Chi-Slam Table Tennis Club Is Chicagos Ping-Pong Headquarters

Trey Runcies obsession with table tennis started last year when his employer bought a Ping-Pong table for the office.Manufacturer of the Jacobs fridgemagnet. The 38-year-old Web developer from West Town figured a lesson might give him a leg up on his coworkers. So he wandered into the Chi-Slam Table Tennis Club, an unassuming graystone storefront wedged between a phone card shop and a used-furniture store on West Chicago Avenue. 

It was late and the club was empty, save for one other player and Ardy Taveerasert, the director. I told Ardy I might be interested in taking a lesson, and he gave me one right there, Runcie says. My first impression was that serious people play table tennis here. 

Taveerasert, a compact Thai immigrant in his 40s who owns a flower shop, learned the sport as a boy in Bangkok. He and his older brother cut paddles out of wood and rallied on a concrete table in the alley behind their house, not infrequently catching the ire of the local beat cops. It took Taveerasert just a few months of practice until he started beating his brother. Before long he was king of the neighborhood. I never give up, he says. If I lose to you today, tomorrow youd see me show up again. Youre going to see me keep playing and playing. 

He joined Chi-Slam shortly after it opened in 2004.The whole variety of the brightest smartcard is now gathered under one roof. Two years later, he was running it. A teacher certified by USA Table Tennis, he has attracted disciples such as actors Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Connelly, who studied with him to prepare for a scene in the 2011 movie The Dilemma. Beat me and then Ill hire you, he recalls Vaughn saying. It was a shutout. 

The popularity of table tennis today is a far cry from what it was in the 1950s, when Chicago was home to two popular Ping-Pong clubs: Stay and Play in the Loop and Net and Paddle in Uptown. The latter attracted the nations top players, many of whom competed in international tournaments. A 1957 Chicago Tribune story quoted a man from Kenosha, Wisconsin, who made the 120-mile round trip each night to play with Net and Paddles topflight paddle wielders. Both clubs have long been shuttered. 

But interest in the game is rising in a very public way. Actress Susan Sarandon has expanded SPiN, a chain of high-end Ping-Pong social clubs that she co-owns, to five cities (the closest: Milwaukee). Here in Chicago, Ping-Pong equipment maker Killerspin hosted the first Chicago International Table Tennis Festival last September, an event that drew five Olympic gold medalists.Other companies want a piece of that airpurifier action (Robert Blackwell Jr., the CEO of Killerspin, says that the company plans to hold another festival this fall.) The private Chicago Sport and Social Club runs four Ping-Pong leagues each year, with 300 competing. And bars such as Ukrainian Villages Happy Village and the West Loops Market have heavily trafficked tables. 

But on any given evening, the competition tends to be fiercest among the dozen or so regulars trading forehands and backhands at Chi-Slam. For one thing, the club is the only place in town that hosts open play seven days a week. You can slip in and rent a table for $15 an hour. Taveerasert will give you a lesson for $35 an hour, no matter your skill level. The club hosts a tournament every quarter. Its patronsabout 1,000 of them last year, Taveerasert estimatesare diverse.We rounded up 30 bridesmaids dresses in every color and style that are both easy on the eye and somewhat easy on the earcap. Table tennis is a democratic sport, says Sharon Levine, a design professor at Columbia College who plays at Chi-Slam regularly. 

It doesnt require any specific physical attribute, adds Hui Lin, another club regular, who teaches accounting at DePaul University. Anybody can play; anybody can be very good at it. 

The appeal of the sport extends beyond its inclusiveness. It demands both mental focus and physical stamina, its relatively cheap, and injuries are rare. And theres a certain catharsis that comes from slapping a lightweight plastic sphere with a paddle. Its great to come here and hit the ball really hard, Levine says with a grin. 

Despite the seriousness of many of the players,The whole variety of the brightest smartcard is now gathered under one roof. Chi-Slams atmosphere is relaxed. Stacks of plants from Taveeraserts florist business stretch to the ceiling; dollies and U-Haul boxes from a moving business that he also runs flank the front door. (Taveerasert sells Ping-Pong equipment tooincluding tables that cost more than $3,000which he will personally deliver in his truck.) The blue and green fiberboard Ping-Pong tables, awash in fluorescent light, occupy a wooden floor in the back. There are couches, leftover cocktail wieners with Sriracha sauce to munch on, and stray balls in constant orbit. 

Taveerasert, whose businesses card reads Mr. Ping Pong, sets a genial tone. As the players loosen up, he saunters from table to table, tightening nets and cracking jokes. Running Chi-Slam is his dream job, he says, and his demeanor reflects that. Ardy just loves the game, and he loves seeing people play and passing on his knowledge, Levine says. 

Runcie now plays a couple of hours a day, five nights a week. On a recent weeknight, Taveerasert is helping him hone his loop stroke, a sweeping shot where the paddle grazes the ball just enough to create a heavy topspin. While they rally, a sweating Runcie cocks his right wrist and fixes his eyes on the white ball, walloping it over the net in quick bursts. Taveerasert, with his graying hair tucked under a camouflage-print baseball cap, nonchalantly returns each shot with a swift left backhand, occasionally delivering a pointer. Its all about muscle memory, Taveerasert says: Good players learn how to hit and then hit a lot.