BURLINGAME – Eleven years after doctors told his family they weren't sure he would survive an inoperable brain tumor, 16-year-old Bosman Botha maneuvers around a ping-pong table like an old pro.
His every day training often includes playing volleyball with four-time Olympian Lily Zhang and other Olympic stars, while being coached by Park Ji-Hyun, the previous head coach of the celebrated South Korean women's national team.
He glides fluidly backward and forward. His forehand is overwhelming. His backhand is solid and nearly indestructible. His smile is relentless.
“I don't think many people know about it,” he said of his tumor. “Now is a good time to tell people.”
Table tennis is back within the national highlight after Zhang, who grew up in Palo Alto, and Kanak Jha of Milpitas each advanced to the round of 16 on the Summer Olympics in Paris, the longest any American has ever advanced within the Olympic competition, which is frequently dominated by athletes from China, Japan and Korea.
But as researchers learn more concerning the effects of table tennis on improving neuromotor function, it’s evolving into greater than only a sport—it has develop into a preferred recreational activity for individuals with brain injuries.
“It improves their motor skills and mental acuity,” said Maureen McComsey, co-founder of the nonprofit Ping Pong for Good. “It provides cognitive stimulation in a low-impact physical way. It helps maintain mobility and balance. And then there are the magical ingredients of social interactions that help boost mental health and overall well-being.”
Table tennis could have saved Botha’s life.
At age five, his motor skills began to say no. After countless visits to the doctor that yielded no results, his parents requested a brain scan. They were diagnosed with a tumor. Fluid was accumulating. And for the reason that growth was in his midbrain stem, there was no strategy to remove the tumor, said his mother, Huifan Chan. Instead, doctors created a strategy to drain the fluid and relieve the pressure.
“Then he lost motor control,” she said. “He basically had to learn how to walk, how to sit, how to hold a pen, how to eat.”
Botha was once an lively child, but then he began to retreat into sedentary activities. Instead of climbing across the playground, he would stand off to the side and skim a book.
“I said, 'Why aren't you playing?'” Chan said. “I later learned that he did that because the kids were making fun of him. He didn't want to move. And that led to him not fully recovering.”
“That was the most painful thing a mother could ever hear.”
Botha's parents encouraged him to try every sport conceivable and pushed him to maneuver his body within the hope that he would regain control of his muscles.
Finally, one sport stuck: table tennis.
“He realized he needed more physical training to get good at it,” Chan said. “It didn't become a struggle with physical therapy. He just enjoyed it.”
Soon his motor skills returned to normal and he now not withdrew socially, but as a substitute made friends through table tennis.
“He loves doubles,” his mother said. “He likes the camaraderie.”
At that point, Botha didn’t learn about his tumor. His parents and doctors felt it may very well be traumatic to elucidate it to a young child, in order that they decided to maintain it a secret.
But when he was 14, the tumor had grown so large that something needed to be done. The doctors ordered a biopsy. That's when he discovered.
“When they did a biopsy, he lost control of his left side,” Chan said. “The doctor said if he wanted to regain full control, he would have to do it within two months. It was the love of the sport that got him through it.”
When asked what motivates him, Botha smiled and said: “I don't like to lose. Nobody likes to lose.”
With the assistance of table tennis, Botha regained control.
The research on the positive effects of playing table tennis is remarkable for individuals with Parkinson's, dementia, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, autism, ADHD, anyone recovering from a stroke, and anyone attempting to maintain their brain as they age.
At Ping Pong for Good, McComsey helped assemble a team of neuroscientists and physical therapists to develop a science-based program for Parkinson's patients.
“Many say it relieves their symptoms,” she said. “One man came to us with his walker and left without it because he felt so good.”
A study accomplished in Japan in 2020 showed that Parkinson's patients experienced significant improvements in speech, handwriting, dressing, getting away from bed and walking after each three and 6 months of standard table tennis playing.
Research within the United Kingdom has found that the athletes had a thickening of the cerebral cortex – the a part of the brain answerable for complex pondering – which can slow the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
In Korea, a study of ladies aged 60 and over found that table tennis improved cognitive function greater than dancing, walking, gymnastics or strength training.
At the Olympic Games in Paris, 61-year-old Luxembourger Ni Xia Lian defeated 31-year-old Turkish Sibel Altinkaya. blew kisses to the group after her victoryShe made it to the round of 32, where she was eliminated by world no 1 Sun Yingsha.
“It's rare that you can play a sport at 85 or older and feel like you can be seriously competitive,” McComsey said.
In Burlingame, the game meant a lot to Chan that she decided to construct a 30,000-square-foot training center called 888 Table Tennis, which opened in 2020.
There, trainers have teamed up with Ping Pong for Good to pilot anti-aging programs and a flagship program specifically developed for Parkinson's patients.
The other a part of the training facility is used because the official training center for the US national team.
One team member, Nandan Naresh, moved from Illinois to coach at 888. At last 12 months’s US Open, he played doubles with Botha, and so they won silver within the U-17 competition.
This summer, Botha travelled to Paris to cheer on his table tennis teammates on the Olympic Games.
“I hope to qualify for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles,” said Botha, who attends Crystal Springs Upland.
He said he has learned to simply accept the uncertainty that comes with living with a brain tumor.
“I can't change it, so I shouldn't waste my energy thinking about it,” he said. “I should just think about what I have to do to win.”
1 from 6
Originally published:
image credit : www.mercurynews.com