August 4, 2025

Next Blog August 25
I'll be out of town Aug. 9-19, where I'll be a panelist at the World Science Fiction Convention in Seattle, plus lots of sightseeing. I do plan on showing up sometime at the Seattle Pacific TTC. Due to injuries, I haven't played since the Nationals a month ago, but it's time to start my comeback.

Tips of the Week (since I was away the last few weeks)

Shadow Practicing in My Office and Upcoming TT Events
After re-injuring my right side, shoulder, and knee at the Nationals last month, I've taken a month off from playing. However, that doesn't mean I've been sitting around. As part of the rehab process, I've been doing a lot of shadow-practice and stretching in my office. I use a weighted ping-pong paddle I bought in Japan at the 2001 Worlds. (I don't see them on sale anywhere, but you can make your own - just find a way to attach extra weight to a racket. Or just use your regular paddle.) I try to do 15 minutes each day, often alternating forehand and backhand stroking and footwork, sometimes while watching TV. I'm also doing a lot of stretching. I will try to do some easy practice soon, but I have to be careful.

So, do you shadow-practice? You should! Here are three Tips I've written on this.

Here are my main upcoming table tennis events, where I'll be playing in both senior (with sponge) and hardbat events. If you are at these, come over and say hi!

  • Oct. 6-9, Huntsman World Senior Games, St. George, UT.
  • Nov. 6-9, US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductions and Si & Patty Wasserman Junior & Open, Los Angeles, CA.
  • Nov. 13-20, Amity Cup, Nanjing, China, where I'll be playing on an Over 60 USA team and sightseeing.      
  • Nov. 28-30, North American Teams, Washington DC, but I'll only be coaching there.
  • Dec. 16-21, US Open, Las Vegas, NV, both playing and coaching.
  • Jan. 18-25, 2026, Classic Table Tennis World Cup, Três Coroas City, Brazil. (I will be staying up to a week afterwards to sightsee.) Here's the promo card they put together on me!
  • June 5-14, 2026 World Masters, Gangneung, South Korea. Then lots of sightseeing in South Korea and Japan.
  • July 3-9, 2026, US Nationals, San Jose, CA, both playing and coaching.

My Upcoming Table Tennis Books

  • Ping-Pong Paddles Can't Talk. Tentatively, it will come out in April, 2026. The illustrator is hard at work on it, a humorous Seussian-like rhyming book for children. It introduces kids, roughly 7-10, to table tennis. It features a nervous boy and his talking paddle in their first tournament, where he meets and plays a girl who is really good, and they have an adventurous match. Along the way, kids learn about the sport, with themes on facing your fears, working toward a goal, honesty, and friendship. It’s about 3,000 words, 73 four-line stanzas and a few other miscellaneous lines.
  • Even Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips. The fifth in the series will have 150 new tips, like the previous four. They are a compilation of my Tips of the Week that come out each Monday, but organized in logical progression. I currently have 116 Tips, and expect #150 will come out on Apr. 13, 2026. Then "Even Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips" will likely come out sometime in May, 2026. Here are the first four in the series:
    -Table Tennis Tips
    -More Table Tennis Tips
    -Still More Table Tennis Tips
    -Yet Still More Table Tennis Tips

What Kind of Exercises Should Table Tennis Players Focus On?
Here's the article by Kevin Finn at Peak Performance Table Tennis.

Coaching and News from All Over
Since I’ve been away for three weeks, rather than try to list every interesting article, here are links to some of the main news and coaching pages that have been active in that time, and you can pick and choose. (Alas, as noted above, I'll be away the next two weeks as well, but then I should get back to every Monday.)

Technical Journal Articles

Education is Important But Table Tennis Is Importanter
Here's where you can buy the shirt at Amazon!

GOAT vs. GOAT
Here's the video (32 sec) of a few points in the Ma Long vs. Jan-Ove Waldner exhibition!

Mostly Non-Table Tennis
In my other world of science fiction & fantasy writing, I've had a busy month. I was at the annual "The Never-Ending Odyssey" science fiction writing workshop in Manchester, NH, from July 18-26. And I'll be in Seattle Aug. 9-19 for the World Science Fiction Convention (Aug. 13-17) and a lot of sightseeing, including a probable visit to the Seattle Pacific TTC. More importantly, over the last month I sold five stories and had three published! Below are the three that were published. The first one below you can read online; the other two you have to buy the magazine.

  • The Mind of a Nuke. The story is told through the thoughts and actions of an AI during the last five seconds as it guides a nuclear bomb to a major city.
  • Frog Heaven. This was the featured cover story. Everyone in the world wakes up one morning transformed into bullfrogs. They still have human intelligence and vocal cords, but the human world wasn't designed for frog-size beings, and dogs and cats are now huge monsters looking to eat them. With society falling apart, Jerry takes charge, hhoping nobody realizes he's just a 13-year-old kid. 
  • Thirty-Five Genie Heads on a Wall. While being bullied at the beach, teenager Robbie is sucked into a Coke bottle. So begins his life as a genie, including classes at Genie University. His owner is a brutish king on a planet far from Earth – and the squirming, tormented heads of the king’s previous 35 genies are on display on a wall. 

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