Greetings from open sea

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Hello

I am a Malaysian working onboard a survey vessel, mainly operating along west coast of Africa from Angola to Morocco. I am working for a China national company, and here I fell in love again with table tennis, after leaving them behind after school days, over 20 years ago.

Joining the small league onboard, where 2/3 of the crew are from China, it really opened my eyes playing with these guys, that I'm getting very serious with table tennis then before. Ranked around 20-25 out of 60 players, I am among top 4 non-Chinese onboard. Been learning and practising very hard to be able to play them properly, as some of senior crew are exceptionally good, some even rank among top 200-500 at their province out of a few million players.

Found this forum for some time, only able to register very recently due to very limited internet onboard. Been learning too many from this forum, from people who really know what they are talking about. Following all the discussions regarding techniques and their technicalities very closely, and work for me greatly, I thank every one for very good input. Though at early 40s, it is always some thing new to learn & try, and I am not ashamed to learn from anyone, however young their are, as long it develop my technique and skill, properly, as long I could enjoy good games, wether I win or not.

Greetings, from open sea
 
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Very nice to hear this! Good luck with your tabletennis!;)
 
says Shoo...nothing to see here. - zeio
says Shoo...nothing to see here. - zeio
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Been learning and practising very hard to be able to play them properly, as some of senior crew are exceptionally good, some even rank among top 200-500 at their province out of a few million players.
So the meme is true.

"So you play table tennis?"
ed473f39a141465c932b9f65ee4ecb6e.jpeg
 
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How is it to play on a boat? Is it so big that it's 100% stable or does it get impacted by the waves?

She's a 100m long vessel. As we are normally towing 12x 8km of cables, she rolls more than average vessel of the same size, though cruising speed is normally around 4 knots most of the time. Not all crew able to move around the table when playing, not as much as one would on terra firma, especially junior crew, though some has good agility to keep on with good foot work while playing, even when sea condition is a little rough.

Not really stable, especially those who prefer high toss when doing service, as the ball tend to land slightly off due to inertia, but the challenge is good to keep one focus, since the table is set right on centre of the vessel, and the player is either facing the bow or stern. If you start the game facing the bow, you need to adjust when serving at the next set, or the you would miss the ball.
For new comers or those who spend time too long on vacation, the first few days is needed to adjust to vessel's movement. The sensation of playing on a moving vessel is too different, and challenging in its own sense. A fast ball could be slight faster if you are receiving while facing the bow, and could be a tad slower if you are on opposite side of the table. After some time playing, you could see this difference. If you too focus on the game and the opponent that you keep forgetting which side you are on, you might misread the ball's speed & timing, either hitting the ball too early or nearly too late, or occasionally miss the ball completely. This is actually the most exciting part of playing onboard, with the rolling and pitching, while being careful to not losing the balance while positioning the oneself to receive the ball, and adapting to slight changes of speed and directions of the ball, they help a lot when one finally get home and play at local club during the break.
 
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Not really stable, especially those who prefer high toss when doing service, as the ball tend to land slightly off due to inertia, but the challenge is good to keep one focus, since the table is set right on centre of the vessel, and the player is either facing the bow or stern. If you start the game facing the bow, you need to adjust when serving at the next set, or the you would miss the ball.
For new comers or those who spend time too long on vacation, the first few days is needed to adjust to vessel's movement. The sensation of playing on a moving vessel is too different, and challenging in its own sense. A fast ball could be slight faster if you are receiving while facing the bow, and could be a tad slower if you are on opposite side of the table. After some time playing, you could see this difference. If you too focus on the game and the opponent that you keep forgetting which side you are on, you might misread the ball's speed & timing, either hitting the ball too early or nearly too late, or occasionally miss the ball completely. This is actually the most exciting part of playing onboard, with the rolling and pitching, while being careful to not losing the balance while positioning the oneself to receive the ball, and adapting to slight changes of speed and directions of the ball, they help a lot when one finally get home and play at local club during the break.

that sounds pretty difficult to me :)
 
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