January 6, 2015

Capital Area Table Tennis Super League

The League is on! The Capital Area Table Tennis Super League is a team league for the Washington DC region (Maryland, Virginia, DC), starting March 1. (But it could have national repercussions! See below.) While I helped instigate it, the ones primarily responsible for bringing this to life are Michael Levene and Stefano Ratti. (My biggest contribution was getting these two together.) Michael is a 2200 player and coach who used to play in the English leagues, and now runs Smash Table Tennis in Sterling, Virginia. Stefano is a 2300 player who used to play in the Italian leagues. The two of them bring their experience in overseas leagues with the plan to develop table tennis in the U.S. as it is done overseas. (They also want to play in the league!) We also learned a lot by studying the LA League. By combining the best of both worlds, we hope to create a regional league system that can spread all over the country.

This is something I made central on my Election Page for my campaign for the USATT Board. (See item #1.) The election results should come out tomorrow (voting ended Dec. 27), but regardless of the results, we've taken the first step on this.

The importance of creating such a system of regional team leagues cannot be overstated if we want to develop table tennis in this country. I've blogged about this over and Over and OVER; it's the primary reason there are 11,000 clubs and 600,000 paid members in the German Table Tennis Association, and membership numbers in much of Europe is counted in the hundreds of thousands, while here in the U.S. we have about 8000 members.

Of course, it won't happen instantly. Here are three quotes that I think are relevant here - and it's appropriate that two of them come from China.

• "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." -ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi
• "The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it." -Chinese proverb.
• "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" -Robert F. Kennedy

Here is the email that went out to local clubs on Sunday:

Dear table-tennis club owner,

We are excited to bring to your attention a new initiative we are working on, which we think would be greatly beneficial to clubs, players, and table-tennis in general.  We, as a small group of players with experience in foreign leagues, and with the help of Larry Hodges, are planning to launch a regional team league.  The development of team leagues is the main reason why table tennis is so popular in Europe, and we’d like to introduce this type of team play to the Capital area.

The “Capital Area Table Tennis Super League” would have the objectives of providing players with a fun way to compete (you can imagine the thrill of having your teammates cheer you on as you compete!), and develop table tennis into a more palatable spectator sport.  We believe that, over time, meeting these objectives will lead into an increased number of players.  It would also be an opportunity to publicize your respective clubs to players in the area, and to attract new players to the sport.

The attached flyer has information about the league, and we would ask you to forward this flyer to all your club members as soon as possible.  We also ask you wholeheartedly that you support this initiative, encourage players at your club to form teams, and be flexible in providing space for the league games. Again, we believe that, if we can develop a successful team league, every club will be able to benefit from increased membership and more engaged players.

If you have questions, thoughts, suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best,
Michael Levene
Stefano Ratti
Larry Hodges

Here is a follow-up email that Mike and Stefano sent out yesterday:

Dear table-tennis club owners/managers,

There have been a few questions raised with respect to the Capital Area TT Super League. Here are a few points of clarification, after some discussion. I am sure there will be more.

Keep in mind that, at this stage, nothing is set in stone.  We appreciate your patience as we launch this new initiative; I believe that we will learn a lot during the first season and we will be to fine-tune things in the future. For the time being, we want to get started, so we have made some decisions fairly quickly.  Please let us know if you have additional questions (I am sure we have missed many items!)

Question #1: How will the team fees be used? Will the host clubs collect additional club fees for non-club members playing in the league?
The (fairly modest) team fees ($200/team) will be used to pay for any operational expense (basically a software license), and fund prizes.  At this point, we (as in “league organizers”) are NOT planning on paying fees directly to the clubs (contrary to what I told some of you earlier today – my apologies). It would be the responsibility of each team to find a venue for their home matches – that means that each team would negotiate an agreement with its club, if the team wants to play its home matches at its club (in which case, the club can decide whether to charge its team(s) or not, what day/time can be made available, etc.).  We are going to leave it between the teams and the clubs.  The only request we would have is that clubs do not charge visiting players and their immediate family, though. Teams could also use venues other than their own club, if they so choose and/or if they cannot come to an agreement with their club – it could be other clubs or any other place, provided that reasonable playing conditions can be met.  Keep in mind that, if there is enough interest, and events are marketed appropriately, each club would of course be free to charge spectator fees (this is probably more in the long run, but I could see that happen for some key games).

Question #2: How will the Prize money be distributed?
This is still to be determined, but we will communicate it closer to the start date.

Question #3: Will there be rating caps or restrictions?
We will not have any rating caps, or any restrictions. We would, of course, prefer to have a balanced league, with competitive games and evenly-matched teams.  Of course, teams will be placed in the appropriate division (number of divisions will depend on the number of teams that will sign up), according to the ratings of their top 3 players.

Question #4: What type of balls will we use?
Our intent is to have a ball sponsor, which will allow ball standardization as much as possible.  While we are not sure about the brand, we will be using plastic balls.

Question #5: What is the format of the matches?
Team matches will be nine individual matches, with all nine matches played out. It will be 3v3 players (potentially with the option to substitute in a 4^th player). Points will be assigned for each individual match. Also, there will be 1 bonus point for not defaulting, and -1 point for defaulting. A team will be allowed to play with only 2 players present, but it will start from a 0-3 deficit and not be given the additional bonus point.  For example, if a team shows up with 3 players and wins 7-2, they will win 8 points (7 matches + 1 bonus point).  If a team shows up with 2 players and the two players win all of their matches, the final result will be 6-3 and that team will win 6 points (6 matches + 0 bonus point).

Question #6: What day of the week are the matches?
It will up to each individual team to select the time/day of their home matches, and, again, make sure they have a venue for their home games. However, teams that decide to play during a weekday will be asked to have a start time of between 7 and 8 pm (to allow for realistic travel times in our highly congested area, while not having super-late games).

Question #7: Is there a web site?
We have an initial web site at:

http://www.smashtt.com/capital-area-super-league/

We will add a FAQ section, which we will update as items get ironed out.

I hope this helps. Again, thanks for your help, and let us know if there are any other comments/suggestions, etc.

Stefano and Michael

It Snowed this Morning - No School!

• Here's Derek Nie's reaction on Facebook:
  "OOOOMMMMGGGG!!!! NO SCHOOL!!!! I DON"T HAVE TO GIVE MY SPEECH FOR SETTLAGE!!!!"
• Here's my response:
  "OOOOMMMMGGGG!!!! NO SCHOOL!!!! I DON"T HAVE TO PICK UP KIDS AND DO THE AFTERSCHOOL TABLE TENNIS PROGRAM!!!!"

Smacking Cups

Here's a video (10 sec) from a junior session yesterday where Kerry smacks over a pyramid of cups! I like to end many of our sessions with games like this.

The Paddle of Pong

I made the big plunge yesterday - I started a new novel! "The Paddle of Pong" is a table tennis fantasy dramedy. Our hero is a mid-level American player who aspires to be a champion. So he goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis - and finds a mentor, treachery, and a fantasy world where he must achieve the Body of Pong, the Spirit of Pong, and most importantly, the Paddle of Pong - all while being haunted by the spirits of table tennis champions past. (Here are my other books.)

USATT Board Motions

Here are motions made at the USATT Board Meeting held at the USA Nationals in December. I haven't read them yet; I'll go over them later.

New World Rankings

Here's the ITTF article, and here are the ranking lists. There are also team rankings.

World Championships of Ping Pong 2015

Here's the promo video (20 sec) for this $100,000 sandpaper event in London, to be held Jan. 24-25. Here's the home page for the event.

Nice Shot by Jun Mizutani

Here's the video (14 sec).

The Greatest Moments from Wang Hao

He's retired from the Chinese team. Here's video (5:57) of some of his greatest points.

Tuxedoed with Paddles Appelgren, Waldner, and Persson

Here's the picture.

Colorful Tables

Here are pictures of some almost psychedelic outdoor ones from Uberpong. I wish we had one of these at my club!

Mostly Non-Table Tennis - Books I Read in 2014

"I have no life, and I must read!" Actually, I think I read fewer books this year than any year since elementary school. I was too busy much of the year, especially January through the summer, though I caught up with a lot of reading in Sept-Dec. (As you can see, I decided to catch up on my John Grisham - that's what I read all summer during our camps.) 

TABLE TENNIS (1)
Get Your Game Face On Like the Pros! by Dora Kurimay

NON-FICTION (6)
100 Things Every Writer Needs to Know by Scott Edelstein
Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st-Century Writer by Jeff Vandermeer
Flow in Sports by Susan Jackson and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Vietnam: An American Ordeal by George Donelson Moss
A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence Krauss
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

FICTION (25)
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (722 pages)
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (1120 pages)
Hex by Allen Steele
The Hemmingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Bad Wizard by James Maxey
Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp
Shattered by Kevin Hearne
Sunset of the Gods by Steve White
The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF, edited by Mike Ashley
After Death edited by Eric Guignard
Storm Front (The Dresden Files book #1) by Jim Butcher
Fool Moon (The Dresden Files book #2) by Jim Butcher
Grave Peril (The Dresden Files book #3) by Jim Butcher
Summer Knight (The Dresden Files book #4) by Jim Butcher
The King of Torts by John Grisham
The Last Juror by John Grisham
The Associate by John Grisham
The Testament by John Grisham
The Street Lawyer by John Grisham
The Brethren by John Grisham
The Partner by John Grisham
The Racketeer by John Grisham
The Confession by John Grisham
The Broker by John Grisham

And somehow I still manage to read the Washington Post every day, as well as Scientific American, The Bulletin of SFWA, USA Table Tennis Magazine, and about five other magazines....

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