By Debbie Gardner
 |
|
The Idellolio group enjoys a session of play on the tables at Zing! |
Noel Abbott kept the table tennis ball airborne with skilled taps from his upturned paddle, the soft sound of the ball striking the rubber surface tattooing out a pleasing, almost soothing rhythm.
“You can’t hear that sound without feeling happy,” Abbott explained, smiling.
That demonstration of precise ball handling skills was just a part of Prime’s recent visit to Zing! the table tennis center that the fit, 75-year-old owns and operates in Easthampton’s Keystone Building, a renovated former factory
located on Pleasant Street.
Prime traveled to Zing! in early December to learn what inspired
Abbott to open, until recently, the Northeast’s largest indoor table tennis facility. And we wanted to know why he chose to launch such a unique business at an age when most people are thinking about retiring.
“I didn’t open Zing! to open a place for people just to play table
tennis,” Abbott explained as we sat in the lounge of the 3,800 sq. ft. facility, looking out across the double row of German-made, professional-level tables. “I opened it to be a springboard and a foundation for my work in the world…and I’ll say it unapologetically, my soul’s work in the world.
“What I’m about is honoring people, welcoming people, inspiring people,” he said.
A flash of inspiration
For Abbott, the inspiration for his “soul’s work” appeared after a Thanksgiving dinner with his now-wife’s 18-member family in 2014.
“We went downstairs after dinner, and in my sister-in-law’s basement was a table-tennis table,” he said, sharing how the play brought back memories of the table that had been on his patio as a child.
“Something in me ignited,” he said. “I had just moved from Rowe – where I had just finished seven years of public service as chair of the select board and chair of other boards – to be closer to the Valley, and I was looking for something new.” That “something” turned out to be right there, in that basement. And it was table tennis.
“It all happened like a flash,” he continued. “I had a moment – I was looking for a business to get into, a start-up, and from that moment I got lit up playing table tennis, I went full-steam.”
A former professional tennis instructor and corporate organizational consultant, Abbott incorporated his new business concept almost immediately, and traveled to North Carolina to initially train as a certified table tennis coach – he’s now also a level one certified coach by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), a state-level coach with
the USA Table Tennis Association (USATT), is Safe Sport certified by the U. S. Olympic Committee and is a certified table tennis umpire with USATT.
After completing that initial coaches’ training in North Carolina, he got in touch with a business that imported tournament-quality table tennis tables. When he couldn’t make arrangements quickly enough to fit his business plan, he contacted Donic, the German manufacturer of tournament-quality tables.
“I wrote to them directly [and became] the second importer of tables in the U.S., “ Abbott said.
He was also the second tenant to contact for a space in a new mixed use business facility opening up in the Keystone building. “The space was ugly,” Abbott said, gesturing at the now sleek facility with strategically painted blue and beige walls and a polished wood floor. “I capitalized everything to get a lower rent, and was able to get a prime spot,” directly across from the main entrance. Abbott said he initially set up just two tables in an adjacent building to get Zing! up and running shortly after incorporating. “It took me a year to develop this,” Abbott said of his current center. “I planned to open by December of 2015, but didn’t open until the heat of summer [in 2016], it was like, an eight-month delay.”
Zing! recently celebrated its third anniversary at Keystone. “I have a five-year lease, with two more five-year options,” Abbott said, smiling.
A sport for any age
“Table tennis is something you can play from age 9 to 95,” Abbot said of the sport that’s now the main focus of his life. “As people age, this is the one sport they can play with low impact, even less than pickleball.”
Despite the simplicity of the game – “anyone can play it,” Abbott shared – table tennis does offer levels of play that require mastering certain skills to be successful. That’s where Abbott – who spent the first eight years out of college teaching tennis before he joined the corporate world in the area of organizational development – explained the health benefits of the game, especially for older players. “If they are sedentary, they often lose, at the physical level, their reflexes. This sport helps people regain their reflexes, it helps people with their balance, it’s a great conditioning sport.” If mobility is an issue, table tennis is still a viable sport option, Abbott said. “At any level it can be played just standing, because our reach is more that the width of the table.”
Table tennis is also a mood enhancer, he shared, saying “no one can hear the sound of the ball and feel down. It’s alive, it’s rhythmic, the ball goes back and forth. [The game] also exercises your executive function. When people are playing a game of this sort, if you have two people of the same ability, the one who is more strategic will be looking and thinking [more] during the game.” According to Zing!’s website, a member also lost 50 pounds playing table tennis regularly.
“And, [table tennis] is extraordinarily fun!” he added. “Most people have played table tennis at some point in their lives…people come through these doors and they light up! They say, ‘my grandmother taught me how to play,’ or ‘my uncle taught me,’ or ‘we had a table in my basement.’
“It’s a sport that brings people alive,” Abbott continued. “And there’s no risk of impact. There actually are [table tennis] world championships for people in their 90s. It’s a sport that can be learned early and easily – it’s easy to play yet it [helps] so many things that, as people age, they begin to lose.”
As an example, he mentioned “Two 80-year-old women who come in [to Zing!] to play in the morning two-to-three times a week.
“It’s the sport for all seasons, and it’s the sport for a lifetime,” he added.
A welcoming place
Zing! Is as Abbott said, “a welcoming place” – where anyone of any age or ability can come to learn and enjoy playing the game of table tennis. “There’s no other place in the country like it, that has everything [for table tennis],” he shared. Zing! members – of which there are 35 right now – have 24/7 code-key access to the tables and court [$20 monthly membership, $199/year]. Walk-in players are welcome Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 9:30 p.m., and Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. Table rental is $16 per hour, with additional time charged at a rate of $2 per quarter hour. Abbott also hosts league, team and round-robin play on Tuesday and Thursday nights a 7 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. at a cost of $10 per session. On the second and fourth Monday nights of the month Zing! hosts women’s Community Night events, and he does a lot of work with young people’s groups. “I’ve worked with people with disabilities, and just started up again with Big Brothers/Big Sisters,” Abbott said. He also offers lessons to players of all levels, and has a robot “partner”players can rent for practice sessions.
A new chapter
Though table tennis is his first love, Abbott said he’s been talking to individuals who play pickleball, and has devised a way to make that sport available at Zing! as well. After discussions with John Mason, director of Easthampton’s Department of Recreation and Joe McCoy, the recent former president of Easthampton’s City Council and a pickleball lover, Abbott said he will be adding this popular sport to the offerings at Zing! in the near future. “Two pickleball courts will be set up and fully available from Sunday evening through early Tuesday afternoon,”
Abbott shared, adding that the arrangement would be similar to the on that Zing!’s table tennis members enjoy, which would offer unlimited play during pickleball hours to members. He’s also planning to host leagues, small tournaments, individual play and offer lessons once pickleball is completely up and running at the facility.
Zing!Table Tennis Center is located at 122 Pleasant St., #111 in Easthampton, MA. For more information about Zing! and its offerings, call 413-203-5942 or visit zingtt.com
