Tip of the Week
Death of the Kill.

Weekend Coaching
In one of our weekend junior group sessions, we had two new junior players, about 9 and 11 years old. It was their first time to a table tennis club. Two things stood out from them. First, they both had surprisingly good strokes, both forehand and backhand, and they moved well. (I think one of them said their father had coached them, and they’d seen videos.) But the problem was they both were using what were essentially store-bought toy sponge rackets. The rackets and sponge were dead, making it difficult to do advanced shots, especially in a fast rally. The older one borrowed someone else’s racket and did well with it. The other stayed with his slow one, for now. He did pretty well in drills but not in games at the end of the session. I’m pretty sure he’ll be switching to a better sponge soon.

Tip of the Week
Never Use “Full Power.”

Weekend Coaching
I spent much of the weekend working on our junior players’ forehand loops against backspin. It was sort of the theme of the week. Some of the weekend highlights:

Tips of the Week
(Two of them since I was out of town last week at the Senior World Championships and so didn’t do a blog.)

• Oct. 6, 2025 - Nullify Opponent's Biggest Threat
• Oct. 13, 2025 - Your Evolving Relationship With a Coach

Weekend Coaching
Here are three things I did while coaching in three group sessions this past weekend. The third one might be the most important.

Tip of the Week
Deliberate Practice in Table Tennis.

Sick, Next Blog Oct. 13, and Huntsman World Senior Championships
I think I have the flu – not sure yet. So, I got a very late start on today’s blog, which will be shorter than usual. I’ll be out of town next week at the Huntsman World Senior Championships in St. George, Utah. So next blog will be on Monday, Oct. 13. Wish me luck – I’m in Over 65 Men’s Singles and Doubles (with Mark Kraut), Over 55 Mixed Doubles (with Jia Guo) Over 65 Hardbat Men’s Singles, Hardbat Doubles (with Mark Kraut), and Elite Singles. Wish me luck!

Weekend Coaching
I had a busy coaching weekend. We did a lot of backhand footwork practice, an often overlooked technique. Many players just reach or even rotate their body in an awkward way rather than move. I also introduced “Neuromuscular Adaptation” drills to some of the kids. This is where you feed multiball, but they don’t know where I’m putting the ball. For beginning-intermediate players, you normally just put the ball to the middle forehand or middle backhand, and they have to react. For more advanced players you both go wider and you also go at their middle. The three keys are:

1. Proper ready position, with racket pointed at where my racket would hit the ball, so the player can move in both directions equally well.
2. React, don’t guess – don’t move until you see where the ball is going, and always remember that you have more time than you think. First move HAS to be the right direction.
3.  Move to the ball, no reaching.

Remembering Charles “Chuck” Hoey
Here’s the obit for this US Table Tennis Hall of Famer, by Sean O’Neill.

Tip of the Week
Reverse Adverse Results With Reverse Serves.

Weekend Coaching and Capclave Table Tennis
Due to being a panelist for the Capclave Science Fiction Convention (half an hour away in Rockville, MD), I only coached one junior group session this weekend, on Saturday morning. I had a rotating group of four to work with. I did both multiball and live practice with one player, one did ball pickup, and the other two practiced on an adjacent table, with the players rotating both in the group, and with other groups. There was a big focus on footwork, but of course in every session the focus on footwork is either big, Big, or BIG. Two players had a tendency let their non-playing arms just hang there like a dead snake, which can lead to poor balance. So, whenever they did that, I yelled out, “Dead snake!”, and they knew what to do.

I’ve been a panelist for many years at the Capclave Science Fiction Convention, but this year, for me, it might as well have been the Capclave Table Tennis Convention. It seems everyone in the SF world knows about my TT world. I was questioned about it a lot between panels. Two people at the convention had relatives that were current or past USATT members. (One bought one of my table tennis books as a gift for them.) Several times I demonstrated my ping-pong ball-blowing trick. (Link should take you to 38:45 of this interview I did in 2020.) Several authors and fans mentioned they have tables in their houses. I also discussed with some the idea of a table tennis demonstration/exhibition at the 2026 World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim, CA, Aug. 27-31. (For perspective, the last World SF Convention, last month in Seattle, had over 8,000 attendees.) 

Tip of the Week
Chopping and Playing Choppers – It’s All About the Mindset.

Weekend Coaching
“Keep your left arm up for balance!” I think I said that twenty times this past weekend, mostly to three players, all righties. It seems like every week there’s a different mantra, and that was this week’s. It’s so easy to let the arm just hang there when you aren’t moving too much, and then it becomes a bad habit and the player doesn’t even know how much they are off balance because of it. If you are 1% off balance in table tennis, you might as well be playing in a chair.

I worked with a group of kids on their fast, deep serves, using various targets on the table. For this, you should generally have three, sometimes four targets at the very end of the table. One on each wide corner, of course, but also one where a righty player’s elbow would normally be, a prime target for a fast serve or any other aggressive shot. You can also have a fourth target where a lefty’s playing elbow would be.

Tip of the Week
Focus on Controlled Receives at Start of Match.

Weekend Coaching
I coached in four junior group sessions this weekend. While I did a lot of multiball (as always), I also got to work with several kids on serves. One of them is really picking up some tricky deep serves. I explained to him the importance of developing short serves for serve & attack, with the tricky deep breaking sidespin serves as a variation for occasional free points and to keep opponent watching for them so they are slower to react to shorter serves. If you overuse deep serves, they lose their effectiveness, and they generally don’t work as well at higher levels except as surprise serves.

I also did a lot of work with transitioning from looping against a backspin to looping against a block or topspin. In multiball, that means feeding a backspin ball, player loops, then I give a quick topspin, and they loop again. The key is the back shoulder – it drops some against backspin, but if you drop it against a topspin ball, you’ll likely go off the end.

Tip of the Week
That One Good Block.

Fall Table Tennis Season Begins
It’s been a packed week. Let’s see:

Tips of the Week

• Aug. 11: Down the Line Deception
• Aug. 18: Knee and Feet Direction on Forehand Shots
• Aug. 25: Eleven Tips For Playing Against Quicker Opponent

Table Tennis and the World Science Fiction Convention
I had a busy nine days in Seattle – and while it was for the World SF Convention (7,739 attendees), there was also some table tennis! As a reminder, when I’m away I still have a Tip of the Week every Monday, which you can find in the Tip of the Week tab to the left. Above are the three tips that went up while I was gone.

Next Blog August 25
I'll be out of town Aug. 9-19, where I'll be a panelist at the World Science Fiction Convention in Seattle, plus lots of sightseeing. I do plan on showing up sometime at the Seattle Pacific TTC. Due to injuries, I haven't played since the Nationals a month ago, but it's time to start my comeback.

Tips of the Week (since I was away the last few weeks)