Tip of the Week
Follow the Elbow.

North American Teams
I spent the weekend coaching at the JOOLA North American Teams. (Here are complete results.) As noted in my blog last week, I always have this conflict as I'm sponsored by Butterfly, which runs the Butterfly Teams the same weekend, but the JOOLA Teams are practically next door, and my students play there. So that's where I coach. 

As usual, since I was busy coaching MDTTC junior teams on the back tables, I didn't see many of the big matches. During the Division One Finals I was watching the Division Ten Final. Note I said watching, not coaching? That's because it was between MDTTC/HWGF1 and MDTTC/HWGF2! Yes, an all MDTTC final. (HWGF stands for HW Global Foundation, which sponsors and runs the Talent Program at MDTTC, which is mostly kids from around 7 to 11. Contact them if you are interested in such a program at your club.) The players on the two teams were mostly 8-10 years old. I'd coaching both teams during the tournament, though I'd been assigned to mostly  coach the #1 team. (Others coaching the MDTTC junior teams were Jeffrey Zeng Zun, Wang Qing Liang, John Hsu, and Jack Huang.) But when two MDTTC junior teams play each other, we have a firm rule – no coaching from coaches or parents; only the kids can coach each other. They are all teammates, and we don't want coaches or parents coaching against each other there. It was a battle, as the players were used to each other, with the #1 defeating #2, 5-2. It could have been closer as the #1 team won two matches deuce or 11-9 in the fifth. These players all came in with ratings roughly 1100 to 1400, but they were severely under-rated.

MDTTC/HWGF1 ended up going 6-1 in their division half, and then won the crossovers and finals. MDTTC/HWGF2 was in the same half, and also went 6-1, with their only loss to MDTTC/HWGF1! They also won their crossover match, and so played MDTTC/HWGF1 again in the final.

Does coaching make a difference? You better believe it! I could give many examples from this tournament alone. Here's my favorite. I had just finished coaching MDTTC/HWGF1, and ran over to coach MDTTC/HWGF2. I think it was the ninth match (I never saw the match sheet, so not sure). One of our players, just turned age 8 (exactly four feet tall, as he told me), and coming in with a rating of about 1100, was down 0-2 and 4-8 to a 1550 player. His opponent had already won both her other matches easily, both 3-0, and it looked like this match was over.

I watched him serve two points, which they split, and now he was down 5-9, two points away from losing. I called a time-out, and told him he was about to have an historic comeback that we'd be talking about for years to come, and asked if he was ready. He perked up and said he was ready. Then I told him two things. First, to simplify things, switch from the forehand pendulum serve he'd used twice to his forehand tomahawk serve, short to the forehand, which would likely force a predictable crosscourt return to his forehand. Second, and more importantly, I told him to relentlessly go after her elbow. (See this morning's Tip of the Week.) She was tall and very good from the corners, and that's where he'd been playing. For the rest of the match he did just that – in rally after rally, he just pounded her middle, and her strong countering game completely wilted. From 5-9 he scored five in a row, 10-9, then was down 10-11 match point, then won 14-12. She struggled with the tomahawk serve, missing two, and returning the rest predictably to his forehand.

Before game four I told him to start varying the tomahawk serve, to set up as if he were going to go short to the forehand again, but then go deep to backhand. The tactic worked, and he continued to pound her middle, especially in fast backhand rallies, and won, 11-4.

Between games, after he told them the score to mark down, the opposing team argued that the score had been 11-5. My player said that it had been 11-4 – and I knew it had been 11-4, since they'd changed serves just before that and he was serving 10-4. But quickly went over and told them to put it down as 11-5, and explained to our player that it didn't matter. I didn't want him to lose his focus. It's amazing how often little unimportant things can throw off a player's focus, and it's up to both the player and coach to make sure this doesn't happen.

Before game five I suggested he sometimes follow up his attacks to the middle by going to the open corner. He didn't seem sure when to do that, so I changed my mind, and told him to just keep pounding the middle until he got an easy ball to smash. He again did this flawlessly, and went up 10-4, lapsed for a few points, then won 11-7. And so he and his team leaped in celebration as they won the team match!

There were many matches like that. It was also great watching these players. One of them (not the one above) plays (both strokes and tactically) like an 8-year-old Waldner! (He'll be about 1500 after this tournament.) Another player was on fire on Sunday, and beat two players that were seemingly stronger who he likely would have lost to the day before. We also saw problems to work on. One player probably lost three matches because of a lack of a good backspin serve. Another got so frustrated whenever he lost a game that he probably lost a number of matches he could have otherwise won. There were also technical issues that some of them will have to work on.

One thing that many didn't realize was that the ITTF coaching rule was in effect. North American Table Tennis, which ran the tournament, had sent out a note letting players know that the rule would be in effect, which allowed coaching at any time except during points. However, most that I talked to didn't realize this. Most coaches were low-key on this, not sure yet how much they should coach, and so it wasn't a serious problem. As coaches and players get more used to it, I'm worried it'll become more of a distraction as coaches may try to signal servers, etc. I took advantage of it a few times, whispering advice to players when they were nearby. I also had one of our Chinese coaches sometimes call out things to our Chinese kids when they were playing non-Chinese players. (Of course, that's risky – some non-Chinese players know Chinese! But it's rare.)

On Sunday afternoon I coached one of our players, an 8-year-old chopper, against a pusher/blocker who almost never attacked. The match would have gone expedite if it had been timed, but I figured that favored her, so didn't call for an umpire, and neither did the opponents. So I sat there for probably 40 minutes as the two pushed back and forth before the opponent finally won, 3-1. And then I stood up.

OWWW! Yes, I injured my left leg just standing up. I had tightened up during that long match. Even when I coached him I was sitting down as I don't want kids to have to look up at someone looking down at them. (It's psychologically better to get down to their level, either sitting or squatting.) For the next hour I literally couldn't put any weight on the leg. It gradually eased up to the point where I could hobble about some, but I really hurt it pretty badly. I'm still hobbling about, and had to cancel or get a substitute for my coaching for Mon-Wed. On Thursday I have a one-hour junior class and a one-hour session with a beginner, so I'll wait and see if I can do that. (It's rather funny that all these players play for three days and are fine, and I stand up after coaching a match and get hurt like this. Jeez...) 

The tournament was run efficiently by North American Table Tennis. As usual, Director John Miller kept the matches running right on time, and other than that injury problem at the end, I had a great time, and so did the kids! I've been going to the Teams since I started in 1976, so this was my 41st time. Wow.

Butterfly Teams and JOOLA North American Teams Articles
USATT has lots of articles and videos from both on their News Page. Butterfly has articles on the Butterfly Teams on their News Page.

Liu Shiwen Suspended from International Play
Here's the ITTF press Release on the world #2 and former #1. "The reason cited by Kong Linghui, the head coach of the Chinese Women’s Team, is Liu Shiwen's last minute withdrawal from the Seamaster 2016 Women’s World Cup held last October [in Philadelphia]."

New Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina

• Middle-Aged TT Training - by Coach Joe Ciarrochi
• Bluetooth Coaching??? - New SDTTA Method of Tournament Coaching!
• Devastating John Doe - Beating the Unknown Opponent

New Articles by Coach Jon

• The Ghost of Ping Pong's Past
• A Roadmap Through Racket Obsession

Men vs Women – What We Can Learn From Each Other
Here's the article from Tom Lodziak.

One Million Table Tennis Players to Be Trained
Here's the article from the Indian Express.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18 (1990-1991)
Here's chapter 10! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

Training with Belgium National Team 2016 Part 1
Here's the video (12:36).

Jun Mizutani vs Vladimir Samsonov Training
Here's the video (22:15).

Top Serve of Table Tennis
Here's the new music video (4:16).

Great Doubles Point
Here's the video (28 sec).

Ask a Pro Anything - Doo Hoi Kem
Here's the video (4:19). "Hong Kong's female youngster takes on the ITTF Ask a Pro Anything challenge with Adam Bobrow! Watch to learn more about her as she tries to answer questions from her fans." She's world #16, #4 under 21.

Ma Long & Zhang Jike Exhibition After Rio Olympics 2016
Here's the video (5:53) that just went up.

When Table Tennis Gets Angry!
Here's the video (1:40).

Human Net
Here it is! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Monkey Sports
Here's the cartoon – "Earn £100 a Week Teaching Monkeys Table Tennis."

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Next Blog – Tuesday, Nov. 29
I'll be eating Meleagris on Thursday, coaching at the Teams Fri-Sun, and exhausted in bed on Monday. See you Tuesday!

Coaching at the Teams
On Fri-Sun I'll be at the JOOLA North American Teams, coaching one of the junior teams from the Maryland Table Tennis Center. It's a rather big job, herding the kids to the right table, warming them up, getting the match slips filled out, scouting opponents, coaching matches, consoling tearful kids after a loss, and making sure they eat and drink properly. Fortunately, most of the kids are now "old pros," having played numerous tournaments.

It's a tough decision for many of us each year – JOOLA North American Teams in DC, or Butterfly Teams in Philadelphia? It's unfortunate they are on the same weekend, and only 2.5 hours apart, but both want the Thanksgiving weekend. For me, it's an especially uncomfortable choice, since I'm sponsored by Butterfly, but the North American Teams are practically in my back yard. Since the players I coach are playing there, I'll be coaching at the JOOLA North American Teams in DC. But I wish I could do both.

For those of you playing at the Teams (either one), here's my article, Top Ten Ways to Play Your Best in a Tournament. Unless you are playing an MDTTC Team. Then go out and party late the night before, and show up at the last minute to play – only wimps need to warm up, right?

One thing of possible great interest – at the North American Teams they will be following the new ITTF coaching rule. This means coaches are allowed to coach at any time during the match that the ball is not in play. I do not like this rule, and am not looking forward to it. Hopefully it'll be low key, and not three days of coaches screaming out instructions. But I'm sure there'll be some coaches signaling every serve.

U.S Open, JOOLA Teams, Butterfly Teams
There is no greater pastime in American than counting the number of players and teams at the various large tournaments. It's as American as grandma and Kung Pao Chicken. Sure, some of you may prefer to watch table tennis glue dry or pick up ping-pong balls during training sessions, but nothing is as enthralling as watching those online numbers as, one by one, they move up. Those of us who live and breathe this stuff hit refresh every ten seconds or so, in constant anticipation of those occasional times when one of the numbers clicks up one – and then it's pandemonium as we pump our fists in the air, screaming Olé! Okay, now you know what a boring life some of us lead, but it is fun to occasionally watch as they numbers grow. Here are the current totals.

• U.S. Open – 816 entries, with I'm told more paper entries still to be inputted. We may end up with about 850.
• JOOLA North American Teams – 713 players on 180 teams.
• Butterfly Teams – 224 players on 60 teams. They are the "upstarts," starting up just a few years ago.

Table Tennis Books
(Warning - shameless commercial solicitation coming!) It's not too late to buy one of my table tennis books, or Dan Seemiller's Revelations of a Champion, for Christmas! Or just for yourself. What could be better than curling up next to the fire and reading about Tactics and Tips and Dan Seemiller's journey to the top? I've noticed a recent bump in sales of The Spirit of Pong, where you get to train (in spirit) with past champions – why not find out what all the excitement is about?

Black Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday – at USATT Webstore
The USATT Webstore is having a big sale on these days, so make sure to shop

Rochester Coach Will Lead U.S. Junior National Table Tennis Team
Here's the article from the Rochester, MN Post Bulletin.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18 (1990-1991)
Here's chapter 9! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

Topspin Charity Supports Youth Education in NYC with Star-Studded Table Tennis Event
Here's the USATT article.

Three Black Americans See China as Their Land of Opportunity
Here's the article from The Daily Progress.

Alton High, Marquette Square Off in Table Tennis Match
Here's the article from the Alton Advantage News in Illinois.

Private Equity Execs Raise Money With a Different Kind of Back-and-Forth
Here's the article from the Wall Street Journal – alas, you have to subscribe to read it.

Photos from the November Westchester Open
Here's the gallery from Glen Randmer Photography. Here are results, and video of the final (16:51). 

Great Exhibition Point
Here's the video (52 sec) of a point to wake you up for Thanksgiving – and it doesn't really look like an exhibition until one of the players circles the table!

Art and Ping-Pong, Together at Last
Here's the gallery, seven images. Make sure to click on Slideshow.

Boston, the Table Tennis Playing Dog
Here's the picture and short article.

Turkey Pong
This is a repeat from last year, but it's the season! I did some searching, but there doesn't seem to be any new turkey table tennis pictures since last year – apparently turkeys don't play TT much . . . those turkeys. . . .

• This Turkey is Ready to Play
• Playing Turkey Pong
• Grandma Serves a Roasted Robo-Pong with Ping-Pong Ball Stuffing
• Cartoon Turkey Paddle
• Fancy Turkey Paddle
• Realistic Turkey Paddle 1
• Realistic Turkey Paddle 2
• Happy Thanksgiving Turkey Paddle 1
• Happy Thanksgiving Turkey Paddle 2
• Happy Thanksgiving Turkey Ball (there were a bunch of turkey balls and paddles, so I won't link to them all)
• How to Make a Ping-Pong Ball Turkey
• Marathon Training, Ping Pong, and Turkeys

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Sixteen and Training Again . . . with Christer Johansson
The year was 1976, I was 16, and I'd just finished a week of hard training at the Monty Merchant Christmas Training Camp. On the last day I got a surprise – Monty had been so impressed with my skills that he'd arranged for Christer Johansson, the great Swedish coach, to fly to the U.S. to take personal charge of my training.

The preceding never happened – or did it? Let me tell the story in order.

I'm in my room, shadow-practicing my forehand, when Monty and Christer walk in. Monty introduces us, then Christer takes charge. Tells me I need to focus on looping from both sides. On the forehand, I was both hitting and looping; he assures me that the future is looping, and to focus on that.

But then we get to my backhand. "You must loop your backhand," he says. He guides me through the stroke as he wants me to do it, and I begin to shadow practice it.

"It's easy to do in practice," I vividly remember telling him, "but hard to do it in games."

"But you must do it in games," he says. We're still in my room at home, with a table somehow jammed into it. We begin training, as he blocks to my backhand loop, constantly on me to spin it harder, Harder, HARDER!!! He's moving me side to side, backhand to forehand, and I'm really into it, looping everything, as I want to be the best in the world, and now I have one of the best, maybe the best, coach in the world training me. Every now and then I see Monty in the background, nodding. I'm a hard worker, and both of them are impressed. He's focusing especially on my backhand, turning it into a deadly weapon.

Soon I'm ripping loops from both wings, relentlessly, like a champion. I'm 16 and I have a great future ahead.

Then I'm lying in bed, just waking up and thinking about the upcoming day's training. I'm going to work so hard, I tell myself, and the coaches will be impressed, and someday I'm going to be world champion. As I lay there, 16 years old, realization gradually dawns, even as it is dawn outside. I'm not 16; I'm 56, and I've been having an unbelievably vivid dream. I'm extremely disappointed. I never did develop a strong backhand loop, just a steady blocking, countering game. I look over at the clock, and it's 5:55 AM. 

I really did go to the Monty Merchant Christmas Camp in December, 1976, my first training camp. I only started to play when I was 16, early in 1976, and at the camp was about 1400 level. But I trained pretty hard right from the start. Alas, Monty died in 2008; here's his obit. Little remembered fact – when I was about 1850 but about to jump up a lot, I played my former coach in a tournament and led 19-13 in the third (best of three to 21). Monty came back to win – I still tense up just thinking about that choke – and then he withdrew from the tournament, saying that that match proved to him that he just didn't have it anymore. He never played a tournament again, at least in the U.S. (For a time he was Sean O'Neill's near full-time coach.)

But who was Christer Johansson? I never met him, and don't think I've thought about him much in decades. But back then he was a big-time coach from Sweden. He was the older brother of Kjell Johansson, the 1973 World Men's Singles Finalist. Christer was on the Swedish Men's Team that won the bronze medal at the 1967 Worlds. He even had a racket named after him. But it was as a coach that he most shined, first for the Swedes, later for Norway. He wrote a book on table tennis, Bordtennis (in Swedish, alas). Here's a recent picture. He'll be 72 on Dec. 10. 

And amazingly, he's on Facebook. We're not Facebook friends (yet), but we do have nine mutual friends. I just sent him a friend request. (Update: He accepted.) 

I never met Christer Johansson, but we did have one great night training together, last night, when I was 16.

Short Stuff

• USATT Teleconference. We had one last night, with ten people on the call. Topics covered included approval of the minutes of the September Teleconference and the October meeting in Philadelphia; discussion and plans for future USATT events and commercial rights; upcoming U.S. Open (online listing currently has us at 808 entries, but we're actually around 850); the upcoming General Assembly at the U.S. Open; budget update (membership appears down, but we always get a membership bump at the end of the year from the Teams and the Open/Nationals); upcoming Board elections and committee appointments; upcoming December Board meeting at the Open; and then we adjourned. There were no fireworks or issues of monumental importance; we'll likely have bigger issues to cover at the December in-person meeting at the Open, where we'll meet all day, instead of just the 81 minutes the teleconference took. There'll also be the General Assembly, which will focus entirely this year on the Youth Team Selection Process.
• Campaign 2100. Have any of you read my novel, Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions? It has lots of table tennis! It currently has nine reviews on Amazon, six 5-star, three 4-star. Apparently good things happen at certain magic numbers of reviews, and ten is one of them – so I could use one more (good!) review.
• Non-Table Tennis: Philcon. That's the Philadelphia Science Fiction Convention, where I was on Friday and Saturday, where I was a panelist and did a book signing. Here's a picture of me at the "Utopias That Make Us Cringe" panel. (Here's the non-Facebook version.) I also moderated the "Dinosaur Fiction!" panel. Here I am at the book signing, alongside big-time author Lawrence Schoen on the left. (Here's the non-Facebook version.) The 2.5-hour drive up took five, do to traffic. I returned Saturday night (little traffic this time), in time for my regular Sunday coaching.

Tactical Analysis: A Brief Study of Harimoto
Here's the analysis by Samson Dubina. Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan is the #1 ranked under 18 player in the current ITTF junior boys' rankings. The analysis was done for USA juniors who will face him.

The Nine Mental Skills of Successful Athletes
Here's the article.

USA Table Tennis Participates in AmazonSmile Program
Here's the info page – when you buy from Amazon, they'll send a percentage to USATT!

ITTF & TMS International End Their Exclusive Marketing Agreement
Here's the ITTF press release. Maybe you or your company can take over?

Kickstarter for Table Tennis Shirt
Here's the page for the new shirt by artist Steve Worthington.

Highlights from the 2016 Swedish Open
Here's the video (3:33). Here are more videos from the Swedish Open this past weekend. Here's the home page for the event, with results, articles, pictures, and video.  

Table Tennis - The Power of Shot Placement (Precision and Power)
Here's the video (5:31).

1972 Table Tennis: Stellan Bengtsson vs. Istvan Jonyer
Here's the video (57 sec). Bengtsson was the reigning 1971 Men's World Champion and world #1, Jonyer was world #3 and would become the 1975 Men's World Champion.

Eight-Two, Brute
Here's the cartoon!

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Tip of the Week
Getting "In the Zone" by Adapting to Your Opponent.

Car Pong!
Yesterday, while driving home from coaching at the club, I suddenly heard a rattling. It seemed to be coming from below, as if something were lose under the car. (And yes, this is all table tennis related – you'll see!) I finally pulled over and looked, but couldn't find anything. So I got back in, and there was more rattling. Something was wrong with my car!!! I debated whether to take it to a gas station, but it was around 8:30PM and I doubted there'd be anyone there to help. So I decided I'd have to take it somewhere in the morning. It meant skipping this morning's blog, since those who come in later in the morning have to wait for them to finish on the ones that came in earlier, and I'd need the car later this afternoon when I go to coach.

After I got home, I checked under the car one more time, but couldn't find the problem. Sighing, I went to the trunk to get my playing bag and a big metal cartoon of food I'd gotten from the club. The MDTTC's Talent Group – the best players mostly under age 10 – had just had a party, and had given me this big metal carton on Chicken Lo Mein. And that's when I found the culprit. I keep a Butterfly Ball Amigo (a ball net for picking up balls) in the trunk of my car, which I bring into the club as my personal ball net. The head had gotten stuck under my playing bag, with the handle on top of the metal food carton. The sound I'd heard was the handle banging up and down on the carton!!!

I've had other table tennis adventures in cars. One year we had four in a car driving back from the U.S. Open Team Championships in Detroit to Maryland. I was in the back seat reading. We drove into Pennsylvania, but I stopped paying attention. Then I looked up, and noticed a sign saying, "Lake Erie." Huh? That was in the opposite direction. It turned out the driver had mistakenly gone north on some highway, and had driven several hours in the wrong direction.

Another time I had a ride with someone to a club in Virginia on the Beltway around Washington DC, I-495. It should have been a quick 15 minutes on the Beltway, but about half an hour into it I looked out and realized he'd gone the wrong way on the Beltway. We ended up driving completely around in the wrong direction, which took (with traffic) about an hour and a half.

Another year, coming back from the U.S. Teams in Detroit, we got snowed in. We ended up staying two days in a hotel in the suburbs before we were able to drive home.

Here are Car Pong pictures and videos – enjoy! (There are zillions of paddles and balls with car pictures – most are automatically generated for orders from novelty companies – so I not including them.)

Decals

• Table Tennis Car Window Stickers – I have these on my car!
• Ping-Pong Paddle Car Decals

Pictures

• Ping-Pong Beetle Car! Here's the front view.
• Upside-Down Car Pong!
• Car Hood Pong!
• Tire Pong Table!
• Trolley Car Table Tennis Club! (It's in Philadelphia.)
• Playing Table Tennis at a Volvo Car Factory in Sweden
• Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg of Germany (right) plays mini-pong
• Table Tennis Star Biba Golic with Paddle in car with baseball star Johnny Damon.

Video

• Car Pong – where you move your piece by moving your car (1:30)! Here's another (54 sec).
• Ellen DeGeneres and Matt Lauer – Epic 20,000 Ping-Pong Balls in a Car Gag (3:04). Here's the repeating gif image.
• Car filled with Ping Pong Balls Prank (18 sec)
• Ping-Pong Ball Car Boat (2:18)
• Hit by Car While Chasing Ping-Pong Ball (7 sec)

Table Tennis Backspin Serve Like a Boss!
Here's the coaching video (5:15) by Brett Clarke (from 2014). 

Three Articles/Questionnaires from Competitive Edge
These were distributed to members of the USA Youth Teams by Sean O'Neill.

• How Tough Are You?
• Are You Winning Parents?
• 8 Tips to Copes with Pre-Game Nerves

Para Legacy Dinner/Banquet
Here's info from USATT. The banquet will take place at 8:30 PM on Thursday, Dec. 15, at the U.S. Open in Las Vegas.

Spurs’ Pau Gasol Relished Luke Walton as Teammate, Ping Pong Opponent
Here's the article from the Los Angeles Daily News.

Support Smoke-free LA with ... Ping-Pong?
Here's the article.

Insane Behind-the-Back Shot
Here's the video (32 sec).

Some Leisurely Senior Chaired Pong
Here's the picture – click on picture to see other interesting TT pictures. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Citizen Dog Pong
Here's the cartoon from Nov. 12, 2016, as pointed out by Marv Anderson – now you know what to do during a power outage!

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Pro TT Leagues
One thing I've been harping on for a number of years is how we keep losing our top juniors right as they are on the verge of being world-class players – they go to college. The horror!!! But from a table tennis point of view, it'd be nice if we had a professional league of some sort in the U.S. so these players could postpone college a few years and develop their game to the fullest. It'll be on the agenda at the USATT Board meeting at the U.S. Open in Las Vegas.

As I've blogged about before, never in our history have we had such a strong group of cadets and juniors – and it's not even close. Our best ones can now compete with the best in the world, something that was almost unheard of in the past, plus there's the depth is far beyond anything we've had in the past. (How is this happening? The growth of full-time training centers.)

So how do we set up such a pro league in time for this generation of up-and-coming superstars? I see three options:

1. USATT develops such a pro league. It would most likely be a team league, where clubs buy franchises, and compete regionally. There'd be a limit of probably one non-citizen per team. The key here is money, which USATT doesn't really have, so it would have to work with sponsors or major table tennis companies.
2. USATT sends our top juniors and players to overseas leagues. There are very strong leagues all over Europe and in China. Many of our past top players played and developed their games in the German leagues, such as Dan Seemiller and Eric Boggan.
3. USATT or someone else organizes a Players Association. They would have incentive to set up such a league. They'd probably have to pool resources in some way to hire an Executive Director, or find one who works right from the start on commissions. If we don't do #1 or #2 above, I might have to push for this one.

And Now It Begins…
…my almost non-stop travel period, for both table tennis and science fiction, for six weeks. (It actually gets busier in December.) I'll be at Philcon this weekend, the annual Philadelphia Science Fiction Convention, where I'm doing another book signing and I'm a panelist. I return late Saturday night so I can do my Sunday coaching. (There's also a USATT Teleconference on Monday night, but that doesn't involve travel for once.) Here's my upcoming schedule.

• Nov. 18-19: Philcon Science Fiction Convention  in Philadelphia
• Nov. 25-27: Coaching at the North American Teams in DC
• Dec. 4-9: Science Fiction Writer's Workshop Cruise in Bahamas
• Dec. 10-18: U.S. Open and USATT Board Meetings in Las Vegas
• Dec. 20-25: Christmas in Eugene, Oregon
• Dec. 26-31: MDTTC Christmas Camp

Christmas Shopping for TT Books
It's that time of year again – where table tennis players go to sleep with visions of ping-pong books dancing in their heads. So why not buy a TT book for your favorite table tennis player, even if that person is yourself? Oh, and I just happen to have written a few! Here's where my books are listed. Best seller is Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers, with Table Tennis Tips not far behind, both in print or kindle. The much shorter Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook is also a good seller, and the kindle version is currently selling for just 99 cents. There's also Table Tennis Tales & Techniques.

Or perhaps you are more in the mood for a good fantasy novel? The Spirit of Pong is about an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis – it's Rocky or the Karate Kid in table tennis! The kindle version is currently on a 99 cent sale. Also on a 99 cent sale on the kindle is my humorous fantasy novel Sorcerers in Space, and both anthologies of my best short stories, Pings and Pongs and More Pings and Pongs. (They are all in both print and kindle formats.) Or you can buy my new novel, Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions, which has a number of table tennis scenes and has gotten great reviews. (It currently has nine Amazon reviews – I'd love it if I could get one more good one so it'd be at ten!)

U.S. Open
The Final deadline to enter the U.S. Open is Nov. 20, this Sunday. I like to watch the entry listing (by name, rating, state, or club) as it grows each day – they are now up to 707 players. You can also see the event listing, and see who is entered in each event.

Three Videos on the Backhand Loop
Here are three free ones from Table Tennis University.

• How To Play A Backhand Slow Loop (2:12) 
• How To Play A Backhand Fast Loop (2:00) 
• How To Play A Backhand Loop Drive (2:22) 

How to Approach (and Win) Matches Against Weaker Opponents
Here's the new coaching article from Tom Lodziak.

The Real Challenge of Pingpong
Here's the new article by Massimo Costantini.

Methodical Approach to Learning of Technical Skills for Young Players
Here's the video (1:24:57). "Listen to coach Feng Zhe about the methodical approach to learning of technical skills for young players." (He speaks through a translator.) Here's the Feng Zhe TTC, where he has articles on teaching table tennis to children.  

Sarasota Table Tennis Club Prides Itself on Diversity and Competition
Here's the article.

Louis Levene Multiball October 2016
Here's the video (61 sec). Louis, who has played only two years and is already pushing 2000, was just named to the USA Team to the Maccabiah Games. Feeding the multiball is Coach and Dad Mike Levene, at the full-time Smash TTC in Virginia. 

Jan-Ove Waldner in China
Here's the video (4:33) from 2014. It's all in Swedish and Chinese, but it's still a fun watch, especially halfway through when Waldner hits with the Chinese spectators who are practically mobbing him, and arranges an Around the Table game. (And no, the guy walking with him at the start is not Jorgen Persson, though he does have a strong resemblance.)  

Mini-Table Training
Here's the video (48 sec) of Dan Seemiller Jr. and Mark Flores at the El Paso TTC!

The Look of Love Between Table Tennis Players and Ping Pong Balls
Here's the music video (50 sec)!

Breaking News: Larry Hodges Turns Down Nomination as Secretary of Defense, Trump Impeached
Said the notorious table tennis coach to President-Elect Trump, "I chop pretty well, but there are better defensive players out there. But I'd love to be Secretary of Loop." Later Hodges was arrested by the Secret Service for attempting to kill during a match with Trump. Congress then impeached Trump as the president-elect kept hiding his serve (and tax returns), and therefore was unable to serve legally, and therefore would be unable to serve legally as president.

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Ten Things That Require Zero Talent
On Monday I linked to the list Ten Things That Require Zero Talent. The point is that even if you have little talent – whatever talent is – you can still make the most of what you have, and these ten things will, in the long run, almost always overcome talent. (Unless, of course, the "talented" one also does these ten things to a very high degree.) Here's the actual list:

1. Being on time
2. Work ethic
3. Effort
4. Body language
5. Energy
6. Attitude
7. Passion
8. Being coachable
9. Doing extra
10. Being prepared

I can't help but think the list is somewhat redundant. You really should do all ten, but in reality, #7 (Passion) leads to #6 (Attitude), which leads to the other eight. Now it's possible to have a good Attitude without the Passion, but that does make it more difficult. (A person working a menial job may not have passion for the job, but can still have a good attitude about it.) But a good Attitude is a must, and automatically leads to the rest.

Some might try to nitpick, for example claiming energy comes from fitness – but it's still mostly attitude, unless you are out running a marathon. Even if you are doing footwork drills, you can have energy until you run out of it, and then you rest and it comes back. But even more directly, if you don't have energy, then you should do the fitness training to get it back – which comes from passion and/or attitude.

I always look at #1 as an indirect way of testing students. Those with great attitudes, who go on to become the best at what they do, are invariably on time – because they are just dying to get there to start training, or whatever else it is they do. (Or, if they are doing something that helps others, they are there on time because they feel the obligation to do so – part of attitude.) Being on time is not something you should do most of the time; it's an attitude in itself, the idea that you should simply be on time, always – and if you aren't there early enough to make sure you can be there on time, you are not on time. (For the record, I've coached about 20,000 hours at MDTTC since we opened in 1992. I've been late for a session exactly twice. Once because of a traffic jam, and once because I got my times mixed up. And those two instances still make me grit my teeth.)

Work ethic, effort, body language, energy, being coachable, doing extra, and being prepared – they all come from attitude, which is the core cause for nearly all success. The best players have all of this. They are the ones who do it all, and then some (i.e. "Doing extra").

So how do you do on this list, in table tennis and in your other endeavors?

9 Serving Tips
Here's the new coaching video (13:53) from Samson Dubina.

Under Pressure: Stress Management for the Athlete
Here's the article.

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

Xu Xin vs Fan ShengFeng China Super League 2016
Here's the new video (18:47) – penholder vs. penholder. (See links to other matches on right.)

Lily Yip TTC on ICEPN TV
Here's the video (27:21).

Strange Rackets

• Sandwich Paddle
• Holy Handle Paddle
• Psychedelic Paddle
• Illuminated Paddle
• Two-Sided Paddle
• Bladed Paddle
• Bearded Paddle
• Giant Paddle for Multibillionaires
• Even Bigger Paddle
• Uberpong's Designer Paddles
• Igor Minton's Designer Paddles

Hilarious Table Tennis Shots
Here's the new video (1:56)!

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Miscellaneous Stuff
I think I've been fighting a minor cold the last few days. This morning I woke up with my head feeling like it was full of cotton, a minor background headache that won't go away, sniffles, and a general feeling of "I should be in bed." Today's a slow day for me - I only have one hour of coaching today - so I should be able to do that. I'm also going to try to get some writing done.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post came in yesterday for the follow-up to their previous visit. This time they had both a writer and a photographer, who took pictures for three hours. So far they have interviewed me, Cheng Yinghua (the focus of the story, along with MDTTC), Jack Huang, Ryan Dabbs, Tiffany Ke, and Lisa Lin. They took many pictures yesterday of these players and coaches, plus lots of shots of 8-year-old Stanley Hsu (about 1350) smacking balls against Cheng. The article will most likely come out next week.

I had a great 90-minute session with Daniel Sofer, recently turned 12, and told him afterwards that if he trained like that all the time, he'd soon be battling with the best players his age in the country. "Soon," of course, is a relative term. He's about 1700 right now, with a great feel for the ball, but still lacks confidence in his attack.  

My upcoming schedule is going to be massively travelish. (Yeah, I made up that word.) I'll blog about this later, but the short version (not in chronological order) is that over the next six weeks I'll be coaching for three days at the North American Teams; attending USATT board meetings and the U.S. Open in Las Vegas for eight days (plus a USATT teleconference next Monday); helping run our Christmas Camp for six days; attending the Philadelphia Science Fiction Convention for two days (that's this Friday and Saturday); attending a science fiction writing workshop in a cruise in the Bahamas for five days (!); and spending Christmas in Eugene, Oregon for five days. In between I'll be doing the usual coaching, USATT/MDTTC stuff, and blogging and other writing. And fighting this stupid cold….

2017-18 Youth National Team Trials Procedures Draft for Public Comment
Here's the document from the USATT High Performance Committee. I think it's great that they are putting it up for public comment in this way before finalizing it, though of course it means they'll also have to deal with lots of commentary. I haven't had a chance to go over this yet, but will soon, and will likely blog about it. But I really don't know what's in it. Ooh, the anticipation!!!

World Championships of Ping Pong Official Entry Form
Here's the info page for this sandpaper event to be held on Saturday morning, Dec. 17, at the U.S. Open. (One small mistake that they will likely fix – it has the entry fee as $20, but it's only $10 for those entered in the U.S. Open, which would probably be true for nearly all the entries.) This is the Qualifier for the USA sandpaper team that will go to the $100,000 World Ping-Pong Championships, which will be held Jan. 28-29, 2017 in London. I plan to take part in the USA Trials, and will destroy all those who oppose me unless of course they happen to win.

Can China's Table Tennis Team Be Beaten?
Here's the article by Eli Baraty.

Training Video: Samson Dubina and Jiwei Xia
Here's the video (3:12).

Interview with a Guy Who Once Played Ping Pong with Prince
Here's the article.

Table Tennis Looking to Bounce Back
Here's the article on Alabama (and Louisiana) Table Tennis, and Hurricane Katrina.

Family Fun: Table tennis is Fun and Easy to Learn
Here's the article.

Penn Ping Pong is Undefeated Against Local Universities
Here's the article.

Ma Long, King of Epic Shots
Here's the new video (5:19).

FIT Open, November 12-13, 2016
Here's the USATT article by Matt Hetherington. Here's the video (14:08) – Final between champion Kai Zhang and runner-up Kaden Xu, by Jules Apatini.

Top 10 Best Behind-the-Back Shots of All Time
Here's the video (2:45) from Table Tennis Daily.

Lots of Little Big-Eyed Red Creatures on the Ping-Pong Table
Here's the picture!

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Playing Lefty – and Reading vs. Reacting
Yesterday, at the end of a 90-minute session, my 12-year-old 1700 opponent challenged me to a game where he lobbed, while I played lefty. He was overconfident, and he was serving down 6-8. (I had perfected sort of a lefty "jab-smash.") But then he "cheated," and started throwing spinny sidespin serves at me – and I was suddenly helpless, unable to read spins that I normally would read with ease. It went to deuce, but my inability to return his sidespin serves led to his fist-pumping victory. (He even did the "infamous and controversial fist-pumping walk around the table" of Jiang that I'd described to him earlier – see below.)

But it got me thinking – why was I unable to read the spin on serves that I could easily read when playing right-handed? And the answer was obvious. You don't read spin. You react to it – subconsciously.

Think about it. When an opponent puts spin on the ball, do you consciously think to yourself, "The ball's spinning at 2133 RPM, so I need to put my racket angle at 62.5 degrees"? Of course not. From lots and lots of playing time, your subconscious automatically reacts to it. It may not always get it right, but it's usually in the ball park. But what's actually happening? Your subconscious reads the spin and tells your muscles how to react, i.e. racket angle and so on. Consciously, there's no reading of spin (except as an afterthought) – you just react at a subconscious level. But the subconscious has been trained to tell your playing arm what to do, not your non-playing arm, where everything is essentially reversed. It doesn't know what to do. And so, instead of reacting instinctively to the spin, as I'm used to when I play righty, I just stood there, waiting for my subconscious to tell me what to do, and it just sat there, unable to do so. Dang you, subconscious, where were you when I needed you???

I've always thought it's a good exercise for coaches to sometimes play lefty – not just rally, but actual games – so they can see what it's like to play as a beginner. It's rather instructive.

1987 WTTC Men Final Jiang Jialiang vs Jan-Ove Waldner
Here's the video (37:05), where (Spoiler Alert!) pips-out penholder Jiang defends his title from 1985 – just barely. In the best of five to 21, he's up 2-1 but down 16-20 in the fourth. At 31:40 he serves at 19-20, wins a nice point to deuce it, and then does the infamous and controversial fist-pumping walk around the table, walking right in front of Waldner! The latter later admitted it unnerved him, and Jiang won the next two points easily to win the title again. This match sort of marked the end of the age of world-class pips-out play (with the notable exception of Liu Guoliang, who would come along a few years later), and the rise of two-winged looping, which now completely dominates.

Washington Post
They are coming to MDTTC today from 4-8PM to do a story, with a writer and photographer. Come on in if you want a chance to be in the background of a picture, or possibly even interviewed!

Devastate the Defensive Chopper
Here's the new article from Samson Dubina.

How to Recover Table Tennis Form and Confidence in Training
Here's the new coaching article from Matt Hetherington.

Table Tennis for Beginners
Here's the online class with Tom Lodziak from Table Tennis University.

5 Surprising Ways the Right Music Makes You Better at Table Tennis
Here's the article from Table Tennis Spot.

2016 Male & Female Para Table Tennis Star Nominees Announced
Here's the ITTF press release.

Why This Start-up Has Job Candidates Play Ping Pong During the Interview
Here's the article from CNBC.

A Young Ping Pong Expert
Here's the video (1:51) that features Jason Piech.

The Force is Strong If You Play Ping Pong!
Here's the picture from Mike Mezyan! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

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Tip of the Week
How to Develop a Quicker Forehand.

Youngest Table Tennis Players
Here's a picture of Shia Williams, age 5, playing his first tournament. (Here's the non-Facebook version.) He's playing in the Robopong October 2016 Broward TTC Open. Here's the video (2 min)!

He achieved a rating of 994 – not bad! Anyway, this raises the question of who was the youngest player ever to play a USATT tournament. I'm sure if I had access to the entire database and the proper data tools, I could figure this out. But I already know the answer – sort of.

The youngest to enter a USATT tournament and get a rating was three-year-old Don Iguana back in the 1990s. He entered Under 12 singles, and got a rating of 25, losing every game 21-0 except for one historic time when it was 21-1. (Games were to 21 back then.) But note I said he entered and got a rating, but didn't say he actually played? Don Iguana was my three-year-old pet iguana. I bought him a USATT junior membership and entered him in three tournaments I ran. The kids went along with it, and would take the clipboard for about five minutes, then return it with scores filled out - Don always lost. Poor kid. (No, Don never actually went to the table to play.) Look him up – USATT # 65421! However, our online database only goes back to 1994, and he played his tournaments I think in 1992, so his actual results back then are lost to the mists of history. (They brought in everyone's current rating when they went online in 1994.)

I'm told Don had a unique strategy when he played. He'd stand there, staring at his opponent, refusing to even attempt make a return, but just waiting, waiting, waiting until his opponent missed a serve. And his strategy and persistency paid off, as he finally scored his first point, against an 11-year-old Michael Squires, who according to the scoreboard defeated the lizard, 21-0, 21-1, apparently missing a serve in game two in this historic match.

When the USATT Ratings Director found out about Don, he was furious, saying it make a mockery of the ratings, and was very unhappy that a player had gained a rating point in a match that didn't take place. He took Don out of the ratings. A few years later his successor, who didn't have a reptilian bias, put him back in. (For several years, Alan and Dave Williams used to write great online tales of Don's feats as he traveled the globe, often as a pirate. Alas, I think those postings were also lost to the mists history.)

Here's the stunner. According to the USATT listing, Don is listed as playing a tournament at the Triangle TTC in North Carolina . . . in 2014!!! He "lost" all four of his matches, but scored a lot of points, and even won his first game! Yes, he lost at 8,-9,8,10 to Jerred Miklowcic, the first time in history that a lizard won a game from a human. Apparently Don, now about 27 years old (and 25 in 2014) has been practice and getting better. (Someone in NC had a sense of humor – I suspect Mike Babuin.)

This might be a shot of Don in action. But the lizard has gone on to bigger and better things. He's apparently the mayor of something, an actor (here's video), and seems to be active on Facebook.

(Going back to Shia at the beginning, there's something wrong with the ratings algorithm here. He played players rated 1323, 1159, and 1005, and lost all three 3-0 without scoring more than 3 points in a game. How does an unrated player lose to a 1005 player at 2,3,1, and come out rated 994? I've already emailed the question to the powers that be. Something seems out of whack with the algorithm for initial ratings. The system apparently no longer takes scores into consideration, but losing 0-3 to the 1005 should make you come out lower than 994, which is only 11 points lower. But you know something? 994 or not, Shia looked pretty good in the video!)

Expectation: A Danger for Athletes in Table Tennis
Here's the new coaching article from Matt Hetherington.

Ten Things That Require Zero Talent
Here's the list. 

Review of Table Tennis University
Here's the article by Tom Lodziak.

East Coast National Youth Reflect on Outstanding Results Overseas
Here's the article by Matt Hetherington.

10 Christmas Gift Ideas for a Table Tennis Player
Here's the article from Expert Table Tennis. Or you can buy them one of these!!!

Coffee Cup: "Table Tennis Coach: To Save Time, Just Assume I'm Always Right"
I want one! (Here's the non-Facebook version.) And if you're a coach, so should you. (And I don't even drink coffee.) Here's where you can buy one, and about twenty other table tennis mugs – though you have to order from England. (ADDENDUM: While they can ship to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and numerous other places, they don't appear to be able to ship to the U.S. - it doesn't appear on their dropdown menu when filling out address. I tried ordering one but wasn't able to.) 

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18 (1990-1991)
Here's chapter 8! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

Table Tennis "Mannequin" Challenge
Here's the video (21 sec). But here's an even better one (2:13), from four years ago by Richard Heo, before the "Mannequin" challenge had come out. And that's me at 1:28 making an appearance as a fist-pumping, screaming coach at the barriers!

Table Tennis, the Beautiful Game - Part 2
Here's the video (4:27). (Here's Part 1, from March, 2013.)

Music to Jam With When Playing?
Here's the video (23 sec) of animated table tennis set to music.

Fairy Child Pong?
Here's the picture! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Paddle Boulevard?
Here's the picture! (Here's the non-Facebook version.) Note that the "balls" are the normal lamps.

Swing Softly But Carry a Big Stick
Here's the video (42 sec) of Samson Dubina warming up with super-big paddle.

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It's Veteran's Day, so I'm off today. (In reality, I've got a rather long todo list to take care of, but at least I can start fresh and early.) Here's some Championship Table Tennis (cartoon) to tide you over.