June 24, 2016

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18 – DONE!!! (and Cleaning Up Eyebrows???)
Our My long national nightmare is over. For the past two years weeks, as readers of this blog know, I've been working with USATT Historian Tim Boggan on this volume, and it's done, complete, out the door! Soon it'll join the other 17 volumes at the History of U.S. Table Tennis page, now that it's finished.

Well, almost.

We got through all of Tim's edits yesterday, and finished at 444 pages and 1548 graphics. Then, last night, I spent an hour getting it ready for printing via Createpace.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.com. (This is how I now publish my table tennis books.) But Tim is doing a final proofing, and promises to get back to me with any final edits by Monday. Then I input those, and upload the files to Createspace.com. Within two days it'll get approved for print, and then I order a proof copy sent to Tim. He gives it a final lookover, and then we can order copies.

Life does become fun around that time. I'll be at the USA Nationals in Las Vegas July 3-10; at the USATT Supercamp in New Jersey July 11-22; at a writing workshop in Manchester, New Hampshire, July 22-30; and coaching at the Junior Olympics in Houston Aug. 1-3. If there are any complication on the book that drag into this time, things get complicated.  

Now about those photos. Tim can be pretty picky about things. He notices things that take superhuman senses to notice. We'll bring up a picture on the screen of Eric Boggan playing Dan Seemiller, and I'll notice the quality of the pictures, the action, and so on. Tim? He'll point out the blemish on the floor ("Take it out!"), a window or light in the background ("Take it out!"), the bored-looking spectator ("Take him out!"). I spend a lot of time removing and fixing stuff. He also notices any imperfections that need to be perfected. Yesterday he had me zoom in on a picture of former Iranian champion and USA Team Captain Houshang Bozorgzadeh and (I kid you not) had me darken his eyebrows! (He agreed to let the world know of this. He left early this morning to return to New York.)

The last few days were a bit difficult as I was working with him, coaching at the MDTTC camp, and trying to do all my other work. It got done, and all would be well if I could now sleep for a few days . . . except tomorrow I'll be coaching at the MDTTC camp, and then this weekend running the $5000 Maryland State Championships. (I'm still accepting entries for most events until 6PM tonight.) I cannot wait for Monday . . . except, uh oh, we have another camp all next week, 10AM-6PM. (So I'm counting the minutes until I leave for the USA Nationals in nine days…13,680 to go as of 6:28AM this morning. Of course, right after posting this blog I'm also off to the club to coach at this week's camp.)

Maryland Table Tennis Center Camps
We have camps all summer long at MDTTC. Here's a group picture from Week One, which finishes today. Then we do it all over again the next week; and the next; and so on, all summer! (Only exception – no camp July 4-8, since all the coaches, including me, will be coaching our players at the USA Nationals in Las Vegas.)

Goal-Setting for Drills
Here's the coaching article by Samson Dubina.

USATT Board of Directors Meeting Actions
Here's the list of the two actual actions taken at the June 18 board meeting in New Jersey. (I'm a member of the USATT board.) We met for roughly eight hours, with most of the meeting take up with various reports, as I blogged about on Tuesday. (Here is the USATT Minutes page.)

Experienced Olympians Head List for ITTF-North America Cup
Here's the article.

Zhang Jike Knocked Out of ITTF World Tour Korea Open
Here's the ITTF press release, and here's the home page for the Korea Open. (Side note – Timo Boll just got knocked out as well. Both lost in the first round of the main draw.)

2016 Para Spanish Open Slide Show
Here are the pictures, featuring Team USA.

1947 Table Tennis
Here's the video (10:06). I didn't watch it all, but it starts off with Hungarian Ferenc Sido (big guy on left) apparently defeating Lou Pagliaro in the semifinals of the 1947 Worlds. This was five years before Satoh and sponge at the 1952 Worlds changed everything.

Zhang Jike & Ma Long Training
Here's the video (20:55).

Police Pong
Here's the picture from England. (Here's the non-Facebook version.)

Hermit Crab Pong?
Here's a picture and short article about an actual hermit crab using a broken ping-pong ball as his home! (Click on image to see larger and incredibly detailed image.)

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