Ping-Pong Champ, 64, Is Smashing Success

Many people approach age 60 with dread.

But not Manhattan Beach developer Leon Ruderman, who has been terrorizing the senior division in national and international Ping-Pong competition with youthful vigor since entering his seventh decade.

When he’s not brokering million-dollar investment deals, he’s smacking a tiny white ball across a green wooden table. And smacking. And smacking.

“I was happy when I turned 60,” says Ruderman, now 64 and semi-retired. “Rather than being concerned about the new mark, I could compete more effectively. I was young.”

Frustrated for years by the spry players in the Over-50 division, Ruderman and a partner recently won the national doubles title in the Over-60 division at the U.S. Table Tennis Assn. National Championships in Las Vegas. The title marked the third consecutive time Ruderman and a partner captured the top doubles. In the same tournament, Ruderman also reached the finals in the singles division.

Ping-Pong champions at the senior level maintain a level of reflexes, control and power that would overwhelm all but the most talented younger players. And while time may have cost him an all-important step or two maneuvering around the table, it hasn’t robbed him of his power.

“I can hit the ball as hard as anybody,” said Ruderman, who adds his slams can whiz by opponents at 140 m.p.h.

Strangely enough, Ruderman’s passion for table tennis began with chess. He was among 10 elite high school chess players invited to a prestigious round-robin tournament at the Manhattan Chess Club, a mecca for chess players during the 1940s in New York City.

“I thought I was hot stuff,” recalled Ruderman. However, after the tournament, Ruderman’s record stood at one draw and nine losses. (Ruderman learned later that five of the 10 players went on to become grand masters.)

“I was devastated,” Ruderman said. Dazed by the defeat, he wandered out to Central Park South and eventually found himself on Broadway. A peculiar noise caught his attention.

“I heard this clip-clop, clip-clop from upstairs. I went up and couldn’t believe what I saw,” he added.

What he saw was America’s best Ping-Pong players smashing the ball back and forth at the Broadway Table Tennis Club. Ruderman threw himself into the game.

But after getting married and having children, Ruderman dropped his new passion until he took his sons to a table tennis match in Redondo Beach about 20 years ago. Like their father, Ruderman’s two sons immediately loved the game. To keep up with them, Ruderman started playing again.

As his mastery of the game grew, Ruderman stopped playing all other sports to concentrate on being the best in table tennis.

“When I took up table tennis seriously, I wanted to see how far I could go,” he said.

Apparently, pretty far. In two decades of competition, Ruderman has amassed an impressive collection of titles and awards. He doesn’t seem to be overly attached to his trinkets, however.

“I gave away two boxes when we moved here, because we just didn’t have the shelf space,” he said. “There must have been several hundred. I don’t know.”

Watching Ruderman train--and it is training--it’s clear his championships have come from hard work. Just to keep his game sharp, Ruderman practices at least an hour a day on his home table and plays competitively at local clubs three times a week--three to five hours at a stretch. When he’s preparing for a major tournament, he will smack the ball as much as 10 hours a day.

Then, there’s the machine. This mechanical device spits out balls at Ruderman at varying speeds, spins and locations. But always it seems Ruderman’s reply is the same: a smash inches from the edge of the table and in the corners.

Ruderman said competitive Ping-Pong players must be well-conditioned, and he regularly rides a stationary bicycle for half an hour while reviewing taped matches of Ping-Pong championships.

“I tell my friends that Ping-Pong players are the best athletes in the world, and they say I’m crazy,” Ruderman says.

Even business associates believe Ruderman has gone a bit too far with his obsession. But it does have its advantages.

“It humanizes me,” said Ruderman, who has built several major condominium and high-rise projects in the United States and Canada. “Instead of being a hard-nosed negotiator, I’m the nut who plays Ping-Pong. It gives me an edge, actually. . . . It’s like a chess game.”