ANVI VERMA (11) “To me, table tennis was a little quarantine getaway. Although I don’t seek a future in it, I still consider it a hobby since it is a pretty significant part of my life. One day during quarantine, we just got the board and we set it up in one of our empty rooms and started playing. I got into table tennis since my dad also had a background in it. We got it at home, and then he gradually taught me to play. We ended up sharing the hobby with each other. 

My dad is probably 
my biggest inspiration. A core memory was when my dad taught me how to smash. Even though I’m still not good at it, I remember him teaching me that, and it was something new and I didn’t know could happen in table tennis.


My favorite part of the sport is when you do a twisting thing and you kind of spiral the ball to go the other way. It’s called twiddling, and it’s really deceptive and funny. Funnily enough, my least favorite part is when someone does that to me. Usually sometimes the uncles who come over and play do it.  Since it was before I learned how to do it, they used to just trick me with it.

Table tennis can be very valuable 
thing to pursue if you look at it as a fun hobby.  When you play casually, you get more freedom to do whatever you want. You can explore different kinds of hits. I spent my entire journey exploring plays. There weren’t really any setbacks that hindered my experience, since I enjoyed learning with whatever I can.  Competitively, you’re kind of just focused on doing whatever your trainer tells you, or just focusing on how to win.

For me, it’s still casual and
 I don’t really do it outside of home. Sometimes if we go somewhere and there is a board, I’ll line up and play with the people there. When we go to a resort, it’s mostly people coming from different parts of the world. It’s interesting to see how people from different parts of the world are brought together by table tennis.”