Regional Leagues, Capital Area League Finals, Results, and the New Season
Let's start with what's probably of greatest interest to you – leagues in your area. Want to play in a league? Then why not join one of these?

• Austin Texas League
• Capital Area League (DC area)
• Chicago League
• Denver League
• Genesee Valley League (Rochester, NY)
• LA League
• NY League

But what if there isn't one in your area? Then start one! (If you are in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area, now is the time to sign up for the Spring season of the Capital Area League.)

How are team leagues different from tournaments? First, you aren't risking your USATT rating – yay! But second, and more important, you have the fun of playing regularly on a team, with thousands your teammates cheering for you! I blogged about team leagues back on Nov. 24, 2014. Here is the recently created USATT League Page, and the news item on Regional Team Leagues.

Rarely Used Shots
After losing a backspin counter-lobbing point to a student (you heard that right), it got me to thinking about such rarely used shots. So here is a listing of a few of the lesser-used shots that are central to exactly nobody's game - but are fun to try!

Zhang Jike vs. Ri Chol Guk at 2011 Worlds - and an Interesting Banana Flip
Here's an interesting video (4:38), for three reasons. (I first saw it as this Facebook posting.) First, you get to see the best in the world (Zhang Jike) against a player you rarely get to see, Ri Chol Guk from North Korea. (His peak was world #82 in June, 2011, before leaving the world rankings in May, 2012 at #86.) Second, Guk has a conventional penhold backhand (same side for forehand and backhand) rather than the modernistic reverse penhold backhand – a dying breed. And third, see the receive by Zhang at 8-6 in third, where he flips a short serve to his forehand with his backhand. Any video of Zhang and most modern top players will show them using the backhand banana flip to receive many short serves to the forehand, but what's unique is that he flips it inside-out to Guk's wide forehand – for an ace.

It's one of those way under-used shots. Let's examine what's actually happening. Guk serves short to the forehand, giving Zhang an angle into his forehand. Against a normal forehand receive, Guk and other players would automatically guard against that wide angle. But as soon as Zhang reaches in with his backhand, many players – including Guk here – reflexively give up this angle. Watch the video again and see how Guk, as soon as he sees a backhand receive, is already moving to his left (our right), giving up the wide forehand.

Coaching the Candidates
Before the most recent Republican and Democratic Debates, there was a rumor that the moderators would challenge them to showcase their table tennis skills. And so each candidate quietly contacted me about private coaching. Here are my notes on each of these sessions which took place this past week at the Maryland Table Tennis Center.

=>DONALD TRUMP. He wore his customary "Make USATT Great Again" baseball cap. (It fell off once and took his hair with it, but he paid me $1000 not to tell anyone.) As we warmed up, at first I thought he was just really, really slow, but then I asked to examine his racket, and it was made of solid gold and weighed about twenty pounds – and he insisted on using it. I wanted to go over to his side of the table to help him with his technique, but as we rallied several Mexican workers came by and extended the net in both directions into a six-foot barb-wired fence.

The rallies weren't very good as Trump insisted on attacking everything. Way too aggressive. Most of his shots missed, but he claimed they hit, and a bunch of people wearing Trump shirts kept clapping and screaming, "Great shot!" even when they missed by ten feet. I tried to get him to done it down, but he said, "I have the best forehand and backhand in the world. Everybody loves my technique. I have a beautiful game and I'm very rich."

Tip of the Week
Three Tips to Increase Forehand Looping Power.

Move Those Feet – and Meet George Braithwaite
Whether you are 8 or 80, or somewhere in between, moving your feet is a priority. It's something that coaches constantly harp on. Beginning kids often don't find it important, and so you have to drill it into them, and then they quickly pick up on it. Older players often find it difficult because of their age, but while age slows you down, it doesn't stop you from moving your feet – it's simply a habit. An older player who doesn't move fast but still moves his feet is faster than a really fast player who doesn't.

Here is Exhibit A, video of George Brathwaite (12:05) in a training session. George "The Chief" is well into his eighties (here's his Hall of Fame profile), but see how he still moves his feet? That's because he has made it a habit. Let me emphasize this again: Moving the feet is a habit. It has nothing to do with how fast your feet are or how old you are.

History of U.S. Table Tennis and Other TT Books
It's out – Tim Boggan's History of U.S. table Tennis, Volume 17!!! You may remember me blogging about the long hours of putting the 450 pages and 1500 illustrations together back in January with Tim. So why not buy a new volume or perhaps 17 of them? Cost is $40/book, but if you order all 17, it drops to $30/book! (If you have ordered previous volumes and want to buy the rest, you can negotiate with Tim.)

The volume covers 1989-1990, including a lot about the infamous 1990 U.S. Open/World Veterans/International Junior Championships. I'd say more about this, but then you wouldn't have to buy the book!!! (Sorry, only comes in print.)

If you can't afford all 17, and don't want to order them piecemeal, one option is to go for Volume V, which covers the Ping-Pong Diplomacy Years, 1971-72. Tim gives a first-hand look at those historic events, where we finally made contact with China, with the U.S. Team touring China and the Chinese Team touring the U.S.

So why not curl up with a nice historical table tennis book this weekend? Or, since you'll need to order the book, why not order it now so you can curl up with it next weekend?

What's in a Name?
Some of us have perfect names for what they do. Let's face it, doesn't Donald Trump have a great last name for a businessman or politician? (Well, until he went and ruined it by, well, I'll shut up now.) Or how about others with perfect names for their sport, like sprinter Usain Bolt, golfer Tiger Woods, or the great baseball slugger Hack Wilson? (There's also the unstoppable tennis star Bjorn Borg, but the unstoppable villains the Borg of Star Trek: Next Generation came after he retired.) Or how about someone with initials "LBH" for "Loop Block Hit"? (That would be me - and my last name is also an anagram for "He's God"!)

So let's examine the USATT ratings database and find out who's out there!

There were 64 Pings, and another 95 with "ping" as part of their names. My favorites: Ping Chao of Somerset, NJ, rated 545; (makes me hungry for ping-pong), He Ping of Durham, NC, rated 875 ("He ping-pong player!"; Ping Hao, of Gaithersburg, MD, rated 1803 (from my club! So "Hao" do you play ping-pong?); Ping Ma of Maritta, NY, rated 339 ("Ma, take me to play ping-pong!"); and Rusty Ping of Texas, unrated – "I need to practice, I'm rusty!" There was also former USA Olympian Whitney Ping.

There were seven Pongs (plus another 30 with "pong" as part of their name):

Schedule
My schedule these days is pretty hectic. I've blogged about this a few times – and have been sarcastically called a "table tennis martyr" for doing so – but at some point something will likely have to give. I'm involved in way too many USATT and MDTTC issues, plus have my regular coaching and tutoring hours, afterschool pickups, blogs & tips, and science fiction writing. My guess is I'm probably going to have to drop some of my USATT activities after this year, but I hope to get a lot done this year first. (I'm currently on the USATT Board of Directors, the chair of the USATT League Committee, and the USATT Regional Associations Coordinator. I may drop the latter two after this year – hopefully there'll be worthy successor who can continue this work. Heck, any ambitious, hard-working table tennis martyrs want them now?!!!)

I've had to temporarily drop my usual SF writing to focus on these other issues, and my USATT work has taken a hit. The last few days I've picked up on USATT issues – I was up half of last night on various issues, mostly working with people around the country involving regional leagues and associations, coaching, and state championships. I think half my emails these days are basically, "I'm inundated right now, but will get back to you." (Yesterday didn't help – I spent most of the day in Baltimore for the funeral of my aunt, RIP.)

Today, after the blog goes up, I've got a long list of MDTTC and USATT things to get done, plus a lot of publicity work for the upcoming SF novel, Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions (out on March 8 – lots of table tennis in it!).

Tip of the Week
Improving Side-to-Side Reaction.

Exhibitions and Demos
Friday and Saturday were exhausting as I did exhibitions and demos. Sunday was just as bad as I spent nearly the entire day at the club coaching. Sunday was also the 19th consecutive day I'd coached, so I was exhausted before all this. Fortunately, I got a bit rested up by taking Monday off – President's day. (Plus we had about five inches of snow.)

The Potomac Community Center (which is home to the Potomac Country Table Tennis Club), has a Club Friday, where hundreds of kids show up for various sports, games, and other activities. We had a two-hour session there on Friday (7-9PM), with two others coming up on Feb. 26 and Mar. 11. A big thanks go to Herman Yeh (president of PCTTC who arranged things), and local volunteers Ernie Byles, Gary Schlager, Michael Clarke, Chris Clarke, and Zheng Kangmin.

We had half the big gym, with basketball on the other half, with a huge curtain lowered between us. We were on the far side, which made it a bit more difficult to attract kids since they couldn't see us from the gym door. We probably had about 30-40 total kids, with a core group of about 20 that stayed pretty much the whole time.

No blog today - it's President's Day! But it's no day off for me - I've been working since 7AM on USATT matters - primarily the Regional Team Leagues and State Championships initiatives. If you are interested in setting up a Regional Team League in your area, here's info:

• USATT League Page
• How to Set Up a Regional Team League
• USATT Regional Team League News Item

If you are interested in running a State Championship (and someone isn't already doing so in your state - see listing in link), here's info:

• State Championships  in all 50 States in 2016

Meanwhile, it's snowing outside (again) - we're supposed to get 3-5 inches. 

Hopefully I'll get today's work done soon so I can spend the rest of the day in bed - I'm off today after coaching for 19 straight days, including long, exhausting exhibition/demos the last two days at Potomac Community Center and Montgomery Mall - I'll blog about them later. 

Hey, I think I just wrote a blog after all! Sort of.