September 24, 2015

Chess and Table Tennis - Seven Facts that "Pawn Sacrifice" Got Right

Here's the article – see #5, "Chess in the Ping Pong Room." Pawn Sacrifice goes out for wide release on Friday, with advance showings today. I'm looking forward to seeing it, about the life of chess champion Bobby Fischer (who was at least borderline insane). The movie focuses on his famous and controversial world championship match in 1972 with Boris Spassky – which I remember following very closely when I was 12 years old. I was for a time a serious chess player, but haven't played seriously since I was 20. I still remember playing Queens Gambit, French Defense, etc., even if I no longer remember the moves!

  • Here are two pictures of Bobby Fischer playing table tennis: photo1, photo2.
  • Here's a table tennis cartoon about the Fischer-Spassky match – note the "Bordtennis" sign, which is Swedish for table tennis.
  • Here's my article, Why Table Tennis Really Is Chess at Light Speed.
  • Here's a picture of USATT Hall of Famers John Tannehill and Dell Sweeris playing chess at the 1968 US Open. This picture is at the start of the introduction for my book, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers, with the opening lines: "Table tennis has been called chess at lightning speed. There are hundreds of books on chess tactics. Why aren't there more books devoted to table tennis tactics?" (The intro also includes the first picture above of Bobby Fischer playing table tennis.)
  • Here's a picture of former USA National Cadet Team Member Tong Tong Gong playing chess at the national chess championships a few years ago. I used to coach him – at table tennis tournaments, that is!

Milestones

Recently I've reached three milestones.

  • Published articles. In late August I had my 1600th published article. This does not include about 1200 blog entries, though it does include 235 Tips of the Week here at TableTennisCoaching.com. Here's a listing as of Sept. 1. As of today, I have 1604 published articles, along with nine books. The published articles include 1427 on table tennis, 71 science fiction & fantasy sales (plus 33 resales), and 56 non-TT non-SF&F articles.
  • Daily Hits. It's been a long, slow climb, but this month TableTennisCoaching.com is averaging over 1100 reads per day. To be exact (and not including yesterday's non-blog), it's averaging 1100.6 per day. The last few days have been a bit below average, with only 729 on Tuesday (but 1294 for Friday). I remember after my first year it was averaging about 300. (There are actually more than 1100 readers per day, as some people come in one time and read an entire week or two of blogs, but it only registers as one read.) Fridays up the average a bit as they get three days' worth of hits.
  • Tutoring. I've long known that as I get older I'd find coaching more and more physically demanding. And so I'd have to find more sedentary activities to pay the bills – such as writing. However, there's another activity I've always wanted to move more into – tutoring. I've done it for many years, mostly in math (where I've done everything from grade school through multivariable Calculus) and English (I regularly edit local players' papers for school). Recently I was hired on a regular basis to tutor one of our table tennis kids in his English writing skills, 5.5 hours/week. So it's become a regular part of my routine.

ITTF Spins and Skills

Here are new coaching videos from the ITTF.

Executing Table Tennis Shots

Just out: #5 in this series by Brett Clarke.

Decisions, Decisions: Learn to Slow Down Your Opponent

Here's the new coaching article by Samson Dubina.

Mental Pitfalls: Switch to Winning in Your Mind

Here's the table tennis sports psychology article.

Table Tennis and Age

Here's the new article by Coach Jon.

Stay at the Linq and Get a Free Event at the US Open!

Here's the USATT article.

International Training Center Network Directives and Operational Guidelines

Here's the ITTF Manual.

11 Questions with Jasna Rather

Here's the USATT Interview.

Interview with Tahl Leibovitz

Here's the USATT interview by Rahul Acharya.

USATT Board Member Anne Cribbs Named Olympic Torch Award Honoree

Here's the USATT article.

Is Table Tennis a Sport or a Game?

Here's the article.

Navin Kumar's 2016 Paralympic Table Tennis Journey

Here's the new funding page for the "Bionic Man." Here's the intro paragraph: "Hi there! My name is Navin Kumar (pronounced Nuh-VEEN KOO-mar) and I'm the first athlete in history to actively compete with Parkinson's Disease as I represent the USA in international table tennis competition as part of the Paralympic Program."

The Secret to Ping-Pong: Can it Cure Alzheimer's?

Here's the video (2 min). Here's another video (1:22) about the Alzheimer's Therapy Program that shows the benefits of table tennis.

Sean O'Neill Switches Hands

Here's the video (12 sec) from long ago, where he switches hands to smash a winner against Eric Boggan.

Cartoon Table Tennis Rackets

Here are 24 – take your pick! Personally, I like either the "I Love Books" Dragon Paddle, or the "Wham!" and "Ka-pow!" ones.

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