Health Benefits of Table Tennis

Table Tennis
for players
with disabilities

Table Tennis for players
with disabilities

Multiple Sclerosis
Alzheimer's | Parkinson’s
ADD | ADHD

Ping Pong or Table Tennis, besides being a fun hobby to play with family and friends, is also surprisingly great for your overall health, especially for your brain, regardless of your age.

Table of contents

Some quick

benefits of table tennis includes

It improves balance: Balance is key in table tennis. Being able to quickly change direction while maintaining hand-eye coordination to keep the ball in play is essential to winning the game.

Multiple Sclerosis

Using Table tennis
as physical therapy
for Multiple Sclerosis

Experts from the Multiple Sclerosis Journal state, “People with Multiple Sclerosis should move no matter where they are in the course of the disease.”
Dr. Heidi Crayton of the Washington, DC Multiple Sclerosis Center specifically recommends table tennis for people with MS. Dr. Crayton is astonished by WDCTT member Ted Udelson’s success in using table tennis to improve his MS symptoms. Six years ago, Ted was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. After his diagnosis, Ted began taking table tennis lessons from Khaleel Asgarali at the WDCTT, which he credits with helping improve his leg strength, mobility, balance, spatial awareness, coordination and mental acuity. Ted looks forward to regularly seeing the supportive WDCTT community.
WDCTT members quickly observe Ted’s surprisingly lightning-fast reflexes. Ted also spends five minutes per session playing with his non-dominant left-hand to improve the aforementioned symptoms! Ted comments that his previously non-MS competitive play has improved significantly. Ted heartily recommends table tennis for members of the MS community.

Parkinson’s

Parkinson’s and
Table Tennis

“In February 2020, researchers at Fukuoka University, Japan, found playing table tennis may help alleviate motor symptoms in Parkinson’s.
12 people with Parkinson’s with an average age of 73 played a five-hour session of table tennis every week for a period of six months. The sessions were developed specifically for people with the condition by experienced table tennis players from the university’s department of sports science. The participants were evaluated after three months and at the end of the study. At both evaluations, participants had reduced symptoms – showing improvement in speech, handwriting, walking and hand tremors.”
Study author Ken-ichi Inoue, MD, of Fukuoka University said: “While this study is small, the results are encouraging because they show ping pong, a relatively inexpensive form of therapy, may improve some symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. A much larger study is now being planned to confirm these findings.”
Article by: Table Tennis England

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Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's
and Table Tennis

Table tennis has the potential to be helpful for eldery people with dementia because it combines physical activity, cognition stimulus and social activity.

ADD & ADHD

Table Tennis is an excellent sport for ADD & ADHD

Learn what happens in your Brain when you play Table tennis. A racket-sport intervention improves behavioral and cognitive performance in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. As a sports branch, table tennis is much easier to reach compared to others. It is built on skills that require long-term attention and focus, and these skills develop as people continue to play. “6-week regular table tennis training has been found to have a positive effect on primary school children’s attention levels.”

Investigation of the effects of six-weeks of regular table tennis education on attention levels of primary school children

PDF Download Study Investigation of the effects of six-weeks of regular table tennis education on attention levels of primary school children

A racket-sport intervention Article

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