September 27, 2017

Table Tennis People Who Owe Me Money
My trusting nature has cost me $450 plus interest. Maybe that’s not a huge amount over 41 years, but it’s an irritating $432 because of how they came about. (I’m probably owed other money over the years that I don’t recall offhand. These are the ones that stick out.)

Just last year I hired one of our local player/coaches to help run one of my beginning junior classes. He was short on money and asked if I could pay him $120 in advance. I did so. When the class started, he simply didn’t show, with no notice. The player still lives locally – about a mile from me, in fact - and coaches at a local rec center, but has never returned to MDTTC. I messaged him on Facebook (where he’s active and definitely got the message), texted him, emailed him, and called and left a message, but no response, not even an “I don’t have the money but will pay you later” note. (Not that that would have meant much after he didn’t show up to coach at the class as he’d been hired to do.) I’ve know the player since he was nine years old, practiced and coached him many hundreds of hours, used to coach him at tournaments, and gave him hundreds of rides. I later learned he did the same thing with another player, who he owes something like $300. What a disappointment.

A number of years ago a local player ran into an apparent problem. He was supposed to fly out to a major tournament in a few days, but couldn’t buy his air ticket until he received a check coming in the mail. He asked if I could lend him the money. I agreed, and paid for the $230 ticket. He later laughed at me, asking how gullible could I be to lend money to him, a con artist. So I’ll never see that money. Fortunately, that person would later run into major legal problems due to another scam attempt, and had to leave the U.S. to avoid creditors, not to mention getting banned by USATT. Karma. (Like the player above, I also had helped this player out extensively, giving him hundreds of rides.)

Seven different times since I began my Adult Training Sessions on Sundays someone has shown up but was unable to pay the $20. Seven times they absolutely and positively guaranteed they’d pay if I let them take part in the 90-minute sessions. Two of them were sincere and later paid. Five of them gave Academy Award-winning performances, and I never saw them again.

So . . . anybody out there want to borrow some money?

SafeSport Letter to USATT Community
Here’s the USATT notice.

EmRatThich: New Articles and Videos

=>NOW BEGINS MURDERER’S ROW!!!<=
Seemiller, McAfee, Chen, Ding Ning, Thompson, Tretheway, Quadri, Wijigunawardana, Hetherington, and Bobrow, Oh My!

Dan Seemiller: Living Legend Marks 21 Years in South Bend
Here’s the article on Dan Seemiller from the South Bend Tribune. “Danny Seemiller is a legend. Danny is a prominent name in table tennis and he is coaching right here in South Bend. He lives in the garden spot of the county, in New Carlisle. He coaches and mentors at the South Bend Table Tennis Club. The club will celebrate his 21 years of coaching with an open house from 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 1.”

Richard McAfee - The Coaches' Coach
Here’s the article by Richard Finn. “Behind every great player there is a great coach, so goes the cliché. And behind many great coaches most likely there has been Richard McAfee.”

Bowen Chen Takes Crown at Robopong September BTTC Open 2017
Here’s the article.

Ding Ning from great to legend to immortality, moment of history awaits in Markham?
Here’s the ITTF article.

Mark Thompson New USATT Chief Operating Officer
Here’s the USATT article. At our last USATT board meeting (Sept. 9-10) I gave him an impromptu TT lesson during a break. He picked it up pretty well!

Bob Tretheway Memorial
Here’s the picture. (Here’s the non-Facebook version – L-R: Aili Elliott, Scott Preiss, Henan Li Ai, Sean O'Neill, Dhiren Narotam, Larry Rose, Debbie Shuman and Norm Silver.)

Aruna Quadri Empowers Six Table Tennis Players with Equipment
Here’s the article from The Guardian in Nigeria.

Mudit Dani of India Wins Under-23 Table Tennis Tournament in US
Here’s the article from the Hindustan Times.

Denethi Wijigunawardana Interview
Here’s the article and video (2:38) from Samson Dubina. “Denethi Wijigunawardana is the 2017 College Regional Champion and current the #1 female player in Ohio.”

Matt Hetherington Has Fun with Duct Tape
Here’s the video (53 sec).

Adam Bobrow Celebration
Here’s the picture. (Here’s the non-Facebook version.) Yes, he gets a lot of coverage, but that’s because he has photos and videos like this! (Plus he is the “Voice of ITTF.”) The kid seems to be having fun too!

The Rough Diamonds Are Off. Talent Development on the Road to Buenos Aires
Here’s the ITTF article.

2017 Austrian Open: Finals Review
Here’s the video (1:38).

Ma Long & Liu Guoliang Training 2017
Here’s the video (6:17).

Russian New Generation
Here’s the video (6:24) – lots of nice action shots of up-and-coming Russians!

2x4 Board Pong?
Here’s the video (65 sec)! It kind of reminds you of Darth Maul, doesn’t it?

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