Why Table Tennis is a Great Hacker Sport
jamesyu.org
Why Table Tennis is a Great Hacker Sport
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Why Table Tennis is a Great Hacker Sport
#2Though foos is the official sport of Yahoo, I've always preferred the ping pong tables.
Re: Why Table Tennis is a Great Hacker Sport
#3Though foos is the official sport of Yahoo, I've always preferred the ping pong tables.
I have the opposite problem. Ping pong is the official sport of Trovix, whereas I'm a foosball guy (doing a PhD where the staff room has a foosball table and a Mame machine will both make you awesome at foosball and Yie Ar Kung Fu)
Re: Why Table Tennis is a Great Hacker Sport
#4Learning to consistently (>25%) hit the very edge of the table, so that the ball drops almost straight to the floor, is so awesome.
Re: Why Table Tennis is a Great Hacker Sport
#5Ron Graham was amazed that an elderly and seemingly frail Paul Erdos could easily beat him (may have been those damned amphetamines again!). So he (Graham) bought a ping pong serving machine, and eventually became the table tennis champion of Bell Labs (he's also an expert juggler and trampolinist). I think his wife Fan is also a killer player.
Re: Why Table Tennis is a Great Hacker Sport
#6Ron Graham was amazed that an elderly and seemingly frail Paul Erdos could easily beat him (may have been those damned amphetamines again!). So he (Graham) bought a ping pong serving machine, and eventually became the table tennis champion of Bell Labs (he's also an expert juggler and trampolinist). I think his wife Fan is also a killer player.
Yeah, it's amazing the breadth of age in table tennis. Many pro players can still play in their 40s and 50s, which is unheard of in other sports.
This past weekend I played against this kid in the clubs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cws4TzPySdw&feature=chann...
He's 5 years old and can barely reach over the table. But, he's able to back up 10 feet from the table and hit absolutely huge returns. I was able to beat him, but he definitely scored lots of points on me. Given that I'm rated about 750, this is crazy!
Give him a few years and he'll be playing pro in no time.
Re: Why Table Tennis is a Great Hacker Sport
#7It's probably not a coincidence that there were ping pong tables in the Computer Center and Engineering Center buildings of our University; lots of people played (I never got into it, though; kinda hard to play when you have tunnel vision).
Re: Why Table Tennis is a Great Hacker Sport
#8Though foos is the official sport of Yahoo, I've always preferred the ping pong tables.
I was always a billiards guy.
Not as physical, but it does wonders for eye strain.
Re: Why Table Tennis is a Great Hacker Sport
#9Learning to consistently (>25%) hit the very edge of the table, so that the ball drops almost straight to the floor, is so awesome .
You wouldn't be able to do that with someone who plays fast enough. Even if you could do it on your serve 25% of the time, that's only an 1/8th of all points. And you'd probably hit a lot of your attempts to hit the edge off the table.
Re: Why Table Tennis is a Great Hacker Sport
#10Ron Graham was amazed that an elderly and seemingly frail Paul Erdos could easily beat him (may have been those damned amphetamines again!). So he (Graham) bought a ping pong serving machine, and eventually became the table tennis champion of Bell Labs (he's also an expert juggler and trampolinist). I think his wife Fan is also a killer player.
Yeah, it's amazing the breadth of age in table tennis. Many pro players can still play in their 40s and 50s, which is unheard of in other sports. This past weekend I played against this kid in the clubs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cws4TzPySdw&feature=chann... He's 5 years old and can barely reach over the table. But, he's able to back up 10 feet from the table and hit absolutely huge returns. I was able to beat h…
Am I looking at the right video? That kid did not look amazing.