Last year, Ryan He, a local eighth grader, went to summer camp in China, an immersive training camp for ping pong.
Six months later he competed in a ping pong tournament at Princeton Pong and won against a field of adult players.
His strategy, he says, is to “try to make them move around because it’s harder for them!”
Asked what contributes most to success in table tennis, he says, “my coach.”
That would be three-time Olympian David Zhuang, head coach at Princeton Pong, an elite table tennis facility on Alexander Road in Princeton.
Princeton Pong is also the origin point for Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), the country’s first professional league for the sport, which is helping give young players like He opportunities previously only available to students in other countries.
Zhuang, He’s coach, remembers when he first arrived in the United States as a professional player. Opportunities for elite training were limited, and maintaining a highly competitive level was difficult.
Koyo Kanamitsu, a star player for the Princeton Revolution and a coach at Princeton Pong, who was ranked No. 1 in the world in the under-21 category in 2019, had the same problem.
Kanamitsu initially learned to play table tennis in China and then continued in Japan from the time he was 13 years old. He says it would have been “impossible” to rise to No. 1 in the under-21 world rankings if he had grown up in the U.S.
But the MLTT is growing fast. In addition to the Princeton Revolution, there are teams such as the New York Slice, the Atlanta Blazers, the Bay Area Blasters and the Florida Crocs. The league has East and West Coast divisions.
Princeton Pong and Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), America’s first professional table tennis league, were both founded by local software entrepreneur and table tennis enthusiast Flint Lane in 2014 and 2023, respectively.
Asked to predict the league’s future, Andre Liu, one of the Princeton Revolution’s co-owners and a Princeton University alumnus, says that he thinks MLTT may one day become the No. 1 table tennis league in the world.
Whether or not that will happen, expansion is certainly underway. Liu says the organization is planning to open a second Princeton Pong facility between early and mid-2028.
“The new club site will be 35,000 to 40,000 square feet, with 30 to 40 tables, locker rooms, and even individual working units for parents waiting for their children,” Liu says.
Princeton Pong currently has 14 professional tables.
As the club grows alongside the professional league, its day-to-day operations have also expanded to serve a growing local membership.
Ben Rosenberg, Princeton Pong’s general manager, says they have more than 250 members. Having worked there for 10 years, Rosenberg says he has dealt with countless issues facing the club while witnessing its continued growth.
The management team has developed strategies for building memberships and is currently launching several incentives, including weekday memberships and medical insurance coverage for seniors over 65.
While the solid skills foundation they built in China and Japan enabled them to become elite athletes, both Zhuang and Kanamitsu agree that the current table tennis environment in the U.S. is much better than it used to be, especially with the launch of Princeton Pong and MLTT and more elite players joining.
Zhuang and Kanamitsu acknowledge young players in the U.S. today cannot invest the same amount of time in training as their coaches did when they were teenagers. Zhuang says he is proud that many of his students, some of whom have gone on to Ivy League schools, gained opportunities because of table tennis, even if they do not become professional athletes.
As Zhuang says, “At least we offer one platform for the students.”
While Ryan He says he hopes to go back to China to train more this summer, he will definitely come back in the fall to Princeton Pong and his coach.
“Winning a tournament is always fun and makes me feel good all the time,” He says.
