Blogs

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

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

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

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

Tip of the Week
If You Get Caught Out of Position, Either You Made a Mistake or Your Opponent Did Something Great.

World Table Tennis Day
It's this Wednesday, April 6! Here's the ITTF Info Page and the ITTF video (64 sec)

MDTTC Open and Weekend Coaching
I spent Saturday coaching at the MDTTC Open. Here are complete results care of Omnipong. As usual, it was a wild ride - sometimes the kids play great, sometimes they don't. Lots of tactical decisions.

On interesting one - several of our juniors had to play this 2100 player with a very strong forehand loop. He varied his tricky serves, sometimes long, sometime short, and look to follow with a forehand. If you pushed the serve, he was all over it; if you topspinned it back and it was anywhere over 80-90% of the table he was all over it with his forehand. So the answer? Decide in advance to topspin every serve back to the wide, wide backhand. Since there was no decision to make, it's a lot easier. If the serve was long, soft-loop to wide backhand; if the serve is short, soft-flip to wide backhand. If the player tried to step way around to play forehand from way over on the backhand, then sometimes topspin the serve to the wide forehand. (The player is from our club, and asked me about this. He is going to work hard on developing his backhand attack off those soft topspins.)

There seemed to be a number of opponents with strong forehands, weaker backhands, so a lot of the coaching was about pinning opponents down on the backhand and going after their backhands and middle. A few opponents had seemingly good receives against most serves - until we threw every serve at them, and then they crumbled. (That was me long ago - good against any serve, but weak against lots of variation.)

Most of our group sessions were cancelled due to the tournament, but we had the Novice group (mostly ages 7-8 or so) on Sunday afternoon. Lots of shadow practice and multiball! As usual, halfway through I brought out the two "froggies" as targets. At the end, in what's become a new thing, we did five minutes of "Simon Says"! (The kids keep asking every session, "Can we play Simon Says at the end?")

USATT Coaches List
As of tomorrow (April 5), it'll be two months since I've been off the USATT Certified Coaches Listing. Why? My SafeSport certification ran out on Feb. 5. I retook it in January, and did all the other things required to stay certified - background check, USATT "Pro" membership (I'm a life member), and the $50 annual fee. The problem, I'm told, is because of the USATT software. When I received an email from SafeSport saying it was time to renew, it gave a link to where I could do so at SafeSport.com. I aced the test - but I kept getting emails afterwards saying my SafeSport certification had expired. I emailed with USATT on this, but they said they are unable to make the change in my file, and can't do so until their software is updated. And so, for two months now, I've been off their list.

I know a number of others are in the same situation - as of now, there are only 63 coaches on the USATT certification list. There were 318 when I stepped down from my second tenure as coaching chair a few years ago. I know the numbers have dropped dramatically since then, due to the SafeSport requirement and the hated $50 annual fee, and when I last checked before the software problem, there were about 90 USATT certified coaches. I've been told for weeks that the problem would be fixed in days, but other things apparently keep putting it off. Once they get around to fixing this issue, I hope they'll have the sense to postpone the annual $50 fee by however long they took to get coaches back on the list.

New School Club in Virginia with Improvised Tables, Looking to Fund New Ones
Rachel Ku, who trained as part of the MDTTC junior program for the last three years (I'm one of the coaches), discovered that her high school in Virginia (Langley High School) didn't have a table tennis club. So she and her non-identical twin sister, Katherine, decided to start one. (They are both Freshmen.) They prepared all the necessary forms, begged a school teacher to be the sponsor, and recruited several of their classmates as officers. But they didn't have table tennis tables - so they improvised! Here's a picture of how they put together classroom tables to create one. They are now raising money to buy tables. The HW Global Foundation will match any donations raised by the students for their club. (If you'd like to donate, email HW Global, Attn. Rachel Ku.) The club has now met several times, and membership has grown to 20. (Rachel Ku just won Under 15 and Under 17 girls, and made the finals of Women's Singles at the Nationals Qualification Tournament for Virginia. Her brother, Jeremy Ku, who also trains at MDTTC, won Under 13 and Under 15 Boys and got third for Under 17. Here's all three - Rachel, Katherine, and Jeremy Ku.)

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Samson Dubina

Review: FastPong Training System
Here's the review by Tom Lodziak.

New from Table Tennis Philosophy/Coach Jon

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

How to Serve Half-Long and Its Tactics
Here's the video (10:29) from Ti Long.

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from Steve Hopkins

New from USA Table Tennis

New from the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association

ITTF News

Olympian Table Tennis Player Lily Zhang Is Hopeful About WTT World Tour 2022 Thanks to Coach Zheng Pu’s Support and Training
Here's the article from Business Wire.

When Nixon Met Mao: Ping-Pong Tables Charted a Path to the Negotiating Tables
Here's the new article from the South China Morning Post.

Free Us From Sport England's Dead Hand
Here's the article by former English star Matthew Syed. You have to subscribe to read it there, but here's a scan of the article on Facebook, and the non-Facebook version.

Olufunke Oshonaike: Why Women Need Each Other
Here's the article from Olympics.com. "Olufunke Oshonaike, Nigeria's and Africa's table tennis pioneer, waved goodbye to the Olympic Games last summer in Tokyo after seven appearances." (Here's an interview with her from February, My parents supported my table tennis career.)

2022 ITTF Para Spanish Open: Van Emburgh Wins Gold, Sarand Upsets the Odds to Win Silver
Here's the article by Vlad Farcas

Northshore Spring Open - Jimmy Butler vs. Ojo Onaolapo
Here's the video (5:13 - first 1:25 is bio info on Jimmy Butler, main video starts around 1:40) from Jimmy Butler.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Insane Rally
Here's the video (25 sec)!

Table Tennis Posters
Here's the page at art.com.

Saatchia Table Tennis Art
Here's the page.

Cloud Services: Take the World by Cloud
Here's the commercial (30 sec) about Accenture's cloud services, which features table tennis from 0:05 to 0:10.

My Lucky Ping Pong Shirt
Here's where you can buy yours at Amazon!

New Service Rules Explained
Here's the video (4:44) from Tom Lodziak that came out on April 1, 2022. Yes, we need to prepare for all these crazy changes to the serve rules! I still can't believe the ITTF now requires the serve to start with the ball resting freely on the flat, dry tongue. But at least they allow the server to towel off his tongue before each serve.

World's Spinniest Table
Here's the video (8:04) from Pongfinity! They covered the table with grippy table tennis sponge, plus other escapades.

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Tip of the Week
Pavlovian Response and Table Tennis.

Weekend Coaching
Another busy weekend, with lots of multiball and blocking. I coached in four junior group sessions. In one of them I was a practice partner where I mostly blocked, but did one (exhausting) footwork drill where I served backspin, partner pushes to my backhand, I step around and forehand loop, partner blocks to my wide forehand, I move over and forehand loop, and then we continue, with partner blocking side to side as I alternate forehand and backhand. The problem is, once I get into a rhythm, I'm pretty consistent, and so we had a lot of LONG rallies. I also did a lot of serve coaching, especially on how to serve low and short, with serve still driving out so there's a low, quick bounce on the far side, with second bounce near the endline. I also had a one-hour session with Navin Kumar, who I'm preparing for the Parkinson's events at the US Nationals in July and the World Parkinson's in Pula, Croatia, Sept. 30-Oct. 3. Focus was on loop & smash, serving, and the usual stroking drills.

US Team Trials and Nationals
Entry forms for both are out. They will be at Forth Worth, Texas, June 25-July 1 and July 2-7, respectively. Below are info pages. I'll be coaching at both, as well as at the World Hopes Camp and Tournament in Linz, Austria (Apr. 25-May 5), so that'll be a pair of two-week working "vacations"!

Family Guy Table Tennis
Table tennis was featured on Family Guy yesterday (Sunday, March 27, S20.E16, "Prescription Heroine"). Here's the description from IMDB: "Lois becomes addicted to painkillers prescribed for Brian after he gets hurt. Peter's ping pong table becomes the hot spot in the neighborhood." I watched the episode. Peter and Cleveland are very good, smacking the ball back and forth, lots of smashes and chasing down smashes. There's a takeoff from the movie "The Shining" where Lois sees that Peter has typed, over and over, "All ping pong and no silence makes Peter hungry for cheetos." SPOILER ALERT - there's a logical problem at the end. Cleveland leads 10-9 game point, but decides to throw the game. He serves a high ball to let Peter smash. Peter jumps in the air but misses, and falls on the table, breaking it. So Cleveland should win, 11-9. But umpire Joe says it's a draw. (Also in the episode, Lois gets addicted to painkillers and Brian the dog does an intervention.) First mention of TT is at around 3:50, with the real TT action starting around 4:55, with the climactic Peter vs. Cleveland near the end.

$30,000 Classic Hardbat 2022 World Invitational Championships
Here's the entry form for the event to be held Aug. 5-7 in Houston. Events include Open Singles, Reisman Cup Teams, Women's Singles, Senior Singles (over 60) and Junior Singles (under 18). You can enter through Omnipong. Here is the current list of players - 46 have already entered, including Jimmy Butler (2021 World Hardbat Champion), Alexander "The Flash" Flemming (GER, 2021 World Sandpaper Champion), Yinka Olasoji, A.J. Carney (2021 US National Hardbat Champion), Richard "The Chopper" Gonzales (from the Philippines), Oriol Monzo, Ojo Onaolapo, and Jones Balonado (2021 US Open Hardbat Champion). I'll be there, doing coverage and playing one event, Over 60 Hardbat, which I won at the Nationals last year (along with Over 40!).

Top Player from India Looks to Coach in US
Here's what he wrote me, with an email link at the end:

Hello, I am Jayanta Chandra from India, I was professional table tennis player. Three times State Champion in under 12, under 14 and under 17 categories, also National Champion in Under 12 and Under 14 categories, also got bronze medal in National Games in Senior category. Since last 3 years I am professional coach in India. Actually I am looking for a job in USA as a Table Tennis Coach. So I am requesting you to if you kindly look into the matter then I will be very thankful to you. Thanking you. Yours Sincerely, JAYANTA CHANDRA email.

WTT Contender Doha 2022
Here's the ITTF page for the event, taking place March 25-31 in Doha, Qatar. Meanwhile, here are links for both the WTT Contender and WTT Star Contender, running consecutively in Doha.

Unstoppable Forehand Loop HOW TO!
Here's the video (28:36) from Seth Pech. "Learn Chinese Smash Touch Loop, How to Drive the ball, Misdirection Shots and more!"

Butterfly Training Tips

  • The Deep Push (81 sec) with Rachid El Bou Bou, commentary by Brian Pace.
  • Falkenburg (69 sec) with Zelin Ye, commentary by Brian Pace.

New from Samson Dubina

New from Table Tennis Philosophy/Coach Jon

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

How to Make a Short Serve Unpredictable, Part 2
Here's the video (12:09) from Ti Long. I linked to Part 1 last week, How to Serve Short with Purpose in Competition (7:18).

Basic Rules for an ITTF Legal Table Tennis Serve
Here's the video (1:52) from Matt Hetherington.

The 15 Powerful Lessons Teens Learn From Sports
Here's the article.

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

How to Maintain Chinese Table Tennis Rubber Stickiness
Here's the video (3:57) from PingSunday/EmRatThich.

Table Tennis United
Here's the page, a "Fundraising campaign for supporting the table tennis communities affected by crisis." They currently fund those "Severely affected by Covid-19" and those "Affected by the Russo - Ukrainian conflict."

New from USA Table Tennis

New from Steve Hopkins

US Tournament Results

New from National Collegiate Table Tennis Association

New from the ITTF

Top 10 Points from Singapore Smash
Here's the video (5:13).

57th Robo-Pong St. Joseph Valley Highlights with Nandan Naresh
Here's the video (2:44).

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Why Playing Ping Pong is Great for the Brain and Could Help Prevent Dementia
Here's the article.

Table Tennis Turnout on the Rise in the Metro
Here's the video (3:20) from FOX9, featuring the Twin Cities.

Centenary Stories: A Pioneer of Para Table Tennis
Here's the article from Table Tennis England. "Philip Lewis MBE, a true pioneer of para table tennis and a tireless campaigner for the sport, is the subject of the latest in our series of Centenary Stories."

Atari's 'Home Pong' Prototype Sells at Auction for More Than $270K
Here's the article. This is "The original 1975, hand-carved wood mock-up of the Pong system."

Table Tennis / Song on Games
Here's the video (2:22) which is a child's video showing the rules of the sport.

Never Underestimate an Old Man Who Plays Ping Pong
Here's where you can buy the shirt from Amazon!

Dropping 2,000 Ping Pong Balls
Here's the video (30 sec).

Top 10 Ping Pong Commercials
Here's the video (6:16. (This is from a couple of years ago.)

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Tip of the Week
A Table Tennis Player's Guide to Toweling.

Cary Cup
I spent the weekend coaching at the Cary Cup Open in North Carolina. We had eleven kids from MDTTC there and three coaches (myself, Wang Qingliang, and Jeffrey Zeng Xun). I ended up coaching eight of them in over 30 matches. Our players were Stanley Hsu (13, 2402), Mu Du (13, 2283), Ryan Lin (12, 2216), William Wu (16, 2140), Christian Funderberg (16, 2112), Winston Wu (12, 2079), Lance Wei, Todd Klinger, Kurtus Hsu, Aaron Zhang, and Liam Draper. AJ Carney did a great job running the tournament (as always). Here are complete results, care of Omnipong.

As usual, the results were all over the place. The down side was that some of our players kept playing players with "weird" styles, and that gave them difficulties. But that's all part of the learning process. While tactics are huge, another aspect is sports psychology - between games a coach not only has to tactically prepare the player for the next game, but also make sure they are ready mentally. It's a tricky balancing act. But most of the players I coach have been through this a lot and so are now pretty strong mentally, so we can focus on tactics - and that in itself does half the job of keeping them from worrying about winning or losing. You can't think about two things at once, so if you are thinking about what serve to use or where to attack, you aren't thinking about the rating points you'll lose if you lose and so aren't so nervous, and so play better.

One of my favorite moments was when I called a timeout. My player was down 1-2 in games, and 4-8 in the fourth. I told him two simple things (alas, I can't post it publicly, since they may play again), and he went back . . . and scored seven in a row! He went on to win the match. In two matches, I told my player to "throw every serve you have at them." Some players (myself included) can return any given serve effectively, but have great difficulty with sheer variety. Others have difficult with specific serves, or can't stop an opponent from attacking off certain serves. You simply adjust your serving game against your opponent.

One of our juniors was in the quarterfinals of Class D. He had to play a no-sponge long pips blocker, a style he'd never played. (He'd only played long pips choppers.) So I borrowed a racket with long pips no sponge and practiced with him for 45 minutes. After that, he had no trouble with the pips, and won 3-0, and went on to win the event. In the final, he played a player he'd played earlier. In that match, I had missed the first game, and arrived only in time to see game two. He was already down 0-2 before I talked to him. With a few simple tactical changes, he won the next two games, and was up 7-3 in the fifth - but alas, lost when the opponent got red-hot. But in the final, applying those same tactics, he won 3-0, at 2,7,3.

Two matches were won by a simple tactic. Both players were having trouble with deep, spinny serves. The answer? I told them to take the ball as late as possible so they'd have more time to see the serve, and to just topspin them back soft and easy. Such a simple thing, and it worked both times.

I've often said that "Tactics isn't about finding complex tactics to defeat an opponent. Tactics is about sifting through all the zillions of possible tactics and finding a few simple ones that work." The mark of a good tactician is the ability to find a few simple ones that work. Some freeze up, either because there are so many possibilities and they can't decide which one is "best," or because it's not easy thinking at the table, and so can't think of any possibilities. You don't need to always find the "perfect" tactic, you only need a few that work enough to win that match. If you can't think of any possibilities, then you need to clear your mind because it's like looking at a field of corn and not being able to see a single cornstalk. There are so many!!! (Of course, it's helpful to spend time thinking about these things as they pertain to your game, so you will more quickly recognize the possibilities.)

At its most basic, at the higher levels, probably more matches have been won by two simple tactics than anything else: "attack the middle" and "serve short no-spin to the middle." I probably said one of those two things in about half the matches I coached. (There is more to it than that. For example, it's not just "attack the middle" - it might be "attack the middle and wide backhand"; "attack the middle and wide forehand"; or "attack all three spots" (wide forehand and backhand, middle). Keep in mind that "middle" means the mid-point between forehand and backhand, usually where the playing elbow is.

Why is short no-spin to the middle so effective? By going to the middle, it cuts off the extreme angles. A no-spin serve is harder to push short, harder to push heavy, and for some players, harder to flip since they can't use the incoming spin to help create their own topspin. But it's always more effective if varied with spin serves and sudden deep serves.

USATT News and the 2022 US Nationals
The main news is that the entry form and online registration for the 2022 US Nationals is now open. It will be held July 2-7 at the Forth Worth Convention Center. Immediately before that, from June 25-July 1, are the US Team Trials for Men, Women, and for Under 11, 13, 15, and 19. (No U17 - there should be an explanation for that in the info page.)

In July, 1999, I was hired for my second tenure (into 2007) as editor of USATT Magazine, the print magazine that used to go to all 8000 or so members. (It stopped print in 2014 and is now USATT Insider.) They asked me to proof the entry form for the 1999 US Open, and I found numerous corrections for them. Since then I've proofed for USATT the entry form for every US Open and Nationals entry form before it went public - 44 in a row. This year it wasn't sent to me for proofing in advance, but I proofed it for them a few hours after it went up and sent them a number of edits which they incorporated within a day. I also did some proofing of the prospectus for the Team Trials, which is supposed to go public this Wednesday (March 23). We've had three poorly run US Opens and Nationals in a row; hopefully, fourth is the charm!!!

I will be attending the Nationals, mostly as a coach (while likely playing some hardbat events on the side, though I'm normally a sponge player). I will also be coaching at the Team Trials, so I'll be there for two weeks. (Then I plan on doing a little sightseeing in Texas and Mexico.) I've been to every US Nationals and US Open from 1984 to present, and several before that, starting in 1976 (my first year), including the 1976 US Open in Philadelphia.

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Samson Dubina

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

New from Coach Jon

How to Serve Short with Purpose in Competition
Here's the video (7:18) from Ti Long.

Why you Should Have a Table Tennis Coach
Here's the video (15:12) from PingSunday/EmRatThich. (There's a lot of other new stuff on their regular home page, but it's no longer dated and so it's not easy figure out what is new.)

Shadow Practice
Here's the video (1:57) from Table Tennis America. This is similar to some of the training we do at our club in our junior program.

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Singapore Smash … Hit or miss?
Here's the article from Tom Lodziak.

New from Steve Hopkins

ITTF News

PingPod Closes $10 Million Series A Funding for Expansion
Here's the article from the Business Wire.

Russia, Belarus Banned From Multi-Sport Euro Championships
Here's the article from WTOP.

Atanda Musa Eyes National Table Tennis Team Job
Here's the article from The Guardian on former Nigerian star Musa.

Raising Awareness for Parkinson's at Singapore Smash
Here's the article from Sport and Development.

Table Tennis' New Spin: Coloured and Hexagonal bats
Here's the article from the Straits Times.

There Is No Ping Without a Pong
Here's the article from the Christian Science Monitor.

Teen Table Tennis Star Helps Plant First Trees for Amazing Commonwealth Forest Project in the Midlands
Here's the article from the Birmingham Mail.

Jill’s Part in Historic China Trip
Here's the article from Table Tennis England featuring Jill Parker.

"BACKSP!N" Features Over 60 Table Tennis Paddles Designed by Artists
Here's the article. It seems to showcase a book of these art designs, which is on sale for £15, but I can't find a link to where to buy it. There's a link where it says, "this exhibit will inspire even amateurs to master a Loop shot" - which links to one of my old articles! (It's dated July 19, 2021, but I think I wrote this article over 20 years ago. But still seems to apply.)

You're the Ping to My Pong
Here's where you can get the shirt at Amazon!

Kid Goes Airborne During this Backhand
Here's the video (26 sec) - and note the score!

I Challenged the INTERNET
Here's the video (18:46) from Adam Bobrow!

Zelensky Smashes Putin!
Here's the cartoon I put together! (I did a similar one a while ago, but this is simpler and better.) That's Judge Hofmański from the International Criminal Court in the Hague, who would preside over a Putin trial for crimes against humanity.

Ping-Pong on Family Guy?
From the description for Episode 20.16, "Prescription Heroin," coming up this Sunday, March 27, 9:30 PM Eastern Time on FOX: "Peter's ping pong table becomes the hot spot in the neighborhood."

Non-Table Tennis - "Madam Hitler"
My science fiction story "Madam Hitler" just went up at New Myths Magazine. (It's my seventh sale to them, and 127th overall.) Here's the situation: It's April 30, 1945, in Berlin, and the Russians are closing in on Hitler's underground bunker. He's about to commit suicide. Then an awestruck time-traveling tourist shows up. He has a device that allows him to trade bodies with Hitler, just so he can experience being Hitler. (He also gets a snippet of Hitler's mustache.) But Hitler takes the device and switches bodies with his real-life secretary, Traudl Junge, who's the story's main character. Hitler escapes in her body and becomes a rising star in West Germany politics. Junge is captured by the Soviets, in Hitler's body, and has to face a revengeful Stalin, who thinks she's the real Hitler. What can she do to convince Stalin of the truth, and will the real Hitler ever be caught? It features multiple appearances by the time traveler (who also visits Stalin and Mao, and gets a snippet of Stalin's mustache). The story has a wild culmination when all of the main characters are brought together in a room at the end. There's also a graphic at the very end that helps explain the various timelines. The story gets rather dark at time, but with the time traveler as comic relief. I researched the story by reading "Hitler's Last Secretary," the biography of Traudl Junge. 

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Tip of the Week
How to Learn by Watching the Top Players.

Exhaustedly Tired and Weekend Coaching
It's been an exhausting week. I had all sorts of things I was going to get done this week. But on Wednesday, I came down with what was likely 24-hour stomach flu. But the "24-hour" part isn't that accurate. It's true that I was only really sick on Wednesday - REALLY sick, 102.2 fever - but I spent the next two days (Thu & Fri) mostly in bed exhausted. I did my usual coaching on the weekend, mostly group sessions where I did a lot of multiball training. But one session on Sunday we had an odd number of players, so I was recruited to be a practice partner. It started off fine, but toward the end I was getting pretty tired. But it didn't affect my play much. Then we played up-down tables for an hour, where we'd have improvised games starting at 5-5. For example, in one set of games, the receiver had to push long to the wide forehand, the server had to loop the first ball consistently to the backhand, the then play out point. Or the same, except the receiver had to push long to the wide backhand. Again, I started out fine, and despite 20 players ranging up to about 1950 level, I quickly reached the first table.

And then . . . the combination of tired muscles  from still recovering from the flu and from the earlier drilling, and playing kids who don't understand the concept of "not so fast!") kicked in. Suddenly easy shots became like trying to lift a heavy weight while tap dancing, and I kept missing, even off high balls. The table conspicuously doubled in width, though no one else seemed to notice. The balls developed their own jet engines. Result? Right at the end I lost three of the last five games. I think the kids went from looking at me in awe (well, I can dream) to how they look at a hot fudge sundae.

I made the usual mistake of staying up too late reading on Sunday night. Adding that to the previous exhaustion, I woke up this morning with a headache and stomachache. I almost postponed today's blog until next week, but after some lunch, I finally buckled down.

As to the coaching, I think the focus this week was on speed, at least for the more advanced players. I fed faster and faster, while using shorter sessions - 70 seconds each as the players rotated - and ran them through a lot of speed drills. (Most sessions would have one player doing multiball, one player behind shadow-practicing as a mirror, and one on ball pickup.)

I also had a private session with Navin Kumar - here's a video (24 sec). We're getting him ready for the World Parkinson's Championships in Pula, Croatia, Sept. 30 - Oct. 3. At the World's Parkinson's in 2020 Navin got silver in doubles, bronze in singles. I'll also likely be coaching him in the Parkinson's events at this year's US Nationals in July.

Happy Pi Day
Yes, it's Pi Day! And here's some Pi Ping-Pong stuff! (I'm pretty sure I'm going to have some apple pie later today. Yum.)

Upcoming Schedule
I've got a really busy upcoming schedule. Here's the major items, including a few non-TT ones. (For the table tennis ones, you can enter most of them via Omnipong.) I'm sure more events will fill up my Fall schedule. 

  • Mar. 18-20, coaching at the Cary Cup Championships in North Carolina.
  • Apr. 2-3, coaching at the MDTTC Open.
  • Apr. 8-10, possibly coaching at the Puerto Rican Teams.
  • Apr. 27-29, coaching at the WTT Youth Contender (Linz, Austria)
  • May 1-5, coaching at the ITTF Hopes Camp (Linz, Austria)
  • May 27-30, panelist at the Balticon Science Fiction Convention.
  • June 11-12, coaching at MDTTC Open.
  • June 25-July 1, coaching at USA Team Trials (Fort Worth). Still no info page on this, alas. 
  • July 2-7, coaching at US Nationals (Fort Worth) - combined with the Team Trials, it'll be two weeks of consecutive coaching in Fort Worth. But still no info page or entry form for the US Nationals. 
  • July 22-30, attending "The Never-Ending Odyssey" Science Fiction Writing Workshop, as I do every year.
  • Aug. 5-7, playing and doing coverage of the World Hardbat Championships in Houston. Following that I plan a roughly five-day tour of Houston (starting with the NASA Spaceflight Center) and San Antonio (starting with The Alamo), and then a ten-day tour of the historic sites of Mexico. It'll be my second time in Mexico - the last one was circa 1990 when I coached the US junior team in a tournament there.
  • Sept. 1-4, coaching at the Global Championships in Orlando, then a day or two at Disneyworld. (I went there once, circa 1987, after the US Open in Miami or Fort Lauderdale.) Alas, this means missing the World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, Sept. 1-5.
  • Sept. 30-Oct. 3, coaching Navin Kumar at the World Parkinson's Championships in Pula, Croatia. I plan to follow this with some sort of European tour. I was thinking of visiting the historic sites of Russia, but this might not be a good time for that...
  • Oct. 8-9, coaching at the MDTTC Open.
  • Nov. 3-6, panelist at the World Fantasy Convention in New Orleans.
  • Nov. 25-27, coaching at the North American Teams in Washington DC.

Singapore Smash
Here's the ITTF home page for the event, March 7-20, with results, news, and lots of video. There are some great matches (browse over them), but the one we all want to see is USA's world #30 Kanak Jha's upset of world #4 Tomokazu Harimoto of Japan, -7,9,9,3 in the round of 64. Here's the video (8:24). (Alas, Kanak lost next round to world #31 Anton Kallberg of Sweden, -10,8,6,9.) See also Steve Hopkin's coverage of the event below, in particular Kanak Jha Upsets No.4 Harimoto. Here are two articles from World Table Tennis that cover Kanak's upset, Singapore Smash Delivers Drama on Day 2 of Action and Timeout: Jha's Butterfly Tactic.

NCTTA Announces Call for World University Games Coach
Here's the info page. The event takes place in Chengdu, China, June 25 - July 7. I was asked if I could do it, but since this coincides with the US Team Trials and US Nationals (literally the exact same dates), I had to turn it down. (I was also asked if I could coach some paralympic events overseas, but again, I was too busy, plus these days I focus more on local TT.)

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Samson Dubina

New from Dora Kurimay

New from Matt Hetherington

New from Table Tennis Philosophy/Coach Jon

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

New from Ti Long

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

Average to Pro Backhand in 7 Days
Here's the video (11:20) from Table Tennis Daily.

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from Steve Hopkins

2022 WTT Youth Contender Vila Real: A Memorable Experience
Here's the article by Isabella Xu.

New from USATT

New from ITTF

"This Is Not Ping Pong" says Zelensky
Here's the quote from Ukrainian President Zelensky. The full quote is, "Listen, we have a war! We do not have time for all these signals. This is not ping pong! It's about human lives! We ask once again: Solve it faster. Do not shift the responsibility, send us planes." [Here's the video from last week's blog of Zelensky playing table tennis (43 sec).]

Colorado Suspends Betting On Russian & Belarusian Sports In Response To Invasion Of Ukraine
Here's the article and video (2:18) from CBS Denver. "Two years later, table tennis’ popularity still stumps St. Clair, who said it consistently ranks in the top ten sports bet on in Coloradans. 'Colorado has wagered $181.7 million on table tennis,' St. Clair said. 'It’s been one of those interesting scenarios where people can’t explain it.'"

New from Jimmy Butler

Janova Paddle Brings Performance-Tracking Smarts to Table Tennis
Here's the article and video (1:57), along with Kickstarter.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Calories Burned Playing Table Tennis Calculator
Here's the article from Fitness Volt. But I don't think this can possibly be accurate. It gives the only variable as your weight. But players will burn vastly different amounts of calories in a given time based on their playing level, style, and whether you are playing games or doing footwork drills.

Four-Player Ping-Pong Table
Here it is! You can get it at Amazon for $268.

The Man, The Myth, The Ping Pong Legend
Here's where you can buy the shirt at Amazon! And here's Hermann Luechinger, The Man, The Myth, the Ping Pong Modeling Legend!

Three Consecutive Crazy Shots
Here's the video (7 sec)!

Extreme Ping Pong Set-Ups
Here's the video (5:01) from Pongfinity!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week
Be Both a Machine and an Artist.

Princeton Pong Tournament
I went up to Princeton, NJ on Friday (three-hour drive from Maryland) with five of our kids and their parents, and coached at the Princeton Pong tournament on Saturday. Here are complete results, care of Omnipong. A great thanks goes out to tournament staff Ben Rosenberg (director), Claudia Dunlevy, and referee Chris Lehman, and to the other volunteers who helped out with the tournament.

This time around it was a group of our younger kids, all rated under 1300, ages 10 to 13, most of them playing in three round robin rating events. Four of the five had never played a tournament outside Maryland. They had a great time - I wonder if I was that excited to play in tournaments back when I first traveled to tournaments back in 1976? (Answer: yes.)

I coached an even 20 matches, plus part of two others. It's really half tactics, half psychology as I tried to find creative ways to get them to play as well as they do in practice. Tactically, they usually are faster than their opponents, so we did a lot of quick attacks to the "three spots" - wide corners and middle (roughly opponent's elbow). They were mostly used to playing players from the club who'd they'd played many times, so playing new players and styles is a challenge. They played a LOT of players with long pips! One kid struggled against his first long pips blocker, a style he's never played, and got killed. Then he played another one later on and played one of the best matches he's ever played. Amazing how fast kids pick things up.

More importantly, the tournament dramatically showed their strengths and weaknesses, as tournament always do. I took careful notes, and later today, after I finish the blog, I'll likely go off to Panera's for lunch or dinner and write up an analysis and recommendations for all five. It'll include bullet lists of things they do well, things that could or should become strengths, and things that need work on. A couple of them simply could not serve anything effectively but backspin serves - we'll be working on that. I worked with one of them on that on Sunday. Some of them loop against pushes fine in practice, but in tournaments against a player they've never played? That needs work - and much of that comes with experience and the decision that you have to do the shots you practice or you'll never do them effectively.

We came back Sunday morning, and I got back just in time for a noon group session with a number of kids, including two of the ones from the tournament. I had two group sessions and fed multiball for nearly three hours, with a big focus on looping against backspin, both forehand and backhand. For those sessions, most of the players were paired up, with Coaches Wang Qingliang and/or Lidney Castro running the drills and coaching, while 2-3 at a time were sent to me for 15-30 minutes of intense multiball.

USATT Coaches Certification
I haven't been on the USATT Coaches Certification listing since January, even though I'm certified at the highest level as a National Coach. I've jumped through all the hoops - I'm a full USATT member ($75/year for most, but I have a lifetime membership via Hall of Fame induction), $50/year certified coach fee, I've passed SafeSport (again), did the background check, and (new rules!) promised to turn over my firstborn table tennis racket and 100 rating points. :) But according to headquarters, there's a software problem, and they have been unable to mark me as passing SafeSport even though I passed that in January. (I keep getting these automatic emails saying I'm not SafeSport compliant.) I wonder if others are affected by this? (I emailed to find out.) Presumably, next year they will extend my certification for the amount of time I'm left off the list before I have to pay the annual $50 again. You can't charge someone for certification if you aren't putting them on the certification list!
UPDATE - I'm told they will have an update (i.e. fixed the problem) "within the next few days."

Ukraine President Zelenksy Playing Table Tennis
Here's the video (43 sec)! Here's a related cartoon I created where Zelensky smashes Putin, "Putin's Dream Becomes a Nightmare." (Here's the non-Facebook version. I used graphics I found online to create it.)

New from Samson Dubina
This first one may be the single hardest thing to get across to students. Those who overcome this improve rapidly. All of this week's Samson tips are really good.

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Matt Hetherington

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

New from Coach Jon/Table Tennis Philosophy

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

3 Drills That Will Level Up Your Game
Here's the video (7:24) from Seth Pech.

The Myth of Sport Specific Training
Here's the video (5:45) from Kevin Finn/Peak Performance Table Tennis.

Joining the Dark Side - When Is the Right Time to Switch to Pimples?
Here's the article by Tom Lodziak.

How to Do Mima Ito's One-Inch Backhand Punch with Short Pips
Here's the video (10:39) from Ti Long.

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

Impact of Ball Material Change from Celluloid to Plastic on Game Statistics in Elite Women Table-Tennis
Here's the rather technical article from the International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport. This is just the abstract - you have to pay $47 for the whole article. "This study compared the statistics of 24 matches played by elite women table-tennis players using the old celluloid versus new plastic balls to provide insight into the on-court adaptations made. Matches played by five, top-10 world ranked female players, using the celluloid (n = 12) versus plastic balls (n = 12) in international competitions from 2011 to 2017 were analysed. The results showed that the average strokes per point and point duration were approximately 15% and 13% shorter when playing with the plastic (4.79 ± 0.59; 3.91 ± 0.54s) compared with celluloid balls (5.52 ± 0.62; 4.49 ± 0.53s)."

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Support Lily Zhang in Attending 2022 WTT Events
Here's her GoFundMe page. "Lily's home club Table Tennis America supports this initiative of sending Lily to participate at the WTT Events. All funds raised will 100% go towards covering her expenses at the WTT events. Table Tennis America Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your generous donation is tax deductible." (So far they have raised $8163 out of the $40,000 goal.)

Navin Kumar Documentary Preview
Here's the video (61 sec).

ITTF PingPongParkinson World Championship
Here's the promo video (50 sec) for the event to be held in Pula, Croatia, Sept. 30 - Oct. 3, 2022. I will likely be coaching Navin Kumar there.

New Zealand Protesters Use Table Tennis Table as Shield
Here's the article and video (67 sec).

2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships--COMING SOON
Here's the info page.

New from Steve Hopkins

USATT News

ITTF News

Dinosaur Pong Prints and Shirts
Here's the page to buy them!

Dragon Ping Pong Paddles
Here's the page to buy them! (Beginner paddles but fun souvenirs.)

The Point is Never Over
Here's the video (12 sec)!

Skinny Pong
Here's the video (10 sec)! That table looks about three inches wide. I want one!

David vs. Goliath Pong?
Here's the cartoon! (Or is this Ukraine vs. Russia - and note the worried look on "Russia's" face!

Non-Table Tennis - "Small Step" Sold to Abyss & Apex
It's my 126th science fiction short story sale (along with four novels), and my fourth to Abyss & Apex. When Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, he said, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." But he left out the "a," and so the quote didn't really make sense. It turns out he didn't leave it out, and this is the story of what really happened when mankind first landed on the moon. Two retired aliens lived there, living life at 1/10,000 our speed, but with technical capabilities far beyond ours, including time manipulation. When the landing accidentally kills one of the aliens, it's up to Buzz Aldrin to save humanity by convincing the surviving alien - using perhaps the most unique communication technique ever invented - not to burn humanity to a crisp. The story idea came about from reading "The Eagle Has Landed: The Story of Apollo 11," by Jeffrey K. Smith. The publishing industry often has a slow process, and this was no exception. I submitted the story last Aug. 1, and it took seven months before they accepted it. It's already scheduled for publication - on July 1, 2024!!! (We also went through a two-week rewrite process where they asked for certain changes.) It's a somewhat long story, 6,600 words, about 27 pages double-spaced.

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week
Be a Machine But Not Mechanical.

Weekend Coaching, an Exhausting Session, . . . and USATT or Local TT
It was another busy week at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. I had four group sessions, plus a private session with Navin Kumar. (As noted previously, I'm retired from private coaching, but made an exception for Navin, a Paralympic player. I'll likely be coaching him at the World Parkinson's Championships at the 2022 ITTF Parkinson's World Table Tennis Championships, Sept. 30 - Oct. 3, 2022, in Pula, Croatia.) Head junior coach Wang Qingliang ran most of these sessions, with Coach Lidney Castro running one of them. (I used to run many or most of these sessions, but now that I'm "semi-retired," I've taken a back seat and let others be in charge while I assist.)

With the Novice group, the focus is always on fundamentals. We do a lot of shadow-stroking at the start. One interesting thing - the local middle schools require all students to do a certain number of hours of volunteer work. MDTTC had applied as an option, and so for the last few years we've had many of our junior stars helping out in such classes. This time around we had six of them (ages 12 to 15), along with Wang and I - so eight coaches/practice partners with 13 players!!! So we were able to do a lot of one-on-one hitting and multiball. In other sessions I was split between feeding lots and Lots and LOTS of multiball, and being a "walking around" coach.

In the last session on Sunday afternoon, they played practice matches to help some of them prepare for upcoming tournaments. There were 15 in the group and needed a 16th, so I became a player once again. The level in this group ranged up to about 1850. At the start, I was winning most of my games by scores ranging from 11-0 (sorry!) to 11-3. (All best of three to 11.) Then I started getting tired. Why was I tired? Well . . . perhaps it was age. No one there knew it, but I turned 62 (!!!) on Sunday. As I got tired, I made mistakes and struggled to cover the table against these way-too-fast kids, who more and more seemed like Tasmanian devils on steroids. No, I didn't lose any games, but the second half I had a number of close ones, even down 7-10 one game to a kid around 1600 (but swinging for the fences and hitting!) - but I came back. I probably need to start practicing and do some physical training if I want to stay ahead of them!

I'm going up to Princeton Pong in New Jersey to coach at a tournament this weekend. Normally, when I travel to tournaments, it's to coach our top juniors. This time, a number of younger, lower-rated kids are doing their first out-of-town tournament. I've met with some of the parents to go over various aspects of the trip. We leave sometime on Friday afternoon. These kids are enthused and can't wait!!!

With all of this local TT, and my growing disillusionment with the current leadership of USA Table Tennis, I'm leaning more and more towards just focusing on local table tennis until things get better at USATT. (One board member told me that members have always complained about USATT. My response was the key thing was whether the complaints are justified.) We have over 50 kids in our junior program, generally divided into four training groups. There are some really hard-working kids. They may not all become "champions" in table tennis, but they will all have fun, learn discipline and sportsmanship, and have a sport for a lifetime - i.e. they will all be champions.

However, it's also fun to work with the top ones. In the current rankings, in 13 and Under, we have players like Stanley Hsu (13, 2402), Mu Du (13, 2286), Ryan Lin (12, 2216), Winston Wu (2079) - the four are ranked #1, 3, 6, and 8 in the country. In 12 and Under, Ryan and Winston are #1 and #2. In 11 and Under, Riley Yang (11, 1920) is #5; in 9 and Under Girls, Audrey Yang (9, 1242) is #4. And there are many others. (It's tempting to list them all . . . lots of kids from 1800 to 2200, we have some great coaches at MDTTC!) Anyway, I'd rather work with these kids, most of whom I've worked with since they were beginners, then spend a huge amount of time tilting at windmills, i.e. dealing with USATT. I'm on the USATT coaching committee, and will continue that - though we haven't met since June of 2020. 
=>ADDENDUM - Another reason for my disinterest in USATT is that, with all their problems, they are insignificant compared to what's happening in Ukraine as well as what's happened to American politics. There's a good chance our next president will be one who regularly tells us how much he likes and admires Putin and how much Putin likes him, and about a thousand other problems. I usually stay out of US politics in this blog, but jeez...

US Team Trials and Nationals
The US Team Trials (for men, women, and juniors, June 25 - July 1) and the US Nationals (July 2-7) will be held back-to-back this year in Fort Worth. So it looks like I'll be very busy coaching for two weeks! Then I'm going on vacation. Tentatively, immediately afterwards I'm taking a bus or flight to San Antonio (270 miles south) to visit the Alamo. (I'm told I was there when I was two years old, but strangely I don't remember it.) Then I'm doing something I've held off for a couple of years for some pandemical reason - I'm hoping to do a one-to-two week tour of Mexico - probably one of these. (I especially like visiting historical sites.) Some of you may remember my 7-week tour of Europe and Egypt in late 2019, just before the pandemic - here's my book in that trip, Larry's Adventures in Europe and Egypt: Seven Weeks Following Tour Guides with Little Flags and Funny Hats, and the Quest for the Elusive Dr Pepper. (Flights from San Antonio to Mexico are inexpensive, about $200 round trip.)

Number of Events at the US Open and Nationals
I'm hearing rumors that they are thinking of once again lowering the number of events a player can enter at the US Open and Nationals. I hope this is wrong - they should go the other way and increase it. I checked some of my old entry forms, and as recently as 2015 players could enter up to ten events, with just as many or more events held as current Opens and Nationals. They lowered it to nine for the next two years, then to seven, then last year they lowered it to six. For a six-day event such as these, players want to play more, especially juniors, seniors, para players, and hardbat/sandpaper players who can play a lot of singles and doubles events. Since they had no problems with the scheduling in past years with players entering nine or ten events, why can't they do that now? The entry form will be out soon, so we'll know then.
=>ADDENDUM - Jasna from USATT posted, "From what I understood at the task force meeting, it seems it will be allowed for up to 10 events for athletes to enter." Another person from USATT had told me they were "considering" going to only five events, but presumably that was vetoed. (Another person also mentioned this to me, though not sure if it was a prediction or they'd also heard it, possibly from same source. It's quite possible the idea of going to five events was privately discussed but not brought up in official meetings and subsequently dropped. It would be an easy - and bad - partial solution to the recent scheduling problems.) If so, that's a good decision. Now, let's just run it on time and deal with the other problems raised from the last three US Opens and Nationals. 

Ping-Pong on Space Force
I've been watching Space Force, the satirical show on Netflix, which recently released season 2. In Season 2, Episode 4, at 10:40, one of the scientists, Dr. Chan, is described, "Did you know that at age ten, Chan was actually a table tennis champion." There's a picture of him as a child holding a paddle. (The series stars Steve Carell and John Malkovich.)
=>ADDENDUM - Matt Hetherington informs me of the following:

"That picture of Dr Chan in SpaceForce is actually a real picture of Jimmy O Yang, the actor who plays him. Jimmy played table tennis in Hong Kong at a young age and his father took him to competitions in Guangzhou sometimes. He's mentioned it in his standup shows a couple of times, I sent him a new racket last year so here's hoping we can get him on a table a little in 2022!" 

USA Table Tennis News

Butterfly Training Tips

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

Seth Pech vs Sharon Alguetti 2022 Presper Financial Architects Open
Here's the video (9:48) with Seth's expert tactical analysis.

New from Samson Dubina

How to Serve Ghost 4 Easy Levels
Here's the video (9:29) from Ti Long.

New from Table Tennis Philosophy/Coach Jon

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

New from Matt Hetherington

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from Steve Hopkins

ITTF News

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Fix Un Foxi
Here's the 1995 German comic book!

Pong Eyes
Here's the picture!

World's Biggest Ping-Pong Paddle
Here it is! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Table Pong
Here's the video (18 sec) - and look what they use as a net!

Pole Pong with Persson
Here's the video (17 sec) as 1991 Men's World Champion Jorgen Persson battles the ball, a pole, and a punching bag!

Full-House Pong
Here's the video (48 sec) - this is hilarious!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week
If You Don't Spend a Good Portion of Your Practice Developing Overwhelming Strengths, You Won't Develop Overwhelming Strengths.

USA Table Tennis Issues
This site is called TableTennisCOACHING.com, not TableTennisUSATT.com. Readers know I disagree with much of what USA Table Tennis has done over the last two years. I try to ignore much of it, and probably write only 10% of what I could. Alas, there's a lot here to write about. I really do not plan to not do any more USATT "editorials" after this for a while, other than reporting things like the results of the upcoming athlete election, etc. Skip the next five segments if you aren't interested in USATT issues. (Item #5 is about the Nationals going to Fort Worth.) 

The End of the Rubberstamping USATT Board?
The current chair, Richard Char, took office at the Feb. 26, 2020 board meeting. Since then, there have been 26 board meetings (mostly on Zoom) and 104 votes. (I'm not including votes to go into or out of executive session or votes to adjourn, which would add another 50 or so unanimous votes.) Exactly 100 of the 104 votes have been unanimous, including the first 86 votes through 21 board meetings. The first dissenting vote in this era was by Thomas Hu at the Oct. 4, 2021 meeting. The only board members who have ever dissented have been Thomas Hu (4 times), Dan Reynolds (2 times), and in this last meeting, newly elected athlete reps Lily Zhang and Nikhil Kumar once each, both joining Thomas in voting against the proposed 2022 budget. (Thomas and Dan both took office at the start of 2021, so they only started voting at that time.) Here is the USATT Minutes page. (A number of these votes are straightforward ones, but a number are not.) 

So this has been pretty much the definition of a rubberstamping board until now. There are now four who have dissented, and there will be two incoming athlete reps coming in soon - I'm told we'll have the results this Thursday. (It's a bit complicated, but due to the para requirements, it's basically Tahl Leibovitz vs. Jennifer Johnson, and Peter Li vs. Niraj Oak.) One of the ironies is that the incoming athlete reps seem rather grass-roots oriented, despite being athlete reps.

One of the reasons for this "rubberstamping" board is the change in how USATT lawyers advise the board. For decades, the previous USATT lawyers (primarily Dennis Taylor for the past 20 years, until about two years ago) would give the board options, and let the board decide. They'd make recommendations if asked, but their primary job was to give the board the options to choose from, and the advantages/disadvantages of each from a legal aspect. However, anyone attending board meetings these past two years have noticed a major change. Now it seems as if the lawyers argue a specific case, which seems to match what the USATT CEO and Chair (the ones who brought them in) seem to support. Since nearly all of the board is new, few have realized the difference. When I ask board members why they voted a certain way in various controversial decisions, invariably I'm told they did it because the lawyers recommended it.

USATT Budget Meeting
They held that meeting this past Thursday, Feb. 17. I attended, for the entire 14 minutes before the meeting was closed for executive session.

I've had two tenures on the USATT Board and have attended the vast majority of USATT board meetings since 1986. I've been to far too many budget meetings. Until the last few years, the process was straightforward - the board went over it, item by item, with the ED/CEO and others explaining each item, and board members then asking questions. The process typically takes at least three hours, often longer, and ends with each board member having a good understanding of the budget. They discuss, make compromise, and ultimately vote.

The process under this administration is very different. The budget was sent to board members, they were allowed to ask questions via email, and then they spent less than ten minutes discussing it in the Zoom meeting before the call was made to approve it. Without going over each item, most board members really don't know which parts they should ask questions about. That seems the point - rather than the board really going over the budget and then voting on it, the whole point seemed to be to rubberstamp it. How can they approve a budget they haven't really gone over?

There were objections to the budget, in particular by board member Thomas Hu. Thomas has an MBA, was a major in finance with a minor in accounting, has a long history as a financial reporter and planner, and is also CEO of the American Youth Table Tennis Organization. He said the numbers do not add up. Ironically, immediately after Thomas said, "The numbers are wrong," the chair, Richard Char, asked if there was a motion to approve the budget, and the motion was made about five seconds after that. The final vote was 7-3 in favor, with Thomas and the two incoming Athlete Representatives, Lily Zhang and Nikhil Kumar, opposed.

The fact that the vote was 7-3 was in itself "historic" as that was by far the closest vote on this board in the last two years and 104 votes. (See segment above on "rubberstamping.")  

USATT Cancels Chat Function at Board Meetings
Here's the notice from the last board meeting notice:

Process for USATT Members to Submit Questions to the Board of Directors
In an effort to enhance dialogue and transparency with the membership, the Board and USATT staff have developed a process to allow members to submit questions and comments. Questions and comments may be delivered to admin@usatt.org, and the Board will address appropriate inquiries related to topics properly before the Board at its meetings. Questions may also be directed to the Board at admin@usatt.org during the meeting but may not be responded to until after the meeting due to time and attention considerations. Given this enhanced opportunity, it should be noted that the chat function will no longer be available during Board meetings.

Why do they feel the need to mislead us about why they canceled the chat function? This misleading statement is irritating. They canceled the chat function because a number of people (including me and some prominent members of the table tennis community) complained in the chat function during the previous board meeting about certain issues. So why not just tell the truth if you believe in your reasons? (It doesn't matter who actually wrote this; it was written by or on behalf of the USATT CEO and Board Chair.)

Note that it's not an either-or thing - you can do both. Saying they cancelled the chat function because of this "enhanced" opportunity is like saying, "The sky is blue, therefore you can't have chocolate." There's no correlation or cause and effect between the two. It's just a distracting mechanism - but done so poorly that it doesn't fool anyone. Does anyone really think they canceled the chat function because of an "enhanced opportunity"?

I could easily make the argument for them for cancelling the chat function as a distraction. Here's what they could have said, if they'd decided to be honest and straightforward: "In a previous meeting, a number of people used the chat function to disrupt the board meeting, making it difficult for some board members to focus on the meeting. In the future, we'd prefer these comments be sent to the board in advance so board members can give them proper consideration without distracting them from the ongoing meeting." There, was that so hard?

They could simply ignore the chat - the meeting was on Zoom, where board members speak but others cannot without permission - but since they didn't like what was being said, they decided to close it down and mislead us with the reason. Why not just be honest? If you believe you are right, then make your argument, as I did above for them. If you believe you are wrong but decide to do it anyway, that's a reason to hide your real reason and talk about "enhancing dialogue" and "transparency" and pretend it's an "either-or" situation.

Do they really believe just closing down the chat function, a form of censorship, is the way to go here? How'd that work out for, say, "Maus"? All this does is draw attention to it. You can moderate a chat room without closing it down for legitimate comments and discussion. ("In January 2022, the board of trustees of McMinn County schools in Tennessee removed Maus from its schools curriculum. There was significant and widespread backlash to the decision, and Maus became the Amazon #1 best-seller." I'd never heard of it, but I just read it and am now reading the sequel.) By my judgement, only one person in the chat posted anything remotely objectionable (using the word "corruption"). 

On a side note, we've always had the ability email the board of directors - their emails are linked in the USATT board listing.

So, what was the primary issue that people were objecting in the chat room at the last board meeting? That's the next segment.

Athlete Advisory Council Representative
At the Oct. 27, 2021 board meeting, the USATT board passed a series of new bylaws. The USOPC had dictated that USATT must increase athlete representation on the board from two to four. They also said that the athletes needed to be chosen by direct vote of the athletes. (It used to be that way, but in recent times the AAC chose the athlete reps.) So, USATT ran the first athlete rep election, won by Lily Zhang and Nikhil Kumar, and we'll have the results of the other one this Thursday, with two more athlete reps. (I actually wrote a LONG article on this, but decided it was way too long and so drastically shortened it. I debated whether to even bother writing about it, but decided silence wasn't the answer.)

The controversial bylaw? The four incoming athlete reps, voted directly by the elite athletes, replaced the previous two. No problem there. But the board added a new position, the AAC Chair Representative (as designated on the USATT board listing), who represents the Athlete Advisory Council. (To be clear, before the ACC was used to choose the two athlete reps; now they themselves have a rep, representing the AAC itself, in addition to the four athlete reps elected by the athletes.)

The AAC Chair is Tara Profitt. I've known Tara for many years, including during my second tenure on the USATT board. I believe she's hard-working and well-meaning. She is a strong advocate of her fellow para players. (She is in a wheelchair.) She also was forthcoming when I asked her some question, and it helped in gathering facts. But there's one problem - who does she represent? The AAC is not a constituency; they advise a constituency, the elite athletes. Constituencies are groups that USATT might want to help, to better develop the sport of table tennis. Clubs are a constituency, and have a board rep. Colleges are a constituency, and have a board rep. Others that could be considered constituencies include coaches, officials, juniors, seniors, and so on. But the AAC itself is not a constituency; they advise a constituency. (See Article XI of the USATT bylaws for their exact purpose.)

To give an example, USATT lawyers advise USATT on certain issues, but that doesn't mean there should be a lawyer rep on the USATT board of directors. Similarly, while the AAC advises the board on certain athlete issues, that doesn't mean they themselves should have a voting member on the USATT board of directors. (If you represent the ones who voted you in, then Tara technically represents the then-majority of the board that voted to create this position. The votes are no longer there, but the "legacy" of this former 2/3 majority remains.)

So, why does the AAC have a representative? To be specific, what was the cause?

This goes right back to the "rubberstamping" board. There's nothing wrong with voting consistently with a group you agree with. At the same time, if you have voted with or for the chair, Richard Char, in 104 out of 104 votes, as Tara has, then you are obviously a very strong supporter of this administration. By creating this board position, the then-majority created a position for a strong supporter that they would need, knowing that the four incoming athlete reps are not likely to be such supporters. It is likely that in some important issues, or in attempts to change past decisions, Tara will be the deciding vote or (in some cases) would deadlock the board at 6-6, or stop bylaw changes (including the AAC rep position), that require a 2/3 vote of the entire board. (I really wish Tara had simply run for one of the fourth athlete reps. If she was representative of their views, she would have been elected. Alas, she does not seem to represent their views on most issues.)

And this is why so many people are unhappy with this. We welcome Tara's advice and hard work, but not that a then-majority used its majority to pad and try to continue its majority. (Note that they also voted for the new bylaws and had a sudden and unscheduled election for the board chair just before the athlete elections, knowing full well that the four incoming athlete reps would likely be in opposition to the then-majority on both of these.) One other source of unhappiness - I and others believe Tara should have abstained on the bylaws vote that created the position that she now occupies.

The minutes (unanimously approved by the board at the Dec. 6 meeting) say the vote was 7-2, but if you count the voters listed (see below), it's actually 6-2. (As noted at the top of the minutes, Kelly Watson arrived late, and so missed the vote.) It also leaves out who made the motion and second - but it turns out Tara made the motion and voted for it. Here's what it says in the Oct. 27 Board Minutes:

Upon Motion properly made and seconded, the following Resolution was approved by a vote of seven (Tara Profitt, Brandon Lawrence, Arjun Chowdri, Tom Feng, Will Shortz and Richard Char) to two (Thomas Hu and Dan Reynolds):

Bylaw changes need a 2/3 majority of the entire board, and since there were nine board members at the time (before the bylaw changes), that meant six votes were needed. Therefore, outgoing athlete rep and AAC Chair Tara made the motion and cast the deciding vote for new bylaws that included creating a new board position, an AAC Chair Rep, for herself. (She was an outgoing athlete rep because the USOPC had ordained that all athlete reps must be elected directly, and the very bylaws she moved and cast the deciding vote for created those direct elections - which she no longer would have to run in.) 

ADDENDUM: I rewrote the part above about needing a 2/3 vote of the entire board to pass a bylaw, since I'd initially written it took a 2/3 vote, period. This mean that Tara cast the deciding vote, as noted above. 

I asked one USATT person if they would have created this position if Tara opposed the current administration, and this person admitted, off the record, "Not a chance." Alas, whether knowingly or not, Tara has become a pawn in a power struggle.

I will close with a quote from the USATT Board of Directors Conflict of Interest Form: "Recognize that even the appearance of misconduct or impropriety can be very damaging to the reputation of the USATT and act accordingly."

2022 US National Table Tennis Championships Headed to Fort Worth
Here's the USATT news item. It'll be held July 2-7. They had 730 players when they ran the US Open there in 2019. We'll see how they do this time. 

Weekend Coaching
Last Monday I acted for two hours as a practice partner for Group 1 of our junior program. (We have four groups, with Group 1 the highest.) My stomach was queasy going in, but I did fine at the start, even had a good 20-minute session with Mu Du (13, 2286). But then the stomach got worse and worse, and by the end of the session I was almost dying. I spent the next day mostly in bed and got over it - but my stomach has been queasy all week. I lived on cream of wheat for a couple of days.

Over the weekend I helped run four more group sessions. We had a lot of focus on placement ("Go to the wide corners, not middle backhand or middle forehand!") and serve and attack ("Always follow your serve with an attack unless the receiver does something to stop it"). I also fed a lot of multiball. My arm was starting to get sore from it, so I went back to wearing the arm band that protects it.

It's become almost a tradition that we end the Novice junior group with Simon Says. A few of them are getting really good at it!!! I'm not sure what they like best, that or smacking cups! (The latter is better overall, since it's a table tennis activity - but Simon Says teaches kids to listen, pay attention, and react properly. Plus it's a fun activity that makes them want to keep coming back!)

Naresh and Jalli Make Waves in Metz, France
Here's the article by Steve Hopkins. Here's video (2:12) of Sarah's final!

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Samson Dubina

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

New from Coach Jon

New from Matt Hetherington

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

Destroy Your Opponents With Liam Pitchford’s Table Tennis Serves
Here's the video (5:14) from Table Tennis Daily.

How important is the Center of Gravity in Table Tennis?
Here's the video (9:30) from Ti Long.

Footwork in Table Tennis
Here's the video (8:05) from New Level TT. "Ma Long illustrating 3 main actions in table tennis during long rally. Split step, Ball approaching and Resetting to ready position."

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

Fundraiser for Bronze Medalist Jenson Van Emburgh to Prepare for World Championships
Here's the GoFundMe page. "Hi everyone!! I am happy to announce that I am preparing for the World Championships which will take place on November 6th in Granada, Spain. I am trying to raise funds to cover my training and travel expenses for this year leading up to the World Championships. No donation is too small and every little bit will help me be at my best at Worlds!"

National Collegiate Regional Championships - Deadlines
Here's the article from NCTTA.

New From Steve Hopkins

USATT Tournament Results and Announcements

ITTF News

Jimmy Butler Plays TT with Basketball Stars Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and Rudy Tomjanovich
Here's the video (7 min) by Jimmy Butler!

The Mayor of Dunellen Visits Lily Yip's Table Tennis Center!
Here's the video (5:36).

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

I'm Awesome at Ping Pong
Here's the shirt to prove it!

Big Orange Pong Eyes and Big Red Pong Ears
Here's the picture!

Zach King's Best Ping Pong Tricks
Here's the video (5:04) from Pongfinity!

TT Umpiring is a Dangerous Pastime
Here's the video (11 sec)!

"The Office" Table Tennis
Here's the video (73 sec) - it starts with a rather long forehand to forehand sequence, but at 55 seconds, we get "All of my heroes are table tennis players," and he starts naming real players!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week
The Most Important Technique in Table Tennis.

Coaching at the MDTTC Open and Weekend Coaching
I spent Saturday coaching players from our junior program at the MDTTC Open. It wasn't easy - I had a secret I kept from everyone. I woke up with an intense headache, probably from reading late the night before. It never went away - I spent the whole day with a jackhammer in my head. But I didn't tell anyone, and hopefully none of the kids I coached noticed anything different. I still had the headache this morning, and almost postponed the blog, but it's a bit better now. Yeah, that late-night reading habit can be a headache!!! (I might need new reading glasses - I have an eye appointment Feb. 24.) 

Here are the complete results of the tournament, care of Omnipong. There were 102 players in the tournament, run by Coach Wang Qingliang, with Liam Draper, Kevin Yang, Mu Du, James Zhang, and other kids in our junior program helping out. I coached matches for Stanley & Kurtus Hsu, Mu Du, James Zhang, Todd Klinger, and Christian Funderberg. (I mostly coach those who ask me to coach them.) I could write a book about the various tactics used. (But I'll only write about things that don't give things away.) Many, probably most players are easy to coach against - most players fit into a "textbook" case with standard strengths and weaknesses, so it's just a matter of finding them, and not overusing the best tactics so they don't get used to them. Others are harder to coach against because they adjust their tactics on the fly as you or your student changes theirs.

One interesting tactical issue that came up several times was players who start the rally as "forehand" players, where you attack the wide corners. But once the rally starts, they become more two-winged, and then you want to attack both the corners and their middle, roughly the elbow, the transition between forehand and backhand. It becomes tricky with players who switch back and forth and so the player has to constantly adjust. I used to be one of those players - if you go after my middle, I'm an all-out forehand player and you were just giving me forehands; if you attack the corners then I became a wall on both sides, since I didn't have to cover the middle. Smart players, of course, went back and forth, and then I'd crumble a bit, alas. But so do other opponents if you learn to make these adjustments on the fly.

One tactic that came up a few times was flipping short serves to the middle. Most players only practice flipping to wide angles, and so aren't comfortable or able to consistently flip to the middle. In one big match, it was the key to winning - and if the player I coached hadn't been able to do that he probably would have lost.

One tactical question came up, a common that's sometimes tricky to decide. It came up when I coached Stanley Hsu (US #1 in 13 and Under, rated 2400 even and a finalist in Open Singles here). He has a devastating close-to-table forehand loop that's almost become his trademark. But sometimes the opponent is able to make a strong counterloop from mid-court. When that happens, Stanly (and other players like him) normally keep counterlooping. But in such a rally, a simple forehand block down the line to the backhand would catch the opponent out of position as well as throw off their timing, plus it's a more consistent shot than trying to counterloop. However, there's a problem. If the player knows that once he starts looping, he's basically going to keep looping until the point is over, then there's no hesitation and the looping becomes very strong and pretty consistent. Once you add the decision of whether to loop or block, that can cause the player to hesitate and the loop becomes more erratic. So it's a judgement call on by the player and the coach on whether it's better to keep coming at them with loops or to throw in occasional forehand blocks based on the situation. It's sort of like comparing Ma Long (who would likely keep ripping forehand loops until the point is over) or Jan-Ove Waldner (who would tactically forehand block a ball if the situation called for it). In the modern game, you lean toward the continuous attack . . . but an occasional forehand block can really work wonders.

On Sunday, toward the end, we had a two-hour Novice Class, with 13 players, mostly ages 7-8. At the start, Coach Wang ran it while I took over at the tournament desk for him (with junior star Mu Du helping), but once the session started he asked if I could feed multiball, so I did for an hour while he ran the tournament. One problem that came up was two kids who kept changing their grip drastically between forehand and backhand. We worked on that.

The last half hour was "fun time." First we played the cup game, where the kids built pyramids out of paper cups, and then took turns knocking them down as I fed multiball. We finished with a round of Simon Says - I'm getting good at doing it rapid fire! My favorite tactic is to say "Simon says" something, but act out something different. So I might say "Simon says clap your hands" as I jump in the air. But the kids quickly pick up on these things. I got a lot of them when I said, "Simon says clap your hands once" and I clap them twice. I also got a bunch of them when I said, "All those who haven't missed yet move over there," and of course I didn't say "Simon says," so those who moved over lost! This video (5:58) is my inspiration.

Stanley Hsu assisted in the session - here's a Facebook picture of him helping, with me in the background. See my comment under it. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

The Spirit of Pong
I thought I'd give a plug for my fantasy table tennis novel The Spirit of Pong. It's an easy read, only 100 pages, plus features a short humorous fantasy table tennis story at the end, "Ping-Pong Ambition." You can read the first two chapters (17 pages) for FREE! Here's a Review at MH Table Tennis. Here's the Amazon description:

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 Japan's 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?

From the Amazon reviews:

  • "This lovely little book is loaded with a lot of information about the giants of the game."
  • "...if you cried during the ending scene of 'Rudy', then this book is for you."
  • "I was hijacked away by this book almost from its beginning looking forward each new paragraph."
  • "A fascinating story of an American wanting to be the best in the world of table tennis, going to China for some magical and intriguing training sessions, and how he eventually achieved his hard-earned success."
  • "This was a real page-turner, and was one of the best binges I've been on."
  • "An enjoyable and amusing read, Larry Hodges writes in a capturing style."

Here are all of my books - 17 in all, with two more coming out later this year.

Valentine's Day Table Tennis
Here's what you get if you put this headline into Google:

ITTF Hopes Squad
I wrote about this last week, but the links went up late, so I'm reposting them. Congrats to Ryan Lin, Mandy Yu, and Tashiya Piyadasa, who each made the ITTF's ten-player World Hopes Squad - ten boys and ten girls, all ages 12 and under. (Links to these articles are repeated elsewhere in the blog, under the ITTF, USATT, and Steve Hopkins/Butterfly news links.)

USATT Board Meeting This Thursday, Feb. 17
Here is the USATT Agenda and Notices page. It will be a Zoom meeting, at 8PM eastern time, and USATT members may attend, but only to watch and listen. One big change you will see in the notice - they are disabling the chat feature, and requiring any questions to be made in advance via email. Why? Because at the last board meeting (Feb. 7), several people, including me, complained about certain USATT issues. This is their way of dealing with that. Alas. There are three things on the agenda:

  • 2022 Budget
  • Proposed Amendments to Bylaws as Required Under USOPC Audit Implementation Guide
  • Proposed Amendments to USATT Board Code of Conduct and Social Media Policy (Executive Session)

Timos Week #5 - Back on Track
Here's the video (3:06) from Timo Boll. He just got over Covid.

Kanak Jha Talks Playing Timo Boll, Lin Yun Ju and Tactics Against Lefties
Here's the video (25:27) from Seth Pech, featuring USA Olympian and four-time USA Men's Singles Champion Kanak Jha.

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich
I normally avoid linking to equipment articles and reviews - I'm sponsored by Butterfly and so have a conflict of interest. But besides the below, EmRatThich reviews a series of Butterfly blades in his PingSunday blog this past week, including the Falcima, Timo Boll CAF, Timo Boll ZLF, Lin Gaoyuan ALC, Timo Boll ZLC, Viscaria, and the Timo Boll ALC. What I find interesting is he called the Timo Boll ALC "the best Butterfly blade" - and it's the blade I've used for the last eight years or so! I had a student who I coached at the National Team Trials, Tong Tong Gong, who by upset made the National Cadet Team by pulling off a series of upsets. As a bonus, he gave me the very blade he used to make the team, a Timo Boll ALC, and I fell in love with it! I still use it that very same blade, though I have a newer backup in my bag.

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Matt Hetherington

New from Samson Dubina

New from Coach Aabid
Here's his latest coaching article, and links to his previous ones and videos.

Camouflaging Your Serves
Here's the article by Vikash Sahu

How Your Grip Might Be Destroying Your Loop
Here's the video (5:37) from Coach Jon.

Defeats, Despair and Big Lessons Learnt in My Veteran Tournament Debut
Here's the article by Tom Lodziak.

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis
Lots of new videos here! (Alas, they no longer seem to date them, so it's tricky trying to figure out which ones are new.)

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from USA Table Tennis

New from Steve Hopkins

New from the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association

Indian Coach Guilty of Match Fixing, Table Tennis Federation of India Executive Committee Suspended
There seem to be some scandals going on in Indian table tennis. Here are five different reports. I tried to choose just one, but they seem to take different angles, so here are all five, which all came out on Friday. (Thanks to Ray Arditi for finding these.)

ITTF News

2021 US National Champion Men's Under 21 Champion and Men's Singles Finalist - Sharon Alguetti Highlights
Here's the video (4:10).

Adam Bobrow vs. Homeless Paralympic Champion
Here's the video (11:21) featuring Tahl Leibovitz - playing lefty!

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Freestyle Pong
Here's the video (20 sec) from Lin Yun!

Wow Clips
Here are links.

Surrender Pong
Here's the picture!

The Bad Guys in My Next Science Fiction Horror Story?
Here's the picture!

Our New Ping Pong Paddles Make Funny Sounds
Here's the video (1:31)!

Waldner's Trick Serve
Here's the video (12 sec)!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week
Go After Your Opponent's Weaknesses - But Not Too Much!

Weekend Coaching, Push Depth, and Improvised Games
I had another busy weekend, coaching in five junior group sessions. As usual, the focus for beginning to intermediate players was fundamentals, so lots of standard stroking and footwork drills. We still keep it fun - I ended two sessions with impromptu "Simon Says" competitions for the whole group.

One interesting drill, where they kept score, was done by the top group is the standard push short drill, where both players push short until one accidentally pushes long, and then the other player loops and they play out the point. One variation is a player can flip if the push goes high. (If you want to focus on pushing short and judging if it's long enough to loop, while keeping score, then you can have the rule that a player who flips must score on that one shot, i.e. a flip kill against a popped-up push.) Done properly, this is likely the most tiring drill in table tennis - you don't just stand there, you have to step in, push short, and step back so as to be ready to loop a deep push - and then instantly step back in for the short ball. This type of in and out is exhausting! The players played to 11, moving up/down tables. As usual, the "rules" for the improvised games varied, which forces the players focus on various aspects of their game.

One player in the second highest of our four groups was the highest rated in the group - and yet he kept losing in the improvised games. But when we went to regular games at the end, he went back to winning. As I pointed out to him, this meant that while his level was pretty good, the drills showed weaknesses in his game he needed to work on or he'd get stuck at a lower level.

I also had a private coaching session with Navin Kumar. We'd stopped for a few months as we were both traveling a lot, plus Covid was a concern. This was our second recent session.) He may be going to some upcoming international tournaments for Parkinson's players, in Bad Homburg, Germany and the World Parkinson's Championships in Croatia. (I may go along to coach.)

ITTF Hopes Squad
Three USA players made the ITTF Hopes Squad! (Here's the non-Facebook version.) Ryan Lin, Mandy Yu, and Tashiya Piyadasa all attended and competed at the ITTF Hopes Camp and Tournament held in Jordan in December - here's my USATT writeup. It was announced by ITTF via email two days ago, though the "official" ITTF news item on it hasn't gone up yet. This is a group of ten boys and ten girls from around the world who will be invited to attend upcoming ITTF camps and tournaments. I may go to some to coach Ryan, as I did in Jordan and in the Americas Hopes in Ecuador in October, where Ryan finished second. (The same goes for Wei Qi and Thilina Piyadasa, who coach Mandy and Tashiya, respectively, and were also in Ecuador and Jordan.) Ryan, 12, is rated 2216, and was #1 in Under 12 until he recently turned 12, and is now #2 in Under 13 - but will likely take over the #1 spot in a few weeks when current #1 Patryk Zyworonek turns 13. Ryan, Mandy, Tashiya - CONGRATS!!!

Here's the USATT News item on this, which went up on Monday night.

USATT Board Meeting TONIGHT
The board of directors for USA Table Tennis has a Zoom meeting tonight at 8PM eastern time. Full info is at the USATT Agendas and Notices page; here's the direct link to the agenda, which includes info on how to attend. All USATT members are welcome to attend, though they can only speak with permission of the chair. However, anyone can type comments in the comment section. 

New from USA Table Tennis

Possible Supreme Court Nominee Julianna Michelle Childs and Table Tennis
Who is this Julianna Michelle Childs (who usually goes by "J. Michelle Childs") and what does she have to do with table tennis? Her father (RIP) was Ralph "Pete" Childs, a top junior star in the early 1960s. A quick check of the USA Table Tennis Results History shows the following US Open Results - and yes, they kept changing the names of the various titles:

  • 1961 Midget Boys Champion
  • 1962 Boys' Singles Champion
  • 1963 Boys' Singles & Doubles Champion, Junior Doubles Champion, Junior Mixed Doubles Finalist (with Connie Sweeris nee Stace)
  • 1964 Junior Singles & Doubles (with Dell Sweeris) Champion, Junior Mixed Doubles Finalist (with Connie Sweeris nee Stace)
  • 1965 Boys Under 17 Singles and Doubles Champion

J. Michelle Childs is considered by many to be the favorite to get the nomination, and has been endorsed even by a number of Republicans from her home state of South Carolina, including Senator Lindsey Graham, as well as influential Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn, also of South Carolina. (Here's an article from NPR on the possibilities.)

5 Skills That Separate Beginner & Advanced Table Tennis Players
Here's the video (7:53) from Table Tennis Daily.

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Matt Hetherington
He's been busy!

New from Samson Dubina

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

Liu Shiwen's Upgraded Techniques
Here's the video (11 min) from PandaPong.

Full Body Serves
Here's the article by Vikash Sahu

Long or Short Multiball
Here's the video (27 sec) of a nice drill from "Punny Boy," where the coach feeds either a short or long backspin, and the player has to make a quick judgment on whether to flip or loop.

New from Coach Jon

Ask the Coach
Here are the latest questions from PingSkills.

New from Sally Moyland

Steven Moreno Europe Training
Here's the article.

Denver Just Got a Club That's Solely For Playing Ping-Pong
Here's the article in the Denver Post, featuring the new club created by former USATT CEO Gordon Kaye.

New from Steve Hopkins

'Sports Can Open Up Doors': How Winter Olympic Games Could Improve U.S.-China Ties
Here's the article and video (2:17) from USA Today that features table tennis. "In 1971 at the World Table Tennis Championship in Nagoya, Japan, a butterfly flapped its wings, then nine Americans parted China's Communist Red Curtain."

Crazy Point Between Alguetti Brothers
Here's the video (20 sec) of the point between Gal (on left) and Sharon (who even switches hands) in the final this past weekend of the Butterfly Open in Columbus, OH! (Gal, 2614, would go on to pull off the minor upset over his brother, 2657.)

Gal Alguetti Table Tennis Highlights
Here's the video (2:18)!

Jimmy Butler and the Chinese New Year
Here's the video (4:44).

WTTC Interviews:

ITTF News

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

Custom Caricature Portrait From Your Photo / Table Tennis Player
Here's where you can get yours!

You're the Ping to My Pong
Here's the perfect Valentine's t-shirt present!

Home Improvement Store Pong
Here's the video (21 sec)!

Return My Serve, Win $100
Here's the video (6:14) from Pongfinity!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Tip of the Week
Use Top Players as Models For Your Technique.

Weekend Coaching, Placement, and Receiving a Short Serve
I coached in four group sessions this weekend. I focused a lot on placement. I remember something Ricky Seemiller (eight-time US Men's Doubles Champion with brother Danny and a long-time US team member) once told me at one of my first training camps: "Amateurs practice to the middle forehand and middle backhand. Professionals practice to the wide angles." What does that mean? Many players get in the habit of practicing their shots to exactly what Ricky said - the middle of their partner's forehand or backhand sides, typically 6-12 inches inside the corner. Top players don't generally practice or play to this area - why would they make things easy for their opponents? Instead, keep the ball to the wide corners in drills, with just as many balls landing outside the corner as inside. If you do it in practice, you'll do it in matches. (A version of this will likely become a weekly Tip.)

A mom and her son (about 1750, just turned 13) had a question for me. He had been struggling in practice matches against a player who would serve short to the middle, he'd push it back long to the backhand, and no matter how good the push was, the opponent would step around and forehand loop it. The problem, of course, was that while the push was "good," it was predictable and very loopable. I went over the options with them. Here are ways to improve and vary the push:

  • Make sure any long pushes went very wide to the corners so opponent has to move more.
  • Push quicker off the bounce so as to rush the opponent.
  • Load up the backspin.
  • Long pushes should go as long as possible, to jam the opponent.
  • Aim to the backhand and at the last second quick push to the wide forehand.
  • Aim to the wide forehand and at the last second quick push to the wide backhand.
  • Learn to push the serve back short, so that (given the chance) it would bounce twice, and opponent couldn't loop it.
  • Learn to flip the serve, to the wide backhand, wide forehand, and middle (opponent's elbow).

Omnipong and the US Open & Nationals
I keep hearing rumors about whether or not USATT will continue to use this software at the US Open or Nationals. I think some people might be misunderstanding the scheduling lessons from the last three US Opens and Nationals, where things didn't go well. The problem isn't primarily what's in the current software, which I've used to run about a hundred tournaments - the software works great at that level. (There are a few small issues that would streamline the software, but those are smaller issues.) The problem is the lack of scheduling software or procedures to recover when an event falls behind. Without that, in a tournament with 700 players and dozens of events, it often cascades into other events, and pretty quickly everything falls behind. So what's needed are some additions to the software or procedures. Switching to another software that also lacks this scheduling software or procedures doesn't help; it's just reshuffling the chairs on the Titanic and hoping things magically improve. The reality is the best answer is probably to simply work out procedures for how to deal with these issues so they don't cascade. They were able to do this for nearly every US Open and Nationals going back to the time I started in 1976 (we'll ignore the 1990 and 1994 US Open disasters), since those running those tournaments understood and dealt with the problem in advance.

Table Tennis and Science Fiction - Stop Conflicting!!!
As readers here know, I live in two worlds, the worlds of table tennis and science fiction, which I also write professionally. Last year the World Science Fiction Convention was held 30 minutes from my house, in Washington DC - but at the same time as the US Open Table Tennis Championships in Las Vegas!!! Since I'm committed to coaching our kids at these big tournaments (as well as playing for my own titles - I won Hardbat Doubles for the 14th time and made the final of Hardbat Singles, which I've won twice before) I had to miss the World SF Convention. (And as I always remind people, I'm primarily a sponge player and coach, but play hardbat on the side.)

Well, they've done it again! The 2022 World Science Fiction Convention is in Chicago, Sept. 1-5 - which coincides with the 2022 Global Table Tennis Championships in Orlando, FL, Sept. 1-4!!! Since I'll be coaching at the latter, I'll have to miss another World SF Convention. Meanwhile, they've also scheduled the 2022 Cary Cup Championships in Cary, NC, March 17-20, with the 2022 St. Joseph Valley Open in in South Bend, IN, March 19-20. AAAAAHHHHH! Most of our kids go to the Cary Cup every year, which is driving distance (4.5 hours), while we'd have to fly to Indiana, a nine-hour drive. So I guess it'll be Cary Cup. Alas. (One strange thing - the Cary Cup has $10,000 in prize money and is played in a huge facility with dozens of tables. And yet it's listed as a USATT zero-star tournament, both on the entry form and info, and on the USATT tournament listing! It really should be 4-star, of course, but who knows what's going on.)

Want to Work for Paddle Palace?
Here are two help wanted notices they just put out.

Inside Truls Möregårdh's Run to the World Championship Finals: Interview with Coach Stellan Bengtsson
Here's the interview from Edges and Nets.

Training with Stellan Bengtsson
Here's the video (2:28) from Victor Moraga Table Tennis. If you aren't in awe as you watch Stellan rally or feed multiball, you don't know table tennis history. (He's the 1971 Men's Singles World Champion from Sweden and one of the most celebrated coaches in the world. He now coaches in San Diego.)

Butterfly Training Tips

New from Samson Dubina

Upgrade Your Game The Backhand Flip
Here's the video (15:16) from Seth Pech.

Fan Zhendong's Reverse Serve and Strategy
Here's the video (8:43) from Ti Long.

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich

Gym Free Home Workout for Table Tennis
Here's the video (9:21) from Kevin Finn from Peak Performance Table Tennis.

The Most Basic Ping Pong Serve for New Beginners or Recreational Players
Here's the video (1:42) from Matt Hetherington.

New from Coach Jon

New from the Performance Biomechanics Academy Table Tennis

Ask the Coach
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New from Steve Hopkins

USATT News

How China’s Ping-Pong Prowess Explains Its Economy
Here's the article by Tom Orlik at Bloomberg.com. Tom is a USATT member with a 2055 rating, and plays at my club, MDTTC. His daughter, Josephine, is part of the MDTTC junior program that I coach at. (Somehow I missed this article when it first came out.)

8 Minutes of Backhand Fireworks from Lin Gaoyuan
Here's the video (8:08) from Street TT.

Jimmy Butler Takes on the 2021 US Open Women's Doubles Champions
Here's the video (4 min). Nikki Deng also made the final of Women's Singles while teaming up with Amber Lin to win Women's Doubles. Both attend Texas Wesleyan.

New from the Malong Fanmade Channel
Lots of new videos here.

FastPong Featured on BBC
Here's the video (3:33).

Bob The Ping Pong Hitman Funniest Match
Here's the video (2:59)!

Toddler on Table Pong
Here's the video (18 sec)!

Funny Table Tennis Fails
Here's the video (7 sec)! Yes, that's former world #1 Xu Xin of China looking like an acrobatic basement player.

Ping-Pong Funny Moment
Here's the video (26 sec) from Matt Hetherington (far side). US #1 13-year-old Stanley Hsu's reaction is hilarious!

Trick Shots
Here's the video (24 sec)!

Adam vs. USA Top Chopper
Here's the video (14:28) from Adam Bobrow. The chopper is the entertaining Kazuyuki "Kaz" Yokoyama, currently rated 2298 but once as high as 2563.

Cat Pong
Here's the video (9 sec) - this cat's pretty good! It's been a while since I've linked to a cat table tennis video, but this one seems a new one.

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