When people think about minimalist footwear, they either think about going barefoot or they think about running, sometimes they think about hiking, but they don't think about the many, many other things that people do when they need natural movement or they need to be in something that's their body to do as natural. So we're going to find out about something you probably haven't thought of that you're going to be really interested in on this week's episode or this week's episode of the movement movement, the podcast for people who want another truth about what it takes to have a happy, healthy, strong body starting feet first, you know, those things that are your foundation where we break down the propaganda, the mythologies and often they just flat out lies that people have told you about what it takes to run or walk or hike or do yogurt or trust or whatever it is that you normally think of doing and to do that enjoy it. So we're going to be able to do that effectively. Did I mention it jointly?
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Can you say hello and tell people who you are and what you do? Okay. Hello guys. Lazy is seeing you.
And I'm a Chinese guy. But now I'm currently in Spain in Madrid and playing the National League of Table Tennis here. Yeah, that's me. And we're actually in the past week, I've gone to the champion of Madrid.
But in the league, yeah, in the first day of the league, I lost too much. Anyway, that's quite normal for us. So no one was annoying. Yeah.
Well, so the secret that we're now letting out is table tennis. And no one would normally think about, well, people don't really know, especially in America, a whole lot about table tennis to begin with, let alone what it's like on the competitive scene and how important your feet are because holy smokes, you guys are, has anyone calculated like how many miles you're actually moving during a match? Well, that's a really tricky question. I like to depend, you know, as for me, I am a chopper, which means I am a defender.
So it means that I have to move quite more than other guys who play aggressive style. I mean, they just play near the table. They don't need to move and lost. But for me, I have to move upward, backward and in such a way.
So to be honest, I don't know exactly the number or the amount of my use. I'm moving a match, but definitely I'm moving lots more than others. Well, you said something that I mean, I know nothing about table tennis. So the fact you just said that you're a chopper and a defender.
Can you talk about just what that actually means? Like, let's give people a sense of, well, just say what that is and what the other options would be if you're not a defender, if you're not a chopper. So people can get a sense of just some of the ins and outs of table tennis that other people probably don't know as well. Okay.
So to be honest, I think most people are more familiar with tennis and it's quite similar, but as a defender or a chopper in table tennis, it means that sometimes we have to leave really far away from the table and make such kind of movement to push the ball and defend the ball. So normally if a player who plays defensive style, sometimes you have to move back and sometimes his opponent will move him and just send the ball to the short quarter of the table. So we have to move back and push the ball back. So the play style of us is to, you know, as defender, the object of us is not to queue the opponent by our techniques.
It is to generate some mistakes on them. Let them make a mistake. Yeah. So that's our goal.
So we let them attack and we just let them make more mistakes. So we just move back, move forward and try to make more mistakes for them. That's one way to normally. Yeah.
And that's very interesting. It reminds me of how some people talk about certain martial arts, whereas the same idea. It's, you know, you just want to wait until someone makes the error themselves. You want to say it would be in a strong position to allow them to make an error.
Exactly. I think that's like that's idea. And so is there a name for somebody who has a more aggressive style or more offensive style rather than a defensive style? Are you mean the famous guy is in the world?
No, just like a name for that kind of person. So if you're a defender chopper, what's the opposite of that? If there's an opposite of that? Normally they just call them attacker or just like some, yeah, a tiger.
That means they use loops or back drives. Yeah, they call drives in what I use in such kind of technical. So I have a lot of fun when I learned language that I've never heard before. And I don't mean Chinese.
I mean, in this case, just a language of tilt. So you refer to what you're doing is pushing the ball. Is that the term for basically just setting things up to give them that opportunity to be defensive rather than doing something. So looping, I'm imagining something with a lot of topspin or backspin.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Right.
You're on top. See in the back. What was the other you just see is what an attacker would be doing other than looping? Drive, drive means, yeah, drive means there will be more effect to more topspin and more violent.
Yeah. I mean, the more violent than the boys means it's more faster and we have to move more back with to defend it because there will not be enough space for us in the short call to move back court to do the defense. Got some kind of, that's kind of difference between table tennis and tennis. Tennis, you know, when you're hardly say people move really, really, really back with it.
So we have to move quite far away from the table and then we have to be reset and prepare for the next short. One of the things I went and watched in the Atlanta Olympics, and again, I knew nothing about it. But the thing that surprised me most was how hot it was in that place where we were playing because they had to turn off anything that would create an air current that would affect the ball. And it got, it was really hot in there for a really long time.
Yeah. It's quite normal among those players who are in a high level. I mean, among those top level players, it's not easier for anyone to terminate or end a match in just one short or two shorts. Normally there will be more rounds between them.
And that's quite enjoyable for us to watch it. Yeah. But for them, it's quite suffering. You know, they have to prepare for many, many, many shots and definitely they would be exhausted after that.
So the only place singles are you play doubles as well? I play doubles. I mean, in the leagues normally we have to play pay for both normally the regulation here is a play single. I mean, we have three players every time we three players each of us will play two matches, two single matches.
And if finally there is a time, I mean, three to three, and then we have to play the final. The final will be a double match. But even if there is a two, four, or five, one or six, the real though, then it's not a single. No, that's really interesting.
I didn't think of it as a team as a team thing. I was not just an individual. So that's interesting to hear. Yeah.
In Spain or in Europe, there is a league tournament. In the league, it's always like a team match. I think that I'm turning my teeth just a single or those. How long have you been playing?
Well, let me think about it. Well, actually, the thing is that I first played table tennis when I was eight years old. I think China is quite late. So I just remember that the first day, you know, the first day in every house was quite exciting because it's our first day to play tennis.
Our coach told us that, hey, guys, unfortunately, I know everyone of you have a dream of being a Olympic champion. But I have to say they tell you that all of you are too late to practice or start table tennis now in China. Normally in China, the pro page to start playing this is four or five when I just when the kids are just able to stand up. And sometimes they're even lower than at the table and they start to practice it.
Wow. So I mean, I've played I've been played for maybe 17 or 18 years now, but I'm going to say I'm the top one, especially in China, but in Europe. So I'm also not a very, very top one, but a decent player. Well, I assume there have been people who have proven that idea that you have to start at four or five wrong.
That there are people who started much later who are Olympians. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, of course. Well, I think that our coaches just want to realize the reality and the not always so much. Actually, at first, I was not agreeing with him.
I just thought, what I'm talking about. I can make it. Well, that's what I was going to ask. Was it something that was depressing or something that was motivating something like, well, I'll prove you wrong versus.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's fine.
Yeah. You know, my hunch is that that's actually, I mean, I understand that the program might have started for four and five year olds, but my guess is that he said that to see who was going to get motivated and who was going to get upset. I do something like that at track meets like I'll go to a high school track meet if they have automated timing and they allow masters athletes or athletes to participate. And I'll usually end up in like, you know, one of the slower heats with the high school kids and I'll beat many of them.
And the thing that I will say is, you know, when I at the end of the race, I'll say, hey, you know, I'm older than your dad. And I do it to see which ones get upset like they want to beat me the next time versus the ones who get depressed and once you get upset, they're really fun to hang out with. Yeah. And we talk about what to do better and all the things that I did when I was there age and I was in gymnast and it's really fun.
But once you get, you know, demoralized. It's a different. I think this. Wow.
So considering how much moving you're doing and so that's both lateral and forward and backward. Obviously what brings us here in the West Side, our conversation was the importance of your feet and footwear. So I'm curious before you even talk about footwear. How much is there, especially in the Chinese system?
Do people pay attention to feet in a way? Also set the stage for some people who've never been to China that in China, there are foot massage and footwashing, which is another version of foot massage and reflexology. There's like everywhere. The importance of foot health is really, really well integrated into Chinese culture.
But I wonder, is there anything more and different that happens once you become a competitive table tennis player? Where clearly your feet are really important. Well, I need to come to a nice topic. Being a table tennis player on the movement on the feet is sometimes, well, in most cases, is much, much more important in the movement in the hand.
That is a huge difference between professional playing and starters. I mean, before some beginners, they just stand there and try to move their arms or move their body, but do not move a lot. But on our level, we become much more advanced. Our coach can let us to practice movement every day.
We have different kinds of movement in our feet. We have to practice it. I can remember that when I was young, I had been in a specific tennis school. I mean, we trained like four to six hours every day.
And there will be one hour for physical training. And it's especially for the food movie. I mean, besides the technical training, we have one hour for a movement with feet. Every different kind of staff to practice it later using the match.
So can you describe a little more about what you're doing during that portion of training, what you're doing to teach you how to move properly? Okay. I do not think that name for that in English, but basically, there are two or three types of basic types of movements. The first one is movement, like in a vertical way, or from left to right, something like slide, slide maybe or words to describe it.
So there was interesting practice exercise for us is to, there will be two war in a room, in a large stadium. And then we have to use these movements from the side of the wall to the other side of the wall. And maybe let's suppose 10 back in around, like a wide round. Basically, it's one around and we have to maybe do 10 rounds.
Back and forth 10 times. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm assuming that basically it's not just, you know, it's obviously not running.
You're staying as if you're at a table. So you're staying parallel. You're basically just going sideways. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So you're doing it 10 times. Are they timing you?
Is it for speed? Is it for technique? Yeah. Exactly.
And actually we have to combine in ways, or in the movement, like in the arms of the techniques. So actually when the ball comes, the first thing is to make the movement, or move at the right place and then prepare for hitting the ball. And after hitting the ball, the most important thing is not to wait for the next board, but to reset, to reset in quite a central place, not to right, not to left, in a central and a proper place and wait for the ball and make a prediction. And like, where my opponent will probably receive back in the ball and move a little bit in the advance and prepare for next one.
So at the time, the movement where the face is quite quite important, especially in some professional and high level matches. Yeah. Actually, you watch the primary school students, if you watch the game, it's hardly moving. It's a standard.
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, in a way, the way you're describing it makes me think of a soccer goalie, where who's, you know, especially getting like a penalty kick, where you have to simultaneously make a bit of a decision in advance, but somehow be able to adapt to that if you can. And yeah, I'm sure people were imagining what I am, which is someone hits the ball where it goes way wide.
You have to respond to that. And if you come back too far too fast, they can just go back in the same direction. You won't be able to respond quickly enough. Or the exact opposite where they hit it so far on the other side that you can get there in time.
I mean, this is just, this is just, it makes my brain explode, just imagining how you do that. But I also imagine that as you get better, you can almost sort of see in advance that just in the setup of how they're moving where they might be hitting the ball in a way that people who are not really expert in the game would never identify. They'd never noticed that. Yeah.
I agree with you, but the football, I would like a penalty. It's quite, quite much more faster. Yeah. It's quite faster.
So the goalkeeper, if he make the wrong prediction, it's a hard of a head, a second time to make up for you. Yeah. I have a farce, not advantage. And I have a different thing.
The table is quite small. Sometimes even. You know, it's small, but you get the right angle. You can really send people running.
Yeah. I'm thinking about this. I'm thinking about this. I'm thinking about this.
I'm thinking about this. Last week I met in Olympic gymnasts. I was an all-American gymnast when I was younger. And we were talking about how when we were watching gymnastics on television with non-ginnists, we're usually responding to a move before the move has happened.
So someone's going to do a round-off backhand-screen double-twisting double-backflip. And before the person has taken off, we're sometimes going, oh, because we know they're not going to make it. Because you can see something that if you really know gymnastics, it's really obvious, but no one else can see it. And I can only imagine table tennis has that quality where when you, you know, and it's probably completely unconscious.
And you start to understand the movement happening almost before it even happens to allow you to figure out how to put yourself in the best position for defending. Of course. So that's why we have to try and exercise because sometimes there will be maybe just to very few seconds or maybe like let's suppose, well, my coach tell me that we only have very little point-five seconds to make a just if we make something wrong. So most occasionally sometimes we just do it without or in a on-conscious way, we just get it.
And other than that, we even sometimes don't know how we're here in the ballback. We just stand in the right place and just do it according to the memory of the muscle or memory of the feet. So that's why we have to train a lot, especially for the defenders. It's because for a lot it's quite much more passive in a passive way.
So we're not like an attacker. So when the one the ball can there, they're not prepared and they just need to attack the ball. So for us, it's much more difficult. So other than the movement training, like the example of just, you know, back and forth, is there anything else that they were doing that we're particularly about training foot strength, for example, or mobility or anything else you can think of?
Of course, actually we have to, as all of the sports, we have to do some running or we can go into talking. Running is much more specific, like 5,000 meters every day after the match. It's also part of the field of training, like football, basketball, I suppose all the sports players, they have to do it. It's kind of an adversary's part of a kind of sports.
So I don't know like this part. Yeah, no, look, my fantasy, I'm remembering when I went to the Masters World Championships. Many of the teams that weren't the US teams had brought physiotherapists with them. And so as soon as you're done running, you're on the table getting massage or getting some chiropractic adjustment or something.
And especially when I've read about professional sprinters even more, they're treated like thoroughbred horses. You know, it's like reading about Ben Johnson from when he was competing, he'd get a big massage and then he'd go do a warmup and then he'd get another massage and do the next warmup drill. And just like they were constantly just making sure everything was working properly. And so in my mind, I was having the fantasy that they treated you that well too.
Wow, actually, we do message among us players, I mean, officer in the training, there's not a specific person or a team that who can do it for us, which is a glorious way to do some massage or we do some stretch, relax on the muscle and especially the feet, because otherwise, next day or by the way, I'll be out of here. But actually, I mean, you just mentioned that the massage of the feet is quite popular in China. I'm actually my brain is quite a huge fan about that. I mean, there is a specific city in China called the Yangzhou and here it's the origin of this culture.
Many people, they do it for like a kind of profession. Maybe they charge for 10 to 30 bonus for time for once. I have experienced once and well, I actually, I'm really fond of that. I have that every day after the training, so when kind of doing it for me, it's quite too much exactly for me.
Yeah, it's a shame. I imagine or I would hope that if you're at the higher level, they would be paying for that for you. But yeah, it's one of my fantasies is someday to be getting massage, especially my feet on a regular basis, like at least once a week, because it's just so delightful. So we moved in feet.
Let's obviously chat shoes and the screaming obvious part is that you're doing so much back and forth. You need obviously need footwear that does two things. One can handle the lateral motion and more than two things, but two that I'm going to start with. One that can handle lateral motion and the other that's got enough grip and traction to allow you to change direction very quickly.
And I don't know how much it needs to be able to handle sliding occasionally as well. But talk to me about the footwear that they that either you started with or you've started using maybe after you've changed so much. Like let's chat for like, I mean, what kind of shoes that are even the way for the man or for training something like that? Yeah.
I mean, and clearly part of what inspired us to have this conversation is your understanding of something that is light allows you to move, et cetera, unless you do what's natural. Clearly getting some feedback from the ground is going to be important, even if you're on a flat surface. So just, you know, I'm just dying to hear what your thoughts are about the footwear that you can do, what makes it. Okay.
Actually, actually I prepared a tool pair of shoes that I use from one of the keen and now they want to see it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the first one is like this. Well, it's quite similar.
I have checked your websites. I mean, I've got some shoes that are quite quite similar. This is the kind of shoes that I use for daily walk and I use it when I was a kid for training. The characteristic is, you know, the how to say this part.
I mean, so it's quite not very thick. It's quite very thin and it's quite in a style of minimalist. I mean, it's quite a simple way. Not like some kind of other shoes.
Like basketball shoes. I mean, usually the sole is quite quite, quite thick. And is there a way? Well, we keep on that one for a second, a couple of things.
So hold this. Let me see this all again. So we can see there's just the pattern on that on the ball of the foot and the heel are designed for attraction, obviously. And I'm curious how flexible is that?
For flexible. I mean, if you want to build like an expert. I'm serious, you know, like sort of where it bends, for example, or how it's the same. The same.
That way, I think. And the one thing I'm really curious about. Hold it up again this way. The other thing that's really interesting to me because we make things.
So that's got a slightly wider toe box than most shoes that like most athletic shoes are really pointy like this one. So it's a little wider. It's closer to a natural foot shape. Yeah.
So I mean, when I was young, I used to wear this one. The problem is that here is not so wide. So later, right. I change it in these shoes.
I mean, this is a much more, well, this is quite normal. The table tennis players and the badminton players, it's quite similar. And the sole is non-realistic. It's in the same way, but a huge difference in that.
It's become wider. So for us, especially for intensive match, it's much more comfortable. And also maybe like a little more flexible. Yeah.
It's a flexible, but it's okay. I mean, I would argue looking at that that while it's gotten wider at the ball of the foot, it would still probably need to be wider along the toes as well because it still looks like it squeezes your toes together a bit. Yeah. I agree with that.
I mean, actually, if I have matched for two or three times intensively, sometimes after the match, this part, I mean, how to say the mist hole? At least in America, they say the pinky toe. The pinky toe, yeah. I would say a little bit painful.
The pinky toe, yeah. Yeah. It's quite annoying. I have found on the markets in the markets, like all of the table tennis shoes are like in this one.
So I mean, perhaps they can make some innovation like make it wider. Well, that's from my perspective. So if I said to say I'm going to get you a pair of our shoes and probably get you this one, we call this the 360. It's designed for lateral motion.
It's definitely much wider across the ball of foot, but also wider in toes as well. I don't know if it'll be right to play in. We'll find that out. It'll be very interesting if so.
And if not, I'll be very curious to hear what your experience is about what we could do to make it better for table tennis. I think there's a possibility we could help with that. Yeah. So I think it's quite popular and it's like a standard one for almost 90% of table tennis playing, but you're aware of the same thing.
Obviously, it's literally that like literally that shoe, that product from that company. I mean, it's a Japanese company called maybe something like that. Well, such kind of shoes, I mean, some others like or don't think of some table tennis brands, but I suppose they're not professionally making shoes. They're much more professionally in designing like table tennis or rabbits or racquets, the one is come to shoes.
It's not that professional. So it's quite popular, but sometimes maybe not the best choices. Well, actually in the national team, like in China, the Chinese national team, they have some cooperation with like non-lucky or linear or some shoes company that they design specific shoes for every single player according to the size and their feet. But I mean, normal people or ordinary people cannot have that privilege.
So they don't ask like for us, we have to choose what they're eating, the super marketing, the marketing, the marketing. Yeah. It's not the best, but it's okay. So yeah.
No, I mean, of course, I'm mentioning leaning is fun for me because when I was growing up as gymnast, leaning was someone that I looked up to and admired because he was a few years older than me. But and watching what he was how he was competing, he was one of my one of the people I really looked up to and enjoyed. I hope he made him someday. But this is true in for a lot of, for professional athletes is they're getting something made for them.
And then people think that when they're buying the shoe that looks the same, it's the same shoe, but it's a completely different product. So this is a pretty common phenomenon. Yeah. Yeah.
I agree with you. And maybe for the network, there will be not so much difference, but difference is quite huge if we do some specific things intensively. Yeah. I mean, there are times where people have asked us to make some particular shoe for some specific use that I say, I would love to do that.
But there's only like five people in the world who actually need that. And we just can't afford to do that. Yes. At some point, I look forward to it when we can support more people doing some of these more interesting, unusual things, but we're not quite there yet.
So what else, I mean, what else can you say just about how the footwear impacts two things? One, how you're playing what you've noticed, like when you switch from the first shoe you showed to the second shoe, what do you actually notice is the difference both in, again, the way you're playing and also just how your feet feel while you're playing afterwards? Well, when I grow a little bit bigger or maybe when I was 18 or 19 years old, I started to realize that the tradition was no longer simple for me because every time there will be no problem if I move back for words. But every time I move forward, like I have just said, the tour will be like every time it will, there will be touch like with the shirt.
You're just gently to the front. Yeah. Every time I move from the back court to the short court to the near court, there will be a problem for me and I feel it's quite, quite, quite annoying. So I begin to find someone, I know some students that is quite wider.
So after I tune in the issues, after I find this, maybe it can solve 80% of the problem. I mean, when I move from back to forward, there will be less problems, less I will be less annoyed and I'm fixing small and the magic stuff might not be affected by the fate of it. So that is the most impressive things that I can remember from this experience. But when it comes to moving from right to left to right, I think, hopefully that will add the smallest, smallest toes.
The part that has been influenced most is this tiny stone. I mean, from right to right, this part should be sent for most force and sometimes if there is not enough voice, I mean, maybe. So you need something that can handle the force of the latter motion, it's basically stopping and more importantly, you're starting and stopping but also wide enough so that you're not essentially falling off the shoe when you're starting or stopping. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Interesting. And so, and it's funny, I was at a rugby match a few months ago, which I'd never been doing.
It was really fun. And every player was wearing a different pair of shoes because they had the ones that they liked and so they all did that. There was not, there was not like a team shoe or something. Is there a lot of different table tennis shoes or really just a couple of the people who are choosing from other than the ones that people were getting custom made?
Oh, there's not so much custom on shoes. It's quite, quite standard. I mean, just the way you do not have so much, so much options or choices that we can choose. That's what I'm curious about.
Like if you were going to go to the right store to find a shoe for table tennis, how many options are there? Only we can choose the size and the browns. Yeah. Well, I have to say, they play much more tension.
So the rubber they use, the bracket they use, the whole to match them, which one is better. But few people play attention to what's, what's true as they wear. Yeah. So, I mean, especially the amateur or some, yeah, I'm very players, they didn't realize the importance of age, so they don't pay much attention.
But one interesting is, I've noticed that in my club, everyone, or I can say all of them, but maybe 80% of people, they just wear their own shoes or their shoes are not a typical table tennis bronze, like butterfly or don't eat or something like that. They just buy shoes from other professional, professional products or professional browns and as they are figures, not making shoes. And they, you know, I mean, one time, one is the way to just say it again, the way you talk about these things. They said that, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm talking to a store, they'll have a section for table tennis shoes, but I almost can imagine that in China for table tennis or badminton. So, but I haven't seen that yet.
So that's why I was curious. No, in China, it's not, it's in China. It's like, I mean, it's not easy to do it in the country, but it's not a China Spain here. The same, I mean, we have a little choice.
Yeah. People associate table tennis with China and China has always been dominant for quite a while. What are the other countries that are just consistently producing good players? Germany.
Interesting. Yeah, Germany is the, almost one of the, one of the countries that can replace China may be in the future before maybe, maybe Japan is also a country with great potential, but I have to say German, Germany is like the second place now. Maybe if one of they try not to dominate the world, then we need to examine, I think, Germany will be the one. Germany will be the one.
Do you know if their training program is similar where you've got to start a three or four, etc. I mean, what is it that's making them so good? Is it a similar program or a different program? Do you know?
I mean, the program is quite similar. Some may, before the call of it, before that, there will be exchange of the training system on the program and that's between these countries between China to the panellization countries and everything, countries like Germany and France. Yeah, it's quite, it's quite similar. I mean, there is not so much difference before I was in China now, I think it's quite similar in the training program.
What's maybe in China, the difference in that there are more people, there are more people who are found image. Yeah. Here people maybe are found as suitable or possible. Well, there's some people who argue that most of the advances in most sports is because there's just a larger selection of people to choose from now than there was 20 years ago, 30 years ago.
There's so much self-selecting. You're just getting more people trying, sometimes more incentive and put those two things together and that's going to make a big difference. Yeah. Well, the population, this actually is quite quite important.
The issue is that in Chinese, for any example, there are only 8,000 registered players, football players in China. Oh, wow. That's why we got poor performance in. There are other sports where there's many, many times 8,000 who are playing in China, but clearly football soccer is not one of them.
Yeah, but in Japan, in the example, I would say that. There are times where our regional players are then us. So as we can see in the World Cup, Japan and Asia, they haven't made a huge progress. Sometimes you can't even be qualified or qualified, not qualified.
Yeah. Yeah. So is there an age where most table tennis players peak? Peak, maybe like other sports, among their 20s to 30s in their golden age.
I mean, in such kind of, they have a criminalized sufficient experience in the match and their technique become mature and they have also some, I mean, the condition of their body, maybe their wellbeing are in the best time in their whole life. So there are some exceptions like Tim Bo, the German player, who instilled in his peak in our current lane in German. I mean, he's 40 now, he's over 40 now, but this is an exception. That's from most players, they're highest grade or best grade, maybe one, they're 23, 24, 25, or 25, at least at the end.
But certainly they have trouble moving the large football players. What is players, maybe the situation is better, they can still move, but they depend more on the experience on the speed, on some technique, on some strategy, not on the speed, on the strength. Yeah. Right.
That's quite different. This question just popped in my head. Is there an issue with table tennis with performance enhancing drugs, steroids or stimulants in some way? To encourage the stimulants.
Well, like I'm thinking, if you're going to take a performance enhancing drug for table tennis, it would most likely be some sort of stimulant. It's not necessarily about becoming bigger and stronger. It's about becoming, you know, reflexively. Yeah, there it is.
I mean, I can tell you an interesting story that several years ago, there was a fan, you know, a fan of my, I think that is quite popular in China, but he is not absolutely professional players. He trained his stimulants with a racket that's made by metal. Not only it is made by wood, yeah. But he made a paddle with maybe like iron or something like that.
So it's much, much heavier and he practiced away later already. So after he put it aside and he take his back, he take back his own racket and his strength and his, and all of the thing is quite easy for him for, for, for, for, oh my God. The ball is just like quite super speed and all over his place. Oh my God.
That's funny because it reminded me when back when I was a gymnast, I broke my foot and while my leg was in a cast, I thought, Oh, it's too a lot of strength training because that way when I get out of the cast, I'll be even stronger. But when I got out of the cast, everything was so unbalanced that I couldn't do anything. So I was thinking of like, if you train with a heavier, heavier paddle, heavier racket, that it may be that it throws your timing off so badly instead of just. Yeah.
And then for us, I mean, like, standing professional professional, we have, like part of, we have to do some weight lifting with lifting. Yeah. Yeah. There was kind of exercise always over that weight lifting, but sometimes we use longer one to do some movements like this, not like them just to move upwards.
It's a movement with that. And it's kind of, it's kind of effective way to improve the stimulus on some strength. Yeah. Yeah.
I like it. Is there anything else you can think of? I want to wrap this up. Is there a table tennis in general or whatever you've discovered about feet and footwear, since that's part of what we talked about here or anything else that we left out?
Okay. Yeah. I'll just say that when it comes to the minimalist shoes, this is quite a popular shoes before in China that is mostly welcomed by men. It's kind of black, black, black, black shoes, but the sole is made of cloth, not a rubber or weather or something like that.
It's made of clothes. So before being a 60s, a 70s or 80s, people left a way age because it's much more comfortable when it's soft. actually, after several years, they are some so-called experts, and they say that it's not good for the feet because it's too much too much soft and it gives enough support for the feet. So maybe sometimes the people will suffer from pain after wearing it or working it for a long time.
Well personally, I haven't confirmed that. So I just want to confirm with you. Is this right or do we agree with that? You're totally wrong.
I mean, all I can say is that we have now many hundreds of thousands of people who have proven that having something really thin, really flexible, really lightweight, has been better for them. And anything that our position is anything that gets in the way of letting your feet do what's natural is going to be problematic. And we see that over and over. I'd like to say that with zero issues, we're not doing anything other than getting out of the way.
And typically, the things that people have said when they suggest anything otherwise is because they have some ability to make money by suggesting something else. Because I just haven't seen any evidence. It's a funny thing when I'm debating people who make traditional footwear. I don't have to say anything positive about what we're doing.
Most of the time, all I have to say is, where's your proof? And so I highlight how, in the 60s and 70s, people were doing all sorts of sports in very thin, lighter weight, flexible shoes. Usually a little too narrow, but otherwise very similar to what we're doing. And I point out that there weren't the number of injuries or the type of injuries or severity of injuries that we see now since the advent of the modern athletic shoe that looks like this with a big flare in sole and a lot of cushioning and padding and a lot of heel, et cetera.
And it's hard for them to argue because they know that it's true. Or I say, the other point is similarly, I was having this argument with somebody on YouTube who's a footwear designer in Europe, and he was saying these big companies have spent millions of dollars on research and development every year. I said, then why haven't injury rates changed in the last 50 years? Injury rates are pretty consistent among runners, for example.
In the last 50 years, if their research and development departments were so good, we'd see improvements. And that's just not how. So a lot of people telling stories that are not true. Oh, yeah, yeah.
To be honest, there are some many such kind of programs currently that they advocate some kind of so-called healthy lifestyle, but actually it's misleading people. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, many people, especially like my parents, they are quite easily affected by such kind of programs. Yeah, maybe some one day or so-called experts say, they say it's going for a feeling and sometimes even he himself hasn't confirmed that or proved that. And maybe my mother will be confirmed by him.
Yeah. So we've had so many people who were told that they couldn't wear our shoes because it would harm them. And then they decided to try it anyway because they like the idea of letting your feet do what's natural makes sense. And then they find that they're feeling better as a result.
And then they report that back to their doctor or remember told them. And the doctor will still say, yeah, that's not true. It's like, but I'm telling you, here's my experience. So part of it is that the story from the big shoe companies has been going on like this for 50 years.
So it's taken enough time that everyone believes it now. We have to do something different to get them out of that. So anyway, I've got to actually wrap this up. This has been a real pleasure.
I love when I learned about things that I know very, very little about and you gave me a great introduction to table tennis and what's involved in playing both mentally, physically and super set. I actually want to dive in more and learn much more. That doesn't mean I'm going to go play because I don't have enough time. But I love the idea of doing that too.
So if people want to get in touch with you, especially if they want to learn more about table tennis, can you tell me how they can get in touch with you? Oh, okay. I have a personal website in the URL is www.ppongsuper.com. That's my personal website.
And there's a ping pong super, but not the ping pong super. There's a contact form. And my personal email on the next site and people can just leave message to me. Yeah.
I hope this has inspired people to go to peepongsuper.com to find out more about playing table tennis, especially anyone who's already been playing who wants to now improve their game and improve their health when they're playing that would be really, really fun. So this has been a total, total pleasure. I really appreciate your being here. And just for everyone else, I hope you enjoyed that as well.
And just a reminder, go back to www.jointhemovementmovement.com, play to find previous episodes and all the ways you can interact with social media, etc. And if you have any questions or recommendations, people you think should be on the show, you can drop me an email. I'm at movemoveatjointhemovementmovement.com. And most importantly, until then, until the next episode, go out, have fun and live life-feet first.