Table Tennis fever

Fu often played table tennis when he was young and the passion was reignited when he joined the table tennis club at his previous company where they gathered once a week to play.

However, ever since coming to Austin and discovering that his new company had table tennis tables with ready opponents almost any time of the day – yessss, they play DURING work! how awesome is that? – he was beyond ecstatic! Since then, his table tennis addiction just exploded and spiraled out of control!

Let’s see… He plays at least one match a day (which equals at least 3 games), bought a table tennis racket, upgraded the rubber padding (zomg it costs $50 for one piece of rubber!!!), bought a racket-cleaning set, bought table tennis shoes, holds a monthly membership at the local table tennis club, signed up for the weekly table tennis league, and even signed up for private coaching lessons :S

He’s really obsessed.

If you see him doing shadow table tennis (as he often does around the house now…), don’t make eye contact. Don’t make a sound. Just quietly walk away. You’ve been warned.

He was so passionate about table tennis that he even asked ME to go for lessons and learn how to play!

My first thought was “Siao ah. Me? You want ME to play???”

I hate exercise because it’s usually repetitive and boring. Jogging (ugghhhhhh), swimming (nooooooo), etc. (although it’s a different story if it’s fun things like kickboxing or dance classes!)

But after thinking about it, I decided I’d probably better do more exercise for my overall health. Table tennis actually sounds like a good candidate because:

1. I will always have someone to play with (guess who?)
2. I have close to zero stamina and table tennis does not require one to be in very good physical condition to enjoy
3. My reflexes are pretty good (reigning queen of Bishi Bashi, [self-professed])
4. IT IS INDOORS = NO SUN!!! +1000000 points

So over the Labor Day weekend, both of us went for lessons!

I’m a right-hander, but I think I’m actually naturally a left-hander. My mom told me that when I was young, I started picking things up with my left hand, but my dad had strange ideas about how it’s bad (?!) to use the left hand and kept forcing me to use my right hand. IKR.

Fu was saying that left-handed table tennis players are actually very difficult to play against, and many of the top players in the world are left-handed.

Incidentally, our coach is also a left-handed player!

So I thought it’s the perfect chance to reawaken my dormant innate leftie powers muahahahaha!

Yep, I trained with my left and and the coach said that I’m a natural leftie! :D What she says must be true since she’s been playing table tennis for decades, and is a left-handed player herself heh.

This was me after training, decked out in newly-bought gear from the day before at the outlet malls ^o^

I don’t exercise so we had to buy everything. It’s kinda funny how all four items are from exactly different brands – Adidas, Urban Armour, Nike and Asics!