Tag Archives: competitive

Ice and elevate

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A photo I grabbed online of Dove Valley Ranch golf course.

I golfed yesterday with a friend from my neighborhood. It’s the first time I’ve golfed in years. I think I went once or twice after my ski accident and ACL replacement surgery in 2018. But never since COVID. So it’s safe to say four years without golfing? Actually, my neighbor and I went to practice at a driving range twice since April, but that’s not the same thing as going out on the course.

My friend had knee surgery a year ago and this is her first time she’s golfed in two years.

I was unbelievably nervous, wondering if I could still play. In fact, I woke up several times during the night worrying. I tried to visualize what my swing would feel like during my drive hitting a perfect shot. It helped me fall back to sleep. When I finally got out of bed, I thought, “It’s just a stupid game. What was I worrying about?”

At the first tee, I was shaking nervous. We were paired with two men. I knew that would happen and dreaded it. There are way more men playing than women, so it would be rare to find ourselves playing with other women. I apologized to the men in advance, explaining that I hadn’t played in years.

They teed off first on the men’s tees. Their drives didn’t make it to the women’s tees a mere yards in front of them. They took mulligans which sprayed out of bounds.

My friend whispered “This is going to be a long day!”

I teed off and hit a perfect drive. So did my friend. Then our fairway woods were amazing, too. We chipped onto the green and were set to putt for par. Meanwhile, our guys playing with us were all over the place, cursing.

My neighbor said, “I think we’re making you nervous!”

One guy muttered, “I’ve never played with women before.”

I settled down nerve-wise, realizing the men were probably as scared as I was, or more so!

Eventually they relaxed and outplayed us. I started to fall apart the hotter it got and the more tired I became. When I used to play golf with two girlfriends in Palm Springs, I always hit the longest drives. But now, my neighbor was outdriving me by 20 to 40 yards. I felt a competitive twitch and realized I didn’t like to be outdriven. Especially not consistently!

We stopped after 10 holes, tired and hot and not wanting to push it further. Our scores were close — my neighbor beat me by one stroke.

My bad knee was tired and hurting. I iced and elevated off and on for the next few hours. I’m happy I got back on the golf course and with zero expectations, I did pretty well after all.

What sports do you like to do or outside activities? Do you surprise yourself with a competitive spirit — or are you already aware of that personality trait?

Ping pong weather

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ping pong table in backyard. This photo is from last year. Unfortunately there is a mega mansion being built blocking this mountain view.
This is the view of our ping pong table from last Spring. This year, a McMansion is being built blocking part of the mountain view! What were they thinking!!!

The weather is perfect for ping pong. We had the ping pong table folded up and stored away because our weather was wild this winter with tons of rain, wind and even snow.

Every time I thought the winter weather was over, I’d ask hubby to get the ping pong table out. Guess what happened? It would rain. It would pour. There’d be thunder and lightening.

So we’re a little late in the season for ping pong. But we started playing over the weekend.

We’re competitive with each other but silly, too. My husband commented yesterday that he only has fun if he wins. I guess when I win, he doesn’t view it as that much fun. I have fun regardless. That’s how we’re wired. I didn’t play competitive sports growing up, while he ran track, played football and wrestled. I golfed and skied and was out for recreation.

As for silly, when we first got the table, we immediately ran to our offices (separately) and began viewing youtubes on tricky serves. We laughed when we found out we were up to the same antics.

When it’s my serve, I bend at the waist and mimic Michael Phelps on the blocks doing his routine where he flaps his arms up and down — but I have a paddle in one hand. My objective is to get my husband laughing so hard he can’t return my serve. It still works!

Michael Phelps on the blocks.

It feels good to add a moments of playtime throughout the day.

This is the home being built that cuts into our view. It’s in a separate neighborhood than ours that has golf courses. We’re on the other side of the wall.

What do you do for fun to break up your work each day?

The great ping pong war

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ping pong balls above a keyboard
I found my missing ping pong balls in my husband’s office.

The friendly games of ping pong between me and my husband took a highly competitive turn with a sprinkle of shady dealings with ping pong balls yesterday.

I like the brand of balls named Kettler that came in the box with our ping pong table. They don’t have a lot of bounce. They are soft to the touch and I have a better feel with my paddle. I’ve mastered a serve that I discovered on the Youtube video on killer serves. It’s a tricky little serve that barely makes it over the net and bounces a bunch of times away from the opponent. It only works with the Kettler balls for me.

My husband likes ping pong balls from a brand called Stiga. They have a lot of bounce and I can’t control my shots as well. My return flies off the table without bouncing when my husband has a fast, strong serve. I lose a ton of points that way. In fact, I think I only lose because of the Stiga balls.

“That’s fine if you want to win that way,” I told my husband.

“What??”

“That you feel you have to play balls you know I have a difficulty with. If winning is that important to you.”

He switched to my Kettler balls on the next game and I skunked him 7 – 0.

When we finished the match, I had a plan in my mind. I raced to my laptop and ordered more Kettler balls on Amazon. When my box of 60 balls came in, I’d remove the Stigas and hide them in the casita.

My husband approached me while I was ordering and looked over my shoulder.

“Are you going to order my balls, too?”

I shook my head no. Definitely not.

He tried to log onto Amazon on his computer. But he doesn’t know the password. And no, I didn’t give it to him when he asked.

“I called our daughter and she is ordering my ping pong balls,” he announced.

We played another match, and my Kettler balls were missing. Later that night I walked into my husband’s office and found a nice little pyramid of them resting against his keyboard.

Stiga ping pong ball
My husband’s preferred brand of ping pong ball.

Do you and your spouse get competitive in sports or games? What games or sports to do you play together?

The Perils of Ping Pong

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ping pong ball in a cactus
Our ping pong balls land in the most precarious places.

We’ve had our ping pong table for several weeks now. We’ve had fun playing casual games filled with laughter. Now my husband wants lessons. There’s a ping pong coach nearby who offers private and group lessons for all ages and he hosts tournaments. The coach is a national champion.

I suggested before we take the leap into instruction, maybe we should google the rules. I did yesterday and made a discovery of two rules we were breaking. First, we play matches to eleven and take turns serving every five serves. The official USA Table Tennis rules says two serves, not five. That’s easy to correct.

The second rule we were breaking is how we serve. This is a game changer — or game stopper. We were serving by putting the ball in the palm of our hand and sweeping the ball off. The official rules state we are to toss the ball at least six inches up in the air before striking the ball on its way down. Uh oh. This is no easy feat and takes a large dose of hand eye coordination.

I learned to serve with the ball resting on my hand as a second grader. I wonder if my dad taught me this method because he didn’t know the official rules? Or, was it because I didn’t have the ability at a young age to manage the ball toss and he wanted me to have fun?

In any case, this new serve made both of us really uncoordinated and frustrated. After practicing serve after serve, we both managed to get a few serves to hit the table. But it set us back in the fun department.

I told my husband I was done for the day and I headed off to the Casita for some “alone time.” I got out my laptop and began viewing YouTubes on “Four Killer Ping Pong Serves” and “How to Improve Quickly at Ping Pong.”

He walked in 30 minutes later and started laughing. He was doing the same thing in our bedroom on his laptop. We had been watching the same how-to videos secretly to gain the upper hand.

It’s not like we’re competitive or anything, right?

Ping Pong table on the patio.

Have you played ping pong? What kind of serve do you use? Do you think we need to follow the rules or play the way we want to have fun? I’m a rule stickler and my husband wants to play the way we used to. Is one of us right?