Here’s an unforgettable experience that you can’t “Google”. When we were last in Beijing, we took a ping pong lesson at an Olympic training center. You can join a group lesson, or you can opt to do a private lesson. Additionally, you can also choose to do it with a variety of different levels of coaches. For example, at the high end, you can have a private lesson with the 4 time world champion table tennis player. For a little less money, you can have a lesson with the coach of that athlete. For even less, a lesson with the coach of a former champion, and so on down the line.
For our trip, we were traveling on a private tour of China in a small party of 9 people, including 4 kids all under the age of 9. So we opted to do it privately and our two coaches were the coaches for the Chinese kids training to become world champions. Not only was this a thoroughly fun experience (and great exercise, to boot!), but it gave us deeper insight into a specific aspect of Chinese culture.
After each of us got some formal training from one of the two coaches on how to hold the paddle, how to stand and position ourselves, and how to hit, they paired us up with Chinese students.
My 8 year old daughter (on the right in the picture above) was paired up with this 8 year old girl. This girl originally came from one of the villages near Mongolia. A few years prior, a talent scout who was combing Chinese villages for possible Olympic stars identified this girl as someone who showed potential to become a successful athlete. Hoping for a better future for their daughter, her parents agreed to have her taken away to live in Beijing and train year-round at this Olympic training facility. For the past few years, she has lived in a dorm with other young athletes like herself. Each morning they get up early to have breakfast, followed by a few hours of school instruction. In the afternoon after lunch, they spend several hours doing table tennis drills and training until dinner time. While she only gets to see her parents twice a year and her schedule is quite rigorous for someone so young, she was a happy and friendly child. She was optimistic about her future and hopeful that she would make both her parents and coaches proud one day.
My daughter, who is learning Chinese, really enjoyed making friends with this girl and learning about her life. It gave her new insight into what life could be like for someone from such a different background, with such a different lifestyle from the other side of the world.
I don’t think that my 5 year old had the same “ah ha” moment in terms of the experience shedding light on how life can be different for some, but she had loads of fun anyway practicing her eye/hand coordination and running around picking up errant balls.
And let’s not forget the adults. We had a lot of fun too! The adults in our group certainly got our fair share of exercise trying to hold our own in games against kids who were only very slightly older than our own children. We may have even been able to win a game or two…but only barely.