Table tennis comes to mainstream

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007

Table tennis comes to mainstream

Club JOOLA opens in Rockville this Saturday

by Jennifer Beekman | Staff Writer

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According to Germantown resident and USA Table Tennis Hall of Famer Larry Hodges, 47, who has written over 1,000 articles and two books about the sport, only soccer is played more worldwide than table tennis. That, of course, is not the case in the United States, where it is completely overshadowed by football, basketball, baseball, golf and even regular tennis.

But Hodges, a professional table tennis player since the mid-1980s who reached as high as No. 18 in the country, has made it his mission to change that. And it starts Saturday at 2 p.m. with the grand opening of Club JOOLA in Rockville.

Club JOOLA, sponsored by the German-based table tennis equipment manufacturer, will be a full-time table tennis center with leagues, an extensive junior training program, private and group coaching for all levels as well as monthly $1,000 tournaments. Club JOOLA also features the largest table tennis pro shop in Maryland.

Saturday’s event will feature exhibitions by two of the club’s coaches, U.S. National Team member and Pan-Am bronze medalist Han Xiao, 20 of Germantown, and former U.S. National Collegiate men’s singles and doubles team champion Sean Loner an, 32 of Derwood, both of whom are training for Olympic Trials in January, Saturday’s event will also have raffles, free giveaways and the open play.

Hodges, who co-founded the Maryland Table Tennis Center in Germantown in 1991 and launched one of the largest and most successful junior programs in Maryland and the country, plans to take Club JOOLA nationwide. He’s already in negotiations in Philadelphia, Albuquerque and Ft. Lauderdale.

‘‘I’m hoping we’ll be like the next Starbucks, popping up all over the country,” Hodges said.

Though table tennis isn’t a mainstream sport in this country, as a whole, Maryland is a table tennis hotbed and has been since the early 1990s. Junior players from Maryland have won more gold medals at junior nationals and junior Olympics than the next five states combined.

Still, there are only six registered table tennis clubs in the entire state. There are only 300 registered clubs in the country, with only 7,000 club players. Germany boasts 9,569 clubs with about 600,000 club players.

Those are the types of numbers Hodges would like to see in the United States. It would certainly help table tennis professionals in this country. There are opportunities to pursue the sport at a professional level here but it’s not financially adequate.

‘‘This is a sport that anyone can play at any age and any level,” Hodges said. ‘‘A lot of people think, ‘Oh, it’s ping pong, you just pat the ball back and forth over the net.’ But the ball travels very fast and the good players swing hard. You have to be in position. You’re constantly moving. It’s very grueling. I want to do everything I can to popularize it.”