Are Ping Pong Players Better Than The Rest Of Us? Here’s What The Research Says.

Whether you call it table tennis or ping pong, you’re probably familiar with the basics of the game. Two players grab their paddles and try to keep a small ball in play on a tabletop surface that resembles a miniaturized tennis court.

But if you’ve ever gone up against a skilled player, you know the game is deceptively simple. And mastering it might provide quite a bit more than just bragging rights.

The brain game

A new study published in Brain Research highlights the cognitive changes that players undergo while learning the ins and outs of this fast-paced game. Table tennis requires quick decision-making and laser-like focus, and growth in the respective regions of the brain can be seen in the world’s most elite players.

Researchers compared brain scans of 20 ping pong pros with a group of college students who hadn’t trained for the game but otherwise had similar attributes.

The results were pretty conclusive, with the skilled players showing evidence of:

• Enhanced brain structure and function
• Increased neuron communication
• Better performance in attention-related tasks

While this was a limited study and correlation doesn’t always signal causation, this research seems to suggest that the brain’s white matter improves as a person becomes better at ping pong.

Should you pick up a paddle?

If you enjoy the challenging fun of this game, then by all means you should play to your heart’s content. But if you’re doing it just for the brain benefits, it’s worth noting that this is just one study.

But the researchers are interested in conducting even more robust testing to see if they can replicate these early results, specifically that the game’s “high demand for visual attention and information processing speed” leads to “plastic changes in white matter structure and functional connectivity in the brain.”

Chris Agee June 29th, 2024

Share this story: