Sports in Schwabhausen: Parkinson’s patients play table tennis – Dachau

The impetus came last year on vacation in Italy. Martin Prochaska-Metz saw a table tennis table and asked himself: “What else is there?” Before he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease eight years ago, the former puppeteer only played table tennis occasionally. His wife Karin Metz, on the other hand, played for a time in the second Bundesliga in the Rhineland and later in the women’s team in Schwabhausen. As it turned out, there was still a lot going on with the record. Some time later, when Prochaska-Metz read an article about the World Championships for Parkinson’s patients in table tennis, the idea was born: something like this could also be done in his home town of Schwabhausen.

Parkinson’s disease affects around 400,000 people in Germany. It is a brain disease that can cause symptoms such as tremor, i.e. severe and uncontrolled shaking, but also immobility or stiffness. While the disease is not fatal, it is not curable either; however, it can be treated and there are various therapies. In addition to medication, exercise is particularly important for Parkinson’s patients. It has long been assumed that table tennis can help those affected against symptoms, because in the sport you have to move in all possible directions, there are fast rallies and thus hand-eye coordination and reflexes are trained. As early as 2017, the composer Nenad Bach founded the organization “PingPongParkinson USA” in New York – himself diagnosed with Parkinson’s, the musician found out that table tennis helped against his symptoms and even enabled him to play instruments again.

Across Germany, around 800 people with Parkinson’s play table tennis in a club

In 2020, a Japanese study by the University of Fukuoka was able to confirm the connection between ping-pong and symptom relief in Parkinson’s disease in a small investigation. Nine patients were accompanied playing table tennis for six months and their symptoms were documented. At the end it could be stated that the participants improved, for example, in speaking and writing. Table tennis could improve “activities of daily living and motor symptoms,” the study states.

Martin Prochaska-Metz is not the first in Bavaria to come across PingPongParkinson, or “PPP” for short. The German branch of the organization, the association PingPongParkinson Germany, has existed since 2020. Jürgen Zender is the association’s regional manager for Upper Bavaria. In Bavaria alone there are already around 100 members, as he emphasizes, and between 700 and 800 throughout Germany. PPP helps players to find suitable sports clubs.

Martin Prochaska-Metz wasted no time after discovering PPP: he gave the impetus to establish a table tennis department at TSV Schwabhausen for people with Parkinson’s. Those involved are very grateful for the quick cooperation – it is a “stroke of luck” that TSV Schwabhausen takes them on, a separate department within the sports club is already being planned.

Karl Walter, initiator and head of the self-help group Parkinsontreff Karlsfeld-Dachau-Munich North, is also very impressed by the idea that it is a “new dimension of therapy”. Walter is grateful to TSV Schwabhausen; Parkinson’s tends to be neglected in society and the establishment of PPP in TSV is a “great concession by the tennis club”.

Even before the summer holidays, the new PPP group was able to meet a few times in the Jahnhalle of TSV Schwabhausen. The first official training session then took place on Thursday, September 22nd. From now on we meet weekly on Thursdays from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the Jahnhalle and play table tennis together against Parkinson’s.

Interested parties can get information from TSV Schwabhausen, from Karl Walter from the Parkinson’s group at [email protected] or from Martin Prochaska-Metz at [email protected].

source site