October 10, 2022

Tip of the Week
Ten Mini-Fixes.

Annexing Moscow
It has come to my attention that the Table Tennis Federation of Russia is in Moscow. While I am sure their players are very good at killing, I'm guessing they are more into killing ping-pong balls than Ukrainians. Therefore, by the power invested in me by USA Table Tennis, I am hereby annexing the city of Moscow. Henceforth, they will be the 51st US state and all residents of the city will be required to join USATT. We will also be granting immediate US citizenship to the 11 Russian men (including world #61 Kirill Skachkov) and 18 women (including #45 Elizabet Abraamian and #49 Polina Mikhailova) who have current ITTF world rankings. And here's Zelensky smashing Putin!

Weekend Coaching
We had the MDTTC October Open this weekend (here are complete results), so my only coaching was a 90-minute session with our novice junior class. As usual, the focus at this level was on fundamentals and fun. One thing that's become a fun routine – just before and after class I do my speed bouncing trick, where I bounce the ball really fast on the table with my paddle. The kids try to stop it – and so I have to move the bouncing to the middle of the table where they can't reach it. So they throw ping-pong balls or slide their paddles at it until I miss. They won't let me have any fun! Of course, I also spend some time trying to convince them that there is no smiling in table tennis – ours is a GRIM sport, where we only allow sadness and griminity. Unfortunately, they don't quite get this part yet, but they do like the made-up word "griminity."

World Table Tennis Team Championships
They were in Chengdu, China, Sept. 30 – Oct. 9. Here's the info page where you can find complete results, schedule, news, and video. Spoiler Alert – once again China swept both events. The best match was probably in the semifinals, where China defeated Japan 3-2, with Tomokazu Harimoto (world #4) winning both matches for Japan, upsetting world #1 Fan Zhendong 11-9 in the fifth, as well as Wang Chuqin (world #11). Harimoto vs. Fan (11:41) is the match to see – and especially this point! (Besides the coverage below, see the videos in the segment from PingSunday/EmRatThich.)

Here is coverage from Steve Hopkin from Butterfly:

Here are three articles on how the USA team did from the USATT news page.

Dan Seemiller's "Smash! Moments, Memories and Tips" Book
A new version in black & white just came out for only $14.99. The other version is full color and costs $30. (Disclosure: I put the pages together for him. I also worked with him on Revelations of a Ping-Pong Champion - his autobiography - and recreating his instructional book from 1996, Winning Table Tennis. Why not get all three?) Here's the back cover text for "Smash!":

This is my 50+-year journey in this greatest of Olympic sports – in pictures.

  • The controversial decision by the referee that changed the match with World #2 Cai Zhenhua from China
  • The 15-day trip to North Korea for the 1979 World Championships. Very strange indeed
  • Defeating the #1 Chinese team 3-0 in doubles at the 1977 World Championships  
  • Reeling off eight consecutive U.S. Men’s Doubles titles with brother Rick
  • The disappointment of losing in two U.S. Open Men’s Singles Finals
  • The miracle comeback to capture U.S. Men’s title #4
  • Dan’s incredible 66-1 record in World Team 2nd division play
  • The thrill of signing a 5-year exclusive racket contract with K-Mart
  • The arrest in Yugoslavia for trespassing
  • Training and competing all over the world
  • Winning five Western Japan Open Men’s Singles titles
  • CBS Challenge of the Sexes and World Racquets Championships
  • And so much more - join me on this tour of a lifetime!

Brian Pace on the Road to Recovery
Here's the GoFundMe page, where Brian's been posting regular updates. I wrote about this in my Sept. 28 blog (third segment). So far they have raised $43,690 of the $100,000 goal.

New from Samson Dubina

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich
Lots of video from the Worlds!

New from Ti Long

New from Taco Backhand

New from Drupe Pong

Fan Zhendong Multiball Training Before World Championships
Here's the video (77 sec).

Training Tips with Hammed Taiwo
Backhand Loop Snap (74 sec).

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly
(I've moved his six articles on the World Championships to that segment above.)

New from USA Table Tennis
(I moved their three articles on the Worlds to that segment above.)

New from ITTF

Shortz's Table Tennis Iron Man Streak Reaches 10 Years
Here's the article from The Examiner News.

Ping-Pong Champion Shirts from Amazon
Here they are!

Table Tennis Comic Royalty-Free Images
Here they are! My favorites are Hippo-Pong, Angry Bunny Pong, and Ping-Pong Explosion. If you have a table tennis webpage, why not add one or more of these to liven things up?

Baby Pong
Here's Baby Ciz! (Here's the non-Facebook version.) He looks pretty hungry! (Here's the non-Facebook version.) Note that he's a hardbatter – no looping in his future!

Table Tennis on the Arctic Ocean
Here's the video (35 sec)!

1 vs. 2
Here's the video (11:49) from Adam Bobrow! "Joanna and Rachel Sung are excellent players and admirable people! After playing them in singles, I had to try DOUBLES!"

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