Ju Shuqing has suffered from aches and pains for decades. The Chinese octogenarian began to feel the inevitable concessions to time in her legs and shoulders around the turn of the millennium. Her son Zheng Li, 56, saw the need for increased mobility. "He said, 'Mom, don't stay at home. Go out to play with me.' So we got addicted to it," says Ju. "I started playing with him when I was 61 years old," says Ju. "Now I am 82. I am smart and can learn things fast, just like when I was studying in school." The intergenerational mixed doubles team have been playing rolling pin ping-pong for five years. With reflexes and coordination enviable at any age, Ju and Zheng bounce a ping-pong ball back and forth off the ends of rolling pins, not much bigger than the ball itself in diameter. They can even keep two balls going back and forth simultaneously. "Whenever I visit her, she would ask if I have time to play the ball game, then I would say yes," says Zheng. "When I was cooking or boiling water and had some spare time, I would play with her... She's more addicted to playing than young people." In addition to physical activity, Zheng helps his mother Ju stay sharp with memory exercises. Like a proud parent, he boasts of his mother's ability to reel off over a hundred world capitals. Their training regimen suffered a setback when Ju fell and hurt her left shoulder this summer. Undeterred, the right-handed trick shot artist continued to play for an hour every day. "He said, 'I will accompany my mother as long as she wants to play,'" related Ju. "I said, "I will accompany my son as long as I am alive,'" she laughed, her eyes twinkling like those of the bright schoolgirl she was three-quarters of a century ago.

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