Blogs

Larry Hodges' Blog and Tip of the Week will normally go up on Mondays by 2:00 PM USA Eastern time. Larry is a member of the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame, a USATT Certified National Coach, a professional coach at the Maryland Table Tennis Center (USA), and author of ten books and over 2100 articles on table tennis, plus over 1900 blogs and over 600 tips. Here is his bio. (Larry was awarded the USATT Lifetime Achievement Award in July, 2018.)

Make sure to order your copy of Larry's best-selling book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers!
Finally, a tactics book on this most tactical of sports!!!

Also out - Table Tennis Tips, More Table Tennis Tips, Still More Table Tennis Tips, and Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips, which cover, in logical progression, his Tips of the Week from 2011-2023, with 150 Tips in each!

Or, for a combination of Tales of our sport and Technique articles, try Table Tennis Tales & Techniques. If you are in the mood for inspirational fiction, The Spirit of Pong is also out - a fantasy story about an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis, trains with the spirits of past champions, and faces betrayal and great peril as he battles for glory but faces utter defeat. Read the First Two Chapters for free!

March 7, 2022

Tip of the Week
Be Both a Machine and an Artist.

Princeton Pong Tournament
I went up to Princeton, NJ on Friday (three-hour drive from Maryland) with five of our kids and their parents, and coached at the Princeton Pong tournament on Saturday. Here are complete results, care of Omnipong. A great thanks goes out to tournament staff Ben Rosenberg (director), Claudia Dunlevy, and referee Chris Lehman, and to the other volunteers who helped out with the tournament.

This time around it was a group of our younger kids, all rated under 1300, ages 10 to 13, most of them playing in three round robin rating events. Four of the five had never played a tournament outside Maryland. They had a great time - I wonder if I was that excited to play in tournaments back when I first traveled to tournaments back in 1976? (Answer: yes.)

I coached an even 20 matches, plus part of two others. It's really half tactics, half psychology as I tried to find creative ways to get them to play as well as they do in practice. Tactically, they usually are faster than their opponents, so we did a lot of quick attacks to the "three spots" - wide corners and middle (roughly opponent's elbow). They were mostly used to playing players from the club who'd they'd played many times, so playing new players and styles is a challenge. They played a LOT of players with long pips! One kid struggled against his first long pips blocker, a style he's never played, and got killed. Then he played another one later on and played one of the best matches he's ever played. Amazing how fast kids pick things up.

More importantly, the tournament dramatically showed their strengths and weaknesses, as tournament always do. I took careful notes, and later today, after I finish the blog, I'll likely go off to Panera's for lunch or dinner and write up an analysis and recommendations for all five. It'll include bullet lists of things they do well, things that could or should become strengths, and things that need work on. A couple of them simply could not serve anything effectively but backspin serves - we'll be working on that. I worked with one of them on that on Sunday. Some of them loop against pushes fine in practice, but in tournaments against a player they've never played? That needs work - and much of that comes with experience and the decision that you have to do the shots you practice or you'll never do them effectively.

We came back Sunday morning, and I got back just in time for a noon group session with a number of kids, including two of the ones from the tournament. I had two group sessions and fed multiball for nearly three hours, with a big focus on looping against backspin, both forehand and backhand. For those sessions, most of the players were paired up, with Coaches Wang Qingliang and/or Lidney Castro running the drills and coaching, while 2-3 at a time were sent to me for 15-30 minutes of intense multiball.

USATT Coaches Certification
I haven't been on the USATT Coaches Certification listing since January, even though I'm certified at the highest level as a National Coach. I've jumped through all the hoops - I'm a full USATT member ($75/year for most, but I have a lifetime membership via Hall of Fame induction), $50/year certified coach fee, I've passed SafeSport (again), did the background check, and (new rules!) promised to turn over my firstborn table tennis racket and 100 rating points. :) But according to headquarters, there's a software problem, and they have been unable to mark me as passing SafeSport even though I passed that in January. (I keep getting these automatic emails saying I'm not SafeSport compliant.) I wonder if others are affected by this? (I emailed to find out.) Presumably, next year they will extend my certification for the amount of time I'm left off the list before I have to pay the annual $50 again. You can't charge someone for certification if you aren't putting them on the certification list!
UPDATE - I'm told they will have an update (i.e. fixed the problem) "within the next few days."

Ukraine President Zelenksy Playing Table Tennis
Here's the video (43 sec)! Here's a related cartoon I created where Zelensky smashes Putin, "Putin's Dream Becomes a Nightmare." (Here's the non-Facebook version. I used graphics I found online to create it.)

New from Samson Dubina
This first one may be the single hardest thing to get across to students. Those who overcome this improve rapidly. All of this week's Samson tips are really good.

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Matt Hetherington

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

New from Coach Jon/Table Tennis Philosophy

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

3 Drills That Will Level Up Your Game
Here's the video (7:24) from Seth Pech.

The Myth of Sport Specific Training
Here's the video (5:45) from Kevin Finn/Peak Performance Table Tennis.

Joining the Dark Side - When Is the Right Time to Switch to Pimples?
Here's the article by Tom Lodziak.

How to Do Mima Ito's One-Inch Backhand Punch with Short Pips
Here's the video (10:39) from Ti Long.

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

Impact of Ball Material Change from Celluloid to Plastic on Game Statistics in Elite Women Table-Tennis
Here's the rather technical article from the International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport. This is just the abstract - you have to pay $47 for the whole article. "This study compared the statistics of 24 matches played by elite women table-tennis players using the old celluloid versus new plastic balls to provide insight into the on-court adaptations made. Matches played by five, top-10 world ranked female players, using the celluloid (n = 12) versus plastic balls (n = 12) in international competitions from 2011 to 2017 were analysed. The results showed that the average strokes per point and point duration were approximately 15% and 13% shorter when playing with the plastic (4.79 ± 0.59; 3.91 ± 0.54s) compared with celluloid balls (5.52 ± 0.62; 4.49 ± 0.53s)."

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Support Lily Zhang in Attending 2022 WTT Events
Here's her GoFundMe page. "Lily's home club Table Tennis America supports this initiative of sending Lily to participate at the WTT Events. All funds raised will 100% go towards covering her expenses at the WTT events. Table Tennis America Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your generous donation is tax deductible." (So far they have raised $8163 out of the $40,000 goal.)

Navin Kumar Documentary Preview
Here's the video (61 sec).

ITTF PingPongParkinson World Championship
Here's the promo video (50 sec) for the event to be held in Pula, Croatia, Sept. 30 - Oct. 3, 2022. I will likely be coaching Navin Kumar there.

New Zealand Protesters Use Table Tennis Table as Shield
Here's the article and video (67 sec).

2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships--COMING SOON
Here's the info page.

New from Steve Hopkins

USATT News

ITTF News

Dinosaur Pong Prints and Shirts
Here's the page to buy them!

Dragon Ping Pong Paddles
Here's the page to buy them! (Beginner paddles but fun souvenirs.)

The Point is Never Over
Here's the video (12 sec)!

Skinny Pong
Here's the video (10 sec)! That table looks about three inches wide. I want one!

David vs. Goliath Pong?
Here's the cartoon! (Or is this Ukraine vs. Russia - and note the worried look on "Russia's" face!

Non-Table Tennis - "Small Step" Sold to Abyss & Apex
It's my 126th science fiction short story sale (along with four novels), and my fourth to Abyss & Apex. When Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, he said, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." But he left out the "a," and so the quote didn't really make sense. It turns out he didn't leave it out, and this is the story of what really happened when mankind first landed on the moon. Two retired aliens lived there, living life at 1/10,000 our speed, but with technical capabilities far beyond ours, including time manipulation. When the landing accidentally kills one of the aliens, it's up to Buzz Aldrin to save humanity by convincing the surviving alien - using perhaps the most unique communication technique ever invented - not to burn humanity to a crisp. The story idea came about from reading "The Eagle Has Landed: The Story of Apollo 11," by Jeffrey K. Smith. The publishing industry often has a slow process, and this was no exception. I submitted the story last Aug. 1, and it took seven months before they accepted it. It's already scheduled for publication - on July 1, 2024!!! (We also went through a two-week rewrite process where they asked for certain changes.) It's a somewhat long story, 6,600 words, about 27 pages double-spaced.

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February 28, 2022

Tip of the Week
Be a Machine But Not Mechanical.

Weekend Coaching, an Exhausting Session, . . . and USATT or Local TT
It was another busy week at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. I had four group sessions, plus a private session with Navin Kumar. (As noted previously, I'm retired from private coaching, but made an exception for Navin, a Paralympic player. I'll likely be coaching him at the World Parkinson's Championships at the 2022 ITTF Parkinson's World Table Tennis Championships, Sept. 30 - Oct. 3, 2022, in Pula, Croatia.) Head junior coach Wang Qingliang ran most of these sessions, with Coach Lidney Castro running one of them. (I used to run many or most of these sessions, but now that I'm "semi-retired," I've taken a back seat and let others be in charge while I assist.)

With the Novice group, the focus is always on fundamentals. We do a lot of shadow-stroking at the start. One interesting thing - the local middle schools require all students to do a certain number of hours of volunteer work. MDTTC had applied as an option, and so for the last few years we've had many of our junior stars helping out in such classes. This time around we had six of them (ages 12 to 15), along with Wang and I - so eight coaches/practice partners with 13 players!!! So we were able to do a lot of one-on-one hitting and multiball. In other sessions I was split between feeding lots and Lots and LOTS of multiball, and being a "walking around" coach.

In the last session on Sunday afternoon, they played practice matches to help some of them prepare for upcoming tournaments. There were 15 in the group and needed a 16th, so I became a player once again. The level in this group ranged up to about 1850. At the start, I was winning most of my games by scores ranging from 11-0 (sorry!) to 11-3. (All best of three to 11.) Then I started getting tired. Why was I tired? Well . . . perhaps it was age. No one there knew it, but I turned 62 (!!!) on Sunday. As I got tired, I made mistakes and struggled to cover the table against these way-too-fast kids, who more and more seemed like Tasmanian devils on steroids. No, I didn't lose any games, but the second half I had a number of close ones, even down 7-10 one game to a kid around 1600 (but swinging for the fences and hitting!) - but I came back. I probably need to start practicing and do some physical training if I want to stay ahead of them!

I'm going up to Princeton Pong in New Jersey to coach at a tournament this weekend. Normally, when I travel to tournaments, it's to coach our top juniors. This time, a number of younger, lower-rated kids are doing their first out-of-town tournament. I've met with some of the parents to go over various aspects of the trip. We leave sometime on Friday afternoon. These kids are enthused and can't wait!!!

With all of this local TT, and my growing disillusionment with the current leadership of USA Table Tennis, I'm leaning more and more towards just focusing on local table tennis until things get better at USATT. (One board member told me that members have always complained about USATT. My response was the key thing was whether the complaints are justified.) We have over 50 kids in our junior program, generally divided into four training groups. There are some really hard-working kids. They may not all become "champions" in table tennis, but they will all have fun, learn discipline and sportsmanship, and have a sport for a lifetime - i.e. they will all be champions.

However, it's also fun to work with the top ones. In the current rankings, in 13 and Under, we have players like Stanley Hsu (13, 2402), Mu Du (13, 2286), Ryan Lin (12, 2216), Winston Wu (2079) - the four are ranked #1, 3, 6, and 8 in the country. In 12 and Under, Ryan and Winston are #1 and #2. In 11 and Under, Riley Yang (11, 1920) is #5; in 9 and Under Girls, Audrey Yang (9, 1242) is #4. And there are many others. (It's tempting to list them all . . . lots of kids from 1800 to 2200, we have some great coaches at MDTTC!) Anyway, I'd rather work with these kids, most of whom I've worked with since they were beginners, then spend a huge amount of time tilting at windmills, i.e. dealing with USATT. I'm on the USATT coaching committee, and will continue that - though we haven't met since June of 2020. 
=>ADDENDUM - Another reason for my disinterest in USATT is that, with all their problems, they are insignificant compared to what's happening in Ukraine as well as what's happened to American politics. There's a good chance our next president will be one who regularly tells us how much he likes and admires Putin and how much Putin likes him, and about a thousand other problems. I usually stay out of US politics in this blog, but jeez...

US Team Trials and Nationals
The US Team Trials (for men, women, and juniors, June 25 - July 1) and the US Nationals (July 2-7) will be held back-to-back this year in Fort Worth. So it looks like I'll be very busy coaching for two weeks! Then I'm going on vacation. Tentatively, immediately afterwards I'm taking a bus or flight to San Antonio (270 miles south) to visit the Alamo. (I'm told I was there when I was two years old, but strangely I don't remember it.) Then I'm doing something I've held off for a couple of years for some pandemical reason - I'm hoping to do a one-to-two week tour of Mexico - probably one of these. (I especially like visiting historical sites.) Some of you may remember my 7-week tour of Europe and Egypt in late 2019, just before the pandemic - here's my book in that trip, Larry's Adventures in Europe and Egypt: Seven Weeks Following Tour Guides with Little Flags and Funny Hats, and the Quest for the Elusive Dr Pepper. (Flights from San Antonio to Mexico are inexpensive, about $200 round trip.)

Number of Events at the US Open and Nationals
I'm hearing rumors that they are thinking of once again lowering the number of events a player can enter at the US Open and Nationals. I hope this is wrong - they should go the other way and increase it. I checked some of my old entry forms, and as recently as 2015 players could enter up to ten events, with just as many or more events held as current Opens and Nationals. They lowered it to nine for the next two years, then to seven, then last year they lowered it to six. For a six-day event such as these, players want to play more, especially juniors, seniors, para players, and hardbat/sandpaper players who can play a lot of singles and doubles events. Since they had no problems with the scheduling in past years with players entering nine or ten events, why can't they do that now? The entry form will be out soon, so we'll know then.
=>ADDENDUM - Jasna from USATT posted, "From what I understood at the task force meeting, it seems it will be allowed for up to 10 events for athletes to enter." Another person from USATT had told me they were "considering" going to only five events, but presumably that was vetoed. (Another person also mentioned this to me, though not sure if it was a prediction or they'd also heard it, possibly from same source. It's quite possible the idea of going to five events was privately discussed but not brought up in official meetings and subsequently dropped. It would be an easy - and bad - partial solution to the recent scheduling problems.) If so, that's a good decision. Now, let's just run it on time and deal with the other problems raised from the last three US Opens and Nationals. 

Ping-Pong on Space Force
I've been watching Space Force, the satirical show on Netflix, which recently released season 2. In Season 2, Episode 4, at 10:40, one of the scientists, Dr. Chan, is described, "Did you know that at age ten, Chan was actually a table tennis champion." There's a picture of him as a child holding a paddle. (The series stars Steve Carell and John Malkovich.)
=>ADDENDUM - Matt Hetherington informs me of the following:

"That picture of Dr Chan in SpaceForce is actually a real picture of Jimmy O Yang, the actor who plays him. Jimmy played table tennis in Hong Kong at a young age and his father took him to competitions in Guangzhou sometimes. He's mentioned it in his standup shows a couple of times, I sent him a new racket last year so here's hoping we can get him on a table a little in 2022!" 

USA Table Tennis News

Butterfly Training Tips

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

Seth Pech vs Sharon Alguetti 2022 Presper Financial Architects Open
Here's the video (9:48) with Seth's expert tactical analysis.

New from Samson Dubina

How to Serve Ghost 4 Easy Levels
Here's the video (9:29) from Ti Long.

New from Table Tennis Philosophy/Coach Jon

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

New from Matt Hetherington

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from Steve Hopkins

ITTF News

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Fix Un Foxi
Here's the 1995 German comic book!

Pong Eyes
Here's the picture!

World's Biggest Ping-Pong Paddle
Here it is! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Table Pong
Here's the video (18 sec) - and look what they use as a net!

Pole Pong with Persson
Here's the video (17 sec) as 1991 Men's World Champion Jorgen Persson battles the ball, a pole, and a punching bag!

Full-House Pong
Here's the video (48 sec) - this is hilarious!

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February 21, 2022

Tip of the Week
If You Don't Spend a Good Portion of Your Practice Developing Overwhelming Strengths, You Won't Develop Overwhelming Strengths.

USA Table Tennis Issues
This site is called TableTennisCOACHING.com, not TableTennisUSATT.com. Readers know I disagree with much of what USA Table Tennis has done over the last two years. I try to ignore much of it, and probably write only 10% of what I could. Alas, there's a lot here to write about. I really do not plan to not do any more USATT "editorials" after this for a while, other than reporting things like the results of the upcoming athlete election, etc. Skip the next five segments if you aren't interested in USATT issues. (Item #5 is about the Nationals going to Fort Worth.) 

The End of the Rubberstamping USATT Board?
The current chair, Richard Char, took office at the Feb. 26, 2020 board meeting. Since then, there have been 26 board meetings (mostly on Zoom) and 104 votes. (I'm not including votes to go into or out of executive session or votes to adjourn, which would add another 50 or so unanimous votes.) Exactly 100 of the 104 votes have been unanimous, including the first 86 votes through 21 board meetings. The first dissenting vote in this era was by Thomas Hu at the Oct. 4, 2021 meeting. The only board members who have ever dissented have been Thomas Hu (4 times), Dan Reynolds (2 times), and in this last meeting, newly elected athlete reps Lily Zhang and Nikhil Kumar once each, both joining Thomas in voting against the proposed 2022 budget. (Thomas and Dan both took office at the start of 2021, so they only started voting at that time.) Here is the USATT Minutes page. (A number of these votes are straightforward ones, but a number are not.) 

So this has been pretty much the definition of a rubberstamping board until now. There are now four who have dissented, and there will be two incoming athlete reps coming in soon - I'm told we'll have the results this Thursday. (It's a bit complicated, but due to the para requirements, it's basically Tahl Leibovitz vs. Jennifer Johnson, and Peter Li vs. Niraj Oak.) One of the ironies is that the incoming athlete reps seem rather grass-roots oriented, despite being athlete reps.

One of the reasons for this "rubberstamping" board is the change in how USATT lawyers advise the board. For decades, the previous USATT lawyers (primarily Dennis Taylor for the past 20 years, until about two years ago) would give the board options, and let the board decide. They'd make recommendations if asked, but their primary job was to give the board the options to choose from, and the advantages/disadvantages of each from a legal aspect. However, anyone attending board meetings these past two years have noticed a major change. Now it seems as if the lawyers argue a specific case, which seems to match what the USATT CEO and Chair (the ones who brought them in) seem to support. Since nearly all of the board is new, few have realized the difference. When I ask board members why they voted a certain way in various controversial decisions, invariably I'm told they did it because the lawyers recommended it.

USATT Budget Meeting
They held that meeting this past Thursday, Feb. 17. I attended, for the entire 14 minutes before the meeting was closed for executive session.

I've had two tenures on the USATT Board and have attended the vast majority of USATT board meetings since 1986. I've been to far too many budget meetings. Until the last few years, the process was straightforward - the board went over it, item by item, with the ED/CEO and others explaining each item, and board members then asking questions. The process typically takes at least three hours, often longer, and ends with each board member having a good understanding of the budget. They discuss, make compromise, and ultimately vote.

The process under this administration is very different. The budget was sent to board members, they were allowed to ask questions via email, and then they spent less than ten minutes discussing it in the Zoom meeting before the call was made to approve it. Without going over each item, most board members really don't know which parts they should ask questions about. That seems the point - rather than the board really going over the budget and then voting on it, the whole point seemed to be to rubberstamp it. How can they approve a budget they haven't really gone over?

There were objections to the budget, in particular by board member Thomas Hu. Thomas has an MBA, was a major in finance with a minor in accounting, has a long history as a financial reporter and planner, and is also CEO of the American Youth Table Tennis Organization. He said the numbers do not add up. Ironically, immediately after Thomas said, "The numbers are wrong," the chair, Richard Char, asked if there was a motion to approve the budget, and the motion was made about five seconds after that. The final vote was 7-3 in favor, with Thomas and the two incoming Athlete Representatives, Lily Zhang and Nikhil Kumar, opposed.

The fact that the vote was 7-3 was in itself "historic" as that was by far the closest vote on this board in the last two years and 104 votes. (See segment above on "rubberstamping.")  

USATT Cancels Chat Function at Board Meetings
Here's the notice from the last board meeting notice:

Process for USATT Members to Submit Questions to the Board of Directors
In an effort to enhance dialogue and transparency with the membership, the Board and USATT staff have developed a process to allow members to submit questions and comments. Questions and comments may be delivered to admin@usatt.org, and the Board will address appropriate inquiries related to topics properly before the Board at its meetings. Questions may also be directed to the Board at admin@usatt.org during the meeting but may not be responded to until after the meeting due to time and attention considerations. Given this enhanced opportunity, it should be noted that the chat function will no longer be available during Board meetings.

Why do they feel the need to mislead us about why they canceled the chat function? This misleading statement is irritating. They canceled the chat function because a number of people (including me and some prominent members of the table tennis community) complained in the chat function during the previous board meeting about certain issues. So why not just tell the truth if you believe in your reasons? (It doesn't matter who actually wrote this; it was written by or on behalf of the USATT CEO and Board Chair.)

Note that it's not an either-or thing - you can do both. Saying they cancelled the chat function because of this "enhanced" opportunity is like saying, "The sky is blue, therefore you can't have chocolate." There's no correlation or cause and effect between the two. It's just a distracting mechanism - but done so poorly that it doesn't fool anyone. Does anyone really think they canceled the chat function because of an "enhanced opportunity"?

I could easily make the argument for them for cancelling the chat function as a distraction. Here's what they could have said, if they'd decided to be honest and straightforward: "In a previous meeting, a number of people used the chat function to disrupt the board meeting, making it difficult for some board members to focus on the meeting. In the future, we'd prefer these comments be sent to the board in advance so board members can give them proper consideration without distracting them from the ongoing meeting." There, was that so hard?

They could simply ignore the chat - the meeting was on Zoom, where board members speak but others cannot without permission - but since they didn't like what was being said, they decided to close it down and mislead us with the reason. Why not just be honest? If you believe you are right, then make your argument, as I did above for them. If you believe you are wrong but decide to do it anyway, that's a reason to hide your real reason and talk about "enhancing dialogue" and "transparency" and pretend it's an "either-or" situation.

Do they really believe just closing down the chat function, a form of censorship, is the way to go here? How'd that work out for, say, "Maus"? All this does is draw attention to it. You can moderate a chat room without closing it down for legitimate comments and discussion. ("In January 2022, the board of trustees of McMinn County schools in Tennessee removed Maus from its schools curriculum. There was significant and widespread backlash to the decision, and Maus became the Amazon #1 best-seller." I'd never heard of it, but I just read it and am now reading the sequel.) By my judgement, only one person in the chat posted anything remotely objectionable (using the word "corruption"). 

On a side note, we've always had the ability email the board of directors - their emails are linked in the USATT board listing.

So, what was the primary issue that people were objecting in the chat room at the last board meeting? That's the next segment.

Athlete Advisory Council Representative
At the Oct. 27, 2021 board meeting, the USATT board passed a series of new bylaws. The USOPC had dictated that USATT must increase athlete representation on the board from two to four. They also said that the athletes needed to be chosen by direct vote of the athletes. (It used to be that way, but in recent times the AAC chose the athlete reps.) So, USATT ran the first athlete rep election, won by Lily Zhang and Nikhil Kumar, and we'll have the results of the other one this Thursday, with two more athlete reps. (I actually wrote a LONG article on this, but decided it was way too long and so drastically shortened it. I debated whether to even bother writing about it, but decided silence wasn't the answer.)

The controversial bylaw? The four incoming athlete reps, voted directly by the elite athletes, replaced the previous two. No problem there. But the board added a new position, the AAC Chair Representative (as designated on the USATT board listing), who represents the Athlete Advisory Council. (To be clear, before the ACC was used to choose the two athlete reps; now they themselves have a rep, representing the AAC itself, in addition to the four athlete reps elected by the athletes.)

The AAC Chair is Tara Profitt. I've known Tara for many years, including during my second tenure on the USATT board. I believe she's hard-working and well-meaning. She is a strong advocate of her fellow para players. (She is in a wheelchair.) She also was forthcoming when I asked her some question, and it helped in gathering facts. But there's one problem - who does she represent? The AAC is not a constituency; they advise a constituency, the elite athletes. Constituencies are groups that USATT might want to help, to better develop the sport of table tennis. Clubs are a constituency, and have a board rep. Colleges are a constituency, and have a board rep. Others that could be considered constituencies include coaches, officials, juniors, seniors, and so on. But the AAC itself is not a constituency; they advise a constituency. (See Article XI of the USATT bylaws for their exact purpose.)

To give an example, USATT lawyers advise USATT on certain issues, but that doesn't mean there should be a lawyer rep on the USATT board of directors. Similarly, while the AAC advises the board on certain athlete issues, that doesn't mean they themselves should have a voting member on the USATT board of directors. (If you represent the ones who voted you in, then Tara technically represents the then-majority of the board that voted to create this position. The votes are no longer there, but the "legacy" of this former 2/3 majority remains.)

So, why does the AAC have a representative? To be specific, what was the cause?

This goes right back to the "rubberstamping" board. There's nothing wrong with voting consistently with a group you agree with. At the same time, if you have voted with or for the chair, Richard Char, in 104 out of 104 votes, as Tara has, then you are obviously a very strong supporter of this administration. By creating this board position, the then-majority created a position for a strong supporter that they would need, knowing that the four incoming athlete reps are not likely to be such supporters. It is likely that in some important issues, or in attempts to change past decisions, Tara will be the deciding vote or (in some cases) would deadlock the board at 6-6, or stop bylaw changes (including the AAC rep position), that require a 2/3 vote of the entire board. (I really wish Tara had simply run for one of the fourth athlete reps. If she was representative of their views, she would have been elected. Alas, she does not seem to represent their views on most issues.)

And this is why so many people are unhappy with this. We welcome Tara's advice and hard work, but not that a then-majority used its majority to pad and try to continue its majority. (Note that they also voted for the new bylaws and had a sudden and unscheduled election for the board chair just before the athlete elections, knowing full well that the four incoming athlete reps would likely be in opposition to the then-majority on both of these.) One other source of unhappiness - I and others believe Tara should have abstained on the bylaws vote that created the position that she now occupies.

The minutes (unanimously approved by the board at the Dec. 6 meeting) say the vote was 7-2, but if you count the voters listed (see below), it's actually 6-2. (As noted at the top of the minutes, Kelly Watson arrived late, and so missed the vote.) It also leaves out who made the motion and second - but it turns out Tara made the motion and voted for it. Here's what it says in the Oct. 27 Board Minutes:

Upon Motion properly made and seconded, the following Resolution was approved by a vote of seven (Tara Profitt, Brandon Lawrence, Arjun Chowdri, Tom Feng, Will Shortz and Richard Char) to two (Thomas Hu and Dan Reynolds):

Bylaw changes need a 2/3 majority of the entire board, and since there were nine board members at the time (before the bylaw changes), that meant six votes were needed. Therefore, outgoing athlete rep and AAC Chair Tara made the motion and cast the deciding vote for new bylaws that included creating a new board position, an AAC Chair Rep, for herself. (She was an outgoing athlete rep because the USOPC had ordained that all athlete reps must be elected directly, and the very bylaws she moved and cast the deciding vote for created those direct elections - which she no longer would have to run in.) 

ADDENDUM: I rewrote the part above about needing a 2/3 vote of the entire board to pass a bylaw, since I'd initially written it took a 2/3 vote, period. This mean that Tara cast the deciding vote, as noted above. 

I asked one USATT person if they would have created this position if Tara opposed the current administration, and this person admitted, off the record, "Not a chance." Alas, whether knowingly or not, Tara has become a pawn in a power struggle.

I will close with a quote from the USATT Board of Directors Conflict of Interest Form: "Recognize that even the appearance of misconduct or impropriety can be very damaging to the reputation of the USATT and act accordingly."

2022 US National Table Tennis Championships Headed to Fort Worth
Here's the USATT news item. It'll be held July 2-7. They had 730 players when they ran the US Open there in 2019. We'll see how they do this time. 

Weekend Coaching
Last Monday I acted for two hours as a practice partner for Group 1 of our junior program. (We have four groups, with Group 1 the highest.) My stomach was queasy going in, but I did fine at the start, even had a good 20-minute session with Mu Du (13, 2286). But then the stomach got worse and worse, and by the end of the session I was almost dying. I spent the next day mostly in bed and got over it - but my stomach has been queasy all week. I lived on cream of wheat for a couple of days.

Over the weekend I helped run four more group sessions. We had a lot of focus on placement ("Go to the wide corners, not middle backhand or middle forehand!") and serve and attack ("Always follow your serve with an attack unless the receiver does something to stop it"). I also fed a lot of multiball. My arm was starting to get sore from it, so I went back to wearing the arm band that protects it.

It's become almost a tradition that we end the Novice junior group with Simon Says. A few of them are getting really good at it!!! I'm not sure what they like best, that or smacking cups! (The latter is better overall, since it's a table tennis activity - but Simon Says teaches kids to listen, pay attention, and react properly. Plus it's a fun activity that makes them want to keep coming back!)

Naresh and Jalli Make Waves in Metz, France
Here's the article by Steve Hopkins. Here's video (2:12) of Sarah's final!

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Samson Dubina

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

New from Coach Jon

New from Matt Hetherington

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

Destroy Your Opponents With Liam Pitchford’s Table Tennis Serves
Here's the video (5:14) from Table Tennis Daily.

How important is the Center of Gravity in Table Tennis?
Here's the video (9:30) from Ti Long.

Footwork in Table Tennis
Here's the video (8:05) from New Level TT. "Ma Long illustrating 3 main actions in table tennis during long rally. Split step, Ball approaching and Resetting to ready position."

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

Fundraiser for Bronze Medalist Jenson Van Emburgh to Prepare for World Championships
Here's the GoFundMe page. "Hi everyone!! I am happy to announce that I am preparing for the World Championships which will take place on November 6th in Granada, Spain. I am trying to raise funds to cover my training and travel expenses for this year leading up to the World Championships. No donation is too small and every little bit will help me be at my best at Worlds!"

National Collegiate Regional Championships - Deadlines
Here's the article from NCTTA.

New From Steve Hopkins

USATT Tournament Results and Announcements

ITTF News

Jimmy Butler Plays TT with Basketball Stars Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and Rudy Tomjanovich
Here's the video (7 min) by Jimmy Butler!

The Mayor of Dunellen Visits Lily Yip's Table Tennis Center!
Here's the video (5:36).

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

I'm Awesome at Ping Pong
Here's the shirt to prove it!

Big Orange Pong Eyes and Big Red Pong Ears
Here's the picture!

Zach King's Best Ping Pong Tricks
Here's the video (5:04) from Pongfinity!

TT Umpiring is a Dangerous Pastime
Here's the video (11 sec)!

"The Office" Table Tennis
Here's the video (73 sec) - it starts with a rather long forehand to forehand sequence, but at 55 seconds, we get "All of my heroes are table tennis players," and he starts naming real players!

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February 14, 2022

Tip of the Week
The Most Important Technique in Table Tennis.

Coaching at the MDTTC Open and Weekend Coaching
I spent Saturday coaching players from our junior program at the MDTTC Open. It wasn't easy - I had a secret I kept from everyone. I woke up with an intense headache, probably from reading late the night before. It never went away - I spent the whole day with a jackhammer in my head. But I didn't tell anyone, and hopefully none of the kids I coached noticed anything different. I still had the headache this morning, and almost postponed the blog, but it's a bit better now. Yeah, that late-night reading habit can be a headache!!! (I might need new reading glasses - I have an eye appointment Feb. 24.) 

Here are the complete results of the tournament, care of Omnipong. There were 102 players in the tournament, run by Coach Wang Qingliang, with Liam Draper, Kevin Yang, Mu Du, James Zhang, and other kids in our junior program helping out. I coached matches for Stanley & Kurtus Hsu, Mu Du, James Zhang, Todd Klinger, and Christian Funderberg. (I mostly coach those who ask me to coach them.) I could write a book about the various tactics used. (But I'll only write about things that don't give things away.) Many, probably most players are easy to coach against - most players fit into a "textbook" case with standard strengths and weaknesses, so it's just a matter of finding them, and not overusing the best tactics so they don't get used to them. Others are harder to coach against because they adjust their tactics on the fly as you or your student changes theirs.

One interesting tactical issue that came up several times was players who start the rally as "forehand" players, where you attack the wide corners. But once the rally starts, they become more two-winged, and then you want to attack both the corners and their middle, roughly the elbow, the transition between forehand and backhand. It becomes tricky with players who switch back and forth and so the player has to constantly adjust. I used to be one of those players - if you go after my middle, I'm an all-out forehand player and you were just giving me forehands; if you attack the corners then I became a wall on both sides, since I didn't have to cover the middle. Smart players, of course, went back and forth, and then I'd crumble a bit, alas. But so do other opponents if you learn to make these adjustments on the fly.

One tactic that came up a few times was flipping short serves to the middle. Most players only practice flipping to wide angles, and so aren't comfortable or able to consistently flip to the middle. In one big match, it was the key to winning - and if the player I coached hadn't been able to do that he probably would have lost.

One tactical question came up, a common that's sometimes tricky to decide. It came up when I coached Stanley Hsu (US #1 in 13 and Under, rated 2400 even and a finalist in Open Singles here). He has a devastating close-to-table forehand loop that's almost become his trademark. But sometimes the opponent is able to make a strong counterloop from mid-court. When that happens, Stanly (and other players like him) normally keep counterlooping. But in such a rally, a simple forehand block down the line to the backhand would catch the opponent out of position as well as throw off their timing, plus it's a more consistent shot than trying to counterloop. However, there's a problem. If the player knows that once he starts looping, he's basically going to keep looping until the point is over, then there's no hesitation and the looping becomes very strong and pretty consistent. Once you add the decision of whether to loop or block, that can cause the player to hesitate and the loop becomes more erratic. So it's a judgement call on by the player and the coach on whether it's better to keep coming at them with loops or to throw in occasional forehand blocks based on the situation. It's sort of like comparing Ma Long (who would likely keep ripping forehand loops until the point is over) or Jan-Ove Waldner (who would tactically forehand block a ball if the situation called for it). In the modern game, you lean toward the continuous attack . . . but an occasional forehand block can really work wonders.

On Sunday, toward the end, we had a two-hour Novice Class, with 13 players, mostly ages 7-8. At the start, Coach Wang ran it while I took over at the tournament desk for him (with junior star Mu Du helping), but once the session started he asked if I could feed multiball, so I did for an hour while he ran the tournament. One problem that came up was two kids who kept changing their grip drastically between forehand and backhand. We worked on that.

The last half hour was "fun time." First we played the cup game, where the kids built pyramids out of paper cups, and then took turns knocking them down as I fed multiball. We finished with a round of Simon Says - I'm getting good at doing it rapid fire! My favorite tactic is to say "Simon says" something, but act out something different. So I might say "Simon says clap your hands" as I jump in the air. But the kids quickly pick up on these things. I got a lot of them when I said, "Simon says clap your hands once" and I clap them twice. I also got a bunch of them when I said, "All those who haven't missed yet move over there," and of course I didn't say "Simon says," so those who moved over lost! This video (5:58) is my inspiration.

Stanley Hsu assisted in the session - here's a Facebook picture of him helping, with me in the background. See my comment under it. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

The Spirit of Pong
I thought I'd give a plug for my fantasy table tennis novel The Spirit of Pong. It's an easy read, only 100 pages, plus features a short humorous fantasy table tennis story at the end, "Ping-Pong Ambition." You can read the first two chapters (17 pages) for FREE! Here's a Review at MH Table Tennis. Here's the Amazon description:

Andy "Shoes" Blue wants to be a table tennis champion, but he’s just another wannabe American. And so he goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis. He is trained by the mysterious Coach Wang, and begins an odyssey where he learns the secrets of table tennis from the spirits of Japan's Ichiro Ogimura (who helped spawn China’s greatness), Rong Guotuan (China’s first world champion in 1959, whose tragic story Andy must relive), and others, and must face the mysterious "Dragon." Can he overcome treachery and learn the final secret of table tennis in time to defeat his ultimate nemesis?

From the Amazon reviews:

  • "This lovely little book is loaded with a lot of information about the giants of the game."
  • "...if you cried during the ending scene of 'Rudy', then this book is for you."
  • "I was hijacked away by this book almost from its beginning looking forward each new paragraph."
  • "A fascinating story of an American wanting to be the best in the world of table tennis, going to China for some magical and intriguing training sessions, and how he eventually achieved his hard-earned success."
  • "This was a real page-turner, and was one of the best binges I've been on."
  • "An enjoyable and amusing read, Larry Hodges writes in a capturing style."

Here are all of my books - 17 in all, with two more coming out later this year.

Valentine's Day Table Tennis
Here's what you get if you put this headline into Google:

ITTF Hopes Squad
I wrote about this last week, but the links went up late, so I'm reposting them. Congrats to Ryan Lin, Mandy Yu, and Tashiya Piyadasa, who each made the ITTF's ten-player World Hopes Squad - ten boys and ten girls, all ages 12 and under. (Links to these articles are repeated elsewhere in the blog, under the ITTF, USATT, and Steve Hopkins/Butterfly news links.)

USATT Board Meeting This Thursday, Feb. 17
Here is the USATT Agenda and Notices page. It will be a Zoom meeting, at 8PM eastern time, and USATT members may attend, but only to watch and listen. One big change you will see in the notice - they are disabling the chat feature, and requiring any questions to be made in advance via email. Why? Because at the last board meeting (Feb. 7), several people, including me, complained about certain USATT issues. This is their way of dealing with that. Alas. There are three things on the agenda:

  • 2022 Budget
  • Proposed Amendments to Bylaws as Required Under USOPC Audit Implementation Guide
  • Proposed Amendments to USATT Board Code of Conduct and Social Media Policy (Executive Session)

Timos Week #5 - Back on Track
Here's the video (3:06) from Timo Boll. He just got over Covid.

Kanak Jha Talks Playing Timo Boll, Lin Yun Ju and Tactics Against Lefties
Here's the video (25:27) from Seth Pech, featuring USA Olympian and four-time USA Men's Singles Champion Kanak Jha.

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich
I normally avoid linking to equipment articles and reviews - I'm sponsored by Butterfly and so have a conflict of interest. But besides the below, EmRatThich reviews a series of Butterfly blades in his PingSunday blog this past week, including the Falcima, Timo Boll CAF, Timo Boll ZLF, Lin Gaoyuan ALC, Timo Boll ZLC, Viscaria, and the Timo Boll ALC. What I find interesting is he called the Timo Boll ALC "the best Butterfly blade" - and it's the blade I've used for the last eight years or so! I had a student who I coached at the National Team Trials, Tong Tong Gong, who by upset made the National Cadet Team by pulling off a series of upsets. As a bonus, he gave me the very blade he used to make the team, a Timo Boll ALC, and I fell in love with it! I still use it that very same blade, though I have a newer backup in my bag.

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Matt Hetherington

New from Samson Dubina

New from Coach Aabid
Here's his latest coaching article, and links to his previous ones and videos.

Camouflaging Your Serves
Here's the article by Vikash Sahu

How Your Grip Might Be Destroying Your Loop
Here's the video (5:37) from Coach Jon.

Defeats, Despair and Big Lessons Learnt in My Veteran Tournament Debut
Here's the article by Tom Lodziak.

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis
Lots of new videos here! (Alas, they no longer seem to date them, so it's tricky trying to figure out which ones are new.)

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from USA Table Tennis

New from Steve Hopkins

New from the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association

Indian Coach Guilty of Match Fixing, Table Tennis Federation of India Executive Committee Suspended
There seem to be some scandals going on in Indian table tennis. Here are five different reports. I tried to choose just one, but they seem to take different angles, so here are all five, which all came out on Friday. (Thanks to Ray Arditi for finding these.)

ITTF News

2021 US National Champion Men's Under 21 Champion and Men's Singles Finalist - Sharon Alguetti Highlights
Here's the video (4:10).

Adam Bobrow vs. Homeless Paralympic Champion
Here's the video (11:21) featuring Tahl Leibovitz - playing lefty!

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Freestyle Pong
Here's the video (20 sec) from Lin Yun!

Wow Clips
Here are links.

Surrender Pong
Here's the picture!

The Bad Guys in My Next Science Fiction Horror Story?
Here's the picture!

Our New Ping Pong Paddles Make Funny Sounds
Here's the video (1:31)!

Waldner's Trick Serve
Here's the video (12 sec)!

***
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February 7, 2022

Tip of the Week
Go After Your Opponent's Weaknesses - But Not Too Much!

Weekend Coaching, Push Depth, and Improvised Games
I had another busy weekend, coaching in five junior group sessions. As usual, the focus for beginning to intermediate players was fundamentals, so lots of standard stroking and footwork drills. We still keep it fun - I ended two sessions with impromptu "Simon Says" competitions for the whole group.

One interesting drill, where they kept score, was done by the top group is the standard push short drill, where both players push short until one accidentally pushes long, and then the other player loops and they play out the point. One variation is a player can flip if the push goes high. (If you want to focus on pushing short and judging if it's long enough to loop, while keeping score, then you can have the rule that a player who flips must score on that one shot, i.e. a flip kill against a popped-up push.) Done properly, this is likely the most tiring drill in table tennis - you don't just stand there, you have to step in, push short, and step back so as to be ready to loop a deep push - and then instantly step back in for the short ball. This type of in and out is exhausting! The players played to 11, moving up/down tables. As usual, the "rules" for the improvised games varied, which forces the players focus on various aspects of their game.

One player in the second highest of our four groups was the highest rated in the group - and yet he kept losing in the improvised games. But when we went to regular games at the end, he went back to winning. As I pointed out to him, this meant that while his level was pretty good, the drills showed weaknesses in his game he needed to work on or he'd get stuck at a lower level.

I also had a private coaching session with Navin Kumar. We'd stopped for a few months as we were both traveling a lot, plus Covid was a concern. This was our second recent session.) He may be going to some upcoming international tournaments for Parkinson's players, in Bad Homburg, Germany and the World Parkinson's Championships in Croatia. (I may go along to coach.)

ITTF Hopes Squad
Three USA players made the ITTF Hopes Squad! (Here's the non-Facebook version.) Ryan Lin, Mandy Yu, and Tashiya Piyadasa all attended and competed at the ITTF Hopes Camp and Tournament held in Jordan in December - here's my USATT writeup. It was announced by ITTF via email two days ago, though the "official" ITTF news item on it hasn't gone up yet. This is a group of ten boys and ten girls from around the world who will be invited to attend upcoming ITTF camps and tournaments. I may go to some to coach Ryan, as I did in Jordan and in the Americas Hopes in Ecuador in October, where Ryan finished second. (The same goes for Wei Qi and Thilina Piyadasa, who coach Mandy and Tashiya, respectively, and were also in Ecuador and Jordan.) Ryan, 12, is rated 2216, and was #1 in Under 12 until he recently turned 12, and is now #2 in Under 13 - but will likely take over the #1 spot in a few weeks when current #1 Patryk Zyworonek turns 13. Ryan, Mandy, Tashiya - CONGRATS!!!

Here's the USATT News item on this, which went up on Monday night.

USATT Board Meeting TONIGHT
The board of directors for USA Table Tennis has a Zoom meeting tonight at 8PM eastern time. Full info is at the USATT Agendas and Notices page; here's the direct link to the agenda, which includes info on how to attend. All USATT members are welcome to attend, though they can only speak with permission of the chair. However, anyone can type comments in the comment section. 

New from USA Table Tennis

Possible Supreme Court Nominee Julianna Michelle Childs and Table Tennis
Who is this Julianna Michelle Childs (who usually goes by "J. Michelle Childs") and what does she have to do with table tennis? Her father (RIP) was Ralph "Pete" Childs, a top junior star in the early 1960s. A quick check of the USA Table Tennis Results History shows the following US Open Results - and yes, they kept changing the names of the various titles:

  • 1961 Midget Boys Champion
  • 1962 Boys' Singles Champion
  • 1963 Boys' Singles & Doubles Champion, Junior Doubles Champion, Junior Mixed Doubles Finalist (with Connie Sweeris nee Stace)
  • 1964 Junior Singles & Doubles (with Dell Sweeris) Champion, Junior Mixed Doubles Finalist (with Connie Sweeris nee Stace)
  • 1965 Boys Under 17 Singles and Doubles Champion

J. Michelle Childs is considered by many to be the favorite to get the nomination, and has been endorsed even by a number of Republicans from her home state of South Carolina, including Senator Lindsey Graham, as well as influential Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn, also of South Carolina. (Here's an article from NPR on the possibilities.)

5 Skills That Separate Beginner & Advanced Table Tennis Players
Here's the video (7:53) from Table Tennis Daily.

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Matt Hetherington
He's been busy!

New from Samson Dubina

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

Liu Shiwen's Upgraded Techniques
Here's the video (11 min) from PandaPong.

Full Body Serves
Here's the article by Vikash Sahu

Long or Short Multiball
Here's the video (27 sec) of a nice drill from "Punny Boy," where the coach feeds either a short or long backspin, and the player has to make a quick judgment on whether to flip or loop.

New from Coach Jon

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from Sally Moyland

Steven Moreno Europe Training
Here's the article.

Denver Just Got a Club That's Solely For Playing Ping-Pong
Here's the article in the Denver Post, featuring the new club created by former USATT CEO Gordon Kaye.

New from Steve Hopkins

'Sports Can Open Up Doors': How Winter Olympic Games Could Improve U.S.-China Ties
Here's the article and video (2:17) from USA Today that features table tennis. "In 1971 at the World Table Tennis Championship in Nagoya, Japan, a butterfly flapped its wings, then nine Americans parted China's Communist Red Curtain."

Crazy Point Between Alguetti Brothers
Here's the video (20 sec) of the point between Gal (on left) and Sharon (who even switches hands) in the final this past weekend of the Butterfly Open in Columbus, OH! (Gal, 2614, would go on to pull off the minor upset over his brother, 2657.)

Gal Alguetti Table Tennis Highlights
Here's the video (2:18)!

Jimmy Butler and the Chinese New Year
Here's the video (4:44).

WTTC Interviews:

ITTF News

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Custom Caricature Portrait From Your Photo / Table Tennis Player
Here's where you can get yours!

You're the Ping to My Pong
Here's the perfect Valentine's t-shirt present!

Home Improvement Store Pong
Here's the video (21 sec)!

Return My Serve, Win $100
Here's the video (6:14) from Pongfinity!

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January 31, 2022

Tip of the Week
Use Top Players as Models For Your Technique.

Weekend Coaching, Placement, and Receiving a Short Serve
I coached in four group sessions this weekend. I focused a lot on placement. I remember something Ricky Seemiller (eight-time US Men's Doubles Champion with brother Danny and a long-time US team member) once told me at one of my first training camps: "Amateurs practice to the middle forehand and middle backhand. Professionals practice to the wide angles." What does that mean? Many players get in the habit of practicing their shots to exactly what Ricky said - the middle of their partner's forehand or backhand sides, typically 6-12 inches inside the corner. Top players don't generally practice or play to this area - why would they make things easy for their opponents? Instead, keep the ball to the wide corners in drills, with just as many balls landing outside the corner as inside. If you do it in practice, you'll do it in matches. (A version of this will likely become a weekly Tip.)

A mom and her son (about 1750, just turned 13) had a question for me. He had been struggling in practice matches against a player who would serve short to the middle, he'd push it back long to the backhand, and no matter how good the push was, the opponent would step around and forehand loop it. The problem, of course, was that while the push was "good," it was predictable and very loopable. I went over the options with them. Here are ways to improve and vary the push:

  • Make sure any long pushes went very wide to the corners so opponent has to move more.
  • Push quicker off the bounce so as to rush the opponent.
  • Load up the backspin.
  • Long pushes should go as long as possible, to jam the opponent.
  • Aim to the backhand and at the last second quick push to the wide forehand.
  • Aim to the wide forehand and at the last second quick push to the wide backhand.
  • Learn to push the serve back short, so that (given the chance) it would bounce twice, and opponent couldn't loop it.
  • Learn to flip the serve, to the wide backhand, wide forehand, and middle (opponent's elbow).

Omnipong and the US Open & Nationals
I keep hearing rumors about whether or not USATT will continue to use this software at the US Open or Nationals. I think some people might be misunderstanding the scheduling lessons from the last three US Opens and Nationals, where things didn't go well. The problem isn't primarily what's in the current software, which I've used to run about a hundred tournaments - the software works great at that level. (There are a few small issues that would streamline the software, but those are smaller issues.) The problem is the lack of scheduling software or procedures to recover when an event falls behind. Without that, in a tournament with 700 players and dozens of events, it often cascades into other events, and pretty quickly everything falls behind. So what's needed are some additions to the software or procedures. Switching to another software that also lacks this scheduling software or procedures doesn't help; it's just reshuffling the chairs on the Titanic and hoping things magically improve. The reality is the best answer is probably to simply work out procedures for how to deal with these issues so they don't cascade. They were able to do this for nearly every US Open and Nationals going back to the time I started in 1976 (we'll ignore the 1990 and 1994 US Open disasters), since those running those tournaments understood and dealt with the problem in advance.

Table Tennis and Science Fiction - Stop Conflicting!!!
As readers here know, I live in two worlds, the worlds of table tennis and science fiction, which I also write professionally. Last year the World Science Fiction Convention was held 30 minutes from my house, in Washington DC - but at the same time as the US Open Table Tennis Championships in Las Vegas!!! Since I'm committed to coaching our kids at these big tournaments (as well as playing for my own titles - I won Hardbat Doubles for the 14th time and made the final of Hardbat Singles, which I've won twice before) I had to miss the World SF Convention. (And as I always remind people, I'm primarily a sponge player and coach, but play hardbat on the side.)

Well, they've done it again! The 2022 World Science Fiction Convention is in Chicago, Sept. 1-5 - which coincides with the 2022 Global Table Tennis Championships in Orlando, FL, Sept. 1-4!!! Since I'll be coaching at the latter, I'll have to miss another World SF Convention. Meanwhile, they've also scheduled the 2022 Cary Cup Championships in Cary, NC, March 17-20, with the 2022 St. Joseph Valley Open in in South Bend, IN, March 19-20. AAAAAHHHHH! Most of our kids go to the Cary Cup every year, which is driving distance (4.5 hours), while we'd have to fly to Indiana, a nine-hour drive. So I guess it'll be Cary Cup. Alas. (One strange thing - the Cary Cup has $10,000 in prize money and is played in a huge facility with dozens of tables. And yet it's listed as a USATT zero-star tournament, both on the entry form and info, and on the USATT tournament listing! It really should be 4-star, of course, but who knows what's going on.)

Want to Work for Paddle Palace?
Here are two help wanted notices they just put out.

Inside Truls Möregårdh's Run to the World Championship Finals: Interview with Coach Stellan Bengtsson
Here's the interview from Edges and Nets.

Training with Stellan Bengtsson
Here's the video (2:28) from Victor Moraga Table Tennis. If you aren't in awe as you watch Stellan rally or feed multiball, you don't know table tennis history. (He's the 1971 Men's Singles World Champion from Sweden and one of the most celebrated coaches in the world. He now coaches in San Diego.)

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Samson Dubina

Upgrade Your Game The Backhand Flip
Here's the video (15:16) from Seth Pech.

Fan Zhendong's Reverse Serve and Strategy
Here's the video (8:43) from Ti Long.

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

Gym Free Home Workout for Table Tennis
Here's the video (9:21) from Kevin Finn from Peak Performance Table Tennis.

The Most Basic Ping Pong Serve for New Beginners or Recreational Players
Here's the video (1:42) from Matt Hetherington.

New from Coach Jon

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from Steve Hopkins

USATT News

How China’s Ping-Pong Prowess Explains Its Economy
Here's the article by Tom Orlik at Bloomberg.com. Tom is a USATT member with a 2055 rating, and plays at my club, MDTTC. His daughter, Josephine, is part of the MDTTC junior program that I coach at. (Somehow I missed this article when it first came out.)

8 Minutes of Backhand Fireworks from Lin Gaoyuan
Here's the video (8:08) from Street TT.

Jimmy Butler Takes on the 2021 US Open Women's Doubles Champions
Here's the video (4 min). Nikki Deng also made the final of Women's Singles while teaming up with Amber Lin to win Women's Doubles. Both attend Texas Wesleyan.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

FastPong Featured on BBC
Here's the video (3:33).

Bob The Ping Pong Hitman Funniest Match
Here's the video (2:59)!

Toddler on Table Pong
Here's the video (18 sec)!

Funny Table Tennis Fails
Here's the video (7 sec)! Yes, that's former world #1 Xu Xin of China looking like an acrobatic basement player.

Ping-Pong Funny Moment
Here's the video (26 sec) from Matt Hetherington (far side). US #1 13-year-old Stanley Hsu's reaction is hilarious!

Trick Shots
Here's the video (24 sec)!

Adam vs. USA Top Chopper
Here's the video (14:28) from Adam Bobrow. The chopper is the entertaining Kazuyuki "Kaz" Yokoyama, currently rated 2298 but once as high as 2563.

Cat Pong
Here's the video (9 sec) - this cat's pretty good! It's been a while since I've linked to a cat table tennis video, but this one seems a new one.

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January 24, 2022

Tip of the Week
Focus on the Next Point.

Weekend Coaching
Had a pretty busy weekend coaching group sessions with my fellow coaches, Wang Qingliang and Lidney Castro. (Cheng Yinghua and Jack Huang were also there, but doing private coaching.) I had an interesting experience on Sunday. I was only scheduled to coaching one session that day, 12:00-1:30 PM. Afterwards, I went to Panera's to do some writing. I left my playing bag in the trunk of my car. It was cold out, below freezing. At 3:40PM I got a text from Wang, asking if I could come in at 4PM. The problem was that my racket was now ice cold! What did I do? I cranked the heat on full blast while driving back to the club, and held my racket in front of it most of the way! I roasted both sides, and the racket was nice and toasty by the time I got to the club. (A cold racket plays dead.)

I had an interesting thought. A good coach should be able to name every player's shoes at the end of a session! Okay, not really, since he's not paying attention to that specifically, but we do spend much of our time just watching players' feet to make sure they are moving and moving properly. After thinking about this, I started to notice all the different shoe types and colors. One good thing - there were about 20 kids in the session I was coaching at the time, and every one of them had on table tennis shoes.

Some things I focused a lot on include:

  • Keep the ball to wide angles. If you do this in practice, you'll do it in games. Some of the players were letting their balls wander in to the middle backhand or middle forehand, which makes things easy for the opponent. Go to the very wide corners on every shot unless you are going for the middle (opponent's playing elbow).
  • I reminded several of the kids that you NEVER have to decide whether to move. You only decide where and how far. (Maybe once in a hundred shots you move zero inches, but the key is that you are prepared to move, whether it's an inch or five feet.
  • A spinny serve that misses in practice is better than a weak serve that's consistent. The latter is just practicing bad serves, while you can learn to keep a spinny serve on the table.

How to Teach Beginning Kids
The question came up on Facebook, and so I wrote the following (with a few minor edits). Here's the process I've used for decades with younger beginning kids. 

  • Make sure they have a good grip. A bad grip is like twisting a rubber band - it warps everything.
  • Do some ball bouncing on the paddle, to develop hand-eye coordination and control.
  • Shadow practice the shot to be learned, so they can learn the strokes without also trying to hit the ball.
  • Then move to multiball and robot play. Put the ball in the same place over and over and they'll quickly be able to hit it on the table, even as young as age five. (Their arm muscles will tire quickly on backhand, so go back and forth.) 
  • Put targets on the table. Watch their eyes light up as they try to hit them. While they are having fun, they are learning the strokes, timing, and ball control. I often use Froggy and water bottles.

I also like to finish sessions with beginning kids by asking if they like to build things ("Yes!") and asking if they like to destroy things ("YES!"). Then I have them stack paper cups into pyramids and walls, and they take turns knocking them down as I feed multiball. 

Some of the current top junior stars who started out in my beginning classes or in my summer camp groups include Stanley Hsu (13, 2400), Mu Du (13, 2289), and Ryan Lin (12, 2216), and many others from the past. 

Butterfly Training Tips

JOOLA Coaching Videos
Here's the page.

Learn the Basic Backhand Drive Table Tennis Technique
Here's the video (1:22) from Matt Hetherington.

New from Ping Sunday/EmRatThich

New from Samson Dubina

How to Play Backhand Drive for Beginners
Here's the video (5:06) from Reynald Table Tennis.

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

Ask the Coach
Here's the latest questions for PingSkills.

Training Experience in Taiwan
Here's the article by Darryl Tsao.

Houston/World Championship Report
Here's the article by Sally Moyland.

Sean O'Neill in Action, 1978 to Present
Here's the video (4:12) by Jim Butler.

Samson Dubina Table Tennis Academy on TV
Here's the video (9:43) from FOX 8 News.

Ping-Pong Diplomacy Player Discusses Significance of Sports Exchange
Here's the video (3:20) featuring Judy Hoarfrost, a member of the US Team during Ping-Pong Diplomacy in 1971-72.

New from Coach Jon

New from USATT

  • Updated Contact Information for USATT National Headquarters. "USA Table Tennis has relocated its National Headquarters office to the US Olympic & Paralympic Sport House in Colorado Springs, Colorado."
  • Marguerite Cheung of Austin, Texas, Named USATT Volunteer of the Year. "Here's what I wrote about Marguerite in my Dec. 29 blog about the US Open: "However, when problems arise, sometimes a hero emerges. In this case, it was experienced volunteer Marguerite Cheung at the control desk. Many of the volunteers at the control desk were inexperienced, and when things fell behind, they weren't sure what to do. Marguerite is an experienced tournament director, and when things fell behind, she was the one who basically started getting matches out, calling them individually on the loudspeaker. I watched, and she was doing the work of about five others. I told her that, if not for her, instead of four hours behind it would have been eight! (This is not to disparage others, who also worked hard, including some experienced ones. But Marguerite was like Wonder Woman this tournament.)"
  • USATT Announces the ‘Everyone In’ Umpire Development Program. (This went in late in last week's blog.) One thing I don't get - it says the program encourages everyone to be an umpire "Regardless of Age...." But then it says it's "targeting all genders under age 40."

New from Steve Hopkins

WTTC Interviews

ITTF News

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Come-Back Serve and Cup Smash
Here's the video (41 sec)!

Bob The Ping Pong Hitman
Here's the video (3 min)!

Great Point with Unbelievable Ending
Here's the video (29 sec)!

Wanna Buy a $7000 Ping-Pong Table?
Here you go - with some as cheap as $5115!

Wanna Buy Some Interesting Table Tennis Posters?
Here's the Zazzle page! (No, I don't get any percentage from this!)

The Founding Fathers Were Clear, You Must Win By Two
Here's the cartoon!

You're Not Taking This Policy Meeting Seriously Enough
Here's the cartoon!

I Wish This Game Gave Me Some Opportunity for Cardio
Here's the cartoon!

***
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January 17, 2022

Tip of the Week
The Most Important Reason for a Match Coach.

Junior Ratings and Rankings
One of my pet peeves is when the junior rankings include non-juniors because of database mistakes. I don't blame USATT or others for this, but I do like to see them fixed up. When I find them, I periodically email USATT to let them know, and they always fix them up. I emailed about a number of new ones on Dec. 27, and I'm sure they'll fix them up soon. But until then, here's what you find if you do an age search - and what sponsors see when considering sponsoring a junior player. (These mistakes often happen when players or tournament directors mistakenly put in the current date for DOB.) 

Let's start by going to the USATT Ratings page, and click on Browse Individual Ratings. Set Citizenship to USA. Set Gender to Male (for now). Set Max Age to 13. The click on Search. I like this listing - it includes Stanley Hsu, Mu Du, Ryan Lin, and Winston Wu (ranked #1, 5, 6, 12), all from my club. But wait . . . what's Hiep Tran (2136) doing at #8? I know him - he's 50 years old and has played USATT tournaments since 1998!!! (So move Winston up to #11, and everyone else below Hiep moves up a spot.) But how far does this go down?

ADDENDUM: USATT has acted on some of these. Hiep Tran and some of the others below no longer appear. 

Let's set Max Age to 12. Hiep is now #4 in the country! (Take him out, and Ryan and Winston are #2 and #5. Patryk Zyworonek turns 13 in February, Charles Shen in April, after which they move up to #1 and #3 - with Winston one point behind Kef Noorani.)

Let's set Max Age to 11. Hiep, it took you five decades, but you are now #1 in the country in Under 11!!! But wait a minute - who is this Wesley Pritchett at #3? He's been playing USATT tournaments since 2012, about the year he supposedly was born!!! (Kef, you are sandwiched by old guys.) So he's not eligible either. Neither is #7, Dmitri Greydinger, who has been playing tournaments since 1995.

Let's set Max Age to 10. Now Hiep, Wesley, and Dmitri are #1, 2, and 4 in the country.

Let's set Max Age to 9. Now Hiep, Wesley, and Dmitri are #1, 2, and 3. #4 is Norman Lehr, whose first rating was 1165 in 2015 when he would have been about two. #5 is Robert Gabay, who has been playing tournaments since 2012. (His first tournament was the 2012 MDTTC October Open, which I ran almost ten years ago.) So the top five boys in the country for Under 9 are all well over age 9.

Let's jump down Max Age at 5. We get five players - Wesley, Dmitri, Norman, Robert, and a new player, Mark Yelavich, who has been playing tournaments since 2010, about seven years before he was apparently born.

Let's do one more test, keeping Max Age at 5. Go back to the top and change Citizenship to Any Country, and set Gender to Any. Click Search. Now we get 21 players, all supposedly under age five, with ratings ranging up to (gulp) 2622!!! (Others have ratings of 2426, 2057, 1952, 1927, and so on.) China may be the best in the world, but USA dominates among four-year-olds!!!

Hopefully USATT will fix these soon.

Weekend Coaching
I somehow injured my foot while walking down stairs a few days ago. So, on Saturday, I was hobbling about, wearing running shoes for support instead of my usual table tennis shoes. I spent most of each session feeding multiball, which was tricky, since in my running shoes I'm an inch taller and it throws off my control built up from 40+ years of feeding multiball. But I adjusted, and did a wide variety of drills with a multitude of kids. And then the snow came, and the Sunday sessions were cancelled.

University of Maryland Fundraising for the Nationals NCTTA Championship
Here's the GoFundMe page. "We are in need of funds to travel to Round-Rock, Austin, Texas during late March-early April 2022 to compete in the NCTTA National Championship."

USATT News

Aruna Quadri vs Kanak Jha | German League 2022
Here's the video (5:47).

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Samson Dubina

Learn the Basic Forehand Drive Table Tennis Technique
Here's the video (1:44) from Matt Hetherington.

Table Tennis Psychology Guide
Here's the guide from Table Tennis Top.

Push or Flick?
Here's the article and videos from Tom Lodziak.

Force, Friction, and Table Tennis
Here's the video (6:10) from Coach Jon. "Every shot is a combination of force and friction. Getting the right ratio is a key to consistency."

4 Steps with Dimitrij Ovtcharov to Learn the World's Best Tomahawk Serve
Here's the video (4:14).

How to Win Against ANY opponent - Weakness of EVERYONE
Here are the videos from Geoffrey Cheng.

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

New from Ping Sunday/EmRatThich

VLOG - German Cup Finals 2022
Here's the vlog (5:24) from Timo Boll.

Ask the Coach
Here's the latest questions for PingSkills.

Off-Table Backhand Sidespin Counterloops
Here's the video (9 sec) - why aren't you practicing this?

A Good Group Warmup Exercise?
Here's the video (39 sec).

NCTTA Singles Registration is OPEN!
Here's the info page from the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association.

WTTC Interviews

Princeton Pong January Open Post-Finals Match Interview With Nigerian Team's Ojo Onaolapo
Here's the video (11:41). See also Aditya Sareen and Ojo Onaolapo dominate at Princeton Pong 2022 January Open.

New from Steve Hopkins

New ITTF President Sörling Lays Out Sustainability Vision
Here's the article.

ITTF News

New from Table Tennis Central

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

U.S. Open Highlights with Rachel Wang
Here's the video (1:49). She is a member of the US Under 15 Girls' Team.

Why A Professor Plays Table Tennis
Here's the video (4:34). The video features Dr. Howard Lasnik, a linguistic professor at the University of Maryland, who is asked why he chose table tennis over other sports.

What Ping-Pong Taught Me About Life
Here's the video (12:33) featuring Pico Iyer of England.

Never Give Up - and This Year's Luckiest Shot?
Here's the video (27 sec)!

Can You Succeed in the Table Tennis Challenge?
Here's the video (23 sec) - pie in the face if you miss!

Tongue Pong?
Here's the video (20 sec)!

A Year of a Ping Pong Channel
Here's the video (11:31) from Adam Bobrow!

Non-Table Tennis - Part 2 of Odyssey Interview and Another Science Fiction Story Sale
I was interviewed recently about my science fiction writing by the Odyssey Writing Workshop. I linked to Part 1 last week (which included my "Twenty-Point Short Story Writing System"). Here's Part 2, where I talk about how I came to write a recent story, challenges faced in writing SF, and my biggest weaknesses as an SF writer.

I sold another science fiction story yesterday, "Death Message" to Martian Magazine - where prisoners in a ship use the deadliest form of communication to send a message. It's my 125th short story sale, plus an even 40 resales and four novels. It's also my fifth sale in six weeks, so I'm on a pretty good run. (One strange thing - I'm sometimes asked how much I pay to get these published! It's the other way around - I get paid by magazines for these stories. How much depends on the magazine and the length of the story. Some payments are rather low, but most range from $50 to $500, with my highest payment for a story $1000.)

***
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January 10, 2022

Tip of the Week
Take the Weird Styles Pledge.

Serving Tactics
One of the things you learn as you play more - assuming you are a student of the game - is to get a feel for what serves work at what times. Someone asked me about this, and I used as an example two serves at a key moment in an international match I recently coached at the America's Hopes in Cuenca, Ecuador. I was coaching Ryan Lin, who was the top-rated 11-year-old in the country at the time. (He's 2176 and recently turned 12.) I will call the other player "Doe." Doe was also the best of his age from his country and was rated/seeded higher. At 8-8 in the fifth, with Ryan serving, I called a timeout, both so Ryan could relax and clear his mind, and to discuss what two serves to use. (I initially wrote this calling Ryan as "John," but he and his father said I could go ahead and use his name.) 

Doe had been a bit passive on his backhand receive, and Ryan and I both agreed we should start out with a slightly long dead ball to the backhand. If Doe pushed or spun it soft, as we expected, Ryan would jump on it. The problem was, what to do for the second serve? If you go long again, Doe would likely jump on it, and he'd been dropping Ryan's short serves back effectively. What to do? Since there weren't any other great options, we decided the second serve would be short no-spin to the middle. This cuts off the angles, and by going no-spin, it's a bit trickier to drop short than backspin. And yet, I wasn't too comfortable with the call - I was pretty sure Doe would drop it short, and Ryan would lose the serve advantage. (The key problem here was Doe's return of serve was very good.)

Ryan goes back and does the deep dead ball - and Doe softly spins it off. Ryan now leads 9-8 - and alarms go off in my head. Years of experience tell me that Doe is playing cautious, lifting the ball softly. What does this mean? It means that if we give him another long serve, he'll likely lift it as well. That means no backspin serves. And he'd likely adjust if we give him another slightly long dead ball. But if we serve side-top slightly long, his natural instinct might be to lift it off - except at this point, he's seen all of Ryan's normal serves, and would likely adjust. And then a flashbulb goes off in my head - it's time for Ryan to bring out his not-that-good-yet backhand serve! (It's since improved.) He was just starting to work on it, and didn't have much variation - it was mostly a slightly long side-top. But the two key things were 1) it was side-top, and 2) Doe hadn't seen it. What did the latter mean? It meant that, while the serve itself might not fool him, the very fact that it was new would likely get him to fall into his natural tendency, which at this point was to lift the ball. And if he did that, he'd likely go off.

If Ryan were on my side of the table, he'd have probably served the short no-spin serve, and Doe likely would have dropped it short. But he was on the far side, facing me, with Doe's back to me. So I waved my arm to get his attention, and did a backhand serve motion. Ryan saw it, stared for a second, then nodded. He did his backhand for the first time in the match - and sure enough, Doe softly spun it off! (I was incredibly nervous as Ryan served - imagine if Doe had looped that serve in!) Even if the ball had hit, it was a soft return and Ryan was ready to rip it. Up 10-8, Ryan won the next point to win 11-8 in the fifth.

A key thing here is that we didn't call timeout until 8-all in the fifth. Why? Because Ryan, even though only eleven, was already an experienced veteran, and with coaches regularly talking to him about serve selection and tactics, he pretty much knew what serves and tactics to use throughout, though we did discuss them between games. (It's always a threshold moment when an up-and-coming junior begins to really understand these things and learns to play consistently smart - and can even discuss the tactics afterwards.)

Weekend Coaching
After a few weeks' break, we started up the new training season this past weekend. For me, it was an extremely multiball-heavy weekend as I fed balls to seemingly every player in the club. Since some had been off for a few weeks, I focused on fundamental skills, especially with the lower-rated players. One focus - I kept harping with several players about having "active feet" - too often they just stood there, and only moved if they had to. The key is to always move - even if it's an inch. Even if you don't have to move at all, you should start to move (with a light flexing of the knees), as it's much quicker to start to move and then see where to move, than to wait to see if you have to move, and then start the process late. I also worked with a chopper, with various topspin feeds to work on his fundamental chopping skills.

Sports Mask
A few days ago I ordered a special "sports mask," designed for sports in this age of Covid. It was supposed to make breathing easier. The problem was - it did so by having essentially giving no Covid protection! It was basically a thin mesh, one layer, with holes noticeably large enough to see, and easy to breath through. From a few feet away, it looked like a normal mask for use against Covid, but as protection against spreading Covid, it was useless. I'm not going to provide the link as there might be some tempted to order them just for show!

USATT Five-Star Tournament Task Force
As noted previously blog, here's the USATT news item on this. They met this past week on Tues and Wed nights. I keep thinking I dodged a bullet here. Since I'm pretty experienced in these matters - I've run 203 USATT tournaments and did operations/scheduling for two US Opens with Donna Sakai - I'm a bit surprised I wasn't asked to serve on the task force. Not only would I have good input for them, but it would have been smart on USATT's part. I've criticized them a lot for what happened at the US Open - and what better way to both silence me and perhaps improve the Open then by putting me on the task force? But since I'm not on it, I'll stay out of it, and just wait and see if they fix the problems when the Nationals come up in July. Why did I dodge a bullet? Because this is the type of thing where, if I'd been asked initially, I'd have felt obligated to join in, since I'd written so much about the problems. And if I had been on the task force, I would have been all in, and would have put in a LOT of time and effort on it. Instead, I can put all that time and effort into other things. So I did dodge a bullet. (No, I'm not interested in being added now - that time has passed.)

USATT Announces Coaching Staff

Stanley Hsu's Forehand & Footwork
Here's the video (19 sec). Note the crossover step to cover the wide forehand, and the fast recovery. (Stanley is #1 in the US in 13 and Under. He started out in my beginning class, and (along with other coaches) I still work with him sometimes in group sessions and at tournaments. But I don't beat him anymore!)

Serve Tips No One Tells You
Here's the video (15:10) from Seth Pech. This is a must see!

Basic Shakehand and Traditional Penhold Grip
Here's the video (4:04) from Matt Hetherington. They've also launched a new app: "The JOOLA Infinity App has launched, and in these coming weeks I will be uploading some of the basics series of videos from the platform that I created."

New from Samson Dubina

New Butterfly Training Videos, Commentaries by Brian Pace

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

Two Easy But Effective Drills
Here's the video (9:31) from Coach Jon.

Ask the Coach
Here's the latest questions for PingSkills.

WTTC Interviews Timo Boll
Here's the interview with the world #10 (formerly world #1) from Germany.

WTTC Interviews Adriana Diaz
Here's the interview with the world #17 from Puerto Rico.

US Table-Tennis Player Recounts Pairing with Chinese Team
Here's the article and video (2:48) from the China Daily (in English).

USA Ping Pong Diplomacy USA-China Pairs Practice Match for Worlds
Here's the video (10:41). At the start, that's Lily Zhang and Lin Gaoyuan on the left facing Kanak Jha and Wang Manyu.

Don't FORGET--NCTTA Eligibility
Here's the article from the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association. "Anyone who intends on playing in Regionals must be on this form and have been listed on a roster for the teams that they will play for."

New from Steve Hopkins

2021 US Open
Here's the article by Steve Moreno of Puerto Rico.

ITTF News

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Four Saves and a Rip
Here's the video (14 sec)!

Table Table Tennis?
Here's the video (25 sec)!

Toddler Pong
Here's the video (13 sec) - imagine how good this kid's going to be when he's tall enough to play on a regular table!

Spider-Man vs. Spider-Man
Here's the video (3:59)! Here's an entire page of Spider-Man Table Tennis.

Beetle Bailey - "Are You Ready to Get Clobbered?"
Here's the Beetle Bailey comic from yesterday (Sunday, Jan. 9)! It joins a long line of other Beetle Bailey table tennis comics, which includes an explanation for why there are so many.

Science Fiction and Table Tennis - Interview with Odyssey Graduate Larry Hodges and Other SF Matters
Here's the interview, Part 1, about my science fiction writing. (Part 2 comes out next Monday.) Odyssey is the six-week science fiction & fantasy writing workshop I attended in 2006. I also attend the annual nine-day writing workshops for graduates every July - I've been to twelve of them, including the last nine in a row. I've actually been interviewed in the science fiction world more often than in the table tennis world - see the interview links after my bio.

On my science fiction page, I blogged about my science fiction writing year in review. It includes a listing at the end of my table tennis travels in 2021.

On a related note, I have a rather long science fiction story that was making the rounds, "First Galactic Table Tennis Championships." It's literally the story of just that, as the best table tennis players from around the galaxy all compete at these championships, held in Beijing about 200 years from now. It's full of intrigue and betrayals, and lots of crazy aliens. It's 10,000 words, about 40 pages double-spaced. I think I just sold the story - the editor of a SF magazine I submitted it to just wrote me, "We definitely are interested in this story. As long as it is, I will have to decide which issue it can fit into. I'll be back in touch with you most likely long before the end of October. Thank you for sending it to us!"

***
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January 3, 2022

Tip of the Week
Outcome Versus Process.

The Usual USATT Rundown
Sometimes, when I think about USA Table Tennis, I just want to cry out, "USATT, USATT, USATT!" :) Here's a quick rundown, hopefully the last one for a while, other than general news. But we'll start with the positive. (Skip ahead if not interested in USATT issues.)

=>USATT 2021 Year in Review. Here's the video (17 min).

=>USATT Athlete Elections. USATT First and Second Elite Athlete Elections Certified – Nomination Period for Third and Fourth Athlete Positions Opens.

=>USATT Announces 2021 All-American Honors. Here's the announcement! Three of the players named are from MDTTC and started out with me, and I still work with them in groups sessions and coach at tournaments - Stanley Hsu, Mu Du, and Ryan Lin. (But they work extensively with the rest of the MDTTC staff.) I've also worked with a number of others in camps and tournaments recently in Ecuador and Jordan, and in past USATT camps. Congrats to all! (Interesting note - I've coached or coached against all 17 of the boys, and 11 of the 17 girls.)

=>USATT Board Chair of the Board. Back in February, 2020, Richard Char was elected chair of the USATT Interim Board. The "Permanent" board took office in January, 2021. At that point, there should have been an election for chair of the board since Char had only been elected chair of the Interim board. However - they didn't hold the election. There were complaints about this, including comments some of us remember (such as by Willy Leparulo, president of NCTTA) in the comment section of USATT Board Zoom meetings. Long-time former Rules Chair and International Referee Kagin Lee emailed the board about this on March 28, 2021, saying, "The chair's term expired at the end of 2020 and there should have been an election of a new/renewed chair at the first meeting of the year." While nothing is in writing, I remember it being explained that Char had been appointed to a two-year term, ending in February, 2022, which is next month. When the athlete elections for four board spots began a few weeks ago, this was a key issue - who should be the next chair, with the upcoming election in February. Many of them were not happy in the direction of USATT and might favor a new chair. With four new athlete reps replacing the two current ones (USOPC required the increase), the board was about to change dramatically. So what happened?

On Dec. 6, out of the blue, there was a notice in the USATT Agenda and Notices page that there would be a USATT Board Meeting that night, with election of the Chair of the Board on the agenda. At the meeting, Char admitted that there should have been an election in January, 2021, but said that he "forgot" - that's a direct quote. (Will it be in the minutes? We'll see. I'm guessing no.) So he, the CEO, and the two USATT lawyers all forgot about this, despite reminders at Zoom meetings and Kagin's email, until they were faced with an election that might bring in four athlete reps who might not support them? Okay. There was little time for anyone else to consider running against him or put together any campaign. He ran unopposed and won, I believe 5-2. (Take out the two current athlete reps who voted for him, add in four athlete reps who likely won't, and suddenly it's 3-6. For further perspective, only one of the five who voted for him was actually elected to the board.) They did make his term only through January, 2023, when his term would have ended if they had held the election in January, 2021.

So, what are the odds that they really "forgot" about the election, as opposed to interpreting Char's initial term as a two-year term, but changing that interpretation when it became convenient? You can judge for yourself, but there's no way of reading their minds. But let me quote from the USATT Staff and Volunteers Code of Ethics:

"Recognize that even the appearance of misconduct or impropriety can be very damaging to the reputation of the USATT and act accordingly."

An argument for holding the election as soon as they "remembered" it was that, until they did so, there was no elected board chair. (I won't get into the legality of nearly a year of board meetings without an elected chair, by this new interpretation.) And so, yes, they should have held the belated election as soon as they "remembered" it - but with one catch. Since it was their mistake, then rather than have outgoing board members choose the chair for the incoming board members, and thereby saddle the board with a chair most did not vote for, they should have simply voted for another "interim" chair, through February (and so after the athlete elections), and then hold a new election for chair at that time. Then, whoever wins - whether it be Char or someone else - would truly represent the board. Isn't that what we want?

=>USATT Membership. I keep hearing celebratory talk of USATT having "record membership." They claim membership this past year shot up from 4600 to 8900. That's a good thing! But let's take it in perspective.

  • First, the reason membership was down to 4600 was because of the pandemic. It's normally around 8000 or so.
  • Second, 8900 is not a record. Membership broke 10,000 twice. It did so circa 2005, but then they raised membership rates from $25 to $40, and lost 2500 members in a year. (In 2021 dollars, that's raising the rate from about $36 to $57.)
  • Third, the recent increase is the obvious result from dropping the basic membership rate from $75/year to $25/year, the reverse of what they did in 2005. In 2005, IMHO they raised it too much too quickly; this time, again IMHO, they dropped it way too much. The result is that to get the same revenue at $25/year as $75/year they need triple the membership. Perhaps $40 to $50/year would be a good number for basic membership.

=>"Discussions" with Virginia. At the US Open, as I walked out of the playing hall and down the hallway back to the hotel, I was confronted by USATT CEO Virginia Sung on several issues. (This was in a public place, witnessed by one board member who listened in and numerous others who walked by, with neither of us saying it was off the record, so there's no expectation of privacy here.) I'm still debating whether to give the blow-by-blow - but much of it would end up being my word vs. hers.

It all started with her again claiming she wasn't "involved" in the High Performance Committee's change of the Selection Rules, a big issue from a year or so back. She had called me on the phone and convinced me to take out that mention in my blog, saying it wasn't true, that she hadn't been involved in it, and talked me into doing so, despite two people telling me she had. As it turned out, she had argued for it in a Zoom meeting and in an email to the HPC, and after the 3-2 vote, one of the members even emailed that Virginia had convinced her to change her vote - so she was heavily involved, as my initial blog said, and as I wrote in the following blog once I had more info. (I also made a mistake - I thought the video of Virginia arguing for the change was at the meeting where they took the vote, but it was at a different meeting. But that doesn't change the substance of the argument.) She now says that when she said she wasn't "involved," she meant she hadn't voted on it - but of course she didn't vote for it, since she's not on the HPC, but my blog never said she voted on it, only that she was very involved, which she was. (Involved: "having a part in something; actively participating in something.")

She also insisted that she had no choice but to get involved in the HPC's discussions on this, that she is required by the USATT Bylaws to do so - and she was surprised, even scornful that I didn't know this. I looked this up in the Bylaws, and later went back to her and pointed out this wasn't true - see pages 33 (Section 9.16. High Performance Committee and Para High Performance Committee) and 45 (ARTICLE XIV CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER). The closest thing is the HPC is required to make recommendations to the CEO, not the other way around. When I pointed this out to her, she quickly changed to saying she felt that, as CEO, she should get involved - which was completely different from what she had been arguing before. (But as I wrote last week, I'd rather a CEO who focuses on the big picture and on raising money, and stays out of these issues.)

We discussed other issues - some covered in my previous blog - but I don't think it's going to accomplish anything giving the blow-by-blow. I really don't like writing about these types of USATT issues. Anyone want to talk about ball placement? :)

=>US Open. In my blog last week, I wrote about the problems with the US Open. In the following days I did some updates. The number of confirmed Covid cases is now at 31 (though of course there are actually far more, as these are just those who were tested and who announced they were positive); I added a long paragraph under "Scheduling" on how to stop the cascading effect; and added two segments, "Loudspeaker" and "Event Finishing Day."

=>USATT Youth Trials Petition. This morning I was sent the 2022 Junior Trials Petition. When it was sent to me, I did make a few editorial suggestions, but I didn't originate the petition, nor did I see or know about it until this morning. When I got the final copy, I put it online on my own. The petition pretty much speaks for itself - it's unfair that both of the US Junior Team Trials are held in the same area on one coast. IMHO, it would be better to have an annual trials at the US Nationals in July, when kids are out of school and almost all at the Nationals anyway. The petition is in response to the USATT news item of a few days ago, USATT Announces Dates and Locations for 2022 US National Youth Team Trials. If you agree with the petition, then I'm told you should send it to the USATT Board of Directors, the CEO and HPD, and to admin@usatt.org.

I'm sure there are arguments for having them this way - but as usual, USATT doesn’t communicate these things as they communicate at the 1000 level. I heard they plan a USATT training camp between the two, for example, but somehow they left that out of the news item. Or perhaps they only hope to run one, and so aren't committing yet. I don't know.  We shouldn't have to ask USATT about these things - they should be telling us. Regardless, I don't think the benefits outweigh the arguments against, as noted in the petition - including the Covid problem. That's a long, expensive 11-day trip to the west coast, with lots of missed school, plus the COVID problem just recently got much worse. (31 known cases from the US Open, and that's likely just the tip of the iceberg.)  

UPDATE - USATT has delayed the Youth Trials due to Covid. 

Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips
Here are the first three books in the series:

Notice a pattern? Tentatively, the next two will be "Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips" and "And Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips." One big change - the first three volumes had 150 tips each, but I'm switching over to 100 tips per book. (The Tips are compiled from my weekly Tip of the Week, but put in order by topic.)

I thought the next volume would be out this month, but I made a silly mistake. When I do a tip, I put it into a master volume, with a # after each tip. When I want to know how many tips I've done, I just do a count of the #'s. I reached 100 a couple weeks ago - or so I thought. Then I discovered that one tip mentioned a number of world-ranked players with their ranking, and so had 16 #'s in the tip, plus it was used two other times. So there were 18 #'s in the tips themselves, meaning I only had 82 tips!!! I should hit 100 tips on May 2, and the next volume should then come out soon afterwards.

Books I Read in 2021
Here's the listing. I ended up with one book per week, at 52. It was a wide range - 21 fiction, 9 science, 13 history, 4 sports psychology, 3 writing, and but only 2 on table tennis. I have a small stack of table tennis books that came out the last two years - I should probably read them this year. But the 52 is a "down" year for me - I usually read more. For comparison, the previous four years, 2017-2020, I read 57, 84 (!), 68, and 67 books. I think I did too many crossword puzzles this year. (Plus I did a lot of science fiction writing.)

New Butterfly Training Videos

New from Samson Dubina

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

New from Ti Long

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

Ask the Coach
Here's the PingSkills page.

Is Table Tennis Defense Dead?
Here's the video (9:13) from Coach Jon.

New from Steve Hopkins

2021 U.S. Open – U15 Girls Teams
Here's the article by Isabella Xu.

ITTF News
Here's their news page, video page ("World Table Tennis") and home page.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Ma Long Guides Children to Play Table Tennis in Macau
Here's the video (2:12).

2021 Table Tennis Rewind
Here's the video (12 min) from Table Tennis Media.

Certified Ping Pong Champ
Here's the video (9:15)!

Table Tennis Battle
Here's the dramatic video (1:43) from PingSunday/EmRatThich!

Double-Edge Serve
Here's the video (20 sec) from Table Tennis World!

Table Tennis, Archery, and Blondie
Here's the cartoon!

You Want a Pong Shirt?
This is my Ping Pong Shirt!

Non-Table Tennis - Another Fiction Sale
Yesterday I sold another story, "Soul Testing in Major League Baseball," to Daily Science Fiction. Forget steroids - what happens when major league baseball players sell their souls illegally to Satan to become stars? Finding ways to test for souls leads to an ever-escalating battle between players and Major League Baseball. It's my 124th short story sale and second sale to Daily SF.

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