May 25, 2012

Table Tennis Tactics: A Thinker's Guide

It's done! Okay, not really. I finished the final proofing around 3AM this morning. I'm sure I'll continue to fiddle with it; within minutes after getting up this morning I added some material to the chapter on doubles tactics. I have finalized the title, at least until and unless I change my mind.

Final version (for now) is 97,768 words. How long is that?

  • 12-point Times Roman, double spaced: 318 pages
  • 12-point Courier, double spaced: 420 pages
  • Twice as long as my Table Tennis: Steps to Success book (48,192 words)
  • 978 KB on my computer in Word format (just under a megabyte)
  • 544,527 characters. (That's a lot of typing!)

I've pretty much decided to self-publish (ebooks, print on demand, and regular hard copies), rather than go through the hassle of dealing with a publisher. One publisher had expressed interest, but it would mean redoing much of the book to their specifications, and I'd rather have more control over the content. Plus it would take a lot longer to come out. Table tennis is a rather specific audience, and I can advertise the book in the various table tennis magazines, web pages, and forums. I've already started playing around with a possible cover. I'm debating how many graphics I should use. It doesn't really need pictures, but I'm thinking of putting in at least one picture at the start of each chapter to illustrate that chapter's subject. I'm hoping to have the book out this summer, but we'll see.

Here's the final Table of Contents (which has changed several times), with a nostalgic 21 chapters, with the word count for each chapter or section in parenthesis. (You can tell from the word count which is my favorite tactical subject!) The chapters that cover specific styles, grips, and surfaces (chapters 11-18) cover it both for playing that type of game and playing against it. The funnest chapter to write was the one on Unconventional Tactics, where I got to write up numerous examples of unconventional tactics I've used, coached, or seen others use. (But the chapter on Conventional Tactics is longer and more important.)

  • Cover page (36)
  • Table of Contents (104)
  • Introduction (908)
  • Chapter One: Tactical Thinking (2640)
  • Chapter Two: Strategic Thinking (4480)
  • Chapter Three: Your Tactical Game (6431)
  • Chapter Four: All About Spin (5361)
  • Chapter Five: Beginning Tactics (2899)
  • Chapter Six: Conventional Tactics (5899)
  • Chapter Seven: Unconventional Tactics (3624)
  • Chapter Eight: Service Tactics (10,854)
  • Chapter Nine: Receive Tactics (6606)
  • Chapter Ten: Rallying Tactics (4976)
  • Chapter Eleven: Different Grips (1809)
  • Chapter Twelve: Pushing (2790)
  • Chapter Thirteen: Loopers (4397)
  • Chapter Fourteen: Blockers, Counter-Drivers, and Hitters (7950)
  • Chapter Fifteen: Choppers (4466)
  • Chapter Sixteen: Fishers and Lobbers (2421)
  • Chapter Seventeen: Non-Inverted Surfaces (4108)
  • Chapter Eighteen: Hardbat Tactics (4475)
  • Chapter Nineteen: Doubles Tactics (2675)
  • Chapter Twenty: Mental Tactics (2112)
  • Chapter Twenty-One: Tournament Tactics (2614)
  • Afterword: Tactical and Strategic Thinking Revisited (96)
  • Glossary (2301)
  • Appendix: Recommended Reading (285)
  • About the Author (451)
  • TOTAL (97,768)

I did some word searches, and found the following number of usages of these words (which include their plurals and other versions of the word):

  • The: 7863
  • Serve: 1450
  • Loop: 796
  • Tactic: 493
  • Receive: 247
  • Smash: 174
  • Middle: 174
  • Strategy: 140
  • Hardbat: 138 (It has its own chapter)
  • Coach: 119
  • Table tennis: 114
  • However: 103
  • Long pips: 99
  • Inverted: 65
  • Penhold: 53
  • Short pips or pips-out: 50
  • Serve short: 39
  • USATT or USA Table Tennis: 22
  • Seemiller: 21
  • Serve long: 11
  • Heavy no-spin: 11
  • Banana flip: 9
  • Waldner: 8
  • Boggan: 6

Coaching email scam

Table tennis coaches are in demand, both as coaches and in other ways. Yesterday I received an email from someone who claimed they'd be in town for a month, and wanted to arrange lessons for his daughter. I emailed back saying I was available, and what would be good times? He emailed back thanking me profusely, and said his company would be paying for the lessons, and asked for my address, phone number, date of birth, and social security number. Yeah, right. I receive emails like that at least once a month. So do other coaches, both in table tennis and other sports.

The Falkenberg Drill

Here's a video of the Falkenberg Drill (3:10), brought to you by Jon Ham of Fitness on the Run, and demonstrated by Tom Nguyen and Richard Lee. This is one of the best and most popular drills for players of all levels. Here's how the drill is done: Player A hits everything into Player B's backhand. The three-shot sequence for Player A is backhand from backhand side; forehand from backhand side; forehand from forehand side. (The drill is named after the Falkenberg club in Sweden, where 1971 World Champion Stellan Bengtsson popularized the drill.)

"As One" premier

Here's the facebook page for the June 1 New York City premier of "As One," the movie about the 1991 unified Korean women's team that won the Worlds. Here's the English version of the movie's promotional poster. And here's the IMDB page about the movie.

Marty Reisman photos

Here's a large collection of Marty photos, starting with one where he's doing a behind the back shot. What, you don't know who Marty Reisman is?!!!

Non-Table Tennis - a New "Story"

Yesterday, on a science fiction & fantasy writing forum, there was a thread about favorite fiction writing topics. I posted that a number of my stories featured U.S. Presidents, the Devil, Death as a character, or zombies. Someone then posted, "So, have you considered writing about the ghost of a U.S. President making a deal with the Devil in order to force the Incarnation of Death to reunite him with his zombie body?" In response, I wrote the following story. (This is a Twitter story, which can be no more than 140 characters. This one is exactly 140 characters.)

"I'll sell my soul if Death'll return me to my body," said the president's ghost. 
The Devil grinned. "You're a politician. I own your soul."

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