Pinging the Pong in PE

This year at Springville Junior High School the PE classes added a new unit. Ping pong! Coach Parker, the boys PE teacher at SJHS, teaches the ping pong unit. According to Coach Parker, he loves the game and he thought that the students would like it too, and so far most have. Taylor Sweeten, a ninth grader at SJHS, said, “It was really fun, but it was too short.” Taylor wishes they could have played ping pong for longer. Coach Parker likes ping pong and has fun teaching it. He said, “I just teach the basics, grip, rules, serving, doubles strategy. We do little demos, short drills, and lots of games!”

Many of the students enjoyed learning to play ping pong. Anna Gurney, a ninth grader from SJHS, said, “Ping pong was really fun. It gave me an opportunity to learn how to play the game,” The ping pong unit started first semester when the PE students move indoors for the winter before basketball. Then it starts in the second semester before the PE students go back outside for the spring. Ally Smith, a ninth grader at SJHS, said, “I liked ping pong because it was a fun experience, and I had a lot of fun playing it” For some students this unit was a new experience. According to Tyler Wright, a ninth grader at SJHS, he had never played ping pong and he had an awesome time learning how and playing ping pong. Students had fun with this unit and thought it was a good unit for PE.

The ping pong unit is coed. Coach Parker takes some of the girls in PE and sends some of his boys to Mrs. Anderson, the girls PE teacher. Then the students pair up into groups of two and face different groups of students in a bracket. How the brackets work is if a group wins a round that group gets to move up to one of the higher tables and the group that loses goes to one of the lower tables. All the students are trying to get to the highest table. Many of the students think that ping pong is fun and that the school should continue playing.