1st Date Table Tennis Madness
By: Andy Meredith

I firmly believe that table tennis is one of the most fun indoor games that man has invented. You get all of the drama and excitement of a full-scale tennis match in the convenience of your own home. Well, maybe not, but you get the idea. Plus you don’t have to put up with all of the inherent problems of “real” tennis. Annoying ball fetchers, rules on noise levels, French announcers, and all the grunting never seem to be issues on the small court.

Table tennis can be a great game for a date, but just not the first one. Ping-pong is not usually the best icebreaker. You don’t always want to know how un-coordinated someone is before you decide how you like them as a person. Also, nothing says “I really like you and want to know if we can be more than friends” quite like a straight shot to the eye with a little plastic ball. Trust me; it can happen to you too.

This may also be a bad idea if you are a very competitive person. Table tennis is like volleyball, it’s not fun to play unless the person you are playing with is at least as good as you are. Bowling has something going for it. Your date can throw gutter ball after gutter ball and it is cute. In ping-pong however it isn’t so cute if you have to bend over every three seconds to chase a little ball that seems to enjoy leading you directly under the center of the table.

“Oops, I’m sorry, I’m not very good at this” she says as she skips the ball off of the window sill five feet to the left of the table. “Not very good, a drunken monkey could do better” you think as you contort your back into positions that would have Yoga instructors shaking in their booties, or whatever they wear. But being the gentleman that you are, all you say is “It’s okay, this is fun”.

Now that I think about it, there is one good way to play table tennis on a first date. You will need at least two other couples to make it fun. To begin, you need to set a paddle on each end of the table and a ball on one side. Everyone then spreads out so that all are spaced evenly around the table.

The more people involved the more fun is had by all at the expense of some. Somebody must be chosen to start and they simply need to serve the ball. Upon service, the server sets the paddle on the table and quickly moves to his or her left whereupon the person holding the paddle on the opposite side returns the ball, sets down the paddle and quickly moves to his or her left as well. The process is repeated until somebody scores.

The player on the losing end of the score could miss the ball, hit it too far (into somebody’s eye, for example), not get the paddle in time, etc. When said person is scored upon they must remove themselves from the table and the scorer serves the ball to start up the circle again. It’s like a mix between ring-around-the-rosies and dodge ball. The game continues until two poor people are left frantically running around the table trying to stay ahead of the other person and somebody scores, or someone gets so dizzy that they puke or fall over, also not good on a first date.

Come to think of it, the best strategy on first date table tennis may be to get your date out of the game first, then lose yourself so that you can both enjoy a cool beverage and laugh at everyone else. Either way, just don’t hit her in the eyeball.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com

Andy Meredith is a passionate writer for Yard Game Central. More information about table tennis tables and ping pong techniques can be found at www.TablePong.com. Submitted with Article Distributor.

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