Let's Revisit the "91-Shot Lobbing Point"

I posted the video a few days ago, and it's all over the Internet. Sure, it's spectacular, the lobbing point of the century. But there's one obvious thing most are missing – why Adrien Mattenet was lobbing in the first place. The video is 2:27 long, and you can watch it over and over, but we're only going to concern ourselves with the first two seconds.

Par Gerell, the lefty on the far side, is serving. He tosses the ball up and slightly sideways and backwards. The rule is the ball must be tossed "near vertical," which isn't well defined. By tossing the ball somewhat high, Gerell can throw the ball a little sideways and backwards while keeping the serve "near vertical."

At first the ball is easily visible, and Gerell actually moves his head backwards, away from the ball. But watch how the ball moves sideways, and Gerell moves his head forward, thrusting it in front of the ball just before contact! Yep, an illegal hidden serve. And that's how Gerell got the easy ball to loop kill that forced Mattenet to lob in the first place.

Here's a five photo sequence showing this. (The white "G" logo on the floor conveniently shows the relative positions of the ball and Gerell's head throughout the serve.)

1. Photo 1: Gerell throws the ball up.
2. Photo 2: The ball moves toward Gerell even as he leans away from it.
3. Photo 3: Gerell moves his head forward as the ball moves towards him. Right about here he begins to pull his non-playing arm away, which draws the umpires' attention away from his head.
4. Photo 4: The ball starts to disappear behind his head – see arrow. 
5. Photo 5: Gerell thrusts his head forward (to our right), and the ball continues moving sideways (to our left), and so contact is hidden behind the head. Compare position of his head in this picture to where the ball was in previous picture (and still moving left) and you can see how well hidden it is!

You can see how Mattenet moves way, way over to his right, receiving the serve with his backhand from the wide forehand. Is he doing that because his backhand receive is better, or because he's trying (unsuccessfully) to see the serve? Probably both. Imagine receiving this serve in a normal receiving stance – you wouldn't come close to seeing contact. (Even a lefty wouldn't be seeing contact, not unless he stood around where the right-hand umpire sits.) End result – Mattenet pops up the illegal hidden serve, Gerell creams it, and just like that – 90 shots later – he's won the point.

From the umpires' point of view, it's difficult to see if the ball is visible, but based on that alone they should call a warning or fault, since the rules state:

"If either the umpire or the assistant umpire is not sure about the legality of a service he or she may, on the first occasion in a match, interrupt play and warn the server; but any subsequent service by that player or his or her doubles partner which is not clearly legal shall be considered incorrect."

However, as we know, most umpires are hesitant to call a hidden serve unless they are pretty sure it is actually hidden. So what's needed is a rule where if a player tried to hide the ball from a receiver, it would be clearly illegal. 

I've recommended changing the rule so that during the serve the ball cannot be hidden from the entire net or net post, or its upward extension. (Here's my blog on that.) Under that rule, either umpire could clearly see that the ball is hidden from the left-hand net post (the one to Gerell's right), and would likely have faulted him. If Gerell were to change his motion to make it at least possible he wasn't hiding the ball from that net post, there's no way he could still hide the ball from Mattenet.

And then we wouldn't have had the lobbing point of the century! (Oh wait, we've already had it, so now we can change to a saner rule.)

To be fair to Gerell, most top players these days are hiding the ball when serving – cheating is rampant since the rules aren't being enforced, and so they do so to compete. (Here's Mattenet on the far side serving 31 seconds into this video, where he does the same illegal hidden serve as Gerell, with contact hidden by his head. A lot of "smart" players are using their heads these days!) To me, whoever hides their serve first is the one in the wrong; after that, if the umpire doesn't enforce the rule, the other player has little choice but to do the same if he wants to compete on an equal basis. My beef is with players who hide their serves even against opponents who aren't doing it to them – as well as with umpires who don't enforce the rules and officials who don't take action to fix the problem.

Capital Area Team League

Enter now - Deadline is Monday! (This is for players in the Maryland/Virginia/Washington DC region.)

North American Championships

Here's the web page, with results, articles, and video (including live streaming. They are this weekend at the Westchester club in New York. 

Getting More Spin on Your Serves

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao, with links to video.

Multiball Training

Here's the video (1:58) - see if you can identify each drill- and do them yourself. Player is Philipp Floritz, 6-time member of German National Team.

Just a Typical Serving Practice Session

Here's the video (1:14). 

Interview with Kevin Korb: "I Bought a Club"

Here's the podcast (30:42) from Expert Table Tennis. Kevin's the 19-year-old who is the new owner of The TopSpin, a full-time, 16-table club in the Bay Area.

Olympic Coach Magazine

Here's the new issue, with links to past issues.

Westchester TTC to Host North American Championships This Weekend

Here's the article.

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.

Switch Hands Off-the-Bounce Counterloop

Here's the video (9 sec). 

"I Can't Play Ping-Pong by Myself"

Here's another Beetle Bailey comic strip that has table tennis, sent to me by Marv Anderson, who points out that Beetle could use a robot. I blogged about Beetle Bailey table tennis comics on May 11, 2015, where I compiled links to 13 of them, all dated. I can't find the date for this one – it's marked "2-2," but I can't make out the year. Can anyone out there figure out the date for this one?

Cat Rallying!

Here's the video (34 sec) – yes, this cat can really rally! (It's been a while since I've posted a cat rally, so this is overdue.)

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Smart Phones and Smart Coaching

Well, I've finally done it. I've bought a smart phone. I've fought the temptation and peer pressure long enough, knowing that once I got one, there'd be no going back. I'm now entering the 24-hour online world, where coaches can check email while students are chasing after balls and perhaps watch a Disney movie on their phone while feeding multiball. 

I'm used to the idea of checking email when I get home from coaching; now I'll be able to do so at any time. I'm not sure this is a good thing. But there's no going back. I've fallen to the dark side - they have cookies. 

I've used smart phones in my coaching. Just a few days ago I had one of my students use his cell phone to video his forehand loop so he could see how he wasn't rotating his hips into the shot. I'll likely be doing this more often. I plan to get a tripod to make this easier. Isn't there an app for coaches to make it easier to video students? (Who'll be the first to find me that link? Email me!) 

I was going to get a Verizon cell phone, since I've been using one of theirs for many years - yes, a flip phone, like the ones used by these two celebrities. Their service has been great, and their cell phone was highly successful in making phone calls. But I received an emergency email from John Olsen, who warned me that I'd be wasting my money. He recommended a Moto E from Republic Wireless, an inexpensive ($129) cell phone that would fulfill all my needs for only about $30/month. (I was currently paying $60/month.) I ordered it on Monday morning, and it arrived Wednesday afternoon. 

I've been too busy on other things to play around with it yet, and haven't yet transferred my phone number to it (my number won't change), but will likely do so this weekend. (However, Coach Cheng Yinghua and one of my students, 14-year-old Matt, have already explored it, and between them and John, I'll get expert advice when needed.) And then, like all reputable coaches, my students will just have to wait on me during their paid lessons while I take regular breaks to check email, surf the web, watch videos, take a selfie, and maybe play a game. Right?

With practice, I will defeat Wally Green and Matt Hetherington and become the World Smart Phone Table Tennis Champion. I can't be beat, I won't be beat!

80 MPH forehand: Learn to put yourself in a difficult situation

Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

Could Ma Long Be the Favorite in Rio?

Here's the article (with link to video) by Matt Hetherington. 

Heartrate-Based Table Tennis

Here's the new video (5:39) from Brian Pace. Note the pulse rate indicator on the right. "Have you ever wondered how high intensity table tennis training affects the heartrate? Watch this video that displays Heartrate in real-time during multi-ball training with Coach Nelson Navarro."

The Story of Jimmy Butler

Here's the USATT video (3:57). 

Ding Ning Tribute

Here's the new video (3:04) on the reigning and two-time World Women's Singles Champion.

Ma Long Tribute

Here's the new video (7:38) on the reigning World Men's Singles Champion.

Happy 27^th Birthday Dimitrij Ovtcharov

Here's his birthday picture, with birthday hat, presents, and cake.

Super Serious Pong

Here's the picture of kids on a makeshift table – let's join them!

"Tiger" Cartoon

Here's the table tennis cartoon from April 16, 1995.

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Are We Done Yet?/Can We Practice More?

It's always interesting to see the different attitudes. Recently I had a session with two younger kids, who took turns, one doing multiball, the other ball pickup. One didn't try very hard except in spurts, kept asking what time it was, kept close track of how much longer he had to practice, and tried to bargain to leave early. The other was silent throughout all this, practicing pretty hard. But when the session ended and the first kid raced away happily, the second one asked, "Can we practice more?" Since I didn't have another session for 30 minutes, we did an extra 20 minutes (no charge). He got some good stroking and smashing practice. (We did it live, not multiball.)

You can always tell which ones will get good. Sure, there's talent (let's not start that argument for now!), but the ones who are determined to get good have this disturbing tendency to get good, while those who want to get out of practice or don't try have this weird tendency to not get good. I don't understand it!!!

On a related topic, long-time and older players often find themselves hitting the wall in their attempts to improve, even when they try hard. Often they start to give up, as even though they practice more (like the second kid above), they don't improve as much as they'd like. For those, I suggest taking a look at what they are practicing. I've seen players lose match after match because they couldn't block, and afterwards spent all their time practicing their attack. Or players who lose over and over because they couldn't return serves, and afterwards spent all their time practicing their attack. Or players who lose over and over because their serves are weak, and afterwards they spent all their time practicing their attack. (See a pattern?)

Of course, there are other types, who practice very hard on something they need in their game, but once a game starts goes back to their old habits and so never incorporate their new talents. When you incorporate a new talent, you will usually lose at first. Accept that as the short-term cost for long-term improvement.

The quickest way to improve, and the quickest way for a coach to see if a player is really serious? See how much time they spend practicing their serves on their own. (Or receive.) But don't just practice simple serves – aim high and develop advanced serves. See a coach or top player for help, or study videos of top players serving. And then work on these advanced serves. This article might help: Practicing Serves the Productive Way. (I've met at least two players who were no more than 1000 level other than serves, but their serves were at least 2000 level. Both studied videos of top players serving, and then guess what they were practicing in their basements all the time?)

Help Khaleel Asgarali Compete and Train in Germany

Here's the funding page. He's a top player and coach here in Maryland. Here's how his bio starts – to read the rest, go to the funding page! "My name is Khaleel Asgarali and I have dedicated my life to the sport of table tennis. I was born in Trinidad and Tobago but migrated with my family to Maryland in 1992. My father was a top table tennis player in our homeland so I naturally was trained at an early age to follow in his footsteps."

Risk Taking Out on the Table

Here's the new coaching article from Matt Hetherington.

Never Turn Down the Chance to Try New Table Tennis Equipment

Here's the article from Table Tennis 11.

11 Questions with Adam Bobrow

Here's the USATT interview with the Professional Table Tennis Commentator, Actor, Voice Actor, MC, Comedian & Ping Pong Pro at SPiN Standard.

Ma Long – Topspin Near the Table

Here's the new video (3:14) of the men's world champion. [NOTE - the comment below points out this is just an "bad copy" of an excerpt from this video (55:29) from 2013. The copies part starts at 31:08.]

100 Days to the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals

Here's the new promotional video (46 sec).

Czech Open Women's Final

Here is the highlights video (4:09) of the final between Ai Fukuhara and Jeon Jihee.

Ping-Pong Around the State of Maine

Here's the video (2:38).

Playing Ping-Pong in Shorts, Just Like a Red

Here's the article in the Washington Post – lots of fun language, with the ping-pong mention in the last paragraph.

"I don't always play ping pong. But when I do…"

Here's the meme!

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Backhand Serves From the Middle and Forehand Side

Over the last few days I've watched several players practice backhand serves. They worked really hard at it, and yet they were missing something. All four players only did the serve from the backhand corner. (They were all righties.) That's okay, but it's lacking. Germany's Dimitrij Ovtcharov might have the most effective backhand serve among top players, and he usually serves it from the middle and even the forehand side. Here's a video of him doing the serve, in slow motion. (The video is 3:12 long and shows all his serves, but the link should take you to his backhand serves, which start at 1:22 and go to the end.)

By serving from the middle or forehand side of the table (and we're again assuming righties – lefties adjust), you get the following:

1. An angle into the receiver's forehand, especially short forehand, forcing the player to step in over the table and make what for many is a somewhat awkward forehand receive. (Most players favor backhand against short serves.)
2. If you put backhand serve sidespin on the ball, the ball jumps even further into the forehand angle, making the receiver even more uncomfortable. This is why most players who serve short to the forehand from the middle use backhand, tomahawk, or reverse pendulum serves, since those sidespin will jump left (for a righty).
3. By forcing the receiver to cover the short forehand, he tends to leave the wide backhand open. If you can use the same motion and serve short to the forehand or long to the backhand, you can cause havoc.
4. Players are so used to serves from the backhand side that when someone does the same serves from the middle or forehand side, the serves become unfamiliar and they become uncomfortable.

The downside, of course, is that serving from the middle or forehand side leaves you out of position, especially if you want to play a forehand follow-up. But you have more time than you think! Watch how Ovtcharov finishes the serve by moving back into position. It's part of the serve.

Because so many players serve from the backhand side, I tend to do that with my students. But they all know that, at key times if it gets close, I'll step over to the my forehand side and win free points by throwing serves at them that are no different than my normal ones, but coming from a different angle they are completely different. It's all a part of Do Something Different!

Health Benefits of Table Tennis Chart

Here's the chart.

Alzheimer's Table Tennis Therapy Program

Here's the video (1:22).

U.S. Olympic Trials Host Venue Request for Proposals

Here's the USATT article – want to host them in your area?

Support from Olympic Solidarity and Xiom Enables Samoa to Turn Up the Heat

Here's the ITTF article, which features Richard McAfee, who recently ran camps for players, teachers, and coaches in Samoa during two visits.

World’s Best Defensive Players Joo Sae-Hyuk and Hou Ying Chao Compete at 2015 Butterfly Los Angeles Open

Here's the story by Barbara Wei.

Ask a Pro Anything: Hugo Calderano

Here's the interview video (3:48) by Adam Bobrow, where the Brazilian Pro answers questions. Find out why they are turtle surfing and watch Hugo solve a Rubik's Cube in 11 sec!

Rafael Nadal Plays Swedish Table Tennis Champion Malin Pettersson

Here's the article and video (2:01) from yesterday's Wall Street Journal.  

Meet the Teen who Beat Rafael Nadal (at ping-pong)

Here's the video (1:33) from Fox5 News, featuring Estee Ackerman. Yep, that's two Nadal table tennis stories today!

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 6

It's now online, covering tournaments from April, 1988. (Want to buy a copy? Here's Tim Boggan's page! Disclaimer: I do the page layouts and photo work.)

Lots of pictures from 1988 – including ones of (in order - and I placed all these pictures on the page, with Tim looking over my shoulder and giving the orders!): Gary Hranek, Jim Goodwin, Sally Dahlin, Rutledge Barry, Ricky Seemiller, Attila Malek, Khoa Nguyen, Wei Wang, Lan Vuong, Jack "Buddy" Melamed, Sam Houston statue, Gary Fagan, Cliff Metzger, Terri Weaver, Christian Lillieroos, Kelton Jago, Derek May, W.C. Cleveland, Brian Pace, Pete May, Rocky Wang, Dave Sakai, Danny Seemiller, Pat Cox, Mitch Rothfleisch, Joe Ng, Eric Boggan, Sean O'Neill, Cheng Yinghua, Mariann Domonkos, Insook Bhushan, Julie Barton, Carolyn Sylvestre, Tomiko Ly, Jane Chui, Dave Strang, Gene Lonnon, Ardith Lonnon, Larry Rose, a cartoon, Julian Millan, Christian Lillieroos, Rong Lillieroos, Ardith Lonnon, Lisa Gee, Rong Li, Marta Zurowski, Scott Butler, Khoa Nguyen, John Allen, Christian Lillieroos, and Khoa Nguyen.

Maryland Table Tennis Center September Newsletter

Here it is – I'm the editor. This is our 40^th monthly issue since I started it up.

Tri-State and DC Championships

Here's the article and results for the tournament, which was for players from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington DC.

Czech Open Video Montage

Here's the video (3:26). It was held this past weekend; here's the ITTF page for it.

Just Some Junior Training

Here's the video (2:35).

Asian Table Tennis Movie?

Here's the movie poster.

The Hindu Goddess Durga Playing Table Tennis?

Here's the video (9 sec).

More Mike Mezyan Pictures

NOTE - If you are unable to see these pictures, all you have to do is join the Table Tennis Group - it's easy! Here are all the past, present, and (soon) future pictures he's collected. (I pick out his best ones for here - he has more.)

• Crabby Table and the Great Net of China Pong?
• Cat Pong (What's on your mind?)
• Sign Pong ("I've got 99 problems, but ping-pong ain't one.")
• Pong Art (blobs play pong?)
• Baseball Pong? (Huh?)
• Lunch Pong (now I'm hungry)
• More Cake Pong (now I'm really hungry)

Country Ping-Pong

Here's the picture!

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Tip of the Week

How to Serve to the Backhand Attacking Receiver.

School is Back

And with that, the eleven weeks of summer training camps at MDTTC are over. It means that, once I catch up the zillion items on my short-term todo list, I'll have more time during the day to do all the USATT stuff I promised to do when I ran for the Board of Directors, as well as recent appointments as chair of the USATT League Committee and as Regional Associations Coordinator. (These are all unpaid, volunteer positions. What is wrong with me???) I'll be blogging about those activities now and then. Since I generally finish the blog Mon-Fri around 9:30 or 10AM, that means I have to do most of that work either between that time and 2:30PM, or at night after coaching. (I sometimes have free mornings on weekends, but not always.)

But it also means we start up our Afterschool Program again, and begin coaching kids after school, both as part of that program and in private lessons. I'll be leaving to pick up kids at 2:30 this afternoon. It's actually a slow day; I'll be done coaching today at 5PM.

That pesky short-term todo list is a bit irritating, as every time I cross something off, it seems like there are two more items on it. Today I've got a number "easy" things to take care of – after finishing the Tip of the Week and blog this morning, I'm off to run errands: bank, post office, haircut, and (I dread this) I'm thinking of finally stopping off at the Verizon Store and getting a smart phone. ("Come to the Dark Side! We have cookies and you're constantly online checking email, forums, web pages…") I probably should research Verizon smart phones first.

There's also a lot of table tennis items on the todo list. I have some proposals on hidden serves and boosting I've blogged about I plan to formalize and send to the USATT Rules Committee. I have a number of local juniors to contact about our upcoming junior programs at MDTTC. There are a few press releases I need to create and send out about various items. There's the usual "class accounting" I do each week, where I update the rosters, schedules, and finances for the classes I teach. And 17 other items I won't bore you with.

I miss the good old days, when all I worried about was developing my own game!!!

91-Shot Lobbing Point!

Here's the unbelievable rally (2:27) between Par Gerell (SWE, world #49) and the lobbing Adrien Mattenet (FRA, world #51) this past weekend in the round of 16 at the Czech Open – at 10-all in the seventh! (Par would go on to win – brace yourself – 17-15! Alas, he'd lose to Japan's Yoshimura Maharu next round in the quarters.) When I saw the length of the video I assumed it included slow motion replay – nope, it's almost all rally, and not a single push! I've pondered this question before, and I'll ponder it again: Why do so many of the greatest points take place at deuce?

Help Wanted – Full-Time College Table Tennis Coach

Here's the help wanted posting by the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta.

Using the Reverse Pendulum Serve

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao.

McAfee's Mechanics: Preparing for Competition with Tactical Training Sessions

Here's the new coaching article from Richard McAfee.

The Quickest Way to Improve Your Win Percentage

Here's the new coaching article by British coach Tom Lodziak.

North American Girls Meet at Lily Yip Table Tennis Center

Here's the ITTF Article.

Washington DC Council Will Face Off on Ping Pong Tables

Here's the article about the upcoming DC Council Table Tennis Tournament, this Friday at Farragut Park. Alas, no time is given, and I couldn't find the time via Google. (Interesting tidbit: One of the members participating, Jack Evans, is brother-in-law to Sheri Cioroslan, who many of you remember as former USATT President Sheri Soderberg Pittman.)

Table Tennis Got Talent

Here's the new highlights video (6:48).

Training a Two-Year-Old?

Here's the video (49 sec)!

Serena Williams vs. Stan Wawrinka

Here's video (1:32) as the two tennis stars ping it out.

Dog and Ping-Pong Ball

Here's the cartoon!

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MDTTC Camps – Eleven Weeks Comes to an End Today

Today our eleven weeks of camps come to an end. We're finishing with a good-sized group, with about 40 players in all. Here's a camp photo from the Wednesday morning session, which is missing a few players who join us in the afternoon.

40+ Butterflies and JOOLAs and Nittakus and Double Fish and Xu Shaofao, Oh My!!!

We're still in the ongoing "Silly Season" (going on 1.5 years now), where training centers and clubs have deal with players training with multiple of the new plastic 40+ balls, which all play differently, and keep them all separate. Last night at MDTTC was illustrative. 

We're sponsored by Butterfly, and we're supposed to get plastic training balls in a month or so. Until then, we're still stuck using celluloid balls for much of our training. But as tournaments come up, things get complicated. We use Butterfly 40+ balls for our local tournaments, and since we had a tournament last weekend, guess what participants were training with the week before? But when the Teams in DC come up in November players will have to adjust to the JOOLA 40+ ball, and they play differently. And when the Open and Nationals come up, players will train with Nittaku Premium 40+ balls, which also play differently. 

But it gets worse. This Sunday there's a tournament as SmashTT in Virginia, where they'll be using Xu Shaofao seamless 40+ balls. Since my student Sameer is playing there, we had to buy 24 to use to train just for that tournament. But while we were using those last night, and others were using celluloid, Derek, who's playing in the North American Championships in a week, is training with the single Double Fish 40+ ball he has. So we're spending much of our time trying to keep the various balls separate, despite playing on adjacent tables (barriered off, but balls regularly go over the barriers). 

Training with one ball may seem "normal" for many, but not at a training center. Using one ball may be old school, but it means you spend most of your time chasing after and picking up the ball; you get probably three times as much practice time per session when you have a box of balls. 

The Hidden Serve Solution for Table Tennis

Here's the article by Coach Jon. He makes his own proposal, but also refers to my proposal, where you cannot hide the ball from the opponent or any part of the net assembly and its upward extension (not just the net posts, as he wrote). I of course agree with him about my proposal, that "it would be a great change and would be much easier to enforce" (compared to the current rule). 

However, I disagree on the point about whether it could be enforced without an umpire. It's no different than the six-inch toss rule, which parallels my proposal very closely, and is generally enforced without an umpire. Many forget that the reason for the six-inch toss rule was because players were serving out of their hands – it was becoming a big problem. (Back then the rule was the ball must be contacted on the drop, but it was hard to tell if that happened when players used a 0.0000001" toss.) Originally it was going to be a 3" inch toss, but the problem there was that players might then get away with a lower toss, making it hard for the receiver to pick up. So they went with six inches.

Result? Few players these days serve out of their hand. Some might get away with 5" tosses, and if opponents put up with it, some might still be serving out of their hands in practice matches or even tournaments. (If it happens in a tournament, you call for an umpire.) But the widespread serving out of the hand ended. That's similar to the purpose of my proposal – not to make it illegal to hide the ball from the net, but to stop the widespread hiding of serves. If a player gets away with tossing the ball 5" or hiding it from one net post, he may or may not be called, but the rules will have worked – he won't be serving out of his hand or hiding contact from the receiver.

His proposal was that players would basically need to face the table in a backhand stance: "An enforceable rule could be that players must have their bodies facing the table at any angle that does not involve either leg crossing in front of the other." (There have been periodic proposals in the past to require backhand serves only, but none had any chance of ever passing.) I see three problems:

1. It needs to be worded more specifically. When a player illegally hides his serve with a forehand serve, his legs normally are not crossing in front of each other. I'm not sure I'm understanding what he's requiring here.
2. I can face the table in a backhand stance, with legs parallel to the table (and so not crossing, as he requires), and still rotate sideways from the waist enough to easily hide the serve with my head or shoulder.  
3. It'll mean taking away essentially every forehand serve, by far the most popular serves, unless players simply rotate sideways from the waist, as described in #2 above – which would defeat the purpose of the proposal. Putting that aside and assuming it did make forehand serves illegal, it would be a very drastic change, probably more drastic than any rule change we've ever had. From a simple reality standpoint, no rule change will pass the ITTF without the approval of the players, and it'll never pass. I believe my proposal has a far better chance of passing as it doesn't take away forehand serves, only the illegal ones – and the players I've spoken to are fine with that, as long as opponents also can't hide their serves.

"Sick" Yesterday?

When I got up yesterday morning I planned on doing a blog. But I also woke up with a stomachache. At first I thought it was nothing, but I was so tired and had so much work to do I decided I'd have to skip the blog. As the morning went on it got worse, and started getting chills. (I think that means I had at least a slight fever.) I have no idea what it was – some sort of minor food poisoning? - but I ended up spending much of the day in bed. And here I was planning on getting a lot done. Hopefully today will be better. 

Brain Games: How Ping Pong Can Make You Smarter

Here's the video (2:08) on Neuroplasticity.

USATT Insider

Here's the new issue, which came out Wednesday morning.

Interview with Samson Dubina

Here's the podcast (42:57) from Expert Table Tennis, where he discusses a horde of stuff – see bulleted list.

Table Tennis – Our Story

Here's the new motivational video (5:12).

Pink Pong for Cancer

Here's the new video (4:15).

Timo Boll vs. Fan Zhendong in the Chinese Super League

Here's the highlights video (5:55).

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.

Roller Skate Pong

Here's the video (1:43) of Jim Butler and others playing on roller skates – it's hilarious as starting about 10 seconds in Jim lobs, does footwork drills, and spins and strokes! (Correction: As Doug Harley emailed, those are hovertrax they are using, not roller skates.) 

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Day Off to Work

Alas, I need a day off to catch up on the 314,159 things on my todo list – I'll have pi all over my face if I don't get them done soon. So no blog today – I'll be back tomorrow. Meanwhile, here are a few items! 

2015 USATT Hall of Fame Inductees and Lifetime Achievement Award

Here they are – and they include Coach Jack Huang from my club! (I may write more about this later. It's a big group this year – usually only 2-3 are inducted.)

Insane Rally

Here's the video (29 sec).

I Have No Idea What This Is

But here's the table tennis cartoon! Any suggestions for a caption?

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Samson Dubina on Boosting in Table Tennis

Here's the podcast (6 min), from Ben Larcombe at Expert Table Tennis. Here's my blog on boosting and my blog on hidden serves (one of many). Both contain my recommended solutions.

Here's a good analogy about what's happening in our sport. Suppose you trained for many years for the Olympic 100 meter dash. Then, in the final, as you took the starting blocks for the big race, the race official walks over and says, "Anyone who wants a two-meter head start, feel free to take it – it's against the rules, but we'll allow it." Now imagine nearly all the others moved two meters ahead, and you knew you had little chance of winning unless you joined them. But if you didn't, all those years of training and all your dreams are dashed because an official is allowing others to cheat. Guess what? That's exactly what's happening in our sport, both because of boosting and because of hidden serves.

I am so tired of watching this happen to players in our sport, especially up-and-coming juniors who play fair and are cheated out of titles by cheaters and those who allow the cheating.

We're honoring the cheaters and cheating the honorable.

I will be sending the proposals from my blogs on both of these to the USATT Rules Committee. I'll let you know what happens. Meanwhile, the following video also goes over all the cheating that's taking place at higher levels, but in a more humorous fashion.

Cheating in Table Tennis

Here's the hilarious video (6:05). Near the end there's a quote from Heywood Broun that all those players out there who hide their serves against opponents who do not should consider:

"Sports do not build character. They reveal it."

Tim Boggan's History of U.S. Table Tennis

USATT has been putting the chapters of these now 16 volumes, one by one, but just the text. Now they are putting up PDFs of the actual pages, so you can see the actual layouts, photos and all! They just started this with Volume 16, which covers 1988-89. Here's the first five chapters. Later on we might do the same for the first 15 volumes.

But you know something? There's nothing like having an actual book in your hands. So if you want actual copies (or feel guilty about reading it for free, after all that hard work by Tim and others), here's Tim Boggan's page, where can order any of the 16 volumes. (Disclaimer: I did the page layouts and photo work for volumes 2-16, and created and maintain his web site. Every time someone views his web page an angel child gets his wings paddle.)

Coaching Update

Tuesday was another busy day, even though I only coached the morning session of our camp. I ran errands and then did paperwork all afternoon, then returned for 1.5 hours of private coaching. Most weeks we have several beginners in the camp, but this time only one. She's working hard on catching up, and after one day can hit basic forehands and backhands.

But the most memorable moment was when I was coaching a kid who kept reaching for balls instead of stepping toward them. I began feeding the ball wider and wider to force him to move rather than be "reachy." Well, the word has taken off, so without further ado, I am hereby copyrighting the term "reachy," which describes any player who tends to reach for the ball rather than move. Anytime you use the term you owe me a dollar.

How I lost 35 Pounds from Playing Ping-Pong

Here's the article from Matt Hetherington.

USATT Committees

They were recently updated to reflect numerous changes. Here they are! (One small change will be coming up – as noted in yesterday's blog, the Hardbat Committee is now the Classic Table Tennis Committee, covering both hardbat and sandpaper.)

Men's World Cup Invited Players

Here's the listing. As noted in yesterday's blog, there's a glaring absence – no Timo Boll. But there is USA's Jimmy Butler - qualified by winning North American Cup Men's Singles Championships – which once again gives me an excuse to link to this photo of the "elderly" Butler winning the title! Sorry Jimmy. Can't resist! And we'll follow that with this…

Jimmy Butler's Funny Face Reaction

Here's the video (51 sec) as he reacts to a point he's watching.

August National Collegiate Table Tennis Newsletter

Here it is.

Why Ping-Pong Tables Are a Must for Start-Ups

Here's the article from Business Insider. 

Top 10 – Best of 2015 ITTF World Tour Super Series

Here's the video (8:03).

Epic Ping Pong Trick Shots

Here's the video (3:10).

Amazing Table Tennis

Here's the video (8:38), which starts with an incredible exhibition rally.

Waldner-Style Blocks by Lee Sang Su

Here's the video (28 sec) – and he does two that are worthy of the Master!

Smack in Mouth

Here's the cartoon! Any suggestions for a caption?

MDTTC August Open

It was held this past Saturday, Aug. 22, at MDTTC (my club). Here are complete results, care of Omnipong. Here are the main results:

MDTTC Open, Aug. 22, 2015
Open Singles – Final: Ruichao Chen d. Jianho Sun, 5,5,6,-1,3; SF: Chen d. Chen Bo Wen, 9,5,8,3; Sun d Wang Qingliang, 5,-6,-7,6,-8,3,6; QF: Chen d. Jeff Hsin, 6,4,10; Chen d. Sun Xizi, 9,10,9; Wang d. Allen Lin, 9,10,10; Sun d. Derek Nie, 6,8,6.
Under 2300 – Final: Ryan Dabbs d. Spencer Ip, 7,-9,8,-10,4; SF: Dabbs d. Allen Lin, 6,8,6; Ip d. Sun Xizi, 8,9,-1,-6,6.
Under 2000 – Final: Spencer Ip d. Eric Li, 5,6,6; SF: Ip d. Leonid Koralov, 8,9,3; Li d. Mohamed Kamara, 13,7,3.
Under 1700 – Final: Sam Berry d. Leonid Koralov, 9,8,5; SF: Berry d. Louis Levene, 7,-12,10,5; Koralov d. Hal Barnes, -10,8,13,5.
Under 1300 – Final: Hassam Alkadi d. Walid Alkadi, -5,7,-4,7,0; SF: H.Alkadi Liu Kallista, 5,11,3; W. Alkadi d. Jeff Howes, 7,-7,13,3.
Over 50 – Final: Nazruddin Asgarali d. Jeff Pepper, 7,1,6; SF: Asgarali d. Chris Buckley, 4,9,5; Pepper d. James Wilson, 3,11,1.  
Under 16 – Final: Derek Nie d. Ryan Dabbs, 4,6,5; SF: Nie d. Bowen Zhang, 4,6,5; Dabbs d. Eric Li, 7,9,9.

***
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Tip of the Week

Vary Your Receive - Exhibit A: Receiving a Short Backspin Serve to the Forehand.

USATT Board Meeting in Chicago

On Friday morning I flew to Chicago for the USATT Board meeting, which took place Friday night and all day Saturday at the O'Hare Airport Hilton. I literally flew to the airport, walked across the street to the hotel, and the following day, immediately after the meeting ended, ran (because I was late for my flight, which I barely made) back across the street and flew home. Most of what I saw of Chicago was from the hotel window. 

Six of the nine USATT board members were present, including Carolyne Savini at her first meeting (replacing Jim Kahler), as well as myself, Peter Scudner, Mike Babuin, Kagin Lee, and Anne Cribbs. Also in attendance were CEO Gordon Kaye, High Performance Committee Chair Carl Danner, and USATT Legal Counsel Dennis Taylor. Two other board members (Ed Hogshead and Han Xiao) joined in by speakerphone at key times to take part in discussions and vote. (Missing was Ed Levy, who was in England.) This was important since there were a number of bylaw votes, which required 2/3 of the entire board - so six votes were needed, regardless of how many people were present. If five were present (a quorum, which allows a vote), and a bylaw "passes" 5-0, it doesn't pass - it misses by a vote. 

Last Thursday I blogged about the six motions I'd be making. The first one, changing the Hardbat Committee to the Classic Table Tennis Committee (covering both hardbat and sandpaper) passed unanimously (either 6-0 or 8-0 – forget if the two on speakerphone were present at that time). 

Later we got the five bylaw proposals that I blogged about on Thursday. Here's the rundown - refer to the Thursday blog for details and the rationale for each. I prefaced my presentation by making it clear that I'll likely never make another bylaw proposal. (Alas, I'll be making one more - see #4 below.) 

1. MOVE to append Bylaws 9.1, 9.3, and 9.16 by deleting the one instance of the word "advisory" in each. 
   This passed unanimously, I believe 8-0. 
2. MOVE to append Bylaw 9.1, with a one-sentence addition to the end of paragraph 1 in brackets, plus two minor grammar edits.
   There was much discussion of this, with different interpretations of what the bylaw said, and several others thought it unnecessary. Since it wouldn't pass and was probably the least important one to me, I withdrew it. I don't plan to revisit it. 
3. MOVE to append Bylaw 9.3 by the following, with the two additions in brackets:
   Board Chair Peter Scudner thought adding the word "normally" (as in my motion) was sufficient, and that the second half of it wasn't needed. I decided to go with that, and so we added only the one word. I believe it passed 8-0. This means that while USATT committees normally would have five members, they can have more (or less), at the discretion of the committee chair and the board. (Before they could not exceed five.) 
4. MOVE to append Bylaw 9.5 Term Limits by the following. Change from:
   Current wording: "No committee member shall serve for more than three (3) consecutive terms."
   Proposed wording, with the changes in bold: "No committee chair shall serve as chair for more than four (4) consecutive terms."
   Several others on the board wanted to keep term limits to force us to bring in new people, even at the cost of losing good ones (my argument - see rationale on Thursday). The vote was 4-4, and so it failed. I've already put in a new bylaw proposal for the October teleconference to increase term limits from three to four terms, which seemed to be a compromise, and it will likely pass unanimously. (Note - none of this will affect me, as I only plan one or at most two terms as chair of the League Committee. You can quote me on this!) 
5. MOVE to change USATT's Mission Statement.
   As I explained in my rationale, I never liked the USATT's "shopping list" mission statement. Others disagreed. There was discussion of changing it to something else, and perhaps someone will, but when it became obvious it wouldn't pass, I withdrew it, and I don't plan to revisit it.

Aside from above, what happened? Here's a rundown. In a few days the listing of votes will be posted, and later on the more detailed minutes. 

Friday night: dinner at 7PM, then roll call, conflict of interest statements (none had any), introduction of new board member Carolyne Savini, approval of minutes from July teleconference, and a long discussion of the 2018 World Veterans Championships to be held in Las Vegas. This ended with me making a motion to authorize CEO Gordon Kaye to negotiate with the primary backers and organizers for the event. It passed unanimously. We finished around 9:30PM. 

Saturday was much busier as we met from 8:30AM to about 4:30PM. The first item was my motion on the Hardbat Committee (see above and Thursday's blog). Then came a roughly one-hour financial report - all is well (I think).

Next came Kagin Lee's Rules Committee report, which I presume he'll report on later, and I'll link to it. There was a lot of discussion of how best to present the USATT rules, as they are mostly the same as ITTF rules, but there are differences. USATT will be making some rules proposals to ITTF. The most interesting was this one: 2.10.1.16: A player shall score a point ... "If an opponent deliberately disturbs the conditions of play in a way which could affect the outcome of the rally." Currently, if a player were to pop the ball up, he could scream at his opponent or perhaps "accidentally" throw his racket toward him, in an attempt to get him to miss. There's no rule against this, and so an umpire can at most call a let for the disturbance, and perhaps yellow-card the player (i.e. a warning). And so the player getting the popup would only get a let instead of winning the point. There were two other proposals on timeouts, and one that required ITTF approved rubber on even a non-hitting side, so the opponent and/or doesn't have to keep track of whether the player has hit the ball with the illegal side. 

Kagin then gave the annual National Collegiate Table Tennis Association Report. Then came my five bylaw proposals (see above). 

Next was a lot of discussion of ways to enhance the US Open and Nationals. Then came Carl Danner's High Performance Committee report - lots of discussion there, especially about the potential strength of the 2016 women's team, leading to requests to the USOC for more funding. I believe he'll post something about this later. I requested that the team coaches give reports on the relative strengths of U.S. players, which would be emailed to USATT coaches. For example, many elite USA juniors seem to be weaker on receive on average than their overseas counterparts - and if so, the team coaches could request our coaches to focus more on this. 

We had lunch (catered sandwiches), and went back to work. CEO Gordon had a number of presentations, on membership, on sponsorship and fundraising, and one other issue that required a closed session. These took up much of the afternoon. There was a lot of discussion on membership fees for players who only compete in leagues, something we hope to greatly increase. 

Next came presentations from Kagin on the USATT Approved Equipment Program, and on the Ratings Task Force. The latter, like all past attempts to improve the rating system, is running into the usual conflict between wanting a system that encourages participation (and so you can accumulate points) and accuracy (where there's more accuracy but less incentive). We're still looking for a good compromise. 

Then came a closed session covering some legal business, and we were done! (But not before I quipped about my blog on Top Ten Things if Donald Trump were Running USATT.) As noted above, I then had to run to the airport, go through a LONG security line, and arrived at my gate at 5:28PM - with the doors closing at 5:30PM. I got back late on Saturday night, and managed to put in a full day's coaching on Sunday. (I love flying - it's an excuse to sit back and read a novel!)

The Spin-NoSpin Serve

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao.

The Common theme: Learn to Maximize Your Tournament Performance

Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

Ma Long Technique

• Forehand serves (2:00)
• Backhand serves (2:35)
• Forehand and Backhand (5:16)

Sam Preistley: Expert in a Year Book

Here's the podcast (30 min) from Expert Table Tennis.

Health Benefits of Table Tennis

Here's a demographic article on the topic.

Timo Boll Not Qualified to the 2015 World Cup

Here's the article from Tabletennista. Wow - just wow. There are so few Europeans that actually can compete with the top Asian players, and now there's one less, and perhaps the most interesting one. He's #7 in the world (formerly #1), and #2 in the world outside China (4 players ahead of him) and Japan (1). I suggest they take a good hard look at the qualifying rules. With all due respect to the Swedish Junior Champion, he's only #105 in the world, and he's going in place of Timo? (Here are the world rankings.) 

USATT Perks Program

Here's the USATT article. 

2016 USA Men's and Women's National Team Selection Procedure

Here's the USATT info page. 

11 Questions with Matthew Winkler

Here's the USATT interview. 

Interview with Sanil Shetty

Here's the USATT Interview. 

Shonie Aki Scholarship Award

Here's the info page. 

"Top Spin" Review: A King Kong of Ping-Pong Movies

Here's the review from the Wall Street Journal. (The WSJ covers ping-pong movies? Does that mean our sport has made, or that they have lowered their standards?)

Ticks Across the Board for Carmencita Alexandrescu

Here's the interview from MH Table Tennis.

Jan-Ove Waldner Challenges Li Xiaoxia

Here's the article.

Kasumi Ishikawa – Off the Table

Here's the ITTF video interview with the world #5 woman (4:20, in Japanese with English subtitles).

Timo Boll – Off the Table

Here's the ITTF video interview with the world #7 man (5:33, in English).

Dimitrij Ovtcharov vs. Yuya Oshima in Champions League

Here's the video (4:37).

Timo Boll vs. Oh Sang Eun in Champions League

Here's the highlights video (2:57).

Fan Zhendong vs. Timo Boll in China Super League

Here's the highlights video (10:05).

Best Points of 2015 (Part 1)

Here's the video (8:02).

Top Ten Timo Boll Backhands

Here's the new video (4:04).

Shadow Practice Dances from China

The E.L.I.T.E Table Tennis Club just came out with Episode #4. Here are all four of them, plus a link to their video page with numerous other videos.

• Episode #1 (7:24)
• Episode #2 (3:05)
• Episode #3 (2:54)
• Episode #4 (4:00)
• Video page

Tri-Pong?

Here's the picture of this three-way table. 

Happiness is….

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

Skeleton Pong

Here's the picture! Any suggestions for a caption?

***
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No Blog on Friday or Monday

I'm off on Friday morning to the USATT board meeting in Chicago. (See segment below.) I'll likely blog about it next week. I've also got a busy Sunday and have to coach Monday morning, so no blog Monday morning. See you on Tuesday!

Wednesday Coaching

Yesterday we did a lot of footwork drills, put-away drills, and serve practice. The new players are advancing rapidly, the intermediate players are becoming advanced, and the advanced players are trying to scare the Chinese out of their ping-pong socks.

Highlight of the day was easily the start of what was supposed to be lunch break at 1PM. But a strange thing happened - as I was picking up the last few balls and greatly looking forward to my Chicken Lo Mein, one of the kids asked if I would help him with his reverse pendulum serve. We worked on it for a few minutes, and then another joined us, and then another, and by 1:10 I was working with six kids on their serves during their break. (Average age was about nine.) We practiced serves as a group for until 1:45PM, and then we all finally went to lunch. (As well as a 7-11 run.) 

At the end of the afternoon session a bunch of the kids played the "Cup Game," where they built pyramids or forts out of paper cups, and then knocked them down as I fed multiball. The latest twist - they now have someone on permanent build mode, so while the kids take turns knocking it down, one of them furiously rebuilds the pyramids - to great hilarity when they knock it down and his hard work goes to naught. Here's a picture; moments later it was total destruction with dead and dying cups scattered everywhere.

One scary moment - an eight-year-old picked up my phone while I was coaching, and began taking pictures. Then he thought it'd be funny to text the pictures to made-up phone numbers. Then he thought it'd be hilarious to text a photo of me to 9-1-1!!! Fortunately, we received an automated text response that 9-1-1 doesn't receive text messages and to please call. But we spent about an hour nervously looking at the door, half expecting the police to come charging in, guns raised.  

After the camp ended at 6PM I did a one-hour private coaching session. I then stayed late to watch the 13-year-old student (about 1700 level, pushing 1800) play a practice match with a 1900 player. The 1900 player dominated with his serve and with his backhand receive. Learning to return those serves will take practice, but he might have handled the backhand receives better. I spoke to him after the match, and pointed out the three main ways to deal with a player like that, who seems able to attack every short serve with his backhand. First, you challenge him with extremely low and heavy backspin serves, with a few no-spin serves thrown in to mess him up. Second, you challenge him with all sorts of spin and depth variation. And third, you can serve from the middle or forehand side of the table so you have an angle into the short forehand, and then vary between serving short to the forehand and long to the backhand, using the same motion. (It's most effective if you can serve short to the forehand with a backhand sidespin type serve.) This will likely be expanded into an upcoming Tip of the Week. 

USATT Board Meeting

I'll be flying out to Chicago on Friday for a USATT Board meeting. All or most of the nine board members (including me), as well as the CEO, and various staff or volunteers, will meet on Friday night and all day Saturday.

At some point we have to consider saving money by using Skype. (We already have monthly teleconferences.) I'm going to try to figure out this weekend if meeting in person twice a year is worth the money. At first glance, it seems a waste of money, but if the meetings are more productive this way, I'd rather spend the money. I've been to over 50 USATT board meetings over the years, and many were highly unproductive, but these days USATT is a lot more progressive in developing the sport and so we're far more likely to have a highly productive meeting. 

There are an even thirty items on the agenda, some of them short items or part of larger issues, so I'm not going to go over all of them. Of particular interest to me, besides the six items I'll be proposing (see below) are the two items on the Rules Committee report (I'm not yet sure what they are about); four items about improving our major tournaments (Open, Nationals, and others); High Performance Report; and a long segment about various membership proposals. I'll likely blog about these and other issues next week.

Regarding the High Performance Report, I'd like to see something like an annual report to all USATT certified coaches where the U.S. National Team Coaches, who coach our teams overseas as well as regularly see our top players and juniors, report back on what types of things USA players generally need work on. For example, when I used to coach the USA junior team overseas I found that overseas players generally had better receive and physical fitness. (My general impression of our current top juniors is we have mostly caught up on physical training, but still tend to be weaker on receive.) Such a report would raise awareness of these weaknesses so top coaches all over the country could focus on them.

I have one motion and five bylaw proposals at this meeting. For a motion to pass, there needs to be a quorum present, i.e. a majority of the board, and then it passes with a simple majority. That means at least five present, in which case it could pass 3-2. Most likely eight of the nine board members will be present (at least one won't make the meeting), so it'll need a 5-3 majority. For a bylaw to pass, it needs two-thirds of the entire board, meaning six votes. With one board member missing the meeting, there will likely be only eight voters; if so the bylaw proposals would need to pass 6-2. If the vote is 5-3 in favor, they do not pass.

The motion will be as follows:

"Move to rename the Hardbat Advisory Committee the Classic Table Tennis Advisory Committee, which would oversee both hardbat and sandpaper table tennis in the U.S."

This is needed as there are more and more sandpaper events, and there's a huge overlap between the sandpaper and hardbat players - so it makes sense to put them together in one committee, chaired by hardbat and sandpaper promoting maestro Scott Gordon. (He was recently re-appointed to the position he previously held for years.) It puts the administration of these events in the hands of knowledgeable people and likely frees up staff time. 

Below are the five bylaw proposals, including the rationale for each. After getting these five out of the way, I likely will never make another bylaw proposal. But I believe these five are important in varying ways. Meanwhile, once we finish our camp schedule here at MDTTC at the end of August I can focus on the more progressive issues I've promised to work on regarding setting up regional associations, coaching programs and full-time training centers, regional team leagues, and state championships in every state. If reading over tedious bylaw proposals makes your eyes glaze over, skip over it to the next segment! (Or just read the motion and the rationale, and ignore the text in between.)

MOVE to append Bylaws 9.1, 9.3, and 9.16 by deleting the one instance of the word "advisory" in each, as follows. These are the only times in the Bylaws where the word "advisory" appears except when referring to the USATT Athlete Advisory Council.
Section 9.1. Designation. "The Board shall appoint such advisory task forces or committees as the Board believes appropriate, and shall define narrowly the mission and deliverables of such task forces or committees."
Section 9.3. Number. "All committees and advisory task forces shall have at least twenty (20) percent Elite athlete representation defined consistently with the USOC’s requirements and Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act."
Section 9.16.d.4 High Performance Committee: "Consult with the Coaching and Juniors Advisory Committee on shared issues;"
Rationale: By including the word "advisory" we emphasize that these task forces and committees are only there to advise, and not to implement. We can define each task force's and committee's purpose separately, and include the word "advisory" where appropriate, but by including it in the bylaws we are unable to do so.

MOVE to append Bylaw 9.1, with a one-sentence addition to the end of paragraph 1 in brackets, plus two minor grammar edits:
Section 9.1. Designation. There shall be no Executive Committee or other committee(s), entity[ies,] or individuals who have overlapping or superior authority to the Board, such as a “super-board” (commonly called a governing council or general assembly).  [However, the Board may designate committees to perform executive administrative functions.]
Rationale: This is likely the most abused bylaw we have. The Rules and Officials Committee (now the Officials Committee) and the Coaching Committee are just two committees that have long had administrative functions, such as naming officials and coaches for major events. The Board should be able to vote to designate some such administrative functions to committees, on a case by case basis. (The two minor edits are for consistency, giving all three items plurals - committee(s) to committees, entity to entities, while individuals remains unchanged.)

MOVE to append Bylaw 9.3 by the following, with the two additions in brackets:
Section 9.3. Number. "Membership on all committees and task forces, other than for the High Performance Committee, shall not [normally] exceed five (5) individuals[, and will do so only if the committee or task force chair requests more and gives specific reason(s) why extra members would be beneficial.]
Rationale: While keeping committees and task forces small makes them less cumbersome in doing their work and is recommended in most cases, a larger group may be advantageous in brainstorming ideas, and in some cases that is beneficial. Also, some committees and task forces may wish to represent more regions of the country. It is understood that regardless of the number on the committee or task force, at least 20% must be player representatives.

MOVE to append Bylaw 9.5 Term Limits by the following.
Current wording: "No committee member shall serve for more than three (3) consecutive terms."
Proposed wording, with the changes in bold: "No committee chair shall serve as chair for more than four (4) consecutive terms."
Rationale: We are losing many of our most valuable and experienced committee members at an alarming rate. For this reason I believe we need to remove term limits for committee members. The same argument can be made for removing term limits on committee chairs as well, but it might be best to keep some limit so committees don't stagnate under the same leadership. Extending a chair's term limit one more term is a good compromise here.

MOVE to change USATT's Mission Statement.
Current Wording: "The Mission of the USATT shall be to enable United States athletes to achieve sustained competitive excellence in Olympic/Paralympic, Pan American or Para Pan American Games, and other international competitions, and to promote and grow the sport of Table Tennis in the United States, while creating a lasting value for our members."
Proposed Wording: "To Promote and Develop the Growth of Table Tennis in the U.S. at all levels."
Rationale: This roughly matches the Mission Statement of the highly successful U.S. Tennis Association, and gives us a simple statement that we can refer to when considering new issues and programs, rather than a grocery list of separate items, all of which fall under the proposed Mission Statement. (Here is USTA's Mission Statement, which is even shorter: "To Promote and Develop the Growth of Tennis.") Whether we are looking for large memberships or medals at the Olympics, they both are examples of the Promotion and Growth of Table Tennis in the U.S. at all levels.

Two Minute Warm-Up: Learn the 6 vital keys that you must do during warm-up

Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina. 

Ask the Coach Show

Episode #169 (31 min) – Making Kids Cry (and other segments).

New Book - Expert in a Year: The Ultimate Table Tennis Challenge

Here's the new book (in print and kindle), which covers an attempt by a player, working with a coach, to go from essentially beginner to advanced player in a year. Here's the book description:

Sam Priestley was never Mr Sporty. After failed attempts at rowing and running he had all but given up on the possibility of becoming a sportsman. That was until childhood friend, and table tennis coach, Ben Larcombe convinced him to act as the guinea pig in an experiment he had concocted - The Expert in a Year Challenge. 

Starting 1st January 2014 novice Sam was immersed in the world of competitive table tennis. He began training every day and over the course of the year notched up hundreds of hours of practice in an attempt to reach a seemingly impossible goal. There was blood, sweat, tears, injuries, frustrations and moments of elation as the pair travelled up and down the UK, and beyond, in their quest for training, mentors and competition. Sam found potential he never thought he had, got better at table tennis than most people thought possible, and discovered what it feels like when 1.5 million people watch you fail. Here is their story, including all the ridiculous training methods and unreachable goals, and the surprising lessons they learnt from playing table tennis every day for a year.

Don't Forget My Books!!!

While we're on the subject of books, don't forget to buy mine!  

Help Khaleel Asgarali Compete and Train in Germany

Here's the funding page. He's a top player and coach here in Maryland.

Dimitrij Ovtcharov vs. Ying Hang in Chinese Super League

Here's the highlights video (4:01).

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.

More Mike Mezyan Pictures

NOTE - If you are unable to see these pictures, all you have to do is join the Table Tennis Group - it's easy! Here are all the past, present, and (soon) future pictures he's collected. (I pick out his best ones for here - he has more.)

• Hand Pong
• Robot/Armored Warrior vs. the King Pong
• Ping Pong Tables Everywhere Pong
• Mysterious Forest Artwork Pong
• Obama Pong Diplomacy

The Evolution of Man

Here's the cartoon! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

"This Board Meeting Will Come to Order!"

Here's a picture of an actual USATT board meeting in action. That's me standing up.

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