November 9, 2015

Tip of the Week
Sidespin Serves that Break Away Tend to Be More Effective.

Writer's Retreat This Week and Table Tennis
No blog this week after today – I'll be back next Monday, Nov. 16. I'll be away all this week at a writer's retreat at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD, which they call a Writing Staycation. It's a day thing, where I drive over early in the morning, and return that night. So little table tennis for me this week – I've got others subbing for me in most of my sessions until next Saturday.

As I blogged about on October 16, I recently sold a science fiction novel to a publisher, "Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions." (As noted in the blog, it has lots of table tennis.) So this week I'm starting the sequel, "Campaign 2110: Scorpions in Space." The first one was 123,000 words (that's 622 pages in double spaced Courier New). This one will likely be a touch shorter – I'm aiming for 100,000 words. I hope to get 30,000 done during the retreat. I promise to keep table tennis in the novel!

What's the difference between a writer's retreat and a writer's workshop? At a retreat, the focus is on writing new stuff. At a workshop the focus is on critiquing each other's work – in advance you read and analyze the submitted work of other participants, and at the workshop you give both a verbal and written critique to the writer. (And they do the same for you.) It's usually done in sort of a circle, where you go around the circle, with everyone giving their comments in turn, and everyone turning in the written version at the end. I've been to many of these, including an annual "The Never-Ending Odyssey" that I go to for nine days each summer in Manchester, NH.

I've been to two past writing retreats at the Writer's Center. At the first is where I started work on Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers; at the second I started Sorcerers in Space. The Writer's Center mentioned me in their November 4 blog!

I'm bringing my weighted paddle to shadow stroke during breaks. Yep!

On Saturday, after I finished coaching at 3:30 PM (and after finalizing that morning the USATT Hall of Fame Program for the Nationals Banquet, and a HoF ad for the Nationals Program booklet), I took my laptop and notes to the back room at MDTTC and worked continuously (with a few walk around breaks) until 10PM, while the Capital Area League was playing out from 5-10PM. I didn't do any writing – just researched and outlined. Sunday morning I spent finalizing my notes and printing them out. (Then I coached from 1:30-8:00PM, then rushed home to watch "The Walking Dead.") I'm ready to start writing this morning!

Strategic Risk Taking
Here's the new coaching article by Han Xiao.

Pingcoach.com
Here's a coaching site I hadn't seen before, run by Ben Larcombe, the same guy who runs Experttabletennis.com.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #182 (25 min) – Serving Styles (and other segments)

How Do We Create a New Generation Waldner?
Here's the new article from Matt Hetherington.

SAEF Table Tennis Therapy Program for Alzheimer's
Here's the article and video. "SAEF Table Tennis Therapy Program is an innovative tool designed to benefit early stage Alzheimer's individuals through carefully supervised instructions in "table tennis therapy."

Table Tennis Illusions
Here's the new article from Coach Jon.

11 Questions with Dean Johnson
Here's the new USATT interview.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 16
Chapter 16 is now up! (This is from 1988.) "A New Era Begins for Table Tennis." "Will we see a dramatic upsurge in membership/players? Will the U.S. public overall now see table tennis as a sport and not as a game?" Here's where you can buy copies of the books by Tim Boggan for yourself.

This Ping Pong Trick Shot Compilation is Incredible
Here's the article from USA Today, which links to the trick shot video (2:21 – I linked to this last Wednesday) from Kevin Korb.

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.

Here's a Great Rally
Here's the video (52 sec, including replay), Simon Gauzy (FRA, near side) versus Panagiotis Gionis (GRE).

Here's a Tricky Serve!
Here's the video (16 sec) as Bernadette Szocs of Romania does an apparent regular backhand serve, but contacts the ball going the other way.

Jumping Backhand?
Here's the picture of Luisa Saeger of Germany.

The Leader of the Free World is Losing to Kim Jong-un!
Only you can help him.

Fitbit.com Sports Commercial
Here's the video (30 sec), with about two seconds of "Ping Fit" table tennis starting seven seconds in.

Fall Pong
Here's the picture. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Thirty Excuses for Losing a Ping-Pong Match
Here's the listing, care of the Newport TTC!

Titan Open
Here's the out-of-this world picture as Schlager takes on Xu Xin! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Epic Ping Pong with Roger Federer
Here's the video (45 sec)! It's some sort of commercial where Federer is smashing ping-pong balls over and over, but is supposed to miss – but can't!

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