The Wairarapa branch of Parkinson’s New Zealand [PNZ] and Red Star Table Tennis Club in Masterton have joined forces to bring the “neuron building” sport to people in the region living with Parkinson’s, a progressive neurodegenerative condition.
Fourteen players joined eight Red Star Club members for the inaugural ‘Ping Pong Parkinson’s’ session last month.
“It was a great turnout and there were definitely some very useful players,” Mark Young from Red Star’s sister club in Kāpiti, who helped organise the session said.
The session started with simple hand-eye coordination exercises and then onto the tables for games of doubles.
Red Star members offered one-on-one help to anyone with balance issues, as well as general support, instructions and advice throughout the session.
“Having the full hour just for Parkinson’s people was great,” PNZ Wairarapa action group leader Roslyn Lafrentz said. “It gave them the confidence to try something new and enjoy themselves without any pressure. By the end of the session I could see improvements made by all participants, which is encouraging.”
Lafrentz was inspired to bring table tennis to the local Parkinson’s community after being contacted by Young, who started a similar initiative in Kāpiti earlier this year.
As well as providing physical exercise and mental stimulation, “it is a really cool, social sport”, Young said.
“In the UK they call their Parkinson’s sessions ‘bat and chat’. You can have a hit, have a cup of tea and have a bit of a social.”
Parkinson’s affects over 12,000 people in Aotearoa and around 110 people in Wairarapa, with those numbers expected to increase in coming years.
It is caused by the loss or degeneration of the nerve cells that produce dopamine – a chemical that plays an important role in movement and coordination – in the brain, and symptoms include involuntary shaking, stiffness, slow movement and loss of balance.
“But everybody has different symptoms,” said Lafrentz, whose husband Robert was diagnosed with the disease in 2013.
“Some people lose their speech quite quickly. Dopamine just doesn’t work, so you don’t get the same swings of your arms, you don’t stride, you might start to shuffle.”
Research indicates that table tennis stimulates parts of the brain that affect balance, the generation of new brain cells, neuroplasticity – the creation of new neuropathways in the brain – and blood flow to the brain.
“Your brain is having to function to suit the speed to hit this little white ball back,” Red Star club captain Peter Herbert said.
“And that’s just the basics. There are a whole lot of other things, like moving your body around and if you are playing doubles, you have to be spatially aware of your partner.
“And once you get to trying to keep score, that’s a challenge as well because it requires a different part of your brain.”
Lafrentz said the decision amongst the players to continue with Ping Pong Parkinson’s was unanimous.
“This will now be a monthly event – and may even become more frequent in the future,” Lafrentz said.
She was extremely grateful to Red Star Table Tennis Club for supporting the initiative “and to Mark Young and Val Scarr for coming across from Kāpiti to help promote this wonderful sport”.
- For more information about Ping Pong Parkinson’s or any activities and events the Wairarapa PNZ action group supports, contact Roslyn Lafrentz at [email protected] or 027 264 8623.
