junior at MDTTC, Sunny Li, who was dominating several age groups. At one point he won Under 14, 16, and 18 at the Junior Nationals. But as he moved up in level and faced even stronger players, a problem began to show up. He had among the best serves in the country, and easily the best serves among juniors, and often devastated opponents by serving long and watching them flail away at these big, breaking deceptive serves (with spinny-looking no-spin mixed in) - and if they returned them weakly, he'd pound the return, forehand or backhand. But against stronger players, you can't get away with serving long as often, and his short serves were merely good, not great like his long serves. He also hadn't really developed a good short game, and against short serves mostly flipped or pushed long.  

So what did we do? He was assigned to play practice matches with me, over and over, where he couldn't serve long, and had to drop my short backspin serves short. Like most others, I struggled with his deep serves, but I'm very good against short serves, and so even though I was only pushing 2300 at the time to his 2500 level, with these adjusted rules, I was able to beat him many times as he worked on his short serves and short game. It paid off as he got dramatically better at these things. (Though, alas, he quit table tennis at 18 to go to college, right when he was about to really hit the big-time and perhaps make the U.S. National Team and more. He later became a sharpshooter in the U.S. military in Iraq. I believe he now teaches sharpshooting to others in the military.)

USATT Hall of Fame Member J. Rufford Harrison Passes
Here's the USATT obit.

6 Mistakes You Probably Make When Practicing Third-Ball Attack
Here's the article from Table Tennis University.

Devastate the Top Dog
Here's the new article by Samson Dubina.

ITTF on a fresh start in 2017 with a new approach to marketing and sponsorship
Here's the ITTF article where "Steve Dainton, ITTF Marketing and Commercial Director discusses in length the four-year deal with Seamaster, the new approach to marketing rights which are back in-house, recent technological advancements and much more."

Hu Melek feeling positive about her chances in Antibes: “I hope I can do well”
Here's the Butterfly article on the reigning European Women's Champion.

Ping Pong and Table Tennis
Here's the video (64 sec) - "Andrew Baggaley's reign as World Ping Pong Champion is over, but he's been speaking to the BBC about the differences between ping pong and table tennis."

Loop Grunt vs. Chop Grunt
Here's the video (30 sec) as Ruwen Filus and Ricardo Walther have a "grunt off." (Turn the sound up.)

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January 30, 2017

Tip of the Week
How to Play Practice Matches with a Weaker Player.  (As explained in my Dec. 28 blog in the Tip of the Week, I'm putting up extra Tips of the Week and post-dating them for earlier in December so I'll end up with 150 Tips for the period 2014-2016. So today's Tip of the Week is dated Dec. 30. There is one more to go, and then we can finally celebrate the New Year!)

Last-Second Changes of Direction when Blocking
In the Sunday training session I had them do a basic drill, but with a twist. One player would serve and backhand loop (or forehand loop - I gave them that option) to his partner's backhand (or forehand - another option). The partner would aim the ball crosscourt - but at the last second would change and block down the line. (For advanced players, they had the option of going both ways.)

It's much easier to change directions at the last second on a block (or push) then with any other stroke - and players should take advantage of this. But you can't effectively do in a match what you don't practice, and so this was their chance to practice it. (And so should you.)

On the backhand side, it's a simple matter of pulling the wrist back at the last second and jabbing the ball down the line. On the forehand, you often take the ball a little longer - with the opponent often reacting to when he thinks you are going to contact the ball, and moving to cover the crosscourt. By taking the ball a split second later, and by bringing the wrist back slightly, it's easy to block down the line with the forehand. Many players don't have a down-the-line forehand block, a big hole in their games for savvy opponents, who know where you are next shot will be going.

RIP: USATT Hall of Famer J. Rufford Harrison, May 1930 - Jan. 28, 2017
He died Saturday from complications related to Parkinson's disease. He was 86. Here's his Hall of Fame Profile by Tim Boggan. Here's an article featuring Rufford from the Concord Insider in 2012.

$100,000 World Championships of Ping-Pong
Here's the home page for the event held this weekend in London - for Sandpaper. Here are the results - and guess what? It was won by a Chinese player!!! (Until now the event has been dominated by Europeans.) Here's the news article on the final.

2017 Hopes Info
This is for players who were born in 2005 or 2006, and clubs which hope to host a USATT Hopes Camp.

USATT News
Over the weekend USATT has put up a number of news articles. Some are duplicates of ones I've had or link to this morning, others are new, but rather than my linking to them one by one, why not browse over them?Table Tennis Coaching Blogs
Here's a feature on table tennis coaching blogs - and TableTennisCoaching.com is in there!

Become a Champion with the Chop Block
Here's the article by Carl Danner featuring 2016 U.S. Open Women's Singles Champion Adriana Diaz.

How to warm-up before a match (if you only have five minutes)
Here's the coaching article from Tom Lodziak.

We’ll Always Have Falkenberg
Here's the article from Coach Jon.

Table Tennis vs Ping Pong
Here's the article from eBATT Sport by Eli Baraty.

Backhand Flip Video
Here's the video (1:45) from Samson Dubina.

Coaching Podcasts by Matthew Pearson at Expert Table Tennis

Fang Bo Forehand Compilation 2017
Here's the video (2:43) of the world #12 from China, who made the final of Men's Singles at the 2015 World Championships by defeating Zhang Jike and Xu Xin.

Amy Wang Narrowly Misses Top 4 Opportunity at World Junior Circuit Finals
Here's the article by Matt Hetherington, featuring USA junior star Amy Wang. (Allen's sister - see below.)

Forrest Gump's got nothing on this teenage ping pong prodigy
Here's the video (2:09) featuring USA junior star Allen Wang. (Amy's brother - see above.)

Insane European Table Tennis Rally
Here's the video (60 sec) between Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER, world #6) and Liam Pitchford (ENG, world #46).

Tribute to Ma Long - The World Number 1
Here's the video (6:44).

Table Tennis Demonstration Energizes Morning Assembly
Here's the article from the Temple City Tribune, featuring the California TTC from Rosemead, CA.

Julio Jones finally humbled by pingpong that has bonded Falcons' locker room
Here's the article from ESPN.

Epic Ping Pong Fail - Spinning Face Smack
Here's the video (34 sec)!

Buried in Ping-Pong Balls
Here's the picture!

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January 27, 2017

Schools are closed today (Professional Day), and as usual, when the schools are off, so am I! We're having a one-day camp at MDTTC. We have so many full-time coaches that I'm not really needed, but I might go over anyway. Or I'll work on some USATT or writing projects. Meanwhile, this might be a good time for you to rewatch the old Matrix Ping-Pong video - probably the most hilarious table tennis video ever made! And then you can watch some of the amateur parodies, of which I've included four.

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January 26, 2017

USATT Teleconference
The USATT Board had a teleconference last night. It was schedule for 7:00-8:20PM, but I think went on until after 9:45PM. There were three main items on the agenda, which I list as separate items, designated with a "=>". There was also a fourth, sort of, "New Business."

=>SafeSport Policy
Here's the USATT page on this which actually went up a few years ago. (Click on the three "Attachments" at the bottom for more info.) Basically, it means that a huge number of people are going to have to get background checks, and do so every two years. These include (and I'm copying this from the USATT page):

  • USATT Certified Coaches
  • USATT Board Members
  • USATT Staff
  • USATT Committee Chairs and Committee members
  • Affiliated Club Owners and Operators
  • Referees and Umpires
  • Tournament Directors and Organizers
  • Anyone else who has access to minors within USATT sanctioned competition or club activity.

SafeSport is supposed to safeguard us from the following, which I'm copying directly from the "USA Table Tennis SafeSport Policies and Procedures" document that's linked from the above.

  • Bullying
  • Harassment
  • Hazing
  • Emotional Misconduct
  • Physical Misconduct
  • Sexual Misconduct, including Child Sexual Abuse

I am not happy about all this bureaucracy. Every one of these background checks (which you have to do yourself, online) is a hassle and costs $16.75. (At the moment, you pay for this, and when I went through it - yes, I passed! - I paid the $16.75. I'm told that USATT is going to change this policy for USATT members who are required to have these background checks, and take the $16.75 out of their membership fee - but for now, the online listing says you pay.) I did a quick count and was amazed at the surprisingly large number of people just from my own club that would need these background checks, with just over half of them not normally having direct access to players - but I'm not going to single my club out and list them. Let's just say that some clubs will have over 20 people in the above categories - and that's not including the final item in the listing above, "Anyone else who has access to minors…" - more on that below.

I'm quite aware of the legal reasons for doing this, and we really have no choice - it's a USOC mandate. However, I refused to vote for it at this time until the USOC explains to us why they require people who normally do not interact with players (and in particular minors) to get background checks. The example I used was simple: Why are they requiring members of, for example, the USATT Audit Committee to have background checks? Are we afraid the number 7 will sue us? (Please click on the link or ten minutes of my life will have been wasted!)

I strongly believe only those who normally have direct access to players (in particular, coaches) should have to undergo these background checks - the rest is pointless bureaucracy gone amok. The USOC took the easy way out here, with blanket requirements for just about everyone.

I don't see the reason why, for example, every umpire who shows up at tournaments and publicly umpires matches needed background checks. If we're worried we might have a crazed umpire who would attack someone at a tournament (perhaps in the restroom?), what about the far larger number of players and spectators? Don't they need to be background checked as well? (No, I'm not for that, I'm just making a point.) Sure we could get sued if an umpire attacks someone at a tournament, but the same thing would happen if a player or spectator did so. The same argument goes for many club officers. Does the club treasurer really need to be background checked? (See cartoon linked above!)

Do we really need to do background checks on the owners, presidents, operators, etc., of every USATT affiliated club? That's what the new rules say. My guess is we'll just lose a lot of affiliated clubs. Unless they need insurance through USATT - some do, I don't think most need it - this, and the $75 annual affiliation fee is enough to lose us a bunch of them. (It's already cost us a bunch - since raising the affiliation fee from $15 to $75 in a few years, we've gone from about 350 to 200 affiliated clubs. This is a separate issue I'll raise later.)

Note the wording of the final item of those who need to be background checked: "Anyone else who has access to minors within USATT sanctioned competition or club activity." Well, that means anyone at the tournament or club, doesn't it? Can't anyone at a tournament or club walk up to a junior player and say "Hi!" (or worse)? That means they have access to these minors. Oh no! So does everyone at a tournament or club need to get background checked? (Presumably before they can even enter the playing site or club, if there are kids present?) This is getting silly. I'm sure I'll be told that's not what it means, but words are scary things - they have meanings, and anyone who doesn't think this can be interpreted as everyone in the club or tournament needs to have a background check is kidding themselves. Will USATT actually enforce this part, or will they change the wording? (I'm guessing the latter. Hopefully. When they do, I'll blog about it.)  

Others did not agree with my objections to this new rule, or my request that, before we vote, we ask the USOC why they require background checks for those without direct access to players. Most believed we simply had to comply with the USOC, and to do so immediately. And so it passed 6-0-1, with me the abstention.

=>NewCo Licensing
This is the new deal we have where "Table Tennis USA" takes over commercial rights for the U.S. Open, Nationals, and possibly other tournaments. There's be more on this later on, but it seems a good deal for us. They will be taking all the risk, while paying us for the rights. We'll still be running the events, presumably through North American Table Tennis. More on this later - USATT will likely have a news item when all is finalized.

=>Budget
We went over the 2017 budget in detail, with USATT CEO Gordon Kaye going over it almost line by line. There were major cuts in some areas I wasn't happy about, but unfortunately there was a budget crunch, with cuts in a number of revenue areas (such as an expected $75,000 decline in the USOC Digital Media Agreement, after a big jump last year, partly because it was an Olympic year) and unexpected expenses (such as $14,000 in legal fees on one disciplinary case, and I think a similar amount in another, though I don't have specifics on the latter). I think the budget goes public later on, so I'll hold back on more comments until then. When we got to the part in the budget with cuts to athlete spending, I was hoping to discuss this with the High Performance Committee Chair, Carl Danner, who had been on the call, but he had to leave, and so we didn't get his input on this. We then voted to approve the budget, which passed, 7-0. I grudgingly voted for it, despite my misgivings about certain cuts.

=>New Business
I was waiting for this so I could raise a new issue. In 2015 (and in a number of past years, though not all), the rule had been that the U.S. Men's and Women's Singles Champions automatically made the USA National Team to the Worlds. For some reason, they changed this for 2016 - but few knew about this until the 2017 National Team Trials Information came out on Tuesday. And so Kanak Jha and Lily Zhang, the two winners, are now both required to try out for the team - and we're in danger of not having our National Champion on the team.

This was especially a hardship for 16-year-old Kanak, who is training and playing in leagues full-time in Sweden, and will have to miss certain league commitments to fly back to the U.S. for this. Kanak's father sent an email to me and others just before the teleconference.

However, when I brought up the issue at the end as "New Business" (which was on the agenda), I was told that I was "out of order," that since the teleconference was a "Special Meeting" called to discuss three issues, no other issues could be raised, and that the "New Business" item on the agenda was a mistake. And so no discussion of this took place, and the meeting ended. I did get some info on this in a phone call afterwards, but can't discuss that here. Perhaps this will be discussed at a later time.

Team and Singles Leagues and the USATT League Committee
Here's the USATT News Item I wrote - the title is mostly self-explanatory. If not for the Teleconference info above, I'd be blogging about this. I'll probably do so next week. 

New Podcasts from Expert Table Tennis by Matthew Pearson

Rules Updates and Guidance
Here's the USATT news item on this, with links to three items.

USATT Insider
Here's the new issue, which came out yesterday.

Ex-Terp Han Xiao to Chair USOC Athletes' Advisory Council
Here's the article in the Baltimore Sun. Here's the USOC article I linked to yesterday.

Butterfly North American Tour
Here it is - are you ready to join the Tour! Ten tournaments!

Ma Long Multiball Training
Here's the video (64 sec) as he does a 2-shot multiball drill: A random backspin, then a random topspin.

NYCTTA Table Tennis Exhibition Friendly Match
Here's the video (10:34).

Fun Fitness
Here's the video (2:04) of Samson Dubina and three players doing ladder physical training.

Weird Table Tennis
Here's the video (30 sec) of the weirdest table tennis you'll ever see!!!

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January 25, 2017

Alex's Blocking
Between coaching sessions at the club I was watching Alex Ruichao Chen, one of our top player/coaches (rated 2713) working with one of our top junior players. Alex is a lefty, and was blocking backhands while the player forehand looped crosscourt. The part that was interesting was not his blocking, but what he did between the blocks. Most players in a drill, and especially coaches who do this hour after hour just keep their racket out there in backhand or forehand block position. (I plead guilty.) But not Alex! Between each block he'd not only return to a ready position, but he almost went into a forehand ready position. (He's a very forehand-oriented player, with perhaps the strongest pure third-ball attack in the country - serve and forehand rip - though he's worked hard the past year or so on his backhand.)

I looked around and watched the other coaches, and verified that they also mostly kept their rackets in blocking position when blocking for students. Alex himself would sometimes do this, so perhaps he is in the transition from hard-working player to one of us lazy coaches?

This is key for all players. When you drill, why would you keep your racket out there for the next shot? You'd be practicing something you never do in a match. Instead, go to ready position after each shot. Not only will you develop good habits, but you'll be ready for mishits, as well as become better at the transition from ready position to the shot you are practicing. When you are ready to become a coach . . . then you can get lazy.

Han Xiao Elected Chair of U.S. Olympic Committee Athletes Advisory Council
Here's the USOC article. He's come a long way from that 7-year-old who showed up at MDTTC circa 1994! Let's see, he won every age group (often two or three at a time) on his way up, was on the National Team many years (representing USA in four Worlds), won three Men's Doubles titles, made the finals of Men's Singles, made the 2007 Pan Am Team (bronze in Men's Teams), and spent many years as Athlete Rep on the USATT Board of Directors and co-chair of the USATT Athlete's Advisory Committee.

From Flat Hit to Topspin
Here's the new coaching video (2:22) from PingSkills. I also started out as a hitter my first few years (reached 1900 level) and had to transition to looping.

Ma Long Training Backhand to Backhand Technique Slow Motion 2017
Here's the video (4:21).

2017 USA National Team Trials Information
Here's the USATT info page.

Japan Announces World Championships Line-up
Here's the ITTF article. The big surprise - 13-year-old Tomokazu Harimoto, already World Junior Champion (that's for under 18) and world #64 - I'm certain the youngest ever to reach that ranking - is on the five-player squad, though he's only #9 among Japanese players in the world rankings.

Zhang Jike Set to Return, Bound for Doha
Here's the ITTF article.

Prep Table Tennis Popularity on the Rise in Metro Area
Here's the article on Minnesota TT.

"I was amazed," Remembering a Maine Table Tennis Champion
Here's the USATT article and video (2:43) on the tragic loss of Fouad Abdullah.

Another Beetle Bailey TT Cartoon
Here it is, found by Marv Anderson. It's dated 6-16, but I don't know the year. I've added it to the listing I put up in my Sept. 28, 2016 blog.

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January 24, 2017

How I Beat Boris Becker, by Andre Agassi
Here's the video (2:40). His secret? He could tell where Boris was serving by how his tongue stuck out of his mouth!

I had a similar coaching experience for many years. A member of the U.S. National Team for many years telegraphed when he was serving long by sticking his tongue out as he was serving! I coached against him many times, and my players did very well against him because of this. The player liked to serve long, and never figured out why some opponents always seemed ready for it.

In table tennis there are similar things you can pick up on, often subtle, if you watch for them. I would estimate that over half of players (including top players) telegraph their long serves by changing their backswing. That's a no-no - you need to use the same backswing for short or long serves. Even if opponents don't consciously pick up on it, they often do so subconsciously, and can tell when you are serving long without being sure how they know. This happens to me all the time - I can tell if someone's serving long but have to think about it to figure out what specifically gives it away.

As a test of how players react to a player's swing before contact, I once experimented on using a reverse pendulum serve motion until after I started the forward swing on the serve, and then switching to my favored pendulum serve motion. The result was astounding - people misread it over and over, and it became one of my serving mainstays.

Podcasts from Expert Table Tennis
Here are two new podcasts by Matthew Pearson

USATT is Seeking Qualified Candidates for an Independent Director Position
Here's the USATT article. Do you have the right stuff?

Mizutani Wins His Ninth All Japan Championship Title
Here's the article.

Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, a Special Memory
Here's the ITTF article featuring umpire Mike Meier.

29 Seconds of Multiball to Wake You Up
Here's the video.

Xu Xin When He Was 16 Years Old
Here's the video (17:50) - he's playing 3-time World Men's Singles Champion Wang Liqin!

Table Tennis Superstar Michael Maze & Wally Green 2017
Here's the video (6:59) - when it first comes on, the play seems to be off to the right, but if you put the curser on the video itself, you can drag the image about a full 360 degrees about! When I first saw it, I thought the camera person had simply put the camera off to the side accidentally, and I didn't realize you could actually move the video about with the curser. You can also use the W, A, S, and D keys on the keyboard to rotate these videos.

Andrew Rushton 2017 Ping Pong
Here's the video (70 sec) as he trains for the World Ping-Pong Championships - yes, that's with sandpaper.

Falcons' Ping Pong Battles Are More Important Than You May Think
Here's the article.

Ping-Pong Ball Juggling Robot
Here's the article with links to video and lots of pictures. Here's a less technical article on it, with a link to another video (5:09).

Chinese Man Finishes Voyage in Paper Boat Using His Ping-Pong Paddles
Here's the article and picture from 2008.

Ping-Pong Masters: Now I've Seen Everything!
Here's the video (78 sec). It starts with shovel pong, and goes on from there!

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January 23, 2017

Tip of the Week
What Are Your Main Weapons? (As explained in my Dec. 28 blog in the Tip of the Week, I'm putting up extra Tips of the Week and post-dating them for earlier in December so I'll end up with 150 Tips for the period 2014-2016. So today's Tip of the Week is dated Dec. 29. There are two more to go, and then we can finally celebrate the New Year!)

Non-Technique Problems with Juniors and Adults
Yesterday I coached in three different 90-minute group sessions - one for beginning juniors, one for advanced juniors (mostly ages 8-10), and one for adults. In the latter two I noticed some interesting parallels. Usually junior and adult players have different problems. Most well-trained juniors have pretty good technique, but don't have the hand-eye coordination or control yet to be consistent. Most adults, unless they started as well-trained juniors, have technical issues, but better hand-eye coordination and control. But sometimes the problems are the same. Here are two examples, both involving forehand looping.

In the advanced junior session, there was a player who had good forehand loop. However, while sometimes he'd let it go and it would be pretty nice, often you could see him holding back, trying to just guide the ball onto the table, with his racket slowing down at contact instead of accelerating. At the adult session that night, there was a player who had the exact same problem. In both cases, the problem is more mental than technical. You have to just let the shot go and accelerate into the shot. It doesn't mean you rip the ball, but if you try to guide the shot, you lose speed and spin, and end up with a weak shot.

In the advanced junior session, there was another player who also had a good forehand loop. The problem was that the player was way ahead of the ball, and so at the point where contact should be made, the ball was still out in front, over the table. So the player often hit the ball toward the end of the swing, as the racket decelerated out in front, in an off-balance, awkward shot. In the adult session, there was a player with the exact same problem. In both cases, the technique was good, but the timing was off.

In all four cases above, the players had good technique, and often had very nice loops - but often their technique was hindered by these other issues. All four are now (hopefully!) working on these problems, which, with some serious practice, should be relatively easy fixes.

Five Consecutive Lob Edges!
It really happened - not by me, but against me by 15-year-old Matt Stepanov during a coaching session I had with him last week. He wanted to lob some, and he won five straight points lobbing on the edge!!! We were laughing hysterically after the first three, so you can imagine our reactions when he got the fourth and fifth!

ITTF Presidential Election
It's a three-way battle between incumbent Thomas Weikert of Germany, ITTF Deputy President Khalil Al-Mohannadi of Qatar, and superstar player Jean-Michel Saive (former #1 in the world and Men's Singles Finalist in 1993). "The elections will be held on Wednesday 31st May at the Annual General Meeting in Düsseldorf, Germany, to be held on the occasion of the Liebherr 2017 World Championships."

USATT News
Since I blogged last week USATT has put up over 20 news items. Some are duplicates of ones I've had, others are new, but rather than my linking to them one by one, why not browse over them?

Waldner Receives Award for Lifetime Achievement
Here's the ITTF article.

New Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina

Podcasts from Expert Table Tennis
Here are three new podcasts by Matthew Pearson

Lessons on Deliberate Practice from Jerry Rice
Here's the article - this applies to all sports.

Three-Point Multiball Training
Here's the video (33 sec).

Table Tennis Tutorial: Most Important Tips (part 3)
Here's the video (14:49). This is all about the grip. Links to parts 1 and 2 are below it.

Zhang Jike Working with Three Coaches?
Here's the video (11:39). They are speaking in Chinese, so I'm not sure what's going on, but it's interesting to watch a Zhang Jike training session.

Table Tennis on Fire
Here's the picture of Kim Gilbert! (Here's the non-Facebook version.) It's got fireballs, explosions, lightning, and a Kim in a hot rod!

Snowman Pong?
Here's the video (9 sec)!

Hale and Pace Table Tennis
Here's the video (73 sec) - it's from 2012, but I'd never seen it, and it's hilarious! I wonder if the famous Shaun the Sheep Table Tennis video (68 sec) was inspired by this.

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