May 26, 2015

Three Items From Yesterday’s Blog You Might Have Missed

Memorial Day Table Tennis

Tim Boggan’s History of US Table Tennis, Vol. 16 . . . and Some Coaching

We started work on it yesterday morning. (Here’s info on the series.) I had an afternoon coaching session that cost us a few hours, but we managed to do the front and back cover, all the intro pages (title page, author’s page, acknowledgements), and a lengthy chapter one (21 pages). So far I’ve fixed up and placed 41 photos. There are 24 chapters; we expect to finish by Friday, June 5. Part of the difficulty is I have to fit in time to do this blog, plus I have to leave Mon-Fri at 2:30 PM for our afterschool program and other coaching (private and group), plus I’m away nearly all of Sunday coaching. (Strangely, I may be mostly free this Saturday.)

Much of what chapter one covers is politics – a USTTA board meeting and the 1988 USTTA election. (It didn’t become USATT until the early 1990s. How many of you remember it as the U.S. Table Tennis Association, as I did my first 17 years or so. Though I just realized I’ve known it as USATT for 22 years now! Yes, I’ve played 39 years.)

Meanwhile, I did 1.5 hours of coaching on Memorial Day. I was supposed to do three, but a student cancelled. Due to the arm problems I’m playing pretty soft in open play, but can block and counter pretty much normal. I can’t do my forehand pendulum serve very well right now, but I discovered I can do the reverse pendulum serve without putting much strain on the arm. Alas, I can’t serve fast and deep either.

Despite my problems with serving, we spent a good portion of the session on serve practice. We also did a lot of multiball and the 2-1 drill (live). At the end we played games, where I played super soft but steady – and exposed a major weakness in the student, who had great difficulty timing these softer shots. For one thing, if I take two steps back to return a shot, it changes the trajectory so the ball bounces out more. My opponent needs to take perhaps a half step back to attack this ball or he’ll be jammed – which is exactly what happened over and over.

Balticon Science Fiction Convention and Table Tennis

I spent much of the weekend at Balticon, a regional science fiction & fantasy convention. There was actually quite a bit of table tennis involved.  

First, I did a one-hour signing, where people lined up to buy autographed copies of my books. (Is one person in line at a time a “line”?) Here’s a picture. I had three of my nine books on sale, all three of which have table tennis content:

  • The Spirit of Pong, my fantasy table tennis novel about an American who goes to China to learn the secrets of table tennis, and trains with the spirits of past stars.
  • Sorcerers in Space, which stars a teenaged sorcerer’s apprentice who has to give up his table tennis dreams to save the world (and himself).
  • Pings and Pongs, which is an anthology of the 30 best science fiction & fantasy stories I’ve sold, including “Ping-Pong Ambition,” a fantasy table tennis short story. (I included that story as a bonus at the end of “The Spirit of Pong.”)

Second, during one panel I was on several kids approached with questions. One asked me what “The Spirit of Pong” was about (it was on display). After explaining, I nonchalantly pulled out a handy ping-pong ball, rubbed it a few times like a wizard holding a crystal ball, and then did my blowing ball trick where I blow the ball up and sideways. (I don’t have a picture, but the key is to blow the top of the ball, creating spin which holds it up.)

On a related note, the editor of the InterGalactic Medicine Show (yep, that’s its name!), one of the major science fiction, is Edmund Schubert. At another SF convention in Maryland a few years ago he told me how he used to be a serious player. When we had a break, we drove over to the Maryland Table Tennis Center and played for an hour. He’s about 1400. (He’s a great guy. I have less kind things to say about the magazine’s owner, Orson Scott Card, but I won’t get into that.)

Why Do I Always Lose When I’m Winning?

Here’s the new coaching article from Matt Hetherington.

Ask the Coach

Episode #129 (31:30) – Fan Zhendong’s Reverse Serve.

We Are USA Table Tennis

Here’s the new highlights video (1:43), created by Jimmy Butler.

America’s Team Championships

The event was held this past weekend in Rockford, IL. Here’s the home page with results.

Kanak Jha in the A League in China

Here’s a short article and picture.

Werner Schlager Academy Review

Want to train overseas? Here’s a review of the famed Austrian training center.

How Technology Has Transformed Table Tennis

Here’s the article from Sport Technie.

Ping Pong Goes From Basement to Big Business with Hipster Help

Here’s the article from Bloomberg.com. “Ping pong is going upscale. Long a mainstay of garages, basements and dives, the game is springing up at high-end bars, restaurants and hotels around the world.”

Timo Boll Backhand Training

Here’s the video (30 sec). It’s short, but much of it is in slow motion where you can clearly see the essentially perfect technique of this former world #1.

Kenta Matsudaira’s Awesome Backhand

Here’s the video (26 sec) of the world #27 (formerly #15) from Japan.

Unbelievable Drop Shot by Mima Ito!

Here’s the video (18 sec) of the world #11 from Japan.

USA Table Tennis Watchface Generator

Here it is! Apparently you can use it to create your own USATT watch face.

Playing a Big Guy

Here’s the cartoon! (Here’s the non-Facebook version.) Any suggestions for a caption?

Plastic Pong

Here’s the picture – now the whole table and the players are plastic! (Here’s the non-Facebook version.) Is this a Lego thing?

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