As a debater, it’s easy to constantly do research and prepare for the next tournament because you can have your laptop with you at all times, even when you’re in a car or watching television. Unfortunately for table tennis, players generally cannot carry around a ping pong paddle, a ball, a table, the right clothes, and a practice buddy with them at all times. 

This was the problem I faced between last December and about a month ago, an inability to convert just those small windows of free time into productive time for ping pong. Recently I’ve earned my Eagle rank as a boy scout and have temporarily jettisoned some other responsibilities to undergo some intense training in preparation for my biggest and historically most successful tournament of the year: JOOLA Teams in Baltimore. Hopefully this intensity hasn’t come too little too late and I’ll do well over Thanksgiving!