Skill: Whatever you do, don't call it ping-pong
by Deborah Nobes
for CBC Sports Online

Intensity is written on the faces of athletes squaring off for medals on 10 blue tables set up in a large Bathurst gym.

They dash and turn at lightning speed, swinging their racquets - don't call them ping-pong paddles - at a tiny plastic ball traveling toward them at upwards of 100 kilometres an hour.

"You have to be as precise as an archer, and with the speed and agility of a hockey goaltender," says New Brunswick's Canada Games coach Paul Volpe, who is on a personal mission to bring the sport of table tennis the respect he believes it deserves.

"A lot of people say 'it's not a sport, you don't sweat and you don't get injured.' But you do all of those things. Because this sport is so fast - you have to assess the spin, the speed, the placement of the ball and make a reaction to it. It's a very unique sport.'"

Believe it or not, table tennis is one of the most widely played sports on the planet. It's a religion in China, where it is the national sport and a billion people play it on cement tables, in public parks and in giant tournaments attracting tens of thousands of spectators ever year. Top players in Europe and Asia earn more than a million dollars annually.

Here in Canada, table tennis players can only dream of that kind of recognition. To the ire of serious players, most Canadians refer to the game as "ping-pong." It is played in suburban basements and dusty school classrooms in schools where the more glamourous sports scoop up the best athletes and the most financial support. Table tennis is often kicked aside by hockey, volleyball and basketball, competing for players and coaches, even fighting for physical space to play.

"We're left in the basements, because there is no infrastructure," says Volpe.

Players and coaches here see the 2003 Canada Winter Games as a chance to bring the game into the light, where more than 100 of the country's most talented young table tennis players are vying for medals in team and individual events in two age groups. For the first time in 12 years, all 10 provinces have fielded teams.

Bathurst Grade 9 student Remi Bernard, 15, is officiating at this event, and says it takes lots of skill and practice to be a successful player. Physical brawn doesn't have much to do with winning, because speed and strategy are keys to victory.

"You need to practice really hard and you need to have good hands," he says.

Indeed, the best players in the event are the fastest, and most are small for their age. Quebec player Brian Michaud is just 12 and can barely see over the table, but managed to lead his team in drubbing their Ontario rivals, and play for gold against British Columbia.

Michaud, from Rimouski, picked up a racquet when he was eight years old and was encouraged by his dad, Michel, a former competitive player himself, to stick with it.

"He practices all the time and he's very good," the older Michaud says, beaming beneath a large handlebar moustache. "I think he's a little nervous but he's doing just fine."

Brian is a wonder to watch. He plays more than two metres back from the table, whacking the ball hard to keep his opponents back on their heels.

There is a certain geek chic to the game - girls play with blue streaked hair pulled into ponytails and most players wear glasses. It is an intense mental exercise, with confidence and intimidation playing an equal role to skill and technique. In fact, unlike other athletes at the games, table tennis is often the player's only sport, added onto a list of hobbies that include piano, clarinet, and Chinese cultural dancing.

Not to say they don't take it seriously. Players communicate with their teammates through secret hand signals under the table. When players win, they barely smile. Instead they calmly walk around the table to shake the loser's hand. It might be a sign of typical teenaged angst, but a lost match can reduce a player to tears.

In this event, Quebec and British Columbia play for gold, and Alberta and Ontario for bronze. The players who win can aspire to Canada's national team, traveling the world in tournaments, including the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. If they get really good, ranking among the top 20 players in the world, they could have careers in Europe or Asia, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

For now, though, most coaches are happy the sport and its athletes are getting some attention at the Canada Games. New Brunswick's Paul Volpe is satisfied with his team's ninth-place finish - thrilled he was able to field a team at all.

"Everybody has played ping-pong in a basement," he says. "And this allows them to see what the real sport is all about. If they watch real table tennis, they'll see a lot of speed, agility and precision. I think that's what gets people interested. Everybody has played the game in somebody's basement somewhere, and this helps them understand how interesting the sport really is."