September 28, 2026

Next Blog Oct. 12
I’ll be out of town Oct. 4-9 at the Huntsman World Senior Games. But the Tip of the Week will still go up on Monday, Oct. 5.

Tip of the Week
Complex Versus Simple Tactics.

People’s Daily Table Tennis Video
Here’s the video (2:54) about table tennis, US-China relations, and Ping-Pong Diplomacy. They came to MDTTC and interviewed us. I speak on the video several times – but my voice is hoarse as I’m battling a cold. They did an excellent job! (Video works on my phone, and was working on my computer, but now I’m having trouble getting it to run on my computer – I’m getting some sort of QR Code that has to be scanned.)

One thing - they cut off parts of my answers to save time. I mentioned going to China for a senior team tournament last year, but I was also there for the 2005 Worlds. They asked about sightseeing in DC, and I mention the White House and museums, but I spoke a bit more on things to visit at the National Mall, including the Capitol, the various memorials, and more on the museums.

Weekend Coaching
I had a long weekend, coaching in five junior group training sessions, eight hours total. I did a combination of walk-around coaching, feeding multiball, and some as a practice partner.

One thing that came up a number of times is recovery after playing a forehand from the wide forehand or backhand. So often players do these shots, go off-balance or recover slowly, and can’t get to the next ball on the other corner – and they think they’re slow. Nope, they simply didn’t recover properly. Here are two Tips on this:

Working with a group of the younger kids – ages 5-7 – is both the most fun and most nerve-wracking. It’s like herding hyperactive Tanzanian Devils on jackhammers while freefalling in a tornado. But if you successfully get their attention, you can trick them into having a great workout and rapidly improving. One player did one hundred side-to-side forehands in a row for the first time.

I ended two sessions with my infamous “worm juice.” As I explain to them, each morning my lawn is covered with big, fat worms. So, I gather them all in my arms and squeeze their guts out into a bowl, and put it in a bottle – worm juice. (Okay, it’s green Gatorade poured into a water bottle, with the label taken off.) I put it on the table, and they rapidly rotate, three shots each, from the backhand corner, middle, and forehand corner, then rotate around for their next turn. If they hit the bottle, I have to drink the worm juice. I point out to them that I know they are too nice to actually hit the bottle – “Friends don’t make friends drink worm juice” – and besides, as I keep repeating, “You’re not good enough to hit the bottle!” Of course, they are determined to hit the bottle, and I end up drinking a lot of worm juice. And now they can’t wait to come back to our next training session!

I also had them take turns, rapid-fire, seeing how many shots it took them to knock a plastic bowl off the table. The younger kids practice their fast serves, using my two big rubber frogs as targets.

In one session, I was playing points with a kid. He suddenly made a really good flip return of my serve for a winner, catching me off guard. I said, “Stop receiving before I’m ready to serve!”

Huntsman World Senior Championships
They are in St. George, Utah, Oct. 5-8. There will be about 12,000 athletes from 91 countries in 40 sports, including 221 table tennis players. I leave early on Sunday morning (Oct. 4), returning on Friday. I’ve been training pretty hard for this, both for the regular sponge events as well as hardbat. I’m in six events: Men’s Singles 65-69; Men’s Doubles 65-69 (with Rudy Miranda); Mixed Doubles 60-64 (with Jenny Urquiola – I’m playing down an age division, which is allowed); Elite Singles (Over 50); Hardbat Singles 65-74; and Hardbat Doubles (with Mark Kraut). Results will be in Omnipong. 

I was training three times/week (one hour each) with MDTTC coach Lidney Castro, playing practice matches, shadow-practicing, and lifting weight for nearly an hour, three times a week, with lots of stretching, plus many hours of serve practice. The downside is that I came down with a very bad cold, and was mostly out for ten days until late last week. I’m back to training, but I’m still a bit tired from battling that cold. But I should be fine for the tournament. I’ll have an easier training schedule this week as I want to be energized for the tournament. Unless something bad happens this week, this will be the first time in three years I’ve played this tournament without an injury coming in. (Currently my right foot, right knee, right side, right shoulder, right arm, and right upper back all seem in perfect working order – notice a pattern there?)

Major League Table Tennis

Butterfly Training Videos

New from Matt Hetherington

Want to Win More Table Tennis Matches? This Is the Key.
Here’s the video (1:29) from PP Table Tennis

Great in training, poor in matches? Are you training with the wrong spin intensity?
Here’s the article from Tom Lodziak.

New from Acceleraq

New from PingSkills

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich
Dozens of new videos!

New from Biomechanics Applied to Table Tennis

12 Lessons & Stories You Need to See
Here’s the video (8:09) from Doctor Karol Table Tennis.

How I Prepare for WTT: Pro Interviews & My First Win vs China
Here’s the video (22:09) from Andreas Levenko.

New from GlobalTTStudio

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

5 Things to Know Before You Head to the 2026 U.S. Open
Here’s the USATT news item.

Ready...SET...GOOO (NCTTA Registration is open)
Here’s the news item from the National Collegiate TTA.

ICTTF Appoints Jiaxin Li as China Director to Lead New Classic Series
Here’s the news item from the International Classic Table Tennis Federation.

New from ITTF

No Rules, Just Ping-Pong
Here’s the video (2:55) – another Mr. Bean episode!

I Challenged World No.19 Flavien Coton!
Here’s the video (10:50) from Table Tennis Daily!

Crazy Rally With Everything
Here’s the video (27 sec) – this rally between two regular club players had everything!

Beat Me, Win €100 [Germany]
Here’s the video (14:58) from Adam Bobrow!

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