Table tennis team brings four wins from YCIS tournament
The table tennis varsity team successfully ended their season by winning four trophies at the YCIS Puxi tournament on November 17. On the girl’s team, Joy Chang (12A) won first place, Sophie Chao (12C) won second, and the SMIC-I girls team placed first overall. Of the boy’s team, Tony Chang (11B) won third place, and Ed Cheng (9C) fourth. Table tennis is not very popular in SMIC-I; furthermore many of the players are leaving because they are in their senior year. Currently, coaches are scouting for more people to join the team.
Table tennis players at the tournament in YCIS Puxi Photo Courtesy of Justina Kim
On behalf of the team, Joy said that she is proud of their accomplishments, and that all players were very encouraging. “Table tennis is a sport that requires full concentration, and every second matters,” Joy said, “I enjoy playing this sport because it allowed me to make new friends from other schools who share this common interest.”
“Luck is also an aspect of the tournament,” stated Tony, who placed third. Both gave advice on experimenting and inventing new serves which could bring advantages in matches. In table tennis they emphasized that serves are very important because it determines the majority of your play. A trick, such as a spin, can easily distract your opponent and bring you a win. While, if you served the ball without any tricks, you will most likely get attacked by your opponent, leading to your defeat. Coach Neema, the table tennis coach for the varsity team thinks “the girls were strong as expected, and the boys also accomplished a lot in the tournament; they came together, and practiced hard and got wins.” According to him, one of the biggest challenges was to congregate all the members to practice in a consistent basis because of schedule conflicts, but other than that, it went well. One suggestion that Coach Neema proposed was that the tables for table tennis could be organized in one area so that the players will not easily get distracted by the others and could work better as a unit. He commented, “Table tennis is a unique sport because unlike other sports, such as soccer and basketball, you mainly use your brain [rather] than physical attributes.”
Featured image – From the left: Sophie Chao (12C), Joy Chang (12A), and Tony Chang (11B), table tennis champions Photo Courtesy of Benson Lin
by: Justina Kim