Table tennis for the disabled

The increasing number of participants at the Paralympic games clearly shows the growing importance of participating in sport activities for disabled people; but not only competitive sports, also rehabilitation exercise and recreational exercise play a decisive role. Table tennis has become a popular sport among amputees, people with cerebral palsy, mentally disabled, deaf people and wheelchair users. For tournaments, athletes are classified into I I classes by using a functional classification, in order to assure fair competitions. But table tennis also plays an important role at rehabilitation centres. Playing table tennis implicates many benefits: it can easily be played anywhere and by anyone - without age limit. Moreover table tennis is a very low risk sport. By practising table tennis, endurance and strength get as well improved as capacity of reaction, balance and coordination. Table tennis - as any other sports - also has an anti-depressive effect and promotes social integration. It is very important to motivate disabled people to participate in sports activities such as table tennis in order to improve their psychological and physical quality of life. This paper includes the presentation of the cases of two very successful wheelchair table-tennis-players, and demonstrates that it is possible to perform competitive sports by compensating existing handicaps very skillfully.