Push Aggressively
Recently I've been harping on pushing with students. Most players push just to keep the ball in play, which is fine if you have no ambitions to be a much better player. Instead, learn to push aggressively. This can be done in a number of ways: faster, quicker off the bounce, deeper, heavier, lower, shorter, wider, with spin variation, spinless, with sidespin – all of these can turn a "keep it in play" shot into a weapon that either forces mistakes or sets up your more powerful shots. Whatever you do, don't settle for just keeping the ball in play.

Some would say that they mostly push to return serves, and that they need to play safe there so as not to make a mistake. That itself is a mistake. If you only push serves back passively, then you'll never learn to push them aggressively – which leads to players pushing passively because they haven't learned to push aggressively. Get out of that passive cycle and find ways to push effectively, both in returning serves and at other times.

Here are a few articles on pushing:

• Pushing: Five out of Six Doesn't Cut It
• Push with Purpose and Placement
• Pushing Change of Direction
• Pushing Short
• Backhand Sidespin Push

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Day 8
Yesterday we finished chapters 18-20 of the 27 planned. Chapter 18 was a monster chapter, with 29 pages and over 100 graphics, and took over three hours to finish. The only things that keeps me going are Mountain Dew, popcorn, and Tim's Taser.

Chapter 18 covered tournaments all over the U.S., including the Louisiana Open (six pages), Wisner Open, and College Nationals. It also had a lot of miscellaneous stuff, from Scott Preiss exhibitions to the Eastern Training Center. Chapter 19 was sixteen pages on the Europeans Championships (lots of pictures) – yes, Tim does lots of international coverage in his History of U.S. Table Tennis!!!

Chapter 20 was "Potpourri," with all sorts of stuff, including President Dan Seemiller's "Where is the Association going" report; feature on Chi-Sun Chui (by me); Tournament Tips by Carl Danner; editorials by Azmy Ibrahim and Rick Hardy; On the Road with Scott Preiss; "Coming Home" by John Hildebrand; "Memo to Our Modern Nature" by Gloria Amoury; Caron's Corner (by Caron Leff); Lazlo Bellak's Table Tennis; Hall of Fame Inductee Lily Yip; Observations on the XL ball by Duane Gall; Umpires for the 1990 U.S. Open by Tom Miller; and Regional Centers by Richard McAfee.

If all goes well, we expect to finish on Saturday, and Tim will drive home Sunday morning. I'll feel like I've just run two marathons, and will still have to coach Sunday from 12:30PM-8:00PM. (Note – after a week of near non-sleep, and going to bed last night after 2AM, I finally "slept late" – getting up at 7:45AM this morning.)

Here are the current stats:

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
Day 7: Pages 217-274, 58 pages, 137 graphics
Day 8: Pages 275-331, 57 pages, 200 graphics
TOTALS: 333 pages (including covers), 1064 graphics, 3.20 graphics per page

Footwork & Physical Training Drill
Here's the video (65 sec). I've done this drill with students at camps many times.

Table Tennis School - Double Training
Here's the video (5:03).

MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: Day 2
Here's the Day Two Diary of Matt Herrington as he prepares for the upcoming World Championships. Why not follow his daily training as he prepares to take on the best in the world? He's on the New Zealand Team, but currently training at the Lily Yip TTC. (I'm not sure if I'll link to his diary every day, but we'll see.)

$100,000 World Championships of Ping Pong
Here's the info page – it's the annual World Sandpaper Championships, Jan. 22-24 in London.

Timo Boll vs Ruwen Filus (German Cup 2016) Final
Here's the video (6:51, time between points removed).

Table Tennis Queen Says China's Economy Will Bounce Back
Here's the video (2:50) of all-time great Deng Yaping – she also plays!

Wreck on the Road: Dean Johnson Table Tennis
Here's the video (4:13).

We are TENERGY Family
Here's the new highlights video (13 min) from Butterfly.

I Just Want to Know What the Rules Are!!!
Here's the picture of this . . . three-way table??? (No, it's not a circular table divided in three like this one.)

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Long Hours for One More Week
Ever have one of those weeks where you work 18 hours/day, spend an hour on meals and other activities, and blink each night and suddenly it's morning and you have to do it again? Well, that's what it's like for me right now, while I work with Tim Boggan on his History of U.S. Table Tennis, Vol. 17 (!). My days are divided into three parts. While we generally start around 7AM, the last two mornings we've started at 6AM. We go until 2:30 PM each day. Then I'm off to the TT club to coach, afterschool program, some tutoring, etc. And then I get home, usually around 8PM or so, and my real day is just beginning as the cascades of USATT, MDTTC, SF, and other stuff keeps coming in. I haven't been to bed before 1AM this past week, usually working past 2AM, and I haven't slept past 6AM, and I've been up by 5AM several times. I'm guessing this isn't healthy, but something keeps my brain from comprehending the problem, whatever it is. (Note – last night I finally went to bed and got up at a "reasonable" time – 12:30AM and 6:30AM. Now I feel as refreshed as waking up the night after playing three days at the Teams…)

Meanwhile, I was so tired while teaching a junior class on Sunday that I kept forgetting names of players who have been in the class for some time. I've always been weak on remembering names, but jeez, it took half the session to remember who some of the kids were. (On the other hand, I could still give detailed info on their games, techniques, and what they needed to work on. Just don't ask me their names when I haven't slept since Satoh won the Worlds.)

I've actually been a bit "lucky" this past week as one student had to cancel sessions due to final exams in his private school, and another came down sick. That helped some. It also gave me less to write about in this column, which generally features coaching. Anyway, we expect hope pray to finish by this Saturday.

I had a new student today in the afterschool program, a 7-year-old who had never played before. He was enthusiastic, though he had trouble paying attention. I had to keep reminding him not to hold the racket like it was the Hammer of Thor – he grasped it so tight his arm practically trembled. It took him a while to hit a single ball in multiball, but he finally came around. What was great was how well the more experienced kids treated him, especially during breaks when they invited him to join in the type of games kids that age play during breaks – you guessed it, lots of video games.

I was going to blog today about the problems of "juniors" playing with fake birth certificates or passports – a serious problem – but I'll save that for when I'm more rested.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Day 7
Another day, another 58 pages and 137 graphics cleaned up and placed as we finished chapters 15-17 of the 27 planned. At this rate we'll finish by the end of the Trump Administration. Chapter 15 really stuck out as it covered the 1990 election, which brought back a lot of both good and bad memories. It was not a good time for USATT (then still called USTTA), and all of the eight officers up for election that year and the following year were voted out in landslide elections. The biggest landslide of them all those two years? My election as USATT vice president! (However, I only spent one year on the board. They needed an editor and coaching chair, and so one year later I was asked to switch, so I resigned and took over both jobs.)

Here are the current stats:
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
Day 7: Pages 217-274, 58 pages, 137 graphics
TOTALS: 276 pages (including covers), 864 graphics, 3.13 graphics per page

Table Tennis FITNESS!!!
Here's the link to the two videos (1:18 and 1:48) from Samson Dubina.

2016 U.S. Olympic Table Tennis Trials Press Conference
Here's the article.

Chinese Squad Trials
Here's coverage from Tabletennista. They finished last week with Xu Xin coming in first, Zhang Jike second.

MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: Day 1
Here's the Day One Diary of Matt Herrington as he prepares for the upcoming World Championships. Why not follow his daily training as he prepares to take on the best in the world? He's on the New Zealand Team, but currently training at the Lily Yip TTC.

Inspire Peace with Ping Pong Diplomacy
Here's the article.

The Dirtiest Word in Table Tennis
Here's the article from Coach Jon.

Tress Way Has Made Winning Ping-Pong Easier For Jay Cutler
Here's the article featuring the football stars.

Sheep Pong
Here's the video (70 sec) (with claymation characters from the Shaun the Sheep movie), where you also visit (I hope I got my landmarks correct!) Rome, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and Mount Fuji, while going around the world in 80 days one rally. Shaun's lobbing makes Michael Maze look somewhat less amazing.

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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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