Ping-pong turning the tables
Paddle sport shaking its basement image while vaulting to unprecedented popularity in US
It’s lunchtime in midtown Manhattan, where one corner of Bryant Park is abuzz with the unmistakable sound of table tennis games in progress.
The game zone is populated by a cross-section of New York life, some sweating it out in shirts and ties, school uniforms or dresses.
Others look the part in vests and shorts and brandish professional paddles — red rubber on one side to increase strength, and black rubber on the back to increase friction.
“People who are serious about the game bring their own paddles,” said 60-yearold Baolong Huang, a regular on the tables, which are open to the public from 11 am to 8 pm daily.
A sign-up sheet several pages long is testament to the popularity of the facilities, with people waiting up to 30 minutes for a table.
“It is something to do while you are on your lunch hour,” said another regular, Jeremiah Lee. “You don’t have to just sit in your office eating your food. You can go to the park and play a game. It is something to enjoy.”
Like Lee, many New Yorkers find the tables a much cheaper, convenient and socialable alternative to gyms.
According to stats service Statista, table tennis participation in the United States has been on the rise since 2006, with 17 million people — about five percent of the population — enjoying the sport in 2016.
That figure compares favorably with basketball (22 million) and tennis (18 million), and nowadays ping-pong tables are commonplace in bars, parks and community centers.
Basement days
Wang Chen, a former Chinese national athlete and 2008 US Olympian, recalls a time when things were a lot different for table tennis enthusiasts.
She’d often drive for over two hours to find the nearest game, and was sometimes reduced to practicing in her neighbor’s basement with kids and amateurs.
She taught the game in churches, basements and bars, working in New Jersey, Delaware, Philadelphia and New York.
“Some of my students were even seniors who had bypass surgery, but eventually everyone came to love the sport,” said Wang, who in 2004 opened the Wang Chen Table Tennis Club in Manhattan.
SPiN, a trendy nearby bar which describes itself as “a ping-pong social club”, attracts an eclectic clientele, from corporate parties to hipsters.
Wang said SPiN customers looking to take things more seriously eventually gravitate to her club for professional training.
Mind game
Wang’s patrons vary in age from 3 to 90, with more and more people sold on the sport’s safe nature and its beneficial effects for the eyes and brain.
One of Wang’s students has done a study to show how ping-pong can help with mental health and cognitive conditions such as depression and Alzheimer’s.
Ana Aleksandric, a 19-yearold table tennis champion from Serbia, is coaching at Wang’s summer camp during vacation from college in Texas.
While one of Ana’s students, an 11-year-old boy, worked on his footwork, Wang explained that a common misconception of the sport is that it doesn’t require much movement or brain power.
“That understanding is totally wrong,” Wang said. “Ping-pong requires you to move your legs, your feet, your whole body. And you have to concentrate on what you’re doing.
“In short, table tennis is both a mind game as well and a sport.”
Long way to go
The sport has played an important role in Sino-US affairs, with the Ping-Pong Diplomacy of the early 1970s, when the countries exchanged players, paving the way for the normalization of China-US relations.
And while an American table tennis player has yet to win an Olympic medal, the sport has at least become more professional in the United States, said Alexis Perez, a former US Open champion who hails from the Dominican Republic.
“It is a great sport, and everybody thanks Asia for introducing it,” said Perez, who has been a regular at Wang’s club since it opened.
However, Wang said there is still much to be done to change the mindset that pingpong is “not a real sport”.
Football, baseball, basketball and hockey still dominate the American sporting spectrum, with ping-pong considered more a hobby.
Meanwhile, very few colleges in the US offer scholarships for table tennis players.
“My son told me his PE teacher said that table tennis is not a sport,” Wang said. “I was extremely upset. This is a very athletic sport and tough competition.”
So while ping-pong has made great strides Stateside, Wang said that earning more respect as a professional pursuit will take time.