June 9, 2016

Tim Boggan Arrives
It seems like only January that USATT Historian and Hall of Famer Tim Boggan arrived at my house for his annual two-week stay, where I do the page layouts and photo work for his History of U.S. Table Tennis volumes. And lo and behold, it was just in January that we did Volume 17! (Yes, you heard that – he's done 17 volumes, and it's only gotten us to 1990.) So what happened? Tim's picked up the pace, partly by scanning entire pages from past USATT Magazines rather than typing them up, and then relying on me to fix up the pages so they're readable.

And so here we are, just five months later, about to do Volume 18! This one covers 1990-1991, and like past ones will likely be in the range of 450 pages with over 1000 graphics. Volume 17 was exactly 450 pages, and had exactly 1500 graphics. (I cheated – I think it had 1499, so I added one.)

In recent years, he's been covering roughly two years with each volume, and doing one volume every year. The problem is that every time he covers two years, another year goes by! At that rate it would have taken us 28 years to catch up – in the year 2044, he'd be doing Volume 44, covering 2043-2044!!! (Let's see, I'd be 84, and Tim, who is 84 now, would be 112 and in the prime of his life. Addendum: Tim informs me that he's actually 85, but likes the idea of being only 84.)

If he now does two volumes every year, then he'd be covering four years each year. At that rate, it would take him only eight years to catch up – in the year 2024 we'd be doing Volumes 33 and 34, covering 2021-2022 and 2023-2024. I'd be 64, and Tim 92.

We've been doing this for something like 17 years. We are greatly helped by fellow Hall of Famer and master photographer Mal Anderson, who not only supplies about half the photos, but does most of the photo scanning. When Tim arrives, however, he always has a few folders of photos still needing to be scanned, so I scan those. He also has a printout of the volume, with notes in the margins on where each photo goes. And so I lay out the pages, fix up the photos in Photoshop (most need a LOT of work), put the photos on the page, and type the captions and photo attributions as Tim reads them to me. It's a looooong process. I also do a one-page flyer for him, and maintain the History of U.S. Table Tennis page.

Tim keeps strange hours, typically going to bed by 8PM and getting up around 3AM. For the duration, my typical day will be: Up at 6AM; work with Tim from 7AM-2:30PM; and then do afterschool pickups & coaching, followed by various group and private coaching, typically ending around 8PM. Then I get home around 8:30PM – and go right back to work, on the next day's blog, and on the zillion other USATT and MDTTC items coming up. (Tim spends the 3-7AM period proofing the text and page layouts.)

Weekends will be problematic – I'll be away the next three Saturdays. This Saturday, June 11, I'm running the MDTTC June Open, so no work on that day. (I'll be setting up the tournament on Friday night.) I'm also running the Maryland State Championships on June 25-26. In between I'll be attending the USATT Board Meeting in New Jersey on Saturday, June 18 (driving up on Friday night). Starting June 20, schools will be out, so no afterschool program – but our MDTTC summer camps begin that day, and I'll likely be coaching at least the morning session, and working with Tim in the afternoons. Hopefully we can get it all done before the Maryland Championships, but it'll be close.

Once it's all done, circa late June, Tim will go home, and I'll set the volume up for printing via createspace.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.com. And then – things get busy again!

  • July 3-10: Coaching and playing at USA Nationals in Las Vegas. 
  • July 11-22: Coaching and managing at the USATT Supercamp at the Lily Yip TTC in Dunellen, NJ.
  • July 22-30: Attending "The Never-Ending Odyssey" writing workshop in Manchester, NH.
  • July 30-Aug. 3: Coaching at the Southern Teams and Junior Olympics in Houston.
  • Aug. 8-12: Coaching at MDTTC Summer Camps
  • Aug. 17-21: Attending World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City.
  • Aug. 22-26: Coaching at MDTTC Summer Camps

Coaching & Tutoring
Meanwhile, yesterday I had two one-hour coaching sessions, plus a 90-minute session tutoring a kid on writing. In the first coaching session, with Matt, we spent a lot of time on receive, since he'd been having trouble with certain serves in recent league matches. With Marvin, we spent nearly the entire session working on his forehand loop, with the focus on smooth acceleration and timing. And then 8-year-old Willie spent 90 minutes writing about "Larry Discovers America and Fights Indians" (he's been reading about Columbus and the discovery of the Americas) and "Larry Nukes the World" (self-explanatory, but we both now have this great idea of a machine gun that rapid fires nuclear bombs). I won't bore you with the rest of my day – let's just say many items on my todo list were checked off as I strove to get as much out of the way as possible before Tim arrives and takes up all my time (see segment above).

The Best Table Tennis Bat Cases
Here's the article from Expert Table Tennis.

First Person with Down's Syndrome to Officially Qualify as a Table Tennis Coach
Here's the article from England.

USA Nationals Deadline Approaching
The deadline to enter the USA Nationals (Las Vegas, July 4-9) is this Sunday, June 12. I'm going to make a comprehensive list of everyone who's not there, and we're going to gossip about them. Don't be on my list!!!

Jan-Ove Waldner Top Ten Exhibition Points
Here's the video (3:19) – I don't think I posted this before, but it's great!

Dominic Moore Announces Date for SmashfestV Charity Event in Toronto
Here's the article and video (57 sec). (What follows are excerpts.) Get your paddles ready, the fifth annual Smashfest charity ping-pong tournament will take place July 21 in Toronto. New York Rangers forward Dominic Moore will host the tournament once again, joined by fellow NHLPA members Jeff SkinnerAaron EkbladDarnell Nurse, and Cam Talbot, to name a few, as well as two-time tournament champion Alexandre Burrows. Said Moore, "The idea for the event came from the fact that every NHL locker room has a ping-pong table in it and guys love to play, and so we thought, why not create an event." The tournament aims to raise money and awareness for two causes: concussion research and rare cancer research and advocacy, while providing guests with a fun night filled with celebrity guests, a silent auction, and a chance to challenge their favorite NHL stars to a game of ping-pong.

NBA star Blake Griffin challenges Soo Yeon Lee to a Ping Pong Match
Here's the video (60 sec).

Changes Hands, Dives, Never Gives Up
Here's the video (38 sec) of this nice point.

Have a [Blue Paddle] Drink in Belgium?
Here's the picture! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

The Best Ever Book of Table Tennis Jokes
Here's where you can get it on Amazon. I just ordered a copy! It came out in 2012 by Mark Geoffrey Young. There's also a kindle version. The book description gives several table tennis jokes – enjoy!

Girl's Ping-Pong Ball Pillow Fight?
Here's the picture! (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

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