Tip of the Week
Every Shot Sets Up the Next Shot.
(NOTE – while I’m away I’ll still put up a Tip of the Week each Monday. I wrote them up in advance.)

Flu and South America and Next Blog Feb. 16, Oh My!
I’ve been sick in bed all week with a fever, while going through boxes of Kleenex and coughing up an ocean. I thought it was a bad cold. Over the weekend it got worse, so I finally saw a doctor. They gave me a Covid/Flu test . . . and I have the flu. I have medicine now and should be okay in a day or so. So, for this week’s blog I’m just going to post my daily upcoming schedule in South America, where I’ll be, Jan. 15 – Feb. 12. Then I’m back to bed.

Tips of the Week
Since I’ve been a way for a while, here are my tips going back to Dec. 1. That way you can read all five of the "Coaching Yourself" tips together!

Tip of the Week
Coaching Yourself, Part 3 of 5: Serve Practice

Next Blog – January 5, 2026 – and the US Open
=>But Tips Will Go Up Every Monday
I’ll be gone the next few weeks. I’m off to the US Open Wednesday morning, and then Christmas in Sonoma, CA with my brother and family (near San Francisco). So, next blog will be Monday, Jan. 5. But the Tip of the Week will go up every Monday. For the five Mondays in December, I put together the five-part “Coaching Yourself” series. Part 3 went up today!

Tip of the Week
Coaching Yourself, Part 2 of 5: In Practice.

North American Teams
I coached 83 matches in three days at the Teams (Fri-Sun, Nov. 28-30 at the National Harbor in Maryland). It was my 50th Teams in a row (excluding the cancelled 2020 due to Covid), starting in 1976 when Gerald Ford was president. I used to play in it, but now I only coach. However, coaching can get pretty physical – as noted in my (short) blog last week, I somehow hurt my neck from all the watching, cheering, and coaching. (It’s 90% better now.) My voice got rather hoarse, my arm was hurting from three days of clapping, and I could barely hold my head up.

Tip of the Week
Coaching Yourself, Part 1 of 5: At Home.

Alas, after coaching 83 matches in three days at the North American Teams, I’ve somehow injured my neck – probably from yelling and cheering for our players. It started bothering me late on Day 2 (Saturday), and got progressively worse on Sunday to the point where I could barely hold my head up straight while coaching. I have the same problem trying to type on my computer. So, no blog this week – I’m probably going to spend the next few days in bed reading with my head propped up on a pillow. (But the Tip is up – I wrote it in advance.) I might have to get a neck brace – not sure yet. There’s a specific spot on it that’s injured, but I’m not sure if it’s muscle, tendon, or what. I’m not even sure if I can drive safely right now. (For the record, rounding to nearest half hour, I coached 23 matches on Friday from 8AM to 8PM; 32 matches on Saturday from 8AM to 11:30PM; and 28 matches on Sunday from 9AM to 9:30PM. That’s 83 matches in approximately 40 hours.)

Tips of the Week

• November 10, 2025 - The Chewing Gum Theory of Footwork.
• November 17, 2025 - Two Simple Ways to Approach Tactics.
• November 24, 2025 - Do You Want to Be a Smart Table Tennis Player?

Amity Team Cup in Nanjing, China
I returned last week from nine days in China where I played on the US Over 60 team in the Amity Team Cup in Nanjing. We came in fourth place! Alas, my flight to China was a disaster - see below. But I flew in to Shanghai, spent a day there, and then we had a bus to take us to Nanjing four the tournament on Nov. 14-15.

NEXT BLOG – Monday, Nov. 24
I’ll be out of town the next few weeks with trips to LA and Nanjing, China. See “Traveling” segment below. But the Tips of the Week will still go up each Monday. 

Tip of the Week
Learn to Defend on Receive.

Weekend Coaching
Some of you may have heard about the 6-7 thing that’s the latest craze among kids. In honor of that, in the three junior group sessions over the weekend I challenged players to get 67 shots in a row and called it out when they did. In multiball, I always yell, “Ten more seconds” near the end of each player’s turn (usually 70 sec to 2 min), but this time it was always, “Six or seven more seconds!” And I managed to find every possible way to work it in.

Tip of the Week
Death of the Kill.

Weekend Coaching
In one of our weekend junior group sessions, we had two new junior players, about 9 and 11 years old. It was their first time to a table tennis club. Two things stood out from them. First, they both had surprisingly good strokes, both forehand and backhand, and they moved well. (I think one of them said their father had coached them, and they’d seen videos.) But the problem was they both were using what were essentially store-bought toy sponge rackets. The rackets and sponge were dead, making it difficult to do advanced shots, especially in a fast rally. The older one borrowed someone else’s racket and did well with it. The other stayed with his slow one, for now. He did pretty well in drills but not in games at the end of the session. I’m pretty sure he’ll be switching to a better sponge soon.

Tip of the Week
Never Use “Full Power.”

Weekend Coaching
I spent much of the weekend working on our junior players’ forehand loops against backspin. It was sort of the theme of the week. Some of the weekend highlights:

Tips of the Week
(Two of them since I was out of town last week at the Senior World Championships and so didn’t do a blog.)

• Oct. 6, 2025 - Nullify Opponent's Biggest Threat
• Oct. 13, 2025 - Your Evolving Relationship With a Coach

Weekend Coaching
Here are three things I did while coaching in three group sessions this past weekend. The third one might be the most important.