TT4Health Capacity Building Course in Shanghai: Leaving a Pre-Event Legacy for the 2026 Festival
Today is World Alzheimer’s Day. One week ago, on 12–13 September, the ITTF Foundation hosted the "ITTF Foundation TT4Health Capacity Building Course: Expert in Coaching Table Tennis for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's" at the Luwan Sports Centre in Shanghai, as a pre-event warm-up and legacy of the 2026 World Table Tennis for Health Festival. By bringing its TT4Health expertise to coaches from across China, the Foundation aims to make the Festival's impact continue long after its closing ceremony.
The course was co-organised with the Chinese Table Tennis Association and hosted by the Shanghai Table Tennis Association. Its aim was to bring Table Tennis for Health knowledge, both theoretical and practical, to the host country and to build lasting local capacity to support people living with neurodegenerative conditions. The course is also part of the Foundation's wider effort to take the TT4Health programme to more corners of the world.
Led by Ramon Ortega Montes, ITTF Foundation Health Impact Manager, together with Nikolaos Andreakos, Cognitive Neuroscientist at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the course gathered 64 participants from all provinces across China, including grassroots table tennis coaches and physical education professionals. When they return to their communities, they will put what they learned into practice, designing and delivering sessions for people affected by Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.
From neuroscience to the table
The first half of day one of the course focused on theoretical knowledge and essential skills. Participants explored neurodegenerative diseases and the benefits of table tennis; safety, risk management and emergency situations; and communication and interaction strategies. In the theory sessions, Nikolaos guided participants through how table tennis supports rehabilitation through the brain's neuroplasticity.
The second half of the day focused on practical, adapted training that covered deconstructing table tennis, its therapeutic use for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, the development of specific motor and cognitive abilities, and how to structure a session for each condition with live demonstrations.
Day two moved to the table. In the morning, eight players living with Parkinson's joined the session as Ramon, who led the practical part of the course, demonstrated multitasking exercises designed to develop both motor and cognitive abilities. He highlighted how asking players to complete a second task while playing can improve both their mental health and their cognitive abilities.
After each demonstration, the coaches discussed what they had observed before splitting into groups to develop multitasking exercises of their own. The afternoon was dedicated to practice time, followed by the written and practical examinations.
Zhang Yi, Associate Professor at Shanghai University, described one adaptation her group made: "One player had limited finger dexterity, so we replaced the item on his left side with paper cups. After every rally, he had to put three fingers of his left hand into a cup and flip it over. That way, while playing table tennis, he also engages both sides of the brain and trains his finger dexterity."
For Yang Xiaojin, who joined the Shanghai Table Tennis Association's club for people with Parkinson's after her diagnosis three years ago and now plays at least once a week, the approach felt new. "This method really focuses on using the brain and building coordination," she said. "While your right hand is hitting the ball, your left hand is challenged to flip cards or cups."
Throughout both days, the room was focused and engaged, with coaches asking questions and immediately building their own exercises from what they had just learned.
Sowing seeds of impact across China
At the end of the course, participants completed both a theoretical and a practical examination, earning the Certificate of Successful Completion and qualifying as experts able to design and deliver table tennis programmes that improve the health and well-being of people with neurodegenerative conditions.
These coaches now take the seeds of TT4Health back home, ready to grow table tennis environments that better meet the needs of people with neurodegenerative conditions in their own communities.
The course marks the opening chapter of the 2026 World Table Tennis for Health Festival, and the momentum is building towards 20–25 October, when China hosts the event for the first time and welcomes more than 300 participants from 33 countries and territories. With the first seeds of impact sown through the Capacity Building course in Shanghai, TT4Health takes a meaningful step forward in one of the world's great table tennis nations, helping to spread the social value of the sport further. We are grateful to everyone who made this legacy course a success, and to the coaches who will carry its impact forward.