December 3, 2012

Tip of the Week

The Backhand Loop and Hit One-Two Punch.

Time-Wasting Stuff

This last month I've had so many things to do, and so many didn't get done because of too much time-wasting stuff. This has had a detrimental effect on finalizing my new book Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers (which should be done before the Nationals, but I probably won't have copies there), doing some video coaching and analysis, and various MDTTC and other table tennis activities. Here are some of the things that have wasted my time the past few weeks.

  • I spent much of last week with a cold.
  • Thanksgiving, the Teams (three days), and the exhaustion that comes from it.
  • I'm always getting requests for table tennis info. Some of it is easy and doesn't really take up time. Others are more time consuming. For example, someone wanted to know what year the USATT ratings started. That took some research - as near as I can tell, the plan came out in 1972, and they were published for the first time in 1973. (I started in 1976, so this was just before my time.) Even Tim Boggan didn't know of the top of his head, so I did the research myself, mostly by going through his history books.
  • A guy on Facebook posted a note attacking Chinese students. Apparently there's this group that believes that the vast majority of Chinese college students in the U.S. are infiltrators sent here by the Chinese government, they are nearly all economics majors, and that they are here to take over the U.S.  I asked what his evidence was, and pointed out that I work with many of these Chinese students, and they seem pretty normal to me. The response was about two days of all-out attacks on me by two idiots, who claimed I was a backer of the Chinese and Korean governments and other made-up stuff. What a waste of time that was. I can no longer even see the attacks as the two later blocked me. Much of it was later deleted by Facebook after I complained - there was some nasty stuff.
  • Christmas shopping.
  • Working and reworking out dates for the MDTTC Tournament schedule. We actually worked them out a while ago, but there were some conflicts, and we had to change most of them.
  • It seems every time I'm about to get some work done, I get an unexpected coaching request. Well, at least they are paying for it!
  • Too many good movies out there. You can't seriously expect me to continue to exist without seeing Argo, Flight, Killing Them Softly, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Red Dawn, Rise of the Guardians, Skyfall, and Wreck-It-Ralph? (We can ignore the Twilight saga, of course.) Yeah, I use movies as a break, and see about one a week. (Always with a small popcorn, easy on the butter, and a small cherry coke.)

The Physical Side of Table Tennis

Here's an article by Seth Pech, The Physical Aspect of My Table Tennis Game. He talks about endurance, speed, and strength, why they are needed, and how to develop them.

Mike Dempsey Memorial Open Page

Here's the home page, with results, articles, and photos.

USA Junior Girls Reached #2

In November, the U.S. junior girls team, led by Ariel Hsing and Lily Zhang, were tied with Japan for #2 in the world in junior girls teams, behind China. Here's the world team ranking list (set it for U18 Girls and for November). In the new December rankings, they dropped to a tie for fifth with Hong Kong

USA Sandpaper Team

Sandpaper stars Ty Hoff and Adoni Maropis (yeah, the actor who nuked part of California in "24" and later became a national hardbat champion) will represent the U.S. at the 2013 World Championships of Ping Pong, Jan. 5-6, 2013, in London. Here's the news release.

Dr. Phil vs. Billy Bush

Here's the ping-pong battle of the Titans (4:06) - the two TV talk show hosts go at it here. Check out Dr. Phil's ping-pong ball shirt!

Tower Table Tennis

If you thought lobbing was a dangerous way to score a point, try lobbing in this high-altitude game!

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