Ping Pong Preview

The table tennis team at AISG works hard for a shot at doing well at APAC. The team leaves our Science Park campus when after-school activities begin, arrives almost an hour later at a table tennis practice venue on Ersha island, then practices until 6.

They had their first official practice this Monday. Freshman Jami R. is one of the only girls on the team and has enjoyed table tennis so far. “I play [table tennis] outside of school and just wanted to try out because I haven’t tried out for any of the other sports so far,” she explains. A major change in this year’s season is the choice to hire table tennis coaches that are not part of AISG’s official faculty or staff. Jami thinks that this was a good decision because the coaches are professional and good at teaching. There is the issue of a language barrier, but she says that practice worked out with the help of few translators.

Mr. Padden is the AISG chaperone for the table tennis team. He played table tennis when he was younger, but hasn’t played properly in a long time. According to him, the table tennis APAC trip will be at the end of January, before the Chinese New Year break. This year, APAC table tennis will be hosted in Beijing.

“I’m not joining table tennis for the sake of CAS or college, but for the sake of enjoying myself at the APAC tournament,” senior Boon Yang K. said. He had to compromise and manage his commitments to robotics in order to play on the team, because this is a sport that means a lot to him. Boon Yang has been on the AISG table tennis team since it started in the 2016-17 school year. For him, this season will be a personal challenge to balance IB workload with sports. As the only remaining player from the previous year’s 6-player APAC roster, he hopes, with team spirit, to continue the hard work of last year’s team.

We hope that the players’ commitment to the rigorous practices will pay off when APAC comes around. Good luck, Rams!