I duked into the New York International Ping pong Center in Flushing, Queens, puzzling over the peculiar sound echoing in my ears. With preposterously substantial odds against me, I was going to play a challenge game of what is commonly called Ping-Pong. But the echoing I discovered did not match that supposedly onomatopoeic name. Instead, it sounded more like a dozen clocks scattered to the staccato beat of tock-tock-tock-tock I researched the layout of the ping pong center with a wary eye ping pong paddle review. At a resort building basement on 35th Avenue, it had two tables, divided by nets and low-slung canvas hurdles, and a yellow hardwood floor somewhat like a basketball court.
I spotted the proprietor Yu Xiang Li, 54, a Chinese immigrant who had won numerous international titles, providing a lesson to a mustached guy in shorts and a T-shirt who had been working up quite a sweat I quickly realized that Coach Li's pupil was my 55-year-old competition, Will Shortz. Best known as the crossword puzzle master for The New York Times, Will can be a nationally rated ping pong enthusiast who, save for a 15-minute two or two, has been playing the game because junior high school. I am a 56-year-old novice. Although I'd recently taken two thirds classes from Coach Li, my previous experience consisted of pickup games contested using a paddle in 1 hand and an adult beverage at the other. I was a little chagrined that Will had came early to tune up "Hey, man, you're cheating!" I cried out.
"He is very mean player," Coach Li stated in a heavy accent.
"This is our second lesson," Will maintained, flashing a Disingenuous adding and grin, "After the first lesson, I went home and wrote down 14 things Coach Li had taught me that I never knew before."
I could see my executive pursuit of some stunning ping Pong upset depended on exceptional gamesmanship as opposed to sportsmanship. I boasted that I had finished five of Will's toughest Sunday crosswords on the subway ride over from Manhattan. Then I wrapped up my overcoat and commenced a series of stretching exercises, softly assessing my due diligence.
Like many pastimes of the idle rich, ping pong traces its Roots to English aristocrats from the late 19th century. Inspired to make an indoor version of lawn tennis, then they utilized cigar box figurines to reach Champagne corks back and forth over stacks of books. Back in 1901, the London-based sporting goods purveyor J. Jaques & Son trademarked the name "Ping-Pong," and began marketing sets that eventually included rubber-surfaced rackets, celluloid balls and correctly netted wooden tables which measured about 9 feet long and 5 ft wide. In 1988, ping pong was introduced as an Olympic sport.
Ping-Pong is just marginally popular in the United States. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, a recreation industry trade group, 8.4 million Americans participated in 2001, the last year that the sport was contained in the institution's annual surveys; the vast majority of those participants played in house basement or attic recreation rooms.
At present, U.S.A. Ping pong, the government body of The sport's Olympic variant, asserts slightly more than 8,000 associates and roughly 240 affiliated clubs. Coach Li's ping pong center, one of 25 clubs in New York State, has only 40 active members.
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But ping pong is among the most well-known sports worldwide. Coach Li informed me that there were well over 100 million players in his native China. Ping pong also attracts large followings in Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Denmark and Germany, where Coach Li taught for a decade. By comparison with sports like baseball or golf, it's cheap: a few of Ping-Pong chunks and a pair of secondhand paddles can certainly be obtained for less than $10. Table rentals at Coach Li's center are $12 an hour ; courses are $60 an hour As Coach Li pointed out, ping pong may be physical fitness regimen, as well as a game.
Accomplished players hit the ball at speeds over 70 miles an hour. To maintain that dizzying speed, they must train their lungs and legs like sprinters. Since ping pong is a noncontact sport that seldom results in serious injury, it can be appreciated by gamers ranging in age from 5 to 85; a current United States men's champion reached top form at age 38, long ago the prime of professional athletes at the majority of other popular sports The tactical thinking and split-second responses necessitated by ping pong also introduce particular mental challenges. In his book "Making a fantastic Brain Great," the psychiatrist Daniel G. Amen asserts that playing ping pong can actually increase brain activity. As we warmed up to our challenge game, Will Shortz confided he utilizes ping pong to clean his thoughts "I perform for the same reason That Lots of people do crossword puzzles," he explained. " It makes me focus on something totally irrelevant to what I do in the remainder of my life. I especially enjoy the geometry involved in the shot making. I come away totally refreshed."
I, of course, desired to come away with an upset victory for No other reason than simply because. The prospects seemed pretty grim. Throughout the past several months, Will was playing at least six nights per week in clubs near his home in Westchester County. He said that he'd lately played 27 days in a row, a new personal record and that he had dreams of winning national championships at the mature age brackets I told May that Coach Li had identified me like a ping pong idiot savant at the tradition of Forrest Gump.
I Stated he had begun my lessons by showing me the difference between a Ping-Pong position, he mimicked just like a potbellied drunk shooing away flies, and a competitive ping pong posture, he mimed the same as a boxer crouching to deliver punches. I said I had hit 500 forehands and 500 backhands in a row in our first lesson. I stated I'd mastered the 3 fundamental functions -- topspin, backspin and sidespin -- in our second lesson With the notable exception of the crouch and fool components, almost all of that was a pack of lies. Unfazed, Will grabbed an optic orange ball crouched below the desk, inviting me to decide on the hands that held the ball. Naturally, I picked the wrong hand. That supposed Will would function. Under principles revised in 2001, games have been contested to 11 points rather than 21, with players alternating service every 2 points. We agreed that the first man to win three games will win the match Will used a collection of consistently amazing shots to win the first game 11-4.
He noticed that almost Everyone can win a stage or 2 in any given game using a lucky bounce within the Internet or a carom off a table border. I took that information in its clearly Intended spirit of gamesmanship. Just before I hit my first serve in the second Match, I diverted Will's attention by pointing to a wall poster of a player Who I said resembled Forrest Gump. My guileful ploy didn't rattle him. Will Won the point, and proceeded to hammer me, 11-0 As we commenced the next game, best ping pong robot, I felt a sudden surge of adrenaline. My vision seemed to muster. The ball Seemed to fly back and forth across the net in slow motion. Relying on the Topspin serve I had learned from Coach Li, I awakened a 3-1 lead In the soul Of sportsmanship, I'll spare the resultant gory details. Suffice it to say I Showed Will that the pen is mightier than the Ping-Pong paddle. We abandoned the ping Pong centre with the promise of a rematch, and our ears echoing with the currently Mutually triumphant sounding defeat, tock-tock-tock-tock.
