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 Tips, More 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!

October 23, 2023

Tip of the Week
POP Opponents with the Power Of Placement.

Weekend Coaching, Smashing, and Serve Practice Tips
Only had one group session this weekend. On Saturday we had the annual “Coconut Cup” team tournament, a non-sanctioned event that packed the club with lots of new players, including several teams from the Chinese Embassy – they were pretty good, with the best one around 2100 level. I went in and watched some of it. On Sunday I coached in the Novice Group, where the focus was (surprise!) fundamentals. Lots and lots of stroking and footwork drills, and serving practice. Kids usually pick up good technique pretty well if they are taught properly. One of the kids had picked up this bad habit of not turning his shoulders on forehands, just swinging across his body mostly from the shoulder, so I spent some time working with him on that. Not only is this awkward, it can lead to serious shoulder problems!

One common weakness for younger junior players (and often older players as well) is smashing high balls. Often they let the ball drop all the way down to eye level or below and try to hit it like a regular forehand, rather than hit it from a higher point, where you have much more table to aim at. Or they try raising the racket immediately in their backswing, leading to more of a backspin swat when they try smashing. The key to teaching this is drill into them that when you get a high ball, follow a three-step process: 1) Backswing low, just as you would for a regular ball; 2) Raise the racket as high as needed; and 3) Swing away!

On serving practice, one thing I stress is always have the entire swing and ball trajectory in mind before each serve. Visualize what the ball is supposed to do each time – where the contact point will be (including height), the feel of the contact, the speed of the ball, the ball’s curve as it moves through the air, where it hits on your side of the table, where and how high it crosses the net, where it bounces on the far side (including multiple bounces if short), and where it crosses the end-line.

Serving Tactics Lecture
On Feb. 19, 2023 I gave a 52-minute Serving Tactics Lecture at the Samson Dubina Elite Camp in Akron, OH. A shortened version of it (28:45) has been translated into French. Of course, if you really want to learn about tactics, you can spend a lifetime studying it – or you could buy my best-selling book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers!

Major League Table Tennis

$75,000 WTT Contender Antalya 2023
Here’s the home page for the event, held Oct. 16-22 in Antalya, Turkey, with results, news articles, and video.

Fethomania

Butterfly Training Tips

Talkin' Smash Podcasts with Matt Hetherington

New from Pingispågarna

New from Pongspace

New from Ti Long

PingSunday/EmRatThich
19 new videos this past week!

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

Pan American Games set to open in Chile with many athletes eyeing spots at the Paris Olympics
Here’s the article from the Clinton Herald. Best part is the picture of the mascot playing table tennis! Here’s the ITTF home page for the event, to be held in Santiago, Chile, Oct. 29-Nov. 5.

New from Steve Hopkins

USATT News

ITTF News

Backspin Lob Diving Tap Return
Here’s the video (13 sec)!

I Am the Legendary Ping-Pong Player You Never Heard Of!
Here’s where you can buy the shirt at Amazon!

Wild Pong!
Here’s their Kickstarter (funded already - $2260), apparently the newest version of table tennis. I just like the picture of the giraffe and alligator playing, and lower down, a rhino, shark, lizard, fox, elephant, and seahorse, and farther down, even more. I think it’s some sort of card game. “The most diverse creatures have gathered to demonstrate their skill with the racket. Everyone wants to become the next king of the animal world. Are you going to miss it?”

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October 17, 2023

Tips of the Week (two since I was away last week)

Huntsman World Senior Games and Sightseeing in Utah and Las Vegas
I had a great time at the Huntsman World Senior Games last week in St. George, Utah, Oct. 9-12, Mon-Thur. This was my first time there. The Games include 44 sports, with 11,000 athletes from 88 countries, and 3,000 volunteers. I was there just for table tennis, of course. There were 235 table tennis players, all age 50 or over. Here are complete results, care of Omnipong.

The tournament was well run by Director Jean Bulatao and Sanjoy Bhattacharya,  along with Craig Krum (from Omnipong), Joe Bulatao, and Eric Aki, with officials Hiro Moriyasu (Referee), Steve Lee (Deputy Referee), Helen Prusakov (Chief Umpire), volunteer officials Jon Redman, Mei Wang, Jerry Li, Ning Cheng and Irina Hellwig, and Neuropong Manager Antonio Barbera. (Hope I didn’t leave anyone out!) Jean, who was very helpful in some pre-event arrangements, even made 2023 Huntsman Table Tennis magnets, which is now on my refrigerator!

I retired from sponge tournaments years ago, and generally coach at tournaments and play hardbat events for fun and titles. This time I was just a player, and planned to play hardbat only. I was in four events – Hardbat Singles, Hardbat Doubles (with Lily Yip), Over 50 Men’s Doubles (with Joe Ryan – technically this was 50-54 Doubles, but they allow players to play in younger events, so I was in it despite being 63), and 60-64 Mixed Doubles (with Wendy Guo). By Tuesday afternoon I’d played all my matches except the Hardbat Doubles final, so they let us play that on Tuesday night, and so I was done after two days – meaning two days of sightseeing! (More on that below.)

I won Hardbat Singles and Doubles. I ran into two problems in Hardbat Singles, my first event, starting at 8:30AM on Monday. The starting time wasn’t a problem – I’m from Maryland, so that’s 10:30AM to me. I arrived around 7PM the night before, but the playing hall was closed, so couldn’t practice.(I’d flown to Las Vegas, rented a car, and drove the two hours to St. George.) The registration line (for all sports, all 11,000 of us) snaked around the hallways around the playing hall, and one of the volunteers who’d been there much of the day said it would take about two hours to get through the line. (I was entered, but you still had to register on site.) So I decided to register the following morning when they opened at 7:30AM. I got there early, and with only a few dozen ahead of me, was registered by 8AM. I warmed up with Scott Preiss for ten minutes, and then it was time to play – and that’s when problems arose.

The first problem was that St. George has an elevation of 2,700 feet, which means the air is thinner, and so the ball moves differently. Adjusting to this might take an hour, but I’d only had ten minutes. No problem, I was the top seed in the event, and my first two matches would be easy and would be a good warmup, right?

My second match was against Qingping Liu, rated 1694 in sponge (from four tournaments, all two or more years ago), with a 1751 hardbat rating. Another easy match for me, right? I turns out he’s been practicing regularly, including regular hardbat play, and both of those ratings were way, Way, WAY off. (He’s a lefty pips-out penholder, which means his games translates easily to hardbat.) Between that, and my problems with the air, I barely won the first, 21-19, lost the second 22-20, and found myself down 11-13 in the third. (Hardbat is best of three to 21.) I called a timeout, and played well the rest of the way, winning 21-17. The top two advanced to RR – and guess who I’d play again in the final? Yep, Qingping Liu. This time I won 21-15, 21-17. He should probably have a 2100 hardbat rating. (His regular hardbat practice partner is Mark Kraut, who I played in the semifinals – and after losing the first 21-18, I won the next two at 13 and 11. Hardbat is a lot easier when I play sponge players who aren’t used to playing hardbat!)

Lily Yip and I easy won Hardbat Doubles, 7,11 over Rudy Miranda/Jean Newby. There were six teams, but they decided to divide it into Over 3500 and Under 3500, so there were only two entries in Over 3500, so we only played one match. I actually didn't play well in this match, but with Lily on my team I didn't have to. (She would win four golds and one silver.) 

In Over 50 Men’s Doubles with Joe Ryan, I made three mistakes. First, I decided to play hardbat. While I rally better with sponge, my flip receive is better with hardbat, and except against a loop, I smash better with it. Plus I hadn't really played "competitive" sponge in a long time, and thought my sponge game would be rusty (especially receive), even though that's what I coach with. But I’d later play sponge in the mixed doubles (below), the receive was fine, and realized I should have used sponge in both doubles events. Second, after playing hardbat all morning, I thought I was warmed up and ready – except I was only warmed up and ready against hardbat. I should have warmed up more against sponge loops. And so I didn’t block or hit against loops as well as I should have. And so we ended up getting second. Joe would win 50-54 Men's Singles and 50-54 Mixed Doubles with Oana Tataru Hogrefe, so I ruined his "sweep." (Oana would also win 50-54 Women's Singles and get second in 50-54 Women's Doubles.) The third mistake? Remember how I said above I’d played hardbat all morning? Each time I’d reminded the umpire or scorekeeper that in hardbat, games are best of three to 21. This was my first “sponge” event, but out of habit I mistakenly told the umpire it was best of three to 21. Oops! He and the other players quickly corrected me.

In one of our matches here I literally brained myself. The ball went to my wide backhand, I stepped around to hit forehand, but was late. I leaned back, and made a nice shot – but followed through hard into my right eyebrow. The rally continued, and despite being dazed, I made a difficult but reflexive smash to win the point. But blood was now running down my face. I wiped it with a towel, and the umpire got a band-aid from the control desk, and I was able to continue. But I had a headache for the rest of the day, and a week later, there’s still a substantial scab and bump there. It’ll probably leave a permanent scar.

I played Mixed Doubles with Wendy Guo, who is unrated. After the Over 50 Men’s Doubles, I decided to switch to sponge, and I think I played better that way, even though I had minimal warmup with it. We had a chance get win or at least advance in second in our RR group of four, but lost two close ones, and came in third.

Here are some photos of me at the Huntsman Senior Games.

Afterward I did some sightseeing – always collecting a souvenir magnet for my refrigerator, of course! Actually, I now have three magnetic boards in addition to my refrigerator for all these magnets from all the places I’ve been – 239 USA, 132 international. I toured five places.

  • Rosenbruch World Wildlife Museum. This was right next door to the playing hall, so I was able to spend an hour there on Monday afternoon. It was a bit creepy, since the huge collection of animals were all taxidermy, i.e. skinned and stuff animals, and the place had a slight chemical or dead animal smell – not sure which. Very realistic.
  • St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site. I spent an hour or so there on Wednesday morning. Much of it was fossilized footprints from the dinosaur age. There was also a timeline exhibit outside where you walked in a big circle, with exhibits starting from Cambrian Period (about 500 million years ago) through the Cretaceous (ending 66 million years ago).
  • Zion National Park. It was an hour north of St. George. I drove up on Wednesday right after an early lunch. You could spend a week hiking the trails there. Incredible sights all over. I did the shuttle tour, with eight stops where you get off and look or hike about, and then catch the next shuttle when you’re done. I spent five hours there, seeing the Canyon Junction; Court of the Patriarchs (most spectacular view); Zion Lodge; The Grotto; Weeping Rock (second most spectacular sight); Big Bend; Temple of Sinawava; and the Zion Museum. Alas, I only saw three wildlife: a deer, a surprisingly large raven, and a large green caterpillar that I think will turn into monarch butterfly.
  • The Mob Museum. I drove down to Las Vegas on Thursday morning and spent two hours here. Most memorable part – the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre Wall. Also saw Al Capone’s pistol. Lots of gory pictures.
  • Titanic the Artifact Exhibit. I was there for over two hours going over these artifacts. Amazing that each of these items was not only on the Titanic, but then spent about a century 2.5 miles down at the bottom of the North Atlantic. Lots of pictures, such as the Goodwin family, none of whom survived. Sad way to end my trip.

And then it was off to the airport to return the rental car and catch my 10:47PM Thursday night flight from Las Vegas, with a six-hour stopover in Orlando, Florida, arriving at BWI Airport (Baltimore) at 2:43PM on Friday, and getting home about 5PM.

Weekend Coaching
I did five junior group sessions this weekend, including two hours with the top group. We have about 70 players in our junior program, divided into four groups. Group 1 (the top group) meets three times/week, on Sat, Sun, and Wed; group 4 (novice group) meets once a week on Sundays; the other two groups meet twice a week, on Sat & Sun. I had at least one session with each this weekend.

As usual, I did a lot of multiball training, especially with groups 3 and 4. I spent some of my time with group 2 as a practice partner. One interesting drill was as follows: I’d loop forehands from my backhand corner, two to the wide backhand, then two to the wide forehand. The player has to move side to side, blocking all of them to my wide backhand. (The tricky part for them is often the down-the-line forehand block, an under-utilized skill.) Then the player did it, with me doing the blocking. There are alternate versions of this, such as one shot to each side, instead of two, or two to one side, one to the other.

Another drill started with me either serving short to the forehand or long to the backhand. Player had to flip or backhand loop the serve to my backhand, and then it was random as I blocked the ball anywhere and they played to my backhand. Consistency and movement was the focus of this and most other drills.

One thing I jumped on a number of players, even in group 1, was a tendency to lean toward a shot before moving. This puts your weight on the foot in the direction you are moving, and makes it almost impossible to move in that direction, leading to reaching. Even in group 1 some of the players would do this when blocking, though not when attacking – they are too advanced for that.

News from All Over
Since I haven't blogged since Oct. 2 due to traveling, rather than try to list every interesting article, here are links to some of the main news and coaching pages that have been active in that time, and you can pick and choose.

Ball Balancing Robot
Here’s the video (71 sec)! This is similar to what we have beginning kids do, both balancing the ball on their racket and ball bouncing, to develop their hand-eye coordination.

Ping-Pong! (Political Cartoon Creation + Analysis)
Here it is!

Table Tennis Cartoons from CartoonStock
Here they are! (I’ve linked to some on the past.)

World's Highest Ping Pong Table
Here’s the video (8:01) from Pongfinity!

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October 2, 2023

Next Blog October 16
I’ll be out of town next week at the Huntsman World Senior Games (see segment below), so no blog next week. However, the Tip of the Week will go up on Monday, Oct. 9, as always.

Tip of the Week
Four Short Serve Scenarios.

MDTTC Open and Weekend Coaching
Here are the results of the MDTTC Open this past weekend. Because of the tournament, we only had one junior group session, the novice group. You probably know what the focus was – FUNDAMENTALS! But we also had fun toward the end, where I put targets on the table and had them do various footwork drills while aiming for the targets.

During break, I taught them how to play “Bounce.” Each player stands to the side of the table, both on one side of the net. (So you can have two games going on, one on each side of the net.) One player throws the ball so it bounces exactly one time on the table before crossing the other side. Other player catches it and has to throw it so it bounces exactly two times. Then three, four, and so on, alternating until one of them misses. One bounce is of course easy, and the kids quickly get pretty good at getting two or three bounces, but it gets progressively harder – rarely does it get past five or six.

One problem – Ty Hoff was in town this past week and we played some hardbat, but I had to stop early as my left knee is still somewhat injured. I had to default out of the Hardbat Nationals in August; hopefully I’ll be able to hobble my way through at the World Senior Games.

Huntsman World Senior Games
I’ll be competing next week at the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah. There are 44 sports altogether. Here’s a listing of the 232 table tennis players. (You can sort by rating, name, state, club, or event.) Alas, I’m the only one from Maryland or my club, MDTTC. I’m competing in four events – Over 50 Men’s Doubles (with Joe Ryan – we’re top seed); Over 60 Mixed Doubles (with Wendy Guo); Over 60 Hardbat (I’m top seed); and Hardbat Doubles (with Lily Yip, we’re top seed). While I’m bringing my sponge racket, I think I’m going to play all hardbat this time, even in the two age doubles events. These days my level is about the same with sponge or hardbat, but my hardbat receive and hitting dominates doubles more than my sponge game. I’m actually flying into Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon, then renting a car to drive the two hours to St. Paul. I return on Thursday night.

Ping Pong Parkinson’s World Championships
The were held this past week in Wels, Austria. Here are complete results. Here’s a promotional video (3:04). It’s mostly in German, but USA’s Navin Kumar (who I coach, though I wasn’t in Austria) speaks three times, from 0.53-1:03, 2:02-2:12, and 2:37-3:00. Navin also got a bronze medal for Consolation Mixed Doubles, Class 1.

Major League Table Tennis
Here’s their upcoming schedule. Next up is Oct. 13-15 in Myrtle Beach Sports Center in South Carolina.

New from USATT

Butterfly Training Tips

Sports Psychology Blogs by Dora Kurimay
Here they are!

Explosive Strength in Table Tennis - Improve Your Footwork
Here’s the video (5:02) from Pingispågarna.

New from PongSpace

New from Ti Long

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

New from Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

Bowmar Sports Tournament Highlights

Jenson Van Emburgh: From Lima Silver to Pursuing Gold in 2023
Here’s the article by Vlad Farcas

Short Pips Legend Wins the Battle of the Swedes
Here’s the video (69 sec) of Mattias Falck (in green, with short pips on forehand, world #20) vs. Anton Kallberg (in red, world #22), from Taco Backhand. Falck won Silver in Men’s Singles at the 2019 Worlds in Budapest, and Gold in Men’s Doubles at the 2021 Worlds in Houston.

New from TT11TV

New from ITTF

Ping Pong Is My Therapy
Here’s where you can buy the shirt at Amazon!

French Table Tennis Cartoons
Here’s a whole page of them. Alas, they are in French, so I can’t read them, but they are funny-looking – and you can make up your own captions!

Lad's Amazing Circus Tricks
Here’s the video (3:09) of these ping-pong oriented tricks!

How People Serve in Ping Pong
Here’s the video (28 sec)!

Serving for the Head
Here’s the video (15 sec)!

Many Rackets Father and Son Pong
Here’s the video (48 sec)!

1 Day VS 10 Years Playing Ping Pong
Here’s the video (11 sec)!

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September 25, 2023

Tip of the Week
To Hit or to Loop?

Weekend Coaching
This was one of those times where I wished we had a video camera running! I’d recently worked with some of the kids in the Intermediate group on backspin serves. I’d given them a challenge – serve so that the ball came back into the net, the infamous “ghost serve.” It’s a great serving exercise, as it teaches them to finely graze the ball, create great backspin, and control it so that they can do a legal serve. It also perks their interest, one of the most important things when working with younger kids. A key aspect is that they don’t need to serve the ball too low at first – they can learn to do that later. So, what happened?

A girl, about eight, tried and Tried and TRIED, but she couldn’t get the hang of grazing the ball. I showed her how to keep the racket completely open (parallel to the floor) and let the ball fall onto it, even scoop it up (with front of racket higher than the back). And then, suddenly, it all clicked. First, she served a couple that came to a stop over the table. And then, as I was watching, she served one that came back into the net! If only there’d been a camera to record her excitement. In the next five minutes she did it about ten more times – she can do it about 1/4 of the time now.

But that didn’t end it – a boy, about the same age, was also trying to do it, and just as with the girl, it suddenly clicked – and he too served so the ball bounced back into the net. He too was excited. As I explained to them, they now have magic powers – they are Jedi.

Now that they have figured out how to serve with spin, the next step is to learn different types of spins. After that, different spins with the same motion. Eventually they’ll essentially become sorcerers, practitioners of the dark arts of service spin and deception.

I worked with a number of kids in my groups on random drills. Kids are good at mimicking good technique, but reacting to a ball where they don’t know where it’s going is tougher. As I explain to them, there are three keys: ready position; don’t guess, just react; and move to the ball. (This will likely become a Tip of the Week.)

Another drill I did with some of them was a simple forehand-backhand drill, where I put the ball side to side (either live or with multiball), and they just do forehands and backhands. Simple, right? But this is one of the best drills to develop quickness in your attacks, especially with looping. As players advance, they should focus on taking the ball quicker and quicker, often on the rise. When they can do that in this drill, it’s a lot easier doing it in a game. I credit this drill with much of my improvement when I was coming up so long ago. (This will also likely become a Tip of the Week.)

2,200 Published Articles
This week’s Tip of the Week (which is not only self-published here, but will go up later today in the Butterfly news (as with all of my Tips of the Week), is my 2,200th published article. (Here’s the complete listing – I update it on the first each month, so it still has it at 2,196.) I also have an even 20 books. So lots of twos and zeroes! Table tennis dominates the list, 1,927 of them, but there’s also 206 short story sales (science fiction and fantasy), and 63 non-fiction/non table tennis (including nine science articles, seven on writing, and, surprisingly, 33 on the Baltimore Orioles baseball team).

The Larry Hodges Historical Table Tennis Collection
Here’s the updated listing. Note that, with a special thanks to Vince Mioduszewski, I am now only one magazine short of a complete collection of USATT Magazines from 1976 (the year I started) to 2014 (when they stopped printing them). We’ve been trading various old TT magazines, and he recently sent me two of the three I was missing – Nov/Dec 1986 and Apr/May 1988. That leaves:

=>WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE: The May, 1989 Table Tennis Topics<=

Email me if you have a copy!!!

Major League Table Tennis
They had more action this past week. Here are some links.

US Women's Table Tennis Team Qualifies for Paris 2024 Olympics
Here’s the USATT article by Barbara Wei.

Asian Games
They are in Hangzhou, China, Sept. 22-Oct. 2. Here is the table tennis page. (Click “Events” to see the results of each event.) Here are Reports. There’s been one HUGE upset – in the quarterfinals of Men’s Teams, Iran upset Japan, 3-0! In match #1, Iran’s Nima Alamian (world #208) upset Tomokazu Harimoto (world #4), 16-14 in the fifth! Then Noshad Alamiyan (world #53) upset Shunsuke Togami (world #41), 11-8 in fifth, and Seyedamirhossein Hodaei (world #130) upset Maharu Yoshimua (world #79), 12-10 in the fifth! Also see Asian Games Update: Alamian and Iran Biggest Story So Far by Steve Hopkins.

Butterfly Training Tips

Who Has Better Technique Ma Long or Fan Zendong?
Here’s the video (3:59) from Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis.

How to Play Longpips Backhand
Here’s the video (1:20) from Angela Guan/PongSpace.

New from Ti Long

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

New from Taco Backhand

We Went to the European Championships in Malmö | Interviews | J-O Waldner
Here’s the video (16:38) from Pingispågarna.

I Played Vs Olympic Champion Jan Ove Waldner
Here’s the video (12:30) from Table Tennis Daily.

New from TT11TV

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

Talkin' Smash Podcast by JOOLA Ep1: A Newcomer's Introduction to Pro Table Tennis Ryan Willard
Here’s the Podcast (37:44) from Matt Hetherington.

2023 Butterfly September Tournament Recap
Here’s the article by Amy Karpinski

New from ITTF

Greatest Table Tennis Hits of All Time - Vol. 3
Here’s the video (9:43) from World Table Tennis. Here’s Volume 1 (9:46) and Volume 2 (9:50).

Roger Federer Shows Off His Table Tennis Skills | Laver Cup 2023
Here’s the video (24 sec)! Here's my blog from August 12, 2019 - skip to the end and you'll see lots of links of Federer playing table tennis.

Skeleton Pong

Non-Table Tennis
I just put up a new blog in my science fiction page. 

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September 18, 2023

Tip of the Week
Top Ten Table Tennis Tournament Travel Tips.

Weekend Coaching, US Open, and Travel, Oh My!
One of the things I always stress in group training is to mix things up, both to create match-like training, and to challenge the players – which both helps them improve and keeps their interest up. In the Intermediate Group on Saturday I had four players in my group for 90 minutes, and that’s what we did. I had them rotate, so I’d feed multiball to one (sometimes live play); one would do ball pickup; and the other two would play improvised practice games on the other table. By “improvised,” I mean I made up simple rules so they’d practice specific types of rallies. For example, they may play a game where the server has to serve fast and deep every time, or perhaps serve short every time and follow with an attack if the opponent pushes. And so on. It not only keeps things interesting, but the players suddenly are very interested in practicing the shots they do in these game situations, and so when they rotate to me, they sometimes ask to work on those shots. (Sometimes I’ll ask them what they think they need to work on, based on the games they just played.)

I also had a final session with Navin Kumar before he leaves for the Pong-Pong Parkinson’s World Championships in Wels, Austria, Sept. 25-30. We also did lots of game-type drills. General rule for training – when there are no tournaments coming up for a time, focus on developing the foundation of your game. When there is a tournament come up, focus on game-type drills. You need both. If you really want to improve, you should schedule your entire year around this, so that you have periods where you focus on training (with intermittent tournaments or league play), and periods where you play big tournaments. This not only helps you improve, it helps you to peak for the big ones.

Meanwhile, here’s the USATT news item on the 2023 US Open Table Tennis Championships, to be held Dec. 16-21 in Ontario, CA for the second year in a row. (About sixty miles from LA.) As noted on the news item, you can and should enter through Omnipong. Here’s the direct link to the entry form (“prospectus”). As I’ve done for every US Open and Nationals starting in 1999 (and a few before that), I proofed it for them. (I’m that weird type that can read something on page 246 of a book and immediately say, “Hey! That contradicts what it said on page 33!”)

My first US Open was in Philadelphia in 1976, my first year of playing when I was 16. I’ve been to every US Open and Nationals starting in 1984, so this would be my 40th in a row . . . except they skipped 2020, so it’s 39 in a row for both the Open and Nationals. (However, I’ve never missed the North American Teams (previously called the US Open Teams), starting that first year in 1976, so this November would have been my 48th in a row . . . but they also skipped 2020, so it’s 47 in a row.

I may have the most complicated upcoming travel schedule I’ve ever had to work out, other than my 2019 Adventures in Europe and Egypt (seven weeks). Here are my tentative plans for December-January:

  • Dec. 15: Fly to Ontario, CA, for US Open.
  • Dec. 16-21: Play and coach in US Open
  • Dec. 21-26: Christmas with family in San Francisco
  • Dec. 27-30: Fly to Cusco, Peru for tour of Machu Picchu and other Peruvian sites. May include a trip and sightseeing at Peru’s capital, Lima (685 miles from Cusco).
  • Dec. 31: Fly to Mexico City for a few days of sightseeing and lounging about, maybe some writing. I did three days of sightseeing there last year, but there’s always more to see.
  • Jan. 4-6: 2024 Classic Table Tennis World Cup in Mexico City (for hardbat, sandpaper, and wood). Here’s the current player listing – you can enter via Omnipong. I’m mostly doing coverage, but am playing in the Over 55 Hardbat event. (It’s mine, Mine, MINE!!!)
  • Jan. 7: Fly back to Maryland.
  • Jan. 8 – Dec. 31: Recover.

It’s not my only upcoming trip. I’ll be flying to St. George, UT for the Huntsman World Senior Games, Oct. 9-12. Entries are now closed; here is the player listing – 240 entries.

Major League Table Tennis
MLTT is up and running!!! See their video page. Here’s the latest news:

2023 ITTF Pan American Championships
Here’s the home page for the event held Sept. 10-17 in Havana, Cuba, including results. Here are some articles on the tournament.

=>USATT Articles by Barbara Wei

=>Butterfly Articles by Steve Hopkins

2023 European Team Championships
Here’s the home page for the event held Sept. 10-17 in Malmö, Sweden, including results. Lots of video at TTLondon2012 and at TT11TV. Here’s the article Sweden Claim Men’s Title in Euro Championship by Steve Hopkins.

Butterfly Training Tips

Connected Motion for the Body and Arm is the One Key Commonality for Top Players
Here’s the video (3:26) from Damien Provost/PongSpace.

New from Ti Long

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich
73 new videos this past week!

Learn by Watching and Imitating
Here’s the video (59 sec) from Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis. (Make sure to see the comments underneath.)

Training with Pros - Li Hsin-Yu (TPE)
Here’s the video (3:30) from Tony’s Table Tennis Talk.

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

Sports Medicine Coverage – Ankle and Foot Injuries
Here’s the article by Dr. Alomar-Jimenez)

Nandan Naresh WTT Under 17 Highlights
Here’s the video (59 sec).

A Memorable Summer
Here’s the article by Amy Zhang.

USATT Celebrates the Life of Paralympians Sebastian De Francesco and Anthony Lara
Here’s the USATT article by Barbara Wei.

Sponsor News

ITTF News

Armed Table Tennis
Most players use one arm to play, with a non-playing arm for serving and balance. Others use four arms, either with three paddles or four paddles. Some have eight arm and four paddles (34 sec). And some play with no arms. Yes, we’re talking about Ibrahim Hamadtou!

Must This Family Always Talk Sports at the Dinner Table?
Here’s the table tennis cartoon!

Ball Pickup Challenge
Here’s the video (35 sec) – can you spin the ball inside the glass so that you can lift it up?!

Those Balls That Make People Angry ft. Table Tennis Part 1
Here’s the video (2:03) from Street TT!

World’s Most Expensive Pro Racket [$500]
Here’s the video (7:19) from Pongfinity!

I Challenged France
Here’s the video (18:52) from Adam Bobrow! (After just two days, it already has about 180,000 views and 419 comments.)

Spooky the Ghost Table Tennis
Here’s the comic book from 1980 – which I just bought! But if you search you might find one. It was only $3.99 but $8.55 shipping.

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September 11, 2023

Tip of the Week
The "No Net" Rule Against Heavy Backspin.

Weekend Coaching
For the lower junior groups, the multiball focus was on preparing them for practicing with each other. Right now, for example, if they try hitting forehand to forehand, within a shot or two one will mishit slightly, the other will move, lunge, or reach for the ball, and mishit even more, and the rally ends quickly. So they need to learn two things: 1) React and move to the ball properly, and 2) Control the return after moving. To do this, I put Froggy on the table where they should hit the ball, and then fed them random balls to the forehand side. Their goal was to move to each ball and then hit Froggy, though all that really mattered was that it be close. Then we did the same thing on the backhand side. (I wrote about this last week as well, but it’s an important transitional drill.)

I also had a session with Navin Kumar. Here’s video (20 sec) – no, that backhand smash didn’t happen! He’s getting ready to compete in the Parkinson’s World Championships in Austria in two weeks. He’s so used to playing his long pips backhand mostly crosscourt to righties, and so has some trouble playing lefties when he has to go more down the line. So we did a lot of down-the-line drills, his backhand to my forehand. Then a similar drill, except after a few shots I’d suddenly go to his forehand, he attacks or quick-blocks (with forehand inverted), and then it’s free play. We also worked on his backhand smash, where he flips the racket and uses the inverted.

Similarities Between Table Tennis and Science Fiction Writing
As regular readers know, I split my time between table tennis (writing and coaching) and science fiction and fantasy writing. (What’s the difference between science fiction and fantasy? Science fiction comes under the realm of what’s possible, while fantasy doesn’t – so the latter can include magic, talking animals, and so on.) Here is my science fiction & fantasy writing page and bibliography. I’ve sold four novels and 144 short stories, but am focusing on short stories these days. (Short story generally means up to 7500 words, which is about 30 pages double spaced.) I manage to work table tennis into some of my stories. (More on that below.) I get paid pretty well for my short stories - for my last five sales, all in the last six weeks and totalling just over 21,000 words (a little over 80 pages), I was paid $3,250. And while writing is work, they are fun to write!

There are a number of similarities between SF and TT. Here are three.

  1. In TT, if you get the grip and foot positioning correct, everything else tends to fall into place. If you get one of them wrong, then everything in between becomes twisted like a rubber band. (Here’s my tip on that, Grip and Stance.) In SF, if you get the start and end right, everything in between also tends to fall into place – but if you get one wrong, the whole story can become twisted like a rubber band.
  2. Both TT and SF tend to have a lot of intellectuals. Table tennis is an intellectual sport, often called “chess at light speed.” (It’s why I put “Thinkers” in the title of my best-selling TT book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers.) Science fiction is the fiction of intellectuals, as it explores scientific ideas.
  3. In both TT and SF writing you have to find ways to clearly communicate ideas, whether it’s Playing Choppers or how a time machine might work.
  4. Both TT and SF are creative. TT is most creative when serving, though that’s underdone by most. But creativity is important in many tactical aspects. (Here’s my tip, Fundamental versus Creative Tactics.) And SF writing is the very definition of being creative!

Here’s a novel and novelette where I combined both!

  • The Spirit of Pong - Fantasy Table Tennis Novel (100 pages)
    Andy “Shoes” Blue wants to be a table tennis champion, but he’s just another wannabe American. And so he goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis. He is trained by the mysterious Coach Wang, and begins an odyssey where he learns the secrets of table tennis from the spirits of Ichiro Ogimura (who helped spawn China’s greatness), Rong Guotuan (China’s first world champion in 1959, whose tragic story Andy must relive), and others, and must face the mysterious “Dragon.” Can he overcome treachery and learn the final secret of table tennis in time to defeat his ultimate nemesis?
  • First Galactic Table Tennis Championships (Novelette – 42 pages)
    Li Yi is a member of the Chinese National Table Tennis Team and the best woman in the world. She has trained long hours since she was a child. But now she faces her biggest challenge – aliens! Table tennis has spread to the galaxy and alien players now dominate the sport. The best are the giraffe-like Ith, with their dominating champion Egrayu. But Earth isn't part of it, not since the cowboy Americans colonized a moon in the Ith home system, which led to a blockade of Earth. The Chinese hope to reopen trade with the galaxy by using "Ping-Pong Diplomacy" – by running the first Galactic Table Tennis Championships in Beijing. Li, her teammates, and the American champion Danny See – a literal cowboy – play aliens of all shapes and sizes, including the seemingly unbeatable Egrayu, as they battle for the biggest cash prize in table tennis history. But Li is drawn into a corrupt conspiracy that will shake the very foundations of honor and sportsmanship. Plus, there's that problem with the Chinese dumplings…

New from Major Ponghead - THE Major League Table Tennis Blog

Asian Championships
Here’s the home page. They were held Sept 3-10 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Other Major International Events

Butterfly Training Tips

The Most Important Thing in Having Solid Footwork for Transitioning Between Forehand and Backhand
Here’s the video (5:12) from Damien Provost/PongSpace.

New from Ti Long

Table Tennis Quickness Training
Here’s the video (6:04) from Dr. Table Tennis.

New from TT Crunch

Tom’s Top 10 Challenge
Here’s the article by Tom Lodziak.

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich
58 new videos this past week!

New from Pingispågarna

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

Mobile Table Tennis Museum
Here it is! (It’s in German but I have Google Translate can automatically translate it all into English.)

The Goat from the Best Video Angle
Here’s the video (2:28) of Ma Long from Taco Backhand.

New from ITTF

Ping Pong . . . Ping Pong . . . Ping Pong . . . With Many Objects
Here’s the video (10 sec) – I can’t get that voice out of my head, and now neither can you!

Prehistoric Pong
(You can just click the arrow from the first and it’ll take you to all six.)

Iz’s Army of Broken Ping-Pong Balls
Here’s the image from Isabelle Wu! (Here’s the non-Facebook version.) Now you know what to do with all those broken ping-pong balls – Halloween’s coming up!

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September 4, 2023

Tip of the Week
Tactical Confidence.

Weekend Coaching
A lot of the focus in the lower groups is teaching them to practice together. At lower level, kids don’t have the ball control to really do sustained rallies, and so don’t get much systematic practice unless they hit with a coach or do multiball. When they hit together, their shots often don’t go where they are supposed to, and their practice partner – also novice or just above – can’t adjust to it like a coach would, and so the rally quickly ends without any serious systematic practice.

One way to make this transition is to do random drills with a coach. This allows the player to adjust to any incoming ball, not just ones that come to where they are waiting. For example, with multiball, the coach feeds the ball randomly all over the forehand side, and the player has to react and move to each ball. With live play, the coach would similarly move the ball around on the forehand side. Then do the same thing on the backhand. Soon the player will learn to react to incoming balls that aren’t right where they are expecting them, and so can rally with each other. Then (if doing multiball), put targets on the far side so they not only practice against slightly random balls, but also have to adjust and hit it back to the same spot. This is where I bring out Froggy! He’s the perfect size for this.

I also worked on smashing with some of the kids. This is surprisingly easy to teach as long as you have them do a three-step process each time: 1) backswing the same as if the ball were low; 2) raise the racket and wait for the incoming ball; 3) and smash when the ball is a little over the head. It’s also important to stress turning sideways for this shot.

We also practiced fast, deep serves, using targets I put on the far corners. Key thing here is that the first bounce must be as close to the server’s end-line as possible, so as to give the ball the full table to drop.

USATT Magazines I Edited
I was editor of USATT Magazine for two tenures, 1992-1995 and again from July, 1999 to June, 2007, where I did a total of 71 issues. The were typically 72-100 pages, and went to all 8,000 or so USATT members during that time. Alas, in this modern age, it was discontinued for USATT Insider, which has a lot less content and doesn’t seem to have a separate link or info page on the new USATT webpage.  (I just spent ten minutes trying to find it, but it’s just not there. It’s only mentioned as a benefit for members.)

A few years ago I tried to raise interest in getting all 556 past USATT Magazines scanned and online. Alas, it’s expensive and time consuming, and there was little interest. So I went ahead and spent $700 of my own money to get all 71 of the ones I’d done scanned and online. Originally, USATT stored them, but at some point in the last year or two the link disappeared, and it’s not in the current USATT webpages either. So, for now, I put them online myself. Here they are!

I also maintain a USATT Leaders page, which lists every USATT Executive Director/CEO, President, and Editor. From the Editor’s listing, maybe someday we’ll put together that comprehensive online listing. There are a few people who have many or most of these old issues, but they are disappearing and crumbling away every year.

Table Tennis History Magazine
Speaking of magazines and history, here’s issue #1 of Table Tennis History Magazine! It’s free, from Steve Grant, author of Ping Pong Fever: The Madness That Swept 1902 America. The first issue is 41 pages, and includes:

  • Two extraordinary new "earliest-ever" discoveries from the 1800s.
  • "B-Team Tour, 1959: The Chinese Greats Emerge," featuring the teenage Chuang Tse-tung and teammates.
  • "A Lover of Table Tennis: Fred Perry," showing the surprising length and breadth of this Wimbledon champion's table tennis career.
  • and Much More!

There are two other shorter documents you might also find interesting, both relating to table tennis history: “Boris Johnson is Tied to French Cover Girls (2 pages) and “1950s Arms Race” (12 pages).

George Brathwaite Table Tennis League
Here’s the info page for the Brathwaite League. Last week I blogged about Major League Table Tennis, which is for elite/professional players. The Brathwaite League is for the rest of us! “The legendary ‘Chief’ George Braithwaite had spent decades of his life visualizing and promoting a team league concept in the United States similar to what’s held in Europe; he started this league when he was vice president of the USATT in the 1990’s. With an experienced team of thirty years of proven track records on team-based league competitions, PongSpace is committed to carry out his vision and turn its dream into reality.”

Developing Forehand Power in Table Tennis
Here’s the article by Wang Cheng.

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Ti Long

Three Different Variations of Backhand Drive Depending on the Situation
Here’s the video (3:05) from Damien Provost at PongSpace.

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

Xu Xin Slaughters Opponents From the Best Angles
Here’s the video (3:08) from Taco Backhand.

Temporary Adjustment to USATT Event Referee Requirements to Support Member Clubs
Here’s the USATT article.

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

New from ITTF

Are You the Table Tennis King?
Here’s the shirt!

Are You the Ping Pong Queen?
Here’s the shirt!

Tears of My Ping Pong Opponent
Here’s the mug!

“Table” Tennis?
Here’s the repeating video (23 sec) as Federer (far side) takes on Djokovic! One strange thing – Federer is using a tennis racket while Djokovic has a ping-pong paddle.

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August 28, 2023

Tip of the Week
Nine Battles.

Major League Table Tennis
It’s almost here! This could potentially be the biggest and best thing to ever happen for table tennis in the US. Let’s cross our fingers and hope it really takes off. It’s the brainchild of Flint Lane, who not only was the founder, CEO, and Chairman of BillTrust, but more importantly . . . is a serious TT player! He’s rated 1893 and was previously as high as 1948.

Much of the success of MLTT will be getting sponsors, so feel free to jump in there. I’m tempted to make either tabletenniscoaching.com or my table tennis books a sponsor – but can’t come up with a good name that covers both of these, alas.

The good news is that they start off with good financial backing, which means it should be around for a while, giving it time to develop. Flint is rather wealthy – feel free to Google “Flint Lane net worth,” and don’t let your jaw smack the ground too hard. However, you can’t have a successful professional league that relies on one person donating money until he tires of it – it needs to be financially viable on its own, like any major sports league. Let’s hope MLTT can make it like NFL, NBA, MLB, and so on.

Yesterday they held their inaugural sports draft – here’s the video (13:02) and here are the Major League Table Tennis 2023 Inaugural Draft Results. The schedule is up – if one of the locations is near you, why not show up and cheer for a team? Here’s the Major League Table Tennis First Half of Season Schedule. Specifically:

MLTT First Half Season Schedule:

  • September 15-17: East Division | Ocean Center, Daytona Beach, FL (Tickets On Sale Now)
  • September 22-24: West Division | Kaiser Permanente Arena, Santa Cruz, CA
  • October 13-15: East Division | Myrtle Beach Sports Center, Myrtle Beach, SC
  • October 27-29: West Division | Merrell Center, Houston, TX
  • November 10-12: East Division | Wintrust Sports Complex, Chicago, IL
  • November 17-19: West Division | Alameda County, East of Oakland, CA
  • December 1-3: Cross Division | Rock Hill Sports Center, Rock Hill, SC

Our sport has seen a few seemingly “big” things in the past. Ping-Pong Diplomacy in 1971-72 was huge, and I’m told that USATT (then USTTA) membership surged from 4,000 to something like 17,000 – and then, since there was no real infrastructure or follow-up, within a year or so it dropped back to under 5,000. The sport debuted as an Olympic Sport in 1988, and to some that’s huge – but the reality is that it hasn’t really led to the sport becoming the big sport we all envisioned. The past 15 years has seen the rise of full-time training centers all over the US – going from about six to over 100 during that time – and that has easily been the biggest and best thing for the sport in this country. It might even have laid the groundwork and infrastructure needed to support a professional league like MLTT.

Weekend Coaching
Our Fall junior training season began this past weekend. I coached in three sessions, including the Novice group, where we had the usual influx of new players. There was one girl, about six, who was shaking and in obvious fear of this new ping-pong thing – almost in tears. She wouldn’t respond to questions or look at any of the coaches. We also had a new boy, about 8, also a beginner (though he'd had a few lessons) and he kept saying how he hated table tennis. I had them in my group, so I made it my goal to win them over. Boy, did that work out! It took half an hour, but both finally began smiling and having fun, as well as learning how to play. By the end of the session she not only had a solid backhand (not quite so good yet on the forehand), but was practically bouncing up and down and wanted to come back, while he suddenly liked table tennis. 

Alas, I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum, at least physically, which could affect me as a practice partner with stronger players. I had to drop out of the Classic Nationals a few weeks ago due to a left knee injury. It doesn’t seem to be getting better, alas. I did spend an hour of one session (Intermediate group) hitting with three players (they rotated, with the other two practicing together), but I have to be careful.

As usual, I keep coming up with various challenges for the players. If you have kids do the same boring thing over and Over and OVER, you get kids who don’t really want to play. If you want kids who will become self-motivated and strive to improve, and who want to keep coming back, keep challenging them. When practicing serves, for example, I give targets (Froggy or a water bottle) or use the adjustable serving bar to make them serve low. When doing consistency drills, we count how many they get in a row. When doing multiball, I often put targets on the table and challenge them to hit them. (More likely, I’ll put Froggy on the table and tell them, “Don’t you dare hit him!”) Some points become Galactic World Championships of the Universe, or whatever I make up on the spot. Result? The kids are motivated.

New from USATT

Butterfly Training Tips

Are You Making One of These Forehand Mistakes??
Here’s the video (22:22) from Seth Pech. “Fix Your Forehand from these 14 Common Mistakes.”

New from Ti Long

Problems With Your Footwork? Start With Your Eyes
Here’s the article by Tom Lodziak.

New from PongSpace and Damien Provost

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich
57 new videos this past week!!!

Tony’s Table Tennis Talk
33 new videos this past week!

New from TT11TV
8 new videos this past week!

Franziska Plays Table Tennis Out of This World From the Best Angles
Here’s the video (2:59) from Taco Backhand.

Wan Chuqin Will Be the First Left-Handed Chinese World Champion?
Here’s the video (2:03) from Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis.

Table Tennis Nets – Are They in Good Condition?
Here’s the video (3:44) from Pingispågarna.

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

NCTTA Looking For Help
Here’s the info page. “Ever wondered how to get involved in NCTTA? Or how all of these events work? Well, wonder no more.”

How Texas Wesleyan Transformed Table Tennis Into the Winningest Idea Ever
Here’s the article.

New from ITTF

Greatest Table Tennis Hits of All Time - Vol. 2
Here’s the video (9:50) from World Table Tennis. Here’s Volume 1 (9:46).

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of videos here.

Table Tennis?
Here’s the cartoon!

Felix vs. Alexis: The Final Battle
Here’s the video (11:53) from Adam Bobrow! “Have you ever wondered how hard it is to receive a table tennis serve from a pro?”

Match to 100 Points
Here’s the video (8:24) - with rather interesting rules - from Pongfinity!

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August 21, 2023

Tips of the Week

My Current Table Tennis Activities
I actually split my time these days about 50-50 between table tennis and writing (and selling!) science fiction. On the table tennis side, here are my current activities – including my new endeavor, table tennis cartooning, where I might need a collaborator. (See last bullet point.)

  • The weekly Blog and Tip. And every three years, the Tips become a book! (The advantage of getting the book version is they are organized in logical progression, you can make notes in the margins, and you’ll help me afford dinner!)
  • Working on my new book, Table Tennis Doubles for Champions. Because of travel and some science fiction writing, I haven’t worked on it in a few weeks, but plan to focus on it in September, and have it out in time for the US Open in December. It’ll be my 21st book and 12th on table tennis. (Here are all my books.)
  • Coaching at MDTTC. I mostly just coach on weekends these days, after many years doing it full-time. During the summer you’d think I’d be at my busiest, since the kids are out of school and we have camps every week, but MDTTC has so many full-time coaches that need the work that I’m not needed in the camps that much anymore, and so have only been there for a few sessions. However, the Fall season starts next weekend, and then I’ll be coaching many hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
  • Maintaining my table tennis collections.
  • A new endeavor – table tennis cartooning. Recently I brainstormed and outlined 20 new ideas for table tennis cartoons. Alas, while I can come up with ideas and very rough drafts, I don’t have the drawing skills. Here’s an example of a table tennis cartoon I had published once – good idea, but the artistic skills are pretty weak! Next weekend I may ask around and see if there are any budding cartoonists/artists in our junior program. We have something like 70 kids, and if any of them are interested, I may collaborate with them. I think I can get them published in one of the major table tennis pages, who might trade equipment for them – but I don’t need the equipment, so that would go to any collaborator. (I also came up with a bunch of non-TT cartoon ideas, similar to The Far Side – but again, I don’t have the artistic skills to draw them effectively.) I’ve done a lot of online cartoons, a lot of them political, where I simply use online images. I had a number of cartoons published in college in the University of Maryland newspaper, but for those, I collaborated with an artist – the editor hooked us up together. If I don’t find any locals to work with, and you have the cartooning skills and are interested, email me.

Classic Table Tennis Nationals - Austin
My articles on the Classic Table Tennis Nationals (Hardbat and Sandpaper) in Austin, TX, Aug. 11-12, are all up on the Butterfly News page. They are linked below. The tournament was run by Steve Claflin. (See the start of the Sandpaper article below where I point out and thank those who helped out.) The big CLASH happened twice, with AJ Carney winning Hardbat Singles over Jimmy Butler, then Jimmy winning Sandpaper Singles over AJ. I was going to play the senior event as the second seed but had to default with a knee injury from the night before in a practice match with Bryce Milford.

Afterwards, I spent two and a half days sightseeing in Austin – the Lyndon B. Johnson Museum & Library; the Bullock Texas State History Museum; a tour of the Texas State Capitol; the Buford Tower Memorial; a water cruise to see the famous Austin Bats (100,000 bats taking off at the same time); the Austin Zoo; Austin Aquarium; Museum of the Weird; and the Ice Cream Museum. As usual, I came home with many souvenir magnets – my refrigerator is jammed.

And now . . . the articles!

$36,000 Mexico Open Ping Pong World Series - Mexico City
Here’s the info page for the event in Mexico City, Jan. 4-6, 2024. You can now enter via Omnipong – page down to Mexico. It’s basically the World Championships Hardbat, Sandpaper, and Wood. The Early Bird Special is until Sept. 1, with final deadline Nov. 1. I’ll be there doing coverage as well as playing in Hardbat Seniors.

Major League Table Tennis
Here’s the latest from Major League Table Tennis!

ITTF Pan American Master Championships
Here’s the info page. They will be held Nov. 16-21, 2023, in Davie, FL, with events for players from Over 30 to Over 75. You can enter via Omnipong – page down to Florida.

MDTTC August Open
Here are the results of the MDTTC Open held this past weekend at my club. I’ll add a link here to the ratings when they are processed.

Why Table Tennis is My Favorite Sport
Here’s the blog post by Ryan Lin. He’s 13, rated 2277, and the 2022 US Under 13 Boys’ Singles Champion. (I’ve had the privilege of working with him from when he started out in my beginning junior class at MDTTC, and in the last few years at a number of overseas camps and tournaments.) He wrote, “At this point, I have sacrificed 5 almost 6 years of time for table tennis, and recently, my friend asked me, ‘If you’re so athletic, why did you choose ping pong out of all the sports?’ That made me think, ‘Why do I like table tennis better than other sports?’” (Here are all his posts.) 

Third Time's a Charm
Here’s the article by Angela Guan at NCTTA, about her experiences at the World University Games.

New from USATT

News from All Over
Since I haven't blogged since Aug. 7 due to traveling, rather than try to list every interesting article, here are links to some of the main news and coaching pages that have been active in that time, and you can pick and choose.

Ping-Pong Whisperer
When you search for this in Amazon under Clothing, over ten shirt designs come up! Take your pick.

Solar Opposites – Ping-Pong Episode
On Aug. 14, for the season 4 premier, the animated show Solar Opposites ran an episode called “The Ping Pong Table.” Here’s a picture! Alas, it’s on Hulu, which I don’t have. You can apparently buy the episode “Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV.” However, when I checked Amazon Prime, it only had season one. Here’s the description: “At their new jobs, Korvo and Terry lobby their boss to get the office a ping pong table.”

Table Tennis in LA Times Crossword
SPOILER ALERT!!! This was from the Aug. 11, 2023 crossword, which also runs in the Washington Post (which I still have delivered) and a number of other newspapers. The clue for 20 across was, "Table-tennis implement that lacks a partner?" The answer was, “Bachelor Paddle”! Here are the Answers. (I do the LA Times Crossword from the Post every day at lunch, and yes, I solved the Aug. 11 puzzle.)

A Ping-Pong Poem
Here’s the video (36 sec) from Aerobic Table Tennis!

Saturday Evening Post Table Tennis Cartoons
Here are seven of them from the 1950s!

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August 7, 2023

Next Blog on August 21 – See Segment on Classic Nationals Below

Tips of the Week
I’ve been away since July 17, so there are the last three Tips of the Week. (Remember, even when I’m out of town and don’t do a blog, a Tip of the Week still goes up every Monday.)

Classic Nationals
I’ll be at the Classic Nationals in Austin, TX, Aug. 11-12, Fri-Sat, at the Austin TTC, run by Classic TT guru Steve Claflin. Afterwards I’ll be sightseeing in Austin for three days, returning to Maryland on Wednesday, Aug. 16. So no blog next Monday. There are six events in the tournament: Hardbat Open, Hardbat Women, Hardbat Over 55, Hardbat Under 18, Austin City Hardbat Championships, and the Sandpaper Open.

I’m running a FREE Hardbat Clinic there on Friday night, 6-7PM. I plan to cover Hardbat Equipment, Serves, Forehand, Backhand, Chopping, Playing Against Sponge, and a Q&A session. (I normally use sponge, but hardbat is a big sideline for me.)

Besides trying to win Over 55 - only event I’m playing - I’m top seed but face formidable opposition - I’m there primarily to do coverage. I’ll likely write a flurry of articles that’ll hopefully go up over the weekend at Butterfly News. The articles will be both regular coverage and profiles of top players, such as the top seeds in Hardbat and Sandpaper Open, Jimmy Butler and AJ Carney.

After the tournament I plan to do tours of the State Capital, LBJ Presidential Library, Austin Aquarium, Austin Zoo, and the famous Austin Bat Tour.

Major League Table Tennis on TV!
Here’s the one-hour show from ESPN 2, from this past Friday, Aug. 4, showing Major League Table Tennis, the only professional TT league here in the US. (You might have to have to put in your service provider.) The matchup was Team Zhuang (Agnieszka Maluszczak, Ojo Onaolapo, Enzo Angles and Hong Lin) vs. Team Fu (Alexandru Cazacu, Yasiris Ortiz, Mishel Levinski, Romain Lorentz). MLTT was created by Flint Lane - hope to see it get bigger and bigger! 

Pan Am Youth Championships and WTT Youth Contender
From July 23 to Aug. 4, most of the top youth players in the Americas were in Charleston, West Virginia, for the following events:

=>Butterfly Coverage by Steve Hopkins

=>USATT Coverage by Joshua Dyke

World Table Tennis Events
One just finished, one just started!

Butterfly Training Tips

Peak Performance Table Tennis on Sale
Here it is, by Kevin Finn – it’s 40% off for the print version (US and Puerto Rico only) at checkout with the code Peak2023, through Aug. 12.

Jan-Ove Waldner Top Ten Tips
Here they are, from one of the greatest player of all time! (He was generally considered the greatest until Ma Long.) This is reprinted from Jan-Ove Waldner: When the Feeling Decides (updated in 2022). I have a copy of the original version, signed by Waldner. The book was also translated into French, Jan-Ove Waldner : Question d’instinct, by David Salomez, who also translated my Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers into the French version, Tactiques de Tennis de Table pour Pongistes Penseurs. 

Tony's Table Tennis Talk - Episode 1 - What was the call?
Here’s the video (3:49). So, what’s your call?

The Impact of 2 Month Online Training Toward Stroke Drive Ability in Table Tennis Players
Here’s the technical article (in English) from the Turkish Journal of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation.

News from All Over
Since I haven't blogged since July 17 due to traveling, rather than try to list every interesting article, here are links to some of the main news and coaching pages that have been active in that time, and you can pick and choose.

Former Doctor with Multiple Sclerosis Goes From Prescribing Medications to Playing Ping Pong
Here’s the article and video (4:20) on Dr. Antonio Barbera from Denver 7 News.

Top 5 Incredible Table Tennis Counter Attacks
Here’s the video (66 sec) from Top Table Tennis.

Some Very Sad Ping-Pong Balls?
Here they are!

Best Table Tennis Poems
Here’s the page from Poetry Soup. Here’s another, “Ping Pong” by Ron Cohen. (I remember seeing a new one this past week on Facebook and thought I copied the link – but can’t find it now. Email me if you have the link.)

Human vs. Robot?
Here’s the video (13 sec)! However, it’s obviously done with AI, with much of it apparently copied from real rallies. I recognize the chopping rally at the start from an exhibition I’ve seen but don’t remember who it was. However, the sudden forehand block at the end is just recreated from the famous Jan-Ove Waldner block against Timo Boll!

New from Adam Bobrow!

New from Pongfinity!

Businessman Pong
Here’s the video (90 sec)! This is a takeoff on the famous Matrix Table Tennis video (1:46).

Non-Table Tennis – War Around the Clock and TNEO
My fantasy anti-war story War Around the Clock is up at Bullet Points. It’s about the stupidity of war – and literally takes place on a . . . well, you’ll have to read the story to find out. Or read the title, literally!!!

From July 21-29 I was in Manchester, NH for my 14th (and 11th consecutive) “The Never-Ending Odyssey” science fiction writing workshop. It’s basically nine days of critiquing each other’s stories; master classes on SF writing; brainstorming, readings; and related issues. I had three stories critiqued, and another got the “Plot Breakout” treatment where four of us basically reworked the plot (such as putting it into a three-act structure, etc.). I’ve since finalized three of the stories and will likely finish the last one in the next day or so, though I’ll likely put all four aside for one more reading in a week or so before submitting them to the various magazine and anthology markets. What were my stories about?

  • Two Dreams: Dr. King and the Alien. An excited and idealistic alien makes first contact at the 1963 Martin Luther King March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
  • Bullet Time. A robber shoots a teller during a bank robbery, but time nearly freezes for the teller, and so it takes five days for the bullet to arrive – meanwhile, he’s stuck, frozen like everything else, just watching it approach, thinking about his life . . . and periodically getting visited by a strange Tinkerbell-like creature!
  • Connoisseur of Cambrian Cooking. The world’s first time traveler goes 500 million years into the past, to the Cambrian Explosion, but gets stuck there – and is forced to extreme measures to survive. (I managed to work in a ping-pong reference.)
  • Time Sweater. 11-dimensional beings are bothered by the plight of freezing, homeless children (also 11-dimensional), and decide to knit one of them a warm sweater – made from timelines. Which means splitting our timeline over and over to create new timelines for the sweater, causing havoc!

Meanwhile, I sold a story to Storia.com. A God and his pet squirrel return to Earth and are disappointed with what they find. They try to fix things, but it only gets worse. Finally, they decide to start over, wiping out humanity and replacing them with intelligent squirrels – but it turns out there are even higher powers!

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