What's the most sensitive equipment on the planet? An athlete's hands, perhaps

Put a blindfold on Olympian Clarence Chew. Ask him to open his hands. Place table tennis balls in them. Can he tell them apart?

- Rohit Brijnath

"By feel?" he asks.

Yes.

"Possibly. But not 100 per cent."

They play with five to six balls on tour and some are smooth, some are coarse. "Sometimes you can feel the material, if it's thicker or thinner."

From the outside everything's a blur, but tiny adjustments are occurring at high speed. Feel is a fine art. Feel is Chew's business. Feel is adjusting to another player but also to the behaviour of different equipment.

"Together with the table," explains Chew, "whose surfaces have different smoothness, it can create a lot of difference. Sometimes more speed, sometimes more spin, sometimes the ball doesn't jump too much. So you make minor adjustments when executing every stroke."

Chew is not just an athlete, he is a living precision instrument, dealing in kmh and rpm while solving geometry puzzles. So are badminton people who aim for lines like leaping darts players. In a world of centimetres every little thing matters. Like the pressure in tennis balls.

Speed guns say 150kmh after tennis forehands are struck, but what's the speed when it arrives at the other end? Only players know. They're reading, registering, reacting. And practising. Before a tournament Chew knows what ball will be used and trains accordingly.