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Ping pong or table tennis is a sport we all played at a certain time in our life. Maybe your parents had an old table in the basement or maybe your childhood memories revolve around this game, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that it doesn’t take long to learn it, and anyone can join in.
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But besides being extremely easy to learn, there are other benefits to consider before tossing the paddles away.
#1: General Fitness
First and foremost, this is an aerobic exercise you do with pleasure! So, if you hate running on the treadmill or working on the stationary bike, ping pong is a fantastic way to improve your fitness. Furthermore, if you play it like a pro (meaning fast), your heart will get a fantastic exercise out of it and you’ll sweat like you never did in the gym!
#2: A Sport for the Family
In today’s day and age, it is difficult to get the entire family involved in one activity. Sure, you can take the kids to park, but they won’t lift their eyes from their phones!
On the other hand, a good outdoor table like the ones I saw on bestpingpongtables.io and a few warming sets will get the ball rolling. Once you get the kids hooked on ping pong, you’ll never have to worry about them spending too much time in the house ever again!
#3: A Non-Contact Sport
Jogging can be rough on your joints while lifting weights or doing cardio in the gym can be quite strenuous on the muscles. This is a problem that doesn’t show up when you play table tennis. You don’t need to force yourself to play very fast and you can still break a sweat and feel the action.
Not to mention, there is no risk of getting bruised or pushed while playing because there are no teammates to get in contact with!
#4: Mental Sharpness
Besides all the physical benefits, ping pong was proven to sharpen the mind and improve memory and focus. The action stimulates the only portion of our brain that is still capable of producing neurons and forming new neuronal pathways. As a result, people who play ping pong constantly will get smarter and will focus better. This is also why some specialists recommend the sport to children since they are still able to develop their brain.
#5: Hand-Eye Coordination
Have you ever tried to toss a ball in one direction and it went in a completely different one? Or maybe you keep dropping things and bumping into obstacles that you see but don’t really register correctly.
This is what we call clumsiness and I was one of the biggest butterfingers ever! But with ping pong, my depth perception improved, and my hand-eye coordination got better. Now, as a fully-grown adult, I can drink my coffee without spilling and I can shoot a bow and arrow with high accuracy.
Ping pong is one of the most fun ways to help your clumsy kids get better at interpreting the world around correctly.
In Conclusion
As you can see, table tennis is a fantastic game for both kids and adults. It’s also a way to spend more time with the family and teach the kids a bit about staying fit and healthy. So, whip up that old table and have at it!
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