Club looks to expand table tennis appeal

The ever-growing popularity of table tennis throughout Asia has
now hit the UCLA campus with the expansion of the UCLA Table Tennis
Club.

Table tennis players throughout Asia are glorified and marketed
by shoe companies, much like Nike does for such stars as Tiger
Woods and Michael Jordan in the United States. The overseas craze
that casual players refer to as “ping pong” is visible
at the John Wooden Center, as UCLA’s club continues to grow
with high expectations for the future.

Because similar table tennis clubs have previously existed on
campus, the current UCLA Table Tennis Club is dedicated to
re-introducing the campus to the sport. As participants in past
clubs came and went, the club saw different levels of enthusiasm
and attendance. The new club, with players of all levels, wants to
create a competitive environment that also provides a social outlet
for players.

The club’s desire to expand includes plans to create a
traveling squad.

The team currently competes against the likes of USC and Santa
Monica College, but has loftier ambitions for the future. One of
the club’s goals is to join the National Collegiate Table
Tennis Association. Teams such as Harvard and Stanford currently
compete on the circuit, and UCLA’s players are eager to test
their paddles against the nation’s best.

The president of the table tennis club, UCLA junior Honlim Wong,
fell in love with the sport while living in Hong Kong as a youth.
Wong, a molecular, cellular and developmental biology student, has
played the game for eight years and wants the UCLA community to
recognize the art and technique involved in the sport.

“Table tennis is a very fast, intensive sport,” Wong
said. “You have to practice a lot if you expect to play well.
I appreciate the sport because of the skill it takes to
win.”

One of Wong’s friends, UCLA junior Erik Leung, uses the
club not only to test his skills, but also as a social outlet that
provides a quality dating experience. Leung and his girlfriend,
UCLA freshman Virginia Huynh, play table tennis several times every
week. The couple has dated since high school and uses the club as a
place to interact with each other through athletic competition.

Leung, a computer science and engineering student, has played
the sport since the age of 6. Like Wong, he takes the sport very
seriously and is quick to compliment the game.

“The main purpose for us to compete at UCLA is to promote
the sport of table tennis,” Leung said. “We want people
to know that it is more than just a game that you play in your
garage for fun. It in an intense sport that involves intelligence,
speed and accuracy.”

Leung also believes that many undiscovered table tennis gems
exist at UCLA and is hopeful that they will join the club.

“Because UCLA has such a large Asian population, I believe
that many great players exist on our campus that have not yet
joined the club,” Leung said. “We hope these players
will hear about the club and join.”

Perhaps the most skilled member of the club, junior Coffer Lu
has competed against some of the best players in the world. He
recently battled United States Olympian Khoa Nguyen in the
quarterfinals of a major tournament in Fremont, Calif. Though he
lost the bout, he learned much from the match and has been eager to
share his knowledge with his peers at UCLA.

Apparently, they have a lot of knowledge to go around.

“I didn’t take table tennis seriously until I met
these guys,” Leung said. “They taught me the right way
to play.”