A competition for people with Parkinson’s in Manchester has accepted an international element with three Japanese players traveling to participate.
Their presence at the Parkysmash! Event is a mutual visit after a delegation of English players with Parkinson’s went to Japan earlier this year.
Parkysmash! Is on the Great Northern Ping Hub in Manchester on Sunday 7 September and there are still rooms available.
It is a day of table tennis for anyone who lives with Parkinson’s, whether you are already playing and participating in a friendly tournament, or you would like to try table tennis outside the competition.
Click here To book a place by Friday, August 29.
The Parkysmash! Tournament is open for 30 players, with more spaces available for those who just want to try table tennis. There are at least 12 places for women, and at least 12 for men and if there are enough people, the tournament will include ladies’ snonks, men’s singles and open doubles.
If you want to play in the doubles, you will be linked to someone on the day. Participate in Parkysmash! Is free!
Parkyping! In the land of the rising sun
The three Japanese table tennis players, each with Parkinson’s, visits as part of Japan Week Manchester, but it is also a mutual visit after club players from Manchester and Yorkshire Japan visited to share experience about table tennis groups for people with Parkinson’s.
Below, Parkypes! Co-founder Rob Cook van Leeds tells the story of the trip.
When I received an invitation to be part of a delegation to Japan, it is fair to say that I was Goobsmacked! Living with Parkinson’s I knew that such a journey could be stressful and tiring, but there was no way in which I would reject such an exciting chance. George Chan, Van Harrogate, who was also invited, had a similar response.
Playing table tennis is recognized as one of the best ways for people with Parkinson’s to slow down the progress of the condition. George and I have set up both groups, respectively in Harrogate and Leeds, for people who live with Parkinson’s.
We also played with Japanese double partners in international championships: George with Hiromichi Kawai (Hiro) during the Scottish International Open from last year, and I with Mayumi Kanie at the world championships of Pingpongparkins in 2022, 23 and 24.
The journey was organized by Harry Au, who wants to make his club – Altrincham Table Tennis Social Group – Open for people with Parkinson’s and club coach Peggy Poon. The journey was financed by De Groot -Britain Sasakawa Foundation.
George and I, like so many people with Parkinson’s, often deal with serious fear. The short notification, the urgent need to book our own flights and accommodation and the uncertain travel route, pushed hard on those buttons. We both came through that period with the support of our partners, respectively Janine and Kerry, who also came to Japan, with Peggy’s partner Sam who traveled on the same basis.
It was a long time since I had done a long -distance flight, and I didn’t know how the Parkinson’s model would deal with myself, especially if I got the terrible Restless legs syndrome (One of the 40+ of the Plank symptoms that are available to people with Parkinson’s). Although I don’t sleep (there is another one!) I survived the trip more or less intact.
Kerry and I went directly to Nagoya, a large city about 230 miles west of Tokyo. We looked forward to relaxing on the famous Shinkansen (Bullet Train), for which we had booked chairs and luggage space.
We congratulated ourselves with Haneda Airport coming to the right train station, where we felt at home: hordes of people were staring around at departure plates, who told about massive delays due to record -breaking snow (presumably of the wrong kind!). Faced with a snowstorm of uncertainty, we squeezed in the first possible train, stood in the aisle with our luggage all the way to Nagoya, so that we are hardly able to get the promised iconic view of Mount Fuji.
The next morning we met my mixed double partner, our friend Mayumi. She had organized a Parkinson’s table tennis session in the neighboring Ichinomiya, where the two groups are combined in which she is involved. There were about 25 people who all wanted to play me and Kerry!
After a well-organized series of rotations, we participated in a related bingo session, a quiz, and I did a Q&A. Despite the obvious cultural differences, it all felt very familiar: strong mixed capacity, mixed levels of Parkinson’s, and nobody panicked when a few people fell while playing. I thought it was great.
We were very grateful to Kanie-San for organizing it, including the use of microphones and a brilliant voluntary interpreter. It was outside the official program and really added value to the trip. We left smooth boxes with cookies, gifts from individual members of the groups.
The next day we took a more comfortable shinkansen to the old capital, Kyoto, where Hiromi Ando (another member of the Japanese team) lives. We don’t know Hiromi well, but she and her husband spent the day with us to various fascinating temples and historic neighborhoods.
Once in our hotel in Tokyo, we met for the first time as a whole group Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium (Table tennis location for the Olympic Games in Tokyo). There we met Izuku-San, organizer of Japan Week, who is held somewhere in the world every year. In September It will be held in ManchesterThe first time in the UK for about 20 years.
Harry wanted table tennis to be characterized during the week, especially with regard to Parkinson’s that. Although the time with Izuku-San was not planned for that long, the reaction was very positive. We also had a briefing from Harry about what would happen in the next three days.
We spent a day visiting a series of projects in Fujisawa (a small city about 50 km southwest of Tokyo). It was a very early start, so Kerry and I were needed at the breakfast room of the 25th floor when it was opened at 6.30 am!
The day was led by Koji Nagabuchi, chairman of the Japanese table tennis therapy association. We visited a senior salon, Music of Mind (a cafe staffed by people with learning disabilities) and Ping Pong Day Happy Shibuya.
We were so warmly greeted everywhere and applauded George and I were introduced as medal winners on Pingpongparkinson world championships. Among other things, we participated in a game of ‘Handbell Table Tennis Volleyball’, designed for visually disabled people. Was around a table tennis table, a team on each side, we used Handbells to do a ball, filled with things that rattle, under an elevated net. The goal was to violate the defense of the opposition. Although not exactly table tennis, it was very nice!
There was also table tennis, as we know it, with people who use the services, and staff and volunteers, as well as table tennis with a variety of unusual bats, including a frying pan, a piece of bamboo, a long can with rubbers on the outside, which you placed your arm directly, and we looked at people who played two balls, and two bats each.
Players include a very competitive woman of 92 years and a voluntary coach at Parkinson’s. It was all very innovative, inspiring work.
Music as therapy was also on the agenda, as a therapeutic and social tool.
In Tokyo we had tourists one day, when Mayumi joined Nagoya again. We spent a long time in a table tennis store. There was a table where you could try rubbers and knives, and long rows of what looked like racks and racks of vinyl sheets! But look again, and we realized that they were rubbers!
The last day of our journey looked exciting – and complicated! We would play in an ‘England V Japan match’ in the basement of the worldwide Vlinder head office and then to the airport on the other side of Tokyo, via a Karaoke session. Would we have time to shower, change before we board a flight? Would we be forced to sing?
It was a fantastic location for table tennis, with a beautiful wooden floor, great lighting and a high ceiling. Our extremely diverse ‘England’ team played matches, including Singles and Doubles, against three different Japanese teams, consisting of people with Parkinson’s.
Quite surprising, we won all our competitions and our hosts were very positive about our table tennis. We have noticed that Japanese players always check each other’s bats before they play. (Players at my level in Leeds, don’t do this). And they always decide who serves with a fast ‘stone, paper, scissors’! The event ended with speeches and an exchange of gifts.
We were not forced to do Karaoke, but Kerry and I took the opportunity to participate in the local cultural characteristic. It felt the right thing to do to finish the journey.
We had a fantastic, fascinating time in Japan, with good food and sights. But what it made for me was to spend time with Japanese people, especially playing table tennis. In my club life in Leeds, most people who have not met yet will only talk to each other after to play. It was exactly the same in Japan.
Our beautiful sport is such a good tool and universal introductory language, for the breaking of national and social barriers.
Much thanks to: Harry and Peggy from Altrincham Table Tennis Social Group for organizing at the UK end; Kawai-San, Kanie-San and Nagabuchi-San for organizing events in Japan; Table tennis England for providing kit, and badges and pens for gifts, and De Groot -Britain Sasakawa Foundation To finance the trip.
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