Ping pong is NOT the same as Baseball!

That is pretty obvious isn’t it?!  Apparently not to me.

Today was a slower day at the office because of American Thanksgiving, so I actually had a few minutes to spare and took a break to play ping pong (we have a table in our cafeteria).  It was FUN!

But I am clearly not a racket player…I started by treating the ball like it was a baseball!  I’m surprised I didn’t take out my colleague’s eye, even though that could have helped me win (he crushed me all four roundsL).  Crush means the score was 21 (him) to 4 (me).  Even that score is probably being generous.

While playing, I got my adrenalin going, and I was moving left…then right…then back..then forward…then...AHH.  Start again!  It was really great, and not as easy as I assumed.  Never assume because it makes an “assume” out of “assume” and “assume”.

It reminded me of the awesome core workouts I was doing this week – balancing on a piece of thin wood while throwing a medicine ball back and forth with a teammate.  It wasn’t nice throwing, but rather it was aggressive throwing.  Every throw we would try to make the other person fall off their piece of wood.  Since this is an area that I have to develop, I pretty much fell off each time (but not for longJ).

Being able to react effectively in a sport is important: whether it’s ping pong, medicine ball throwing, running, or rowing.

Rowing is sport where I go from point A to point B, so why do I need to learn how to “react effectively”?

It’s because there are factors around me that I can’t control, and they may throw me off balance, challenge my technique, and affect my performance if I am not well equipped.  These factors include wind, waves, BUOYS (they need to be on the course, but it would be great if they could stay away from my oars!), and even rain (makes the handles a little slippery).

When rowing down a race course, I can’t control if there is a cross wind and it throws me off balance (forcing my oar to hit the water earlier than planned).  However, if I am able to maintain my strong rowing position, react with calmness and confidence, then I will win the point of that match – not the wind!

Today I didn’t win any matches, but tomorrow is a new dayJ 

Play Ball!