Blogs

Larry Hodges' Blog and Tip of the Week will normally go up on Mondays by 2:00 PM USA Eastern time. Larry is a member of the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame, a USATT Certified National Coach, a professional coach at the Maryland Table Tennis Center (USA), and author of ten books and over 2100 articles on table tennis, plus over 1900 blogs and over 600 tips. Here is his bio. (Larry was awarded the USATT Lifetime Achievement Award in July, 2018.)

Make sure to order your copy of Larry's best-selling book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers!
Finally, a tactics book on this most tactical of sports!!!

Also out - Table Tennis Tips, More Table Tennis Tips, Still More Table Tennis Tips, and Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips, which cover, in logical progression, his Tips of the Week from 2011-2023, with 150 Tips in each!

Or, for a combination of Tales of our sport and Technique articles, try Table Tennis Tales & Techniques. If you are in the mood for inspirational fiction, The Spirit of Pong is also out - a fantasy story about an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis, trains with the spirits of past champions, and faces betrayal and great peril as he battles for glory but faces utter defeat. Read the First Two Chapters for free!

July 16, 2015

Forehand Pendulum Serves

There are four primary reasons the forehand pendulum serve is by far the most popular serve among top players.

First, it's easy to hide contact (illegally) – I've blogged about this a number of times, and won't go into that here. (The solution? As I've proposed, require that the ball be visible throughout the serve to the opponent – as is currently required – and the entire net and its upward extension. The net posts are considered part of the net.)

Second, it's very easy to produce great spin and variation with the serve.

Third, every generation of up-and-coming players copies the previous generation of top players, and since the forehand pendulum serve was the most popular serve among the previous generation, the new generation copies it.

Fourth, it allows players the option of doing a reverse pendulum serve, which gives the opposite sidespin. You can also do this sidespin with other serving motions, such as backhand or tomahawk serves, but when you do that you are pretty much announcing to your opponent which type of sidespin you will be using. (You can, of course, develop reverse backhand and reverse tomahawk serves, but they are trickier and few do this.) It's probably easier to set up for a forehand pendulum serve and be ready to serve with either type of sidespin than with any other serving motion.

And yet, so many up-and-coming players use the forehand pendulum serve but don't learn the reverse version. Not learning this variation is a really good way of limiting your serving effectiveness, and if that is your goal, then by all means avoid reverse pendulum serves. But if you want to increase your serving effectiveness, and have a forehand pendulum serve, then what are you waiting for? Learn the reverse pendulum serve. (Hint – it's most effective when you can do it short to the forehand and long to the backhand. To go short, graze the ball very finely more under the ball.)

Here's a video from PingSkills (3:25) that illustrates this with Zhang Jike's serve, where he can contact the ball going either way. (When he contacts the ball with the racket moving away from the body, that's a reverse pendulum serve.) Here's video (21:03, but you don't have to watch all of it) of Zhang Jike's serve in slow motion.

Side note – it's not all just about the sidespin. Make sure to learn to serve both of these variations with backspin or no-spin. The poor receiver not only has to read what type of sidespin might be on the ball (or not), but also whether there's backspin or not. A no-spin serve with a big motion that looks like spin is just as effective as a spin serve that's misread. A no-spin serve that looks like backspin is popped up, while a backspin serve that looks like no-spin is put into the net. Here's an article on how to do a no-spin serve.

I can't believe I wasted the above on a blog entry – this should be a Tip of the Week!!! I'll like expand on it and turn it into one later on.

US Open Men's and Women's Singles Final

Yesterday I linked to videos of each of the games of the Men's Singles Final at the US Open. Here are complete videos of that and the Women's Singles Final.

Around-the-Net Shot by Wang Jinxin at the 2015 US Open Men's Singles Final

Here's the video (27 sec).

US Open Ratings Processed – That Was Fast!!!

Here they are. The tournament finished on Saturday, and the ratings were up on Wednesday for over 1000 players. 

Thoughts on Table Tennis

Here's a huge listing of table tennis articles, many of them coaching articles.

Ask the Coach Show

While I was away at the US Open there were six more of these shows from PingSkills. Here they are!

Training in China

Here's the second blog entry from Matt Hetherington.

Zhang Jike – How to Play the Right Forehand Topspin

Here's the new video (5:09). It's in Chinese, but you don't need to listen, just watch.

Wang Hao – Grip for Forehand-Backhand Transition

Here's the video (1:52) showing how penholders switch back and for between forehand and reverse penhold backhand (which these days is really the conventional backhand).

USATT Insider

Here's the new issue which came out yesterday.

Mankato Woman, 91, Is Never Too Old for Table Tennis

Here's the article from the Minnesota Star-Tribune.

Hardbat: The Physics of Ping-Pong

Here's the trailer (50 sec) of this Indy movie that's listed as "coming soon." Here's the IMDB listing, which shows it came out in 2014. It's 13 minutes long, and described as, "An obsession with ping-pong disrupts an otherwise pleasant evening."

Exploding Ping-Pong Balls on the Jimmy Fallen Show

Here's the video (5:56). The actual explosion takes place at 5:11.

Actor John Malkovich's Funny Story about Michael Jordan and Table Tennis

Here's the article.

Table Tennis Funny Show

Here's the video (20:33).

USATT Member Frank Caliendo Does Donald Trump Impression

Here's the video (1:49) from ESPN. Frank, USATT member # 85108, has a rating of 1665. He and Sean O'Neill (Frank on right) made the semifinals of Under 4200 Doubles at the US Open. (Here's the non-Facebook version.) Frank's been to my club a few times (MDTTC) when he's in town for his stand-up shows, and last year I got to play doubles with him there.

Cyber Table Tennis in China

Here's the video (2:14).

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Add a comment

July 15, 2015

Tip of the Week

Change, and the Definition of Insanity. (Originally I was going to skip this week, but this Tip just jumped into my head, and so I wrote it.)

US Open

As usual, it was a busy week at the US Open, July 6-11 in Las Vegas. I spent my time coaching MDTTC players, but can't go into details on that – opponents might be reading this! Here's a rundown.

  • Let's start by thanking all the volunteers who helped run the US Open. They include both the volunteers who did the work of running it, and the officials who officiated. Here's a group picture of the US Open Officials (Referees and Umpires). Let's also thank the USATT staff for their hard work on this.
  • In nearly every way, this was one of the best-run US Opens ever. (I may blog more later on some of the things they got right, as well as on how they got 1064 entries.) I could list all the things they did well, but instead, I'll list the one thing that wasn't so great – the lighting. I already discussed this with CEO Gordon, and they think they have a solution.
  • Here's the US Open page, and here are the results.
  • Here's a feature front-page article from the Las Vegas Sun. Great article, though of course Jimmy Butler isn't "6-foot-8" – he's "only" 6'4".
  • I had lots of meetings and discussions. As noted previously, my USATT work is mostly on hold until the end of summer, due to our summer camps, but I'm still in the "gathering info" mode, and I did manage to gather lots of info for my plans.
  • Because I was busy coaching or having meetings/discussions, I didn't get to see many major matches, alas, though I had a courtside seat for the Finals.
  • There was an extravagant pool party on Friday night at the Linq Hotel, which is owned by Caesars Palace. I'm not a party person, so I was sort of in unfamiliar territory. I arrived at 8PM, right after they opened. By 8:15PM I was lying down on one of the reclining chairs/beds by the pool with a notebook, and for the next two and a half hours brainstormed on USATT issues, in particular on the topics I'll be working on this fall – regional associations, regional team leagues, training centers, recruiting and training professional coaches, and state championships. One of the items now on my rather long todo list is to type up all these notes on my computer and integrate them with my other plans.
  • I met with Hardbat Chair Scott Gordon. While I'm mostly a sponge player and coach, I've taken it upon myself to create some sort of hardbat & sandpaper info flyer or booklet. I put together a quick draft yesterday. I might do two things – a short brochure for major tournaments, and then perhaps a longer edited book of writings on the topic, where I'd just be the editor.
  • Once again I came away from a major tournament disgusted at all the cheating – in particular, players hiding serves. Why do they do it? Because it helps them win and they get away with it. They may fool the umpires, who aren't sure if the serve is hidden (which is synonymous with saying the serve is illegal, but that's the least enforced rule in table tennis), but they don't fool coaches and experienced players, who know who the cheaters are. It's common at the world-class level, of course, but that was also true of, say, steroids. Does that mean we should copy those who cheat? I have no objection to someone hiding their serve if their opponent does it first and the umpire doesn't call it. It's the ones who do it first, with the sole intent of winning by cheating, that disgusts me. A player I coached lost two matches because of this cheating – learning to return them is going to become a major part of his training. (Note that few players hide the serve every time. The norm is to use border-line serves early on, to numb the umpire to such serves, and pull out the hidden ones several times a game and at key points at the end. I have video and still pictures showing many of these players hiding their serve.)
  • Speaking of serves, probably the most important thing that the US Open constantly re-enforces is the importance of moving the serve around. So many players serve to the same spots over and Over and OVER, and never realize how much they are handicapping themselves with this lack of variation. Trust me - your opponents know, and are very thankful. 
  • Common prevailed in another arena. Many years ago players were required to either have a player number or their name on their back. Then, at some silly period in time, it was decided that all players must wear player numbers, even if their name was on their back. Why were they required to wear player numbers? So spectators could identify who they were. And yet, when asked why they were forced to wear player numbers when their name was on their back, for a number of years the answer was, "It's policy." I always railed against this silliness. But now they are back to a common-sense policy where they don't require the player numbers if your name is on your back. I think they may have changed this policy sometime last year – I'm not sure when. I remember I used to point out players wearing player numbers over the name on their back!!!
  • If you watched the Men's or Women's final, and saw the scores being updated on the screen, guess who was doing it? Yep, it was Tong Tong Gong, who I used to coach at these tournaments, and who twice made the USA National Cadet Team. (He stopped playing two years ago.) He's starting college this fall at University of Maryland, and plans to start playing again. He flew out to the US Open as a volunteer, as he's done the last two years. On the video of the two Finals, look at the raised area where the announcers are sitting. Then look to the far left, the person in a black shirt. That's Tong Tong updating the scores each point, both for online scores and for a large screen above that you can't see in the video. (Here's video of game 1; about eight seconds in it pans up, and you can see him on the dais, far left, behind the white laptop.) I pointed him out to several top juniors in the crowd, Tong Tong's former rivals, who didn't realize he was there. (Here's a picture of a bored-looking Tong Tong volunteering last year as a videotaper.)
  • The Finals were not particularly well played. I think the conditions at the Omnia Nightclub at Caesars Palace might have caught them somewhat off guard, though all four finalists were able to practice there in advance. While having the final in this type of environment might be a good idea for spectators, the players may not have been used to it. (While others were watching the players, I was often watching the spectators, and they seemed pretty happy with the environment – much more into it than with a "normal" final in a regular arena.) Technically, the conditions seemed good – it was well lit, and the loud music they played before and after each game was off during play. The first two games of the Women's Final were sloppy, though they seemed to adjust after that. Adrian Crisan in the Men's Final never looked comfortable, while his opponent, Wang Jinxin seemed to adjust more quickly, perhaps leading to his upset win. But adjusting is a huge part of table tennis.

US Open Men's Final Video

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a continuous one, or one of the Women's Singles. Here's the Men's Singles Final, between Wang Jinxin and Adrian Crisan.

Sports Psychology

Here are some great sports psychology articles from the USOC. Most are by Sean McCann, who along with Shane Murphy, has spent a huge amount of time working with table tennis athletes. I met with them semi-regularly during my four years as (at different times) manager/director/assistant coach for the resident training program at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, 1985-1989.

Ask the Coach Show

While I was away at the US Open there were six more of these shows from PingSkills. Here they are!

Training in China

Here's the first blog entry from Matt Hetherington.

Minion Pong

Here's the short table tennis scene from The Minion Movie that just came out. (It repeats as a gif image.) Here's my technical analysis, repeated from my blog on Feb. 2, 2015, when I first saw it in the trailer.

  • Player on left: An excellent example of proper weight transfer. Note how he puts his full weight into each shot, and yet maintains his balance for the next shot? An excellent example for you and your students. Note the excellent use of the free arm as a counterbalance to his playing arm. The shots are especially impressive given the lack of depth perception since he only has one eye - but note how hard he concentrates, and how he keeps his eye on the ball. As a coach, the main thing that needs work is the foot positioning for the forehand - you'll note that he strokes it with the left foot in front (he's a lefty). Instead, he needs to move that ball back for better weight transfer. Also, I'd recommend a better playing outfit as the heavy playing clothes he wears likely slows him down. He probably needs to replace the mittens with gloves so that he can extend his finger onto the blade for a better shakehands grip. Finally, based on his strokes, I believe he's using a hardbat. I'd recommend he get inverted and work on his looping, such as another energetic student of mine who successfully made the transfer to inverted. (He also needs to get a legal black surface for his forehand.)
  • Player on right: This is an excellent example of winning with sheer brick-wall blocking - I'm fairly certain he read my Tip of the Week on this. I watched the video for over eight hours last night, and he did not miss a single block. As a coach, I'd recommend that he try watching the ball, as well as use the racket he has in his hand, though of course I always recommend to my students that they learn to use their head. (He's using a green racket, so he needs to switch to a legal black and red one.) You'll note how he is watching at a particular spot in the snow, which undoubtedly is done as an aide to concentration and to withstand the pressures of match play.

11 Questions with Bill Hadden

Here's the USATT interview.

National Senior Games Table Tennis Results

Here are results of the Games that were held in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Here are more detailed results.

Table Tennis – the Game of Spin

Here's the article.

Conquering the World and Championing Humanity Through Ping-Pong

Here's the article from the Waco Tribune. "I have an answer for all the dysfunctional local and global angst. Play ping pong."

Blowing the Ball?

Here's video (14 sec) as a player makes a desperation attempt to return a ball – and succeeds by blowing the ball onto the table! So . . . is this legal?

New Jan-Ove Waldner Documentary

Here's the video (58:57). Alas, it's in Swedish, but still some interesting viewing.

Xu Xin – The "Cloud Walking" Penholder

Four-Table Trick Shots

Here's the video (4:27).

Ma Long – Zhang Jike Show

Here's video (6:06) of the two putting on a demonstration/exhibition.

Hotel Pong

Here's the video (17 sec) from Adam Bobrow.

Shocking Images from Pluto

Here's the photo NASA doesn't want you to see – yes, it's a 40+!!!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Add a comment

July 14, 2015

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:

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

New Coaching Articles from Expert Table Tennis

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.)

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Add a comment

July 3, 2015

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.

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.)

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!!!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Add a comment

July 2, 2015

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 ^100th 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

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.)

Peek-a-Boo Pong

Here's the picture!

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Add a comment

July 1, 2015

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. 

Add a comment

June 30, 2015

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

Add a comment

June 29, 2015

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.

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Add a comment

June 26, 2015

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!

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.

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Add a comment

June 25, 2015

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.)

Table Tennis Anyone?

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

***
Send us your own coaching news!

Add a comment