Tip of the Week
What Is a Good Serve? 

If I Won the Lottery
People are sometimes surprised that I occasionally buy lottery tickets. I know the odds, and they know I know the odds, and I'm a little embarrassed because they know I know they know I know the odds, and so why do I do such a silly thing?

It's all for the good of table tennis.

First, let me be up front that I don't believe in supernatural beings, so the odds of my winning the jackpot are mathematically something like a really, Really, REALLY big number to one. (To be exact, 292,201,338 to 1.) In fact, the odds are so small that I have a better chance of winning if I'm wrong, and that there are supernatural beings out there, such as some benign God who loves table tennis, and he or she decides to award me the winning lottery ticket because, well, I'll be good and use some of the $900 million ($558 million cash value, about $2.58 after taxes) to develop table tennis.

But let's be real. I don't buy lottery tickets (occasionally) because I objectively think I have a good chance of winning. I buy them for the excitement knowing there's a chance I might, and so I can dream. You know, like everyone else who buys one?

You have to remember that I'm not only a table tennis coach & writer (and 246 other table tennis things), but a science fiction & fantasy writer, which means I have a vivid imagination – which means I can imagine a LOT of things to do with that $558 million or so. Training centers!!! Professional Leagues!!! TT on TV!!! And of course, highly-paid umpires who enforce the hidden serve rule!!!

So you better believe I have it all planned out. I'm writing this on Saturday night - what else does one do on a Saturday night? – with the winning numbers to be announced in just a few minutes. I'm dreaming really hard while I can, even planning out which table tennis people I'll hire, and which ones have ever snubbed me in any way might not be right for the job. (Normally I do my blog on the morning I put it up, but with USATT Historian Tim Boggan here, we're starting at like 6AM now every morning, so I'm doing the blog early.)

And the numbers are….

Drat. There is no benign God who loves table tennis.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Days 4-6
Help! If you are reading this, I am a prisoner in my own office. If I let up for a moment, slave-driver Tim Boggan has taken to boxing my ears with simultaneous lefty and right forehand smacks to the side of my head. I'm sure this is against the Geneva Convention and the International Rules of War. Meanwhile, over the weekend we did another 131 pages, and are through Chapter 14 of 27. Also, an historic event occurred on Sunday: there are no graphics on page 191. NONE!!! Just a page of text. Tim must have blinked.

Day 1: Tue, Jan. 5: Pages 1-20 (plus covers, so 22 pages total), 42 graphics
Day 2: Wed, Jan. 6: Pages 21-45, 25 pages, 131 graphics
Day 3: Pages 46-85, 40 pages, 126 graphics
Day 4: Pages 86-132, 47 pages, 138 graphics
Day 5: Pages 133-175, 43 pages, 141 graphics
Day 6: Pages 176-216, 41 pages, 149 graphics
TOTALS: 218 pages, 727 graphics, 3.33 graphics per page

Table Tennis Punch Serve - Like a Boss! 
Here's the new coaching video (2:24) by Brett Clarke.

A Little Motivation From Xavier Thérien
Here's the new article from the Canadian star.

Han Xiao Selected as Athlete Services Coordinator for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio
Here's the USATT article.

USATT News Items
There are a number of new ones – so why not browse over them?

USATT Hall of Fame Profiles
Five people were inducted into the USATT Hall of Fame in December. Three already are profiled online (by Tim Boggan) in the USATT Hall of Fame: Eric Owens, Wang Chen and Dean Johnson. Coming up soon – Tahl Leibovitz Coach and Jack Huang. Here's video (34:17) of the Eric Owens induction.

Dimitrij Ovtcharov Gets German Sportsman of the Year
Here's the article.

Club Table Tennis in Japan
Here's the new article from Coach Jon.

World Champion Richard Bergmann and Korean #1 Player Lee Dal Joon
Here's the picture and short article. D-J Lee would soon move to the U.S. and win the U.S. Open six straight times, 1968-73. Johnny Leach of England was the 1949 and 1951 World Men's Singles Champion. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Table Tennis School - Forehand and Backhand Topspin
Here's the video (40:09).

Ma Long vs Fan Zhendong (Chinese Trials 2016)
Here's the video (3:21).

Zhang Jike vs Xu Xin (Chinese Trials 2016)
Here's the video ().

The ITTF's Top 5 Moments of 2015
Here's the video (3:23).

Tribute to England's Paul Drinkhall
Here's the video (2:31) featuring the English #2 and world #70 (former #31).

Great Animation Gifs
Here's a thread at MyTableTennis.com with lots of nice ones.

Trump Talks Table Tennis
Here's the hilarious new video (1:47) from Larry Bavly!

Non-Table Tennis: Reading Recommendations from World Weaver Press, and the Odyssey Writing Workshop
Here's my weekly Science Fiction & Fantasy blog!

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Three Biggest Problems in USA Table Tennis
While there are many problems in our sport, I believe the following are the three biggest ones currently faced by USA Table Tennis.

• Grow the Sport. USATT membership is in the 9000 range, just as we were in the 1990s, though I hear we may be approaching 10,000 or so. Alas, at the various "Strategic Development" meetings we've had over the years we've had a good name for our membership totals: they are a "round-off error" for what membership should be in a country this size, which should be in the hundreds of thousands. (How can all those little countries in Europe have memberships that dwarf ours??? Let's not even talk about Asia.) I believe when membership grows, many of our other problems will be resolved, such as money problems (from membership fees), turning the U.S. Open and/or Nationals into premier events (more players and money available), and so on.

  How do we fix this? It comes down to having a product that the masses will join in. In Europe, that means lots and lots of regional team leagues. In the U.S., it'll likely be the same, whether it's team or singles leagues. USATT's historic focus on tournaments simply hasn't worked, and neither has the culture at the club level of "winner stay on." When the focus is on leagues – as it is in nearly every successful sport all over the U.S. and the world – membership will begin a long and steady increase. But it's going to be a long and slow process creating such an infrastructure. Here are the plans for regional team leagues; already there has been interest in a number of new regions, as I've blogged about previously.

• Develop a Professional Class. There is no such group of players in the U.S., though there are players who rely on sponsors to eke out an existence. Nearly all high-level players in the U.S. have to make a living separately, whether by coaching or an outside non-table tennis job. And without such a professional class, and a corresponding professional league or circuit, there is little prospect for up-and-coming players to become professionals in this country, and even less for the masses to take the sport seriously as the Olympic sport that it is.

  How do we fix this? I've been in on discussions on this; I think 2016 is the year we take the first step. More on this later. Ultimately we need to both develop U.S. players and develop some sort of professional league or circuit where they can make a living, and there are plans for both right now. (I will be able to blog about at least one of them next week.)

• Change the Culture of Cheating. I've blogged about this many times. We're so used to elite players openly breaking the rules by illegally hiding their serves that it's barely taken seriously – because we are used to it and practically expect it. But it's a growing scandal that's going to erupt at some point. There are just too many players who play by the rules who are getting cheated out of national titles and teams by players who serve illegally (i.e. cheat), and when they or their coaches complain about opponent who openly cheat them out of matches, the complaints aren't taken seriously with any action. Because of this culture of cheating, most umpires will not fault elite players for illegally hiding their serve, often arguing that they aren't sure that the ball is hidden, even though the rules say that they should call serves if they are not "sure" the serve is legal, and that it is the responsibility of the player to serve so the umpire can see that the serve is legal.

  For the second year in a row, nearly every major event at the Nationals was decided by hidden serves, and by umpires not calling them. I blogged about this on Dec. 28.

  I hope this problem is addressed before it blows up in our faces. It's not just USATT that's facing problems with this scandal; think about all the elite kids who train and train, and then discover they can't compete with their rivals unless they too openly cheat. There are a lot of frustrating discussions on this all over the country between these kids, their parents, and their coaches. As I've blogged before, the problem has escalated dramatically the past year, where such illegal serving has spread to nearly all our top cadet players, few of whom like doing it, but feel they have little choice, since umpires are allowing their opponents to do it.

  How do we fix this? Before the next major USATT tournament (Open or Nationals), let the players know well in advance that the service rules will be enforced, including the rules against hiding the serve. The tournament referee must then let the umpires know in advance that the service rules must be enforced, that the players have been warned, and that if they all enforce the rules, then they won't be stuck as the only ones doing so, as often happens right now. If the tournament referee is not willing to do this, then he should not be the referee.

  The ITTF meets at the next Worlds, starting at the end of February. There will be serious discussions of this problem there – they are quite aware of it, and I've been in discussions with several. I'm hoping they will address this issue either by a new emphasis on enforcing the rules, changing the rules to make them easier to enforce, or (as a last but unfortunate straw) simply changing the rules to allow hidden serves, since that will at least level the playing field for those who do not cheat and for those who feel humiliated because they are forced to do so to compete fairly. 

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Day Three
Yesterday Tim Boggan and I did pages 46-86 (41 pages), which puts us about halfway through chapter 5 of the 27 chapters planned. Along the way I cleaned up and placed another 127 graphics, about 3.1 per page. So far we've done 88 pages (including the covers), with exactly 299 graphics. Below are the running totals. The latest chapter covers lots of regional tournaments. The last photo I placed yesterday? A picture of future USATT president Sheri Soderberg Pittman, holding the second place Under 1300 trophy she won at the Butterfly Open on July 15, 1989, in Wilson, NC – she lost the final to Brent Galloway, who would also win Under 1500 – ringer!

Day 1: Pages 1-20 (plus covers, so 22 pages total), 42 graphics
Day 2: Pages 21-45, 25 pages, 131 graphics
Day 3: Pages 46-85, 40 pages, 126 graphics
TOTALS: 87 pages, 299 graphics, 3.44 graphics per page

Judith Kaye RIP
On Wednesday night, Judith Kaye, 77, longtime New York State Chief Justice and mother of USATT CEO Gordon Kaye, passed away. I never realized just how an illustrious career she had until I read the below. Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered that flags on all state government buildings be flown at half-mast today (Jan. 8).

• New York Times
• New York Daily News
• Statement from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

Table Tennis on FOX News in Greensboro, NC
Here's the video (4 min) from Wednesday, with 3-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion Timothy Wang and USATT CEO Gordon Kaye. They talked about the upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials and numerous other topics.

Message from President, Successful Year Completed, More Successful Year Ahead
Here's the message from ITTF President Thomas Weikert.

Quadri Gets Colourful Reception in U.S
Here's the article.

Squad Nails the Science of Table Tennis
Here's the article.

USA Nationals Pictures from Nick Beymer Photographer
Here's the photo page.

Perfect 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships About to be Drawn
Here's the ITTF press release.

Superb Forehand by Zhang Jike in the 2016 China Trials!
Here's the video (13 sec).

International Table Tennis
Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.

MDTTC is an Animal House
Yesterday the Maryland Table Tennis Center welcomed our newest member, Barry the Bear. He joins Froggy the Frog (don't call him a toad!) and Don Iguana as the non-human members of the club - we welcome players of all species at our club. (Barry is the property or sibling – I'm not sure which – of Willie Shi. The photo is care of Stefano, Giovanni, Alessandro, and Adriano Ratti.)

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How to Wake Up a Student
I had a one-hour session yesterday with a kid who was half asleep. So what does one do when a student (or yourself) is half asleep, and you need to wake him up? I have my own proven method, which I use both on students and on myself – such as every morning when I have to get up early to work with Tim Boggan on his new volume. (See next segment.) So what is my secret?

You splash water on your face. Really, it works! I do it every morning when I first get up, and sometimes in the afternoon if I'm feeling sleepy. When I have students who are sleepy – and kids are always either sleepy or hyperactive, there is no in between – I have them do so as well. It really works! (Usually. Oh, and splashing water on face to wake up ©2016 by Larry Hodges. If you do it, you owe me $1.)

There are other tricks you can do as well to wake yourself up. One simple way is to simply do a little shadow-stroking. Another is to bounce up and down or from one leg to the other before going out to play or between points – it really wakes the body up.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Day Two
Tim Boggan continues to hold me captive in my office, forcing me to fix up photos and layout pages for his new volume. He's a merciless slave driver who keeps me in chains and smacks me with electrified ping-pong balls if I slow down. If anyone gets this note, please contact Donald Trump so he can tweet bad things about Tim, and Tim will feel remorse and go away.

Remember how I wrote we'd be working from 7AM-2:30PM? Hah! For unknown reasons, I dragged myself out of bed yesterday at 5AM (or did Tim drag me out kicking and screaming?), and we started at 5:30AM, and went to 2:30PM, when I left to coach. He allowed me a thirty-second lunch break of moldy bread and water that smelled like old ping-pong shoes.

The night before I hadn't finished my own work until 11:30PM, and shortly after that I received a call from a USATT person on a huge issue (more on that next week), which we discussed for over an hour. When I finally got to bed it was 1AM. Let's see, go to bed at 1AM, get up at 5AM . . . I think there's something wrong with this, but I'm too tired to figure it out. And so I simply splashed water on my face every couple of hours all day, and lived on Mountain Dew. (I normally limit myself to one 7.5oz can per day, but until we're done with the book, I'm lifting that limit.)

We did chapters 3 & 4 and the first five pages of chapter 5, 45 pages in all, and 131 graphics according to my quick count. The volume starts off in the spring of 1989 and will go through 1990. We've already had some hints about the upcoming landmark three-way 1990 USATT presidential election (where challenger Dan Seemiller will easily win over incumbent Mel Eisner, who finished third, with George Brathwaite finishing second), lots of tournaments, including the 1989 U.S. Open, and later we'll get to the infamous 1990 U.S. Open ("Tournament of Champions"), run under Murphy's Law. Want to read more? Order a copy when it's available in a few weeks! (Tim made me to write that – he threatened to stuff speed glue in my nose if I didn't.)

I left at 2:30, and coached (plus a 30-minute tutoring session on writing) until 7PM. When I got home, I had over 100 emails, including about 20 that needed action or responses. So while Tim snores away (I think he keeps a rifle under the blanket, or is it a flamethrower?), I'm working away on USATT, MDTTC, and SF matters. He'll be up at 4AM, and I just hope I'm in bed before that.

USATT Insider
Here's the latest issue, which came out yesterday.

Interview with Dimitrij Ovtcharov
Here's the interview.

AITTA Wins 2015 North American Teams Table Tennis Championships
Here's the article. It's a bit old, since the tournament took place the last weekend of November, but better late than never! It includes lots of pictures.

College Table Tennis News

• University of North Texas Faces Denton High Table Tennis Team
• British Columbia Thunderbirds Win Fall Table Tennis Tournament

That Time Rockstar Made a Table Tennis Game
Here's the article. "When the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 arrived, people expected open world experts Rockstar Games to come blaring out of the gate with something truly next-gen. What they got was something surprising: a table tennis game. Yes, that actually happened."

Ma Long vs Xu Xin (Chinese Trials 2016)
Here's the video (3:42).

Zhang Jike vs Lin Gaoyuan (Chinese Trials 2016)
Here's the video (3:58).

Ding Ning Tribute 2015
Here's the video (3:04).

Off the Table - Feng Tianwei
Here's the video (6:05).

Any Up For . . . Um . . a Little Quidditch Pong???
Here's the article and pictures. "Quidditch Pong Is The Most Magical Option In Drinking Games." (Dang, I'm a non-drinker…)

Ball and Racket Confusion
Here's the picture. (Here's the non-Facebook version.) "You need to hit the ball with the bat not the other way around."

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A Blast from the Past
Yesterday while I was coaching, an elderly man was practicing on an adjacent table on the robot. He had some questions for me, and it soon became an interesting discussion, mostly taking place while the two kids I was doing multiball with were picking up balls. He was obviously once an experienced player, with decent technique and could hit regular forehands and backhands.

The man looked perhaps 65, and was Asian, but spoke perfect, unaccented English – he likely grew up in the U.S. He said that this was the first time he'd played in 40 years, and that he'd last played in 1976. This was ironic, since I started playing in 1976, and so was now in my 40th year of playing!

The first thing he'd noticed when he came in was that everyone had black and red surfaces on their racket, which surprised him. Back when he played, everyone had the same color on both sides. I explained the two-color rule of 1983, and about how in the years just prior to that the game was dominated by players with combination rackets who flipped and used deception to force misses and easy pop-ups. He found this interesting, yet difficult to understand. He wondered why players didn't just read the spin from the ball.

He also said that the ball seemed a bit big, and asked if these were standard sizes. (I think he said he had an old 38mm ball at home.) I explained how the ball had gone from 38mm to 40mm in the early 2000s, and explained why, which led to a discussion of modern surfaces. He was clearly surprised at the number and bounciness of modern surfaces such as Tenergy. He also wondered if the bigger ball would spin as well.

I found a Butterfly plastic ball mixed in with the celluloid balls he was using on the robot. I pulled it out and explained why. He was surprised we were switching away from celluloid, so I explained the whole controversy about the celluloid balls being more flammable, etc., and how they played differently. I bounced a celluloid and a plastic ball on the table so he could hear the sound difference – and we both agreed the plastic ones sounded funny. (And this for me was after using them at least semi-regularly for a year.)

He'd never seen multiball training before – it was very rare in the U.S. back in his day – and so he watched with interest as I ran the two junior players through a series of stroking and footwork drills. These days, multiball at a training center is like the sun rising in the morning.

He also was quite surprised games were to 11!

I wish I'd asked him more questions, such as about the players he remembered from back in 1976, but I was a bit busy working with two students. But it was certainly a blast from the past to see our sport now through the eyes of one who last saw it 40 years ago.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Day One
As noted in my blog yesterday, USATT Historian Tim Boggan moved in with me yesterday morning to work on his History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, which covers 1989-90. I had to start by scanning and fixing up a bunch of photos that Mal Anderson hadn't already scanned for us, and then we got to work. But since he didn't arrive until 9:30AM, and I had to leave to coach at 2:30, it was a shorter work day than will be the norm. We did the front and back cover (the latter was complicated), the title page, author page, dedication page, acknowledgements page, chapter 1, and the first page of chapter 2 – which got us to page 20. Including the front and back covers, we did 22 pages, with 42 graphics. It'll like be 400-450 pages long, so we have a long way to go.

Simply Compete Launch (for USATT Members)
Here's the USATT article. In Simply Compete you can:

• Manage your personal information
• Renew your membership
• View your tournament and rating history
• View your friend’s and family’s tournament and rating history
• Find and register for tournaments
• Find and register for leagues
• View your rating progression chart
• Upload a picture to your profile
• Use Google Maps to find clubs
• Share your tournament results on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and more!

Simply Compete is a one-stop shop for clubs as well!

• Manage club information
• Renew club affiliations
• Sanction tournaments
• Run tournament registration
• Submit tournament results
• Run Leagues
• Post to social media

Timo Boll: Coaches Are Crucial
Here's the interview in fifa.com from the German star, world #7 last month and former world #1. Excerpt – and probably the first part applies to beginners of all ages, though he's talking about future stars, who have to start very young: "Coaches are unbelievably important during that first phase between the ages of eight and 18, as that’s when techniques are honed and weaknesses are ironed out in training. After that, improvement is a matter of fine margins that aren’t immediately apparent, and coaches can often spot these from the outside. That’s why it helps if the coaches themselves played at a high level previously, because they know what it’s like to be in your position."

Table Tennis School - Random Topspin
Here's the video (43:25).

USATT Athletes of the Month: Yijun Feng and Jiaqi Zheng
Here's the USATT article.

Jean-Michel Saive Meets with King Philippe
Here's the ITTF article on former world #1 Saive meeting with the Belgium king. (The year is 2016 . . . and we still have kings??? Yes, I know, there are lots of them still.)

Rackets as Works of Art to Raise Cash for Children
Here's the article from the London Mirror, headlined, "Incredible table tennis bats are truly a work of art as designers raise cash for BBC Children in Need."

93-Year-Old Has Eyes on Olympics
Here's the video (1:26) from NBC News featuring Bill Guilfoil. "For many retirees a short stroll is enough to get their blood pumping, but for Bill Guilfoil, a walk in the park is exactly that. That's why the 93-year-old plays daily rounds of table tennis. In February, he will leave behind the green courts at Overland Park Racquet Club in Kansas City for Greensboro, North Carolina where he'll try to qualify for the 2016 summer Olympics in Brazil."

Does China Have (Singing) Talent?
Here's the USATT feature which links to three videos of Chinese team members singing, including the one I linked to yesterday.

Ma Long - Visions of Destiny
Here's the video (3:47) featuring the reigning world champion and world #1.

Popeye vs. Bluto
Here's the cartoon!

Non-Table Tennis - Reading Recommendations from World Weaver Press Editors and Authors
Here's the article, which includes a segment from me! (See third item.)

Non-Table Tennis – SF Blog on More Pings and Pongs
Here's the blog entry on the new anthology of my best science fiction & fantasy stories, and a little on writing workshops!

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Tim Boggan Arrives
Yes, it's that time of year again – USATT Historian Tim will be knocking on my door at precisely 9:30AM (after driving 4-5 hours down from New York to Maryland), and then we start work on Volume 17 (!) of his History of U.S. Table Tennis. More specifically, I begin my work, as Tim's already done most of his – the writing and planning. Mal Anderson has also done his part – he's the primary photographer, and has scanned probably 1000 photos for the volume, and sent them to me in a CD I received this morning.

Who are Tim and Mal, you ask? They are both members of the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame (as am I), so we're practically a history of the game, the three of us. (But I'm only 55! They are about 25-30 years older than me.) You can read about all of us in our profiles there.

My job over the next two weeks, as I've done with the previous volumes (usually once per year), is to fix up the photos (many of which are vintage ones or in bad shape – lots of work in Photoshop), and then lay out the pages (text and photos). Tim comes in with notes on where each photo goes, and he's pretty particular about it – he'll be spending the next two weeks looking over my shoulder and saying various versions, of, "No, you fool, the photo goes there!"

It's a pretty big job. The last volume was 427 pages with 1327 graphics. I had to fix up all 1327 graphics, lay the text on the page, put the graphics in place (Tim often has elaborate plans, and often we make last-minute time-consuming changes), flow text properly, type in the caption that Tim dictates to me, put in the "Photo by [somebody]" (most of the time it's Mal Anderson), and so on. There are also a bunch of technical things that have to be done, and then prepress work, and then creating the ad for the volume, updating the web page (which I created and maintain for him), etc. It'll take 10-14 days of work.

We typically start at 7AM each day and go to 2:30 PM, which is when I have to leave to coach (MDTTC afterschool program, other group coaching, and private coaching). On weekends we work around my coaching schedule – I'm mostly free Saturday, with a busy Sunday schedule.

It means all my normal work is squeezed into nighttime, after I return from coaching, typically around 7-9PM. For the next two weeks that's when I'll have to do the blog, the Tips of the Week, my USATT work, and all the other stuff that comes up every day. Plus I've got a book launch for my own science fiction novel coming later this month, so I've got to do a bunch of publicity work for that.

So if anyone, and I mean ANYONE, sends me something they need me to do, or asks me to help them with something, or even thinks about doing this, here's my answer.

The 50-Foot Serve
Here's video of me doing it in an exhibition last year with Stefano Ratti at the Smash TTC. (The link should take you to 18:07 in the video.) I do this all the time, not just in exhibitions, but during breaks at MDTTC. It's a fun trick! If you want, go to the beginning of the video and see the entire exhibition, where I pull out all sorts of tricks.

Dean Johnson Inducted Into USATT Hall of Fame
Here's the ITTF article.

Maryland Table Tennis Center January Newsletter
Here's the new issue. (I'm the editor/writer.)

Ma Long & Liu Shiwen End 2015 as World Number Ones
Here's the ITTF press release.

Yunhao (Kaden) Xu – Interview
Here's the USATT interview by Rahul Acharya.

Qualification System for the Rio Olympic Games
Here's the info from USATT.

We're #10!
Here's the article, "17 sports to try in 2016 that are way more fun than the gym."

Here's a Nice 53-shot Rally
Here's the video (54 sec).

Table Tennis is for Everyone
Here's the new video (60 sec). Pretty nice!

Great Table Tennis Drawing
Here's the picture!

Penguin Pong!
This is in honor of a humorous story I recently sold to Galaxy's Edge, about two penguins who have to make the trip from Antarctica to the Middle East to get on Noah's Ark.

• Penguin Plays Table Tennis (40 sec)
• Penguin Plays Table Tennis (repeating gif version)
• Polar Bear (Bernard) vs. Penguin (3:35)
• Penguin Igloo Basement Pong (cartoon)
• Penguin Big Paddle Pong (cartoon)
• Sharp-Nosed Penguin Pong (cartoon)
• Penguins Playing Pong 1
• Penguins Playing Pong 2
• Fat Penguin Pong Player
• HaiFu Penguin Long Pips
• Homemade Penguin Ping-Pong Balls
• Penguin Solo Pong
• Ping-Pong Penguin
• Ping and Pong the Penguins

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Tip of the Week
Backhand Serve Deception with the Elbow.

Luck or Skill?
I saw this video recently (16 sec, including slo-mo replay) and was struck what a perfect example of skill that looks like luck. Now when I say "skill," I don't mean natural talent; I mean learned skill. The player on the near side has an easy put-away, and creams the ball – but the opponent makes a seemingly "lucky" block return. He doesn't just block back a winner; he practically counter-smashes, and makes it look effortless and easy. So . . . was he just lucky?

No, it was almost all skill from years of training. Look at the body position of the player on the near side as he sets up to smash - he's set up to go crosscourt, and the opponent reflexively sees this. The near-side player could change directions at the last second, but doesn't, and so he's predictable. It would have been an easy winner to the wide forehand or middle. Of course with a shot like that, the near-side player was likely taking the long diagonal for safety as he didn't expect the opponent to react so quickly.

But the opponent didn't really react quickly so much as he reacted correctly. He couldn't cover the entire table, and so he read the opponent's body stance to mean he was going crosscourt. He was in a perfect ready position, and so ready to move quickly in either direction, and so as the opponent smashed, he was already moving into position for the shot. At that point, at the higher levels, making such a return not only wasn't lucky, but it would have been an unforced error if the player hadn't make the block, since he was right there and waiting. (Okay, most top players wouldn't have practically backhand counter-smashed as this player did, but they would have usually made the return.)

What can you learn from this? First, never give up on a point. There are only so many places the opponent can go, and even if you can't cover all of them, you can cover some of them. Second, after every shot your first priority is to get into a ready position for the next shot, where you are ready to pounce on any return. And third, many or most players telegraph the direction of their shot well before contact – and so even smashes become returnable, if you learn to read the signs that show where the opponent is smashing. (Hint – watch the shoulders!)

For more examples of such "reflex" blocking, see the segment below on Waldner's blocking.

The Table Tennis Player's Guide to Health and Fitness
Here's the new online book (free!), 99 pages. I haven't read it, but it's more on sports nutrition than on strictly table tennis, so I'm not really an expert on this. The opening line is nice: "Table tennis is the greatest sport in the world." Later it says, "This guide will provide you with the knowledge and tools necessary to optimize your training and nutrition for table tennis."

Fix It or Trash It? Learn to Problem-Solve During Matches
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

USATT News
They have a slew of new articles, so I'll just give the link, and let you browse!

ITTF Updates – Plastic Ball Still Has Problems
Here's the article.

That Other Tenergy
Here's the new article from Coach Jon. I use Tenergy 05 2.1 black on the forehand, Tenergy 25 2.1 red on the backhand.

Tom's Table Tennis Newsletter
Here it is, from Coach Tom Lodziak in the UK.

Super Slow Motion of Zhang Jike's Attack!
Here's the video (21 sec).

The Legend Waldner King Block and Speed of Reaction
Here's the video (4:02). Watch how he picks opponents apart with precisely placed and deceptive blocks.

Cory Eider Leads Physical Training
Here's the video (1:19).

Harimoto Tomokazu - the New Prodigy of Table Tennis
Here's the new video (5:26).

Lob of the Year?
Here's the video (25 sec, including slo-mo replay). Of course, we're only four days in, but this might top anything from last year as well.

Chinese National Men's Table Tennis Team Sings
Here's the video (2:57) of Wang Hao, Wang Liqin, Ma Lin, and Ma Long.

Tricks & Top Shots: TTS Award Winners Oct-Dec
Here's the article and videos!

Jumping a Ping-Pong Table – Almost!
Here's the video (5 sec) – don't try this at home at your club!

Non-Table Tennis - More Pings and Pongs
My new anthology of short stories is out! More Pings and Pongs includes the 25 best science fiction & fantasy stories I've sold since my previous anthology, Pings and Pongs in 2012. I blogged about it this morning in my science fiction & fantasy blog. "From God getting Earth critiqued in a workshop, to a dragon landing on the U.S. Capitol, from a dead kid on a high school track team battling the mile mafia, to the first ten U.S. presidents battling each other and alien vacationers on an alien computer, there’s something for everyone!" Alas, no table tennis. The last month has been pretty good for me on the science fiction & fantasy writing front – I sold two stories to Galaxy's Edge, one of the top paying markets; I have three other stories that are "finalists" at other markets; my novel "Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions" comes out at the end of this month; and of course More Pings and Pongs!

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Happy New Year!
Tomorrow is New Year's Day – and I'm spending the day in bed reading. Happy New Year, and see you next Monday!

2016 USATT Resolutions

1. State Championships in all 50 states. Realistically, this isn't going to happen in 2016, but if we strive for 50, I'll likely get a lot more than if I strive for less. In 2015 we had 13 states with state championships, plus another 16 with state games. Since we started the State Championships Initiative, we've gotten nine new states planning state championships in 2016 - CA, DC, IL, MA, MD, NV, NY, SC, and TN. (For this, I'm counting DC as a state.)
2. Double the Number of Regional Team Leagues. Since we started the Regional Team League Initiative, and created a USATT League Page, we've had interest in such leagues in a number of regions, including Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Long Island. There are currently seven regional team leagues that I know of (see listing from Regional Team League Initiative), so the goal is 14. We might not get that, but we'll strive for it. Of equal importance is growing the current leagues.
3. Get USATT to Recruit and Train Professional Coaches. I've blogged about this many times, such as here. It's not enough to just hold courses where we teach coaches how to coach. We need to recruit and train professional coaches, and teach them how to set up and run programs, and make a living as a professional coach. I'm not sure yet if this will be a 2016 or 2017 initiative, but it has to start sometime.
4. Get Started on a U.S. Professional League or Circuit. I've discussed this issue with the USATT CEO, and we expect to begin work on this sometime this year.
5. Solve the Hidden Serve Problem. It's a huge problem, though many from USATT are still blind to the serious cheating in our sport. We have to either get umpires and referees to enforce the rules as they are written (meaning calling any serve that they are not "sure" are legal, as the rules require), change the rules so they are more easily enforced, or (as a last, unhappy step) simply allow hidden serves again, though that would be a step backward. Until we resolve this problem, most of our national titles will be decided by umpires allowing top players to cheat, where we reward the cheaters and cheat the honest ones.

2016 Personal New Year's Resolutions

1. Get weight to 170 pounds, and then keep it under 172. From Oct. 1 to Dec. 12 I went from 196 to 179. I was 182 when I returned Dec. 26, and have managed to drop back to 180 since.
2. Write sequel to "Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions." The SF novel comes out at the end of January. (Here's where I blogged about it, and the initial press release on it; another should be coming out soon, along with the cover. It has lots of table tennis!) I'm 17,000 words into the sequel, "Campaign 2110: Scorpions in Space," but it's been on hold the last month due to other work, the Nationals, and the holidays. (First one was 123,000 words.)
3. Sequel to "Pings and Pongs." Hint – it's already done! In fact, here's the kindle version. The print version should go online in a few days. It has the 25 best stories I've sold since 2012.
4. Have a Successful SF Convention Tour. I'm currently scheduled for nine science fiction conventions in 2016 where I'll be promoting my Campaign 2100 novel. I'll be doing readings, book signings, and panels. There'll also be a lot of online promotions.
5. Another Year of Blogging and Table Tennis Tips. It's not easy putting together a blog five times a week, but somehow I'll manage to keep it up. With one more year of weekly Tips, I'll be able to put together a sequel to Table Tennis Tips, which will be creatively titled More Table Tennis Tips.
6. Coaching at Big Tournaments. I consider tactical coaching my biggest strength, and so look forward to doing so at the big tournaments. I'm hoping to make it to at least ten major tournaments in 2016 – the U.S. Nationals, U.S. Open, the Teams, U.S. Team Trials, and at least six other 4-star tournaments.

Other Happenings
It's been a busy week, as always. Plus I'm rather tired right now. Since 4AM this morning I've received eleven phone calls from someone in Tunisia who only speaks French, which I don't speak. I keep asking why he's calling, but since he apparently doesn't speak English, we're not communicating – but he keeps calling back. I will likely have to look into how you block someone from calling you. (He's called five times while I wrote this blog. I just hit the "end call" icon each time.) He woke me up at 4AM and again at 6AM with his calls – I normally get up around 7AM.

I'm doing an hour of coaching at noon, and then I'm done until Sunday. I'll get a lot of reading done, and probably see a couple of movies. Plus I'm working on two new short science fiction stories, one about a super-being marooned in a contracting universe and about to get caught in the "Big Crunch," and another about Santa Claus reluctantly getting caught up in distributing guns to human rebels against alien conquerors. I'm also working on sequel to my upcoming SF novel (see above), but that's on hold for the moment. I sold a humorous story to Galaxy's Edge just a few days ago, "Penguins in Noah's Ark," which you can guess was about two penguin's journey from Antarctica to the Middle East in time for Noah's Ark. (It has Panthera atrox lions and saber tooth tigers and Arctotherium bears! And dinosaurs too! Sorry, no table tennis, though George W. Bush makes an appearance.)

Starting next week I have all sorts of group sessions starting up again – lots of programs, including the afterschool program (Mon-Fri), two junior classes, and an adult class.

Also next week – on Tuesday, USATT Historian Tim Boggan once again moves in with me for 12-14 days as we work on his History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17. (You read that right.) Here's the Tim Boggan Table Tennis page where you can learn about and order any of his first 16 volumes. (I created and maintain the page for him.) We generally work from 7AM to 2:30PM each day, then I'm off for the afterschool program at MDTTC and other coaching. During that time I have to do the blog at night, along with my other table tennis work.

Ringing in the New Year with the 2016 Butterfly NA Tour!
Here's the article. Here are the Four on the Tour:

• March 4-6, 2016 – Butterfly Arnold Table Tennis Challenge: A 4-star USA Table Tennis sanctioned tournament which is part of the 2016 Arnold Sports Festival. The 3-day tournament is hosted by Rockford Table Tennis Club and held at the Ohio Expo Center & State Fair, Voinovich Center on 717 E 17th Ave in Columbus, Ohio.
• March 31-April 3, 2016 – Butterfly Cary Cup Championships (Giant RR+): A 4-star USA Table Tennis sanctioned hosted by Triangle Table Tennis. The 4-day tournament takes place at Triangle Table Tennis, located at 2900 Perimeter Park Dr., Suite 200 in Morrisville, North Carolina.
• July 28-31, 2016 – USA Masters Games: The table tennis competition is an adult age group competition for ages 21 and above. The 4-star tournament takes place at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel, Guilford Ballroom, which is located at 3121 West Gate City Boulevard in Greensboro, North Carolina.
• September 16-18, 2016 – Butterfly Badger Open: A 4-star USA Table Tennis sanctioned tournament hosted by the Milwaukee Table Tennis Club.  The venue for this 3-day competition is the Milwaukee County Sports Complex located at 6000 W Ryan Rd in Franklin, Wisconsin.

Ma Long Multiball Training
Here's the new video (68 sec).

Zhang Jike Training 2015
Here's the new video (35:32).

2015 Year in Review
Here’s the new ITTF video (7:14).

Emotional Table Tennis 2015
Here's the new video (2:58). "Take a look back at the emotional moments of 2015!!!"

Best of 2015 Ask a Pro Anything
Here’s the new video (4:12) from Adam Bobrow. Some great stuff here!

Ma Long and Xu Xin Impromptu Exhibition
Here's the video (43 sec) – why not count just how many exhibition tricks they throw in?

Top 10 Table Tennis Trick Shots of 2015 from Pongfinity
Here's the new video (2:44).

Table Tennis Hall of Famer Dean Johnson versus The Pilot Newsroom
Here's the new video (60 sec).

Testing Plastic and Celluloid Balls by Fire
Here's the video (1:48).

Now Serving Ping-Pong
Here's the article and video (1:25) from The Scroll (Idaho).  

Taos Mesa Brewing Starts Weekly Pingpong Tourneys
Here's the article from The Tao News.

International Table Tennis
Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.

Beetle Bailey Table Tennis
Here's a new one, dated May 29, but the year unknown. (Marv Anderson sent it to me.) I've been collecting the Beetle Bailey table tennis cartoons, and there are now 15 of them, all linked from this May 11, 2015 entry.

Dilbert Table Tennis
Here are six Dilbert cartoons that feature table tennis. I'm a huge Dilbert fan!

• November 22, 2015
• April 16, 2013
• June 13, 2007
• August 12, 1995
• January 6, 1992
• September 7, 1989 (Dilbert in Action!)

***
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Coaching Matches is Trickier Now
Coaching matches used to be easier. In most matches in the "old days" (twenty years ago?) there'd be a style conflict since the odds of two players with the same style playing was rather low. I mean, what were the odds of two players playing with the same style, such as, say, both being two-winged loopers? Sure, it happened sometimes, but there were a lot more common styles back in those days – hitters, counter-hitters, blockers, choppers, various types of pips-out, conventional penholders, Seemiller grip, and all sorts of forehand/backhand combinations.

All of these styles still exist, but it's a matter of degree – they used to be common. Now the matches I coach are mostly up-and-coming players who train regularly under top coaches, and so there are very few "old-fashioned" styles among them – they are nearly all two-winged loopers these days. The few that don't play that way are still usually inverted players who loop both sides, just not all the time.

With style conflicts, there are obvious tactics. There was the thrill of the clash of styles, such as when a looper met a hitter, or a one-winged forehand looper met a blocker. The tactics were more straightforward.

These days, since the large majority of the matches I coach are between standard two-winged loopers, coaching is a bit subtler. Both players tend to play the same, with the same serves, same surfaces, same strokes, and often the same strengths and weaknesses, with subtle differences in degree.

There's still diversity, but nothing like before. In the past it was like throwing a lion, a wolf, a bear, a giant anaconda, a crocodile, a rhinoceros, a shark, and a black widow spider into the quarterfinals, and they'd battle it out. Now it's more or less eight lions, all running around looping everything. The game is more athletic, but it's also more uniform.

As a side note, coaching matches was also easier when games were to 21 – lots more time to watch and decide what to say between games, and there were fewer games as well. (Most matches were best of three to 21, some big matches best of five.) Now you send your player out there, and you've only got it seems like three minutes before you do it again.

Ask the Coach Show

• Episode 205 (24:55) – PingSkills Yearly Membership Winner
• Episode 206 (23:30) – Ma Long or Fan Zhendong for Gold
• Episode 207 (21:59) – The forgotten art of pushing
• Episode 208 (25:29) – Table Tennis: The Dangerous Sport

New USATT Membership System Launches January 1st!
Here's the USATT article.

Tomokazu Harimoto Promising At 11 Years Old 
Here's the latest article on the Japanese prodigy. He's now ranked #223 in the world. At age 11. For perspective, the #1 ranked U.S. man is Timothy Wang, #278 in the world.

Top 5 Moments of 2015
Here's the new video (3:22).

Even the Best Make Mistakes
Here's video (35 sec, including slo-mo replay, and the following point) of world #4 Dimitrij Ovtcharov not just missing his serve, but hitting it off the edge of his racket so the ball goes directly to the opponent's side of the table – and it happens at 9-all in the first against world #1 Ma Long!

Table Tennis Training with Children with Down Syndrome
Here's the video (2:46).

Righty Penhold to Lefty Shakehand in One Second
Here's the video (24 sec, including slo-mo replay).

The Caw: Legends Todd Heap and Jonathan Ogden Playing Ping-Pong
Here's the article and picture of the two Baltimore Ravens.

The "Eye-Table"?
Here's the picture – we'll just call it the iTable. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Best Table Tennis Scene Ever?
Here's video (21 sec) of Maggy Q's intro scene from Balls of Fury.

Cat Plays Ping Pong!
Here's the video (42 sec) from 1951 – this cat really can play!

***
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Tip of the Week
You're Your Yore.

USA Nationals (and Hidden Serves, Alas)
It's been an incredibly busy two weeks – USATT board meetings, USA Nationals, USA Team Trials, 29.5 hours at San Francisco Airport (see segment below), Christmas in Eugene, and catching up on everything since I returned two days ago. Here are some highlights.

I flew to Las Vegas the morning of Saturday, Dec. 12. And then – I had the day off! Well, sort of. I ended up working on a new science fiction story I'd been planning. (That's what I do when I'm not doing TT.)

The USATT board meeting was noon – 7PM on Sunday, Dec. 13, and 9AM-1PM on Monday, Dec. 14. A quick rundown of the agenda: committee reports and discussions; SafeSport discussion; USOC update; High Performance discussion; lots of time on the budget; TV; USATT events; ratings; marketing and sponsorship; strategic initiatives; and the problem with hidden serves.

This last one – illegal hidden serves – would irritate me the rest of the week, and still does. [Begin Hidden Serve Rant – skip ahead if not interested.] As I've blogged about many times with lots of video and pictures, cheating is rampant in our sport, with the large majority of major titles decided by illegal hidden serves, with the key factor in most matches whether the umpire will enforce the rules. Our sport rewards those who cheat and punishes those who do not. After some discussion the night before, where board members seemed favorable to resolving the problem, it was suggested I make a motion that the board wishes these rules to be followed. So I made the following motion, assuming it would be a no-brainer that'd pass unanimously:

"It has come to the attention of the USATT Board of Directors that illegal hidden serves are being allowed, and that when umpires are not sure about the legality of a serve they often do not call them. This is unfair to their opponents. The Board would like to see the rules enforced as they are written."

Once this was passed, we could then use it to encourage referees and umpires to enforce the rules. Specifically, we'd approach the referees of future U.S. Nationals and Opens and ask if they would abide by the board's direction. Except . . . the motion lost by a vote of 1-6-1!!! I was the only one who voted for it. I'll wait until the minutes go up on this to blog more about this, but just think about this for a few minutes. It's mindboggling. As one wit emailed me about it, the motion might as well have been this:

"It has been brought to the attention of the USATT Board of Directors that illegal hidden serves are being allowed. A majority of the Board encourages this, and would like umpires to continue to ignore the rules as they are written."

I wrote a long email to the board over this travesty. At some point I'll likely post it here. (This definitely has dampened my enthusiasm for USATT.) Meanwhile, as predicted, match after match was won or lost by illegal serves. I watched two top cadets play, where one hid his serve over and over in the first match, and easily won as his honest opponent struggled with his illegal serves. The second time they played an umpire warned both that he would be enforcing the service rule, and so both cadets served legally – and this time the other cadet won easily. (And guess what? Before the match, to encourage that umpire to enforce the rules, I showed him printouts of the opposing cadet illegally hiding his serve. It worked, as it should. However, in most cases, it doesn't work.)

Or just watch this women's singles quarterfinal match between 13-year-old prodigy Crystal Wang and Wang Chen (video starts halfway through game two), where the latter hid nearly every serve the entire match, but was not called for it a single time. Crystal led 3-2 in games and was two points away from winning at 9-7 when Wang Chen served these two hidden serves, and Crystal puts one in the net, and weakly returns the other. The problem here is that some would think this is an isolated incident. Pick any random point in the match, even at the very start (here's Wang Chen's first serve in the video), and you'll see the same hidden serves.

Most top players these days hide the ball with their head by throwing the ball backwards and thrusting their head forward at the last second, contacting the ball behind the head (but often following the ball down below their heads to make it appear the contact was under the head), but Wang Chen is old school, blatantly and illegally leaving the non-playing arm out in front, despite the rule that says, "As soon as the ball has been projected, the server’s free arm and hand shall be removed from the space between the ball and the net." This is so blatant that most umpires will call it, which is why fewer players do it, but this time around I didn't see it called a single time. The rules also say that hiding the ball during the serve is illegal, and that it is the responsibility of the player to serve so the umpire can see the serve is legal, and that the umpire is supposed to call any serve where he's not "sure" the serve is legal (i.e. the ball visible throughout the serve). But the rules were not followed, and so the match was decided by this. Enforce the rules, and Crystal wins for sure. Who wants to explain to her why her opponent was allowed to break the rules?

I don't mean to pick on Wang Chen since nearly every top player was hiding their serve, either on their own, or in reaction to opponents being allowed to do so by the umpires – otherwise, they couldn't compete fairly. (But I can't show videos of illegal serves without picking one.) Whoever does it first is cheating, but I don't blame those who do it in reaction to the umpire allowing an opponent to do so. At that point, they are no longer playing by the rules of table tennis, at least in regard to the hidden service rules. Whoever hides his serve first is doing so to gain an illegal advantage, and that is cheating. Whoever does it in response to the opponent doing so is not gaining an illegal advantage, but is simply evening the playing field since the umpire isn't enforcing the rules, and so I don't consider that cheating.

While changing the rules will help, the culture also needs to change. Our current culture of cheating will continue until we change the culture, and that has to come from the top – but at the moment, those at the top don't seem interested in changing the culture. They have forgotten the U.S. Olympic Oath (bolds below are mine), which is for all athletes in Olympic sports, including ours:

"In the name of all competitors I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams." 

We've fallen a long way from this. [End Hidden Serve Rant.]

The Nationals itself started Monday morning. The tournament ran smoothly on 126 tables with 771 players. Here are the results.

But perhaps more interesting than the tournament itself on Monday was what was happening at the Westgate Hotel, where many stayed. As I walked to the playing hall I couldn't help but notice about a thousand people mostly wearing "Trump" shirts – it turns out Donald Trump was having an election event there that night, and people were going crazy!!! I spent some time watching – not Trump, who I never saw (and presumably would arrive later that day), but the actual Trump supporters. What was going through their minds that they would support Trump? I could write a lot about what might happen if such an egotistical bombastic sociopath were elected president – what could possibly go wrong? – but I won't.

On Tuesday night we had the USATT Assembly, where a somewhat small but animated group discussed USATT issues. On Thursday night we had the Hall of Fame induction banquet, where Jack Huang (from my club!), Eric Owens, Tahl Leibovitz, Wang Chen, and Dean Johnson were inducted, and Si Wasserman was awarded the Mark Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award. I think five inductees (six if you include Wasserman) is a record – most years it's two or three.

This year I entered more events than usual, since I'm primarily a coach. I was in five events, and made the semifinals or quarterfinals of all five:

• Hardbat Doubles with Ty Hoff: Semifinals (I've won this event 13 times, 9 times with Ty)
• Hardbat Over 40: Quarterfinals (I've won this event four times)
• Sandpaper Singles: Semifinals
• World Ping-Pong Trials (Sandpaper): Quarterfinals
• Over 50 Men's Doubles with Ty Hoff (sponge): Quarterfinals (where we lost in five to the top seeds)

I was also entered in Hardbat Singles, which I've won twice, but had to drop out to run the National League Finals (also called the Club Championships). My arm, left knee, and back were all hurting, and so it might have been for the best.

I did less coaching at this Nationals than at any Nationals probably in the last 25 years – we now have seven full-time coaches at MDTTC, and they were all here coaching away. I spent some of my nights doing video analysis for our players, often messaging them bullet points on their upcoming opponents. I wish I could write more about this, but it's top secret! I tend to do a lot of advance scouting of opponents, either live, by watching videos, or asking around. For example, in the semifinals of the minicadet boys, we faced a player that neither I nor our player had seen before. So I asked around, and ended up with a pretty good scouting report – and it helped as our player (Ryan Dabbs, rated 2175 to the opponent's 2262) pulled off a nice 3-0 upset to make the final and make the USA National Minicadet Boys' Team. Derek Nie, also from my club, also made the Cadet National Boys' Team, also finishing second.

After the Nationals was the USA Team Trials. And then I was off to Eugene for Christmas with family – but first I had to get through San Francisco Airport….

29 and a Half Hours at San Francisco Airport
Shortly after lunch on Monday, Dec. 21, right after the USA Nationals, I went to the Las Vegas airport. I flew to San Francisco Airport, and was supposed to transfer to another flight to Eugene, OR, where I'd spend Christmas with family. Instead, my flight was postponed over and over, and finally cancelled at around 1AM. I ended up spending over ten hours at SF airport that day before taking a shuttle to a hotel, arriving around 2AM. It was pouring rain outside, and the shuttle shelter was jammed with others from the cancelled flight, and so I ended up standing outside in the freezing rain for 25 minutes, and so was soaking wet and frozen cold on the shuttle ride. Since the cancellation was "an act of God" (technically, an "air traffic controller problem," whatever that is), United wouldn't pay for it, so I had to pay $113 for the room. The earliest flight available was 5:57PM the following night. The hotel let me stay there until 1PM, then I took the shuttle back to the airport. Then that flight was delayed over and over – nine times to be exact, before finally taking off at 8:15PM. I ended up spending twenty-nine and a half hours at San Francisco Airport (including time at hotel). Isn't table tennis fun? 

Amazingly, this wasn't nearly as bad as my experience at San Francisco Airport last year – see the seventh segment in my blog one year ago, "My Seven Years at San Francisco Airport." I don't think I'll ever go through that airport again.

The Power of Practice
Here’s the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis.

Coaching Articles from Coach Jon
Here are two new ones.

• Twiddle Me This…The Table Tennis Twiddler
• Table Tennis Muscles

Articles from Samson Dubina

• Interview with Samson with Pong Talk with the Stars
• Team Spirit – the Alguettis
• The Details of Pushing

How To Do A Backspin Serve - Part 2
Here’s the video (2:28) by Eli Baraty. Here’s Part 1 (1:25), which I previously linked to.

Podcast with Nick Ryder: Making a Comeback After 20 Years
Here's the podcast (36:41) from Expert Table Tennis. In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Nick first started playing table tennis back in the 80s.
• Why he decided to quit playing as a junior.
• What he learnt from training with future England star Mike O’Driscoll.
• Why he chose to make a comeback to the sport in 2012.
• How he has consistently improved his level over the last three years.
• The types of training and drills he’s implemented.
• What his goals are for the next couple of years, and beyond.
• TOP TIP: Develop a special serve to win you cheap points.

TableTennisDaily Podcast #4 - Par Gerell
Here’s the podcast (36:42).

USATT News Items
Since I've been away two weeks there's an accumulation of USATT news items – so why not browse over them?

National Collegiate Table Tennis December Newsletter
Here it is.

Ma Long Becomes Most Successful World Tour Grand Finals Player Ever
Here’s the ITTF press release.

Ding Ning in Slow Motion
Here’s the video (1:56) of the reigning world women’s champion.

Ma Long Chop Block
Here’s the video (5:17). I have students who insist that “nobody” does this! (I do it all the time, to their chagrin.)

Zhang Jike: Topspin and Flick Backhand
Here’s the video (9 sec).

Vladimir Samsonov Serve Practice - World Tour Grand Finals 2015
Here’s the video (4:14).

Top 10 Table Tennis Points of 2015
Here’s the video (8:39).

Table Tennis - Best of 2015
Here’s the new highlights video (9:35).

Table Tennis Target Practice for Prizes
Here's the video (78 sec). I do this type of thing somewhat regularly in my group sessions, usually with bunches of candy.

Super Sidespin Power Lob
Here’s the video (8 sec) of this lob by Adam Bobrow.

Santa vs. Reindeer Table Tennis Cartoon
Here’s the cartoon!

***
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Last Blog Until Dec. 29
Tomorrow morning I'm off to Las Vegas for USATT board meetings (and other meetings), the USA Nationals (Dec. 14-19), the USA Team Trials (Dec. 20-21), and then off to Eugene, Oregon for Christmas with family (Dec. 21-26). I return on Dec. 27, just in time for the MDTTC Christmas Camp, Dec. 26-31, missing the first day. (I blogged about all this on Wednesday.) So this will be my last blog until I return – see you then! (I originally said I'd be blogging again on Monday, Dec. 28, but I needed an extra day to catch up on things.) 

Meanwhile, the holidays are a time to think about giving, so why not consider giving to the sport? Not money – why not run a State Championship? A Regional Team League? Set up a Regional Association?

Tip of the Week
Fast, Quick Motions Disguise a No-Spin Serve. (These tips normally go up on Mondays, but I'm putting this one up early since I'm going out of town tomorrow for two weeks.)

USA Nationals
My pickup to the airport for the USA Nationals is at 5:10 AM Saturday. As usual, I'll likely just stay up all night on something, and sleep on the flight. I arrive in Las Vegas at about 10:30AM (helped by the three-hour time difference – it'll be 1:30PM here in Maryland). There are 774 players entered, and probably an equal number of family, coaches, and staff, so there'll probably be 1500 people there.

Here's the USA Nationals home page. It has an event listing, links to news articles, and other links. But probably the most important one is the link to the Online Event Info. From there you can see the Entries by Name, Entries by Event, and Results. The latter (which is not yet active – it currently asks for a password, but I believe that will change) will soon will have the draws themselves, and then the results of every round of every event.

So what does one do at the USA Nationals in Las Vegas? Let's see…

1. Play. There are 94 events. (List as on the USA Nationals home page.)
2. Spectate. Nearly every top USA player in the country will be there.
3. Shop. There'll be lots and lots of equipment booths.
4. Special events. Such as:

•   USATT Board Meeting (Sunday & Monday). They will be meeting most of Sunday and Monday morning. (I'll be there.) I believe the meeting room is at the playing hall, and except for a few rare "executive sessions," is open for USATT members to attend. Perhaps stop by to see an agenda and come back when they are discussing something of interest to you.
• USA World Ping Pong Qualifier (sandpaper trials - Monday 8AM. I'm in this, but might have to drop out since it'll conflict with the USATT Board Meeting.) Here's info.
• USATT Assembly (Tuesday 7PM. Refreshments, and you get to meet and ask questions of USATT leaders. I'll be there.)
• USATT Hall of Fame Banquet (Thursday 7PM. Here's info. Here's the USATT Hall of Fame page.)
• World Team Trials (Sunday & Monday, Dec. 20-21)  

1. Say hi to friends.
2. Eat. They have some nice buffets.
3. There are rumors of other entertainment available in Las Vegas, but in the nearly 40 years I've been going there for the Nationals I wouldn't know as all I ever see are the hotel and playing hall. Does Las Vegas even exist???

I'll be pretty busy at the Nationals: attending meetings, coaching Maryland players, and playing in five events. I'm normally a sponge player – and that's what I use when I coach – but I'm retired from tournament sponge play, and so at the Nationals and Open, when I'm not coaching, I play in hardbat (and now sandpaper) events. I'm in Hardbat Singles (2-time national champion), Over 40 Hardbat (4-time champion), Hardbat Doubles with Ty Hoff (13-time champion, 9 times with Ty), Sandpaper Singles, and the World Ping-Pong Trials (sandpaper).

My table tennis books will be on sale at the Butterfly booth, and they are scheduling an autograph session, so stop by. If you buy a book and I'm not there, have Butterfly call me – they should have my number – and if I'm free I'll come over to sign it. Books of mine that will be on sale there will be Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers; Table Tennis Tips; Table Tennis Tales & Techniques; Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook; and The Spirit of Pong.

Why is Grip Pressure So Important?
Here's the new coaching article by Max Costantini.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #204 (26:11) - 2015 ITTF Star Awards (and other segments). Also, here's their new promotional video (67 sec).

ITTF World Tour Grand Finals
Here's the ITTF home page for the event, running Dec. 10-13 in Lisbon, Portugal. You can watch the matches live.

2014 Decider Kicks off 2015 World Tour Grand Finals
Here's the ITTF press release.

Podcast with Billy Shilton: Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Dreams
Here's the new podcast (49:43) from Expert Table Tennis. In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Billy got started playing table tennis just four years ago.
• About Billy’s disability and how it impacts his table tennis.
• Tips for improving your dynamic balance.
• What a typical day is like for Billy at the national training centre.
• How he manages to juggle both table tennis and college work.
• The effect that a confidence boost has had on Billy’s performances.
• Why Billy is now a class 8 athlete (he was in class 7 until a couple of months ago).
• What Billy learnt from his time in China.
• TOP TIP: Why quality is so important in your training.
• About Billy’s younger brother Stan who is crushing it in the England U13s.
• What’s next for Billy Shilton.

USA Table Tennis Christmas Shopping
Why not visit the USATT online store and buy some USATT merchandize?

International Table Tennis
Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.

Some Great Counterlooping
Here's the video (21 sec) of the point between Kalinikos Kreanga (GRE, far side) and Grigory Vlasov (RUS).

Incredible Point between Ovtcharov and Mizutani
Here's the video (66 sec, including replay from different angles).

Double Falling Down Doubles Pong
Here's the video (41 sec, including slo-mo replay).

Jean-Michel Saive on Some Sort of Game Show?
Here's the video (56 sec) – they seem to be having a good time!

2014 Tai Ben Invitational CHUANG Chih Yuan vs Jean-Michel Saive
Here's some exhibition play (81 sec) from these two. I once did something similar while playing a match with David Zhuang, and the umpire went crazy, yellow-carding us both.

Scrambled Egg Pong? Seriously?
Here's the picture! They're making a complete yoke of our sport! But I think drop shots might be a good tactic.

Santa Claus Plays Table Tennis
These come up when you Google "Santa Claus table tennis pictures." Make sure to hum, "Santa Pong is coming to town!" as you look at these.

• Santa vs. Reindeer
• Santa vs. Elf
• Santa vs. Santa
• Santa vs. Ginger Rogers
• Santa and Alice Cooper play doubles
• Santa Forehand
• Santa Pong Pillow
• Santa Table Tennis Balls and Rackets

Non-Table Tennis: Political Campaign SF – a New Sub-Genre?
Here's my new science fiction blog entry. But as I've blogged before, the novel actually has a lot of table tennis!

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