Tip of the Week

Six Great Rallying Tactics.

Can a "2200 Player" Have the Experience to Coach at a High Level?

The question of whether a lower-rated player has the experience to be a top-level coach often comes up. The answer is yes, but rarely. I've seen numerous lower-rated players - some as low as 1100 - who were excellent coaches, even for high-level players. (I've also seen many former world-class players who couldn't coach at all.)

Some believe they can gain the needed experience to coach at the higher levels simply by watching the top players, usually on video. You can learn a lot that way, but if you think you can gain the experience to be a high-level coach just by watching the top players, you are kidding yourself. You not only have to watch them now, but you have to watch them on a regular basis as they develop. The key is not only knowing what they do now, but how they go there.

It also takes a certain type of mindset. If you watch top players play and gain strong opinions on how to coach players to reach that level, you are on the wrong course. You absolutely have to see what they do as they develop, in the playing hall while training and working with their coaches, and learn from this observing. There is no substitute for this. If you want to be a good coach, then find excuses to come watch these practice sessions. Do this for a few dozen sessions and you'll become knowledgeable. Do this for a few years and you have a chance to become a really good coach.

Some think you don't need to see top players developing if they are only going to coach lower-rated players. There's some truth to this - but often coaches who consider themselves good "beginner coaches" are only good for the first few months. For example, more and more players at the higher levels really topspin their backhands, and so if you want to develop a player with a bright future, you have to work toward that goal. Simply teaching them a basic backhand isn't enough. Other "beginner coaches" keep focusing on the basic counter-driving strokes so long that the player never learns higher-level techniques, such as looping over and over from both wings, counterlooping (the basic rallying shot at the higher levels), or advanced serve & receive. The biggest difference between a good "beginner's coach" and a truly great one takes place after the player can hit 100 forehands and 100 backhands. Does the coach keep working only on better and better forehands and backhand drives, or does he move on to more advanced stuff? You still need to focus on the fundamentals - here's my article Develop the Fundamentals - but the fundamentals of high-level play are a bit different than the fundamentals at the lower levels.

So to gain the experience needed to be a high-level coach, you either have to have been a high-level player, or to have spent extensive time with high-level players and coaches, both in training and tournament situations. I'm one of the lucky "2200 players" in that I have spent many years with top players and coaches. Here's my personal background:

• My regular practice partners my first few years when I started out (at age 16) included future stars Sean O'Neill (5-time USA Men's Singles Champion) and Brian Masters (Pan Am Men's Singles Gold Medalist);
• I spent four years as manager/director/assistant coach at the Resident Training Program for Table Tennis at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, working with coaches such as Li Zhen Shi, Zhang Li, Hennan Li Ai, and Liguo Ai, where I watched future stars develop such as Sean O'Neill, Jim Butler, Todd Sweeris, Eric Owens, Dhiren Narotam, Brian Pace, Chi-Sun Chui, Diana & Lisa Gee, and many more;
• I spent two summers as an assistant coach to five-time U.S. Champion and long-time USA Men's Coach Dan Seemiller;
• I've attended numerous coaching seminars by "elite" coaches - too many to list;
• I've spent the last 20+ years at the Maryland Table Tennis Center, where I've learned by watching (and coaching) top players and coaches, including Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, Xu Huazhang, Gao Jun, Amy Feng, Todd Sweeris, John Onifade, Sean O'Neill, Peter Li, Han Xiao, Sean Lonergan, Jeffrey Zeng Xun, Sunny Li, Brian Pace, and many more. That's five members of the Chinese National Team, ten members of the USA National Team, and a Nigerian National Team Member. Along the way I got to watch and work with many of the top juniors in the U.S. - and personally coached over 200 players to winning gold medals at the Junior Olympics and Junior Nationals.

So yes, it is possible for a "lower-level player" to gain the experience needed to coach at the higher levels - but it is rare that a player at that level gets the opportunity. You can't do it by just watching players at tournaments or on video; you have to watch their training on a regular basis, and learn from it. I've been lucky to have spent decades doing so. 

Today's Todo List

The never-ending list never ceases with its efforts to cease my work on finalizing my new book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers. All I have left are the covers and a final proofing, which I hoped to do this week, but the todo list grabbed me by the collar and shook me until it got my attention. I have no coaching scheduled today, so this is my "day off," right? Here's my list for today.

• Tip of the Week
• Blog
• Junior Class accounting
• New MDTTC tournament dates
• Redo and finalize MDTTC tournament entry form
• Update and print copies of the new Adult Beginning Class flyer
• Email updates to junior class parents
• Check on renewals for sponsorship contracts
• Take Sheeba (my dog) to Vet at 3PM
• Laundry
• Bank
• Arrange car checkup
• Find out why Super Shuttle is billing me $38.94 for a trip I cancelled well in advance
• Read and critique Codex stories (something from my SF writing sideline)
• Not on todo list, but there's an ongoing discussion about leagues with USATT officials which is also somewhat time-consuming, though I'm sort of pulling back from it because of time constraints.

World Championship of Ping Pong

USA's Ilija Lupulesku made the semifinals of the $100,000 World Championship of Ping Pong - a sandpaper events - held this past weekend in London. "Lupi" pocketed $5000 for his efforts. Winning the event for the second year in a row was Maxim Shmyrev of Russia ($20,000), who defeated Sule Olaleye of Nigeria ($10,000) in the final, apparently 11-9 in the fifth, though the scores seem to show him winning 11-9 in the fourth. (Anyone know the real scores?) Also playing from USA was Ty Hoff and Adoni Maropis. 

USATT Player Bio Questionnaire

Why not take a couple minutes to fill out the USATT Player Bio Questionnaire? It's so USATT's "...web streaming commentators will have additional information in case you are featured on center court!" You never know. And it's fun listing your best titles, ratings, etc.!

How Kids Benefit from Table Tennis

Here's an article by Samson Dubina on the benefits of table tennis for kids.

Ambassador Wally Green

Former "bad boy" now table tennis ambassador Wally Green's been getting a lot of press coverage recently. Here he is on the Steve Harvey Show (3:25), using a blackberry as a racket. His partner is Kazuyuki Yokoyama. When asked how he got into ping-pong, Wally said, "It started, I was in a lot of trouble, a guy saw I was in trouble, I was either going to be in jail or just have a terrible life, and this guy said 'Look, I'm going to help you learn ping-pong, so he paid for me to go to Germany for four months to learn ping-pong.'"

Here he is again at the 4th Annual Ping Pong for Poverty Celebrity Event in Virginia Beach (4:20). Here he says, "I used to be in a gang, doing some bad stuff. The worst thing that happened to me is I got shot twice, got stabbed a couple of times, not to the point of death. There were a lot of fights. I was a bad kid, let's say."

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How to Deal with Beginners at a Club

This is a semi-regular topic at table tennis forums, so I thought I'd address it.

Believe it or not, I actually did a skit on this for the USA Table Tennis Board of Directors about 10-12 years ago. It was probably the only skit ever done during one of their live meetings - and you wonder why I can never convince them to do anything!!!

They were discussing how to increase membership, a perennial topic for discussion, but rarely one for action. The problem was that none of the people in the discussion had any serious experience at the club level, which of course is where you get new players. (I've been doing this for decades.) The question of increasing USATT membership and how to deal with beginners at a club really are the same thing. In both cases we are trying to convert non-serious players into serious players - which mostly means converting one of the 15 million or so recreational players into one of  9000 USATT members. (That's roughly a 1700-1 ratio; we aren't converting very well.)

There are three types of beginners. (I'll get to them in a minute.) I'd explained this to the board numerous times, but generally to deaf ears, often to people with strong opinions that are not based on hands-on experience. I needed to find a way to get their attention and show them what really happens at the club level, and how we can convert these three types of new players into USATT members. It was while sitting in that board meeting, listening to discussions on how to increase membership by people who didn't know how to, that I hit on the idea of a skit to get their attention.

So I raised my hand and asked if I could give a short presentation on the subject. Since, for once, they weren't in a rushed schedule - they'd put aside something like an hour for the discussion - they agreed. So I told them I was going to act out the three most common types of interactions with new players - and note that this was exactly the same in table tennis and tennis, except that in tennis (and other successful sports) they had learned to address the needs of these three types of new players.

The skit was in three parts. For each part I actually walked out the door, and then came in. I played the part of both the new player and the club officer.

Part 1: I came in and said, "Hi, I'm a new player and I'd like play somebody." Playing the part of the club officer, and knowing that new player usually means beginner, and knowing that if I put a beginner up against an advanced player he'd get killed and we'd likely never see him again, I told him about our leagues, where he'd play players his own level. He played in the league against players his level, met new players, made friends, and became a regular at the club and a USATT member.

Part 2: I came in and said, "Hi, I'm a beginner, and I'd like to learn how to play better." Playing the part of the club officer, I told him about our coaching programs for beginners, both group sessions and private coaching. He signed up, learned about the sport, met new players, made friends, and became a regular at the club and a USATT member.

Part 3: I came in, and using a woman's voice, said, "Hi, my two kids would like to play table tennis." Playing the part of the club officer, I told them about our junior program. They signed up, made friends, and became regulars at the club and USATT members. And one of them went on to become National Champion.

I then explained that if a club doesn't have programs for these three types, then we lose them. (I also explained there's also a fourth type - a very small minority - which is the crazy guy who comes in, loses badly to everyone, but sticks around and becomes a serious player. They are rare, and are the ones we currently rely on for our membership (along with players from overseas).Hence the 1700-1 ratio.

How do we address these needs? For the player looking to play (Part 1), the answer is leagues. Until we have a nationwide network of leagues for players of all levels, we will keep losing these players. For the player who wants to learn more and for kids, we need more coaches. In both cases, either USATT or someone else has to take the lead in setting up these leagues, and in recruiting and training coaches.

Table tennis has done this in countries all over the world, and other sports have done so in the U.S. and all over the world. As I've blogged in the past, in Europe, nearly every country has more members in their table tennis association than their tennis association - because they address the needs of the new player. In the U.S., USTA has over 700,000 members to our 9000 - about an 80-1 ratio. If table tennis addressed the needs of new players as tennis does, and as table tennis does elsewhere, then we'd also have 700,000 members or more. But it's not going to happen by talking about it. It'll happen when someone does something about it.

I may actually take the lead in the coaching aspect, i.e. recruiting and training coaches. I've been toying with it for a while, but I'm too busy right now. USATT doesn't seem to have interest in acting on these issues, at least right now.

Petition for Table Tennis in School Curriculums

Last month I posted about this petition. Here it is again! (I'm the fifth signee; they need 25,000 by Jan. 11, 2013.) The petition is to do the following:

Include and recognize the sport of Table Tennis Aka "Ping Pong" as part of a school's athletic curriculum of choice.
Table Tennis should be included as part of a school's athletic curriculum of choice to participate and play. The sport isn't only a recreational past time but also an Olympic sport. The sport is considered and recognized relevant by other cultures. The sport is cost effective, fights the obesity problem among young Americans, and is non discriminatory. The sport can be easily incorporated in a schools current athletic curriculum, and easily be taught. Tables should be put on all middle schools to encourage start up programs. There are plenty of qualified coaches in the United States that would love the opportunity to teach and coach this fast growing sport. Starting in middle schools will also identify talented kids and Olympic hopefuls. This is the way It's done in China and Europe.

Review of the New Plastic Ball

Part 2 (14:35) just went up of the Plastic Ball Review from OOAK Reviews, "High speed filming of tests to compare relative rebound speed, bounce and spin." (On Wednesday I linked to Part 1, "Why the change and a comparison of their physical appearance.") Here's their home page, which links to both videos. I'll post here when Part 3 goes up, "Players from our Premier Division who have different styles of play and use different types of equipment try out the three balls and give their opinions on them."

World Championship of Ping Pong

It's being held this weekend, in London - but this isn't the World Table Tennis Championships; this is a sandpaper event, with $100,000 in prize money!!! (That includes $20,000 to the winner.) Here's the home page. Good luck to USA players Ty Hoff, Adoni Maropis, and Ilija Lupulesku!

Corkscrew Spin and Google

So you want to know what corkscrew spin is? This is where the ball spins so that the axis of rotation points away from you. Here's an example of clockwise corkscrew spin: just cut & paste "Do a barrel roll" into a Google engine - for most of us, it's the default search engine so you can just put this in your regular search box, or you can go to Google directly - and there it is!

Wang Liqin vs. Ma Long

Here's a great match (12:05, with time between points removed) between these two in a 2012 China Super League match

Best Table Tennis Clips of the Year

Table Tennis Nation chose the three best table tennis clips of the year, and the grand champion from those three. Two of them are paralympic players!

Amazing Shots While Rolling Around on Ground

Here's the video (1:12).

Modern Age Meets the Stone Age

Here's an iPong robot on a cement table. There's something really wrong about this. It's like a caveman with a machine gun.

Table Tennis Fun with Kids and a Panda

Kids and a Panda show how fun table tennis is in this video from PingSkills (2:23).

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Beginner's Topspinny Backhand and Forehand Looping

I'm coaching an 11-year-old who is developing well on the forehand, but has sort of a topspinny backhand. Instead of snapping the shot off in fast rallies he mostly rolls it softly, and so can't rally too fast yet. I've been working on this with him, but now I'm thinking perhaps I should just forget backhand counter-hitting and teach him to backhand loop almost from the start. We might have a close-to-table backhand looper in the making.

I've already taught him to loop against backspin, both forehand and backhand. Now he really wants to get into looping in rallies, though mostly on the forehand. (Despite his rolling backhand, I don't think he realizes yet that you can backhand loop over and over just as on the forehand.) He's already experimenting with looping against blocks when he hits around with others, so it's better if I start him off properly.

In our next session I'm going to explain Chinese versus European philosophy on this. (This is a generalization, of course.) In Chinese philosophy, you teach the basic forehand and backhand until they are so strong the player can do them in their sleep - and only then do you teach them to loop, which they consider an extension of the regular forehand and backhand. In European philosophy, you get to looping as early as possible, since that's eventually going to be their primary shot, so why not focus on it from the start? I'm sort of in between these philosophies, as I want the player to get the basics down first, but also want to get to looping as soon as possible. In this case, I think the kid is pretty much setting the course with his rolling backhand and determination to loop in rallies with the forehand.

New Year's Resolutions

1. Weight down to 170 lbs by April 1 (no April Fools joke!), and stay under 175 all year. (Current weight is 184.)
2. Rating over 2200, and overall level to 2250.
3. Write a new novel or other book, and at least 12 new short stories.
4. Read five classic novels - tentatively Hamlet, Dante's Inferno, Don Quixote, Paradise Lost, and Catch 22. If I find one of these boring, I may replace it with The Count of Monte Cristo.
5. Get all six of my books ready for sale in both ebook and print on demand formats by June 1 at larryhodgesbooks.com.

A few notes on these resolutions. Regarding #2, I'm basically retired from tournaments, but have decided to get in shape ONE MORE TIME and then play some tournaments. For one thing, I long for the days when I dominated against the local cadet players; now I feel like a punching bag half the time when I play them. (Thank god for serve and receive, where I still dominate, but that can only take you so far.)

However, I also feel somewhat cheated by my current rating, as it came about from two fluky events. First, at the 2012 U.S. Open, when I was rated 2193 (which is about right for me, since I'm almost 53, out of shape, and don't practice anymore - coaching isn't the same practicing), I played the sandpaper event. After playing with sandpaper all day, I finished my last match only to find my opponent and an umpire waiting for me for a long-delayed sponge match. I had two minutes to warm up, and that wasn't nearly enough, and there went 40 points. Then, last year, I did get into shape, was playing really well - close to 2300 level - so I decided to play a tournament. Unfortunately, I'm used to great playing conditions at the Maryland Table Tennis Center, and the tournament I went to had slippery orange-ish floors, and so I couldn't move or see the orange ball. I dropped out of the tournament halfway through, but not before dropping another 16 points, to 2137. At the recent Teams, the only other tournament I've played since 2007, I gained a few to get to 2145, but even there I felt cheated, as I lost a pair of close five-gamers to players rated 2314 and 2178, and to a 2266 player 0-3 at 9,9,10. (The online ratings have me losing to the 2178 player at 7,7,7, but it was actually 11-9 in the fifth. How'd that happen?) I felt that if I were in better shape I could have won all three of these. So . . . I need to get in better shape. So I'll be losing weight, doing weight training (again), and practicing. And then I'll be looking for tournaments with good playing conditions - especially the floors. (I did 40 minutes of weight training last night, as well as a 10-minute run.)

Regarding reading classics, I've read a few over the years. (I mostly read SF & Fantasy, plus some history and science.) The final list was made with help from Tim Boggan, who taught the classics for years as an English professor. Here are "classics" I've already read: Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Siddhartha, Moby Dick, The Old Man and the Sea, The Catcher in the Rye, King Lear, Robinson Crusoe, Frankenstein, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Metamorphosis, The Stranger, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Charlotte's Web, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, and A Christmas Carol.

The six books of mine I hope to have online by June 1 are Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers; Table Tennis Success (former Table Tennis Steps to Success); Table Tennis Tales & Techniques; Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis; Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook; and Pings & Pongs: The Best SF & Fantasy of Larry Hodges.

You'll note there is nothing in my resolutions about my students - that's because that's for THEIR resolutions. Of course, I'll do whatever I can to help them reach those!

Coaching Insects Dream

I do have the strangest table tennis dreams - perhaps it's because I not only coach and write table tennis full-time, but I'm also a SF writer. This is just a snippet - I'm sure there was more, but I don't remember it. I dreamed I was coaching insects (!) on little tables on the floor that instead of the normal 9'x5' were 9"x5" (still a bit large for an insect). I was coaching a tiny beetle against this much larger one when the larger one suddenly grabbed my protégé in its jaws and ran through a crack in the wall, where it presumably ate my student. I called out in horror and slammed my fists on the wall, but there was nothing I could do. I woke up feeling very sad.

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

Other than the covers and proofing, the page layouts are done. (Final version is 242 pages.) I hope to have them ready for sale online by February.

USA Nationals Video Recap

Here it is (1:57), care of JOOLA USA!

Mike Dempsey Memorial Championships

Here's an article My Experience at the Mike Dempsey Memorial Championships by Igor Botkin.

Forehand Counterhit Accuracy

Here's a coaching video on forehand counterhitting accuracy from PingSkills (2:30). Two methods are given for increasing accuracy.

Slow Motion Table Tennis

Here's some slow motion TT set to piano music (1:37) by PingSkills.

Best Table Tennis Shots of 2012

Care of  Table Tennis Daily (3:14).

The Best Table Tennis Commercials of 2012

Table Tennis Nation chose the top seven commercials that featured table tennis from 2012, ranking them in order, as well as six other finalists. The top seven, in order: McDonalds, Miller64, DirecTV, Maybelline, Snapples, JC Penney, and Bounty. (The Williams sisters commercial - see below - came out after they did their listing.)

Venus & Serena Williams Table Tennis Commercial

Here's an ad for the Apple iPhone 5 (31 sec) featuring the Williams sisters.

Table Tennis Action Shot of the Year

Look . . . up in the sky . . . it's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's just Super Cat leaping for the ball.

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Tip of the Week

Balance Throughout the Stroke.

Two Weeks

The last two weeks have been exhausting. I can divide them into four parts: the USA Nationals (Dec. 18-22: Christmas with Family (Dec. 22-25); MDTTC Christmas Camp (Dec. 26-31); and Reading in Bed (Dec. 31 - Jan. 1).

USA Nationals

I've been to every Nationals since the early 1980s, and this is the first one where I didn't play any events, just coached. Much of the tournament is now a blur, but much of it comes back when I look over the extensive notes I took on opponents. (I have to type them up soon for my ongoing coaching notes.)

Derek Nie, 11, played great. I coached him in all his matches as he made the National Mini-Cadet Team (under 13), finishing second (with the top four making the team). His matches from the quarterfinals on were spectacular, and gave meaning to the idea that tactics aren't very helpful if you can't executive. Well, he executed!!! Going in, he was seeded eighth at 2139, but in more recent ratings he was 2221, which would have put him third. He knocked off the second seed (rated 2314) at 7,4,7 in perhaps the best-played match of his life. His two-winged full-court looping game, and especially his counterlooping from all over the court, is especially impressive when you remember he's 4'5" and 65 lbs! (As noted previously, he's the best player in the U.S., pound for pound.) He has another year left in the Mini-Cadets, as well as four years in the Cadets. He trains regularly with Cheng Yinghua and the other MDTTC coaches, including me, although I mostly play practice matches with him so he can work on serve & receive - he's too fast for me in drills. 

Here's a picture of me coaching Derek and Seyed Hesam Hamrahian in doubles in the Junior Team competition. And yes, that's me, getting chased around the table by Derek as we loosen up before a practice session. It started as some easy jogging around the table, then it became a chase, and Bruce Liu (unfortunately) caught the last nine seconds of it.

Here's a nice quote I keep reminding Derek of during the tournament when he was passive in receiving long serves: "At the higher levels, looping a long serve is not a tactic, it's what you do. Not looping the serve is a tactic." Ironically, in one of his key matches, the opponent mixed in long topspin and backspin serves, and in that match the tactic was to push the backspin serve back, since the opponent would either push or loop soft, giving Derek the chance to loop or counterloop.

I didn't get to see much of the main matches in men's or women's singles as I was too busy coaching. I did manage to attend the annual Hall of Fame Banquet on Thursday night. For the fourth year in a row I did the program booklet for them; here's the 2012 program, in high (1.7MB) or low (174KB) resolution.

Some of you might remember Mike Lardon, a junior star from the 1970s, and now a sports psychologist. He was at the Nationals, playing in the over 50 events. I introduced him to Derek, and he gave him (and signed) a copy of his sports psychology book, Finding Your Zone: Ten Core Lessons for Achieving Peak Performance in Sports and Life. (I reviewed this in my Nov. 8, 2011 blog.) Derek read half the book that night. I've been told that most match coaches don't spend much time on sports psychology, which I believe is a huge mistake. It's often the most important aspect.

It's almost a joke how much strength and depth we now have in the juniors, especially up to about age 14. It's getting ridiculous - players who seven years ago would be battling for national titles are now struggling to reach the QF. The matches in the round of 16 are stronger than finals from ten years ago. They are routinely doing shots that were only rarely done back then. I still cringe every time an opponent power loop to Derek's FH, and Derek (and other players) routinely go for the counterloop, probably not realizing how difficult this is "supposed" to be!

Christmas

I spent Christmas with family in Santa Barbara, Dec. 22-25. No table tennis - sorry! Gave away lots of stuff, received lots of stuff (sorry, no table tennis stuff!). Highlights included my making my annual batch of Larry's Chili (my own secret recipe) for Dec. 23 dinner (and lunches thereafter); seeing The Hobbit on Christmas Day; and catching the annual red-eye flight on Christmas night so I can get back the morning of Dec. 26 for the MDTTC training camp.

We've run over 150 training camps at MDTTC since we opened in 1992, and this was our 21st Christmas Camp - I've coached at all of them. During the camp I gave lectures on ready position, grip, forehand, backhand, forehand loop, backhand loop, flipping, pushing, footwork, serve, receive, playing different surfaces, and doubles.

MDTTC Christmas Camp

The camp was held Dec. 26-31, starting with an afternoon session on Dec. 26, and ending with the morning session on Dec. 31. We had over 40 players. Because we have so many coaches at MDTTC (6), I was only needed in the morning sessions, where I gave short lectures before breaking out into multiball sessions. My highlight was getting a bunch of the kids on break to call out the names of the three great gods of table tennis until they got the secret meaning: Owa, Tegu, Siam. Say them over and over until you get the secret meaning. (If you are lost, email me, but really, you should get it if you keep saying it!) The kids' highlight was probably the candy game on Dec. 30, where I put hoards of candy on the table and fed multiball while the players rotated, two shots each, where they got to keep whatever they knocked off the table.

Reading in Bed

What is your "dream" vacation? For some it's the beach, or out sailing, or hiking in the mountains, or travel, or perhaps watching TV all day. For me it's spending all day in bed reading. I read two fantasy novels, "Hush" and "Witchbreaker," both by James Maxey. They were the second and third books in his Dragon Apocalypse series. (I read book one while in Santa Barbara for Christmas.) While I'm on the subject of writing, I'm sad to announce that I read fewer books in 2012 than any year since early elementary school - and I'm not happy about this. (However, I also read the Washington Post and about a dozen magazines.) But I still managed to read 24 books. Here's a listing:

FICTION (15)
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Firebird by Jack McDevitt
Moonfall by Jack McDevitt
Voyagers by Ben Bova
Ringworld by Larry Niven
The Religion War by Scott Adams
Specter Spectacular edited by Eileen Wiedbrauk
Into the Out Of by Alan Dean Foster
Dinotopia Lost by Alan Dean Foster
Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock
Barry's Tale by Lawrence Schoen
Burn Baby Burn: A Supervillain Novel by James Maxey
Greatshadow by James Maxey
Hush by James Maxey
Witchbreaker by James Maxey

NON-FICTION (4)
Building Your Book for Kindle
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman
Earth by The Daily Show (it's sort of non-fiction!)
How to Improve Your Speculative Fiction Openings by Robert Qualkinbush

TABLE TENNIS (5)
Table Tennis: Tips from a World Champion, by Werner Schlager & Berndt-Ulrich Gross
Breaking 2000 by Alex Polyakov (See my review.)
Ping Pong Fever by Steve Grant (See my review.)
Get Your Game Face On! by Dora Kurimay and Kathy Toon (See my review.)
The Adventures of the Ping-Pong Diplomats, Volume, 1 by Fred Danner (See my review.)

2013 USA National Team Trials

Here is info on the 2013 USA Men's and Women's Team Trials, to be held Feb. 7-10 in San Jose at the Topspin Table Tennis Club. Here is the Prospectus and Entry Form, both in PDF format.

Whitney Ping on USOC Board of Directors

Whitney Ping, a member of the 2004 USA Olympic Table Tennis Team, a former player rep on the USATT Board of Directors, and an Athlete Service Coordinator for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team, is now one of the 15 members of the USOC Board of Directors. Here's the article.

National Club Championships

Here are the results, with Chinese CC Flushing NY defeating Maryland Table Tennis Center in the final (in Las Vegas), 3-1. In the semifinals, they defeated Newport Beach TTC (CA) 3-0, while MDTTC defeated Los Angeles TTA, 3-1.

Zhang Jike

Here's a feature on the Chinese star and the great year he's had. He's only the second player ever to hold both the World and Olympic Men's Singles Titles. (The other was Chinese Men's Coach - and Zhang's coach - Liu Guoliang in 1996.)

Table Tennis Jump Smash

Here's a coaching video on the Jump Smash against lob from PingSkills (2:25). He recommends against it, and I generally agree. However, some players, such as Dan Seemiller, have perfected this shot, using a scissors-kick method with a running start. The example shown here shows the player jumping from a stationary position with less leg kick than Dan uses. I use this technique in exhibitions, and sometimes in matches.

The New Plastic Ball

Here's a video (16:16) where the new plastic ball is compared to current celluloid balls as well as the old 38mm ones. This is Part 1: Physical Differences.

Beyond Imagination Part 6

Here's Beyond Imagination Part 6 (7:02), a highlights reel of the best rallies from 2012. (Links to the first five appear on the right.)

Pongcast TV Episode 22 - Best of 2012

Here's the video (17:41).

Adam Bobrow in Asia

Here's the video (2:11) of his exhibitions in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Korea (I think South!)

Aloha 2013!

Here's Hawaiian Table Tennis wishing you a Happy 2013 with a table tennis cartoon! (Is that Rudolf the Red-nosed Moose?)

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Last Blog Until January 2

This will be my last blog (and Tip of the Week) until Jan. 2, 2013. I leave in a few hours for the USA Nationals in Las Vegas (Dec. 18-22), then Christmas with family in Santa Barbara (Dec. 22-25), then I'll be coaching non-stop at the MDTTC Christmas Camp (Dec. 26-31). Then I'm going to sleep in on Jan. 1. See you in 2013!

Tip of the Week

Distance from Table.

Ratings - Crystal and Derek

Wow. Just wow. The North American Teams were processed, and two of our MDTTC juniors have mind-boggling ratings. Let me once again start off by reminding readers (and myself) that ratings are just indicators of level, and fluctuate up and down quite a bit. But there are times when they are a lot of fun.

We'll start with Crystal Wang, 10, who saw her rating go from 2245 to 2353. (I coached three of her matches, where she went 2-1.) This makes her the following:

• The highest rated 10-year-old in U.S. history, boys or girls, breaking the record that had been set by Kanak Jha, who was 2265 as a 10-year-old two years ago. (The 2245 had already made her the highest rated 10-year-old girl ever and second highest overall.)
• #1 Under 11 Girl in the U.S.
• #1 Under 12 Girl in the U.S.
• #1 Under 13 Girl in the U.S.
• #1 Under 14 Girl in the U.S.
• #1 Under 15 Girl in the U.S.
• #1 Under 16 Girl in the U.S.
• #2 Under 17 Girl in the U.S.
• #4 Under 18 Girl in the U.S.
• #9 Under 22 Girl in the U.S.

Here's her record at the Teams, where she went 23-3 in leading her team (which included Derek Nie, below, Bernard Lemal, and Heather Wang) to winning Division Two:

Wins
2347: 7,13,-7,9
2291: 7,5,-4,6
2287: -10,7,10,-7,3
2256: -11,9,6,-5,7
2223: 8,-2,5,-9,6
2199: 7,3,10
2194: 8,3,7
2183: 6,-8,6,10
2183: -10,7,8,3
2160: 7,9,-3-10
2156: 8,9,7
2152: 5,6,4
2149: 5,12,-4,-8,7
2123: 8,4,6
2119: 4,5,8
2113: 9,5,4
2097: 6,6,10
2092: 4,-7,7,7
2091: -9,5,7,-10,4
2064: 5,6,4
2064: -5,9,3,1
2014: 7,4,3
1902: 8,10,5
Losses
2369: 10,3,-18,7
2319: -5,6,7,6
2280: 9,10,6

Between Crystal and New Jersey's Amy Wang (2177, just turned 10), the east coast has a dynamic duo following in the footsteps of the west coast's Ariel Hsing and Lily Zhang.

Meanwhile, Crystal's teammate, Derek Nie, 11, the U.S. Open 11 & Under Boys' Singles Champion, saw his rating go from 2139 to 2221 as he went 17-9 at the Teams. (He's been as high as 2170 recently. I coached about a dozen of his matches at the Teams.) While this "only" brings him up to #3 in Under 12 Boys in the U.S., it does something else. At only 65 pounds, he is almost for certain the best player in the U.S., pound for pound, and the lightest player ever to break 2200. We're talking 34.17 rating points per pound!!! (I come in at 11.67 points per pound. How about you?) Derek might be the shortest to break 2200 as well, at 4'5". (Mitch Seidenfeld, how tall are you?)

I must also point out that it was a crime against humanity that John Olsen, after training so hard with the goal of breaking 2000, came out of the Teams in Baltimore with a rating of 1999. The table tennis gods are laughing!

Nationals

I'll be coaching at the Nationals, primarily Tong Tong Gong and Derek Nie, and sometimes other MDTTC players. I usually play in the hardbat events, where I've won a bunch of titles, but this year I'm just coaching - just too busy to play. I'll also be attending some meetings, since I'm on several USATT advisory committees, plus the USATT Assembly (Tuesday 7:30 PM) and the Hall of Fame Banquet, assuming it doesn't interfere with my coaching duties (Thursday 6:30 PM).

This year's Nationals has a lot of players (781), and a lot of players in Men's Singles (160). There's no single standout player this year, with the top seed Mark Hazinski at 2621), followed by Timothy Wang (2601), Jim Butler (2583), Adam Hugh (2567), Stefan Manousoff (2560), Han Xiao (2536), Dan Seemiller (2521), Li Yu Xiang (2510), Zhang Yahao (2509), Razvan Cretu (2508), and Shao Yu (2503). In newer ratings after the Teams in Baltimore and Columbus and the ICC tournament last weekend, Hazinski is down to 2590, and Timothy Wang is down to 2585. In fact, in the newer ratings, Adam Hugh would be top seed at 2599. I'm pretty sure it's been literally decades since we had a Nationals where the top seed in Men's Singles was under 2600. (And this despite an apparent slow inflation of the rating system!) 

Who are my picks to win? In Men's Singles, I'm biased, so I'm picking the same two finalists from last year when we had the all-Maryland final with Peter Li winning over Han Xiao in the final. (But Peter, now in college, has dropped to 2475.) However, putting aside biases, I suggest viewers watch Jim Butler. The current top U.S. players simply don't know yet how to play the recently un-retired Butler, with his tricky serves and big backhand smash. Another to watch is Adam Hugh, who's been playing very well recently, now that he's out of college and (I'm told) coaching and playing full-time.

On the women's side, the top four seeds easily lap the other players: Jasna Rather (2588), Ariel Hsing (2538), Judy Hugh (2533), and Lily Zhang (2520). However, in new ratings, Judy is back out of the stratosphere with a 2394 rating, while Jasna has mostly been around 2400 for years until one tournament shot her up to 2588. Perhaps she's back to her former world-class level, but for now, I'd bet on an Ariel-Lily final for the third year in row. Who will win? One of them. I'll leave it at that.

World Junior Championships

USA's Lily Zhang made the quarterfinals of Under 18 Girls' Singles at the World Junior Championships, held in Hyderabad, India, Dec. 9-16. Here's the home page, with complete results, articles, and photos. This is probably the best showing of a U.S. junior at the World Junior Championships. (They didn't have them in the old days, when the U.S. was a power.) In reaching the quarterfinals, Lily knocked off the #5 seed (Bernadette Szocs of Romania) and #6 seed (Petrissa Solja of Germany), before losing to the #4 seed (Gu Rouchen of China).

Alas, the eight members of the U.S. Junior Team (which included Crystal Wang - see above - the youngest player at the tournament) will have to fly back and compete at the USA Nationals two days after finishing in India. They will face major problems with the time zone changes and jet lag. 

Prachi Jha

Here's an article from the ITTF that features USA's Prachi Jha and her performance in the team competition at the World Junior Championships.

The Backhand Push

Here's a 45-second video from U.S. Men's Singles Champion Peter Li explaining the basics of the backhand push.

Hitting a Forehand from Below Table Level

Here's a video from PingSkills (2:21) on returning a ball from below table level.

ITTF Development Funds

Here's an article on new funding from the ITTF for continental development. "A quite staggering sum of $1,000,000 is to be made available annually for continents affiliated to the International Table Tennis Federation for development in the next four years, the period from 2013 to 2016."

Look what Michael Found at the Supermarket!

Yes, it's a picture of Michael Landers on the Kelloggs Corn Flakes box! It breaks a 76-year cereal box drought for table tennis since George Hendry made the Wheaties box in 1936.

Santa Claus

In honor of Christmas, here are two pictures of Santa Claus playing table tennis. Here he is with rock star Alice Cooper on right, and here he is again with actress Ginger Rogers on right.

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Warm-up Partners

With the Nationals coming up, perhaps I should mention the importance of a good warm-up at the start of a tournament? Many players just show up and hope they find someone to hit with. I always tell my students to arrange in advance who they'll hit with and when. (At big tournaments in big arenas, add "where.") You want someone who's reliable, with solid, consistent shots. This is NOT the time to practice against weird styles and surfaces - sorry! (The time for that is regularly at your club, and before a match with someone like this, if you can get someone similar to warm up with. If there are two long-pips blockers at a tournament, for example, they both become in demand - by whoever is playing the other one.)

You want to get your game warmed up. The best way to do that is to use the same routine you warm up with at your club. What, you don't have a warm-up routine at your club? Better fix that! With experience, you'll know what you need to do to warm up all the shots you'll be using, as well as your feet, serves, and receive.

Now I'm going to tell you about "Black Sunday." (This is my Black Sunday; there are others.) One year at the Teams in Detroit (before it moved to Baltimore in 1998), I had what should have been the tournament of my life. I went in rated just over 2270. On Friday and Saturday I beat just about every one in sight. Playing in the "B" division (where the ratings ranged mostly from about 2200 to 2400), I had only one loss, to a 2500 player. I beat a whole bunch of players from 2250 to 2400, and I think three over 2400. I later calculated that if I had stopped playing after Saturday, I would have been over 2500, which would have been my highest rating ever.

I had arranged with my teammates to meet at the playing hall about an hour before play began. They were late. I sat around waiting for them as time ticked by, getting more and more ticked off myself. Finally, about twenty minutes before play was to begin, I began looking for someone else to warm up with - but couldn't find anyone good. I finally found a 1700 player with long pips (no sponge) to warm up with. He flipped his racket throughout the warm-up and swatted balls all over the table and off it, often with weird sidespins. Five minutes before play began, my teammates showed up, all smiles as I glowered at them.

After destroying everyone the first two days, I went 0-6 on Sunday. Worse, all six players were rated lower than me. Worse still, three of them were over 100 points lower than me. When the ratings came out, despite Black Sunday, I came out almost exactly even for the tournament.

Moral: Get a good and reliable warm-up partner.

2013 Cadet and Junior Team Selection

At long last, here they are! (They are linked from this page.) Unfortunately, I see four possible problems in them.

1) Have they forgotten about the Mini-Cadet Trials? The Selection Procedures only reference the Junior and Cadet Trials. [ADDENDUM: I've since learned that the procedures for the Mini-Cadet Trials are on the USA Nationals entry form. For some reason they differentiate them from the Junior and Cadet Trials.]

2) In 2-b it says that if a player is unable to finish all matches in the second stage, then all of his or her matches do not count. Do they realize what this means? A player could "clinch" his spot on the team, but then, in the last round, a player he beat (but who beat someone else) could decide not to play, canceling all his previous matches in one shot, and by doing so dramatically change the results of the Trials. In other words, in the last round, there will likely be at least one player who has the power to change who makes the team simply by choosing not to play.

This is why the standard (especially overseas) is that all matches count if you have played over half of them, and none count if you don't play a match before you have played half of them. To allow all of the matches to suddenly not count because someone chooses not to play in the last round is a disaster waiting to happen. (I won't even get into the blackmail/bribery possibilities here.)

3) They refer to players "unable to finish all matches." Which means a player can simply say he is able to finish all matches, but chooses not to. "Unable" and "unwilling" have different meanings.

4) I'd also recommend that they allow the referee to adjust the Second Stage schedule for geographical purposes. Otherwise there likely will be cases where a player who cannot make the team plays someone from his club (or even a relative) who cannot, and has incentive to dump or at least not try hard. In the past, they often required players from the same club, or who were related, to play early. With all the players from a few top training centers, this is likely to happen. (This is standard in China, and most Chinese coaches, and likely other coaches, would ask the player to dump for the benefit of his teammate. Let's not put them in that situation if it can be avoided.)

How to Return Ma Lin's Backspin Serve

Here's a video from PingSkills (2:18) on returning Ma Lin's heavy backspin serve, the ones that would bounce back into the net if given the chance.

Pongcast Episode 21

Here's the latest Pongcast (16:58). "In this episode: The 2012 ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals, plus the life and times of Marty Reisman, who just recently passed away; accompanied by music by Dave Brubeck, which seemed fitting. May they both RIP."

Crazy Like Table Tennis

Here's another highlights video (4:04)!

One-Point Knockout Event

This is kind of interesting - a one-point single elimination tournament! Here's the video (8:55). Pete May used to run something similar in his tournaments down south - 3-point games, which he called the "Parade of Champions." I copied that from him and have run a few of these "Parades." Perhaps I'll try the one-point version next time?

Spin Standard LA

Here's an article about the new Spin Standard LA club, with an interesting picture. I count 25 ping-pong balls, one Robert Redford, and one Paul Newman.

What Really Happens at Big Tournaments

What the heck is going on? L-R: USATT President Sheri Pittman, Chen Xinhua, Cheng Yinghua, at the USA Nationals or Open, circa late 1990s. (Photo by Mal Anderson.)

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USA Nationals Entrants

This year's Nationals (Las Vegas, Dec. 18-22) has 782 entries, a nice increase over last year's near-record low of 502 in Virginia Beach. In actuality, the numbers last year were a bit higher than 502 since that number, taken from the online ratings database, doesn't include players who entered only doubles, hardbat, or sandpaper events. So they probably had closer to 550 last year - but that's still the lowest number ever for a USA Nationals since the 1980s.

What do these numbers say about location, location, location? But the numbers are also a bit higher than the Nationals in Las Vegas two years ago, which had 686 (again, players in rated events only). We still have a ways to go to return to the heydays of 2005 and 2006, which had 829 and 837 players in rated events.

Here's a chart showing the number of entries in rated events at the Nationals every year from 1994-2011. I have not included the 2012 figures yet because they include all entries. When the tournament is processed and the number of players in rated events is known, it'll be a bit lower than 782, almost for certain under 750. We'll see. (While we're at it, here's a chart showing the number of entries in the U.S. Open, 1994-2012.)

How many players only enter in doubles, hardbat, or sandpaper? This year's U.S. Open had 611 total entries, but only 564 in rated events. So 47 played only doubles, hardbat, or sandpaper, about 7.7% of the total. Based on that, of the 782 entries in this year's Nationals, about 60 will only play doubles, hardbat, or sandpaper, leaving about 722 in rated events.

The number of entries listed on the charts for earlier years is closer to the actual number. After I won the Hardbat Open at the 1991 Nationals and 1992 U.S. Open, the event was discontinued. (They must not have liked me.) The event was restored in 1997. Now there are six hardbat events - Hardbat Open, Over 40, Over 60, Doubles, Under 2000, Under 1800, and Under 1500. And over the last couple of years they've added the sandpaper event. (At the Open, they had two sandpaper events - the Open, and Liha Sandpaper, which has somewhat different rules.) So there are more and more players entered these days in non-rated events. I wish there were a way of getting actual entry numbers for all these U.S. Opens and Nationals, but all I have to go on are the online ratings lists.

Crystal Wang and Lily Yip

Yesterday I linked to the ITTF article that featured Crystal Wang. Now they've done a video interview of Crystal (2:26, she's a bit nervous) and USA Junior Coach Lily Yip (2:43). Poor Crystal and the others on the USA Junior Team (eight of them) just spent a week in India at the World Junior Championships, and will have exactly two days to travel halfway around the world to play in Las Vegas at the USA Nationals. When they play a match in Las Vegas at, say, 4PM, which is middle of the night for them this past week. (And the same for their matches in India, where their daytime matches were like middle of the night matches in U.S. time.)

Petition for Table Tennis in School Curriculums

Here's a petition to do the following:

Include and recognize the sport of Table Tennis Aka "Ping Pong" as part of a school's athletic curriculum of choice.

Table Tennis should be included as part of a school's athletic curriculum of choice to participate and play. The sport isn't only a recreational past time but also an Olympic sport. The sport is considered and recognized relevant by other cultures. The sport is cost effective, fights the obesity problem among young Americans, and is non discriminatory. The sport can be easily incorporated in a schools current athletic curriculum, and easily be taught. Tables should be put on all middle schools to encourage start up programs. There are plenty of qualified coaches in the United States that would love the opportunity to teach and coach this fast growing sport. Starting in middle schools will also identify talented kids and Olympic hopefuls. This is the way It's done in China and Europe.

It just got started, and I went ahead and signed it. (I'm the fifth signee; they need 25,000 by Jan. 11, 2013.) Let's see if it takes off.

Return Boards

Here's a video (2:03) highlighting their use. (The first two players shown are USA Junior Team Members (and sister and brother) Prachi Jha and Kanak Jha.) I have to get one!!!

1998 Olympics Gold Medal Match

Here's a highlights video (2:04) of the Men's Singles Final at the 1988 Olympics, the debut of table tennis as an Olympic Sport. It was held in Seoul, Korea, and (coincidentally?), it was an all-Korean final, with Yoo Nam Kyu defeating Kim Ki Taek in the final, 3-1. Players back in those days had great forehands and footwork, and lobbed more, but backhands were generally weaker, though most Europeans were looping their backhands. (Both of these penholders were backhand blockers, using conventional penhold backhands, which has mostly died out at the world-class level.)

Humans are Awesome

Here's a video (4:29) that shows humans doing various spectacular stunts. It includes a great table tennis rally from 0:21 to 0:33. (The player on the near side is Dimitri Ovtcharov. Anyone recognize the Asian lefty shakehander on the far side?)
Addendum: Julian Waters, and a few minutes later Bruce Liu, both informed me that the player on the far side is Mizutani Jun of Japan. Julian also corrected my original belief that the player on the near side was Primorac - oops!

Another Four-Person Table

Here it is!

Table Tennis Birthday Cake

Here it is!

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Don't Bother Me!!! (Temporarily)

Anyone bothering me for anything time- or mind-consuming between now and Saturday, all I can say is HAH!!! I'm involved in a top-secret coaching operation that will take up all my time the next few days.

Backspin Serves

I was asked the following question on the forum, and decided to respond here. "Slim Dragon" wrote:

Dear Coach,

I have read several of your tips on how to generate heavy spin on underspin serves. I prefer to open up against pushes, so really want to develop this arsenal. Having watched several pro serve videos and teaching guides from pingskills to tabletennis masters to dynamic tabletennis, what I remain uncertain about is the ideal form, as all pros seem to have an individual form when executing various serves.

Having watched Waldner's serves recently, I notice that he makes contact with the ball with his forearm usually horizontal to his right breast, which seems to give his forearm a horizontal axes with the wrist snapping at the end of the motion. His racket tip normally ends up just under his right breast. In the past, my racket tip has ended up in the middle of my stomach, meaning my forearm is more diagonal than horizontal.

My first question is, what forearm placement is likely to result in the best grazing effect?

Secondly, is it imperative to contact the ball as close to the bottom as possible to maximize underspin?

Lastly, how can you properly assess whether you are generating good underspin? In the past, I thought it was necessary to make the ball rotate back towards the net as an indication of a good underspin serve, but I note in another forum question that that is mainly a trick serve.

Thanks for your consideration.

The examples I refer to can be seen from about 0.15 to 0.35 in this video link.

Great questions, and great video of Waldner's serves. Waldner was perhaps the greatest server of all time, and this video shows much of how he did it. One catch - hidden serves were legal during most of his career, so you'll see how he keeps his arm and shoulder out to hide contact. However, the basic techniques are the same. Let's go over the three questions.

My first question is, what forearm placement is likely to result in the best grazing effect?

Secondly, is it imperative to contact the ball as close to the bottom as possible to maximize underspin?

I'm going to answer these two questions together, since the direction of the forearm movement leads to the contact point. If you swing more downward (i.e. with a diagonal movement toward your stomach), contact is toward the back of the ball. If you swing more horizontal, contact is more under the ball. And you want the forearm and racket moving mostly horizontally at contact so you can contact the ball as much underneath as possible.

Technically, you can graze the ball just as finely regardless of the direction the forearm and paddle are moving - you can graze the ball at any point. However, if you graze the back of the ball very finely, the ball will go down, and so will bounce up high. To serve the ball low with lots of backspin (i.e. maximum grazing), contact the ball as much underneath as possible. Even if you are serving a sidespin, you should fake this type of contact, and then, after just missing the bottom of the ball, contact the ball on the side with sidespin. This way the opponent has to pick up where the contact point was to read whether it was backspin, sidespin, or some combination.

Lastly, how can you properly assess whether you are generating good underspin?

One way is to simply graze it so finely, with so little forward motion, that the ball hits the far side of the table and bounces backwards within a bounce or two. (If you serve it high, you can make the ball bounce back over the net on one bounce - a trick serve that experienced players will see coming, giving them time to go to the side of the table to smash the ball as it goes back over the net.) But this means the serve will be very short, and while this is a good variation (especially against short player and in combination with long serves), it's also easier to return for most players than a deeper backspin serve where the second bounce is near the opponent's endline.

The problem with serving a deeper backspin serve is that you don't get direct feedback on the amount of backspin since the ball doesn't bounce backwards. However, with experience, you can read this yourself by your own contact. If your racket is moving very fast (with great acceleration), and you graze the bottom of the ball, you should be able to tell that you've got lots of backspin. But perhaps a better gauge is how opponents return it. Do they go into the net? Do they have to open their racket a lot to push it back or attack it? Or just ask your playing partner how spinny it is.

I often assign two exercises to develop backspin serves. Bounce a ball up and down on the forehand side of your racket. Now graze the ball near the bottom, a little toward the front. You should be able to generate good spin this way and hit the ball straight up, then you catch it and repeat. Practice this until you are proficient at it.

Next, do the "come back" serve mentioned above, where you again contact the ball near the bottom, a little in front as in the exercise above. Go for maximum spin, but intentionally serve high. Learn to control this until you can serve and make the ball come back into the net, or even bounce back over it. (When I demonstrate this for beginners, their eyes go wide.) When you can do this, then you have great backspin. Then you simply adjust your contact point - still under the ball, but slightly toward the back - and you can serve this same heavy backspin and keep it low.

If you have difficulty with this, it might be helpful to get a coach or top player to help out. With practice, it's not that difficult to learn - but it does take practice! And once you have that heavy backspin serve, you can next learn to serve side-backspin, sidespin, side-topspin, and "heavy no-spin" (where you fake spin, usually backspin, and serve no-spin).

USA Juniors Finish Seventh

Team USA, led by an 8-1 Lily Zhang, finished seventh at the World Junior Championships (Hyderabad, India, Dec. 9-16). Here's the World Junior Championships Home Page (results, articles, photos), and here's a compilation of results, articles, and videos of USA players, compiled by USATT. All events were for Under 18, so Crystal Wang, 10, on the USA Girls' Team, was the youngest player there. She's from my club, MDTTC. (Here's an ITTF article that features and pictures her that came out this morning.) Addendum - due to a typo on a match slip, the ITTF reported, and I repeated here earlier, that Lily had gone undefeated, but she actually lost one of her two matches against Korea, deuce in the fourth.)

Emerging Countries in Table Tennis

Here's an article on the top ten emerging countries in table tennis - and guess which country is #1? With full-time training centers and junior programs popping up all over the U.S. in the last six years, we're on the verge of becoming a real power.

Tybie Sommer-Thall

USA's 1948 World Mixed Doubles Champion (with Dick Miles) - still active!

Great Doubles Point

Here's a great point from the Women's Doubles Final at the German Open this year.

Instant Ping Pong

Here's a commercial (2:52) for "Instant Ping Pong," which consists of a portable net that extends up to six feet and clamps on the side of a table, plus two hardbat rackets and two cheap ping-pong balls, all in a convenient carrying case. It allows you to set up on just about anything that's table-like and play - the video shows players using it on all sorts of furniture-type items. By a strange coincidence, I bought this at Target yesterday (spur of the moment) and then happened to see a link to this commercial on Facebook last night. I may bring it to the Nationals to play at the airport. (What, you've never played airport pong?) Or maybe I'll set it up to play during the USATT Board Meeting.

12:12:12 on 12-12-12

Set your alarms for 12:12:12 PM this afternoon of 12-12-12. Why? Because the next time three numbers will align in this way will be on Jan. 1, 2101, at 01:01:01 AM and PM. (We already had 12:12:12 AM this morning - or is that last night - and I was up for it.) Actually, this will be the last time ever, since the world ends on Dec. 21, nine days from now, right?

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Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers Update

The page layouts are done! Well, mostly. I still don't have the front and back covers, and I need to do a lot of proofing of the layouts. The book is 240 pages, with 76 photos/illustrations, and 99,425 words. Due to the upcoming Nationals (I leave for Las Vegas on Monday), I probably won't get much more done this week - lots of coaching activities over the next six days. If all goes well, the book will be out by the end of January.

I did the final three segments in the book yesterday, giving more examples of tactics used in actual matches. They include:

• A player fell behind 0-2 in games because the opponent looped his deep serves, and either dropped short or quick-pushed at an angle his short backspin serves to the forehand or backhand. The solution? Short no-spin serves to the middle, which take away most of the angles and are difficult to push short.
• A match won by simplifying a strong but erratic backhand loop by deciding to go relentlessly crosscourt, even though shots to the middle and forehand gave the opponent trouble, as well as a late-match change to short receive, which hadn't worked earlier, but did now for reasons explained in the text;
• Turning a crosscourt 2500 monster into a down-the line 2200 mouse (and focusing on looping any slightly long serve, mostly down the line) leads to upsetting the top seed and making the U.S. National Cadet Team.
• A player spends a week working on a specific doubles serve, which leads to winning a doubles title.
• When paired with a two-winged ripper, a player learns to play control to set up his partner and win a major doubles title.

Note that none of these are complicated tactics. Tactics isn’t about finding complex strategies to defeat an opponent; tactics is about sifting through all the zillions of possible tactics and finding a few simple ones that work

Regarding the cover, I'm running into a problem in that I need to get permission from a top player to use his image. I decided I would use Cheng Yinghua, my fellow MDTTC coach and former top player, and created this cover. However, Cheng surprised me by being embarrassed about it, and didn't want to be on the cover. I may try to talk him into it. Otherwise, I'm back at square one - any suggestions? (The back cover is tentatively a picture of me coaching Todd Sweeris at the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials. He made the team. I have to check with him on this - if he sees this, Hi Todd!)

Maybe I should just put myself on the cover. I don't want a cover that just shows a coach talking to a player; I want something that says table tennis, i.e. a table tennis shot. The head shot of "The Thinker" at the top signifies the thinking aspect. (Someone here suggested that - who was that? Comment here and take credit!!!)

Late Starters - Embrace It!

To become truly great at table tennis you need to start very young (and lots of other things as well). Most players start late, often well after their juniors years. (I didn't start until I was 16, alas.) You can still become very good, but you probably won't be world champion.

On the other hand, there's a huge advantage to starting late. Players who start very young peak (often at a very high level) by their 20s, and by age 30 can at best hold their level. They may continue to learn new things, but this only postpones the inevitable physical decline that comes with age. Late starters may never reach the heights of those who start early, but they can improve their level for nearly their entire lives. It may be a slow progression, but I know lots of players who started as non-juniors, played for many years, and got better well into their 50s and even 60s. It's a different perspective, of course. The steady improvement from beginner at age 20 to 2000 player at age 50 can be long and slow, and seemingly not as exciting as a journey starting at age 8 that leads to 2600 at age 20, but if the journey is the destination, then both journeys are exciting - one just lasts longer.

Playing in Less Than Ideal Conditions

Here's a short article by former top junior Vikash Sahu on the topic.

Angry Moments in Table Tennis

Here's a video (7:04) that showcases seven minutes of unhappy players. I don't think I've linked to this one before, though in June I linked to the "Top Ten Angry Moments in Table Tennis" (4:41).

Table Tennis Then and Now

This is a great video (10:48), showing table tennis as it evolved from the hardbat era to now. It's also inspirational, and will help calm you down after the preceding video on "Angry Moments."

This is Why They Call it Sandwich Rubber

But it's good to snack while you play!

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Tip of the Week

Body Movement During the Forehand Loop.

Marty Reisman, Feb. 1, 1930 - Dec. 7, 2012

The great showman of the hardbat age, as well as in the sponge age (but always with hardbat or sandpaper), died on Friday at age 82. The sport will never be the same.

• Here's the obit in The New York Times.
• Here's the article from Table Tennis Nation.
• Here's an obit and feature on Marty in The Daily Beast.
• Here's a video (6:36) of Marty featured on the New York City Series: Ping Pong Hustler.
• Here's a video clip (1:50) of Marty beating five-time world champion Victor Barna to win the 1949 English Open.
• Here's a video clip (2:54) of Matthew Broderick talking about his table tennis on The David Letterman Show, who is surprised when Marty Reisman suddenly shows up and does his famous cigarette trick (breaking one in two with a smash from the far side of the table).
• Here's a video (3:04) of Marty playing sandpaper to sandpaper with Al Papp a few years ago.
• Here's a video (2:21) of Marty playing at the 2007 U.S. Open against a chopper.
• Here's the Horrifying Marlboro Massacre (1:14), starring Marty and a lot of doomed cigarettes.
• Here's an interview (2:45) with Marty on Fox News in 2008.
• Here's the famous Marty Monologue (1:16) about the empty stands before the Hardbat Doubles Final at the 2004 USA Nationals.
• Here's Marty playing lobby ping-pong (1:21)
• Here's Marty demonstrating the cigarette trick (54 sec.) at the Nationals in Las Vegas in 2001.
• Here are two highlight points (53 sec) of Marty against me, the second one from when I lost to him in the Hardbat Final at the 1997 USA Nationals.
• Here's a huge quantity of pictures of Marty.
• Marty's USATT Hall of Fame Profile. (For some reason there's no heading - probably due to the recent transition to a new web page. Also, this is only Part 1; Tim Boggan hasn't written Part 2 yet.)

Marty had a huge influence on my life. In fact, he ruined it! How did he do that? Here's my write-up from Table Tennis Tales & Techniques on how I got started on table tennis, my first meeting with Marty, and his response.

How Marty Reisman Ruined My Life
By Larry Hodges
Back in 1976 (age 16), I was on my high school track team as a miler. I went to the library to get a book on "Track & Field." I happened to look to my left ... and there was a book on table tennis, "The Money Player," by Marty Reisman! I had been playing "basement" ping-pong at a neighbor's house, and spur-of-the-moment checked the book out. From it, I found out about USATT (then called USTTA). I contacted them, found a local club, and went there. I got killed, but I stuck with it, and a few years later became the best at the club. I later became a professional table tennis coach and writer, and from 1985 on, I've been full-time table tennis almost continuously in various capacities. In 1991, I was hired as editor of USATT's national magazine. About a year later, at a tournament in New York, I met Marty for the first time (although I had probably seen him before), and told him this story. His response? "Great ... another life I've ruined!"

Volkswagen 2012 World Junior Table Tennis Championship

They started yesterday, and are in Hyderabad, India, Dec. 9-16. Here is the ITTF home page for the event, which has the schedule and results, articles, and pictures. Team USA has a Boys' Team (Grant Li, Teddy Tran, Kunal Chodri, Kanak Jha) and Girls' Team (Lily Zhang, Prachi Jha, Isabel Chu, and Crystal Wang). In doubles, the boy's teams are Li/Chodri and Tran/Jha, and the girls' teams are Zhang/Jha and Chu/Wang.

Faking a Shot

Here's a video from PingSkills on faking a shot. One key thing they say early on: "It's really important first that you get the basic shots right." But once you have the fundamentals, this is one of the most under-used tactics in table tennis from the intermediate level up. For example, even against advanced players when I serve backspin, I can see where they are going to push or flip well before they contact the ball - rarely do player change directions at the last second. This makes it much easier to attack. Instead, at the last second just change directions and watch the havoc it creates!

ITTF Coaching Seminar in Singapore

Here's the ITTF story on the recent ITTF Coaching Seminar in Singapore that was taught by USATT Coaching Chair Richard McAfee.

Want to Bring World-Class Table Tennis to U.S. Television?

Here's where you can learn about this. Excerpt: "Reflex Sports and Alpha Productions, two well known names in US table tennis, are planning  a series of action-packed, fast-paced 1-hour shows of World-Class Table Tennis for broadcast on U.S. Network TV! These will include action from the WTTC, World Junior Championships, World Cup, Pro Tour, European Championships & more!"

ITTF Video World Cup

Here are the five finalists at the ITTF Video World Cup. They average from around two to four minutes, so you can watch them all in about fifteen minutes.

Table Tennis Dream

I had another of those weird table tennis dreams last night. It started as I landed with a group of others at Los Angeles Airport for some huge international tournament. (I have no idea why it was Los Angeles.) After getting off my flight - carrying four huge bags - I stopped at a restaurant. The others with me disappeared, and I found myself at a table with Matt Damon, who was explaining health care to me, but using table tennis terms like "2-1 drill" and "Falkenberg drill." I finally got away from him, and was suddenly at the playing hall, still lugging around four huge bags.

People kept asking me to hit with them, and I kept saying I can't, I have to do my blog. So I'm sitting there at a table in the middle of the hall, surrounded by my four huge bags and lots of tables as players competed, furiously trying to think of something to write about in my blog.

Then I was told the tournament was over, and I realized I had to catch a bus to the airport. I randomly got on a bus, which drove for a while, then let me off at a hotel. I checked in. Almost immediately after getting to my room I realized it was the following morning, 7AM, and I had a 6AM flight back home! Somehow I thought I could still catch the flight. Then I realized I'd left two of my huge bags at the playing all, and two at the previous hotel. (I have no idea how that happened since I'd been lugging all four about with me until now.) I ran to the lobby, and while eating breakfast with a bunch of table tennis players, Dan Seemiller was suddenly sitting across from me, and he said, "Larry, you can catch a taxi to the playing hall, pick up your bags there, then take the taxi to the hotel, pick up your other bags, and still catch your flight."

Right about now I realized that since it was 7AM (it still was 7AM), and that it was too late to catch the 6AM flight. But Dan started calling me a chicken, so I grabbed my four huge bags (which had reappeared), and rushed out to catch a taxi to go pick up the four huge bags (which were apparently both with me, and at the playing hall and previous hotel, at the same time). After tossing all four huge bags into the trunk of a taxi, I closed the trunk - and the taxi took off without me! I ran after it, yelling for it to stop, and then I woke up in a sweat. It took me a few minutes to realize I wasn't in Los Angeles anymore.

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