January 6, 2016

A Blast from the Past
Yesterday while I was coaching, an elderly man was practicing on an adjacent table on the robot. He had some questions for me, and it soon became an interesting discussion, mostly taking place while the two kids I was doing multiball with were picking up balls. He was obviously once an experienced player, with decent technique and could hit regular forehands and backhands.

The man looked perhaps 65, and was Asian, but spoke perfect, unaccented English – he likely grew up in the U.S. He said that this was the first time he'd played in 40 years, and that he'd last played in 1976. This was ironic, since I started playing in 1976, and so was now in my 40th year of playing!

The first thing he'd noticed when he came in was that everyone had black and red surfaces on their racket, which surprised him. Back when he played, everyone had the same color on both sides. I explained the two-color rule of 1983, and about how in the years just prior to that the game was dominated by players with combination rackets who flipped and used deception to force misses and easy pop-ups. He found this interesting, yet difficult to understand. He wondered why players didn't just read the spin from the ball.

He also said that the ball seemed a bit big, and asked if these were standard sizes. (I think he said he had an old 38mm ball at home.) I explained how the ball had gone from 38mm to 40mm in the early 2000s, and explained why, which led to a discussion of modern surfaces. He was clearly surprised at the number and bounciness of modern surfaces such as Tenergy. He also wondered if the bigger ball would spin as well.

I found a Butterfly plastic ball mixed in with the celluloid balls he was using on the robot. I pulled it out and explained why. He was surprised we were switching away from celluloid, so I explained the whole controversy about the celluloid balls being more flammable, etc., and how they played differently. I bounced a celluloid and a plastic ball on the table so he could hear the sound difference – and we both agreed the plastic ones sounded funny. (And this for me was after using them at least semi-regularly for a year.)

He'd never seen multiball training before – it was very rare in the U.S. back in his day – and so he watched with interest as I ran the two junior players through a series of stroking and footwork drills. These days, multiball at a training center is like the sun rising in the morning.

He also was quite surprised games were to 11!

I wish I'd asked him more questions, such as about the players he remembered from back in 1976, but I was a bit busy working with two students. But it was certainly a blast from the past to see our sport now through the eyes of one who last saw it 40 years ago.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Day One
As noted in my blog yesterday, USATT Historian Tim Boggan moved in with me yesterday morning to work on his History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, which covers 1989-90. I had to start by scanning and fixing up a bunch of photos that Mal Anderson hadn't already scanned for us, and then we got to work. But since he didn't arrive until 9:30AM, and I had to leave to coach at 2:30, it was a shorter work day than will be the norm. We did the front and back cover (the latter was complicated), the title page, author page, dedication page, acknowledgements page, chapter 1, and the first page of chapter 2 – which got us to page 20. Including the front and back covers, we did 22 pages, with 42 graphics. It'll like be 400-450 pages long, so we have a long way to go.

Simply Compete Launch (for USATT Members)
Here's the USATT article. In Simply Compete you can:

• Manage your personal information
• Renew your membership
• View your tournament and rating history
• View your friend’s and family’s tournament and rating history
• Find and register for tournaments
• Find and register for leagues
• View your rating progression chart
• Upload a picture to your profile
• Use Google Maps to find clubs
• Share your tournament results on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and more!

Simply Compete is a one-stop shop for clubs as well!

• Manage club information
• Renew club affiliations
• Sanction tournaments
• Run tournament registration
• Submit tournament results
• Run Leagues
• Post to social media

Timo Boll: Coaches Are Crucial
Here's the interview in fifa.com from the German star, world #7 last month and former world #1. Excerpt – and probably the first part applies to beginners of all ages, though he's talking about future stars, who have to start very young: "Coaches are unbelievably important during that first phase between the ages of eight and 18, as that’s when techniques are honed and weaknesses are ironed out in training. After that, improvement is a matter of fine margins that aren’t immediately apparent, and coaches can often spot these from the outside. That’s why it helps if the coaches themselves played at a high level previously, because they know what it’s like to be in your position."

Table Tennis School - Random Topspin
Here's the video (43:25).

USATT Athletes of the Month: Yijun Feng and Jiaqi Zheng
Here's the USATT article.

Jean-Michel Saive Meets with King Philippe
Here's the ITTF article on former world #1 Saive meeting with the Belgium king. (The year is 2016 . . . and we still have kings??? Yes, I know, there are lots of them still.)

Rackets as Works of Art to Raise Cash for Children
Here's the article from the London Mirror, headlined, "Incredible table tennis bats are truly a work of art as designers raise cash for BBC Children in Need."

93-Year-Old Has Eyes on Olympics
Here's the video (1:26) from NBC News featuring Bill Guilfoil. "For many retirees a short stroll is enough to get their blood pumping, but for Bill Guilfoil, a walk in the park is exactly that. That's why the 93-year-old plays daily rounds of table tennis. In February, he will leave behind the green courts at Overland Park Racquet Club in Kansas City for Greensboro, North Carolina where he'll try to qualify for the 2016 summer Olympics in Brazil."

Does China Have (Singing) Talent?
Here's the USATT feature which links to three videos of Chinese team members singing, including the one I linked to yesterday.

Ma Long - Visions of Destiny
Here's the video (3:47) featuring the reigning world champion and world #1.

Popeye vs. Bluto
Here's the cartoon!

Non-Table Tennis - Reading Recommendations from World Weaver Press Editors and Authors
Here's the article, which includes a segment from me! (See third item.)

Non-Table Tennis – SF Blog on More Pings and Pongs
Here's the blog entry on the new anthology of my best science fiction & fantasy stories, and a little on writing workshops!

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