June 23, 2017

Upcoming USATT Coaching Courses and Seminars
[I sent the following in as a USATT news item, which should go up soon.  (It's up.) I spent much of yesterday putting together a 19-page presentation I’ll be playing on a projector for my “How to Set Up a Successful Junior Program” seminar, which will be held in a classroom. I also have a one-page outline for my “Intermediate and Advanced Serving” seminar, which will be at the playing hall, but I can pretty much do that one in my sleep. I’ll put both documents online after the Nationals.]

USATT is taking a two-pronged approach to educating our coaches – and players too! Take your pick of an ITTF Coaching Course or a USATT University Seminar at the USA Nationals.

ITTF COACHING COURSES
These are for current and prospective coaches who wish to improve their coaching skills as well as get certified as a USATT and ITTF coach. (Note that when you are certified at ITTF Levels 1, 2, or 3, you are automatically certified as a USATT coach at the corresponding levels of State, Regional, and National Coach.) There are five upcoming ITTF Coaching seminars:

USATT UNIVERSITY – Coaching Seminars at the USA Nationals
USATT University is a reality! USATT will be running eight seminars at the upcoming USA Nationals. When I ran for the USATT Board, one of the things I wanted to do was set up a “USATT Coaching Academy.” That morphed into USATT University! Special thanks goes to USATT CEO Gordon Kaye for making it happen, and to USATT staff members Andy Horn and Jon Taylor. A huge thanks also goes to those who will be teaching these seminars.

I think this is a great opportunity for USA Table Tennis to educate current and prospective coaches and organizers, as well as adding more “glitz” to our major tournaments as a further draw. If you have suggestions for future such panels, let me know.

If the courses are successful, we hope expand them even more at the U.S. Open in December. I’m already planning a 4-6 hour USATT Coaching Certification Clinic, as well as possibly other seminars such as ones on Tactics, Looping, Sports Psychology, Hardbat/Sandpaper, and How to Become a Professional Coach. (Note – as a USATT board member and coaching chair, I’m a volunteer and receive no payment for these seminars or related work.) Descriptions of the eight courses or seminars are on the USATT University flyer. Here’s the short version, in chronological order.

DAY

TIME

WHAT

COST

INSTRUCTORS

Mon

7-8 PM

Tournament Directors Best Practices 101

Free

Jasna Rather, Matt Hetherington, Ed Hogshead, James Therriault

Mon

8-9 PM

Advanced Return of Serve

$20*

Stefan Feth, USA Men’s Coach and 4-time USATT Coach of the Year

Tue

12-2 PM

USATT Umpire Clinic

Free

International Referee and Umpire Azmy Ibrahim

Tue

7-8 PM

USATT Club Best Practices 101

Free

Ed Hogshead, Tim Wang, Marguerite Cheung, others pending

Wed

7-8 PM

Intermediate and Advanced Serving

$20*

Larry Hodges, USATT Certified National Coach and Hall of Famer

Wed

8-9 PM

How to Set Up a Successful Junior Program

$20*

Larry Hodges, USATT Certified National Coach and Hall of Famer

Wed

8-9 PM

One-On-One with High Performance Director Jörg Bitzigeio

Free

Jörg Bitzigeio

Thur

7-8 PM

OmniPong 101 (tournament software)

Free

Craig Krum, OmniPong Developer

*Free to USATT certified coaches and USA Nationals volunteers

2017 ITTF-Pan Am Junior Championships
Here’s the home page for the event, June 20-25 in Buenos Aires, ARG. USA has already won both Boys’ and Girls’ Teams. Singles and Doubles is now starting. Team USA is Sharon Alguetti, Kanak Jha, Victor Liu, Jack Wang, Rachel Sung, Amy Wang, Crystal Wang, and Grace Yang. Here are some news items that feature Team USA:

China Open
Here’s the home page for the event, in Chengdu, China, June 22-25. Here are some news items - see the big news about the Chinese team members refusing to play out of protest of Liu Guoliang's "promotion" out of the head coaching position! (Added later - Here's an article on the situation, from the South China Morning Post. And here's the Response from the Chinese Sports Administration. I have a feeling Ma, Fan, and Xu, and probably Zhang, are in serious trouble.) 

Double Gold for US Para Team in Germany
Here’s the USATT article.

Coaching Articles and Videos from EmRathThich
I only just discovered these!

Ask the Coach
Questions answered at PingSkills. (Note – I put this up whenever they have new questions answered, which is almost every day.)

Ma Long Forehand Flick Training 2017
Here’s the video (2:18).

USATT Insider
Here’s the new issue that came out Wednesday.

Who Are Those Guys? Tournament Mismatches
Here’s the new article from Coach Jon. And note the new website for Jon’s Table Tennis Training!

High Acclaim for Administration Course
Here’s the ITTF article.

Table Tennis Just Got Fit: Interview with Game Dev About Your Fitness and VR
Here’s the article.

Pong Universe Point of the Week: Alan Cooke vs. Joao Monteiro
Here’s the video (48 sec). Great point!!! We’ll ignore that the serve was illegally hidden, by both the body and the non-playing arm, which is illegally left out there to hide the serve.

Equipment Booths at the World Championships
Here’s the video (15:27) – if you are an EJ (Equipment Junkie), this is what you missed!

Sports Swap: Table Tennis vs. Hockey
Here’s the video (12:23). “What happens when an Olympic hockey player and a Dutch table tennis champion swap sports?”

Japanese Pythagoras Switch
Here’s the video (4:02) – it starts with table tennis! A ping-pong ball also makes an appearance for ten seconds at 1:54 in.

Your Basic Forehand Smash
Here’s the gif image.

Ten Cup Challenge
Here’s the video (41 sec). I do this all the time in my beginning junior class. The more advanced students often join in. The record for knocking them all down is two shots.

Five Types of Cheaters in Table Tennis
Here’s the hilarious video (3:25) from EmRatThich!

Three More Cats Playing Pong

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