November 4, 2015

National Table Tennis Day
Let's establish a National Table Tennis Day. In the weeks and months before that day we'd flood the media all over the country with press releases, and recruit clubs to take part. We'd also do a web page and a promotional video. Then, on the day itself, we'd get clubs all over the country to open their doors and welcome new players. Some ideas for that would include a short beginners' clinic, an exhibition, and a recreational round robin event, singles or doubles. Snacks and drinks a must!

I suggest the date be Sept. 23, commemorating the anniversary of table tennis's Olympic debut in 1988, allowing us to tie it into the Olympics. Once the date is established, we do a nationwide campaign to get clubs to join in every Sept. 23, with lots of local promotion. Having the date this far in the future would give us time to promote it properly. Perhaps have a countdown thing on the web page counting down the days until Table Tennis Day. Additional benefit of Sept. 23: The initial day would be Sept. 23, 2016, a Friday, when many clubs are open and when people are free (not a work night). England already has a National Table Tennis Day – July 16. We could match them, but I like the Sept. 23 connection better. Either is fine with me.

ADDENDUM: As GMan pointed out below, the ITTF is scheduling a World Table Tennis Day on April 6, 2016. Let's join them!

"Scholer-Hodges Aspect Ratio Rule"
This is sort of crazy, but a certain person who I will not name (but he's infamously known as the Internet table tennis troll "sjan," plaguing online forums for something like two decades now, and now often going by the name "tthanahan") has been sending out mass emails and creating web pages that attribute things to me that I had nothing to do with. At the top of his list is the "Scholer-Hodges Aspect Ratio Rule," which was passed in 1998, and limits the ratio of width to height in long pips, which this person hates. The irony is that 1998 was the year I mostly took off from table tennis, working as a computer programmer. When I first saw my name connected by him to this rule I had to look it up because I didn't even know what the rule was at the time.

I've pointed out the falsity of his claim, but he doesn't care. Why does he do this? Because he can. There are crazy and dishonest people out there (this guy isn't the only one), and I unfortunately often make the mistake of trying to reason with them (silly me!), which only puts me on their radar. He also makes a lot of other claims about my beliefs, few of which are true, and attributes all sorts of quotes to me that I've never said. I've heard that Eberhard Schöler, the 1969 World Men's Singles Finalist whose name he also connects to this rule, was involved in creating the rule, which limits how soft and flexible long pips can be. Why this person connects me with this is bizarre. (He also refers to me over and over as "Rev. Hodges"!) 

New World Rankings
Notes on the Men's side:

• Ma Long remains #1.
• Fan Zhendong moves to #2, with Xu Xin dropping to #3. Fan was also #2 last year in September and October.
• Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER) moves to #4, ahead of Zhang Jike, breaking China's stranglehold on the top four spots since Ovtcharov was also #4 from April to August of 2014. The other top Chinese player is Fang Bo, #8.
• Marcos Freitas (POR) moves to #7, with Timo Boll (GER) dropping to #8. Except for March, 2014, when Boll dropped out of the rankings for one month because of injury, Germany had had the top two European spots since November, 2011 when Samsonov was #8 and Ovtcharov #12, with Boll at #4. (I had to go through every monthly ranking, one by one, to get all this.)
• Wong Chun Ting (HKG) jumped from #16 to #11.

Notes on the Women's Side:

• Women's World Cup Champion Liu Shiwen recovers the #1 spot, which she also held from Jan. 2010 to Sept. 2010, and from Sept. 2013 to Sept. 2014. She's been top three since Feb. 2012.
• Previous #1 Ding Ning drops to #3 and Zhu Yuling moves to #2. Ding had been #1 since Oct. 2014, and previously from Nov. 2011 to Aug. 2013. This is Zhu's highest ranking.
• Li Xiaoxia returns to the ranking list at #6 after dropping off last month. She was #1 for eight months in 2011.
• China has had the top three spots, and usually the top four, for a LONG time – I'm not going to go through all the records and try to find out the last time a non-Chinese player was in the top three. Suffice to say that none of the non-Chinese players in the top 20 have ever been in the top three.
• Petrissa Solja (GER) jumped from #26 to #14.

2016 US Olympic Trials Tickets
Here's info. They will be held in Greensboro, NC, Feb. 4-6.

Invitation to the New York League Finals
Here's info – "The NYTTL finals 2015 are Sunday November 8th at the NYISC, New York Indoor Sports Club. NYISC is located at 1535 126th Street in College Point, NY.  Competition begins at 1:00pm, Semi-Final 1 is Spin New York vs NYISC A and Semi-Final 2 is Atlanta TTA vs NYISC B."

World Cup Always a Good Experience
Here's the article from Canadian Champion Mo Zhang.

Great Point between Stefan Fegerl and Kalinikos Kreanga
Here's the video (22 sec) from the Champions League.

Adam Bobrow Goes Court Side with Petrissa Solja at the 2015 Women's World Cup
Here's the video (57 sec) as he talks to the bronze medal winner. (Here's video – 91 sec – of Adam giving an exhibition I think in the U.S. with Coach Erick.)

Teqball – a Table for Soccer Table Tennis
Here's the picture!

Quintuples?
Here's the video (4:30)!

Hit and Blow Balance
Here's the video (3 sec) – nice trick. I do the blowing ball trick all the time, and am thinking about coming up with a routine for the next trick shot competition.

Trick Shots
Here's the new video (2:21) from Kevin Korb – "Table tennis trick shots like you've never seen before!

Why Looping in Table Tennis is Bad
Here's the video (38 sec) by Nathan Hsu and Chris Zhang. A good looper can do it over and over until the point is over – and apparently well after!

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