February 11, 2013

Tip of the Week

Winning with Backspin for the Non-Chopper.

Now Available - Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers

It is with great happiness (and irritation!) that I announce that Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers is now on sale at amazon.com. So now's your chance to buy it - $17.95 for 240 pages, 21 chapters, 102,000 words, 90 photos!

Let's make that bigger:

Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers - Now on Sale!

 

Why the irritation? It's hard to believe, but after all the proofing I'd done, I found a minor typo on the first page near the start. I've already uploaded a new version, fixing that and one other minor change (bolding the names of the six members of the Editorial Board). Apparently I can upload new versions whenever I want, but it'll take a few days for the new version to go live. So here's your chance to get the very short-lived version v02-05-03 (that's the version listed in the title page) before version v02-10-13 goes live. Possibly a collector's item!

There's also a text-only kindle version. I expect to have a new version with photos in a few weeks, and amazon should allow a free download of the new version to anyone who bought the text-only version. (I can't guarantee this, but they said they would if there were major changes, and going from a text-only version to adding the 90 photos is a major change.) As noted in previous blogs, I ran into technical problems with the photos in the kindle version, but have figured out how to fix it, when I have time. (Don't have time right now since I'm working all day with Tim Boggan on the page layouts of his new History of U.S. Table Tennis, Vol. 13. We expect to finish in about a week.)

Here's the Table of Contents:

Introduction
Chapter 1............................................................................... Tactical Thinking
Chapter 2............................................................................... Strategic Thinking
Chapter 3............................................................................... Your Tactical Game
Chapter 4............................................................................... All About Spin
Chapter 5 .............................................................................. Beginning Tactics
Chapter 6............................................................................... Conventional Tactics
Chapter 7............................................................................... Tactical Examples
Chapter 8............................................................................... Service Tactics
Chapter 9............................................................................... Receive Tactics
Chapter 10............................................................................. Rallying Tactics
Chapter 11............................................................................. Different Grips
Chapter 12............................................................................. Pushing
Chapter 13............................................................................. Loopers
Chapter 14............................................................................. Blockers, Counter-Drivers, and Hitters
Chapter 15............................................................................. Choppers
Chapter 16............................................................................. Fishers and Lobbers
Chapter 17............................................................................. Non-Inverted Surfaces
Chapter 18............................................................................. Hardbat Tactics
Chapter 19............................................................................. Doubles Tactics
Chapter 20............................................................................. Tournament Tactics
Chapter 21............................................................................. Coaching Tournament Matches
Afterword.............................................................................. Tactical & Strategic Thinking Revisited
Glossary Table Tennis Terminology
Appendix............................................................................... Recommended Reading
About the Author
Index

USA Team Trials Results

The Trials are DONE! Here's the home page, with complete results and other info. Who made the team? It's a bit complicated. Here are the USATT rules on this, from the Trials page:

  • The size of the Worlds team will be 5 (five) athletes/gender. USATT will fully fund 3 athletes/gender qualified through the above mentioned criteria/order
  • The 4th and 5th athlete/gender will be self-funded 
  • The 5th athlete/gender will be coach’s pick

And here is the actual order of finish:

Men's Final Placement

  1. Wang, Timothy (ICC) 10-1 
  2. Zhang, Yahao (TWUTTC) 9-2
  3. Nguyen, Khoa Dinh (TopSpin) 9-2
  4. Li, Peter (iTable Tennis) 7-4
  5. Butler, Jim (Houston TTC) 7-4
  6. Hazinski, Mark (TWUTTC) 6-5 
  7. Dubina, Samson David (Strongsville TT) 5-6
  8. Jha, Kanak (WCTTA) 3-8 
  9. Chodri, Kunal (WCTTA) 3-8 
  10. Cretu, Razvan (TWUTTC) 3-8 
  11. Tran, De C. (Wang Chen Table Tennis Club) 3-8
  12. Ding, Billy Xu (Seattle Pacific TTC) 1-10

Women's Final Placement

  1. Zhang, Lily (ICC) 11-0
  2. Wu, Erica S. (Gao Jun TTC) 10-1
  3. Hsing, Ariel (iTable Tennis) 9-2
  4. Jha, Prachi (WCTTA) 8-3 
  5. Lin, Tina (Lily Yip TTC) 6-5 
  6. Guan, Angela (ICC) 6-5 
  7. Jiang, Diane (iTable Tennis) 3-8 
  8. Li, Joy (XTTS) 3-8
  9. Ma, Lucy (Seattle Pacific TTC) 3-8 
  10. Chu, Isabel (WCTTA) 3-8
  11. Leitman, Marina (TopSpin) 3-8
  12. Malek, Amanda (Power Pong) 1-10 

Zhuang Zedong

Three-time World Men's Singles Champion (1961, 1963, 1965) and Legend Zhuang Zedong died of colon cancer yesterday. Here's an article in the Washington Post. Zhuang not only dominated table tennis for most of the 1960s, he was also a key figure in the lead-up to Ping-Pong Diplomacy in 1971.

New ITTF Coaching Courses in USA

There's another ITTF Level 2 Course scheduled in the U.S., in Atlanta. Below are all three now scheduled for 2013. (There might be more.) All are taught by Richard McAfee. Here is more info on the courses.

Chinese Team Celebrates Chinese New Year

Here's an article about it. (Yesterday was the Chinese New Year.) And here's an article on why Zhang Jike might not be home for Chinese New Year.

Biba!

Here's a dramatic table tennis music video (1:35) on Biba!

Peanut-Shaped Table Around the World

Here's the picture!

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