‘High-speed chess for the mind.’ Lexington has one club you might not know about
There are golf clubs in Lexington. And hunting clubs, and country clubs and soccer clubs and tennis clubs and bridge clubs and cycling clubs and dancing clubs and pickleball clubs.
Did you know Lexington has a table tennis club?
“It started in 1956,” said Karen Shaw, president of the Lexington Table Tennis Club. “It has been going since then.”
And still going. Thursday nights (7-10 p.m.) and Saturday mornings (10 a.m.-1 p.m.) a regular group of about 20 to 25 — membership is around 45 — pingpong players meet in the gymnasium of the Providence Christian Church to play on nine tables. The club also plays at the Tates Creek Ballroom during the fall and winter months.
Membership ranges from top-flight players to beginners, from longtime players to newbies.
“We have members that run the entire gamut from traveling and wanting to play in tournaments to literally just, ‘This is fun and it keeps me in shape.’”
Membership includes Felipe Gonzalez, who played on the Chilean national team and recently reached the round of 32 representing UK in a national championship tournament. He was also the open champion in last year’s Bluegrass State Games.
“He’s far and away our most accomplished player,” Shaw said. “But we have probably five or six players who are rated about 1800, which is very advanced. They like to play tournaments where they actually get money. Their tables are competitive.”
Other tables are more recreational. Shaw said she would like to have more training tables in the club’s future.
A one-year membership costs $225. A three-month membership is $65. The daily fee is $10. First-time walk-ins can play for free.
“I’ve been in the club probably since my college days at UK,” said Joe Bowsher, a retired PE teacher in Fayette County who is a past president of the club. “I was playing tennis on the courts at Blanding Tower and I went in to get a drink and there were all these tables with these guys playing. But they were playing a different game than I’d seen, and I’ve been addicted ever since.”
Babak Fakharpour has been playing table tennis since the late ‘80s and is a veteran of the Lexington club who has helped organize tournaments.
“I played tennis before and in college,” he said. “Playing basketball with friends, your body doesn’t hold up to those. (Table tennis) it’s not only physical, you have to concentrate on every point. It’s good aerobic exercise and it’s really fun.”
It can also be a social event, said Fakharpour, who has made friends from traveling to tournaments.
“You can go about anywhere in the world and find a table,” Bowsher said.
Marco Budny hadn’t played table tennis in 45 years when he joined the club three years ago.
“I needed to get back into some exercise after knee replacements,” he said. “I enjoyed playing table tennis in college and found this place and it’s been wonderful ever since.“
How did Shaw get involved?
“I first started playing table tennis at UK when I was there, on the club team,” said Shaw, who is originally from Ohio. “Then I took a break during COVID and was a stay-at-home mom. I came back in 2021.”
She points to both the social and physical benefits.
“My husband and I get in about 15,000 steps in a training session,” Shaw said. “We have a lot of fun and we don’t really realize we’re getting that much exercise.”
“I don’t know if you know this, but they considered this the fastest indoor sport in the world,” Bowsher said. “When they’re at the table, they’re 9 feet away, and when he kills one or she kills it, it’s maybe 60, 70 miles an hour.”
Bowsher said he considers table tennis a lifetime sport.
“We’ve had guys up in the 80s and 90s that were still playing really good levels of table tennis,” he said.
There has also been research that suggest table tennis can be an excellent anti-Alzheimer activity.
“It triggers different parts of the brain,” Bowsher said. “It’s like high-speed chess for the mind.”
Right now, the Lexington club is interested in drawing younger players.
“We have a few children that have recently started,” Shaw said, “which is really awesome because you they can get really good, really fast. That’s part of why I wanted to be president, I wanted to make it more welcoming for younger players because it was an older demographic for quite awhile.”
First-time players are matched up against Shaw or another officer to get a feel for his or her level of skill.
“They can give us an idea of what they’re wanting,” Shaw said. “If you’re wanting to play people your level, we can say these (players) would be good for you. Then we do a club tournament this year where its completely open and round-robin.”
The club will play host to its first sanctioned USA Table Tennis Kentucky State and OPEN Championships on Sept. 27 in Nicholasville.
“It’s exciting that we have a facility that can accommodate a sanctioned tournament,” Shaw said. “We’re really looking forward to that.”
