Ping Pong

[Tetge]

Perhaps this environment would slow jhwalker's game down?

phpBB [video]

[xjrguy]

That was pretty cool!

[jhwalker]

Don't know. I have recruited 3 new players and the word on the streets of San Miguel (they all talk a little in the bars at night) is that they all think that if they sharpen up their games "just a little" I will be toast. Last Thursday, one of them dove for a ball and cracked a rib. Oops. I try to insure that all players get at least 5-6 points to keep them coming back. It seems pretty incredible, but I think my game is the best ever for me, including in the mid-1960's when I was playing in New York City at the dives. It is the steady 6 hours (or more) a week of focused play and the assimilation of some training vids. One of the players that I rally with is older and no longer enjoys the "win lose" aspect of the game, so we rally for 15 minutes at a time. His strokes are very good, and he can beat most of the players, but just does not want to deal with the winning / losing. He is the best development partner that I have. The others are trying so hard to beat me that it gets in the way of their games. They need to Zen out a bit. Throw in some wu wei or wei wu wei if you prefer.

I may have posted this before. This is my FAVORITE short Table Tennis vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI-o_16fTgU

From 1:07 until 1:21 is hard to believe. Try to at least watch it to 1:21. The overall play is great.

[jhwalker]

Adam is changing Air Force bases. I will miss the table tennis competition that was available at Port Hueneme.

They have a table in a warehouse and can use TT or Ping Pong for credit against their physical exercise requirements. I guess. Anyway, they have some good players. The first time I went over to play some they were not used to my not-totally-orthodox game, and I did pretty well.

The 2nd time I played folks at the base , I lost more than I won -- pretty much took a butt kicking. They also brought in a guy who I think was from the Navy side who simply played at a higher level. Best game to best game, for money I would have bet on him.

Not really liking losing, I came back to San Miguel, changed my game around a little, practiced a bit more and harder. And out of nowhere, a good player with a real forehand showed up and we had a series of tough matches. That really tightened up my game, because I had to really work hard to beat this guy. We ended up pretty much with me winning 2 out of 3, or 3 out of 5 every time and he, being even a worse loser than I am, said it was not fun so he quit playing here -- but it was fun for 60 games or so that we played.

Since Adam is leaving we set up the rubber match at the base for when I was up there two weeks ago. It was not high-quality tt, and the Navy stud couldn't make it, but I squeaked out the "win for the day".

I have recuited a couple more players here in San Miguel and it is great to see that hope springs eternal that I am ready to be deposed... "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown" -- the challengers are getting younger and better. I have lost more games recently but in truth part of it is the boredom of having no strong competition. It is fun to see someone get a 6-1 or 7-1 lead and get all excited and happy and then listen to them whine after losing 11-8 or 11-9. And with the always present possibility of net balls and catching the edges, some of those big leads I allow while screwing around turn into losses. But it keeps them coming back to play some more.

[Tetge]

Adam is changing Air Force bases. I will miss the table tennis competition that was available at Port Hueneme.

They have a table in a warehouse and can use TT or Ping Pong for credit against their physical exercise requirements. I guess. Anyway, they have some good players. The first time I went over to play some they were not used to my not-totally-orthodox game, and I did pretty well.

The 2nd time I played folks at the base , I lost more than I won -- pretty much took a butt kicking. They also brought in a guy who I think was from the Navy side who simply played at a higher level. Best game to best game, for money I would have bet on him.

Not really liking losing, I came back to San Miguel, changed my game around a little, practiced a bit more and harder. And out of nowhere, a good player with a real forehand showed up and we had a series of tough matches. That really tightened up my game, because I had to really work hard to beat this guy. We ended up pretty much with me winning 2 out of 3, or 3 out of 5 every time and he, being even a worse loser than I am, said it was not fun so he quit playing here -- but it was fun for 60 games or so that we played.

Since Adam is leaving we set up the rubber match at the base for when I was up there two weeks ago. It was not high-quality tt, and the Navy stud couldn't make it, but I squeaked out the "win for the day".

I have recuited a couple more players here in San Miguel and it is great to see that hope springs eternal that I am ready to be deposed... "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown" -- the challengers are getting younger and better. I have lost more games recently but in truth part of it is the boredom of having no strong competition. It is fun to see someone get a 6-1 or 7-1 lead and get all excited and happy and then listen to them whine after losing 11-8 or 11-9. And with the always present possibility of net balls and catching the edges, some of those big leads I allow while screwing around turn into losses. But it keeps them coming back to play some more.

I know exactly what you are talking about. Of course, I am always on the receiving end, when sandbaggers play their games with me to keep things interesting. I personally grew weary of sandbagging many years ago since it became more interesting to challenge myself to do better without consideration of competition. So,for instance, I became a time runner at drag racing, as the only available form of racing became bracket racing and bracket racing is the headquarters of sandbagging. Drag racing is a solo activity unlike team sports and there is a niche for time runners. However, you must play another person at table tennis and, when I used to play table tennis, years ago, I found that I needed to play a better, more skilled, player to improve my skills as players less skilled than I were too easy. As you noted, the better player can spot the other, less skilled, player a ton of points and then come back and still win almost every time. And, I also discovered that, even with lots of tries I still had a very difficult time, even as my game improved, beating the better player in a legit contest. It is sort of the same as Brakelate giving me a good head start on Spunky Cyn, and then, running me down as if I were parked even though I may have actually picked up my pace since I started to ride with him. The person with the advanced game will win almost every time unless they get too many net balls after granting a very large lead, or perhaps, they run out of fuel and have to switch to reserve just saying.

[jhwalker]

When I start feeling cocky here with the table tennis, all I need to do is go shoot guns with a friend from Canada who is in the top tier of world shooters with a pistol. When we want to calibrate a gun, instead of using a bench rest, we just let him shoot it. For us to shoot the same scores, we need to move his targets out about 50% further than mine, and then I MIGHT have a chance. He has won the Canadian shooting championship, and a couple of US open events. A couple of weeks ago, 6 of us were going to enter as a private team in the Mexican Police shooting championships (I had forgotten a planned trip to the USA) and he ended up coming in 3rd officially -- no one could figure out exactly how the 2 guys who came in ahead of him did so But his shooting was so impressive that the folks running the event asked him to speak at the end of the event to motivate the other shooters. Shooting with him each week keeps my feet firmly on the ground. I am still improving and he might be going in the other direction, but the delta between us is so great that I have no hope of ever shooting at his level.

Riding motorcycles? The folks who maintain the dirt road to our property have added a bunch of pea gravel to the mix and I am now so terrified of the gravel and fine dust covering the hard packed tepetate down here that I pretty much stop and walk the bike around the corners on the dirt road out to the casa.