Guy Plays Table Tennis Every Day for a Year

Our book, 'Expert in a Year: The Ultimate Table Tennis Challenge' is now available to buy via Amazon!

Sam played with the Palio Master 2 table tennis racket:

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The Expert in a Year Challenge followed the progress of novice table tennis player Sam Priestley during 2014, as he attempted to go from beginner to expert in just one year and break into the top 250 players in England.

The challenge is now finished and I decided to go back through all of the old footage I have of Sam's table tennis and make a 1 Second Everyday video of the entire challenge. It's called '1 Second (Almost) Everyday' because we didn't play every single day of 2014 and also sometimes we would forget or not be able to film.

I hope you enjoy the video. I think it's a great way of displaying Sam's transformation over the year from complete novice to competent player. He may not quite be an 'expert', or have a top 250 ranking, but he's come such a long way during the past 12 months!

[baptisteguivarch]

I go to school everday ... still bad at studies :/

[jjakie]

You can tell how much better he is by how short his shorts get

[exoplanet]

this inspired me to sit on my ass in front of my computer everyday for 20 years...oh wait

[hobosojojo]

Imagine living in the apartment right next to this guy. *ping* *pong* every single day xD

[holeecit]

What I learn from this video? Its good to have close friends to do this with you.

[Toadyru]

His work out seems a bit
Where is the jogging through the poorest section of town? Or the one handed pushups? Or traveling to Philly and run up the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps?

[icecreamman]

great work, Forest Gump also did this. he was the best in the world. he also ran for 3 years, just because he felt like it.

[geppetto]

Impressive but can you beat Matt from Wii Sports?

[lostcec]

After all the blood, sweat, and tears of training all year, Sam had finally built up the courage to ask out the girl of his dreams on a date. Congrats Sam.

[hfar_in_the_sky]

Some people seem to get caught up in how "they've done better in less time" or "LOL! Table tennis' isn't a real sport!" and seem to miss the point. The point is if you put your mind to it and practice even a little bit every day, you can surprise yourself with the strides you can make. Think you're better than this guy at table tennis? Then practice a little bit each day for a year and become an amazing player. Think table tennis isn't "a real sport?" Then go a practice a sport that interests you a little bit every day and see how you improve.

And try it with a skill you don't think you're good at. Drawing, a musical instrument, a second language, something you think you suck at. Then practice it a little bit every day for a year. And then look back at the progress you've made.

...Well? What are you waiting for? Go and do it.

[harroy]

This is a story about one man with one mission. To conquer his balls.

[janzavratnik]

Recommend in 2015: nope
Recommend in 2016: nope
Recommend in 2017: nope
Recommend in 2018: nope
Recommend in 2019: si sénor

[Buck]

As time pass his skill get better and more asian guy appear in camera.

[tomdunphy]

Devotion. People don't realise how hard it is to get good at this sport.

[kingdougiemouns]

One thing I learned from this video: this guy wore the same 3 shirts for a year.

[dannyboylive]

should be studying. how did i end up here

[MakingMoneyWithMichael]

4:38 - Score keeper is like... "I need a better job."

[limtitikhir]

Its March 2019 now.. He must be a champion of the solar system by now.

[bruce]

This video was and still is so inspirational to me.

I first saw this back in 2014. I was working in the coffee industry as a barista, and knew that I had to get out to make more money. So I decided to self learn (I was poor) software engineering (web development). It was very tough, often get frustrated/angry/defeated and get lazy. But this video was one of the things that showed up at the right moment and was one of the things that gave me the motivation to keep going. Eventually I got into tech in 2016.

I loved the background song a lot, so I saved it and listened to it every so often. And each time I listen to it, I would like: "oh yeah, that guy who spent a year learning ping pong." This video has a different layer of meaning now because I recently learned and practice a new idea: "focus on the journey, not the destination". Some of the goals take a long ass time, and each time you look at the destination, you will end up getting reminded of the fact that you are still not there, you still don't have what you are after, and that's painful. But by moving your attention to the journey, or focus on the process/system and keep going, you can avoid that pain and can actually make a lot of progress.

You can easily experience that idea by running for a long distance: if you keep on thinking about the destination, you gonna get frustrated by the fact that it's far away, but if you just focus on the journey, and keep on putting one foot in front of another, by the time you know it, you have made a lot of progress.

I am gonna need to save this video as a reminder to keep my focus grounded on the journey.

Thanks buddy, hope you get whatever you are after.

[eminence_]

I played CS:GO everyday for a year and went from Silver I to Global Elite, gonna make a video and have 0 likes, brb.