Advantage — Table Tennis
Why should I consider Table Tennis? What is specific about it?
Table Tennis is a friendly and joyful sport. Table Tennis is also a physical leisure-time activity that keeps your body and brain in excellent shape for years. But only with regular and hard training. Here is my A-Z.
Accessibility
There are about 300 million Table Tennis players in at least 226 countries worldwide — and that’s actually more than any other sport. This means chances are high you will be able to find a Table Tennis club near where you live. Especially in Europe, Asia, and Oceania, and also in regions of Africa and the Americas.
If you are disabled, Table Tennis might be a good choice of sport. Table Tennis is one of the biggest paralympic sports. Table Tennis is a recognized parasport in about 100 different countries. There are different disability classes depending on type and level of disability.
The sport Table Tennis is accessible to the general public worldwide through web live streams and social media.
Table Tennis is relevant through the year.
Age
There are age- or ranking-based classes at competitions to suit anyone aged between 9 and 90.
Table Tennis is one of few sports where you can
- play and compete throughout your life on a high level
- start to play as a beginner at over 50 years of age
- compete at an equal level at 60, 70 or 80 years of age, given that you have the health
Audience
Unfortunately, Table Tennis is not a sport with a lot of spectators. You seldom see Table Tennis at TV. Few finals have an impressive on-site crowd.
Today, with the live casts over the web with excellent HD quality, it is easy to watch and enjoy matches live. This goes for the big events as well as (sometimes) for the local league games. YouTube also gain an increasing number of Table Tennis viewers as video quality improves. So, the audience is on the web (streaming videos). Yet, most of the spectators are already supporters of Table Tennis.
Brain training
Table Tennis offers good brain training.
It can be an intellectual challenge to understand spin. Some racket rubbers combined with different combinations of strokes can blow away or confuse even the best.
Developing your own winning game systems and winning services is demanding.
Tactics make your brain work hard during a match. Good tactics require real-time analysis of both your own play and your opponent’s play. Good tactics are about finding solutions that work, that makes you win.
Strategic work in finding your long-term action plan and improving step-by-step is also demanding. It means a lot of analysis.
Table Tennis is a lot about patterns, structure and problem-solving.
Play Table Tennis regularly and it for sure helps you keep your brain exercised and in a good shape.
Character making
Table Tennis helps develop good personal traits.
With lots of competition, you’ll get an internal locus of control which means you believe that you control your own fate. You’ll also get good confidence and emotional intelligence, and openness for experience.
Excitement
Table Tennis is not an extreme sport. Anyway, Table Tennis is quite exciting at match play. Adrenaline pumps through your blood in difficult match situations. Like in other sports, the adrenaline makes you perform better and gives you a great feeling. Especially when you win, of course.
You should train controlling and optimizing the effects of adrenaline. Then, you need to simulate match play as often as you can during training sessions.
Fitness training
Table Tennis might not look so physically demanding but it is! You might not develop strong muscles or a great lung capacity by playing Table Tennis alone. But it is good for your heart and your balance, movability, and agility. Moreover, if you get serious with your Table Tennis you’ll soon realize that you’ll need to train for your sport. You’ll get motivation for running or cycling and for strength training.
Play Table Tennis and it for sure helps you keep your body healthy and in a good shape.
Flexibility
It is usually possible to train and compete in a flexible way during the full year. Especially as a recreational player. Of course, it depends on the Table Tennis association or club.
Gender equality
If we look at the characteristics of Table Tennis as a sport, there are no differences between the sexes. For example, muscle power doesn’t matter much at all. It might affect the style of play somewhat. The best women are about as good as the best men are. Anyway, almost 90% of all Table Tennis players are male. Why is this? I have not seen any research about this, but I have two theories of my own. My first theory is about values and the second one is about social behavior.
There are three things that boys and men, in general, tend to value high*. Those are Curiosity, Gaming, and Status. With Curiosity I mean things like: challenges, exploring and discovery, becoming absorbed, fantasy or dream, freedom, and creativity. With Gaming I mean things like: competition, pleasure, winning, survival and school of life. With Status I mean things like: mine is bigger than yours and hierarchy. These things are relatively important for males in general (not for all males). All these values are well supported by the characteristics of Table Tennis. It is a good fit.
There are three things that girls and women, in general, tend to value high*. Those are Responsibility, Quality, and Popularity. With Responsibility I mean things like: making it work, holding together, realize, honesty, taking care of and caring about. With Quality I mean things like: my life, my relations, my things and what I eat. With Popularity I mean things like: they can trust me, attention and eye contact. These things are relatively important for females in general (not for all females). Like many other individual sports, Table Tennis does not support these values in any particular way.
*Research confirms the above gender values.
So, my first theory is that Table Tennis supports the “male values” better than the “female values”. And that causes or contributes to gender inequality.
My second theory is that when choosing a new sports activity and starting in a new club, boys and girls have different social behavior.
Boys tend to select the sport and the club based on their individual interests, and then find friends while there. The move or change becomes easy.
Girls tend to select the sport and the club based on group preferences. They talk to their friends and make the move together. The change to a sport, not being one of the five most popular sports, becomes difficult. Thus, most girls that start with Table Tennis have at least one family member that is already bitten by the sport. This contributes to the low number of 10–12% of females in Table Tennis.
Injuries
Table Tennis has a low risk of injuries because there are almost no jumps and no body contact. You have your own reserved space to move within. You move your feet all the time, but only with small steps and with few sharp turn-arounds. If you are serious with the warm-up and the stretching, there should be no or very few problems with injuries.
Joy
For all those already a supporter of the sport, Table Tennis is a joyful sport. It is a great joy to play with friends on a high level. You long for the next training occasion or the next opportunity to compete.
You should love spin — everything in Table Tennis is about spin. Spin = Joy.
Knowledge and learning
How to learn Table Tennis?
There are lots and lots of good books about Table Tennis. There are also a great number of learning videos on YouTube, as well as of course match videos. If you are a member of a Table Tennis club, there are usually good instructors. There are also courses and training camps.
Most of these instructions focus on techniques for beginners. This is where the big need is, where the volume audience is.
There are of course good self-learning instruction material for intermediate players as well. For instance on tactics, mental training, and advanced technique, or about equipment. To find this you might need to do some more research.
Personal trainers also exist, but this is not an option for everyone.
Most learning is by trial and error. Table Tennis is a sport with a friendly community and you learn a lot by talking to other players.
Prize money
Only main tournaments on the world tour have big prize money. Average athlete salary in top leagues is also low compared to some other sports.
This has to do with weak numbers of
- sponsorship deals outside of the Table Tennis sector
- sports headlines on media outlets
- tv viewers and tv rights deals
- supporters not playing Table Tennis themselves
Social
I’d say Table Tennis is definitely a social sport. In the training club, there are many players practicing in the same room. You exchange opponents all the time. Teams in the local league get a different mix of players match by match or season by season. Everyone get to know each other very well over time. It is easy to make friends and socialize.
Kids have fun together in Table Tennis school. Their parents socialize while waiting at practice sessions and competitions. Or they socialize when cooperating in club activities.
Status
Table Tennis is not a status sport like tennis or golf. Table Tennis is very down to earth. Everyone is cheering each other on, regardless of skill level. It is relaxed, no tensions and a helpful atmosphere.
Especially for young boys, status is important. The ranking class system and competition results are enough for this. When you are best — everyone knows — and you do have high status.
Stress
Only a fraction of Table Tennis players competes on a level where other people rely on their performance. Most players don’t feel much pressure even if they compete in teams. As a player, you can usually control the demands.
Of course, competing does not fit everyone. Then, skip it.
The detailed ranking systems of today are excellent in a way, but could also impose a risk for stress.
It is important to keep an eye on players and remove demands they perceive too high.
Team spirit
Table Tennis is an individual sport. But Table Tennis is also a team sport. There is, in fact, a large amount of team spirit in Table Tennis, on all levels. In competitions, there are both doubles and mixed-doubles games. In national, regional and local leagues you compete in teams of 3–6 people. Also in international leagues such as Champions League (Europe), there is a great team spirit.
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Me when playing Table Tennis defender style.
