October 26, 2026

Tip of the Week
Importance of Serve Variety.

Weekend Coaching, Backhand Looping, and the Stupid Flu
I coached in four group junior sessions over the weekend. Some of the emphasis was going from opening loops against backspin to follow-up rallying and put-away loops. And, of course, footwork! I also worked with some relatively new kids on basic strokes and looping. For the basic strokes, when feeding multiball, I often do a “duh-duh, duh-duh” where the duhs coincide with the ball hitting the table and the player’s racket – it’s a great way to help them develop timing. (I’ve been doing this for generations of kids at MDTTC, many of whom became big stars.) I worked with a more advanced player who was struggling to loop against heavy backspin. For kids first learning how to loop against backspin, or more advanced ones learning to loop against heavy backspin, they often struggle with getting the ball over the net – until you tell them to stop aiming for the table and to just spin the ball way, Way, WAY off the table – and those shots invariably hit the table as “perfect” loops! (I always tell them to either loop off the table or on the table, but never in the net.)

I’ve spent years focusing on my forehand attack, with just a steady backhand. As I’ve gotten older, it’s harder to step around all the time. But because of arm and shoulder problems, I generally can’t practice my backhand attack too long without arm and shoulder problems. (It’s more shoulder problems these days.) But I’ve been doing a lot of shadow-practice, trying to build up those muscles. One big result – I found my backhand loop getting better and better, both against backspin and in rallies. Two keys – first, while I use a lot of wrist and forearm, I keep the stroke relatively short, since it’s hard at age 66 to go from a weak backhand loop to suddenly taking big swings. Second, I switched my backhand sponge from Tenergy 25 (great for counter-hitting, blocking, and some looping) to Tenergy 05 (great for looping, and I already have it on my forehand). Suddenly I’m able to spin the ball right off the bounce, over and over! So, I’ve been working on that. But I can only do it for a couple of minutes at a time, and then I have to do a forehand drill to rest the arm and shoulder.

One other problem I’ve faced – I keep getting sick. In the last 2.5 months I’ve had three colds, each lasting up to ten days. And then, last week I came down with the flu. That put me completely in bed for three days. However, it took a LOT out of me, and even though it’s been nearly a week since I got over it, I still feel tired from it. I usually do 2-3 one-hour training sessions per week as I prepare for upcoming tournaments with senior and hardbat events (with the US Open in December). Last week I could barely play after the first half hour – I was out of breath and my shoulder was so tired I could barely hold my arm up. So, this week I’m only doing 30-min sessions, Mon-Wed-Fri. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back to one hour sometime soon.

Ryan Lin Sweeps at the World Table Tennis Youth Contender
Congrats to Ryan Lin, who just swept all three of his events at the World Table Tennis Youth Contender in Houston – Under 19 & Under 17 Singles, and Under 19 Mixed Doubles with Mandy Yu. Here’s my cartoon on Ryan’s results, with apologies to The Far Side. (Here’s the original.)

Ryan started out in my junior classes ten years ago. Within his first year I nicknamed him “Mini-Ma Long.” Along with other MDTTC coaches, I coached him for years at the club, at tournaments around the US, and in tournaments and ITTF camps around the World, including many weeks in Ecuador, Austria, Jordan, and Dominican Republic. There were many long, hard training days, and yet they were fun times. He’s worked incredibly hard, overcome the usual incredible ups and downs of the sport, and it’s all paying off.

Major League Table Tennis

Butterfly Training Videos

New from Olav Kosolosky

New from Acceleraq
How to Solve the Middle (4:52)

New from PingSunday/EmRatThich
155 new videos in just the past week!!! Some are “members only” but most are not. Most are elite matches, some are coaching videos.

New from PingSkills

New from the Table Tennis Teaching Channel

New from Global TT Studio

New from TT11TV
Lots of videos from the Asian Championships.

Tomokazu Harimoto: The Teenage Prodigy Who Shocked Table Tennis
Here’s the video (2:51) from SpinZoneNT.

New from Steve Hopkins/Butterfly

USATT News

New from ITTF

CRAZIEST Table Tennis Moments Ever!
Here’s the video (9:28) from Table Tennis Zone.

Taipei Elementary School vs. Adam
Here’s the video (14:40) from Adam Bobrow! “Seven young stars. Serious skills. Championship experience. Taipei, I see you!”

Non-Table Tennis – Stories Published and Sold
People often ask if I get paid for my science fiction short stories. I was paid $352 and $500 for the two stories below. Yep, I get paid!

  • My story, “The Oysters of Pinctada” (4,400 words) just came out in the War in the Stars anthology from Flame Tree. The people of Pinctada--who are genetically part oyster--use the deadliest secret code imaginable to save their king from space pirates who've kidnapped him. The ending may be the darkest, most twisted ending I've ever written. People's mouths will drop when they see how they rescue their king from a fleeing ship in space.
  • I just sold my story, “The Asteroid of Dinocles” (5,000 words), to the upcoming Space Dinos anthology from Bad Phairy. (It should be out by the end of the year.) The asteroid that was supposed to kill the dinosaurs goes into orbit around Earth, for reasons you learn in the story. Velociraptors evolved. Millions of years later, using telescopes, they see a building on the asteroid. This leads to a space race and the first landing on the asteroid – but nothing is as it seems as they face one twist after another.

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