A small white ball pops back and forth between corners of a table in the basement gym, fixing the children's attention with its rhythm steady as a metronome. The demonstration by two competitive young table tennis players gives these novices something to aim for.

Ranging from third grade to eighth, about 30 students at Confluence Academy's Old North St. Louis campus have recently formed a new sports team, with the help of a volunteer who played competitively in China. One of her first lessons: Please don't call it ping-pong.

"My first reaction was, 'Oh, it'll be fun,' you know. I loved playing ping-pong growing up," says the charter school's principal, William Polite. "My next reaction, once we got started, was, 'Wow, this is a serious sport here.' ... They're really learning ... the kind of focus it's going to take for it to really become a competitive program."

Like other urban principals, Mr. Polite is always on the lookout for experiences "outside the regular element that [the students] see." Nearly 90 percent of the 700 kids are from low-income families, many with single parents, so school stays open late into the afternoon and from mid-August until the end of June. That leaves room not just for intensive reading and math, but for music, art, Spanish, and after-school activities such as basketball, and now table tennis, too.

"It's something they can use all their lives," says Susan Uchitelle, the founder of Confluence Academy and chair of the board. "It ties in with achievement: They have to concentrate, have agility ... practice for hours. And I think if they can become successful, it will transfer over to ... academics." It's also a low-cost sport that can be played year-round.

Ms. Uchitelle first learned about the sport's potential during a dinner party with St. Louis area resident Sheri Xu and her husband, Jonathan Yao. Ms. Xu was the junior champion in Shanghai at age 11 and has coached her sons for competitive play.

The Confluence team is a first for the St. Louis public schools. But it's not the only place where a link has been made between table tennis and the opportunity it offers for kids to learn life skills. Since 2001, the American Youth Table Tennis Organization (AYTTO) has been working with low-income children at various sites in New York City and New England.

Like the Confluence program, AYTTO provides quality equipment so students can master essential skills. "It's very important to get the children understanding early on that there's a proper grip ... and in order to play correctly you have to be able to produce spin on the ball," says AYTTO director Ben Nisbet. Eventually, some top-level players might emerge, he says, but the goal is much broader. Among the 30 steps the students are expected to progress through, "They have to learn the rules, they have to respect each other, they have to officiate a match, and they have to be a team player."

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