Table Tennis Robot
Robot “Ping” joins aged care team
Uniting Wontama in Orange has a new and welcome resident thanks to a heart-warming initiative by two caring locals.
The new resident is a Robot, they have named “Ping” and the two locals are Shin Nakazawa and Ashcroft’s Let’s Make Better Charity. The story goes like this….
Many people, when they reach the twilight years of their life, turn to aged care facilities, like Wontama, to care for them.
Part of that care is to provide a constant stream of entertainment and activities for residents to enjoy. Also, physical and mental activity are known to help prolong the onset of dementia, so any activities that provide this type of stimulation are held and encouraged in aged care facilities.
That’s where “Ping” comes in.
“Ping” is a table tennis robot that enables people to simply stand and return hit ping pong balls at a level they are comfortable with, and they can do it alone. “Ping” is the perfect player for this.
Shin Nakazawa is a lifelong table tennis player and accredited coach, while Ian and Rochelle Ashcroft, apart from their Supa IGA business interests, also run their own Let’s Make Better Charity, a charity that supports numerous local causes including Housing Plus, Riding for Disabled, The Vinnies Food Van, just to name a few.
Shin has been working with elderly people privately for some time, in his own facility, but has always felt aged care facilities would benefit greatly from having a permanent robot set up, one that could be accessed anytime by residents, and without needing a playing partner. After gaining an enthusiastic response from Wontama for his idea, he and his friend Bob Holland approached the Ashcroft’s with a proposal for them to consider funding a robot set up at Wontama and they leaped at it. Shin and Bob will also provide Wontama residents with occasional and very basic coaching clinics for interested residents.
An ideal sport for the elderly
Lifelong Table Tennis player and coach Shin Nakazawa, says –
“Ping-pong, as it was once known, could be the key to keeping ageing minds healthy, slowing dementia, and reducing falls in the elderly, experts believe.
“It’s a different sort of activity to walking or the gym, and enables players to take shorter steps, moving side-to-side – it provides mental stimulation, and helps with balance, brain function, focus, and concentration.”
Shin refers to a number of international studies which show the game is the “best brain sport” for maintaining our ageing population’s faculties.
Semi-retired and fit as a fiddle, he is a walking advertisement for the benefits of the sport, which he has played since a child growing up in the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
He said “The sport offers a range of health, physical, and mental gains that are unsurpassed in other activities. “The enjoyment is, it’s a high-speed sport, that’s good for the reflexes and fine-motor skills.
“It’s been found that, due to these attributes, it’s the best sport to prevent dementia and mental decline.
“A modified sport known as “Aerobic Table Tennis” has been developed by British researchers for a type of activity known as “Table Tennis Therapy”, Shin explained.
He added that neurological studies have shown that the sport activates numerous and almost unprecedented decision-making skills in rapid sequence from deciding which side to serve, whether to use top or back spin, on every shot.
“From the moment you start, the brain is activated… up to five different parts of the brain, that no other sport can.
“The low-impact sport of table tennis stimulates many areas of the brain simultaneously and offers a huge range of mental benefits even for patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia.
Another benefit of the sport, he said, is that the change of direction required by players improves the ability of the elderly to remain mobile and active.
“Table tennis improves balance, thereby lowering the risk of falls — falls are a leading cause of death in the elderly.”
“It’s an ideal sport for the elderly, it’s indoors, it’s cheap, you don’t have to move around too much, and it’s great for your well-being,” Shin concluded.