The Metaphysics of Ping Pong

This brilliant and highly entertaining book is ping pong's answer to Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance which I read in the 1970s and which may be familiar some readers. It turns out in the prelude that the author is a friend of Rupert Sheldrake, whom I discovered from the book is a keen player himself! I can just imagine their metaphysical conversations about non-Euclidean geometry reflected in the subtitle of 'table tennis as a journey of self-discovery and the spinning ball as our planet Earth.' The lively narrative of matches with all kinds of surprising characters is interspersed with metaphysical reflection drawing from Plato and Aristotle, the I Ching and Sun Tzu's war tactics (very necessary in some of the more challenging encounters) and Jung's shadow. There is also some fascinating background about the history of the game and the rise of Oriental players with the advent of a new kind of bat in the 1950s. Other themes include initiation, the role of the teacher and the parallels between the game and life. The final chapter describes an epic match only just won in the final game. The game's greatest experiments are invariably practitioners of the Way, trying to keep themselves in the flow at all times. Enthusiastic players of the game will find a treasure trove of insights here.