Reflex

I’ve observed that on some days the world around me just seems to be slower than me. This morning, I was riding to office and I was wondering why everyone around me is driving so slow….I glanced at my speedo and that is when I realized that I was just one going faster than the others! You know how you feel that you are actually going fast? That didn’t happen. I was actually feeling like I was riding at average speeds.

That got me thinking how my reflexes have improved in the last few weeks. I’ve been playing table tennis for about 3-4 hours every evening for a few weeks now, with some really good players. They used to play professionally before they decided to take up jobs. I used to have a hard time with one particular player who was too fast for me. When he smashed the ball, I could just see an orange blur. Most of the time, my hand would come up long after the ball had whizzed past by, or would crash into me and I would squirm as it burned my skin. A few days ago, I was able to see the ball but was not able to react fast enough. Yesterday, however, I was somehow able to pick every one of his shots. It was like everything was in slow motion, and I was the only one to able to move at normal speed. My feet were moving faster. I wasn’t struggling to reach for the ball anymore. Not only was I able to defend his smashes, I was even able to hit back a few. He’s got a few tricky shots where he induces a bit of side spin into his top spins. I was able to see the spin on the ball. Not by his action – I could actually see the logo on the rotating ball and determine how it was going to spin.

I have no idea how the improvement came about, but I’m not complaining!