Speaking at the handover ceremony, Yuvraj Gill, founder of Table Zen, said he was passionate about the sport, which he credited with improving his mental health and academic performance. “So, for me, I fell in love with table tennis maybe when I was seven or eight years old.
The spin of the ball, swinging the paddle, the competitive spirit that it fosters was addictive for me.
And it not only improved my physical coordination, my physical health, my grades in school, but also it improved my mental health,” he said. “I became more focused.
I learned discipline.
I learned hard work. ”Gill cited research showing the game’s benefits for students’ mental health and academic performance. “Recently, a few years ago, I read a study that table tennis is super, super important and can benefit mental health for students all around the world.
And it was an international study.
And it just showed how students’ grades went up because of table tennis and their mental health went up,” he said.
Gill added that Table Zen has been setting up clubs globally. “And it’s a nonprofit organization based in the United States.
And what we do is we create table tennis clubs all across the world.
We’re in India, we’re in Africa, we’re in the United States. “And our goal is to improve mental and physical health through this beautiful sport.
Zimbabwe is a land full of opportunity.
And there is so much potential here. “And we see unfortunately, in a lot of these streets, especially in the high-density areas, there is a lot of drug abuse.
And, you know, that drug abuse is impacting the lives of children.
And table tennis, we see, is a way to fight that drug abuse,” he said. “And to ensure that the beautiful families and the beautiful people of Zimbabwe are able to grow past that.
Idleness is what causes that.
And if we’re able to introduce a sport that defeats that idleness, and it gives students purpose. ”Trinity Sports CEO Fungai Tanhara said she hopes to reignite interest in the sport, especially among women, and noted that the donated equipment was worth more than US$6,000. “It was unexpected, I’ll be very honest.
But they came in and they came through.
And I’m so, so grateful because the initiative that I’d already started before they came in was to have ladies play table tennis, and also this fight against drugs, which I’d already started with Toto.
And when this guy said they’re coming in, we saw an opportunity to go to the high-density areas and to go to those places where there’s issues with drug abuse.
So I am very grateful for this donation.
Because when you look at the, it’s almost more than $6,000 for the donation that they’ve given us, because they’ve taken very expensive.
If you look at the nets, they are butterfly nets, which are top grade.
The bats, they are stag, which are also top best.
They’ve already got live rubbers.
The balls are also three-star balls.
The score balls are also the score balls that are being used in the world championships.
And the tables, unfortunately, they couldn’t bring the tables from stag, but we had to make them locally.
And for me, it’s also creating employment for the people here, because the table tennis people made the table that we’re donating.
So I’m very, very appreciative and I’m very grateful for this,” Tanhara said.
Mental health champion Tonderai Maphosa praised the initiative, saying it would benefit youth in multiple ways. “So, I’d like to thank Trinity Sports and Table Zen for coming into the communities and donating these tables because sport actually combats the effects of drug abuse on many, many levels.
It combats the causes, it combats the effects as well on a physical level, economic level, social level, and mental level,” he said. “What Table Zen have done in partnership with Trinity is to create a space that allows people to spend their idle time doing something that is productive.
What is killing a lot of the youth right now is a lot of idle time.
I had the experience of being in Budiriro today and at Queen Elizabeth and as we were leaving, the young men said, guys, could we leave the tables on here so that we play some more. ”Zimbabwe Table Tennis Union president Noah Ferenando said the sport was no longer reserved for elite communities. “This sport, in the yesteryears, used to be viewed as an elitist sport, where we are looking at the financial implication of you to play.
But over the years, we have tried to simplify the game such that even a child who’s coming from Bonda Makara in Mutoko can also play as good as a student who’s coming from Gateway High School or from St.
There’s no separation in terms of background and in terms of class,” he said. “Right now, the kids that are actually doing well in table tennis are coming from those poor and challenging backgrounds.
So your background or where you come from cannot limit you. ”Present at the donation included benefitting schools, officials from Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC) and the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC).
Source: HealthTimes
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Stay informed and connected — reach us at admin@allzimnews. com.
