September 1, 2025

Tip of the Week
That One Good Block.

Fall Table Tennis Season Begins
It’s been a packed week. Let’s see:

  • The MDTTC Fall Junior Training began this past weekend. I spent most of the sessions feeding multiball, with lots and Lots and LOTS of footwork. Also taught a kid how to do the reverse pendulum serve. Another rather tall kid was struggling to move and his forehands were always awkward. I saw the problem – there were two. First, he was wearing running shoes, whose thick heels are designed to make side-to-side movements awkward. (He’ll have TT shoes next time.) More importantly, he was playing with his feet and knees aimed directly forward, when they need to be pointed slightly outward to allow proper movement and rotation on the forehand. This is a somewhat common problem – make sure you do this properly! Watch top players to see this, as well as to how the knees rotate as they backswing and hit forehands.
  • Finalized, other than a few last-minute items coming later, the 2025 US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Program Book. (See segment below.)
  • Working with the illustrator, we’ve finalized the look of the characters in my upcoming children’s picture book, “Ping-Pong Paddles Can’t Talk!” The characters include the main character, 9-year-old Kevin in his first tournament; his friendly but very good adversary Li; Kevin’s parents; and the tournament director and referee. As noted in past blogs, it’s a humorous Seussian-like rhyming book for children. It introduces kids, roughly 7-10, to table tennis. It features a nervous boy and his talking paddle in their first tournament, where he meets and plays a girl who is really good, and they have an adventurous match. Along the way, kids learn about the sport, with themes on facing your fears, working toward a goal, honesty, and friendship. It’s about 3,000 words, 76 four-line stanzas and a few other miscellaneous lines. It’s a bit long for a children’s picture book at 76 pages (one stanza per page plus pictures), but has an interesting “break” in the middle! Book won’t be out until the Spring, however.
  • I spent this past Tue-Fri sightseeing in Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. Yeah, I’m a history buff. Highlights included the Monitor exhibit, several cannon firing displays, and on the picturesque walk from the visitor’s center to Williamsburg, from about ten feet apart, a two-minute staring contest with a fawn!!! I won; it ran off suddenly. (The mother wasn’t in sight.)
  • After taking six weeks off due to injuries to side and shoulder, I start training again tomorrow (Tuesday, Sept. 2). I’ve got four big Senior and/or Hardbat tournaments coming up! (See segment below.) I’ll be training for both sponge and hardbat events. I’ve also accepted the fact that I’ll likely be playing injured since I’m always getting injured (foot, knee, side, shoulder, arm, always on the right side), and will just have to compensate.

2025 US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductions and Banquet
Here’s the info page. It will be held on Thursday, Nov. 6, 6-9PM, at the Los Angeles Table Tennis Association, in conjunction with the Si & Patty Wasserman Junior and Open Championships, which you can enter via Omnipong. This year’s inductees are David Del Vecchio and Betty Henry Link (with last year’s inductee Stellan Bengtsson also honored this year since he was unable to attend last year). Connie Sweeris will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. Why not join us, where you’ll get to meet numerous table tennis celebrities, and perhaps combine it with the tournament? I expect to be there, though I probably won’t play the tournament – no senior or hardbat events for me. (I play with both sponge and hardbat.) Tentatively, I plan to fly in on Thursday morning, take a tour of the Hollywood Museum in LA (which was closed due to Covid in 2020 when I spent five days sightseeing in LA after doing coverage of the Olympic Trials), attend the banquet that night, and fly back Friday morning.

Four Big Events I’m Training For – One Per Month
If you are at any of these tournaments, come and say hi!

  • Oct. 6-9: Huntsman Senior World Championships, St. George, UT. I’ll be among the top seeds in various senior and hardbat events.
  • Nov. 14-15: Amity Cup in Nanjing, China. I’ll be there Nov. 11-19, doing sightseeing in Nanjing and Shanghai after the tournament. I’m on a US Over 60 Team, along with Lily Yip, Ming Liu, Wally Green, and Dave Wilson (Team Leader). Wally isn’t over 60, but they gave special dispensation for him to play on the team due to the difficulty of getting over 60 players from the US.
  • Dec. 16-21: US Open in Las Vegas. I’ll be among the top seeds in various senior and hardbat events. I’m the defending champion in Over 40 and Over 60 Hardbat Singles. I’ve been to every US Open since 1985, so this will be my 40th in a row. (They skipped 2020 due to Covid.)
  • Jan. 18-25: Classic Table Tennis World Cup in Três Coroas City, Brazil. There are two days each for Sandpaper, Hardbat, and Wood events. I’m in Over 60 in all three. I’ll be in South American Jan. 16-Feb. 11, sightseeing after the tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Lima, Peru; and Machu Picchu in Peru.
  • Also coming up – June 5-12: World Masters in Gangneung, South Korea. I plan on attending, and then sightseeing in South Korea and Japan. (I was at the 2001 Worlds in Japan, but other than one long afternoon randomly walking the streets of Osaka, all I saw was the hotel, the playing hall, and the street between them.)

Major League Table Tennis
Follow the action!

Table Tennis History Magazine
Here’s the September issue from Steve Grant, just packed with fascinating TT history!

New from Taco Backhand

Fethomania 10 with Stefan Feth and Larry Thoman

New from Pingispågarna

New from PongSpace

New from Andrea Levenko

New from Ti long

I Studied 100+ Table Tennis Workouts... Here's What They're Getting Wrong!
Here’s the video (9 min) from Kevin Finn of Peak Performance Table Tennis.

Are You Committing One of these DEADLY Forehand Mistakes??
Here’s the video (19:11) from Seth Pech.

Analysis of Service Returns in Table Tennis
Here’s the technical article from HAL Open Science. (NOTE – most of the technical articles I link to are sent to me by Kevin Finn of Peak Performance Table Tennis.)

My Road To The 2025 US National Champion by Sally Moyland
Here’s the article by Sally Moyland.

New from Table Tennis Central

US Open Teams Table Tennis Championships Reach Championship Division Final in Myrtle Beach
Here’s the USATT article by Vlad Farcas.

New from Steve Hopkins/Bowmar Sports

New from NCTTA

New from ITTF

New Videos

Education is Important But Table Tennis is Importanter
Here’s where you can buy the shirt at Amazon!

AI Cat Rally
Here’s the vicious rally (7 sec)!

Tank McNamara: Table Pickleball and Court Pingpong
Here’s the cartoon!

TTD Team vs Chop Block Queen Adriana Diaz!
Here’s the video (10:05) from Table Tennis Daily!

Ping-Pong Crew Dancers
Here’s the video (19 sec)!

How Good Is a World Rank 5 Player Actually?
Here’s the video (18:08), featuring Truls Möregårdh, from Pongfinity!

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