Rivalry on the small court
I have kind of a Roddick vs. Federer competitive rivalry going with one of my coworkers at the table tennis table (Federer and Roddick are currently the #1 and #2 ranked men's tennis players in the world) . Federer has won many of the Grand Slam titles the last few years and has already solidified himself as one of the best all-around players of all time, while Roddick is the young gun with immense talent but is also much more mercurial. I'm basically in the Roddick role and he's in the Federer role. In our daily to every-other-day table tennis matches (side note: ping-pong is a recreational pasttime, table tennis is a sport), I'm able to use my variety of spins and tricky serves to win a fair number of easy points, but I'll also give quite a few away on unnecessary chances or inconsistent hitting, while he's honed his strokes to build a solid, powerful, consistent game. Our matches are usually fairly entertaining, and if I'm "on" I can win, but he probably wins 70% of the time right now due primarily to my inconsistency - similar to the Federer-Roddick rivalry in real life. One day I'll put it all together.
Incidentally, serving in table tennis is a lot like pitching a baseball. Some people have more spins/pitches, and the real key is to keep your opponent off balance by changing spins, speeds, and locations. Similar to how a pitcher will use his fastball to set up a breaking ball, I'll often throw in a fast serve in the midst of my slices and sidespins to break up the tempo. You also need to read the opponent's stance - whether he's "on tilt" (borrowing a term from poker) and anxious to smash something, whether he's favoring his forehand or backhand, leaning forwards or backwards, etc. It's a fun diversion from work.
Quick weekend recap
Watched "The Bourne Supremacy" last Saturday... I think I liked the first one better. You could see what was going on.
In the evening, hung out with Byron, Maria, Joy, Mike P, JT, and Maria's sister playing cards where Mike introduced us to a "new" version of Big 2/Deuces/Revolution/Rich Man Poor Man where, instead of having everyone finish playing all their cards, you are accorded points for every card in your hand when the first person finishes. First to 50 loses. This changed strategy quite a bit as you no longer needed to worry about having to play all your cards, you could be content with getting stuck with 3-4 singles since you ditched the rest of your cards. We christened the game "Big Ditch."
Good sermon on Sunday from Pastor Dennis Low, formerly of 5th HOC, about spiritual transformation. Mentioned an idea from Dallas Willard called the "Triangle of Spiritual Transformation", where he highlights three items instrumental in spiritual growth - the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, spiritual disciplines, and daily circumstances. We mature and are sanctified as we live out our faith in light of these three, and spiritual disciplines is the area where we can really focus and be active in taking a role in God growing us.
I have kind of a Roddick vs. Federer competitive rivalry going with one of my coworkers at the table tennis table (Federer and Roddick are currently the #1 and #2 ranked men's tennis players in the world) . Federer has won many of the Grand Slam titles the last few years and has already solidified himself as one of the best all-around players of all time, while Roddick is the young gun with immense talent but is also much more mercurial. I'm basically in the Roddick role and he's in the Federer role. In our daily to every-other-day table tennis matches (side note: ping-pong is a recreational pasttime, table tennis is a sport), I'm able to use my variety of spins and tricky serves to win a fair number of easy points, but I'll also give quite a few away on unnecessary chances or inconsistent hitting, while he's honed his strokes to build a solid, powerful, consistent game. Our matches are usually fairly entertaining, and if I'm "on" I can win, but he probably wins 70% of the time right now due primarily to my inconsistency - similar to the Federer-Roddick rivalry in real life. One day I'll put it all together.
Incidentally, serving in table tennis is a lot like pitching a baseball. Some people have more spins/pitches, and the real key is to keep your opponent off balance by changing spins, speeds, and locations. Similar to how a pitcher will use his fastball to set up a breaking ball, I'll often throw in a fast serve in the midst of my slices and sidespins to break up the tempo. You also need to read the opponent's stance - whether he's "on tilt" (borrowing a term from poker) and anxious to smash something, whether he's favoring his forehand or backhand, leaning forwards or backwards, etc. It's a fun diversion from work.
Quick weekend recap
Watched "The Bourne Supremacy" last Saturday... I think I liked the first one better. You could see what was going on.
In the evening, hung out with Byron, Maria, Joy, Mike P, JT, and Maria's sister playing cards where Mike introduced us to a "new" version of Big 2/Deuces/Revolution/Rich Man Poor Man where, instead of having everyone finish playing all their cards, you are accorded points for every card in your hand when the first person finishes. First to 50 loses. This changed strategy quite a bit as you no longer needed to worry about having to play all your cards, you could be content with getting stuck with 3-4 singles since you ditched the rest of your cards. We christened the game "Big Ditch."
Good sermon on Sunday from Pastor Dennis Low, formerly of 5th HOC, about spiritual transformation. Mentioned an idea from Dallas Willard called the "Triangle of Spiritual Transformation", where he highlights three items instrumental in spiritual growth - the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, spiritual disciplines, and daily circumstances. We mature and are sanctified as we live out our faith in light of these three, and spiritual disciplines is the area where we can really focus and be active in taking a role in God growing us.
posted by Bob at
11:47 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home