February 6, 2017

Tip of the Week
Top Ten Ways to Win and Lose a Match. (As explained in my Dec. 28 blog in the Tip of the Week, I'm putting up extra Tips of the Week and post-dating them for earlier in December so I'll end up with 150 Tips for the period 2014-2016. So today's Tip of the Week is dated Dec. 31. This is the last one, so now we can finally celebrate the New Year!)

More Table Tennis Tips
I've spent much of the last few days formatting my next table tennis book, the creatively titled "More Table Tennis Tips." This has the 150 Tips of the Week I've written over the last three years, 2014-2016, but put together in logical progression. This is both a sequel and companion piece to my previous book, "Table Tennis Tips," which had the 150 Tips from 2011-2013. Both go with another of my books, "Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers." (Yes, shameless book promotion!)

This tips in this volume range over nine basic topics: Serving, Receiving, Strokes, Footwork and Ready Position, Tactics, How to Improve, Sports Psychology, Equipment, and Tournaments. It's about 73,000 words, and will likely be about as many pages as its predecessor, which was 228.

I hope to finalize the pages today, then print out and proof over the next few days. Then I'll be contacting some of my regular proofers (some are learning about this for the first time as they read this!) to see if they are available for proofing. If all goes well, it'll be out perhaps by the end of the month.

The Super Bowl really helped my work! Normally I coach until 8:30PM on Sundays, but because of the Super Bowl we didn't have two 90-minute group sessions, and so I finished at 5:30PM, came home, and worked on the book. I actually did watch some of the Super Bowl, interspersed with work.

Now some venting: The formatting is tedious!!! First, I had to organize all 150 of the tips into the nine categories above, which was rather time consuming, and tricky since some could fit in more than one category. Next they had to be organized in logical fashion inside each chapter. Then came the actual formatting for the pages, another huge project. Besides all the headings, the paragraphs had to be switched from online format (line space between paragraphs, no indent) to print format (no line space between paragraphs, indent each paragraph). With all the headings and bulleted lists, I couldn't do a global change, so had to do it page by page. There were a couple dozen other items on the "todo" list to fix up, but most are done.

Next big job: the covers. I have a rather crazy idea for the front cover, and may start playing around with it tonight. It involves pictures of animals learning table tennis! If it's too silly for the front cover, perhaps it'll be on the back cover.

Europe Top 16 Championships
Here's the home page for the event held this past weekend in Antibes, France, with complete results. Here's the news page with lots of articles. Congratulations to Li Jie and Dimitrij Ovtcharov!

Controversy at Europe Top 16 - Simon Gauzy vs Alexander Shibaev (Semifinals)
Here's video starting at 9-all in the sixth, the next-to-last point in the match. Gauzy thinks he's won a lucky point, but umpire (and video) say it missed, hitting the net's clamp, not the table. He's not happy. After the match he and Shibaev have a confrontation.

Devastate the One Wing Looper
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

Tom's Table Tennis Newsletter
Here's the new issue, which includes links to numerous coaching articles, including one of mine.

History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 18 (1990-1991)
Here's chapter 20! Or order your own print copies at TimBogganTableTennis.com.

Samsonov Promotes India Open with Ball Bouncing
Here's the video (18 sec) as he bounces the ball off the bottom of the handle of his racket and then invites you to come to the tournament.

Tom Brady and Table Tennis
Google "Tom Brady table tennis," and read all the articles about the Tom Brady - Danny Amendola table tennis feud from last June! It seems to have started with this article and video interview (1:58), where Amendola, one of Brady's "trusted wide receivers," talks about Brady having a meltdown after losing to him at ping-pong. (The follow-up article are about Brady's demands for a rematch.) Here's the pertinent quote from Amendola:

"He’s the best teammate. He’s so competitive and what not. I remember one story, it was my first week in the building, he wanted to play some ping ping. I didn’t really know how to go about it. I know I was better than him, I didn’t want to beat him too bad, because I wanted him to throw me the ball."

"I knew I was better. Needless to say, his competitive nature unleashed a broken paddle by the end of it. It the reason why we love him, and the reason why he’s the best quarterback."

For the record, in the Super Bowl Danny Amendola caught eight passes for 78 yards, one touchdown, and a two-point conversion.

Pizza Hut Super Bowl Commercial 2017 George Takei Oh My
Here's the Super Bowl Commercial (45 sec), where table tennis takes place twice! At 18 sec and 38 sec. Technically speaking, isn't this the greatest showing of table tennis in history, with over 110 million Americans and until numbers worldwide watching this table tennis extravaganza, with football mixed in?

Comedian Frank Caliendo Loses 60 Pounds from Ping-Pong and Does Trump Impression
Here's the part where he says, "I've lost like 60 pounds," and in response to the question of how, says, "Running and ping-pong." He then talks about table tennis for about 20 seconds. (I once played doubles with him!)

Not USUALLY a Contact Sport
Here's the video (10 sec) as Adam Bobrow smashes and his opponent (Kai?) runs into camera!

Shoe Pong?
Here's the video (1:36) as Adam Bobrow's opponent (Kai?) removes his shoe about 20 seconds in and begins to play with it - with a unique twist near the end!

Around-the-Table Pot Pong
Here's the video (16 sec) as five players circle an improvised table, rallying with pots!

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