Discovering myself through a sport

The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.

— Ernie Bank

8 year ago When I first entered into my hostel, a place where I will be spending my upcoming four years. I saw a ping pong table for the first time and I was ebullient to see it and get my hands on the paddle.

It’s all about having fun

From the first day to playing corporate tournaments, I have fallen in love with this sport. There have been many learnings from the game. I believe, A sport can help you build confidence and a personality as well.

Initial 3 years, as a player I was improving my skills by hitting the ball and being consistent with whatever skills I possessed. As a player, I felt happier every day, pulling on a night out to just play was quite common during that time.

We had inter hostel tournaments at the university. In the last year of college, I thought I would give it a try, I talked to the representative about the same. I was not selected. I was aghast at the decision and couldn’t believe why ?

Be a student of your passion

I joined Yahoo! after college. Yahoo! had an amazing game room with quality tables for pool and table tennis, also a perk to learn table tennis from the national coach. Next 1 1/2 years was a game changer, We were practicing daily, It demands a lot of time to make small changes in fundamental of your playing style, but the impact was huge as well. To excel in any field, collaboration and learning from the best are necessary.

The first corporate tournament, It felt so good to compete. When we reached to the venue, there was a lot of time before my first game, I became anxious to see that everybody was way better than me. My hands were shivering when I was playing my first match. My opponent was in early stages of his career as well. As his techniques were not perfect, but he held his composure, which I couldn’t . The same reason why I lost the game.