April 28, 2016

No Blog on Friday
I'll be out of town at Ravencon - see segment below under "Now the science fiction stuff…"

Happenings
First the serious stuff…

• I wrote about how Sameer had a great tournament this past weekend, going from 1528 to 1826. He dominated with his serves, but I see a great opening for him if he develops his reverse pendulum serves – which we're going to focus on in today's session. He also had some trouble with players who played aggressively with deader surfaces, and so I'm going to pull out a sheet of short pips for him to practice against. There's a couple of other things he needs work on, but I can't write about them here or others might tactically use them against him!
• Another student, Matt, is developing an inside-out backhand sidespin loop that you have to see to believe. Every time he pulls off this shot I practically freeze, as I'm not used to seeing it, and my muscle memory doesn't know what to do. I keep telling him this shot will make him world champion, and that the shot has no future. That way I'm covered no matter what happens.
• Recently a number of up-and-coming players at MDTTC have discovered the adjustable serving bar John Olsen had made for me a few years ago. You set the bar at various heights and serve under it, which forces you to learn to serve low to the net. (Here's a picture at a high setting, and here at a low setting.) Now they bring it out every day to practice with.

Now the funny stuff…

• While coaching yesterday one of my students, age 10, got it into his mind that he wanted to do an under-the-leg shot. But he timed it wrong, and smacked his playing hand into his foot. He had to walk around for a bit, waving his hand in pain. Table tennis is a dangerous sport.
• One of the kids in one of my junior classes (age 9) is a big World War II history buff. He knows everything about it! (Just yesterday he was lecturing me on the differences between the German Tiger tank and the American Sherman tank.) Yesterday, during a break, I made the following aside to him: "Do you realize that Adolf Hitler died in 1945, seven years before the introduction of sponge rubber – and so he never knew about table tennis sponge or looping?" I also (jokingly) explained that no one knows whether Hitler ever played table tennis, that it was one of the ongoing mysteries "lost to the ravages of time." After the session I had a 30-minute English tutoring session with him, where he was to work on his creative writing. So what did he write about? His story was "Trump vs. Hitler," and imagined a huge battle between the two – where both were zombies! It ended with them teaming up. Then I show up in the story, only to get nuked as they win World War II. But then three others from the group session came over and wanted to write something – and soon we had four different stories, all involving Hitler and Trump! I featured prominently in three of them. In one, Trump introduces me to Hitler, and I give Hitler a World War II history book, and he then uses it to win the war. It ends with Hitler nuking me (they like to nuke me), and he and Trump rule the world. Another involves me battling with Hitler, and he somehow turns my arm into a zombie arm, and I get strangled by my own arm. (On a side note, mocking Trump has been an ongoing source of amusement for the kids. Maybe they got that from me.) 

Now the movie stuff…

• On Tuesday night I saw the movie "Eye in the Sky." (Great movie.) There was a nice table tennis scene where they have to contact the U.S. Secretary of State, who's in China. When they reach him, he's at some table tennis event, with the press videoing him as he plays in some table tennis training hall with a group of players, all dressed stereotypically in all red. One "distraction" for me was that one of the characters was Gavin Hood – and he's the spitting image of Jan-Ove Waldner! (As a fiction writer myself, I saw the ending way in advance, but I won't spoil that for you.) There were also scenes of the late Alan Rickman that were is reminiscent of some USATT board meetings as he argues with bureaucrats.
• I have a long history of strange things happening to me at movie theaters – perhaps because I see so many, better than one per week. It's not table tennis, but perhaps I should blog about these incidents over the years at theaters, such as: getting sucker-punched by someone, who I clobbered (I have boxing experience), and he ran away; a huge fight breaking out a few rows behind me; someone systematically destroying my bike while I was watching a movie; and sitting in a vast, empty theater to watch a movie, and at the last minute someone I don't know comes in – and sits right next to me! (That inspired a science fiction story I wrote recently, but haven't sold yet.)

Now the science fiction stuff…

• This weekend (Fri-Sun) I'll be a panelist at the Ravencon Science Fiction Convention in Williamsburg, Virginia, about three hours away. I'll be there to promote my SF novel, Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions. (As I've blogged many times, it has a lot of table tennis.) I'm on four panels, plus a "book launch" party and reading for the novel. The panels I'm on are: "First Contact and Politics" (I'm the moderator for this one); "Time Travel: Essential Books and Stories"; "Worldbuilding: Creating Fictional Political Systems"; and "Writing Humorous SF." Here's my Ravencon Writer Guest Bio. (I was originally helping with a writing workshop for writers on Sunday, but I had to drop out of that so I can drive back in time for my Sunday afternoon coaching classes, which run from 4-8PM.)
• Because I'll be leaving early Friday morning for the convention, I won't have a blog on Friday. 
• Want to know how to support a table tennis and science fiction writer? Buy his books!!!

Upcoming State Championships
This weekend is the Arizona State Championships!

The Professional Backhand and Radio Interview
Here's the new coaching video (1:44) from Samson Dubina. And here's his radio interview with WAKR, where he talks about Akron table tennis.

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #259 (19:55) - Keeping It Low (and other segments).

Strengthening Wrists: Tips and Exercises [for Table Tennis]
Here's the article (with links to video).

Hand (Body) – Eye Coordination (for Table Tennis)
Here's the article. "Eyes on the ball, a racket in hand, table tennis naturally promotes the coordination of the eye and body and ultimately the hand, with which the player strikes, strokes, spins, smashes, brushes, blocks, chop, chip, and return the ball to the opponent's side of the table."

Super Smart Ping Pong Table Teaches You How to Play Like a Pro
Here's the article and video (2:16) on this new "smart" table.

Jimmy Fallon Pays Tribute to Prince
Here's the article and video (9:15). "Jimmy celebrates the life and music of Prince by sharing a memorable story of when the Purple One randomly challenged him to a game of ping-pong."

Asia's Top Players Getting Ready for the Nakheel 2016 ITTF-Asian Cup
Here's the video (15:42). How many do you recognize?

Xi En Chamber Demonstrates "Shaking Ball"
Here's the video (2:03) – it's in Chinese, but interesting to watch the trick shot he demos, and other footage.

2016 All America Over 40 Tour Vegas Valley Over 40 Table Tennis Open
Here's the USATT article.

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.

The Five Excuses When Losing at Table Tennis
Here's the new chart from Mike Mezyan. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Ping-Pong Time-Stopping Exhibition
Here's the video (1:38) – watch what happens about 15 sec in! (I might have linked to this before, long ago.)

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