Table Tennis Bucket List

A long time ago, when Pterodactyls ruled the skies, Jimmy Carter was president, and I had just graduated high school (1978), I put together a bucket list - things I wanted to someday do. Some of it was table tennis; some was writing; some was other things, like traveling to historical sites. At the time I was rated around 1800. (I didn't start until I was 16.)

Since you are a table tennis person (why else would you be reading this?), why not create your own table tennis bucket list? Here are some suggestions.

1. Achieve a certain rating.
2. Win a state or national title.
3. Play table tennis in a certain number states.
4. Play table tennis in a certain number of clubs. 
5. Play at a U.S. Open or Nationals.
6. Become proficient at multiple styles.
7. Master a certain stroke you've never been able to do well.
8. Start and/or run a club/tournament/league/training program.
9. Become a USATT or ITTF certified coach.
10. Become a USATT certified umpire.

Here is the bucket list I made. I've managed to do 14 of the 20, but still have a few to go.  (This was not the original order, which was scrawled in somewhat random order on a lined paper in very bad handwriting.)

Tip of the Week

Never Look for a Winner.

North American Championships

They were held this past weekend (Sat-Mon) in Toronto. Here's the ITTF page for the event, which has results, articles, pictures, quotes, and video. Here's the ITTF Press Release.

The big news is that USA swept everything over Canada, all eight events – Men's and Women's Singles and Teams, Cadet Boys' and Girls' Singles, and Junior Boys' and Girls' Teams. Historically, there have been many USA-Canada battles for many decades, and it's usually been competitive. But the strength and depth of USA Cadets is just too strong for Canada. As I've blogged a number of times, USA is stronger at the cadet level than it has ever been in history, and it's not even close. (Cadets is under 15, but due to dates used, some players are eligible after turning 15.)

But USA had to make two near miraculous comebacks to get the 8-0 sweep. In the Women's Singles Final, Lily Zhang (USA) was down 0-3 to Mo Zhang (CAN) before coming back to win 4-3. In the Men's Team Final, USA (Jim Butler, Timothy Wang, Kanak Jha) was down 0-2 before coming back to win 3-2. (Here's the match sheet.)

But USA overall dominance was rather obvious. In Women's Singles, seven of the eight quarterfinalists were USA, with Mo Zhang the only Canadian. In Men's Singles three of the four semifinalists were USA, including cadets Kanak Jha and Jack Wang. In Cadet Boys, all four semifinalists and seven of the eight quarterfinalists were USA. In Cadet Girls, all four semifinalists were USA.

Let's Revisit the "91-Shot Lobbing Point"

I posted the video a few days ago, and it's all over the Internet. Sure, it's spectacular, the lobbing point of the century. But there's one obvious thing most are missing – why Adrien Mattenet was lobbing in the first place. The video is 2:27 long, and you can watch it over and over, but we're only going to concern ourselves with the first two seconds.

Par Gerell, the lefty on the far side, is serving. He tosses the ball up and slightly sideways and backwards. The rule is the ball must be tossed "near vertical," which isn't well defined. By tossing the ball somewhat high, Gerell can throw the ball a little sideways and backwards while keeping the serve "near vertical."

At first the ball is easily visible, and Gerell actually moves his head backwards, away from the ball. But watch how the ball moves sideways, and Gerell moves his head forward, thrusting it in front of the ball just before contact! Yep, an illegal hidden serve. And that's how Gerell got the easy ball to loop kill that forced Mattenet to lob in the first place.

Here's a five photo sequence showing this. (The white "G" logo on the floor conveniently shows the relative positions of the ball and Gerell's head throughout the serve.)

Smart Phones and Smart Coaching

Well, I've finally done it. I've bought a smart phone. I've fought the temptation and peer pressure long enough, knowing that once I got one, there'd be no going back. I'm now entering the 24-hour online world, where coaches can check email while students are chasing after balls and perhaps watch a Disney movie on their phone while feeding multiball. 

I'm used to the idea of checking email when I get home from coaching; now I'll be able to do so at any time. I'm not sure this is a good thing. But there's no going back. I've fallen to the dark side - they have cookies. 

I've used smart phones in my coaching. Just a few days ago I had one of my students use his cell phone to video his forehand loop so he could see how he wasn't rotating his hips into the shot. I'll likely be doing this more often. I plan to get a tripod to make this easier. Isn't there an app for coaches to make it easier to video students? (Who'll be the first to find me that link? Email me!) 

Are We Done Yet?/Can We Practice More?

It's always interesting to see the different attitudes. Recently I had a session with two younger kids, who took turns, one doing multiball, the other ball pickup. One didn't try very hard except in spurts, kept asking what time it was, kept close track of how much longer he had to practice, and tried to bargain to leave early. The other was silent throughout all this, practicing pretty hard. But when the session ended and the first kid raced away happily, the second one asked, "Can we practice more?" Since I didn't have another session for 30 minutes, we did an extra 20 minutes (no charge). He got some good stroking and smashing practice. (We did it live, not multiball.)

You can always tell which ones will get good. Sure, there's talent (let's not start that argument for now!), but the ones who are determined to get good have this disturbing tendency to get good, while those who want to get out of practice or don't try have this weird tendency to not get good. I don't understand it!!!

On a related topic, long-time and older players often find themselves hitting the wall in their attempts to improve, even when they try hard. Often they start to give up, as even though they practice more (like the second kid above), they don't improve as much as they'd like. For those, I suggest taking a look at what they are practicing. I've seen players lose match after match because they couldn't block, and afterwards spent all their time practicing their attack. Or players who lose over and over because they couldn't return serves, and afterwards spent all their time practicing their attack. Or players who lose over and over because their serves are weak, and afterwards they spent all their time practicing their attack. (See a pattern?)

Backhand Serves From the Middle and Forehand Side

Over the last few days I've watched several players practice backhand serves. They worked really hard at it, and yet they were missing something. All four players only did the serve from the backhand corner. (They were all righties.) That's okay, but it's lacking. Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov might have the most effective backhand serve among top players, and he usually serves it from the middle and even the forehand side. Here's a video of him doing the serve, in slow motion. (The video is 3:12 long and shows all his serves, but the link should take you to his backhand serves, which start at 1:22 and go to the end.)

By serving from the middle or forehand side of the table (and we're again assuming righties – lefties adjust), you get the following:

Tip of the Week

How to Serve to the Backhand Attacking Receiver.

School is Back

And with that, the eleven weeks of summer training camps at MDTTC are over. It means that, once I catch up the zillion items on my short-term todo list, I'll have more time during the day to do all the USATT stuff I promised to do when I ran for the Board of Directors, as well as recent appointments as chair of the USATT League Committee and as Regional Associations Coordinator. (These are all unpaid, volunteer positions. What is wrong with me???) I'll be blogging about those activities now and then. Since I generally finish the blog Mon-Fri around 9:30 or 10AM, that means I have to do most of that work either between that time and 2:30PM, or at night after coaching. (I sometimes have free mornings on weekends, but not always.)

But it also means we start up our Afterschool Program again, and begin coaching kids after school, both as part of that program and in private lessons. I'll be leaving to pick up kids at 2:30 this afternoon. It's actually a slow day; I'll be done coaching today at 5PM.

That pesky short-term todo list is a bit irritating, as every time I cross something off, it seems like there are two more items on it. Today I've got a number "easy" things to take care of – after finishing the Tip of the Week and blog this morning, I'm off to run errands: bank, post office, haircut, and (I dread this) I'm thinking of finally stopping off at the Verizon Store and getting a smart phone. ("Come to the Dark Side! We have cookies and you're constantly online checking email, forums, web pages…") I probably should research Verizon smart phones first.

MDTTC Camps – Eleven Weeks Comes to an End Today

Today our eleven weeks of camps come to an end. We're finishing with a good-sized group, with about 40 players in all. Here's a camp photo from the Wednesday morning session, which is missing a few players who join us in the afternoon.

40+ Butterflies and JOOLAs and Nittakus and Double Fish and Xu Shaofao, Oh My!!!

We're still in the ongoing "Silly Season" (going on 1.5 years now), where training centers and clubs have deal with players training with multiple of the new plastic 40+ balls, which all play differently, and keep them all separate. Last night at MDTTC was illustrative. 

We're sponsored by Butterfly, and we're supposed to get plastic training balls in a month or so. Until then, we're still stuck using celluloid balls for much of our training. But as tournaments come up, things get complicated. We use Butterfly 40+ balls for our local tournaments, and since we had a tournament last weekend, guess what participants were training with the week before? But when the Teams in DC come up in November players will have to adjust to the JOOLA 40+ ball, and they play differently. And when the Open and Nationals come up, players will train with Nittaku Premium 40+ balls, which also play differently. 

Day Off to Work

Alas, I need a day off to catch up on the 314,159 things on my todo list – I'll have pi all over my face if I don't get them done soon. So no blog today – I'll be back tomorrow. Meanwhile, here are a few items! 

2015 USATT Hall of Fame Inductees and Lifetime Achievement Award

Here they are – and they include Coach Jack Huang from my club! (I may write more about this later. It's a big group this year – usually only 2-3 are inducted.)

Insane Rally

Here's the video (29 sec).

I Have No Idea What This Is

But here's the table tennis cartoon! Any suggestions for a caption?

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Samson Dubina on Boosting in Table Tennis

Here's the podcast (6 min), from Ben Larcombe at Expert Table Tennis. Here's my blog on boosting and my blog on hidden serves (one of many). Both contain my recommended solutions.

Here's a good analogy about what's happening in our sport. Suppose you trained for many years for the Olympic 100 meter dash. Then, in the final, as you took the starting blocks for the big race, the race official walks over and says, "Anyone who wants a two-meter head start, feel free to take it – it's against the rules, but we'll allow it." Now imagine nearly all the others moved two meters ahead, and you knew you had little chance of winning unless you joined them. But if you didn't, all those years of training and all your dreams are dashed because an official is allowing others to cheat. Guess what? That's exactly what's happening in our sport, both because of boosting and because of hidden serves.

I am so tired of watching this happen to players in our sport, especially up-and-coming juniors who play fair and are cheated out of titles by cheaters and those who allow the cheating.

We're honoring the cheaters and cheating the honorable.

I will be sending the proposals from my blogs on both of these to the USATT Rules Committee. I'll let you know what happens. Meanwhile, the following video also goes over all the cheating that's taking place at higher levels, but in a more humorous fashion.

Cheating in Table Tennis

Here's the hilarious video (6:05). Near the end there's a quote from Heywood Broun that all those players out there who hide their serves against opponents who do not should consider: