Table Tennis Variations
Getting tired of playing the same table tennis all the time, where you do the same topspin and backspin shots all night long? Here are some variations!

• Gnip Gnop. In this version, instead of hitting the ball directly over the net, you hit the ball downward, so it bounces on your side first, and then over the net. Here's video.
• Jungle Pong. You can have many players play this at once – I've seen the kids at our club play with 15 players at once. Basically the rules are you have to let the ball come off the table, and make your return after the ball has hit the floor. You can hit the ball to either side of the table - so the opponent has to be ready to change sides quickly. Since the ball has to bounce off the table and hit the floor, players have time to run it down. If you have more than 15 players, they take turn in order until all 15 have hit one shot, and then start over – but whoever misses is out for that game. It's a rather strange game, but a lot of fun – at our camps, the kids play it during break all the time. Here's video, though here it's mistakenly called gnip gnop – gotta get these terms right!!!
• Clipboard Pong. You can play with any size or type of clipboard – and you get amazing rallies! It's especially fun if one player attacks and the other chops, and it's easy to chop with a clipboard. Here's video, which includes Tahl Leibovitz and Marty Reisman. You can also play clipboard vs. regular racket, as I'm doing in this video, where I start off slow as we warm up, but stop missing once the match begins.
• Smartphone Table Tennis. Both players use their smart phones. Here's video (featuring Matt Hetherington), though to make it fair both players should be using phones (unless one is much higher rated).
• Any Object Pong. Yes, you just find anything to use, and play with it.
• Opposite Hand or Grip. Yep, you switch hands or grips. For grips, you can choose shakehand, penhold, or Seemiller grip, as long as it's not your normal grip. (For penhold, you have to decide between convention and reverse penhold backhands.)
• Pushing Game. It's exactly as the name implies – an all-pushing game. The server must serve backspin, and both players must play all backspin. It becomes a tactical battle of finding the balance between pure consistency, and pushing more aggressively to force mistakes. Often it becomes a mostly forehand to forehand pushing duel (with changes of directions to force opponent to move), since most players push better on the backhand. Prepare for a purely mental game as this game favors whoever has the mental will and patience to push forever.
• Hardbat or Sandpaper. Why not give them a try, just as an occasional side variation?

8 Tips on Expanding Your Table Tennis Tactics Against Choppers
Here's the new coaching article from Matt Hetherington.

Tom's Table Tennis Newsletter
Here's the new issue from the British coach. Segments include:

• Tips for maintaining a positive attitude when you’re losing
• Tactics for beating a big flat hitter
• Learning from Desmond Douglas at Westfield table tennis camp
• Most read in January 2016
• Best from the web
• Top table tennis matches in January 2016

Ask the Coach

• Episode 215 (23:15) – Flicking Sidespin Serves (and other segments).
• Episode 216 (24:49) - Serving with a Purpose

USATT Minicadet Team Listing
Here's the USATT listings for the USA Minicadet Boys' and Minicadet Girls' teams. These are for 12 and under players, who held their Trials at the recent USA Nationals. I noticed over the weekend that they didn't have their own page, as the other teams do (Men's, Women's, Junior Boys and Girls, and Cadet Boys and Girls), and so notified USATT webmaster Sean O'Neill. After some searching, I supplied most of the head shots (Bruce Liu supplied some missing ones), with thanks to Sean, and now it's up!!! These kids trained hard to get where they are, and deserve the recognition. Congrats to Nikhil Kumar, Ryan Dabbs, Michael Lu, Aditya Godhwani, Rachel Yang, Joanna Sung, Rachel Sung, and Ayane Saito!

2016 USA Table Tennis Olympic Trials Format
Here's the USATT article from tournament director Ed Hogshead. Here's the USATT home page for the event, which will likely be updated with live video, results, etc. when the Trials begin. They start tomorrow, Thur-Fri, Feb. 4-6, in Greensboro, NC.

The Politically Incorrect Paddle
Here's the new article from Coach Jon.

Tahl Leibovitz Hall of Fame Induction
Here's the article from Sean O'Neill, who did the presentation for Tahl's induction.

Ping Pong Fever
Here's the article by Steve Grant, about the Norwegian humorous documentary about the 1902 Ping-Pong craze, which was largely based on Steve's book, Ping Pong Fever: The Madness That Swept 1902 America. (Here's my review of the book.)

11 Questions with Stefano Ratti
Here's the USATT interview with Stefano, who's both a top local player (rated 2346) and the commissioner of the Capital Area Table Tennis Team League.

SPiN Ping-Pong Club Owned by Susan Sarandon to Open March 10 in Marina City
Here's the article on the new club opening in Chicago.

DHS ITTF Top 10 Shots - 2016 ITTF German Open
Here's the video (4:10).

Judy Hugh & Cory Eider Wedding Video
Here it is, at long last, the highlights video (4:55) of the Wedding of the Century!!! While the wedding between these two table tennis stars took place on Nov. 8, 2015, the memories are forever. Cory joins a family that already included Judy, Adam Hugh, Lily Yip, and Barry Dattel.

Practice Devolves into a "Clownfest"
Here's the video (15 sec) as Matt Hetherington (on right, with 2699-rated Kaden Xu on left) shows how he is preparing for the upcoming Worlds.

Ice Pong
Here's the video (37 sec). I went ice skating exactly once in my life, when I was about 12. There was another kid who was both a very good ice skater and the local bully. On dry land, he avoided me – he'd tangled with me once and I clobbered him, even though he was a little bigger. But when he saw me out there trying to learn to ice skate, he began circling me, skating both forward and backward (the latter impressed the heck out of me, I didn't know it was possible), jabbing at me as he passed and basically making life on ice miserable. I felt helpless as I slid about trying to defend myself against someone who (I later learned) had been playing ice hockey since he was a little kid. I never ventured out on ice again.

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John Miller Match Analysis
I recently did a match analysis of John Miller, a regular in the Adult Training Sessions I run at MDTTC on Sunday nights, 6:30-8:00 PM. He has graciously agreed to let me run it in my blog. (Many of you know him as the Director of the three biggest tournaments in the country – the U.S. Open, the USA Nationals, and the North American Teams.) Here is what I wrote to him.

The match I analyzed was against Dmitriy Buluchevskiy at the Texas Wesleyan tournament, March 22, 2014, Under 1800 round robin match. (Buluchevskiy wins.) I watched it point by point, often replaying points and taking notes. Remember that such an analysis is by its nature critical – the key is to fix the problems.

The strength of your game is that when you are in position, you have very strong loops from both sides, as well as a very strong backhand smash against soft topspin returns of your serve. So setting up these shots with serve and receive is key. Just as important is not throwing away points by trying to loop too hard against serves or not being in position to take advantage of your strong shots. Below are six things that jumped out at me from the video and my notes.

1. You often try to adjust for shots with you upper body rather than make a small step to get into position. This was a problem throughout the match. For example, watch this sequence of the last five points in game two and the first point of game three (you lost all six), where the lack of small foot movements led to losing five of them. Often you do make these steps and make strong shots, but you need to do them every time out of habit. (You can actually just watch this straight through from the Rally1 point.)
   

   1.  Rally1: Note how as he serves, you start to step in with your right foot, then stop, and then try to adjust for the serve with the upper body rather than stepping, leading to amissed forehand.
   2. Rally2: You served off the end because your contact point was way too high
   3. Rally3: Here you make a nice backhand, but don't take a small step to position yourself for the easy forehand so miss it.
   4. Rally4: You make a nice backhand loop – and note that you do take a step to position yourself for this - but then you reach for the next shot with your backhand rather than step toward it.
   5. Rally5:  You have an easy push to the middle to loop, but try to adjust with upper body rather than take a short step, and so miss the easy forehand.
   6. Rally6 (first point next game): Leaned over to backhand loop rather than step, and so missed. Ironically, on the next point you do step to return the serve, but opponent serves on the edge. 

   =>​ SOLUTION: Focus on these small steps when doing serve & attack drills (including when opponent is doing them), and other free-play drills. They are key, and it must become a habit. Now that we see the problem, I will harp on this in our future sessions.

2. You almost never attack the middle (elbow) – you play corners almost exclusively. The middle is usually the weakest spot. In fact, that's how your opponent won game 1, with an easy backhand topspin to your middle. (As noted above, you also didn't move your feet for this, and so weren't able to adjust.) Sometimes you'd make a strong attack, but had to play more shots when the same shot to the middle would have won the point. For example, see this point, where you made three very nice backhands in a row, but all to the same spot. His middle was wide open. (You then lost the point when you didn't step all the way over for the fourth shot.)
   =>SOLUTION: In serve & attack drills and in games, focus on attacking the middle.
3. On receive you usually move, but sometimes you sort of jump the gun with the wrong movement. For example, see the point at 10-10 in first, where the opponent served to your wide forehand and you were already stepping in, and so missed the loop. Or the first point in the six-point sequence given above in #1.
   =>SOLUTION: Practice this more in games – focus on that first step. You have more time then you think, so wait and make sure the first move is the right one.
4. Your serves are often too simple. Too many of them are obviously simple backspin serves, no threat to the opponent. Throw in more tricky motions and fake other spins.
   =>SOLUTION: We'll work on these motions in future sessions.
5. You dominated when you served long, often following your serve with a backhand smash, or opponent missing the serve. (These are just two example of a number of them.) Your backhand is very strong against the soft topspins you often get. But you held back on them too much. Challenge players with deep serves if they don't have strong attacks off them. Also serve long to the middle (elbow). At the higher levels, deep serves don't work as well. Below 2200, they are a must, especially big breaking sidespin serves that are often missed or rolled back weakly. (I toyed with putting together a series of links of all the points you won with long serves, but I think you get the idea.)
   =>SOLUTION: This one's pretty simple - serve long more often.
6. You missed way too many loops against serves, both wings (though more backhand attempts since he mostly served there). Keep loops against serves simple, focus on consistency and depth only, less power. Shorten the swing, control the ball, don't overpower it. Wear the opponent down with consistent receives and challenge the opponent to make a strong shot off your consistent ones. Only loop strong off a serve if you read it really well and are in perfect position. You did make some strong loops off the serve, but you probably missed as many as you made.
   =>SOLUTION: You can practice this in games, but we can also do a drill around this, where your partner mixes in short and long serves, and you soft loop the long ones.

RIP Marty Prager
News broke last night that the great coach and USATT Hall of Famer from Florida had died. He was a former USATT team member from the early 1960s, but became better known later as a coach. I had the honor of coaching against him in many matches at big tournaments throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. More on this probably tomorrow.

Over Five Hundred Courses Conducted, Richard McAfee Leads the Field
Here's the ITTF article.

All-America Over-40 Table Tennis Tour
Here's the USATT article and schedule for this new endeavor. Now I have to decide if I'll playing or coaching in it!

Timo Boll Interview
Here's the interview. On illegal boosting: "About 80% of pro's are using illegal rackets." He also complained about the new plastic balls: "The quality of the game suffers in a sustainable manner, because the players are feeling insecure. Some are suffering a serious blow. The rallies have gotten worse on average."

Peng Xin preparing for Augusta Classic Exhibition
Here's the article from the Augusta Chronicle on his upcoming exhibition with Derek May. 

2016 Arnold Table Tennis Challenge
Here's the USATT article on this annual tournament that's part of the Arnold Sports Festival. Yes, that's Arnold as in Schwarzenegger.

JOOLA is Official Equipment Sponsor of US Olympic Trials
Here's the USATT article. (USATT has three main table tennis sponsors: Butterfly for clothing, JOOLA for tables, and Nittaku/Paddle Palace for balls.)

Table Tennis US Olympic Trials in Greensboro
Here's the video (2:12) that features Timothy Wang and USATT CEO Gordon Kaye, with Jack Wang the one hitting with Timothy.

German Open 2016 Highlights: Chuang Chih-Yuan vs Dimitrij Ovtcharov
Here's the video (6:47) of this nice quarterfinal match.

Left-to-Right Sidespin Backhand?
Here's the video (25 sec). 

No Legs? No Hands? No Problem for This Kid!
Here's the video (1:19). 

Smacking Grandma
Here's the video (15 sec, including slo-mo).

Gatien and Chila Two-Ball Exhibition
Here's the video (40 sec) of the two former French stars playing with two balls. 1993 Men's Singles World Champion Jean-Philippe Gatien is the lefty on the right, Patrick Chila is the righty on the left.

Happy Groundhog Day!
Here's Pingpongatawney Phil. (Note the signature on the lower right – yep, I'm the guilty party.)

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Tip of the Week
Holding Back Against a Weaker Player.

Fifteen Fun Facts about Table Tennis
A few days ago I received an email from Herson Go, who said he would be doing exhibitions and clinics this week in five 45-minute classes at a middles school– about 300 students in all. He said, "I wanted to perk their interest and one of the things I was thinking of is to give them a short one-page list of 'Did you know that Table Tennis...' Any suggestions?" And so the list was born! Here's the list I came up with. Feel free to use this on your club websites or in other ways to promote the sport!

Fifteen Fun Facts about Table Tennis

1. It is an Olympic Sport.
2. It is a sport of great speed, spin, and some of the most acrobatic moves in all of sports.
3. Professional players train 6-8 hours/day, plus another hour of physical training.
4. Olympic athletes have been measured to have the lowest fat percentage of any sport after distance running.
5. It is played by players from age 5 to 100 and more.
6. It has mostly been dominated by China since the 1960s, but USA once dominated – in the 1930s! (But the #1 ranked Under 14 girl in the world is from USA.) Others that have successfully challenged the Chinese include Japan, Sweden, and Hungary.
7. The sport was invented in England in the 1880s. It became popular in China in the 1950s when Chairman Mao declared it "The people's sport."
8. It is one of the biggest participation sports in the world, sometimes ranked #2 after soccer, with about 300 million players. That includes over 700,000 in Germany, and many millions in China. There are over 400 clubs and 400 tournaments all over the U.S. each year.
9. It is recommended by doctors as the perfect "brain" sport.
10. It has been recommended to athletes as a way to develop hand-eye coordination.
11. The sport is governed in the U.S. by USA Table Tennis, and worldwide by the International Table Tennis Federation.
12. The International Table Tennis Federation has the most member nations of any sports association in the world with 222 countries.
13. A table tennis player once ate his racket after losing a match.
14. There is a top player from Egypt, Ibrahim Hamato, who has no arms, and plays with the racket in his mouth.
15. Several colleges give table tennis scholarships, and the National College Table Tennis Association runs a highly active nationwide league with over 160 member colleges – including all eight Ivy League schools (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale).

German Open
It was held this past weekend in Berlin.

• Here's the ITTF home page for the event, with results, articles, and other features.

• Here's the highlights video (63 sec) of German Open Final Day Action

• Here's the ITTF press release, "World Number One MA Adds to World Tour Titles with German Open Victory"

• Here's video (11:47) of the Men's Final, Ma Long vs. Vladimir Samsonov.
• Here's video (6:13) of the Women's Final, Wu Yang vs. Kasumi Ishikawa.
• Here's video (2:53) of the highlights of world #4 Dimitrij Ovtcharov's seven-game win over world #29 Omar Assar of Egypt in the round of 32. Said Ovtcharov, "It was such a hard fight to keep Omar down, this guy has improved a lot!"

How to Develop Top Table Tennis Footwork and Positioning
Here's the new article from MH Table Tennis.

Talent
Here's the article by Massimo Costantini

Pendulum Serve Slow Mo
Here's the video (19 sec) from Brett Clarke.

Forehand Topspin Variations
Here's the video (3:55) from PingSkills.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode 214 (22:31) - Reverse Backhand Serve (and other segments)

Tahl Leibovitz: Ping Pong for Fighters
Here's the new podcast (44:03) from Expert Table Tennis. In this episode you’ll learn:

• Tahl’s story and how he first began playing table tennis aged 14.
• How he managed to quickly become a professional player.
• What kind of preparation Tahl is doing for Rio 2016.
• The difference between competing in able-bodied and Para table tennis.
• Why Tahl decided to write a table tennis book.
• Advice Tahl has picked up from players like Samsonov.
• Dozens of tips to help you perform better in your matches.

Ma Long Training
Here's the video (1:31).

Table Tennis Edge Brain Training App and Game
Here's the USATT article.

2016 World Championships Table Tennis Table Unveiled
Here's the ITTF news release on the fancy new Butterfly table.

U.S.’ Best-ever Olympic Table Tennis Player Unretires, Enters Olympic Trials
Here's the article on Wang Chen.

DHS ITTF Top 10 Shots - 2016 Hungarian Open
Here's the video (4:37).

Forehand-Forehand, Left and Righty?
Here's the video (10 sec) as this player plays forehands with seemingly equal ease from both wings.

Floor Defense
Here's the video (43 sec, including slo-mo replay).

This Sure Looks Like Donald Trump Playing Table Tennis
Here's the video (20 sec), but it's only Boris Johnson, mayor of London, taking on England's #6 junior girl Zahna Hall. His hair might be worse than Trump's!

Ping Pong Milk Life TV Commercial Ad
Here's the video (15 sec).

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Next Week is USATT Week (followed by a little "rant" on Illegal Hidden Serves)
I've been otherwise occupied on various things the last two months, but next week I'm planning to focus on USATT stuff. What does this mean? As readers of this blog know, I'm focused on three main issues right now for USATT:

• State Championships
• Regional Team Leagues
• Regional Associations

Next week I plan to contact people about these issues, both those who have shown interest (and may or may not now be working to set these up), and others who might. I'm finding the first two especially promising (state championships and team leagues), while the third, regional associations, is proving more problematic. (I wrote about this in my USATT Report, which I presented to USATT at the board meeting at the USA Nationals in December. It's supposed to go online, but hasn't yet. I'll link to it when it does.)

Are you interested any of these three – running a State Championship, setting up a Regional Team league, or creating a Regional Association? Contact me! (And note that this is all volunteer work on my part – I don't get paid a penny.)

So what was I preoccupied on the last two months? In December I spent the first week working with my publisher on various issue relating to my upcoming SF novel. Then came the USATT Board Meeting, USA Nationals, and USA Team Trials in Las Vegas – another eleven days. Then I was in Eugene for a family Christmas (five days), and then our Christmas Camp (six days) – though it turned out I was barely needed for that, since we have seven full-time coaches. But December quickly turned into January, and from Jan. 5-17 USATT Historian Tim Boggan was at my house, where we worked on his History of U.S. Table Tennis Volume 17 every day from roughly 7AM to 2:30PM, and then I'd be off for our afterschool program, coaching, and some tutoring, returning late that night to do my own work (blogging, etc.).

Since that time I've been catching up on numerous issues, both table tennis and non-table tennis. (I've been working with the publisher on the novel, plus my second science fiction & fantasy short story anthology More Pings and Pongs. Buy it – you know you want to!) All this time, of course, I'm also blogging, writing Tips of the Week (as well as some SF writing), coaching, tutoring, and doing miscellaneous USATT and MDTTC work. (Today I have to put together the MDTTC Newsletter, another of my volunteer activities.) Early on the afternoon of January 21, I paused and took a breath, and it took me the rest of the day to catch up on work missed during that lapse. I won't let it happen again.

<BEGIN ILLEGAL HIDDEN SERVES RANT>
Another reason I haven't been as focused on my USATT work recently is my disgust with the illegal hidden serve issue. As I've blogged repeatedly, it's a serious issue, where we've developed a culture of cheating to the point where not only do even our top cadets have to serve illegally to compete fairly, but most of our leaders don't consider it cheating when a player breaks the rules to gain an unfair advantage. That's pretty much the definition of cheating. [As I've written before, whoever does it first in a match is cheating; if the umpire allows it, I don't consider it cheating if the other player then responds with his own illegal serves, since 1) they are no longer playing by the actual serving rules, and 2) he is not doing so to gain an illegal advantage but to take away the opponent's illegal advantage.] Unfortunately, this lack of enforcement puts those who will not cheat at a severe disadvantage. Just thinking about this problem and the lack of interest in fixing it often leads to a lack of interest in other table tennis issues. I mean seriously – players are openly cheating, right there in front of us, in public, umpires and referees are allowing it - and we just accept this???

When I see a problem, I want to fix the problem. One solution is to (duh) enforce the rules, meaning that if the serve isn't clearly legal (as required by the rules), the umpire warns or faults. Another solution is my proposed Net Visibility Rule. However, others in the sport do not seem interested in fixing the problem – they keep hoping someone else will fix the problem, and so we all sit around twiddling our fingers as nobody fixes the problem. (As I blogged before, and will again when the minutes go online, I made a motion at the December meeting that the rules should be enforced as they are written, but it was voted down, 1-6-1! Here's my blog on that. Here's my Top Junior Shocks World by Serving Legally blog, where I address the issue first humorously and then more seriously. I've blogged about this many times, so it probably does get repetitive.)

But for now, since I've been unable to get the powers-that-be in USATT to address this issue, I'm going to wait and see what happens on this issue at the meetings at the upcoming World Championships (Feb. 28 – Mar. 6 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I'm told it's a serious item on the agenda. But if nothing serious happens there, then expect me to go back on the warpath about stopping the cheating in our sport, where nearly every major title is decided by illegal hidden serves, and so we reward the cheaters and penalize the non-cheaters.
</END ILLEGAL HIDDEN SERVES RANT>

Watching a Table Tennis Class
I've been teaching table tennis classes since the 1980s. In junior classes, often there's a group of parents and others on the sidelines watching, so sometimes you feel like you are giving a performance for them – you want them to see how hard you are working to turn their kids into great table tennis players! But the world is changing. Recently I was teaching a class, and glanced over at the parents and others watching. There were eleven of them. One was watching. One was looking the other way, watching two of our top players train on another table. The other nine all had their heads down, staring at smart phones! (So the age-long questions remains: If a coach coaches a class but nobody watches, did he really coach the class?)

Reading the Ball
Here's the coaching article by Francisco Mendez, 9-time Mexican Champion and USATT & ITTF certified coach.

Matt's Coaching Blog
Matt Hetherington has started up his own coaching blog. Great, there go all my readers!

Ask the Coach Show

• Episode #212 (23:10) - World Championships of Ping Pong (and other segments)
• Episode #213 (18:40) - Practicing Serves at Home (and other segments)

2016 ITTF German Open Live Update
Here's where you can watch it live as well as get results. Here's the ITTF home page for the event, with more extensive results, articles, and other info. It's staking place in Berlin, Jan. 27-31.

2016 DREAM Open
Here's the article by USA Junior Team Member Angela Guan about the tournament at the Silicon Valley Table Tennis Club (SVTTC) in Milpitas, CA.

Who Will Be the 2016 World Team Champion?
Here's the feature from Butterfly.

What’s Working: Top-ranked Mississippi College Table Tennis Team
Here's the article and video (2:40).

Some Great Saive-Kreanga Points
Here's the video (2:56).

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.

Wild West Ping Pong
Here's the video (71 sec) of this shootout at the OK Corral table! Great western music and a deadly finish.

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Pete May and a Proposed Police Table Tennis Program for Inner City Kids
At the USA Nationals, Pete May told me about an idea for a new type of table tennis program. Some of you may remember Pete as the guy who ran much of the table tennis activities in Augusta, Georgia, circa the 1980s and 1990s – 4-star tournaments, the Augusta College Table Tennis Program (with scholarships), and other activities. He was also a 2000+ chopper, and he and Dell Sweeris made the final of Over 70 Men's Doubles last year at both the U.S. Open (losing to a team from China in five) and at the USA Nationals. His son, Derek, was a 2550 chopper who played on the U.S. Pan Am Team. Pete's mostly retired from running table tennis activities, and now is a Disc Golf Champion – see Interview with 3x Legends Champ Pete May, and this video (1:51), The greatest thing about disc golf.

Here's his idea. He tells me that local police departments have funding for local youth programs, especially for inner city kids. So we go to them about setting up table tennis programs for such kids, 12 and under, where they supply the tables, rackets, and balls. Older ones are selected as team captains and/or to feed multiball. There would be divisional play, with awards for the champions. Local newspapers would be brought in as stakeholders, which would lead to coverage. Pete suggests the matches be held outdoors (weather permitting?) for more exposure. The police department would enjoy doing this as they would get a "gold star" for helping kids. USATT would benefit from exposure, more players, and possible new phenoms.

Pete wonders, "What if 100 cities the size of Augusta had 1000 players each, Wow!" Now obviously we're not going to wake up one morning and magically have 100 cities doing this, but all successful nationwide programs start out small and build up, often one city at a time. So . . . any takers out there want to try out this type of program? Anyone connected with the police who might have some ideas or input on this?

Snow
I am so tired of being right. When we learned that we would be getting two feet of snow (and ended up getting 30 inches), I predicted schools here in Montgomery County, Maryland, would be closed most of the following week. Others told me that was crazy, that they might be closed for a day or maybe two, but how long does it take clear the roads so kids can safely go to school?

Well, the snow fell last Friday and Saturday, and the schools have been closed since – yep, they are closed again today, Thursday, for the fifth consecutive school day. I'm guessing it's 50-50 about tomorrow. (If they open, it'll probably two hours late. BREAKING NEWS AT 3PM: They are closed on Friday! That's six straight school days they've closed.) Why do they close even though the roads really are mostly cleared? I think it's obvious – if one county closes schools, and another doesn't, and then there's an accident in the one that opens, the ones in charge would get the blame. Nobody wants to take that chance, so if one closes, most of them close.

There still is the problem with water melting from the snow and freezing over, leading to slippery roads in the morning, but that could go on for weeks – there's a lot of snow lining the streets that can keep melting and refreezing. It makes sense to delay schools two hours to avoid rush hour, but if it is the freezing over they are worried about, they might as well close the schools down until Spring (or at least until nighttime temperatures go above freezing, which might not happen for a while). Some of us remember that back-to-back snowfalls in 2010 (17.8" and 10.8") that led to schools being closed for two weeks. 

Meanwhile, it means I've had a lot of afternoons off since I haven't done the afterschool program, which involved picking kids up at schools, taking them to the club, and then doing a mixture of table tennis and tutoring.

Spin Art or Spin Science?
Here's the new coaching article from Coach Jon. I especially like the Pablo Picasso quote, "Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist." This not only follows in table tennis, but in other pursuits as well, such as writing, especially fiction writing. (And of course outside table tennis I'm a science fiction writer.)

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #211 (29:35) - China at the Olympics (and other segments).

MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: Matchplay
Here's the newest blog entry by Matt Hetherington as he prepares for the Worlds.

3T Table Tennis Training
Here's a table tennis coaching site with lots of video.

Five Olympians Headline Fields for U.S. Olympic Table Tennis Trials
Here's the USATT news item.

Strongest Ever ITTF World Tour Begins in Berlin
Here's the ITTF press release.

Ask a Pro Anything: Chuang Chih-Yuan
Here's the video (6:20). "Chinese Taipei's table tennis superstar Chuang Chih-Yuan takes on the ITTF Ask a Pro Anything challenge! Watch to learn more about this table tennis champion as he tries to answer questions from his fans." And he (and Adam Bobrow) also do some dancing!

ITTF Legends Tour
Here's their new promotional video (2 min). Their next event is on Feb. 5 in Ans, Belgium, with Waldner, Persson, Gatien, Schlager, Saive, and Kreanga. Here's the home page.

Fan Zhendong & Ma Long, Fang Bo Training
Here's the new video (5:07).

Fiery Pong
Here's the picture. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Ma Long vs. Dimitrij Ovcharov – Left-handed!
Here's the repeating video (10 sec) as they battle it out!

Side-Changing Vertical Doubles Exhibition
Here's the video (28 sec)!

Quentin Robinot's Practical Joke
Here's the video (7:30) as world #120 Robinot of France disguises himself with a wig, hat, and glasses, and shows up at a club, asking for lessons. At first he pretends to be a beginner who was "pretty good" back in school. Several people keep saying they think they recognize him, but can't place him, while the coach keeps looking confused as he watches the metamorphosis. He finally takes off the disguise and everyone recognizes him. It's in French, with English subtitles.

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Tip of the Week
Should You Develop Your Forehand Push?

Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions, Table Tennis, and Donald Trump
Since the novel has so much table tennis in it, I'm going to blog a bit about that, about recent happenings on it, and about some table tennis scenes – including Donald Trump being in it! There's also some futuristic table tennis in it – more on that and Trump below. But first:

Good news: It was scheduled to come out from World Weaver Press on Jan. 26 – yesterday. Yay!

Bad news: On Thursday, Jan. 21, five days before publication, I received an email from the publisher saying something no author wants to hear: the publisher was closing down, and so my novel wasn't going to be published. NOOOO!!!!!

Good news: The very next day I received an email from one of the assistant editors that she was negotiating to buy the company, and still wanted to publish the novel. The deal is apparently going through, and so the novel is back on track – but the publication date has moved to March 8.

Bad news: The novel was long planned to come out in the middle of the presidential election, since it's a political novel that covers the race for president of Earth in the year 2100. (With a third-party moderate challenge, a father pitted against a daughter, and an alien ambassador observing and often participating.) The plan was to have it out before the Iowa caucuses, which will be held Feb. 1 (next Monday). So we'll lose some of that.

Good news: Without any advance knowledge that Trump would be running for president and dominating the news, he's in the novel!!! Sort of. Hopefully he'll learn of this and sue me or call me a hack writer, thereby putting sales through the roof. How is Trump in the novel?

One of the four main characters, Bruce, is a professional table tennis player who drops out of the pro circuit to run the worldwide third-party challenge for the presidency. He is sponsored by Trump Sports, and uses Trump table tennis equipment! Yep, I decided to make the imaginary Trump Sports a big company in the year 2100, where it's mentioned six times – Bruce uses a Trump Maestro Prime racket, wears Trump table tennis shoes, and at one point browses over a pack of Trump sports cards, where the best table tennis players in the world are featured. (He's disgusted because he's not included. That Trump is such a hack!)

The upside to all of this is that now we'll have time to build up buzz, and we'll still get the novel out during the height of the presidential race. So . . . should I wear makeup when I get interviewed on CNN?

I blogged about the various table tennis scenes in the novel on June 13, 2014. I also blogged on May 17, 2012 about how table tennis has changed in the year 2100. Below are the Trump related excerpts. (And remember, Trump plays table tennis – right? And yes, I'm the guilty party who created this graphic. That's really a headless Wang Liqin. Truly headless!)

Here's where we introduce Bruce's racket and future table tennis technology:

Sling was the latest model of ping-pong paddle, a Maestro Prime covered with Spinsey pinhole sponge, both from Trump Sports. When the ball hits it, the Spinsey sponge compresses, forcing air out through the tiny, angled holes that permeate the surface. If he held it one way, the air would shoot upward from the parallel holes, creating a topspin. If he flipped the paddle, so the backhand side became the forehand side and vice versa, then the air would shoot downward, creating a backspin. He held it in the topspin position for attacking.

Here's where sore-loser Bruce, who's broken his racket after losing a match, is looking for a replacement at shops in the Great Mall of China – a 3000-mile long shopping mall that parallels the Great Wall of China.

And right now Bruce was searching for a new ping-pong paddle. After losing to Twenty-two, he’d broken Sling, his former partner in table tennis. Now he hoped to find another Trump Maestro Prime.

A few paragraphs later:

He finally arrived at the table tennis store. Normally he got his equipment free from sponsor Trump, but he didn’t have time to wait. On the front wall hung hundreds of rackets. Nearly every brand name was represented. There had once been a Bruce Sims model, a modest seller, but it had been discontinued.

He browsed through the Trump brands, and there it was: a Maestro Prime.

Next he’d need new sponge covering, and again there were hundreds to choose from in numerous bright colors. Best to stick with the familiar; he found two sheets of Spinsey pinhole sponge.

Trump’s newest playing shoe was the Firmfoot Adjustable, named for its adjustable traction. Bruce found his size.

He browsed through the rest of the store, with every variety of balls, tables, nets, clothing, racket cases, playing bags, and numerous other accessories. He looked through the latest Trump playing cards, but he wasn’t in them this year.

To learn more about the life and times of Bruce Sims, professional table tennis player and campaign director, you'll have to wait until March 8! (One note – Bruce is really just me unleashed, where I can say whatever I want. Writing his sarcastic dialog was fun!) If you want to read more about the tribulations of the novel and its apparent cancelation/resurrection, I blogged about it this morning in my science fiction blog.

Snow
Schools were cancelled for the fourth consecutive school day here in Montgomery County, where we had about 30" of snow. So no afterschool program today. Other than two walks in the snow, I haven't left my house since Thursday. However, I'm coaching tonight at 5:30PM for the first time since then. Hope I still remember how to play.

2015 USATT Coaches of the Year
Here's the USATT article. This year's winners are:

• National COY – Massimo Costantini:  For his continuing achievements in developing and training players to succeed at the highest levels of the sport, including national champions, world team members, and Olympians.   
• Development COY – Yang Yu:  For his multi-dimensional development of programs for beginner and competitive junior players; and for his technical achievements in becoming one of the first U.S. coaches certified as Level 3 by the International Table Tennis Federation, and in delivering two technical papers to the ITTF Sports Science Congress. 
• Para COY – Matthew Winkler:  For his achievements in helping to develop a U.S. Open and Romanian Open gold medalist.  
• Doc Counsilman COY – Samson Dubina:  For his development and effective use of a two camera, instant playback system for providing immediate analysis and feedback to students, along with online video coaching and development of full-length coaching DVDs. 

Table Tennis Lesson - Advanced Mechanics - Like a Boss!
Here's the new video (4:38) from Brett Clarke.

Backhand Footwork – is it Necessary?
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

New from MH Table Tennis
Here are some new articles from New Zealand Team Member Matt Hetherington

• MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: Matchplay
• Some REAL Advice for Buying Your First Table Tennis Bat
• 6 Amazing Table Tennis Moments When China Didn't Win
• MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: 1 Month to Go!

USATT 2016 Budget Report
Here it is.

World Championships of Ping Pong
King Baggaley Retains His Crown in Epic Final. (This is the $100,000 sandpaper championships in London.) Here's the final (14 min), where England's Baggaley defeats Maxim Shmyrev. Here's a promotion video (4:07).

Butterfly Newsletter
Here's the January 2016 issue.

Interview with Allen Wang
Here's the USATT interview by Rahul Acharya.

11 Questions with Logan Herman
Here's the USATT interview.

USATT News Items
Here's their news page – they've put up a lot of stuff since last week! Some of it I've linked to in other segments here.

The Brain and Ping Pong
Here's the video (2:18), which starts with a Forrest Gump montage, and goes on to how it affects the brain.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC Pong Championships Event
Here's the video (3:37) of the event held at Grand Central Station.

Greater24 Studios Production
Here's the video (7:05) showing how over $250,000 was raised using Ping

Top 10 Most Popular Sports in the World – We're #7!!!
Here's the video (1:47) – table tennis comes in 33 seconds in, for 9 seconds.

Three-Year-Old Plays Pong
Here's the video (15 sec) – he's really on top of things here! Here's a longer version (2:58).

The Dreamer
Here's Mike Mezyan's latest table tennis artwork. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Snow-Related Humor

• Snowy Pong. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)
• Pingpongatawney Phil. (Here's the non-Facebook version.) He predicts whether we'll have six more weeks of winter, so definitely snow related!
• Coolest Table Tennis Serve – in Sno-Mo (14 sec) - Adam Bobrow shows us what we can do about all the snow.
• The Snow is Obama's Fault! Here's my posting on why it's Obama's fault, and what the various presidential candidates would have done – enjoy, and feel free to comment!

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One More Day
The snow is being picked up, but the snow on my brain, after four days alternating between long stretches of lazing about reading and doing crossword puzzles, and sudden bursts of inspiration and frenzied work, needs one more day of recovery. (Translation: I’ve been staying up late, and after going to bed last night at roughly late this morning, I woke up with a headache and eyes that feel like they've run a marathon. Also, local schools are still closed, and I generally take the day off when they do so.) I'll get to bed earlier tonight, and start blogging again tomorrow morning. Promise!

Local schools were scheduled to be closed today for teacher conferences even before a few snowflakes blew our way, so as is my continued policy, when the schools take a holiday, so do I! (I have lots of other work planned, alas.) So no blog today. I'll be back tomorrow Wednesday. In the meantime, here's my (non-table tennis) Facebook rant about the snow and Obama's complete refusal to do anything to stop its arrival - and what other candidates would have done! Enjoy!

Fake Ages in Junior Events
One of the more "inside" problems table tennis faces in the U.S. is the problem of fake ages in junior events. In the U.S., it's pretty much assumed – and almost always correctly – that birth certificates are accurate. But this isn't necessarily true in other parts of the world. In particular, I'm told (and my own experiences seem to concur) that in China, it's very easy to get a birth certificate or passport with a fake age. Here's one article on the topic. "While a global problem, the falsifying of ages is considered particularly acute in China due to the massive pressure on coaches and officials to produce victories and the apparent ease with which false documents can be obtained."

Many dozens of parents have approached me on this, mostly Chinese, because there seem to be a number of players all over the U.S. (all non-citizens, as far as I know) playing in junior events with fake ages. I say "seem" because there's rarely any way of really knowing in any individual case. There are legitimate teenagers who look to be in their twenties, and it's not their fault that they look older. For all we know, it's the faster-maturing kids who do well, and that's why there are so many juniors from China who look older than their listed age.

But I'm told that in China, junior ages are like speed limits in the U.S., where few people follow them. If the speed limit in the U.S. is 55, then everyone should drive under 55mph, right? Of course they should; that's what "limit" means. But very few do that. If you do, then other cars pass you by. Similarly, if you are in an under 12 event in China, then players should be under age 12, i.e. 11 and younger, right? But I'm told that in a typical under 12 event in China, most of the players will be several years older—if you aren't, then those you compete against will be older and so will likely pass you by. And so they are given false ages at an early age so they can better compete – if they don't, then they are at a big disadvantage. And so the result is lots of kids with false ages. (See quote from article above.) And once they start with a false age, it's rather difficult to later admit they'd been lying about their age since they were little kids. Who is to blame here, the kids or the parents & coaches? (Of course, there are others who simply have the age changed for their passports when they emigrate so that they can unfairly compete in lower age groups.)

The problem is that once a topic like this comes up, everyone from China comes under suspicion, and that's not fair. As I wrote, it's rarely possible to know in any individual case. If a player looks well over the age limit, but has a birth certificate or passport that shows he's the right age, what can you do? He may be legitimate, or he may not, but there's no way of knowing. The only good news on this issue is that, so far, the only "suspect" cases are among non-citizens, so I don't think it has affected play at the U.S. Nationals. But it's only a matter of time before an "old looking" Chinese junior becomes a U.S. citizen and qualifies for the U.S. Nationals. He may or may not be legitimate – we just won't know. When that happens, it'll become a bigger issue. (And that's when I'll link back to this article, where I'm predicting this problem.)

I have spent a huge amount of hours in discussions with parents and others on this issue, many of whom approach me at tournaments, frustrated with apparently older players playing in events that might not be eligible for. (Believe me, it's equally frustrating to me. Also frustrating to me is that most of the parents who approach me seem to believe this issue hasn't come up, when I've spent a huge amount of time discussing this issue with parents, coaches, board members, and the USATT CEO, trying to find a solution.) There have been numerous suggestions on how to solve the problem, but none seem workable. But before we get into that, here are some of my experiences.

• One year at a 4-star tournament I coached a player in the final of Under 12. At first I thought they were joking when his Chinese opponent went out – he had a mustache and was about six feet tall. I did a poll of 20 people, asking their estimate of his age. One person estimated him to be 18; the other 19 people all estimated him from age 22 to 30, as did I. Yet the tournament director said his passport showed him to be 11.
• At the Junior Olympics one year I coached a player in the final of Under 18. (They had just changed the rule to allow non-citizens to play.) A number of parents complained about his Chinese opponent, who looked to be in his late 20s. They all said he was a regional men's player from China who had come to the U.S. several years before as a full-time coach, and was at least in his late 20s. But once again, his passport said he was 17. He won the event, as well as Under 18 Teams and Doubles, playing the latter two with a student of his who, according to his age listing, was older than his coach but looked his age. Apparently, this 17-year-old coach had come to the U.S. as a full-time professional coach when he was something like 13, after playing on men's regional teams in China for several years and already looking in his 20s.
• Dozens of other experiences, but I don't want to get into each case. They sound too accusatory, and we simply don't really know. This whole issue is unfair to both to those who may play and lose national titles to ineligible players, and to legitimate juniors whose only crime is to look old for their age.

So how do we solve the problem? The answer is . . . there doesn't seem to be a solution. Here are some that have been suggested, and why they don't work.

• Bone density tests. This keeps getting suggested. The USATT High Performance Committee looked into this, and verified what my online browsing also suggested – they aren't reliable, and wouldn't hold up in court. (There aren't many online articles on the topic; here is one.)
• DNA testing for age. Here's an article on this, where they can predict ages based on how parts of the DNA change as we age. "DNA has a process of gene expression called methylation, which gradually changes by turning on or off select genes over a lifespan." The problem is that it also says, "…its margin of error was 3.75 years for blood samples and 4.86 for teeth. Roughly 80 percent of the estimations were within five years, either older or younger." So while it might have potential, it simply is not yet accurate enough.
• Banning juniors from suspect nations. If it could be shown that one country consistently does not have reliable age documents, could we consider banning players from that country from playing in junior events in the U.S.? The problem here is that it comes off as almost Trumpian, where we ban all players from an entire nation because of the transgressions of a few. (It's not banning an entire religion; it's banning an entire country.) I've toyed with this one, but is it fair? What next, do we require them all to wear six-sided yellow stars as well?
• Extreme penalties for those caught. Under this, players caught using a fake age would be given very severe penalties, such as a long suspension and/or fine. The idea is to make it so extreme that players wouldn't want to risk it. The problem is that to date, I don't know of a single player from China caught with a false age. For all I know, there never has been one, just lots of old-looking kids. So if there's no way of catching anyone, threatening penalties may not do much. Plus we'd be going after kids with extreme penalties that are usually reserved for adults.
• Hire investigators. It's been suggested that USATT and/or parents should hire private investigators to check into suspect cases. Putting aside the lack of USATT resources to do this, do we really want to start a bunch of witch hunts? (But I admit it is tempting in some cases.)

I really hate issues like this, where we have legitimate problem but apparently no solution. (On the other hand, I hate even more legitimate problems where there are solutions, but bureaucracy keeps us from solving them, such as the problem with hidden serves and boosting. But that's another issue.)

So, readers . . . do you have a solution to this problem?

Snow
I've got piles and piles of work. And conveniently, here comes about two feet of snow here in Maryland, starting later this afternoon! Local schools have already closed, and I'm pretty sure I won't be coaching again until at least Tuesday or Wednesday next week, so I should get a lot done. Or I might get as much done for a day or two, and then spend the rest of the time getting some writing done or just lying in bed reading. We'll see!

Meanwhile, here's a challenge. Make a table tennis snow sculpture of some sort – a ping-pong table, a snowman playing table tennis, anything table tennis related – and send me a photo, and I'll publish it in my blog next week, along with your name. I might do one myself! (No sending in a picture of a large ball of snow and claiming it's a ping-pong ball – not unless it has the proper labeling!)

Here's a version of "Here Comes the Snow" (3:21) by a bunch of talented fifth graders.

Jon’s Table Tennis Diet…..Seriously
Here's the article from Coach Jon.

Sarah Jalli: Follow her example in these 6 areas
Here's the article by Samson Dubina. What are the 6 areas?

Table Tennis Training - KONG Linghui Butterfly Chinese
Here's the video (59:28). It's in Chinese.

ITTF Presents Jan-Ove Waldner Block
Here's the video (4:02).

TableTennisDaily Podcast #6 - Andrew Baggaley
Here's the podcast (32:14) on world ping-pong champion (sandpaper) Baggaley.

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.

"I'm not that short"
Here's the video (47 sec) as Mudit Mahajan creams Adam Bobrow's receive with an around-the-net smash. I'm not sure if Adam gets what coaches mean when they say "short receive."

Liquid Ping Pong in Space
Here's the video (64 sec) of an astronaut playing "ping-pong" in space with a ball of water!

Getting Through the Day Without Ping-Pong
Here's the (cat) picture. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Ice Sculpture Ping Pong Table
Here's the picture - and note the dragon net! (Here's the accompanying story.)

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A Blizzard is Coming, a Blizzard is Coming!
Yes, it's true. By Friday night we'll be blanketed in snow, with predictions varying from 12 to 30 inches. This could be historic here in the Maryland/DC area. (It'll also dump huge snowfalls along the entire northeast.) The record snowfall for DC is 28" in 1922. The only other time we got over 20 inches was 20.5" in 1899. We had the infamous "Snowmaggedon" of 2010, but that was only 17.8", only the fourth deepest ever. (What made that extreme is that it fell on Feb. 5-6, and on Feb. 9-10, we had another 10.8" inches fall, so 28.6" total – more than the 1922 storm, which lasted three days.) Here's a listing of the 25 Biggest DC Snowfalls.

I'm sure some of you people up north are snickering at us. But you have to remember it's all relative. If you get four feet of snow, but are prepared for four feet of snow, with lots and lots of snow equipment and supplies, it's not a big deal. If you get six inches of snow and are completely unprepared for it – as Maryland and DC are, since it happens less frequently – it's a lot worse. During Snowmaggedon, schools closed for two weeks. (Stop snickering!!!)

Here some memorable table tennis snow experiences.

• Around 1977 I went to the U.S. Open Team Championships in Detroit in a car with Jim Mossberg and a couple others. There was a heavy snowfall on Sunday night, and we finally had to check into a hotel. If I remember correctly, we had to spend two nights there, returning home to Maryland on Tuesday (or was it Wednesday?) night. That was a mess!
• In January, 1996, we had 17.1" of snow – fifth most ever, see listing above. At the time I was the sole owner of the Maryland Table Tennis Center (which had opened in 1992), meaning I was responsible for all its finances. (We're about 15 miles north of DC.) The club basically closed for two weeks, and business was pretty much dead for a month. With no income but all sorts of bills, I had great financial difficulties. This was the primary reason that at some point after that I got a group together to be joint owners. It wasn't that the club was losing money so much as there were such financial fluctuations that I decided it was getting a bit too risky for me alone, since I didn't have a large financial reserve.
• A few years ago we had a snowfall just before the U.S. Nationals, and all our flights from Maryland to Las Vegas were cancelled. Fortunately, at my suggestions, most of us had reserved flights a day early so we'd get an extra day of practice there, and we were able to catch flights the next day and still make the tournament.
• This isn't exactly table tennis related, but during Snowmaggedon, my dog, Sheeba, a small corgi mix, had great fun tunneling through the snow. She literally would run excitedly about underneath the surface, so you could see the top billowing out like a mole tunneling in the ground, and every ten feet or so she'd leap into the air, breaking the snow's surface, and then she'd go back to running about underneath. (Alas, she died last year at age 16.)

Here are some pictures of Snow Table Tennis!

• Snowpong1
• Snowpong2
• Snowpong3
• Snowpong4

Table Tennis Training - Jan Ove WALDNER

• Part 1 (47:43)
• Part 2 (49:43)

Ask the Coach Show
Episode 210 (28:11) – Men v. Women (and other segments).

USATT Insider
Here's the latest issue, which went out Wednesday morning.

Kanak Jha Interview
Here's the interview (2:09) by Barbara Wei.

Angela Guan Interview
Here's the interview (2:14) by Barbara Wei.

GTN's "This is Greensboro" - Olympic Table Tennis
Here's the video (9:30) on the upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials.

Table Tennis Racket for an Arm
Here's the video (70 sec).

Great Point
Here's the video (16 sec) between Kristian Karlsson and Jesus Cantero.

Multiball?
Here's the picture!

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