March 16, 2015
Tip of the Week
To Play the Middle and Wide Corners You Have to Practice to Them.
The Spirit of Pong
For years I've lived in two worlds - the world of table tennis and the world of science fiction & fantasy writing. I've sold 72 short stories and a novel - but the money from the latter totals only about $20,000 in income since 2006, i.e. a little over $2000/year. Guess which pays the bills?
So I'm happy to say I've found the perfect combination of the two! I'm now working on a novella called "The Spirit of Pong." (A novella is basically a short novel, but considerably longer than a short story.) The story is about an American player, Andy "Shoes" Blue, who goes to China to learn the secrets of Chinese table tennis. I've been planning and researching it for a while. Parts of the story get pretty dark as he learns the Body of Pong, the Mind of Pong, and the Paddle of Pong. You'll meet the mysterious Coach Wang, who guides him through the process of learning about Chinese table tennis - but is he who he says he is?
It's a fantasy, and when Andy goes to China he meets and trains with the spirits of past champions, including Ichiro Ogimura, Rong Guotuan (first Chinese world champion in 1959 and coach of their first women's team world champion in 1965, committed suicide under torture during Cultural Revolution, which fits into the story), and Hiroji Satoh. He also meets and gets advice from the spirits of others, such as Zhuang Zedong and many others. He'll also meet the "Spirits of what made them Champions" for Jan-Ove Waldner and Deng Yaping - both will have a major impact in the climax.
It's currently about 15,000 words long, and I expect it to end up about 20,000 words. (That's about 80 pages in double-spaced 12-point Times-Roman.) I hope to finish the first draft this week. Then I'll do a lot of rewriting, and then I'll submit it for critique at "The Never-Ending Odyssey" writing workshop, which I go to every July as a vacation. (This year it is July 24 - Aug. 1. Most people go to beaches, amusement parks, camping, or perhaps fishing or sailing for vacation; I go to writing workshops.) After I do a rewrite after the workshop, I'll likely be asking others from the table tennis community to critique it before it is finalized. Eventually it'll get published on Amazon in both paperback and kindle formats. (I may try selling it to a magazine first.)
This isn't the first time I've put table tennis in my SF & fantasy writing, though I think this is the best combination. There's table tennis in my humorous fantasy novel, Sorcerers in Space (available in paperback or kindle!), where the main character, 13-year-old Neil [Armstrong] has to put aside his ping-pong dreams to save the world. (It's a satire on the 1960s space race, with sorcerers instead of astronauts, and Neil is a sorcerer's apprentice.)
I have another novel making the rounds, "Campaign 2100," where there's lots of table tennis. I blogged about that on June 13, 2014, where I went over eight different table tennis scenes in the novel. It's a drama/satire that covers the election for president of Earth in the year 2100, where the entire world has adopted the American two-party electoral system. (Yikes!) One of the four main characters is a professional table tennis player, and he teaches an alien ambassador to play - and the alien, whose ancestors snatched flying insects out of the air and so has incredible reflexes and hand-eye coordination, begins to beat him. (The two also do an exhibition for Chinese leaders - which leads to a disaster.) I have a publisher who liked the novel but asked for a rewrite on certain parts. I did the rewrite and sent it back to them a few months ago, so I'm now awaiting their final verdict. If they don't publish it, I'll likely self-publish it - I want it out during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, since it's a political novel.
I also have a story called "Ping-Pong Ambition," where an ambitious table tennis player is hitting on a table tennis robot and cracks a ball - and a genie comes out! When he asks to become a great table tennis player, the genie imprisons him inside a ping-pong ball for 10,000 years, where he practices table tennis and studies to be a genie himself - with a twist ending. Here's the review from The Fix: "Ping-Pong Ambition is a fun take on the genie-who-gives-three-wishes story. The tropes are familiar, but the light tone and twist ending make this an entertaining read." The story is among thirty of my best stories compiled in the anthology Pings and Pongs (also in paperback and kindle!). The anthology also includes my story "Defeating Death," which includes the following lines:
"Zargo walked to the basement door. It had been boarded up ever since an incident involving a rather unfortunate former assistant and a rather unfortunate game of ping-pong that had gotten out of hand. ("Magic and ping-pong," Zargo had solemnly said, "don't mix.")"
I'll keep you all informed on the status of "The Spirit of Pong" - I'm having a lot of fun writing it!
The Champ: Be Like Dimitrij Ovtcharov
Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina, where he gives five things to learn from the world #6 and #1 European.
What is the Best Serve in Table Tennis
Here's the article in Sporting News.
"My First Ever Table Tennis Tournament"
Here's Ben Larcombe (of Expert Table Tennis) giving an account of his first tournament ever, back when he was nine years old.
Table Tennis Physical Training
Here's the video (8:02) of the physical training for a group of junior table tennis players.
MDTTC Open
The MDTTC Butterfly March Open was this past weekend. Here are the results, care of Omnipong. Congrats to champions Ruichao Chen, Khaleel Asgarali, Eric Li, Kyrylo Tsygura, Siliang Huang, Derek Nie, and Nazruddin Asgarali!
USATT Interview with Matt Hetherington
ICC Table Tennis Center Moving
Here's the article in the San Jose Mercury News.
Wacky Training Regimen for GeekWire Bash
Here's the article and video (2:53). "We’re getting pretty darn excited over here at GeekWire for our big annual anniversary bash, complete with one of the most spectacular (and geeky) ping pong tournaments on planet Earth."
German Nationals Final Point
Here's the video (61 sec) of Timo Boll winning Men's Singles at the German Nationals. He's up 3-2 in games against Ruwen Filu - and leading 10-0 in the sixth (!) they play a lobbing exhibition point, where Timo "lets" Ruwen score a point.
Waldner's Ace
Here's the video (30 sec) of his great down-the-line ace against Samsonov in the final of the 1997 World Championships, won by Waldner, the only person ever to win without losing a single game.
Xu Xin vs. Jun Mizutani at 2015 Asian Cup
Here's the video (9:34, with time between points removed) of this great all-lefty match.
Sensational Shot by Par Gerell
Here's the video (24 sec) of the (Spoiler Alert!) inside-out fade-away sidespin backhand counterloop on the edge off a smash.
Crazy Japanese Table Tennis Stuff
Here's the video (9:46) from three years ago, where they do a bunch of crazy stuff. It's in Japanese, but you can still follow much of the action…I think.
Circular Three-Ball Triples Pong?
Here's the video (19 sec) - who's winning???
Crazy Celebration
Here's the video (10:15) of the Lagos Open. Go to the three-minute mark and watch the celebration after that point by Nigeria's Olufunke Oshonaike, who had been down 0-7 in that fifth game to Galila Nasser of Egypt. It's an epic celebration, but probably a bit over the top, don't you think? Oshonaike is a five-time Olympic team member.
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