Welcome to the New Year!

These balls wish you a Happy New Year - but are they plastic or celluloid?

On Rules and Boosting

The USATT and ITTF rules say the ball must be 2.7 grams. That's unlikely. But the ITTF "fixes" this by having a technical leaflet on the ball, which says, "Law 2.3.2 specifies 2.7g, but any weight between 2.67 and 2.77g is acceptable for any one ball." (See B1.) In other words, they set a leeway factor for this. And so while the rules says the ball must weigh 2.7 grams, it doesn't have to weigh 2.7 grams.

The reason I'm bringing this up is that there's a big debate going on right now about boosting. This is sort of like speed gluing, except that it's nearly undetectable and not nearly as unhealthy. (Some boost using just vegetable oils.) It's pretty clear that most top players (both in the world and the U.S.) are boosting. (Those that don't are at a disadvantage.) Some top players refuse to boost since it is illegal - the rules state that "The racket covering shall be used without any physical, chemical or other treatment." Few really follow this rule - after all, rubber cleaner is a chemical that many use to treat their racket covering when cleaning it. Even water is a chemical, so using water doesn't help. (Yes, there are lots of semantics arguments over this.)

But since it's a rule, it means boosting is also technically illegal. But like the rule about the ball, there's an easy fix to this. Rather than have an essentially unenforceable rule that favors those who are willing to "cheat," why not simply put in the USATT Tournament Guide (roughly our equivalence to the ITTF technical leaflets) that any racket that passes the racket testing procedure at a tournament shall be legal for that tournament? (It would be under "Referee Responsibilities," in section 5h.) That gives an "out" for those who won't boost because it's technically illegal, just as it allows them to play with an "illegal" ball that doesn't actually weight 2.7 grams.  

Some will argue that this is simply making an illegal racket legal. But that's how they make an illegal ball (not weighing 2.7 grams) legal. And since these "illegal" rackets are already being used as apparent "legal" rackets, all we're doing right now is ignoring the "cheating," i.e. out of sight, out of mind. I'd rather address the issue openly - and until there's a feasible test for it, set the leeway factor so there's a level playing field for all.

How exactly do you go about boosting? I'd rather not go into that right now, not until it is at least somewhat "legal"!

What I Did Wednesday through Friday

This past month or so was incredibly busy. Between the North American Teams, the USA Nationals, the MDTTC Christmas Camp, and (ten zillion other things), I was pretty exhausted when the Christmas Camp wrapped up Wednesday at 1PM. So what did I do?

WEDNESDAY…

The Christmas Camp had its final session from 10AM to 1PM. As I often do in the last session of our camps, much of it was "player's choice," where I let the players choose what they wanted to work on. Most of them wanted to work on smashing, looping, or serving, so we did a lot of that. I also spent about 20 minutes letting a group of them try to return my serves. We had a practice tournament the second half of the session, then finished with some Brazilian Teams. And then it was over.

We had well over 40 players in all in the camp, with 42 players attending at the same time one day. Coaches and practice partners included myself, Cheng Yinghua, Jack Huang, Jeffrey Xeng Xun, Alex Ruichao Chen, Wang Qing Liang ("Leon"), Chen Bo Wen ("Bowen"), Han Xiao, and Raghu Nadmichettu. Players including Crystal Wang, Nathan Hsu, Derek Nie, Klaus Wood, and many more.

After a month of non-stop activities, I'd fallen behind on my biggest vice - movies!!! So I set what might be a new record - even for me - and watched four movies that afternoon and night. Yes, FOUR!!! I started with "Into the Woods." Immediately after getting out of that I rushed over and just made the beginning of "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb." Then I went home and watched "The Interview" online. Then I went back to the theater to see "Unbroken." (Just for the record, I'd already seen "Big Hero 6," "Exodus," "Interstellar," "Penguins of Madagascar," "The Hunger Games," "Fury," "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Horrible Bosses 2," and of course "The Hobbit." Still on my list - "The Theory of Everything" and "The imitation Game.") As to my reviews for these movies, I liked them all. Yes, I did. Apparently I have low standards when it comes to movies! (I have much higher standards when it comes to books.)

Actually, I realized long ago that I look at movies a bit differently than others. Most judge movies by what they actually see, which makes sense. Me? When I play table tennis or other games, I tend to see things from everyone else's point of view, which is a tremendous advantage - I know exactly what things seem like from the opponent's perspective, so I can plan tactically. (This is also true when I play poker, which is why I almost went professional back in 1990.) How does this apply to movies? When I watch a movie, I see it from the director's point of view, i.e. what he intended. While I see the "bad" stuff as well, my focus tends to be on what the director intended, and so I focus on the "good" stuff. Result? I like most movies I see. Which is good, because I'm rarely disappointed! (This doesn't work with books because books are a bit more interactive mentally.)

Before going to bed I updated my todo list, with a solemn vow that I wouldn't look at it until Friday.

THURSDAY…

Despite seeing four movies the day before, Thursday, January 1, was my actual day off. (After all, how could Wednesday be my day off when I coached three hours?) I started the day by reading Dave Barry's Year in Review 2014. Then I did the Washington Post crossword puzzle - nailed the entire thing! Then, starting at 11AM or so, I sat in my easy chair and read for pretty much 12 hours straight. The book I'm reading is the fantasy novel "The Wise Man's Fear," by Patrick Rossfuss, which is the sequel to "The Name of the Wind." The novel is 1120 pages long (though I'm reading it on my Kindle), and so it's a long read. I managed to get exactly 70% through it by the time I put it down last night, or about 784 pages. Surprisingly, my eyes aren't tired. (Eventually I plan to read the table tennis books "The Next Step" and "Ping Pong for Fighters," but when I'm doing table tennis full-time, I usually prefer reading non-TT stuff in my off time.)

FRIDAY…

And now I'm back at work, with a todo list from here to China. Specifically, here's my list of stuff to do today - which I'll cross out throughout the day as I complete each, so keep checking back!

1. Blog
2. Organize and schedule upcoming private coaching and table tennis parties
3. Update MDTTC news clippings
4. Write and send out letters of recommendations for local player applying for colleges
5. Monthly coaching payment to MDTTC
6. Lunch
7. Pay bills
8. Errands in car (bank, post office, groceries - took way too long)
9. Organize Saturday and Sunday junior classes (new sessions start tomorrow)
10. Send out second USA Nationals press release. (The first one was published in the Baltimore Sun - see below.)
11. Organize upcoming afterschool program (starts again on Monday)
12. Create MDTTC January Newsletter
13. Update some corrections to the Print on Demand and Kindle versions of Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers.
14. Schedule and plan upcoming adult beginning class (scheduling postponed until I have more scheduling info on other classes and private coaching)
15. Write up Coach of the Year nomination for someone (who shall remain nameless for now). 
16. Write letter of complaint to United over the two cancelled flights on Dec. 22 - see "My Seven Years at San Francisco Airport." (Postponed to weekend)
17. Organize training schedule for one of our top players (postponed to weekend)
18. Christmas thank you's (postponed to next week)
19. Eating and sleeping (postponed forever)

SATURDAY and SUNDAY…

Lots and lots of coaching scheduled….

Thought for the Day on Serving

The ITTF (and USATT) rules state that the serve shall start with the ball resting freely on the open palm of "the server's stationary free hand." Stationary? That's not really possible. First, nobody can hold their hand absolutely stationary. For one thing, it would require a temperature of absolute zero, which is about -469 Fahrenheit or -273 Celsius. Second, even if the hand were motionless it would be moving through space very rapidly as the earth spins and circles the sun and as the sun moves around the galactic core at about 483,000 mph. Third, motionless relative to what? Haven't they heard of relativity? Okay, I'm just having fun! Or am I?

Crystal Wang Featured in Baltimore Sun

Here's the article. (The words are from my press release.)

Get the Right Info and Practice the Right Elements!

Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

Reading Spin

Here's a video (8:110 where Tao Li explains how to read service spin.

"Happy New Year to the Sweeris Family"

Here's the video (3:29), "From the Butler Family to the Sweeris Family." (I can't imagine the history of USA Table Tennis without the Butlers, Sweerises, and the Boggans and Seemillers. That's a pretty different world!)

Welcome 2015 with Table Tennis in Top 5 in the World

Here's the article by ITTF Chair and Previous President Adham Sharara.

USATT Hall of Fame Dinner

Here's the video (2:18:10) of the Hall of Fame Banquet held at the USA Nationals, where Lisa Gee, Tawny Banh, Sheila O'Dougherty, and Richard Butler were inducted into the Hall of Fame, and Donna Sakai was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. Emcees are Dick Evans, Tim Boggan, and Sean O'Neill.

Welcome to the New Age of Table Tennis

Here's the video (1:34) from the ITTF!

2006 Planet Ping Pong Documentary

Here's the video (57:17), which covers the history of our sport, with interviews and video of many past greats such as Marty Reisman and Johnny Leach.

Ping Pong Playing Musicians of the Year

Here's the article from Table Tennis Nation.

What to Do with Old Sponge

Here's the picture - I'm sure no referee would object!

Table Tennis in Russia

Here's the picture - welcome to the Russian winter! (Click on pictures to see three more.)

Table Tennis Surfing

Here's the picture of Kim Gilbert as she rides a table on a . . . sand wave at the beach?

***
Send us your own coaching news!