Ping Pong

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Some of my most nerve-wracking as well as exhilarating moments have come from ping pong. I'd been saying from the moment I decided to come to China that I would love to learn some good ping pong technique if I could just find a very patient partner to play with. I mentioned this to Mr. Wang, the adviser, who has connections to the physical education department (or, as they call it here, the physical department). He brought me to the first meeting of one of the ping pong PE classes, in a room with at least 50 tables and 100 students. The teacher, who is also the coach of the university's team, lent me his paddle and watched me volley with one of his players.

Now, I've played enough ping pong that I can competently return the ball to the other side most of the time if you don't hit it at me exceedingly hard or with spin. But I've never learned any proper technique. So after watching me for about a minute, the coach came over and showed me the proper form for a basic backhand. The paddle was to face at an impossible downward angle, I was to make contact with the ball at an awkward place, and I was not to push forward but rather pull up and to my right, as if throwing a frisbee into the corner where wall meets ceiling. I instantly went from competent but with no form to completely incompetent, hitting the ball to all ends of the room those times I managed to make contact...but at least attempting to mimic proper technique. As I've experienced so many times with batting stances and swings, pitching and throwing motions, and bowling technique, the coach also tweaked my feet, knees, back, and shoulders in addition to wrist angle and arm motion, essentially turning me into a stiff robot, and then in classic (and, it seems, universal) "coach form," told me, of course, to relax.

Did I mention he speaks no English? Like, none? All of the instruction was done through miming (except for the "relax" wisdom, which apparently merited a student translator). I was missing so badly that a student watching nearby, whose English was also limited, pointed to the center of his paddle and offered, "Hit it here." I could tell that he'd wanted to say something more insightful but lacked the vocabulary, but I was feeling a tad frustrated, so I replied with a cathartic, curt "Thanks," mitigating the screw-you connotation with a sympathetic smile and eye contact. My incompetency persisted and frustration continued building slowly for five or ten minutes, until the coach stood behind me, held the paddle with me, and hit some shots to the other side. The feeling of what my arm was supposed to do and how the swing was supposed to feel changed everything. All of a sudden, I was returning everything that was hit to me. It was incredible. And it was just in time, because...

...A whistle blew, and 100+ Chinese ping pong students gathered for a big meeting in the middle of the room -- immediately next to, and facing, my table. I stopped playing, but my partner explained that since I wasn't a student in the class and neither was she (she was on the team), we would continue throughout the meeting. One hundred students were standing facing my table, my back miraculously to them, the only sounds in the cavernous room the monotone of the coach and the back-and-forth of my volleys. I could not believe that they were doing this to me. How could anyone fail to realize that this would be embarrassing for someone in my situation? I was especially baffled because of what I had read (admittedly cursorily) about losing/saving face in China, and the assumptions I had about Eastern collectivism vs. Western individualism: would they really put someone on the spot like that? I guess my anthropology needs some work, because we kept right on playing, despite my attempts to show discomfort. I can't think of a time I've felt more self-conscious. But with 200 eyes on my back, I continued my competent returns for the length of the meeting -- probably five minutes, though it seemed like 20 -- and my feelings of terror gradually became elation that I had risen to the occasion.

I'll break from the play-by-play to recount the next series of ups and downs.
Down: I began to learn the basic forehand and was even more incompetent for even longer, reaching a new level of frustration
Up: but I finally got it, too
Down: I came in the next week with a troubling amount of rust
Up: But I improved enough during that class that the coach spoke his first English to me: "Very beautiful"
Neutral: At the coach's request, I bought my own paddle, the second-most expensive one (70 yuan) at the school store, which everyone laughed at in the next class (apparently if it's under 300 yuan, it's a toy).
Down: I also started to see my exponential rate of improvement slow down markedly, and began to worry if I was wasting the players' time (they would rotate playing with me and I got the sense they were a bit reluctant to give up their valuable practice time to hit gimmes to the remedial student)
Up: But I got a reassurance from the coach via Mr. Wang's translation that he wanted me in the class and was impressed by how quickly I'd been improving. Hooray!
Down: I went to my third class after a long day on very little sleep and with, unbeknownst to me at the time, a 103 fever (I should add here that this ping pong class is no joke aerobically!). I was down for the count for the next two days.
Up: In the last two classes, my improvement has picked up steam again, as I've finally graduated to alternating the backhands and forehands, have engaged in by far the longest volleys of my life, and multiple times earned the coveted "Very beautiful" comment on some pretty tough shots.
Up: Finally, I've become friends with one of the seniors on the team, Jinda, a very nice guy who is one of the few people in the ping pong room who speaks English. He invited me to play once outside of the class, and is second only to the coach (a former pro, it turns out) in ability to return any shot of mine to the same spot on my side again and again. I've got a long way to go, but I'm really excited for how much I can improve playing once or more per week for the next seven and a half months!

As for being the only person playing during the meeting, it has continued, and I'm still hyperconscious that everyone is watching me, but somehow it stopped bothering me after the third time. Which is definitely another Up.

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Comments

[Will]

Ping Pong
I loved reading this even though you had already related most of this to me on Skype. Now you know how I feel about learning techie stuff!Is the US Olympic Ping Pong Team in the offing for you?