Neck Injury Update

I'm still wearing the neck brace most of the time, but the neck is getting better. Tomorrow I've got a few hours of coaching, mostly multiball, but I also plan to do some "live" play during one of the sessions. I may wear the neck brace for that as an injury preventive. We'll see how it goes.

Hardbatters of the Past, Present, and Future

How good were hardbatters from the past? There's no way of really knowing, but we can make some educated guesses. However, there are some subtleties that have to be addressed.

First off, it's not fair to compare the skill level of players from the hardbat era against the skill level of current players by judging how past players would fair against certain modern techniques that they never faced, such as looping and deceptive spinny serves, not to mention modern sponges. For example, the first sponge player, Hiroje Satoh of Japan, couldn't compete with the best players in Japan because they had gotten used to his "strange" surface, but when he went to the 1952 World Championships (and managed to avoid playing his Japanese teammates), he won - not so much because of his skill level, but because his opponents weren't used to his sponge. His innovation won him the world title, but he quickly fell back in the rankings, unable to compete with his more skilled adversaries once they adjusted to his sponge racket.

And Satoh wasn't using modern sponge techniques. If I could go back to 1952, I'd likely also win the Worlds as players back then had never seen the types of serves and loops that an average 2200 player can throw at them. But it wouldn't be a fair comparison, and things could change quickly after they adjusted to me, just as they did to Satoh.

Blog on Hold Until Friday. "It's a pain in the neck" says blogger Larry Hodges

(Hey, that's me!)

This morning I was going to write about how I think top players of the past would do in today's game, how modern sponge players and hardbatters would do in the past, and address certain subtleties in such a comparison that some might not have considered. However, I've discovered that sitting at my computer aggravates the neck injury, even with the neck brace on. (Here's my Aug. 22 blog about the neck injury.) I've already cancelled all coaching this week, but hope to be able to coach again this weekend, but now I'm not so sure. (I should be able to do multiball training, but probably not live play yet.) Just typing this and the below is killing my neck and making it feel like a ping-pong ball in a match between a pair of all-out hitters.

So I'm putting my blog on hold until Friday so I can give the neck time to heal without constant aggravation. I'll get a lot of reading done, but no writing, alas. See you on Friday!

2012 USATT Hall of Fame Inductions

Here are the 2012 U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductees - three players (Jennifer Johnson, Errol Resek, and Lan Vuong) and one contributor (Gus Kennedy). Dick Evans gets this year's Mark Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award. Here is the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame Page (click on "Profiles" to see listing of players with links to their profiles). I'll probably be putting together the program booklet for the Hall of Fame Banquet held at the USA Nationals in December, as I have for the past few years.

Playing Against Defense

Tip of the Week

Movement in Doubles.

MDTTC Camp, Week Eleven, Day Five

The eleven week camp marathon is over - each camp Mon-Fri, with a total of 55 days of camp. We averaged over 30 players per camp.

On Friday, the final day, I gave lectures on flipping short balls, on equipment (inverted, short pips, long pips, antispin, hardbat) and on how to play certain styles (choppers, penhold, Seemiller grip). We ended the morning with the candy game, where I put piles of candy on the table (jolly ranchers and Hershey kisses), and the kids took turns trying to knock them off as I fed multiball, three shots each. There was a stack left at the end so I distributed that among everyone.

Then we had lunch, and then 17 of us walked to the 7-11 down the street. (They keep giving me free small Slurpees for bringing in so many customers!) In the afternoon we had a practice tournament. I also had an informal awards ceremony for Wesley Fan and Kyle Wang, who had won bronze medals at the Junior Olympics a month ago for Under 14 Boys' Teams, but had left without getting their medals (or even knowing they had won them!). The medals had been mailed to me to give to them. We also sang Happy Birthday to Daniel Zhu, turned ten that day.

Things I Learned This Summer

MDTTC Camp, Week Eleven, Day Four

Today's the final day of our eleven-week summer camp marathon. We had three new players join us yesterday (but three also left), giving us an even 40 players in the camp. I gave lectures on the backhand drive and flip against backspin (including banana flip, which I talk about in my February 15, 2012 blog), the backhand loop, and on third-ball attack.

In the lecture on third-ball attack I went over the serves different styles should favor. For example, a looper might want to serve a lot of short backspin and no-spin, with sidespin serves mixed in as well as occasional deep serves. A hitter might want to serve more sidespin and topspin, and challenge the receiver with more deep serves, especially breaking ones into the backhand. However, it's different for different players. For example, some loopers prefer looping against backspin (and so would serve more backspin), while others prefer looping against topspin, and so might serve more sidespin and topspin. I also spoke about depth - short serves, half-long serves (where the second bounce is right about the end-line), and long serves (where first bounce is near the end-line). Over and over I stressed that the purpose of the serve was to get the inniative, not just to get the ball into play. 

MDTTC Camp, Week Eleven, Day Three

There are 37 players in the camp, so it's somewhat hectic. Here's a camp photo from yesterday. (A few players are missing, alas.)

Yesterday I gave lectures on the forehand loop, on footwork, and on pushing. On looping, I spoke with three players in the 1800-2000 range on the importance of looping almost anything that comes long - or as I put it, "If you can see it, loop it; if you can't see it, block it or back up and loop it." You can go far with blocking and hitting, but the easiest path to a high level in our sport is to be loop-happy.

As noted in my blog yesterday, I'm wearing a neck brace now so I don't keep aggravating the neck injury. When I walked in with my neck brace, there were many stares as I said, "What, do I look different? Is it my hair?" Here's a picture of me with the neck brace.

When Derek Nie saw me with the neck brace, he said, "Larry, you look 90 years old!" Ten minutes later I interrupted my coaching and demanded that he repeat the statement so I could respond: "Yeah, but I don't feel a day over 85!" (Actually, I felt about 95, with the neck problems, hoarseness from too much coaching/lecturing, and general stiffness.) Don't you hate it when you come up with the perfect response ten minutes late?

Today was the day that the two new players in this week's camp really seemed to put it together, and began to hit real forehands and backhands, as well as pushing and serving with spin. They are even proficient now at knocking paper cups off the table. (If you haven't been following past blogs, don't ask.)

USA Nationals Entry Form

Here's the home page for the 2012 USA Nationals, with a link to the entry form. I'll be there mostly to coach, though I'll probably enter one event - Hardbat Doubles with Ty Hoff, which I'll try to win for the 14th time, including ten with Ty. (I'd like to play other events, but there are just too many conflicts with all the junior events I'm be coaching in.)

Neck Problems

As I noted in my blog on Aug. 9, I was in a car accident on Aug. 8, two weeks ago. The other driver was at fault (she pulled right in front of me as I was driving to the club), and their insurance will be paying to repair my car. I also said no one was hurt.

Not so fast.

About a week ago (I'm not sure exactly when) my neck started bothering me. At first it was more an irritation, and I kept massaging the neck muscles, trying to get them to loosen up. But it got worse and worse. By Monday, the first day of the last MDTTC camp of the summer, it was painful, and by Tuesday morning it was excruciatingly painful just to hold my head up - meaning it was excruciatingly painful ALL THE TIME. I went to see a doctor during lunch break on Tuesday, but had to leave before seeing him when things ran late and I had to get back to the camp. But I found one who saw me that night at 7PM. The x-rays were negative, and there's no apparent nerve damage, so it's probably muscle and tendon problems.

MDTTC Camp, Week Eleven, Day One

It's the first day of the last week. This camp is full - well over 30 players. I gave lectures on the forehand, on doubles, and on serving. Sometimes I only coach in the mornings at our camps, but because of the numbers, I'll be there all day all five days.

In the first half of the morning session I did multiball with seven players. One was a "blast from the past" - sort of. Back when I was in North Carolina from 1979-81 (when I was 19 to 21 years old), I used to hit a lot with Walter Wintermute, a 1900+ lefty all-out attacker, who was two years younger than me. (He's now rated over 2000.) He was a really nice guy, and we even played doubles together a few times. Now his son, David, 14, already rated over 1800, is at our camp and was in my group. He looks almost exactly like his father 30+ years ago! They even have the same long hair style. According to David, however, his dad is on him to cut it. Walter, by the power invested in me as a table tennis coach, I hereby give David permission to keep his hair long at least until the age when you cut yours!!! (That should bring him at least into his 20's.)

I spent much of the second half working with two new juniors. One was a lefty penholder who wasn't sure whether to play his backhand conventional or reverse penhold. I recommended he learn the reverse version, and he seemed to do it pretty well. On the forehand, however, he had this nasty habit of lifting his elbow and wrist as he stroked, and so his racket would close as he hit the ball. We spent a lot of time trying to undo that habit. We're going to focus on that for a while.

Tip of the Week

Covering the Middle.

Table Tennis Busy

Today starts the last week of our eleven weeks of camps at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. It's going to be a pretty strong camp, with I believe eleven players over 2050, seven players over 2250, and six over 2330.

It's going to be a very busy week for me as well. Besides coaching at the camp and some private and group coaching, I've got a junior player from out of town staying at my house, so I have to take care of him. There's a local cable TV show coming in to film us on Wednesday. A local music group is doing a table tennis music video, and tentatively will come out sometime this week or next weekend. Plus this blog and other writing work. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to get back to work on the page layouts of my Table Tennis Tactics book.

By the way, if anyone has any suggestions for a cover for the book, let me know! I'm still not sure what the cover picture should be. (The book is tentatively titled "Table Tennis Tactics: A Thinker's Guide.")

I've gone through approximately 15 bags of candy (Jolly Ranchers and Chocolate Kisses) during the summer camps in my now expected Friday morning 30-minute candy giveaways, where I put piles of candy on a table and feed multiball, and if you knock one off, you get it. (You can trade for a different one on the table if you choose.)

Meanwhile, I'm still actively writing science fiction and fantasy - see segment below. In fact, I'm about to start work on one for an upcoming Halloween story contest. Hmmm . . . maybe I can do the first Halloween table tennis story? (I wonder if any kid has ever dressed up as a ping-pong player for Halloween?)

An Endangered Ping-Pong Species

Weird Camp Happenings

Lots of strange things happen in regard to table tennis camps. Here's a sampling.

Training Centers and Their Impact

Yesterday, in the Washington Post article on MDTTC (see yesterday's blog), it said, "Hodges campaigned for the U.S. Table Tennis Association to copy his blueprint, which he believed was the way to expand the sport." I'm going to expand on that.

In December, 2006, I spent a huge amount of time putting together a proposal to USATT to start recruiting and training coaches to set up junior programs and training centers. At the Board meeting at the Nationals I made the proposal. The response? Two board members ridiculed the idea of "full-time training centers," saying there weren't enough players to support such a thing, and so it wouldn't really affect the development of players in this country. The others in the room were mostly quiet.

The mind-boggling ignorance of such statements from people with no experience in such full-time training centers was, well, mind-boggling. The whole point of the proposal was that you'd recruit the players (especially juniors in junior programs), and simply do what MDTTC and several other training centers had already done successfully.

After I was done with my proposal, there was polite applause from the Board, it was checked off the agenda, and they moved on to the next item. I went through a very similar experience at the 2009 Strategic Meeting. The leaders of our sport, both then and now, just don't get this aspect of our sport (or about developing leagues, anther topic I've blogged about in the past), and so the development of our sport is really left up to those of us with the entrepreneurial spirit to do it on our own. This usually means having to reinvent the wheel over and over since there is no organization to oversee the recruitment and training of such coaches and promoters.