September 26, 2016

Tip of the Week
How to Play Against a Player with a Coach.

ITTF’s New Coaching Rule – Rejected (for now)
At 9:30AM Saturday the USATT Board of Directors had a teleconference. (I’m one of the nine members of the Board.) There were only two items on the agenda. (We meet again in two weeks on Monday, Oct. 10 in Philadelphia, just after the Women’s World Cup, where we’ll have a lengthier agenda.) The first item was “Agreement for Broadcast Services with Triode Media Group.” This was a tricky one as a member of the Board is involved with this group. Nothing was hidden, however, and there was a lot of discussion. I will blog about this when the minutes come out. (The motions and votes for the meeting should come out soon, probably this week; the minutes have to be approved by the Board, and will likely come out sometime in the next month.)

The second item was the more important issue for many of us – the ITTF’s new coaching rule, which allows coaching between points starting Oct. 1, 2016. Here is the rule (with English spellings and that silly “and and” typo they seem unable to correct):

3.5.1.3: Players may receive advice at any time except during rallies and and between the end of practice and the start of a match; if any authorised person gives advice illegally the umpire shall hold up a yellow card to warn him or her that any further such offence will result in his or her dismissal from the playing area (in effect as of 1st October 2016). 

I have blogged about the issue three times. On August 19 I blogged about why it's a bad rule, and gave 14 reasons; on August 26 I blogged about whether USATT should adopt the rule; and on September 21 I blogged about my email to the Board on the rule.

Going into the meeting I was still not 100% set on what to do. My thinking was we needed a compromise, and so I suggested the following, though I did not actually make this motion, which had some rather legalish-sounding contortions:

MOVED that USATT temporarily adopt the new ITTF Coaching Rule for the time period of October 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016, but only for the following singles, doubles, and team events: Open, Men’s, Women’s, Paralympic, and age events. In December, the Board will evaluate the Rule’s implementation and decide how to move forward.  Notwithstanding the temporary adoption, tournaments conducted under USATT Rules may opt out of this rule - for entire tournament or for specific events - if it is clearly indicated on the entry form, or if the players are notified in advance through Oct. 31.

However, this was quickly rejected as Board members found it too complicated. However, it also became obvious early on that the Board wasn’t going to accept the rule. It was pointed out that what was needed was not just a motion to reject the rule, but a motion to adopt the current coaching rule as a USATT rule. And so the following was the actual motion voted on, which mirrors the actual current rule (again with English spellings), which passed 7-1:

“Players may receive advice only during the intervals between games or during authorised suspension of play, and not between the end of practice and the start of a match; if any authorised person gives advice illegally the umpire shall hold up a yellow card to warn him or her that any further such offence will result in his or her dismissal from the playing area.”

However, I believe that tournaments should be allowed to operate under the new coaching rule if they chose – which would also give us some feedback on how it worked. Initially I thought I could simply move that tournaments may opt to play under ITTF rules if noted on the entry form, but the problem with that is that there are other differences between ITTF and USATT rules – for example, ITTF rules require full-sized courts (14x7 meters, about 46 feet by 23 feet), while USATT rules allow 30 feet by 15 feet. So I made the following motion:

“Move that tournaments may opt to operate under the new ITTF coaching rule 3.5.1.3 if noted on the entry form.”

I thought this would pass easily, but it only squeaked by, 4-3. Anyway, the result is that USATT will stick with the rule of coaching only between games and a timeout, except in tournaments that state otherwise on their entry form, or that are run under ITTF rules (such as the U.S. Open in December).

Here is the ITTF handbook which includes the ITTF rules, and here is the section that includes 3.5.1.3. Here is the USATT Rules of Table Tennis Update, where differences between ITTF and USATT Rules are highlighted.

Serve & Return Tips for Table Tennis Players – by Werner Schlager
Here’s the article from the 2003 World Men’s Singles Champion from Austria. Here’s a quote that jumps out at you right at the start, one that I’ve been stressing for years, often without success from players who prefer working on flashy loops rather than boring serves: “The service is without a doubt the most important stroke in table tennis.” There are a lot of other golden nuggets in this article.

Choosing the Best Ping-Pong Table
Coincidentally, two major table tennis sites both came out with articles or video on this.

The Conservative Server and the Liberal Looper
Here’s the new article from Coach Jon.

Best of 2016 World Table Tennis Day
Here’s the ITTF video (3:03). It has been selected into "Sports Movies & TV 2016 – 34th Milano International Ficts Festival.

Joo Se Hyuk: A Tribute
Here’s the new video (7:02) honoring the South Korean star, the best defensive player in the world and Men’s Singles Finalist in 2003.

This Guy is a Master at Ping Pong
Here’s the trick-shot video (76 sec)!

Game Show Target Practice
Here’s the video (1:54) – for a moment I thought it was Kanak Jha!

Pool of Ping-Pong Balls and Colorful Lights
Here’s the video (38 sec). “Dawn Of Man filled a pool with 250,000 ping pong balls for one wild party.”

Robot Playing Table Tennis
Here’s the video (75 sec). I have linked to similar videos of actual rallying robots, but I think this one is new. Now if it could only learn to read spin!

Table Tennis Memes
This is what you get when you google “Table tennis memes.”

Non-Table Tennis - Baltimore Book Festival and Why the Police Came for Me!
I spent Friday at the Baltimore Book Festival, which was held in the Inner Harbor, about an hour’s drive away. The two panels I was on (for Science Fiction Writers of America) went really well – here’s a picture of one of them (that’s me, second from the left, looking to the side). I especially enjoyed the “How to Come Across as a Professional Writer When You're Just Starting Out” panel, where I gave my “Ten Commandments for Acting Professional,” and was encouraged to publish the list. (I’ll do so sometime soon in my science fiction blog which doesn’t get updated nearly as often as this one.) I also did a book signing. I also learned the futility of bringing a box of chocolates for fans on a day where the temperatures were approaching 90 degrees.

There was some excitement just before one of my panels. Two police officers showed up at the SFWA site, where we were doing the panels, and asked for me. This was the first time in my life that police have come for me! I debated whether to raise my hands and say, “Hands up, don’t shoot!” However, they explained that they had found my cell phone. Somehow, while lugging a suitcase full of my books, and large retractable banner (for my Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions novel), and a carry bag, my cell phone had fallen off its holder on my belt. It had been opened to my Facebook page, and so they had posted a note there asking if anyone knew where I was:

“This is the Baltimore City Police Department if anyone can get in touch with Larry and tell him we found his cellphone at the inner harbor and to please call us at [number deleted] so we can return it thank you.”

There were a lot of funny responses to that! Anyway, either from that, or my own Facebook postings, they figured out I was at the SFWA area. Thank you, Baltimore city police!

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