November 30, 2012

1400 Articles!!!

I just realized that the Tip of the Week I published this past Monday was the 1400th article I've had published. (Cue the confetti.) There's a bit of ambiguity in there, as what constitutes a published article? I don't count blog entries (over 500 here since I started two years ago), but I do count the Tips of the Week. (For one thing, they are also published at Paddle Palace.) Included among these 1400 in 138 different publications are 1258 on table tennis. Here's a complete listing.

Pages I Maintain

I maintain a number of webpages. This seems like a good time to post them. (For one thing, I'm battling a cold, and this will be an easy blog to write so I can get back to bed.) Here are the main pages. Each of them includes many sub-pages.

TableTennisCoaching.com. If you are reading this, you are there. Here's your chance to explore some of the pages here. For example, have you gone over to the "Fun and Games" section? Lots of hilarious table tennis stuff - videos, pictures, and games.

CelebritiesPlayingTableTennis.com. This is where you can find 1440 pictures of 870 celebrities playing table tennis. This is the most important page on the Internet. (I used to update this monthly, but it's rather time-consuming so these days I do it sporadically.

TimBogganTableTennis.com. This is where you can buy copies of Tim Boggan's history books, History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volumes 1-12. You can also learn about the famous Tim himself! (I do the page layouts for Tim's books.) He's almost done with Volume 13! (Each time he finishes a volume, he drives down from New York to Maryland to stay with me for two weeks, where he'll sit next to me as we do the page layouts together. I do the actual layouts while he waves a finger at the screen saying things like, "No, you fool, the photo goes there!!! And I don't like that font - invent a new one!" 

Larrytt.com. This started out as my table tennis coaching page, where I listed my credentials and recent adventures. It's since become basically my everything table tennis page, where I just keep adding stuff.

Larryhodges.org. This is my science fiction and fantasy writing page. As readers of this blog know, outside table tennis I write SF&F - I've sold 65 short stories (also 30 resales and 15 paid "twitter" stories), and have two novels making the rounds. I also maintain a page on writing science fiction & fantasy.

LarryHodgesBooks.com. This is under construction - nothing much there yet except a listing of my six books. Sometime next year this will be where you'll be able to buy copies of your favorite Larry Hodges books!!! I'm currently putting them in proper format for POD (Print on Demand) and ebooks. The following books would be sold there (though I might later start selling other table tennis books):

  • Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers (coming in December, 2012, though this might soon become January 2013)
  • Table Tennis Success (formerly titled Table Tennis: Steps to Success)
  • Table Tennis Tales & Techniques
  • Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook
  • Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis
  • Pings and Pongs: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of Larry Hodges

Table Tennis on CNN Home Page

Here's a screen shot of CNN.com last night, with the picture of Ding Ning of China featured. The caption is, "Ning Ding of China plays a forehand during the women's singles table tennis quarter-final match against Ai Fukuhara of Japan on Day 4 of the London 2012 Olympic Games on July 31." (I think the Ding is supposed to come before the Ning.) It was part of a gallery of "75 Amazing Sports Moments" from 2012." See photo #20.

Stellan Bengtsson Article

Here's an article from the ITTF on Stellan Bengtsson, former World Men's Singles Champion and now a coach in San Diego.

Zhang Jike's Condition

Here's an article from TableTennista, "Zhang Jike Not Satisfied With His Condition."

Ping Pong Talkin Blues

Since I'm fighting a cold, this seems a good time to link to these guitar strumming songs by Dan Cole.

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Send us your own coaching news!

Larry,

It looks like all the links to your books and articles that were originally on the usatt.org site are broken.  I keep getting redirected to the TeamUSA homepage (not even to the table tennis page, but to the general olympic page).   Tried using the search function on that page but if it is there it is buried too deeply for me to find. 

Could you check with Sean and see if there was a way to get to those books and articles.

Mark

In reply to by mjamja

I don't know why the article links aren't working anymore - apparently when they switched to the new page they didn't move those as well. As to Instructor's Guide to Table Tennis and Professional Table Tennis Coach's Handbook, those will be on my new web page early next year. (I actually requested they take those two links down, as they weren't really using them, so I will.) 

In reply to by Larry Hodges

Well those two were the ones I was most interested in anyway so I will just have to wait till next year.

By the way, did you decide to use my idea (Rodin's Thinker) for the cover of the new "Tactics" book?

Looking forward to getting to read it.

Mark

In reply to by mjamja

Hi Mark, I'm leaning toward a cover that has an action picture of some sort, with a head shot of Rodin's Thinker looking down from the top next to the title. I've put together a couple of drafts, but haven't finalized who the action picture will be. I have to get the player's permission. 

In reply to by Larry Hodges

I like that idea better than just the Thinker since a lot of people may not get the reference.  The action shot clearly denotes the book as a Table Tennis book and the Thinker in the corner is a neat little inside joke for those that get it.

I still kind of like the X and O football type diagram over a TT table.  Maybe you could make a "Madden" style You-Tube video with you doing the telestrator thing for some table tennis point as an add for the book.  Perhaps you could even talk Frank Caliendo into doing the Madden impersonation for you in return for some table tennis lessons.

Anyway good luck with all the work.

Mark