I've been getting up extra early all summer to do the blog Mon-Fri (and the Tip of the Week on Mondays) because I had to coach all day at the camps at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. I also had to get up early on weekends to coach all day. Even on the two (2!) days I've had off since June I did the blog. (I was away for a week at a writers workshop, but that was NOT a vacation - that was hard work, and also started early each morning and often went late into the night. And don't even hint that going to the U.S. Open was time off, since I was coaching all day there!) Now that our summer camps are over (Week Ten ended Friday), and I finished my weekend coaching yesterday, I'm taking a day off. No blog today, and the Tip of the Week will go up tomorrow. I'm going to spend much of today lying in bed reading. If you hear a loud purring sound, that's me. Did I mention I have chocolate? (I'm also toying with doing something crazy, like driving up to Gettysburg, or the National Aquarium in Baltimore, or the National Zoo in DC. Or maybe I'll just stay in bed reading.) See you all tomorrow!

But I'll leave you with this. USATT is now rerunning some (or all?) of the 171 Tips of the Week I did for them from 1999-2003 (under the alias "Dr. Ping Pong") as a Daily Tip, which includes tips from other coaches. Here are a few recent ones by me: 

• Monday, Aug. 26: Do You Want to Know Your Opponent's Rating During a Match?
• Sunday, Aug. 25: Play Both Stronger and Weaker Players
• Friday, Aug. 23: Pushing Effectively
• Thursday, Aug. 22: What to Do with Problem Serves (I think this one needs elaboration - I may expand on it for a future Tip of the Week)
• Sunday, Aug. 18: Test Equipment

Also, here are the online results of the MDTTC Open held this past weekend, care of Omnipong and tournament director Charlene Liu.

Did I just do a blog on my non-blogging day off?

Orioles Photos

Yesterday I blogged about our visit to the Baltimore Orioles clubhouse, where the top juniors from MDTTC and I played most of their players. Here are the photos I promised! (I should have video of the Orioles pre-game show that featured table tennis next week.)

Here are two photo albums. All the photos in both albums were taken either by Qiming Chen or someone using his camera.

• Qiming Chen's Facebook Album (29 pictures)
• Larry Hodges Photo Album of Other Qiming Chen Photos (13 photos)

Most of the players in the pictures are identified by the photo name/caption, though you might have to click on the picture to see the full name/captions. In the second album there are two group pictures. Here are the captions for those two photos.

Kids Post, L-R - Chris Tillman, Darren O'Day, U.S. Open Under 12 Table Tennis Champion Derek Nie, Steve Pearce, Tommy Hunter, Orioles ping-pong table. Background - Chris Davis (back to us), Brady Anderson, Ryan Flaherty

Group picture, L-R - Darren O'Day, Tong Tong Gong, Tommy Hunter, Chris Tillman, Larry Hodges, Adam Jones, Nathan Hsu, Derek Nie (in front), JJ Hardy (in back), Qiming Chen, Miguel Gonzalez, Steve Pearce, Alexi Casilla, Manny Machado, and Troy Patton

The Atmosphere Inside the Orioles Clubhouse

Here's another article on the Orioles and Table Tennis

MDTTC Camp

Yesterday was Day Four of Week Ten of our ten weeks of camps. The focus was the backhand attack, mostly backhand looping. It was a breakthrough day for some. One girl who struggled all week with backhands and forehands sort of figured out the backhand today, though she's still struggling with forehands. Two others have transformed from passive get-the-ball-on-the-table backhands to serious topspinning backhands.

It wasn't all great - the natives were restless yesterday, as they often are on Thursdays. It's four days into the camp, but not the last day, so the day sort of drags for some of them. I pretty much accepted I'd have to say everything three times to get heard.

Here's something you don't do too often: yesterday I taught a 73-year-old man to backhand loop. He started off slow and awkward, but after time was smacking them in like a 14-year-old.

Today is the last day of our summer camps. It's been ten weeks and fifty days of non-stop action. Alas, I'm totally exhausted - and Raghu Nadmichettu is substituting for me today, so I'm off today, for a change. It's really a half day for coaching since we'll have a practice tournament in the afternoon.

Playing Well 90% of the Time

We have a top junior who's been struggling recently. Sometimes he's on, sometimes he's off. He's sort of in that class of player (like most players), who's at his best 1/3 of the time, plays average 1/3 of the time, and poorly 1/3 of the time. This is a common philosophy, and is serious mental mistake. Top players don't do this; in any important match, a top player is probably at his best 90% of the time. (My percentages are rhetorical, not exact.) Assuming you are playing regularly, and unless you have physical reasons not to be at your best - and many physical reasons are actually mostly mental - players should be at their best nearly always. It's all in the mind. Timing doesn't just come and go, but the mind does. If you are focused, the rest will come.

Here's a shortcut to playing strong mentally. Just think about the best match you ever played. Close your eyes, and get into the mental focus you had in that match. Then use that same focus in your current play.

The Making of Butterfly Blades

Here's a video (13:09) that shows how Butterfly blades are made. It's in Japanese, but you can still follow the video and images.

Lupi versus Rafa

Here's a video (22 sec) of table tennis star Ilija Lupulesku playing table tennis with tennis star Rafael Nadal (far side) in a battle of lefties.

Adizero Shoes Table Tennis Commercial

Here's a video (1:14) of a Adizero shoe commercial that features table tennis.

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Visit to the Orioles Clubhouse

Yesterday was an incredible day. As noted in yesterday's blog, we were invited to give a demo and take challenges from the Baltimore Orioles baseball team in their clubhouse/locker room. They have a nice Killerspin table and lots of room. Many of the players have been playing regularly for the past few years - and it showed! This was not a bunch of "basement" players; they were surprisingly good. About a dozen of them could show up at any table tennis club and battle with the regulars. (Photos are now up in Tomorrow's blog.) 

We were supposed to be there from 2-3PM, but the Orioles kept challenging and challenging, and we ended up taking them on for three hours, from 2-5PM.

There's already been a lot of media coverage. The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN, home of the Orioles and Washington Nationals) did a special pre-game show on it, but I haven't seen it yet. (They just emailed me that they'll mail me copies of the video next week.) There's a short article in the Baltimore Sun, and an article and video (1:19) on the Orioles home page. The video has a great interview about us from Orioles Manager Buck Showalter - you should hear what he had to say about us! They also have video of me, Tong Tong Gong, and Derek Nie in the stands watching the game that night, which started at 7:05PM. (Orioles beat Tampa Bay Rays, 4-2. We sat directly behind home plate! They showed us briefly on the Jumbotron. Nathan and Qiming couldn't stay for the game.)

The players from the Maryland Table Tennis Center were:

• Derek Nie, 12, 2012 U.S. Open Under 12 Boys' Champion (and looks about 10, only 4'7" and 70 lbs)
• Nathan Hsu, 17, 2011 USA Junior Olympic Under 16 Boy's Singles Champion and 2012 USA Junior Olympic Under 18 Boy's Singles Finalist, #1 Under 18 player in Maryland among U.S. citizens.
• Tong Tong Gong, 16, member of USA Cadet National Team (15 & Under), 2011-2012, who lives only 15 min from Camden Yards in Ellicott City, and is a big Orioles fan
• Qiming Chen, 21, past University of Maryland Champion and President of the Univ. of Md. Table Tennis Club 
• Coach Larry Hodges, member of the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame (hey, that's me!)

Playing for the Orioles? Over half the team was at tableside nearly the entire three hours, cheering and jeering. Here are the ones that I remember playing against us: Manny Machado, Chris Davis, Matt Wieters, Nick Markakis, Steve Pearce, Taylor Teagarden, Tommy Hunter, Darren O'Day, and Chris Tillman. (I probably missed a few.) Also playing was former Orioles star centerfielder and now VP of Operations Brady Anderson. Their best player, shortstop JJ Hardy (about 1800), has had recent back problems and so didn't play - but he acted as the scorekeeper for many of the matches.

Here's a group picture taken near the end - many of the players had already left. Tomorrow I'll put up more photos taken (mostly by Qiming), and hopefully identify the players. (I don't have time now - this is a rather rushed write-up, as I didn't get to bed until 2:30 AM this morning, and I have to leave to coach shortly - I'll be coaching until 8PM today.)

To get a flavor for what this was like, image playing table tennis with these stars, with over half the rest of the Orioles all gathered around watching! Many of the players kept coming up to me to ask table tennis questions, and I bravely introduced myself to some of the others. I met and spoke with Chris Davis, Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Brian Roberts, JJ Hardy, Manny Machado, Nate McLouth, Matt Wieters, Taylor Teagarden, Alexi Casilla, Steve Pearce, Miguel Gonzales, Tommy Hunter, Darren O'Day, Troy Patton, Chris Tillman, Brady Anderson, Manager Buck Showalter, and former hitting coach Terry Crowly. I mostly let the kids play, but I did play Tillman, Hunter, and Brady Anderson, and at one point I did an exhibition with Nathan, and at JJ's request, demonstrated my ball-blowing trick where I blow the ball in the air sideways, keeping the ball in the air by spinning it with my breath. Derek was especially in demand - everyone wanted to challenge him, and he ended up playing nearly half the team.

Much of the time I was standing next to Chris Davis, who leads the majors with 46 home runs after hitting another last night. We talked for 20 minutes on how players develop in skill sports, and how China is developing players in sports school funded by the government. He said that it's almost impossible to make the major leagues these days unless you have systematic training from the time you were a little kid, and that he'd been trained as a baseball player since he was four. Adam Jones and a few others joined in the discussion. When Chris had to leave, he pointed at his large locker area and said, "While I'm gone, Larry, my office is yours." (Here's a picture of Qiming Chen and Chris Davis.)

We owe JJ Hardy (the Orioles power-hitting and gold-glove winning shortstop) and Orioles Media Manager Jeff Lantz a huge thank you for all of this. They invited us, and made all the arrangements. When we first arrived, J.J. Hardy had set up an ambush for Orioles outfielder Steve Pearce, who had no idea what was going on. Pearce, apparently the Orioles third best player after JJ and Brady Anderson (if he counts, since he's not front office) didn't know what hit him when JJ suggested he play this little kid, who happened to be the 70 lb, 2291-rated Derek Nie. Pearce quickly realized he'd been had as the MASN cameras caught it all! So began the night. (Derek was nervous at the start, and since we didn't want to alert Pearce to what was happening, he didn't get any warm-up - and so started shaky, missing a couple of easy shots as Pearce tied it at 2-2. Then it was all Derek the rest of the way, 11-3.)

For the first ten minutes or so, the kids were very nervous, but the Orioles were so welcoming and friendly (when they weren't jokingly trash talking) that they quickly relaxed. At one point Tong Tong disappeared for a while; it turned out Steve Pearce had taken him out to the batting cages, where Tong Tong got to take ten swings against a practice partner pitcher. (Tong Tong and I were the two who knew all the Orioles; Nathan, Derek, and Qiming were all more or less baseball novices.)

Some interesting notes on the players: Nick Markakis plays with sandpaper, and can both chop and attack. Steve Pearce has a nice forehand sidespin loop. Chris Tillman has a pretty good smash. Manny Machado had incredible enthusiasm, never wanted to stop challenging us. Darren O'Day had lots of equipment questions and can keep the ball in play. Brady Anderson is an all-out forehand player, and can really move - he's in incredible shape, and wore both Derek and I out. He's improved dramatically since last time we played when I gave him a lesson at MDTTC in May. (He said he'd been playing nearly every day since then.) Near the end Derek and I played him a series of games. At first he was getting only 2-4 points a game against us. Near the end, as I tired and as he energetically continued to move at full speed, and he got used to my serves, and our last three games were actually close, including one game where (with a little net and edge help!) got to deuce. Derek and I both estimated him at 1800. He may give JJ a run for it now.

Afterwards player after player invited us to come back again, and based on the video interview with Manager Showalter (see link above), he seemed to like it to. Since the Orioles won that night, we are now their good luck charm!

Dimitrij Ovtcharov Smashing Speed

Here's a video (1:27, though it really ends at 1:14) of Germany's Ovtcharov (world #6) smashing as hard as he can with a radar gun, even tossing the ball up by the net and using a big wrist snap to add speed. His fastest was 122 kilometers per hour or 75.76 mph. This seemingly disproves the myth that a table tennis ball can be hit at 100 mph, assuming the radar gun is accurate.

Aerobic Table Tennis

Here's an article by former USA table tennis star Kim Gilbert on Aerobic Table Tennis.

Just Do It!

Here's video (1:32) of a new Nike Commercial that features table tennis about halfway through. The girl playing is Amanda Malek (daughter of 1979 USA Men's Singles Champion and Coach Attila Malek).

Venus Williams

Here's a picture of tennis star Venus playing table tennis at Madison Square Park in New York City on Aug. 21 at the Delta Open Table Tennis Tournament. (I don't think she actually played in the tournament.)

Baby in Backpack Pong

Is this singles or doubles?

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Exhibition and Challenges with the Baltimore Orioles!!!

Today I'm leaving the MDTTC camp at 11:30 to pick up some players so we can go to Orioles Park at Camden Yards (about an hour away), where from 2-3PM we're giving a demo for and taking challenges from the Baltimore Orioles baseball team! They have a huge clubhouse which includes a nice table with lots of room. We'll be surrounded by (on average) 6'3" 230lb multimillionaires. (Average major league salary in 2012 was $3.4 million; the Orioles are a little above that. Here's their listing.)

This all started in May when Orioles star shortstop JJ Hardy and former centerfielder and now vice president of operations Brady Anderson visited the Maryland Table Tennis Center, where I gave each a lesson and then they played our local juniors. (Here's my blog on that.) They, along with Jeff Lantz, the Orioles Manager for Media Relations, invited us for a return visit. It took a while, but we finally got it arranged. We even had to get approval from Manager Buck Showalter - who I'm hoping to meet, along with a few others, such as Chris Davis, Adam Jones, Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis, Matt Wieters, Manny Machado, and others.

I discussed with Jeff the idea of bringing in a large contingent of players, who'd get a tour of the Orioles clubhouse, then stay for the game, with a few of us giving the demo and exhibition. However, he and Buck discussed it and decided it'd be better to keep it a smaller affair so it wouldn't be a big distraction, and suggested we bring in three top juniors. So I invited Nathan Hsu, Tong Tong Gong, and Derek Nie. (See listing below.) Tong Tong, Derek and I plan to stay for the game - they're giving us free tickets. Nathan had a previous commitment; he'd volunteered as a guide for the incoming freshman class at his high school. (Bravo!) So he has to leave as soon as we're done at 3PM. His mom quickly recruited Qiming Chen to give him a ride to and from the event since she'd be out of town at the time. I explained the situation to the Orioles, and they agreed to add him to the list.

A number of locals (both juniors and adults) had asked if they could go on the reciprocal visit to the Orioles park, and I'd hoped I could, but it was not to be.

MASN TV (Mid-Atlantic Sports Network), home of the Orioles and Washington Nationals, is planning to do coverage and turn it into a pre-game show. One thing we hope to catch on video - JJ Hardy and Jeff are planning a "surprise" for one particularly brash player (the Orioles third best TT player after JJ and Brady), who won't know what he's getting into when he agrees to play a "friendly" game with a visiting kid, Derek Nie, 70 lbs, rated 2291.

Since all four of the players I'm taking are Chinese (and at least two have parents from Taiwan), they were pleasantly surprised to learn that Wei-Yin Chen of Taiwan will be pitching for the Orioles in tonight's game. (Well, Tong Tong and Derek were, since they're staying to watch with me.)  We're playing the Tampa Bay Rays, with who we're in a pennant/wild card race.

Players going with me:

• Derek Nie, 12, 2012 U.S. Open Under 12 Boys' Champion (and looks about 10, only 4'7" and 70 lbs)
• Nathan Hsu, 17, 2011 USA Junior Olympic Under 16 Boy's Singles Champion and 2012 USA Junior Olympic Under 18 Boy's Singles Finalist, #1 Under 18 player in Maryland (U.S. citizens)
• Tong Tong Gong, 16, member of USA Cadet National Team (15 & Under), 2011-2012, who lives only 15 min from Camden Yards in Ellicott City, and is a big Orioles fan
• Qiming Chen, 21, University of Maryland Champion and President of the Univ. of Md. Table Tennis Club 

I'll write more about this in my blog tomorrow.

Speaking of the Orioles, there was an article in the Washington Post Sports section on Monday that said, "[Adam] Jones has at least 25 home runs in three consecutive seasons, joining Hall of Famer Frank Robinson as the only Orioles to accomplish the feat."

On Tuesday there was a correction: "An Aug. 19 Sports article about the Baltimore Orioles' 7-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies incorrectly said that Adam Jones joined Frank Robinson as the only Orioles to hit at least 25 home runs in three consecutive seasons. Eddie Murray also accomplished that feat."

I just sent in a correction yesterday: "Dear Washington Post, the correction in the Post this morning (Aug. 20) about Eddie Murray also hitting 25 or more home runs at least three consecutive seasons for the Orioles (as well as Adam Jones and Frank Robinson) left out Cal Ripken, who did it six years in a row (1982-1987), Rafael Palmeiro four years in a row (1995-1998), and Lee May three years in a row (1976-1978). Jim Gentile and Miguel Tejada both missed it by one home run."

As of this morning, they haven't run my correction  For the record, Ripken from 1982-87 hit 28, 27, 27, 26, 25, and 27 HRs. Palmeiro from 1995-98 hit 39, 39, 38, and 43 HRs. Lee May from 1976-78 hit 25, 27, and 25 HRs. How could they miss this? Especially Hall of Famer Cal Ripken??? (Who, by the way, used to play table tennis with Brady Anderson; both have their own sponge rackets.)

MDTTC Camp

Yesterday's focus was the backhand. We had some interesting sessions. One kid had pretty good control, but kept sidespin swiping the ball; I finally took him aside for 15 minutes and straightened that out. Another also had good control, but had a very backhand grip and just jabbed at the ball. I also took him aside for a while and straightened that out. Both had some difficulty making the change as their old stroke was pretty ingrained. It's always easier when working with someone who hasn't played much. One older player had a pretty good backhand but almost no forehand; we worked on and off all day on his forehand, and it's gradually improving.

There's one girl who's a complete beginner, and perhaps the only one who can't really play games yet. All day long for two days she's struggled to hit forehands or backhands. Then, late yesterday afternoon when we played the "cups" game, where we stack the cups and let the kids take turns knocking them down, something happened. Out of the blue she kept smacking them, over and over! Before this she had about a 20% success rate in hitting the table, not to mention a three-inch wide cup. This time she knocked more cups off the table than anyone else (about ten players) two games in a row!

USATT Tip of the Day - Serve Violently!

Here's a tip on serving from Dan Seemiller, five-time USA Men's Singles Champion and former USA Men's Coach.

Table Tennis Good for the Brain

Here's a nice compilation of articles on this from Table Tennis Nation, with five links and a video (4:26).

Ping Pong Only Gets Better When You Add Crazy Visuals

Here's a video (1:12) of some serious psychedelic ping pong.

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MDTTC Camp - Week Ten

Yesterday we started the final week of our ten weeks of training camps. The kids were restless! I've never had so much trouble getting them to quiet down as we got started. I'm not sure if it was because school's one week away or because it was the last week of summer camps. (A number of them had been with us all or nearly every camp.) I had to send two of them to sit in the lounge, only the second time I'd done that all summer. (The previous time was when two kids got into a pushing fight, I think way back in week one or two.)

The focus on day one, as usual, was the forehand. We had a new group of beginners. Several had surprisingly good forehands to start with - not from coaching, but from watching and playing in their basements or other places. Two of them had been playing regularly at a table at their neighborhood swimming pool.

Watching the Ball

Players often advise beginners to "watch the ball." I always thought this was somewhat silly as I can't imagine anyone, even a beginner, not watching the ball, assuming they are playing serious. It's rarely come up when I coach, even with little kids, who naturally watch the ball intently. There are some technical aspects, such as do you watch the ball all the way to contact, or only to a certain point, since you can't react at the end?

I advise players to try to watch the ball right to contact, to allow for last-second adjustments and to make sure they are seeing the ball as well as possible. Watching the ball all the way especially helps when doing spin shots, where you just graze the ball, such as looping, pushing, chopping, and serving.

Some say you should look up sooner to see what the opponent is doing, but since at that point you can't really change your shot, that's pointless. You have plenty of time to hit the ball and then look up and prepare for your next shot, partially based on what the opponent is doing. Looking up sooner doesn't help any since the opponent doesn't yet know what you are going to do.

Here's something you can try doing - don't just watch the ball, watch the part of the ball you are going to hit. For example, if you are counterlooping, watch toward the top of the ball as the opponent's loop comes at you. The ball may be just this fuzzy white thing zipping at you, but you can still watch the top of the fuzzy thing. (If it's too fuzzy, perhaps you need glasses or contacts.) If you are pushing, watch toward the bottom of the ball.

Problems Reading This Blog?

Someone emailed me saying they were often getting Internal Server Errors when they came to this page. Anyone else having this problem? If so, please email me.

ITTF Level 2 Course in Atlanta

Here's an article from the ITTF on the course recently taught in Atlanta by Richard McAfee, Aug. 11-16.

USATT Tip of the Day

Here's a USATT Tip of the Day that features an excerpt from an interview with USA Olympian and nine-time U.S. Women's Singles Champion Gao Jun by USATT Magazine, from Jan/Feb 2000. The question asked by interviewer USATTM is, "What’s your secret? Can you share with our readers?" Gao's response starts off, "I have three words to share with everybody: PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE." (Guess who interviewer "USATTM" is? Yes, that was me! I was editor of USA Table Tennis Magazine from 1991-1995 and 1999-2007, twelve years and 71 issues.)

Gerry Chua's Video Page

Here's Gerry Chua's Youtube page, where you can find lots of table tennis videos.

The Warrior Versus the Mayor

Here's an article and video (15 sec) from Table Tennis Nation of Harrison Barnes of the Golden State Warriors playing San Francisco mayor Ed Lee in San Francisco‘s Third Annual Ping Pong Tournament and Festival in Chinatown.

Fancy Tables

Here are four fancy tables: Donald Duck and University of Oregon, Earth, some sort of texture, and Oregon State Beavers. (Click on each picture to see the next one.)

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Tip of the Week

Height of Service Toss.

How to Promote Major Tournaments

Over the years there have been numerous discussions on how to promote the U.S. Open and Nationals so as to bring in more players, more spectators, more press, and make it a better experience for all. There are many good ideas out there, and I read some excellent ones in a threat at about.com over the last few days.

But all of these excellent posters are missing the point - ideas don't get the job done. If you want to improve on these things, don't start by pushing ideas, no matter how good they are. Start by pushing to have someone officially in charge of implementing improvements. For example, if you think we need to present matches at the Open and National better, perhaps with more scorekeepers or better communication, don't press for more scorekeepers or better communication; press for someone to be in charge of presentation. Then there is an official person in charge of this, and he can officially push for these things, and they are far more likely to happen.

Want to increase the number of entries at the Open or Nationals? Have someone officially in charge of increasing entries. Want to have more spectators? Have someone officially in charge of bringing in spectators. Want more press coverage? Have someone officially in charge of media coverage.

You won't find success this way every time since not everyone officially in charge of something will do the job well. If they don't, then thank them for their services and put someone else in charge.

How do you find these people with a limited budget? You ask for volunteers. This is one of the most untapped areas for USATT. For example, I'm a member of Science Fiction Writers of America. They have about 1500 members, less than 1/5 the USATT membership. And yet they have an elaborate web page, run huge conventions (far larger than anything in table tennis - we're talking 5000 people in the biggest ones), have a fancy magazine, and do all sorts of membership services, far more than USATT - and they have exactly one part-time employee. It's essentially all volunteer run. (Why do they only have 1500 members? Because they have very exclusive and difficult membership requirements - to join, you have to sell a SF or fantasy novel to a select group of "professional" publishers - i.e. the highest-paying ones - or sell three short stories to a select group of "professional" magazines - i.e. the highest-paying ones.)

Coaching and Playing Idiosyncrasies

Every player and coach has his major idiosyncrasies. What are yours? Here are some of mine.

1. I rarely have a coaching session where I don't blow the ball back at least one time. (I do this less with long-established players - it gets old after a while - but new students beware!)
2. I rarely have a coaching session where I don't throw up at least one backspin lob that comes back to my side of the table.
3. I entertain the kids by blowing a ball in the air so it floats in the air over my head and to the side. (By using spin I can make it balance sideways.)
4. When telling a student how to hit the ball, I regularly say "bang" at the point where they contact the ball.
5. With beginners I often hum in rhythm to the ball going back and forth. It helps their timing.
6. I end many group sessions with the kids trying to smack a bottle as I feed multiball. If they hit it, I have to drink what's in the bottle - and it's never just Gatorade or water; it's always worm juice, beetle juice, dog saliva, etc.
7. I end most multiball segments with a high ball for players to smash.
8. As a player, when I'm serving I always start by rolling up my right sleeve slightly with my left arm, then swing my right arm underneath me one time (to loosen it up), then I come to a stop for a moment as I visualize my serve, and then I serve.

Learning the Side-Swipe Serve Return

Here's a video (10:24) of Chen Weixing showing his infamous side-swipe serve return with long pips.

New USATT Feature - Video of the Day

USATT's webpage has a new feature: Video of the Day. Today's Video is Getting Down to Basics (Tips from U.S. Olympic Coach Doru Gheorghe). Yesterday's was Top 10 Hand Switch Shots.

Video Review of Table Tennis: Steps to Success

Here's a video review (49 sec) of one my first book, Table Tennis: Steps to Success. The book first came out in 1993, with a new version in 2006. This video came on July 2, 2012, but this is the first time I'd heard of it. I'm working on a new version, which hopefully will be out by early next year. For now, if you are looking for a table tennis book, try Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers!

Great Lobbing Point

Here's a video (25 sec) of Xu Xin and Ma Long lobbing in doubles at the Harmony China Open. Did Ma Long make that sudden counter-smash at the end? I can't tell.

The Perfect Swimming Pool

Here it is.

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MDTTC Camp and a Day of Rest

After coaching 6-8 hours/day for 14 straight days, I'm finally off today. I was exhausted a week ago; there are no adverbs or adjectives in the English language that adequately describe my current state of exhaustion, so let's just say I'm tired. I went to bed last night at 11PM and slept to 9AM. That's unprecedented for me; I normally sleep about six hours/night.

However, I've got a "busy restful" day ahead. Nothing physical, but a few errands, and lots of paperwork stuff - editing, rewriting, organizing. Mostly stuff I've put off the last two weeks due to the busy workload. We have one more week of our ten weeks of camp this summer, and then I can go back to writing during the day, and coaching nights and weekends.

Yesterday's focus was the backhand loop. I had 4'7" 12-year-old Derek Nie demonstrate; as I think I mentioned in a previous blog, if he can backhand loop at a 2291 level (that's his rating!), then anyone can, right? However, the beginners aren't ready for backhand looping, and we focused on the basics.

The natives were restless yesterday - Thursdays is always the most "dragging" day, as it's four days into camp, but not the last day yet. I let the beginning kids go to games earlier than usual in both the morning and afternoon sessions. The more advanced ones are a bit more focused, and if anything, trained longer than usual before playing games.

The 5-8-year-old beginners aren't really ready for real games the first few days, but I decided they were ready yesterday. So I had twelve of them play up-down-tables for the first time - games to 11 (11-10 wins), winner moves up, loser moves down. Some picked it up right away; some had great difficulty getting the rules or the score right. Two found playing games so distressful they quit and wouldn't play, so I had those two just rally for fun while the others played. One enthusiastic 7-year-old dramatically improved this week, and won every game he played; this kid is going to be good.

During break I pulled out my Franklin Table Tennis To Go Net Set, which allows me to set up a table tennis net on any table. It weighs about 12 oz., can stretch up to 75 inches across any table, and has adjustable clamps on the side that will grab about any table. (I'm starting to take it on trips wherever I go!) We set it up on the lounge tables (about six feet long), and the kids went at it. Nathan Hsu (about 2400) had some fun taking on challenges where he put the net near the far end so he only had about one foot of table space to aim at. Near the end coaches Wang Qing Liang and John Hsu joined in, and they put on a chopping versus loop exhibition.

An interesting thing happened during a private coaching session after the camp yesterday. I'm 53 and getting stiffer every year. After a day of camp, my muscles are like neutronium. I can still execute the shots at a pretty high level, but it's not easy, and looping/counterlooping isn't as easy as before. The 13-year-old I was coaching is learning to counterloop, and has picked it up really well - he's about 1600-1700, and a very good rallier. So we went at it, counterlooping for perhaps 15 minutes. Afterwards I was about as loose as I've been in since around the time of Aristotle. Then we played a few practice games, and wow! I felt it was the 1980's again. I was all over the table looping forehands, and when he'd quick-block, I was jumping on those balls. Have to remember this next time I warm up for a match!!! (I've had similar experiences before, and already knew counterlooping loosens me up, but usually not this much.)

Discounted JOOLA Teams Entry for Sale

A local paid for an entry last year for the North American JOOLA Teams when the price was greatly discounted but can't use it now. He's willing to sell it for $600. (Current price is $799.) If interested, email me and I'll put you in contact with him. (The Teams, previously in Baltimore, will be held in Washington DC this year, Nov. 29 - Dec. 1.)

Training Tips from Waldner and Persson

Here's a video (40:03) with training tips from superstars Jan-Ove Waldner and Jorgen Persson.

International Training Camp in China

China will host an international training camp in September. Here's the article. China's Men's Coach Liu Guoliang said, "We will be organising an international training camp this September. We are inviting overseas players to participate and help them improve their overall level. It will better promote the development of table tennis. What is important is that more people will get involved into the sport and the masses will appreciate the charm of table tennis."

Play Table Tennis with a New York Mayoral Candidate

Here's the article from Table Tennis Nation. "If you've never tried to play ping pong with your favorite mayoral candidate before, now's your chance! By Donating money to Bill de Blasio for his campaign you will get the chance to face him in a ping pong game at SPiN New York this Sunday. Hitting some balls while sipping on cocktails and listening to good music seems to be the perfect way to have Bill Blasio loosen up and genuinely elaborate on his plans for the city as a Mayor. This genius plan comes from the award winning actress, ping pong ambassador and Spin co-owner Susan Sarandon who endorses Blasio."

Two-Year-Olds Playing Table Tennis?

Here's the video (19 sec) - on the table with a little multiball help.

Balls in the Face

Here's the video (17 sec) of the new Tumba Ping Pong Show! And here's another video (10 sec) from them, featuring a ping-pong ball and a cucumber in the mouth!

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MDTTC Camp

There seems to be two groups in this week's group of beginning kids: those who want to play real games (up-down tables games to 11, king of the table) and those who want to hit targets while I feed multiball (pyramids of paper cups, Froggy). Since we have twelve of these beginners in the 5-8 range, I've pretty much divided them into these two groups when we get to games. The better ones tend to want to play real games. None of the four girls want to play competitive games - they perpetually want to line up and take turns hitting the poor paper cups and Froggy. They're inseparable.

There is amazing improvement in their target skills. I end many sessions with the bottle game, where they line up and try to hit a Gatorade bottle that I assure them is filled with something disgusting, like squeezed worm juice, which I have to drink if they hit it. Both groups love this game - the competitive ones compete to see who can make me drink the most. Normally beginning kids in this age group don't hit it that often, but the last two days they've been incredible, hitting it over and Over and OVER! I've drunk a lot of worm juice.

I had a private session with one up-and-coming junior I've been coaching for the past six months or so, with a supposed rating of 950. Yeah, right - he can loop over and over against my block, and pretty hard. "You're really working me!" I told him as I was sweating pretty hard trying to block all his loops. He was looping forehands from his backhand side to my backhand block. Some people don't understand that blocking involves footwork; good blockers work hard to block well.

Nature Versus Nurture

After my blog on talent yesterday someone brought this article in Skeptic Magazine to my attention. It basically debunks the 10,000 hour rule and other arguments for the "no such thing as talent" belief. However, like many other articles, it discusses physical and mental skills as if they were the same. That many purely physical skills are mostly genetic (such as sprinting speed or jumping ability, i.e. fast twitch muscle) is fact, but the bigger question is about the mental ones, such as hand-eye coordination, etc. Some aspects, such as IQ, have been researched to death and much of that is genetic. Like many articles on the topic, the article doesn't really address how hard a player trains, just the hours put in - 10,000 hours of mindless training in a skill sport isn't anything like 10,000 hours of hard-driven practice. There is a difference. The article also cites this New York Times article on the subject, which also seems to show that talent matters.

Regardless, my experiences in table tennis show that even "untalented" kids will become very good if they put in that hypothetical 10,000 hours, as long as they really work at it and have good coaching. Can they become the very best? That's the more interesting question. My current views are in yesterday's blog.

My Life

My life seems to center around seven things.

• Table tennis coaching
• Table tennis writing
• Table tennis organizing and promotion
• Writing science fiction & fantasy
• Promoting my science fiction & fantasy
• Reading and watching movies
• My dog Sheeba (a corgi mix, now 15 and a half years old)

It's way too much. Here's my "Big Todo List":

• Full-time coaching.
• Daily Blog and Tip of the Week.
• Two upcoming ITTF coaching seminars, Sept. 2-6 and Oct. 2-7 (one I'm attending, one I'm teaching).
• Rewrite of Table Tennis: Steps to Success (tentatively retitled Table Tennis Fundamentals), with new photos.
• Rewrite of Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis, with new photos.
• Maryland Junior League (on hold for now).
• Promotion and translations for Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers.
• Promotion for upcoming novel ("The Giant Face in the Sky," coming Nov. 15).
• Writing sequel to "The Giant Face in the Sky," with plans to have it out in time for the World Fantasy Convention in Washington DC, Nov. 6-9, 2013.
• Rewrite of other novel, "Campaign 2100: Rise of the Moderates" - a publisher is interested, but asked for a rewrite, but with no guarantee that they'd accept the new version. 

Few from the table tennis world realize just how much time and effort I've put into my "second career," science fiction & fantasy writing. I've sold 67 short stories, and currently have 39 others making the rounds. I've got three other short stories in various stages of completion. Here's my science fiction & fantasy page, which I'm planning a major upgrade soon.

During our two-hour lunch break from camp this morning, besides taking the kids to the daily trek to 7-11, I'll be studying for the ITTF coaching seminar, and if I have time, starting the list of needed photos for the planned "Table Tennis Fundamentals" book.

ITTF Hopes Camp in NJ

Here's an ITTF article on the ITTF Hopes Camp being held at the Lily Yip Training Center in New Jersey, Aug. 10-16.

2013 Para Pan Am Games

Here's the USATT table tennis info page on the Para Pan Am Games, to be held in Costa Rica, Dec. 9-16.

Table Tennis for the Elderly in Virginia Beach

Here's a video (3 min) about a table tennis program for the elderly at Westminster Canterbury in Virginia Beach. It shows a 101-year-old playing, interviews the elderly, and talks about the benefits to the brain.

Table Tennis "Boogie Woogie" - Shot of the Day!

Here's a video (32 sec, with replays) of an incredible shot in the final of the 2013 Netherland National Youth Championships.

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Talent and Table Tennis

There's a lot of online debate and many books (from The Sports Gene to Bounce) and articles out about talent versus environment. How much are top athletes born and how much is made? There's no question that most of it is made, but is there such a thing as talent? Well, yeah. And remember that this is a blog, not a scientific study, so much of what I'm writing is based mostly on my experiences as a table tennis coach. I've also discussed the topic several times with my uncle, who chaired the neurology department at Johns Hopkins for many years.

Some say there is no such thing as talent, and that's nonsense. No two brains are identical, even at birth. There are many studies that show, for example, that IQ is mostly genetic, and yes, intelligence helps in table tennis. (It's a bit more complicated than that - there are different types of intelligence - but I'm not going to get into that here.) The brain is a complex organ that's evolved many built-in areas of specialization (verbal areas, spatial skills, facial recognition areas, etc.), but just as there are variations in the rest of the body, there are variations in these areas of the brain because of the variations in the DNA. Some of these areas help in sports such as table tennis, meaning some players start out with at least an initial advantage.

The real question is how much difference does it make? I'm pretty sure anyone who starts out very young, with top coaches and lots playing time, will become a top player, even a great player - but can they become the very best? I'm not sure. I've seen many players train and train as single-mindedly as anyone, and not get anywhere, while others do far less work and pull ahead. Perhaps an "untalented" kid who starts at age 5 can seem to be a "talented" kid by age 7. But what about the "talented" kid who also starts at age 5? However, the law of diminishing returns is how the "untalented" one can catch up. As the years go by, the amount and quality of the training becomes more and more important and where the player started in terms of "talent" becomes less important. So the question is how much, in the end, that initial "talent" mattered? Hard to say.

Oh, but what is talent you ask? It is a natural aptitude or skill for a particular activity. Since table tennis involves a number of diverse activities, the talent that makes up a top table tennis player is a combination of many of these. There is also a difference in mental versus body talent. If someone is born with more fast-twitch muscles - which you can't really increase afterwards - that's body talent. If someone is born with more hand-eye coordination than others, that's brain talent. (Don't believe that a brain can be born with natural hand-eye coordination? Then how is a chameleon born with the ability to snatch flies out of the air with its tongue? Okay, that's tongue-eye coordination, but same idea. There are many other examples, such as monkeys and squirrels that can almost flawlessly jump from tree branch to tree branch.) Here are just a few of the skills needed for table tennis:

1. Hand-eye coordination
2. Ability to control body
3. Ability to make smooth and controlled movements
4. Ability to track the ball with the eyes
5. Mental skills (many)
6. Ability to mimic
7. Ability to repeat a motion
8. Reflexes (big topic here - this is mostly sport specific and learned.)
9. Speed (fast twitch muscles)

The chances that a player hits the jackpot with all of the above, and just happens to not only be a player but have the right circumstances to become a top player, is minute. However, of the pool of players who do have these circumstances, some will start out ahead in most of these attributes.

Some elite players refuse to accept the idea that talent does count (at least at the highest levels), for several reasons. First, they became highly successful because they often believe they will be the best if they outwork the others. So there's an inherent bias toward believing that, even if it's not necessarily true. No coach wants to tell a player that he's not as talented as this other guy, but if you work hard, you can be second best!!! So they don't, but often it is true. (On the other hand, the less-talented one will usually come out on top in the long run if he works hard simply because the more talented one doesn't work as hard.)  Second, those who are successful would rather attribute it to how hard they worked than on being lucky to be talented. Third, elite players train with other elite players, and rarely work on a regular basis for years with a non-talented player. Those who have quickly see the different in inherent talent among junior players, just as the juniors themselves do.

On the other hand, since the players that start out more talented are usually the ones that stick with it and work hard, since they have more noticeable improvement when they do, while the less talented ones get frustrated and tend to leave. This skews the stats, leaving us with fewer untalented ones who trained for years alongside the more talented ones. It can become self-perpetuating, as the more talented ones work harder and get ahead, thereby "proving" that the harder-working ones get ahead. Or the reverse, that the more talented ones get ahead, since the ones who started out better tend to end up better - but that's because they were both more talented and worked harder - but the hard work often comes about because of their initial talent.

The kids in our camps this summer are good examples of differences in "talent." Here's a listing of some younger beginning players I worked with who said they had never played before, though of course we don't really know their backgrounds. (These are the more interesting cases that stood out in my mind; there were many more.)

• Player A, age 5. He picked up forehand and backhand very easily. Strokes were smooth from the very start. By end of week was smacking in shots as well as kids nearly twice his age, and beating most of them in games.
• Player B, age 6. He picked up shots very quickly, and was smashing in forehands from day one. Not a lot of control - only about 20% of his smashes hit, but he was very athletic and liked to go for shots. Spent all week trying to get him to focus on consistency. Picked up good technique easily. Moved well like a natural athlete.
• Player C, age 6. Could barely hit the ball. It took most of the week before he was able to hit two shots on the table. Very little hand-eye coordination. Tried hard most of the week, but sometimes got frustrated since others his age were obviously better.
• Player D, age 7. Everything he did was jerky. I spent all week trying to smooth out his strokes, but after five days he still tended to jerk into every shot, so many of his shots were almost slap shots. He was probably the most frustrating one to work with because he so obviously wanted to learn, but didn't, at least at this stage, seem to have the ability to do so.
• Player E, age 8. His shots were smooth, but he seemed to have little timing at the start. He was also almost unable to play when others watched - painfully shy. At the end of the week he was actually pretty accurate with his shots, but only if given the exact same feed. He seemed unable to react to any changes in shots, and so couldn't really rally with others.
• Player F, age 8. She picked up the shots almost from the start. Very smooth shots. It took all week to get her to hit hard, but on the final day she finally let loose and was smacking in shots.

It sure would be interesting to get all these players, and many others, together to train regularly for the next ten years and see where they end up.

Olympic Eligible Rankings

There's an online discussion about the USATT ranking lists and why they don't have a listing for both top players and top USA players, so I did some quick research. And here it is, the minutes from the May 2003 USATT Board Meeting! Here's Motion #1:

MOTION I: Moved that the Board implement a Standing Rule to highlight, in a separate list in the Ranking section of the USATT magazine, the Olympic Eligible players.
Proposed by Barney Reed; seconded by Robert Mayer.
Passed: 11-0.

USATT has little organizational memory, and so what is passed at one meeting is often quickly forgotten, as was this motion. I was USATT editor at the time and maintained that list for many years. At some point after I left they stopped doing so.

Around the Net Shots

Here's a video (1:08, with replays) of a rally ends with what looks like three consecutive around the net shots!

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MDTTC Camp and The Pongs of Power

There are lots of younger kids at the camp this week, which is Week Nine of our ten weeks of summer camps. It's the youngest group of the summer, maybe ever. We have about 30 kids, with about 20 of them under age 10. I'm in charge of the beginning under 10 crowd. In most past camps I pretty much worked with them on my own, but this time there are just too many - 12 of these under 10's are beginners - so coaches John Hsu and Chen Jie ("James") are helping me with them.

The focus yesterday was on the forehand. There were the usual problems - many want to put their index finger down the middle, don't turn their shoulders, lunge for the ball, try to take the ball too quickly, stand up too straight, and above all, won't close their rackets. (I probably said "Aim lower" five hundred times.) I'm always amazed that until about age 8 or 9, most beginning kids don't really understand that the ball is going to go where their racket is aiming. They understand it when I point it out to them, but it's something that doesn't really occur to many of them on their own.

We ended the day with the ten-cup challenge, where I set up a pyramid of 10 paper cups, and each kid had 10 shots (fed multiball) to see how many they could knock down. Several got 7 or 8, but four missed all 10. They now have something to work for. By the end of the week they'll be the terror of paper cups everywhere.

I called this week's beginning under 10 group "The Pongs of Power." What does that mean? I don't know, and neither did the kids, though they debated it. But it has a ring to it, and would be a great name for a music band.

We have a large collection of beginning sponge paddles. However, the rubber on about 2/3 of them was starting to come off the sponge, and so would flap about as they kids rallied. About half were essentially unusable. So yesterday during lunch break I took about 20 of them and glued them all back on. Most came out okay, though a few had bubbles, since I had to glue them wet and then flatten out the sponge by placing them on the table, some with weights on top. But most are now usable. This is what table tennis coaches do - they glue rackets, lead expeditions to 7-11, come up with group names, stack paper cups, and every ten seconds yell "Aim lower!"  

I've had one day off since June. I'm coaching Mon-Fri 10AM-6PM (with a two-hour break in the middle), along with about one private coaching hour per day. Weekends are even busier, and are mostly private coaching, which is physically more tiring. My hair, fingernails, and toenails are the only parts of me that don't ache. But I have this Friday off. (I did leave for that nine-day writer's workshop in July, but that wasn't "time off" as I was pretty much writing and attending workshops and classes all day. Somehow those aren't great for the back either - when I returned to Maryland, my back was solid neutronium.) After our summer camps end next week, I'll catch up on rest and life will return to normal, or as normal as it can be for a table tennis coach and writer.

World-Class Serve Training

Here's a video (5:01) that demonstrates a number of advanced serves.

Why Ping Pong Just Might Be the Elixir of Youth

Here's the article, and here's the opening paragraph: "Table tennis, ping pong, wiff-waff: call it what you will, it's increasingly popular in the UK, with 2.4 million players. Now there are suggestions it could even help with conditions like dementia."

Table Tennista

Periodically I like to list the current international articles at Table Tennista - and there are a lot of good ones right now! Here's a listing.

• Timo Boll: Zhang Jike Is One Great Champion (Video)
• Chinese Domination Creates Negative Impact Towards Competition
• Zhang Chuanming's Two Goals For Zhang Jike
• Liu Shiwen Will Defend Her World Cup Title In Kobe (Videos)
• Changes In The Next Season Of The Bundesliga
• How To Improve Your Footwork? (Video)
• Jun Mizutani, Ding Ning And Li Xiaoxia Withdrew From 2013 Harmony China Open!
• Best Of The Bundesliga Part 1 (Video)
• China Dominated At The 2013 Hong Kong Junior And Cadet Open!
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• Elizabeta Samara And Hugo Calderano Won The 2013 Brazil Open! (Videos)

Country Ping-Pong Showdown

Here's a video (1:57) of Ariel Hsing on the CMA Musicfest last night on ABC TV. She plays two men from the music group Lady Antebellum.

Top Ten Hand-Switch Shots

Here's the video (6:01).

Ping-Pong Strike

The most powerful loop ever - at a bowling alley? Here's the video (14 sec)!

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