Team Ratings, Rankings, and Seedings

In most of the world, table tennis is a club sport and a team sport. The two go together, as club members form teams and play against teams from other clubs. The team aspect is not that strong in the US . . . yet. But it grows slowly every year. To me, club team activity is one of the measures we can use to judge the success of the sport in our country.

We have entered the season for team competition. College teams in the NCTTA League have been competing since the first divisional meet in October, and will continue fall seasonal play through this weekend. They'll pick up again in January and February to complete the regular season, followed by regional qualifiers and then the Championships in April.

For those of us who don't have the opportunity to play in a team league, the next best thing is a team tournament, and you have three team tournaments to choose from this Thanksgiving weekend. Personally, i consider team competition to be much more fun than individual tournaments, and i strongly encourage everyone to enter one of these tournaments.

Butterfly Thanksgiving Team Championships - Hobart, IN (Chicago Area)

North American Teams - National Harbor, MD (Washington DC Area)

West Coast Thanksgiving Teams Open - Fremont, CA (San Francisco Bay Area)


But i digress. This post was supposed to be about ratings, rankings, and seedings.

Tournament players generally understand individual ratings and rankings. A player rated 1900 has demonstrated better match results than a player rated 1800. Therefore if we were to rank the players, the player ranked 1900 would be #1, and the player ranked 1800 would be ranked #2. Rankings are the numerical order of the players involved.

Seedings are similar to rankings. Rank is the order, and seed is where they will go in the draw. It is a subtle difference, and most people don't need to worry about the difference. Basically, the player ranked #1 will be seeded #1 and have the "best" draw; the player ranked #2 will be seeded #2.

How about doubles? We don't play a lot of doubles in the US, and we don't have many established doubles pairs who always play together. If we did, we would be able to use the doubles match history of those specific pairs to establish a national doubles ranking order. But since we don't, we are left with using singles ratings to determine doubles rankings. It's not ideal, but we get by - we add the individual ratings of each doubles pair together to establish a "doubles rating", and use that to rank pairs.

Team competition is quite a different story. Again, we don't have many established teams that always play together. So looking at what we do with doubles, the obvious practice would be to take the sum of ratings to find a "team rating".

This is quite easy to do, but unfortunately a numerical sum is not a very good reflection of actual team strength.

Take these two fictional teams. They'll play in the old Swaythling Cup format: 3 players per team, playing the best 5 out of 9 matches. The teams are composed of players with the following ratings:

• Team #1: 2400, 1800, 1800

• Team #2: 2000, 2000, 2000

If you use the concept of a "team rating", these two particular teams will be tied at 6000, which would mean that they are equal in strength. But if you play out the team contest, team #2 will win by a score of 5-3 almost every time. They will almost always lose 3 matches to the 2400 player, and almost always win 5 matches over the 1800 players. The reality is, team #2 is clearly stronger than team #1, and in many situations, using the sum of individual player ratings will not give good seedings.

A better alternative can be found by looking at how the ITTF ranks teams. You can read about their ranking methodology on the ITTF web site. In summary, they take every national team in the world, and run a simulated giant round robin between all teams. The simulation assumes that a higher ranked player will always beat a lower ranked player. Each team is then ranked according to the results of the simulation, as if the teams had actually played out a giant round robin.

Using this method of ranking gives superior results when seeding teams. A weak team sometimes brings in one particularly strong player to try to pump up the team's seeding, and if seeding is based simply on the sum of individual ratings, the effect of that strong player will be exaggerated. These issues and others are solved when seeding is performed by simulation.

Here's an example of team seeding from this year's America's Team Championship, an annual event held over Memorial Day Weekend in Rockford, IL:

These were the teams seeded into the fourth division. If the sum of player ratings had been used, the TriniAmericans would have been seeded #24 - higher than all of these teams, and actually into the next higher division. But when the matches are played out, they should fall into the middle of the pack in this division. On the other side, the Fab Four's total rating is not especially high, but against this field they are likely to win most of the contests, albeit by scores of 5-4 and 5-3.

If you play in a team tournament that i'm directing or refereeing, it will probably seed teams using this method of seeding. I've been using it for several years, and would recommend that other team tournaments adopt it.

Since we're relying on a computer simulation to rank teams, conceivably we could go one step further and consider the win probability for each individual match. For example a 2400 player has an almost 100% chance of winning against a 2000 player, and it's reasonable to assume he'll give his team one point for that match. But when someone rated 1830 plays an opponent rated 1825, the match is almost a tossup. In the simulation, the 1830 player could be awarded 0.51 points, and the 1825 player could get 0.49 points to reflect how close the match is. It's not exactly simple to do this in a spreadsheet, but it's not terribly difficult either. You just need to figure out each player's chance of winning and go from there.

Normally i don't seed teams using win probability, because it's more difficult for players to follow. However this method results in even better seeding, and in the NCTTA League we will use this method to seed teams at the College Table Tennis Championships. If you're curious, you can read more about this method on the NCTTA web site.


Not table tennis.

I don't live in New York and have yet to see the Top Spin documentary film. But i did see a lovely movie about musicians entitled "Begin Again". If you're a sentimental sap like me, maybe you'll enjoy it. 


In Memoriam.

My friend Jock Oubichon moved on last weekend, at the young age of 47. He may not have been well known in the world of table tennis, as he didn't travel much and didn't draw attention to himself, but he made a mark on everyone who knew him. He was a person who had willed himself to become a positive force - an intense yet gentle person who really loved helping people. As a table tennis player and coach, he had a great eye for human mechanics, and he loved coaching though i don't know if he ever charged anyone for his help. Several years ago i had the honor of nominating him as USATT Volunteer Coach of the Year, and if i recall correctly the USOC named him a finalist among all sports.

I didn't see much of him in recent years due to geography, but i always looked forward to meeting him at the Nationals in Las Vegas - me working at the tournament, him meeting with the sponsors of his club's junior program. I will miss him.

Ron Spencer's message about him can be read at the San Diego TTA's web site.

Which Ball Should I Buy?

Players have been asking this question, one that i find a little surprising: Which table tennis ball should we be practicing with?

To me, the answer seems very simple, and i can't imagine it ever being different: Practice with whichever ball will be used at the tournament you are preparing for.

It seems so obvious, yet i often see players - including very good players - practicing with a ball that is different from the one that will be used at the competition. Even during the day of competition, i see players warming up with an orange ball when the tournament ball is white. In my opinion, this is poor preparation.

It might be a hassle to get the precise ball that will be used at the tournament, but you should be able to come close. At least use a ball that's the same color, made in the same country, of the same construction, and now, made of the same material.

(Ideally, you should be training in conditions as similar as possible - same type of table, similar flooring, time of day, altitude, etc. Some of these are hard to achieve, but getting the same type of ball shouldn't be that difficult.)

Tournament directors in domestic competitions have always been required to state the brand and color of the ball that will be used. Now they are also asked to clearly state whether it will be a celluloid or non-celluloid ball. But if you're not sure which ball your upcoming tournament will be using, you need to ask them.

If you play internationally, the ball that will be used is pretty much predetermined:

• ITTF Junior Circuit events prior to the Youth Olympic Games - Butterfly *** celluloid, usually white
• Youth Olympic Games - DHS *** celluloid, probably white
• ITTF Junior Circuit events after the Youth Olympic Games - Butterfly 40+ *** non-celluloid, white
• ITTF World Tour events - DHS 40+ *** non-celluloid, white
• North American Championships - Double Fish 40+ *** non-celluloid, white
• World Championships - Butterfly 40+ *** non-celluloid, almost certainly white

What about US tournaments?

Tournament directors can choose any approved ball as their tournament ball, and both celluloid and non-celluloid balls are approved. In theory they could even use ball X for some events and ball Y for other events. I cannot predict which ball a particular tournament director will choose, but put yourself in their shoes: If you were a tournament director, and you wanted to maximize player attendance, which would you choose?

At the moment, most US players are still using celluloid at their clubs, and it would be somewhat risky for a local tournament director to host a tournament tomorrow using non-celluloid balls. Non-celluloid balls are not sold by all major brands yet, and bulk cheap non-celluloid practice balls are even harder to find. Things will probably change as the availability of non-celluloid balls improves.

One more question that people ask: Should i buy balls from auction sites or department stores? To that i respond: If you were a ball manufacturer that produced several different grades of balls, where would you send your best ones - to the person running online auctions, to the department store, or to the specialist table tennis store?

Possibly a Record Setter

A minor record may have been broken this Independence Day in Grand Rapids. Check out the start of this match between Riyo Nemoto (WR 110) vs Eriko Kitaoka (unranked), both from Japan, in the 2014 US Open Women's Singles quarterfinals:

The rules require the expedite system to kick in after 10 minutes have passed in a game, if 18 total points have not been played. Therefore a point shouldn't last more than 10 minutes. The exceptions would be if the game has already reached the 19th point and then suddenly the players decide to play a marathon point, or if the umpires are not doing their job of timing the match.

In this case, the first point of the match started when Nemoto tossed the ball at 15:47 of the video, and the point was over at 25:44; so the point lasted 9 minutes and 57 seconds. If they had continued for four more rallies or so, the assistant umpire would have called "time" and stopped play, thereby cancelling the point; they would have started again at 0-0. But Nemoto pushed into the net, the players received a loud ovation and each took a well deserved stretch, and the assistant umpire called "time" almost immediately which started expedite at 1-0. So is 9 minutes, 57 seconds the longest single point in ITTF competition since the sport changed to a 10 minute time limit?

(Expedite used to be called at the 15 minute mark, back when games were played to 21. Personally, I enjoy watching expedite matches.)

A few minutes after this singles match, Kitaoka and Nemoto turned right around and played a doubles match as partners; they won that match and have made it into the semifinals.

The US Open concludes tomorrow. The first Women's Singles semifinal is scheduled to take place at 3:45pm Eastern time and will feature the winner of this marathon match (Nemoto) against another chopper, top seed Li Xue of France. Follow the action here.

Tokyo Recap, Part Two

Larry Thoman, general manager at Newgy and longtime USATT contributor, asked a question: why were most of the divisions at the World Championships played as single elimination during the second stage, instead of the traditional progressive knockout?

In the minutes of the September 2012 meeting of the ITTF Executive Committee, you can find the following notes:

5.6 2014 WTTC update and playing system:
* The proposal to reduce the number of matches particularly in the top 2 divisions would allow a better schedule and prevent the event growing further.
* Eliminating all position matches, including for 13 and 14, would assist with positions 3 and 4, 5 to 8, 9 to 12, 13 and 14 being shared.
* The proposal to the Board of Directors should specify that if approved, the playing system would be implemented in 2014.
* Following the site visit and advice received, the organisers proposed various changes:
    - Fewer courts in the 1st gymnasium.
    - No courts in the swimming pool.
    - Adding the Metropolitan Gymnasium to replace the National Olympic Memorial Youth Centre.
    - Replacing the Keio Plaza Hotel and other hotels by the Prince Hotel which would improve transport logistics as all participants would stay here.
    - All meals could be served in the Prince Hotel although lunch may need to be provided at the venue due to possible time constraints.

Now that the event is over, it appears that the modified playing system was approved - as evidenced by the lack of courts in the swimming pool!

Deliberations at the 2014 AGM

The 2013 and 2014 Worlds both had record numbers of entries. Both tournaments required the use of two separate competition facilities. The complexity of the tournament has been a problem for a long time and it continues to grow - now it takes place every year instead of every two years; more players enter every year with larger entourages; the hospitality demands increase; there is more media. Growing pains are generally a good thing . . . as long as the "pain" part is dealt with. The difficulties include increased costs, higher staff demands, and greater host requirements which lead to fewer sites being capable of hosting the event. (See also: how many cities are bidding to host the Winter Olympics.) A more difficult event also means there are more potential points of failure, and more potential difficulties for the players. For example, the added complexity of requiring two playing halls is quite significant.

It is in almost everyone's best interests to reduce the complexity of the event. In my opinion, removing many of the final positional matches at the Worlds helped accomplish that.

But that's not enough. For the 2017 Worlds, the ITTF received only one bid. What would have happened if that one country had not submitted a bid? It seems that changes need to be made to reduce the host demands at each World Championships.

So at the latest Board of Directors meeting (which i did not attend), they voted to reduce the number of player entries to the Worlds. The number of entries per country continues to be based on the number of top ranked players from that country. Basically:

2013:

• Most countries can enter 5 singles players (per gender)

• Countries with a player ranked in the top 20 can enter 6 players

• Countries with two players in the top 20 can enter 7 players

• The host country can enter 7 players

2015:

• Most countries can enter 3 singles players (per gender)

• Countries with a player ranked in the top 100 can enter 4 players

• Countries with a player ranked in the top 100 and another player ranked in the top 20 can enter 5 players

• The host country can enter 6 players

I estimate that this will reduce the total number of entrants by 10%-15%. But the number of participating countries increases every year, so 10% may be closer to the mark. If i understand correctly, the Executive Committee would like to further reduce the number of entrants in 2017, but that change has not been proposed or passed and nobody knows what will happen. I suspect the general sentiment is that reducing the number of participants is a negative, but we want the World Championships to exist and continue to be a great event, and we want it to be a practical event for more cities.

A hundred world class players and coaches, packed like sardines prior to match time

People who care enough to pay attention to the actions of the ITTF knew that this change was intended to keep the tournament manageable. It's clear from the minutes of several EC meetings that they had been considering different ways to reduce the number of entrants, and accepting proposals from multiple organizations and associations on the best way to do it. In the end this reduction was proposed and passed with 70% in favor.

And then there are those who don't pay attention, and write articles like this: ITTF introduces changes to World Championship in bid to reduce Chinese domination.

"In what comes across a further attempt to reduce the Chinese monopoly on the medals table, the Board have also reduced the numbers of players per association available to play in the Championships."

Huh?

When i first read this line - that the reduction of players is designed to restrict China - i saw it as the typical haters repeating their "blame the ITTF" mantra. But then someone else made the same claim on another forum or blog. And then another.

What is going on?

Can any of the people making this claim cite a reference from the ITTF indicating that the intent of this change is to attack the Chinese team?

Can any of them describe how this change would actually decrease the Chinese players' chances of winning?

Then i heard some claims that the adoption of non-celluloid balls is also an attempt to disrupt Chinese dominance. And the change to 40mm balls. And the switch to 11 point games. Are these people for real?

Here's the reality:

The number of players permitted to enter the World Championships in 2015 will probably be reduced. The intent has nothing to do with China or any other particular country; the purpose is to limit the number of entries and reduce the burden on the host country. The change will have no effect on the performance of the Chinese players.

The number of teams permitted to enter the World Championships in 2016 will be limited to 96 men's teams and 96 women's teams. Again, the intent has nothing to do with China or any other particular country. Reducing the number of teams will reduce the burden on the host country. The change will have no effect on the performance of the Chinese team. (But it will affect the US Men's team; if we're not careful, it is possible that we will lose our eligibility for the Worlds. These changes affect the small countries more than the large ones.)

The adoption of a non-celluloid ball, 40mm ball, or 11 point games had nothing to do with Chinese players or any other particular country.

Personally i'm not satisfied with the way teams will be allocated for the Worlds, or with the language that describes the allocation. But i suspect we'll survive.

The minutes of the ITTF AGM, Board of Directors, and Executive Committee meetings are all public. If you want to understand things, read them yourself. Secondhand reports don't seem to be very reliable at the moment. But i'll attempt to put some weight back on the reality side of things, and describe some other changes that were adopted at this Worlds:

In one of many briefings, umpires are instructed to smile

* Players can now select a match ball. Well, they could kind of select one before, but it's clearer now. In the past, players could select up to three match balls, and one of the selected balls would be randomly chosen for the match. So the players could select three equally good balls and one would be used; or they could select one superior ball and that one would be used, but if it broke they would be stuck with a backup ball that had not been selected. Now, players can do both - select three match balls, and the particular one which will be used first. Not a major change, but one that will reduce a lot of behind-the-scenes aggravation.

* In a return, the ball doesn't need to cross the net. In the past, a return was: strike the ball, cross the net, hit the opponent's side of the table. Now, it will be: strike the ball, hit the opponent's side of the table. The net becomes a defined obstacle, but no more (except for net serves). This is a subtle difference that i hope will have no real effect on match play.

* There is now an ITTF Technical Leaflet for net gauges, written by Nobuyuki Shirakawa (JPN). Many net gauges are used throughout a competition, but there was no formal standard for them until now. Whether there will be ITTF approval of net gauges remains to be seen.

* Changes were made to the Technical Leaflet for balls, maintained by Torsten Kuneth (GER). One of the major changes is that balls approved in the future must have "Made in (country)" on both the ball and the packaging. There was also some relaxation of ball manufacturing tolerances for a year and a half, as production continues to be refined.

* Changes were made to the Technical Leaflet for racket coverings, maintained by me. Most of the changes were clarifications of past issues:
- In the past, the TL stated that a thick non-wood coating on a blade was not permitted, however penhold players often used paint or a paint sheet on their racket which was technically in violation of this restriction. So an exception was made for this specific purpose.
- It has always been implicit that the red side of a racket should be uniformly red; printing on the sponge or blade, or dark wood grain lines, should not show through such that the color is not uniform. But this was often questioned, so this requirement was made explicit.
- The pimple friction requirement was clarified. The laboratory test is unchanged, and no rubbers have had authorization rescinded because of it, but the language was simply made more generic.

* Another thing that we should see in the next issue of the List of Authorized Racket Coverings is a back page which lists all of the rubbers that will be leaving the LARC. This will be useful for players so they can quickly see if the rubber they use is being withdrawn, and for umpires so they don't have to carry around two lists.

* The ITTF now has 220 member associations, tying it for first place with volleyball. In the simplest terms, this means more people are playing table tennis.

* A resolution was passed to encourage study of multicolored balls, which would make spin more visible, especially on instant replay. This doesn't change anything yet because the rules still specify white or orange balls, but perhaps a change will come in the future.

The 2015 World Championships will be held in Suzhou, China. I'm not sure if i will be there. But i am reasonably sure that any changes that are decided there will not be based on sudden impulses. The ITTF is a large and conservative organization; it takes a lot of work to make something happen. The work takes place over the course of the year, and what materializes (or fails) at the Worlds represents only a tiny bit of the labor that led up to it.

Tokyo Recap, Part One

One country, one apple

You've already read the headlines out of the Zen-Noh 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships, and i'm not planning to repeat them; it's not that kind of recap. This one is a little more first-person.

I go to a lot of tournaments, but not as a spectator. Occasionally people ask me to be their match coach at a local tournament, but besides those instances, it's been many years since i've gone to a tournament where i'm not an official.

So i was in an unfamiliar situation, in that i could cheer for particular players - Team USA in this case.

At this Worlds i had a couple meetings each day in Yoyogi National Gymnasium, and therefore i was able to watch several of US Women's Team's contests against their first division opponents. Meanwhile, i had no opportunity to watch as the Men battled through and went undefeated in their group at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Though i haven't had the chance to watch much of it, the video coverage at this Worlds was the most extensive ever. In the main hall, first division matches were broadcast simultaneously from two tables on ITTV and one table on TV Tokyo. Then in the second hall, the remaining divisions had three matches simultaneously broadcast on YouTube. In addition i'm told that the remaining six courts in the main hall were recorded by the ITTF, though i don't know where that video will surface.

The second hall looked kind of like a US tournament

The US Men (Timothy Wang, Adam Hugh, Jim Butler, Yahao Zhang, and Kanak Jha) had a tough elimination draw. They needed to reach the finals in order to get a guaranteed promotion to second division in 2016. When i saw the draw i had guarded hope, as our first opponent (after a bye) would seem to be Lithuania, who had defeated us in 2012. We would need to beat them as well as one more team to reach the final. But Kanak said that the team had identified Saudi Arabia as a strong and a more likely opponent, and they was right. So despite being the top seeds in the division and going undefeated in group play, the US was drawn in a half which included #2 Switzerland, #4 Lithuania, the strong team from Saudi Arabia (who beat Lithuania before knocking us out 3-2), and eventual division winners Puerto Rico. I don't think it was possible to get a tougher draw.

To my eyes, the loss to Saudi Arabia was largely because the Saudi ace was on fire that day. Nevertheless, the Men fought to the end, and you can see their final contest against Saudi Arabia on YouTube.

There are no easy groups in first division and the US Women (Lily Zhang, Prachi Jha, Crystal Wang, Erica Wu, and Angela Guan), seeded fifth in their group, were up for the challenge. Their first contest of the tournament against Hungary was perhaps their biggest opportunity for an upset, but nerves were a factor and it was a tough loss for us as Prachi was up 9-6 in the fifth game of the final match.

The second contest was a 3-0 loss to host and eventual finalist Japan. It's one thing to be playing on center court in a noisy arena; it's another to be playing on court one when the cheering is targeted directly at the court you're playing on. The ladies handled it well and i think they enjoyed it, despite losing 3-0. I wasn't able to watch these matches live, but saw some on TV. The Japanese commentators seemed to relish calling Lily Zhang, "Lily-chan".

Sizable groups of fans were in attendance from day one, and i say "groups" because there were two distinct contingents. The Japanese fans obviously had a lot to cheer about, but there was also a large crowd of North Korean fans, presumably Koreans living in Japan. Both groups were kept in sync with their own cheerleaders, and it was sometimes jarring to hear the clash of applause when North Korea and Japan were both playing, on different tables. Seiya Kishikawa seemed to have a hard time playing while the Korean fans were singing a tune, over the course of several points during his match against Kalinikos Kreanga.

The US Women got on the board after the next contest, a 3-0 win over Australia. The following matchup against Belarus looked to be a tough one, and chopper/coach's pick Angela Guan worked hard to help prepare her teammates for the upcoming challenge. One expert told me that Crystal was our strongest player against chop, but i have long believed that Lily ought to beat almost any female chopper, given proper instruction and guidance. Even so, given her past results, i didn't expect her best career win to come against world #11 Viktoria Pavlovich. Unfortunately we were short of the upset again, as Prachi lost in the fifth against Alexandra Privalova. And though Crystal got the desired matchup against chopper Elena Dubkova (who sported a much improved attack), she also couldn't win in the fifth game.

 

In the knockout stage the US Women seemed to have a decent draw - not especially lucky, but not bad. The immediate goal was to reach the semis, guaranteeing first division placement in 2016; that would require a win against Serbia and then against the Czech Republic. I fully thought we could beat Serbia 3-0, but it was not to be. Crystal might beat Ana-Maria Erdelji the next time they play, but this was Crystal's first time ever playing against a short pip chopper, and the spin variation off Erdelji's racket was noticeably different from long pips. The ladies had their chances, but the Serbian girls played tough. A variety of the US Women's contests can be seen on YouTube and ITTV.

The 1983 Worlds were also held in Tokyo, also in Yoyogi National Gymnasium. History repeated itself this year in the women's competition, as the host Japanese team came in second place against China. For the third time in a row, the men's runner-up team was Germany, behind China. Back in the day, the Swedish men placed second three times in a row (1983, 1985, 1987) before they won in 1989.

Unlike in 1983, and every other year until 2013, the competition was held in two different facilities. Running a team competition in two halls wasn't a huge problem for the players, as most teams played every match in either one hall or the other. But it was an additional burden for the organizers, and for coaches, captains, and spectators who would have to go back and forth between gyms.

Almost all vendor booths and concessions were outdoors

Whatever the hardship, things were always smoothed over by the superb hospitality. Long one of the most modern cities in the world, the reliance on manpower in Tokyo was noticeably higher than we normally see in the US. Everywhere you went, members of the tournament staff were stationed along the way to bow, smile, and greet every single person. Information desks were constantly manned at the hotel and the playing venues. Not only were the staff numbers high, they were all diligent and well-organized. Volunteers joking around on break were hard to find.

Table tennis is one of Japan's two national sports and their love of the sport is evident in the media (numerous print media sources and constant TV coverage), the event support (over a thousand staff members), and the general care put into the event and its attendees. The week of the tournament was scheduled to coincide with four federal holidays: Shōwa Day, Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day, and Children's Day. Also in the middle was the observed but not official May Day holiday.

May Day in Tokyo

The 6.0 earthquake on the final day was the opposite of a holiday, but provided an additional dose of excitement for both residents and visitors.

As i said before, i was not an official at this tournament. But i wasn't there just to hang out either. The World Championships is the most convenient event for table tennis people around the world to meet, because many of them will be going there anyway. President Adham Sharara said he had 87 meetings at these Championships. My meetings were much fewer in number, and only about equipment or our association. The non-celluloid ball was a hot topic of course, but the ball is not my area of focus; here are a couple of things i brought:

Prototype flatness gauge with movable feet to adjust to each racket

Why would you strap three balls together and rest them on a racket?

2014 is not a major election year for the ITTF, but a new Athletes' Commission was elected. Vladimir Samsonov, the consummate gentleman, was re-elected as chair of the commission. The proposal to have an athlete position on the Executive Committee failed by a narrow margin in the AGM. I'm told that a major reason for failure was due to a misunderstanding of the proposal. Perhaps it will come up again next year.

More details about the events at these Worlds will come in another entry.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

July 2nd, 2013, was the date that the US Open returned to Las Vegas. The last time the US Open had taken place in Las Vegas was 2009. Singles titles that year were won by our own Gao Jun and Slovakia's Thomas Keinath.

July 3rd, 2013, was the date that the ITTF World Tour returned to the USA. The last World Tour event (then called the Pro Tour) held in the US was in 2005 in Fort Lauderdale. Oh Sang Eun and Li Jia Wei were the champions on that occasion.

With the return to Las Vegas - within driving distance of of our biggest table tennis state, California - and the return of the World Tour, the pre-tournament level of excitement was high. The combined entry count among both pros and amateurs was just shy of 1000, higher than it had been in decades.

Held during the Independence Day holiday week, the city was full of people, particularly families on summer vacation. As a small sport, we're not often in the spotlight, and we're not likely to be in the spotlight in a busy place like Las Vegas where there are always things going on. Even in our host LVH hotel there was a basketball tournament taking place, and down the street there happened to be another touring sports competition in town, the mixed martial arts event UFC 162.

But for most table tennis fans, the US Open was the only event in town. 120 degree heat was not a deterrent - we were here to enjoy the great indoors.

A table tennis arena in the making

As a World Tour stop, the ITTF took a more active part in the organization of this event than other US Opens. This was readily apparent in some ways: the presence of ITTF sponsor logos in the main courts, the use of the official ball (white DHS, compared to orange Nittaku in the non-World Tour matches), and the presence and direction from Didier Leroy, one of four professional Competition Managers employed by the ITTF. Didier is not just a great organizer and manager, he's also a soothing presence for the players, providing continuity from one tournament to the next.

Only the most observant would have noticed the presence of a few other people who don't normally come to the Open, such as Anders Thunstrom, Managing Director of TMS International; and Andreas Hain, the Executive Director of Joola who was also filling in to coach his sponsored player Petrissa Solja. There were no specific meetings planned, but the number of ITTF volunteers there was also quite high, as there happened to be 10 ITTF committee members present in other capacities, most of them volunteering as match umpires. Also visiting was Bruce Burton, the current North American Continental President who also heads the ITTF Advanced Referee Project, and who surprised me when he said this was his first time attending a US Open.

It was amusing to me when kibitzers complained about the officiating. There were 26 Blue Badge umpires on duty - the highest level of ITTF International Umpire, the same ones who serve at tournaments around the world including the World Championships and Olympics. There are only about 200 Blue Badge umpires in the world. In particular, as members of the ITTF Umpires and Referees Committee, Umpires Rebecca Bergfeldt and Norman Tang (as well as Deputy Referee Michael Zwipp) help direct and shape policies for ITTF match officials, and when they're officiating a match themselves - whether it's at the US Open or the Olympics - they lead by example and help define the world standard. They didn't come to Las Vegas and decide to be stricter than usual.

The two names that almost everyone noticed were those of tour professionals and top men's seeds Jens Lundqvist and Zoran Primorac. Lundqvist may not be a legend like Waldner and Persson, but he's been the top ranked Swede for years and was certainly a factor in this tournament. Primorac, now in his 40's, clearly works hard and is still in great physical shape. Like his former doubles partner Lupulesku, he also seems to genuinely love the sport.

Chop blocker Shigeko Nakamura pushed #2 Gina Pota to 6 games

I know i'm not a typical table tennis fan because i pay as much attention to the women's game as the men's game. So of course i noticed that Elizabeta Samara was back as the top seed. The US fans last saw her in the 2009 Open, when she was here with doubles partner Daniela Dodean, and male teammates Andrei Filimon, Adrian Crisan, and Constantin Cioti. Crisan and his soft hands were absent this year, reportedly due to injury. Dodean's absence was also excusable as she had a prior engagement; she married Portuguese player Joao Monteiro on the 7th. But Samara and Filimon made the trip, and their presence was felt in the playing hall.

Were these European pros here because the Open was in Las Vegas, or because it was a World Tour stop? Or were both prerequisites?

July is in the middle of a typical table tennis player's off season. League play (where they draw their salary) takes place in the fall and spring, and the major tournaments like the Worlds and Olympics are important competitions to prepare for. To go to a World Tour stop in the middle of the summer takes an additional off-season period of preparation - that is, if a player expects to turn in a good performance.

But things are different when Las Vegas is the destination. When i asked a couple of professional players if they were enjoying themselves, the reply was "We ALWAYS have fun in Las Vegas," accompanied with a puzzled look that emphasized how stupid my question was. I don't know how much this comment would apply for Samara, because when i asked her in 2009 i learned that she was under 21 at the time; i suspect her experience in Vegas this year was a bit more exciting than last time. Another top player was rumored to have utilized the services of one of the many chapels in town.

I'm not one to partake in Vegas-style partying, so for me personally, the most productive experiences i had were when working with the aforementioned Didier Leroy, as i learned a lot about how the World Tour worked these days; and Michael Zwipp, who (along with myself) served as a Deputy Referee.

World Tour regulations require names on shirts,

          but do they require names to be visible?

Prior to the competition, i and 7 others had the privilege of learning from Michael in this year's only ITTF International Referee School. Over the course of three days, Michael and USATT trainer Wendell Dillon provided instruction and guidance in both the techniques and the art of refereeing. As the referee of the 2012 Olympics, Michael is one of the best; and of course Wendell is the guru in the US, and was the referee at the Atlanta Olympics; they both happen to be excellent educators. Thankfully Michael was able to stay for the tournament, and being able to work with him during the competition was also an educational opportunity for me. And the things i learned were not just related to officiating, for example i was surprised to learn how little female table tennis players were paid in Europe. The flow of information wasn't just one-way; in the same conversation, i think he was surprised how much money table tennis coaches are paid in the US.

He also said, in observing tournament management in the US, "I'm surprised how much work is done by so few people." (I'm going by memory so those probably aren't his exact words.) This comment really rang true, knowing how much work is done by some people in our association, and also knowing how many people in our association seem to care about table tennis and want things to improve, but don't help do the work required to make things better. When i joined Greg Cox, Mike Cavanaugh, and Kenny Tien in trying to lay down the sponsor advertising decals in the arenas, i'm not sure who among us thought of this as a task we were supposed to be doing.

The post-tournament meeting for Team Japan

The contrast to this is seen in the Japanese organization with their players, coaches, and officials. Almost all of them seem willing to do whatever is necessary to make things right for their association, for their team, and for the sport. I spent over half an hour at 8am one morning working with one Japanese player who was struggling with shirt legality, time she could have spent practicing. Yet there were no complaints, no excuses, and she was smiling when she went out on court for her match. Even though their delegation was composed of a mix of players from a dozen different teams - none of them were national team members - they still worked together as one.

Women's Champion Megumi Abe

The Japanese name at the forefront this year was Tokyo Art's Masato Shiono. Though he had played in previous US Opens, this time he was coming off a career-high success as the winner of the Japan Open - it was so rare for a player to go through the qualifying stage to win a major tournament, and these days it's also rare for a male chopper to win a big tournament. In the seedings for the US Open we used his prior month's ranking of 188, but his current ranking was 85, which would have made him the #3 seed in the tournament. Though he and his fans had high hopes, he exited the tournament in the quarters, losing to Primorac.

But the Japanese still came out with a singles title, as Megumi Abe won the women's final over Samara. Seeded #11, it would be hard to call this a fluke win for her as she had the toughest possible draw - she had to go through #1 Elizabeta Samara, #2 Georgina Pota, #3 Petrissa Solja, and #5 Ariel Hsing. She lost a total of 3 games in those four matches! Like the other Japanese players in this competition, Megumi is a semi-pro in Japan, playing for Sanritsu in the Japanese corporate league, but having limited opportunities to compete in international competition. For example she didn't even compete in the Japan Open a couple weeks ago.

Canada's Eugene Wang repeated as the men's champion. He knocked out Lundqvist 4-0 in the semis, while Primorac was defeated in his semifinal by Chinese wild card Yang Ce. In truth, the semis and finals weren't as exciting as the previous day's quarters and 8ths, and this seems to happen at a lot of tournaments. The simultaneous deuce-in-the-7th matches in the men's quarters were very exciting, and it seemed like the players on court enjoyed them almost as much as the spectators.

Start both videos at the same time to experience dual-deuce-in-the-7th quarterfinals.

I don't know when the Open will be in Vegas again, or when the Open will be a World Tour stop again. Hosting a World Tour event requires a facility with certain minimum requirements that have always been difficult for us to find: lighting at a level of 1000 lux, and a wooden sports floor underneath the rubber table tennis floor mats. We were lucky this year, with this particular hall having new lighting and a different event in Las Vegas allowing us to rent their portable wooden floor.

And, in addition to the requirements within the playing conditions, there are more demands on the organizers. If you ask me today if i want to host another World Tour event next year, i will quickly say no - it's too much work. And this is a common theme: even if everyone wants something to happen, if we don't have enough people willing to make the effort necessary to make it happen, it won't.

Working in Paris

Midway through the tournament someone asked me, "Are you having fun?"

Knowing that i have a bad habit of being a little too honest, i had to pause for a few seconds before answering.

"It's great to see all these top players and coaches in one place," i replied.

I think most would agree that the Worlds is second in prestige only to the Olympics. The Olympics is a larger event in overall scope and size, but that's a 26-sport event.

The Worlds is a single-sport event with over 800 athletes involved. In contrast, most World Tour events limit the entry count to about 200 (depending on the tier). A tournament like the forthcoming US Open might have almost 1000 players, but i don't think all of those players will expect two umpires at each match, or meal service throughout the tournament, or over 10,000 screaming fans.

Yes, it's a big production and an important tournament, and i was there working as an umpire. You can read my official report on the USATT web site: http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Table-Tennis/USATT/Committees/Committee-Reports

An indulgence. I hadn't had langoustines in years.

Paris was pretty much the same as i remembered from the last time i'd been there; it's still beautiful, and there are still too many smokers. They still like sitting at cafes theater-style with the sidewalk and street as their theater. But there were subtle differences: The French people spoke a little more English than before; there was less dog poop on the sidewalks; and there was slightly more franchise fast food than before. A more obvious change was the popular Velib bike sharing system. 

I'm told that the Worlds in Paris is a little different from the Worlds in other years and locations. (With this being my first worlds i can't use personal experience to compare.) People around the world want to visit Paris, so the player and spectator counts are higher than average. This is good news for everyone who isn't working at the tournament; more people means more work. But there is pleasure in being a part of making an event like this happen, and i believe almost everyone was happy to be there. Myself included, along with about 30 fellow USATT members (that i know of) who were on hand in one function or another.

Players patiently waiting for match time

 One thing that impressed me about the organizers was the calmness. When the bus driver was late, he didn't panic and start running down pedestrians. When the arena was being set up with a hundred things on the to-do list, the crew methodically went down the list and did things one at a time. It was as if they (the numerous volunteers) did this for a living; they worked like professionals.


I've been asked several times: How do you become an umpire at the World Championships?
1. Become an International Umpire. This will take a few years or a few dozen years, depending on a variety of circumstances.
2. Apply through your national association. Each association can submit up to two umpire applications to the ITTF. Being a good umpire and being an active umpire will probably help your chances of being submitted by your association.
3. Be selected by the ITTF. You would have to ask the URC (Umpires' and Referees' Committee) what the selection process is.
4. Complete the registration process, get the uniform cleaned, review the rule books, pay the fees, travel to the tournament, etc.

The process is a little different if the Worlds takes place in your home country. About 80 National Umpires from France worked the first two days of the competition. I was told that it typically takes over 10 years for someone to become a National Umpire in France.

The follow up question is usually: How much were you paid?
1. During the tournament, a hotel room (shared with another official) was provided, plus breakfast at the hotel, and lunch and dinner in the cafeteria with the athletes and other staff. Bus from airport to hotel and hotel to playing hall were also taken care of.
2. USATT paid a flat $750 of my plane ticket, independent of how much it actually cost me. The cheapest plane ticket i found for the tournament dates would have been $1500, but i saw that i could cut it down to $1100 if i arrived three days earlier. A cheap hotel would cost me $320 for three nights, so either way i was going to take a net loss of about $750. I opted to travel early and hang out for a few days.
3. Umpires were given $200 (20 euros per day) to handle other expenses.

Oeuf en gelée au jambon (egg and ham in aspic jelly) and pâté -

typical cafeteria food for an athlete?

So in total i was "paid" negative $550. Fellow US umpire Kenny Tien probably paid more. Why a subset of table tennis enthusiasts would repeatedly pay money (and use vacation days from their day jobs) to work at tournaments belongs in another article. But obviously much of the compensation is intangible.



A slightly less frequent question is: What is it like to umpire at the Worlds Championships?

It's different for everyone; i can only speak for myself and say that it's pressure. It's not easy, there's no relaxation, and i can't say i'm enjoying a match despite being closer to the play than any spectator. If a player serves into the net, he'll be kicking himself and he might get a tongue lashing from his coach. But if the umpire makes a simple mistake like that, it's a big problem; it doesn't matter if he or she was perfect up until that point. Even when the umpire does everything right, the players, crowd, and commentators may claim otherwise. An umpire can never win the match, but he can, in a sense, lose. And when my day is over i don't think about doing something touristy or having a drink; it's back to the hotel for me, briefly catching up on other table tennis things i'm working on, and bed. Again, i can only speak for myself; many umpires went out when they had breaks, but those people are tougher than i am.

Samsonov and Chen Weixing - someone brought their own thickness tester

Some umpires have other duties to attend to. There were 70 ITTF meetings at the Worlds, and some umpires are national delegates, committee members, presenters of proposals, etc. As a new member of the equipment committee, i had to fit in meetings along with my umpiring duties.

There was similar contrast among players. Some were very serious and focused on table tennis, even going to the practice area long after they were knocked out of the tournament. Meanwhile, others were taking in the whole Paris Worlds experience as much as they could.

For example, on the second day of the tournament there were 38 women's singles qualification matches scheduled at 8:30am, but i didn't see 76 players with their practice partners and coaches in the playing hall at 7:00am getting ready. Not even half that. But i was pleased to see Team USA there, bright and early and, incredibly, smiling.

Ariel and Erica, the first ones in the hall at 7:00am

The preparation that goes on before a match is extensive, and i'm not talking about the practice that was done at home. The serious players work up a serious sweat long before their match starts. Players are expected to check in for their match 30 minutes ahead of time and give their rackets to the umpires at that time. I'm trying to imagine asking US players to do this at the US Open - is it even possible? But the professional players handle it professionally, handing over their rackets and working it into their pre-match routine. And when their match is delayed and they haven't touched their primary racket for an hour or more, what do they do? They go out to the table when it's time to play, and perform the way they're expected to.

A photographer's wooden stool is the best seat in the house

The European fans - largely French and German - were slightly disappointed when their hometown heroes didn't make it to the finals. I suspect some Chinese fans were secretly disappointed about that too.

Should the women be offended?

Even the semifinals were monopolized by Asian countries, though there was some variety with North Korea and Taiwan taking home doubles trophies. But the hordes of spectators were still happy. You could hear the stampede of pre-teen autograph seekers whenever a member of the Chinese team decided to take a break and attempt to disappear in the cheap seats. "Was that Ma Long?" asks a middle-aged bystander. "No, Fang Bo" replies the French youth, with a look of "DUH!" The French federation is obviously developing a new generation of professional players with great potential. But alongside that, they're also developing new generations of serious table tennis fans, who will grow up with the sport and contribute to it for years and years.

Of course i was happy to be there. It was the World Championships! It was Paris! But like a typical American, of course i was happy to return home to the States. Then i realized that the America's Team Championships tournament was next weekend and i hadn't started preparing for it. And i knew that instead of having four times as many umpires as tables (the standard staffing requirement), i would have four times as many tables as umpires. So it goes.

The Making of the College Table Tennis Championships, 2013 Edition

Sure, the table tennis tournament that your club hosted was great and unique. But how many tournaments in the US sport these features?

• An event that concludes a year's worth of league competition, requiring each player or team to qualify through regular season (divisional) play and regional qualifying tournaments
• Lunches and an awards banquet provided for the players and coaches - all 250+ of them
• Every match officiated by an umpire, or as a last resort, managed by an official scorekeeper
• No matches on concrete floor
• Every court (18 of them) fully barriered either 23x38 or 30x53 in size, with umpire desks, scoreboards, and towel boxes
• A discrete practice area with 16 dedicated practice tables
• Every player is a part of a team, and every team member is wearing a team uniform
• Matches are streamed live with commentary through most of the competition
• Press releases written and sent out as the tournament progresses
• A tournament program with photos of each participating team

The tournament i'm referring to is of course the NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships, but there is another tournament that i must mention as probably being of a similar class: the Mike Dempsey Memorial tournament. Para tournaments are routinely all-inclusive, though the entry fees tend to be significantly higher.

Other tournaments that might come close in playing conditions are the US National Team Trials, and the North America Cup and North American Championships. Though these events have much fewer entry and table counts, and are a different kind of tournament.

Back to the topic at hand. How does this tournament happen year after year, to the joy of table tennis-loving college students around the country?

If i had to name a single reason it would be tournament director/championships committee chair Willy Leparulo.

Willy drives the bus. When a piece is missing he finds it. When something's not going the way it's supposed to, he almost wills it to happen correctly. He's been doing it for years and doesn't seem to get tired of it. He's not perfect - and he'd be the first to admit or even flaunt it to you - but the amount of drive he shows in this role is incredible.

Court One

But will, desire, and dedication are not enough. One person is definitely not enough. It's a two-year process with a lot of little pieces and if i listed all the steps there'd be a nice big wall of text here.

To put things in perspective, i've run two-star, two-day tournaments with ten events using a two-person crew. I think i could run a four-star tournament with a three-person crew if i had some umpires i could call upon. In contrast, the NCTTA Championships probably requires a bare minimum of 60 staff members, but generally about 100 people are used. There's no way i could name all of them, but they're all important. And the preparation time required is at least 20 times what's needed for a four-star tournament, and it might be more like 50 times. Of course this is impossible to measure but it's definitely a huge process and a ton of work.

Sometimes you're forced to play on the back courts

We have conference calls every month. There are documents to write for everyone - athletes, on-site staff, coaches, spectators. Contracts to bid out, evaluate, revise, and sign. Equipment to rent or buy. Staff to recruit and train. (Anyone know of a US city or even state has 30 umpires ready to go?) All sorts of preparation needed so that the tournament setup and competition can run like clockwork with no overhead, no missing steps or planning that we overlooked. And then we need to run the tournament itself.

What do we, the organizers, get out of this?

Of the core staff (tournament director, technical delegate, competition manager, referee, and volunteer coordinator), only the competition manager is paid. And the amount he's paid probably doesn't cover his expenses.

I did receive an event shirt.

A lot of us received headaches, even if we didn't ask for them.

No competition here, this is just the practice area

But we do get the pleasure of putting on what i believe is the best table tennis event in the country. And we keep people playing after they leave the junior ranks. The vast majority of them say they're having fun.

After the tournament i kicked back and . . . wrote the tournament recap for the USATT magazine. Then i started preparing myself for the next tournament i would be working at.

We're just starting the process for the 2015 tournament, and we're in the middle of working on next year's event. In a couple weeks Ed Hogshead and i will be traveling to Monroeville, PA (a suburb of Pittsburgh) to inspect the site of the 2014 Championships. I think it'll be the best ever.