Table Tennis Club Sets Stage for Fun, Fitness

by Blake Herzog

If you have any questions about the game of table tennis you can call David Rockir, a retired professional player who can tell you the different ways players grip the racquet handle and when they came into fashion, which ones give you more power versus more spin, and how to return a serve so it drops just inside your opponent’s side of the net.

Better yet, you can join the Tri-City Table Tennis Club, which plays five days a week at the Elks Lodge in Prescott Valley, and talk to Rockir, its president, and any number of other members who can show you the way around and above the table and can help you quickly advance in the sport.

“Anybody who joins our club will find themselves improving very quickly, because everybody gives you pointers,” Rockir says.

Now you can also learn from a recently purchased table tennis robot that can fire balls at any frequency up to 110 mph, 5 mph faster than the fastest human serve ever recorded.

The club’s almost 30 members range in age from their 50s through their 80s, and they would welcome younger participants but their daytime schedule puts it out of reach for most.

The roster includes people from throughout the country and as far away as Kazakhstan, mostly men but including a handful of women.

“It’s a very friendly club,” Rockir says. “We’re always mocking each other and insulting each other and laughing about it.”

As he points out, the benefits of playing table tennis on delaying the onset and improving symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease have been extensively researched, with one study estimating it can stave off symptoms for up to five years; the theory is that it builds up the parts of the brain most affected by the disease.

It also gets your body moving. “The more advanced you play, the more cardio it is,” he says.