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Mar 6, 2006

The angle at 45 degrees

Table Tennis, the fast and furious game to see is no more so tough to learn. I am a fresher to the game of Table Tennis and I found this out after the special TT coaching sessions being provided to us by HP.

Initially I felt “what’s the big deal in hitting the small ping-pong ball on a rectangular table”, but my views took the U turn when I started to hit it and I could not manage to keep the ball either on the table or over the net. Out of every 10 shots of mine more than 7 would hit the net and probably the rest would scrap through the other side. This was a bad conversion rate to a more than average volleyball striker like me. And to go with it I had started playing competitive table tennis in my office. Lo… behold… the hell broke loose for me with my limited skills in TT.

Then came in the multilingual Mr. KrishnaSwamy, as the TT coach on 14th October. I had a gut feeling that it could not have been better timed. The man looks old, but it stops only with his looks as the shots never seem to stop dancing and curving on the TT table. This should be a result of extreme talent I wondered; well it was but not totally as I found out later after chatting to him that here is a man who has represented India and has put in nearly 40 yrs of his good time to the game he loves.

He saw me play and told me that it was a TT bat that I was holding in my hand and not a hand-held fan. He asked me to hold the racket at 45 degrees and start playing with the change. And that day out of my 10 shots…. More than 8 of them couldn’t be picked by the opponents. Now!!! I thought…. Nobody can stop me… from hitting the ball sharply if not making it dance like the way he does. And now I hit the ball sharply… rather should I say briskly, I leave my opponents to tell you that ;-)

It was a win-win situation in the canteen that day. Wondering on hearing about the canteen? Well, that’s where our TT corner is there in Khanija Bhavan and it was raining people. For a change the rush was missing near the snacks vending place at 5pm and had moved to our TT corner. People were waiting on the sidelines waiting to get their chances to play and also showcase their talents to someone who knew the game. Well there were also people who wanted to show-off their skills to the coach. Some succeeded getting his appreciation and others got ignored. Some also thought it wasn’t a good day for them in TT and got back to IT which welcomed them anytime.

Thanks to the coach whose sessions have given me joy in learning another game.... and thanks to our pro-employee company Hewlett-Packard.

5 comments:

Sudeep said...

You might want to don the TT coordinator cap dude & Your blog about the childhood memories was good.

Anonymous said...

could you please post the contact details of the coach. I want to master TT game.

Anonymous said...

Do you have to contact info of Mr. KrishnaSwamy? Can you pass it on the me at srdthegreat@yahoo.com. I play average and need a coach from Sept 1 - 15 urgently (tournament on in Motorola, man :)) ).

Regards,
- Shubharanjan

Anonymous said...

can you please mail me (rafiqb_5@yahoo.com) Mr. Krishnaswamy's contact details. Whant to lear TT !!

Sanjaya Srivatsan said...

@Shubharanjan, Rafiq : Sorry I lost his contact after I quit HP. Will let you know if i find it....