September 11, 2015

Some Ping-Pong Reading?

Why not spend some of your weekend (or next weekend) reading some table tennis books? Or are you one of the 28% who haven't read a book in the last year? No, table tennis players are too smart, and of course are voracious readers. Here's my table tennis book collection – currently at 234 books and 13 feet of shelf space. You could, of course, just read my books - here they are. (Here's my Amazon page.) Or you could browse these, mostly from the last ten years.

Table Tennis Instructional Books

• 100 Days of Table Tennis (2015) by Samson Dubina. Here's my review (see right side of page – more a promotional segment). I thought I'd done a review of this in my blog, but apparently not.
• Expert in a Year: The Ultimate Table Tennis Challenge (2015) by Sam Priestley and Ben Larcombe.
• Table Tennis Tips (2014) by Larry Hodges. This covers three years of my Tips of the Week (2001-2013), in logical progression.
• Ping Pong for Fighters (2014) by Tahl Leibovitz. Here's my review.
• Get Your Game Face On Like the Pros (2014) by Dora Kurimay. Here's my review.
• Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers (2013) by Larry Hodges. (Here's the French version.) This is my best-selling book.
• The Table Tennis Playbook (2013) by Ben Larcombe.
• The Next Step (2013) by Alex Polyakov.
• Breaking 2000 (2012) by Alex Polyakov. Here's my review.
• How to Win at Table Tennis (2012) by Greg Letts.
• Table Tennis Tips from a World Champion (2011) by Werner Schlager and Bernd-Ulrich Gross.
• PATT Notes: Volume One (2010) by Donn Olsen with Kyongsook Kim.
• PATT: A Principles Approach to Table Tennis (2009) by Donn Olsen with Kyongsook Kim.
• Table Tennis Tales & Techniques (2009) by Larry Hodges. This includes both technique articles, essays, and humorous table tennis stories.
• Table Tennis: Steps to Success (2009) by Richard McAfee.
• Advanced Coaching Manual (2009) by ITTF.
• Table Tennis: Level 1 Coaching Manual (2003) by Glenn Tepper.

Table Tennis History Books

• History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volumes 1-16 by Tim Boggan (see reviews linked to some of the books).
• Ping-Pong Diplomacy (2015) by Nicholas Griffin. Here's my review.
• Adventures of the Ping-Pong Diplomats (2012) by Fred Danner. Here's my review.
• Ping Pong Fever: The Madness that Swept 1902 America (2012) by Steve Grant. Here's my review.
• Boys Look at the Stars (2011) by Enzo Pettinelli.
• Ogi: The Life of Ichiro Ogimura (2009) by Mitsuro Jojima. Here's my review, which includes ordering info at the end.

Table Tennis Novels

• The Spirit of Pong (2015) by Larry Hodges.
• The Mystery of the Lost Racket (2013) by Enzo Pettinelli. Children's book.
• Doubles (2009) by Anne Borrowdale.
• My Secret Life as a Ping-Pong Wizard (2005) by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver. Children's book. Here's my review (page down a bit)
• The Mighty Walzer (1999) by Howard Jacobson.

Other Table Tennis Books

• USATT Club Development Handbook (2015) by Yang Yu. Here's my review.
• Professional Table Tennis Coaches Handbook (2013) by Larry Hodges. Do you want to be a professional table tennis coach? Here's how!
• Everything You Know is Pong (2010) by Roger Bennett and Eli Horowitz.

Zhang Jike Backhand Loop Multiball Training

Here's the video (53 sec).

USATT Insider

Here's the new issue, which came out Wednesday.

Nations Top Players to Compete at Sports Complex

Here's the article by Jeff Bandry on the Butterfly Badger Open coming up Sept. 18-20 in Milwaukee.

Interview with Joo Se Hyuk

Here's the video (1:50) of the interview with South Korean defensive star at the recent LA Open, by Barbara Wei.

Tin-Tin Ho: 12 Years a Table Tennis Player

Here's the new podcast (40:30) with the 17-year-old English star, by Expert Table Tennis.

International Table Tennis

Here's my periodic note (usually every Friday) that you can great international coverage at TableTennista (which especially covers the elite players well) and at the ITTF home page (which does great regional coverage). Butterfly also has a great news page.

Table Top Loop Practice?

Here's the "Easy Swing" device, perhaps overpriced at $43.84. It's for practicing spinning the ball. I have a different version of this, and I'm on my third one – they break rather easily if you mishit. So . . . don't mishit.

Austrian Open Men's Final Highlights

Here's the video (5:40, with time between points removed) of the final between Jun Mizutani and Dimitrij Ovtcharov.

Around-the-Net Counterloop and Backhand Sidespin Counterloop

Here's the video of these two consecutive shots (30 sec, including slow motion replay).

The Four-Table Serve

Here's the video (8 sec). I've done three; looks like I'm going to have to up my game!

The Fashionable Soo Yeon Lee

Here's the article, here's the pictures, and there's the video (1:48). (This is from 2011 – I may have linked to some of this long ago.)

Ping-Pong Match: The Slammer

Here's the funny commercial (31 sec) for Grubhub Restaurant. So . . . how many of you naively believe it's real, and the ball wasn't put in by computer?

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