March 14, 2016

Tip of the Week
Outlining the Book on Your Game.

Wild Weekend
I had a rather busy table tennis weekend. Here's a rundown.

FRIDAY: After spending most of the day slaving away at my desk on various issues, I left at 2:30 for the afterschool program (school pickups and coaching at MDTTC) and 30 minutes of English tutoring, finishing at 5:30PM. Then I was off for the Potomac Community Center, half an hour away, for a two-hour demonstration/clinic with 30-40 kids, as part of their Club Friday Program. (This was the third one we've done over the past five weeks.) Great thanks goes to Herman Yeh (president of the Potomac TTC, which meets there) for setting this up, and local volunteers Gary Schlager and others who helped out.

SATURDAY: This was a crazy day - the day Navin Kumar played on the robot for 16 straight hours!!! He did this at the Maryland Table Tennis Center to raise $1600 for an upcoming Paralympic trip to Romania - he has both a mechanical heart and Parkinson's. Here's his funding page, which also explains his situation in more detail. (I think we raised another $420 directly during the marathon.) I was there the entire time, arriving at 6:30 AM to set up, and then from 7AM-11PM for the actual marathon. (Navin will likely do a write-up of this, probably for tomorrow's blog.) So, what did I do while Navin hit approximately 60,000 balls? I did my own writing marathon, where I completed the following eleven articles:

  • Wrote five coaching articles for upcoming Tips of the Week - four of them were pretty long;
  • Finalized article/letter to clubs and for the USATT website and insider, about leagues and state championships;
  • Wrote most of this morning's blog (which you are reading now), including most of the links.
  • Wrote an article for the "Live to Read" blog, as a way to promote my recent science fiction novel Campaign 2100: Game of Scorpions - it should go up sometime this week. It's about the "Big Ideas" in the novel - the problems with a two-party electoral system, and moderation in politics.
  • Wrote an analysis of the opening chapter of Robert J. Sawyer's recent SF novel Quantum Night, which I put up this morning in my science fiction blog. It basically explained why a seemingly boring opening - a professor lecturing a college class - was such a compelling read. Great novel about neuroscience, psychopaths, and the nature of consciousness itself.
  • Wrote one of my regular Top Ten Lists for Orioles Hangout, a regular column I do for them.
  • Wrote a new science fiction story, "Theatre of Death."

SUNDAY: Both of my usual Sunday students were away, so it should have been a slow Sunday, right? Well, not really. First, of course, we lost an hour to Daylight Savings Time. Then I had an exhibition for the Chinese School at Hoover Middle School, which I did with John Hsu, with Wen Hsu also helping out.

I did the usual opening talk about table tennis, questioning them (with a show of hands) on how many of them had played before, been to clubs, had coaching, knew that China dominated table tennis (after first trying to convince that USA did), that it was an Olympic sport, and that they could come to camps at nearby MDTTC. Then John and I demoed the strokes. Then I went into my "A terrible thing has happened" spiel, where I explained that after years of training, John now had a big head, and thought he could be me! Then we had the challenge match, where he played straight man while I went through my usual antics – big paddle, little paddle, long-distance serving, rolling around on the floor, arguing with the umpire, under-the-leg serves, rallying by myself with two paddles, blowing the ball over the net, etc.

One small detail I neglected to mention – due to a last-minute problem, they weren't able to get a regular table to the school – and so Wen packed up and brought over a mini-table! Yep, the entire demo/exhibition was on a mini-table. And yet it went pretty much as if it were on a full-sized table. (I explained to the kids that this wasn't the normal size, but they all knew that.)

After that was a pair of 90-minute group sessions - a junior class and then adult training. It wasn't planned, but I seemed to spend much of the session working on players' backswings - some were too short, some too long, one too much straight back, and one waited too long to begin his. After spending 16 hours sitting in a chair writing on Saturday, my back was killing me, so it wasn't an easy day.

Table Tennis Optimal Serving Mechanics - Like a Boss!
Here's the new coaching video from Brett Clarke. An excellent demo and explanation of the mechanics of serving.

Don't Make Me Mad... Mentally Strong vs Mentally Weak
Here's the new coaching article from Samson Dubina.

Dima Ovtcharov Table Tennis Backhand Tutorial (part one)
Here's the new video (5:38).

Obituary for James Verta 1916-2015
Here's the USATT article and pictures, by Barbara Kaminsky. This one caught me off guard - somehow I hadn't heard he'd died, even though it was almost a year ago. Jim was nice enough to hit with me regularly back when I started out in 1976. He was the reigning U.S. Over 60 champion at the time. He was later a regular at the Maryland Table Tennis Center our first ten years or so, regularly showing up with Herb Horton, Bob Kaminsky, and sometimes others to play table tennis and bridge - we even kept a card table at the club just for them. He was also a financial backer of the club early on.

The Table Tennis Tournament Tot
Here's the new article from Coach Jon. "USATT should stop sanctioning tournaments in which adults compete against children!"

Review - 2016 World Team TT Championships
Here's the article from Ping Pong Ruler.

2016 World Championships Breaks TV Viewership Records
Here's the ITTF press release.

DHS Top 10 - Perfect 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships
Here's the new video (5:45).

2016 World Team Championships - Men's Final: China vs. Japan
​Here's the complete video (2:10:56) - relive it now!

The Comic and the Ping Pong Champ
Here's the article from the New York Times, featuring Judah Friedlander and Wu Yue.

The First Ever Chicago Table Tennis League Nears the End of Its Season
Here's the USATT article.

Spin Will Let You Play Ping-Pong While You Drink
Here's the article from Chicago Magazine on Spin Chicago, the new Susan Sarandon-backed bar.

Does Your Office Need To Ditch The Ping-Pong Table?
Here's the article from Forbes Magazine.

How Table Tennis is Keeping This Group of Retirees Young
Here's the article from the Daily Journal in Kankakee, IL.

Augusta Table Tennis Classic Slideshow
Here are the links.

Table Tennis to Explore Possible Restructure of Major Events
Here's the article from Inside the Games.

Lily Zhang Road to Rio
Here's the repeating gif image from NBC Olympics.

Ping Pong Power
Here's the new video (43 sec) from Sweden, which seems to be about the upcoming 2018 World Cup in Halmstad.

What Type of Handle is This?
Here's the picture from Mike Mezyan. (Here's the non-Facebook version.) Is it a bottle opener? One of the Moai statues from Easter Island? (Or perhaps the Great Kahuna from Sherman's Lagoon.) Or, if you turn it upside down, perhaps the baby alien from Alien? Or maybe it's just a ping-pong paddle handle.

Ping Pong Pi Day!
Yes, today (3.14) is pi day!

Table Tennis Spiderboy!
Here's the video (42 sec) as he bounces ball against side of table like a pro.

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