Rules Changes I Was Involved In
Yesterday I blogged about rules changes since I started playing in 1976. I also wrote how I was involved or responsible for three, and promised to write about them today. I'll go in reverse order.

1) Paddle Point Rule. Back in 1991 I shared a ride from Maryland to the U.S. Open in Midland, Michigan with Dave Sakai. Along the way we picked up then-USATT president Dan Seemiller in Pittsburgh. During the long drive we discussed the paddle point rule, which a lot of people thought was silly, including all three of us. The rule then was that if an opponent hit the ball off the end but it hit your racket while still in play (i.e. not hitting the floor or something else to end the point), you'd lose the point. The reason for the rule was back in the hardbat era there were many players who blocked so quick off the bounce it was difficult to tell if the ball hit the table first - but in the sponge era, this doesn't happen much.

But many matches were being decided by the paddle point rule, including the Men's Final at a recent Olympic Sports Festival (then a major USATT tournament), where Sean O'Neill was up I believe 20-19 in the fifth match point (games to 21 back then), and smacked a ball off the end for an apparent deuce, but the ball hit Jim Butler's racket, and so Sean won. So right there in the car I got out my steno notebook and wrote a draft of a rule change to rescind the paddle point rule. I gave it to Dan, who gave it to the chair of the Official's Committee (not sure who - Wendell Dillon?), who finalized the language and submitted it to the ITTF, where it was passed.

2) Ball Resting Freely in Palm. Until about ten years ago the service rule said that the ball must be in the flat palm when serving. Nobody actually has a flat palm, of course, so it's a judgment call how flat it must be. Sometime many years ago I began to demonstrate for umpires and referees a serve where I put the ball in the palm of my rather flat palm, asked if it was okay, they'd say yes - and then I'd turn my hand upside down so the ball was underneath my hand, but still in the palm! Anyone can do this by pinching the ball between the base of the thumb and the palm, but that wouldn't really be a flat palm. With some practice (I must have had too much free time) I learned to surreptitiously pinch it right in the middle of the palm, where it wasn't so obvious. I not only could hold it there, but I could shake my hand up and down, palm down, and the ball would stay there!

I demonstrated this to the referees at the Worlds about ten years ago, and challenged them to find anything illegal about it - and they agreed there wasn't anything illegal about it, if the umpire had already judged the palm to be flat. They could retroactively say the palm wasn't completely flat, but that would be unfair since I'd first have them agree my palm was "flat" before turning my hand upside down. A year or so later they changed the rule to "resting freely on the palm."

3) Two-Color Rule. Few active players these days remember what it was like from roughly 1977 to 1983, when there was no two-color rule, and more and more players started using long pips or antispin on one side. Rallies became atrocious where it became incredibly difficult to read the spin on the ball since you couldn't tell what surface was hitting it, and rallies became racket flipping battles where players would struggle to figure out what was on the ball.

The idea was popularized at the 1977 Worlds when two Chinese chopper/loopers made the semifinals using long pips - Liang Geliang and Huang Liang. They constantly flipped their racket, and opponents couldn't see which side they were hitting on, both in rallies and on the serve, and so they absolutely devastated the Europeans. (In the semifinals the story is both were ordered to dump, one to teammate Guo Yuehua, the other to eventual winner Mitsuru Kohno of Japan.) By the early 1980s surveys (including one taken by me) showed that over 80% of U.S. tournament players were using combination rackets, with the large majority of them using long pips or antispin. I was one of the activists to require players to use two colors. I even wrote a poem about it, which was published in USATT Magazine (then called Topics), and which I included in a letter to the ITTF. The ITTF finally began to require two colors in 1983.

Here is the poem:

Little Jack Ding-Dong,
Was Rotten at Ping-Pong,
And he could not figure why.
So he bought some weird rubber,
And beat a top player,
And said, "What a good player am I!"

MDTTC Camp
Yesterday's focus was on the backhand. This week's group seems a bit better on the backhand than the forehand. Can't wait to see if any of them will be ready to backhand loop by Thursday, when we introduce that to the players who we think are ready for it.

I'm having an interesting time with one kid, age 8, who's very shy and won't take part in games. I'm trying to get him to join in with the various target practice games we do at the end of each session with the beginning kids, but he absolutely refuses, seems embarrassed at being a beginner who mostly misses. I'll keep working with him.

Oxford Falls in Love with Table Tennis
Here's the story from Table Tennis Nation about TT mania in Oxford, England. Here's the opening paragraph: "The Oxford City Council in England has recently installed 18 ping pong tables in public areas around the city to get more people involved in our beloved sport. This initiative was funded by Sport England (formerly known as the English Sports Council) with a $23,000 donation to city of Oxford as well as 9 other cities including London, Birmingham and Liverpool."

Six Steps to the Perfect Playlist for Table Tennis Performance (Part 1)
Here's the article, where they even take into account the average rallying pace in finding music that matches that.

Keep Calm & Play Table Tennis
They brought their mini table tennis table with them on a road trip, and here's video (1:18) of the result!

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MDTTC Camps

Another day, another camp. We've been running these five-day camps at MDTTC since 1992. My best estimate is that we've run over 170 of them, and I've been at nearly all of them. That's over 800 days of camp, almost 2.5 years. I've given each of my lectures 170 times, led in stretching (twice a day, except I missed the afternoon session sometimes so I took off 100) about 1500 times, and (I just did some quick calculations) fed about seven million balls in multiball. Yesterday's focus (as it was about 170 previous times on day two) was the backhand. This is in addition to at least 30 other camps (most about five days long) that I'd coached at before we opened MDTTC.

I noticed an interesting dynamic among some of our developing juniors. Compared to other juniors from other programs, I think our juniors tend to have better backhands (especially looping), but less power on the forehand. Our juniors tend to develop more forehand power later in their junior careers. Right now we have several of them who are in slumps as they are trying to loop with more forehand power, which (initially) leads to inconsistency, as well as problems with other aspects of their games. (More focus on the forehand means less focus on other parts of their games, plus if the first loop comes back, they aren't used to the different timing since it often comes back quicker.) The good news is they've chosen good times for this - during the summer, the best time to work on your game since there aren't many tournaments, and they are off school and so can really work on these things. Hopefully by the fall the juniors in question here will have mastered the extra power. (Much of it comes from extra hip rotation.)

Rule Changes

Isn't it amazing how the game has changed since I started playing? Here's a short listing of rule and regulation changes since I started playing in 1976. Two-color rule; paddle point rule rescinded (where you lost the point if your opponent hit the ball off the end but it hit your paddle); six-inch toss; 40mm ball; 11-point games; two consecutive serves instead of five; hidden serves made illegal; aspect ratio rule; frictionless long pips banned; timeouts; ball resting freely in palm of hand (instead of ball in palm of hand) and probably others I haven't thought of.

I was involved or responsible for three of these rule changes - the "ball resting freely in hand" rule (which I caused - wait'll you hear that story, and why the subtle wording change makes a difference!); the rescinding of the paddle point rule; and I was one of the vocal protesters that helped lead to the two-color rule. I'll write about these tomorrow since I'm running out of time and have to coach at the camp this morning.

Question: anyone know where I can find the aspect ratio rule? This is the rule or regulation that restricts the ratio of the height of the pips to the width in pips-out surfaces. Here are the ITTF rules and regulations, but I can't find it there.

Forehand Loop Video

Here's a nice video (4:02) on forehand looping which I don't think I had seen before.

Kunal Chodri

Here's the ITTF article (and picture) on USA's 13-year-old Kunal's exploits at the Korea Junior and Cadet Open, including his upset of top seed Hugo Calderano of Brazil. Alas, he lost in the next round to Park Jeongwoo of Korea.

ITTF Pongcast

Here's the new ITTF Pongcast (12:58), just out yesterday, covering the month of July. "This month the Pongcast reviews the 4 ITTF events that happened across the globe and all the news within the ITTF." The U.S. Open is included.

Steffen Fetzner's Dream Job

The former World Men's Doubles Champion has a job testing table tennis equipment. Here's the article.

Which Sport is Best - Horseshoes, Pickleball, Table Tennis, or Shuffleboard?

Here's the article on this question asked at the National Senior Games. Best answers:

"Table tennis, because those people are amazing. I was watching how aggressive they are and being able to keep it on that little table. It was very impressive."
-- Allen Sullivan, 52, Harpers Ferry, W.Va., volleyball

"Table tennis because of the speed of the game and the accuracy that you need. It's just something that would probably take me years to master."
-- Garry Bonnemere, 66, Rochester, N.Y., basketball

"Ping Pong (table tennis). The other ones don't move around enough for me. I'm highly competitive and those sports don't do it for me."
-- John Martin, 67, Harwood, Md., bowling

"Obviously, table tennis. Table tennis is a great sport. I see people playing it in their 90s and there are very few sports where you can do that. It's good hand-eye coordination and you can be as active in the game as you want."
-- Robert Duperron, 59, Manchester, N.H., table tennis

Jimmy Fallon vs. Prince

Here's the story and video (41:24) from Table Tennis Nation.

A Way to Practice Serves

Here's a video (1:16) of a trick serve for you heavy sidespin servers! I do a version of this as a demo for students, with a target placed on the far right of the table, but not quite this extreme. I may have to try this one.

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Tip of the Week

Blocking Tips.

Back Stiffness

My back is now so stiff I've been offered money to use it to carve stuff on diamonds. There's a rumor it's made of collapsed matter.

I spent most of July feeding multiball and hitting with beginners, then spent nine days at a writers workshop (mostly sitting down), and then another week at another camp mostly feeding multiball or hitting with beginners. When I finally had several sessions with more advanced players this weekend (John, Kevin, Sameer) I could barely move. At some point in the last month or so the wide forehand has moved another three feet away. The backhand corner is now somewhere way off in the distance to the left. And looping with power is like trying to lasso someone with a hundred-pound dumbbell.

If I weren't so busy with MDTTC camps, private & group coaching, a new tenant just moving into my townhouse (I live on third floor, rent out first two floors), battles with previous tenant (who left without paying rent, cleaning the place, and left numerous damages), plus an incredible amount of time now devoted to my novelist career (my first one's coming out Nov. 15 - see my July 30 blog), this blog and Tip of the Week, a pair of upcoming ITTF coaching seminars, promoting Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers (as I just did!), and a few jillion other things, I'd focus on getting back in shape and back to my normal 2200 level - not easy at age 53.

This morning we start another camp, Week Eight of our ten weeks of camps. We have stronger (i.e. younger) coaches who act as high-level practice partners, so most of my coaching time will likely be giving the usual group lectures, demos, and feeding multiball.

Seven Days, Seven Trophies!

One of my students, Sameer Shaikh (who just turned 12) had an incredible week. At the Northern Open in Detroit last weekend, he won Under 800, Under 950, and Under 1100, and made the final of Under 1250. (That's four trophies.) On Monday, at the Junior Olympics (also in Detroit), he won Division I (that's five). This past Saturday he won Under 1200 and Under 1400 at the Maryland Circuit (that's seven). So how many of you have won seven trophies, six of them for first place, in one week? (Disclosure - while I'm his primary coach, I wasn't at the Northern Open or Junior Olympics, where he was coached by John Hsu. Also, while I was away at a recent writers workshop he had several sessions with Raghu Nadmichettu.)

He's mostly been taking one lesson a week this past year, but recently upped that. Yesterday I gave him a two-hour lesson. His shots have really smoothed out. I think much of it is confidence - he now knows he can make his shots. He's even challenging me in these backhand games where we go backhand to backhand only - and we do that because that's his weak side. (He's primarily a forehand attacker, both looping and smashing.) We're now working hard on the backhand attack, especially backhand looping, as well as more serve variations. Yesterday I started him on reverse pendulum serves to go with his normal pendulum serve.

Here's a picture of Sameer with the four trophies from the Northern Open, with Coach John Hsu.

Breaking Bad Footwork Habits

Here's a new coaching video from PingSkills (2:13).

The Pyramid Rule - Playing Close to the Table

Here's a new coaching article from Table Tennis Master.

USOC Athletes of the Month - USATT's Nominations

Here's your chance to vote for Lily Zhang and Tahl Leibovitz! Here are their credentials, from the article:

Lily Zhang (Palo Alto, Calif.) reached the women’s singles semifinals at the 2013 U.S. Open, held July 2-6 in Las Vegas. Zhang defeated current Pan American champion Mo Zhang of Canada, 4-3, in the quarterfinals before losing to top-seeded Elizabeth Samara of Romania, 4-1. The 17-year-old also claimed the 18U singles title with a 3-1 victory over Ge Chi of China, and concluded her impressive campaign by earning the bronze medal in the U21 singles, eventually losing to teammate Ariel Hsing (San Jose, Calif.), 4-1. 

Four-time Paralympian Tahl Leibovitz (Queens, N.Y.) breezed through preliminary and final rounds without dropping a game en route to the gold medal in the first men’s para table tennis event at the 2013 Maccabiah Games, held July 17-30 in Jerusalem. Leibovitz defeated Aviv Gordon of Israel, 3-0, in the semifinals and notched a 3-0 victory over Israel’s Neal Sharon in the final.

Sweden's National Table Tennis Team is Deteriorating

Here's the article. Sweden was a powerhouse for decades, but no more. (This is one of many articles at TableTennista.)

Why Table Tennis is the Sport for You (Women)

Here's the article from the British online magazine Female First.

World 2013 Site Tour

Here's the video (1:43) by Canadian star Xavier Therien.

Santa Fe's First Tournament

Here's the article in the Santa Fe New Mexican.

6mm Ping-Pong

Here's the video (1:19)! And some thought the 38mm ball was too small...

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MDTTC Camp

Yesterday's focus was the backhand loop. Most of the players in the camp were ready for this, including two of the five beginners I was mostly working with. The harder part for most was doing a backhand loop against backspin and then and a backhand drive against topspin consecutively, fed multiball style. Inevitably, when they first try this, they'd either shorten the backswing on the backhand loop (and go into net), or swing up on the drive (and go off the end). Some of the more advanced players backhand looped against both backspin and topspin, but being more advanced, they had little trouble making the adjustment.

I gave a private lesson to a player roughly in his late 40s (not sure), where I introduced him to forehand looping. This was where the power of the subconscious became a problem. He quickly developed a pretty good forehand loop technique, except his racket was always too closed. And so when I fed him backspin with multiball, over and over he went into the net. Even when I told him to spin the ball way, way off the end, his subconscious took over as soon as he began his stroke, and the balls kept going into the net. This happens all the time when the loop is first introduced to older players. The key is you have to really, Really, REALLY convince yourself to aim to loop way off the end, so that your subconscious gets the message, and so it aims there - with the result that the ball probably hits the table. After doing that a few times, the subconscious has the feedback to aim better, and then it can loop off the end. Then you tell it to aim for the table, and kazzam, you can aim for the table and the ball hits the table.  

It was a long day at the club. Due to the camp, private coaching, meetings, and other TT issues, I was at the club continuously (except for a lunchtime walk over to 7-11 with a bunch of the kids) from 8:30 AM to 9PM.

Here's an interesting note I'll put out for you psychology majors. When the younger kids line up for various target practice games (where I'm feeding multiball), the boys all want to go first, and so I often have them do rock-paper-scissors to see who goes first. But the two girls in my group yesterday kept telling the other she could go first, and I finally had them do rock-paper-scissors just to see who could let the other one go first!

Junior Olympic Results

Here they are! They were held in Detroit this past Mon-Wed.

Zhang Jike vs Xu Xin

Here's the video that just went up (3:32, with time between points removed) of their recent match in the Chinese Super League. Zhang is the righty and the reigning World and Olympic Men's Singles Champion. Xu is world #2. (Ironically, despite his recently repeating as world champion, Zhang lost in other tournaments and dropped to #4 in the world in new rankings, with Ma Long #1, Wang Hao #3. Here are the world rankings.)

Desmond Douglas, age 58

He can still play - here's a video (1:12). I remember watching him in the semifinals of the 1976 U.S. Open in Philadelphia, where he lost deuce in the fifth to eventual winner Dragutin Surbek, in my first major tournament and third overall. "See the video below for a 130+ rally between Desmond Douglas, Former World Number 7, and Tim Yarnall former England number 4. Both show that they do not want to miss a shot with balance, technique and placement on every ball. Can you say the same about your game or players? How important is the mentality to not miss a ball in table tennis?"

Amazing Ping-Pong Ball in Cup Tricks

Here's the video (2:41). "Identical twin brothers Austin and Luke Morrel are two regular high schoolers who directed and filmed this extreme ping pong trick video." Note that this is actually their third such video - you can see others by them and other trick shot videos in the video listings to the right.

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MDTTC Camp

Yesterday's focus was on forehand looping. We didn't have most of the beginners do this, though a couple of them badly wanted to and so I taught them the shot. Normally you give players at least a few weeks at least of regular forehand and backhand drives before introducing them to looping. The six-year-old I blogged about yesterday who had a pretty good backhand loop (at least in multiball) had an even better forehand loop! Very smooth and rather consistent. However, he's not ready to do this effectively in a game yet - he still loses head-to-head to other beginners who don't have his techniques, but are a couple years older and are more consistent.

One of the important points that came up several times yesterday is the importance of rotating mostly in a circle when forehand looping. Imagine a rod going through your head; you should rotate around it. The left side (for righties) should pull back and around as much as the right side goes forward. This doesn't mean you never move your head and upper body (i.e. follow through sideways), but that's usually done to create power when rushed, especially when stepping around the backhand corner. By rotating mostly in a circle you stay balanced and immediately ready for the next shot - which is how top players can pull off a series of powerful loops in quick succession, while intermediate players often struggle to do two in a row.

The younger kids in this week's camp absolutely have gone bonkers over Froggy. All they want to do is put it on the table so they can try hitting it while I feed multiball. I'm starting half the sessions by saying various versions of, "If you work hard for the first hour, I'll bring out Froggy and you can take turns hurting the poor amphibian." It's good target practice, as long as they use good form when hitting.

Over break I was challenged by a 2139 player to a clipboard match. We played best of three to 11. I won the first, 11-9. He won the second, 11-8. He was leading 6-4 in the third when we ran out of time and had to go off break. We plan to finish the match at break today. We're having great points - wish this were on video. (There are a couple videos of me playing clipboard matches on youtube, but neither are among my better-played matches.) Earlier that morning, before we started, another junior (about 1100) also challenged me to a match, so I played him with my cell phone, and won, 11-9.  He wants to play me again today - rematch!

(Note - I have to run over to the club an hour and a half earlier this morning for something, so this blog is shorter than normal - not as much time to scan the Internet for interesting articles and videos.)

The Art of Decisiveness

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master.

International Articles

Here's my periodic reminder that there are lots and lots of international articles at the ITTF and TableTennista sites!

Junior Olympic Results

I've been unable to find any online results from the Junior Olympic Games, which were held the last three days in Detroit, finishing yesterday. One of the parents there put together this listing of medalists from my club (MDTTC). I have a listing now of the results and if I can't find an online listing soon I'll probably format and post that. (They normally put the results online.) So . . . Congratulations to the following MDTTC'ers at the 2013 Junior Olympics!

GOLD
Girls U10 Singles - Lisa Lin
Girls U10 Doubles - Lisa Lin & Jessica Lin
Girls U10 Team - Lisa Lin, Jessica Lin & Helen Yao
Boys U12 Singles - Adam Yao
Girls U16 Doubles - Kaylee Zou & Shirley Hu
Boys U18 Doubles - Chen Bowen & Nathan Hsu
Division I - Sameer Shaikh
Division J - Jessica Lin
SILVER 
Girls U10 Singles - Jessica Lin
Boys U16 Singles - Chen Bowen
Girls U18 Singles - Lilly Lin
Boys U18 Team - Leon Bi, Chen Bowen, Nathan Hsu
Division H - Lisa Lin
BRONZE 
Girls U12 Singles - Helen Yao
Girls U14 Singles - Amy Lu
Girls U18 Doubles - Lilly Lin & Amy Lu
Girls U18 Team - Amy Lu, Kaylee Zou & Lilly Lin
Boys U16 Team - Jason Wei & Adam Yao

Table Tennis Balls - Never Leave Home Without 'Em!

Like this. (No, it's not my car!)

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MDTTC Camp

Yesterday's focus was on the backhand, as it always is on Tuesdays during our camps. (Mon=FH, Tue=BH, Wed=FH Loop, Thu=BH Attack, Fri=Pushing and Player's Choice.) One local six-year-old kid badly wanted to demonstrate his backhand loop, and though I was skeptical at first, I let him - and it turned out to be very nice and fluid. So I let him do a bunch of that, along with other hitting drills. Not too many six-year-olds are already backhand looping! (If a kid wants to do something that you aren't sure he's ready for, it's better to teach it to him so he learns it properly than have him learn on his own, as he undoubtedly would.)

The kids I'm working with are improving rapidly. There are five beginners in the 6-8 age group that I'm mostly in charge of. None had even a semblance of forehand or backhand strokes when we started on Monday, but after two days all have the basic shots in multiball, and three of them can now rally live with me forehand to forehand and backhand to backhand. Two of them still struggle to serve, so we're going to focus on that a bit today. We did some service practice yesterday, and I even brought out the serving bar so they could practice serving low. (This is an adjustable bar that goes over the net. Here's a picture of it set high, and here's a picture of it set low.  John Olsen made this for the club and for a few others. It has about ten height settings.)  

Today I'm going to bring out the colored balls and teach pushing to the beginners. The soccer-colored balls (I have a bag of about 20 of them now) make it easier to see the backspin on the ball. (While the focus on pushing is on Friday, we start earlier for the beginners.) To start them off, I'll do a demo, then I'll have them push as I feed the ball multiball style. When they're ready, we'll push live, using the colored balls at first so they have instant feedback on whether they are getting backspin or not. I also use these balls so they can see if they are getting spin on their serves.

While I was working with the beginners, several of the advanced players focused today on relooping against an opponent's opening loop against backspin. I've always wondered why so many players practice straight counterlooping by serving topspin when the first loop they often have to counterloop comes at them against a backspin, and so has more topspin, has a different trajectory, and comes at you somewhat quicker (because of the extra spin and because it's done closer to the table).

Poor Froggy took a beating yesterday. We divided the players into two groups, one lined up on the forehand side, one on the backhand side, and they'd take turns trying to smack him as I fed multiball, with the first team to hit it ten times winning.

Busy

Here's my current schedule and todo list. Something has to give - I'm not kidding. Though things will slow down by mid-September.

1. Daily Blog and Weekly Tip of the Week
2. Coaching at MDTTC Camps, four more weeks, 10AM-6PM
3. Private and group coaching (nights and weekends).
4. MDTTC August Newsletter.
5. Promotions and possible translations of Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers.
6. ITTF Level 2 Coaching Course Sept. 2-7 in New Jersey (attending) - lots of study and preparation needed. 
7. ITTF Level 1 Coaching Course Oct. 2-6 in Indiana (teaching).
8. Small claims court against previous tenant in my townhouse. The guy left without paying rent, without cleaning the place, with lots of damaged items behind, and without a forwarding address. (I spent $2700 in cleanup and damages.) I've got piles of mail for him - much of it from lawyers and courts for various infractions. I'm not the only one going after this guy. One of the worst people I've ever met.
9. A new family has moved in downstairs, and there are all sorts of complications as they get situated.
10. Promotion, editorial, and cover work, new web page, numerous others things for my novel coming out Nov. 15 - "The Giant Face in the Sky."
11. Sequel to the novel.
12. Note to US Airways over flight this weekend - my flights were kept getting postponed or cancelled, and instead of arriving home at around 10PM Saturday I didn't get home until about 3PM Sunday. Free travel voucher?
13. The planned Maryland Junior League (probably on hold for now).
14. Dozens and dozens of emails each day, each needing a personalized response.

Former USATT President Mel Eisner Died

Here's the USATT article.

Dimitrij Ovtcharov vs. Wang Hao

Here's a video of their recent match in the Chinese Super League (6:54, with time between points removed).

NBA Star Chris Paul Playing Table Tennis

Here's a picture from a TopSpin Charity event held at The Palazzo in Las Vegas.

Jan-Ove Waldner Rolls Ball Around the Net

Here's the video (42 seconds) - it appears to be in an exhibition. Unlike most cases where a player does it while desperately reaching for a ball that drops off the side of the table, Waldner does it against an easier ball that he could have smashed, and instead intentionally lets the ball drop so he can do this shot.

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MDTTC Camp

Yesterday was Day One of Week Seven of our ten weeks of summer camps. This week we have our smallest turnout, only about 20 players. Originally I was going to work only the mornings, since the turnout is smaller and because I need more time for my writing (both table tennis and fiction), as well as to prepare for upcoming ITTF seminars (one I'm attending, one I'm teaching), and other TT organizing activities. However, there are four beginning younger kids, and I was asked if I could take charge of them. So I'm working with these four in the afternoons. But it means I'm facing a time crunch. I may write more about this later - I've got a todo list that's longer than a "Game of Thrones" novel. (Thing will ease up at the end of August when our camps end and the kids go back to school.) 

One thing that jumped out among these four is that three of them have a lot of head movement when they play forehands. I'm working on minimizing that. Two of them tend to hit forehands with backspin. One has trouble hitting the ball at all. Two can't serve yet. So we've got a busy week ahead of us.

Making things worse is our table tennis robot broke. It shoots balls out erratically all over the place. I've gone to the manufacturer's web page where it explains what might be the problem, but I'm not sure yet which it is, or how to fix it. I'm hoping to turn it over to one of the engineer parents at our club, including a couple of mechanical engineers. Normally when working with four kids I'd have one on the robot, I'd work with one, and the other two would do ball pickup. We'd rotate every few minutes. Now instead I work with one, one does ball pickup, and the other two hit together. They aren't able to do drills yet, so I let the two hitting together play games. Perhaps by the end of the week they might be able to do some forehand to forehand or backhand to backhand among themselves, but right now they can only do this with a coach who can keep the ball to one spot.

Pendulum Serve in Doubles

Here's a video (1:28) from Ping Skills on the forehand pendulum serve in doubles. (Sort of a basics article.)

New Ball and Mixed Doubles System at 2015 Worlds

Here's the article from Tabletennista. "A new ball and a new pairing system for the Mixed Doubles will be implemented in the 2015 World Championships to be held in Suzhou, China." They are replacing the current celluloid ball (which is apparently too flammable) with a new plastic ball. The new pairing system for Mixed Doubles "...will allow Chinese players to pair up with members from other associations."

Top 10 Shots from the First Half of 2013

Here's the video (6:05), which came out yesterday, from the ITTF Youtube Channel.

Hockey Players Play TT for Charity

Here’s an article and two videos (55 sec and 2:08) from Table Tennis Nation on Hockey players playing table tennis to raise funds for concussion and cancer research ("Smashfest"). "Stephane Veilleux of the Minnesota Wild was the eventual winner, but plenty of NHLers were in attendance: Dominic Moore (the event organizer), Logan Couture, Martin St. Louis, Phil Kessel, Joel Ward, and many more and raised over $100,000."

The New Yorker's Table Tennis Cover

Yesterday I linked to a picture of the cover of The New Yorker, which features table tennis. Here's the story behind the cover.

Non-Table Tennis - My Novel and Short Stories

It's official - my humorous fantasy novel "The Giant Face in the Sky" will be coming out Nov. 15 from Class Act Books. I'll blog more about this as the date approaches. Time to start planning the sequel! Here's a short blurb: "The Giant Face in the Sky" is a humorous fantasy retelling of the U.S.-Soviet race to the moon in the '60s, but with sorcerers instead of astronauts. It's Hitchhiker's Guide meets the Space Race." And while we're on the subject of my science fiction & fantasy writing, here's a review that just came out of the anthology "After Death," where the reviewer lists my story ("The Devil's Backbone") as one of the three best!

Ping Ping with Vicious Seeing Eye Dog Paddle and Big Glasses

Can someone tell me what's going on here? The title above is the best description I can come up with!

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Tip of the Week

Topspinny Backhands.

Last Week's Tip of the Week

I put up a Tip of the Week last Monday, but since I was out of town and not blogging, some of you may have missed it. If so, you get a special double-tip week! So here's the July 22 Tip of the Week: Pushing Change of Direction.

I'm Back!

It's been eleven days. I doubt if you missed me more than my dog, who went berserk at my return. (I had people taking care of her, but she tends not to eat much when I'm away.) As noted below, I was at a writers workshop in Manchester, NH, July 19-27. See segment on this below. And right after I finish this morning's blog I'm off to coach at the MDTTC camp. (We have ten consecutive camps this summer, each Mon-Fri; this is week seven. I should be at the rest of them - I missed two weeks, one for the writers workshop, one for the U.S. Open.)

Table Tennis Fitness

I just returned from nine days at a writers workshop (see below). While there was no table tennis there - other than my showing off my "blowing the ball in the air" trick, and one time showing off my ability to bounce a ping-pong ball up and down on a cell phone over and over - I did notice something related to table tennis.

The biggest difference between writers (as well as people I observed at the airport) and table tennis players, as well as people I observed at the airport, was the fitness level. There is a fitness epidemic in this country, and it's very noticeable at airports, and even more so at writers workshops. This isn't meant as an actual criticism of being overweight - to each his own - just an observation. But table tennis players in general are much more fit than the general population. Perhaps part of this is that there are so many Asian players, and they seem fitter than typical Americans. Or perhaps it's all those calories burned playing table tennis. Or perhaps it's fitness for the express purposes of improving their table tennis. Or perhaps it's because fitter people tend to seek out sports. Whichever it is, table tennis players, in general, and at all levels (at least beyond the beginning state) are far more fit than the average population.

At my worse, I once reached 196 pounds, and I currently am at 185. I'm now determined to get back to 175. Here's an article from Pongworld on training and fitness. Here's an article on table tennis and fitness by Australian star Greg Letts.

Non-Table Tennis - TNEO

TNEO is "The Never-Ending Odyssey," an annual gathering in Manchester, NH, of graduates of the six-week Odyssey Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Workshop. (I'm class of '06.) I just spent nine days there, July 19-27, where I was immersed with 27 others with story critiques, classes & lectures, readings, and lots of reading and writing. Three of my stories were critiqued; I've already rewritten them, and will be submitting them soon. Two other stories I have planned were plotted out, plus I wrote a brand new humorous story, "The Bat Nerd," which I read at the annual story reading at the local Barnes and Noble. Here's a Facebook picture (with comments) of the group in the workshop.

Flight Back from Manchester

The flights home were a disaster. Here's a short synopsis. I was scheduled for a 6:10PM flight Saturday night (July 27) on U.S. Air from Manchester to Philadelphia, with a connection to National Airport in Washington DC, arriving at 10:11PM. From there I'd take the subway to Shady Grove Metro Station where I had someone picking me up.

The 6:10PM flight was delayed to around 7:30PM due to both a crew problem (lack of a pilot) and weather. It became obvious I wouldn't be able to make my connection in Philadelphia, and there were no other non-full flights out of Philly that night. The earliest available flight the following morning was around 9AM. (Apparently U.S. Air wasn't able to get me on flights with other airlines.) They said they'd put me up in a hotel in Philly. However, a better option they said would be for me to spend the night in Manchester (again, they'd pay for the room), and catch a direct flight at 6AM the next morning. So I was sent back across the airport to the U.S. Air ticket office to get the hotel voucher and catch a shuttle to the hotel. However, after arriving there, they told me there were no available hotel rooms in Manchester! So they rushed me through security again so I could catch the delayed flight at 7:30PM. I reached Philly around 9PM. However, due to another glitch, they had trouble finding my checked-in bag, and it took them over 90 minutes before it was located. Then I took the shuttle to the hotel, arriving there around 11:15PM.

I now had a 7:55AM flight from Philly to DC. I got up a 5AM, was at the airport at 6:30AM, only to discover that due to another crew issue, the flight had been delayed to 9:40AM! Then it was delayed to 10:45AM. And then, at around 9:30 AM, it was cancelled! They put me on a different flight leaving at 11:30 AM. So I sat around the airport for about five hours before leaving. I arrived in DC at about 12:40 PM, took the subway to Shady Grove, arriving around 2:00 PM for my pickup. (The one who was going to pick me could no longer do so; Derek Nie's mom picked me up.)

Meanwhile, every step of the way as my flights changed I was calling the person who was to pick me up at Shady Grove. It got really frustrating as my schedule changed seemingly every ten minutes. On top of this, I had a 10AM coaching session scheduled for Sunday, which I had to miss. (It was a double - once a week on Sunday mornings I drive out to Virginia to coach, and they pay me double. So I'm out about $100 on top of everything else, plus a disappointed student.)

My Coaching Columns in USA Table Tennis Magazine

I've been submitting the best of my Tips of the Week to USATT Magazine, and they've been publishing them since January of 2012. Recently they've put together a page dedicated to them, with links to each article. If you've been reading my weekly Tips (every Monday morning) then you've read these.

Building Power and Weight Transfer

Here's a coaching article from Table Tennis Master.

Two Insane Pieces Of Luck Behind China’s Current Dominance

Here's an article from Table Tennis Master on how China's dominance in table tennis may have come about due to two great pieces of luck!

Kenta Matsudaira's Show

Here are video highlights of the Japanese star (4:08).

The New Yorker

Here's the table tennis cover of this week's The New Yorker, which is dated today, though it came out a few days ago. I saw a copy at the airport, and paging through it, couldn't find anything on table tennis on the inside. Apparently the table tennis cover is an independent cover and doesn't actually illustrate anything from the inside.

Stéphane Veilleux Wins Smashfest

Here's a picture of the Minnesota Wild Hockey player holding up the huge table tennis trophy he won. Click on the picture and you'll see other pictures from the event.

Phil Mickelson Plays Matt Lauer on the Today Show

Here's the video and article from Table Tennis Nation.

Dragon on a Ping-Pong Table

Here's the latest artwork from Mike Mezyan. The title I've given it sort of tells you what it is - sort of like the movie Snakes on a Plane!!!

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Last Blog until Monday, July 29 - Off to Writer's Workshop

When most people go on vacation, they go to beaches, Disneyworld, or Las Vegas. When table tennis players go on vacation, they center it around a major tournament. When I go on vacation, I go to a science fiction writer's workshop in Manchester, NH, July 19-28. After non-stop table tennis action since early June (when kids got out of school), I need the physical and mental break. (Actually, it's been pretty much non-stop table tennis for 37 years!!!)

Back in 2006 I attended the Odyssey Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer's Workshop, an intense six-week program for such writers. Every year a group of the graduates get together for nine days of intense workshopping, called "The Never-Ending Odyssey" or TNEO. I've got three stories getting critiqued, I critiqued dozens of others, plus we have a number of other programs, with two one-hour "master classes" each day, taught by various graduates.

It's a busy time right now. I'm juggling ten consecutive weeks of training camps (all Mon-Fri, 10AM-6PM, June 17 - Aug. 23); the U.S. Open (July 1-7); an ITTF Level 2 Coaching Seminar I'm attending (Sept. 2-7 in New Jersey); an ITTF Level 1 Coaching Seminar I'm teaching (Oct. 2-7 in South Bend, Indiana); the usual private and group coaching and general table tennis promotion (that's enough to fill my schedule alone); the daily blog and weekly tip; and the usual science fiction & fantasy writing that I do on the side. (I'm already gearing up to write the sequel to the novel I just sold - see my blog the last two days.) I'm also planning to do a rewrite of my book Table Tennis: Steps to Success (probably retitled "Table Tennis Fundamentals"), but for now that's on hold. Things will ease up dramatically by September, when the kids go back to school. 

Meanwhile, as if I didn't have enough already, two people solicited table tennis articles from me just yesterday. I had to say no to both, though both would have been paid. (I also had to turn down two requests for private coaching - I'm not taking on any new students until mid-September.) But I did find time tonight to (finally) update my coaching notes from the U.S. Open. Yep, I keep extensive notes on the matches I coach or watch, to help prepare for future matches I coach.

MDTTC Camp

Yesterday's focus was the forehand loop. I had Raghu Nadmichettu demo it. Against backspin, I fed multiball; against block, I blocked, and had fun trying to convince the kids that the Chinese national coaches often fly to the U.S. to study my never-missing forehand block. (Confession: while I was explaining this, Raghu finally managed to loop one past me. Alas.) I also gave a lecture on return of serve, and spent half an hour working with a group on their serve and receive.

During breaks a new fad has caught on - the Chinese game of Go. Cheng Yinghua has always been an expert at it, and Nathan Hsu is now very good. A girl, about age ten, brought in a fancy set - turns out she's very good, I think has had coaching and so on. All this week she's been playing Cheng and Nathan during breaks, and even coming in early before camp to play, and others have joined in. (Players gather around to watch as they play.) I think there's a strong correlation between table tennis players and those who like tactical games such as Go, Chess, and Checkers. They definitely get players into the habit of thinking tactical. Sure, table tennis is much, much faster, and so you don't have time to contemplate your next move as you do in these games, but that misses the point that much of table tennis tactics is preparation so that you reflexively play smart tactics - and that starts by thinking tactically about what habits you want to develop. (But one part of table tennis is almost exactly like these games - serving, where you can take your time choosing the best tactical serve.) A number of players at our camps this summer have also worn chess shirts - we have a lot of table tennis players who play competitive chess. Tong Tong Gong, one of our top juniors - on the USA National Cadet Team in 2011-1012 - was a competitive chess player, even traveling to Ohio in 2010 to compete in the national chess championships. Here's a picture of him in action.

Today's focus is the backhand attack. I'm also going to give a lecture and demo on pushing. After the camp ends, I've got two hours of private coaching, so I'll be coaching today from 10AM-8PM, other than a lunch break. Then, if I survive, I'm off for TNEO. (See above.)

USATT Ceo Blog

Here it is, covering the recent U.S. Open in Las Vegas. 

Six Mistakes You Probably Make When Practicing Third Ball Attack (Part 2)

Here's the article. And in case you missed it in my July 11 blog, here's Part 1. The two parts cover the following topics:

1. Pushing Serves You Really Shouldn’t
2. Not Practicing Different Placements
3. Not thinking about the fifth ball
4. Serving With More Than One Ball In Your Hand
5. Serving Differently Than You Would In A Match
6. Not Using Your Best Return

Being Creative in Training

Here's an essay on creative training techniques.

Feeling Overwhelmed When Learning

Here's a video on the topic from PingSkills (5:23). The primary idea is to focus on one thing at a time.

Best Points of Table Tennis

Here's a new table tennis video set to music (5:10).

Portland Pong

Pips & Bounce pop-up parties fuel Portland pingpong passion.

Table Tennis Dreamscape

Here's another of Mike Mezyan's table tennis artworks. (If you can't see it on Facebook, try this.) I see the person on the left as an up-and-coming player contemplating making the leap into the unknown future - should he give it 100% effort and train full-time, and go for glory? But that's the black hole of disappointment in the background, ready to gobble up those who fall by the wayside if he doesn't have the skills to carry the big paddle into his dreams.

Four-Armed Ai Fukuhara

Now that she's better armed, can she become world #1? (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

Non-Table Tennis - Human Help Desk

My story "Human Help Desk" is now online at Abyss & Apex. When a computer's human is about to click on a link that'll load a virus that'll kill the computer, what can the computer do? Call the Human Help Desk, of course! A bittersweet tale of a computer's fight for survival. Since so many table tennis players are computer people, this might be of interest to many of them.

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MDTTC Camp

Yesterday's focus was on the backhand. I gave a talk on it, explaining both the technique and the variations, such as how dropping the tip gives more power (sort of a second forehand) but you lose quickness and have more trouble in the middle, while holding the tip higher does the reverse - though you can still hit it pretty hard. I also explained how the backhand has evolved, from the flatter backhands of the past to the more topspinny ones of the modern day. I also talked about the revolutionary change in penhold play, from conventional backhands to reverse penhold backhands.

For some reason many coaches do not have their students do backhand footwork. I too am sometimes guilty of getting lazy on that, focusing on forehand footwork. Often players only do backhand footwork in conjunction with forehands, such as alternating forehand and backhand shots (either alternating from the corners or alternating both shots from the backhand corner). How about backhand-backhand footwork, where the coach puts a ball to the wide backhand, and then a ball to the middle backhand (or even more to the middle), and the player moves side to side hitting backhands? This type of footwork is even more important for players who use good topspin their backhands, whether looping or just having a topspinny backhand, since these players have longer strokes, and so positioning is even more important to get it right. (Players with more of a blocking stroke should also move for each ball, but can often get away with more reaching.)

Later I completed my serving lecture, going over deception and fast serves. Then we had service practice. As usual, we finished with games. Many Brazilian teams were victorious, many cups were knocked off tables, and poor Froggy also got smacked around a bit.

I had a little fun demonstrating long-distance serves, where I'd serve on a table from 50 feet away, usually from the side, using sidespin to curve the ball onto both sides of the table.

Speaking of serves, several of our top juniors are fiddling around with some seriously funky trick serves. One used one at the recent U.S. Open over and over, and kept winning points with it, often about twice a game. I'll never understand why players don't develop their serves more. It's not a matter of trying to rely on trick serves; it's a matter of not throwing away points by an inability to throw variations at an opponent, including a few trick serves for free points. If you don't, you are giving away points and playing level. (Trick serves are generally serves that will win a few free points, but once an opponent gets used to them, they are ineffective. Players should mostly rely on serves that set up their game - usually their attack - while mixing in a few trick serves now and then. There's an overlap between the two types of serves.)  

New Non-Celluloid Ball

Here's a discussion of the new non-celluloid ball proposed for 2014. They say it's confirmed. Anyone want to do some investigative work on this?

I'm Going to Haunt You

Here's a video (5:39) of table tennis to the music of Sharleen Spieri's "I'm going to haunt you," which sounds like country music to me. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong.)

New Balance Shoe Commercial

Here's a commercial from New Balance (16 sec) that features table tennis as they advertise that they employ 1300 U.S. workers while their competitors employ zero. I have no idea how the table tennis is relevant to the commercial. But it's table tennis!!!

Non-Table Tennis - Novel Sale

Yesterday I blogged about selling my novel, "The Giant Face in the Sky." The novel is about 90,000 words and 451 pages double spaced. It's a humorous fantasy retelling of the U.S.-Soviet race to the moon in the '60s, but with sorcerers instead of astronauts - sort of Hitchhiker's Guide meets the Space Race. Here's the three-paragraph description in my cover letter when I submitted it. (Not mentioned here - at the start, all Neil wants to do is play ping-pong. He has to drop this "childish" desire to save the world.) 

It is 1969, at the height of tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The powerful sorcerer John F. Kennedy has just won his third term as president of the United States. Neil (alias Neil Armstrong, though his last name is never mentioned) is 13 years old, and badly wants to be someone, do something. It's his mantra. Instead, he's stuck as a sorcerer's apprentice for Gus, the "meanest sorcerer in the world," and who (along with just about everyone else) constantly berates and humiliates Neil. Gus creates a magical talisman to spy on the Soviets, but instead it spies on them and sends the text into space. A Giant Face in the Sky shows up, reading the text. It fixates on Neil, reacting wordlessly to whatever he and those around him say or do.

Realizing that anyone who gets to the Face can lob down spells and have the world at their mercy, the Race to the Face begins. The Soviets, led by General Death, invade the U.S. over and over in an attempt to kill Neil, who is prophesied to defeat them. When a meteor assassin named Buzz fails to kill Neil, the talking, floating meteor becomes Neil's protector and companion--with the rather unfortunate problem that in exactly one week, Buzz must kill Neil.

Kennedy, with advice from the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, and with trusty sidekick Dogface (alias Lee Harvey Oswald), puts together a motley crew to go to the Face: Neil, Gus, Buzz, and the sorcerers Jackie Kennedy (weapons expert), Conrad (a hippy dragon whose hobby is swallowing celebrities), Wernhera (a sorcerer living in Conrad's stomach), Apollo (the Greek God and son of famed children's author Dr. Zeus), and Jim (a 2-D sorcerer from another universe). Can they make it to the Face before General Death, and before Buzz kills Neil?

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