I can probably beat you at ping-pong
Published on July 28, 2004 By citahellion In Sports & Leisure
For most of my life I have specifically set myself apart from the mainstream, looking for unusual things and non-obvious choices. I never listened to top-40 music, I never played or watched any organized sport except soccer (when it was still a relative oddity), I was never interested in popular culture.

In the case of sports specifically, I abhor baseball and golf especially for their glacial pace and relative lack of excitement. I remain convinced that most of the time baseball fans cheer just because something--anything at all, doesn't matter what--happened. The pitcher spit? YAY! The coach scratched himself? WOO!

So in college, I did two main sporting activities: frisbee and ping-pong. It happens that my college, Carleton College in Minnesota, is a veritable mecca of frisbee activity; hardly an hour goes by without a game going on somewhere. And after I graduated, I eventually joined a summer frisbee league. Ping-pong took me longer to get back into after college, since it requires more than just a $10 disc and some open space, but eventually I discovered the local ping-pong clubs and became a decent tournament-level player. (Currently I have about an 1850 rating, which on a scale of 1 to 3000 (approximately, with 3000 being the best) means I can beat about 3/5 of other tournament players.) I travel to ping-pong tournaments all over the country, usually about 3 or 4 major tournaments a year.

If you love football, golf, basketball, or baseball, I don't want to hear it. What UNUSUAL sports do you like, or better yet, play? (And feel free to mention things that I as an American would consider unusual even though, for example, half or more of Great Britain loves cricket.)

Comments (Page 2)
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on Aug 08, 2004
i even shot somebody in the butt !. (most unlike me).


You like to look 'em in the eye when you waste 'em, eh?

I played paintball a couple of times, a long time ago. I enjoyed it too, but (a) it's a loooong way out of town, ( it's relatively expensive, (c) I can't get that many people organized to go do it, and (d) I got shot in the trigger finger and that really hurt.

Though perhaps I should write a little something up about the BB-gun battles that my brother and I used to have with some of our friends....
on Aug 08, 2004

I played rugby until I was 21 and still enjoy watching the game Saturday mornings. I also enjoy Muay Thai kickboxing and am looking forward to seeing a live match in Thailand. I think Sumo wrestling is cool and I'd like to learn more about it. Poker's not a sport, but I play a lot of poker tournaments and manage to eek out a meagre existence of thin gruel and cheap beer from it One of the cool things about poker is that as long as you have the money you get the chance to play world champions; not everyone gets to play Kasparov, Agassi, or Tiger Woods. Butting heads with world champions is bad business in the long run but in the few times I've played them it's brought out the very best in me.
on Aug 08, 2004
You like to look 'em in the eye when you waste 'em, eh?


ewwww !.

I played paintball a couple of times, a long time ago. I enjoyed it too, but (a) it's a loooong way out of town, ( it's relatively expensive, (c) I can't get that many people organized to go do it, and (d) I got shot in the trigger finger and that really hurt.


i agree with a, b & c, but i am proud to say the only place i got shot was my foot !. and i had a big boot on. (but then i fell over and ruined my triumph. i do things like that fairly regularly .


I played rugby until I was 21 and still enjoy watching the game Saturday mornings


i'm with david on this, too. if i watch any sport on tv it's probably going to be rugly or rugby league
One of the cool things about poker is that as long as you have the money you get the chance to play world champions


citahellion & david, have you ever seen one of those late night poker programs on tv ?. i watched one last week and it was so intense. i plan to watch it this week, too. so strategic. the bluffing had me nervous big time. riveting.

wow. my life is so exciting i can hardly stand it

vanessa/mig XXX
on Aug 08, 2004
citahellion & david, have you ever seen one of those late night poker programs on tv ?. i watched one last week and it was so intense. i plan to watch it this week, too. so strategic. the bluffing had me nervous big time. riveting.


Mig, I always seem to miss poker when its on TV but I've seen a few. Fortunately, poker is getting popular enough that a kazaa search for 'poker' now returns more than naughty movies and I can find many of the episodes there. I can think of few activities that gives me the range and depth of emotion that I get from poker, and many other players feel that way too.
on Aug 08, 2004
One of the cool things about poker is that as long as you have the money you get the chance to play world champions; not everyone gets to play Kasparov, Agassi, or Tiger Woods


Actually, that's one of the cool things about table tennis, in the US anyway; you can enter the Open event at a large tournament and have a decent chance of playing someone who has a world ranking. A friend of mine who is rated about 1400 (and the table tennis ratings are essentially the same as Chess ratings, by the way) played the #1 US player (rated about 2800) in a tournament.

have you ever seen one of those late night poker programs on tv ?


Oh, I watch those quite a bit. They're not late night over here, they're on ESPN and Bravo and a couple of other channels. "The World Series of Poker", "Championship Poker", and even "Celebrity Charity Poker". They are pretty interesting. I've actually learned the names of a fair number of poker celebrities.
on Aug 08, 2004
Mig, I always seem to miss poker when its on TV but I've seen a few. Fortunately, poker is getting popular enough that a kazaa search for 'poker' now returns more than naughty movies and I can find many of the episodes there. I can think of few activities that gives me the range and depth of emotion that I get from poker, and many other players feel that way too.


david, having watched that program, i can fully relate to that statement. i've actually got a (very unfashionable) penchant for canasta. i adore the game. i seem to enjoy being challenged in a way that requires me to think hard and keep control at the same time. i doubt i'd have the nerve (or the mental speed) for poker, but i understand the attraction. i'm funnily enough, very non-competitive, and i even like losing if somebody did something insteresting to make it happen. this makes me a rather boring opponent !


Oh, I watch those quite a bit. They're not late night over here, they're on ESPN and Bravo and a couple of other channels. "The World Series of Poker", "Championship Poker", and even "Celebrity Charity Poker". They are pretty interesting. I've actually learned the names of a fair number of poker celebrities


citahellion, the tension in those things is unbelievable. we have only 5 channels here (no satellite access = no cable tv). 2 of those stations are 'local' (ie: awfully boring and about cows and pesticide and stuff), so i have 3 to choose from. fortunately, i don't like televsion much, but invariably the things i do like are unpopular and on at 2am.

the 30 second clock on the poker tournament i watched was so tense i could barely stand it !. there were 2 old rich guys, a guy who sweated a lot and lost because of it, and young guy who wore dark sunglasses the whole time. one guy bluffed on a pot of $200,000 usd. i nearly fainted !. the self control is amazing, and the study of human behaviour is so fascinating that that alone makes it worth watching. i will report to you on my next one (can't see any listed on the tv guide this week, though).

vanessa XXX
on Aug 08, 2004
shades, Gaelic Footbal sounds a lot like Australian (Aussie) Rules football. If the games weren't broadcast in the asscrack hours of the morning here in Ohio, I'd definitely watch more of it, very entertaining. I love the way the referee signals a score as well; you'd have to see it, it'd be impossible to describe any other way than in person.
on Aug 08, 2004
Aussie rules football is great! It should be shown more (though in our litigious society, they probably don't show it as much out of fear people will start playing it here and sue ESPN...go figure).
on Aug 09, 2004
the 30 second clock on the poker tournament...


Whoa! Okay, THAT sounds tense. A mere thirty seconds to decide if you're in or out? Yeah, that would ratchet the anxiety level up a few notches....

Aussie rules football is great! It should be shown more


Actually, that reminds me that I do get the "sports channel package" on my cable setup (had to get the package in order to receive The Tennis Channel, where they were showing an hour out of the 2003 Swedish Table Tennis Open yesterday), so I will have to actually look at some of the other 7 channels in the package and see if they've got some of these other things.
on Aug 09, 2004
shades, Gaelic Footbal sounds a lot like Australian (Aussie) Rules football


I'm not sure, I've never seen Aussie Rules, I'll have to check it out. The Quarter Finals for the All Ireland GAA title are going on now. There were two games over the weekend and two more next weekend...so if you are interested in seeing what it's like, you might be able to find an irish pub that will show the matches. As well, the Hurling Championship in is full swing. The last of the semifinal games is next weekend. Perfect time of year to get your Irish sports fix!
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