OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Sometimes the quickest way to learn is from the experience of others.

Does anyone know of any table tennis players who have written / ghost written their autobigraphy which has been published in English? I know there are short interviews on this forum and elsewhere but I'm really interested in reading in book form (paper or ebook).

If you do, what's the title, who's the player the book is about and the publisher / author if you know please.

I already have Breaking 2000 by Alex Polyakov, and I've read on the website about "The Expert in a Year Challenge".

Thank you

The really well known one is "The Money Player", by Marty Reisman.

https://www.amazon.com/money-player-con ... ref=sr_1_1

I came across it many years ago in the local Public Library. A really good read, but it didn't do much for one's opinion about Reisman as a human being.. There's some really hair-raising stuff in there - apparently back in the 1950s it was normal for bookies to be standing at the barriers of the finals of the US Closed taking bets on the game. There was a guy I knew in college who took Marty as a hero, and took the biography too seriously - he'd often ask to play you for money, and offer to spot you 5 points. He was eventually arrested taking bets on basketball games.

Iskandar

<OT> Now if you had asked for good titles for a table tennis (auto)biography ...

That's the way the ball bounces
Stars on celluloid, plastic not so much
I spun it my way
Have bat will travel (sorry)

Some of the member blog names.

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I've read that one, excellent although I often start off reading this with the best of intentions but end up getting distracted by other things - a bit like when I play

I'm pretty sure "Snowman89" met Marty Reisman and he was a big influence on why Snowman89 became a hard bat player.

Revelations of a Ping-Pong Champion – Dan Seemiller
Sizzling Chops and Devilish Spins: Ping-Pong and the Art of Staying Alive – Jerome Charyn
The Metaphysics of Ping-Pong: Table Tennis as a Journey of Self-Discovery – Guido Mina di Sospiro

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My whole set-up costs less than a sheet of Butterfly Dignics

Jörgen Persson released his autobiography last year. A really interesting book but only available in swedish so far. I assume that it eventually will be translated to english and german.

https://idrottsforlaget.se/produkt/den- ... gnerat-ex/

Jens Fellke wrote the Persson book, so it's not strictly an autobiography. I asked Jens about it when it came out and he said there's no plans for it to be translated, alas.
He wrote another book 'TT-Point of No Return' which IS in English (and German) and contains a long section about Jörgen Persson

For that matter, there are a few good biographies of players - Waldner (also by Fellke), Surbek, Ogimura, Victor Barna

There's a couple of old autobiographies from pre-war players.
A really classic old autobiography of a 4-time World singles champion: Richard Bergmann - Twenty One Up. Copies are quite rare and valuable.
Laszlo Bellak, (one of the greatest of the pre-war players) wrote an entertaining autiobiography - TT/How A New Sport Was Born.

Platyers like Samsonov and Schlager have had books out which are basically ghost-written and are mostly of the 'how-to-play stroke X' type.

Good luck finding any of them!

The Computer's Global Worknet (aka INTERNET) is much a treasure trove of massive knowledge for a coach of mental sagacity. Yes.

/Be happy/

This is really creepy. He collects pictures of the inside of her house. Not to mention that the post has nothing to do with biographies.

Iskandar