Age 80+ Benjamin Read – Gold Age 75+ Suresh Kanekar – Gold Hansen Djavaherian – Silver Age 70+ Bill Ukapatayasakul – Gold John Anderson – Silver Age 65+ Janusz Supernak – Gold Peter Margarita – Silver Derrick Stockhausen – Bronze Age 60+ Kamran Azimzadeh – Gold Shelley Hardy – Silver Age 55+ Alla Rabinovich – Gold Leo Soldatenkov – Silver Age 50+ Peter Molinar – Gold Mixed Doubles Bill Ukapatayasakul and Shelley Hardy – Gold Peter Molinar and Alla Rabinovich – Silver Doubles Bill Ukapatayasakul and Kamran Azimzadeh – Gold Benjamin Read and James Kahn – Silver

Team Baja returning this week for Thursday night tournament.  Let’s have our high level players return to the club to give them some good competition.  Otherwise, it is me against Mexico.  See you then.

James Kahn, President SDTTA

SDTTA Members,

The Huntsman World Senior Games take place October 7-10 2013. This is truly an international competition for Seniors 50 & over located in St. George, Utah, the gateway to Zion and Bryce Canyon national park. For more information, check out the links below. Schedule of Events – Main Website

  Checkout SDTTA club member Glenda de Vaney’s new book!

 

    Available now in paperback and Kindle format. http://www.journeysthroughfranceandlife.com

“Ping Pong” is a documentary by Hugh Hartford and Anson Hartford.  Here is the description:                              Eight players with 703 years between them compete in the Over 80 World Table Tennis Championships. Ping Pong is a story of hope, regret, friendship, love—and the tenacity of the human spirit in the face of mortality. (60 mins) This film will air national on PBS’s award-winning documentary series, POV, on September 9.  Our library will offer an advance screening, projecting the film on our big screen and following it with a discussion, on Tuesday, August 27, at 6:00 pm.  Any help that you can provide with publicity would be much appreciated.  Also, please let me know if anyone from your group might be interested in facilitating the post-film discussion.  I usually lead them, but I think that our attendees would prefer the perspective of a ping pong aficionado.  Thank you.

A club member complained that a few of us are not serving legally.  By rule, the ball is tossed from an open hand out of the palm and tossed at least 6 inches in the air straight up and not hidden by any body parts.  I know we don’t have referees and most of us are not playing for the national championship, but let’s try to make an effort to attempt a legal serve, me included. Thanks, James Kahn, President SDTTA For reference, here are the actual ITTF rules:

2.06	THE SERVICE
2.06.01	Service shall start with the ball resting freely on the open palm of the server’s stationary free hand.
2.06.02	The server shall then project the ball near vertically upwards, without imparting spin, so that it rises at least 16cm after leaving the palm of the free hand and then falls without touching anything before being struck.
2.06.03	As the ball is falling the server shall strike it so that it touches first his or her court and then, after passing over or around the net assembly, touches directly the receiver’s court; in doubles, the ball shall touch successively the right half court of server and receiver.
2.06.04	From the start of service until it is struck, the ball shall be above the level of the playing surface and behind the server’s end line, and it shall not be hidden from the receiver by the server or his or her doubles partner or by anything they wear or carry.
2.06.05	As soon as the ball has been projected, the server’s free arm and hand shall be removed from the space between the ball and the net. The space between the ball and the net is defined by the ball, the net and its indefinite upward extension.
2.06.06	It is the responsibility of the player to serve so that the umpire or the assistant umpire can be satisfied that he or she complies with the requirements of the Laws, and either may decide that a service is incorrect.
2.06.06.01	If either the umpire or the assistant umpire is not sure about the legality of a service he or she may, on the first occasion in a match, interrupt play and warn the server; but any subsequent service by that player or his or her doubles partner which is not clearly legal shall be considered incorrect.
2.06.07	Exceptionally, the umpire may relax the requirements for a correct service where he or she is satisfied that compliance is prevented by physical disability.