19/10/2020 - Today's blog will be up by 2PM or I have to hold a town hall meeting where I'm asked why my strokes are too stiff, why I can't cover the wide forehand anymore, and who the heck am I anyway. Meanwhile, the Tip of the Week is up, Sometimes Hit Twice to the Same Spot, and to help tide you over, here's Grunt Pong (19 sec)! Collapse

05/10/2020 - Tip of the Week Exaggerate Serving Follow-Through in "Wrong" Direction. This is B.E.S.T. Week - Buy Every Seemiller Tome! Here's the new Dan Seemiller page, where you can buy both of the books by USA's greatest modern player. (It's a relatively simple page I put together.) One teaches you how to play table tennis; the other is about his table tennis life. Here's Dan's very short resume: Dan Seemiller's USATT Hall of Fame Profile (by Tim Boggan) 5-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion: 1976, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983 12-time U.S. Men's Doubles Champion: 1976-1983, 1990-1991, 1994, 2009 7-time U.S. Mixed Doubles Champion: 1976-1978, 1981-1983, 1988 U.S. Men's National Team Coach, 1999-2009 U.S. Men's Olympic Coach, 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens 3-time USOC Coach of the Year for Table Tennis South Bend Table Tennis Club Head Coach 1996-present President of USA Table Tennis, 1990-1995 Hall of Fame Inductee, 1995, Lifetime Achievement Award 2008 Collapse

14/09/2020 - Tip of the Week A Trick to Beat a Tricky Pusher. Weekend Coaching On Sunday, I worked with Group 3 of our Junior program. Most of the group did a practice tournament. However, two of the players weren't really ready for matches, and so I worked with those two the entire session. Focus was on fundamentals. I came up with what will now go down in history as the greatest table tennis joke, to be retold through the ages. (But you have to pay me $1 every time you use it.) I asked one of the kids how many hands he has. He said two and held them up. I said I have four hands. He didn't believe me, so I shadow-practiced my forehand and said, "See, these are my four hands." (Here's the reaction.) On Saturday, as usual I did a one-hour session with Navin Kumar. (I'm retired from private coaching, but made the one exception for "The Bionic Man." He has Parkinson's Disease and Congenital Heart Disease - his heart is mostly artificial - and he won two medals Collapse

26/08/2020 - Tip of the Week On Short Serves to the Forehand, Challenge the Forehand, Often Go to the Backhand. Two Weeks Training at the Samson Dubina Mega Camp in Ohio So what was I, at age 60 and out of shape, doing training with players one-fifth to one-half my age, including numerous footwork drills that left me gasping for air and my body screaming at me to have common sense and go home and watch TV? Like many others, I was stuck at home for five months because of the pandemic, where I got way out of shape and gained weight. So I decided to do something about it. (My club, MDTTC, where I coach, was partly open, but all group sessions, including training camps, had been cancelled.) So I contacted Samson and arranged that I'd come as a player in the mornings, a practice partner in the afternoons. That would mean five hours of intense play each day, Aug. 10-14 and 17-21. Then I hopped in my car and drove the five hours from Maryland to Akron, Ohio and the Samson Dubina TT Academy. It was a Collapse

10/08/2020 - Tip of the Week Two Tips to Increase Forehand Looping Power. Larry Hodges Interview Here's my interview (40:53) at Kevin Table Tennis! You may know Kevin Nguyen (from Portland, OR) for his table tennis trick shots that I often link to, and he's also among the best of his age in the country, rated 2062 at age 12. Hope you enjoy some of the funny stories I tell! (Take it in two sittings, perhaps, but once you get started, I bet you won't stop!) Off to the Ohio Mega Camp! I've basically been sitting at home for five months now, coaching only one hour a week. I've been getting more and more out of shape, and I'm bored to death. So a few days ago I made the decision to do something about it. The camps at my club are canceled due to the pandemic - and if they weren't, I'd probably be coaching at them rather than playing. So I'm off to spend a week at Samson Dubina's August 10-14 Mega Camp! I'm going as half player, half practice partner - half Collapse

20/07/2020 - Best Youth Baseball Gloves to Buy in 2020 Whether your kid is just starting with baseball or has played a … Best Youth Baseball Gloves Read More » The post Best Youth Baseball Gloves appeared first on Ping Pong Bros. Collapse

20/07/2020 - As noted in my blog below, I'm away this week, but here is this week's Tip of the Week, The Importance of Lobbing. See you next Monday! Collapse

29/06/2020 - Tip of the Week Training Down the Line. USATT Coaching Excellence Program As a member of the USATT Coaching Committee, I'm helping USATT put together their upcoming Coaching Excellence Program. (Others on the committee are Pieke Franssen, Gao Jun, and Dave Fullen. USATT CEO Virginia Sung and High Performance Director Sean O'Neill are also involved.) Right now they are working on the Club Coaching Certification Program. (There are four levels - club, state, regional, national.) The biggest question is what should be taught at the Club level, which is for coaches for beginners to about 1500. It's easy to say, "They should know this, and this, and this,..." and pretty soon everything is taught at the club coach level, and there's nothing left for the State, Regional, or National level! Here was my recommendation on what should be taught at this level. In a regular training camp, I figured you could teach all this in a barebones minimum of 12 hours, but really Collapse

22/06/2020 - The 10 Best Engine Building Board Games of 2020 Best High End Wingspan Check Price on Amazon Best Mid Range … Best Engine Building Board Games Read More » The post Best Engine Building Board Games appeared first on Ping Pong Bros. Collapse