Rocky Wang

Rocky Wang is currently living in Brooklyn NY as an artist and table tennis coach.  He started playing the sport at the age of ten and by the time Rocky was thirteen he was chosen to live and train at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado.  This is where he met his soon to be long term coach Cheng Ying Hua.  From then on, Rocky started to win numerous gold medals and national titles as a junior.  When he was sixteen he defeated the current five-time national champion.  Rocky has trained with the Chinese National team, Beijing team, and German National junior team.  

He represented the US in the first Youth World Championships in Tokyo. Rocky then went on to play for his University of Maryland team and won two National titles for them.  He took a long break (12yrs) from the sport to pursue art and other interests but could not resist playing a small tournament while living in Alabama.  He went on to win the Dixie Open in 2007 and got hooked playing again.  Since then he has placed gold or silver in over 15 tournaments. In 2009 he defeated a two-time Olympian and three-time national champion to make the top 16 at Nationals and qualified to try out for the World team.  He reached the top 50 men's list in 2010. Rocky also realized his passion for coaching and began coaching at his former coach Cheng's club, the MDTTC and also the Joola club in Rockville, MD.  

Rocky moved to New York to coach privately and host corporate events (SPiN NYC, Fat Cat) where he taught basics, entertained and organized fun table tennis activities for high profile companies such as Google and the NBA. He also worked with the non-profit AYTTO and coached hundreds of beginner kids after school. The programs developed by the coaches at AYTTO led New York to be the only city where table tennis became recognized as  a varsity sport. In 2015, Rocky went to different cities to film a short documentary, Pong Road, about table tennis across America. Throughout the trip, Rocky acted as an ambassador to the sport and helped build enthusiasm. While on the trip Rocky met Roderick Medina who had just started PongClub in Austin, and Rocky saw an opportunity to expand table tennis in the city.  He stayed on as Head Coach at PongClubATX and helped the club grow in South Austin. Rocky's goal is to continue as an ambassador to the sport as well as train a group of juniors to become Olympic caliber athletes.

Mark Weismantel

Mark is an artist and musician who has worked in the video game industry for over a decade. He's been animating and producing videos since he was a kid, so Pong Road was an great opportunity for him to tell an interesting story about one of his best friends while also highlighting ping pong subculture in America. The project opened his eyes to how multifaceted the sport is and allowed him to meet colorful characters along the way. At its heart Pong Road is a story about how ping pong connects all of these people. It's been an exciting creative challenge since Pong Road was filmed using only an iPhone. He acted as director, cinematographer, editor, sound designer and art director for the project.