Tip of the Week
Eleven Points for Developing a Modern Advanced Style.
A Review and an Interview
My fantasy table tennis novel “The Spirit of Pong” was just reviewed for a Topeka Book Club, and I was interviewed about my writing by Jeff Cates – with lots of table tennis. (Here are all my books - buy some!) Here is the review and interview:
- BOOK CLUB “Spirit of Pong” by Larry Hodges!
- Jeff Cates Authors’ Showcase: Interview with Larry Hodges
Across the Net: A Story of Ping Pong and Friendship
(NOTE – I added this late, on Monday night. I will include it in next week’s blog as well.)
Here’s the video (12 min) - CGTN America did a feature on my co-coach Cheng Yinghua at the Maryland Table Tennis Center. Cheng was a member of the Chinese National Team, and then 4-time US Men’s Singles Champion, 2-time US Open Men’s Singles Champion, and a member of the 2000 US Olympic Team. (I’m interviewed multiple times in the video. Over half of the pictures of Cheng they used were also from my files. CGTN America is China Global Television Network America.)
Weekend Coaching and Hating to Lose
Due to a writing seminar I attended on Sunday, I only coached two group sessions this past weekend, both on Saturday. In the Intermediate group, much of the focus of my multiball group was the same as last week – transition from looping backspin to looping or hitting topspin, on both forehand and backhand. In the more advanced group, much of the focus (as always) was on footwork. Most players get this, but some still don’t always quite get the idea that 1) you don’t wait to see if you have to move; you assume you have to move, and prepare with a light bounce on your feet as your opponent is hitting the ball, and 2) you move to the ball with your feet even if you could do so by just reaching for the ball.
When they got to games, I could often tell which players were affected by not wanting to lose – all of them! But there were three ways players responded to this. Some got passive, especially when it was close, and were scared to attack. Others stayed aggressive, but shots they’d make in practice they’d miss because they were worried about losing, and so couldn’t play free. Others had learned to mostly clear their minds and played mostly free, even under pressure. That’s what you need to strive for.
John Olsen had written me that, “Players that excel, I have found that it's not so much that they love to win, but they hate to lose.” And there’s a lot of truth to this. In theory, you’d think wanting to win would be more important than hating to lose. Sometimes that’s true. But often it’s hating to lose that motivates players, as well as wanting to win.
Top players (all sports) hate losing far more than the average person. They are competitive by nature. However, it is this very hatred of losing that, counter-intuitively, keeps their hatred of losing from affecting their play. They know that if they worry about losing while playing, it will affect their play and they are be more likely to lose. And so, from years of mental training and learning to focus in matches, they’ve learned to clear their mind when it’s time to play, all so they won’t lose. Result? Players who really, Really, REALLY hate to lose are often at their best in big matches and during big points. On the other hand, players who don’t like losing but not as much as top players are more likely to let his fear of losing affect him, and thereby lose because of it.
Top players often have a history of being bad losers as juniors – it’s a motivating factor. Those that overcome it become top players. The key is to use it for the first, but put it aside in matches so you can play free. Many players get passive under pressure because they are afraid to lose, and so never learn to play well under pressure. You have to overcome your fears and play your normal game under pressure. Ideally, you train not to avoid losing, but so you can improve and win! (And “win” means different things to different players – it could mean winning against your friends at a club or in the basement, in a league, a rating event, a club or state title, or national or international events.)
Major League Table Tennis
- Home Page
- Schedule
- News
- April 13: Princeton Revolution Championship Weekend Preview
- April 10: Portland Paddlers Championship Weekend Preview
- April 10: MLTT 2025-26 Editorial Awards
- April 9: Liam Pitchford leaving MLTT for 2026-27 season
- April 8: Carolina Gold Rush Championship Weekend Preview
- April 7: Atlanta Blazers win Season 4 MLTT Draft Lottery
New from NCTTA – National Collegiate Championships
- Singles Fireworks and Day 3 of NCTTA Rockford Champs
- Breaking Down PeakaPong's Unique Racket and How it Impacts Table Tennis
- Arcot Naresh, Pillar of Upper Midwest Table Tennis
- Back to School- Yale Grad Student Returns to College Pong With Renewed Passion
- Teams Recap (Rockford Champs Day 2)
- NYU Women’s Doubles Pair Avenges Loss to Advance to First Time Women’s Teams Final
- How Nikhil Kumar Still Anchors UC Berkeley One Year After Graduating
- Never Say Never: Men’s and Women’s Doubles Determination
- Return to Rockford (Champs Day 1)
- Team Kits Capture the Fun and Community of NCTTA
- Senura Silva and Jonatan McDonald's Path to Avenging Last Year's Men's Doubles Loss
- Titans of Table Tennis Meet at the Coed Team event
- Women’s Team Championships–Who Will Come Out On Top?
Butterfly Training Tips
- Anqi Luo – Forehand Counterloop (1:42)
- Lingshaui Meng – Forehand Mid Distance Looping (65 sec)
- Cindy Zhu WTT Contender Paraguay (59 sec)
- Arantxa Cossio Aceves – WTT San Francisco (90 sec)
- Episode 8: Ask The Expert Live With Logan Rietz | Don’t be afraid, try some pips! (25 min)
- FETHOMANIA 25: Drill 3 - Want More Control? 1,2 or 3 balls in Backhand and 1 fixed ball in Forehand (49 sec)
- FETHOMANIA 25: Drill 4 - Keep the Racket High, 1,2 or 3 balls in Forehand and 1 fixed ball in Backhand (53 sec)
New from Pingispågarna
- This Robot Will Change Your Table Tennis Forever (5:30)
- Why Your Serves Are Easy to Read (And How to Fix It!) (2:52)
Learn the Hook Serve
Here’s the video (3:26) with Dutch National Table Tennis Team Member Milo De Boer, from Acceleraq.
New from the Table Tennis Teaching Channel
- Most Players Think You Must Drop the Hand for Backspin — Wrong (5:52)
- How Ma Long & Fan Zhendong Set Their Racket Angle Before the Pinch (8:17)
New from PingSkills
Ask the Coach.
55th Anniversary of a Ping Pong Diplomacy That Changed the World (1971–2026)
Here’s the USATT article by Joshua Dyke.
New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly
- Central American & Caribbean Championships: Teams
- Odo Wins Third Tour Title in Taiyuan
- Wen Ruibo Doubles Up in Taiyuan
New from the ITTF
- The World is Ready: Player Lists Confirmed for ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals London 2026 Presented by ACN
- ITTF Announces 2026 With The Future In Mind Scholarship Beneficiaries
- From Havírov to Dakar: ITTF Invests in Africa's Youth Olympic Hopefuls
- ITTF President Petra Sörling Joins Historic Ping-Pong Diplomacy Anniversary Celebrations in China
- Agricultural Bank of China Returns as Official Partner of the ITTF World Team Championships Finals London 2026 Presented by ACN Group
- ITTF and World Sports Photography Awards Unveil Centenary Photography Project to Celebrate 100 Years of Table Tennis
Panda Pong
Here’s the video (15 sec)!
I Played a 2x Olympic Champion
Here’s the video (8:25) from Adam Bobrow! He takes on Chen Meng, World #1 for 76 weeks in-a-row and 2x consecutive Olympic Singles Champion.
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