October 14, 2024

Tips of the Week

USATT Election and Team Trials
Page down for segments on them. I decided to start with the more positive stuff.

US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductions
I flew to Houston for the US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductions and Dinner, held Thursday, Oct. 10 at the Houston International Table Tennis Center. Inducted were Glenn Cowan, Dennis Taylor, and Stellan Bengtsson, with Patty Martinez Wasserman getting the Mark Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award. Here's the promotional flyer. Here is the HOF news item on the event, by Sean O'Neill. It includes links to the induction speeches (including photos and video) by Derek May (for Glenn), by me (for Dennis), by Christian Lillieroos (for Stellan), and by Scott Gordan (for Patty). Click on the induction speech links for lots of great stuff!

Huntsman World Senior Games
As part of my comeback, I flew out to St. George, Utah, for the Huntsman World Senior Games, Oct. 7-10, where I was entered in four events. (I had to skip Hardbat Doubles, where I was defending champion, and Elite Singles as I had to fly to Houston for the Hall of Fame Inductions – see above.) I was hoping for a lot of gold, but ended up with three bronzes and a fourth place ribbon. The bronzes were in Over 60 Men's Singles, Over 50 Men's Doubles (I played down a division with Joe Ryan), and Over 50 Hardbat Men's Singles (they had 50-69 and Over 70 divisions). I came in fourth in Over 60 Mixed Doubles with Alecia Moll.

The hardbat was especially disappointing. I was the defending champion. In the semifinals, in a best of three to 21, my opponent seemed to get a lot of nets and edges in that third game, but I still managed to lead 20-19 and 21-20 match point. Both times I missed easy smashes, and I ended up losing 23-21 in the third. So I felt like I was both unlucky and choked it away, alas. Yikes.

The tournament was well-run by Directors Jean Bulatao and Sanjoy Bhattacharya, Omnipong Managers Craig and Rob Krum, Assistants Eric Aki and Marguerite Cheung, Referee Hiro Moriyasu, Deputy Referee Steve Lee, Chief Umpire Helen Prusakov, and Umpires Jerry Li and Mei Wang. (Here's the info page.)

USATT Election
Here is the USATT news item on the election, which went up on Friday, Oct. 4. The deadline to apply to run was only one week later, Friday Oct. 11. They gave us only one week's notice. Jeez. Do they understand that prospective candidates need time to mull it over, explore the issues, and discuss with others?

I considered running. (I've had two previous tenures on the USATT board.) I finally decided it simply wasn't worth it. If I'd won, I would spend the next four years watching and listening to leaders doing silly and often dishonest things while most nod their heads in agreement, and there'd be nothing I could do about it. I'd be outvoted on every major issue. It would be a hostile environment since I tend to be outspoken and say things they don't want to hear – as I am doing here. There are 12 board members; perhaps four of them have the courage to speak up when told to do things that were just wrong. Some are honestly just nice, well-meaning people who just want to get along, and so they vote in support of whoever's in charge.

At some point during the election I expect to post lots of examples – nearly all of which I've already blogged about – but to give one example I've blogged about a few times, early last year the current chair, backed by the CEO, ran for an illegal third term. The whole board knew he wasn't eligible, and yet he was illegally re-elected, 7-2-1. Why? Because most just want to go along with the crowd and follow whoever's in charge. That's why most of the board has voted literally hundreds of time in a row – 100% of their votes during the last four years – with the leadership. (When I say leadership, that really means the CEO, with the Chair of the Board supporting her 100% of the time. And watch out now for board members to look for places to cast token votes in opposition, just so they can say they did!) While many of these votes are procedural, I'd have voted in opposition many dozens of times.

Here are three of my blogs on the election about the illegal chair:

Over and over it's the same trick – the CEO or Chair bring in their hand-picked lawyer to tell the board what they should do and to rationalize that they are following the USATT bylaws – the rules which govern our sport - when they are not, and board members then have that as "cover" to go along with the leadership. How do I know? Because nearly every time I challenge a board member on these votes they bring up that they were just going along with the what the lawyer told them!!! Others simply don't want to discuss it.

To give another example, late last year one board member, Thomas Hu, who has an MBA, saw possible discrepancies in the budget and wanted to see the detailed financials. So the USATT leadership called in the lawyers, who told the board that Thomas had a "potential conflict of interest" because he had a partial ownership of a club and was CEO of the American Youth Table Tennis Organization. (Here's my July 1, 2024 blog on it – page down to "USATT Board Member Denied Access to USATT Financials."). And so, despite the bylaws clearly saying board members need access to these financials (as explained in my blog), he was denied access to the very financials he and other board members are responsible for, all via a made-up "potential conflict of interest." One result of this is that Thomas isn't running for re-election, since he's spent much of the last four years in constant opposition, and is tired of it. I don't blame him.

Or the USATT Assembly, which is held every year at the US Open or Nationals. The bylaws require it be held in conjunction with a USATT Board meeting, so board members can consider what the membership brings up in the Assembly - which is the whole point of the Assembly. But as I've regularly pointed out, USATT has refused to hold the require board meeting the past three years in a row, claim it would be inconvenient. I've complained about it all three times, in 2021, 2022, and 2023, to no avail. Here's my Feb. 19, 2024 blog on it. As I wrote, "USATT Bylaws are not things USATT should follow only when they are convenient; they are the rules for governing our sport." Plus, the rationale that it was inconvenient for the top players fell apart when the player reps I spoke to denied that it was inconvenient, and suggested it be held via Zoom at the end of the tournament.

There are many other examples and other serious issues which I expect to blog about. These are just a few of the issues – I have 14 pages of notes to be organized at some point. For now, I'm leaving out names.

  • There's the huge drop in USATT certified coaches, from 318 to less than 100. I'll blog about this later, but there are three primary reasons for this, with a relatively easy fix for each.
  • We've gone from regularly holding many of the biggest tournaments in the world here in the US (World Championships, Women's World Cup, World Veterans Championships, all brought in by the previous administration) to no longer doing so.
  • USATT set up a Club Ranking system based solely on the number, size, and prize money of tournaments run (though the criteria isn't listed on the USATT Club page), without taking anything else into consideration, such as number of USATT and club members, certified coaches, junior programs, senior programs, para programs, leagues, and so on – and so a club owned by a USATT board member, Will Shortz, has been the #1 ranked club every month since the system was created shortly after he took office nearly four years ago as the elected Club Representative. The new club ranking system is seemingly tailored for his club, which has zero USATT certified coaches but lots of big tournaments. I'm told he didn't set it up himself, but others did it for him after he took office, presumably to get his loyalty – and in his nearly four years in office, he's voted with the leadership in 100% of votes. I pointed out the club ranking issue to him – he's a very friendly guy and very good regionally - but he didn't want to discuss it or take action to remedy the problem, and so his club continues its "undefeated" streak, posted every month on Facebook, USATT Newsletters, and who knows where else. Maybe he'll fix the problem now? There are some really nice clubs out there that, with more rational criteria, would do quite well, perhaps even #1 – 888, ICC, Table Tennis America, Triangle, Houston International, Lily Yip's, and so on, with apologies to those left out. (Disclosure - my own club, MDTTC, would also do pretty well in a rational club ranking system.)
  • In the last USATT election, the membership voted for the Club Representative. This time, the Nominating and Governing Committee (NGC) has decided they will choose the Club Representative. It's legal by the bylaws, but it means the NGC, selected by the USATT Board, will choose this person, and the NGC is not likely to choose someone who disagrees with the very USATT board that selected the NGC. The current Club Rep, if he applies, will almost for certain be appointed.
  • The NGC will also appoint four "Independent Directors" to the board – and again, it is unlikely they will appoint people who disagree with the USATT board that selected the NGC. It used to be that the bulk of the Board of Directors was chosen by the USATT membership. Now they only vote for two "At Large" representatives out of the twelve. I disagree with this. (There are also four player reps and a "National Organization" rep.)

Like past administrations, the current USATT administration will someday be gone. They will be forgotten except when people talk about the past and USATT corruption and say, "What were they thinking?"

USA Table Tennis Unveils 2025 National Team Selection Procedures
Here's the USATT News Item. I've heard a number of complaints about this – coaches and parents keep messaging me about it – mostly about the costs of going to so many events, and about the point system that seems to greatly favor international ranking (much of which is based on participation) over team trials, meaning the new rules would favor those who have the money to travel to all of these national and international events. I briefly browsed over the documents, but really don't want to get into another USATT issue right now, so I don't really have an opinion on it right now. USATT is holding an invitation-only Zoom meeting on Tuesday night at 9PM Eastern Time to explain the new system. (I'm guessing anyone asking with an involvement to the issue would be allowed to participate.) I probably won't attend – if I disagree with the latest and newest system, I'll end up spending way too much time on the issue. I'm hoping someone else will write an article on it, good or bad, and I can just link to it.

2,000th Published Table Tennis Article
I recently realized that my Tip of the Week on Oct. 7 – last Monday – was my 2,000 published table tennis article! It went up both here and on Butterfly News (as all my Tips of the Week do), but only counts as one article. It was also my 2,298th  published article (in 197 different publications), with this morning's Tip of the Week (also at Butterfly) #2,299. So, my next article, which should be next week's Tip of the Week on Monday, will be #2,300. Here is a listing of all my published articles (many linked to the articles) as of Oct. 1. (I update it at the start of each month.)

MDTTC Open
Here are the results of the MDTTC Open held this past week at the Maryland Table Tennis Center, where I coach. Interestingly, junior players won nine of the ten events (two of which were junior events), the only exception being Parham Ghatan, who won Under 1900. Stanley Hsu (who turned 16 three weeks ago) won the Open, coming back from down 0-2 against Khaleel Asgarali. Ryan Lin (14) won under 2400; Richik Ghosh (9!) won Under 2200; Landy Liu (14) won Under 2000; Ryan Li (9) won Under 1600 and Under 15; Aarush Sharma (12) won Under 1300; Batra Aarav won Under 1000; and Yonatan Morse-Achtenberg (11) won Under 12.

Coaching and News from All Over
Since I’ve been away two weeks, rather than try to list every interesting article, here are links to some of the main news and coaching pages that have been active in that time, and you can pick and choose. I’ll get back to linking to individual articles next week.

New from USATT

Daryl Morey Just Invested in a New Sports League — and It’s Probably Not What You Think
Here's the article from Inquirer.com about the Sixers president is investing in Major League Table Tennis.

World’s Ten Most Popular Sports Revealed With Host of Shock Entries
Here's the article from The Sun, with Table Tennis at #6.

How Our Ping Pong Startup hit a $50 Million Valuation in Five Years by Tapping Into Automation
Here's the article from Fortune Magazine feature Ping Pod. Requires a subscription.

Just an Incredible Lobbing, Fishing Point
Here's the video (53 sec)!

"I Love Ping Pong Too!"
Here's the cartoon! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Mini-Paddle Pong
Here's the video (2:04), which starts with seesaw pong!

Adam and Eva ... BATTLE!
Here's the video (12:32) from Adam Bobrow!

Spinniest Serve Battle
Here's the video (10:36) from Pongfinity! It actually starts off with a one-point tournament!

Non-Table Tennis – Mathball and Thank You Miss Kittykat!
I've had two recent humorous science fiction stories published. Both are in text and audio, so you can either read them or just listen.

  • Mathball (4500 words) was published Oct. 3 by Escape Pod. The entire madcap SF story takes place during just three pitches of a player’s at bat during a major league baseball game, in a future where mathematicians have completely taken over baseball. A player’s only job is to do exactly what the mathematicians tell them to do. The players play high-stakes poker, ping-pong, and twister on the field to pass the time while the mathematicians do their calculations. The main characters include a baseball slugger, three mathematicians (Dr. Blonde, Dr. Brown, and Dr. Orange), a very active ladybug, and you, a fan sitting in the center field stands.
  • Thank You Miss Kittykat! (900 words) was published Oct. 7 by Amazing Stories. Humans made the mistake of genetically creating dogs and cats with high intelligence and opposable thumbs. There's a war, with humans and dogs allied together against the cats – but the cats won. Now we're the pets! The story is in both text and audio.

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