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 21, 2024

Tip of the Week
Adjust in One Game.

Weekend Coaching and Training
This weekend was lazy feet day, as I was all over a number of players who weren’t moving their feet. With the beginning/intermediate players, the emphasis is on the reflexively stepping toward the ball instead of leaning. I demonstrated that once you lean in the direction of the ball, your weight goes on that foot and you can’t really move anymore. With the more advanced players, it’s more about having active feet where they move every shot, even if it’s just inches.

During a serving session, I challenged the players to serve backspin so the ball came to a stop on the table, or even bounced backwards. I first demonstrated that to do this, you need to really brush the bottom of the ball -  many players try doing this by hitting the midway between the bottom and back of the ball, which leads to a light backspin at most. Two kids did it for the first time, while others are now determined to do so.

Using my best fake Russian accent, I tried to convince the kids my name was Yuri Vil, a world champion coach from Russia. They quickly figured out that “Coach Yuri Vil” is “Coach You’re Evil.”

I’ve also continued my own training. Since Aug. 1, I’ve dropped from 210 to 193 pounds – but I’ve been stuck at the latter for over a week. I did hit 192 yesterday, but that was from dehydration. I was back to 193 this morning, alas. (Goal is 180.) Regarding training, I’m hitting my backhand harder, but there’s a problem – when I practice it for more than a few minutes, it puts pressure on my shoulder, which begins to hurt from past injuries. I also start every session playing at a 2200 level (not bad for age 64), and then, as I get tired, it gradually works downward until I’m barely 2000 at most at the end. This also happens in my practice or league matches – after a few matches, or late in a match, my muscles tire and the strokes break down, and so I miss key shots at the end of those games – not from the pressure of a close game, but from real muscle fatigue. Hopefully, I’ll be over that by the US Open in December. But it’s already cost me a number of matches, both practice ones and in some hardbat matches I’ve played in tournaments the past few years, where I’d sometimes be winning until the end, and then be unable to keep up the same level, and so lose strings of points as I totter around in exhaustion.

US Team Selection
USATT recently published their new USA Table Tennis Unveils 2025 National Team Selection Procedures. Very soon I started getting unhappy messages from parents and coaches. The new procedures means that players who can afford to go to more events, and who can miss more school, will have an advantage in making the US Team. I strongly disagree with this approach. Even some of our junior players at my club were grumbling about this – the ones setting this up do not seem to understand the money and time constraints for the players involved.

After many complaints, USATT had a Zoom session last week to explain the new system. I didn’t attend the 90-minute session, and I don’t think I’m at liberty to give out the link to the recording. But I read over the comments – probably well over 100 from dozens of parents and coaches – and there really wasn’t one positive one, just lots of disagreement and factual observations about the problems of the system and the great financial and time pressures it puts on parents and players. I finally read over the Selection Procedures, and they are right – I don’t like them either. And yet, with so many USATT issues going on that I disagree with, I’m hesitant to get involved in still another. (I was planning on writing about USATT Coaching Certification this morning, but will postpone that to next week.)

The parents have set up a petition opposing the new system. (I had nothing to do with it – let’s stop that rumor in the bud.) The petition went up on Oct. 16, five days ago, and I’m told already has been signed “by close to 100 families.” I think that’s a mandate.

Here are two links:

I signed the petition, with the following note:

I think the petition speaks for itself. I’m sure the ones who put this new system together were well-meaning, but I don’t think this system selects the best players for the National Teams. It will often select the players of the parents with the most money and the juniors who can travel to more US and international events. The over-emphasis on junior world rankings skews the results since they are not that accurate since they over-reward participation, and many aspiring juniors can't afford to travel the world. They get their primary training at home, which is more important at this stage, with occasional overseas and domestic trips. I also think there should be more emphasis on removing the junior events at the US Open from being part of the system, since often unseeded foreign juniors show up and a top US junior may lose first round, badly hurting their chances. The goal of the Trials should be to identify the best players while maintaining fairness to all national team hopefuls, and I don’t think this new system does that. In general, it seems like every time we have a system that works we change it. 

There’s also been online discussion of this in the Team USA forum (only for players, parents, coaches, and USATT people). One argument being made by USATT people is they want to focus on those trying to be “pro” players, not just “rec” players. I posted the following:

The problem here is that during their junior years, most kids don’t know yet if they are going to be “pro” or “rec” players. During those up-and-coming years, training is most important, as that – along with competition – is what maximizes their development so that they have the *option* later on of choosing between professional and recreational.

They do need competitions to develop, and perhaps team members should be required to play a certain number of tournaments per year. But requiring them to regularly miss school and spend large sums of money flying about the US and the world so they can chase ranking points to make the US Team – that’s counter-productive to finding and developing the best players for the team. It means that, after they go to all the USATT events to chase those ranking points, they miss so much school they can’t go to other events, including international ones.

Most train and go to school all week, and train or compete on weekends in more local tournaments, while focusing on a few larger tournaments or trials where they miss school. This way they don’t miss as much school since they are mostly weekend events, giving them the leeway to go to other events, both domestic and international. The only real “winners” from this new system are juniors whose parents have deep pockets, those who can miss a lot of school (usually home-schooled), and USATT, which collects the entry fees for these additional events.

I later wrote:

When you have a system that's overwhelmingly rejected by those who will be forced to use the system, there's something wrong with the system.

US Junior Team Trials – My Proposal
The is just a flexible outline, with a number of details that can be worked out once main concept is adopted. NOTE - This went up Monday afternoon, several hours after the rest of the blog.

  • Have two Trials, one at the Nationals in July, the other roughly six months later. The second Trials would move to a different location each year. Having more Trial events mean players would focus on just making the US Team, as opposed to going beyond that and focus on maximum long-term improvement. It also puts a great financial and time burden on junior players and parents, the latter because they have a limited number of days they can take off from school. If all those days are taken for Trials events so they can chase after ranking points, then those events and just making the US Team becomes the focus instead of overall and long-term improvement, or international events.
  • World ranking should have no bearing on making the team at the junior level. This too strongly favors those who have the finances to travel internationally over possibly better and harder-working players who train and compete primarily in the US. If the international competition helps the players who can afford to do so on their own, then the results will show in the Trials events. As players get older, the focus can gradually shift to international competitions.
  • The junior events at the US Open should not be a part of the Trials as unranked foreign players could knock out top US players while other US players get lucky draws, skewing the results. Also, the US Open normally takes place during final exams for most schools. (Plus it means another five days of school missed.) A Trials event can only be held at the US Open if it is separate for US players only, and the dates moved to accommodate school schedules.
  • Constant Competition is important to improvement. US Team members should be required to play a certain number and level of tournaments per year, including at least one International (which could be the US Open or a WTT event). Players may ask special dispensation to play fewer tournaments if they are working on a specific technique and prefer to take time off from tournaments, for injuries, or related issues, which the HPC or US National Coach should grant when appropriate.
  • Have eight players on National Team or Team Squad. Top seven in Trials automatically make team. If HPC chooses, they may select the final spot if an injured or sick player was not able to make the Trials. Otherise, the #8 finisher gets the final spot.

2,300th Published Article
Last week I noted that I’d just had my 2,000th published table tennis article. (This does NOT include exactly 2,021 blog entries – 1,974 here and 47 in my science fiction page. Including those, I’ve had 4,321 published articles!) This morning’s Tip of the Week, “Adjust in One Game” (both here and at Butterfly – gosh I look mean in that photo!) is my 2,300 published article (in 197 different publications), and my 2,002nd published table tennis article. Here is a listing of all my published articles (many linked to the articles) as of Oct. 1. (I update it at the start of each month.)

Holiday Shopping
It’s time for some Holiday shopping, both for others and for yourself! Why not get one of my books? Or one of Dan Seemiller’s?

Here are my table tennis books:

Here are books by 5-time US Men’s Singles Champion Dan Seemiller!

More into history? Here are the 23 volumes of History of US Table Tennis by Tim Boggan!

There are many more. Perhaps browse my collection of 337 table tennis books (!) and if you find an interesting one, see if it’s on sale at Amazon or elsewhere!

Major League Table Tennis
Follow the action!

Butterfly Training Tips

Three Tips to React Quicker When Playing Table Tennis
Here’s the article by Tom Lodziak.

New from PingSkills

540 Hours to Make a Table Tennis Player?
Here’s the video (14:05) from Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis.

New from PongSpace

PechPong VS Norwegian National Team Player Martin Frøseth
Here’s the video (15:07), with Seth Peth’s usual point-by-point analysis.

New from Table Tennis Daily

New Videos

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

Puerto Rico Wins 10 Medals At The Pan American U-19 And U-15 Table Tennis Championships
Here’s the article by Edgardo Vazquez

USATT Announces Bidding Process for 2025 Regional Championships
Here’s the news item.

Puzzle Master Will Shortz Pieces Together His Recovery from a Stroke
Here’s the CNN article. He owns the Westchester TTC and is on the USATT Board of Directors.

New from ITTF

You Just Got Served
Here’s where you can buy the shirt from Amazon!

Mary Had a Little Pong...
Here’s the video (25 sec)!

Ma Long’s Fake Serve
Here’s the video (10 sec)!

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October 14, 2024

Tips of the Week

USATT Election and Team Trials
Page down for segments on them. I decided to start with the more positive stuff.

US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductions
I flew to Houston for the US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductions and Dinner, held Thursday, Oct. 10 at the Houston International Table Tennis Center. Inducted were Glenn Cowan, Dennis Taylor, and Stellan Bengtsson, with Patty Martinez Wasserman getting the Mark Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award. Here's the promotional flyer. Here is the HOF news item on the event, by Sean O'Neill. It includes links to the induction speeches (including photos and video) by Derek May (for Glenn), by me (for Dennis), by Christian Lillieroos (for Stellan), and by Scott Gordan (for Patty). Click on the induction speech links for lots of great stuff!

Huntsman World Senior Games
As part of my comeback, I flew out to St. George, Utah, for the Huntsman World Senior Games, Oct. 7-10, where I was entered in four events. (I had to skip Hardbat Doubles, where I was defending champion, and Elite Singles as I had to fly to Houston for the Hall of Fame Inductions – see above.) I was hoping for a lot of gold, but ended up with three bronzes and a fourth place ribbon. The bronzes were in Over 60 Men's Singles, Over 50 Men's Doubles (I played down a division with Joe Ryan), and Over 50 Hardbat Men's Singles (they had 50-69 and Over 70 divisions). I came in fourth in Over 60 Mixed Doubles with Alecia Moll.

The hardbat was especially disappointing. I was the defending champion. In the semifinals, in a best of three to 21, my opponent seemed to get a lot of nets and edges in that third game, but I still managed to lead 20-19 and 21-20 match point. Both times I missed easy smashes, and I ended up losing 23-21 in the third. So I felt like I was both unlucky and choked it away, alas. Yikes.

The tournament was well-run by Directors Jean Bulatao and Sanjoy Bhattacharya, Omnipong Managers Craig and Rob Krum, Assistants Eric Aki and Marguerite Cheung, Referee Hiro Moriyasu, Deputy Referee Steve Lee, Chief Umpire Helen Prusakov, and Umpires Jerry Li and Mei Wang. (Here's the info page.)

USATT Election
Here is the USATT news item on the election, which went up on Friday, Oct. 4. The deadline to apply to run was only one week later, Friday Oct. 11. They gave us only one week's notice. Jeez. Do they understand that prospective candidates need time to mull it over, explore the issues, and discuss with others?

I considered running. (I've had two previous tenures on the USATT board.) I finally decided it simply wasn't worth it. If I'd won, I would spend the next four years watching and listening to leaders doing silly and often dishonest things while most nod their heads in agreement, and there'd be nothing I could do about it. I'd be outvoted on every major issue. It would be a hostile environment since I tend to be outspoken and say things they don't want to hear – as I am doing here. There are 12 board members; perhaps four of them have the courage to speak up when told to do things that were just wrong. Some are honestly just nice, well-meaning people who just want to get along, and so they vote in support of whoever's in charge.

At some point during the election I expect to post lots of examples – nearly all of which I've already blogged about – but to give one example I've blogged about a few times, early last year the current chair, backed by the CEO, ran for an illegal third term. The whole board knew he wasn't eligible, and yet he was illegally re-elected, 7-2-1. Why? Because most just want to go along with the crowd and follow whoever's in charge. That's why most of the board has voted literally hundreds of time in a row – 100% of their votes during the last four years – with the leadership. (When I say leadership, that really means the CEO, with the Chair of the Board supporting her 100% of the time. And watch out now for board members to look for places to cast token votes in opposition, just so they can say they did!) While many of these votes are procedural, I'd have voted in opposition many dozens of times.

Here are three of my blogs on the election about the illegal chair:

Over and over it's the same trick – the CEO or Chair bring in their hand-picked lawyer to tell the board what they should do and to rationalize that they are following the USATT bylaws – the rules which govern our sport - when they are not, and board members then have that as "cover" to go along with the leadership. How do I know? Because nearly every time I challenge a board member on these votes they bring up that they were just going along with the what the lawyer told them!!! Others simply don't want to discuss it.

To give another example, late last year one board member, Thomas Hu, who has an MBA, saw possible discrepancies in the budget and wanted to see the detailed financials. So the USATT leadership called in the lawyers, who told the board that Thomas had a "potential conflict of interest" because he had a partial ownership of a club and was CEO of the American Youth Table Tennis Organization. (Here's my July 1, 2024 blog on it – page down to "USATT Board Member Denied Access to USATT Financials."). And so, despite the bylaws clearly saying board members need access to these financials (as explained in my blog), he was denied access to the very financials he and other board members are responsible for, all via a made-up "potential conflict of interest." One result of this is that Thomas isn't running for re-election, since he's spent much of the last four years in constant opposition, and is tired of it. I don't blame him.

Or the USATT Assembly, which is held every year at the US Open or Nationals. The bylaws require it be held in conjunction with a USATT Board meeting, so board members can consider what the membership brings up in the Assembly - which is the whole point of the Assembly. But as I've regularly pointed out, USATT has refused to hold the require board meeting the past three years in a row, claim it would be inconvenient. I've complained about it all three times, in 2021, 2022, and 2023, to no avail. Here's my Feb. 19, 2024 blog on it. As I wrote, "USATT Bylaws are not things USATT should follow only when they are convenient; they are the rules for governing our sport." Plus, the rationale that it was inconvenient for the top players fell apart when the player reps I spoke to denied that it was inconvenient, and suggested it be held via Zoom at the end of the tournament.

There are many other examples and other serious issues which I expect to blog about. These are just a few of the issues – I have 14 pages of notes to be organized at some point. For now, I'm leaving out names.

  • There's the huge drop in USATT certified coaches, from 318 to less than 100. I'll blog about this later, but there are three primary reasons for this, with a relatively easy fix for each.
  • We've gone from regularly holding many of the biggest tournaments in the world here in the US (World Championships, Women's World Cup, World Veterans Championships, all brought in by the previous administration) to no longer doing so.
  • USATT set up a Club Ranking system based solely on the number, size, and prize money of tournaments run (though the criteria isn't listed on the USATT Club page), without taking anything else into consideration, such as number of USATT and club members, certified coaches, junior programs, senior programs, para programs, leagues, and so on – and so a club owned by a USATT board member, Will Shortz, has been the #1 ranked club every month since the system was created shortly after he took office nearly four years ago as the elected Club Representative. The new club ranking system is seemingly tailored for his club, which has zero USATT certified coaches but lots of big tournaments. I'm told he didn't set it up himself, but others did it for him after he took office, presumably to get his loyalty – and in his nearly four years in office, he's voted with the leadership in 100% of votes. I pointed out the club ranking issue to him – he's a very friendly guy and very good regionally - but he didn't want to discuss it or take action to remedy the problem, and so his club continues its "undefeated" streak, posted every month on Facebook, USATT Newsletters, and who knows where else. Maybe he'll fix the problem now? There are some really nice clubs out there that, with more rational criteria, would do quite well, perhaps even #1 – 888, ICC, Table Tennis America, Triangle, Houston International, Lily Yip's, and so on, with apologies to those left out. (Disclosure - my own club, MDTTC, would also do pretty well in a rational club ranking system.)
  • In the last USATT election, the membership voted for the Club Representative. This time, the Nominating and Governing Committee (NGC) has decided they will choose the Club Representative. It's legal by the bylaws, but it means the NGC, selected by the USATT Board, will choose this person, and the NGC is not likely to choose someone who disagrees with the very USATT board that selected the NGC. The current Club Rep, if he applies, will almost for certain be appointed.
  • The NGC will also appoint four "Independent Directors" to the board – and again, it is unlikely they will appoint people who disagree with the USATT board that selected the NGC. It used to be that the bulk of the Board of Directors was chosen by the USATT membership. Now they only vote for two "At Large" representatives out of the twelve. I disagree with this. (There are also four player reps and a "National Organization" rep.)

Like past administrations, the current USATT administration will someday be gone. They will be forgotten except when people talk about the past and USATT corruption and say, "What were they thinking?"

USA Table Tennis Unveils 2025 National Team Selection Procedures
Here's the USATT News Item. I've heard a number of complaints about this – coaches and parents keep messaging me about it – mostly about the costs of going to so many events, and about the point system that seems to greatly favor international ranking (much of which is based on participation) over team trials, meaning the new rules would favor those who have the money to travel to all of these national and international events. I briefly browsed over the documents, but really don't want to get into another USATT issue right now, so I don't really have an opinion on it right now. USATT is holding an invitation-only Zoom meeting on Tuesday night at 9PM Eastern Time to explain the new system. (I'm guessing anyone asking with an involvement to the issue would be allowed to participate.) I probably won't attend – if I disagree with the latest and newest system, I'll end up spending way too much time on the issue. I'm hoping someone else will write an article on it, good or bad, and I can just link to it.

2,000th Published Table Tennis Article
I recently realized that my Tip of the Week on Oct. 7 – last Monday – was my 2,000 published table tennis article! It went up both here and on Butterfly News (as all my Tips of the Week do), but only counts as one article. It was also my 2,298th  published article (in 197 different publications), with this morning's Tip of the Week (also at Butterfly) #2,299. So, my next article, which should be next week's Tip of the Week on Monday, will be #2,300. Here is a listing of all my published articles (many linked to the articles) as of Oct. 1. (I update it at the start of each month.)

MDTTC Open
Here are the results of the MDTTC Open held this past week at the Maryland Table Tennis Center, where I coach. Interestingly, junior players won nine of the ten events (two of which were junior events), the only exception being Parham Ghatan, who won Under 1900. Stanley Hsu (who turned 16 three weeks ago) won the Open, coming back from down 0-2 against Khaleel Asgarali. Ryan Lin (14) won under 2400; Richik Ghosh (9!) won Under 2200; Landy Liu (14) won Under 2000; Ryan Li (9) won Under 1600 and Under 15; Aarush Sharma (12) won Under 1300; Batra Aarav won Under 1000; and Yonatan Morse-Achtenberg (11) won Under 12.

Coaching and News from All Over
Since I’ve been away two weeks, 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. I’ll get back to linking to individual articles next week.

New from USATT

Daryl Morey Just Invested in a New Sports League — and It’s Probably Not What You Think
Here's the article from Inquirer.com about the Sixers president is investing in Major League Table Tennis.

World’s Ten Most Popular Sports Revealed With Host of Shock Entries
Here's the article from The Sun, with Table Tennis at #6.

How Our Ping Pong Startup hit a $50 Million Valuation in Five Years by Tapping Into Automation
Here's the article from Fortune Magazine feature Ping Pod. Requires a subscription.

Just an Incredible Lobbing, Fishing Point
Here's the video (53 sec)!

"I Love Ping Pong Too!"
Here's the cartoon! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Mini-Paddle Pong
Here's the video (2:04), which starts with seesaw pong!

Adam and Eva ... BATTLE!
Here's the video (12:32) from Adam Bobrow!

Spinniest Serve Battle
Here's the video (10:36) from Pongfinity! It actually starts off with a one-point tournament!

Non-Table Tennis – Mathball and Thank You Miss Kittykat!
I've had two recent humorous science fiction stories published. Both are in text and audio, so you can either read them or just listen.

  • Mathball (4500 words) was published Oct. 3 by Escape Pod. The entire madcap SF story takes place during just three pitches of a player’s at bat during a major league baseball game, in a future where mathematicians have completely taken over baseball. A player’s only job is to do exactly what the mathematicians tell them to do. The players play high-stakes poker, ping-pong, and twister on the field to pass the time while the mathematicians do their calculations. The main characters include a baseball slugger, three mathematicians (Dr. Blonde, Dr. Brown, and Dr. Orange), a very active ladybug, and you, a fan sitting in the center field stands.
  • Thank You Miss Kittykat! (900 words) was published Oct. 7 by Amazing Stories. Humans made the mistake of genetically creating dogs and cats with high intelligence and opposable thumbs. There's a war, with humans and dogs allied together against the cats – but the cats won. Now we're the pets! The story is in both text and audio.

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September 30, 2024

No Blog Next Week
I’ll be out of town Oct. 6-11 (Sunday through Friday). I’ll be competing in the Huntsman World Senior Games on Mon & Tue (Oct. 7-8) in Saint George, Utah. Then I fly directly to Houston for the US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductions and Banquet on Thursday (Oct. 10), where I’ll be doing the presentation for Dennis Taylor. I’ll write about this in my next blog in two weeks. I think you can still sign up – lots of US TT celebrities will be there!

Tip of the Week
How to Play the No-Spin Ball.

No Coaching, No Playing, Just Capclave . . . with Table Tennis
I was away all weekend at the Capclave Science Fiction Convention in Rockville, MD. So I didn’t do any real coaching this past week. This was a good thing, for as noted in my blog last week, I injured my right foot, and even coaching involves standing a lot, as well as hitting with students. I also had to take the week off from training for the Huntsman World Senior Games, which is unfortunate. I start up again tomorrow (Tuesday) – I figure it’s 50-50 whether I finish the session. If I don’t, I might not be able to play at the Senior Games. We’ll see.

At Capclave, I was in three panels, plus a book signing. The signing and three panels - which included table tennis! - were:

  • Mass Signing. About 20 authors were together at tables selling and signing copies of our novels. One interesting thing – word has gotten out in the SF community about my table tennis and a number of people came by to talk about it. (It’s probably because this past year I’ve sold a lot of stories and had a number published, with table tennis in my bio each time. See how I’m promoting our sport?) I sold a number of copies of “The Spirit of Pong” and “Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions” (which features table tennis quite a bit – here’s my blog on that). The latter is easily my best-selling science fiction novel. (Here are all my books, both SF and TT.)
  • Important Rituals. We discussed how to create science fiction or fantasy cultures (human, alien, or fantasy creature) with rituals. One interesting argument came about regarding the definition of ritual. Is the “Riker Maneuver” (where Commander Riker from Star Trek steps over a chair to sit in it) a ritual or a habit? When Arya Stark of Game of Thrones recites the list of people she is going to kill each night, is that a ritual? Some argued a ritual needed a group and should normally be religious. I didn’t agree – I had a more lenient definition. At one point I pointed out how rituals are common in sports, as a mental preparation, and used several examples from table tennis. I wrote about this a bit in Become a Player of Routine – see the “Mentally” part.
  • History: The Ultimate Source Document. We discussed how to use historical events to write alternate histories, or to explain certain events. I have many examples from my own writings – I’ve sold stories with First Contact (i.e., with aliens) at MLK’s 1963 March on Washington; when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon; and at John Tyler’s Inauguration as the tenth US President in 1841. Regarding Armstrong, my story also explained why he neglected to say “a” in “That’s one small step for [a] man; one giant leap for mankind.” I also pointed out that my novel “The Spirit of Pong” featured many ghosts (!) of real historical players and coaches.
  • Writing With Your Opposite. We discussed the two major fiction writing methods, outlining versus pantsing (where you just sit down and write, without much advance planning). I’m a partial outliner – I do rough outlines, then make things up as I go along.

Butterfly Training Tips

Banana Flick Tutorial with Robert Gardos
Here’s the video (2:49) from PongSpace. An excellent explanation and demonstration.

How to Progress from Beginner to World Level WTT for Young Players
Here’s the video (17:37) from Ti Long.

New from Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

New from PingSkills

Use These Tactics OR They Will Be Used Against You!
Here’s the video (21:33) by Seth Pech.

How to Play with Long Pimples | 3 basics Tips & Techniques
Here’s the video (5:27) from Pingispågarna.

The Pips Problem (and other such nonsense)
Here’s the article by Logan Rietz on how to play with or against pips.

Tomahawk Side-Topspin vs Side-Backspin
Here’s the video (11 seconds), set to music!

How the Manufacturing Pros Put Sponge on Your Racket
Here’s the video (15 sec in fast-motion)!

New from Taco Backhand

Major League Table Tennis
Follow the action!

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

My Experience At The 2024 Olympics (+ Q&A)
Here’s the article and video (13:21) by Anders Lind

New from ITTF

Table Tennis Caricatures
Here’s where you can get them!

We Challenged Spanish Champ Alvaro Robles!
Here’s the video (12:56) from Table Tennis Daily!

I’m the Ping Pong Guy
Here’s where you can buy the shirt at Amazon!

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September 23, 2024

Tip of the Week
The Only Thing That Matters.

Weekend Coaching, Tips, Training, and My Right Foot
I had a busy week, both coaching and playing. I coached the Intermediate junior group on both Saturday and Sunday, and the Elite Group on Sunday. With the Intermediate group, besides the usual stroking and footwork drills, we did a lot of service practice. One kid, age about eight, had a breakthrough – he can now serve a heavy enough backspin serve that it stops on the table and rolls backwards. He’s pretty excited about it. Then I really opened his eyes by explaining and demonstrating a “heavy no-spin” serve – so now he’s practicing that. (The key to heavy no-spin is making it look like it’s actually heavy backspin, so the opponent opens his racket and pops the ball up. You do this by using the same fast motion as heavy backspin, but contact the ball near the handle.)

One kid was struggling with his forehand – he extended his arm almost straight from the shoulder. I had him bring it in, even exaggerate a much shorter stroke, and he quickly develop a much more consistent and reliable forehand – hit one hundred of them while doing side-to-side footwork.

With the Elite group, I spent a lot of time emphasizing to remember the “feel” of a good shot, and then repeat. This is especially important after making a poor shot. Instead of focusing on what happened with the poor shot, you should focus on repeating the good shots. The only time to think about the poor shots is if you can’t remember how to do it correctly and so have to analyze why you keep doing the poor shot. You might need a coach for that. A couple of players were standing too straight, so I quickly straightened that out – or should I say unstraightened it!

In a fit of energy last week, I went through my file of possible upcoming Tips of the Week and, during a looooong session at Panera’s, wrote nine new ones. Since I’d already written tips for every Monday through October, this gets me to the end of the year. They cover a wide range of topics, from “How to Flip Short, Heavy Backspin” and “How to Loop Deep, Heavy Backspin,” to “How to Do a Relentless Three-Point Attack” and “The One-Two Punch of Tactics.”

I continued my own training for my comeback this Fall for the Huntsman World Senior Games, the US Open, and possibly others. Alas, I faced three major problems this week. First, exhaustion – I was lightheaded several times while training and had to stop each time. That comes down to fitness – I train at a level that’s still beyond my current fitness level. Second, after going from 210 to 194 lbs. between Aug. 1 and Sept. 16 (last Monday), I seem to have hit a wall. I dieted all week, and yet my weight has seemingly stayed the same. I’m a bit confused by this, but it might be water retention or something, or maybe I was dehydrated last week. After the lightheadedness session, I went ahead and ate a couple of full meals that might have affected this. We’ll see.

And third, and worst of all . . . I hurt my right foot. (I had the same injury earlier this year.) I think I initially hurt it while practicing. But while hitting with the Intermediate players on Saturday it started bothering me. On Saturday afternoon I was about to play in the MDTTC Elite League (which I now run), but just before my first match, as I did some shadow-practice and the foot was worse, and I had to drop out. I hobbled about all day Sunday while coaching and hitting with players. I’ve cancelled my own training for at least the next 3-4 days. It’s not horribly bad – if I had a big match in a tournament I’d probably play with it, but I don’t want to aggravate it now and make it worse.

Major League Table Tennis
Follow the action!

  • Talkin' Smash by JOOLA Ep14: Building the Major League Table Tennis Dream with Flint Lane and Matt Hetherington (39:19). “Major League Table Tennis has taken the US by storm, and it was a great opportunity as the second season kicks off to sit down and catch up with the MLTT Founder and Commissioner, Flint Lane. Flint is aiming to bring the dream of having a full time professional table tennis league in the USA alive. Season 1 saw an exciting new format for the sport, a number of high level foreign players, and numerous team matches across the country. Flint speaks about the conception to delivery of MLTT, and what his vision is - not just for MLTT, but for the growth of table tennis in America in general, as part of his efforts. New changes are afoot in Season 2 and the journey for Flint and his dedicated team continues!”
  • MLTT Is Going Coast-To-Coast
  • It’s MLTT Opening Day
  • Home Page
  • Major Pong Head (blog coverage)

Timothée Chalamet’s ‘Marty Supreme’ Casts Odessa A’zion, Penn Jillette, Kevin O’Leary and Abel Ferrara
Here’s the article from Variety Magazine on the upcoming Marty Reisman biopic. Here’s the IMDB listing.

Meet Dora Kurimay
Here’s the interview from Bold Journey Magazine. Dora’s a championship player, sports psychologist, and writer.

Butterfly Training Tips

7 Tips For Playing Table Tennis In A Hot Or Humid Playing Hall
Here’s the article by Álvaro Munno, from Racket Insight.

Warm Up Exercise
Here’s the video (2:04) from Pingispågarna.

One Tool to Perfect Your Long Serve with Robert Gardos
Here’s the video (4:34) from PongSpace.

2024 Pan American U11 & U13 Championships At Dominican Republic!
Here’s the article by Maggie Tian

Wang Chuqin DESTROYS His Opposition
Here’s the video (2:06) from Taco Backhand.

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

California, Oklahoma, Ohio and Illinois Events Wrap Up 2024 State Championship Series
Here’s the USATT article.

ITTF News

We Challenged Germany’s Best Juniors!
Here’s the video (19:11) from Table Tennis Daily.

The Man, The Myth, The Ping Pong Legend
Here’s where you can buy the shirt at Amazon!

Steve Rogers (Captain America) vs. Forge
Here’s the comic strip. If you go down a few pages there’s several pages of these two in a vicious ping-pong match, which ends when Forge (on left) slams the ball so hard it vaporizes. I’d never heard of Forge until now.

Angry Ping Pong Player
Here’s the clip art cartoon!

Hardest Ping Pong Table
Here’s the video (9:18) from Pongfinity! They take on eight challenges.

Non-Table Tennis – Capclave Science Fiction Convention
This weekend I’ll be at the Capclave Science Fiction Convention in Gaithersburg, MD. I’m a panelist – here’s my schedule and bio. I’ll also be doing two book signing – the mass signing on Saturday night (with all the panelists), and another at a time that hasn’t been finalized yet, but probably on Saturday.

***
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September 16, 2024

Tip of the Week
Written Coaching Material for Table Tennis.

Weekend Coaching and My Own Training and Dieting
When I told the kids in my multiball groups on Saturday and Sunday that, no matter what, they were not to hit my water bottle (which I’d conveniently placed on the table), they of course knew exactly what to do. Well, most of them. I did have to quietly whisper to the youngest in the group, a girl about age 6, that when I tell them, “Don’t you dare hit my water bottle!” that what I really meant was, “Hit my water bottle.”) I always find it best to keep it fun while teaching the foundations of the sport, and hitting targets (and my exaggerated exclamations of unhappiness when they do) are all just part of that. So is my constantly changing name. This past weekend I claimed I was “Coach Go Away,” and you can guess how that came off.

My water bottle took a beating. I also had to petulantly walk off a few times when they called me. (“Coach, go away!”)

But the kids had great training sessions. One kid made 100 forehands in a row for the first time while doing side-to-side footwork. The six-year-old girl? She hit the bottle 13 times in 90 seconds of multiball, and was quite excited about it. I also worked a lot on smashing and the often overlooked backhand footwork. The kids were excited and can’t wait for the next session.

As to me, I have my weight down to 194 this morning (from 210 on Aug. 1), and played five times this week. Alas, I had sort of a relapse in my playing – all this dieting, weight training (three times/week) and playing left me exhausted, and it showed in my match play. My legs (and the rest of me) felt dead. I played in the Elite League on Saturday, where I was in a group of six. I’d done weight training that morning, as well as coaching for 90 minutes, and was still dieting – and so I was exhausted. In my first match I started out poorly but got better and better and get a game and kept the fourth game close against a 2400 player. But that took the last bit of energy out of me, and I pretty much fell apart my next two matches, and then I defaulted out due to exhaustion.

Since Aug. 1 I’ve been living on about 1000 calories/day, instead of about 2500 I’d need to maintain my weight. (I sometimes “cheat” and do 1200.) It finally caught up to me on Saturday. So, that night I decided to splurge, and had my first big meal in six weeks, a big plate of Pepper Chicken (Chinese food). On Sunday I also splurged on Rocky Road ice cream. The result? Instead of losing three pounds this past week, I only lost two. NOOOOOOOOOO!!! But I’m back to dieting again, until I get to 180lbs. But I think that for now on I’ll have one weekly “splurge” meal. For the rest of the time I’ll stick to my diet. Breakfast is a chocolate or vanilla Slimfast shake (180 calories) and half a cup of Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice (50 calories). Lunch and dinner are either soup, Greek salad, or half a sandwich (each about 350 calories). And I snack on raw carrots, cherry tomatoes, and apples.

US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductions and Banquet
You can register at Omnipong for the 2024 US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Annual Awards Induction Banquet, to be held at the Houston International Table Tennis Academy in Houston, TX this year, on Thursday, Oct. 10, from 6-9PM, in conjunction with the 2024 Si & Patty Wasserman Junior Championships held that weekend (Oct. 11-13, Fri-Sun), which you can also enter through Omnipong. You’ll get to meet and talk to the honorees, as well as the many others who will attend. Cost is only $25. (It’s free to junior players who enter the 2024 Si & Patty Wasserman Junior Championships.) This year’s honorees are Patty Martinez Wasserman (Lifetime Achievement Award) and Hall of Fame inductees Stellan Bengtsson (Contributor), Glenn Cowan (Athlete), and Dennis Taylor (Contributor). Here is the 2024 Hall of Fame Program Booklet. I’ll be there! (I did the program booklet and will do the induction speech for Dennis.)

Illegal Chair of the USATT Board
It’s now been 588 days (84 weeks) since USATT elected Richard Char to an illegal third term as chair of the USATT board on Feb. 6, 2023. Here’s my July 1 blog about it. With the current rubber-stamp USATT board, there’s little that can be done about this and many other blatant bylaw violations and other serious issues until the next USATT elections, which are this Fall. I’ve blogged about these issues, and when the elections come up, I’ll post a comprehensive list. The irony is that, after ignoring all these problems, with the elections coming up there may be a belated realization among certain board members that perhaps, just maybe, they should deal with these problems, or perhaps do a few token protest votes. Sorry, too late. But over and over they’ve brought in lawyers to argue their case, and then argue that they’re just doing what the lawyers told them to do, pretending to forget that the lawyers were brought in to argue their case. It’s circular reasoning, where they start with a conclusion, and use that conclusion to conclude that their conclusion is correct. (Plus, “They are eating our dogs and cats!” Oops – sorry, wrong election.)

Job Opportunity:  Coach and Volunteer Development Officer
Here’s the help wanted notice from Table Tennis Ireland, the National Governing Body for Table Tennis within the provinces of Ireland.

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Ti Long

How to Do a Fast Long Serve with Robert Gardos
Here’s the video (2:18) from PongSpace.

New from Taco Backhand

How Much? My Costly Blade Testing Experiment
Here’s the article by Tom Lodziak. My thoughts on this – players should, at some point, go through a period where they try out the various rubber and rackets just so they know what the choices are. But once you find what works for you, stick with it unless your game changes or if there is something truly new to try out.  

New from PingSkills

Major League Table Tennis
Follow the action!

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

New from USATT

New from ITTF

Pong in Bed
Here’s the video (13 sec)!

The Best Ping-Pong Ball Tricks
Here’s the video (46 sec)!

HILARIOUS Moments In Table Tennis History!
Here’s the video (8:26) from Table Tennis Zone.

Adam vs. Lee Seul
Here’s the video (14:57) from Adam Bobrow! “My friend Lee Seul competed internationally for Korea, 6 years ago, mopped the floor with me... so I wanted to see if she's still got it! Enjoy.”

Non-Table Tennis - Philosopher Rex
My podcast flash story “Philosopher Rex” went up this morning at Manawaker Studio's Flash Fiction Podcast. A philosophizing T-Rex that meets our earliest ancestors - lemur-like creatures - during the final days of the dinosaurs, and how their attitudes toward each other change after this pivotal meeting. The reading (by one of their professional readers) is just over eight minutes. (The text version was previously published at Zooscape.)

***
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September 9, 2024

Tip of the Week
Plan Your One-Minute Break.

Weekend Coaching, Playing, Aching, and a New Player
COACHING. . . In the Beginning/Intermediate session, I spent a lot of time as a practice partner, with the players rotating so I hit with many of them. As usual, we did lots of footwork drills. I always explain the purpose of a drill, something many coaches don’t bother with. Kids are curious, and letting them know why a certain drill is important gives them a reason to work harder at it. A good example is the 2-1 drill, also known as the forehand-forehand-backhand drill or the Falkenburg drill. That’s a three-shot drill as follows: Backhand from backhand corner; forehand from backhand corner; forehand from forehand corner; and repeat. As I explain, this covers the three most common moves in table tennis – covering the wide forehand, covering the wide backhand, and the step around forehand from the backhand side. (The drill usually starts with the backhand.) We also did a lot of serve practice.

PLAYING. . . I went to the Potomac TTC last Wednesday and played three matches, against players rated 1600, 2050, and 2050. As noted in last week’s blog, I’m getting back into playing shape. I’m still struggling to rally as I used to and still miss easy shots. I won all three matches, 3-1, 3-1, and 3-2, and then had to stop out of exhaustion. I wanted to continue for fitness reasons, but I was feeling great strain in my back since my legs were dying, and so I was playing forehand shots with mostly my upper body, a quick way to get injured.

I also played in the MDTTC Elite League on Saturday. This was only the third set of matches since I started playing matches again a week ago, the first serious ones in many years, other than a few played at various camps. I played five matches. In the first one, I struggled to do anything in the first game, missing easy balls. But then some of my game began to come back, and my serves dominated, and I won my first three matches relatively easily. The key here, however, was serves – all three were junior players rated between 2000 and 2100, and they simply couldn’t figure out my serves. Alas, I’m still way out of shape, and after that my legs were dead and I was out of breath half the time, and I lost the last two against players about 2100.

ACHIING. . . I’m a bit disappointed in my fitness level so far, but I guess it takes time. On Aug. 1, I weighed 210; this morning I hit 196. I’ve been weight training three times a week since Aug. 20, but so far the only effect seems to be exhaustion. In fact, I’ve found myself having to lower some of the weights as my muscles are just too tired to lift some of the weights over and over that I was able to do last week. But hopefully the effects will show up soon. But the muscles are aching all the time, and I often have muscle cramps. (Yes, I'm drinking lots of water.) Perhaps the dieting affects this. A week before any serious competition, or when I get to around 185, I’ll go back to a normal diet. 

A NEW PLAYER . . . I spend a LOT of time eating and writing at Panera’s, usually going there for around three hours almost every day, typically 2-5 PM (i.e., a late lunch) or 6-9 PM. (Sometimes I’ll stay longer, eating lunch and dinner there.) Due to my dieting, I’m mostly getting soups, salads, half-sandwiches, and Diet Coke instead of my previous Dr Pepper.

On Sunday (yesterday), I went in around 2PM. As I walked over to a booth, I heard a voice saying, “You play table tennis?” I look over and it’s a boy, age 11. He’s sitting with his father and another boy his age. I say yes, and ask how he knows. He says he recognized the warm-up suit I was wearing as the ones the US Team wears, and the Butterfly logo. It turns out he’s a table tennis fanatic – plays constantly in his basement with friends and constantly watches it on YouTube, which is how he recognized my US Team warmups. But he’s never been to a table tennis club, never had coaching, and didn’t even realize there were table tennis clubs and coaches! I gave them the web address for MDTTC (www.mdttc.com) and told them about their programs, including the junior program. He was incredibly excited to discover there was a FULL-TIME TABLE TENNIS CLUB just a few miles away!!! Anyway, his dad said he’d take him there. (Demographic note – the boy and his father were white, his friend was black. Our junior program is dominated by Asian players, mostly Chinese and a number of Indian kids.)

Articles and Blogs
I did some accounting on my writing. As of today, I’ve had 2,294 published articles (this includes 21 books) and 2,017 blogs (including this one), so 4,311 published items in all!

Player’s Playbook - Winning mindset on and off the field from a basketball and table tennis perspective
Here’s the info page for the Friday, Sept. 20 (5-6PM) seminar by Dora Kurimay and Keith Drysdale. “We will share inspiring stories and perspectives on developing a winning mindset in sports and life. We will explore how to choose your path (know what motivates you), stay dedicated, and achieve your goals.”

  • How to reach your goals and develop a winning mindset on and off the court.
  • We will share our stories as learning experiences.
  • Understand your motivation and create a path that you want to follow.
  • What’s your current situation? What’s holding you back?
  • How to master your commitment and motivation.

Major League Table Tennis
Follow the action!

Butterfly Training Tips

Short Topspin Serve with Robert Gardos
Here’s the video (2:16) from PongSpace.

Basic Forehand Underspin (Backspin) Serve
Here’s the video (11:10) from Ti Long.

New from PingSkills

The Voice of Table Tennis Adam Bobrow
Here’s the video (31:24) as Table Tennis Daily interviews the Voice of Table Tennis.

Alexis Lebrun DESTROYING Players For 4 Minutes Straight
Here’s the video (3:58) from Taco Backhand.

We Challenge African Champ Quadri Aruna!
Here’s the video (12:11) from Table Tennis Daily.

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

The Evolution of the NCTTA App
Here’s the article.

USATT News

New from ITTF

Table Tennis King Throw Pillow
Here’s where you can get one from Amazon!

Monster Pong
Here’s the crazy cartoon image!

Extreme Hill Bowling Challenge
Here’s the video (8:18) from Pongfinity! They mix table tennis with other sports (not just bowling), such as, “Ping-pong on a badminton court with tennis rules.”

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September 2, 2024

Tip of the Week
If Serving Practice is Drudgery Then Perhaps Your Serves Are Too Simple.

Getting in Shape and Out of Retirement
On Aug. 1, 2024, just one month ago, as I flew to Scotland for 18 days, I weighed 210. (I’m 5'10', age 64.) That tied me for the most I’ve ever weighed. I’ve been around 205 for most of the last few years. And it’s cost me – I’ve had a number of matches (in hardbat events) where I might have won except I simply couldn’t move as well as I should, and worse, I’d be out of breath during the match and my legs would simply die. I blew the biggest lead I’ve ever blown against a really strong player in one match when, at the end of the match, I was completely out of breath and my legs had the energy of wet spaghetti. It also was a reason why I avoided regular sponge matches – I was too out of shape to play effectively.

So, during the flight to Scotland, I decided to spend those 18 days not only sightseeing and attending the World Science Fiction Convention, but also to diet. Between that and an incredible amount of walking in Glasgow and Edinburgh - anything under 1.5 miles I walked, and some of the tours involved hours of walking - I actually began to get back into shape. When I returned on Aug. 18, I weighed 203. I’ve continued to diet, keeping to roughly 1200 calories a day. This morning I came in at 198. One key thing – since Aug. 1, I haven’t had any Dr Pepper, which I usually sip when working. I’ve been drinking a lot of Diet Coke. I’m also snacking a lot on apples, pears, cherry tomatoes, and raw carrots.

I’m coming out of “retirement” at the Huntsman World Senior Games, which start on Oct. 7. I’m playing the regular (sponge) age events - Over 60 Men’s Singles, Over 60 Mixed Doubles with Alecia Moll, and playing down a division in Over 50 Men’s Doubles with Joe Ryan. I’m also playing Hardbat Singles. The plan was to get to 195 before the Huntsman Games. But since I’m already at 198 five weeks in advance, I’m now aiming for 190, or at least close to that. We’ll see.

I can’t play Hardbat Doubles because that takes place on Thursday, and I have to fly out that morning to attend the US Hall of Fame Inductions and Banquet in Houston, TX that night (Oct. 10). (See segment below on this.)

I pretty much retired from competitive sponge play back in 2007, with a rating of 2193. (I used to be a lot better than that!) Since then I’ve focused on coaching (with sponge, which is my “normal” game) while playing hardbat events at major tournaments. I’ve played four sponge tournaments since 2007 (in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2019), mostly spur of the moment while not in shape and out of practice, which dropped my rating to an even 2100.

I’m also playing age events (with sponge) and hardbat events at the US Open in December. The plan is to get to 185 by that time, though I’m toying with 180. There’s also the $50,000 Classic World Cup in Suzhou, China, Jan. 8-11, where I’ll be playing hardbat, sandpaper, and wood events.

However, it’s not just about losing weight. When you get older, you lose muscle mass. So, starting on Aug. 20, I’ve been weight training three times a week, usually Mon, Wed, and Fri. I’m not an expert on this, but after some research, here is my routine: I speed walk the 0.7 miles to Planet Fitness, do a one-hour routine, then speed walk back. The routine includes 17 different exercises on 17 machines, including two that are done twice (Torso Extensions both ways and Glute with each leg), so 19 in all. I choose a weight for each so that I can barely do 15-25, so I have to stop and rest, and do 30 in all. Because of past arm, shoulder, and knee problems, for certain exercises I lower the weight and so do all 30 continuously. The 17 exercises/machines are:

  1. Triceps Extensions
  2. Triceps Press
  3. Biceps Curl
  4. Shoulder Press
  5. Row
  6. Pull Down
  7. Chest Press
  8. Calf Extension
  9. Pectoral Fly
  10. Rear Deltoid
  11. Seated Leg Curl
  12. Seated Leg Press
  13. Leg Extensions
  14. Torso Rotations (left and right)
  15. Back Extension
  16. Abdominal
  17. Glute (each leg)

So, all this will get me in shape, but what about table tennis play? Since I only do group sessions now, I don’t get much from that. However, I played in the MDTTC Elite League this past Saturday. It was the first serious sponge matches I’ve played in years. My play was erratic, as expected, but I did beat a 2050 chopper 3-1, with every game close. I lost 3-0 against two other players in the 2050 range – but in both cases I played well in the third game, leading 10-6 and 10-8 before losing those games. Because I haven’t played serious matches in years my receive is weak, but it got better and better as the matches continued. In drills, I can block endlessly, but in matches I don’t block as well yet – but the blocking got better as the matches continued. I also was able to attack decently, especially when serving, but that too was erratic. The footwork isn’t quite fluid yet, and I still sometimes miss easy shots. But I could feel signs of my old game coming back. By the end of Saturday’s session I was at about 2000 level, but I feel like I can be 2100 in weeks. Then comes the long climb to 2200 level and beyond. Not easy at age 64!!!

Due to arm, knee, and foot problems, I’m playing all my matches with an arm brace; knee braces on both knees; and compression socks on both feet. I think much of the knee problems were because of excess weight and my legs not being strong enough. Both of these put a strain on the knees.

I’m also planning on doing a one-hour session once a week with Coach Lidney at MDTTC. I’ll be doing the usual footwork/stroking drills, but long, repetitive drills strain my arm and shoulder, so I have to limit those. But there’ll be a lot of multiball – I know which ones I can do without injury. I’ll also do drills where I have to withstand his attacks – I need to get back my brick-wall blocking defense and sudden forehand counter-attacks. I’ll also rest between drills by doing receive drills – need to get back the super-consistent receive I used to have.

When serving, my basic playing style is serve and all-out forehand attack. (I can loop and smash equally well.) My serves are a big strength, but I need to practice them a lot to get back to where they were. On receive, I loop deep serves with the forehand whenever possible, but mostly try to get into straight backhand-to-backhand rallies, where I’m super consistent (but sometimes too soft), while challenging opponents to either try to get through my backhand, or change directions and give me a forehand, which I’m waiting for. I flip most short serves, both backhand and forehand, while mixing in short and long pushes. In rallies, when forced off the table, I used to rely on steady fishing and lobbing, with counterloops mixed in and some chopping, but I suspect I’m no longer fast enough to do that, so I may focus on staying closer to the table.

I volunteered to be a free practice partner in our Elite junior sessions (where the players are 1600-2500, and I’d be with the lower half), but apparently there’s no room. So, for more match play, I’m going to play at the Potomac TTC on Wednesday nights, and look for at least one other time each week to play matches. Between match play three times/week, weight training, and losing weight, who knows – maybe I can give Kanak Jha a scare next time we play! Speaking of Kanak...

Kanak Jha in the German Bundesliga
Here’s discussion and links to video at the mytabletennis.net forum on his recent performances. Last week, from down 0-2 and 6-9 down in third, he defeated Yi-Hisin Feng (TPE, world #50) and Luka Mladenovic (LUX, world #89, who uses frictionless antispin on the backhand). This week he defeated Patrick Franziska (GER, world #10) and Darko Jorgic (SLO, world #15). Kanak’s current ranking is #70. Here is his ranking history. His peak was #19 in January, 2023.

5 Tips from Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers by Larry Hodges
Here’s the review and five tips highlighted from tabletennis.ph (Philippines).

Team USA Para Table Tennis Men’s Singles Events Set to Begin
Here’s the schedule. I believe you can watch it on NBC | @peacock | Youtube @paralympics.

Table Tennis History Magazine
Here’s the fourth issue, September 2024, 54 pages, from Steve Grant. Some really great stuff in here!

US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductions and Banquet
You can register at Omnipong for the 2024 US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Annual Awards Induction Banquet, to be held at the Houston International Table Tennis Academy in Houston, TX this year, on Thursday, Oct. 10, from 6-9PM, in conjunction with the 2024 Si & Patty Wasserman Junior Championships held that weekend (Oct. 11-13, Fri-Sun), which you can also enter through Omnipong. You’ll get to meet and talk to the honorees, as well as the many others who will attend. Cost is only $25. (It’s free to junior players who enter the 2024 Si & Patty Wasserman Junior Championships.) This year’s honorees are Patty Martinez Wasserman (Lifetime Achievement Award) and Hall of Fame inductees Stellan Bengtsson (Contributor), Glenn Cowan (Athlete), and Dennis Taylor (Contributor). Here is the 2024 Hall of Fame Program Booklet. I’ll be there! (I did the program booklet and will do the induction speech for Dennis.)

Major League Table Tennis
Here’s the upcoming Fall-Spring 2024-2025 schedule.

Classic Table Tennis World Cup
Ready to try out hardbat, sandpaper, or plain wood? Want an excuse to see China? Then why not enter the 2025 Classic Table Tennis World Cup, Jan. 8-11 in Suzhou, China! I’ll be there, doing coverage and playing in Over 60 events.

Butterfly Training Tips

New from PongSpace

Table Tennis Multiball Training
Here’s the video (4:10) from Pingispågarna.

264 Exercises & Adjustable Spin - Arc - Placement and Random
Here’s the video (21:58) from Ti Long.

Mental Training Tip – Visualize like an Olympian for Your Table Tennis Glory
Here’s the article by Alan Chu, Ph.D., CMPC

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions and answers from PingSkills.

Ping Pong Players Exhibit Superior Brain Structure and Function, Study Finds
Here’s the article from Psychology Post. Here’s the actual study from Science Direct, Long-term table tennis training alters dynamic functional connectivity and white matter microstructure in large scale brain regions.

Was Table Tennis Better Before? Ma Long The GOOAT Old Footage
Here’s the video (2:23) from Taco Backhand.

77-year-old Table Tennis Champion Player on Overcoming the Odds
Here’s the article featuring Cindy Ranii from Spectrum News.

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

New from the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association

New from USATT

New from ITTF

Forehand Flick Levels 1 to Lebrun
Here’s the video (12 sec)! (A flick and a flip are the same thing.)

Crazy Anime Table Tennis Cartoon
Here it is! What should the caption be?

It’s a Table Tennis Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand
Here’s where you can buy the shirt at Amazon!

College Challenge: Level 1-20
Here’s the video (15:58) from Adam Bobrow!

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August 26, 2024

Tips of the Week
Since I’ve been out of town and not blogging for the last five weeks you may have missed the Tips of the Week that still went up every Monday. Here they are!

Travel
I’m back!!! It’s been a busy traveling summer. Here’s where I’ve been:

  • July 3-8 – US Nationals in Huntsville, Alabama.
  • July 19-27 –  “The Never-Ending Odyssey” science fiction writing workshop in Manchester, New Hampshire.
  • Aug. 1-18 – World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Scotland (Aug. 8-12) and lots of sightseeing and tours, many of them featuring old castles, many of them thousands of years old.

And now it’s back to normality, where I coach and write about table tennis, and write science fiction.

US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductions and Banquet
You can now register at Omnipong for the 2024 US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Annual Awards Induction Banquet, to be held at the Houston International Table Tennis Academy in Houston, TX this year, on Thursday, Oct. 10, from 6-9PM, in conjunction with the 2024 Si & Patty Wasserman Junior Championships held that weekend (Oct. 11-13, Fri-Sun), which you can also enter through Omnipong.

I’ll be there. I’m going to the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah, Oct. 7-10, but missing the last day as I’ll be flying to Houston on Oct. 9 for the Hall of Fame Banquet. Come on out and join us! You’ll get to meet and talk to the honorees, as well as the many others who will attend. Cost is only $25. (It’s free to junior players who enter the 2024 Si & Patty Wasserman Junior Championships.)

This year’s honorees are Patty Martinez Wasserman (Lifetime Achievement Award) and Hall of Fame inductees Stellan Bengtsson (Contributor), Glenn Cowan (Athlete), and Dennis Taylor (Contributor). I’ll be doing the presentation for Dennis. I also did the program booklet, as I’ve done every year starting in 2009. Here is the 2024 Hall of Fame Program Booklet. Major League Table Tennis is a Presenting Sponsor of the Dinner. 

The US Table Tennis Hall of Fame, established in 1979 courtesy of Steve Isaacson, is a 501c3 Non-Profit Organization with the mission to honor the athlete and contributors of the sport of table tennis in the United States. The Hall of Fame Board is chaired by Sean O’Neill.

USA Players at the Paralympics
Here’s the USATT news item on the USA Paralympic players, Returning Medalists Set to Compete at Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, featuring Tahl Leibovitz, Ian Seidenfeld, and Jenson Van Emburgh. Here’s info on where you can watch it.

Review of Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers
Here’s a review of Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers from Tampa Bay Table Tennis that someone recently pointed out to me.

Every Table Tennis Shot Explained in 4 Minutes
Here’s the video (4 min and 3 sec, close enough!) from Louis Levene.

Coaching and News from All Over
Since I’ve been away five weeks, 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. I’ll get back to linking to individual articles next week.

1 in a Trillion Moments in Table Tennis
Here’s the video (4:39) from Table Tennis Central.

PingPod Table Tennis Startup Expands To Licensing Software And Franchising
Here’s the article from Forbes Magazine.

Tabletop Diplomacy
Here’s the article about Ping-Pong Diplomacy from University of Virginia.

How to Destroy Your Enemy’s Serves
Here’s the video (16 sec)!

Ping-Pong Cat
Here’s the new video (12 sec)!

Old Man Challenges Pongfinity!
Here’s the video (4:02) from Table Tennis Daily!

Ping Pong... but the Floor is Lava
Here’s the video (9:22) from Pongfinity!

Ping Pong Table Tennis Silly Cartoon Animals Kangaroo Dog Throw Pillow
Here’s where you can get one at Amazon!

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July 30, 2024 - Special Call for Table Tennis Actors

There's a call for table tennis players in the New York area (or willing to relocate during filming) for the upcoming bio-pic about Marty Reisman, "Marty Supreme." Here is a recent article by The Hollywood Reporter about this project, and here's the IMDB page. The film stars Timothée Chalamet as Marty Reisman. Here's the call for table tennis players, including info on how to audition. Below are some of the roles they are looking for, though they also will want others. Here's an additional note in Japanese about the Japanese player wanted - who would play Endo, a character presumably inspired by Hiroji Satoh, who change the sport by winning the 1952 Worlds using sponge, including a huge upset win over Reisman. (Update - here's a Japanese version of the calling.) 

BELA:  Male. 30s-40s. Hungarian Jewish. Professional table tennis player. Does not need to be Hungarian, open to all Eastern Europeans. EASTERN EUROPEAN ACCENT IS A MUST, but speaks English.  MUST BE OKAY SHAVING HEAD!  MUST BE A PROFESSIONALLY COMPETITIVE TABLE TENNIS PLAYER WITH AT LEAST A 1700 RATING OR EQUIVALENT RATING PENDING GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION.  SUPPORTING.

ENDO: Male. 20s-30s. Japanese professional table tennis player from Japan.  NO ENGLISH REQUIRED. MUST SPEAK JAPANESE. MUST BE A PROFESSIONALLY COMPETITIVE TABLE TENNIS PLAYER WITH AT LEAST A 1700 RATING OR EQUIVALENT RATING PENDING GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION.  SUPPORTING.

TED: Male. 40s - 50s. White. BRITISH professional table tennis player..  MUST HAVE AUTHENTIC BRITISH ACCENT. MUST BE A PROFESSIONALLY COMPETITIVE TABLE TENNIS PLAYER WITH AT LEAST A 1700 RATING OR EQUIVALENT RATING PENDING GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION.  SUPPORTING.

SWEDE: Male. 20s-30s.  White.  Swedish professional table tennis player.  LOOKING FOR AUTHENTIC SWEDISH TALENT WITH AUTHENTIC SWEDISH ACCENT.  MUST BE A PROFESSIONALLY COMPETITIVE TABLE TENNIS PLAYER WITH AT LEAST A 1700 RATING OR EQUIVALENT RATING PENDING GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION.  SUPPORTING.

PASCAL: Male. 20s-40s.  White.  French professional table tennis player.  LOOKING FOR AUTHENTIC FRENCH TALENT WITH AUTHENTIC FRENCH ACCENT.  MUST BE A PROFESSIONALLY COMPETITIVE TABLE TENNIS PLAYER WITH AT LEAST A 1700 RATING OR EQUIVALENT RATING PENDING GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION.  SUPPORTING.

STASIO: Male. 20s-40s. White. Czechoslovakian competitive table tennis player. LOOKING FOR AUTHENTIC CZECH TALENT. MUST BE A PROFESSIONALLY COMPETITIVE TABLE TENNIS PLAYER WITH AT LEAST A 1700 RATING OR EQUIVALENT RATING PENDING GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION.  SUPPORTING.

LOU: Female. 20s-50s. White.  American.  professional table tennis player from New York.  MUST BE A PROFESSIONALLY COMPETITIVE TABLE TENNIS PLAYER WITH AT LEAST A 1700 RATING OR EQUIVALENT RATING PENDING GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION.  DAY PLAYER.  MUST BE BASED IN NY.

MISCELLANEOUS HARD BAT TABLE TENNIS PLAYERS: If you don't fit one of the categories above but are interested in the project and have a 1700+ rating, please submit!  We're looking for HARD BAT players that are NY/Tri-State Area locals or willing to work as a NY local hire, for various other roles.  All genders.  All ethnicities.  Age 18-70s.  MUST BE NY LOCAL OR WILLING WORK AS A NY LOCAL HIRE. MUST PLAY HARD BAT. 

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July 15, 2024

Next Blog Will Be Aug. 26, 2024
I was called for jury duty today (leaving shortly), and I’m traveling almost non-stop for the next five weeks. So, I’m putting my blog on hold until I return. HOWEVER – the Tip of the Week will still go up every Monday – I’ve written them through August, and have others outlined for September. Here is this week’s Tip of the Week, as well as last week’s, since I was also out of town and didn’t blog that week.

On a side note, my (non-TT) story, “The Annual Albert Einstein Race to the End of Time,” went up last week at Flash Fiction Magazine! Highly competitive trillionaires race expensive timecars to the end of time – but when one of them is impatiently sidetracked on a wrong timeline to the past as other racers pull ahead, he learns a valuable lesson. And while I’m gone, don’t forget to browse and maybe a few of my table tennis books!

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