February 5, 2015

No Blog Friday and North American Grand Tour Final

I'm off early on Friday morning for the North American Grand Tour Final this weekend at the Westchester TTC in Pleasantville, NY. Here is a link to the program, with the schedule, rules, fun facts about table tennis, and information/photos on all 16 players (average rating over 2600, led by Eugene Wang at 2799). Here is the tournament flyer, which includes spectator info. Here's the USATT News Item.

All-out Forehand Attack - Surprise vs. Predicted

There's a huge difference between surprising your opponent with sudden forehand attacks, and predictably attacking all-out with the forehand. Last night was a good example. I played one of my students some practice games after our session - he's probably playing 1700 level, but knows my game and my serves very well. Without telling him, I decided to play all forehand. And so I won the first game 11-2 without playing a single backhand - I returned every single serve with the forehand (about half of them against short serves), and no matter what he did, I ran around and played forehand, even forcing counterloops every time he attacked. We played a second game, and I took another big lead, and he was getting frustrated. Then I told him what I was doing - he hadn't noticed, other than noting that I was playing very aggressive. We started a new game, and this time he began to play smart, attacking the wide corners over and over, challenging me with fast, angled serves and short ones to the forehand. Result? This time he won 11-7. He went home happy. (Now, if this were the 1980s, things would have been different - but I'll be 55 in three weeks, and so I'm not quite so fast anymore.)

Beginning/Intermediate Class

Here's info on the Beginning/Intermediate Class I'll be teaching at MDTTC for ten weeks, Sundays from 6:30-8:00 PM, starting Feb. 15, for players from beginner to about 1500. This is an adult class, though we'll let players as young as thirteen participate. There are 14 signed up so, ranging from around 20 to players in their 60s. I'll likely have two assistant coaches. I've taught this class about 20 times before. You can sign up via email and pay when you arrive!

USATT January Teleconference

I had my first USATT meeting as a new USATT Board Member on Wednesday night, January 21. The three motions from the meeting went up yesterday in the USATT Minutes Page. (The actual minutes, which give more info on the motions, discussions, and reports, will go up later after they are approved by the USATT Board.)

At the start of the meeting there were only six of nine board members present, as Club Rep Director Ed Hogshead was teaching a table tennis class, Athlete Director Ed Levy was in England (where it was 1AM), and Athlete Director Han Xiao was stuck in a business meeting. At-Large Director Mike Babuin was up for re-election for another two-year term as Chair of the Board. (I'm now the other At-Large Director.) There was no official advance notice of who might be running against him, so the first thing we did was have a call for anyone running against him - and Peter Scudner said he was. (I think I scared a few people for a few seconds into thinking I was running when I spoke up here, but it was only to remind people to identify themselves when they spoke as I was having trouble recognizing everyone by their voices.)

Mike and Peter each gave a short speech on why they were running, and then we voted. I voted for Mike since he has been arguing for many of the same things I've argued for to develop the sport. However, he was voted down 4-2, with Mike and I voting for Mike, while the three Independent Directors (Peter and the other two non-table tennis members, Jim Kahler and Anne Cribbs) voted for Peter, along with National Organization Director Kagin Lee. (Han Xiao joined us soon afterward, missing the vote, though of course his vote alone wouldn't have made a difference.) Peter then took over as Chair of the Board and the teleconference. (He previously chaired the board for four years, 2009-2012.)

If you are having trouble figuring out what all these board titles mean, welcome to the crowd; they are all from our bylaws. Sometime I'll blog about them. Here's the Board listing.

During the meeting there were three motions, several reports, and an executive session (board members only) where we discussed some disciplinary issues. (Besides the board members, others on the teleconference were Counsel Dennis Taylor; High Performance Committee Chair Carl Danner; and Assistant Secretary Lee Kondo.) The reports were on RailStation (who now does our membership and ratings software), a sponsorship update, and on the U.S. Open and Nationals. (Much of this will be covered when the official minutes go online.) There were three votes.

The first vote was simply to approve the minutes of the previous meeting at the USA Nationals in December. There had been some email discussion and corrections to this. When Kagin Lee moved to approve them, and nobody immediately seconded it, I did the second, and they were approved unanimously. (I did attend most of that meeting, but not as a board member, so afterwards I wondered if it was appropriate that I seconded the motion. But not important as it passed unanimously, I think 5-0 as Han wasn't yet available.)

The second vote was some redefining of what a "Supporting member" was, and it also passed unanimously. Again I did the second.

The third motion passed 4-1, with me the lone dissenter. So why did I vote against this? The vote was about newly reworded USATT Committee Procedures and Responsibilities, which is included in the online document (pages 3-6). When the vote came up during the teleconference, I said that we're just putting a bandage on the problem rather than fix the problem, and that I wasn't going to approve any more of these minor bureaucratic changes to the committees until we focused on the 800-pound gorilla, which is implementation. Currently our bylaws specify that these committees are "Advisory." Committees that advise when we don't have anyone to implement are mostly useless. We need to stop the seemingly endless restructuring and wording changes, and focus on actively developing our sport. (This might change soon, as I may be volunteering for a position where I will focus on implementation. More when and if this comes up. There also might be an upcoming motion from me or someone else taking the "Advisory" word out of the bylaws for many of these committees, and adding implementation to their general responsibilities. That's the one I'd vote for.)

We received the motion in advance via email. Here is my email to the Board the day before the teleconference, explaining why I opposed the motion.

Jan. 20, 2015:

Many of the committee responsibilities are advisory, but who will do the implementation? For example, the League Committee is tasked to “Develop plans to promote the growth of affiliated leagues.” If they are not also tasked to implement these plans, who will? Otherwise we’ll just keep creating unimplemented plans, like we always do.

The Club Committee is tasked to “Survey clubs regarding their needs and expectations for USATT support,” “Survey clubs regarding their existing structure and membership,” and “Review how clubs fit and maintain a role in the USATT Strategic Plan.” How does any of this help if they aren’t also tasked to actually implement anything after getting this info? Only in a very bad bureaucracy is the goal to find the problems while not looking to fix them. The items above give us information that could lead to plans to address the problems found, i.e. they are a means to an end – fixing the problems and thereby develop and grow the sport. But who will implement these plans if not the committee?

The Coaching committee is tasked to “Appoint, certify, train and monitor coaches.” What about recruit, probably the most important aspect if we want to grow? And who will create and implement plans to recruit coaches if not the Coaching Committee?

I could go through many of the committees in this way. We need to stop focusing on restructuring and similar issues, and focus on things that specifically increase membership, improve our elite players, or similar things that lead to such development. (That includes increasing revenue, which is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.) Historically we’ve been the model for a Dilbert cartoon, with the lack of implementation our greatest sin. It’s time to break that mold and focus on doing things that develop the sport.

I’m in the middle of a “writing sabbatical” this week to work on a new table tennis book (“Parents’ Guide to Table Tennis”), but I’d be willing to work on the wording next week if requested, but only if there seems to be a consensus that it is needed, i.e. that the committees should be tasked (roughly speaking) with creating and implementing plans to develop the sport in their area.

-Larry Hodges (just back from a three-hour meeting of the Capital Area Super League organizing committee – where it’s all about implementation)

Alas, as noted in my blog on January 26, I didn't get much work done on the "Parent's Guide," but I got a lot of other stuff done, much of it USATT stuff.

Ask the Coach

Three more episodes - they've been busy!

The Serve of Kenta Matsudaira

Here's a video (60 sec) showing the progression of the serve of Kenta (world #23, formerly #15) from a child to now. Here's a translation of the caption: Translation of caption: "Kenta Matsudaira is not only known for its great game but also with a unique service, which he learned from an early age. See this interesting movie." It's an interesting serve that more should copy - or better still, develop their own interesting serve variations.

Hank Zipzer: My Secret Life as a Ping-Pong Wizard

This is a kid's book, roughly for grades 3-7 (ages 8-12), 158 pages but with rather large print so it only took about 90 minutes to read. Here's the version I read. Here's a newer version. It's one of 17 books in the Hank Zipzer series by Henry Winkler (yes, of Happy Days fame) and Lin Oliver. The books are all subtitled "Hank Zipzer: The World's Greatest Underachiever." Hank, like Henry Winkler, is dyslexic, as well as having very poor hand-eye coordination.

In this book, Hank, who is just starting fifth grade, goes from troublemaker and soccer failure to gaining confidence and fun as a ping-pong player, where he learns to concentrate under the patience tutelage of Coach Winston. There's sort of an ongoing joke where seemingly everyone Hank knows thinks ping-pong is a backyard game for old people, and compare it to shuffleboard - and so Hank is at first afraid to admit he plays. He even creates a rather elaborate listing, "Ten Reasons I Am Going to Hate Playing Ping-Pong." But he goes from hiding his ping-pong to finally playing it in the "Parade of Athletes" at school. His father, who wants him to play soccer and chides him constantly for quitting, goes from saying "Ping-Pong is not a sport. It's a hobby," and "While Ping-Pong is a nice backyard pastime, I certainly don't consider it a sport. It doesn't command the respect of the athletic community," to saying, "You played very well, son. Ping-Pong is quite a sport."

We also meet some interesting (fictional) players at the Ping-Pong Emporium that Hank joins, including: Hank's grandfather, Papa Pete, who topspins everything; Wei Chang, a member of the 1996 Chinese Olympic Women's Team; Coach Winston Chin, an extremely patient and understanding coach who gives him a racket and free lessons; his five-year-old grandson, Sammy, who is a kindergartner from Hank's school and plays standing on a box; Maurice, the Jamaican national champion (who sounds to Hank like Count Dracula), who takes Hank under his wing and practices with him regularly; Niko, the a wheelie-popping wheelchair player in a baseball cap with wicked spins who teaches Hank how to anticipate returns; Dr. Crumbworthy, Hank's ping-pong-playing dentist; and Principle Love, who proudly explains that he "earned a merit badge in table tennis from Boy Scout Camp in Minnesota."

Another Scary Kid

Here's the video (2:37) of Arthur Dubois, who looks about five, and whose shoulders are barely over the table.

2015 Chinese Team Trials

Here's video (32:02) of Ma Long vs. Fan Zhendong. (Commentary is in Chinese.)

International Table Tennis

Here's my periodic note 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).

Sri-Lankan Baby Pong?

Here's the picture.

Under-the-Leg Smash

Here's the video (3 sec) of Kim Gilbert!

Crazy Table Tennis Tricks with Dominoes

Here's the video (2:19)!

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