Is ping pong good exercise?
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Ping pong is with out a doubt great exercise. The question should be is any exercise good exercise? Yes. Having said that table tennis is seriously taken sport and just as you can go down to kick a ball around in the park and say you played soccer there is a difference to trying to improve and play that sport competitively just as any sport such as table tennis.
Ping pong is usually used in the west as a way to explain standing straight at the table in somewhere like a garage and plonk the ball back and forward with very little skill involved but still beneficial for numerous reasons.
Back to our point, if you take table tennis seriously you will find that you need to be aerobic enough to be able to skip around the floor so that you use your feet to get to the ball instead of reaching with your arm.
Any player that has played the sport more than in a garage with friends will tell you yes table tennis is excellent exercise.
Comments
TT is now my main source of exercise.
Especially in the winter. I started playing again about a year and a half ago and during the last winter I lost weight and gained mobility. Normally I gained weight during the winter and the holidays, I played for 2.5 hours tonight but I played 4 hours last Thursday. I play about 10 hours a week.
Every weekday morning I drive by a health club on my way to work. I see the people on their treadmills running alone. That isn't near as much fun as playing TT. As I get better I find that TT is more aerobic. I can move more and hit more consistently so that results in longer and more exhausting rallies. Actually, I try to avoid those because it takes me a while to recover after slamming a few ball.
On another forum my signature say I play for the health of it.
Today I played from about 10am to 2pm
I did a lot of chopping. I am not a chopper but the new sparring partner likes to do drills. This time it was my turn to chop and he practiced lifting the ball. I chopped with my hard bat. At first I/we didn't do so well. By the end we were able to have longer rallies where I would chop 3 or 4 times. I not that isn't that good but it is a good start.
Chopping and looping chopped balls back is great exercise. Both chopping and looping require a lot of foot work but the pace is a little slower than blasting balls when your belly is against the table. The slower pace makes it possible to move and get to the ball instead of just trying to block it at the table of the bounce.
I took a 3 hour geezer napper when I got home.
Now that I am up again I can feel the muscles in my legs from having to get low to chop correctly.
No one can tell me I didn't get a lot of exercise and it was good.
Lucky you table tennis
I love having naps on the weekend in the middle of the day. Only problem it kind of makes me want them on Monday and the rest of the week.
You sound like you must be fit as a fiddle.
I haven't played much recently, am hanging to start chopping again. I did use an old addoy bat with one sided replaced with 05, the last 2 times against Ed I was winning the same I would usually, but with more pushing.
If I really wanted to win a point - a push with 05 got him most the time, as all the other time Id only push with the old dead addoy and loop with the 05.
Anyway I miss playing in large spaces a lot now. I really couldn't settle living where I am, without a decent place to play.
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I have a 'Lazy Boy' recliner at the office
After lunch I lay back and relax. I sit in the chair and read tech books but sometimes I doze off for a minute or two.
"You sound like you must be fit as a fiddle. "
I am doing very well considering. My mobility and endurance is increasing. I am playing away from the table a little more now. The timing is different. When I want to relax I go back to my old 'table hog' ways.
"If I really wanted to win a point - a push with 05 got him most the time,"
That is too easy. It sounds like Ed need more practice with the back hand loops. I hate pushing rallies but they are good practice.
"Anyway I miss playing in large spaces a lot now."
I have lots of space but the ceiling is too low. Can't do high lobs. I don't lob but one of my sparring partners would like to.
This last week I played Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I played about 13-14 hours.
05 push is contrast only
05 is always for looping - except the rare heavy push
No actually Ed is very good on backhand looping when I use normal inverted rubbers. He wins his fair share of points if I push.
It is once I use the old addoy rubber - I usually push with it or chop with it when it goes to that side, and topspin with the 05 side. Once he gets used to the amount of backspin which is almost the same all the time with the addoy - a simple heavier push with the 05 almost never makes past his side of the table, no where near the net.
contrast is everything.
I can imagine you have a nice big chair...
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