Tip of the Week
The Value of Down the Line.
Last Blog Until September 7 and Upcoming Schedule
I just returned from the US Nationals, but I’ve got three more events coming up, almost back-to-back-to-back. I will still put up a Tip of the Week each Monday. Here’s my upcoming itinerary.
- July 17-25 - The Never-Ending Odyssey Science Fiction Writing Workshop. This is normally in Manchester, NH, but they’ve decided to alternate each year between Manchester and online. This year it’s online. It’s an all-day thing for nine days, with morning, afternoon, and night events. I’ve been going to this annually for many years.
- Aug. 2-28 – Sightseeing in Europe (Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia), including competing in the Czech Classic Open in Ostrava, Aug. 22-23 (hardbat, sandpaper, wood). I toured much of Europe and Egypt back in 2019, but didn’t get to the above countries.
- Aug. 29-30 – World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim, CA. Literally hours after returning from Europe I fly out for two days!
- While I’m away, don’t forget to buy some of my books!!!
Short Blog Today
During the recent US Nationals I hurt my neck. It didn’t really affect my play at the time – but it got worse and worse afterwards. The last two mornings I struggled just to get out of bed without injuring it further. I can barely hold my head up straight and I’m feasting on Ibuprofen. I will likely see a doctor this afternoon, alas. But I can’t spend too much time at my computer like this, so this blog will be shorter than usual.
US Nationals . . . and Age is Not Just a Number
Apparently, age is not just a number. After spending much of the last two years battling injuries, and going into the Nationals with knee and shoulder issues, it all finally caught up to me. I normally play with sponge (since that’s what I coach!), but at the Nationals I was mostly in hardbat events. I was also in Over 65 Men’s Singles (with sponge, seeded #7), but dropped out of it due to the knee and shoulder issues. (Looping with sponge puts more pressure on the shoulder.) While I did some coaching at this Nationals, I was mostly a player this time.
In hardbat singles my playing style is basically all-out forehand attack. But I was simply unable to move well enough to do this. It was a combination of the knee problem and age. Normally I’m very aggressive with following up my serve with a forehand attack whenever possible, and I also return most serves with my forehand when possible. But this time? I simply couldn’t move effectively. If I crowded my backhand corner as I usually do, I couldn’t get to balls to my wide forehand. If I were more centered so I could cover those, I couldn’t step around my backhand to play forehands as I like to do. Rather than attack, I’d often serve and immediately go on defense against returns to my backhand, and similarly with serves to my backhand. I also struggled just trying to reach serves that were short to my forehand – flipping them used to be a big strength. And so, rather than playing my “A” game, I spent most of my matches on the defensive, mostly backhand chopping/blocking/chop-blocking with my fast racket, which is not designed for defense. Normally, in hardbat, I play over 70% of my shots with my forehand. Here, it was literally the exact opposite.
The result? I struggled in match after match. I won at least four matches where I basically just persevered, and could have easily lost all four. I did make the final of Over 40 Hardbat (which I’ve won ten times before at the US Nationals and US Open), but in the final there (where, if healthy, I would still have been the underdog but would have had a chance), and in the semifinals of Over 60 Hardbat (where I was top seed and three-time defending champion), I just couldn’t play my normal game nor could I persevere. So, I got a silver and a bronze.
I’ve concluded that at age 66, I can no longer compete successfully in hardbat with the style I’ve played all these years. And so I plan to go to a slower blade. This will weaken my forehand somewhat, but will make my backhand stronger, both in regular backhands, as well as chopping, blocking, and chop-blocking (which is my favored defense on the backhand). We’ll see how it works. As to sponge play, I both hit and loop on the forehand, and if the shoulder is okay, I can play okay. The key is that with sponge, my backhand blocking is far more effective than I am on the backhand with hardbat. (During my peak years with sponge, on my serve and often on receive, I was also an all-out forehand player.)
Here are complete results of the US Nationals.
Minions Playing Table Tennis
- Minions playing table tennis in one of their movies (link should take you to it, about two seconds long)
- Minions playing table tennis with lots of volleying (15 sec).
- Video of Minions playing table tennis (10 sec).
- Repeating Gif Image of Minions playing table tennis.
- Here's a picture from the Minions movie, where they are playing two-on-one table tennis. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)
Adam vs. World's BEST 11-year-old
Here’s the video (20 min) with Adam Bobrow!
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