Table tennis
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Table tennis
A game of table tennis at the professional level
Highest governing body ITTF
First played 1880s Victorian England[1][2]
Characteristics
Contact No
Team members Singles or doubles
Type Racquet sport, indoor
Equipment Poly, 40 mm (1.57 in),
2.7 g (0.095 oz)
Glossary Glossary of table tennis
Presence
Olympic Since 1988
Paralympic Since inaugural 1960 Summer
Paralympics
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four
players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a
table using small rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net.
Except for the initial serve, the rules are generally as follows: players must allow a ball
played toward them to bounce one time on their side of the table, and must return it so
that it bounces on the opposite side at least once. A point is scored when a player fails
to return the ball within the rules. Play is fast and demands quick reactions. Spinning the
ball alters its trajectory and limits an opponent's options, giving the hitter a great
advantage.
Table tennis is governed by the worldwide organization International Table Tennis
Federation (ITTF), founded in 1926. ITTF currently includes 226 member associations.
[3]
The table tennis official rules are specified in the ITTF handbook. [4] Table tennis has
been an Olympic sport since 1988,[5] with several event categories. From 1988 until
2004, these were men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles and women's
doubles. Since 2008, a team event has been played instead of the doubles.
Contents
1History
o 1.1Rule changes
2Equipment
o 2.1Ball
o 2.2Table
o 2.3Racket/paddle
3Gameplay
o 3.1Starting a game
o 3.2Service and return
o 3.3Let
o 3.4Scoring
o 3.5Alternation of services and ends
o 3.6Doubles game
o 3.7Expedite system
4Grips
o 4.1Penhold
o 4.2Shakehand
o 4.3Seemiller
5Stance
6Types of strokes
o 6.1Offensive strokes
6.1.1Hit
6.1.2Loop
6.1.3Counter-hit
6.1.4Flip
6.1.5Smash
o 6.2Defensive strokes
6.2.1Push
6.2.2Chop
6.2.3Block
6.2.4Lob
7Effects of spin
o 7.1Backspin
o 7.2Topspin
o 7.3Sidespin
o 7.4Corkspin
8Competitions
9Naturalization in table tennis
10Notable players
11Governance
12Variants
13See also
14References
15Bibliography
16External links
History
Parker Brothers Ping-Pong game
The sport originated in Victorian England, where it was played among the upper-class
as an after-dinner parlour game.[1][2] It has been suggested that makeshift versions of the
game were developed by British military officers in India around the 1860s or 1870s,
who brought it back with them.[6] A row of books stood up along the center of the table as
a net, two more books served as rackets and were used to continuously hit a golf-ball. [7][8]
The name "ping-pong" was in wide use before British manufacturer J. Jaques & Son
Ltd trademarked it in 1901. The name "ping-pong" then came to describe the game
played using the rather expensive Jaques's equipment, with other manufacturers calling
it table tennis. A similar situation arose in the United States, where Jaques sold the
rights to the "ping-pong" name to Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers then enforced its
trademark for the term in the 1920s making the various associations change their
names to "table tennis" instead of the more common, but trademarked, term. [9]
The next major innovation was by James W. Gibb, a British enthusiast of table tennis,
who discovered novelty celluloid balls on a trip to the US in 1901 and found them to be
ideal for the game. This was followed by E.C. Goode who, in 1901, invented the modern
version of the racket by fixing a sheet of pimpled, or stippled, rubber to the wooden
blade. Table tennis was growing in popularity by 1901 to the extent that tournaments
were being organized, books being written on the subject, [7] and an unofficial world
championship was held in 1902. In those early days, the scoring system was the same
as in lawn tennis.[10]
Although both a "Table Tennis Association" and a "Ping Pong Association" existed by
1910,[10] a new Table Tennis Association was founded in 1921, and in 1926 renamed the
English Table Tennis Association.[11] The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)
followed in 1926.[1][12] London hosted the first official World Championships in 1926. In
1933, the United States Table Tennis Association, now called USA Table Tennis, was
formed.[1][13]
In the 1930s, Edgar Snow commented in Red Star Over China that the Communist
forces in the Chinese Civil War had a "passion for the English game of table tennis"
which he found "bizarre".[14] On the other hand, the popularity of the sport waned in
1930s Soviet Union, partly because of the promotion of team and military sports, and
partly because of a theory that the game had adverse health effects. [15]
In the 1950s, paddles that used a rubber sheet combined with an underlying sponge
layer changed the game dramatically,[1] introducing greater spin and speed.[16] These
were introduced to Britain by sports goods manufacturer S.W. Hancock Ltd. The use
of speed glue beginning in the mid 1980s increased the spin and speed even further,
resulting in changes to the equipment to "slow the game down". Table tennis was
introduced as an Olympic sport at the Olympics in 1988.[17]
