OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi all - I'm in the middle of working on an eBook called How to Win at Table Tennis. It's meant to be a guide for newish players, to help them get up and winning faster. It's not really aimed at intermediates and above, or for combination bat players - I'll be expanding Greg's Table Tennis Pages for those guys. It's more or less a crash course for beginners to give them a better chance of making it through to the intermediate level, without overwhelming them with detail.

I'm nearing the end of my first draft, but I'm going to be interrupted by competing at the Aussie Open, so I thought I might throw the draft out there on the forum for anybody who wanted to take a look and who might like to give some feedback.

The link to the eBook is here - How to Win at Table Tennis

Please bear in mind that this is a not quite completed first draft. There's not many pictures, diagrams, or links to the videos I have planned to demonstrate more complicated topics. The cover page is just a quickie, it's not meant to be what I'll use. Any text in red is basically placeholder text that I included to give me an idea of what I still had to do, and a rough idea of the overall length of the eBook.

It's about 50 pages long at the moment, but I think it is a relatively easy read. So if anybody would care to have a read and share their thoughts, I'd appreciate it and I'll try to take it on board when I come back from Brisbane and get back to work on it.

Cheers,
Greg

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Greg's Online Coaching for Long Pips/Antispin
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That looks awesome Greg. I have just had a quick flick. I'll have a better read when it nears completion, but from what I saw, I think most players could benefit from and/or enjoy reading it. For newbies its solid info. For seasoned players, I doubt there isn't a reminder of some basics in there somewhere that we take for granted and could use bringing to front of mind. I think that especially goes for people who never had formal training and just developed warts and all through many years. Cudos to you for going to the trouble of writing such a great reference...for whoever the audience may be!

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red National Pogo Ox
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs Ox
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 BH Red Dornenglanz Ox
Table tennis directory / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Very nice Greg, you have a great writing style that's easy to read and entertaining! You show much more of that in this book than I've ever seen you write elsewhere... I think you've got natural talent there.

Your introduction is awesome... it's actually quite inspiring to for new players and encourages them to go further! GOod for them, good for our sport

I think keeping to about 50 pages is actually best... makes it much easier for someone to just pick it up and completely read it when they have some time. This keeps it focussed on the basement to lower level players making it easy to understand. You can also follow it up with the next ebook for the next level if you wish.

The beauty of an Ebook is that you can include links, just like you're proposing with your videos. Not only can it be used to illustrate the ideas you're trying to bring across, but it can encourage them to seek more information on the net, either from your sites or others.

The explanation of the basic and more important rules is the best I've seen. It's not easy to find a balance between making it simply to read and including as many details as possible.

I can't really fault anything you said in the book, but surely you must have a picture of yourself a the start, after one of your greatest wins.

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Great start Greg. I noticed at the end you mentioned doubles. Perhaps you could devote an entire section to doubles? The rule differences, order of play, tactics, footwork differences, etc. We play a lot of doubles at my club and it seems no matter how many times I tell people the rule they can't grasp the concept that the serving pair can choose the server at the beginning of every game. You have a knack for explaining things in a way that people can understand so maybe you could explain the convoluted doubles playing order rules!

 

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Giant Dragon Kris Special : Nittaku Hammond Pro Beta 2.1 black fh : Spinlord Dornenglanz Ox red bh
Member of Charlotte Table Tennis Club, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Visit Charlotte Table Tennis Club on Facebook

Hi Guys - thanks for the comments, keep 'em coming!

Reb - thanks for taking a look, it's pretty rough and ready at the moment, but I'll polish it up when I get home. Hopefully even more experienced players will still find it enjoyable to read, even if it is mostly stuff they already know.

Alex - glad you like my writing style. Since it's my book, I can write it in my normal style, but trying to keep it simple and clear for new players is much harder than I thought it would be - lots of rewrites involved just in the first draft!

I was hoping the intro might "hook" people into reading further - nice to see I'm on the right track.

I'm not 100% sure about the videos, I've never really seen it done in other eBooks, but there is some stuff that you just can't do properly without a video, so I decided that I'd give it a go since I think it is best for the reader.

Those rules explanations are from my About.com site, I just copied and pasted them to get a rough idea of what to include, and how much space it would take up in the eBook. I'll try and rewrite them to be even better.

Agree on the 50 pages or so, I don't know if a new player who's thinking about taking up the sport seriously would want more than that, it might scare them off. The toughest part is deciding what to leave out - I think I could make the book 200 pages, but that might be a bit tough going for a newbie.

Actually, I have very few photos of myself - hopefully a few more good wins though - I'm usually behind the camera taking photos of other people, I never think to give my camera to somebody to take a pic of me!

Cyber, I was thinking of a doubles section, but it's kind of 50-50 at the moment, mainly due to space - it would probably bump up the book another 5 pages or so. But if enough people think it's a good idea, then I've got plenty of material on doubles that I could slot in, no problem.

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Greg's Online Coaching for Long Pips/Antispin
Greg's Table Tennis Pages - Free Videos and more!

I'm the same

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red National Pogo Ox
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs Ox
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 BH Red Dornenglanz Ox
Table tennis directory / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Greg, you simply MUST include a section on doubles. Why? In many clubs worldwide, where is not enough tables for everyone to play and to economize space, double matches can happen. Yeah sure, many of the ones who like doubles are older people, but this isn't always the case. If there is a young attractive beginner player at the club who asks who wants to play doubles, the entire club falls over itself trying to figure out WHO will play doubles. MY CLUB here in Korea is not representitive of the world, yet NEARLY ALL the new players have a club uniform identifying themselves as a new player AND they nearly ALL play a doubles match EVERY DAY.

Greg, SO WHAT if the EBOOK takes up another 5 pages in the pdf file or whatever format you decide. PLEASE strongly consider adding a section describing doubles play. It will surely be a knockout, You are excedingly skilled enough as a player, a coach, and a story teller to make it WAY MORE WORTH what you put into it. PLEASE make it happen.

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WOW
I really can feel your passion Greg...

Keep up the good work

Cheers
Geddk

OK guys - I've finally finished the How to Win at Table Tennis eBook!

This eBook has been fun to work on but I must admit I'm glad to put it away for a while. What started out as a little 30 page quickstart guide for new players expanded to a full 145 page book hopefully covering much of what a new player would need to know to get started right and move into intermediate ranks quickly.

I'm still open to feedback and constructive comments to improve the eBook, although after around 5-6 weeks of staring at my monitor working on this thing I'm going to take a break from it while I do some more stuff on my own website.

Anyway, feel free to download and check out the How to Win at Table Tennis eBook if you are so inclined. If you spot any typos or broken links etc please let me know. It's about a 16MB download due to the pictures I've included in the book, but I do think they help improve the look and add value to the writing so hopefully it's worth it.

Cheers,
Greg

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Greg's Online Coaching for Long Pips/Antispin
Greg's Table Tennis Pages - Free Videos and more!

Amazing job Greg. Thanks for all of the hard work..and thanks for the section on doubles!

Do you mind if I put a link to the book on my club website? I will give whatever attribution you desire.

 

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Giant Dragon Kris Special : Nittaku Hammond Pro Beta 2.1 black fh : Spinlord Dornenglanz Ox red bh
Member of Charlotte Table Tennis Club, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Visit Charlotte Table Tennis Club on Facebook

Sure, no problem. You can just link to it however you like, there's plenty of mentions of my website in the book itself.

Cheers,

_________________
Greg's Online Coaching for Long Pips/Antispin
Greg's Table Tennis Pages - Free Videos and more!

I just had the quickest flick through Greg. Looks like one heck of a book. Will hopefully get around to reading it in full at some stage. Congrats on finishing it after you bit off almost more than you could chew Good job!!

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red National Pogo Ox
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs Ox
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 BH Red Dornenglanz Ox
Table tennis directory / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.