Starting this September, North Shore school kids will be learning table tennis without the tables.
A unique program known as aerobic table tennis will be bringing the sport to students starting in Grade 1. The goal is to teach them technique and get them moving even if they’re too small to see over a typical table tennis top.
The program stems from an initiative started last school year by Claudine Gunn and Luba Sadovska, co-owners of the North Shore Table Tennis Club. Already offering a variety of programs at their club, the duo decided to expand their instruction into local schools.
They visited a number of elementary schools in both North and West Vancouver, offering free classes and follow-up paid sessions if there was enough interest.
Sadovska, who has played table tennis professionally and at the national level for Czechoslovakia, says they were invited back to every school they visited. During this time, the duo had become aware of a program started in the U.K. that incorporated basic table tennis training with music and fitness. It was called aerobic table tennis.
The North Shore club has now incorporated aerobic table tennis into their regular programming, and so far classes have been very popular. “A benefit of the program is you burn calories, strengthen the muscles; it also can help with weight loss and improve motor skills and balance,” explains Sadovska.
She says the aerobic table tennis class involves teaching basic table tennis technique along with aerobic exercise to music. It is considered low-impact aerobics, and Sadovska says their classes have attracted whole families, including parents, kids, and grandparents. This fall, Gunn and Sadovska will once again bring their table tennis program into both elementary and high schools across the North Shore, but this time it will be the aerobic program.
“It’s simple, it’s very simple, it’s not complicated,” says Gunn of the routine, which she says is particularly appealing to the younger kids. “The music does help. It does help them focus. It does help them just kind of collect themselves as a group. And they connect with it.”
As well as getting kids to move, the program is also considered and an introduction to the sport of table tennis because participants learn how to hold the racket, how to move with the racket, all the footwork, and other main components of the game before they even stand in front of a table.
“Table tennis in North Vancouver is getting bigger,” says Sadovska, adding their general programs have really taken off. Gunn notes that aerobic table tennis is adaptable and can be modified for students with special needs as well. The program will be introduced into all West Vancouver elementary schools this coming school year, as well as four North Vancouver elementary schools, and a number of high schools.
