Alex Polyakov
I wrote "Breaking 2000" with one thought in mind. I wanted to contribute to the quality of the sport so that more beginners and intermediate players begin to find their way through the ranks, becoming advanced players with strong set of skills. To me, this is the environment that would allow to grow more champions through better training and quality competition, especially in US Table Tennis.
I hope with "Breaking 2000" more players become inspired to focus, set new goals, and work hard to achieve them, reaching higher levels of their game in order to win.
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After publishing "Breaking 2000", I felt that I had only scraped the surface of table tennis. There was a lot more information to share. I also started coaching, which yet again pushed me to attempt a very ambitious goal of producing a type of a book that shares a relationship between table tennis technique, tactics, strategy, and the mental game. Only this book does not talk about me at all. While I use some examples from personal experiences, I do not talk about my game the way "Breaking 2000" does. Hence, "The Next Step" truly became a next step not only to serious writing, but also in many ways a hint to the next step of practically every player's development.
Again, my goals are to continue sharing much information that I had acquired a hard way through training, researching, and learning from experience.
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Advancing into 10th grade of high school into English class from prior year's English as a Second Language class, I would have never guessed that years later I would become an author of a book. Back then, my English needed lots of work. I had trouble with essays, especially fiction.
My teachers, Mr Malinowski and Mr Keller were constantly working with me to improve my writing. Mr Keller especially had a hard time to open up my mind to write creatively. I could only write from my points of view. Nevertheless, today it certainly is clear that my teachers did their job well. Thank you!
Many years later, my lack of imagination and fiction actually helped me write about my own experience in a sport that became a part of my life. Writing still comes with relative difficulty, but thank God for Editors that can pick away the bad stuff.
