June 12, 2012

Backhand Breakthrough

Yesterday a kid I was coaching had a major breakthrough. His forehand has been coming along really well, but his backhand . . . well . . . the stroke was awkward, the contact more like a jab then a stroke, often coming out dead or even with backspin. We've spent the last few weeks focusing on this. Usually it takes him about five minutes of hitting before he can start hitting it decently at even a slow pace, quite a contrast with his nice forehand, which he impatiently steps around to smash every chance since he too was getting sick of his problematic backhand.

And then, yesterday, we hit backhand to backhand, and lo and behold, it all come together. The stroke was textbook, the contact just right. We went backhand to backhand longer than usual as I wanted to really ingrain this. He'd been thinking about backhands a lot, and the visualizing seems to have worked. Let's just way I was pleasantly surprised. So was he.

He had additional incentive. I'd promised he could start working on backhand looping only after I declared his backhand "solid," and yesterday I did just that. I cautioned him that I wanted him to still focus on ingraining the regular backhand before we spend too much time on backhand loop, but next session he's going to finally get to backhand loop against backspin (multiball).

Adventures with Print on Demand and Ebooks, and No More Volunteering

I'm now an "expert" on POD and ebooks after several hours of research. Actually, I now know pretty much what I need to create and sell them. Now I have to do the page layouts, including covers. I think I will reach my goal of having all my books on sale in both formats by the end of the year - though secretly I'm toying with getting it done by the end of August. It depends on how much energy I have at night after coaching in our MDTTC training camps, which start on Monday for eleven weeks.

One side effect is that I positively, absolutely, conclusively CANNOT TAKE ON ANY MORE VOLUNTEER PROJECTS. Right now I'm trying to be a full-time table tennis coach, a tournament director (starting this fall) and organizer; a table tennis writer and blogger; and a science fiction & fantasy writer. It seems every day I get emails asking for volunteer help on something. I just don't have time or energy for everything.

I'm on USATT's Coaching, Club, and Editorial Advisory Committees, and on the U.S. Nationwide Table Tennis League Advisory Board, but the key phrase here is "Advisory." When I was asked if I'd be willing to serve on these committees I made it clear that I would be willing to as long as it was advisory as I simply wouldn't have time to take initiative on these committees.

Olympic Coach Magazine

The new issue of Olympic Coach Magazine is out, and here's your link to that issue and past ones.

Table Tennis Gifs

Here are some great table tennis gifs. (Gifs are animated pictures.) Why are there so many cats?

$45,000 Ping-Pong Table

Here's the story! What makes it so expensive? The table is made of black rubber to make it extra bouncy. Here's a better picture of it. And here's a video advertisement for the table (1:46).

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