November 23, 2015

Tip of the Week
When Playing an Unfamiliar Player, Focus on Serve & Receive.

Crazy Month
It's been a crazy month, and it's only getting crazier. Over the past month or so I've launched the State Championships Initiative and the Regional Associations Initiative, and the Regional Team Leagues Initiative will be out probably in a couple of weeks. (I'll blog about these more later.) MDTTC was named an ITTF Hot Spot. We've spent lots of time preparing players for the upcoming Team Championships (whether in Washington DC or Philadelphia) and for the USA Nationals in Las Vegas in December. I put together the Hall of Fame program booklet and the ad for the Hall of Fame Inductions for the Nationals program. Plus all the usual coaching (private and group), as well as the regular tutoring I'm now doing at the club, mostly in English. (If I listed everything I've crossed off my todo list for this past month, I'd have to use up all existing pixels in the universe as this blog would go from here to the farthest known quasars…) Oh, and four Tips of the Week and these daily blogs!

In the world of science fiction writing (skip this paragraph if not interested), I sold a SF novel to World Weaver Press, "Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions" (and as the blog entry shows, it has lots of table tennis!), and short stories to Space and Time Magazine and to Galaxy's Edge two days ago – the latter one of the most prestigious SF magazines around and perhaps my best sale ever. And I've updated my science fiction page and started a weekly SF blog – see segment at end. Galaxy's Edge will be the 150th different publication I've been in – I've had 1617 published articles (five since the last time this page was updated), including 1443 on table tennis.  (These numbers do not include over 1000 blog postings.) I also wrote three new short stories and did the first 17,000 words of the sequel to the novel I sold above, "Campaign 2110: Scorpions in Space." (That's about 68 pages double-spaced Times-Roman. Finished novel will be around 100,000 words.)

Today's actually a slow day for me, just 90 minutes at the club, and then some weight training as I prepare for the Nationals. (I have normally have another 90-minute coaching session, but that player has a sore shoulder and so isn't coming in.) Tonight at 7PM there's a USATT Board Teleconference I'll be on, where we'll be discussing software, the Nationals, the World Junior Championships, the December Board meeting at the Nationals, USOC issues, and some Coaching issues.

Ask the Experts: Larry Hodges
Here's my coaching article for Butterfly, where I answer the following question: "When one should change his paddle/rubber (because he feels the paddle/rubber is not fit for him) or when he has to keep practicing to adapt with his paddle/rubber. What is the KEY FACTORS to decide it?"

Quick Backhand Topspins
Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao. I wish I'd read this 39 years ago when I was starting out! (Alas, I became a one-wing forehand attacker, and so never really developed my backhand attack. This became a double-whammy problem – as I got better, the rallies got faster and faster and so often there was no time to play forehand, and now, at 55, I'm not fast enough to cover the table with my forehand like I used to. One very important tactical point here is #6, hitting the shot to multiple spots on the table – many players do this shot to the backhand over and over, and so often get blocked or counter-hit down. It's when you move this shot around that it becomes a true terror to react to.

4 Lessons: Learn from Successes and Failures
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina. And here's My Life, ten questions about Samson Dubina – how well do you really know him? (But I want to know more about that almost going to jail thing!!!)

Improvement is a Long Term Activity
Here's the new article from PingSkills.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #190 (20:35) - When Does Learning Sink In? (And other segments).

Zhang Jike Forehand Training at Swedish Open
Here's the video (2:29).

ITTF Articles Feature USA Juniors

Which is the Table Tennis Star Point of 2015?
Here's where you can view them and then vote!

How About Fair Play in Table Tennis
Here's the new video (5:55).

Opposite Hand Rips

  • Here's video (9 sec) of an opposite hand off-the-bounce counterloop.
  • Here's the video (21 sec, including slow motion replay) of an opposite hand smash.

Ma Long - King of Epic Shots
Here's the video (5:18). Notice anything strange about the serve he does at the start? Watch the slow motion replay starting 12 seconds in. I'll blog about this tomorrow.

Dilbert Pong
Here's the cartoon from yesterday: "My life is like two piles of meat trying to play ping pong."

Ping-Pong Fails
Here's the video (70 sec)!

Alien vs. Predator!
Here's the repeating gif image.

Non-Table Tennis - My Weekly Science Fiction Blog
Besides this daily (Mon-Fri) table tennis blog, I now have a weekly science fiction blog, coming out every Monday morning. This week's blog is "3-D vs. 4-D Wars," i.e. wars between three-dimensional beings (us) and four-dimensional ones. The incentive – I just sold a story to Galaxy's Edge that featured this, and it's the third story I've sold that featured such battles. The blog is on my newly updated science fiction and fantasy page, with links for Bibliography, Upcoming Appearances, How to Write SF, Table Tennis, and About Larry Hodges. Yep, I'm basically doing two full-time careers, table tennis coaching & writing and SF writing, while still doing all my USATT and MDTTC volunteer work. Yes, I'm crazy, and yes, I'm very, very tired.

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