Local schools were scheduled to be closed today for teacher conferences even before a few snowflakes blew our way, so as is my continued policy, when the schools take a holiday, so do I! (I have lots of other work planned, alas.) So no blog today. I'll be back tomorrow Wednesday. In the meantime, here's my (non-table tennis) Facebook rant about the snow and Obama's complete refusal to do anything to stop its arrival - and what other candidates would have done! Enjoy!

Fake Ages in Junior Events
One of the more "inside" problems table tennis faces in the U.S. is the problem of fake ages in junior events. In the U.S., it's pretty much assumed – and almost always correctly – that birth certificates are accurate. But this isn't necessarily true in other parts of the world. In particular, I'm told (and my own experiences seem to concur) that in China, it's very easy to get a birth certificate or passport with a fake age. Here's one article on the topic. "While a global problem, the falsifying of ages is considered particularly acute in China due to the massive pressure on coaches and officials to produce victories and the apparent ease with which false documents can be obtained."

Many dozens of parents have approached me on this, mostly Chinese, because there seem to be a number of players all over the U.S. (all non-citizens, as far as I know) playing in junior events with fake ages. I say "seem" because there's rarely any way of really knowing in any individual case. There are legitimate teenagers who look to be in their twenties, and it's not their fault that they look older. For all we know, it's the faster-maturing kids who do well, and that's why there are so many juniors from China who look older than their listed age.

A Blizzard is Coming, a Blizzard is Coming!
Yes, it's true. By Friday night we'll be blanketed in snow, with predictions varying from 12 to 30 inches. This could be historic here in the Maryland/DC area. (It'll also dump huge snowfalls along the entire northeast.) The record snowfall for DC is 28" in 1922. The only other time we got over 20 inches was 20.5" in 1899. We had the infamous "Snowmaggedon" of 2010, but that was only 17.8", only the fourth deepest ever. (What made that extreme is that it fell on Feb. 5-6, and on Feb. 9-10, we had another 10.8" inches fall, so 28.6" total – more than the 1922 storm, which lasted three days.) Here's a listing of the 25 Biggest DC Snowfalls.

I'm sure some of you people up north are snickering at us. But you have to remember it's all relative. If you get four feet of snow, but are prepared for four feet of snow, with lots and lots of snow equipment and supplies, it's not a big deal. If you get six inches of snow and are completely unprepared for it – as Maryland and DC are, since it happens less frequently – it's a lot worse. During Snowmaggedon, schools closed for two weeks. (Stop snickering!!!)

Here some memorable table tennis snow experiences.

MDTTC Tournament Director
Well, I've gone and done it; I'm back to being the tournament director at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. I keep saying I have way too much to do, and now I've got more. I'll be running five tournaments at MDTTC this year, four regular ones plus a Maryland State Championships. The regular ones will be held on April 9, June 11, Sept. 10, and Oct. 22, all on Saturdays. Entry form will be posted soon.

I'll be running them using Omnipong, which works really well. I used that software when I ran MDTTC tournaments a few years ago, I think in 2012, before Charlene Liu took over. She's now running the full-time Washington DC Table Tennis Center, and so someone had to take over the tournaments. (Immediately all eyes turned to me, alas.)

I'm not exactly new to running tournaments. I've run about 150 USATT sanctioned tournaments, including monthly ones at MDTTC through much of the 1990s. I also ran the 4-star 1998 Eastern Open, and dozens of other tournaments, dating back to monthly ones I ran at the Northern Virginia TTC in the early 1980s.

Surprisingly, it's not a big conflict with my coaching, as Saturdays (surprisingly) is not a busy day for me, where I usually only have one or two students. For me, the bigger problem is that by Saturdays, I'm tired from coaching and other work all week, and then I have to run the tournament – and that's exhausting. And then it's Sunday, which is my busiest day. And then comes Monday, where I've got a full weekend's worth of stuff to write about in my blog, plus the Tip of the Week, plus my science fiction blog, plus whatever else I've put off while setting up and running the tournament.

Tip of the Week
On Short Serves to the Forehand, Fake to the Forehand, Then Go Down the Line.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Days 11-12
My long national nightmare, I mean my twelve days sitting at a desk with Tim Boggan looking over my shoulder and yelling things like, "the photo goes there, you fool!" ended on Saturday. Between that, my normal coaching/tutoring/afterschool program, and my other USATT and MDTTC work, it was roughly twelve straight 18-hour days.

On Day 11 (Friday) we finished the pages, finishing with 450 pages and 1499 graphics – which I've rounded up to 1500. Then we spent Saturday inputting corrections, which he'd been compiling during in the early morning hours as he edited the pages from the day before. (He goes to bed around 7:30PM each night, gets up by 3AM.) I also did the one-page ad flyer for the new volume, printing 120 copies for him. We finished late on Saturday afternoon, then met Dennis Taylor (USATT pro bono lawyer) for dinner at China Bistro, "home of the best dumplings in the region." On Sunday I had a "restful" day with only five hours coaching at the club. Then I took Monday off (MLK Day), mostly in bed reading and saw the excellent but gritty movie "The Revenant."

With this project over, I can go back to normal stuff, like coaching and writing and eating and sleeping. This week I've got all sorts of issues to blog about –ratings problems (see below), players with fake ages, and my return to running tournaments (alas). And make sure to see the final segment below on my upcoming novel, coming out in one week – it's got table tennis!!!

Here are the final stats:

No blog today - it's Martin Luther King Day! After working twelve consecutive 18-hour days, followed by a "restful" five-hour coaching day on Sunday (yesterday), I need a break. See you tomorrow!

Help Wanted: USA Table Tennis High Performance Director Position
Here's the USATT info page for this – if you think you're qualified and would do a great job, why not apply? This could be a groundbreaking thing for table tennis in the U.S., if we get the right person. As I've blogged before, the U.S. is now a world power at the cadet level, and if we play our cards right, that could lead to the U.S. being a world power. We have the potential to challenge any country in the world outside China, and of course challenging China, something few could dream of doing, is exactly what we should be dreaming of doing. If countries like Sweden and Hungary can develop teams that played even or better than the Chinese for over a decade at a time, why can't we?

The whole idea is not for USATT to take over training our elite up-and-coming juniors, the best of whom are already getting great training. The point is to have someone to oversee all this training, including some group training, but emphasizing the resources we already have at clubs. He'd be working with the actual coaches who are doing the actual coaching, but the coaches at training centers and clubs all over the country would be completely in charge of whoever they are coaching. But as I note below in #3, the High Performance Director would have valuable input on how to maximize our players' potential, as well as running group training. The specific plan would be created by the High Performance Director himself. (Jeez, I'm tempted to apply, but I'm already on the Board of Directors – conflict of interest – plus they are probably looking for more international experience. Alas.)

Weird Racket Retrieving Incident
One of the weirdest incidents ever happened at the club yesterday. I was coaching a junior who pleaded to stay anonymous. We were playing games at the end, and after I won one, the junior tossed his racket into the air. Only – he stumbled as he did so, and the racket went up and sideways, and into the wide pole (or whatever it is called) to the side of the court. Here's a picture of one. It's got lots of pipes and things inside, with the top about nine feet off the ground. The racket was a Timo Boll ALC with Tenergy on both sides, retailing at about $300. Yikes!!!

We were unable to really look in while standing on a chair, so we got out the big MDTTC ladder, used to change lights. Using that we were able to see that the racket had fallen all the way to the ground inside, nine feet down. Worse, it turns out that the wide pole actually is divided into several more narrow ones. The racket was at the bottom of a hole that was nine feet deep, about two feet square. What were we to do?

Push Aggressively
Recently I've been harping on pushing with students. Most players push just to keep the ball in play, which is fine if you have no ambitions to be a much better player. Instead, learn to push aggressively. This can be done in a number of ways: faster, quicker off the bounce, deeper, heavier, lower, shorter, wider, with spin variation, spinless, with sidespin – all of these can turn a "keep it in play" shot into a weapon that either forces mistakes or sets up your more powerful shots. Whatever you do, don't settle for just keeping the ball in play.

Some would say that they mostly push to return serves, and that they need to play safe there so as not to make a mistake. That itself is a mistake. If you only push serves back passively, then you'll never learn to push them aggressively – which leads to players pushing passively because they haven't learned to push aggressively. Get out of that passive cycle and find ways to push effectively, both in returning serves and at other times.

Here are a few articles on pushing:

• Pushing: Five out of Six Doesn't Cut It
• Push with Purpose and Placement
• Pushing Change of Direction
• Pushing Short
• Backhand Sidespin Push

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Day 8
Yesterday we finished chapters 18-20 of the 27 planned. Chapter 18 was a monster chapter, with 29 pages and over 100 graphics, and took over three hours to finish. The only things that keeps me going are Mountain Dew, popcorn, and Tim's Taser.

Long Hours for One More Week
Ever have one of those weeks where you work 18 hours/day, spend an hour on meals and other activities, and blink each night and suddenly it's morning and you have to do it again? Well, that's what it's like for me right now, while I work with Tim Boggan on his History of U.S. Table Tennis, Vol. 17 (!). My days are divided into three parts. While we generally start around 7AM, the last two mornings we've started at 6AM. We go until 2:30 PM each day. Then I'm off to the TT club to coach, afterschool program, some tutoring, etc. And then I get home, usually around 8PM or so, and my real day is just beginning as the cascades of USATT, MDTTC, SF, and other stuff keeps coming in. I haven't been to bed before 1AM this past week, usually working past 2AM, and I haven't slept past 6AM, and I've been up by 5AM several times. I'm guessing this isn't healthy, but something keeps my brain from comprehending the problem, whatever it is. (Note – last night I finally went to bed and got up at a "reasonable" time – 12:30AM and 6:30AM. Now I feel as refreshed as waking up the night after playing three days at the Teams…)

Meanwhile, I was so tired while teaching a junior class on Sunday that I kept forgetting names of players who have been in the class for some time. I've always been weak on remembering names, but jeez, it took half the session to remember who some of the kids were. (On the other hand, I could still give detailed info on their games, techniques, and what they needed to work on. Just don't ask me their names when I haven't slept since Satoh won the Worlds.)