Tip of the Week

Staying Low.

Eastern Open

It was a tiring weekend, but tournaments always are. I think coaching is more tiring than play. Seriously! Here are the results. We got there on Friday afternoon so our players could practice. I ended up volunteering with the NATT group running the tournament and spent some time putting together barriers. It was nostalgic - I was in charge of barriers at two U.S. Opens, two U.S. Nationals, and one North American Teams.

I mostly coached Derek Nie (12) and Sameer Shaikh (11). Sameer won Under 800 and made the final of Under 950, so it was a successful tournament for him. However, he needs serious work on staying low - hence the inspiration for this week's Tip of the Week (above). Often in practice with me he stays down, but once he gets into matches he tends to stand up straight, and his strokes and movement become awkward. We're going to focus on this for the foreseeable future.

Derek, rated 2215, had a strange tournament. On the one hand, he made it to the final of Under 2375, and had wins over players rated 2353 and 2332. He also went through stages where he was playing extremely well; his backhand play especially has improved as he can now do five types of backhand loops very well - over the table against short balls (especially serves), i.e. "banana flips"; off regular backspin; backhand rips against weak balls; in fast topspin rallies where he backhand loops the ball without backing up much, almost off the bounce; and from off table when forced to back up.

However, he had several matches where, at key stages, he seemed to tighten up and miss a few shots, especially finishing forehands. Astonishingly, he also kept missing his own serve, something he'd never done much before. Not fast and deep serves, but simple short serves that normally are almost never missed. He must have missed his own serve over 20 times this tournament - he has some work to do on this. In one five-game loss, after going up 2-1 in games, he missed his own serve four times in the last two games. (He also had a knee problem that affected him in some of his matches, especially toward the end; in his very first match he dived for a ball, and landed on it. Hopefully it's just a bone bruise. I don't think it affected him too much, but he's taking the next two days off to rest it.)

In the end, he lost five-game matches to three of his rival juniors, and another in four where he was down 1-2 but leading 10-8, with the opponent deucing it on a net-edge and winning on a net. (All four were actually rated higher, all in the 2260-2310 range.) Derek and I both agreed that while the actual results this time were somewhat disappointing, his actual play showed great promise. It'll take him time to gain the experience to incorporate his greatly improved backhand play with his already strong forehand play. And we had a lot of fun both to and from the tournament (four-hour drive) doing brain teasers and (I kid you not) discussing physics.

Here's a good place to thank fellow MDTTC players Raghu Nadmichettu and Harold Baring for their help in practicing with Derek throughout the tournament - and also to congratulate them for both making the quarterfinals of the Open. Chen Bo Wen, also from MDTTC and regular practice partner/coach for Derek, made the final of the Open.

I wish I could go into some of the tactics used in the tournament, but some give away too much for possible future opponents. Derek has a new-found "rivalry" with senior player Vladimir Shapiro (2332), who Derek beat in the Open but lost to in the U2375 final. In their first match, Vladimir was up 2-0, but with a major change in tactics Derek won the next three. In the U2375 final, Vladimir made a nice tactical adjustment to win at 7,8,9. "The future belongs to him," he told me, but the present belongs to him - with his two-winged looping game, varied serves, and smart tactical play, he swept three events - U2375, Over 40, and Over 50.

Because I was busy coaching, I didn't see many of the big matches. We left on Sunday as they were about to start the Open Quarterfinals.

We didn't stay at the tournament hotel, instead staying at a cheaper Day's Inn - and paid the price in other ways! I'm not picky about hotels, and didn't really mind it, but I did note a few things about the hotel:

1. There was litter scattered all over - in the streets, walkways, outside rooms, and hallways.
2. The coke machine just outside the front desk looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. I could barely make out the flavors. It was situated so that to get at it I had to squeeze between a bush and an over-loaded trash can that smelled of old garbage. When I clicked on Lemon Ice Tea, I got a Ginger Ale. The front desk refunded my $1.50. They said that there had been complaints about this. I mentioned I'd try the lemonade, but they said that if I did, I'd probably get a coke instead. I ended up going for a water.
3. The arm rests on the chair in our room were both broken and hanging off sideways.
4. The light fixture between the beds was broken and hanging off the wall.
5. The front door had some sort of paint splattered over it.
6. There was trash scattered about the bathroom.
7. While walking to the front desk to check out, in a walkway littered with trash, I stopped and watched a giant spider crawling about the wall. Spider webs were all over.
8. The clock at the front desk was 12 minutes slow.
9. The complimentary was only corn flakes or sugar frosted flakes, plain bagels, bread, sugar donuts, orange juice, and coffee. I didn't mind; I had two bagels.

In contrast to this, the playing conditions were excellent, with grippy wood floors and good lighting. It was rather humid, which gave some players problems. I'll never understand why so many players show up at tournaments without a towel to wipe their racket with. When it's humid, I bring two - one for me, one for the racket and ball.

Here was an "interesting" incident. A very loud argument was going on between a coach and the referee. Several spectators told me what had happened. In the fifth game of a close match a ball rolled into the court. One player raised his finger to signal let. As he was doing this, his opponent, a junior player, not seeing the raised finger (he was watching the ball) went for a shot and missed. The adult who had raised his finger for let claimed the point. The referee was called. Since the junior player didn't know that his opponent had called a let, the point stood, with his opponent getting the point. (I'm not sure if the adult denied calling a let or claimed that since the junior went for the shot the point counted.) The referee couldn't rely on spectators on what happened (or you might get a biased view), and you can't check the video (or everyone would have to video their matches just in case), and so he could only go by what the players said - and so probably made the right call. However, the adult, if did in fact call the let, pulled a fast one there - and he won the fifth game 11-9. Anyway, there was a LOUD interaction between the junior's coach and the referee, which led to the coach getting red-carded and kicked out.

I had another interesting experience. One of the juniors from my club was playing a match and seemed to be struggling. I wasn't coaching the match, but I asked his dad how he was doing, and discovered he was down 2-1 in games and down 5-1 in the fourth against a player rated considerably lower, whose game I knew. (Very strong backhand, very weak forehand, with specific tactics needed to adjust for this since the player was willing to play backhands from the forehand side.) So I called a time-out, explained how to play this player, and our junior went back out and won the game and match.

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

More reviews for the book are in. At Amazon.com, there are 17 so far - 15 five-star ones, and two four-star ones. They are selling pretty well at Amazon, both the print and Kindle versions. A few also sold at The Easterns. Hopefully we'll sell a bunch at the U.S. Open.

Butterfly App

Here's an app from Butterfly that allows you to watch the top players on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad. (Alas, my phone is circa 18th century, and it makes phone calls. Yes, just phone calls. Though I've heard rumors it takes pictures as well.)

Receive Secrets

Here's an article from Table Tennis Master: Service Receive Secrets From Japan.

Do You Know (the Ping Pong Song)

Here's a table tennis song I hadn't heard before - the music is to the beat of a bouncing ping-pong ball.

Michael Maze - Literally

Here's a cartoon from Mike Mezyan that combines Danish table tennis star Michael Maze, Michael Jackson, a maze, and a table tennis tour. (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

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Easterns

At noon today I leave for the Eastern Open this weekend in Piscataway, NJ, coaching Derek Nie and Sameer Shaikh. As usual, I'll bring files of notes of players I've seen before, either live or on video. I'm going up with Derek and his mom. I've actually got some coaching this morning, not to mention my blog and dropping my dog (Sheeba) off at the dog boarding place, so it's going to be a hectic morning.

The complicating factor is I teach a junior class on weekends, on Saturdays 10:30AM-Noon and Sundays 4:30-6:00. Normally Raghu Nadmichettu assists, but he's playing in the Easterns. I have a substitute for Saturday, but not for Sunday. So either I or Raghu have to be back by Sunday at 4:30 for the class. What really complicates things is we don't know if Raghu or Derek will play on Sunday. They will if Raghu makes the quarters of the Open, or Derek the quarters of Under 2375. Sameer will finish on Saturday, so either Raghu or I have to go back with Sameer and his dad when they return that night or the following morning. On the other hand, if Raghu advances and can't go back, and Derek advances (and so has a big quarterfinal match in U2375), I might do some last-minute scrambling to get a substitute for the class so I can stay over to coach Derek.

Derek and I have an established way to pass the time on car trips to tournaments (with his parents driving) - brain teasers. I used to give them off the top of my head - I know hundreds - but I've run out after many trips. Last time I printed out a large number from online sites. Yesterday I stopped at the Library and picked up "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems." Derek's gotten pretty good at them.

You can see the players in the Easterns by player's list or by event. Top seeds include Zhang Kai (2603), Yu Di (2600), Peter Li (2557, from my club before he went off to college), Eric Zhao (2543), Li Bochao (2500) and Chen Bo Wen (2494, from my club). For a 4-star tournament, it's not particularly strong, but there'll be some strong competition. Under 13 Boys is a powerhouse, with Jack Wang (2338), Gal Alguetti (2252), Derek Nie (2234), and Sharon Alguetti (2176). These ratings are actually old ratings, the ones used for qualification; at the tournament they'll have newer ratings for seeding. We have a large group coming from my area, with an even 20 players from Maryland, Virginia, and DC, almost all who play at MDTTC.

By the way, they will start setting up the playing hall Friday at 4PM, and finish by 7PM. I'm told that players can practice on any available table during that time.

Balance = Rapid-Fire Shots

I was working with an intermediate player today. I was giving him random multiball to his forehand side, and he had to smash every ball. He was struggling - every couple of shots he'd be off balance, and flailing away at the next shot. The problem was just that - balance. But if I only told him to stay balanced, he'd have continued to flail away - the key was to identify why he was going off balance. And that was pretty easy to see - every time he smashed, his whole body would move forward, throwing himself off balance, and then he'd have to move all his weight back to prepare for the next shot. This also threw off his timing.

I pointed out Chen Bowen, a 2500 player, who was looping against block on another table, and told my player to watch Bowen's head - it barely moved when he looped his forehand over and over. Instead, his body rotated rapidly around it, which created great power - and left him in nearly the same position and balanced, weight between his legs, immediately ready for the next shot. (You do this on both forehand loops and drives.) My player tried it out, and greatly improved his ability to play rapid-fire forehands over and over. It's okay for the head to move forward some on very powerful shots (drives or loops), or when rushed when stepping around the backhand corner, but it should be minimized if you want to be ready quickly for the next shot.

To illustrate the above, here are some short videos to study.

• Zhang Jike
• Ma Long
• Wang Hao
• Wang Liqin
• Timo Boll
• Forehand Smashing
• Forehand Counter-Hitting

McAfee and the ITTF Coaching Program

Here's my article "Man on a Mission: Richard McAfee and the ITTF Coaching Program," published by the ITTF on its Facebook page. The article is also in the current (May/June) issue of USA Table Tennis Magazine.

North American Table Tennis Language Translator

I just noticed a new feature there. Here's the Eastern Open home page. Go to the top right, and see "Select Language." Then start clicking on different languages, and watch the text on the page change! Africaans! Albanian! Arabic! Traditional Chinese! Japanese! Macedonian! Yiddish! Etc. - I had great fun with this.

Ping Pong Prom Proposals

Here's an article and videos from Table Tennis Nation featuring, you guessed it, Ping-Pong Prom Proposals.

Circular Table Tennis?

I have no idea what to call this type of table tennis, so I'm going to call it Circular Table Tennis. Shouldn't they have people on both the inside and outside, rallying back and forth? (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

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ICC and Fundraising for Table Tennis

ICC (India Community Center) has set the modern bar for raising money for table tennis in the U.S., raising $100,000 at a fund-raiser on June 2 in Milpitas, CA. Here's the article! "This annual event, which showcases the program’s homegrown talent to raise funds to nurture tomorrow’s champions, was attended by over 200 diehard table tennis players and fans. ICC’s junior players riveted the audience with their technique and passion during the talent exhibition. There were also celebrity challenge matches featuring former California State Controller and ICC Trustee Steve Westly, ICC Co-Founder and Trustee Anil Godhwani and 2012 Men’s & Women’s National Champions and 2012 Olympians Timothy Wang and Lily Zhang."

I'm no expert on fund-raising, but I have dabbled in it. I did get a $7000 sponsor for the 1993 Junior Nationals, which I ran in Maryland- that's $11,264 in 2013 dollars. The sponsor was Janlibo, a Chinese soft drink that was trying to expand into the U.S. market, starting in Maryland. Ironically, they wanted to increase their sponsorship the following year, but without checking with me or Janlibo, the USATT board of directors decided to recombine the Junior Nationals with the Junior Olympics, as it had been in previous years. They assumed Janlibo would go along with it, with the Junior Olympics moving to a different city each year. Janlibo had no interest in that - they were focusing on the Maryland/DC region at the time - and so the Junior National went from $7000 ($11,264!) in 1993 to $0 prize money thereafter. Alas.

There have been some titanic battles on the board over USATT fundraising. There was a period in the early/late 2000's where two board members had diametrically opposed ideas on how to do it. (I attended nearly every board meeting back in those days, and was a witness to all this.) One believed that we should hire a full-time fundraiser. The other believed we should hire a big-time fund-raising company. They had extremely sharp debates. The board was unanimous that we needed to do one or the other, but since they couldn't decide which to go with, they ended up doing . . . neither. Alas.

The last two times USATT had major sponsors that I know of were the late 1980s and early 1990s. The first was with Brother Corporation. USA Olympic table tennis players Diana and Lisa Gee helped bring that sponsor in with a Comdex exhibition, with USATT Program Director Bob Tretheway negotiating and closing the deal. (There was also a Ground Round Restaurant sponsorship that Bob brought in. And thanks to Sean O'Neill for aiding my fuzzy memory on some of this.) In the early 1990s, Dan Seemiller (and others - not sure who) brought in Dow Chemical as a big sponsor for the 1991-1992 U.S. Opens in Midland, MI. I believe both of these deals were over $100,000, and considerably more in modern dollars. I don't think USATT has had anything comparable since. I know recently-elected USATT board chair Mike Babuin is very interested in the fund-raising aspect - hopefully he'll break through on that. As to table tennis clubs, in addition to ICC I'm told that Lily Yip has also done well in local sponsorship for her club (and especially her tournaments) in New Jersey. 

At some point we probably should do one at MDTTC, my club. But as I noted above, I'm not an expert on fundraising. Alas.

Serve Practice

Here's my periodic note on this - have you practice your serves recently? Just get a bunch of balls, and practice! It's one of the most under-practiced aspect of the game, with more return on investment than just about any other aspect. How many times have you lost a match "because of his serves"? Well, become that guy "with the serves"! Don't have good serves; have great ones!!! You don't need to be a superstar player for this. Here's my article "Practicing Serves the Productive Way." In the Articles section here I have an even 20 articles on serving. But don't just read about it - study the top players, perhaps get a coach, and practice!

Kenta Matsudaira - Japan's Next Number One?

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master.

2013 National Junior Disability Championships

Here's their web page. They are July 6-13, 2013, in Rochester, MN. Sports include: Swimming, Track & Field, Table Tennis, Powerlifting, Archery & Pentathlon.

Incredible Pingpong Skills

Here's a trick-shot video that's pretty good (2:39). Anyone know who the player is? (I'm bad with faces, but it's not Jun Mizutani of Japan, as one commenter asked - he's a lefty.) The comments are almost as funny as the video.  

Waiting to Play

Here's what happens when there's a long line to play at your club. (If you can't see the Facebook picture, try this.)

Non-Table Tennis - Tenant Termination and Credit Ratings

On June 3 I had that short blog where I explained the problem I was having with my tenant downstairs. Last night we had it out. He has only paid $400 of the $1080 owed, and insists he explained in a "detailed note" two months ago why he hasn't been able to pay the rest. I don't think he thought I'd kept the note. As I showed him, the note actually says 1) he was having trouble getting an advance on money owed and so was having trouble paying the $500 he still owed on that month's rent, and 2) that while he had lost his full-time job, he wrote "My part-time job will now be full time." We argued for a long time over this - he claimed those words do not imply his part-time job ever became full-time, and kept quoting himself as saying, "My part-time job might be full time." I had to keep referring to where he wrote "now," but then he claimed that didn't change the meaning of the note, which of course is completely wrong. "My part-time job will now be full time" ≠ "My part time job might be full time."

He said the part-time job never became full-time, though he did get another full-time job shortly thereafter. As I pointed out, he not only never told me any of this, he told me last month (when the rent was also late) that he had extra income now and wouldn't be late on the rent again. Then I pointed out that none of this explains why he hadn't paid this month's rent (due May 28), or more importantly, why he had refused, despite multiple requests, to say when or if he'd pay. He insisted that the part where he wrote he hadn't been able to get the advance two months ago explained that. Again, it didn't make sense - that part of note explained why he hadn't been able to get an advance to pay the rest of the rent two months ago, but says nothing about this month's rent. He kept insisting this like it had just happened, when it was two months ago, and (as he admitted) he'd long ago received the money owed from back then. If this doesn’t make sense to you, it doesn't. I kept wondering if he was drunk or something since his arguments made no sense, but I don't think so.

I finally had to do something I've never done - I gave him one month's notice. I should have done this long ago as we've been having these spats over the rent over and over, with him rarely paying on time and refusing to ever let me know when or if it would be paid when it was late, and acting insulted when I asked. Ultimately he had to go because of his struggles to pay and his credit rating (which predicted he'd eventually burn me), but the reason I did it now was because of his insistence that it wasn't his responsibility to let me know when or if he'd be able to pay rent, and because of his incredible temper - he was screaming at me about how I was reading his note wrong, how I wasn't being fair, etc.

A year ago someone checked his credit rating for me, and it turned out to be incredibly low, something like the bottom 1%. (I forget the actual number.) Not checking his credit rating (and judiciary record for domestic violence and a few other things) before renting to him was a huge mistake that'll never happen again. (He was from the same high school I went to, three years ahead, though we'd never met.) I checked my credit rating yesterday - mine is 822 (from Equifax). I've never missed a payment, whether on my house, car, credit card, etc.

Anybody looking for a room or two floors to rent in Germantown, Maryland, about ten minutes from MDTTC? If so, contact me.

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Glasses

On June 4 I blogged about seeing an optometrist last week. Until recently I could read easily without glasses, but as I wrote on June 4, it's getting harder to focus on near items, and my right eye especially is getting worse. Yesterday I got the new reading glasses, and they work great. I don't need them at my computer, but now I can read books comfortably again. And there is nothing more important than that, right? Other than table tennis, of course.

I'm a bit nearsighted, so without glasses things in the distance get blurry. I discovered this on my first day in college back in 1980. I'd taken two years off after high school before starting college, and apparently my eyes had changed during that time. I sat in the front row, and could barely see what was on the blackboard - I spent the whole class squinting. Immediately afterwards I saw an optometrist, and within a couple of days I had glasses. Normally I only need them for classes, when driving, when watching TV or a movie. I take them off at home, and at most times when not doing something that requires seeing in the distance. They often are perpetually perched on top of my head, where they seem to balance well, ready to be brought down when needed.

I do wear them for table tennis. I simply can't see my opponent's contact with the ball otherwise, or see the ball clearly as it approaches. It means I don't see things as well close on my side - such as my own contact - but that's not quite as important as it would seem, as by the time you are contacting the ball you can't really react anyway. It doesn't seem to affect my serves, where the ball is traveling slower. I've tried progressive/graduated lenses, but the changeover in the lenses as the ball approaches was too much for me - it hurt my eyes and I'd lose track of the ball.

I tried contacts in the late 1980s, but they weren't for me. I never could get used to having something in my eyes, which kept drying up. Plus it's a hassle putting them in and taking them out. They'd put me in a permanent state of seeing things in the distance, but everything near would be blurry, which I don't like.

I wear croakies eyeglass holders (plain brown or black) to keep the glasses in place. Some or most people don't seem to need this, but if I don't, the glasses jump about for me. I have two pairs of distance glasses - my normal ones, and my playing ones with the croakies, which I keep in my playing bag.

I'm so used to wearing glasses when I play that when I feed multiball (which I do a lot), I'd feel uncomfortable without them. Why? Because I'm barely five feet from the player I'm coaching, with little time to react if he accidentally smacks me in the eye. So the glasses are now my eyeguards. I know Coach Jack Huang had serious eye problems for a time when someone hit him in the eye.

What are your eyewear experiences in table tennis?

Dentist

On May 21, I blogged about seeing a dentist. I'd been averaging one cavity every three years (one every six trips to the dentist), and hadn't changed my brushing or eating habits. I'd been seeing the same dentist for a decade, but she'd left, and I had a new one. Out of the blue the new one said I had 11 cavities, with seven of them needing immediate attention! Total bill would have been $2300.

Yesterday I saw a different dentist to get a second opinion. His verdict? I had zero cavities, though he said there was "one very slight gray area on the x-ray that we'd have to watch, and might be the beginning of a cavity."

Effective Training for Recreational Players

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master.

History of U.S. Table Tennis - 1984

USATT is once again serializing Tim Boggan's most recent book, "History of U.S. Table Tennis, Vol. XIII," which covers 1984. Here's Chapter One, with a new chapter going up each week. This is just the text version. If you want the full version (918 photos, 448 pages), go to Tim Boggan's history page, where you can buy any of the 13 volumes.

International News

As usual, check out the news headlines at the ITTF and at Table Tennista. Lots of stuff!

World Championships of Ping Pong (Sandpaper) and Hardbat

Here's the info page. This is the Sandpaper World Championships, which had $100,000 in prize money last year, and (I've heard) will have the same next year - Jan. 4-5, 2014, in London again. In addition to sandpaper, hardbat is pretty active in the UK - here's the European Hardbat Tour 2013 page, presented by the English Association of Table Tennis.

Inclusion: The Future of Table Tennis?

Here's the article and video (1:03), at Kickstarter (they are looking for funding). "INCLUSION combines Table Tennis and Racquetball to create a newly dynamic, fast-paced playing experience. The revolutionary side walls extend the playing surface and function as "bumpers" for novice players to help them enhance their skills.  Expert players similarly benefit from the added dimension which allows for a greater variety of angled shots and a more challenging, intensified gaming experience."

Table Tennis Rally Sculpture

Here's a sculpture that really shows a table tennis rally! (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

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Tip of the Week

Five Steps to a Great Spin Serve.

Meeting with Montgomery County School Officials

Yesterday MDTTC officer Wen Hsu and I met with officials from Montgomery County Schools about creating an afterschool table tennis program. The program would start this fall, on Thursdays. If there is a good turnout, then we'd expand to other days.

One interesting item of agreement came up. Many times when clubs look to do such programs they are very ambitious, and look to have such a program every day, or at least multiple times each week. It sounds great, and there's nothing wrong with aiming toward this - that's where the ambition should lead. The problem is that very often all this does is spread a limited number of players at the start over multiple days, and so instead of getting a good turnout once a week, you get a very weak turnout multiple times each week. When the kids come in and see there aren't many others, they lose interest.

When we were first discussing this program, the original idea was to do it multiple times each week. I argued for once a week at the start so we could get as many kids at once to start. (Obviously you have to take your club's size into account; we have 16 tables normally set up and can go to 18.) When we discussed with the school officials how many times per week we should do it, I said once a week to start, and expand later when we have the numbers. They were openly relived - turns out they regularly have this problem with groups wanting to expand too quickly rather than focus on getting a good turnout once a week, and had sort of a "canned lecture" on the importance of this - which was roughly what I said above. Anyway, we agreed on Thursdays, and will expand if we get the numbers.

I'm going to be the primary coach for the sessions, but depending on turnout, I'll have others helping out. I'll always have at least one assistant. During a typical session I'd take a few at a time to work with, doing multiball and using a robot, while another coach (or coaches) oversee the others hitting among themselves. Then the players would rotate between the two groups until I've worked with all of them.

We want all our coaches to be ready to work on this program. One of the requirements for working with kids in Montgomery County Schools is a background check - and so they require all coaches to get fingerprinted! I've never had this done. Next Tuesday all the coaches (nine of us - Cheng, Jack, Leon, Bowen, James, Brian, Raghu, John, and myself) are going to the police station at 10AM to get fingerprinted. I hope to take pictures.

Eye Exam

I had an eye exam last week. My distance vision hasn't changed, but I'm having more and more trouble reading. Normally I read without glasses, but more and more I can't focus on things close up without eye strain. I actually have reading glasses, but I normally don't really need them - my left eye, until recently was pretty much fine for reading, and the right eye only slightly blurry. But now I've ordered stronger reading glasses, which should come in this week. It'll be a sad moment when I make the transition to reading with glasses all the time - but now I'll be able to read again without constant eyestrain or having to hold the book at arm's length to focus. I wear distance glasses when I play or coach table tennis, so in theory I can't see the ball close up - but after experimenting, I've found clearly seeing the opponent (and his racket's contact with the ball) is more important than seeing close-up, since you can't really react to something at that point anyway. In theory, perhaps bifocals would be best, and I've tried that, but in practice there's that transition between the lenses that I could never get used to. 

Serve With No Spin and Beat Timo Boll

Here's the article from Table Tennis Master.

Meiklejohn North American Senior Championships

Here are the results.They were held this past weekend, May 30 - June 2.

Crystal Wang on NBC Featured by USATT

The video of 11-year-old Crystal Wang on NBC on April 24 is now featured on the USATT web page.

Oceanic Festival of Table Tennis

Here's the info page. "The first ever Oceanic Festival of Table Tennis is taking place across Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji. From Monday 17th June to Saturday 22nd June, American Kim Gilbert, and Fijian Steve Reilly will be taking Table Tennis across the island!"

MySpace Executive Brings Ping-Pong to Revived Company

Here's the article (and links) from Table Tennis Nation.

Ping-Pong and Songs

Here's the article. "Join Charles, Hillary and Dave at their inaugural Ping Pong & Songs with all proceeds benefitting LadyAID™. Be a part of it and get your game face on!" Event takes place on June 6, this Thursday.

Superman Table Tennis

Here's the Facebook picture - based on the way he's holding the paddle he needs some serious coaching. (If you can't see it on Facebook, try this.)

Non-Table Tennis - "Tyler's Ten" Online

My new science fiction story "Tyler's Ten" is now online at New Myths Magazine! When Vice President John Tyler takes the oath of office as president after the death of President William Henry Harrison in 1841, an alien vacationer takes over his body and sends his consciousness into a virtual reality world inside a computer - along with the other first ten presidents - Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J-Q Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, and W.H. Harrison! Turns out the first ten presidencies were all run by aliens on vacation, with the aliens taking over as they took the oath of office. What can Tyler do to save them? Features lots of presidential bickering (especially Jackson and J-Q Adams), an alien courtroom battle, and ends on modern earth. (Here's my science fiction & fantasy page.)

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#$%^%$#(*&^%&!!!!!

This morning I have a meeting at 10AM with Montgomery County school officials about a potential afterschool table tennis program. I was going to get up early to do the Tip of the Week and my blog. However, after a major run-in with the tenant downstairs, I was pretty much up all night, too irritated to sleep, and woke up this morning with a major headache.

I own a three-floor townhouse, and live on the third floor, renting out the first two floors. The 56-year-old person I rent to (who has a full-time job) believes that if he can't pay the rent I shouldn't question it. After much hassling, I was able yesterday to get $400 of the $1080 that was due a week ago, but with no promise on when or if he'd pay the rest, and he seems to think I should be happy that he paid that much. He believes that if he doesn't pay the rent on time, that I should assume he can't pay and I shouldn't ask for it. He's been late month after month, only paying after I hassle him for it, which he says is "condescending." As I belatedly discovered, he's got a credit rating about as low as is mathematically possible (quick pat on the head to myself: I have essentially a perfect credit rating. Yay me!), is a slob (I should take pictures), and keeps me up late at night with regular screaming fights with his 24-year-old son, who also lives downstairs. Recently they got so loud the neighbors called the police at 2:30 AM on a weeknight. I plan to give him one-month's notice soon.

So no blog today or Tip today; I'll restart tomorrow. 

Good Misses, Bad Misses

In a session with an advanced beginner yesterday, while hitting forehand to forehand (we're both righties), I pointed out to him the difference between a "good miss" and a "bad miss." Ideally, there would be no misses, but some are better than others.

When his shot went long, that was a "good miss" since at least he was driving into the ball, usually with some topspin, and he only needed to adjust his racket angle and perhaps not lift so much. When his shot went into the net, it was a "bad miss" because it usually meant he was taking the ball too quick and hitting it straight on into the net, rather than with any type of topspin. The same was true later on when I had him loop against backspin (multiball) - spinny loops off the end - good. Loops into the net - bad.

When his shot went wide (to my right), it was a "good miss" because, again, he was driving into the ball, and only needed to adjust his timing. If his shot went toward the middle of the table but actually hit the table, that was still a "bad miss" because it meant he was probably turning his wrist in and letting his racket tip fall back, i.e. it was a technique problem, not just a timing issue.

Another "good miss" is a missed serve that has lots of spin. When I play practice matches with juniors, I often claim "I wasn't ready!" if they miss a serve. I want them to push the envelope and go for great, spinny serves rather than wimp out and go for safe ones. If they serve high I'll return it passively, but mention they need to practice keeping it lower. (Key to that is a low contact point with a fine grazing motion.) A "bad miss" is any serve that misses - or hits! - that's not otherwise a good serve, i.e. spinny. (Not all serves have to be spinny, but I'm talking about players learning to serve with spin, not advanced players learning to serve no-spin that looks spinny, i.e. "heavy no-spin.")

Best Shots of My Life

Here are the best shots I've ever made in my life in a tournament, in rough order:

1. The dive under the table.
   This was against Marty Reisman in a hardbat challenge match in the late 1990s (so not really a tournament match), but it was at a tournament, so I count it. I was out of position and he hit wide to my backhand. I lunged over and chopped it back short to his wide backhand. He did a short drop shot to my forehand that went off the side. We were playing on a table where the table legs were near the end, and there was no obstruction underneath. So I dived under the table, in front of the table leg on my forehand side, and managed to scoop the ball back up onto the table. Marty pushed it back for a winner, though I didn't see it - was I was sprawled on the ground.
2. Forehand Counter-Smash From Two Tables Away While Knocking Over Eric Boggan.
   I was on table three playing Dave Sakai in 1983. U.S. Men's Champion Eric Boggan was on table one. I was back lobbing against Dave, and lobbed one high and wide to his backhand. I knew that Dave had this inside-out forehand smash he'd do on such shots, so as he was about to smash I ran way around my backhand to forehand counter-smash. Dave smashed it inside out with sidespin so it broke way over, all the way into court one. I ran after it, and ran right into Eric Boggan, knocking him off his feet - but I made the forehand counter-smash! Dave blocked it back for a winner, alas. Eric was not happy with me.
3. The counterloop against Allen Barth.
   He's a lefty, and he looped to my backhand in a tournament match in the early 1980s. I started to block, but the ball hit the net. I readjusted, but the ball hit the side edge and jumped to my left. I dived after it, and did a mid-air backhand counterloop around the net that just rolled on his side of the table for a winner. I landed on the floor on my stomach.
4. The underhanded counter-smash.
   This was against a much weaker player in the late 1980s. I was back lobbing, and the guy just creamed one to my forehand. I backed way, way back, and lobbed it back. He smashed again to my forehand, but not as hard. For some reason, spur of the moment, I did an under-handed counter-smash, bowling style. (I think I'd seen Jan-Ove Waldner do this shot, so perhaps I was subconsciously copying it.) It went in for a clean winner.
5. Backspin Chop Lob Ace.
   This was against Sunny Li, the U.S. Under 10 and 12 Champion in the early 1990s, and already rated something like 1900 or so. (He would go on to win just about every junior event up to Under 18 before going off to Iraq as a sharpshooter.) I was up match point, something like 20-15. Sunny served short backspin to my backhand. I chop lobbed it into the air so it landed very short on his forehand side and bounced back to my side for a match-winning ace. (I've also done backspin serves that bounce back to my side of the table, usually against in less serious matches, but those aren't great shots - I can do that serve 2/3 of the time.)

Kagin Lee Blog on the College Championships

Here's the blog that went up this morning, "The Making of the College Table Tennis Championships, 2013 Edition." (Kagin is on the USATT Board of Directors.)

ITTF Development and Education Programs

Here's a report on the ITTF's plans on this for the next four years.

Table Tennista

Here are this morning's headlines at Table Tennista.

• Zhang Jike Is The Cristiano Ronaldo Of Table Tennis
• Wang Hao Confirms Wedding In June!
• Shi Zhihao: The New Ittf Vice President
• Is Wang Hao Ending His Athletic Career After Marriage? (Video)
• Zhang Jike Is A Rare Talent!
• Wang Hao Too Tired For The Rio Olympics
• Why Doesn't Timo Boll Play The Doubles?
• Ma Long & Ding Ning Plays Mixed Doubles In The Chinese National Games
• Ma Lin's Ummc Is The New Champion Of The Russian Premier League! (Video)
• Zhang Jike's Adversary Hasn't Been Produced Yet (Videos)

Ping Pong Hustler

Here's a short film (15:03) made in 2006 featuring the late great Marty Reisman.

Table Tennis Movie Posters

I did a Google search for "Table Tennis Movie Posters," and this is what I found. Lots of great pictures!

Scripps National Spelling Bee

Table Tennis Nation did this preview of the spelling bee - turns out a number of the contestants are table tennis players! Alas, the final winner wasn't one of the table tennis players, even though three of the four finalists were.

River Table Tennis

Here's a video (39 sec) of table tennis played on a floating mini-table in a river! Added bonus - you get to see player fall into river.

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Top Ten Table Tennis Things That Were At One Time Unthinkable

Some things to ponder! These are not in any particular order.

1. Games to 11. It's hard to believe, but over a decade later I'm still uncomfortable with it. I much prefer games to 21 with five consecutive serves. With games to 21, a player could spend the first game getting used to the opponent, trying out different tactics, and even if he lost, the opponent still had only two chances to win a second game to 21 - and if he could win a game to 21, he's just better on that day. Now if you spend the same time adjusting to an opponent, you are down 0-2 in games, and the opponent has three chances to beat you in a short game to 11. Just about anyone decent has a chance in a game to 11. As to serving, with five consecutive serves you could really use them to set up an opponent. It's not quite the same thing when you only serve twice in a row.
2. Ball is 40mm. It did slow the game down a bit, and cut down on spin. It didn't really make a big difference to me, though it does make counterlooping and fishing easier. So perhaps a good thing. It hurt the pure chopping style, but may have actually helped chopper/loopers (because of the better counterlooping, and because the bigger ball gives them more time to get in position to counter-attack). It also helped kill off the hitting style at the higher levels.
3. Gluing is illegal. Modern sponges make this relatively unimportant. Players today often forget or never knew what it was like to constantly have to time your reglues at tournaments to maximize the effect, not to mention gluing every session before playing. Did we really do that???
4. Hidden serves are illegal. But many world-class players openly break the rule. This bothers the heck out of me. We face this in U.S. tournaments all the time, where some tournaments (including junior events) are won by whichever player would hide his serves illegally and get away with it. It was worse a few years ago, so I'm happy with that.
5. There are no pips-out penholders among the best players in the world. If you had predicted that in the 1980s you'd have been laughed at, though the signs that the style was in trouble were coming out by that decade. (Who is the best current pips-out penholder among men and women? Anyone know? I'm hitting a blank. I'm guessing there are still some relatively top women who play that way, but my brain isn't cooperating this morning - I was up until 3AM on a writing project.)
6. Penholders use the reverse side of their paddles for backhands. Aw, c'mon, that's just wrong. Except . . . pretty much all the top penholders do this, and it basically single-handedly saved the penhold style. (World #1 Xu Xin and #4 Wang Hao both play this way.) Ryu Seung Min, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist and current world #21, is I think the last of the great penholders with a "conventional" backhand, and he does it in spite of his weak backhand, with great footwork and a great forehand. Anyone know who's the best after him? (A few "old-timers," such as Ma Lin, still block with conventional penhold backhands.) Of course, there will come a time when the reverse penhold backhand will finally be "conventional," and we'll have to find a new name for the "conventional" backhand. Old-style?
7. The best players in the world often receive short balls to the forehand with their backhands. No way! This is wrong! Bad technique! Use the stupid forehand flip! Except . . . the best players in the world are now doing this. This is right! Good technique! (Welcome to the age of the Backhand Banana Flip, where you can flip any short serve aggressively with topspin and sidespin.)
8. Table tennis is an Olympic Sport. Whoa!!! It happened in 1988.
9. Some of the biggest money events in table tennis are sandpaper table tennis. I believe there have been two $100,000 sandpaper tournaments. Mention this to Stellan Bengtsson and see if he turns red with anger or if he falls to the floor laughing.
10. A full-time table tennis center centered on coaching could survive in the United States. It'll never happen. There simply aren't enough players in the U.S. to sustain a pipe dream like this. I wish I'd tape recorded all the prominent people in table tennis who told me this at various times before we opened the Maryland Table Tennis Center in 1992 (then called the National Table Tennis Center), and in the years since when many believed our situation was "unique." Now, of course, there are about 60 of them, the great majority of them popping up in the last seven years. This is the best thing that's happened to table tennis in the U.S. in modern history.

My Upcoming Plans

Here's my upcoming schedule and plans.

• Coaching 20 hours/week. (Less during summer camps.)
• Blogging and Tips of the Week.
• Coaching at Eastern Open, June 8-9.
• Ten consecutive five-day camps at MDTTC, 10AM - 6PM each day, June 17 - Aug. 23. (I'll miss two weeks for the U.S. Open and the TNEO writers workshop, and possibly another for the Junior Olympics.)
• Coaching and playing at U.S. Open, July 2-6.
• Attend TNEO, "The Never-Ending Odyssey" Writers Workshop in Manchester, NH, July 19-27.
• Coaching at Junior Olympics, July 29-31 (tentative).
• Attend ITTF Level 2 Coaching Seminar at Lily Yip TTC, Aug. 26-31. (Just made that decision last night.)
• Run ITTF Level 1 Coaching Seminar in South Bend, IN, Oct. 2-6. (I may also run one in Maryland, as I did in 2011.)
• Do rewrite of my book Table Tennis: Steps to Success, tentatively retitled Table Tennis Fundamentals, with all new pictures.
• Do rewrite and expansion of my book Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis, with all new pictures.
• Organize new Junior Team League for the Maryland region, starting this fall.
• Continue to write science fiction and fantasy as a fun money-making hobby, see lots of movies, and read lots of books.

USATT CEO Blog

Here's Mike Cavanaugh's blog on Tuesday, where he focuses on Memorial Day, Paralympics, and miscellaneous other items.

ITTF's "Ping Pong Paix" Wins the 2013 Sport Accord Spirit of Sport Award

Here's the article and video (1:19). The award was given out last night in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Why Timo Boll Doesn't Play Doubles

Here's the article - but the short answer is "To save energy." As Timo points out, the top Chinese do the same. (I'd wondered about this in my blog during the Worlds.)

Guide Dog Table Tennis

Who says you need to see to play table tennis?

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U.S. Open Entries Shooting Up

They are up to 847, with more likely being entered as I type this. (They were at 835 when I started writing this.) You can check the numbers, see who's entered, and find out who is in what events here. The deadline for entering the Open ended on May 24, last Friday.

Note that there is no Men's or Women's Singles listed, or Under 21 Men and Women. These four events are part of the ITTF Pro Tour event, technically called the "America's Challenge Series." You can see the list of entries for that here. (This goes straight to "Men Entries." For women, click on the link for "Women Entries" at top left.)  The listing says there are 86 entries, which seems strange because I see 34 men and 32 women listed, or 66 total. I don't see a separate listing for Under 21 - they seem to be included in the Men's and Women's listings. The deadline for entering is June 3, so more entries are probably coming. Here's the ITTF page for the America's Challenge Series.

There's an overlap between the events - many players are entered in both the Open and the Pro Tour Events. (But there are restrictions - for example, players were told they had to choose between the Under 21 events and the Junior Team Competition in the Open, since both start Tuesday morning.) To get an exact number I'd have to go through the Pro Tour entries one by one to see if they are also in the Open, so I'll leave that to someone else. (Plus it's kind of pointless right now, since the Pro Tour deadline isn't until June 3, so there'll be more entries.)

It'll be the most entries at an Open since the ratings went online in 1994 (so you can check the numbers), and has already topped the most for a Nationals, the 837 in 2006. The "normal" record is still held by the 1974 and 1975 U.S. Opens in Oklahoma City and Houston, where we had over 1000 entries. We were also over 800 at the Open a number of times in the 1980s when it was held in Miami Beach. (I did all the computer entry input for two U.S. Opens, I believe in 1988 and 1989.) Technically, the record is held by the 1990 U.S. Open in Baltimore, where there were something like 2000 players, but that included players in the World Veterans Championships and a World Junior Championships (not sure of the exact title of that).

One discrepancy problem - numbers given online for Opens and Nationals do not show those entered only in doubles, hardbat, or sandpaper events (since they are not rated by USATT), while the listing for this year's Open does. This is especially true since the introduction of hardbat events at the Nationals in 1997 and at the Open in 1998. For those years, you can probably add 20-30 entries to the numbers. Before that, perhaps add 10-20 for doubles-only players.

• Here's a graph showing U.S. Open entry numbers, 1994-2012.
• Here's a graph showing U.S. Nationals entry numbers, 1994-2012.
• Here's a listing of the location of all U.S. Opens and U.S. Nationals in our history. There's often a correlation between the number of entries and the location. When it's run in a vacation city like Las Vegas or Miami/Fort Lauderdale, entries tend to go up. This doesn't explain the huge numbers in Oklahoma City and Houston in 1974-75 - I'm told that happened because of lots and lots of promotion, primarily from Ron Shirley.

I'll be at the U.S. Open (of course!) both coaching and playing. My focus there will be coaching, but I'm also entered in a bunch of hardbat events (Open, Over 40, Open Doubles, Over 50 Doubles) and Open Sandpaper. I've won a bunch of these hardbat events in the past, and hope to add a few more while I can still play. If there are a lot of conflicts in my schedule with players I'm coaching, however, I might have to default some of them.

Hardbat doubles has always been my strength. (I'm normally a sponge player, and coach sponge, but hardbat is a sideline.) I've won it 13 times at the Open or Nationals, nine times with Ty Hoff, four times with Steve Berger. Neither of them are playing this year, so I have a new partner - Jay Turberville in both Open Hardbat Doubles and Over 50 Hardbat Doubles. (They only started the Over 50 Doubles last year, and this is my first time playing in it.) Hopefully our styles will mesh. In hardbat, I'm an all-out forehand attacker with a chopping backhand. I believe Jay is mostly attack from both sides, though he can also chop. As to singles, I've won Over 40 four times and Open Hardbat twice, but it's harder and harder every year to play my all-out forehand attack, and I'm 53. I could of course chop more, but then my level goes down. (Also, I use a very fast hardbat racket for attacking, and it's difficult to chop with it. If I went to a slower, more defensive blade, my forehand attacks would be less effective.)

I am so tempted to enter Over 50 Men, which starts Friday at 6PM. The top seed is rated 2280, not that far ahead of me. (Dan Seemiller isn't entered - so far.) If I play well, I'd be in the mix for that event. However, I'm already in too many events, and the more I play, the more conflicts there would be with my coaching. Plus, perhaps even more important, while I can go from sponge to hardbat easily, the reverse is difficult, and after playing hardbat events from Tue-Thur, I doubt I'd play well with sponge on Friday. (Though I would be playing some sponge - warming up players I coach. Not quite the same thing, though)

How Table Tennis Players Should Introduce Themselves

I've never been good at recognizing people. At tournaments people regularly come up to me to say hi, and I'm lost as to who they are. It's not their fault; it's mine. Many of them were at camps I've run, or players I've played or coached against. So here's my solutions, as I explained to some of our players at MDTTC: for now on, at tournaments, table tennis players should adopt a new method of greeting whereby instead of saying "hi" and shaking hands, they call out their rating and shadow practice their forehand and backhand strokes. From that I will unerringly know who they are. I'm sure most could similarly recognize my snappy forehand stroke, or my even more distinctive forehand pendulum serve where I tend to jerk my head.

Table Tennista

As usual, there are lots of international articles at Table Tennista. Here are the current headlines.

• Zhang Jike's Adversary Hasn't Been Produced Yet (Videos)
• Timo Boll: Chinese Players Don't Have Weak Points! (Video)
• Wang Hao Far From Disappointed (Videos)
• Li Xiaoxia: Ding Ning Was Not Confident (Video)
• Gao Ning's Chartres Is The 2012-13 French League's Champion!
• Dimitrij Ovtcharov And Yan An Will Join Forces In The 2013 China Open!
• Ma Lin's Ummc Took The Lead In The Russian League's Final! (Video)
• Xu Xin Now Knows Zhang Jike Is A Difficult Opponent! (Videos)
• Timo Boll Pleased To Partner With Ma Long In The Doubles (Video)
• Zhang Jike Still Praises Wang Hao (Video)

Laser vs. Ping-Pong Ball

Here's a video (2:21) showing what happens when a laser beam hits normal objects, including (58 seconds in for 22 seconds) a ping-pong ball.

USA Soccer Team Members Play TT

Here's a video (5:12) from last year where "U.S. Men's National Team players Brek Shea, Juan Agudelo, and Heath Pearce battle it out for table tennis supremacy during their downtime from training."

Non-Table Tennis Writing

Yesterday Science Fiction Writers of American published my article "Fifty Writing Quotes." It's literally what the title says, fifty quotes I came up with about writing for the benefit of writers. They pay 5 cents/word, so I got $45 for the article. (Here's the direct permanent link.)

I also sold two science fiction stories this month: "Human Help Desk" (1000 words) on May 3 to Abyss & Apex, and "Tyler's Ten" (6800 words) to New Myths Magazine. Plus my SF story "Better or Worse?" came out in Suddenly Lost in Words Vol. 3  on May 23. It's been a busy year for my SF writing; I have two other stories forthcoming, "Leashing the Muse" (4800 words) coming out soon in Space and Time Magazine, and "Galahad Returns" (6300 words) in Weird Tales, scheduled for their October issue.

Stop Monkeying Around

An orangutan with a modified penhold grip. (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

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May 28, 2013

Tip of the Week

What to Do at the End of a Close Game.

Here Was My Weekend

SATURDAY. I was coaching pretty much all day. I gave a private lesson from 9:15-10:15AM, then a group beginning/intermediate junior session from 10:30AM-Noon. From 2-4 PM I gave private lessons, and then from 4:30-6:30 was a practice partner for a group session.

Probably the most interesting session was the 9:15-10:15AM session with Sameer, 11, rated 1181. I've been coaching him at his house where there's only about four feet going back. Today was the first time I gave him a private lesson at the club where there was room to go back - so much of the lesson was on looping against block, which he can't do at his house. He's going to start taking more lessons at the club for this reason. He has a tendency to stand up straight, and then his strokes fall apart. When he stays low and doesn't rush, he's a lot better.

In the afternoon one of my sessions was with John Olsen, 56, rated 1999. I've been working with him for a few years now, and now he's playing me dead even in our practice matches. Against juniors, I'm still pretty good, but more experienced tactical players are starting to see the holes in my game now that I've slowed down to sloth speed. It's not easy being a mostly one-winged attacker when your feet move like a sloth. Add that John's used to my serves, and that my blocking in matches has also deteriorated due to slower footwork (yes, good blocking takes footwork), and he's not easy to play anymore.

That night I saw the movie Epic, which I thought was pretty good. If you go to see it, early on there is a scene where the main character, M.K., takes a taxi to visit her father out in the wilderness. She has a short discussion with the taxi driver. The taxi driver is voiced by none other than Judah Friedlander, one of the stars from 30 Rock, stand-up comedian, and well-known table tennis player! (I've given him several private lessons. That's why he's the World Champion.)

I looked around that afternoon and realized how spoiled players at MDTTC are, along with a few other clubs around the country. Regular club players were playing side-by-side with some of the best players and juniors in the country. Here's a listing of some of the players or coaches at the club that afternoon, with their rating (and age if a junior - lots of good juniors!), with apologies to those left out.

• Cheng Yinghua, 2614
• Wang Qing Liang ("Leon"), 17, 2587
• Jack Huang, 2526
• Chen Bo Wen ("Bowen"), 14, 2498
• Harold Baring, former #2 in Philippines, 2400+
• Raghu Nadmichettu, 2331
• Richard Doverman, 2310
• Crystal Wang, 11, 2292
• Zhang Liang Bojun ("Brian"), 16, 2251
• Chen Jie ("James"), 16, 2249
• Tong Tong Gong, 15, 2246
• Stephen Yeh, 2233
• Derek Nie, 12, 2215
• Roy Ke, 13, 2191
• Lixin Lang, 2187
• Heather Wang, 2181
• Barbara Wei, 2178
• Larry Hodges, 2145 (I'm getting old!)
• Greg Mascialino, 2099
• Changli Duan, 2080
• Changping Duan, 2065
• Amy Lu, 12, 2022
• Princess Ke, 12, 1953
• Adam Yao, 11, 1908
• Tony Li, 11, 1799
• Wesley Duan, 12, 1761
• Tiffany Ke, 8, 1430
• Lisa Lin, 9, 1385
• Missing on Saturday, but back on Sunday: Nathan Hsu (17, 2397) and John Hsu (2248)

SUNDAY. I coached a 6-year-old from 10AM-11AM. He's up to 86 forehands and 35 backhands in a row against multiball. But at his age hand-eye coordination is a problem, so we spent some time on ball bouncing. He was able to bounce the ball up and down on his racket seven times, a new record for him. It isn't easy as his reactions at this age aren't fast enough to really react to the ball in the time it takes to bounce up and down on his paddle. He could just bounce the ball higher, but then he loses control.

I was off until that afternoon. I had another private session from 3:15-4:15, then a group junior session from 4:30-6:00. While I was coaching there was an elderly woman hitting with an older teenager for about an hour, and I realized they had been there the day before as well. I'm guessing it was a grandmother and grandson. What made it interesting is both had these identical windmill-style forehands, sort of like an exaggerated Dick Miles forehand (if you've ever seen that!). They'd bring their rackets way over their heads like a windmill, then bring it down and hit the ball. They weren't much beyond the beginning stage, but it was somewhat obvious he had learned his strokes from her.

The group session was smaller than usual because of Memorial Day weekend. With three coaches (myself, Raghu Nadmichettu, and John Hsu), and a practice partner (11-year-old Tony Li, rated 1799, who helps out in these sessions), the kids got a lot of one-on-one practice.

MONDAY. I believe yesterday was the first morning since Christmas where I didn't have either a blog or coaching in the morning. I actually could sleep late! (Except my 15-year-old dog, Sheeba, can no longer last the night, and as usual got me up at 4AM to go out.) I got a lot of work done on various writing projects.

Plastic Ball Conflict of Interest?

To quote from the OOAK forum, "It comes to light that Dr. Joachim Kuhn, the ITTF Equipment Committee member in charge of ball testing and approval, the man behind the report about how great the new plastic balls are (that was recently suppressed by the ITTF without explanation) has a MAJOR conflict of interest. Turns out that Dr. Kuhn's wife, In Sook Yoo, is one of the two patent holders, so Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn stand to make money on every new ball sold." There are discussions on this on the OOAK forum and About.com.

Kanak Jha Wins Two Silver Medals at Polish Cadet Open

Here's the pictures and caption. The events were Cadet Boys' Doubles and Teams.

What Table Tennis Is All About

Here's a new tribute video (4:50) from Genius Table Tennis.

Worlds Pre-Match Light Show

Here it is (2:13)!

Meet Coach Richard McAfee

JOOLA put together this video (2:00) welcoming him as a sponsored coach. I think all sponsors should do this with all their sponsored coaches and players.

Will Shortz on TV

Here's a video (16:16) of world-renowned puzzlist and Westchester TTC owner Will Shortz last Wednesday on the Artie Lange Show, with guest host Colin Quinn. As described by Will, "The conversation started with puzzles, then segued to table tennis, and ended with me playing Colin in a TT match." The discussion turns to table tennis at 8:46 (here). For the record, Will won 11-1.

Real Table Tennis

Outside, where the buffalo roam. (Or cattle anyway.) Or perhaps indoors, on the floor, with shoes for a net.

Cartoon Fox/Kitten

I'm not sure if this Facebook picture is a baby fox or a kitten. (If you can't see it in Facebook, try this.)

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