Tip of the Week
What Is a Good Serve? 

If I Won the Lottery
People are sometimes surprised that I occasionally buy lottery tickets. I know the odds, and they know I know the odds, and I'm a little embarrassed because they know I know they know I know the odds, and so why do I do such a silly thing?

It's all for the good of table tennis.

First, let me be up front that I don't believe in supernatural beings, so the odds of my winning the jackpot are mathematically something like a really, Really, REALLY big number to one. (To be exact, 292,201,338 to 1.) In fact, the odds are so small that I have a better chance of winning if I'm wrong, and that there are supernatural beings out there, such as some benign God who loves table tennis, and he or she decides to award me the winning lottery ticket because, well, I'll be good and use some of the $900 million ($558 million cash value, about $2.58 after taxes) to develop table tennis.

But let's be real. I don't buy lottery tickets (occasionally) because I objectively think I have a good chance of winning. I buy them for the excitement knowing there's a chance I might, and so I can dream. You know, like everyone else who buys one?

You have to remember that I'm not only a table tennis coach & writer (and 246 other table tennis things), but a science fiction & fantasy writer, which means I have a vivid imagination – which means I can imagine a LOT of things to do with that $558 million or so. Training centers!!! Professional Leagues!!! TT on TV!!! And of course, highly-paid umpires who enforce the hidden serve rule!!!

Three Biggest Problems in USA Table Tennis
While there are many problems in our sport, I believe the following are the three biggest ones currently faced by USA Table Tennis.

• Grow the Sport. USATT membership is in the 9000 range, just as we were in the 1990s, though I hear we may be approaching 10,000 or so. Alas, at the various "Strategic Development" meetings we've had over the years we've had a good name for our membership totals: they are a "round-off error" for what membership should be in a country this size, which should be in the hundreds of thousands. (How can all those little countries in Europe have memberships that dwarf ours??? Let's not even talk about Asia.) I believe when membership grows, many of our other problems will be resolved, such as money problems (from membership fees), turning the U.S. Open and/or Nationals into premier events (more players and money available), and so on.

  How do we fix this? It comes down to having a product that the masses will join in. In Europe, that means lots and lots of regional team leagues. In the U.S., it'll likely be the same, whether it's team or singles leagues. USATT's historic focus on tournaments simply hasn't worked, and neither has the culture at the club level of "winner stay on." When the focus is on leagues – as it is in nearly every successful sport all over the U.S. and the world – membership will begin a long and steady increase. But it's going to be a long and slow process creating such an infrastructure. Here are the plans for regional team leagues; already there has been interest in a number of new regions, as I've blogged about previously.

How to Wake Up a Student
I had a one-hour session yesterday with a kid who was half asleep. So what does one do when a student (or yourself) is half asleep, and you need to wake him up? I have my own proven method, which I use both on students and on myself – such as every morning when I have to get up early to work with Tim Boggan on his new volume. (See next segment.) So what is my secret?

You splash water on your face. Really, it works! I do it every morning when I first get up, and sometimes in the afternoon if I'm feeling sleepy. When I have students who are sleepy – and kids are always either sleepy or hyperactive, there is no in between – I have them do so as well. It really works! (Usually. Oh, and splashing water on face to wake up ©2016 by Larry Hodges. If you do it, you owe me $1.)

There are other tricks you can do as well to wake yourself up. One simple way is to simply do a little shadow-stroking. Another is to bounce up and down or from one leg to the other before going out to play or between points – it really wakes the body up.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Day Two
Tim Boggan continues to hold me captive in my office, forcing me to fix up photos and layout pages for his new volume. He's a merciless slave driver who keeps me in chains and smacks me with electrified ping-pong balls if I slow down. If anyone gets this note, please contact Donald Trump so he can tweet bad things about Tim, and Tim will feel remorse and go away.

Remember how I wrote we'd be working from 7AM-2:30PM? Hah! For unknown reasons, I dragged myself out of bed yesterday at 5AM (or did Tim drag me out kicking and screaming?), and we started at 5:30AM, and went to 2:30PM, when I left to coach. He allowed me a thirty-second lunch break of moldy bread and water that smelled like old ping-pong shoes.

A Blast from the Past
Yesterday while I was coaching, an elderly man was practicing on an adjacent table on the robot. He had some questions for me, and it soon became an interesting discussion, mostly taking place while the two kids I was doing multiball with were picking up balls. He was obviously once an experienced player, with decent technique and could hit regular forehands and backhands.

The man looked perhaps 65, and was Asian, but spoke perfect, unaccented English – he likely grew up in the U.S. He said that this was the first time he'd played in 40 years, and that he'd last played in 1976. This was ironic, since I started playing in 1976, and so was now in my 40th year of playing!

The first thing he'd noticed when he came in was that everyone had black and red surfaces on their racket, which surprised him. Back when he played, everyone had the same color on both sides. I explained the two-color rule of 1983, and about how in the years just prior to that the game was dominated by players with combination rackets who flipped and used deception to force misses and easy pop-ups. He found this interesting, yet difficult to understand. He wondered why players didn't just read the spin from the ball.

He also said that the ball seemed a bit big, and asked if these were standard sizes. (I think he said he had an old 38mm ball at home.) I explained how the ball had gone from 38mm to 40mm in the early 2000s, and explained why, which led to a discussion of modern surfaces. He was clearly surprised at the number and bounciness of modern surfaces such as Tenergy. He also wondered if the bigger ball would spin as well.

Tim Boggan Arrives
Yes, it's that time of year again – USATT Historian Tim will be knocking on my door at precisely 9:30AM (after driving 4-5 hours down from New York to Maryland), and then we start work on Volume 17 (!) of his History of U.S. Table Tennis. More specifically, I begin my work, as Tim's already done most of his – the writing and planning. Mal Anderson has also done his part – he's the primary photographer, and has scanned probably 1000 photos for the volume, and sent them to me in a CD I received this morning.

Who are Tim and Mal, you ask? They are both members of the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame (as am I), so we're practically a history of the game, the three of us. (But I'm only 55! They are about 25-30 years older than me.) You can read about all of us in our profiles there.

My job over the next two weeks, as I've done with the previous volumes (usually once per year), is to fix up the photos (many of which are vintage ones or in bad shape – lots of work in Photoshop), and then lay out the pages (text and photos). Tim comes in with notes on where each photo goes, and he's pretty particular about it – he'll be spending the next two weeks looking over my shoulder and saying various versions, of, "No, you fool, the photo goes there!"

Tip of the Week
Backhand Serve Deception with the Elbow.

Luck or Skill?
I saw this video recently (16 sec, including slo-mo replay) and was struck what a perfect example of skill that looks like luck. Now when I say "skill," I don't mean natural talent; I mean learned skill. The player on the near side has an easy put-away, and creams the ball – but the opponent makes a seemingly "lucky" block return. He doesn't just block back a winner; he practically counter-smashes, and makes it look effortless and easy. So . . . was he just lucky?

No, it was almost all skill from years of training. Look at the body position of the player on the near side as he sets up to smash - he's set up to go crosscourt, and the opponent reflexively sees this. The near-side player could change directions at the last second, but doesn't, and so he's predictable. It would have been an easy winner to the wide forehand or middle. Of course with a shot like that, the near-side player was likely taking the long diagonal for safety as he didn't expect the opponent to react so quickly.

Happy New Year!
Tomorrow is New Year's Day – and I'm spending the day in bed reading. Happy New Year, and see you next Monday!

2016 USATT Resolutions

Coaching Matches is Trickier Now
Coaching matches used to be easier. In most matches in the "old days" (twenty years ago?) there'd be a style conflict since the odds of two players with the same style playing was rather low. I mean, what were the odds of two players playing with the same style, such as, say, both being two-winged loopers? Sure, it happened sometimes, but there were a lot more common styles back in those days – hitters, counter-hitters, blockers, choppers, various types of pips-out, conventional penholders, Seemiller grip, and all sorts of forehand/backhand combinations.

All of these styles still exist, but it's a matter of degree – they used to be common. Now the matches I coach are mostly up-and-coming players who train regularly under top coaches, and so there are very few "old-fashioned" styles among them – they are nearly all two-winged loopers these days. The few that don't play that way are still usually inverted players who loop both sides, just not all the time.

With style conflicts, there are obvious tactics. There was the thrill of the clash of styles, such as when a looper met a hitter, or a one-winged forehand looper met a blocker. The tactics were more straightforward.

These days, since the large majority of the matches I coach are between standard two-winged loopers, coaching is a bit subtler. Both players tend to play the same, with the same serves, same surfaces, same strokes, and often the same strengths and weaknesses, with subtle differences in degree.

There's still diversity, but nothing like before. In the past it was like throwing a lion, a wolf, a bear, a giant anaconda, a crocodile, a rhinoceros, a shark, and a black widow spider into the quarterfinals, and they'd battle it out. Now it's more or less eight lions, all running around looping everything. The game is more athletic, but it's also more uniform.

Tip of the Week
You're Your Yore.

USA Nationals (and Hidden Serves, Alas)
It's been an incredibly busy two weeks – USATT board meetings, USA Nationals, USA Team Trials, 29.5 hours at San Francisco Airport (see segment below), Christmas in Eugene, and catching up on everything since I returned two days ago. Here are some highlights.

I flew to Las Vegas the morning of Saturday, Dec. 12. And then – I had the day off! Well, sort of. I ended up working on a new science fiction story I'd been planning. (That's what I do when I'm not doing TT.)

The USATT board meeting was noon – 7PM on Sunday, Dec. 13, and 9AM-1PM on Monday, Dec. 14. A quick rundown of the agenda: committee reports and discussions; SafeSport discussion; USOC update; High Performance discussion; lots of time on the budget; TV; USATT events; ratings; marketing and sponsorship; strategic initiatives; and the problem with hidden serves.

This last one – illegal hidden serves – would irritate me the rest of the week, and still does. [Begin Hidden Serve Rant – skip ahead if not interested.] As I've blogged about many times with lots of video and pictures, cheating is rampant in our sport, with the large majority of major titles decided by illegal hidden serves, with the key factor in most matches whether the umpire will enforce the rules. Our sport rewards those who cheat and punishes those who do not. After some discussion the night before, where board members seemed favorable to resolving the problem, it was suggested I make a motion that the board wishes these rules to be followed. So I made the following motion, assuming it would be a no-brainer that'd pass unanimously:

Last Blog Until Dec. 29
Tomorrow morning I'm off to Las Vegas for USATT board meetings (and other meetings), the USA Nationals (Dec. 14-19), the USA Team Trials (Dec. 20-21), and then off to Eugene, Oregon for Christmas with family (Dec. 21-26). I return on Dec. 27, just in time for the MDTTC Christmas Camp, Dec. 26-31, missing the first day. (I blogged about all this on Wednesday.) So this will be my last blog until I return – see you then! (I originally said I'd be blogging again on Monday, Dec. 28, but I needed an extra day to catch up on things.) 

Meanwhile, the holidays are a time to think about giving, so why not consider giving to the sport? Not money – why not run a State Championship? A Regional Team League? Set up a Regional Association?

Tip of the Week
Fast, Quick Motions Disguise a No-Spin Serve. (These tips normally go up on Mondays, but I'm putting this one up early since I'm going out of town tomorrow for two weeks.)

USA Nationals
My pickup to the airport for the USA Nationals is at 5:10 AM Saturday. As usual, I'll likely just stay up all night on something, and sleep on the flight. I arrive in Las Vegas at about 10:30AM (helped by the three-hour time difference – it'll be 1:30PM here in Maryland). There are 774 players entered, and probably an equal number of family, coaches, and staff, so there'll probably be 1500 people there.