August 14, 2018

Tip of the Week
Make Up-and-Coming Players Your Rivals - and Stay With Them!

USATT Board Teleconference
The teleconference started at 7PM and went until about 8:20 or so. (I'm on the USATT board of directors.) Ignoring formalities, there were three main segments.

1) USATT High Performance Director Jörg Bitzigeio gave a High Performance Update, which mostly covered recent USATT training camps and ranking tournaments. As I've noted before, the level and depth of play among our up-and-coming juniors is easily the best in modern history, i.e. since the hardbat era. (My club is helping - we had three of the four semifinalists in Under 10 Boys at the recent USA Nationals, and two of them - including the winner - is off today for two weeks training and competing in France, which finishes with the European Mini-Championships, Aug. 24-26. Here's the info page, but alas, it's in French.)

2) A long discussion of our upcoming in-person meeting in Colorado Springs, Sept. 21-23, where went over logistics and the agenda. Major topics that will be included:

  • Strategic Planning process. We will be having a Strategic Planning Meeting in November where we will be developing the USATT Strategic Plan, with assistance from USOC. Some of the issues discussed included USOC Presentation; Identifying Potential Panning Group Members; Plan to Survey Membership; and Potential Dates.
  • Needed bylaws to cover NGB compliance with USOC/SafeSport/USADA requirements
  • Staffing and Organizational Structure
  • USATT Event Discussion
  • ITTF North America
  • Strategic Direction of USATT
  • 2018-2019 USATT Elections
  • 2019 Committees
  • Financial Update
  • Fundraising
  • Insurance Coverage Review
  • Code of Conduct for USATT Membership

3) A roughly 30-minute closed session, where we discussed various personnel and disciplinary issues that I can't go into. But I can't believe what that duck did!!!

MDTTC August Open
This weekend I'll be running the 3-star $2700 Butterfly MDTTC August Open in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Here's the info page, where you can enter and pay online. (Entering online is really easy with Omnipong!) Events include Open, U2400, U2200, U2000, U1900, U1600, U1300, U1000, Over 50, Under 15, and Under 12. Deadline to enter is 7PM this Friday. We usually get around 90 players. The draw is looking pretty strong - with three days to go we have six players in the Open over 2550! (We'd have even more 2500+ players but several locals are out of town.) The top six seeds currently are:

  1. 2673 Alguetti, Sharon
  2. 2650 Liang, Jishan
  3. 2593 Chen, Bo Wen
  4. 2564 Ventura Dos Anj, Bruno
  5. 2562 Alguetti, Gal
  6. 2555 Alguetti, Adar

Shoulder Problems and Writing
It's official - for the foreseeable future, I'm retired from private coaching, though I'll continue with group sessions. I tried out my shoulder a few days ago, and while the muscles are looser, the main underlying problem - the frayed rotator cuff - hasn't gotten better. The doctor had said that it would take anywhere from six months to two years to heal. We elected not to go with surgery and let it heal naturally, but it hasn't worked out yet. Here are some of the problems I face. I can't reach in for any short balls, forehand or backhand. I can't extend my arm to reach for shots to my wide forehand. I can't follow through on backhand loops, even in demos, except very slowly, in slow motion, where I use my non-playing arm to guide the arm through the motion. I can't smash except at about 50% power. Surprisingly, I can forehand loop almost okay.

However, I can still feed multiball and of course do regular "walk around" coaching. I can also do basic demos. I'm actually supposed to do an exhibition in two weeks and I think I can do that, as long as I'm careful.

This does mean I'll be able to focus more on writing. While I do both table tennis and science fiction/fantasy writing, my writing focus right now is on the SF/fantasy side. In fact, I have a new short story that just came out today in Alternate Theologies, which is an anthology of stories that satirize bad religion. My story is "An American Christian at the Pearly Gates," which hypothesizes what happens when a hypocritical American Christian meets Saint Peter. I also have a story coming out next week in Analog Magazine! (They are the biggest science fiction magazine in the world, at least in English.)

I'm currently deep into research and some writing of a new science fiction novel, which hypothesizes that the minds of the first ten U.S. Presidents - Washington to John Tyler - have been living in an alien computer in virtual reality that appears to them to be Mount Vernon - but after a lawsuit, the aliens are forced to recreate their bodies and return them back to modern-day Earth. The U.S. is falling apart due to political battles, and the current vice president wonders, "Who can save us?" And then, up the steps of the U.S. Capitol walk the first ten U.S. presidents! They are soon involved in U.S. politics, leading to primaries and a general election that will involve (most likely) three of them - Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson - facing off against each other and other modern politicians as they run for president, each backed by some of the other past presidents. (Don't worry, I've resolved the problem with the Second Amendment, since all three of them already had two terms.) But much of the story is told from the point of view of Tyler, and the novel, while covering these past presidents clashing in modern politics, is really about the redemption of Tyler, regarded as a poor president. I will do my best to get some table tennis into the story!

Spin to Win - Short film about the Maryland Table Tennis Center
Here's the video (2:36) that features my club.

The Tables
Here's the video (15:03) of this award-winning table tennis video. Wally Green is one of the featured players. "A look at the powerful connection between a pair of outdoor ping pong tables in the heart of New York City and the unlikely group of people they’ve brought together, from homeless people to investment bankers to gangbangers."

Nigeria Open
Quadri Aruna and Guo Yan win! Here's the info page (with results) and news page.

US Table Tennis Hall of Famer Valleri Bellini Passes
Here's the USATT obit.

Upcoming ITTF Coaching Courses in the U.S.

Bitzigeio Takes Long Range View of Current USA Success
Here's the article by Richard Finn on USATT High Performance Director Jörg Bitzigeio. 

AMICUS Training Tips Series
Here are two articles and videos by German coach Richard Prause.

New from EmRatThich

Embracing Routine Shots
Here's the article by Coach Jon.

Table Tennis When You're Aged 17-21 Years
Here's the article by Eli Baraty.

Ping Pong Problems: 7 Common Table Tennis Mistakes
Here's the article from Go Sports Reviews.

Wenting Zha - Wide Angle Serve
Here's the article and video (2:12) from Brian Pace and Butterfly.

Multiball Footwork Drills
Here's the article and video (2:23) from Brian Pace and Butterfly, featuring Coach Li of NYITTC.

Reaching USATT Rating 2000 in Under 2 Years
Here's the video (7:41) showing the steady improvement as Tony Ma made the rather rapid journey to 2000. Here's discussion of the video at mytabletennis.com.

Harimoto Discussion
Here's the video (8:46) from Samson Dubina.

Koki Niwa - Service Technique
Here's the video (57 sec).

Spin Serve Fun and Games
Here's the video (6 sec) - This is the type of serving practice that leads to great spin and control of your serves, while keeping it fun. 

Training With Marcos Freitas and Chuang Chih-Yuan
Here's the video (10:03) from Arnaud Scheen.

DHS ITTF Top 10 - 2018 Korea Open
Here's the video (5:44).

Ask a Pro Anything
Here are two new ones from the ITTF and Adam Bobrow.

Emily Tan Makes World Hopes Team for Cadet Challenge
Here's the article by Matt Hetherington.

WAB Club Feature: PongPlanet
Here's the article by Steve Hopkins on this club in San Carlos, CA.

History of USATT – Volume 21 – Chapter 12
Here’s chapter 12 of Tim Boggan's latest volume, which covers 1993-1994. Or you can buy it and previous (and future) volumes at www.timboggantabletennis.com. Chapter 12 covers " January-March 1995 Tournaments." Volume 21 is 438 pages with 1667 graphics, and covers all the wild things that happened in 1994-95 - and I'm mentioned a lot! Why not buy a copy - or the entire set at a discount? Tim sells them directly, so when you order them, you get it autographed - order your copy now!

Rolling Pong
Here's the video (12 sec) as Adam Bobrow shows that table tennis really isn't that different from bowling with this around-and-under-the-net rolling ball.

Desk Pong
Here's the video (16 sec) - This is how you develop your game in the classroom!

Best of Pongfinity
Here's the video (2:45)!

Cartoon Table Tennis
Here's the page, which includes a number that I've linked to before, and some I've never seen before.

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pgpg Wed, 08/15/2018 - 03:58

That article about ranking tournaments by Jorg Bitzigeio was posted in the FB closed group, and thus is inaccessible to general public. Is that group open for anyone to join or it's more of a internal discussion space for people involved with the program?