US Open

I just got back on Sunday from the US Open, and my todo list is now roughly one googol long. I was up nearly all night working on various table tennis projects, and this morning things keep coming up. (Plus I have to leave to coach shortly.) So this'll be a short blog, except for the links below, which are the best of the best from the last twelve days since my last blog before the US Open. (I'll start up with Tips of the Week again next Monday. I changed my mind - I'll have a new one tomorrow morning.) I'll blog about the US Open a bit tomorrow. Here are results, and here's a US Open Review, and here's USATT coverage:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5
• Day 6

100 Days of Table Tennis

Here's the new book by Samson Dubina. (Disclosure: I edited the book for him and did the forward.) Here's where you can buy it on Amazon. I'll likely blog about this more extensively later when I have time. 

New Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina

• Emotions: A US Open Experience
• Ten Dumb Questions

New Coaching Articles from Expert Table Tennis

• The ABCs of Table Tennis
• How to Play a Backhand Loop

Adjusting to Unfamiliar Playing Conditions

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao.

Develop Speed and Agility by Working Out Like a Table Tennis Player

Here's the video (2:28) from The Globe and Mail, featuring Canadian Team Member Xavier Therien.

Ma Long Forehand Flip

Here's the video (2:05).

Paul Drinkhall: England's #1

Here's the podcast (22:24) from Expert Table Tennis.

ITTF Monthly Pongcast – June

Here's the video (13:12).

Top Prize for USA

Here's the ITTF article on USA's Nikhil Kumar winning the World Hopes Tournament. It was held in Shanghai, with players ages 11-12 from all over the world. (But why aren't the Chinese playing in it, in their own country? Also no Koreans. Are they all afraid of Nikhil?)

World Police and Fire Games

Here's the highlights video of the event, which took place in Fairfax, Virginia, June 26-28. Here's the home page, results, and an article.

11 Questions with Lewis Bragg

Here's the USATT interview.

Taiwan and Stuff – China 2015 (Episode 3)

Here's the latest video (5:17) featuring Nathan Hsu in China.

Playing From the (Mechanical) Heart

Here's the article from the University of Maryland TERP Magazine, featuring my student Navin Kumar, who has both a mechanical heart and Parkinson's.

Tribute to Dima Ovtcharov

Here's the video (7:31).

The Path of a New World Champion – Ma Long

Here's the video (12:07).

The Power of Lob

Here's the spectacular video (18:25).

Chinese Stars Tell Us Their Dreams

Here's the video (57 sec).

Team China Plays in the Desert

Here's the video (17 sec).

Backhand Behind-the-Back Smash

Here's the video (12 sec) of Scott Preiss schooling his son.

USA Pan Am Team Attempts Pull-ups

Here's the video (3:12) – apparently table tennis players have more need for lower- than upper-body strength!

The Prisoner: It's What You Do – GEICO TV Commercial

Here's the video (38 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.)

• Colorful Table Pong
• Colorful Table Legs Pong
• Colorful Puzzle Floor Pong
• Haphazard Table Pong
• Mechanical Animal Pong
• Baseball Cap Pong
• Scenic Pong
• Nerdy Ball Pong
• Flying Balloon Pong

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Last Blog Until Tuesday, July 14 (after U.S. Open)

I'm off to the U.S. Open this Sunday, where I'll be coaching and maybe vacationing when I have time. As usual, I don't blog when I'm at major tournaments, so this'll be my last blog until afterwards.

I urge you to browse over the links in yesterday's blog (Thursday, July 2), if you haven't already. Why? I was sick all last week, and so didn't blog from Friday until Thursday – meaning yesterday's blog was packed with links to coaching articles and other items. But it is today's blog that'll be the front page for the next eleven days, and so it'll be seen and read by far more people. (My Friday blogs, which are read Fri-Sun, typically get twice as many reads as my other blogs.) Yesterday's blog had four coaching articles (by Han Xiao, Richard McAfee, Ben Larcombe, and Samson Dubina), plus seven coaching videos (including four "Ask the Coach" from PingSkills), so you don't want to miss those.

2015 US Open – Links

Here are a few – you can follow the action from afar! The Open is in Las Vegas, July 6-11.

• Home page
• Player listing (currently 1065), by name, rating, state, club, or event
• Results (the dropdown menu will later include "2015 US Open")
• Registration and Play Hours
• 2015 US Open Video Preview (2:50) by Jimmy Butler

2015 U.S. Open – Number of Players

It looks like a record number of entries for this year's U.S. Open, though as usual it's not quite that simple. There are 1065 players entered this year, the most ever, excluding 1990 (where it was held in conjunction with the World Veterans Championships and an International Junior Championship, and had over 2000 total entries), and 2013 (which technically had "only" 914 entries, but was run in conjunction with an ITTF Pro Tour event, where those entries were separate – I was told they had 1085 total).

There's another complication. The only data we have on past U.S. Opens are from the USATT ratings database, and they only run from 1994 to the present, and they only include players who entered in rated events – so players who entered only hardbat, sandpaper, or doubles events are not included. There were no sandpaper events until just a few years ago, and the number of players who entered hardbat but no rated events has always been relatively small, probably less than a dozen. I doubt if the number of doubles-only players is very large either, but I'm not sure. This year there are a lot more of these events, so there might be a larger disparity than usual in the number of players entered and the number of players that are in rated events and so will show up in the USATT ratings database.

So how many entries have we received in the past? Here's a chart I created showing U.S. Open Entries, 1994-2015. The figure for 2015 will have to be adjusted as it currently is listed as 1065, but as noted, that includes those not in rated events, while the figures for all previous ones include only those in rated events. My guess is that it'll end up well over 1000, and way ahead of the previous record of 914 listed for 2013. I've been told that the 1974 and 1975 U.S. Opens also had around 1000 entries and I think it was reported in the USATT Magazine.

2015 U.S. Open – Top Seeds

One thing we do need to work on is attracting more top players. Eventually it's be helpful if we could once again be part of the ITTF World Tour, but that's expensive, meaning we really need a sponsor to do it. Otherwise . . . well, like I said, it's expensive, and without a sponsor means we'd have to cut other items an equal amount, which isn't easy. I'll likely blog about this sometime later, at which time I'll get actual numbers needed, etc.

But we did get lots of players – there are 292 entered in Men's Singles! That's likely a record.

Originally Aruna Quadri was entered and was the top seed in Men's Singles at #45 in the world. But two things happened. First, he dropped to #60 in the world (after being #30 as recently as January). And then, he apparently withdrew. (He's no longer listed as entered – I'll check into why when I get to the Open.)

This leaves us with two men in the top 100 in the world: top-seeded Adrian Crisan of Romania, world #54, followed closely by Bojan Tokic of Slovenia at #60 (tied with Quadri). Interestingly, Crisan would be seeded only #4 by ratings, at 2713, but that rating is from the 2009 U.S. Open and so is six years old. By rating, Tokic is #1 at 2836, followed by Bob Chen (2744), Tao Wenzhang (2714 and the defending champion), and then Crisan.

But also entered are an incredible depth of players in the 2600-2720 range. By rating, the top seeds in Men's Singles have ratings of: 2836, 2744, 2715, 2713, 2709, 2708, 2702, 2700, 2698, 2692, 2689, 2682, 2679, 2677, 2672, 2671, 2670, 2667, 2665, 2661, 2659, 2657, 2642, 2642, 2634, 2631, 2617, 2608, 2606, and 2601. That's exactly 30 over 2600, and then there's another 14 between 2550 and 2600.

In Women's Singles there are also two players in the top 100: Elizabeta Samara of Romania (world #17), and USA's Lily Zhang (#94). The depth there isn't so great, with only two players over 2600 (Yuko Fujii of Japan at 2651, but apparently no world ranking) and Samara (2617), along with six players over 2500, and twelve over 2400. Lily at 2530 is #5 in ratings.

2015 U.S. Open – Biggest/Smallest Events

The events with over 100 entries are, in order of numbers, Men's Singles (292), Under 2100 (276), Under 2250 (275), Under 1950 (210), Under 2000 Tiered Super RR (200), Under 2400 (191), Under 1800 (187), Under 1650 (184), Under 1500 (161), Under 1350 (154), Men's Doubles (139), Junior Boys (134), Under 1200 (118), Under 1850/O18 (118), and Under 21 Men's Singles (111).

Events with small turnouts included all the Paralympic events (four had zero, others ranged from 2-5 entries); Over 80 Women (0), Over 70 Women's Doubles (0), Over 80 Women's Doubles (0); Women's Hardbat (1); Women's Sandpaper (1); Women's Hardbat Doubles (1); and Over 85 (1).

Korean Open

Meanwhile, while we're running the U.S. Open here, there's some little thing called the ITTF World Tour going on, with the Korean Open going on right now. Here's the home page with results, articles, pictures, and video.

All About Tenergy

Part 1 and Part 2 (which is new). (Disclosure: I’m sponsored by Butterfly, and both I and most of my intermediate and advanced students use Tenergy. I use Tenergy 05 black 2.1 on forehand, Tenergy25 red 2.1 on backhand.)

Peak Performance: Learn About the Four Stages of a Training Cycle

Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina

When Do You Use Your Best Serve?

Here's the new coaching article by Tom Lodziak.

How to Play Table Tennis in Ten Days

Here's the guide from Expert Table Tennis. Could be a classic beginner's guide!

Navin Kumar – Bionic Man of Table Tennis

Here's the article from Uberpong about Navin – he's one of my students!!! "He is the first Parkinson’s athlete in history to represent the USA in international table tennis competitions as part of the Paralympic Program." He also has a partially mechanical heart.

USATT Insider

Here's the newest issue. It comes out every Wednesday morning.

Six New ITTF Blue Badge Umpires Includes Two from USA

Here's the article. The USA ones are Michael Meier and Kagin Lee.

Even the Greats Miss

Here's video (should go to 71 seconds in) from the Japan Open this past weekend as China's Yan An (world #11, #7 last year) misses against a short lob. Admittedly, the ball had a crazy sidespin that jumped away from him, but it's still funny watching someone that good miss a ball like that.

Around Net Backhand Receive

Here's the weird return at 4:33 of this match between Tristan Flore and Elias Ranefur at the Korean Open.

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.)

• Bird Pong
• Wall Hook Pong
• Ocean Pong
• 3-D Pong

Minion Table Tennis

The Minion Movie is coming July 10. All the younger kids at the club are incredibly excited about this movie – so am I. Why? Because the minions play table tennis!!!

• Here's a picture from the upcoming movie, where they are playing two-on-one table tennis. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)
• Video of Minions playing table tennis (10 sec).
• Minions studying ping-pong paddles
• Repeating Gif Image of Minions playing (we should put this up on every club's webpage!). Here's my coaching analysis (midway through the blog). 

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Our (okay, My) Long National Nightmare is Over

I jumped the gun yesterday in trying to coach all day at the MDTTC camp. When I went in I was still tired, and my voice still slightly hoarse. When I came out I was tired ^100^th power, and my voice was back to a croaking whisper. Note to self: After spending four days lying in bed feverishly sick, it's not good to go straight to six hours of coaching. (As noted previously, I had a suspiciously simple-sounding sinus infection, but that came off as bad or worse than the flu.) 

I've been on the following medications. They are:

• Antibiotics: Amoxicillan and Clavulanate Potassium Tablets
• Guaifenesin AC Syrup (for cough)
• Eye drops: Gentamicin Opth Solution
• NightQuil. I was taking DayQuil as well but the doctor said it wouldn't really help, but thought the NightQuil would.
• Lots and lots of liquids, on doctor's orders.

Today I'm only doing the afternoon session, 3-6PM. This works out well as it gave me plenty of time to do the blog and other things. (Next on list of things I've put off that need to get done: MDTTC July Newsletter. Also a few zillion unread emails.) Overall, the kids in my group are more advanced than normal – all of them are able to play points, and so we were able to play a lot of Brazilian Teams yesterday. (Many kids simply aren't ready for that, and so we do more target practice games.) Only one is actually new; I've worked with the rest before.

I think the kids were happy to see me back. Actually, I think poor Coach Jeffrey was even happier to see me back, since he'd been the one assigned to take my place with the younger kids. Working with a pack of kids might be fulfilling, but mentally it's a million times harder than working with a 2500 player. Here's a comparison.

Working with a 2500 player:

Coach: "Let's do the 2-1 drill."
2500 player: "Okay."

Working with a group of 7-year-olds – and the following is a highly sanitized version. In reality, every other sentence is to remind the ones on ball pick-up to pick up balls, advice the two on the robot to take turns, tell another not to smack balls at another, run over to stop two from chasing each other, and perhaps run to the office for a band-aid for the latest scraped knee. Okay, it's not always that bad – it depends on the group. But the sequence where Arnold Schwarzenegger meets his students in Kindergarten Cop is highly accurate – it really is. But good coaches learn to turn chaos into organized chaos. Here's a typical exchange:

Coach: "Let's do forehands."
7-year-old: "I wanna do backhands!"
Coach: "But you have a good backhand, we need to work on your forehand."
7-year-old, stamping feet: "I wanna do backhands!"
Coach: "We worked on your backhand already. Don't you want to have a forehand too?"
7-year-old: "I like backhands! I don't like forehands!"
Coach: "That's because you don’t practice forehands and so don't have a good one."
7-year-old, suddenly grinning: "Can we do backhands?"
Coach, sighing: "Okay, we'll do backhands. Hey, where'd you go?"
[Several minutes go by as 7-year-old is now crawling under table, quickly joined by the 7-year-old who was supposed to be doing ball pickup. Finally, after getting them back into position, they begin again.]
Coach: Okay, are you ready for backhands?"
7-year-old: "Can we play the cup game?"
Coach: "I thought you wanted to practice your backhand?"
Chorus of 7-year-olds: "Cup Game! Cup Game! Cup Game!"
Coach: "How about if we do two minutes of backhands first?"
7-year-old: "One minute?"
Coach: "Fine"
[30 seconds of backhand practice interrupted by three other 7-year-olds who have dragged huge stack of paper cups to the table, where they proceed to build a pyramid. After raising eyes to the sky, coach shrugs, and picks up balls as they make their creation. Then they line up and the coachfeed them balls as they knock the cups over – never realizing they are now practicing forehands!!! Coach wins!]

Using Your Fingers Effectively

Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao.

McAfee's Mechanics – Ask Questions with Your Serve Placements

Here's the new coaching article.

Improve Your Forehand Loop by Relaxing Your Wrist

Here's the new coaching article from Expert Table Tennis.

Back Injuries: 7 Ways to Keep Your Back in Top Shape

Here's the new article from Samson Dubina.

Ask the Coach with PingSkills

• Episode #144 (18:03) – Japan Open Pick the Winners
• Episode #145 (15:30) – Improving Footwork
• Episode #146 (25:45) – Reverse Pendulum No-Spin Serve
• Episode #147 (25:30) – Should We Change the Way We Warm Up?
• PingSkills Laughing Fit (3:40) – Don't Miss This!!!

Drill Your Skills with China National Team – Part 11

Here's the video (5:59).

Lloyd Gregory: Coaching Theory and Practice

Here's the podcast (27:19) from Expert Table Tennis.

Ma Long Reverse Serve Training

Here's the video (68 sec).

ITTF Level 2 Course in Austin

Here's the write-up of the course held recently at the Austin TTC by Richard McAfee.

2015 World Police and Fire Games

Here's the article. They were held locally, with table tennis at the SmashTT club in Virginia.

Puzzler Will Shortz Plays Ping-Pong 1000 Days Straight

Here's the article and video (73 sec) from USA Today on the famed NY Times Crossword editor and owner of the Westchester TTC.

10 Questions with Paralympic Medalist Tahl Leibovitz

Here's the USATT interview.

11 Questions with Angela Guan

Here's the USATT interview.

USATT Athletes of the Month for June

Here's the article – Tahl Leibovitz, Angela Guan, and Paralympic doubles champions Jenson Van Emburgh & Jesse Cejudo.

Ito & Hirano's Record Recognized by Guinness World Records

Here's the ITTF press release on the two youngest winners ever of an ITTF World Tour event.

USA at the Para Romanian Open

Here's the USA page.

Some Crazy Points at the Japan Open

• Here's the video (30 sec) of the point between Xu Xin (lefty on far side) at Yoshimura.
• Here's the video (38 sec) between Hiroshi Sato and Zeng Jian, where Sato thinks she's lost the point and turns her back, and so doesn't return or even see Zeng's push.  
• Here's the video (55 sec) where Xu Xin is lobbing against Fan Zhendong, and Fan creams one – but accidentally lets go of the racket, and it goes flying. Xu makes the lob return to win the point.
• Here's the video (34 sec) as Shang of China misses an easy shot that any hacker could make, showing that even pros are human.

Ask a Pro Anything: Xu Xin

Here's the video (1:40) with Adam Bobrow and Japan Open Xu Xin. You'll learn about his hobby, who's the best singer on Chinese team, and most of all, his surprising girlfriend!

The Men of Menil Table Tennis Show

Here's the video (1:42) featuring professional table tennis showman Scott Preiss, Jimmy Butler, David Zhuang, Eric Owens, and Mark Hazinski.

Newlyweds Mickey Rooney & Ava Gardner Play Ping Pong in 1942

Here's the video (3:41).

The Secret Life of a Racket

Here's the video (64 sec) by the cell phone used by Tiago Apolonia as he rallies with it!

The Coke Opening Ping Pong Trick Shot

Here's the video (50 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.)

• Get Rich or Die Trying Pong
• Siri Pong
• Pong Art Pong
• White Pong
• Doggie Pong
• Pharaoh Pong

Peek-a-Boo Pong

Here's the picture!

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Blog Returns Tomorrow, and Ding Dong, the Bacteria is Dead!

I'm back!!! Well, sort of. I was pretty sick for four days, but I'm perhaps 90% over it. I'm going to the MDTTC camp to coach this morning - hopefully my energy will be back. I spent yesterday in bed (which is where I've pretty much lived since Friday), and didn't want to get up early this morning, so no blog today. Blog will return to normal tomorrow morning. Alas, I leave for the U.S. Open this Sunday, and I won't be blogging while there, so that means only two blogs until after the Open. 

As hinted at by the head bacterium in yesterday's "blog," I had a serious infection of the sinuses behind and below the eyes. Gunk was pouring out of the corners of my eyes - yeah, sounds disgusting, so guess how much more disgusting if it's coming out of your eyes? There are still big, black bags under my eyes; I really do look like Frankenstein. Hopefully I won't scare any kids this morning. The side effects of the infection were similar to a very bad cold - fever, chills, constant coughing (and coughing up an incredible amount of disgusting green stuff); aching teeth; aching muscles; headaches; laryngitis and a very sore throat; and complete exhaustion, as if I'd been hit by a tsunami. 

Dear Human Readers,

We are the bacteria infecting Larry Hodges’ body. Last Thursday we invaded, using “Pong Blitzkrieg,” where we destroy all enemy forces before us with our tiny paddles and balls. By Friday we had taken over much of his body. He was beaten – fever, chills, coughing up incredible amounts of green stuff (that’s our glorious dead), runny nose (more of our dead), aching muscles and teeth, sore throat, and laryngitis. In fact, there were so many of us that we overran our positions and began to overflow out his eyes – what he called “gunk” was just more of our dead. (Admittedly, a lot of us get killed taking over a body, with all those marauding white blood cells with their super spinny Tenergy sponges that overpowers our hardbats, but we reproduce faster than we get killed and overwhelm the sponge enemy by sheer numbers.)

Our glorious campaign was going so well. And then Larry saw a doctor Monday morning. A DOCTOR!!! How do these quacks look themselves in the mirror, knowing the misery and death they spread among our kind? This mass killer quickly saw that our stronghold was in the sinuses behind and below Larry’s eyes, which we had been trying to keep secret. He gave Larry antibiotics!!! Using these illegal weapons of mass destruction is a crime against bacteriamanity. We appealed to United Bacteria, the worldwide governing body for bacteria, but they wouldn’t intervene – we all know those vermin are secretly funded by Doctors Without Borders and their ilk. The doctor also gave Larry eyedrops, so terror now reigns from the skies on our helpless minions. He also prescribed some other mysterious medication, a secret weapon that attacks the forces holding and torturing Larry’s throat.

We do take secret pleasure in one thing – Larry now looks like what he describes as “Frankenstein,” whoever that is. He has big, black bags under both eyes. And – well, here’s a picture of him this morning.

And so we are now appealing to you, the humans reading this. Stop the slaughter!!! Our forces have been decimated. By this time tomorrow, at this rate, we will all be dead, our paddles broken, and Larry will be back to blogging, coaching, and whatever other pointless things he does. For the love of bacteriamanity (and your own humanity), please intervene, take Larry off his meds, and save us. Our lives matter.

Sincerely,

General Bob the Bacterium
Head of Bacterium Expeditionary Forces
Larry’s Sinuses Behind Eyes

No Blog This Morning

I’m pretty sick right now. Not sure if it’s flu, cold, or something else. I’m seeing a doctor this morning. I put my symptoms into an online medical diagnosis page, and according to that here are the top ten most likely diagnoses: Influenza, Tularemia, Sinusitis, Common Cold, Swine Flu, Infectious mononucleosis, Bird Flu, Lemierre's Syndrome, Sars/Coronaviruses, and Babesiosis. Meanwhile, since I did it already, here’s the Tip of the Week.

Tip of the Week

The Feel of a Shot and a Checklist.

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MDTTC Camp, Sick & Exhausted, and Media

One of the side effects of coaching kids is you are exposed to every germ known to mankind. Yep, I’ve come down sick. It’s probably just a cold – 100 degree temperature, extremely sore throat, aching teeth, the general sick feeling (every muscle feels like it was hit by a tsunami), and complete exhaustion. The problem is I was exhausted before I came down sick, from coaching every day for over two weeks, including coaching all day (and sometimes night) in our camps Mon-Fri, even longer hours on Sundays, and about two hours on my “rest” day, Saturday. So right now my exhaustion level on the Richter scale is 11.0, enough to win a game while destroying half the planet.

Even after 24 years of coaching at MDTTC I’m never really sure where to draw the line at when I should just stay home, for myself but even more so I don’t get anyone else in the camp sick. But I’m sort of needed – without me the sun might fall out of the sky, right?

Meanwhile, we did a lot of smashing yesterday. I was surprised at how fast some of the new players picked it up. One seven-year-old registered his first backspin serve that came back into the net; he was quite excited. Here’s the serve demonstrated by Ma Lin (1:18) on an apparently hot day.

I was interviewed by a reporter from the University of Maryland Alumni Association for their newsletter, which is doing a feature on fellow alumni Navin Kumar. Also had an email exchange with one of the sports reporters at the Baltimore Sun, who is both going to put the results of the Capital Area League in the paper (see below) and do a special on Han Xiao. Strangely, we’re more local to the Washington Post, but they’ve always been more difficult to get into, except for KidsPost, which has twice featured us.

I was planning to do blog about the book Ogi: The Life of Ichiro Ogimura, but I’m just too tired to get into that right now so I’ll try to get to that next week. (Here’s the cover of the English version. It’s not yet on sale through normal channels – I’m told it will soon be sold on Amazon – but you can order copies from Etsuko Enami. The price is $25/copy including airmail postage, which you can pay to her email (ete@yj9.so-net.ne.jp) via Paypal.) I’m also planning to attend the Capital Area League Finals Saturday, but am not so sure anymore. Anyone got any chicken soup?

Local Events

Here are two BIG EVENTS this weekend – if you are anywhere near the Washington DC area, come on out!

• Capital Area League Finals
  The Finals for Division One and Two for the Capital Area Table Tennis League are this Saturday, June 27 – don’t miss it! They will be held at the Washington DC Table Tennis Center from 1-5PM. The Division One final will be between the undefeated MDTTC “A” Team (Alex Chen Ruichao, Crystal Wang, Nathan Hsu, Han Xiao, Klaus Wood – currently out of town, and Derek Nie), and the MDTTC Lions (Raghu Nadmichettu, Stefano Ratti, Heather Wang, and Ernie Byles).
• World Police and Fire Games
  The Games are taking place in Fairfax, Virginia this weekend, starting Friday, June 26, and finishing on Saturday, July 4. The table tennis action takes place June 27-29 (Sat, Sun, Mon) at the Smash Table Tennis Center. Here’s the table tennis schedule, and here’s the general schedule for all sports. Here’s more info on the World Police and Fire Games. Here’s table tennis director Mike Levene next to a Games banner. (If you can’t get that, here’s the non-Facebook version.)

Winning Edge

Here’s the first issue of England’s new online table tennis coaching magazine.

The Forbidden Phrase

Here’s the new coaching article from Samson Dubina – where the phrase “I just need to practice more” is analyzed and banned! Now why would he do that? Read on!

Ask the Coach with PingSkills

Episode 143 (24:20).

Born to Win: top athletes don’t share a single talent gene, but hundreds of them

Here’s the article from The Conversation. Long ago I got tired of debating this issue, but the bottom line is there is such a thing as talent (based on over 30 years of coaching), but the question remains how much effect it has in the long run. I blogged about this on March 11, 2011 and again on August 14, 2013, which repeats some of the items in the first one. German coach Richard Prause also spoke about this recently in this video (2:24). There are always going to be extremists who argue there is no such thing as talent or that talent is the primary requirement (as opposed to a host of factors including hard work and coaching), but the truth is somewhere in between.

USA Table Tennis to Host Finals of 2015 US Open at OMNIA Nightclub at Caesars Palace July 11

Here’s the article from last week in Vegas News.

Japan Open

Here’s the ITTF home page for the event, which is going on right now in Kobe, finishing on Sunday. Breaking News – World Men’s Singles Champion Ma Long, who has been undefeated in the World Tour this year, just lost to his Chinese teammate, unseeded Shang Kun.

Rachel Sung and the Sung Sisters

Here’s the article and video (1:23).

Best Serve in History?

Here’s the video (18 sec) from 2011, with Ma Lin serving to Zhang Jike. There’s also this serve, the fastest one in history. 

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.

An Aerial Roberto Byles Smashing Against Jimmy Butler

Here’s the picture! (If you can’t see that, here’s the non-Facebook version.) “I believe I can fly…”

90,000 Ping-Pong Balls in a Pool

Here’s the video (1:23) of the 1972 Royal Bath Hotel in Bournemouth, England, where they use the balls to conserve heat.

Table Tennis: Not for the Timid

Here’s the artwork.

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MDTTC Camp

Yesterday was a rather peaceful day – no nosebleeds, no meltdowns, nothing more dramatic than a few untied shoelaces. We did a lot of work on pushing and other fundamentals; nine of us went to 7-11 after lunch; and at the end of the day, many paper cups were stacked and smacked to death by excited kids. One thing did stand out today – during all three breaks (morning break, lunch break, and afternoon break), several kids stayed late each time to work on things. At one point during lunch break I was secretly glancing at my watch wondering if I would ever get to eat lunch as several kids wanted me to work on their serves, and so all of me (other than my grumbling stomach) happily went along.

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

Here’s the review of my book by Samson Dubina. I like the first line! You can buy it at Amazon, in print or kindle.

Ping Pong for Quitters

Some of you might have read the book “Ping Pong for Fighters” by Tahl Leibovitz. Tahl recently got the bronze in singles and gold in teams at the Spanish Paralympic Table Tennis Championships. In honor of that, my next book will be “Ping Pong for Quitters,” unless of course I’m kidding. Here are ten major points about ideas that will be featured.

1. As a quitter, you give up easily. So it's important to get an early lead. Try to serve first, and throw your best trick serves out there early so you can get that lead and coast to victory without facing adversity.
2. Don't feel bad if you make the semifinals and then chicken out and quit. You still can claim that at the time you gave up you were tied for the top four. Always remember that "You're a quitter" is just an anagram for "You quarter tie."
3. Quitters never lose if they quit soon enough. There’s nothing worse than that sinking feeling when you realize you should have quit and instead foolishly went on, and now everyone’s laughing at you.
4. The next time you are in a tight match and are thinking of quitting, consider this: The sooner you quit, the sooner you can experience that heartwarming feeling of defeat.
5. Quitting is for losers. That's the whole point.
6. Winners never quit. It's as if they can't think straight in a tight match and so can't consider and be overwhelmed by all their options.
7. One of the toughest decision a quitter must make is when to give up. Not too soon, or you don't get your money's worth. You paid your tournament entry fees and deserve to play. But if you wait too long you may have to suffer the ignominy of trying and losing, and lose all hope of blaming your loss on your not trying. My suggestion is that if you lose one game, it's time to quit. Not immediately, but in the next game. That's when you make it obvious you are not trying so that your opponent and anyone watching will nod their heads knowingly with the knowledge that you could win any time you choose to.
8. According to medical researchers, trying takes more calories than not trying. Those who try burn calories at a faster rate, lose weight, and end up smaller people for their efforts as well as being unready to face major hunger famines.
9. If you lose your focus and aren’t sure whether to try or not, take a time-out. You want a clear mind when deciding when to quit trying.
10. If you do find yourself fighting hard to the bitter end and (of course) losing, don’t worry, you’ll learn from it and next time you won’t waste your time and energy so foolishly.

All About Serves and Receives

Here’s the article from Pong Universe. I just joined their “universe,” but have been too busy to really check out what it is.

How Do You Start a Match at the Right Intensity Level?

Here’s the video (2:43) from “Ask Mark” (sports psychologist).

Chinese Team Withdraws from Korean Open

Here’s the article from Tabletennista. “There are two reasons for our withdrawal from the Korea Open. First main European players from Germany are not there so the value for training is not big. Second is because of the impact of the epidemic and we also need to consider the protection of our players.”

Bounce Alzheimer’s Therapy Foundation

Here’s the article.

Around the Net Shots

Here’s a video (2:18) featuring them.

Japan Open Feature Video

Eugene Wang (CAN) vs. Jin Takuya (JPN), round 1 (58:33).

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.)

• Darth Vader Pong (note stormtrooper guard)
• Hand Pong (for those who can’t get a handle on things)
• Huge Vending Ball Pong (for those who can’t have enough balls)
• Golden Ball Pong (where’s the goose?)
• Arty People on Blue Table Pong
• Office Putt-Putt and Pong
• Dead Pong

Table Tennis Anyone?

Here’s the picture of how it’s really done.

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MDTTC Camp

Yesterday was the Day of the Nosebleed. When you run a camp with kids, you'll get them occasionally. How about two in five minutes, and both from my group? First a five-year-old (the youngest in the camp) walked right into someone's forehand backswing, and got smacked in the nose. It bled pretty badly. Five minutes later a seven-year-old kid was shadow-stroking his forehand, as I'd directed him to do, and somehow he managed to smack himself in the nose - and the blood came pouring out. (What type of forehand stroke am I teaching these kids?!!!) We went through a lot of paper towels before all the bleeding stopped. A couple hours later the seven-year-old was running about picking up balls and the nose started bleeding again, even worse than before. (Yes, we did a thorough clean-up each time.) Table tennis is a violent sport....

We spent a lot of time working on spin serves. Two kids who had never put spin on their serves on their lives were able to put enough backspin on the ball so the balls came to a stop on the table. (Here's my article How to Create a Truly Heavy Backspin Serves.) We also did a lot of King of the Table and Brazilian Teams, and many paper cups were killed.

The seven-year-old with the two nosebleeds has a nice backhand, but tends to jerk his forehand, and stops the stroke almost as he hits the ball. Maybe one kid in a hundred that age can spend an entire day focused almost entirely on fixing the problem, not to mention taking it seriously, but that's what he did. By the end of the day his stroke was looking much better. We're both determined for him to have a "perfect" forehand. He's almost too serious about wanting to get better!!!  

We welcomed back Nathan Hsu, who had been training in China for three months. (He recently turned 19, rated 2415, but earlier this year was over 2500.) Either his hair is too long or I'm getting too old. He's also wearing a new black headband that hangs out in back of his head and looks (to me) like he has long, flapping pigtails. (Sorry, Nathan, the truth hurts.) But more importantly his shots seem more powerful and consistent, and he told me he's worked a lot on his serves. He'll be playing at the US Open in 12 days. 

Help Wanted - Head Table Tennis Coach

Here's info on applying for the head coach position at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta.

The Best Table Tennis Balls

Here’s the new article from Expert Table Tennis, on the best plastic poly balls. He narrows the choice down (and lists the brands for each) to the following: “Do you want to get the seamed balls from China, the seamless balls from China, or the Nittaku Premium balls?”

11 Questions with Tim Boggan

Here's the USATT interview. 

Never Alone – Chuang Chih-Yuan

Here’s the article from Butterfly on this Taiwanese star.

National Senior Games

Here's info. They will be in Minneapolis, July 9-15. 

Will Shortz Day 1000 Celebration

Here's info – "Unless he is kidnapped or something, next Tuesday, June 30, will be Will Shortz's 1,000th consecutive day of playing table tennis. There will be a party at his club from 7:00 to 11:00 pm, with food, drink, film, and special guests."

Zhang Jike’s Backhand

Here’s the video (5:06) featuring backhand highlights from the 2011 Worlds. (Yeah, he won.) Here’s another (2:09) also from the 2011 Worlds that features his backhand banana flip.

Chinese Team Training at Japan Open

Here’s the video (42 sec). The Japan Open, in Kobe, is today through Sunday. Here’s the home page.

Net-Climbing Post-Ricocheting Pointing-Winning Loop

Here's the video (11 sec). We of course teach this shot at MDTTC. 

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.)

• A Forest of Pong? (A table tennis art exhibit in London.)
• Swoosh Pong? (More art.)
• Ping and Pong? (Still more art.)
• Matching Wall & Table Pong? (Arty.)
• Nest Pong – Will Little Ma Longs Hatch?

Ping-Pong or Table Tennis?

Here’s the shirt that answers the question!

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MDTTC Camp

Yesterday was Day One of Week Two of our Eleven Weeks of Camps at MDTTC. (That’s enough capitalization for the week.) With one “minor” exception (can’t go into that since the person involved is a kid who likely won’t be back), it’s a great group this week, especially the ones in my group. We did a lot of work on fundamentals – forehand, backhand, footwork, and serve.

I think right now we have the most talented and promising group of kids in the roughly 7-8 age range than we’ve ever had at MDTTC in our 24 years – lots of depth. Check back with us in a few years – they’re getting scary. We had a 7-year-old today who was smacking bottles off the table like they were the broad side of a barn, and he’s not even in the top five at MDTTC for that age group. Of course, it’s more than just apparent talent – this is a very serious group of kids who already seem to have the mental dedication to the sport that’s usually lacking until much older. Plus they can loop anything!

Every camp there’s something different. This week it seems as if all the newer players have good backhands but need work on the forehand – way too many wristy forehand swats. Also, a number of them have good fast & deep serves, but few can really spin their serves – which will be a focus today. Out come the soccer- colored balls! (So they can see if they are spinning the ball or not.)

One little problem – after standing up all day nearly every day for a million years (subjectively), my legs are exhausted. In fact, as I write this I’m balancing two things – too tired to do anything, but too tired to get up from my computer. The latter overpowered the first, so I’m at my computer, and so I might as well write stuff.

It wasn’t a good day for heads. During break a number of our juniors were doing an exercise where they toss sort of a soft soccer ball around, forcing the catcher to move quickly to catch it. Eleven-year-old Tiffany got smacked pretty badly in the face, sort of like this. I got smacked in the head really hard by ping-pong balls twice, once accidentally, once suspiciously on purpose (see “minor” note above, but this was about the most minor of the problems we had with that minor). And a 7-year-old kid almost broke out crying after crawling under a table to get balls and smacking his head hard on one of the supporting bars as he came out.

New Coaching Articles and Videos from Samson Dubina (he's been busy)

• Major Renovations: Making Improvements Isn’t Always Fun.
• Forehand/Backhand Grips, Parts 1 & 2 - two new video tips, both under a minute.
• 100 Days of Table Tennis. This is about Samson Dubina’s upcoming coaching book. Here’s the opening of the preview I wrote there: “One hundred days . . . if you live to be 82 years old, that’s about 30,000 days. All Coach Samson asks is that you take just a few minutes on 1/3 of 1% of those days to learn something new.” (I edited the book, so I did read it before writing the preview.)

Top 10 Mistakes Made by Table Tennis Beginners

Here’s the article by Greg Letts.  

Capital Area League Finals

The Finals for Division One and Two for the Capital Area Table Tennis League are this Saturday, June 27 – don’t miss it! They will be held at the Washington DC Table Tennis Center from 1-5PM. The Division One final will be between the undefeated MDTTC “A” Team (Alex Chen Ruichao, Crystal Wang, Nathan Hsu, Han Xiao, Klaus Wood, and Derek Nie), and the MDTTC Lions (Raghu Nadmichettu, Stefano Ratti, Heather Wang, and Ernie Byles).

World Police and Fire Games

The Games are taking place in Fairfax, Virginia this weekend, starting Friday, June 26, and finishing on Saturday, July 4. The table tennis action takes place June 27-29 (Sat, Sun, Mon) at the Smash Table Tennis Center. Here’s the table tennis schedule, and here’s the general schedule for all sports. Here’s more info on the World Police and Fire Games. Here’s table tennis director Mike Levene next to a Games banner. (If you can’t get that, here’s the non-Facebook version.)

2015 Para Table Tennis Spanish Open

Here’s a listing of USA players, results, and pictures.

ITTF World Tour Heads to North Korea for First Time Since 1979

Here’s the article on the Pyongyang Open, July 29 – Aug. 2.

Beautiful Table Tennis

Here’s the new music video (2:24) featuring slow-motion table tennis.

Ma Long Gives Demo

Here’s the video (5:30) as Ma (near side) gives an exhibition for a group of children.

Happy Meals are... Gross? - China 2015 (Episode 2)

Here’s the new video (3:47) of Nathan Hsu’s adventures in China. Here’s episode one (6:44), which I posted last month.

Pongman: The World’s First Table Tennis Superhero

This American superhero struggles to beat the Chinese by day, and foils crime at night with his deadly paddle and ball. This may be my next table tennis novel. This would be a humorous fantasy as Pongman battles (tentatively) evil North Koreans intent on kidnapping the Chinese team and forcing them to teach the secrets of table tennis to their players. His superpowers? He can block bullets with his paddle, and flawlessly smack anyone within a hundred feet with ping-pong balls shot at deadly speeds. (I’m toying with putting it in the same universe as The Spirit of Pong.) But I’ve got a lot of planning and big decisions to make: Does he wear a cape? Can he beat the Chinese? Will the North Koreans nuke my house if I write this? (I originally envisioned this as a cartoon, but I had to face a bitter truth: I can’t draw. Here’s proof.)

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.)

• Pong Packaging
• Sith Pong
• Tote Pong
• Mind Pong
• Outdoor Pong
• Fire Pong

Size Restrictions on Bat?

Here’s the cartoon!

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