Ball Madness
There used to be a debate about whether there really was a difference between Nittaku and a Butterfly 3-star balls. But there really wasn’t a serious debate – every top player and coach knew that the Butterfly ball was slightly lighter than the Nittaku. The real debate was whether the difference was enough that you’d want to train with the ball to be used in your next tournament. I was firmly on the side of using that ball, since even a very slight difference made a difference to your timing – but the difference was so small that it was more psychological, where you wanted to use the same ball so that you’d know that it would play the same.

That were the good old days of celluloid, when the difference in balls was so small as to be almost a non-issue. These days, with the ITTF’s rush to adopt plastic balls, and with every tournament I know of now using them, you have to adjust to many different types of balls, and unlike before, the differences are much larger.

I’ve taken to buying a dozen or more of each major type that’s used in tournaments, plus of course we have three types of training balls at the club – the old celluloid ones, plus two types of Butterfly training balls. Keeping them separate is like cooking chili and then trying to separate the ingredients afterwards. So here’s my current ball situation.

Big Tournaments are Like a Month of Training
I’ve pointed this out in past blogs (not recently), and it really is true – if you play in a big tournament, where you are playing intense matches all day long for two or more days, when it’s done it’s like you’ve been training for a month.

The huge tragedy here is that the best time to play a tournament is when you are at your best – which is usually right at the end of the big tournament you just played in. Which is why it’s sometimes best to schedule several tournaments in a row, or at least in close proximity. (This can be taken to an extreme. I once played tournaments nine consecutive weekends. At the end I had my highest rating of my life.)  

Think about it. Imagine yourself the last time you played a tournament (assuming you have), where you played lots of matches. Didn’t you most often play your best near the end, at least until and if you got too tired to play well? Isn’t that the way you want to play at your next tournament?

That type of play doesn’t go instantly go away. When you hit that high level after lots of matches at a tournament, it stays with you for a time. Make sure to play some that week to keep your touch, and guess what? The following weekend, with a proper warm-up, you’ll likely pick up right where you left off the previous weekend, when you were at your best near the end. It doesn’t always work, but it works this way the majority of the time.

A lot of locals played in the North American Teams this past weekend. By the third day many had hit breakthroughs and were playing the best they’d ever played, except of course where exhaustion took over. But the exhaustion goes away soon, while the level of play reached does not. So many of the smart ones are now looking to follow this up at other tournaments, whether local (there’s one at the Washington DC TTC next weekend) or at the U.S. Open in December.

Rules Questions at the Teams
A number of rules questions and issues came up at the North American Teams this past weekend. Here’s a rundown. (I coached two junior teams during the tournament, one with four players, and one with three.)

Tip of the Week
The Non-Playing Arm.

JOOLA North American Teams
I spent all day Fri, Sat, and Sun at the Teams in Washington DC, coaching two junior teams from MDTTC. It was my 42nd consecutive year at the Teams, starting in 1976 when I was 16. That year I played with Mike Shapiro and Jackie Heyman. The next year I played with Jim Mossberg and Mort Greenberg (and I think someone else – can’t remember) – and both of them were in action at the teams this year! Most of those years I played, but in recent years I’ve just coached.

Here are complete results. There were 963 players on 238 teams on roughly a zillion tables. Because I was busy coaching the whole time, I didn’t get to see any of the big matches, but here’s the excellent article on the tournament by Matt Hetherington, ASV Grunwettersbach Top the Field in World Class JOOLA Team Championships, with a link to a video of the final. Matt also created a “High-Speed Tour” of the tournament (35 sec)!

As usual, there were lots and lots of tactical things going on. I could write about this for hours. Here are just a few.

Off Until Tuesday, Nov. 28
I’m off tomorrow (Thanksgiving), and then I’ll be coaching at the JOOLA North American Teams (Fri-Sun, 960 players on 238 teams), and taking a rest day on Monday, though I'll likely put the Tip of the Week up that day, since it's already written. (Here’s the USATT page where you can livestream the Friday Bundesliga match on Friday, starting 1PM – see segment below – and here’s the USATT article.) Have a Happy Thanksgiving, and see you next Tuesday!

New ITTF World Tour Standings
Here are the new World Tour Standings, using the new ITTF ranking list. This is the new ITTF ranking system that will take over on Jan. 1, 2018, from the current ITTF ranking system; here is the ITTF explanation. The biggest difference is that the new system takes participation into account, so that a player who plays many ITTF events will tend to get a higher ranking than one who does not – and often higher than a less active stronger player as well. The main advantage of this is that it gives incentive to play more ITTF events. The disadvantage is that it is less accurate overall.

Off Day
Alas, I was up late last night on a project, and woke up exhausted and with a headache that feels like a 40+ steel ping-pong ball bouncing around inside my head. So I’m taking the day off from blogging. (No coaching scheduled today.) I’ll be back tomorrow with a double-sized blog. Meanwhile, here’s the best picture I’ve ever seen of a buck playing table tennis with a ram. (At least I think that’s a ram on the near side based on its rounded horns. But does a ram have a tail like that?) 

Tip of the Week
Three Simple Side-to-Side Drills. You might also want to revisit the article I linked to recently from Expert Table Tennis, 3 Basic Footwork Drills for Intermediate Table Tennis Players, which includes video.

Another Busy Weekend
Here’s a rundown.

Three Examples of Why Table Tennis is So Mental
I did three hours of private coaching last night, and all three featured the mental side of table tennis.

To Dream the Impossible Dream
I’ve always thought that this should be the national anthem of table tennis. After all, aren’t we all dreaming of beating that unbeatable foe, and achieving that impossible dream of being a champion? And of course, along the way there are those bad losses, leading to unbearable sorrow? But if you want to be a champion, you have to face that and go where the brave dare not go.

Here’s the version (8:50), perhaps the most classic (or at least the most views on Youtube at over 3.2 million), from the 1972 movie “Man of La Mancha,” sung by Peter O’Toole. (Yes, the same O’Toole who, ten years before, was Lawrence of Arabia.)

NOTE - I've been advised by John Olsen that the truly iconic version is actually by Richard Kiley in the Broadway musical. Here is Kiley singing it at the 1972 Tony Awards (2:39). Listening to it, I think he's right. 

Tidbits