Perfecting myself at a sport

Table-tennis is a game I enjoy immensely. My tryst with the game started while I was young at school but I never got much of an opportunity. My classmates were the champions of the school and perhaps even did well at inter school competitions. I for one was too shy and timid to even approach a table-tennis board and let them know I wasn't as good as them. There was also a question of access. My school had a single board and far too many people vying for time. That was when we started plying our trades at a crude form of squash and we became pretty good at that too. All our recess times were spent playing the game and I remember that I even pestered my mother to allow me to take lunch to school in order to allow more time for me to play.

It was during my engineering days that I got full access to a table-tennis board and started playing the game regularly. I did well in departmental competitions too. However, sport is very fickle. It makes you feel you're the king one day, only to show you unfathomable troughs the very next. Is it just a lack of practice? No. I remember we spent endless hours at the college hostel practicing specifically each different shot, a backhand here and a forehand there. Of course the chances of me doing well at a random game were good when I practiced but even so there were times when I felt helpless. I either found the net or the ping-pong hit my opponent instead of the board. It feels crazy when that happens.

Years later, I now play the game almost every day even if it is just for half an hour. Though I don't practice or take everything as seriously as I used to do earlier I still love the game like I used to earlier. However, knowing the different ways things pan out while I am at play makes be reinstate the fact I stated before. Things can get as fickle as ever. There are instances where things are a dream; the ping-pong can land wherever I want leaving people dazed. There are days like today when nothing seems to work alright. Even the pretty basic don't turn out well. Its days like these when I retire earlier than usual and spend my energies at something else, like this blog today.

However, it's a game I love a lot and I keep going back, hoping to conquer it someday.