USATT Supercamp - Day Five
By Larry Hodges

[Here's the USATT Day Five page, with video and photos by Matt Hetherington, and this article.]

Today was rather a fun day. First, because the kids are all playing in a tournament tomorrow, they only had one three-hour session instead of the usual 6.5 hours in three sessions. They also got to sleep late, since the session didn’t begin until 11AM. There were some very happy kids, especially since I relaxed curfew, allowing them to have some late-night powwows. But we’re back on curfew on Friday.

We started the three-hour session with a 35-minute lecture and demo by Han Xiao on serving and then receiving, with Wang Qing “Leon” Liang assisting. (This was for the entire camp, both upper and lower groups.) Here are some of the major points he went over:

1. When serving you use body, arm, and wrist, in that order. There is also a weight transfer, at least for forehand pendulum serves.
2. The importance of a proper serving grip.
3. The service swing starts by building up momentum with the bigger muscles, accelerating just before contact.
4. Controlling the first bounce (on your side of the table) is key. It allows depth control of short and long serves.
5. The various ways to create deception - semi-circular motions, spin/no-spin by varying the contact point or the grazing/non-grazing contact, and fast, varying follow-throughs to mislead the receiver.

Here are some of the major points on receive he went over:

USATT Supercamp - Day Four
By Larry Hodges

[Here's the USATT Day Four page, with video and photos by Matt Hetherington, and this article.]

It’s 9PM, and the training ended an hour before - and nearly half of the 27 players are still at the club. They are playing penhold, doubles, and against my clipboard. They don’t want to go home, they want to keep playing, just in different ways. Cory Eider and I both agreed that this is why some players develop such a feel for the ball, by constantly trying new things, just as generations of past players with great control did. (Waldner was infamous for that, and it seems to have paid off for him. The Alguettis seem to be following in his path.) This doesn’t mean you replace practice with such “goofing off” - it means you have fun with it while developing that feel.

Several new players joined us today - Allen Wang (18, 2546), Amy Wang (13, 2416), Matthew Lu (12, 2241), and Jack Wang (15, 2537). Jack was there only for the day, but might rejoin us next week. Alex Ruichao (2699) Adam Hugh (2582) also spent the day training with us.

The big breakfast discussion for today was how each player got started in table tennis. Most got started by their parents or older brothers. I told the group I went to the library to get a book on track and field, and looked left, and that changed my life - and Rohan Acharya (13, 2133) correctly guessed I saw a book on table tennis, which is alphabetically just to the left of track and field. (The book was “The Money Player” by Marty Reisman - and when I recited the story to Marty many years later, his response was, “Great; another life I’ve ruined.”)

USATT Supercamp - Day Three
By Larry Hodges

[Here's the USATT Day Three page, with video and photos by Matt Hetherington, and this article.]

I started off the morning telling horror stories over breakfast: the player who, after a loss, utterly destroyed a bathroom (something like $5000 in damages); in another match, the same player broke his racket after losing a few points, tried playing with the broken paddle for a while and lost more points, borrowed a friend’s paddle near the end (it was legal back then), but ended up losing an 800-point upset - and broke the friend’s racket; the player who ate half a notebook of paper after a loss; and yes, me, who once bought ten cheap sandpaper paddles and broke them all, one by one, during a tournament. (It was a long time ago, and I was only 17!)

As usual, we started off with physical training - but this was a short session. After jogging to the track (1/2 mile), and some stretching, we gathered the players together. I gave a few tips on distance running - proper breathing (through mouth, deep into belly), proper form (upper body relaxed, especially jaw and shoulders, leaning slightly forward, elbows at 90 degrees and pumping straight forward, light steps, and not overstepping by trying to step forward of body), and pace (steady for most of run, faster at the end). Then they jogged one lap for practice.

USATT Supercamp - Day Two
By Larry Hodges

How do you spell exhaustion? U-S-A-T-T-S-U-P-E-R-C-A-M-P! No, not exhausted kids - how about us older coaches trying to keep up with these energized looping machines? Yes, they get tired during training, especially the physical training, but minutes later they are bouncing around like hungry Tasmanian Devils. (They never stop moving and eating. Even during breaks they are hitting with mini-paddles; playing doubles; lobbing to each other; or dragging me onto the table to challenge me where I chop and pick hit with a clipboard.)

Here's the USATT Day 2 Page, with video and photos by Matt Hetherington, as well as this article.

The physical training may be the most important aspect of the camp, which is taking place July 11-24 at the Lily Yip TTC in New Jersey, with 27 of the top juniors from around the country taking part. Compared to overseas players, top U.S. players and juniors are way behind in physical training. The stuff we’re doing here is new to nearly all U.S. juniors; it’s routine overseas. The Chinese players and coaches all say this is standard, and are always surprised top U.S. juniors don’t also do it regularly.

But the camp is also about other things. Along with the physical training, perhaps the other camp pillar is developing USA Team unity. Overseas, players train as part of a team, and the best countries are focused on beating the other top countries. Yes, they also want to be the best themselves, but they train and compete as a team, whether it’s the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Germans, or past great countries like Sweden and Hungary.

USATT Supercamp - Day One
By Larry Hodges

The camp started yesterday (Monday), with 27 players at the Lily Yip TTC in New Jersey, July 11-24. I volunteered to be the resident manager and one of the coaches. USATT High Performance Director Cory Eider is in overall charge. For the first week, the other coaches are Richard McAfee, Han Xiao, Wang Qing Liang, and Samson Dubina. For the second week it will be Sean O’Neill, Dan Seemiller, and Lily Yip. Matt Hetherington is also here doing video; here are his day one videos and pictures. (When you see some of the younger ones, remember - that little kid you see is probably over 2000. And note the nice camp shirts - everyone got six of them, three blue, three orange.)

Most of us arrived on Sunday. I flew home from the Nationals in Las Vegas on a red-eye flight Saturday night, arriving in Maryland at 7AM. After spending much of the day taking care of miscellaneous business and repacking, I drove the four hours to New Jersey, arriving around 7PM. Most of the kids were already there. They are divided into three groups: the seven girls are at Lily Yip’s house (with daughter Judy Hugh also chaperoning), with an eighth living separately; the older seven boys are at Adam Hugh’s house; and the other twelve are at a separate house, where I’m the house manager.

The players range in age from 9 to 18, and from about 1800 level to 2550, including four players over 2500 (three Alguettis and Allen Wang); two others over 2400 (Michael Tran and Amy Wang); and three others over 2300 (Klaus Wood, Tina Lin, and Rahul Acharya). There are three 12-year-olds approaching 2300 - Kai Zarehbin (2261), Mathew Lu (2241) and Sid Naresh (2191). The youngest are the two 9-year olds, Nandan Naresh (1830) and Daniel Tran (1801). They come from eight states - NJ, NY, MD, MN, OH, IL, CO, and CA.

USA Nationals
I wasn't planning to blog for a few more days, but had to put down some thoughts after watching the Men's and Women's Singles Finals. First I'll give the facts, then I'll give a little analysis. 

Table tennis can be a cruel sport. In the Men's Singles Final, we had defending champion Yijun "Tom" Feng (top seed at 2722) against junior star Kanak Jha (second seed at 2655, coached by Stefan Feth). Here's the short version: Tom went up 3-1 in games, and was up 12-11 championship point in the fifth. That was the first of three turning points. Kanak was to serve, but first he did a simple thing: he tied his shoelaces. Now you can't get away with tying your shoelaces every point, but Kanak picked the right time - it allowed him to clear his mind. And it worked. They'd been having surprisingly long rallies, but this time Kanak basically ripped three forehands to win the game. He's still down 2-3, but he'd win the next game 11-7. 

Next thing we know it's 4-4 in the seventh - and we had our second turning point. Tom scored five straight points, and leads 9-4. As Kanak later said, "I thought it was over." And as I said above, table tennis can be a cruel sport - and this was the third and final turning point. Kanak scores the next two points to 6-9. Then he gets a net ball to make it 7-9, with Tom to serve. You could see Tom taking his time, focusing, knowing these would be some of the most important points he'd ever play. And then the serve went slightly long, Kanak loops it in, and it's 8-9. And then Kanak gets another net - an unreturnable net dribbler - and it's 9-9! With Kanak to serve - and two points later, he's completed the 4-9, 11-9 comeback (-10,-6,10,-5,12,7,9), and is the new USA Men's Singles Champion. 

Last Blog until Tuesday, July 12
I'm actually going out of town for a month, July 3 – Aug 3. I don't plan to blog during most of this time – even I need vacations! – but I do plan to blog from July 11 to July 22, during the USATT Super Camp. Here's my upcoming schedule:

• July 3-9: USA Nationals in Las Vegas;
• July 10-22: coaching at the  USATT Supercamp at the Lily Yip TTC in New Jersey;
• July 22-30: at the TNEO Science Fiction Writing Workshop in Manchester, NH;
• July 31-Aug. 3: coaching at the Junior Olympics in Houston.

I won't actually be gone continuously for a month. I'm flying to Las Vegas on Sunday, returning the following Sunday morning (on a Saturday night red-eye flight, landing 7AM at BWI Airport), then I quickly finalize packing, and drive to New Jersey for the Supercamp. Then I drive from there to New Hampshire for the writing workshop. Then I drive all the way back to Maryland on June 30, and fly out to Houston on July 31, flying back late on Aug. 3. (Or perhaps staying the night, and returning Aug. 4.)

Preparing for the Nationals and USATT Supercamp
As a coach, I don't train much as a player. But I'll be playing in three events next week at the USA Nationals, though as usual playing has to take second priority over coaching – but I still want to win all my events do well. I'm in three events: Over 50 Men's Doubles with Ty Hoff; Hardbat Doubles with Ty Hoff; and Over 40 Hardbat Singles.

Training with the Piech's!
Yesterday I had a session with Jason & Alex Piech, the two I blogged about yesterday, along with the video of their going to Las Vegas. We decided to break the session into three parts, 1/3 with Alex, 1/3 with Jason, and 1/3 on doubles. The two have been playing about eight months, coached by Russ Hamilton in Arkansas. (The camp is 10AM-1PM, 3-6PM, so we did the sesson from 1-2PM.) 

First up was lefty Alex, who turns 7 in August, nicknamed "Storm." He has pretty good technique, but can be a bit wild with his shots as his contact can vary a lot. When he loops, sometimes he spins it, sometimes he hits it a bit too flat. We focused on consistency, where he had to make the first two shots every time. First we did it with him looping to my backhand. (We had a running gag where I kept insisting I never missed, with a ready excuse when I in fact did miss. He had his mom video some of the session just to prove to me that I did, in fact, sometimes miss. I don't, of course.) We then did a drill where he served backspin, I pushed to his forehand, he looped to my backhand, and the rally continued, with me blocking, and him looping and sometimes smashing. (No, I never missed. Sometimes I had alternate targets.) We also did some serve practice – he has surprisingly advanced serves. He has a really good tomahawk serve, very spinny, and also does a reverse tomahawk serve. These may cause some havoc to some players next week at the Nationals!

Jason & Alex Piech: 2016 USA National Championships Promo
Here's the video (33 sec)! Alex and Jason Piech are at our MDTTC last week and this week (I'm one of the coaches), and tomorrow I have a private session with each of them, including some doubles work. This weekend they, along with half our club, will fly to the Nationals in Las Vegas for the USA Nationals. Among numerous other events, the two are playing Under 2700 Junior Doubles together – and Alex is a lefty, with Jason a righty, which is an advantage in doubles – so watch out Vegas!

These two were also the stars of a previous video I linked to here and featured by USATT in April, Kansas City Club Can't Handle Me (3:52). I actually didn't realize until yesterday that they were the two from that video!

You'll note in the new video that Jason (the older one at 9, who has a striking resemblance to former child star Haley Joel Osment of "The Sixth Sense" fame) does this up-down wiggling eyebrow trick. My mom used to do that, and I used to try to copy it, but never could. (The best I can do is slightly raise my right eyebrow.) So I'm jealous. Jason's table tennis nickname, appropriately, is "Eyebrow," while Alex (who turns 7 in August) is "Storm," which is appropriate, considering his energy. (Alex resembles another former child star, Jake Lloyd, from Star Wars 1.)

How to Boost Your Table Tennis Rubber
Here's the article from Expert Table Tennis. This is one was a tough decision on whether to post, so I've decided to let readers to decide on their own on this one. The reality is that boosting is "illegal." However, it's also one of the most unfair rules as it's essentially undetectable, with the result that those who are willing to "cheat" have an advantage over those who will not. At this point, boosting is almost a protest against such an unfair rule – but only if others chime in publicly.

I blogged about this on Aug. 18, 2015 and a few other times. I proposed the Racket Testing Rule to address the issue, but (predictably) it was ignored as the officials in our sport continue to ignore the two big elephants in the room that lead to rampant cheating in our sport – boosting and illegal hidden serves. At this point I doubt if there's a single player in the top 20 in the world who doesn't boost (with the possible exception of outspoken boosting critic Jun Mizutani, though I'm betting he is by now), and the same is true of the top players in the U.S., with the notable exception of Sampson Dubina, who has also been an outspoken critic (along with me) of this continuing problem.

Unlike hidden serves, where you can learn both legal and illegal serves, and use the latter only when the opponent does so and the umpire allows it (and so you aren't serving illegal to gain advantage, which by definition is cheating, but only to take away the opponent's illegal advantage, which I don't consider cheating), you can't just boost when an opponent does – you either boost in advance or you don't.