 Media Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel Above: Hung Nguyen, graduate student in math, watches the ball as he attempts a serve at Peters Recreation Complex April 16.Photos by Christopher Hanewinckel | Collegian
|
|
 Media Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel Ying Xu, graduate student in mechanical engineering, returns a serve. Xu said he first became interested in table tennis when his home country, China, won the 1995 world-team championship.
|
|
Some call it table tennis and others call it pingpong, but by whatever name, the sport is catching on at K-State.
K-State's table tennis season is over, but Zach Moore, senior in electrical engineering, and his team still are practicing. Moore was part of K-State's table tennis team, which took eighth place at the National Collegiate Table Tennis tournament March 30 through April 1.
Moore said he first became interested in table tennis when his high-school varsity tennis team played the game at an end-of-the-season team party. He said he has been addicted ever since and is now in the top 10 active players in Kansas and in the top 50 college players nationwide.
"Pingpong is a fast-paced racquet sport played on a table top with a net in between," Moore said. "The rules are much like tennis, except there is no volleying. This means you cannot hit the ball before it bounces on your side, and the serve is done differently."
Moore said he hopes pingpong will catch on in America like it has in other countries.
"Many people play recreationally, but there are very few true competitive amateur players compared to what there are in Europe or east Asian countries like China, Korea or Japan," he said. "Someday, maybe we will have NCAA table tennis."
Team member Ying Xu, graduate student in mechanical engineering, said he first became interested in table tennis when his home country, China, won the 1995 world-team championship. He has been playing for about five years but said he is still surprised by the game.
"I was surprised how much you have to concentrate and focus on the ball," he said. "You'll miss the ball if you don't understand which type of spin is on the ball."
Associate jazz professor Wayne Goins said he thinks of pingpong as miniature tennis because it requires some of the same skills. He uses back spins, top spins, overhand smashes and forehand lobs as part of his game strategy.
Goins said he is so addicted to pingpong that he kicked the cars out of his garage and built an arena, complete with track lighting for night games. He said his garage has become a hangout for many of his jazz students who play pingpong.
"I really love it, because it's a high-energy, low-impact sport that gives you a really great workout, at least the way I play it," he said. "I'll challenge just about anybody. I always want to be engaged in a hotly contested battle on the pong table."
Be the first to comment on this story