WHAT CAN TABLE TENNIS DO FOR YOU?
Table tennis has numerous benefits for the mind, body and soul.
Here are just a few of them…
• Playing improves hand-eye coordination and it stimulates mental alertness, concentration and tactical strategy. This makes it the perfect game for young people to sharpen reflexes, and for older people to refine tactics.
• Develops mental acuity. The speed, spin and placement of the ball are crucial in table tennis, and practiced players are highly skilled in both creating and solving puzzles involving these three attributes.
• Improves reflexes. Due to the fast-paced, short-distance nature of the sport, both gross and fine muscle movements are improved. The game is distinguished by bursts of exertion and recovery, leading to fast-twitch muscle development.
• It’s easy on the joints. Have you had knee surgery, back problems, tired of twisting your ankles? Try table tennis. It’s a great way to improve your leg, arm and core strength without overtaxing your joints.
• Burns calories. A 150-pound person can burn 272 calories by playing table tennis for an hour. Considering the fact that the sport is entertaining and addictive, it can be a fun and easy way to burn calories.
• Offers a social outlet. Whether you play in the community center or at home with friends, table tennis offers a great way to bond with other people while you lose weight. Because young and old people can play the game, it can help improve communication and build relationships, irrespective of age. Playing at home with siblings or parents can bring family members closer and enable them to spend more quality time with each other.
• Keeps your brain sharp. Alzheimer’s Weekly reports a clear increase in motor skills and cognitive awareness from playing table tennis, after a series of preliminary clinical studies in Japan found that table tennis markedly increases the flow of blood to the brain, and could possibly even prevent dementia.
• Improves coordination. Following the ping pong ball as it moves quickly toward you, and following its trajectory as your opponent hits it helps improve hand-eye coordination.
• Improves balance. Staying balanced and being able to quickly change direction are key to being successful in a ping pong rally. This is especially important for the elderly.
• Stimulates various different parts of the brain. By anticipating an opponent’s shot, a player uses the prefrontal cortex for strategic planning. The aerobic exercise from the physical activity of the game stimulates the hippocampus, the part of the brain that is responsible for allowing us to form and retain long-term facts and events.
Benefits for Youth and Kids
Table Tennis: The Most Complete Sport for young kids
Table Tennis is the sport to help schools and communities to improve physical literacy for children and youth.
At NSTTC, follow what the coaches association of Canada (CAC) advices through the Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) program, children should build and develop nine basic skills; Agility, Balance, Coordination, Catching, Throwing, Hitting, Kicking, Running, and Jumping.
Through games and specific training, Table Tennis develops eight of these nine skills. Only kicking is not directly involved in a Table Tennis program although it is sometimes used as a warm up.
Table Tennis also develops dexterity and focus. Dexterity, the ability to use your hands skillfully, is developed by hitting or brushing the ball toward a target, with different forces and different angles of the racket using both sides of the hand – Backhand or Forehand. Table Tennis also improves Focus. The ball is so light and the parameters to take into consideration (ball direction, trajectory, speed and spin, racket angle, net, table) in a short period of time (between 0.5 and 1.0 sec) are such that the child must focus if he or she wants to succeed.
Most of all, by playing Table Tennis, kids build in their brain the necessary connections to develop their Spatial Awareness; their fourth dimension of space and time (how to respond quickly to the ball spinning and speeding in the direct environment).
There is a growing theory among researchers for a positive correlation between this Spatial Awareness and capacity for abstract sciences like mathematics and physics. A recent German Study among students says: Table Tennis makes you clever. This study demonstrates that regular physical activity helps students to have better marks at school, but also that some sports help more than others. In this study Table Tennis players came first.
Not only is Table Tennis good for the mind and body, it is also Fun. Young boys and girls love to play, and Parents as well as educators will be happy, too, as they consider the safety and character development of the sport.
Table Tennis also offers a high transfer of the basic skills to other sports: hand-eye coordination, body orientation in space, ball trajectory, and quick time reaction will give children advantages when they play other sports like basket-ball, volley-ball, soccer, lacrosse, badminton, tennis, baseball, softball, golf, etc. Table Tennis is a prime cross-training choice.
This is my conviction that Table Tennis is the most complete sport and should be highly recommended as a sport in every elementary and high school system.
Our goal is to increase participation and raise awareness and inclusivity of Table Tennis for ALL and to share the physical and mental benefits of participating in the sport of Table Tennis.
TABLE TENNIS 🏓 IN SCHOOLS PROGRAM
Table Tennis is the most complete sport for kids! It’s good for the body! It’s good for the Brain! To get a body and brain boosting experience that will super charge students to feel their best, with an emphasis on having fun while learning new skills we bring the sport of Table Tennis to schools.
“Table Tennis in Schools Program” is well organized, ensuring maximum participation by all students within the Physical Education classes.
You can check our Table Tennis in Schools Program under Schools Programs
WEST VANCOUVER SCHOOLS PREMIER TABLE TENNIS ACADEMY
As a result of our After school Table Tennis programs and Table Tennis in Schools program NSTTC established first of its kind Premier Table Tennis Academy with West Vancouver Schools , start September 2018.
No other BC school district or institution offers the same level of dedication in these disciplines. Learn more about the Premier Academies at the district website here :https://westvancouverschools.ca/academies/table-tennis
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