This TED Talk features author Pico Ayer, recorded live at TED Summit 2019.

Every other night in Japan, I step out of my apartment, I climb up a hill for 15 minutes,

and then I head into my local health club where three ping-pong tables are set up in a studio.

And space is limited, so at every table, one pair of players practices forehands, another

practices back hands, and every now and then the balls balls collide in mid-air, and everybody says,

wow.

Then, choosing lots, we select partners and play doubles.

But I honestly couldn't tell you who's won, because we change partners every five minutes.

And everybody is trying really hard to win points,

but nobody is keeping track of who is winning games.

And after an hour or so, a furious exertion,

I can honestly tell you that not knowing who's won feels like the ultimate

victory.

In Japan, it's been said, they've created a competitive spirit without competition.

Now, all of you know that geopolitics is best followed by watching ping pong.

The two strongest powers in the world were fiercest enemies until in 1972, an American ping pong

team was allowed to visit communist China.

And as soon as the former adversaries were gathered around some small green tables,

each of them could claim a victory and the whole world could breathe more easily.

China's leader, Mao Zay- Tung, wrote a whole manual on ping pong,

and he called the sport a spiritual nuclear weapon.

And it's been said that the only honorary lifelong member of the US Table Tennis Association

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