The PingPongParkinson® World Championship is just three days away. Being hosted this year in the lovely city of Wels in Austria, the local organizing committee is ready to welcome players, family and friends. This year 296 players will compete over five days in about 2000 matches.

We would like to say a special thanks to all our sponsors and partners, and appreciate in a big way SPG Felbermayr Wels table tennis club.

Watch all the fun on our youtube page and stay updated through the tournament website at https://pppwc.org.

Every year in April the global parkinson community honors James Parkinson who identified the disease over 200 years ago by marking Parkinsons Day on April 11. A tradition that has been observed since the first World Parkinsons Day held in 1997 to help raise awareness on parkinson’s disease.

In our own way we are celebrating the launch of four new chapters recently opened across the United States in Madison, Wisconsin on March 23rd and Pennsylvania, Philadelphia in partnership with PingPod (hyperlink https://pingpod.com) on March 27th while the third and forth opened in Chicago USA on 19th April & Guyana in South America on 24th April this year! The Wisconsin chapter is led by Karen Staebell a Ponger who says that playing ping pong helps bring balance to movement affected by parkinson’s disease. In Philadelphia Stephanie Chen leads the chapter, a neuroscience medical student professional who was interested in understanding the connection of playing ping pong which is commonly known as a brain sport for people with parkinsons like her grandfather. In Chicago the team leader is Jim Kroeger while in Guyana, Robert Persaud a former table tennis professional player who has played on every continent except Antarctica leads the charge.

As April is Parkinsons Awareness Month, it reminds us here at PingPongParkinson®️ just how much sport is about community. For the past 6years now we have rallied a group of over 2000 players who not only believe in the power of sport to change lives but actually live it. Regular play promotes health, wellness and active lifestyles (SDG 3) and fosters a sense of solidarity within our PD community. And so once again flags will be raised high and national anthems sang with pride as we look on and celebrate the upcoming 2023 PingPongParkinson®️ World Championship (hyperlink http://pppwc.org) to be held in Wels, Austria on September 24th to 30th. Registration for the championship is still open and closes on August 14th 2023.

With over 10million people affected by PD (parkinson disease) worldwide, there is an ever increasing need to provide more phsycosocial support alongside treatment. Our ping pong sport therapy rehabilitation program does more than that.

“ After less than 6 months I now walk and talk, so you can hear me I am not whispering anymore.. ive quit breath support. “

Robert Socolof

​Today we mark the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. We celebrate the role of sport in being a key contributor to the Sustainable Development Goals; Good Health & Wellbeing (SDG 3) and Partnership for the Goals (SDG 17).

We will continue to advocate for the health benefits of playing ping pong for the Parkinsons community to promote healthy and active lifestyles as this embodies our goal of breaking down barriers, empowering communities & setting new records. It shows what we stand for and how we do it together.

We celebrate all our supporters and partners who have stood with us in solidarity for the past 6years. Happy Sport Day!

Ping Pong Axiom:  Given two intermediate or beginning level players of relatively equal skill, the least impulsive player will be the victor most of the time.
Corollary to the above axiom:  The oblivious lamebrain who doesn’t do what Lao Du says, will end up crawling back under his rock with his tail between his legs.
 
     I have lived among table tennis players for some time now.  I have seen them up close and have learned of their quirks and idiosyncrasies.  And all this has not improved my considered opinion that they are mostly techno freaks interested in only speed and spin.  They rush to go for the kill shot and are unappreciative – even disdainful – of executing an ordinary conventional shot which simply keeps the ball in play and is usually the prudent choice.  Almost all of these foolish people tend to be impulsive and impetuous and, frankly, it resounds with madness.  This is especially breathtaking and dumbfounding considering that the players subscribing to this folly are actually intelligent people …when they are not next to a ping pong table, that is.
 
Editor:  What about you Lao Du?  You’re not impulsive?  Didn’t you once marry a woman who would have ordered her lawyers to perform a sex change operation on you if you hadn’t forked over that house in Scarsdale to her?  Huh?
Lao Du:  Okay, okay, but let’s try not to get this personal, alright?  So I admit my brain wasn’t engaged that time, but it’s different with ping pong now.  I learned my lesson.  I’m not taking out any new loans for any more diamond rings just because some broad whispers sweet things into my ears these days.
Editor:  Really?  Why is that?
Lao Du:  Because my hearing stinks.