January 17, 2014
Flu and Coaching
I'm mostly recovered from the flu, but still pretty exhausted by it. What have I learned from this experience? 1) Flu bad; 2) Get Flu shot; 3) Flu very bad; 4) Flu very very bad; 5) Flu VERY very very bad.
On Wednesday I could barely eat anything. I managed to eat a blueberry muffin for breakfast, but almost threw it up. For lunch I tried a bowl of chicken rice soup, but gave up after two spoonfuls. I then realized there were only two things I could imagine eating at that time - fruit and vanilla pudding. I'm not kidding. So I sent Tim Boggan to the supermarket. And so for dinner I had a bowl of fruit and two cups of vanilla pudding.
After a height of 103 on Tuesday night, my fever hovered around 102 all day on Wednesday, dropping to about 101 a few times. I have an electronic thermometer, and having nothing better to do, I compulsively took my temperature about every two minutes or so. (Well, it seemed that often.) Late on Wednesday night the temperature dropped to about 100. Thursday morning it was down to 99, compared to my norm of about 97, which is where it's at now.
Besides nonstop agony, there was the extreme boredom. My head was on fire, and reading or watching TV made it worse. I tried a crossword puzzle, and my head almost exploded. I couldn't get out of bed without nearly collapsing in exhaustion after five steps. When I did get out of bed, I'd need ten minutes in bed to catch my breath. When I heard I'd won one of the Coach of the Year awards, did I go, "YAY!"? No, I went, 'yay,' and crawled back into bed, groaning.
Did I mention anywhere that the flu isn't fun?
So here's my public service announcement to all humankind: Get Your Flu Shots!!!
And to John Olsen and Kevin Walton, who were surprised several months ago that I hadn't had a flu shot, and who I told I hadn't bothered because I hadn't had the flu in decades, well, let's keep that a secret between us, okay?
I do have to make a decision this morning on my coaching tonight. I'd already cancelled all my Wed and Thur sessions; I've got 1.5 hours scheduled Friday night, but can I do it? The flu is basically gone, but I don't know yet how much energy I'll have, plus I could still be infectious; I don't know. The same goes for the weekend. There is the argument that when coaching, you spend much of your time ten feet from your player, but not always. Maybe I should wear one of these paper masks you sometimes see people wearing on the streets; I think it's more common in China than the U.S. (Who is that masked man? It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's just Coach Larry; move along, nothing to see.)
Now that I'm getting over the flu, hopefully my blog can go back to featuring coaching again, instead of adventures in fluland. It's the daily coaching that gives the fuel for the blog. I was planning on blogging this morning about "Do as I say, not as I do," but I'll do that one in a later blog, when I have more energy and my mind is clearer. (This is regarding coaching, i.e. a good coach knows what to say, but can't always do it himself the way he wants you do so. I'm jealous of many top coaches who were former top players with near perfect technique; they can usually teach it as "Do as I do." For example, my forehand loop may get the job done at a 2200 level, but is rather ragged because of muscle stiffness, and I'd never want a student to copy that.)
Tim Boggan
Now the bad news. Tim (83) began coughing yesterday afternoon, and it got worse during the night. I'm taking him to see a doctor this morning. He had his flu shots.
History of U.S. Table Tennis, Volume 14
We missed all of Wednesday since I was sick in bed (did I mention flu is bad?), so we're way behind. However, I got up on my own at 5AM Thursday, and we somehow did four chapters yesterday. So we've done the covers, the preliminary stuff (foreword, acknowledgements, etc.), and the first nine chapters out of the 30. The bad news is we were scheduled to at least twelve done by now. So we're almost a day behind. (Because of my coaching hours, we don't expect to get much done on weekends.) We were planning on finishing by next Friday, but that's doubtful, since we need at least a day or two to input corrections and do pre-press work.
The latest chapter is fascinating as it covers some of the behind-the-scenes squabbling that took place at the 1985 World Championships, which culminated in the USA team leader taking two players and two officials to the USTTA disciplinary committee, and that official getting taken there as well by one of the officials he'd taken there. Lots of "he said, she said" stuff, but the disciplinary committee dismissed everything, and everyone lived happily ever after. Well, not really; some of these people have great animosity toward each other to this day. (For the record, I wasn't involved in any of this, but I knew all the people involved rather well.) The Team Leader accused players of not trying, of bad language, and other unsportsmanlike conduct; he in turn was accused of various transgressions, the most interesting was opening rooting for an opposing player (a friend of the USA team leader) against a U.S. team member who the team leader didn't get along with.
Sound interesting? Volume 14 should be available in a few weeks! (No, I don't get any commission.) Here's where you can find more info on Tim Boggan's History of U.S. Table Tennis books. (I maintain the page for him.)
Ping-Pong Diplomacy Video
Here's a video (6 min) on Five Things You Should Know about Ping-Pong Diplomacy." I watched it with Tim Boggan, who said there was only one inaccuracy. According to the video, Zhuang Zedong waved Glenn Cowan onto the bus. However, Tim said that Glenn didn't recognize the one who waved him on (a seminal moment in table tennis history, added Tim), and he would have recognized Zhuang, and that whoever actually did so is an historical mystery.
2014 Aurora Open
Here are two more of Barbara Wei's article featuring the Aurora Open this weekend. Here's one on the powerhouse Lindenwood team, and here's one that features 3-time U.S. Men's Champion Jim Butler, who hopes to cause a few upsets. Wish I could be there! (There should be another going up later this morning, but too late for the blog, alas - though I might add it later. And here it is: 2014 Aurora Cup a Family Affair for Top Seeded Junior Nathan Hsu. Nathan's from my club! I sometimes coach him at tournaments.)
RIP Warren Wetzler
Here's the article. Many know him from tournaments, or via his son, John.
David's Story - an ITTF Documentary
Here's the video (4 min) of a Papua New Guinean table tennis player and his quest for gold.
Swing Ping?
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