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In partnership with BRITDOC and Ping Pong Care Campaign, the BAT Foundation bring you a special table tennis instructional video, downloadable warm-up exercise posters, simple game ideas, and coaching tips perfect for older people, active ageing, and table tennis Alzheimer’s therapy.

BAT foundation PING PONG exercise coaching video

Warm up exercises & simple games

Balance The Ball On A Bat

While sitting or standing, hold the bat out in front of you at around waist height. Then, using the forehand side (palm facing upwards), keep the bat steady and balance the ball in the middle of the bat. How long can you balance the ball without dropping it? This is a wonderful introductory warm-up exercise that doesn’t require much space or a table… it can even be done while sitting down. It’s physically light and an ideal exercise to help with hand-eye coordination and to start improving fine motor skills, due to the concentration and small hand and wrist adjustments needed to keep the ball balanced. Click here to download this poster.

Forehand Bounce

While sitting or standing, hold the bat out in front of you at around waist height. Then, using the forehand side (palm facing upwards), gently bounce the ball up and down. Don’t bounce it too high, try to keep the ball in the middle of the bat, and try to keep the bat flat. This is the ideal step-up warm-up exercise from above, taking things to the next level. Again, this doesn’t require much space or a table… and can also be done while sitting down. This is a perfect non-strenuous exercise that will enhance your fine motor skills, increase agility, and improve concentration. Click here to download this poster.

Forehand To Backhand Bounce

While sitting or standing, hold the bat out in front of you at around waist height. Then, bounce the ball on the forehand side, followed by the backhand side. You’ll need to flip the bat over after each bounce. How many bounces can you do in a row? If you find it too hard to flip the bat after each hit, start with 2 or 3 bounces on each side to help you keep control. This is the hardest warm-up exercise, combining everything you’ve done so far (see above). Once again, it can be done with little space and no table… and can still be done while sitting down. This exercise requires more concentration, but will really help your hand-eye coordination, improve your fine motor skills, enhance agility, and increase your upper body strength. Click here to download this poster.

Target Ping Pong

Place 5 or 6 ‘targets’ on one side of the table. Targets can be anything… coffee cup, saucer, book, TV remote. Give each ‘target’ a score. You could give them all the same score, or give higher scores to targets closer to the net, which are harder to hit.

  1. Players stand or sit at the table end, away from the targets.
  2. Players take it in turns to serve balls at the targets. Everyone gets 5 balls to serve.
  3. The aim is to hit as many targets as you can when it’s your turn. Add up the score as you go.

Click here to download this poster. You will need a table for this one, but any table will work!