Table tennis

Categories: Olympic sports | Table tennis

Table tennis, also known as Ping-Pong (a trademarked name), is one of the most popular games in the world in terms of player numbers, as well as being one of the newest of the major sports.

乒乓球 (zuo chou) is the official name for the sport in China and Taiwan.
卓球 (takkyu) is the official name for the sport in Japan.

Image:Roel-about-to-backhand-spin.jpg

Regional competition level table tennis, showing table, net, and player getting ready to return the ball with a winning backhand topspin stroke.

[edit]

General description

Image:WaldnerTraining2.gif

Jan-Ove Waldner

The playing surface is on a 9ft × 5ft (2.7 m × 1.5 m) hard rectangular table with the surface usually painted green, dark blue, or black. A 6 inch (15.25cm) tall net divides the table in half (much like a tennis court) and is strung to extend 6 inches (15.25cm) beyond the table on each side. The paddles, also known as bats or rackets, are usually about 15 cm across and made of rubber coated plywood, although the rules specify no particular size. The 40 mm diameter ball is hard, completely hollow, lightweight and made of celluloid. Play is fast and demands possibly the quickest reactions of any sport. A skilled player can impart spin to the ball which makes its bounce difficult to predict or return with confidence. The winner is usually the first to score 11 points, a change which occurred in 2001 when the International Rules were changed, although the 21 point game is still widely played at recreational level. All games played in US national (sanctioned by USATT) and international tournaments (ITTF) are played to 11 points in either a best of five (5) games (preliminaries) or best of seven (7) games format (championship matches).

[edit]

History

Table tennis has its origins in England as an after dinner amusement for upper class Victorians in the 1880s. Mimicking the game of tennis in an indoor environment, everyday objects were originally enlisted to act as the equipment. A line of books would be the net, a rounded top of a Champagne cork or knot of string as the ball, and a cigar box lid the paddle.

The popularity of the game led game manufacturers to sell the equipment commercially. Early paddles were often pieces of parchment stretched upon a frame, and the sound generated in play gave the game its first nicknames of "Whiff-Whaff" and "Ping-Pong". A number of sources indicate that the game was first brought to the attention of Hamley's of Regent Street under the name "Cossima". The name Ping-Pong was in wide use before English manufacturer J. Jaques & Son Ltd trademarked in 1901. The name Ping-Pong then came to be used for the game played by the rather expensive Jaques equipment with other manufacturers calling theirs table tennis. A similar situation came to exist in the United States where Jaques sold the rights to the Ping-Pong name to Parker Brothers.

The next major innovation was by James Gibb, an English enthusiast of the game, who discovered novelty celluloid balls on a trip to the U.S. in 1901 and found them to be the ideal balls. This was followed by E.C. Goode who, in 1903 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 when table tennis tournaments were being organized, books on table tennis were being written, and an unofficial world championship was held in 1902. In 1921 the Table Tennis Association was founded in England, and the International Table Tennis Federation followed in 1926. London hosted the first official world championship in 1927. Table tennis was introduced as an as an Olympic sport at the Olympics in 1988. Toward the end of 2000, the older 38 mm balls were officially replaced by 40mm balls. This was done to increase the ball's air resistance and effectively slow down the game. By that time players had begun increasing the thickness of the fast sponge layer on their bats, which made the game excessively fast. With this being done, it is hoped that table tennis is more watchable on TV and will gain popularity.

[edit]

Equipment and gameplay

[edit]

Equipment

The international rules specify that it is played with a light (2.7 gram), 40 mm diameter high-bouncing hollow celluloid ball, on a table 2.74 m (9 feet) long, 1.525 m (5 feet) wide, and 76 cm (30 inches) high with a masonite or similarly manufactured timber, coated with a low-friction, smooth coating. The table or playing surface is divided into two halves by a 15.25 cm (6 inch) high net. Players are equipped with a wooden racket (also called bat or paddle) covered with rubber on one or two sides. Table tennis is the only racquet sport that allows different surfaces on each side of the racket. Most serious tournament players purchase the blade (wood part) separately from the two individual sheets of rubber. There are many types of rubber available which differ in terms of their ability to put 'spin' on the ball, their 'speed' and their thickness. According to the international rules, one side must be red while the other side must be black, even if both sides have the same type of rubber installed. Without the different colors it would be harder for an opponent to know which side of the paddle his opponent was using at any moment. Players are allowed to inspect their opponent's racket before playing.

Image:Table tennis table.jpg

[edit]

Starting a game

In top flight competition, service is decided by a coin toss. At lower levels it is common for one player (or the umpire) to hide the ball in one or the other hand (usually hidden under the table) allowing the other player to guess which hand the ball is in, the correct or incorrect guess gives the "winner" the option to serve first or have his opponent serve first. A player may optionally choose which side he will defend giving their opponent choice of serve.
In recreational play service may be decided by one of many popular methods. The two opponents may "rally" for the right to serve, in which the ball must bounce upon the table at least three times. Whoever does not make a subsequent mistake is the one to serve. Or, players may place their paddles on the centers of their respective base lines and take turns bouncing the ball across the table by hand. The server in this method is the first who can make his or her ball hit the opposite paddle without the opponent immediately landing a matching hit.

[edit]

Service

In game play, a point is commenced by the player serving the ball by releasing the ball behind and above the edge of the table, palm open and up, and tossing it vertically without spin at least six inches and then hitting it such that it bounces once in the half of the court closest to him, then bounces at least one time in the opponent's half. If a serve hits the net, but goes over, it is a let, and must be served again with no penalty. However if the server causes the ball to hit the net, and the ball does not go over, it is a point for the opponent.
The opponent must then make a "good" return— by returning the ball before it bounces a second time in such a way that it bounces first in the server's half (not bouncing in his own half) of the court. The players then alternate playing the ball and having it bounce on the opponent's side of the table until a player fails to make a good return.

[edit]

Scoring

Points are awarded for these errors in play:

[edit]

During play

allowing the ball to bounce on one's own side twice
not hitting the ball after it has bounced on one's own side
having the ball bounce on one's own side after hitting it
double hitting the ball. Note that the hand below the wrist is considered part of the bat and making a good return off one's hand or fingers is allowed, but hitting one's hand or fingers and subsequently hitting the racket is a double strike and an error.
allowing the ball to strike anything other than the racket (see above for definition of the racket)
causing the ball not to bounce on the opponent's half (making a "good" return)
failing to allow the ball to bounce once in one's own side— hitting the ball before its first bounce is an automatic loss of point

[edit]

Service errors

offering and failing to make a good serve. That is making a service toss and failing to strike the ball fairly into play.
making an illegal serve (one deemed outside the rules—hiding the ball, etc.) A warning is usually offered on the first occurrence, a point awarded subsequently.

[edit]

Alternation of service

Essentially a player must make a "good" return as described above. Failure to do so results in the other player being awarded the point. Serves alternate every two points (regardless of the winner) until a player wins with a two-point lead or until a "deuce" game is required, then serve alternates after each point. Typically, games are played to 11 points and a player must win by at least a two point difference. Should each player reach 10 points a "deuce" game comes into effect, players serve alternates after each point as mentioned above and the game is won by the player who gains a lead of 2 points. In doubles, service alternates every two points between sides, but also rotates between players on the same team. For example, 'player A' serves the ball twice then service alternates to the opposing team and 'player B' takes position to receive service. After two points served by the opposing team and received by 'player B', 'player B' becomes the server. Service continues rotating between team members in this manner until the end of the game. In addition to rotating service between players of the same team during a game, service also alternates between server-receiver with each new game. If 'player A' on 'team 1' serves the first game to 'player A' on 'team 2' (A1-A2), the next game 'player A' on 'team 1' serves to 'player B' on 'team 2' (A1-B2). Thus, doubles play is more evenly matched between teams and neither team has the advantage by order of play.

In the old 21 point game, service alternated every 5 points. If both players reached a score of 20 then service would alternate every point until one player had a 2 point advantage.

[edit]

Series of games

After each game, players switch sides of the table and in the 5th or 7th, game "for the match", players switch sides when the first player scores 5 points, regardless of whose turn it is to serve. In competition play, matches are typically best of five or seven games. Before 2001, players alternated serves every 5 points and games would be played to 21 points and had to be won by at least 2 points. This is also true in recreational play, especially when more than a few people are waiting to play.

[edit]

Doubles game

In addition to games between individual players, table tennis may also be played by pairs. In doubles all the rules of single play apply except for the following. The table is bisected by a line painted along the long axis of the table to create doubles courts. This line's only purpose is to facilitate the doubles service rule which is that service must originate from the right hand "box" in such a way that the first bounce of the serve bounces once in said right hand box and then must bounce at least once in the opponent side's right hand box (far left box for server). Play then continues normally with the exception that players must alternate hitting the ball. For example, after a player serves the receiving player make his or her return, the server's partner returns the ball and then the service receiver's partner would play the ball. The point proceeds this way until one side fails to make a legal return and the point is then awarded to the other team. Singles and doubles are both played in international competition, including the Olympic Games since 1988 and the Commonwealth Games since 2002.

[edit]

Types of shots

In table tennis, the strokes break down into generally offensive (producing topspin) and defensive (producing backspin). Spin exceptions are the smash, block, and lob.

[edit]

Offensive strokes

Speed Drive: In table tennis it’s similar to strokes from other racket sports like tennis. The racket is primarily perpendicular to the direction of the stroke, and most of the energy applied to the ball results in speed rather than spin, creating a shot that doesn't arc much, but is fast enough that it can be difficult to return. A speed drive is often the bread-and-butter stroke of a player's arsenal, used mostly for keeping the ball in play, applying pressure on the opponent and potentially opening up an opportunity for a more powerful attack.
Loop Drive: It is essentially the reverse of the speed drive. The racket is much more parallel to the direction of the stroke ("closed") and the racket thus grazes the ball, resulting in a large amount of topspin. A good loop drive will arc quite a bit, and once striking the opponent's side of the table will jump forward, much like a kick serve in tennis. A loop drive is dangerous because of its topspin — while not as difficult to return as a speed drive, it is more likely to rebound off the opponent's racket at a very high angle, setting up an easy smash on the followup.
Counter Drive:
Flip: When a player tries to attack a ball that has not bounced beyond the edge of the table, he/she does not have the room to wind up in a backswing. The ball may still be attacked, however, and the resulting shot is called flip because the backswing is compressed into a quick wrist action. A flip is not a single stroke and can resemble either a drive or a loop in its characteristics. What identifies the stroke is instead whether the backswing is compressed into a short wrist flick. As known as harau (in Japanese).
Smash: It’s the offensive trump card in table tennis. A player will typically execute a smash when his or her opponent has returned a ball that bounces too high and/or too close to the net. Smashing is essentially self-explanatory — enormous backswing, rapid acceleration, and impart as much speed on the ball as possible. The goal of a smash is to get the ball to move so quickly that the opponent simply can't return it. Due to the violent nature of such a shot, often the spin on the ball is incidentally something other than topspin, perhaps sidespin or in some cases even backspin.

The way a point develops obviously varies widely, just as in any racket sport, but a very basic tactic for an offensive player can be: speed drive until an opportunity for a loop drive opens up, loop drive and then smash the high-bouncing return of the loop.

[edit]

Defensive strokes

Push: The push is analogous to the speed drive in some respects — it is very simple, usually used for keeping the point alive and creating offensive opportunities. A push resembles a tennis slice: the racket cuts underneath the ball, imparting backspin and causing the ball to float slowly to the other side of the table. While not immediately obvious, a push can be difficult to attack because the backspin on the ball causes it to drop toward the table upon striking the opponent’s racket – in order to attack a push, a player must lift the ball back over the net. Often, the best option is to simply push the ball back again, which repeats and results in pushing rallies.
Chop: A chop or cut (or katto in Japanese) is the defensive, backspin counterpart to the offensive loop drive. A chop is essentially a bigger, heavier push, taken well back from the table. The racket face points primarily horizontally, perhaps a little bit upward, and the direction of the stroke is straight down. The object of a defensive chop is to match the topspin of the opponent's shot with your own racket speed. A good chop will float nearly horizontally back to the table, in some cases having so much backspin that the ball actually rises. A chop such as this can be extremely difficult to return due to the enormous amount of backspin.
Block: The block or short (shooto in Japanese) is a simple shot, barely worthy of being called a "stroke," but nonetheless can be devastating against an attacking opponent. A block is executed by simply putting the racket in front of the ball — the ball rebounds back toward the opponent with nearly as much energy as it came in with. This is not as easy as it sounds, because the ball's spin, speed, and location all influence the correct angle of a block. Disregarding the difficulty of a block, it is very possible for an opponent to execute a perfect loop, drive, or smash, only to have the blocked shot come back at him just as fast. Due to the power involved in offensive strokes, often an opponent simply cannot recover quickly enough, and will be unable to return his own shot blocked back to him/her. Blocks almost always produce the same spin as was received, which is nearly always topspin.
Lob: The defensive lob is possibly the most visually-impressive shot in the sport of table tennis, and it is deceptive in its simplicity. To execute a lob, a defensive player first backs off the table 8-10 feet (advanced players sometimes go 20 feet or more); then, the stroke itself consists of simply lifting the ball to an enormous height before it falls back to the opponent's side of the table. A lob is inherently a creative shot, and can have nearly any kind of spin you can imagine. Talented players like Jan-Ove Waldner use this fact to their advantage in order to control the point. For instance, though the opponent may smash the ball hard and fast, a good defensive lob could quite possibly be even harder to return due to the unpredictability (and heavy amounts) of the spin on the ball. Thus, though backed off the table by tens of feet and apparently running and leaping just to reach the ball, a good defensive player can still win the point using good lobs.
Stop:

[edit]

Competition

Image:Competitive table tennis.jpg

A competition game played at the highest level.

While popular around the world at a recreational level, most of the world's best competitive players are from China and Taiwan, but several world champion titles have also gone to Sweden. The game is popular in Europe and Asia with some extraordinary players. Skilled players exhibit extraordinarily swift reaction times, footwork and body control. Also, bat construction and new rubber technology (skilled elite players typically select and attach the rubber to their own bats and glue them before every match) contribute significantly to the amount of deviation from the expected ball flight path. The fairly recent development of special glue speeds up the departure of the ball from the rubber considerably; though, at the cost of some ball control. There also remains a sect of players who compete in "hardbat" competition, in which all competitors use a paddle with small pips-out rubber on each side of the blade with no sponge under the rubber.

[edit]

Governance

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the worldwide governing body with national bodies responsible for the game in each country.

[edit]

Notable players

An international hall of fame exists at the ITTF Museum site; see External links below. (Note: winning a Grand Slam is winning an Olympic gold, World Championship, and World Cup gold)

Victor Barna (Hungary and England) Early table tennis master. 5-time singles and 7-times doubles world champion in 1930's
Jean-Philippe Gatien (France) 1992 Olympic singles silver medalist, 1993 World Champion
Jean-Michel Saive (Belgium) 1993 World runner-up, 1994 Euro Top-12 Winner, 1994 European Champion, 1994 World Cup runner-up
Zoran Primorac (Croatia) 1993 and 1997 World Cup winner, 1998 and 2000 European runner-up

Image:WaldnerTraining.gif

Jan-Ove Waldner

Jan-Ove Waldner (Sweden) The first grand slam winner in 1992, 1989 and 1997 World Champion, 1987 and 1991 World runner-up, 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games singles gold medalist, 2000 Sydney Olympic silver medalist, 2004 Athens Olympic Games 4th place (defeating Ma Lin and Timo Boll), 1990 World Cup winner. Considered by many to be the best player ever for his creativity, longevity and progressive allround playing style.
Wang Liqin (China) 2001 and 2005 World Champion, 2000 Olympic doubles gold medalist, 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, 2001 World Cup Finalist
Ma Lin (China) 1999 and 2005 World runner-up, 2004 Olympic doubles gold medalist, 2000, 2003, and 2004 World Cup winner
Michael Maze (Denmark) 2005 World 3rd place, 2004 Olympic doubles bronze medalist
Timo Boll (Germany) 2002 and 2005 World Cup winner, 2002 and 2003 Euro Top-12 winner, 2002 European Champion
Werner Schlager (Austria) 2003 World Champion, 1999 World 3rd place, 1999 World Cup runner-up, 2000 Euro Top-12 winner
Kong Linghui (China) The third grand slam winner in 2000, 1995 World Champion, 2001 World runner-up, 1996 Olympic doubles gold medalist, 2000 Olympic doubles silver medalist, 2000 Olympic singles gold medalist, 1995 World Cup winner, 2002 World Cup runner-up. Kong's two-winged shakehand looping style combined with excellent footwork and short game make him one of the best players ever.
Liu Guoliang (China) The second grand slam winner in 1999, 1999 World Champion, 1995 World runner-up, 1996 Olympic singles and doubles gold medalist.
Wang Tao (China)
Jorgen Persson (Sweden) 1991 World Champion

[edit]

Physics of Table Tennis

A table tennis ball (commonly known as a ping-pong ball) is governed first and foremost by Newton's laws of motion. However, a significant component of the game is spinning the ball, the effects of which are observed as a result of the Magnus effect on the ball. Through spinning, the Magnus effect adds a whole new dimension to the game, allowing the successful execution of shots that would not be possible according to Newtonian projectile motion alone.

[edit]

Notes

Table tennis inspired the first commercially successful video game, PONG.
In the early 1970s the People's Republic of China (PRC) invited American table tennis players to a tournament in the PRC. This marked a thawing in relations with the United States that was followed up by a visit by U.S. president Richard Nixon. The popular media therefore dubbed this visit "Ping Pong Diplomacy".
At the 1936 World Championships in Prague, two defensive players took over an hour to contest one point.
Table tennis was banned in the Soviet Union from 1930 to 1950 because authorities believed the sport was harmful to people’s eyes.

[edit]

External links

ca:Tennis de taula de:Tischtennis el:Πινγκ-πόνγκ es:Tenis de mesa eo:Tabloteniso fr:Tennis de table ko:탁구 hr:Stolni tenis id:Tenis meja he:טניס שולחן nl:Tafeltennis ja:卓球 no:Bordtennis pl:Tenis stołowy pt:Tênis de mesa fi:Pöytätennis sv:Bordtennis ta:டேபிள் டென்னிஸ்

zh:乒乓球

Table tennis

Contents

General description

History

Equipment and gameplay

Equipment

Starting a game

Service

Scoring

During play

Service errors

Alternation of service

Series of games

Doubles game

Types of shots

Offensive strokes

Defensive strokes

Competition

Governance

Notable players

Physics of Table Tennis

Notes

See also

External links