November 9, 2026

Tip of the Week
Playing Lefties.

USATT Election
The election for one of the two At-Large positions is coming up soon. Here’s the USATT news item. The incumbent is Dell Sweeris, who is running for re-election. Anyone who wishes to run for the position can do so by petition, requiring 50 signatures of USATT members by Nov. 16. Sean O’Neill is planning to run for the position, and is in the process of getting the needed signatures. He’s set up an online petition, which you can sign if you’d like to see him on the ballot. I haven’t yet heard of any others running. IMPORTANT NOTE – signing the petition for Sean or anyone else to get on the ballot is just that, and does not obligate you to vote for that person in the actual election.  

At the moment, I plan to stay neutral in this election between two Hall of Famers. I think both of them can be a strong voice in board meetings, so good luck to both!

However, I’ve grown less and less interested in USATT politics in recent times. I find it a microcosm of US politics, which I’ve become more involved in. It’s just hard for me to worry about USATT when I see what’s happened to the US, the former “Leader of the Free World.” I do continue to keep up with major USATT news and will continue to report on major issues here. (In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m very anti-Trump. Yes, I was very happy about last Tuesday, but we have a long road ahead. I would be classified as a moderate Democrat, a practical progressive.)

I could once again give a laundry list of past problems with USATT (such as a past board chair having an illegal third term, despite many of us pointing this out in advance, many other issues), but it accomplishes nothing at this point and so isn’t worth the time. And there are plenty of hard-working people in USATT positions who strive to improve table tennis in this country. But perhaps the final straw for me was when they turned the previously elected Club Representative position into a position appointed by the Nominating and Governance Committee. I was planning to either run for the position or find someone else to back for it – and then, after I mentioned this in my blog, USATT decided there would be no election. How can anyone be called a “representative” if you weren’t elected by the people you are supposed to represent? Alas.

For most of our history, nearly every position on the USATT board was elected, mostly from the USATT membership. Now, mostly due to USOPC’s requirements, out of the 12 board members, the membership (around 10,000) elects only two. Four athlete reps are elected by a few dozen elite athletes. The rest are essentially appointed, including four from the USOPC, with the final two the NCTTA and Club reps. (Here are the Bylaws if you want to get into the details.) So, we’re not exactly a democracy anymore. Nearly every board vote is unanimous, other than an occasional abstention.

“Ping-Pong Paddles Can’t Talk!” Is the Children’s Table Tennis Book We Have Been Waiting For
Here’s the review of my book by PingSunday/EmRatThich. And note that this is the PERFECT Christmas gift for kids, or for adults who still have a little kid left in them and have a warm spot for Dr. Seuss. The books is a humorous Seussian rhyming children’s picture book (80 pages) that introduces table tennis to kids. It features a nervous boy and his talking paddle in their first tournament, where he meets and plays a girl who is really good, and they have an adventurous match. Along the way, kids learn about the sport, with themes on facing your fears, working toward a goal, honesty, and friendship. Here’s where you can buy it at Amazon for just $21.

Weekend Coaching and Training
I often title a segment with the above. I used to coach full-time, sometimes seven days a week, but I’m now semi-retired and only do group junior sessions on weekends. (We have a Nov. 23-25 training camp for our players competing in the upcoming North American Teams, and I’ll be coaching all three days in the camp – Mon-Wed – as well as at the Teams, Nov. 27-29.)

However, the title sort of implies I train on weekends as well. Actually, I train during the week, generally 2-3 times, usually with Lidney Castro, one of our full-time MDTTC coaches. We do about 50-50 between sponge and hardbat training as I prepare for both types of events at the US Open in December.

I think the focus of the junior training this past weekend was “Break my watch.” I often put targets on the table when doing multiball with younger or beginning kids, often my water bottle. (For serves, I often use my two big rubber frogs as targets. I usually put one on each corner of the table so they have to serve deep and wide.) Near the end of sessions I often put a bottle green Gatorade on the table, with the label conveniently pulled off, and tell them it’s “squeezed worm juice,” and if they hit it, I have to drink it. From this, they not only have great fun and want to keep coming back as they learn to love the sport, but they also develop their strokes and accuracy.

I use my watch to time each player’s turn at multiball. This past weekend I just stuck the watch out on the table and dared them to hit it. It’s a much smaller target – but they were determined to break it! (I don’t think a hard-hit ping-pong ball can damage it, but they don’t know that.) But they smacked it a number of times.

On the technique side, two players kept lunging forward when smashing forehands, so I had to work with them to fix that. Another kept putting her racket tip almost straight up on both forehands and backhands. Another has this firm belief that the way to play table tennis is to smash every ball – but we’re slowly getting him to focus more on consistency. I worked with two players for a time on their forehand pendulum serves, showing them how to change the grip and techniques to help them learn to graze the ball. We also did some doubles play, so worked on their positioning for that, as well as serve and receive. (Serve shorter! Attack the deep serve!)

Major League Table Tennis

The New Weapon in Table Tennis: Table Tennis Review
Here’s the video (5:13) from Beyond the Podium. 

New From Butterfly

New From PingSunday/EmRatThich

New From Global TT Studio

New From the Table Tennis Teaching Channel

Functional Serve Classification
Here’s the video (6:09) from Biomechanics Applied to Table Tennis

New from PingSkills
Ask the Coach.

New From USATT

New From ITTF

Naruto and Sasuke Playing Table Tennis
Here’s the video (10 sec) of the two stars from the anime cartoon Naruto.

New From the Ping Pong Maestros!

Chinese National Team Exhibition
Here’s the video (2:39), which mostly features Ma Long and Xu Xin.

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