It's been 10+ years since I picked up a paddle and I haven't played seriously since my college days, 35 years ago. I went out for the first time about a week ago and after the first 45 minutes of finding "my game", I was playing pretty well. I actually won some singles games against, what I felt was, decent competition. My Nittaku KVL Defensive Blade with Nittaku Spiral rubber on both sides started feeling like it belonged in my hand again.
Fast forward to last night when I went back to the same place and three 1700+ players showed up! I now know exactly what it feels like to be a "puppet on a string" - they were hitting so many incredible shots, just toying with me, especially on their serves. I really thought I was pretty good back in the day but obviously I've never played any players of their level before. They were nice enough to let me join them for about 13 or 14 games. I was so outclassed...I felt completely embarrassed to be at the same table as them.
But they were so unbelievably supportive any time a hit a decent shot (rarely) and incredibly encouraging when I hit a very poor shot (which were a majority of my shots). They never ever showed any frustration with how poor of a player I was compared to them! They coached me some along the way and I tried to ask questions (especially on how I should go about trying to return all of the different, and effective, serves), so that I could use my embarrassment as a learning experience. Sometimes I didn't understand exactly what they were trying to tell me, but it certainly wasn't for their lack of trying to help me learn the game.
Every so often (1 out of every 25 shots or so) I would hit a really good backhand for a winner and they were there to applaud me (maybe out of disbelief that I hit a good shot). Numerous times one of the gentlemen said something like, "you are really good at hitting my pip shots." I would say thanks, having no clue what he was talking about. Finally after we finished playing I asked, "What did you mean when you said I handled pip shots well?" (here is obviously where I showed my ignorance) They chuckled and said, "You mean you hit those so well without knowing what he was doing?" "Uh, yeah, I did" (maybe it's better I didn't know what was coming at me).
But last night was a tremendous learning experience...not only about how poor of a player I am and how ignorant I really am about the game of table tennis, but also about how supportive the table tennis community is!!!
I just felt like I should share my experience and say thank you to all of you who are so incredibly good at this game, but take the time to help those of us who aren't near your level get better!!!
Pardon me now while I go search for every video I can find on how to return serves back in play!
TripleB
Fast forward to last night when I went back to the same place and three 1700+ players showed up! I now know exactly what it feels like to be a "puppet on a string" - they were hitting so many incredible shots, just toying with me, especially on their serves. I really thought I was pretty good back in the day but obviously I've never played any players of their level before. They were nice enough to let me join them for about 13 or 14 games. I was so outclassed...I felt completely embarrassed to be at the same table as them.
But they were so unbelievably supportive any time a hit a decent shot (rarely) and incredibly encouraging when I hit a very poor shot (which were a majority of my shots). They never ever showed any frustration with how poor of a player I was compared to them! They coached me some along the way and I tried to ask questions (especially on how I should go about trying to return all of the different, and effective, serves), so that I could use my embarrassment as a learning experience. Sometimes I didn't understand exactly what they were trying to tell me, but it certainly wasn't for their lack of trying to help me learn the game.
Every so often (1 out of every 25 shots or so) I would hit a really good backhand for a winner and they were there to applaud me (maybe out of disbelief that I hit a good shot). Numerous times one of the gentlemen said something like, "you are really good at hitting my pip shots." I would say thanks, having no clue what he was talking about. Finally after we finished playing I asked, "What did you mean when you said I handled pip shots well?" (here is obviously where I showed my ignorance) They chuckled and said, "You mean you hit those so well without knowing what he was doing?" "Uh, yeah, I did" (maybe it's better I didn't know what was coming at me).
But last night was a tremendous learning experience...not only about how poor of a player I am and how ignorant I really am about the game of table tennis, but also about how supportive the table tennis community is!!!
I just felt like I should share my experience and say thank you to all of you who are so incredibly good at this game, but take the time to help those of us who aren't near your level get better!!!
Pardon me now while I go search for every video I can find on how to return serves back in play!
TripleB
