Ping-pong and the riddle of victory
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0:01 - 0:04Every other night in Japan,
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0:04 - 0:06I step out of my apartment,
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0:06 - 0:10I climb up a hill for 15 minutes,
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0:10 - 0:14and then I head into my local health club,
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0:14 - 0:18where three ping-pong tables
are set up in a studio. -
0:18 - 0:20And space is limited,
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0:20 - 0:22so at every table,
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0:22 - 0:25one pair of players practices forehands,
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0:25 - 0:27another practices backhands,
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0:27 - 0:31and every now and then,
the balls collide in midair -
0:31 - 0:33and everybody says, "Wow!"
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0:34 - 0:40Then, choosing lots,
we select partners and play doubles. -
0:40 - 0:43But I honestly couldn't
tell you who's won, -
0:43 - 0:47because we change partners
every five minutes. -
0:47 - 0:51And everybody is trying really hard
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0:51 - 0:52to win points,
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0:52 - 0:56but nobody is keeping track
of who is winning games. -
0:57 - 1:01And after an hour or so
of furious exertion, -
1:01 - 1:03I can honestly tell you
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1:03 - 1:06that not knowing who has won
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1:06 - 1:09feels like the ultimate victory.
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1:10 - 1:12In Japan, it's been said,
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1:12 - 1:16they've created a competitive spirit
without competition. -
1:18 - 1:25Now, all of you know that geopolitics
is best followed by watching ping-pong. -
1:25 - 1:27(Laughter)
-
1:27 - 1:32The two strongest powers in the world
were fiercest enemies -
1:32 - 1:36until, in 1972, an American ping-pong team
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1:36 - 1:39was allowed to visit Communist China.
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1:40 - 1:43And as soon as the former adversaries
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1:43 - 1:47were gathered around
some small green tables, -
1:47 - 1:49each of them could claim a victory,
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1:49 - 1:52and the whole world
could breathe more easily. -
1:53 - 1:56China's leader, Mao Zedong,
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1:56 - 1:59wrote a whole manual on ping-pong,
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1:59 - 2:03and he called the sport
"a spiritual nuclear weapon." -
2:04 - 2:08And it's been said that the only
honorary lifelong member -
2:08 - 2:11of the US Table Tennis Association
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2:11 - 2:14is the then-President Richard Nixon,
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2:14 - 2:17who helped to engineer
this win-win situation -
2:17 - 2:20through ping-pong diplomacy.
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2:21 - 2:23But long before that,
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2:23 - 2:25really, the history of the modern world
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2:25 - 2:30was best told through
the bouncing white ball. -
2:30 - 2:34"Ping-pong" sounds
like a cousin of "sing-song," -
2:34 - 2:36like something Eastern,
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2:36 - 2:42but actually, it's believed
that it was invented by high-class Brits -
2:42 - 2:43during Victorian times,
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2:43 - 2:48who started hitting wine corks
over walls of books after dinner. -
2:48 - 2:49(Laughter)
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2:49 - 2:51No exaggeration.
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2:51 - 2:52(Laughter)
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2:52 - 2:54And by the end of World War I,
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2:54 - 2:59the sport was dominated by players
from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire: -
2:59 - 3:03eight out of nine
early world championships -
3:03 - 3:04were claimed by Hungary.
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3:05 - 3:08And Eastern Europeans grew so adept
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3:08 - 3:11at hitting back everything
that was hit at them -
3:11 - 3:15that they almost brought
the whole sport to a standstill. -
3:15 - 3:20In one championship match
in Prague in 1936, -
3:20 - 3:26the first point is said to have lasted
two hours and 12 minutes. -
3:26 - 3:27The first point!
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3:27 - 3:30Longer than a "Mad Max" movie.
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3:30 - 3:36And according to one of the players,
the umpire had to retire with a sore neck -
3:36 - 3:38before the point was concluded.
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3:38 - 3:39(Laughter)
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3:39 - 3:43That player started hitting
the ball back with his left hand -
3:43 - 3:46and dictating chess moves between shots.
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3:46 - 3:47(Laughter)
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3:47 - 3:50Many in the audience
started, of course, filing out, -
3:50 - 3:55as that single point lasted
maybe 12,000 strokes. -
3:55 - 4:00And an emergency meeting of
the International Table Tennis Association -
4:00 - 4:02had to be held then and there,
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4:03 - 4:05and soon the rules were changed
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4:05 - 4:09so that no game could last
longer than 20 minutes. -
4:09 - 4:10(Laughter)
-
4:11 - 4:14Sixteen years later,
Japan entered the picture, -
4:14 - 4:19when a little-known
watchmaker called Hiroji Satoh -
4:19 - 4:24showed up at the world championships
in Bombay in 1952. -
4:25 - 4:29And Satoh was not very big,
he wasn't highly rated, -
4:29 - 4:31he was wearing spectacles,
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4:31 - 4:36but he was armed with a paddle
that was not pimpled, -
4:36 - 4:38as other paddles were,
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4:38 - 4:42but covered by a thick spongy rubber foam.
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4:43 - 4:47And thanks to this silencing
secret weapon, -
4:47 - 4:50the little-known Satoh won a gold medal.
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4:51 - 4:55One million people came out
into the streets of Tokyo -
4:55 - 4:58to greet him upon his return,
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4:58 - 5:02and really, Japan's postwar resurgence
was set into motion. -
5:04 - 5:09What I learned, though,
at my regular games in Japan, -
5:09 - 5:15is more what could be called
the inner sport of global domination, -
5:15 - 5:18sometimes known as life.
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5:19 - 5:22We never play singles in our club,
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5:22 - 5:23only doubles,
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5:23 - 5:28and because, as I say,
we change partners every five minutes, -
5:28 - 5:32if you do happen to lose,
you're very likely to win -
5:32 - 5:33six minutes later.
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5:34 - 5:37We also play best-of-two sets,
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5:37 - 5:40so often, there's no loser at all.
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5:40 - 5:42Ping-pong diplomacy.
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5:42 - 5:46And I always remember
that as a boy growing up in England, -
5:46 - 5:49I was taught that the point
of a game was to win. -
5:50 - 5:55But in Japan, I'm encouraged to believe
that, really, the point of a game -
5:55 - 6:01is to make as many people as possible
around you feel that they are winners. -
6:01 - 6:05So you're not careening up and down
as an individual might, -
6:05 - 6:08but you're part of a regular,
steady chorus. -
6:09 - 6:13The most skillful players in our club
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6:13 - 6:18deploy their skills to turn
a 9-1 lead for their team -
6:18 - 6:23into a 9-9 game in which everybody
is intensely involved. -
6:23 - 6:27And my friend who hits
these high, looping lobs -
6:27 - 6:31that smaller players flail at and miss --
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6:31 - 6:36well, he wins a lot of points,
but I think he's thought of as a loser. -
6:37 - 6:42In Japan, a game of ping-pong
is really like an act of love. -
6:42 - 6:45You're learning how to play with somebody,
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6:45 - 6:47rather than against her.
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6:47 - 6:48And I'll confess,
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6:49 - 6:53at first, this seemed to me
to take all the fun out of the sport. -
6:53 - 6:59I couldn't exult after a tremendous upset
victory against our strongest players, -
6:59 - 7:01because six minutes later,
with a new partner, -
7:01 - 7:03I was falling behind again.
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7:04 - 7:08On the other hand,
I never felt disconsolate. -
7:08 - 7:13And when I flew away from Japan
and started playing singles again -
7:13 - 7:16with my English archrival,
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7:16 - 7:21I noticed that after every defeat,
I was really brokenhearted. -
7:22 - 7:25But after every victory,
I couldn't sleep either, -
7:25 - 7:28because I knew there was
only one way to go, -
7:28 - 7:29and that was down.
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7:31 - 7:35Now, if I were trying to do
business in Japan, -
7:35 - 7:38this would lead to endless frustration.
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7:39 - 7:41In Japan, unlike elsewhere,
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7:41 - 7:45if the score is still level
after four hours, -
7:45 - 7:48a baseball game ends in a tie,
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7:49 - 7:53and because the league standings
are based on winning percentage, -
7:53 - 7:56a team with quite a few ties
can finish ahead -
7:57 - 7:59of a team with more victories.
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8:00 - 8:04One of the first times an American
was ever brought over to Japan -
8:04 - 8:07to lead a professional
Japanese baseball team, -
8:07 - 8:10Bobby Valentine, in 1995,
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8:10 - 8:13he took this really mediocre squad,
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8:13 - 8:16he lead them to a stunning
second-place finish, -
8:16 - 8:19and he was instantly fired.
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8:19 - 8:20Why?
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8:20 - 8:22"Well," said the team spokesman,
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8:22 - 8:25"because of his emphasis on winning."
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8:25 - 8:26(Laughter)
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8:26 - 8:29Official Japan can feel
quite a lot like that point -
8:30 - 8:33that was said to last
two hours and 12 minutes, -
8:33 - 8:36and playing not to lose
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8:36 - 8:41can take all the imagination,
the daring, the excitement, out of things. -
8:42 - 8:46At the same time,
playing ping-pong in Japan -
8:46 - 8:51reminds me why choirs
regularly enjoy more fun -
8:51 - 8:53than soloists.
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8:54 - 9:00In a choir, your only job is to play
your small part perfectly, -
9:00 - 9:02to hit your notes with feeling,
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9:02 - 9:07and by so doing, to help to create
a beautiful harmony -
9:07 - 9:10that's much greater
than the sum of its parts. -
9:11 - 9:14Yes, every choir does need a conductor,
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9:14 - 9:21but I think a choir releases you
from a child's simple sense of either-ors. -
9:22 - 9:26You come to see that the opposite
of winning isn't losing -- -
9:26 - 9:29it's failing to see the larger picture.
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9:32 - 9:35As my life goes on,
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9:35 - 9:39I'm really startled to see that no event
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9:39 - 9:44can properly be assessed
for years after it has unfolded. -
9:45 - 9:49I once lost everything
I owned in the world, -
9:49 - 9:52every last thing, in a wildfire.
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9:53 - 9:58But in time, I came to see
that it was that seeming loss -
9:58 - 10:02that allowed me to live
on the earth more gently, -
10:02 - 10:04to write without notes,
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10:04 - 10:07and actually, to move to Japan
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10:07 - 10:10and the inner health club
known as the ping-pong table. -
10:11 - 10:16Conversely, I once stumbled
into the perfect job, -
10:16 - 10:19and I came to see that seeming happiness
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10:19 - 10:22can stand in the way of true joy
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10:22 - 10:24even more than misery does.
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10:26 - 10:31Playing doubles in Japan
really relieves me of all my anxiety, -
10:31 - 10:33and at the end of an evening,
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10:33 - 10:39I notice everybody is filing out
in a more or less equal state of delight. -
10:40 - 10:43I'm reminded every night
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10:43 - 10:49that not getting ahead
isn't the same thing as falling behind -
10:49 - 10:53any more than not being lively
is the same thing as being dead. -
10:54 - 10:57And I've come to understand why it is
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10:57 - 11:02that Chinese universities
are said to offer degrees in ping-pong, -
11:02 - 11:05and why researchers
have found that ping-pong -
11:05 - 11:09can actually help a little
with mild mental disorders -
11:09 - 11:11and even autism.
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11:12 - 11:17But as I watch the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo,
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11:17 - 11:20I'm going to be keenly aware
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11:20 - 11:24that it won't be possible
to tell who's won or who's lost -
11:24 - 11:26for a very long time.
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11:28 - 11:30You remember that point I mentioned
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11:30 - 11:33that was said to last
for two hours and 12 minutes? -
11:34 - 11:38Well, one of the players from that game
ended up, six years later, -
11:38 - 11:43in the concentration camps
of Auschwitz and Dachau. -
11:44 - 11:46But he walked out alive.
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11:47 - 11:49Why?
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11:49 - 11:52Simply because a guard in the gas chamber
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11:52 - 11:55recognized him from
his ping-pong playing days. -
11:56 - 11:59Had he been the winner of that epic match?
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11:59 - 12:01It hardly mattered.
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12:01 - 12:07As you recall, many people had filed out
before even the first point was concluded. -
12:07 - 12:10The only thing that saved him
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12:10 - 12:12was the fact that he took part.
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12:13 - 12:16The best way to win any game,
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12:16 - 12:19Japan tells me every other night,
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12:19 - 12:24is never, never to think about the score.
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12:25 - 12:27Thank you.
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12:27 - 12:30(Applause)
- Title:
- Ping-pong and the riddle of victory
- Speaker:
- Pico Iyer
- Description:
-
Growing up in England, Pico Iyer was taught that the point of a game was to win. Now, some 50 years later, he's realized that competition can be "more like an act of love." In this charming, subtly profound talk, he explores what regular games of ping-pong in his neighborhood in Japan revealed about the riddle of winning -- and shows why not knowing who's won can feel like the ultimate victory.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 12:43
Eriko Tsukamoto commented on English subtitles for What ping-pong taught me about life | ||
Oliver Friedman edited English subtitles for What ping-pong taught me about life | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for What ping-pong taught me about life | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for What ping-pong taught me about life | ||
Krystian Aparta accepted English subtitles for What ping-pong taught me about life | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for What ping-pong taught me about life | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for What ping-pong taught me about life | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for What ping-pong taught me about life |
Eriko Tsukamoto
00:06:01,187 00:06:04,532
So you're not careening up and down as an individual might,
"Careening" should be written "creating"
Thanks