February 27, 2018

58 and Jörg
That sounds like an address doesn't it? "Taxi, take me to the table tennis club at 58 and Jörg." Actually, it's two things.

First, today I'm turning 58. How did that happen??? To mourn celebrate I was going to take the day off from blogging, but I decided the last thing I wanted on my birthday was for legions of USATT members storming my house with pitchforks and torches. So instead I'll celebrate by going to the doctor at 1PM today to go over the results of the MRI on my shoulder on Friday, find out if I have a rotator cuff tear, and whether I'll be out for weeks or months. (I'll put in a small "Breaking News" item here when I get back.)

Second, USATT High Performance Director Jörg Bitzigeio was at MDTTC yesterday afternoon where he watched some of our top kids in training, and even worked with a couple. (One had a tendency to play backhands with his right foot in front, so Jörg put a wire cord on the floor in front of him and had him play backhands while keeping the foot behind the cord.) Afterwards we went out to dinner, along with Wen Hsu (one of the MDTTC directors and a member of the USATT High Performance Committee) and MDTTC Coach Wang Qing Liang, one of the National Team Coaches. We solved all of USATT's problems, and were well into denuclearizing North Korea and installing a truth detector in the White House when we ran out of Chinese food.

As to the shoulder, I'm meeting with a physical therapist three times a week for an hour, plus I'm supposed to do about 15 minutes of shoulder stretches three times a day.

=>BREAKING NEWS (2:15pm): Just back from the doctor. At first they thought I had a torn rotator cuff, and it looks torn from the images, but it was small enough that they classified it as a frayed and badly inflamed rotator cuff, as well as bursitis and tendonitis. More on this tomorrow. I'll likely be out a few weeks at least, but this is something never completely heals - but should get good enough to play if I do enough physical therapy. 

HW Global Foundation Talent Development Program - We Need Your Support!
Here's the video (2:49) - nicely done by Mossa Barandao of PongMobile. (I think I'm literally just off camera in just about every group training shot! You can just see the top of my head in one.)

Timo Boll, Once Again on Top of the World
Here's the ITTF article on the new Men's World Ranking - yes, Timo Boll of Germany is now ranked #1 in the world, with the previous #1, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, now #3. Timo, age 36, was last #1 in 2011. China's Fan Zhendong is #2. Zhang Jike is #70, just ahead of the top USA in the men's ranking, Kanak Jha at #73. Here are the world rankings. As I've blogged before, and others have written, the new ITTF ranking system awards participation, and so the previous world #1 for several years, Ma Long, is now #9. These are the rankings that will be used for seeding at the upcoming World Championships.

Zhu Yuling Regains Number One Spot
Here's the ITTF article on the new Women's World Ranking.

Wang Brings Expertise to the Table for One of USA's Young Prodigies
Here's the USATT article by Matt Hetherington on Wang Bo.

World Team Cup 2018 Recap: China Again, Germany Reloading, Flashes from Team England, a Marathon Win by Japan, and Kanak’s Signature Win
Here's the article by Steve Hopkins.

2018 ITTF Team World Cup | GoDaddy Day 4 Review
Here's the video (2:57) covering the final day of the World Team Cup.

2018 Butterfly Cary Cup: Rematch of Champions
Here's the article by Barbara Wei.

History of USATT – Volume XX – Chapter 17
Here’s chapter 17 of Tim Boggan’s latest volume, which covers 1993-1994. Or you can buy it and previous volumes at www.timboggantabletennis.com. Chapter 17 is titled, "End-of-Year Interests." It includes my Coaching Report (I was in my first tenure as USATT Coaching Chair) and a coaching article I wrote, "Learning to Win."

Superhero Pong
Here's the repeating gif image - I have no idea what superhero this is. Anyone know?

***
Send us your own coaching news!