Jump Into The Competitive World of Professional Ping Pong With ‘Top Spin’

It’s almost time for the summer Olympics, and you know what that means. All of you non-athletically inclined folks need to start caring about sports, go sports in the name of national pride. Jokes aside, one of the most interesting aspects of the Olympics aren’t the mainstream events that are discussed around the water cooler. They’re the obscure sports you barely knew were sports and you certainly didn’t know warranted Olympic attention. If you’re as fascinated as I am with the world of niche athletics, then you need to start watching Top Spin immediately.

Top Spin takes every drinker’s third favorite bar game — ping pong — and places it into the cutthroat world of competitive athletics. Did you know that table tennis is an Olympic sport? And that athletes start training to become professionals before the age of eight? That’s right; there are high schoolers out there who are Olympic qualified. This documentary will make you think twice before you allow a double bounce.

The world of highly competitive athletics is always interesting. The prospect of children sacrificing their childhoods to become the best at a game raises several moral issues, including if children should be allowed to choose to make these sacrifices and if these long hours and tough practices are actually worth the social and developmental tolls they take. However, the subject becomes increasingly more fascinating when the sport in question is something the average viewer doesn’t care about. Watching your friends play ping pong is boring. You would think that watching professional strangers would be even more shrug-worthy, but under directors Mina T. Son and Sara Newens, the product is more than entertaining. It’s fascinating.

Top Spin follows the road to the 2012 Summer Olympics for three American table tennis players: Ariel Hsing, Michael Landers, and Lily Zhang. Almost immediately, the documentary and its three engagingly intense players make it clear that, yes, this is in fact a sport. And like most professional athletes, it doesn’t take you long before you realize how immensely talented these athletes are and how surprisingly difficult the sport is. The filmmakers make good use of slow motion shots, really taking the time to show how much precision goes into playing table tennis (the official sport name) at this level. I mean, look at this footwork. It’s angelic.

But the documentary is far from all spectacular shots and graceful saves. As with any competitive story, Top Spin is all about the drama it takes to be No. 1. Unlike more popular sports like basketball, baseball, football, and even full-sized tennis, there is very little room at the top for professional table tennis hopefuls and even fewer opportunities for financial stability. In this way, the doc feels like a modernized and ping pong-focused version of 1994’s Hoop Dreams. At one point, Landers jokingly shows off his winning check from a tournament — a whopping $250.

Setting this documentary in America also gives the entire documentary an underdog vibe. Though the movie‘s three subjects are regarded as top American players, they would likely be considered amateurs in countries like China where competitive table tennis is closer to the athletic norm. It’s rare that we as Americans discuss sports on a global scale, especially a sport we’re not the best at.

However, the enthusiasm and determination of the documentary’s three subjects is addictive. In one scene, these teenagers will do typical teenage things such as spending time with their friends or talking to their parents, but in the next, these same teenagers will be artfully pelting a tiny ball past their opponent’s defenses. Sure, seeing such greatness and dedication emerging from subjects who are so young is jarring, but more than that Top Spin explores what we as people are capable of. After this watch, you won’t want to skip table tennis in the 2016 Olympics.

[Where to watch Top Spin]

Photos: Netflix