Table tennis

I just played one of the best ping-pong games in my life!!

My brother Javier and I used to play a lot during summers in my countryside house. Basically, summers meant ping-pong and swimming pool. ;) During those long hot summers, we ended up playing quite well. At some point, we started competing at amateur level and I won some under-15 tournaments. And my brother was always second or third (and he was under 10 maybe!). So the thing is we stopped playing for some reason.

After many years, I started playing again from time to time at ISU and I realized I was still good. Actually, there were only one or two people who really had a chance to beat me. Really good games down in Strasbourg. Then, I played some more games a bit everywhere, wherever the opportunity appeared: Naoko's mother in Tokyo, in some youth hostel somewhere in my trips...

Now, we have a ping pong table just downstairs, in the recreational room of my apartment complex at Caltech. I started playing more often, like once every other day, and I am getting back in a good shape. Today, I played with one of my Chinese housemates and it was amazing!! So fast, hard and tricky!! It was one hour and in the end we were really sweating. Just like in the good times with my brother. We can both attack and defend quite alright and we have to smash really hard so the other cannot put it back in the table. In the end we played a real game and I won 21-14. Really nice game! Next time I will loose! I was playing at my very limit!