June 17, 2016

Private Coaching
Despite the long hours working with Tim as well as all the USATT and MDTTC work, plus blogging and a zillion other things, I've managed to make all my private coaching sessions this past week. But coincidentally, five of my most regular students are now either out of town or about to go out of town, and we're starting our MDTTC summer camps on Monday, and so I will have no more private coaching for the next ten days or so. (However, this is offset because I'll likely be coaching at least in the mornings at the summer camps. I'm hoping to get some time off since I'm so busy right now.)

I had a session Wednesday night with "The Bionic Man," Navin Kumar, the man with the mechanical heart and Parkinson's. On Sunday he'd been taken by ambulance to the hospital with very bad flu. He spent the night, and was discharged on Monday – and we had a session scheduled that night. At first he planned to make it, but he finally decided (helped by doctor's imploring, no doubt) to postpone it, and so we did the make-up on Wednesday.

He's leaving on June 21 for Romania for a Paralympic tournament, so we're gearing up for match play. They are using Donic 3-star 40+ balls, so I'd told him to buy a dozen in advance – and that's what we used during the session. (For perspective, 11-year-old Daniel, another of my students, played two tournaments recently. In the first, he trained with regular training balls right up to the tournament – I didn't know until the last minute he was playing in it – and said afterwards he felt really uncomfortable with the very different tournament balls. I explained to him that you have to train with the ball you are going to use. So for the last few sessions before the MDTTC June Open this past weekend we only trained with Butterfly 40+ balls, the tournament ball – and he won Under 1700, his only event.)

Navin's a long pips blocker, no sponge, but with an improving forehand. Because he'd just gotten out of the hospital, we decided no footwork drills. We did the following drills:

  1. Forehand to forehand
  2. Forehand smash to my forehand block
  3. Backhand to backhand – I hit steady backhand topspin to his blocks
  4. Backhand to backhand – I mixed in topspins, hits, and pushes
  5. My forehand loop to his backhand – so he could practice off of more powerful shots
  6. My forehand loop to his forehand block
  7. Games, where I played varying styles – sometimes consistent topspins, other times mixing things up, other times playing power loops.
  8. Then I told him to make sure to practice his serves, and visualize how he'd follow them up.

And now, with Navin and most of my other private students at least temporarily away, it's time to focus on the MDTTC Summer Camps…

MDTTC Summer Camps
Our summer camps start on Monday, and continue all summer long, Mon-Fri, 10AM-6PM for nine weeks (with July 4-8 off due to USA Nationals). Turnout will likely be light on the first day; today (Friday) was supposed to be their last day of school, but due to snow days, they are being forced to have a half day on Monday. (Perhaps the afternoon session will fill up.) Starting Tuesday, we'll likely have a full crowd every day, mostly kids, probably 30 at a time. I will likely be coaching just in the morning session (10AM-1PM), though I'm hoping to get next week off since I'm so busy working with Tim Boggan on his History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18…

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18
So where do we stand, you ask? Yesterday morning I was up at 5:30AM (somehow), and we worked from 6AM to 2:30PM, and got three chapters done (54 pages, a whopping 261 graphics). Here are the current totals:

  • 16 chapters, plus covers and four intro pages; ten more to go!
  • 254 pages (plus covers)
  • 898 graphics

Alas, things will slow up somewhat as I'll be gone from Friday at noon to late Saturday night at the USATT Board meeting…

USATT Board Meeting
It starts at 8:30AM on Saturday at the Holiday Inn South in South Plainfield, NJ, near the Lily Yip TTC. (8:30AM??? After starting work with Tim by 7AM every day for a week, this'll be like sleeping in!) Items on the agenda include approval of past meeting minutes; meeting and discussion with recently hired High Performance Director Cory Eider (including updates on the Olympics, National Team, Super Camp, and National Team Programming and Funding); Committees (including segments on the Club and Coaching committees); CEO's Report on membership, clubs, sponsorship and fundraising, technology, Nationals and other USATT events, ITTF and ITTF-North America Events, personnel and staffing (closed session); financial update; and ratings. Then comes a legal update from Dennis Taylor on various issues. Then come USOC Matters; Audit Report; Strategic Initiatives and Governance; and then an open "Old Business" and "New Business" segment (where board members can bring various things up); and then we adjourn!

Afterwards is a Friends with Paddles Fundraiser at the Lily Yip TTC at 3PM – hope some of you can join us! There's also a dinner with the six 2016 Olympic Team Members that night, and more festivities the following day – including a Mets baseball game where Kanak Jha throws out the first pitch! – but I have to miss it all as I have to drive back Saturday night so I can start work with Tim again at 7AM (or 6AM?) on Sunday morning. I'll try to give a synopsis of the board meeting next week.

ITTF Development and Education and Training Job Opportunities
Here's the ITTF's "Help Wanted" news item. Want to work for the ITTF? They have three half-time job openings:

  • ITTF Development Projects Officer
  • ITTF Education and Training Projects Officer 
  • ITTF Coach Accreditation Scheme Officer

What About Bob? A Table Tennis Story with a Moral
Here's the article from Coach Jon. Bob uses long pips no sponge on both sides – and you have to go through him and others like him if you want to go up the ratings ladder!

TT Car Window Stickers
Want a nice table tennis sticker for your car? Then help with the Table Tennis Car Sticker Kickstarter! I just pledged $10 (plus $1 shipping for the three stickers). There's also a video (2:20) explaining the project by artist and table tennis player Steve Worthington. I just wish it could be rushed a bit so I can get them by July 9 so I could have them on my car at the USATT Super Camp held right after the Nationals!

SPiN San Francisco to Host 2016 US Olympic Table Tennis Team
Here's the USATT article.

Japan Open
Here's the home page, with results, articles, video, and pictures. It started on Wednesday in Tokyo, June 15-19.

Japan Open Crazy Rally
Here's the video (24 sec) Grigory Vlasov and Kenta Matsudara.

Pachyderm Pong!
First three are must-sees.

***
Send us your own coaching news!