August 22, 2016

Tip of the Week
Shorten Stroke When Receiving.

USATT Stuff
It’s been busy recently. There have been a LOT of questions (and complaints) about the new USATT team selection process for the junior, cadet, and mini-cadet teams, but fortunately that’s mostly going to get taken care of by our CEO, working with our High Performance Director. I’m not going to go into the specific issues here, but I will probably blog about it later on. I’m trying not to get sucked into this one – our CEO and HPD should handle this one.

As I said when I ran for the USATT board, there are two equally important issues that come to the board of directors – fairness issues (such as this one) and progressive issues (which involve developing the sport). Historically, many board members want to work on progressive issues, but get sucked into the fairness issues, and they ended up taking up all of their time. I’m trying not to fall into that trap. I will, of course, get involved in such issues if and when it reaches the board level, but I doubt if that will happen. As I said, both are important, but there are plenty of other board members who can focus on the “fairness” issues (with me involved when necessary), so I can focus on the progressive ones.

There are other “fairness” issues coming up, such as whether USATT will adopt the ITTF’s new coaching policy that I blogged about on Friday, where coaching is allowed through a match except during a point. I’m very much against this new rule, but if we don’t adopt it, our players and coaches won’t be prepared for matches when we do play under these rules, as we would at the U.S. Open in December, and internationally. (I think the North American Teams, being a continental event, would also fall under ITTF rules. Someone correct me if I’m wrong on that.) So would events like the North American Pan Am and Olympic Trials. At the moment I’m undecided whether we should adopt the rule, but I sure with ITTF hadn’t put us in this position. They did a similar thing with the plastic balls, adopting them before there were quality ones around and before they were standardized, causing havoc all over.

I want to focus on the progressive issues I promised to focus on. Right now I’m very busy on several non-USATT projects – this week’s focus is the page layouts of Dan Seemiller’s autobiography, “Revelations of a Table Tennis Champion.” (I’ll blog more about that as it nears completion.) However, starting in September, I need to get back to focusing on developing regional leagues and state championships. Two other issues I plan to start on sometime this fall are planning out some sort of professional league or tour for our top players (our CEO has ideas/plans on this), and developing some sort of USATT Coaching Academy, where the focus is on recruiting and developing coaches to be full-time coaches or to run junior programs. I also need to find time (and energy, alas) to get back to another project I keep putting off – writing the book, “Parents Guide to Table Tennis.”

Olympic Table Tennis Google Doodles
On Saturday Google had a table tennis themed “doodle” at the top of their page. For those not in the know, they have a new one I think every day. During the Olympics, they have one for every sport. Here are their table tennis doodles from the past four Olympics.

Rio 2016 Olympic Games Table Tennis Results & More
Here’s the complete compilation from Butterfly.

Capital Area Table Tennis League
If you live in the Capital area in the U.S. (Maryland, Northern Virginia, DC), it’s time to sign up for the upcoming season of the Capital Area Table Tennis League. Here’s the Fall Flyer. Final deadline to enter is Sept. 15, but you need time to find a team. (Contact the league committee if you are looking for a team.)

6 Tips on How to Become a Table Tennis Champion
Here’s the article from Pong Universe.

Evolution of the Table Tennis Coach
Here’s the article from Coach Jon.

Why Li Xiaoxia Retires...
Here’s the video interview (58 sec) with English subtitles.

China Unfazed by Retirement, Still Confident for 2020
Here’s the article.

Coaching Tip via Text: A New York Olympian Is Instructed to Have Fun
Here’s the article from the New York Times about actor/comedian Judah Friedlander’s text to USA Olympian Wu Yue. Judah also shares his experience in dealing with jittery nerves, a common problem for standup comedians and table tennis players alike. (You’ll likely get a note requiring 99 cents for four weeks, but if you hit “stop loading” immediately when the page appears, you can read the article. Or just pay the 99 cents.)

Watch this Down-the-Line Serve!
Here’s the video (4 sec) – you have to watch it closely to see that he’s actually tossing the ball directly backwards while faking an upward toss, thereby giving the illusion of the ball going up even as he’s serving it down the line with the back of his penhold racket. Alas, it’s an illegal serve, both because he’s not tossing it “near vertical” and because he’s hiding the ball from the receiver – though few umpires call the latter rule these days, alas.

Sidespin Serve Smacked by a Fast Serve
Here’s the video (12 sec).

Blondie: “Combine Table Tennis with Archery”
Here’s the Blondie comic strip from Saturday!

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Any comments on TTX, new TT format(?) announced by ITTF in Rio? New ball, new paddles, new scoring, new rules... Serve any way you want, so no more problem with hidden serves :). 

 

 

In reply to by pgpg

I linked to their news announcement, but I think that's just some fun thing for playing at beaches and other recreational places. I don't think it's a serious attempt to replace or change serious table tennis.