June 1, 2015

Tip of the Week

Fast No-Spin Serve to the Elbow. (Having trouble learning to do this serve? If you see me at a tournament or club, I’ll demonstrate.)

Balancing the Three Big Interests in a Big Event

With the US Open coming up, once again the triangulation needed between the three big interests is important. Who are the three big interests?

  1. Players. They are there to compete, as well as to spectate, visit the table tennis booths, and meet up with friends. They want as many events as possible where they are competitive (or at least can look for a “big upset”!), good playing conditions, accurate and intelligent time scheduling, nice prizes, and perhaps even special events, such as parties or panels. Of course, each of these take work to make happen, and that work is done by Operations.
  2. Operations. They are there to run the event. Left to themselves, if they didn’t take the players into account, they’d just want the most efficient schedule, i.e. players in, players out, and get each event done as quickly as possible with as few conflicts as possible. But they do have to take the players into consideration, since the event is run for the players. That means finding a balance between their interests and the players’. But they also have to take into account the ones who often help finance the tournament – the Showcasers.
  3. Showcasers. They are there to sell equipment and their brand. The sellers want to be out there in the playing area, where the players are. The sponsors selling their brand want their name everywhere. So where’s the balance? Sometimes the sellers’ booths are shunted off to the side, where they aren’t quite as visible as if they were right next to the playing area. Other times there’s sort of a compromise, where they are located next to the entrance to the playing hall, where players will see them while going in, but won’t be around them in the playing hall itself. Of course the sellers, given a choice, would like to be out there right next to the tables, while the sponsors want their names there as well, on the barriers and on banners, because they are catering to one specific group: the Players. So once again a balance has to be found.

So how is a balance found? Triangulation is the key, where a perfect point is found that balances the interests of all – and ideally, makes all three very happy. Think back to your last major tournament: were the interests of all three balanced out well?

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 16 (1988-89)

It was an incredibly long weekend, Fri-Sun. I spent over 26 hours of it sitting next to Tim Boggan as we did the pages of Volume 16 of his History of U.S. Table Tennis, one page at a time – with some pages taking close to an hour to finish as they went through various drafts. It’s meticulous work, most of it done In Photoshop as I prepare each photo for use, and then the page layouts themselves, including photo placements and sizes, captions, fixing up text, headlines, and so on. (Mal Anderson scanned most of the photos for us, a huge time-saver, but nearly all need various fixes, and many need massive work. So far I’ve placed over 500 graphics, one by one. I’ve also scanned about 100.) Fortunately, my Friday and Saturday coaching schedule was light. (However, Sunday I coached seven hours.) We’ll continue to work on it all weekend, and expect to finish next weekend. Here’s a rundown:

  • Friday: Worked ten hours, 5:15AM-Noon, 12:45PM-2:30PM, 4:00PM-5:30PM. We completed chapters 6-8, pages 97-143, 47 pages with 135 graphics.
  • Saturday: Worked ten hours, 6:30AM-Noon, 12:30PM-5:00PM. We completed chapters 9-11, pages 144-184, 41 pages, 126 graphics.
  • Sunday: Worked 6.25 hours, 4:45AM-10AM, 1PM-2:00PM. We completed chapter 12 and half of 13, pages 185-199, 15 pages, 83 graphics.
  • TOTALS for Fri-Sun: 26.25 hours, 103 pages, 344 graphics

Here are the chapter titles:

  • Chapter 6: 1988: April Tournaments. 1988: ACU-I Championships.
  • Chapter 7: 1988: USTTA Program Director Bob Tretheway’s Colorado Springs Interests.
  • Chapter 8: 1988: International Tournaments.
  • Chapter 9: 1988: May Tournaments.  1988: Zoran Kosanovic/Julie Barton Are Canadian Champions. 1988: U.S. Wheelchair Players Prepare For Seoul Paralympics.
  • Chapter10: Untitled – a series of page scans of miscellaneous topics.
  • Chapter 11: 1988: June Pre-U.S. Open Tournaments.
  • Chapter 12: Untitled – a series of page scans of miscellaneous topics.
  • Chapter 13: 1988: U.S. Players Sweep Events at Toronto’s Annual CNE. 1988: July-August-September Tournaments. 1988: Chicago’s Maccabi Games.

Minutes of USATT Board Meeting

Here are the minutes from the March 28 USATT Board Meeting in Baltimore. I’m involved in a number of them. They are mostly self-explanatory.

New Coaching Articles from MH Table Tennis

Both link to video.

Interview with Alex Polyakov: Breaking 2000

Here’s the new Podcast (27:46) from Expert Table Tennis, where they talk with Alex Polyakov, author of Breaking 2000 and The Next Step. (Here’s my review of Breaking 2000.) Some of the things covered in the podcast:

  • Why Alex first started playing table tennis aged 28.
  • How we came up with his Breaking 2000 challenge.
  • The kind of training he did to achieve it.
  • His experience at US rating tournaments.
  • How he has improved since first reaching 2000 points back in 2011.
  • Some of his crazy training methods.
  • A little more about his two table tennis books.

Ask the Coach with Richard Prause

Part 13 (3:11) – Footwork.

Incredible Rally at the Philippines Open

Here’s the video (40 sec) between Jung Youngsik (KOR) and Tazoe Kenta (JPN).

Table Tennis is Life!

Here’s the video (4:46) from Table Tennis Daily.

Top Ten Shots from the German League Final 2015

Here’s the video (5:22).

Ma Long – An Unbelievable Championship

Here’s the video (11:36) with highlights of Ma Long winning Men’s Singles at the Worlds.

Qoros Driving with the Stars – Bernadette Szocs

Here’s the video (3:54) of the world #59 player from Romania.

Table Tennis Celebration

Here’s the video (22 sec) of the Swedish winning team and some bubbly!

Duct Tape Pong

Here’s the video (4 sec)!

More Mike Mezyan Pictures

NOTE - If you are unable to see these pictures, all you have to do is join the Table Tennis Group - it's easy! Here are all the past, present, and (soon) future pictures he's collected. (I pick out his best ones for here - he has more.)

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