Seeing as the current test for the COR of table tennis balls is done by dropping the ball from 305mm, and then measuring the height of the bounce (which is not as easy at it sounds - try it sometime), this could be a useful product for table tennis officials around the world. Initial pricing looks to be around $25 US.

The actual table tennis ball COR measurer iPhone application is not released quite yet, but you can check out the equivalent product for golf balls from the company here.

Now if they could only come up with a similar iPhone application to measure the fastest rubber...

After many years of limited coverage of table tennis on television in Australia, this agreement is something to celebrate. Well done to all concerned in getting ping-pong onto TV screens in Australia at last.

More details about the agreement can be found on the ITTF website.

• ITTF President Adham Sharara admits that 90% of top table tennis players are cheating by boosting their rubbers.
• Killerspin, a Chicago-based table tennis manufacturer and distributor, have signed an exclusive endorsement contract with Shareth Kamal Achanta of India.
• Ping-Pong Playa is out on Blu-ray DVDe
• The Longview Table Tennis Community has made the news, talking about their traveling to tournaments all over the USA.
• Watch out, the Ponginator is coming! (Warning: noisy video link). This is a gigantic robot that shoots ping-pong balls at 170mph (any faster and they apparently disintegrate!). You can see the inventor of the Ponginator talking about the machine in this video.

Here's another training tool that I use that just might do the trick for those of you with busy schedules. It's a tip I picked up from Clarence Bass, a well respected figure in body building and whole body fitness circles. You can read the whole rationale behind this training tip by following the link, but I'll also put it into a nutshell below.

The training routine is to do 6-8 sessions of all out aerobic effort that last 20 seconds each, spaced out by 10 second periods of rest. Subjects tested using this routine had an increase in their VO2max of 14% in 6 weeks, along with an increase in anaerobic capacity of 28%. In other words, people improved their aerobic fitness and muscular endurance at the same time! Not bad!

I've been using this routine once a week at the end of my aerobic sessions, doing 6 sets of all out looping shadow play (with side-to-side footwork) for 20 seconds each, and a 10 second rest break between each set. Believe me, 6 sets is more than enough for me! It really is pretty gruelling, but I believe it's worth it.

So if you are pressed for time, but are willing to endure about 3-4 minutes of intense discomfort every 2-3 days (don't try this every day, as the report explains), this just might be the thing for you!

In other news, older readers will find the following article of interest - an interview with Ye Yonglie, the journalist who reported on the Chinese match-fixing scandals of the 1960s-1980s. In the interview he describes in fascinating detail the events behind the 1987 WTTC controversy where He Zhili refused to dump her match to Guan Jianhua in the semifinals of the Women's Singles, and went on to win the gold medal. (Thanks to Denis' Table Tennis World forum member zzzuppp for digging this up!)

In the women's final, Poland's Li Qian had a 4-1 victory over Li Jie, in a match that was played under the expedite system from 8-6 in the first game. The 5 game match took over an hour to complete!

More details are available at the ITTF website.