What is your second passion?

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As I am now over 60, I am pretty much solely into TT these days with a little bit of walking and taking photos mostly film. In the olden times I was into football cricket, photography then rallying, then marshalling then classic cars (mostly Triumphs; TR6, GT6, vitesse and spitfire). That Lexus above gets me heart a pounding again, and I do keep me eye out for a modern classic such as a boxster or Z4
 
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This is awesome I have been following F2 freestylers recently. You look as good as them and they are regarded as the best... i think :) Nice to see table tennis is taking over!

Really cool topic great to see what others are doing instead of table tennis. My other passions are.... erm.... i think its pretty much all table tennis. I love video editing and all things technology, does this count :)

Glad you like Dan :) and F2 are more regarded as entertainers and arent really involved in the community, they don't even enter competitions because they know they'd get knocked out instantly. They're great at what they do though entertainment wise and at football skilly stuff but it's quite different from what freestylers regard as freestyle.

For some top level freestyle check out anything from tom folan, memo, Tobias becs, akim, Pwgfreestyle with a more creative style and a good friend of mine. :) It's all awesome stuff and you should see a big difference in variety and difficulty compared to me.

Sorry for going a bit off topic loving this thread.. I've always wanted to go into yoga, inspiring stuff Carl!
 

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says editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀

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says editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀
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Glad you like Dan :) and F2 are more regarded as entertainers and arent really involved in the community, they don't even enter competitions because they know they'd get knocked out instantly. They're great at what they do though entertainment wise and at football skilly stuff but it's quite different from what freestylers regard as freestyle.

For some top level freestyle check out anything from tom folan, memo, Tobias becs, akim, Pwgfreestyle with a more creative style and a good friend of mine. :) It's all awesome stuff and you should see a big difference in variety and difficulty compared to me.

Sorry for going a bit off topic loving this thread.. I've always wanted to go into yoga, inspiring stuff Carl!

Ah that makes a lot of sense now! :) I see yeah F2 have done very well via social media, very impressive. I will youtube the names you have mentioned now :) Ill keep an eye out for your videos Richie.

Carl is the man, love those pics!
 
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Sorry for going a bit off topic loving this thread.. I've always wanted to go into yoga, inspiring stuff Carl!

Not off topic at all. You were explaining the difference between what you are doing and the stuff that is more for show but doesn't hold up in competitions.

As far as yoga, I say, go for it. Find a class you like to start and then take a good 3-9 months to see how you enjoy it.

I was in the circus but that was for Aggressive In-Line Skating. But still what I was doing on skated in the air is related to what I do in yoga.

If you practice it will help you learn how to use your body better for lots of other things. Go for it


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my passions constantly changed. My friends would get into something and i would get into them a lot more than them. Either I improved much quicker than them at whatever hobby it was or i just put more time into the hobby and had more motivation i would soon be way out of their league in whatever hobby it was and that's when i would lose interest.

When I started table tennis, about 3 years ago was the first time picking up a paddle. It was in the dorm i was living at in my university. There were 3 "good players" (probably under 1000 USATT thinking back now) but to me they were AMAZING. I had to get better than them. I loved playing so much at the time, i probably got about 6-8 hours in a day, I was known as the ping pong guy even though i wasn't the best there until the end of the semester.

Here's the order of them from worst to best.

Worst: A chinese student studying abroad, he used his forehand for EVERYTHING all he did was smash the ball but it looked like a looping stroke, and that's what i truly wanted my game to look like. He was the worst out of the three but the way he played, made me think he was the best for a long while.

Middle: A Girl named Katie. This was probably one of the biggest reasons i really got into the game. She stood completely still on the table, almost never moving her feet but would block everything with easy. I liked her a bit so i really enjoyed playing with her and trying to get to her level. We got along pretty well but fell out of touch along the way somewhere. (To this day I never did beat her). It's one of my biggest regrets in table tennis, having those players that smoked you when you were bad and knowing you'll never have a chance to smoke them back. Me and her always played to 21. I still remember her getting me at 21-0 once. (ouch i know) but we still had fun.

Best: This guy's name was Robert, still a close friend of mine to this day but he doesn't play anymore. His style was more of a blocking/countering style, but he adapted very well and could find his opponents weaknesses very easily to exploit them. To this day I'm convinced that if he stuck with the game the way I did he would be at least a couple hundred points higher than me. He has that natural focus in games and is very intelligent and is able to learn extremely quickly.



Then one day a Chinese man named David came to the dorm and played. Robert was just smiling because he knew i would want to play him and he knew i was going to get destroyed. David was the head of the table tennis club at the college I went to (I never did go though, mostly because it met at the rec center about the long distance of HALF a mile away). He was only rated about 1650 but I'd never seen someone play the way he did and i was simply amazed. I had a new goal for the game. I had to get to THAT level.

I occasionally see David at local clubs these days and i can usually almost always beat him. He doesn't seem to be trying though. I guess it's one of those things where if you start playing with someone when they're under 1000 rating and you're that much better it's hard to ever take them seriously.

Anyway after going to clubs I started testing equipment and "feeling" the ball in different ways. I got a coach who I've been seeing once or twice a week for about a year and have been improving at an alarming rate lately. The only way I see myself switching to another hobby is if I become the best at my local clubs and run out of competition which i don't see happening as there's 2200 rated players.
 
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Looks like you've revived it DoctorPaco :) that takes a lot of patience, good on you! I actually only started TT as a way to keep in cardio shape while balancing competitive powerlifting and playing in a hard rock band. Wasn't planning on the addiction to the sport that would follow...so now I play TT 3 days a week, train for powerlifting 2-3 days a week, and sing/play guitar every spare second my schedule affords me. It's a busy life but it keeps me focused and outta trouble! Thus is a pretty cool thread, it's always nice to hear what others do with their lives
 
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Looks like you've revived it DoctorPaco :) that takes a lot of patience, good on you! I actually only started TT as a way to keep in cardio shape while balancing competitive powerlifting and playing in a hard rock band. Wasn't planning on the addiction to the sport that would follow...so now I play TT 3 days a week, train for powerlifting 2-3 days a week, and sing/play guitar every spare second my schedule affords me. It's a busy life but it keeps me focused and outta trouble! Thus is a pretty cool thread, it's always nice to hear what others do with their lives
I sing in a choir as well. And I sing Hamilton whenever I'm not playing TT hahaha
 
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Well, the last year I've been trying to dual learn/improve on a lot of things.
As I'm studying only a couple subjects (math/physics) before I'll be entering a Bachelor in Computer engineering.
I've been doing things like; Improving my understanding on chess, solving rubix cube, learning the Piano and guitar to some extent, still working on that (I have pretty decent vocals too, but nothing major good).
Also, Getting my head around speedreading/superlearning and attempting to learn Polish. (perhaps the hardest task out of all of the above)
Apart from that, physically thinking, I go to the gym, some cross country skiing. (which was perhaps my biggest passion when I was younger, Norwegian you know).
Also some Jogging, swimming, hiking. But neither on the extreme side, I also consider table tennis a secondary interest.
Passions come and go, but Jesus stays the same.
 
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Second passion besides table tennis? I dont understand the question :D. If there is not the possibility for me to be on the table, im spending my time in the gym to prevent injuries and have better stamina for the training. Besides that i really like to cook and to bake. If my time allows it what usually is not the case Im also enoying to play some computergames. Before I was into table tennis like this I was a swimmer on quite a high level , but i totaly stopped it because it destroys the table tennis technique.
 
My second passion is the guitar. I really enjoy playing it in my spare time, when I have it lol

When I had more time I used to record some videos and upload them on youtube.. they still are there, as the classic below :p

 
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Long distance running barefoot through cities and forests as long as the temperatures allow for it :eek: No competitions, no pressure, just enjoying fresh air, soaking in different smells, watching the world go by!
Other than that I spend my time being remarkably lazy. Even my lazy friends think I'm lazy. I prefer to call it energy-conservative!
 
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