Why do you play table tennis?

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I saw a facebook post the other day with someone started a discussion on why they played basketball. It got me wondering why I play table tennis.

I play table tennis because I love hitting a winning shot, the feeling is great. I have some good friends in table tennis to which helps. Why do you play?
 
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I like playing table tennis for two reasons.

First one is the fact that is a lot to learn and I am one of those people who is addicted to learning new stuff and this sport is constantly making me think. I like to understand my surroundings and table tennis a place when a lot of different fields of knowledge meet including medicine, physics and engineering. I really enjoy seeing a lot of different theory become practice.

The second reason is purely egoistic, I really like how playing table tennis makes me feel about myself. Even if I lose I really enjoy the feeling when my loops dip into the table. Making ball follow curved trajectory is a real joy to me. Maybe it's something a long lines of doing stuff some non-tt-players impossible (looping the ball from under the table, around the net, side-top spin shots, ghost serve). I thought those things were impossible to achieve when I was playing ping pong in school (I was maybe 10y/o then) and now they are perfectly achievable and some of them are rather easy for me. Also TT makes me train regularly which is also a neat bonus. It has a lots of benefits on my life. Since I started to play 3-4 times a week I've become much happier and self-fulfilled person.
 
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It's easily one of the most dynamic and difficult sport out there. This is coming from someone who's played basketball, soccer, baseball and badminton. It's really a shame this sport isn't played by more people because of the image people associate with it.

It has a steep learning curve in the beginning so it's not easy to pick up. The sport is highly strategic and there are simply too many variations of styles and strategies involved. I mainly play it because it's not only a physical exercise but also a mental exercise for me. It's also easily the most frustrating sport I've ever played as well.
 
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It's really a shame this sport isn't played by more people because of the image people associate with it.
I think one of the reason is that access to proper tuition has been broadened only recently. At least in Poland there was a very few people who knows the correct technique. One I started out I was mostly on my own. Only training center was 40km and due to my school schedule it was out of the question to train there. None of PE teachers were teaching table tennis. Only when I reached upper technical school I had access to TT tuition. Now that coaching videos are readily available situation might become different in coming years. More people know how to play decently more people will be interested. The bigger the exposure and better tuition the more known sport becomes :| (at least I think so)

Also the problem with spreading the TT in my country in particular is really hard accessibility. For folks like me, most I can find is amateur tournaments and maybe a playing session where veterans mostly come (ex-players, 60+ y/o, all of them will kick your very butt). Access to training clubs is mostly limited to well sorted players or kids around 9-14 y/o. If one is like me, guy in mid 20s trying to learn as much as possible, one will have a really hard time finding training environment. It's not impossible, we've managed to find two clubs which welcome older players and train them, helping to start in our country's lower league. Gotta praise them.
 
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I love table tennis because when I play, I forget about everything and just focus on that little plastic ball!
 
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** The Magnus Effect makes my head spin in a way that feels good. :)
** Learning to create spin.
** Learning how to contact and touch the ball for different effects.
** Learning to compensate for incoming spin by where and how you touch the ball.
** How it feels when you contact the ball in a way that causes the ball to sink into the sponge and stretch and distort the topsheet without bottoming out, and how that creates massive amounts of spin with minimal effort.
** Always needing to watch, observe, pay attention and respond to what your opponent does to the ball.
** How, when you touch the ball a certain way, at a certain angle, you can make the ball dance.
** Seeing the float or arc of a ball fizzing with spin from that just so....precise contact.
** Seeing how, as you develop skills, your brain starts reading spin, seeing the axis of spin (point of least spin sensitivity on an incoming ball), seeing the equator of the incoming spin, (point of ball where spin will feel the strongest), and how all this happens intuitively without you even consciously realizing it is happening.
** As your skills at reading spin increase, how you start seeing how many different ways you can counter that incoming spin, whether contacting the point of strongest spin or the axis of spin where the spin will have the least effect on your shot....right now I am thinking of how traditional penholders use the traditional penhold BH to do all kinds of neat and crazy things with spin just by pushing forward with the racket at a certain angle, evil things that can be done to a ball just by giving back the incoming spin, or how you can respin, how ZJK would do on all his over the table BH loops....the massive amount of spin he created from a precise and delicate touch with a fast accelerating racket.

Now, I could keep going on. All of what I have said is related to the development of physical skills, touch, feel, brain processing and spin. I could make hundreds more bullet points on that subject.

Or, as Yoass and Morty have already said quite eloquently, because TT makes me happy.

For me, TT is a beneficial addiction. I can get absorbed in so many aspects of why I love TT. But in the end, when you find yourself daydreaming about something while you are doing something else, when you can't wait to play, those are the signs of why so many of us love TT. And I am not sure it needs any real explanation. Brain fever says it all....doing the St Vitas Dance of Love for TT.....receiving that ecstatic feeling that Dionysus gave the Satyrs and Maenads by spinning the hell out of a ball. :)
 
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I enjoy playing table tennis because it's a complex game that I can study and make meaningful and measurable improvements. It feels amazing to identify a shortcoming, work hard to address it, and see the positive result at the end of the process.

It's also a great avenue of exercise for me while being such a fun game to play. I don't like running or repeating the same motion without any thinking.

I've also made friends from playing the game.

Finally I'm a bit of an EJ myself. At least with table tennis, I don't have to ruin my finance to EJ.
 
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I love its complexity, spin, seeing how the ball bends, how it changes its trajectory when it hits the table, the sound it makes, feeling the ball hit your racket, the feeling of hitting a good shot, of playing a good rally, being tired after a training session, watching the pros, rooting for your favorite player, wanting to play like them, understanding what is going on in matches, being motivated to improve, but also the friends and people I met and experiences I had because of this sport.

Of course it's not always that perfect, but I still love table tennis. It's interesting, dynamic, fascinating, hard, fun, but above all, playing it makes me happy.
 

Dan

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A lot of great responses here! I play table tennis because you are constantly trying to find that extra something to improve. It's a constant process which I love! As some have already mentioned it's one of the hardest sports in the world, so you're constantly chasing, I find this fun as you get a lot of self satisfaction when you feel like you have achieved in table tennis. I also love how you meet so many people in the sport, my whole friend group is pretty much built around table tennis and I've just met so many awesome people. If I didn't start playing table tennis I'd have no idea what i'd be doing.

Stay safe everyone!
 
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** The Magnus Effect makes my head spin in a way that feels good. :)
** Learning to create spin.
** Learning how to contact and touch the ball for different effects.
** Learning to compensate for incoming spin by where and how you touch the ball.
** How it feels when you contact the ball in a way that causes the ball to sink into the sponge and stretch and distort the topsheet without bottoming out, and how that creates massive amounts of spin with minimal effort.
** Always needing to watch, observe, pay attention and respond to what your opponent does to the ball.
** How, when you touch the ball a certain way, at a certain angle, you can make the ball dance.
** Seeing the float or arc of a ball fizzing with spin from that just so....precise contact.
** Seeing how, as you develop skills, your brain starts reading spin, seeing the axis of spin (point of least spin sensitivity on an incoming ball), seeing the equator of the incoming spin, (point of ball where spin will feel the strongest), and how all this happens intuitively without you even consciously realizing it is happening.
** As your skills at reading spin increase, how you start seeing how many different ways you can counter that incoming spin, whether contacting the point of strongest spin or the axis of spin where the spin will have the least effect on your shot....right now I am thinking of how traditional penholders use the traditional penhold BH to do all kinds of neat and crazy things with spin just by pushing forward with the racket at a certain angle, evil things that can be done to a ball just by giving back the incoming spin, or how you can respin, how ZJK would do on all his over the table BH loops....the massive amount of spin he created from a precise and delicate touch with a fast accelerating racket.

Now, I could keep going on. All of what I have said is related to the development of physical skills, touch, feel, brain processing and spin. I could make hundreds more bullet points on that subject.

Or, as Yoass and Morty have already said quite eloquently, because TT makes me happy.

For me, TT is a beneficial addiction. I can get absorbed in so many aspects of why I love TT. But in the end, when you find yourself daydreaming about something while you are doing something else, when you can't wait to play, those are the signs of why so many of us love TT. And I am not sure it needs any real explanation. Brain fever says it all....doing the St Vitas Dance of Love for TT.....receiving that ecstatic feeling that Dionysus gave the Satyrs and Maenads by spinning the hell out of a ball. :)

Y'all can believe all that noise if you want, but we know Carl only loves typing on his spyphone, setting forum word filters, and needs a Goon Squad chasing him with trap doors to pull after baiting the Goonies... the rest are small details.
 
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A lot of great responses here! I play table tennis because you are constantly trying to find that extra something to improve. It's a constant process which I love! As some have already mentioned it's one of the hardest sports in the world, so you're constantly chasing, I find this fun as you get a lot of self satisfaction when you feel like you have achieved in table tennis. I also love how you meet so many people in the sport, my whole friend group is pretty much built around table tennis and I've just met so many awesome people. If I didn't start playing table tennis I'd have no idea what i'd be doing.

Stay safe everyone!

So Dan is actually chasing the Goon Squad around and luving it. Yup. Dan is such a shy dude. Right. :D
 
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I was wrong, Dan chases SEVERAL Goon Squads around and keeps them busy.

Of course I would just love such an encounter as Dan proposes, but we gotta get through this period first before even thinking about it... but however it happens, there is sure to be cameras, rubber tests, LULZ, and flying Donkeys for sure. TT forums, like this one, make it SO EASY to organize, meet up and do things that just were not possible or at least practical only a couple decades ago without Carl's spyphone and a KGB contact list.
 
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Dan

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

Dan

says editing a big TTD Team episode... stay tuned 👀
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I was wrong, Dan chases SEVERAL Goon Squads around and keeps them busy.

Of course I would just love such an encounter as Dan proposes, but we gotta get through this period first before even thinking about it... but however it happens, there is sure to be cameras, rubber tests, LULZ, and flying Donkeys for sure. TT forums, like this one, make it SO EASY to organize, meet up and do things that just were not possible or at least practical only a couple decades ago without Carl's spyphone and a KGB contact list.

Haha yes Carl's Spy Phone could get him across the milkyway galaxy!

That is very true, just hope things can return to normal so everyone can get back to playing sport, work, seeing family and having fun. Really is crazy times!

For sure if/when we play Der, there will be a couple of donkey shots, we live for those ;)
 
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