Interview with Larry Hodges (hey, that's me!) on Tactics

Here's the podcast (55 min) that came out this morning from Expert Table Tennis. (We taped it last Friday.) Most of the discussion is on tactics, though we touched on other topics as well. Enjoy!!!

Top Junior Shocks World by Serving Legally

[And now for a little "fun," followed by a more serious note at the end, followed by the usual links to coaching and other table tennis items. I'm really frustrated that with lots of big tournaments and various U.S. team trials coming up, once again many of the wins and losses will be decided by the usual hidden serves (not to mention boosting), as we continue to honor those who cheat and cheat those who don't.]

An Ace Reporter from the New York Times read on the Internet that in an ongoing tournament a top USA junior had served legally. Astonished, he decided to check into the matter himself. So he hopped on a plane and flew there in time to see the matches. Being a player himself, he knew the rules stated that serves cannot be hidden from an opponent, but of course while all rules are equally important, some are less equal than others.

He soon found the Top Junior, who was 14 and playing Clash of Clans on an iPhone as he waited for his next match. "You were in the quarterfinals of Under 15 Boys," the Ace Reporter said, "and you chose to serve without illegally hiding your serve. For God's sake, why?"

"It just seemed wrong to cheat in such a big match," the Top Junior said, biting his lower lip. He was dressed from head to toe in a sponsor's uniform.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Lots of iconic things happening! Here's a rundown of some of my private students.

Navin Kumar posted a note about his nice undefeated performance in the Tuesday night league. In a breakthrough performance where his forehand really began to come around (along with his usual blocking), he went 4-0, holding all of his opponents to 5 points or less, despite being the last seed in the group. I can't link directly to his Facebook posting, but this link takes you to his Facebook page where he put up the posting. (Navin's the student of mine who's been in the news quite a bit due to his partially mechanical heart and Parkinson's.)

Another student, 14, had been having trouble with his grip finally got things together the last two days. In the Tuesday night league he said he played the best match of his life, with his forehand the best it's ever been. But he was still having trouble with his backhand – until Wednesday night, when we spent the whole session on it (including hitting 321 in a row at a fast pace), with a little saturation training. By the end he said his backhand felt the best it's ever been.

Another student, 14, had a great training session that led me to wonder when he's going to start showing up in tournaments again now that he's way under-rated. But as he said, he'll have sleepless nights because of that one point we had yesterday where he drove me out of position on my wide forehand, then smashed to my wide backhand, and I switched hands and lobbed it back left-handed – and he missed! He said he's going to have nightmare.

U.S. Nationals and Weight Training

I'm trying to make my plans for the upcoming U.S. Nationals, but things are never simple. In recent years it's been simple: I go, I coach, I return. This time, however, I was thinking of playing a bunch of events – hardbat (singles, doubles, over 40), sandpaper, perhaps a senior event or two. But now I have several coaching requests, and so might be busy coaching, which conflicts with my playing – I would likely have matches that conflict with a student's important match. Coaching is my priority, so we'll see how things end up.

But in case I decide to play in the Nationals again, yesterday I began the long put-off weight training I've been postponing for a while. And so after coaching/tutoring from 3:00-7:30PM, I stopped by Planet Fitness for the first time in a year. (Or is it two?) I'm weight training again for three reasons.

First, to get in better shape. When even carrying groceries or my 21-pound playing bag is difficult, I need to weight train.

Second, as I get older (55), I'm slowing down, and so not as effective in private coaching sessions, where I'm hitting with players. Plus, of course, my overall game has declined. Weight training will bring some of it back. Heck, I watch and coach some of our up-and-coming juniors, and realize that I better get in shape or they'll start beating me!!! (Some do…) My tentative plan is to retire from most private coaching in April 2018, which coincides with when I make my last house payment. But I'd continue group sessions and perhaps some private coaching – we'll see. But it gets harder and harder to do private coaching as I get older.

Adventures in Serving

Tip of the Week

Serving and the Snowball Effect.

Weekend Activities

Thinking About Blocking – a No-No

On Wednesday night I was coaching a junior player with a pretty strong forehand loop. Early in our session we warmed up with his crosscourt loop to my forehand block, where I'm normally very steady. I was blocking to his wide forehand and middle, as he moved side to side. All was well at first, but then I made a few mistakes. So I focused on my forehand block, trying to get the right technique. Instead, I made more mistakes. I'm supposed to be steady in these drills, and yet I was suddenly missing way too many blocks. These were not "easy" blocks, as he does loop hard, but I've been blocking these shots for nearly 40 years, and it's normally second nature. (The key phrase here: second nature.)

I started analyzing my block, trying to find the problem. The more I examined it, the worse it got. The technique was right, so that wasn't the problem. But something was wrong.

I think some readers already know the problem, worthy of a D'oh. Because I was thinking about the shot, without knowing it I was consciously trying to guide the shot, rather than let my subconscious, with the nearly 40 years of blocking practice and muscle memory that made it second nature, control the shot.

Playing Bag Content – What's in Your Bag?

I recently wrote about how I thought I might have gotten slightly injured from carrying around my way-too-heavy playing bag. I probably carry more stuff around than most. So, let's take an inventory of what's in my bag. Everything in it, of course, is an absolute must, right? Well, let's see.

I use a Butterfly Linestream Bag, black & blue version, which (alas) seems to be discontinued. (But it's similar to the Casio II Sport Bag.) Besides the large bag area, there are large compartments on each side, another along the long side, and two small pouches on each end.

Here's a picture of the complete contents of my bag, on my sofa. (This is the historical sofa that USATT Historian Tim Boggan sleeps on during his annual two-week stays at my house to do the sixteen volumes – so far - of his History of U.S. Table Tennis series.) Total weight: 21.4 pounds. And now I have to put all that stuff back. But first, let's look at what's in each bag compartment.

Proposal on Boosting: "Racket Testing Rule"
(Here's the online version.)
[NOTE – I sent this to the USATT Rules Committee on Monday, Sept. 28. I blogged about this issue on Aug. 18, 2015. Here's an article from Matt Hetherington, Should ITTF Legalize Boosting?]

Dear USATT Rules Committee,

Boosting (and tuning, which is similar) is currently illegal due to rule 2.4.7, which says, "The racket covering shall be used without physical, chemical or other treatment." However, since boosting is not picked up under current racket testing procedures (and I'm told would very expensive to create equipment sensitive enough to do so), we are stuck with an unenforceable rule where we just hope that players aren't taking advantage of this.

What exactly is boosting? Boosting is where you apply an oil such as Paraffin oil under the sponge to expand the sponge to increase its speed and spin. It's considered illegal since you are treating the racket covering. It's similar to speed glue in its application and its effect. However, speed glue was made illegal because of health problems, and boosting generally does not have such problems. Therefore there is no corresponding reason to make most types of boosting illegal.

Team Leagues

As I've blogged before, team leagues is how European table tennis became big, with 600,000 players in Germany and a number of other countries with memberships over 100,000. (The same is true of most other sports with big memberships.) Once you play on a team you want to do it over and over – and that leads to lots of activity and large memberships. I'm planning this fall to develop a proto-type team league that can spread to other regions, using my experiences here in the Capital Area Team League (Maryland, Virginia, DC), what I've learned from successful leagues in other regions like LA and NY, and from overseas leagues. And so it was with great excitement that we started the second season of the CATL. Here's my write-up.

Capital Area Team League

The Capital Area Team League fall season got off to a great start on Saturday, Sept. 26, from 5-10PM, in the first of six monthly league nights. All twelve teams in the league competed that night at the Maryland Table Tennis Center, with players ranging from ten to seventy, and ratings from 850 to 2350. Here's the team listing and a group picture. League venues this season will alternate between MDTTC and the Washington DC Table Tennis Center.

The format is best of seven, with six singles and one doubles. Each team has three singles players, and each of them play two matches. Then any two players may play the doubles. Here are the League Rules, including info on the format. Here is the Schedule and Standings.

Tip of the Week

Watch the Top Players Before a Tournament or Big Match.

The Spirit of Pong: First Two Chapters Online

Here are the first two chapters of my 100-page table tennis fantasy novel, which you can read for FREE. If you like them, then you can buy the whole novel at Amazon ($7 print or $6 kindle). Here's a description of the novel:

Andy "Shoes" Blue wants to be a table tennis champion, but he’s just another wannabe American. And so he goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis. He is trained by the mysterious Coach Wang, and begins an odyssey where he learns the secrets of table tennis from the spirits of Ichiro Ogimura (who helped spawn China’s greatness), Rong Guotuan (China’s first world champion in 1959, whose tragic story Andy must relive), and others, and must face the mysterious "Dragon." Can he overcome treachery and learn the final secret of table tennis in time to defeat his ultimate nemesis?

The novel includes a bonus short story at the end that I wrote, "Ping-Pong Ambition," which was originally published in the anthology Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic. Here's a description, and a review from The Fix:

"A table tennis player is imprisoned inside a ping-pong ball by a genie for 10,000 years, where he practices table tennis and studies to be a genie himself - only to discover a surprising truth."

"Ping-Pong Ambition is a fun take on the genie-who-gives-three-wishes story. The tropes are familiar, but the light tone and twist ending make this an entertaining read." The Fix, Jan. 27, 2008.