I was down by 7 and had nearly lost the game. Turning the game room of our house into a full out war zone, my brother and I got into one of our over competitive rounds of ping pong. We played our normal house rules, which basically meant that the first one to 21 won, but you had to win by two. Stone was up 19 to 12 and only two points from winning, something that would be utterly embarrassing considering I was two years older. I was serving and luckily for me that was my strongest point. Only I hadn’t been getting my serve in all game. However, with the pressure on me, I slanted my paddle slightly and sent the tiny plastic ball spinning towards the back, opposite corner of the table. Stone, unaware of the ball’s topspin, tried to simply tap the ball over the net. Catching the paddle in its center, the plastic ping pong ball sailed over my end of the table awarding me the point. He was playing not to lose, rather than to win, the mindset that leads to comebacks. I prepared for my next serve. Knowing he would seek to compensate for my topspin, I made a serve identical to my last one only with no spin at all. Paddle slanted down so that a spun ball would land on my side of the net, Stone sent the ball directly into the net. His face drew with concern as he began to feel his lead slip away. It was over now, Stone had already lost the game in his mind. Soon the lead dwindled to two, then one, then we were tied. One more point and I was up by one. The serve was his, and to keep from losing the match on a fault, he sent a weak serve over the net. Game already in the bag I slammed the plastic sphere off the table and into the wall several feet behind him. The match was mine, and so still was my superiority.