By Larry Hodges
There were meetings throughout the USA Nationals, most of them open to anyone. Some of the meetings included:
I attended the Hall of Fame Banquet, where Khoa Nguyen, Kasia Dawidowicz, Danny Pecora and Si Wasserman were inducted to the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame, with Tim Boggan getting the Mark Mathews Lifetime Achievement Award. After cocktails and a first-class dinner, Tim Boggan and Hall of Fame President Steve Isaacson gave presentations (with slideshow) of each of the nominees illustrious careers. It was a great evening, attended by many of the greats of past and present U.S. Table Tennis.
I also attended the USATT Coaching Seminar. It was run by USA Men's Coach Dan Seemiller, with help from USATT Coaching Chair John Allen, who helped set it up along with USATT Executive Director and USA Women's Coach Doru Gheorghe. Twenty-two coaches attended.
Dan took us through tapes from the 2006 Worlds in Bremem, and talked about the major new techniques used there, including the forehand hook serve, backhand loops over the table (especially against serves), aggressive flips off short serves, and inside-out forehand loops from the middle of the table. Matches watched and analyzed included Ching Li vs. Werner Schlager, Peter Korbel vs. Joo Se Hyuk, Wang Liqin vs. Timo Boll, Wang Hao vs. Oh Sang Eun, and Ryu Seung Min vs. Wang Liqin.