January 12, 2016

Long Hours for One More Week
Ever have one of those weeks where you work 18 hours/day, spend an hour on meals and other activities, and blink each night and suddenly it's morning and you have to do it again? Well, that's what it's like for me right now, while I work with Tim Boggan on his History of U.S. Table Tennis, Vol. 17 (!). My days are divided into three parts. While we generally start around 7AM, the last two mornings we've started at 6AM. We go until 2:30 PM each day. Then I'm off to the TT club to coach, afterschool program, some tutoring, etc. And then I get home, usually around 8PM or so, and my real day is just beginning as the cascades of USATT, MDTTC, SF, and other stuff keeps coming in. I haven't been to bed before 1AM this past week, usually working past 2AM, and I haven't slept past 6AM, and I've been up by 5AM several times. I'm guessing this isn't healthy, but something keeps my brain from comprehending the problem, whatever it is. (Note – last night I finally went to bed and got up at a "reasonable" time – 12:30AM and 6:30AM. Now I feel as refreshed as waking up the night after playing three days at the Teams…)

Meanwhile, I was so tired while teaching a junior class on Sunday that I kept forgetting names of players who have been in the class for some time. I've always been weak on remembering names, but jeez, it took half the session to remember who some of the kids were. (On the other hand, I could still give detailed info on their games, techniques, and what they needed to work on. Just don't ask me their names when I haven't slept since Satoh won the Worlds.)

I've actually been a bit "lucky" this past week as one student had to cancel sessions due to final exams in his private school, and another came down sick. That helped some. It also gave me less to write about in this column, which generally features coaching. Anyway, we expect hope pray to finish by this Saturday.

I had a new student today in the afterschool program, a 7-year-old who had never played before. He was enthusiastic, though he had trouble paying attention. I had to keep reminding him not to hold the racket like it was the Hammer of Thor – he grasped it so tight his arm practically trembled. It took him a while to hit a single ball in multiball, but he finally came around. What was great was how well the more experienced kids treated him, especially during breaks when they invited him to join in the type of games kids that age play during breaks – you guessed it, lots of video games.

I was going to blog today about the problems of "juniors" playing with fake birth certificates or passports – a serious problem – but I'll save that for when I'm more rested.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 17, Day 7
Another day, another 58 pages and 137 graphics cleaned up and placed as we finished chapters 15-17 of the 27 planned. At this rate we'll finish by the end of the Trump Administration. Chapter 15 really stuck out as it covered the 1990 election, which brought back a lot of both good and bad memories. It was not a good time for USATT (then still called USTTA), and all of the eight officers up for election that year and the following year were voted out in landslide elections. The biggest landslide of them all those two years? My election as USATT vice president! (However, I only spent one year on the board. They needed an editor and coaching chair, and so one year later I was asked to switch, so I resigned and took over both jobs.)

Here are the current stats:
Day 1: Tue, Jan. 5: Pages 1-20 (plus covers, so 22 pages total), 42 graphics
Day 2: Wed, Jan. 6: Pages 21-45, 25 pages, 131 graphics
Day 3: Pages 46-85, 40 pages, 126 graphics
Day 4: Pages 86-132, 47 pages, 138 graphics
Day 5: Pages 133-175, 43 pages, 141 graphics
Day 6: Pages 176-216, 41 pages, 149 graphics
Day 7: Pages 217-274, 58 pages, 137 graphics
TOTALS: 276 pages (including covers), 864 graphics, 3.13 graphics per page

Table Tennis FITNESS!!!
Here's the link to the two videos (1:18 and 1:48) from Samson Dubina.

2016 U.S. Olympic Table Tennis Trials Press Conference
Here's the article.

Chinese Squad Trials
Here's coverage from Tabletennista. They finished last week with Xu Xin coming in first, Zhang Jike second.

MHTT World Champs Buildup Diary: Day 1
Here's the Day One Diary of Matt Herrington as he prepares for the upcoming World Championships. Why not follow his daily training as he prepares to take on the best in the world? He's on the New Zealand Team, but currently training at the Lily Yip TTC.

Inspire Peace with Ping Pong Diplomacy
Here's the article.

The Dirtiest Word in Table Tennis
Here's the article from Coach Jon.

Tress Way Has Made Winning Ping-Pong Easier For Jay Cutler
Here's the article featuring the football stars.

Sheep Pong
Here's the video (70 sec) (with claymation characters from the Shaun the Sheep movie), where you also visit (I hope I got my landmarks correct!) Rome, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and Mount Fuji, while going around the world in 80 days one rally. Shaun's lobbing makes Michael Maze look somewhat less amazing.

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