Blogs

Larry Hodges' Blog and Tip of the Week will normally go up on Mondays by 2:00 PM USA Eastern time. Larry is a member of the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame, a USATT Certified National Coach, a professional coach at the Maryland Table Tennis Center (USA), and author of ten books and over 2100 articles on table tennis, plus over 1900 blogs and over 600 tips. Here is his bio. (Larry was awarded the USATT Lifetime Achievement Award in July, 2018.)

Make sure to order your copy of Larry's best-selling book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers!
Finally, a tactics book on this most tactical of sports!!!

Also out - Table Tennis TipsMore Table Tennis Tips, Still More Table Tennis Tips, and Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips, which cover, in logical progression, his Tips of the Week from 2011-2023, with 150 Tips in each!

Or, for a combination of Tales of our sport and Technique articles, try Table Tennis Tales & Techniques. If you are in the mood for inspirational fiction, The Spirit of Pong is also out - a fantasy story about an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis, trains with the spirits of past champions, and faces betrayal and great peril as he battles for glory but faces utter defeat. Read the First Two Chapters for free!

Heavy Backspin Serves

When I give serve lectures at our clinics, I often demonstrate heavy backspin by serving with an extremely open racket - so open that it actually is aiming backwards, and you contact bottom front of the ball - and serve so the ball jumps back into the net. (It's more easily done with a high toss.) Here's a pair of great videos at TableTennisMaster that demo this - first Chinese star Ma Lin (shirtless) demonstrating the serve (1:18), and then a more detailed demo that shows how it is done (2:10). They call them "ghost serves." 

If you can serve heavy backspin serves and keep them very low and short (i.e. so they'd bounce twice if given the chance), they are almost unattackable. (A key word here is low.) Almost everyone pushes them back. At the higher levels, many players will drop them short. To combat this, and to get some easy balls, learn to both serve heavy backspin and "heavy no-spin," i.e. use the same motion as if serving heavy backspin but contact the ball toward the handle (where it's not moving as fast as the tip, where you contact for heavy spin), and so you get a nearly no-spin ball. Watch your opponents pop them up!

Peter Li Interview

Here's a great interview with Peter Li (and a short one with Marcus Jackson) at the Cary Cup Open. Also shown: the ending of game five where Peter Li defeats Paulo Rocha in the quarterfinals. (6:14)

Pictures from the Cary Cup

Here's a nice photo album. Too bad the pictures aren't captioned. The little kid shown numerous times is Derek Nie, who is about 4' tall and is rated about 1900. (He's from my club, MDTTC.)

Article & Photos of 1979 U.S. Men's Champion Attila Malek

I remember when he first came to the U.S. and started beating nearly everyone, and then pulled off the upset over Dan Seemiller in the final of Men's Singles at the USA Nationals. He was one of the first players in the U.S. who could play a two-winged looping game. Here's a nice article on him from the Orange Country Register, and a series of 13 accompanying photos.

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2011 Butterfly Cary Cup

Part 1: Getting there - Thursday, March 17

Tim Boggan had been staying at my house for two weeks as I did the layouts and photo work on History of U.S. Table Tennis, Vol. 11, so we went down together on Thursday, March 17. He was doing the coverage while I was playing only in the hardbat event, coaching the rest of the way. The drive down was uneventful other than the usual extravagantly expensive Tim kept treating me to (as he had for two weeks). I could eat for a week on what he paid for one of our meals. I spent Thursday night in Tim's hotel room.

Part 2: Hardbat - Friday, March 18

This was held on Friday, from 10AM to 4PM. I was the defending champion, so all the pressure was on me, right? Ah well, us champions have to get used to it. :) In my round robin, I had a tough match with Chris OBrian (no apostrophe in his name) and his big forehand smash, and he led much of each game, but I ran them both out near the end. (All hardbat matches were best of three to 21, using 38mm balls.) Jim McQueen was also a surprisingly tough match with his touch and backhand pick-hitting, but I adjusted and pulled away near the end of each game.

In the final four-person RR, I had to play Chris again. Down 6-11 in the first, I jokingly (or was it?) complained about the five edge balls and one net dribbler he'd already scored with! I'm not making that up. At one point he won three straight points on edges. Most of them were because he was playing everything to the wide corners, trying to get away from my forehand, so he was also missing balls off the side. He ended up winning that game, but I won the next two. The only thing worse than an opponent getting nets & edges is an opponent getting nets & edges who is also playing well! Chris has a nice forehand, and his angled backhands were also effective, even when they weren't clipping the edge.

The next match was Steve Hitchner. He attacked my serve and followed up his serve with aggressive backhands to wide angles, putting pressure on my forehand-oriented game. For 1.5 games, I still won somewhat easily. Then I just ran out of steam - he'd run me to death, a smart tactic. I had trouble running down his shots, and started chopping more, and next thing I know I'm practically dying. I led 20-18. He deuced it. I went up 21-20. Then he ran me around, I put a ball up - but he missed it, so I survived.

Before the final against Chu Bin Hai, I took a 15-minute break. Chu is an elderly pips-out penholder rated 2243 from Florida. He'd forgotten to bring shorts, and so was playing in jeans. (He'd get shorts for the next day.) Since he's used to pips, and since he'd steamrolled everyone he'd played so far with ease, the feeling was he was a big favorite - especially after he won the first, I think 21-15.

I was attacking every serve with my forehand, and following every serve with a forehand. I continued this, but started angling even wider into his backhand. He had a very efficient forehand and a steady backhand block, so I wanted to keep him blocking. I almost died running around hitting, and did throw in some chopping (usually ending the point by suddenly smashing one of his drives), and managed to win the match by scores of (I think) -15, 17, 15.

Here are the extremely heavy trophies I won for winning Hardbat Singles at the 2010 and 2011 Cary Cup Opens. Plus $500!!!

The Cary Cup's been good to me the last two years - two hardbat titles, two huge trophies, and $500, a nice supplement to my coaching work. The down side - I came out hobbling about on an aching right knee, right leg, upper back, and right shoulder.

That night I moved in with Tong Tong, his dad Chaoying, and Greg Mascialino, another top junior from Maryland.

Part 3: Tong Tong Gong - Saturday, March 19

My major task at the Cary Cup was to coach Tong Tong Gong, a player I've been working with for a year and a half or so. He's 13, rated 2256, and a member of the U.S. National Cadet team. Unfortunately, I can't really talk about the tactics - his opponents might be reading this! - but I can give the gist of it. I knew most of players, and was able to watch all of them play before Tong Tong faced them, so was able to come up with pretty good tactics. More importantly, Tong Tong knew how to follow the tactics, and was able to adjust as needed as the opponent adjusted.

He beat a 2144 player 3-0 to get into the "A" Division, where he was put in a group of nine players, so eight matches. First, his losses: to Gao YanJun (2609), Zheng Jiaqi (2527), Paulo Rocha (2474), and Raghu Nadmichettu (2368). Gao was simply too strong. He almost got a game off Zheng, but challenged that surprisingly good backhand loop of hers too much and lost 3-0. He got a game off often-practice partner Raghu. The interesting loss was to Paulo. Tong Tong went up 2-1 in games, and made it to 9-all in the fourth, 8-9 in the fifth before losing 11-8 in the fifth. It was a disappointing loss as he thought he had the shots to win in the fourth game, but couldn't pull them off. There were some spectacular rallies, and Tong Tong pulled off some backhand kills that brought back memories of Jim Butler. What made this even more interesting is that in his next match, Paulo upset Gao, and he would later be up 2-0 on top-seeded Peter Li (2646) in the quarterfinals before losing a close five-gamer.

Now to his wins. Tong Tong defeated Cory Eider (2341), John Wetzler (2299), Olivier Mader (2239), and Brenda Mun (2085, but after defeating Wetzler and Thor Truelson - rated 2274 - she'll probably be adjusted upwards. Tong Tong had upset Wetzler at the Teams in Baltimore, and showed that he still knows how to play him with his attacking forehand and long-pips backhand - though of course next time out Wetzler will be after him again. The two really interesting matches were against Mader and Eider. Mader is a pure long-pipped blocker with seemingly frictionless long pips. Normally he eats up junior players with their lack of experience, but Tong Tong is apparently wise beyond his years in the ways of long pips and won easily, I believe 7,4,7. Against Eider, he won the first, lost the next two badly, and was rather dispirited. I gave him a pep talk, got him to jump up and down a few times to get his feet going, and (helped by a few nets/edges in game four), won the next two games somewhat easily by the scores, though every point was a struggle.

So Tong Tong finished 4-4, in fifth place. The top four advanced, and so he missed it by one spot. He spent the rest of the day lamenting that match with Paulo, and on the way home we made up humorous revenge stories for the next they faced each other. One of them ended with the zombie of Tong Tong defeating the ghost of Paulo where they used a flaming ping-pong ball. Don't ask.

I wrote a paragraph here on what Tong Tong's improved on, but his rivals might be reading this. (Shhh!) Suffice to say he's returning serves better, his backhand is becoming lethal, and he has more power on the forehand. He still has trouble with [deleted] and [deleted], so any opponent that [deleted] will easily defeat him. :)

Part 4: Car incident - Saturday afternoon, March 19

I had a bunch of heavy stuff in my playing bag, and couldn't find Tong Tong's dad. But when I went outside, I saw that the car window was partially down, and I could reach in and unlock the door to put the stuff inside so I didn't have to carry it around. Unfortunately, it set off the car alarm, which was VERY LOUD. As numerous people stared and complained, I raced about, trying to find Tong Tong's dad Chaoying, since he had the key. During my rushing about, I hurt my left knee, which gave me matching aching knees. Fortunately, Dick Evans (one of the umpires) came by, and somehow was able to turn it off with his key. I was ribbed for being a "car thief" by a number of players. My knee still hurts.

Part 5: The Open - Sunday, March 20

I watched some of the matches, but didn't take notes. Lots of us Marylanders were at the tournament, including top-seeded Peter Li (2646), Champion Jeffrey Zeng Xu (2583), Han Xiao (2522), Marcus Jackson (2418), and about 25 others.

Here are the basic results, from memory - let me know if I got any of it wrong.

  • Final: Jeffrey Zeng Xun (2583) d. Gao YanJun (2609), 3-1.
  • SF: Zeng d. Peter Li (2646), 3-1.
  • SF: Gao d. Barney J. Reed (2574), deuce (or was it 11-9?) in the fifth.
  • QF: Zeng d. Marcus Jackson (2408), 3-2.
  • QF: Gao d. Michael Landers (2518), 3-0.
  • QF: Li d. Paulo Rocha (2474), 3-2.
  • QF: Reed d. Fernando Yamazato (2554), 3-0.

Part 6: Returning home - Sunday afternoon, March 20

And then we played travel bingo and told Paulo revenge stories all the way home. (Actually, Paulo's a very nice guy and cool and reserved during matches, but Tong Tong REALLY wanted that match!)

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Tournament Morning

This morning I'm playing in the Cary Cup. Though I'm "only" playing in hardbat (the rest of the way "just" coaching), I still have to prepare. What does that mean?

  1. Get up early. I don't want to feel rushed.
  2. Some easy jogging and stretching. I don't want to feel stiff.
  3. A good breakfast of waffles. Because I want waffles.
  4. Get to the playing site early. I don't want to feel rushed.
  5. Some more easy jogging and stretching. Yada yada yada on the stiffness thing.
  6. Check out draws. Duh.
  7. Find someone to warm up with. I usually arrange someone to meet with the day before, but didn't have anyone this time. Hopefully I'll find someone.
  8. For hardbat, I want to warm up the forehand, backhand, backhand chop, and serve. For sponge, the forehand, backhand, forehand loop, backhand loop against underspin, push, and serve. In both cases, play out points at the end.
  9. Stop warmup about ten minutes before match time so I can rest.
  10. Wait for match time, and then play.

Maybe this is a good time to mention my pre-match ritual, done after the two-minute warmup with my opponent, and after hiding the ball (or flipping coin) to see who serves. Everyone should have one; here's mine.

I take a few steps back from the table, toward the left so I can approach the table from the backhand side, i.e. in forehand position. I do a deep knee bend to loosen up the knees. (Careful, don't want to hurt the knees!) I stand up and do a quick foot shuffle to wake up the legs. I tell my opponent good luck. Since I always give away the serve at the start of the match (maybe I'll write about this next week), it's almost always my opponent's serve, so I hold up my left arm and approach the table, and go into my ready position. Then I lower my arm to signal that I'm ready, and we're off! (If it's my serve, it just means I don't have to hold up my left hand, and instead go to my serving ready stance.)

Off to Cary, hardbat and coaching

Tim Boggan and I are leaving for Cary, NC for the Butterfly Cary Cup Table Tennis Championships this morning. It's about six hours away. He's doing the coverage for USA Table Tennis Magazine, and then continuing on to South Carolina, where he'll meet his wife for a vacation through March 28. I'm playing the hardbat event on Friday (roughly 10AM-3PM - I'm the defending champion), and then I'm coaching the rest of the way. I'll mostly be coaching Tong Tong Gong, a member of the USA National Cadet Team and MDTTC, though I may coach some other Marylanders when I'm free.

Though I'm normally a sponge player, I've been playing hardbat for many years. At the U.S. Open or Nationals, I've won Hardbat Singles twice, Hardbat Doubles ten times, and Over 40 Hardbat four times. (I'm the current champion from the Nationals in December in the last two.) I'm basically an all-out forehand hitter, with five types of forehands: smash, quick hit, counter-hit, roll, and off-table counter-hit. (I also have deceptive placement - basically, all my forehands look like I'm going to the left, so I mostly hit to the righty, i.e. a righty's backhand.) I'm weak on the backhand - that's no secret - but I cover that side by mostly chopping. I tend to attack most serves with my forehand, relying on deep, aggressive returns to keep my opponent from counter-hitting an aggressive, angled return, since at age 51 I don't have the mobility I used to have. While hitting is my strength, I'm more proud when I win points by chopping. (It's amazing how often players hit off when I give them a no-spin chop.) One of my favorite tactics is to chop until I get a weak topspin to my backhand or any type of attack to my forehand, and then I counter-attack with my forehand. On my serve, I use almost the same serves as with sponge - forehand pendulum serves, with a fast, varying contact, followed by forehand attack.

European Stars Practicing

Here's a nice video (7:12) of European stars practicing at the European Top Twelve. How many can you name? More important, are you doing the same type of drills they are? These drills got them to where they are, so why not follow in their footsteps?

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Butterfly Cary Cup

Tomorrow I leave for the Cary Cup Open in North Carolina. I'm only playing in the hardbat event (I'm the defending champion, though I'm normally a sponge player), which is on Friday morning and afternoon. The rest of the tournament I'm just coaching. (Wait a minute - what's this "only" thing? Next time I'm playing in a tournament I'll tell people I'm "only" playing, not coaching. Hmmm...)

So what does one do just before a tournament? Why, practice serves, of course. Sometime today I'll stop by the club and practice my hardbat serves - yes, hardbat - so they'll be ready.

History of U.S. Table Tennis: Vol. 11!

It's hard to believe, but after 13 consecutive days of non-stop work, Tim Boggan's History of U.S. Table Tennis, Vol. 11 (!) is done. (516 pages, 805 photos.) Tim moved in with me on March 3, and has been sleeping on my sofa ever since. (Mal Anderson helped tremendously by supplying and scanning most of the photos.) I spent my days doing the page layouts and fixing up photos (you can do wonders with Photoshop), with Tim sitting at my side, saying things like, "That photo there, but first remove that black mark over there, flip him so he's looking the other way, lighten it, and take those people out of the background." This is the tenth straight year we've done this. Visit TimBogganTableTennis.com for more info on these volumes - and remember that Volume 11 will be out in a few weeks!

More on Tim Boggan - the Table Tennis Nominee for the George Steinbrenner III Sport Leadership Award

Here's Tim's nomination! Sean O'Neill wrote the first draft, and then I made some additions (with Tim's help) and proofed it. Cross your fingers.

A Ping-Pong Paddle Shaped Hotel.

Yes . . . a Ping-Pong Paddle Shaped Hotel. Looks like it's for a pips-out penholder, with convenient ball-shaped garage.

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Doubles Training at Double Speed!

Here's Massimo Costantini (head coach at ICC and former long-time member of the Italian National Team) training Ariel Hsing and Lily Zhang in doubles. It's a pretty impressive video, though only a minute and nine seconds long. If you want to see some really advanced doubles footwork training, take a look. Just watching it will tire you out.

I've coached doubles at tournaments many times, and I've given lectures on doubles tactics and footwork. However, I've never had the opportunity to train a really, Really, REALLY high-level doubles team like this, especially on a regular basis. Unless you train for it a lot, this type of footwork is more likely to lead to horrible collisions and agonizing losses than glorious wins. But if you really want to be really good at doubles at a really high level, this is what you really need to learn how to do. Really.

One interesting note - the first time through, I thought Massimo was feeding multiball. The second time through I realized he was rallying with them. He's got great ball control, both on his blocks and short pushes.

A Lot in a Few Words

While coaching two players today one of them suggested crystallizing what they had learned in as few words as possible. It turned out to be a nice exercise. I didn't write it all down, but here are a few they came up with, with my notes in brackets.

  • Move to the ball
  • Turn shoulders [for forehand]
  • Same backswing each time
  • Punch the backhand [this was for blocking]
  • Wrist on serves
  • Low contact [on serves]
  • Visualize [this was for serves, though it's useful for all shots]

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Losing your edge

This weekend I played a match against a fairly strong player, about 1900. It was near the end of a training session, and I was feeling tired and stiff (okay, feeling old), so we played two out of three to eleven. In the first game, I didn't really do much, and he kept missing. Up 9-0, I played two points chopping and lobbing to give him a chance, but he botched two shots, and I won 11-0. In the second game, I told myself not to let up . . . and then proceeded to let up. Consciously, I wasn't letting up, but subconsciously something was missing. Now I fell behind 0-4. At 4-9, I switched to chopping, and made it to 9-10 before chopping a fast, dead serve into the net. In the third game, after losing the first point and realizing that I could actually lose this match, my subconscious woke up, and now I could do no wrong as I won 11-2.

So why was I unable to play my best for that one game? In some ways, this is the root of sports psychology, i.e. bringing out your best. I really wanted to continue to play well, and yet something was missing and I was unable to. Deep down, both I and my subconscious knew (or thought we knew) that the match wasn't a challenge, and being tired, stiff, and feeling old, that little extra that separates playing well and not playing well just wasn't there . . . until I really needed it. In tournaments, I've rarely had this problem, perhaps because the stakes are higher.

New Jersey Training Program

This spring, NJTTC will be offering an 8-week training program for intermediate-level players, coached by Peter Strucinski and Frank Yu. Sessions will run on Saturday mornings from 10:30am - 12:30pm. The first class will be on Saturday, March 19, 2011. The cost for the 8-week program is $200 for club members ($250 for non-members.) More information is available on this flyer. If interested, email them.

Spring Break Camp at Maryland Table Tennis Center

The Spring Break Camp at MDTTC will likely fill up, with schools closed in both Montgomery and Prince Georges County, so we expect hordes and hordes of marauding juniors with cannon forehands and lightning feet. I'll be there during the morning sessions, and probably some afternoons. Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, and Jeffrey Zeng Xun (the new coach from China) will also be there. It'll mostly be a junior camp, but all ages are welcome. Since I'm running an ITTF Seminar on the weekend before and after, we're expecting some of the coaches to attend as well as part of their training.

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Talent versus hard work

There's much debate these days about whether table tennis players need talent to reach the highest levels, or if hard work will overcome it. The debate is often dominated by those who believe something toward the extremes as dogma. To be the very best, most seem to believe one of the following:

1) You have to have talent, and if you have that, hard work will pay off; or

2) There's no such thing as talent; it's all about working hard, plus proper circumstances (starting early, good coaching and competition, etc.).

Some look at just the best players, see that they work hard, and conclude it's all about hard work. They are not looking at the people who work hard who don't become the best. Others see that some are more talented than others - we've all seen this type of thing in grade school - and conclude it's all about talent, and that if you don't have it, you can't be great. 

Here's my take (short version). There's no question that there is such a thing as talent. Some kids simply pick things up very fast, others struggle. We're not all born with exactly the same brain structure. As early as a kid can crawl you can see differences in their skills - just toss a ball at them and you'll see some can grab it, others can barely hold onto it. Even the book "Bounce" by former world-class chopper Matthew Syed of England, which argues that players reach the highest levels by hard work and proper circumstances, doesn't argue there is no such thing as talent. It simply argues (roughly speaking) that hard work and proper circumstances will overcome that. It might be right.

Can those with low talent become the best? I've coached kids and seen kids coached who were so low on the talent spectrum that I just don't see them ever becoming world-class table tennis players, no matter what they did. I can't think of a single example of someone like this who eventually became a truly elite player. But I have seen players like this struggle for years, work at it, and eventually become very good. (You often read of elite players who apparently struggled for years before reaching the highest levels, and then you realize that when they were "struggling," they were already among the best, and that their struggles were against the very best.)

I can think of many examples of top players who didn't work hard for years and still pulled away from much harder-working peers - apparently, they were simply more talented. But they would often fall behind their harder-working peers in the long run, and in the end, the very best players were always hard workers. Probably most important, those who believed that hard work would overcome talent in the long run tended to put in the hard work - and so reached their maximum potential. Those who thought talent was more important didn't work as hard, thinking they could never be as good as the more "talented" ones. 

Having said all this, I tend to think that if you start early, work extremely hard, have good circumstances (start early, coaching, competition, etc.), you can become extremely good - maybe even the best in the U.S. The jury is still out for me on whether you can be the best in the world (which is a few levels above best in the U.S.) at table tennis without talent - and I mean that as I said it; I'm really not sure, though I'm doubtful for those who truly start out on the lower end of the talent spectrum. But who knows? Far too many people are sure of the answer here when there's no basis for such certainty.

What is talent for table tennis? Roughly speaking, I'd say it's a combination of the following - and I'm sure I'm missing other aspects:

  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
  9. Speed (fast twitch muscles)

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I'm fairly new to TT, but once played (alas, decades ago!) tournament-level racketball and also semi-pro baseball until about the age of 28 when job and family finally put an end to my athletic "career." I also umpired high school and NCAA baseball for many years.

Now, Larry, I'd say your list of athletic attributes would apply down the line to almost all stick-and-ball games! 

I've always believed that talent must come first for all elite players. I simply can't imagine that any professional athlete in any sport made it to the top on hard work alone! In my baseball experiences, I've seen players at the university level who would never be professionals and who probably got as high as they had by working very hard with a strong dose of enthusiasm and love for the game (perhaps item #10 for your list?). But their lack of "talent" (as defined by the attributes on your list) simply made it impossible to move to a higher level.

On the other hand, I've seen very talented players who were scouted and signed by professional teams just because the athletic attributes are so quantifiable and yet these players lack the #10 attribute and just don't work hard enough to overcome the competition of all of the other talent out there who works harder. If you look at the roster of, say, a major league baseball team most of them have at least one "utility" player. These players often seem to fit the stereotype of a guy with minimal talent but more determination and willingness to work than others. But everything is relative. If you look at the playing histories of these guys I'm betting that almost 100% of the time they were still the best player on their high school squads. 

To apply this to table tennis, look at China. The TT academies are packed with hard-working children with all the benefits a cultural system such as theirs can offer successful players. In that country, all the incentives for success are in place and the environment is ripe for the inculcation of hard work. So even a lot of the less-"talented" there are likely to be better than most here in the U.S. can ever hope to be. But what separates those players from the others who become world-ranked players? Talent.

 

USATT Club, Coaching, Editorial Committees

I've been on the USATT Editorial Committee for the last couple years. Now I'm on the Coaching and Club Committees. What have I gotten myself into???

Actually, I chaired both these committees at various times in the 1990s. (Sometime I'll blog about the Club Catalyst & Creation Program - yes, CCCP - which led to an increase in clubs from 223 to 30a while membership went from roughly 5500 to 7500.) So I have plenty of ideas. The hard part is trying to get others to understand the difference between what I call "nice stuff" and "Big Stuff." Nice stuff is stuff that's helpful, but isn't going to make a major difference. And that's nice. But I'm more interested in doing some Big Stuff. Such as the systematic recruitment and training of professional coaches, the creation of a club-based nationwide league, or the regionalizing the sport so that each region can self-govern and grow, rather than wait for USATT (with a budget smaller than a 7-11) to do it for them.

The problem with doing Big Stuff is that if you suggest it, everyone will agree it's a great idea, so feel free to do it. That won't work. USATT can't do Big Stuff unless they get behind the Big Stuff as a priority, not in words, but in actions. I once tried to set up a USATT League, but USATT wouldn't get behind it, so I was stuck trying to work a full-time job as USATT Editor and Webmaster, coaching at MDTTC, and in my free time (right!) set up, promote, and run a nationwide league.

Your thoughts? Or are you ready to leave your entire table tennis future in my (okay, our) greedy little hands?

Chinese National Table Tennis Training Center

Want to train in China? See below! (They emailed me the info.)

2011 Spring Table Tennis Training Camp in CNTTTC

Dear Sir or Madam:

Welcome to Chinese National Table Tennis Training Center (CNTTTC). It is a great place for all table tennis players, lovers, professional or recreational, for all who know that a great sport to stay healthy and happy. The mission of the Center is to provide a conducive environment that nurtures, coaches and develops aspiring table tennis players of all ages and all countries to achieve their goals by realizing their potential in the sport and promote Ping Pong to its fullest. All table tennis teams, clubs, individuals, groups from social to competitive level can participate at any time; there is a spring intensive training camp in the center which begins on March 1st, 2011 and ends on June 19th, 2011.During this period. A lot of table tennis players from many foreign countries will come here for intensive training. You are most welcome to the center for spring table tennis training camp. Don’t hesitate to participate in our training programs. Cherish this precious opportunity to take national level training in China’s BEST table tennis developing center. As for details, Please feel free to visit our official website: www.cntttc.org or contact me hebocst2@gmail.com

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Use the flippin' down-the-line flip!

I beat a top junior player twice in a row in practice. How? He served almost the same short backspin serve over and over, allowing me to drop them all short. Then he'd either push long (so I was attacking first on his serve), or occasionally flip - but all his flips were crosscourt, so I had no problem attacking them. Note to all readers: 1) Vary your serves; and 2) Use the flippin' down the line flip!!! (Except against me, of course.)

Generally, you should flip to the forehand only when can do so very aggressively, or when the opponent has a weak forehand. More often you should move in as if flipping to the forehand, then flip it quick and wide into the backhand. You can also flip into the middle (the opponent's elbow), but only if you are flipping aggressively - and if you are, you might want the extra table you have when flipping to a wide corner. After all, you won't have all the topspin of a loop to pull it down.

Complete Idiots Guide doesn't think Complete Idiots play table tennis

As I blogged previously, I had an agent shopping "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Table Tennis." Unfortunately, below is the response from the publisher, including her surprise at the large number of players who play table tennis in the U.S. (The agent is now shopping it to the Dummies people, but they already turned it down a couple of years ago.)

"I am surprised at some of the numbers below. I have to admit, it’s a bigger market than I would have guessed. And the author is ideal for such a project. However, I’m going to pass because I’m not convinced this a book that can work for us in today’s environment. There are too many more visually compelling ways to learn how to play table tennis than from reading a book. I don’t think we could sell enough copies for this to work financially for us. Sorry."

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