VIDEO. Ping pong to fight Parkinson’s disease

According to Virgile Eymard, ping parkinson coach at ACBB Boulogne-Billancourt, “ping-pong will help restore the nerve connections between the brain, spinal cord and limbs that have been lost.” He explains that “Parkinson’s disease erodes these connections between the brain and spinal cord.”

Patricia, a player, lists the benefits of ping pong: “It creates a link between people with disabilities and others. It is a transgenerational sport which maintains brain activity with tactics and counting points. It is beneficial in relation to aging or deterioration of the brain like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. It works on spatio-temporal orientation, muscles and joints without too much constraints. And it is a physical activity which reduces cardiovascular risks and lowers blood pressure.

For Rémy, “ping-pong is a fight against stiffness.” He feels “much more ease in his body” when he plays. After two months without practicing, he had “hard to write, hard to articulate.” “Every morning, it takes me half an hour to find my forehand,” explains Rémy, who was not a table tennis player before learning of his illness. Ping pong allowed him to “get out of this slump” and fight against symptoms like tremors, slowness and pain.

Rémy admits to being “a little hidden from this illness” at first. “We completely fear the look of others, we feel distorted.” But ping pong helped him cope with his condition, as his wife Camille points out: “When he started wanting to play, the illness became official, and that allowed him to cope better with it.”