Regional Team Leagues and State Championships
Want to play in a Regional Team League? Or a State Championship? If there already are ones in your state, then you're all set! But if not, we need your help, either in organizing them, or talking to club leaders about doing so. (Sometime next week I'm sending an email to all USATT clubs on this, somewhat similar to the below, as the USATT League Committee Chair and a member of the Board of Directors. USATT CEO Gordon Kaye has been a great help in all of this, and instigated the State Championships initiative.)

Here is a listing of Regional Team Leagues currently in operation – email me if I'm missing any.

• Austin Texas League
• Capital Area League (DC area)
• Chicago League
• Denver League
• Genesee Valley League (Rochester, NY)
• LA League
• NY League

Here's a listing of State Championships held in 2015 (with the assumption that most will have similar championships in 2016). So far 2016 State Championships (or State Games) have been sanctioned in AL, AR, AZ, CA, FL, IN, MN, MO, NY, OK, PA, VA, and WI. (I plan to run ones in Maryland, tentatively June 25-26.)

Winning with the Tomahawk Serve
Here's a video (2:12) where Samson Dubina demonstrates the Tomahawk serve. He first demonstrates the sidespin version, then the side-backspin, and finally (92 seconds in) the sidespin-topspin version - which is the focus of what I'll be writing below. This brought back an interesting memory of the second player I ever beat in a tournament rated over 2000 - and shows the value of developing multiple serves and techniques, since you never know what will work against specific opponents. 

It was 1979 (or was it 1879? I'm getting old...), when I was 19 years old. I was a late starter at age 16, and at this point I was about 1850. I'd actually broken 1900 with a high of 1954 as an almost pure forehand hitter, but I was reworking my game by looping more, and so had dropped a bit. The only 2000+ player I'd beaten in a tournament at this point was Herb Horton, a 2002 chopper with antispin rubber on both sides, who'd graciously been playing me since I was a beginner, and so I was used to his game. (I felt bad about beating him when I was around 1800 since I only did so because of the many times he'd played me!)

Shadow Practice
This is one of the most under-used ways of training – practicing a stroke without the ball. If you want to perfect a movement (i.e. a new stroke), don't try to do so while also trying to contort the movement so that you can also hit a little white ball that's moving and spinning – not until you've got the movement down. Otherwise, since the correct movement is not yet ingrained, you'll end up changing the movement to react to the ball. So it's important to first get the movement down.

Once you do have the movement down, that doesn't mean you are done with shadow practice. Shadow practice allows you to hone the movement as well as practice strokes and footwork together. They are also good for physical training.

Here's a whole class shadow practicing (6:42), with Lily Yip and then Judy Hugh feeding multiball to one player while seven others mimic the strokes, rotating in when it's their turn. (See "11 Questions with Judy Hugh" below.) I used to do this in my classes, and think I will start it up again.

The topic of shadow practice has come up quite a bit recently, in private coaching, classes I teach, and via email. So here are three Tips on the subject.

Tip of the Week
Move Those Feet. This is a slightly rewritten version of a blog I did last week – but I put a note then that it would likely become a Tip of the Week, and here it is! This way it'll be included with all the other Tips of the Week, both for browsing and for upcoming compilations into books – "More Table Tennis Tips," comes out early in 2017. It'll be a sequel to Table Tennis Tips. While you can just read the Tips online as they come out, both volumes put the Tips in logical order of progression, and compile them together for easy reading.

Coaching a Seven-Year-Old
Here's what you need to know – 14 dos and don'ts. I have a new kid I've been working with, and this is pretty much a checklist.

Every four years on February 29 the Leap Year Bull Frog makes his rounds, delivering pogo sticks, trampolines, and pole vaulting poles to deserving boys and girls all over the world. On this solumn occasion advocates of the ancient religion of Leapianity spend their days in quiet contemplation of future leaps. As a deeply religious Leapian, I will spend my day visualizing many leaping smashes against lobs, along with attacking a todo list that is longer than the magical Leap Day Bull Frog can jump. (I hope that's not sacrilegious.) So no blog today. Back tomorrow, along with the Tip of the Week!

However, it wouldn't be Leapian of me to leave you with nothing on this holiday, so why not follow the World Team Championships, taking place right now in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia? 

Regional Leagues, Capital Area League Finals, Results, and the New Season
Let's start with what's probably of greatest interest to you – leagues in your area. Want to play in a league? Then why not join one of these?

• Austin Texas League
• Capital Area League (DC area)
• Chicago League
• Denver League
• Genesee Valley League (Rochester, NY)
• LA League
• NY League

But what if there isn't one in your area? Then start one! (If you are in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area, now is the time to sign up for the Spring season of the Capital Area League.)

How are team leagues different from tournaments? First, you aren't risking your USATT rating – yay! But second, and more important, you have the fun of playing regularly on a team, with thousands your teammates cheering for you! I blogged about team leagues back on Nov. 24, 2014. Here is the recently created USATT League Page, and the news item on Regional Team Leagues.

Rarely Used Shots
After losing a backspin counter-lobbing point to a student (you heard that right), it got me to thinking about such rarely used shots. So here is a listing of a few of the lesser-used shots that are central to exactly nobody's game - but are fun to try!

Zhang Jike vs. Ri Chol Guk at 2011 Worlds - and an Interesting Banana Flip
Here's an interesting video (4:38), for three reasons. (I first saw it as this Facebook posting.) First, you get to see the best in the world (Zhang Jike) against a player you rarely get to see, Ri Chol Guk from North Korea. (His peak was world #82 in June, 2011, before leaving the world rankings in May, 2012 at #86.) Second, Guk has a conventional penhold backhand (same side for forehand and backhand) rather than the modernistic reverse penhold backhand – a dying breed. And third, see the receive by Zhang at 8-6 in third, where he flips a short serve to his forehand with his backhand. Any video of Zhang and most modern top players will show them using the backhand banana flip to receive many short serves to the forehand, but what's unique is that he flips it inside-out to Guk's wide forehand – for an ace.

It's one of those way under-used shots. Let's examine what's actually happening. Guk serves short to the forehand, giving Zhang an angle into his forehand. Against a normal forehand receive, Guk and other players would automatically guard against that wide angle. But as soon as Zhang reaches in with his backhand, many players – including Guk here – reflexively give up this angle. Watch the video again and see how Guk, as soon as he sees a backhand receive, is already moving to his left (our right), giving up the wide forehand.

Coaching the Candidates
Before the most recent Republican and Democratic Debates, there was a rumor that the moderators would challenge them to showcase their table tennis skills. And so each candidate quietly contacted me about private coaching. Here are my notes on each of these sessions which took place this past week at the Maryland Table Tennis Center.

=>DONALD TRUMP. He wore his customary "Make USATT Great Again" baseball cap. (It fell off once and took his hair with it, but he paid me $1000 not to tell anyone.) As we warmed up, at first I thought he was just really, really slow, but then I asked to examine his racket, and it was made of solid gold and weighed about twenty pounds – and he insisted on using it. I wanted to go over to his side of the table to help him with his technique, but as we rallied several Mexican workers came by and extended the net in both directions into a six-foot barb-wired fence.

The rallies weren't very good as Trump insisted on attacking everything. Way too aggressive. Most of his shots missed, but he claimed they hit, and a bunch of people wearing Trump shirts kept clapping and screaming, "Great shot!" even when they missed by ten feet. I tried to get him to done it down, but he said, "I have the best forehand and backhand in the world. Everybody loves my technique. I have a beautiful game and I'm very rich."

Tip of the Week
Three Tips to Increase Forehand Looping Power.

Move Those Feet – and Meet George Braithwaite
Whether you are 8 or 80, or somewhere in between, moving your feet is a priority. It's something that coaches constantly harp on. Beginning kids often don't find it important, and so you have to drill it into them, and then they quickly pick up on it. Older players often find it difficult because of their age, but while age slows you down, it doesn't stop you from moving your feet – it's simply a habit. An older player who doesn't move fast but still moves his feet is faster than a really fast player who doesn't.

Here is Exhibit A, video of George Brathwaite (12:05) in a training session. George "The Chief" is well into his eighties (here's his Hall of Fame profile), but see how he still moves his feet? That's because he has made it a habit. Let me emphasize this again: Moving the feet is a habit. It has nothing to do with how fast your feet are or how old you are.