More than just Ping-Pong

This article is presented by the magazin Paraplegiker with the permission of the MVS Medizinverlage Stuttgart.

15/05/2007

Snipping, spinning, smashing and chipping –table-tennis is rotation on every touch of the ball and is known as the fastest “backhanded sport” in the world.

Table-tennis is a fast and filigree sport which demands a maximum of technical and tactical skills when playing to perfection.

An agile hand and a quick eye are needed to cleverly chip the ball over the net. Brainless seconds are penalised as in hardly any other sport. However, it is always the common game that is focused on. The “expert” will not really enjoy the game when serving the “novice” or “recreational player” an ace.

Purpose of the game is rather the collective try of keeping the small celluloid ball as long as possible on the table. Of course, this is perfected as time passes. Together more tricky situations are played as the ball starts to move randomly and more abstract and imaginative acting is required. Therefore, the sport is also a highly beneficial element in rehabilitation.

The easy and refreshing game is warmly recommended to newly paralysed people in the early stages of rehab – with success. The playful sport aids concentration and augments coordination of the work movement, which accrues an animating body control.

Sport as balsam for everyday life

Table-tennis is a sport which can be played by children as well as by seniors at any age. In the course of time, many patterns of action and solutions for the best tactics can be learned. This is also used in various situations and tasks of everyday life. Concentration, creativity and determination flow into one’s lifestyle. Further, the integrative thought of the sport is highly visible. Due to this fact, disabled and non disabled people can practice together and even be competitive in one team. It is evident that companionship binds the community even more. Besides being a sport for rehabilitation and fun, wheelchair table-tennis is also exercised as a professional sport.

Quickly different types of table-tennis characters emerge: There are the ones who dauntlessly play an offensive game and others who by subtly defending wait for the opponent’s mistakes. In the end, only the single point counts. Each rally requires afresh concentration in order to choose the correct strategy with feeling and aptitude.

Around the world with table-tennis

Depending on the paralysis’ intensity players are classified into 5 leagues, whereas the premier league corresponds to the highest degree of paralysis. Thus, players having quadriplegia compete in the premier and second league, while paraplegic take on each other in leagues 3 to 5. Many serious players get devotedly involved in spreading their sport to bring the fun of the game close to as many paraplegics as possible.

In this manner Holger Nikelis, Paralympics champion and world ranking leader of the premier league, visits clinics and moreover, he is very involved in clubs and schools in order to ameliorate the relationship between people with and without disability. Nikelis already served the small plastic ball before his accident in 1995, but he had to “adjust his entire game to the new corporal capabilities”, as the 28 year old says. Nowadays, his sport takes him around the world – from Dublin via Bielefeld to Taipeh.

© Jan-Henrik Schultz

- More about Holger Nikelis under: www.nikelis.de
- More about Paraplegiker under: www.medizinverlage.de