"J'" "From San Jose, California, Ariel Hsing_" "J'" "I guess people think I'm, like, really aloof all the time because if they don't know me and they just see me play, I'm really, like, a little scary or something." "But I don't think I am in real life." "Hey, this was my first trophy!" "I got Under 10 Girls Champion." "There was only one other girl that played, but I still won." "It's my first national title." "And it's my biggest trophy, too." "This was when I was nine years old and it was Uncle \/\larrerl's 75th birthday party." "So, someone gave him a lesson from a coach and most people thought it would be funny if this little girl came along, she just played." "So, I just happened to be that little girl." "So I was just really lucky." "From Old \/\/estbury, New York," "Michael Landers." "I try to put athletics into ping pong." "Basically like a chicken without a head running around and just getting as many balls back on the table as possible." "Michael's got a very unique style." "And he attacks everything." "I mean, he's really fun to watch." "He's young and he's Caucasian and he's good." "He's tough mentally, he's physically fit, he has the skill, he has the talent." "So, it's just about experience and maturity." "He Could be the best in the U.S." "Oh!" "From Palo Alto, California," "Lily Zhang." "J'" "I can't imagine, like, not playing table tennis." "It's like my passion, so I guess I would just be like completely normal." " Yeah." " Yeah." "It really failed." "Our seventh grade teacher tried to play her and" "Oh, lfirst met her in sixth grade." "They were like, "Oh, yeah, this is Lily and she plays table tennis," and I was like," ""Okay, that's kind of unusual."" "I want to say you're, like, number two in 18... 18 year old, 18 and under." "Like, for ranking or..." "Yeah." "Well, technically, number one." "Oh, okay." "Okay, so you're number" "Lily, I think her style is very good." "Her movements are very smooth." "J'" "Table tennis is a lot like martial arts and boxing combined with chess." "So, you have to think one move or two moves, sometimes three or four moves, ahead of your opponent." "You need your legs to move fast, your core to turn, to add power to a shot, and then, of course, your arm to swing, your wrist to have spin, you fingers to control the ball," "so it's really your entire body working together." "J'" "'Cause spin is tne fundamental name of tne game and identifying the spin is really what all these players do extraordinarily well." "The spin is something that is not easy to understand, even for the players." "So, for the spectators, they watch something, but they don't know what's going on." "There's topspin, there's no-spin, there's sidespin, there's side-under, and there's side-top, and then, there's really heavy underspin, and only a little bit of underspin, and you see it, like, when it's coming towards you" "in the speed and in the paddle of your opponent when they're contacting the ball." "That's the most difficult part of table tennis, to be able to adjust to the spin and get the ball back." "It is evolving." "Table tennis is coming out of the basement and out of the garages into more mainstream U_S_A_, so it's coming." "J'" "J'" "Yeah!" "J'" "Michael won that match." "He is the Under 21 Men's Champion." "Speaking of Michael" "Guys, I'm rich." "$250." "I can buy..." "Like, three people dinner now at that restaurant the other night." "In this clown town, yes." "Champion!" "Under 21 Men's Singles." "I totally forgot that he was even going to get a check, but, of course, he did not." "I mean, he takes his sport seriously, not to the point where it's ever gonna bother him if he really loses." "Maybe for a little bit." "Just never a bad attitude." "You know?" "Loses a match, sits there, thinks about it, and, like 15 minutes later, he's okay." "Twenty." "Sometimes half an hour if it's a bad hit." "That is the first time I've ever cried after winning a match." "Last time I cried after losing a match was a while ago." "We're playing Junior Teams right now, so we're just waiting for them to finish and then, we play them next." "I'm really excited for \/\lomen's Singles." "There are a lot of good players, like there's always every year, and also, a lot of the young ones, they really improved, so it'll be interesting to play them." "What happened last year in Nationals is that we played each other in the finals, so that was intense, yeah." "And who won?" "Um, lwon_" "Yeah, okay." "J'" "I've known Ariel for about eight or nine years already, so it's been a really long time." "J'" "Everybody knows we have a really big rivalry." "I think a lot of people, like, they know that when we play, it's always gonna be very intense." "They started almost the same time." "They trained under almost the same coaches." "Of course, you Know, there's competition." "Not only ping pong, right?" ""Lily's wearing makeup now, I wanna do it, too."" "Yeah, exactly!" "Ariel said, "if Lily's wearing a little eye shadow, so why cannot I?"" "I said, "Okay, you can do it."" "So, they are like friends, you know?" "Share everything." "Lily Zhang." "Ariel Hsing_" "Sometimes it does put strain on your friendship, I think." "I think no matter what there are times where you'll feel a bit jealous, like," ""Oh, you Know, she did so well." "I Wish I Could do that Well."" "Even though we're really familiar with each other, it's really nerve-wracking, playing with each other again and again and again." "You would think we would get used to it, but I definitely will fight to be number one." "I think Lily has a maturity that I don't have yet, maybe thinks more than the rest of the girls." "At the same time, I think it's a good thing that I'm not that mature yet because you're more fearless." "You just go out there and you don't really think about the consequences." "J'" "Ariel Hsing defends her title, iwo in a row." "Let's have a nice hand for Lily Zhang." "J'" " Enjoy." " Thanks, thank you." "J'" "When I lose, like, I'm not very happy, but sometimes, even if I win, and then I feel like I'm not playing my best game, then I'm not happy with myself." "Those are the questions that you guys kinda did a shout-out of on" "Lily has very high expectations for herself." "There are moments when I asked her, like," ""Oh, how did you do," in this certain competition." "She's like, "Mmm, not very good_"" "And I'm like, "\/\/ell, what does that mean?"" "And she's like, "Uh, I got second."" "I'm like, "Second, that's great!"" "And she's like, "No, I should have gotten first."" "And I think that that's why she kind of keeps pushing, but that's also putting a lot of stress on herself to do well." "We just Keep telling her," ""Don't have too much pressure."" "But I also worry about her because I think about her ping pong because she has, you Know, like Olympic dream." "But, you Know, basically we tell her, you Know, "Don't compare with," you Know," ""other people."" ""Just do," you Know, "what you can do."" "Uh-huh." "When I started traveling," "I was only 10 years old, I think, so that's really young to be traveling in the world." "So, I got a lot of experience from playing the tournaments and meeting new people." "I still have, like, 200 more to confirm or whatever." "Like, this guy recently sent me, like, this huge email." "He's like, "Hello, Lily Zhang, my name is Matthew." "I've been watching videos on YouTube of you and all of the other best players in the United States and all I have to say is '\/Vow, you guys are incredible!" "I'm so happy I found you on Facebook." "I really look up to all of you guys."" "Should I get the giraffe?" "That one was really cute." "Okay, should I do orange spots or brown spots?" "Or should I do gold?" "Oh, gold." "I go to school five days a week and my table tennis friends, tney're all spread out in different countries." "I see my school friends a little bit more, so I think we're probably a little bit closer." "Oh, my God, that's adorable." " That's so good." " That's so cute." "Did that take a long time?" "She's always gone and missing school and at practice, like, seven days a week, and she's still in harder classes than me and gets better grades than me." "So, I'm just like, "l don't know how you do it."" "Um I dunno." "J'" "J'" "A neurosurgeon over here." "I'm crazy." "Need a hand?" "No, I'm all right." "This will be fun." "When I was younger and had friends over, we'd just Search up things to do on the Internet for fun." "Making a smoke bomb was one of the things and it turned out you could do it with ping pong balls and that wasn't really a problem because I had so many." "Here we go." "\/\/E have connection." "I don't want it to explode on my hand." "I dori'tthirlk it's" "A genie's gonna pop out soon." "Make a wish." "Your jokes are hysterical." "J'" "Oh, does that stink!" "That's terrible." "Michael proclaimed about a month ago that he had senioritis" "That was one month into into his senior year." "\/\/E told him he's had senioritis for about four years now." "That's the problem." "Mikey, let's see those big boy underpants!" "He always had a lot of energy." "Two years, seven months old" "Right, we tried to channel it into sports, all the energy." "He was in the driveway skating up and back, shooting pucks into nets." "And what do you love to do, Mike?" "Tell us a little about yourself." "\/Vow, what else?" "\/\/E had a table since I was iwo and my dad would put me on a couch when I was little and he kinda just taught me basic strokes 'cause he played a lot of tennis and he's just" "an athletic person." "He was very good at a lot of things, but for his natural ability, I am confident that Michael found the right place to be." "J'" "Three, four, five, six, seven" "Don't strain, don't strain, go." "J'" "He has some sacrifice in what he's doing." "For instance, he's not gonna go to prom, senior prom, and most people go to senior prom." "Most people have a yearbook." "Or walk down that aisle at graduation." "Glycolysis occurs in two phases." "Such reactions may be hindered by" "I enrolled in an online school where I do the same work as everyone else, except on the computer and I can do it anywhere in the world." "Right now, we're in the middle of a glycolysis lesson and it's pretty interesting." "It's actually terrible, but..." "Uh-Oh." "October first is two SAT IIS." "He's got bio and math back to back." "I just told him just, "if you put the time in and you study, you Know, you'll do okay."" "But it's putting the time in that's the problem 'cause now school started today and training, gym training, training with-- on the ping pong table and___you Know, it's a lot of stuff." "Hey, Mom." "Yo!" "Can I make Jake go swimming?" "Oh, he's beautiful with his hair cut." "I don't think so." "You know what we can do?" "Take him over to Mildred's_" "Mildred wants to see you anyway." "No!" "Jakey, no, no, no!" "No, no, no!" "Michael, I hate you." "No, no!" "Jakey!" "J'" "Okay, now I'm serious." "J'" " Oh!" " See?" "I didn't think you would actually flip it." "Okay." "Yeah, I have a lot of muscles on, like, this arm, but this arm's just like a chicken arm." "I don't even Know." "Like, this arm is just so skinny and justmjust useless." "Everyone thinks she's very mature and them I'm like, "No, no_"" "Wait, did you guys hear anything about me?" "Like, that I was weird or something?" "Meet San Jose's Ariel Hsing_" "Just 10 years old, she can handle top players more than twice her age." "I think I just have a natural talent and I just really enjoy it." "By the time she turned eight, she was already beating her dad." "I feel really happy, but I'm not so sure about my dad." "My dad, I always joke with how I'm like," ""On, we're best friends," and I always annoy him all the time." "School is number one," "She'll learn piano, dancing, and karate sometimes." "So, we try to kinda even things out, but she does play a lot, maybe a little bit too much." "Michael and I, we used to play at home." "Once in a while, we would go to the club to play." "When she's about seven, we didn't have a babysitter for her, so we took her with us." "And she was playing with the coach and the coach said, "Wow, what a genius!"" "Then we found out, probably, she said that to every kid." "Wait, what are we doing today?" "Okay." "Tipping." "Jumping, jumping beans." "Exercise, okay?" "We have all these different strategies." "Sometimes, he'll set a target for me like," ""Okay, you'll do this like 100 times,"" "'cause then it raises my center, like, I didn't think I could do it and then, after I do so many repetitions of it, then that's when I start to improve." "Too short." "So, I think starting from the second year, we don't talk about prodigy, we don't talk about talent." "We care about the process, the hard work, not the results." "That's all our principle." "Number three's Ariel's Weapons." "So, I open and there's something about foolwork_" "Probably, this is the most famous female player in the world maybe, from China." "Even before she returns the ball, she's moving." "We were very impressed with that movement." "My dad has done so many things to help me." "All those nights, he stays until 2:00, 3:00 a_m_, editing videos, watching them, studying them." "See how many times I've read it?" "We read a lot of the sport psychology books." "Usually one book I'll read probably three times and Ariel will read it one or iwo times and she will write an essay on it." "Like Tiger Mom book, it becomes so famous and" "I love it." "You know all..." "Most other people say," ""Hey, this is really, you Know, too tough for children." "Why mom, parents are doing this to their kid?"" "He loves it." "Go." "Even me, too." "I couldn't tolerate just doing the mediocre things." "For recreation, that's fine, but if you want to go for Olympics, you have to put in 100 percent." "Done." "Okay." "Um, forehand fixing machine." "J'" "Jump!" "J'" "Jump!" "Spin!" "Go, go, go, go, go!" "Up!" "Drop the position, legs, let the legs stretch." "Right there." "Here in ICC, we have the top players regarding v\/omen's_" "Ariel Hsing, she's the national champion, and Lily Zhang, uh..." "Both are very young, 16 and 15 years old." "More angriness" "Go." "They are very strong, very motivated." "So, they have a good chance to represent the country in the next Olympic Games in London." "Go with the ball, go with the ball, and it's fun." "Go with the ball." "Good, very good." "There are two stages to make the Olympics." "First stage is the U.S. team trials to get on the Olympic team." "After a couple of months, then you have the North American trials." "So, we have the right mentality, right motivation, but because China still have too much power, we are going to face big wall in front of us." "J'" "I compare tne Chinese table tennis with Brazilian soccer." "They have ping pong tables in the parks, you can find them all over China." "The whole game is just looked at differently." "They've got the best coaches, the best playing conditions, so it's not by accident they are on top and will stay on top for a long time." "The first time table tennis appeared in the Olympics was in 1988 and since then," "China has almost dominated all the gold medals, winning 20 out of 24 gold medals." "Table tennis, along with handball and badminton, never won any medals for US." "So, it's not a surprise China is ranked number one in the world, while the U_S_ women are reach the number 25 and the U_S_ men are number 48." "J'" "Originally, I was planning to go to Germany, but then last minute, I switched my mind to come here because I feel like the trainings a lot more intense and if you're willing to work hard," "I feel like this is the place to get better." "This whole sports facility is located in the middle of nowhere." "If you don't have distractions of the outside world, you can really focus in on everything that you're trying to achieve." "Now that I'm here in China and always training 24/7," "I mean, I can't say which are my closest friends anymore." "It's just been really tough." "I mean, I really think if I want to pursue this goal of making the Olympics that it's the best move and smartest move." "So, most people v\/ouldn't be crazy enough to do that, but I am." "J'" "I don't even know what I'm doing right now." "Just flipping through pages." "J'" "If I want to apply early decision to any college, it has to be now, and if I take it again, I won't be able to." "So, there's a little bit of pressure." "When you're in school and you're following your dream or trying to be an elite athlete, um..." "You have to be really goal-oriented." "You give up somethings and you get back somethings." "He's been forced to go out, get food for himself, make his bed, wash his clothes, and he's grown up a lot in the last year because he's had to." "J'" "SPiN, it's like a ping pong club mixed with a restaurant and a bar and a lounge." "I would train there during the day, but at night it's only like a recreational playing center, and they have loud music playing and drinks everywhere, and balls flying everywhere, so..." "The environment is kinda v\/nacky_" "How's my mustache?" "Is it droop-- drooping anywhere?" "The high athletic ability of some of these players, um, is very artful, especially while you're drinking a martini or, like, having a beer." "\/\Lhat's interesting with spin is that it gives, like, a platform for all those players that were not necessarily very social before, but now they're like-- they're shining because they're like becoming like celebrities," "you know?" "He was the youngest men's national champion in the history of the sport." "Give it up for Michael Landers!" "Youth is very appealing, and making the Olympics as a prodigy would garner a lot of attention for the sport and for Michael." "I feel like he has pressure, but he's very young." "And if he doesn't make it for the 2012, he will make it 2016." "Maybe, or he might not." "He might not have, emotionally, the interest after this, especially when college is the option." "J'" "The biggest thing I wanted to check in with you on is relationships." "Are you making friends?" "Yeah, um, it's really difficult, though, because I missed the first week of school, and then I'm a new student here." "And then I missed a month of school, so..." "And I'm going to be gone again." "It's kind of hard to just keep in touch with the friends all the time." "Number five." "Just kinda gave you like a hypothetical situation." "She obviously has an interesting lifestyle how she's always out of town." "And she's telling me about that, and I didn't really understand it." "And I was like, "You just go on vacations all the time with your family?"" "And she said that she was going on a sports team." "And I said, "\/\/ell, what sport?"" "She--she laughed, she's like, "Ping pong."" "Kinda like she was embarrassed about it almost." "It was just kinda shocking to find out that one of my friends is this incredible ping pong player, table tennis player, so..." "J'" "I sometimes wish table tennis was, like, a team sport." "You Know, you see on TV all those people on a team, and you see when they win together, they're happy together, and they lose, they're sad together." "And they're always giving each other support." "And that's when I realized that table tennis is a lonely sport sometimes." "J'" "My dad's given up his job." "I know that he can do so much right now, but he's here with me." "Now it's not just me, but it's my entire family sacrificing for me." "J'" "We're pretty sure she would goto college." "After that, if she wants to be a professional player, she can make up her own mind." "I will--we will support her anyway." "But in the U.S. there's not many professional player, and then you couldn't make a living" "She could be the first one." "I don't see that happening." "But I want her to be happy and then to have a good education." "Lily, do you need help over there?" "No?" "This one, this one's better." "No?" "I Know!" "So, this one is better." "Every time I come back from a tournament," "I never practice for, like, one to two weeks usually, 'cause I'm, like, just busy making up everything." "Oh my God, these are so cute." "Yeah, a little bit, 'cause I haven't practiced lately." "So..." "Like, three weeks, right?" " I haven'tseerl you in?" " No." "I've been here-- I've been here for, like, one and a half weeks." "Okay, almost two." "Tomorrow 1wo_" "Don't you get lonely?" "It's not that bad." "Michael!" "What do you do all day?" "Wait, you're really-- you don't have, like, somebody watching you or, like, feeding you?" "Um, they actually-- they got me a cooked chicken from Costco and I just heat it up in the microwave." "You're like a 30-year-old divorcé!" "No, it's not that bad." "I'm used to it." "Right now I'm training in San Jose." "I have way more freedom here." "You Know, in China, if I stayed there for a while" "I got really, actually, depressed because..." "I mean, I'm so far away from home, and my friends, and..." "My mind was just, pew, blowin' up, you know?" "Okay, I got that wrong." "It's working out well since I've been here." "I don't know about the studying part, the SAT part, but we'll see." "Michael came out here because he was looking for training, good training without leaving the country." "And he asked me if he could come out here to train with Coach Lee and myself to get ready for the Olympic trials in February." "He's just trying his best, and in 20 years from now on when you look back, you had a chance when you were 17, so there will be no regrets for him later on." "It has to download." "Figured." "Can you do this?" "Let me see." "See if I can do it." "There's a magnet on this ball so it doesn't bounce." "It just rolls." "Let me see." "I don't think I've ever tried that before." "You're full of trash." "I know you've tried it." "You've practiced it." "You Know, he has no friends in California." "He doesn't know anybody." "And I know that feeling." "I've been overseas." "I cannot do that, that's pretty cool." "I saw them do that in China." "I don't know how they do that." "I went to high school up until the 10th grade, and then I went and played professionally in Sweden." "Currently, I have not yet gone to college." "So, college might be later on when I retire table tennis." " Oh, here we go." " There it is." "Ready?" "Welcome Barney Reed!" "Barney, thanks for being here." "Thanks for having me." "You can put crazy spins on it, too, can't you?" "You want it to spin?" "Yeah, show me that." "What if you missed your serve?" "I was nervous." "J'" "In all honesty, I'm a little bit nervous, but it's Kinda Weird that it's two weeks away." "It doesn't feel like it." "Um..." "I mean, I've always been training and the Olympics have been in my mind, and now that it's finally so close, it..." "It's just surreal to me, you know?" "It hasn't hit me that it's coming up." "So, I probably have to get a little bit more focused." "That's about it." "J'" "Welcome to the U_S_A_ Table Tennis Trials event here in Cary." "We're excited to have four of U.S.A. table tennis' top athletes here to talk to us." "Ping pong is just a game that a lot of friend's play in their basement." "Table tennis is the actual sport that requires just as much attention as any other sport out there." "I think most players are playing the sport for the opportunity to get to the Olympics." "It validates any sport from judo to canoe kayak to archery to fencing, because everyone realizes what it takes to get to that level." "To become an Olympian, you have to overcome two hurdles:" "The first stage is U.S. team trials where, uh, 12 players will compete in a giant round robin tournament." "Then the top four players will represent the US." "And become eligible for the North American qualification against Canada." "It's almost like the NFL on any given Sunday, anybody out of us who is a little bit lucky or who's on that day is probably gonna come through." "It's not a matter of tactics or techniques, it's only-- it's only mental, psychological, uh, srabnny will give the player the best performance in the moment you need." "When I'm on the table playing a match, even though he's my coach, he's also my dad." "For me, it gives me confidence because he knows me personally the best." "So, this gives me a lot of reassurance when I'm playing." "She's definitely a really big fighter, and I definitely admire her for that." "I mean, we all have different ways of showing it." "But we all want the same thing, we all fight for the same thing." "\/Vhoa!" "\/\Lhat'S it like being a veteran at age 16?" "Um, it's kind of weird, because a few years ago" "I was just 12, 13..." "Table tennis atmosphere is tough, like, if you got a couple close friends, you gotta stick close to them." "I mean, I\/lichael's like my little brother, so I mean, we'd talk about this for, you Know, years and years and years and years and years." "As long as he grabs his opportunity, he's in good shape, and I believe he'll do it." "J'" "Go!" "J'" "J'" "J'" "J'" "Oh!" "J' it's too demanding." "Each tournament is ridiculous." "I mean, you Know, you go to the Olympics and the maximum matches a day that you can play are three best out of seven matches." "And they have us playing four and four back to back, and it's just like..." "Everybody's feeling it." "I don't care if you're 18 or if you're 48, or if you're 8, you're gonna feel this." "I'm gonna feel this, I can't even walk." "I was saying everybody is gonna feel this." "J'" "Extremely tight." "This is very bad." "Both to my chest." "And when I say, you push me." "Push, push." "Good, right now, push again." "Push, push, good." "One more time." "Thirty more seconds." "No." "An right, 10 more seconds." "\/\/E'll negotiate." "I'm about to be in tears." "Okay." "Excellent job." "I'm so proud of you today." "That was awesome." "J'" "Today's the last day, so I'll just do what I can." "And, I mean, I'm in a really good position right now, I'm tied for first place," "SO..." "But the problem is there are, like, four other people tied for first, and four other people tied for second, like right behind me with one loss more." "So___an\/thing can happen at this point." "But I'm trying not to think about it and buckle under the pressure." "J'" "J'" "Yeah!" "J'" "J'" "J'" "Yeah, 4-2." "Yeah." "You are the most dedicated person among all of us." "Second behind Ariel." "Okay." "Everything came together, and I just played my best, and I'm just really happy." "J'" "J'" "Ding Ning." "I'm so excited to see her." "Like, she's world champion, she's totally my idol." "So, I'm really excited to see her." "Or, like, the whole China team." "I made eye Contact with her today, she waved at me." "And I was like, "Hi."" "Like, in a really, really embarrassing manner." "I'm here today because I want to see the good table tennis players of the world, they play very good, and have very high skill-- skills--skills." "Therefore I'm here." "Every country in Asia play very good table tennis." "No, I'm so sorry." "We want to See Timo Boll." "We want to See..." "No, we didn't." "In America, ping pong players make nothing, so they just think of it as a joke." "When it comes to respect factor, it's all about the bling bling." "And, I mean, beer pong gets 50 grand a year and we get $3,500 for the national champion." "And it's sad, I'm not motivated about money, otherwise I would've quite this sport a long time ago and I would've went and got a real job." "Hey, thanks for the support, girls." "Part of me says that the college experience would've been fun to go through, but the worldly experiences that I have gotten through ping pong sure beats a college degree in my book." "That was mature." "I'll be hearing back from, uh," "Santa Clara, Columbia," "NYU, Fordham." "That's it." "I don't Know." "Gotta think about it." "See how pretty they are." "Aw, it's so pretty." "I think this one's cuter than that one." "Yeah, this one, this one's better." "And then, like, the pink" "I like this one, this one's the prettiest." "For this age, they're just happy every day." "Can see their face every day like..." "Yeah, actually, this city was my first world championships in, uh, 1989." "Yeah, I was 20 already." "China is too many good players." "You Know, when-- when you are 16, you are 15, there's someone still, you Know, better than you." "But for these girls, they're the best in the country, in the U.S." "So, that's why, you Know, they get more opportunity to play." "Most of them, they play for-- for the parents." "For myself, when I was young," "I played for my parents." "I think after I retired." "After I retired from the Chinese National Team, after I move to U_S_ I play then I think," ""Ah, I play for myself now."" "J'" "I Countin' tomorrows with my six hands I" "I Lookin' at the sunrise in some other land I" "I Oh, rise I" "I Countin' on myself I" "Let's go!" "I To find my way back home I" "J'" "I it's a puzzle I" "I A puzzle of squares I" "I And hey," "I'll take the dare I" "J'" "I Countin' tomorrows on my six fingers I" "I Looks like the sunrise in my head I" "I My friend I" "How'd that feel?" "I Countin' on you again I" "J'" "J'" "I \/\/ell, it's a puzzle, a puzzle of squares I" "I Up these crooked stairs I" "J'" "I it's a puzzle, a puzzle of squares I" "I Come with me, my friend I" "I Up these crooked stairs H" "Come on, come on, come on." "Hit the ball a little earlier." "Good." "Don't wait too much." "Don't wait." "Go." "Yeah." "Don't wait too much, huh?" "Tired?" "I'm okay." "You okay?" "One to ten tired?" "Six, seven?" "Fifteen." "six?" "!" "Fifteen." "Oh,15!" "Oh, my God." "The doctor said it was like overused muscle here in the tendon here or something, it's like really stiff." "So, I kinda need to, like, put ice on it, like, five times a day, which I haven't really been doing that much." "They haven't really, like, told me what to do just to, like, rest." "I'm like, "\/\/ell, I have to play Olympic trials,"" "and they were just like, "Nothing you can do."" "Nobody wants to be injured during a tournament, but hopefully it'll be, like, completely recovered by the trials." "I didn't sleep much last night." "I would've liked to spend some more time in New York, but what can you do?" "Hopefully I'll be ready by Friday." "Uh..." "The first one was a little bit shaky, and I kinda froze and didn't know what I was saying..." "Because it's kind of difficult to give these interviews while you know you have the whole Kellogg's team on speaker phone." "Kellogg's_" "They're kind of the intermediary, so any of the media goes through them first." "And then we make a decision together." "So..." "Joan, thanks for letting us know about that show." "He was on NPR, National Public Radio," "Men's Health, FOX News," "ESPN High School," "Nickelodeon did a whole story on him." "I mean, the Kid's got a cereal box coming out with his picture on it." "Arld..." "Which I didn't tell him yet." "So, shh_" "Um, if he does make the Olympics," "I think Letterman wants him." "So, I didn't want to tell him that because that's pressure." "J'" "If they live stream it, we'll watch on the computer." "And sometimes my wife can't watch." "She turns away." "I watch and I hope for the best." "The last thing I'll say is, and we feel very strongly about this, not many people in life really get to follow their dream." " And so..." " I'm gonna cry." "Michael's doing that." "And so, we try to be supportive of it, because there's not too many years even he's gonna be able to do it." "So, let him have his shot." " That's how we feel." " Yep." "J'" "Can I have your attention?" "My name is Mike Cavanaugh" "I had the privilege of serving as CEO of U.S.A. Table Tennis." "In a previous life, I had the chance to try out for an Olympic team twice." "I didn't make it." "So, my anxiety and nervousness is right there with all of you." "U_S_ and Canada have a wonderful, wonderful strong relationship, and that goes all out the window in the next couple of days when you're out there." "But, but truly it's something special, and--and we're in this together." "The final stage of Olympic qualification is determined by continent." "North America can only send three players to London." "This means that the U_S_ National Team must compete against Canadians in three separate tournaments." "And the winner of each tournament will earn one of the spots." "Ultimately, players will have three chances to win their ticket to London." "J'" "Rules are very simple." "The game, uh, is up to 11, and you have to win the game by two points, uh, yeah." "The match will be a best of seven." "So, you have to win four out of seven games." "From Old \/\/estbury, New York," "Michael Landers." "Players, begin." "J'" "J'" "J'" "J'" "Oh!" "J'" "J'" "J'" "There has it." "There he has it." "He is going to London." "Yeah!" "On the paper, it might seem easy because US." "Has the top two girls." "But the way I look at it, like, Canadian-- Canada has, uh," "Coach Chris Xu." "She's a chopper." "It's lethal against the young girls." "So, that--she's gonna be very tough to beat." "Chris is a very experienced player." "\/\/Ho can..." "Mess with you on the table." "It's easy to get lost against choppers." "So, you gotta stay focused all the time." "What choppers do is--is they change a lot." "They change spin, and sometimes the younger players, they get very, uh, impatient and they try to finish too early, or they don't see the subtle changes in the spin." "J'" "In table tennis, we have two different styles." "Offensive players are those like Ariel and Lily, where they try to hit the ball very close to the table, try to impose their speed game." "The defensive player, like a chopper, they try to slow down the ball far from the table, play backspin, rather than topspin, and every time you have to manage the quality and the quantity of the spin in such a way that you try" "to finish the point somehow because the ball keeps coming back, keeps coming back." "You try to kill the ball, keeps coming back, so that is the characteristic of the choppers." "J'" "Okay, we're back here live." "We can report now that Ariel HSir'lg has made it to the finals." "Now, we just have to figure out who will be ner opponent between Chris Xu of Canada and Lily Zhang of the U_S_" "I think this is a really interesting match-up just because the different styles." "I think for Lily, this is more of a mental battle for her, it's gonna be very psychological." "Oh!" "When you walk on the court and everybody's staring at you, it can be a little bit intimidating." "There's a part of the mental game," "I try to block out all the crowd." "If you don't know your opponent very well, the first game, it's like kind of a test between both of you, then you have to think where their weaknesses are." "Oh!" "After dropping the first two games with relative ease, she stormed back to tie it up two apiece." "The most important thing here is for her to stay positive because it's very easy for her to get down on herself." "J'" "Oh!" "At eight to ten in the semifinals of women's singles." "J'" "And Chris is through to the finals." "And I think that's a fitting point for the match to end." "Lily really didn't know what to do." "It's that dead chop without much spin that was a little bit deep, Lily's just really unable to hit through the ball." "J'" "Back here live with the men's semifinal of stage two of the North American Olympic trials here in Cary, North Carolina." "Michael Landers is so strong and so confident," "I think ne'll put constant pressure on the Canadians, so here we go." "It's like a timeless time that you're in where you're not even thinking about anything." "My body's just reacting to everything." "I feel blood going everywhere in my body," "I also have like, a kind of a numbness." "It's amazing." "\/Vhoa!" "Time." "Very strong counterattacks from Michael." "Still trailing, seems to have a second life right now in this game." "And there it is, he ties it up at deuce_" "What a comeback." "Oh, and he lobs an edge." "And he takes the game." "Woo!" "Game number five." "Pierre-Luc Hinse of Canada is leading" "Michael Landers of New York." "\/Vhoa!" "\/Vhoa!" "Oh!" "Oh!" "And now, Pierre-Luc has match point." "J'" "And Pierre-Luc is through." "Michael Landers will have to rely on the third tournament if he wants to earn his way to London." "Pierre-Luc really won the match on that one stretch where Michael Landers was extremely hot, and he just soaked that pressure up, didn't panic." "It's when Michael's hot, no one can stop him, but at some point that has to end." "J'" "I had a lot of pressure on me going into it and I don't think I've ever felt like that before." "Even though I tend not to show things sometimes I always care about how other people feel, usually before myself." "J'" "Take you over to..." "critical match now with Michael Landers against Pierre-Luc Theriault_" "And this is a must-win match for Michael." "J'" "Now he's just over-hitting." "J'" "Yes!" "Two match points." "J'" "And there it is." "Pierre-Luc Theriault will advance." "Michael Landers, unfortunately, will not be going into the semifinals." "Definitely a lot of disappointment in his corner." "But, clearly, a Olympic effort to give himself a chance to win." "J'" "J'" "If she comes out of this empty-handed, we will be disappointed for her even though we said we only care about the process not the results, but it's Still very difficult." "Tons and tons of pressure." "All right, we're about to go." "The women singles Olympic final here in Cary, North Carolina." "It's these points right here that are gonna make the big difference." "When I'm on the court, that's when I feel most free almost." "I'm really just focused on the match, as long as I'm there on the court and I'm doing what I love doing." "A little bit unfortunate just catching the top of the net with that smash." "Oh!" "Just going long on that last forehand loop and Chris, again, kind of working Ariel into her own spider web." "Come on, Ariel!" "Ariel!" "Come on, Ariel!" "J'" "Ariel has taken it up a notch." "Chris unable to deal with the heavy topspin." "J'" "There's always those times when it's really close and you're thinking to yourself," ""Can I do this?" "Am I willing to be aggressive at this time?"" "You have to train yourself to be able to take that chance, as nervous as you may be, it's something that you have to overcome." "J'" "Such patience and control." "One point away." "Six match points." "J'" "She will be the youngest US." "Table tennis Olympian." "J'" "And she's done it!" "Ariel Hsing is going to London!" "Qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games in London," "Ariel Hsing_" "J'" "May we have a big, warm round of applause for our newest Olympian." "J'" "Tell us what you're feeling right now." " Can you put it into words?" " Oh my God." "It's like the best feeling in the world, like," "I can't believe it, like, after I won," "I just started to cry a little bit." "It's just absolutely amazing, I mean, I've been dreaming about it, I've been wishing for it, but when you, like, when I actually won," "I just--it kind of hit me unexpected." "So, it's pretty amazing, I guess, right now." "I've never felt like this before." "Yeah." "Okay, let your arm down to go this way." "I have a little bit of a fever," "I think probably." "Oh, no, is it here?" "Whatever." " Turn like this." " OW." "Basically it helps keep the muscle together, so when I play, it doesn't put as much stress on the muscle, so it won't hurt as much." "Come on, let's go." "Playing a defensive player in a situation like this with a lot of pressure can be very difficult." "Hopefully, with that extra preparation," "Lily can overcome that." "J'" "Oh, wonderful defensive skill by Chris Xu." "Lily getting caught a little bit flat-footed on the last one, once again." "J'" "And that ball just catching the top of her net." "Not the right ball there to go for the Kill." "Come on, Lily, come on, come on!" "J'" "And that ball just got away from her." "Chris throwing in a lot of the dead or no-spin chops." "J'" " Time!" " Go." "J'" "Beautiful forehand smash there." "J'" "Failure is definitely part of life, but it's important to try again." "I mean, I think it actually helps us to getting stronger." "Come on, Lily!" "J'" "At this point in the match, throw out the offense and defense, it's gonna come down to heart and desire." "J'" "She's done it!" "With the final spot to represent the United States this summer at the Olympic Games." "Woo!" "J'" "Qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England," "Lily Zhang!" "J'" "J'" "Lily Zhang, you are an Olympian." "J'" "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to New York's JFK, where the local time is currently 2:21 in the afternoon." "J'" "I picked up the phone and he said, you Know," ""Could you put the phone on speaker?"" "And I can tell that he had been crying." "And he said that I'm so thankful for all you've done and you're really great parents, and, uh, you Know, um..." "I really love you, and, uh," "I feel stronger than ever." "And it was somtouching to get that kind of" "I mean, it was a real gift from him and, uh..." ""because, you Know, to hear your son who's so stoic all the time." "And I know he's been holding it all in, all this-- this for a long time to actually, you Know, hear that emotion and hear the thanks and know it's really sincere." "J'" "Win or lose, everybody was just so proud of him." "Whether it's table tennis or anything, you Know, you do this for you and not for anybody else." "When I look at how my kids have grown and..." "J'" "You Know, life's really short." "So you gotta be happy." "\/\/Ell, my husband, all his effort and the sacrifice, putting him through that emotion, even now to speak I have tears." "Wow, yeah, she was crying." "Yeah, I couldn't_" "Just, uh, so many years." "Yeah, it's kind of sad, actually." "I know there are many, many more great athletes." "They are much more talented than Ariel, they work harder than Ariel, and their family maybe even sacrificed more than we did, but they never get the chance to go to the Olympics." " And Ariel does." " That's true." "So, we feel extremely lucky and fortunate." " And thank God for that." " Yeah." "Andrew, what are you doing later?" "You have no idea?" " No." " Okay, okay." "You wanna go to Cole's'?" "I wanna play basketball." "With the trials, a lot of that stuff" "I was hiding and not really showing any emotion or anything like that, but really inside" "I was really, really scared and nervous about everything and so many thoughts were just running through my mind, like, sponsorships, documentary, parents, friends, family, like everything" "I felt was just like riding on my back." "And then, just to be finished with that, like when I was crying at the end after I ended up losing, like," "I was really, really happy to just be done with it even though I was crushed." "So..." "Yo, what's up dude?" "\/Vhere--are you guys in Dylan's room right now?" "I mean, it will always be a part, a large part of my life, it's something that I'm pretty good at and I wanna continue doing." "If I have to talk about what my goals are it would just be to do better in school and focus on my studying for now." "I've never played the \/\lii before." "I've never either." " \/\/Ait, who am I?" " Press the big button." "Wait, you're the one with the hat, Lily." "My Olympic trials match with Chris, that was really important because" "I lost to her the first match and I was down the second match." "And at one point, I was like, wow, like, it might be over, like my dream might be over and I just thought," ""NO, it Cal"l"ll be over."" "I just Kept fighting, so..." "I was pretty proud of myself for that." "Oh!" "Alright, we're gonna let you all" "Introducing the star of today's fun, the newest member of Team U_S_A_ table tennis, Ariel Hsing_" "Oh my God, now when I think back on it, it's just really, really amazing." "That's probably the happiest moment of my life when I made the team." "When you finally realized it, it was really, really great." "Okay, I'm calm, I'm calm, I'm really calm." "You can ask Lily, I'm like an emotional wreck sometimes." "At that moment, you kind of realize how much you sacrificed for, how much you worked for, and then you realize that, you Know, your dreams came true, it was all worth it." "You didn't sacrifice for nothing." "Easing on the brakes, okay, good, perfect." "That was pretty good." "Okay, this was pretty perfect." "I'm gonna start pressing the gas button now." "Gas button." "Gas pedal." " Am I close to this car?" " Yeah, very close." "I am?" "But I'm already on this yellow line though." "Okay, stop, make a left turn." " Left turn?" " Yes." " In there?" " Here--there." "Oh my gosh, okay, I can do it, I can do it" " Signal." " Uh." "Sorry." "How did I even do that?" "Okay, here we go." "Oops." "J'" "It kind of feels unreal." "Maybe one day I wake up, I'm still like maybe 25." "I don't have a kid, all this is just a dream." "Like any moment I'm gonna wake up and no, it's not-- it's not true, it's not real." "J'" "This is like a once-in-a-lifetime experience and being able to see all the other athletes and walk in the opening ceremony, it's just--it's almost undescribable" "J'" "but not the second..." "J'" "I Make a perfect circle I" "I it's all I've gotta do, all I've gotta do I" "I Make a little miracle I" "I That's all I've gotta do, all I've gotta do I" "I Find a pearl in the ocean I" "I it's all I've gotta do, all I've gotta do and then I" "J'" "I I'm comin' home again I" "J'" "I Did I amaze you I" "I Did I amaze you I" "I Yeah I" "I All I gotta do is be amazing again I" "J'" "I Did I amaze you I" "I Did I amaze you I" "I Yeah I" "I All I gotta do is be amazing again I" "J'" "I Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh I" "I I'm gonna climb a mountain I" "I That's all I've gotta do, all I've gotta do I" "I Gonna Iasso the moon I" "I That's all I've gotta do, all I've gotta do I" "I When I get to heaven I" "I Or wherever I" "I it's all I gotta do and then I" "J'" "I I'm comin' home again I" "J'" "I So did I amaze you I" "I Did I amaze you I" "I Yeah I" "I All I gotta do is be amazing again I" "J'" "I Did I amaze you I" "I Did I amaze you I" "I Yeah I" "I All I gotta do is be amazing again I" "J'" "I Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh I" "I Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh I" "I Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh I" "I Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh H" "Yay!" "J'" "That was good." "Oh!" "Oh!"