Larry Hodges: USATT Developmental Coach of the Year, 2002

Hodges, 42, is certified by USA Table Tennis (USATT) as a National Coach, the highest level. He is the Editor of USA Table Tennis Magazine, and is the USATT Club Programs Director and co-webmaster.

Over the past year, Hodges developed and promoted two major coaching programs for USATT clubs: the Junior Training Program and the Beginning Classes Program. Hodges also wrote the manuals that go with these programs. They are available at the USATT Club Programs page.

Hodges was previously a full-time coach (he now coaches part-time) at the Maryland Table Tennis Center (MDTTC), which he co-founded in 1991 (as the National Table Tennis Center) with co-coaches Cheng Yinghua and Jack Huang, both past USATT Coaches of the Year. He has run over 60 five-day training camps at MDTTC, and helps preside over the largest and most successful junior program in the U.S.

For 11 straight years at the Junior Olympics/Junior Nationals, with Hodges acting as head coach, MDTTC juniors won more gold and more total medals than any other state. During this time, they won more total gold medals than the other 49 states combined. At the most recent Junior Olympics/Junior Nationals, in 2001, MDTTC players won 8 of the 11 team events, and 25 of the 46 gold medals. Hodges led a contingent of 44 junior players (and over 50 parents/relatives) to that tournament.

Hodges has 725 articles published in 45 different publications. 692 are on table tennis, including about 150 coaching articles. He is the author of Table Tennis: Steps to Success (over 18,000 copies sold), as well as Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis, the official USA Table Tennis coaching manual for beginning coaches. He has also produced numerous program booklets for USATT for U.S. Opens, Nationals and other major events.

Hodges chaired the USATT Coaching Committee for five years; was at one time the director and a coach for the Resident Training Program for Table Tennis at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs; has been the coach for the U.S. Junior Team at numerous national and international tournaments; and has been nominated as Coach of the Year three times previously.

Hodges has also chaired the USATT Club Committee and Resident Training Committee, and has been a member of the USATT Senior, Junior, Grassroots and Ratings Committees. He is a past USATT vice president. He has run over 100 USATT tournaments, including the largest 4-star tournament in history, the 1998 Eastern Open. He is certified as an umpire. He has arranged some of the largest TV showings of table tennis in history, including showings on CNN, Headline News, Nightline, and several on ESPN and ESPN2, along with local TV stations and hundreds of newspaper clippings. After years of promotion, Hodges is proud of the fact that Maryland now has more USATT members as a percentage of population than any other state in the U.S. Hodges is the founder of the North American Teams in Baltimore and the Classic Hardbat Association.

Hodges has a bachelor's degree in math and a master's degree in journalism, both from the University of Maryland, which he chose because of its strength in table tennis. He later coached their team to three straight national championships, including one year as a player/coach. Hodges holds 13 national (mostly hardbat and collegiate titles) and many state titles as a player. He is the reigning U.S. National Hardbat Doubles and Over 40 Hardbat Singles Champion, although he usually plays with sponge, with a current rating of 2215. He collects books on table tennis, and currently has 103 in English. He has a personal web page at http://www.larrytt.com