Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Oct 20, 2009 | by AUSTIN PREISS

Most days at school someone will ask me if I am the "Ping Pong Kid." I hesitate for a moment and slowly say, "yes."

Besides table tennis, there are many things that fill my life. I spend half my time as a typical 15-year-old boy. The other half is spent traveling the world as a table tennis player and entertainer.

My story began when I was about 3 years old. My dad, Scott Preiss, is a national table tennis coach and trainer as well as a golfer. I've always pushed around a little white ball. At age 6, I played in my first table tennis tournament. At 10 I won my first junior national title. Since then, I have won seven more national junior titles and I have traveled to nine other countries.

Reaching this level was no easy task. My mom, Hong Yu Preiss, is from Shanghai, China, and I have been brought up with discipline and a hard-work ethic. My first intense table tennis training began when I was 8 years old in China. I practiced four hours a day, five days a week. It wasn't easy, but it showed me that there were no shortcuts to becoming a high-level athlete, and I had a taste for this kind of training.

I trained in Japan last summer in Sendai at a famous university there. My father is friends with one of the professors who arranged for me to train with the members of the Men's Collegiate Team. They trained like animals from 2 to 9 p.m. each day, seven days a week. I think that kind of effort really improved my level of play.

In Colorado Springs, I have two coaches, Coach Li Zhenshi and Coach Zhang Li, both World Champions. They are husband and wife and both train me for about one hour each on different techniques.