Feb 20, 2007 12:07 PM
4656 Views
(Updated Mar 03, 2007 05:33 AM)
Most of us would be able to remember the original nursery rhyme. If not, it went like - "Inky pinky ponky. Father had a donkey. Donkey died. Father cried"It is a matter of great pride if you can play any game well. If you are a jack of all and master of none, then it is probably better. That way you are not too disappointed with your performance ever. You always have a 'scope of improving' and can always pat your back for whatever dismal show you have put up in any game.
I had a liking for table tennis ever since I was a kid. Dad used to be an excellent player and that is how we got our first lessons in it. Since I have always tried to do things differently, I decided to master the pen hold grip. Yeah I know, I know - A stupid person tries to do different things and the intelligent one remains the same, but is different.
Anyway this pen hold grip was to "serve" me well in times of need. I was always an amateur. Beyond a certain point, I could never raise the bar of my competence. Two cruicial aspects that I was missing were patience and practice.
Things changed when a friend of mine (who shared my passion for the game), and I decided to buy our own table. Yes, we did go in for a blue top OSEL product that cost us 10K. Sometimes my friend and I would leave the office after lunch and go home to practice. I guess someone got the inkling of our daily escapades which is why we both got performance incentives akin to what was given to one "Mr. Kumar" in that famous ad! In the years that went rolling by, we got busy and eventually parted with our blue beauty. I lost practice totally. Life turned one full circle when in one of my previous companies, it was announced that there will be an internal championship. I got a Butterfly bat (nothing fancy) and started practicing. Almost everyone would get amazed at the way I would hold the bat - the pen hold grip that Chinese are so good at. As I said earlier, this grip "served" me a lot. A lot of my opponents would get confused and not be able to even take simple serves that I would render.
Unfortunately, I got eliminated in the preliminary rounds. I got "smashed" a lot in that game. As I said earlier, I licked my wounds saying that I was a 'jack of all' case. I spoke to one of the finalists about the apparent weaknesses in my game. He said two very simple things - (1) You are not keeping your eyes on the ball, and most importantly **(2) You are always playing the same way. There is no variation.
His words of wisdom transformed me. All of a sudden I started seeing connection in totally different facets of life. I remembered the golden rule learnt by Forrest Gump that made him a national hero overnight - "No matter what happens, DO NOT take your eyes off the ball!". And a variation to the nursery rhyme that is the title of the review at hand - "Don't play like a donkey". Try different things. Need to take the opponent by surprise.
In a few days I had changed from an amateur to a difficult opponent. I was never (and I am still not) a force to reckon with, in ping pong, but people started getting very careful when playing against me. The biggest change that came in me was that my reflexes became sharper. As a matter of fact, these reflexes have more than once averted accidents on the road when I am driving. It was this lack of reflexes that led me to smash my Wagon-R into a transformer a few years earlier while driving in Bangalore.
I do not want to get into too many technical details of the game or its specifications as they are secondary for now. I have always played this game and found it to be very engrossing. It takes a little more effort than shuttle game since here the 'area' of concentration is lesser. A little perseverance helps. The transformation from a totally wasted player to a good one is subtle and noteworthy. One advice I can give is to always play against better players. Another one is to not always play games, but play rallies. The most important is if you are playing against a newcomer; do not lower your level.
Sooner or later you will realize the change. You will get addicted to the game. Like me you may continue to be a donkey, but will become a donkey with a remarkable degree of variation (An oxymoron, hey hey). And when nothing seems to be working, just remember the rhyme you were taught in nursery - "Inky PINGy PONGy, Don't play like a donkey"
People will watch your game and applaud too. Don't the applauses seem to reverberate longer when they are meant for you?
