February 18, 2016

What's in a Name?
Some of us have perfect names for what they do. Let's face it, doesn't Donald Trump have a great last name for a businessman or politician? (Well, until he went and ruined it by, well, I'll shut up now.) Or how about others with perfect names for their sport, like sprinter Usain Bolt, golfer Tiger Woods, or the great baseball slugger Hack Wilson? (There's also the unstoppable tennis star Bjorn Borg, but the unstoppable villains the Borg of Star Trek: Next Generation came after he retired.) Or how about someone with initials "LBH" for "Loop Block Hit"? (That would be me - and my last name is also an anagram for "He's God"!)

So let's examine the USATT ratings database and find out who's out there!

There were 64 Pings, and another 95 with "ping" as part of their names. My favorites: Ping Chao of Somerset, NJ, rated 545; (makes me hungry for ping-pong), He Ping of Durham, NC, rated 875 ("He ping-pong player!"; Ping Hao, of Gaithersburg, MD, rated 1803 (from my club! So "Hao" do you play ping-pong?); Ping Ma of Maritta, NY, rated 339 ("Ma, take me to play ping-pong!"); and Rusty Ping of Texas, unrated – "I need to practice, I'm rusty!" There was also former USA Olympian Whitney Ping.

There were seven Pongs (plus another 30 with "pong" as part of their name):

  • Johnny Pong of Laguna Woods, CA, rated 1048
  • Norman Pong of Chelmsford, MA, unrated
  • Vivien Pong of Eugene, OR, rated 1005
  • Beth Pong Green of Monument, CO, unrated
  • Pong Javier of Illinois, unrated
  • Chin Pong Tsui of New York, NY, unrated
  • Kin Pong Lee, foreign player location unknown, rated 1566

There were 39 people whose first name was "Ping," and four people whose last name is "Pong," so all we have to do is arrange a marriage between two of them (156 possible combinations!), and we'll have a Mr. or Mrs. Ping Pong!

Moving on to strokes, meet:

  • Craig Loop of Los Angeles, unrated
  • Tom Loop of Scotch Plains, NJ, rated 1638
  • Carl Looper of Tybee Island, GA, rated 896
  • Lots of Blockers – say hello to Adam, Eli, Gary, Jerry, Jonathan, Macy, Michael, Miwa, Robert, Rod, and Willen Block, and to Desmond, Jared, Jer'el, and Tavon Blocker.
  • No one named Push, but we do have Pushkar, Pushan, Pushilal, and Pushpak.
  • Mosi Kill Kelly, location unknown, rated 2222
  • No one named Chop, though quite a few had "chop" in their names, including a number of Chopra's. But there was Carl Chopp of Aurora, CO, unrated.
  • There were 11 people named Fish, and 41 named Fisher.
  • No one named Serve, but there were Bert and Humberto Servello.
  • Want to flip a serve? Meet Flip Carico of Troutville, VA, rated 1804. Of course the Europeans call a flip a flick, so meet Bob Flick of Luthvle Timon, MD, rated 837.

Moving on to equipment:

  • No one named Racket, but two had "racket" in their names – Hayden Brackett of Springfield, MO, rated 992, and Jeremy Brackett, of Attalla, AL, rated 1082.
  • There was Sam Blades, from unknown foreign country, rated 584.
  • There were 21 people named Bryce, but no Tenergys or Srivers.
  • There were no Antis, though a lot of Santiagos (which has "anti" in it), but I once knew a player named Ahn-Tuy Nguyen, whose first name was pronounced "Anti" – and believe it or not, he played with the Seemiller grip with anti on one side!

Speaking of Nguyen, do you want to win? There were 654 players with the Vietnamese name Nguyen, which is correctly pronounced (roughly) "Win."

Table tennis is a game of spin and speed, so…

  • Say hello to Vic Lotsospin of Pennsylvania, unrated. There were a lot of others with "spin" in their names, but no one named Spin.
  • Say hello to Nick Speed of Arizona, unrated.
  • But you don't need spin if you are Nospin Mitbbs from California, unrated.

But if you want to know the score, ask Ronald Score, of Washington, UT, rated 1351, or Tyler Score, of Phoenix, AZ, rated 1182.

Someone's playing name games with our database – apparently the guilty party is Fremont Head Coach Shashin Shodhan! The USATT database includes Shashin Chopper Shodhan, Shashin Left Chopper Shodhan, Shashin Lobber Shodhan, Left-Handed Shashin Shodhan, Lefty Shodhan, Pips-out Shashin Shodhan, Shashin Left Penhold Shodhan, Shashin Rght [sic] Shodhan, and Shashin Wheelchair Shodhan! There was also Kuldip Left-Handed Shodhan, Kuldip Wheelchair Shodhan, and Lefty Kuldip Shodhan.

But names aren't everything – who among us isn't determined to break 2000, that magical rating barrier? (Well, other than those rated over 2000.) And Majid Hussain of Ontario's USATT# is 2000. (But he's rated 2306.)

So who's the Best? Meet Alex, Aubrey, Bryan, Daniel, Gabe, Mark, Mia, and Thomas Best! And who's the best of the Best? That would be Daniel Best, from Germany, rated 2248. Of USA players, that would be Aubrey Best, of Orlando, FL, rated 1109. So the best of the USA Best aren't exactly . . . blessed.

Free Video Clips
Here are seven free video clips from Samson Dubina's coaching DVD.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #225 (20:45) - Backhand Counterloop and other segments.

Nice Drill
Here's the video (58 sec) – short push, long push, quick block.

Waldner Cherishes His Chinese Friends
Here's the article. And here's video (16:10) of Waldner's Most Beautiful Points.

Segun Toriola Qualifies for 7th Olympic Games
Here's the ITTF article. "TORIOLA's appearance at Rio 2016 will be the most by an African in any sport, writing himself into African sporting history." "TORIOLA joins table tennis legends Jean-Michel SAIVE (BEL), Jorgen PERSSON (SWE) & Zoran PRIMORAC (CRO) in an elite group of players who have played at seven Olympic Games."

2016 DHS Swiss Open Final
Here's the video (10:19) of Dimitrij Ovtcharov vs Vladimir Samsonov

World Champs Fav Moment - Ma Long
Here's the ITTF video (66 sec).

Fantastic Backhands
Here's the video (1:11).

LEON's World of Magic with David Wetherill
Here's the video (4:58) – humor, magic, and table tennis! "Leon Thomson, the magician, invites David Wetherill who did the "FANTASTIC TABLE TENNIS SHOT" to play table tennis at BTTC, Leon pulls of a ridiculous trick with David's Bat! David did the Fantastic Table Tennis shot at the Paralympic games in London 2012."

Mostly Non-Table Tennis – Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions
Here's the Amazon page for the kindle version of my new SF novel! You can only pre-order now, so why wait? Print page should be up in a few days. The novel will be released on March 8. As noted many times, one of the main characters is a professional table tennis player, and there are a number of table tennis scenes.

***
Send us your own coaching news!