March 20, 2015

Historic First Match of the Capital Area Super League

It took place last night at the Maryland Table Tennis Center, between the MDTTC Smokeoutz (Khaleel Asgarali, Toby Kutler, Ryan Dabbs, Amy Lu, with Chen Bowen and Reza Ghiasi sitting out), and the MDTTC Lions (Stefano Ratti, Raghu Nadmichettu, Heather Wang, and Ernie Byles). Normally it's supposed to be three on three, but due to a misunderstanding and a last-minute negotiation, they played four on each side this one time. The Smokeoutz won 5-4, with a severely under-rated 11-year-old Ryan Dabbs (rated 2018, #5 in U.S. in Under 12 boys) pulling out a ninth match upset win over Ernie Byles.

Here's the write-up by Stefano Ratti, along with results and pictures. (Click on the pictures for larger version.) And yes, that's a lion smoking a cigar and dreaming about table tennis.

While both of these teams are MDTTC teams playing at MDTTC, the league itself has 71 players on 13 teams from six clubs. This is only the first season. The goal is to 1) grow each season by expanding into the recreational player base, and 2) create a proto-type regional league that can spread to anywhere in the country. Great thanks goes to Michael Levene and Stefano Ratti for taking much of the initiative in developing this league, with John Olsen and I the other members of the organizational committee. Much of it is based on Michael's experiences in the English leagues and Stefano's in the Italian leagues; how tennis, bowling, and other sports developed and run their leagues; and successful U.S. leagues, in particular the LA League, from whose web page we shamelessly stole anything useful.

Update on My Books

This seems a good time to remind people that if you haven't bought copies of my books, the Easter pumpkin will run you down on Santa's sleigh and smack you with a menorah. Also, I'll starve, or at least spend more hours slaving away coaching to make up the difference. Here's my Table Tennis Books page, and here's my Amazon Books page. (While we're on the topic of writing, I have a few articles published as well.) Here are my books:

  • Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers. The book not only covers tactics, but strategic development, i.e. how to develop your game. (Look over the 35 reviews, and ask yourself why you haven't got a copy yet.) It's in both print and kindle formats. There's even a French translation coming out later this month.
  • Table Tennis Tips. This came out in May last year in both print and kindle formats. It's a compilation of all 150 of my Tips of the Week from 2011-2013, but in a logical progression, all in one volume. It includes chapters on Serve, Receive, Strokes, Grip and Stance, Footwork, Tactics, Improving, Sports Psychology, Equipment, and Tournaments. (More Table Tennis Tips should come out early in 2017, covering all my weekly tips from 2014-2016.)
  • Table Tennis Tales & Techniques. This is a compilation of both interesting stories about table tennis (lots of fun stuff), and essays on techniques. It also features a series of pictures of 2003 World Men's Singles Champion Werner Schlager in the top right corner of every page, so if you fan the pages you get a movie of him playing!
  • Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook. This covers the professional side of coaching - getting students, keeping them, running classes and junior programs, and other aspects of coaching, with an emphasis on professional coaching and junior training. It's in both print and kindle formats.
  • Table Tennis: Steps to Success. This covers the fundamentals of table tennis, but is currently out of print. I'm planning a new version out sometime in the next few years, tentatively retitled "Table Tennis Fundamentals." (First I have to get new pictures for every technique taught in the book, a big job.) However you can still buy used copies. (There is another version of this out by Richard McAfee, but it's not related to this one - it's from the same publisher, and they chose to use the same title.) The book sold 28,000 copies and was translated into seven languages. It probably sold a zillion copies if you include bootleg copies in China.
  • Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis. This online manual was published a while back by USATT. It's a guide for how to coach for beginning coaches. I tentatively plan to do a new version at some point, using the pictures. 
  • Sorcerers in Space. This is my humorous fantasy novel that came out in 2013. It comes in both print and kindle versions. It's about the U.S.-Soviet race to the moon in the 1960s, but with sorcerers instead of astronauts, and the whole things takes place over one week. (Sorcerers work fast.) It stars a 13-year-old Neil [Armstrong] and fictionalized versions of many of the major political names from the 1960s - President Kennedy and his brothers, Jackie Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Bob McNamara, and Lee Harvey Oswald, as well as dragons and other creatures that keep trying to kill poor Neil - including an attack meteor named Buzz. Oh, and Neil is a wannabe table tennis champion who has to drop his dreams of ping-pong stardom to save the world. (I'll send you a FREE copy if you'll do a short review at Amazon.) 
  • Pings and Pongs: the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of Larry Hodges. This anthology includes the 30 best short stories I'd sold through 2009, including "Ping-Pong Ambition." It comes in both print and kindle versions. (More Pings and Pongs should come out sometime later this year - another 30 of my best sales since the previous anthology.)

If You Had Told Me 20 Years Ago That…

  • …hitting and pips-out players (especially pips-out penhold) would die out at the higher levels while choppers would thrive outside the top five…
  • …nearly all top penholders would hit backhands with the opposite side of their racket…
  • …players would be backhand looping practically everything right off the bounce…
  • …we'd be playing with a bigger, non-celluloid ball with games to 11…
  • …full-time training centers with full-time coaches would open up all over the country…
  • …USA cadets and juniors would compete successfully at the world-class level…
  • …Jim Butler (U.S. Men's Singles Champion in 1990, 1992, 1993) would retire for nine years, and then come back and win Men's Singles again at the 2014 Nationals at age 43…

…I'd have said that you were crazy.

Who Are These Players?

Here's a table tennis picture I created in 2000 that satirizes the USA Election that year between Bush and Gore. Note the discussion below it - can you identify the original players in the picture? (Here's the version with my signature - alas, when I first created it, I didn't sign it, and so there are unsigned copies all over the Internet.)

Ask the Coach

Here's the historic Episode #100 (28:35) - Competition Winner Announced (and other segments). If I hear "Good morning everybody!" from Alois one more time my head will explode - from being stuffed with table tennis knowledge!

New Venue, Diverse Players, Same Excitement for 2015 Butterfly Cary Cup

Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

Final of 2015 Asian Cup: Feng Tianwei vs. Liu Shiwen

Here's the video (11:19, with time between points removed) of this match from last weekend. Feng Tianwei of Singapore (world #5, ranked #2 for seven months back in 2010-2011) upset Liu Shiwen of China (world #3, world #1 for much of 2013-2014 and #2 for five months until just this month). Here's the Tabletennista article I linked to previously on it.

Zhang Jike Practicing at German Open this Week

Here's the video (34 sec).

Highlights Preview Video for German Open

Here's a preview video (3 min.) for the German Open. The commentary is in German, but the action is in table tennis.

You Think Table Tennis is Not a Sport, Then Watch This

Here's the video (9:12). (I can't tell if this is a new video, or a reposting of an older one, but it seems to be a new version of a similarly-named video.)

International Table Tennis

Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) 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). Butterfly also has a great news page.

Ma Long and Timo Boll Playing Mini-Pong and Doubles

Here's the video (30 sec).

Waldner and Persson - Paddle Tricks!

Here's the video (50 sec) of the two doing various ball-bouncing tricks. Can you do these?

Vegetarian Pong?

Let's seen, green handle/stem, red top . . . we'll call this rotated square strawberry pong. And check out the rackets pictured below in the comments.

Moon Pong

Here's the picture - taken from somewhere near Saturn.

Matt Lauer Pranks Ellen DeGeneres with 20,000 Ping-Pong Balls

Here's the article and multiple videos and pictures! "Pingpong, the prank is done! Matt Lauer gets sweet, sweet revenge on Ellen DeGeneres." Here are repeating gif image of Ellen swimming in ping-pong ballscursing Matt Lauer, and opening door as balls splash out

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