February 18, 2015

Team League Sign-Up Time

Here's a call-out to players in the Capital Area, New York, and Los Angeles areas - time to join a team!!! Below are the team leagues in these regions. Deadlines are coming up fast, so enter now! (Deadline for the Capital Area Super League is this Friday.)

As I noted in my Feb. 2 blog, leagues such as these are the first step toward changing the culture of table tennis in the United States. As I wrote then: "…developing these team leagues won't be easy, and that's because of the culture of table tennis here, where few have ever played regularly on a table tennis team. They don't know what it's like to compete regularly on a team where your teammates and friends are cheering you on, even as you cheer them on - you know, like most of you were cheering on a football team at the Super Bowl last night! Except - you get to be Tom Brady or Russell Wilson."

It's going to be a long process, but eventually, if we can have the type of "team" culture they have overseas, we can have the same table tennis success as they do. Helping set up the Capital Area League and watching how it and others develop is a learning process as we learn how to create this type of team culture. Currently we have to almost connive players into entering, since it's something new and unfamiliar to them - unlike overseas, where this is the norm and why players come out to play. Gradually this will change.

And yet there are many who only look at the way things are now and can't imagine it can possibly change, just like many no doubt did, say, in Germany, back when they too were a backwards table tennis country without 600,000 members and 11,000 clubs. They didn't magically start that way, nor did they start team leagues because they had so many players; it was the team leagues that led to all those players, as it did all over Europe. This is also how most sports in the U.S. become popular, such as tennis (700,000 members, including me a few years ago when I played on a team), bowling (over two million members), and the many youth team leagues.

To paraphrase Robert F. Kennedy, we have to stop looking at the way things are, and dream of the way they should be, and ask "Why not?" (This is also a good way to look at your table tennis game - stop looking at where it is now, and instead dream of where it should be, and ask yourself, "Why not?")

  • Capital Area Super League (For players in the Maryland, Virginia, and DC area)
    Home Page and Info Flyer.
    Deadline: February 20 - this Friday!
    The league is for all levels, with numerous players already signed up from 1200 to 2000, and all the way up to 2500. Here is a listing of the 54 players on eleven teams currently signed up.
  • New York League
    Promotional Video and Blog.
    Deadline: March 8.
    From League Director Maurico Vergara: The Club league will start in March, we will play in the biggest clubs in the region, so far Lily Yip TTC and NYISC are confirmed as center of matches, still waiting for NJTTC in Westfield, and other. Teams need to submit roster of players and fee before March 8th. The matches will be played in many division, and we will play only once a month from March to November. All players are welcome to most multicultural league in the most multicultural city in the world.
  • Los Angeles League
    Info page.
    Deadline: March 1.

New Coaching Articles from Samson Dubina

Multiball Training

Here's the video (56 sec), demonstrated by Felix Gao and Coach Maggie Tian at the Zhou Xin TT Academy.

How to Feed Multiball to Multiple Players

Here's video (31 sec) one of many ways.

Ask the Coach

Episode #78 (19:15) - Coaching Players during Matches

  • Yesterday's #PQOTD  - 1:03: What are the critical factors that make the Chinese better?
  • #PQOTD  - 3:56: Without the Chinese players at the Qatar Open, can Ovtcharov win?
  • Question 1 - 5:10: Abdul: What did you parents say about playing Table Tennis?
  • Question 2 - 5:53: Brock: How was your feeling after your first loss in a tournament? Did you became more nervous for other matches or did it get better?
  • Question 3 - 8:30: Anthony: When receiving serve, my opponent says that I can not move to step around or anything until the ball has left the racket. Is this true? Thanks.
  • Question 4 - 10:19: Malke: It was 10:9 for my opponent and he served the ball. He pretended to serve backspin service so I tried to push it back. The problem was the ball was so wet that it immediately fell down. Can I make the ball wet to manipulate the surface?
  • Question 5 - 13:02: Marcus: It was my turn to take the U13 team to their match. The doubles was 2:0 start but the boys just did not realise how the opponents corrected their game and adjusted. They lost the following 3 sets. I did not take any timeouts. Should I have?
  • Question 6 - 15:26: Andre: When playing forehand topspin, do you have the same angle for the bat when you focus on both spin and power? or when playing power close the bat and go more horizontal with my arm and forehand and spin more open and have a vertical stroke?
  • Question 7 - 18:06: Brock: This question is to Alois: Do you think your 1990's hairstyle can comeback again? ; )

USATT Insider

The new issue came out this morning (issue #3), as it does every Wednesday morning. Here are the archives.

Expert in a Year

Here's the video from January (5 min) - it's going viral with 576,182 views as of right now!

Bill Hodge Memoriam

Here's the USATT Obituary. (No relation to me.) He co-founded the USA Nationals.

Exhibition Match in Augusta

Here's the article about the exhibition by Derek & Pete May and Peng Xin.

Around the Net Rolling Shot

Here's the 7-sec video.

Justin Bieber Dominates at Table Tennis

Here's the article on the lefty - yes, he actually has at least one positive attribute!

Sorcerer Pong

Here's the artwork by Mike Mezyan.

Fire Alarm in Kuwait = Lobby Table Tennis

Here's the video (24 sec) of Adam Bobrow's impromptu pong play on a lobby desk. (Why do I post so many Adam Bobrow videos? You'd be in here too if you were posting videos of hotel lobby desk table tennis is Kuwait!)

Ping-Pong Egg

Here's a funny video (1:36) that's mostly non-table tennis, featuring various special effects, such as a kid dressed as Spider-Man turning into a Spider-Man poster. At 48 seconds in, two kids are playing table tennis and the ball changes into an egg and goes splat.

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