April 5, 2016

Monday Coaching
It was another busy day. It started with the afterschool program – but with two kids away, I mostly worked one-on-one for an hour with 7-year-old Qiyu, who is starting to master the strokes when he's able to pay attention. (If you've worked with 7-year-olds, you know what I mean!)

Then I had a session with 11-year-old Daniel, where we did lots and lots of counterlooping. We also did a lot of forehand attack drills, such as he serves backspin, I push, he loops, and then play out the point. We also had a long drill where he just attacked into my backhand ("The Great Wall of China" I call it after a good rally) with his forehand and backhand.

Then I had an hour with Navin, "The Bionic Man." Here's a write-up and video he did of the first two minutes of forehand to forehand. As I wrote in a comment there, the best part of the session was when we did a drill where Navin served to my backhand, I'd roll it back to his forehand, and he'd smash. We didn't play out the point as we wanted to focus on that first smash. After a time we switched the drill to where I'd roll the ball back anywhere on the table, and we'd rally until I went to his forehand, and then he'd smash. I also served to him for nearly 15 minutes so he could work on low, angled returns against varied serves.

Afterwards I had a group session with about 20 new players (from a social meetup group), and Navin helped out for an hour. Navin gave an inspirational talk, then we demoed the forehand. Then I had the players spread out and shadow practice the forehand. Then I took them, two at a time, and taught the forehand with multiball (one from the forehand side, one hitting forehands from the backhand side). Then we demoed the backhand, and again had them shadow practice the shot. We didn't have time to teach it directly, so I went directly to serves, explaining the serving rules, how to do basic serves, how to create spin, and demoed the various spins. (Serving backspin so it bounced back into the net, and sidespin so it curved around the table and hit a target off to the side.) Then it was free play, with Navin and I hitting with the players.

I also spent an hour working on the upcoming MDTTC April Open – see segment below.

Now the down side: I've been coaching almost every day for a while, and during my session with Daniel – who works me hard! – my back started to hurt for the first time in probably a year. Last night while at my desk it really started to act up. So I think I'm going to get Raghu or someone to substitute for my two hours of coaching today.

RIP: Mark Nordby and YC Lee
Late last night I got the shocking news that both had passed away. Mark, who was only around 50, apparently died just yesterday. He was a long-time coach and player from Illinois, though I believe he moved to Texas a few years ago – not sure. He was a former chair of the USATT Coaching Committee and a long-time coach of many USATT junior and cadet teams, and often coached Mark Hazinski in tournaments. He was a long-time coaching associate of Dan Seemiller, assisting at his numerous training camps. (In fact, he sort of replaced me – I was Dan's assistant coach the summers of (if I remember correctly) 1990 and 1991, but then we opened the Maryland Table Tennis Center in 1992 where we ran our own camps, and Mark became Dan's new and long-time assistant.) He and Dan teamed up to win a number of senior doubles titles. (Mike Levene and I lost to them in the finals of Over 40 Doubles at the 2010 U.S. Open.) Here's a picture of Mark, on the right, playing doubles with Dan. Here's one of him playing. I've known Mark for decades, both through his USATT work, at tournaments, and as opposing coaches and players. Cause of death is unknown, but possibly a heart attack. He will be greatly missed.

USATT Hall of Famer Y.C. Lee apparently passed three days ago. I didn't know him quite as well, knowing him mostly as an umpire and through his USATT work, mostly in the 1990s. Since he was the 1996 and 1997 U.S. Open Over 70 doubles champion, he must have been at least 90 years old. Here's his Hall of Fame profile. Here's a picture of him smacking a forehand. (I couldn't find any other online pictures of him, or a larger version of this one.)

MDTTC April Open
Here's the tournament page (where you can enter online) and entry form. I'll be running the tournament this Saturday at MDTTC in Gaithersburg, MD. Hope you can join us!

Equipment Reviews
Here's a new site, EquipmentJunkies.com, that reviews equipment for you TT EJs! "Do you order four backhand rubbers at a time in your search for the perfect racket? Have you still not decided whether you prefer a flared or straight handle blade? You, my friend, are an Equipment Junkie!"

MDTTC Hopes Team Members Lisa Lin and Tiffany Ke Featured in Baltimore Sun
Here's the article (actually a condensed version of my press release) and pictures.

11 Questions with Daryl Morey of the Houston Rockets
Here's the USATT interview.

Interview with Hanwei Wang
Here's the USATT interview by Rahul Acharya.

Tahl Leibovitz Featured by USOC
Here's the article, which came out a month ago but I somehow missed. "Once a homeless teenager, Paralympian Tahl Leibovitz embraces new career in social work while training for Rio."

New Facility Serves Up Table Tennis to South Bend Youth
Here's the article from the South Bend Tribune.

Tidewater Table Tennis Club Honors Dean Johnson with Lifetime Achievement Award
Here's the article.

Triangle Table Tennis Looks Forward to Future Success with Cary Cup Tournament
Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17 (1989-1990)
Here's chapter 3! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

Table Tennis Team Trials Olympic Talk
Here's the video (3:06). Features (in order) Tahl Leibovitz, Wang Chen, Lily Zhang, and Timothy Wang.

Jack Wang Interview at the 2016 Butterfly Cary Cup Championship
Here's the video (2:08).

Jan-Ove Waldner Impossible
Here's video (66 sec, with slo mo replay) of Waldner doing your typical run-from-the-table, leap-in-air over-the-shoulder no-look lob winner. That's Jean-Michel Saive on far side. [Bernard Lemal emailed me that the point was in the match for 3rd place at the 1991 World Men's Cup, with Waldner leading 18-9 in the third (best of three); he'd win a few points later. (The final was Persson over Gatien.) He also pointed out that though you can't see it clearly, Saive actually won the point by pushing the ball back, with Waldner stuck on the other side of the barriers. Here's the full match (13:11).]

Patrick Baum vs Steffen Mengel (2016 German National Championships) Final
Here's the video (11:19) – nice match. I wonder how long it's been since there was a German Men's Final without Timo Boll or Dimitrij Ovtcharov?

Butterfly Cary Cup Championship Final
Here's the video (41:25) of the match this past weekend between Zhang Bohan and Zirui Zhao, with Al Herr and Jeremy Hazin commentating.

The Art of Ping-Pong in Paddles
Here are 18.

Warrior Pong
Here's the picture!

Non-Table Tennis: Sale to Galaxy's Edge Magazine
In my other life as a part-time (though it sometimes seems full-time) science fiction & fantasy writer, I just sold a story to Galaxy's Edge, one of the premier markets, my third sale to them. The story, "Manbat and Robin," is a humorous takeoff on Batman and Robin, about a bat that thinks it's a superhero and his non-talking sidekick, a robin. Sorry, no table tennis in this one. 

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