Episode 6
Forty Stories - "Flow"
I'm doing a little survey to find out more about ALE listeners. There are just four tiny questions. It will only take a minute or two, and will help me a LOT! Please check it out. Thanks, Cooper
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Season 3 Episode 6Thank you for downloading this episode.
👉The story begins at 01:58 and the tiny lessons begin at 15:32
👉You can find the transcript after the Credits!
👉Visit our website to download the Podcast User's Manual and find out more! https://alittleenglish.com/
A Little English is written, produced, recorded, edited, mixed, mastered and scored by Edward Cooper Howland.
All stories are either in the public domain, or written by me.
Copyright 2024 Edward Cooper Howland
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
Today’s story is about ping pong. I’m not very good at ping pong, but Tabatha is. We played together a couple weeks ago, and of course, I thought, “This would be a good story.” So, here we are.
The name of the story comes from psychology. Have you ever been doing something you really like and suddenly you realize that, like, an hour or two has passed? And you didn’t even realize it? That’s called a flow state. It’s also called, being “in the zone.” Usually when I’m working on a story or even editing this podcast, I’ll enter a flow state. And I love it. It’s an amazing feeling. What gets you into a flow state? And what does that have to do with ping pong? I guess we’ll find out.
Flow
The ball came in fast and low, just over the net. It bounced on the back right corner of table number four and flew off into a corner of the gym. Alexander watched it go.
“Hey, I thought you said you would go easy on me,” he whined.
“I am going easy on you,” replied Matt. “Your serve.”
Alexander walked slowly over to where the ball had stopped rolling. He picked it up and stared at it. He sighed and walked back to the table where Matt stood ready, holding the paddle in both hands straight out.
Alexander bounced the ball once and hit it straight into the net.
“Zero-two,” shouted Matt.
“I don’t get a double fault thing? Like in tennis?”
“No, bro. This is TABLE tennis. Different game. Your serve.”
Alexander served again. This time, the ball floated weakly over the net. Matt returned it to Alexander's left side. Alexander reached for a backhand, but missed. The ball skipped away through the open doors and into the hall.
“Zero-three, your serve.” Matt was smiling.
Alexander retrieved the ball from the hallway. He tried to focus on Matt’s left side. He thought about the best angle for the paddle. He planned the whole point in his mind. Curve the paddle down a little bit at the end. Keep the ball low, just above the net. Go to Matt’s backhand. He had a plan.
He breathed deeply, bounced, and served.
The ball went into the net. “Zero-four!”
He made another plan. A soft hit, just hard enough to go over the net. He could make Matt reach for it. Make him mess up. Make him serve for once. He bounced and served, slowly, carefully.
Matt leaned in and returned it easily, with a smash. The ball went back into the hallway.
“Zero-five. You want me to serve?” Matt was laughing at him. Alexander walked off to retrieve the ball, his head hanging low.
—
The girl must have been in high school. She was blonde, and she was taller than him. And she was holding his ping-pong ball in her hand, smiling.
“Did you lose this?”
“Uh. Yeah. Sorry. Uh.” Alexander reached out and grabbed the ball. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” She was probably seventeen years old, and she was smiling at him. He nodded at her, never making eye contact, and walked back to his table.
Alexander prepared to serve again, at the same time looking around the gymnasium for the girl. Was she playing volleyball? No. Was she watching from the stands? No. Where was she?
“Hey, nice point!” said Matt. “Five-one. My serve.”
He didn’t realize that he had been playing, but there it was. Matt was kneeling down under the table to get the ball. He’d gotten a point!
Matt’s next serve came in just as Alexander found the girl. She was with another high school girl. She was playing ping-pong. She was at table number six. Just two tables away. How long had she been there? Had she seen him losing point after point? Alexander felt himself blushing as he returned the serve.
“Five-three! OK! Now we’re talking!”
Five…three? Alexander realized that he had won the last TWO points without paying attention. He was back in the game. He had a chance to win! What if the girl was watching now? He had to focus. He had to win. Don’t look at the girl, don’t look at anything, just make a plan and win.
He lost the next three points in a row.
“Eight-three! Oh, yeah. You’re going down, bro.”
The ball came in fast and low over the net, and bounced. It was too far away. Alexander stretched out to hit it and the paddle flew out of his hand. It landed right on table five with a loud BANG. The guys at table five stopped playing.
So did the high school girls.
Alexander froze. There was no way to play this off like a cool, normal dude. He had just thrown his stupid paddle and disrupted everyone’s game, and everyone knew it was him. Now he had to go get it, and he wanted to die.
He walked over to table five, staring at the floor. “Uh, I’m sorry, man,” he mumbled, as the guy handed him back his paddle. “I guess it just, like, slipped out of my hand.”
The guy didn’t say anything, and Alexander turned back to his table. Matt was laughing and pointing at him.
The tears came up behind his eyes. He felt them fall onto his cheeks, hot and wet and he ran. He ran into the hallway searching for a bathroom, but he couldn’t find one, so he just kept running until he came to some kind of bench. He sat and cried, his shoulders shaking, his face in his hands until he felt someone touch his arm.
It was the high school girl. She looked worried.
“Are you OK, kid?”
Alexander tried to puff out his chest a little. Like he wasn’t just crying in the gray, concrete hallway of a YCMA.
“Me? Oh, yeah. I’m, like, pretty OK. Thanks.” He wiped snot and tears from his face with the back of his arm.
“Your friend is kind of a jerk.”
“He’s not my friend, he’s my cousin. I don’t want to hang out with him, but my mom makes me.”
“Well, I think you need to go and win this game. Teach him a lesson.”
“How? The only time I even get a point is when I’m not paying attention.”
“That,” said the high school girl, “is because you’re thinking too much. The ball is too fast. By the time you think about what you’re gonna do, and then get your body to do it, the ball is gone. You have to clear your mind and just….flow. No plans, just movement. Reaction. I don’t really know how else to explain it. Just….flow. It’s the only way to win at ping pong.”
Alexander stood up, rubbing his eyes with his shirt sleeve.
“What’s your name?”
“Amanda. People call me Mandy.”
“I’m Alexander. Uh, thank you.”
“Go kick his butt.”
So there you go. That’s my ping-pong story. Now I want to be very clear. This story is not what happened when I played with my kid. First of all, Tabatha is the real ping-pong monster. She absolutely destroyed me when we played. But there were a few moments when I got into a flow state. When I didn’t think about what I was doing, and I was able to just…flow. Just play. And at least I scored some points.
But there were these two boys next to us. They were maybe thirteen or fourteen years old. And they were so, so nerdy. They reminded me of myself when I was in middle school. And I wanted to write a story about them. About what it’s like to be a nerdy teenage boy. Especially when girls are around. So…how did I do?
Anyway, wanna do some tiny lessons?
The Big Picture is looking lovely.
What was Alexander’s big mistake when he was playing? Why couldn’t he win? Take a moment and think about it. Like Mandy said, he was over-thinking. When you play sports, you can’t think. You can’t plan. You just have to do it. That’s the flow state. When your brain shuts off, and you just act.
How about the Dictionary Disco?
The first vocabulary word is “Blushing.” Everybody blushes. It’s when you get embarrassed or emotional, and your face turns red. But really really white people like me? We REALLY blush.
The second vocabulary word is “paddle.” That’s the thing you hold in your hand when you play ping pong. But also, it’s any kind of thing that’s shaped like that. A thin handle on one end, and a wide flat surface on the other. Like when you go in a canoe. You use a paddle.
So, can we have a Melody Moment?
We’re gonna do another pair of sounds today. K and G are pretty close to T and D. So for T, you tap your tongue on the roof of your mouth. The alveolar ridge, right? For K, you keep your tongue up at the top, but….you don’t tap it. And it’s further back. Lips open, jaw relaxed. And tongue just kinda….up. Try it! K….K….K. Now, add some vibration in your throat and you get….G. They’re a pair.
Let’s do the credits.
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 8 of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
Transcript
Hi. My name is Cooper, and this is…A Little English. Every episode, I read a short story. After the story, there are three tiny lessons.
Today’s story is about ping pong. I’m not very good at ping pong, but Tabatha is. We played together a couple weeks ago, and of course, I thought, “This would be a good story.” So, here we are.
The name of the story comes from psychology. Have you ever been doing something you really like and suddenly you realize that, like, an hour or two has passed? And you didn’t even realize it? That’s called a flow state. It’s also called, being “in the zone.” Usually when I’m working on a story or even editing this podcast, I’ll enter a flow state. And I love it. It’s an amazing feeling. What gets you into a flow state? And what does that have to do with ping pong? I guess we’ll find out.
Flow
The ball came in fast and low, just over the net. It bounced on the back right corner of table number four and flew off into a corner of the gym. Alexander watched it go.
“Hey, I thought you said you would go easy on me,” he whined.
“I am going easy on you,” replied Matt. “Your serve.”
Alexander walked slowly over to where the ball had stopped rolling. He picked it up and stared at it. He sighed and walked back to the table where Matt stood ready, holding the paddle in both hands straight out.
Alexander bounced the ball once and hit it straight into the net.
“Zero-two,” shouted Matt.
“I don’t get a double fault thing? Like in tennis?”
“No, bro. This is TABLE tennis. Different game. Your serve.”
Alexander served again. This time, the ball floated weakly over the net. Matt returned it to Alexander's left side. Alexander reached for a backhand, but missed. The ball skipped away through the open doors and into the hall.
“Zero-three, your serve.” Matt was smiling.
Alexander retrieved the ball from the hallway. He tried to focus on Matt’s left side. He thought about the best angle for the paddle. He planned the whole point in his mind. Curve the paddle down a little bit at the end. Keep the ball low, just above the net. Go to Matt’s backhand. He had a plan.
He breathed deeply, bounced, and served.
The ball went into the net. “Zero-four!”
He made another plan. A soft hit, just hard enough to go over the net. He could make Matt reach for it. Make him mess up. Make him serve for once. He bounced and served, slowly, carefully.
Matt leaned in and returned it easily, with a smash. The ball went back into the hallway.
“Zero-five. You want me to serve?” Matt was laughing at him. Alexander walked off to retrieve the ball, his head hanging low.
—
The girl must have been in high school. She was blonde, and she was taller than him. And she was holding his ping-pong ball in her hand, smiling.
“Did you lose this?”
“Uh. Yeah. Sorry. Uh.” Alexander reached out and grabbed the ball. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” She was probably seventeen years old, and she was smiling at him. He nodded at her, never making eye contact, and walked back to his table.
Alexander prepared to serve again, at the same time looking around the gymnasium for the girl. Was she playing volleyball? No. Was she watching from the stands? No. Where was she?
“Hey, nice point!” said Matt. “Five-one. My serve.”
He didn’t realize that he had been playing, but there it was. Matt was kneeling down under the table to get the ball. He’d gotten a point!
Matt’s next serve came in just as Alexander found the girl. She was with another high school girl. She was playing ping-pong. She was at table number six. Just two tables away. How long had she been there? Had she seen him losing point after point? Alexander felt himself blushing as he returned the serve.
“Five-three! OK! Now we’re talking!”
Five…three? Alexander realized that he had won the last TWO points without paying attention. He was back in the game. He had a chance to win! What if the girl was watching now? He had to focus. He had to win. Don’t look at the girl, don’t look at anything, just make a plan and win.
He lost the next three points in a row.
“Eight-three! Oh, yeah. You’re going down, bro.”
The ball came in fast and low over the net, and bounced. It was too far away. Alexander stretched out to hit it and the paddle flew out of his hand. It landed right on table five with a loud BANG. The guys at table five stopped playing.
So did the high school girls.
Alexander froze. There was no way to play this off like a cool, normal dude. He had just thrown his stupid paddle and disrupted everyone’s game, and everyone knew it was him. Now he had to go get it, and he wanted to die.
He walked over to table five, staring at the floor. “Uh, I’m sorry, man,” he mumbled, as the guy handed him back his paddle. “I guess it just, like, slipped out of my hand.”
The guy didn’t say anything, and Alexander turned back to his table. Matt was laughing and pointing at him.
The tears came up behind his eyes. He felt them fall onto his cheeks, hot and wet and he ran. He ran into the hallway searching for a bathroom, but he couldn’t find one, so he just kept running until he came to some kind of bench. He sat and cried, his shoulders shaking, his face in his hands until he felt someone touch his arm.
It was the high school girl. She looked worried.
“Are you OK, kid?”
Alexander tried to puff out his chest a little. Like he wasn’t just crying in the gray, concrete hallway of a YCMA.
“Me? Oh, yeah. I’m, like, pretty OK. Thanks.” He wiped snot and tears from his face with the back of his arm.
“Your friend is kind of a jerk.”
“He’s not my friend, he’s my cousin. I don’t want to hang out with him, but my mom makes me.”
“Well, I think you need to go and win this game. Teach him a lesson.”
“How? The only time I even get a point is when I’m not paying attention.”
“That,” said the high school girl, “is because you’re thinking too much. The ball is too fast. By the time you think about what you’re gonna do, and then get your body to do it, the ball is gone. You have to clear your mind and just….flow. No plans, just movement. Reaction. I don’t really know how else to explain it. Just….flow. It’s the only way to win at ping pong.”
Alexander stood up, rubbing his eyes with his shirt sleeve.
“What’s your name?”
“Amanda. People call me Mandy.”
“I’m Alexander. Uh, thank you.”
“Go kick his butt.”
So there you go. That’s my ping-pong story. Now I want to be very clear. This story is not what happened when I played with my kid. First of all, Tabatha is the real ping-pong monster. She absolutely destroyed me when we played. But there were a few moments when I got into a flow state. When I didn’t think about what I was doing, and I was able to just…flow. Just play. And at least I scored some points.
But there were these two boys next to us. They were maybe thirteen or fourteen years old. And they were so, so nerdy. They reminded me of myself when I was in middle school. And I wanted to write a story about them. About what it’s like to be a nerdy teenage boy. Especially when girls are around. So…how did I do?
Anyway, wanna do some tiny lessons?
The Big Picture is looking lovely.
What was Alexander’s big mistake when he was playing? Why couldn’t he win? Take a moment and think about it. Like Mandy said, he was over-thinking. When you play sports, you can’t think. You can’t plan. You just have to do it. That’s the flow state. When your brain shuts off, and you just act.
How about the Dictionary Disco?
The first vocabulary word is “Blushing.” Everybody blushes. It’s when you get embarrassed or emotional, and your face turns red. But really really white people like me? We REALLY blush.
The second vocabulary word is “paddle.” That’s the thing you hold in your hand when you play ping pong. But also, it’s any kind of thing that’s shaped like that. A thin handle on one end, and a wide flat surface on the other. Like when you go in a canoe. You use a paddle.
So, can we have a Melody Moment?
We’re gonna do another pair of sounds today. K and G are pretty close to T and D. So for T, you tap your tongue on the roof of your mouth. The alveolar ridge, right? For K, you keep your tongue up at the top, but….you don’t tap it. And it’s further back. Lips open, jaw relaxed. And tongue just kinda….up. Try it! K….K….K. Now, add some vibration in your throat and you get….G. They’re a pair.
Let’s do the credits.
Thank you for listening to Season 3 Episode 8 of A Little English.
Every episode is produced entirely by me, Edward Cooper Howland, here in Hiroshima, Japan.
If you like the show, tell someone about it! A recommendation from a friend is the best way to get someone to listen, and I would really appreciate it.
This season, all the stories are written by…me! I use chatGPT by Openai.com as an editor because I can’t afford to hire a human. It’s an amazing, free piece of software, and you should check it out.
Again, thank you so much for listening.
For now, be kind to yourselves, and to each other.
