Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Table Tennis

I use a paddle with a short gripped blade, designed to be held in the Oriental fashion. The surface is an ITTF regulation sheet of rubber designed for power, spin and control.

And I don't use it nearly as much as I used to. In fact, the only time I seem to use it is in the summer, when I spend weeks at a time at camps, and always find people who want to play ping pong. The rest of the year, it sits in a protective Ziploc bag and waits for summer to roll around again.

Of course, I don't stop playing ping pong altogether during the other ten months of the year; I will find an occasional opponent here or there, but I never have my own paddle with me on those odd occasions.

So I make do with whatever cheap paddle happens to be lying around. For two months I use a professional paddle, and for the other ten I use a generic, cheap, imitation paddle.

When summer rolls around again, and I remember to dig out my paddle, I discover that it takes awhile to get used to my good paddle again. I'll play point after point, missing serves, adding too much spin, or not enough spin, overshooting the table...

Then I'll remember. My paddle is designed for power. After spending ten months standing right next to the table, I pause, take a deep breath, and take one step away from the table.

And suddenly, everything about the game makes sense again.

It's amazing what a difference one little step can make.

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