After being dormant for many years in my favorite participation sport, I found my new Table Tennis club on the peninsula. It’s called the Peninsula Table Tennis Club (simple enough), and it’s located in Burlingame–right on the bay. I went this evening for the first time, and it was a stellar experience. The people were very inviting and happy to have a new player.

I purchased a new blade and new rubber for my return, and decided to go with the new Timo Boll ZLF offering (blade) combined with the new Tenergy 05 FX rubber. Wow is it fast. I mean…silly fast. It’s a new fiber that’s even lighter than carbon, but it’s wicked speedy. Combined with the Tenergy rubber it’s just brutal.

I’m finding that with the Timo Boll ZLF I’m having a similar issue as I had with the Timo Boll TriCarbon, which was a very high trajectory off the bat that I find difficult to control. My default blocks and hits shoot far higher than with my Timo Boll Spirit, which is also a carbon blade.

Anyway, I’m trying to adjust. I tried going back to my old bat halfway through my session today (the Spirit with some old Bryce on it) and it was jarringly slow. I figured I was already adjusting to the new speed so there’s no point in going back now. I just need to figure out how to handle that higher trajectory.

The speed of this setup makes my touch play very weak. It’s weak enough as it is, but my serve return was just horrendous today. The speed of the thing makes all your touch mistakes very costly ones, as in…immediately deadly. I kind of like that, though, as it forces me to commit entirely to everything. Doing anything halfway (or with poor technique/form) with this blade/rubber combination yields comically poor results.

Anyway, it was great to play today, and I’m enthused to have a new club and new equipment to work with. Also, my mind feels so quick right now, as a result of the workout; it’s like my mind finally got a bath. Table Tennis, for those who don’t know, has been shown to improve all sorts of cognitive functions. Anecdotally, I’m a believer.

So if anyone in the Bay Area plays Table Tennis, you should come join me sometime. Ping me via email and we’ll hook up. ::

P.S.: Speaking of Ping…I’ll be adding Golf into the rotation soon as well…

Yeah, I know you don’t like sports all that much. Trust me. Watch this.

And another from the same guy:

Doubly insane: 1) the move itself, and 2) that it was performed against Anderson Silva.

Whether this is a male or a female doesn’t matter much. Either way it points some light at a problem I’ve had recently with female sports. This person could be technically female and simply have the physical characteristics of a male. Deep voice, heavy musculature, etc. So she then shatters all the records for women because she’s…basically a man.

So what?

Why are we even watching a women’s sport where your greatest chances of winning come from being less female? What is it about being physically more gifted as a runner (i.e. being a man, or man-like) makes you worthy of praise? Nothing. You can go find any male tennis player, or runner, who got dropped out of the finals in an elite competition (someone who consistently misses the cut) and have them compete against the women’s #1 and he’ll destroy her. Like, embarrass her.

So when a female competitor starts destroying other female competitors, and she looks like a man, it shouldn’t surprise anyone. The more manly you are–as a woman in these types of sports–the more likely you are to win. Tennis with the Williams sisters anyone? Oh, how about the best female tennis player in the world? Um, yeah, that’s Martina Navratilova below.

Oh, and Martina shares something else with men–she sexually attracted to women. Stunning; never would have guessed. Why is she a lesbian? I don’t know for sure, obviously, but the latest research offers some compelling hints.

In my mind this diminishes the validity of most female sports. Or, at least those in which men consistently and significantly outperform women. It’s pretty pointless once you figure out that the girly one is going to lose, and the manly one is going to win (assuming nearly equal skill, of course). Watching this type of competition is much like a husband going to work and bragging because he beat his wife in a fist fight the night before.

Yeah, you kicked ass. Great. You’re a guy, and you beat up a girl. So what? First, you’re an asshole, and second you’re not worthy of praise because you’re a man and she isn’t.

Repulsive, right? Yeah, well, it’s no different when a manly woman slaughters a feminine woman in sports.

And yes, it’s true that much of this also applies to male sports, i.e. the bigger, stronger guys often win there too. But at least you’re within the top echelon when you’re competing–and there’s no ambiguity regarding whether or not you should even be competing against the other person.

That’s the difference. If you’re a man, you can compete against other men, but when when you’re in a female sport, men aren’t allowed to compete at all because it’s universally understood to be unfair. So if a woman is seriously masculine (like the two women pictured above) it really is nothing less than cheating–in the most obvious and unavoidable way possible.

So what’s the answer? Say only “feminine” women can compete? Awesome, and who’s going to make that determination? It’s a futile and pointless endeavor.

This doesn’t mean the competitors have done anything wrong, and I have nothing against them. I actually rather enjoy watching good female tennis. It’s just that as soon as you realize what the major variable is for female sports victory, it’s hard to find anything compelling about the story. Really, though, this applies to any sport where the physical capabilities of the competitors are too imbalanced. This is just once instance of it. ::