Drugs and table tennis

I have a story. In Russian cities one often can find table tennis tables in the playgrounds near large apartment complexes. In the yard when I grew up, there were few tables as well. When the weather permitted, I and a few other guys played a lot there. But we were not the only ones: on the evenings large companies of local gangstas showed up. Well, technically they were not gangsters, but young dudes with deep admiration of the criminal subculture. For those who are interested, you my try to look up the term "gopnik" on the internet They were usually drunk and drinking beer in the process. They often played with the bat in one hand, and a bottle of cheap beer in the other, some of them played well this way The most hilarious thing that happened was when one of those guys, being really drunk, fell on the table while playing, and couldn't stand up. His friends quickly elevated him and he continued playing, I think he even won that game.

At that time I had no training and no technique -- in US it is called a "basement" kind of player. At the same time, some of those guys had training when they were younger, so I often lost to them even when they were drunk

Those guys looked like this

That's a good exercise for warm up

Depends on what you call drugs.
Like most veterans, I would fail any official drug test for at least 4 banned substances.

There is a sports bar called the Blitz Ladd in Portland. There were 4 tables there. I use to have my TT lessons there around noon. Others would come in and buy beers and play TT. In the evening there is a lot of drinking and playing TT. I think this is common at sports bars with TT.

I have mentioned before that during my last trip to China I had a nice meal with a lot of professors at a university. There was a lot of toasting "kong bei" ( empty glass ) with white wine ( like vodka ) and then we played TT. We were more than relaxed. The quality of TT was poor. The advice I have is to don't try any thin looping or anything else that requires timing. Just get the ball in play then hit it back. However, it was a very good social event. BTW, the average Chinese person is not that good at TT.

I haven't seen anybody play like they are on non-prescription drugs at the club.

In my (limited) experience, 1-2 drinks make you play a bit better, at least for a while - you are relaxed, fearless and willing to 'go for it' more than usual. Plus, these games typically have no real meaning anyway, so that helps.

Anything more than that, and hand-eye coordination starts to suffer quite a bit and so does judgement (shot selection). That's when quality of play goes downhill.

IN Korea, you gotta give up handiap points to lower rated players.

I defeated all our lower rated Div 5 and Div 4 players (with 3-4 handicap) so to make it interesting, I would off a BEER HANDICAP where we would both drink a beer within 30 minutes and I would have to drink additional beers within the same 30 minutes to complete the handicap. I still won and somehow performed stronger in that.

I sometimes take a energidrink before matches, thats the closest to drugs that I'm coming.

Haha, i will get sandwich and banana before match, that are my drugs.[emoji56]

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Have tea and watch Anaconda by Nicki Minaj. Your adrenaline will be pumped, lol !

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