Hi all, i started playing in a small club at 15 years old (i am now in my midlife crisis) and it started when i was 8 years old but that was just some ping pong on our table at home (with my friends , father, brother mostly). One day i was going to play mini-soccer but when i arrived in the playing hall there was a TT tournament going on and i was impressed with what i saw (spin and speed, bringing the ball back on the table from far... wow).
My first bat was 2 times Sriver D13 L 1,5mm on a blade Butterfly Dr Simon (i think they called it Kucharski also), which was an allround blade, i still have one now (but dont play it anymore). At that time in Belgium it was Sriver, Sriver Killer, Magic Carbon, Mark V, Friendship 729FX blue sponge ( the original, i played with that too, very tacky and hard, special rubber and still loved by many) , Toni Hold anti top and i remember there were Mark V rubbers in green and blue ! I actually liked these colours. Blades were Klampar Hinoki, Jonyer hinoki (i still have one), Tamca Gergely (the pure carbon fast weapon,very expensive at the time). Of course there were also the pimple players (and a little later there were the very disturbing laser-treated long pimples !).
Aah , the good old times when a young Belgian player amazed everybody by making it to the top in a sport that had no real tradition here.
Also : play from 5 to 85 years of age, a fun game-like aspect of the sport, no unsporty contact with opponent possible (at least not physically), low risk of injury (but proper warmup and technique is advisable, i once knew a player in my first club who had a dislocated shoulder due to his extreme loop technique !)
