June 4, 2015

Bernie Bukiet in USATT Insider

The profile on Bernie Bukiet by Tim Boggan was in yesterday’s issue of USATT Insider, which is emailed to USATT members and to those who sign up for free subscriptions. Many “old timers” who knew Bernie well still miss him – I’m told he was one of the great sportsmen of his time. Take some time to read about this past great, and others in the USATT Hall of Fame. (Here’s a nice picture of Bernie.)

Dave Sakai, a great friend of Bernie’s, called me yesterday to talk to Tim Boggan about it, since Tim is staying with me while we work on the next volume in his History of U.S. Table Tennis series. (Dave had introduced me to Bernie many years ago the one time I met Bernie before his death, alas, in 1995.) Tim says that Dave, like Tim in the past, was nearly in tears about it, since Bernie was so loved by all who knew him.

Some who read the profile quickly might have missed that the first part, entitled “A Day to Remember,” about the day Bernie died, and listed as “by Bernie Bukiet,” was actually by Tim Boggan. (If so, reread it more carefully.) The actual Hall of Fame profile comes immediately afterwards, starting with the words, “Sosnowiec, in southwest Poland…” Bernie was originally from Poland, and didn’t come to the U.S. until he was 34, and yet he was still:

  • 3-time U.S. Men's Singles Champion (at age 38, 44, and 47)
  • 6-time U.S. Men's Doubles Champion (the last time at age 49)
  • 3-time U.S. Mixed Doubles Champion (the last time at age 47)
  • 8-time Member of the U.S. Team to the World's (from age 35 to age 54)

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 16 (1988-89)

Yesterday was Day Ten of the long national nightmare of trying to put all these pages and photos together for Volume 16 of History of U.S. Table Tennis. We’ve completed 19 of the 24 chapters, totaling 319 pages. We expect to finish work on Saturday. (We’ll try to do chapters 20-24 on Thursday and Friday, and Saturday is reserved for corrections – Tim spends much of his free time going over each page and marking needed changes, and in the past it usually takes about a day to make these changes.) I’ll also need a few hours to finalize the volume for print on Amazon.com – see the links on the History of U.S. Table Tennis page that link to their Amazon pages – plus I have to update the webpage itself. I’ll also need time to create the one-page flyer and ad for the volume.

I’ve lost track of the number of graphics because Tim did something relatively new in the volume – many of the pages are collages of graphics and clippings he cut and pasted on sheets of paper, which were then scanned. He didn’t realize that every scissors cut would show up as a line on the page, and that the various graphics needed different types of work, and so I’ve spent painstaking hours selecting portions of each page so I could work on that part alone, along with zooming in and erasing the seeming mazes of scissor-cut lines on each page.

But I think I can safely say it’s over 1000 graphics total. I can do a program check of how many actual graphics are on the pages, but that would count each of these pages as one graphic, and I’ve spent up to 30 minutes just cleaning up a page of them, which are often full of different graphics. When the whole thing is done I’ll likely do a manual count. The last volume had a record 978 graphics; this one will dwarf that record.

As to the content of the volume, let’s just say a lot of stuff happened in 1988-89!!!

Coaching

While I’m busy doing Tim’s books I’m still coaching (and writing this blog). Yesterday I coached a 13-year-old who’s rated about 1600 but really should be pushing 1800. The main weakness in his game is he plays such high-level shots in rallies that he makes too many mistakes. He also is a bit too forehand oriented, but we’ve spent a lot of time working on his backhand – which he often loops over and over. I also coached an 11-year-old who had a hard time getting serious – until he saw one of the Chinese coaches wander over to watch. There’s something about an “inscrutable” Chinese coach that seems to scare kids into trying hard. Perhaps I need to look into this – I tend to be too easygoing when I coach, and some kids take advantage of that.  

One thing I’ve noticed recently – when I play points with students they all like to serve deep to my backhand, challenging me to step around and forehand loop, which I no longer do as well due to arm problems and age. So I usually receive backhand, and they tee off on it. (My backhand loop isn’t particularly strong.) So recently I’ve started taking these serves right off the bounce, as I should be doing. I’m not returning them any faster or more aggressively, just quicker – and the result is almost comical as they no longer can tee on these shots, and they get frustrated. I have to explain to them the reason why they suddenly feel rushed. But the more you push them in ways such as this the better they get. Pretty soon they’ll be teeing off on these, and I’ll have to find something else. Maybe I’ll time travel back to the 1980s and 1990s and run around and loop all their serves. Or maybe I’ll just chop.

Ask the Coach

Episode #135 (28:25) – Is Psychology the Difference?

Training Forehand and Backhand Topspin

Here’s the new video (17:42) from Table Tennis School.

How Do You Get Into “Flow” When Playing Table Tennis?

Here’s the video (3:39) as part of the “Ask Mark” series. (Mark is table tennis sports psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly.)

Vote for Jimmy Butler as the Top USA Athlete for May

Here’s where you can vote.

New Ma Long Videos

Highlights from China Super League 2015

Time between points removed.

More Mike Mezyan Pictures

NOTE - If you are unable to see these pictures, all you have to do is join the Table Tennis Group - it's easy! Here are all the past, present, and (soon) future pictures he's collected. (I pick out his best ones for here - he has more.)

Non-Ping Pong Diplomacy

Here’s the cartoon!

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