| Table Tennis Club recognized |
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| Written by Krista Porterfield | |
.JPG "Image") What’s found in almost every common room on almost every college campus across the nation? Um, no, not Ramen. Ping pong tables! Ping-pong, whether competitive or purely recreation, is a staple form of entertainment for just about any college student. Demand for table tennis on college campuses is always high, which is why super-seniors Steven Jenkins and John Pisoni decided to start a Table Tennis Club at UMR. “We tried to start it over two years ago, but weren’t recognized until this semester,” said Steven Jenkins, a fifth year senior, and president of the Table Tennis Club. “Starting a club takes a long time.” The process involved getting the club approved by the Academic Council, which only meets about three times per semester. They also had to find a faculty member who would be willing to be the club’s advisor. They ended up finding Dr. Frank Liu, a professor in Computer Science, to support them. According to Jenkins, the club currently has about 30 people signed up, but only 23 total have shown up to at least one meeting. “We probably get about ten per day,” said Jenkins. Meetings simply involve playing a lot of table tennis. Members come to the Rec Center every Tuesday and Thursday at four and challenge fellow members. “We try to get them to play by the International Table Tennis rules,” said Jenkins. “It’s going a lot better than it did the first week,” added Vice President John Pisoni with a laugh. Ping-pong is commonly played for fun by many college students, but many do not know some of the finer points in the rules. “A lot of people don’t realize that you can lose on a serve,” said Jenkins, referring to the common practice of allowing the loser to reserve if he gives up game point on a bad serve. Other not very well know rules include proper serving technique and whose point it is if a ball is hit off the table but touched by the opponent. Serves should be done by tossing the ball six inches above the hand and hitting it in the air. Serving a ball by hitting it straight out of the hand is technically illegal. Also, if the ball is clearly hit long and off the table, it doesn’t matter if the receiver hits it with his paddle or not, it is still the receiver’s point. Right now, Table Tennis Club is still in a developmental stage, but Jenkins hopes to get more people to join and to begin getting the club more active. He hopes to do a tournament later this semester, but everything is still being planned. The Table Tennis Club meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 4-6 at the west end of the Rec Center gym. All ping-pong enthusiasts are invited. “[All students] are welcome to come try their skills out,” said Pisoni. |
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